Convince and Convert Blog: Where Social Media and Email Collide

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Featuring Jason Falls, the head of social media at branding agency Doe-Anderson, author of the Social Media Explorer blog, and all-around social media nice guy genius. Jason submitted himself to the rigors of the Twitter 20 interview (20 questions live on Twitter) on November 14, 2008. Excellent questions and comments from viewers throughout, too. Thanks to everyone who participated.

(photo by Shashi Bellamkonda)

From Jason Falls’ Keyboard to You: Interview Transcript

1. @jaybaer: How do you describe your role at Doe-Anderson (branding agency in Louisville)?

• @jasonfalls: I advise our clients on social media strategy and educate them on using social media tools to communicate more effectively.

2. @jaybaer: How does your social media department intersect and interact with other parts of the agency?

• @jasonfalls: We are integrated within the interactive department but with a strong tie to PR. However, Doe-Anderson cross trains and pollinates.

3. @jaybaer: You’ve expanded the team over time. What do you look for in a social media professional? Conversation ability? Tech skills?

• @jasonfalls: You can’t be strong in social media programming and strategy without strong writing and conversation skills. Tech can be taught.

4. @jaybaer:(? from @geekmommy) Louisville doesn’t leap to mind re: social media/tech hotbeds. Easier or harder doing in from there?

• @jasonfalls: @geekmommy is just jealous she doesn’t live in Silicon Holler. The Internet dissolves geographic barriers. I do what I do anywhere. 
• @jasonfalls: And Louisville/Kentucky is responsible for @peterkim @mattcutts @pearsonified Drew Curtis, @robmay Profilactic, etc., etc., 

5. @jaybaer: What type of reporting and metrics do you focus on with your social media programs? Do you sync with interactive analytics?

• @jasonfalls: We do sync with interactive analytics but try hard to set expectations to match the goals. Reach, relationships, conversations.

6. @jaybaer: Lots of discussion around where social media belongs. PR, marketing, customer service, etc. What’s your opinion?

• @jasonfalls: Social media is an extension of good public relations, but should be a company-wide approach PR helps manage and facilitate

7. @jaybaer: Some say “listening” is an agency function, but “engaging” needs to be done by the client. Can the agency be the voice in SM?

• @jasonfalls: Tough one. Depends on the client. If they can’t communicate well, then Dear Lord, don’t let them do it. 

8. @jaybaer: What do you say to clients that are afraid of really communicating via SM, and ONLY want to listen? How do you conquer fear?

• @jasonfalls: The best way is to prove it to them - find a negative conversation and correct it. Show them how to turn the tide. Proof works.

9. @jaybaer: What’s missing then from most corporate social media programs you see today? What makes you say d’oh!

• @jasonfalls: Strategic thinking. they just throw “viral” crap out there and call it social media. GTive your fans something to talk about, do.

10. @jaybaer: I hear you there re: lack of strategy. Conversely, what’s the most overrated aspect of SM today? 

• @jasonfalls: Most overrated aspect is No. of followers. If you can’t get them to do anything, then what good are they…or what good are you?

11. @jaybaer: Do you advocate distinctly different outreach methodologies for bloggers and traditional journalists?

• @jasonfalls: Absolutely NOT. Problem with most PR is they’ve been reaching out to traditional media wrong. Bloggers are teaching us that.

12. @jaybaer: Very interesting. You’re saying treat journalists like bloggers, not the other way around? Relevant, focused pitching, etc.?

• @jasonfalls: Damn straight. Key to blogger outreach is relationships, same as traditional media. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

13. @jaybaer: Best examples of programs you’re really proud of? http://www.thestuffinside.com is legendary work. Others?

• @jasonfalls: Wish others thought so (StuffInside). A lot of my good work is internal coms. But the Beam Baja Twitter Tracker was good thinking. 

14. @jaybaer: Were you a bourbon guy before coming to Doe-Anderson and Kentucky, or is that just an occupationally-acquired taste?

• @jasonfalls: I’ve been a bourbon guy for a while. Raised in Kentucky. My father introduced me to Elijah Craig about 10 years ago. 

15. @jaybaer: A toast to you, sir. How did you gravitate from sports communications to PR and social media at an agency?

• @jasonfalls: I’m schitzophrenic. Heh. I’m a communicator. It doesn’t matter what about. Do your homework, build relationships, talk. 

16. @jaybaer: How does the agency world compare to client side marketing (or university side in your case)? Resources? Pace? Juggling?

• @jasonfalls: Agency life puts you behind the 8-ball for multiple clients at a time. It’s mind-boggling how much is expected. Not enough hrs. in a day.

17. @jaybaer: You did a lot of work in the education arena previously. What do you see from .edu in SM? How can they do it right?

• @jasonfalls: Education and social media? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. They’re so anal about “protecting” students I’m shocked they have Websites.
• @jasonfalls: Of course, I worked in college athletics. The NCAA is the biggest censor and fascist regime on the planet. SM and NCAA? Nope.

18. @jaybaer: You mentioned your kids (2 for me as well). Social media take a ton of time - often unpaid. How do you balance it all?

• @jasonfalls: I’ve gotta pretty damn cool, hardworking and tolerant wife, first of all. But you just have to put it down.
• @jasonfalls: I go dark some weekends and evenings until 8 p.m. because my kids come first. It’s not easy, but I don’t need to be big on Digg.

19. @jaybaer: Can you tell us a bit about http://www.twit2fit.com your social media wellness community?

• @jasonfalls: Twit2Fit started as a lark and is now motivating and supporting over 200 on the Ning site, countless others here.

20. @jaybaer: Last one. What’s your summary 140 character advice for social media success?

• @jasonfalls: Produce good content, treat people with respect, understand what goes around comes around and grow your network off-line, too.

In corporate conference rooms, a major complaint about social media is that it forces companies to get involved with dissatisfied customers in a public forum.

The historic imperative has been to ignore complaints publicly, and deal with them privately via form letters and an occasional telephone call from a customer service representative.

The rule of thumb has been that you never engage directly with a brand critic, because it adds credibility and weight to their arguments if the company acknowledges them.

If You Don’t Put Your Head in the Sand, You’ll Never Get Any in Your Eyes

This ostrich tactic is absolutely the wrong way to handle criticism in a wired world. Ignoring the problem just makes it worse, as citizen bloggers will ramp up the outrage if their concerns aren’t addressed.

Instead of looking at social media as being forced to “handle” a “negative”, brands should view it as an opportunity to improve, grow and thrive. It’s the ultimate canary in the coal mine. If your company has legitimate problems with its operations (and most customer complaints have at least a kernel (and usually a cob) of truth), social media is the greatest opportunity of all time.

By listening, you not only learn what those problems are (with no focus group expense, by the way) but by responding to issues authentically and sympathetically (Zappos, Dell, Comcast et al), you can actually gain more customers than are lost because of the original problem.

And this isn’t just a big company scenario. If you run a restaurant and your weekday lunch-time chef is much worse than your weekend dinner-time chef, it’s entirely possible that a blogger or podcaster (like me via Hottie & The Fatso) will complain about it eventually. As a restaurant owner, wouldn’t you want to know that? You not only learn a critical piece of information about your own organization, but it gives you the chance to set your restaurant apart. A simple blog comment like this would do the trick:

“Wow. Really interesting to hear your perspective on our lunch vs. dinner quality differences. We of course strive for consistently great experiences at all times, and I’ll be auditing our lunch and dinner service immediately to get us back on track. Many thanks for your observation. We hope you’ll join us again for lunch soon and give us another chance.”

It’s about listening to your customers and humanizing your company. And once you commit to it, every piece of “bad news” you discover through social media gives you a chance to make it good. 

Live from Marketing Profs Digital Mixer

Scott Monty, the head of social media for Ford, participated in a Twitter 20 interview on October 23 and answered a wide range of questions about social media at big companies, and his ideas for the future of conversation marketing.

Scott and myself and 248 other lucky folks were in Scottsdale for the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer.

Scott Monty Interview Transcript

1. @jaybaer: How do you describe your role at Ford?

• @scottmonty Strategist, evangelist and advisor within the the entire organization. My job, ultimately, is akin to a conductor of an orchestra.

2. @jaybaer: This is a new role within Ford? How did they handle social media before you arrived?

• @scottmonty It’s a new role; previous SM work was handled by Social Media Group, our agency of record. Their CEO @maggiefox is my #1 advisor.

3. @jaybaer: A lot of talk at this #mpdm conference about setting social media objectives. Do you have one for Ford, or several?

• @scottmonty We’re creating a global corporate social media strategy to guide us in everything we do. All depts, audiences, regions = complex!

4. @jaybaer: Auto is a many layered business. How do dealers view your work? Are they aware? Can and do they do their own social media?

• @scottmonty Dealers are at every level; some barely understand email, others want to use social media. They’re busy, but SM could boost CRM

5. @jaybaer: Interesting point about CRM. Do you feel social media is more an acquisition tactic or retention and brand loyalty tactic?

• @scottmonty Depends on how you want to use it. I’m more of a purist - I value creating awareness, changing perceptions, building relationships

6. @jaybaer: Ford is of course a large company. How does that help or hinder your social media efforts? It sounds like they’ve given you a lot of rope

• @scottmonty To hang myself with? Good news: I’m the sole appointed expert. Bad news: I’m only one person and I’m in constant demand.

7. @jaybaer: The company has a lot of agencies and other marketing programs. Do you actively coordinate the social media efforts with them?

• @scottmonty Yes. I sought out the Digital Marketing team early on and have connected with their agencies. International efforts are up next.

8. @jaybaer: You were at Crayon, a social media strategy firm previously. Differences in the in-house and out-of-house SM process?

• @scottmonty It’s much more complex internally than I had assumed as an external consultant. IT, legal, and general corporate politics abound.

9. @jaybaer: What social media programs/plans are you rolling out for Ford that have you excited (other than free Ford Flex rides at #mpdm)?

• Lots of stuff I can’t tell you about. Wide-reaching Twitter strategy; http://www.the2010mustang.com; bloggers at Media Drive Day

10. @jaybaer: In terms of your Twitter strategy, is it de-centralized? Several people, several accounts? How do you staff it?

• Our Twitter accounts will be distributed across departments, and in some cases will have teams on each account. We’ll ID who they R

11. @jaybaer: There’s talk about companies cutting SM budgets because it’s “experimental”. How do you balance SM and today’s auto climate?

• @scottmonty We’re committed to social media and building relationships - can’t go dark on that. Borrow against media budgets 4 low-cost SM programs

12. @jaybaer: Some say (including here at #mpdm) “Sure he can do it, he’s at Ford. I’m a small biz, I don’t even know the 1st step.” What is step 1?

• @scottmonty Step 1 is to find where your customers are online, and become part of that community. Listen, listen, listen. Then jump in.

13. @jaybaer: In today’s #mpdm luncheon @garyvee talked a lot about passion. Why are you passionate about social media?

• @scottmonty I’ve seen it as the future of marketing & communications for some time. And it’s all about talking with people, which I enjoy.

14. @jaybaer: I agree that SM is the future of marketing, but when will that future arrive? Still people not online, much less Soc Media.

• @scottmonty My best guess is some time within the next 3 years. I’d watch what happens in the newspaper industry as an indicator.

15. @jaybaer: Are you more of a Ford Flex guy or a 2010 Mustang guy? What else do you have coming out?

• @scottmonty I’ve enjoyed driving the Flex over the last 2 days, but I’m waiting for my Mustang to be delivered. We’ve got 2 new hybrids in 2009

16. @jaybaer: Your travel schedule is onerous. Is that helping or hurting your social media outreach efforts? Wi-Fi in the new Mustang!

• @scottmonty Now that would be dangerous! Ford & I both view my conference speaking gigs as a chance to tell Ford’s story & connect with people.

17. @jaybaer: You apparently have a Sherlock Holmes blog?http://bakerstreetblog.com Can you elaborate on that please?

• @scottmonty Another passion. I’m a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the 75 year-old literary society. I merged my SM passion with that.

18. @jaybaer: It’s Elementary. You also have a co-blog with@cc_chapman on diners and dives (@diners). Recommended diners or go-to items?

• @scottmonty Diners are like politics - everyone has their preference, and all diners are local. I like the old Worcester diner car types.

19. @jaybaer: I imagine it’s been a bit of a whirlwind since you started at Ford (3+ months). What’s been most gratifying to-date?

• 1) The excitement of my arrival at Ford; 2) Seeing the faces of bloggers as they’ve had access to super-secret areas at events.

20. @jaybaer: The rules are still being written. What bugs you? If you could outlaw one component of social media, what would it be?

• @scottmonty Tough question. I suppose the general level of snarkiness & excoriation that happens on some sites. But that’s just human nature.

AdAge revealed recently that the New York Times reported a steep 17.9% decline in ad revenues for July. Not unexpected, as many print behemoths are getting pummeled in this economy. (See related post “Is Digital Marketing Killing Magazine Ads”) However, NYTimes.com and the company’s other online efforts grew only .9% in July, compared to double digit increases throughout most of the past year. 

My initial thought was along the lines of “what’s the big deal? they still grew .9% which is 10.8% annualized and that’s not bad.” 

But, once I started to look more deeply at the data, I found two revealing patterns that explain the sudden stop in NYTimes.com ad growth.

Obama - the King of Web Traffic

Looking at NYTimes.com data from Google Ad Planner I found that NYTimes.com, WashingtonPost.com and other print-based portals showed significant growth in average daily visits from January through March of this year. While of course there were other national and world events during the first quarter of this year, the rise of Obama and his unexpected (to many) vigorous challenge of Hillary Clinton was a recurring and dominant news story. 

NYTimes.com traffic past 12 months:

WashingtonPost.com traffic past 12 months:

To see an even more pointed display of the Obama Effect on Web traffic, here’s the Google Insights search volume graph for “Barack Obama” for this year. Note the huge spike in searches in the first quarter.

“Barack Obama” search volume - 2008

Now that Obama has the nomination and we don’t have daily Barack v. Hillary drama, search volume has cooled (although a recent spike (convention-related?) is evident). This no doubt is a bellweather for overall public interest, and examining the more recent traffic for NYTimes.com and WashingtonPost.com demonstrates this effect. While Google doesn’t provide exact figures, I estimate a total daily audience erosion of 25% for NYTimes.com and 45% for WashingtonPost.com from Obama-mania to today. 

Expecting NYTimes.com to continue growing ad revenue when traffic dips considerably is unrealistic. The bigger question is whether they can hold on to the ad revenue they have, now that the Obama effect on traffic is waning.

Blogs Are Beating Traditional Media Powers at Internet Publishing

The Obama effect is not limited only to traditional media portals. Spikes were seen for all the major political-oriented blogs (most of whose readers also read NYTimes.com, according to Google Ad Planner). Dailykos.com, Huffingtonpost.com, Thepolitico.com, Realclearpolitics.com, et al all showed spikes that looked like this:

HuffingtonPost.com traffic past 12 months:

Notice that even though HuffingtonPost.com and the rest of its blog-based brethren were helped by the Obama effect in the first quarter, their traffic today is HIGHER than it was at the beginning of the year pre-Obama. 

DailyKos.com traffic past 12 months:

I interpret this as Obama mania driving significant number of Web visitors to sample sites that they may not have used much (if at all) previously, most notably the high profile, opinionated, and hyper-current political blogs. These sites have been able to hold on to substantially greater portion of their increased audience than have the traditional media portals. 

To me, these findings call into question the ability for traditional portals to continue growing significantly. It appears that as media continues to fragment and consumers have more and more choices, blog-based journalism seems to resonate with a greater percentage of the population. 

Obviously, traditional media portals aren’t going away. After all, NYTimes.com does have 6X the audience of the Huffington Post. However, given that it costs peanuts to produce the Huff compared to NYTimes.com, and given the traffic trends examined here, over the long-term I see the uber blogs becoming more and more dominant, provided they don’t lose their opinionated appeal as they grow.

It’s increasingly clear that consumers want a dash of opinion with their news, regardless of medium, and their journalistic credo and huge overhead is going to make it a difficult future for the newspaper-based Web sites. Ultimately, it spells a slow death for NYTimes.com and other traditional media entities.

Related: Why the Murder of Old Media is PR’s Best Chance

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Thanks to Jason Falls for the inspiration (okay, it’s a straight rip-off) for this post. Jason pointed out five lesser-known bloggers that he reads regularly (including Convince & Convert). His post seems to have triggered an a-ha moment, as several other excellent social media bloggers including Mack Collier and Amber Naslund have posted similar lists of people to read. 

This is truly the genius of the World Wide Web. A hyper-linked community that enables users to find interesting and useful content based on the recommendations of real people, enabled (but not driven by) technology. 

Here’s my Fab Five bloggers. People I read that may be less well-known by Convince & Convert readers. Also, because I work in email marketing and digital marketing in addition to social media, my list is not purely social media focused, as are those cited above. 

Tamara Gielen

Tamara’s blog BeRelevant is dedicated to B2B email marketing best practices. Tamara doesn’t post a ton of her own content, but her ability to cull down the huge output of blog content about the email industry, and include only what’s legitimate and groundbreaking on her own site is a godsend. 

Tamara is also the founder of the Email Marketers Club, a social network for professional emailers with more than 1,700 members. By day, Tamara is the Director of Email and Digital Dialogue for OgilvyOne. She lives in Belgium, and can be found on Twitter @tamaragielen 

Bryan Eisenberg

One of the few folks out there who have been in digital marketing as long as me, Eisenberg is a conference staple (especially search conferences). His insights into customer experience, usability, information architecture, and conversion rate optimization are simply unparalleled. If you need to get more results from your Web site, he’s a guy to follow.

His blog Grokdotcom is more of a company-wide production now, but still brimming with insights. Watch for his regular series of books too. His new one, “Call to Action” is outstanding, and “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark” is required reading for all Web designers, project managers, and information architects I hire. 

He’s on Twitter @theGrok

Dan Zarrella

A great blogger with no shortage of opinions about social media, search, and cross-linking. Not afraid to rock the boat, Dan Zarrella brings serious science to the discussion of social media and viral marketing. He believes that “going viral” is no accident, and I believe he’s the number one guy to watch in terms of the emerging confluence between blogging, other forms of social media, and SEO.

He’s got some very useful tools for maximizing the search and viral friendliness of your blog. Check them out in his Tools section. 

Dan is on Twitter @danzarrella

Michael Gass

I do a lot of work for ad agencies and PR firms, and Michael Gass’ blog Fuel Lines is redefining how agencies think about business development. A great example of a blogger picking a distinct topic and absolutely owning it, Michael eats his own dog food (and the food of other dogs as well). You see, his consulting business is based on helping agencies use smart blogging, SEO, and social media to generate inbound leads - rather than shooting in the dark making cold calls.

In addition to regular, insightful posts about the future of ad agencies, Michael has added a ton of value to his blog with a sweeping survey of the agency biz dev landscape, and a “best agency blog” competition.

Michael has been a huge help and a great friend to Convince & Convert. If you’re at an agency (and even if you’re not), read his stuff. He’s on Twitter @michaelgass

Jason Falls

Yeah, he put me in his five. But, I would have had him in here regardless. With the tsunami of blog posts, opinions, pass-alongs, retweets, and me-toos out there, Jason Falls maintains an exceptionally high quality level. If he says something on his blog - Social Media Explorer, it’s worth reading. If he sends a tweet, the link is worth clicking.

Unlike many (most?) social media consultants, Jason is actually a practitioner of the art. His work for Jim Beam via his agency Doe Anderson is one of the legendary examples of social media press releases and integrated microsites. His blog isn’t about what social media will become, it’s about what social media is now, and how to do it right. 

Jason is a straight shooter that’s not caught up in his own emerging Web fame, and among the top tier of social media and PR 2.0 “names” I find him to be the most dedicated to sharing and extremely giving with his time. He was an early champion of Convince & Convert, and I’ll never forget that. (Chris Brogan is another one that’s amazingly cool to lesser known folks, despite his insane schedule and content generation volume). 

Jason is a must-follow on Twitter @jasonfalls

Who Are Your Fab Five? Leave Them in the Comments, Or Write Your Own Post

I just finished giving a speech at the western region meeting of the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations in Sedona, Arizona. 

NCMPR is the association of community and technical college marketers. A really interesting group that needs to harness social media and work with prospective students on an individual, relevant, highly personal basis. 

While this presentation was specifically for NCMPR, there is a lot of material that will be valuable to anyone looking to launch and maintain a social media and digital marketing program for a mid-sized business or organization. 

Key points in this presentation:

- Media outlets have exploded, causing audience fragmentation

- You have to communicate to audiences individually, because they don’t herd together like the old days

- Using the power of audience segmentation

- Digital marketing is critical in this new hyper-targeted marketing world, because online users identify themselves through their search queries and site usage

- Ways to find prospective community college students (Twitter, Facebook, Blog search, Flickr)

- Web site is the key to translating awareness of your college (or any brand) to action

- Web content needs to be transparent, real, and multi-modal

- Lead acquisition is critical for colleges. Give users multiple call to action options. 

- Secrets to good form design

- Web site testing and optimization basics

- Lead nurturing via personalized follow up and triggered communications

Comments are very much appreciated. Enjoy. 

To celebrate its 10th Anniversary, PR Week has launched a “Best PR Blogs” contest with YOU the agency community as the judge and jury.

PR Week nominated 16 well-known PR blogs, and asked each blogger to nominate another blog for the contest. The result is a 32-blog, March Madness-style blog off.

Each week, blogs are pitted head-to-head and the field is narrowed until a grand champion is crowned.

Voting couldn’t be easier. Just click. That’s it. Technology from buzzdash.com enables it, and prevents you nefarious PR types from voting 2,132 times for your friends.

There are several solid blogs in contention. My personal favorite among them is Todd Defren’s PR Squared - but that may be because I’m more familiar with him via Twitter.

Any predictions for winners? Other blogs that should have been considered?

Vote here now

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In a major announcement yesterday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provided new guidance to public companies stating that corporate Web sites and blogs are a suitable means for official information dissemination to investors, provided those sites are a “recognized channel for distribution.”

This apparently means that if the corporation has an openly available and accessible Web site and/or blog, that posting information to that blog satisfies legal disclosure requirements. WOW.

Entire industries (including financial services PR and wire services) have been built at least in part on the SEC’s long-standing requirement for public companies to proactively “push” information to investors via press release distribution.

This new guidance changes the game, and creates clear winners and losers.

Public Company Corporate Blogs - 4 Winners

If companies are not required to push information, then any type of alert or notification system that would make investors away of new data posted to a blog is a huge winner.

- RSS systems like Feedburner (which is really Google)

- Possibly enterprise email service providers like ExactTarget

- Blog software entities like Wordpress, and especially enterprise blog systems like Compendium Blogware

- PR firms that understand blogging, blog management, and social media

Public Company Corporate Blogs - 3 Losers

The new SEC decision will put a serious squeeze on some, as the distribution of official press releases is an expensive and lucrative business. Losers in this new scenario include:

- Any sort of wire distribution service like PRWeb, Marketwire (which we’ve used at Convince & Convert for social media release distribution), and BusinessWire (which is a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary

- PR firms whose current service mix includes a healthy dose of financial disclosure releases

Any other winners and losers? Add a comment!
 

Welcome to Agency Advantage Tools, a regular blog series at Convince & Convert that spotlights inexpensive or free digital marketing tools.

There are literally thousands of different Web sites, applications, plug-ins, widgets and more devoted to helping digital marketers do their jobs better or faster. Most advertising agencies and PR firms are too busy doing actual marketing to keep up on this flood of innovation.

So, here at Convince & Convert, we’ll do the work for you. We’ll scour the Web to find the tools that are worth adoption at agencies.

Website Grader - Search Optimization Success Snapshot

Today’s tool is Website Grader. This exceptionally easy-to-use Web site shows you in an instant how your site, your clients’ sites, and/or your competitors are doing with regard to search engine optimization.

Website Grader is owned by Hubspot, an integrated, Web-based suite of tools for search, blogging, social media, content management, and competitor analysis. We’ll review the full Hubspot offering in a future edition of Tools You Can Use.

Website Grader takes information that has been in demand for years (number of links, page rank, metadata, etc.) and presents it in a very clean, easy-to-understand format. There have been a number of sites that provide portions of this data, but none with the savvy interface and non-SEO-professional tone.

You just enter your Web site’s URL, enter the address of competitors if desired, provide an email address (if you want a printable report), and click “Generate Report”. That’s it.

Analysis take about 30 seconds.

The resulting report provides information on 23 data points across four categories:

• On-Page SEO
• Off-Page SEO
• Blogosphere
• Social MediaSphere
• Conversion
• Competitive Intelligence