Agent for the Arts

Does 'Slacktivism' Count?

Yes.

In case you haven't heard, slacktivism (sorry for misspelling it earlier as slactivism), is the term used to describe those who support causes and organizations through social media and internet tools. For example, a Facebook user who becomes a fan of the Susan G. Komen Foundation is a slacktivist. A friend of that user who 'likes' the status update is also a slacktivist.

But according to a great article in the Buffalo News, the term is also used to describe someone who donates to an organization via the internet. Kiva.org is an example of a site where users can donate as little as $25 to fund entrepreneurial ventures halfway around the world (if you check out this site, join the "Stuff You Should Know" team - great people involved there).

Slacktivism counts because it allows anyone and everyone to get involved in the things they care about. By getting involved, I mean everything from sharing or clicking a link to donating time and money. The littlest involvement used to be a dream come true for marketers - word of mouth! Now, that's become the easy part... today, it's about turning slacktivists into customers, donors, and volunteers.

Sage advice from local entrepreneurs

Last week, I attended a short marketing seminar, which was more of a conversation with local entrepreneurs on some marketing tips and tricks that work for them. The presenters were Peter Wallin from Wallin Insurance, Julie Delgrosso from the Christmas House, and Alan Fusco from the Holiday Inn (Elmira and Horseheads).

Julie Delgrosso made a nice presentation about maximizing existing customers. She owns a niche retail store in a refurbished victorian home on Elmira's south side. One of the best tips she shared was to "use those four magic words: 'did you see this?'" Rather than being a pushy salesperson, Julie suggested using "did you see this" or "did you try this" or "did you hear about this" to promote new products to existing customers. She also shared some public relations tips that can take place right at the sales desk, like correcting errors quickly, remembering customer's names, and always providing a fun experience.

Alan Fusco shared some extraordinary customer service stories that make him proud of his employees, from the front desk staff to the maintenance crew. His main focus, however, was to stress the importance of the Internet. Alan keeps a close eye on his competition with Google Alerts, manages relationships with social media, and generates business by keeping track of regional events and collaborating with planners.

Peter Wallin wrapped up the presentation with three basic steps to building business: "sell, up-sell, and keep customers." Statistics prove that his local insurance agency retains more customers when they sell more policies. For example, someone who only has auto insurance is much more likely to leave after 5 years than someone who has auto, home, and life insurance. Peter's biggest asset, like Julie's, is his list of existing customers. He feels that if he can be a friend to them, or a "friend in the business," he can maximize his selling power.

Please check out these small businesses (links at the top) for more information about how they're staying connected to their customers and their community!

Website: Launched.

Thanks to everyone who has been supportive of my business venture so far, and to those who have inspired me to get my a%# in gear, I finally launched my website: CreAgentMarketing.com

Thanks, especially, to the clients who have been willing to work with me at the very early stages:

Bobby K Entertainment
First Presbyterian Church of Elmira
Pipeline 4 Progress
Buyers and Kaczor Reporting Services
Committee to Elect Paul Sartori, City Court Judge

Can't wait to share some marketing insights from local entrepreneurs... stay tuned!

Practice

Too many people are afraid of public speaking, probably because they're worried something bad might happen in front of a crowd. Hint: they're probably right. But with enough practice, the presentation will be strong enough to override any gaffes or blunders.

This guy stays cool when, in the middle of a sales pitch on live TV, he destroys part of the set with the product he's selling. His reaction is like a mini public relations case study... stay cool, don't ignore the problem, use it as a learning experience, and move on.

Own your name

On the internet, it's easy to find a few people with the same name as you, especially if you have a more common last name. But just like optimizing your business brand, it's important to be aware of how your name might show up when others are looking for more information.

Try Googling yourself, just to see what comes up. You might be a little surprised, but mostly you'll see links to your Facebook or LinkedIn profile, any blogs that you publish, and maybe some quotes you've provided in the past. It's important to see this for yourself to gauge the kind of impression you might leave on others who are looking for you... especially potential clients or interviewers.

If you don't have much of a presence online, try putting your name out there a bit. Creating a LinkedIn profile is the best way to present yourself professionally and securely. If you want to add some more personality, use Facebook. Dig deeper into sites like Pandora or YouTube and provide enough information for people to get a sense of who you are. Of course, it would be much easier if they'd just give you a call, but you can't control how others are finding out about you.

If you're worried about your name popping up in places you don't want it to, sign up for Google Alerts. This free tool will send an email whenever another website or blog uses your name. It's always helpful to know when other people are talking about you...

Social Media in real life

A real life example of social media - business offering to help its community without necessarily expecting anything in return. Great PR, although they might not be making too many friends with the police force.

Not another broadcast medium

So yesterday, I went on a little rant about marketers coming to me rather than assuming I was going to go to them. Here's what I really meant to say:

Social media sites are not broadcast sites. If you are using Facebook and Twitter to send links to your own ads and "get your name out there," you're missing the point. These media are replacing old forms of communication because consumers have re-written the rules. With products like TiVo, XM, and Kindle, it's easy to avoid advertisements in television, radio, and newspapers. Marketers who follow email spam laws are required to have an "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of their e-newsletters. And just like it's easy to follow a company on Facebook and Twitter, it's just as easy to stop following them.

Social media is about having a conversation. It's about engaging your audience, answering their questions, offering a business card if they ask for it. At a business dinner, no one gets up on the table to shout out their advertising pitch. Instead, relationships are made through hand-shakes and authentic conversations.

The same rules apply online. Don't use Facebook and Twitter to shout out whatever you want - because just as I would call security during a business dinner to have you removed, your messages can be ignored at the click of a button. If you want to shake hands and have a real conversation, I'm in!

Public Relations and Social Media - Part 3

In 1985, The Coca-Cola Company introduced a new formula for their classic beverage. The decision was backed by market research and analysis, interviews, focus groups, and taste-tests... and initially looked like a good idea. However, there was a huge backlash when consumers realized the new formula was completely replacing the old, and that they'd no longer have access to the drink they initially fell in love with. After protests started to break out, the company decided to bring the old formula back to the market as "Classic Coke," and they all lived happily ever after.

It's not such a terrible story, and Coke handled it the right way considering all the information available to them. They were trying to be transparent, letting their customers provide feedback and access to "New Coke" before it was available on the shelves. All the analyses suggested the formula would do better, but they forgot one important bit of transparency: they didn't tell people they were taking away the old stuff.

In retrospect, Coca-Cola handled the situation well (though at first, they tried too hard to defend their decision instead of continuing to listen to their consumers). They were transparent about the product change, in the same way they could have been transparent through today's social media outlets.

However, this is a prime example of the power of a company's brand. Throughout the process, Coke never gave its consumers a chance to comment on the brand. People didn't need something entirely new, they just needed something a bit sweeter to add to the existing product.

Social media has the potential to take transparency one step further - to expose a company's brand to comment and criticism. Had Facebook and Twitter been around in 1985, the company would have realized that people draw emotional connections to an historical brand name like Coke. You can't fault them for a lack of transparency... hindsight is 20-20. But thankfully, today there are new tools that provide companies access to consumer opinions of their brand identity.

To wrap up this three-part series on public relations and social media, I just want to drive home the power and importance of social media outlets, negative and positive. Companies who embrace transparency and work with the bloggers and Facebook users who have emotionally-vested interests in the brand have much more potential for success in today's marketing world.

Please feel free to add your own comments, thoughts, and case studies that involve social media. I'd love to hear them!

Public Relations and Social Media - Part 2

Ok, so I lied about spending my Labor Day weekend writing blog posts about PR case studies... it seemed like I'd have a lot more time to do so, but the beautiful September weather in upstate New York was so overwhelmingly rare that I had to take full advantage.

But we're back, and as I promised, it's time to dissect Sigg's recent announcement about BPA in their "eco-friendly" water bottles. I came across the news last week on the Yahoo! home page, and only time will tell how the PR team at Sigg handles the bad publicity, but so far, it doesn't seem like they're doing a great job.

Sigg has a semi-strong presence on social media, and it's tough to tell where the "official" accounts are, but the fact is their brand is losing its reputation faster than Milli Vanilli after a skipped record (maybe not that fast...). Read some of the excerpts below from different social media outlets:

"...what really shocks me is that I did not receive an e-mail or mailed notification from this company as I have ordered from them on-line before."
Patrick Smith, SIGG Facebook Page

"My SIGG water bottles, bought to replace BPA plastic, contain BPA, a fact SIGG glossed over: FAIL"
@snolen, Twitter

"The business impact of their decision remains to be seen. It is clear, though, that they will lose the faith of a lot of their customers. Personally, will I buy bottles from SIGG in the future? No."
Alex Lewin, Feed Me Like You Mean It Blog

SIGG's official response came just 2 days ago. Apparently, they had more Labor Day plans than anticipated, as well. Moving forward, SIGG CEO Steve Wasik promises to keep consumers informed about new SIGG water bottles, make it easy for them to exchange their old bottles, and...

"Unveil an independently managed grant program to help fund BPA and chemical research that will help eliminate confusion and concern about this issue. While we have moved away from BPA in SIGG products, it continues to be used in countless products that we all use each day. If it poses a real threat, we want to help curb its use."

The company, and particularly the CEO, cites "naivety" about the responsibilities of being a green industry as part of their mistake. The apology letter, referenced above, contains hints of superiority and sarcasm toward seemingly uninformed consumers. There is still no link to social media pages from the official SIGG website. They're still missing a huge opportunity to win back their once-loyal base - the people who have now turned on them through their own connections.

SIGG, you're becoming a case study for ignorance towards social media marketing. Will you be the first big company to implode because "media relations" has a whole new meaning? As I mentioned earlier... time will tell.

Part 3 tomorrow: Today's version of the classic "Coke Classic" study

Public Relations and Social Media - Part 1

To celebrate Labor Day Weekend, I'm going to take a look at some interesting case studies in public relations and discuss how social media made (or could have made) a huge difference. I know, I know..... some of you are going to the beach and grilling hot dogs and throwing away all your white clothes this weekend. Those are all fun alternatives to PR case studies, but not as exciting.

So, for Part 1, we'll open our history books to 1982. Tylenol was a leader in the pain-killer market, but the company would face a huge crisis when an individual (or a few individuals) added cyanide to some containers of the over-the-counter drug. Seven people died in and around Chicago, and local news teams starting making phone calls to Johnson and Johnson, the makers of Tylenol.

The company hadn't heard about the problem before the phones starting ringing, and they could have reacted in a variety of ways, but admirably decided to alert the entire nation by recalling every container of Tylenol on the shelves. Rather than sending their condolences to the families of the deceased and moving on, they took full control of the situation and assured their customers all over the world that the drug was safe. They added tamper-proof lids so future consumers knew if a container was opened after it left the factory.

Here's where social media could have (and would have) played a role. Rather than hearing about the disaster from news stations, Johnson and Johnson would have likely read about it on blogs, twitter feeds, and the Yahoo! home page. Rather than having a conversation with a few media outlets waiting to break the news, they would have been dousing wildfires like the brave men and women in Southern California.

For big businesses like Johnson and Johnson, the "social media-sphere" can seem like a natural disaster waiting to happen. One match on a pile of dry kindling, and we all know what happens. That's why it's more important than ever for businesses to have public relations foresight. But even more important, because only hindsight is 20-20, is for businesses to open up their channels of communication TODAY instead of waiting for the disaster to strike.

In large forests, conservationists will sometimes cut channels to divide the trees into sections and make wildfires easier to contain. In the same way, businesses should use social media outlets to get closer to their customers and build trust and loyalty. So when something bad happens, there are channels to navigate from the inside to contain the spread of harmful messages and rumors.

Part 2 tomorrow: Gauging Sigg's recent announcement about BPA in their water bottles