MackCollier.com

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Attention Companies: Using Social Media Does NOT Make You Social!

MP900433180About a year ago I unfollowed a guy on Twitter.  It wasn’t for anything he said or did, it was for the way he said it.  He was Captain Disagreeable.  He challenged everything, and typically the points he challenged were incredibly minor.  It would result in the person he was challenging bending over backwards to pacify him, and that would only intensify his ‘challenging’ them.  It was obvious that this person simply enjoyed arguing with people and he would until he got bored, then move on.

Now imagine that this guy is going to be using social media to connect with your customers everyday, and to represent your brand online.

The simple fact is that putting social tools in the hands of socially-challenged people is a disaster waiting to happen.  Not every employee in your company should be connecting with your customers directly via any communication tool.

Now I’m not saying that your employees shouldn’t be trained in social media.  There’s enormous value in understanding how your customers are using these tools.  Even if that employee won’t be using social media to connect directly with your customers via those tools.

But not every employee should be connecting directly with your customer, regardless of the tool used.  Nordstrom has a great list of social media guidelines for its employees, but note at the very beginning it clearly states that these guidelines are for employees that have been approved to use social media as a way to communicate with the brand’s customers.

Putting social media in the hands of an anti-social employee won’t suddenly improve their communication skills, it will improve their ability to connect with your customers.

It’s up to you to decide if that’s a smart move or not.

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The Passion Conversation: A Q&A With Author John Moore

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It’s no secret that I’m big fans of the gang at Brains on Fire.  You probably know them for their work with client Fiskars in helping to create and develop The Fiskateeers movement, which is a staple case study at marketing and social media conferences, and for good reason.  I used it as a case study in Think Like a Rock Star and also interviewed BoF’s Greg Cordell and John Moore for the book.

And I wanted to interview John again because Brains on Fire has just released its second book, The Passion Conversation.  The Passion Conversation looks at the science and research behind what motivates us to have passion and excitement for a particular business or cause.  It’s a wonderful companion to their first book, Brains on Fire, and I’m very excited that John has agreed to tell you more about it:

Mack – Early on in the book you talked about how brands can create ‘meaningful’ engagement with their communities of customers and you cited a study that said that said that less than 0.5% of people that Like a brand on Facebook actually engage with that brand during any week!  How can brands create meaningful engagement with their customers, whether it’s online or off?  

John – In the book will recommend businesses follow this concept when trying to create meaningful engagement with customers: PROVIDE MORE. PROMOTE LESS. As in… provide more information, provide more customer service, and provide more interesting customer experiences while promoting in a much less obvious way.

Whole Foods Market “provides more information” by having a concierge in many of its stores. It’s staffed by very knowledgeable employees who provide shoppers with the information they need to make better decisions. Customers come away knowing more and will probably pass that knowledge on to their friends and friends of friends.

Lexus “provides more customer service” before, during, and after the sale. I’ve purchased two cars from two different Lexus dealerships and every time I am amazed at their proactive attention and fast follow-up. Is it any wonder a Lexus recommendation I once made to a friend resulted in a sale?

Cirque Du Soleil provides “more interesting customer experiences.” I was just in Vegas and saw the the Beatles LOVE show. Whoa! The show experience was multi-dimensional and multi-sensory. It was nearly customer experience overload. Since returning, I’ve shared how amazing the show was to many people in-person and online.

Ultimately, the passion conversation isn’t about getting people to talk about you, the brand. It’s about getting people to talk about themselves. If a brand can make a meaningful connection with its customers, then a customer-driven conversation will naturally include how the products/services a brand provides makes them feel better.

 

Mack – One of the things I loved about The Passion Conversation was the amount of scientific facts and research you cited that explored what Word of Mouth is and how it’s created.  In Chapter Two you mentioned that there were three motivations that spark conversations about brands: Functional, Social and Emotional.  Which of these three do you think is best for sparking WOM? 

John – Let’s backup and explain the three conversation motivations. A functional conversation is about sharing basic information — facts and figures type stuff — like the specs on a fancy Nikon camera. A social conversation happens when a person visually shares their affinity for a brand such as through wearing a pair of TOMS shoes or tweeting online about how much they got a steal of a deal on wine at Costco. An emotional conversation is sparked when someone has strong feelings about a brand or a cause like when someone openly talks about how funny the “Hump Day” Geico commercial is or when someone talks about why they support the Wounded Warrior Project.

Each conversation motivation can spark word of mouth equally. My advice for a brand is to pick one trigger and have it serve as the lead conversation starter but not to ignore the other two triggers because they can also spark a word of mouth conversation.

 

Mack – I loved that you touched on the fact that many companies focus on acquiring new customers, and almost seem to ignore their current ones.  Why do you think most companies are willing to go to such great lengths to chase the attention of new customers while ignoring the current customers that often want to connect with them?

John – My many years spent working deep inside the Starbucks marketing department gives me an interesting perspective on this. Our hope at Starbucks was that if we could drive in a totally new customer then they would be so enamored with their drink and the overall experience that they would come back again (and again) and become a customer for life.

This issue is similar to romantic relationships. During the courtship phase both people bend over backwards to be accommodating and to show appreciation. For some, once the couple has been dating for a period of time the bending over backwards to be accommodating and appreciative wanes. Each person takes for granted the relationship.

Brands also take for granted their relationships with current and long-time customers. Why is this? Perhaps it’s sexier to start a relationship than it is to continue a relationship.

 

Mack – Many of us are aware of wonderful examples of brands that have sparked a passion conversation with their customers, such as Fiskars with its The Fiskateers Movement or Maker’s Mark having a robust brand ambassador program that’s over half a million strong.  Why aren’t their more examples of brands that have created a Passion Conversation with their customers?  What’s holding them back? 

John – Showing love to customers in order to receive love from customers is messy work. It ain’t check the box and it’s done. It’s much more than that.

You have to treat brand ambassadors as individuals and not as customer segments. You have to be willing to let go of rigid brand guardrails and allow the ambassadors to speak in their voice and say the things they want to say in the ways they want to say them. You have to be ready to respond swiftly to the wants and needs of ambassadors. You also have to find ways to measure success because whatever results you deem as success takes time to happen.

Loving customers over the long haul ain’t easy. It’s messy work. Not enough brands are willing to get that messy for something that takes time and isn’t easy to measure financially.

 

Thanks so much to John for agreeing to share his thoughts on the book.  It’s a great read and as I said above, I think Chapter Two is worth the price of the book alone simply for the explanation and research behind what drives Word of Mouth in both an online and offline situation.  Plus the book has several interesting client case studies that you can learn from as well.  Hop on over to Amazon and get your copy today!

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Writing Great Blog Posts vs Writing Great Newsletters, Tonight’s #Blogchat Topic!

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Here’s the link to tonight’s #Blogchat transcript (Click transcript on the left)

More and more bloggers are deciding to launch a newsletter in addition to their blogs.  So tonight(10-20-13) we’ll discuss how you can create an effective newsletter and how the content you create differs from your blog content.

To be clear, when I say a newsletter, I’m not talking about giving your readers a way to get your blog posts via email, I am talking about writing a newsletter as a separate source of content from your blog.

As with every Sunday this month, tonight’s #Blogchat is sponsored by AllergEase.   You can click here to receive a completely free 21-pack lozenge product sample, just for #Blogchat participants!  AllergEase makes an all natural allergy lozenge that’s designed to help relieve the affects of seasonal allergies.  You can learn more about their products here.

Here’s what we’ll be discussing tonight, starting at 8pm Central:

8:00-8:30PM: What makes a great newsletter?  Also be ready to share examples of your favorite newsletters and why you like them.

8:30-9:00PM: How your blog & newsletter can work together.

That’s it, and you can follow #Blogchat right here, starting at 8pm Central!

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Are We Misunderstanding the Purpose of a Business Blog?

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Earlier this week, Gini had an interesting post on her efforts to drive revenue from her site SpinSucks.com:

We batted around some ideas. Should we sell content? Should we create a subscription-based professional development site? Should we host paid webinars?

The answer to all of those questions was yes and we embarked on trying to generate revenue from each of them.

We created eBooks and sold them for $9.99. We built monthly webinars and charged $50 to attend. We even developed a professional development site calledSpin Sucks Pro that cost $50 per month to join.

It all flopped.

 

I sympathized with Gini’s post because I’ve had the same success in trying to sell digital products and services here.  In fact most of the companies I talk to show little to no direct revenue as a result of their blogging.

So then why the hell are we doing this?

Blogging and social media have never been the best ways to directly sell to others.  Sure some people and companies can make it work, but some people can sell ice to Eskimos.  For most of us, it’s a struggle to use channels that most people view as personal communication channels, and sell stuff via these channels.

The mistake typically happens when we view blogging strictly through the ‘how can this make us money?’ lense.

What about considering the amount of money that blogging can save you?  Blogs are a great way for a business to draw exposure to itself and that exposure is a marketing cost savings.  Or what about using your blog as a tool to provide customer service?  Every call to customer service that’s avoided because someone read your post and solved the problem themselves is a customer service cost savings.

Here’s another example:  Six years ago I wrote a blog post critiquing Dell’s company blog. As a result of that post, I got to know several of the first member’s of Dell’s social media team.  That led to:

  • My speaking at South By SouthWest in 2008 (which by itself led to a ton of other opportunities)
  • Multiple projects with Dell
  • Meeting Michael Dell
  • Getting to know probably 20 or so key members of Dell’s social media team.  Some of those people have moved on to major brands such as Adobe, Citi, Wal-Mart and Perdue.

But I had no idea any of that would happen when I wrote the post.  In fact while most of my efforts to directly monetize this blog have failed, most of the money I’ve made over the last 8 years, in fact probably all of it, has happened indirectly because of this blog.

So instead of focusing on how you can directly monetize your blog, think about how you can directly create value for your readers.  Then once you create that value, the money will follow.

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You’re Marketing to the Wrong People

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This week I am headed to Louisiana to present Think Like a Rock Star to New Orleans’ AMA chapter.  One of the things I’ll talk about with that group is one of the key takeaways I had from researching and writing the book.

In doing research for the book, I wanted to learn how it was that rock stars could so easily create and cultivate fans.  I wanted to learn how rock stars create fans so effortlessly, then take that ‘secret’ and show brands how to create fans just as easily.

But the secret, isn’t what rock stars are doing, it’s what brands are not.  Brands aren’t marketing to the very customers that are most poised to drive real business growth.

Consider these stats:

  • Fans spend 13% more than the average customer – Satmetrix
  • Fans refer business equal to 45% of the money they spend – Satmetrix
  • Customers referred by another customer have a 37% higher retention rate

In short, fans create cash.  Rock stars have always understood this, and that’s why almost all of their marketing efforts are focused on their most passionate customers.  Rock stars go out of their way to create amazing experiences for the people that love them.  Because rocks stars understand that the best marketing in the world is spoken in a voice that the customer pays attention to.

Their own.

By embracing their fans, rock stars put their marketing in the hands of their most passionate customers.

In contrast, consider this final stat:  The top marketing goal for US companies is to acquire new customers.

Wait, what?

This was the most surprising thing I learned in writing Think Like a Rock Star.  Rock stars focus almost all of their marketing efforts toward connecting with their most passionate fans, the customers that are already giving them their business.

While in contrast, most brands focus almost all of their marketing efforts toward connecting with people that have never bought from that brand.

As a result, almost all of the rock star’s marketing is via word of mouth, from satisfied customer to satisfied customer.

On the other hand, almost all of the average brand’s marketing is via traditional marketing channels.

Who do you trust more:  Your best friend, or the commercial that just ran during Monday Night Football?

 

But the greatest irony is this:  Brands don’t embrace their fans because they want total control over their marketing efforts.  Yet rock stars have learned that when they give up control and freely give their marketing to their fans, they then earn the trust of their fans.

Those fans then willingly spread their marketing for them.  Funny how that works out.

PS: A special treat for you, I’ve done a free 50-minute webinar for Cision on Fans vs Influencers: Which is Better For Your Brand?  Hope you enjoy it!

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How Do You Create Content For a Niche Audience? Tonight’s #Blogchat topic!

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Here’s the transcript from tonight’s #Blogchat (Click Transcript on the left).

Tonight’s #Blogchat topic (10-13-13) will be How Do You Create Content For a Niche Audience?  #Blogchat begins at 8pm Central, and you can follow the hashtag on Twitter.  In October every #Blogchat is sponsored by AllergEase, and you can click here to receive a completely free 21-pack lozenge product sample, just for #Blogchat participants!  AllergEase makes an all natural allergy lozenge that’s designed to help relieve the affects of seasonal allergies.  You can learn more about their products here.

If your company would like to sponsor #Blogchat, the first available month is December, here’s the price and details.

Here’s what we’ll be discussing tonight during #Blogchat:

8:00pm-8:20pm Central – How do you create content for a niche audience?  

8:20-8:40pm – How can a business blog create that’s valuable for readers, yet not overly promotional?  What are some examples of companies that do a good job of this?

8:40-9:00pm – How does the recent Hummingbird update to Google’s search engine change how we should write content?  

 

So that’s what we’ll be discussing tonight during #blogchat, starting at 8pm central!  Hope to see you there and please follow October’s sponsor, AllergEase on Twitter!

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How to Get Books to Review and How to Connect With Bloggers to Review Your Book

TLARS-KGSo last night we had a fabulous #Blogchat discussion on blogger outreach with Sheila.  At one point we were discussing doing an outreach that involved a product, such as asking bloggers for book reviews.  Many of the #blogchat participants said that they would like to be pitched books to review, so I wanted to talk about that here.

Here’s what worked for me:  Start reviewing books.  Waaaaay back in 2006 I had a blogging buddy ask me if I would review his new book on my blog if he sent me a copy.  He did, and I did.  Almost immediately, other marketers with books coming out started contacting me asking if I wanted a copy of their book in exchange for a review, and it continues to this day.

So if you are a blogger that wants to be pitched on getting books and other products to review, here’s what I would suggest you do:

1 – Write a Pitch Me page on your blog.  I have one here, and it basically outlines how I want to be pitched.  And as you can see I mention that I don’t do book reviews and rarely do.  That’s mostly there because most of the books I am pitched to review I have no interest in reading.  In fact most of the pitches I get are completely irrelevant to what I cover here.  Which is why this whole getting pitched business is a double-edged sword:  Those that have never been pitched typically wish they were and those that are pitched typically wish they weren’t!  It’s definitely a ‘be careful what you wish for’ deal.

2 – Review the type of products you want to be pitched on getting and write about the type of stories you want to be pitched on.  If you want to receive review copies of books, then start reviewing books on your blog.  But make sure you are reviewing the type of books you want to receive.  If you want to be sent review copies of marketing books, then you don’t want to review 50 Shades of Gray on your blog.

3 – Fall in love with any PR person that actually sends you relevant pitches.  Seriously the good ones are harder to find than a member of Congress that’s doing his/her job right now.  They are so rare that I wrote about one I loved in my book.  I have been known to proactively email my favorite people and BEG them to tell me what they have that they need coverage on.  I do this because the good ones understand who you are and what your audience wants and they will only pitch you on relevant content.

Now, part of last night’s discussion was how to get bloggers to review your product.  I wanted to write about how I’ve done this with Think Like a Rock Star.  This is simply how I did it, this is not a one-size-fits-all way to get bloggers to review your product, especially if it’s a book.  I’m simply offering this as an example of how I did it, and hopefully it will help some of you.

First, I needed a plan.  I asked and answered these questions:

1 – Who did I want to review the book?  I wanted people that believed in the idea of the power of a brand embracing its fans to be the people that reviewed this book.  These people would be the ones that would realize why the book was so valuable, and as a result they could give better and more in-depth reviews of the book.

2 – What type of reviews did I want?  Surprisingly, I wanted Amazon reviews more than blog reviews.  I think blog reviews have enormous value, but I preferred Amazon reviews because all the reviews are in one place where people do their book shopping.  When you are considering buying a book, do you Google the book’s reviews on the web, or do you go to Amazon to read the reviews?  If you’re like me, you go to Amazon first.

3 – How would I select who I wanted to review the book?  One of the things I talk about in Think Like a Rock Star is that your fans will self-select, or raise their hand and reach out to you instead of you hunting for them.  So when someone reached out to me and identified themselves as a fan of the book, I asked them to please review it on Amazon!

 

I am pretty thrilled with the results from this strategy.  Think Like a Rock Star is one of the best-reviewed social media/marketing/business books available.  On Amazon it has 48 reviews after being on sale for 6 months, and the star average for those reviews is 4.9 out of 5 stars (85% of the reviews are 5-star).  On GoodReads its star average is 4.45 out of 5-stars.  This is an incredibly high average for that site, in fact I could not find a single social media or marketing book that had a higher star average on GoodReads.

The one thing I did that really spurred reviews was to aggressively engage with readers of the book.  This seems like common sense, but whenever I saw anyone mention the book on Twitter or Facebook or ANYWHERE I connected with them and THANKED them for reading the book or for even considering it.  You would not believe how many people thanked ME because I reached out to them and thanked THEM for promoting my book.  Unbelievable.  I am incredibly lucky to have anyone mention TLARS, and I made sure they knew it.  THEY are the real rock stars to me, and I did my best to treat them as such, and I think most people appreciated that!

When I engaged someone that mentioned the book, if they then told me that they enjoyed the book THEN I would ask them to please review it on Amazon, and I would include a link directly to the page on Amazon where they could write the review.  Not everyone did, but many people reviewed the book and told me they were happy to do so.  But the key is, I only asked people to review the book who first communicated to me that they enjoyed it.  They were self-identifying as being fans of the book and those were the people that I wanted to review it.  Yes it took a lot of time to engage with each fan/reader of the book individually, but it was so worth it.

So Think Like a Rock Star might not be a New York Times Bestseller yet, but it sure is better reviewed than most books that make the bestseller lists, and I have the book’s fans to thank for that.  Which is as it should be 🙂

 

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Sheila Scarborough Co-Hosts #Blogchat Tonight Discussing Blogger Outreach Programs!

Here’s tonight’s #Blogchat transcript, click Transcript on the left!

I’m thrilled to announce that Sheila Scarborough will be joining #Blogchat tonight (10-6-13) to teach us about how to create and execute effective Blogger Outreach programs!  #Blogchat starts tonight at 8pm Central, and is sponsored this month by AllergEase!  Please make sure you are following both Sheila and AllergEase on Twitter!

Here’s the schedule for tonight’s #Blogchat discussion on Blogger Outreach programs starting at 8pm Central:

8:00-8:15pm – How to get started with a blogger outreach program

8:15-8:30PM – How to decide who you are targeting with your outreach program

8:30-8:45PM – How to structure the outreach if a product is involved

8:45-9:00PM – How Blogger Outreach campaigns can generate more WOM and product reviews, and how to encourage these

 

It will be a fabulous discussion tonight, and I hope you can join us!  I’ll be posting the transcript here when the chat ends.

Also, as part of AllergEase’s #Blogchat sponsorship this month, they are offering a special product giveaway just for #Blogchat members!

1 – Go to Aedrops.com, and add the AllergEase 3-pack into your cart.

2 – Enter code AEBLOGCHAT.

3 – This will reduce your order and shipping total to $0.00 and you will receive a free pack of 21 AllergEase lozenges!

Each pack has 21 lozenges, and by entering the code AEBLOGCHAT you’ll get 21 lozenges for free, and AllergEase will even cover the shipping, so there’s no risk for you!  I don’t deal with allergies, thankfully, but my sister does and she tried the lozenges and said they really did work!

So please take advantage of this special offer that AllergEase has for us, and claim your free pack of 21 AllergEase lozenges.

Hope to see you at #Blogchat tonight!

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AllergEase is #Blogchat’s Sponsor For October!

AllergEaseLogoI’m thrilled to announce that AllergEase is the #Blogchat sponsor for October!  AllergEase makes an all natural allergy lozenge that’s designed to help relieve the affects of seasonal allergies.  You can learn more about their products here.

As part of their sponsorship, AllergEase has come up with a special product giveaway just for #Blogchat members!

1 – Go to Aedrops.com, and add the AllergEase 3-pack into your cart.

2 – Enter code AEBLOGCHAT.

3 – This will reduce your order and shipping total to $0.00 and you will receive a free pack of 21 AllergEase lozenges!

Each pack has 21 lozenges, and by entering the code AEBLOGCHAT you’ll get 21 lozenges for free, and AllergEase will even cover the shipping, so there’s no risk for you!  I don’t deal with allergies, thankfully, but my sister does and she tried the lozenges and said they really did work!

So please take advantage of this special offer that AllergEase has for us, and claim your free pack of 21 AllergEase lozenges.

Now as for #Blogchat this month, here’s the topics we’ll be covering:

This Sunday (October 6th) we’ll be covering Blogger Outreach Programs with a special co-host, Sheila Scarborough!  Sheila is a long-time friend of #Blogchat and will have a ton of great advice for us on how to properly craft and execute blogger outreach campaigns.  I’ll have more information on this topic coming up here this Sunday.  For now, if you aren’t already make sure you are following Sheila on Twitter!

October 13th we’ll be chatting about how to find and connect with niche bloggers.

October 20th we’ll be chatting about the issues involved with marketing to a specialized or narrow group online via social media.  Such as connecting with children, what are the issues involved, etc.

October 27th we’ll have OPEN MIC!

I’m so excited to have both AllergEase sponsoring #Blogchat this month and Sheila joining us on Sunday!  Please make sure you take advantage of AllergEase’s offer of 21 free lozenges! And make sure you follow them on Twitter!  See y’all on Sunday!

PS: Want to sponsor #Blogchat? November’s sponsorship is on hold but December’s is still available, here’s price plus details.

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I’m Still Not Sold on Klout

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I stopped checking my Klout score/profile about a year ago because I simply can’t understand how the score is calculated.  Plus, my score seems to always stay in a range of 74-78 when I do check it, so I stopped looking.  I got an email from Klout about a week ago telling me that my score had just gone up, so of course I clicked to check it.  It seems my score had been 74, but had suddenly jumped up to 78.  No explanation why, and a quick scan of my scoring history shows this had happened often.  A couple of days later I get a second email from Klout telling me my score had again gone up.  Whoa, it might be 80 now, I think!  I click over and it shows that my score has gone ‘up’ to 78.  It seems that right after Klout sent me the first email saying my score had gone up to 78. that the next day it fell back down to 74, then a day or so later it bounced back up to 78.

With no explanation for why any of that happened.

Klout was social media’s ‘it’ company a couple of years ago.  The promise was that Klout would accurately measure your level of influence online.  The promise for brands was that it would allow them to connect with true influencers.  The promise for users was that it would let brands that created products that you are influential and passionate about connect with you and give you free stuff.

It’s now almost 2014 and we are still waiting for Klout to fulfill on its promises on either the brand or user end.  Despite promise and claims to the contrary, Klout has never effectively measured online influence for the average user.  Instead it attempts to measure online activity, and correlate influence to that level of activity.  A shaky conclusion to draw at best.

As a Klout user, Klout says my score is 78.  IOW, Klout thinks I am pretty influential.  So as such, Klout needs to understand that I won’t promote its service to other people (that Klout says I have influence over) until the service is relevant to me.

Klout can become relevant to me by seeing that I get Perks that are relevant to me.  The last Perk I received was, I kid you not, a Kobe Bryant poster.  I have left 80K tweets on Twitter since 2007, and I would be shocked if a combined 0.000001% of my tweets were about Kobe, the Lakers, and the NBA.

That’s the last Perk I got.  The last Perk I wanted was to see my last 3-day Enterprise car rental be bumped up to a full week based on my high Klout score.  Or to see my coach ticket get upgraded to first class, for the same reason.

That would have been relevant to me.  That would have led to me positively promoting Klout as well as the brands that leveraged the service to connect with me.  Unlike Kobe and the NBA, I am constantly tweeting about travel.  I am constantly tweeting about driving or flying to an event or for client work.  How Klout can’t see my ‘influence’ on those topics and connect me with travel brands but can see that I am influential about Kobe Bryant is a complete mystery to me.

If Klout wants to become relevant to me it needs to do two things:

1 – Accurately identify products/people/ideas I am not only influential about but passionate about as well
2 – Tie perks to those products.

That’s it.  Until then, my Klout score is just another social media number that bounces up and down that I have no seeming control over or understanding of.