Jumping through hoops

Bob and Doug McKenzie rocking Touques
Photo from Wikipedia, owned by MGM

I’ve lived in Canada for 5 years now and I’ve embraced the culture. I use specific measurements like ‘wack’ or ‘Skiff’ (Wack being lots and Skiff being just a little – often used when talking about the amount of snow on the ground.), I have to have my Timmy’s coffee in the mornings and in the winter I wear a Touque. A touque, for those who don’t know, is a knit cap and referred to as a beanie in the states. It can sometimes have ear flaps or a pom-pom on top of it.

Now, I will admit that a touque is a good idea when it’s -35 degrees outside, but it’s more than just a knit hat. It’s a fashion statement and a true piece of Canadian culture. So not only have I embraced it, but I’ve also decided to have fun with it.

Mars Fever - 7 Minutes of Terror

The challenges accepted and conquered that allowed Curiosity to land on Mars.

This is a fantastic piece of advertising. It shows the challenges that this team had to get past in order to land Curiosity on Mars. More importantly - it makes the viewer want to see if it works. This is a worst case scenario. This can't possibly work, but we're trying it anyways.

I was too young to remember it originally, but it's like Star Wars Episode 5: The Empire Strikes back:

Thinking outside the box

I was shown this video by a friend. Take a peak.. (naw, it's okay.. I'll wait.. Just don't forget the rest of the blog post! )


Now it's out of context because I'm sure there was a listing website and such, but what you've just watched is a walk-through video for a home that was for sale in Malibu, CA.

Go ahead and watch it again. I'll wait.

Social Media is the New Public Relations

Social Media IS Public Relations.

Established media has always been the ‘gate keepers’ of information. Ten years ago if you wanted to contact a large group of people you had no choice but to go through television, newspapers and radio. Today’s technology allows businesses to bypass those ‘gate keepers’ and directly deliver their message to their audience. Established media still plays an important role in a public relations strategy, but that role is shrinking and will continue to shrink as individuals have more power in this age of global communications.

This is a fantastic time for businesses to reach out and connect with their customers and potential customers. By building relationships through social media, a business can help recruit and build a loyal customer before that customer has even had a chance to purchase the product or service.

Businesses can also post news or respond to crises in a much more personal and time sensitive way than ever before. Because a business has a direct line to their client base they are able to instantly respond to any problems that they may be facing.

Of course this does lead to complications as well. Because we’re no longer in a ‘push’ media world, where a business can send out a message without thought to the response, and are now have an ‘exchange’ media, where the public has the ability to respond directly to a business, good public relations strategies are more important than ever. The message that goes out MUST be well thought out and very transparent.

Another concern is that because the audiences have the ability to directly contact the company, on a public platform, we must be more aware of the answers we provide. Whereas before we could simply ignore a complaint because the only person who knew about it was the person who wrote it, we now must realize that a single negative comment posted on a social media site has the potential to be seen by our entire fan base.

KLM is a good example. When they had delays due to a volcano they used social media to work directly with their customers through their Facebook page. If you visited KLM’s Facebook during that time you would find hundreds of people complaining or trying to reschedule flights. While in the end it seemed that most of the people were understanding and did get the help they needed, because it was completely public many people may have visited the KLM page and gotten the wrong idea. Suddenly all of KLM’s ‘dirty laundry’ was being aired over a public and very visible channel.

I think that traditionally Public Relations has been a department that focused on the big picture. Press Releases and crisis management, but because the reach of social media public relations professionals have to be more aware of the general status that their company is held in and adapt to individual changes in a much more fluid manner. It’s not about sending out the big press releases and talking to a few important news makers. When anyone and everyone has a voice, businesses must make sure that they continue to respond to the individuals and individual groups.

Public Relations is more important than ever before.

Hopefully Less of me will be headed back to Texas this year!

In just a few short months I’ll finally be making that long trip back to my homeland – Texas. It’s been five years, and as much as I love my new home here in the Great White North, I can’t wait to get home for a couple weeks. Big Skies, Warm Sun, Mexican food and Barbecue! And I’m not just talking about tossing a-steak-on-the-grill-barbecue. I’m talking good old fashioned slow-smoked for hours fall apart in your mouth brisket with spicy BBQ ‘Sause.’

And what do I need to get done before I make this pilgrimage? Lose a few pounds of course! I can’t go down to Texas looking like this! Marriage has been good to me and It shows.

How do you start losing weight? Oh, let me count the ways! There is the cabbage soup diet, the no bread diet, the low-fat diet. Adkins, South Beach, Flat Belly. Should I be ‘Eating Right for My Type’ or looking into something called my G.I.? There are so many options that even a few moments wandering through the cyber-stacks of Amazon has my head spinning.

This doesn’t have to be THAT complicated! Taking off a couple pounds doesn’t have to take joining a cult, chanting long into the night and sacrificing snickers bars to the gods of weight loss.

Here are a few quick things that I’m going to take to heart before I head out to Texas (where I plan to gain every single calorie back with the aforementioned barbecue). As always, check with your doctor before beginning any weight loss program and remember I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV, so don’t take my word for it. This is what I’m doing. Nothing more.

I’m going to eat less. Sounds easy, I know, but it’s surprisingly difficult to do. It’s just so easy to go back for seconds or to take just one more spoon full of spaghetti sauce. I’m going to watch what I put on my plate, not just what I’m eating.

I’m going to exercise more.  My puppies are going to LOVE me for this! Every day, weather permitting, I’m grabbing the leashes and we’re going out to explore.

I’m getting rid of the junk food in my home. My kids like chips occasionally in their lunches. They are going to be disappointed to know that it’s not going to happen anymore. It’s just too easy to grab the bag when sitting down to watch Big Bang Theory on Thursday nights.

Agua. H20. Water. Call it what you will, but it’s awfully important. I guess I could quote some doctors or organizations that talk about how important water is to weight loss, as well as just being healthy, but I’ll leave this up to you. Don’t believe me? Google it! I’m planning on downing lots of it!

Spring is Here! I’m going to enjoy the great outdoors and hopefully get a bit healthier in the process.

Now that's SOCIAL Media

Working with Facebook, I'd be pretty happy to have 100 comments or likes a day on a site. Heck, 100 a week would be seriously cool.

I 'like' a page that managed to rack up 12,000 likes on one of their updates in 12 minutes! 1,000 likes a minute. Seriously!

HOW THE HECK DID THEY MANAGE THAT???

Well, first, the Facebook page is for a very popular show that just had a pretty intense season finale, so they are riding a good high anyways, but it's not just about popularity. Coca-cola is pretty popular, but they usually have a few hundred likes or comments at a time. Big Bang Theory, a show that is very popular in social media can also hit 12,000 likes, but even then only has a few hundred comments on a post.

I'm talking about the Walking Dead - whose stats are pretty amazing. It's a show that has just finished its second season and only has 7+ million likes (as opposed to 20+ million for BBT and 40+million for Coca-Cola) but can reach 40,000 comments on a single post?

It certainly helps to have a popular product or show, but that won't guarantee a good social media site.

The secret is CONTENT.

Let's look at Coca-Cola's Facebook page:

Now they do have regular posts - 1 or 2 a day, it looks like, but they aren't much to look at. Nothing particularly engaging. No questions that will bring out the masses. No though provoking comments. Nothing that really bonds fans to their page. I might like Coke because.. I like Coke.. But I don't have any urge to talk about coke and they aren't giving me any reason to.

We see a great public relations page, here. Fantastic way of saying 'Look! We're involved in the community and we're talking about our product!' And that's great, but I can go to Coca-cola's website for that info. There really isn't a lot of 'social' in this social media. I'm listening to them tell me about themselves.

What about Big Bang Theory?

We're certainly getting more content - and the number of likes and comments shows that. They are continually posting full episodes, clips, pics from episodes and even a few bonus items, such as scripts or interviews with cast or creators. Definitely getting there. But I see a lot of 'Check out this clip' 'Remember this scene?' 'We love it when...'

Know what that is??? PUSH ADVERTISING. They are pushing out clips, pics, episodes. No interaction beyond making it polite to say 'Watch this NOW!' I see attempts to drive to the webpage and to buy into a product, but no real interaction of the product. I don't feel like I'm part of the story or that I'm really even needed. I like that I can find info, so I absolutely do go to their page (usually when my wife and I are trying to remember if there is a new episode on) but not just to hang out with other fans.

Both of these are great for public relations - they show their product and have great looking pages. Fantastic way to push info out, but they aren't using Social Media. For the most part those pages are just plain 'media.'

Now onto Walking Dead:



As you can see from this pic, they are certainly getting interaction. In the first 6 or so posts I'm looking at right now are pure interaction. We've got a great picture from the last episode. No comment about the shot from the Page - Just asking their fans to post their own caption. It's a great picture and from an amazing (I loved the scene) part of the show, so there is no need to talk it up, they just put it out there and let their fans tell THEM about it. I see an interview where one of the creators of the show answers FANS questions. Maybe not my questions, personally, but definitely from people like me. We see notices for live twitter events where we are, again, asked to participate.

Twitter.. hmm. That brings up an interesting point. It's not Facebook. In fact, that is a key to these results. We're not focused on Facebook - We're focused on Social Media where Facebook is just one part of the entire plan. We're shown blogs, twitter events, live chats during the show. Heck, we even get to PARTICIPATE on a live TV show after the Walking Dead airs! All these things are designed to draw in participants. We're not just an audience - We're part of the event!

We are part of the event.

WE ARE PART OF THE EVENT.

That's the difference. It's not JUST CONTENT. It's the interaction of content. With 1/3rd the amount of fans, The Walking Dead can easily get 5 times the amounts of likes and comments on their Facebook as some other Pages. That's startling numbers!

And this is comparing a show that is in it's 6th season with one in its 2nd. Think those numbers are going to go up in 4 more years?

In the end, does it matter? Probably not in these cases. All three of the examples I'm using are pretty solid products. And all three have numbers that I would be ecstatic to even have 1% of on my pages. What does matter is the lesson we can take away from the crew over at AMC - Don't attempt to create a page and just push information to your audience - instead build an experience.

Create a plan to build the social media experience. Interact with your fans in new and interesting ways. Think outside the box. Build a following that WANTS to go to your page every day to see what new treats you have.

Social media is an amazing tool, but just like any tool out there, it has to be used correctly and in accordance to a plan. A really nice hammer does you no good if all you have are screws. And Facebook isn't nearly effective when you use Push-Advertising instead of Exchange-Advertising.

What do you want to accomplish with Social Media? How can it help your audience? What else, besides Facebook, can you use to create your brand and the need for that brand?

Don't just build a page - build an experience!

New Opportunities

I'm currently looking for a new job. Now, if you know me from work please realize that, for the most part, I LOVE my job. I find every day a challenge and really do love being able to help build a cohesive marketing plan for all of my offices. It's a challenge that I really do look forward to every day.

BUT...

And there is always a but.. And actually in this case there are two 'buts...'

First off I find parts of my job extremely frustrating. I'm not a graphic designer, though I spent years telling people that I was. And there is a great reason for that. I really do enjoy the graphic design side of my job. I love creating. But in this position, I'm finding that graphic design is really the least I should be doing. Social Media, marketing plans, new concepts and new ideas - these are what will build businesses in the coming days. As I've said so many times before - The days of uni-directional advertising are gone. People don't want to be pushed on, they want to be a part of. Billboards are GREAT! but they don't talk back. Neither do bus benches, garbage cans, business cards and radio ads. The fact is that I spend much of my time fueling a dying marketing paradigm instead of breaking ground on new technologies and helping my agents to do the same. The marketing challenges are so much greater than ever before with so much greater chance of success.

Don't get me wrong, there is still a place for bus benches, billboards, sponsored signs at the local arena. But they are no longer the end-all be-all of advertising.

And as bad as all that is, it's not actually the main reason I'm currently looking for a job. If anything it's the most recent motivator, but even then.. just barely.

No. The fact is that I'm currently looking for a new job because everyone should be looking for a new job. So often we end up as turtles, pulled deep within our shells, dealing with our lives as we see them without ever looking up to see what's around us.

6 months ago I missed out on applying for a job as a marketing person/ graphic designer for the provincial side of Alberta Health Services. Maybe I would have gotten a job that pays (A LOT) more than what I'm making now, with better benefits, better hours, more excitement and ... wait for it- a retirement plan! Maybe I wouldn't have. Maybe all I would have gotten was an interview. Maybe just a note saying 'thanks for applying... Heck, maybe my resume would have ended up in file thirteen only to be seen by the seagulls as they wandered across it looking for scraps of food at the dump.

The thing is this. I will never know. I have no idea what that door might have lead to. There isn't any way to know. And that's fine. No use in crying about it now. But it's making me think. While I keep my head down doing the job I'm doing, what else am I missing?

When one door closes, another one opens. But that's not always how it goes. Sometime the second door opens and it's up to you to walk through it and then close the first on your own.

It doesn't matter if you're extremely happy or supremely unhappy with the job you're in. You owe it to yourself to stop, look up, see the world around you and watch out for those open doors.

And don't be afraid to walk through them.

And just as importantly - don't be afraid to close them and stay where you're at.

Opportunities aren't always right- wrong time, wrong place, wrong for you. You just need to know they are there.

Social Media is an exchange of ideas, not just a source of free advertising

So after a fairly disappointing trip to The Cheesecake Cafe here in Medicine Hat I posted a comment talking about it on their Facebook wall figuring that while it might not be up for very long, it would certainly make my feelings known and hopefully they would reach out to me to discuss my concerns or even say that they were sorry I didn't enjoy my experience.

Instead they deleted the post and ignored it. Not even a simple "I'm sorry you felt that way."

Social media is about exchange marketing - No longer can companies use broadcast advertising to push out their message without listening to their customers. Modern customers want, and demand, exchange marketing. We can broadcast to the companies we do business with - both good and bad - and should expect to be able to have an exchange of ideas.

This is the power of SOCIAL media. It's an exchange and, for better or for worse, it's here to stay. Companies MUST understand that if they choose to participate in social media, and leverage the potential of sites such as Facebook, they should be participating fully.

To Cheesecake Cafe - this was a fantastic opportunity to build a relationship with a disappointed customer and instead, because you don't understand social media, beyond the ability to broadcast to a potential customer base for free - a small part of what makes social media powerful, you've lost that opportunity.

While I won't dramatically swear that I'll never go to Cheesecake Cafe again, I will say that it's probably never going to be my first choice (or second, third, forth etc).

More importantly all my friends will be sharing, even a little part, my experience. And if they comment, all their friends will get to share that experience.... And their friends... And theirs...

And THAT is the power of Social Media.