Orange Slices

“Content marketing” has been getting a lot of buzz lately. Though content marketing has been around for almost as long as marketing itself, it’s become a valuable tool to break through the digital and media clutter that bombards your customers and prospects everyday.

Content that engages prospective customers is content they’ll tune in to, even while they get better at tuning out media and messages that are irrelevant to them. That’s why Best Buy has announced plans to build a journalistic platform of technology articles and reviews into its website. That’s why American Express has built a website full of articles and helpful content for entrepreneurs and small businesses. That’s why buyers may turn to Amazon for product review and comparison information — even if they don’t intend to buy from Amazon.

Why does this work? Simple: People engage with content when it’s interesting, entertaining or useful to them. That’s why Best Buy’s gadget reviews and American Express’ small business articles work. Those companies’ target audiences need and want that content, and so will spend some time engaging with those brands to get it.

RLF’s award-winning Debt Diva campaign was not just a social media and media relations effort. Both the social media and traditional media relations elements were fueled by content RLF created for the Debt Diva — budgeting tips, downloadable personal finance guides and how-to videos, among others.

I’ll make a bold prediction here: Content will become the most important marketing and public relations tool for the vast majority of companies within the next few years. As the media cacophony grows louder and people grow more skilled at tuning it out, the companies that win will be the companies that can earn attention from customers.

Here’s a few things to think about for your company when it comes to content:

1. What are your competitors doing? If they’re engaging in some form of content marketing and you’re not, you’ve got some catching up to do. If they’re not, it’s a huge opportunity for you to be the first and potentially become the go-to content source (and a thought leader) in your industry.

2. What do your customers and prospects want and need to know that aligns with your brand? It may be content that’s directly related to your business, for example a bank publishing business or personal financial tips. Or it may be content that creates a positive impression for your brand in a way that engages your audience; Pepsi’s Refresh Project is a great example of this. If you don’t know what your customers and prospects want and need, then you probably need to do more research. (We can help.)

3. How will you distribute your content? Build it and they will come is simply not enough to stand out. One of the most efficient ways to build awareness of your content and draw people to it is through social media. It is not the only way, however. Email, direct mail, custom publications, event marketing and advertising can all play a role.

4. What’s your conversion path? Finally, once you’ve got prospects engaged with your content, you need a clear conversion path to turn readers and browsers into leads and customers. This may take the form of an escalating series of engagement steps — “likes” and “follows” on social media, lead collection via an opt-in email list, and then qualification of the lead via a sales call or other methods. Content can also help build brand awareness at the top of the marketing funnel, but the best content marketing plans will have a clear path to a measurable return on investment.

Are you engaging in content marketing yet? Let us know in the comments below or get in touch if you’d like to discuss your situation in more detail.

This summer, the PGA Tour announced that patrons would be allowed to bring their cell phones onto the course of the Wyndham Championship, a PGA tour event in RLF’s home town of Greensboro, N.C. Golf traditionalists were initially wary of the idea, while other members of the golf community applauded (well, golf-clapped) the association’s forward-thinking mobile device policy. The Wyndham’s marketing staff jumped at the opportunity to create its own iPhone application.

From a marketing and communications perspective, this is an insightful and effective strategy. As RLF Communications’ CEO and President Monty Hagler told Yahoo! Sports, “It’s very forward thinking of the Wyndham Championship to integrate an iPhone app and social media tactics into its overall communications strategy.”

RLF caught up with Mark Brazil, Wyndham Championship tournament director, to discuss how the app came about and how it affected marketing efforts for the Wyndham.

RLF Communications: What gave you the idea for the iPhone app?

Mark Brazil: I was in West Virginia at the Greenbrier Classic, and one of the PGA TOUR guys showed me the Greenbrier Classic iPhone app.  I immediately realized how cool it would be for us to do the same at the Wyndham Championship since we were testing a new mobile device policy for the PGA TOUR.  When their tournament was over, I asked Clai Watkins, our tournament coordinator, to contact the Greenbrier people to get their help in creating our own iPhone App so that we could take advantage of our cell phone test a couple of weeks later. It definitely seemed like something we should do.

RLF: What were you hoping to accomplish?

MB: One of the reasons the PGA TOUR was testing a mobile device policy during the Wyndham Championship was to improve the fan experience, and since we were obviously a big supporter of the new policy, we wanted to do anything we could to show the many benefits of being able to have a cell phone on-course. We wanted to make the entire tournament experience more convenient for patrons. Being able to use a cell phone in a designated area allowed fans to keep in touch with business and family while enjoying our PGA TOUR event, but we realized we could do more.  For instance, a course map and parking maps were readily available via our iPhone app. Live scoring was linked to the app so an individual could keep up-to-date with all players—not just who he or she happened to be following on-course at that time. We had great weather at the Wyndham Championship this year, but if that had not been the case, we would have had a new and very effective way to get weather warning information to our patrons. 

RLF: Were you pleased with the general response the app received?

MB: We were very pleased. Because the process started so close to the tournament, we didn’t announce the Wyndham Championship iPhone App until the morning of the first round of the tournament.  By the weekend, we already had more than 1,000 downloads.

We knew there would be interest, but we were blown away with that number of downloads in such a short period of time.  I have to give Clai some additional credit here.  She spearheads our social media effort, and she has worked hard to increase our fans and followers on Facebook and Twitter. When we sent the iPhone App information to our social media sites, posted it on our website and distributed a press release through the mainstream media, we got a lot of attention in a short period of time.

RLF: Did the tournament garner more media coverage or experience increased turnout because of the app?

MB: Yes.  Multiple media outlets did stories on our iPhone App, and that drew additional attention to the mobile device test we did for the PGA TOUR.   A lot of blogs discussed the app, and all of that is very positive for the TOUR’s mobile device policy test as well we as the Wyndham Championship.  I think some positive media attention was generated because of the forward-thinking nature of the app. The media world is constantly changing, and I think in this instance, we made some positive decisions and capitalized on them.  I really appreciate Clai’s great work and the Greenbrier Classic staff for their help in getting this done so quickly.  As for attendance, we were close to a sellout for Saturday’s third round, and we sold out the final round on Sunday.  I cannot say for sure if the Wyndham Championship iPhone App played a role in our attendance success, but feel safe in saying there’s an excellent chance it did.

PR professionals take note— the success of the Wyndham iPhone app is proof positive that there’s a place for mobile marketing in even the most traditional industries. We’ll see where the PGA’s cell phone policy goes and whether tournament-specific apps catch on or not, but if the Wyndham’s experience is any indication, we’re betting they will.

Almost as soon as you start learning about social media, terms like ‘conversation’ pop up. Most social media marketers will tell you that it’s vital that you create and participate in conversations around or about your brand, products or industry. And that’s true — except when it’s not.

Here’s the truth. Some of these social media tools can be quickly and cheaply repurposed into direct marketing tools that can run without a lot of expensive involvement by real live humans. This won’t work for every business, but for some transaction-oriented businesses that involve more frequent purchases, using social media as a direct marketing tool is entirely plausible.

Here are a couple of examples:

Dell Computer

Dell has done a lot of social media work, especially since the company had its reputation damaged a few years ago because of poor customer service and the willingness of a certain well-known blogger to talk about his bad experiences. Since then, the company has embraced social media through a variety of channels and tactics. And in fairness, Dell has done a very good job at the conversational aspects of social media.

It has also sold millions of dollars of products through Twitter. And not always through extensive back and forth conversations. If you follow Dell’s small business offers Twitter account you’ll see an array of offers from the company, with links that you can click through to make purchases. What makes this strategy so powerful, compared to a lot of traditional direct marketing strategies (such as mail and direct response TV) is that the people following this account, and receiving these offers, have selected themselves as interested. They’re not receiving the offer because they happen to live in a certain zip code or they happen to be channel surfing late at night. They are people who are interested in buying from Dell.

Amazon

Amazon has what may be the single best e-commerce site. It is loaded with social media features – user reviews and ratings, gift lists, etc. Many of them implemented before marketers started talking about social media marketing, so Amazon was arguably an early pioneer in social media marketing.

But all those on-site features have not stopped the e-commerce giant from having a strong presence on third-party social media sites. Exhibit No. 1 is, once again, Twitter.

1-800-Flowers

One final example, so you don’t think this kind of direct strategy is just a Twitter play. Floral giant 1-800-Flowers, like many businesses, has a Facebook fan page. And like many Facebook fan pages, there are conversation and promotions going on there. But 1-800-FLOWERS has taken this a step further and actually made their e-commerce storefront available right from Facebook. You can order flowers without ever leaving Facebook.

I still think that branding, engagement and other marketing strategies are probably the most powerful way to use social media. But if you have a heavily transaction-oriented business, there are still ways to make social media work for you.

In October, the Federal Trade Commission issued revisions to its “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising”. These new standards specify paid endorsement disclosures for social media outreach and word-of-mouth campaigns. While there is much debate about the FTC’s ability to effectively regulate these new standards, companies and marketing agencies should take the proper steps now to safeguard their liability. Here is the full text of the FTC’s new guidelines.

While the FTC’s new rules will be applied on a case-by-case basis, the guidelines state that any blogger receiving cash or in-kind payments to review a product will be considered sponsored advertising messages, and therefore subject to enforcement under the new rules. Violators will be subject to fines up to $11,000.

Ethically speaking, disclosure and transparency in the social media arena is not a new topic of discussion. Clearly defined authorship and transparency can proactively maintain and build a brand’s credibility. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are also highly personal mediums. Consumers value the interaction and enjoy conversing with the persona behind a brand. People don’t want to feel like they are engaging with a “man behind the curtain”.

At RLF, we work with clients to integrate social media into a companies’ overall marketing strategy. We also work with clients to outline best practices for communicating within the social media community. Here are three things every organization should do to help safeguard their liability in the new media community:

1. Listen.

- Monitor online conversations and correct any misstatements taking place. There are a myriad of free and paid programs to assist in near real-time monitoring of social media and online communities.

2. Set official policies on authorship, in addition to requiring disclosure and truthfulness.

- Companies (including their employees and marketing agencies) should disclose their affiliation when conducting official online business on an organization’s behalf. Additionally, an individual should disclose his or her professional relationship in personal comments and posts within the social media community when they are not the official opinion of the company or organization.

- Always outline concrete examples of when disclosure is necessary.

3. Develop social media policies and training programs, and keep policies current.

- A social media best practices or simple resource guide can help educate individuals within an organization on not only how to best represent a brand, but also the appropriate ways to interact within the social media community and with people. Incorporate proper social media usage and training into your company’s established technology usage policies.

Are you struggling to get social media policies in place or need guidance on best practices for engaging the social media community? We can show you how to effectively and ethically integrate social media into your marketing or communication plans.

Photo Credit: EatItAtlanta.com

A self confessed foodie, I am not an easy dinner companion.  I wince at the idea of going to Outback with the girls, I eschew bar and grill chains and I hold a particular distaste for restaurants that seem incapable of allowing anything remotely healthy to appear on their menus.

I’ve been fortunate enough to dine at some wonderful places over the years – La Masseria in Las Vegas, Mozza in L.A., and Magnolia Grill in Durham being some of my favorites.  That said, I don’t require an expensive meal.  Chick-Fil-A makes an excellent chicken sandwich and The Biscuit Factory in High Point is home to the best biscuit I’ve ever put in my mouth.

So imagine my excitement when, this fall, a local upscale restaurant approached RLF about PR opportunities.  Highly regarded as one of the city’s best dining establishments, they still struggled with top-of-mind awareness from the community and the region.  One look at their Web site and our mission was clear:  Web overhaul was the number one priority.  If the Web site and story was even half as good as its food, the reservation list would always be full.

Clients still underestimate the value of a good Web site.  It is the public face of a business. It needs to exude the same experience a customer will have with the actual product or service. In the high end restaurant world, having an appealing Web site should matter just as much as having an aesthetic presentation or an appetizing menu

While researching restaurant Web sites, I was shocked to learn how few establishments actually have an appealing site.  The Web is littered with mediocre restaurant sites that have template layouts and unappetizing colors. Even high end, celebrity chefs have sites that are pedestrian. Where is the creativity that reflects their menu and philosophy on food?

Out of all my disappointment came one bright shining star. Kudos to chef and restaurateur Thomas Keller. The site for his internationally recognized French Laundry is a paragon of great restaurant presentation. Not only is it visually appealing but it tells a wonderful story; a marriage of culinary passion and purveyor partnerships.

If only other restaurateurs knew what Keller does. The site must be edible – worthy of consumption and 30 seconds of someone’s time. If the site is unappealing, people assume the establishment and its food are as well, no matter what menu is posted online.

Advice to restaurants – cook up the same excitement on your Web site that you do in the kitchen. Bon appétit.

On my way to work a few weeks ago I decided to pull into Bojangles’ Famous Chicken & Biscuits for a tasty, but not so healthy breakfast. I “grew up” on Bojangles’ in college. It was the go-to place for my group of friends, whether it was a late breakfast after class or after a long night of socializing. I was and still am a huge Bojangles’ fan (and not just on Facebook).

When I stopped by Bojangles’ a few weeks ago,  I went with the ol’ faithful Cajun, egg and cheese biscuit with coffee and Bo Rounds.

What a surprise I got when I arrived at the office. I reached into the bag and noticed that my biscuit was wrapped differently from the distinctive red and yellow wax paper it is normally covered with. I unwrapped the biscuit only to find that they had given me the wrong order.

I didn’t know what to do; I wanted a deep-fried chicken biscuit, not a deep fried pork biscuit. I took a bite out of it and decided that I was going to vent my frustration to my 800+ followers on Twitter; they would want to hear about my devastating news.

I got a few replies before I received a message from @GottaWannaNeeda, the Bojangles’ Twitter account. It read: “Sorry to hear that. DM us and we’ll take care of ya.” I got in touch with @GottaWannaNeeda by sending a DM (or direct message for the non-Twitterati), and gave the company my home address.

About two weeks later, I arrived home to find a package sitting on my doorstep. Inside I found a yellow Bojangles t-shirt. I pulled it out and also noticed a little slip of paper with a handwritten note:

Hi Charlie

Sorry to hear about your experience with Bojangles’! Hopefully this will help.

Thanks for being a fan of @gottawannaneeda

Also included was a $5 dollar gift card to make up for the biscuit mix-up.

Bojangles’ went out of its way to please one customer who typed less than 140 characters about a negative experience. Now they have created a walking billboard out of me. Mistakes happen to every restaurant, every business and every organization, but handling a customer service complaint – no matter where the complaint shows up — really reflects the character of a company. I was impressed by Bojangles’ efforts to correct their mistake and I will be back soon for another Cajun filet biscuit.

I recently attended the annual employee meeting at one of our client companies. Although I had no formal role in the process (their internal communications team does a great job organizing every facet of the event), I have been fortunate to attend the past five annual meetings. This year’s meeting – although smaller and more low key – may have easily been the best. The executives in this company focused on the core issues that employees are focused on in these turbulent times. With clear, compelling speeches and examples, they laid out the case that:

• The company was on the right track to navigate difficult financial times, and that there is  a clear path forward that will allow the company, and its employees, to be successful.

• The leadership of the company is committed and capable. At a time when corporate leaders are either being publicly ridiculed or jailed, it was critical for employees to see that their executive team is up to the task at hand.

• Employees are the bedrock of the company’s values and vision. The capstone of the annual meeting was an awards presentation (complete with crystal trophies and $1,000 checks) that celebrated teamwork, innovation, leadership and community service.

Our client, like virtually every company in the U.S., has faced many tough challenges in recent months. But the character that was shown in how company leaders address those issues and lay out a vision for the future goes a long way to ensuring that its employees are committed to tackling the challenges ahead.

Myth: Social media is free
Truth: Yes, accounts at Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn don’t require a cash outlay. And you can even start a blog using Google’s Blogger.com service for free. But participating in social media is not free. It requires time and attention and thought. Whether that time is spent by your employees or by an outside agency (or, ideally, both), it costs money.  So while social media is a lot cheaper than, say, running a national television advertising campaign, it isn’t really free. Like most things that are worth doing, it requires an investment.

Myth: If we don’t want to blog or have a Facebook fan page or set up a site on Myspace, there’s no reason for us to pay attention to social media.
Truth: Even if you don’t have a web site at all, your customers are online. And they may be talking about you, saying things that might be good or might be bad, saying things that might be true – or not. It takes relatively little effort to monitor the Internet for these conversations. And even if you’re not going to participate in these conversations – something you might reconsider depending on what your monitoring reveals – you should at least be aware of them so they don’t explode into the mainstream media or other forums and take you unawares.

Myth: Our customers are older and they don’t use sites like Facebook.
Truth: Adults 35-54 are the fastest-growing group of Facebook users, with their numbers increasing 276.4% in the last six months of 2008. Users 55 and older increased at a 194.3% pace. While gray-haired surfers are still outnumbered by the younger folks online, and will be for a while, a larger and larger number of older adults are communicating online. If your customers aren’t using social networking sites now, they soon will be.

Myth: The corporate blog has to be the CEO’s blog.
Truth: There are some high-profile corporate blogs written by CEOs and other C-level executives. That doesn’t mean yours has to be, or even should be. Rather than ask your CEO, who may not have the time or inclination to blog, why not appoint a chief social media officer who could blog on behalf of the company and also serve as the chief spokesperson online in forums, on Twitter and in other social media environments. It might be better to appoint someone with the time, skills and inclination to maintain an active online presence and still remain transparent. Another option is to do what we do here at Orange Slices and have a group of people who contribute.

Myth: Social media is a fad. Companies like Facebook and Myspace don’t have a viable business model and won’t last, so there’s no point investing resources building a presence there.
Truth: Email wasn’t a fad. Neither was the World Wide Web. And dot-coms with unproven business models? Yes, many of them went belly-up, but many others (think of Amazon, Google and eBay, for example) grew into large, profitable companies that have become an important part of the business landscape. And even if companies like Facebook (which has received almost $39 million in funding) or Twitter (which just got $35 million in fresh capital) don’t last, right now those web sites are still places where millions of people gather and share online.

If any of this is news to you, please call (336-553-1800) or email us. We can show you how to integrate social media into your communication or marketing plan. Our Social Media Workshop has been well-received by corporate executives, civic groups and nonprofits as we show them how to listen and join conversations online.

And if these myths aren’t news to you, have you heard any other good ones? Please share them in the comments.

The other day I wrote about how newspapers and other media outlets are cutting their staffs and how that’s creating new challenges for public relations folks. Today I want to talk about what’s behind those cuts, and how that represents many new opportunities.

Newspapers are shrinking (and their revenues declining) in part because of the competition from a growing number of media outlets and entertainment options, everything from satellite radio to blogs. As readers eyes (and ears) go elsewhere, so do the advertising dollars that provide the majority of revenue for newspapers and other mass media. While this is making our jobs tougher in media relations, it’s creating new opportunities online.

Traditionally public relations and marketing managers have greatly relied on others – like the media – to communicate with key audiences. We sent out news releases, pitched stories and bought advertising to reach audiences through the intermediary of mass media. Sure, there was some direct communication with key audiences – think about internal communications, direct mail and point-of-purchase displays. But a lot of resources went (and still do) into communicating indirectly.

Now, that’s changing. We can use blogs, social media, email and other Internet-based communications to communicate directly with customers, employees and other stakeholders.  While our previous communications were often one-way, these days we can not only send our messages out, but we can listen to how our audiences respond to those messages. We can even ask for their advice on things like product development and competitive positioning.

These online communications can have other benefits, too. A strong online presence can boost your web site in search engine results. It can help you engage in conversations that are already taking place about your brand. As Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang notes, Google’s results page on a search for your brand is your new corporate home page.

Though Web advertising can certainly be important, online communications also requires the kind of back-and-forth communication and responsiveness that have typically been the hallmark of good public relations. You can’t get positive attention from bloggers or an online community by spamming them with emails that robotically repeat your key messages over and over or by buying lots of banner ads.

You have to engage the people who are active online in a dialogue, learn what they want and need, and figure out how you can fill that need while also advancing your marketing effort. That’s what we’ve done for years in media relations, and the same kind of approach works online, even if some of the tools or techniques are different

Here’s the simple truth: People are consuming more and more media, and more of it is interactive and online. That media activity is scattered across a wide range of smaller online communities, web sites and applications. To reach people there, you must engage them. For public relations, that’s a new challenge, but also a great new opportunity.