Secret Election Weapon: Social Media

President Barack Obama proved the power of social media as a secret weapon during his election campaign. Now everyone wants to follow his lead. Or, do they?

My office is located in Calgary Alberta where long serving Mayor Dave Bronconnier announced this week (February 23, 2010) he would not be running for Calgary's top job for a fourth term.


Photo courtesy CBC Calgary

At his state of the city address on Tuesday, Bronconnier said he wants to give all challengers enough time to mount a proper campaign for the October municipal election.

So let the fun and games begin. The gloves are off and the posturing will begin shortly as individuals begin to declare their candidacy for the Mayor's chair.

Who will be the winner in this race?
The candidate who shakes the most hands and does the most speeches?
The candidate who takes out a full page newspaper advertisement to display his/her resume of good deeds?
The candidate who complains about the short comings of his/her opponent?

NO

As a Media Coach and Consultant at Speak Media Consulting, the winner will be the candidate that displays the most creative and engaging dialogue with his/her candidates primarily through the use of an effective Social Media campaign.

Step One: Create a community of supporters.
Use online programs such as Constant Contact to collect the names and email addresses for everyone who visits your website.

Step Two: Create two way dialogue with your community.
Use your email data base (citizens in your region) to ask specific questions on how THEY would like to see the community grow. Send them information and ask for their response. If they are engaged with your messaging, they will invite other friends to your list and they will be more willing to offer financial support to grow your campaign.

Step Three: Get on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Blogs.
Use Social Media to distribute information to your fans, grow your fan base and most importantly - allow your followers the forum to criticize. Every speech, every event, every ribbon cutting, set up social media appointments in advance of each event, send updates just prior to event and post every picture and video of these events on social media after these events.

Step Four: Get a Website
Be sure your web developers and content providers are on top of their game and are able to update content professionally and quickly. Be sure every stitch of Social Media is linked back to your website and is always being updated.

Step Five: Use Traditional Media to promote Social Media
Make appointments to appear in as many Television, Radio and Newspaper stories and articles as you can. Each time, promote your website or Facebook. With traditional media, you will be given a short 15 to 20 second sound bite (quote). Find creative ways to promote your website or Facebook Fan page.

Step Six: Never Give Up.
From the day you launch your website or social media campaigns do not stop promoting them. They will start to grow as your profile continues to reverberate through the community. Besides, people want to see who you are and get to know that you are looking out for their needs...and not your own.

To the candidates - good luck in October.
With background content from CBC Calgary, CTV Calgary and 660News Calgary.

-Darren
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E-mail Marketing for Small Business

Perhaps a better title for this post might have been "Build Customer Loyalty through E-Mail Messaging".

Either way, e-mail marketing (Newsletters) can be a very effective way to communicate to your clients and build stronger relationships with your customers. However, too many messages can often be deleted and not enough messages can be forgotten. So how do you find the happy medium? How do you know your messages are being delivered, are being read, and are creating a call to action?

There are many programs available that can handle e-mail marketing and database management. One I have had tremendous success with: Constant Contact.



Recently featured in an on-line article from MediaPost, Constant Contact has seen a nearly 50% revenue increase and has increased staff.

Constant Contact is much more than just E-mail Marketing for newsletters and communication with your clients. Their services also include On-line Surveys to track customer feedback, and Event Marketing that allows you to manage and promote any size event with online registration, payment capture and RSVP management.

The great thing about E-Mail marketing; you can and should use e-mail marketing in conjunction with your current social media marketing;
-Blog
-Facebook
-Linked In
-You Tube
-Twitter

The same principals of social media marketing apply when using E-Mail Marketing.
-build a community
-share expertise
-discuss business issues
-build your brand
-establish yourself as an expert
-and build a database

How much is TOO much and how much is too little?
I recommend to my clients to send out an e-mail newsletter at least once a week. If time and content is an issue, look at communicating with your clients every two weeks or once a month, but do not let more than 4 weeks lapse between each newsletter or you will lose the engagement with your clients.

Feel free to sign up to receive my free e-mail newsletter.

If you would like to know more about creating a successful E-Mail Marketing strategy for your Business, contact me at: darren@speakmediaconsulting.com

Thanks for reading.
-Darren

What you say can and will come back to haunt you

Yesterday I cautioned against publishing everything - the good, the bad and the ugly on social media sites. Everything you broadcast (publish) is viewed and shared with the world. It is also a reflection of your character and in some cases, can reflect your employer.

Thanks to a few readers, they have pointed me to similar updates and examples from a few other sources.

Lamebook is a site which gathers and publishes Facebook status updates that are, well, distasteful. Thanks to Lamebook for the picture you see above.

I also found Guyism which published a list of the 7 things you should never say through social media.

Face it, we all like to go out and have a good time, meet new friends and chat about our lives. Now with social media, there are a lot more people watching, reading, responding and reacting to your every word.

Thanks to Jon and Radana for their input.

-Darren

Social Media - The Effect on your Employer

It is a simple rule to remember; what you broadcast on your social media sites is a reflection of your employer.

What? How can that be? Surely you are free to broadcast whatever you want on your personal social media sites without permission from your boss. Right? Yes and No.

With the global reach of the Internet, the content you broadcast, the pictures you upload and the tone of what you broadcast becomes a reflection of your boss and the company you are employed.

Still not convinced? Here are two fictitious scenarios:

1) John is an employee of a National Automobile company and is well known for his Sales records over the last 6 months. However, one night John got into an on-line discussion and released private information about the company that he is working for and mentioned in his conversation "do not buy a vehicle from us".

2) Jennifer is employed at a community coffee shop where she knows all of the local patrons by their first name. Jennifer likes to go out with her friends, have a few too many drinks and post pictures of herself and her friends in various states of intoxication.

If you were John or Jennifer's boss, what would you do when one of your best customers brought this to your attention and showed you the on-line postings?

In John's case, he would most likely be looking for a new line of work or would be removed from his current role as top sales person to janitor.
Jennifer, on the other hand, would most likely be in a better position to keep her job.

Just as this blog is a representation of my Company, what I broadcast 'after hours' is a reflection of who I am and my company.

Are your employees aware of this? Perhaps they should be reminded.
At the present, there is no legal precedent for social media and employee privacy in Canada. However many companies are adopting a social media code of conduct and require all employees to adhere to these guidelines.


Have a great day.
-Darren

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Facebook, Twitter; How Linked-In are you, Part 2 of 3

Yesterday, I shared with you statistical data showing the increased popularity of social media and social networking.

To read part 1 of this series, click here.

Today, I would like to share a success story.

The most successful businesses are using social networking to;
-provide engaging content (information, offers, and opportunities) to their fans,
-showcase opportunities for new products and services,
-create two-way communication with their fans,
-exclusive ‘back stage’ offerings,
-broadcast a media release,
-conduct surveys and questionnaires,
-generate revenue by driving traffic back to the main website.

A great story I read from the Phoenix Suns who, just 18 months ago did not know what Twitter was. However their organization was very media savvy having won the NBA Web site of the year award in 1997 and had great success with YouTube and MySpace for additional reach to their fans.
To get the ball rolling, the Suns signed up 20 to 30 employees and players including Shaquille O'Neal to a Twitter account. Shaq now has over 2.5 million followers on Twitter.

Jeramie McPeek, the Suns vice president of digital offered this comment:
“We all fell in love with it for connecting with our fan base,” McPeek says. “We quickly embraced it. It was a shift of mindset. … Our fans were not necessarily coming to Suns.com, but they were pulling up Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube. We need to be in those places; we need to be where the fans are.”
With over 60,000 Facebook fans, The Suns use their Facebook account as well to keep their fans informed by not bombarded with too much information.

Tomorrow, in part 3, tips and suggestions how you can get started in social media.

-Darren
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