Location based marketing tech darling Foursquare is playing a role in the election drama that unfolds as Americans participate in yet another Election Day. Tech savvy voters are checking in at the polls and earning the #IVotedToday badge and doing their part to raise awareness and urge others to take part in the election. You can go to their website to track check in and voting activity, which is kind of cool. If I had a national restaurant chain account as a client, you can be sure we would have been using Foursquare to make an offer to voters who check in on Election Day. Hmmmm, wonder if anyone else thought of that…..

Rock The Vote is using mobile marketing and helping people find their polling places by circulating messages like this one:

If you’re looking for your polling place, you can text WHERE to 30644 #electionday #ivoted

on Twitter, Facebook and through other mediums and has volunteers staffing the phone lines to provide assistance, too.

As hotly contested races are soon to draw to conclusion all over the country, I love seeing how technology plays a part in the excitement of Election Day and the whole campaign process. Savvy political strategists have been relying on social media monitoring tools and analysis as they’ve crafted their strategies during the course of this campaign season and our client Spiral16 and their monitoring and analysis services have been in high demand, much to their delight. Pollsters have wasted no time in also turning to the Internet and social media for updates and information and technology has played an increasingly significant role. Candidates themselves are embracing connectivity – at least the smart ones – and are reaching out not only through traditional mediums like TV and direct mail, but also through a variety of social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

All told, there’s a lot of buzz and excitement about what is certain to be a pretty significant Election Day. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear drew over two million TV viewers to Comedy Central and over 10,000 attendees showed up to the Washington, DC event. My colleague Michelle Lamar, wrote about it earlier on the V3 blog and included snippets of Stewart’s conversation which I found pretty moving. But then, I’m easily moved. I get all patriotic on every Election Day and fired up about the fact that it wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t all have voting rights in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Apathy pisses me off. And should never be an option when it comes to an American’s right to vote. Don’t let it be a cop out for you. Even if there’s no one you want to vote for, get out and vote because you can. And not voting only makes you a part of the problem, not a part of the solution. So go do it! And check in on Foursquare while you’re at it!

Foursquare Checks In To Create Buzz About The Vote is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Small business owners and marketing consultants are well aware that they should be paying serious attention to social media as a way to reach customers. But few realize how to really leverage this channel and many screw it up royally.

Some erroneously assume social media is yet another channel to use to push out marketing messages – and many do just that, with nary a strategic thought in sight. But we all know, dear readers, (I always wanted to say that) (it sounds really dorky, though) that this just isn’t the way to go. No way, no how.

It’s all about determining goals and developing a strategy to effectively reach them.

If you and your small business or marketing consulting agency are looking to implement a social media plan, here are few ‘best practices’ that you might want to check out as you set your goals for the coming year, develop a strategy and work to get your social media initiatives off the ground.

From a strategic marketing and/or planning standpoint, there’s a lot to consider and a ton of information out there to wade through. Some of our favorite resources are the smart folks at TopRank and Mashable. Both are terrific and a good place to go for information and how-to guides. Some resources we especially like are TopRank’s Best/Worst Practices Social Media Marketing and Mashable’s Social Media Business Strategy.

Then, once you’ve set goals, and developed a strategic marketing plan, it’s time to focus on the details. The irksome little details that will eat you for lunch if you don’t take them into consideration. But those same details will help convince your clients (or your boss) that you were justified in advocating integrating social media into their marketing efforts. And it’ll keep you in cupcakes.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

1. Educate your client. Set benchmarks when you begin a campaign or social media engagement for a client. Be clear about the goals you’ve collectively set and how you will reach them. And don’t forget how important listening in the social media space is. During the process and as you move forward with your initiatives, be smart and utilize social media monitoring tools and pay close attention to your analytics. For us, the best kind of monitoring tools are those that weed out noise and let us get relevant information without wading through Google Analytics for hours on end. We like Spiral16 – and they’re a client – but we would love their tool even if they weren’t. For analytics, we use Google Analytics (they’re free and really awesome) and also like Get Clicky. We like to use two separate sets of analytics and compare them often. We love numbers. Numbers help us prove the efficacy of what we’re doing. We love numbers (so much it warrants saying it twice). Deal with it.

2. Generate reports. Let your clients know what consumers are saying and where they’re saying it. Show your clients what best practices engagement looks like. If you’re not sure, point them to Starbucks’ Twitter Page or to Cabot Cheese’s Facebook Page. Prove your value. Show them where your benchmarks are at the beginning of your engagement and how they’re progressing. We like tools like HootSuite, TweetReach, Klout, Bitly, Peer Index and Twitalyzer. Don’t expect your clients (or your bosses) to know what you’re doing, show them, regularly.

3. Crisis and Coms Plan. Make sure you have a coms plan and identify a process and a response for consumer comments and complaints. This is critical. Jeffrey Cohen at Social Media B2B provides good tips in this post that will help you develop your own. One of the worst things companies of any size can do is to not quickly and efficiently respond to consumer complaints. Customers reach out because they need help. Social media can often be the quickest, most effective channel to provide customer service and doing it quickly and well can save you many headaches. But you’ve gotta have a plan. And a crisis plan, for when the you-know-what hits the fan. And it will.

4. Act Like Time Is Of the Essence. Because it is. Social media is real time. And an aggravated customer (or an irritated and articulate blogger like Allison Nazarian) can make a lot of waves. Answer customers immediately – you’ll be glad you did. And whether you’re an agency or a small business owner, it’s important to realize that customers need help 24/7. Make sure you have a plan in place to provide that kind of service. If you don’t, you’ll wish you had.

5. Always Be Thinking About Adding Value. We preach a lot about how important it is to find ways to do more for your clients. If you’re handling social media marketing and engagement for your clients, look for ways you can be innovative. If the primary goal of your engagement for social media marketing is content distribution and customer service, do that, but always be on the lookout for ways you can deliver more value.

More value, by the way, often translates in to higher fees and longer engagements because you’re knocking it out of the park and clients realize they can’t live without you. We recently wrote about IBM and the great job they’re doing adding value to their clients’ businesses via social media training. This is a smart way of adding value – learn from it. Be innovative. Don’t just do what you’re asked, look for what you can do to do more. Always.

There’s more. There always is. But this is a good start. Go do it, then let us know when you need help. Or if you discover some tricks of your own that we outta know about.

And if you’ve not yet subscribed to the V3 Blog, why the heck not? We’re funny. And occasionally interesting, too. Hit that little “subscribe now” button now.

5 Tips For Implementing Social Media For Your Business is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Spiral16′s CEO Tracy Panko wrote a post last week on the Spiral16 blog about breast cancer.  Spiral16 is one of our clients and we used TweetReach to analyze the Twitter activity of Tracy’s breast cancer post.

Just a quick overview of the last 50 tweets for that blog post shows how powerful Twitter can be.   Tracy’s post reached 190,055 people—with just 50 Tweets.

I discovered this fabulous app from Brian Solis, who is fairly knowledgeable about social media.  According to Solis:

“TweetReach is an essential part of any digital influence program.”

So what are you waiting for? Check out TweetReach! Oh, and go ahead and follow Tracy Panko on Twitter while you’re at it, why don’t you?

TweetReach: Practical Tool to Prove Power of Twitter is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

It’s no surprise to anyone paying attention that the world of marketing has changed. Consumers are officially in the driver’s seat and are creating a new set of challenges for brands and marketers.

A majority of consumers use the web as their primary source of information, especially when it comes to products or services that they need, regardless of whether or not they make the purchase online.

What is being said about your company or brand matters because digital content is fast becoming the ONLY content some consumers read. Whether it’s web analytics or monitoring your brand in the online space, knowing what people are doing and, just as importantly, what they are saying about you, has become an integral part of successful business operations.

Customer reviews also play a significant role when it comes to influencing buying decisions. Let’s face it, who’s going to buy a product or patronize a business that has an overwhelming number of negative reviews? Or even no reviews, evidencing that they’re insignificant, at best.

Today’s eMarketer, cites a study from MiresBall and KRC Research, showing that 40% of brands realize that social media presents new challenges when it comes to maintaining brand integrity. My question: what are those 40% of brands doing to monitor and protect their brand reputation?

If you are not monitoring your brand online, it’s like driving a car without a seat belt or — em, having “relations” without a condom. You can do it but WHY would you? If you have a wreck – and those happen as much in relationships (personal or brand-related) as they do in cars – your chances of survival are much higher if you’re wearing protection. Monitoring is protection for your brand and sometimes you don’t realize how valuable monitoring can be until it’s too late.

These days, when it comes to developing marketing strategies for our clients, my team at V3 regularly includes social media monitoring and business intelligence gathering tools as part of the arsenal of tools that we employ. There is no shortage of monitoring tools and, in our opinion, you get what you pay for. We use Spiral16 (and they’re also a client) and find that they make the job of keeping track of our clients’ brands and helping them manage their brand reputation easier. What are you using and why?

Photo credit: Chris Christner, TopTechWriter.us (and thanks for making me smile).
P.S. If you don’t know who Bill Clinton is, you are clearly exponentially younger than I am.
P.S.S. This is not a political statement – it’s comedy!

Does Your Brand Use Protection? is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

Susan Weinschenck, Ph.D., wrote an interesting piece on influence, and how a common theme that researchers encounter is that we think that OTHERS are influenced by certain things, but that WE are not. We are wrong.

Regardless of what we think, we are very much influenced by the thoughts, actions, opinions and purchases of others. That’s why online reviews are so important. Face it, we’re a bunch of sheep. When we see what others think, what their experiences have been, what their thoughts on quality, price, functionality are, all of that factors into our ultimate buying decisions.

The same is true when it comes to Facebook, and that’s one of the reasons Facebook is growing in popularity – and in power. When we see that our friends “Like” a product, service, event or even a person, we are more inclined to explore and, in most cases, “Like” them or it, too. Familiarity, recommendations, either explicit or implied, lead to a comfort level that consumers seek.

Here’s an example. Susan (whom I would really like to stalk follow on Twitter and anywhere else she hangs, but she did not give me that opportunity by putting connectivity buttons on her blog, grrrr) roped me in with a simple blog post. I discovered Susan’s nifty post when her content was retweeted by Beth Harte, someone in the industry that I respect and admire. I not only enjoyed the blog post, which was implicitly “recommended” by Beth, I also retweeted it which, for the non-Twitterai, means sharing it with my pals on Twitter. Then, I posted it on my Facebook wall because I can’t resist sharing great stuff with MY friends, and now I’m off to Amazon to buy Susan’s book, Neuro Web Design: What Makes Them Click. All of this because my friend, Beth, recommended it. And without ever really realizing that she was doing so.

Let’s recap: She liked, I saw, I paid more attention because she liked, based on her “rec” I shared, which means I endorsed, I went back and bought something and then I told you about it. Get it?

Influence drives sales. Need I say more?

Two important things: This is a perfect example of the power of social media and how opting NOT to use it as an integrated part of your overall marketing efforts is, well, stupid.

Secondly, it illustrates the importance of listening in the social media space using monitoring tools. If you’re a brand, you should care what the sheep are saying about your product or service, and the only way to find that out is to monitor and gather business intelligence. Here at V3, we use Spiral16 (client) and that helps us stay on top of what’s being said that could potentially influence and impact our clients.

What are you doing to influence the people you want to buy your stuff? And how do you know whether or not it’s working?

Fact: Influence Drives Sales is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

IBM recently rolled out a new social media monitoring tool that measures consumer sentiment from data gathered on social media networks, blogs and online communities. IBM’s tool, SPSS Modeler data mining and text analytics workbench, already has some fairly big clients.

Mashable reports that Navy Federal Credit Union, Rosetta Stone and Money Mailer are already using IBM’s new tool to understand what people think of their brands, products and competitors.  To all of you waiting on a case study from the Wharton School of Business to tell you that it’s wise to spend money business intelligence and data monitoring:

The train has left the station.
The genie is out of the bottle.
Wake up and smell the coffee!

IBM, aka Big Blue is a conservative brand. If IBM is doing it, you can bet that most of your competitors are doing it too.  The company has recognized that the need for gathering biz intelligence is so important—-they created a new tool for it!

Business intelligence tools should be part of the marketing strategy for any business or brand that wants to stay ahead of their competition. You can either jump in now or wait until later.  But in the words of Seth Godin:

By the time there is a case study in your specific industry, it’s going to be way too late for you to catch up.

Disclosure: V3 has recently become part of the team at Spiral 16, one of the top brands in the country for gathering business business intelligence and data mining.

Why Your Brand Needs Business Intelligence is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency

One day, I noticed that I had some tiny cans of apple Juice in the pantry that I’d forgotten about.  My kids aren’t much into juice, but I pulled them out, thinking they might be good bribery material.  Sure enough, in no time, an occasion just right for bribery presented itself, and the Twinlet Twinkies were aptly rewarded for doing my bidding with a little can of apple juice.  I opened the cans, handed them out and went back to whatever earth-shatteringly important thing that I was doing.

I later found the empty apple juice cans (probably in the middle of the floor somewhere) and was immediately struck by the fact that they had, imitating their dad, also turned their pull tabs – in exactly the same way he does.

What does all this have to do with anything?

In much the same way that kids are watching their parents, consumers are watching brands. And in today’s world, consumers are empowered.  Brands who are not what they say they are, instantly run the risk of being found out.  Manufacturers who make faulty products will be, without question, called out, publicly – and quickly.  Consumers are no longer content to buy crappy products and live with the injustice if they happen to have fallen for a lemon.  The old saying “caveat emptor” is actually turning around and, in my opinion, given today’s world of new media, the power is surging into the hands of the consumer.  Nowadays, instead of the buyer needing to beware, brands need to beware.  If they do bad things, make crummy products, misrepresent themselves, behave unethically, treat customers poorly, etc., the ability to be a bad guy and the ability to hide are both things of the past.

In today’s world, transparency is a word to remember – and a concept to take to heart.  If you make a product or provide a service, know that just as my children watched their father turn the pull tab on his soda to the right, your customers and prospective customers are watching every move you make.  And, if you misrepresent yourself in any way, promise something you don’t deliver or provide bad customer service or a faulty product, it will, without question, come back to haunt you.  And is that really such a bad thing? Aren’t consumers entitled to good value for the money they spend on products and services?

The lesson here is to listen and pay attention. Always.  If you aren’t already monitoring what’s being said about you in the social media sphere, you’re taking a big risk.  People are talking about your brand, whether you realize it or not.  There are great monitoring tools out there – so, whether you opt for Google Analytics, Spiral16, Radian6 or a myriad of other “listening tools,” do yourself a favor and make the transparency of today’s new world of marketing today work for you. Conduct yourself ethically, pay attention to what people are doing, pay attention to what people are saying, and always be ready to provide unparalleled customer service. After all, isn’t that what makes good brands great?

People Are Watching – Every Minute of Every Day. What is Your Brand Doing About It? is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency