Twitter can help humanize a brand

Twitter can be used for countless promotional strategies. A company can do everything from holding a contest for a new slogan to giving away a prize to the person who Tweets the most creative use of a product.

These uses of the social media service are common and effective. But how would a strategy more unique and risky work?  For instance, what if a Broadway musical used Twitter to put on a viral version of their show? Would it be an overnight success or closed at curtain?

The creative team of the off-to-on Broadway musical “Next to Normal,” proved an online performance brings in big followers, as the The New York Times recently featured. By creating Tweets from the characters in the play, the “Next to Normal” Twitter account  more than quadrupled its followers in less than one month’s time. Then, once the actors began answering followers’ questions through the account, numbers continued to grow. The account now has more than 550,000 followers.

The Tweets also brought in ticket sales. Followers quoted in the article shared they saw the show because of the fictional messages. And after the cast’s (non-fictional) performance on the Tony Awards June 7 — the same day the viral version of the musical ended on Twitter — the show’s house went from 72 percent to 99 percent capacity, according to the Times article. (The entire transcript of Tweets is available on the “Next to Normal” website.)

This strategy had me wondering what other industries could use a similar tactic to gain followers. What if a sports team Tweeted players’ and coaches’ reactions to a game during the broadcast or reality TV shows had their cast members Tweet reflections about events in each episode as it’s airing. One of the many things I’ve learned from Duncan is that social media is all about closing the gap between company and consumer and engaging in an online dialogue. Although these situations wouldn’t be fictional, like the “Next to Normal” approach, and there are probably some crazy legal things I don’t know about that would hurt my suggestions, they would engage the audience without a contest or giveaway, shaking things up a bit in the online promotional world.

What other industries do you think should adopt a similar promotional strategy? How would they execute it?

Please share! You know I love to hear your thoughts!

Alyson (follow me @alyandthecity)

6 ways to squeeze the most out of your marketing dollars

I've run into VP's and Marketing Directors in the last few months who complain of massive marketing budget cuts. While the logic behind cutting the hand that feeds you is another blog post all together, the more pragmatic question is "what the hell should I do?". It doesn't matter what size the budget was – a 50% to 80% cut can be staggering. I heard one great believer in convergence marketing bemoan the fact that she would not be able to do much broadcast anymore. Another colleague is cutting back his boutique style brochure and focusing on one brochure for various assets (with minor customizations).

This is the perfect time for innovation. And in the business of image, perceptions, and conversations – people are the raw materials of innovation. Between your internal team, your brand evangelists, and the rest of your universe, you should be able to do some "sense making" and move most of your marketing online. Keep the artifacts – brochures, trade show booths, direct mail pieces – they're all vital – but reserve them for the prospects that are showing greater potential. 

Start with your website
The area that most companies don't focus on enough – us included – is conversion. While PPC folks live and die based on conversion, the rest of America seems to check off websites, once they're done, and move on to the next thing. Based on some interactions with Tim Ash lately and much studying myself, I say with confidence, work on your landing page optimization – Test, test, test! Is your site optimized for search, social, and usability? Is the traffic from the right places? What's the bounce rate? Do you even have a conversion path plotted out?

Make your social media work harder
Even the Mayo Clinic has a full scale social media program. Are you using the platforms that your customers are using? Are they being updated regularly? Its easy to forget one, yet that could be the one that your customers like best. Are you being authentic? Yet don't be a slave to authenticity. You may never get anything done. Are you taking risks? Are you failing? If your answer to the last two was no, then you need to start over. My opinions aside, the much respected Charlene Li, author and former Forrester Research recently put it best (and I paraphrase) if you're not failing, you're not doing the right things. I don't subscribe to the notion that your website is the center of your web universe. That's like saying – I'm best when I'm in a tux or in a boardroom. Your website is all business. Everyone from Billy Ray Cyrus to Perez Hilton love a party in the back. That's what social media is supposed to be. Make sure that you create the right context for conversations. And of course measure, measure, measure. But my new friend Robbie Slaughter says it best – "there is a danger of over measurement: we become more obsessed with figures than providing value, and we tend to game the system instead of tend to the actual work"

Try an integrated SMS, Email and Social Strategy
You know that saying the sum of the parts is greater than whole? Uh huh!

Activate your evangelists
Every brand has evangelists. Are you showing yours love? Are you tight with them? Are you giving them things to talk about?

Micro-sites and landing pages
These can be invaluable for spreading the net. They're great for search and you can measure the hell out of them.

Move people to real world interactions
Of course this is the key for most companies – whether its doing some offline or online. People must be inspired to do something. Is your marketing to a few people (or to a whole bunch) inspiring people to act?

For Indianapolis social media: I'm Duncan What do you think? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz | Blip.fm

Interview with John Gerzema, Chief Insight Officer, Young & Rubicam, Author of The Brand Bubble

John's presentation at SES New York blew me away. He's brilliant, yet accessible. Here's my take and then you can watch the video interview. Definitely happy that we got to interview him – another big day for Indianapolis social media!

There's a lot of doom and gloom around us at the moment. Turn on any media channel to experience this. Yet amidst all of this, there are a lot of brands that are doing a great job connecting with empathy. This is one of the big opportunities for brands today – to "give them examples", to show their stakeholders and customers that they are trustworthy and "that they've got their back".

Consumers are looking for empowerment and social media has a huge role to play. There is a decline in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We, consumers, are being knocked down from self actualization (Just Do It, Think Different) to a place that is a little more basic, more authentic and definitely more social. These parts are about  co-dependency, connecting with each other, and helping each other

Social media trends are coming headlong into a positive collision with consumer values.

AIG and the financial scandals are causing consumers reevaluating who they trust. They're interested more and more in ethical companies and companies that they can trust.

This represents an opportunity for marketers with integrity to connect with consumers based on trust using empathy and giving their customers something real they can believe in.

You can find out more about about John Gerzema and his book at here .

Now, what do you think? Do you think you place a greater emphasis on trust? Is there a great opportunity for brands based on building trust?

Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz

Everyone knows about Twitter. Many are tweeting instead of —
or in addition to — texting. (If you aren’t, please check it out so you’re in the know.
You can’t fight social media. It’s bigger than all of us).

Twitter is such a phenomenon that morning talk shows have
started covering the social media networking Web site because, as crazy as it
seems, people in the morning show target market are interested. Yes, that means retirees and stay-at-home parents have moved into the realm of social media with college students and recent college grads. (The “Today
Show” did a detailed piece last week, if you’re interested in checking out a
summary of the service.)

But that’s not really the point of this post. The point is
that despite Twitter’s ever-increasing popularity  — Compete.com sets the site at third in ranking of largest
social networks behind Myspace and Facebook at roughly 6 million users in
February 2009 — the company is not yet turning a profit.

Why? In the “About Us” section of Twitter’s homepage, an
answer to the question “How do you make money from Twitter?” is listed. To
paraphrase, the statements says the company has received many offers but wants
to concentrate more on developing user services. “While our business model is
in a research phase, we spend more money than we make,” the answer states.

Since Twitter isn’t jumping on the cash train after two
years of operation, other Web sites are. If you snooze, you lose, right? Well,
I’m not sure Twitter is losing anything — the company was recently predicted to
be worth $250 million — but it will be wise for the company to team up with
these sites once they get their money-making plan up and running.

German start-up Magpie & Friends would be a great partner. The company recently began paying Twitter users for
the right to sell ads in their tweets. Advertisers typically pay $13 per ad,
and registered users get a cut of the check for lending out their tweets. To
make the money, Magpie collects a series of keywords that advertisers would
want to associate with their ads, like iPhone or NCAA. The advertisers then bid
on those words. The winning bidders’ ads are paired up with a registered
Twitter users’ message streams, and VOILA! The ad is seen by the users’
followers. Money is made. All is content in capitalism.

Social media blog Mashable is also
cashing in on Twitter but in a different way. The blog recently began
soliciting brans like JetBlue and MailChimp to pay to have their tweets
featured on its Web site alongside the normal banner ads.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said the company is already
keeping an eye on sites like Magpie and Mashable as it prepares to launch a
fee-based service later this year. And collaboration is very much in the
picture. 

“We want to work with those companies that are already
making an effort,” Stone told The Wall
Street Journal.

But until that time, Twitter is taking small steps in the
right revenue direction. In a recent interview with “Media Money” of CNBC,
Twitter CEO Evan Williams said his company plans to work with its larger
corporate users, like Zappos.com and The
New York Times, to “make it more valuable for them in a way that also
benefits users.”

Just this week, ExecTweets, a Web
site that posts tweets of the nation’s top business executives, announced it is
giving Twitter its first taste of revenue. The Web site is putting display ads
on posts from business execs and giving a cut of the revenue to Twitter.

What do you think is next on Twitter’s revenue plan? How
will they turn a profit when the service is free? Will users be willing to pay? 

Alyson (@ Twitter)

Zig.marketing has
been named the digital agency of record for three Sherwin-Williams brands,
Dutch Boy®, Krylon® and Pratt & Lambert®. Zig is helping Sherwin-Williams
make a commitment in the digital space to stay ahead of a changing media
landscape, and do an even better job of talking to and inspiring new and
current customers.

I must commend
Sherwin-Williams for this move. While I don’t know the work of Zig.marketing, I
applaud Sherwin-Williams for recognizing that standard advertising doesn’t
work, and for understanding the value of reaching and engaging their customers.
This is another major brand that has axed a significant amount of traditional
media to move into a space where purchase decisions are being made.

And yet, so many mid-market
brands, continue to resist the benefits of internet marketing. Of course, the
marketing director who doesn’t understand it is afraid of it – but the advice I
have for you is simple: Adapt or you will become redundant anyway. Its just a
matter of time. Your internet marketing strategy should include micro-sites,
landing pages, banners, organic and paid search, blogging and micro-blogging,
and email.

The truth is mid-market firms are more mobile, should take more risks to compete with larger brands, and should use every advantage they can. What do you think?

- Duncan Alney Facebook | Twitter | Naymz