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Controlling Your Online Reputation

Posted On: Category: Marketing Insights, TechnologyPosted By:

As we spiral into, or rather burst into an age where so much is controlled online, a new buzz word has come into mainstream. “Online Reputation” never really had a meaning before Google, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but now companies need to pay as much attention to this area of their business as they do their offline public relations efforts.

An interesting example of how online reputations can spin out of control is with Twitter. It’s free to sign up so you’ll find many imposters pretending to be another person or company. Often these fakes can get lots of followers and fool many people. Take for example this fake AT&T account, or this Steve Jobs account. Both fake accounts with thousands of followers and free to post whatever they want in the name of a real person and company.

User forums can be a great way for your customers to interact with your brand and each other. They can provide you great feedback and criticisms to help steer your business, but they can also get a bit ugly. When someone is behind the vale of anonymity that a user forum provides, they are free to say whatever they want without direct consequences. You might not tell an intimidating executive in person that his product stinks, but you probably wouldn’t have a problem with that if you were online and out of reach! It’s important to monitor your user forums to find inappropriate or inaccurate postings and remove them. However, you shouldn’t necessarily sensor or restrict users from expressing their true feelings about your business, even if they aren’t flattering. Instead have an executive in your business respond to the posts with the company’s position.

As an example of dictatorship-like control of a user forum, I once posted on the Apple forums that I was thinking about getting rid of my iPhone and replacing it with a Blackberry. I listed all the reasons and then sought people’s feedback. I never got any feedback from my post because within a minute or two of submitting my post it was deleted. I understand why it was deleted, probably automatically, because I used the word “Blackberry”, but in reality, this should have been valuable feedback for Apple and a chance to keep a customer.

What online reputation really boils down to is what appears when someone searches for your company name. If it’s a bunch of anti-you sites than that is definitely going to be bad. You can’t directly control what appears in the search results, but you can help effect it. Try the following:

 

  1. Be sure your employees have LinkedIn accounts and that they link to your company website.
  2. If you don’t have one, create a blog and add relevant and interesting content about your company and especially your industry.
  3. Setup active Facebook and Twitter accounts and be sure to maintain them.
  4. Create YouTube videos about your product or service and add relevant keywords and links to your company website in the description.

Keep in mind that search engines are increasingly adding live, up-to-date information to their search results pages, so you will start to see your Tweets and YouTube content show up under your company name. This is all good and essentially allows you to control what people are seeing when they search for you.

The online community is a wild untamed landscape, but that doesn’t mean you can’t maintain a polished image. Practice good social networking habits and keep quality up-to-date information on your websites and blogs, and you’ll have as much control over your online reputation as is possible. Resist the temptation to spend tens of thousands of dollars to have an outside firm do this for you, as there are many that would be willing to. Remember, they don’t have anymore control over the web than you do. You’re a willing (or unwilling) participant in this jungle so speak up!

The $30,000 Typo and the Value of Mistakes

Posted On: Category: Inside Structural GraphicsPosted By:

We never really discuss mistakes much because I think its human nature to avoid highlighting them in any way. In fact, most people get very uncomfortable at the mere mention of a mistake, especially in business, because it calls their own competence into question. Therefore, many organizations are doomed to repeat their failures.  I think most of you will agree that it’s more productive to recognize mistakes, make corrections and move on.

This week I was chatting with an old colleague from my days in magazine marketing. She was telling me how much our department had changed and then she brought up something I had forgotten about. It was one of the costliest mistakes in our department’s history and it was all mine.

In early 2000 I was a fairly new campaign planner for a large magazine with a circulation of more than two million. We were planning a subscription renewal test to see which price point attracted more subscription renewals. Oddly enough, you would think the lower price would win but that is almost never the case, but I digress. The test was going to go to about 100,000 subscribers and I was in charge of checking the art work and letter for all three versions to make sure they were cohesive with the various offers. For some reason, most likely because I’m a human, I missed the fact that the designer had put the same price point on all three versions. The mailing went out that way and the test was totally blown.

When I discovered the error I informed my boss, who then told her boss, who then told the publisher. I was never reprimanded, screamed at, made to feel bad, or anything at all. We simply had a meeting about what had happened and came up with a system to avoid the problem in the future. We wrote a new offer-coding system that allowed for fulfillment to immediately recognize an error in the mailing if one occurred. So in the end I really didn’t waste $30,000, I simply diverted the funds to be used in designing a new and better way of doing things. I like the way that sounds, but still I opted not to list that as one of my accomplishments on my resume.

I have to really credit the magazine I worked for. They knew mistakes were going to happen, but they also knew how to handle them in an effective way. I have experience in organizations where this was not the case. Instead there is a culture of fear. Usually this tone is set by the head of the company and it is made very clear that failure is not an option. Unfortunately, you can’t just say something and make it true, so despite management insisting on perfection, mistakes happened. Instead of dealing with them in an effective way, management came down hard on the offenders (or, human beings as I like to call them) and thus creativity, innovation and risk-taking was stagnated.

Have you taken a look at how your company deals with mistakes? Do you discuss them in an open and honest setting or are employees forced to hide from them, cover them up, or even worse, play the blame game? You may not have thought about this in the past, or even thought it mattered much. I believe it does. It’s all part of the culture of a company and ultimately, that culture is what attracts talent, keeps good people and produces results.

Here at Structural Graphics we make mistakes too. Gasp! Not all mistakes you can learn from, you just have to chalk it up to human error. However, there are those mistakes where we gain great insight into our processes and our people. We learn what we can and move on. Of course, as is always the case despite how we may feel during tumultuous times, the sun rises the next morning just as it has for billions of years.

What happened to DMDays and trade shows for that matter?

Posted On: Category: Events & Awards, Inside Structural GraphicsPosted By:

This week I spent a day at the DMDays conference in New York.  This was a conference that we had exhibited at for many years up until 2007. The show is much smaller than it used to be, but it was still nice to see a lot of familiar faces and visit with some new digital marketing companies. It was also a reminder of why we stopped exhibiting at the show.

I can remember the last DMDays show we exhibited at vividly. We were at our booth greeting people who walked around and realized that almost all of them were exhibitors themselves. The conversations always started like this; “so what do you guys do”? Or, “How is traffic for you guys”? It was painfully obvious that attendance had fallen sharply and the show was, well, dead.

Trade shows are a great way for us to interact with new prospects and hire good Live Talent to show off some of the cool projects we have done. I used to love meeting the people and watching their faces as I showed them how the latest design or technology worked. However, at some point the investment became far greater than the reward and that realization came during that last show.

Let’s consider for a moment what is involved in exhibiting at a trade show in New York, specifically the Javits Center, where DMDays was held up until this year. The fairly high exhibiting fee is just the beginning. We had to ship our booth by pallet to a holding center in New Jersey, then pay the DMA’s own “logistics partner” to bring it to the Javits Center. From there, we had to pay the Javits staff to fork lift it over to our booth. So how much does a fork lift ride from the loading dock all the way to our booth slot 100 yards away cost? Roughly, $225. Then of course there is electricity cost for two days (about $150) and cleaning services (about $100). And if you should need to rent anything like a chair or lamp, they will gladly provide that at roughly three times the cost of actually buying one. That’s no exaggeration.

We used to joke that the reason they can charge these fees and get $4 for a water bottle, or $15 for lunch is because it’s all fake money. When a trade show staff is expensing everything it really doesn’t matter, does it? So the end result is less small companies attend these shows and many larger companies simply scale back their trade show calendars as we did.

Getting back to New York, I was thrilled that they had finally moved the show from the Javits to the Hilton. It’s much easier to get to the Hilton in midtown Manhattan and for the exhibitors, everything is just a bit cheaper. I wish the DMA had listened to their members years ago when they complained about ridiculous fees from their logistics and services partners and of course the poor service that usually accompanies those fees.

When I was walking the floor at the new DMDays show I was remembering what it used to be. I was remembering the hundreds of exhibitors that came and the thousands of visitors the show once attracted. There’s no doubt that trade shows have been hit hard by a suffering economy and greater internet technologies allowing industries to interact like never before. But I also feel like they have grown into this big bloated industry hell-bent on taking advantage of companies, all in the name of being a part of an “important industry event”. For me, I will miss meeting a lot of people in the industry that I have come to know, or shaking hands with our clients and prospects that I only know by name. That was all a lot of fun. But for the cost of train fare and an exhibit hall pass, I’ll enjoy being a spectator.

Let’s get Personal!

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Marketing InsightsPosted By:

Personalization has long been a staple for marketers looking to increase response rates. Using variable data to make a piece truly unique is a time-tested and proven method. However, we took that one step further last year and introduced a line of dimensional direct mail pieces that can be printed digitally and personalized. So is this going to be a long and shameless plug? Well, some may see it that way, but I prefer to think of it as a wake up call!

When you combine a high-impact dimensional piece, which in its own right is a powerful ROI booster, with the benefits of personalization, you get amazing direct mail. Furthermore, if you have a good list you can really have some fun.

Personalization goes beyond seeing your name on a printed piece, although people love that. I don’t know what it is, but people like seeing their name and are always surprised by it. If you have the right data you can do so much more. What about sending a piece with geographically relevant images on it? For example, a recipient in New York can see the beautiful city sky line, while someone in Wyoming gets an image of a huge pasture with cattle grazing. They have cattle in Wyoming, right? Or, maybe a cruise line could send a piece to current customers featuring images from a cruise they have not been on yet. By the way, whenever I am fortunate enough to book a cruise we always receive brochures from other cruise lines all the way up to our sail date. What is the point of that?

Recently we offered a way to take personalization to the natural next step. Adding a personalized URL (PURL) to your piece adds a third element of engagement for the recipient. Several recent campaigns have used a personalized piece with a PURL and have seen great results. Let us combine all three of these elements along with a good list and compelling offer and well, you’ll have yourself a winner.

To learn more about BtoMe, our line of high-impact data-driven pieces click here.

Twitter Contest – Win a $100 Amazon Gift Card

Posted On: Category: Inside Structural GraphicsPosted By:

If you’re into Twitter you may be interested to know that we have a little bit of a contest going on, which is to say, we’re bribing people! We got the folks in accounting to authorize three Amazon.com gift certificates worth $100 each, and we’re giving them away to three lucky people on twitter. All you have to do is follow us on twitter before June 14th and you’re automatically entered into the contest!

I wanted to give away something super-sexy like an iPad but since the good people in accounting had no idea what that was they said no. But hey, a hundred dollars to spend at the largest online retailer isn’t too shabby, especially since all you have to do is click “follow” and you’re in! The three winners will be announced using Twitter on June 14th so be sure to check your account for direct messages! Oh, and we’re not one of those companies that has ten trillion followers but only follows a few people. We follow everyone who follows us.

Follow us now

Depending too much on volatile social networks

Posted On: Category: Marketing Insights, TechnologyPosted By:

There is no doubt that social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter offer unbelievable business opportunities. However, when businesses rely too much on the emerging medium, still in its infancy, there can be problems.

This week Twitter announced that it will no longer allow third-party applications to advertise in their live tweet streams. But guess what was announced last week? In-stream Twitter advertising platform, Ad.ly, just secured an additional five million dollars of angel funding. There is no word yet on how Ad.ly will deal with this, but it seems pretty bleak for the young startup. There entire business model will be obsolete when Facebook enacts this new restriction next month.

The folks who probably are affected most by sudden regulatory changes from the major social networks are developers. The rules for developers are constantly changing, especially on a major platform like Facebook. For example, Zynga, developers of Farmville and Mafia Wars, two of the most popular third-party apps on Facebook, face this same danger. What if Mark Zuckerberg, 26 year old CEO of Facebook, wakes up tomorrow with an itch in his throat and decides he doesn’t like cute little farm animals and doesn’t want them on his site?

Last year the enormously popular website Tr.im ceased operations. Tr.im was a service that allowed Twitter users to shorten long URLs to preserve space in their 140 character tweets. After offering the company for sale and failing to find a buyer, they had to shut down. A company representative said there was just no way to monetize their site traffic. Isn’t that something they should have thought of sooner? Anyway, all of the millions of people that used their shortened URLs now found them completely useless. Dead links everywhere!

Of course I am not advising that you drop your social networking efforts or cancel your Facebook account. We have seen lots of success driving new people to our brand through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. But with companies increasing their online spending every year, you have to wonder if some of them are putting all of their eggs in one basket. Smart marketers are finding ways to utilize digital and traditional mediums through highly effective integrated campaigns. These campaigns take advantage of the best of both worlds, which makes a lot of sense given how volatile online networks seem to be.

How Apple nearly cost me $500 for something I didn’t need

Posted On: Category: Marketing Insights, TechnologyPosted By:

Regardless of how you feel about Apple products there is no denying they are genius marketers and communicators. They run a very tight ship and heavily control the flow of information from their organization to the public. That’s the only reason why the recent iPhone 4G leak scandal was even a scandal at all. But that’s only part of what makes the folks at Apple geniuses.

When you see their advertisements, whether it be television, web, billboards (yes, there are Apple iPad billboards in Boston), or even those goofy highly-scripted spectacles that Steve Jobs puts on at a convention center every time they have a new product to announce; their marketing just makes you want to buy. Well, I should say “most of us want to buy” to be fair to those non-techy people like my wife who could care less about gadgets.  Apple’s marketing is very consistent. Images always have a clean white background with the product angled in a specific way and a nice reflection going through the top half. Their fonts are always bold, clean and crisp. You get the sense that the product is so special and so advanced it’s worth every penny of its usually high price tag. This could not have been more true for the recent release of the Apple iPad.

I watched the online video on Apple’s website where they take you through the iPad and talk about its functionality. The calm but dramatic voices of their engineers and product managers (the same people that appear on all Apple videos) just make the iPad seem magical. In fact, that’s how they describe the iPad, “magical”. Clearly, the iPad is not magical. It’s a series of wires and processors that form a really cool tablet. But despite the fact I had no practical use for the iPad, I really wanted one.

Later that week my wife and I were out and I asked her if we could take a stroll through Best Buy to checkout what all of the buzz is about regarding the recent iPad launch. She gave me a disapproving look and agreed on the condition that I would not buy anything. “Sure honey”, I agreed, “there is nothing I really need”.

I spent about 3 minutes playing with the demo iPad in the store when it suddenly hit me like a ton of bricks. I was disappointed to find that I really didn’t need or want the iPad. Yes, it was cool. Yes, it was slick looking and technologically advanced just like Mr. Jobs said, but I couldn’t find any reason to own one. It was then that I realized I was a victim of the brilliant marketing by Apple. Of course, no one will admit that marketing works on them. But in this case, Apple got me, hook line and sinker. Well, to be more accurate, they got me to the store, but they didn’t get my five hundred bucks.

So, is there a point to all this? Well, perhaps not a very compelling one, but there is a question. How can we as marketers sell our brand the way Apple sells theirs? I don’t mean be a follower or do what they do, because your brand is different. I mean, the kind of marketing that brings you to Best Buy on a typical Saturday afternoon for absolutely no reason.

The John Deere Paper Tractor wins First Place at the NAMA Awards!

Posted On: Category: Events & Awards, Inside Structural GraphicsPosted By:

Our John Deere paper tractor project won a First Place Award at the NAMA Convention (National Ag Marketing Association) last week. Ad agencies and companies throughout the United States submitted more than 465 entries for judging and recognition to this contest. “This is significant because the John Deere group won awards competing against the leading advertising and public relations agencies in the country,” said Barry Nelson, Manager, Media Relations, Ag & Turf Division. CONGRATULATIONS JOHN DEERE! To learn more about this project, click here.

Five Day Mail Service, Not so Fast!

Posted On: Category: Custom Design & Printing, Direct Mail MarketingPosted By:

The USPS announced last year that they were working on a plan to reduce the postal service delivery days to five, instead of the six we have now. Since then there has been vibrant debate on both sides of the issue. Some saying that the cost savings are a necessary step to reducing the multi-billion dollar losses each year. Others believe the measure goes too far and will ultimately hurt the USPS by reducing dependency on the mail service.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue it looks like you have at least six months to mull it over. Nothing happens quickly in Washington and the Postal Regulatory Commission is no exception. They have just announced a six month review period to discuss the effects of the proposal. In that time they will conduct town hall meetings in several major cities, hold hearings with Congress and review with major stakeholders.

What do you think about the issue? Will it affect the direct mail industry? Sound off below!

What Gary Vaynerchuk teaches us about passion and social networks

Posted On: Category: Branding, Ideas & Inspiration, Marketing Insights, Shout-Outs, TechnologyPosted By:

If there is one thing social media is good for it’s showing off your passion. People use sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to show off their passions for all types of things; politics, music, movies, etc. Businesses need to do the same thing with their social media efforts.

I just got finished reading the book “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of WineLibrary.com and Wine Library TV. This guy is a bit crazy but there is a fine line between passion and crazy. He absolutely loves talking about wine and he uses YouTube, Twitter and Facebook to do it. The main theme of the book is that anyone can build a successful business or brand using social networks, as long as they have passion for what they’re doing. Honestly, I don’t care much for wine. I couldn’t tell you what goes well with a steak, or what wine to bring to a shwanky dinner party; but when I checked out Gary’s YouTube videos I was hypnotized. His passion explodes on camera and even though I had no interest in wine, I watched a bunch of his videos. It will come as no surprise that Gary has built his Wine business from a $2 million a year wine store in New Jersey, to an enormous online wine empire.

You may be asking yourself how you can make your business interesting enough for Twitter or YouTube. The truth is with all of the millions of users online there is bound to be a community of fans. Not everyone’s business is as sexy as fine wine, but once you begin to put quality content online people will listen.

Your customers and prospects are online right now. Some are browsing Facebook pages, some are twittering their hearts out and some are perusing YouTube videos. Oh and some are reading blogs!

Thanks for stopping by.