Think Again: Why Social Media Isn't A Waste Of Time

So you've probably heard plenty from naysayers, cynics, skeptics, and even CEOs, CFOs, and CMOs that social media is a HUGE waste of time. It doesn't generate the same return on investment (ROI) as other marketing vehicles; it adversely impacts employee productivity; it exposes companies to legal and marketing risks; and blah, blah blah. Similar arguments are made for individual users, who seemingly spend hours on end communicating via Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms, and refuse (or may be reluctant) to engage with others in the outside world once inside their social media cocoons.

Whatever. You and I both know that social media has plenty of proven, practical uses and applications, for both companies and individuals, and it does get awesome results, especially if campaigns are designed and executed correctly, and if the channels are used in moderation in accordance with their intended purposes. Now here's additional proof of all this:  statistical evidence of what social media accomplishes for people and companies EVERY DAY.

On a daily basis, more than 250 million photos are now uploaded to platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, and 80% of users now visit one or more social networks and blogs. In 2011, 41% of college graduates used social media to search for employment, and Americans spent a whopping 53.5 billion minutes on Facebook alone, mostly to remain in touch with friends, family members, and colleagues.

In the grand scheme of things, social media enables us to communicate more effectively and frequently with those we care about, and to send and receive news and information in real time to wider and more targeted audiences.

These and other insightful statistics may be found in the following infographic from Schools.com, which analyzes the many benefits Americans are reaping from social media usage:

Source Of Irritation: 12 Annoying Social Media Practices

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Robert M. Caruso, the founder and CEO of Bundle Post, and a long-time technology, sales and marketing executive. A good friend of CMAC, Caruso is also a father of two, a passionate advocate of technology and social media for business, and an insightful professional whose well-written and savvy perspectives are right on the money. A version of this story first appeared on Caruso's blog 12 Most, and later in this piece on Ragan.com. You can follow Caruso on Twitter at @fondalo.
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As a social media professional, I have seen a lot of annoying things.

Most of the time I believe people do them because they don’t know better or have seen others do it, rather than out of a desire to be annoying or ineffective with their social media marketing. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know.

I tend to be more patient than others and thought a list of some of these annoying practices would be helpful. The intent is not to tell you what you can or cannot do within social media (that’s up to you), but rather to highlight some things you should consider changing to be more effective.

They are listed in no particular order of annoyance.

1. TruTwit Validation

This is one that seems to annoy a lot of people, including me. Social media marketing is about relationships. Just as in real life, most relationships don’t work out too well when one person begins by distrusting or assuming the other is fake. What’s worse is a business starting out almost accusing a prospective customer. Drop TruTwit, and review bios and news feeds on Twitter to start relationships in the social graph on a good note.

2. Random Facebook Event Invites

Do I know you? Do you know me? Since I am a single dad in Oregon and, well, a bit older, why would you invite me to your rave party in New York City next week?

The Facebook event application can be powerful and effective when used properly. Mass-inviting non-targeted prospects that you have built no relationship with to your event is more than annoying. This kind of direct marketing in a social environment usually kills brand and, worse, gets you un-friended.

3. Random Share Requests

Before you start asking a Facebook friend or Twitter follower to share a post for you, be sure you have developed a relationship. Would you ask someone you met in line at Starbucks to email all of their friends your new blog post or website when you just met them? Would you call people you met once and never talked to again, asking them to put a sign for your business in their company lobby?

Of course not. You must first build a relationship, get to know them and provide value to them first. So, don’t do it in social media, either.

4. TeamFollowBack

Truth be told, this one gets me shaking my head more than others.

Why would anyone doing social media marketing want followers to follow them just because? We would never send a direct-mail campaign to a list of non-targeted people for our product or service. We would not hang out with someone we have nothing in common with. Followers and fans should be made up of a highly targeted community that you can provide value to and are most likely your prospective customers. Quantity and quality are equally important.

5. Endless RTing

This is a companion to No. 4: endless, meaningless retweets. To constantly retweet a list of Twitter names over and over between each other and never engage, converse, or provide value to anyone is kind of like talking to yourself in the middle of the desert. Nobody is listening and, more important, nobody cares.

I don’t know about you, but my time is worth way too much to waste it doing anything that does not produce value for others, new relationships, or return on investment. Spend your social media marketing time wisely.

6. Ignoring Shares/RTs

This never ceases to amaze me. If someone shares a post of yours or RTs something you posted on Twitter, for Pete’s sake, thank them. Start a conversation about the article. Build a relationship. When they shared your post to all of their friends, fans, or followers, they are saying to you, “What you posted was valuable and relevant.” Ignoring their gracious proliferation of you and/or your brand is like ignoring someone at a networking event that hands your business card to someone right in front of you.

7. Too Late

Social media is digital. It happens at lightning speed. Don’t take days to respond to a comment or conversation attempt by a fan or follower. Make a commitment to your social media marketing and respond quickly.

I can’t have a relationship with you or your brand when you respond days after I ask you a question. Use your smartphone and social media management applications to ensure you stay on top of conversations.

8. Fauxperts

Mind your bio information. Calling yourself a “Guru” or “Expert” is a huge turnoff to most. Let others define you as such, and stay clear of making yourself look like a fool. True experts do not become so because they give themselves the title. They become known as an expert because their experience, skill, and knowledge in a specific space are noted by other respected people.

9. Know It All

I have found that a large number of social media marketers, consultants, and firms seem to think it is their job to tell others what to do. I have seen them attack people because they used an automated direct message, posted something about their own company, or any number of other normal newbie things people do.

Aside from outright spam, no "rule" within the social media world is hard and fast. People are free to use the medium the way they see fit. You can unfollow or unfriend people at any time. It is not your job or right to hammer people for any reason. Lead, follow, or get out of other people's way.

10. Over-Pitching

A typical challenge that newcomers and direct marketers have with social media marketing is understanding that it has less to do with you and your brand and more to do with the individuals that join your community.

Providing selfless value to your community instead of direct and constant marketing pitches about what you do will go a long way to building better relationships.

Ever been to coffee with someone talked about him- or herself the entire time? I think you are getting the point.

11. Daily "Papers"

Annoying might be a bit strong when describing the Twitter daily newspaper posts. You know, the repeated posts saying one of your follower’s dailies is out and which other followers are featured in it. Don’t get me wrong, many of us appreciate the additional exposure our Twitter accounts and content receives due to these posts, but where is the conversation?

Automatically aggregating other people’s content to some Web page and automatically posting that you automatically did that doesn’t lead to conversation or relationships. Few of the posts that mention me this way lead to valuable conversations with those that use these services.

If you use them, take the extra step to start a meaningful conversation with the folks from whom you are automatically aggregating content. This should lead to relationships that result in mutual benefit.

12. Automated DMs

One of the things that seem to set people off in Nos. 8 and 9 are automated direct messages (DMs) on Twitter. They say DMs are not authentic and hammer anyone who uses them. I choose to find opportunity to engage and develop a relationship when they arrive.

The only caveat to my mostly agnostic view of the practice is when it pitches products and services. Especially when we just followed each other or have not had a conversation yet.

I suggest that if you are going to send an automated message to new followers, simply thank them and use it to start some kind of dialogue inside of your feed, rather than through direct message. Again, this builds valuable relationships that lead to ROI.

Any annoying behaviors you’d care to share?

© Copyright 2011 Ragan Communications, Inc. | Bundle Post, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Yet Another Example Why Proofreading Is Of Critical Importance: Part III

In a humorous, but astonishing, case of pure coincidence, two high-profile retailers, Old Navy and JCPenney, both committed major faux pas this week with misguided T-shirt offerings...and just in time for back-to-school shopping, the volume of spending for which is predicted to be down this year.

Exhibit A:  Old Navy. As reported in this piece on Ragan.com, the Gap-owned retailer printed sports T-shirts with "Lets go" across the front. Obviously, the phrase is missing an apostrophe, and it should have read, "Let's go," as a contraction for "Let us go." No big deal, right?

Well, in most cases, probably not, except that Old Navy distributed thousands of shirts to college campuses across the country, with each shirt customized according to the colors, logos, and mascots of the individual college. For example, this short to the left is sold at the University of Michigan.

So what message does this send to the students? That correct grammar and punctuation are unimportant? Old Navy earns a fail on this one, particularly since the product had to be approved (and presumably, proofread as well) by multiple layers of management before shipping and hitting store shelves.

Exhibit B:  JCPenney. Our friends at Adweek caught wind yesterday of a social media firestorm created by the retailer when it decided to sell, and then later pull from its shelves, a $9.99 long-sleeved T-shirt that reads, "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me." The promotional copy accompanying the item on the website only made things worse:  "Who has time for homework when there's a new Justin Bieber album out? She'll love this tee that's just as cute and sassy as she is."

The messages? That girls being intelligent just isn't cool; looks are the most important quality one can possess; and never the twain shall meet. Even though the shirt was intended to be fun and playful, teenagers these days, especially young ladies, are bombarded with inappropriate messages from multiple sources...and that just doesn't cut it with parents and educators.

Now, to be fair, JCPenney immediately responded to an online petition from Change.org requesting the immediate removal of the shirt by pulling the offering from its inventory. The company also individually responded to many negative comments on its Facebook page, although the responses were simply cut and pasted from one person to the next. Finally, JCPenney issued the following statement:

J.C. Penney is committed to being America’s destination for great style and great value for the whole family. We agree that the “Too pretty” t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale. Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize to our customers and are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that they have come to expect.

While we applaud JCPenney, from a crisis communications perspective, for its quick action to diffuse the controversy, let's face it:  the company shouldn't have been in this position to begin with.

P.S. Check out this story late yesterday from PRNewser on the "stupid shirt" debacle caused by JCPenney.

Corporate Snapshot: Employee Usage Of Social Media In The Workplace

While many companies, large and small, across the land are embracing social media and encouraging their associates to use a broad range of platforms to communicate with stakeholders, others are doing just the opposite and shutting off the hose completely.

Why? Primarily because of recent scandals and crises created by intentional and inadvertent posts that have resulted in some form of reputational damage, lost sales, credibility hits, client departures, and so on. Furthermore, the line between where one's personal life ends, and his professional existence begins, continues to become murkier and murkier. This is why the need for a comprehensive social media policy is so great, but it's a moot point for those companies that block access altogether.

So where do things currently stand in Corporate America? According to a recent survey of companies conducted by Mindflash and Column Five, 70.7 percent block all social networking sites in the workplace, while 55 percent of firms have some social media policies in place. For 44 percent of companies, these policies govern social media usage both inside and outside of the workplace, presumably to prevent unhappy employees from badmouthing their employers. The survey's findings also reveal that more than 50% of all companies believe in the value and benefits of social media when used for business purposes, but also has some downside when it is not.

A complete summary of the results follows below:

If you're a marketing executive or a business owner who wants to further leverage social media communications for a variety of purposes, but has not yet crafted a thorough usage policy, you should definitely pay attention to the approaches outlined here and the suggested guidelines and training recommendations. These can make the difference between a successful program and adherence to policy adherence, as opposed to having to clean up some sort of crisis down the line.

Check out a larger version of this image here, or to save this to your marketing resources archive.

Twitter Psychology 101: An Explanation Of Tweeting Behavior

Remember taking your psychology 101 course in college, and then using your newly-acquired knowledge to explain, and even rationalize, all sorts of normal (and since it was college, probably abnormal) behavior you saw on campus? Me, too, and I remember it being a series of eye-opening revelations.

Well, the good folks at WhiteFireSEO, a Utah-based a Utah search engine optimizer with years of experience creating popular content and optimizing websites, are equally as captivated by psychology, and decided to apply that curiosity to the petri dish that is Twitter. The company polled hundreds of marketers about their Twitter usage habits, and their rationale behind such common activities as following and unfollowing other users, retweeting content, and sharing frequency.

In some cases, the results are hardly surprising. For example, Twitter users tend to unfollow others for tweeting too much, appearing automated, or talking about themselves all the time. or being too self-promotional In other words, if you're annoying in some way, you will lose followers in a New York minute.

In other instances, the survey yielded some interesting insights, which are summarized in the infographic to the left. I was surprised at the low percentage of respondents who rely on Follow Friday to find other users of interest. That is because I use Follow Friday to recognize others that I find compelling, and to recommend them to our follower base. The same goes for people who follow me, and suggest to others to do the same. It's actually a pretty useful tool, as is Marketer Monday, but I'm careful not to overuse it, and I'm also selective about whom I recommend.

Some other findings of note:  36 tweets per day constitutes oversharing, and interesting content and humor are the best ways to garner retweets. A very good example of a power Twitter user whose content is almost always interesting and humorous is world-renowned Apple fellow, venture capitalist, and best-selling author Guy Kawasaki. With nearly 100,000 tweets to date, and a stable of approximately 400,000 followers, Kawasaki has attracted a massive audience by tweeting quirky, intriguing, and just downright funny stuff that appeals to people of all walks of life. Make sure to follow Kawasaki to see what I mean.

In the end, check out WhiteFireSEO's survey takeaway:  tweeps don’t care if you give them things or ask them to help; they’ll retweet you if they like your stuff or think you’re funny.

Amen to that.

To peruse a larger version of this image, please click here.

Measuring Social Media Strategy Effectiveness: A Step-By-Step Guide

As with all marketing strategies and supporting tactics, the only tried-and-true means of knowing what works...and what doesn't...is to scientifically measure a program's effectiveness on several different dimensions.

Why on multiple levels? Because a single measurement tool usually does not give the marketer a sufficiently clear picture of a program's impact (or lack thereof). In most cases, it is necessary to employ a variety of metrics, such as unaided brand recall, individual unit sales, leads generated, media placements, website traffic, in-store traffic, coupon redemption rates,  and so on, to deliver a comprehensive verdict on whether a campaign delivered in significant return on investment (ROI).

Measuring ROI in the social media realm has been a much-debated issue now for several years. Not because it can't be done, but because approaches tend to differ dramatically from one company to the next   ― and with varying degrees of clarity. Inevitably, the same measurement-related questions arise. What methodology should be used? How can a social media campaign be directly tied to sales, if at all? Are there automated measurement software applications that can be employed? How can results be packaged and presented so that they're understandable to senior management? Can a "social" marketing channel even be quantified?

If you need help in this area, then look no further than this excellent step-by-step, how-to guide to social media strategy measurement from elisaDBI, a U.K.-based interactive marketing agency which provides cutting-edge digital solutions to European companies:

To view a larger version of this guide, please click here. Good luck with your strategy!

Competition You Can't Ignore

Editor's Note:  The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post by Rajesh Setty, an entrepreneur, author, and speaker based in Silicon Valley, and a creator and seller of limited-edition prints at Sparktastic. This piece, which discusses the importance of identifying and monitoring indirect competitors, originally appeared in Amex OPEN Forum. Why is this critical? Because most companies only pay attention to direct competitors...the ones who pose the most obvious threats. However, competition can come from a variety of sources, and it's important to know exactly what those sources are so you can devise an appropriate marketing strategy that deals with them appropriately. You can follow Setty on Twitter at @rajsetty.

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First, there is no product or service that doesn't have competition. And if you tell someone that your product has no competition, what they hear is that there isn't a big market for your product...which isn't good.

Having clarified that, let’s look at the two big categories of competition.

On one hand, you have direct competition for your business — this is mainly other companies that are making the same promises that you are making. Lot of factors about the competitor (such as size of the company, pricing of their offerings, brand and image, etc.) will influence how much they will affect your business.

On the other hand, you have indirect competition. As the name indicates, this kind of competition is easy to miss.

Here are five of them to consider:

1. There is no “real” need now.

This is a mindshare competition. This happens when you create products that are “solutions waiting for problems.” There is a big “lean startup” movement going on (at least in Silicon Valley) where products are co-developed with customers. Most often, that’s not the case—someone develops a product because they see a need for it and assume everyone has that same need. If you have a solution that is looking for a problem, you need to go back to the drawing board.

2. There are mediocre, but less expensive, alternatives.

Whether you like it or not, if there are less expensive alternatives to what you are offering, there will be a large majority of people who will opt for it. Quality and standards are relative and varies based on taste. What one thinks as mediocre may be perfectly acceptable to someone else.

3. There are “minimal” alternatives.

Your gizmo may do everything from video chat to bringing your newspaper in the morning. You may also be adding new features every other month. The point is that not everybody wants all your features. 37Signals built a huge business building products with no-frills. Eighty percent of the people out there can get by using a product with minimal features and 80 percent is a large enough market to focus on.

4. People generally maintain “status quo.”

This is the hardest one to recognize and digest. Before your product or service came into the market, life was going on and life can go on without people having to use your product. In general, status quo will be maintained only because the alternate option is “to change,” which is not easy to come by.

As you design products, think of incentives that you can provide for people to embrace your product. It is harder than you think.

5. New ways of serving “needs” emerge.

You may remember products like Sony Walkman, floppy disks and VHS tapes. During their times, those products were popular and served the needs of people. Things changed and new products that changed the game emerged. With these new products, the way the needs were served changed—be it more capacity, more convenience, speed or new capabilities. Once that happened, the old products became obsolete and entered the end of their product life cycles.

© 2011 American Express Company. All Rights Reserved.

How To Make Your PR And Marketing Believable

Editor's Note:  The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post by Erica Swallow, an associate editor of partner content at Mashable, where this piece initially appeared. All marketing and communications relies on credibility, or in this case, being believable, to be truly effective. Read on for a more detailed look at this important issue.

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Public relations and marketing professionals have dug themselves into a hole. With the overwhelming amount of PR spin and marketing messages flying at consumers on a daily basis, individuals are constantly on guard, trying to spot the underlying motives behind each claim, motto, message or deal that brands introduce. Many times the assumption by consumers is that marketing messages are motivated by greedy or deceptive intentions. This phenomena is what Ogilvy’s senior vice president of global strategy and marketing, Rohit Bhargava, recently called a “believability crisis” during his presentation at Mashable Connect 2011.

“Affinity has become the new secret weapon — we believe in people and companies that we like,” said Bhargava. For those in the public relations and marketing industries, it is important to gain back the trust they’ve lost from consumers by understanding what makes people, ideas and organizations more believable.

Bhargava spoke about what he calls Likeonomics, which “explains the new affinity economy where the most likeable people, ideas and organizations are the ones we believe in, buy from and get inspired by.”

What makes a person or organization believable, then? Bhargava said that Likeonomics is based on being simple, human, brutally honest and emotional.

1. Simple

To be more believable, the first step is simple and based on personal relationships, said Bhargava. “Be genuine, be honest, be open.” He believes that this concept has powered the social media revolution and the brands that have embraced it.

Bhargava pointed to Ally Bank as an example of a brand that gets it. Using the slogan “Straightforward,” the bank sheds light on deceptive industry practices and aims for complete transparency on rates and terms. Says one Ally ad, “we make money with you, not off you.”

2. Human

If you’re trying to build relationships, it’s a good idea to be human. Simply said, but not easily done.

Bhargava pointed to Innocent, a UK beverage brand that puts a lot of initiative into showcasing the humanity behind its brand. Each winter, Innocent runs the Big Knit, in which Innocent fans knit and send in hats to place on top of its smoothie bottles that are placed in stores. For each hat knitted, the company pledges 25p to Age UK to help make winter warmer for older people across the UK.

This initiative not only illustrates that the company’s founders care about those around them, but it is also a genius marketing idea. Walk into any grocery store and take a look at the beverage aisle (or almost any aisle). Row after row, you’ll see similarly shaped and colored packages. Now place smoothie bottles with cute knitted hats into the picture — get the point?

3. Brutally Honest

After ranking last in a consumer preferences survey of national chains in 2009, Domino’s Pizza launched its humility-filled Domino’s Pizza Turnaround campaign, which featured consumers hating on the product. Consumers complained that Domino’s Pizza crust tasted like cardboard and its sauce tasted like ketchup, among other pitfalls. Domino’s listened and its chefs got to work, reinventing a “new pizza.”

Relationships of any type are based on trust — trust isn’t possible without honesty. Bhargava said that brands must practice “brutal honesty and extreme transparency” in order to “get people over that hump of ‘I don’t believe you. I don’t trust that what you’re doing is anything more than spin.’”

Bhargava noted that “disclosure is not the same thing as honesty.” Outing the naughty deeds that your company participates in on your annual report isn’t enough.

4. Emotional

Founded by eccentric millionaire Christian Ringnes, The Mini Bottle Gallery is billed as “the world’s first miniature bottle museum.” Having recently visited the museum in Oslo, Norway, Bhargava told the story of its founding and why its so unique.

Ringnes “treats the museum with a great sense of humor, because he realizes that he has built an entire museum around something that most people who might think of visiting consider silly or at least strange,” said Bhargava. As a result, he doesn’t take himself too seriously when he markets and promotes the gallery. “The museum itself features a built in slide, a monthly award for the “tackiest miniature bottle” and even a fake brothel with a collection of 40 custom bottles from the 40 legal brothels in Las Vegas,” explained Bhargava on his blog.

Because collecting the mini bottles is his personal passion, it’s Ringnes’ goal to get potential visitors emotionally invested in it, too.

© Copyright 2005-2011 Mashable, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

How To Restore Confidence In Your Customers When You’ve Failed

Editor's Note: The following is another guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. How do you recover when you've made a mistake of some sort that has obviously angered your customers? It's a very important question that few businesses know how to address effectively. Find out here.

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But is there any coming back from a huge faux pas like the one you’ve committed? Your customers are likely cursing your name and are unlikely to forgive you anytime soon. How do you go about restoring confidence in your company and brand?Well, you goofed. Big time. The Twitterverse is ablaze with anger, your Facebook feed is filled with seething rage, and the national news has even given the story airtime. Your face is red and soon your profit margins will be, too! Unless you do something.

Time

For one, it’s best to remember that “anytime soon” mentioned above. Just because they may not be willing to give you a second (or third) chance right now, this may change in the future. So don’t lose your mind trying to bring them back over as soon as possible.

Right now, what you should be focusing on is getting your name back into good standing. This involves buckling down and getting to work figuring out ways to build goodwill. One way to get about this is to take into consideration what went wrong in the first place.

Was your big mistake lying to your customers? Then you need to find ways to show the world that you’re actually honest. Make sure to take the full blame for the lie first of all then go about orchestrating a campaign around “keeping promises.”

Did your product cause harm to some of your customers? Go out of your way to fix the situation, and then find some nonprofits to align yourself with to show you’re concerned with human interests.

Next Steps

When you feel the world has calmed down enough about your big goof (and it may not take long…the world moves fast these days), it’s time to start winning your old customers back. Assuming you’ve done everything in the previous step, your company’s name should be losing its tarnish.

Those old customers will remember when they were wronged, though. This won’t just go away with time. This is especially true if a rival company has already snatched them up. You’ll need something special to win those folks back.

One way to do this, depending on the age of your company, is to instill a feeling of “nostalgia” in those former customers. Remind them all the good things about your business and what you can do for them. Also, tell them what the plan is for your business in the future if they switch over.

The main thing, though, is to let everyone know that your big error will never happen again! Above all else they want to feel like you have their best interests in mind. At all times keep in mind they may be looking for ways you’re messing up again – don’t give them that reason. Mind everything you do and every word you say and you may just be able to win most of your formerly offended customers back into your confidence.

How would you go about restoring your customers’ confidence during a crisis?

© 1998-2011 eReleases® (MEK Enterprises LLC) All Rights Reserved.

Social Media Rehab: Are You Addicted?

This is not necessarily new territory to cover, but with just about everyone these days using feature-rich smartphones on the go to manage their social media profiles, and more importantly, their lives ― anywhere, anytime, anyplace ― a steady stream of research has been published about users' social media habits.

While some of this research has been treated with a sense of humor (e.g. how many users update their Facebook profiles when using the restroom?), other statistics, quite frankly, border on the absurd, and even worse and more shockingly, may be regarded as addictive or compulsive behavior.

Need proof? Check out some of these stats below:

Click here for a larger version of this summary. If you're updating your Twitter stream before you get out of bed, you're definitely addicted. Just sayin'.

How To Create Websites That Reporters Will Absolutely Love

Editor's Note:  The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post by Russell Working, a staff writer for Ragan.com, where a version of this story first appeared. Even though Websites have been around now for over 15 years, journalists still regularly complain about their poor layout, navigation, and design, and a general lack of comprehensive information and resources that can assist them with properly reporting on a company and its products or services. Not any longer with these tips!

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Reporters — it is true — can sometimes be snappish and arrogant, and we often fail to take time to appreciate the beauty of that great pitch you wrote.

We come tromping into your turf, by phone or in person, and presume to tell your story to the world.

But as long as communicators are stuck with us dandruffy hacks in our ketchup-stained neckties, why create websites that seem designed to thwart us? Don’t you want the ink?

At least that’s what some reporters I polled are wondering. They are vexed at having to squander precious minutes on deadline fruitlessly Googling or prowling through company websites to find out where your world headquarters is located. They are irked when they can’t turn up a meaningful description of your organization on the “about” page.

And there have been times when businesses and nonprofits have missed out on a mention in some of America’s most-read newspapers, magazines, blogs and Web-based trade publications because it was too cumbersome for journalists to find a human to talk to on deadline.

I asked several reporters for their beefs about organizational Websites — corporate, government, nonprofit — and promised them anonymity. They signaled their interest by planting red flags in flowerpots on their balconies, and we met after midnight in D.C.-area parking garages, where they slipped me manila envelopes full of coded complaints.

All right: Actually, I just emailed them. But here are some of their peeves:

1. No Obvious “Media” Button Or Link

Every company should have a clearly visible “press” or “media” button on their home page, a reporter for a major Midwestern daily offers. This should take people to a page that includes a spokesperson's cell phone number, not just office numbers.

“What we really want is a way to contact PR people directly, including after hours when necessary,” adds a reporter for a New York daily. “I don't like having to hunt down the media contacts on any Website. I shouldn't have to sort through old press releases to find a contact person. All of these names, phone numbers and emails should be easily accessible three clicks in.”

2. No Addresses

Unless you are in a line of work in which suicide truck bombers are a risk, or you are located in one of those secret Soviet factory cities whose existence was denied during the Cold War, your address is pretty much public information, isn’t it? List it prominently.

Sometimes that reporter who interviewed you just wants to mention “the Barstow-based ice cream giant” (or whatever) without having to call you back to ask where in the 760 area code you’re located.

3. Vague “About” Pages

Your organization exists not in the spirit realm of archangels and seraphim, but in the material universe governed by the laws of physics and the properties of the Periodic Table of the Elements. Your organization does concrete things. Your company perhaps manufactures and sells diaper cakes or offers lucky felines a cat massage. State this on your “about” page.

Naturally, everyone you work with understands the company jargon. But isn’t the point of external communications to reach those who aren’t conversant with gobbledygook like the following paragraph? (Just for the fun of it, let’s highlight the clichés.)

Audit360 provides the industry’s most cutting-edge mobile device management solutions developed and implemented by the most innovative team. Our company’s deeply-rooted entrepreneurial attitude and forward-thinking spirit challenges us to push the limits of existing technology to provide solutions that are quick to deploy, easy to use and highly scalable.

(And “highly scalable”? You mean like carp and iguanas?)

“If they’re not straightforward about what they do,” a reporter writes, “it makes me wonder what they’re trying to hide.”

Forgive him. We reporters are conspiracy theorists. But why risk arousing suspicions over nothing?

Besides, even if a journalist has spent a half-hour interviewing you for a fluff piece on your United Way drive, she might appreciate a one- or two-sentence description of your company online. If she wings it, she fears, you’re going to phone in the morning, thank her in honeyed tones for the awesome story, and demand a clarification for describing, say, Taco Bell as a “taco company.” (We also sell burritos! And quesadillas!)

4. No Phone Numbers Or Press Releases

An editor emails a reporter a press release and says, “Can you crank out something short for the Web this morning?” The reporter picks up the phone even while scrolling to the bottom. And she finds no phone number.

An oversight, surely. She goes to the website, digs up your archive — and none of the press releases have contact numbers. No communicator could possibly be that negligent, right? Actually, it happens all the time.

One reporter for a big-time paper asks, “Do companies or government agencies think news organizations will just print a press release without asking any follow-up questions?”

5. A Contacts Page That's Just An Email Form

A genial Pulitzer prize-winner’s hair begins to smoke whenever he goes to a business or government Website on a tight deadline, hits “contact us,” and finds an online form or email link. No phone numbers. No names to call.

“Generally,” he writes, “if I leave an email stating my urgency, I hear back four days or so later from some apologetic flack, hoping that the response is not too late.”

6. Outdated Information

Yes, it’s not your fault that the Web guys never bothered the update the profile of the former janitor who’s now chief of sustainability. But at least the basic information about your organization should be reliable. If you can’t manage that, why even have a website?

And government communicators, listen up: “If they're a municipality,” writes another reporter, “they should also list their agendas and minutes of public meetings and detailed budget information.”

So who's doing it right? McDonald's, for one. Check out my analysis here.

© 2011 Ragan Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Evolution Of Spam: A Timeline Of The World's Most Hated Messages

I've been using e-mail now for business purposes for just over 15 years, and sending personal e-mails (anyone remember CompuServe or Prodigy???) dating back to my college days almost two decades ago, but it seems that spam has been omnipresent the entire time. That's probably no exaggeration, since I can remember receiving unsolicited messages from the next dorm over about some harebrained scheme concocted by a cadre of aerospace engineering students. In any case, with the advent and proliferation of social networks, the global spam epidemic (read: scourge) has become even more dangerous, problematic, and dare I say annoying, than ever before.

And that's what is so appealing about this infographic, courtesy of Column Five for Marketo, and showcased in this piece on AllTwitter. For the first time ever, check out the evolution of spam, including the interesting origin of the term (a tip of the hat to Monty Python) and how the world's most hated messages have changed over the past 150 years:

Please feel free to click here for a clearer and much larger view!

7 Must-Haves For Successful Business Blogs

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Lee Odden, chief executive officer of TopRank Online Marketing, a digital marketing agency that helps companies increase sales, brand visibility online, and develop better customer enagagement. This article first appeared on the Top Rank Online Marketing Blog, and most recently on Ragan.com. You can follow Lee on Twitter @leeodden.

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I’ve learned a lot during my seven years of blogging. Online Marketing Blog has received a lot of praise recently, but more important, my experience with reviewing others’ blogs has been a learning experience. I’ve looked at more than 1,000 blogs to create the BIGLIST and recently reviewed the top UK online marketing blogs, as well.

Here are a few key characteristics that represent a highly productive blog in terms of branding, community, SEO, PR, recruiting and taking mindshare away from the competition:

1. URL. Pick something short and easy to remember. Blog.domainname.com works well, as does domainname.com/blog or companynamblog.com. Try to avoid obscure or long URLs like www.domainname.com/files/about/blog?home or worse, companyname.blogspot.com. If you’re representing a business, act professionally and use a domain name you control for your blog URL.

2. Blog name. If your blog has a unique name like “GM Fastlane,” then it should have a prominent logo that links to the blog’s homepage. If your blog is named “Company Name Blog” that’s fine, but offer a “home” to go to. Taglines to go along with the blog name are useful for readers so they understand what your blog is about. Taglines are also useful for search engine optimization.

3. Design. Make sure your brand’s style carries over to your blog’s design. Keep in mind that the design shouldn’t confuse readers by being too similar to that of your company’s website. Here are a few key points to keep in mind:

• Stand out. There are millions of blogs, not to mention social channels like Twitter and Facebook. You’d better stand out, or you’ll be forgotten.
• Add style. Make an effort to convey the personality and style of your company.
• Easy to read. Headlines should be larger than the body copy. Blog author, date published and other elements like comment count are useful for readers to connect with post authors. The date indicates they’re reading fresh content. We remove dates after a year or so.
• Header. Most bloggers express their creativity with header graphics or images. If you can’t have a unique logo for your blog, have a unique header.

4. Navigation. It’s critical to find content easily on a blog. Useful navigation elements include categories, tags or tag clouds, search box, popular posts, recent posts, and most-commented posts. You don’t need all of these, but the majority of them are useful.

5. Content. Create an editorial plan for the blog. After seven years of blogging, I like to have certain days each week planned out with specific topics and keep other days as wildcards. For example: Social Mondays, tactical tips on Tuesdays, Thursday rants, and Friday news roundup. Pay attention to Web analytics, off-site citations, comments and social chatter to gauge whether your content resonates.

6. Social. Your blog might have Twitter, Facebook, Slideshare, YouTube, Amplify or similar accounts. Use them to extend the conversation, repurpose or mash up blog content. I’ve added the Facebook fan box to my blog’s sidebar and made posts easy to share on Twitter and Facebook with buttons/counters at the top of each post. It’s no wonder that Facebook and Twitter drive a substantial amount of blog traffic. That’s not because I offer the sharing buttons as much as the fact that we’re social on Facebook and Twitter. Flair is no substitute for interaction. If you add social features to your blog, understand that to make them effective, you must also spend time on those social channels.

7. Who. Who is behind the blog? This is far too rare a feature on many blogs. Create a page that describes the purpose of the blog and the people behind it. That makes it clear what readers can expect and gives them something to identify with when reading posts. There are many other tips for effective blogs. Essentially, make sure your blog conveys the brand and message you’re after with its design and content. Make it easy to read, navigate and share content. Within a few seconds, readers should be able to tell what the blog topic is and find something interesting. If not, they’ll move on to someone else.

© 2011 Ragan Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Are You Making Something?

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by world-renowned marketing expert and best-selling author Seth Godin. It’s a short, but intriguing, essay about work and what is required to create lasting value, often short- and long-term objectives of the product development and marketing functions.
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Making something is work. Let's define work, for a moment, as something you create that has a lasting value in the market.

Twenty years ago, my friend Jill discovered Tetris. Unfortunately, she was working on her Ph.D. thesis at the time. On any given day the attention she spent on the game felt right to her. It was a choice, and she made it. It was more fun to move blocks than it was to write her thesis. Day by day this adds up... she wasted so much time that she had to stay in school and pay for another six months to finish her doctorate.

Two weeks ago, I took a five-hour plane ride. That's enough time for me to get a huge amount of productive writing done. Instead, I turned on the wifi connection and accomplished precisely no new measurable work between New York and Los Angeles.

More and more, we're finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren't. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I'm writing the chapter for a new book. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.

One reason for this confusion is that we're often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize. Hence this proposal:

The Two-Device Solution
Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.

Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking... anything that doesn't directly create valued output (no need to have an argument here about which is which, which is work and which is not... draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. If you don't like the results from that line, draw a new line).

Now, when you pick up the iPad, you can say to yourself, "break time." And if you find yourself taking a lot of that break time, you've just learned something important. Go, make something. We need it!

Copyright © 2011 Seth Godin. All Rights Reserved.

Actor Charlie Sheen Joins Twitter; Be Afraid...Be Very Afraid

Simultaneously popular, much-aligned, and personally-troubled actor Charlie Sheen seems to be everywhere these days as he wages his aggressive and very public PR battle in the media with CBS executives the producers of his top-rated show, "Two and a Half Men." Sheen's been a ubiquitous presence on print, online, radio, and TV outlets the past two weeks as he seeks public support to resume production of his sitcom. There's only been one place Sheen hadn't conquered until now: the world of Twitter, but all that's changed, and how.

As widely reported by hundreds of media outlets, Sheen finally joined Twitter on March 1, and he's now tweeting away under the handle @charliesheen. Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a big deal, but in joining the popular micro-blogging service, Sheen managed to set a Guinness World Record for being the fastest to reach 1 million followers: just 25 hours, 17 minutes. As of this writing, Sheen how has just over 1.3 million followers.

Of his 21 tweets thus far, most are nonsensical ramblings similar to the content of Sheen's media interviews over the past two weeks. What does this say about the state of the Twitterverse today? Not much, actually.

On the one hand, Sheen's to be commended for seeking an outlet by which he can interact with and engage his fans on a deeper level, as countless other celebrities, pro athletes, and entertainers have. However, as has been noted by many pundits, could this be yet another PR ploy by the actor to keep him in the spotlight as the controversy surrounding his sitcom escalates. Maybe it's both?

In any case, be afraid...be very afraid...and take what Sheen says on Twitter with a grain of salt.

Great Business Lessons from Horrible Marketing Strategies

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Alana Horowitz which first appeared on Business Insider, a new business site with deep financial, entertainment, green tech, and digital industry verticals. We're all familiar with the well-documented crises outlined below, but what about the important lessons that should be learned from them? Horowitz lays out the key takeaways from these famous faux pas.
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You can learn a lot about business from marketing history. Some of the most successful companies were born from great ads and publicity stunts (think of Apple's groundbreaking 1984 spot). On the other hand, bad strategies can be just as educational.

Here’s a look at what some of the biggest marketing failures can teach you:

The move: New Coke.

How it flopped: In 1985, The Coca Cola Company unveiled its first formula change in 99 years. The public was outraged. Replacing a tried-and-true classic with an unknown version would be like trying to change the national anthem to a Justin Bieber song. Coke quickly learned not to mess with brand loyalty and brought back the old formula 79 days later.

What you can learn: Stick to your brand. If you aren’t getting complaints about a service or product, there’s probably no need for drastic changes. On the other hand, it’s important to tap into your client or customer base and find out what they really want. Coke’s biggest mistake was trying out a new formula without ever asking consumers if there was anything wrong with the old one.


The move: Starbucks takes over the world.

How it flopped: Starbucks relies on its omnipresence as its primary form of advertising. How often do you buy their coffee because you literally can’t think of anywhere else to go? But there’s a downside to Starbucks’ ubiquity. There are so many stores (not to mention licensed franchises and grocery store products) that the brand itself has become watered down. It represents consumerism, not great coffee and friendly service.

What you can learn: Let your company grow naturally. Don’t force expansion or your message will become as diluted as a cup of Starbucks’ coffee.


The move: Kenneth Cole jokes about Egypt.

How it flopped: This year’s protests in Egypt were many things -- tragic, chaotic, revolutionary -- but funny wasn’t one of them. However, that didn’t stop designer Kenneth Cole from tweeting, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our spring collection is now available online.” Public reaction was so bad that Cole ended up deleting the tweet and issuing several apology statements.

What you can learn: Bad publicity is almost worse than none at all. A recent Google search for Kenneth Cole brings up articles about the social media misstep right under its own Website. If you think a stunt might offend people, it’s best to hold off.


The move: The Titanic is called "unsinkable."

How it flopped: Everyone knows the story. The luxury steamship was marketed as unsinkable -- until it was felled by an on its maiden voyage.

What you can learn: Whether it’s to one client or 3,500 passengers, don’t make promises unless you know you can deliver. Reliability is crucial, especially for a new business.

© 2011 Business Insider, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

7 Web Design Elements That Annoy Online Visitors

Editor's Note: The following is another guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. How many times have you visited a Website, and been completely annoyed with one or more of its features (or lack thereof)? Probably in the thousands, right? Well, here are the top 7 Web design elements that put off users, and the actions that small businesses can take to address them.
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If you want to build a successful online presence, you need to have a fine-tuned Website that brings visitors in and gets them to take action once on your site. Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to have the first part down (getting traffic), but when it comes to actually converting visitors into customers, they fail miserably.

That’s because a lot of sites are annoying. They drive visitors away almost as quickly as they arrive. To add insult to injury, the frustrated visitors usually end up going to a competitor’s site to get their needs taken care of by someone else.

Here are 7 things that annoy Website visitors:

1. Slow loading times.

I’ve seen studies that say Internet users give a site eight seconds to grab their attention. If it doesn’t satisfy them during that short time period, they’ll back out and go elsewhere. People are impatient. That’s why it’s so important to have a fast-loading site. Here’s a good post with tips for increasing site loading speed.

2. Autoplay music or video.

Seriously, this isn’t 1998. If your site starts playing music or video as soon as someone lands on it, you can bet more people than not will leave. It’s intrusive and annoying. Give visitors the option of playing the music or video. Don’t force it on them.

3. Cluttered layouts.

Have you ever walked into a messy room and tried to find something? It’s overwhelming, right? The same thing goes for a cluttered site layout. If every single space on your site is filled, you’re going to overwhelm visitors and make it too difficult for them to use your site. Remember, less is usually more, and white space is your friend.

4. Poor navigation.

Internet users have grown accustomed to using sites in a specific manner. They expect the navigation to be along the top or left-hand side of the page. They expect the navigation to be clear and the site to be organized in a logical manner. Don’t try to change this up. Keep it simple.

5. Forced registration.

Look, I understand you want to collect data for marketing purposes from your visitors. But there’s nothing more frustrating than forcing visitors to register before they can take certain actions. Most people don’t like giving out a lot of their personal information, so you’re only going to drive them away by doing this.

6. No contact information.

Your visitors shouldn’t have any problems getting in touch with you. You should have a dedicated contact page on your site, contact forms throughout, and you can even post your phone number or other contact info on each page of your site.

7. Too much Flash.

There’s nothing wrong with having some minor Flash elements on your site, but when your entire site is based in Flash, you’re going to have some problems. First, you’re losing most mobile internet users. And then you run into problems with simple usability issues like bookmarking pages, clicking the back button, etc.

What are some other things that annoy you on Websites? Please leave your comments here.

© 1998-2011 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

The Art...And Subtle Science...Of Customer Acquisition

So I was in a lengthy meeting with a hot prospect the other day, and I heard the most fascinating story which provides some cautionary customer acquisition lessons for any business owner.

During our conversation, this gentleman spun me a wild, but unbelievably true, yarn as to how he landed in his new office space, which he's occupied for just three short weeks. As the story goes, he was initially interested in a 25% larger suite in a beautiful commercial building just up the road. This particular space was ideal for this business owner, who is in the professional services sector. The exterior of the building is elegantly appointed, with lush, well-attended landscaping, plentiful parking, and easy access from the main road. The unit's interior is spacious, with ample natural lighting, large 40-foot windows on either side that afford gorgeous mountain views, and sufficient space for multiple associates to have their own individual private offices. And the rate per square foot was well below market value for this area. A real find, right?

Not quite. The previous tenant, with the property owner's permission, had used the suite as an industrial space to repair cars and motorcycles. As a result, the suite is overwhelmed with exhaust fumes and the pervasive odor of motor oil; the carpet is destroyed and must be replaced; and the lighting is not optimal. Other issues, too many to list here, exist as well. In his negotiations with the landlord, my contact offered to make the necessary improvements to the space prior to moving in, at his own expense. The conditions? The landlord had to agree to reimburse him, interest free, on a monthly basis over the term of the five-year lease, and knock down the monthly rent a little bit. Without hesitation, the property owner refused to negotiate further and curtly turned down the offer, even though there was virtually no risk on his end. Rather than make a counteroffer, he killed the deal outright and forced my contact to go elsewhere. Most importantly, the space in question still remains vacant, leaving the landlord without a long-term tenant, AND without all the cash flow that comes along with that arrangement. And as detective Peter Falk in "Colombo" used to say, "Oh, yeah...and one more thing:" the landlord is also stuck with an unrenovated, unusable suite that no one will EVER rent until the aforementioned issues are rectified...at his OWN cost.

So what are the lessons learned here when it comes to customer acquisition? Let's review:

1. Always be willing to negotiate.
Negotiations are a critical component of most business transactions, and they're an every-day fact of life in the business world. If you're not willing to negotiate, or to improve your negotiation skills, then you probably shouldn't be in business. In this case, the property owner could still have negotiated a very favorable deal with my contact...if he had just been willing to entertain alternative contract terms. Instead, he lost a valuable customer.

2. Remain flexible.
This is related to Lesson #1. There's nothing worse than working with business professionals who are rigid and unwilling to bend...even a little bit. It's a surefire indicator of other issues, and oftentimes a lack of flexibility can be a deal breaker, as it was in this case. As we all know, the customer is not always right, but we should still act like it (at least most of the time). It's part of a creating and maintaining an excellent customer-centric approach, which usually leads to improved reputation, more leads, and greater sales down the road. And, here's the kicker: customers like working with companies that are flexible and service-oriented.

3. Keep your reputation in mind.
Speaking of reputation, it won't be long before word about this property owner's business practices gets around. The unwillingness to negotiate and be flexible could very well impact his ability to secure new tenants, now and in the future. That's no good, especially if you're in the property management business, and when your livelihood is directly tied to collecting lease payments each month. And just to be clear, there's nothing wrong with having a reputation for being a tough negotiator, as long as one is fair. Obviously, this is certainly more preferable than being known for not negotiating at all.

4. Remember the time value of money.
The time value of money dictates that, all things being equal, it is better to have money now rather than later. Why? You can do much more with the money if you have it now because over time you can earn more interest on your money. And that is what this property owner should have considered. It's far better to have a loyal, contractually-obligated paying tenant now than to wait 6, 12, or 18 months to secure another another one for the same space. Simply put, the landlord blew it.

Acquiring new customers or clients is difficult enough without throwing these monkey wrenches into the works. Customer acquisition is both an art and subtle science, but if you recognize this delicate balance, you can take the steps necessary to appropriately manage leads and then convert those into loyal customers.

For What It's Worth: The Changing Landscape Of Facebook's Valuation

Following the recent collective investment of $500 million in Facebook by Goldman Sachs and Russian investment firm Digital Sky Technologies, there has been an onslaught of media coverage, as well as a ton of discussion in the blogosphere and Twitterverse, asking the $64,000 (well, let's add about six zeroes to that for accuracy) question: what is Facebook really worth?

Estimates about Facebook's valuation are all over the map, even those by so-called industry insiders and deeply-informed financial analysts, and range from a modest $15 billion to the more widely-reported figure last week of $50 billion. The broad spectrum of forecasts has been fueled by widespread speculation concerning the timing and scope of Facebook's future initial public offering (IPO), rumored to occur some time in 2012, and Goldman Sachs' recent offering of private shares in the social networking company to its preferred clients. An editorial in my hometown newspaper, the Ventura County Star, even compared the $50 billion valuation, which the author felt was outrageous and unfounded, to the heady days of the dot-com era when many companies were both overvalued and unprofitable.

I wouldn't go that far. While $50 billion may be a stretch, Facebook is the real deal and is here to stay — it warrants a multi-billion-dollar valuation. Here's why. Based on reports last week in the Wall Street Journal, and according to individuals with knowledge of Goldman Sachs’ offering to investors, Facebook generated net income of $200 million on revenue of $777 million in 2009. While revenue and net income figures for 2010 have not been disclosed as of this writing, multiple financial analysts and tech insiders collectively estimate Facebook’s 2010 revenue to be approximately $2 billion, driven primarily by tremendous growth in its online advertising business. Indeed, this is a far, far cry from the dot-com days, when so many companies had ZERO revenue or products on the market, and it's certainly nothing to sneeze at. But $50 billion, 25 times last year’s revenue? No way!

More than likely, based on revenue and growth rates right now, and augmented by conservative forecasts regarding its future operations, Facebook is legitimately worth $10-15 billion at the present time. There's no doubt that, like the Google IPO in 2004, the company can command a multiple of 2-4 times this in the equity markets once it becomes public. But is CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and TIME's Person of the Year for 2010, willing to withstand the Securities and Exchange Commission's ongoing scrutiny? Only time will tell.

And speaking of time, let's take a look at how Facebook's valuation has changed since its founding in 2004, as reported in this great piece by TechCrunch. Click on the image for a larger view of the rising curve:

The Wall Street Journal has a slightly different take on these figures in this story, which also analyzes the fluctuations in Twitter's valuation since 2006.

This will definitely be a situation to keep close tabs on, particularly since hot social media companies, such as Groupon, continue to generate huge venture capital investments and are constantly eyeing billion-dollar IPOs and exit strategies.