StoryTeller Media & Communications
StoryTeller is a public relations agency specializing in media relations, social media and video production and web video
Archive for March, 2010
Friends Don’t Spam Friends
Social media isn’t really all that hard to understand, yet corporate America has a way of taking something simple, honest and relatively pure and smudging it up with it’s big fat fingers. Here’s my beef: One of the tenets with blogging is hyperlinking to content that is complimentary to your content. The idea is to share good information - pretty simple stuff.
So, growing up in suburban Detroit, I often read the Detroit papers - the News and the Free Press. The other day, while reading an article on my iPhone about my beloved Michigan State Spartans basketball team I noticed some obscure words hyperlinked - words like “comfort.” Thinking this is related content (like, ‘in beating Northern Iowa the Spartans can take comfort…), I clicked on the link only to find a pop-up advertisement for a deodorant. Dumbfounded, I began to click on other hyperlinks in this mobile article only to find more and more pop up ads. This is the type of stuff that will drive people away from social media.
In this age of transparency I find it amusing that so many businesses have a hard time helping people, instead of selling to people. It’s an old mindset that traditional marketers can’t seem to escape. They are trapped in old school thinking, that just does not work in the world of social media.
Quit trying to control the message, stop shouting at your customers and find ways to help people. If you want proof that the old way is the wrong way - next time you go to a party, introduce yourself to a stranger and begin selling your product to them. See what kind of reaction you get and then shoot me a note to let me know how that worked for you.
Video Blog 03.26.10
We’ve posted another video blog. This week Chad and I are talking about projects we’re finishing up and what we’ve been working on with some of our PR clients. Check it out and feel free to let us know your thoughts.
Can Social Media Work for Your B-to-B Business?
We’ve all heard that social media is an instrumental tool for marketing your brand in today’s ever-changing communication industry. Some companies, such as Zappos and Starbucks, will go down in history as the epitome of successful social media marketing - and for good reason. These brands utilize tools such as Twitter and Facebook to engage with their customers, facilitating two-way conversation in a space their audience is comfortable in.
While social media marketing is most commonly associated with consumer brands (such as Starbucks and Zappos), there are plenty of opportunities for B-to-B brands to play in this realm as well. Actually, let’s make this even easier and just say that many of the same principles of B-to-C marketing apply to B-to-B when it comes to social media.
StoryTeller Vlog 03.19.10
Chad and I found a bit of time to put together another video blog. We’ve been pretty busy the last couple of weeks in the video department. Check out what we’ve been working on and let us know what you think.
Social Media Backlash? Or are we just Getting Smarter?
Remember when you first started tweeting? And how much fun it was talking with other like-minded social media users about the “power of social media?” There was this sense that a new communication technique was here to change the world for the better and that we were all so smart to be a part of it. You know, those of us who “got it” with regards to using Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs, etc?
Now we’re starting to hear a different story. It’s a story of a social media backlash where users are beginning to drop off the radar. (For more on this perceived backlash, check out this post from AgencyBabylon) So that begs the question, is this the beginning of social media’s end?
That’s hard to imagine, considering that in many ways, social media has already changed the world. From the elections in Iran to Ashton Kutcher battling CNN for followers to the first thing you do in the office every morning, the world is probably a different place thanks to the new world of communication ideology (that being a world where you talk with the people who matter to you, not at them). But let’s face it, the social media love fest is over. Everyone knows about social media, nearly everyone has a profile on at least one of the platforms, plenty of people have made mistakes, others have had success …so the novelty is over. We don’t need to spend our time evangelizing about the benefits of social media anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I still love using Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube and others …I’m just a little tired of talking about how much I love it (which I think is the backlash Mr. AgencyBabylon is referring to in his post).
So now comes social media 2.0; using the new interactive communication ideology affectively to achieve whatever it is you’re trying to achieve. Which means integrating that ideology into all your communication plans. In the past, it was enough to simply be on Twitter or to post something to YouTube …just make sure you’re out there, because “it’s better than not being out there” was the driving force behind a lot of social and interactive media plans.
We’re past that now. Now is the time to start putting specific plans in place with clear objectives and desired results. Then executing those plans to increase sales, raise awareness, build networks or what ever else it is you’ve been trying to achieve since you started trying to achieve things (long before social media came around). That, in my opinion, is far more exciting than sitting around and tweeting about how much we all love social media.
So is there a social media backlash? I don’t think so. We’re all just getting a little wiser about how to make the most out of something we love so much.
The Face of Customer Service
The other day, I decided to run into a local grocery store on the way home from work to pick up a few last minute items for dinner. On the menu that evening was salmon. That sounds like a pretty basic meal to some, but truthfully, I have mastered many dishes in the kitchen but seafood is not one of them. So I did my typical ask of the nice-looking butcher behind the counter and said “if you were preparing salmon this evening, how would YOU do it?”
It almost seemed like his eyes immediately lit up and he so readily responded… “I have the perfect suggestion, our marinade.”. He quickly went over to the bottled marinade section and with disappointment looked at me and continued to look in three other locations. After scouring the accompaniment sections of the grocery store, he said “we are all out but just give me a minute”.
Now this search went on for a good 10 minutes. Typically at this point, always in a hurry, I would be getting slightly annoyed at the amount of time all of this was taking, but I continued to wait. I was so impressed with the genuine problem solving nature of this man’s helpful intentions that I couldn’t wait to see what he would come up with (not to mention, I still wasn’t sure how to prepare my salmon!)
What is the Cost of Lousy Service?
Flying home from Chicago last week I arrived to the airport earlier than expected and in plenty of time to catch an earlier flight home. I asked the gate agent whether there was room on the earlier flight and if I might be able to make the switch she said that I could do it, but it would be a $50 change fee.
Storytelling - everyone has a story, do you know yours?
Five years ago, almost to the day, Ed hung the StoryTeller shingle and opened shop. StoryTeller was founded on his principles and beliefs that everyone has a story and he wanted to help them tell it. Five years later, many things have changed in our industry and how we do business, but the constant in the wave of change is our storytelling abilities have stayed true to the coarse. We just now tell our clients stories in many more ways using all of the social media tools available today.
Recently, I came across a video of Andy Goodmen, who owns a communications consulting firm that helps organizations and businesses reach more people more effectively. Andy was giving a keynote at a conference back in 2006 on the Art of Storytelling. Now it is rare, when I commit 45 minutes to watching any video, but Andy had me from the word hello. He illustrated the longevity that storytelling has had in our society, examples of good storytelling practices and how there is no better way to help us remember things and events than to tie it together with a story.
Chicago Golf Show Highlights
We had a great trip to the Windy City last weekend at the Chicago Golf Show. Joined by John Kendall of Giants Ridge, Chris Foley of Madden’s on Gull Lake and Leah Tomasetti of The Wilderness at Fortune Bay we came in contact with thousands of golf fanatics. Here are a few of the highlights from our trip, including some fantastic testimonials from Chicagoland golfers. Thanks for a great trip!
Here’s our FAVORITE product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AU_mAoY07jo
Know Your Audience When Designing Your Website
Last week a friend of mine asked me to come to his office to look at some mock ups of a new web design. We looked at six versions of what will be a new site and went through a “better or worse,” session. In other words, “do you like this one better or worse than this one?” The engagement was intended to help them determine what design should be used, but about 15 minutes into it, I asked the glaring question, “who’s going to be looking at this site and what are they expecting to see?”
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