March 2014 Archives

The types of content you share on social channels work together to communicate with your audience, and the most effective content strategies are those that are focused on bringing value to the audience, not in pushing sales.

Each piece of content should be related to your company's industry and do one of five things:

• inspire your audience
• inform your audience
• motivate your audience
• educate your audience
• entertain your audience

Each of these five things is beneficial to your audience in one way or another, and depending on the company some work better than others.

There are many types of content you can use that will accomplish those five goals, and ideally in the course of a week, for example, post content might achieve all five.

Consider the following types of content to include in your strategy:

Audio/Visual
Consider media such as videos and images. People love to be visually engaged. Consider creating unique infographics, photo postcards or videos. Stay away from "commercial" advertising videos and focus on videos that help your audience, such as how-to tutorials or web TV episodes. Entertaining (and audience-appropriate) clips from YouTube can also generate a good response.

Quotes
Look around for quotes by other experts in your industry. Consider adding these quotes to images to make them more visual. Sharing quotes from one of your own experts can be very effective, as well, and it magnifies your brand expertise.

Articles
Locate articles that would be of benefit to your audience. LinkedIn ; is a great resource, as well as other news sites. Blog directories like alltop.com grant access to large quantities of current articles.

It is also very important to create original articles that would be showcased on your company blog. These, more than anything, provide an opportunity to showcase your company's expertise and provide a valuable service to your audience. Post these articles on your company blog and share on social networks. This is also one of the best ways to direct people to your website.

There are many, many types of content that accomplish the five goals that will benefit your audience. For example:

• Illustrations

• Quotes

• Infographics

• Memes

• Articles

• How-to's

• Photos

• Videos

• Statistics

• SlideShare presentations

• Facts

• Stories

• Blogs

• Press releases

• News

• Jokes

• And more

Once you identify the types of content that work best for your company, posts must be created for unique audiences on each social network. The same content should not go out to every social network because users want different things.

Find out more about how to create content that will engage users on unique platforms by clicking here.

Remember that creating and distributing content is only one part of the social media communication process. In order for your social media to be effective, your company has to be listening to its audience. You must monitor what's happening, respond to their posts, engage with them, deliver superior customer service, and consistently tailor your strategy so that your content is most effective.

JD Power released their list of top 50 2014 Customer Champions. Who are these companies?

JD Power looked at over 600 companies across nine industries, focusing on five factors that JD Powers refers to as the "Five P's": People, Presentation, Price, Process and Product.

These companies excel in providing outstanding customer service, according to its customers, not only in their industry, but overall. Finbarr O'Neil, President of JD Power, says that ""Not only does satisfaction encourage customer loyalty, but happy customers also become advocates of the brand to others. Particularly given the ability of today's consumers to easily communicate their experiences far and wide through social media and online reviews, customer advocacy can be critical to a company's bottom line."

Companies who achieve this status find that it all starts with hiring - finding the right people to promote a customer centric environment, training the staff to be able to make decisions that allow them to solve customer issues quickly and independently, and providing an environment that promotes longevity in the workplace.

Another key aspect these companies share is listening - listening to both customer and employee feedback to find ways to improve the customer experience.

By employing these standards, companies create satisfied customers who are not only loyal in terms of repeat business, but also for being brand advocates through word of mouth. This is important for companies, especially when it comes to social media and its relevance when it comes to customer experiences. The chart below is from the JD Power study, and shows the percentage of consumers who will be likely to return to a business and recommend it - you can see the stark difference in percentages between those companies on the Champion list and those that are not:

Companies can mirror what the champions do in terms of careful planning from the ground up to ensure that their customer service is top notch.

Taking a close look at what these companies do compared to your company's procedures, making adjustments where needed, is a good first step in focusing on your customers' overall experience and satisfaction.

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Selling is explaining & educating  your audience on their important problems.

And you have solutions.

Selling with stories is old, even though now we call it content marketing.

To be good at content marketing, selling solutions with stories, you have to overcome these problems.

• Too few people visit your website and read your blog

• You don't have a good email list to send to

• You spent money on SEO, it failed

• You tried to Self-distribute & it was too hard.

We can help you find people who could do business with you, start here.

In the early 1950s, marketing geniuses at the Guinness Brewery began distributing a book to pub-goers that they hoped would settle debates and bar bets once-and for all.

The Guinness Book of World Records was given free of charge to local bars as a marketing gimmick to generate publicity for the Brewery. 

The results of the campaign were a huge success, making history and becoming one of the bestselling books of all time.

By the mid-1950s, hundreds of brands were developing storylines and characters to entertain TV audiences each night as families gathered around their sets to watch their favorite shows.  Brands like Coca-Cola, Chef Boyardee, and Betty Crocker became household favorites, and TV viewers began stocking their kitchens with these well-known products.

For decades advertisers have effectively and profitably promoted products and services to potential customers in spaces where their audiences gathered.   

TV channels, radio stations, and newspapers have been traditional advertising platforms for many years, and now with digital platforms, like websites, search engines, and social media, expanding at record pace, marketers are having to finding "new" ways to reach and impact their audiences.

Many marketers, media outlets, and social platforms are turning to a buzzword called "native advertising." 

Seen as an effective advertising concept in the past, native advertising is non-interruptive, paid content that is embedded into an editorial copy.  

In the space where advertisers typically had to pay for the right to disrupt content or editorial copy, with native advertising, companies are paying to be part of the conversation.

It works especially well for business-to-consumer companies looking to become household names, but if you're a business-to-business company, you can certainly make use of native advertising as well as part of your B2B public relations and marketing strategy.

Even if you don't typically deal directly with consumers, making your name known is still helpful for helping you find customers, franchisees, or anyone else who helps you do business.

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the six types of native ads highlighted in  IAB Native Advertising Playbook include:

1. In-Feed Units (such as Facebook's ads with a social context)

2. Paid search

3. Recommendation widgets (often seen as "From Around the Web")

4. Promoted listings (Etsy, Amazon, Google, etc.)

5. Standard ads with native elements (banner or box with text or placed at beginning of post)

6. Custom campaigns created with the client (Spotify, Pandora, Tumblr, etc.)

These updated tried-and true initiatives are profiting hundreds of media outlets and social sites.  Think about the last time you saw a promoted post on Facebook, a list of "suggested" followers on Twitter, or a celebrity promoting their favorite product in a testimonial video on your favorite website. This oldie but goodie phenomenon is very profitable for a number of media platforms, and with the Wall Street Journal joining the native moment last week and joining other media outlets like Time Magazine, the New York Times, and the Washington Post, native advertising is here to stay.

Adding native advertising to your marketing and public relations strategy can benefit a business; however, it's important to remember two elements:  measurement and transparency.

Native Advertising Measurement - Identifying what to measure in a native advertising campaign can vary; however, the key is to develop strong Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) during the planning process of the campaign. KPIs may include reviewing time someone spent with the content and what actions they took. Actions can include: "liking" something on Facebook, "retweeting" a post on Twitter, or even making an ecommerce transaction. These are good metrics to measure.  The important step in identifying KPIs early in planning process, is that the content is created with the KPI in mind.

Native Advertising Transparency - Including key words like "Sponsored By" or "Presented By" are key aspects of native advertising.  Online news publications and social sites require the transparency between editorial and advertising, and these key phrases are requirements into including within native advertising.

With native advertising old things are new again, even if the "new" is evolving and developing at an incredible speed.

At Ripley PR, we believe in developing strategic public relations and marketing strategies for businesses, and this always includes creating engaging content that impacts your audiences.  If your company would like help with creating a successful B2B public relations and marketing strategy that will engage your audience more, please contact the experts at Ripley PR.

Whether you're searching the Internet for fitness advice, the best restaurants in your area, marketing tips for your business, or historical facts about the city you live in, you are more likely to click on a list that neatly provides you information than a long article.

List articles have become increasingly popular over the last several years. Entire websites are dedicated to content of this nature, and although often associated with entertainment, these pieces are also incredibly valuable marketing tools.  Publishing 'Top 5′ articles is a great way to spice up your content marketing calendar.

Here are five reasons why:

1.) Variety:

These pieces can be about anything; ranging from specific tips and advice about your business, to interesting facts and knowledge from your industry. This allows room for creativity and makes you a leader in your field.

2.) Concise:

Lists deliver information with clarity and are easy to scan. If you are a business that specializes in a particular area of service, provides unique products, or has a distinctive knowledge of a subject, these articles are the perfect way to deliver your message with precision.

3.) Accessible:

These articles appeal to everyone. Men and women of all ages and demographics can read the summarizing lists and gain value from your content. That accessibility means that it can be applied to a number of audiences and reach customers who may have normally been outside of your scope.

4.) Creativity:

These articles present the opportunity to enrich your content marketing with multimedia, allowing you to craft engaging and unique pieces. Your lists are not limited to text; they can be pictures, video, '.gifs', and more. Multimedia rich content will drastically improve your SEO, as well as appeal to a wider audience.

5.) Effectiveness:

These articles attract readers. The fact that you are reading this article now proves this point. They are engaging and provide digestible facts about virtually anything pertaining to your business. List articles can be applied both directly and indirectly to your business, making them extremely effective for building your online presence.

Keep these top five tips in mind next time you're planning your content marketing calendar and trying to brainstorm effective content ideas for your next blog post or whitepaper.

The post 5 Reasons Why 'Top 5′ Articles Provide Effective Content Marketing appeared first on LocalVox.

Just like email marketing, businesses are always trying to find the "magic bullet" when it comes to getting in front of your customers on social media sites. Everything has shifted over time, and the infographic below presents some interesting statistics on the "best" times to post on each of the social media sites.

Some of it is common sense....for LinkedIn, it's during the work week, when people are at their jobs and engaged in professional networking. Avoid Mondays or Fridays though? Mondays I'd have to agree with - everyone is coming back to the work world and trying to gear up for a new week.

Fridays, though, may be another story, especially later afternoon. It's the end of the week, and often times a great time to catch someone in their office, in front of their computer. They may be suffering from early stages of "weekend-itis" and find themselves surfing online, particularly LinkedIn. However, if your goal is to create relationships as part of the selling process, Friday isn't a great time after all - your interaction may be forgotten come Monday.

Facebook and Pinterest statistics are particularly interesting....weekends used to be "the" time to post on Facebook, with the thinking that that's when customers are most engaged with social media. However, it's now being deemed as the time to avoid. On the other hand, Pinterest's peak usage seems to be Saturday mornings.

In looking at this infographic, it seems like Google+ and LinkedIn are akin to the morning paper when it comes to social media - these are the sites that have high traffic during the start of a workday, whereas Facebook and Twitter seem to be most often used during that "slow time" of the day, particularly between 2-4pm when employees can tend to become less focused on work and get into the midday slump.

Just like with email marketing though, there's really no "magic bullet" - it's great to understand traffic on each of the social media sites you use for marketing and sales purposes, but tying that in to what your customers and prospects do online can hone in on your own "best time."

If you liked this, you should sign up for the LinkedIn Marketing & Advertising Tips from Franchise-Info newsletter.

Or, for more information on the Franchise-Info Business Directory, call Joe at 1-443-502-2636 or email Joe direct [email protected]

Most franchisors have robust franchise marketing plans in place for the franchise that revolve around advertising. The marketing programs are usually mandatory and pool funds from all of the franchisees within the franchise.

The national marketing plan typically includes advertising campaigns, email marketing, television and radio commercials, Internet advertising, social media around the central brand, public relations, and direct mail campaigns - all assets that aren't at the core owned local media channels.

National marketing campaigns that are funded through franchisee fees are great for producing high quality marketing collateral that normally wouldn't be financially feasible for a business owner generating less than several million dollars per year in profit and they ensure brand consistency.

1. Local Franchise Marketing

Many times franchisees are also permitted to execute local marketing campaigns that meet the franchisors parameters and guidelines. In most cases approval from the franchisor is required prior to moving forward with the local marketing plan - creating additional overhead and requiring local marketing sophistication for the franchisee.

More often than not, franchisees need to address local marketing, as the franchisor is focusing on promoting the company on a national level. Currently, well more than half of franchisees are not happy with the marketing support they receive from the franchisor.

Below are some interesting facts that summarize the franchisor and franchisee marketing gap:

• 64% of franchisees are dissatisfied with the marketing support they receive.

• 53% of marketing executives at franchise firms believe marketing is critical to the franchise's success

• 88% of franchisees see locally synchronized national campaigns as a competitive advantage

• National brands miss 86% of the feedback on social media channels

Potbelly Sandwich Works has managed to build their marketing plan around local marketing. Potbelly offers local organizations and charities the ability to use their locations to host events, as well as a stage for local musicians. The company also does an excellent job managing their social media profiles.

As you can see from the Tweet below, Potbelly is responding on behalf of the company, but is representing the Burlington, MA location. Tweets like this build loyalty.

Potbelly recently retweeted a Thrilliest Chicago post that highlights their secret menu. Not only does it promote the Chicago locations, but also builds excitement around their secret menu.

2. Integrating Franchise Marketing with Local Marketing is Key

In summary, it's crucial to localize the marketing message wherever possible, and to empower local specific messaging at a regional or single location.

A successful franchise marketing budget should allocate a portion of the budget to focus on local online marketing, and not just advertising within a region (as less than 2% of local businesses think pay per click advertising is effective).

The messaging needs to be tailored to the region, while considering the area's demographics and culture, and fit into the dynamics of franchise brand control and local franchisee enablement - no small feat.

For a path to a successful local franchise marketing strategy, check out our most recent franchise whitepaper, Who Owns Local Marketing? Examining the Franchisor/Franchisee Gap.

The white paper explores how multi-unit enterprises and franchises can monetize local Internet marketing and how to narrow the growing gap between corporate HQ and their local retail locations.

The post Successful Franchise Marketing Starts with a Local Marketing Strategy That Aligns the Franchisee with the Franchisor [Whitepaper Included] appeared first on LocalVox.

If you liked this, you should sign up for the LinkedIn Marketing & Advertising Tips from Franchise-Info newsletter.

Or, for more information on the Franchise-Info Business Directory, call Joe at 1-443-502-2636 or email Joe direct [email protected]

These days, companies are using social media like never before.

It's an incredible tool for offering coupons and promotions, letting your customers know about new products or services, and simply interacting with the public to get an idea of what they like and don't like about your business.

But with our mobile world making it easier to make posts on social media accounts at any time of the day or night, it can also come back to haunt you.

At Ripley PR, we encourage all of our clients, even business-to-business companies, to be active on social media.

Whatever your customer base is, they are very likely to be using Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn - and they may be on other social media sites as well, such as Instagram, Google+, or Pinterest.

We provide crisis training as part of a B2B public relations strategy for each of our clients, and in recent years, more companies have dealt with fallout from social media crises. So how can you avoid such a fate?

Consider these simple tips to communicate effectively on social media.

• Be careful what you post. Anyone is susceptible to high emotions in the face of criticism or negative attention, but in the business world, you must be especially careful about what you say. Social media is not the best place to air grievances about customer complaints, or to call out or insult any detractors you might have. Just like you should before you speak - you should also think before you post. If you do feel the need arise to respond to a negative comment by a customer or follower, don't do so right away, especially if you're angry. Let your emotions settle, and then think it through carefully; perhaps even ask a second person to look at the post before you send it into the ether.

• Have a social media policy in place. Whether you have one person posting to your company social media pages or a dozen, having a protocol for best practice will ensure that any posts will meet company standards. That policy can extend to employees' personal accounts as well - make sure they know what is and isn't acceptable social media behavior.

• Watch your reputation. This requires being alert to news stories about your company, hashtags, and other references to your name. You can set up Google Alerts for certain keywords related to your business and industry, and follow tags that might have an impact on you. That way, if you do see a negative reputation starting to develop, either for your company specifically or your business in general, you can figure out the best way to resolve complaints and keep them from spreading further. And your customers will appreciate your efforts to keep them satisfied.

As you can see, social media can be an incredible marketing tool, but if handled improperly, it can have disastrous consequences. Keep these tips in mind as you reach out on social media, and your company can be a good example of social marketing, rather than a bad one.

For over 12 years,  I have been active in forums, chat boards, blogs, and now on LinkedIn helping create intelligent conversations about franchising.

Here are some useful ideas about how find people who could do business with you on LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has a cap of 50 groups you can join no matter what level of subscription you have. And remember the subgroups you join do not count against the maximum 50 groups allowed by LinkedIn.

Here's how LinkedIn describes their groups.

"LinkedIn Groups provide a place for professionals in the same industry or with similar interests to share content, find answers, post and view jobs, make business contacts, and establish themselves as industry experts.

You can find groups to join by using the search feature at the top of your homepage or viewing suggestions of groups you may like. You can also create a new group focused on a particular topic or industry." (For more from LinkedIn see : http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1164/kw/groups)

In my experience the quality of groups ranges from well managed & moderated to abandoned & desolate. Picking groups is trial and error. I've joined groups with a high member count only to find it full of spam or little to no worthwhile activity. And I have found small member groups with terrific engagement and value.

I also manage a number of groups and one in particular gets over 100 requests to join a day and only 10% are a fit and get in. The other 90% are spammers or people with dubious LinkedIn profiles.

So what should you do to make the best of your groups and do some marketing since you are on LinkedIn for commercial purposes otherwise you'd be frolicking on Facebook looking at funny cat pictures.

1. Join target groups where the people you could do business with are members

2. Carefully read the group description & rules 

3. Invite the Group Owner and Group Managers to Connect with you

4. Introduce yourself with a brief description and why you joined the group

5. Start engaging by gaining group credibility

1. Scroll through the existing Discussions and add value with your comments

2. Go to the Group Members tab and start connecting with people who fit your targets

6. Content Marketing 

1. Posting interesting articles - frame them with why you think the topic is read & discussion worthy 

2. Posting your original content is better and you still need to tell people why it's read & discussion worthy

3. Respond to people who comment on your articles

4. Check and confirm your Discussions You Started are posting and not stuck in Moderation purgatory

Groups are where you can really showcase what you are about. And generate client/customer leads for your business or practice.

If you aren't in any groups yet join 5 and begin. 

If you been in groups for a long time go through your group inventory dumping the obvious deadenders and start talking with people who pay attention to you & want to do business with you.