THINKing » Web 2.0 http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog My CreativeTeam Thinks About Creativity, Marketing, PR & Social Media Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:40:12 +0000 en hourly 1 Market Successfully In Today’s Interactive Environment http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/market-successfully-in-today%e2%80%99s-interactive-environment/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/market-successfully-in-today%e2%80%99s-interactive-environment/#comments Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:22:36 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=2176

I just did a session called Market Successfully In Today’s Interactive Environment for the Bank of Commerce’s School of Commerce (SOC). The SOC is designed to help independently owned businesses with the key challenges they have, ranging from financing to marketing.

The presentation covered how to develop your social media plan with key discussion centering on research, audience definition, goal-setting and measurement.

I developed a special report to go with the presentation and you can download it here if you are interested. Do you agree with my approach? Did I leave anything out? Please let me know.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/market-successfully-in-today%e2%80%99s-interactive-environment/feed/ 0 Social Media Attack Plan – Part 2 http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/social-media-attack-plan-part-2/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/social-media-attack-plan-part-2/#comments Thu, 30 Dec 2010 14:30:35 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=1605 social media plan

In part 1, we took a look at the initial elements of your social media plan: research, goal setting and audience definition. Now, let’s look at the rest of the planning process.

Measurement - We talked in part 1 about goal setting. Those goals, we believe, must be achievable, aligned with business objectives, and measurable. Melissa Barker talks in a recent blog post about setting measurable goals. She says:

The challenge for some of these goals, such as engaging with consumers, is to make them specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (SMART).  In addition, objectives must be established for each type of social media platform in order to maximize results. The following are examples of SMART goals for four popular social media platforms: blogs, microblogs (Twitter), social networking sites, as well as image and video sharing sites.

For blogs, Barker suggests goals could include increases in ratio of posts to comments; an increase in visits; growth in page views; or an increase in RSS subscribers.

One final thought on goals. Don’t just measure and report something for the heck of it. I’ve had clients who requested monthly reports on things that have no material effect on the success of the program. They just wanted to know that we were spending the “appropriate” amount of time on their account.  Make sure what you are measuring aligns with the business objectives you have set for your program.

Tactical Plan – Here’s where the rubber meets the road. You are probably not going to have unlimited internal and external resources, so may we suggest that you select three things and do them well. This means focusing your efforts on the three elements that you believe will have the most impact upon your organization.

Determine who will perform the tactical aspect of your plan.

Get organizational buy-in to ensure that it does dovetail with the appropriate business objectives, and that you’ll have the support for program implementation.

Then, ensure that your social media program is integrated with your existing marketing program.

Related Articles

Social Media Measurement Checklist

Marketers Spending On Social Media For Wrong Reasons

Organizational Buy-In

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/social-media-attack-plan-part-2/feed/ 1 Tweeta20 – A Non-Profit Social Media Pilot Project http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/tweeta20-a-non-profit-social-media-pilot-project/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/tweeta20-a-non-profit-social-media-pilot-project/#comments Thu, 22 Apr 2010 12:59:15 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/tweeta20-a-non-profit-social-media-pilot-project/ twitter20.jpg

On Tuesday, May 11, nine Charlotte social media folks and I will spend an hour trying to raise money for Thompson Child & Family Focus, an organization that has spent nearly 125 years providing education, treatment and support for children traumatized by sexual abuse, domestic violence or rampant neglect.

During Thompson’s annual meeting at noon May 11, we will sit at a Twitter Table and encourage our followers to Tweet A $20 or more. Each contributor of $20 or more will be entered to win two tickets to WICKED at Charlotte, NC’s Ovens Auditorium.

We’re using the hashtag #Tweeta20 in all of our social media postings  so we can keep up with the social stream, primarily from our Charlotte area social followers.

How can you help? I’m glad you asked.

  • Follow Thompson on Twitter @thompsoncff
  • Become a Facebook fan of Thompson Child & Family Focus
  • Share news on your blog, in your tweets or Facebook status updates about the promotion and use the #Tweeta20 hashtag
  • Follow our Tweets from noon to 1 p.m. on May 11 and please RT our #Tweeta20 tweets
  • Go ahead and #Tweeta20. We’re taking donations!
  • Send any other ideas you have to tweak our #Tweeta20 promotion.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/tweeta20-a-non-profit-social-media-pilot-project/feed/ 6 Reading List http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/reading-list/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/reading-list/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2009 13:42:49 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=971 What are you reading today? Here are a few items we are checking out.

Newspaper Online Traffic Heads Up

Google Fast Flip Speeds Online News Reading

iPhone App Helps You Find Guinness

Measuring The Business Effects Of Web 2.0

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/reading-list/feed/ 0 Face Time http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/face-time/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/face-time/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 14:58:45 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=968 Some social media proponents would have you believe that the digital world is the new Nirvana. Guess what? Humans – the users of social media – haven’t really changed their behavior in 75,000 years. Although, we do dress better now, and we’re not all cavorting naked on the plains of the Serengeti.

Humans – being human – love social interaction, particularly of the face-to-face variety. Always have, always will. In fact, a recent survey by Forbes indicates that executives favor face-to-face meetings over the virtual kind.

A majority of executives say the recession has cut back their travel and face-to-face meetings, and they don’t like that very much. A full 84% of those surveyed say they prefer real-life interaction over digital.

Although you can’t meet with every one of your online shoppers, you can provide them some human interaction, too  They are craving this. According to an August 2009 survey conducted by Harris Interactive for human-assisted shopping site IMshopping,

77% of US Internet users who made an online purchase in the past six months would be interested in help from a real person before buying certain things on the Web. Though a majority of online shoppers reported a desire for help at least some of the time, 82% of respondents said they had not been able to get that assistance in the past. And more than one-half of that group said it had affected their purchase decision negatively—at least some of the time.

I’m not saying there isn’t a place for virtual meetings and online interaction. I’m just saying that you need to understand the genetic need humans have for the tangible. It’s harder to read people during digital interactions, and you can’t build deep, meaningful relationships solely using ones and zeroes.

The same holds true for tangible marketing material. There is a time and place for everything, and now is the time for you to stand out by being more tangible to your customers and allies.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/face-time/feed/ 1 Social Media: Nothing New To See Here http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/social-media-nothing-new-to-see-here/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/social-media-nothing-new-to-see-here/#comments Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:37:44 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=967 Social Fresh, a conference on this thing we call social media, was held in Charlotte August 24.  The presentations were top-notch and the networking opportunities were excellent, but at the end of the day I can report there is nothing new about social media.

If you are in PR and have been practicing it correctly, you can handle social media. PR is about dialogue. So is social media.

If you are in marketing and have followed best practices, you can handle social media. Marketing is about crafting a relevant message and delivering it to the right person at the right time. So is social media.

The big questions about social media are the ones we have wrestled with in marketing for years: how do we integrate social media into the fabric of the organization, and how do we show hard-nosed business executives that social media does have an impact upon the bottom line.

Is social media new and different, or is it the same-old, same-old? We’ll be talking more about this in the days ahead, and would love to have your thoughts on the topic.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/social-media-nothing-new-to-see-here/feed/ 2 The More Things Change, The More They Remain The Same http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-remain-the-same/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-remain-the-same/#comments Fri, 15 May 2009 13:08:13 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=944 As the marketing world morphs daily under the influence of new technology, we elders in the business sit back and marvel at how things have changed. Just last night I was talking with Dave Ruggerio and Randy Seeds of Synergy Studios about the pace of technological advance.  We all reminisced about how we used to do things in our first jobs.

For me, the oldest in the group, I remembered using a Royal manual typewriter in my first job as a reporter. Cut and paste was a true manual affair then. You took a straight edge, tore a paragraph out of your story and taped the new paragraph in. Then, you took the story to the typesetter.  In those days, Randy says corporate logos were hand drawn with India ink.

But here’s the point of all this. Technology may have changed, bringing us blogs and social media, but people haven’t changed since we came out of the trees and onto the African plains.

Marketers need to remember that no matter what vehicle you are using to deliver your message, you should set strategy first, then tightly define your audience. It is, after all, the people that matter most in the marketing equation. Once you clearly understand your target audience, the message almost crafts itself. That hasn’t changed and never will. End of sermon.

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/the-more-things-change-the-more-they-remain-the-same/feed/ 3 Get Social Fresh http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/get-social-fresh/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/get-social-fresh/#comments Wed, 13 May 2009 20:03:35 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=943 I’m part of a group which is presenting a social media conference, Social Fresh, in Charlotte, Monday, August 24 at the Holiday Inn Center City. Consider this your invitation to attend. You can register here. Here’s what we have announced so far:

We are very excited announce our first round of speakers. From left to right above, Jim Deitzel of Rubbermaid, Keith Burtis of Best Buy, and Social Media evangelist Wayne Sutton, Laurie Smithwick of Kirtsy.com, Chris Harrington of @VoteWoz, and Social Media developer Mike Rundle. These experts and panel announcements can all now be found on our Content page. We have many other speakers in the works from Fortune 500 companies, hip new social media companies as well as social networking power houses.

This is a solid group of social media experts. If you want to learn about where technology is going and how social media can be harnessed for business purposes, then you need to attend.

Additionally, we are accepting sponsors for the event. If you are interested, please sign up here and we’ll get back to you to discuss our sponsorship packages.

Keep apprised of more announcements by following us on Twitter @sofresh.  Below is the rest of our contact information. Hope to see you at the first Social Fresh.

Links

Site – http://socialfresh.com
Tickets – http://sofreshclt.eventbrite.com
Twitter – @sofresh
Contact – info at socialfresh.com
Hashtag – #sofresh
LinkedIn – Fresh SM Pros
Facebook – Social Fresh Page

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/get-social-fresh/feed/ 0 A Holiday Gas http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/a-holiday-gas/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/a-holiday-gas/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 22:05:04 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=872

You have to love clients who clearly understand their brand, their audiences and have the courage to communicate with them in their vernacular. That’s why I love the folks at Newell Rubbermaid. They get it.

We developed a promotional website for Rubbermaid’s Bernzomatic brand and redecorated it for the holidays. It now features the bed of a plumber’s truck filled with BernzOmatic Fat Boy gas cylinders, which toot out holiday ditties. We call it the Fat Boy Farting Choir. Check out the one above.

 

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]]> http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/a-holiday-gas/feed/ 2 Marketers Not On Board With Social Networks http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/marketers-not-on-board-with-social-network-ads/ http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/marketers-not-on-board-with-social-network-ads/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 18:30:18 +0000 Harry Hoover http://www.my-creativeteam.com/blog/?p=871 Social network sites are not high on the lists of top brand marketers, according to a new study by Epsilon. The survey indicates that,

55% of the chief marketing officers at leading brands surveyed by Epsilon said they’re not too interested (22%), or not interested at all (33%), in incorporating the social networking sites into their marketing strategies.

The Center for Media Research reports,

Steve Cone, Chief Marketing Officer of Epsilon, observes that “These sites narrowly appeal to college and high school students, providing a challenge as far as measuring results and yielding a limited amount of actionable data.”

Hogwash. Admittedly, FaceBook and MySpace started out aimed primarily at younger demographics. But in the last year there has been a surge in usage among Baby Boomers.

The big question is this: if marketers do start plugging into the networks, will they try lame-ass ads or will they actually attempt to engage in a conversation with customers and prospects? My bet is on lame-ass ads. Thoughts?

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