Today, No Comment doesn’t work. Ask Tiger Woods. Online social media tools allow everyone to comment. It means that if you or your business is not meeting potentially damaging news head on, people on Twitter, blogs, 24-Hour “news” shows are creating the comments for you. They are dictating the message and usually making things more difficult to manage and wrangle back in.

The problem with No Comment is that you usually end up doing a public Mea Culpa anyway, that is usually overshadowed by the speculation, rumor and innuendo, created by people without all the facts.

So as a business think about this next time you are faced with a crisis management situation, you can No Comment but remember, other people will be commenting…and you may lose any ability to get the real story out when you are ready.

So how do you, a business owner, marketer, etc, that has a product or service that isn’t “sexy” make it “sexy”? Here are a few ways.

Tell Your Customer’s Story: Chances are that you have some interesting companies using your service or product. Create case studies. Let customers guest post on your blog, do video interviews with them and post them on your social networks. Reach out to bloggers in your space with their story, their successes. By focusing on cool and innovative uses of your product you make it infinitely more exciting and open new avenues for people to talk and or write about you.

Open Up The Hood: Have a really interesting technology driving your business? Have you created a unique system to help operate your business? Chances are that your business has something unique that drives it (or you wouldn’t be successful). Highlight unique aspects of your business and give people a peek behind the curtain. Most likely this will be something that potential customers or members of the press will find interesting.

Let Your Customers Do Your Bidding: This is a little different than the first one. The beauty of social networks is that it allows your customers to talk about you. At Formstack we monitor what people say about us on Twitter.  Instead of just keeping all those nice things to ourselves we created a Twall of Fame We printed and framed those positive tweets and put them in the hallway of our office. We  retweeted them and posted some of the tweets from the wall on our Facebook page and our blog. This got people talking about us again and enticed some of the people who wrote the original comments to re-post our tweets. It creates excitement about your brand and your product because it is coming from real users of your service. It gets your customers talking about you, telling their friends how “sexy” you are and why they like you.

Just because you don’t have the shiniest gadget or most popular social networking application on the internet does not mean your business isn’t exciting. Dig a little deeper than the surface and see what will get people talking. Chances are you won’t have to dig too deep.

It was a simple, well-designed email that had a very simple call to action: Follow us on Twitter and receive an exclusive discount code:

Why it’s good

Dick?s did a good job of using a traditional tool ? email marketing ? to drive traffic to one of those shiny new social media tools ? twitter.  What a lot of marketers overlook is that having a good social media presence isn?t just setting up post at each outlet and waiting for people to find you. You actually have to drive traffic to get people to start engaging with you! Simple concept, I know, but often an overlooked one when defining your social strategy.

Why it works:

1. Not only is there an incentive to follow Dick?s Sporting Goods on Twitter, but the offer, an exclusive (at least to their twitter followers) offer makes you feel like you are getting something no one else has. You are in the Dick?s Sporting Goods Twitter circle and you benefit from it.
2. It?s a soft sell, it?s not intrusive, and it doesn?t require a lot of action. That’s more than one – but you see what I am getting at.

The Result

Many of the traditional barriers have been removed for me to participate with or buy from Dick?s using this strategy. It was easy to follow the link, hit follow and get a discount code?and now that I have a discount code, my next step is probably to their website to see if there is something I didn?t know I needed until I had that excuse to go shopping ? brilliant!

And now they have two permission-based mediums to market to me at… email and Twitter!

The latest was a post from Mike Seidle, a local blogger and business person who runs Professional Blog Service. I want to preface that I don’t know Mike and I have nothing against him. I  follow him on Twitter and I think he generally has some good thoughts about business blogging and social media, however I still disagree with Mike on this point.

It is OK for your brand to be on Twitter – to be on Facebook – to be active in social media. It really is, and for a couple of reasons.

1. It gives your customers one point to gather news and information about your company.
2. It allows you to monitor the conversation.
3. It allows you to connect with other brands and possibly forge relationships and parterneships based on their interactions in social media.

Mike points out that people want to engage with other people. Yes, this is true, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t carve out a space for your brand as well. Here are some effective ways to do this:

1. Acknowledge who tweets/updates Facebook etc. on your company’s behalf: By providing some real faces it helps humanize your brand. FreshBooks does a good job of this on their Twitter page.
2. Allow your employees to interact on social media on a personal level AND on behalf of your company: I manage our twitter account as well as our Facebook page but I also have my own personal accounts. Many of Formstack’s customers don’t want to follow me, because well, sometimes I like to talk about sports, or my kids or whatever else is going on.So, much of what I have to say is not great for them. But I also am an advocate and an evangelist for online form builder Formstack, and when it makes sense, I talk about the cool stuff we are doing on my personal accounts. It gives insight to people who follow me on what I do for a living and helps expose them to Formstack.  Empower your brand and employees and it will pay off.
3. Have personality. If you are going to engage as your brand on social media show a bit of personality. We know that brands are not humans, but the more “life” you are able to give your brand on social media the more value you will derive from interacting through the multiple mediums.

Agree? Disagree? Have other ideas on how to use your brand across social media, let me know in the comments!

He gave the example of a milkshake and how, through market research, a restaurant received great input about taste, ingredients, etc., for their milkshakes.  After implementing changes based on their research they saw no change in sales. After more research Christensen and his team found that people were buying milkshakes in the morning to take up time during their long commutes and to give them a reasonable amount of hunger satisfaction until they ate again.

The restaurant was trying to make milkshakes better to compete with other milkshakes, but their customers weren’t looking at competing milkshakes, they needed the milkshake to perform the job of a time waster and to provide a bit of hunger relief. So the advice that Christensen and his team made was not to make a better tasting milkshake, but rather a thicker shake to ensure that it would last through the whole commute!

As marketers our goal is define our customers – we often put them in buckets based on on demographic data, user behavior and other data points without taking a step back and asking what job does my customer need done? And, does my product or service get that job done?

How can you figure out what job your customer’s need your product to perform?

• Take an online survey
• Use Social Media to watch and listen to how customers are using the product
• Let your customers guest blog on your company blog about how they are using the service/product
• Invite them to attend your next webinar and give them 10 minutes to demo their use of the product

Today is a good a day as any to ask that question and look at your marketing and see if the two are in tune.

Having experience both on the agency and client side I understand what a good Public Relations firm can do for an organization. Here are three reasons, from my experiences, why businesses, and especially small businesses, should hire an outside PR agency.

1. You Don’t Have Time To Do PR: PR is not a spigot that you can turn on and off. Just like other marketing functions, consistent, strategic, and measurable PR is something that needs to be planned for and executed over a long period of time. Just like you can’t turn on SEO, PR is something that only gets stronger as you put more effort into it.
2. To Maximize a Launch: Most businesses understand how crucial launching a new product or service is to  the success of your business. PR is much more than just writing a press release and putting it over a wire service. Having a partner who can maximize media relations, social media, events, award opportunities and other PR related activities in conjunction with a major release can give you a leg up as you launch your product. But just remember, as I mentioned in point 1. PR is not something to turn on and off.If you plan on utilizing an outside agency for your launch you need to make sure that you have a system in place once the launch is over to continue all the energy and the momentum you have built. The worst thing a company can do is launch big product, have big PR, and fade away without maximizing what you and your agency have spent months developing.
3. To Revitalize a Product or Service: Sometimes even the best in-house PR mavens can run out of good ideas. Just as in a re-brand or website redo bringing an outside agency to revitalize your PR can pay huge dividends. Good PR agencies know how to look at a product, service, or company and see something new – something buzz worthy. Something that you think is dead or tired can quickly be taken to a new market or a new outlet and quickly gain legs. Using a PR firm that can quickly dial up their contacts and test new ideas can spring to life a fading product or business. Remember though, even the best PR can’t revive a dying product, make sure there is something there and be honest with your agency about past successes and failures so they can provide proper strategy.

And as a bonus here is one more reason to hire an outside agency.

4.  You Are In A Crowded Market: Small businesses who are trying to compete in large, established, or crowded markets may see some good benefits from hiring an outside PR agency. A good agency will be able to develop a strategy that focuses on your company’s strengths and differentiators that make you standout.  Often times an agency can help you break through the noise and reach a desired market quicker.

These are not the only reasons why an organization should hire a PR agency but these are some reasons that I have seen from a client and agency perspective to hire outside PR help.

Knowing this, I am fascinated by the number of people I see on Twitter and blogs who are telling others that they are using Social Media wrong. What fascinates me even more is that these are the people who are either working as consultants or at agencies, whether it be PR, Marketing, or Social Media.

You want a secret on how to advance Social Media and help companies grow their business online? Stop telling people that they are doing it wrong and start telling people how they can do it better. No one wants to be told that they are wrong, they want to know how to better their business. It’s an easy way to grow your business and see better adoption of social media practices on the corporate level.

We are all learning how to use these tools, empower people and watch your business take off.

What makes mom bloggers such a sought after group from PR pros and marketers is that they can mobilize large groups of women (mostly), that trust what they say, have built themselves as trusted advisors, and know what their community wants. So, what do marketers learn from mommy bloggers?

Be Passionate:

The passion that mom bloggers have can’t be faked and the passion you have for your business should not be faked either.  The most successful blogs are ones that have been built out of passion for something the writer has, their family, their work and family, etc. As a marketer you need to define what your company is passionate about. 37 Signals has built a huge following around their passion for simple, effective software.

Campaign Monitor has built a great email marketing tool around the passion of well designed emails. Whatever your passion is, make it come through in your marketing and remember, your customers can tell real passion from something that is manufactured!

Make a Connection

Connecting with their readers is what mom bloggers do best. They know what buttons to push and how to drive their readers to action because they have a common bond. Sure, not all marketers can have a unique bond like motherhood with their customers, but they can find some sort of common link.

As a marketer you need to understand what your customers need and how you can connect with them. Whether it is through a simple online survey, or through other online tools like Social Media, finding a way to connect with your customers is crucial in today’s world of one-to-one marketing.

Rally for a Cause:

Many a mom blogger has rallied for a cause. Whether it is a disease or Girl Scout Cookies. As a business your passion can be seen through what you believe. Whether you have a socially conscious issue or a cause for simpler, more effective tools, you can rally your customers and potential customers and make them your brand advocates built around a shared belief. 

Case in point, Salesforce quickly became known as the No Software CRM and now boasts 59,000 companies as users of their solution. They came out swinging against the tied down CRM solutions on company servers and democratized CRM by allowing you to access your database anywhere in the world.

Ethos built a brand of water around a cause – clean water for children – and helped it achieve distribution through Starbucks. When you buy Ethos you are buying it for the belief that children should have clean water. Your brand needs to stand for something to stand out, but remember if you stand for everything you can’t stand for anything…so choose wisely.

Lesson 1: Know who has the power

When you wade into uncertain terrain, whether it be social media, bloggers, or even traditional media, it is crucial to understand just who exactly has the power. Today the power shift is clearly evident but not everyone gets it. That is why it is important that before waging any battles in public, whether you think you are right, you understand how the events can and might play out. Most likely, despite what you think, you are not holding all the cards.

Lesson 2: Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight

Make sure that if you are going to bring out a topic that involves social media, you understand social media. Make sure that you are prepared to use the medium that is being discussed to your gain. Otherwise when you pull that knife and your opponent, real or not, unpacks a gun you are going to be a sitting duck.

As the Mashable post so aptly puts it:

We?re pretty sure Horizon Realty lost a lot more than $50,000 from this Twitter backlash. That?s what you get when you utter quotes as ?We?re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.?

Lesson 3: Get proper counsel

I am not talking about legal counsel. It is more important in this day in age that you have someone you can turn to to ask, “what should I know”. For larger organizations it is important that you have your marketing and PR team at the table.  For smaller organizations it might be a social media consultant, a partner, or even just your summer intern. Whomever it is, make sure that you get a true understanding for what may take place, how you should respond, and what are the possible outcomes.

Communication is changing. What might have been a small local story a few years ago can become national fodder today. Make sure you have a complete understanding of what the road looks like before engaging in a public relations battle.