The webinar, The Ultimate Facebook Makeover: How to Turn Your Facebook Page into a Client-Generating Money Magnet, was led by Amy Porterfield, a social media strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies. She presented a lot of great information, tips, tools, etc., but what stood out to me the most were her 12 Facebook marketing mistakes (aka: “The Dirty Dozen”).

But rather than list them all here, I would like to share only the ones that stood out to me the most:

1) There is a difference between a profile and a page, but you need both.

1. Profile = personal persona
2. Page = business persona (engage, promote, sell)

2) Don’t forget to link!

When you have both a profile and a page, it’s important to remember to link the two. One good way to do this is from “About” in your profile. Under “Current Place You Work”, include a link to your Facebook page.

3) Communicate with followers.

Check daily to see who has been writing on your wall by clicking “Highlights” and “Posts by Others” under custom applications. This will help you see if there are any worthy of responding to. If so, be sure to respond at least once a day.

4) Have a timeline strategy.

Facebook continues to enhance their features and the newest update is the timeline with a cover photo. One good way to get the most out of this is to have a couple cover photos ready to go: (1) create a static, generic cover photo to use when business is steady; (2) create a cover photo with a call-to-action when you have something new to sell/talk about.

5) Create strategic, custom apps.

Creating apps with catchy titles for your page can only add to your success on Facebook. They act as call-to-action buttons that engage your followers. For example, if you have a white paper you want to promote, you can create an app called “XYZ Whitepaper – Free!” and have it link to a contact form that users fill out to obtain your white paper.

A couple of online tools that will help you create customized apps for your Facebook page are www.lujure.com and www.customfanpagedesign.com.

6) Don’t ignore your “Insights”.

Insight statistics are a great way to see which of your posts get the most—or least amount of response from your followers. Are they sharing your posts, videos, photos, etc.? Or are they by-passing it? To monitor your Insights, go to your “Admin Panel” and click “See All” then “Insights” and you can scroll to see all of your past posts and whether people were sharing, ignoring or commenting on them. This will help you make adjustments with the content of your future posts.

What are some things you do to make sure your company Facebook page is outstanding? Tell us about them in the comments.

There is nothing that makes us happier than achieving great results for our clients, which is why we are excited to announce our latest client win.

Marketing Works has been awarded a Central Ohio PRSA PRism Award of Excellence in honor of the results achieved from our 2011 direct mail campaign with KeyBridge Medical Revenue Management.

The annual Central Ohio PRSA PRism Awards honor exceptional public relations activities across Central Ohio. Nominees are judged on campaign content, creativity, results, quality, technical excellence and appropriateness for the identified target audience.

Marketing Works was recognized in the direct mail/direct response category for our initiative to successfully implement a strategic B2B prospecting campaign with KeyBridge. Focusing on strategy and execution, the three part direct mail campaign helped KeyBridge establish brand awareness and top of mind visibility with their tier one prospects.

The three campaigns were designed to focus on target audience pain points and were developed to convey confidence in KeyBridge. Highlighted within the campaigns was KeyBridge’s ability to understand their audience’s challenges and their capability to offer solutions within their suite of services. Direct mail promotion in each campaign included a personalized mailer with a relevant gift or creative piece and  downloadable white paper offering.

The results of the campaign were highly positive. KeyBridge formed 24 new relationships with their tier 1 prospects and through an end of the year brand audit survey it was revealed that the direct mail campaign had generated high levels of brand recognition .

While we are most thrilled about the results the campaign was able to achieve for our partners at KeyBridge, we are happy as well that Marketing Works received recognition from Central Ohio PRSA. Congratulations to all initiatives that were recognized at this year’s PRism Awards!

Although failures occur in every form of marketing, few have created as many embarrassments as global marketing. Marketing across cultural borders opens the door for all kinds of mix ups and mistakes. Unfortunately, when you take your marketing into other regions, your message can easily get…lost in translation. Here are some of the hilarious and outrageous results of global marketing gone wrong:

Chevy Nova = No bueno en Español: A few years back, Chevy began attempting to market its car, the Nova, in Central and South America. When sales of the vehicle failed to take off, the company finally realized that in the native language of Spanish, Nova, literally translated to “It doesn’t go.”

Perdue is really affectionate about poultry: Perdue took their slogan, “It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken,” to the Spanish speaking community, but quickly realized that it translated to “It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate.”

Parker Pens has a unique selling point in Mexico: A company by the name of Parker Pens attempted to market their new ball-point pen in Mexico. The ads created were supposed to read “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.” The only problem was that the company was under the false presumption that the Spanish word, embarazar, meant to embarrass.  Unfortunately for Parker, it means to impregnate. So their Mexican pens were being marketed with the message that “It won’t leak in your pocket and impregnate you!”

Coors accidentally markets itself as a laxative: Coors used its slogan, “Turn it loose,” in Spanish speaking countries where it translated to “Suffer from diarrhea.”

Clairol doesn’t know German slang: Clairol unveiled its curling iron, the “Mist Stick,” in Germany only to discover that mist was German slang for manure, effectively giving the product the name of the “Manure Stick.”

Gerber sells babies in Africa: Gerber sells baby food all across the world, including Africa, where it is common practice for companies to put a picture on their product labels to show what’s inside (since much of the country is not literate). Unfortunately for Gerber, they were not aware of this tradition. So when they began selling their baby food with a picture of a smiling baby on the label, customers were more than a little reluctant to purchase the product.

SOURCE: http://marketingfailure.blogspot.com/2007/09/funny-marketing-fiascos.html

Be sure to check out Epic Marketing Fails: Providing a Laugh and a Lessons Part one, two and three for more.

Image source: http://www.searchinfluence.com/2012/04/memorable-marketing-fails/

As a sponsor for the NCAA Final Four, Coca-Cola thought it would be a good idea to graffiti its logo all along the French Quarter of New Orleans where the games were being hosted the weekend of March 30, 2012. Unfortunately, Coke soon learned that residents weren’t so receptive to their creative form of advertising. Their Twitter feed quickly began to explode with complaints from individuals who felt Coke had defaced their neighborhood. Receiving tweets like “way to trash our city,” from infuriated followers, Coke was forced to clean up the graffiti and apologize to residents of the city.

Lesson to be learned: Anticipate the fallout of your message.

Many companies favor using guerilla marketing techniques, which can have some hefty consequences if executed incorrectly. It’s best to make sure your idea won’t cause anyone or anything any kind of harm.

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FINAL TAKE-AWAY: Be strategic in your approach

You may be wondering at this point, what were these companies thinking? Well, as we all know, sometimes marketing campaigns get rushed. We may not have as much time to think our campaigns through as we’d like and mistakes can happen. However, it seems crazy to not give a campaign a critical review before putting it out for the masses. They call it strategic communication for a reason. Before you move a piece during a chess game, shouldn’t you think about all of the possible outcomes? Doesn’t it make sense that marketing be approached the same way? Before we make a marketing move, it would probably work best in our favor if we thought about all the possible outcomes.

Like a game of chess, too, we can learn from bad moves that ourselves and others have made. Hopefully this blog series has provided you with some good examples of moves not to make. Who knows? Perhaps having read this will someday save you from making that one bad move that would have put your company on a list like this one.

Are there any other interesting marketing/advertising fails that you can think of? Any creative marketing successes you can think of? Please share your thoughts. We’d love to hear from you!

Image source: http://www.glantz.net/blog/campaigns-that-failed-to-translate

You may remember Pepsi’s old slogan, “Come alive with the Pepsi generation.” Well…Pepsi probably wishes they could forget this one. Only after taking the campaign and the slogan to China did they realize that in Chinese the slogan translated to “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”

Lesson to be learned: Do your research.

A marketing campaign that works perfectly on your home turf may be ineffective or even offensive in other cultures. Make sure the message you are translating will resonate with the different audience and that you follow the customs of the location where you intend to market.

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FAIL #4: Turner Broadcasting creates the appearance it’s bombing more than just its marketing campaign.

Image source: http://www.businesspundit.com/10-epic-advertising-fails-2/

One of, if not the biggest marketing fails of all time, occurred in 2007 when Turner Broadcasting attempted to market its television show, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, by placing blinking LED placards up across the city of Boston. Having hoped to draw the city’s curiosity, the campaign instead ended up drawing the city’s bomb squad when residents called to report suspicious wire filled devices that resembled explosives. Despite the panic it incited, no criminal charges were filed, but the company did have to pay millions to Homeland Security and city police to resolve the matter.

Lesson to be learned: Put yourself in the audience’s shoes.

Although the negative outcome of this campaign may have been a little harder to foresee, there were still plenty of reasons to suspect that such a reaction could occur. This campaign was occurring in a major city in a post 9/11 world. Whether they knew about the show or not, who wouldn’t be concerned by a device in the middle of a city block with wires sticking out of it? Lesson learned: always look at your marketing tactic from the perspective of the beholder. What will they think? How will they react?

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Enjoying this blog series? Don’t forget to check back on Wednesday for the third and final installment featuring one last hilarious marketing fail and a final take-away lesson.

The clutter of marketing that exists today has created a tremendous need for creativity so that messages actually get the attention of their target audience. To keep up with this demand, companies have found themselves trying some very different marketing campaigns; some of which turned out to be true strokes of genius, while others….not so much (to put it politely). As long as there are going to be marketing campaign masterpieces, there are going to be the complete opposite as well. While these failures provide a good laugh, they can also provide us a good lesson of what NOT to do.

Stay tuned to our blog over the next week. On Monday we’ll be bringing you part two of this three part series, looking at some of the most embarrassing and most interesting marketing failures of all time and a lesson that you can learn from each.

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FAIL #1: Kentucky Fried Chicken gets grilled

Image source: http://www.businesspundit.com/10-epic-advertising-fails-2/

To market their newly revealed grilled chicken, KFC joined forces in 2009 with one of the most powerful forces on the planet; Oprah Winfrey. As a part of this business partnership, Oprah was to promote KFC’s offer of a free two-piece grilled chicken meal. Having underestimated Oprah’s influence, KFC was flabbergasted when an estimated 10 million people downloaded the coupon for the free meal online. Not having enough of the product to meet the demand, KFC had to actually turn customers away and in some locations, close early. With its tail tucked between its legs, KFC was forced to drop the deal and apologize to its frustrated clientele. 

Lesson to be learned: Don’t promise something that you can’t deliver.

KFC customers felt cheated and infuriated when they were told they couldn’t receive the free chicken they were promised. The marketing strategy that was supposed to improve KFC’s relationship with its customers and positively promote its new chicken actually ended up doing the exact opposite. If this fiasco can teach us anything, it’s that if you’re going to offer something, you better actually be able to provide it.

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FAIL #2: No one’s drinking the Hacienda Kool-Aid

Image source: http://www.businesspundit.com/10-epic-advertising-fails-2/

Hacienda, a Mexican food chain in Indiana, posted billboards throughout the state, referencing the Jonestown Massacre, a mass suicide event where over 900 people died after drinking poisoned punch. The billboards, which showed a mixed drink and a caption reading “We’re like a cult with better Kool-Aid,” offended residents across the state. The billboards were taken down in a hurry, but not before providing the restaurants with a massive amount of negative publicity.

Lesson to be learned: Don’t associate your organization or product with something cynical.

As these billboards exemplify, it does not matter how unserious your message is, some people are always going to take it seriously. Even though you may find the humor in it, it is guaranteed that not everyone else will. Why risk association with something cynical? Wouldn’t it just be better to find a positive association?

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Like what you’ve read? Don’t forget to check back on Monday for part two of this series, with more interesting and funny marketing fails (and the lessons you can learn from them).

In the meantime, we’d love to hear your input on these first two marketing fiascos. What are your thoughts? Are you shocked these failures were able to occur? Could something, or has something like this, occurred at your company?

I had the opportunity to talk with Cameron Mitchell about his culture, and he told me about the Milkshake icon.  Every associate in the company knows the Milkshake story.  It drives their behavior with each and every customer by reminding them, “The answer is YES.  What’s the question?”  Cameron chose this icon because he was once told at a restaurant (not his) that they didn’t have milkshakes on the menu.  Cameron’s son really wanted one.  The waiter’s answer was “No, we don’t have milkshakes.”  Cameron asked if they had milk.  “Yes” was the reply.  Did they have ice cream? “Yes.”  Chocolate?  “Yes.”  Then they had milkshakes.

Another company I have worked with, Elford Construction, has personified “Pop,” the founder of the 101-year old company.  While every employee knows Pop and the mission, vision, and values of the company, the icon that brings it to life is a worn work boot.  It signifies the way they do business — with their customers every step of the way, in the trenches working hard to get it done right, as dependable as the sunrise and sunset, as honest as the day is long.  A worn work boot is on display in Elford’s lobby in a museum-like kiosk along with the original ledger sheet and a few other artifacts.

Both of these companies began their icon by articulating their mission, vision and core values.  Both  have enjoyed success because every team member LIVES those values.  – It’s mandatory.

We’d like to hear about your company’s icon.  And, we’d like to share an Up Close and Personal form with you that can help you bring your company to life.  For more details on articulating your company’s culture and developing its icon, contact Sandy Fekete.

At the beginning of the project we were presented with a great deal of information – most of it qualitative*. I was then assigned with the task of representing this qualitative information in graphic form. Roadblock. Visually representing words (or content) is a daunting task upfront. How else should I display a word other than in a sentence?

Refusing to succumb to defeat, I delved into research, focusing on the visualization of quantitative data. It’s an interesting subject, offering more than a few remarkable solutions to the given problem.

One of the best and most user friendly solutions I came across was Tagxedo. Self described as a service that “turns words into a visually stunning word cloud,” Tagxedo is an amazing resource. What is a word cloud you ask? A word cloud is an aggregation of content (say a speech) into a cloud of words. Words that occur more frequently in the content appear larger in the cloud. To give you an example, here is a word cloud of Abraham Lincoln’s famous Gettysburg Address.

The versatility of Tagxedo is amazing, as it allows you to customize font, color and even shape of your word cloud. Do you want your word cloud from the speech to actually look like Abraham Lincoln? Not a problem:

Now before you get sidetracked with how many cool pictures you can make, let’s take a step back and look at the value of the service.

The goals of visualization are as follows:

• Organization
• Exploration
• Interpretation
• Presentation

By creating this word cloud, we were able to quickly organize the content of the speech into single words. Exploring the cloud, we can see that certain words stand out in size, relating to their high frequency. We interpret these high frequency words as those that are highly important in the speech, allowing us to pull out caveats. Nation. War. People. Dead. Dedication. New. We are able to present this as a quick visual aid when trying to explain the themes within and purpose of the Gettysburg Address.

Ben Shneiderman was nothing but accurate when he said, “The purpose of visualization is insight, not pictures.”

But what does this all mean to me? Many don’t realize how much qualitative information they are actually exposed to. It’s an untapped resource for unparalleled insight. A couple examples you might run into are:

• Social Media content
• Webpage copy
• Notes
• Interviews
• Focus group feedback
• Open-ended survey responses

I challenge you to take your content and run it through Tagxedo. See what insights you can glean and turn into surprising feedback for your client.

*For those who are unaware, there are two general categorizations for information: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative information can most simply be described as “number” information. This includes any measurable data, such as temperature or weight. Qualitative information is more content driven. Categorization is not determined by numbers, but more intangible factors.

Wednesday afternoon Brenda received an email from the SBCA Community congratulating her on winning the 2011 Best of Business Award. This award, according to the SBCA Community (whose mission is to advance small business), is given out to individuals who ”are a valuable asset to their community and exemplify what makes small business great.” Dedicated to helping others understand that running a business is an obtainable goal, SBCA finds that motivated, hard working, daring, and driven individuals like Brenda are true role models for their cause.

So how did Marketing Works receive this award? According to the SBCA Community, over several weeks we were subjectively reviewed based on our:

1. Business biography

2. Website design and functionality

3. Search engine marketing efforts

4. Social media marketing efforts

5. Customer feedback and internet reputation 

As always, we apparently came back with stellar reviews!

I speak for all of us here at Marketing Works, when I say (or rather write I suppose), CONGRATULATIONS BRENDA! As Brenda has exemplified, hard work, a positive attitude, and a little faith can go a long way.  So, let me ask our blog readers out there, do you think the fortune she had received was just a coincidence? Or do fortunes really come true? Have you ever received a fortune in the past that also came shockingly true?