Posted in Advertising, Corporate Strategy, Public Relations, Social Media Community, Social Strategy, blogging, business, content, corporate blogging, customer evangelist, small business, social media, social networking
7 comments
17/06 2009

Authenticity is Life. The Rest is Just Details.

How do you creat great content that is alluring to the general public and your potential clients? The simple answer would be keyword rich content and industry news. Oh yes, keyword rich writing. We all love it.

There is something deeper that tends to push one blog past the other in terms of the public attention deficit disorder: Authenticity.

Authenticity should be one of the driving focusing of your blog, your use of social networking tools, and your business. We are now in a customer centric world where people want to deal with… you guessed it… people.

Staying authentic with your content means you do not sound like the back of a brochure. It means you do not sound like the news anchor on the Fox Business Channel droning away about the pitfalls of capitalism.

It means..What does it mean?

Telling stories.

Creating visual memories of how you have helped clients. Telling the story of starting the business and being honest about the mistakes you made “growing up.” It means giving your personal opinion on activities happening in the market.

I think I speak for everyone when I say… we want to hear from YOU not your industry.

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Posted in My Life, customer evangelist, indianapolis, social media
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8/06 2009

Twitter Can and Will Drive Business

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of participating in a first hand account of how Twitter can drive a customer to a place of business. This, my friends, is the story:

I have been wanting (for awhile now) to get my second tattoo. It has been a self-debate on how much I should spend, where I should go to be “tatted,” and what tattoo I should ink into my skin. I finally came to the point where I was ready to take the dive and step out into the world of tattooing but I had one more question to answer:

Where should I go for a tattoo?

I decided to ask the Twitter world where I should get my tattoo because I believe in the concept of word-of-mouth marketing over any other system. I sent a tweet out that read:

Best place to get a tattoo in #Indianapolis?

Within minutes I had multiple tweets from individuals telling me their favorite place to be tattooed in Indianapolis. Metamorphosis won over the rest because of the evangelists (customers) that love and cherish the work of the shop.

The sad part of this entire marketing test is that I was not contacted by a tattoo shop on Twitter. The other shops in Indianapolis may have missed an opportunity to influence my buying decision because they failed to use Twitter as a communication medium.

I will be heading over to Metamorphosis this week to get the tattoo priced and to finally get inked. Let this be a lesson to all… if you train your customers to be your Evangelists and they use Twitter… you should also join them on the platform.

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Posted in Corporate Strategy, Marketing, Reputation Management, Social Media Community, Social Strategy, Viral Marketing, customer evangelist, productivity, relationship, social media, social networking
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3/06 2009

Killing the Machine with Social Media

First off… a side note… If you are not reading Convince & Convert by Jason Baer you should be. He always gets me thinking and brainstorming on new methods and ideas to marketing through social media.

If you were to think back to the days of (what we will call) old-school marketing…the days where big money won and the more you broadcasted the higher the return…it can be debated that the marketing arm of many companies ran much like a machine. Yes, there was some creative thought process involved but the communication model was more machine-like than we would care to admit.

They (the machines) started churning out hundreds of thousands of ideas in order to plaster on our minds the benefits of their products and services. More often than not, it worked.

In the age of the Internet, open collaboration, and social media the machine is slowly dying and giving way to a more sophisticated school of thought. The customer is now crafting the message of brands. The customer has castrated the machine of marketing and created a new form of communication.

In the words of Jason, social media is now at the forefront of the customer experience. The thoughts and ideas of brands are no longer crafted in the board room (which many people would like to believe) but created in our living rooms, restaurants, gathering places, and keyboards.

As a business owner it is up to you to listen to this message. To never ignore the potential that social media can have on your brand and welcome the unison of voices which are the PEOPLE who love your product… and..

the people who do not.

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Posted in Marketing, Public Relations, customer evangelist, social media, social media marketing
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19/05 2009

10 Steps To Turning Customers into Evangelists Using Social Media

Yesterday we talked about the value of turning customers into evangelists when using social media. I wanted to give you a few pointers on how to accomplish the task.

25 Steps to Turning Customers into Evangelists Using Social Media

1. First. Make sure you prepare yourself for the focused effort of turning happy customers to loyal promoters and evangelists. Prepare your mind. Maybe yoga?

2. You have an email list right? Use your email list to make sure you are connected to your customers on the social sites you use frequently.

Importing and Exporting Contacts Using:

Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, and Plaxo.

3. After you have imported your contacts into the social media sites of your choosing… make sure you add and contact them through the sites.

4. Once you have connected to most of your customers start communicating on a daily basis with them. We are not talking about sending sales information or product information but asking about their day… etc.

5. Create a list of your high level and value customers. It helps to have a list in place to set some goals toward customer evangelists. Start out with 5 people or companies.

6. Set up Twitter Searches for your valued client’s industries or services. For example, if you have an accountant as a valued client make sure you setup a Twitter search feed for accountant or tax advice. When someone ask for advice make sure you reccomend your client.

Disclaimer: You do not have to always monitor the Twitter search but it is good to have around. I know we all have about 5 mins of free time a day.

7. If the client has an event or seminar coming up in the area make sure you share that link with the multitudes of your followers online.

Share it as an RT in Twitter

Share it on your Facebook Wall

Share it as a status update on LinkedIN

8. Recommend your client on LinkedIN. Why recommend on LinkedIN? It is simple. If you want recommended by a client on LinkedIN it is always better to recommend first. Do it and see the benefits.

9. Share an exciting story about your client’s business to your contacts. It is important to share the quality information even if it does not relate you your business.

10. Ask for the recommendation. It never hurts to ask. Encourage your best clients and friends to tell YOUR story across the masses.

Remember it is important to give before you receive. If you help your clients become thought leadership in their industries or grow their business using the Internet they WILL become your evangelists.

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