2014
Autospeak-Straight Talk contains articles covering digital and social media marketing social communities and events marketing
Taking care of the people that take care of you can reap big rewards when showing your customers and employees that you care for and appreciate them. There is no better or more economical way to accomplish this than with an onsite social community that can be successfully accomplished in any organization.For example Lululemon produces sports apparel for women that is fashionable, environmentally friendly, and as technically advanced as sports apparel for men. The company spends virtually nothing on advertising. Instead, they build product awareness and forge ties with local communities through the community portal on their website.
They are encouraged to apply to become Lululemon ambassadors, “unique individuals … who embody the Lululemon lifestyle and live our culture.†The company now has over 200 stores, and sales soared from US $40 million to US $1.37 billion in eight years. In the US alone, sales grew 40 percent in 2012.
The following article by Michelle Killebrew, Are You Ignoring Your Best Brand Advocates?, Â tells us what empowering your employees can accomplish for your organization and the growing need to recognize all the things that they do and can do for your organization.
One reason this is such a powerful strategy is that it provides you with a way to leverage your entire customer and employee base. One of the most powerful ways to spread your message on social networks is to get customers to share news of their purchase from you. The message may be delivered on the social network, but it originates on your site. Community provides an effective mechanism on your site to encourage purchase-sharing and by showing your customer and employee centric culture.
If you limit your social strategy to the social networks, you are missing the chance to leverage Social when it will help you most. You know that many of your shoppers are also going to your competitors’ sites. Why wouldn’t you give yourself the advantage of showing those shoppers that their friends, friends of friends and neighbors shop with you?
An onsite community strategy is all about connecting you with the social networks to improve the shopping experience for your customers and the bottom line for you. To fully deliver on the value promise of social networks, the information needs to be able to flow in both directions.
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
Are you caught up with the most recent online marketing changes, updates and theories? Wishpond’s James Scherer, in this four-part series, will examine the most influential changes that have happened in the past six months, and how those changes affect you and your business on a daily basis.In this final installment, Scherer will discuss four strategies for getting a solid return on investment from Facebook Ads. In Part 1, Scherer looked at the rise of social media optimization. Part 2 covered Content Shock — what it is and why it matters. Part 3 examined what Facebook’s Edgerank changes mean for marketers.
Facebook Ads often get a bad rap, but they’ve been steadily improving. The average click-thru rate for Facebook Ads has jumped 275% since 2012. ROI has increased 152% in the past 18 months.
There are countless ways you can dive a little deeper into Facebook Advertising to find an ROI that works for your business. Learning the strategies below requires a bit more time and effort, but it can also open up a whole new platform for generating brand awareness, promoting your products, and even generating leads.
Here are four (somewhat advanced) strategies to get a workable ROI out of Facebook Ads:
1. Facebook Ads can be used for way more than just promotion of a sale. You can create an ad used to generate Facebook likes for your page (say, with a like-gated contest or promotion) and set the payment plan to Cost-Per-Like — meaning you pay based on how the ad performs for your brand. (Well-designed, optimized ads can have a CPL of only 30 cents!) That’s pretty cool given that Syncapse found that a Facebook like was worth, on average, $174 to brands.
2. They’re awesome for lead generation. You can target Facebook Ads so specifically that only people who have stated (in no uncertain terms) that they’re interested in your field or sector will see them and traffic through to a lead-generating landing page. My favorite way to generate leads with Facebook Ads is to promote an e-mail-gated ebook to people who have stated they are interested in that ebook’s subject. Target the ad as specifically as possible and then connect it to an optimized landing page, which discusses how the ebook can benefit its reader and provides an e-mail-gated download button.
3. Targeting by custom audience. Using this method, in which you import your business’ e-mail list into your Facebook Ad tool and find the corresponding Facebook user, means you can re-target those lapsed customers who haven’t bought from you in a few months, or reward your loyal customers with a Facebook-exclusive offer. Before you import your contact list, be sure you’ve segmented it intelligently based on your ad goals. Consider importing only your most recent merchants (past 6 months) and targeting them with an ad with copy such as “How are you liking [Your Business]? Click to get our exclusive 50% off coupon available only to loyal customers!â€
4. Targeting by lookalike audience. Available only with the Power Editor plugin, lookalike targeting finds Facebook users similar to your imported custom audience list. This means you can generate leads with all the characteristics of your existing customers – thereby dramatically increasing your ad click-through-rate. Lookalike audience targeting is effective not only based on a custom audience who have bought from you, but how about targeting Facebook users exactly like your custom audience of ebook subscribers? Your CTR can be awesome, but be aware you’ll need at least 10,000 people in your custom audience to find results!
James Scherer is a content marketer for Wishpond and author of the ebook The Complete Guide to Facebook Ads.Wishpond makes it easy to run Facebook Ads, create landing pages & contests, email automation campaigns & manage all of your business’ contacts.
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Friday February 28, 2014
There is not a more cost effective way to leverage your W.I.T.T.s  than by including an Onsite Community as part of your social and digital marketing mix and the advantages are real and the reasons all around us.There is not a more cost effective way... READ MORE
Wednesday February 26, 2014
Local area marketing gives your brand the opportunity to leverage your messages to create a solid community of loyal customers who live or work close to your market area. Local area marketing provides the best opportunity for your business to... READ MORE
Tuesday February 25, 2014
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Events anchor any business to their local community. Which is why real-time event ‘live’ media marketing that broadcasts across every online digital and traditional marketing channel can be a game changing experience.If you are planning an event...READ MOREÂ
Monday February 24, 2014
Social media marketing has changed the approach to selling today and requires a new perspective on how to attract clients. If we listen to what is happening in the marketplace today across social media channels inbound marketing offers a higher... READ MOREOne Big Broadcast News Page
There is not a more cost effective way to leverage your W.I.T.T.s  than by including an Onsite Community as part of your social and digital marketing mix and the advantages are real and the reasons all around us.Crowdsourcing is the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people from the online community.
Crowdsourcing is best achieved at scale by first using your W.I.T.T.S to pull it all together into a social networking ecosystem that is managed, monitored and revolves around one central location-Your company website.
By now you are probably wondering “what is W.I.T.T.S?†W.I.T.T.S is the first step in forming a truly effective social networking ecosystem.
1.      First Identify the influencers Within your community and rank them in order of importance and
2.      Turn those Influencers within your community into advocates of the firm by
3.    Marketing To these influencers with special incentives to increase awareness of the firm within the community and finally
4.      Marketing Through your community using the influencers within your community to increase market awareness of your company amongst target markets.
Exactly what is included in Influencer Marketing depends on the context (B2C or B2B) and the medium of influence transmission (online or offline, or both). But it is increasingly accepted that companies should be identifying and engaging with influencers.
As marketing experts Keller and Berry note, " Business is working harder and paying more to pursue people who are trying to watch and listen less to its messages." Targeting influencers is seen as a means of amplifying marketing messages, in order to counteract the growing tendency of prospective customers to ignore marketing.
Onsite social communities and newsletters are an effective and low cost method in which to engage with and learn from influencers both in B2C and B2C.
Social Communities allow businesses not only to connect and follow and market to existing customers but also to engage with their employee base. This is a centralized way in which to communicate with, retain and turn your existing customers and employees into marketing influencers.
But a large part of the problem is that many companies view social technologies as yet another tool to be implemented rather than as an enabler of organizational and marketing transformation.
It is said that one in every 10 Americans is what they call an "influential." These people have a tremendous impact on the rest of society because their ideas and opinions are sought out by the friends, family and community members around them. The conversations they hold and the examples they set have the power to shape your community's and hence your social networking ecosystems behaviors and attitudes as a whole.
Based on this, how many untapped influential customers might already be in your database. And by finding and utilizing those existing untapped influencers and making them an advocate for your business is a treasure waiting to be utilized.
By using your W.I.T.T.S as a base from which to launch your crowdsourcing, you will have created a permanent infrastructure to form most effective social networking ecosystem that will live on and survive all the trending fads that are inconsistent and constantly being replaced.
Also read Online Community Benefits
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
Events anchor any business to their local community. Which is why real-time event ‘live’ media marketing that broadcasts across every online digital and traditional marketing channel can be a game changing experience.
If you are planning an event there are many things you can do today to enhance the impact and reach of your event to gain a much larger audience.
You already have an audience in your database of existing customers. By creating an onsite community you can make existing sales and service customers and employees members all of whom can help you get your message out by commenting and blogging about you and the event before, during and after the event takes place.
Enlisting them in your community can provide many other benefits that can draw you existing customer and employee base much closer and if structured properly can benefit both you and your members in many ways. (Social Communities Can Redefine Customer Experience)
Imagine blog casting, social casting, and mobile applications all working together to engage existing, potential viewers and fans with GPS galleries that comb your area to attract visibility to the event both during and after it’s over. By creating and implementing social casting tools and applications that span the digital realm all integrated to take your business right into the heart of the action.
Events Marketing can also be used as a multichannel online sales or advertising event tool to enhance your inbound leads.
All this combined with an onsite social community platform gives you the most powerful socialcasting capabilities available in the marketplace today.
What is Socialcasting?Socialcasting is not a new phenomenon but new technologies have provided more effective ways in which to capitalize on it.
It has developed out of several technology trends including instant messaging, videoconferencing; social networking; blogging; video sharing and streaming information and photos in “Real Time†across the internet.
Socialcasting is a movement in online and onsite video and generated content that combines traditional media content, social networking, and interactive community to create a unique experience for viewers on the internet.
Some have called socialcasting where Web 2.0 meets TV 2.0, offering new ways for video content to be experienced and shared by viewers in an online community.
A Web 2.0 site or a social community allow users to interact and communicate with each other as creators of user-generated content in a virtual community, in contrast to websites where people are limited to the passive viewing of content.
This Social integration is the process of linking information--whether in blogs, forums or other networking options--to the Internet. Search engines and communities are instantly alerted to the presence of a particular item. This allows users to quickly find what they need when they need it.
More and more companies are creating onsite social communities for their customers in which to interact. Companies can read the needs and concerns of their customers in new ways and can benefit from the relevant content being generated in the community via comments and articles that can be integrated into their Digital marketing initiatives.
Socialcasting is also seeing a lot of success in “real time events marketing.†On site events are seeing a much greater impact and reaching a much larger audience by going beyond the physical location and traditional medias by simultaneously broadcasting the event over the internet and through social channels. Through streaming photos and video, texting, blogging and social networking many people are engaged which causes the event to virtually feed on itself before, during and after the event.
This all draws attention to drive traffic that otherwise would not be reached.
The use of Socialcasting in digital marketing has increased in popularity but has been being used very successfully for many years. Sporting events of all kinds have been big beneficiaries of socialcasting using the internet and is now being utilized more and more for conferences and onsite promotions with great success.
Socialcasting in its many forms can boost page ranking and drive traffic in ways that no other form of media can.
Socialcasting can make a big impact in your overall marketing efforts and is something that any business can benefit from. Technology is constantly providing us with new and creative ways of marketing. Socialcasting is a product of all this new technology and is an indirect social content driven way of getting your message out, creating attention and driving traffic.
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
Social media marketing has changed the approach to selling today and requires a new perspective on how to attract clients. If we listen to what is happening in the marketplace today across social media channels inbound marketing offers a higher probability of conversion than outbound marketing strategies.
This applies not only to the B2C sector but also to the B2B sectors where people’s expectations have shifted to being educated and informed first and engaging with a company in their own way in their own time.
Another point to make is how important the relationship is after the sale.  In Gerry Morin’s article below he indirectly refers to a fact that I and others have been stressing for years, “I have purchased over 10 cars in my lifetime and cannot remember any of the names, faces or other details of the people who sold them to me. However, I remember every car mechanic I’ve ever worked with. I remember each of them because we built a trusting relationship. They taught me and did not sell me. They showed me how to maintain my car and advised me on what to look for when buying a new car. They were my trusted advisor who helped me fix my current problem and frame my future purchase. Wow!â€,
The sale takes but a fleeting moment to conclude compared to the relationship with the customer after the sale that will last for years if nurtured properly and pay you back many times over. See Focus on the Heart and Not Just The Wallet
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
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This applies not only to the B2C sector but also to the B2B sectors where people’s expectations have shifted to being educated and informed first and engaging with a company in their own way in their own time.
Another point to make is how important the relationship is after the sale.  In Gerry Morin’s article below he indirectly refers to a fact that I and others have been stressing for years, “I have purchased over 10 cars in my lifetime and cannot remember any of the names, faces or other details of the people who sold them to me. However, I remember every car mechanic I’ve ever worked with. I remember each of them because we built a trusting relationship. They taught me and did not sell me. They showed me how to maintain my car and advised me on what to look for when buying a new car. They were my trusted advisor who helped me fix my current problem and frame my future purchase. Wow!â€,
The sale takes but a fleeting moment to conclude compared to the relationship with the customer after the sale that will last for years if nurtured properly and pay you back many times over. See Focus on the Heart and Not Just The Wallet
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
Â
10 Ways To Teach Your Customers to Buy From You
When it comes successful social selling and meeting your sales quota, being more like a car mechanic, instead of a car salesman, might be the key to your success. Huh? How are you going to meet your quota if you don’t act like the tenacious and famous car salesman, Cal Worthington?
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I have purchased over 10 cars in my lifetime and cannot remember any of the names, faces or other details of the people who sold them to me. However, I remember every car mechanic I’ve ever worked with. I remember each of them because we built a trusting relationship. They taught me and did not sell me. They showed me how to maintain my car and advised me on what to look for when buying a new car. They were my trusted advisor who helped me fix my current problem and frame my future purchase. Wow!When it comes successful social selling and meeting your sales quota, being more like a car mechanic, instead of a car salesman, might be the key to your success. Huh? How are you going to meet your quota if you don’t act like the tenacious and famous car salesman, Cal Worthington?
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Whether you are selling enterprise software solutions in the cloud or trading show shipping services you can position yourself as a teacher, like my car mechanics, and reap the rewards of being a top seller.
Social Selling Lessons | Be A Teacher Not A Seller1. Differentiate Yourself From The Sales Sharks. With InsideView reporting that 90% of CEO’s do not return cold emails or calls, becoming a trusted advisor and teacher to your customers makes sense. It’s the only way to break through to them. Don’t ‘look’ like the typical sales professional and you will separate yourself form the herd of sales sharks.
2. Don’t Be All About Making A Deal. Instead of focusing on a small amount of sales, build a large social network people modeled after your customers and their influencers. 75% of B2B decision makers use social media to learn. So, plug into this larger network, to bust your quota.
3. Pass On Valuable Information. Don’t use your social media and network channels to promote your solutions. Pass on valuable information, instead, to lead the conversation to you when the time is right to buy. You want to be known for handing out knowledge and not brochures.
4. Associate Yourself With Great 3rd-part Brands. You are the company you keep, so keep good company. Associate yourself with great knowledge brands, like Harvard Business Review, Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, to build your reputation and brand.
5. Think Outside The Trade-Show Booth. Cast the trade booth sales mentality away and spread your knowledge so people will eventually visit your trade booth when it’s time to buy; 73% of customers are willing to engage with you on social media, so get to it!
6. Use Social Media To Teach And Not Sell. Selling is best done face-to-face. However, Social Media Today reports B2B buyers look at an average of over 10 digital resources before ever making a purchase. Since customers need to learn before they buy, use this opportunity on social media to connect. Your customers are there whether or not you are.
7. Teach And Connect With Today’s Technology. Connect and get on the radar of your customers and potential networks by retweeting, sharing, commenting and favoriting others’ content. Intersecting with their learning tools is a great way to build a relationship instead of finding and phoning them from a LinkedIn search. LinkedIn reports 85% of IT Decision Makers use social networks for business, so your future customers are waiting for you to socially engage.
8. Develop Insights. Before you teach and connect with your customers, you need to listen to the customer and their customers. Listening is a great way to prepare for your connections and calls. SirisuDecisions reports 82% B2B decision makers think sales representatives are unprepared for meetings, so this insight-driven approach will help you build the best social selling lesson plan.
9. Tap Into The Ready-made Network. There is an entire social community on LinkedIn, Twitter and blogs, where customers are tapping to learn how to be smarter, more effective, more efficient to make more money. Determine how to tap into this potential, leverage the rules of engagement, and position yourself as a teacher; especially since the Sales Benchmark Index reports reps with 5000+ linked in connections have a 98% chance of attaining quota.
10. Be A Publisher. In addition to curating and passing on the great content to your network, create your own assets on a blog. Blogging is the social selling secret weapon. Hubspot reports that 92% of companies that blog multiple times per day have acquired a customer from their blog, so this strategy seems like a no-brainer!
Do you have another teaching tip to share? If so, please comment below. Or, contact me directly at MarketingThink.com, on LinkedIn, Twitter or Google+.
If you are looking to set yourself up as a social selling teacher, you might enjoy learning how to:
- Create the perfect LinkedIn profile
- Create the perfect Twitter profile
- How to create the perfect blog post
By Gerry Moran
Image Source: BTSTire.com
Lessons from Threadless: Why building online community can unlock e-commerce success
Tags:
(Posted on Feb 23, 2014 at 01:50PM )
The success of companies who have found the value of having an onsite community is all around us. It lets you connect and stay close to your customers and employees in ways that cannot be accomplished by any other means.
More and more companies are creating onsite social communities for their customers in which to interact. Companies can read the needs and concerns of their customers in new ways and can benefit from the relevant content being generated in the community via comments and articles that can be integrated into their Digital marketing initiatives.
It shows that you are customer and employee centric and can produce a culture of brand ambassadors that can be broadcast across the internet and your social channels to greatly increase traffic to your site by people who will already have confidence in you as a company who is dedicated to serving its customers, employees and community.
These communities provide for limitless marketing opportunities at a fraction of the cost of any other form of marketing.
 Below Caitlin Fitzsimmons social media editor for BRW shares another success story that an onsite social community has brought to this ecommerce company.  However, onsite communities can be customized to any company in any industry to provide the same kind of results.
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
Related content:
Focus on the Heart and Not Just The Wallet
Todd Lido:Â The idea for Threadless began when CEO and founder Jake Nickell began hosting T-shirt design challenges on a design forum. Jake saw how much everyone was enjoying these challenges, and realised it could be a great model to source incredible artwork for T-shirts.
BRW:Â How has Threadless grown and changed since then?
Lido:Â Over a decade later, the community continues to grow. Artists from all over the world submit on Threadless. We received submissions from artists in 71 different countries last month.
One of the great things about the community-based design model is there is no singular Threadless look or design sense. That said, it’s been interesting to see the aesthetics of what the community produces and which products are popular evolve over time.
We continue evolving the model to make it work better, both for Threadless as a business and for the artists who participate. We want to make sure Threadless stays the best platform in the world for artists to come together, share and monetise their work.
BRW:Â How is community and social marketing baked into what you do?
Lido: At its core, Threadless is a platform for connecting artists. So a community-centric approach to communication is very natural for us. We aim to inspire creativity and individuality and keep Threadless fun. It’s partly about managing a community of artists – engaging them in design submissions through themed design challenges, encouraging constructive feedback and collaboration and celebrating success in the community. And it’s partly about making a meaningful connection between artists and the rest of the community that supports them. We really want to keep a focus on the idea that when you buy from Threadless, you are supporting independent artists.
BRW:Â What have you learned about social marketing that might be useful for other companies?
Lido: Think about what makes your offering unique and what resonates most with the audience. Where is the emotional connection that’s going to make the audience want to share your content? Strive to mirror the tone of your communications with the conversations that are happening within your community. I’m sure that some marketers, especially in the business-to-business space, might think that doesn’t apply, but keep in mind at the end of the day your goal is to connect with people too. I definitely encourage as much playful experimentation with different types of content as possible. And pay attention to your social metrics while you experiment. You might be surprised by the results.
BRW:Â What have you done well and what would you do differently if you had your time over?
Lido: I’m most proud of the work we’ve done celebrating artists and telling the stories of the real people who make Threadless what it is. (Some great examples can be found here.)
I’m always dissatisfied when we do anything that doesn’t reinforce the narrative of community-based design. If we have a promotion which is only about “buy these discounted teesâ€, then it could be a promo for any retailer. If what we are talking about doesn’t represent the community behind Threadless, we might as well have stayed home that day.
BRW:Â What are some of the key things you plan to cover in your conference presentation?
Lido: I’m really looking forward to it! I actually think I’m going to get more out of the experience than anyone. I’m looking forward to telling the Threadless story and relating ideas for sustainable community engagement. Threadless certainly has a unique story, but there’s a lot to draw from which is relevant to almost any organisation seeking to grow its online community.
I’ll talk a little about our core mission, the business model and culture and how they inform everything else we do. I will walk through examples of how community participation informs business decisions. I plan on going into detail about our content marketing strategy and how we pull stories out of our community. There will be relatable examples of what has worked for us on a channel and campaign level, especially social media examples. And I will also talk about the balancing act of driving marketing strategy with both community and e-commerce goals, and how these don’t have to be at odds with each other.
By Caitlin Fitzsimmons
More and more companies are creating onsite social communities for their customers in which to interact. Companies can read the needs and concerns of their customers in new ways and can benefit from the relevant content being generated in the community via comments and articles that can be integrated into their Digital marketing initiatives.
It shows that you are customer and employee centric and can produce a culture of brand ambassadors that can be broadcast across the internet and your social channels to greatly increase traffic to your site by people who will already have confidence in you as a company who is dedicated to serving its customers, employees and community.
These communities provide for limitless marketing opportunities at a fraction of the cost of any other form of marketing.
 Below Caitlin Fitzsimmons social media editor for BRW shares another success story that an onsite social community has brought to this ecommerce company.  However, onsite communities can be customized to any company in any industry to provide the same kind of results.
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
Related content:
Focus on the Heart and Not Just The Wallet
Threadless is a T-shirt company with a twist: artists submit designs, Threadless members vote on their favourites, the winners get paid and the T-shirts are produced and sold online.
Â
Â
Chicago-based Threadless started in 2000 with $1000 and is now widely estimated to have more than $30Â million in revenue.
The intriguing thing about the business is how it was borne out of the idea of an online community of artists and designers. Artists submit designs, Threadless members vote on their favourites, the winners get paid and the T-shirts are produced and sold through the shop at Threadless.com. It is worth reading this profile of Threadless (and the reader comments) in Chicago Magazine.
Threadless has more than 2 million members and a social presence that includes more than 800,000 fans on Facebook and 2.2 million Twitter followers. Chief marketing officer Todd Lido is giving a keynote at the E-commerce Conference & Expo in Melbourne from March 26-27 on the company’s strategy for community building and engagement.
BRW:Â What was the initial idea behind Threadless and how did it all start?
The intriguing thing about the business is how it was borne out of the idea of an online community of artists and designers. Artists submit designs, Threadless members vote on their favourites, the winners get paid and the T-shirts are produced and sold through the shop at Threadless.com. It is worth reading this profile of Threadless (and the reader comments) in Chicago Magazine.
Threadless has more than 2 million members and a social presence that includes more than 800,000 fans on Facebook and 2.2 million Twitter followers. Chief marketing officer Todd Lido is giving a keynote at the E-commerce Conference & Expo in Melbourne from March 26-27 on the company’s strategy for community building and engagement.
BRW:Â What was the initial idea behind Threadless and how did it all start?
Todd Lido:Â The idea for Threadless began when CEO and founder Jake Nickell began hosting T-shirt design challenges on a design forum. Jake saw how much everyone was enjoying these challenges, and realised it could be a great model to source incredible artwork for T-shirts.BRW:Â How has Threadless grown and changed since then?
Lido:Â Over a decade later, the community continues to grow. Artists from all over the world submit on Threadless. We received submissions from artists in 71 different countries last month.
One of the great things about the community-based design model is there is no singular Threadless look or design sense. That said, it’s been interesting to see the aesthetics of what the community produces and which products are popular evolve over time.
We continue evolving the model to make it work better, both for Threadless as a business and for the artists who participate. We want to make sure Threadless stays the best platform in the world for artists to come together, share and monetise their work.
BRW:Â How is community and social marketing baked into what you do?
Lido: At its core, Threadless is a platform for connecting artists. So a community-centric approach to communication is very natural for us. We aim to inspire creativity and individuality and keep Threadless fun. It’s partly about managing a community of artists – engaging them in design submissions through themed design challenges, encouraging constructive feedback and collaboration and celebrating success in the community. And it’s partly about making a meaningful connection between artists and the rest of the community that supports them. We really want to keep a focus on the idea that when you buy from Threadless, you are supporting independent artists.
BRW:Â What have you learned about social marketing that might be useful for other companies?
Lido: Think about what makes your offering unique and what resonates most with the audience. Where is the emotional connection that’s going to make the audience want to share your content? Strive to mirror the tone of your communications with the conversations that are happening within your community. I’m sure that some marketers, especially in the business-to-business space, might think that doesn’t apply, but keep in mind at the end of the day your goal is to connect with people too. I definitely encourage as much playful experimentation with different types of content as possible. And pay attention to your social metrics while you experiment. You might be surprised by the results.
BRW:Â What have you done well and what would you do differently if you had your time over?
Lido: I’m most proud of the work we’ve done celebrating artists and telling the stories of the real people who make Threadless what it is. (Some great examples can be found here.)
I’m always dissatisfied when we do anything that doesn’t reinforce the narrative of community-based design. If we have a promotion which is only about “buy these discounted teesâ€, then it could be a promo for any retailer. If what we are talking about doesn’t represent the community behind Threadless, we might as well have stayed home that day.
BRW:Â What are some of the key things you plan to cover in your conference presentation?
Lido: I’m really looking forward to it! I actually think I’m going to get more out of the experience than anyone. I’m looking forward to telling the Threadless story and relating ideas for sustainable community engagement. Threadless certainly has a unique story, but there’s a lot to draw from which is relevant to almost any organisation seeking to grow its online community.
I’ll talk a little about our core mission, the business model and culture and how they inform everything else we do. I will walk through examples of how community participation informs business decisions. I plan on going into detail about our content marketing strategy and how we pull stories out of our community. There will be relatable examples of what has worked for us on a channel and campaign level, especially social media examples. And I will also talk about the balancing act of driving marketing strategy with both community and e-commerce goals, and how these don’t have to be at odds with each other.
By Caitlin Fitzsimmons
The importance of an integrated marketing plan is important to provide consistency across all your marketing channels.Your ad design and message should function in harmony so when the customer hears and ad on the radio or sees and ad in a newspaper or magazine and takes that next step to visit your website site they can recognize from what they saw or heard that they are in the right place from the uniformity across your marketing channels.
First Impressions
We all know that first impressions can often be the deciding factor and good website design as the first impression is critical and is going to determine if someone is going to engage with your site or not.
And never before has your company’s website’s first impression been more important. If people land on your site and it looks old, outdated or they just plain don’t like it – they leave – and most often will not return.
Now, thanks to search engines algorithms bad web design and poor navigation will get you poor search rankings. Search engines watch people’s habits in an effort to produce better search rankings.
So with that thought in mind search engines reward sites that have good navigation and design with higher organic search rankings because they stay longer and navigate deeper. Compare that to a poorly designed web site that people simply land on the site and leave because of its look – Sites are then penalized and placed far down on the organic search list.
 This makes Good website design the foundation on which all your marketing efforts will be based and will determine the flow of guiding someone through the process of making a purchase or having the opportunity to follow up with them to nurture them up to the point at which they are ready to make a purchase.
Behind The Scene
Once you tackle the task of having a well designed website with great content and properly placed calls to action you must then be sure that you have a functional, easy to use and fully integrated marketing platform working behind the scene from which to control everything and launch your marketing initiatives.
Good website design will open the door to potential customers but the marketing platform technology is the engine that is going to give you the tools necessary to obtain information, communicate, analyze and drive all your online marketing.
Good website design and the platform technology behind are the foundation on which you are going to build your online presence and will determine how effective you can be.
Your website and the technology that powers it is where it all starts. These are the building blocks that are going to mean the difference in how effectively your marketing initiatives reach your audience.
Today Digital Marketing has the biggest impact of all your marketing initiatives. You need to have the latest technology from a company that is constantly creating better ways to keep your digital marketing effective.
You might think that what you already have in place is good enough but is good enough- good enough? There have been a lot of changes and your current technology, if outdated, could now be working against you. You cannot afford to be complacent in today’s Digital Marketplace.
You might have created the next great marketing campaign that is going have everyone hitting those retweets and like buttons and sharing it with all their friends. But if you don’t have the latest updated technology powering it- that great marketing campaign may not fulfill your expectations.
Great innovative technology is what is going to power your everyday “bread and butter† social media, earned media and paid marketing campaigns that will get you noticed - get your message out and keep it there.
William Cosgrove
Bill Cosgrove Straight Talk
PhotoRep, is the first photo app of its kind developed by OneBigBroadcast’s innovative technology that augments reputation management, social awareness, search and solidifies your brand through positive feedback from satisfied customers.You no longer need to let these invaluable marketing opportunities slip by. Capture these happy moments as they happen and share them instantly on your customer satisfaction page and across your social channels.
The happiest time in the buyers experience is the day they take delivery of their new or preowned vehicle, product or service. We have made it easy to capture that moment with a photo and a text statement from the customer as to why they purchased from your business. There are also many times in Service where a customer is more than satisfied with a repair or the prompt and friendly service they received.
These pictures with customer texted statements from your satisfied customers will do more for your reputation and social awareness than anything that is available to you today and will also help with your search rankings. Customer testimonials also have the highest effectiveness rating for content marketing at 89%. Â Your employees will also benefit from sharing these treasured moments on their social channels.
Plus, you can capture those funny or treasured moments that occur during business hours and share them with your current and potential customers to show them that you are people to, transparent and customer centric.
PhotoRep also makes a great contest App.
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William Cosgrove
One Big Broadcast
Below I have outlined some examples of how you can setup and implement an onsite social community to start reaping the multitude of benefits and good will that no other form of marketing or rewards program can offer. The possibilities are only limited to your creative ideas.*The benefits that these communities will bring are the most cost effective way in which to engage, retain, manage and form alliances with your community members that will not only foster retention but promote your business in the most positive ways imaginable.
Onsite Communities brings together the customer's voice with data from enterprise systems such as CRM. In addition to other benefits, engaging customers in community also drives transparency and openness - attributes that modern consumers increasingly expect.
Companies with private social networks can experience better employee relations, customer service, reduced customer complaints and even higher brand loyalty due to brand ambassador programs. Think of having a central place in which to read and understand your customers’ concerns, wants, needs and expectations.
Onsite communities also connect to onsite/online events marketing allowing businesses their customers, employees and event sponsors to manage their own profiles – including creating their own content, updating their company news and social media – which can all be administered with specified permissions tools. This “conglomerateâ€-style online network harnesses the power of multiple which acts like a magnet to attract search back to your site.
Imagine by combining your onsite community with onsite/online events marketing (Social casting) with blog casting,  and mobile applications all working together to engage potential viewers and fans in real time with GPS galleries that comb your area to attract visibility to the event both during and after it’s over.  These can also be used as a multichannel online sales or advertising event tools to enhance your inbound leads.
Socialcasting in its many forms can boost page ranking and drive traffic in ways that no other form of media can. This can positively impact your overall marketing efforts and is something that any business can benefit from. Technology is constantly providing us with new and creative ways of marketing. Socialcasting is a product of all this new technology and is another way of driving social content to get help get your message out, create attention and drive traffic.
It might seem like a foreign concept at first, but implementing these Socialcasting tools and applications that span the digital realm will take your business to a whole new level and right into the heart of the action.
Although your social brand strategy is important, don’t overlook the potential of harnessing and combining  your own community in a niche social community network with your social brand strategy.Â
An onsite social community offers many benefits for you as the business, your employees and the customer that cannot be duplicated elsewhere-providing a win-win situation for all.
*Examples of how to set up an onsite social community. Remember that the possibilities are only limited to your creative ideas.*
Community Members:
Existing members will automatically be made members and sent an e-mail to inform them.
New customers will automatically become members of the community as part of the benefit of doing business with your company.
Site visitors will be invited to join to enjoy member benefits as calls to actions on your web pages.
Member Benefits:
10% discount on service-Link to make an appointment or contact service or free rental etc.
Discount on  purchases- examplean $$$ automatic Discount
Discounts on Extended Warranties, Maintenance Contracts and/or Services
Discounts on financing
Drawing, contests and Special Offers:
Have a monthly drawing for $$$ In Free service that members can entered every month with their e-mail to win to keep members engaged. Take a picture of winners, get testimonial and post to Customer Satisfaction Page and Social Media Sites.
Website would have a link from your website pages or members community profile page for members that is a landing page listing member benefits, news, articles and comments with a link to the entry form for the monthly drawing for services- sales-etc
Take pictures of members when they get discounts etc. get testimonials
Product or detail pages would have an invitation to join free of charge to enjoy members benefits.
William Cosgrove
One Big Broadcast
Not convinced? Here are some related articles that will.
Activating Employees In Social: Is Your Organization Ready?
Are You Ignoring Your Best Brand Advocates?
Make Your Customers Brand Ambassadors [Video]