Walkin' the Line

After defining the difference between Social Media Marketing & Using Social Media for Marketing and reading some recent blogs, in my mind we're finally starting to get somewhere with the whole marketing with social media idea. My friend Duncan at Firebelly Marketing shared his frustrations recently in his blog. He asks for some results based blog posts, and enough with the theory already with social media. It's time we all start trying to use social media for marketing and share results (good or bad). So, today a fellow Apartment Marketing enthusiast, Mike Brewer, wrote about a concept Ford is trying that markets their Fiesta using social media. Read what Mike has to say here: Tryvertising. Thanks Mike for sharing this story and of course your application to apartment marketing.

Now this Ford contest spurred a little debate on Twitter in my little apartment marketing world, and the argument was basically one for "how" Social Media should be used for "marketing." Arguments were made that Social Media should be used in its honest and true form for unbiased feedback and conversation, and feedback from consumers should not be "bought." Others felt that as long as the feedback was honest (even with a freebie) it's a good marketing play.

There are countless examples of companies using social media to market their products. Whether they are buying someone's opinion or not, brands are looking for exposure. How many people are sending Guy Kawasaki or Chris Brogan their products to blog about them? It's happening all the time. Guy is test driving a brand new Audi right now!!! Is this right, is it wrong? I think it's all open to interpretation.

As we move forward and experiment using social media for marketing we will walk the line in the eyes of the consumer. While some might view the Ford and Audi strategies as "against the rules," others will appreciate the projects and want to hear the stories. It's just like any other marketing or advertising, your efforts are not going to appeal to everyone. As long as it fits with your brand and the image you are trying to achieve I say go for it.

Thanks and enjoy your day!

Mj

photo courtesy of harry.1967 on flickr.com

What's the Difference Between Social Media Marketing and Using Social Media for Marketing?

So, what's the difference between social media marketing and using social media for marketing? Let's first define social media.

Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.

OK, now that Wikipedia gave us that definition, let's look at social media from a marketing approach. Here's my definition of "Social Media Marketing."

Social Media Marketing is giving people a reason to talk about your products and services, and making it easier for that conversation to take place using social media tools.

This definition is actually taken right from the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) website, but I added the "using social media tools." Let's stop fooling each other by throwing theories around that Social Media Marketing is anything more than an online evolution for word of mouth marketing.

Now, "Using Social Media for Marketing" is different than "Social Media Marketing." The use of social media for marketing can be a number of things. In general, "interruption marketing" examples like banner ads, sponsorship ads, AdSense, or blog buttons/links would qualify.

You're probably asking now, OK Mark, where are you going with this? Here's where I'm going. Try whatever you want with social media and marketing. It should qualify as either Social Media Marketing as WOMMA has defined it, or it will qualify as "interruption marketing" as I gave examples for. But here's the rub, DON'T let your marketing efforts fall under any of these definitions here at WOMMA.

Now that I've defined this for everyone please let me know your thoughts, and please read my follow-up post with some friendly debate and frustrations surrounding Social Media and Marketing.

Thanks and enjoy your day!

Mj

photo courtesy of Eleaf on flickr.com

Is Social Media Marketing Just the Evolution of Word of Mouth Marketing?

Yesterday I commented on a blog post from Kyle Lacy about Controlling Word of Mouth Marketing Using Social Media. I'll share again here what I had to say:

Kyle,

I like to think that WOM and Social Media are one and the same. As I have dived into social media over the past few months I’ve come to realize that from a marketing perspective social media marketing is basically just an evolution of WOM. While there can be good old interruption “marketing” with banner ads and such on blogs, facebook, etc., what we’re seeing with users leaving reviews on Yelp!, becoming a fan of a product on Facebook, or blogging about their best or worst experiences with a brand or product is the evolution of WOM.

Now more than ever companies need to focus on WOM marketing in my opinion. This includes social media and the conversations about your brand online.

Thanks for sharing Kyle. Enjoy your day.

Mj

I'm curious if anyone else shares this opinion, and look forward to reading your thoughts.

Thanks and as always, enjoy your day.

Mj

Search Engine Optimization

So I am completely overwhelmed by the whole SEO thing. Wow, who knew how much really went into this. It really takes experts to manage, optimize, and monitor SEO, or does it? Today I had a conference call with HubSpot.com. They advertise themselves as an Internet Marketing company. I Googled "Internet Marketing" and they did come up on the 1st page, but not as the 1st listing.

What they showed me today in a webex conference call was pretty good. They have software that measures your website optimization vs. up to 20 other competitors based on keywords. That alone was pretty sweet. Then they utilize this data to make recommendations for improving your website and helping to promote or create all the other links and online posts you need to improve your SEO. In 45 minutes I was impressed, and they really just scratched the surface I felt. This is the 1st SEO tool I've seen that really seems to measure and help.

If you have used HubSpot.com or know anything about them please feel free to comment. I'll also share this link to another blog with some comments so you can see what others are saying.

Websites: Features and??? Benefits

After a meeting last week with The Juleen Team (F.C. Tucker Realtors), and Firebelly Marketing it had me thinking about the content of my company's website as well as other websites in general.  Does your website just sell the steak, or does it also sell the sizzle?  When I think of websites in general I think of pictures of a product, some bullet point features, and some general specs and pricing.  All the stuff that helps someone to do research, but nothing really to help convince them the product or service is a better choice than another.

This being said, I began to question if this is a terrible approach to the design of a website.  When we train our leasing staff to sell, we teach feature, benefit, close.  Why aren't websites designed the same way.  Are we not trying to sell our products online?  With the internet and websites becoming more and more the first touch point we have with our customers why are we not selling to them?  We're just giving them the features, and hoping they figure out the benefits, while our close is just giving them a price.  This doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

Even as a consumer I am no longer impressed by fancy websites just loaded with content and pictures.  I want more.  I usually find myself looking for customer testimonials or expert reviews of products before I buy them.  If I don't find the need to search for those it's most likely because I have already seen or used a product, or a friend has recommended it.  I then go on a website just to confirm my decision or make the purchase. 

So, my next goal will be to make our website more benefit friendly.  I'd like to see others follow suit as I think the consumers demand it.  If they don't find everything they need to know at your website doesn't it scare you to think about where they are going to find out more information?  It scares me, and we're going to make some changes.

-Mark

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Do you survey your customers?

Have you been to SurveyMonkey.com? It's not the only survey website out there (check out Zoomerang.com or PollDaddy.com among others), but it is one that I use for our company that is extremely simple to use and does what I need. You can't beat the price either. $200 gets you unlimited surveys with unlimited responses. That's pretty incredible. You can even try it out for free if you have a small survey that would have limited responses.

Now this post is not a plug for SurveyMonkey.com, but more of a question on why more small companies don't survey their customers if a tool like this is available at such a cheap price. Surveying is not just for the large corporations doing billions of dollars in business, it is an important measure for anyone to have when doing business. In marketing we throw money at new strategies, new designs, and new ideas when maybe we should just be asking what people want. We're all guilty of chasing after the next new hot idea, campaign, or media, but maybe the answers are there with our current customers.

Recently we surveyed the residents at our communities and I will say that by doing so online I had better results than ever. Previously we would deliver paper surveys to our residents and we would get back approx 25% of the surveys. We felt that was a pretty good response rate, but by sending out surveys online and having the ability to send reminders responses increased to 45%!!! This type of response rate really gives us the chance to analyze the data and make decisions to improve our business or change up our marketing strategy. One change we have already made is re-listing our properties at Rent.com as 41.5% of respondents indicated using their site as a resource for an apartment search. They ranked first for Internet resources used, and last year we dropped most of our listing with them to help reduce some expenses. While we have had a good year, we feel the cost is not as prohibitive as losing the exposure this popular site provides.

There are many other examples of how surveys can impact your business or influence changes. I know from our experience the survey we recently sent out has identified a few areas we need to make changes. Although it's sometimes tough to see where we are going wrong it's also a nice wake-up call. While I think it's important to recognize our faults and where changes are necessary, it gives us a great opportunity to see what we are doing well and exploit our best qualities also.

-Mark

Facebook and Social Media

So, on a whim I decided to join FB (facebook) after they opened it up to anyone and set up an account for business purposes. Not knowing how I would end up using the profile I just let it sit there for nearly a year. Randomly an old college friend stumbled across this work profile and the next thing I knew I was creating a personal account as well. For someone on the cusp of Gen X/Gen Y this was a bold step about a year ago. What has blown me away is the number of adopters in my age bracket and older over the that year. While my cirlcle of friends doesn't grow as expodentially as my cousin in college, it does continue to grow.

So, the question I have now is how to get others in the Gen X and older generations to adopt FB and/or other social media. I think the first step is via LinkedIn, which seems to be friendly in the business world and does not reek of that's for my kids. However, I feel that as FB and MS (MySpace) evolve even more they will need to in a way that strives to capture the 30+ crowd. FB seems to me the one that could prevail for the 30+ crowd in that it is extremely user friendly and the variety and ease of applications keep it interesting. I still ask the question how do we convice the non-adopters to jump in the game?

Now that I've said all this it brings be to a thought that I had when meeting with my marketing agency. We were discussing an individual that presented during a seminar for Apartment Internet Marketing I recently attended. We agreed he had a great perspective on the evolution of the Internet. His point was that people are social beings. This is why social media sites such as FB, MS, and YouTube have grown so quickly. In thinking about that I concluded that these sites are essentially an evolution of email. The difference now is that people have a choice. While email is universal, social media is unique to the choice of the user. It will be fun to see if one will prevail like VHS over Beta or Blu-Ray over HD-DVD.

I think it's important in our world of communication that people adopt social media just as we have cell phones, email, and text messaging. The challenge is the overwhelming options of sites all doing roughly the same thing and most people not wanting or having the time to use them all. Hopefully applications on these sites will give people the ability to log into one spot and control all their accounts from the same place, or maybe that will be the next big player all togeter. I'm sure Google's working on it right now.

-Mark