As a big fan of Mitch Joel’s podcast Six Pixels of Separation, I was excited when his new book CTRL ALT Delete was released this week.  In the book Mitch talks about the importance utilitarian marketing. So you may be asking what exactly is utilitarian marketing? Is it just another catchphrase that some marketing author is trying to capitalize on? I don’t think so and for the sake of your business neither should you.

Mitch argues that brands need to get over themselves by providing something of value that meets the needs of their consumers through their marketing. Mitch uses Nike and their launch of the Nike Fuel Band as a case study for utilitarian marketing. For those of you who don’t know of the Nike Fuel Band, it is a digital wristband that tracks the daily activity of its consumers. The band allows consumers to set daily activity goals and track their progress over time. To keep users motivated the band has a gaming component where users who reach their goals can receive achievement and rewards. Nike has also built in a social component to the Fuel Band that allows users to share their activity with their friends. Nike understands that the future of marketing is no longer in blasting mass media messages at their consumers but is instead is about creating content that solves a problem or offers value to their consumers.

The first time I came across the notion of utilitarian marketing was from my friend and Digital Strategist, Dave Wieneke (@Usefularts), who works for the Portland based digital marketing agency, Isite Design. Last year Isite Design created the GPS Pal mobile application for their client Columbia Sportswear. Columbia realized that their consumers are outdoor enthusiasts  who enjoy  were looking for a way to track their hikes. Therefore, Columbia and Isite developed the GPS Pal mobile app where users can track the amount of time and distance one has hiked. The app also allows users to take photos, record video, and make notes on their hike. The GPS Pal has been wildly successful. In the first two weeks ten thousand users downloaded the app.The GPS Pal creates a way for consumers to stay consistently engaged with Columbia without being bombarded by advertisements. In my mind, this is a win-win situation for the brand and the consumer.

Don’t get me wrong I am not one of those people who believe in the death of advertising by any means. Advertising can be a very effective tool for creating brand awareness. However, utilitarian marketing is a great way to get your current customers to consistently engage with your brand.

Do you have a great example of utilitarian marketing? Please share your story in the comments section.

As we head into the last couple of months in 2012, let’s take a look back at some of social media’s biggest storylines such as acquisitions, network growth, and brand success stories to date.

Of all the social networks, Facebook is by far the one that has dominated the news for most of 2012. Facebook’s biggest news of the year was the launch of their initial public offering (IPO). On May 18^th the world’s largest social network went public. However, things did not goes as planned. The stock was originally offered at $38 per share but due to technical difficulties and poor planning, the stock’s value immediately began declining. For several days after the launch of their IPO, Facebook’s stock price continued to plummet from $38 per share to $18 per share. Today, Facebook’s stock is selling for $21 per share leaving many to question the future of the social network.

In addition to going public, Facebook also made headlines with their purchase of the photo-sharing app, Instagram for a billion dollars. Many believe that Facebook acquired Instagram because they viewed them as a threat in the mobile space. Facebook has been known to provide a sub-par mobile experience at best. By purchasing the successfully mobile app, Facebook will be turning to Instagram employees to help them become a more mobile friendly company.

Although Facebook faced many critics by going public and with the purchase of Instagram, the social network still continues to grow. The company topped 1 billion users in October. Despite the fact that Facebook’s growth continues to shrink in the US, Canada, and Europe, the world’s largest social network is flourishing in emerging markets including India, Mexico, Brazil, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Not all of Facebook’s news made major headlines in 2012. To increase revenue, in May, Facebook launched promoted posts. According to Facebook only 16% of your company’s fans will ever see your post in their stream. By using Facebook’s promoted posts your post will be seen by a greater percentage of people who like your page.

In another attempt to keep up with the competition while continuing to look for more avenues to generate revenue, Facebook is testing a new feature called “Collections.” This new feature, which many say resembles Pinterest, will allow retailers to add a “Want” button to news feed posts about products. By clicking the “Want” button, Facebook users will be able bookmark products that they would like to buy. The “Collections” feature will also provide a “Buy” button that will allow Facebook users to make a purchase offsite.

While it seems like 2012 has been the year of Facebook there are other social networks making news. One of the other social networks is Twitter. In 2012, Twitter bought the blogging platform Posterous, implemented targeted promoted tweets, and added branded company pages. Twitter also continued to grow as the company surpassed 500 million accounts with 140 million active users.

LinkedIn is another popular social network which continues to grow in both revenues and users. The company just released their Q3 earnings and because of rapid international expansion and increased customer engagement revenues grew by 81%. In 2012, the company redesigned the user profile, added new company pages, and introduced a LinkedIn app for the iPad.

Pinterest, the popular photo-sharing site, has increased substantially since it launched in September of 2011. The average user spends almost sixteen minutes on site during a visit. Pinterest also drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn combined.

Another social networking site that has increased in popularity through out 2012 was Tumblr. According to The Next Web, in April of 2012 Tumblr hit 20 billion posts and neared 50 million hosted blogs doubling the micro blogging’s site in just over six months.

Google’s social media sites, Google+ and YouTube, also experienced explosive growth in 2012. Although many believe that Google+ has been an epic failure it is reported that the social media site will reach 400 million users by December 2012. YouTube, Google’s other social networking site, is still continuing to produce impressive statistics. So far in 2012, 72 hours of video were uploaded every minute. This figure is almost double the amount of video that was uploaded every minute last year.

Social media sites aren’t the only ones capitalizing on the social movement. Companies continue to take advantage of these platforms to build brand awareness, service and engage their customers, and sell products. Some of the most popular social media brands in 2012 were Coca-Cola, Target, Starbucks, Walt Disney, and IBM. What makes these brands successful is they understand their audience, they deliver interesting and relevant content, and they engage and respond to their audience.

What was your favorite social media moment from 2012?

I recently read a blog post titled Self Hating PR Pros and the Change in Industry from Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) of Arment Dietrich and SpinSucks. The premise of Gini’s blog is that PR agencies need to move beyond the media relation’s stereotype and they need to do a better job positioning themselves as integrated marketing specialists by promoting the other tactics that they employ such as crisis communication, social media, monitoring and listening, guerilla marketing, strategic messaging, influencer relations, blogger relations, internal communication, communication audits, storytelling, speaking, event marketing, content development, lobbying, market research, and identifying trends.

She also goes on to add that some agencies should take it one step further by also promoting their expertise of internet marketing tactics such as database marketing, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, email marketing, inbound marketing, gamification, and mobile marketing.

I agree with Gini that in order to help our clients meet their business goals; agencies need to take a more integrated marketing approach. However, one of the problems that I see happening in our industry is that PR and marketing professionals are trying to wear too many hats and are trying to become experts in too many marketing sub-disciplines.

Generalists vs. Experts

Twenty years ago it was much easier to be a generalist in the marketing field. All you need to know was how to use advertising, public relations, and marketing strategy to create an integrated marketing communications plan but today with the evolution of the Internet, social media, and mobile marketing it is almost impossible to be a marketing generalist because of the rate of change and because of the technical expertise that some of these positions require.

Todays marketing and public relations professionals are not only trying to be master communicators and strategist but they are also trying be master technicians in the areas of computer programming, web design, search engine optimization, and etc. Now, please don’t get me wrong, as a public relations and marketing professional you may need a basic understanding of some of these sub-disciplines to do your job effectively but you do not need to be an expert by any means.

We are trying to be too many things for too many people and as public relations and marketing professionals we need to stick with our natural born ability to communicate. We were not born with the natural abilities or personalities that are required of computer programmers, web designers, and search engine optimization specialists. Those who succeed in the technical aspects of the marketing industry tend to be more left brain dominant while those who succeed in the planning and communicating aspects of the marketing industry tend to be more right brain dominant. We need to stop trying to fit a square peg in a round whole by trying to be something that we are not. As Marcus Buckingham points out in his book Go Put Your Strengths to Work, in order to achieve outstanding performance we must leverage our strengths. As public relations and marketing professionals we must focus on being masterful communicators to inform, motivate, or persuade our audiences. We must leave the technical aspects of the industry to the professionals whose strengths lie in the areas of computer programming, web design, and search engine optimization.

To create an integrated marketing approach in today’s world, we need to work together with experts from all of the sub-disciplines. It requires a team effort because it is impossible for an individual or a few individuals to possess the amount of knowledge and skill that it requires to succeed in today’s multi-channel and multi-platform world.

So my advice to you is to pick an area that you are strong in and become an expert in that sub-discipline.

Going away to college can be a stressful and overwhelming experience. For many students this is their first time away from home for an extended period of time. According to a national study by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA some of the greatest stressors for first year incoming students are: being lonely or homesick, meeting new people, and adjusting to the social scene. As a result, about thirty percent of students dropout after their first year and almost half never graduate. So the question you should be asking is how can your college or university use social media to help students adjust to college life?

Prior to the Internet and social technologies college freshman, upon matriculating to your school, had very few opportunities to connect with other incoming students, current students, and staff but today with the assistance of digital technologies students have the opportunity to connect with all of the fore mentioned groups before setting foot on your campus.  As higher education professionals it’s critical that we take advantage of these tools by taking a proactive approach to this problem by building online communities where incoming freshman can reduce their anxieties but forming relationships with like-minded students.

One of the best things about social media is that it allows you to build communities where students who share similar interests can connect and engage with each other. A few examples of communities that may exist on your campus are student organizations, intermural sports, colleges and departments, and even individual classes.

By getting incoming students to participate in these online communities before entering school they are likely to make connections, even friendships, which will make their adjustment period easier by reducing the likelihood of them getting homesick, by increasing the likelihood of them meeting new people, and by increasing the likelihood of them adjusting to the social scene.

Colleges and universities rely on their alumni for financial support. In order to garner such support, you must build strong relationships with your alumni. In the past, colleges and universities have relied on direct marketing tactics such as direct mail, email marketing, catalogs, alumni magazines, and annual reports to accomplish this goal. However, with the advent of social media you can now create a new level of engagement with your alumni by reaching out to them, by engaging them in conversation, and by building and fostering relationships with them.

Traditionally, alumni relations departments have used communication as a vehicle to keep alumni informed about the colleges’ or universities’ happenings. The problem with this approach is that the communication only goes one-way. One of social media’s greatest benefits is your ability to have on ongoing dialogue with your audience. Now, I am not saying that social media should replace traditional communications, but I am advocating that you use social media to support your traditional communications to build a more integrated approach.

Here are three reasons your alumni relations department needs a social media presence:

Reason 1: Alumni Involvement = More $$$

Studies show that your alumni’s involvement with your college or university after graduation is an important factor in determining their support and their amount of donations. Social media are excellent channels for keeping your alumni involved and engaged with your college or university after graduation by connecting them with other students, faculty, staff, and departments.

Reason 2: Satisfied Alumni = More $$$

Additionally, the more satisfied your alumni were as students the more likely they were to donate. Social media, such as Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups, can keep your alumni in touch with their former classmates and friends where they can re-live their college memories by sharing photos and stories of the glory days. Alumni who participate in these groups will feel more connected to your college or university and they will be more likely to donate.

Reason 3: Clear Communication = More $$$

As an alumni relations professional, part of your job is to keep alumni donating. One of the reasons that alumni stop giving is because they are not sure that their contributions make a difference. Social media allows you to promote how your college and university are planning on using the funds and it also allows your alumni to provide feedback or voice their concerns. By listening to your alumni you can address their concerns, in real time, which will hopefully motivate them to continue to give.

In today’s online world there are more opportunities for you to engage your alumni through the use of social media. It’s critical that you take advantage of these tools to communicate with your alumni base more often and to drive alumni contributions.

Crises are an inevitable part of business; unfortunately many companies are not prepared when they strike. To protect yourself from these unexpected events it is important to prepare for them in advance. Crisis communication plans are a great way for you and your staff to prepare for anything that may arise.

A well-executed crisis communication plan is designed to protect your organization’s reputation by maintaining trust and credibility with your audience. Relationships are a critical part of business especially in time of crisis and to maintain trust and credibility with your audience it’s essential that you respond in a quick, honest, and transparent manner. Much to the general public’s amazement, crisis communication is not about spin control. As Gini Dietrich of the Chicago based PR agency, Arment Dietrich, likes to say, “Spin Sucks.”

What’s a Crisis?

A crisis is a sudden event with potentially negative consequences that can be damaging to an organization’s reputation. Some examples of crisis situations might include:

• Product Malfunctions and Recalls
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Employee Misconduct
• Product Tampering
• Workplace Violence
• Natural Disasters
• Rumors
• Accidents-Human or System Errors

Crisis Communication Planning Steps

According to Alan Jay Zaremba, author of Crisis Communication Theory and Practice the following are the steps for effective crisis communication planning. Please note that I have modified some of these steps for the purpose of this blog.

1.    Assemble Your Crisis Communication Team

Before doing anything you should assemble a cross functional team. When developing your team need to consider who the most important people are to have a seat at the table. During this step it’s also important to pick a designated place for your communications team to meet in the event of a crisis.

2.    Identify Crises

Once the team has been assembled the next step is to identify possible crises. For best results, your cross functional team should brainstorm and develop a list of potential threats.

 3.    Determine Stakeholders

Who are the stakeholders that you need to notify when a crisis strikes? After completing this step you need to dig a little deeper and determine a sequence. Since not all stakeholders are the same you must decide who you are going to notify first, second, third, and so on.

4.    Create Messages and Choose Delivery Methods

Before communicating with each stakeholder group you should have pre-determined messages that you want to communicate. By preparing your messages in advance you reduce the risk of saying something that could tarnish your relationship with your stakeholders.

After creating your messages, you need to choose the best delivery method. Please remember that not everyone uses the method for communicating. So it is important to determine, based on your audience’s communication preferences, the method that you are going to use to disseminate your message. Some sample deliver methods may include:

• Press Conferences
• Email
• Written Notices
• Phone Calls
• Notification on Your Website
• Social Media
• Company Blog

 5.    Identify and Train a Spokesperson

For those of you familiar with Boston politics you probably wouldn’t want to choose Mayor Mumbles, I mean Mayor Menino to be your spokesperson. At this stage you have invested a lot time and resources into your crisis communication plan you don’t want to derail your success by picking the wrong person to represent your company. It is often thought that the CEO should be the spokesperson but I caution against that theory if your CEO has a difficult time delivering a clear and concise message. If this is the case you need to choose another person such as the CFO, Director of Human Resources, Communications Manager or the Quality Assurance Manager to fill this role.

6.    Practice, Practice, Practice

 We’ve all heard the saying “practices makes perfect” since we were kids and this principle definitely applies to crisis communication. By practicing you crisis response efforts you will ensure that your team is prepared.

Does your company have a crisis communication plan? If not, why? A crisis can destroy a brand’s reputation overnight especially in a social media dominated world. Just ask BP or American Airlines.

If you have questions or have something to add please leave a comment.

Over the past couple months I have been conducting informational interviews with a variety public relations, advertising, and digital/social agencies. One of the things I noticed as it relates to social media are that agencies play one of two roles:  The Trainer or The Creator.

The Trainers

The Trainers seek to educate their clients on how to use social media to achieve business objectives. The Trainers’ role is to work with their clients to establish goals, develop strategy, create policies, provide social media training, and monitor their clients’ social media properties. They help coach and guide their clients with high-level strategy but when it comes to execution it’s their clients’ responsibility.

The Creators

The Creators are content producers who seek to create content to help their clients achieve business objectives through social media. This is not to say that The Creators do not help their clients with high-level strategy but their focus is more tactical. The Creators seem to have a person or small team of people who are responsible for the strategy such as a Social Media Director or Social Media Managers. The rest of the staff usually called Social Media Coordinators are responsible for writing blog posts and managing their clients’ social media properties.

Who’s Right?

During an informational interview with successful Boston based public relations agency that classifies as a Trainer, the owner mentioned that they used to operate as a Creator but found it to be extremely inefficient. The owner went on to add that it was taking the staff too much time to create content and manage social media properties. Therefore, the owner felt by operating the agency as a Trainer they could better serve their clients by helping with high-level strategy but also by providing them with the skills that they need to be self-sufficient and successful in the social space.

During another informational interview, this time with an online marketing/digital agency that operates as a Creator, The Director of Social Media felt the best way to serve their clients was by creating content and managing their social media properties. The Director of Social Media believes this is the best method for their clients because the agency’s staff members are experienced social media professionals and therefore should be the ones creating content and managing accounts.

So for those of you who work on the agency side does your agency act as a Trainer or Creator? What do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages of both?

Social Media: Centralized vs. Decentralized

I recently had an interview with a local college for an online marketing position and as part of the interview process I was asked to put together a sample social media strategy.

In my discussion with the college’s Director of Marketing and Communications he mentioned that the marketing department must authorize all marketing and communication pieces, this included social media as they wanted to have control over their messaging. While this seems a logical approach within traditional marketing, is taking a centralized approach the right choice for social media?

As the term implies a centralized company has one ‘central’ command unit responsible for all social media efforts. A benefit of this approach being the control the company retains. However, this approach carries many disadvantages, one being the speed and thoroughness in which a company may respond to their stakeholders.

The antithesis of the centralized approach is the decentralized approach. Companies that implement this model also have a central command unit, but other departments such as communications, customer service, sales, and human resources, manage and operate their own social media properties. Here the benefit lies in each department having a deep knowledge of their own subject and may respond to their stakeholders in a quicker and more engaging manner. However, while this benefit is satisfying, the major disadvantage for the company becomes less control over their messaging which may seem too risky an endeavor.

In the situation I encountered with the college, their Communications and Marketing department is solely responsible for managing the school’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. Yet colleges have many constituents with very different needs. One can safely assume the needs of alumni will be very different for those of current students who again will have very different needs from those of perspective students.

In order to better serve their various stakeholders’ my recommendation to the college was to have each department create their own social media profile on various appropriate social media platforms based on their stakeholders online behavior. In doing this each department would be able to create and share content more relevant to the needs and interests of their audiences.

To improve, the college would need to adopt a more decentralized approach with their social media efforts. The role of the Communications and Marketing department would then shift from being the content creator to a trainer or advisor. In this role the department would be responsible for training the various departments on social media, identifying goals, objectives, and developing strategy. Additionally the department would assume the role of content monitor, allowing individual departments the responsibility of content creation and execution, but making sure that these varied content sources did not stray from the overall university message.

Do you agree or disagree? Please leave a comment as I would love to hear your feedback.

History of Storytelling

Storytelling is an art form that has been around since the beginning of time. It first started with cavemen drawing on walls and using symbols that looked like writing to communicate with the other members of the tribe.

As man continued to evolve so did their ability to communicate with others. Over time, man invented words that led to the creation of languages, which was also the beginning of oral communication.

Soon language became more sophisticated and man was more capable of telling better and more engaging oral written stories. Many civilizations used this newfound ability to tell the story of their ‘Gods.’ The ancient Greeks were masters at this as the stories about their ‘Gods’ are still being told today.

Technology has also been a driving force in storytelling. From the advent of the printing press, to radio, then television, and now Internet people were given the ability to share their stories with a mass audience.

Why is Storytelling Important To Your Brand

Brands, like people, have unique personalities and characteristics that separate them from everyone else.  The better you are at communicating your brand’s story the more authentic your brand will appear to your customers. The most successful brands understand this and they know how to engage by helping their consumers make a powerful emotional connection with their brand.

How To Use Online Video To Tell Your Brands Story

Video is a powerful medium as it combines both the senses of sight and sound. It is also a great way for tell your brand’s story in an interesting and engaging manner. Some of the ways that you can use online video to tell your brands story are:

Company History-Today’s consumers are savvier than ever and they are looking to find out more information about your company. Consumers want to know your company’s history, why your company was started, and the obstacles and challenges that your company faced along the way. Your home page or about us section is a great place for an online video that discusses your company’s history.

Customer Testimonials-Potential consumers want to know that they are buying from a brand that they can trust. One of the best ways to build trust with your potential consumers is through customer testimonials. Online video is a great to tell your customer stories and their experience with your brand.

Employee Testimonials-Online videos are just for marketing but they also a great way to attract new employees. You can use your employees to talk about your organizational culture. This is also a great way for you to put a face behind the brand.

As consumers are bombarded with more and more information your ability to tell a captivating story through online video is going to be critical to your success.

Why Your Company Needs a Mobile Marketing Strategy Now

According to the most recent “Strong Mobile Marketing Survey” mobile marketing budgets are growing, but not their strategies. The survey indicates that the top challenges for marketers in implementing mobile are a lack of strategy and a lack of resources including financial, which many only account for 5% or less of their interactive budgets.

Source: Mobile Marketing Watch

Why Is a Mobile Marketing Strategy Important?

It’s estimated that by 2015 mobile usage will increase by a factor of 26 to 2 billion users and mobile advertising will be a $5.04 billion dollar industry. As smartphones and tablets become increasingly more available consumers will continue to access information on the run. If you want to be found by your consumers and potential customers it is important that they can access your information on their choice of devices.

The first steps in developing a mobile marketing strategy are to decide on your goals and research where and how your consumers and potential consumers access your information. One of the most common problems you see are companies jumping on the “hottest” thing such as mobile applications or QR codes without considering why they are implementing these strategies.

When implementing a mobile strategy the first step you should take is making sure that your website is mobile friendly. This is something that can be achieved through responsive design. Responsive design uses queries to ensure that your website can be accessed on a variety of devices and browsers.

After you have made your website mobile friendly then you can start considering other mobile marketing strategies. This is where doing research on your consumers and potential customers information consumption habits are important. The research will give you a better picture with how these groups want to interact with your brand. Remember that in today’s “permission marketing” world just pushing out a message to the masses in no longer effective. You need to make sure that your message is relevant to your audience and offers them something of value. Some mobile marketing strategies may include:

• Text Message Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• Mobile Payments
• QR Codes
• Mobile Applications

Marketers keep saying that the future is in mobile marketing but that time has come. It’s time for you to make your mobile strategy and priority and dedicate the resources that it needs to be successful.

Sources: hightable.com

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