The Social Media Blog - Methodical Madness

The social launch: 5 elements critical to online success

Have you considered incorporating social media and other online assets in your next launch plan? Online marketing and networking (a.k.a. Social Media) is a powerful and measurable way for brands to connect with consumers, business purchasers or key opinion leaders (KOLs) as part of their launch.

But timing is everything.

New product or brand launches have always relied on advertising and/or trade shows, in-store collateral and sales material. These activities can be successfully initiated late in the pre-launch activity process. This has shaped the way most brand managers today prioritize and allocate time and budget pre-launch. That’s the number one reason why social launches fizzle on the launch pad. To succeed, new media launches required new timing.

Traditionally, promotional materials are kicked-off at launch. But social initiatives should be kicked-off months before so they are already tested and established at launch. This offers maximum benefit to the brand. If done properly critical assets can mature online without stealing the thunder from your launch. Several key areas that benefit are:

• Online Asset Planning
• Online Testing
• Community Building
• SEO Activities
• URL & User Name Acquisition

These five elements are critical to online success but are rarely scheduled with adequate time in the pre-launch phase. It doesn’t make sense to create traditional marketing material too soon. But with social asset, it’s just the opposite. Like fine wine, all of these activities improve with age. The sooner you start them, the more effective they will be at launch.

Brand managers who wish to include online assets in their launch need to adopt new pre-launch budgeting and timing routines that optimize their digital investments. It is not necessarily a matter of spending more, just spending sooner.

If you’d like to get the web behind your next launch contact us about our LaunchPad Social Workshop.

 

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.

Spring Cleaning for your brand’s online presence

If your brand is like most, then chances are that its web presence has grown organically over the past several years. A Facebook page here, a Twitter feed there and before you know it you have a constellation of web assets in orbit, like space junk around your brand.

Case in point, we recently conducted a web presence audit for a global brand manager who said his brand had almost no presence in social media. In addition to the company’s numerous web sites,we found over 125 social media assets globally. Some were set up by different employees acting on their own initiatives, some were set up by brand fans, some were set up by people who did not like the brand. Many were abandoned but still registering high in search results. All were affecting brand perception.

The web plays an important role in how your brand is perceived. By getting your web presence under control, you will be better able to manage your brand’s perception and shape it strategically. That’s where a good Spring Cleaning can help.

Here are a few steps we follow.

1. Audit
   Catalog and assess all web assets that bear your brand’s name.
   
   
2. Cluster
   Cluster the assets around common targets, objectives and topics.
   
   
3. Align
   Align the assets in each cluster to measurable business objectives.
   
   
4. Arrange
   Ensure the mix of assets match your business objectives. Cut or add assets as required.
   
   
5. Architecture
   Organize the assets in a global architecture based on each asset’s geographic reach.
   
   
6. Visualize
   Visualize the architecture in a platform architecture map.

This gives your online presence a structure that is motivated by business objectives and visualized for easy management and communication. Once this is done you can begin to look at how each asset is managed and reported, and how they can be systematically improved over time.

If you would like a little help with your online spring cleaning, just give us a call.

 

Health Care and Social Media

A recent article in Information Week stated that the health care community in the United States doesn’t take full advantage of social media as a health care tool. Most healthcare organizations in the U.S. use social media solely for marketing.

In contrast, hospitals in European countries such as the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom are embracing social media as a way to improve care management, engage patients, and communicate with other doctors.

Graph courtesy of SHOULD HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS USE SOCIAL MEDIA?   

 

This is somewhat surprising considering the large number of physicans who use social media. A report on social media and physicians found that 90% of physicians use at least one social media site for personal use and 65% use at least one social media site for professional use. Moreover, 20% of clinicians use 2 or more social media sites for personal and professional use.

Graph courtesy of Doctors, Patients & Social Media

Many healthcare professionals see social media as a great educational resource for sharing medical knowledge and networking. In fact, there are doctor-only networks such as Sermo, Physician Connect, and Doximity. There are also public groups like TwitterDoctors.net, a database of physicians who tweet, has more than 1,300 doctors registered. 

The challenges healthcare professionals face with social media are mostly centered on maintaining patient privacy and complying with industry regulations such as HIPAA where there are severe civil or criminal penalties for disclosing personal information. A report showed that of health care professionals who did not use social media, 70% cited privacy issues as the main deterrant. The American Medical Association has issued guidelines for medical students and physicians. But the social media landscapes moves so quickly, keeping current is difficult.

Medical schools have also tried to tackle the problem of social media, crafting social media policies to help guide students. A report from 2010 showed that out of 132 US medical schools surveyed, 100% had a Web site and 95.45% had some sort of Facebook presence. So, it was surprising to read that only about 10% of these schools had guidelines or policies explicitly mentioning social media. And of these 10% (about 13 schools), only 5 school guidelines stated what is forbidden, inappropriate, or impermissible under any circumstances. 

As the Connected Generation sets their sites on careers in healthcare, especially with health care projected to have the fastest job growth between 2010 and 2020, medical schools and other institutes of higher learning are not going to have a choice. This generation expects to be connected at all points in their lives. From a patient point of view, an April survey by the National Research Corporation showed that 20 percent of patients already use social media to gather healthcare information. So it is not a matter of trying to get their patients on social media. They already are there.

What health care workers need are clear policies and training regarding engagement with patients. And while most most would think a patient "friending" a doctor may be a bad idea, the health care industry is going to need to figure out the best way to engage with these social consumers while still remaining compliant. 

But what do you think?

How do you see the future of healthcare and social media? What is needed to help encourage participation from both sides?

 

The Duffy Agency Gets Serious about Social Media

As we've written about previously, the social media revolution is over. Social media is a reality in marketing. The question now is how to we use this new tool as more than just a diversion? What are the implications of not just two-way marketing communication, but also many-way? In other words, what do we do now?

These are some of the questions that will discussed at "Getting Serious about Social Media", a seminar and panel discussion arranged by Lund University School of Economics and Management in collaboration with The Duffy Agency that will take place on Monday, March 12 from 14:00 - 17:00 at the Lund University School of Economics and Management.

The Duffy Agency's founder and Chief Brand Strategist, Sean Duffy, will be one of six presenters at the seminar and panel discussion, which brings together experts from both private industry and the university sector. Other speakers include Fredrik Andersson, Dean of the School of Economics and Management, Jan Fager, Managing Director of the Swedish Marketing Federation, Henrik Ahlqvist, Digital Communications Manager at Sobi, Veronika Tarnovskaya, Senior Lecturer at the Dept. of Business Administration, and John Wedderburn, English Information Officer at Malmö University.

The discussion will be moderated by global brand strategist, Jonathan Salem Baskin.

Sean has a unique perspective as both a global brand strategist and also a teacher at Lund University where he has been conducting a graduate course on international brand management and the practical application of social media. As part of this course, The Duffy Agency has developed BrandBa.se, a Facebook page that brings together a suite of online assests to engage students and help them combine theory with practice. 

For more information or to see how you can attend "Getting Serious about Social Media," please visit their site.

6 Ways to You Can Help Ensure the Success of Kony 2012

By now many of you probably have already heard of Joseph Kony. If not, here’s a quick synopsis.

Joseph Kony is a Ugandan guerrilla group leader and the head of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). He is also considered by the International Criminal Court to be the world’s worst war criminal.

It is estimated that the LRA has abducted, mutilated or enslaved over 66,000 children—turning boys into child soldiers and girls into sex slaves. In 2005, Kony was indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court at the Hague, yet to most people in the world he is unknown.

 

A small organization called Invisible Children has been working for 9 years to end Africa’s longest-running armed conflict. Their goal is to make the crimes of Joseph Kony visible to everyone in the world so that he will be brought to justice.

In other words, they want to make him famous—not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.

Right now the Internet is on fire with #KONY2012. In 24 hours, the cause has been catapulted out of obscurity to center stage on the social Web and is now making its way into mainstream media.  But the Web is fickle and once the news wears off there is a good likelihood the buzz and activism will wind down too. For the Kony 2012 campaign to work, we need to keep the issue alive after this initial burst of activity until Joseph Kony is caught.

The Duffy Agency is pledging our support to do just that.

We believe all of us can use our influence, social media networks and personal relationships to help with this cause. We’ve listed some of things that The Duffy Agency has pledged to help support this cause and thought it might give you some ideas about how you could help as well.

• Set a goal to drive people to the Invisible Children Web site on a weekly basis (The Duffy Agency’s goal is at least 200 people a week)
  
  
• Once a day, tweet using #Kony2012 until Kony is brought to Justice
  
  
• Add “Make Joseph Kony Famous” to your email signatures with a link to the Invisible Children Web site
  
  
• Place visible icons and badges on all your digital properties that direct people to the Invisible Children Web site (The Duffy Agency will be updating their Facebook , Twitter and LinkedIn pages, as well as our Web site and other online assets)
  
  
• Involve your business networks to help spread the word. (We will be spreading the word to all our TAAN members as well as other organizations.)
  
  
• Create an event (e.g., a Tweetup) to create awareness and raise donations for Invisible Children. (The Duffy Agency will be helping create events in both the US and Sweden.)

Of course if you have any other ideas, please share them in our comments sections. Let’s continue to use social media as a force for change and a brighter future for the children and people of Africa.

 

How You Can Help Now

1. Join TRI or Donate to Invisible Children
2. Purchase KONY 2012 products
3. Sign the Pledge

 

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.

Joseph Kony 2012: Testing the true power of the social web

Who is Joseph Kony?Joseph Kony is the world’s worst war criminal. In 1987 he took over leadership of an existing rebel group and renamed it the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).The LRA has earned a reputation for its cruel and brutal tactics. When Joseph Kony found himself running out of fighters, he started abducting children to be soldiers in his army or “wives” for his officers. The LRA is encouraged to rape, mutilate, and kill civilians–often with blunt weapons.

via www.brandrants.com

Why the interest in Pinterest?

Pinterest is different.

And not just because the latest "it" site on the social Web is growing astronomically fast. In fact, at almost 12 million monthly users, it has reached the 10 million-user mark faster than any other independent site (i.e., sites with built-in users like Google +). This is a remarkable achievement when you consider that less than a year ago in May of 2011 it only had a little over 400K visitors. Moreover, it's still in an invite-only beta release (although invites are easy to get from other members).

The difference is the people using Pinterest. Normally, you expect to see early growth coming from the social-media-savvy, urban-tech-center, early-adopter crowd. However, Pinterest has gained huge popularity with a very specific demographic: mid to upper middle-class woman, between the ages of 18-44 who predominantly live in the heartland of America. In addition, 97% of Pinterest's 1M+ Facebook fans are woman.

Some are comparing it to Facebook, but it's more along the lines of StumbleUpon in two ways. First, it relies on users who have similar interests to provide you with interesting content. Second, you can easily log on to the site and look up wondering where the past two hours have gone.

 

 

The uses for Pinterest are many and varied. However, from a branding and sales point of view, Pinterest holds a lot of promise. A recent report showed that Pinterest drove more referral traffic to Web sites than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined. Online discount retailer ideeli.com said that their Web traffic increased nearly 450% thanks to Pinterest. So it's no wonder that Pinterest also boasts many major brands like Lowes, Whole Foods and HGTV among its account holders. (Btw, it is interesting to note that the little-heard-from-or-talked-about StumbleUpon was second only to Facebook in referrals and better than Google.)

The Duffy Agency often tells our clients that whenever possible show, don't tell. That is, showing how your product works is better than telling people how it works. Pinterest allows brands to not only pin their products, but also build a brand personality through the pinboards they create. Whole Foods, for example, has boards dedicated to delicious foods. But they also have boards for recycling, health, organic gardening, and their Whole Planet Foundation. These boards are not only visually stunning, but also quickly tell the story of the brand and reinforce brand values. They show people what their brand stands for instead of telling them.

It will be interesting to see how Pinterest progresses in the coming year. We see Pinterest as an amazing new tool to help build our clients' brands (especially international brands since the site relies on pictures and not words). 

But we're interested in what you think? What do you see as the big potential for Pinterest? How are you using Pinterest? 

And, btw, if you would like an invite to Pinterest, feel free to email me.

(To see how The Duffy Agency is using it, check out our page.)

 

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.

6 ways to write a better brief

The other day, I read a great article from AdAge on the importance of  a well-written brief. It struck a chord with me because I am a firm believer that an effective brief is critical to the success of any project or campaign. In fact, nothing at The Duffy Agency is executed without a brief. 

In the article, a marketing consultant, Casey Jones, shares his experience, “The norm is partial, incomplete and sometimes no brief at all.” Unfortunately, my experience has been similar. Some people think a brief means only a paragraph of information. It doesn’t. Some think it’s just a list of a product’s features. It isn’t. A well-written brief is akin to a well-defined map. It clearly guides the team and ensures that the final outcome is achieved in the most effective and efficient manner possible.

 

To formulate a brief that will not only help define your message, but also add value to the strategic and creative process, here are a few tips.

 

1. Choose reality over the abstract
   
   The more specific you can be with your target demographic, the better your brief will become. To say your target is  anyone with a mobile phone would probably be too broad. Even using the word “target” may be too abstract. Abstract concepts don’t buy products, people do. So, define your target as an individual.  What’s their gender, age, education? Try creating a full bio for your target. Who is this person? What’s their name? What do they look like? Look through stock photography and create a visual of the person. All of this will help the team visualize who they are talking to and develop better creative.
   
   
2. It’s all about their needs
   
   One of my favorite sayings is that people don’t need drills; they need holes. The product or service must satisfy a motivating need in order to sell. When developing the needs of your target audience make sure you are not confusing the drill for the hole.
   
   
3. Play mind games
   
   A person is not a blank slate waiting to receive messages. They are an amalgam of all their experiences and knowledge. Use this to your benefit. What pre-existing knowledge, experience or feelings will influence how they interpret your message? Has the target had a bad experience in the past with your product? Is there a new feature that fixes a perceived problem? Btw, perceived is the key word here. How your target perceives your brand makes all the difference in how you will communicate with them.
   
   
4. Make a good impression
   
   If a customer was exposed to the message you created for only a few minutes and walked away, what would you want them to think about your brand? Be clear and concise in your offer. Bounty paper towels has done this brilliantly for years. What do we all know about Bounty? It’s the quicker-picker-upper. It will quickly clean up spills and will do so faster than any other brand. What promise do you make to your customers? And does that promise fulfill a need?
   
   
5. The proof is in the pudding
   
   When creating any type of messaging, what proof are you offering so that the target believes it. And remember, just because it is true does not make it believable or convincing. You could say that your motor oil is better for high performance engines. Or you could say that your motor oil is better for high performance engines which is why 75% of all NASCAR drivers use it in their racing cars. If you are better, faster, more economical or whatever your claim, make sure you use target-relevant facts to back up your claims.
   
   
6. Add some definition
   
   For your campaign, messaging, ad, social media program, etc. to be successful you need one important ingredient: a definition of success. Ask yourself, if your campaign is 100% effective, what will happen? What will your customer do? Success may be an increase in Web site hits. Maybe success is the number of people retweeting your content. Regardless of the goal, just make sure you establish one. As Yogi Berra once said, “You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there.” 

Obviously, there are other things to keep in mind when developing an effective brief depending on the brand and objective. What pieces of advice would you give? What do you find lacking in the briefs you’ve seen? Let us know in our comments section.

And of course, if you would like The Duffy Agency to help you with developing your next brief, don’t hesitate to contact us.

 

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.

Is it time to pitch the pitch?

Last fall, I was looking at my house and decided it was in desperate need of a facelift; specifically, it needed a new coat of paint. So I did what I usually do in these situations, I asked a few friends to recommend some painters. I also Googled “painters” for my hometown. In the end, I came down to four firms that had good reputations, good references and all the right experience I needed.

Then, I gave each of them my terms.

I asked each to paint one side of my house including the trim. I then proceeded to tell them that once I saw the results of their work, I would decide which company I would pay.

Normally, you’d think there is no way any self-respecting company would agree to such outrageous terms. However, it happens in the marketing and advertising industry all the time. We even have a name for it: pitching.

Essentially, your agency, along with a number of competitors, develop an advertising or marketing campaign for a client. If they like it, you win the business.  Of course, even if you win the business, you may not get paid for the creative and strategic work you developed. After all, some clients would argue, the big idea part was already done. Free creative and strategy was the cost of entry.

There is no other industry in the world that works this way.

 

And the only reason it still exists at all is habit. Since the days of Mad Men, advertising companies made commission off of media buys. So we would give the creative and strategy away for free in order to get that 15% chunk of the media pie.

But things have changed. Media budgets have evaporated. And those brands that still have substantial media budgets are buying that time directly. In addition, there is "free" media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

So what is a modern-day advertising company to do?

Stop pitching (at least for free). Giving away your product tells clients that it has no value. So, if you don’t value it, how can your clients? Some may bring up pitch fees as compensation, but in truth pitch fees are part of the problem because they provide the illusion that the client is paying for the work. In truth, pitch fees are usually pennies on the dollar and usually never even cover a fraction of the cost of the pitch for the agency.  

At The Duffy Agency, we have never been big fans of entering into a pitch, but have transgressed in the past with the lure of landing that big client. In almost every case, we've paid a heavy price.

The Duffy Agency's product is the services we provide, including international brand strategy, creative execution and campaign adaptation for new markets. These are things that have taken years of hard work to develop. These services have a tangible value, and we bill for them accordingly.

Of course, a creative pitch is different from a capabilities presentation or a "chemistry" meeting, which we are always happy to do. Sitting down with clients and getting a clear understanding of their business problems and goals is part of establishing a good working relationship. 

However, spending hundreds or even thousands of hours developing free work is not a sustainable business model. As an industry, we need to change how the client/agency relationship works and start valuing the work we produce.

The Duffy Agency's motto has always been, "We will do anything for our clients." For the new year, we've decided to modify it a bit: "We will do anything for our clients—except work for free."

What do you think about pitching? Do you think it is an industry practice that should stop? Tell us what you think in our comments section.

 

Kevin Duffy is the Creative Director for The Duffy Agency's Boston office.

Top 10 Social Media "Top" Lists of 2011

As 2011 winds down and we start looking forward to 2012 with the hope of economic growth, we thought we would review the year that was. However, what we found was that nearly everybody and their brother has created a top whatever list of 2011. Not ones to reinvent the wheel, we thought we would bring you our Top Top Lists of 2011...in no particular order.

 


The 10 Most-Viral Fortune 500 Brands of 2011

These are based on the number of views, but from a business perspective, We have to say that the Corning video A Day Made of Glass has to be the #1 B2B video of recent memory.

 

Top Ten Women Social Media Influencers

This is a great list and one that we completely agree with, especially the ranking of Ann Handley (she's one of our faves too).

 

Top 10 Most Significant Search & Social Marketing Stories of 2011

A good retrospective of 2011 by Guillaume Bouchard of the different events that shaped 2011 in social media and search.

 

 

Top 6 Social Media Marketing Trends of 2011

2011 was a pretty quiet year when you come to think of it. So much so that Mashable could only come up with 6 social marketing trends. Sometimes it's about quality not quantity.

 

Top Ten Social Media Disasters 2011

A good list and analysis from DavidAmerland, although it is presented rather quickly at times.

 

 

The Top Ten Social Media Lessons of 2011: Part I and Part II

Lessons to be learned from the social media landscape as see by Christopher Barger.

 

 

The 25 Best Social Media Books of 2011

For those who want a bit more depth than can be found in your normal blog post, this is a list of some great books on the practice of social media marketing.

 

10 Social Media 2011 Highlights (Data Included)

The best part of this list from ClickZ is the data that is included (in case you didn't get that from the title).

 

 

 

The 10 Best Social-Media Campaigns of the Year

AdAge has comiled a book of Top 10 lists, but for us, this is the one we were interested in the most.

 

 

 

 

 

The World of Social Media 2011

While not really a "Top 10" list, our last entry is a fascinating look at the statistics surrounding social media for the year 2011 presented by VideoInfographs.com

 

 

 

What do you think? Are there lists we missed? Share you view in our comments section.