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By now most companies have established a social media presence. However, they often don’t know whose attention they’re getting, and if it’s the kind of attention they want. There is a lot of chatter right now about how NOT to use social marketing, (see 10 Ways to Screw Up Your SEO by David McAnally, and Top 6 Social Media Mistakes and How to Fix Them, by Kristi Hines). However most analysts have skipped over the most important element: the social element, the customers you hope to attract by engaging in social media in the first place! Who are they, where are they, and how do you reach them?

After reading several different top-ten or top -six lists, it seems to us like there are three key and all-too-common pitfalls in social media that need to be fixed to make sure that the social media element of your company’s marketing is getting to the audience you want:

1. Your social media is disconnected from your company’s message. Many companies simply start a Facebook page or Twitter account and assume that will be enough to keep the conversation alive between them and their customers. Well, SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) has been blindly sending out radio signals for 50 years, and we’ve seen the results: so far, no one’s responded.

But more importantly, what are you saying on those social networks? Are you promoting your new product, or are you tweeting about that new gizmo (worse, someone else’s product!) that you just have to have! Not connecting your message online with the rest of your marketing sends a mixed signal to your audience and makes them less likely to engage in your brand.Having a social media strategy is key to make sure that what you are saying in the social media sphere is coherent with what you’re saying in the rest of your marketing message. See the article on 7 Steps for a Successful Social Media Strategy (More Top-Ten style lists!), or read our own take on it in a blog post from April.

2. Not connecting with the right audiences. Who is your audience? Who do you want them to be?  It is important to make sure that your content is reaching the correct people. The audience that you want to connect with via search engine is usually the same people you want to connect with using social media. Both these can be accomplished with good SEO (search engine optimization). Using Activity Streams or tracking the user data from RSS Feeds can give you a better idea of who’s already engaging in your brand. In an article for Association Media & Publishing, Jacqui Cook suggests deciding who you want to impress. Then go to Google, use keywords you think they might use, and see what comes up. And don’t confuse terminology and keywords with industry jargon.

3. No value-add for social media users. Good customer service is good marketing. Think of social media as a customer service. How does your social media serve your customers?

As Harris Diamond wrote in a column for Forbes Magazine, “Brands today are actively harnessing social media platforms to create content and communities to find their brand loyalists or advocates… The new model of targeting brand ambassadors is about two-way, open, social engagement and not just top-down and inside-out pushing of products.”

What’s in it for your customers to engage in social media with your company? What do they get out of it? By offering insider information, early releases, and other perks, customers will engage and remain loyal to your brand. Company CEOs (or their assistants) often tweet previews of a speech right before a conference or event. Diamond points out “Once identified and engaged with, brand advocates do the marketing campaigns for them.” It can’t get much easier than that!

So there you have it, three pitfalls that many companies make when trying to find their social media audience, and how your company can avoid them.

In this day and age the majority of companies and brands have some form of social media presence. With the abundance of social media channels and the amount of chatter going on public forums, a growing concern for companies is the impact of complaints and negative comments being made through these channels. This concern can be a huge deterrent to brands taking the plunge and fully embracing the world of social and the benefits it can offer.

Even though your company may not be engaged in social media channels, it doesn’t mean people aren’t talking about your brand.  It’s inevitable that not all the conversations are positive either. There will always be critics and negative comments online and offline. It is how a company chooses to react and engage these critics that is most important and can help change a negative into a positive. So what is the most effective approach to dealing with these critics?

Jason Hill discusses his approach to dealing with complainers and combatants and why you don’t have to be as worried as you think in his Social Media Explorer article, “Six Steps for Dealing with Detractors.” Hill’s six step approach:  

1. Acknowledge their right to complain
2. Apologize for their situation, or your mistake (if warranted)
3. Assert clarity in your policy or reasons (if warranted)
4. Asses what will help them feel better
5. Act accordingly
6. Abdicate

Hill offers some great advice, but I think it is key to first examine the particular customer, as well as the context and channel the complaint is being made through. This should effect how and where you choose to engage the customer or “detractor.” Since every channel is different it is important to consider how your response will be viewed by other consumers; will it be more beneficial to respond privately or publically?

These are all good points to consider when identifying your approach to dealing with a disgruntled customer, but I agree with Hill that only through your own experience can you develop a tested process that works best for you. JetBlue is a recent example of a company that was able to do this is by reaching out to a customer who felt they had been unjustly charged a baggage fee for their fold-up bicycle. Within days JetBlue contacted the customer, reversed the charge, and subsequently changed their baggage fee policy. The positive outcome was picked up by the bike blogosphere and Consumerist changing this potential negative situation into a positive.

Every brand is going to have its share of critics and with the growing number social channels their voices are becoming more powerful. By developing a strategy to engage these critics your company will be more prepared to react to future incidents. You may never be able to please everyone, but as long as you try to respond accordingly and respectfully you have a better chance of turning a potentially negative situation into a positive one.

With the current economic climate, times have been uncertain in the world of marketing and advertising. Although companies are slowly beginning to open up their pocket books again, many are still playing it close to the vest as they wait to see how things pan out. This has made things increasingly difficult for sales and marketing professionals from all industries and company sizes as they look for new ways to get the job done with increasingly less resources.

With the continued popularity of social networks and growth of social media there is an abundance of tools and resources available for us to leverage in order to connect with potential clients and customers. As more and more companies begin to utilize social networks it presents a new opportunity for you to reach out and network with key people in organizations.

LinkedIn is a professional network that can be hugely beneficial across industries with the sole mission to “connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful.” Steve Patrizi, a VP for LinkedIn, shares 15 tips to help you stand out on LinkedIn and leverage this resource for ultimate success in his iMedia article, “How to Stand Out on LinkedIn.” Patrizi provides some great techniques including:

• Join groups that are relevant to your area of expertise as a way to connect with new clients or find a new position.
• Customize your LinkedIn Public Profile URL to help you own your professional brand and Google search results.
• Use LinkedIn Advanced Search to discover the key decision makers at the companies you want to work with.
• Use LinkedIn groups to establish a community for your brand and buildbrand ambassadors.

Many of these tips may seem obvious, but they are important to remember. LinkedIn can be a great tool, but it is not going to do the work for you. If utilized properly it can be an excellent resource to help build your personal brand and company’s brand, as well as enabling you to connect with the key people at the right companies. But just because you signed up doesn’t mean you will automatically start benefiting. Like many social networks and social media channels there is great marketing potential, but you have to take the time, do the research, and put in the work if you want to reap the rewards.

Location-based services and social networks are changing the landscape for marketers, but with all the talk surrounding geotargeting and location marketing where is it actually headed? How will it be utilized and how can marketers take advantage of the geo-location push? In truth, right now no-one is fully sure what the future possibilities are.

Jesse Stanchak in his SmartBrief article “Where next for location marketing”, lays out five key points discussed in a recent debate by location-service big wigs on what the future holds; the most notable point being the technological hurdles that will slow its spread.

“Location services need better hardware support and more standardization across phone platforms before pinpoint accuracy will become viable; in the meantime, the services are likely to remain fuzzy, limiting their ability to serve up precisely targeted promotions. ‘The ideas we’re pushing are more advanced than the technologies that are driving them,’ said Foursquare’s Crowley.”  

Even with the technical limitations that currently exist, location-based services such as Foursquare and Gowalla are becoming more widely accepted. Even the hit TV show Law and Order: SVU had a recent episode centered around a GPS based dating site. I know this example doesn’t portray these services in the most positive light, but it’s a testament to the location services growing popularity and that more people are taking notice. Sites like Foursquare and Gowalla are no longer for the “geeky” (as Stanchak puts it) social media elite. But this brings up another interesting point; as these services become more mainstream what factor privacy will issues play in their growth and overall effectiveness. People are becoming more concerned with the issue of privacy, which could be a limiting factor in the wide spread growth of location service and their effectiveness as marketing tools.      

Although these current barriers exist, as long as location services continue to spread and user interaction evolves, brands will seek new ways to embrace the fields’ promotional capabilities, utilizing these tools to connect with consumers in hopes of influencing the “influencer” and building brand advocates.

As the industry moves forward, it will be important for marketers to remember that they cannot solely rely on location-based campaigns. Location marketing campaigns will need to be integrated as part of an overall comprehensive marketing strategy to ensure long-term success and value. So how can your brand effectively utilize location marketing? This may not be something that is fully visible yet, but as the services and supporting technology evolves; it will be interesting to see what unfolds.

You hear the term “innovation” tossed around a lot in the corporate world these days. Everyone is looking for the next innovative product, marketing strategy, or “big idea” to stay ahead of their competition. Regardless of the industry you are in it is important to be innovative and stay ahead of the curve, so your brand does not become stagnant in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The problem is that all too often the corporate or company culture actually stifles innovation before it can get started. Jeffery Phillips examines some weak links in the innovation chain that lead to failure, in his article, “Innovation Failure Points: Strangled in the Crib.”  

In his article Phillips touches on five key innovation killers within organizations including: not having the fortitude, unclear goals, and being scared of change. Too often companies are afraid to take the plunge and make the commitment and investment to achieve a successful innovation.

While working as a product manager in the sporting goods industry for many years I saw first hand the importance of innovation and the effect it can have on a company. It was imperative that we continually innovate and it was my job to research the marketplace to find the next innovative product or “big idea.” It was a constant battle to develop the next homerun product because if we didn’t innovate someone else would and our company would be passed by.

During this time I experienced some of the roadblocks that were discussed in Phillips article. Before moving forward, commitment and investment had to be made to the idea on the front end, which proved difficult because many times we were too afraid to rock the boat and possibly disrupting the current business we had. This worked for maintaining our current market share in the short term, but it also limited our ability to grow and be prepared for the future.

Phillips makes an additional important point that we usually only hear about the successful innovations when there is still a lot we can learn from innovation “failures.” By investigating the points that caused the innovation fail we are better able to prepare ourselves for future success. According to Phillips:

“I believe it is more interesting and more informative to consider the failures rather than the successes, in that every failure is instructive, while most successes are situational.

So rather than looking at a successful result and assuming the process was valid, let’s consider innovation as a series of interconnected links, and find the likely failure points for innovation in that chain. As we look at weak links in the innovaion chain our first stop is at the beginning.”

At Plexipixel we work hard to avoid roadblocks to innovation by fostering a creative environment. With constantly evolving digital world it is also imperative for the success of our client’s initiatives that we stay on top of new technologies. We have always tried hard to push the boundaries of innovation beginning with co-founder Matt Tamaru being one of the first animators/designers to formulate a production process using FutureSplash (later renamed Flash), to our recent work with Silverlight technologies and the development of our proprietary Windows Azure CMS..

It’s been refreshing as well as challenging to be at a company that understands the difficulties involved in fostering creative ideas and successful innovations.  The challenging part is that we know that we can only work on moving forward by talking about our successes as well as failures.  An essential part of my job at Plexipixel is to help facilitate that same environment with our clients which means I have to talk about success and failures including our very own.

All in all, I’ve learned that innovation can indeed be difficult but perhaps not in the way I’ve always assumed; good ideas can come from anywhere, but great ideas are the ones that are nurtured to completion with a lot of honesty and a healthy heaping of humble pie.

Yesterday in an open letter posted on Apple’s website, “Thoughts on Flash”, Steve Jobs discussed his feelings about Flash and Apple’s relationship with Adobe in hopes of explaining why they do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

This garnered a lot interest around the office and sparked some great conversation. A few of our team members weighed in with their thoughts on Jobs’ comments (with a few related random references thrown in).

Our Lead Developer, Andy Jacobs, found the article to be filled with many half-truths including the idea that Flash is actually a closed system.

“Adobe’s platform is actually pretty “open”.  The dev-side of Flash can be built in any number of ways using their free SDK.”

In Andy’s opinion the idea that “Flash won’t make the transition to mobile” is incorrect and it should be working on the next generation phones by summer.

“Adobe’s already adapted most of their new player VM to use modern hardware, why not mobile hardware?

10.1 has been running on Android in demos for a while now.  Adobe has indicated that it is on schedule to ship this for Android this summer, regardless of Steve Jobs’ personal predictions.

Apps will continue to do well on the Apple platform because content producers get a much better value prop when they can monitor their use and get paid.  Unfortunately I think this is just a crutch until they can figure out how to generate revenue from the web again – on all screens, regardless of form-factor or input style.”- Andy Jacobs

As a huge Mac fan, Interactive Designer Victoria Lo, weighed in with her own thoughts and why she believes Apple should reconsider a partnership with Adobe:

“I have to agree, even as a Mac-addict. While I love their devices, I would say that Flash is so ubiquitous on the web (at least for a few more years until HTML5 picks up more steam and support) that shutting out its support and functionality on mobile devices seems like a convenient way to keep a stronghold on their app market, thus limiting the type of apps and content users can obtain to what’s available in their store.

Lots of things Andy already touched on that I agree with, and I think if Apple was smart they’d reconsider a partnership. Allowing users and devs to ultimately choose would only benefit everyone in the long run, but as long as they continue to perpetuate this no-Flash mentality, people will be suspicious of their true intentions.

At the same time, Apple has fostered a culture of lazy-faux-tech savvy people. Instead of being engaged with our technology, we become pure consumers. Give me this app, give me directions here. I don’t know how to fix my phone, so I’ll just send it off to a “genius” because the physical housing is so enclosed I can’t even see where the screws are to open this $%@ up. Whatever happened to opening up a computer tower and tinkering with the guts? Although there’s good things to be said about making technology accessible and intuitive, there’s also something to be said about encouraging blind consumption.”

Andy then retorted with:

“That’s why I’m intent on being a ‘renegade air conditioning specialist’ type like De Niro’s character in Brazil.  Plus the cool costume and rappelling around a futuristic metropolis.”

“Brazil” photo courtesy of Universal Studios

Andy and Victoria definitely raise some interesting points and sparked some good conversation. What is your interpretation of Jobs’ comments and feelings on Apple’s direction? We would love to hear your “thoughts on Flash.”

As social media continues to be become an integral marketing tool companies are looking for new and creative ways to utilize these channels to interact with their customers. For those companies yet to take the plunge into the world of social the abundance of social media channels can be overwhelming. So where do you get started? How do you “jump-in?”

Andy Sernovitz takes a look at case study by Joyce Munoz on how her company got their social media program off the ground in his SmartBlog article, “Andy’s Answers: How Avery Dennison got started in social media.”  Sernovitz touched on 3 “big ideas” from Joyce’s presentation that helped their campaign garner early success despite being new to the game and not being a traditionally “sexy” company:

• Find internal social media evangelists
• Just launch
• Keep it simple

Although I think Munoz makes some excellent points, companies need to be careful about “just launching.” Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean you should dive in head first. It is important for companies to develop a social media strategy before jumping-in:

1. first examine who your audience is,
2. what their intentions are
3. and where they are consuming content.

Too often brands jump into the social media realm blindly, which leads to a poorly executed campaign that can actually degrade the brand. At some point you will need to “just launch”, but make sure you are informed before you do.  

Even after you have indentified the right approach to take to start a successful social media campaign it can still be difficult to get the decision makers at your company to buy off on it. Rob Birgfeld discusses a list of tips to sell the executives on social media and develop a companywide social media-plan in his SmartBlog article, “5 Steps to Building a Companywide Social-Media Plan”, which include:

• Start small and test
• Record victories
• Communicate
• Assemble an interdepartmental team
• Produce

It is important to measure the effectiveness and keep a record of the social media channels you utilize to show decision-makers what works and what doesn’t.  This will help them  feel more comfortable that you have gathered the knowledge to help the company succeed in the world of social. In the end you still need to “produce”; if the campaigns aren’t successful the plug will be pulled and the executives will be very hesitant of social media in the future.

Your customers are already in the digital realm: on the Web, connecting via social networks, and using their smart phones, so it is important you are there also. Just remember with so many different channels it is important you understand where your audience is, so you can engage them through the most effective channels. Are you where your customers are?

Heading into the new decade we took a moment to examine what digital trends would have a significant impact throughout 2010. As we pass the first quarter of this year we have been able to watch the continued emergence of some of the digital and web trend predictions discussed including:   

• Social gaming and virtual currencies: This can be seen with the continued popularity of games such as Farmville, which now has over 80 million users. Women ages 35-55 continue to be the largest demographic for social gaming, so expect to see more social network games geared toward this group’s interests.
• Mobile and GPS based advertising and services: As discussed in a recent article, MillerCoors has crossed the threshold to mobile advertising and will be utilizing SnapTag technology to promote their latest craft beer.  GPS based services such as Foursquare continue to grow along with mobile and GPS dating services. Expect to see a continued growth in geotargeting as marketers continue to find better ways to deliver relevant real time content to consumers.
• Improved social-media monitoring and analytics: This can be seen with the increase and improvement of the analytics tools available as marketers and brands seek to justify social media campaigns.  

Now that we are well into 2010 it is time to start looking forward at the next wave of digital trends, to try to stay ahead of the curve. Freddie Laker discusses his predictions for the social media landscape in 2012 in his AdAge article, “What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012”, which include:  

• Decentralization of social networks: We are already seeing the early-stages of this with the emergence of Facebook Connect and the functionality of the new Windows Mobile 7 Series.
• Growth of content aggregators: This is increasingly important as the amount of content available continues to grow and is scattered across multiple channels. Brands will need to find ways to manage content, filtering it through the appropriate channels and delivering in the right context.
• Interaction with search engines and influencer marketing: New platforms like Google’s Social Search will change the way people interact with search engines by permeating search results with content that is relevant to their personal networks. This will increase the significance of influencer marketing and will give brands the opportunity to reach their potential consumer base in more focused and effective ways.

Laker believes that in order for brands to stay relevant in the future, they will need to be on board with the idea that share of voice, point of view and community influence will be more important than brand ownership. It will be interesting to see if all digital experiences will become socially-enhanced, rendering the term “social media” obsolete as everything becomes digital media as Laker predicts. Regardless of how the digital world evolves as we move forward it will be imperative for brands to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to the changes if they want to stay relevant in a constantly changing marketplace.

MillerCoors, the second largest brewing company in the US, who is most well known for their American-style lagers Miller Lite and Coors Light are taking a new approach to reach their consumers in Colorado. This week under their A.C. Golden Brewing Co. unit, MillerCoors plans to launch their new craft-style beer, Colorado Native Lager. According to Jeremy Mullman’s AdAge article, “Miller Lets New Craft Brew Speak for Itself”, the new lager, which is brewed from “99.9%” Colorado grown ingredients and distributed only in Colorado, will be marketed exclusively through digital and word-of-mouth channels.

This in itself is not an entirely new concept for the Chicago based company. The Colorado Native Lager is following in the footsteps of Blue Moon, another MillerCoors’ craft-style beer whose popularity was built through word-of-mouth advertising. According Mullman’s article, A.C. Golden will be putting the entirety of the Colorado Native budget into mobile and social media channels hoping to encourage consumers to become the brands advocate and introduce the beer to friends.

Where the new approach differs and becomes more engaging is with the addition of SpyderLinks’ SnapTag technology, which will enable MillerCoors to utilize their logo on each bottle as a portal to mobile interactivity. According to Mullman:

“Every Colorado Native label is affixed with a “SnapTag,” which, if photographed on a mobile device and e-mailed to a specified phone number, allows the brand to begin a conversation with its drinkers. After e-mailing in a picture of the logo, a drinker will first get a reply asking for their birthday. If they say they’re older than 21, they’ll be queried with Colorado-centric trivia about their hobbies and interests, and the database will remember the answers and use them to craft future communications and offers to each individual drinker.”

Through utilizing the SnapTag technology MillerCoors will be able to communicate with their consumers rather than just talking at them with the goal of organically growing the brand around what the Colorado consumers want. This will allow A.C. Golden to provide consumers with content and information that is relevant to their lives with the hope of building the number of advocates for their brand. According to A.C. Golden’s president, Glenn Knippenberg:

“This brand is all about our consumers and their Colorado lifestyle. And this technology is going to allow the brand to evolve based on what they tell us about their lifestyle.”

As a craft beer fan myself I wonder if this approach will resonate within a community that tends to be skeptical of any beer brewed by a national powerhouse. It would also be interesting to see how many people will be willing to install the tag app and go through the motions of sending their personally identifiable information to MillerCoors. Will the incentives be enough to entice their customers to jump through the barriers to entry? Using digital and mobile advertising to build brand advocates will definitely be a huge step for brewers who have typically shied away from social media outlets in the past because of the struggle with age verification. Finding that “killer implementation” could be the answer for Colorado Native Lager success in a market that is already over-saturated with locally craft brewed beer.

Content has long been considered king but with the growing amount of content scattered across multiple channels, distribution channels and context are increasingly more important.

In the AdAge article, “Is Content King? Then Distribution Is Crown Prince”, Keith Richman discusses the importance of distribution and how having great content does not guarantee it will be reach its audience. According to Richman:

“The good news is that the internet provides amazing opportunities to distribute content and reach an audience. The bad news is that you are competing with millions of other content creators for the attention of that audience and their barrier to entry into the online medium is almost non-existent. In this environment more than any, distribution matters significantly.”

While “Overemphasis on Brand Building Leads to Mistrust” by Brent Leary in Inc. Technology examines the 2010 Trust Barometer report which shows that increased content through social media has swung the pendulum away from individuals in favor of industry experts/academics who are now as the most trusted source for company information.

“All the information being created and distributed is overloading most of us, which may be why there is a return to trusting authority sites, and recognized experts.  So, as the trust study is indicating, it’s becoming increasingly important to be viewed as an expert — more than ever before.”

This pendulum swing reinforces the idea that there is opportunity for brands to create content to tell their brand stories.   Adidas Penalty Shoot-Out, which was released in 5 European countries through Windows Live Messenger, was able to garner over 13 million game plays in just a two-month period.  This clearly shows that a combination of great content, strong brand tie-in, appropriate context, careful understanding of audience and engaging user experience can get you some amazing results.