But, over the last few years, as social media becomes a bigger part of our culture and lives, a shift has occurred in how we view status symbols. There’s a new dimension to which we are supposed to be paying attention. On top of status being based on worldly possessions, we’re now judging people based on virtual followings. Kim Kardashian, for example, is rarely mentioned in the tabloid magazines without including that she has 11.5 million Twitter followers. She is looked at as more of a legitimate celebrity now, simply for having a massive online following.

This new status measurement is also used with digital marketers and brands. Twitter followers, Facebook fans, and something called a Klout score are used as a quick barometer for how competent individuals are and how well businesses are doing. Marketers are the first to jump for excitement when they reach a high number of Facebook fans, as if they’ve achieved validation for success. Social media blogs write stories about what brands have the most fans and followers. We seem to have replaced “keeping up with the Joneses” with “keeping up with the @kardashians.” And the culprit responsible is what we call vanity metrics.

There is a certain segment of social media metrics that we often use as a measurement of businesses’ success. These metrics are called vanity metrics, and marketers are hypnotized by them. Vanity metrics are numbers that most marketers focus on because they look great in press releases, but they don’t necessarily affect overall marketing or business goals.

The term vanity metrics was coined by Eric Ries and made popular by his book, The Lean Startup. They are defined as numbers that might make you feel good, but they don’t offer clear guidance for what your business should or should not do in the future. Vanity metrics are all the rage for social media marketers. Their intense focus is a big reason why social media ROI is difficult for most brands to judge. Vanity metrics do not necessarily correlate with other measurable numbers that really do matter for your business. These growth metrics can often be signs of traction (which is why they should be monitored), but it is important to distinguish between these vanity metrics and real digital metrics, like conversation rates.

A brand with a huge online following can be less successful than a smaller following of passionate and raving customers. If the executive team asks you how the digital marketing initiatives are going and your only success measurement is a Facebook fan count, you had better hope that the conversation doesn’t dive any deeper. Follower counts alone do not help to evaluate whether or not your strategy is working. They are no indication that your competition is doing better or worse than you. These metrics should be watched, but you should not to be fooled by them.

Moral of the story is to not get swept up in the hype of who has more. Businesses would be wise to quit trying to keep up with the @kardashians and, instead, focus on keeping up with the strategy.

You’ve probably noticed that your mailbox isn’t quite as full as it used to be. First class mail volumes (historically the most profitable segment for the U.S. Postal Service) have fallen at a staggering rate as many previously printed forms of business and personal communications have gone digital.

Printed direct mail volumes have fallen over the past several years, as well, as many direct marketing efforts have moved online. That being said, many marketers still find printed direct mail to be a useful component of an integrated marketing plan. Financial services, publishing, mobile telephone and cable/satellite television providers remain large users of direct mail. As a group, the largest direct mail user perennially is the nonprofit sector. And many luxury merchandise providers continue to count on direct mail to deliver printed catalogs, brochures and invitations, as their target markets have been slower to adopt electronic alternatives.

As the drop in mail volume has financially strapped the Postal Service, several proposals have been put forth, including reducing the Postal Service workforce, eliminating Saturday delivery (or more) and closing facilities. However, if these proposals eventually play out, marketers need to understand that direct mail is very likely to get slower and costlier.

Even if today’s volumes stabilize, removing Saturday delivery obviously increases the amount of mail at the mailbox the other five days of the week, as well as decreases the point-of-response for many households from six to five opportunities per week. To attempt to maintain open rates, direct mail marketers will respond with increasingly creative shapes, colors of carrier envelope/postcard graphics and offers to attract attention.

Reductions in the Postal Service workforce and facilities add up to longer processing and in-transit times, creating problems for marketers attempting to integrate campaigns across multiple media platforms. Marketers will respond by adjusting what was previously viewed as supportive advertising to include a short-form “call to action” that mirrors the longer-form printed direct mail piece.

The increased cost of printed direct mail will have a two-fold effect on marketers. First of all, marketers who have, for years, used direct mail as the core of their advertising efforts will evaluate return-on-investment for other direct and indirect tactics. Secondly, for those marketers who choose to keep a direct mail component in their methodologies, all components will come under much closer scrutiny. List quality, or “goodness of list,” will be critical as marketers look to decrease wasted volumes of direct mail, while maintaining response rates. And many of the targeting, propensity-to-respond and testing models that sophisticated direct mailers use today will, in light of the increased costs for shotgun mailing, progress to smaller or less frequent mailers.

In short, there are still many reasons that printed direct mail works. Direct response advertisers still find the ability to target at a household- or business-level, the cost per contact and the ease of list acquisition to be an unbeatable combination. As the Postal Service and Congress work through the financial struggles of the Postal Service, marketers need to evaluate other means of outreach and how to reduce waste in their direct mail programs.

Anytime I hear someone talk about the current economic situation, I feel like heeding the advice of Antoine Dodson to “Hide your kids, hide your wife!” It’s as if we should all hide under a rock until the economy gets better. With national unemployment at more than nine percent, and one in four homeowners owing more in mortgage than the current value of his or her home, it’s no surprise people are afraid. Fear has certainly translated into fewer and smaller purchases. Even mainstays of Americana, like The Gap, are feeling the buying shift and starting to close stores. Has our economy finally hit the bottom and, if so, what’s next? How can brands succeed during and after the economic bust? What post-bust will look like, no one really knows. Some are still arguing whether or not the bust has even fully hit. But sociology and history can give us some insights.

History and Present Time -

During the Great Depression, people learned to be frugal and trust a small group of brands. They saved every penny, because they didn’t always know when more money would be available. They also still talk about the brands that “lasted” and were “high quality,” even if those brands have become less reliable over time.

Nowadays, we’ve grown up without needing the same economic survival skills. We’ve been socialized to buy things as needed or wanted, also known as “keeping up with the Joneses.” It’s only very recently that we need to think through purchases differently. But, despite the current economic situation, our socialization encourages people to continue buying new and shiny things, regardless of a lack of funds. So, rather than shelving the idea of purchasing altogether, like during the Great Depression, our population chooses to merely buy an inferior product or postpone the purchase. Question is, while neither of these solutions is necessarily a problem, what does this mean for your business?

Future -

At some point, postponed purchases will turn into actual purchases, but what will spending habits look like? Based on sociology and history, what will most likely happen is people will take what they have recently learned about spending and continue to practice living with less. For example, think about children who have watched their parents struggle with mortgage payments and/or foreclosure. They will probably be the most hesitant to buy a home as an adult. And other purchases will probably take greater consideration. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania suggest that we will spend where we feel we will get the biggest emotional boost, like a child’s fifth birthday party rather than a new iPhone.

Opportunity -

If we’ve learned anything from this economic crisis, it’s that history repeats itself. So, if in the 1930s people trusted a few brands that worked hard to help them during the Great Depression, maybe that is where we can find opportunity today. Brands and campaigns that are focused more on empathy and helping customers, rather than increasing sales, leave a positive impression on people and, therefore, have a better chance at success in the future. A great example is Dunkin’ Donuts. While Starbucks is closing locations, Dunkin’ Donuts is opening doors and encouraging customers with its “You Kin’ Do It” campaign, which speaks directly to “those who keep America running.”

Smart brands are aware of how impressions and opinions are passed through generations, and they are trying to connect in ways that help people and themselves, especially during difficult economic times. Now is the opportunity to eschew hiding under rocks and, instead, become one of the brands remembered for helping people succeed into the future.

An article about tools, social media and zombies.

A challenge for many businesses is keeping up with the ever-evolving change between generations. The buying power continues to shift, and, for Westlake Ace Hardware, a chain of local hardware stores that’s primary customer base is baby boomers, the time for a change was inevitable. Problem was, connecting with a younger generation was not so easy for Westlake, as these do-it-yourselfers tend to frequent big box stores (e.g., Lowes, Home Depot) for their hardware needs. So the question became, how does Westlake reach a younger demographic? And furthermore, how does it do so without a huge media budget?

The answer was zombies.

In order to tap into the younger population, Westlake needed to relate with this demographic. And what better way than with zombies? Now, while it would be easy to assume that this seemingly unorthodox idea was simply the product of a booze-filled evening, the thought process behind Westlake’s zombie campaign stemmed from a great deal of research.

At the conception of the zombie campaign, 247WallSt.com estimated the zombie industry to be worth $5.74 billion. Zombie movies surpassed more than $3 billion in the last decade, video games were estimated at $2.5 billion, and Halloween costumes were estimated at more than $500 million. And, fortunately for Westlake, this more-than-just-a-mounting-pop-culture-trend resonated exceptionally well with the campaign’s target demographic. For example, in 2010, the premier of The Walking Dead boasted the highest debut for any 2010 cable series, attracting 3.6 million viewers aged 18 to 49. All research combined, a zombie campaign was a no-brainer.

At this point, zombies were in motion and the next step was to figure out how to implement this campaign in a way that would engage the target audience. To the rescue, as it so often is, was social media.

With 16.6 million “zombie” searches monthly, and zombie-related Facebook fan numbers at an all-time high, research reinforced that zombies and social media would successfully reach the younger target market. So, Westlake launched a full-blown social media campaign.

The campaign unfolded in a three-phase storyline that spread across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the company’s website. Phase one kicked off with a zombie-defense product line for humans – a.k.a., the Zombie Preparedness Center. Phase two began with news crews capturing footage of zombies protesting outside of a Westlake location, and it ended with Westlake offering a zombie-friendly product line. During phase three, Westlake became the first company to attain Zombie-Friendly Certification from ZombiesUnite.org, a non-profit fighting for zombie rights. All social media content was supplemented with in-store posters, flyers and buttons, as well as public relations. Zombie Preparedness media kits were distributed to a number of local media outlets, trade publications, national media outlets, larger websites and prominent bloggers. The combination of all this proved successful.

From an increase in site visits and Twitter followers to an overwhelming amount of recognition by the media (locally, nationally and internationally), all of the results confirmed one thing: never underestimate the power of social media, public relations and word-of-mouth. Time and time again, it has proven to be a powerful, affordable and undying combination.

Today, online marketers continue to grapple with the same question, through the analysis of metrics.

The entire online industry has made itself about click-through rates (CTRs) to justify why you would spend money on online advertising, while the true value of branding has been forgotten.

Up to this point, CTRs and impressions have dominated digital measurement and evaluation, despite mass evidence that proves the importance of building brands. Today, the role of the CTR is shrinking, but is by no means defunct. What we really need to do is look at the wider context – the engagement with consumers across online media.

There have been many conversations taking place lately about relying on CTRs to measure the success of a campaign, but more advertisers are now relying on brand recall and intent-to-purchase metrics to determine the success of a campaign.

For years, advertisers and publishers have been predicting and hoping for the death of the CTR, complaining it’s a highly inefficient way to measure an ad’s success. Industry CTRs are notoriously minuscule, hovering at less than 0.1 percent. The truth of the matter is that the vast majority of people who see online ads do not click on it, but that doesn’t mean the ads aren’t working. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. Customers are responding to the ads, often with purchases made not long after seeing the ad, and often without clicking.

For many campaigns, the branding effect of the ads is what’s really important, and generating clicks is more of an ancillary benefit. Ultimately, judging a campaign’s effectiveness by clicks can be detrimental, because it overlooks the importance of branding.

When someone interacts with a brand online, it helps nudge them along the path to purchase. While it may not be driving clicks, it is driving results. Rather than clicks,  we should be aiming for users to freely engage with our brands and receive a memorable and positive experience in return.

In How Online Advertising Works: Whither The Click?, comScore demonstrates that two-thirds of Internet users do not click on any display ads over the course of a month, and that only 16 percent of Internet users account for 80 percent of all clicks. Furthermore, clickers tend to be younger and less affluent than non-clickers.

Overall, comScore confirmed that there is a latency effect and branding effect to online advertising, in which users arrive at the advertiser’s website, even without clicking. In comScore’s research, which included 139 display campaigns from seven verticals, comScore has shown substantial effects on traffic, sales and branding, despite the lack of clicks. According to comScore, over a four-week period, the display campaigns yielded a 46 percent lift in advertiser website visits. In addition, over a four-week period, exposed users were 38 percent more likely to conduct an advertiser-related, branded keyword search, and are 27 percent more likely to make a purchase online. Furthermore, exposed users were 17 percent more likely to make a purchase at the advertiser’s retail store.

So what’s the moral of this clicking tale? It may be wise to shift your focus from clicks to branding, because online display advertising, even without high click-through-rates, can keep your customers in range and hitting your desired target.

So you’d think it would be old hat, but this year was the first year at a brand new downtown stadium, built for the championship. So everything was indeed new again. Which meant there were a lot of questions.

• How do I get there?
• Where do I park?
• Where’s my seat?
• Can I tailgate?
• Can I get an autograph?
• What time are opening ceremonies?
• What’s the game schedule?

Bozell’s job was to make sure fans had all the answers they needed. From producing TV and radio spots to developing websites and printed schedules to sending mobile text alerts and email blasts, we helped fans access the information they needed, when they needed it. The event was a huge success and many new memories were made.

Any of this sound familiar? Big flashy & sexy headlines seem to announce new outlets you have to join every week.

With so many shiny new objects coming at us all the time, it’s a wonder how we marketers don’t go blind. Most marketers find it hard enough just to keep up with their current flow of tasks; how in the world can we continue to perform on our task list and also keep up with the latest new social networks around?
We can’t. And it’s okay; you don’t need to. Breaking social media headlines and new networks can easily get you off track from your current marketing strategy, but resist the urge to stray.
Yes, social media is an amazing way to reach targeted customers in a very personal way. But that doesn’t mean that you and your brand need to have a presence in every corner of the Internet. Just because there is a new network with new features getting all of the tech press, that doesn’t always mean it makes sense for your brand to jump in right away.

In most cases, the early adopters of social networks skew male, usually from the tech sector or other marketers. If that’s your target customer demographic, then jump right in. If not, then don’t overwhelm yourself trying to get active in networks and communities your target audience isn’t in yet.

Listen to your customer base and your target customers. Are they joining these new networks in droves? Are you seeing a dramatic drop off in your current networks? If not, then your strategy is still relevant.

Focus on what is working and choose to dominate a smaller group of social channels, rather than spreading your efforts too thin and doing several activities with no success. Stay on course. If your marketing initiatives are working with only Facebook, or LinkedIn, or a few combinations between YouTube and Twitter, then what is the harm in focusing on those efforts and continuing to build more brand ambassadors in networks you know already work?

Spreading your marketing efforts too thin, by being everywhere at once, won’t spread more awareness to more people. It will only allow you to fail in more locations. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t monitor what new opportunities are available; just don’t get burnt by a hot trend.

Think of a brand as a personification of a product, service or company. A brand has a name, a look and internal beliefs. And these create a reputation, as well as expectations of future behavior, built from an individual’s experiences with a brand.

Often, when companies examine their brands, they begin acting like teenagers, focusing only on how they look. A brand’s visual identity is a means to attract attention and quickly convey a brand’s personality, as well as connect the market to advertising messages and remind current customers of previous experiences with the brand, so looks are important. Like a friend with a new hairstyle, a new brand look can convey a lot, especially if the brand cares enough to look good or is “up with the times.” A new look can also signal a change in the brand. Just like a co-worker who loses 80 pounds, buys a new wardrobe and is now a fitness fanatic, a new brand identity can convey a change in expected behaviors. Looks matter a lot, especially to initially attract a consumer, or for when a brand changes, but a new look does not create a new brand.

Like a relationship between two people, a customer getting to know the brand is what drives a long-term relationship. In getting to know that brand, the consumer values it based on both utility and the brand’s personality. For example, ponder purchasing a new iPod at an Apple Store or Best Buy, grabbing a cup of coffee at Starbucks or a 7-11, or driving to work in your Buick or BMW. All offer similar utility, but under very distinct personalities.

So where does a brand’s personality come from? It comes from every interaction within the marketplace – what it says and what it does. From chosen sales channels, pricing and promotional strategies, product or service quality, and marketing messaging to customer service response, problem resolution, and how the brand speaks and reacts in social media – all of these things reflect the brand’s personality.

And who is making the decisions on how a brand portrays itself and interacts with customers? The answer is people. Based on the size of the company, a brand might have one, 100 or 100,000 employees delivering the brand’s personality every day. Whether a company has stringent hiring standards that are based on the brand personality they desire to portray, or simply a prevailing culture that weeds out employees who don’t “fit,” employees deliver a brand’s personality.

Too often, brands communicate to the marketplace what they want to be without considering what they already are. If the people delivering the brand’s personality on a day-to-day basis either don’t understand, or cannot deliver changes that move the brand’s reputation, customers will see the disconnect very quickly. What a brand says and what a brand does needs to evolve together.

TIPS for your Brand

• An easy way to think of your brand is to think of it as a person with a name, look, beliefs and personality.
• Make sure your brand’s look is current and portrays your brand appropriately, but understand that simply changing your look does not change the brand.
• A brand’s personality creates expectations in the marketplace. This personality is driven by the people and culture behind the brand.
• Understand your customers’ perceptions of this personality before you announce changes to the marketplace.
• Don’t make promises your people can’t keep. Evolve your brand based on adjusting your operations and, possibly, even the type of people you hire.

Moms are also among the most wired consumers. They’re adopting smartphone technology at a faster pace than men and are the fastest-growing buyers of iPhones, according to NPD. There are more than 32 million moms online, and more than nine in 10 moms are using Facebook (93 percent) and email (91 percent) to communicate. Thirty six percent of them use Twitter, and 34 percent have a personal blog, as cited in a study by Lucid Marketing. Whether it’s while unwinding with their laptops after the kids are in bed or waiting in the car pool line, moms are engaging online at every opportunity.

That means that health care marketers continue to search for more ways to use technology to leverage this valuable segment of their businesses. Health care organizations are formulating social media strategies, reaching out to mommy bloggers, creating email campaigns with content they hope moms will use and share, and developing ways for moms to share their personal health care experiences with others through videos and photos – all in an effort to create deeper connections with this extremely influential audience.
There are plenty of health care organizations effectively incorporating online tactics. However, the best way to engage moms online might just be through a very offline strategy. If you want moms to share real, compelling information about your brand of health care, you have to give them something to talk about. You have to make their experience something unexpected and amazing.

I’ll give you a recent example. My pediatrician’s office recently rolled out an online portal where parents can access their childrens’ medical records. I can view and print immunization records, check their appointment history and send messages to their pediatrician. While that’s pretty cool in and of itself, what made it even better was that they brought a net book into the room during my daughter’s checkup, explained the system and had me sign up right then and there. I got an automatic email reminding me how to access the service later. I have probably told 20 people about this experience – some online, some in person. They provided something with a level of service that was beyond what I expected, which compelled me to tell others. I’ve since had several friends become patients of
these pediatricians.

It’s not easy to create these experiences. It takes time, training and a commitment from every employee to ensure that the experience is delivered flawlessly and consistently. But it’s worth it when you create something so influential that moms share in a far more impactful and credible way than most marketing efforts could ever do.

Fortunately, technology has made it easier than ever to customize messaging, to speak directly to the individual and to take things to (what some refer to as) the hyper-local level. Whether it’s sending a consumer the message they have requested, or identifying consumers who are ideal matches for very specific conditions, it’s no longer smart or necessary to always take a shotgun approach to marketing.

Reach people the way they prefer to be reached.

One of the easiest ways to achieve a hyper-local level is to listen to what consumers are already telling you. If you’ve got shoppers with a loyalty card, email newsletter subscribers, website user profiles, or other specific customer preference data, then you already have the ability to tailor your message to the individual. By simply asking or listening, you can tailor your message and make it relevant to the individual. This makes your target happier and reduces your cost in reaching them, because you’ll have fewer mass-marketed messages.

Reach people where they are.

Pay attention to a person’s actual location. More and more people are noting and broadcasting their actual locations on an ongoing basis. For example, Facebook and Twitter have integrated location into their mobile apps. FourSquare, which lets people “check in” to locations via their mobile devices and alert their friends of this, just surpassed 10 million members. This means it’s possible to know who visits your establishment, your neighborhood and your competitors – on an individual level. Knowing where someone goes and where they have been gives incredible insights into their interests and behavior.

Reach people based on a profile (who they know or who they are like).

It’s possible to take the various input we receive from individuals and start forming profiles for them. We can then use predictive analysis to combine engagement preference, location information and various demographics to better target individuals. We use the profiles to zoom out on a broader group of people matching the profile, or zoom in on a very specific group or individual.

It’s a two-way street.

The ability to take advantage of the responses and feedback from customers is another powerful component of today’s marketplace. By asking for and receiving actual consumer preferences, we’re able to get what we want, while delivering more relevant messaging to our customers. The trick is, if you ask for and receive consumer-preference data, you need to use it.

By paying attention to and incorporating consumer preferences, location information and profiles into your marketing and communications strategy, you’re able to communicate more effectively. When you can combine multiple elements, you can truly achieve a hyper-local level and increase the relevancy of your message to the people with which you’re communicating. The amazing thing is that the digital marketing techniques available today have made this not only possible, but also affordable. All that’s left is to start doing it.