about internet marketing

I’m Neil Glassman and my beats for Social Times include social media marketing and advertising tools, techniques and success stories. Sometimes my posts go off on a tangent, focusing on small business social media issues or research with broader implications.

How did I get the gig? Well, I certainly did not tell Nick O’Neill the whole story that follows.

I didn’t realize growing up that AM radio was one of the original social networks. It had Top 40 formats (mashups), DJ shout outs (tweets), contests to win logo T-shirts (badges) and exclusive clubs to which everyone belonged (Facebook groups).

I got into late night talk shows (blogs), which had an intimacy and affinity with listeners that radio has lost and web social networks have yet to fully discover. My parents didn’t think it was such a great idea for me to stay up late listening on school nights and took away my TV privileges for one night as punishment. That was the night of The Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan.

My luck with media improved over the years and I found myself marketing technology for media companies. My training was much like everyone else’s in the field: a box of Mad Magazine “best-of” books, learning how to touch-type and a brief career teaching emotionally disturbed junior high schoolers.

In the beginning, I worked with startups, turning underdogs into wonderdogs. Recently I’ve helped a few companies avoid a mid-life crisis. Whatever my responsibilities are for a particular company, my favorite part is finding ways to present a solution to the marketplace and having the marketplace react by saying, “Ah-Ha!”

Successful marketing means thinking outside the box while delivering campaigns inside the box. I leaped on the web-based and electronically delivered marketing platforms very early and with good success. When Nick put out a call for writers on marketing and advertising, I thought it was a cool opportunity and am grateful to have been chosen to contribute to Social Times. My posts are a great way to share my explorations of the potential of the social web, not just for marketers, but for the world’s cultures.

As marketers, our first priority is to develop campaigns that are effective. If we manage to leave a slogan, image or song in our collective unconscious in the process, that’s a great bonus. In my collaborations, I’ve had the chance to participate in some firsts — at least I think they were firsts. If you know something I don’t, teach me.

The first music video shown on TV that was shot and produced totally on video — no film conversion at any step. The Towel Tapes, February 1979.

Marketing the first hardware product to include mp3. Telos Zephyr, April 1993.

The first time the Internet ground to a halt because too many were trying to log in to a multimedia event. Streaming George Clinton concert audio to demonstrate Macromedia Shockwave, the precursor to Flash. November 1996.

On the personal front, I’m a New Yorker with a huge appetite for great songwriters and musicians of diverse genres. Tweet me and I’ll send you a link to my calendar of all the free concerts in town this summer.

Blogging works best when it’s participatory, so join in the conversation with the talented team on Social Times. Pitch me ideas for posts about using social media for marketing and advertising. Don’t forget to include how you are going to make the market say, “Ah-Ha!”

Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an Internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing. Download her newest e-book, “Content is Queen: How Article & Blog Writing Will Increase Your Sales.“

Companies love positive feedback. They share it on Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter, post it on their website and use it as marketing fodder. But what about when feedback is, well, less than pleasant? What can you do with a handful (or more) of irate customers? Do you ignore them? Bury them out back? Not in today’s social atmosphere.

Rather than try to sweep these unhappy customers under the rug, look at them as a challenge and an opportunity to improve your brand and leverage them for some publicity.

Why You Want Angry Customers

Well, maybe you don’t want angry customers, but let’s be honest — you’ll never have 100 percent customer satisfaction. No one does. So use those unhappy customers to better understand what you’re doing wrong, and learn from the experience. And while you’re at it, turn the angry customers into brand evangelists.

There are several ways to connect with unhappy customers in a meaningful way:

• Hold a panel or forum in person; give them a tour of your facility and hold a venting session
• Work virtually; host an online panel to get feedback from them
• Work one-on-one to understand their concerns and address them individually

In-Person Events

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Dell recently held its first Customer Advisory Panel event at their headquarters in Round Rock, TX. They invited two groups of 15 bloggers and social media gurus. One group was full of people who had negative experiences with the company and who were vocal about their displeasure. The second group was made up of people that Dell considered brand evangelists; people who loved Dell and told others.

The attendees started the morning with their gripes; customer service issues came up again and again. The heads of customer service and marketing were present and actively engaged. As they listened, they took notes, then asked questions and they promised they would make changes.

That type of customer empowerment is important. Now, whether they’ll go through with the promised changes is another story, but it was clear that Dell understood it was time to start paying attention to the public’s perception of its brand, and make some changes to keep their customers.

Nestlé is another company that has been successful at holding an event to let people engage with its brand directly. After a resurgence in interest in the Nestle Boycott a few years ago, Nestlé decided to invite a group of bloggers to what it called its “Happy, Healthy Gathering” in 2009. Mommy bloggers, who’d been tweeting up a storm about the company’s stance on breastfeeding in third world countries, were invited to tour the facilities and give their input on the company.

Whether the event truly changed perceptions remains to be seen, but it did a great deal to show that Nestlé was putting in the effort to reach its audience.

Disclosure: I was one of the bloggers invited to participate Dell’s Customer Advisory Panel.

Virtual Panels

Virtual panels are decidedly less effective than in-person ones. But they can be good replacements for focus groups. Pssst is General Mills’ online testing ground for new products. The company sends participants coupons and free products to try, and in return they are asked to fill out surveys. The program is so successful that bloggers who write about saving money are gladly turning others onto joining Pssst.

Similarly, the Starbucks Passion Panel was designed to get customer feedback — for better or worse. The community of Starbucks drinkers gives their input via surveys and forums.

Passion Panel member Jennifer Boyd said, “Being on the Passion Panel means that I have access to direct input and discussion with other members. It enables me to give my opinion on Starbucks’ current and future products through surveys. The panel is a great way to engage with their loyal customers and solidifies a relationship with a consumer to a brand.”

Wal-Mart’s Elevenmoms platform is another example of how a mix of online community, shopper experience and in-person visits can work together to help the company gather new insights. John Andrews, former Senior Manager of Emerging Media for Wal-Mart and founder of the Elevenmoms, said the community succeeded in getting Wal-Mart’s attention in a few areas where it was lacking.

When the iPhone was launched in Wal-Mart stores, the Elevenmoms were invited to go through the purchase process. Some had no problems, but others did. It took one blogger two hours to buy a phone. Each blogger published her experience, and Wal-Mart took the feedback to its operations staff, who took notes and improved the purchase process.

“The Elevenmoms used direct social media interaction to improve the shopping process,” said Andrews.

Other feedback caused Wal-Mart to reconsider its layaway strategy. Having canceled the layaway plan due to costs, Wal-Mart got some flack from the Elevenmoms, who felt it made it easier to make big purchases. As a result, Wal-Mart developed its Site to Store platform, which provided the benefit of layaway online, so that local stores didn’t incur extra costs.

Disclosure: John Andrews now works with Collective Bias, a company with which I have collaborated on projects.

One-on-One

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Solving a customer’s problems and changing their perception individually is the least cost-effective method, but a little work goes a long way. And it starts with customer service personnel being properly trained to solve problems, and not to simply stick to “the script” at all costs. Look at Zappos or Disney for great examples of how service reps are empowered to solve problems.

Disney empowers each of its “cast members” (staff) to solve a guest’s problem. From the street sweeper to the reservation specialist, everyone has the ability to turn a negative situation into a good one. That might mean replacing a fallen ice cream cone, upgrading a guest’s hotel room, or simply answering politely the most commonly asked question on Disney property: what time is the three o’clock parade?

Disney is so good at customer service, they’ve opened the Disney Institute, a customer service training program helps other corporations use the same techniques that has made Disney such a success.

Likewise, Zappos is also famous for its customer service tactics. The reps don’t use scripts, and seem to genuinely care about solving problems. Many customers are pleasantly surprised when their shipping gets upgraded and they get their shoes even faster – at no additional charge.

By providing instant happiness to the customer, these brands can prevent a lot of the bad karma that comes down the road when an unhappy customer becomes an enraged customer who tells everyone he knows about how bad the company is (no one wants their own version of DellHell).

Conclusion

No matter how you interact with unhappy customers, the point is not to brush them off, and make sure you learn from it. Don’t just pretend to listen and then go on doing business as usual. Take the feedback as constructive criticism that can help you determine your company’s future. How you handle your failures could make you or break you.

More Business Resources from Mashable

- HOW TO: Evaluate Your Social Media Plan/> - Why Your Next Business Card May Be Virtual/> - HOW TO: Improve B2B Sales Productivity with Social Media/> - HOW TO: Use Social Media for Lead Generation/> - HOW TO: Use QR Codes for Small Business Marketing

Stock: Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, biffspandex

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If the war supplemental is not approved this week, the troops will still be paid and the troops will still be fully supplied. There is no "emergency" requiring action this week.

web internet marketing

I’m Neil Glassman and my beats for Social Times include social media marketing and advertising tools, techniques and success stories. Sometimes my posts go off on a tangent, focusing on small business social media issues or research with broader implications.

How did I get the gig? Well, I certainly did not tell Nick O’Neill the whole story that follows.

I didn’t realize growing up that AM radio was one of the original social networks. It had Top 40 formats (mashups), DJ shout outs (tweets), contests to win logo T-shirts (badges) and exclusive clubs to which everyone belonged (Facebook groups).

I got into late night talk shows (blogs), which had an intimacy and affinity with listeners that radio has lost and web social networks have yet to fully discover. My parents didn’t think it was such a great idea for me to stay up late listening on school nights and took away my TV privileges for one night as punishment. That was the night of The Beatles’ first appearance on Ed Sullivan.

My luck with media improved over the years and I found myself marketing technology for media companies. My training was much like everyone else’s in the field: a box of Mad Magazine “best-of” books, learning how to touch-type and a brief career teaching emotionally disturbed junior high schoolers.

In the beginning, I worked with startups, turning underdogs into wonderdogs. Recently I’ve helped a few companies avoid a mid-life crisis. Whatever my responsibilities are for a particular company, my favorite part is finding ways to present a solution to the marketplace and having the marketplace react by saying, “Ah-Ha!”

Successful marketing means thinking outside the box while delivering campaigns inside the box. I leaped on the web-based and electronically delivered marketing platforms very early and with good success. When Nick put out a call for writers on marketing and advertising, I thought it was a cool opportunity and am grateful to have been chosen to contribute to Social Times. My posts are a great way to share my explorations of the potential of the social web, not just for marketers, but for the world’s cultures.

As marketers, our first priority is to develop campaigns that are effective. If we manage to leave a slogan, image or song in our collective unconscious in the process, that’s a great bonus. In my collaborations, I’ve had the chance to participate in some firsts — at least I think they were firsts. If you know something I don’t, teach me.

The first music video shown on TV that was shot and produced totally on video — no film conversion at any step. The Towel Tapes, February 1979.

Marketing the first hardware product to include mp3. Telos Zephyr, April 1993.

The first time the Internet ground to a halt because too many were trying to log in to a multimedia event. Streaming George Clinton concert audio to demonstrate Macromedia Shockwave, the precursor to Flash. November 1996.

On the personal front, I’m a New Yorker with a huge appetite for great songwriters and musicians of diverse genres. Tweet me and I’ll send you a link to my calendar of all the free concerts in town this summer.

Blogging works best when it’s participatory, so join in the conversation with the talented team on Social Times. Pitch me ideas for posts about using social media for marketing and advertising. Don’t forget to include how you are going to make the market say, “Ah-Ha!”

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More Real-Time Web coverage. Don't miss the next wave of opportunity on the Web supported by real-time technology! Get ReadWriteWeb's report, The Real-Time Web and its Future.

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We're pleased to announce ReadWriteWeb's latest premium report, Augmented Reality for Marketers and Developers: Analysis of the Leaders, the Challenges and the Future. This report will help you develop a sophisticated understanding of Augmented Reality (AR), the mobile and Web technology that places data on top of a user's view of the physical world. The research included will help you decrease your AR development time to market by learning from the first wave of early adopters. AR offers a new marketing and product paradigm for a high impact, high value customer experience. More than 1,000 AR campaigns were kicked-off last year and we expect to see many more in 2010. In this report, we profile key AR development companies, their campaigns as well as development lessons learned. For more information or to buy the report, visit here.

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Enjoy your weekend everyone.

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News and Announcements. New Web Site Launch! July 23, 2010 - 12:34am. AAVSO Alert Notice 422 July 16, 2010 - 5:20pm. Observing Campaign on Hubble's First Variable in M31: M31_V1. July 16, 2010: An observing campaign is being carried out ...

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Today we acknowledge and celebrate the revolution of media becoming social. A day that honors the technological and societal advancements that have allowed us to have a dialogue, to connect and to engage not only the creators of media, but perhaps more importantly, one another.

It’s a day to celebrate the changes in media that have empowered us to stay connected to information in real time, the tools that have enabled us to communicate from miles apart, and the platforms that have given a voice to the voiceless and victims of protest injustice. It’s a revolution worth celebrating. Today, we celebrate Social Media Day and we hope you’ll join us.

So how do you participate? Being social, of course. You can do this online by tracking the social updates in various ways as listed below, or you can make some connections offline by attending an event near you. There are more than 600+ meetups in 93 countries today with thousands of attendees. As far as we know, there is no official holiday dedicated to social media. We think it deserves a day of it’s own, and what better way to celebrate than to connect with your local social media community?

There are lot’s creative events planned from panels, to charity fundraisers and even sporting tournaments. Below is a message from our very own Pete Cashmore explaining the idea, reasons for and goals behind Social Media Day:

A Message From Mashable’s Founder and CEO Pete Cashmore

So what’s next? As Pete mentions, we want this to be a launching point for you to build a lasting relationship with your social media community by continuing to host Monthly Mashable Meetups using our Meetup Everywhere page, or more frequently if you think it works better for your community.

Perhaps today’s local meetup was a place for you to network, but now you can take it one step further by organizing panels, demos and more — or maybe you can just keep it simple with monthly social networking meetups. The point is, let’s keep this social community connected, online and off. And next year, watch for the second annual Social Media Day, as we hope to continue to build on this celebration. The next date of the meetups will be July 27th, class='blippr-nobr'>Mashable’sclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable 5th birthday. Stay tuned and stay social!

How To Participate in Social Media Day

• Meetup Everywhere Mashable: Sign up to attend an event on the Meetup Everywhere Mashable.
• Watch the live streams worldwide: We’ll be updating throughout the day.
• Tweet: Use the #smday hashtag on class='blippr-nobr'>Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter. With so many participating, we should be a trending topic on Twitter on June 30. Also, we’ll soon be announcing a prize for those that tweet or post to class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook.
• Add the Social Media Day Twitter theme from TweetyGotBack to your account in support of the day.
• Follow @mashSMday: Follow @mashSMday on Twitter for updates and developments on the celebration.
• Comment via Facebook: Go to Smday.com and leave a comment either promoting your meetup or tell us what you’re doing for your event.
• Upload to class='blippr-nobr'>Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr: Upload photos to Flickr and tag them with #smday.

Winner of Sony Dash Giveaway

Last week we announced a Sony Dash giveaway that would be awarded to an attendee of a Social Media Day meetup in the U.S. and had fanned us on Facebook. The winner is Heather Spring, an Internet Marketing Manager at Accenture in Chicago, and is attending the Wheaton, Illinois meetup today with a crowd of about 40. Spring, who prior to entering the web world worked as a nuclear engineer, heard about the local meetup through the Mashable e-mail newsletter. She thinks meetups are a great way to socialize in real life with other social media professionals.

“Hopefully we can have conversations longer than 140-character tweets,” Spring said. Why is social media day worth celebrating? She said because “social media has become such a force that allows anyone to be heard – no matter where they are or who they are or what they have to say. And there’s always someone willing to listen.” Congrats to Heather on the prize!

Top 10 Meetups (Based on Attendance)

1. New York, NY/> 2. Sao Paulo, Brazil/> 3. Barcelona, Spain/> 4. Santa Ana, CA/> 5. Antwerp, Belgium/> 6. Buenos Aires, Argentina/> 7. Atlanta, GA/> 8. Boston, MA/> 9. Philadelphia, PA/> 9. Chicago, IL/> 10. San Francisco, CA

Social Media Day Tweets

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See the Closest Meetup to Your City

We’d also love to hear what you’re doing for Social Media Day in the comments below or in the Facebook comments section on Smday.com.

For more Social Media coverage:

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By Tess Alps: Why is TV-dissing such a big part of internet orthodoxy? Clay Shirky has been out promoting his new book, Cognitive Surplus, which states that internet activity is displacing TV among the young and that this is a good thing. There have been newspaper reviews like this and yesterday he was interviewed on Radio 4’s Today programme.

To be fair to Shirky, he doesn’t say that all TV is “bad”, but he believes that being online is better – connecting, creating, sharing. I would have to be a philistine not to recognise the many positive benefits that the internet has brought us, and I share Shirky’s idealistic hope that it will promote democracy, knowledge, peace, love etc.

My problems with his book are three-fold: I dispute some of his facts, some of the distinctions that he draws and some of the science that he employs.

Facts first: is TV viewing declininTo be fair to Shirky, he doesn’t say that all TV is “bad”, but he believes that being online is better – connecting, creating, sharing. I would have to be a philistine not to recognise the many positive benefits that the internet has brought us, and I share Shirky’s idealistic hope that it will promote democracy, knowledge, peace, love etc.

My problems with his book are three-fold: I dispute some of his facts, some of the distinctions that he draws and some of the science that he employs.g for the first time ever among the young? Not in the UK or Europe, and TV catch-up services online are extra. TV viewing is booming in developing markets. Anyone who has watched the World Cup coverage will have been moved to see young African children joyfully watching their first TV football match.

Secondly, to position the internet as an alternative to TV is meaningless – and I don’t say that lightly, because Clay Shirky is clearly a very intelligent person. The internet is a vast and transformational technology, but it is not a homogenous medium.

Many human activities that once took place offline can now be conducted online, including watching TV. A growing percentage of young people’s time online is spent watching TV and video – and then talking about it, as a quick glance at Twitter will prove. Sadly, there is about a 1:99 ratio between people who create things online and those who just consume them, much as in the real world; and TV inspires online creativity.

Finally, a bit of science. The word “passive” is often used to denigrate TV viewing. There might be less physical movement than twitching with a mouse but the brain is deeply engaged watching TV. The brain is a complex organism; the very title of Shirky’s book indicates he overvalues rational and cognitive processes over emotional intelligence and education; action over feelings.

We have just finished some neuroscientific research looking at the difference in the brain activity between watching TV and browsing websites (largely text based) and the differences are marked. TV is much stronger in areas such as emotion and long-term memory encoding and web browsing is stronger for visual attention. So they are different – but complementary.

Watching TV is a mostly shared experience; the real-life conversations within families that TV provokes are enormously valuable. Entertaining people and promoting happiness is a noble pursuit; TV is the master. But we should also recognise TV’s vast role as an informer, educator and promoter of democracy every bit as important as the internet.

Most of the time, the ease that the internet brings to human endeavour is brilliant, but I can think of areas where it has casualised and arguably cheapened some things. What’s the exchange rate between an online click on a petition and a Jarrow marcher? Birthday wishes on Facebook take a mere two seconds.

I could reverse what Shirky does and make unfair comparisons between the best of TV and the worst of the internet: is it better to watch Survival and Dispatches or to play to World of Warcraft and poke a friend? But I’d rather value both these massive cultural treasures for all the good they can do, separately and together.

Tess Alps is chief executive of Thinkbox, the marketing body for UK commercial TV

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