Web Ink Now

Your employees as a terrific marketing asset

I really enjoy doing business with companies whose employees are friendly and who treat me with respect. Isn't it different than those companies whose people who go through the motions, treating you like you're intruding on their life, counting the hours till quitting time?

Late last year I travelled to Lapland, in northern Finland to experience what it was like above the Arctic Circle in wintertime (fascinating!). On the first leg of the return trip, we traveled via Finnair from Ivalo to Helsinki. As we climbed up the stairs, I composed an awesome photo in my mind of the plane's cockpit with the terminal in the background. I thought it would be a great way to show what midday looks like in a place where the sun doesn't rise in mid-winter.

I quickly got my iPhone out for a snap and at that moment the Captain turned and saw me.

Finnair's friendly pilots

What could the Captain have done? Well, he could have made a signal indicating "no photos". He could have pretended to not see me and turned away. Or he could have simply waved hello.

But this Captain took a moment to open the cockpit window and flash a thumbs up and smile. Fortunately, I got the shot, which I tweaked with Instagram. When I tweeted it, @Finnair social media people responded in real-time. Perfect.

Employees as a marketing asset

Most pilots do what the handbook tells them to and nothing more. They say: "Your business is important to us" over the loudspeaker at the moment prescribed and that's it.

It's not just pilots of course. In all businesses, many employees just don't care.

I think that a culture of caring comes from the top. It starts with how the CEO treats employees and customers. It comes from how people are hired, what skills are valued and how people are promoted.

No matter how such a culture develops, it is a terrific marketing asset.

How to use Wikipedia for marketing and PR

Late last week, Alan Smith alerted me via Twitter to a new guide created by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations to help public relations professionals understand Wikipedia.

The guide, Wikipedia Best Practice Guidance for Public Relations Professionals, is a free PDF download with no registration required.

This is certainly a subject that interests marketers and PR pros because Wikipedia is among the top ten most visited sites on the Web. When there is a Wikipedia article on a topic that you search on (and there are currently just over 4 million articles in English), I'm sure you’ve noticed that article usually appears as one of the top few results, frequently in the number one position.

Besides the CIPR guide, you might check out my interview with Colin Warwick How to create and edit articles for Wikipedia. Colin, a Product Marketing Manager at Agilent Technologies who writes the popular Signal Integrity blog is my go-to resource for all things Wikipedia.

There have been a number of very public dust ups when companies try to influence a Wikipedia page without following the site's guidelines and policies. For example, this one from Stella Artois beer.

The CIPR guide was created with the help of the wikipedian community - a very smart move.

"The Wikipedia work has been one of the most interesting projects I’ve ever been involved in," says Phil Morgan, Director of Policy and Communications, Chartered Institute of Public Relations . "The process of engagement with the Wikipedia community has been an eye-opener. We set out to build mutual understanding and the outcomes have challenged the assumptions that some within PR hold. No bad thing." Phil also says that the guide is a work in progress and will be updated. There is a meeting of the group of members who worked on the project this evening to discuss sustaining the engagement and they intend to develop future versions of the guidance as things change.

How to use Wikipedia for marketing and PR

The CIPR guide will get you familiar with Wikipedia's philosophies, guidelines and policies. While there are many more details in the guide, as a basic introduction, Wikipedia has three core content policies. It is imperative PR professionals understand these fully. Here is that section from the CIPR Guide:

1. Neutral point of view – All Wikipedia articles and other encyclopaedic content must be written from a neutral point of view, representing significant views fairly, proportionately and without bias. Fundamentally, where there is a contentious issue associated with a topic, Wikipedia content should be a good reference for the debate. In a few words, neutrality means this: report the debate, don't take part in it.

2. Verifiability – Material challenged or likely to be challenged, and all quotations, must be attributed to a reliable, published source. The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth — meaning, in this context, whether readers are able to check that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, not whether we think it is true.

3. No original research – Wikipedia does not publish original thought: all material in Wikipedia must be attributable to a reliable, published source. Articles may not contain any new analysis or synthesis of published material that serves to advance a position not clearly advanced by the sources.

Download Wikipedia Best Practice Guidance for Public Relations Professionals for free with no registration.

Look at how far Marketing & PR has come and consider where we are going

In early 1995, while living in Hong Kong, I received a floppy disk copy of Netscape Navigator version 1.0 and with my dial up connection got onto the Web. Being a collector (my family might say “pack rat”) I saved the disk.

I remember that time well because zero percent of my marketing and PR colleagues were online. At the time, nobody was tracking the number of Internet users, but IDC says it grew to 16 million by December 1995.

A few years later I created my first personal site and soon after started sending search engine optimized press releases for lead generation on behalf of NewsEdge, the company I was employed by at the time. Reaching people when they were looking for what we had to offer was like magic.

Marketing and PR today

IDC says there are over 2 billion Internet users in 2012.

Consider what we can do today with a smartphone such as an iPhone, fewer than two decades after Netscape 1.0. We can instantly reach anyone on the planet by creating real-time content such as video. Amazing.

The future

We're making up the rules now for what the future holds. Imagine the progress over the next decade or two? Incredible.

I'm bullish on marketing and public relations in the years to come. Not only is it easier to reach buyers than at any time in the past, it's also more fun.

Obama says his biggest mistake as president has been communication

Yesterday, President and First Lady Michelle Obama spoke with CBS This Morning anchor Charlie Rose in the White House Blue Room, where they discussed the failures and successes of his administration as he heads into another election, among other things.

Rose asked President Obama about his biggest mistake as president.

"When I think about what we've done well and what we haven't done well," the president said, "the mistake of my first term - couple of years - was thinking that this job was just about getting the policy right. And that's important. But the nature of this office is also to tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism, especially during tough times."

Direct link to Obama reflects on his biggest mistake as president on CBS.

After the election in 2008, I wrote a post Ten marketing lessons from the Barack Obama presidential campaign. My number three was: "Clearly and simply articulate what you want people to believe."

It's fascinating that Obama has identified his failures in this area as president. (While the President used the phrase "tell a story" in the interview, I am expanding it to "communicating" in this post.)

While I think he did an excellent job during the 2008 campaign, I certainly agree with the president that he hasn’t done a good enough job communicating over the past three and a half years as president.

Learning from the President Obama's mistake

These lessons are applicable to all. Many companies don't do a good job communicating. They don't focus on buyer personas and use the techniques of brand journalism and content marketing to tell a story.

Or, like the president, CEOs communicate during a product launch to make sales (the election cycle in Obama's case) but not once the product is released and used by customers.

Unlike the President however, many CEOs don't recognize this as a failure. Often, the people at the top think a good product is enough.

What can your organization learn from the President's mistake?

Note: This is a marketing blog, not a political blog. These are not political observations, but thoughts about marketing and communications.

So, what about you?

Nearly every day, I read a great blog post or find some other content that I like and I want to learn more about the artist who created it.

Remarkably, many people don't bother to tell me who they are! Why? Because these folks haven’t developed an effective "about" or bio page.

Often when people visit you for the first time, we want to know about you, so it is important to provide background.

How to make a blog "about" page

If you are taking the time to create content, you need to have a great About or Biography page that might include such things as your photo, a bit about who you are (with a focus on your passions), maybe a short biography, perhaps a few affiliations, and anything else you deem important for people to know. You might even do a a short video introduction. Here's my bio page.

Make it easy for people to contact you

You never know who might want to reach you. Sure, you'll likely get a few unwanted messages. But you may get invited to speak at a conference or a request be interviewed by a journalist. So you should include contact information such as an email address.

If you are worried about your email being available on the public web you can cleverly mask it. For example, I sometimes list mine as david (at) DavidMeermanScott (dot) com. Humans know what this means but machines do not.

Avoid the About page template that ships with your blog platform.

The worst About pages tend to be ones where people use the template. Try to avoid this because these frequently force you into categories of information that may not make sense for you like "gender" and "hobbies." Instead, make a page on your blog and create an original About listing.

When free is not free

As consumers, we know that "free" does not mean free. So why do we forget those lessons as marketers?

Clearly, costs include more than just money:

The free mobile phone requires a one-year contract. Obviously the cost of the phone is built into the monthly fee.

Waiting in line to get a free ticket to an event requires an opportunity cost (the value of your time while waiting), and therefore the ticket is not free.

Filling out a form to get a free white paper means the company now has your email address and perhaps other personal details. You have given the company something valuable so the white paper is not free.

Make it as close to free as possible

I offer a free ebook library with downloads at no cost and no registration is required. Even this has a (small) cost because it takes a second to click a link and maybe two are three seconds of wait time for the 1MB file to download on a high-speed connection (more on slower speeds). But this is quite close to free.

As you work on your content marketing plans, push back on those who misuse the word free.

My research shows that a totally free white paper offered with no registration form will generate as much as 50 times more downloads as the same white paper with a registration form.

Which would you rather have: One email? Or 50 people exposed to your ideas?

Who do you compare yourself to?

As you create products and services as well as the strategies to generate attention for your business, who or what do you compare yourself to?

Most executives have a relentless focus on the direct competition and use that as a benchmark for comparison. They look at the competition's products, price, marketing and try to do the same but with an incremental increase.

But the strategy of comparisons to your close competitor means that you are likely to become a "me too" that’s just a little better, faster, or cheaper. That's no position to be in.

Microsoft tablet computer anyone?

Compare to people and companies in other industries

True leaders forget about the competition.

Many look to other industries to compare to.

For example, in highly regulated industries like pharmaceutical, healthcare, and finance, the competition is very likely to follow the pack and be fearful of engaging the market with compelling content and social media. Comparing to this market means you’d also be fearful and say "no". If all the hospitals in my area don't have a YouTube channel, why should we?

Smart marketers like Chris Boyer and companies like Inova Health System don't worry about other healthcare providers. If they did, they would say no to blogs, twitter, YouTube and the like. Instead, they look to the best of consumer products companies as their model for success.

Learning from outside your comfort zone

It's always fun when nonprofits look to for-profit businesses. Successful B2B outfits take a page out of B2C playbooks. Service business look to product companies for inspiration (and vice versa). A lawyer markets like a novelist. And a novelist communicates like a journalist.

Try to get away from the comfort of your own peer group and see what you can learn from those outside your industry.

As for me...

I'm a huge live music fan. I've seen nearly 500 bands live and am interested in how musicians and bands perform as well a how they market themselves. So that's who I compare myself to.

I've learned a great deal from people like Amanda Palmer and bands like the Grateful Dead.

When I go to a live show, I watch how the musicians interact on stage and I adopt some of the moves in my own live speeches.

As an example, at the top of this post is a photo I took (iPhone 4S tweaked with Instagram) of Tyson Ritter of the All-American Rejects at a recent Boston show (thanks to my friend Jodi who manages the band and invited me to watch from the photo pit). Tyson is way out front standing on a monitor and interacting with the audience.

The photo of me by Jay Blakesberg is at my NAMM keynote this year. I'm also way out front standing on a monitor and interacting with the audience.

I've got no musical ability but have always loved watching how rock stars move and interact. How cool that I can do the same but in a different business!!

I've never seen another speaker in the hundreds of events I've spoken at jump onto a monitor. I learned the move from someone outside my “competition”.

Another example: I looked to the Grateful Dead for inspiration about sharing content. Learning from the Dead, I give lots of content away for free (with no email address required).

I'm convinced that by learning from musicians and bands, I've developed a more personal style than had I just copied other business authors and speakers.

How about you?

Do you copy the direct competitors? Or do you look outside your industry for inspiration?

Friending cats and following eggs: On social networks you ARE your photo

On social networks, you ARE your photo.

Your image is important!

The photo you choose to represent you says a great deal about who you are as an individual. It is your personal brand.

I love meeting people in person at conferences or cocktail parties and then connecting with them on social networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Sometimes I search people out and connect and other times they find me.

But when somebody has an image that is not an actual photo of them, I hesitate and usually do not connect.

Why are they hiding? Why use a dog or flower or building, or famous person, or logo instead?

The images in this post are all Facebook profiles of people who requested to become friends with me. Who are they? I don’t know because the photos are not of them. So I did not connect.

Same thing happens on Twitter. And then there’s the default "egg" on Twitter and silhouette Facebook. The default says: “I can’t be bothered to upload an image.

There are many choices when it comes to an image to use:

You can use a casual shot taken by a friend.

This is a great option for many people. But there are many different approaches and each says something important about you. Are you in a casual setting (like on a beach)? Or more formal like an office? What are you wearing?

Always think: What does this photo say about me and my personal brand?

You can have other people & things with you in the photo.

Your child and/or boyfriend. A random famous person. Props like your dog, a fishing pole, or a beer in your hand. What about your company logo?

Always think: What does this photo say about me and my personal brand?

You can use a formal portrait.

This is what I do. But the choice of style and clothing says a lot about who you are. Close-up or wide shot? (Wide shots are difficult to see in the postage stamp size on sites like Twitter). Smile or no smile? How close do you crop? For men: tie or no tie? Jacket?

Always think: What does this photo say about me and my personal brand?

Many people use an avatar such as a graphic representation of themselves.

This approach is appropriate for some people.

Always think: What does this photo say about me and my personal brand?

I just don't connect with random images is also used by some. Your cat. Bart Simpson. A surfboard. You're certainly narrowing down what you want people to think of you if you go this route. Always think: What does this photo say about me and my personal brand?

You ARE your photo

Never pitch again

How do you generate new business? Or find a job? Or get ink in mainstream media?

Do you cold call? Do you send email pitches? Do you hang out in your tradeshow booth and approach passersby? Do you go to networking events and hand out business cards?

Each of these methods for generating attention requires you to approach others -- potential new customers or employers or journalists -- to tell them about what you do in the hope that they might be interested.

These classic outbound marketing techniques are all we really had prior to the ability to become brand journalists by creating valuable information on the Web. Yet many people operate as if we are still in 1993 and the only options available are outbound strategies.

Inbound Marketing

Many organizations are finding tremendous success by planting hundreds or even thousands of new business seeds in the form or blog posts, ebooks, infographics, videos, photos, how-to guides, research reports, Twitter feeds, and other forms of Web content.

In a technique called Inbound Marketing, each of these marketing assets gets indexed by Google, Bing, and the other search engines so when people enter search terms related to your business, they find you via your valuable information. When people find something interesting you created, they may share it on their social profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, and the like.

Here are some real-world examples of Inbound Marketing in action in healthcare, from a rock star, in finding a first job, in retail products, for PR agencies, in politics, and for B2B products. You can acheive similar results.

INBOUND 2012

I'll be delivering a keynote at INBOUND 2012, a 3-day inbound marketing conference and training event produced by HubSpot.

More than 2,000 inbound marketers, entrepreneurs and executives are expected in Boston August 27-30 and the agenda includes keynotes, breakout sessions, parties, learning, and fun. I'm speaking the first day but will be at the event the entire time.

HubSpot has kindly offered readers of this blog a 25% discount on tickets to INBOUND 2012. Use the code DMS25. This link has the discount code already applied.

Disclosures: I am Marketer in Residence and on the advisory board at HubSpot. I wrote the foreword to the book Inbound Marketing, by HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah, which is part of my New Rules of Social Media book series.

Amanda Palmer freaks out to celebrate hitting $1 million on Kickstarter

Yesterday evening, I met up with Amanda Palmer (together with my friend Steve Garfield) on Lexington Battle Green.

We filmed a video that I'll be using in an upcoming presentation and which I'll be sharing here in the future.

The timing was awesome as just a few hours before we met, Amanda's Kickstarter for her new album Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra passed the $1 million dollar mark.

Here's Amanda celebrating her milestone which is the largest amount ever raised for a music project on Kickstarter.

I wrote about her new project when she launched a month ago in my blog post We are the media: Amanda Palmer and the future of your business.

There are now over 21,000 backers, including me, Steve, and many of our social friends including Denise Wakeman. I'm looking forward to Amanda’s Boston art opening and concert. If you go to the Boston event, let me know.

Imagine that. Tens of thousands of Amanda's fans backed her new album before they even heard it. That's the power of a fan base and using social media to connect with fans.

One way to do an album is to have a record label fund it. As Amanda shows, there’s a better way: Have your fans fund it and then you retain control.

Direct link to Amanda Palmer Dances to Celebrate Passing $1 Million on Kickstarter on YouTube.

Amanda Palmer site (where you can get a free album preview track).
@AmandaPalmer on Twitter
Amanda's Kickstarter