#Women2Follow (aka Women to Follow)
You need not be fluent in Twitter-speak to appreciate this example of how matching the right mechanism with your target audience pays dividends. (NE1 can C that Women Who Tech rock!) Let me explain in plain English.
Women Who Tech is on a mission “to bring together talented and renowned women who are breaking new ground in technology and use their tech savvy skills to transform the world and inspire change.” (Amen to that!) Their target audience is tech-savvy women who actively use social media, including Twitter.
Noting that women were woefully under-profiled on the Top 10 Tech and Social Media Lists, Women Who Tech started a ‘Twitter Hashtag Movement’ called #Women2Follow Wednesdays. (Hashtags are a way to create groupings on Twitter so people can easily find out what’s being said about ua specific topic. For anyone new to Twitter, here’s a quick primer on hashtags.)
Since February of 2009, every Wednesday, thousands of women in the tech industry recommend female thought leaders and influencers in their Twitter community to their peers. The movement has been so successful that it has spread outside the tech industry and you now see that many of the #Women2Follow are not necessarily techies, but are certainly transforming the world and inspiring change.
Women Who Tech knew what success looked like (i.e. upping the profile of rockstar techies who happen to be women) and who they needed to engage with in order to accomplish their goals. They achieved their goal AND started a bit of Twittermania that is resulting in women of all stripes getting some well-deserved props!
What amazing women on Twitter will you recommend this Wednesday?
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Listening: The 1st Step to Social Media Success
For anyone unsure how to get started with social media, here’s good news: you just have to know how to listen. Really? Yes, because whether it’s social media or Sunday brunch, the first step to creating a successful strategy is listening.
To help us get a handle on the art of social media listening, we turned to the smart folks at We Are Media. Following is a quick breakdown of what it means to ‘listen’ in the social media space and suggestions for how to do it effectively.
What is listening?
Listening is knowing what is being said online about your organization and the field you work in. (Even if you don’t always like what you hear or agree with it, it’s important to hear it all so you can plan accordingly.)
Why listening is important?
1) You can better serve your target audience by knowing what they’re saying to others and to you.
2) You get the info you need to be able to respond to and/or engage critics (or admirers!).
3) You can stay on top of the latest developments in your area of work.
What are some easy ways to start listening?
1) Compile a list of your organization’s online presence. Where are others talking about you? Where are you purposefully placing information about your organization? What online tools are you using already and how have they been or not been effective? Do your employees or volunteers mention your organization in their online life?
2) Become familiar with the online tools and social media that are out there. This can be as easy as signing up for a Twitter account, creating a page for your organization on Facebook, exploring Yelp!, etc. Use Google Reader or another tool to organize blogs that (1) relate to the field you work in (2) are produced by similar organizations to yours and (3) provide information on news and technology related to your field of interest. (Setting up Google Reader takes some time, but it’s worth every minute you spend on it.)
3) Perform regular searches on your organization’s name, acronym/abbreviation, CEO, and any trademarks/copyrights. Pay attention to the other web sites that are listed along with your organization on the very first page of results. Use not just standard search engines, but also ones that track blogs, discussion boards, and social media outlets (such as search.twitter.com covers Twitter).
Listening in the land o’ social media can take a bit longer than whipping up sourdough scones or cheesy scrambled eggs or whatever your family wants for Sunday brunch, but if you don’t take the time to listen, you risk creating a social media strategy that will never be heard.
Got any tips for doing good listening? Ever been surprised by what you’ve learned by listening? Let us know!
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Wine that Rocks
I love wine. Whenever company is in town, we inevitably end up over in Woodinville Wine Country (just East of Seattle) swilling and slurping the ever-growing number of scrumptuous wines being turned out by Washington winemakers. We also inevitably end up at Mark Ryan’s rockin’ tasting room.
Mark Ryan makes fans of great, big, yummy reds swoon. Dead Horse. Long Haul. The Dissident. These wines are seriously delish. But so is a lot of the wine in Woodinville. So why do I keep going back to Mark Ryan’s tasting room?
It’s the room itself. It’s so darn hip.
Antique motorcycles rest jauntily on their kickstands. Stylized rock posters adorn the walls. Wine hipsters mill about. It’s Seattle grunge meets new millennium mod and it really, really works. (I find myself wanting to break out my flannel and Doc Martens, but will refrain.)
Here are three marketing “rules” that make the Mark Ryan Winery rule:
- Awesome-ness of Product. If Mark’s tasting room was super cool but his wine sucked, I probably wouldn’t go back again and again because, let’s be honest, who wants to pay $10 to taste bad wine? Life’s too short. But his wine rocks. His wine is awesome. The tasting room, because of how unique it is, makes the product seem even better. It further enhances something that is already super great. Clever marketing can’t make up for a bad product or service.
- Differentiation. You’re not going to find motorcycles, Pearl Jam memorabilia and motorcycles at any other winery. Not in Woodinville, not in Sonoma, not in Bourgogne. His wines stand out and so does the tasting room. Of the umpteen tasting rooms I’ve visited, his is the one that instantly springs to mind when I think Woodinville wine tasting. (Read Trout and Rivkin’s ‘Differentiate or Die’ for more on how critical differentiation when it comes to marketing.)
- Authenticity. If Mark were a poser, none of this would work. But he’s been the rock n’ roll wine dude since he came on the scene in 1999. Clearly, he really, truly loves music in general and Pearl Jam in particular and so it works. It’s authentic. (Check out Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s ‘Trust Agents’ for more on the importance of authenticity.)
So, does your product or service rock? (If not, stop reading this or any other marketing blog and get cracking on making it rock!)
If it does rock, how can you create a customer experience that makes what you do or sell even more memorable? How can you stand out while staying true to who you are? How can you give people what they want while surprising them with the unexpected?
What are some of your successes or “un-successes” with trying to stand out from the crowd?
[Note: We're going to cut Mark some slack for the fact that his website does NOT do his wine or his tasting room justice. We're hoping he's going to get around to creating an on-line presence that's as rockin' as his off-line presence in the near future because his current site makes us downright mopey. For now, just trust me: the wine and the tasting room both rock as hard as 90's era Pearl Jam.]
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New Research: Staying True to You
At Mills Communications Group we help small businesses and nonprofits define the essence of their offerings- what makes them unique in a sea of other organizations. We also believe clarity of essence shows through in really good marketing.
You can help prove the point by answering 9 quick questions in our ‘Staying True to You’ survey. Do you have experiences to share with other organizations/businesses? Let us know.
We’re working on an informative e-book that examines cases of businesses and nonprofit groups doing good and the inspired marketing thinking that enables them to do well.
Expect results later this month.
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Flash Volunteer: Seattle Success Story #4
What do you get when you combine community-minded people with just-in-time information about volunteer opportunities? You get Flash Volunteer, a nonprofit organization that allows Seattle-ites (and communities farther out!) to build profiles and connect with each other in their neighborhood, on their schedule, in their interest categories, and with their friends. It’s volunteerism right-sized for today’s busy lifestyles.
The idea for Flash Volunteer comes from Brad Wilke. A couple of years ago, Brad decided to take the University of Washington’s Certificate in Nonprofit Management. In nine short months, Flash Volunteer went from an idea buzzing in the back of Brad’s brain to a nonprofit organization that today is a 1,000+ volunteers strong.
The organization’s meteoric rise from nascent idea to thriving nonprofit begs the question of how they did it?! Many nonprofit organizations toil for years without gainining as much traction as Flash Volunteer. Although there are likely many, many reasons for its success, here are a few ideas based on our recent interview with Brad Wilke, the organization’s fearless and tireless leader.
- Keepin’ it simple: Seattle-ites are busy, but they still want to volunteer. Flash Volunteer makes that possible by keeping it simple. Check out your iPhone app or go to the website and you instantly see all current options available for volunteer opportunities happening this day or this week. Easy peasy.
- Local, local, local: Local is all the rage now and Flash Volunteer gives locavores one more way to stick close to home. If there’s ever a time when hyper-local volunteerism will flourish, it’s now and Flash Volunteer has the systems to support this trend.
- A daily dose of volunteerism: Historically, volunteerism has involved a time commitment of many months and many hours. That’s tough to fit in and so we tend not to do it. But Flash Volunteer changes all that. They make volunteering bite-size by serving up short, one-off opportunities. Got an extra hour one evening? Check out Flash Volunteer and you may find you could go help your neighbors plant the new parking circle in your ‘hood. Now that’s doable!
- Making technology work for the greater good: iPhone apps are all the rage these days and for Flash Volunteeer–an organization focused on just-in-time info–an iPhone app makes perfect sense! So Brad went and found some local developers willing to donate their time and talent to the cause and in January 2010 the Flash Volunteer iPhone Application was born. Their target audience is on the go and their way of engaging them meets them where they’re at, which is exactly what you want when it comes to marketing.
- Finding your tribe: As human beings, we have a natural inclination to find our “tribe”. Flash Volunteer facilitates this instinct. From the volunteers creating the iPhone app to the neighbors planting in the parking circle, Flash Volunteer makes it easy and rewarding to find your tribe. And once you’ve found your tribe, you want to spread the word…and that’s what makes something go viral. It’s hard to plan for viral marketing to happen, but when it does, it’s a beautiful thing.
- Being fearless: Brad is a people person and if he’s afraid of something, it’d be hard to tell. This is turning out to be a very good thing for volunteerism in Seattle. For example, when the idea for the iPhone app came along, Brad starting shopping it around. Many would’ve been intimidated by the idea of asking software developers to create an app for a nonprofit since there’s no money in it, of course, but Brad was undaunted. He convinced Seattle software development house Ubermind to turn the idea into reality and now Seattle’s iPhone users can locate opportunities in town to exercise their volunteer muscles. Ubermind engineers donated their time to make the app real. A similar cadre of engineers develop the application we see live on the web at www.flashvolunteer.org. Being fearless isn’t always fun or easy, but it seems to have been critical to Flash Volunteer’s success to date.
For more tidbits and tips from Brad on nonprofits, start-ups and creating community, here are a few samples from our recent interview:
Brad on starting solo, committing to an idea, and inspiring others to get involved:
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Brad’s comments on knowing the Flash Volunteer audience and understanding what they get from engaging in the project: ways to to involve volunteerism in their busy lives.
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A New Rung on the Social Technographics Ladder
In an earlier post, we mentioned the book Groundswell which presents a research-based approach to creating a social technology strategy using what they call the ‘Social Technology Profile Tool’. Social technographic profiles allow you to create a holistic approach to your social media acitivities by starting with your ‘who’ and determining ‘how’ to effectively reach them.
In their most recent blog post, Forrester announced that they’ve added a new rung to the social technographics ladder to address new online interactive communication styles emerging on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Once you’ve identified your ideal ‘who’, make sure to spend some time using this tool before you invest much time into the ‘how’, e.g. Twitter, blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. With the added rung, the ladder is now even more accurate and effective in determining the online habits of your ideal ‘who’. How cool is that?!
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6 Must-Have Marketing Mechanisms
While most marketing mechanisms (also known as “tactics”) should be tailored to your target audience, there are six that are Must-Have’s whether you’re marketing fromage to Francofiles or financial advice to forty-somethings.
Here’s the 2010 Marketing Mechanism Must-Haves and why they made the list:
- Organization Name: This is pretty self-explanatory. The easier-to-remember the better.
- Logo: Your logo is the basis on which the rest of your graphic identity is built. As with a house, the stronger the foundation, the better it’ll serve you long-term. If you scrimp on the logo, you just end up paying more in an attempt to make your business cards, website, Facebook fan page, etc. look better. Trust us: invest in the logo and you’ll save money–and get better results–over time.
- Business Cards: A business card is not just a way to share contact info. It’s so much more! It’s your proxy when you’re not there. It should jump out from a heap of cards and make the person holding think, “Yes, indeed, I do remember her and this makes me want to learn more.” As with a logo, invest in your business cards so they can do the job you need them to do.
- Website: In this day and age, people expect you to have a professional web presence. If you’re short on cash (because you’ve invested it in your logo, for instance…), put up a one-pager that at least tells people what you do and how they can contact you. You can build it up over time, but give people something professional even if you’re just starting out.
- Professional Email Address: It costs pennies per day for a professional email address. If you’re not willing to invest in that level of professionalism, you’re sending the message that you’re just not that serious about what you’re doing. For both small businesses and nonprofits, professionalism is imperative. So, I beg of you, let me email you at sue@mygreatcompany.com as opposed to mygreatcompany@gmail.com.
- Database of Contacts: Yes, this is about technology, but it’s also about marketing. In the land of marketing, there are push mechnisms (e.g. e-newsletters, direct mail pieces, and other things that you proactively send out to people) and pull mechanisms (e.g. website, blog, and other things that people come to or see on their own…usually because they’ve been pushed to do so.) If you don’t have people’s contact info, you eliminate 50% of your marketing options because you can’t push anything out. At some point, this is seriously going to hamper your marketing success so start building your database now!
If you have something else you’d like to add to this list or you beg to differ with any of our must-haves, let us know!
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Schemata Workshop: Seattle Success Story #3
We first noticed Schemata Workshop at the Seattle Mayor’s Small Business Awards in 2009. The architecture firm was honored for their holistic approach to design projects considering social, economic, and environmental impacts on neighborhoods.
We wanted to learn more about these trailblazers as we had a hunch that, given their clear focus on “empowering communities through architecture”, they’d have a lot to share about how they’ve approached marketing in a holistic, sustainable way to grow their–now thriving–business.
But first, a quick primer on building and energy usage: Buildings represent a whopping 40% of the energy Americans use. At Schemata Workshop, we learned that sustainable design is about much more than new materials and modern specs, two hallmarks of “green design”. Sustainable design that will pass the test of time, however, must include efficient repurposing of what already exists. And Schemata Design has this approach down pat.
As with our other Seattle Success Stories, Schemata Workshop’s clear sense of purpose and focus means they attract new clients through word-of-mouth referrals. And once they’ve hooked a client, they tend to keep them because they deliver on their promise of building sustainably and smartly.
Erica asked principal and co-founder Grace Kim about the keys to Schemata Workshop’s far reaching successes.
We began by defining the three elements of sustainability: social justice, economic development, and green building. Besides energy efficiency, we don’t frequently consider the non-green, social benefits of sustainable building…but we should!
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How does Schemata Workshop include sustainability in projects? Good design and passive technologies are fundamental to sustainable building.
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Try to find a reference to ‘green building’ on Schemata Workshop’s website. You won’t, because they’re sticking to all 3 fundamental components of sustainable design an not jumping on the greenwashing band wagon. Put another way: they stick to their essence.
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Every industry has its own stamps of success. In architecture and design, awards are currency when it comes to marketing. Schemata Workshop has won quite a few prestigious ones. How they select which ones to pursue ties back directly to who their ideal client is, i.e. they only pursue awards that will reinforce their standing with their current and potential ideal clients.
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What’s their main marketing mechanism: building honest connections. Clients share good experiences with Schemata Workshop and show off their design portfolio. Professionalism is key.
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Wrapping up the interview, we learn that Schemata Workshop measures success not just in terms of P&L, but also by the number of happy clients they retain.
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Office Nomads: Seattle Success Story #2
We spend a lot of time helping people get comfortable marketing their essence, rather than their everything. (Check out our 1,2,3 Marketing Tree and you’ll see what we mean!) As this can be tricky and very hard to do, we wanted to showcase a local business or organization that really had this concept down. Office Nomads, this week’s success story, definitely does.
Office Nomads rents space to independents, freelancers, and professional refugees in a shared Capitol Hill office building. They are singularly fantastic in their unwavering focus on their essence, which can be summed up in one of their mantras: “Community cannot be built by the hour.” To learn more about this super-focused, community-building business, we went and talked to the co-founders, Susan Evans and Jacob Sayles.
Office Nomads targets community-building, independent workers like a laserbeam. Susan and Jacob started the project when co-working was still in its infancy, particularly in Seattle. Their clear understanding of the essence of their business explains why they’ve attracted their ideal customers and built a thriving nomad community.
In the following audio files, you can listen as Jacob and Susan share their insights on staying laser-focused, especially when it means going counter to how business has historically been done.
What is co-working anyway? Jacob defines co-working and Office Nomad’s role in the field. Susan explains the pillars of co-working.
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Painting a clear picture of the ideal Office Nomads customer is an essential first step to success.
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Switching automatically from features to benefits, i.e. it ain’t about the coffee!
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Susan and Jacob understand the essence of Office Nomads and aren’t afraid to say ‘no’! The clarifying process includes a lot of second guessing.
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The essence of your business creates genuine marketing. Be sure of your brand, live it, and market through outlets you’re passionate about.
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Office Nomads gets out the word through the web, word-of-mouth and by local, in-person networks. And it all feels natural to them!
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We wrap up the interview with a nod to local businesses and small businesses that intend to stay small and low-stress, yet successful. As Jacob says, “I don’t really need to own a boat to be happy.”
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Jacob and Susan worked for two years to nail down Office Nomad’s essence: building community through co-working. It’s not about the desks, phones and coffee; it’s about who sits next to you, or across from you, and the fact that you’re all in it together!
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HaloSource: Seattle Success Story #1
***This is the first in our new series—Seattle Success Stories. This series features local companies and nonprofits that get great results by tackling marketing in a way that is unique and effective. By interviewing the brains and brawn behind these marketing success stories, we hope to gather and share ideas that will be useful to anyone trying to make the most of their marketing.***
Clean tap water is rarely an issue for North American households, but around the world one-billion people live without a source of clean drinking water. Bothell-based HaloSource is changing this by providing smart technical solutions to dirty water problems.
HaloSource’s design is the first EPA-approved water-purifying technology in a dozen years, and establishes them as a growth leader as well as a new hope for people in developing communities around the world.
Erica and I visited with HaloSource CEO John Kaestle and VP of Marketing and Business Development Andrew Clews to talk about the unique position of their company as a supplier of lifesaving water technologies around the world.
It quickly became clear that HaloSource has a business ethic that has a strong “do good” undercurrent and that this attracts top talent to company. A pervasive sense of working to solve a major global health problem motivates HaloSource employees every day.
From a marketing perspective, we learned that the key to HaloSource’s high-impact marketing is fueled by their strategic choice in partnerships. Their partnerships fall into the following three categories:
1. Academia: HaloSource supports academic research on water quality and development to advance the field’s knowledge of water issues. For instance, HaloSource partnered with the Cass Business School in London to quantify the impact of clean water on economic development and then compiled them into case studies. Get the results from HaloSource.
2. NGOs: Because HaloSource’s promising new drinking water treatment is a public health solution, key NGO partners, like PATH, who have long worked in these same markets provide vital expertise and experience. Consulting NGOs for expert design ensures HaloSource of the adoptability of new products in developing communities.
3. Manufacturers: HaloSource designs solutions that are implemented by other manufacturers. Although HaloSource’s head of marketing works in Washington state, through partnerships in Europe and satellite offices in China and India, HaloSource pools marketing know-how and resources to apply their technology to different products in a wide variety of markets. Clews explained that trade shows are a great venue to meet potential new partners who share their commitment to getting the very best drinking water around the world.
Clearly, HaloSource is a story of success through partnership. The other key factors to the success of their marketing efforts were 1) measurement and 2) flexibility. As a data-driven company, they are in the habit of measuring everything and this carries through their marketing program. By determining the ROI of each mechanism effort, they can make a decision about whether to do it again or try something else. With this information in hand, they can confidently try new approaches and see if they deliver the results the expect for the investment they make.
Kaestle and Clews do not describe themselves as do-gooders. As Kaestle said, “We’re just a bunch of people working hard to solve a critical problem.”
This is undoubtedly true. And we’re sure happy the problem they’re working hard to solve will help so many people.
For more on HaloSource, visit www.halosource.com
For another approach to tackling the issue of dirty water, please visit www.achildsright.org or http://www.wsscc.org
