Blogs

Unlike Facebook’s IPO, LinkedIn’s public offering was widely considered a success when it opened for trading in 2011. And since then, the social network for professionals has been aggressive with acquisitions as it continues to prove itself as a successful place for businesses – especially B2B’s – to engage in social media marketing.

Jake Wengroff, consultant on social media research at global research firm Frost and Sullivan, talks to SplashCast host Renay San Miguel about what LinkedIn is doing right, details the network’s purchases of Slideshare and Rapportive, and gives advice on how B2B’s should use LinkedIn’s features for their marketing needs.

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Splash Media, one of the largest full-service social media marketing agencies in the country, announces the regional premiere of a 30-minute infomercial that takes this traditional form of direct response marketing in new directions.

Working with infomercial pioneer Bob Dodd, Splash Media’s newsmagazine-style broadcast breaks the direct response mold in several ways:

• Splash Media isn’t selling fitness/diet programs, kitchen products, investment strategies or beauty aids. The infomercial investigates the benefits of social media marketing as a way for businesses to generate sales leads and build customer communities.
• Unlike most infomercials that try to reach the average consumer, Splash Media’s broadcast targets owners of small/midsize businesses and entrepreneurs who want to learn how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and blogs to tell their stories.
• Even though Splash Media is a company that works with new media, it’s using a proven, effective form of traditional media – television infomercials – to reach new audiences across the nation.

The infomercial highlights the stories of several Splash Media business clients who used social media to successfully grow sales, engage with potential and existing customers and establish themselves as thought-leaders in their respective industries. The regional premiere is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CST Saturday, July 14 on WFAA-TV, the ABC affiliate in Dallas, Texas.

“This is definitely not your father’s infomercial,” said Chris Kraft, Splash Media CEO and co-founder. “Our program takes a higher-level approach in introducing our SplashCube social media management software, our Splash Media U online video training curriculum and our overall marketing services to business owners. We’re also practicing what we preach to clients by integrating traditional marketing methods – in this case, TV marketing – with social media, thanks to our use of a Twitter survey during the infomercial.”

Infomercial Details

• The infomercial is co-directed by DDTV2 chief creative officer Bob Dodd, whose Telly Award-winning work on direct response programs for clients including Nutrisystem and Time/Life Music and Books helped set the standard for effective, long-form TV marketing; and Brad Murano, the multiple award-winning chief creative officer for Splash Media.
• Splash Media’s Emmy Award-winning video production team shot the infomercial on location and in the studio of the company’s $5.5 million, state-of-the-art production facility.
• Splash Media chief content officer Renay San Miguel – a former anchor/reporter for CNN, Headline News and CNBC – hosts the newsmagazine-style infomercial, with Hilary Kennedy serving as special correspondent.

Splash Media Clients Featured In The Infomercial

• AMX, hardware and software for home/office technology management
• Humperdinks, a chain of restaurants/breweries
• Covington Aircraft, manufacturer of airplane engines
• ElectricMan, a 24-hour electrical repair service
• Candle Lamp, a restaurant supplies company
• First Preston, a real estate management company

Regional Splash Media Infomercial Schedule

WFAA-TV (ABC-Channel 8, Dallas-Fort Worth)

All times CST

• 1:30 p.m. July 14
• 5 a.m. July 15
• 2 p.m. July 16
• 1:41 a.m. July 20

KPXD-TV (ION, Channel 68, Dallas-Fort Worth)

• 9:30 a.m. July 16
• 9 a.m. July 19
• 8:30 a.m. July 22
• 8:30 a.m. July 29

About DDTV2

With offices in the South and West, DDTV2 has an unmatched record of success in the industry of direct response television. For over 15 years, the company has provided their clients with results-driven, award-winning creative, production and editorial services. Their clients have included Nutrisystem, Time/Life Books and Music, LifeShield Home Security, HSN Direct and Optimum Lightpath. DDTV2 is a member of the Electronic Retailing Association. For more information, contact Cindy Velsor at 214-532-6328, or Cindy@ddtv2.net.

 

About Splash Media

Splash Media, LP, based in Dallas, Texas, is a leader in the social media marketing space. The firm equips, empowers and enables small/mid-sized businesses to do social media marketing in a way that is effective and has a positive return on investment. Splash Media has tools and education to empower customers who want to do it themselves and offers a full-service, managed services model for those companies that wish to outsource.

The full-service model includes customized social media strategies for clients, all text/video content, traditional internet marketing and SEO, and online reputation management. Splash Media’s unique services for clients include a $5.5 million video production facility using state-of-the-art virtual reality backgrounds and an Emmy Award-winning video production staff. The blend of interactive digital marketing and leading-edge video results in compelling content that drives new business leads and creates thriving online communities for customers.

Splash Media also has the most comprehensive and complete social media marketing training and education platform in the world: Splash Media U, a mix of in-person and online video instruction, delivers real-world training for anyone wanting a career in social media marketing. Splash Media U is based on more than 65,000 hours of experience working on successful social media campaigns for small businesses.

Splash Media’s SplashCube software is a robust social media management tool providing automated marketing functionality to drive engagement and generate leads.

Facebook’s IPO face-planted and Google+ needs to add more users. Yet except for a June outage, Twitter keeps on flying right in its quest to become a useful and competitive social network. The addition of new search features late last week is another step in that direction.

Here’s the big 140-character question: can those features also give some lift to business marketing content?

Answer: a little. If anything, it’s more evidence that should help convince businesses to get deeper into Twitter marketing.

An official Twitter blog post goes into greater detail regarding the new features:

• Auto-complete, as with Google, makes suggestions for search terms as they are being typed into Twitter’s search box.
• A “People You Follow” option helps narrow search results. If you’re following brands and/or small and midsize businesses, this can help put a spotlight on not only new but previously posted content – all the more reason to offer up the best news-customers-can-use in those links.

Twitter had already announced spelling corrections and related queries, and is now providing real names along with user names in search results. And yes, all of it does sound a lot like what Google and Bing are offering their users, and therein lies the real story behind these recent changes.

Twitter’s relationships with Google and LinkedIn – allowing tweets to be featured in Google searches and cross-posting of tweets in LinkedIn – are no more. Twitter executives obviously think they are ready to go it alone in the social media world, and a better search experience is key in that mission. This all could be leading to yet another heavily-hyped, social media-based public offering. But Twitter may also be seeing encouraging signs regarding business/marketing usage, and not just with its overtly-commercial offerings like Promoted Tweets.

Each new feature that keeps users flying longer on Twitter – and those may include mobile features forthcoming from company and third-party developers – gives the social network that much more power as a marketing platform. Who knows; when it comes to Twitter, the sky may be the limit.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

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Twitter Business Marketing, Social Media Marketing

It was April 2011 when Splash Media reached out to John Earnhardt, who leads the corporate communications/social media teams at networking giant Cisco. Since that time, Earnhardt’s company continues to practice what its preaching when it comes to embracing the tenets of digital marketing.

Since host Renay San Miguel spoke with Earnhardt, Cisco launched The Network, a technology news site that doubles as a great example of a large company successfully using content marketing techniques (Intel and John Deere are two other companies providing what is now being called “brand journalism” in digital marketing circles). Cisco realizes that the company can cover its own industry as well or better than most traditional news media outlets, while avoiding promotional or commercial-sounding content for its own products/services.

In this interview, Earnhardt talks to San Miguel about where Cisco views the value in each of the three top social networks -  Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

What’s more American than parades, barbecues, fireworks and apple pie on the Fourth of July?

Why, the sharing of pictures and comments on social media about parades, barbecues, fireworks and apple pie on the Fourth of July, of course.

Personal Facebook, Twitter and Instagram feeds will soon be filling up with montages of pics, videos and thoughts from friends and family all over U.S., illustrating one of the more positive attributes of social media – the creation of a real-time virtual community.

So why can’t all that be translated to the business side of things via social media holiday marketing?

A recent Splash Media blog post highlighted the occasional off-message status update/tweet/post as a way to humanize businesses and keep a level of fun/spontaneity in the marketing mix. Holidays offer a similar opportunity to learn more about customers while letting them view a business as something more than a logo.

I’m not just talking about the obvious discounts tied to Independence Day, which are of course valid. Last time we checked, there’s no law against offering consumer deals for those who may be out and about on Wednesday; if recent history is any indication, Foursquare will also soon get busy with such check-in incentives. Hey, the freedom to make money off of holidays – that was one of FDR’s “Four Freedoms,” right?

(Insert Jeopardy-style buzzer noise here.)

Okay, maybe it was freedom from fear (of going out of business). But in any event, what we’re really talking about is taking advantage of July 4th to enhance the customer experience on a company’s social media platform.

Social media marketers talk a lot about “engagement.” It’s a $10 word for allowing full, meaningful conversations/interactivity between customers and companies. It’s about providing content that’s interesting enough to merit a response, even if it’s just a Facebook “like” or a retweet. That content doesn’t ask people to purchase – it asks them to participate.

It’s open-ended questions. It’s asking them to share pics and thoughts. It’s pop quizzes about American history. It’s memories of the best fireworks display they ever saw.

It’s a chance to extend the customer community all the way from your businesses’ front door to their actual real-world communities, where all the parades and barbecues and fireworks and apple pie are happening on July 4th.

Here’s our July 4th question for you: have you seen any great examples of holiday-themed engagement by companies using social media? Please share in our Comments section, and have a happy Fourth of July!

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media marketing; subscribe to our award-winning blog!

At this point, it doesn’t really matter what your political views are on the Affordable Care Act; this week’s Supreme Court ruling lifts any uncertainty about the immediate future for healthcare in this country. The direction is now set, and everyone involved in the industry has to move forward.

That also makes it an opportune time – for those who haven’t already done so – to reconsider the benefits of social media and healthcare. Splash Media has blogged about this already, bringing you some recent survey information showing more hospitals are indeed prescribing regular doses of Facebook and Twitter for educating patients. And we’ve chatted with a doctor and mommy blogger who has sung the praises of social media.

But now one of the biggest news stories of the year gives those in the healthcare industry a chance to get closer to customers – whether they are payors, patients or companies in the healthcare business-to-business chain:

* Insurance Companies – This industry impacted the most by this week’s ruling should get busy on blogs and social networks educating customers about what the ACA will mean for premiums.  If these companies have an opinion on ACA, that’s fine; a strong point-of-view is a good thing in a blog post. But never forget about the customers. Their priority is answers. They deserve up-to-date, accurate information.

* Hospitals/Clinics/Private Physicians -  Speaking of accurate information…those served by this group are already conducting more research online regarding health issues, consumer reviews of doctors, etc. There is more power in current and prospective patients’ hands than ever. Social media allows for a two-way connection via doctor/hospital blogs and social media platforms. Healthcare providers should seize upon that opportunity to talk about the ACA’s impact on the quality of healthcare and what’s ahead after 2014.

* B2B Providers - There was a reason that the business-related cable networks were keeping a close eye on the stocks of publicly-traded companies that sell within the healthcare space: software businesses, medical device manufacturers, etc. Vendors and current/potential partners need the latest information on ACA’s impact, just like those in the physician/patient chain.

From a social media marketing prospective, original content with strong, organic search engine optimization can push these businesses to the top of Google search results – especially when it’s all tied to current events.

Granted, the healthcare industry comes with its own set of regulatory and compliance challenges. But that should never shut the door on social media usage within that industry. The Supreme Court’s ACA ruling offers a way to “use the news,” with a potentially positive side effect: stronger trust and credibility.

 

 

Its user numbers are still far below Facebook and Twitter. Yet Google+ is slowly gathering steam as a viable social network, largely due to one of its more interesting features: Google+ Hangouts, which enables live video chats with several people at once.

Sarah Hill, a reporter and interactive anchor at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri, immediately saw a use for Hangouts in local broadcast journalism. She was one of the first to use Hangouts during a newscast and has been recognized in the media blogosphere  for her efforts.

In this SplashCast, Hill talks to host Renay San Miguel about Google+’s value in newsgathering, cites examples of viewers assisting her TV station during coverage of a developing story and gives her thoughts about social media’s overall impact on journalism.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media marketing; subscribe to our award-winning blog!

Anyone who lived in Austin, Texas in the early 1980s would probably remember how Whole Foods planted the seeds of success for what is now a worldwide grocery store business; it built strong ties with a community that supported its idea for natural/organic products and sustainable agriculture. Whole Foods listened to its customers and wasn’t afraid to enter into conversations with them.

More than 300 stores and 64,000 employees later, an aggressive social media strategy has resulted in Whole Foods building out a global community of customers. Yet in many ways it blogs and tweets as if it were still residing in one small store on Lamar Boulevard in downtown Austin, and that offers lessons for any small/midsize business striving for their own natural approach to marketing via social media:

• A CEO Who Blogs And Grows His/Her Own Opinions – Whole Foods CEO John Mackey doesn’t contribute blog posts all the time. But when he does, he candidly expresses his thoughts on job creation, healthcare reform and other matters of economic import. Mackey makes it clear his opinions are his own and not necessarily those of his company, yet he’s contributing thought-leadership on his industry and also setting the standard for other CEO wannabe bloggers.
• Water Your Social Media Garden Constantly – The official Whole Foods company blog, the Whole Story, is updated regularly and includes everything from recipes to official company policy on controversial agriculture issues to fun/holiday-related posts.
• Know Your Audience #1: Harvest Their Thoughts - Yes, Whole Foods’ Twitter and Facebook feeds have the latest on discounts and bargains, when new or requested food items are available, etc. But the company is also active in responding to questions/complaints and solicits comments and suggestions for better service.
• Know Your Audience #2: Serve Up Specific Content – Just like a well-stocked grocery store, Whole Foods’ Twitter feeds offer up a diverse sampling of content. There are feeds for wine enthusiasts, cheese lovers, recipes, the PR department, a charitable foundation. Many cities served by the company, as well as specific stores, have their own Twitter feeds.

In each of these instances, Whole Foods makes it clear that an actual human being – not a brand or trademark – is providing content to its community. You can’t get much more organic/natural/homegrown than that, and it’s an approach that should be copied by any small business looking to cultivate its customer base.

Whole Foods has been recognized for its use of social media. What do you think? Are there other Whole Foods examples for small/midsize businesses? Do you see room for improvement? Please share with us in our Comments section.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

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If you’re a business owner, and you’ve been able to keep the doors open and the lights on in the wake of the Great Recession, then we have two things to say to you:

1. Congratulations!
2. Would you mind stepping up to the microphone and telling us how you did it?

In this case, the microphone is your company blog, which is not only the hub from which all your social media activities should radiate, but also your personal soapbox. From this loftiest of perches – and it is lofty, because you’re doing your part to jump-start the American economic engine – you can accomplish even more for your fellow entrepreneurs and your business. You become a valuable resource for other business owners, and you become a thought-leader about your industry.

The Kauffman Foundation, which studies entrepreneurship, says there was a boom after the 2008 financial crisis; more people have started small businesses since that time vs. the period stretching from 1993-2007. As the New York Times reported, a lot of that was due to people chasing dreams of being their own boss after being downsized. Whatever the reason, that’s a deep knowledge base that can be passed along via small business blogs:

• Passion Shared Is Doubled, Pain Shared Is Halved – When I was at CNBC, I loved crafting feature stories about entrepreneurs. It takes a special breed of person to build a business amid a variety of challenges, and their stories can be very compelling. Consider your blog an ongoing feature story: talk about the passion you have to succeed, recount economic obstacles you overcame, provide tips and tricks for others facing the same situations.
• The Your-Business-Here News Channel - You don’t have to wait for someone from CNBC, or your local TV station, to call and get your reaction to the latest development in your industry. A blog and social media channels make you a publisher/broadcaster, and your take on the news, including the latest economic data, has value for those consuming that content, which may include potential customers who will trust you as a credible go-to data resource.

If you’ve kept the doors open and the lights on – or if you’ve started a business after the gloom and doom of ’08 – then your business story hopefully is the story of a resurgent U.S. economy. Your social media platforms and business blog is where the chapters are written every day.

Renay San Miguel is the Chief Content Officer at Splash Media and On-Air Talent and Host with Spark360.tv. You can find him on Twitter @PrimoMedia. Click here to see all of Renay’s blog posts.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in social media marketing; subscribe to our award-winning blog!

Facebook was supposed to start its summer by basking in the glow of a successful initial public offering. Instead the IPO landed on Wall Street with a thud, and suddenly there are questions about its business model, ad strategy, growth rates and whether consumers who like a brand on Facebook would indeed buy that’s brands products/services.

All this for a company that is still on track to soon pass the one billion user-milestone.

Jake Wengroff, global director of social media strategy and research for research firm Frost & Sullivan, talks to SplashCast host Renay San Miguel about his take on Facebook’s near-term challenges, why businesses and marketers should keep an eye on the company’s plans for updates to the Facebook mobile version, and passes along some juicy behind-the-scenes chatter about why General Motors really cut its Facebook Ad budget. (Hint: it wasn’t the cost of Facebook Ads or their efficacy)

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