I would say that there is no difference in marketing and digital marketing except for the tools and media used.  The different tools and media requires different emphasis, approach and timing.  Unlike conventional marketing mediums, digital marketing gives instant results and the flexibility to tweaks and change if results are not as expected. Here’s my take on what a digital marketing strategy should have (might not be a conclusive list/item) :-

Objective-Driven Website
I believe that every website should be crafted with a goal in mind – and worked around it are elements to drive towards that goal.  Websites should not just be informative, it should drive inquiries and/or sales.  Even if you do not have an e-commerce site, a lot of people goes online to get additional information before buying it offline.

Corporate Blog
A blog to keep customers / would-be customer / stakeholders / potential investors updated on the latest on-goings with the organization.  Everyone loves news, insider news from the source, so using the blog can help deliver messages subtly.

Digital Campaigns
Running a campaign targeted to the online crowd requires careful planning.  The first thing to consider is target market and which channels (media) to use to reach out to your target market.  Secondly, to tie the marketing message with a dash of creativity.  Creative ideas brings out amazing results.  Thirdly, time the campaign properly – duration, how long, when .. etc.

Digital Medium / Tools
Use the various digital medium and tools to engage with would-be customers and customers, yes.. things like Facebook Page, Twitter and Linkedin.

Consistency
It is important to update your digital messages faithfully and consistently.  At times I see a twitter page with last messages dated 6 months back, I know that it is abandoned and overlooked, maybe?  Digital can be convenient and ‘cheap’ (this is arguable because it requires time, space which is money) but it also requires careful planning, proper execution and consistency.

The event was huge, attracting probably around 400 pax of bloggers, social media professionals, marketing personnel and brand owners. I got a few good pointers about blogging and social media – though some of the stuff I’ve already known because I have also been reading a fair bit about the topic.  It was a good event and a topic close to heart.

I had the opportunity to meet many people @shareenmy ; @lightyoruichi (the Malaysia Foursquare Ambassador) ; @liewcf (he is the person behind the famous tech blog, www.liewcf.com) ; @andygts ; @accentize (he sat beside me on day 2) ; @blogie (he is one of the speaker and panelist who manages 7 blogs, one of it being www.wp-evangelist.com) ; a Bernama reporter seated in front me and a few others whom I did not get their twitter IDs.

I now have 3 urgent things on my to-do list :-

1. Design my own name card
I want to design a name card for myself.  Personal branding stuff

2. A whole stuff I want to do with my WordPress.
After talking to @blogie , I am convinced that there is still a lot of stuff I need to do with my WordPress

3. Use the information I learned about social media in my marketing work
The information I have gotten over 2 days is useful for my current and future work .. so have to start working on it

Its a tiring day.. work tomorrow. Feeling inspired to do a whole lot of stuff.

UPDATE

Just as I was looking through the photos I took during the event, I found a few interesting ones that I MUST share.  Enjoy…

I like this setup – having two huge banners on both sides and the projected image in the middle.  I think they use a back projection for the video – which is expensive but necessary if you want to have a fuss free front area.  Very good, even sitting at the last row, I could see the face of the speaker clearly.

“Believe the Unbelievable, Dream the Impossible, Never take NO for an answer” was a quote shared by Tony Fernandez.

If your brand talks, you don’t have to buy fans.  Cool… but smaller brands may have a need to ‘buy’ fans.

It was an honor to have an opportunity to listen to Dr. M’s speech live.

This has got to be the best pic of all.  It was the last session – the forum with 8 panelist and Kenny Sia being one of them.  While Blogie was giving his opinion, Kenny Sia was making weird funny faces and I felt amused too – so I snapped a pic of it.  At one point, his eyes went squint!  He’s really hilarious!

Three of the eight panelist for the forum.  From right is Niki Cheong, Kenny Sia and Blogie.

The ideal social media team!  That’s a huge team.. This slide was presented by the speaker from Virtual Consulting, Indonesia.

]]> http://www.chewmeiling.com/social-media/asian-bloggers-and-social-media-conference/feed/ 2 http://www.chewmeiling.com/social-media/my-first-tweetup/ http://www.chewmeiling.com/social-media/my-first-tweetup/#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:02:46 +0000 meiling http://www.chewmeiling.com/?p=185 Its my first time.

Meeting up with my Twitter buddies. *phew* I’m not really the ‘meeting-up’ kind of person and I was feeling very unsure until the very last minute.  I would say that its fate that brought us all together – so we met ala-@JasonGan-coffee-talk-style in Starbucks Jaya One. The group comprised of @JasonGan @PrincessJoLing @eltonkuah @Flashout13 and of course yours truly @chewmeiling.

I liked the fact that everyone turned up in their everyday attires and that sets the mood to ‘relaxed’ – something that made everyone felt like friends for a long time.  It was a cool sharing session, mostly about social media and also a little bit of our personal life.  After all, it was the first time we met so we took time to get to know each other a little bit more.

There were a few things I concluded from the sharing session :-

Social Media is about Ideas
Technology enhances ideas. Without ideas, technology is dead. No amount of tools can replace the need for ideas. Without ideas (good ones!), social media is not function-able. Fresh, crazy ideas are a must!

Social Media is about being daring
Recycling ideas are for those who are not daring enough to venture into something new. Maybe due to business restrictions, a lot of social media campaigns today are nothing new. If no one dares to try new ideas, we are as good as staying status quo in everything we do?

Social Media is about real business results
I’ve read a gazillion of times that social media is not able to bring real business results, but yesterday’s discussion changed my perception. I used to think that its about engagement, bla bla bla… but now I know that social media can bring in actual business results … like increased sales, additional leads, more reach!

Social Media is an art and science, combined into one
Putting up a Facebook page and having a Twitter ID is just the beginning. You need a consultant who can go deep dive into your business, utilize his brain juices to churn out actionable, business-driven campaign to meet end objectives.  The who what why when and how are answered by numbers and statistics; justifying actions and forecast results – now that’s not just about guessing or estimating!

Social media is here to stay
In 2009, I told my peers that every marketer must equip themselves with social media knowledge.  I foresee digital to be a very important chuck in every marketing plan and in 2010, it happened.  With the multiple benefits social media can bring, its no surprise that more budgets are being allocated for this and more companies are jumping into the bandwagon.  Social media is not a fad, it delivers real business results and is going to stay!

I became involved in digital 4 years ago when online banners were mainly big boys, and in my small tiny organization I recommended the use of online medium in a large way.  Now, I’m ready to get into action.    Digital marketing is my passion and expert I may not be but that has never stopped me from doing what I’ve wanted all this while.  I agree with @eltonkuah and @JasonGan that once you are doing something you are passionate about, it really doesn’t feel like a job.  Some time back a peer told me that if I put in the exact amount of energy, effort and excitement in my own venture, I would go very far.  Now is the time to test it.

There will be more meet ups … and more Starbucks?  I think I’ll go get a Starbucks tumbler as well *LOL*

UPDATED :
I think I like the below… hahaha.. I’ll go check it out first. And, I also found that there is a Starbucks Merchandise Store in Ontario, California! Wahh..

I’m now discovering Foursquare, using my HTC Magic to log into my breakfast spots, supermarkets and even shops near my workplace. Logging in using my Twitter ID, I also link up with my friends to make up a community sort of. The most interesting part is of course the earning of badges and mayorship. At the moment, I’m mayor at 11 places .. which is still a far cry from other’s over 40 mayorship. Fun aside, Foursquare is an excellent marketing tool especially for those with a brick and mortar presence.

If your business is yet to be listed on Foursquare, you can easily add it in by logging into Foursquare and claiming it. To claim the business, you need to paste the contact page of your website or paste your contact information. Foursquare will contact you to verify that you own the business. Thereafter, you can create specials for those who check-in your outlet. Here’s the specials that are currently available on Foursquare :-

Mayor specials
This special can only be unlocked by the mayor of your outlet. Mayor is the user whom has checked in the most time in the last 60 days.

Count Based specials
This special is unlocked with an x number of check-in as specified by you.

Frequency Based specials
This special is unlocked with every x-number of times as specified by you.

Wildcard specials
This special is unloced at all times, however you can apply additional conditions before awarding the special. You can be creative with wildcards – so let your creative juices flow!

In US where Foursquare use is rather widespread, some companies has successfully implemented Foursquare as a marketing medium, like the ones covered in http://socialfresh.com/foursquare-case-studies/ I foresee Foursquare to be a tool that will soon be adopted by Malaysian businesses with retail outlets targeting end-consumers. But that does not mean that those with virtual storefronts will not jump into the bandwagon. It is going to be very interesting when more companies adopt Foursquare as a marketing medium and also as an engagement tool.

“What happens when someone posts a damaging remark or when someone turns it into a complaint forum?”

This is one of the major concern of many marketers/agencies who are managing social media networks for the organization/brands/campaigns, because how well you manage these damages will either make or break the campaign.  Imagine someone who genuinely wants to voice out their concern, and their remark gets deleted.  Do you think he/she is going to keep quiet about it?  He is probably going to tell the whole world the incident and the word of mouth gets around fast & deep.

Three things you should never do when facing damaging remarks
(1)Blatantly delete it
(2)Ignore it
(3)Challenge the person openly

Doing the above three things invokes anger, dissatisfaction and most importantly increases the urge to tell the whole world about the experience.  The person who manages the social media network must be tactful in managing all remarks-its better to spend some time to cross-reference or think it over before than just shot yourself in the foot.  Afterall, social media is all about engaging the customers and potential customers.  Taking the easy way out by deleting or ignoring isn’t going to help you campaign and can turn into a very bad PR.

So, what to do in event of a negative remark?  Here’s some tips on damage control based on my experience (might not be conclusive) :-
(1) Acknowledge the remark and take the discussion offline by asking for his contact number so that a representative can contact him to address his problem
(2) Get more information about the issue/problem and offer assistance.  You want to engage with the customer, so you have to listen.  Don’t blow your top.  They are afterall, always right.
(3) If the problem is widespread (a lot of people with the same complaint), offer a toll-free number that customers can instantly call.  Post the phone number clearly everywhere people can see it – so you have a direct line for people to voice their concern rather than post it openly for everyone to see.  Its ideal to be able to deal with issues directly, and any organization should appreciate that the concerns gets channeled directly to them and not to 3rd party ears.  Many times, competitiors pick up these complaints and use it to their advantage – so you definitely don’t want that to happen.
(4) Be as friendly as possible.  Try to help and engage.  Don’t jump into conclusions.  Understand the problem first.
(5) Be prepared with direct lines with expert customer service officers to handle complaints.  You don’t want to give out a direct line to a person whom are not able to handle these issues.  It can make matters worse.  Customers want a solution, not a punch bag.

An organization/brand/campaign on social media network can easily attract a lot of negative & damaging remarks.  As a marketer/agency handling an organization’s social media network, its not just about posting messages to make it look ‘happening’.  It simply doesn’t work that way.  Even if you have thousands of fans going ga-ga about some events, one small mention about a pain that everyone is going through can spark a lot of fire.  And worse, if it turns into a widespread forest fire.

Recently, I saw a comment on a service that I was using and I was so tempted to post a negative remark because of a long ‘pain’ I’ve been feeling.  After much contemplating, I decided to post the remark.  And guess what.  It was deleted, just like that, no mention no acknowledgement no direct message.  NOTHING.  I can’t mention names but I can tell you its a big brand with big budget.  Now I know, they are not listening… they just want to be listened to, and that’s what social media is not all about.