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SEC Social Media Fan Experience: The Tennessee Volunteers and South Carolina Gamecocks

Every week through the start of the college football season on September 5th, I will be profiling how SEC teams are leveraging social media channels to connect with its fans.  Last week I looked at how the Florida Gators and Vanderbilt Commodores are using social media, this week I’ll show you how the Tennessee Volunteers and South Carolina Gamecocks are leveraging social media to connect with its fans.

How The Tennessee Volunteers Use Social Media to Connect With Their Football Fans

When looking at each SEC team, I start by seeing how many social media accounts each team has that are dedicated to just the football program, versus ones that are for the athletic program as a whole.  Tennessee has dedicated football accounts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. It looks like these three platforms are going to be very popular with SEC schools as all three are great channels to share visual and video content that will be popular with fans.  Plus, the content itself can remind SEC fans of the calendar:

As I’m going through this series, I’ve decided to not look ahead on what the other SEC schools are doing.  This is purposeful because as I’m doing the series I am going to comment on what I’d like to see the remaining schools do with their social media efforts.  For example, last week I mentioned that moving forward, I was going to be paying close attention to whether or not the remaining SEC programs gave fans a backstage pass via its social media channels.  One way to do this would be to give fans access to Fall camps, which are starting right about now.  I was delighted to see that Tennessee is doing exactly this, by leveraging Periscope to give fans special access to the Vols’ Fall camp. IMG_0572 LOVE this!  Looks like the Vols are going to use Periscope to give fans coverage of Fall camp as well as the head coach’s press conferences after each practice.  The bar has been raised, if the other SEC schools aren’t doing something very similar to this, they should be. Tennessee is doing a great job of creating photos from Fall camp, and then using those photos on multiple channels.  Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, even using the photos via Exposure, which is a service I hadn’t heard of before this.  So kudos to the Vols for understanding how important visual content is to its fans!

Not a lot of video content (where are the hype videos?), but there’s such a feast of photos being created by the Tennessee social media accounts that it’s hard to quibble.  The Vols are doing a great job of leveraging Fall camp as a content stream for its social media platforms.  As we continue through the series it will be interesting to see if the other SEC teams can match or exceed what Tennessee is doing.

How the South Carolina Gamecocks Use Social Media to Connect With Their Football Fans

Now let’s venture to the Palmetto state and look at how the SC Gamecocks are using social media.  South Carolina has a dedicated Twitter and Instagram account for the football program according to its main site here.

South Carolina is creating a lot of photos from Fall camp just like Tennessee did, but I noticed they are also creating video content from Fall camp such as this video posted on Instagram:

29 days til kickoff! Day 2 of practice in the books, full recap on GamecocksOnline.com. #SCCamp15 #HereSC #Gamecocks

A video posted by Gamecock Football (@gamecockfb) on

Also, I noticed something interesting with this tweet, see if you notice what I did:

They are using the same video that was posted on Instagram, so they are re-sharing content among multiple channels.  But what I love about this tweet is notice they add a call to action that asks fans to go back to GamecocksOnline.com for the full recap.  I *love* that because they are leveraging social media to move traffic off Twitter back to their website.  This doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is.  Once SC moves fans back to its website, then they can sell them merchandise and tickets.  Anytime you move traffic from sites you don’t own to sites you do, that’s a win and you can’t do that without that simple call to action.

South Carolina also has uploaded a ton of videos devoted to coverage of Fall camp from its main YouTube channel for its athletics programs.  These are great and easily shared via other channels like Twitter and Facebook.  You can see all the social media accounts related to the South Carolina athletic programs here.  Also notice that 3 of the football coaches have their own Twitter accounts listed, but unfortunately that doesn’t include the Ol’ Ball Coach, Steve Spurrier.

Even though South Carolina only has a Twitter and Instagram account dedicated to its football program, they are creating both visual and video content from Fall camp at a pretty healthy clip.  Again, this is ‘behind the scenes’ or backstage content that fans love.  I also love that they are sprinkling in calls to action to move fans back to GamecockOnline.com.  Very smart.

So that’s this week’s look at how the Tennessee Volunteers and South Carolina are leveraging social media to connect with its fans.  Last week we looked at Florida and Vandy, so that means we’ve covered 4 teams from the SEC’s Eastern division so far.  Next week we’ll move out West, and look at how the LSU Bengal Tigers and the Mississippi State Bulldogs are using social media to connect with their fans.  See you next Thursday!

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SEC Social Media Fan Experience: The Florida Gators and The Vanderbilt Commodores

Over the next 6 weeks till the start of the college football season, I’ll be examining how the schools in the SEC are using social media to connect with their fans.  College football in the SEC is huge business, and the primary driver of revenue in the richest athletic conference in the nation.  Last year alone, the profit from Alabama’s athletic programs topped every NHL franchise and the majority of the NBA teams as well.

SEC football is huge business, and I wanted to take a closer look at how these programs are leveraging social media to better connect with their fans.  On the surface, this might not seem that important, because SEC football already has passionate fans in place, why is it so important to connect with them via social media?  There’s two big reasons why: Recruiting, and ratings.

Social media has become an incredibly valuable recruiting tool for college athletics.  And for the SEC, a dominance in recruiting has translated to on-field dominance over the last decade, so these programs have a vested interest in using every advantage they have when it comes to recruiting.  Social media is a powerful way to attract and keep the attention of potential recruits.  So while SEC programs are trying to connect with existing fans, they are also trying to appeal to potentially the next 5-star QB that could lead them to a National Championship in a few years.

Then there’s TV ratings.  Anyone that’s followed Twitter during a major TV finale knows that Twitter chatter drives ratings.  And ratings play a major role in where teams are slotted when it comes to television coverage.  It’s why the South Carolina – Vandy game will be on the SEC Network at 11 am, and the LSU – Alabama game will be on CBS primetime at 7 pm.  And having your program shown on a more high-profile network and timeslot means more exposure for your brand and a greater ability to connect with recruits.  It’s a very powerful recruiting tool, if a top high school running back is sitting at home and he sees that Texas A&M is being shown nationally as the Game of the Week on ESPN, it makes an impression on him, especially if he is considering other schools in Texas whose games aren’t getting national coverage.

So over the next 6 weeks I’ll cover the social media efforts of the football programs for each of the 14 teams of the Southeastern Conference.  Keep in mind as you read these posts that these programs are trying to connect with two main audiences: The fans that buy the tickets, and the recruits that help them win more games (which sell more tickets!).

Here’s the schedule for the series:

Today: The Florida Gators and The Vanderbilt Commodores

August 6th: The Tennessee Volunteers and The South Carolina Gamecocks

August 13th: The LSU Tigers and The Miss State Bulldogs

August 20th: The Texas A&M Aggies and The Kentucky Wildcats

August 27th: The Georgia Bulldogs and The Missouri Tigers

September 1st: The Auburn Tigers and The Arkansas Razorbacks

September 3rd: The Alabama Crimson Tide and The Ole Miss Rebels

 

How The Florida Gators Use Social Media to Connect With Their Football Fans

One of the aspects of this series that will be interesting will be to see which teams have created social media channels that are dedicated to just the football program, and how many they use.  For example, Florida has accounts for the football program on Twitter, Instagram, and Vine.  The Vine account is a bit of a surprise, but it’s sparsely used, only one Vine so far this year.

I was also a bit surprised that there wasn’t a dedicated Facebook page for the football program, instead Florida has one for the athletics programs as a whole.  I will say, whoever mans the Florida Facebook page does a good job of engaging with fans and also has a pretty good sense of humor!

FloridaFB And custom graphical images featuring players like this from Florida’s Instagram account will be very popular with fans:

Gotta keep a lookout for these #Gators. All named to pre-season award watch lists this week.

A photo posted by Florida Gators Football (@gatorsfb) on

Also, remember that fans want a backstage pass.  They want to see content that goes behind scenes.  Show us how the facility upgrades are coming along.  Give us some videos of summer workouts.  This is the kind of content that the casual fan that doesn’t really follow football until the season starts might not care about, but the hardcore fans love to see what’s happening behind the scenes.   As I go through this series and look at the other 13 programs, I’ll be paying close attention to how well each school does at creating content that takes me backstage. Now to be fair, Florida’s Facebook page does a nice job of linking to media coverage that each sports program receives.  For example, SEC Media Days in Birmingham were earlier this month, and the Facebook page for the Florida athletics program has a nice stream of links to coverage from Media Days on Florida coach Jim McElwain and the attending players.  Given that Facebook is going to appeal to a more general audience, this type of content is a good idea. Also it’s worth noting that Florida has a very robust list of social media channels devoted to the athletics department as a whole, including the channels you would expect like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google Plus, but also some surprises like SoundCloud and Storify.  Here’s a complete list of the social media channels Florida utilizes across all sports. How the Vanderbilt Commodores Use Social Media to Connect With Their Football Fans Vanderbilt, affectionately known as ‘The Harvard of the South’ is a University more known for its academic prowess than its athletic accomplishments.  Looking at how Vandy allocates social media usage, all major sports teams have a dedicated Twitter account, and a few, not including the football program, also have a Facebook page.  Vandy has a dedicated Twitter account for each sport, including the football team.  However, the athletic department as a whole has dedicated accounts on all the major platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest. As with Florida, Vandy is currently putting a lot of promotion via social media for ticket sales for the upcoming football season.  I did see a few specially-designed images of football players to get fans excited for the upcoming season such as this one on Twitter:

Honestly, I’m surprised that I haven’t seen a lot more of these type of custom pictures/images from both Vandy and Florida.  Images such as these are very popular with fans, who often use them as wallpaper for their mobile devices or PCs. Without looking ahead, I am betting the remaining SEC schools will make good use of such images to hype fans for the upcoming season.

But remember that earlier I said it’s not just about the images for fans, it’s also about the video content.  Especially video content that gets fans excited for the upcoming season or ‘hype’ videos.  This one from Vandy’s YouTube channel is a great example of  the type of video content that fans will eat up as we’re just weeks from the start of the season:

Great video and note that the branding at the end reminds viewers of the value of the Vanderbilt degree. This is one area where Vandy has a real advantage vs most of the rest of the SEC schools, and it’s smart of VU to play off that.  What’s interesting to see from Vandy’s social media content is that they are really trying to appeal to prospective students as well as fans, again realizing the value of the Vandy degree.  Check out this blog post about a service trip to Cuba that some of the student-athletes took recently.

 

So that’s this week’s look at how the SEC is leveraging social media to connect with its football fans.  Next Thursday, we’ll do the same for the Tennessee Volunteers and the Kentucky Wildcats.  As we move into August, Fall camps will begin so it will be interesting to see if the profiled teams include any content from Fall practices as a way to give fans a backstage pass.

If any of you are Florida or Vandy fans, what do you like best about your team’s social media efforts?  Have you tried to engage with either Florida or Vandy via Twitter, Facebook or another channel?

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A Closer Look at HootSuite’s Brand Ambassador Program

HootAMB

Many companies that are interested in creating a brand ambassador program want to see actual examples of companies that are running such programs.  I’ve known about HootSuite’s brand ambassador program for a while, but on Sunday, one of its members Adel de Meyer joined #Blogchat and gave me a bit more information and then HootSuite chimed in so I wanted to share the background of the program with you.

One of the first things I do when working with a company that wants to launch a brand ambassador program is ask them to think about what’s in it for the company, and what’s in it for the brand ambassadors?  Because if there isn’t a clear set of benefits for both the company and the ambassadors, the brand ambassador program is in trouble before it ever launches.

In HootSuite’s case, they are using their brand ambassador program as a way to expose more people to HootSuite.  The idea is to take HootSuite’s existing passionate users and empower them to better promote the service to others and educate them on how to get started using HootSuite.

That’s what HootSuite gets.  But what about its ambassadors?  The ambassadors get perks that are only available to program members, such as swag, free access to HootSuite University, and a discount towards the Newhouse Advance Social Media Strategy Certificate.  What I love about these perks is that thought has been given to who HootSuite’s ambassadors are, and how HootSuite can help them become better at what they do.  HootSuite’s ambassadors not only love HootSuite, they are power social media users, or at least want to become better at using social media.  So HootSuite offers education and discounts that focus on improving their social media skills.  This goes above just helping them become better HootSuite users, it’s about helping them become better at using social media.  HootSuite understands that many of its ambassadors are using social media at their jobs either for the companies they work for, or their own businesses.  By giving these ambassadors a way to improve their social media skills, HootSuite is also giving them a way to become more productive and successful at work.  And that’s a pretty big benefit!

Another aspect of this program that I love is that it has a strong offline component.  HootSuite ambassadors are encouraged to host and participate in offline meetings with current and potential HootSuite brand ambassadors called HootUps!  According to Adele there were 199 of these HootUps around the world in 2014.  Offline meetings like this among current and potential ambassadors are so powerful, those of us that have met people online and then later met them offline at a conference or similar event know how powerful it is to take an online relationship offline.  It’s a great idea to take people that are passionate about HootSuite and put them in the same space so they can interact.  It’s also a great way for friendships to develop among those with similar interests; social media and HootSuite!

Finally, HootSuite encourages ambassadors to give them product feedback and then incorporates that feedback into new product features.  Giving ambassadors a feedback mechanism is a vital component of any successful brand ambassador program.  It’s so smart because HootSuite’s ambassadors are not only power users, but they are also regularly interacting with other power social media users that also have questions, ideas and even complaints about using HootSuite.  The ambassadors can then take all this information back to HootSuite, which can then analyze it and use it to improve the product and experience for all HootSuite users, not just its ambassadors.

Here’s what I love about the HootSuite Brand Ambassador Program, and these are key components you should consider implementing into your own Brand Ambassador Program:

1 – Brand Ambassadors get special perks and recognition for being a part of the program.  This is not only a way to reward involvement, it is a way for ambassadors to show how ‘cool’ they are.  It’s important to make potential ambassadors feel like the program is something they should want to be a part of and something it is cool to be a part of.  Now I will add that while the brand ambassadors should get special perks for being a member, at the same time there should be hurdles to involvement so that not just anyone can join.  HootSuite seems to be pretty lax about letting in anyone that loves HootSuite and wants to help others.  And to HootSuite’s credit the program has now grown to over 1,000 members.  But I would guess that moving forward, HootSuite might look for ways to make it more difficult to join the program, since it becomes more difficult to scale at such higher numbers.  Plus, if not everyone can get in, it makes it a bit more desirable to want to BE in the program!

2 – Strong offline component.  Ambassadors are actively encouraged to participate in and organize offline meetups with current and potential ambassadors, or HootUps.  This is a great way to not only expand the program’s membership, but it also builds tighter connections among existing members.  Which makes their involvement in the program more enjoyable!

3 – A feedback mechanism.  Always incorporate a way for ambassadors to give your brand feedback on the product or service as well as their interactions with other potential ambassadors and users.  Additionally, HootSuite ambassadors get advance access to new and potential product features, which is not only another perk for ambassadors, but it also gives HootSuite a valuable way to test potential product features before pushing them live.

 

So if you are considering launching a brand ambassador program, take a close look at what HootSuite is doing.  And for the record, they have given me zero compensation in any form for writing this post, I just love their program, the success it’s had, and wanted to share that with you.  Here’s a post from HootSuite with more information on the brand ambassador program, and here’s a great writeup from one of its ambassadors, Adel, on her blog.  If you want to apply to be a HootSuite Brand Ambassador, you can do that here.

Does your company have a brand ambassador program?  Feel free to share it in the comments below!

 

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 34: How to Show Support Without Showing Your Ass

Hey y’all!  Welcome to the 34th episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show!  First, thanks again to everyone for supporting the show, June was another strong month for downloads and I’ll have the complete recap of how the podcast and blog did in June up here early next week so be looking for that.

In today’s episode I wanted to focus on how your brand can show support, without showing its ass.  Whether it’s a holiday, a court ruling, a tragedy, brands are looking to communicate to their customers that they support their feelings and empathize with them.  But there is definitely a right and wrong way to do this.  In this episode of #FanDamnShow I talk about three things to keep in mind:

1 – If you can’t send that tweet, Facebook update or post that picture to Instagram without promoting your brand, then don’t send it.  The idea isn’t to leverage a holiday or event to promote yourself, it’s to show support for your customers.  The circular is where you can run your sales.

2 – You shouldn’t directly promote your brand but you can promote ideas/themes that relate to your brand.  For example, if your company sells safety products, instead of promoting those items now for the Fourth of July, instead how about publishing a blog post on how to safely enjoy fireworks this weekend?  That content is related to your brand but it isn’t ABOUT your brand,  And it creates value for the customer.

3 – Never ever NEVER use a holiday, event, tragedy to promote your brand.  This is how your brand becomes a case study at the next social media conference.  Just say no.

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again on Wednesday!

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The Art of Empathy: How to Get People to Give a Damn About You

View post on imgur.com

Lady Gaga was performing a concert and staying at a hotel in that city. As usually happens, her hardcore fans figured out which hotel she was in, and lined up outside hoping she would come and meet with them, which she did.  One of the people standing in line was a homeless man that had a ring he wanted to give Gaga, an ‘engagement’ ring.  

Gaga met with the fans in line, and when she reached the homeless man, she graciously accepted his ring, then she leaned toward him to take a picture.  The homeless man immediately leaned away from her and whispered “But I smell…” Without missing a beat, Gaga whispered back “Don’t worry, I smell too…” and leaned back toward him to take the picture.  

Loosely put, empathy is your ability to see the world through someone else’s eyes.  I would also argue that as a marketer, it is one of the most important skills you can hone and develop.

The problem is, there are many things that tug on us and make it more difficult to practice empathy:

  • Preoccupation with our own problems.  Why should I care that this guy can’t make his car payment this month, hell I am behind on my mortgage!
  • Having too much on our own plate.  That sounds terrible, I would like to help, but right now I need to finish this project.  I’ll come back to this when I have time.
  • Past history. This guy? Last year I asked him for help with my job search, he never returned my call.
  • Not caring. Ugh…everyone needs help! I need help too, who is going to help me?

A big component of empathy is recognizing that someone needs help.  There’s also a big distinction between someone that wants help, and someone that needs help.  Too often, a person that needs help, won’t ask for it.  This is a terrible flaw I have, I never ask for help when I need it.  I don’t want to be a burden to the very friends that would be happy to help me, if they could.  But still…

And many people feel this same way, which makes it even more important to be perceptive and to notice when someone needs help that might not be willing to ask for it.

Let’s be clear:  I’m not talking about someone that wants help.  People are usually more likely to ask for help they want, vs help they need.  Or perhaps they need help, but don’t realize they do.  As a marketer, it is incredibly important to realize when a customer needs help.  Not only so you can actually help them, but also so you can realize that the need for help can be affecting how they act toward you.  Needing help with say a product failure can lead to anger, fear, desperation, depending on what the product is and what it means to the owner.  It’s one thing if a customer can’t figure out how to put the toner in a printer and quite another if their truck has just broken down on the interstate at 10:30 PM.

Empathy allows you to  put yourself in the shoes of your customer and see their point of view.  It allows you to understand why the guy on the interstate is yelling at you on the phone, it’s because he’s stranded on the interstate at night and he’s scared.  But if you show empathy to your customers when they need your help the most, that’s one of the most powerful ways to build lifetime advocates for your brand.  It starts by making an effort to listen, be perceptive, and actually caring enough to do these things.

How do you get people to give a damn about you?  By first giving a damn about them.

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 27: Four Ways Your Fans Can Grow Your Business

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 27th episode of #FanDamnShow! In today’s episode I talk four different ways you can work with your fans to help them grow your business.  I also cover all four areas in much more detail in my book Think Like a Rock Star.

PPC_200x200 Standard no codeBut before I get into the Show Notes, a special thank you to MarketingProfs for becoming The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show’s first sponsor!  This episode is brought to you by the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, from Marketing Profs.  The Marketing Writing Bootcamp begins on June 11th and features 13 classes with almost 8 hours of instruction!  You can learn more here about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and if you enroll with promo code FANDAMN you’ll save $200 on Marketing writing bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

The Marketing Writing Bootcamp will be the sponsor of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show for the next 2 months.  If your company is interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow, slots are available starting in July.  You can learn more about sponsoring The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show and get rates by clicking here.

When most companies think about how their fans could help them, they usually focus on how those fans can help them sell more products.  But that’s just one way your fans can help you, there are three more!

Show Notes:

3:20 – You can work with your fans to promote your brand and why your fans love doing this

6:45 – You can work with your fans to generate more sales for your brand

11:05 – Working with your fans to help them provide better customer service to customers they interact with

14:20 – Leveraging your fans as a feedback channel (this gives your brand the most bang for its buck!)

 

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so please email me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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How to Price Your Products and Services

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Tonight (5-19-2015) at 7pm Central I will be joining #InfluencerChat on Twitter to discuss how to price your products and services.  Setting prices is a big gray area for many consultants, I am constantly having peers contact me asking for advice on what they should charge.  Especially when they are starting out.

Over time, and through much trial and error, I have learned the three keys to pricing your products and services as a consultant:

1 – Know your worth

2 – Charge what you are worth

3 – Never apologize for doing so

I say that I learned this through much trial and error because when I started consulting 10 years ago I did *not* do this. Back in 2005 it was very difficult to determine the ‘going rate’ for social media consulting, and that was my focus at the time.  So I usually based my pricing mostly on what I thought the client could afford.  A lot of consultants do this, especially when they start out.

Another key mistake I made was that I didn’t mention costs upfront to the client.  In fact, cost was usually the last thing we addressed.  This is an obvious problem because it meant that I would sometimes spend 2-3 weeks playing phone tag with a potential client before finally learning that they need $3,000 worth of services and have $500 to spend.  It wastes their time, and it wastes mine.

Today, I give all potential clients my prices upfront.  If I cannot give them an exact prices then I give them as defined of a range as possible.  This saves me time by setting expectations upfront.  The ball is then literally in their court.  After telling them my price, they typically either never respond, or tell me that their budget isn’t quite that much and make me a counter-offer, or they accept.  Either way, it saves time for me.

It also makes sense to publish your rates.  Many consultants balk at this, but again, it saves time for everyone.  If you prefer to adjust your rates based on the client and circumstance I get that, but the potential issue that creates is it becomes more difficult for your desired clients to find you.  Small businesses have different budgets for marketing services than global brands do.

This also communicates to the potential client that I know my worth, and am comfortable asking for it.  Which also communicates to the potential client that I am getting my worth.

Case in point, my speaking rates for events start at $7,500.00.  My rates and everything I provide are clearly listed here on my site.  Let’s be honest, $7,500.00 is a lot of money for any event to spend on a speaker.  So when an event planner or organizer contacts me about speaking at their event, I tell them my rates start at $7,500.00.  I will also explain exactly what they will get for that $7,500.00:

1 – I will provide a presentation of up to 90 minutes (including Q&A)

2 – I will stay at the event during the day on which I speak, answering any questions that attendees have

3 – I will conduct a book signing at the event, selling my own books, which I will bring

4 – I will help promote the event on my site and via my social media channels beginning 2 months before the event

 

This clearly communicates to the event planner what I cost, and the value I will create for them.  As a result, it becomes much easier to justify my speaking rate when events learn that I will stay for the duration of the event and help them promote it beforehand.  By doing this I am not only creating more value for the event, I am also helping to ensure the success of the event.  Which ultimately benefits me (the speaker) as well, because if every event I am speaking at is a success, it not only makes me look good to be speaking at successful events, it also increases the chance that I will be invited to speak at more events.  For example, I spoke in Gulf Shores last week at a tourism event because the organizer had attended a similar tourism event I spoke at two years ago in Huntsville.  She loved my presentation and asked me to present to her group, and I did.

So when it comes to setting prices for your products and services:

1 – Know your worth

2 – Charge your worth

3 – Never apologize for doing so

 

We’ll chat more about setting prices tonight at #InfluencerChat on Twitter, starting at 7pm central!

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The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show Episode 26: Money Can’t Buy You Happiness, Or Can It?

Hey y’all! Welcome to the 26th episode of #FanDamnShow! In today’s episode I talk about a fascinating study into what drives happiness:  products or experiences?

PPC_200x200 Standard no codeBut before I get into the Show Notes, a special thank you to MarketingProfs for becoming The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show’s first sponsor!  This episode is brought to you by the Marketing Writing Bootcamp, from Marketing Profs.  The Marketing Writing Bootcamp begins on June 11th and features 13 classes with almost 8 hours of instruction!  You can learn more here about the Marketing Writing Bootcamp and if you enroll with promo code FANDAMN you’ll save $200 on Marketing writing bootcamp. Plus, you’ll get over $1,000 worth of Marketing Profs seminars, classes, and video tutorials, free – just for registering!

The Marketing Writing Bootcamp will be the sponsor of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show for the next 2 months.  If your company is interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow, slots are available starting in July.  You can learn more about sponsoring The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show and get rates by clicking here.

I recently came across a very interesting article in Fast Company that discussed the science behind how experiences bring you happiness more than products do.  I delve into this topic deeper in this episode of The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show:

Show Notes:

2:02 – Science indicates that money can buy you happiness, if you spend it on experiences and not products

3:00 – Happiness and satisfaction with a new product diminishes as that product ages and becomes obsolete

3:37 – Happiness associated with experiences such as vacations can actually increase over time as they create happy memories and give others a common conversation and word of mouth to share

8:30 – If experiences create more sustained happiness vs products, doesn’t that mean that experiences also create a different form of word of mouth?

11:00 – If your marketing is trying to drive better WOM then shouldn’t it be focused more on experiences associated with your products versus just the product itself?

11:50 – Harley-Davidson doesn’t market its motorcycles, it markets the lifestyle associated with owning the motorcycle because that’s tied to experiences versus just the product.

Here’s where you can download and listen to the episode directly.  And if you can, please subscribe to The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show on iTunes, and I would *love* it if you could review the podcast on iTunes as well.  Also, #FanDamnShow is now available on Stitcher as well!

Also, don’t forget that sponsorships are now available for The Fan-Damn-Tastic Marketing Show. This page that has all the information on how your brand can sponsor #FanDamnShow and the rates. Please note that all available sponsor slots (starting with July) will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so pleaseemail me if you are interested in sponsoring #FanDamnShow.

We’ll talk again next week!

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Understanding the Power of the Conversation Around Your Brand

Every brand, company, product, person, team, etc has a conversation happening around it.  That conversation might be happening by a handful of people, or a few billion people, but for everything and everyone, it’s happening.

Your brand attempts to dominate that conversation with advertising and marketing.  For the average brand, the marketing messages it sends out often tend to clash with the opinions being expressed by current and potential customers.  It can lead to a cluttered conversation around that brand:

DSCN1712Notice all the lines around your brand?  It suggests that the brand can’t clearly communicate with its customers, and that those customers can’t clearly communicate with your brand.  And the key here is, as a customer I have to go THROUGH the conversation happening around your brand, before I can reach your brand.  If that conversation is cluttered, or if I am getting inconsistent messages from your brand and its customers, it makes it more difficult for me to trust your brand, and less likely to want to do business with you.

The above could be called an example of a ‘dirty’ conversation happening around this particular brand.  Dirty conversations aren’t conducive to creating trust.  So the question becomes how does your brand ‘clean’ that conversation.

There’s two key ways.  The first is by participating in that conversation.  By participating in a conversation your brand changes that conversation.  Part of participating in a conversation is listening to the other party.  When you listen to your customers you have a better sense of your customers’ point of view.  So you can apply that better understanding of your customers to your marketing messages.  That alone will clear the conversation around your customers a bit, and make your brand’s messages more in line with what your customers are saying.

The second way to clean a dirty conversation is to have your happy customers participating in that conversation.  Your happy customers have a strong connection with your brand, and a greater level of understanding about your brand. So you want these happy customers to be interacting with other potential customers, and changing the conversation about and around your brand.

Here’s a hypothetical for how this could work: In a few weeks I will be keynoting the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach Tourism’s Annual Tourism Summit in beautiful Gulf Shores, Alabama.  I am going to ask the attendees to raise their hand if they consider the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area to be one of the best places in the South to visit.  I am betting every hand will go up because like me, I am betting all of the attendees will be big fans of the Gulf Shores and Orange Beach area.  So the conversation about Gulf Shores and Orange Beach with that group would be very ‘clean’.

But let’s say that next month I spoke at the Utah Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Salt Lake City.  And let’s say I asked those attendees to tell me how many of them felt that Gulf Shores was one of the best places in the South to visit.  My guess is that few, if any, hands would go up.  And that’s likely not because the tourism professionals in Utah dislike the Gulf Shores area, it’s probably because they have never been there.  So the conversation around Gulf Shores in that room in Utah would be a bit ‘dirty’.

However, if I could take the tourism professionals I’ll speak to next week in Gulf Shores to Utah and have them, as a group, talk to the tourism professionals in Utah about the Gulf Shores area, the conversation in that room in Utah about the Gulf Shores area would change.  The tourism professionals in Utah would get a better understanding of the Gulf Shores area, and they would likely be more willing to consider visiting Gulf Shores.

In fact, science has proven this.  Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute concluded that it only takes 10 percent of a population holding an unshakable belief in order to convince the majority to adopt that same belief.  In fact, the scientists found that this will always be the case.

“When the number of committed  holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas. It would literally take the amount of time comparable to the age of the universe for this size group to reach the majority,” said SCNARC Director Boleslaw Szymanski, the Claire and Roland Schmitt Distinguished Professor at Rensselaer. “Once that number grows above 10 percent, the idea spreads like flame.”

What that means is that if 10 tourism professionals from Gulf Shores that knew that Gulf Shores was an amazing place to visit interacted with 90 tourism professionals from Utah that weren’t familiar with Gulf Shores, that eventually the tourism professionals from Gulf Shores could convince over 40 of the tourism professionals from Utah to also believe as they do.  That Gulf Shores is a great place to visit.

Think about that, for a second.  Take 90 people that have no strong opinion for or against your brand, and have them interact with 10 happy customers that LOVE your brand, and eventually those 10 fans will convince at least 41 of those 90 people to also LOVE your brand.  So while a brand has limited ability in most cases to affect and change a conversation about and around its brand, that brand’s happy customers can much more easily change the conversation about and around a brand.

DSCN1713Notice here that it’s much easier for the brand to send out marketing messages, and its much easier for the brand to connect with its customers.  There’s far less ‘clutter’ and the conversation around this brand isn’t ‘dirty’.  That’s because the conversation around this brand has been ‘cleaned’ by having happy customers take an active role in that conversation.  It’s also because the brand’s marketing messages have been changed and shaped by input and interactions with its happy customers.  So the brand is sending out messages that are more in line with what those happy customers want and need to hear.

How clean is the conversation around your brand?

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BMW Pulls ‘Reverse April Fool’s Prank’, Teaches You About Digital Marketing

On April 1st, a BMW dealership in New Zealand ran a newspaper ad.  At the bottom, it added an ‘April Fool’s Day Special’ coupon.  The coupon said that the first person to bring the coupon in and ask for ‘Tom’, would be able to trade their old car in for a new BMW.

Here’s what happened:

Now, let’s look at this giveaway as being a marketing campaign.  First, let’s consider the costs.  There’s the cost of the BMW itself.  Then add on the cost to create the video you just watched.  Let’s assume there were also some costs associated with PR efforts around the giveaway.  Add in any miscellaneous costs and let’s assume a total cost of say….$60,000.00.

Now, what did this BMW dealership gain from the giveaway?  Let’s look at earned media generated:

First, there’s currently over 1.3 million views of the above video on YouTube.  The odds are it will eventually approach 2 million views, if not pass that.

Next, we have earned media in the form of articles written about the giveaway.  I googled “BMW new zealand april fools” and found 143,000 results:

BMWThen you have to consider the coverage that this giveaway got on television and radio shows.  This is just the type of giveaway that morning radio and television shows love to cover.  “Hey did you hear about the woman that answered the April Fool’s ad and won a free BMW?”

Additionally, it’s going to drive an increase in foot traffic to the BMW dealership, and will likely result in increased sales from this giveaway.  Many people will appreciate the fact that this dealership did the giveaway, and it will make them at least consider doing business there.  Also, if the dealership wants to do something similar in the future, it can expect a much higher response rate for its newspaper ad call-to-action!

So for $60,000, here’s what this business got:

  • A video on YouTube with over 1.3 million views
  • Over 140,000 positive articles about the dealership and its giveaway
  • Any negative articles or posts about the dealership will be completely buried by the avalanche of articles about this giveaway
  • A ton of free coverage on television and radio shows, and likely some newspaper column mentions as well
  • Increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales

I think most businesses that could afford to spend $60,000 on its marketing would consider this to be a good investment.

The key to the success of this campaign has been spreading the story via online channels.  And the story spread online because it focused on the customer.  If this dealership had created a video promoting the same BMW it gave away, that video would have generated a small fraction of the exposure that this giveaway created.  Instead, this BMW dealership found a way to put the focus on the customer, and in doing so. made the video far more interesting.  Putting the customer at the center of the giveaway and video makes the video more relevant to other customers.

Customer-centric content spreads further and faster than company-centric content.