As I’ve said here on The Stairwell many times, one of the keys to social media marketing is to give your fans something new as much as possible. That can be everything from new information or even just a laugh, or something to talk about. That can be okay for a bit. But if you really want to build a following and convert your social media presence into genuine customers you need to give them something concrete – either a giveaway for something real or coupons they can come in and use. A great social media giveaway accomplishes two things.…
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How to deal with customer complaints and negativity on social media. (And no you can’t just block them all)
The first time I launched a social media site we talked a lot about answering questions and dealing with complaints. We tried our best to prepare as much as possible and plan for what things we thought would come up. That was our first mistake. You have to realize two things when your work in digital advertising and social media. First of all the internet is a magical place where anybody can come out of anywhere and become a national brand no matter where you are as long as you have something people want. The second thing you need to…
Read MoreFighting a PR war in a Digital Age: How Playstation can move forward after a disastrous few weeks
Damage control isn’t easy for companies these days. With an increasingly media savvy consumer base, it’s hard to get past a damaging story. You don’t really have control over a news cycle and it’s hard to tell if stories are going to linger or if they’re going to die. The folks at Playstation are currently going through this and a few more problems. First, Nintendo announced their next generation video game console, both Dish Network and Direct TV announced plans to branch out into download-able content ( a big selling point for Playstation) and then, what could be the beginning…
Read MoreHow Big Deals Can Change Things for Every Business Looking to Get Online
The thing about the current social media scene is that it’s still very much in its infancy. As far as new forms of media go, it’s about what television was 5 or 6 years after it was available for the masses. Just like those early days of television things were a little chaotic. The networks were scrambling to slap together content. When ABC and Disney struck a big content deal in 1954 it completely changed the face of the medium and went a long way toward stabilizing the way people made television. Social media is still at a position that…
Read MoreCombining Social and Physical Media
A few articles back, I talked a bit about packaging and how you can tie all your different social media sites together to make them even stronger. Some companies have taken things to the next level by packaging everything together, including their print and online ads. Particularly, companies like Kraft Foods and Pepsi have started using social media to boost their print campaigns and vice versa. It’s a great thing because it calls attention to their social media while giving them a unique marketing campaign.
There are some drawbacks to using your social media along with your print media. Well,…
Read MoreSmall Business Marketing on Tablet Computers
One of the first articles I did here, well over a year ago, was about the launch of the IPad. At the time the tablet computer was a brand new medium that could have gone the way of the PSP. (Although it should have been obvious that nobody would watch a movie on a 4.3square inch screen but I digress) It gained a sizeable following despite people saying it was “just a big Iphone.” Like all new technology it takes a generation or two for advertisers to really get behind it. Streaming video has been around for almost a decade…
Read MoreAvoid Sponsored Ads and Stay Cost Effective with Social Media
One thing I’ve said repeatedly on here is that social media is virtually cost free. You can do the same things that major companies do without having a major company budget. In a lot of ways social media has evened the playing field but just like the movie theaters where they’ve put ads before and sometimes during the movies. Some companies will find a way to spend money to get their message heard louder instead of working smarter. So it’s no surprise that Facebook and Twitter took advantage of this and offered paid ads and promotional spots to people who…
Read MoreSocial Media for Indy Restaurants
I’ve talked a lot in the last few weeks about implementing big ideas in small business advertising. That is the great thing about social media and the modern age of digital advertising, it evens the playing field. You might not have the built in audience some of the niche properties I talked about last week had, but neither did Hot Topic, or Caribou Coffee a few years ago. Each of those parlayed a small, regional following into a nationwide business. There are a lot of companies that started with one shop and moved on to national success. (There was this…
Read MoreSundance Film Festival Experimenting With Marketing In An Age Of New Technology
If you watch an interview with any famous director or screenwriter most of them trace their success back to a film festival just like Sundance. In the years past, the career blueprint was that you scraped together funding for your movie and then took it to the film festival where you begged, pleaded and shouted until one of the major companies bought your movie for distribution. It makes sense that the same people who went through this humiliating process would find different ways of doing things. The things they are doing are also things a lot of people could try…
Read MoreUsing Social Media to Augment Your Direct Mail Marketing Campaign
Up until now I’ve pretty much always focused on social media and digital advertising. I’ve done a little bit with direct mail over the years, but until recently I never really used it in a cross-media promotion. A lot of marketing professionals see direct mail as a dying medium and instead focus exclusively on digital marketing. As I’ve tried to illustrate over the last two weeks the best campaigns are ones that can seamlessly work in all forms of media, including direct mail. Old Spice has made extensive use of direct mailers over the years to much success. The fact…
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