Hope for the Little Guy
Today has been something of a tough day for me for reasons that no one wants to hear about and I won’t waste your time with. But I got to have a nice intermission (mostly – except for those damned … Continue reading
Tag Archives: social media
Why I Won’t Follow You on Twitter
I love getting the little notice in my inbox that someone new is following me. It’s not because I like the numbers but because I assume that someone has looked at my profile and thought to themselves that they’ll get … Continue reading
Google Has an Identity Crisis
Sure, Google is so big it’s a verb. Sure, it dominates search. Sure, it’s made people very rich. But it’s also a company that is doing a lot of things poorly. There, I said it. Before you cry out, “Blasphemy!” … Continue reading
6 Ways to Get Customers Talking
There are times when guesswork is good, I suppose. As a general rule, I tend to favor the facts. I like data. Hunger for it. I like to observe shoppers in a store and see how they interact with the product. I like to listen in as people respond to a brand online. It’s normally much more insightful than my imagination. There are things that we think we know that are pretty spot on, but you’d be surprised what you can learn if you open up the lines of communications to your customers and potential customers.
To get started, here are some ideas about how to get more customer feedback. In exchange, you’ll gain more insights, get more ideas, and help your business (or your client’s business) thrive.
Comment cards. This may seem old school, but people do fill these out. If you have a physical location, you can set these out where someone can find them easily. Make them easy to fill out and easy to drop off.
Enhance comment cards with QR codes. If someone can scan your QR code, fill out the information from a smart phone and have a fun interaction while helping you out, all the better. This format isn’t great for lengthy responses, so let them check boxes and offer up some short comment if they choose. Continue reading
Posted in Management, Marketing, Web & Tech
Tagged email marketing, feedback, opinion, QR codes, social media, surveys
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The Future of Social Media Strategy
There has been a lot of discussion about the future of the social media strategist – especially on social media, on Mashable (The Future of the Social Media Strategist), and others. Well, I can’t exactly be quiet about this as it is something that impacts what I do for a living. I am not a social media strategist, though the core of that job is something that I do. I am a digital marketer. I take the goals of the company, break it down to strategies, and then tactics, and engage in those marketing tactics to get the results defined in the earlier steps. Marketing is about creating results by communicating. It’s content, whether words, pictures, video or something else. Social media is often a big part of it, and I’m glad because it’s work I enjoy.
Social media is fun for me because it’s so ubiquitous, instantaneous, and personal. It’s a 1-to-1 relationship with the world. It’s full of surprises, and it’s full potential is far from being realized. Evolving, exciting, engaging. Some pretty great E words. Continue reading
Posted in Marketing, Media, Web & Tech
Tagged Bizzy, digital marketing, Quora, social media, strategy, Twitter
2 Comments
Not Just Social Media – Great Social Media
There’s no doubt that social media is changing online marketing, and small businesses, once reluctant, are warming up to how it can help them to grow and thrive in this recovering economy. They are also coming to understand that social media marketing is not as easy as just setting up an account and watching the customers stream in. While it’s great to have a goal and a strategy in mind before getting down to tactics as my friends at Media Two have written eloquently about, if you decide that entering the social media space is right for you, what do you do next?
What you do next is back off from describing what you want. Leading up to this point, it has been all about you, but when talking about social media, that ceases to be true. Now, it becomes about your audience. And before you can get there, you need to describe that person (you heard me correctly: person, not people) in great detail and know what that person wants from you. And what that person doesn’t.
In most marketing and analysis circles, this is called building personas. But that’s just a term. Don’t get hung up on it. It just means you need to figure out some things about the customer you are talking with online. (Also not a typo: with, not to.)
To get your brain kickstarted on this, I’ll give you a few questions you might ask about your customer that can help you figure out how you’re going to engage that person. Continue reading
Posted in Marketing, Web & Tech
Tagged audience, getting started, marketing, personas, small business, social media, writing
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