I'm Just Sayin'

I'm Just Sayin'

#trending: the rise of infographics

Alana Seale - Friday, February 03, 2012

There are many trending topics happening this week. I could discuss this year’s best Super Bowl ad. The return of Ferris Bueller – hands down, am I right? Seriously... I think I’ll just watch FBDO for the 1,000^th time on Sunday instead of the Super Bowl. Why aren’t my days off half as glamorous as that one? Must be the car…

Anyways, today I’ll be talking about Infographics. Infographics are everywhere. Just go on Mashable and every other entry contains an Infographic. There are Infographics about what people look up on Facebook, how we use Twitter, the economy, the election…there are even infographics about infographics...lots of them

Wouldn’t all this information be better presented in a list? I know you’d love that Dave….

Some people just love Infographics.... here's what Blue Wheel Media says about them:

"Infographics have the ability to transform a boring collection of statistics, facts and figures, into a stunning masterpiece that you won't be able to keep to yourself. Upon finding a great infographic, the reader is overcome with a thrill of discovery - almost like an adrenaline rush, triggering desire to share."

So if this is true, how can you apply this latest trend to your business and have the biggest impact with your documents? If I had any design talent, I would create my own infographic with pie charts, symbols, squiggly lines and shiny colours, but I’ll just have to do a list

People respond to visuals – so don’t be too texty.

Using visuals to explain your position is a great way to draw people into your content. They draw the eye in and are a great tool to get people to finish reading something than pages and pages full of heavy text. Colours, graphics and different fonts can turn a dry subject into something really interesting to your audience.

Keep it short

People are busy, we have lots of things to do and we get distracted easily. So if you want us to read your quarterly sales report, keep it short…because after page 1, I’ll be bouncing over to YouTube or checking out Perez Hilton.

And it the same vein:

Keep it simple

Avoid jargon, fancy abbreviations or acronyms. Don’t use 4 words when 1 would suffice. Forget complicated – use simple, direct, easy-to-understand words that every single one of your audience will get. No one wants to feel condescended to when reading that ubiquitous sales pitch. Indubitably!

Don’t just dress it up, back it up

Graphics, charts and colours can make your document visually appealing, but unless you have the facts to back your content, you are wasting everyone’s time.

So to have the maximum impact with your documents, your reports, your fact sheets, the key is to compliment rich content with stunning visuals, not to mask it. Better get trending!

Alana Seale

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3 Reasons I Hate Blog Posts that Feature Lists and # Reasons

Dave Siekanowicz - Wednesday, January 25, 2012

See what I did there? Very tongue in cheek (if I do say so myself).

This blog is a combination rant,commentary and airing of grievances all in one. As part of my daily research to keep up-to-date with all things social, digital and PR, I go through a bookmarked list of blogs that feature the latest posts related to said areas of interest. I then check my Twitter lists to see what the important people are Tweeting about. Since Twitter is a great sharing platform I figure any worthwhile stories, blogs and articles will eventually be tweeted.

And I must report that I have noticed an annoying trend. Let me know if you see it:

5 Tips for First Time Managers
5 Ways Social Media is like a Networking Event
5 Facts You Didn't Know About Facebook Edge Rank
7 Reasons Every Job Seeker Should Have a Blog
11 Things That Annoy Journalists and Bloggers

Numbered Lists! The most frequent post titles read like the cover

of a Cosmo Magazine! I don't believe that everything we discuss

and share can be summed up in a list of points or steps. Since when

did everything become so black and white? Especially in the world

of new media! Those "4 Steps to Gaining more Followers on Twitter"

can become passe, annoying and outdated methods a week from now. On the other hand who says it takes 4 steps? Is there no 5th step, is there no way to take it down to 3 steps? Cheeses Murphy- what about those who have a 1 step method that gains them more followers than anyone else (having the name Justin Bieber usually helps with this).

So, what are we to say then? Is it the chicken, or the egg? Have we begun to expect a quick fix via a list of steps and procedure to the problems in the world of professional communications? Or is this step listing method the holy grail, the special sauce, the ancient Mayan paradigm that actually holds the answers to all our communication problems? Maybe numbers just intrigue us in a way words cannot; must be that shiny toy syndrome.

You may notice that I did not actually list 3 reasons as my title suggested- my point being it doesn't matter. It's fun to read said blogs and they are oh-so-easy to Tweet out to our followers, but we must remember that the numbers can change from day to day [correction- they do change day to day]. Just when you thought there are only 11 things that annoy journalists and bloggers you may be surprised to find out you subconsciously posses the hidden "12th thing".

Dave Siekanowicz

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Cutting Through The Clutter Part 3- You're Supposed to be Social... Say Something!

Dave Siekanowicz - Wednesday, January 04, 2012

Happy New Year!

I know, I'm only 4 days late but hey- it's been a while. I should have probably finished this series before the holidays but things just got crazy busy here (crazy is good)and the blog got put on the back burner. But alas! I have returned to finish this mini series: Cutting Through The Clutter. Here's a quick recap of what we discussed in the previous posts:

Of all the social networking sites out there, less than 5% really matter to your business
That 5% of the pie is also important to 95% of your competitors
Your 5% varies on your industry, location and culture- so make sure you get it right
Bottom line: everyone's putting all their eggs into the same basket
The goal: cut through the clutter and rise above your competitors to reach your audience

Today's final addition to your social media tool belt (think of it more as that cool belt Batman had with everything from shark repellant to ninja stars): being social. Now this may sound simple enough, but you'd be surprised how many people completely ignore this step. Once you have your tiny little piece of the social media landscape all set up and running it is crucial that you actually use it to communicate with your audience.

I find that the quiet individuals (the companies that will soon be left in the dust of the social media race) make one of two errors that result in their silence. Firstly, they are afraid to interact with their audience, quickly falling into the category of the faceless corporation. If someone writes a negative comment, don't be afraid to respond. If someone asks a question, especially a tough question, don't ignore it. Fear of taking on posts that may be challenging will usually result into your audience tuning you out. Interaction is key, it is not enough to just talk- you have to be a part of the conversation.

The second type of quiet death (creative eh?) comes as a result of fear to say anything that may draw an opinion. Companies make the mistake of assuming that playing it safe means not recognizing or making comments on anything related to politics, religion, international events, taboo topics, different holidays, important sporting matches or anything too scary, too emotional or too challenging. Everyone else knows what's going on, you might as well say something about it. If there is a major political election you should say something, you don't need to out right endorse a candidate but feel free to remind people to vote, volunteer or just get informed. If a local tragedy happens don't avoid it and write about the weather, instead make an appropriate post or comment that will help your audience remember you're also human- and sometimes life just sucks.

Regardless of what your approach is remember that in social media silence is deadly.

Dave Siekanowicz

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Cutting Through The Clutter Part 2: Wait, where am I supposed to be?

Dave Siekanowicz - Thursday, December 01, 2011

In my previous post we established the nature of this ‘weird devil’ known by many names but living under the umbrella term of “Social Media”. Our attempt at managing the digital strategies that go into a successful social media plan concluded with something that looked like an evil math equation (yes, yes- I know, ALL math is evil; but this equation is super evil!): Over 1000 “known” SMS+ less than 1% matter to your business+ that 1% also matters to 95% of your competitors= high risk of getting lost in the clutter.

In hopes of cutting through everyone else’s clutter (because of course your business is the only one that matters), it’s crucial that you manage your 1% at 100% capacity. But wait, where is YOUR 1% located? It’s easy to hop on the popularity bandwagon and do what everyone else is doing, but what if that’s not what’s best for your business? Sure Facebook is important to most businesses, but if you’re located anywhere in Brazil or India then forget about Facebook and focus on Orkut. This Google owned platform has exploded in Brazil since 2004, where it is now the top social networking website. What better way to reach your Brazilian audience then by switching to a Social Media platform they have embraced?

No biggie, after all you are located in Canada right? So you should go ahead and put all your effort on Twitter, but wait- your business is a restaurant. Well if you’re a restaurant then you will find that your 1% should focus on Yelp! Yelp, is a food/restaurant review social media website that encourages user generated content. Your customers can post reviews, highlight favourite menu items, post videos or pictures of the food and most importantly connect with other foodies via a platform that is popular in the foodie community.

One more? Alright, your business is a high-quality boutique film production studio interested in showcasing the highest standards of video to an exclusive community that can appreciate the work, effort and quality you put into every project. You had the bright idea of putting up your vides on MySpace, STOP- oh I jest, no one uses MySpace anymore. You had the idea of uploading your videos to YouTube, alright that’s pretty good- or maybe not. How about Vimeo? Vimeo is a video based social media platform that has less ads than YouTube, features higher viewing quality, nicer branding/graphics and most importantly has a community of passionate film makers who feel they are too good for YouTube. Boom- there’s audience. Vimeo it is.

The moral of the blog- to maximize your 1% don’t necessarily go running with the wolves. Instead find out which pack your audience is running with and go there (wow that’s a terrible analogy). Sorry about the length of this one, join me next time for Cutting Through The Clutter: You’re Supposed to be Social, SAY SOMETHING!

Dave Siekanowicz

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Social Media Zone - Episode 21!

Rachael Carswell - Monday, April 11, 2011

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Understanding What Customers Want Online

Rachael Carswell - Friday, April 08, 2011

I recently read up on an Ad Age/Ipsos survey that researched digital media habits and preferred platforms and content. This information is essential to social media marketing. If a brand cannot cater to the needs of their audience, then it becomes extremely difficult to be effective online. The study came to a few conclusions about what online users want companies to offer and where...

We can see here that the most important communication outlined is deals/coupons and customer service. The preferred medium to receive this information is through Facebook, the most popular, with 41%. Surveys like this help navigate businesses towards creating successful social media strategies, but are not the online resources we have to gauge what users want.

There are many great applications that are available online that allow brands to connect to the customer and give customization and choice. Big Time Pulse is an application that lets brands set up a profile page to gauge what type of communication customers want to receive and containing what type of information. RBC is one brand that uses it to connect to their customers.

An application like this can help brands more directly target their customers and ensure that the messages they are sending have the maximum impact.

Timely is another application that aids tweets in achieving maximum impact on Twitter. This application takes your tweets and publishes them at the time of day when they'll get the highest retweets and mentions! The idea here is that there are certain times that your audience are most likely to read the messages you post. Instead of guessing the time when most of your followers are active online, you can take a more calculated approach.

The last tool I'll mention for understanding what your audience wants online, is a new one for Facebook: questions. The new Facebook Questions tool allows brands to find out what your target audience/fans are thinking through posting a multiple choice question with set answers. This can help find out which product is most popular, which service customers appreciate most, and gather other information by being interactive. The best part is that as soon as a person posts their answer, it appears on their profile and friend's newsfeed. So not only are you reaching your own fans, but your fans friends as well.

So their you have it, three different tools that aid in discovering what your audience wants, and customizing to their social media habits.

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SMZ Episode 9

Rachael Carswell - Tuesday, December 07, 2010

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Social Media Resourcing and ROI

Alan McLaren - Thursday, November 11, 2010

As far as resources go it would depend on how large your company is, whether you are B2B or B2C, or both, what current marketing resources and skills you have in house etc.. A general rule though is to get started with minimal resources maybe 30- 60 minutes a day and to monitor the progress and add resources as you see fit. Walk before you run is a good strategy so that you can learn about what resonates with your audience (community) before you dive in with huge time and dollar commitments. You also have the option of outsourcing until you "figure it out". Ultimately, this is no different than any other business initiative except that it is new and uncomfortable. Welcome to the new world :)

ROI is always a fun discussion. But at the end of the day the best part about social is that it is measurable. You just have to decide what metrics are important for your business. For sure we all want to sell more stuff and that can be a goal, however, there are brand building goals, recruiting goals, marketing research goals, internal communication objectives among many others.

I would like to leave you with one thought. Social Media is NOT a hammer looking for a nail. It needs to be a part of your overall marketing and communications strategy. To be effective its about connecting the dots wherever possible.

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