The Importance of Honesty in Social Marketing

People hate being “marketed at.”

We turn the TV volume down during commercials and most of us don’t notice the advertisements on the side of Google search. We even have a morning ritual of de

leting nearly all the daily e-mails we signed up to receive from various sites.

There’s a lesson here for social media marketing and commercial activity. Whether you use Google+ or Google Places for your specific niche advertising or just blast everything out across your linked social media accounts, you have to tell people something they are interested in. It has to be real and authentic.

It’s easy to find articles online talking about how “honesty is everything” in social media marketing. These articles are common and popular, partly because they’re accurate and partly because people are happy to discover even pros think this is true. But why?

What is it about marketing and interacting with partners and customers via social media that makes them value honesty and “real-ness” so highly?

The answer has two parts.

First, the Internet is a brutal, cruel mistress. If you achieve any degree of success, people who care will be scrutinizing everything you say. To be active and stay in their minds, you’ll have to post on Twitter and other media multiple times a day. If you say something that seems false or is outright dishonest, someone will catch you and you’ll lose all credibility. A policy of being honest, truthful, and upfront is a good way, both to avoid mistakes and to prevent negative backlash.

There’s nothing worse than devoting tons of time, attention and personal effort to a campaign only to become an Internet joke due to dishonesty.

Secondly, people perceive social marketing as a branch of social interaction. It’s different from conventional advertising because there’s no wall. Readers can’t see the people who made the huge Macy’s ad in the newspaper, let alone the characters within the company itself. But, when we check in on a Facebook page regularly or follow someone on Twitter, a personal relationship seems to develop. This is even true for followers that number in the millions.

Your posts should be more like a conversation than a performance. That’s why bloggers who ask good questions and then participate in the Facebook comments get so much attention. You wouldn’t be misleading in a cordial conversation about a great deal with an acquaintance at the supermarket. You should maintain that same level of honesty with social media marketing.

Honesty makes the social media marketing community functional and trustworthy. Don’t forget to leverage a little upfront communication on your Google+ account. Your customers and circle of contacts will appreciate it and your efforts will be more effective because of it. 

8 Common Mistakes in B2B Social Media Marketing

Here are eight common mistakes B2B companies make when jumping into social media marketing. Avoid these, and you'll greatly increase your chances of success.

1. Using social media as a direct response vehicle.

Unless your product is a price-sensitive impulse purchase (e.g. a restaurant tweeting about today's lunch specials), social media doesn't work well for direct response. For B2B companies, social media is primarily about interaction and knowledge sharing. A hard-sell approach is not only ineffective, but it can also damage a firm's brand.

2. Expecting instant results.

Social media is not like an advertising or email blast campaign designed to produce immediate results; it takes time to develop relationships, build significant blog readership or attract a large Twitter following. Social media marketing can produce significant results, but not overnight.

3. Failing to invest sufficient time and effort.

As a consequence of #2 above, many social media efforts are dubbed failures before they have a chance to succeed. Blogs have a few posts written and are then abandoned. Twitter accounts sit silent with only a handful of followers. Facebook fan pages go without updates for months on end. The B2B companies achieving results with social media are those that set a clear strategy, adjust tactics based on results and experience, and maintain commitment to their social media efforts.

4. Focusing internally.

Social media is about listening and interacting. Focusing only on your own message -- our product this, our company that -- is as boorish as talking only about yourself at a business mixer or cocktail party. Of course, you can link to your own blog posts or other content on occasion, but these should be mixed in with links to external content, and in the context of answering a question or providing helpful information to solve a problem.

5. Not building networks or using syndication.

It's not enough to have great content. You need other people sharing it on your behalf as well. Use your blog, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, and other social media tools to build a network of influencers who will amplify your content, and use RSS syndication sites to expand the reach of your blog.

6. Having unoptimized and inconsistent profiles.

For CEOs and anyone who represents the "face" of your company to customers, prospects or other stakeholders, every profile on LinkedIn or other social networking sites is a marketing opportunity. While obviously allowing space for originality, every profile should include a compelling and consistent brand message (as well as links to the corporate website, blog, Twitter account, etc.).

7. Not monitoring.

One of the most significant aspects of social media is that it empowers others to share your message (or contradict it). You can't control every conversation about your brand in social media, but you can help shape them, or at least be seen as responsive in participating in them. Social media monitoring is imperative for understanding what's being said about your products or services, thanking your fans and responding to critics.

8. Ignoring synergy between different media.

Social media, your corporate website, PR activities and even online advertising don't exist in isolation from each other; the impact of all of these programs can be magnified by linking them wherever appropriate. Press releases should link to related content on your website or blog as well as to the profiles of anyone quoted. Your corporate website, email newsletters, even employee email signatures should link to your blog and Twitter account. Product microsites can be linked back to the corporate site or blog for additional information. Cross-linking between these different sites and sources raises your profile in search, maximizing your Web presence within your industry and product space.

Avoid these common mistakes, and you'll greatly enhance your company's success with social media.

Read more: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/5668/8-Common-Mistakes-in-B2B-Social-Media-Marketing.aspx#ixzz1PsxthYYI

The characteristics of interactive marketing communications

Through understanding the key interactive communications characteristics enabled through digital media we can exploit these media while guarding against their weaknesses. In this section, we will describe eight key changes in the media characteristics between traditional media and new media. The eight key changes in communications characteristics as marketers move from exploiting traditional to new media are:

1.      From push to pull. Traditional media such as Print, TV and Radio are push media, a one-way street where information is mainly unidirectional, from company to customer unless direct response elements are built-in. In contrast, the web is an example of a pull media. This is its biggest strength and its biggest weakness. It is strength since pull means that prospects and customers only visit a web site when it enters their head to do so –when they have a defined need – they are pro-active and self-selecting. But this is a weakness since online pull means marketers have less control than in traditional communications where the message is pushed out to a defined audience. What are the e-marketing implications of the pull medium? First, we need to provide the physical stimuli to encourage visits to web sites. This may mean traditional ads, direct mail or physical reminders. Second we need to ensure our site is optimized for search engines – it is registered and is ranked highly on relevant keyword searches. Third email is important – this is an online push medium, it should be a priority objective of web site design to capture customer’ s e-mail addresses in order that opt-in e-mail can be used to push relevant and timely messages to customers.

Push media: Communications are broadcast from an advertiser to consumers of the message who are passive recipients.

Pull media: The consumer is proactive in selection of the message through actively seeking out a web site.

2.     From monologue to dialogue: Creating a dialogue through interactivity is the next important feature of the web and new media. Since the Internet is a digital medium and communications are mediated by software on the web server that hosts the web content, this provides the opportunity for two-way interaction with the customer. This is a distinguishing feature of the medium (Peters, 1998). For example, if a registered customer requests information, or orders a particular product, it will be possible for the supplier to contact them in future using e-mail with details of new offers related to their specific interest. A web site, interactive digital TV and even a mobile phone all enable marketers to enter dialogue with customers. These can be short term – perhaps an online chat to customer support, or long-term, lifelong dialogues discussing product and supply requirements. These dialogues can enhance customer service, deepen relationships and trust and so build loyalty. But digital dialogues have a less obvious benefit also – intelligence. Interactive tools for customer self-help can help collect intelligence – click stream analysis recorded in the web log file can help us build up valuable pictures of customer preferences. If we profile customers, placing them into different segments then build a more detailed picture that is used to refine our products and offers.

Interactivity: The medium enables a dialogue between company and customer

3.      From one-to-many to one-to-some and one-to-one. Traditional push communications are one-to-many. From one company to many customers, often the same message to different segments and often poorly targeted. With new media ‘one-to-some’ – reaching a niche or micro-segment becomes more practical – e-marketers can afford to tailor and target their message to different segments through providing different site content or e-mail for different audiences through mass customisation. We can even move to one-to-one communications where personalised messages can be delivered according to customer preferences. The interactive nature of the Internet lends itself to establishing dialogues with individual customers. Thus potentially it is a one-to-one communication (from company to customer) rather than the traditional one-to-many communication (from company to customers) that is traditional in marketing using the mass media, such as newspapers or television.

4.      From one-to-many to many-to-many communications: New media also enable many-to-many communications.  Here customers can interact with other customers via your web site or in independent communities. The success of online auctions such as eBay also shows the power of many-to-many communications. However, online discussion groups represent a threat since it is difficult to control negative communications about a company.

5.       From ‘lean-back’ to ‘lean-forward’: New media are also intense media – they are lean-forward media in which the web site usually has the visitor’ s undivided attention. This intensity means that the customer wants to be in control and wants to experience flow and responsiveness to their needs. First impressions are important. If the visitor to your site does not find what they are looking for immediately, whether through poor design or slow speed they will move on, probably never to return.

6.     The medium changes the nature of standard marketing communications tools such as advertising: In addition to offering the opportunity for one-to-one marketing, the Internet can be, and is still widely used for one-to-many advertising. On the Internet the overall message from the advertiser becomes less important, and typically it is detailed information the user is seeking. The web site itself can be considered as similar in function to an advertisement (since it can inform, persuade and remind customers about the offering, although it is not paid for in the same way as a traditional advertisement).

7.      Increase in communications intermediaries: If we consider advertising and PR, with traditional media, this occurs through a potentially large number of media owners such as TV and radio channel owners and the owners of newspaper and print publications such as magazines. In the Internet era there is a vastly increased range of media owners or publishers through which marketers can promote their services and specifically gain links to their web site. Traditional radio channels, newspapers and print titles have migrated online, but in addition there are a vast number of online only publishers including horizontal portals   such as search engines and vertical portals such as industry specific sites. The online marketer needs to select the most appropriate of this plethora of sites which customers visit to drive traffic to their web site.

8.     Integration: Although new media have distinct characteristics compared to traditional media, this does not mean we should necessarily concentrate our communications solely on new media. Rather we should combine and integrate new and traditional media according to their strengths. We can then achieve synergy – the sum is greater than their parts. Most of us still spend most of our time in the real-world rather than the virtual world, so offline promotion of the proposition of a web site is important. It is also important to support mixed-mode buying. For example, a brand which raises awareness of the brand and then sees an advert in a print ad that directs him across to the web site for further information. However the customer does not want to buy online, preferring the phone, but the site allows for this by prompting with a phone number at the right time. Similarly inbound communications to a company need to be managed. Consider if the customer needs support for an error with their system. They may start by using the onsite diagnostics which do not solve the problem. They then ring customer support. This process will be much more effective if support staff can access the details of the problem as previously typed in by the customer to the diagnostics package.

Interactive Media for your Exhibition Stand

Allowing customers to really engage with your brand during an event can be achieved through interaction that stretches beyond face-to-face sales communications. Being a relatively new trend in online marketing tools, interactive features take the benefits of word of mouth but operate in the online environment. Often ‘forwarded’ to friends and colleagues, this marketing method is designed to encourage consumers to tell one another about a product, service or website via the engaging feature. Usually boosted with an incentive, these somewhat viral efforts are often designed to encourage visitors to engage with the interactive communication whilst parting with contact information in return for a voucher, discount or even free product.

Interactive promotional ‘flash’ games are one of the most popular ways to engage audiences before, during and after your event. They not only create elements of fun and light-hearted competition, but also powerful tools for generating traffic to your stand and website. | Choosing the interactive concept gives a good indication on how it will impact at your event, link with promotions and match your brand personality. Typical flash game designs such as jigsaw puzzle and catching formats are easy to integrate your brand and products into and link heavily with a competition or offer to encourage the user to remember your brand. On the opposite scale, spending a little more investment on creating a brand new gaming concept may have a much heavier impact using the game itself to attract attention and publicity for the brand.

Creating a suitable format to display the interactive content on your exhibition stand will naturally be different to a version applied to a web interface. If a competition or challenging game-play, people are more apprehensive about playing when others are watching, however using a small screen that only allows one person to be immersed isn’t very interesting for everyone else and nor are you able to effectively use the interactive element to create a hubbub at your stand. Games on location therefore need to provide a great spectator mode, with a relatively limited play sequence to prevent visitors waiting. Large touch screens built into custom display units offer a truly interactive and visual experience, but intimate control panels can be projected or synced with larger displays for a similar effect.

Gaining increased popularity, digital games that allow the user to play to win a prize or free product are responsible for a large proportion of data capture at events. This also applies to the application being available online pre and post show with users passing to friends and colleagues. This provides a constant stream of visitors to your website before and after your event boosting SEO (Search Engine Optimising) but more importantly increasing the exposure of your event.

Integrating this traditionally online marketing tool into your event environment brings digital interaction to your face-to-face communication. Creating a higher level of intrigue for your brand and products, interactive games allow your visitors to experience the personality of your brand, which can be reflected in the game play or presentation. Competitions and game-play make great talking points for your stand staff making it easier to attract attention and a smoother lead into conversation. However, in a conversation-saturated environment an interactive medium in which to receive information may offer a refreshing change to the visitor. You may find your interactive content to be your differentiator with visitors remembering you and thus being more receptive to your post-show and follow up communications.

There is then the opportunity after you event to direct your contacts back the your website via e-shot to announce winners of the game competition, leader board or even to play the game again online. Once at your website, visitors have the chance forward the game to friends and colleagues whilst being directed to other areas of your website, product information, promotions, and details about your brand following the information they received at the event. This activity increases the interaction with your brand outside of the event, converting the contact into a qualified lead or next step towards a purchase decision. 

Writing an exhibition plan

Planning is a necessary part of success. Careful and meticulous planning of your exhibition is no exception. It’s easy to underestimate how long it takes to properly plan for an exhibition and therefore you should be starting 4 – 6 months ahead of the show. For some companies with larger exhibition stands and a more complicated exhibiting schedule, planning may need to start up to 12 months in advance.

It’s quite simple – planning for your exhibition makes life so much easier! And it can help you avoid additional expenses and last minute panics. 

• Appoint an exhibition co-ordinator with overall responsibility
• Write an exhibition plan with key activities, dates and responsibilities
• Get everyone involved that needs to be – circulate a copy of the exhibition plan with responsibilities and then keep chasing them
• Stick to your deadlines

A written exhibition plan should provide:

• Objectives
• Time scales
• Budgets
• Space requirements
• Exhibition design parameters
• On-site services
• Transportation and logistics
• Staffing levels and training
• Pre- and post-show promotions
• Show evaluation criteria
• On-stand data capture
• Follow-up procedure for leads

Each part of the exhibition plan works together to create synergy and success.


“For more help and guidance with regard to Exhibiting or your Exhibition Stands andExhibition Design please contact "enKonversations - Interactive Marketing” 


www.enkonversations.com

Setting exhibition goals and objectives

When you are deciding to exhibit you need to be certain that the exhibition you have chosen fits into your overall sales and marketing strategy. 

Before you book your exhibition stand space, ask yourself the following questions:

• Why am I exhibiting at this show?
• What products/services will I be exhibiting?
• What do I want to accomplish?
• What will I be doing to achieve the results?
• What image do I want to project?
• How does this specific exhibition fit into my sales and marketing plan?

Your answers to these questions will help you form specific objectives that you need to establish to be a successful exhibitor. The objectives you set should be measurable and obtainable. You will find it much easier to measure and judge your success if you are specific with your objectives. For instance, you can set a specific number of show leads to generate, appointments to make, units to sell.

Your exhibition objectives can be as challenging as you want to make them, but remember you and your stand staff want to succeed, so be realistic, particularly if you’re exhibiting for the first time or setting show objectives for the first time.

There are 6 principle reasons why companies choose to exhibit:
• Build Sales
• Improve customer relationships
• Conduct market research
• Generate media relations/PR
• Build brand awareness
• Build and support sales channels

When you are setting your show objectives, consider each of the above to determine why you are going and what you want to achieve.

Can this show deliver on your objectives?
To find out, get as much information as possible about the exhibition you're considering.

• Ask the show organisers for a copy of last year's registration form and an attendee profile. This will tell you who you'll meet on the show floor and will help you match your target audience to the expected visitor audience
• Ask for the names of other confirmed exhibitors, and search the list for your competitors
• Ask past exhibitors and attendees what they liked and disliked about the show, and whether it met their buying and selling needs
• Ask show management how they plan to promote the show, and what they will do to help your ideal prospect find you there

Select the exhibition because you believe it can deliver on your show objectives not because your sales team thinks you should be there or because the show organisers tell you your competitors are there.

Knowing exactly what you want is a necessary element of success. Make sure that you understand your objectives. Make them SMART:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic
• Timebound