Tis The Season

Many businesses realize that affiliating themselves with charities are not only a great opportunity to get involved in giving back, but it is also a powerful marketing tactic. The business gets to develop a larger network and it helps others at the same time. Consumers like to associate themselves with businesses that support causes – while they may not have the means to donate regularly to a charity (even if they wanted to) it makes people feel good that they are giving back while purchasing something they need.

This idea is nothing new – the idea of companies “giving back” goes by many different names and uses a variety of marketing slogans: Social Corporate Responsibility (CSR) and “Voting With Your Dollars” are the two I tend to hear most often. Simply put, CSR refers to the idea of participating in initiatives that benefit others.

As a marketing or brand manager, it can be confusing and overwhelming to decide what charity to align with. Once you have done your research and found charities that are worthwhile, transparent with where the donations they receive go and have similar views and visions, how do you pick one? When I do this with clients, I tend to choose charities that I am personally drawn to, and also ones that seem to be close to my consumers’ hearts. It is more important that the chosen charity would be one that my current and target consumers would support, than if I would support it with my own money.

The next criteria to choosing a charity from a brand standpoint, is one that gives the brand a broader reach than they would get on their own, and brings a meaningful and engaged community to your brand. This is a win-win for both you and your charity. Charities, like brands, are interested in building their membership base. Partnering with a charity not only brings their community to you, but it also allows the charity to get their message out to all the people your brand interacts with, with the goal being to bring new members to support them, as well as your brand. Cause marketing is actually no different than any other partnership you might form between your brand a for-profit business. You are looking for another like-minded company, where by coming together, you both will have the opportunity to amplify your messaging with a shared voice.

As you build up the relationship between your brand and the charity you have aligned with, you will want to get in front of the employees that work with the charity and explain your product or services to them. Most charities also have people that follow the charity or support the charity in some way. These people are all target consumers by indirect association. As the relationship deepens, you can look to these people to become brand ambassadors, as their charity will also benefit from your brands success. Perhaps you are donating a specific portion of your brand’s sales to the charity- you can invite the charity to help get the message out that they will be the beneficiaries of sales during a specified time period.

While you are working on a charity marketing initiative, it is important to keep your motives clear. I would suggest that the end goal is always helping people, making a difference.

Building Online Communities

I hear and read a lot on Twitter lately about people looking for quick magic answers on how to build thriving online communities, and people looking for advice on “how to best reach our audience.” Those two things are not the same – communities are groups of like-minded people that get together for a myriad of reasons, but that always share knowledge, ideas and most importantly conversations. On the other hand, an audience receives this knowledge, these ideas, etc… The best way I can describe the difference is: a community is engaging and interactive, while an audience passively receives information.

A community is something that will live with you throughout the lifecycle of your brand, when built and nurtured “right.” They will get to know you, and you will get to know them. Both you (and/or your brand) and the members of the community will ideally grow as a result of your relationship.

Like any other relationship in your life, both online and off, it takes work. Think of the friends you have offline – how did that friendship begin? What makes it continue to grow, deepen and become more meaningful? Do those same things with your online communities. There is no reason to be any different online than you are offline.

If you are building an online community as a brand, there are a few steps I would recommend, to help you get started.

1.      See where people are already talking about you. If people are talking about your brand and excited about it more on Twitter, start there. If there are more people you see mentioning you on Facebook, start there.

2.      Get to know the people in the community as you build it. Again, all relationships take time. Give yourself time to get to know each member. What do they like to do? What other brands do they like besides yours? Where do they spend their free time? What sort of work do they do? These are all things I would like to know about potential close friends, whether they are online friends or friends offline.

3.      As you’re getting to know each member in your community, you might find certain members have more in common with others. Help make those introductions. Help them grown their own communities!

4.      Be you. Have you ever been at a dinner party and there’s that one guest that only is talking about himself, boasting about things that you couldn’t care less about? Don’t be that guy. You are representing your brand for a reason – your sparkling personality! Don’t be afraid to show it and let people get to know more about you, as well as your brand. Don’t let a keyboard make a conversation awkward or any different than it would feel if you were talking with a new friend in person. (for the record, I’m often quite awkward when meeting new people, but that’s ok! We’re human.)

5.      Be consistent. What do you say about those friends that make plans, then cancel them, or see you for a date and then disappear for 3 months? Honestly, we ALL have that friend. Personally? I call them flakes. And it’s not a good thing – it’s annoying, right? To never know if you can depend on that person or not, or know if you make plans, that they won’t fall through last minute? Again? Perhaps I’m repeating myself, but it’s one of my most favorite movie quotes, so I’ll say again, “Don’t be that guy.” Be reliable. It’s a good personality trait no matter what you’re doing.

6.      Remember to keep things relevant. If you were reading this article, and knew from the headline that it would contain tips about building a community online, and suddenly there were paragraphs about my dog’s fear of thunderstorms, you’d be pretty confused, right? That’s because how my dog feels during rain has nothing to do with steps in building community. It’s something you might find out being IN a community with me, as I talk about my dog all the time, but it has no relevance here. You might get sidetracked once in a while, but try to keep your voice and message consistent and clear, and most importantly, relevant. People joined your community for a reason – don’t give them reasons to leave, or find it’s not what they wanted to be involved in when you came together.

7.      Be a community insider. You are a member of the community just as much as anyone else there is. Don’t look at it as being any different – share successes of members of the community, comment on things they share with you, join conversations.

8.      Bring online, offline. As you grow and get to know your community, see if you can meet anyone for coffee. Do you travel for work often, as I do? Even better! Now you’ve got the opportunity to meet even more people! I like to organize “Tweet-Ups” in each city I visit, so not only do I get the chance to meet more people in person, but other members of the community get to meet each other. You’ll be surprised how many people live in the same city and don’t ever meet up. I like to bring together, and it’s always so much fun!

9.      Try to have an attitude of gratitude. At the end of the day, your brand is nothing without people that like it and support it. So why not continually remember that, and always strive to make those people feel as important as they are? Surprise gifts are fun, but not always necessary. Inherently, people like to be acknowledged. Don’t you? I know I do. A simple thank you isn’t always so simple to some people, it means a lot more than you think.

10.   Remember to always monitor the community. If you aren’t paying attention to certain metrics, how do you know if your community is growing and thriving? How will you know what you’re doing well within the community and what more people would like to see you doing?

I wish Top 10 Lists were about 20 items longer. I’m so passionate about the communities I’m fortunate to be involved in and would love to say so much more! For now though, I’d love to hear what YOU have found – what makes your community great? How did you begin to grow it? What have you learned from your community that you didn’t know before you started?

Here's a shot from a recent Tweet-Up in LA!

4 Things My iTunes Library Taught Me About Marketing & PR

Can a song save your life? I believe it absolutely can.

Can a song teach you about your business? I believe it absolutely can.

 

1.       Eminem  “Rap God” - "I don't know how to make songs like that

 I don't know what words to use"

Let people do what they are best at.

 I understand that in startups, people wear many hats, I’ve been there and done that, but I also understand that it takes money to make money. Don’t have your web designers writing your marketing plans. Don’t have your graphic designer doing product development.  Let the web designers do what they’re good at, have them work with your graphic designer and get yourself a great looking, easy to use website, have them ensure that it’s mobile friendly, and let your marketers write the marketing plans. Leave SEO to your web guys and let your marketing team take on social media.  Outsource if you need to – this way, everyone will be performing most productively, and hopefully enjoying their work more and taking ownership in their responsibilities.

                                               

2.       John Digweed “Morphism”

Keep people waiting and wanting more.

 John Digweed is great at taking his time to get people from merely bobbing their heads into a full thrown rave. Always leave your consumers wanting more from you so they keep coming back, needing to see what you’ll be doing next, what promotions will be coming, and when they can “win” free product or contests from you. Music is just like storytelling – you always want to bring your audience along the journey with you. Just like John Digweed does by using a long build in his sets, he is entertaining his audience – brands need to be doing the same thing with THEIR audiences, with the way they build their sets/storylines/product stories. This will help build brand loyalty and hopefully keep your brand relevant and top of mind with your consumers – striving to keep your consumers coming back to see what is coming next.

 

3.       Rihanna “The Monster” or “Love the Way You Lie”

Be so good, they can’t ignore you.

I have to admit it. I don’t hate much, but I absolutely abhor Rihanna. The worst part of it? I absolutely LOVE her music. The other worst part? I have never been able to put my finger on precisely what it is I hate so much about her, there is just SOMETHING that 100% rubs me the wrong way with that woman. However, I will listen to “The Monster” for hours upon hours, even days, on repeat and not simply because I find Eminem genius. I think her voice lends itself perfectly to that song. I do not follow her media dramas, nor do I even want to get started on her relationship dramas – I am luckily able to completely tune that part of her out, but she is so good, she stays on my radar. These days, people want more than simply a great product, they want a great TEAM behind the product, and they want to get to know that team. You easily may not have the #1 product on the market, but you can have the largest fan base becoming repeat buyers if you can establish relationships with them and make them love YOU. Create interesting stories for your products, BE an interesting real human being in your social media work, even if you’re tweeting from behind a brand’s name or logo. Be so good they can’t ignore you – create useful and meaningful content that people are excited to share with their social media followers!

 

 

4.       Kenny Rogers “The Gambler” - “Son, I've made my life out of readin' people's faces…”

Know your audience!

This may be the most important piece of effectively marketing your product there is. Here’s a personal example – for the past five years, I worked in marketing for a coconut water company. I would always tell people that at some point in their day, EVERYONE was a candidate for coconut water. It was simply up to me to know my audience, who I was talking to, in order to let them know the right usage occasion for them. I wouldn’t tell an athlete the same reason and time to drink coconut water as I would a pregnant woman, or a student studying for finals. Knowing your audience is being able to quickly get a read on the person you are speaking with, how they like to be communicated to, and looking at what you want you need to get across from their point of view. In that way, you can convert someone that would never try your product, into a repeat buyer.  

 

Starbucks Has No Soul

I’m not anti-Starbucks. I’m not. I’m even sitting at one as I write this. In fact, the idea for this blog came to me as I was being handed my usual: a venti non-fat, no whip Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino. The barista handed me my drink along with a straw in a paper wrapping which read “Not recommended for use in hot beverages.” Really? Ironic? Obvious? Soul-less. Why would I put a plastic straw into a close to boiling hot coffee beverage?

 

We, as writers, marketers, social media-ers spend so much time and place so much emphasis on developing a brand voice, a brand personality – what’s Starbucks? When I hear a brand’s name, I immediately (more times than not) get a picture in my head beyond that of their logo. Sometimes I even get an immediate feeling about said company.

Seattle’s Best? I picture hot scruffy guys in plaid flannel shirts. The Gap? I picture preppy colorful well-dressed men and women, the type that are perfectly put together at all times. Whole Foods? I picture a company of people that feel good about where they work and buy into the corporate culture that has been established. Chipotle? The first thought I get is how well they do social media. Naturally, my second thought is always how much I’d like a burrito with extra sour cream and their chips with a hint of citrus and the perfect amount (read: a LOT) of salt. Starbucks? Blank. I get nothing.

I run the social media for clients and spend much of the past five years developing and running the social media for one CPG brand. It was an important learning curve for me in realizing how much consumers need not only to be able to buy a great product, but how much they also need to have great people behind that product. It was important for me that our over 20,000 social media followers knew ME, the faceless person at the keyboard and many of their events, behind the brand. It got to the point where if I was oddly not responding at all hours of the day and night to tweets and Facebook questions, people would ask me by name, if I was okay…quick! Name Starbucks Chief Digital Officer! Can you? I didn’t think so. While Starbucks has almost 4,000,000 Twitter followers, he himself has less than 5000. He only follows just over 800. Please correct me if you feel I’m wrong, but to me, there’s a disconnect there.

For the sake of transparency and full disclosure, I WILL admit – I have never been a huge fan of Starbucks. While I’ve recently tweeted to Starbucks that they’ve “won me back” with their recently launched Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappucino, I often find their coffee bitter. I’ll be the first in line when Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf FINALLY opens in the Midwest.

And no, as I’d suspected, @starbucks did not respond to my tweet, nor did they take the ½ second it would have taken to hit RT.