Why you need video content for effective marketing

Search through the statistics in the article http://www.inc.com/larry-kim/visual-content-marketing-16-eye-popping-statistics-you-need-to-know.html and you will find that many of them tell you about the growth of video content on the web

e.g. videos on Facebook's news service have increased by 3.6x


However, the statistics that tell you about user reaction to images and videos are key to realising how powerful (and increasingly necessary) visual content is for your online content.  For example, the fact that posts with videos attract 3x more links than those that only have text.

Of course, none of the statistics PROVE that adding images or videos will increase the attraction of your posts; it could just be that people who write the most interesting posts are also those that care about illustrating them.  Given the way we have evolved to respond to movement and colour however, it is a pretty good bet that attractive images or videos will help you attract more attention for your content.

Have a look at all the statistics in the article and see which ones are relevant for your content marketing.

In praise of short thank yous

I have just read an article by Sarah Pavey of MindTools about the need to set rules for communications within companies & groups to make interactions efficient.  It makes lots of good points about this very important subject.

But one point I disagree with.  For me short thank you emails are very worthwhile for a number of reasons

1. they acknowledge that the recipient has seen the mail.  As the article points out, depending on the recipient you may not be sure that they will read your mails swiftly, and the thank you puts your mind at rest
2. They show appreciation and we all need appreciation.  Even a thank you for something small can boost our feelings of positivity
3. They build the relationship and team feeling.  This may be in a trivial way, but strong effects are constructed from many small actions
4. Saying thanks reminds you of how you rely on others.
5. It takes only a few seconds and saying thanks has a positive effect on you as well as on the receiver.

Although I am often swamped by email, I would gladly add another ten small thank you emails a day - and I will try to send them as well.

Links or shares? Which content for which goals?

BuzzSumo and Moz have teamed up to produce a great piece of research on content (authored by Steve Rayson) which analyses the links and shares that different content is receiving.

One impressive feature is that they have analysed 1,000,000 (one million) published pieces which enables them to pull out many significant results.

Even though they took the samples from their databases, which are likely to contain popular content, it is striking how the vast majority of content receives hardly any shares and no links.

A second finding is that in most cases there is little or no correlation between links and shares.  The most shared content does not necessarily gather the most links, and vice versa - content which is linked from many external sites is not necesssarily shared by many  people.

Two important points should be considered in thinking about findings

1. Quantity is not everything.  Certainly it is good to have content shared or linked.  However the key is who is doing the linking and sharing.  If you are in a niche market (e.g. selling to large corporates or to consumers with a specialist hobby), you may not ever receive a large number of links or shares.  Instead check to see if those who are linking/sharing are the key influencers or prospects in your market.  They should be your target and if they are few, you can research what they do share and link in order to create content that appeals to them
2. Shares are most often done on entertaining content, which may have a short life span, while links often point to research or insight which has lasting value.  You need to decide which type of content is most relevant to gain the recognition and consideration of your audience.  It might be either or both - the content plan must be aligned to your goals.

The report contains much more information about what content receives the most shares and links and the content that can garner both.  For this you should read the excellent report for yourselves.

5 reasons to go with gut feeling

I recently read a McKinsey article on "Learning from Google's Digital Culture" in which Google VP Jon Kaplan talks about the company being data driven and that "At Google, you really don’t walk into a meeting talking about your gut feel on something".

While not denying the power of basing decisions on data, I think there are five reasons why you might want to base your decisions on gut feeling:

1. Firstly, there are the quick decisions that we take ("Whom should I talk to first in a room full of strangers?", "Which of today's tasks is most important?", "What should I wear?").  We do not have time to check all the data, we need to get on and do something.  But we normally rely on rules of thumb, which leads to the second reason:
2. Often we have built up experience and can instinctively make good decisions.  They may be difficult to explain but our gut feeling can be a reliable distillation of what we have learnt subconsciously, for example in terms of dealing with people or prioritising certain tasks
3. Sometimes there is not enough data available in a quantitative form.  This may be true even for big decisions, like choosing a job - the salary and the career opportunities might be good, but even after talking to a number of people, we will not know for sure how we will enjoy the work atmosphere until we try it out.
4. When we are passionate about something, or come up with something innovative, it may be a case of following our instinct and convincing others to follow us or try out something new.  Leaders and innovators do not always have data because they are able to change behaviours so that previous data does not apply.
5. Lastly, testing may be the best way to collect the data - a case of going with gut feeling and checking the results.

The last point is vital.  It may be worth following gut feeling because of our passion, our experience, our lack of time or lack of data.  But it is always important to test that it is working: are people signing up for our innovative products? Is our (subconscious) experience relevant in this case?  Are the results of our test providing the data to back up our decision?

Remember also that gut feeling only works if you are in charge of the decision.  In the words of Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape  “If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”

Do you have good or bad experience of using gut feeling?  Please share your thoughts or opinions in the comments

Marketing = Learning or Learning = Marketing

I am currently working for CLS Performance Solutions who are a great company providing blended learning and continuing performance support to workforces in medium and large companies that are installing ERP systems.  CLS do a really good job and are well appreciated by their clients, but are not widely enough known, which is why I am helping them improve their marketing and promote their brand.

The project appealed to me not just because CLS are good to work for and have a service which delivers real value to their clients, but also because of their field of expertise.  I was intrigued to find out more about modern learning and training techniques, because I felt they would be applicable in marketing.

In marketing you are trying to make your product and service attractive to prospective clients.  You want to convey messages about the features that add value for each particular client in such a way that they are memorable; your aim is for prospects to remember what your service can do for them and, even better, to be able to explain it to others (colleagues, other contacts) so that word of mouth expands the reach of your marketing.  To do this, you also have to be able to listen to your prospects so that you understand their needs, what benefits you can bring to them and how you can best convey the message.

This parallels closely the design of learning - understanding each learner's current position, their needs and the best way to put across the information or skill so that they will remember, understand and be able to apply it.  Learning as a field of knowledge has been heavily researched to determine and verify the best and most efficient methods and I feel that this research can be tapped to improve (my) marketing.

My belief in the cross-over between marketing and learning were re-inforced today when I read the Kineo Oxford Group guide "Blended Learning Today" which states that "Learning = Marketing" and encourages learning providers to think like marketers: "because blended design is really about engagement and persuasion. We’re trying to sell a concept to learners."  "Marketing professionals...talk about how you’re going to stimulate demand. Who are you trying to reach? With what message? Where do those people hang out now? How do we use those channels? How are we going to get action?"

Marketing and learning professionals have a lot to give each other and to learn from each other

Corpus Christi College Cambrdige essay prizes

Yesterday I came across a great example of both content marketing and inbound marketing from a surprising source - the world of university applications in education.

There is tough competition for places at the best UK universities and applicants must market themselves well to increase their chances of gaining places or even interviews against stiff opposition.

Normally the university or college first hears about prospective students via their application which details their academic and other achievements as well as including a personal statement setting out their goals, strengths and specific interests.

But, particularly for colleges at Cambridge University, there is a way for applicants to make themselves known before this.  Colleges run essay prizes in many subjects and submitting an essay can bring yourself to the attention of a college before the application is even received.

Yesterday I heard of one girl who had entered an essay prize and produced a really good piece of work.  As a result, the college wrote to her and said they hoped she would apply to them and they would look forward to inteviewing her.  She had already passed the first hurdle of gaining an interview and could expect a warm welcome giving her a good chance of being offered a place.

So her essay had gained her recognition - a fantastic piece of content marketing - and then had caused the college to contact her - a brilliant example of successful inbound marketing.

It shows that the principles of content and inbound marketing, of gaining a reputation by producing and publishing valuable content and of stimulating people to contact you with their requirements, apply in many different walks of life.  In addition it demonstrates how these techniques build up interactions which can lead to strong continuing relationships.

Handling conflicts in groups and teams

There seemed to be no avoiding the topic of hadling conflicts yesterday.


First on LinkedIn one of my connections recommended a blog post by Bernard Marr, a LinkedIn INfluencer.  I read it and then continued to the next post: "The Vital But Forgotten Soft Skill of Truly Successful People".  In it he discusses how a vital skill for leaders is the ability to address and resolve conflicts rather than leaving them to fester.  His five point plan on how to address them is simple to understand (you could summarise it as - Breathe, Acknowledge, Listen, Focus, Respect) but, as he points out, takes a great deal of practice to implement well.

But it was the point made at the end of the blog that struck me most - conflicts can often be opportunities for "learning, innovation and even team building" with issues explored and people helped to listen and understand different views.

This article tied in strongly with another that I read shortly afterwards.  A post on the eFront blog about rewarding users of elearning referenced an article by Clay Shirky "A group is its own worst enemy".  Although the Shirky article is ten years old and the technology has moved on since then, the points remain valid.  You may not know the examples that he uses, but the risks of groups descending into internal squabbling remain today.

Clay Shirky suggested four ways that groups could be designed to avoid or deal with internal issues:

1. Ensure users have an identity (a "handle").  Even it is a nickname it gives others a chance to learn about the views and approach of each user and so to form opinions about them
2. Have a way for users to gain a good reputation and for this to be shown.  This allows the committed users to have a greater stake in the group
3. Put more control in the hands of the committed members and do not allow a large number of not very involved people to determine the future of the group
4. Work out how to scale the group so that it still retains a way for members to have conversations with close associates and for relationships not to become swamped in a large mass of communication

I have not done the article justice and you should read it yourself to find out more.  But like the Bernard Marr article I talked about initially, it deals with conflict resolution and with addressing issues that arise between people, though in the Clay Shirky case it is in relation to online groups rather than groups in physical organisations.

Synthesising the two different articles has lead me to three key points:

• accept that there are always going to be conflicts between individuals in any groups and plan how to make the best of it
• the conflicts can be beneficial if they result from different views of people who are committed to the group, and give members a chance to understand each other's viewpoints
• there needs to be a mechanism for resolving the conflicts, which needs a leader or group with the power to listen to different views, try for consensus but then act to carry the group forward

Marketing opportunities in 2014

I have recently been reading PR20/20's "2014 Marketing Score Report" which was compiled by interviewing over 300 marketing professionals, executives and entrepreneurs who assessed their own and their organisations strengths and weaknesses in different aspects of marketing.

Amid a wealth of very valuable information, two areas stood out for me.  They are of great importance for the success of organisations and I was surprised by the low achievement ratings that marketers gave themselves and their companies in these areas. 

The good news is the potential this provides to marketers who are already expert in these fields or who can rapidly increase their competence.

The first area is content marketing.  Among the 13 elements of content marketing that were assessed, the top score was only 4.4 out of 10, which was for blogging.  The lowest was 0.8 for podcasts.

Now a number of the content marketing elements are fairly new (e.g. infographics) so it is understandable that many organisations are still working out how to include them in the marketing mix and finding, or training staff, to implement them.

But elements such as blogging, case studies, PR and white papers have been core parts of marketing activities for a long time.  Moreover, the report also shows that those who rate their performance highly in content marketing activities such as blogging are those who perform best in generating website traffic and leads as well as converting them to sales.

Of course, this does not prove causality - that more blogging leads to more website traffic, leads and sales.  But the fact that the companies that prioritise and generate content for their different audiences (prospects, partners, suppliers and other influencers) do better than those who do not suggests it is worthwhile adopting and testing a stronger focus in this area.

Given the way that customers, both businesses and consumers, research products and services more and more before buying, it would be stupid not to put more effort into creating content that will bring your company's name and expertise to their attention while they are doing their research.  Content marketing enables you to be involved early in the customer journey.

The second interesting area in which marketing competence is rated surprisingly low is that of diversity of lead sources.  The results show a particular weakness in gaining leads from digital sources with the best digital channel being organic search with a rating of only 4.3 out of 10.

Once again the best performing organisations rated themselves significantly higher for digital leads;  and again this is a sign of the need for most organisations to investigate the new digital sources for leads that leading companies are exploiting.

So both content marketing and digital leads are shown to offer many companies huge scope for growth, and they are areas in which they do not currently have sufficient in-house expertise.  

That is great news for marketers who have the expertise and energy to exploit these opportunities.

Happy 2014. 

I'm not human enough for Instagram

I have given up on Instagram.

This morning I wanted to try it out - it might be fun and it might be useful for marketing.  At least I thought I ought to know about it.

So I tried to set it up on my Samsung Galaxy II phone.  No problem installing but then I tried to register using my Facebook login and reached the point where you are asked if Instagram can message all your friends.  I changed this for private messaging to begin with (until I knew what I and Instagram were doing).  But this just led to an error message about an unknown page. Has nobody tried the privacy option before?

How do you report or sort out bugs in apps?  I have no idea, so switched to the Instagram website on my desktop and tried the "Forgot Password" option since I was having trouble with the Facebook login.

Before sending me an email, Instagram asked to use a Captcha to prove I was human.  Sometimes it takes 2 or 3 goes to get the Captcha right but this one I tried 8 times without success.  Also I tried the audio version but it was so fuzzy I was unable to make it out.

So I gave up with Instagram.

Apparently I am not human enough for them.

Digital OAPs

The maximum age for a true digital native is probably 30 - someone who grew up with a mobile phone that they used to communicate with their friends, with online social networks for sharing, with widely available e-commerce for purchase..  If digital natives want to find out a fact they use Google search, Wikipedia or ask questions on social media and are hardly aware of offline methods.

But while those of us from previous generations did not grow up with this technology, most of us have come to accept it and use it as the best tool for many personal and business activities.  Some may be reluctant but there are many older people, including silver surfers, who have embraced it enthusiastically as a way to enrich and simplify their lives, from being able to see and talk to remote family over Skype to automating their small business accounts.

So are the digital natives really a breed apart?  Until recently, I was not convinced and felt that there were already ncreasing numbers of OAPs equally at home in the new world of technology.  I liked to think of them as digital OAPs.  But a couple of articles that I read last week made me think again.

Firstly, John Naughton's article in The Observer (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jun/15/nsa-covert-surveillance-trap) in which he talked about the NSA and their PRISM program and concluded that however much people might be horrified by the way PRISM is collecting so much personal data, they could not envisage stopping using the main internet services that provide the information to the NSA, particularly if they were under 25. 

The other article, by Brian Halligan, was on the culture of HubSpot, the firm he co-founded (http://www.businessinsider.com/hubspot-ceo-brian-halligan-on-company-culture-2013-6). He talks about the different values of younger employees - how they want to buy into the goals of their companies and value transparency in their organisations. This attitude towards work ties in with the freedom with which digital natives are willing to share so much of their life online even though it becomes visible to so many people.

So maybe digital OAPs (as well as those slightly younger, like myself) can be as good technically in using the new technology.  But do we have the attitude of relying on it entirely that the digital natives have?

If we are like those learning a foreign language compared to native speakers of that language, then while we have to work very hard to speak it fluently, once we master it we may also be able to see its strengths and weaknesses in context.

Does a "Like" button give enough feedback?

Reading a recent article from the Nieman Journalism Lab about testing a "Respect" button instead of a "Like" button for news items led me to think more about the benefits and disadvantages of "Like" buttons.

Facebook is well known for its "Like" button which allows users to "give positive feedback and connect with things [they] care about" but other sites have their equivalent: Google+ with "+1" to "give something a public stamp of approval" ; Twitter with "Follow" ; YouTube has thumbs up or thumbs down icons; Pinterest has "Like"; and Tumblr has a like.

So most of the major social media sites have one or at most two simple ways for a viewer to show approval and YouTube is the only one that allows viewers to rate an item negatively as well as positively with one click.

Allowing users to give positive feedback or approval with one click has the obvious benefit of making it very easy for users to interact with content.  It only takes a second to "Like" whereas adding a comment could take a minute or more.  So one-click approval encourages more interactions and keeps a site lively.

But how much does it measure, and more importantly, increase customer engagement?  More sophisticated ratings or comments provide much richer feedback, including making it clear whether the user finds the views expressed in the content interesting and worth sharing or perhaps just the topic itself, while not agreeing with all of the views expressed.  There are some interesting ideas on increasing customer engagement through social media in this prezi (and the Nieman article mentioned up front has some interesting insights on comments and polls)

Which is more important for a site?  Volume of instant feedback or in-depth engagement?

Well, of course you can have both with buttons and comment fields.

But maybe there is a way to gain more information from buttons without losing significant volume, and possibly encourage more comment by just making some users reflect a little more on the feedback they are giving.  How about one or two more buttons to record better the positive and negative sentiments and to rate the importance of the topic being discussed?

I feel most sites are in a rut of just using one standard button.

Time for an experiment?

Who owns the online community?

The biggest online communities are businesses that tap into people's general or specific interests and offer great value to users and contributors.  In today's world they often do not charge any money for the use of their services, instead making money from selling adverts on their sites or from services sold to premium users or to companies providing add-ons.  Think of Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn for example.

Looking at these communities today, it is hard to think of a future without them, but they face constant pressures not to go the way of previous stars such as MySpace (now growing again slowly), AOL and SecondLife.  For example, Facebook experiences considerable pressure from younger rivals as it tries to maintain growth and the amount of time users spending on the site as noted in this CNBC report on Facebook growth from May 2013; while it is growing fast in emerging markets, there are signs of a loss of interest by users in established markets such as the USA and UK.

These pressures highlight the fact that the communities depend on their users who are free to go elsewhere if something new grabs their attention (for example Tumblr or Pinterest), if the site annoys them (e.g. not addressing privacy concerns) or just if they grow bored with the activity on the site.

Are there ways to combat this and create longer-lasting online communities?

One possibility would be to involve the community itself much more in running and setting the direction for the site.  Could the community actually co-own the service?  A real sense of ownership would increase loyalty and should also ensure that the site develops in ways that the community wants.  But if the online site was run as a business, this would inevitably create tension between the profit-motive of the company running the service and the demands of users.

There are two other drawbacks to the idea of community involvement or co-ownership.  Firstly, most users do not want to get involved.  They want a service, one that is useful and is used by their friends but do not want to spend time or effort on working out how it should be run; if it stops meeting their needs, then they will just go elsewhere.  Secondly, the active members who would be willing to participate in setting direction are not necessarily representative of the majority, let alone new users whom the business might want to attract.

All of these drawbacks can be overcome, in my opinion, (after all, two of them exist in democratic governments) by adhering to three principles

• clarity on the aims of the community and how both the company running it and the users will benefit
• balance of benefits between operator and users with limits on both sides
• realistic controls that meet the long-term objectives and concerns of the users while allowing the business to operate commercially from day-to-day

I am working on building these principles into a new community for the travel industry.  By focusing on a specific part of the travel industry, the community should also cater to a long-term interest that will help the community to survive (as long as it is well-run).  I will share my plans in more detail in future posts.

Maybe you have any experience of building or even just participating in communities that have long-term success in maintaining user commitment or enthusiasm?  If so, it would be great to hear your experiences.

Turning consumption into engagement

Content marketing is nowadays seen as the answer to a marketer's prayers.  Of course, it requires producing a lot of content but there is usually have lots of product information lying around.  It can just be smartened up a little, with a few added images, then posted, tweeted and referred to on Facebook.  Surely that provides content marketing and social media leading to community engagement?

Except that this misses one key element - involving the community.  We may work hard to combine well-worded content and stunning visuals into a mixture of videos, infographics, case studies and webinars; and this can lead to a satisfying number of visitors and clicks.  But how engaged are those reading, watching and listening?

There is a big difference between consumption and engagement, well expressed by Jason Hekl in his rant on engagement.  He proposes the use of the phone to create engagement, and this is a highly effective method.  But it is not the only way.  The principles of a conversation can be used online as well as on the phone.

The first thing is to open a conversation, not just broadcast your message.  So your content must ask questions and have a format for replies (you can comment below!).  It must pause from time to time to allow for questions or observations from the other person (so I will not make this post too long).  Explanations should be followed by questions to check understanding.  You need to find out more about the other person's interests and needs.

These things can be difficult to do face-to-face, and even more difficult over the phone, where you cannot see the person's expression.  Online it is even harder to judge a person's emotions or receptivity but you do have a number of advantages that you can use

• you can plan what you say and what questions to ask
• you can test different ways of saying things and different formats
• you can measure how people find you, what content they read and the time they spend in order to gain clues to their interest 
• you can make yourself known to thousands or millions of people to find those who most want to have a conversation with you

This last point is so vital because you have to be realistic.  Maybe only 1% of people who read your content will want to engage with you but, as I wrote previously, you do not need many conversations to create activity and debate around your products and services).

So I will be happy if any of you let me know - was this post of interest?  Does it match your experience?

I plan to post more about how to measure people's receptivity online - would this be useful or are there other areas we can explore?

Motivation and output

Motivation to drive useful and creative output has been a focus for me at the start of this year.  The new year is always a time for setting goals and refocusing on the important tasks to be achieved.  But goal setting is useless unless there is a plan for achieving the goals.  The plan must be realistic and this involves reviewing past successes and failures and understanding what drove you to success and what hindered you when you failed.  For many people, myself included, a key element is ensuring that you are really motivated to achieve your goals; the motivation needs to be more than just words and should be tightly tied into your emotional needs (what makes you tick).

"Making lots of money" or "being successful" are too woolly as motivators.  Spell out what you are going to do with the money or how exactly will you be successful e.g. ensure my family's financial security, buy a Ferrari, go on holiday of a lifetime, prove to everyone (and myself) that I can do it, be ranked the best in my department.

At the January meeting of the Mayfield Business Forum that I help organise, we discussed plans for 2013, how to set them, how to make sure they are realistic and how to keep on track in achieving them.  One of the very good ideas that came out of the meeting was that of putting your goals somewhere you could see them on a regular basis and so be reminded of what you were working for.  Ian Parker,  for example, had his goals on his mobile phone which provided a constant reminder.

Since the meeting I have created a screen saver on my PC consisting of two screens, one with two key goals and one with two key behaviours that I need to improve.  This has proved very useful since the screen saver is there when I have been away from my desk for a while. or when I have been interrupted by a conversation, and focuses me back on the essentials.   However, the effect is starting to wear off because it is always the same words and the same background that appear and the mind tends to switch off when seeing something so familiar.  I know I will have to refresh the words and image, the "story" I am sending to my brain.

All this made me very interested yesterday to read McKinsey's article on "Increasing the ‘meaning quotient’ of work".  It highlights how people can be highly productive when at work but this usually only happens rarely.  It depends on the right environment in terms of

• knowing what to do and having the skills to do it  - the IQ element
• being supported to do it and having the soft skills (communication, empathy etc) - the EQ element
• but also the concept of MQ, the Meaning Quotient, which is how to ensure that you, or your  staff and colleagues, feel that the task is worth doing

You need to read the whole article for all the insights this gives and I would encourage you to do so.  But one key thing the article highlights is the story that you tell (yourself and others) about the tasks in hand that make them meaningful and motivate you.

Different reasons will motivate ourselves and other people, and these may change over time and need to be refreshed.  But creating a rich story that we believe in is a key element of motivation, of working productively and so of reaching our goals.

Never mind the question, social media is the answer??

There is a danger of thinking that social media is the answer to all marketing problems in this day and age.

But it is always sloppy thinking to believe that the latest and greatest thing is the answer to all the issues you face.  Successful business depends on deep thinking and a rigorous approach to finding out what is going on in your industry, your market and your company.

Social media has fantastic potential for many companies and markets.  But this article from Mashable shows that many companies are doing very well without social media and that it is not appropriate for them to focus resources on it
   http://mashable.com/2013/01/01/social-media-not-required/

Whatever your company, industry and market, you need to understand your prospects and customers but if they are not on social media or you need to talk to them in ways that are not suited to social media (e.g. requiring confidentiality, in-depth discussions or sensitive conversations) then you need other methods - pick up the phone, incentivise partners to survey their contacts, send out white papers, present at conventions, ..

The one essential is to spend enough time keeping a track on your customers and those who could become your customers to understand their issues, what makes them tick and what might excite them or make their life easier.

How you then pull out the key messages and best communicate with them is where the hard thinking comes in.

Such a thing as a free lunch

They say that there is no such thing as a free lunch but I disagree.  I have more than once been invited to a briefing where the lunch was free, and remember an IBM seminar in particular where I gained useful information as well as enjoying free sandwiches and drinks.

But these are trivial examples.  The more important examples come in the availability of open source software.

This week I was sent a mail detailing all the great new features in Wordpress 3.4. I use Wordpress for a number of websites that I have created for myself and for my clients - for example, theaibs.tv for the Association for International Broadcasting and movingmarketing.biz for my own video marketing project.  I use it for free and take advantage of great features and they keep on delivering more.  Thank you very much Matt Mullenweg and others.

Since this post is created on blogger.com., I should also thank Google for their continual updates of this and their other properties, of which I take advantage.

Of course, most software companies do not offer the services out of the goodness of their hearts - they want to make money on the service somehow.  This is often by advertising or offering freemium services (entry level for free, pro versions that cost).  But many ask for subscriptions but leave it entirely up to the user to donate what they think is appropriate.   Lots of users, myself included, respond with voluntary payments.

Being offered a good product or service for free accompanied by a low-key request for donations, builds loyalty just as free lunches make you feel grateful.  We should all examine what we can offer for free that maybe just builds reputation and kudos.   If you have a passion and something to offer, it may be a healthy option to make it a giveaway - healthy for you and ultimately healthy for your business.

Social Media as a Part of Market Engagement

Social media tends to provoke one of two widely different reactions from business people - they either embrace it wholeheartedly and devote enormous amounts of time to it at the expense of other activities or they avoid it either out of fear or out of belief that it is just a fad which is a waste of time for them. This is particularly true of small businesses who do not have the luxury of appointing a person, still less a whole department, to manage their interactions with social media.

The reality is that social media can be valuable for all businesses but it is not a panacea to be pursued to the detriment of other tasks, and even other marketing. I have mentioned this before in a previous blog - http://rogerstonemarketing.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/reality-behind-social-media-hype.html

Social media has tremendous potential as part, but not all, of your marketing engagement. To understand this, we must first understand what marketing engagement is.

For much of my marketing career, one major element of marketing was called marketing communication (marcom) but this was in the days when companies told customers and prospects what was on offer and the only communication back from most of them might be a negotiation on price, possibly a purchase and after that maybe one or two requests for service. Feedback on new ideas, new offers or even new marketing campaigns was done at best with a focus group or small survey.

But now customers and prospects not only expect more involvement and dialogue with companies but also are willing to be your advocates if they like your product or service and the way you treat them. So now one-way marketing communication has evolved to two-way communication with the aim of going beyond simple expressions of "Here's what we have to offer" and "Yes I'll take it / No, I do not want that" to engaging the attention of the market. Now it is about discussing how the offer and its message can be adapted to the needs of the prospects and how they can be enthused to tell others about their experience.

Social media is a great tool for this because

• you can find and address communities with particular interests, and build your own communities
• conversations can be rich in structure and include short messages, links to detailed material, photos, videos, podcasts, slideshows and webinars
• feedback is quick and direct
• the means for passing on the message about your product is built into social media software

But social media is not the only way to engage with the market. Customers still appreciate face to face meetings, go to conferences and events, read newspapers, listen to the radio and watch TV. So your market engagement mix should include all types of communication that are relevant and affordable.

In thinking about the effort you should spend on social media, you should first decide on the amount of time. effort and money (and the number of people) to devote to market engagement as a whole. Then you must decide how to divide this up into five different activities that make up market engagement:

1. Building and maintaining a shopfront: for most people this is not physical but a website or set of Facebook pages where the market can see who you are and what you have to offer.
2. Meetings and events: face to face time where you have direct contact with prospects, customers, suppliers and partners. You might also include video conferences or even phone calls in this activity as long as you obtaining a rich feedback from people's expressions, manners and voices to help build personal relationships.
3. Listening and joining in relevant conversations: this is done on sites such LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+,Twitter, popular blogs, and discussion forums. To succeed you need to be interested in your customers, so it is vital to listen to them and comment on what they say rather than hogging the conversation with your own opinions. People are going to engage with you and Like/Follow/Link with you if you are interested in them as well as if you have something interesting of your own to say.
4. Starting conversations yourself: when you have something to say, or even better when you want market opinion on a particular subject, then you can start a conversation, be it a Tweet, a post on Facebook or a topic on a LinkedIn group.
5. Publishing detailed information that shows your expertise in a particular area (whitepaper, blog posts, slideshow, how-to video, etc) or that explains your product and service in detail.

Decide how much time you have to do all these tasks and then set realistic goals for how often you can do each of them and stick to it. Better to follow one or two of the most relevant groups and comment every few days than follow dozens but comment so infrequently that you do not leave a lasting impression.

Marketing engagement is a vital part of your business. Nowadays it can often perform the bulk, if not all, of the task of selling. Social media is a necessary and fantastically useful element of this engagement, but it is not the only element so you have to balance the time you spend on it.

Week of scams and unwanted calls

This has been a week for scams and unwanted calls. It started with the common annoyance of a phone call from a company which I did not know asking about my energy bills. I questioned why they were calling me, since I am on the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) list and should not receive unsolicited calls, at which the caller just hung up. Short but disruptive.

Then there was a second caller saying they were from Car Claims and suggesting that I could claim compensation for a recent accident. I asked to speak to their supervisor to complain about the call, but was told that I could only call them on another number. The caller then coolly gave me an 0900 number which he said was free to call. I am pretty sure it would have cost me to try out. But it was the first time I have had this type of response.

The third episode involved a US company, Hamilton & Pricehouse, phoning me about some shares that I own They claimed to have an investor who wanted to make a hostile takeover and was willing to buy the shares at a price several times more than the quoted value. Although suspicious (if something sounds too good to be true, it nearly always is) I could not work out what the scam was and ended up discussing the offer for a while and giving out my email address to receive their information.

The information sent was just a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for me to sign and send back, together with a request that I send details of my share holdings e.g. copy of certificate. The NDA would bind me but placed no restrictions on them and the share details could be used to defraud me. I also checked the website of the company whose shares were involved and it highlighted that this practice of unsolicited calls was going on and recommended a call to the UK's ActionFraud. So I have not sent back the NDA despite two phone calls from Hamilton & Pricehouse to chase it up, and I am waiting a call back from ActionFraud, so I can report what has happened. Also I hope to understand if it is a scam and how it works, so that I can be even more on my guard in future.

For jobs be aware of social media rather than beware

For some time now there have been stories about people, particularly youngsters, being identified in embarrassing social media entries ( videos on YouTube, pictures on Facebook or Flickr, blog posts on WordPress or Blogger, tweets on Twitter) which causes problems with their employers or, if they are still teenagers, could cause problems when they come to look for their first job. My wife and I have been telling our children for a while that they need to careful what they publish even when they are young, since it might come to the surface and count against them in five or ten years time.

But this article in imedia made me think again. It talks about employers starting to look at Klout scores and favouring those who score highly. Those who are active and engaged on social media are demonstrating their ability to communicate and to influence others, which can be important characteristics for some jobs such as marketing. This leads to the conclusion that it might be useful to be active in social media to give yourself an edge when applying for jobs.

Also the fear of embarrassing incidents from the past being visible on social media and being a major disadvantage in finding employment may reduce over time. We have all had embarrassing episodes in our past, but until recently they have only been seen by a few people. Yet the younger generation are growing up with a more open idea of what can or should be shared. In a few years, those hiring may well think it as normal that the embarrassing incidents can be viewed online as we now think it is normal that they happened at all.

So instead of telling people to beware of their social media profile and to keep it low, we should be telling people to be aware of their profile and raise it in the right way

First step provides momentum

The idea for MovingMarketing (as described on this blog on Monday http://rogerstonemarketing.blogspot.com/2012/01/movingmarketing.html) has been pinging around in my brain for a few months now and I have even started an alpha test producing a video for a company I know. But the distractions of other projects and a Christmas break have slowed my progress.

On Monday I pushed other projects to the side and registered domain names, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Small steps but they helped make me much more focused on rolling out the service quickly and effectively.

It's amazing how commitments (money, public announcements, telling family and friends or even just writing down your intentions) however small can create momentum and a positive force to move forward