Archive for the ‘social media’ Category

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Report from SXSWi- Days 1&2

Posted by jeb on March 13th, 2010

PJ and I are down in Austin for the annual SXSW Interactive conference. I’m taking a break from the insanity to charge up my phone, post this blog and get cleaned up before heading out again.

This place is nuts. I’ve never seen some many people walking around looking at their phones. Mostly iPhones. That seems to be the overwhelming flavor of choice. Apple in general is the default for this group. I’m just as guilty as the rest. So I’ve had to run back for quick re-charges a few times in the 30 odd hours I’ve been here so far.

Only 30 hours, hard to believe, and I’ve been asleep for about 6 of those. I was warned to rest up before coming. I could have done better.

Some random highlights:

Seeing Jason Fried of 37 Signals speak and sorta read from his new book “Rework” which I read on the flight done.

Hang out with my buddy Burr Settles who is presenting here on his FAWM.org project. He is also working at Carnegie Mellon on a fascinating project involving scrapping the web for contextual/localized content. They have a Google Grant to help with funding. Smart dude.

Meeting a woman who was sent by the Chickasaw Nation to learn about how they can use Social Media to connect their people.

Going to an awesome throwdown/party at The Boiling Pot put on by our friends at Kristian Andersen Associates (thanks Kristian!)

Attending numerous panels/speakers/workshops that built/expanded/challenged/educated me in many ways I could never cover now but did via my Twitter posts.  (I was disappointed that all the CMS talk at events is around Drupal with no attention to proprietary or even Microsoft solutions.)

To follow my travels and thoughts please follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/jebbanner

more soon!

Posted in social media, technology, twitter | 1 Comment »

Fanvertising or To Fanvertise

Posted by jeb on March 4th, 2010

I was hanging out on Musicalfamilytree.com, a Small Box project focused on archiving Indiana music and conversations about it, and one of the members, Kevin D. McCollough, used a term I hadn’t heard before- “Fanvertise”. He asked if it was ok to “fanvertise” on the site and then linked to something he liked. Sure, I said, and hey, that’s a really cool word! I did some searching and it appears that it has been used a few times but not much. Right now if you Google fanvertise the post from Musical Family Tree shows up near the top of page one and the comment was just left yesterday. That means it’s not in widespread use in my experience.

So I wrote up a quick definition of Fanvertise and posted it to my Twitter account. Here it is as well:

Fanvertise- when a person or “fan” promotes third party goods or services without direct compensation.

I would consider it a sub-category of Viral Marketing but mostly I just like the word better. Viral has a nasty, sickish sound to it, right? Fanvertise sounds fun and captures what people are really doing.

So how do you get Fanvertising? It is obviously much more desirable than traditional advertising since it’s free and the other is, uh, not. It’s also cheaper than traditional PR since PR agencies can be pricey too. Both advertising and PR are often needed and are usually effective if executed correctly but they don’t have nearly the ROI of real and mostly free (not counting your time) Fanvertising.

I see Fanvertising as a 3 step process:

Fanvertising Step #1. Be awesome at what you do, you cannot suck. You have to have the happiest customers on earth or at least in your industry. In being the best you will give your customers the emotional foundation for singing your praises via every channel at their disposal.

Customer service should be treated as a marketing expense not an afterthought. Happy customers will bring you more customers. This is true in the B2B and B2C worlds.

Instead of focusing on selling your product or service, focus on making your current customers happy. They will then do the selling for you. This is the core of Fanvertising. Don’t think about new customers until you have taken care of your current ones.

Fanvertising Step #2. Be an enabler. Give them the tools to tell their stories, not your story. Your story doesn’t matter that much on its own. It only has really impact when combined with a customer’s story- “I’ve spent years looking for a good carpet cleaning service and now I’ve found it in XYZ Company, check out their website, Facebook page, etc- here. Highly recommended!”. If you don’t have easy ways for your fans to Fanvertise your company then they will most likely move on and not get around to it. Make it super easy.

Fanvertising Step #3. Say “thank you”. Don’t ignore feedback, good or bad, acknowledge it, engage in a conversation if it’s bad, spread it around if it’s good. Remember what the Bible says- “Let others praise you”, just don’t forget to say “thanks!”.

In the brave new world of Social Media there are so many opportunities for Fanvertising. Make sure you are following these three steps and Fanvertising will start growing your business.

Posted in internet marketing, marketing, social media, twitter | 2 Comments »

The Power Of Facebook

Posted by jeb on January 11th, 2010


People talk a lot about the power of social media. Mostly it’s just talk, no real examples. Here’s one.

The Small Box offices are above Qdoba here in lovely Broad Ripple, Indianapolis. If you step out on our “deck” (aka the roof access we have at Small Box) you have a 25% of chance of being blasted by smoke from their grills. Ah….nothing like chicken grease in the morning!

Up to recently you were also likely to hear their questionable music mix softly blasting through the floorboards of our main room where I happen to sit with 3-4 other team members every weekday.

Everyday…the same songs by Tom Petty…3 Doors Down…Coldplay…The Fray….ugh. It was the bane of our existence. We mockingly sang along in falsettos and I even got a mix CD of Qdoba music for Christmas from Karl Hosttetler (very funny Karl).

(Crazy thing is we continued to routinely order from Qdoba. Hey, it’s good stuff! One visit would be to grab a burrito, another to complain about the noise. Maybe a good thing we can see them make our food!)

Keep in mind that Small Box happens to be run by a bunch of music nerds. People that pride themselves on thinking they know a thing or two about music and will probably tell you as much over drinks if you are ever so “lucky”. So this wasn’t just a pet peeve but a serious issue (at least in our snobby minds).

So, we tried to get them to turn down, repeatedly. We went down and talked to them, had the landlord call the owner, called them almost daily “I really do love Tom Petty but I just can’t hear American Girl another time…please turn it down!”. They said it was corporate policy, no dice, had to be this loud.

We even thought about moving and we really love the space. We love being in the middle of Broad Ripple. But the music was driving us crazy. People were working from home to avoid it. Something had to break.

Then it happened.

Jerry Hellmann, one of the guys that was enduring the daily onslaught of Celine Dion, posted a comment on Qdoba’s Central Indiana Facebook Page. Here’s what he posted:

“Qdoba! I have the absolute BEST Christmas gift you could give to your customers!! Please, PLEASE turn down or change that terrible VH1 classic, 10 song muzak playlist that is rumbling my floor! I work above your Broad Ripple office and I’m considering seeing a psychiatrist because of this. A man can only take so mu…ch of hootie’s “i only want to be with you” and the painfully horrible “Rockabye”…..last but not least……the office favorite…..Annie Lennox’s “no more i love you’s”. Please Qdoba, have mercy on us all. Turn down that horrible sound….our ears won’t stop bleeding. NO JOKE – Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” just started playing. GOD HELP US!!!!!!!!!!!“
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/QDOBA-Central-Indiana/189858001092?v=wall&ref=mf

The next day we had a representative from the Qdoba corporate office at our door. She was there to drop off a gift certificate for Jerry who was out at the time. PJ and I had her sit down and listen to the music wafting through the floors. We begged her, please! fix it!

…and they did. We can no longer here Qdoba’s finely tuned, demographically targeted music mix. We can actually sit quietly and think. They have put in new speakers that no longer broadcast into our room. We have been saved!

Thank you Jerry!
Thank you Facebook!
and yes, thank you Qdoba!

Posted in Everything Else, indianapolis, social media | 10 Comments »

Your Website as a Broadcast Platform

Posted by jeb on August 26th, 2009

I started to hit on this idea in my last blog about how much to pay for a website and it seems to resonate with some people so I wanted to pull the idea out and expand on it here.

In our experience most companies have starter websites- basically a brochure on the web. It’s a destination. Maybe you find it via a search for the company name but not much else. All the visitors know something about the company or they wouldn’t be there. A “preaching to the choir” website. A website that exists only because you “have” to have a website.

The problem is that this kind web presence is almost worthless and will do nothing to grow your company. In fact it may be hurting it.

The few that find their way there wonder how legitimate your company is if you don’t have a “real” website.

So what is a “real” website?

A real website is a broadcast platform. Here’s some of the characteristics of broadcasting website:

Social Media- when you add a blog it automagically updates your company’s Twitter account, and other services, with a link to that blog.
RSS- your site’s RSS feed is being pulled in by other blogs and services like Google Reader.
Google loves you- a search engine friendly site will rank for many competitive keyword searches.
You site is easy to update- so you look forward to adding new pages and content which only brings more traffic. (don’t get me started on the importance of a good Content Management System!)
Your site listens- lets users leave feedback, comments and generally interact in a playful way.

The function of a website is changing. If “content is king” then a website’s job is to broadcast that content across the web’s many platforms.

The companies that invest in content broadcasting sites will win search, traffic and eventually the customer.

Posted in content management systems, social media | 2 Comments »

Don’t fall for the Social Media panic!

Posted by jeb on August 4th, 2009


When I go out and talk to business owners I often notice a sense of panic about Social Media. They are afraid they are being left behind. Often this panic leads to creating numerous accounts on various Social Media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIN, Twitter, etc. That’s fine, no reason not to set up accounts in order to secure your company’s name on that site. But it’s ok if you don’t jump in and engage on every Social Media site and service that comes along.

I encourage business owners to be patient. The Web is moving quickly, more quickly than most of population, and your customers, can keep up with. Only 30-40% of all new users to Twitter actually use the service a month later. That means 60-70% of all Twitter users abandon the site/service almost immediately! Twitter is a great format for business conversations, creating leads, etc. but remember it is still a small player compared to search engines in terms of driving business growth.

So don’t panic, focus on what is working and only expand into the Social Media waters as you have the time and interest to make that investment. The reality is that the business on the Web is still being driven by Search Engines. Although Twitter is moving into the search arena, see its new home page, it is still a long ways off from competing with Google or even Yahoo and Bing in that arena.

The best way to grow your business is by using search engines to drive traffic to your website. It has the best ROI hands down. If you have a website that is easy to find (search engines), easy to use (usability/conversion) and easy to manage (content management system) then you will have the right foundation for growth. Once that is established you can start dabbling in the Social Media waters.

Posted in social media | 4 Comments »

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