Tuvel Communications Blog

May 04, 2011

7 Ways to Build Community (and Interest) with Twitter Chats

Online chats have really evolved since the days when AOL was king. In this day and age of social media where our online conversations have been condensed down to bite-sized nuggets of 140 characters or less, chatting has moved from the IM chatrooms to Twitter. A natural progression, since Twitter is already being used by millions of people to converse with each other daily.

Enter Twitter Chats. While not a new concept (Twitter chats have been around for at least a few years), they're still fantastic for connecting with people in much the same way the original chatrooms allowed.

There are Twitter chats that happen daily for a variety of topics (check out this comprehensive list of Twitter chats to find one that interests you), and it's incredibly easy to join the conversation. Simply follow the assigned hashtag for the chat you want to participate in and include that hashtag in your chat-related tweets. Tweetchat is the foremost tool available for Twitter chats, allowing you to easily follow a specific hashtag in a dedicated “room” and automatically include that hashtag in your tweets (so you don't have to type it yourself). Twitter chats usually take place at a certain scheduled time on a regular basis (check with the moderator of a particular chat for its schedule) and last for about 30 minutes to an hour.

It's equally easy to create and moderate your own Twitter chat, and it can be used as a powerful community-building, networking and marketing tool for businesses, events, associations and nonprofits. Here are 7 ways Twitter chats can be used to help you connect with your customers, prospects, base, members and others in your industry:

• Pre-event mingling: If you're a conference or event organizer, a Twitter chat can be a great way for attendees to mingle with each other before the event and get advice from both you and each other. An example of this is #nabchat, which is a Twitter chat we organized before the NAB Show (our client) for veteran and newbie attendees alike to connect with each other.
• Feedback: Let's say you're beta-testing a new product or service before it launches. Why not hold a Twitter chat with your beta testers to get their feedback? This also allows you to connect on a more personal level with those who may be your customers in the near future.
• Crowdsourcing: Along the same lines as using a Twitter chat for customer feedback, it can also be used to crowdsource ideas – i.e. event sessions, fundraising ideas, or even product ideas.
• Thought-leadership: If you're leading weekly Twitter chats about important topics within your industry or niche, you'll quickly establish yourself and your organization as a thought-leader. You might even consider engaging and partnering with an expert in your industry to share in leading your chats periodically. Engage 365, an online community for event professionals, does an excellent job of this with their weekly #engage365 Twitter chats, enlisting the help of industry experts to moderate on different chat topics.
• Interviewing an industry expert or leader: Twitter chats can also be used to conduct “Twitterviews” with other industry thought leaders (for instance, speakers at an upcoming conference). These are usually much more tightly moderated, with discussions and Q&As happening during a specific time period.
• Rallying your base and fundraising: Nonprofits and political campaigns can use Twitter chats to generate excitement and discussion around a specific cause or platform and encourage people to donate or get involved. An example of this is #SOSFood, which was a series of Twitter chats for food bloggers to help raise money for our client, Share Our Strength. The chats themselves were about food-blogging topics, but participants were encouraged to donate to Share Our Strength during the chats.
• Getting to know you: At the heart of all Twitter chats is simply getting acquainted and networking with your fellow Tweeps over a topic in which you share an interest!

How have you used Twitter chats or seen them used successfully as a marketing or community-building tool? Leave a comment and tell us about it?

Continue reading "7 Ways to Build Community (and Interest) with Twitter Chats" »

Technorati Tags: Twitter social media nonprofits associations events

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 10, 2011

Using Quora for Personal and Business Benefit

I joined Quora and have been using it for a couple of months, after seeing all the buzz about it on Twitter in recent months (and since it's my job to know about these things). Now, you might be thinking "ANOTHER social network? How am I going to keep track of this? And what use could this possibly be to me?" I don’t blame you for thinking this, because I thought the same thing at first. It seems like there's a new social networking site every week, with claims from all over the social mediasphere about how it's "the next big thing in social media." It can get a bit tiresome, ya know?

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate Quora, I want to give you my initial thoughts, as well as provide a few opportunities and uses for Quora for businesses.

What is Quora, anyway?

My first thought when I started using Quora was Oh, this is like a cross between Twitter and LinkedIn Answers with some Wikipedia thrown in. You create a profile, "follow" some topics (and people) in which you're interested, and post your own questions and/or answers to other questions. People can vote your answers up or down, comment on them, thank you for an answer, and even mark it as unhelpful (which essentially buries your answer). You can also follow individual questions within a topic to be alerted of answers that are added. So, there's a lot of following going on.

The Wikipedia-esque part comes in the ability for people to edit your answers. Well, you can "suggest" edits to the original poster that they can choose to accept. This is where I'm slightly confused, though. Why would you suggest edits to someone else's answer? It's their answer – why not leave a comment, or post your own answer? Maybe there's something glaringly incorrect about their answer, and rather than publicly call them out on it, you choose to suggest the correction. To me, though, this seems rather nit-picky. Am I wrong here?

That's great, but how can I use Quora?

I hear ya. You don't want to join yet another social network without knowing what you could possibly get out of it – both personally and business-wise. Let's go through a few of these uses and opportunities:

Building Thought-Leadership: Follow topics in which you have some expertise and answer questions in those topics. Provide well thought-out answers that will help to position you as a go-to expert on that topic. You also have the ability to describe your experience on a particular topic, which people see when you post an answer within that topic.

Content Marketing: The questions and answers you post on Quora can be great fodder for other content – like blog posts, for instance. Use your questions for a specific topic as the basis for a blog post to get your readers thinking about answers. Or, create a blog post from your answer (and the answers of others) to someone else’s question. And hey - you can even connect your Wordpress or Tumblr blog to Quora to make this easier!

By the way, Quora has a cool feature that gives you the ability to tweet a link to your answer to a question. This is great for cross-promotion between platforms, although I wish you could also post to your LinkedIn profile (makes sense, doesn't it?).

Research: Quora covers a wide array of topics, so it's dead easy to find a wealth of information on whatever you might be looking for. If you still can't answer your question from what's already there, post it and crowdsource answers!

Brand & Industry Monitoring: Run a search for an industry topic (like "Mobile Broadband") or a brand (like "Verizon") - the results are a treasure trove of information to help you gauge industry hot topics and customer pain points. It's a great way to listen and participate in the discussions going on - both for thought-leadership and for customer support.

Expanding Your Network: Sure, there are loads of people from my existing networks that I'm following and who are following me on Quora; but I've managed to find lots of new people as well through mutually-followed topics and questions. These are incredibly smart people who I consider to be top of their game and post some really helpful answers to questions.

Are you using Quora? How have you found it useful (or not, even)? Tell us your opinion!

Continue reading "Using Quora for Personal and Business Benefit" »

Technorati Tags: Quora crowdsourcing social media tools

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)

January 11, 2011

Building the Bridge Between Outreach and Social Media Communities (Infographic)

2011 is shaping up to be an exciting and productive year for Tuvel, and this is something I created as part of some big plans we have in the works.

This bridge infographic demonstrates how outreach and social media marketing/community-building go hand in hand - creating brand evangelists in the process. We believe that the two elements, while effective on their own, are much more effective and successful when working together at the same time to build community and buzz around a brand, product, event or cause.

Tuvel Communications: The Total Social Media Campaign (Infographic)

Continue reading "Building the Bridge Between Outreach and Social Media Communities (Infographic)" »

Technorati Tags: social media community-building online communities blogger outreach

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 03, 2010

5 Reasons Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Will Fail

When it comes to community-building through social media outposts, I've seen some awesome examples of how it should be done. I've also seen some awesomely dismal campaigns that made me wonder why they were ever conceived. They could learn a lot from Yoda.

Do or Do Not. There is no try. Get it? If you don't believe in the potential of social media as a valuable part of your marketing strategy and/or you don't put in the effort needed to make it successful, then that is why you fail.

I've put together this list, hoping that it will help someone bring their social media efforts back to life or get started in the right direction!

All broadcast, all the time. Social media marketing should not be all about you – it should be all about your community members. Promote your brand and products, but above all, promote your loyal customers. Interact with and involve them. Make it a two-way conversation.

Little or no activity. One of the biggest turn-offs to someone considering following, liking, or otherwise joining a social media community is lack of activity. There's no value in them being a part of your community if there's nothing going on. It's important to keep tweets and posts up-to-date with relevant content and respond to questions and comments in a timely manner.

Nothing exciting or of value to your community members. Online communities should be relevant and offer value to community members, and successful online communities are ones in which members are excited to participate. Your social media outposts are your communities, so give your members a reason to participate by offering them content, offers and support that will keep them engaged.

Little or no promotion of your outposts. If you're not promoting your social outposts through your website, email campaigns, and offline materials, how do you expect people to know they exist? If you want social media to be a successful part of your marketing plan, you have to make your social media presence known to your existing and potential customers.

Under-utilization of available social media assets. Your "social media assets" are content items, tools and anything else you have available that will only help your social media marketing efforts. These include content like blog posts, podcasts, and press releases, as well as tools like hashtags, Twitter lists, event pages and groups. Take stock of these assets and map out how they can best be used to your advantage.

Continue reading "5 Reasons Your Social Media Marketing Efforts Will Fail" »

Technorati Tags: social media marketing Star Wars Yoda

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 11:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

October 13, 2010

Utilizing New Twitter and Facebook Features for Events: Join the #Engage365 Chat on Friday, 10/15!

I'm sure you've been seeing lots of tweets, blog posts and articles about the new features on Facebook (such as Groups) and the "New Twitter" (which kind of makes me think of “New Coke”, but let’s hope it doesn’t go down the same way). But how can all of these new features help event marketers engage attendees, build event communities and generate awareness and buzz?

Join us on Friday, October 15th at 1pm ET as I moderate an Engage 365 Water Cooler chat on Twitter about how new Facebook and Twitter features can be utilized by event marketers. It will be an open discussion where everyone can share their thoughts and ideas – or simply lurk and listen! You can follow and join the discussion on Tweetchat and with the hashtag #engage365.

As a primer, here are a few articles and posts that will help you get up to speed on Facebook Groups and Twitter's new features:

• A Deep Dive on Facebook Groups and Their Potential by David Armano


• Facebook Groups Simplified by Jeff Korhan


• 10 Tips for Managing The New Facebook Groups by Jason Markow


• 7 Really Cool Things About the New Twitter by Tia Peterson


• Twitter Developing New Feature for Events: Goodbye Hashtags? by Jenise Fryatt

Continue reading "Utilizing New Twitter and Facebook Features for Events: Join the #Engage365 Chat on Friday, 10/15!" »

Technorati Tags: Twitter Facebook Engage365 event marketing groups community-building

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 01:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

September 21, 2010

Do Virtual and Hybrid Events Cannibalize F2F Events?

I recently had the pleasure of attending EventCamp Twin Cities - without leaving my office. How? I attended the virtual event, held in tandem with the live, face-to-face (F2F) event in the Twin Cities. I was extremely impressed by the entire event and particularly the virtual side. Thanks to technology partners like Intefy and Sonic Foundry, as well as awesome organizers like Samuel J. Smith of Interactive Meeting Technology, Ray Hansen of Appevision and EventCamp Twin Cities virtual host Emilie Barta, my experience as a virtual attendee was as if I were right there in the room, participating with everyone else. I came away from EventCamp Twin Cities filled with excitement to attend (in person) the upcoming EventCamp East Coast in Philadelphia.

I even tweeted during the event about my excitement...

...which got this response from @suzannecarawan:





It definitely made me think. Since we work with many event organizers on social media, outreach and community building for their events, this experience made me wonder about how well virtual and hybrid (mix of virtual and F2F) events could work for larger conferences. I think that the possibilities would be endless and present enormous opportunity to engage not only past attendees who could not make it to the event, but new audiences interested in the content on offer. I recall a song from my Girl Scout days we used to sing at the end of troop meetings: "Make new friends, but keep the old/One is silver and the other gold." Build new relationships, build upon existing ones.

Unfortunately, there seems to be this assumption that virtual and hybrid events will cannibalize attendance to the live event. In reality, virtual and hybrid events (when done right) can actually help increase attendance to subsequent live events by broadening the event’s reach and generating interest from new audience bases. Read about the case of Cisco and the phenomenal results they achieved from their hybrid events – where 55% of virtual attendees were "net-new" and 35% said they’d attend a live event. Another example of hybrid events that work is the IN Zone at TS2 2010, where the "Continuing the Conversation" virtual audience grew by 106% as they watched interviews conducted by Emilie Barta and participated in discussions via social media channels.

What we have to get past is the notion that virtual and hybrid events will become a reason for attendees not to pay. Instead, they’re a reason for those who cannot attend the live event to still participate. Why would you want to alienate those who cannot attend in person just because they’re not paying the big bucks to do so? Hybrid events present a huge opportunity to engage a portion of your audience during a live event that you wouldn’t have engaged otherwise. They may already be following your event via Twitter, Facebook, blogs or other online news sources – why not acknowledge those folks and invite them to participate where they are?

Plus, if your content is strong and valuable enough, you might even consider charging a fee to attend virtually, or even offering a tiered model with free and premium virtual attendance. In fact, according to a recent survey of 112 associations conducted by Tagoras, only 2-3% of groups that are planning virtual conferences for the first time say they will offer it for free – in fact, most are looking to charge as close to the price of the F2F conferences as they can. Michael McCurry of Experient wrote an excellent article exploring revenue models for hybrid events, which I highly recommend reading if you’re considering “hybridizing” your event.

So - are you convinced yet, or do you still have reservations? What have your experiences been with virtual and hybrid events as related to your live event attendance?

Continue reading "Do Virtual and Hybrid Events Cannibalize F2F Events?" »

Technorati Tags: virtual events hybrid events virtual conferences TS2 social media

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 18, 2010

Tools & Tips for Managing Social Media for Events

I recently contributed two guest posts over at Sound n' Sight, Jenise Fryatt's blog about event marketing & technology. She asked me to offer my social media management tips for events - which is something Tuvel specializes in (we've done it for the NAB Show and the FOSE & GovSec Conferences, to name just a couple). I had loads of advice to offer on the topic - so much that I had to break it up into a 2-parter!

Check out my guest posts here:

Part 1: 10 tips for managing social media at your next event
Part 2: 8 can't-live-without tools for event social media management

Technorati Tags: social media event marketing #eventprofs

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 03:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

July 16, 2010

What We're Reading, July 16th

Happy Friday! It's been a busy and exciting week here at Tuvel - wrapping up projects, kicking off new campaigns, seeing great results from current ones. It's always so exciting to see the fruits of our labor! Tuvel was also featured in two articles this week - from Convene Magazine and the Omnipress Blog - which are part of our weekly recommended reading list today (but don't just read them because we're featured - they are truly interesting and insightful reads)!

• Online Event Communities...A Social Media Marketing Opportunity for Exhibitors and Sponsors from The Conference Handouts (Omnipress Blog)
• Will location-based applications like Foursquare find a place in the meetings industry? from Convene Magazine
• 6 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Tracking from Mike Brown for Social Media Today
• The Boston Globe Takes Readers on Mobile Scavenger Huntfrom Mashable

Finally, we leave you this week with a fond farewell...from Old Spice Guy:

Continue reading "What We're Reading, July 16th" »

Technorati Tags: social media metrics event marketing community building Foursquare Old Spice Guy

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

July 14, 2010

2 Event-Friendly Location-Based Apps that Go Beyond “Checking In”

Location-based services are the newest trend in social networking, and as such the big players in the space (Foursquare and Gowalla) are getting all sorts of attention and scrutiny. While many users of such services love broadcasting their whereabouts to their online friends and earning badges and titles of distinction in the process (Player Please badge, anyone?), others are a bit wary of them and their usefulness – and are especially concerned with potential privacy issues.

Businesses, on the other hand, are starting to find value of their own in using location-based services as a marketing tool. Even event marketers are starting to experiment with location-based social networking to promote a conference, specific exhibitor, or special sessions – something we did for this year's NAB Show.

The only problem is when it comes to events and conferences, services like Foursquare and Gowalla aren't quite ready for prime time. While the concept of checking in to an event or exhibitor booth in order to drive traffic and generate interest is definitely cool, the functionality is not conducive to a conference setting due to two big issues:

• A venue page is built based on a single address – where several different events may take place over time.


• Lack of interactivity and ability for attendees to do what they would be naturally inclined to do at a conference – network with each other.

Recently, I had conversations with folks from two different location-based apps that have set out to change all of that.

SCVNGR

Location-based gaming app SCVNGR looks like it's really going places (and racking up some points at those places, too). The Google-backed start-up combines the concept of "checking in" to venues with the fun and interactivity of an old-fashioned scavenger hunt. Players discover cool new places, find fun new things to do, share their activity with friends and can even earn virtual (and sometimes real-world) rewards. Upon visiting and checking in to a venue, users of the app are required to complete a "challenge", which could range from taking a photo to something more complex. Users can rack up points for completing challenges, which could be used to win prizes.

What impressed me most about SCVNGR is the applications in a conference setting are endless and benefit not only attendees, but also exhibitors. Conferences can create custom "treks" consisting of 20-35 locations, taking people on a certain path around the conference or expo. Imagine offering this to exhibitors as a value-add to drive traffic to their booths while interacting in a fun and engaging way with attendees/prospective customers, or even using this as a way to promote certain sessions or guide people through conference tracks. You might even create a social media hub at your event with a digital "leader board" displaying attendee names and their scores, along with photos that have been taken or other media created in the process.

It's free to create places and challenges at those places, however the creation of treks (what will link all those places and challenges together into a complete, branded experience) is only available to enterprise clients of SCVNGR. With the creation of custom treks come features like the leader board, an activity screen, analytics, game design and turnkey support.

Double Dutch

Double Dutch is really touting itself as the location-based app for events, and for good reason. It's a white-label app that is custom-built for an event – which does away with the inherent issue I mentioned above with checking in to a conference (or specific location at a conference) with Foursquare or Gowalla. This means individual booths and sessions can be built into the app for attendees to check in to within the confines of the event venue itself, and they have the option of broadcasting their conference whereabouts to only other attendees.

Double Dutch can also be used by attendees to interact with each other and at different sessions. For instance, they can use it to rate speakers and even submit questions to them via RSS. A gaming element can also be built into the app and used in much the same way as Scvngr, incentivizing attendees with custom-branded stickers for completing tasks like checking in at exhibitor booths and sessions, taking photos and even rating speakers. For those of you in exhibitor sales and marketing, these stickers can be sold to exhibitors as a way to market their presence.

Double Dutch clients can also create leader boards and have access to an analytics dashboard to monitor activity, speaker feedback and how people are engaging with the app. They can also use the Double Dutch API to connect Facebook, Twitter and blogs to the app – allowing attendees to post their whereabouts and reviews to those places if they choose. The fact that it combines the gaming element with additional ways for attendees to interact with each other and with exhibitors and speakers makes this a valuable tool for event marketers.

Double Dutch is currently available on iPhone only at the moment, but should be available across all platforms soon.

The Verdict?

I think both of these apps have massive value to offer for event marketers and organizers – both from an attendee and exhibitor standpoint. There are costs involved in working with both Scvngr and Double Dutch, but I also think the potential for generating ROI on either one is huge, not to mention the opportunity to engage attendees directly with fun games, event networking and built-in feedback loops.

Have you used either of these apps for an event? Tell us about your experience!

Continue reading "2 Event-Friendly Location-Based Apps that Go Beyond “Checking In”" »

Technorati Tags: location-based apps event marketing geolocation social media SCVNGR Double Dutch

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 04:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

July 02, 2010

What We're Reading, July 1st

Happy 4th of July weekend! If you live in the USA (or even if you're an American living abroad), you're more than likely gearing up for some serious food, festivities, and of course, fireworks, and we here at Tuvel Communications hope you have a spectacular - and, most importantly, safe - Independence Day!

To help you wind down your week, here are a few selections from our weekly reading list. Enjoy!

• Seven Reasons to Keep it Real in Social Media from: Marijean Jaggers
• The Debate on Scheduled Tweets from Jenise Fryatt (guest post at Liz King Events)
• Olay, Gap, Pepsi Run Geo-Social Campaigns - but Not on Foursquare from: ClickZ
• Welcoming New Members to your Online Community from: Laurel Papworth (via Social Media Today)
• Social Media's Impact on Healthcare from: Joel Selzer, HCNM Keynote

And, to help you get into the patriotic spirit (and ease into the weekend), here's our 4th of July gift to you:

Continue reading "What We're Reading, July 1st" »

Technorati Tags: social media online community building Twitter Foursquare geo-location 4th of july video

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 09:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

June 08, 2010

9 Steps to Finding Your Rock Stars for a Community Outreach Program

In my previous post, I talked about the importance of a community outreach program to find your rock stars. To reiterate what community outreach is, it's engaging and building relationships with your influential customers (your "rock stars") in order to generate positive word-of-mouth for your company, organization, and/or products. I highly recommend reading the previous post to get a better idea of the importance of and principles behind community outreach, but today I'm going to talk about how to find your rock stars through community outreach.

Community outreach is more of an art than a science – it is, after all, about relationship-building. There are certainly different methodologies depending on the audience and marketing channel (blogs, forums, groups, social networks, etc.); however, there is a set of best practices that form the foundation of any community outreach program.

Today, I'd like to share with you Tuvel's outreach methodology in the hopes it gives you a better understanding of these best practices.

Step 1: Articulate Goals & Develop a Plan — Like with any marketing and communications campaign, it’s very important to define achievable goals and lay out a clear plan for your community outreach program. Ask yourself these questions:

• What is the purpose of the outreach campaign? Increase awareness, increase sales/donations/membership/other type of conversion, or all of the above?


• How many influencers do you intend to find and reach out to?


• What is your timeframe for the campaign?


• What kind of response and/or conversion rates are you expecting? What are other metrics are important for determining success?

Step 2: Identify your audience segments and marketing channels — Once goals are determined, identify your specific audience segments to reach out to, as well as the marketing channels you’ll target – blogs, forums, email lists, groups, social networks, etc. Once you’ve identified audience and channels, you can then begin your research.

Step 3: Identify & Validate Groups — As you conduct your research, be sure to validate each group and individual for overall effectiveness as message carriers, based on criteria such as marketing opportunity, activity (has anything been posted recently?) and relevance. Actually read some of the posts on each blog, forum, or group to get a good idea of the hot topics and how you can best be of benefit to them.

Step 4: Create Contact Database - Include information for researched bloggers and other new media publishers. Each entry includes the name of the communication vehicle, marketing channel, contact name and e-mail address.

Step 5: Communications Planning - Develop appropriate campaign messages based on audience, marketing channel and mode of communication for those identified, then test messages to determine the most appropriate formats for online dissemination. It’s also important to give a very brief background and get to the ask as quickly as possible – don’t make the message too long or heavy with marketing-speak. Speak to your community in their language.

Step 6: Program Execution — Once messaging is right, begin rolling out the campaign:

• Customize and personalize each note you send, referencing a specific post you found of interest.


• Make it as easy as possible for them to post something, whether that means providing sample text or a link to the information they need.


• Engage in discussions within the community – It’s important to engage in open and transparent conversations with your community influencers on their blogs, forums, or other platform. This means representing your company, but identifying yourself honestly and not hiding behind a logo. For instance, posting thank you comments in response to blog posts published as a result of your efforts is a way to further engage blogger and build relationships with them.


• Encourage others to pass the word along by providing an easy way for them to share your message.

Step 7: Follow-up and build relationships – When someone responds to your message, respond to them in a timely manner. If someone promises to post in their blog, follow up after about a week to give them a gentle reminder. If they do post something for you, send them a thank you note and leave a comment on their blog. Be as helpful as possible when they ask questions.

Step 8: Program Reporting and Analysis - You’ve already determined your metrics for success as part of step 1, so now it’s time to analyze the effectiveness of your program and return on investment. This also includes gauging response and feedback to your program from those to which you reached out. Don’t wait until the end of your program to do this – it’s important to gauge effectiveness throughout the campaign (see step 9).

Step 9: Revise, Improve and Do It Again —Revise your messaging based on feedback and campaign response. Test different messages to determine best response.

Our methodology will, of course, differ from other methodologies for outreach programs – but this will still give you a basic idea of how you can find and reach out to your rock stars – and build lasting relationships with them. For examples of how Tuvel has implemented community outreach on behalf of clients, check out our case studies for the National Association of Broadcasters and Share Our Strength.

Continue reading "9 Steps to Finding Your Rock Stars for a Community Outreach Program" »

Technorati Tags: community outreach blogger outreach

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 26, 2010

Finding Your Rock Stars: Why a Community Outreach Program is Important

Photo credit: DavidDMuir

How do you use PR to reach your buyers? Do you issue press releases and pitch to your media list of journalists, hoping to get a write-up or some sort of media exposure? Or do you reach out directly to the people who are actively buying and evangelizing your products or services and influencing hundreds or thousands (hundreds of thousands, even) other buyers via blogs, forums, social networks, news sites, podcasts, and other consumer communities – your rock stars?

Let me ask you another question: which one of these methods just mentioned do you think is more effective?

OK, I didn't mean to lead you on this, because even if you're using the former method (press releases to a media list), you may be getting the results you want – and that's excellent. I'm not trying to say that there's a right answer and a wrong answer, but I am telling you that in the last 5 years, outreach has become so much more than simply media outreach. The PR landscape has shifted to community outreach. According to David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR (an excellent book I highly recommend, by the way), "The Internet has made public relations public again, after years of almost exclusive focus on media."

What is community outreach? It's about generating positive word-of-mouth and building relationships with your influential customers in order to drive conversions (whether that's buying a product, attending a conference, subscribing to a publication, getting donations or another action taken). It's also about finding, as I mentioned before, your rock stars. These are actual customers who are bloggers, forum admins, list owners, group leaders, or other thought leaders who are actively talking about your products and spreading the good word about your company to other buyers like them; but, most importantly, they are influencers within your customer community. When they talk, people listen.

So, if a press clip and media exposure is what you want, then the media is who you reach out to. If you want buyers, though, you find and reach out to your rock stars. This is why community outreach is so crucial to both your PR and marketing efforts. Besides, if you don’t find the influencers, you can be sure that the competition (or even your "coop-etition" – a cross between a competitor and someone with which you're in cooperation/partnership) will!

But you don't just pitch to them like you would a media list of journos – you have to build relationships by following these principles:

• Offer value. Tune your radio to WIIFM (What's In It For Me) and listen to what this person needs and/or wants from your products, then offer them something that addresses those needs and wants. Make your communication benefit-driven, rather than feature-driven.


• Be authentic. Introduce yourself. Tell them who you represent and why you're reaching out. Don’t hide behind a corporate brand or misrepresent yourself. Don’t overhype or speak in too much marketing jargon. Put on your buyer's cap.


• Be personal. Call them by name. Talk about their site and a post in particular that you found of particular interest. Make the connection between their site and your company/products so they see that your paying attention and not just pitching blindly.


• Be relevant. Reach out to those individuals and groups that will be interested in what you have to offer. Your chances of building a relationship are much greater if those to which you're reaching out understand why you are making contact.

In my next post, I’ll talk about how to find your rock stars for a community outreach program. Stay tuned!

Continue reading "Finding Your Rock Stars: Why a Community Outreach Program is Important" »

Technorati Tags: online communications community outreach blogger outreach social media social networking wom marketing word of mouth marketing community building

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 12:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 21, 2010

7 Not-to-Miss Twitter Chats for Association, Non-Profit, Event and B2B Marketers

We here at Tuvel LOVE Twitter chats! We host and moderate Twitter chats for clients (like the NAB Show and Share Our Strength) to help generate interest in a cause or event - resulting in donations, registrations, and overall awareness. We also participate in quite a few Twitter chats, and I'd like to share a few where you might find @TuvelComms, Mitch (@mitcharno) and me (@KariRippetoe) joining the conversation.

In case you're not sure what a Twitter chat is, here are some tips for participating in a Twitter chat. Also, here's a pretty comprehensive list of other Twitter chats covering a wide variety of topics and interests.

The following are chats that focus on marketing and communications, particularly for B2B, event, non-profit and association marketers. I hope to see you at one (or more) of these chats sometime (and be sure to say that Tuvel sent you!).

• #engage365: Hosted by the Engage 365, the online community for using social media for events, this chat takes place every Friday at 1pm ET.


• #assnchat: This chat takes place every Tuesday at 2pm ET and focuses on hot topics in the association world.









• #npchat: Non-profit profs share ideas for mobilizing supporters, generating awareness, and increasing donations every Wednesday at 3pm ET.


• #b2bchat: Participants talk about B2B marketing topics of all kinds, from social to search to email and everything in between. Takes place every Thursday evening at 8pm ET.


• #imcchat: Looking for ideas on creating integrated marcomm strategies? Join the the Integrated Marketing Communications Chat every Wednesday evening at 8pm ET.


• #eventprofs: Chat for event professionals about event marketing strategies - online and offline. It takes place on different days and times, so check out this schedule for the next one.


• #archat: This is a chat for marketers and business profs from all walks of life focusing on "influencer relations" - Analyst Relations (AR), Public Relations (PR), Investor Relations (IR). Takes place every Monday at 1pm ET.

What are your favorite marketing Twitter chats? Leave a comment and let us know!

Continue reading "7 Not-to-Miss Twitter Chats for Association, Non-Profit, Event and B2B Marketers" »

Technorati Tags: Twitter marketing event marketing association marketing B2B marketing social media tweetchat Twitter chats #assnchat #engage365 #b2bchat #imcchat #eventprofs #archat

Posted by Kari Rippetoe at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

May 10, 2010

11 Lessons Learned: Social Media & Event Marketing

Here at Tuvel Communications, we have executed conference and expo social media programs for clients like the NAB Show and 1105 Government Information Group. We've learned several lessons along the way, and I thought it would be useful to get these thoughts down on digital paper to share with you so can be better prepared when it comes to social media marketing at events.

• Start early. It takes time to build a relationship. You don't want the first communication from your event to be about passing a promo code along! We always try to keep in mind the old Internet adage to give and then take. We typically like to begin outreach efforts 6 months prior to an event.
• Create excitement! Content doesn't create excitement, people do. We were recently charged with driving attendees to an expo. People love to win, so we created Twitter raffles and contests. People got really excited about winning a conference ticket. We also ran a recent Facebook promotion where 'likes' (aka: fans) were asked to post photos from past shows. People got excited about posting and seeing each others photos (especially the ones from shows 15 or more years ago).
• Don't underestimate the power of face-to-face. This is really a lesson learned from Netpreneur/Coffee & DoughNets days. Developing an online relationship can be cemented by a face-to-face meeting. Nothing beats the interaction we see at client events. Strong online community building and networking done prior to the show complement offline meetings. Even better is if attendees are located in the same market as the event and you can bring them together before and after the show.
• Feedback and buzz are huge! Our company is metrics focused. Whether it's 'ROI', attendee increases or exhibitor traffic, we look to the numbers to partially determine our success. Other program metrics include size of the communities and how well they're engaged, profile traction, website analytics, and promo code tracking.

  Having said all of that, don't underestimate the importance of feedback from conference organizers, attendees and exhibitors. It's easy to feel excitement in the air when you hear comments like "you guys are doing something different this year" or "there really is a lot of activity, I notice it."

• Think through, take a deep breath and consider implications before acting. We recently identified a potential conflict when an attendee at a client event set up a blog that was inadvertently being mistaken for the 'official' show blog. We took a very deliberate 'honey vs. vinegar' approach of not reacting in a negative or aggressive fashion. Instead, we began building a relationship that eventually led to shared traffic. It would have been fool-hardy on our part to do anything else.
• Don't be afraid to try new things (or, you never know unless you try). At a recent client event, show organizers were nice enough to offer us a vacant booth, which we turned into a Social Media Suite. We got some perplexed expressions and strange questions for sure. Traffic was light, so on day two of the conference, we made a CVS run, dressed up the booth and held a Tweetup. We produced a Twitter chat for another client, unsure if anyone would even show up for the party. We ended up doubling registrations as a result of the hour-long chat.
• Beware of technology (or, the best laid plans...). We had a great on-site social media plan for a recent event, only to find out that lack of stable wifi prohibited us from uploading any photos, tweeting or posting. On another occasion, we were all set up for a Twitter chat only to have chat tools slow down to a screeching halt. Moral of the story: don't be surprised when inevitabilities of technology happen.
• Be patient. It takes time to get traction. We 're big on momentum and were dismayed when a couple of recent promotions didn't get off to a quick start. It took time for the word to spread and traffic to build up. But, we soldiered on and both promotions ended up going well. Thankfully, we didn't pull the plug before they took off.
• Always follow best practices. This goes without saying, but I figure it's worth repeating. Following best practices in terms of transparency and communication isn't only the right thing to do-- it's just good business.
• Its not just the numbers, it's who they are and where they're doing it that also count. We'd trade larger groups of passive readers for a handful of passionate supporters any day.
• Ask for referrals. We execute word-of-mouse campaigns. As soon as someone posts or passes our message along, we ask for referrals - bloggers, moderators, social networkers and list owners in their network. These folks might be interested in our communication and nothing beats an introduction!

What lessons have you learned from your event social media marketing efforts?

Continue reading "11 Lessons Learned: Social Media & Event Marketing" »

Technorati Tags: event marketing social media marketing social media for conferences outreach word-of-mouth marketing

Posted by Mitch at 11:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

May 15, 2008

threadless

Make no mistake about what this co does (besides tees)

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 01:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

February 26, 2008

The Social Times: What's the Future of D.C. Technology?

As reprinted from AdMarketing list

Nick ONeill runs The Social Times blog. If you're RSS feed isn't picking this blog up, it should! He also runs the allfacebook blog- the unofficial facebook blog

Nick had an interesting post this morning:

What's the Future of D.C. Technology?

Nick's overall tone is positive and says that WDC is well on the way but... that the tech community is still missing a few things. Included: positive press, funding, a culture of risk.

So, what do you think? Nick's comments about The Washington Post are pretty pointed. Do they have it all wrong? Can anyone point to recent positive press about our community? His comments about a culture of risk are interesting. Since Netpreneur days, I see many of you on the street that have fallen into safer yobs in and outside the Gvpt arena. Not that that's a bad thing ... But what do YOU think? Are we not risk takers back east?

At the sake of throwing kerosene on this fire, I'll ask our old friend Shannon Henry to comment if appropriate. Shannon's been gone from the area for awhile but I know many AdMarketers recall Shannon's stint with WaPo + TechCapital. Heck, she probably even wrote about many of your companies!

Continue reading "The Social Times: What's the Future of D.C. Technology?" »

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 08, 2007

Messege boards: some things never change

I recently saw this note from Yahoo! News. Long before Web 2.0 was a term, people were grappling with the issue of unmoderated discussions. Unfiltered discussions allow for grand standing and flame wars. It can also be difficult to determine metrics for theses conversations. An active thread or even the number of comments can be misleading when trying to gage interaction. Sometimes, we use the number of posters or people participating in a conversation but that can also be misleading.

The upside to all of this activity and interaction is, of course, that people are involved and helping to create the content.

To Yahoo! News readers:

Yahoo! News is working on new ways for readers to comment on the news and participate in a discussion around it. While we work on our new community features, the message boards that were linked from individual news articles have been taken offline.

As they were set up, the Yahoo! News message boards allowed a small number of vocal users to dominate the discussion. In addition, related discussions from similar news articles were not easily linked.

Over the next few months, we plan to offer new discussion forums based on topics in the news and incorporating the latest features to foster a better discussion for all of our readers.

Neil Budde
General Manager
Yahoo! News

Continue reading "Messege boards: some things never change" »

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 19, 2006

It's Still the Wild, Wild West

Business Week carried a short read on companies that use online community building for focus groups and to develop products. Not a new topic by any stretch but still good to read this in the mainstream media.

What's interesting here are the comments. Just look at the first one below. I guess the rules of engagement are still being written...

Nickname: John Mack
Review: Some of the comments made to the community on this web site obviously come from moderators paid directly or indirectly by Glaxo. They make claims regarding the drug's effectiveness that are clearly not supported by any facts, claims that would be illegal for Glaxo to make directly.
Date reviewed: Oct 15, 2006 8:43 PM

Continue reading "It's Still the Wild, Wild West" »

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 02:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

November 07, 2005

The (continuing) power of online comunities

I've recently had the need to seek advice from a couple of the more popular online communities. I dropped by the QuickBooks community to ask a question about using QuickBooks template features. A forum moderator stepped up and saved the time and dime of calling tech support.

I then hopped over to Craigs List to find out if anyone knew where we could plan a Birthday Party at a local movie theatre.

Key was response time in both instances. The info delivered was right on-target and the people were friendly. Both exchanges worked without a hitch- if I can only remember passwords now! No Spam either!

These exchanges both left a smile on my face and took me back to earlier days of online communities. For the first time, I also thought about upgrading Quicken!

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 03:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

August 24, 2005

The Well is for sale

webcommunities reports that:

The Well, an online community founded in 1985, is to be sold by it's current owner Salon.com. Salon bought the community in 1999 for US $5 million.  Since then, it's always managed to turn a profit but memberships (costing $120 to $150 per year) have declined from 6000 to 4000 between 1999 and
today.

Salon expects to achieve a sale price of around $500,000 - about the equivalent of one year's subscription fees. That's probably a bargain if the members themselves buy the community... 

More.

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 11:16 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

May 04, 2005

BackFence's Blog-Like Local Strategy

Updates: 'citizen journalism' websites Backfence went live.  The  'build  your own ad app. is  interesting. It'll be great to see the traffic come and then how 'they' aggregate the information.
-------------------

March 1, 2005: More on Backfence, Northern Virginia's start-up community website (cyberjournalist.net):
BackFence's Blog-Like Local Strategy

Rather than relying on technology and massive infrastructure, they’re going to take a “bottom up” approach and let local “influencers” (and others) in the local communities (not major metro areas) generate content.

The comment to this post is interesting:

I will open a bottle of Pinot over this one.  To an online marketplace like ours that connects local repair shops and vehicle owners, this is the kind of model that keeps me up at night (drinking wine).  I hope they stay on the east coast for a while.

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 07:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

March 08, 2005

What is community?

What is community?

commoncraft points to an interesting conversation on Corante's group blog, BrandShift. The intro post by Jennifer Rice is good, the comments are great.

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 10:17 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

February 23, 2005

An Introduction to Activism on the Internet

John Emerson has written An Introduction to Activism on the Internet . Included are easy to read chapters that make it easy to point and click to resources.

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 07:03 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

February 21, 2005

Wikimedia Foundation Needs Your Help

Imagine a world in which every person has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. And we need your help. (as seen on Portals and KM)

The Wikimedia Foundation Inc. is a non-profit organization with the goal of providing free knowledge to every person in the world. Meeting this goal through the maintenance, development and distribution of free content, Wikimedia relies on public donations to run its wiki-based projects.

Wikimedia provides computing and network resources to create and distribute many reference works including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikiquote, Wikibooks, Wikisource, and the Wikimedia Commons. The content of these projects is provided to the public free of charge.

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 08:35 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

January 14, 2005

Online Communities: Fusions of Silicon and Flesh

  This piece comes from Ohmynews:

Online Communities: Fusions of Silicon and Flesh

Starting from the U.S. Defense Department's ARPANET information network, the Internet is entering its 35th year. The Internet only began to have an influence on the general population, however, after the graphic-based web browser "Netscape" appeared in 1995, meaning this year would represent the 10th year of the popularization of the medium. How has the Internet changed the world over the last 10 years?

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 11:40 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

January 09, 2005

Two's company, three's a `community'

Passed along by webcommunities:

MercuryNews.com | 01/09/2005 | Two's company, three's a `community'

Although ``community'' has been a hackneyed term for decades -- terms such as the ``black community,'' the ``gay community,'' the ``international disaster-relief community'' and the ``investor community'' have long been over-applied to diverse and often fractured realms -- the Internet has provided a spaceless ``place'' for communities to convene. Indeed, there you will find not only the ferret lover community but also the ``Zitlover'' community. (Don't believe? Google.)

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 03:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

December 31, 2004

Hallmark Cards, Research and Online Communities

Common Craft & Lee LeFever point to a MarketingSherpa article on Hallmark Cards Idea Exchange.

I was originally pointed to Common Craft by Jim Cachel after his company, Forum One, concluded one of it's annual Online Community Summits and... I've been a reader ever since. Lee offers all kinds of value, helped me to understand RSS feeds and hey, even blogs about getting married.

Hearing about Hallmark communities took me back to an older AdMarketing conversation on How Marketers Use Interactive Tools. Many well known community builders participated in this conversation. The conversation actually kicks off here and many of the lessons learned are still relevant.

For this discussion, we engaged Communispace founder Diane Hessan.  Communispace builds online communities for businesses and worked on the Idea Exchange initiative. More on Communispace's work with Hallmark: Case Study: Hallmark.

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 10:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

July 04, 2004

A Manifesto for Collaborative Tools

A Manifesto for Collaborative Tools

"This essay is a manifesto about software for collaboration -- why the world's future depends on it, why the current crop of tools isn't good enough, and what programmers can and must do about it. "

What caught my eye was the exposure given to Doug Engelbart, creater of the mouse and many other things. While at Netpreneur, we had the good fortune of bringing several Internet pioneers to Washington, DC. Among them was Mr. Engelbart. He is a remarkable man... This article also ties Engelbart into TrackBacks and Wikis.

Technorati Tags:

Posted by Mitch at 02:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)