MindComet

Love by association

Forums are social media and should be part of your social media strategy. For example, Pitney Bowes leverages forums to allow their users to support each other during postage rate changes. This post however is focused on using forums as part of your social media outreach and presence strategy.

Forums are ubiquitous.

Just search out your interest, and you’re bound to find a forum with relevant discussions. Want to join a forum and talk to other poodle lovers? Here’s a forum you can call home.

The question is, as a marketer, how do you engage forums? What are some best practices? What are the benefits?

The best advice in engaging forums is to tread lightly. Forum based communities are often the target of spammers and as a result are very protective. They’ve been around for years and have built great communities. Their members aim to keep it that way. So what do I mean by tread lightly?

Be respectful.

If the community doesn’t want you there as a marketer, then leave. Don’t force yourself into the conversation. If the community has a Terms of Service, read it. Their TOS might explicitly tell you to stay away as a marketer. Get the hint without ruffling feathers.

Forums are notorious for flame wars. Avoid them at all costs. They’re toxic. Don’t ever let yourself get drawn in. And please please please, don’t start a flame war. Be respectful.

Contribute value to the community

Pretty self-explanatory. If you’re not contributing value, staying relevant to the conversation, and building relationships; logout; delete your profile; Stay far far away.

If you get stuck on this one, try the educational approach. Provide links to 3rd party sites that are relevant and position yourself and the educator. Make sure you have read the TOS though, some forums frown on posting links.

Full disclosure

If you’re there as a brand or a marketer, it’s very important that you disclose it. Be careful though, sometimes the disclosure can be confused with a marketing message, especially if you come on too strong with it. Don’t spend lots of time talking about yourself and who you are. Instead, try the subtle approach of weaving disclosure into a relevant conversation.

Example: Great points. I’ve worked with [put your affiliation here] for the past year, they’ve really helped me to learn a few things about [put your relevant and valuable knowledge here]

Your disclosure doesn’t have to be in every post, just make sure you drop it in (and do it intelligently!) from time to time.

Marketing through participation

This is where the previous three pieces of advice come together. You’ve done a great job of being a respectful human who, based on contribution, is seen as a valuable, if not integral member of the community. Hopefully, you’ve also made a clear connection, in a clever and non-intrusive way, between yourself and the brand you represent.

Are you seeing where I’m going here?

The end goal is for the community to make a connection between you (the person they really like) and the brand you represent. I like to call it “love by association”.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Apr. 22, 2009

Social media usage eclipses email. What should you do?

According to a recent study release by eMarketer, social media activity has eclipsed that of email.

This is an impressive milestone for social media, however this shouldn’t be your cue for abandoning or even reducing your email marketing budget and throwing all your direct response marketing eggs into the social media basket.

According to a study by IDC, 43% of social media users have never click on ads (this one included) and only 11% of those who did converted to a sale. Email is still driving more online purchases than other online media, so stick with it.

Use social media as a complement your email programs or to execute a whole host of other business tasks that email can’t accomplish. When it comes to direct response marketing, though, email is still king.

Read the article on EMarketer

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Mar. 28, 2009

Marketing dollars shift in response to economy

2009 is here, along with new budgets that reflect both our weakened economy and a shift in marketing tactics. Technological advances and increased scrutiny of corporate spending have precipitated two significant shifts in marketing budgets.

The first of these shifts that we're seeing is budgets for costly offline print and TV campaigns being redirected to online efforts. So, why the shift? As I mentioned earlier, corporate spending is increasingly being scrutinized and CEO's want to know that they're seeing returns on their investments. Traditional campaigns are expensive and the advent of services such as TiVo and DVR are driving up the already high cost of TV impressions. To make matters worse, tracking the results of offline campaigns is difficult, if not impossible. Online provides more affordable and measurable channels for marketing.




In addition to the online shift of marketing dollars, we're also seeing a dramatic change is how that money is spent online. Until recently, banner ads were the focus of many online marketing budgets. However poor click-through and dismal conversion rates have marketers looking for new avenues, specifically, online video and social media.

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Posted by Jeremy Hilton on Feb. 06, 2009