Customer Experience

Connecting With – What does this mean?

Posted by sdidcott on February 28, 2015
Posted in: communications, Customer Experience, Facebook, PR, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

In marketing and communications we say our goal is to “connect with” people – customers, potential customers, the public, and special interest groups….

But “connecting to” and “connecting” are different; and to be successful we want to move from the first to the latter and open up the discussion.

“Connecting to” is a vertical relationship with a hierarchy built in. “Connecting” refers to a horizontal relationship where we allow person to person relationships to form and we are not in control. This scares a lot of businesses as they are no longer controlling what may happen next as our customers form their own tribe in which we are an just an equal or perhaps less then equal member.

Tons of good can come from letting go of the reins. We want to build loyalty and let a tribe form which can exponentially generate opportunity and open doors to genuine emotions, allowing change and impact to happen.

Read more on this from expert Seth Godin:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2015/02/connect-vs-connect-to.html

Facebook – New Focus on Direct Response and FBX-Powered Ads

Posted by sdidcott on May 15, 2014
Posted in: Customer Experience, Facebook, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Until now Facebook has primarily focused their paid advertising on branding and story sponsored advertising.

But now they are moving into search and putting an emphasis on their Facebook Exchange. FBX is Facebook’s own real-time bidding exchange using Facebook user data and 3rd party DSP’s (Demand Side Platforms) which track user behaviour via cookies. FBX is then able to  generate hyper-targeted ads in the desktop, News Feed, and right-rail.

In search  direct response ads are designed to get customers to take an immediate action based on what they’ve already shown interest in.
For example: Let’s say you have surfed the web looking for high end hotel rooms in Miami; and then every time you open your browser or a new page (for the next week at least) you see ads for some of these hotels popping up on your screen…Voila! – this is direct response marketing.
Direct response advertising is based on cookies left on the websites you visit. FBX works with Facebook approved DSP (Demand Side Platforms) to target specific users when they are on Facebook.
Watch out Google AdWords !

Kolidr – Newest player on the block !

Posted by sdidcott on February 19, 2014
Posted in: Customer Experience, Kolidr, Social Media, Video, You Tube. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Kolidr is one of the newest ( launched Feb 04, 2014) and “koolest” platforms out there !

– they are still in Beta ( meaning they are working out all the kinks) and I recommend Kolidr to anyone with a creative / artistic business or a creative and artistic approach to marketing their business; which I always highly recommend – gotta keep it interesting 😉

http://bit.ly/CreativeKolidr

The Impact of Emotional Content and User Engagement – It Makes a Huge Difference !

Posted by sdidcott on February 19, 2014
Posted in: Customer Experience, Facebook, Google+, Kolidr, mobile, Social Media, Video, You Tube. Tagged: , , . Leave a comment

Here is a recent study showing the impact of emotional content and user engagement.

It is pointed out that {“part of what makes emotional content so susceptible to spreading is that emotions themselves are contagious and positive emotions best negative ones, any emotion bests none at all.”}

read more – http://www.fastcodesign.com/3024276/evidence/these-scientists-studied-why-internet-stories-go-viral-you-wont-believe-what-they-f?utm_content=buffer71436&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Finally – Facebook lets you edit your posts!

Posted by sdidcott on September 26, 2013
Posted in: Customer Experience, Facebook, mobile, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Life is a little bit easier for the Facebook user  today !

At last FB is making a change to the way one can edit their posts once they have been published.

Great news to those of us who post something and then realize a few hours later or even the next day there is a typo or a mistake in dates and time etc., of an event being promoted.

Up until now the only recourse was to delete your post and start over … losing the likes and links to other users etc., …not the goal 😦

But now if you make a typo  you can go back and fix it easily enough and your original post will stay in the edit history for any one to check to ensure there is no confusion or tricks being played !

Read more about this at : techcrunch.com

SoMe and CEOs: Thoughts from Sir Richard Branson – Virgin Atlantic

Posted by sdidcott on April 20, 2013
Posted in: Customer Experience, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Social Media, Technology, Twitter. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Who isn’t using Social Media in big companies…. and what are they waiting for?

In a post by Richard Branson on his LinkedIn account he outlines his views about CEOs using Social Media – he say that those who are not are missing the boat!

Based on IBM’s 2012 Global CEO Study Social Media will be the number 2 way to communicate with customers in years to come (Face-to-Face will be #1). Yet, there is an astonishing number of company leaders who do not currently have a Social Media presence. Whether you are a Small Business owner , an Independent Professional, or the CEO of a large corporation your Social Media platforms provide a way for you to connect with and engage your customers; to build TRUST and LOYALTY with your customer base and increase sales and performance.

How can anyone argue with this – the closer you are to your customers the easier it is to hear what they are saying; what they want and meet their needs …. the end result  being increased ROI.

This is a WIN -WIN situation.

It is impossible to always have the #1 Face-to-Face Interaction with your customer, therefore engaging  in the next best thing – #2 AWESOME* Social Media Communications – is a smart business strategy.

Seriously – What are you waiting for ?

Contact Us Now!

Integrated Marketing

Let’s Be AWESOME* Together!

2013 Social Media Trends

Posted by sdidcott on February 22, 2013
Posted in: Customer Experience, Social Media. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Here is a great slide share presentation from Edelman Digital – an Internaltional  leader in PR and Media

Their focus is big brands for the most parts, but that certainly does not mean a small business or independent professional can’t take away great ideas and insights from their expertise.

Let us know if you have any questions or thoughts on this presentation – we’d love to discuss them with you any time!! 🙂

Integrated Marketing

Let’s Be AWESOME* Together!

ENJOY:

Not so sure about Vine…?

Posted by sdidcott on February 6, 2013
Posted in: Customer Experience, Twitter, Video, You Tube. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Not so sure about Vine…? Well here is a post via Hubspot  –Good Vine? – about the best uses of vine to date.

I  have to say- it doesn’t always make the best impact;  some products are easier to promote with Vine than others. We definitely need to think  about the way we are marketing our products while using Vine – see if you agree with me: My top picks are – Malibu Rum,  Bacardi,  and Toyota – and…..No –  it is not even TGIF !

“Graph Search” – Facebook radically revamps its Search Engine…… what does this mean?

Posted by sdidcott on January 21, 2013
Posted in: Customer Experience, Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This is the big news from Facebook for January 2013 – and it will be interesting to see it in action and what it will mean for marketers and Facebook users.

Graph Search is Facebook’s radically revamped search engine.

This new feature will let a person search for people, places, photos, and interests of their Facebook community and provide search results which will be constrained by the privacy settings of each user within that specific person’s Facebook Community.

{….. Facebook executives stressed. “The search we wanted to build is privacy-aware,” Zuckerberg said, adding that “every piece of content has its own audience.” He said 10 percent of the computational capacity in Facebook’s data centers is spent doing privacy checks. } via http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-15/facebook-radically-revamps-its-search-engine

And for Marketers?  ……..{Graph Search could allow Facebook to build some new businesses. When a user types in “music my friends like,” “TV shows my friends like,” or “restaurants liked by my friends in India,” the site returns a range of related media content and local businesses, and each listing includes ratings from friends. The next natural step for Facebook is to give users direct links to friend-recommended movies, TV shows, and restaurants, but Zuckerberg said the company is not currently thinking about making money from Graph Search:}…….. YET !!….{“This potentially could be a business over time, but for now we’ve been focused on building out this user experience. We first need to build something high quality. That is mission No. 1.”}

via http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-01-15/facebook-radically-revamps-its-search-engine

Psychology and Social Media – it’s always about People!

Posted by sdidcott on September 28, 2012
Posted in: Customer Experience, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized, You Tube. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

AWESOME*

“…..an understanding of the psychology of your audience can help you navigate the constant changes on social media. Social media is always about people. Even if the tools change, people are not going to change and social media tools are ways to talk to people.”

via http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-persuasion-how-to-move-people-to-action/ – there is a very informative podcast on this post with Derek Halpern of http://socialtriggers.com/