Last week, I spoke at the M2Moms conference in Chicago; I spoke to a wide range of brand managers and PR people who are sincerely interested in working with bloggers to get the word out about the products and brands they promote. Over and over, they asked how to find the best bloggers. The short answer, of course, is to do your research — there is no one-size-fits-all directory of Great Bloggers.
There are a variety of Best Of lists available; Babble Media’s Top 50 Twitter Moms is a perfect example of a really useful list. Their list covers a variety of categories (Most Controversial, Most Helpful, Funniest) and points to some of the most prolific mom tweeters on the web. If you’re planning a Twitter-heavy campaign, this list would be a good place to start. A simple Google search for “best mom blogs” turns up multiple lists — all of which are a good jumping off place for tracking down that perfect blogger. (You can substitute any term for “mom” — food blogger, craft blogger, dad blogger — depending on what exactly you’re looking for.)
Once you’ve found a list, take the time to actually read the blogs. This seems like such a simple directive, but it’s one that many PR people and brand managers often skip. Rather than pitching your brand or product to everyone on a list because they are on the list, pitch only those bloggers to whom your pitch will be relevant. There are lots of terrific mom blogs out there, but not all of those moms have babies; indiscriminately pitching a campaign for baby products to every mom on a particular list is a good way to convince bloggers you have no idea who they are — and, even worse, that you don’t really care.
Reading the blogs you’re planning to pitch is also important because you want to be sure the blogger’s voice and tone are a good match for your brand or product. Look for bloggers whose online persona is a good fit for whatever you are pitching. Look also for bloggers who are already writing about brands and products similar to yours; a blogger who writes frequently about the environment, for example, would be a terrific match for an ecologically safe cleaning product, but a poor match for an SUV campaign.
How can you measure a blogger’s influence? A quick way is to look at his or her Twitter profile. A blogger with a huge number of followers may very well be heavily influential on Twitter, but be wary of making a hiring decision solely on that number. A blogger who follows 200 people but is followed by 2,000 may very well be more influential than a blogger who has 25,000 followers but follows an equal number of people. In other words, a blogger who is speaking to a loyal group, even if they are on the smaller side, may do more for your brand than a blogger who is not genuinely engaging with his or her followers.
Blogs, Twitter, Facebook — social media provides so many ways to reach out to consumers and clients. How do you know what format is right for your brand or business? The first step is understanding how each of these social media platforms works.
Twitter: Twitter is a microblogging platform; you have exactly 140 characters (about the length of a text message) to convey a quick bit of information. Twitter is frequently compared to a cocktail party — there are a variety of conversations all going on at once, and you drift in and out of several at a time. Twitter can be used to direct followers to blog or Facebook posts, or to offer quick snippets of information.
How to use Twitter: Your brand needs a distinct voice to be heard in the crowd. Don’t just share links to blog posts or contests; talk about more than just your brand.
Facebook: Facebook is the online coffee shop, where friends meet to catch up and find out what’s new and cool. Facebook allows you to share multiple mediums — blog posts, photos, videos, quick snippets of information — with fans, in a format that is more detailed than Twitter’s. Keep in mind, though, that your Facebook updates show up in your fan’s feed in between updates from their actual friends; like Twitter, think of this as a conversation, not a billboard.
How to use Facebook: The best Facebook feeds are those from brands who are able to personalize their business. Successful brands have a voice — and sometimes a face — behind their Facebook updates, someone who makes the brand feel like a friend, not a company.
Blogs: A blog is old school social media at its best. Blogs allow you space to talk in detail about your brand or product, to provide consumers with in-depth information or inside scoop. But keep your blog posts relatively short — no one wants to read a dissertation-length treatise on why you’re the brand leader — and make sure you’re posting consistently. You’ll never create a following if your posting schedule is something akin to “once in a blue moon.”
How to use a blog: Keep blog posts focused and tightly edited; provide readers with enough detail to keep them engaged and informed. Make sure that your posts have a voice and a point — and, ideally, some type of narrative. People love a story, because it gives them a way to relate to you — or your brand.
No matter what platform you choose, there are a few general rules to keep in mind.
Updates — no matter what their length — should be well-written and grammatically correct. It’s ok to draft a Tweet or Facebook status update in the way you would draft a blog post; just because you’re limited to 140 characters doesn’t mean you can’t carefully edit what you’re writing.
Engaging in a social media forum means being social — take time to engage with your fans, followers and commenters. And don’t stop at responding to conversation they direct at you; engage with them on their own ground as well. The cocktail party analogy is useful here — no one likes the guy who only talks about himself. The same is true for brands.
Finally, if you’re going to use social media to reach clients and customers, make a commitment to do it right. Designate or hire someone to manage your blog and update your Twitter and Facebook feeds. In order to create a significant online presence, you need someone who can be online for a significant amount of time each day.
Engaging with consumers via social media requires a commitment of time and resources, but the return is amazing: you will create a community of fans who are loyal to and enthusiastic about your brand. And that’s absolutely worth the effort.
As the major news channels in the world focused on the facts and figures behind hurricane Irene’s impending arrival last week, I chose to get my information on her through my friends, followers and followees on Facebook and Twitter. Instead of getting the facts about her wind speed, trajectory or the latest clip of Mayor Bloomberg talking about evacuation, I got the inside track on how people were feeling and what they were seeing, via pictures, video and words.
The New York Times featured a Twitter ticker with updates from contributors to the paper on their thoughts and insights on Irene. New York City-based celebrities announced to their legions of followers what the view was like from their apartments high in the skies of Manhattan. And then there were my friends on Facebook–including my husband–who were making light of what was quickly turning into a scary situation. There’s nothing like a little humor to help ease the nerves.
Rather than just hearing accounts from random people-on-the-street, I was actually getting updates from my friends. It was refreshing and at the same time entertaining and informative. This was crowd sourcing at its best. Various TwitPics showed New York City in its pre-Irene stages: Times Square eerily looking like a ghost town; empty shelves at neighborhood grocery stores; and the windows of Bloomingdale’s boarded shut.
When Irene finally did touchdown in New York, Twitter was afire with updates from locals alerting the rest of the world what they were seeing. The #irene and #hurricaneirene hashtags were a flurry of everything from humor to public assistance and general information. Even those with power outages were able to get updates via smart phones and iPads. If there were ever an event to showcase that social media is more than just a passing trend, Hurricane Irene was it.
We all know that social media is the way to connect with customers, but as a business or a brand, how do you know who to turn to for help? Everyone seems to be a social media “expert” these days, but not all experts are created equal. There is an art to using social media successfully, particularly to promote a brand, but having a Twitter account does not make someone an expert. Here’s how to vet your expert or agency and get the best possible help with your social media outreach.
Be wary of any social media “expert” who isn’t already using social media, and using it well. Your consultant or agency should be able to speak, from experience, about all of the outlets that he or she is recommending your business engage with — as well as being able to recommend outlets you hadn’t thought of (after all, this person is the expert). They should also be able to explain, in simple, understandable terms, how to use these platforms, and how to choose the ones that will be of most use to you and your customers.
Ask for details on how they will use social media to grow your brand. The agency or consultant should be able to articulate goals and timelines — 500 Facebook fans in the next 30 days, for example, or 10 Foursquare check-ins per day at your brick-and-mortar location, or three blog posts per week featuring your brand or product — as well as offering strategies for achieving those goals.
Have your expert submit writing samples. Social media relies heavily on the written word; if your consultant will be updating your brand’s blog, Facebook page, or Twitter feed for you, be sure that their writing is up to your standards. You are looking for interesting, relevant, grammatically correct content. If the consultant or agency has a Facebook page or Twitter feed that they can share with you (either her personal accounts or another client’s), look those over carefully; feel free as well to ask for sample posts relevant to your brand.
Keep an eye on the conversation. Hiring a consultant to manage social media outreach for your brand doesn’t mean that you’re off the hook. Follow your brand on Facebook and Twitter; read your business’s blog. If you see something that’s not working, let the consultant know and if you see something you really like, let them know that, too. But remember: they may be the social media experts, but you’re the brand expert. Together you can create a voice for your brand and a community for your business.
Looking for examples of businesses and brands that are succeeding at social media? Some of my favorite Facebook pages are listed below including a few clients of Creative Concepts; these brands have a clear voice and an excellent sense of community, and always offer well-written, engaging status updates.
If you think writing novels (or blog posts) is hard, try tweeting for a living.
In most forms of communication, the audience invites you to spin your story and enchant them over time. Even a 30 second TV commercial gives you half a minute to make your pitch.
But on Twitter, you only have milliseconds to capture someone’s attention as they scroll through a nonstop litany of links, promotions, inside jokes and regurgitated news stories, desperately in search of something interesting. If you’re not immediately captivating on Twitter, your boring tweets will be buried under an avalanche of similarly blah messaging in the blink of an eye.
So how do you manage to stay interesting on Twitter, day after day?
Here are 11 tips that we at Creative Concepts have developed internally on behalf of our clients to help them stay competitive in Twitter’s attention market:
Every tweet is a headline. For centuries, newspaper editors have been writing great headlines to draw attention to dense blocks of text that might otherwise go overlooked. Imagine that every tweet you send is going on the front page of The New York Times, and that you’re single-handedly responsible for increasing the paper’s circulation. (No pressure, right?)
Be useful. “Interesting” is always a matter of perspective, but “useful” actually provides a service. You may not be dazzled by the prose of a tweet, but if you want (or need) to know what it’s pitching, you’re far more likely to click.
Be direct. Addressing someone with the @ symbol in front of their Twitter handle ensures that they’ll see what you have to say. (Now, just don’t be spammy…)
Be brief. The shorter your tweet is, the easier it is for others to add their own commentary as they retweet you — and people love adding their own two cents to your discussion.
Solve a problem. We search Twitter to find out what kinds of problems our clients’ customers (and potential customers) may be having, and then we help our clients offer their customers solutions via links to products, blog posts, or just good old-fashioned advice.
Remove doubt. People like to know what works. By sharing the positive reviews and accolades that others have tweeted about your products and services, you’re letting potential customers know that your existing customers would recommend you — because they just did.
Say thank-you. When you see kudos about your brand, thank that person directly. They’ll appreciate knowing that their kind words helped make someone else’s day.
Become an information resource. What are the hot topics in your brand’s industry right now? What is everyone talking about? What is no one talking about? By sharing information about those topics great and small, your brand becomes your customers’ curator for a larger conversation about the field or the industry itself.
Be funny. Humor travels fast on Twitter, and while everyone’s sense of humor is different, a brand that can laugh at itself is a brand that others are more likely to take seriously.
Be positive. Twitter is occasionally a traffic jam of complaints and customer service debacles. Be the upside that cuts through the clutter and you’ll stand out simply for taking the high road.
Be yourself. What you say is important, but so is how you say it. No one stops to read a brochure, but they’ll linger to overhear a private conversation. Deliver your messages honestly and authentically — and in your own voice — and you’re less likely to be confused for an easily-ignored marketing robot.
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If anyone can publish a blog, create a video or launch a meme, you’d think that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube would be the empires of the new, with the latest self-made stars forever in control of the cultural conversation.
And you’d be wrong.
A recent report from HP Labs confirms the exact opposite: the most popular sources of information on Twitter are actually traditional news media outlets like CNN, ESPN and (egad, a newspaper?) The New York Times.
Why? Because people like to share information that impacts wide audiences, and because traditional media still has information-gathering resources and robust distribution platforms that “new” media can’t live without.
In other words, no matter how easy social media makes it to talk to others, people still need something to talk about.
Is that “something” your business?
It could be, if your brand is worth the buzz. But even topical companies need more than just a social media hook to catch and hold an audience’s attention.
A tweet is gone in an instant. A Facebook update crawls off the page and out of sight. A YouTube video might be shared for weeks, months or years as new viewers continue to find it… but what’s driving them to it in the first place?
Periodic fame is always the cumulative result of widespread general awareness — and that includes mainstream publicity. Is your company poised to take long-term advantage of short-term PR success?
Ask yourself:
Is your social media team working hand-in-hand with your traditional PR and marketing teams? (Or, even better, are they fully integrated?)
Do you share your brand’s mainstream media mentions with your social media audiences?
Are you trumpeting your online successes in offline media? (Don’t forget: newspapers and magazines still write about the Internet.)
Does your media contact list include reporters from all branches of journalism?
Do your print ads include icons and URLs where interested customers can find you on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.?
Remember: whether it’s physical or digital, all ink is good ink, as long as it gets people talking about you.
Nothing makes a brand (or that brand’s agency) happier than seeing how much their customers love their products and services. And when that love is shared in public via social media, so much the better — especially because that love is so often eclipsed by the increasingly public habit of complaining about bad customer service.
By now, we’re all used to seeing our friends rant about their latest perceived “retail fail” on Twitter and Facebook. And the proactive approach that companies like Zappos and Comcast have taken to address these complaints publicly has created an expectation among casual customers that every complaint is valid and deserving of a swift response.
In our opinion, this is entirely understandable. Social media is all about now, and when someone’s upset, they’re justified in expecting a quick remedy from companies who claim to care. In fact, we at Creative Concepts advocate proactive customer service among all of our social media clients, and we strive to help them create and employ practices that will turn those potential negatives into ultimate positives once a customer’s concerns have been alleviated.
But that very practice is what makes seeing unabashed (and unprompted) exhibitions of brand love from our client’s customers that much more rewarding.
Last week, a customer at the Ouidad salon enjoyed her hair care experience so much, she live-tweeted her experience throughout the day, including passing along tips from her stylist. Needless to say, this made Ouidad’s day — and ours, since we were watching right alongside! ( In fact, it reminded us of a similarly enjoyable moment we observed last year, when a New York blogger shared her Ouidad hair model experience via Twitter and blog format.)
And here’s a helpful Twitter tip: if you really love a brand, make sure your tweets about them DON’T start with the @ symbol. Why? Because of the way Twitter categorizes conversations:
Tweets that begin with @Ouidad, for example, will only be seen by three kinds of people: Ouidad, the sender of the tweetm and anyone who’s following both the sender and Ouidad. (That’s probably a small cross-section of people who might see the tweet.)
Tweets that include @Ouidad but which start with any character other than the @ symbol will still be seen by Ouidad, but they’ll also be seen by everybody who follows the sender.
Therefore, if you REALLY want someone to know about your awesome brand experience, make sure your tweets aren’t addressed solely to the brand. That will give your praise the widest possible audience, and put an even bigger smile on the face of the employees who’ll be elated to see just how much you really love what they do.
As an industry that’s built entirely upon the exchange of opinions, the fashion world may seem like a field where social media would naturally take flight. After all, aren’t terms like “word of mouth” and “viral buzz” the same keywords that signify success on both the catwalk and on Twitter?
But there’s a catch: the fashion world is actually built on a scarcity of opinions. It relies on the reputations and influence of a select few tastemakers to tell the rest of the rabid audience what they’re supposed to like (and not like), and when.
So how did an industry that benefits from the existence of gatekeepers learn to embrace a new technology that essentially renders gatekeepers obsolete?
By turning their own world upside-down and offering everyone access.
In 2010, the vaunted New York Fashion Week — an event once so exclusive that access to it has been proffered as the grand prize on every season of Project Runway — went social in a big, big way. Brands like American Express, Womens Wear Daily and Aveda helped sponsor a Twitterizing of Fashion Week, which spurred a wave of tech industry buzz.
Today, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week fan page on Facebook currently boasts more than 85,000 fans. And while this year’s migration of fashion brands to Tumblr has had its share of ups and downs, the future implications of fashion’s affair with social media are clear: this once-insular industry is now actively seeking new ways to build buzz, generate awareness and connect with the general public.
As for fashion’s gatekeepers, they’re certainly not obsolete. In fact, their expertise is actually even more valuable now, as a filter to help the public make sense of the flood of available fashion information that was once so highly restricted.
Who knew the industry that generates so much of the world’s art, imagery and gossip could get even bigger simply by opening their doors, pulling back their curtains and pressing the “share” button?
Ouidad, backstage with the curly models of NYC Fashion Week 2011
When your brand is well-known in your field, you have a story worth telling. But how do you find new audiences to share that story with?
You find something everyone has in common.
For example, it’s no secret that the fashion world has invested heavily in the social media market. Tools like Twitter and Facebook, which are built to fuel conversations, are a perfect match for an industry that thrives on opinion. And while not every brand is necessarily fashion-forward, a forward-thinking brand can always find ways to bridge that gap.
During this year’s Fashion Week in New York City, two of our Creative Concepts clients learned just how exhilarating the fashion world can be.
Ouidad (the best friend a curly girl could ever have) was live-tweeting backstage from several Fashion Week shows and shoots, sharing photos and channeling buzz as the fashion magic was happening. Why? Because, as a hair care expert who’s focused on empowerment and education, Ouidad knows that surrounding yourself with beauty is a key building block in your lifelong quest to feel fabulous!
Another of our clients, the eco-cleaning innovators Ecover, were thrilled to support Study, a sustainable fashion brand from Tara St. James that proves the fashion world sees “green” as more than just a color. And since Ecover and Study are each using social media to communicate their passion for a cleaner, greener world, Ecover’s sponsorship provided the perfect opportunity to give each brand a common talking point which they could share with their own audiences.
So, how can your brand find new ways to share its expertise and passion with a new audience that might be a step or two removed from your existing fanbase?
First, find common ground — or a common enemy. Then, reach out. Be valuable. Be interesting. Be supportive. Be worth knowing.
(And if you can do it while looking amazing in Armani or Burberry, there’s nothing wrong with that either!)
During the initial wave of social media adoption by businesses and brands, conversation was key. Brands were lauded not for using these tools to sell, but for using them to chat. To listen. To appear human.
But that mentality may be shifting.
Remember Seinfeld? It was one of the most popular TV shows of the ’90s, but it was also (in theory) “a show about nothing.” Each episode consisted of a tightly-wound series of in-jokes derived from absurdly pedestrian circumstances, which gave viewers a chance to relate. In short, it was the kind of show designed to be relived around the water cooler for not just the next morning but the next few months… or longer. (Personally, I have friends who still celebrate Festivus.)
Why did Seinfeld succeed? In part, it was because — at the time — no one else was talking about nothing. When everyone else has a plot, you can break the mold by only having subplots.
Social media works the same way. When everyone else is selling, it’s easy to stand out simply by offering customer service. But once everyone starts using social media to “join the conversation,” the conversation itself becomes diluted. That’s when people start needing something… else.
When we helped Bigelow Tea create their Twitter and Facebook channels, conversation was key. Just chatting with tea lovers was enough to help Bigelow gain traction with the social media users they connected with.
These days, every tea company with access to the web is on Twitter and Facebook, which means Bigelow needed to shift their focus away from mere conversation and back toward informational value like their content-rich blog. They’ve begun offering successful sweepstakes on Facebook and Twitter. And their Facebook page has become a conversation that’s heavy with links to their teas and gift sets.
The results? Facebook is now one of the primary drivers of Bigelow Tea’s online sales, with plans to expand their strategy even further in 2011.
What has this shift taught us? Yes, people still like to talk tea… but they haven’t stopped needing actual value from their brand interactions, either.
So… what’s your brand’s Seinfeld ratio? How much time do you spend talking about nothing?
