No Silver Bullet » Planning

20 Things That Happen When There Is No Plan For Social Media

Bob Reed — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 17:27:52 +0000

What happens when you don’t plan your use of social media? The same thing that occurs with any other PR, advertising and marketing communications tactics. You end up doing the wrong things, at the wrong time, with the wrong focus.

If you don’t plan, you:

start doing before listening.
think social media is traditional marketing.
won’t know how social media fits into your company’s overall strategy.
don’t recognize how social media should complement your overall marketing strategy.
won’t know who to engage and where to find your audience.
can’t know if the bulk of your customers are or are not online.
won’t know what it is you want to get out of social media.
approach Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as strategies.
won’t know the difference between a group page and a fan page on Facebook.
believe the here-and-there-post approach to blogging will build an audience.
think the number of fans/followers is the only metric that matters.
can’t decide who from your company will engage your online audience.
fail to determine how much time to spend on social media.
believe you control the message.
assume that social media tools don’t have a cost.
ignore setting accurate benchmarks.
won’t hone your message for simplicity and clarity.
pass up the opportunity to demonstrate what you know.
ignore the fact that social media tools are temporary.
expect to only get when you don’t give.

What would you add to this list?

Are PR Pros Paid to Do or Paid to Think?

Bob Reed — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 22:15:48 +0000

This post from new minted agency owner and fellow PRSA Counselors Academy member Dana Hughens delivers clarity to the question of thinking and doing.

Are PR Pro’s Paid to Do or Paid to Think? (Resolutions of a Multi-Tasker)

Posted on January 11th, 2010 by Dana Hughens

We sit poised at our keyboards on client calls, ready to type in a url before the client can get “dot com” out of her mouth when she references a website of interest. We instant message our account team members across the office to provide real-time updates. We toggle between tabs to see if we’ve increased the fan base on the client’s page on Facebook and what has been tweeted about the organization since we checked an hour ago. Perhaps we send one last text to our best media contact in hopes that we can report a “this just in” pending hit before the client call ends.

Confession: I am a multi-tasker. I’m the first to admit that I’m the person walking in front of you at inconsistent speeds and occasionally causing “blackberry jam” because why on Earth would I simply take a stroll to pick-up lunch when I can walk and respond to emails at the same time?

In our always-on world, you might also feel like you are doing, doing, doing and always trying to do more. If so, read on. Ask yourself what percentage of your client’s budget is being spent on doing and how much on thinking? Feel like you don’t have time to think about that? Then YOU especially, read on!

My first agency job was with a small but well-established Long Island PR firm. The agency’s chairman carefully explained the process of billing by the hour. I still remember the examples he gave me which included listening to a client describe a challenge or task at-hand, meeting with your team members to think through and discuss possible solutions and action items, sitting in your office thinking about the situation, driving to work thinking about a client’s business, etc. Of course there were things like writing and editing, faxing (it was hot technology) a release to reporters and building a media list by studying the Bacons books.

Let’s go back to sitting in your office and driving in your car. Hmm. Really? We used to bill for that? When was the last time you just sat in your office to simply think? Or the last time you spent even a portion of your commute to think through – really think through – something for a client? Some days, my office is the last place I can really think. A computer, desk phone, iPhone and blackberry ring, ding and ping too much for uninterrupted thought. And time in the car? That’s for conference calls, phoning-in action items to team members, making the reservation for the last-minute client dinner, calling to change my flight and cancel my hotel since the last-minute client dinner means I have to shift the travel for the other client meeting to early the next morning. Do, do, do!

Don’t get me wrong, I love my mobile devices and the sense of 24/7 connectivity. Remember, I admitted I have a problem, and if you have received an email from me during the wee hours of the morning or have seen me wearing my wrist brace for what I have termed “Twitteritis” then you know it’s true. In the name of exceptional client service, it’s time to stop the madness.

I’ve spent some time thinking about the doing vs. thinking ratio for my clients. We can’t ignore that the doing is extremely important. Our clients expect us to execute and deliver on the metrics, which I would argue are the results of our strategic thinking.

It’s been more than 15 years since that Long Island PR firm chairman explained billable hours to his new account coordinator. I still enjoy crafting a release and earning the satisfaction of well-planned pitch, as well as managing a team, new business development and all the things that have come with double-digit years of experience. Focusing on thinking more as a strategic counselor does not mean that I have to be any less hands-on or that I just sit in my office doing nothing. However, it does mean that I’m challenging myself to make uninterrupted time to think – simply think – about my clients.

If you feel the same way, consider these tips:
1. Find your thinking place. It might not be your office. Running a few miles (with no phone calls or iTunes) creates my perfect thinking -without-distractions environment. It allows me a few minutes to clear my mind of everything else and focus on the topic at-hand. Perhaps it’s simply muting your computer, phone, etc. for a designated period of time or walking away from your desk and using a conference room or guest space.

2. Encourage your team to do the same. It can be especially challenging for junior team members to understand how much time to allow for a new assignment. As an account executive, I can remember fretting that I was taking too long. As a general rule, I now worry that the opposite is true for my AEs, and understandably so, when they’ve essentially known nothing other than an instant-answer world.

Help them realize that just throwing something on paper without a clear understanding of the project results in more time spent in the long run. Allow them the opportunity to go away and think, then come back and ask more questions before they begin. Consider defining the thinking time and environment for them. “Please go to the conference room for 30 minutes to review what we’ve discussed, outline your next steps and come back with your questions before you begin writing the announcement.”

Especially when it’s something brand new, try explaining what your own personal process would be for figuring out how to tackle it. I like to tell my team members about holding my own hand. It provides a good visual and allows me the opportunity to tell them that I still have assignments that are difficult to know how to start. When that happens, I hold my own hand, take a deep breath and remind myself that like all the daunting projects that have come before this one, I will figure out this one, too. In other words, I allow myself some time to think.

3. Know that it’s okay. In our hurried world, sometimes it feels as though sitting still is not allowed. And for we multi-taskers, that’s a challenge in and of itself. Accept that it’s okay to sit in your office to think. Perhaps as a new year’s resolution, commit to spending more time with your clients (try face-to-face to eliminate distractions) and your team members brainstorming a topic.

Bill your time for thinking? Yes, you should. Your clients will be glad you did.

Microsoft’s Latest Blue Screen of Death

Bob Reed — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:19:41 +0000

I was puzzled about Microsoft’s decision to exclusively sponsor the Fox program, “Family Guy”, to promote its new Windows 7 operation system. So earlier this week I was downright amazed (and not in a good way) when Microsoft announced that it was bowing out of the arrangement:

“We initially chose to participate in the Seth and Alex variety show based on the audience composition and creative humor of ‘Family Guy,’ but after reviewing an early version of the variety show it became clear that the content was not a fit with the Windows brand,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an e-mail statement. “We continue to have a good partnership with Fox, Seth MacFarlane and Alex Borstein and are working with them in other areas. We continue to believe in the value of brand integrations and partnerships between brands, media companies and talent.”

Here’s what didn’t “fit” with the Windows brand: riffs on deaf people, the Holocaust, feminine hygiene and incest.

My question to the brand managers at Microsoft is this: Did you ever watch “Family Guy”?

So much for basic planning.

Building a Better Customer Trap Part Two: Give Them Helpful (Not Commercial) Information

Susan Duensing, CBC — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 22:03:06 +0000

Where are your prospects and customers going for information? And, what non-commercial information are you sharing?

• Know your audience

As described in our previous post (Part One: Who Cares?), know what your customers want and why they buy. Where possible, augment that with anything more they should know before they buy. Then use all of this in your marketing content.

For example, our client, CAPSYS Technologies, recently published an entire book applying this exact principle. “ECM Buyer Beware: Real Insights and Answers for Decision Makers” encapsulates more than 20 years of knowledge, insights and real-world solutions facing companies trying to manage paper and electronic data using enterprise content management (ECM) hardware and software tools.

The author, Paul Szemplinski, methodically walks readers through the in’s and out’s of many aspects of these systems, sharing truly helpful details on every page. Anyone that manages or makes budget decisions on IT systems will find the book a goldmine. He did it without blatantly touting his own firm, introducing a breakthrough SaaS service from his company only in the very last chapter.

The tone? Educational and forthright. Paul knows the business and therefore shared what he knows, for the benefit of the reader. Period. The reader draws his or her own conclusion. Whether or not numerous new customers result, he has done them all a service.

• Create a program that regularly provides valuable information

The new mantra is value, not just a sales pitch. While we all know the primary purpose of marketing is to sell, in today’s densely crowded marketplace, we simply must give our target more reason to listen to our story.

The obvious example of this: Traditional ads are increasingly ignored. Relevant ads (i.e., Google search) are growing exponentially. If we provide valuable, non-commercial information to both current customers and prospects, we build an environment of trust. People appreciate the expertise, and seek it out when the time to buy comes.

Map out a new program that reaches your targets at least quarterly; or find ways to fold non-commercial content into your existing tactics.

• Let your target talk back to you

Involve your customers in the conversation. Use online and/or social media tools to create a “user community” that talks to each other. With every exchange, you are building your brand.

For tips on brainstorming dozens of valuable subject matter ideas for your company, read the white paper: Information: The New Marketing Currency, Go to our homepage www.rurelevant.com, and click the banner.

Questions, Part 3: 13 Questions To Pin Down A New Product Launch

Bob Reed — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 15:54:36 +0000

I won’t belabor the need for companies to think about the intended customer before they develop a product. As it happens, PR/marketing folks typically are brought into the process after the fact. With that, these are the customer-centric questions we ask before embarking on any plan for a new product or service launch:

What trend(s) do this new product and/or service capitalize on?
What would be the ideal behaviors (current situations, issues their facing, marketplace position, etc.) exhibited by the intended customer?
Describe the intended customer:
- Current customers (which ones)?
- Prospects (which ones)?
What experiences does this offering provide for the intended customer?
- Positive
- Negative
How will the customer financially measure the value of this new offering?
Does this new offering require the customer to change anything? (i.e. current behaviors, processes, systems, etc.?)
How will this new offering new be adapted into the customer’s business? Describe training, implementation, conversion, usage, migration, etc.
What are the next best alternatives compared to this offering? (i.e. what does it compete against – competitors, other offerings from company, and the intended customer’s internal resources?)
Can partners provide help through co-marketing opportunities, leads, etc.?
Buying process – which positions at the intended customer company will recommend, approve and influence the decision to buy this new offering?
How will the sales force be trained in this offer?
What will be a successful launch? List the target revenue and profit contribution for this offering during the 6, 12, 18, and 24 months?
How do these intended results compare with previous new offering launches?

What customer-related questions do you ask?

Wishful Thinking is the Silver Bullet

Bob Reed — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:53:01 +0000

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt

The search for the Silver Bullet is ever-present as it is elusive. There will always be a situation where someone hopes – vainly – to find that single, immediate and instantly applicable answer, solution, short cut or cure-all that saves the day, delivers more sales, or grabs market share.

We see it in constantly in business communications. “We need an ad.” “We want to improve our web site.” “Let’s start a blog.” “How about issuing a press release?”

All this “stuff” should never go before the substance that comes from dedicated thinking and planning. Companies seek a silver bullet because they lack an understanding of what they really should do: create traceable, significant and logical customer connections by delivering relevant, compelling and persuasive messages about the value of their product or service. Sorry to say it, but that takes thought.

Several times each week, No Silver Bullet will look at all things thinking related to business communications, as well as planning and its many windows of opportunity, from the strategic and long-term, to what needs to be accomplished in the next five minutes. We’ll focus on business, marketing and PR, as well as items that fall outside the office walls, while commenting on how people try to get things done; what happens when they succeed and the fallout when they don’t.

The world is picking up speed, so don’t wish, think.