Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
What is PropelHQ you ask?
Simply put, PropelHQ is the top destination for Direct Sales professionals, their teams, customers and prospects. It is a place to network, collaborate, help people and have fun. Some of the highlights include:
Who Created PropelHQ?
PropelHQ is the brainchild and is being developed by the team here at Ignite Media (IgniteHQ.com). We are the leader of social technologies for the Direct Sales (MLM, Network Marketing) industry. We have built social apps and consulted with both large and small Direct Sales companies in the area of social media, social networking etc. Using all the knowledge and expertise gained from these experiences, PropelHQ offers the power and functionality of Ignite’s enterprise solution and has made it available to individual distributors. If you are interested in a private social community for your team or your company, social media consulting or speaking engagements please contact us.
When will PropelHQ be available?
The team is hard at work-working ’round the clock to get PropelHQ opened up to the public the first week of June. We will be looking for individuals to beta test and help spread the word. If you are interested in this opportunity please contact us using the contact link on this site. Beta testers will have full access to all tools and the network at no charge. We will be looking to you for feedback and ways to improve the application.
We will keep you updated over the next few weeks as we prepare for takeoff. Check back here often for updates and the latest news.
Thanks for checking us out!
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Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
If you ring up what it would cost to do research for your target audience through focus groups and surveys your budget would frown and the response rate would haunt you in your sleep. How do you get good solid information and even get a content bonus on the side?
On the Livestrong site there is a Share your Story section that allows your LIVESTRONG story to be shared with other readers. I am not sure how long the option has been running but 5673 sounds like a pretty good response rate to me. For the Livestrong Foundation whether they know it or not, but they now have 5673 different entries of what it means to overcome difficulties.
BOTTOM LINE: This ain’t your grandpa’s company anymore. This is the norm. This is the way. No more banner ads. You need authentic content, and Ignite HQ can help you get it.
Tags: livestrong
Posted in gathering, interaction, listening | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
I think sometimes companies get so worked up with out of the box strategies and ways to reach their customers that they forget the basics of personal communication. I learned back in kindergarten that if you make a mess it is best to fess up. In your customer contacts, it is best to be up front and honest. Anyone can and will see through false social smoke and mirrors.
The thing that comes to mind right away is product recalls. If you know faulty merchandise is in the hands of your customers you need to get on the ball and start sending some emails. If you hope the problem will go away and that no one will find out, don’t quit your day job. Know your products back and forth and be ready with the tough questions. If a certain model isn’t right for a customer get them the right one.
When your participating in blogs and forums, don’t be afraid to rock the boat. Just make sure your rocking it in the right way. That isn’t ‘code’ for sneaky behavior or product pushing. Be there to inform with an authentic voice.
The least favorite blogs and twitter feeds are those that constantly drop links. Let them know there is a person behind the screen every once and a while. I have been following Lance Armstrong for a couple weeks now and I don’t know a more authentic person to follow. Last thing you want to portray to your followers is that their getting an automatic robot updating the account. Talk about the game, tweet your drink, ask goofy but thoughtful questions. I don’t care what business your in. Do it.
Ease up on the blog advertising. It can be very easy to clutter up the sidebars with useless widgets. You don’t need to tell people your a blogger, their at your blog. Believe me, they know already. Focus on the content and try not to exploit your readers to banner ads. 2001 called, they want their blog back.
At IgniteHQ we can help you understand your audience and cater to them. We listen. We understand. Were real people talking to real people.
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Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
This last Sunday night I was drifting in and out of sleep during the Oscars. The phrase “Slumdog Millionaire” kept sounding in my head as I was nursing a Dr. Pepper. After about the 7th award or nomination, not sure, I finally searched the trailer on my iPhone.
I’m no movie buff but has anyone else noticed a huge shift in movies? These producers obviously rolled with the market on this one and absolutely ruled the awards ceremony. Ahem…best film…or something like that?
When you talk about social media and drawing in customers you can use all the twitter feeds and blogs and facebook groups(careful, these can come off annoying) to listen and interact with your customer. But unless you have a viable product/service that people identify with or love to use; forget about it.
A couple extra hours in the garage working on that thinga-ma-jig is worth more then email blasts. Speaking of twitter, Erin here at Ignite is theorizing the gossip magazines will be struggling if actors start their own twitter accounts. I agree and disagree. If I can follow John Mayer to get the real story thats great…but my wife who loves the bullcrap opinions of the magazines might not care as much.
I say hang in there People magazine , don’t sell that Cancun abode just yet.
Posted in consulting, gathering, interaction, listening, social media | No Comments »
Friday, February 6th, 2009
I could post some famous website to give all the answers on finding your audience online. I could post the most famous Facebook groups where conversations are updated by the second. But in all honesty, the joy of engaging in conversation is finding it yourself. It’s always fun do research and spend time finding that perfect conversation that you identify with and can contribute to.
For example, I’m a huge fan of Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey. In about 3 seconds I can find the official Deep Thoughts site, but the fun part was finding homemade Deep Thoughts by an avid skier on a ski forum I like to visit every so often. Google is a great search engine and widely used, but if your looking for the real gold you have to dig deep.
You really get what you put into it. If it takes you less then a couple minutes to find what you “think” you are looking for, I’d say keep searching. Make sure to play in the sandbox before you start telling everyone in a forum about your product or service. Nothing worse then a SPAMMER with less then 5 posts under their belt.
I’ll even leave you with my own “Deep Thought”.
If you find yourself spending too much time online chatting with strangers and playing subscription video games, you can finally attribute the coke cans and crushed chips all over your living room. Ah yes, thats where that came from.
Tags: deep thoughts
Posted in gathering, interaction, listening, social media | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008
It appears that SanDisk gets it. They are planning a marketing blitz across several social sites, including facebook and twitter to help promote sales of their data storage devices on Cyber Monday.
They have done it right by looking for a specific target, in this case they sought to reach people that are passionate about movies, music and photography. Some of the things they did in this push include, placing short promotional clips featuring tech personality Gadget Grrl on video-sharing sites (YouTube, Vimeo, Veo, Blip, MetaCafe, etc.), they created branded pages to promote the sale across social sites like Facebook and on Twitter and they enlisted some key bloggers for editorial coverage.
They are measuring success by the number of email addresses collected, video interaction, Facebook ad results, and traffic to Sandisk’s Cyber Monday website.
Posted in Small business, gathering, social media | No Comments »
Monday, November 17th, 2008
It isn’t new, yet it is. The ability to evolve in order to survive within a competitive landscape is a consistent business principle and, with the growing popularity of interactive tools like wikis, blogs and social networks - which give customers the ability to engage with firms as never before - CMO’s and global marketers find themselves at the evolve or die point again. Businesses must put users at the center of their operations to respond to this new and challenging reality, which is the core of a new study of global CMOs conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Google, reports MarketingCharts.
The report, “Future Tense: The Global CMO” (pdf), finds marketers are increasingly able to reach out to consumers at all points along the value chain, not just at the moment a purchase decision is made. Because of this, global marketing of the future must engage all corporate stakeholders with consistent, constant and accurate messaging. At the same time, it must encourage and be able to respond quickly to customer feedback and involvement, pulling stakeholders closer to the corporate brand.
In terms of progress toward this goal, 56% of the 263 marketing executives surveyed agreed that their company is highly customer-centric and that marketing functions are interwoven throughout their operations.
CMOs are also responding to the fact that consumers have many sources of information and are becoming more sophisticated in their purchasing decisions. “Now when you push a marketing message out there, something comes back. If it’s a great message, if it resonates and it’s real, the boomerang is going to be positive,” said Lauren Flaherty, CMO of Nortel Networks, an interviewee for the report. “But if it’s off message and it’s not genuine, or if it’s perceived as being disingenuous, you get slammed.”
Currently, CMOs view the most important media for meeting marketing objectives as conferences and events, consumer/business magazines, TV and trade magazines.
In contrast, a year from now, they anticipate that the top-four most important media will be conferences and events, TV, online content sites and consumer/business magazines. This reflects the growing influence of online media.
The report provides the following recommendations based on findings:
Balance global brand awareness with local market relevance: Centralizing global marketing functions, such as advertising development and production, can create economies of scale and save money, but they must be guided by the needs of the local market. At the same time, marketing budgets must be decentralized so that regional directors can make appropriate decisions based on market demands.
Integrate marketing with other corporate communications: Both the interactive nature of Web 2.0 technologies and the transparency of corporate messages among different constituencies require the integration of various forms of marketing and communications. Businesses can no longer segment audiences and messages as if audiences don’t talk to each other.
Adopt new media: Organizations should consider setting aside a specific budget for experimenting with the newest Web 2.0 technologies. The CMO should have the foresight to anticipate how different constituencies will respond to different events, messages and channels, and should be able to deal with the proliferation of new-media tools and expanded audiences.
Develop new skills, capabilities-and partnerships: CMOs must understand the fundamental business model, brand, culture, policies and values of the organization. Equally important in terms of adapting to the evolution of new media are partnerships with vendors whose expertise can be used to take new initiatives to market faster-and more effectively-than a company would on its own.
Champion innovation: The need for greater accountability for marketing expenditure is pushing global companies towards digital marketing campaigns with higher returns than traditional media. The interactive nature of the latest digital-media vehicles provides the opportunity to develop deeper insights into customer dynamics and allows the CMO to become the corporate champion of customer insight.
“The CMO of the future must be the chief proponent of close engagement with customers,” says Nigel Holloway, Director, Americas, Industry and Management Research, at the Economist Intelligence Unit. “Rather than merely pushing out the corporate message to consumers, marketers must draw them in so that they are regarded as helpful participants in the development of the brand.”
About the survey: The research is based on a global survey of 263 marketing executives conducted in February 2008. Among respondents, 30% held C-level titles. In terms of geographic distribution of respondents, 35% were based in Western Europe, 29% in Asia-Pacific and 20% in North America, with the remainder coming from Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. Respondents hailed from nearly 20 industries and their organizations had annual revenue of $500 million or more
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