By Leo Valiquette
LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Blogs, podcasts and discussion forums. The early adopters rave about the merits of jumping on the social media bandwagon as a marketing tool that allows a company to generate brand awareness through dialogue with customers, peers, partners and the world at large. It’s all about the warm and fuzzy feelings created when customers feel that they are being heard, that their input is important to the ongoing development of a product or service. Then there’s the celebrity that comes of being a provocative source of information and insight that attracts a following and drives traffic to your business’s website.
The possibilities are endless. And therein lies the problem — running off half-cocked with giddy excitement. But as the panelists at last night’s Social Media for Business Marketing event at TheCodeFactory emphasized, social media is a set of tools, not a strategy in and of itself. It’s a medium, and as such, is still secondary to the message.
The group included Linda Moran, manager of marketing communications at Sciemetric Instruments; Bob LeDrew, senior consultant at Thornley Fallis Communications and blogger at Flacklife; Alec Saunders, CEO and co-founder of Iotum and blogger at Saunderslog.com; Peter Childs, social media strategist; and Luc Levesque, founder and GM at TravelPod and travel blogger.
It was a group passionate about the possibilities of social media, but pragmatic as well. Here are the key points the group agreed must direct any push to use social media as a marketing tool:
1. Listen to what is being said about your company, its products and its brand in the social media universe before launching your own initiatives. What is your reputation? Are there problems you can identify and resolve? Use tools like Google alerts and blog feeds to monitor the web.
2. What are your objectives in terms of brand? Who are you trying to reach? Is this target group social-media savvy? Older age groups are far less engaged with social media than younger ones. In some industry verticals, there may be some early adopters, but the majority of the decisionmakers you want to reach may still be stuck in the ’90s trying to master their email.
3. What business problem are you trying to solve? How will the use of social media address this? Which tool is best for the job — a corporate blog, a Facebook fan page, a polished piece of video on Youtube, a coordinated combination of several?
4. What kind of business outcome do you want to achieve? Such as, is there a specific number of new clients in six months that have come to you through your social media efforts?
5. Experimentation is key. If one tool isn’t yielding the outcomes you want in the specified period of time, try something else. Keep swinging until you hit something.
6. Tying revenue directly back to social media activities is just as difficult as saying with certainty that a story about your company in a major newspaper led to new business with customers X, Y and Z. But there is plenty of research that demonstrates increased web traffic converts into increased business. The trick is figuring out how to drive that traffic.
7. Time. Commitment. Consistency: If you are going to embark on something like a blog, maintaining a steady flow of new content is critical. Alec Saunders, for example, commits to three new postings a day and his traffic is through the roof (the debate’s still open on whether he actually sleeps).
8. Quality: You have to be pushing out quality, compelling content to draw and hold you audience. It’s a dog’s breakfast out there when it comes to competing for the public’s attention. The way to rise to the top is with consistency and quality.
9. Ranking high on a site like Technorati is less important than successfully engaging in dialogue with your target audience. There’s a difference between having a big audience and the right audience.
10. And lastly, if you’re in a position where you’re trying to sell the advantages of social media to a senior executive who’s slow to catch on, speak in simple terms and avoid jargon. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot with your own enthusiasm.
By Leo Valiquette
I came across a couple of interesting blog posts today about the trials and tribulations of being a writer, not to mention the trials and tribulations of those who must deal with writers without a firm grasp of what constitutes good grammar.
The first is on the Strategic Public Relations blog. I thought it summed up quite well the never-ending evolution of a writer. If you’re a writer yourself, or intrigued by the process of writing, the author is looking for comments on how to deal with various challenges such as writer’s block.
The second post deals with more nitty-gritty issues of grammar and the poor impression that is made on journalists and editors when PR practitioners fail to adhere to the finer points of style such as proper apostrophe use. Check out the post titled Quality is Job #1 on PR Squared.
For those of us who craft words into coherent patterns of thought for a living, it’s often easy to take for granted what others sometimes see as a cryptic, even magical process.
Sometimes it’s easy. Sometimes it’s not. Is there some magic formula, or secret sauce that stirs the creative juices? Not that I’ve ever discovered. It’s hard work, plain and simple, and the only way I know to get in the groove is to clear my head and get the oxygen pumping with some kind of physical activity, then sit down and focus. There are plenty of little things that can help. When writing fiction, sometimes I favour peace and quiet and classical music, other times I go for the background noise of a cozy coffee bar. But in the end, there’s no substitute for sheer willpower and something that drives a sense of urgency. (On the job, it’s amazing how much inspiration can be drawn from being on the clock with a deadline to meet.)
What often makes all the difference with those of us who write for pay, pleasure, or both, is the enjoyment of the craft itself, rather than whatever monetary rewards we can garner from it. Most of us are unapologetically word geeks. We like to play with words as the building blocks of a good story. Maybe that story comes in the form of a news release launching one of our clients, or a case study in a white paper, but it’s a form of storytelling just the same. In the end, what we are trying to do is reach out, capture the attention of, and strike a chord with, our target audience. Is that so different from what a fiction writer is trying to do?
And much like the case with good fiction, what we do is a product of both a writer and an editor working together to create a final, polished piece. It’s all about making a good first impression so that people focus on what you have written, rather than on how you have written it. (Editor’s note: This piece now makes a much better impression!)
By Leo Valiquette
Anyone savvy with the local tech scene and the areas of focus by yours truly during my time at the OBJ will know all about that made-in-Ottawa problem with developing a sales culture among our companies. Well, somebody’s finally doing something about it.
Eliot Burdett and the team at Peak Sales Recruiting have teamed up with a number of other like-minded individuals to create a not-for-profit organization called the Sales Leadership Initiative (SLI).
SLI’s mission is simple: ferret out from among the estimated 6,000 sales people who live and work in Ottawa the shining stars, the high achievers, the trailblazers who continually set and raise the bar. But this isn’t about showering praise and recognition, it’s about picking the brains of these people for the wise insights that can help others up their own game.
“We are interested in learning from the best practices in technology sales, whether close to home or further afield,” is SLI’s official line. “Our goals are (1) to increase and develop the pool of sales talent, and (2) raise the profile of Ottawa as a center of sale excellence.”
SLI is kicking things off with a launch event on June 13 featuring best-selling author and award-winning motivational speaker Jeffrey Gitomer (pictured) to help sales professionals “turbo charge their sales engines.” It’s a morning event at Ben Franklin Place. Click here to learn more.
In a town dominated by a bureaucractic mindset and a horde of engineers turned C-level executives, we definitely need an initiative like this to push the sales side of a business. Now let’s just hope those most in need can acknowledge their shortcomings and take advantage of what SLI has to offer.
By Leo Valiquette
Among the various blogs I follow, one that stands out for a daily chuckle is the Bad Pitch Blog, which outs and critiques bad pitches by those who attempt to pass themselves off as PR practitioners.
The individual reporter or editor is often swamped by pitches of one sort or another, whether it be a press release that’s been dispatched via an email blast or a more personal contact by phone or e-mail. Most often it’s the direct contact that’s going to net the most fish, provided the PR person in question has taken the time to ensure they are pitching the right story at the right publication and have actually provided said editor or reporter with something to chew on. In clear and concise terms, what is the news value and why is it something they should consider? If a PR person can’t convey this in less than 10 seconds on the phone, or in a few punchy sentences via e-mail, they’ve committed premature pitching. Rather than make the most of the opportunity, they’ve blown it. Editors and reporters who feel they’re being nagged by someone who hasn’t done their homework get cranky. (Trust me on this, I used to be one of those cranky editors).
As this latest from the Bad Pitch Blog demonstrates, even worse than not conveying your message crisply is bothering to pursue media with no message at all. It’s like sending a resume with a cover letter that only reads “it’s all in the resume.” See for yourself how a misguided PR practitioner earned her dubious kudos on the Bad Pitch Blog in 10 words or less.
[tag] public relations, pitching, media relations [/tag]
By Leo Valiquette
What does it take to build a successful business from scratch without selling your soul to the venture capitalists? Pretty much what it takes to turn any vision into reality – persistence, optimism and thinking first about qualifying the market demand for what you want to offer.
Last night at the Marshes Golf Club, six local entrepreneurs, a couple fresh out of school, the rest somewhat grayer, manned a panel to discuss how they developed their individual businesses without the aid of venture capital dollars. The event was called Buddy keep your Million – but buy my product! To my mind, their insights are key to the success of any venture regardless of who is filling your bank account.
First up was the energetic Aydin Mirzaee, founder of bOK Systems Corp. and Chide.it. For him it’s all about persistence. He told the story of how Col. Sanders, a retiree not so keen about living on a fixed income, hit the road with his family chicken recipe and endured over 1,000 rejections before finding a restaurant willing to pay him royalties.
Next came the equally young and enterprising Kareem Sultan of RaceDV. The right mentor made all the difference for him. In this case, an employer who encouraged him to use his downtime at work to pursue his interests and to “go out and learn something.” When things began to move along, his employer continued to help him incubate his idea, and, most importantly, allowed him to retain full ownership of his intellectual property.
Moving down the line came a more seasoned entrepreneur, Scott Lake, founder of Jaded Pixel and Shopify. With his focus on open-source software development, he puts a high premium on cultivating a passionate community following around a product to generate word of mouth and provide user feedback. But in addition to that, it must be an interactive communication, in which your developers have a dialogue with this community. It’s all about harnessing the power of social media.
Next up was Paul Slaby. His latest role is CEO of Kaben Wireless, but he has a long track record in Ottawa, with start-ups that include ATMOS and VoIPShield. What he found when he arrived at Kaben was a very strong engineering culture that needed to refocus on sales and marketing. Customer money is the best money to have he said, and one of the most effective ways to get it is to develop the services side of your business early. For him, that has translated into joint ventures on product development and providing that partner with outsourced R&D services with a running royalty arrangement.
For the next speaker, Wael Aggan of TradeMerit, one truth has been self-evident since his first venture in Egypt more than 30 years ago—define a market niche first, figure out how you will engineer a product to fill that need second. His preference is always to define a niche and dominate it, rather than pursue a broader market opportunity where there might already be established incumbents or too much open playing field for “me too” rivals to muscle in.
Lastly, Rob Lane of Overlay.TV discussed how it was the right choice for his company to secure venture capital financing. For the market his company is trying to tackle and the big incumbents that are already there, an infusion of VC cash was the only way for his company to generate adequate market momentum. However, his message is that each individual must first define what success means for them. Is it a $1-million venture, a $10-million venture, or a $1-billion one? (And of course, VCs won’t bother with anything that doesn’t have the potential to become at least a $100-million enterprise). He also stressed the importance of global networking thanks to the dramatic impact of social media.
