It may sound crazy, but I love chaos. I love having drastic change effect business and life. I even love tornadoes, snow storms, floods and earthquakes. Maybe I should have been a Fireman, but that is besides the point. I love chaos because it means opportunity and to me, there’s not a more opportune time to be in marketing than right now.

Whether you own a business, help run a business or are thinking about starting a business, there is no better time to be reevaluating your company. Some of the greatest companies have come out of economic hardship. Here is a short list of some great companies that have started in economic downturns.

• Hyatt Corp.
• Burger King Corp.
• IHOP Corp.
• The Jim Henson Company
• LexisNexis
• FedEx Corp.
• Microsoft
• CNN
• MTV Networks
• Trader Joe’s
• Wikipedia Foundation Inc.
• Sports Illustrated
• GE
• HP

And some businesses that have excelled during recessions:

• Google
• Salesforce
• PayPal

According to Enterprise Architecture and New Generation Information Systems By Dimitris N. Chorafas, “Companies must reinvent themselves every 2 years to survive in the internet world.” Recessions happen. Business Cycles happen. What does a major recession tell business owners? The market has reached saturation for products available. The companies that will not only survive a recession, but come out ahead in the end will use the down market to reinvent their business so they are more compelling when buyers are ready to start spending again.

This goes double for marketing and advertising. What is your company spending money on? What has worked in the past? Where are the dollars starting to go?

According to emarketer, advertising dollars are starting to move online. This is not a shift in the traditional sense because the internet is not a traditional media outlet. When advertising moved from print to radio, it was basically the advertisement being read for the listener. When advertising moved from radio to TV, it was basically the ad being read with moving pictures. But when ads move to the internet, businesses must be prepared to respond to customers from the ad instantly. This is a medium of communication, not broadcasting. The companies that understand that the best will capture market share the quickest. Your company may not see the quick sales bump promised by some, but acquisition bonds will be stronger.

Relevance is something I have been talking about for about a month on various panels, client training and internally at Bonfire. What the idea truly comes down to is making sure you are recognizing people exist. Now I know this seems like a no brain-er and, well, it should be. But it is something that’s often forgotten in the hustle of running a business.

If you have not already noticed, there is a conversation happening online weather you like it or not. Internet users have unprecedented access to speaking their own mind in the form of reviews, blogs, comments, tweets, forums, Facebook and about a Trillion (with a capital T) places to be prolific. You do not even have to be a business owner to be reviewed for something you have done. LinkedIn give users opportunities to recommend prior work or Trusty’s for sole proprietor/contract work.

Anyone that takes the time to write about your business or you want to be recognized. This is increasingly important with the amount of clutter on the web today. Good, bad or indifferent, by responding to a mention, review, link, etc. will reap dividends in customer loyalty and company culture.

The lesson here is listening and responding. Have you Googled your business? Have you searched Twitter for mentions? Do you know who the influencers are online and what are they saying about you? Do you understand how to search keywords on Technorati?

Your clients are talking, but do you hear them?

What you don’t know might really hurt you.

The Holy Triad Revisited. This is a much more visual presentation of the 2 hour class Bonfire puts on.

While I usually try to come up with original material, this was too good to put a personal take on. I especially like the don’t you facebook as twitter and vice versa line.

emarketer

JUNE 4, 2009

Strength in numbers.

It is not just big businesses that are communicating with customers using social media.

According to a study by Sage Software and AMI-Partners, more than 260,000 small businesses in the US and Canada employ social networking tactics, too.

Most of them used professional social networking sites such as LinkedIn. General social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook were also widely used, followed by niche communities and job sites.

Types of Digital Social Media Used by Small Businesses in North America, March 2009 (% of respondents)

Less popular were microblogging services (such as Twitter and Yammer), forums, wikis and social bookmarking applications.

The reasons for adopting social networking tactics varied, but the most widespread uses of social media were for responding to customer questions, networking, and reference and educational purposes.

Digital Social Media Activities of Small Businesses in North America, March 2009 (% of respondents)

While few used the sites to influence purchases, this may be a strategic error. Direct sales are one way to leverage social media marketing.

An exclusive-to-Twitter promotion brought in 15% of the day’s business, Jeff Leach of Naked Pizza told Advertising Age. “Sure, there’s the brand marketing and getting-to-know-you stuff…but we wanted to know: Can it make the cash register ring?”

Ad Age offered five tips for marketing on social media platforms:

* Track sales made on social media.
* Don’t use Twitter as Facebook (and vice versa).
* Create a conversation with friends and followers.
* Sell last-minute inventory.
* Alert followers to changes.

So you made some profiles and invited your friends to “fan” your company on Facebook or “follow” your company on Twitter. Now what? Did half your friends do what you told them? Have you reached a plateau for members? What do you do now?

This is a question I come across A LOT! And although there are many ways to spam your way to more members, here is what anyone getting involved in social media marketing needs to know: Be interesting. What I mean by that is if you want people to come to your business and be involved, you have to be involved with them. You also need to keep going. This is not your normal marketing campaign. It requires you to be relevant and interesting more than once. You don’t have to talk about really mind bending ideas. You’re not writing a book. You just need to be there and be relevant. Here are a few examples of what your company should write about:

• Hire someone new? Make them feel welcome!
• Carrying a new product? make an informal introduction (without sounding salesy)
• Serving up a special dish? put in on special!
• Featuring a new beer? tap your fans for feedback!
• Having a sale? make a coupon and spread it around!
• Not sure what to do over the weekend? ask your fans!
• Like/Hate the weather? make a comment!

As you can see, It can be a casual as the weather or as immediate as a food special. The important thing is to keep trying to connect. This is about energizing and connecting with your customers, not talking at them about self serving purposes.  I find that using twitter 15 minutes per day, updating fans twice a week and sending emails once a week is about the right amount of contact to not be “spammy”, but retain that top of mind awareness. If you are producing good content, you won’t need to re-invite. But if you do, make sure you have a reason to re-invite them and don’t say because you have the coolest company on the planet. Your company is it’s coolest only in your eyes.

Practice this regularly and you will notice people gravitating to you and growing your marketing database. If you ever need inspiration, fan Threadless on Facebook. They are outstanding at keeping users engaged.

Cheers!