From Grain to Green: Marketing A Once-Conventional Farm

 

 

If you haven't yet heard of our grass-fed meat client, U.S. Wellness Meats, you will soon. John Wood's Missouri-based farm has been making the round on foodie blogs and in green mags (look for him in the May/June issue of Sierra!) and the meat is getting quite the rep for its gourmet taste, healthfulness and sustainability. Everyone at CVM can attest to the quality of the U.S. Wellness Meats grass-fed meat, grass-fed dairy and free range poultry. We even tried the jerky.

John was featured most recently on MediaPost's Engage:Green when yours truly wrote a post on how CVM made over U.S. Wellness Meats' image. With a little creativity, ingenuity and elbow-grease, we turned the collective of grass-fed family farms into a force to be reckoned with. Check out the original post on MediaPost here.

Creating a Website for Your Personal Brand (5 Mandatory Steps)

Dan Waldschmidt's website is a great example of a personal brand site
that embodies the five tips outlined in this post*

Although the concept of transforming yourself into a personal brand isn't a new one, it's more prevalent than ever these days. This is true for many reasons--the influence of Internet/social media, ego, and an ever-evolving definition of what's cool. Not to mention, the following factors:

• It's no longer taboo for public figures to endorse brands or to put their own names on products. In fact, whereas even ten years ago, actors, musicians and other high profile people risked losing all street cred for shilling a product, it's now cooler-and more profitable-than ever.
• In the age of transparency, faceless corporations are, like, so 1998, while having a well-known face that consumers can relate to at the front of your company is totally in vogue.
• Personal brands can charge people more for appearances, books and other opportunities, than they could if they didn't have a solid brand platform. In other words, if there are two people with the exact same expertise and value to offer, the one with the stronger personal brand platform will always 1) be the first choice for most opportunities, and 2) get paid more as a result. Not only do they come with an existing audience, they also offer a certain cachet.

Really, the main tenets of creating a solid personal brand platform are the same as creating any brand platform: good messaging, widespread appeal, finding a way to say the same old thing in a new and exciting way, and smart overall packaging.  When it comes to doing this in the online world, you need to start with a website. Here's how to get started:

1. Use your name as the URL. Sounds obvious, right? You'd be surprised how many people don't do this. Even people who have made a conscious decision to transform themselves into brands are often timid or uncomfortable with the idea of, well, transforming themselves into brands. And this usually results in using some seemingly clever URL that encompasses the essence of what they're trying to communicate with their brand, rather than using their name, which is one of the simplest and most effective ways to reinforce and brand your brand.

2. Put yourself at the center of it. Duh. This might sound even more obvious than the above tip, but again, it's not always a given. You have to remember that many personal brands are not expert marketers, so they have a tough time branding themselves. Personal brands are often people who are experts at what they do, thought leaders, or other standouts in their industries. They know that they could be effective as the public face for a particular concept, but that doesn't mean that they're particularly savvy when it comes to implementing a brand strategy. If this is you, make sure that your beautiful mug is front and center on your website.

3. Showcase whatever it is that people know you for or what you want people to know you for. Your personal brand website should not just be a shrine to you and the things you like; it's got to have a very clear objective. As much as your brand is all about you, it's even more so about your audience. Are you known for you great insight into X? For your stunning looks or dazzling sense of humor? Do people gravitate toward you because they can always count on you to do Y? Well then, make sure those are the things people get the moment they land at YourName.com. This will yield a much better response than your list of "100 things you didn't know about me." (Yes, these are fun, but they shouldn't be the centerpiece of your message.)

4. What do you want people to do? So, you've done your due diligence by giving people what they want, and thus given them a reason to come to your site in the first place. Now it's their turn to return the favor and do what you want them to do. Is this inviting you to offer a keynote at their next event? Is this an interview with popular media outlets on your area of expertise? Maybe you want to pitch your own show, become the next Oprah, get a book deal or simply attract more interest in an organization you're associated with. Whatever it is, make it obvious-your being a brand alone is not enough.

5. Partner with someone who knows you better than you know yourself. For the same reason that every writer needs an editor, every personal brand needs to partner with someone who can give critical feedback and offer an outside perspective. Because you know yourself so well, it's easy to misinterpret the way you appear to others. In other words, your image of yourself is based on a well of information that other people don't necessarily have access to. For this reason, you must take into consideration an outsider's point of view. And make sure that outsider is qualified to do such-meaning, they must know your industry, understand what you're trying to achieve, and have experience with what you're trying to accomplish. Going back to the writer-needing-an-editor  example-your mom and best friend are always going to tell you that they love your book-but  at the end of the day, they're not necessarily qualified to give you a credible opinion that matters. Find someone who is.

*What can we say? We practice what we preach: site created by us.

10 Marketing Resolutions Every Company Should Make in 2010

 

Well, here it is, practically the middle of January, and your New Year's resolutions may have already taken a beating. (Chocolate cake, anyone?) If you're searching for a way--any way--to make good on at least one set of resolutions, try making some that you have a powerful incentive to keep-resolutions for your business.

1. Make 2010 the year you and your company master the art of social media and mobile marketing. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and iPhone apps can be powerful ways to reach your audience--as long as you have good indications that your audience exists on each. If you're not yet active in social media, don't dive in headfirst. Figure out why you want to be on each site, and what distinct strategies and goals you have for each.* Another element to consider: whether you'll have the time and resources to devote to these, long-term. Not every company and brand needs an iPhone app. Where will you get the most bang for your social-media buck?
* May we recommend: "Going Social: 12 Key Things You Must Consider When Developing a Social Media Program for Your Business, Brands, or Clients"?

2. A corollary of #1: If you're using multi-channel marketing, make sure the content is varied and compelling on each channel. Die-hard fans will follow you to the ends of the earth (or at least to both Twitter and Facebook), but no one wants to read Twitter updates that end in "#fb." Determine who your target audiences are for each site and offer them solutions that fit their needs. United Airlines, for example, interacts with customers regularly on Twitter via special offers and air-travel advice--but United doesn't seem to have figured out what it's doing on Facebook: despite having over 13,000 fans, the company has not posted anything since setting up the fan page.

3. Social media listening. So you're on Facebook and Twitter, updating, retweeting, interacting, and generally being a rock star. Congratulations. Guess what? If you plan to treat your online activity as more than an echo chamber, you're also going to need to listen to how people respond to what you're putting out there. Monitoring what people are saying (tweeting, blogging) about your company, and tracking your company's reputation online, can be critical in positioning your business and its brands. You can do this via real-time search results from Twitter (now featured alongside Google search results), or--if you need more complex feedback--via a web-based application like Scout Labs. (Previously on CVMonologues: "Have You Searched Your Brand Recently?")

4. Online video. Take a good look at whether online video could offer a significant return on your marketing investment. One advantage? It's cheap. A Flip cam and basic editing software aren't going to break your budget. (Bloggers, take note.) Hip publishing house HarperStudio issues each of its authors a Flipcam and sends them off into the frozen tundra of the writing life with the expectation that the authors will send back video epistles chronicling their progress on that 80,000-word novel. For HarperStudio, this decision was a marketing bonanza. Whether you're an author, yacht manufacturer, or power-broker CEO, giving your customers a behind-the-scenes look at the creative processes at the heart of your business can be a serious (not to mention fun) way of connecting. Sites like Viddler and Vimeo offer a good idea of what you can accomplish.

5. Switching from website front-end matters to back-end ones: vow to take a hard look at your web analytics. Dig into yours to see what works. What content encourages visitors to visit--and linger--on your site? Which sites drive the most traffic to yours? (What's that? You don't have any web analytics, you say? Get thee to Google.)

6. Make sure your website encourages interaction with visitors--and that you're set up to support that interaction. Is your site the 2010 online equivalent of your great-aunt's living room, complete with plastic-covered lampshades? Does it say, "Look, but don't touch"? (If you're interested in changing your site from a brochure-style presentation to one that generates visits, have we got a blog post for you.)

7. Trim down. (Not you, your company.) When building a brand strategy, companies often throw everything at the wall to see what sticks. While this may work if you have endless funds and infinite hours in a day, you're probably better off honing the strongest and most cost-effective aspects of your strategy.

8. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. Since nearly every company has a presence online, the only way to distinguish your brand is through its quality (and let's assume yours is top-notch) and--perhaps more importantly--the way you treat people interested in it. Put in writing your commitment to customer service, and live it. There's a reason why the first five pages of hundreds of Google results for Zappos are full of adoring prose.

9. But that's not enough--you've got to be authentic in every interaction with customers. Could the last five people who interacted with your product or service identify what your company stands for? If not, it's time to close the gap between what you say you are, and how customers perceive you.

10. Become a trusted source of recommendations. Customers expect you to recommend your own product, of course, but demonstrating your awareness of the market can also be advantageous. Maybe the question to ask is not "How can I help my customer buy my product/service?," but "How can I help my customer?"

There you have it: 10 ways your company can kick off 2010 in smart-marketing style. Put one of these on the calendar for the next 10 business days and at the end of two weeks, you'll have formulated a clear set of online strategies that will help your business strengthen its relationships with customers and clients. Let us know what worked best for you...and, hey, are you going to eat the rest of that slice of cake?

8 Things to Consider When Designing a Site for Lead Generation and Inbound Marketing

 

What steps should a company take when it wants to transform its website from an informational, brochure-style one to a lead-generating marketing tool?

In the case of our client Praxis Consulting, a new website meant addressing their clients' and prospects' needs with content, content, content!

Praxis is a subrogation services company, which means they help insurance companies determine the at-fault party in auto accidents. Up until now, they've done just fine attracting business despite their very services-centric website, but that business didn't come in through their site; it came from traditional avenues such as trade shows, cold calls, etc. In essence, they realized they weren't taking advantage of this very important tool and were thus overlooking a huge source of leads by not speaking directly to their audience online.

Our solution was a content-rich site with multiple landing pages, and customer-centric language that would speak directly to insurance industry professionals. We also chose to build it on HubSpot's lead generation CMS to account for SEO and inbound marketing best practices.

Following are our objectives for this site, which should top the list for any company looking to make the transition from a navel-gazing informational site to a prospect-friendly one that attracts inbound traffic and leads:

• Position Praxis as THE expert in the subrogation industry. By placing Praxis's thought leadership content (such as benchmarking studies, eBooks, processes and industry acknowledgements) front and center, it's clear that Praxis is driving the conversation on subrogation and recovery.
• Directly address customer and prospect's needs in the context of the industry at large, rather than focus solely on Praxis's offerings.
• Enhance ability to be found by prospects in internet searches with extensive content and ability for easy and quick regular updates that will work to drastically improve Praxis's online rankng.
• Decrease bounce rate. In other words, we want people to DO something once they get to the homepage, rather than leave without clicking through and learning more. (Getting them there is only half the battle!)
• Introduce lead generation capabilities for Praxis's sales team. There are approximately 10 landing pages on the site where users are encouraged to offer their contact information in return for proprietary information. This information is then stored in a private database.
• Detailed lead details. Once someone offers their information, Praxis gets a digest of every page they've ever looked at and every page they look at going forward. This will allow for targeted messaging as it will give the sales team an indication of what problems prospects are trying to solve.  We will also get email updates when a lead returns to the site.
• Compare Praxis's success to that of its earnest competitors' in terms of online rankings and top keywords.
• Make it look pretty. Hey, it's a superficial world we live in!
  

The only thing we're missing now is a blog, something we highly suggest, but hey, it's not for everybody. We have a feeling we'll get our way eventually, though!

Triathlons and Twitter: How One Small Business Is Using Social Media to Build Its Audience One Tweet at a Time

Around here we find our frequent conversations about social media ending with, "Hey, it's not rocket science." I know many people like to make it seem as though what we do is incredibly esoteric and that only the most experienced, knowledgeable person could even begin to think about undertaking it, but when it comes to social media, that's just not true. Yes, it's true that it takes a lot of work and that any brand needs a coherent strategy and that your company needs to be on board to make it happen, but do you really need a ton of expertise to master it? I'm not going to lie... No.

(Obviously, once companies get bigger and have more brand capital, social media interaction does become more complicated. They need nuanced strategies for different audiences, and they really do need an agency that has social media expertise to put it all together for them. It's simply not a wise use of resources to commit their internal team to figuring out social media when those people might not even be interested and there are agencies that do it better. Take us, for instance. :) )

When it comes to small businesses and start-ups, social media can be a really powerful tool, especially if it's undertaken by those at the center of the company. Sure, everyone talks about this, but I know from firsthand experience that smaller business owners often don't really believe that they could find a voice and an audience in blogging or on Facebook, Twitter or other online communities, which is just not the case.

The reality is that small businesses have two really key things going for them: 1. Their senior decision makers also tend to be the people doing a lot of the in-the-trenches work, so it's easy for them to decide on a strategy/voice and implement that. There's no bureaucracy, no approval process, no figuring out who's going to write updates or blog posts. 2. They've got passion. Who starts a business who doesn't have a love for or interest in some aspect of what they do and the community? That means they know their target audience really well, that they can offer specialized expertise and insights, and create content that is meaningful and effective. They also know who the influencers in the community are, what people are buzzing about, and all the other things that make it clear that they are members of the community too.

All of which brings me to Paul Bashforth (that's him looking all studly and triathlete-y during a real, live race), who, along with three friends, started a niche clothing brand for triathletes, True Motion. He and his partners currently hold regular jobs while they start their business, so they don't have a ton of time or money to commit to marketing and advertising. But from early on, Paul recognized that good content could set his company apart, and he's become a real convert to the power of social media. He also knows how important audience generation is (which inspired him to email Gretel's recent post on the topic to his partners. He's not sure if they've read it, but he's hoping it will get them all on the same page.)

After some free drinks (for me) and free consulting* (for him) the night before last, he has embarked on a campaign to really learn and use Twitter. He's retweeting, linking to relevant posts related to the trialthlete community, and referencing other Twitter users who are in the community. He's got his own handle (@truemotionpaul) and a company presence (@truemotiontri). On his personal account, he tweets about anything and everything (triathlons, yes, but also family, work, life and other normal stuff -- he is a normal human being after all), while on the company one, he's started carving out a niche with clothing/gear-related tweets, as well as general commentary on the goings on at True Motion. Literally, within days he's seen his followers increase and has started truly building his audience.

And why not? He's an obsessive athlete who loves triathlons. (Not to mention, he's the only man I know with whom I can swap stories about cleanly-shaved legs.) He and his brand are genuine community supporters and enthusiasts, and in joining the online conversation, he's steadily building brand awareness and loyalty.

*As much as I hate giving away free consulting, a promise of free drinks is usually enough to twist my arm. That is, as long as I get to choose the place!

Online Brand Complaints: Accountability or Entitlement?

I am a shockingly lazy consumer.

Well, not really, but the Internet can really make me start to feel that way. I don't, for the most part, blog/comment on/tweet about my brand experiences. I rarely am so moved in any direction that I'm motivated to contact customer service. Before the dawn of the web (or at least the dawn of a truly interactive web), I can think of only one time when I actually bothered to go out of my way (in this case to complain): On a flight to Caracas, American Airlines lost -- for three (3!) days -- my backpack with all of my clothing and camping equipment, basically ruining all of my carefully-laid vacation plans. I had to pay for a hotel in Caracas for two nights and cancel an entire leg of my trip, but never received so much as an apology from AA, let alone any reimbursement for my expense. When I got home, I sent a long, ranting -- though very articulate, if I do say so myself -- letter to the airline and had a long, ranting  -- a lot less articulate, if I do say so myself -- phone call with some random AA customer service rep. And I got exactly nowhere. Not one to make taking on companies for bad service my life's mission, I ended up letting the whole thing drop. (Though clearly I still have some unresolved issues since I got annoyed just thinking about the whole thing again. Damn you, American Airlines!)

Now with social media, blogs, and even the ability to easily design an entire blog/website dedicated to bashing a company, it seems like it's become a whole lot easier to take dissatisfaction to a whole new level. Which is why I often feel lazy. Even when I'm really annoyed, I might put out a feeble Tweet vaguely conveying my frustration, but I'm unlikely to do much in the way of wave-making. Partly because, in the end, I feel like I have bigger fish to fry, and partly because I feel weird about closely intertwining my personal identity with complaining -- and about a product/service no less. I mean, if I'm going to use space to complain, maybe I should take up things like the toxic swill in my neighborhood (I live near the Gowanus Canal) or advocate for social issues that really matter. There's something that starts to feel really cheap to me about using my voice and the little online capital I have to complain about not being treated respectfully by a flight attendant or about getting fat on my skinny latte. Obviously, companies are answerable to consumers and they should be held accountable for bad service or shoddy products, but it can start to feel like a lot of entitlement when people make a habit of complaining. And sometimes it feels suspiciously like people are angling for some special treatment -- a gift certificate, an upgrade -- rather than really venting about something that is a legitimate grievance.

So here's the real point of this post -- a question (and one that I don't necessarily know the answer to -- shocking, I know...):

Where is the line between accountability and entitlement? And how accountable should brands be, especially now that just about anyone can do some damage with a little time and a computer?

I am genuinely curious about the line between using social media, networks and communities:

• to hold companies accountable for shoddy products and services, misguided marketing campaigns, or offensive or exploitive practices, and

• to complain incessantly -- and very publicly -- about the littlest inconveniences, to make unfair and excessive claims in the hope of getting something free.

Thoughts? Anyone, anyone?

Got Talent?

International jetsetter that I am (cough, cough), I was in London last weekend. I stayed with a friend who lives there so I had the pleasure of being privy to his British television preferences. In this case, that means Britain's Got Talent. (Which might be better called, Britain's Got Talent?, as in, the title is pronounced with an uplifted, wishful intonation rather than as a statement of fact.) The big excitement of the two episodes (two of the five semi-final episodes) was the much-celebrated Susan Boyle, who was back for her second performance after her dark-horse, come-from-behind showing in round one.

 

 

Susan Boyle. For the past few weeks she has been the darling of the media and of the public. You probably know the story:  awkward spinster who lives with her cats (hey, don't knock it till you try it...) gets up in front of the camera and an unforgiving audience. People snicker and assume she has no talent because, apparently, the vast majority of people are pretty much shallow. She opens her mouth and sings and turns out to have some talent. OMG! People all over the world -- those who, one can only assume, have never read a book, taken anything away from religion, seen Shrek, or simply existed in the world -- are forced to admit that someone who looks like a frightful mess can still actually have other stuff going on.

Let the YouTube → Social Media → Oprah effect begin.

Next up? The backlash.

Really, it was inevitable. Because underneath it all, Susan Boyle is not particularly talented. Yes, she has a very nice voice, but so do lots of people you know. And once you get over the fact that something attractive can come from something unattractive, you arrive at a very simple conclusion: Susan Boyle is unremarkable.

So what lesson does that hold for all of us? Well, that the public can be fickle, cruel, generous, momentarily smitten, whatever, but while people get momentarily excited about something that shakes them out of their normal routines or expectations, in the end, they generally recognize a product or person for what it really is. (Well, maybe except in politics. Hello? Sarah Palin...) In the end, Susan Boyle is a not particularly attractive person with a nice-but-not-great talent who is very socially awkward and hard to love.

And let that, marketers, be a lesson to you. Sure, the public prefers good-looking people to unattractive ones; the talented to the untalented; the socially adept to the socially inept -- all of which should be taken into consideration when creating your awesome video or a cool Facebook application or some game on your site that earns raves from advertisers and gamers alike. You might even create something that goes "viral" and gets a ton of "buzz." I'm happy for you, really. But if you're going to create so much superficial hype, you'd better have the substance to back it all up when the sparkle fades. Because people are still always going to come back to the reality of your product.

While people's standards of quality and likeability inevitably vary, there are certain standards that are always going to hold a lot more sway than others. Like is this product well made?  Is your service making my life easier?   Does this seem like an honest, informed company?  Is Susan Boyle's voice really any more remarkable than mine when I sang that Rihanna song in the shower this morning?  What you produce may not be sexy or glamorous, but if it's made well, it's going to drive loyalty that's worth a lot more than any insta-celebrity.

So use social media, embrace the Internet, get out there and give people cool stuff, but know that it's not magic. It's not a flash-in-the-pan, get-in-get-out campaign that will -- poof! -- generate lots of new customers for your company who are going to stick around for the rest of their lives. Nope. That still comes the hard way -- by being truly exceptional.

 

Technorati Profile

The Twitter Background Conundrum

 

What is it about social media that has even the most sophisticated adults in a tizzy about establishing their online identities through proven tactics such as...tiling an arbitrary image across a virtual profile page?

I find it pretty intriguing to say the least and to my chagrin, we've been exposed to this oddity a lot lately in the form of calls from our clients requesting custom Twitter backgrounds. The oddity in question is not the need for a custom background, it's the urgency with which it's requested.

One client recently went so far as to take matters into his own hands and pay some online hack $35 to create a real mess of a background before talking to us. It was not pretty, to say the least. I still have nightmares of one day logging on with a browser that hasn't updated since having loaded his new background, only to find the dreaded, misshaped image staring back at me. Seriously, when all you can see is the top 15% of your head in your photo, it's probably safe to say that something hasn't gone as planned. [Quick fix: If you're in this situation and don't know what to do, go back to the standard background immediately! You can get there by clicking settings --> Design --> Change background --> Don't use a background image --> Save changes.] Crisis averted.

Before we get any further though, let's give this phenomenon its due diligence: When MySpace first entered the scene, I remember reading an interview with a marketing professional who self-righteously declared, "I really doubt people are going to waste their time decorating their profiles like they would their teenage bedrooms."

Well, we all know what happened next, of course. Sparkles. Lots of them.

Facebook got rid of all that nonsense when it introduced a sterile and unified platform--a welcome change to those of us who were sick of logging into the MySpace flea market only to witness the sad reality that was our fellow man's virtual wallpaper choices. Instantly, everyone appreciated the Catholic school uniform approach just a little bit more and subsequently pondered how their childhoods might have been improved had they not been responsible for expressing themselves outright through outfit choices on a daily basis.

LinkedIn, like Facebook, chose to focus on the content of the man's character, rather than the color of his...profile background. Users choose their connections based on what others bring to the table, which is a good thing or a bad thing depending on your view of capitalism, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of LinkedIn, but I dig capitalism. You know, in case you were wondering.

Anyway, back to Twitter and the case of the fully customizable background. I'm all for it if it's done right, so when clients express interest in customizing their pages (or, rather, threaten to never tweet again until their background "represents me!"), I get it. I don't think it's absolutely necessary considering that most dedicated users--those who are most likely to get the majority of their updates from this particular platform--are using "Twitter "clients" such as Tweetdeck or Twhirl to manage their friends and updates. Reason being, Tweetdeck, Twhirl, and other such technologies eliminate the need to ever login to Twitter.com again. At the same time, you never know who's going to stumble upon your page through an online keyword search or even as part of some deluded background check before doing business with you. (The nerve of these people to want to know who they're working with, right?)

So, long story short: Those who use Twitter primarily for business should definitely consider a custom background that offers information that won't fit into the 140-character bio line rationed to them. At the same time, don't stress yourself out over it. Providing quality updates is your biggest concern on this platform.

That said, if you do decided to customize your background, consider adding things like:

• URLs to other social networking profiles


• URL to a site or personal blog that gives your contacts more insight into your non-work life


• URLs to work-related sites such as a company blog


• Your email address

If you're working with a diverse audience, try to stay away from staunch "I am" statements that can work to pigeonhole you into a solitary category when, most likely, your expertise reaches far beyond that declaration. Also, keep in mind that the URLs will be images rather than active links, so don't expect to see a ton of traffic come in directly from your profile page.

Some quick tips on imagery:

• Don't tile one image a million times-find one that's fitting and enlarge it or incorporate it into a larger design. Admittedly, this is just a personal preference but it does reveal your lack of Twitter savvy.


• Remember that people will likely notice your background before they even read your first update. Be subtle unless you're boring and your image is really the only thing you have going for you (in which case, perhaps you shouldn't be broadcasting your thoughts to the world in the first place).


• Any information provided in the left sidebar (the standard area for any extra information you want to provide) will remain fixed so if you can't fit all of your information above the fold, know that no one will see anything beneath it as they scroll down your page.


• The dimensions of your background should be either 1600×1200 or 2048×1600pixels (although you can technically go smaller if you like).


• Don't hire an online hack for $35.

Oh, and to those who use Twitter for personal reasons...remember what you did to MySpace.

Where Social Media Falls in the Traditional Marketing Mix (With Handy Venn Diagram!)

 

We recently held an accidental one-day social media retreat where we over-analyzed every traditional marketing industry’s contribution to the social media space. This conversation came as a result of having been approached by a handful of larger agencies that want to partner on social media projects for their larger clients while they figure out how to roll out their own social media programs in-house. And on the flip side—having been approached by big clients that tell us that their big agencies can’t wrap their heads around social media quickly enough so the big agencies are outsourcing to companies like ours and still taking all of the glory. (Which we happen to be okay with.) So we got to talking: what’s so difficult about social media? The short answer? The “social” part.

The long answer: Looking strictly at the most traditional offerings of the different types of marketing agencies out there, we determined that it’s more than just hierarchy and bureaucracy that make it difficult for, say, advertising or PR agencies to roll out their “social media programs.” It’s that they have to, essentially, reorganize and introduce skills they never before offered. Social media done right requires more than just a slick application, which any designer/development worth their salt can conjure up at a very decent rate. (As an aside, we call this the “if you build it, they will come” approach to social media.) It also requires more than just a few witty updates and following/being followed by a million people, in hope that they’ll return the favor. (We call this the “Ashton Kutcher” approach.)

Social media requires the regular care and feeding of your profiles and engaging in continual dialogue with your audience. Social media should not be implemented as a “campaign”—this practice is a reflection of the type of company handling it (i.e. a traditional advertising company, which works in spurts or campaigns, will often naturally apply a campaign framework to its social media initiatives). Rather, it should be introduced as an ongoing program. Put differently, it’s the difference between the “fad diet” and an overall “change in lifestyle.” Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

So, here’s the breakdown of the different elements involved in a successful social media program. Of course, not all of these will be crucial to every initiative and there’s always going to be a difference between social media programs implemented by brands versus b-to-b companies versus the average Joe who just wants to socialize. And while I’m handing out disclaimers, I should also mention that none of this is to say that these agencies don’t belong in social media; it’s more so that they’re going to have to add new capabilities, which is the reason relatively smaller, newer and savvier social media companies like us can get in with big brands while they’re figuring it out. Thanks guys!

Content Creation
More than just a snappy tagline, your program needs an overall voice, tone and consistent message.

Application/Platform Development
Any agency with a design and development department should be able to create this for you. If this is the threshold on which you make your decision, you should probably rethink your strategy. This is the lowest common denominator.

Application/Platform Design
See “Application/Platform Development.”

Brand Campaign
A lot of times, a social media program can piggyback off a good brand campaign implemented by a brand’s ad agency of record, but it will have to be transformed into the more accessible, younger brother of the formal campaign. In other words, you don’t want to create a bunch of social media profiles that are branded with your logo and are, thus, off-putting. But it might make sense to take your tagline (and the promise that comes with it), and build an audience whose common interest is achieving that promise, not their innate shared interest in perpetuating your brand.

Media Coverage
Many larger brands like to start spreading the word of their new, fancy and glossy initiatives at the outset, but if your social media program is good, your audience will find them on their own.

Brand identity/Purity
This is ultimtely your company or brand’s responsibility. While you hope to work with a company that understands the ins and outs of your messaging and story, at the end of the day, you will need to be attentive to the initiatives taking place.

Audience Generation
This element is crucial and is not one that’s always understood by traditional agencies. For instance, PR agencies tend to approach audience generation from the perspective of conducting media outreach, and while these skills are somewhat applicable, the approach reeks of inauthenticity, which is the antithesis of everything that social media stands for. True audience generation emerges from a mix of attentiveness to and dialogue with your audience, and social media listening (described next).

Social Media Listening
This is an ongoing initiative that defines a lot of why social media needs to be a program rather than a campaign. You must dedicate resources to monitoring your social networks in effort to identify people talking about issues that are important to your overall goals and objectives (you do have goals for this, right?), as well as stand-out voices in your space. Follow, friend or otherwise connect with these people in order to build an audience of people likely to interact with your work rather than just an audience whose sole purpose is to boost your numbers for the sake of popularity. Quality, my friends. Not quantity.

Community & Social Responsibility
Bigger brands can get a bad rap for trying too hard in the social media space, as well as for being the entities responsible for destroying once-popular platforms with their overly-branded, salesy and often-intrusive efforts. A good way to negate this perception—as well as to connect with audiences on an authentic level—is to tie your initiatives to your existing social responsibility efforts. People will connect with a brand if it connects them to a good cause or if they can even benefit from that cause. Ask not what the community can do for you, but what you can do for the community…

Content Coordination
Who’s writing the content? This element is the one that differs most between consumer brands and businesses. While it’s okay for brands to assign someone to their content writing, businesses need to establish specific people as experts, and let those people share their insight (and personalities!). Many businesses will create profiles for their CEOs but then assign a minion to update the content. This almost always fails and, again, reeks of inauthenticity. As for consumer brands, there are agencies that will handle content for you and that will often do a great job with it (but many of them don’t do all of the other stuff listed here). PR agencies will also boast their writing skills (which good agencies should certainly boast). However, you want to make sure that your content and overall program is highly-controlled to maintain consistency. Also, if you’re doing this right, you’re building relationships along the way. You certainly don’t want a bunch of different people responding to messages from people who already have a dialogue with another person (confusing, right? Yeah, that’s how it is for your customers, too…). Again, you need a highly-controlled content strategy (we’ll write a detailed post about this in the near future), and you need to build authentic relationships. The bottom line is that keeping your social media program as tight as possible is always going to have the best outcome.

Internal/External Community Engagement & Response
This is related to your content strategy. If you’re running a community blog, for instance, you want to assign one person to be the moderator. This person will be the one to engage with commenters and communicate different happenings in between posts. This person will also be responsible for setting the tone of the platform—whatever it is—and I can’t communicate enough that this tone needs to be consistent.

Customer Service
Brands like Comcast and Intuit have shown the world how to use social media for customer service. Good customer service involves social media listening and weighing in on consumer comments. This activity is one that should be handled uniquely by your company if you’re a direct-to-consumer distributor. If you’re a brand that distributes to stores rather than directly to consumers, it’s okay to have your dedicated social media content person fill this role since you won’t be fielding complaints directly (well, at least not as often as direct-to-consumer brands), but you do want to make sure that this person has a direct line to someone in-house should a “social media crisis” occur in the public forum (i.e. someone bashing your brand).

Brand Advocacy
Because authenticity and transparency are such huge aspects of social media, you absolutely have to make sure that your social media team is 100% dedicated and sold on your brand or mission. Sure, you pay them to be your brand advocates, but if in the back of their minds, they’re just doing it for the money, then trust me, it will be obvious.

Overall Management
See everything above. And remember two words: “highly controlled.”

Interested in the way we approach social media? Check out our program, CVM Social: The 10-Step Social Media Standard.

I hate this blog.

Note: This was initially posted on our old, feeble blog platform...and is about our old, feeble blog platform.

Fans from all over the world have been contacting me as of late to ask, "Gretel, why haven't you been posting lately? My life is empty without your seething banter and endless wit." (Okay, so I'm paraphrasing here.) But since they—my imaginary friends—brought it up, I think it's time to address my non-blogginess publicly.

As it turns out, there are a few (deliberate) reasons I've fallen off the blog-wagon:

The first is that, about a month ago, I had grand plans of writing a sarcastic post about why brands should ditch their marketing efforts (every single one of them!) in favor of hiring a guy with an accent and running infomercials. Then Vince, the ShamWow guy, who I had planned to profile for the post, goes ahead and makes naughty national headlines, thus rendering my post just a drop in the Vince-parody bucket. Oh well. I've been busy.

We have a ton of stuff going on here at the CVM International Headquarters, not the least of which is launching our new book division (our new model is going to have the publishing world eating out of our hands! Really.), and planning out our new and improved website with actual examples of our cool work (cutting edge, we know).

And then there's actual client work. It gets ya every time, that work. Although, to be fair, I've never let work get in the way of blogging. In fact, I love blogging, which brings me to the number one reason I've been boycotting this blog:

I hate—nay, loathe—it.

To anyone who takes things like lead generation, SEO, and even, gulp, best online marketing practices into consideration, this blog platform is a disgrace on many levels. Being such a person, I've decided not to post anything (well, except this post) until our new blog platform launches next week. Same place. Same time. Same over-inflated ego.

My first post will be a full rundown of why this blog and our old site have shamed our company for the last few months. It will be a cautionary tale--a what not to do case study, and I plan to expose all the gory details. This URL should still be intact, but just in case the launch isn't smooth (stuff happens), just go to our homepage and access it that way.

In the meantime, brace yourself for the post my business partner and colleagues don't want you to see...