http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php en wnowak@shaw.ca Copyright 2010 2010-03-10T00:13:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/the_reinvention_of_city_places/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/the_reinvention_of_city_places/#When:00:13:00Z What are the aims of urban re-branding? Revive a pre-existing but outdated place image Change a poor pre-existing place image Differentiate and area from other places Highlight changes in the character or the activities of an area Associate a place with a major event A brand image generates a unique set of ideas, feelings and attitudes in people. To remain competitive, large companies sometimes alter or completely replace their images and re-launch themselves as fresh corporate brands. Similarly, competition between urban places to attract new investment, tourists and residents has led many areas to establish completely new brand identities. Re-branding an area can help people become aware of the existence of new place products such the beaches, trails, parks etc. Urban localities may be regarded as ‘products’ in the sense that they provide labour, land, premises and industrial infrastructures to businesses, housing, shopping, leisure and other amenities to residents, while offering cultural and heritage products to tourists. Re-branding can also address the issue of ‘MacDonaldisation’ common in tourist destinations, and help differentiate an area from other places. The promotion of an urban place as a product will be enhanced, giving it a substantial competitive edge. The MacDonaldisation of cities Tourism has tended to cause uniform growth of cities, with the objective of making the tourist experience as similar as possible to what the tourists are accustomed to. Consequently, tourist destinations become indistinguishable and lose their richness, minimizing their unique cultural features. Faced with the ‘MacDonaldisation’, emphasis should be placed on the heritage (social, cultural and natural) of the cities, and such heritage should be the object of tourist attention. The challenge for the marketing manager is therefore to merge multiple identities within a specific location into a concise and easily understood brand which appeals to business investors and tourists but without compromising urban local culture and the distinct pre-existing characteristics of the area. 2010-03-10T00:13:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/marketing_bascis_for_heritage_interpretive_sites_and_attractions_part_3/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/marketing_bascis_for_heritage_interpretive_sites_and_attractions_part_3/#When:18:44:00Z What should be in a Marketing Plan? By: John A. Veverka (http://www.heritageinterp.com) A.  Objectives (what do you want this plan to accomplish?). 1. Learning Objectives 2. Emotional Objectives 3. Behavioral Objectives B.  Product Analysis (what are you selling?). 1. Experiences (experience and memory mapping and analysis). a. Passive Experiences b. Active Experiences c. Psychological immersion d. Physical immersion e. The experience mix. 2. Physical products (books, trail guides, guided tours, videos, etc.). C.  Current Market Groups (Macro and Micro) analysis. (Who are your current visitors, where are they coming from, etc.). 1. Current visitor demographics (any existing research available?). 2. Seasonal visitation patterns. 3. Visitor expectations and motivations for visiting your site. 4. Customer care needs (handicap accessibility, food service, etc.). 5. Market mix sustainability (school groups, out of country tourists, etc.). 6. Visitation patterns (increase or loss) over the past 5 years. D.  Critique of current marketing/advertising strategies (do the work and how do you know?). 1. Current advertising plans and ad placements (what magazines, etc. and why). 2. Current brochure and brochure distribution. 3. Other advertising materials. E.  Market Income Stream. 1. Cost per contact. 2. Cost Effectiveness 3. Percentage of total budget from admissions and gift shop sales, etc. F.  Competition Analysis 1. Other near-by like attractions or sites with similar services and experiences. 2. Other attractions in your area (their visitation numbers, seasonal visitation patterns, target market groups, etc.). 3. Potential for developing partnerships (joint admission tickets, etc.?) with near-by attractions? G.  Market Creation 1. Which new market groups do you want to try to attract? 2. What benefits can you offer them by visiting your site or attraction? 3. What promotion or advertising strategies will you need to communicate with them and tell them about your site and services? 4. Where and how to make the most powerful first contacts. H.  Marketing Campaign 1. Budget allocations based on need. 2. Advertising material design and pre testing. 3. Ad placements and tracking strategy. 4. Web Site Development I.  Advertising Strategy (consolidated from other sections above). 1. What, when where, media selections, costs, etc. 2. Ad mix designs and pre testing. J.  Implementation of the Marketing Plan. 1. Time Lines for implementation. 2. Budget determinations per ad line item. 3. Staffing needs. 4. Contracting needs. K.  Tracking and evaluation of the ad campaign. On going evaluation to see how the advertising is going month by month. 1. Tracking reviews (schedule, etc.) 2. Evaluation tools, and on going evaluation (monthly?). Again, this is a general content outline for a complete marketing plan. Feel free to add or change this as best fits your particular needs. New theories and concepts to be thinking about when developing your marketing plans and strategies. A lot of new and exciting theories and practices have emerged recently that greatly affects how we do heritage tourism planning and marketing. Some of these new ideas and concepts include: Markets of One Mass Customization These concepts involve learning how to mass produce yet individually customize goods or services, with major implications for heritage tourism planning and marketing, particularly for large heritage areas and heritage corridors, but also for helping to plan programs and services at museums, parks, historic sites and related attractions. Experiential Marketing What visitors are looking for are experiences. This is a key concept in developing and marketing for any heritage attraction. What experiences does your attraction offer? How powerful are the experiences When I do interpretive master planning for heritage sites and attractions I now look for (and plan for) where the best and most powerful memories of the visit will come from (or need to be created). Where will visitors want to have a photo taken of them standing next to? What will they take pictures of? What do you want them talking about in the car on their way home from visiting your site? What memories (souvenirs) enhancements will you have available (post cards, Tshirts, videos, photo opportunities)? Why do you think Disney goes out of their way to make sure you and your children can have photos taken with the various Disney characters when you visit Disney World? How memorable? Marketing pieces need illustrate the kinds of or range of experiences your site offers. Check out the reference listing of this article for good books on experience marketing. Memory Mapping These are just a few of the new heritage tourism/interpretation marketing ideas that we are now using in developing marketing plans and marketing materials. Do not even think of not pre testing your marketing materials! Finally, when you have completed your thought process and answered all of the questions about your audience, and designed your various marketing pieces, there is only one person who you should ask to see what they think of them, the people the marketing pieces were planed for. They will tell you, through pre testing of the materials, if they like or understand them. This evaluation process is very important, why would you want to spend thousands of dollars on something if you have no proof that it works? Remember: Do not ask the people who designed the marketing pieces if the brochures or ads are good or will be successful (guess what the answer will be). Do not ask your staff members if the marketing pieces are good or will be successful, they have no way of knowing. Do not ask the Board of Directors what they think (that will take forever and they wont know if the pieces will work either). The only people to ask if the marketing pieces are good, or have any chance of generating a visit are the potential visitors the marketing pieces are intended to generate. Ask them! Then and only then will you know for sure. Summary It was the goal of this short paper to give individuals involved with the marketing of heritage tourism sites and attractions some things to think about when developing a marketing plan, and particularly in developing marketing materials. The main point is to remember that everything involving marketing is about the visitor. If your marketing materials do not connect with them, the visitors will not show up at your attraction. With the ultimate success of most heritage attractions centered on how that attraction is marketed, it is well worth the investment in time and staff to do it right the first time. 2010-02-24T18:44:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/how_to_include_green_requirements_in_meeting_planning_rfps/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/how_to_include_green_requirements_in_meeting_planning_rfps/#When:21:58:00Z Ask for sustainability and get it! By Lindsay Smith, the sustainability program manager for Denvers Colorado Convention Center and the President of the Green Meeting Industry Council’s Colorado Chapter. We know plastic bottles are bad, compostable or recyclable disposables are good, china is better, and to never, ever use styrofoam. However, after finally wrapping our heads around what we need to produce a sustainable meeting, we are now struggling with the how. With hundreds of different details to consider when organizing a successful meeting, the last thing we, as planners, should have to do is teach our vendors how to recycle. The good news is you dont have to. By putting a few key environmental questions into your RFP, you are able to not only whittle down the list of potential vendors and venues, you also can set the expectation for adherence to your sustainable mission from the very beginning. An RFP can be as detailed or as vague as you choose, and often considers many different factors. Therefore, in order to keep things simple, I suggest choosing a question or two from each of the following areas of sustainability: energy, water conservation and quality, waste reduction and diversion, air quality, purchasing, food and beverage, and community. If this is too much, focus on an area of importance for your organization. It is also important to ask specific questions, and not ones that can be answered with a simple Yes or No. Here are a few suggestions and examples to include in RFPs to learn more about the sustainable practices of your potential vendors. Energy Please describe your organization/ facilities energy conservation efforts. Does your organization purchase renewable energy? If so, what percentage of the energy used annually is renewable? Are you able to provide energy use estimates per event? Water conservation and quality What are your water conservation practices? Are toilets and sinks low flow or dual flush? What water station options are available besides water bottles? Waste reduction and diversion Does the facility offer recycling and composting both front of house and back of house? What items? Is the recycling single stream? Is a diversion rate provided at the end of the event? Are left over materials donated to local organizations? Air quality What anti-idling policies are in place and enforced? Is the facility located within walking distance of hotels and restaurants? What alternative transportation options are available and/or offered? Are bio-fuels and/or alternative fuels used in vehicles? Purchasing What post consumer recycled paper products are used? Paper towels? Toilet Paper? What green cleaning products used at the facility? Food and beverage Can you provide sustainable menu options (local and or organic), priced comparably to conventional food items? Please include an example for breakfast, lunch, reception and dinner. Can you offer bulk condiments? Do you offer china at no additional charge? Are your disposable items compostable or recyclable? Is an appropriate bin placed front of house to capture the waste stream properly? (For example, do they offer front of house compost collection if disposables are compostable?) Community What sort of community engagement does your facility participate in? Do you donate leftover food to local shelters? If so, are verification or donation receipt with quantities provided to clients? The benefits of including these questions not only informs them of your mission and expectation, but also serves as an education of what they can do in order to earn your business. As a bonus, including these expectations in the beginning equals less work for you and your team while still producing a sustainable conference or event! 2010-02-18T21:58:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/marketing_basics_for_interpretive_heritage_sites_and_attractions_part_2/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/marketing_basics_for_interpretive_heritage_sites_and_attractions_part_2/#When:22:20:00Z Part 2 - Market creation Generating new market groups. By: John A. Veverka (http://www.heritageinterp.com) The next aspect of developing heritage tourism/attraction marketing plans and materials is the issue of market creation. This is the answer to the question I often ask clients “we know who your visitors are but who do you want your visitors to be?” Market creation is generating new visitors or market groups to come to your site. For example: more school groups; more local visitors or community residents; special interest groups such as photographers, bird watchers, historical architecture buffs, railroad buffs; more retired visitors, etc. Here are some of the questions to be answered in developing marketing strategies and materials for these potential visitors (market groups) What specific new target markets would be interested in the stories, materials, experiences, artifacts, etc. that our site offers? What would we promote as the BENEFITS for these new market groups to coming to our attraction? Whats in it for them by coming to our attraction? Would these be seasonal market groups? If so, which seasons? How do we contact these new market groups (advertisements in specialty magazines or publications, mail outs to clubs and organizations, E-Mails to specialty organizations membership lists, etc?)? Do we have the support services in place to handle a surge in visitation (parking, staff, food service, volunteers, etc.) if they show up? How do we design and structure our advertising materials to get the attention of, and RELATE to these new market groups? Do our marketing materials have photos with “people” in them? Are there photos of our intended market groups in our marketing pieces? What are the people in our marketing piece photos doing? How will we track and evaluate the success of our market creation plan? Will we need to do some site re-design or additions for these new market groups (such as adding “baby changing stations” in restrooms if we are trying to attract families with very young children)? Are these new market groups “renewable” (want to come to the attraction more than once) or are they one-time visitors only (as the market groups might be for attractions located along interstate highways)? How have other attractions done that cater to or try to attract these same market groups? You can see that there is overlap in considering these questions, as you may be marketing to both groups (current visitors as well as trying to attract new or different market groups) at the same time. The question arises as to “how you can do any real marketing efforts at all without knowing the answers to most of these questions”? This is why some existing marketing pieces can “look” great but not work. They are giving answers to questions that your main market groups “arent asking”, and not answering the questions that they are asking. And no one knows this is going on. Part 3 of 3 will be posted next week. 2010-02-17T22:20:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/top_10_best_green_practices_for_meeting_planners/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/top_10_best_green_practices_for_meeting_planners/#When:21:59:00Z Provide registration and conference information digitally, through e-mail and Web sites, instead of using printed materials. Also distribute digital rather than paper exhibitor kits and speaker presentation handouts. Use badge holders and lanyards made of post-consumer recycled content, and ask that attendees return their badges at the end of the conference. Encourage and/or implement recycling and/or composting at meeting venues. Choose venues centrally located next to restaurants, hotels and public transit when possible. Encourage the use of alternative transportation by offering incentives, etc. Choose local vendors, when possible, to reduce the impact of shipping and support the local economy. Ask out-of-state vendors to utilize their regional partners and rent equipment rather than ship. Ask exhibitors to limit materials and collateral by: Bringing only what is needed for attendees Offering to send material upon request Distributing information as PDA downloads Avoiding dated materials Ask caterers to provide items in bulk as opposed to single-serve (e.g., containers of condiments, beverages, etc.). Also, use china, glasses and silverware instead of disposables. Ask caterers to choose local vendors for food items, wines and liquors, when possible. Eliminate plastic water bottles by giving attendees a refillable water bottle and providing water stations.  Ask that head water not be set and water glasses not be pre-filled. Ask the caterer to donate leftover food to local shelters or food banks. To ensure success, get your executives or association directors to make a commitment to sustainable practices, and post your organizations policies and commitments on the conference Web site. The other key element you need is attendee education and engagement. By keeping your attendees involved, your new practices are more likely to be embraced, and the overall feeling of the event will be more positive. Lindsay Smith is the Sustainability Program Manager for Denvers Colorado Convention Center and a member of the Green Meeting Industry Council. 2010-02-10T21:59:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/marketing_basics_for_interpretive_and_heritage_sites_and_attractions/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/marketing_basics_for_interpretive_and_heritage_sites_and_attractions/#When:18:40:00Z Part 1 - Its all about the visitors. By: John A. Veverka (http://www.heritageinterp.com) Without a doubt marketing is one of the most critical aspects of any heritage or interpretive attraction operations.  Marketing brings in visitors and gets them to come back for return visits. Successful marketing efforts equal staying in business for most heritage attractions, particularly those not totally supported by local governments or other governmental agencies. But one of the most surprising things to me is, given how critical a “professional” understanding of basic marketing principals are for any heritage attraction, is the lack of understanding of what marketing actually is and “how to do it” that exists through out the heritage tourism industry. One example of this that I see often involves marketing brochures. Heritage Attractions have probably spent thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in the design, production and distribution of marketing brochures (the kind you see at every tourist information center), and yet they have no proof that they work! How do you know that these pieces have made any money for you that they actually brought in enough new visitors to “pay for the printing and distribution costs of the piece themselves”? Most heritage attractions dont have a clue if their marketing materials and efforts actually work, no tracking or evaluation process. This is particularly common with medium and smaller sized heritage attractions. What is “marketing” anyway? We spend our lives seeing so much of it, television, radio, web sites, etc. We are surrounded by it. Marketing is like the word “ecology”, a nice word, but most people have never seen an “ecology”. So lets use a working definition of “marketing”. Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that will satisfy individual and organizational objectives.  (From “Introduction to Marketing by M. Cooper and C. Madden). In simple terms, heritage tourism related marketing is “successfully” communicating with and convincing potential visitors that you have something that they need or will benefit from, and that you can provide a service or fill that need better than anyone else. And Where Is the Visitor in all of this EVERYWHERE! Another aspect of marketing problems is that many heritage organizations and attractions have little or no visitor-based information to work from. They dont know who their markets are! Marketing is ALL about completely understanding your audience (current, or intended). So in reality, many marketing pieces, from brochures to advertisements in magazines, fail due to a general lack of understanding about their intended visitors and the psychology of the visitors. Brochures often simply illustrate or promote the wrong things. For example, a hotel or motel brochure may show nice photos of the bedrooms or dining area, but what a visitor may really want to know is if that hotel or motel is “near” any attractions or other services. Developing a marketing plan followed by marketing materials such as brochures or print advertisements, requires that we know the answers to some (all?) of the following questions about our visitors: Existing Markets to our site or attraction Where are our visitors coming from? What are their age groups and other socio-economic backgrounds? How long does the average visit last? Is there a visitor perception that the admission fee was good value for the experience paid for, or do they think they paid to much for to little? What did they spend money on and how much? What were the attraction visit components (shopping, food service, interpretive experiences, social interactions, recreation opportunities, etc.) of most importance to the visitor? What were / are the seasonal visitation patterns and influences? Why did they decide to visit the site or attraction in the first place? What experiences or recreational learning opportunities were they looking for? Did the site / attraction meet or exceed their expectations of what they would see, do and experience here or did it fall short of the visitors expectations (from marketing brochures, websites and related advertising and promotion)? What were their best or most powerful memories of their visit? What reason did we give them to return again to this attraction? What is the attractions physical and psychological carrying capacity and did we exceed it? Were we too successful in attracting visitors and couldn’t give visitors a quality experience because of too many visitors? Could our support services handle our visitor load? Was our on-site experience (the visit) as good in reality as our marketing pieces made it look? Did our customer care plan / training pay off, did the visitor feel welcome? So these are some of the questions that need to be asked and answered in developing a marketing plan, and marketing materials for current visitors or market groups. Next week I will add information on Market Creation Generating New Market Groups 2010-02-09T18:40:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/how_to_keep_your_website_interesting_and_visitors_coming_back/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/how_to_keep_your_website_interesting_and_visitors_coming_back/#When:23:41:00Z We’ve created a cool website. The bell and whistles are working well—not too little, not too much. We’re getting lots of visits from lots of cool folks. But now that we’re up and running so well, we’re panicked about keeping content fresh! How do I keep it interesting, and keep them interested so they keep coming back? Bob Knorpp, President, Cool Beans Group—a consultancy specializing in advertising, direct marketing, email marketing, sales, and social networking. Solution The essential rule about writing a company’s website content is this: It’s not about the past, it’s about the future. So says Bob Knorpp, and he describes the creation of the Cool Beans Group site as an example. “I needed instant credibility for this fledgling marketing consultancy. I needed to establish that I knew what I was talking about. I needed to somehow distinguish the name, without having completed any projects,” he recalls. “I could have easily filled my website with descriptions and photos of my past projects. But I hated that option,” he says. But perusing a list of past accomplishments at a website is like “reading a history book and calling it cutting-edge thinking,” Knorpp says. Instead, he created a living site that focuses on the user’s needs. It offers a constant stream of fresh content that includes The BeanCast—a weekly marketing podcast—an accompanying best-practices blog, short audio clips via which Bob addresses current marketing issues, a “best-of-show” feature that offers samples of the site’s deeper content, and video clips that augment content on the blog. How does he keep all of this content cutting-edge? “I go where the marketers are hanging out: I post on their blogs and on the professional magazine websites,” he reports. “I tweet on Twitter and I have a Facebook page for The BeanCast. I participate in online forums, and there’s even a Wikipedia page for The BeanCast.” How does he keep attracting followers? All of the content is “optimized for relevant marketing keywords,” he points out. According to Bob, the point of creating and maintaining content this way is three-fold: It establishes you among the experts. “By being seen with the experts in online debate, I make them look good and they make me look good in return,” he explains. “Thus, I share in their credibility.” It provides context for clients. The more content you create, the more archives you have to reference, adding depth to the site, he notes. These days, “there is rarely a discussion or new business-pitch conversation that doesn’t involve me referencing a particular show or posting” already at the site, he reports. This referencing of past content is “an amazing tool that over time continues to add value to a business,” he says. It makes you better at your job. By constantly engaging in debate on marketing subjects in all these different venues, you avoid stagnation, he notes. “I am always engaged with the latest best-practices, which in turn offers obvious benefits to my clients. The value of this cannot be overstated,” he says. “Having your customers engage with a growing body of content is one of the surest ways to raise the perception that you are expert in your given field, and create a path toward ongoing loyalty and advocacy with your brand,” Bob concludes. Problem solved. 2010-02-02T23:41:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/how_to_be_successful_with_new_web_initiatives/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/how_to_be_successful_with_new_web_initiatives/#When:23:34:00Z One of the traps that many organizations fall into when launching a new Web initiative is putting the focus of the project on new technology or new functionality. Often clients will come to us and say “our website needs video” or “we need to start blogging” or “let’s put together an email campaign.” To which we respond, WHY? Are you trying to generate leads/sales? Do you want to provide information for educational purposes? Are you promoting an event? Do you want to grow your membership/contact list? And, HOW many people do you need to reach to make the project worth your time and budget? The Expensive Way: Throw It Against the Wall and See if It Sticks! Regardless of what you are doing with the new technology—building a website, developing a mobile application, creating a social-media campaign, or launching an email campaign—you have to start with the end result. You can’t be successful if you don’t have a benchmark against which to measure results. Not only do you need to build your communication tool, but you also need a strategy for getting your content in front of your target audience and for driving action from the user. If you post a video about the world’s greatest product and no one sees it, how many people will buy the product? What if everyone sees the video, but there are no instructions on how to buy the product? What if the video quality is poor and it puts a negative impression of your overall brand in the mind of a potential customer? All those questions should be answered in the planning process. The outline below takes you through some project phases that you need to include when launching any Web campaign. The Process: Discovery - You outline the project’s goals, the strategy for successfully reaching your target audience, the campaign’s key messages, the channels via which the message will be delivered, the timeline for each channel launch, the call to action, and the reporting process. Technical structure and information architecture - You lay out the technology being used in the campaign, the connections to and from any business systems, the end-user experience, and the priority of your content. Graphic design - Another trap to be aware of in Web-campaign development is designing before planning. You have to complete the information architecture so that you appropriately prioritize your primary content over your secondary and lower-level messages. When you do get to the design phase, image and branding are extremely important components. If your audience doesn’t get an appropriate impression of your product, service, or brand in the split second they glance at your email or page, they won’t bother to get into the content detail. Web design requires a specific skill set. Be sure that you work with designers who specialize in online media. Do not assume that your print materials will translate seamlessly to a Web-design project. Build and integrate - Start programming only after everything is laid out in function and design. That helps reduce your programming time, cost, and testing cycles significantly. Launch, report, refine - The launch is not a finishing point; rather, it’s a starting point. It’s where you execute the plan, manage the program, and report on the results. Most of the time, the launch consists of ongoing adjustments to content and functionality based on the results that you are generating from the campaign. By following an organized process and ensuring you have the right personnel to manage each phase in the process, you will give your organization a much higher chance of success and avoid some common mistakes—or you can keep throwing things against the wall. Christian Shea is a principal at P4MV (http://www.p4mv.com) and has been developing measurable marketing strategies for organizations across a wide range of vertical markets since 1995. 2010-01-21T23:34:00-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/social_media_email_direct_mail_which_is_best/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/social_media_email_direct_mail_which_is_best/#When:21:00:01Z Social media is no fad, but neither has it replaced email or any other more-traditional marketing channels such as direct mail. Experienced marketers understand that success in targeting and developing profitable relationships with various audiences comes from developing a 360-degree approach with the consumer at the center. Likewise, understanding which marketing channel to use for which purpose is key to successful marketing. In the rush to adopt anything “social,” a lot of people are grabbing the closest tool at hand rather than stopping to think about the right tool for the job. Start with the goal, not the tool. There are many similarities between social-media marketing and email; but they are two distinct marketing channels, and they should be used separately to enhance or magnify, not just promote, each other. Social media is for awareness; email is for retention. In short, you need to consider and use the right combination of tools—in this case, email and one or more of a range of social-media tools available. Marketers need to understand that social-media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube—to name but a few—are, essentially, personal channels. In other words, they are not where your audience expects or wants to be sold to or receive offers. Still, even as they know that many of their customers (and competitors) are using these tools and participating in social conversations online, many companies are struggling to understand how to become involved and integrate social-media marketing with other marketing efforts. If you’re an email marketer, you already have a targeted audience—and, hence, a place to start. Observe where your audience is online, which social networks your audience belongs to, and what is being discussed. Follow your competitors, customers, and industry leaders on Twitter and network with them on LinkedIn. Subscribe and listen to their podcasts, and follow their blogs. Doing so will help you become familiar with the different social-media tools that are available and how they’re being used to conduct business. Listening in also gives you exceptional insight into your audience, and you’ll learn details that you can use to target your audience with more relevant information and offers. Remember, however, that just because you’re gathering this information in social channels they aren’t the best or most appropriate channels to communicate with your target audience. Your choice of marketing tools should depend on your goals. Social networks are perfect for building brand awareness, sharing information, and starting conversations with your audience. They should not be used or viewed as a primary forum in which to sell your products, though. You do not want to turn off your audience members by forcing a sales message on them. Leave the hard-sell to your email campaigns. Email marketing is still the most direct way to reach your audience with targeted offers, and recent research shows that two out of three people use email to help them decide whether to make a purchase. People read and buy from email campaigns. They expect emails to contain product information that is relevant to them and an offer that is compelling enough to entice them to buy. What most emails lack, however, is the viral, interactive component that marketers need to reach new audiences. Simply posting a link to your email newsletter from your Twitter account or asking your audience to pass it along to friends through Facebook won’t turn it into a viral campaign. Knowing the strengths and limits of each channel will help you determine the best uses for both tools so that you use them to enhance your campaign results rather then simply using email and social-media marketing to refer to each other. Combining Email and Social-Media Marketing to Enhance Results When used together, social-media marketing and email marketing will get you closer to your customers than ever before. Following are some tips for using both channels together: Add a SWYN link to your emails. Most emails contain a Forward to a Friend (FTAF) link, and though the numbers of forwarded emails are generally low the emails that are forwarded have high conversion rates. Give your emails an update with a share with your network (SWYN) link to encourage your audience to share your messages in a more viral environment. Build your lists. Once you engage people in conversation, ask them whether they want to opt in to your email list. People love the personalized communication through social networks; however, most business professionals are too busy to strictly communicate that way. Email provides them the information they want, and they can read it at their convenience. Use the data that social networks provide. The information you’ll learn from your audience in the social networks should be used to target them with relevant email messages. Don’t let the two channels operate in a vacuum; use the data to your benefit. The voice you use to communicate in these various channels should be part of your strategy. Posts on Facebook and Twitter should be casual and authentic, but be aware that SMS, or Short Message Service, text language won’t translate well and could come across as lazy or careless when you’re speaking to a professional audience via a business email. Tools such as TweetDeck also let you post a message to different channels from one location. You can also share email campaigns on social networks using these links (where http://www.mysite.com/email.htm needs to be switched out with the landing page URL of your email): Facebook—http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=http://www.mysite.com/email.htm Twitter—http://twitter.com/home?status=http://www.mysite.com/email.htm LinkedIn—http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=http://www.mysite.com/email.htm MySpace—http://www.myspace.com/Modules/PostTo/Pages/?u=http://www.mysite.com/email.htm Ross Kramer is CEO of Listrak (http://www.listrak.com), an email-service provider that educates email and direct marketers on best-practices. Reach him at rkramer@listrak.com. 2010-01-13T21:00:01-08:00 http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/3_most_popular_social_networking_sites_for_business/ http://www.maxxcommunications.com/index.php/site/3_most_popular_social_networking_sites_for_business/#When:22:02:00Z An ancient proverb states that a “cord of three strands is not easily broken.” By way of analogy, I hypothesize that the more individual connections to a person, the stronger your overall relationship with that person. In constructing my social graph (i.e., my network of connections), I build relationships at three sites: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. In some cases, I have connections with people on all three networks. The connectivity usually begins on one network and gradually extends to two or three networks, and sometimes more, as we get to know each other. It seems logical and natural to continue the relationship cycle, building to sites where we both have a presence. My focus is on creating threefold connections to individuals. It’s not enough that you have a presence on each site, but that you leverage your presence to connect with others who also have a presence on those sites. Social media is about being social. Each platform offers distinct advantages, but you need all three to build the strongest connection. If the “cord of three strands” philosophy is true, what are the top-three social networks for business? Based on my experience, I recommend LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. 1. LinkedIn LinkedIn is your business suit. It is not very conversational in its orientation, but people expect you to have a profile there. The network lends a degree of professional credibility—and requires the least amount of upkeep. According to its Web site, LinkedIn is an interconnected network of more than 35 million business professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. It is designed to be a place where you can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals with whom you need to work to accomplish your goals. For a long time, I thought of LinkedIn solely as a place to find jobs or employees. My profile there was complete and detailed, but it was nothing more than an online resume. I kept it updated, thinking that one day a prospective employer might come along and offer me that dream job. However, I have come to realize that LinkedIn is much more than just a place to hunt for a job. It’s a social network that offers you the opportunity to connect with others in your field, find vendors and consultants, develop your business, and generate leads. 2. Facebook If LinkedIn is your business suit, then Facebook is your business-casual attire in that it allows more of a 360-degree view of you by combining both your professional and your personal sides. Facebook is a more conversational platform than LinkedIn. A little over four years ago, I was visiting my son in college. At the time, he was a junior in college. He showed me some photos he had taken and posted online to a site called Facebook. I had heard of the site, but I really had no idea what it was other than a social network for college students. (Back then, you couldn’t register on Facebook unless you had a .edu email address.) I queried him about the site. I was interested in its unique features, such as the now infamous Wall, photo galleries, and status messages. I thought to myself how nice it would be if Facebook were available to users other than the college crowd. Not long after, in the fall of 2006, Facebook’s young CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, did precisely that, opening the platform to anyone over the age of 13. Since then, the average age of Facebook users has become progressively older. In February 2009, one of the fastest-growing demographic segments in the network was females age 55 and older. However, the number of Facebook users in all age/gender demographic groups is growing, with use among women growing faster than among men in nearly all age groups. Among all users, those age 26-30 form the fastest-growing age group; 45% of Facebook’s US audience is now age 26 or older. With more than 300 million users worldwide and over five million new users joining every week, Facebook is the largest social network on the planet. Those numbers are strong evidence that social media is in the mainstream and businesses need to pay attention and consider establishing a presence there. 3. Twitter If LinkedIn is your business suit and Facebook is your business-casual attire, Twitter is your business social-networking cocktail hour: You go there to casually and informally interact with potentially thousands of others. Whereas LinkedIn tends to be a more latent form of engagement, interaction on Twitter is (or can be) in real time. It’s the most informal of the three networks and allows for the greatest degree of conversation. Conclusion The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that participation in the three big social networks—LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter—is an absolute must for just about every business. Paul Chaney is “The Social Media Handyman” and the author of The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media (http://www.thedigitalhandshake.com). Reach him via pchaney@gmail.com. 2010-01-05T22:02:00-08:00