Influential Marketing Blog

6 Non-Salesy Ways To Ask Your Customers To Promote You

Want to know the #1 reason your customers don't recommend you to their friends? It isn't because they don't like your product, or because they don't care or are too busy. The real reason is either because you don't ask them to, or you don't make it easy for them to do it. If you ask them in the right way, however, the word of mouth referrals and additional business you can get from the experience will easily be more powerful that just about any other advertising or marketing you could do. Here are a few ideas for getting your customers to promote you to their family, friends and social networks in a way that won't make it appear as if you're paying them to like you:

1. Share the credit. When you create a new video using the software offered with the new Flip digital video cameras, there is an option at the end of the movie editing process to "share the credit" with Flip. Checking the box means that there will be a small screen that appears at the end of your movie saying that you created your masterpiece with Flip. It's a great and simple way to let their users "share the credit" with them (see image at the end of this post).
2. Let them be a fan. For those of you who are active Facebook users, this phrase likely has the meaning of creating a "fan page" but beyond Facebook, people often want to their circle of friends (and sometimes to the world) to know the brands they love. So on Facebook and even offline, give your customers and employees some visual way to declare that they support your brand. Give them t-shirts or bumper stickers. Let them put a badge on their blog or join your group on LinkedIn. However you do it, find as many ways as possible for them to identify themselves with you.
3. Encourage online reviews. It is no secret that online reviews can have big impact on whether someone decides to purchase something or not. Instead of getting customers to blindly fill out surveys or registration cards, try asking them to go online to a prominent site, or social network, or even their own blog and ask them to talk about their experience. Having these opinions searchable and public online will do far more for you than a great survey response.
4. Refer a friend. At one point it was common to see a "tell a friend" button on just about every website. Though that practice may not be as common as it once was, you should consider bringing it back for your site. Offline you can achieve the same thing through giving people extra business cards or other materials to pass along to their friends. Sometimes all you really need to do is make sure you are giving your supporters enough material to share with others.
5. Pass along an offer. Along similar lines is the idea of having a specific promotional offer that your customers can share with their contacts. Among the best types of offers are those which offer something for them AND something for your customer. One example is the friends and family discount that Clear Card offers. If you sign someone else up, you'll get a free month, and the person you sign up does as well.
6. Offer useful content. Nothing can promote your brand quite like offering content that solves a need. If you answer a customer's question or help them share something useful, you'll be one your way to getting them to promote your point of view just by passing the content along.

Example of "Sharing the Credit":

What Journalists Should Know About PR People

Yesterday I wrote a post about what all PR people should know about journalists.  One of the most frequent comments to that post was a request from many readers that I take the opposite approach and share what journalists and the media should know about PR people. So here's a starting list of what media should know about PR people:

1. Our own client's time isn't always ours. Often we would like nothing more than to have our client's entire rolodex at our disposal so we can accomodate any window you give us ... but sometimes it doesn't work that way.  Often, the person you most want to talk to for your story is also the busiest and hardest person to schedule. So give us a break if we can't always make it happen for you.
2. Sometimes we have to dump you for a better offer too. Admit it, if you found a better and more on point quote or source for your story, you'd dump us and our client to use it in a second. Just remember that sometimes we have the same situation. If a bigger or more relevant media outlet comes along and wants to do a story, we have to take it. Remember, we're all professionals trying to do the best job we can.
3. Cancellations are worse for us than for you. We hate to cancel a meeting or phone interview as much as you. Actually, we probably hate it even more than you ... because we know that not only are we reducing our credibility with you, but we're also making it harder for us to get future media for that client and it means we'll have to do twice the work.
4. The angle you're looking for isn't obvious. You may have a very clear idea of the story you want to write and feel that you have been forthcoming with it, but sometimes we don't get that picture as clearly as you think we do. So when we pitch a client or a story angle, sometimes it's not because we're trying to spam you, but because we are not quite sure how you'll write your story and think that we're on target.
5. Your promises become our promises. We know we shouldn't do this, but in a world of tight deadlines and clients demanding constant updates, often what you promise to us becomes our promise to the client. So if you don't follow through or decide to take a different angle, we're the ones that look bad. The best thing you can do is either avoid making a promise, or follow through.
6. Remember all the great stuff we do for you. We offer you writing that you can lift and claim as your own. We share new story ideas with you to make your job easier. We invite you to great press events, give you bags of schwag and treat you like royalty. In return, we have our ideas taken and used with no credit, are often treated poorly by clients and media alike and blasted as being "masters of spin" or "flacks." It's no wonder the PR industry as a whole has an inferiority complex. Just remember that it is often PR people that offer the infrastructure to let you do what you do. We don't need hugs or anything, but at least remember that the next time you want to "out" a PR person on your blog for sending you something that wasn't exactly on target.

NOTE: This post is a response to comments from many readers on my last post about "What PR People Should Know About Journalists." Before I was able to post this, Thomas Lee at 451 Marketing also wrote a similar response post worth checking out.

What All PR People Should Know About Journalists

There was a movie released several years ago where Mel Gibson played a character that was struck by lightning and all of a sudden was able to hear women's thoughts. His character was an ad agency executive (the unfortunate default Hollywood stereotype of choice to signify that he was a bit of an ass), and with his new power he uncovered many truths about women he would never have otherwise known. What does this have to do with PR you ask? Over the past several months, I've had the opportunity to attend several events registered as a member of the media as a result of my blogging and contributions to online publications. Being part of the media at these events, and having my blog has given me the chance to see hundreds of pitches and experience PR as a "target."

In those times, I've started to realize many things about the world of public relations that most journalists know and many PR professionals are blissfully unaware of. Though I typically describe myself first as a marketer and second as working in a large PR agency ... this education has been invaluable for me to understand the world of PR and how to work with my teammates better, as well as how to be more effective in a PR environment. Here are a few of the lessons I've learned that I'd like to share:

1. Your BS is obvious. Many journalists would describe their roles are professional truth-seekers. In this capacity, they are naturally skeptical and this combination means that their bullsh*t meters are higher than most. So don't bother with the press releases about hiring your new VP of Sales that no one has ever heard of. Not only don't they care, they can smell it coming from a mile away.
2. Timing trumps all. Journalists work with tight and sometimes unreasonable deadlines. As a result, they may not care about what you're pitching until they are right in the middle of it. Then they care a lot. What this means is that sometimes you need to focus less on what your message is, and more on when you deliver it. The good news is that as more journalists use tools like Twitter or Facebook to update their status, it is easier to know when is a good time to connect with them and when you might want to hold off on sending that email.
3. Reputation matters. Delivering the right source for a story or failing to deliver is something that members of the press will usually remember. Having interviews fall through at the last minute can cause big problems for journalists on tight deadlines, so you need to manage your reputation and relationships extremely well. Burn a reporter once and you'll be fighting an uphill battle the next time. Have it happen twice and you may as well give up any hope of placing a future story.
4. Features are not as important as an angle. This may seem obvious, but it's amazing how many pitches focus on all the great features of a new product or service. Or all the things it can do for its customers. Journalists are trying to build a story. So give them one to report about your product instead of just offering the facts. This often means giving context to those features and sharing the backstory behind them.
5. Speed and contactability can make the difference. Another thing that social media tools can offer you is the ability to be "always on" for people to connect with you. Sometimes that's not a good thing and unplugging is a necessity for all of us ... but giving journalists multiple ways to contact you and being available when they need a question answered is critical to getting your story included.
6. Peer pitching works. It is much easier to "pitch" a story if a member of the media could consider you a peer instead of a hired flack selling a story. I have often called this concept "circular media" - the idea that each of us can be part of the media for the content we create, and it is easier to relate to one another on this level. Not only is this good for relationships, but it also helps you to sympathize with journalists if you yourself are on the receiving end of more than a few clueless pitches.

Update - Read a post from the opposite point of view ... What Journalists Should Know About PR People

Friday Poll: Do "Social Media Experts" Need A Blog?

Earlier today I posed a question on Twitter about whether anyone calling themselves a "social media expert" should be required to have their own blog or at least contribute to a blog. It was inspired by the recent trend that many people have noticed of everyone who has ever visited a blog claiming that they are an expert on all forms of social media. And as some people noted, it was also a subtle comment on the fact that there are even people that do title themselves as a social media expert (which, by the way, I have never called myself - I prefer to describe myself as a Professional Marketer - or as an Author now that I have a book.)

Regardless, I also promised to make the results of the poll public, so without further ado - here are the updated results through 2pm EST based on the responses received on the first poll, as well as the second edition when the first one hit 100 responses and automatically closed.

Question: Can you be a "social media expert" if you do not have (or contribute to) a blog?

• Yes - having a blog is optional (61 responses - 51%)
• No - no blog = not an expert (58 responses - 49%)

These results in themselves were interesting (I actually thought a lot more people would respond "no" but it turned out to be evenly spread), but the reasoning and comments that some responders left were also illuminating. The full list of comments is included as a downloadable PDF as the end of this post, but the responses mostly fell into one of four categories:

1. Yes, blogs don't equal social media. Several responders noted that blogs are not the only type of social media and felt that saying you needed a blog in order to understand social media was the same thing as saying you needed to drive one particular brand of car in order to get a driver's license (or, my favourite analogy from the responses, saying men shouldn't be gynecologists!).
2. No, blogs are the cornerstone of social media. Most of the people who responded that it was indeed necessary to have a blog to be an expert reasoned that though blogs are not the only part of social media, they are easily the most visible and therefore can be used as a barometer to see if someone qualifies to be an expert or not.
3. Yes, people's blogs are hidden. This was a point of view I didn't even think of, but sometimes you cannot tell if someone has a blog because they may blog privately or on a corporate intranet. You could argue that this means they do have a blog, so this response should actually go the other way, but it's an interesting point of view anyway because it forces you to not be so quick to judge.
4. No, calling yourself an "expert" means you're a wanker. Many people felt that calling yourself an expert of any type, social media or otherwise, was a sure sign that you actually weren't. This was something of a non-answer to the actual question, but interesting to note that there was this backlash against the idea of people self identifying themselves as "experts."

Thanks to everyone who participated - all in all, I think it was a successful Friday poll experiment. Maybe I'll turn this into a weekly series if people find it useful ...

How To Use Curation To Make Your Blog Better: Lessons From Postsecret

If you talk to most successful bloggers today, they will likely tell you that some part of the formula for their success has been their ability to adapt their blog to what people actually wanted to read and interact with instead of sticking to a closed vision of what their blogs should or could offer. Last night I had the chance to participate in a great event put on by Shashi and his crew from Network Solutions to promote their new online community called LinkTogether. The two speakers were Frank Warren, the founder of Postsecret.com and myself. As I listened to Frank talk about the rise of Postsecret from a local art project in the DC area to one of the top ten blogs on the Internet today - the word curator came to mind to describe how he treats his blog.

Curation evokes that powerful idea of working on something larger than yourself. Museum staff curate the works of art and historical significance that line their walls. National archives that store the lessons of the world's past are similarly curated. It also applies to what Frank does as he sorts through thousands of heart felt secrets that people send him each week, and chooses a new 20 to post on his blog every Sunday. On the surface, this type of blog is the exact opposite of what most blog consultants would tell you to do. Frank has very little editorial or information about himself. There is hardly any branding on the site, his email address to contact him is hard to find, there is no archive of old content, and he only posts once a week,

Undeniably, for his site, this works. Here are a few counterintuitive lessons I took from Frank about using this curation model to make your blog more successful. I'm hoping to put some of these lessos to work for my blog:

1. Focus on quality instead of quantity - Frank may be in the enviable position of getting all his content sent to him for free, but his painstaking effort in going through and selecting the best postcards shines through. It makes the fact that he only posts once a week less important.
2. Put yourself in the background - This is something most bloggers don't do well (including myself). But on Postsecret you won't find big headshots and bios of Frank. The site is about the secrets and anything else is extraneous to his mission. My big lesson from this is that sometimes the best thing you can do is try to leave your ego behind and just focus on creating the best content possible.
3. Make it harder to find you, but welcome those who do - It's not easy to find Frank's email address, and he likes it that way ... but for those who do and email him, they can expect a warm thoughtful response and for a relationship to start. He often asks people to share more details about their secrets with him, and even has a postcard he will be publishing this weekend that a guy will use to propose to his girlfriend with while they read the site together.
4. Become what your site needs you to be - This may seem like a bit of zen advice, but much of what Frank talks about accidentally goes in this direction as well ... perhaps the result of his spending the better part of every day carrying around other people's secrets. He shared in the meeting how Postsecret helped change him into a person with a mission and allowed him to become the curator that the site needed. I can see why Hollywood producers are hot to talk to him - it could make a great movie.

If you believe in Frank's mission or want to support the great work that he is doing to bring his message of hope to the world, you can ATTEND HIS SPEAKING TOUR (see video below) which is starting today and will bring him around the country or PURCHASE ONE OF HIS BOOKS. And while you're at it, think about what Frank's lesson of curation could do for your blog. I'll be doing the same thing.

A Trailer for Frank Warren's PostSecret 2009 Event Tour.

Letter To The CEO: 6 Ways To Help Your Brand Survive In 2009

Several months ago, I was invited by Jeff Rohrs of ExactTarget to participate in a smart campaign they put together to get a few marketing minds to write a fictional "letter to the CEO" about what they would recommend to do differently in 2009. Jeff and his team have put all these suggestions together into an attractive PDF which you can download at http://www.exacttarget.com/letters. It features thinking from people like Andy Sernovitz, Ann Handley, Pete Blackshaw and many others, including myself. Here's my contribution below - and you can download it in PDF format too.

LETTER TO THE CEO:
==================
I know you’re working on some big changes right now. You mentioned that you don’t plan to walk into 2009 with the same plan you had for 2008 and you’re looking for some ideas on how you might want to focus your attention. Here are some thoughts that might help:

1. Don’t force a comparison between 2009 and 2008. If your team feels like the only way to explain something to you is in terms of comparing it to last year, they won’t try something new at exactly the time when they should. Give them the right incentive to experiment.
2. Find a way to embrace your accidental spokespeople. In the social media era, anyone can be a spokesperson for your brand, from regular employees to passionate customers. Find a way that your brand can connect with these voices and amplify them.
3. Measure effectiveness, not volume. Forget the days of reporting about the millions of impressions that you received and patting yourself on the back. You need to let your organization know that management doesn’t care about the impressions. What you do care about is sales and effectiveness, which sometimes means the numbers will be far smaller. To explain it, use this line: "I want us to reach the right 500 people instead of the wrong 5 million."
4. Do whatever it takes to listen more. Your customers are talking online about your brand right now. If you’re not listening to them, your competitors will. And, they can use that knowledge to try to steal your customers. More importantly, your customers will leave for brands that ARE listening. So ask your team what’s their listening strategy, and if they don’t have one, force them to get one.
5. Lock customer service in a room with marketing. If you think I’m exaggerating, I’m not. Only good things will happen if you force these two groups to talk to each other in a way that they usually don’t. Maybe you need to literally lock them in a room, or change a seating arrangement, or set up a buddy system. Whatever you do, by getting these groups to communicate more, you’ll uncover (and start to fix) problems you didn’t even realize you had.
6. Make authenticity a priority. At the base of most of these suggestions is a corporate culture shift that means you need to get your team to re-focus on authenticity. This comes from the top. So lose the corporate jets and find a more reasonable way to demonstrate you’re a real person. Start by taking a few employees out to lunch and go from there.

Being Faceless & Telling Secrets On January 14th

This is going to be a great week, with two events coming up on January 14th that I'm particularly excited about and will definitely be worth your time if you can make them. The first is a virtual webinar event that anyone anywhere in the world should be able to dial into, and the second is a fun networking gathering in the Washington DC area for those who live here, or are willing to take a plane, train, boat, monorail or automobile to join us. Here are some details:

"Don't Be Faceless" FREE Webinar: Learn 7 Essential Social Media Techniques for PR Success
Wed, Jan 14th - 3pm to 4pm EST

This webinar is one I am hosting for the PRSA and am getting reports from them already that it may be their most highly preregistered seminar ever, with over 2000 sites registered to listen in. As part of the talk, I'll share seven tips on using the personality of your brand to achieve PR success, including several case studies and tips from the book that I've never spoken publicly about. In addition, at the end you'll get a secret link to purchase a signed copy of my book along with 3 other special pieces of bonus content that I've also never offered directly before. Visit this site to learn more and sign up - it is completely FREE.

Evening Social Networking With Frank Warren From PostSecret
Wed, Jan 14th - 6pm to 8pm EST (Rockville, MD)

If you haven't visited PostSecret.org, take a moment and click the link. Now imagine you had the chance to meet the custodian of all these secrets. His name is Frank Warren, and I am honored that I'll have the chance to see him again at a networking discussion that Shashi of Network Solutions is organizing for the local blogging community. Meeting and listening to Frank is an amazing experience. You can read hundreds of stories on blogs of how he connects with people through his ability to actually care about other people and offer them a sympathetic ear to tell their secrets without being judged. His is a powerful idea - that sharing a secret can transform your life and the lives of strangers who hear it. When I talk of karma or personality in business, his is an example worth considering. Frank's calendar is packed with big auditorium appearances, and this will be a rare chance to see and meet him in a more intimate setting. Even if I weren't part of this event, I would go just for that ... and so should you.  Note: RSVP is REQUIRED

3 Unlikely CES Standouts: A Case, Mat and Radio

Since CES is the biggest tradeshow in the electronics industry and features some of the best new technology and hottest gadgets in the world. So it's more than a little odd that my three picks for standouts at the conference can be described in relatively simple and non technical terms. This doesn't mean they don't use technology or innovation, but looking at some of the best ideas from the show, these three examples are worth checking out:

#1 - Eton Radios
I never would have thought you could describe a radio with a handcrank as beautiful, but these radios truly were. From their beautiful matte finish to the way all the knobs and components fit together, the radios were designed to be works of art. Fortunately, they are also highly functional. You can buy the big one for about $50, and get a radio, flashlight, and lots of other emergency tools built in. They sell in bulk to hospitals and have a partnership with the Red Cross, but don't be surprised to find them at Target soon. Being caught in a huge storm or blackout without electricity never looked so good.

#2 - Cocoon Bags
These bags were getting a lot of attention at the show because of the smart use of elastic grids to hold just about anything in place. The founders were clearly worried about knockoffs of this simple idea, as he mentioned their patent pending status several times, but it's a brilliantly simple new idea that makes their bags worth checking out. They ship them to retail in April or May of this year.

#3 - Powermat Wireless Charging
This was one of the few booths that had a bouncer at the door and was only letting media or buyers in, and by appointment only. I managed to get in and get a demo where they talked about using some sort of magnetic radiation to charge your devices without plugging them into anything. I'm not sure that I understand the technology behind it, and the obvious concern with it would be frying your portable memory sticks in your devices with the magnets ... but if it works it has amazing potential. The second video below is a demonstration of their vision for the "kitchen of the future."

While these three examples were interesting, some of you may still be longing for a more "gadget" oriented video. Check out the following compilation of three manufacturers all producing mind-blowingly slim LCD monitors. Each had amazing picture clarity, were less than an inch thick and had crowds of people surrounding them and dreaming of owning one. Ultra-thins make flat screens look like they are for amateurs.

Victorinox Introduces A Swiss Army Knife For Your Powerpoint

One of the new arrivals to the Consumer Electronics Show this year is Victorinox celebrating their 125th anniversary by taking what many may consider a traditional and storied toolmaker and planting one foot firmly in the land of consumer electronics. Here at the CES Victorinox is set to announce their newest product, called Presentation Pro, which will be available to consumers in May of this year. The new knife follows the same form as the SwissFlash (a USB flash drive encased in a small sized Swiss Army Knife cover), but has several integrated new features including Bluetooth connectivity to advance slides and a laser pointer to point to stuff (and presumably for self defense too, since it's an Army Knife after all!). The most thought out aspect is an integrated fingerprint security feature where you can secure your data on the flash and ensure that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Aside from giving you super spy status for having a gadget this cool, you'll get the usual Swiss Army Knife features like the knife and scissors. Unless of course you happen to be flying, in which case they'll offer a "flight friendly" version with no knife or scissors.

Here is a short video where Victorinox President Rick Taggart introduces the Presentation Pro:

What You Can Learn From Ketchup & Microchips

In 1991 Intel did something that changed the marketing world forever. Realizing that as a microchip maker, it would be very difficult to advertise their products to end consumers who were buying a machine and not a chip, Intel created a co-op marketing program. The premise of it was simple and brilliant. Instead of spending their marketing budget on their own ads, they would build something akin to a sponsorship model where they would offer cobranded marketing funds to their partners if those partners would feature Intel's brand and messaging in their ads. Thus the distinctive Intel four note chime and "Intel Inside" program was born [click here to read a full case study].

It's been nearly three decades and surprisingly few other brands have taken this strategy to heart. Recently, however, I saw an intriguing ad for a fast food chain, where alongside the photograph of the fictionally juicy burger, there was a small branded plug for Heinz ketchup. "Ketchup Inside," so to speak. Unless you happen to fit into a category like my brother, or Kaitlyn, chances are you don't consider ketchup a food group to be eaten alone. Ketchup goes with food, and it goes perfectly with some foods. Who would eat fries or a burger without ketchup?  Ketchup, like Intel, can be considered an ingredient brand.

Many of us tend to focus our marketing efforts solely on situations or messages where our brand is positioned as the hero. Sometimes it's a much better marketing strategy to sell your product or service based on the things that it goes with. The legendary "Got Milk?" campaign realized this, and it led to some of their most popular ads like the guy with peanut butter stuck to his mouth or the one with the other kid with a face full of cookies and no milk. Sometimes the best strategy you can have isn't to just promote what you're selling, but to focus on what your customers use it with.