Creative Examples That Add to Lowes Social Media

Is your business doing very well, but you are still wondering whether you should be making changes for continuous creative examples? Like improving Publix’s social media marketing? We are good customers and advocates of the Publix grocery chain. And since this is a frequent question we receive from clients, we decided to use Publix as a case study on this subject.

First, a word about Publix, for those of you not in the Publix market area. Publix is the largest employee-owned company in America. For 83 years Publix has thrived by delivering top-rated service to its shoppers by turning thousands of its cashiers, baggers, butchers, and bakers into the company’s largest collective shareholders. All staffers who have put in 1,000 work hours and a year of employment receive an additional 8.5% of their total pay in the form of Publix stock.

Let me point out that Publix is not a client of ours. We are simply taking a look at their online social media marketing and using it to recommend ideas for continuous improvement. It is such a pertinent topic to many businesses, isn’t it? I will do this task by simply studying their online presence, with no discussion with them.

If you examine their current state of social media marketing and compare it to their competitors, you will probably conclude like we did, that they are doing a good job. But the point is about how to achieve continuous improvement, which is very critical in this type of ever-changing marketing. So let’s examine some ideas for Publix to consider:

Creative ideas

There are several ideas on the top of our creative ideas list. The first one we suggest is for Publix to go local with their social media marketing. Not every store mind you, but certainly several stores from a local area going together on the effort. In this way, they can do a much better job of personalizing customer engagement.

The second idea for consideration is to pick an issue to stand for. For example, we have all read about the extremely long life of plastic bags in the environment and the negative effect they have. By announcing they will use paper bags and eliminate the use of plastic bags, they will draw a lot of positive attention to the brand. Cost more for them? Certainly, but there is a chance they can create a local or maybe even a national movement.

Educating customers

Publix is doing a very good job in this area already. But they can do more with special topics such as pointing out healthy food alternatives, diet alternatives, and discussing gluten-free products, just to name three examples.

Customer engagement

Customer engagement is an area where most businesses could always use fresh ideas. One suggestion we have used with other clients is to have employees doing other jobs give an hour or two a day to participate in social media. Let customers know who they are and that way customers can engage with people they recognize from the store. Remember the recommendation to go local with their effort? Here is a great place for it to come in very handy.

Lots of experimentation

Most businesses take the conservative route of experimenting with new ideas. Not a good idea if you are looking to get ahead with customers.

The best innovative companies know that to do new things well, they must be good at trying new ideas in many areas as experiments. These experiments, they realize, will not all work as planned, and a high percentage will fail.

They know and accept this without worry. But they know that they learn a great deal from failures and small successes. And this often leads to great successes down the line.

Continuous discrimination

A business can never be done by finding ways to discriminate themselves against its customers. This is an area that absolutely must be done well.

A great way to find discriminating ideas, both big and small, is to pay attention to what customers are telling you. And remember, not all customer insights come from verbal inputs. Get all employees involved in closely observing what customers are doing. What can you learn about improving your operations from these observations?

Customer service and experience

One of the most rapidly growing areas of marketing these days is coming from customer service and strong customer experience. By going the extra mile in these two areas, customers take notice. The more little things you can do, the stronger the customer advocacy becomes.

New channels

Publix has a very well-designed website and participates on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter social media platforms. Well represented on these most important channels. Our recommendation is they add Pinterest to their list of social media sites. This is a very fast-growing social media channel that attracts shoppers looking for things such as recipes and recommendations on food choices and health.

Many of your competitors have a strong presence there already. Instagram is another channel worthy of consideration and both are excellent at customer engagement.

Takeaways

There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement in social media marketing, independent of how well the business is doing. If you are looking to take your success to a new level, this continuous improvement is required. This is an excellent time to make a statement with social media marketing. Changing before you have to is always a good idea.1

Would you like to participate in a free evaluation of your business marketing where our output is published in our blog like this Publix article? If you are interested, please send us an email to Mike@digitalsparkmarketing.com.

Essential Requirements for Customer Engagement

Want to see some great tips on how to build customer relationships?

So how do we propose to build a world-class social commerce business with consumer engagement?1 Here are 12 essential requirements we believe you must pay strict attention to:

Start with observations

Consider starting questions with this phrase: “I noticed that you …” What happens when you are forced to think about this is that you start to consider what you know about someone before you meet them based on where you are, what they look like or what you know about them already.

One of the best conversations I had at an event recently was because I noticed that someone was using two different phones at the same time. Asking why led to an amazing conversation about time optimization and technology.

Message relevance

People have many priorities and rarely enough time. So pay attention and don’t use it with irrelevant messages and conversations. Engage them with only the messages and topics that are relevant to them.1 Strictly avoid broadcast messaging.

Interrupt with questions

Many people think good listening means always letting someone finish every thought and nodding along. Instead, active listening requires that you ask questions WHILE you are listening.1 Sometimes this means interrupting – but this isn’t something to be afraid of. Often the interruptions will lead to tangents that create more intersections for both of the people in a conversation.

Be credible

The most important element that people rely on the most? It is trust, hands down in my opinion. Relationships breed trust so they are a good place to start, People prefer to do business with people they know and have established relationships with. Those are the ones they trust the most.

Seek stories instead of answers

There are questions that lead to answers, and then there are questions that lead to stories. Here’s one way you might start a story-seeking question, “What inspired you to …” When people share stories, they go beyond feeling like they are being interrogated. They open up and they connect. The more stories you can hear, the more connection you’ll feel to everyone you speak to.

Be human

People are human. It is as simple as that. They are real and want to be treated as such. They dislike being treated as a number. And they prefer relationships that work best for them.

Friendly and social

Be friendly and socialize your business. People do business with people, so make it personal. Customers should want to do business with you because of you and your employees. Make your customers ‘feel at home’.

You may have a great location, cool displays, great value, etc. That’s all great, but if your people can’t make your customers feel welcome and appreciated, all of the other doesn’t matter so much.

Communication

People like to talk with and be around friendly people. In such situations, they share quite a bit about themselves. And it obviously makes sense they expect the same in kind.

Customer care

Assume you are the company owner. Not all owners or executives make great leaders, but the ones that are should be emulated. Watch how they take pride in how they deal with customers and employees, and then follow their lead.

All the time

Amazing companies don’t always deliver ‘Wow!’ type experiences, they are just better than average all of the time. Consistently all of the time is the secret sauce.

Experience

People are always looking for memorable experiences in their lives. They tend to remember both the very best and the very worse experiences. They prefer those they treasure and will share with friends.

Attention to details

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest impact. Figure out the details that your customers enjoy and make them a routine part of doing business with you. Be vigilant … always listening and learning. Try and remember things customers tell you and then show them you listened. Trying new ideas. Put your social commerce business in motion by being adaptable.

Here is a story that helps me with better customer engagement:

When my son was about two and a half, he developed a funny habit of walking around the house from time to time, chiming out, “I’m here.”

Although this little boy was strongly connected to his family and his small class of school friends, he still had that need to express it.

I’m here. I exist. I want to be seen, and heard. I want to be recognized.

And as human beings, we never quite lose that. We might get a little more sophisticated about how we say it, but ultimately we all want to let the world know:

I’m here.

If you intend to market something — to ask for someone’s hard-earned money and irreplaceable time — you must begin by seeing (and honoring) who they are. And clearly acknowledging their presence.

You need to know them as well as you know yourself, as well as you know your family and closest friends.

Key takeaway

Now it’s up to you. Choose one customer service strategy to start with. Have a meeting around it. Discuss how to implement it. Then, do it and repeat the process, creating something good for your customers to talk about! Soon you will have a much stronger social commerce business.

The Best Solution for the Content Plan to Win the Battle

The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think. Excellent thought from Edwin Schlosberg. I have seen statistics on the amount of information available today … doubling every 18 to 24 months. Amazing isn’t it? It is not surprising then that the best solution for the content plan is getting more difficult every day.

According to Nielsen, there are 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each day. We check our phones 150 times per day.

We check our email up to 30 times an hour. And Statistic Brain says that our average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds – one second less than a goldfish!

So we all need to pay attention to the Edwin Schlosberg quote about creating the ability to stimulate thinking in our readers.

All this available information and data is creating a battle for customer attention between brands, publishers, and each one of us who creates content.

But more importantly, it’s forcing businesses to think and act much more competitively.

Content can be confusing. It’s tough to get people to agree exactly what it is and isn’t. Much like an eminent jurist once said about pornography, you know it when you see it, but that is hardly a working definition.

To make things even more difficult, content requires intense integration of diverse capabilities. Creativity, storytelling, information technology, user experience, and other skills all must come together to build an effective product that touches hearts and minds.

The core challenge for any organization which seeks to build great content is that the capabilities and skills that need to be integrated come with people attached.

Zen teaches that the potential to achieve enlightenment is inherent in everyone but lies dormant because of ignorance. It is best awakened not by the study of scripture or the practice of good deeds, but by breaking through the boundaries of mundane logical thought.

To be successful in the battle of content marketing you certainly break through these boundaries.

That is why “Content Marketing” is one of the biggest buzzwords in marketing. It requires businesses to create content that their customers actually want. Content that helps them.

And it is such a hot term right now because it is one of the biggest gaps between the content marketers create and the information our customers are looking for.

That is also why more than 90% of marketers are using content marketing, but only 42% rated their content marketing efforts as effective, according to a recent study.

If everyone is creating content, how does a business break through the boundaries of mundane logical thought? How do we reach our customers in a way that engages them?

Our objective of this blog topic is to address these questions.

Content plan … what is content marketing?

Content marketing involves using writing to make customers and potential customers more aware of a customer’s brand. This text can be web articles, blog posts, eBooks, or white papers.

Unlike newspaper and traditional magazine articles, good content marketing does more than just report. Good content marketing connects with readers and makes them want to use your client’s product or service.

Traditional marketing was all about print advertising, branded magazines, catalogs and directly promoting sales – until the digital age took over.

Today’s marketing has adopted a completely digital look and feel; from eBooks to white papers, blog posts to webinars, the Internet is considered the primary conduit for modern content distribution.

Within this transition to digital marketing, social media and online engagement have quickly taken on major roles, and are now viewed as fundamental tools in present-day B2B marketing.

Marketing content is all about making connections. Your level of success has a lot to do with how your readers react to what you write.

People connect with the product or service that your clients sell because they relate to what you’re saying to them. They want to feel that your copy is specifically crafted with their interests and needs in mind.

In other words, it should feel personal.

The integration of ‘social’ into the digital marketing space has fostered content marketing. In this respect, any message, comment, question, image, video, or presentation posted on a social media network constitutes content, in and of itself.

In this new world of marketing, content is no longer itemized in terms of a case study, blog post, or webinar, and doesn’t necessarily adhere to a certain length.

The paradigm has shifted to accommodate a broad definition of content, regardless of whether it’s a 140 character Tweet or a 25-page white paper.

Your internet marketing plan

What is the most important element of an internet marketing plan? That is an easy answer. It’s your content marketing.

If your business is a hotel, a tourist attraction, or the like, that depends more on attracting new customers, this is particularly true.

Many times the word ‘content’ translates to blog and Facebook posts when up for discussion. It’s actually much more than that.

The point of content is to get people to understand you have something that might just make sense for them, that you know what you’re talking about and that your approach can be trusted above all others.

customerm engagement — **Are you focused on customer engagement?**

Customer engagement

Have you been frustrated with your social media interaction recently?

Even if you’ve had the cleverest posts, you can’t seem to generate the social chatter that you deserve.

You may be discouraged due to the fact that your Facebook posts are getting buried within the newsfeed. Or it may be that your Tweets aren’t getting the coveted RT.

Maybe it’s because your YouTube videos, which you’ve spent a lot of time creating, are getting very little views.

Here are some tips to help spice up your content and solidify your connections and engagement with customers:

Content plan example … create emotion

In his book Contagious, Wharton professor Jonah Berger showed that one of the key reasons people share content online is because it arouses a person’s emotion.

His point … content has to go beyond just being useful; it has to be unforgettable. Rather than trying to churn out quantity, take the time to figure out what kind of emotions move your audience.

In doing so, it’s important to remember that not all emotion is created equal.

In his research, Berger identifies that certain kinds of emotions – those that get people “aroused” like awe, passion, and anger – are much more likely to drive shares than those that make people feel toned down – like sadness, relaxation, or contentment.

Don’t be afraid to rock the boat.

Content plan for social media … personalization

Content must be personalized to increase its consumption and, more importantly, its influence. It must inspire the actions you desire.

Your goal? Get the right information detail to the right decision-maker on a just-in-time basis.

Be fast and simple

Long lead times for content development and publication across limited channels can lead to a slow and cumbersome creation process. That is the exact opposite of what content marketing is all about.

The best content marketing needs to be as near real-time as you can make it.

Real-time marketing requires the urgency of broadcast news.

Understanding how to craft value in an interactive and always-on environment is critical to success.

It’s a difficult thing to translate brand values, promise, and efficacy across the terrain of modern channels of communication.

In order to turn real-time moments into long-term success, brands need to be able to consistently translate their ideas into consumer value.

Create awareness

Often a reader’s first exposure to a business comes not from a slick: 60-second ad but from an obscure blog post on a very specific topic of interest turned up in a series of search engine inquiries.

A major objective of your content marketing is to build a library that reaches into these corners of search.

Content in this form starts the potential customer on their journey of discovery.

Tool for customer service

We are firm believers that word of mouth marketing is the best form of marketing and one of the best sources for memorable topics is customer service.

Twitter has become a public-facing customer service tool for good or bad and with it comes an entirely new level of service based content.

Content that teaches customers how to get more, how you really care for your customers, how to fix problems and how to find the answers to common challenges and functions has become an essential customer service utility.

Build trust

In the world of creating customers and advocates, trust is everything.

Obviously, the end game is that they ultimately trust the product, service, organization, or solution they seek will address their needs, but the first line of trust is often formed based on the content they find or don’t find.

Content marketing faces the same reader skepticism as traditional advertising.

Therefore, being as helpful as possible is the only way to engage prospects to gain their trust and build meaningful relationships with them.

Provide proof

Ever since prospects learned that just about any claim an organization makes can be supported or contested with a simple search, the need to build content that offers proof of results has risen in importance.

Getting at customer success stories in ways that describe the heart of what really matters is an essential form of necessary content.

Provide needed information

Both B2C and B2B customers do their homework online before purchasing. Therefore, you must provide the information they seek to enter the consideration set.

This means product content, answers to customer questions, how-to’s, and ratings and reviews. If you don’t supply this content, someone else will and you lose.

Product use support

Many marketers underestimate the value of information that supports customers with their products once they have it at home.

If your customer can’t use your product, they’ll either return it or not buy from you again.

Neither is what you want, so be there whenever customers need your support.

Search optimization

Content is essential to a strong search optimization strategy to help your business get found online.

Remember this: as a business owner, it is extremely important to consider the logical and emotional aspects of your target audience.

It is also critical that you speak to both of those aspects. You must respect your target audience enough to understand that they are capable of making sound, rational decisions.

Often, if content marketing materials cause a business to fail, it is because one or the other is lacking.

Hard work and dedication are certainly part of the mix but your thinking must include logic and emotion as well.

The bottom line

For the best content marketing, make your thinking vivid by including what comes naturally to you. For example, you may not be able to imagine sequences of images very well, but you may excel in imagining other modalities such as smell, touch, and sound.

You may be excellent in infusing your visualization with emotional charge and great feelings. DO not feel compelled to stay within any single modality but make your visualizations and imagination vivid and rich by including numerous modalities.

Your senses are wonderful tools for you to engage while unleashing the power of the imaginative mind. Make it colorful and exciting.

Make your imagination your ally and your best friend.

customer focus — **Look for ways to optimize.**

Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business? Please post your comments below, offering questions or your own great examples of content marketing tips.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your social media marketing or advertising? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with your customers?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to innovating your social media strategy?

Do you have a lesson about making your social media better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find him on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

7 Social Media Marketing Ideas for Publix Online

Is your business doing very well, but you are still wondering whether you should be making changes for continuous improvement? Like improving the Publix online social media marketing?

We are good customers and advocates of the Publix grocery chain. And since this is a frequent question we receive from clients, we decided to use Publix online as a case study on this subject.

To improve is to change; to perfect is to change often.

Winston Churchill

Related: How to Frame Marketing Messages for Optimum Engagement

Before we continue, let me ask you a question.

What social media design techniques work best for your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? Be the one who starts a conversation.

With the advent of the Internet, the number of marketing options available to both budding and experienced entrepreneurs has become staggering.

First, a word about Publix, for those of you not in the Publix market area.

Publix is the largest employee-owned company in America. For 83 years Publix has thrived by delivering top-rated service to its shoppers by turning thousands of its cashiers, baggers, butchers, and bakers into the company’s largest collective shareholders.

All staffers who have put in 1,000 work hours and a year of employment receive an additional 8.5% of their total pay in the form of Publix stock.

Let me point out that Publix is not a client of ours. We are simply taking a look at their online social media marketing and using it to recommend ideas for continuous improvement.

It is such a pertinent topic for many businesses, isn’t it? I will do this task by simply studying their online presence, with no discussion with them.

If you examine their current state of social media marketing, you will probably conclude like we did. That conclusion? They are doing a good job.

But the point is about how to achieve continuous improvement. This is very critical in this type of ever-changing marketing. So let’s examine some ideas for Publix to consider:

Publix online … creative social media ideas

There are several ideas on the top of our creative ideas list.

The first one we suggest is for Publix to go local with their social media marketing. Not every store mind you, but certainly several stores from a local area going together on the effort.

In this way, they can do a much better job of personalizing customer engagement.

The second idea for consideration is to pick an issue to stand for.

For example, we have all read about the extremely long life of plastic bags is the environment and the negative effect they have.

By announcing they will use paper bags and eliminate the use of plastic bags, they will draw a lot of positive attention to the brand.

Cost more for them? Certainly, but there is a chance they can create a local or maybe even a national movement.

Related post: Case Studies to Evaluate New World Marketing Concepts

Educating customers

Publix is doing a very good job in this area already. But they can do more with special topics.

As an example, such as pointing out healthy food alternatives, diet alternatives, and discussing gluten-free products. Just to name three cases.

Customer engagement

Customer engagement is an area where most businesses could always use fresh ideas.

One suggestion we have used with other clients is to have employees doing other jobs. They could be given an hour or two a day to participate in social media.

Let customers know who they are and that way customers can engage with people they recognize from the store.

Remember the recommendation to go local with their effort? Here is a great place for it to come in very handy.

*Publix online ordering bakery … lots of experimentation***

Most businesses take the conservative route on experimenting with new ideas. Not a good idea if you are looking to get ahead with customers.

The best innovative companies know that to do new things well, they must be good at trying new ideas in many areas as experiments. These experiments, they realize, will not all work as planned, and a high percentage will fail.

They know and accept this without worry. But they know that they learn a great deal from failures and small successes. And this often leads to great successes down the line.

Continuous discrimination

A business can never be done with finding ways to discriminate themselves with their customers. This is an area that absolutely must be done well.

A great way to find discriminating ideas, both big and small, is to pay attention to what customers are telling you.

And remember, not all customer insights come from verbal inputs. Get all employees involved in closely observing what customers are doing.

What can you learn about improving your operations from these observations?

Customer service and experience

One of the most rapidly growing areas of marketing these days is coming from customer service and strong customer experience.

By going the extra mile in these two areas, customers take notice. The more little things you can do, the stronger the customer advocacy becomes.

New channels

Publix has a very well designed website and participates in Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter social media platforms.

Well represented on these most important channels.

Our recommendation is they add Pinterest to their list of social media sites. This is a very fast growing social media channel that attracts shoppers looking for things

Things such as recipes and recommendations on food choices and health.

Many of your competitors have a strong presence there already. Instagram is another channel worthy of consideration and both are excellent at customer engagement.

The bottom line

There can never be enough focus on continuous improvement in social media marketing, independent of how well the business is doing. If you are looking to take your success to a new level, this continuous improvement is required.

This is an excellent time to make a statement about social media marketing. Changing before you have to is always a good idea.

Would you like to participate in a free evaluation of your business marketing where our output is published on our blog like this Publix article? If you are interested, please send us an email to Mike@digitalsparkmarketing.com.

Need some help in capturing more customers from your marketing strategies? Creative ideas to help the differentiation with potential customers?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

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Jaw Dropping Guerrilla Marketing Lessons and Examples

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Positive Attitude: Is It Priority 1 for Your Customer Engagement?

The two most powerful things in existence: a kind word and a thoughtful gesture. A powerful quote from Ken Langone, isn’t it? The value of a positive attitude toward customer engagement and relationship building? Priceless.

Check out our thoughts on customer focus.

You perhaps have heard this timeworn story illustrating the difference between positive thinking and negative thinking:

Many years ago two salesmen were sent by a British shoe manufacturer to Africa to investigate and report back on market potential.

The first salesperson said back, “There is no potential here – nobody wears shoes.”

The second salesperson said back, “There is massive potential here – nobody wears shoes.”

This simple short story provides one of the best examples of how a single situation may be viewed in two entirely different ways – negatively or positively.

We could explain this also regarding seeing a situation’s problems and disadvantages, instead of its opportunities and benefits.

When telling this story, its impact is increased by using the same form of words (e.g., “nobody wears shoes”) in each salesperson’s report. This emphasizes that two entirely different interpretations are made of a single situation.

Related: Influence Consumer Behavior Through Personalization Strategies

If you are in a business where you deal with people on a regular basis, like we are, your motivation and attitude need to be in ‘top gear’ (as it will usually impact most issues of the day).

By spending 5-10 minute at the beginning of each work day reading and thinking of the items in the following simple checklist, we help our employees be the best they can be for the day’s activities:

Helping people

You can only help people who want to be helped.

Become an optimist

Individuals who think as an optimist see the world as a place packed with endless opportunities, especially in the tougher times.

Respect differences

Appreciate and respect differences in others.

Increase flow experiences

We define flow as a state in which it feels as if time is standing still. It occurs when you are so focused on what you are doing that you become one with the task. In this state, nothing competes for your attention.

Listen up

Listen before speaking and listen more than you talk.

Nurture relationships

The most active people we know are the ones who make friends quickly and work to build deep, meaningful relationships.

Conserve energy

Don’t waste your energy on negative people or situations. You can’t fix everything or everybody.

The future

You can’t predict the future so why think that you can?

Practice acts of kindness

Selflessly helping someone is a super powerful way to create a positive attitude.

Being Liked

Not everyone you meet is going to like you. Not something to worry about, is it?

Express gratitude

When you appreciate what you love, what you love appreciates in value. If you aren’t thankful for what you already have, you will have a hard time ever being positive.

Only you

Only YOU can control your destiny. Take initiative on your behalf.

Strangers

View strangers as friends in waiting. Seize these opportunities.

Savor life’s joys

Deep happiness cannot exist without slowing down to soak up the positives all around you.

Be forgiving for a positive attitude

The harboring feeling of hate and meanness is horrible for your mood and well-being.

Commit to your goals

Magical things start happening when we commit ourselves to do whatever it takes to achieve our objectives.

Avoid social comparisons

Comparing yourself to someone else can be a poison to your positive thinking.

Develop coping strategies

It always helps to have healthy ways to deal in your arsenal.

Do you consider your company a social commerce business? While there has been considerable hype about social business in the last few years, we don’t consider it new … it has been around as long as commerce. These days there are just more channels to engage customers and be social. Positive thinking is everything in this regard.

Key takeaways

Remember, this is the time to create remarkable experiences to build lasting relationships with customers. Lead with initiative … own the moment. Remember attitude is everything.

The pessimist sees a difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. By focusing on a daily positive attitude we are much more inclined to be the optimist and find the opportunity, aren’t we?

Being social with a great positive thinking and attitude isn’t a new way of marketing; it’s a way of doing business.

What do you do to get yourself and those around you in the right frame of reference for top performance?

Do you have an experience on employees’ positive attitude to share with this community?

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork, and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

Call today for a FREE consultation or a FREE quote. Learn about some options to scope your job.

Call Mike at 607-725-8240.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that struggle gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step. Call today.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on G+, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. Call us for a free quote today. You will be amazed at how reasonable we will be.

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Complaint Handling … 14 Effective Business Relationship Recommendations

Employee Engagement Activities …13 Mistakes that Destroy Engagement

Client Engagement … 4 Actions To Improve Engagement

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Relationship Marketing: The Best 15 Ways to Find and Win Customers

Social networking is not about farming followers, it’s a way of cultivating relationships. Is relationship marketing strategy a term you recognize?

It is not really a new concept, just a new term perhaps. Do you use relationship marketing to improve your business?

Think about the process of developing and managing customers’ individual relationships with your firm.

This should include the Web site, a loyalty program, the contact center, at the point of purchase, or in after-sale service.

All take continuous attention to detail, don’t they? And they all offer ways to engage customers through relationship marketing.

Here is a video you will find useful on this subject.

Let’s dig into this subject a little deeper

What is relationship marketing?

In ‘Relationship Marketing ~ A Consumer Experience Approach’, it suggests that the primary objective of relationship marketing (RM) is to develop and maintain a customer base. A customer base that is committed to the brand and profitable for the business.

RM focuses on not just attracting, but also retaining customers with the development of a long-term relationship.

Here is a definition we like to use:

“Relationship marketing is a strategy designed to foster customer loyalty, interaction and long-term engagement. It is designed to develop strong connections with customers. It does this by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interests. It also does this by promoting open communication.”

Business is a “people activity”, there is no doubt. People like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Ones with whom they have relationships are at the top of the desirable business option list.

The stronger the relationships with your customers, the greater will be their trust and loyalty in your business. And the greater their trust and loyalty, the more business they generate for you. It is as simple as that.

Related: 7 Secrets to the Lego Blog Marketing Campaigns … Effective Marketing?

Here is a story I like to tell and retell. A landscape gardener ran a business that had been in the family for two or three generations. The staff was happy, and customers loved to visit the store, or to have the staff work on their gardens or make deliveries – anything from bedding plants to ride-on mowers.

For as long as anyone could remember, the current owner and previous generations of owners were extremely positive happy people.

Most folks assumed it was because they ran a successful business.

In fact, it was the other way around…

A tradition in the business was that the owner always wore a big lapel badge, saying Business Is Great!

The business was indeed generally great, although it went through tough times like any other. What never changed however was the owner’s attitude, and the badge saying Business Is Great!

Everyone who saw the badge for the first time invariably asked, “What’s so great about business?” Sometimes people would also comment that their own business was miserable, or even that they personally were miserable or stressed.

Anyhow, the Business Is Great! badge always tended to start a conversation, which typically involved the owner talking about lots of positive aspects of business and work, for example:

the pleasure of meeting and talking with different people every day
the reward that comes from helping staff take on new challenges and experiences
the fun and laughter in a relaxed and healthy work environment
the fascination in the work itself, and in the other people’s work and businesses
the great feeling when you finish a job and do it to the best of your capabilities
the new things you learn every day – even without looking to do so
and the thought that everyone in business is blessed – because there are many millions of people who would swap their own situation to have the same opportunities of doing a productive meaningful job, in a civilized well-fed country, where we have no real worries.

And so the list went on. And no matter how miserable a person was, they’d usually end up feeling a lot happier after just a couple of minutes listening to all this infectious enthusiasm and positivity.

It is impossible to quantify or measure attitude like this, but to one extent or another it’s probably a self-fulfilling prophecy, on which point if asked about the badge in a quiet moment, the business owner would confide:

The badge came first. The great business followed. And that my friends is the best social business strategy that I know of.

Simple ideas on consumer engagement start with a foundation of little things. Little things that, when not done well, can make the more complex customer experience design actions a moot point. We call these the relationship marketing truths.

Relationship marketing truths

Set your relationship marketing course with these simple truths:

Marketing starts by:

Knowing and understanding the customer

Listen, observe, then:

Engage

Treat your customers like:

Your best friends

Personalize:

Your brand.

Give honest help in buying decisions:

No selling!

Everyone is a marketer:

And everything is marketing.

A customer’s positive experience creates:

Great marketing

Establish clear value propositions:

Through differentiation.

Keep your messages:

As simple and relevant as possible.

Know why your customers choose you:

Instead of your competition

Build all of your relationship marketing on these basic truths.

Studies show time and again, your best and most loyal customers are the most apt to tell their friends about your business. This creates strong word of mouth marketing.

Word of mouth marketing is the most important element of any relationship marketing campaign.

Why a relationship marketing strategy?

We believe businesses need to have a relationship marketing strategy for 4 basic reasons:

Customer Feedback

When the organization’s culture facilitates open communication and cooperation, consumer concerns can quickly be addressed. By paying careful attention to positive and negative trends, organizations can use this feedback to make appropriate adjustments. Adjustments to product or service offerings, ensuring the best of customer satisfaction.

Consistent Customer Experience

Organizations that are aligned across all touchpoints seamlessly share information. They work together to ensure customer’s needs are addressed with minimum effort.

This is particularly important when the consumer is experiencing challenges with the product or service. Quickly resolving issues builds trust and it can improve customer relationships.

Types of relationship marketing

Customer Advocates

Consumers who are pleased and enjoy a consistent experience, increasingly share this information with each other. Increasingly consumers are turning to each other for suggestions and recommendations. Make it easy for your customers to share their experiences.

However, first make sure they have a consistently good experience.

Relationship marketing strategy … innovation

Organizations, like Starbucks through MyStarbucksIdea.com, invite their customers to provide ideas. Consumers are allowed to share, vote and discuss each other’s ideas. Most important, they are kept apprised of the status of ideas.

Relationship marketing offers powerful benefits. However, it takes discipline, strategy and a supportive environment. What are other benefits that your business receives?

So how are well-known companies putting relationship marketing to use? More importantly, how can you? Let’s take a closer look:

Coca Cola’s ‘Share a Coke’ campaign

Coke started the first step of its ‘share a coke’ campaign with product personalization. For the first time in history, 250 of the most popular first names in each country were shortlisted and printed on the iconic red and white Coke labels, instead of the Coke logo.

Coke then used mass media channels like television, outdoors and radio to communicate to users. Their message? Simply that their favorite drink just might have their name on it.

Each bottle also carried a hashtag #ShareACoke to remind users to post pictures. Pictures of their personalized Coke bottles on social media using the hashtag.

The experience of seeing one’s own name on Coke bottles was so novel and addictive that people actually paid premium prices. They wanted to ensure they could lay their hands on their ‘own’ bottles of Coke. They shared their pictures on social media like wildfire.

Images of Coke bottles shared on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook with the #ShareACoke hashtag were then plastered across across the country.

Sharing a Coke with someone isn’t just about enjoying a drink. To Coke and its customers, it’s about capturing a moment in time and building a friendship. That something all social commerce wants to do.

And while you may not be a giant corporation, you can still add a personalized touch through brand incentives.

Nordstrom’s Pinterest Integration

Catching on to the fact that Pinterest is a fabulous social network, Nordstrom started highlighting its products. The products that were popular on Pinterest were tagged with a “Popular on Pinterest” sign on the physical item in stores.

Launched as a pilot activity in January 2013, the experiment has been so successful that today every Nordstrom outlet across the US showcases its most popular items on Pinterest.

They are included with a ‘Top Pinned’ section inside physical stores. Shop assistants are equipped with an in-house iPad app that shows trending items for the day. It helps them tag these items appropriately in-store.

Ice Bucket Challenge

Much of the viral marketing that happened last year surrounded the Ice Bucket Challenge. This challenge was designed to raise money for ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The virality of tagging pals to participate and video their reaction is what made the challenge so memorable for so many.

Plus, it started in the hottest part of the year, so it was natural that people didn’t mind “cooling off for a cause”.

Of course, you don’t need a major celebrity’s endorsement to start your own viral sharing challenge. Think about something simple, fun and do-able, by just about anyone.

New challenges have already sprung up to piggyback off of the Ice Bucket Challenge’s massive success. Whether or not they’ll have the same incredible success that the ALS Association saw remains to be seen. However the seeds of promotion have a chance. You’ll never know until you try.

The bottom line

These are not things that we do not already know, of course.

Yet these little things list simply reminds us of what we already know but may have forgotten. That is, it is up to us to put these lessons of relationship marketing into daily use through persistence and practice.

Remember … all customer-facing employees need to be engaged in customer relationship building.

EMPLOY CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE — Employ customer experience, yes?

So what’s the conclusion? The conclusion is there is no conclusion. There is only the next step. And that next step is completely up to you. But believe in the effectiveness of word-of-mouth marketing created by remarkable customer service. And put it to good use.

It’s up to you to keep improving your creative marketing strategies. Lessons are all around you. In this case, your competitor may be providing the ideas and or inspiration. But the key is in knowing that it is within you already.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy to improving your marketing, branding, and advertising?

Do you have a lesson about making your marketing strategy better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change. We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way.

10 Examples of How Zappos Marketing Strategy Makes a Difference

What makes Zappos marketing strategy stand out above the crowd?

Cultivating relationships and social networks are certainly contributors. Using the many new social media tools and social platforms, yes?

Marketing, at its best, is about the future. Unfortunately, we spend most of our time stuck in the past. We research what already happened and extrapolate forward to produce a plan. It’s not that we’re lazy, we simply know a whole lot more about the past than the present or the future.

It’s been nearly half a century since Philip Kotler first published his Principles of Marketing, which has defined the practice of millions of professionals worldwide ever since. It’s no stretch to say that before Kotler, there was no true marketing profession.

What made Kotler different than what came before is that he took insights from other fields, such as economics, social science, and analytics, and applied them to the marketing arena. Although that may seem basic now, it was groundbreaking then.

Today technology is transforming marketing once again. Although up to this point, most of the impact has been tactical, over the next decade or so there will be a major strategic transformation. This, of course, will be a much harder task because we will not only have to change what we do but how we think.

We already know that marketing is becoming more social, local, and mobile, just as we know that big data and new interfaces such as touch, voice, and gesture are becoming increasingly more important. What comes next?

Note that “The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes.”
—Soren Kierkegaard

History is filled with examples of people who embraced their limitations rather than fought them. Dr. Seuss wrote his most famous book by only using 50 different words.

Ingvar Kamprad only had enough money to start a business selling match sticks. He turned it into IKEA. George R.R. Martin writes best-selling novels using decades-old technology. Richard Branson has built 400 businesses despite having dyslexia.

Our limitations provide us with the greatest opportunity for creativity and inventiveness.

When choosing to learn from other marketing strategies, it is always helpful to choose one of the top dogs. Ones that stand way above the crowd. Zappos is certainly one of those in this category we believe. One that we regularly follow.

Some excellent marketing campaign examples.

Social networking is not about farming followers, it’s a way of cultivating relationships.

– Hubspot

Meet Zappos. They have been successfully executing their marketing strategy with a social focus since the first days of social media. For over 5 years, and their strategies have played a significant role in their growth.

An introduction to Zappos is probably unnecessary.

Key to know: What Marketers Need to Know about Personalization Strategies

But let’s examine one of the Zappos top advantages … their company culture. The four dimensions of their culture core values (our favorite company culture):

Mission

Deliver ‘WOW’ through service

Do more with less

Adaptability

Embrace and drive change

Pursue growth and learning

Involvement

Create fun and a little weirdness

Be adventurous, creative, and open minded

Be passionate and determined

Consistency

Build open and honest relationships with communication

Build a positive team and family spirit

In our opinion, the company has inserted itself into the American e-commerce landscape more quickly and craftily than any retail company in history (even considering its parent Amazon). It has forever changed the way companies market themselves to customers.

Zappos has obviously built their business entirely in the digital realm. With a strong presence on multiple social networks, the brand has set a high bar when it comes to being social and engaging its customers. They are at or near the top of nearly every major brand ranking in customer service and social media.

Zappos’ ability to wear so many hats … corporate success, “local” favorite, and Internet sensation warrants strategic examination.

Why is Zappos’ marketing strategy such a difference-maker? There are key reasons in our minds:

Zappos marketing strategy … going to its customers

When Zappos uses an example of their customer service, it shares it on Google+, posts it to Facebook, tweets it on Twitter, and pins it on Pinterest. It clearly goes to where all its customers like to hang out. Cross-promotion is more valuable as the world becomes more digitally focused.

Each network provides an opportunity to reach their audience in a new channel. Integrating their strategy on each is crucial to increasing visibility and promoting the brand.

Market segmentation

The company has stayed focused exclusively on e-commerce, competing on those who prefer excellent customer service. One could say they set the mark for everyone to target in customer service. And they make it the core of their marketing strategy.

Execution

The company continues to focus on its original product bundle that includes shoes and continues to add new products slowly, ensuring it can maintain its quality service. They keep their focus and attention to the details of great execution and service.

Zappos marketing strategy … social media

One of the earliest adopters of the use of social media for marketing and social commerce, Zappos has certainly taken a leadership position. Their social media strategy is built around their company web site and 5 additional core social platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, G+, and Youtube.

We will review Zappos’ social media strategy in detail below.

Adaptation and Innovation

Zappos’ business innovation via its website, has been a huge success. Why you may ask? Because they have combined the concepts of change, experimentation, social media, customer engagement, and market research.

They made the results key components of both their brand as well as their marketing strategy.

Have you given Zappos a try? What did you think?

Zappos marketing strategy … customer relationships

Instead of solely focusing efforts on accumulating new customers, it cultivates its current relationships. This ensures more fans/followers (by word of mouth marketing) in the long run, as well as the continued existence of brand advocates.

This holds particularly true in its emphasizing the importance of customer service.

Customer engagement

They believe in letting customer engagement and conversation occur as naturally as possible. What is most important is that they listen carefully, observe, and apply new ideas from what they learn.

Encourages sharing

Happy customers are eager to share good experiences and offers.

For example, the Zappos promotions like “buy 1 get 1″ garner an extraordinary amount of engagement on social media through comments, “likes,” and shares.

Experience customization

Want to know one of the most effective examples that Zappos uses to build its marketing and create reciprocity with its customers?

By surprising them!

People like getting things for free and like them, even more, when they are viewed as ‘favors’. But even more, they love receiving these favors as surprises.

For instance, did you know that Zappos automatically upgrades all purchases to priority shipping … without so much as even a mention on the sales or checkout page?

Why give away this sort of benefit without mentioning it?

Simple …

a company like Zappos (known for their legendary customer service) recognizes the benefits of surprising people with a next day delivery.

That’s not even mentioning the fact that this shipping creates immense goodwill between Zappos and their first-time buyers. (I still remember my first order.)

Lots of ideas here that can be easily replicated … which ones do you feel could benefit your business?

How could you improve the Zappos customer service campaign concept for your business?

The bottom line

At the end of the day, Zappos’ rise to online dominance really just revolves around turning an otherwise complicated shopping experience into one that feels quaint and easy. It accomplished this by setting up a strong behind-the-scenes infrastructure that puts the customer experience at the forefront.

And isn’t that what their new strategy is all about—giving the customer what they want where and when they want it? Unfortunately, it is much easier said than done.

Zappos is one of many businesses we can learn from. Please post your comments below, offering questions or your own great examples of social marketing strategies.

It’s up to you to keep improving attention to your brand.

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new lessons.

When things go wrong, what’s most important is your next step.

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy in each of these steps to improving attention to your brand?

Do you have a lesson about making your brand better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Mike Schoultz is the founder of Digital Spark Marketing, a digital marketing and customer service agency. With 40 years of business experience, he blogs on topics that relate to improving the performance of your business. Find them on Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Want to see some great tips on how to build customer relationships?

So how do we propose to build a world-class social commerce business with consumer engagement?1 Here are 12 essential requirements we believe you must pay strict attention to:

Start with observations

Consider starting questions with this phrase: “I noticed that you …” What happens when you are forced to think about this is that you start to consider what you know about someone before you meet them based on where you are, what they look like or what you know about them already.

One of the best conversations I had at an event recently was because I noticed that someone was using two different phones at the same time. Asking why led to an amazing conversation about time optimization and technology.

Message relevance

People have many priorities and rarely enough time. So pay attention and don’t use it with irrelevant messages and conversations. Engage them with only the messages and topics that are relevant to them.1 Strictly avoid broadcast messaging.

Interrupt with questions

Be credible

The most important element that people rely on the most? It is trust, hands down in my opinion. Relationships breed trust so they are a good place to start, People prefer to do business with people they know and have established relationships with. Those are the ones they trust the most.

Seek stories instead of answers

Be human

People are human. It is as simple as that. They are real and want to be treated as such. They dislike being treated as a number. And they prefer relationships that work best for them.

Friendly and social

Be friendly and socialize your business. People do business with people, so make it personal. Customers should want to do business with you because of you and your employees. Make your customers ‘feel at home’.

You may have a great location, cool displays, great value, etc. That’s all great, but if your people can’t make your customers feel welcome and appreciated, all of the other doesn’t matter so much.

Communication

People like to talk with and be around friendly people. In such situations, they share quite a bit about themselves. And it obviously makes sense they expect the same in kind.

Customer care

Assume you are the company owner. Not all owners or executives make great leaders, but the ones that are should be emulated. Watch how they take pride in how they deal with customers and employees, and then follow their lead.

All the time

Amazing companies don’t always deliver ‘Wow!’ type experiences, they are just better than average all of the time. Consistently all of the time is the secret sauce.

Experience

People are always looking for memorable experiences in their lives. They tend to remember both the very best and the very worse experiences. They prefer those they treasure and will share with friends.

Attention to details

Here is a story that helps me with better customer engagement:

When my son was about two and a half, he developed a funny habit of walking around the house from time to time, chiming out, “I’m here.”

Although this little boy was strongly connected to his family and his small class of school friends, he still had that need to express it.

I’m here. I exist. I want to be seen, and heard. I want to be recognized.

And as human beings, we never quite lose that. We might get a little more sophisticated about how we say it, but ultimately we all want to let the world know:

I’m here.

If you intend to market something — to ask for someone’s hard-earned money and irreplaceable time — you must begin by seeing (and honoring) who they are. And clearly acknowledging their presence.

You need to know them as well as you know yourself, as well as you know your family and closest friends.

Key takeaway

Now it’s up to you. Choose one customer service strategy to start with. Have a meeting around it. Discuss how to implement it. Then, do it and repeat the process, creating something good for your customers to talk about! Soon you will have a much stronger social commerce business.

More reading on customer engagement from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Be a Customer Focused Business through Consumer Engagement

Whole Food’s Customer Engagement Using Social Media

Influence Consumer Behavior through Personalization Strategies

According to Nielsen, there are 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each day. We check our phones 150 times per day.

We check our email up to 30 times an hour. And Statistic Brain says that our average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds – one second less than a goldfish!

So we all need to pay attention to the Edwin Schlosberg quote about creating the ability to stimulate thinking in our readers.

All this available information and data is creating a battle for customer attention between brands, publishers, and each one of us who creates content.

But more importantly, it’s forcing businesses to think and act much more competitively.

Content can be confusing. It’s tough to get people to agree exactly what it is and isn’t. Much like an eminent jurist once said about pornography, you know it when you see it, but that is hardly a working definition.

To make things even more difficult, content requires intense integration of diverse capabilities. Creativity, storytelling, information technology, user experience, and other skills all must come together to build an effective product that touches hearts and minds.

The core challenge for any organization which seeks to build great content is that the capabilities and skills that need to be integrated come with people attached.

Zen teaches that the potential to achieve enlightenment is inherent in everyone but lies dormant because of ignorance. It is best awakened not by the study of scripture or the practice of good deeds, but by breaking through the boundaries of mundane logical thought.

To be successful in the battle of content marketing you certainly break through these boundaries.

That is why “Content Marketing” is one of the biggest buzzwords in marketing. It requires businesses to create content that their customers actually want. Content that helps them.

And it is such a hot term right now because it is one of the biggest gaps between the content marketers create and the information our customers are looking for.

That is also why more than 90% of marketers are using content marketing, but only 42% rated their content marketing efforts as effective, according to a recent study.

If everyone is creating content, how does a business break through the boundaries of mundane logical thought? How do we reach our customers in a way that engages them?

Our objective of this blog topic is to address these questions.

Content plan … what is content marketing?

Content marketing involves using writing to make customers and potential customers more aware of a customer’s brand. This text can be web articles, blog posts, eBooks, or white papers.

Unlike newspaper and traditional magazine articles, good content marketing does more than just report. Good content marketing connects with readers and makes them want to use your client’s product or service.

Traditional marketing was all about print advertising, branded magazines, catalogs and directly promoting sales – until the digital age took over.

Today’s marketing has adopted a completely digital look and feel; from eBooks to white papers, blog posts to webinars, the Internet is considered the primary conduit for modern content distribution.

Within this transition to digital marketing, social media and online engagement have quickly taken on major roles, and are now viewed as fundamental tools in present-day B2B marketing.

Marketing content is all about making connections. Your level of success has a lot to do with how your readers react to what you write.

People connect with the product or service that your clients sell because they relate to what you’re saying to them. They want to feel that your copy is specifically crafted with their interests and needs in mind.

In other words, it should feel personal.

The integration of ‘social’ into the digital marketing space has fostered content marketing. In this respect, any message, comment, question, image, video, or presentation posted on a social media network constitutes content, in and of itself.

In this new world of marketing, content is no longer itemized in terms of a case study, blog post, or webinar, and doesn’t necessarily adhere to a certain length.

The paradigm has shifted to accommodate a broad definition of content, regardless of whether it’s a 140 character Tweet or a 25-page white paper.

Your internet marketing plan

What is the most important element of an internet marketing plan? That is an easy answer. It’s your content marketing.

If your business is a hotel, a tourist attraction, or the like, that depends more on attracting new customers, this is particularly true.

Many times the word ‘content’ translates to blog and Facebook posts when up for discussion. It’s actually much more than that.

The point of content is to get people to understand you have something that might just make sense for them, that you know what you’re talking about and that your approach can be trusted above all others.

Customer engagement

Have you been frustrated with your social media interaction recently?

Even if you’ve had the cleverest posts, you can’t seem to generate the social chatter that you deserve.

You may be discouraged due to the fact that your Facebook posts are getting buried within the newsfeed. Or it may be that your Tweets aren’t getting the coveted RT.

Maybe it’s because your YouTube videos, which you’ve spent a lot of time creating, are getting very little views.

Here are some tips to help spice up your content and solidify your connections and engagement with customers:

Content plan example … create emotion

In his book Contagious, Wharton professor Jonah Berger showed that one of the key reasons people share content online is because it arouses a person’s emotion.

His point … content has to go beyond just being useful; it has to be unforgettable. Rather than trying to churn out quantity, take the time to figure out what kind of emotions move your audience.

Be friendly and socialize your business. People do business with people, so make it personal. Customers should want to do business with you because of you and your employees. Make your customers ‘feel at home’.