If you had the world’s attention…

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Jon

At one point or another, we’ve all had one thought – If I could teach the world one thing, it would be…

The idea behind the question is quite simple. It’s a hypothetical scenario, often brought out in a moment of frustration. Maybe we say it as we stand outside a movie theatre, waxing about how we wish the rest of our party could be on time; or maybe we’re in a restaurant, commenting on the quality of the pasta we just took the first bite of.

The idea of having the ability to express our frustration to the world (either the microworld around us or the truly global sense) is nothing new. After all, as soon as there was a newspaper, there was a letter to the editor.

But as we approach Earth Day – a time when a global collection of eyes will be focused on the singular effort to improve our world – the thought of being able to show the world a lesson is much more conceivable, especially with mechanisms that we have today including social media, websites and virtual conversations that take place therein.

So look now at this opportunity. Just as Earth Day organizers will capture audiences with innovations and education on saving our planet, so too can you take your message and capture the world’s attention.

Now comes the real question – what do you do with your opportunity to speak to the world? Do you speak to the frustration you encountered in my first scenario, or do you instead take your opportunity to deliver a positive message, spreading a helpful word rather than a condemnation.

The answer, from this approach, may sound obvious but it’s a business communication point that can be easily forgotten in social media, where people feel more comfortable expressing their true feelings. Put a person behind a computer screen with a certain level of anonymity and they’re more likely to vent than they are if they were standing at a podium in a lecture hall.

Ultimately though, the pulpit you use for your social media communication should be no different, and an ill-sounding message can translate into a negative opinion of you or your company. So even in a world where emotion can be misconstrued or outright ignored, it is always best to remember that you are talking to an audience, not just typing without name.

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All the pretty pictures

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Jon

If you thought the Internet was graphical before, you’re about to see a huge shift even further away from text.

Over the past number of months, we’ve seen the roots of this shift with Facebook’s Timeline, the rise of Pinterest and websites like the Winnipeg Sun going to more image-based formats.

Now, Facebook has upped the ante, paying $1 billion for Instagram.

For those not familiar with Instagram, it is an app that has taken the iPhone by storm thanks to instant picture-taking-and-editing capabilities. It debuted in October 2010 through iOS and only last week was made available for Android.

Images, generally speaking, are great accompaniments for websites and are good hooks for social media (I think we can all admit to paying a bit more attention to Tweets that link to a photo); but by no means should they replace your web content.

The biggest issue a photo has is that, unless you tag and title an image properly, you’re not going to get the Google ranks you want. There are some content programs, like Joomla, which make the task a little easier, but it’s something that’s easily forgotten if you’re not careful.

The other unfortunate side to photos is that the more you have up on your website, the longer it will take to load. This was a major epidemic in the late 1990s, when would-be web builders were making their websites more in Photoshop than Dreamweaver.

As a result, the web became cluttered with pages that chugged harder than an early 20th century train, and the toxicity of the burning coal those models used is right up there with the time pollution of images that were oversized and then shrunk down to fit properly on a web page.

Don’t take this as being a misdirected rant – I’m as much a fan of imagery as anyone; but the bread and butter of your website always has been and always will be great text content. Don’t skimp out on your words for the sake of another photo. Photos and graphics are important as complements to your words – they should not be substitutes.

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What’s in a (company’s LinkedIn) name?

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Jon

I want you to take a moment to think back to the day when you first started your business in Winnipeg.

The first thought that came to your head (probably even before you defined what your business would be) is what to call your company.

I’m sure that you can remember the struggle you had when it came down to decision time. There were a few different battles you had to face at the start with getting the copyright for your name (witness the trouble that The Brick and Bricks Fine Furnutore had a few years ago locally or the infamous WWF vs. WWF battle), but now your name is uniquely yours.

Until you put together your company’s LinkedIn page.

All the sudden your name isn’t so unique, which can lead to some staffing confusion. Let’s say Jane Smith works for a company in Regina called Reality Art Supplies. At the same time, Emma Jones, also in Regina, works for a company called Reality Massage Inc.

Now let’s throw a monkey wrench into the situation – The owner of Reality Art Supplies doesn’t want to limit their company, and decides to just use the name “Reality” for all branding activities, including their company name on LI. Further, let’s say Emma Jones doesn’t call her employer Reality Massage, but just Reality. There’s now a possibility that Emma will appear as an employee of Reality, throwing off where she works and adding non-employees to Reality Art Supplies’ roster.

It’s situations like these that can be easily avoided in two simple steps:

1> Create your company profile using as full a name as possible. Not only will this avoid employee confusion, but it will also make it easier for LinkedIn searchers to find you and your staff.

2> Ensure all your staff are using this name in their LI profiles, so they aren’t mistakenly listed with another company.

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Media Friend or Foe?

Posted on March 28, 2012 by John

It was great to be interviewed by Karen Rocznik of CTV last week on Google adwords.  She is a true professional and a credit to the media community.  Karen was upfront and candid about what she wanted from me as an expert, and I would not hesitate to work with her again if asked.

I’ve been lucky (or unlucky) to have been interviewed many times by the media.  I always thought that reporters would tell it like it is, and give the straight goods when a story was published.

Wrong. (sometimes)

On rare occasions members of the media have come to my door (or my customers) with hidden agendas.  They are looking for “sound bites” that could not necessarily be in your best interests.  To avoid getting singed in a media experience,I am now very cautious when I am giving an interview.  I try very hard to understand the scope and angle that the reporter may be trying to achieve and I am extra sensitive to any hint of possible extra motives.

When someone asks for an interview as an owner of a Winnipeg Business, try to quiz the reporter to understand the context so that you have an idea of how you fit into the big picture.  If you are not comfortable with the PR angle, you are under no obligation to give an interview.  If you do decide to go ahead, here are some quick tips to help you get through unscathed.

1. Look your best – take a quick run to a mirror to ensure that nothing is out of place.

2. Keep your answers short and to the point.  Often rambling on will disclose something to the interviewer that you may not want to share

3. If you don’t like the question, redirect your answer to a topic that you want to cover that may be related. (this is often harder than it appears)

4. Be confident in your answers, and be prepared for follow up questions – that’s the reporters job to dig deeper.

5. Don’t assume that your whole sentence will be published.  Sound bites may be used and not reflect the true context of your meaning.

6. Ask to hear / see the finished piece before it is published.  Usually this won’t be granted – but is doesn’t hurt to ask

7. Make sure you have the right to use the piece in your future marketing.  Get this in writing.

8. Don’t be disappointed if they only use 10 seconds of your 40 minute interview.  You may be only a small piece of the big picture.

9. Promote your seconds of fame to your social media network.  Blog, tweet, or send an email.

10. If the piece turned out as you expected, send a quick thank you note to the reporter, and offer your services again if required.

My last interview with Karen at CTV was a great experience.  She was very professional and didn’t have any surprises.  I wish all reporters shared her integrity.

Hep

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Hep Communications on CTV

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Jon

John Heppenstall, President of Hep Communications, was recently interviewed by CTV’s Consumerwatch reporter Karen Rocznik for a story on Google AdWords.

John shared his insights with Rocznik on the careful spending one must do with AdWords, and how campaigns must be carefully planned and monitored, especially in light of Google’s propencity for changing its ad program.

The interview first aired during CTV Morning Live on Monday, March 26, and is scheduled to run during the 6:00 and 11:30 news.

If you missed the CTV broadcast, you can view it online by clicking here.

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Make Time for Timeline(?)

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Jon

Over the last couple weeks, marketers and private business owners have been in panic design mode, getting their websites ready for Facebook’s Timeline look, which is being forced upon us by the company come March 31.

Is the panic, however, premature?

When you drilldown in the new design of Facebook, there are two pieces that are “essential” changes – the cover photo and your profile icon.

Let’s start with the profile icon since it’s the easiest to work with and ultimately the most visible piece since it’s this image that will show up in news feeds

Essentially, if you have a square logo, you’re set. If you have a horizontal or vertical logo though, you have a bit of work ahead of you. The key is making sure it looks good, because this will be the image that shows up in the news feed of your followers (or likers or whatever the term is FB is using this week), so make sure your icon is clear.

The one you’ll have more fun with is the cover photo, since you’re really open to have some creativity involved here. There are some things to keep in mind, however:

  • Facebook does not allow you to have locations in your cover photo
  • Facebook does not allow you to have a call to action in your cover photo
  • Build to the proper dimensions provided by Facebook (851 x 315), lest your photo be stretched or cut off.

The other pieces, those being the icons and apps below your cover photos are a little less significant if you have a low amount of likes. Take the time to properly develop these while FB supplies you with the basics – Photos (which is mandatory as a visible app), Map and Likes.

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Online Statistics May not be what they seem…

Posted on March 20, 2012 by John

I was visiting a client yesterday and was interested to hear comments about an online directory’s web stats. According to the organization that used to have a big thick book with lots of phone numbers delivered to your home, their statistics for web hits, views and click throughs are really impressive.  Yet our own stats that we derive from Google analytics did not bear out the same success.

As a matter of fact, the online links from this dinosaur were less than 1% of our clients overall traffic.

Small business marketing in Winnipeg is all about validation and measurement – with real numbers.

Be cautious when an exuberant sales person pulls out there sheet that shows an abundance of hits and conversions.  Data is very easy to manipulate and may not tell the true story.  Your online marketing success needs to be based on real results – not some sell sheet.

It’s the old case of buyer beware.

Hep

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Make your website useful

Posted on March 19, 2012 by Drew

The beauty of having a website that is properly built and set-up is that it immediately becomes a marketing and sales tool that has measurable results.

Anybody who has been in business long enough has probably done a marketing flyer, attended trade shows and so forth – with mixed results. How many leads did you really get from that flyer – and did your sales team follow-up? The same goes for leads acquired at a trade show.

By developing a website that has Google Analytics tracking code (and/or other), you can quickly develop a healthy sense as to where leads to your website came from, how long they stayed on your site and what information they perused.

Better yet, if you have pushed an offer out via Google pay-per-click Adwords; or had a direct mail piece with a QR code or web address that highlights a specific offer on it, you’ll know if they were interested simply by looking at how many visits you had to a certain area of your website (landing page). If you have an offer set-up as part of the campaign, you can even track how many conversions you got. This could be somebody leaving their name for a call-back from your sales team because they are interested in learning more…or better yet, an outright sale right off of your website.

Your website is a measurable sales and marketing tool that should be an integrated component to your company’s daily marketing efforts.

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Add other channels to Maximize your Campaign

Posted on March 13, 2012 by John

A lot of Winnipeg business simply think that by putting up a website, you will begin to get leads online.   This “rose coloured” glasses approach will not work. Online marketing becomes more effective when other marketing channels are introduced.

What will work is leveraging other channels in your campaign to exponentially increase your response.   Channels such as a one to one print piece to a targeted data-base that  drives responses to an interactive web page can significantly increase your chances for success.  Combine this with social media tactics such as FaceBook advertising , Youtube video, and a mobile marketing tactic and you increase your chances for a significant return on your campaign.  Using traditional media such as outbound calling or even faxing can increase you results

It all starts with great creative.  If your message is not distinct, to the point and attached to a value based offer, it will get lost in the 3000+ messages that everyone is bombarded with everyday.

Once your creative is set, understand that you have to get at your target audience to present your case.  Don’t assume that they will be searching for what you are selling online.

Finally, make sure you have a vehicle to measure everything.  Multi-channel marketing is only effective if you can measure each touch point.

Some of our small business Winnipeg clients are enjoying close to 20% return on multi-channel marketing campaigns.  How would that look for your lead generation?

Hep

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Business goes Timeline

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Jon

For months, Facebook followers wondered aloud when the company would roll out it’s Timeline format for its ‘Pages’ application. Well, we got that answer this past week.

On February 29, Facebook rolled out the new format for Pages formally. Early adopters were big-name companies like Subway, Nike and Coca Cola, while other companies are slowly starting to come on board with the new format.

Here at Hep Communications, we were intrigued by the new format, which is highlighted by a large banner (or as they prefer to term it cover photo), a now square profile picture and four sub images that link to different applications that page owners can install such as maps.

There are a few positives and negatives about the new format, which I will get into over the next couple weeks, but the most important thing to know off the hop is this – the Facebook Timeline is not an option.

Come March 30, all Facebook Pages will be forced to convert to the new Timeline format, or Facebook will automatically do this for you. What this means is that a staff party photo, normally more hidden in a photo album, could become the first thing a customer sees when they surf over to your Page. Not good.

So now’s the time to start making queries about how you want to (re-)build your Facebook brand, because everything’s changing very quickly. Give us a call at (204) 992-6400 to learn more about Facebook Timline and new branding strategies.

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