The Wax Blog

Bart the Dumpster Dog

I realized right away that @bartthedog was gaining followers at a much faster rate than @waxgirl333 , my twitter handle. Not to mention the fact that he has more than ten times the number of Facebook fans for his Bart the Dumpster Dog fan page. Neither of us are megastars in the social media stratosphere (yet!) but I thought taking a look at how @bartthedog pays attention to his social media might give you an idea of how he’s added more than 3000 followers in such a short time – with very little effort.

1. Bart has a GREAT back story. Not everyone can say they were rescued starving and frozen from a dumpster on an Indian reservation.

2. Bart has a unique and consistent voice. This is probably because I have anthropomorphized Bart and his brother for the past three years to such an extent that I’m fairly fluent in Dog.  His followers call him “cutey” and “sweetie” and “lovey” so I guess it doesn’t matter that he’s over 90 pounds – his voice is crystal clear to them.

3. The dog lover niche, particularly for rescued dogs, is really strong, if not zealous. I told a car dealer once that if he supported his local humane society in a big way he’d have more customers than he could handle and I was right. One woman drove from South Dakota to Minnesota to buy a car from the guy – for helping rescued animals.

4. Bart’s not selling anything. He’s just a friendly guy that sends out tweets about interesting dogs for adoption on petfinder, cool doggy news and stuff he’s been doing lately.  He’s also very good at RT’ing information for animal rescue groups, so there’s a certain altruistic side to the boy.

5. Finally, Bart is always positive and never controversial. He doesn’t take sides and has no politics.

I started Bart’s accounts as a way to test some of the programs and apps for Twitter and Facebook, not to grow his profile.  Before long he’ll be writing a book and signing pawtographs.

There are a lot of business owners that despise marketing as much as some people despise working out. Just like going to the gym, it’s easier to stay on track if you’ve got a someone you’re accountable to. Some business owners use groups on social media sites like LinkedIn to ask questions and find guidance but I think it’s important to have a live person you know that can be a sounding board for your marketing activities. There are tons of great networking groups where you can find potential contacts. Here’s a list of some of the small business social networks you can tap into locally to help find your marketing workout buddy. (more…)

Rather than reinvent the wheel, here are some links to blog posts and articles  to help you figure out the right mix for your business…

For blending social media with traditional media, and choosing the right mediums, check out my blog post at Main Street Savvy

To follow steps for picking the right marketing vehicles for your business, go to my post on Evobloggito

Some ideas for starting social media are right here on the Wax Blog “How to Bake a Yummy Social Media Souffle”

If you’re sick of me, Entrepreneur has a great piece on this topic “3 Steps to Finding the Right Marketing Mix”

For B2B’ers, SalesVantage has a great post on the topic too.

Keep in mind it might take a bit to find the right recipe…and it needs to be measured and tweaked on a regular basis to keep working well.

Wax Marketing mug to the first 5 who ID this photo

I got so many questions about my last post “7 Steps to Bigger Marketing Muscle in 2010″ I thought I’d give you some detail on each one of the steps.  Measurement seems to be really tricky for people – but it’s actually pretty simple. Once you have some basic measurements in place and you feel a need to go deeper, visit KD Paine’s measurement blog – she’s the real guru. I’d love to hear specific examples of how people are measuring their own results, so comment away! Here’s my quick and dirty take – (more…)

We’ve got a gossip columnist here in Minneapolis who  trashed me (in print AND on air no less) after which one of my clients called me and quoted George Plimpton – bad press is like bad breath, it’s better than no breath at all.

But is that really true? Since we were talking about bad publicists last week I thought I’d add my two cents on this topic. Most of us think of bad press as press where we are mentioned in a bad light. It’s really more than that and for PR 2.0 bad press can linger a long, long time. As I mentioned earlier, placements that make no sense are worthless for a brand. To me that’s bad press – my client paid for my time to make that placement so it’s money thrown down the drain. Remember every single mention can live forever online – in my book you have to avoid bad press like the plague.

So what exactly do I consider bad press? Here’s my list but feel free to add more. (more…)

I talk a lot about the need for the right “mix” when you promote your product, business, book, whatever it is – engaging in social media is no different. To get a good result you have to find the recipe that’s 100% ALL YOURS. But just like the hard-to-bake souffle, there are some ingredients I’ve seen in of the work of ALL successful social media contributors.   Here are the components I believe you should always use for your  social media recipe…and some of experts who cook it up just right. Feel free to add your favorite folks – let’s get a good list going! (more…)

I got a message on LinkedIn today that pretty much shows what you should never, ever do on LinkedIn – or on any social media. Before you read it consider this:

1. I have over 500 contacts on LinkedIn -( if you want to link to me click here but let me know it’s cuz you read the blog)

2. I’m an active member of many groups on LinkedIn

2. I have never met this guy

We can learn more from these kinds of posts than any tip post I might do. Add a comment and tell me why YOU think this is bad – would you buy from this guy’s company (or him?) How much damage do you think he’s done, assuming he spammed this everywhere?

Here’s the email text…of course I’ve deleted his name and company.

Dear Bonnie:
I’m LinkedIn! Are You? I took the plunge and joined LinkedIn. I’m not certain if you already have a profile on LinkedIn, or if you are even using LinkedIn, but if you are, I’d like to take this opportunity and add you to my professional network.

If you’re not already using LinkedIn, what are you waiting for? Relationships Matter! Your professional relationships are key to your professional success. LinkedIn strengthens and extends your existing network of trusted contacts.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 25 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries.

Thanks for your consideration!

Thank You,

NOT Lance's assets

Once you start dabbling in the world of PR you hear the question “what’s the back story” quite a bit. In fiction the back story is the character’s history – it’s key to how much we identify and care about that person.

For news stories, and particularly for talk shows and feature ‘packages’ the back story is often more important than the actual product or service. Lance Armstrong is perhaps the best example of a great back story. Before he battled cancer, Lance was just another racer in a sport Americans cared little about. After winning his battle with cancer and subsequently becoming the Tour de France champion umpteen times we cared a great deal (as did the sponsors.) It’s the classic story of winning against all odds. We love it!

I had a client once that developed a beautiful card game based on the idea of teaching kids how and why to do random acts of kindness. Very nice product, but the reason behind that product was compelling.  This woman had experienced the loss of a baby and was devastated. She finally was able to overcome her depression by practicing random acts of kindness.  When she recovered she felt so strongly  she created a way for others to learn about the powerful benefits of practicing random acts of kindness. Although sad, it’s an inspirational story, one that Montel Williams picked up on right away. Although she was hesitant to use it, people totally connected with her story.

It’s so important to put forth your STORY…editors and producers get tons of pitches on products and books and services all day long. If they fit into another story they’re developing you might get lucky. If you can create your own back story you’ll have a much better chance. Here are some steps to create a great back story:

• Think about your own history. What obstacles have you overcome in your life? Illness, divorce, bankruptcy? What drove you to create your product or service in the first place? Be careful here…many people are quite humble and don’t realize how interesting they really are. Facing and overcoming a huge obstacle is always a great story.
• Re-write your bio so that it covers all the struggles you’ve faced and your accomplishments, and make sure you include your volunteer work. Many journalists look at a bio first to see if there’s anything unique. Remember, news stories and features are about PEOPLE not THINGS.
• Find research to support your story. For example, everyone knew statistically few survive Lance’s form of brain cancer. This made his story that much more dramatic. For the random act of kindness project, we found research that explained positive psychology.  Editors and producers want FACTS to back up their stories.

Now write your pitch using the back story as the general theme, with supporting facts from reputable academics or foundations. Add the product or service as a footnote, not as the main idea.  You might be surprised at what happens next!

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Sorry old school journalists, savvy advertising experts and prickly control-freak publicists but it’s time to realize something. To survive you can no longer be storytellers – you have to be information managers.  Here are some examples:

Rachel Maddow is an information manager. She takes the current news trends, analyzes them and offers up her opinion. She translates and disseminates information using a liberal, celesbian lens. We know it, we’re fine with it, we’ll watch her if we like that slant – and her numbers are through the roof.

Katie Couric is a storyteller. She takes the current news, tells the story she thinks we will find most interesting (called a HOOK or ANGLE) and puts a pretty package together hoping no one else has that same ANGLE.  Boring, yawn, her numbers are in the toilet.

Jon Stewart is also an information manager. He takes the current news, translates and gives it to us with using the funny lens. His numbers are great. Even Perez Hilton, as much as we love to hate him, is  an information manager. Perez takes the celebrity news and translates it with a snarky, ‘I used to be a geek and now I’m more powerful than you’ lens. His traffic numbers are still incredible.

Just try to ‘package’ a story or launch a brand these days with a clever message and a nice dose of spin. What happens? The public’s immediate attitude is that ‘WE WILL TAKE YOU DOWN, MOTHERF*&#ER’. (Remember Motrin Moms?) Today’s social media/citizen journalists love nothing better than to debunk a story, expose an exclusive, steal a headline from a print paper, or do whatever else it takes to prove they can get there faster and more provocatively than traditional media. And guess what? They’re winning the race.

It’s time to admit what we haven’t wanted to admit for a long time -  information is  too real-time and too accessible for us to believe the ’stories’ any more. We want to pick our chosen lens and get our information there.

Who’s your favorite information manager?

photo courtesy of vitrue.com

Wax is an integrated marketing firm – the only other “Wax” I’ve found in the U.S. Of course they’re in Miami so I imagine it’s a little different corporate culture (if I actually have one) than here in Minnesota. But since all their posts come up in MY google alerts I tend to read them. And they’re good. (Maybe someday they’ll want my URL and pay me big bucks for it. )

Take a look at a post on trends in Facebook that may help you if you’re starting to market in that particular social network. Enjoy! waxcom.com/impressions