Penny Soup

If I could have a pound (or dollar) for every time I’m asked this question by a client, then I’d be posting this blog from my own Caribbean island paradise! For every business, the optimum time to tweet will be different, and it may be a case of trying a series of different tweets on different days and monitoring the results to determine your own optimum time to tweet.

However, the guys at  Buddy Media recently published a report titled “Strategies for Effective Tweeting: A Statistical Review.”  The report is based on the data compiled from their analysis of user-engagement from over 320 Twitter profiles managed by various brands.  Based on their data they make several recommendations for how best to maximise the use of Twitter as a business.

After reviewing the study the wonderful Fusework Studios decided to convert it into a very helpful infographic using most of the data found within the report. They focused on using the data that relates to some of the most common questions they receive from clients about Twitter best practices, including:

• “When is the best time to tweet?”
• “How can I increase engagement and conversation?”
• “How can I get more people to retweet my tweets?”

Read, digest, incorporate and monitor!

Just had to share this wonderful infographic with you explaining 10 top tips for writing great SEO content from Michael Lykke Aagaard.

Michael says:

“Copy is one of the most important aspects of onsite Search Engine Optimization. But with all the algorithm updates Google has pushed in recent years, a lot of the old tricks and best practices don’t work anymore. Moreover, it’s really hard to keep track of what does work.

“In order to help you out, I teamed up with SEO Extraordinaire, Henrik Bondtofte and put together this infographic with 10 tips for writing content that ranks in 2013.”

Thanks Michael, this is just the kind of information we should be sharing and learning from!

When I looked at Facebook last night, one of my friends was ranting about how she had ‘stuck it’ to Ryan Air by wearing her suitcase onboard.

This equated to: one pair of leggings, one pair of skinny jeans, one pair of boot cut jeans, three bras, two vest tops, three long sleeve tops, one T-shirt, one shirt, one dress, one waistcoat, one cardigan and a jacket, plus a fold-up shopper bag. Once in the air, she changed in the toilets and put the clothes into the bag. She gleefully shared her success with her 162 Facebook friends, 10 of whom ‘liked’ her status and another thirteen who commented directly. She also shared with the group that she wasn’t the only person on board doing this.

As a marketer, for me, the scary part of this tale is how many of her 162 friends will now relate this story to their friends, via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, or blog posts like this one?

Social media – friend or foe?

And how many of the other people who also wore their suitcase on board also shared this story online?

Finally, and this thought is even more sobering, this story will now be cached and stored by the Google bots – forever immortalised online and ready to be presented in future online search results about your company.

So my question to you is, could your business be damaged irreparably by an online rant?

Before the internet, people might complain to colleagues, family or a small circle of friends. We’ve all heard the figures about one unhappy customer who will tell 10 people about their bad experience. In turn, those 10 people will tell another 10 people, resulting in 100 people who now know about the initial bad experience.

But that was before the internet became a fixture in our daily lives. Now, we have so many offline and online outlets to use to vent our disappointment and anger – we are spoilt for choice and audience.

A recent phenomenon of social media has resulted in customers now being more like to rant about you and your service levels online than anywhere else. Customers can hide behind the anonymity of the web and this allows them to behave differently than they would do face-to-face. Research* by Euro RSCG Worldwide, conducted in 2009, found that people were more likely to ‘lash out’ on the web when they had something to say about a company or brand. Indeed, one-fifth of internet users, including almost a quarter of men, had already done so.

So, when customers complain online about you, your company or your brand…what do you do? As a marketer I know the internet can be dangerous for brands. Companies no longer have control over consumer-created content. So, now more than ever, it’s important to constantly review your service levels and see if you can improve your customers’ experience. One online rant can irreparably damage the reputation of a local business that has been running successfully for years.

So, it is a foolish business owner who buries their head in the sand when it comes to customer complaints. Just because you haven’t had a complaint for a while, doesn’t mean that your customers aren’t moaning about you online! Perhaps you should consider actively asking your customers to complain to you before they go online?

I think for small businesses, it’s even more important to keep up a conversation with your customers since it’s very likely that the complainant will be moaning online about you to their local friends. No business needs that kind of bad publicity.

Customers complain. It’s a fact of life. And since you can’t please everyone all of the time, you have to try your hardest to please some of them some of the time. But you’re only human and you will fail sometimes. However, by listening to your customers, interacting and engaging with them, you stand a better chance of sorting the complaint out before it goes onto the internet…forever immortalised in cyberspace.

For help with creating a conversational marketing plan with your customers, call me on 07901 823877. Don’t let your customers control your brand online.

* Source: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007395

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By Liselle Barnsley

Tailored Marketing Solutions

www.tailoredmarketingsolutions.com

Here is a list things you can do right now for very little or no money to increase your websites exposure and increase traffic flow. Its worth noting that traffic does not always equate to sales. The more targeted the traffic the greater the return. Some of these relate only to e-commerce product based websites but most can be applied to any website.

In case you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, let me set the scene for you: a much-loved brand launches new logo with a great fanfare, loyal customers are outraged by new logo and take to the internet to declare their feelings in no uncertain terms, much-loved brand then bows to social media pressure and withdraws new logo, much-loved brand then decides to return to social media platform to ‘crowd source’ a new logo, then withdraws the ‘crowd source’ strategy and finally returns to embrace old logo with open arms.

I’m talking about Gap, who, in the space of a single week, managed to create a social media furore , ‘abandoned’ their 20-year-old logo and replaced it with a new logo which it promptly withdrew after its customers took to Twitter and Facebook in their droves to express their horror at the logo change.

Did Gap bow to their customers’ opinions or curry their favour?

Gap then tried to mollify them by asking them to “share their designs” via Facebook but then turned its back on their efforts and returned to the original logo.
In a statement Marka Hansen, president of Gap North America, recognized that it “did not go about [crowd sourcing] in the right way” and if Gap looks to “evolve” its brand identity in the future, it will “handle it differently.”

She added: “We’ve learned a lot in this process. We recognize that we missed the opportunity to engage with the online community. This wasn’t the right project at the right time for crowd sourcing.”

The more cynical marketers out there have expressed various conspiracy theories that Gap have actually managed to pull off a very clever PR stunt to focus all eyes back on the retailer and improve brand awareness.

However, I have to question the conspiracy theorists – how desperate would Gap have to be to want to raise its brand profile via the gauntlet of social media, especially with something as expensive as a rebrand?

If Gap did bow to the pressure of social media, my other question to you is, should you listen to your customers to the degree that Gap did?

I’ll leave you with this thought: did Gap manage to successfully engage with its consumers and pull off a spectacular PR stunt or run an ill-conceived and badly researched rebranding campaign?

Whatever their intentions, I guess the only people who will ever really know the truth are sitting inside Gap’s marketing department right now…either pointing the finger of blame and looking for heads to roll, or opening the champagne and slapping themselves on the backs for a job well done.

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By Liselle Barnsley
Tailored Marketing Solutions
www.tailoredmarketingsolutions.com