Tim Bursch

I received an email from a great coffee shop for a free coffee. One day only. Free stuff is awesome, and I love coffee.

Relevant and compelling offer.

Hold on a second though, I got the email mid-morning. I already had one coffee for the day. Bummer.

It was more annoying than compelling. It didn’t make me want to go back out and get another coffee.

When you spend the time and money on creating good emails, please don’t forget about the timing and the relevance. Think about your customer experience.

How do you time your messages?

Image credit: Michael Filion

.

The day begins with email. Then Twitter. Next listening. Add some Facebooking and blogging. Oh, don’t forget some coffee.

Do you work in social media? In other words, do you get paid to market, build connections, or serve people through social media?

If you’re like me, you are kinda always on. Checking. Responding. Commenting. Posting. All day and into the night. Maybe we are just a little crazy.

So, how do you manage any balance or sanity? Here are some things that are working for me:

1. Get up early to read or write. I’m trying to take some creative time before jumping into the river of media work.
2. Schedule ruthlessly. Put community monitoring, twitter, and listening time blocks into your day. And then stick to them.
3. 10-2-5. I’m trying this method for pounding through tasks. Sometimes instead of “play” for the 2 minutes, I’m cleaning my inbox.
4. Coffee. No, don’t drink more. Get out and meet with real people over coffee. Share, connect, help. You’ll both feel better.
5. Follow inspiration. If you have a burst of energy, run with it. Sometimes I get a second wind at night and work on more writing.

These are just a few ideas I’m experimenting with. What’s working for you? How do manage your time?

Photo by NightRPStar

Update:

Great resource here on Single-Tasking

.

Part of my work is helping companies manage online communities. The cool thing about marketing in these environments is that it’s not really direct marketing. It’s joining customer conversations.

Because most companies are not perfect, customers will voice complaints and disappointment online. For everyone to see.

An interesting thing can happen:

[warning: Tim’s not an artist]

1. Customer has a problem and voices complaint in public.
2. Brand is listening online (you’re doing that right?)
3. Brand acknowledges, responds, hears the problem and the loop is closed.
4. Transformation happens. Customer tells others about the experience and a negative is transformed into a positive.

How are you tracking these transformations? Is this marketing? Share your thoughts.

Hat tip to Aliza Sherman for getting me thinking about transformations.

.

So, if you haven’t joined the web is dead train and still want to keep your website, here is one more reason: Relationships.

No, people don’t have relationships with websites. But they do have an affinity with brands. Like a relationship.

Smart marketers use that. They tell you they miss you. Like this:

Smart businesses keep you coming back to their site. They know people are spending time online and not necessarily running out to the mall. So, they invite you to their other storefront. They know that you need a long-term relationship with customers to stay in business.

What do you think? Are websites old school? Do you build customer relationships with your site? How?

.

Today

I’ve been thinking about websites and reading posts like these here and here.

What will companies do in the future? Will they rent their web presence on Facebook or keep their own real estate?

Websites have become more useful, interactive, and conversational. But I don’t have an integrated experience. I find information I need on a site, maybe share it, go to my network (another site or app) to learn more, check wikipedia for more info and then go back to the website. Clunky.

In the near future

So, here’s what I picture:
Let’s say I see a link in my social stream about a new productivity app. I click the link and show up at the company site. Since I’m already plugged in (okay this sounds like the Matrix, but stick with me), I get a custom content experience based on my profile. Think Facebook Connect + OpenID. Maybe it’s SocialID?

Next I look around on the site, learn more about the app and how it can help me with my schedule. I see a box on the same site with people from my network and what they are saying about this product. I see 3rd party content (positive and negative) that gives real life reviews. I see a video review from an influencer in my social circle. All of this on the same corporate site.

So, you navigate the web and when you arrive at XYZ company’s website your SocialID plugs in and they serve you a personalized experience. Custom experience marketing.

Too close for comfort? A marketers dream? Or am I a space cadet?

Take a look at this. Not too far off maybe.

Tell me what you think.

.

1. User Experience. You can make a site usable, useful, and enjoyable for visitors. Give them a reason to come back.
2. Nouns change. Someday, maybe not soon, Facebook will be the old thing and the new noun will be a platform that companies will be rushing to grab land. Will you be left standing with likes?
3. Rent or own. Do you want to rent or own digital real estate. Renting can be lower cost, but you’re at the mercy of the landlord.
4. SEO. Yes there is value in social media optimization, but people are still searching and you own the SEO strategy when you own your website.
5. Data. When you have an outpost you can mine data, but when you drive people to your site, you own the data.
6. Action. Do you want people to like your brand? Or do you want people to buy your product or service? A website is your homebase and provides your call to action.
7. Depth. It takes more than 140 characters to build a relationship. You can start relationships with clients on Twitter, but for some products and services, especially b2b, you need more content.
8. Branding. Brands live in customers minds and happen online and offline. But a website gives a home to the brand and invites people to come back. Think apple.com.
9. Second impressions. A first impression for your brand might occur in the wild west of social networks, but a potential customer will probably click through to your website. They will get a second impression that is more full and useful.
10. Retention. Most businesses survive because of repeat business. Unless you’re in a purely transactional business, you need people to come back. Websites are the place people return and know what to expect.

What do you think? Are websites really dead? How can we make them more useful with social media?

Image credit: woodleywonderworks

.

Don’t start a blog.
Unless you are going to be persistent.
Unless you can generate interesting content.
Unless you have a goal or a clear target you’re aiming for.
Unless you are willing to put time into building a real asset that will grow your business.
Unless you want to stand out from your competition.
Don’t do it. Or really do it.

Picture by: net_efekt

.