Promise Marketing Blog

Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

Common sense content marketing tips

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 —

In the Marketing Interactions Blog (one of our favorites), Ardath Albee shares some great, common sense tips for B2B companies interested in producing content as a lead generation strategy. Here are two of our favorite tips from that list and one we’d like to add:

Under “Sharing Valuable Tips Will Actually Make You Money - Exposing expertise actually shows people how difficult it can be to do what you do, encouraging them to hire you and get that task off their list. Not to mention getting the job done right the first time.” We agree. Remember how long it took you and everyone else at your company to build up your body of knowledge. No matter how informative your white paper, article, or blog post is – there is no way the reader can learn everything you know that fast. (At least we hope not!)

Under “Become A Resource By Sharing The Spotlight – Showcasing others who have great content reflects back on you. Plus, you don’t have all the answers. Help people connect the dots.” It’s kind of like the old saying, “Two heads are better than one.” Joining forces with another company will benefit both of you. If you choose your partners wisely, you are exposing your business to a group of fantastic prospects and giving yourself the credibility of your partner. That’s why we published our free e-book 100 Ways to Build Your Business in 2012. Of course, five of the tips in the book are from Clear Verve, but 95 of them aren’t. And all the participants have 19 other companies promoting the entire group.

And one tip we’d like to add:
Don’t get hung up on the platform. Some companies get so worried about what they are doing (or not doing) on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube, etc. that they don’t even realize that maybe that’s not the right place to start. Every business is different. For your business, email may be the right solution. Or a printed newsletter delivered by snail mail. Or maybe you should be writing press releases, or focusing on LinkedIn. Think about where your customers are, how they live their lives, and how your service fits into what they are doing when they work with you. You wouldn’t spend money on advertising without thinking about it, would you? Give the same thought to your content marketing strategy.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

Other resources:
A new social media planning tool
Niches – A smart strategy
The importance of a good graphic
The challenges of social media

Tags: business development, Communication, content marketing, marketing, Social Media

What matters in nonprofit marketing

Thursday, January 19, 2012 —

According to the Fenton/Globescan social good survey, the more nonprofit organizations engage with their constituents, the more likely they are to receive support. Although many of the findings were were commonly accepted best practices known to many nonprofits (engage with constituents on a personal level – connect your cause to how people live, work, and play), we found others to be quite interesting. Here are what I found to be the best takeaways from this comprehensive survey.

Engage through multiple channels. With the advent of social media, many organizations (both for-profit and not-for-profit) have turned to social media as a primary way to communicate. However, as our social media survey found, attracting audiences to social media sites is a HUGE challenge. The social good survey backs this up. Its results showed that the most effective way to break through to new audiences is through mainstream media, but that social media is critical for maintaining relationships.

Engage to build trust. Although less than half (41%) of the social good survey respondents claimed to understand how nonprofits are run and managed, 26 percent of people cite effective use of funds as their primary reason for giving. Another worrisome fact – less than half of the respondents think nonprofits effectively manage their funds. What to do? Educate your constituents! Explain how funds are used. Do it over and over again, not just once a year in your annual report. Talk about use of funds in monthly emails, post results to Facebook, and explain how decisions are made in your blog. People want to know your organization is well-managed.

We know nonprofit marketing presents special challenges not found in for-profit marketing. Check out this recent blog post and slideshare presentation on a talk we recently gave on this very subject. We hope it will give you some great ideas.

Other resources:
Details matter
Getting a fresh perspective

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

Tags: customer experience, marketing, nonprofit, Public Relations, Social Media

A new social media planning tool

Monday, December 5, 2011 —

I recently spoke at an event for the Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee. The event, called Social Media for Nonprofits, featured Wayne Breitbarth, LinkedIn expert, and me; and although it was targeted at the nonprofit community in Milwaukee, much of what we spoke about can be useful to for-profit businesses.

My presentation focused on the results of our recent Social Media Survey of Nonprofits ( get the results here) , specifically what nonprofits value about social media, and the challenges nonprofits face in implementing social media tools for their organizations. Because the Business Journal was kind enough to ask me to speak at this event, I wanted to be sure to deliver some high quality content for them. The result of my prep for this event is a new tool we hope you’ll find useful in planning your social media strategy. We call it the Ongoing Social Media Strategy Wheel.

One of the biggest challenges faced by nonprofit is getting others involved in the effort, either from a participation standpoint or from an implementation standpoint. This is partially because most nonprofits (64%) do not have a social media policy guiding the people charged with implementing social media. If your organization doesn’t have a social media policy, be sure to download our template so you can fix this! A social media policy can help make it “safe” to build a team of people to get the work done, rather than relying on a single person (who often has other work to do).

The other challenge is finding time to plan a strategy. Although most of us would never think of spending advertising dollars without a plan or hiring a receptionist and not training that person on how to answer the phone, many people don’t think anything of just jumping into social media without a plan of action. We hope our new document, the Ongoing Social Media Strategy Wheel, helps address the planning issue. When we created it, we wanted to be sure we recognized the following things:

Most organizations are already using social media in some way. It would be stupid for me to lead you through the perfect planning process for people that are not yet involved in social media. That process won’t work if you’re already participating because you can’t stop and undo what you’ve already done just to make a plan.
Planning is not a one time activity. You have to constantly reassess where you are at, look for new ideas, and pay attention to what is going on in the world.
The world doesn’t stop while you plan. You can’t take a vacation from interacting with your social media contacts while you think. You have to think and act at the same time.

The ongoing social media strategy wheel attempts to show this by using continuous circles. The inner circle illustrates the planning and reflection activities that most people forget. These activities are conducted internally and aren’t seen by the public, but they are very important because performing these activities will increase the effectiveness of the woare the public sees. The outer circle illustrates the activities that most people see. Both wheels are rotating constantly and at the same time.

We hope that this new document will help you continuously refine your communications on social media.

If you want to see the rest of the presentation from the Social Media for Nonprofits event (the ideas work for for-profits too), you can view it here:

Social Media for Nonprofits

View more presentations from Clear Verve Marketing, LLC.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve

Tags: Clear Verve, Communication, content marketing, Facebook, marketing, nonprofit, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Media Policy

Thoughts on the PR & Social Media Summit

Friday, October 14, 2011 —

I don’t think I realized the brilliance of the PR & Social Media Summit presented in Milwaukee until the next day, when I found myself missing the energy of the conference. Being a part of a community on several different levels was extremely enriching.

We all got to take a day to navigate the social media landscape as a group, with very few outside disturbances. This was my first conference with a smart phone and tweet screens and I really enjoyed it for two main reasons:

1) It was great to SEE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE WERE THINKING as the presentations were taking place (even in the other session) and even see how people outside of the summit were responding.

2) I really enjoyed the FREEDOM to feel like I could be on a phone or computer without insulting people around me for once. We are taught from a young age that paying attention means looking at the speaker, actively listening and nodding (not off to sleep, obviously). But multi-listening opened things up in an amazing social media savvy way!

2.25) It was my birthday and somebody not at the summit figured out they could wish me a big screen happy birthday tweet all the way from Africa.

Being in sessions with people who were into social media (or wanted to learn more about social media) was helpful, and the summit set us all up to communicate successfully. Presenters wanted to interact with both in-person and Twitter questions/comments, and audience members shared information about social media tools, planning, influencing influencers, videos and driving engagement as fast as they learned it.

Did you attend # PRSMS in Milwaukee? If so did you feel this same connectedness? Or have you attended another conference where you felt similarly? I know that one day later, I was still inclined to tweet about what I was experiencing to others and missed being in that type of environment.

BONUS! Some one-liner takeaways that I found quality enough to write down on actual paper:

• Seek what people are seeking, not what they already have. (@georgegsmithjr)
• Social media is less about the moment more about the movement (@georgegsmithjr)
• Technology changes but remember it’s about consumer’s behavior and how they interact with the changing technology that matters (@georgegsmithjr)
• Liking something means something in the real world, but not on Facebook (@augieray)
• ROI tools are different for everyone depending on what you’re trying to accomplish (@sarameaney)
• Foster a narrative with your consumers (@alkrueger)
• You can’t influence an influencer unless you ARE an influencer (@the_spinmd)
• People don’t sign up on Facebook to be marketed to (@the_spinmd)
• “The shadow is what we think of it, the tree is the real thing.” – Abe Lincoln, re one’s character (@JennyMcTighe)

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. Follow Erica on Twitter: @erica_g.

Tags: Facebook, Social Media, twitter

Can social media exist without competition?

Thursday, September 1, 2011 —

I get it. We’re a competitive society. I want to win my fantasy football league (again). I’m working to become a faster runner. I want my idea in a brainstorming session to be the one that sticks. But I also watched that episode of Donahue about how our society is obsessed with competition. And I remember identifying with the kids on the show who were awesome AND interesting, but weren’t exceptional athletes, gifted artists, brilliant mathematicians, or talented musicians. Because I remember thinking, it’s okay not to be the best at something.

In the here and now (because really, what good is it to reminisce about Donahue shows?) I enjoy learning about new ways to form communities online for nonprofits and organizations and people in general. The best way for me to explore that interest is to be active and experiment on multiple social media platforms. And I was thoroughly enjoying myself, especially on Twitter, until I began realizing it was hard not to subconsciously compete and not just interact.

Case in point: “I’ll join Twitter. It will be fun.” “My company will join Twitter. It will be beneficial and a great way to connect with people.” It IS fun. It IS beneficial. But it also quickly becomes all about keeping track of how many followers you have, if you get retweeted, how many people mention you, what level of Klout you have and what topics you are influencing others about.

Since when did EVERYTHING become a competition? I always try my best to offer solutions when I bring up problems but I’m dumbfounded with this competition thing.

Do you feel pressure to compete against coworkers, friends, businesses in social media? Does it drive you to be better? Or make you feel like you’re talking just to talk?

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. Follow Erica on Twitter: @erica_g.

Tags: Communication, competition, Klout, Social Media, twitter

Nonprofit Survey Results: The Challenges of Social Media

Thursday, August 18, 2011 —

Although we are still working on the ebook for our recent survey on social media use among Wisconsin nonprofits, we thought we could share some advance information about what we have learned.

Of our survey participants, 90 percent are using social media to promote their not for profit organization. Although the participating organizations plan to increase their use of social media in the future, they cited many obstacles to social media success. They are:
• Enough resources to keep the sites current
• A lack of expertise in the best ways to use the sites
• Ensuring content on the sites is consistent with the organization’s brand
• Difficulty with driving consumers to the sites

Many for-profit businesses suffer from the same challenges. There is so much online content that a social media presence is certainly not a case of, “If you build it, they will come.” However, there is some good news. The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently released a new study on the online habits of Americans. The study shows that email and search are the most common activities performed online. It also shows that wealthy and educated individuals are more likely to use the internet for search or email on a daily basis. These are the people that most nonprofits are targeting as potential donors. By combining SEO and email, nonprofits can drive people to their social media platforms where hopefully, an active online presence will be waiting for them to see. It takes time to build a community, but by combining various tactics, everything will work more successfully.

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: Communication, content mar, content marketing, email marketing, nonprofit, Social Media

Facebook vs. Twitter ?

Friday, July 29, 2011 —

I came across a great infographic yesterday that illustrates the 2010 demographics of Facebook and Twitter. There is a lot of information in these two pie charts. Here is what I found most interesting:

Number of users
• Facebook – 500 million
• Twitter – 108 million
Clearly, Facebook is this winner here. And with the ability for advertisers to target their messages by location, age, gender, and interests, Facebook offers a lot more opportunities for businesses to promote themselves.

Usage patterns
• 41% of Facebook users log in every day
• 27% of Twitter users log in every day
If you are marketing a business, this is an important distinction because you will either need to adjust the frequency of your posts depending on the network or adjust your expectations regarding the timeline of your campaign.

It is also worth noting that only 12% of people who log in update their status on Facebook, while 52% of Twitter users update their status every time they log in. While this statistic can mean a number of things, I think it shows that Facebook users are more consumers of content, while Twitter users are more generators of content. Facebook users may be more likely to be receptive to your messages, provided they are appropriate for the social network setting, while Twitter users may be too busy talking about themselves to care about anyone else. Or not. The statistics are true, the rest is just a hypothesis from me.

Age of users
• Facebook – approximately 60% of users are ages 13 – 34
• Twitter – approximately 60% of users are ages 26 – 44
Twitter users are also more educated. 76% of Twitter users are in college or are college graduates. Only 50% of Facebook users are either in college or are college graduates. This might make you think that if you are targeting educated individuals, you should choose Twitter. Don’t be so hasty! It is important to convert these percentages into a head count. 50% of Facebook users = 250 million users. 76% of Twitter users = 80.5 million.

I hope you will take a minute to look at the infographic. What does it tell you? We’d love to get your insights!

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns. Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

Tags: content marketing, Facebook, marketing, Social Media, twitter

The UNfollow challenge – did you miss me?

Thursday, July 14, 2011 —

As an organization or business, we all want people to like us. That’s a gimme.

And now in the social media world, it’s become the norm to want people to like us and follow us. But what if we start challenging people to UNlike us? Or UNfollow us?

By doing this, we are showing a sense of confidence that we know you really like us. Right now, all people see is “Follow us!” “Like us!” “Join us!” “If you do this for us, we’ll give you this!” So do something different. Posing this UNfollow challenge does make people take extra steps, but it will engage them to think about if they really need you.

Should you expect some people not to come back if they unfollow you? Of course! Should you worry? Of course not!

They way I see it there are five possible reactions to the challenge. People will:

1) Do nothing but respect what you’re doing (and what you do) even more
2) Do nothing because they’re not engaged
3) Accept the challenge and come back to you
4) Accept the challenge and not come back because they decide they don’t really need you
5) Accept the challenge and not come back because they think you’re crazy and tell their friends

Only one of these reactions is not good for you, and even then it’s not that bad. Which one do you think it is?

I’ll wait.

(insert your own waiting music here)

Number two (although I could be guilted into admitting other ones are also not great, depending on your situation). Why is only number two not good? If you don’t have people actively engaged in what you are all about, they’re just a number to you. And that’s not the kind of audience anybody craves. Creating a community with 100 engaged audience members is far better than 2,000 people who couldn’t care less!

What do you think? Does this have the potential to massively backfire? Explode into flames? Or is this something that you would consider trying? I’d love to hear what you think! Or unread what you just read, I challenge you!

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. Follow Erica on Twitter: @erica_g.

Tags: Communication, customer experience, Facebook, marketing, Social Media, twitter

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