Yet I’m pro-QR code. When used thoughtfully and strategically, QR codes can help extend your reach, drive traffic to your social networking profiles and/or website and boost your sales. Consider this perspective from Mashable, which proclaims that QR codes tie real-world marketing initiatives to the mobile web. And that’s exactly what they do. Apply a QR code to a piece of print advertising, a direct mail supplement or a storefront, to name a few, and you provide consumers with a gateway into a digital portal that can offer them any number of resources: contact information, product details, a virtual store, catalogs, instructional videos—the possibilities are nearly endless!

And contrary to some belief, the use of QR codes is on the rise. Consider this recent study completed by Forrester Research, which says more people are using QR codes this year than last—five percent compared to one percent, in fact. In case you’re curious, Android owners are the biggest QR code users, according to a study synopsis published on PR Newser.

Like other digital marketing tools, QR codes earn a negative reputation when they’re not used properly. You can’t just apply a code to a print or other source and expect to reap a steady flow of traffic and sales. Just as you create a social media strategy and think through other digital marketing initiatives, a QR code marketing campaign requires planning, preparation and monitoring. If you’re interested in launching a QR code-based campaign for your business or brand, consider the following steps for a successful experience.

How To Create A Successful QR Code Campaign

1)   Plan and define. When you began using Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site, you created a plan first, right? After all, you don’t want to simply launch your brand into the social space without defining your goals and objectives. The same is true for QR codes. As you begin your campaign, carefully think through the purpose of the code by considering these questions:

• What is the code’s purpose?
• What is the code connected to? Are you featuring a single product or item? Do you want to showcase an entire product line or brand?
• Do you want to get consumer information such as an email address through the code?

2)   Create a call to action. Consider your QR code as yet another gateway to your web presence. Perhaps you want to create an incentive, such as a certain discount or reduced price when consumers scan the code. If you opt to incentivize the experience, make sure you clearly explain the incentive in the literature that accompanies or displays the QR code.

3)   Consider the user experience. QR codes may be small, but their design and interface is no less important than your website. Many QR codes don’t work because they’re not able to be scanned, or are placed in a poor locale (like a billboard) that doesn’t encourage prolonged interaction—or any interaction, for that matter.

Design options exist if you’d like to create something that’s more colorful and eye-catching than the traditional black and white code. A number of free tools exist, too, to help you generate your own QR code. Again, keep the user in mind—don’t create a code that’s so complicated it won’t scan. Sure, it might be pretty—but if it doesn’t work properly, it’s useless.

Think about what’s on the other side of your QR code, too. It’s best to send users to a landing page or mobile version of your site. Are those materials well designed and up to par? I’m a stickler for user experience, so ensuring that each step of the process is thoughtfully created will translate into positive results from your target audience—and the higher likelihood that your QR code will continue to deliver results over a long-term period.

4)   Measurement. Just as you monitor analytics from your Facebook page, LinkedIn profile or website, you’ll want to keep an eye on user statistics throughout the life of your QR code campaign. Try not to get bogged down in daily scans and other smaller numbers. Instead, focus on a longer-term period to ensure that your QR code continues to drive engagement. If you notice 0 scans, or a sharp decline in activity, you may want to implement additional testing of your code—and its related collateral—to ensure that everything is working properly.

If you’re considering a QR code campaign as a long-term option, keep the content in mind. Your actual code doesn’t necessarily need to change, but you’ll want to periodically update the content that’s received once someone scans the code, especially if you’re targeting repeat visitors. In this way, QR codes are similar to blogs. You wouldn’t expect someone to continue to visit your blog if you don’t post any new updates. The same goes for QR codes. Rotating a fresh supply of content will encourage people to scan your code more than once, increasing the chance that they’ll become a long-term customer—and even a brand ambassador.

5)   Be creative! As you create and fine-tune your QR code campaign, don’t be afraid to be creative! Consider some of these ideas from Fast Company magazine, including a scavenger hunt, storefront displays, laptop stickers and T-shirts. Let’s say you own a gallery. You could create QR codes that would be displayed by each piece of art, giving gallery visitors a digital gateway through which they can purchase the piece, learn more about the artist and see other work, too. The great thing about QR codes is that they’re tiny but powerful—you can pack a lot of information into the site that’s connected to the code, giving users a rich, informative experience that inspires them to learn, connect and buy.

With a little pre-planning and ongoing diligence, there’s no reason that you can’t create a successful QR code campaign for your brand, business or product. With mobile marketing increasingly on the rise, QR codes are a great way to tap into a flourishing smartphone and tablet market.

Have you used a QR code campaign? I’d love to hear about your experience so far. And if you’re going to modify your campaign based on the aforementioned tips, I’d love to hear about that, too.

4 Steps To A Successful QR Code Campaign is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Two Simple Questions That Can Change Your Life

Daniel Pink, author of New York Times bestseller, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, published a new book in 2010. It’s not new, but it’s new to me – and it’s called Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. This video made me buy it (note to book authors everywhere, book trailers help sell books).

Thinking: I Like It

The thing I liked most about trailer (other than it motivated me to buy) was that it  also made me think. And I like thinking. See for yourself.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

In case you’re not a fan of video, here’s the essence of what Pink shared, in the video and the overall premise of his book – and it’s all about what motivates people. Motivates them to do, go, buy, try, be, avoid, strive.

Just One Sentence

It’s so simple – and all boils down to a couple of sentences. Pink explains that by talking about Clare Booth Luce and something she once said to President John F. Kennedy. “A great man is a sentence,” she said. She was worried that Kennedy was trying to do too many things – and that his sentence lacked simplicity and focus. And she was right. When you narrow your focus and figure out what your sentence is, it can make a dramatic difference in your life–in a myriad of ways.

And when it comes to marketing strategy for business, it’s all about that sentence. It really is that simple. The brand story for your business should boil down to just a sentence. Sometimes that’s referred to as the “elevator pitch,” sometimes it gets all fancied up and glorified as a “mission statement” and in all too many instances it’s something that many businesses fail at in no small measure.

What about you? What’s the sentence that best encapsulates your business? Is there a chance that your business is trying to do too many things for too many people?

Pink challenges: “Think about your sentence – and use it to navigate your life.” He also says that if you keep asking that question, on a regular basis, it’s an excellent strategy to help keep you on track. We think it’s a pretty smart strategy for businesses, too.

Pink believes that you need to be asking an additional question – and it’s also a simple one: “Was I better today than yesterday?”

If you ask yourself those questions, the odds are good that your personal life, your work life, your business, whether you own your own business or work for someone else, will be better. And more simplified. And more successful. These questions allow you to boil it all down and focus. The end result is that those answers can help position you to achieve whatever it is you seek – happiness, simplicity, direction, clarity, focus, success, profitability … the list goes on.

What’s Your Sentence?

So, as we’re moving into the last quarter of the year and focused on plans and strategic goals for the coming year, we challenge you to ask yourselves those two simple questions. Write down your answers. Then ask them again on a regular basis. Oh, and buy the book. You’ll probably be glad you did. I know that I’m really looking forward to reading it.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, when it comes to V3, our sentence is simple: We help our clients sell more stuff. I can’t wait to hear what your sentence is.

2 Simple Steps to Brilliant Marketing Strategy is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

If you’re a social media practitioner, community manager or marketer/PR pro in or near the Kansas City metro area, the Kansas City Social Media Masters workshop series on Friday, October 21, is something you should check out. Yes, that’s THIS Friday. Clear your calendar and get there.

Whether you’re an agency or on the client-side, this workshop will arm you with information and strategies far beyond the Social Media 101 seminars that are a dime dozen and give you enterprise level intel, case studies and strategies that have worked, and are working, for both B2B and B2C companies of all sizes.

And I don’t say that because I’m speaking. Or because I’m pimping an event that someone asked me to be a part of. If you know me well, you’ll know that I don’t do that.

If you’re like me, offers about social media workshops, webinars, training sessions and the like come across your desk and computer screen on what seems like an hourly basis. In fact, a friend just paid a whopping $1800+ for a “social media bootcamp” event that not only took a ton of money out of her company’s pocket, but two days out of her life. Even worse, it delivered squat in the way of relevant, actionable information that she didn’t already know. I don’t know about you, but my time is just as valuable as my money, and if I’m going to sit in an all day seminar, it had better be amazing.

Did I just describe you? If so, the Kansas City Social Media Masters event is something that should be on your calendar for this week  – and if it’s not, it’s not too late. The folks presenting at this seminar are truly brilliant at what they do, and are people I look up to – and learn from – on a regular basis. You’ll see my butt parked in the audience of these sessions, and there’s no better testimonial to a conference being worth your time than that – I promise!

Okay, You’ve Got My Attention. Who’s Going To Be There?

Here are some of the people you’ll see and hear from, and why I’m giddy just thinking about spending the day with these folks:

Chris Heuer – Chris is a Specialist Leader, Social Media for Deloitte and is fantastic at helping brands – large and small – think holistically about business. The fact that businesses today need to be focusing on (and doing) things in the digital space is a given. But there’s so much more. Chris will talk about how to optimize your organization to act as one, collaborate across organizational boundaries and serve your market in the most effective ways possible.

Sam Fiorella, Chief Strategist for Sensei Marketing in Toronto and New York City, will talk about how to build corporate social infrastructure at the enterprise level and how businesses can avoid the silos that can be barriers to success in the social media realm and with regard to integrated marketing efforts of the company as a whole.

Jonathan Copulsky, also with Deloitte, and author of Brand Resilience: Managing Risk and Recovery in a High-Speed World, will speak on that very topic. How to assess your brand risks, detect early warning signs and how to adapt your defenses accordingly. He’ll discuss the experiences of some well-known, very large brands and you’ll walk out of his session in an infinitely better position than you entered.

Matt Hicks is the former PR and social media manager at Facebook and if you’re interested in harnessing the power of Facebook beyond the “likes,” this session is, without question, for you. He’ll discuss tactics for competing for attention in the newsfeed, developing a voice and creating a great content mix as well as advanced features for setting up and managing your Facebook page.

Sean Moffit, founder of Agent Wildfire and a well-known figure in the fields of innovation and brand leadership, social influence and community building and digital technologies in general, will speak about WOMM and influence building. Sean’s workshop will show you how to create buzz and, just as important, how to engage influencers.  Sean is the author of Wikibrands – Reinventing Your Company in a Customer-Driven Marketplace – can’t wait to hear what he has to say!

Sean McGinnis, one of my favorite brains on the planet, is a well-known expert on online marketing, SEO, customer acquisition and a host of other things. Getting a chance to finally meet Sean in person, never mind hear him speak, is probably one of the highlights of this day long seminar for me. I’ve been stalking Sean for a long time now and learn from him on a daily basis. And now it’s your chance to do it, too.

And then there’s me. I’ll wrap up the day with a session about corporate blogging and how blogging is, without question a channel with which to drive leads and generate sales. We’ll discuss the impact of a corporate blog and other social channels, how to measure success, and explore some of my favorite tools for measuring ROI and showing the folks in the C-Suite that there is a method to the madness. And that corporate blogging and social channels can – without question – have a positive impact on the bottom line.

C’mon. What Are You Waiting For?

I hope you can join us on Friday. This is really going to be a day filled with some terrific information from a group of seasoned, successful pros who are routinely working with some very large companies, helping ensure their success. If what they do for large companies works, it will, most definitely work for you and your business.

This isn’t a huge conference – it’s an intimate setting and a series of workshops each designed to play off the one prior. Spending the day with us will, without question provide you with actionable takeaways that you can put to use immediately in your business – no matter what it is.

I have a discount code smmshelly that’ll entitle you to a 30% discount. Register. NOW. Come spend the day with me. Even better – come spend the day with these smarties. You’ll be glad you did. Let’s see … $210 and change for a day long workshop with these brains … seriously folks, what is there to think about?

Oh, and if you’re game for some pre-event fun, come to the Oktoberfest Happy Hour on Thursday night, from 5:30-8pm at The Vienna Zimmer (upstairs, Grunauer at the Freight House). I’ll be there, too!

Kansas City Social Media Masters: A Don’t Miss Event is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Berg, a London-based design firm, was asked to rethink what a receipt is and how it can become something more useful or engaging to consumers. And frankly, I’m a fan! The work they have done so far is really cool.

So what did Berg do that is so cool? What they realized is that receipt machines are already connected to complex systems that report consumer spending and product purchase data. With access to this information, receipts can transition from a sheet of paper with coupons for products you commonly purchase to something that provides news or information that might be useful to you as the consumer. More simply, what if your receipt was more tailored to your life and things that relate to your purchase decisions? By offering more valuable content to consumers, wouldn’t this enrich their overall impressions of your store? I think so.

As a new resident of Chicago, I’m constantly on the lookout for new things or places to check out so I can learn more about my city. If I went to purchase an album from a store in my neighborhood, it would be of great value to me if the receipt had information about shows or street festivals happening in the area. Or if it said something like “Since you like Adele, go to XYX and get one of their killer burgers. Adele loves hamburgers.” It would make me laugh – and I would probably go check out one of those burgers.

As we’ve mentioned before, user experience is something important to consider at all times, regardless of whether or not it’s a design product. I’m jazzed about this because this concept takes a commonly discarded paper item, and redefines the experience the consumer has with it. And that adds value not only to that purchase, but also to the overall experience the consumer has at your store and/or with the products they buy from you.

There are a plethora of opportunities – and so much room for creativity. Receipts could become a tool with which to raise awareness about social or health concerns, rally attendance for community event, promote purchasing local products or simply provide a quip or factoid that might make consumers smile.

Do you think consumers will take note of receipts like this – or will people continue to largely ignore them? We would love to hear your thoughts.

Are Receipts Integration Gold for Marketers? is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

As if Toyota hasn’t already had enough bad press in the past year or so, there’s a storm brewing focused on a scheme that pretty much amounts to buying reviews from mommy bloggers. Crazy? You betcha.

Clarification – there appears to be a campaign afoot soliciting mom bloggers to write positive blog posts and reviews, share them widely in the social media space, and “thumbs up” a series of Toyota YouTube videos. And the reward dangled in front of these bloggers for their help (and putting their reputations on the line) – a $10 Amazon gift card.

This story comes to light courtesy of a well-regarded mom blogger, Crissy, at DearCrissy.com. More about Crissy in a minute.

The skinny: apparently there’s an organization called MommyNetworks, based in Tampa, Florida about which not a lot of information is available. Never a good sign. But I’m tenacious. Let the digging begin.

I like to start at the beginning. And your website really does speak volumes about you and your business — I always start there. A quick visit to the MommyNetworks website reveals no “About Us” page, no names, no faces, no connections to ‘real’ people. There’s really no brand story or explanation about what they do, who their clients are, what services they offer, who runs the company – and all those other little niggling details that go to credibility. I do so love a mystery.

Oh, because I couldn’t resist – and just for a giggle, here’s what “Get the Best Deals” section of the Mommy Networks website looks like. Muy impressivo!

Here’s what else I know. The domain MommyNetworks.org is 4 months old, their Whois.com information is protected and the website is, unquestionably, a horrible, embarrassing mess. There are a sum total of three blog posts on the site, the most recent published on December 21, 2010. Impressive! Especially to another blogger – or a brand considering hiring them to do any kind of marketing or PR work. But most importantly, who they are and what they do is really a complete and total mystery.

Can you say “WARNING, WARNING Will Robinson?”

Digging more. (I really should’ve been a PI). Hmmm. Website copyrighted by Care.com, a company that describes themselves this way:

Care.com provides a trusted place for families and care providers to easily connect, share caregiving experiences, and get advice. The company addresses the unique lifecycle of care needs that each family may go through — including child care, special needs care, tutoring, senior care, pet care, housekeeping and more. The service enables families to find and select the best care possible based on detailed profiles, background checks, and references for hundreds of thousands of mom-reviewed providers who are seeking to share their services.

How does all this fit in with MommyNetworks? Still a mystery.

Okay, enough digging. Back to Toyota.

Crissy received an email from Tiffany Lewis, at MommyNetworks, which I imagine is a blogging network that she belongs to – giving  her an opportunity to “work” and get a gift card in return. The email, from Tiffany Lewis, read like this:

Hello!

A new opportunity! Another chance to score a $10.00 Amazon gift card for the mommy bloggers who help out.

There was a big report released about Toyota, by the NHTSA and NASA, stating that there was no electronic flaw found, which was originally assumed to be the cause of all the recalls with the Priuses last year. It actually turned out to be pretty much “user error” that was causing the accelerator to stick.

It’s a big deal for Toyota since this has affected their reputation heavily and they had a lot of negative stigma around their brand as of late, and we’re helping to spread the positive news:

I need you to:
Write a post about the report & good news
In the post, link to a few of the articles or videos below
If possible, share on social networks or “thumbs up” the YouTube videos.

Tiffany Lewis
MommyNetworks.org

There’s a final note that asks:

Please meticulously track your efforts (If you tweet it out, the exact URL) You must do this to receive (sic) the giftcard!!! If you have any questions I will get back to you as soon as possible. Have a great day:)

Here’s the things about mom bloggers. Most of them (and I know many) are amazing people. And as much as some of them might like a good deal, a freebie or a fantastic opportunity, they are typically pretty smart cookies. They’re not going to do stupid things, just because someone asks them to. And they’re certainly not going to potentially damage the credibility they’ve managed to build as a result of their blogs, their Twitter or Facebook followings and with their clients, who are often PR firms and ad agencies, by jumping on board a sketchy opportunity like this.

Crissy did what any self-respecting blogger would – she got mad. Then she wrote a blog post about it. It’s a stellar post. Based on the 130+ comments that she’s received since the post was published this morning, there are no shortage of folks agreeing with Crissy’s shock and outrage.

But who’s to blame? Toyota? In fact, did Toyota have any idea this campaign was going on? If so, did they understand how it was being conducted and what was being asked by the blogger outreach team?

As the erudite Alli Worthington, a well-recognized name in social media and the lifestyle blogger community, and co-founder of Blissfully Domestic women’s magazine, one of the most trusted women’s destinations online, says when responding to Crissy’s post, chances are good the answer to those questions is a resounding ‘no.’

In fact, Alli’s response to the post is so good, I’ll share it for you here:

A friend sent me to read your story. Wow. Unfortunately nightmare stories of bad campaigns are not surprising anymore.

I wonder if Toyota even was aware this was taking place. Here’s my guess – Toyota has PR Firm XXX that is hired to help their image. PR Firm XXX hires multiple small boutique marketing companies to do a word of mouth marketing campaign geared at increasing positive regard for Toyota.

The above marketing group took the path of least resistance to achieve their goal of increasing positive regard for their client. I am not an attorney, but paying a (presumptively) bloggers to give positive news stories a thumbs up may be against the FTC guidelines.

The responsibility and bad PR falls ultimately in the lap of Toyota. However, my guess is this marketing group was some tertiary hire by the main PR company. Much of this comes down to a lack of oversight. I advise my clients to know exactly who their firm may be hiring out to do these word of mouth campaigns.

Such an embarrassment to everyone that should have been avoided with due diligence.

@AlliWorthington

My take – this isn’t something dreamed up by Toyota. It was an idea hatched by someone so eager to make a good impression with a client that they didn’t think it all the way through. They didn’t think about little things like ethics and the fact that you really can’t – and certainly shouldn’t – try to buy good reviews. And someone so absolutely ignorant about the mom blogger community as a whole that they tricked themselves into believing that moms – or bloggers anywhere – would be supportive of something so obviously wrong.

Due diligence. Understanding marketing and PR and ethical practices. Understanding the importance of full disclosure (not only a good idea, but required by the FTC) and, most importantly, realizing that whether you’re a brand, a PR firm, a marketing firm, consultant or blogger there can be major ramifications and potentially massive reputational damage done as the result of poorly conceived campaigns like this one.

And thanks to Crissy and the ethical thinking that led to her indignation and subsequent blogging about this issue, and to legions of other smart mommy bloggers, brands and agencies can learn some valuable lessons.

Know who you’re working with. Check them, and all of their resources out, very carefully. Ask for references and check them. Insist on being a part of all campaigns and approving content before it’s disseminated. Don’t be so anxious for results that you don’t first stop to determine how you define ‘good results’ – at least for purposes of your campaign and your goals. And also have a good handle on what you’re asking people to do.

And, for heaven’s sake, don’t think you can be unethical and pull the wool over the eyes of anyone – especially mom bloggers. They’re moms – they’ve probably already seen every trick in the book.

And mom bloggers, there’s a lesson here for you, too. Value yourself, above all else. Before associating yourself and your personal brand and credibility with an organization like MommyNetworks, do your own homework. Surely if you took the time to visit their website, you’d have some warning bells that things weren’t right. And if someone asks you do to something like MommyNetworks asked of Crissy and others, don’t hesitate to stand up and cry ‘foul’ … because that’s really the only right thing to do.

What did I miss?

Update:  Crissy just updated her original post with the following information from Samantha Snyer, owner of Mommy Networks.

UPDATE:

Samantha Snyder, owner of Mommy Networks, emailed me saying that she is in no way affiliated with Toyota. I don’t know how someone wakes up one day and decides to pay a bunch of mom bloggers to post good news about a brand out of their own pocket, but, that’s what Snyder says she was doing:

I am a toyota (sic) owner, that saw this come out last week and I thought that it would be a good case study. Honestly, look at my FB page. I really thought that I could bring up something as large as this recall and create a portfolio for MommyNetworks.org.

There was absolutely no mention of any of this in her original pitch, and I can only assume that the other bloggers involved were under the impression that there was some affiliation with Toyota, too. Might want to run this stuff by the brand, especially when you’re paying people.

And my final thoughts, as a marketer regularly helping brands protect and maintain their brand reputations, this is a perfect argument for the use of social media monitoring and business intelligence gathering tools as a critical component of business operations. People will do amazing things. And if you’re not listening, you might not have any idea.

UPDATE: 9:08pm, CST, The following was posted on MommyNetworks tonight, as an explanation and an apology:

To Crissy and Toyota, I am sorry

My dream has been to own my company since I was a little girl. I started MommyNetworks.org in August with the idea to help moms find work, and advertising.

Mommy Networks recently began some harmless outreach to other moms in order to build a portfolio, and increase our scope with Mom’s. I own a Toyota-Lexus and with the recent news that came out I wanted to base some outreach and case study development around this topic. I often have fun contests and give aways on Facebook.

I had a big #FAIL.

I went into a realm that was not my own. I am not a PR person, I have a background in HR, and want to help get Mommies jobs and help them find routes to advertise.

I #FAILed.

I truly apologize to everyone for this issue, and I am closing down MommyNetworks.org in order to reevaluate whether I am built for this kind of endeavor. Crissy was someone that said that she would be interested in future campaigns for advertising and reviews and this only reason I contacted her. I would never cold contact someone.

As for the Care.com issue, my designer and developer left that on my theme when I bought it.

I am responsible for going into this without experience and I am paying the price now.

I apologize to Crissy, Toyota, and everyone else. I messed up, and I hope everyone will leave this as a last comment from my side. I am open to answer questions, but hope everyone will respect my decision to simply fade away and deal with this huge #FAIL in my own way.

I had a discussion with Liz Polay-Wettengel about this this evening and she made a very good point. Bloggers – mommy bloggers in particular – must realize how important it is that they be more responsible about their content. Doing anything for a free gift card or some other perk gives an entire genre of bloggers a bad name – and that’s a bad rap.

To my way of thinking, reputation, integrity and credibility are always our most important assets (at least from a business/blogging standpoint) and if you will say or do anything for a gift card or an invitation to a party or for a free product, well then, what does that say about you?

I’m sorry that this blogger did something that she now regrets. And sorry that Toyota had to suffer some slings as a result. Once again, these are good lessons for us all. The Internet – it’s a very powerful thing.

Toyota Buying Mom Bloggers? is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

This is a guest post written for the V3 blog by my friend, Josh Titsworth. We first met through random social media interaction (which quickly evolved into quick repartee – my favorite kind) on Twitter. Then we managed to meet in ‘real’ life – whatever the heck that is and I discovered he’s as snarky there as he is online. Josh is an SEO Project Manager for Click2Rank. and when he isn’t online tweeting or blogging, he can be found tracking down shanked golf balls on public courses.

5 Tips For Online Reputation Management

Online reputation management, “ORM” to geeks like me, is a really big deal. Simply defined, this is what individuals see when your name/brand is searched for online via search engine or social media. While it is difficult to regain reputation lost, there are some simple measures that can be taken to help avoid crises altogether, and/or minimize (or contain) them if they happen.

Set Up Social Media Profiles

So you’ve made the decision that clients you serve aren’t active enough in social media to engage them there. And in my opinion, not every type of client base will be. But rest assured, if your clients aren’t involved with social media, the critics and trolls are. Even if you don’t plan on using the accounts, set them up anyway so no one can start a “fake account” using your exact brand name. Spoof accounts have popped up over the years, but it really gets disastrous when a company fails to get control of their brand name. When you neglect to use social media you are allowing other to speak for you as if they were you.

Respond in a Timely Manner

It should be a no brainer that social media is a great way to engage with customers. However, nothing stirs up customers more than being ignored. It’s fine if you’re only tweeting every few hours or so, but make it a point to check any messages/emails/@replies every 20 minutes or so. On top of that, make it clear on your profiles and website how frequently the messages are checked (and stick to it) so customers have a rough idea when to expect a reply. The last thing any company wants to see is their name being abused by upset customers.

Don’t Engage Critics Online

I’m getting tired of typing this, but it’s true, engaging clients online is good for your business. However, when you start communicating with critics/trolls/flamers you may be opening Pandora’s Box (remember Nestlé’s Facebook Fanpage?). It can be easy to read the banter and want to respond wittily, but unless your brand is built on being snarky and sarcastic, I’d shy away from it. Offer to take the discussion offline, even go so far as to privately send them a phone number to speak directly to a person, not an automated phone system. Sometimes people just want to rant, so let them, but also offer them a direct source to vent at as well as get some answers — and, more importantly, a resolution to their problem.

Monitor Your Brand

Do you want to completely blow your chances at succeeding? Then don’t pay attention to what is being said and who is saying it about your company. If, however, you do want to pay attention to this, I’d check out Trackur (which has a very basic free service) or some of the paid services which are pretty awesome – services like Spiral16, or Radian6 or a host of others. On the off chance you can’t afford to pay for these services, there is a poor man’s ORM monitor; it’s called “Google Alerts.” Setting up a Google Alert for your company is pretty easy to do, and I’m really surprised when I hear businesses don’t universally use it. How else will you know if an upset customer has written a nasty blog post about you? Or how can you tell if the New York Times has mentioned your business in an article? Don’t wait for someone else to tell you about the news. Being first to know when your company is mentioned is a great way to respond quickly and let upset clients know you are listening — especially when they don’t think you are.

Do Good Business

Shocking right? Even after doing all of the above, it’s still possible to have a horrible reputation online. How, you ask? Provide craptastic service and say one thing then do another; trust me, your reputation will catch up with you online. Once it does you’ll need the help of an ORM company, I just so happen to know of one (shameless plug here). But before you start thinking you’ve got a way out of your reputation, think again. ORM companies can clean up the SERPs for you, but ultimately it is the business owner who determines the reputation of the company. Reputation management isn’t there to act as a “cover-up.”

One last point, don’t assume that ORM is only important for big business. Whether you run a local travel agency, a group of restaurants or a consulting business looking out for the needs of your clients, reputation is really a calling card to success. And being proactive about managing your reputation and knowing what’s being said online is a key component of good business practices.

Looking for more information on ORM? Below are a few of my favorite articles on the topic (btw, the blogs they are from are pretty good too, so subscribe):

You Deserve Your Bad Online Reputation
Google On Manipulating Search For ORM
DIY ORM Without The Nasty Emotional Breakdown
The 5 Google Reputation Management Tactics I Don’t Normally Reveal
Business Owner Shows How NOT to Respond to Negative Comments on Yelp
The Twelve Most Important Reputations In Social Media Monitoring

5 Tips For Online Reputation Management is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

For the savvy business owner blogging has become an integral part of any integrated marketing strategy. Not to mention a way for businesses to grow and enhance their brands, harnessing the power of both the Internet and social media.

And corporate blogging that is driven by strategy and tied to metrics … goodness, but that makes me swoon. At V3, we are all about metrics. Read Jason Falls’ post on the importance of metrics and SEO in your corporate blogging strategy – you’ll be glad you did.

Pardon me while I sound all cheeseball-ish, but if you want a sure fire way of adding value to your corporate blog (or website), you seriously need to consider publishing an eBook. And by the way, I’m working on mine, which is part of the reason this is top of mind. And the reasons to do it are really ridiculously simple. Efficiently use your resources, drive traffic, add value, build your mailing list, keep your readers coming back for more. Need more convincing?

Efficiently Use Your Resources. You’ve probably already written a lot of GREAT content and re-purposing that in as many different ways as you can only makes sense. Pick a topic, look through what you’ve already written, decide what else you need to include to make it better and package it into an eBook. Easy as pie. Not to mention smart.

Drive Traffic. People love resources. Provide them, traffic will come. Period.

Add Value. Blogs (and businesses) that add value and resources to their readers’ lives thrive. Their communities grow, their stature builds, their brand is enhanced, their influence grows. And we haven’t even talked about what that does for your traffic, your click-through rates and the leads that are inevitably generated.

Think about the places you go for your resources. An example: I love cooking. When I want to find some great culinary resources, I head immediately to Epicurious.com. Wouldn’t it be awesome if your corporate blog provided such great resources that you became the Epicurious of someone’s world? And every time they needed something, they looked to you for an answer? Me – I’d be dancing a jiggety-jig-jig if that happened with my business.

Building Your List. The importance of list building is often overlooked, but oh-so-important. Providing great resources (like eBooks) and then asking readers to register before downloading allows you to build your list and market to those people in the future. That doesn’t make list building spammy (as long as you treat those people with respect), it makes it simply a part of good business practices.

The Crack Cocaine Factor. This is a phrase we often use with our clients – and while they look surprised when we do, it only takes a minute before they get it. And the concept is really quite simple: What’s the crack cocaine that you provide? What’s the impossible to resist draw that you offer your clients and prospects that keeps them coming back for more, more, more? eBooks is yet another way of making sure your business provides The Crack Cocaine Factor.

And, once you’ve written your eBook, for maximum effectiveness, PIMP IT OUT. Or, in layman’s terms, register it on a variety of different sites and you’ll be amazed at the results (and the traffic) that it will drive and brand awareness that’ll result. Here are a few eBook registration sites that we like:

ebook88.com
thefreesite.com
getfreebooks.com
ebookjunkie.com
ebooksubmit.com
ideamarketers.com/bookpr.com
mind-like-water.com
changethis.com

Convinced? Common sense will do that surprisingly often. Now, what are you waiting for, get cracking on that eBook! And if I’ve left anything off the list, please be sure and let me know!

PS And if you want a great value and a perfect example of how to effectively market an eBook, look no farther than my friend Danny Brown and his 7 Ways to Market Your Business on Facebook.

How to Use eBooks to Grow Your Business is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Football Fanatics is an online retailer for—football fanatics–and they know how to use the power of social media.  The company is a privately owned sports merchandise company headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, offering one of the largest selections of officially licensed team and league products on the web.

Football Fanatics has an awesome footprint in social media—almost 5000 followers on Twitter, nearly 20,000 Facebook likes and an active company blog.

Before you start whining about how your business isn’t football or sports related—STOP!  The reason this company is so successful in their social media efforts has nothing to do with the fact that they are a sports-related business.  The reason this brand is successful is because it was started by sports fanatics and is staffed by sports fanatics to give football fanatics their fix when they need NFL or College football SWAG.  The company is authentic and it shows.

We get lots of calls from businesses who want to jump into social media marketing.  Shelly and I ask potential clients WHY they want want a Facebook page or a Twitter profile.  We tell them that good social media marketing is simply an extension of a strong brand message—it’s not a silver bullet.  We don’t recommend using social media for the sake of social media—it has to be a part of a bigger plan.  It’s not the answer people want to hear but it’s the truth.

The brand message of Football Fanatics is true and crystal clear.  THAT why this company is kicking ass in social media marketing. You know instantly know what the brand is about once you land on their website.  The company is full of crazed sports fans who love to serve other crazed sports fans.

I stumbled upon the Football Fanatics site because one of my college friends, Scott Williams, is president of the company. The other day I looked up my friend, saw his company website and stayed.  Since my favorite part of a football game is the tailgate party, I thought it was an example of good marketing.

If you dig football, you’ll be in heaven at Football Fanatics:

• Visit the website Football Fanatics.com or check out their company blog, WeAreFanatics.com.
• Like Football Fanatics on Facebook
• Follow Football Fanatics on Twitter
• Find Football Fanatics on YouTube

Football Fanatics Uses Social Media to Kick A** is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

The other day I wrote about Cooks Source and the nasty spot they landed in as a result of their proclivity to swipe content from the Internet and use it at will. Thanks to social media, the blogosphere and a healthy dash of traditional media, the story has spread like wildfire. No matter how you slice it, Cooks Source comes off looking a bit bush league, to say the very least. If you’re not yet aware of the situation, you can read about it here, and while you’re there I won’t be at all offended if you hit that subscribe button. In fact, there might be some cupcakes in it for you.

A ton of other intrepid bloggers and reporters and other folks have written about this – most of whom have marveled at the audacity of Judith Griggs, the Cooks Source editor, as well the staff at the publication for letting what really amounts to rampant plagiarism slide.

And, because it’s the Internet and there are a lot of crazy people out there (and a lot of wicked funny ones, too), a fake Cooks Source Facebook page sprang up, as well as a fake Twitter account, both of which contain comments that are often highly amusing. But honestly, Monica, I digress (private joke, but if you check out the Facebook page, you’ll soon see what that means).

Today I saw a piece that my friend, Gini Dietrich, wrote about Cooks Source (which you should read if you haven’t) and it reminded me to check on them and see what might have changed in the couple of days since I wrote my original piece. I discovered that their real Facebook page has been taken down, as has their website, and the site has been replaced with this statement:

“We have cancelled our Facebook page on Thursday, November 4th, 2010 at 6:00PM. It has since been since been hacked by unknown parties and now someone else unknown to us has control of it. Their inclusion of Cooks Source issues and photos is used without our knowledge or consent. Please know that none of the statements made by either Cooks Source or Judith Griggs were made by either our staff or her.

Cooks Source will not be on Facebook again at any time in the future: hacking is too prevalent and apparently too easily performed by disreputable people. The email and Facebook abuse of our advertisers is the prime example: it is hurtful to people who are innocent of this issue, and can ill-afford the abuse — either emotionally or financially. Small business owners are being bombarded with hate mail, and distasteful messages because someone downloaded their contact information on these bogus sites. These small business owners work very hard to keep their businesses going in a bad economy. We respectfully request this harassment be stopped immediately. If you or anyone knows of this abuse, you should go to the bogus Cooks Source (or other bogus pages) Facebook page, look to the left side of the page and press “Report Abuse,” or else go to How to Report Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement.”

Isn’t it ironic? Intellectual property infringement. Hmmmm.

You can read the rest of their message here, but I’d guess it’s not an overstatement to say that this has been – and should be – a real wake up call for not only Cooks Source, but for businesses everywhere. Especially for small businesses. Are you listening?? As for Cooks Source, I’m pretty sure they won’t be swiping content from anyone else – ever. If they manage to stay in business. And I find the whole thing really very sad.

Content generation is the big buzz word these days and there are as many poseurs scrambling to position themselves as Content Experts as there were a year ago proclaiming themselves Social Media Ninjas. This should be a warning to all businesses out there to know where your content comes from. The old adage Caveat Emptor still stands. If you’re hiring someone to write for you, especially at some of the “bargain prices” I hear about on a daily basis, can you trust the work product they produce? Is it original or is it swiped from someone else? Are you protected? And what happens if there’s a mistake? What’s your crisis plan if something like what happened to Cooks Source happens to you?

But back to Cooks Source. The lesson here is simple. And no different than the ones I try and teach my four year olds on a daily basis. Here it is: If you mess up, don’t be snotty and say things you might regret. Be human. Own up to your mistake and make amends. When someone graciously asks for an apology, if they deserve one, give it to them. And if they ask for something reasonable, like blogger Monica Gaudio did, you should give it to them. Why is such a simple thing – like doing the right thing, so very hard for some people?

It makes me sad.

The Cooks Source Goose is Cooked is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

I love Zappos. I have twin girls. And, while I’m not so good at math, here’s one thing I do know:

Zappos + Twin Girls = LOTS of Shoes

Why do I love Zappos? I love their selection, the fact that they remember what I like and let me know when they’ve got more of it. I like Tony Hsieh and the culture he’s created. He’s a smart guy who’s built an empire based on common sense and being real. And managing to grow Zappos to over $1 billion in gross sales annually, while also regularly landing on Forbes’ list of Best Companies to Work For list are no small accomplishments. Gini Dietrich wrote a great post about Tony. it’s here if you’d like to read it. She likes him, too.

I really like Zappos because they make me smile. On a crazy busy day, when I’m wading through hundreds of emails and see an ad like this, well, I stop. After all, it’s about SHOES. And we chicks, we’ve got shoes in our blood. But when the ad copy actually makes me smile, that’s what I call winner winner, chicken dinner. That’s when I know that my love for Zappos is deserved.

They get me. And I want to buy more of their shoes.

Note to: Zappos Marketing Department + Ad Agency → Mission Accomplished!

Want to Sell More Stuff? Humanize Your Brand is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency