Making Hospital Commercials Memorable

What commercials stick out the most in your memory? Maybe it’s “Keep your hands off my Doritos!” Maybe it’s the Geico cavemen spots. What makes them memorable? That’s easy — they’re funny.

Now, when’s the last time you told a friend, “Oh, man, you should see this hospital commercial!” Exactly. Healthcare-related ads are typically very subdued: a panoramic view of a hospital floor, smiling doctors and nurses, high-tech equipment, etc. A soothing voice assures you that, as a patient, you’ll receive the best care possible. Ho-hum.

Is there another way to get that message across?

Fauquier Health in Virginia seemed to think so. While their message is typical —you are a priority, your care is personalized — their delivery is anything but. Instead of pleasant but forgettable images of their own facilities, Fauquier’s TV commercials depict just the opposite: a factory-like hospital treating patients on an assembly line. In one spot, anonymous patients roll by doctors in hard hats who shout instructions across the factory floor (“This one’s goin’ to x-ray!”). In another spot, pregnant women are treated like cattle. A nurse hands out cups to mothers without making eye contact, mechanically chanting, “Ice chips. Ice chips.” A doctor almost cruelly flashes a newborn at its mother then tosses the baby into a passing bassinet.

Not what you would expect from a hospital. But, no doubt, you can relate to being treated impersonally in a healthcare setting. So, while there’s no word yet on whether these spots have had an impact on Fauquier’s bottom line, they’re probably gonna stick in your mind.

Marketing to the Baby Boomers

According to a recent report from NielsenWire, advertisers focus on reaching consumers 18–34 or 18–49. While these consumers spend billions of dollars every year, the report states that advertisers and consumer goods manufacturers are overlooking a group that has tremendous buying power — the 78 million Baby Boomers.

Born between the years 1946 and 1964, the Boomers are seeing the oldest of their generation beginning to retire. But today’s middle-aged and older consumers are different from their predecessors, the report says. The conventional wisdom that they spend little, resist technology and are slow to adopt new products should be reassessed. Boomers are an affluent group who adopt technology with enthusiasm and have shown a willingness to try new brands and products.

Boomers spend 38.5% of consumer packaged goods (CPG) dollars, yet it’s estimated that less than 5% of advertising dollars are currently targeted towards adults 35–64.

Pat McDonough, Senior Vice President at the Nielsen Company, says Boomers should be as desirable for marketers as Millennials and Gen-Xers — they are the largest single group of consumers and a valuable target audience.

And that’s the truth!

MINI introduces new technology

Clear concise data visualization can truly be a game-changer. The difficulty comes in finding the best way to present your KPIs in a way that is quickly and easily digested.

To celebrate 50 years of motoring mayhem, MINI has introduced Mission Control as part of its limited-edition Camden package. In their words: “By bringing the engine, HVAC and central systems to life via three distinct personalities, Mission Control sets the stage for the future of motoring.” Yes, they have moved the dashboard from eye-level to ear-level, letting you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.

Mission Control is MINI’s first stab at a useful (while still somewhat cute and quirky) voice-based presentation of car functions by either providing new information or duplicating operating information from the physical dashboard via three unique voices within the car; one personality for the engine, one for the HVAC and one for the central systems. And just like in real life, the three do interact with each other.

This is approach is almost like a mash-up of the Corvette HUD and a standard voice-based GPS system:  audio-only, but represents operating data in a way that lets you keep your eyes on the road in front of you.

The future of Mission Control? MINI has stated that this is only round one of the technology, with voices and personalities easily updated. So can we expect Mike Rowe telling you that you’re nuts for attempting that grade in your F-150 Raptor? Only time will tell.

Using (or overusing) product placement in the movies.

Have you seen the trailer for The Social Network, the movie about the founding of Facebook? Not only is the premise intriguing, the marketing prowess of the producers is awesome: This film is a three-hour product placement. And it made me a little nostalgic for some other product placement movies. If your favorite is missing from my top 5, please feel free to comment.

5. Demolition Man — 1993
As a movie fan I’m willing to suspend disbelief for as long as need be. So when you’re telling me a story about a cop and a criminal mastermind who are cryogenically frozen for decades only to reemerge as healthy as ever, I’ll stay with you. When you tell me that society in the future has become completely nonviolent and utopian, I’ll follow. But the second you try to sell me on the idea that this perfect, nonviolent society dines solely at Taco Bell, you have officially lost me.

4. You’ve Got Mail — 1998
Honestly, I liked this movie better when it was called Sleepless in Seattle, but I can’t deny the sheer marketing genius of AOL in choosing to be its email server. It was probably better use of their marketing dollars than mailing out all those free AOL CD-ROMs (which, by the way, made fantastic beverage coasters). In today’s world of email servers, it would be pretty difficult to find two people who actually still use AOL email and who could find one another, so maybe this product placement wasn’t so effective in the long run.

3. Cast Away — 2000
This movie was two-plus hours long, with no score, and the only characters in the movie were Tom Hanks, a Wilson volleyball and the FedEx logo in a variety of applications. As great as Hanks’ performance was, a lot of credit goes to FedEx for its supporting role (all apologies to Wilson).

2. Transformers — 2007
Transformers worked on so many levels — as a title if not as a movie. Jerry Bruckheimer transformed one of my favorite childhood toy franchises into a horrible movie, and my pronounced interest in Megan Fox had to do with me transforming into a man. Both Hasbro and Chevy used this movie to transform their brands. Chevy got the rights to be the official car of the Autobots (if it’s any consolation, Volkswagen, I’ll always remember Bumblebee as a Beetle) and Hasbro got to introduce a new line of toys that are even more difficult to transform than their predecessors.

1. The Wizard — 1989
This one gets such high status because: 1) it featured two of my favorite things from the ’80s — Fred Savage and Nintendo games; and 2) it was the first movie that showed me the power of product placement. I was 9 when this movie came out and, like every kid who liked Nintendo games, I wanted to see it because of all the cool new Nintendo products in it. This was the movie that introduced the Nintendo Power Glove and gave video game fans their first look at Super Mario Brothers 3. This movie was a 90-minute Nintendo commercial that doubled as an early Christmas list for kids who loved the games. In fact, it was so successful that Super Mario Brothers 3 is still one of the fastest-selling games of all time. Unfortunately the Power Glove shared the same fate as Fred Savage’s career.

The benefits of our TAAN membership

Think there’s a typo in that headline? Wrong. TAAN stands for Transworld Advertising Agency Network.

TAAN is the oldest worldwide agency network and has member agencies in 47 markets around the world. From South Africa to St. Louis, members meet and share openly and willingly. Often they will partner on projects when the blend of expertise or location makes sense for the client.

TAAN is a membership-based organization with dues and benefits and responsibilities, created for agency owners. We are very honest about everything happening at our “shop” and look for advice from others. The most exciting part is that we truly are global. Every two years we hold global meetings where we not only learn new ways of approaching the advertising business, but get a chance to build or renew relationships with folks from other cultures and countries.

So why is TAAN important to our clients? One benefit is that we have reliable relationships with at least 30 agencies from around the country and over the oceans. Another is that we get outside the agency walls for three days twice a year. We spend so many intense hours focused on meeting deadlines, accomplishing creative goals, establishing brands and making sure the right ad ran, there’s not much time to think. Attending presentations by industry specialists gives us a chance to step back from the daily hustle, process new lessons and apply them to our own situations. Also, we get to have one-on-one conversations with colleagues from other agencies about all sorts of important minutiae that we can’t talk about with folks at our own agency. It’s stimulating and energizing — and a client wants a stimulated, energized agency. Of course a side of discipline and process orientation is valuable too!

Now there is one caveat — if I don’t act on the new information and new perspectives I’ve gained at a TAAN meeting, I haven’t helped my agency. So the next time you’re considering an agency — to hire or to work for — ask if it has ever been a network member — and whether it has applied any of the knowledge gained as a result.

Did I mention that I just returned from a TAAN meeting (which we hosted in Wilmington, DE)? The focus was on applying social media to an agency’s growth.

Boosting sales via social media

Delaware-based Dogfish Head has a recipe for success both in the kettle and in the marketplace. According to Nielsen Co., the brewery spent a mere $2,000 on traditional media in 2008, and nothing in 2009. So what are they doing?

Founder Sam Calagione has found a nice mix of limited-release beers, such as the Miles Davis–inspired Bitches Brew; pairing advice (something usually associated with wine); and encouragement of fandom and brand advocacy by being very active within the craft brew community, constantly spreading the gospel.

The Dogfish Head team explained their choice to us like this: “Social media is a great way for us to connect with our customers & talk beer.” And connect they do, with close to 20,000 followers on Twitter alone.

And how is the craft brewer faring? The approach is definitely working: in 2009, Dogfish Head sold 97,000 barrels, giving them a 29% year-over-year increase with zero dollars spent in traditional media.

The dangers of marketing genetic tests.

Some months ago, scientists sent samples of the same DNA to several direct-to- consumer (DTC) genetic testing services. When the reports came back the interpretations of the findings were wildly different. This has just been confirmed by the General Accounting Office and was reported on this week in Washington. So if you want to know if you’re predisposed to some ailment, don’t bother spending the $300 to $1,000 that these tests cost.

Even worse than the rotten results were the horrific marketing practices that the GAO uncovered: One firm claimed that the product they sold could “repair DNA.”  Others claimed they could tell parents which sports their children would do well in. One woman was told she would definitely develop breast cancer, while another was assured that the company would test her fiancé’s DNA secretly.

Test makers include 23andMe, Pathway Genomics, Knome, Navigenics, deCODE Genetics and Illumina.

The genetic testing companies themselves started this whole brouhaha. Apparently, they failed to consult with anyone with any regulatory sense. How could they have been so naive as to think putting these tests on the shelf in a pharmacy chain wasn’t going to get a great deal of attention from the feds? Who did they think they were — “Big Pharma” as in too big to nail?

So imprint this in your double helix: If you’re planning to market a medical diagnostic test or medical device, fly to the East Coast for a meeting with the FDA first.

Buying into Apple's branding.

I have to admit — from the moment I saw the original commercial my inner geek shouted with joy. Not only was the original iPhone the answer to what I had been dreaming about for five years — since walking around with a Palm Pilot and a rather large, uncomfortable cell phone tucked into my pants pocket — but it was also produced by a company that creates intuitive, sexy computers that I’ve been using since college — Apple! This was a dream come true.

Since picking up my iPhone I’ve come to realize something that no marketing professional ever wants to admit — I bought the brand.

Let’s look at the facts: The iPhone is not the fastest phone on the market. It’s only available through AT&T and their network is weak compared to a lot of other providers. The new iPhone features a new higher-resolution camera and video capabilities — but not as good as those of several phones already on the market. Other apps that make the iPhone so cool and fun to play with are also available on other phones.

In short, the iPhone isn’t bigger, better, faster or stronger — it’s simply sexier. And when it comes to cell phones, that’s an important attribute. I’m pretty sure it all started with the Motorola Razor, which, coincidently, would have fit well in my pocket with my Palm. While the new iPhone probably isn’t the best deal on the market, Apple continues to see huge numbers of sales.

So, Apple, in spite of your antenna issues, and accusations against some poor tech bloggers who beat you to your own iPhone 4 launch, I take off my hat to you. I was almost embarrassed to admit to buying so wholeheartedly into your brand. But then this crucial thought came to me: This is the product I waited five years for. It plays movies. It runs apps. It has a built-in GPS. It plays MP3s. It has a video camera. It…well, you get the picture.

And, obviously, so does Apple.

Lebron's "Decision Show" was a huge PR mistake.

I heard that there’s a LeBron jersey burning party in a small neighborhood in Columbus tonight. If I were a Cavs fan, I’d be the first in line. Not only has the basketball star left his hometown for the sun and sand in Miami, but he broke their hearts during an hour-long nationally televised infomercial.

I understand the business side of his decision and that he wants to win a championship, but his Decision show that aired on ESPN was a huge PR mistake. Filled with commercials from his sponsors, the show exposed him as incredibly vain and self-absorbed. The show didn’t grow his brand, it grew his ego.

The good news? The hype that has exhausted even the most rabid basketball fans is finally over. LeBron will join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, and maybe win a championship, but the damage has been done to his image— and the Cleveland economy.

Traditional marketing tactics may be like your old mix tapes.

It seems like only yesterday. I wanted to catch the attention of that special person and I knew the perfect way to go about doing it — the mix tape! A combination of all those songs that would tell her exactly how I felt and why she should want my company as much as I wanted hers.

Times have certainly changed. Now you wouldn’t make a mix tape, or even a mix CD. Now it’s all about the playlist.

Are business relationships really any different?

Looking at it from a marketing perspective, traditional tactics are like that mix tape—time consuming, more expensive and once they are recorded they are unchanging.  Today’s nontraditional marketing tactics have a lot in common with the playlist. Messages can be shared quickly; you can ask friends and colleagues to share their opinions; and if the message you want is no longer being spread, it can be changed on the fly.

How do you communicate for your business? If you’re focused only on traditional marketing tactics, it’s as if you’re trying to reach your target with a mix tape. There’s a segment of the audience that appreciates the effort, and the medium, but the biggest part of your target has moved on.

It’s time to embrace new media, to realize that the Internet is not going away, that more and more people use it to do everything from shopping to getting medical advice. It’s time to realize that smart mobile phone use is not going to decrease. That within the next couple of years it won’t be enough to have a good-looking website — you’ll need a mobile-enabled, good-looking website. It’s time to think about how your company is going to tell those special people why they should want your company.

Cue up Lloyd Dobler with his boombox playing “In Your Eyes.”

I still miss those tapes  — the awkward “flip” after side A was done, the feeling of writing a title on the label — but I would miss my iPod even more.

Learning the do's and don'ts of Twitter

I’m not going to lie. When I was asked to attend the 2010 TWTRCON Twitter for Business conference in NYC, I thought, “Seriously? A conference for Twitter?” I mean, how hard is it to string together 140 characters as an update? Why on earth is there a full conference on this stuff? What’s the big deal?

The answer is actually fairly simple: Twitter is a way to connect with people with whom you normally wouldn’t be able to connect. It’s a simultaneous content feed that allows tweeters to get new information and updates and read about what’s going on within their industry or social network. @MrShri says “Facebook is people you went to school with, Twitter is people you wished you went to school with.” It’s why so many people follow famous brands — because they can! And those brands better be on board.

If I wasn’t sure before this conference how big of a deal Twitter is, especially for businesses, I am now. Especially after Martha Stewart (@marthastewart) appeared as the keynote speaker. That’s right. Martha Stewart of the Martha Stewart empire. Who knew she was a tweeting expert? She has almost 2 million followers on Twitter and saw that the conference was packed with eager tweeters waiting to hear the media mogul talk about her social media experience and how it has affected her brand.

As Martha pointed out, your brand needs to share its own voice and personality through tweets. And that’s important: Twitter can be a machine pumping out information, or it can be a means to connect on a human level. Read more of Martha’s insights here.

Twitter is still new and businesses are still trying to figure out how to use it effectively for their own purposes. TWTRCON provided guidelines for just that. And, whether or not you ever become an expert, Twitter is here to stay — that is, until the next social medium arrives. So make sure your business is a part of the conversation and make sure that its personality shows through.

How will a scandal impact your brand?

Ben Roethlisberger. Michael Phelps. Tiger Woods. When these sports celebrities submerged themselves in various depths of hot water, did the brands they endorse feel the heat? Not as much as you might suspect, according to a recent Adweek Media/Harris Poll. It left researchers wondering if survey respondents were understating the degree to which scandals grab their interest. Or, it could be that a person’s indifference to a lot of marketing may help insulate brands from collateral damage.

In other words, how could you think less of Titleist golf balls after the Tiger Woods scandal if you didn’t know Tiger was endorsing them? It’s interesting to note people age 55 and older were especially unlikely to alter their view of a brand (81 percent said so versus 72 percent of younger folks). My favorite group of respondents is the 1 percent who said they feel “much better” about a brand when the celebrity endorser is involved in a scandal!

Become involved (and strategic) with social media.

Fear is a terrible thing. Especially when it causes healthcare systems to back away from using a potentially powerful communications tool. When it comes to using social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter, healthcare systems tend to fall into two categories. The first suffers from significant fear regarding negative feedback that may come from using such tools. This group also struggles with how much time it will take to make this a successful venture. The second group is “gung-ho” and jump into the pool before they check to make sure it’s been filled with water.  This group tends to throw every possible press release, article and “approved” message they can find onto their social media channels, only to realize  they’ve created a one-way conversation.

There is a better way.

You wouldn’t run a cardiology advertising campaign without putting together a strategy. You wouldn’t invest in a web banner advertising campaign without determining key messages. Why is social networking any different? Everyone knows how large Facebook has become. We know that Ashton Kutcher has millions of Twitter followers. We know that healthcare executives are hearing the buzz and don’t want to miss out.

Items to consider before you get started.
1. Define goals. Be specific and make them related to interactions, not followers
2. Establish channels. Certain sites will work better for different messages.
3. Define internal and external resources. Who can help provide good content for your channels?
4. Integrate existing materials. Chances are you are already doing community-based events. Why not promote them?
5. Prepare for the worst, even though you probably won’t need it. Commit to a customer service model for any negative comments that are made. Resolve to help make situations better, not to censor.
6. Dedicate time. Social networking is just like live networking. If you’re not in the room you can’t have a conversation. But that doesn’t mean it should fall on only one person’s shoulders.

So, before you get started, get strategic. Get creative in how you use and measure your successes. Most important—end the silence.

A lesson in bad advertising.

Another car brand is on the chopping block. Ford has announced that it intends to discontinue the venerable Mercury brand.  Mercury’s recent ad campaign—a bad one—didn't help the cause.  My apologies to Jill Wagner...it really wasn’t your fault.  Instead, a weak value proposition and bad execution did in the campaign.

You gotta put Mercury on your list? Their entire campaign was built around the premise of asking (almost begging) you to just consider their product in your selection set. Hardly instills confidence. That’s like a high school junior (let’s call him Paul P.) going up to a senior girl that he likes and saying, “Hey, this Friday when you’re thinking about guys that you’d like to spend some time with over the weekend, I hope you’ll consider giving me a call.” Two words: dead end. Trust me, I know.

Too bad, because Mercury has done it right before. Here Farrah shows the right way to do it. Better ad = better results. This Cougar XR-7 model went on to set sales records.

Using your differences for better recruiting.

Successful recruitment is more than simply putting together a job description and posting it out to the industry’s dominant job board. In your struggle to find top talent you need to understand two essential truths: 1.) You are different; and 2.) Your differences are what make your organization attractive.

What makes you different is your employees and the culture within your organization. If your employees are happy and say good things about your organization you’ll have an easier time recruiting top talent. If they are willing to provide testimonials, or to speak through social media channels about your organization, even better.

All employees want to work where they feel comfortable. They want to be successful within a culture that feels right to them. Beyond salary, beyond benefits, beyond the traditional, building a sense of belonging serves organizations well in recruitment and retention. When competing on salary, the company willing to pay the most wins. When competing on benefits, the company willing to pay the most wins. When competing on culture, the company that communicates the most wins.

So, if you’re struggling with bringing in top talent, maybe it’s not the salary or benefits that are the problem. Maybe you’re not providing them with the information they are looking for, “What is it really like to work there?”

How ironic - a writer who can't type.

There I’ve said it. The fact that I have 20-plus years of writing experience and never learned to type with any more than two fingers is hardly a point of pride. To me, watching someone type with ten fingers (without looking down at the keyboard) is like witnessing someone spinning a basketball on a fingertip. It’s a wondrous, magical skill. I realize that I could learn to type like a normal person, but then again I could also learn to fingertip-spin a basketball. But let’s face it. I’ll never be a Harlem Globetrotter.

My latest personal revelation is tied to the “Ultimate Typing Championship,” which took place on March 14 in Austin, Texas. Let’s call it “March Madness, nerd-style.” (Who lines up for tickets to an event like this?) The winner, Sean Wrona, broke the world record with a speed of 163 words per minute. First-place prize? $2,000. The event has a website that dares you to match your typing skills against America’s most fleet-fingered folks. (I’d suggest going into battle with all ten digits.)

Regulatory approval for genetic tests.

The week of May 10th was not a good one for Pathway Genomics. That’s when the FDA sent a letter saying it was looking into Pathway’s genetic test offering. And it’s not the only interested party.

According to Genome Web, the House Energy and Commerce Committee wants more information about Pathway’s test,  and about similar tests from other companies, 23andMe and Navigenics. Key questions are how the test is analyzed and how accurate those analyses are. The firms are being asked to come up with proof that they have regulatory approval or convince regulators that they don’t need it.

The accuracy of the analysis may go directly to the interpretation of the tests. While it might be possible to send the same sample to all three of these companies, all of which may get similar results, it’s the interpretations that can be wildly different. Responses are required by May 25, 2010. Hold on!

Read our previous blog about this issue.

Creating a customized online risk assessment

So how do you get a cardiovascular campaign to stand out above the clutter when there are more than 50 hospitals flooding the market with similar messages? How do you engage consumers to come to your website and sign up for your marketing materials? How do you get people to realize that they’re at risk for heart disease and proactively seek out a cardiologist in your health system?

These are all questions we were asked by The Chester County Hospital (TCCH) marketing team and questions we asked ourselves as we developed marketing recommendations for their cardiovascular service line.  Our answer was to develop an online risk assessment that would determine an individual’s risk level for heart disease.

But this assessment needed to be different from the templated ones that could be bought from other companies. It needed to be customized and reflect the TCCH brand.  It needed to have evidence-based questions and it needed to promote and link to the system’s monthly screenings and community outreach programs. It also needed a personal component that offered a resource to individuals at high risk.

After several planning sessions and a month of programming, Heart Tracks emerged. This customized online heart risk assessment was built with the marketing and Cardiovascular teams at TCCH, and provides a custom report that links the individual’s risk factors to TCCH programs and services. Those who are at high risk can request a personal consult with the TCCH cardiac nurse navigator and if necessary, have an appointment immediately scheduled with a TCCH cardiologist.

Backed by a comprehensive advertising campaign, this initiative has been hugely successful with more than 1,500 people completing the assessment, 300 people signing up for TCCH marketing materials, 20 scheduled appointments with a TCCH cardiologist and an appearance on the cover of a leading health care marketing publication. All of this in less than three months!

The danger of marketing without FDA approval

The strange story of drug store–based genetic tests.

It was a quick trip on and off the shelves at several thousand Walgreens drug stores for Pathway Genomics direct-to-consumer genetic testing kit. Less than 48 hours after announcing the availability of the test kits, Walgreens pulled back due to an intervention by the Food and Drug Administration saying that the test was without regulatory approval, telling Genetic Pathways that it would be an “illegally marketed device.” In Act II of this genetic drama, CVS also pulled out of marketing the same product a few days ago.

For my money, I can’t believe they went to market without considering the FDA’s reaction. Naivety? Cockiness? When you work in a regulated environment, particularly one in which the regulations are under development and fluid, assume nothing. I have clients that have worked with the FDA, not around them, even thought their product did not require FDA approval. They obtained the guidance they needed to move forward and both parties were better off for the interaction.

Imagine all that must have been involved in doing two deals of this magnitude.  But, according to the FDA, “if a company is making claims about a product that hasn’t been reviewed or validated by FDA, we want to make sure the information to consumers is accurate and the test will do what it says it will do.”

Duh!

Read another blog entry about this issue.

Media relations is a lot like dating...

Recently I found myself consoling a coworker who was bothered because a reporter wouldn’t return her phone calls or emails or agree to go to lunch with her. Suddenly it occurred to me that entering the world of media relations is a lot like diving into the dating pool. Both involve unwritten rules, lots of phone calls, rejection and frustration—but with a little patience and a little luck, a long-lasting and trustworthy relationship can develop.

The relationship between a PR professional and a journalist is not just a one-night stand. It takes persistence and commitment.

PR pros are natural relationship builders. Even though we may be “playing the field” by pitching more than one journalist, it’s our job to make each one feel special. This means we need to do a little homework. I’m not advocating stalking by any means, but finding out interests and making a connection are keys to building any relationship. Read the journalists’ blogs, follow them on Twitter and find out what makes them tick before you decide to pitch them.

When connecting with a reporter, avoid bringing up competition. You would never compare the new person you are dating to one of your exes—it’s completely unflattering. So why would a reporter want to hear “X and Y media outlet picked up my story, so you should too”? You’re trying to build a new relationship, so keep others out of it.

PR pros should be reliable, accessible and punctual. If you set some time aside to talk to a reporter, make sure you are there when you say you will be. Reporters have strict deadlines; you can’t keep them waiting around or they are going to move on to someone else. If a date showed up 20 minutes late and forgot to call you, you would probably kick them to the curb too.

After you’ve established a relationship and a reporter tells your story, stay in contact! Keep the conversation going—even when you don’t want something in return. You wouldn’t want to date someone who only communicated with you when they wanted something (think 1 a.m. text on a Saturday night—get real). If you stumble upon an interesting study or resource that doesn’t involve you and could help out a journalist, send it over to him or her. He or she will remember it, and will appreciate that you’re not asking for a favor.

Stay optimistic, PR people. A recent study by UKDating.com reported that the average woman dates 24 men before finding “the one” they will marry. So don’t get discouraged if every reporter doesn’t want to tell your story (and we all know that it was a great story). There are plenty of other media contacts out there, so keep on pitching.

Can mobile media compete with the jumbotron?

These days, it seems like everyone is asking whether something is about to kill something else: "Will html5 kill flash?" "Will the iPad kill Kindle?"

So, with tongue firmly in cheek, I thought, "I gotta get in on this killing spree."

In my daily romp through my normal news sites, I stumbled upon an article about a guy named Fred Ehrhart who is taking advantage of online marketing's incredible targeting capabilities to ask a question usually reserved for jumbotrons, billboards and banners being towed behind airplanes: "Will you marry me?" The ads are all long gone, but they directed his potential bride and anyone else who clicked to this landing page.

He asked visitors to "Please post to your Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and anything else you can with the Hash tag #SayYesD and tell your friends to do the same. Link back to this page and show people my list so they can understand how much I love Dalila. We are going to aggregate all your messages and show Dalila how many people think she should say yes."

To answer my own question in the headline, I doubt that mobile devices can ever compete with the thrill of seeing yourself on the big screen at a ball game. So, don't be afraid of these technologies. They're not killers, they're facilitators of true love.

Spoiler alert: she said yes.

On a side note, his approach was also a lot safer than this. Ouch.

The important of audience clusters.

A while ago, my friend Eric and his family came for a visit. When he pulled into our driveway, he asked, “Hey, Shari, does every homeowner get a Subaru Outback with the house?” I looked around the cul de sac and up the street. As far as the eye could see, driveways hosted different-colored Subaru Outbacks.

If you work in this industry, you know that clusters are not just for breakfast anymore. Clusters are segments of people who have so much in common, even their similar consumer-purchase habits are similar.

Understanding these clusters is important in everything from budgeting to positioning and messaging. Know your audience — in all their idiosyncratic glory. But don’t be fooled into thinking clusters are just demographics. Clusters are people who make decisions in similar ways based on similar needs. Understanding clusters means understanding how target audiences make decisions for themselves and their families.

Segmentation is about far more than where we live, but we shouldn’t discount the importance of geography. There are a number of segmentation systems out there. When I looked up my zip code at Neilson’s You Are Where You Live, here is what I learned about myself: I learned that I might belong to one of these clusters.

Which am I? I have to click through to read more. I can tell you right now, I am not an empty-nester or a gray power.

Pools and Patios? Maybe. I mean, we do have a patio. How did they know? And when you click on the link, you can learn more about the media preferences or buying habits of this cluster. Amazing how they know I really do watch Frasier.

You may not fit perfectly into one of these segments, but it gives me more data to work with. I need to know who I am talking to so I can send them the right message. You Are Where You Live helps me figure out where to find them. Check it out. Are you where you live?

Determining the all-important why.

My six-year-old son asks a lot of questions. More questions than I ever knew one human could possibly ask. If I am lucky, I can answer maybe a third of them. Sometimes the questions are about Star Wars or subjects he learned in school, but there is always one common thread with his questions that requires both my husband and I to think quickly — he wants to know the motive.

“Why did Obi Wan die so they could get on their plane?”
“Why did Anakin go to the dark side?”
“Why did Jack’s mom get so mad that he sold his cow for the magic beans?”
“Why is Dopey so dopey?”

He rarely asks how, who or when, but always why. And my question is, why is he so focused on the why? It's my job to study consumer behavior and analyze the motives that may influence a customer to use or not use a product or service. I spend days obsessed with the who and the why — the how and when comes later.

Is my son a budding market researcher? Is this quest for motive genetic? If so, it’s finally evidence that my DNA is in fact in my tall, blonde-haired, green-eyed child who looks like the result leaving my husband in the dryer.

When it comes to my son’s motive questions, I have a few tricks up my sleeve (read: stall tactics). But when it comes to consumer motive, I have to be a bit more strategic and thorough. Motivational research helps us determine the all-important why.

The goal of motivational research is to peel away the layers to reveal basic consumer needs and uncover hidden associations with products and services. It also is used to inform a company about how their product is utilized, and how brand perception is both affected and enhanced.

You may be thinking that you already engage in this type of research, and perhaps you do. But the more surveys I see, the more people are only being asked what it would take to buy or do more — not why do they buy at all.

There are three types:

Ethnographic Observation — This gives us the chance to be anthropologists. Watching the customer interact with the product in their own home or office. Do you remember the job they gave Tom Hanks at the toy company in the movie Big?

Focus Groups —  Online or in person, group discussions with a guide who probes attitudes more than solicits feedback about a product.

In-depth Interviews — These take a bit longer, but the interviewee gets to feel like they are on the Barbara Walters special and the client gets to learn a ton. These interviews are guided discussions with more broad questions and audiovisual cues to determine top of mind.

I am not sure any parent can be ready for any question, and I think I have some time before the questions get more sophisticated. But one question in particular stumped me the other day:

“Why are Shaggy and Scooby always hungry all the time?’

It’s not that I didn’t know the answer. It’s that I didn’t want to introduce the concept of that motive to my kindergartner.

Finding the right social media tool.

My husband is a carpenter, so he’s into tools. As a social media guru, so am I. Whenever we come up with a project, we immediately start thinking about what tools we have and what we may need to buy. We’ll scour yard sales, flea markets and the Internet to find just the right compound miter saw or three-phase plasma cutter — often to the detriment of the job itself.

Though perhaps not as exotic as a four-foot finger brake or Pittsburgh lock-seam hammer, the most exciting social media tool is video. Healthcare professionals are learning to take advantage of video along with everything else in their toolbox, as this online marketing blog explains. Surgeons have used Twitter, for example, to tweet out live procedures from the O.R. — the first being a surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from someone’s kidney. Universities such as Stanford are using video on Facebook for question-and-answer sessions between professors and students. Mainstream media is now plugging into social media for obvious reasons — mainly because they know their audiences are plugged in.

Roughly nine out of ten patients who get information online learn from watching videos, which enable them to ask their doctors more insightful questions about procedures. And while you can find a video on Twitter, clicking on it redirects you to a new page. TwitVid is a new service created by Twitter for just this purpose. As with YouTube, TwitVid allows you to create and post your own videos, but this service is so new that you may end up watching hours of footage showcasing little Billy’s puppy and the new tricks he learned this morning.

While videos are used on Facebook to teach medical professionals and students, they also reach consumers. Of course, you may be redirected from Facebook to YouTube, which is riding a huge wave of credibility. Facebook enables you to network with just a click and little effort. You can truly be a people-watcher, and still gain a massive amount of information in a passive manner.

So now when I sit down at my computer every morning, I can share with all my healthcare clients all the new tools available to them — the most important being video. The transparency that video offers can deliver an enlightened, interactive and highly engaged audience. And while it’s no Pittsburgh lock-seam hammer, video can carry us into the future of social media.

It's time for the AB&C Spring Art Show.

It’s the time of year for new beginnings — spring is in the air, the Phillies just had their season opener and new art is being hung on AB&C’s walls. That’s right, it’s time for the agency’s spring art show. It’s our tradition to host an art reception every spring and fall. The show helps decorate our walls and inspires agency staff and guests, while offering local artists an opportunity to display their work.

This spring we will be featuring work from artists Adam Kolodczak, Steve Lewis and Katie Lillard.

The opening reception is on Thursday, April 8, from 5 to 8 p.m., but the art will remain on display until the end of July.

We’re expecting record-breaking attendance for this month’s show. If you’d like to join us on Thursday evening for light hors d’oeuvres, beverages and some fine art, become our fan on Facebook and RSVP to the invite.

We will be Tweeting live from the event so be sure to follow us on Twitter @ABCadvertising!

Environmentally friendly & really loud!

You may have seen the latest campaign promoting the new compostable bag from Sun Chips. I myself started a compost bin last year, which literally cut our landfill contributions in half — not to mention the effect it had on my new garden. As an avid tree hugger I applaud this effort by our Frito-Lay friends, but their new package needs a warning label.

The problem lies in the bag itself. It produces by far the highest level of ear-piercing decibels in the history of chip bags. Quite frankly this crinkly cacophony has to be completely screwing with Frito-Lay’s main target audience — the late-night snacker. And yeah, I’m one of ’em. And there’s a technique to late-night snacking — a very challenging technique. I mean, you’re already dealing with a chip — come on, even the word “chip” sounds loud and crunchy. And you’ve always had to deal with the crinkle of the bag. Some bags are worse than others, am I right? And when you’re down to just crumbs, you wind up cutting the top half off with a scissors, ’cause that’s a lot of bag to work through. Really, it’s a losing battle that’s just going to drive your wife crazy.

OK, back to this new compostable bag. My advice? Forget it. Just pour some of these tasty chips into a bowl and get on with the snacking. And forget about sneaking into the cupboard while the missus is upstairs. Believe me, she can hear this bag crumple from three blocks away. It’s really quite impressive. You must go out and get a bag for yourself. Maybe on New Year’s Eve. Now that’s a time when you’re supposed to make some noise. That is a holiday they should be marketing toward. You read it here first.

And, oh yeah, I can’t wait to see how long this bag takes to decompose. I’ve got a quarter-bag left from the new Peppercorn Ranch flavor I just bought — it’s goin’ in the bin soon. I’ll get back to ya.

Is Twitter dead?

Every once in a while you’ll see an article asking “Is Twitter Dead?” even suggesting that if you’ve been avoiding Twitter as part of a “non-strategy,” it may be paying off!

The problem with that perspective is that Twitter is not a strategy. It’s not even a tactic. It’s a channel!

The strategy (and ultimately your goal) is usually specific to your organization so it’s hard to discuss. But we can identify a general growing audience: people who create and consume information, wherever and whenever, with increased frequency, increased brevity and often with groups of people (as opposed to one other person).

Think about how different that is from something that predates even e-mail: writing letters.

Letters were typically infrequent, long, tied to a physical location and timetable, and were exchanged between two individuals. We’re at the exact opposite of that now with text messages, status updates and micro-blogging in general.

As marketers, we need to be comfortable in these mediums so we can reach these consumers. Strategies to accomplish this include:
* Increase the frequency of communication with your brand consumers
* Drastically decrease the length of each communication
* Use more conversational language
* Enable consumers to respond or participate in the conversation
* Enable consumers to do this wherever they choose (e-mail, web, mobile phone, etc.)

Now, three questions: how much of your audience wants to communicate this way, what channel do they want it on and what information are they interested in?

Answer those questions and you’re on your way to some solid tactics.

One of those tactics may involve Twitter — a good channel to address the strategies above. But if Twitter dies, it doesn’t mean you were wrong, it just means people are moving to a different micro-blogging channel, and you should find out what that is and get involved.

Watch out for marketers who don’t have a firm grasp on the difference between goals, strategies, tactics and channels. Misunderstanding these components of a marketing plan can lead you down the wrong path.

Do you care to watch them...24/7?

Remember the premise of what was arguably the grandaddy of all reality TV shows? “This is the true story... of seven strangers... picked to live in a house...work together and have their lives taped... to find out what happens... when people stop being polite... and start getting real...The Real World.”

New web reality series If I Can Dream (from American Idol creator Simon Fuller), which launched on Tuesday, March 2, takes that premise even further. It follows five aspiring artists live 24/7 on ificandream.com and in a weekly recap on Hulu.

The five hopefuls live together in a spacious Los Angeles home outfitted with 60 cameras following their every move. Viewers can engage with the cast members and the show in real time via Twitter, MySpace and blogs, and can select which camera feed they’d like to view. The contestants can even log on to their own computers and spy on their roommates down the hall.

As part of the series, celebrity mentors will come in to help the hopefuls in their quest for the Hollywood dream. Once they land a job and exit the house, a new aspiring artist will be chosen by viewers via MySpace auditions. What do you think? Worth checking out or a waste of time?

Even Barbie uses social media.

The 50-plus doll was once limited to traditionally “feminine” career choices such as ballerina, model, teacher or nurse. As times changed and women threw off their shackles (did Barbie ever even have a bra to burn?), her options expanded: paratrooper, paleontologist, pilot and even President of the United States.

Now, for the first time ever, loyal Barbie fans were asked to help her choose her 125th career for the “I Can Be” doll series by voting on the following: architect, computer engineer, environmentalist, news anchor or surgeon. Twitter followers and fans on Facebook voted for News Anchor Barbie — she’ll be available this fall. The social media campaign was such a success that fans insisted on choosing Barbie’s 126th career, computer engineer, coming in winter.

Barbie used her Twitter account (@BarbieStyle) to keep the conversation going with her followers.

Barbie: Secret agent? Publicist? Electrical engineer? Heartin’ your suggestions, dolls! @marielcisneros @sticktomyguns @rocquel74

This helped validate the suggestions people offered and kept the hype up about her next career. Barbie also sent out announcements through Facebook:

Barbie: I can’t believe it’s only one more week ’til I get my new dream job! Gosh, I better hit the beach and soak up the fun while I can…

Even with her new careers determined, The Barbster is still engaging with consumers and fans:

Barbie: This just in: I’m still deciding on a perfectly doll-tastic nightly news sign off…Suggestions?

Looks like Barbie is going to have a busy year. But not to worry — she’ll make time to keep in touch with her fans through Twitter and Facebook between reporting the news and developing the next big technology for computers.

Radio's impact on brand browsing.

Good news for our clients who utilize radio. A new RAB survey shows that radio advertising grows online brand browsing by 52%.

Twenty-three brand campaigns were measured in the research. Not only were 52% of respondents more likely to include that brand name in their browsing, but 58% of all browsing stimulated by radio took place within 24 hours.

Radio. It's fast, efficient and a great way to drive people to your website.

A paid search campaign for Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau

This is the second in a series of case studies for those who read our blog. I think it's a nice opportunity to share examples of our work.

Promoting Corporate Event Planning in Wilmington, DE

Client: Greater Wilmington Convention & Visitors Bureau (GWCVB)

Situation
For the first half of 2009, the GWCVB asked AB&C to promote its B2B efforts by increasing awareness of its meetings program. The GWCVB had traditionally promoted events planning in a 300-mile radius, their primary and secondary target geographies.

Strategy
Event planning has traditionally been a secondary focus of the GWCVB, and its marketing allocation reflects this. We wanted to maximize marketing budget while satisfying the demand of professionals already reading about and researching places to hold corporate events.

Execution
AB&C managed a paid search campaign utilizing keywords focused around the concerns of business meeting planners. We targeted the ads to appear only to an audience within 150 miles of Wilmington, Delaware, their primary target geography, which remains close enough to make an in-person trip to view facilities and weigh the wealth of options that Wilmington presents.

Results
By focusing on active planners within a tighter geography, we were able to stretch our resources while having a bigger splash with our select audiences. During the campaign, 41% of all visits came courtesy of the web media campaign. The campaign also reversed a trend of declining visitors, bringing in 30% more visits than First Half 2008 and a staggering 72% more visits than Second Half 2008. Unfortunately, with the end of the program at the wrap of First Half 2009, the downward trend returned, with a dramatic 40% drop in visits for Second Half 2009.

A paid search campaign for Southern Delaware Tourism

Below is the first in a series of case studies that we wanted to share with those of you who read our blog. We think it's a great opportunity to share examples of our work and capabilities. The case study below, for our client Southern Delaware Tourism, showcases our online media capabilities, specifically paid search campaigns.

An Introduction of the Southern Delaware Culinary Coast

Client: Southern Delaware Tourism (SDT)

Situation
From July 15 through August 31, 2009, SDT asked AB&C to promote its Culinary Coast concept, touting its collection of restaurants and tourism destinations. Of the total media budget, 30% was earmarked for web media.

Strategy
Our first concern was awareness. Faced with limited resources and a sharp decline in recreational travel, we developed a targeted audience-focused solution. The audiences selected were foodies, the LGBT community, beer and wine fans and the staycation set. Our second concern was buy-in from local businesses, with the intention of co-branding the advertising for the 2010 summer season.

Execution
AB&C managed a paid search campaign utilizing keywords focused around the travel concerns of our specific target audiences, layering on direct buys with The Washington Blade (LGBT), Food Network (foodies & beer and wine fans) and The Washington Post travel section (staycation). We also targeted the ads to appear only to an audience within 150 miles of southern Delaware, close enough to make a weekend out of their trip.Concerning future co-branding, we constructed the plan with enough flexibility to easily incorporate a larger media buy and additional audience segments.

Results
Using these targeting methods allowed us to stretch our limited resources to have a bigger splash with our select audiences. During the campaign, 88% of all visits came courtesy of the web media campaign. 30% of the media resulted in 88% of the traffic.

My goal: be a better blogger.

So I am beginning to get it—this whole social media thing. I threatened to quit Facebook earlier this year…but didn’t. It’s still too intriguing to me. And yes, it is fun to connect with old friends and business associates…even some distant relatives have touched base.

So here is my commitment to myself and my company and many acquaintances—I will become a better (meaning simply a more involved and more active) blogger in 2010. Alright, this is my promise to all of you…I’ll start thinking about why you read blogs and what’s important to you. Why did you stop here? Curious about the agency? Our work? Our clients? Our staff? Or are you really that interested in me? I doubt that it’s all about me. My posts will be about what would interest you…not just what interests me. And hopefully that keeps you coming back to read new content.

Domino's - an example of social media success

If you missed the first part, check it out here.

Now for the good: a coworker in our PR department had an experience in which FedEx missed a next-day delivery. She decided to voice her frustration by tweeting, “FedEx really expletive deleted on me today.” Within 30 minutes, she got a retweet from FedexAl asking if he could help. This small effort from FedEx customer service immediately turned her from disgruntled to impressed.

An even better example would be Domino’s Pizza.

After the black eye Domino’s received earlier this year when a YouTube video of two employees defiling the food got national media attention, the company could have easily cowered in fear of social networks. A Facebook ad for Domino’s caught my attention. Partly because they pulled user content into the ad to point out that my friend Les had participated in their survey.

I clicked the video in the ad and, wow, what a bold move in spin control and using the social networks to listen and react. Domino’s took the general negative sentiment about the quality and taste of their pizza and used it as the focus of their new Pizza Turnaround campaign.  The site even has a live Twitter feed flowing in all comments positive and negative. Now, thoroughly intrigued, I decided to try the new pizza instead of just blogging about it. The whole process is so well done, I may just have to make my next post about everything Domino’s is doing online, and what I thought of the new pie (it should be here any minute).

As for the bad, there are too many examples to cite, and I don’t want to point fingers unnecessarily. I’ll just call them the people standing on chairs shouting over the conversation at the party. Anyone who is doing social network promotions without a predetermined strategy because somehow they heard that they should would fall into this category.

So, if you are considering getting into social network marketing, make sure you have a plan. Here is a helpful chart that lays out the types of things that can be achieved on the social networks. Once you have decided which ones fit your plan, then assess which networks will best help you accomplish your goals. And, as always, if you need some guidance, we’re here to help.

Sears - an example of social media failure.

Everyone seems to be buzzing about Social Networks and how to take advantage of them for marketing purposes. It is a great opportunity for companies to join a conversation that’s already taking place rather than trying to start a new one. As with any conversation, you have to listen. Imagine walking into a crowded party and just starting to talk about things that interest you without bothering to figure out the current topic of the conversation. How would people react?

Here is my step-by-step guide to getting into the social networking fray.

1. Plan: Before getting involved, ask yourself, “What are my business goals and how do I plan on measuring them?” Only then can you develop a plan to make social media a part of that success.
2. Listen: Begin monitoring the current conversations to find out if people are talking about you and what they’re saying.
3. Evaluate: Is there a prevailing positive or negative tone to the existing conversations?
4. Engage: Social networks can be a great opportunity for customer service, as you’ll see in the examples below.
5. Promote: The final—I repeat, final—step of playing in the social network sandbox is promotion of your goods or services. Once you are a part of the conversation, then you can start changing its direction.

Now for some examples, I’ll start with the ugly: a recent encounter with the Sears service department regarding my washing machine. I won’t bore you with the gory details of the electronic problems that are still ongoing. What I found to be interesting was a Google search I did when looking for their phone number.

To begin my search, I typed “sears service” into the search field. The first result, as you would expect, was Sears.com. It was the second result, right before service.sears.com, that really caught my eye: a YouTube video entitled “Sears Service Sucks”. Since this summed up my mood at the time, I clicked it first. A video of a very disgruntled fella in the same boat as myself then went on a rant about his experience.

“So what? What difference does one guy ranting make?” you might ask. Well, this video has been online for more than two years and continues to gather steam. It has over 44,000 views and most traffic is coming from searches for “Sears,” “Sears service” and “Sears repairs,” with another significant chunk of action coming virally. Sears has missed a gigantic opportunity to make things right with one consumer and change the conversation that’s happening online.

So, our interactive department did a little social network survey to see how Sears is doing now. We found the current conversation dominated by people looking for do-it-yourself advice or seeking reliable local repair people with occasional complaints about the products. Daily opportunities for customer service and sales of Sears’ repair program continue to go by unnoticed.

Read more in part 2 (coming tomorrow).

Applying strategy is critical to social media success.

99 ways to use Twitter?

There are plenty of articles on the Internet that outline the 17 ways to use Twitter or the 32 ways to use Facebook. If your approach to social media has been to start with these types of articles, you may be focusing too quickly on tactics without an appropriate social media strategy. Tactics without a strategy are particularly bad because they often end up being ineffective, hard to measure and mask real opportunities a more strategic version of the tactic may provide.

Because social media tools are so accessible and seemingly easy to use, a planning/strategy phase is often skipped, perhaps also in part because the realm of social media seems so complex. Because there is no clear place to begin, there is a tendency to start with tactics, a fatal mistake.

How to approach the problem

One technique for approaching a problem that seems complex is to break it down into a series of simpler problems. This is a great approach when it comes to the social media landscape. Instead of looking at a list of 50 ways to use Twitter, it makes more sense to look at a smaller list of ways to use social media in general.

Such a list might look like this.

In fact, you’ll find that any social media strategy probably consists of several of the leaf nodes in this diagram being used in various channels. (For the purposes of this discussion, a social media “channel” is Facebook or a blog or Twitter).

Your challenge then is to identify:

1. the kind of information your organization has or can generate, ideally something conversational
2. the types of people you’re trying to reach through social media
3. the items from the diagram above that can be used to put that information from step (1) in front of those audiences in step (2)
4. the appropriate channel for each item in step (3)

Now, just because we have a plan of attack doesn’t mean this is necessarily an easy or straightforward task. The best social media strategies look easy in hindsight but have usually been cooked up with some outside-the-box thinking. The above map is not a magic wand, but it is a starting point.

Examples, please!

Let’s look at a real-world example. Imagine your real estate agent. There may be a temptation for him to jump straight to tactics and use Twitter to post listings. After all, he has listing information (this is his product) and Twitter is easy to sign up for. Plus, this is on the map under Sales/Marketing --> Product announcement. We’re in good shape, right?

Well, Sales/Marketing on the diagram has a red flag on it. That red flag means if you’re only using something from that category, you may be on the wrong track. In this case, our real estate agent’s listings probably aren’t that useful to most people (who only wants to see the listings from a single real estate agent?), it’s not very conversational (what would people say back to him about a listing?) and he’ll probably find he won’t get a lot of followers.

Even worse would be to have a Facebook page where he is re-posting the exact same listings. Now he has a situation where even if a person were to be interested in those listings, it’s not in their interest to follow him on Twitter and be a fan on Facebook because then they’ll just get the same information twice. As silly as that sounds, we see this all the time.

Lesson learned: Directly promoting your product or service on as many social media channels as possible is not a good strategy because it abuses your potential followers and misses the whole “social” part of social media. You’re not listening, you’re just talking. And you’re saying the same thing in multiple places. And nobody cares.

This can take many forms including using Twitter to post links to your press releases or using Facebook to post links to your blog posts. I’m not suggesting never doing that but only doing that puts you in the PR category on the diagram and it, too, has a red flag. Oops.

Okay, give me a better idea.

This real estate agent has a problem, however… Aren’t the listings the only content he has? Possibly, but remember the first step is to identify the kind of information your organization has or can create. The listings may be the only content he has at hand. Grabbing whatever information you already have and using social media as a one-way channel (outward) is a missed opportunity.

This is where the strategizing comes in. What about creating a tips/tricks list for homeowners? (See the map above under Educational --> Tips/Tricks). This could include reminders to disconnect your plastic hose fittings in the winter so they don’t crack or money-saving tips for efficient energy use. Maybe it’s one tip a week and every once in a while he throws in a property listing (Sales/Marketing --> Product announcement) or an open house announcement (Notifications --> Events/Reminders).

Now this real estate agent has something useful he is providing to his clients. All of his existing clients would potentially be interested and he’d stay top of mind when they’re looking to sell or buy or even just make a referral to somebody else: “You should use my real estate agent. I follow him on twitter and he’s got great homeowner tips.” This takes the form of branding (Topics/Issues --> Brand related) and on top of that, he gets his listings and open houses in the mix. He’s now using five concepts from the diagram!

Plus, followers who have tips of their own can reply to him which means (a) the rest of his followers benefit from the tip (“Comments” from the Social category on the diagram) and (b) he can file it away later to use next year (a form of Research on the diagram). Wow – we’ve got seven nodes covered on the diagram, only a couple are red-flagged and a real social media strategy is taking form!

Hopefully you can see the difference this approach can make. Obviously there are issues like staffing and creative elements and ongoing maintenance and monitoring but try this process with your organization or give us a call and we can walk you through it.

Soon, you can search within your circle of friends.

We can get overwhelmed sifting through blogs and online discussions. That’s why we turn to our social circle for recommendations. But our friends also have several social network accounts and each one has a lot of information. So how do we keep track of it all?

Don’t fret, fellow social butterflies: Google is developing Social Search. It enables users to add their networking profiles to a Google account and see search results filtered and prioritized based on their circle of friends. This means that we can turn to our social circle first when filtering results on the web. For instance, if I wanted to research restaurants in my area, results from my trusted social circle would appear more prominently in my search.

Click here for an overview of Google Social Search.

How much time are you spending online?

There was a very interesting study released by Harris Interactive showing that web users are online an average of 13 hours per week. This is a slight dip from the same observed period in 2008 where they saw average users online for 14 hours per week. The major change? In 2008, 43% of users were online at work. In 2009, that dipped to 40%.

Harris tracks use at home, at work and at what they list as “other location.” Online at Home and Online at Work have both seen Year-Over-Year growth since the study began in 1995, with this being the first year they have seen a dip for the Online at Work category. A simple explanation may be that there are fewer people at work this year then there were last year.

Beyond that, the study is a very interesting look at the growth within the last two years in the amount of time users spend online. In 2006, that number was 9 hours. 2007 saw 11 hours. 2008 and 2009 saw an average of 13.5 hours spent online per week. Even more interesting is the fact that this time does not include time spent on email.

Another interesting takeaway from the study is subject audience itself. Harris Poll culled this data from 2,029 men and women aged 18 and over through phone surveys. It would be very interesting to know if these were randomly selected phone numbers, since landline use across the globe has been dramatically decreasing. Nielsen reported in September 2008 that nearly 20% of all households in the US do not even have a landline, effectively removing them from Harris Poll’s eligible subject group. This group also scores high for broadband web use, pointing to a population of web users that have been potentially ignored by the Harris Polls study.

Why online advertising is important for hospitals.

By: Kelly Hocutt and David Michaluk

Are you still reluctant to advertise your hospital on the web? Maybe you’re bound by tradition. Or maybe you think healthcare is too private for the web — and people seek information only from people they can trust. But research by OTX and Google shows that adding search and web advertising to your marketing mix is more than just helpful — it’s essential.

That’s right. Consumers are increasingly going online for hospital information. 41% go to the Internet before seeking advice from healthcare professionals or friends and relatives. When these information-seekers get to the Internet, 76% go to hospital websites, 62% to search engines and 56% to health websites. They’re using more than one destination — which means if you’re not using search engine ads and ad networks, you’re missing a sizable audience. If they don’t see you, you don’t exist.

And they’re not just window-shopping, either. After finding information, 59% of these consumers take action. This includes 46% who look for more information, 16% who clicked on an ad, 14% who forwarded a link or video and 10% who booked an appointment. These additional actions translate into greater awareness of your organization, good feelings, referrals and appointments. Do these goals sound familiar?

Just as important: Recall is higher for online search than for any other medium. Yep, more bang for your buck. 43% remember online ads while only 32% recall TV ads, 28% informational brochures, 18% newspaper ads and 18% billboard ads. Isn’t your aim in advertising to get your audience to remember you? You’re spending a lot of money advertising, so get more value for your money and welcome online advertising into your marketing mix. Plus, when people recall an online ad, 43% look online for more information, 38% ask a medical professional about a hospital, and 38% ask a friend or family member about a hospital.

So, should your hospital advertise online? The numbers say it all.

Putting social networking to work...literally.

Yammer is a simple way for employees to connect and share by posting messages. As more employees participate, it becomes a corporate social network, discussion board and knowledge base. Yammer is like a combination of Facebook and Twitter. Your company can create a profile that mimics the look of Facebook: picture, wall posts/messages, an information page, etc. Your company also has a “network.” And the Yammer is protected, permitting only people from your company to join by requiring your company’s domain (@yourcompany.com). The homepage resembles Twitter — members of your company can post messages about what they’re working on or post questions to coworkers.

But what happens when employees start spending more and more time chatting on Yammer? Will it be a time-waster? Or a morale-booster? Only time will tell.