MarketingSherpa Blog

Just in case you needed another reason to monitor social media, the Economist had a quick article last week about two airlines’ response to PR bombshells that detonated on Facebook.

The airlines’ staff members were joking about cockroaches on board and smelly passengers–not exactly good PR. The companies discovered the comments only after customer complaints and press reports started coming in.

Monitoring social media–like blogs, social networks and bookmarking sites–gives you a good idea of your company’s online reputation. And it will help you find employees badmouthing the company before your customers do.

Monitoring is only part of the solution, though. You need to have policies against disparaging the company, and you need to remind your staff that what they say online stretches across the planet.

On a side note, I’m starting to think that monitoring social media can have amazing benefits. Alan Scott, CMO, Dow Jones, told me in a recent interview that Dow Jones identifies trends and customer preferences by crunching data from its social sites and others across the Web. That’s a heck of a way to judge your market.

Monitoring Web chatter about your brand can be a challenge. We’ve written at least one article on monitoring social media to protect your reputation. The task can be expensive or time consuming–but it doesn’t have to be.

You can take a quick, free look at what the Web thinks about your brand with HowSociable?. The site is incredibly useful and easy to use. It doesn’t require any registration, usernames or passwords. You can even look at what people are saying about your competition.

Simply type in a phrase and see the number of times it’s mentioned on 22 social media portals. All the biggest players are there–Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Technorati, YouTube.  

Not only do you get the number of times your brand is mentioned, you also get the links to where your brand is mentioned. That’s so cool! Find out what people across the Web are saying about your company from one spot.

Here is my second post on how you can help back up your green marketing message by lowering the carbon footprint of your company. Tips were provided by Tim Sanders, Author, Saving the World At Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference.

This post suggests ways to get your business partners to follow your lead and how to cut your shipping emissions.

You can only reduce your carbon emissions to a point. After that, you have to influence others to continue to reduce your impact on the planet. Some companies have calculated the emissions reductions they’ve convinced others to take and realized that it’s more than offset their company’s total carbon footprint, Sanders says. Technically, they’re operating at zero emissions.

-> Suppliers and media providers

If you’re a major advertiser at a publication, or a major account for a supplier, you can leverage your relationship to encourage them to go green.

Tell the magazine you’re thinking of moving your account to a magazine published on recycled paper. Tell the shipping company you’re considering switching to a competitor who uses a truck idling system that cuts down on emissions. You might help push them into green efforts.

-> Choose partners carefully

You can also choose to work with greener companies in the future. This will prevent straining any current relationships and will help support your company’s green claims.

Although, not related to printing, overnight shipping is integral to the PR industry. PR reps often have “overnight syndrome,” Sanders says. If you’ve got the disease, curing it can go a long way toward making your company greener.

“An overnight shipped package has 12 times the environmental impact of a ground-shipped package,” Sander says. “If you can’t reduce your overnight shipping by 80%, you need to take a time management course.”

Talk the walk: If your company is making genuine efforts to have a smaller impact on the environment, publicize it. It will make your customers feel better about choosing your brand, may attract new customers and you can influence others to follow in your footsteps.

Do not be afraid of activists’ charges of green washing. The best way to avoid a controversy is to always be straightforward and truthful in your claims. If you’re making a genuine effort, explain it without overstating it.

Adding a dash of green can do a lot for your marketing — as long as your claims are valid. But don’t market yourself as environmentally friendly if you’re not, you’ll give fodder to activist groups and others who could paint you as a “green washer.”

Read more…

I’ve run across a quick tactic for those of you battling to get users to engage with your Web 2.0 marketing strategies.

I recently wrote stories about companies that offer social networking services through smart phones. Two of the companies–Kiwibox and Buzzd–have rewards programs to encourage engagement. Read more…

If you’re ever looking for an interesting marketing read (besides MarketingSherpa, of course!), check out Robert Cialdini’s books on influence.

The two books I’m most familiar with are Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive and Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Both books cite droves of research to help explain why people say “yes” to marketing offers and other requests. We recently published an article highlighting some of Cialdini’s strategies.

Both books are loaded with takeaways and interesting background stories. I found a particularly interesting piece of marketing history in Yes! concerning Duracell and Energizer.

Read more…

Relationships are important when you’re an affiliate manager. The more you know about affiliates on a personal level, the more you’ll know about how they sell your product.

Trisha Lyn Fawver, Director of Affiliate Marketing, New Edge Media, connects with her affiliates on social media sites. It adds to the number of channels that affiliates can reach her and facilitates the flow of ideas, she says.

Read more…

I’m going over my notes from an interview with Mike Howard, Chief Operating Officer, Kiwibox, today and I’m impressed with his team’s mobile marketing strategy and content management skills. Kiwibox is a teen-based network for user generated content and socializing.

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I recently talked with Kevin Ertell, SVP E-Business, Borders, who pointed out some very interesting ways that the retailer is integrating its offline and online channels.

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Teamwork is essential to any project involving more than one person. Strong teams are more efficient, reliable and create work of higher quality. It’s impossible for your marketing team to be at its best if it’s not working together. Read more…