What if there was no advertising?

Imagine a world without advertising. How would you know that BMW just launched a new line of automobiles? Or that McDonald’s has your favorite flavor of milkshake on sale? Or that the Brightside Green Tie Bash is on March 4th this year at the Olmstead?

Sure, some days it seems there is way too much advertising, and the poorly executed ads don’t help the clutter at all. But advertising is necessary, not only for the advertiser, but for the consumer.

Consumers want choices. I believe it was Henry Ford who said people could have any color car they wanted, as long as it was black. We see how well that worked. Advertising can and should educate the consumer as to the features and benefits (and sometimes differences) between similar products. It can raise awareness that a new feature has been added to an existing product or, for that matter, that a product even exists.

In reality, what is annoying is not so much the amount of advertising but the lack of quality advertising that exists today. An interviewer once asked me what makes me get up each morning. I told her, “Bad advertising!”

What are QR Codes?

This week’s blog is about the latest tech thing, QR Codes – also known as mobile bar codes. Click below and watch the quick video we made to explain this new technology. In order to read QR Codes with a Smartphone, you’ll need to download a QR Reader app. There is a vast number of apps available for free. Just go to your app store, search QR Reader & download one. If you have an iPhone, you may want to consider QuickMark or i-nigma. For Blackberry users, you may want to look at UpCode or BeeTagg. A website we’ve found very helpful in finding the best app to suit your mobile device (by make and model) is www.mobile-barcodes.com

If you’re gonna play the game, ya gotta speak the language.

With new technology comes a new language and new terminology. We all know (or should know) that Google has become an officially recognized verb per the Merriam-Webster Dictionary meaning to search something on the web. Similarly, the word Skype is becoming the term used when initiating communications via live video. Like any other industry, you need to learn the terminology to keep up. And in this fast-paced world of social media, barely keeping up is not enough.

That’s why I’d like to share the following link, Social Media Glossary: 48 Terms You Should know, http://bit.ly/bMVmVn from the 60-Second Marketer, an online magazine for the marketing community. This is a handy guide to keep at your side as you venture more and more into the social media realm. Just remember, if you want to walk the walk you need to talk the talk.

What are you doing now? Benefits of Twitter for business.

Twitter is quickly becoming the voice box for brand advocates. In fact, people who use Twitter (referred to as Tweople) are three times more likely to be creators of content than the general population and therefore more likely to weigh in with their opinions about brands to a great number of their followers. If they like what they see on Twitter, they are most likely to repeat it (retweet) to their captive audience. Through tools such as Twitter Search, you can find people who are talking about your product. You want to be able to mine these resources and identify your brand’s talk drivers, and then you want to begin communicating with them.

As mentioned in earlier posts, people want to associate with people, not brands. Twitter allows the ability to add personality to your brand and make it more approachable to the consumer. The more you find people who want to hear what you have to say, and put out information they want to hear, the more you position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. This can give you a leg up on your competition.

This open communication lets you announce important new features of your product or service, enables you to ask questions that may help you improve upon your product or service, share information and insights specific to your industry, and position your brand as readily available to consumers who may sing your praises or let you know potential problems that need addressing. The key is to broadcast information that lends value to the consumer;  however, be careful that you are not posting a constant stream of self promotion. Instead of “What are you doing now?”, Twitter should be asking, “What do you have to offer now?”

Listening: a key factor in the Art of Conversation.

Consumers are all broadcasters these days; they have easy and quick means to reach hundreds of friends and associates, with just a few key strokes. They are more likely to talk about experiences online and their recommendations go a long way in helping friends form their own opinions. Marketers need to keep tabs on what’s being said online, and need to be able to defend their products, respond to comments directly and learn how to make their products better. Marketers need to learn how to actively listen through monitoring.

Active listening, not selective hearing, is required in order to be fully engaged in a conversation. And because the tenets of social marketing revolve around the conversation, you can’t fully participate unless you have systems in place to effectively monitor what’s being said about your company online, and be nimble enough to reply to statements made (good or bad) about your product or service.

Monitoring tools are readily available, from those that are free and online for everyone, to the more complex and more comprehensive variety that require monthly fees or annual commitments. No matter which tools you select to monitor conversation on the web, the key is to set up daily routines – perhaps in the morning with your first cup of coffee or as the final act at the end of your work day. A direct response to a negative comment online goes a long way in the eyes of the consumer. After all, wouldn’t you prefer being able to communicate directly with someone who cares about what you have to say and has the power to do something about it?