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Replacing “Cyberstalk” Marketing With Real Relationships

Have you ever visited a website (maybe even for the first time) and automatically saw ads for products or services in which you’re interested? Were you even a little bit creeped out?

Web-visitor tracking is a favorite tool for many major marketers using analytics programs to custom-tailor targeted advertising.

But the visitor-tracking train is about to be derailed.

Privacy advocates and willing web-browser manufacturers are crippling the ability of marketers to track activity. They propose putting technology in the end-users’ hands to stop ad targeting based on individual web use. The movement is known as “Do Not Track.”

The Federal Trade Commission is pushing web-wide Do Not Track initiatives. Senator John Kerry and House Representative Ed Markey are promising to introduce bills that would limit tracking. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) includes a powerful Do Not Track function. Nonprofit developer Mozilla is touting a Do Not Track feature for its Firefox browser.

We say “good riddance to tracking!”

The death of visitor tracking could be a boon for the proven, relationship-based Social Media Marketing methods we’ve been championing.

I won’t go into the digital dynamics of Social Media Marketing vs. Traditional practices, here. That horse is being beaten elsewhere, all over the web. We all realize that actually engaging an audience is more work than simply finding them and telling them what’s for sale and why they should buy it from you. But engagement has become the must-do, modern marketing model and consumers expect it.

Not only do they expect it, they are talking to each other about it on Social Media sites. Savvy marketers will be part of the conversation, not just “peeking in” to measure metrics, insights and analytics.

Effective Social Media Marketing is based on relationships and is inherently permission based. A little time spent customizing privacy settings, removing posts, “de-friending” and flagging can ensure you only interact with those with whom you choose. Not doing so is like complaining about a TV show with the remote in your hand.

Our simplified Social Media Marketing services for retailers, restaurants and other small-to-medium size businesses are based on four basic principles of effective communication;

1. Engagement

2. Interaction

3. Content

And one most-often absent these days,

4. Courtesy

The process usually starts with voluntary-list, branded emails with loads of links to engaging content and an “opt-out” button. Speaking of email, there has been some chatter about Facebook and Twitter replacing email. But, have you ever considered how your Social Media profiles are registered? They’re all linked to your email address. Email is still the standard for unique online identification, making it ideal for low-cost, voluntary direct contact.

So, bring on Do Not Track. We know a better way.

Thanks!

Now that our Social Media “3M” Services are gaining traction, I’m surprised how many companies have Facebook “Like” pages but haven’t a strategy in place to benefit from the marketing exposure.

With over half a billion users, a Facebook business page has understandably become a must-have strategy for any size company. But many business pages are nothing more than a “virtual wall”, covered with “graffiti. Others are a redundant duplication of the company’s website, like a “digital brochure” to tell potential customers about the company’s offerings. In a recent blog post, I likened some of these efforts to “no more than ‘digital pamphlets’ that “are gathering dust, stacked at the virtual receptionist’s desk but aren’t being “distributed”.

Both of these strategies are wasteful underachievement and failure to harness the interactive power of the Social Media platform.

In another article I noted how a company’s Facebook page “should be more of a ‘hangout’ for the portion of the half-billion Facebook users that has an interest in your company, product or services.” See the article here.

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

Here’s how we help companies launch their Facebook initiatives.

1. If necessary, we create the new page, with the best apps (tabs) required for the client’s marketing strategy. We recommend custom FBML (Facebook Markup Language) landing tabs, with an incentive (see #2, below) to “Like” the page, not just view it. We’re not big fans of “Reveal” tabs, but grasp the concept.

2. We work with the client on an interactive digital strategy for growing their “Likerbase” (I like to think we coined that word). Most of our retail customers already have an email or direct-mail list.

3. We produce and distribute attention-grabbing, link-laden HTML emails to introduce customers to the new and/or improved FB page. We urge the clients to “incentivize” the opt-ins with offers for new Facebook Likers. These incentives include dollars-off, percent-off, BOGOs, sweepstakes, weekly giveaways and other offers exclusively for “Likers”. We add an opt-in tab to the Facebook page and encourage the client to do the same for their website.

4. We make sure there is engaging content on the page for the inaugural “Likers. The idea is to keep browsing-happy “Likers” on your page as long as possible, with your brand’s mark (logo) in that upper left corner, burning into their conscious and subconscious. This content includes videos, photos, games, trivia, polls, personal features of officers/employees, discussions and more. We include links to other sites and pages, but try not to make them as prominent. That lessens the likelihood of “Likers” quickly navigating away from the client’s page.

5. Next we again engage the “Likers” with interesting “Wall” posts. Best practices include addressing posters by name, customer appreciation, soliciting feedback, apologizing for less-than-satisfactory customer experiences and initiating discussions (we feel these are most effective on the “Wall” and not at the “Discussions” tab). This is where our “3M” service come into play. We Monitor the page every four hours, six days a week for posts that need addressing or brand-damaging spam. We “Mediate” any negative posts and we Maintain the page by removing old and/or irrelevant posts and updating events and applications.

6. We look for or create linkbacks to the client’s page for optimization.

Times are tough and we’ve observed a tendency for companies to take a “Do-It-Yourself” approach to building and managing a Facebook page. As a matter of fact, at least one of our potential clients has tried to pick clean our collective brains about our process in order to get around paying us and doing it themselves. But many small-to-medium size companies are discovering that doing it right is a full-time job. The employee (who has a personal profile and “knows Facebook”) that handles the page “on the side” may not have the time or even know how to effectively produce engaging advertising.

I saw a great little company on Facebook that can economically handle that for you!

As I prepare to exit what I call “Advertising for a Living”, I’m making what I hope are my last few cold calls. Many of these calls are to small and midsize businesses.

As you can imagine, I’m getting quite a few “Dear Johns”.

One noticeable trend observed during the rejection, is the tendency of many of the marketing decision-makers at these businesses to believe that their website and Social Media efforts are the only advertising they need!

I get lots of “I’m ‘good’, man. We already have a website and a Facebook page.”

I borrow a line from the film Field of Dreams, when I label this as “If We Build It, They Will Come” marketing.

I guess with all the rage about “digital” advertising, some don’t realize that websites and Facebook pages, though relatively cost-effective, are PASSIVE ADVERTISING mediums. Customers must be driven to them, by some means.

These means include search engine queries (now generically called “googling”), surprisingly strong YouTube searches, “direct” (email or even direct mail), mobile marketing, event marketing (trade shows, publicity events, etc.), press releases and old-school stand-bys like outdoor, R.O.P., catalogs, broadcast, word of mouth and even handbills. I believe this is the practice that gave birth to the buzzword “interactive”. All of these methods “interact” to boost your brand’s exposure.

So many small-to-medium-size business websites are no more than “digital pamphlets”. They are gathering dust, stacked at the virtual receptionist’s desk but aren’t being “distributed”.

With technology and unemployment spawning millions of new competitors in so many markets, it’s ever more imperative that marketers realize that Search Engine Optimization and Social Media Optimization are not the only effective tools to reach their target customer. Plus, even the highest-ranking sites and pages are ineffective without strong content.

WHAT DOES CONTENT CONTAIN?

Recently, we were providing our Social Media “3M” services for a local restaurateur. He has over 20 years of successful experience in the food and beverage business and like many others, fancies himself a capable do-it-yourself marketer. So, he DIYed the website for one of his establishments, a pizza joint. The site was what some in my circle call a “Hot Mess”, or more appropriately, a “HTML Mess”! It had one photo of a single dish and a jumbled mess of words on two or three ill-designed pages. The owner thought it was effective because it had what he felt was all the pertinent info, the Facebook and Twitter logos and plenty of bogus “Italian” lingo.

After convincing him of the need for a pro-built, optimized site, the owner contracted another great agency, with which we’re now associated, to build one. He provided the developer with all he thought they needed, including the menu, the hours of operation, the location and other text-based information. When the developer asked him to provide some “content”, he had no idea of what she spoke. Instead of asking her, he asked me. I took the opportunity (which in hindsight, I should have invoiced him for) to tell him that “content” included the three types of critical elements for an engaging site;

1. Textual (which he had covered)
2. Visual (videos, photos and links to more of each)
3. Aural (sound)

I told him this all is what used to be called “media”

I likened his efforts to have only textual content to watching his favorite TV show with only words on the screen. Imagine, let’s say, Three and a Half Men, with only static text of Charlie, Alan and Jake’s witty banter on the screen — no video, live sound or music.

Good, professionally-produced content is essential for engaging your audience in any medium.

We’re calling on another local restaurant client. He is one of the founders of what might be the Southwest’s fastest growing regional food franchise. They are hot! The corporate Facebook “Like” page has tens of thousands of “Likers”. The “wall” is full of mostly positive posts from fans. There is no interaction from the page administrators. On the day I first chose to view their page, near the top of the wall was a disparaging post from a young man who was apparently unhappy with the fare. He crudely likened it to bodily waste. The post was generously peppered with language that would make Rod Blagojevich blush. The post had been there for ten days. There were several more such posts on the first page, including one in which the alleged customer mentions contracting food poisoning after a meal there. The page was loaded with several spam posts, too.

I contacted the chain’s co-founder, pointed out the brand-damaging posts and offered our low-cost, “3M” services. I mentioned that although their wall posts are overwhelmingly positive, tens of thousands of other “Likers” shouldn’t have been exposed to that vulgar, negative post for nearly two weeks. But I figured the page is likely handled by one of the restaurant’s employees or executives. It’s probably a person with many other duties, that ‘does the Facebook thing on the side.”

I also complimented the apparent strength of the restaurant’s brand and the robust “Liker” interaction on the page. We believe the most effective Facebook pages aren’t those on which the owner spends an inordinate amount of time telling the “Likers” about what’s for sale. The best pages are more of a “virtual hangout” for the portion of Facebook’s ever growing, half a billion users that are interested in your product or service. The longer the “Likers” “hang out” at your place, the more they’re exposed to your brand,

The key to keeping them there longer is engaging content.

The key to getting more people to see that content is interactivity. If you want more brand exposure, don’t just rely on a great website or a Facebook page, (just for the sake of being on Facebook) that’s just sitting out there, unattended and covered with graffiti, in cyberspace.

Hire an experienced, professional marketing company to produce/update your content and implement cost-effective strategies to drive customers to your web and social media sites.

I know of a real good one.

Thoughts on “freelancing”.

In the past and occasionally here lately, I tend to “hire out” my skills in trade. That trade is advertising copywriting.

During those times, I have been called a “freelancer” and I don’t particularly cotton to it!

I prefer “independent contractor”, “outside representative”, “consultant”, or even contract laborer”.

By it’s very definition, the word freelancer conveys a sense of disloyalty and infidelity. Among a certain crowd, “freelancer” has such a negative connotation. Plus, the reciprocal nature of the inherent freedom in freelancing isn’t often considered.

Please allow me to explain.

My research of the word, which admittedly wasn’t exhaustive, reveals that it is derived from the medieval term “free lance”. A free lance was a mercenary knight whose lance or sword was not sworn to a particular king or lord. It’s sort of like “hired gun” in the westerns.

I understand the term “free lance” was used way back in Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 novel, Ivanhoe.

The implications is that these roving soldiers of fortune were only in it for the money and their loyalties lay only with the highest current bidder.

Sometimes “freelance” is even used synonymously with “rogue”.

Is that how I’m viewed when I take a temporary/hourly or per-page gig?

Well, I beg to differ!

Once under contract (whether written or implied) I would like to think I am certainly dedicated to carrying out the terms of the agreement between the client and I. Like nearly any full-time employee (except for those with military commitments and the like). I also have the option of terminating the agreement, walking away and forfeiting contingent compensation. The client has the same option and many are mighty quick on the trigger to exercise it, with little or no advance notice.

Curiously, the freelancer label has been most-often linked to creative professionals; “freelance graphic artist”, “freelance copywriter”, freelance journalist”.

Also the noun “free lance” has morphed into common use as an adjective (“a freelance artist”), a verb (“a writer who freelances”) and an adverb (“he worked freelance there”).

The client/freelancer relationship is characterized by the lack of long-term commitment. Sound familiar? “DJ, we love your writing style and your penchant for alliteration. But, frankly, we want the freedom to see other writers.” Ever hear that “see others” line in an amorous relationship? It’s usually the relationship’s death knell. It reeks of “Infidelity” and “Playing the Field”.

Well, two can play that game!

The key is absence of exclusivity. Which is understood in this type of relationship. A client often doesn’t have as much invested into the freelancer — no benefits, no training costs, no guaranteed seat at the office Christmas party, etc. Thus, there is no real commitment. The advantage afforded both parties is flexibility. A full-time staffer isn’t likely to let the employer push their payday back even 24 hours. Whereas my “freelance” experiences often involved my 30-day-net invoice finally being paid after 45-50 days…often only partially, then. It’s the nature of the business.

Don’t get me wrong…and please take my observations in the tongue-in-cheek spirit intended. Mostly it was an opportunity to share with my peers, the history of the word. Most of my past freelance gigs were profitable, fruitful and even educational. Freelancing has helped me establish lasting relationships with people who have proven beneficial to our business. But remember, as a local auto dealer says in his radio ads (commenting on his vehicle inventory), “I ain’t married to none of ‘em!”