Why Use Social Networking?

These days, it seems as if every business out there from mom and pop shops to large corporations has their own handful of Social Networking sites. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter or one of the many other Social Media sites – everyone seems to be tweeting and blogging, left and right. But why are so many jumping on to this Social Media bandwagon? And more importantly, how beneficial are these sites for making your ideas known or increasing business?

Regardless of your reason for getting involved, Social Networking is about creating a give-and-take bond. This in turn, creates a real – or perceived – sense that the people who are communicating are actually creating relationships with their recipients. This relationship building can be done using Social Networking sites, where the people on the receiving end have the opportunity to give feedback to those who are communicating.

As opposed to solely populating the Internet with tidal waves of content without allowing or encouraging feedback; those who routinely interact with their market will be ones with the real followers. Posting items that not only demonstrate expertise but create relationships with their followers and fan will generate referrals and generate long term business benefits.

Effective and aggressive Social Networking efforts can enhance the existing promotion, publicity, marketing and advertising programs that have already been implemented. Alternatively, or in addition to, an efficient and aggressive Social Networking campaign can be used as a low-cost, high-impact way of positioning a business (through the business’s public-face leader) as a thought-leader or industry-segment guru. This will in turn open doors for business development: leads, referrals, inquiries and sales.

Social Networking can make a huge difference for an individual – who wishes to be seen as a topical thought-leader or market niche guru – or for a company which seeks a low cost, high impact way of improving its position in the marketplace. However, Social Networking doesn’t happen overnight, and while it’s typically free, doesn’t automatically make it easy. It requires someone who can find the time to create an abundant amount of useful content – someone who is persistent and consistent, and prepared to keep at it until a breakthrough has been achieved.

 

Express yourself. At 186,282 miles per second.

The iconic blue bird is growing up fast

The other media are no longer playing catch-up. They’re playing can-no-longer-see-ahead-thanks-to-Twitter’s-dust-cloud. Sorry, but your reluctance to have a Twitter account is now as quaint and as self-destructive as not having a website.

Yes, Twitter is a place for celebrities to waste time communicating nothing. That’s not the point. Twitter’s form is revolutionary. How revolutionary its content is is up to you.

Twitter’s business model is hard to discern, and although the company has a dopey if memorable name, it’s already rendered several ways of receiving information obsolete. Even Google searches can’t show instantaneous data, or couldn’t before they began incorporating Twitter results. It’s hard to imagine that it was less than a generation ago that the quickest way to communicate across the globe for negligible cost was to send a letter and wait weeks for a response. And even then, if you needed to share something brief, you wouldn’t bother: the time invested in looking up the address in your Rolodex, finding an envelope, driving to the post office and waiting in line to determine the proper postage to Angola wasn’t worth it.

We’ve reached our first manmade singularity here, where information flows in quantum packets at the speed of light, as God intended. Just ask James Buck, the University of California student who was detained by police in 2008 while he photographed protesters in Cairo. He managed to tweet “ARRESTED” before the police confiscated his phone. Buck had 48 followers at the time, enough to contact press organizations, the embassy, and the university (which hired a lawyer.) Buck was free the next day.

Twitter makes things obsolete in ways its founders likely never foresaw. For instance, the Trending Topics feature has meant the obituary of, of all things, the obituary section. If the Trending Topics include the names of famous people whom you haven’t thought about for years – Lynn Redgrave, Daryl Gates, Merlin Olsen – you almost don’t need to click beyond that to know they’re dead.

Twitter also eliminates reflection, for impulsive people who say things they end up regretting. Few tweeters ever bother to count to 10 before saying something dumb or questionable. The pro athletes who’ve apologized for tweeting without thinking will soon number in the billions.

Fortunately, you’re a business that has presumably put level heads in charge of updating your Twitter account. The sensitivity of timid sports fans notwithstanding, with the exception of military secrets it’s almost always better to get information out early than late. That’s especially true when what your company has to tweet about directly affects its and your livelihoods.

Say you’re going to have a booth among dozens of others at the International Conference of Aglet and Ferrule Manufacturers* in Des Moines. Your competitor is announcing it’ll be there too, but only by placing a notice on its website. You can instantly tweet your way into the heads of your followers – the people you and your competitor are fighting for the attention of – while your competitor is still selecting fonts and colors for a web banner that’ll be dated before it goes live.

With 100 million accountholders, people are carving out niches on Twitter you’d never have expected. You can’t merely assume that your size is enough to get your word out, either. Saying something compelling is vital. An online columnist/podcaster who was tending bar a decade ago and whose only commercial products are a couple of hardcover books has 15 times as many followers as the world’s largest tech corporation. That corporation in turn has 13 times as many followers as the world’s largest corporation, period, which apparently has little of note to communicate despite having a public image that could use some massaging. You’d be surprised whom your message will resonate with, and how quickly that message can go viral. The most obvious example of this is Justin Halpern, whose earthy quotes spawned a phenomenon that resulted in a book deal and talk of a TV series. He’s only one partially motivated person: you’re a company with an actual message.

On Twitter, it’s never enough to share for the sake of sharing. “OMG We just completed our 4Q financials!!! SO X-HAUSTED LOL” is not tweetworthy. Tweet what you’re promoting, when and where, and why and how it impacts your followers. For a generation raised to believe that obfuscating Corporate Speak is the lingua franca of business, and that getting to the point is somehow gauche, Twitter mercifully forces you to be concise. And if you’ve reached the point where you can no longer send an interoffice memo without referring to skill sets and actionable items, let Brand tweet it for you.

*The conference is fictional, the items are not: they’re the plastic thing on the end of a shoelace and the metal deal that holds the eraser on a pencil, respectively.

Social Media insurance – minimize risk with a little foresight.

Imagine if people discover something unexpected and not necessarily flattering about your product. For a relatively mild example of this, it turns out that last year’s smartphones from Palm – the Pre series – have edges sharp enough to cut cheese. This is the most minor of design considerations, but it could easily sway an undecided buyer to pick up a blunt iPhone or BlackBerry instead.

Ari Newman of iMediaConnection breaks down how to fix this in his latest post, detailing how your company needs to use social media to its advantage when a video like the one above goes viral.

At least the Pre really does cut cheese, along with other malleable foodstuffs. But an allegation doesn’t have to be fair to turn into public relations poison. A generation ago, NBC showed video of ostensibly safe GM pickup trucks not merely overturning or crashing, but exploding. Millions of people saw the video, but not all of them were listening when it eventually came out that the trucks were in little danger of exploding unless NBC management happened to attach explosives to the trucks.

A similar thing happened this February, when Southwest Airlines prohibited a morbidly obese movie director from getting on a fully booked flight. Even through he was 100% in the wrong, the director leveraged his ability to draw attention to himself and his plight, temporarily damaging Southwest’s positive reputation in the process. (If I were the person in the adjacent seat, who now got to enjoy my flight without having to share it with someone else’s lipid rolls, I’d have gone on YouTube and WordPress and Twitter to get the word out about how Southwest is a wonderful company that looks out for its normal-sized patrons.)

Toyotas drive themselves at 100 miles an hour, Denny’s hates black people, Amazon censors George Orwell novels…there’s a huge and gullible part of the public that loves to assume the worst about businesses and takes every negative thing it hears secondhand as Holy Scripture. And if a bad message can get out, it will. Quickly. There’s almost no such thing as lag time anymore, either. For a big, publicly-traded multinational firm, a public perception setback can take years to recover from. For a small or medium-sized company, it can prove fatal.

Therefore, you need to build a defensive social media strategy – the social media equivalent of a fire extinguisher. Newman recommends you create a social media “war room” as a preventative measure, and populate it exclusively with the appropriate people. While everyone in the company stands to benefit from an aggressive response to negative PR, too many cooks can spoil the message. Newman suggests that you limit participation to your marketing head and the product managers directly connected to the product that’s getting all the attention. And of course, include the people who already run your social media. (You mean you haven’t got a dedicated person or team for social media yet? Find one immediately, then return to this post when you’re done.)

Once you’ve determined who, determine what. Figuring out your response before the crisis hits is the whole point of the exercise. Keep it closed. While everyone on the inside will know about the crisis, only a few should be authorized to discuss it. Mavericks have their place, but in front of a TV camera, speaking extemporaneously is not it. Limiting the ranks of the crisis team has an additional benefit, too. It tells the other people in the company that there’s no need to worry should anything bad happen, because you’ve got a team specifically entrusted with the task of fixing things. It’s just part of a successful division of labor: let the other employees do what they do, and not worry about social media crisis management.  In the same vein, employees don’t worry about having to request their paychecks every two weeks, because your company has a dedicated payroll department/person.  They don’t think twice about answering the phones and collecting the mail, because you have a receptionist. Same thing.

The social media team should Google your company daily, and collect the relevant RSS feeds. A recalcitrant blogger could be spending months assailing your company before you ever find out about it. Just ask the committed people with a lot of time on their hands behind KBHomeSucks.com, PayPalSucks.com, AllstateInsuranceSucks.com, AmexSux.com, WalMart-Blows.com…you get the idea. If your company gets large enough and successful enough that it engenders this kind of detraction, don’t fret. Consider it an inevitable challenge to overcome on the way to growth, like having to move into a larger building or collect more sales taxes. But act, don’t react – find who’s responsible for capitalizing on your company’s misfortune and take the noble step of trying to make things right. Maybe the detractors have some semblance of a point. It’s hard to put things more succinctly than Newman does: “When social media is your friend, it’s a lot less likely to become your enemy.”

Best brands of 2009…poised for 2010

As we reflect on the past year, what comes to my mind are the brands that revolutionized new media and the evolving marketplace.

Branding is pervasive, reaching around the globe and into the hearts and minds of consumers. You can’t help but sit up and take notice when an integrated message reaches you – changing your consumer behavior and making a life-long impression. You may think you don’t like commercials (or love branding as much as I do), but no one can deny that a strong message hits home, provoking an emotional response that compels you to share it with others.

In 2009 we saw a great many of these campaigns…they made us chuckle, they made us cry…they affected us. I decided to focus on two brands that most affected those of us here in Las Vegas.

I selected these two brands based on five criteria: creative success; social networking prowess; search engine optimization; public relations; corporate philanthropy. Though coming from two different spheres, you had to pay attention to both of these brands this year, for very different (but still very relevant) reasons.

Hard Rock Hotel Las Vegas rebranded its Joint by Rogue (newly expanded with 4,000 seats and superior

Hard Rock Hotel is a top brand for 2009

audio/video) and launched its Vanity nightclub (opened New Year’s Eve) this past year.

• Creativity: Capitalizing on the “I” in Vanity, HRH is focusing on its core group: hip locals and visitors looking for a glamorous experience off the Strip. Forging the partnership with Rogue – a media company – and Verizon took the rock venue to a new level. In addition to this, HRH opened its new HRH Paradise Tower (stylish suites) and $750 million casino expansion. What does all this shake out to? A renewed hope for entertainment and attraction in a recession-battered Las Vegas. The rock n’ roll theme works, making this a distinctly Vegas spectacle in its opulence, which visitors from around the world can relate to. We line up to see Bob Dylan at The Joint. We ogle the beautiful people at the Rehab pool party, Body English nightclub, Wasted Space and Nobu. And by visiting the casino, or crashing in an HRH suite, a tourist can feel like one of them. Everyone wants to be a star – and this is the brand feeling that HRH so successfully evoked in its guests.
• Social networking: HRH attracted nearly 5,500 Facebook fans and 11,000 Twitter followers with informative updates and special offers. Social media was embraced by owner Morgans Hotel Group and equity partner DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. Fans post photos on Flickr, videos on YouTube (many featuring the scandalous Rehab, which also has a reality TV show). HRH media managers respond to client comments and keep updates current, exactly as it should be done.
• SEO: Perhaps one area where HRH could improve on, but it still has a top showing with all the competition between Las Vegas hotel/casinos.
• Public relations: Google Las Vegas Hotels and one of top returns is a news story about the HRH expansion. Staying in the news is key to successful public relations. The company also manages an integrated pressroom online with celebrity booking news and up-to-date announcements.
• Corporate philanthropy:  Morgans Hotel Group sponsored an innovative lifestyle branding event in late 2009 during Art Basel Miami Beach. It collaborated with international curator Natalie Kovacs to create an interactive performative public art project called PDA, a peace-inspired programming agenda that celebrates contemporary dance, art, and performance.

Three Square is the valley’s food hub; a central location where donated and rescued food can be collected and

Three Square is a top brand for 2009

distributed. It facilitates childhood and senior nutrition programs. This is where Las Vegans meet to serve and collaborate as part of the food solution.

• Creativity: Along with a well-organized, interactive Web site with informative components, Three Square launched a creative campaign this past year. Steven Jackson’s BackPack GiveBack fed nearly 6,000 children. Every time Steven Jackson scored a touchdown this year, he pledged $2,000 to Three Square’s BackPacks for Kids Program. Every time he scored, he fed 200 hungry kids with a backpack full of food. This hometown hero also challenged all of Las Vegas to contribute to the program. Barrick Gold responded with a $50,000 donation.
• Social networking: It has a strong social media presence with nearly 500 followers on Twitter and 1,800 fans on Facebook. Media managers post frequently, and update sites with photos. Fans comment, which makes this a dynamic social media example for us all.
• SEO: Stay in the media eye, and you’ll receive the benefit. Three Square comes out on top on a Google search, and its Web site is easy to find.
• Public relations: Look at any news stories about feeding the hungry in Southern Nevada and you will come across the Three Square brand. It has gotten the word out for its cause through an energetic CEO, staff and volunteer base.
• Corporate philanthropy: A national model project, Three Square is a community collaborative partnership with the gaming industry, businesses, nonprofit agencies, food distributors, UNLV, the CCSD, governmental entities, the media and hundreds of volunteers to efficiently and effectively serve hope to the hungry.

Please let me know what you think, or let me know who else has done an awesome branding job in 2009. These two brands are leading us into 2010. And through their examples, we’re all poised for prosperity.

Branding words that work

Strong images and powerful words combine to make an eye-catching campaign that draws new customers to your brand. You want to have accurate words, along with the right graphics, to make a lasting brand impact.

In this tough market, Internet search engines are making the difference. So, you want specific words that tell a story on your Web site, as well as your print advertising. We’ll start with words that just don’t work.

Many businesses love these modifiers: multi-faceted, collaborative, in-depth and comprehensive. These words are over used, and they don’t tell your customer about the product or service. Consumers have less of an attention span on the Web. They want to be able to quickly skim over words to get the gist. Those words just leave the customer guessing.

What isn’t multi-faceted? You might as well just use the word “complicated,” which is also an immediate turnoff to consumers looking to simplify their lives.

As long as you have one employee, your business is collaborative. That word doesn’t set you apart. Everybody works together – so nix this word.

If you use the word in-depth that means you don’t know how to describe your product or service. If you don’t know what it does, how can you sell it? Show and tell. “In-depth” does neither.

The same with comprehensive. Your ad campaign, Web copy and print materials should be specific. You should work hard to describe your business, not have your customer work hard trying to decipher what you want to say. Clear writing is essential to selling.

So, what words work? It’s kind of a trick question. Clear words. Specific words. There isn’t a top 10 list because it’s different for every business, product and service offering. The Internet is the medium where many customers are going first to find a business or service. With keyword searches in Google mattering more and more, you can’t wait any longer to find the industry specific words that work best for your business. Your marketing firm can help you find these words by gathering data, analyzing your competitors and crunching the words through Web site keyword programs. You don’t have to do this alone – let your agency help you. Then, take their advice!

To show just how essential the right words are in branding, I’ve picked a few campaigns that make an impact on the page, and with consumers.

• Levi’s 

  Selling Americana 

   

A new generation has been introduced to the immortal words of Walt Whitman’s “America” (the poet himself reading on archival tapes) and “Pioneers O Pioneers!” through the raw and dramatic “Go Forth” campaign. In these spots we watch diverse Americans wearing lived-in jeans frolic in a dark and uncertain world. The tagline encapsulates the economic condition while also calling for progress: Your Levi’s have been with your through all this. Now run toward your destiny (with our brand).

Levi’s is the rare American brand that was actually around when Whitman was alive. And there’s logic to this match between a quintessentially American poet and a quintessentially American product. Whitman’s verse allows Levi’s to evoke not only its proud history but a forward-looking present—the pioneering, American mindset that Whitman captured and that Levi’s hopes to embody.

• Jameson

It’s not just Irish whiskey, it’s an entire brand story imagined around its famous namesake, John Jameson. If you haven’t sat up and taken notice to the story of Jameson’s leap into the sea to save a barrel of his whisky, then you just haven’t been watching television in the last few months. Affluent young professionals least affected by the recession have rocked Jameson’s sales over the last few months.

This company started its marketing campaign small – with word of mouth through bar tenders and servers. Small businesses can use Jameson as an example of building that branding budget.

The word-of-mouth strategy – originally solely focused in New York – worked well enough to make the brand big enough to advertise in print and out-of-home venues in other major markets with a campaign focused heavily on taste. That effort has created a national brand that earlier this year launched its first-ever TV campaign, from TBWA/Chiat/Day, New York.

You may feel far from commercial spots such as these, but with the story telling words in your campaign that tell your target audience what you do, you can start in the Las Vegas market, and then take it global.

The important budgeting conversation

Your money, your brand

A branding, marketing and PR budget is essential to a new business or expanding business’ success. But often we find it’s one thing our new clients neglect to fully fund.

What is my budget?

They often don’t understand the long-term significance of this aspect of their business plan. Other times, companies are preparing to launch a re-branding initiative and need guidance on how to budget for it. It is the perfect time to launch your new venture or expand your service or product offering. But don’t forget a portion of that business loan, or privately raised capital, should be allocated to setting strategic marketing goals, coordinating an integrated branding campaign and announcing your presence to your market, whether that’s local, national or international. I’ll address three questions I’m often asked as a business owner.

How much should I set aside for branding?

For launching new brands or products, I’ve found that budgeting 20 percent of your gross sales is the most effective and cost-efficient strategy. If this is your first year in business, 20 percent of your projected gross sales should be applied to your branding campaign. This should be the strategy for the first two years. For the next three to five years, figure 15 percent of your annual gross sales depending on your business industry and competition. Looking into the future – and your continued success – plan to budget 10 percent annually for ongoing marketing initiatives. As with all things, you should carefully discuss all of your business objectives with your agency so that you’re receiving the most cost-efficient solutions that target initial branding discovery, new media, on/offline marketing strategies, PR, community involvement, social-networking solutions and traditional media/print applications. No brand is alike, but the same coveted philosophy and business principles are used to create each new product or service offering.

It’s a tough economy, what if I can’t spend 20 percent yet?

We’d love to help you get there. But, until then, BRAND is an agency that will work with you to meet your goals, and guide you through the branding/marketing process. Discuss your budget perimeters with your agency and together work on realistic goals. Perhaps now isn’t the time to roll out a complete new product line or service that will need an integrated campaign to be successful against your competition. But, as a minimal investment, you must plan for developing a Web site that is fully optimized for search engines, with monthly maintenance and a social media presence. We will help direct you on the right path for your budget constraints, rather than wasting time creating things you can’t afford to produce at this time. Be honest and forthright on the budget you have, and we’ll help you optimize it using informed market research and a coordinated strategy. As the agency of record, we will evaluate where the company is three to six months into the process, reevaluate the strategy and your budget, to see what new projects and services can be added.

What if we just want one project – such as a social-media package?

Not a problem, BRAND welcomes project work! Some professionals come to us overloaded with the demands of this new economy, and they need assistance in one particular area. To help you stay focused on your business and product offering, BRAND has created several project strategies, particularly one for social media.
You’ve heard that SEO, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are important, but to have integrated success with search engines and social media, your Web site must be optimized so your customer can find you. Facebook and Twitter updates aren’t going to help you convert sales unless you have a well-organized Web site full of keyword-rich content. See our latest newsletter for more information on keywords and SEO.
This is true for any aspect of marketing and branding in the new economy. We can launch a press campaign for you, with online and broadcast advertising. But your business first needs to have a strong, functioning Web site. All that money put toward marketing isn’t going to be returned if your customers can’t find you in the dominant sales medium.

BRAND’s strategic alliances can put this all in place for your business. But the first step is yours. You must recognize that you need a change that will benefit your company, employees and bottom line.

How to grow organic SEO results

In this economy, businesses need customers to find them on the Web. Often, this is the first, and only place, customers go. As proactive marketing professionals, we are often asked to help get our clients’ Web sites to the top of the Google search results for their key words. It’s possible, but you must focus on these factors. Don’t worry, they will save you money in the end.

If you’ve ever attempted to run an integrated marketing campaign you know that pay

Drive traffic to your Web site

per click on Google and ads on the major search engines are costly. Although an investment in these strategies can be helpful, we direct our clients toward organic search engine optimization. We want our clients to have strong content on their sites, which will enable them to be found quickly by customers.

“…making the most of natural search results requires constant attention. But while SEO is one of the best ways to drive quality traffic to your site, it’s also deceptively labor intensive. Precious human resources – both internal and external – go into building and maintaining high-quality best practices, and SEO practitioners all say that ranking high in the right search categories is the responsibility of everyone on your team,” according to writer Michael Estrin.

Organic SEO lays the road toward your Web site. The customer isn’t forced down the path. Customers seek you out. They want to find your business on Google if you have something that benefits them. We know this is the purpose of a business, whether it’s a store front or Web-based. And in this economy, your business needs to have a Web presence. Through organic SEO growth, customers will want to follow you on Twitter, and read your industry blog. With useful content and a creative delivery, you can attract these customers, sustain the relationship and convert sales.

According to the tech site Hubspot, successful organic campaigns have these three components:

• Content – Content is king because it’s the information that attracts potential customers to your site and business
• Search Engine Optimization – SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. Build your site and inbound links to maximize your ranking in search engines, this is where most of your customers begin their buying process
• Social Media – When your content is discussed on networks of personal relationships it becomes more authentic and is likely to draw qualified customers

There are several benefits to organic SEO. It requires more wit than money, says Hubspot CEO Brian Halligan. The social networking sites are free, if time consuming (which is why it helps to have your marketing agency participate in this process.) Your agency’s copy writers can also produce the keyword-rich content you need for your Web site. Remember, having a fully optimized Web site is the foundation of this whole process. You need to have your agency find your keywords, test your competitors for theirs and infuse your site with the search terms that best fit you. Your potential customers aren’t going anywhere, they’re certainly not going to your Web site, if they can’t find it.

This process is time consuming, but it’ll grow results you can’t get with just buying ads, e-mail lists or television ads. A perfect SEO site, fun viral video on YouTube and informational Tweets can draw thousands of customers to your site and convert to sales.

“If you invest that money in quality content that ranks in Google’s organic results, you’ll be there until somebody displaces you.”

With pay per click, you have to keep paying monthly to get results, which may, or may not, be effective. Depending on your target market, you may be competing with a major Fortune 500 brand for the same set of keywords. If you’re not spending the dollars they are (and you’re probably not), it’s going to be hard to get the top search-engine placement. Initial keyword analysis is imperative to long-term online marketing success.

With all this in mind, I took BRAND’s blog and ran it through Hubspot’s free Web site grader. All you do is input your blog address and a few of your competitors. I was looking for optimization. Unfortunately didn’t find it in our own blog, even though we tell our customers the importance of defining keywords. We’re so busy making sure our clients are successful; we failed to support our own internal efforts.

After comparing our blog with others, I could see that everyone seems to have a problem with optimization. Since I know clients often start their purchasing experience on the Internet, visiting blogs and social media sites to find a progressive agency, I started making the changes suggested by the Hubspot grader.

Here is what I had to fix:

• Titles. Our blog was set up without a title page and cutline. I went into the general settings, got rid of the graphic and added a text title and tagline. The tool also told me that none of the blog entries had title pages. I made each blog into its own page and re-did all the formatting. Why is the title important? It’s what search engines use to figure out what your site is about. Compared to everything else on your page, it gets the most attention from search engines.
• Description. In our blog profile I added biographical information about BRAND. This had also been neglected. I also created an “About Us” page and titled it, simply, “Branding and marketing blog”
• Images. I minimized all my pictures for faster load times and added captions. The reality is most readers aren’t going to wait for a large picture to load. They’ll just be off to the next site

Just with these changes, I was able to increase our grade. I stress that this strategy does not produce results overnight. It takes a minimum of six months to monitor and assess all results. We must continually build out-bound and in-bound links, submit articles to online news sites and create social media content. If this sounds like a daunting task – you’re right. But with the right strategic marketing firm, your Web site can be on its way to Google gold.

Hyping your brand with generosity on the Web

And so it spreads...

The use of video marketing on the Web isn’t new. But something interesting is evolving: generosity messages. Twenty-six million people have viewed the humorously irreverent Wedding Entrance Dance video on YouTube. News about the clip was passed along by blog, instant messaging and e-mail. Since July, it’s been viewed around the world. And with that – its (serious) marketing message.

The video directs viewers to connect to the couple’s Web site and donate to an organization that helps end domestic violence. The bride and groom are both committed to social justice. We care about the cause. We learn about the couple. We laugh at the horrible dancing.

Silly...but effective

A viral video clip can create enormous buzz for a brand. And a message of generosity instills confidence in the viewer. If you have a cause you are committed to, or an approaching fundraiser, a video message may be a great way to get the word out. Your team members may be able to attract attention for a great cause, and in the process, your proactive, community-focused brand.

As marketing professionals tell us, a viral video isn’t made to order. Some of my thoughts on crafting a video:

• Buzz must entice viewers to a video. This isn’t a traditional commercial that the viewer must sit through (we won’t even get into DVRs), they have to choose to view it

• Things go wrong, even if you have a Microsoft-sized budget. Viral videos provoke a response (often wonder, sometimes tears, usually laughter), and sometimes it isn’t intentional. Microsoft’s recent Windows 7 video is a great example of a video that went viral for the wrong reason. The six-minute instructional video on how to host a Windows 7 launch party has been viewed 800,000 times. People are laughing at the cheesy banter, improbable scenario and bad character acting. But bloggers and pundits are calling it yet another Microsoft marketing misstep

Smart professionals lead their businesses toward community service, why not direct that energy toward creative Web marketing? In these tough economic times, you could help raise money for a great cause.

Save time on social media with these tools

I often hear my friends and colleagues complain that time spent online updating profiles, friending and “checking up” on others eats away from actual time spent with friends and business associates.

Then there are the days I’ve come to out of a “screen daze” and discovered Facebook consumed yet another hour of my life.

This week I decided to explore the oxymoron of time saving in social media. I found that yes, it is possible…but it won’t seem like it at first. These Web sites streamline the updating process, but setting them up can be confusing. And once you have scheduled tweets, you still have to spend time responding to readers. But once I got going, I saved time.

• Ping http://ping.fm

What it does: This Web site allows you to post updates to all social-networking platforms at the same time, even photos and blogs. By updating your status on Ping, you could have it post on up to 42 social networks.

Web-savvy skill level: Mid-high. I had no problem setting up my Twitter, LinkedIn and blog. You open an account, input your user names and passwords for all and voila! Facebook required more skill. Because of the application agreement with the uber-popular social-networking site, you are directed to log into your Facebook account, where you must install the Ping application. After several minutes of navigating pop-ups and inputting a bizarre “application code,” I have Facebook access on Ping. But I didn’t know it until I ran a test.

Time saver? Yes, if your goal is to post updates. But if you need to check on responses and personal messages, this isn’t the tool. You’ll still have to log in to all your different accounts.

• CoTweet http://cotweet.com/

What it does: CoTweet is a platform for users (it’s aimed at the ever-lucrative business market) to send scheduled tweets to followers.

Web-savvy skill level: Mid. Setting up an account is simple, as long as you have your Twitter account username and password, and a functional knowledge of how Twitter works (see my first blog). But the site organization is a tough to get used to at first.

Time saver? An enthusiastic yes. There are two great things about CoTweet. One, you can schedule tweets for weeks in advance using the “post update” button. Your outbox keeps track of tweets you’ve sent and ones waiting to be sent. Second, you can see all your Twitter messages in your inbox, color coded and labeled to tell you which account the messages are from. That way, you won’t confuse tweets sent to your personal account with your business, second business, etc. This is useful because the site allows you to reply to, or retweet any message. No need to visit Twitter except to check your follower count. This tool is designed for companies, and it’s best for those managing more than one account.

We have multiple clients to manage, so our best advice is to develop an editorial social-networking update calendar. There will be breaking news to interject now and then, but an approved schedule will keep you and your clients focused.

You can also invite co-workers to access your CoTweet account, which is especially useful to those who have multiple social-networking accounts to monitor. One thing to keep in mind – as the name implies – it’s only for Twitter.

Does all this sound too complicated? If the thought of one more social-networking tool makes your palms sweaty, pass on the duties to your marketing professional. And in the end, aren’t we the ultimate time savers for busy professionals?

Advertising is like rent. You shouldn’t stop paying either

Business owners must think of advertising as buying space in the consumer market. It’s like paying the mortgage or rent for the physical location of your business. Even if you work from home, you still wouldn’t just stop paying your mortgage. And you shouldn’t stop paying for your market space either.

I know this is a hard statement to make when budgets are shrinking and many are struggling to keep the lights on. But this is a vital time for business owners to keep their stake in the consumer market. That means getting your name out there for future clients. Affirming your expertise to retain business. Featuring testimonials about your service/product.
I enjoy occasionally reading the “Guerilla Marketing” tip of the day, crafted by author Jay Conrad Levinson. He describes the importance of a set marketing budget:

Think of your advertising investment as rent, something you spend every month automatically because you have to, not something you can decide whether or not to invest in a given month. Your advertising is part of your monthly overhead…

Green = Green

Make a marketing budget, and your rent will get paid.  But, yes, we can’t forget about the lines of closed store fronts along many of our busy Las Vegas artilleries. So, how do we take a shrinking branding budget and make it work efficiently?

Environmental sustainability could sustain your business

• Get into Green. Customers feel like they are contributing toward a progressive, local business. Whether you are recycling paper, using safe chemicals or investing in community programs – let others know. Spending a little now will save more later. And you could gain customers who value your commitment

Go digital where possible

These flash drives are made of gold

• Start with an e-newsletter. Sent out to all customers, associates and prospects, this marketing tool secures you as an expert in your field. You establish a rapport. Inform about trends. Advertise specials. Post customer comments and pictures. Keeping customers informed about your business expertise ties them into your network

• Many other business documents can be in a digital-only format and transported on disk or USB flash drive (i.e. press kits, annual reports, fact sheets, etc.)

• Set up your business as a social venture. Establish a strong online presence using social networking. Coordinate your efforts and help integrate social values through out your company. What does that mean? Honesty and integrity in customer service and product offering. Consumers have been wounded by unethical business practices. You must distance yourself from the unscrupulous.

All of these ideas are cost efficient and can be attained with the help and direction of an experienced marketing team.