The day before Obama beat out McCain in the 08 election, I was attending Marketing Week, Toronto listening to one of the speakers telling us that there was absolutely no possible way that McCain was going to win. Obama’s social media campaigning was too perfect and too powerful. I agreed that it was most likely that Obama was going to be elected as the next president of the United States but I still believed that it was awfully bold to stand up in front of a few hundred people and make such a matter of fact statement. Of course, having seen this YouTube video, produced by will.i.am. of the Black Eyed Peas, I can see exactly what made the speaker so certain. Please take a look at this powerful video and then read Kim’s past postabout Obama’s awesome online fundraising activities, entitled Obama and Social Media.

Yes We Can – Obama Video

Obviously Obama got it right on many different levels.

Are you running email campaigns? What about sending out newsletters, blogging, and managing PPC campaigns? If you are doing all these things, that is most excellent! If you have synched up all of these opportunities and are utilizing them to cross promote each other, that is even more most excellent!

It is very important to synch up these campaigns because it will make your activities more effective and simple to manage. It is not difficult to set up cross promotion activities. Here are a few simple tips to get you started.

• Add a new PPC campaign that directs people to your blog.
  PPC campaigns are a great way to generate traffic to your website. It is not surprising, then, that PPC campaigns can also send traffic in droves to your blog for free ideas and information.
• Use your blog as a teaser for your newsletter once a month.
  Write a short blog entry about a pertinent subject and then mention that newsletter recipients will receive a more detailed article in your upcoming newsletter.
• Add a newsletter sign up button to your blog.
  If people are actively and consistently reading your blog posts, chances are they will want to sign up for your newsletter as well.
• Always mention your blog in your newsletter.
  Tell your customers that they do not have to wait a full month to read more great stuff, written by theirs truly and direct them to your blog.
• Link to your blog within newsletter articles.
  Try to refer back to your blog as well as your website within your articles. Soon your newsletter recipients will realise that your blog is a valuable source of information.

Properly synching up and utilising your email, newsletter, PPC management and other online campaigns as cross promotion tools will help generate interest and drive traffic to your website. It will also simplify your efforts. Of course, this will only work if you actually taking part in all of these marketing efforts, so if you have yet to set up that blog, newsletter, or email campaign, get going already!

To continue on the topic of my last post, the com.motion social media poll” clearly indicates that social media spend is on the rise. Along with social media marketing, there is one other area that is becoming the focus of 2009 marketing campaigns. Public Relations (PR) spend is rising along with social media marketing.

Please take a look at this very short video with Keith McArthur from com.motion discussing these findings.

com.motion poll

While other areas of marketing and advertising are taking a bit of a nose dive right now, it is logical that some of the dollars that are being trimmed from other areas are being funnelled into both social media and PR.

These two areas are distinct yet fused. Both are about reputation management and promotion. Both have a superior ability to respond, adapt, and amalgamate with changing consumer behaviour, and finally, both have the power to create a strong foundation for relationship based marketing.

It is important to incorporate on an offline marketing campaigns, and it is such a smart move to put social media marketing and public relations campaigns together. On their own they are powerful tools but when integrated they can accomplish so much more.

I anticipate that, as the economy worsens and belts tighten, smart companies we will see more companies turn towards permission and relationship based marketing campaigns and practices.

Com.motion just published some very telling statistics about the social media landscape in ‘08 and where it is heading in ’09. This second annual com.motion – Pollara poll reveals that, even as the economy dives, social media spend is rising. I am pretty sure that most Internet marketers and SEM companies around the globe already knew and felt this but it is great to have the stats that back us up in client meetings.

Here is just one of the key stats published on the com.motion site:

“Despite the economic slowdown forcing marketers to modify their spending, 82 per cent of Canadian business leaders and senior marketers say they will spend as much or more on social media in 2009 than they did this year.”

Of course, there some other stats, followed by a table that breaks down social media spend as compared to other marketing mediums. Just as important as social media spend, though, is the dramatic rise in social media awareness:

“The number of business leaders who say they are less familiar about social media than their customers has fallen to 17 per cent, down from 26 per cent a year ago.”

I am interpreting this poll to mean that it is not just the guys who are already doing it that have seen the value of social media and, as a result, are raising their social media budgets. Instead I see more Canadian companies and corporations stepping out onto the social media marketing landscape. Whether they are doing so simply because they are desperate to try any alternative to traditional advertising methods, or because they really are true believers, still remains in question for me, but, regardless of whether they are “jumpers” or “feet draggers”, these stats show that they are all starting to end up in the same place!

The holiday season is upon definitely upon us! Shoppers are just starting their shopping scramble. With maybe a little more emphasis on budget than in previous years, holiday consumers are frantically trying to make up their minds about what to buy for whom. So have you adjusted your Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns yet?

ABT (Always Be Testing) is an important rule to follow when it comes to PPC campaigns, and that is never more true than during the holiday season. PPC ad messages need to keep up with and cater to shoppers’ moods and needs. As the countdown to Xmas begins, PPC ads should be evolving daily. And that is pretty much the brilliance of PPC ads, isn’t it? That we really can change our messaging instantly? So, if you haven’t yet, dust off your old PPC campaigns, dive in and start testing. Research shows that Canadians are spending more time shopping online (that includes research and price comparisons) than ever before.

Tired and generic Adwords are not going to cut it. Capture attention online with sale announcements, countdowns, and seasonal merchandise or offerings. Or, you know, let other competitors do it and see how it works for them…

When I think “viral marketing”, one of the first campaigns that come to mind is the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty I am sure that I am not the only one!

There have been several elements to the Dove Campaigns, pretty much all of interactive and successful. Click on the link below to see just one Dove promotion, a YouTube video that was posted in 2006. Since that time, this video has been viewed 8,056,122 times, commented on 3,262 times, and been rated 7469 times. Talk about consumer interaction!

Dove Evolution

Another viral element is their pay beauty forward campaign, which invites their website viewers to send a flower with a message (the sender picks both the colour of the flower and the message from a drop down menu). So far over 10,000 flowers have been sent. There was also the Dove Sleepover for Self Esteem, a great concept inviting women and children to host a sleepover that includes much discussion about self esteem and “real beauty”.

Now I happen to live in downtown Toronto and I doubt that I will ever forget the “Fat vs. Fab” billboard over the DVP that featured a woman in her undies. People were invited to text in their votes on whether they thought she was “Fat” or “Fab”. They rant the same ad in UK with the options being “Overweight” or “Outrageous” and I think it was “Fat” or “Fit” in the US. I remember being slightly uncomfortable with this one and very disappointed when the results came in with 51% of them voting “fat”. Still, that was one of the first campaigns that I had seen successfully incorporate texting

So after mentioning all of these well thought out interactive campaigns, what will Dove come up with next? Something that focuses on how well Dove products work, perhaps? With the exception of maybe a couple of television commercials, Dove has so far skipped the whole “believe in our product” sort of advertising and jumped straight into the “believe in yourself” messaging, weaving their products with the warm happy feelings that one feels when she is confident and beautiful.

Love or hate the Dove approach, this whole concept of creating a movement that is bigger than your product is a perfectly suited for viral marketing and the rest of the online world. We have seen other successful examples of this and, as more companies catch on to the implications and potential of online marketing, I am sure we will see many more successful viral campaigns spread throughout the web like a wildfire.

And the bad news just keeps on coming for Rogers Communications.

Rogers Communications has just announced a vague number of employee cut backs. The looming recession was cited as the reason behind the cutbacks. The job losses were announced within the organization, the same day as the news of Ted Rogers’s death was making headlines across Canada.

Although Rogers is considered to be well positioned within the industry (many others have recently taken similar cost cutting measures), a steep decline in advertising spend has caused a tightening-of-the-belt across the Rogers multi-media empire. Job losses have occurred, and are reported to continue occurring at Rogers Media, Rogers Publishing, and at the Toronto Blue Jays franchise.

Currently, in midst of the major cutbacks that include employee jobs, travel allowances and restrictions, and personal employee spending, Rogers Communications is currently searching for a successor to the late Ted Rogers.

Rogers currently employs just less than 30,000 employees. About 100 positions are reported to have been cut and more are expected as we enter 2009.

Last week, my post was entitled “Getting Comfortable with Social Media”. I would like to follow up that post with my top 5 tips for surviving and thriving with social media:

1. Know your audience

Social media is about more than simply knowing the demographics of your target market, or where they like to hang out online. To create an effective social media marketing campaign, you must identify with your audience and understand their underlying goals, ambitions, and thought processes. This is an absolute must if you (and I know you do!) want them to identify with you.

2. Social media requires research and planning.

With so many new platforms presenting themselves at breakneck speeds, it is easy throw caution to the wind and jump on board. While it is true that it is important to act fast, it is equally important to create a solid, long term social marketing strategy that fits into your overall plan, which brings me to my next point…

3. It is important to marry your online and offline marketing strategies.

Online strategies should always synch up with and support offline marketing activities and vice versa. A well thought out integrated marketing plan is an effective marketing plan.

4. Understand that effective social media marketing is permission based.

Advertising that forces itself upon, or distracts the end user will do more harm than good. Useful and relative content is key to getting noticed in a positive manner.

5. Effective Social media campaigns require a time and energy commitment.

Every once in a while, we all hear about the overnight viral marketing success stories that began with little more than a spark of creative genius. I personally cheer every time I here of these stories BUT this does not mean that you will necessarily recreate the instant success of others with little to no work or budget. If your social media campaign is not an overnight success, that does not mean that it is time to pull the plug and go wallow in self pity because social media has failed you. Measurable results, results with which you can track ROI usually take (and hopefully build) over time.

Of course, perhaps the most important element in social media marketing success is action! Create your online strategy and follow through. Until you do so, you are losing out on a huge opportunity to connect and interact with your consumers.

Ted Rogers, founder of Rogers Communications, has passed away in his home at the age of 75.

Ted Rogers has long been considered the epitome of entrepreneurialism. Since 1960, when Rogers first entered (and pioneered) the communications industry, Rogers had proved himself time and time again as an innovator and shrewd business man. Often, Rogers caught on to trends and innovations before others in his field could see the potential. This led Rogers to take brave and calculated risks with (usually) huge payoffs, eventually bringing Rogers to the status of one of Canada’s wealthiest and most successful entrepreneurs.

Rogers Communications is currently worth just under $20 billion and is employing almost 25,000 employees. This is thanks in part to Rogers having the foresight and determination to steer Rogers Cable in the direction of high-speed Internet, solidifying the company’s reputation and place as a leader in the field.

Ted Rogers is survived by his wife, Loretta, of 45 years, and their four children.

For more a little more info about the history of Ted Rogers, pick up a copy of his autobiography Relentless: The True Story of the Man Behind Rogers Communications.

Google Analytics is a powerful tool that provides a ton of information and statistics that, if installed and interpreted correctly, will provide most of the answers you are seeking about your website’s strengths, weaknesses, and overall performance. So if Google Analytics is so great, and so free, why would anyone pay to utilize a website activity tracking program? Well, there are a couple of reasons that might make you decide to shell out some of your budget towards a paid tracking tool.

One major drawback to Google Analytics is that it does not store historical data for you. If your website, perhaps the coding or the tagging encounters problems or changes that interrupt Google Analytics, you can lose a lot of data. Forever. With a couple of paid programs out there, however, you can retrieve that lost info without problem.

On Linkedin a little while ago, I actually read a conversation about how the tagging on someone’s website had, for some unknown reason, been changed and as a result Google Analytics had stopped capturing data. They ended up losing a whole bunch of unrecoverable data.

At a conference a little while back, Tim Armstrong, SVP, Google, admitted that Google Analytics needed to improve upon capturing ROI. This is not new information; anyone that makes a living providing online marketing help can tell you that tracking and measuring ROI is not as easy as pasting some code on a client’s site. We also know that this is not an issue that is unique to Google Analytics. Every program out there has its strengths and weaknesses. I am hopeful that Google will improve Analytics ability to measure ROI soon. Until then, however, many of us are utilizing a combination of Analytics and other tracking programs to in an effort to provide data and ROI measurement to clients.