You’ll Know You’re Customer-centric IF…

Today, with all the new toys and communication tools available, most companies will tell you they listen to their customers, have great customer service (which most believe is better than their competitors) and are customer-centric. Truth is, many are not.

How do you know if you really are customer-centric? Here are the top 10 ways to evaluate your company.

1. Every member of your team understands making products and services are secondary to long-term customer relationships. Your entire culture embraces the customer-centric attitude and demonstrates it consistently.

2. You allow customers, not your internal departments, to shape your products and services.

3. Your company listens, genuinely cares, and makes significant changes based on the feedback you receive.

4. All decisions are based on “is this right for the customer?” rather than “is this right for us?”

5. Customer service is always handled in-house, not outsourced.

6. Every employee is empowered to make it right for the customer, on the spot.

7. Your entire organization is structured according to customer needs and behaviors rather than traditional operational functions.

8. Cross-functional teams share information regularly with no territoriality. All teams fully understand each customer or customer type.

9. Marketing shifts from one-way push to completely interactive. Marketing becomes the primary driver of customer relationships and manages your CRM program.

10. Your most important performance metric is customer satisfaction with long-term customer equity overriding traditional market share.

How does your organization score? If you already do 8 to 10 of these things, you’re doing great; if not, your customer-centric culture is a work in progress. In this case, consider implementing a Voice of the Customer (VOC) program to gather valuable feedback and help you formulate a plan to become more focused on customer needs.

#NNSMB recap in 140 characters

Posted by: Abby Gutowski
Public Relations Manager
@abbyweidert

This morning business professionals throughout the New North gathered together once again to discuss social media at the New North Social Media Breakfast event. Today's topic focused on how local news media is adapting to social media. The panelists included Erin Davisson and Angenette Levy of WFRV-TV Channel 5, news editor MaryBeth Matzek of Insight Magazine and Mark Zahn of Woodward Radio Group.

It's no secret that social media has affected traditional media more than any other business. Each panelist discussed how their station or magazine has been impacted and how they use social media channels to connect with readers, viewers and listeners. After the event, panelist MaryBeth Matzek even reflected on how social media keeps Insight Magazine connected with local professionals in her blog post today. In 140 characters, here is a recap of what else we learned at the event:

AFiebig: @wfrv5 @angenette5 @1bizzywriter speaking on panel #nnsmb - the cause & effect of social media (pic) http://znl.me/P6PXQ6

kalalea: @Angenette5 says that social media enhances the new stories #nnsmb

macdesign13: Tweeting from a news scene 5 minutes before airtime helps build followers and loyal viewers @wfrv5 #NNSMB

@kalalea: Whatever your SM policy is it can't be no social media @1bizzywriter #nnsmb

rosslarocco: RT @macdesign13: Content is still about ethics and your reputation. @Angenette5 and @wfrv5 #NNSMB

angenette5: @wfrv5 is talking about different age demos ansocial media #NNSMB

greglinn: @1bizzywriter, @markdavidzahn both say demographics of sm more tied to the media target than to broad trends. #nnsmb

AFiebig: Agreed! RT @macdesign13: Is Erin @wfrv5 as engaging as Ashton? I'm gonna say yes #NNSMB

e1evation: I asked the local media "What is the one social media tool you could not live without?" Best discussion around Hootsuite... #nnsmb

tammyRhoman: @wfrv5 referenced a media post article 82% of journalist find social media as an important resource. #nnsmb

kalalea: No one really knows the future of journalism but you have to be on the forward edge of where it's going @wfrv5 #nnsmb

greglinn: Socmed gr8 tool for local radio, according to@markdavidzahn, giving them far more opps to promote + communicate. #nnsmb

kalalea: @wfrv5 sharing that aggregate websites may be the future of news #nnsmb

atwtu: If you aren't at #nnsmb, you're missing out!

Ineffective Mission Statements

Anyone who reads my blog (all 3 of you) know that I'm not a fan of mission statements, vision statements or, worst of all, values statements. They're generally a huge waste of corporate time, are rarely measurable or achievable, and do more to stroke the egos of the business than to inspire anything from the target audience. No one cares what you believe in, aspire to, hope for, want to change, are heading toward or would like to become. People only care about what you can do for them.

With that, I give you a mission statement I found on the internet today. Any idea what these people do?

Collaborating with partners of government, community-based organizations, communities and the private sector, we provide a community engagement and dialogue clearinghouse:

• To provide capacity training and resources to build individual and collective skills and knowledge in small and large-scale engagement and dialogue processes
• To facilitate customized community engagement and dialogue design and facilitation
• To convene community engagement and dialogue processes
• To collect and publish information and best practices of community engagement planning, strategic engagement, organizational renewal and public policy development.

Emotional Connections in Uncertain Times

I just read Lookin' for Love in All the Wrong Places , a great post by Curt Hanke of Shine, a Madison-based advertising and interactive agency. Hanke's advice to everyone in our industry is simple and compelling: our messages to consumers and customers must strike at their emotional needs in ways that are relevant and authentic if we are to have any chance of driving them to action.

Now, anyone who has studied or worked in advertising knows that the best campaigns in modern history were built on emotional appeals, from "Just Do It" to "You're In Good Hands." Why? Because we also know most purchase decisions are driven by emotion, whether that emotion is greed, lust, pride, fear or love. In the end our emotions overwhelm logic, and we simply back-fill with rationalizations so our left brain doesn't feel completely left out of the process.

Knowing all this, what keeps us from being great communicators now, at a time when there's probably more at stake then ever? Here's what I think we all need to overcome to be great:

• Uncertainty---The times we're living through are uncertain, with the optimism of early January's stock market gains replaced by the resignation that new deficit problems in Greece and Spain will drag down global financial markets again. We have to stop tying our moods and outlooks to what we heard on CNN this morning---that's not healthy! If expectations are the most important drivers of consumer confidence and behaviors, we all have to be committed champions of the future, behaving like we mean it.

• Resource scarcity---From public school districts to Fortune 500 companies, no one has the budget to do things the way they want to, and so anything that feels a little risky (like an emotional appeal instead of features and benefits) doesn't get supported, and decision-makers cluster around the safety of a pragmatic approach. With fewer marketing dollars to spend, that's exactly the time we should be advocating to stand out on the basis of emotion---show our love, reassure the frightened, stand on a principle---in short, be a messaging contrarian by daring to connect emotionally.

• Lack of understanding---It's difficult today to know where the public mood is, and where it's going. Look at the roller coaster ride President Obama's approval ratings have undergone. Are mothers of school children more concerned about the job market or their school district's budget cuts? What can you do to improve your understanding? Use the explosion of new tools to become a more aggressive listener with your markets. Engage directly, substitute conversation for involved research studies, and ask the hard questions. We're awash today in the empathy of shared misery, and that means there's more available honesty in forum, Twitter, and face-to-face. Use it to grow understanding.

We know how satisfying our work is when we're able to strike a cord that makes people feel something, and act on the feeling. So it's up to all of us to become Heroes of Emotional Connections. That's got a nice ring to it.

How To Promote Your Blog Posts

So, your company has started a blog. A team of writers have been assigned when they will write a post, a review process has been established and you’ve added a little, eye-catching graphic to your Web site so visitors know the blog exists. But what have you put into place to promote new posts on a daily/weekly basis so people actually read them?

Here are 4 simple ways to start promoting your company’s blog posts today:

1. Make blog titles keyword friendly to increase the likelihood someone may stumble upon the post when conducting an online search in relation to the topic of the post. A good test is to ask yourself which keywords you would use if you were to Google the blog topic.

2. Distribute new posts on your company’s Twitter and Facebook pages to expand awareness of new posts among your supporters and to drive traffic back to your blog. Using tools such as Hootsuite as your Twitter platform allows you to post traceable URLs, so you can keep tabs on which posts are getting attention.

3. Utilize your company employee base to further distribute new posts by encouraging them to promote the posts on their personal Twitter and Facebook accounts. (It obviously helps if everyone within your company that’s active on Twitter and Facebook has access while at work).

4. Make it a company initiative to add your blog address to your email signature to serve as a constant reminder of your blog’s existence among clients and vendors.

If your company has already started blogging you’ve learned how much time commitment it takes from everyone involved. If you’re worried you may be wasting your time, start using these tips to ensure your company is receiving an ROI on the time involved.

Network Commercial Censorship Confusion

Prior to the Superbowl, there was and continues to be opinions circulating regarding CBS’s decision to air an ad sponsored by “Focus on the Family” featuring Tim Tebow and his mom, Pam. Before seeing it I was a little worked up about it being aired knowing that the alternative viewpoint lightning rod, “Planned Parenthood,” cannot air any controversial messages and must stick to their primary care services. I admit the spot wasn’t as bad as I expected and could actually be seen as supporting a woman’s right to make her own healthcare decisions. However, it does raise questions regarding what the major networks will accept ad revenue for and what they won’t.

When asked directly, CBS stated it would not air ads where "substantial elements of the community [are] in opposition to one another." Seems a little off target when you look at a list of what’s been censored by major networks and what’s aired in the last few years.

Rejected
• Dante’s Inferno – video game ad that was rejected until it accepted CBS’s tagline change from “go to hell” to “hell awaits”
• Mancrush.com - Gay online dating service
• United Church of Christ – message that Jesus welcomes diversity and any sexual orientation
• MoveOn.org – Political ad with a negative view of G. W. Bush
• Condom ads
• Dixie Chicks – new album support after their negative statements re: G.W. Bush
• Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD – Michael Moore’s documentary style film regarding events surrounding 9/11
• Operation Truth – Soldier support ad depicting actual soldier stories
• League of American Voters – Doctors against healthcare reform bill
• BeAWitness – Discusses U.S. lack of response to Darfur

Accepted
• Focus on the Family – Tim and Pam Tebo pro-life/anti-abortion ad
• Military (all branches) – recruitment
• GoDaddy – supposed to be selling online services, but…
• KY – Sexual enhancement products
• Political ads – all candidates

On their own, the lists don’t seem shocking except a few of them completely contradict the rationale. If condom ads are rejected, why promote sexual excitement and explicit ads? If all mug-slinging political ads are accepted, why reject MoveOn? If military recruitment ads are welcome, why not provide a 360 perspective?

Presumably, ads are meant to generate revenue for the networks and have acceptable content for any age group (before 10p). Not sure the above network actions adhere to that basic philosophy.

In a time when it seems to be passé to be politically correct and shock value is prized, maybe it’s time for networks to loosen up and be a little more balanced in the views aired. What do you think? I’d love to know if you agree or if I’m reading too much into this.

Social media IS like a cocktail party … exhausting!

I’m very proud of how the Weidert Group team has integrated social media into marketing in the last few years; we’ve been smart and levelheaded about using emerging media, closely studying how social media can work for local businesses. And though we tweet, Facebook, blog religiously and educate business leaders about the importance of integrating social media in marketing, we live by one rule: YOU CAN’T DO IT ALL!

Staying on top of new technologies available to businesses for marketing purposes is important, but utilizing EVERY social media channel for personal use can get exhausting, overwhelming and cloud judgment of what tools are truly beneficial for growing and retaining business. Before you can achieve success in social media marketing, remember a few things:

1. Develop a social media marketing plan that works for YOUR organization. Stick to the plan and use your objectives and strategies as a guide when discovering new technologies.

2. Don’t try to do it all. Pick a few social media strategies or campaigns and do them right.

3. Stay on top of social media trends through sources like Social Media Today, Hubspot and Mashable, but don’t feel obligated to use networks like foursquare just because it’s the “next big thing” if you run a B2B business. Follow the trends, but only participate as a company if it fits your marketing strategy.

4. Learn from others. Study how other organizations in your industry have adapted to marketing on social media. Learn from their mistakes and successes.

5. Track the impact your social media campaigns are making. If the tools you’re using aren’t the right fit, THEN re-evaluate and try new technologies.

I hope this is a breath of fresh air for many of our clients and followers who feel overwhelmed by social media. It’s okay to get exhausted. There’s no human on Earth who can possibly utilize every social media channel on a daily basis – even social media marketing professionals!

Only by being smart about which tools you use – and how you integrate them into your marketing – can you leverage the power of social media. On the other hand, just trying to show the world that you’re involved in every networking tool out there (with no clear strategy) does nothing but waste your time.

Technology Convergence Makes All Media Work Better

Yesterday my associate Frank Isca wrote about a not-so-new technology from Microsoft that's finally starting to get some traction because of the dramatic growth in smart phone penetration. In his post "What Are Microsoft Tags?" he explained that these tags can appear on any printable surface (print ads, transit signs, clothing labels) and are hyperlinks recognized by smart phone cameras using a Microsoft app. With smart phones approaching 30% of cellphone users, Microsoft must have decided the time was right to start getting more aggressive.

In a world that's gone increasingly bonkers over our mobile devices, here's something that allows those devices to use a physical world cue and deliver something more relevant and meaningful than ever before possible. Think about it: you're shopping for wine, and the shelf tag for a certain vintage links you with a click of your Blackberry camera to Kyle Meyer on the Winery Channel telling you what's so special about that bottle.

So now you can take anything with a printable surface and transform it into a hyperlink that can instantly engage your customer, patron, political supporter, you name it, to the content of your choice. Talk about a connected world! I'm starting to have flashbacks to Minority Report, the futuristic Tom Cruise movie that used corneal scanning to customize ad messages to passing shoppers. But instead of your eyes it's your iphone that gives you away.

Expect to see print publishers jump fast to offer this capability, since it will make their medium work harder. Better yet, use your imagination about how you might use it. What's the next big idea that MS tags makes possible?

What Are Microsoft Tags?

Although it’s technically not a new technology, the use of Microsoft Tags is starting to become more wide spread in the print world and it seems the possibilities are endless. So what are Tags?

According to a recent article on CNET News, Tags are essentially the hyperlink in the physical world to expanded content in the digital world. Printed as a square 2D image bar code, Tags can be placed in printed materials such as newspapers and magazines or on product packaging and outdoor signage. Then, with the use of a smart phone camera equipped with the proper software/app, Tags can be scanned to link directly to online content such as videos or a specific Web page. This results in a more media rich and interactive experience, especially when used within a static magazine or newspaper article.

Intrigued and want to know more? The CNET video below provides a nice demonstration of how Tags work and shows some examples of companies and outlets that are currently using them.

Facebook at work? Tips to ensure you’re not putting your company at risk

While on Facebook at work this morning, I came across an interesting article from Inc. Magazine discussing how Facebooking at work could put your company at risk of spam, phishing and malware. The article releases a statistic from a survey done by British research firm Sophos revealing that 72% of companies believe their employees' activities on social networking sites could endanger their business's security. In addition, 60% of businesses saying they believe Facebook presents the biggest security risk due to the social network company forcing users opening up profiles, significantly ahead of MySpace at 18% and Twitter at 17%.

Although our company understands the risks Facebook presents, we also understand that the benefits of being connected on Facebook far exceed those risks. I was on the social network this morning checking up on a few fan pages that we’ve helped clients develop in the past few years. For many companies, Facebook fan pages are becoming an important tactic to keep connected and become more engaged with employees, clients, customers and prospects. In order to do so, many employees are asked to engage in social networks while on the clock.

So, how can employees help avoid endangering their business’ online security? Here are 5 simple things you can do:

1. Use a personal e-mail account instead of the corporate address to avoid spam from entering your corporate e-mail program.

2. Don’t click on any Facebook ads while accessing your account from a corporate computer.

3. Only connect with people you know well. Your company’s fan page connects you to customers and prospects, so don’t feel obligated to accept if they send a personal friend request to you.

4. Use caution when authorizing applications. You can keep an eye on which applications you have authorized by going to “Settings” and clicking “Application Settings“. Then, on the “Show” dropdown menu select “Authorized” and you’ll see the applications that can access your data and are allowed to post and view information from your contacts.

5. Don’t download files from other people’s profiles while in the office. Links from people you don’t know could contain viruses that can corrupt your company’s computer.


Facebook can be an incredibly important tool for companies to market themselves. Stay smart about security and you’ll only experience the benefits.

How To Make A Video Go Viral

Ever wonder what it takes for a video to get viewed hundreds of thousands of times? Millions, maybe?

urlesque.com has just published its "100 Most Iconic Internet Videos," the most popular videos on the web since the inception of the web. Based on that list, it seems cute kids, pratfalls, stupid tricks and other low-brow stuff gets the most attention. In large part, what they have in common is humor. There's a lesson there, to be sure.