Archive for word-of-mouth

My Faves of 2009: Fearless Networker Ken Marsh

December 25, 2009 at 11:37 pm · Filed under motivation, networking, word-of-mouth

Ken Marsh

 It’s not what you know but who you know (and, better yet, who knows you!) Ken is the best when it comes to capitalizing on that concept, especially in today’s tight market for job hunting and business prospecting.  Ken’s written three books and hundreds of articles on networking. If you hear about or get invited to one of his “Fearless Networking” seminars, get yourself signed up.  And keep an ear out for him on the Houston Business Show, which airs daily on CNN AM 650 at 11 a.m. (CST).  http://www.fearlessnetworkers.com

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Community Colleges: Time for a Serious Image Makeover

July 19, 2009 at 12:21 am · Filed under Facebook, Twitter, communications, community colleges, social media, word-of-mouth

commcollege campus

They’re the Rodney Dangerfield of higher education (“no respect, I tell ya, no respect!”).  Many elitists who hold those hard-earned degrees from fancy four-year universities have condescending perceptions that community colleges are those loser schools for remedial teenagers and 20-something drop-outs. 

During an interesting after-work social conversation a couple of weeks ago, Houston Community College President Dr. Bill Harmon and Public Relations Director Andre Humphery enlightened me as they hailed several HCC graduates who are heading for advanced programs at Rice University, Columbia University and other prestigious schools.  They boasted about HCC’s extensive roster of private industry partnerships for workforce development – including a collaboration to develop an HCC-style school in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Harmon and Humphery also bragged that HCC has the highest percentage of international students of any community college in the U.S.  Ironically, National Public Radio aired a feature report on that accomplishment just this morning.

In fact, a few years ago I enrolled in HCC for a couple of night courses in advanced finite mathematics that I had not completed while previously attending my alma mater Syracuse University, where I had earned a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism.  I transferred the HCC credits to the University of Houston as prerequisites for a managerial statistics course in the MBA program.          

Clearly, the time is overdue for community colleges to step up with pride like Harmon, Humphery and the HCC administration and squash the dumping ground stereotypes.  The schools can greatly capitalize on the spotlight from Ivy League-educated President Barack Obama, who recently announced a ten-year plan to invest $12 billion to help the nation’s two-year institutions reach, teach and train more people for the jobs of the future.

Under Obama’s initiative, community colleges could qualify for “challenge grants” to give new programs a try, or expand training and counseling. Dropout rates would be addressed by designing programs to help students who want to earn an associate’s degree or transfer to a four-year institution do so. Money also would be spent to renovate outdated facilities or build new ones, and to develop online courses and make them freely available to students and others who want to use them.commcollege students

As the federal money flows, I think there also needs to be an increased flow of communication – not just media stories, but authentic and continual engagements, interactions and conversations among all the community college publics:  current and potential students, parents, educators, researchers, alumni, donors, media, legislators, business/industry groups, global communities.

The cheap, easy and flexible technologies of Web 2.0 social media are just the right tools to leverage as community colleges are transformed into engines of opportunity and prosperity.    

A blog should be the simplest element to jump-start any community college social media plan.  Linked to the home page of a college web site, the blog will serve as a platform for online conversation about particular aspects of school news.

Network sites and social media news releases (SMRs) can be used to publish news headlines, provide admissions updates and tips, discover opportunities for media coverage and highlight university facts and updates.

Incorporating notification tools such as real simple syndication (RSS) feeds, email and text messaging can also facilitate and enhance participation in conversations.  Community colleges can also use social networks to monitor their name brand.  To reach students, adult learners and other stakeholders who are among the increasing ranks on Facebook, community colleges can start pages and groups for alumni, news, events and student organizations.

Twitter can be used to feed instant online updates to users. A Twitter search for mentions of a given community college and appropriate tweet replies from one or more designated school representatives will encourage engagement in community colleges’ social networks.

commcollege student3It’s all interconnected viral marketing to create word-of-mouth at virtually little or no cost.  And for many community colleges accustomed to doing more with less anyway, what could be better?

By embracing the culture of online communications, community colleges can heighten respectful and reverent public perceptions while generating value-added outcomes to yield tremendous, long-lasting social and economic dividends. 

LINKS

News coverage on the American Graduation Initiative (through American Association of Community Colleges)http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Advocacy/aginitiative/Pages/newscoverage.aspx

“Houston Community College Has Global Appeal” (NPR)http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105984699

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A campaign is now an ecosystem

July 1, 2009 at 8:24 pm · Filed under marketing, social media, word-of-mouth ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

ecosystem

Shifting strategy for marketing in this transformational and disruptive era 

Marketers have lost it; they’re not in control anymore.  Instead, it’s the customers/consumers (who can also be called influencers, advocates or detractors) running things now as they leverage social media, initiate the conversations about products and services and ultimately behave as self-marketers whose word-of-mouth is as valuable a currency as a dollar, peso or yen. 

During a luncheon presented by the Houston Interactive Marketing Association, Scott Berg, director of digital strategy at HP, shared his perspective on the future of consumer and business marketing in an age where people are more connected than ever before by technology.

“If we keep focusing on and doing campaigns, business is going to suffer,” Berg said.  “Consumers are taking initiative because they have so much control.  It’s important to support and leverage this self-marketing.”

Berg said the typical model of digital marketing campaign management…

Discover – Find – Confirm/Validate – Transact – Support – Feedback/Share

must shift to a broader focus on customer ecosystem management:

Awareness – Consideration Preference – Purchase – Loyalty

The support and feedback/share segments of the campaign model have not been addressed well by marketing, Berg criticized, adding that measures of success have tended to focus on metrics related to how long a person spends with a brand (e.g. web page views, total time spent, interactions).

“We need to stop elongating the game,” he said.  “Focus instead on how quickly and how well we fulfill needs.”

Berg also offered compelling comments on market segmenting as he admonished the need for another shift – away from “finding them” to “them finding you.”  Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a critical strategy.  Also, content such as video and white papers must be distributed beyond a web site to wherever customers are doing what they do.    

Ultimately, Berg underscored that superior performance is what’s going to drive people to talk and generate that precious currency known as word-of-mouth.  “This is where buzz comes in,” he said.  “One customer comment on a Facebook page, for example, can generate a ton of email inquiries, tweets on Twitter and ongoing conversations across many platforms.”

LINKS

Houston Interactive Marketing Association – http://www.houstonima.org

Scott Berg – http://www.hp.com/blogs/thechangingfaceofmedia

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“May the (social media) force be with you.”

June 28, 2009 at 5:31 pm · Filed under Facebook, marketing communications, nonprofit, social media, word-of-mouth ·Tagged , , , , ,

Expert tips and tools for nonprofit marketing communications

relationshipsListen, get involved, give up control, be honest and think long term to successfully tap into people’s motivations to change the world, according to Ed Schipul, CEO at Schipul – The Web Marketing Company. Schipul recently headlined an IABC workshop for nonprofit marketing communicators in Houston.

See several presentations at http://www.slideshare.net/eschipul.

“Social media is not about you; it’s about people’s relationships with you,” he said, underscoring the effort it takes to generate conversations. “Don’t just talk about yourself. Ask questions, engage people and link. Most of all, be inspiring.”

He said strive to earn trust so people will want to spread your message. “Listen, inspire, engage and let go. Don’t spin the truth. Be open, honest and transparent in everything you say or do.”

Schipul highlighted how storytelling tools on the web such as blogs can be combined with the art of listening to tap into material, social and ideological motivations. Quoting Katya Andersen of the Network for Good, he underscored that “the message is not about the charity; it’s about why the messenger cares.”

He said your organization’s story will be told most effectively with four elements: the message, conflict, characters and plot.

As an example, he highlighted the Houston Zoo’s celebration of the life of Mac, the baby elephant (www.houstonzooblog.com). Through the blog, the contest to name the animal garnered more than 7500 entries. A birthday card contest and sales of thousands of elephant adoption packets resulted in huge social buy-in.

When the beloved baby elephant died unexpectedly, the blog was expanded as a forum that helped turn the tragic loss into something positive to help a community heal. People engaged in telling personal stories, posting pictures, sharing video and zookeeper chats.

Technical tips and tools
The title of your blog post is highly important for search engine optimization.

Content with pictures increases readability and conversion rates.

Use tags to highlight additional things relevant to your topic that may have been left off the main blog post.

Assign a category to your blog post; it affects rank.

Weave your audience into your story and engage their participation by embedding at least one widget within your post, such as:
• www.intensedebate.com
• www.chipin.com
• www.polleverywhere.com
• www.polldaddy.com

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Facebook fuels social media mileage for YMCA of Austin

June 26, 2009 at 4:31 pm · Filed under Facebook, Twitter, communications, marketing, social media, word-of-mouth

ymca austin

As the Marketing & Communications Director for the YMCA of Austin, Sean Doles is the one-man graphic designing, media buying, internal and external communicating machine.  He’s in the beginning stages of integrating social media, particularly Facebook, into the central Texas nonprofit organization.

 

So far, the Y’s Facebook page is a platform for Doles to post pictures of events, programs, blog postings and links to interesting articles.  Ultimately, he wants to enable the Y’s members and program participants to do that, too.

 

“It seems a natural fit,” he said.  “We specialize in creating these communities – real communities.  This is just a virtual extension of what we’re already doing.  As a membership-based organization with a significant number of regular program participants, we’re in a tremendously advantageous position to utilize this platform and grow our informal communication network substantially.”

 

Doles says it’s not so much about building membership as it is about engaging, strengthening bonds and fostering communication among members.  “By sharing more information about what we’re doing as an organization, it strengthens their commitment to the organization.”

 

The Y’s Facebook wall has highlighted updates on the summer reading program, free swimming lessons, family fitness programs and more.  That’s the passive side.  On the active side, Facebook provides a forum for members to engage in dialogues about their experiences.

 

“It’s the kind of word-of-mouth that money can’t buy,” Doles says.  Ultimately, he feels that over time, stronger emotional attachments to the Y brand will manifest in levels of retention and charitable contributions.

 

“As a one-person operation, I wanted to find a couple of things that will be effective for critical mass with more versatility.  That’s why Facebook is so appealing.  You can do all these different things at no cost.”

 

He’s leaving the door open for the potential to use Twitter for brief updates on programs, events, links to useful articles and useful materials as well as reminders about deadlines for registration in Y programs.  “The Twitter communications would be soft, not blatant, sales pitches.  You really have to massage that well and stick to the unwritten rules of protocols of dialogue so people won’t tune out.”

 

Social media is also relevant to his grassroots strategy in media relations for the Y.  “There may be media folks who are following me on Facebook or Twitter, and that’s great,” he says. “But I’m still getting a lot of effectiveness out of traditional media through phone calls to assignment editors, pitch notes and faxed press releases.”

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