Thank-You for Joining us at the Cincinnati Office Open House and Ribbon Cutting

First, thank-you to everyone who came out to the Boot Camp Digital Cincinnati Open House and Ribbon Cutting Happy Hour.  We really enjoyed hosting you at the new office (and it gave us an excuse to finish decorating!), and I truly appreciate your support.

We had over 60 people in and out throughout the night (both new and familiar faces), and the party was a big success!

Also, a special thank-you to the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and Susan Houghton for conducting the ribbon cutting ceremony  as well as Kelley Long, for presenting the certificate, Debba Haupert from Girlfriendology who held the ribbon (but didn’t make it into the photo), Joe Wessels for helping assemble the furniture and prepare for the party.

Again – A big THANK-YOU to everyone who came out – your support and encouragement have helped to make this all possible.

All of the photos can be found on Flickr.

I heard a lot of good feedback about the networking opportunities (and free alcohol) so we are planning to try to make this a regular event.  Stay tuned for details on Thirsty Third Thursdays – A Social Media Mixer at the Boot Camp Digital Global Headquarters in Cincinnati Ohio.

Thanks again to everyone who came out, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon!

- Krista

Brands get in on the Flash Mob Game

According to Wikipedia, a flash mob (or flashmob)^[1] is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The term is generally not applied to events organized by public relations firms, protests, and publicity stunts.^[4][8]

Flash mobs started in 2003 in New York and caught on quickly.

A new trend with FlashMobs has started – brands are creating their own Flash Mobs to take advantage of this trend and get some of the ever elusive viral buzz.

Is it working?

Sometimes.

T-Mobile = Success

The T-Mobile Dance got over 17 million views and “The Making of” video even has over a million views.  They also posted other videos including rehearsals and even an instructional video where you can learn the T-Mobile dance.  They also replicated the T-Mobile Dance in other cities across the UK.

The video is also really engaging to watch (which is why it has so many views).

What T-Mobile did right was play off the original Flash Mob concept – they shocked people in a public venue. There was also brand relevance as they showed people taking photos and videos with their cell phones.

Trident Single Ladies = Eh

The video has had almost 4 million views as the Trident Single Ladies performed in Piccadilly Circus.

The dance routine is very entertaining (although I wonder why they did it in Black and White) and ties in to the brand promotion with a Beyonce concert.  The relevance ties to an offline campaign and they have callouts during and after the video to drive action.

This is probably more of a PR stunt vs. legitimate Flash Mob since it lacked the spontaneous element and didn’t include a lot of reactions.  That being said, it did get them 4 million impressions.

Cincinnati Fine Arts Fund = Success

The Cincinnati Fine Arts fund capitalized on this trend by staging Flash Mobs in Findlay Market and Fountain Square (unfortunately it was raining that day).  They also used music from local artists.

This was a great effort since it clearly ties back to the arts and helps build awareness for Cincinnati Arts.  Great idea and execution.  They also posted learning videos so you can learn the dances at home.

There are only 27k views, but for a local effort, with a small budget, I would say this was a success.

Scope = Failure (at least so far)

When Procter and Gamble brands start to participate you know the trend has jumped the shark.  Scope recently launched a Flash Dance for Scope to the song Kiss Me.  You can definitely see the brand relevance in this video (kissing + scope) and they clearly tie the brand in (although somewhat awkwardly) with the T-Shirt at the end and the Scope Bottle Juggling guy.

The video is currently 10 days old and only has 80k views (and it is being promoted by Ryan SeaCrest).  In my opinion the whole thing is a little too corporate, which is partly why it didn’t spread.  Compare the impact of the scope video to TMobile and it is obvious.

They are also offering to donate $$ to charity if it gets a certain # of views.  Also kinda lame.  Donate to charity anyways.  Do it because it is the right thing to do.  Not as an incentive for people to watch your commercial.  If the video was better they would easily get millions of views.  If you have a great idea you don’t need to do force it.

Don’t they need Model Releases?

The initial Flash Mob movement wasn’t commercial – nobody was making money, do they could record reactions of people and post them since it was a non-commercial effort.  I’m not a lawyer, but I would think that the brands doing flash mob videos would need signed model releases from the people in the audience that they film if they are identifiable.  This probably somewhat limits what brands can do.

Special Thanks to Matthew Dooley for pointing me towards some of these videos.

70% of HR Pros have Disqualified a Candidate Because of their Online Reputation

According to a new survey by Microsoft, Online reputation matters more than you think.

• 70% of HR Professionals have disqualified a candidate due to their online reputation.
• Only 15% of consumers think that their online reputation matters in their job search.

Yikes. HR Pros and Recruiters are actively using online reputation in assessing candidates, yet candidates don’t seem to think it matters.  Clear disconnect.  If you are looking for a job WAKE UP! It matters.  Worry about your reputation before you are looking for a job.

• 63% of consumers think that their online reputation may impact their personal/professional life.
• Less than 50% consider their reputation when posting comment.

Again, clear disconnect.  You know that what you post online could impact your persona life, but when posting content online you don’t think about it.  Think. Before you post something online think about how it impacts your personal reputation.  Are you OK with that?

There is Good News.

86% of HR professionals (and at least two thirds of those in the U.K. and Germany) stated that a positive online reputation influences the candidate’s application to some extent; almost half stated that it does so to a great extent.

So think before you post.  It may make more of a difference than you think.

The Key to a Killer Social Media Strategy? Choose the right part of the brand cycle to focus on.

When you begin crafting your social media strategy your first instinct may be to start with the sale….  How do you drive a consumer to buy your product?  Focusing on the sale is typically the wrong answer (not that sales don’t matter).

The brand cycle doesn’t typically start with purchase. As you can see below, it starts with Awareness and ends with Loyalty.  Your social media strategy needs to focus the the relevant portions of the consumer experience and create a strong connection (also know as brand equity).

The brand purchase cycle starts with awareness (I know about your product) then Consideration (I am considering purchasing your product) then Preference (I actually prefer your product over the alternatives) then Experience (I bought or consumed your product and what was my experience like) then Loyalty (will I do it again?).

Your instinct may be to focus on the purchase – how are we driving sales.  It is important to remember that the actual sale may not be the best part of the sales cycle to focus on.

There are effective social media strategies for each stage of the brand cycle.

Awareness Strategies – Consider a social media strategy where you post content that is generally of interest to your target audience.  Grab their attention by posting relevant things related to your product that they actually care about.  Trying to sell expensive cooking oil?  Talk about how to cook.  Trying to sell laundry detergent? Provide great stain removal tips.  Listen to your audience, learn what they are interested in and start to talk about the things that they are interested in.

Consideration – They know who you are, but are they really considering you?  Look for people who mention your brand and answer their questions.  Actively seek out people referencing your category or buyers – they know who you are but do they seriously consider you.  Provide information to make sure that your brand is in the consideration set.  Focus on search rankings and make sure that your site is optimized to answer questions.

Preference – Using social media to build preference can work well when done correctly.  You can build preference by showing that you truly care about your audience and your brand and are committed.  Brands that effectively build preference using social media focus on building real relationships.  Be nice.  Show that you care to potential purchasers.  Have flexible policies.  Build preference by focusing on building positive feelings about your brand.  After a social media interaction they should “like you” or “think that you are cool/hip”, etc, based on your brand equity.

Experience – Social media strategies focused on the experience portion can focus on things like customer service or support and feedback.  When focusing on experience you should leverage social media to make the customer experience when using your product better.  Customer service via social media can be a great tool in this.

Loyalty – The final stage is loyalty.  Social media is a great tool to build loyalty.  You can use fan pages and twitter to provide specific offers/incentives/discounts to drive loyalty among existing customers.  It is typically easier to drive more sales from existing customers vs. acquiring new ones.  Focus on showing your customers that you REALLY care (this can also drive word of mouth and build new customers).  Find ways to use social media to *really* give your customers something special.  It doesn’t have to be a financial incentive either – it can be insider information or access to a members club.

Your strategy doesn’t have to focus on just one – it can focus on more than one.  They key is to use social media to build a great brand experience (and this will drive sales over time).  This strategy takes great content and can take longer, but in the end, this is where the real payout in social media is.

The key is to focus your social media strategy on the right part of the brand building cycle vs. blindly trying to drive sales.

Ad Club Career Day – Building Your Personal Brand and Reputation Online

I had the privilege of presenting at the AdClub career day last week.  There were about 70 job hunters in attendance – mostly new grads.

I shared the presentation below on how to build your brand and reputation online.  One of the main discussion areas was around Facebook – how do you manage Facebook when you leave college and enter the job-seeking world?

According to a Global Microsoft Survey:

70% of recruiters have rejected a candidate based on their online reputation?

Yet less than half consider their reputation when posting content online.

Only 15% of consumers thought that their online reputation impacted their job search.

Clearly, your online reputation is more important than you think.

The analogy I used is that Facebook is like your living room… if your boss is coming over you would probably clean up a bit.  You wouldn’t borrow another house, or totally change everything, but you would definitely clean up, and maybe even put a few things out of site.  That is how you should treat Facebook and your job search – clean up a little!

We were fortunate enough to have some recruiters in the room who told students that they will do a facebook search, and it does factor in to their hiring decision.  While they won’t specifically friend request or try to work around privacy settings, the information that you make publicly accessible on Facebook does factor into the decision.

What are your thoughts?

You can see the full presentation below.

SuperBowl Commercial Recap

For those of us who aren’t into football, the superbowl is all about the ads #brandbowl #adbowl #sbads.

Millions of dollars are spent (this year it was 2.6 million for a single spot) by large and small brands, with creative execution highly scrutinized by superbowl fans.

This year, myself and Monika Roberts had the pleasure of posting our superbowl ad recaps and opinions in videos of the Museum of Advertising.

Monika has a creative background, and I have a marketing background, so our opinions on the ads were very different.  Here are my topline thoughts on the superbowl ads:

• Questionable Brand Value. Most of the ads that the creatives and ad agencies liked were hysterical (I the snickers spot) but I question if/how they achieved any marketing efforts.  The snickers ad was largely declared the winner (and it was hysterical), BUT are you going to buy snickers because they tackled old people? The best executions are those that can combine both the creative and the marketing objectives in a clear way.
• Not Enough Branding. Some of the ads had very little branding in them (ie. product shots or brand mentions).  The Flower Spot barely mentioned the brand name (I would bet most people thought it was for 1-800 flowers).  The Hotel spot with Chevy Chase also barely mentioned the brand name.  Even the squirrel car commercial didn’t have much branding – we had to look up what car the ad was for.  I liked the Doritos commercials a lot because they showcased the product as the hero – the brand was part of the humor.
• Boring Stuff – Yawn. Most of the advertisers were just plain boring.  The spot from GoDaddy was exciting and scandalous the first time.  Now it is just boring.
• No Calls to Action – There were only a few ads that provided clear calls to action.  While this may not have been a marketing objective for some brands, those that included calls to action will likely get better results.  I thought that the Dockers Free Pants promotion was great, and the Denny’s Breakfast spots hit the nail on the head with humor and relevance.  Even GoDaddy encouraged viewers to go to their site to see the rest of their spot.
• Where was mobile? I bet that over 75% of superbowl viewers had a cell phone within arms reach.  A mobile call to action could have been very successful for the superbowl.  Using the Godaddy approach (take action to learn more) brands could have had you text to win or to get the answer to a question or mystery.  Other than KGB (which is a mobile service) there were no mobile calls to action – big miss.

What do you think?  Who were the winners and losers and who actually achieved marketing success from their 2.6 million dollar spend?

You can see all of our videos here.

Interview with Krista Neher: Successful Approaches to Using Twitter

While at PubCon in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of moderating a number of panels on twitter.  In the video below Vanessa Zamora of PubCon interviews me about how companies can use twitter.

One of the things that I like the most about pubcon is the diversity of panelists.  In our conversations about twitter, some of the panelists like Dan Zarella focus on the science of what works – how to drive retweets.  Other panelists like Warren Whitlock focus on the brand building side – how to be nice and behave socially on twitter.

There is definitely a time and place for both strategies, depending on your marketing objectives and strategies.

I’ll be speaking again at PubCon south in Dallas, which promises to be another great conference.

Using SlideShare to Increase Exposure and Grow Your Brand

I got an email from Slideshare recapping my stats from 2009.  I speak and present at a variety of industry events on social media, branding and digital marketing, and slideshare has been a valuable tool for me to share my presentations with participants and those who were not able to make it.

First, for those of you who don’t know, Slideshare.com is a free service where you can post and share slideshow presentations.  I speak at a variety of events and this gives me a way to share my presentations with attendees.  In addition Slideshare allows you to show a video from your blog or linkedin account.

According to Slideshare, in 2009, I uploaded 11 presentations and got:

• 9443 views
• 858 average views per presentation
• 42 favorites
• 22 followers

My presentations were also featured by SlideShare on their homepage twice (YAY!)

I was pretty shocked with these results – almost 10,000 people have seen my slideshare presentations.

What is that exposure worth?

10,000 people were exposed to my brand and ideas AND I was only sharing content that I had already created!  These were also high touch impressions – they didn’t casually see an ad for my business – they took time to look through a presentation that I created about an idea related to my area of business.

If you aren’t using SlideShare as a part of your social media brand building strategy, you may want to reconsider.

When I get speaker requests, I often send people to my SlideShare account to give them an idea of my presentations.  I also get requests from colleagues to borrow slides for their presentations (which I am happy to do and they usually give me credit).

Below is my most popular speaking presentation – given to the Cincinnati AMA on Online Brand and Reputation Management.

Boot Camp Digital Office Party and Happy Hour #bcdParty

As you may know, Boot Camp Digital moved in to a new office in downtown Cincinnati late last year.  2009 was a great year and 2010 is looking even better.  We want to celebrate with you at an office Happy Hour.

We hope that you can join us – please feel free to pass the invitation along.

Adult beverages and light snacks will be provided.

What: Boot Camp Digital Open House and Office Party

When: Thursday, February 18, 4:30 – 7:30

Where: 602 Main Street (Gwynne Building at 6th and Main – Richter Phillips is in the bottom) Suite 705 (7th floor and follow the noise)

Social Media People: Use #bcdparty to follow the details of the event.  We’re on twitter – @kristaneher and @bootcampdigital (if you don’t already follow)

You can register at eventbrite or just show up!

What to expect at the Happy Hour:

• Ribbon cutting ceremony from the NKY Chamber of Commerce
• Drinks
• Smart social media and marketing people
• A tour of the office
• Photo and video opportunities
• Cincinnati Twitterati
• New people

2009 was an exciting year for us.  Some of our accomplishments include:

• Starting Boot Camp Digital!
• Successfully running 2 open enrollment bootcamps
• Speaking at 20+ industry events
• Working with P&G on groundbreaking social media work
• Moving in to a new office downtown
• Social Media provider for ad:tech NY (the largest digital marketing conference)
• Featured speaker in foreign countries including: London, England and Toronto, Canada
• Killing my first (and only) office plant

Can’t make it? We’ll post the pics here afterwards.

We hope to see you there!

About Boot Camp Digital
We help get your internet marketing in shape! Boot Camp Digital specializes in social media and digital strategy and provides services including, training, consulting and full-service social media execution. We help large, fortune 500 companies and small organizations leverage the internet and social media to strategically grow their business.