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Social media consultants are great at what they do. And while it is great to be recognized in my industry as being knowledgeable in communications and social media marketing, I don’t refer to myself as a social media consultant. Sure, I speak about social media at conferences and write (a lot) about social media. Though management consulting is different.

Business Consulting is about Strategy first, then Tactics

As a certified management consultant or CMC – our job is to identify issues, use root cause analysis and diagnosis tools to determine what is a problem and what is a symptom of a problem. In the end – analysis of the data leads towards an action and then an implementation plan based on the functional areas of business: strategy, IT, human resources, sales/marketing, finance and operations. We implement tactics based on a strategy.

The fact that many management consultants may recommend social media as a business tool and usually are either darned skilled at using the tools and tactics or can recommend a contractor to implement the concepts, does not mean social media is all we can do and we should not define ourselves as such. We have to be able to understand the financial statements too – but we are not accountants. The distinction is important.

The Discipline of Management Consulting

For management consultants – the launch of a new product, whether it is for a technology firm or for an eco-lodge in the tourism industry, starts with the strategy not the tactic. The work is to determine the how and what with a view to the whole product or project in the context of the business. This is usually a longer term process not limited to a single social media campaign, promotion or contest which may be a contract not a consulting project.

Whether or not to use Facebook as a method to distribute coupons or reward our loyal fans or for customer service – the platform is a tactic – not a strategy. And management consultants will always start with business strategy rather than jumping right into tactics.

This concept holds true with communications as well. Business goals drive the communications strategy and social media is one tool of many that can be used in the wide range of tactical marketing, communications and public relations options.

What about social media specialists who refer to themselves as management consultants? I haven’t seen that happen though I suppose it could. Management consultants have years of business experience, specialized training from universities (usually an MBA at minimum) and are part of a professional organization that has peer reviews and a professional code of conduct. We are accountable to the CMC professional body. It’s ok to ask questions about professional development and how your consultant demonstrates their commitment to their industry.

When to hire a management consultant?

If you already know your business strategy and need a contractor to implement the social media part of the tactics and you have already gone through the process of deciding what, where and why – hire a social media contractor.

If you need an integrated digital strategy that considers your business and communications strategy as a whole – hire someone not only with the professional designation to back up the skill set – but someone who also subscribes to a code of ethics that is monitored by a professional body. That is a certified management consultant.
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Terry Rachwalski is a Certified Management Consultant in Victoria, BC. She loves social media and uses multiple premium applications and custom coding to run and monitor Facebook and Twitter campaigns as tactics within the context of business communications strategy. Though she unabashedly defines herself according to her professional designation: CMC .

I was honoured to present at the rocking Eco-Tourism, Sustainable Tourism Conference in September 2011. It was a great crowd and everyone was clamoring for more! In the roundtable sessions – I promised to send links to the software that I use and help my clients use efficiently – this post is for you keeners willing to learn!

Vicky Hastings at Maxwell PR reminded us of the value of telling our stories and Andy Crestodina at Orbit Media gave specific instructions on how to make our website easier to find. The presentation on How to Stretch your Marketing Budget for Tourism operators can be found on slide share.

First let me re-iterate my motto: It’s not social media – it’s marketing. At the Tartan Group – we build integrated marketing communication and public relations strategies for tourism providers. And social media is not “the” answer, it is one of the tools we use.

These tools (like Facebook) change constantly and there are lots of them. The following is a list of the tools I have been using though I keep trying new ones every month! Most of the free tools also have paid versions. If you start using them a lot, I always recommend that you bump up to the premium once you know what the value is for you.

List of Social Media Dashboards

Hootsuite/Tweetdeck/Social Oomph/Mediafeedia: take your pick. They all have pros and cons and are being bought and sold faster than coffee at a morning hockey practice. I use the paid version of Hootsuite and am pretty happy with it though their bulk scheduling tool has some sort of bug in the excel sheet so I stopped using it for that. They might have fixed it by now. Support is email only for the paid version that I am on (and the user forum) which ended up being no help at all. Luckily the interface is pretty easy to use.

Choosing a dashboard is sort of like deciding on your grocery store. Take a look at the features of each and then decide what fits. As I have settled on Hootsuite – I haven’t taken a look at the others recently though I hear from other people that they are pretty good. I know Mediafeedia allows you to pay to private label your tweets which could be a neat feature.

List of Twitter Tools

Followerwonk : FREE – Great tool to find tweeters by the words in their bio. Want to create a list of all the people who use the word “travel New Zealand” in their bio? Followerwonk is your tool.

Tweetspinner : PAID – This is a tool to manage your twitter account. It helps you find people to follow and unfollow and auto follows those who follow your competition – did you follow that? Tweetspinner is not for the faint of heart – it can take a bit of struggling to get going.

Tweet Adder: PAID – the Jury is still out for me. It might be that I am just comfortable with Tweetspinner but I am rather stubborn so I will keep trying to figure out the value.

TweetReach : FREE – great way to track hashtags for contests and promotions. It only has a history of a few days though so if you are running a long promotion, you may be better to bump to the paid version.

List of Facebook Third Party Applications

There are many to choose from. They all have their pros and cons though I have settled on a few that I like and that offer most of the features for a price I and my clients can afford. There are some free apps you can get like a sign up for newsletter form other service providers like as Constant Contact.

My primary advice is to keep it simple – there are only so many apps you can run on Facebook as they then get buried in the tabs on the left anyway. And recreating your website defeats the purpose. As a result – we typically keep our clients focused on using Facebook for a specific purpose: engagement, customer service or contesting/promotions. Remember my motto? It’s marketing which means you start with a strategy!

There are a lot of open source applications out there. I have not had good success with them. This is likely because of my limited skills – when open source breaks, I can’t fix it. And the Facebook API (software code) is constantly changing. My recommendation: if you can’t fix it, don’t use it. I would rather pay and have someone I can call when thing go awry. Also – did I mention that the Facebook AI changes often? That means things break and are out of our control – another reason to have someone at the end of the phone to talk to.

The other option is hard coding the site but this take a long time and can be costly, though you do get more control.

These applications are generally designed so anyone can use them. That said, the reality is that like any other software – there is a learning curve. Like all things in life, it may come down to a build vs. buy decision. If you have someone on staff who has time to run the applications and is pretty web savvy, you can do it in house. Typically, I do the first promos for my clients and then they either decide to go it alone or they let me continue to run them! The magic is not in the software anyway – it is really in the creativity of the campaign and integrating it into other marketing and media pushes so that it meets goals. Remember that putting up a facebook app will not make it successful – it still needs to be promoted!

Pagemodo: FREE – You can put up a free welcome page. Somewhat limited but easy to use and a great place to start!

Wildfire Apps : PAID – They do micro-sites and facebook apps (and now Linkedin apps too). I find their product to be too high end for my client base. WildFire keeps their branding on the less expensive promotions and taking the branding off costs a fortune. If the client wants to use it or has the the deep pockets to remove the branding – then its all good. Their apps are very well done and there is not doubt that they have a premium product but it comes at a cost. Mid-sized businesses can achieve many of the same goals without the hefty price tag.

North Social : PAID – I love these guys. Their facebook apps are simple to use and effective. I use an enterprise account and they have always treated me well – even when I make mistakes.

YUPIQ : PAID – yup – love these guys too and they are in Victoria, BC so I can track them down if there are any glitches (that matters). They are a new player in the apps field though specialize in mobile couponing and rewarding. Their claim to fame is closing the loop between social sharing and the call to action – you can give a reward to friends for sharing information. This is a nice feature for marketers. They also provide unique coupon codes and provide barcodes. Call Will and say Terry told you to call.

Involver : PAID – like North Social – they have a suite of applications that you can choose from and the pricing is about the same. Their couponing application is very good for grocery stores or retail operations that want to be able to offer their coupons on-line.

List of Social Media Monitoring Tools

The free tools work pretty well though they are limited in the historical data they can gather and depends on the search terms you use.

Social Mention : FREE – it works quite well – gives a quick snapshot of where your search terms are mentioned in social media.

Addictomatic : FREE – builds a dashboard for you with mentions on a particular search term though I find many of the locations they bring up to be irrelevant (e.g. FriendFeed).

Social Report : This is a nice tool for medium size accounts though many of the metrics are things that have marginal value (how many women vs. men Facebook fans). There is a campaign tool using Google URL builder which is pretty neat if you are doing a lot of twitter or facebook offers. The interface is easy to use and the support is good – really nice people!

The next step up with monitoring is moving into the business intelligence and analysis …and the big dollars – these are the systems used by larger brands. There are many competing systems like Radian6, Sysemos Heartbeat and Pulse, Meltwater, Brandwatch – whew – it goes on and on. In the end – it depends on what you want to do and what your price point is. If you want an engagement platform and have lots of community managers, Radian 6 and Sysemos are great. Brandwatch does great internationalization and Meltwater has great options. MediaMiser is a great option if you need social media and traditional media monitoring. Some charge flat fees and have account managers you can call, others charge by bandwidth used and provide email support. These systems are generally beyond the price point available to my clients though we are offering the MediaMiser system to our clients based on the agency (shared) fee model.

If you have other tools that you use – leave a comment below!
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Terry Rachwalski is a certified management consultant (CMC) in Victoria BC who specializes in product launch and marketing plans and adamantly defines herself as belonging in the management consulting camp not as a social media consultant. Rachwalski believes in sharing information and building internal capacity with her clients. She has partnered with the Tartan Group, a Canadian marketing communications and public relations firm to provide digital and social media consulting services to tourism, travel and hospitality clients. The Tartan Group integrates marketing communications and digital strategies to help get your message out where your audience is.

A standard component of any marketing mix is offering either discounts, offers or rewards to loyal customers. Print and direct marketing has been the king of coupons and vouchers.

We know that email marketing also is a key component in offering rewards though by adding a social media component the potential for sharing among users and friends rises dramatically. My clients have been using twitter and facebook extensively for flash deals and rewards. The latest trend is to use applications that assist the marketer with implementing these programs. In the case I outline below, I used YUPIQ, a Victoria BC based technology firm.

Click on image to share with friends so you both get a free drink at ESTC!

I try all the new applications myself – I am naturally curious and always on the lookout for new marketing tools. So when I was approached by YUPIQ – I jumped on board to test their product.

YUPIQ provides software to assist in giving rewards to those product champions who share your information with their friends. It allows the marketer to target their brand advocates and build word of mouth and business through specific, targeted campaigns. That got my attention right away.

Network marketing is a huge opportunity in social media but can it work?

The ESTC Demonstration Reward

I was a speaker on a panel session called “Stretching Your Marketing Budget – Green Marketing & PR for Tourism” at the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference or ESTC. What better way to try paperless rewarding but at an eco-tourism conference?

Since the session was late on the last day of the conference, we wanted the ESTC attendees to benefit from all the marketing and PR wisdom my fellow panel members and I were going to provide. I spoke with the panel chair and , tourism PR guru Deirdre Campbell of the Tartan Group who jumped on board and graciously offered to provide the reward: a local alcoholic concoction called a FireFly. Delegates didn’t actually have to go to the session – the reward was just for spreading the word !

How it worked

I wanted the ESTC delegates to share the information about the session. I sent out an email linking to the ESTC Stretch your Marketing Dollar Session Reward to panel leader Deirdre Campbell, the conference organizer Ayako Ezaki of TIES and my fellow panel members PR gal, Vicky Hastings of Maxwell PR and SEO guy, Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media and ask them to share with ESTC delegates.

And then I watch the stats.

The first few people sharde on facebook, twitter or by email. When ESTC attendees accepted the information – both parties got a code that they could redeem for a Firefly at the opening night (Sunday) reception. The offer was limited to the first 25 people.

What we need to know

The purpose of this reward was to demonstrate the software and get delegates thinking about how they could use this and other applications in their business. Though the purpose was also gather feedback on whether the reward is worth it! Would delegates be hesitant to share? If so, why? Would they find it annoying or intriguing? Would it work? What unanticipated issues will come up? So many questions!

We gave out 35 drinks that night…which I considered a wild success because I got to speak to many people who didn’t know me. And we had a great time. More importantly, the late day session was well attended and offered value to attendees, regardless of the drinks offered.

I don’t know if this new method of paperless rewarding will be successful in the long run but I am sure interested in finding out what happens!

Let me know your thoughts on this form of on-line voucher system.
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What the heck is Terry Rachwalski, a management consultant for technology firms doing speaking at a tourism conference? Terry is a certified management consultant CMC who recently partnered up with the Tartan Group to provide digital services to their tourism clients. Terry has run multiple successful integrated communications campaigns including public relations, advertising and social media …and a few not so successful. But she knows why.

BTW – ESTC is run by The International Tourism Society or TIES.

There is a disconnect between Facebook rules and practice with regard to administration – what should business owners do?

Here is the issue: most business owners are too busy to set up and maintain their Facebook pages. They typically assign this as a marketing function – so an admin assistant sets up the page via their personal Facebook account.

And off they go, building their community. All good, right?

Hmmm – maybe not,and keeping your head in the sand won’t help.

The Rules

Here is the issue – Facebook rules state that the owner of a business page is the original individual who set up the page. The rules also state that the original page admin reserves the right to add and remove other admins at their discretion.

The business page is associated with whomever (the individual) who set up the account. Here are some sections from the Facebook rules;

“Only the official representative of an organization, business, celebrity, or band may create a Facebook Page. The Page creator can then add other representatives to help them manage the Page. Each Page admin will be able to update and edit their Pages from their own accounts.”

“The Page Admin who initially creates the Page reserves the right to add or remove other Page Admins at their discretion.”

The Reality

Yet we know that in practice, an admin can remove other admins – this was a change to make page administration easier. Though there is no hierarchy or method to assign different rights to different admins. Someone who can post has the same rights as someone who installs applications on the backend. Err – um – doesn’t this means that a disgruntled employee or contractor could remove you, the business owner, as admin and you lose control of your page and your business asset?

Regardless of Facebook’s own rules, being able to remove admins seems to make sense because people change jobs and you don’t want to have your former admin assistant who moved on to the competition still have access to your Facebook page. However, the concept of a primary administrator who can assign admin activities and levels of access seems to have escaped Facebook.

The Risk

The risk is in the fact that there is a disconnect between what is in the rules and what is in practice. That means when something changes – someone is going to be caught short. If Facebook ever decides to enforce its own rules – there could be a mass of business pages that are owned by the administrative assistants who set them up? What if that original person decides to commit digital suicide (removes their individual Facebook account) – theoretically, and heaven help us, the business could lose their business page?

On testing, as of today – if the original page owner deletes their personal account (facebook suicide) – the page still stays up. Though about that testing – we know that it take 14 days for an account to be completely removed so I advise caution on this ad-hoc trial!

What to do

Don’t panic. The risk if pretty low if you are being prudent and your employees are happy. I expect Facebook will launch hierarchical administration eventually.

If they don’t, here are a few tips;
If you do not have a business page and want to set one up – do so under your own Facebook profile. This meets the current rules though won’t help you if you have a rogue admin. And it is just good practice so you know what to do and how to do it.

If you already have a Facebook page for your business – ensure you have written policies that make it clear who owns the page. Again – this is just good practice.

Assign one person with written responsibility to manage the administration of the account. And make sure they know that you as the business owner are the owner of the page. Put it in writing.

Actively manage your admins! Know who is an admin and why. If you are using third parties to do your facebook ads and manage your applications – that is ok – admins will come and go. Just make sure they eventually go.

Test out different security applications like Mediafeedia. I am testing it on some dummy pages and will advise when I have more to say! Ideally though – life would be a lot simpler if the hierarchy rights were given through the Facebook admin panel.

To delete an admin, just go to “Edit Page” on the right hand side of the page and then scroll down to the “Manage Admins” area on the left.

Keep abreast of the every changing rules and features.

If I missed any tips – please add in comments below!

Is the admin function on Facebook a flaw or a feature? It depends on your perspective though facing it is the best approach. The reality is that Facebook has become an important part of building your web presence –and Facebook is a third party site. They can and will change the rules as they like.

Here are the links to the relevant Facebook rules as of today.
facebook.com/business pages
facebook.com/Adminrights

Here is a great article on Mashable that discusses the issue further and has informative comments.
Mashable article on Facebook admin hi-jack

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Terry Rachwalski is a Victoria, BC based management consultant who tries all the latest social media applications and software just for curiosity and save her clients the pain of having to do it themselves. She has always focused on consulting for technology firms and recently partnered with The Tartan Group to provide digital services consulting to tourism and hospitality clients.

]]> http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/facebook-admin-flaw-or-feature/feed 0 http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/social_media/top-4-rules-for-on-line-community-managers http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/social_media/top-4-rules-for-on-line-community-managers#comments Tue, 24 May 2011 00:31:53 +0000 admin http://theconsultinglife.ca/?p=362

Community Management – like marketing – is an art – just like hosting a great party. The host will mill around the room, speaking with guests, making sure they have what they need and making introductions. But great party hosts know there are rules to the game.

Businesses are jumping to create Facebook pages, open Twitter accounts or build their own discussion forums, though the most successful communities also have a Community Manager who plays the role of the host and a way to measure the success of the party.

What are the things you need to know before taking on the role of Community Manager?

Rule No. 1 – Is it for Business or Engagement?

You need to know what the goal of the community is.

Many business to business management consultants will tell you that the ultimate purpose of building on-line communities is to sell something – in fact, some will say selling is the ONLY goal. This is the harsh business reality. However, socializing an idea, testing concepts, providing information, providing customer service, consulting with and receiving feedback from your community – can provide a valuable return on your social media time.

The hard ROI rules of business and management consulting also acknowledge that successful communities have a common purpose that engages members, makes it easy for them to participate and creates a forum for conversations aligned with the purpose and values that the community believes in. And some communities happen to believe that they should get special treatment for showing up to the party – like your business page friends on Facebook!

To show ROI for your on-line engagement – know the rules and the measures that you are using to guage success before you start.

Rule No. 2 – Know your Culture, Know your Purpose

Every community has its own culture – whether it is a community for yoga wear with an eco friendly purpose and social conscience from Lululemon or the Facebook site for the Premier of British Columbia.

The Community Manager is the on-line presence that establishes the boundaries for the community including the audience and the purpose.

The Community Manager promotes the company’s brand, though to do so successfully, that promotion will be within the context of the community. For example, we know that overt selling at a party is a faux pas, so typical community managers will create a culture of response in keeping with community concerns, whether that is product related, customer service, technical advice or support in finding tools, services or advice that exists outside the community.

And most will reward their community members for their participation.

They will engage the community to test marketing concepts, and even monitor for new and existing product ideas. Eventually, community members self police and other pseudo-hosts will rise to the occasion – the true test of having built a culture that the members believe in.

Rule No. 3 – Link Activity to your Public Relations and Marketing Objectives

Victoria BC Canadian Public Relations Society member, Deirdre Campbell of the told me recently that most jobs for recent graduates of public relations programs are as community managers!

PR professionals know that if your customers are talking about you – you had better be listening – to both the positive and the negative sentiments – and be ahead of the curve on both. Reputation management matters.

And who better to consult on create a community story board than a PR professional who is also working to integrate your key promotables, events and releases with marketing, sales, advertising and strategic objectives?

Be sure to be thinking about your long term objectives, build your community before you need it and keep your public relations and communications plan in mind when building marketing campaigns.

Rule No. 4 – Monitor, Measure, Analyze! Conversations and Conversions

The smart Community Manager works with sales and marketing to ensure there is a link to overall strategic objectives. If the company decides to give exclusive offers to members – then the Community Manager measures the results with software.

There are two types of monitoring tools – there are those that monitor “mentions” or “queries” and function primarily as Community Management tools and those used to monitor on-line social media marketing “campaigns” against ROI goals. Both are important.

For community management, there are multiple free and moderately priced monitoring and analytic tools and for the larger brands – expensive though very sophisticated web tools. The Community Manager uses the software to find brand conversations that exist within and outside their community and reach out to direct stray comments to their forum. They provide analytics on demographics, geographical reach, sentiment among other measures.

Software measuring ROI from social media communities against marketing measures and goals is the latest tool in the Community Manager’s arsenal.

For example, the Tartan Group links various social media outlets to conversion code placed on the target campaign landing page to track which conversions came from which community. The conversion can be anything you like; a sign up to a newsletter, download of a paper or buying something. The software goes beyond Google Analytics to dive into which referring site traffic came from PER CAMPAIGN. The Community Manager gives insight into what worked, what failed and why.

Community Management: the Mullet of the Social Media World?

Child of the ‘70’s that I am – the line “Business in the front – Party in the back” still rules.

Can you be a party host and still meet ROI requirements? Yes – if you plan out your objectives, know your culture, integrate plans to measure against company goals.

Most importantly though, the Community Manager is a welcoming and inspiring figure who creates the vision and ambiance – and as any party planner knows, that is the key ingredient to having the hottest ticket in town.
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Terry Rachwalski is a certified management consultant or CMC in Victoria BC who specializes in creating integrated digital strategies. She uses software to enhance Facebook pages with contests and fan offers, to build Twitter communities, to create campaign conversion code, QR code campaigns. She thinks approaching digital strategies from a management consulting perspectives helps clients use appropriate ROI measures that link to their overall strategy.

A previous version of this article was first printed in the CMC-Canada Newsletter C-Notes in 2009.

]]> http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/social_media/top-4-rules-for-on-line-community-managers/feed 0 http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/twitter_does-size-matter http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/twitter_does-size-matter#comments Fri, 15 Apr 2011 17:55:49 +0000 admin http://theconsultinglife.ca/?p=351 It’s not the size of your twitter follower base – it’s what you do with it.

Do you need to have more followers than anyone else in your network? Do you follow everyone indiscriminately, chasing the holy grail of having more followers than your colleagues and friends?

Be honest – Are you a twitter hoarder?

If you are – hold your head high – you are not alone! I am a reformed twitter hoarder. When I first started tweeting – I got a rush out of how many new followers I had – checking each day, not caring about the bio of the person/entity following. It was all about size, baby.

I built my hoard one follower at a time. Then someone asked me – Why? Why not just didn’t seem to work anymore.

Does Size Matter?

The Quantity Argument

A client of mine has over 120,000 followers over 4 accounts. She wanted a big following so we set her up with software so she can auto-follow and manage her follower base. As a result, she has a smoking collection of affiliates tweeting 100% URLs linked to their sales accounts, questionable health sites and even more questionable escort services…

and…she also has a very large following that is within her target market. When asked, she does not feel for a moment that the “type” of account reflects on her company in any way. In fact, she dismisses that notion immediately. The result is that my client gets over 80% of her company leads from twitter. The strategy works for her.

The Quality Argument

Another client would be *horrified* to have any questionable content even remotely associated with his company and won’t follow back any entity that is an obvious affiliate or has content that he feels besmirches his twitter stream. He even deletes followers who don’t fit with his vision.

There are many who will agree with him – there is a lot of spam out there. Affiliates and marketers use twitter to drive traffic to their sales sites, increase click throughs and boost their organic search. But if it didn’t work for them – they wouldn’t do it. It’s really that simple.

The point is – having a strategy, a reason behind your tweets and who you want to follow you matters. And it is ok to be a Twitter hoarder if it works for you. Really. The quantity versus quality argument has to be tested and no one can tell you what will work for you. You have to make a decision for yourself and work it.

Quality versus Quantity?

When I first started, my strategy was to figure out how to tweet without hurting myself or anyone else and not make a fool of myself! Then I had my “aha” moment. First of all – I am who I am – what I tweet and my responses are real – they are me! And, yes, I could follow back everyone. But my stats told me that the re-tweets of my blog posts were coming from the tweeters who were “like” me. And their networks were like them – and so on and so on.

So I switched tactics. I follow people who are “like” me. Does my twitter account grow like crazy? No – but I have a good size following who send me notes and questions. And I like being engaged with the management consulting community on twitter and social media community in general. I answer all the DMs that are not spammy and will talk to pretty much anyone.

Who I Follow and Why

I made a decision that works for me. If you are a business professional or are in the management consulting field who responds, tweets your own opinions and has some value that I think others will respond to – I follow you – it is like a tip of the hat for good work!

If you use your account to tweet 90% URLS to your own site or are tweeting quotes from others – chances are, I won’t follow unless your content is really high quality.

Does size matter? Like all things in life – it depends – what works for you?

What do you think? Let me know!

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Terry Rachwalski is a Victoria, BC based certified management consultant and tweetaholic. Her company, Front Porch Perspectives does business development for technology firms including web and social media strategies for new product launch. She is a partner in the Tartan Group a leading international tourism public relations firm.

]]> http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/twitter_does-size-matter/feed 3 http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/traditional-vs-seo-pr http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/traditional-vs-seo-pr#comments Fri, 01 Apr 2011 17:04:57 +0000 admin http://theconsultinglife.ca/?p=336 If it isn’t worthy of traditional media, is it still PR?

I was speaking with a management consulting colleague yesterday who heaped scorn on what is termed SEO PR or Search Engine Optimized Press Releases.

He is right in the respect that there is a lot of lousy content pushed onto the web. But ask yourself – why are people using SEO PR?

Why use SEO PR?

Because it works for the intended purpose.

Don’t confuse journalistic content with content publicized in different media for a different purpose.

For heaven’s sake – we all know that journalists are looking for a good story. The starting point is asking “what is the best media for this content?” in the context of a greater PR and digital plan.

Create a Plan

The first step is admitting to yourself that your client’s latest release about a minor partnership has about a snowball’s chance in h*ll of being picked up by any traditional media source. Chances are good your client knows that too – they are looking to you for advice and a plan.

Ok – so now what? If you are locked and dogmatic about traditional models – you determine that “this is not news” and move on.

OR – you can recognize that it is STILL news for your client’s customers, stakeholders and a specific niche audience. Everyone benefits by consistently building a web presence and backlinks.

The goal then shifts – it becomes about putting the story out in different ways in alternative channels for a different purpose. And doing specific steps to amplify the message on the web (and yes, in social media) rather than folding your tent because the client doesn’t have a newsworthy story!

Match the media and the message.

Is there a difference between an article picked up in the New York Times and one on an authority site in your client’s niche? Of course. And I argue that both channels have a purpose – whether it is within the PR spectrum or whether you are a management consultant designing a product launch strategy.

So before being too dismissive of SEO PR – work with the client to nail down their goals and decide on a digital strategy that will provide results.

Not every release is news worthy…but I bet you already knew that, didn’t you?

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Terry Rachwalski is a certified management consultant in Victoria, BC specializing in business development and building a web presence for her clients.

Photo courtesy Carmichael Library’s photostream

]]> http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/traditional-vs-seo-pr/feed 0 http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/social_media/perils-of-overpost-overload http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/social_media/perils-of-overpost-overload#comments Thu, 17 Mar 2011 02:26:39 +0000 admin http://theconsultinglife.ca/?p=326 I “hid” posts from a colleague on LinkedIn today. There – I said it out loud.

I got feed up with the incessant stream of her twitter posts on my LinkedIn updates – so I went to that little button on the right hand side and clicked “Hide”….. Done.

Here’s the problem. I like my LinkedIn stream to keep up on what former colleagues are up to, what they are reading, in general, keeping in touch with their work lives. Of course, I understand that LinkedIn is also used for organic search and to build a web profile. I get it.

Don’t OverWhelm My Stream

Too many posts from the same person can become overwhelming. Here is the deal – my pal is a great management consultant and marketer. She has multiple social media accounts and loves to tweet. Then she adds the #IN hashtag so that her tweets are cross posted on her LinkedIn account. And she uses software to post the same blog to all her accounts and then tweets it ten times.

My consultant friend was looking for a wider reach for her information and to reach a broader audience in order to get more people to click on her links and drive traffic – I understand that. But in the meantime – I was getting a lot of posts from one person filling my stream and had trouble seeing what might be of value to me. Sigh.

Post Content in the Appropriate Place

So here is what I suggest; Post content that is appropriate for each social media network.

• Twitter is an immediate medium so multiple posts are ok. Though ten in an hour is annoying unless you are live tweeting from a conference, in which case, keep tweeting.

• Facebook is for fun and dialogue. Some of the posts for Facebook are not appropriate for LinkedIn – pick and choose carefully.

• LinkedIn is for business. Don’t automatically cross post your twitter feed.

• Only cross post tweets that are really of interest to LinkedIN contacts. And believe me – the decision point for what is interesting lies with the reader not you.

As a general rule, I don’t like the concept of linking Facebook posts automatically to twitter. The post on twitter will be “I just posted a new photo on Facebook”..with a link to the photo. Why would anyone click on it unless they knew you? In this case, the tweet has low value, no hashtags and visitors have no idea why it would be of interest to them.

Be Respectful of my Time

I love social media, and am a tweetaholic. I love keeping in contact with other management consultants and knowing what you are up to. But if you were at a cocktail party and someone bombarded you with all their information and never engaged with you – it would be annoying. Just like you do with your email marketing – be prudent – only send information that has value to the reader and target who might be interested.

Or you will be blocked, hidden or ignored. And you won’t even know it.

Btw – I told my management consulting pal about her over-posts and we spent some time over coffee outlining a more prudent posting plan. And she is no longer hidden from my stream!

About the Author

Terry Rachwalski is a Certified Management Consultant (CMC) in Victoria BC who helps consulting clients with social media and despises slimey sales techniques. Through her management consulting firm, Front Porch Perspectives, Rachwalski assists technology firms with business development, go to market strategies and product launch including customized internet marketing, pay per click campaigns and social media monitoring services.

Photo Creative Commons attributed to the talented Sam Leppanen

]]> http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/social_media/perils-of-overpost-overload/feed 4 http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/why-nrc-is-a-dogs-best-friend http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/why-nrc-is-a-dogs-best-friend#comments Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:31:46 +0000 admin http://theconsultinglife.ca/?p=317 I am not known to gush on about government programs yet am taking the time to give the Canada’s National Research Council (NRC) a “paws-itive” review!

Certified Management Consulting and the NRC

When it comes to relatively inexpensive yet successful government programs for technology commercialization, NRC gets two paws up for their support of a unique product launch program for Front Porch Perspective client Cranimals, which makes a suite of organic cranberry and fruit based anti-oxidant supplements and biscuits for pets. Since I am a CMC (certified management consultant), I worked with Cranimals via the NRC Industrial Research Assistance Program to provide management advisory services (MAS) for a social media plan introducing pet lovers not only to the product but also the funky, fun lifestyle and commitment to pet health that Cranimals embodies.

Match the Go-To-Market Strategy to the Product and Culture

Canadian technology is more than telecom, hardware and software. Different and emerging industries need appropriate go-to-market and commercialization strategies. The NRC’s Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) embraced consulting support for Cranimals’ social media launch. Cranimals is a neutraceutical for pets that needed a technology commercialization and go to market strategy to match their product and culture – so they chose to do things differently. For example, the Cranimals Facebook page encourages their more than 3000 pet-loving friends to share their photos, videos and stories about their own special Cranimal.

The Cranimals innovation goes beyond their product. They are using their Facebook page to broadcast their culture not just drone on about their product in typical boring technology product marketing speak. Of course they want their Cranimal friends to try their superior products though the purpose is to educate pet lovers about the benefits of organic, fruit based supplements through sharing not selling.

For me as a management consultant, the Cranimals project was like a dream project – the team took their responsibility to the NRC contract very seriously by not only implementing the concepts but truly accepting that their technology product launch included their responsibility to their on-line community as an extension of their company culture.

Be the Dog you are – Authentically

Cranimals does ‘bark-outs’ on their twitter account rather than the typical shout outs and started ‘Woof-Wednesdays’. The company took the social media angle and re-made it for their community. The result, is a look and feel that is truly reflective of Cranimals’ commitment to pet health – it’s fun, and it’s who they are.

Cranimals started with a single product and a small product launch though now their community expects the company to continue to innovate and expand their organic pet supplement product line with the same commitment to quality and caring for pets that they have always consistently demonstrated on-line.

And pet lovers are lapping it up.

Cranimals also has an active corporate giving program providing funds to animal rescue and shelter organizations – another example of their commitment to a healthy pet community.

So is NRC a dog’s best friend? Sure it is – the NRC gave support to an innovative company and product that supports pet health and diversifies our economy. The NRC deserves the Cranimal tail wag for their paws-itive support of a new approach commercialization and launch!

About the Author

Terry Rachwalski is an MBA and CMC. Through her Victoria, BC management consulting firm, Front Porch Perspectives, Rachwalski assists technology firms with business development, go to market strategies and product launch including customized internet marketing, pay per click campaigns and social media monitoring services. As a Certified Management Consultant, Rachwalski has completed multiple NRC Management Advisory Services (MAS) contracts via the NRC and in cooperation with the Canadian Association of Management Consultants. Rachwalski will readily admits that the Cranimals project has been paws down, the most fun.

The NRC supports Canadian technology via the Industrial Research Assistance Program. More information can be found on the NRC IRAP website

]]> http://theconsultinglife.ca/management_consulting/why-nrc-is-a-dogs-best-friend/feed 0 http://theconsultinglife.ca/product_development/product_launch/building-a-community http://theconsultinglife.ca/product_development/product_launch/building-a-community#comments Sat, 26 Feb 2011 10:52:06 +0000 admin http://theconsultinglife.ca/?p=308 Successful social media launches are about building a community engagement around a subject the community cares about. Just like in a face to face situation, brands have to establish credibility with an audience before they can influence – and that means being authentic and trustworthy.

Front Porch Perspectives recently assisted legal website, Advicescene.com develop a web presence plan. “We are all about democratizing the law and making it accessible to everyone through our website” says AdviceScene.com founder Nancy Kinney. “We knew we needed to build our community with a social media campaign but didn’t know where to start.” Kinney went on to say that Rachwalski’s suggestion that they not sell their product at first was surprising.

Build Value before Selling

“My instincts were to sell and push our products, yet Front Porch’s perspective was to build our value first …and it paid off.” Kinney was recently highlighted as the twitter princess of Victoria BC on a local news channel for her loyal following on legal issues. To view the video – Go to our Promoting Technology page and scroll down to “Publicize”.

Kinney comments that most of their signups on AdviseScene.com come from their social media presence. She continued, “Front Porch Perspectives brought technology launch experience, management advice plus much needed market analysis combined with social media skills to set a clear direction. The result was that our social media implementation phase was reduced to weeks instead of months.”

Use Social Media as Part of Your Technology Launch

Typical technology start-up firms usually have solid product ideas though little experience building a web presence or community to promote their brand and assist with awareness and commercialization. Tapping into your industry community and monitoring your brand on social media during product launch is critical for the high tech sector to bridge the gap between concept and marketing practices.

Technology entrepreneurs consistently express the need for actionable web presence plans. Make sure you ask for solid market research techniques to create an appropriate go to market plan combined with social media metrics and analysis to monitor results.

Author:

Terry Rachwalski holds an MBA and is a Certified Management Consultant. Via her Victoria, BC based company, Front Porch Perspectives, Rachwalski provides business development and consulting services to technology firms – from product ideation to product launch including web strategies and social media planning, launch and monitoring. As a Certified Management Consultant (CMC), Rachwalski is also eligible to assist clients of the National Research Council’s Industrial Research Assistance Program or IRAP with Management Advisory Services.

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