Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Helping 'ABC Company' rock their Facebook page and email newsletter

"ABC Company," a health-oriented company in central Florida, uses Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest and a biweekly email newsletter to promote its brand. In this blog post, I will be analyzing information from their Facebook page's Insights during April 28-May 25, 2013, as well as email newsletter analytics from Bronto on May 21, 2013.

Key findings

On Facebook, ABC is growing fairly steadily in likes and reach, but frequency and engagement are low. Facebook gives links and photos more weight in deciding what to show users in their Newsfeeds, but Facebook's newer algorithim updates also take into account the what different types content users interact with and the past 50 interactions a user has had. If those interactions were with you, your content is more likely to show up in their Newsfeed, making not only interaction but repeated interaction and different types of content important for reaching large audiences on Facebook. It also appears from the posts listed on the Overview page of Facebook Insights that a large portion of their posts are directly promotional, which can turn off the audience. With all this in mind, ABC should make sure it's sharing a mix of content in the most engaging ways possible.

In ABC's email newsletter, about 25 percent of the 2,606 emails delivered are opened, and the click-through rate is 2.7 percent. Conversions and revenue are 0. ABC's open rate is decent, but they definitely have room to improve their click-through and conversion rates. This makes me believe that their subject lines and delivery times may be OK, but the content of their email newsletters is not interesting enough to make people want to click through to read more.

Improvements

When I make recommendations for my company's social media, I always say to focus on engagement and the rest will follow. When you get likes, comments and shares, you also get higher reach and frequency; and you might even attract more likes from friends of the people who are interacting with you. ABC should ask questions and incorporate calls to action into their Facebook posts to achieve these goals. They should also vary their post types with links, photos and occasionally text only. If ABC doesn't already have a blog, they should start one to talk about their health products or services, which also creates useful content to share with their Facebook and other social media audiences. Sharing useful content like blog posts on topics that affect or interest the audience is much more desirable than direct promotions on social media. Social Media Examiner says people on most social platforms are there to simply socialize, not to buy; direct sells turn people off. But pull marketing can help you attract people to voluntarily learn more about your product or service, which ideally results in sales.

With their email newsletter, I think ABC needs to simply make the body of their email better. People are opening the emails, but a small percentage of people are actually clicking through to ABC's website or blog. ABC might consider adding some element of personalization to the subject lines and content of their email newsletters, as personalized emails result in a higher CTR. ABC should also experiment with their e-newsletters with A/B testing to swap out different elements of the newsletter to see what performs best.

Other channels

ABC also uses Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube. The company should be utilizing all of their social platforms to cross promote each other, as well as linking to all social profiles from their emails. They could also occasionally invite people to sign up for their email newsletters from the various social platforms. The important thing to remember when doing this is to do it sparingly and subtly. Instead of posting "Follow us on Pinterest" on the ABC Facebook page, they should post something like "Wondering how to eat healthier during this holiday season full of tempting treats? Follow our Eating Clean and Lean board on Pinterest: [Link to board]" You can't expect people to just naturally want to follow you or do what you say. You have to give them a reason to do it; tell them what's in it for them.

Future campaigns/posts

The holidays are coming up, and at least in my family, it's hard to make health and fitness a priority when there are so many delicious treats within reach. In the near future, ABC could publish a series of blog posts, which they would promote on all their social platforms plus email, about being healthy during the holidays -- how to make traditional recipes more healthy, how to fit exercise into a busy holiday season, ideas for gifts that promote health, etc. Another time of the year that ABC should tackle is New Year's. Lots of people make health-related resolutions, and ABC could spark engagement by asking their followers about their particular resolutions. They could also write blog or social media posts to give tips and inspiration for following through with those resolutions.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Company Analysis: O.C.D. Experience – Organize & Create Discipline


Often born during hectic and stressful times in life, clutter at home or work can also perpetuate that stress. Psychologist Sherrie Bourg Carter says that clutter overwhelms your brain with excessive stimuli, leaving you feeling overwhelmed. Having junk – whether paperwork, toys, clothes or something else – piled and stuck everywhere tells your brain that your work is never done and can make it difficult to relax. Phew, I’m stressed just thinking about it.

It’s not easy to introduce order to chaos, especially after chaos has been allowed to rule for some time. Organization is a lifestyle, and Justin Klosky is living it. Klosky founded O.C.D. Experience, which stands for Organize and Create Discipline, in 2008 to help his clients not only tidy their homes or offices but to also find clarity in their own lives. Klosky and his O.C.D. team are much more than a maid service; when he takes on clients with deeper issues hiding behind their clutter, he does so with kindness and understanding. He works to gain their trust, and he helps them separate the mess from whatever life stressors contributed to its creation.

Klosky is no stranger to stress made worse by his own mind. He didn’t use the letters O.C.D. in his business name just to be cute. Klosky actually has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and he uses his business to channel his disorder in constructive way. Klosky says in this video that he wanted to break down the acronym of O.C.D. and change it to Organize and Create Discipline for his business to take control of a negative thing and make it positive.



Who does O.C.D. Experience reach?

Since O.C.D. Experience’s creation, the business has organized closets, garages, homes, businesses and computers across the country. Klosky has created several O.C.D. products – a slimline wallet and an organizational desk system. He has a book, Organize and Create Discipline: An A-to-Z Guide to an Organized Existence, being published Dec. 26 and a new app being released soon. In 2014, Klosky hopes to leave more of the day-to-day organization consulting to his well-trained O.C.D. team members in Los Angeles, New York and Miami so he can focus on promoting his new book and further building his brand as the go-to organization personality. Klosky has already been a guest on talk shows such as “The Talk” with Julie Chen and Anderson Cooper’s daytime show “Anderson.” He and his business have also been featured in all forms of media – digital, print, TV and radio. Klosky plans to do more of these types of guest appearances in the coming year to solidify the O.C.D. brand as a household name.

O.C.D. Experience’s target audience includes people anywhere on the scale from grasping for a little more order in their home to dealing with deep emotional problems that have led to extreme disorder. O.C.D. Experience can help someone wanting to better organize a small space like a closet or garage or even a computer, as well as someone who needs to completely overhaul the organizational system for their entire home or business. Introducing organization not only makes these spaces better; they make people’s lives better as they are able to start letting go of those excessive stimuli and the emotional baggage that goes with them.

Why Integrated Marketing Communications?

In this communications plan, I will offer my recommendations for the O.C.D. Experience website, blog, social media, events and more. No matter how many products and services are offered, and no matter how many places the O.C.D. Experience brand graces, the most important thing is to give the audience a consistent experience every step of the way. There are so many ways that potential customers can consume your marketing messages. They might see you on TV or social media, or they could see an ad for your company on a billboard or website banner. They could read about you in a news article or pick up and read your book. To make sure someone who sees your brand on multiple platforms connects all those experiences, you have to implement an integrated marketing strategy. Steve McKee wrote on businessweek.com about an exercise that his advertising firm conducts to see which taglines of the world’s ten largest advertisers they can recall. McKee said that while he doesn’t think taglines are necessarily the greatest measure of integrated marketing, the one retailer tagline that everyone can remember proves an important point. The company is McDonald’s, and it’s not because they’re the biggest spender. It’s because they’ve pushed out the same marketing messages across multiple online and offline platforms consistently since 2003. Perseverance with consistency, McKee says, is key to successful integration. It takes planning, but it also takes time.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

In a hotel social media manager's shoes: Answering positive and negative feedback (samples)

The following are sample hotel reviews, which I am answering for a class assignment as if I were the hotels' social media manager. I do not actually work for either of these companies.


Dear Travelwith3kiddos,

We're so happy to have had you with us not once, but twice! Thank you for choosing Hyatt Regency Orlando and for taking the time to tell us about your stay.

Mother nature certainly throws our pool maintenance team a curve ball from time to time -- but from the the hotel's three pools to our full-service spa to your comfy bed, our Hyatt family strives to exceed your family's expectations. We hope you'll be back soon, and we hope you won't see a single unsatisfactory thing. But if you do, please don't hesitate to report it to the front desk right away. We want to know if there's anything we could do to make your stay better, and we want to do it as soon as possible.

Corey Crawford is the culinary genius behind the B-line Diner, and we'll be sure to give your compliments to the chef. Cappricio Grill is now Fiorenzo Italian Steakhouse. Fiorenzo's open kitchen allows you to enjoy the creation of your steak, seafood, pizza or pasta dinner as well as the taste. Reservations are required at Fiorenzo, which ensures that guests won't wait to be seated due to walk-ins.

During your stay, we do our best to keep your car happy and safe in our covered parking areas, and we're glad to hear that you were pleased with our shuttle service. If you bring your family back between now and Dec. 30, 2014, be sure to check out our "Park and Ride" package (http://orlando.regency.hyatt.com/en/hotel/offers/offer-detail.html?offerId=52945012). You'll get complimentary hotel valet for one car, plus five I-Ride Trolley tickets per night during your stay.

Thanks again for your stellar review, and please let me know if I can answer any questions for you about Hyatt Regency Orlando. We hope to see you soon!

Sincerely,

Julie McKinney
Social Media Manager
Hyatt Regency Orlando



Dear Luv2TravelWithHubby,

I hope you'll accept our deepest apologies for not making your 10-year high school reunion the enjoyable experience it should have been. Your room should have been ready at 4 p.m., and your bed and towel requests should have been honored when you asked the first time. Your room and our grounds should have been in tip-top shape, as well, and we regret that this was not so during your visit.

We would love to host you and your husband at Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina again -- and this time, we'll blow you away with our service. Please email me at julie@hilton.com, and I will be happy to help you book your next stay at a discounted rate. Take advantage of our hotel's concierge services to book tours and visits to the best attractions in the area. We'll get you set up to go on a snorkeling adventure, play a game of golf or explore the Everglades on an airboat excursion. Without even leaving the hotel, you can enjoy an outdoor heated pool, full-service spa and fitness center. After a full day of fun in Fort Lauderdale, we'd love to have you join us for dinner at Nanking or The G. (Peruse the menus here: http://www.fortlauderdalemarinahotel.com/activities-en.html)

Thank you for your constructive criticism, and I hope you'll give us a chance to redeem ourselves and win your confidence in Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina.

Sincerely,

Julie McKinney
Social Media Manager
Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina