Tag Archive for "New media"

Posts Tagged ‘New media’

Breaking Through the Clutter

Nov 11, 2011 | tags: bike industry, Channel Signal, Grass-roots marketing, New media, Outdoor Industry Association, Outdoor Recreational Industry, Outdoor Retailer, Snowsports Industry Association, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association, Strategy

Bots(robots), affiliate marketing sites, discount sites and link farms are all making the conversation very crowded for brands trying to get their message heard online. All the entities have one purpose and that is to sell product. Some of it is discounted. Some of it isn’t. Some are names of sites you have never heard of, and some are names like Amazon.

Recently, we were asked by a leading brand in the outdoor and ski markets to search for it and see what we find. Well, it wasn’t pretty. Channel Signal search engines, which have blacklisted over 10,000 authors and sites, still came up with a ton of junk surrounding this brand.

Why? Because the company had not delivered good online content and sales pitches (selling primarily discounted product) had taken over the brand’s identity.

We searched Twitter…could barely find any content about the actual brand.
Blogs…junk everywhere.
YouTube…better content here.
Online traditional media…not much.

To be clear, all of this sales noise is not all bad. A retailer, Amazon, posted 1,900 customer review ratings in the past year on a product produced by the brand with an average rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars.

Now, if you figure 20 percent of the customers who bought from Amazon wrote a review, that means about 10,000 sales in one year. Not bad from the online retailer.

However, the brand is being drowned out by the sales pitches. Can’t really call it noise because it does move product.

What to do?

First a brand must sharpen its identity online. Advertise to your target market about where to go…on Twitter, Facebook, Google+, your blogs, etc. In short, drive consumers to where you want them to go for your content. Then…

Fill these places with good content. Not content that sells stuff, but content that educates consumers. How to layer? Why a hat is important. Goggles and what they can do for you. Breathable socks. And make this information directly applicable to your product lines.

And then, build online relationships with your retailer partners.

1. Support online retailers with content they can push out and reprint on their own sites.

2. Train retailers to understand how to do things like embed a YouTube video, update their blog and utilize basic search engine optimization techniques.

3. License content correctly for reprinting/republishing through retailers with photographers, writers, video producers.

By building a grassroots content strategy through retail partners, brands can deliver better content online, serve their customers and drive sales with key accounts.

So, break out of the noise by building your content and building your partnerships with retailers.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

It Is Still Your Gut

Oct 27, 2011 | tags: Channel Signal, Marketing, New media, New media. outdoor recreational industry, Outdoor Industry Association, public relations, Snowsports Industries of America

Recently, while talking with executives about social media, I got three different messages from them:

1. I get it and we are building our social media presence.

2. I don’t get it and until somebody shows me the money, I’m not gonna get it.

3. I know that we need to get on top of the social media thing, but I’m not sure if it will do us any good.

Ok. Here is what social media data can do.

1. With the proper analysis, it provides insight and justification for your major decisions.

2. It gives you the truth. And remember, every post, whether good or bad, has a good deal of truth to it.

And your “truth” and their ”truth” may be completely different. Not the same picture at all.

3. It gives real-time feedback on the performance of your products.

4. It provides trending information, which will be a leading contributor to upcoming sales forecasts.

Here are some things that data cannot do:

1. It can not make decisions for you.

2. It should not be manipulated. If it is, it will be at great risk to your company and your career.

3. It cannot be your friend. When data says the momentum is good, it doesn’t care. When momentum is bad, it doesn’t care.

4. It cannot be ignored. Data is direct from are your customers, your life-blood. Ignore them and you ignore the performance reviews of your products. It is the beginning of the end for your company in the 21st century.

I say these things because recently there has been too much emphasis on both the power of social media and the weakness of social media. Both are true.

Social Media Reporting becomes a competitive weapon when you:

1. measure correctly

2. analyze

3. deliver the data in a way that senior managers can understand and compare to performance in other sectors of the enterprise.

And when data is delivered this way, it is still your gut, but with more ammunition.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Channel Management

Apr 20, 2011 | tags: Channel Management, Marketing, New media, Outdoor Recreational Industry, public relations, snowsports industry, social media, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association

Companies in the sporting goods business are now coming out with their growth plans, many of them 3 years or more. These plans are aggressive and this signals a change in the landscape. For at least ten years the sporting goods business has been consolidating. This means that stock holders and stake holders want healthy and sustained growth from the new larger company. And it’s up to senior management to plot that growth.

Here’s the challenge.

Where will that growth come from? The traditional sales channels are specialty retail, large specialty retail (REI, EMS, Dicks, Cabela’s,etc.), and huge retail (Walmart).

Specialty retail is averaging growth of between 3-5% over a six year period ending at the beginning of 2010. Large specialty and the big retailers are growing, on average, in the area of 8-10%. These numbers won’t change much. It takes a lot for any of these channels to plan for the explosive growth demanded by the brands. A lot of money will be needed for expansion, inventory and salespeople.

Brands realize that traditional retail can’t supply the lion’s share of the growth, unless many of the brands go to the very big boxes and most brands still believe that Walmart will dilute the authenticity of their product offerings.

The explosive growth will come from two relatively new channels, branded stores and online sales. Online sales have grown, on average, about 20% a year in the last 4 years.

New Balance, Nike, Columbia, The North Face, Merrell, Icebreaker, Marmot, and many others, have announced they will be opening retail stores across the country. Why? Because they can offer wider selections and fulfill inventory faster, which means a bigger upside.

Same thing with the Online Sales Channel, aka, the company web store. Brands are selling merchandise at full price, can replenish inventory instantly, and offer the entire collection. There is a lot of profit margin here.

So, online sales and branded retail stores will be joining the landscape of Channel Management.

Here’s Channel Signal’s guess as to how Brand’s will position the Channels.

specialty retail will be used to create momentum and maintain authenticity.
large retail…less of the same but bigger numbers for the brands.
Walmart, Kmart, etc…look for the brands to open this channel in limited amounts to move merchandise that is lower end. Numbers are good here.
Branded stores…good margins, good selection and success will fuel more stores across the country.
Online stores… great margins, great selection, and more money pumped into the web site to make it more of a shopping experience.

One thing we haven’t addressed and that is social media. My guess, the brands will find ways to build this channel as a sales channel or use it to drive traffic to the other sales channels.

Channel management will be critical moving into the future. And so will tracking what channels are generating the buzz and how that translates into profit.

Thanks to Leisure Trends for the growth stats.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Consumers Buy from Cause-Related Companies

Sep 29, 2010 | tags: Action Sports, bike industry, Channel Signal, New media, Outdoor Industry Association, Outdoor Recreational Industry, Snowsports Industries America, snowsports industry, social media

Our last article was about how companies are building traffic by creating hashtag Twitter accounts, and driving traffic to them by offering discounted products. I feel this doesn’t work and builds no value. We left off with…be known for something.

Well, this is supported by a new Environmental Leader article that puts forth research that 83% of consumer want to buy from companies adapting causes that improve the quality of life. This information was uncovered in the Cone Cause Evolution Study just released.

Article

As Channel Signal gets deeper into measuring the social media efforts of its customers we are becoming more aware of what works and what doesn’t. And what works is creating social media events and programs that improve lives. What doesn’t is when companies use social media as a distribution channel to sell product.

Let’s go back to the tired old theme of social media being like a cocktail party. Well, it isn’t. Unless you want to attend a cocktail party with 10 million people, and your 100 friends are scattered throughout the mass of humanity. And you are relieved when you see someone you know because you can have a conversation: local politics, friends, and upcoming events.

However, if your company is known for something, a cause close to the hearts of many, now you have strangers coming up to you and wanting to talk about the popular initiative. Now, the cocktail party is less intimidating and much more welcoming. Now, there is a common thread of conversation that you helped create.

All reports indicate that successful cause-marketing in social media starts and ends with getting the employees on board. They, in turn, reach out to their respective networks and the viral power starts to generate momentum. However, the corporate cause and effort must be real. Here is one the the experts, Simon Isaacs who leads the cause-marketing division for ignition Inc and works with major corporate clients like Coca Cola and nonprofit brands like United Nations Foundation. He talks about what not to do in an interview with Rachael Chong, a respected blogger.

Issacs:

“Here are five things consumers need to watch out for:

Fluffy Language: Words like eco-friendly or “good for you”, which fail to provide any specific meaning to a claim
Silly Pictures: Suggestive pictures to promote an unjustifiable green image, like flowers in exhaust pipes
Unproven or Irrelevant Claims: Unproven sustainability claims or playing up one green or cause-related achievement of a company’s operations, while other areas are lacking
Fake friends: Made-up third party endorsements and labels
Just downright not credible: Promoting the social or environmental benefits of “harmful” products like cigarettes

An authentic and effective cause-marketing campaign is a win-win for the brand and the cause/nonprofit partner. To answer your first question, “winning” for the brand does not necessarily always mean direct sales. It can also be about corporate reputation, brand love or employee engagement, but it does need to connect back to the business.”

Companies who take up a cause, bring it online, give money, and devote content and people to it, do build their businesses…and in the long run that means selling more product to a growing base of loyal customers.

Next time, we address how adopting a cause creates internal momentum for a company.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

A Cause

Sep 20, 2010 | tags: advertising, Marketing, New media, Outdoor Recreational Industry, Snowsports Industries, social media, sporting goods, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association

This is a three-part series that I am writing on the importance of finding the Purpose of Your Company…the Cause. I first tackle a growing problem in social media…pumping up traffic by using the wrong tactics.

Channel Signal is picking up more and more evidence of companies building traffic by using hashtag Twitter and then incenting people to join by offering the chance for new product.

This is “discount-linking” and it doesn’t work. Companies doing this are attracting sweepstakes sites (sweepstakes bots), discount sites, link farms…all retweeting and retweeting about what?About your discounted products.

Is that what a company wants to be known for? This is like throwing a cocktail party and advertising it by posting free drink notices in all the local dives. You’ll get a crowd all right, but you’ll have no silverware at the end of the night.

So companies are lowering the barrier to entry, incenting, and building traffic. But it is the wrong traffic. These people don’t really care about a company’s products. They won’t be having adventures in these products and then writing about them. And they won’t be telling their friends about the quality of the products and suggesting a buy. They only want to broadcast the discounts.

The upshot. These people come for the discounts, and quickly disappear when there are none.

Now, maybe one person in 30 buys a discounted product, starts hiking, loses weight, and becomes an enthusiast. Fine, but that is one out of 30. Not good odds.

At Channel Signal we have extensive filtering hooks that grab these sites and knock them out of the search. Companies should increase their value-propositions by complimenting good product with good content.

Building traffic the fast and easy way, through discounting, is not a sustainable strategy.

And be known for something.

More about that next time.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

Choose Two

Aug 17, 2010 | tags: New media, Outdoor Industry, Outdoor Industry Association, Snowsports Industries of America, social media, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association

Channel Signal loves the article Real Time, Real Discussion, Real Reporting-Choose Two by Tech Crunch. This, of course, is a take-off on the old adage: “Do You Want it Cheap, Fast or Good. Choose Two.” Here’s the article.

Choose Two of These

Author, Devin Coldewey, explains that there is only so much that a certain channel of media can provide. Twitter is real time discussion. Broadcast media is real-time reporting. (NBC, CNN, ABC radio,etc). Print and other delayed media is delayed reporting and discussion. (NY Times, etc.) All media is quickly evolving, but for the moment we believe these premises basically hold true. The author points out that blogs, in this mix, are the wild cards. They can be real reporting, real-time discussion and delayed reporting and discussion.

Here’s a new perspective on the premise of choosing two.

Twitter- Real-time discussion. Blogs-Thoughtful analysis. Facebook-Customer engagement and storytelling. Choose two.

We believe a company should engage in just two. Concentrate on doing one very well, and support it with the second channel. For example, concentrate on Facebook but support it by broadcasting its content through Twitter. Or concentrate on Twitter but provide in-depth commentary of the conversation flow via a Blog. What channels are chosen should be matched with what best reflects your company’s voice.

Here’s the run-down of the three major Channels.

Twitter. The commitment to real-time discussion is time consuming and its demands are relentless. A company must assign a person to Twitter and that person must not only tweet (and make sense) , but retweet great content, and stay up with the conversation. Zappos has done real-time conversation very well by encouraging all employees to tweet. This strategy is revolutionary because many Zappos employees are broadcasting and a part of the brand’s collective voice. This requires that a company let go, something many brands can’t do. I attribute the Zappos success to the CEO, Tony Hsieh, who has provided the freedom for employees to talk, engage and make mistakes…all in real-time.

Employing Facebook means your employees and your customers are engaging in storytelling. This is really a scrapbook about the customers who have stories to tell about their experiences with a brand’s products and events. The brand needs to provide the products and events…and then encourage consumers to tell their stories on its platform. Time intensive again. A brand must respond to customer stories, encourage them, and, at times, reward great storytellers with product. A brand should assign several employees to this task. They speak for the brand, are encouraging, provide content which sponsors reaction, and customer interaction. Vibram does a great job on its FiveFingers FB page. 70,000 friends and growing. Customers who are now barefoot runners go to this FB page because it is a true community. Vibram FiveFingers

Blogs. Thoughtful analysis. Again, time intensive. They must, at times be controversial, edgy and logical. It takes work, and guts. Here’s the problem. Many in senior management have accepted the challenge of a blog for the company website only to find that they don’t have the time to devote to it. Or they don’t have the writing talents or thought processes to engage readers. Consequently, many of these blogs have fallen by the wayside. Or the posts degenerate into a pep rally for the brand, which is boring for everyone. A rock climbing blog we like is this one: rockclimbergirl. Sara Lingafelter does a good job of covering the climbing landscape and occasionally takes on tough topics with an honesty that is refreshing.

Why not include YouTube,Vimeo or the other video platforms as channels? Because they can be easily incorporated into the other three major platforms.

So, choose two. Real-time discussion. Storytelling by your customers. Thoughtful analysis. Why no more than two? Because most brands engage in all three but invest the human resources to do a good job on just one, with another channel as support. And one channel normally fits the brand voice the best. Engaging in a second platform will push and pull viewers to the primary communication channel.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

No Strategy for This

May 6, 2010 | tags: bike industry, Marketing, New media, Outdoor Recreational Industry, public relations, snowsports industry, social media

The spill in the Gulf of Mexico started as a news report of an explosion and eleven men missing. Only one sentence was dedicated to the oil spillage…saying only that a tiny amount was leaking.

It has now grown and threatened the coastline of several states. It is telling a story much larger and much more damning to the shrimpers and the oil people.

Here’s an example…reported by the New York Times.

“About 35 endangered sea turtles have washed up dead on beaches along the Gulf of Mexico since Sunday, sowing fears that they were done in by the growing oil spill.

But so far scientists have found no connection between their deaths and the spill. Autopsies indicated that the turtles had ingested no oil.

It is now suspected that shrimpers out at sea before the April 20 rig explosion and spill caught the turtles in their nets, which can suffocate them.

The A.P. reports that federal fisheries investigators are looking into whether shrimpers were responsible.”

So, the oil spill exposes other abuses.

And is social media having a hay day with the suspected killing of endangered species in pursuit of the dollar? Yep. Search for “sea turtles” on Twitter and it is all about turtles and the oil spill.

Why is the sea turtle episode exploding on Twitter? Because it is the sidebar that puts a new spin on the story. There are pictures. And people are becoming emotionally attached.

And this whole business is dirty.

Our dependence on oil is dirty… due to carbon loading.

According to the University of California, every car is responsible for 1.28 tons of carbon per year. A nation with five percent of the earth’s population consumes about 23 percent of the world’s oil output. And we are currently exceeding the regenerative ability of the earth to sustain us. Today we occupy 145% of the earth’s regenerative ability.

The extraction is dirty, and dangerous.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Minerals and Management Service is developing regulations aimed at preventing human error, which it identified as a factor in many of the more than 1,400 offshore oil drilling accidents between 2001 and 2007.

Sea turtles are now proving that commercial shrimpers are dirty.

And this story has so many sidebars, many which are still unknown, that it will be tweeted about, facebooked about, and blogged about …for years.

There will be more pictures of wildlife, total victims. And millions more new media comments.

There will be villains. And more new media comments.

There will be innocent human victims. And more new media comments.

And my point?

There is no new media strategy that can solve this, next time. This is a national tragedy.

Pundits are already coming out and writing that BP didn’t handle this the right way. Well what is the right way? Set up a war room and have the best minds churn out news? Stay on top of the issues? Be the first to break the stories…before the media? Be transparent? Be honest? Be responsive to new media questions?

Won’t help.

Again, this is a tragedy and one that is unfolding before our eyes. And new media is a part of delivering the story and the millions of opinions surrounding it.

BP better concentrate on fixing the problem and cleaning up the mess. And pay for all of it. After nearly two decades of screwing around with the legal system, Exxon got exactly what it wanted: a Supreme Court that reduced punitive damages from $2.5 billion to $500 million. According to reports, that is just a week’s profit for Exxon.

This time we should put the big hurt on BP. 10 billion. 20 weeks of profit. Make them howl. And the judicial branch should level the fine and walk away. That will get the attention of the other oil companies.

The Obama Administration would be wise to forget about the deals they made with the Republicans to get the health care bill passed…and kill the off-shore oil drilling initiative. DOA. Period.

Shrimpers…stop killing endangered species. You might have been innocent victims, but you sure aren’t now.

This is a big story of our time. And because of new media, we are all involved. Writing. Discussing. Taking action. Being disgusted.

And there is no strategy that will lessen the impact for BP. It is caught in a huge unfolding story. And the federal government is caught in the same story. So are the shrimpers. And so am I. And so are you. BP is just a spoke in the massive feeding machine connected to our lifestyles.

We in new media can pontificate all we want about this national disaster, but until we view the future with sharp, clear-eyed vision and determination…expect bigger environmental disasters.

And expect our free fall into the future to continue with the ground approaching at an ever increasing rate.

We have met the enemy, and it is us.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

All of the Noise

Apr 19, 2010 | tags: bike industry, Channel Signal, Influencers, Marketing, New media, Outdoor Recreational Industry, SGMA, Snowsports Industries, Snowsports Industries of America, social media, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association

Channel Signal has been bombarded lately with noise. Now, part of our job is to filter noise and there is much to filter: worthless posts like “Just on my way to work. What a beautiful day. Wearing my brand sandals.” or “50% discount here on all brand product. Buy. Buy. Buy.”

I would say of the 400-600 posts a day that we receive for each of our clients about 80% is noise.
And when we send it through our second “human” filter we filter out about 80% of that and deliver only about 20% of that to our clients.

Recently, there is a new type of noise, and it is just confusing the issue. This noise is all about the new software coming online to help companies sort through new media, help them develop content, and then help deliver content. Soon, there will be software that will write the content for you and all the brand needs to do is put its name here.

This improved software will help a company make new media easier, faster, more efficient and cost-effective.

Don’t believe it.

It’s just like the great Smith-Barney ads used to proclaim at the end of its thirty-second spots.
“We make money the old-fashioned way. We earn it.”

And you must. Brands must earn the respect of the Influencers in new media. Must earn a loyal following. Must earn a strong community. Sure it starts with the product; however, it doesn’t end there. That is only the beginning.

It’s the communication and feedback loops that you must now build. And yes, software packages can help; however, the basics can not be ignored. Here are some of the basics.

1. Pick just one channel and do it well. Not just by getting yourself up on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, and Flickr…and saying, “well, that’s that. Let’s talk about our product and see if we sell more.”

2. Sorry about this, but it needs to be said…because this is the phrase, “shit in, shit out.” Searching and receiving raw new media data, and not filtering and accurately assigning sentiment means a brand is getting crap. And now crap is being analyzed. And the analysis is crap. And management decisions are being made based on crap.

Channel Signal delivers “finished” data and this is data that is relevant and worth consideration by our clients. We then analyze that data, and measure it. Now management (and its pr/marketing partners) have clean data, a clean report, and good information to consider.

3. Engage. I come from a family of talkers. My Mom always used to say, “well Paul, if you aren’t listening and talking, then how will you know what others are thinking?” Brands must first listen, and then talk. Engage with good content, and then enter the conversation that it sponsors. And if doesn’t sponsor any talk, then change what you are writing about. Get them talking.

Publish and talk. Don’t be shy. New media is not the place for wall-flowers.

And, ignore the noise. An old African saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Take this in bites. Choose a channel. Concentrate on it. Make it successful. And then use that knowledge to build.

And believe that this will be hard work. Building content that attracts a strong community starts with knowing your voice, your audience, and what they want. And that’s where “finished” data comes in. It is the feedback loop that allows you to accurately gauge, and correct.

It’s your compass in a whacky world.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal

An Orca Sparks a War

Mar 3, 2010 | tags: Channel Signal, Grass-roots marketing, Marketing, New media, New media. outdoor recreational industry, Outdoor Recreational Industry, Snowsports Industry Association, social media, Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association

A few days ago I got a call from a lawyer who has ties with Sea World. Not direct ties but close enough to be concerned.

So the conversation goes like this…
Lawyer: “Are you aware of what happened yesterday at Sea World?”
Me: “Yup. Read about it.”
Lawyer: “I want to suggest that they call you because this is an incident that could blow into a crisis. They need Channel Signal to monitor this.” Me: “Thanks. We would love to help. Based on a little searching around it looks like its heading into crisis now.”

Well, we didn’t get the call, and the message was, thanks we have it covered.
Good for them. Hope it goes well.

It’s not.
All major news outlets carried it. Predictable. Major animal rights sites were on the offensive. Predictable. And Sea World and animal entertainment advocates were on the defensive. Predictable.

And here are the unanswered questions which brought heat to the debate:

1. Why was this whale in question (Tilikam) involved in the shows after killing other people?
2. Is the use of predators for entertainment just a game of chance?
3. Why did the shows resume so quickly.
4. And are these predators merely prisoners for fun and profit?

Pick your side and pull out your firearm.

CNN sponsored a raging screaming match between an orca trainer and an avid environmentalist. Other news talk shows followed. Actors and actresses got involved. PETA has set up a Free Willy Facebook Site and already has over 6,000 followers.

Twitter, Facebook, and the blogsphere lit up about the poor handling of the situation.

And standing in the middle of this traditional and social media storm is Sea World.

A couple of things to remember here.

When an incident blows into a crisis, immediately start monitoring…on both sides of the issue.
1. Learn what is critical to answer and answer those questions…rapidly.
2. Address and even attack false statements rapidly.
3. And have people available 24/7 for all questions from all quarters.
4. And don’t stop listening, and responding until the crisis is past…well past.
5. And no attitude.

Now, I realize that, according to reports, the Sea World team is tight and losing a trainer to another family member (Tilikam) has to be devastating.

But, that is why you bring in a communications team that knows what they are doing. To protect the Sea World team. Provide guidance. Get to the facts. And appoint an authentic Sea World spokesperson.

And some of these people on the communication team should have news training because first and foremost this is a news story. The facts…that’s what reporters want. And if they smell that facts are being withheld, then they will dig harder and look for angles.

And reporters will then report those “angles” and that information will be picked up by the blogs. And mis-information becomes fact.

Sea World finds its very business model now being questioned. Will parents risk a show knowing that something terrible could happen? Will people find it detestable that these carnivores are kept in tanks for life, when in the wild they travel over 100 miles a day in open ocean? And is this just about money, since the show opened 3 days after the tradegy?

Free Willy has taken on a whole new meaning for Sea World.

And some of this could have been avoided with a communication strategy laid out in advance. And a new key to that strategy is 24/7 monitoring of the crisis so that opinions are quickly uncovered, and then covered with facts.

Before Social Media, you could count on a crisis having a limited shelf-life. After all, the media had new things to cover and its attention was taken elsewhere.

With Social Media, every crisis has a long tail. So, Sea World and its handlers will be dealing with blogs, tweets, YouTube, and Flickr for the forseeable future. And with every new fact about the story will be thousands of opinions.

“We’ve got it covered.”

Clearly, Sea World underestimated “it”.

And what it would take to “cover” it.

Paul Kirwin, Founder and CEO of Channel Signal