Shall We Twitter?

You can say a lot in 140 characters or less! That’s the twitter way. Your success on twitter depends on the frequency of the updates, your tone, the content and how relevant what you say is. Be upfront about who you are and what you are trying to sell.

Your brand’s Twitter objectives should be to create as many followers as possible by having ongoing conversations and skillfully injecting your brand messages without it being very obvious. Don’t commercialize the channel as tweeters are very sensitive and can quickly respond with negative to perceived violations.

Five reasons to Twitter.

1. Twitter is Hot. Twitter can assist you with today’s trends - find out what's hot and what’s not.

2. Join the Conversation. Use Twitter to express yourself or your brands view point. Tweeting also helps you gain credibility and attract a following of believers that can help you spread your message – globally in any market possible!

3. Monitor Your Brand. By monitoring Tweets about your brand you are better able to know your customers needs, improve customer satisfaction and gather marketplace and product intelligence.

4. Satisfied Customers. Several brands have added Twitter to their customer service process with raving results – so much so that their customers are talking positively about it. They include JetBlue, Whole Foods, Dell and Starbucks to name a few. They have attracted a significant number of followers and built buzz about the responsiveness of their brand’s to service related issues.

5. Brand Promotion. Use Twitter to announce new services, new products, events, new clients, and just about any message you want to get out to the public and fast. See you on Twitter – Sojo’s Twitter

Delivering Your Brand

I had the opportunity to fly British Airways the fall of 2005 – all my friends and family have heard the story about the customer service representative who upgraded us to business class without telling me or my girlfriend. We were coming back from London on a girl’s only trip and had just had a blast in Paris, Zurich and London.

On entering the aircraft and looking for seats all the way in the back we noticed our seats didn’t seem to exist, until some kind stranger said – “those seats are to the front of the plain” note the British accent. After we got over the initial shock that we were seated in business class we quickly settled into our new seats. It was nothing like I had ever experienced – the seats could double as a bed and came with dividers so you could tune out other passengers when you were ready to get some ZZZs. The fight crew were amazing and just plain attentive. They kept giving us warm rags for our hands before and after every meal, and a menu that had five course meals like any five star restaurant, newspapers available in at least five different languages, and as many drinks as we could manage. What a life – I thought! We enjoyed the service so much we were surprised and disappointed when the pilot announced we were landing at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. We could have flown another seven hours.

I have told this story so many times that I was now an evangelist for British Airways and I know I have influenced my friends to fly them. In order to beat the competition and do more than just survive, brands must deliver more than expected, they must make the brand experience so memorable that people do exactly what I did – keep talking about it – hasn’t it been now almost four years!

Brands through digital communications can turn word of mouth brand evangelism into a major viral campaign. To be successful your brand has to be extraordinary – it must satisfy customers’ needs and expectations. Brands that fail – actually fail to deliver on their promise to their customers. In the digital world this type of delivery can really be fatal. It does not take much time to get angry customers riled up online. Start the process and see what your customers are saying about you and use this knowledge to improve your brand experience.

Social Networking Exclusively for the Wealthy

The very wealthy seem to have had it with the free for all mentally of the web and are launching their own networks. Most wealthy people are afraid to hangout on social network sites due to privacy issues or that’s what they claim and have been leaving Facebook and LinkedIn. Instead they have turned to social networking websites like Quintessentially, aSmallWorld, Squa.re and Diamond Lounge.

Some of these social networks mirror their offline counterparts with strict invite-only policies and rigorous application processes based on job title and connections. Squa.re and Quintessentially, are more lenient than most and only require an existing member to invite you.

Wealthy-consumer participation in online social networks is on the rise, according to a January survey by the Luxury Institute. 805 people were surveyed, each with a minimum gross annual income of $150,000 in 2008, of which 60% said they participate in a social network. Wealthy members in the leading social networks were 16% for MySpace, 13% for LinkedIn and 11% for Facebook.

The wealthy want to leverage the global social advantages of the web too – connecting with people of like-mind around the world from London to Dubai. So these exclusive networks offer them this very opportunity in a safe environment. They can connect online to find true love, find their next luxury yacht, similar to a Craigslist except its high-end, or find out which part of the globe has the best event for that weekend.

For those of you out there who are unhappy with the social networks that accept everyone – maybe a luxury social network is for you – let me know what you have to do to get into the club.
Please feel free to drop me a line if you happen to be a high-end social butterfly online – gibsons@sojoinc.com

Sojo, Inc. Featured on MSNBC.com

I invite you to read an article featuring Sojo, Inc. on MSNBC.com by Diane Mapes "Holy Twitter! They're tweeting from the pews"

Holy Twitter! They're tweeting from the pews

In April, interactive marketing firm Sojo, Inc. surveyed 145 churches with memberships between 500 and 25,000 and found that 32 percent of them said they use Facebook, 16 percent are on MySpace and 10 percent are on Twitter, with many more chomping ... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30970139/

Getting Back To The Basics

Too many marketers are caught up in the fringe benefits of being online, like pay-per-click, blogging and the latest SNS – Social Network Sites. This is of course extremely important but means nothing if your website is outdated and the web experience you provide for your customers has no impact. So let’s get back to the basics… (Download the PDF - http://www.sojoinc.com/pdf/perspectives_2.pdf)

A poor web experience may have a greater impact on a company's brand than a poor presentation or customer service call gone bad! The presentation and customer service calls all have the potential of a quick fix if there is a follow up visit or the next customer service representative gives the customer a better experience. But if a brand’s website fails to deliver on a promise, then visitors leave with a diminished opinion about the brand and the company…forever!

Your website is successful if your customers feel good about your site. Customer satisfaction online means a good web experience which translates into increased revenues and encourage customers to speak about your brand and company in a positive light. Instead of focusing on web analytics and counting how many people are coming to your site, start with how your customers feel about your website. You know this by your ability to engage them. Before beginning your website design project, get a plan together outlining your strategy to engage your customer. Be sure to measure how successful your engagement is. Feedback from customers in the form of a survey, an email or comment online is an engagement. Clicking onto your site does not mean engagement, it means foot traffic much like at the mall.

A customer that reveals something about himself or herself online mean they care, which means you have been successful in engaging them about your brand. Read more Sojo Perspectives

Send me your feedback about this blog entry directly to - gibsons@sojoinc.com

Marketing in Any Economy

Marketing today more than any other time in history is in constant motion. This is due in part to technological advances and to an economy that’s not just national but global. And just in case you have been in hibernation – both the Global and American economies are having a long winter and spring is not insight! (View Sojo Perspectives http://www.sojoinc.com/insight/perspectives.htm)

The economy changes like seasons of the year. Changing politics, the rise and fall of formerly main stay companies and financial institutions, Wall Street’s uncertainty, cultural diversity, apprehension of war, terrorist attacks and full blown out war all affect – your company’s survival. The take away is that your marketing cannot stop! History has proven time and time again that those companies who stay the course with marketing – SURVIVE!

Ignore marketing and prepare to be buried and it may not be by your competition as in the good old days. Today it could be your own employees, shareholders or customers. With that said marketing then is not just about advertising. It begins with your strategy. Do you have one? What is it? How did it come about? What type of research went into it? If you don’t have one then what marketing initiatives if any are you doing? How has the economy affected you and your customers today? What is your messaging to your customers, employees, shareholders and to the media? How do you manage your departments? By following basic marketing laws you can make your company profitable given any economy.

Communicate a position of confidence, stability and strength, and get the message out to your clients and customers. Many studies show that companies which slow marketing spending lose out now, as well as after a recovery. Let your customers know that they have picked a winner.

Some basic laws of marketing include: Market research; Create a message that represents what you stand for; Know your competition; Know your customer; Know how best to reach your customer – online – offline; Know what your customer expects from you.

Social Media and Social Consciousness

Integrated Marketing today involves more than advertising and direct mail. It’s about messages that can reach people around the world in an instant. It means being socially conscious and politically aware and it also means being able to communicate on a global scale. It means understanding your target audience – who they are – what they like - no matter were in the world they happen to live.

When I talk about integrated marketing with our clients – I make sure to include the Interactive/Digital components of their marketing, social media including how they will incorporate social networks – MySpace, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter, etc. and I always make sure their messages and actions around social responsibility are included.

For all of us involved in marketing today, you would have to be living under a rock to not know that as a marketer you now have to combine marketing innovation with social and environmental concerns. Better known as Sustainability Development and Marketing.
Sustainable development and marketing are concerned with how today’s business contributes to some of the most significant challenges the world faces in this century – from climate change and the environment, to health and safety for workers globally.

Companies create a competitive advantage by understanding the global communities in which they do business. In recent years, hundreds of companies have developed ethical reports and policies on environmental performance. These initiatives seem to appear more where consumers make decisions to switch brands that they feel do not respect social responsibility issues.

Integrating sustainability values into a brand can contribute to market growth, after all a company’s corporate responsibility can become that company’s differentiator in a market place where price and performance are the same.

Although a company’s brand is about value and self image, consumers want to know more about the company behind the brand. To understand just how relevant sustainability marketing maybe to your company or business – ask yourself and your team these simple questions:

Are social and environmental issues on the radar of our customers?
Do social and environmental issues have any impact on our product offerings or our company’s reputation?
Is our company’s survival threatened by changes in the global economy and environment?

History has proven that consumers naturally follow brands that lead. So as a marketer you must encourage brands that create sustainable principles. (Visit Sojo's Greener World - http://www.sojoinc.com/green/)