Jackie Huba, blogger at the popular Church of the Customer blog kicked off MIMA Summit 2009 with a moving presentation on the idea of 1%’ers – those influential people creating content on the web (similar to Jakob Nielson’s participation inequality).

Through the democratization of publishing content, the vocal minority, those 1%’ers (”sneezers” as Seth Godin calls them or “connectors” as Malcolm Gladwell refers to them as) are integral for your brand.

Why are they important?

New forms of most trusted advertising:

1. Recommendations from friends
2. Other people’s opinions online
3. Company websites
4. Editorial content (news articles)
5. Brand sponsorships

“1%’ers” fall into both numbers one and two.

What we are seeing is anonymous opinions are influencing the way people buy.  Word of mouth from both people we know and don’t know is impacting opinions and purchasing decisions.

The number 1 indicator of growth for any brand:  “Would you recommend a product or service to your friends/colleagues.”  In other words:  loyalty rules.

Levels of loyalty:

1. Ownership
2. Evangelism
3. Referrals
4. Retention
5. Satisfaction

Examples provided by Jackie:

1%’ers impacting brands negatively:

Domino’s

Negative video about two rogue employees – spread throughout the social web.  Domino’s responded by video on YouTube and created a new presence on Twitter.  Many viewed the response by Domino’s are laudable, but in some ways inadequate.  We’ve all heard the story, but did you hear the impact for the brand:

• 46% would order Domino’s before the prank video.
• 15% would order Domino’s after prank video.
• 24% would order Domino’s after the apology video.

This story spiraled out of control in less than a day and resonated far beyond the local Domino’s where the crisis occurred.  The Lesson?  Crisis communications now measured in minutes.

Ramon (Domino’s Franchisee)

Another sample from Domino’s, this time a negative situation turned into positive PR.

Ramon, a Domino’s franchisee from Chicago is passionate about social media and pizza.  A customer and social media user Amy ordered a pizza from one of Ramon’s locations and they messed up the order.  The franchisee created a video response message to “interactive Amy”.  Video was authentic and was applauded by both social media devotees and regular users.  In the end, the mistake was transformed into something positive.

Motrin

We’ve mentioned this story previously at Online Marketing Blog  in a post on B2C marketing, however it remains a great example of understanding your consumers.

Motron launched a video aimed at promoting their product to new moms.  Unfortunately, many mother’s felt insulted by Motrin’s message and rallied together against the brand.  Instead of responding, Motron retreated from a vocal niche (read the full story at Mashable).

While the negativity may be forgotten by now, Google remembers everything – the story is on page one due to the amount of the attention attracted.  And, according to Jackie, you are your Google results.

1%’ers impacting brands positively:

Bacon Salt

A few people in Silicon Valley decided to combine their two favorite things – bacon and salt.  They engaged the “1%’ers” in social media channels.  Enough people started talking about bacon salt online, that it spread into the real world.  There was such demand that people were calling grocery stores asking if they carried Bacon Salt.  After enough of this, they had leverage they needed to get their product onto grocery shelves.  Their next step was “Baconnaise” – bacon-flavored mayonnaise that was inspired by the amazing response to Bacon Salt.

What can we learn from this?  People are the message.  We need to connect with real people to spread products and brands.  And from research, we know that people are the most trusted form of influence.  Additionally, this campaign highlights the fact that social proofing can provide you the reputation necessary to accomplish end business objectives.

Fiskars (best known as a scissors manufacturer)

Fiskars recognized that scrap booking was inherently a social activity.  Scissors are, of course, a vital tool for the scrap booking experience.

The brand noted there are gatherings already being held both at stores and with groups that organize online.  Fiskars capitalized on this by creating a program not about their products, but about the love of scrap booking.  They tapped into the community by finding 4 women who were passionate about scrapbooking and met frequently in a local scrapbooking group.

Fiskars recognized their group as something special and gave them blogs, profiles online and connected them with other scrapbookers around the country.  These 4 women were made the leaders of a nation-wide campaign where their local scrapbooking group was patterned at scale.  Essentially, scrapbooking lovers nationwide could connect with a digital group of other interested scrapbookers, and then meet up at physical retail locations locally (yet still remain part of a larger group).

People who joined got a “welcome pack” with a unique pair of Fiskars scissors, business cards, etc.  Fiskars worked to solidify their brand loyalty by connecting with a vocal group.

Results?

• 6,250 members in 50 states
• 1,000 certified volunteer demonstrators
• Fiskars’ growth rate – craft stores where “Fiskarteers” are involved have three times higher sales growth than non-member stores.
• 13 new product ideas/month
• 85% of “Fiskateers” likely to recommend the product to a friend

The lesson:  it’s about getting your customers involved.

Participation is the 5^th “P” of marketing.

Conclusion – 3 simple things to leave you with:

1. Listen
2. Attract, not interrupt
3. Participate

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
MIMA Summit: Jackie Huba (Church Of The Customer) Keynote |
One comment | http://www.toprankblog.com

2008 MIMA Summit at The Depot

UPDATE: We have a winner! Liz Giel was selected by a mysterious voting process contrived within the ranks of the TopRank staff and involving various secretive and hurried Account Managers. Suffice it to say, we appreciate all who ReTweeted, linked and commented.  Don’t worry, there will be liveblogging of the event here on Online Marketing Blog and live streaming of several sessions at MIMASummit.org. Congratulations Liz!

In just under a week the annual Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association Summit will be held downtown Minneapolis at the Hilton. With keynotes from Seth Godin and Jackie Huba as well as a collection of local and national subject matter experts ranging from Greg Swan of Weber Shandwick to Scott Monty of Ford, it should be a veritable vortex of interactive velocity.  I apologize, that alliteration was so bad.

Anyway, TopRank has been asked to participate in the “Migrate” themed event on the topic of search engine optimization and social media convergence.

After writing, presenting and most importantly: being a paid consultant and self-practitioner of SEO (12 years) and Social Media Marketing (5 years) respectively, I thought it would be a good appetizer for next week’s presentation to highlight some of the most popular blog posts covering SEO and social media marketing from  Online Marketing Blog.

Top SEO and Social Media Marketing Posts from Online Marketing Blog:
(by traffic in the past 12 months)

1. 25 Must Read Social Media Marketing Tips (Apr 27th, 2009) – This popular post offers specific advice on justifying investment in social media strategy, how to decide on tactics and measuring success from in-house social media marketers including: Dell, Comcast, HP, Wells Fargo, Intel, Best Buy, General Mills, Ford, UPS, Home Depot, Cirque du Soleil and a mix of SMM consultants/agencies: Altimeter Group, Crayon, Ogilvy 360, Future Works, Doe Anderson, New Marketing Labs and others.

2. Guide to Twitter as a Tool for Marketing and PR (Nov 15th, 2007) – Excerpt: “The key with Twitter is not to look at microblogging as individual posts, but think of the overall impressions and value that can be created over time. Each 140 character or less entry serves as a seed of an idea for an overall objective. Over time, you’ll build a footprint and brand of influence within the Twitter community”. This post also includes tips from other early adopter Tweeple including:Andy Beal, Todd Defren and Michael Gray.

3. Best and Worst Practices Social Media Marketing (Feb 12th, 2009) – Many marketers are unsure about the difference between best and worst practices when it comes to commercial participation on the social web. Identifying best and worst practics is a work in progress of course, as communities develop, grow and change.  This post outlines the basic best/worst practices that will hold true for years to come. Internet years that is.

4. 25 Tips for Marketing Your Blog (Jun 15th, 2006) – An oldie but goodie, this post contains many of the fundamentals for creating search engine friendly blogs and has been cited by over 14,000 web sites including Search Engine Land, Copyblogger, Mashable, Stuntdubl, SEOBook, Duct Tape Marketing a and HubSpot.

5. What is Your Social Media Marketing Strategy? (Mar 25th, 2008) – Social media is hot, every body’s doing it. But the question needs to be asked: why? This post offers several good business reasons why companies should invest time, money and resources into social media.

6. Top Ten SEO Tips for PR Professionals (Apr 29th, 2009) – After presenting these ten tips at a public relations conference, I blogged the presentation and wrote another blog post detailing each of the ten tips. It should have been an ebook, but I decided it would reach more people as a series of 11 blog posts.

7. 16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited (Aug 4th, 2009) – A follow up to a post originally published in 2006 that defined a new marketing category, this 3,117 word article by TopRank’s Adam Singer offers an update that resonated well with Online Marketing Blog readers. Is social media optimization still relevant and why?

8. 5 Link Building Tips for New Websites (Mar 20th, 2009) –  KISS, as in Keep It Simple Stupid. It’s sage advice for many things, including blog posts. This link building basics post from TopRank’s Dana Larson hit the nail on the head for many new web site owners in search of those ever elusive first links to boost search engine rankings.

9. Lowdown on Press Release Optimization (Oct 24th, 2005) – One of the first really popular blog posts we ever published, still gets new links every week from sites like WebProNews, Bruce Clay, Techipedia, LED Digest and Yahoo.

10. SEO Basics: 6 Tips for Google Webmaster Tools (Apr 7th, 2009) – Google set the stage for formal search engine support of the webmaster community by developing Webmaster Tools (thanks Vanessa Fox) and TopRank’s Thomas McMahon wrote up this popular tips post highlighting some very useful features.

BONUS!  While not one of the most popular posts overall in the past year, a few recent entries made on Online Marketing Blog speak specifically to the presentation I’ll be giving at the MIMA Summit next week:

SEO & Social Media Roadmap – How do you plan for a social media strategy? How do you leverage the Yin/Yang benefits of both SEO and Social Media for objectives, tactics, specific tools and measuring goals? This post attempts to answer those questions specifically.

Social Media and SEO: 5 Essential Steps to Success – This post was published over at Mashable and focuses on making the most out of combining SEO insights with social media marketing tactics through development of a roadmap.  Like any digital marketing effort, a combined SEO and social media program is most effective that identifies a target audience, specifies measurable goals and a strategy to guide implementation of tactics.

Hopefully your appetite has been stimulated enough to come to our  MIMA Summit SEO/Social session right after Seth Godin’s keynote. If not, you’ll definitely have actionable tips you can use in your SEO and Social Media Marketing efforts today.

Session Details:
The Intersection of SEO and Social Media

Oct 5, 2009 – 9:45 am
Tactics Track, Salon C
Hilton, Minneapolis

Session Overview:
Successful social media efforts build community, better connect brands with customers and can influence both media coverage and increased sales. Yet implementing a social media marketing program without optimizing content for search is literally “leaving money on the table.” Useful social content (blog, video, images, audio and applications) that cannot be discovered via search is a lost opportunity to reach audiences that are looking.

Why do so many companies fail to leverage their participation on the social web for SEO? This session will provide specific “Do’s and Don’ts” of social media optimization and provide attendees practical examples of how companies can leverage SEO and social media content to improve their search marketing performance.

If you like video, here’s an interview with Phil Wilson of Minnov8 & myself talking about SEO/Social and what I’ll be presenting at MIMA Summit.

Win a Free Pass to the MIMA Summit!

Want to attend the sold-out MIMA Summit in Minneapolis next week but didn’t get your ticket in time?  Or maybe you’re a Seth Godin fan and just can’t stand the fact that you’ll miss hearing him speak in person.  Well dear readers, we just might have the solution to that problem.  TopRank Online Marketing has one extra ticket from the corporate table we purchased for the MIMA Summit and we’re going to give it away.

All you have to do is leave a single comment below with a creative and/or compelling reason why we should give YOU a free ticket to next week’s MIMA Summit ($595 value) OR if you Tweet a similarly creative link to this post, that will show up in our comments too. We’ll pick one lucky winner on Thursday Oct 1st.

Sound easy? Sound doable? Then get to it.  If you comment, be sure to enter your email address so we can contact you. If you Tweet, be sure to follow @toprank so we can DM you. We will ONLY contact you if you win and will not rent, sell, post, hack or do anything unsavory or sinister with the information you provide.

Obligatory Q and A:

Q: Does it include gratuitous coffee in the morning before Seth speaks?

A: If MIMA provides it with the corporate table tickets, then you get it. Pretty sure they’ll be offering coffee. Maybe even some bacon.

Q: Does it include lunch?

A: Pretty sure lunch is included. If not, I’ll buy you lunch.

Q: Does it include door to door pickup service from my home in Ham Lake to downtown Minneapolis with sidetrips to Starbucks on the way there and Lucia’s Wine Bar on the way home?

A: I don’t think so.

Q: OK, what about cab fare?

A: Nope.

Q: Transit pass?

A: Not going to happen.

Q: Bus fare?

A: That would be, ah, no.

Q: Schwag?

A: MIMA Summit events and sponsors have been amazing with their schwag generosity. Can’t imagine this year will be any different.

However, we might bring a TopRank mugs. We’d bring the TopRank Old English Sheep dog, but he has a sinus infection and believe me, you don’t want to be around when a 90lb sheep dog sneezes.

Any other questions? Please Tweet them to @toprank or email seo at toprank dot org

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© Online Marketing Blog, 2009. |
10 SEO & Social Media Posts To Read Before MIMA Summit |
39 comments | http://www.toprankblog.com