Creative Concepts

The phrase “you’re doing it wrong” has long been the cause of many social media arguments.  When one of the basic principles of social marketing is to “just be yourself,”  how can you be wrong at being yourself?

While the merits of that question can be debated endlessly, we here at Creative Concepts do know one thing for sure: whatever “wrong” happens to be, it sure feels good to know we’re doing something right!

Sometimes, validation comes from metrics.  Social media can be unpredictable, so when the numbers prove that our theories (and campaigns) are bearing fruit for our clients, we feel good because they feel good.

Other times, validation comes directly from the clients themselves.  We’ve been working with some of our clients for more than 5 years, which means our methods are working for them.  And every time we sign a new client, or expand our responsibilities with an existing client, we know that we’re all moving confidently forward in a positive — and profitable — direction.

And then there’s the validation from our peers.  For example, when we read Mashable’s recent list of 10 Tips for Posting on Your Brand’s Facebook Page, we digitally high-fived ourselves because we already do each of these things for our clients. (See for yourself on their Facebook pages.)

Client love, new work and metric boosts are what keep us active and engaged, but there’s still nothing like reading a major advice column and realizing we’re already ahead of the curve.  (And we haven’t even had our coffee yet!)

Wondering what else we know?  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

You may use social media to increase brand awareness, build a loyal community or manage customer service, but make no mistake: you are always selling.

Every tweet you send is a pitch.

Every Facebook status update is an advertisement.

Every YouTube video is a commercial.

Your company’s social media presence might provide the most friendly, engaging and community-oriented experience any human being has ever had online… but it’s still a sales tool.

This shouldn’t be surprising.  Think about your brick-and-mortar store, or your corporate headquarters, or your fulfillment center.  Why do any of those facilities exist?  To sell products.

Your store is a point of sale.

Your office is where you manage your employees… so they’ll increase sales.

Your fulfillment center is where product is shipped… completing sales.

Your customer service center helps keep customers happy… so they’ll buy more.

So while social media may be about “conversations” and “communities” — and we’d never deny that those are the social structures which make these tools useful — when it comes to brand interaction on these channels, the bottom line is always, always sales.

You tweet to give your followers a snapshot of your company’s personality… so they’ll buy more from a company they can relate to.

Your Facebook page gives your customers a place to ask questions and provide feedback… so you can optimize the sales process.

Your YouTube videos can be funny, informative or inspirational… as long as they incite viewers to buy what you’re selling.

Be as social as you want.  Be talkative, personable, informative and entertaining… but always be selling.

Because just being interesting won’t keep the lights on.

Learn more from us on Facebook and Twitter!

Image by Gerard Stolk via Flickr.

Here’s a dirty little secret: you don’t need a degree, a portfolio or any experience to make a living at social media.

All you really need is a website.  (And, if you’re really fancy, a blog.)

Because the barrier to entry for this emerging field is still so low, the social media industry has been plagued by hundreds of self-appointed “gurus,” “experts” and “ninjas” who’ve never actually worked for a client, but they’re eager to convince you that their “expertise” will improve your business and make you a smashing success online — even if their expertise only consists of reading the blogs written by the people who actually do it for a living.

Fortunately, we at Creative Concepts are happy to give you a few tips to help tell the legitimate service providers apart from the social media charlatans.

5 Questions to Ask Your Potential Social Media Agency

Q1: “How long have you been managing social media for your clients?”

Granted, longevity is only one indicator of success.  But the longer an agency has been in business, the more likely it is that their collective experience can improve your bottom line.

(Our answer?  Since 2005.  Yup; even before Twitter.)

Q2: “Have you created any campaigns I might have seen?”

Again, a caveat: some social media successes occur far below the public radar, especially in terms of B2B or niche markets.  But if your potential agency has been working with brand-name clients (and can furnish portfolio proof thereof), it’s a good indicator that other decision-makers have considered them to be a smart hire.

(Our answer? While Ouidad and Ecover may be niche-specific brand names, and while you couldn’t have seen the internal media we created for Pitney Bowes, you just might be one of the 11,000 Facebook fans we’ve helped attract to the Bigelow Tea Facebook page.)

Q3: “What do you consider some of your greatest social media successes?”

This is really a two-pronged question: it allows the agency to list any wins it’s collected (even if they’re not “mainstream”), and it gives them an opportunity to explain how they judge their own successes or failures — via sales, traffic, engagement, awareness or any other metrics they might favor.  That way, you can see how your expected needs and their areas of expertise overlap.  (HINT: If they can’t point to a positive impact on client sales, you should be skeptical.)

(Our answer? Now that our clients list Facebook as one of their top 10 sales drivers, our clients’ YouTube videos have received industry awards, and both we and our clients have been invited to speak about social media at industry conferences, we think we’ve had quite a few successes — and counting!)

Want to learn more? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Image by respres via Flickr.

If you think writing novels (or blog posts) is hard, try tweeting for a living.

In most forms of communication, the audience invites you to spin your story and enchant them over time.  Even a 30 second TV commercial gives you half a minute to make your pitch.

But on Twitter, you only have milliseconds to capture someone’s attention as they scroll through a nonstop litany of links, promotions, inside jokes and regurgitated news stories, desperately in search of something interesting.  If you’re not immediately captivating on Twitter, your boring tweets will be buried under an avalanche of similarly blah messaging in the blink of an eye.

So how do you manage to stay interesting on Twitter, day after day?

Here are 11 tips that we at Creative Concepts have developed internally on behalf of our clients to help them stay competitive in Twitter’s attention market:

1. Every tweet is a headline. For centuries, newspaper editors have been writing great headlines to draw attention to dense blocks of text that might otherwise go overlooked. Imagine that every tweet you send is going on the front page of The New York Times, and that you’re single-handedly responsible for increasing the paper’s circulation.  (No pressure, right?)
2. Be useful. “Interesting” is always a matter of perspective, but “useful” actually provides a service.  You may not be dazzled by the prose of a tweet, but if you want (or need) to know what it’s pitching, you’re far more likely to click.
3. Be direct. Addressing someone with the @ symbol in front of their Twitter handle ensures that they’ll see what you have to say.  (Now, just don’t be spammy…)
4. Be brief. The shorter your tweet is, the easier it is for others to add their own commentary as they retweet you — and people love adding their own two cents to your discussion.
5. Solve a problem. We search Twitter to find out what kinds of problems our clients’ customers (and potential customers) may be having, and then we help our clients offer their customers solutions via links to products, blog posts, or just good old-fashioned advice.
6. Remove doubt. People like to know what works. By sharing the positive reviews and accolades that others have tweeted about your products and services, you’re letting potential customers know that your existing customers would recommend you — because they just did.
7. Say thank-you. When you see kudos about your brand, thank that person directly. They’ll appreciate knowing that their kind words helped make someone else’s day.
8. Become an information resource. What are the hot topics in your brand’s industry right now?  What is everyone talking about? What is no one talking about? By sharing information about those topics great and small, your brand becomes your customers’ curator for a larger conversation about the field or the industry itself.
9. Be funny. Humor travels fast on Twitter, and while everyone’s sense of humor is different, a brand that can laugh at itself is a brand that others are more likely to take seriously.
10. Be positive. Twitter is occasionally a traffic jam of complaints and customer service debacles. Be the upside that cuts through the clutter and you’ll stand out simply for taking the high road.
11. Be yourself. What you say is important, but so is how you say it. No one stops to read a brochure, but they’ll linger to overhear a private conversation. Deliver your messages honestly and authentically — and in your own voice — and you’re less likely to be confused for an easily-ignored marketing robot.

Want to stay ahead of the attention curve? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Image by Angie Muldowney on Flickr

If anyone can publish a blog, create a video or launch a meme, you’d think that Twitter, Facebook and YouTube would be the empires of the new, with the latest self-made stars forever in control of the cultural conversation.

And you’d be wrong.

A recent report from HP Labs confirms the exact opposite: the most popular sources of information on Twitter are actually traditional news media outlets like CNN, ESPN and (egad, a newspaper?) The New York Times.

Why?  Because people like to share information that impacts wide audiences, and because traditional media still has information-gathering resources and robust distribution platforms that “new” media can’t live without.

In other words, no matter how easy social media makes it to talk to others, people still need something to talk about.

Is that “something” your business?

It could be, if your brand is worth the buzz.  But even topical companies need more than just a social media hook to catch and hold an audience’s attention.

A tweet is gone in an instant.  A Facebook update crawls off the page and out of sight.  A YouTube video might be shared for weeks, months or years as new viewers continue to find it… but what’s driving them to it in the first place?

Periodic fame is always the cumulative result of widespread general awareness — and that includes mainstream publicity.  Is your company poised to take long-term advantage of short-term PR success?

Ask yourself:

• Is your social media team working hand-in-hand with your traditional PR and marketing teams?  (Or, even better, are they fully integrated?)
• Do you share your brand’s mainstream media mentions with your social media audiences?
• Are you trumpeting your online successes in offline media?  (Don’t forget: newspapers and magazines still write about the Internet.)
• Does your media contact list include reporters from all branches of journalism?
• Do your print ads include icons and URLs where interested customers can find you on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.?

Remember: whether it’s physical or digital, all ink is good ink, as long as it gets people talking about you.

And you can talk with us on Facebook and Twitter!

Image by Blue Mountains Library on Flickr.

You’ve probably noticed by now, or been notified, that Facebook Pages for business have changed.  As of March 10, all pages will be in the new format.  Gone are the tabs and the fan images down the left.  Instead, photos march across the top and navigation has moved left.  But beyond the cosmetic, what has changed and what does this mean for your business?

Categories and Subcategories

Once upon a time you could set a category and never change it.  Now you can, and you can add a subcategory as well.  These settings dictate what information you can fill out on your info page – for example, local businesses include addresses, brands generally do not. If you were stuck with the wrong category, change it now.  And everyone should add a subcategory.

Use Facebook As Page

This is probably the most radical change to Pages.  It used to be that if you were an admin on a page, you could only post to that page as the page, never as yourself.  Now you can do both.  Toggle the choice under Account – Use Facebook As Page, or while you’re on the Page, select to Use Facebook as [Brand] on the right side under the Admins section.  While this allows for a great deal more interaction on the page from admins, do be careful that your admins are not the only people talking on your page – and, be careful to avoid the appearance of “astroturfing” – propping up your business by using hired guns (i.e., your administrators) to say nice things about you.

Relevant Posts

Facebook used to allow three choices for viewing the wall: [Brand] + Others, Just [Brand], or Just Others.  Those choices have been simplified to Everyone or [Brand].  But beyond that, the Wall is no longer chronological.  That’s right, just like your personal News Feed (which uses Facebook’s EdgeRank to determine which posts are most relevant to you), Fan Pages are now subject to a Facebook algorithm to determine which posts to show at the top.  In fact, at this moment I’m looking at a client page that’s showing, from top down, a post from today, then a post from last week, then a post from yesterday, then another from today.  Feels kinda weird to me, but it’s what we’ve got now.  So know that your most popular posts will rise to the top and new visitors (because that’s who mainly looks directly at your wall) will see those first. It’s probably mostly a good thing, but it could also trip you up if content you think is timely or important is not Liked or Commented on, because it may get buried by more popular content.

Public Admins

An interesting new feature that I have not seen widely adopted yet is the ability to add your admins to the left side of the page as “Featured Page Owners.”  This could be really good for brands with strong personalities involved, such as brand spokespeople or beloved community managers.  It could also help avoid the astroturfing issue described above, because if it’s totally transparent who your admins are, then the fact that they’re posting on your page a lot shouldn’t be a mystery.  Use this feature with caution, though – not all of your admins should necessarily be your front-facing social media presences, lest they get asked questions or connected to personally.  There may also be some employees who don’t really want to be the public face of the brand.

Featured Likes

You’ve always had the ability to “Like” another fan page, and now you can feature five of them prominently (even in rotation with others) on the left side of your page.  This option, and Public Admins, are both enabled from the main admin menu under “Featured.”  This can be a great way to showcase partnerships, stroke a potential client/customer, or otherwise show off an affiliation with another brand.  Remember, too, that brands can only tag other pages in their posts, and you have to Like the other page in order to do so – so even if you Like a lot of pages,  you can still make some of them special with the Featured Likes rotation.

What are you doing with your redesigned Page?  Have you included cool images? How are you managing the balance between page and admins?  We’d love to hear from you in the comments?

You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

As an industry that’s built entirely upon the exchange of opinions, the fashion world may seem like a field where social media would naturally take flight.  After all, aren’t terms like “word of mouth” and “viral buzz” the same keywords that signify success on both the catwalk and on Twitter?

But there’s a catch: the fashion world is actually built on a scarcity of opinions.  It relies on the reputations and influence of a select few tastemakers to tell the rest of the rabid audience what they’re supposed to like (and not like), and when.

So how did an industry that benefits from the existence of gatekeepers learn to embrace a new technology that essentially renders gatekeepers obsolete?

By turning their own world upside-down and offering everyone access.

In 2010, the vaunted New York Fashion Week — an event once so exclusive that access to it has been proffered as the grand prize on every season of Project Runway — went social in a big, big way.  Brands like American Express, Womens Wear Daily and Aveda helped sponsor a Twitterizing of Fashion Week, which spurred a wave of tech industry buzz.

Although the fashion world’s initial Twitter experiment was the source of much discussion, the model was reversed in 2011: instead of Twitter providing a top-down information hub, veteran (and aspiring) fashionistas seized the day and curated their own views of Fashion Week, resulting in a more vibrant variety of fashion coverage.  (Our clients Ouidad and Ecover even got into the mix!)

Today, the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week fan page on Facebook currently boasts more than 85,000 fans.  And while this year’s migration of fashion brands to Tumblr has had its share of ups and downs, the future implications of fashion’s affair with social media are clear: this once-insular industry is now actively seeking new ways to build buzz, generate awareness and connect with the general public.

As for fashion’s gatekeepers, they’re certainly not obsolete.  In fact, their expertise is actually even more valuable now, as a filter to help the public make sense of the flood of available fashion information that was once so highly restricted.

Who knew the industry that generates so much of the world’s art, imagery and gossip could get even bigger simply by opening their doors, pulling back their curtains and pressing the “share” button?

You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

Photo from 2010 Fashion Week by j-No, via Flickr.

Ouidad, backstage with the curly models of NYC Fashion Week 2011

When your brand is well-known in your field, you have a story worth telling.  But how do you find new audiences to share that story with?

You find something everyone has in common.

For example, it’s no secret that the fashion world has invested heavily in the social media market.  Tools like Twitter and Facebook, which are built to fuel conversations, are a perfect match for an industry that thrives on opinion.  And while not every brand is necessarily fashion-forward, a forward-thinking brand can always find ways to bridge that gap.

During this year’s Fashion Week in New York City, two of our Creative Concepts clients learned just how exhilarating the fashion world can be.

Ouidad (the best friend a curly girl could ever have) was live-tweeting backstage from several Fashion Week shows and shoots, sharing photos and channeling buzz as the fashion magic was happening.  Why?  Because, as a hair care expert who’s focused on empowerment and education, Ouidad knows that surrounding yourself with beauty is a key building block in your lifelong quest to feel fabulous!

Another of our clients, the eco-cleaning innovators Ecover, were thrilled to support Study, a sustainable fashion brand from Tara St. James that proves the fashion world sees “green” as more than just a color.  And since Ecover and Study are each using social media to communicate their passion for a cleaner, greener world, Ecover’s sponsorship provided the perfect opportunity to give each brand a common talking point which they could share with their own audiences.

So, how can your brand find new ways to share its expertise and passion with a new audience that might be a step or two removed from your existing fanbase?

First, find common ground — or a common enemy.  Then, reach out.  Be valuable.  Be interesting.  Be supportive.  Be worth knowing.

(And if you can do it while looking amazing in Armani or Burberry, there’s nothing wrong with that either!)

You should follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

If you’ve ever hit balls at a driving range, swung a tennis racket or attempted a free throw, you’ve already learned one of the most basic tenets of sports: always follow through.  A golf swing doesn’t end when you make contact with the ball; it ends when your body completes the action.  Stopping short not only decreases the impact of your efforts, but it’s bad for your body.

Social media works the same way.  Unfortunately, many social media practitioners don’t notice the resemblance.  They see individual actions (a tweet, a Facebook message, a video, a campaign), but they don’t acknowledge that each action or engagement point is all part of a larger process.

Your social media efforts don’t end the moment you tweet about a new sale or reach 1,000 fans on Facebook.  Like all marketing, the social side began before that tweet was sent, and it’ll continue long after that 1,000th fan has closed her browser and turned in for the night.

If you’re measuring your success by your actions, rather than by your process, you’re only seeing part of the picture.

David Murdico recently shared some excellent tongue-in-cheek “advice” in MediaPost, in which he offered five tips guaranteed to make sure no one will ever see your great new video.  As amusing as his advice is, it’s frustrating to realize that hundreds of decision-makers could read that article tomorrow and pat themselves on the back because they’re already making these same mistakes every day.

• Do you promote your sales and news across ALL your social media channels?
• Do you use content from one channel to feed the others?
• Do you have a multi-stage outreach plan for each new media campaign?
• Are you tracking your efforts to see where you’re gaining traction?
• Do your social media, marketing and PR departments overlap?

If you’re not supporting your great ideas with a great process, your efforts are falling short.

Having a great idea is easy.

Having the follow-through to make sure that great idea becomes a great experience is what counts.

(Image by HaraldMM.)

Need help charting your course? Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

Let’s say that, until now, you’ve had one small team (or even one single person) be responsible for your company’s entire social media presence.  And now that things are going well, you want to expand.  Maybe that means involving more people.  If so, consider this:

Your existing customers are used to what you’ve been doing.  If they wake up tomorrow and find themselves talking to someone completely new — and if they can tell — you risk a disconnect that might jeopardize your customers’ trust and emotional investment in your brand.

Here at Creative Concepts, we have a variety of writers, researchers, content creators and account managers juggling dozens of different tasks every day.  But no matter how many people are assisting our clients with their messaging, there’s one standard we must all adhere to:

We all have to be working from the same process, and toward the same goal.

That means we take steps to ensure that anyone who’s working on any aspect of a client’s communications is following the same rules, and staying apprised of the same topical developments, as everyone else.  This includes…

• Creating our own internal user manual for Twitter, with tips and suggestions for navigating various situations.
• Tracking industry-specific client-related news that might need to be addressed in the future.
• Assigning specific messaging tasks to the individuals best-suited for the nuances of each channel.
• Multiple layers of editing, so every message is reviewed by as many eyes as possible.
• Internal metric sharing, so each of us can analyze data and compare our individual conclusions.

etc.

Why do we do this?

Because it’s important that our clients be served by as many well-rounded service providers as possible.  But it’s equally important to us that our clients’ customers feel as though their Twitter, blog, Facebook, YouTube and other branded social media experiences are all built with the same building blocks, rather than feeling like disparate voices are being smashed together around a common topic.

Whether your social media messaging is being piloted by 2 people or 200, consistency is key.  No one trusts white noise.

How are you making sure the image of your brand is consistent in the minds of your customers?

Need some tips? You should follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

Image by mafleen.