Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Social media grows small businesses, study shows

I recently heard a well-known online figure denounce the use of social media as a business strategy, insisting instead that social media will kill your brand. All you need for a successful business, he said, is a good product, solid customer service and a domain.

There are so many problems with this it’s hard to know where to begin. I could start with the plummeting visits to company destination websites. Or, I could start with the fact that many competing companies offer comparable products, making it difficult to stand out in the marketplace. As business ethicist and author Dov Seidman suggests, when it is so easy for your comeptitors to duplicate your offering, it’s no longer what you do that differentiates you in the marketplace, it’s how you do it.

But I’m not here to list the problems with “good product/good service” as the sole foundation for business success. The videographer is right as far as he goes: Without a good product and good customer support to back it up, you’re hosed. But these are merely the price of admission. How do you stand out form the rest of the pack once your excellent products and service are on store shelves?

If you’re a small business, social media is an answer. It’s not, as aforementioned individual suggests, “stupid” and if you use it, you’re not an “idiot.” That’s not my opinion. That’s the proof released in a study from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business demonstrating that the intelligent adoption of social media can yield new customers for small businesses.

That’s a good thing, since attracting new customers is the main reason small businesses get into social media. Only 6% of the businesses surveyed believed social media did their brands and businesses more harm than good, according to the study.

Most of those businesses that have engaged in social media have seen their businesses grow as a result. The study cites an example in Dr. Alan Glazier, CEO and founder of a vision care center:

In order to meet the growing challenges of a tough market last year, I was forced to consider alternative options to keep my business visible. With a very small investment in social media marketing, I was able to generate new business opportunities. Our Google ranking is consistently number one for many of the phrases people use to search for eye doctors in and around my city and we have received a “bump” in terms of new visitors to the site.

On top of that, Glazier’s presence in social channels—notably his blog—has led to media interviews, positioning him as a thought leader in his field.

About half of the survey respondents expect social media will generate further profit in the next 12 months. But small businesses have produced more than just profit from their engagement. The study—sponsored by Network Solutions—also found that 77% of businesses have found ways to improve their operational efficiencies through social media and 47% have identified new products and services that lead to still more business and sales.

But wait. There’s more. Social media has provided small businesses with a highly effective channel for answering customer questions and ensuring customer satisfaction, leading to repeat business, according to the study.

Janet Wagner, director of the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, sums up the measurable, proven benefits: “Social media levels the playing field for small businesses by helping them deliver customer service. Time spent on Twitter, Facebook and blogs is an investment in making it easier for small businesses to compete.”

So what about the video talking head’s insistence that people don’t want to be friends with companies? What of his concern that money invested in a social media site could evaporate should that site goes under?

First, as the study confirms, engagement in social media isn’t about becoming friends. It’s about providing access to customers where they’re spending their time and resolving customer service issues where they arise.

As the volume of visits to company-domain websites continues to plummet, companies simply need to be where their customers and prospects are. That’s how Dr. Glazier and the other respondents to the study found new customers—not by becoming friends, but by being visible, responding to questions and building their reputations and brands so they are viewed as knowledgable and professional.

None of these companies are putting their eggs in a single basket. It’s easy to move wherever the audience goes. And Dr. Glazier, who gained greater exposure and more customers, also reduced his marketing budget by 80%.

You can opt to listen to the cynics who denounce social media as “stupid” and employed by “idiots,” or you can pay attention to the evidence and grow your business.

Monday, March 01, 2010

The Hobson and Holtz Report - Podcast #530: March 1, 2010

Content summary: Summarizing the Euprera conference in Belgium; upcoming FIR Interview with Todd Maffin; announcing the FIR app for iPhone and Android; vote for FIR at Podcast Alley; Michael Netzley reports from Singapore on Millennials’ use of technology, and more; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; why we don’t have any news items about the Chile earthquake; News That Fits: a future alongside Facebook for social networks in Europe, boomers take to social networks to protest and praise, avatars can make us better people says Stanford study, Pentagon relaxes social network access; listener comments discussion and FIR Friendfeed Room round-up; music from Parlotones; and more.

Get FIR:

• Download the MP3 file (25.6Mb, 63:59)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• Get the show at iTunes

Get the FIR app for your iPhone or Android device

Messages from our sponsors: FIR is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years, www.ragan.com; Save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial, at www.customscoop.com/fir.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for March 1, 2010: A 64-minute podcast recorded live from Wokingham, Berkshire, England, and Concord, California, USA.

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute - see the show notes home page for info.

• FIR #530 show notes at The New PR Wiki

Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR, or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Thursday March 4…

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Announcing FIR for iPhone and Android

Getting hold of episodes of the For Immediate Release (FIR) podcasts to listen to on your mobile device whenever and wherever you want to is pretty easy.

The two most most popular ways to do this are subscribing via iTunes – a prime choice especially if you have an iPhone, iPod or iPod Touch – or subscribing via one or more of the RSS feeds on the FIR website.

In either case, you get the MP3 file on your computer which you then either synchronize to your mobile device with iTunes or other program that let’s you do that (Winamp is one), or manually copy the file to it.

If you have an iPhone, an iPod Touch or a device running the Android OS, there’s now an even easier way to get your podcast episodes with the new FIR app, now available in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. There’s currently no cost – the app is free to download and use.

The FIR app presents the five distinct FIR podcasts – The Hobson & Holtz Report, FIR Cuts, FIR Interviews, FIR Book Reviews and FIR Speakers & Speeches – organized into categories that make it very easy to find just the content you want all in one place on your mobile device. The default category when you start is ‘Most Recent,’ a perfect way of auto-organizing content for most people.

Categories brings some essential organization to your FIR collection on your mobile device, making it simple to select particular content you want.

The might notice one podcast not included – FIR Live on BlogTalk Radio, the live show we do once a month or so. That’s because recordings of those live shows are included in the Hobson & Holtz Report category.

For the iPhone, etc, you can find the FIR app in the App Store. But the easiest way to find, download and install it is on your iPhone or iPod Touch:

1. Load the App Store on your device.

2. Tap the Search button and type FIR.

3. The FIR app should be the first result you get – it was when I installed it yesterday – as the screenshot shows.

4. Tap the listing, tap the word ‘free’ and then ‘install.’

There you have it – the FIR app installed on your device, ready to go!

The FIR app for iPhone and Android was created with iSites.us, a new app creation service launched in January by California startup GenWi. Just $25 and we have an app. A brilliant service.

Creating a mobile experience has never been easier nor cheaper.

We’re thrilled with our first app creation and hope you find it useful and an enjoyable experience. Do let us know what you think. If you have any suggestions for improvement, we want to hear that, too.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #529: February 25, 2010

Content summary: Neville’s in Belgium (Ghent, to be specific), so Mark Story, who handles New Media for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is filling in as guest co-host. Shel and Mark talk about Mark’s role at the SEC and his hopes for this episode of FIR. Deloitte and SHIFT Communications are both hiring communicators. Dan York reports from Orlando, Florida. Jen Zingsheim offers CustomScoop’s Media Monitoring Minute with a look at Google Goggles. News That Fits: new perspectives on Toyota’s recall crisis, studies reveal the depth of social media engagement by the Fortune 500 and the Global 100. Listener comments. A country music track from 77 South. And, as always, more. Regarding the photo at left, captured from Mark’s Skype video during recording, Mark wishes to point out that Skype video automatically adds 10 pounds to one’s appearance.

Get FIR:

• Download the MP3 file (28.1Mb, 70:13)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• Get the show at iTunes

Messages from our sponsors: FIR is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years, www.ragan.com; Save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial, at www.customscoop.com/fir.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for February 25, 2010: A 70-minute podcast recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Kensington, Maryland, USA.

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute - see the show notes home page for info.

• FIR #528 show notes at The New PR Wiki

Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR, or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Monday, March 1…

Monday, February 22, 2010

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #528: February 22, 2010

Content summary: Shel’s in Atlanta for the Ragan conference; a different procedure for recording today’s show; Michael Netzley reports from Singapore on authoritarian capitalism; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; News That Fits: journalists conducting research via social media, Apple’s Wikipedia page most effective of Fortune Global 500, did Twitter topple Toyota?, bloggers to be given privileged access to UK parliament; listeners’ comments; Neville’s in Belgium on Thursday so guest host Mark Story will join Shel; music from Lily Sparks; and more.

Get FIR:

• Download the MP3 file (27.8Mb, 69:18)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed
• Get the show at iTunes

Messages from our sponsors: FIR is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years, www.ragan.com; Save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial, at www.customscoop.com/fir.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for February 22, 2010: A 69-minute podcast recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Wokingham, Berkshire, England.

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute - see the show notes home page for info.

• FIR #528 show notes at The New PR Wiki

Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR, or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Thursday February 25…

Personal vs. logo Twitter accounts: Must they be mutually exclusive?

A debate several years ago, during blogging’s heyday, centered on the wisdom of introducing “character blogs.” These aren’t fake blogs. They’re very transparent in their use of a fictional character as the blogger. Some experts defended the practice while others insisted that it could never be a good idea. I fell somewhere in the middle, advising against them in nearly all instances but acknowledging there might be a time when they could work.

An example would be Dwight Schrute’s blog. Schrute is the character played by Rainn Wilson on “The Office” (a show I don’t watch, by the way). Posts are written in character. None of the readers of the blog actually believe a ficitious character is actually writing it. (At least, that’s my fervent hope.)

The argument against the character blog is simple: Wouldn’t it be better if Rainn Wilson blogged?

The fact is, he does. He has Posterous blog and a Twitter account (with nearly 2 million followers). If it’s authenticity, you’re after, Wilson makes plenty of it available.

Why do these concepts need to be mutually exclusive? People don’t read Schrute’s blog (originally penned by Wilson himself but now in the hands of ghost writers) to interact with the actor. They seek a means of staying connected with a favorite TV show in between episodes. And it works.

I have frequently noted that I’d become a loyal reader of any blog under Eric Cartman’s by-line. I got the same argument in response: Wouldn’t it be better if “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone blogged? It would be good, yes, and I’d probably read it. But I’d still expect to laugh my ass off reading a Cartman blog.

The debate seems to have shifted from blogs to Twitter. A number of experts dismiss what they call “logo accounts,” tweets sent under the brand name and not associated with a specific individual. Twitter, they argue, is best when it’s personal.

My answer shouldn’t surprise you: It depends.

The vast majority of the Twitter accounts I follow are individuals because, it’s true, I’d rather hear from people than brands. But I do follow a handful of logo accounts. With those accounts, I honestly don’t give a damn who’s writing it. My motivation for following in the first place was the timely receipt of information.

CNN is one example. I follow the account because I want to get headlines fast. I’m a news junkie, always have been, and getting a tweet that notifies me of the latest events satisfies my craving. I have no interest in what reporter wrote the story or what he thinks of it. I want the 140-character news hook.

Nearly 1 million people are happy to get the tweets from CNN without that personal touch.

The Dell Outlet is another example, with nearly 1.6 million followers who want only the latest deal they can get. There is a name attached to the account—@StephanieAtDell can be reached with questions or problems. But the account itself serves just one purpose: notification of special offers on “refurbished, scratch-and-dent and previously ordered new Dell product.” Would it be a better account if it were named @StephanieDellOutlet?

I don’t think so. First, who cares? The personality just isn’t an issue if my goal is simple notification. Second, what happens when Stephanie leaves? Yes, I know the account can be renamed while maintaining its followers, but some degree of confusion would surely follow.

At Intel, two employees are identified in the profile as the handlers of the account. If those responsibilities change, the account stays the same while the profile gets updated. Why not just give each Intel tweeter their own account? In fact, several Intel employees do tweet. In fact, both of the employees currently listed on the @Intel account are identified by their Twitter handles, and the company actively encourages employees to connect with each other via their Twitter accounts. But @Intel is the official, authoritative account that serves as the corporation’s statement of record. That’s an important distinction.

And there’s no reason—none at all—that Intel can’t benefit from adopting both approaches.

When discussing Dell, the example of the dozens of employees with NameAtDell accounts is usually presented. I agree that there is huge opportunity in having real people like my friends Lionel Menchaca (@LionelAtDell) and Richard Binhammer (@RichardAtDell) building relationships and personifying the Dell brand.

But there’s no denying the power of 1.6 million people anxiously awaiting the next notice of a special deal compared to the fewer than 2,000 to 10,000 people following the average Dell employee.

One of Twitter’s strengths is its flexibility. It can be used for just about anything you can dream up for it. In mosti instances, I agree that the authentic human touch is important. But to suggest that it’s a requirement, that every branded logo account would be better if it contained a real person’s name and avatar, is a mistake. It locks organizations into an approach that may honestly not be the best way to achieve their particular goal.

And what about all the people following brand accounts? Are we to assume they just don’t get it? That every time someone reads a tweet form @Starbucks they’re thinking, “This would lock me into the brand more if I could see the face and read the name of the person behind it?” Somehow I doubt it.

Besides, a logo account is often the means by which companies take their first tentative steps into Twitter. Nervous, they set up an account to which a number of authorized employees can post. When the sky doesn’t fall on them, they screw up their courage and let a few employees open personal/business accounts.

So don’t be too fast to dismiss logo accounts on Twitter. If they serve the purpose for which they were created, there’s no reason to fall victim to the punditry that suggests they’re some kind of misguided, clueless mistake.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Social Media News Release aligns nicely with Digital Media Pyramid

There hasn’t been much talk about the Social Media News Release (SMNR) lately. It must be time to stimulate some discussion.

When I was in journalism school (California State University Northridge, 1972-1976), the inverted pyramid was a staple of newswriting classes. The way it was taught to me made perfect sense: If somebody reads only the lede paragraph, they should walk away knowing the most important information in the story, the typical assembly of the who-what-when-where-why information. If she reads through the second graph, she’s now consumed content that is almost as important for the understanding of the story. As she reads more of the article, the information gets increasingly detailed. Wherever she chooses to stop, she’ll have absorbed the most critical information and left less important content unread.

The inverted pyramid is ideal for a linear print world. As the practice of public relations became more common, press releases adopted the inverted pyramid so editors could drop the release unchanged into their publications, chopping off as much of the end of the article as necessary to accommodate the space available.

As publications concentrate on web platforms, however, the linear approach doesn’t work, although it makes more sense than ever to lead with the five Ws. Adding link curation to the mix, being cognizant of ads appearing alongside stories that create unintended context, the use of other web-based content in pursuit of a balanced story and a host of other factors all need to be stirred into the mix.

It turns out that the journalism department at Rutgers has been teaching a new pyramid for the last seven years, an approach that could easily find its way into other journalism schools. Benjamin Davis—a new media news professor who was part of the MSNBC.com launch team—explained the pyramid in a piece he wrote for the Online Journalism Review.

Johnson calls the Digital Media Pyramid an enhancement rather than a replacement of the inverted pyramid:

It provides for the traditional brief introduction of facts (the five Ws) which are boldly separated from all supporting details. Yet the Digital Media Pyramid also addresses the need to surf the Internet for additional supporting information by permitting and explaining cut-and-pasting rules.

The pyramid covers the use of multimedia, interactivity and other non-text elements of a news story and creates awareness of ads that could be inappropriate beside the article. It also “encourages the self-eductaion of ‘users’ or readers, enabling them to quickly seek out balanced information on a news story through the use of embedded links, social neetworks and other resources.”

The Digital Media Pyramid should, Johnson argues, “find a place in the newsrooms and journalism classrooms around the globe.”

If it does, PR practitioners employing the Social Media News Release will be in good shape. The elements of the SMNR lend themselves nicely to this news-production model, with tags and links designed to assist a report conducting research, digital assets available to incorporate into a story and news facts ready to be turned into a solid 5W lede. One more compelling reason to start using the SMNR as the population of employed journalists begins to skew younger.

Does the Digital Media Pyramid work for you?