Strategy Matters 
Vol 2 Issue 10
 
October 2010
Strategy Matters brings you news, tips and strategies for effective communications from Strategic Communications, LLC. We're committed to bringing you success through strategy - www.stratcommunications.com.
 
Follow us on Twitter: @LindaPophal
Social Media Best Practices
 
I was fortunate to attend a local Chamber social media conference recently with a wide variety of speakers (I was one of them!), and I picked up some great tips I wanted to share here.   
  • People want to connect with people not brands. - Jeff Gibson, Sitepro
  • Nobody cares about you, they care about them. - Jeff Gibson
  • Social media isn't for every business (used Dunder Mifflin, the fictional company in The Office as a possible example). - Erin Trowbridge, JBSystems, LLC Use your tag cloud as a source of ideas for search terms to use for your web site. - Erin Trowbridge
  • Use Google custom URL's to better track your social media activities and determine which posts are generating traffice. - Erin Trowbridge
  • There is not enough case law yet to provide definitive answers to questions about legal risk related to social media, but case law is developing and is something to watch. - Dean Dietrich, Ruder Ware, LLSC
  • Establish and communicate policies related to the use of social media as a good foundation for protecting against risk. - Dean Dietrich
I'm sure there were many other tips delivered in the other sessions, presented by Laurie Boettcher, with Laurie Boettcher Speaks; Renee Bonjour (@ReneeBonjour), with Group Health Cooperative; Steve Lubahn, with Supreme School Supply; Heather Rothbauer-Wanish, with Feather Communications and Melissa Wilson with Chippewa Valley Technical College, but I unfortunately couldn't get to all of them.
 
Social media is a rapidly emerging form of communication that we all need to stay aware of, experiment with and build into our overall marketing communication plans. Attending programs like this can certainly help!
 
For more tips on how to maximize the use of your online social networking activities, request our most recent white paper. If you have tips and tools that have helpd you maximize your use of social media tools let me know about them and I'll share in the next issue.
 
The Value of A Newsletter/ELetter 
  
During a recent conversation with a client, while talking about her new web site and ways to use the site to interact more with prospects and clients, she recalled that I had recommended an eletter at one point. But, she admitted that she really didn't see the value of using a tool like that for her audience (and that may well be true given her communication goals and specific market).
 
But the conversation made me reflect on all of the reasons that I feel that eletters (or even the old, traditional, print newsletter) can be a very useful communication tool for marketers and why it's worth the bother to create one on a regular basis.
 
The number one reason, in my opinion, is simply the ability to stay in front of your audience on a regular basis. Your interactions with prospects, customers and especially former customers can be sporadic, with months-- sometimes years--passing before your paths cross. A newsletter can be a great way to stay in touch by providing gentle (and, hopefully, valuable) reminders that you're still out there.
 
An eletter also allows you to build a list of people who are interested in what you have to say. Maintaining that list, monitoring it, learning about the individuals on the list and their interests and preferences is valuable not only in terms of sales (which should actually be considered a "bonus"), but also in terms of market research, customer insights and contacts that can provide you with useful information and insights.
An eletter can also serve as the basis for the development of other, related, collateral materials that can be used for blog posts, tweets, media pitches and a myriad of other communications. The key is to multi-purpose your content in as many ways as you can to save your time and reinforce your key messages.  
 
Eletters can help to establish yourself as a thought leader. Using your unique area of expertise as the starting point for the information you share in your eletter can position you as an expert, reliable source in your particular field. You don't need to turn to the media these days to share your thoughts and opionions--you can do that quite easily yourself.
 
And there's another big benefit to the use of eletters (even over the use of traditional newsletters): the ease and cost of producing and distributing information in this format is significantly lower than it was in the old "print and mail" days. Printing and mailing still have their place (in fact, my upcoming book Direct Mail in the Digital Age focuses extensively on this). But, but for cash-strapped businesspeople, entrepreneurs or those who just have information they'd like to share, nothing beats eletters.
 
For more information, visit www.stratcommunications.com
What Makes a Brand Strong?
 
I was excited, recently, to see the annual Interbrand Top 100 brand results. Almost as excited as Naven R. Johnson was about the release of the yellow pages in The Jerk.*

 

I'm always curious about what brands showed up on top. I'm also curious to see the impact that both positive and negative PR issues had on brands over the course of the year. A few of my burning questions, that the results answer, were:  

 

  How did the Toyota recall affect Toyota's brand?

  How did the massive Gulf oil leak affect BP's? 

  How did the release of the iPad affect Apple's brand?

  How did financial institutions fare?

 

The list is also instructive, I think, for those of us who become tired of our brands--or who work for companies who become tired of their brands and want a "new look" or a new name. 

 

There's an apocryphal story about one company whose leadership grew tired of their media campaign and said it was time for a new one. But, the campaign had not yet actually been released to the public! Whether this is true, or not, there is a tendency for companies to make changes too quickly rather than relying on the use of a strong, consistent and valid message that resonates with consumers.

 

Interbrand's annual survey always verifies this for me. The top brands don't tend to change much over time. The top brands' messages also don't change much over time. I believe there is some positive correlation going on here.

 

On the flip side, companies like BP and Toyota provide learning experiences for us in terms of how our brands can (but sometimes don't) bounce back from bad business decision or action.

 

Take a look at the list - any surprises? Any insights? Share your thoughts with us.

 

(*This was a 1979 movie, so I'm woefully aware that for those of you born any time after 1970 this analogy may absolutely not work.- see Beloit College's Mindset List - an annual compilation of the values that shape the worldview (or "mindset") of students who are about 18 years old and entering college.)

 
 
Managing Social Media Efficiently
 
Social media can offer a quick, easy and inexpensive way to connect with key audiences - or it can be an enormous waste of time. This white paper offers some simple tips for getting the most out of your social media efforts. 
 
Request a copy now. 
 
 
Strategy Matters!
(The Complete Idiot's Guide to Strategic Planning will be released in March.)  
Offer Expires: 11/1/10
 
Coming soon:  
 
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Strategic Planning (Penguin, 2011) and Direct Mail in the Digital Age (Self-Counsel Press, 2011). 
In This Issue
Social media best practices
The value of news/eletters
What makes a brand strong?
StratComm In The News
WE'RE IN THE NEWS!
 
 
 
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