Filed under: Green Marketing
So what better choice for the timing of our next update than Earth Day! Here in Raleigh, NC there’s a warm breeze in the air and the flowers are in bloom. This is the time of year when a young man’s thoughts turn to Green Marketing. One of our clients who we are working with as part of our Tag! You’re Green initiative is Progressive Plumbing & Piping. General Manager Chad Woodall came up with a list of what they’re doing to make Green go viral in the Triangle.
1. Progressive has instituted a program of office recycling and has taken the additional step of refilling their printer cartridges to avoid creating more waste. The facility that Progressive uses is equipped with motion sensor lights to cut down on needless energy use while reducing their monthly electrical bill. To improve the overall quality of life for their office employees Progressive has introduced special air cleansing plants to counteract potential toxins in their environment.
2. An operational change that Progressive instituted recently involves restricting their service technicians to certain zip codes. This practice reduces vehicle emissions by minimizing the miles driven between projects by each of their service vehicles.
3. Another change that Progressive has committed to is a greater focus on internet marketing in the coming year. This move is deemed Green due to the low impact on the environment web-based promotions offer. There’s low waste and minimal emissions when compared with other traditional media marketing.
4. Given the Raleigh area’s recent problems with water conservation and drought these Raleigh plumbers have instituted an interesting custom solution to their water needs. On the commercial side of Progressive they offer a service called hydrostatic drain cleaning that requires that they use nearly 500 gallons of water a day. To combat this need they built a rain collector that transfers run-off from their roof into a large 600 gallon tank inside their facility.
5. To make sure the Tag! You’re Green initiative doesn’t stop with them Progressive will be promoting some of their Green Plumbing services aggressively this month. These items include low flow showers and faucets, low-flush toilets and simple pipe insulation. They’re also giving away an eco-friendly tankless water heater later this summer. You can enter their contest HERE.
Got some great Green tips for other businesses? Leave a comment!
Filed under: Web Video
12seconds is a great place to create video status updates online. You create videos through your webcam or your mobile phone’s video input. With 12 seconds to say your piece you’ve got to be quick and creative. Sounds limiting? That’s what they said about Twitter. Your brand can gain a lot by setting up an account.
1. 12seconds has wisely tied their service directly into Twitter. Your video updates can go directly to your Followers without creating an extra link. Services like TwitPic and 12seconds are the sort of difference-makers that can help add depth and personality to your account. Text-only is so 2008!
2. 12seconds integrates as smooth as silk with Tweetdeck. You can watch your friends’ videos directly inside this Adobe Air application, record new videos to share and even retweet your favorite video updates.
3. Celebrities often herald the masses when it comes to emerging technologies. Check out the bump that Ashton Kutcher just gave to Twitter. We’ve got Shaq in our corner. His first update has already received 12,000+ views in its first day on the site. Don’t be surprised if the site’s membership sees a huge increase in the next few months.
4. With a new social media platform there’s a chance to establish thought-leadership prior to the rest of the crowd showing up. With a little ingenuity and imagination you could be the Gary V of 12seconds and have the first case study of video status update success written about you.
5. Often in these embryonic stages there is less competition for viewer’s attention. On Facebook you’re competing with millions of other companies to the stimulate the rods and cones of the 400 million eyeballs (200 million users X2) on there. With 12seconds if you create something quirky or of value there’s a high probability that you’ll find your video in the Featured section or in the Popular section of the site.
6. Whoa! I forgot one of the best things that 12seconds just rolled out. They now offer the option to throw a link to something you want to promote like a product release, event or new service offering in with your video. Give your elevator pitch with a 12omercial!
7. There are some really useful features built in to help you interact with your customers and prospects in a meaningful way. You can react to other users creations with videos, props via the “bump” feature or just plain old text comments. If users like it when someone just sends them 140 characters imagine how they’d feel if a rep from your company sent them a fun little video? Higher Level Interaction = More Trust.
8. You can embed your best video to your site. This ability can spice up the social media savvy of your main corporate site. It’s all about buying into this channel and throwing up a flag that you’re committed to it. Users respect that and will show you love for it.
9. Everyone’s boss loves metrics. 12seconds feels your pain and gives you stats on your impressions, views, embeds, mobile views, downloads, RSS feeds and retweets/mentions. All that would look good on an ascending chart in a PowerPoint presentation, right?
10. It’s about the meta-data. 12seconds allows you to add both tags and your location to each video. One can anticipate further integration that would add a more in-depth location-based element to the service in the future similar to BrightKite. These extra details make your entries more search-friendly and create deeper connections with your audience. This location-based element would be particularly important if you’re a local business or a retail with brick & mortar locations.
11. Did you know that worldwide more people own cells than computers? Estimates have the figure at over 4 billion. Wow. Is your brand ready to go global? A service like 12seconds helps you to not only be everywhere but to have fans creating videos everywhere. The more mobile devices with video technology and better video support we have the more media that will be consumed and created on them. Why not corner that market now?
12. Seeing is believing. Check out our channel to see the last reason. http://12seconds.tv/channel/ClickOptimize
Filed under: Social Media
I talk to people on a daily basis about social media and how best to leverage it for their companies. Some feel that their interests are best served by tackling this task on their own. I commend this practice as owning your brand and controlling your messaging are very important. However, if you don’t know what you’re doing and don’t seek out assistance there can be consequences. Names below have been changed to protect companies from the shame of SOCIAL MEDIA FAIL.
Cautionary Tales From the Wrong Side of the Social Media Tracks
- The Static Husk: People who fall into this category like to “set it and forget it.” Their blogs have one entry. They have minimal Fans/Friends, no interaction with their audience and inconsistent updates. FATE: Shady Acres Home For The Aged- Social media definitely requires effort and never updating your profiles sounds a message that you don’t really get “it” to your audience. It’s almost better to do nothing. Almost.
- The Unfocused Fire Hose: This user has the best intentions. They want to be at the cutting edge. They have too many profiles, info packaged incorrectly and a disconnect between goals, strategy and tactics. They’re sending out updates madly across multiple platforms with little rhyme or reason. FATE: Minimal ROI Sanitarium- If you choose this route you will burn out quickly. There are simply too many choices out there in the social media world. It can easily take up your whole day updating profiles and trying to stay up on the latest and greatest. Sometimes you need to think about which activities have the greatest impact and focus on them while cutting out the other stuff.
- Sales Bot 5000: This cyborg seeks to assimilate every person it meets online into a customer through pushy, spammy tactics. They treat social media as a tool to broadcast out a one-sided message to “BUY, BUY, BUY!” FATE: Scrap Heap of Irrelevance- There’s a reason consumers have tuned out traditional media. These channels stopped listening and didn’t provide any value to those who were paying attention. In social media first you GIVE then you GET.
- The Boss’ Nephew: If you delegate an important task to some lower level person at your organization sometimes bad things things happen. Even if that person is the boss’ nephew and they really “get” this whole Internet thing. You might get something like this shared with important prospects, ”Biznis is like totaly awesome stuff. AMIRITE? IDK if itz zuper koolz fer fattys tho. FATE: Exiled To MTV (OMG!!!)- Putting an increasingly important channel like social media into the hands of someone without a very clear mission or concept of your brand is a bit like playing Russian roulette. Maybe it will work and maybe it won’t. Do you want to take that risk?
Alternatives
If you recognize any of the scenarios outlined above you might want to start a conversation with a social media consultant or start the process of educating yourself. This way you’ll get:
- Dynamic predictable conversation
- Concentrated tactics with stated objectives and benchmarks
- Communal behavior that builds loyalty and grows organically
- Appropriate messaging that suits your brand
Got a story of your own of social media gone wrong? Share it in the comments section.
Posted on April 22nd, 2009 by Nick
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