Tuvel Communications Blog

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!

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

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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?

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

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April 29, 2010

Marketers: Do You "Like" Facebook's Open Graph?

With last week's pivotal announcement of Facebook's Open Graph, the "one graph to rule them all" as it’s been referred to rather humorously (and yet, at the same time quite ominously), the Interwebs have been all abuzz with talk of how this will affect the web as we know it. While the ubiquitous term "Web 2.0" refers to the next generation of the web - an increasingly social entity due to social media and networking sites like Twitter, YouTube, and of course Facebook - the question on many minds is how the web will evolve with the introduction of Open Graph and whether it will now become one big social network.

As an online marketer, however, I've been more interested in how Facebook's new set of Open Graph features can be used to extend the reach of a brand and its content. Gone is the ability to become a "fan" of something, whether it's a brand, product, or business. If you have a formerly-known-as-"fan page" (not sure what it's called now – just a "page"?), then your fans are now people who "like" you. Kind of reminds me of those little notes we used to pass to each other in school ("Do you like me? Check Yes or No").

Using the new set of social plugins provided by Facebook, "Like" and "Recommend" buttons can now be integrated into virtually any website - so if you're signed in to Facebook and you visit a website with these buttons perched next to its content, you can share that content with your Facebook friends with just a click.

On top of that, Facebook now also has widgets that display content your friends recommend and like on a website. For instance, when I visit CNN.com, I can see from the Facebook widget on the homepage the articles with which my friends have interacted in some way – recommended, liked, shared, and commented on.

Can you imagine the possibilities here? These widgets can be integrated into blogs, news sites, e-commerce sites, and online communities in so many different ways. While there has been a bit of a backlash in response to Open Graph regarding privacy concerns (aren't there always when it comes to Facebook?), I see this a positive boon for marketers and the social web as a whole.

Your turn: What are your thoughts on Facebook's Open Graph and its marketing possibilities?

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Technorati Tags: Facebook Open Graph social media social media marketing content marketing

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June 01, 2006

CIBA Vision misses the marketing mark

UPDATES:

Strategic Name Development has an interesting post about the naming of CIBA Vision's AirOptix product: Ciba Vision’s New Product Name Comes Out of Thin Air.

This post references our comments and others that are searching in vain for Clear Care product. It'll be interesting to see what, if any, sales or PR hit CIBA Vision takes from this situation. In the meantime, I'm still searching for Clear Care while trying to find a replacement.
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Another missed relationship building opportunity-- this time it's brought to you by CIBA Vision and it's Clear Care product line. Anyone that uses soft contact lenses knows that cleaning supplies for several of leading brands have been scarce over the past several months.

What does CIBA Vision say about it's shortage?

In the U.S., Clear Care® and AOSEPT® are shipping to retailers and consumers will see increasing supplies of these products as stores receive them and stock their shelves.

That's it. No feedback loop, no offer to help those left hanging, no nothing. Local retailers and contact lens carriers have seem to also be in the dark. Why wouldn't this company try to hold onto longstanding customers- maybe turn a big negative into a positive? Why not offer a dedicated hotline, samples through the mail, or even e-mail alerts when product becomes available?

Lots of other folks have been complaining about the company's handling of this situation. When will companies learn that it is not only the situation but HOW they handle it that helps spread the bad word?

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May 01, 2006

LeaderNotes: How to Raise $500,000 from Middle Class White Kids (and Why the Red Cross Never Will)

(heard about this from Seth Godin)

It looks like Invisible Children is doing many things right. These folks are passionate , they make it easy to digest and pass their message along and have supporters acting as the PR Dept. . Make sure to check out the MTV style movie used to promote and explain the cause.

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February 15, 2006

More PostSecret

PostSecret continues to grow. The following comes from Dave Sifry's State of the Blogosphere, February 2006 Part 2

Let's take a few examples. Have a look at PostSecret. It is the #3 site on the Technorati Top 100 today, with over 12,000 sites that have linked to it in the last 180 days. It didn't even exist on the chart in April of 2005.

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September 26, 2005

Happy New Year: Virally Speaking

Speaking of viral marketing, I received an email note on this website today. A great piece of viral marketing with a couple of exceptions.

This timely piece of work didn't link to the parent website. Once I found my way to birthright israel, there was no attempt to grab my attention or begin building a relationship. There was also a missed branding opportunity with the URL/domain being that of the file's developer and not the organization.

A great piece though. Happy New Year!

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June 28, 2005

What Makes Your Advertising Viral?

What Makes Your Advertising Viral?  (from WOMMA)

If we can determine how far to push our client's brands, then we have another problem: we must create original content the majority of discriminating Internet users find entertaining and that they didn't already create themselves. Herein lies the heart of this column. Truth is, every great viral idea probably isn't an idea from a marketer.

 

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June 17, 2005

The New Heroes - House Party Outreach

We are in the research phase of a campaign for a non-profit client and I came across the The New Heroes - House Party Outreach Site from the Skoll Foundation. Granted, this was big budgets but check out the 'spread the word' button and feature. This is about as good as it gets in terms of redistribution

The Skoll Foundation is beginning a campaign to inspire grassroots giving circles to give internationally.

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June 16, 2005

Word-of-mouth marketing gets people buzzing

Brian Carroll points to an interesting article on b2b word of mouth marketing. Given the content, I might rename this article Interactivity gets people buzzing.

For a long time, folks have known that user groups, customer relationship management solutions, knowledge base systems- all contribute to word of mouth marketing. b2b interaction, like consumer marketing, is about building relationships and leveraging those customer experiences.

The Cisco Networking Community and Oracle Applications Community were early examples of company-customer/supporter interaction. You can read more about this here, in an oldie but goodie AdMarketing conversation on "How Marketers Use Interactive Tools".

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June 08, 2005

Why PR Should Own Word of Mouth

BuzzMetrics has an interesting column newsletter on Why PR Should Own Word of Mouth Marketing

PR and word of mouth is a way interesting topic. As a practitioner, I'm much more interested in PR than advertising. That's because advertising follows the old broadcast model whereas PR is (supposed to be) about building relationships.

Jonathan Carson's comments about the search for ROI is spot on.

One thing is certain: PR’s leadership in the word-of-mouth discipline will be dependent upon a fundamental shift in thinking and approach.

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May 26, 2005

The New Heroes

A friend sent information on The New Heroes TV show and web campaign. 

The viral/grassroots marketing page is done really well. Although copy for the pass along tools seems to be similar in some instances, they include all the essentials: snipets for newsletters and lists, banners, pages to download & pass along and e-cards.

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May 01, 2005

Word-of-mouth campaign a Cut above the rest

Saw this over on Church of the Customer:

"It would be mental for us to suggest to a client we could effect massive social change by slapping on a TV commercial saying; 'Hi guys, it's OK now to be seen with a white spirits-based RTD in your hand, now go buy our brand'," says Mat Baxter, managing partner of Absolut's communications agency, Naked.

More: Word-of-mouth campaign a Cut above the rest

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April 17, 2005

Word of Mouth Marketing Summit

Church of the Customer let others know about the Word of Mouth Marketing Assn.'s recent conference. Now, they're telling folks about WOMMA's roll-up of speakers and presentations up on the website.
 

In addition to headline speakers like Guy Kawasaki and Emanuel Rosen, WOMMA has posted Marci Hansen's PETA slide show that talks about it's offline 'Street Team' and Nate Mordo's UbiSoft presnetation on online communities.

All good stuff worth checking into as you have time.

 

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April 04, 2005

Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) conference (news & pointers)

Speaking of word of mouth, Scoble mentioned Brand Autopsy that has all kinds of good info. and pointers from last week's WOMMA conference including this list of resources from Rick Bruner.

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March 22, 2005

Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Temper Your Enthusiasm?

Pete Blackshaw, of Intelliseek wrote an interesting column on the challenges of the still nascent online word-of-mouth marketing movement. it seems that this business is quickly being divided into those that do things the right way and not.

Now, it's just a matter of figuring out what 'the right way' is.

This reality, consumer opinion on multimedia steroids, threatens to hold advertisers to a much higher level of accountability. Try to deceive or trick the consumer with sketchy ad claims, and blog-fortified "copy cops" go to work. Screw the consumer, and search engines will remind the world of your stupidity for eternity by ranking the most scathing testimonials at the top of the search shelf.

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March 10, 2005

KFC opera

Now that the BK Subservient Chicken Campaign had been dissected, it's only fair to take a look at a recent KFC opera campaign (compliments of BrandShift)

 

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March 07, 2005

But, did it increase sales?

Dissecting BK's 'Subservient Chicken' Campaign
(as seen on MarketingVOX)

NEW YORK On April 8 of last year, something odd emerged on the Web: a chicken dressed in garters that could do seemingly any command viewers requested.

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February 24, 2005

Can a Viral Campaign Gain Traction without Bloggers?

Steve Rubel points to Pamela Parker's blog and an MSN search engine story: Can a Viral Campaign Gain Traction without Bloggers? I was pleasently surprised to find Pamela's blog. She should link to it  from her area on ClickZ!

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February 12, 2005

More on WOMMA Ethics Code

WOMMA's Ethics Code Attacked For Allowing Teen Marketers (from MarketingVOX )

The National Institute on Media and the Family released a statement calling on WOMMA to prohibit the "exploitation of minors in word-of-mouth campaigns." While WOMMA's code already prohibits marketing to children younger than 13, the organization is asking WOMMA to require parental notification and consent when engaging children between 13 and 16 years of age. In addition to possible exploitation, the Institute also raised the concern that children were being exposed to inappropriate sexual material by word-of-mouth marketing campaigns.

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January 28, 2005

Advertisers: You have lost control of your message. Get over it

Advertisers: You have lost control of your message. Get over it (BuzzMachine)

If you embrace this, I'll just bet you will find something amazing happen: You will find that your customers are better at marketing your products than you are.

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January 26, 2005

Technology hits the pizza business

This note comes from Gary Arlen. Talk about viral marketing, I've already forwarded this to a ton of marketers that I know. I'll be curious to see what this does to the fundraising coffers.

Anyway, check this out!
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Gary says:

Here's a timely and appropriate message for electronic marketers .. with a link at the end to the "real" provider. Fascinating use of a Web campaign with humor and a point.  It came from Canada, as you'll hear in a few phrases. 

Here's the link! Turn up your volume...

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January 21, 2005

Buzz-Makers: More Disclosure, Please

Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism, Etc.: Buzz-Makers: More Disclosure, Please

The first product is a bidet. I'm not making this up. And I'm not going provide any details on how I'm using it :-). (I crack myself up...)
Marc

Posted by: Marc Andreessen | January 21, 2005 03:26 PM

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January 07, 2005

The Word-of-Mouth Ethics Challenge

More on word of mouth marketing and pending Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) ethics council guidelines.  It'll be interesting to see how this plays out with the Viral and Buzz Marketing Association's Manifesto.

The Word-of-Mouth Ethics Challenge

Ironically, the growing popularity of the new marketing techniques is one of the dangers. Proving the old adage that no publicity is bad publicity, BzzAgent reports receiving 250 inbound leads from potential clients and sign-ups from about 5,000 new BzzAgents in the week after the Times piece ran.

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December 18, 2004

JibJab

The buzz around JibJab's This Land Is Your Land Bush/Kerry video might have died down but check out brother Gregg and Evan Spiridellis's newer It's Good To Be In DC piece. They have a newer Santa short but, being a Washingtonian, think the DC piece is funnier. 

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December 16, 2004

Best Viral Work of 2004 Discussed

This comes from today's Adrants:

There's a discussion going on in the Adrants Network on the best viral work done in 2004. Members are noting the beheaded Cat, Honda's Cog, Burger King's Subservient Chicken, The Grey Album, iPod's Dirty Secret, Pontiac's Oprah car giveaway and many more. You are invited to join the Network and discuss your thoughts on this year's best viral advertising.

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What's the Buzz About Buzz Marketing?

Cynthia Typaldos, who runs the webcommunities group, pointed to another article on buzz marketing. Cynthia founded RealCommunities and GolfWeb and has also done a million other impressive things.  The article:

What's the Buzz About Buzz Marketing?

This article made me think about a conversation we had on the AdMarketing list some time ago. Then, I posed the question: [AM] Is too much talk a good thing?
The input we got was inter testing. Here's the summary from that conversation:

AdMarketing discussion recap (or, who said what)

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December 15, 2004

Word of Mouth Manifesto

Dave Balter, founder of BzzAgent, points to his Word of Mouth Manifesto in his BzzAgent Investor/Advisor Update.

There's a reason the subservient chicken didn't increase Chicken nugget sales, why the Segway (a.k.a "IT", a.k.a. "Ginger") hasn't changed the world despite drool-worthy P.R., and why Richard Branson descended a New York City skyscraper in a nude suit. And it all comes down to the distinctions among Viral, Buzz, and Word of Mouth marketing.

UPDATES: the BzzAgent blog also points to this slashdot conversation on Open Source Word-of-Mouth Advertising.

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December 13, 2004

Some professors take payments to express views

Continuing the word of mouth marketing debates most recently started by BzzAgent, a friend over at Fleishman Hillard sent me this article from the Wall Street Journal. This time, we're talking about transparency and ethics in academia.

As the article points out, the practice of professors being paid to write editorials and express certain views, is a PR tactic that's been around for a long time...

If a professor takes money from a company and then argues in the media for a position the company favors, is he an independent expert -- or a paid shill?

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December 12, 2004

Cell phones and telemarketers

Speaking of viral marketing, it seems that cell phones are not on the verge of being telemarketed to after all.

Emails that we're getting from friends and family telling us to register cell phones with the National Do Not Call Registry before January 1, 2005 to prevent numbers from being provided to telemarketers aren't entirely true.

There is however, a 411 directory assistance service for cell phone numbers being created. You can read more about it here.

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December 08, 2004

Word of Mouth: transparency

Update:  much of the current debate on word of mouth marketing seems to center on "transparency" or, how much you should disclose to the consumer that is being marketed to.

During the recent election cycle, we executed a viral campaign for a national non-profit. Part of the plan called for outreach to bloggers. For our firm, this meant full upfront disclosure or identifying ourselves as working on behalf of the client. The client received much needed exposure but as important, didn't get negative feedback.

A more interesting question about on line "transparency": is it ok to seed Internet discussions? We all know about best practices' but I continue to hear contacts justify the practice.

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December 07, 2004

Word of Mouth: Bzzing along

As you probably know, this past weekend's New York Times article on BzzAgent has caused quite a stir. I think that adrants nails it with the following comments:

Debate Over WOM Advertising Rages

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August 11, 2004

BW Online|Jeff Bezos on Word-of-Mouth Power

BW Online | August 2, 2004 | Online Extra: Jeff Bezos on Word-of-Mouth Power

More on word of mouth marketing:

"Says Amazon's CEO: "If you build a great experience, customers tell each other." That, he believes, is better than any TV advertising." (hat tip- Marc Hausman)

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July 19, 2004

The Viral Marketing Myth

The Viral Marketing Myth

More bad press about Friendster's recent viral marketing attempt for the movie Anchorman. You can also read bad things about this campaign here.

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July 18, 2004

Om Malik on Broadband: Blinkx and the Power of Blogging

Om Malik on Broadband: Blinkx and the Power of Blogging

More proof on the power of word of mouth. Here, blogger Malik met and blogged search agent company BlinkX. This led to 130,000 downloads (so far) and 5,000 links to the website. This activity in turn, led to coverage in The Guardian newpaper. (hat tip: Jeff Jarvis)

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July 02, 2004

Congratulations are in order

reprinted from my post to the AdMarketing list

Hi everyone--

Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba, of Creating Customer Evangelists know like many of us that customers are one of the best sales or marketing forces a company can have. The trick is to turn best customers into evangelists and then leverage through word-of-mouth marketing.

Creating Customer Evangelists has just published "Testify!", a free ebook. The book profiles 18 organizations and their customer evangelism efforts. Two AdMarketers are featured in the book! Congratulations to Bloomberg Marketing and MarketingSherpa are in order! Mitch
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June 13, 2004

Scoble's Top 10 List

Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger

By now, many have read the Scoble's Ten evangelism and IT lessons from one of America's biggest churches. Just in case, though, the link above offers a nice twist of a list on how IT can help the relationship building process.

Lesson three: to get word-of-mouth advertising you need to be remarkable. (hat tip: Lee LeFever)

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June 07, 2004

Great viral marketing for a Monday morning!

Download PHOTOCOPIER.asf

I did 2 things as soon as I got this clip. 1. I laughed out loud and 2. forwarded it to a friend. What made me stop and think though was that this came from a teacher. I've had several interesting conversations lately with companies eager to tap the K-12 market. I wonder if these folks might be interested in using something like this to get their message out....

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June 02, 2004

Wallabees and word-of-mouth marketing

I stopped in to the local Bostonian retail outlet tonight to buy a pair of shoes. I am sure that the shoe salesman knew more about shoes than anyone I've ever met... Anyway, we struck up a conversation about the Clark Wallabees they were selling. I mean, who can forget the polyurethane soles, these shoes are classics.

I asked when the Wallabees became popular again. He told me that 5 years ago, members of a band (maybe Oasis?) started to wear the shoes during shows, the shoes then caught on with fans. Word-of-mouth marketing, influencers... you just can't seem to get away from it all. Guess I'll have to go back now and reread the beginning of Malcolm Gladwell's the Tipping Point .

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