Helping vs. Selling
August 12, 2010 by Jessica Ziegler · View Comments
Last week while reading The Key to Social Media Success is Just 2 Letters, by Jay Baer, I was struck by his notion of helping vs. selling. His basic concept is that by giving, developing those initially trust-based relationships through sharing and being helpful, clients will come to you when they move beyond DIY mode. This makes a lot of sense to me because I am not a sales person. At all. It takes a very specific skill-set to walk into a room and walk out with a signed contract, and I don’t have it.
However, I am a helper (some might say enabler; tomato, tomahto). It’s easy to forget about these opportunities to help in the midst of maintaining clients, creating proposals and day to day business tasks.
Jay refers to several good examples of companies creating something helpful that leads not directly to sales, but indirectly. Nationwide Insurance’s iPhone app for on-site accident reporting, Geek Squad’s YouTube channel, I won’t go through all the details here since he’s already done such a beautiful job in the article (you can read it here). They position themselves to become your go-to in those instances where you need that next level of help.
He recommends doing a “helpfulness audit” of your company. So we did. We realized that in the process of creating our new Training Lab series (currently in development) there were several opportunities to create screencasts of some of the core elements involved in setting up various social media initiatives.
Currently I am deep into developing our Facebook Training Lab. Some of our clients already use Facebook on a personal level, but there are many out there who don’t, and even more who don’t use it for business. As I began outlining the structure of the Facebook Training Lab, I immediately identified four topics about which we could create free screencasts. These topics may seem simple to some, for others these will be akin to a foreign language. They represent the core building blocks for creating a Facebook “fan” page. Here is my list so far:
- How to create a Facebook Page for your business
- Intro to fbml for Facebook
- Creating a custom landing page for your Facebook Page
- Adding admins to your Facebook Page
By offering these out to the world, we can help people create their own Facebook Page (for the uninitiated, “pages” are for businesses, brands and interests, “profiles” are for individuals). If they stumble or want to go to the next level, we’ll be there. By opening the door we open the conversation.
Now it’s your turn. Consider doing a about a helpfulness audit. How do you rate? Where could you and your company be more helpful in your space?
We’d love to hear about your progress, and will keep you up to date on ours.
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. You can also become a fan of Vestor Logic on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. Thanks for visiting!
Star Client: How Desert Perinatal is Doing Social Right
August 5, 2010 by Jessica Ziegler · View Comments
Several months ago we had the pleasure to work with Tina Senter at Desert Perinatal Associates in Las Vegas, NV. Tina runs the marketing department for this practice specializing in high-risk pregnancies.
Vestor Logic was responsible for redesigning their existing website and implementing a WordPress install. We set up accounts and built a Facebook fan page and a Twitter background to maintain a consistent look across their various marketing initiatives. All of these are pretty foundational elements when starting a social media marketing initiative.
Often a client will have big ideas about all the ways that they could use social media to reach out to their existing clients, but fall short when it comes time to take the reins back from us to DO something with it all. Then again, sometimes we get a client like Tina who is ready to run with social media…
Here are some of the things that Tina is doing right:
- Desert Perinatal runs a weekly contest looking for a super cute baby picture from their fans to use as their Facebook icon for the week.
- Tina uses Facebook to engage fans by posting common questions that most moms can’t help but answer in a forum like Facebook, such as: What is your biggest frustration as a parent right now? Or, how did you transition from a crib to toddler bed?
- She allows fans to post on the fan page wall. Parents will post pictures or questions of their own. She is allowing a community to form on her watch, without directly interfering or trying to guide that process.
- Tina creates a monthly newsletter featuring classes, products, recipes, letters from the doctors and Q&A with the nurses, always promoting the Facebook page and Twitter feed to build awareness.
- She also had Vestor Logic create a postcard-sized print version of the Facebook fan landing page as a take away at the front desk to build awareness.
- She uses tools to automatically post Facebook page updates to the Twitter feed.
- She runs a birthday cupcake promotion encouraging fans to post birthday baby pics and receive a cupcake certificate from a local bakery.
Most importantly, she is consistently DOING something in her social media space.
Tina certainly has some built-in advantages with her “product”, new moms are desperate to connect with other new moms and are frequently stuck at home for the first few weeks/months. Her population is all local to one city. She works within a field that people are passionate about: having babies. All those cute pictures don’t hurt, either.
BUT, she easily could have set up these accounts and wandered back to the textbook marketing approaches. She chose to move forward, stay engaged and experiment and it is truly paying off.
So. What can you do to create a community within your client base? How can you engage with your clients on a more meaningful level?
Update: We know, it’s not that easy for everyone. Maybe you don’t have the bandwidth, the staff, the understanding to make it happen for your organization. Soon we will be releasing a set of social media launch products: labs and engagement packages, to help get over that initial hump between set up and social stardom. Stay tuned…
Want to be notified by email of the new things that Vestor Logic has to offer? Join our email list to get those updates in your inbox! Subscribe to Vestor Logic by Email.
The New Facebook ‘Like’ button and the Open Graph Protocol
May 7, 2010 by Jessica Ziegler · View Comments
Recently some of you may have noticed that Facebook changed it’s “Become a Fan” button to a “Like” button. The thinking behind this is that it is less of a commitment to “like” something or someone than it is to become a “fan”. Being a fan implies a certain level of engagement with a brand or person. You may be willing to tell the world that you are a “fan” of Whole Foods or U2, but you may only “like” M&Ms. Are you and M&Ms casual acquaintances or in a committed relationship? This move opens the doors for users to feel comfortable connecting with more brands.
Another reason behind this move is Facebook’s new integration with the Open Graph Protocol. According to the www.opengraphprotocol.org this: “enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph. For instance, this is used on Facebook to enable any web page to have the same functionality as a Facebook Page”.
In essence, this means that by inserting a few simple <meta> tags into your page header and inserting a facebook “like” button on your website with one line of html you can turn your page into a “graph object” which can be found and tied to the social graph. There a also a few other social plug-ins you can utilize, such as an activity feed or recommendations (see more here http://developers.facebook.com/plugins).
Wh
at does this all mean? It means that users can establish connections to you and your brand across the entire web, and tie it back to their facebook profile. Facebook becomes a vast repository of everything you and your friends “like”. I find it hard not to think of it as the broadest marketing research experiment ever undertaken. And all users have to do is “like” stuff.
The negatives, as always with Facebook, relate back to privacy. Any user who is not on top of their privacy setting can cry foul. Yes, you are telling your friends that you like Bon Jovi, you may be telling BMG and Sony as well. I personally don’t have huge issues with the privacy issue, but I am in marketing so I may be biased.
Overall, I think it is an extremely intriguing move and I for one cannot wait to see what the adoption rate looks like. I “like” it.
What about you? Does this move make you nervous? Excited? Angry? Tell us.
Read More about the Like Button:
Why I Like the Like Button: Spreading Nonprofit Messages
Are Like Buttons Evil? The Open Web Reacts To Facebook’s Not-So-Open Graph
How To: Setup a “Listening Channel” for your brand
February 23, 2010 by Tim Miner · View Comments
Want to know what people are saying about your company online? There is an easy way to create a “Listening Channel” to monitor the online chatter about your brand, your name, your keywords or phrases or any of the discussions that you find interesting. This screencast will show you how to get started.
If you would like a little help setting up your listening channel for brand monitoring, just contact us. We are happy to help!
Yammer is a powerful link manager
February 22, 2010 by Tim Miner · View Comments
Yammer is one of our most used social tools at Vestor Logic. We use it as an internal Twitter platform to aggregate links, share ideas, and communicate on active client campaigns. It has become indispensable for us and is used by our team every single day. Think of Yammer as a private Twitter platform for your organization.
You can setup your own Yammer network in minutes here.
Integration with Google Reader
We have integrated Yammer with our Google Reader to share interesting blog posts and articles from the numerous feeds that we subscribe to and review each day. Sometimes we find blog posts from our favorite blogs that prompt internal discussion. A member of our team will Yam It! using the bookmarklet and apply a hashtag to make it easy to follow the conversation in the future.
Yammer provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to integrate with Google Reader here.
Yammer as a link manager
Recently, we began using Yammer to manage articles, blog posts, links, and web pages that apply to an active client campaign that we are working on.
For example, we are leading a one-day workshop for a large corporate client in early March and we have begun collecting relevant stories and resources in Yammer to help build the presentation that we will give at the event. We submit the link to the relevant content, hashtag it with the designated client tag, and then discuss it internally using Yammer. We can go back at any point and view all of the submissions we have under that tag to begin crafting the slides for the presentation.
For this project, we now have 30 posts under that client tag and we should have more than 50 posts by the time we begin building the presentation. This is by far the easiest way for us to aggregate all of this information. This is a very powerful way for us to manage all of these links in one place and easily recall them when we are ready to review.
Our take on Yammer
Yammer provides us with an easy way to aggregate information from other sites and blogs in one place. We can discuss each post independent of all the others in our stream. It has become one of our most used social tools and I cannot imagine not having it as part of our arsenal. All of our posts are preserved forever and the platform offers a free account.
How can you go wrong with that! If you are storing links somewhere else, get on the Yammer platform and make your life easier. You will find that it provides more efficiency to your research process and will certainly allow you to perform better for your clients and the projects that you are working on.
For companies that are accustomed to discussing topics regularly with the entire team, Yammer provides a perfect platform to do so. Team members can subscribe to hashtags, discuss the content using comments, and the entire discussion is preserved for future reference.
Yammer’s new release is coming
Today, we discovered that Yammer will be reviewing its newest release on Thursday. It’s certainly worth a listen. You can register for the upcoming event here.
Are you using Yammer?
What are your thoughts? How are you promoting discussions in your organization? Are the discussions taking place on an internal system or out in the open? Tell us how you are doing this? We want to know. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Trusting your voice
December 9, 2009 by Tim Miner · View Comments
Everyone is talking about social media these days. Even the definition of what is and what is not considered social media is constantly being redefined by new technology and more importantly by the new ways that we as consumer use existing technology.
Most agree that to be social a technology must afford the users the opportunity to participate in a dialogue or a two way exchange. This fundamental premise has been discussed at length by most of the top industry pundits. Now the discussions have shifted to address another question:
“Because social media involves the exchange of information, ideas, and opinions, how do we define our voice to be the most effective at communicating our ideas to others?”
Every company wants to spread the word about their product or service far and wide. They want their videos to go viral, their website to get flooded with traffic and their sales team to stay late handling all the orders.
This goal alone raises an issue for many of us that participate in the social media environment. Our online exchanges should be a reflection of those interactions that we have in the real world. Courtesy, compassion, empathy, politeness, humor – these all have a place in our digital exchanges. I would argue that to be effective in the social media environment you have to be yourself. Creating an alter-ego or a persona that deviates from who you really are is a recipe for disaster. Scott Stratten takes this notion head-on with his UnBootCamp video.
Marketers worry about building a following, finding an audience, conveying their message but they often skip the most important element to a successful online relationship – trust. Anyone that would buy your product must have some level of trust in you or your product. The consumer always believes that what they are buying will fill a need that they have and that the person or company selling it to them can be trusted, at least to some extent.
So this begs the question. How do you build trust as the foundation for your online relationships?
My short answer is with authenticity. You have to be yourself online just like you do in a face-to-face exchange. Building trust is a process which may suggest why all of us that advise individuals and companies on social media are quick to point out that social is a process and that often quick results are not to be expected. Chris Brogan‘s book Trust Agents is a great read and the long answer to the question. You can find his book here among other places like your local bookstore.
Cyril Connolly said it best “Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
I think that says it all. How do you weigh in on the issue of trust and authenticity?
Striking a balance: brands and consultants
December 2, 2009 by Tim Miner · View Comments
My consultancy, Vestor Logic, was created specifically to give me the freedom to work from anywhere I wanted at any time with just a laptop and a cell phone. My family travels a bunch and I want that flexibility. I want to watch my son grow up and hopefully add a little brother or sister to the mix to give him someone to pick on. I struggled to find a balance between work and home but I think Vestor Logic now gives me what I always wanted: balance.
Finding balance in my work relationships is a different challenge. It’s a constant battle to bring a team of people to a common understanding. Working with brands on social media strategy and initiatives presents a unique set of circumstances, none of which promote true balance.
Let’s look at the individuals involved:
- Me, as lead strategist for Vestor Logic
- Jessica, our lead designer and strategist
- Our programming team
- Our brand liaison (this is usually the person that help champion our cause within their company)
- Stakeholders: brand, media, sales, marketing, PR, business development
So imagine all of us in a conference room, someone always leaving to take a “critical” call or hit the restroom. The Discovery Workshop begins with me leading a poor man’s guided tour of social media trying to capture the understanding of those that for some reason have never heard of social media and yet still connect with those that have been using services like Twitter and Facebook ever since their kids told them about it.
This is the critical time in the Workshop. It is imperative that we establish a common point to start from. “Raise your hand if you think social media can benefit your company and your department”. I hope they ALL raise their hands…
The truth is that consultants should listen more and guide less, at least that is my opinion. These department heads and stakeholders already have the answers. They know their company better than I ever will. They know what works and more importantly what didn’t work. They rely on us to provide a subtle nudge in the right direction, maybe even a course correction at times. But they don’t need us force feeding a cookie cutter social media solution to them as if by some miracle “one size really does fit all”.
The balance we seek to create with our clients is more often found in the personal relationship we create with them. Maybe in the dialogue we share with them. Often in the understanding that we are as driven to see them succeed as they are. The balance we seek is that of collaboration where they want us involved as much as we want to be involved.
Our conclusion at Vestor Logic is that we can strike a balance with our clients by listening, responding, asking questions, testing ideas, admitting our shortcomings, being open to change, and never assuming that we have all the answers.
Consulting brands on the development of a social media strategy is like riding on a seesaw. It’s a dialogue that requires two sides to work. There is a constant back and forth, an up and down, a give and take. The best part is finding that rhythm and enjoying the ride. If both sides have done their part, a much more powerful result is reached – one that includes the input, the consideration, the knowledge of the entire team.
That is why we are here…
Are Social Media Consultants Neccessary? Part 2
November 18, 2009 by Jessica Ziegler · View Comments
Yesterday I broached the topic of whether companies need a social media consultant, based on several articles/blog posts promoting a DIY approach out of the gate.
My main disagreement with the assertions set forth in these posts is that they assumes that business owners and individuals are already up to speed. We’ve seen that this is often not the case, and that makes sense. They are busy doing their job, not ours.
An entirely new segment of marketing has opened up and it calls for a very different approach. If a business or individual tries to cram the old approach into this new medium, it will fall flat. They need to learn that, preferably before they go out and make the mistake in front of an audience.
I propose that yes, many companies/individuals could absolutely handle social media on their own. And they should, once they are up and running. Maybe they need a helping hand to get started, to have the overall process broken down, and then they may well be ready to run with it. Maybe they need help developing a plan of action, since this is all new to them, from a business perspective. There is no question that most companies/individuals will need to play a bit of catch-up to get to the point.
Where most companies need a social media professional:
* Developing an understanding of what social media IS
* Developing an understanding how social media is valuable to their business
* Getting up and running with technology recommendations
* Introducing decision makers to the process and assist in getting buy-in
* Training staff to a) understand social media b) see the value c) find their place in the process
* Developing social media marketing strategies and action plans
* Propose ideas for blog posts, tweets,
* Propose ways to overlay a social media to an existing or upcoming event etc to increase awareness and ROI
In a perfect world companies would be positioned to handle all of these elements, have the understanding and the staffing necessary to move forward thoughtfully. It doesn’t always happen that way. Many companies will be ready to move forward on their own with a little training and guidance upfront. Ideally, staff members are best positioned to speak about what is going on with the company.
So where do you come out on this? Are you up to speed and ready to forge ahead with a SM campaign? Maybe you understand the broad strokes and are looking for a bit of guidance? Or maybe you’re wondering what all the fuss is about. We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Are Social Media Consultants Neccesary?
November 17, 2009 by Jessica Ziegler · View Comments
I’ve been reading several articles and blog posts recently outlining the reasons you don’t need a social media consultant (ex. Why You Don’t Need Social Media Consultants). The crux of the argument is that social media all about common sense and courtesy, doing what comes naturally to anyone.
Ok, so knowing that, now you’re ready to launch your social media program! Ready, set, go!
What? You don’t feel ready? Oh… Ok. Let’s delve a little deeper, then.
We can afford to be glib because we’ve been working in the field for years, read the blogs and articles, in short we pay attention because this is our field. Sometimes it does feel that it boils down to doing what comes naturally, being smart about what you say, courteous, etc. We are immersed. It’s our job.
The question is, do you have the time or bandwidth to become immersed? To pay attention on a daily basis to the advances and changes in this particular corner of the marketing package? Before even that, do you know where to start with this whole thing? What tools to use and what to post or blog about? What approach is going to result in real value? How to you as a professional get to the point where are ready to talk about your company or efforts passionately, accurately and in a way that engages others?
Part 2 tomorrow: Where Social Media Consultants CAN Provide Value
Managing your social media expectations
October 29, 2009 by Tim Miner · View Comments
I speak to our clients hundreds of times throughout our relationship together. The conversations range from minutia to broad strokes on strategy and without fail the dialogue takes on a life of its own as we delve deeper into the specifics of the client’s strategy.
Often, my generalized ideas about how to help my clients reach success with social media change as I learn more about their business processes and from the information shared during our discovery process. What starts out as a clear cut idea for success is regularly tested as we move forward.
So how can a social media practitioner, someone that a company turns to for advice and guidance, ensure that the advice they bring to the table is going to stand the test of time?
Here are some of the lessons we’ve learned and most importantly some of the touch points that we focus on to make sure we can help our clients get the most out of their experience with us:
Determine exactly what you (or your client) wants from social media
You can call it goal setting, expectations, results, ROI or any number of other things. But the fact remains, to help anyone formulate a plan for utilizing social media you must understand exactly what results are expected. It could be as simple as getting noticed within their peer group or as complex as streamlining their internal business processes across all departments. You can’t take a shot in the dark, there is no room for slinging crap against the wall and waiting to see what sticks.
Frame your strategy
I think we all know that a strategy is just the beginning. A great strategy is useless without proper execution and a commitment to rework the strategy as change happens. The act of posting and being active in social environments alone is destined to fail without a sound strategy to guide your activity.
One of the most crucial activities we engage in with our clients is to frame a strategy focused on the outcomes that our clients are seeking, and to testing that strategy continuously as we move forward. It is imperative that everyone, whether an individual or a large company, have that strategy in mind to focus their efforts on actions that are most likely to serve the end goals. Look at all options, read case studies of those that have come before you, test ideas where possible and try to create a strategy that accounts for as many variables as possible.
A good strategy will include a detailed overview of the goals, ROI benchmarks, players and assets that will be utilized, SEO keywords to target, a profile of the people or businesses that you want to connect and interact with, the social assets that will be necessary to carryout the strategy, the landing pages on your website or blog that will be targeted, and many other key points.
Consistently execute to the details of your strategy
The real work begins once the social media strategy has been created, the key points discussed and tested when possible, and the company is ready to begin executing on the strategy. Too often, a strategy is created and then the passion begins to wane. It’s hard work to look at all of the options that COULD work and determine what should be done.
Success in social media will only be possible if you commit to pursuing your strategy with a consistent and diligent effort. This means taking action that is in concert with your strategy on a daily basis. You must connect to people and companies that are complimentary to your goals and you must foster an interaction with them in order to see any results. It takes time and it rarely comes from little effort.
I like the way Chris Brogan described it in a post about a year ago (read the full post titled Remember the Root Goal):
“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. Right?”
Anyone seeking to harness the power of the new social economy must keep this in mind. Like any other endeavor, it takes diligence and a commitment to continue to push forward. You never know where your big opportunities will come from or when they will be presented to you.
Don’t expect too much in the short run
One of the biggest hurdles we face as a company that advises others on the use of social media is managing the expectation for success. Of course, the strategy that we helped create will define what success means but it is often difficult to apply an accurate time line to when success will materialize. The variables that determine this include the amount of effort that is applied and the willingness for the company to make changes to their strategy as reality and opportunity dictate.
The bottom line is not to expect too much in the short run.
Be flexible
Social activity online is like any other relationship in that you have to nurture it over time, build trust with those that you interact with and then be there when they need you or your services. Companies that understand this know that it is imperative to make changes to the strategy as flaws are realized or when the landscape changes. Be flexible and don’t fear situations that may present themselves or assume they are obstacles to your success. Instead, rethink your strategy and modify it to your advantage. Very seldom will you find that you hit a wall that you simply cannot climb, or better yet, navigate around.
Fail like Google: “failing fast, but failing smart,”
Ok. It may sounds naive for me to say that everything can be addressed or used to your advantage but for the most part I have found that to be true. If you do find that your social activities have produced a reality for you or your organization that cannot be overcome, you do have a Plan B.
Fail like Google.
Their mantra of failing fast, but failing smart should resonate with all business owners. Know when to cut your losses and try a different tact. It is better to change course quickly than to continue to apply tactics or a strategy that is proving to be flawed.
We’re not suggesting you simply abandon social media if your goals aren’t being met instantly. Go back to the strategy and reassess. Figure out why an anticipated outcome isn’t happening, and adjust your tactics.
Your social media success certainly comes with a price. Invest the time in the beginning to define what you are willing to do, what your are willing to commit to creating success online. Being prepared will certainly serve your company better than just entering the social media arena with all guns blazing and no plan to speak of.
The big questions are:
- What does it take for you to be successful with social media?
- What are you willing to commit for a chance at success? At growth? At securing your company’s future online?
- What are your goals for participation?
- How are you going to get there?
Image courtesy of chichacha