Killing It On Twitter – An Authentic Voice

June 18, 2012 by

Far too often, a brand or team’s twitter account comes off as a programmed, robotic feed of re-directs to products and links.  So many accounts are lifeless and dry, and show no signs of the personality behind the brand.

But for brands that work hard on creating an effective social strategy based around building relationships with their followers, Twitter is the perfect medium for a brand to show off its personality.  In this video, we’ll discuss how the L.A. Kings turned an innocuous tweet from a celebrity into an opportunity to show off a genuine, human side to their brand account, and the lessons you can learn from their engagement.

YouTube Preview Image

Want more?  Check out the full playlist of this series, and find Butch Stearns on Twitter.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Killing It On Twitter – Marketing Goals

June 14, 2012 by

What is the goal of your brand’s twitter account?  Too many times a social strategy  isn’t clearly defined, and as a result a twitter account isn’t used as effectively as it can be.

In part one of this series, we discussed how The L.A. Kings have successfully used twitter as a means to build a relationship.  A survey of 150 social media, advertising and marketing experts shows that the vast majority of experts believe that the most attainable goal a brand can achieve with twitter is to create awareness about a brand and products.  The L.A. Kings have solidified the messaging about their brand over twitter in the past few months, but there are plenty of brands that are struggling with this concept.

In this video, we take a look at some big-name twitter accounts that aren’t doing such a great job, and discuss how they may modify their digital marketing strategy for the better.

YouTube Preview Image

Want more?  Check out the full playlist of this series, and find Butch Stearns on Twitter.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, Digital Leaders, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Killing It On Twitter – Lessons From The L.A. Kings

June 12, 2012 by

A sound social strategy is all about building relationships and communicating with like-minded people.  Over the past few months, nobody has done a better job of this than The Los Angeles Kings team Twitter Account.

Since the start of the 2012 NHL playoffs, the Kings have surprised the league by rising from an eight-seed all the way to The Stanley Cup Finals.  They’ve also become the darlings of social media analysts by pushing all the right buttons on twitter with their fans, and fans of their opponents.

 

A socialmouths post on relationship marketing says that the main three steps to building relationships on twitter are to “Listen, monitor, communicate.”  In this video, we’ll take a look at how the Kings have followed those basic steps to combine success on the ice with a rise to social media stardom.

YouTube Preview Image

Want more?  Check out the full playlist of this series, and find Butch Stearns on Twitter.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Bitly Redesign and the New Coke

June 6, 2012 by

New Bitly…Same Great Taste?

Remember New Coke?  That oft ridiculed reformulation of everyone’s favorite soft drink that certainly did not bring a smile to its loyal fans.  New Coke has been on my mind (and other’s) as I look at the public outcry over the redesign of everyone’s favorite link shortener: Bitly

So what’s the big deal?  In the name of progress, Bitly has apparently changed something that people didn’t want changed – and kind of dropped it on the marketplace without a lot of notice.  Just like New Coke, which has become one of the most famous marketing case studies.  But unlike New Coke, there are a number of new features not available in the original that in the long run make Bitly a lot more interesting and potentially a lot more useful.  How so?  In short, the link shortening service has become more of a full-on curation platform with the ability to save, organize, share and manage bookmarks.

But for users just wanting to shorten their links, they now have to go through several (3) steps to get their shortened links vs. a simple copy and paste.  Which is what many users apparently still want to do!

What are the lessons here when you are creating a marketing plan for your next product launch?

  1.  Don’t take away something that your customers like
  2. Line up your brand advocates when you have a major product change
  3. Don’t discount the vocal minority (as Bitly’s CEO did in the TechCrunch piece) – word of mouth marketing often starts with a small, passionate group
YouTube Preview Image

So will Bitly bow to the outcry and make another revision?  In a reply to a VentureBeat article on the topic the company noted that “this is only the first phase of the evolving product and we’re going to continue to make fast iterations based on feedback we receive from our members.”

Sounds like Bitly Classic may be hitting the shelves shortly!

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, The Pulse on Marketing, The Pulse on Marketing Show Tagged With: , , , , ,

Media Use and Marketing Strategies-Thinking about the Trends

May 10, 2012 by

Marketers need to understand what consumers want so that they are able to set up a market that advertisers can standardize the way to sell into those markets. There are two dynamics in my marketing play book. The first is listening to what consumers want. A good way to start this is by looking at what channels users are on and see what channels are growing or shrinking. The second dynamic is participation. Users can share online coupons or by commenting on Facebook. A key to participation is that marketers have to realize which channels are deemed as participatory channels.

Through my marketing map, marketers should think about trends in 3 ways:

  1. Marketers should think ‘outside-in’ by listening, gathering preference data, investing in communities and earned media vs. paid media
  2. They need to pend less on broadcasting and mass media
  3. Finally, they need to look at growth rates and not absolute audience; along with the potential to drive participation and sharing

Below, I dicuss more trends that marketers should pay attention to.

YouTube Preview Image

Watch the rest of my series on media use and marketing strategies.  Also feel free to reach out to me with any additional questions, Tweet or email abonde@thepulsenetwork.com.

Filed Under: Content Marketing 360, The Pulse on Marketing Tagged With: , , , , , ,