Marketing Talk

The world of Social Media is filled with pretty words.

There are people who will tell you exactly what you want to hear.

There are people who will tell you exactly what they want you to hear so that you do something for them.

Pretty words can be mesmerizing.

Me? I’m an action figure.

About a month ago, Beth Harte wrote a post called about market segmentation, how marketers have used it in the past, and how Social Media is changing the game. Essentially, Beth points out that Social Media allows us the opportunity to do what we’ve never been able to do before – understand how our customers are talking and acting in their “native environments.” Sometimes, what we hear and learn isn’t so good. Other times, it’s fantastic. The danger is that a lot of people and companies are depending on Social Media alone now instead of integrating what is learned into other channels and segments of the company.

Wednesday is Integrated Marketing and Communications day for me, and I join Beth Harte and many other great people for #IMCChat at 8 PM EST every week. So this week, I thought I would examine ways that companies are integrating Social Media into other marketing channels or facets of the company – via these posts.

Cheryl Burgess wrote a fantastic post about Crisis Management a couple of weeks ago. This neatly defines the issue that a lot of companies are facing right now in terms of their marketing and their branding. As Cheryl points out, Social Media crises must be integrated into the overall crisis management plan.

This marvelous post by my friend Barry Dalton, titled Things aren’t always as they appear, analyzes how Social Media can work together with many other departments and channels to round out a customer service experience. What you learn about your customers from Social Media can affect how you train, how you finance, and many other factors.

In March of this year, Scott Monty, head of marketing for Ford, blogged about how Social Media plus email is more power. Integrating email marketing with Social Media has been a hot topic this year. Next week I’ll focus just on that subject alone, in fact! In Scott Monty’s case, he simply notes that integrating email with Social Media allows companies to talk to customers in a “less disjointed” way.

Some companies are looking like they are behind the times because they are not using Social Media as they should. Leigh Durst talks about Amazon’s failing Social Media strategy and even offers them advice. Do you think Amazon responded to Leigh’s post? Another example of how Social Media could and should be integrated into branding, reputation management, and customer service.

Looking back on 2010, how has Social Media impacted other areas of your business? Share your thoughts here!

image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/rubenshito

So today, 2 more Tetris pieces came together. My friend Stan published a post (which ProBlogger retweeted, by the way) talking about the importance of guest posting.

As I was working on my round-up posts for this week, it occurred to me that maybe we could all try an experiment together. I’m going to publish a theme for each day next week where I do these posts, and if you want to write a post for me to highlight, well, then I’ll highlight it! It’s fun to go searching around and looking for posts on a theme, but I think it might be more fun to have a conversation extend across many different blogs each day. Kind of a group blog consisting of many blogs 🙂

So, here is the plan for next Sunday-Thursday. If you want to write a post for me to link to, or if you’ve already written a post on these topics, let me know, either in the comments, via DM, or, well, however else you know how to reach me!

Sunday (#blogchat theme): Definitions of a “successful” blogger

Monday (#MMChat theme): Was mobile as big in 2010 as you thought it would be?

Tuesday (#custserv, #leadershipchat): What are the key qualities needed to be a leader in customer service?

Wednesday (#IMCChat – integrated marketing/communications): Integrating email and Social Media – how, why, & when

Thursday (#b2bChat): Who are your B2B role models?

Sound like a plan?

If you have ideas for future themes, feel free to submit those as well. Let’s have fun sharing knowledge here, there, and everywhere.

As you might recall from last week, Tuesday nights on Twitter host #custserv and #leadershipchat. I find that there is often a way to overlap these two. After all, it takes a strong leader to create a strong customer service department, right?

I found this post that Frank Eliason wrote about his very positive experiences with The Apple Store. It’s called Apple Store Employees Create a Raving Fan. That inspired the theme for this week – a combination of leadership and excellent customer service leading to happy customers.

Tristan Bishop (@knowledgebishop) wrote about Petco’s approach to customer service. Petco leads customers to an interactive and useful community, and everyone benefits. Read this great post, which is called Nurturing Advocacy.

Jason Mikula (@mikulaja) did a great series on customer service. His first post, titled Customer Service in the Social Media Era, also focused on Apple. Interestingly, Apple often is discussed in chats for its decided quietude on the Social Media front. Hmm. Is Apple trying to lead by setting a very different example?

Ron Fink of Strategic Marketing Solutions points out that in some businesses and industries, care, or “customer service,” is a given. In this kind of industry, how can customer service still set you apart as a leader? Check out Ron’s post, “Assisted Living Marketing Should Be Driven By Strategic Care” and enjoy the different perspective the post offers!

Often in customer service discussions, we focus on what the ideal experience would be. We also often assume that online customer service will be helpful, not a hindrance. Roy Atkinson discusses the fact that while the online world can empower the customer, this empowerment does not lead to protection or safety. True leaders in customer service know how to balance the power of online speed and efficiency with human etiquette.

Image by sanja gjenero. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/lusi

This past week, my good friend Thomas Moradpour launched a blog. One of his first posts is titled Full Disclosure: I think Social Marketing is BS. The post raises some key points that I’ve seen a lot of conversations cover of late. For this Marketer Monday, I thought I’d gather for you some other posts that have argued along similar lines. Feel free to add your own post or comments to the conversation!

Jeff Wilson (@jeffthesensei) explores similar issues in his post titled Is Social Media Just a Channel? I’ve seen this question quite often, though perhaps phrased differently…Is Social Media just another tool, just another weapon, etc. An excellent post!

This post by Suzanne Vara goes into detail regarding how changes in Social Media can impact our other marketing channels. Check out 8 Tips For Embracing Change in Social Media.

Proof of how long this debate has been raging – examine this post by Jay Baer written in August 2009 (!) called 7 ways to use Social Media to build stunning brands. The first sentence begins, “Social media is perhaps the most misleading name for a marketing-related concept ever…”

Finally, rounding out my round-up for today, a fantastic post by Debra Ellis called Social Media vs. Direct Marketing: Place Your Bets Now. Like many in the Social Media space, Debra paints a picture whereby Social Media could actually work with other channels to make marketing enriched, longer-lasting, and more valuable.

Is Social Media marketing? Is Social Media Marketing the better phrase? Is Social Media something separate from “regular” marketing? Can it exist on its own?

Join the fray. I have a feeling this debate isn’t going anywhere!

Image by jolka igolka. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/coniferine

Since Sunday is #blogchat night in Twitter world, my Sunday posts are going to be geared towards blogging. A pretty big topic, but there are plenty of ways to break it into nice bite-size pieces.

The theme for this Sunday is borrowed from a fantastic post that Stan Smith (@pushingsocial) wrote called How to Spring to your Blog’s Tipping Point. Stan’s point is that instead of just assuming that blog leaders are in a stratosphere that we just can never reach, maybe we should study how they do what they do and try to emulate them. I thought that was a very common-sense position to take.

I’m taking Stan at his word and I’m going to work on the assumption that looking at how other people approach blogging really can help you. So here are some words of wisdom I have found helpful. I hope you do too.

Suzanne Vara writes about 3 blogging basics, especially for small businesses.

In the end, as Dawn Westerberg points out in her post Back to the Basics, blogging is writing, and writing needs to be compelling. Good advice here!

I found this post by Mack Collier back in mid-July, a little after I really started dedicating myself full-time to the blogging and Twitter thing. Mack’s advice would be enough on its own, but in this post, called This is why you don’t bury your blog’s gold, Mack even uses charts to back up his opinion. A simple way to keep traffic to your blog on the up and up!

At SterlingHope, writers are encouraged to blog because it helps them write better. A blog as a tool that extends beyond marketing – now that’s an example worth looking into, wouldn’t you say?

This post by Sean Platt, published at CopyBlogger, was one of the most amazing posts I’ve read all year, and it happens to offer great advice at the same time, so I have to include it here. Please check out The Eminem Guide to Becoming a Writing and Marketing Machine.

Who did I miss? Add your Blog leader advice right here!

Image by Gareth Weeks. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/garwee