There's hardly a week goes by when I'm not asked about the business value of Social Media and the benefits a Social Media Agency such as ours (unashamed plug) can bring to the table — An Agency can also work in unison with Sales, Marketing and IT and in many cases help overcome some of the corporate departmental silos; it's also cost-effective. When Marketing and Sales combine it's Smarketing. These days IT should be involved — so lets call it "Smarketing-IT"
In a recent Promotional Products Industry article two recent studies conducted this past year aimed to answer what is the value of Social Media.
Social Media has a strong impact on sales as well as brand perception, according to Ogilvy's recent study "Does investing in social media create business value?" The main points of the study stated:
Social media exposure is directly linked with increases in sales. Integrated social media (social content plus one or more channels) exposure is linked to significant increases in spend and consumption. For example, social media plus PR exposure was associated to a 17-percent spend increase compared to the prior time period without these.
People who were exposed to social media plus TV were twice as likely to buy.
People who were exposed to social media were seven times more likely to spend more.
Social media plus out-of-home exposure was linked to a 1.5 times higher likelihood of increase in spend.
Exposure to social content was most consistently effective when it was combined with exposure to other types of media channels.
As marketers, we consistently ask ourselves what value social media brings to us internally. A recent study by CMO Council and social CRM firm Lithium found that in addition to building loyalty among customers, social media outreach has influenced marketing operations. Of those marketers surveyed, 55 percent said social media improved customer listening, engagement and conversations, and another 55 percent said it opened new avenues to gather and further market insights. Also, five percent said it helped lower the cost of customer service.
These numbers state the facts. Social media, when done right, can have a big impact on business value and relationships with customers. It also helps change our sometimes "drive-by" thinking and allows us to focus on building long-term relationships with our customers.
Source: Ekaterina Walter is a social media strategist for Intel and a self-proclaimed bookworm. Read her blog at www.ekaterinawalter.com.
Perfect day! Dark and gloomy, occasional light rain falling on saturated ground — sure beats those endless balmy days of beach and sunshine when you just HAVE to go out.
I was having a good chuckle at a recent joke I was forwarded on having a "Chill Pill", it goes like this.... "the world would be a nicer place if everyone would take a chill pill – it would get even better if some of them choked on it" lol
Health and Wellness — After doing some recent posts on
Disruptive Overload and how it's become a productivity and more seriously a health and wellness issue. Why have now soooo many people have reached this stage?
We've managed to find a good "work and play" balance — well most of the time, occasional falling off that cart and paying for it royally when I do — more recently I've had casual and in-depth conversations with those who wish to emulate the same balance we enjoy (as much as we can) And wanting to know how to employ it.
Some of our top tips would be:
- Be passionate about a Sport or pastime you love and absolutely HAVE to do.
- "Work" is a "four letter word", FUN is three! — WE love having FUN!
- Forget the guilt trip if you feel you should be working or obliged to stay connected. Yes, there is an "off" button; use it. You'll be amazed on how your mindset changes and how much more productive you'll be totally "refreshed"
- There's "Work" and there's "Work you can Enjoy". I prefer the latter and sometimes we just need to sit down and evaluate just what we want and really need. As most Entrepreneurs will tell you that there is an exorbitant price we pay in time for the passion for our business. The hours can be incredible, but I've found that the brief time away doing the sports I'm passionate about gives me that recharge and that work - play balance ; many times it feels like a whole day off!
- Sometimes you just have to say "no" (in the nicest possible way of course!)
- Connect to nature, a walk on the beach, a hike on a path. You soon forget the everyday hassles. It's the way our mind process stuff; it makes us HAPPY
This is stuff most of us already know and yet most don't employ it. I've always considered "Time" is our most valuable commodity", of course the recent movie "Time" gives it a more interesting perspective
take that first step... You'll be surprised
With increasing Consumer awareness of enviromentally friendly promotional products and demand for information has spurned another sustainable solution — the "Apparel Index." Soon to be released offering consumers informed choices for Apparel.
Almost a year after its announced launch, the Sustainable Apparel Coalition is on the cusp of releasing its Apparel Index, a sustainability rating tool designed to help companies understand what's being used to make their products and the impact of apparel supply chains. Set for a mid-year release, the Apparel Index will cover sustainability and environmental factors like materials, packaging, manufacturing processes and transportation. The Index will likely be modified later this year to account for social and labor considerations. And, an index rating the sustainability of footwear is also in the works, the coalition says.
News of the Apparel Index's near-release comes as the coalition recently appointed its first executive director, Jason Kibbey, the CEO and co-founder of PACT, a company that makes organic underwear, socks and shirts. Speaking to greenbiz.com, Kibbey said, "I got involved with PACT partially because I saw the potential to create a different kind of brand that could ideally change how people thought about buying apparel. I felt like the coalition was an opportunity to do the same thing."
Since beginning last March, the coalition's member list has expanded to include a wide range of apparel industry leading brands, such as Gap, H&M, Nike, Patagonia, and Columbia Sportswear, as well as retailers like JC Penney, Kohl's, Target and Walmart. Greenbiz.com reported that the coalition's member list accounts for 30% of worldwide apparel sales.
For the full article CLICK HERE. 
Have you ever thought "I wished I thought of that"?
Tonights Shark Tank contenter and new innovative to the promotional product industry... "Clean Bottle".
How many reusable water bottles end up with a collection of grunge in the bottom (not that anyone would ever forget about leaving water bottle on a bike with some water in it; really?).
Already available in the retail stores like REI, Dicks Sporting Goods, Performance Bicycle etc it now can be imprinted for any number of events Sporting, Charitable and Philanthropic particularly for Volunteers, Biking, Golf, Beach and the list goes on...
Dave the founder of Clean Bottle had this to say about his product:
"The idea for Clean Bottle came to me, as many of my best ideas do, on a bike ride. Earlier that day I had gone to fill up my bottle only to find what looked like a science experiment gone wrong. Mold had grown all over, creating a stinky, funky mess. I had to chuck it because I knew I couldn’t clean it out.
As I pedaled up the trail the thought occurred to me: why not have a bottle that unscrews at the top and the bottom? That way, I could easily clean it out if it gets funky, and dry it out thoroughly so it doesn’t get stinky in the first place".
"4 factories, 54 prototypes, 2 patent applications and 3 years later we present to you the Clean Bottle. It took a long time to get it right, but we think you’ll agree that it was worth it."
We liked the product immediately after a brief demo at the the Promotional Products Convention. More-so as 10% of the profits go to eco, water related and cycling friendly charities and you can actually vote on your preference on their website here.
We have a sample to test and putting it to good use; it seems to be well made and the body is Made in the USA. Apparently though the molds for the remaining parts are coming back to the US, so it will be a full domestic made product according to their representative a the show. The imprint area is quite large, so plenty of room for a QR codes or AR codes to launch back to your site or landing page. A Mobile campaign or Eco Program would be a good idea too.
Check out the antics of "Bottle Boy", it's a good chuckle.
It's epidemic and unsustainable; a recent phenomenon which seems to particularly afflict Entrepreneurs, internet marketing specialists (there's just so many changes) and corporate world in general — it's getting a great deal of attention for remedial solutions – "Disruptive Overload".
Simplify and Focus? — With the plethora of new social marketing tools and Change Velocity of technology, it's becoming ever more important to have a system(s) in place to avoid the ongoing distractions that come with the territory, but allow the time to effectively "Focus" on the job at hand, which interestingly increases productivity, bonus!
One of the first methods we've recently implemented is having a total lock-down to work on a project or program for at least 60 minutes ; have email "pull' at an hourly interval, then social channel feeds viewed at the end of that period too — It works, particularly on collaberative efforts.
Time of day is important and I personally feel like a "Gofer" coming up for air after an hour.
It definetly gives you the time to totally concentrate without Distraction and allows working at peak performance. The project is completed faster too.
There's some pretty interesting statistics and research why this would be so effective; it takes 45 minutes to get back to 100% concentration. That's why ongoing distractions have such a negative effect, being overwhelmed is one of them for us multi-multi-taskers.
Time for a "Not-to-do" list?
- Collaborate: Stop being a lone ranger and collaborate more. Time to Outsource some of that work load.
- Focus: Stop answering the phone, responding to e-mails and checking those social channels if you are in the middle of working on something else.
- Minimize the multitasking; you're sabotaging yourself and your productivity
Now let me grab that call; that tweet, that text.
As C Gens' digital-natives' enter the work-force and progressively expand their corporate footprint; many industries will go through a facelift and will most likely change more in the next five years than in the previous 20. There are many implications – see the Rise of Generation C, Implications for the World of 2020.
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Traditional business models that are not investing in the right type of technology and developing more integrated marketing leveraging social platforms and those that have a status quo business strategy – will almost certainly lose market share at an increasing rate.
As in most industries, you will be in one of two camps: you either acknowledge the change or you think business will stay status quo and these younger generations will fall in line (good-luck). If you believe the technology-enabled generation will require a different strategy, follow some of these tips for succeeding in a Generation C world:
1. Don't fight the change. Embrace this shift, the better you will be positioned to thrive.
2. In five years, with your current strategy, will you and your business be better off or worse?
3. Make the investment. Either through hard cash or strategic partnerships, find a technology investment that you're confident will give you a competitive advantage
How then do we connect with our "C Geners'" and what makes them tick? Nielsen's blog could well have some of the answers: The Connected Collective (not to be confused with Star Treks "The Borg") described the main points and provided several tips for content creation and social marketing.
Five Tips For Creating Content For Generation C:
- Keep it relevant, useful and entertaining
- Enhance social status within tribes
- Ask for a reaction and have a fun social interface
- Connect Gen C members with each other, not just with a brand
- Enable Gen C to participate in, play with or produce themselves and pass -on
Which leads us to the next revolution "Mobile Marketing"...
Following up on a tweet yesterday on the rise of C Gen in social marketing; there have been only a few times in history when entire generations followed a different path than their predecessors in business. A number of approaches to business and sales strategies have remained consistent over long periods of time, but right now it's one of those rare moments.
Moore's law says that technology performance doubles every 18 months and the expedential increase we are now seeing is being referred to as "change velocity'; this evolution is shifting business strategies to the extent that the younger generation does business very differently than older generations. PR and marketing methods employing new inbound strategies; inclusive of analytics, are rapidly rising to the fore.
Whether you are buying a new car, buying promotional products or communicating with your friends, you're certainly doing it differently now than you did 20 years ago.
a February article in Strategy+Business suggests the a typical C Gener' circa 2020 would be like to have the following characteristics: Colin is a 20-year-old computer science student living in London with two other students in the year 2020. He enjoys backpacking, sports, music, and gaming. He has a primary digital device (PDD) that keeps him connected 24 hours a day — at home, in transit, at school. He uses it to download and record music, video, and other content, and to keep in touch with his family, friends, and an ever-widening circle of acquaintances. His apartment is equipped with the latest wireless home technology, giving him super-fast download speeds of up to 100 Mbps.
They're connected, communicating, content-centric, computerized, community-oriented, always clicking. As a rule, they were born after 1990 and lived their adolescent years after 2000. In the developed world, Generation C encompasses everyone in this age group; in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), they are primarily urban and suburban. By 2020, they will make up 40 percent of the population in the U.S., Europe, and the BRIC countries, and 10 percent of the rest of the world — and by then, they will constitute the largest single cohort of consumers worldwide.
to be continued
As Social Marketing and Philanthropic Marketing continues to grow at an ever increasing rate, a new degree of accountability for companies shows "that success in business in the end is more about being aligned with consumer culture than just being aware of 'new' techniques and technologies" according to a new report by TrendWatching called "Flawsome".
Image by Russ Frushtick
It goes on to say "Brands that are honest about their flaws, that show some empathy, generosity, humility, flexibility, maturity, humor and dare we say it, some character and humanity".
There's a good number of companies that have a long history of "doing the right thing" but have never expected much in the way of recognition either. These will be the companies that potentially will reap the most benefit from their actions in 2012 onwards as communities and the public at large learn of their charitable sponsorship, donations and volunteerism via Social Media.
Latest news: In today's article via emarketer on the topic of "Measurement Challenges Stump Marketing Executives" Full Article is more than enough reason why an Inbound Marketing platform and a integrated CRM system should be deployed by the majority of companies and non profits large and small.
Assuming Social Media, Promotional Products and Incentives with QR codes is part of the equation even more-so. Isn't time to consider a platform like HubSpot for cost effective analysis of your campaign to quantify results in preparation for the next more effective campaign?
the article goes on to say... Most marketing executives expect campaigns to be measured, but not many feel they can effectively measure the return on investment of their programs, including social media. While there are many tools at these marketers' disposal, challenges related to measurement are still top-cited concerns.
If the issue is the need of expertise for inbound and social marketing campaigns there are companies such as ours (shameless plug) that can help with the heavy lift and can work in collaboration with Marketing, Sales and IT departments
For more information on Internet Marketing click here for downloadable eBook
One of the latest trends "Eco-Cycology" reported in the latest TrendWatching briefing, shows how companies are working on taking back all old items from customers, and then actually doing something constructive with them.
In Europe the regulations have become much tougher and many Brands in the US like Nike, Patagonia for example are implementing their own eco program stategies, Dell for instance will take back electrical equipment at participating Goodwill locations.
Numerous states and cities in the US such as San Diego, Seattle and San Francisco have initiated their own programs with changes in recycling laws.
There's plenty of opportunity to "get creative" with Social Marketing and Philanthropic Marketing with programs like these, for instance several years ago we were involved with a Christmas competition for an Engineering company that had each department create a Holiday Gift out of recycled or waste materials, which was then sold off to the highest bidder to generate a donation for a specific Non-Profit Institution. It was a terrific success and VERY, VERY competitive at the departmental level. So much so that judges outside of the company had to be brought in to ensure impartiality!