MindComet

Market with your four walls

It’s no secret, MindComet sells social media strategy as a service. Organizations come to us, not knowing where and how to start using social marketing effectively. We educate and help them, generally in exchange for money. But today, we’re giving away a freebie. It’s a very basic, two-fold strategy that, in my opinion, is one of the most effective strategies a business can employ.

Part one: Market with your four walls.

Four-walls marketing is not a new concept, yet it is really simple. If you can consistently deliver a unique and memorable experience to your customers, they WILL market for you. Top restaurants have been doing this for years. Do you think that the Cleveland-based chef and restauranteur, Michael Symon, spends significant amounts of money advertising his flagship restaurant Lola? No, his guests do his marketing for him - By the way, if you’re ever in Cleveland you MUST dine there. It is amazing - see what I mean?

So ask yourself, is your customer experience unique? Are you delivering something, whether it be a product, experience, or customer service, that you can reliably say you’re doing better, and not just marginally better, than your competition? Work on this until you can emphatically say yes, then move on to part two.

Part two: Encourage or ask your customers to talk about you on social media channels.

If you’re doing part one right, then you’re guests will already be talking about you to their friends. However, you’re goal is to have them talking about you in a public forum, like social media. Don’t be bashful, strike up conversations with your happy customers and see if they use social media. If so, ask them to post reviews on sites like Yelp, Urbanspoon, Twitter, Facebook, and their blogs. Sometimes people just need a little nudge and I guarantee that a good number of them will be happy to do it.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 26, 2009

Seriously geeking out

It’s been a while since my last post, 14 days to be exact. By all appearances, it looks as though I’ve been slacking off…that’s not the case. Actually, I’ve been geeking out. Hardcore.

I’m currently undertaking revamping the MindComet Facebook page. As a company that sells Facebook development and strategy as a service and does it really well, our Facebook fan page is admittedly lackluster.

So what’s in store?

Besides some image and copy changes, we’re adding three custom tabs: Culture, Portfolio, and Blogs. Each of these will leverage Yahoo! Pipes for RSS aggregation and manipulation and then use three custom Facebook applications for displaying the content in tabs. For the fellow geeks out there, Once they’re live, I’ll give a run down on how I accomplished each…in case you want to pimp out your Facebook fan page or see what MindComet can do before you hire us

Speaking of geek, our development team has been hard at work producing their new blog, Oops My Geek is Showing. It’s a great read, plus it has podcasts for the visually lazy!

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 24, 2009

Why do we love user-generated content?

User-generated content (UGC) is at the heart of many popular social platforms. Sites like YouTube and Flickr offer users vast amounts of UGC to consume. And consume they do, 72% of US Internet users watch user-generated videos monthly. Given the immense popularity of reality television, this makes sense. The hyper-authenticity of it resonates with all of us. The fact that we can also contribute our own content, provided we have access to some very basic production tools, makes it even more appealing. We’re not just consumers anymore, we’re also the stars.

While some established UGC channels see sustained organic growth, other lesser known channels use prizing to attract users to contribute content. DiscoverBoating, an online source of boating information, is holding an online contest where you create your own “ad” that tells the world how you “discovered boating”. They are accepting two ad formats, original videos and original photos. Each category has a $5K prize attached to it.

The video sharing site Viddiction takes a different approach, instead of a winner takes all contest, this site allows users to accumulate popularity points for their submitted videos and redeem those points for cash. In other words, everyone wins. How much you wins depends on the quality of your content and your ability to self-promote.

What are your favorite UGC sites? Have you ever made money from a UGC site?

BTW, the DiscoverBoating field is relatively narrow, I would suggest submitting some content..could be an easy $10K

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 10, 2009

Death of the dog and pony show?

Besides heading up MindComet’s media department, I also oversee the entire technology group. Technology is where my roots are. In that particular role, I’ve made more than a few software/service purchasing decisions…which means sitting through multiple demos given by sales people all claiming to have the best product. Invariably, everyone always says their product is the best. But, how can this be?

It can’t.

As a purchaser, I know that they’re not all equal, despite the claims. Once you’ve heard three people say their product is the best, rest assured that two of the presentations you’ve heard are dog and pony shows (look, I understand. It’s sales. Going in saying, “sure my competitor’s product kicks our ass, but…“, isn’t a winning formula for hitting quotas). It’s my job to spend hours wading through sales speak to find out exactly who’s the “nuts” and who’s not. It can be tough.

Cue social media.

The internet and social media are now the great equalizer. Establishing a relationship is no longer a guessing game. Questions like is their product reliable, how’s their customer service, and are their other customers happy can be answered before signing a contract. Just put your ear to the ground and listen in customer communities. Ask past and current customers questions about the product on social platforms. They’re generally very honest…sometimes brutally honest.

According to a blog post on eMarketer, only 17% of people trust advertisers. The majority of consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations by friends and family. While many of the people you engage in social media are relative strangers, it’s valuable feedback that can contribute to your decision. Personally, I strive for a decent sampling of feedback and look for patterns. What was the overall sentiment about the product? How did people generally feel about the level of customer service?

Do you research products independently on social media platforms before making a purchase?

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 08, 2009

Social media for the underdog

Is social media best suited for big brands? Logic would tell you that it is. It’s easier for celebrities to make a big splash in social media versus the average Joe. They have equity in their name. It’s easy for them to attract lots of followers and broadcast their message. When it comes to business the same holds true. Big brands have brand equity. Establishing a presence is not that hard. But what if you’re a small brand that wants to sell cars in Orlando or are a Realty brokerage looking for potential buyers? Should you really care about sheer numbers or should you be interested in smart, targeted usage that produces real results?

A recent post on the eMarketer blog cites that more than 260,000 small businesses in the US and Canada are utilizing social media for business purposes.

The graph is interesting in that advertising and maintaining profile (awareness) are less prominent reasons for participating in social media than the smart and highly targeted activities like customer service and professional networking.

And what types of platforms are businesses utilizing for their social media activities?

Social networking is by far the most prevalent with niche/industry communities and job sites close behind.

So what is the lesson here?

Social media can apply to small business. However “wide-net” strategies that aim for national and global awareness should be avoided. Use social media to forge new relationships and strengthen existing customer relationships through hyper-targeted conversations.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 04, 2009

Twitter needs to educate!

Over at Direct Marketing Observations (a most excellent and upcoming blog by a fellow Floridian), Marc Meyer gives his two cents why the new user attrition rate at twitter is so high.

People are confused and understandably so.

The cryptic language of RT, #hashtag, and @user is probably pretty intimidating for novice users, especially those without a Twitter veteran mentor to lean upon. I’m pretty sure followfriday has more than a few new users running for the hills.

Twitter needs to educate their users. In fact, they are obligated to provide them with a guided tour of how to Twitter.

A few items that might need explaining-

* What RT, #hashtag, @user syntax means
* How to use Twitter search to find people on Twitter
* Direct messages
* Trending topics

BTW, this should be provided as a video or series of video tutorials.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Jun. 03, 2009