Archive for ‘Marketing’

Echo: Social Fresh Charlotte

By David Horne, 18 August, 2010, No Comment

Monday I attended Social Fresh in Charlotte with several hundred other marketers and media folks. I could recap the event, but these folks, Jackie Adkins, Stacey Alex, and Kyle Chowing have already done a great job.

I hope you get the chance to go to one of Jason’s events. He does a first class job. The speakers were on their A games. My hats off to David Thomas, Amber Nasland, Brett Dumas, Greg Cangialosi, and others. You can check out their decks here. It was also great seeing my fellow triad peeps and meeting some new friends. That being said, what makes Social Fresh amazing, is the people. Check out a list of the folks who attended here. They are all worth a follow.

Relationships are the hidden treasure you get out of attending conferences. For more ways to get value out of the events you attend, check out my post on SocialFresh.com: How to get value out of attending Social Fresh (or any conference).

photo credit: social fresh

Word of mouth is as easy as PSE

By David Horne, 3 August, 2010, 2 Comments

I think we complicate word-of-mouth (WOM). Many organizations spend countless hours trying to get their Youtube video to go viral. Facebook and Twitter, let’s not go there. Here is a simple strategy for creating WOM and building brand value.

PSE Marketing

1. Perfect your product and story

2. Set expectations with valuable online content

3. Exceed expectations offline

Last week I saw Tommy Emmanuel live. He is by far one of the best guitarists in the universe. I heard about Tommy from my friend Rob Blackwell (an amazing songwriter and musician too).

1. Perfect your product and story- Tommy Emmanuel has played guitar almost every day since he was four years old. Tommy grew up as a gypsy in Australia. He has toured and played live since he was five. He has been awarded numerous awards and is considered by man to be the best in the world. And to top it all off, he is humble and generous, donating countless hours and dollars to charities and ministries around the world.

You have to figure out what your story is for your brand or organization. What are the things that make it unique and shared experiences that make it relatable to your audience? Your product has to back up your story. Tommy’s product is his playing. He backs up the story by playing mind blowing guitar. You need to purge your product of mediocrity and perfect it.

2. Set expectations with valuable online content- If you search for Tommy Emmanuel in Google, many videos will come up showing him playing live or on tv. Hearing and seeing these videos sets an expectation in your mind of what you will experience watching him in person. Everywhere he is mentioned, from blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., his performances are heralded. As I watched these videos an expectation of what interactions offline would be like started to form.

The same will happen for your company as customers and consumers find and explore your digital thumbprint. The content you publish will set an expectation level in the minds of the folks that interact with you online. Valuable and relevant content combined with responsiveness will create the right expectations.

3. Exceed expectations offline- Seeing Tommy Emmanuel live blew what I thought I was in for away. My experience was better than the expectations set by watching videos and comments online. I left telling everyone about that show. I encouraged people to check him out as I told them what they would see. I am now setting expectations for the people I know would want to hear him play.

Organizations sometimes believe the digital and social media arm of your business is separate from your offline business. I disagree. I think they work together. Continuity will help you exceed your customers expectations and move them towards connection. Connecting grows into advocacy and creates word of mouth.

Following the simple PSE Marketing strategy will build your brand and create word of mouth exposure. The misconception is this is a one time execution. It should be continual. Always work to make your story better and your product more remarkable. Always create great content online and on social platforms to set expectations. Always back up those expectations with authentic and amazing client experiences.

What is your best client experience from a brand?

photo credit: Paull Young

Linchpins #3 Triad

By David Horne, 30 July, 2010, 5 Comments

Hello friends.

I have the great fortune to live in an area with some very bright folks in the MarCom world. In the last month or so I’ve had an opportunity to get to know some great folks. You should get to know them too.

John Cass- He is the head of digital marketing efforts at Pace Communications. John is brilliant and generous. None are better at business blogging strategy than John. You can find him at PR Communications and @johncass.

Kevin Briody- Kevin heads up strategic partnerships at Ignite Social Media. This man is full of ideas pertaining to social media business application. Check out Social Mallard and @kevinbriody.

Bob Knorp- Most people know him as the voice behind The Beancast. It is one of the premier marketing/advertising podcasts. Bob is also an incredible brand strategist. He can also be found at @thebeancast.

Jeff SanGeorge- Jeff stirs things up as head of Connect Marketing and Design. Jeff combines creative design with the technical knowledge to execute. Reach out to Jeff at @jeffsangeorge.

Ken Pitman- He is the mastermind behind Square Hat Media and Presidente of Social Media Club Greenboro. He is one of the wittiest on Twitter. Find him here @kennedypittman.

Mitch Miles- Mitch has amazing charisma. He is founder of The 26.2 Group and a sought after public speaker. If you get the chance to hear him, he is a true spellbinder. When not on stage Mitch is here @mitchmiles

Vanessa Boynton- She leads the social media efforts at M Creative and creates art at VanessaBoynton.com . Vanessa recently won an award for her one of her illustrations. Online she can be found at @vboynton.

Brandon Pierce & Danielle Hatfield- This is the dynamic duo behind Experience Farm. They do wonderful web design and new media work. Check them out at @dhatfield and @brandonpierce

Kyle Lambert- Kyle is the big kahuna at Callout Creative. He has an incredible eye for design and visual communications. Not to mention he is hilarious. Kyle is on Twitter at @calloutcreative.

There are many more folks to come on this list, stay tuned. Research has shown that following these folks will make you smarter and extend your life expectancy by 6 years.

Have a great weekend.

Knock Knock? Is anybody there?

By David Horne, 22 July, 2010, 3 Comments

Organizations: We need a digital footprint! Get on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Yelp, Foursquare, and Flickr. Build a Blog. Send email campaigns. We need to engage and build community.

Consumer: Knock Knock?

Consumer: Hello?

Consumer: Anybody there?

Companies are beginning to understand the value associated with establishing a digital footprint. They see conversations happening in real time and desperately want to join them. The secret isn’t having an account or page. That doesn’t mean you are connecting. Organizations need to go beyond having an @ handle, video channel, and blog. They need to be there.

If you decide twitter is a good place for your company to be then be there. What does it say if someone shows up on twitter (via the pretty icon on your home page) to talk and there is no activity? Or they go to your Facebook fan page and crickets chirp? How about a blog whose last post was in 2009? It says no one is home.

Building community with social presence takes showing up and follow through.

photo credit: J.L. Settle

Purpose minded not process minded

By David Horne, 12 July, 2010, 6 Comments

Be purpose minded not process minded. That statement will help you immensely.

I work with companies sometimes that are focused on the process. Which isn’t horrible unless you focus only on the process. How do we find customers and get them to do something? What constraints can we eliminate to be more productive? These are all decent questions but they are not the root of the problem. Organizations fall into short term thinking that could lead to trouble when they only work at the mechanics. David, what does this have to do with marketing? Everything. Purpose minded companies have great marketing strategies.

Last week I spoke with Clay Moseley at Blue Sky Factory. They are an email service provider that has a great product and Clay was showing me some of their new features. BSF is a company that is purpose driven. Their purpose is to help organizations succeed by providing the best email services and products for their clients. The purpose is their focus. Their purpose has produced amazing customer service, smart and passionate ambassadors like DJ Waldow, Chris Penn, and Greg Cangialosi, and innovative products like SocialSync.

Process mind organizations get caught up in X’s and O’s and become disconnected from the intangibles (like relationships and a good story ) that make businesses grow and build community. I worked at a golf retail store one time that fell into this. We started out providing great value to our customers because our purpose was to provide the right equipment to help golfers play better. Clients used to drive across town because they knew the support they would receive from us would be in their best interest. Then one day the management lost its focus. They began trying to achieve their goals by cutting corners and selling specific products with higher margins instead of meeting customer needs. They became process minded. They went out of business.

Purpose minded is long term. Process minded is short term.

Purpose minded enhances every other part of your business. Process minded stifles the greatness of your business.

I encourage you to look at yourself (since we can apply this to our own lives) and your business. Changing a mindset is usually the answer to increasing leads, sales, customer loyalty, etc.

What is your purpose?