Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much!
Published on Jul 15, 2014
Ted Rubin, Social Marketing Strategist, Brand Evangelist and Acting CMO Brand Innovators, talks about how to get existing customers to follow you on Twitter.
#SMTShorts is a series of short videos featuring top names in social and digital, providing marketing insights in 3 minutes or less.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbFhVIamNXI
on AUGUST 6, 2014
“Serendipitously go into your following, reach out to people – just like what you might have done in the old days when you had a telephone book.” – Ted Rubin, on taking advantage of social networking sites.
There are several reasons why I think businesses hamstring their social efforts. First, there’s an overriding, if misguided, pressure to get things “perfect” on social, which is sometimes used as an excuse to avoid getting involved at all. The permanent nature of anything that’s posted on the web tends to freak out the “control the message” crowd who has their fingers poised over the delete button to instantly erase ill-advised comments or content. We’re never far removed from the latest social snafu by a public figure, or the next one to come, and that fear can be paralyzing.
Second, there’s a certain amount of mistrust of employees by corporations on social channels. What if they say something stupid? What if they take a photocopy of their posterior at the company Christmas party and post it on Facebook? What if our perfect reputation is trashed by one Tweet? What if, what if, what if?
Co-Authors: John Andrews and Ted Rubin
AMA recently published an article that I reposted yesterday, The Retweet that Never Sleeps, about Duane Reade’s highly successful content marketing approach that has helped the tiny (in terms of store count) retailer outperform much larger competitors in terms of social media engagement (National Drug chain CVS has just 10% of the Twitter audience of Duane Reade for Example). The Tri-State area only retailer (256 Stores) which is a subsidiary of Walgreens uses a content marketing platform that is powered by a group of influencers known at the Duane Reade VIP Bloggers. This unique model leverages the local knowledge of brand advocates along with their individual audiences to deliver highly relevant organic content across a wide spectrum of social media channels. Twitter studied the approach and created a great case study about it.
Originally posted by Molly Sloat at American Marketing Association
Developing content to build an engaged Twitter audience for your brand can be tough, and the potential payoffs can be hard to define. People might sign on to read your witty one-liners or to see your compelling visuals, but can a robust Twitter following result in direct sales impact, particularly for a brand with no e-commerce presence? Duane Reade Inc. thinks so.
Via a localized and photo-heavy Twitter campaign, the 54-year-old New York-based pharmacy brand grew its Twitter following by more than 6,700% between 2012 and 2013, and also drove results at the register, says Calvin Peters, PR and digital communications manager at Duane Reade. “The challenge was to increase our community across the board, from New Yorkers to tourists. We are lucky to be able to leverage New York in our social media. With the landmarks, the buildings and the city itself, many consider New York to be the capital of the world. We’re a brand that started in New York, and because of our vast footprint in the metropolitan area, we get to leverage that.”
Social media is the handshake of our generation, but it can also be a splendid vehicle for giving warm business referrals, or just introducing two people you know have something in common.
Social media is a great tool to help build brand visibility and interact with customers on a public platform. However, keep in mind that it’s a conversation medium—not a place to whitewash your image. People expect brands to be human, which means the occasional mistake is bound to happen, yet there is still an inherent fear of permanent reputation damage on social channels. Companies are afraid that something bad will be forever captured via a screenshot or a social update, bringing down a firestorm of bad press that ruins the brand’s reputation for all time. As a result, knee-jerk apologies too often are the first response.
Take airlines, for example. Data gathered by Unmetric shows US Airways and American Airlines lead in the number of tweets that contained apologies. But when trying to engage with customers and humanize their brand, businesses may be doing more harm than good in constantly apologizing. When companies issue an apology for a split-second decision made on social media, they admit culpability. If they apologize too soon, they may be drawing negative attention to themselves from people who otherwise would have not paid attention had a friend not retweeted the apology or shared blog posts criticizing the response.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYxIGiezCn4
Published on May 13, 2014
While attending Hispanicize 2014, Ted Rubin took a moment to present his take on the Age of Influence with Community Building.
The Magic @ Ball of Social Media with Special Guest Ted Rubin
In this episode of “Magic @ Ball of Social Media,” our video series in which experts answer small business social media questions, we sit down with Ted Rubin, a leading social marketing strategist, brand evangelist and keynote speaker. Rubin provides actionable tips about building an engaged social audience.
