I Won’t Call to Say I Love You

 

Calling is so…last century.

We are all, apparently, turning into hermits. But well-connected hermits. At great detriment to our interpersonal skills, which are not so hot to begin with, people are choosing to communicate more through text and email than a phone-call or an actual face-to-face conversation. In a study conducted by the Pew Institute, the number of text messages sent in the U.S. ALONE, shot from 14 billion in 2000 to 188 billion in 2010. And that was five years ago. Now, we send over 193,000 messages a second, only counting SMS texts! This non-verbal communication trend started and rose with the advent of the Internet Age. Way back in 1995, the internet was used by just 44 million people, worldwide. Now, in 2015, there are more than 3 billion people on the internet. That’s almost half the world population using these doo-dads. As the internet spreads, actual vocal communication by phone continues to trend downward.

Won't CallEmail is still the number-one form of non-verbal communication, with 188,000,000 (yes, that’s billions) emails sent every day. That makes sense because at work we frequently have to communicate with people that are not physically there; or with people that are not our “friends”, real or of the facebook variety. Taking the time to call and chat, or even just have a quick work-related conversation is a little bothersome, and well, time-consuming. Oddly enough, about 80% of Millennials (probably close to the most hermity segment of the population) believe that face-to-face conversations at work are the best and most important way to communicate. That doesn’t mean, however, that they like to talk to people on the phone. In fact, 32% of people (Millennial aged and older) would rather text than talk on the phone. And 51% of teens prefer digital communication to the real thing! Too bad for them, because adolescence is a key formative period for learning interpersonal communication, as well as learning to pick up on non-verbal cues…socially AWKWARD.

Communication through social media, such as Facebook messages, Tweets, or even apps like Snapchat is also on the rise. With 74% of people polled in the UK stating that they use social media to communicate with others daily. A whopping 43% of 18-24 year-olds believe that texting is equally meaningful as having a real phone conversation (I know it isn’t a majority, but it is still a lot of people). Even in the 65 and older age-group, texting edged out calling 4.7 to 3.8 (texts received over phone calls a day)! The trend continues to grow. Will we soon be in the same place and prefer texting instead of talking to someone sitting right in front of us? The HORROR!

And you may not have gotten the Stevie Wonder reference in the title, but trust me, it’s good.

Sources here, here & here.

People Recommend What They Love

Recommend Your Business

And you can, too!

Did you ever notice that people love to recommend the things, people, products, and services they think are great? They do. Look at the list of pages people have “suggested” you like on Facebook. I’m sure it’s quite long. Most of the reason for that is that people are promoting their own services or business, but there are also lots of people who just really like stuff and want everyone else to like it, too. Like if you have a friend that’s really into the environment, he or she probably always suggests eco-friendly businesses and products. To everyone. Giving a good recommendation makes you feel helpful, connected, and appeals to our social nature as humans.

RecommendedBecome the company you would love to recommend. Maybe that’s like saying “build it, and they will come”, who knows? And whatever your business is, stick to your guns! (That is, stick with what you are about and don’t try to pander to everyone.) If you don’t know what your unique desirable selling quality (or your value proposition) is, then how will your clientele know? If your business is all about fashion, fashion the heck out of it. Do you and your company support veterans? Be all you can be! Figure out what differentiates your company from all the others so that you can clearly communicate its value to current and potential customers. Create a unique experience to go along with your business. Be vocal about what you do, and be good at it. People will take notice and recommend you for it.

If you have employees, make sure they are well-informed about the company’s products or services, and that they actually LIKE working there; or at the very least, think the product is of good quality and worthy of recommendation. An employee who dissuades people from frequenting the company where he or she works is more detrimental than lots of word of mouth non-recommendations! You won’t be able to make everyone appreciate your company or product; but quality, service, and that extra little “something” can make a big difference in how customers and potential customers see your brand. That extra “something” is a unique experience that differentiates your business from all of the others, creating your “niche”, if you will. And allowing your company to connect in a meaningful way with its customers.

Source

Marketing on a Budget

Budget Marketing

You don’t need a huge budget to make a big impact

Reaching your clients through marketing is one of the most important aspects of running a business. Not all companies, however, have millions of dollars to invest in media blitzes, willy-nilly glossy prints, or a crazy high-tech website. There are some low-cost things your company can do to reach-out to existing and prospective customers, and pretty much all of them have to do with building relationships: with your best (current) customers, by offering them special loyalty benefits; with journalists, by letting them know when you have a product or story that could create an impact; with local (or any) charities because giving back isn’t just good, its good public relations; and even with your own employees, interacting with them and inviting their friends and family to fun work events to create “ambassadors” for the company. Your business can also partner or “piggy-back” with other companies to get more bang for your buck.

You don’t need a huge budget to make a big impact with your marketing campaigns, but you DO need to have a well thought out marketing strategy. Lucky for you, The Agency’s marketing solutions can help you find the correct target audience for your service or product, allowing your company to maximize the budget you DO have with specific campaigns. Marketing strategies that will help you get your priorities right; deciding where and on what you should spend your money. Ideas that will assist in engaging prospective customers and getting them excited about your product or service so that they will become BUYERS.Guaranteed

Creativity is the most important element in any marketing strategy, and The Agency is chock-full of that stuff.

Sources here, here & here.

Drop Your Phone, Donate Water

UNICEF Tap Project

What sort of project could you and YOUR company do to help people?

This March, you and your whole office/family/group of friends can participate in a great project that provides clean drinking water for children in need all over the world! Remember how “doing good helps you do better“? This is a perfect example! All of us at The Agency are kind of smartphone addicts, so setting aside our phones for minutes (just a FEW minutes) at a time with an actual purpose, might help us ease-up the ‘phone jones’ while doing good at the same time.

Social media is incredibly important to marketing, brand perception, customer interaction and even sales these days; and let’s face it, it should be! Because social media is ALL OVER THE PLACE. People can express themselves and access the random rumination of others, any time, any place. People can also express themselves, positively or negatively, about your brand; so social media does need to be monitored, but maybe your personal Facebook status updates or running-commentary Tweets, not so much. All of this “connection” to the world through social media is great, but strangely addictive. Seriously, like Candy Crush Saga addictive. With the UNICEF Tap Project, each minute you resist the temptation to show the world your Instagram lunch or watch funny cat videos, you help unlock a larger donation and more clean, safe water to help save the lives (literally) of children around the globe.

What sort of project could you and YOUR company do to help people? While you’re coming up with a great idea for your company to do good, try participating in the UNICEF Tap Project, get started at UnicefTapProject.org!

Source can be found here

Doing Good is Good for Business

Social Responsibility

Social Responsibility and The Bottom Line

Here’s some happy news for all the do-gooders out there: putting your do-good, feel-good philosophy into your business is a pretty sure-fire way to make you more successful. It’s a win-win! Social responsibility makes your clients feel better about your business, about themselves for contributing to it, and kind of about the world in general (we humans aren’t as terrible as we seem). More and more, consumers are expecting their favorite brands to be socially responsible, and in turn, allow them to make an impact through their purchases. A 2013 study on Americans’ attitudes toward corporate social responsibility and social impact conducted by Cone Communications has shown the developing desire for business’ to create meaningful change in the world, as well as publicize it. More than 90% of the 1,270 adult consumers surveyed said they would be more likely to trust and be loyal to a socially responsible business, rather than to companies that do not make a positive social impact. Additionally, a whopping 88% want to hear about these efforts, generally through social media campaigns. And 91 percent would like to see more products, retailers and services support worthy causes, a number that has steadily been on the increase since 2010.

Another worldwide study conducted by The Neilsen Company shows the same trends on an international scale. According to more than 30,000 surveyed in 60 countries, 55 percent will pay more for services and products from companies that make a positive impact on society and the environment. SuccessAge was an important factor in how respondents answered: Millenials (born approximately between 1980-2000) are the most likely to push for social responsibility, with more than half of the total number of respondents within that age-group stating they would be more likely to pay extra for sustainable products. Less than half that number of Gen-X’ers (from 35-49 year olds) responded equally, and only 25% of the Baby Boomers (ages 50-64) said the same. The future is coming, and apparently Millenials are the ones that think this stuff isn’t optional.

Also, to help maintain customer trust and loyalty, companies need to back up their claims! You can’t just say your business is socially responsible if it isn’t. Because, with the internet consumers can (and do) research the brands that they prefer, and they love to use social media to communicate what they do an do not like about what companies are doing.

Do-gooders do better, people!

Source: Here & Here

Hell Hath No Fury Like a Mother Scorned

Bad Social Media

In other words, “How NOT to manage your social media”

GoGo Squeeze MoldThe children’s squeezable applesauce pouch company GoGo SqueeZ have created themselves quite the predicament. It all began with a Facebook comment in July, 2014 from an outraged mother claiming her child consumed spoiled product causing him to be sick and emitted to the ER for treatment. How did GoGo SqueeZ resolve this issue? They hit the ‘DELETE’ button, which resulted in quite the opposite of a resolution. The mother saw that her post had been discarded and the incident blew up across Facebook groups and ‘mommy blogs’ alike. The original post was posted again, again, and again calling out the company for ignoring a serious issue. By deleting this post GoGo SqueeZ not only tried to ignore the issue, but also made themselves look guilty. These posts looked like this:

A Mother ScornedThis initial post has been copy and pasted to the GoGo SqueeZ Facebook page hundreds if not thousands of times since July of 2014, along with many other complaints of rotten products.

GoGo Squeeze on FacebookGoGo SqueeZ has been backpedaling since July trying to satisfy unhappy consumers angered by them deleting the original comment that started it all. So here we are 7 months later and the negative posts keep coming and the company keeps referring back to a July statement about the incident: “During this past holiday week there has been a lot of discussion on our Facebook page regarding a report of finding mold in a container of our product, and we feel it’s important that you have the most accurate and up to date information from us:

Most of the discussion has been around a photo from July 2014, of a pouch appearing to contain mold, which was brought to our attention via Facebook. We previously provided an update to our Facebook community related to this and the steps we took to address the situation and this information can be found below. We thoroughly investigate each and every consumer complaint as soon as it is brought to our attention, and our Quality Control analyses continue to show there is absolutely no indication of a broad product quality issue….” (Full Post Here)

So, why is this worth a blog post? GoGo SqueeZ has given a prime example of bad social media practices. The benefits of social media for brands and businesses is to have direct communication with clients and consumers. Take this as a lesson on your social media practices.

  • Always, respond promptly to complaints- even if you need to research a solution – let the customer know you are seeking a resolve.
  • Like, comment, or interact with every comment or rating. Let consumers know you are a place to come with two way communication.
  • NEVER delete or defend. Always tackle an issue straight on with a level headed response. Ask yourself ” what kind of response would I want to receive?”

These are just a few tips to keep you out of trouble when managing your social media outlets. As for GoGo SqueeZ, eventually the situation will fizzle out and become a thing of the past, BUT they have allowed their brand to become publicly tarnished.

Do you have questions or are you overwhelmed by the social media realm? Give us a call and find out how to support your brand with professional management services.

We can’t wait to hear your story!

FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW. YOU CAN EXPECT TO HEAR FROM US WITHIN A DAY OR TWO, WHEN WE’LL SCHEDULE YOUR FREE CONSULTATION.
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.
Name
Preferred Contact Method
What does your brand need?