Medios Marketing Blog

Being a social networking and inbound marketing practitioner I thought it a good idea to source recruits for a position that opened up in Medios. I posted a job opening on LinkedIn. To benchmark the success of the post I bought a job advert on a www.careerjunction.co.za.

The results were surprising and insightful. The exercise proved how much work social media marketing is, and how much planning it takes to implement a successful social campaign.
Posting the LinkedIn notice cost me $35 (about R260). The www.careerjunction.co.za post cost me R795. LinkedIn returned 16 candidates, whereas www.careerjunction.co.za retuned 28 over the same period. On a candidate per rand basis, LinkedIn is the better solution. However, the lessons I learnt made me wonder if paying less is really cheaper.

Lesson 1 – Reach

I have a modest LinkedIN account with only 40 connections. Yet my job offer was received and reacted upon by a range of people that I have no direct connection with.
The problem with the reach is that half the people who approached me were in other countries.
Another problem I encountered was the level of candidates that applied. I don’t want to sell myself short, but I should have been applying to work for some of these people. Very, very senior people applied for a relatively junior job. This leads me to lesson two.

Lesson 2 – Be very specific

My biggest mistake on LinkedIn was not being specific enough. Unlikely candidates applied for the job, because they felt they had something to offer.

Lesson 3 – Chancers

Either people don’t read, pad their online profiles or have a fire-and-forget attitude. I received many applications from people who should have known that they aren’t ideal candidates. I got the impression that many who aren’t seriously seeking employment send their CVs on the off chance that there may be something better on offer.
By contrast the people who replied to the www.careerweb.co.za advertisement were seriously looking for a job. There will still chancers, but these were CV – padders who were trying to land a job they weren’t experienced enough for.

Conclusion

On average the applicants from the professional site were a lot better matched to my requirements. The reason for this is twofold: They were seeking the type of job I was offering, and the site forces the advertiser to include some details to filter the advertisement.
In the end I interviewed nine candidates. Four came from the professional site, two from LinkedIn and three from other sources. All three shortlisted candidates came from the purpose-built recruitment site.

For me the final lesson is obvious. LinkedIn may well be a source of candidates when recruiting, but you have to be careful and prepared to sift through a lot of false starts. The better option is simply to choose a purpose-built vehicle like a recruitment site. The match between need and supply is much closer.

Posted by Jacques van den Bergh for Medios Marketing Communications

We all make mistakes. Opening a blog with a horrible cliché like “We all make mistakes” proves my point. Over the past two years, I have written many, many letters of apology (on behalf of others. I’m not that dreadful!). Although the events leading up to the letters differ, all letters of apology share certain traits (an apology, for instance). Should you find yourself at the sharp end of the disciplinary stick, follow these guidelines to write a kick-ass letter of apology. You can also download the Wordsmyth letter of apology template here.

1. Understand the drama

It’s often easier to know when someone’s upset than it is to figure out why they’re upset. In a business environment, the aggrieved party is usually peeved because you’ve cost them money. Make sure you understand how and when you’ve inconvenienced them and how it affected their business before writing the letter.

2. Make sure you agree

Once you understand why the recipient of your intended letter is upset, make sure you agree that you have erred. If you don’t agree, change the angle to a letter of explanation. Use it to point out that you weren’t responsible and chuck in a few niceties to smooth things over. If, however, you agree that you were wrong, proceed to step three.

3. Identify the responsible party

In business, people rarely fly solo. If you’re writing a letter of apology, chances are that you weren’t responsible for the mistake. Make sure you know who was and decide whether you should apologise on behalf of your company, department or team, or whether the apology should come from the person responsible.

4. Apologise

Your opening lines should be an apology, containing the name of the responsible parties, the exact blunder and how it inconvenienced the affronted recipient. For example:

I’d like to apologise on behalf of Wordsmyth for setting fire to your fax machine. I understand the incident traumatised your staff, prevented you from sending or receiving faxes for three days and cost you a considerable amount of time and money.

5. Explain

In your next paragraph, try to give an honest account of the events that lead up to your error in judgement. You don’t have to explain that it was a mistake or accident. It’s usually implied in your explanation.

On the morning of the incident, I tried to perform a trick with matches, a lit match slipped from my hand and landed on the fax machine.

6. Accept responsibility

Don’t try to wriggle out of the fact that you slipped up. It’s cowardly and makes your apology sound insincere. Accept responsibility in the next paragraph:

I understand that it was irresponsible and unprofessional to perform a match trick in the office.

7. Offer a solution or compensation

While it’s very noble to accept responsibility, it’s meaningless if you don’t attempt to undo the damage. Think of a way to make the incident less painful for the injured party:

Wordsmyth would like to replace the fax machine and pay for damages to the carpet. Please send the invoice to our accounts department. I will also write a personal letter of apology to the staff.

8. Express a desire to move on

By the time you reach your closing paragraph, the recipient should understand that your are really sorry, that you understand the consequences of your blunder and that you’re willing to fix your mistake. Your closing paragraph should indicate a desire to put the incident behind you and continue your professional relationship on good terms:

I can assure you that this was an isolated incident. Wordsmyth looks forward to a continued professional relationship with you and your company.

9. Presentation

Like any other business letter, your letter of apology should be on a company letterhead. Remember to check your spelling and grammar. If you’re not sure, find someone to proofread your letter before sending it.

10. Enjoy!

While it can be difficult to admit that you were wrong, writing a letter of apology can be quite liberating. A sincere letter of apology will probably disarm the angry party and result in a happily-ever-after, or a happy-until-you-screw-up-again scenario. Win!

Posted by Kristia van Heerden for Medios Marketing Communications

It struck me the other day that many of my clients rely on a myriad of newsletters, twitter feeds, LinkedIn streams, blogs and more for advice. The volume of advice out there is staggering.

It’s no surprise that there is so much advice available. Every marketing vendor worth his salt knows the new mantra – content, content, content.

The problem is that my clients are often distracted from their marketing vision. They run into my office wondering whether we shouldn’t rather be doing this, instead of that. They get distracted, seem gullible to every suggestion and are willing to stray from the course they have set.

The volume of available writing makes it seem like the world is moving faster than it is. The customers that read too much marketing advice second-guess successful strategies.

The reasons for this become evident when you look at the available advice as a whole. I have read so much writing from marketing experts that I’m able to discern a few trends:

1. Marketing experts sometimes contradict each other. Obviously this is to be expected. Experts have different viewpoints. My problem is that it is often the same sources taking different viewpoints on different occasions. The reason is that the writers are often unable to explain the context of their comments. One article by the same source said that return on investment is the marketing panacea that social media offers. That same source later said, “small business over-measure everything.”

2. No one who dispenses marketing advice do so because they are benevolent. They do so because they want your business. This includes me.

3. There is a lot of writing that says nothing new. Sure, old concepts are presented in a new light, but there’s little innovation.

4. Very few articles offer practical advice.

5. The majority of the articles present advice in a “perfect world” scenario. They assume that the reader has the access, the resources, the skill etc. to implement the plan.

6. The writer isn’t honest about what he really thinks the reader should do, namely hire him to implement the plan. For the record, I think you should hire Medios Marketing Communications to implement the advice I give in this blog.

7. The practical advice they offer is difficult to follow. Most don’t take into account the limitations you may have.

8. Few mention the downside of social media: the cost. To do it right, you need a massive investment in time, not only from a dedicated social media tsar, but also from a wide range of people in your organisation.

Now don’t get me wrong, there is good advice out there and lots of it. Most of what is said is applicable. Just choose your sources, look at trends, not individual blogs, posts, etc. Don’t accept that everything is applicable to you. Don’t feel too bad if you cannot implement all the advice. You aren’t operating in a prefect world.

One other thing, if you think that it is hypocritical of me to criticise my competitors while doing exactly what they are doing, you’re right. It is. But think of it this way, at least my message is honest, fresh and my motives are clear. And if you end up using Medios’ services, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Cheers
Jacques

Posted by Jacques van den Bergh for Medios Marketing Communication

As marketing 2.0 specialists, we are trying to adapt our marketing strategies to facilitate communication between our brands and the consumer.

The new way of marketing – that is, giving valuable information to our consumers and attempting to facilitate the communication – is not as easy as it seems.

I like the idea of getting consumers more involved in the brand. There’s only one obstacle: lazy consumers.

I recently attempted to contact a hair school on behalf of my client, Organic Root Stimulator. The response to my phone call was, “I have never heard of your brand, I don’t like your marketing!” At first I thought I wasn’t listening properly. Attacking “my brand” with get you karate chopped in the ovaries.
I had to wonder whether the marketing and PR we are doing for ORS isn’t what it should be. The alternative (and my preference) was to understand that consumers, especially those who proclaim to be “industry experts” could just be lazy. In order to proclaim oneself an expert, you have to seek out all kinds of knowledge, not just wait for a brand to speak to you.

How could someone who should be an ethnic hair industry expert not know a product that is the number one ethnic hair product in the US? It’s especially shocking when you consider the product prides itself on the education of both its consumers and the salons that use its professional range.

As brands we have to find ways to speak to those lazy consumers. In this case we can just accept that some people can, by their own stupid statements, take away their titles as industry experts.

Silly billies
Abs

Posted by Abigail van Zyl for Medios Marketing Communication

I have come to realise there is an emerging trend in the way effective marketing companies operate. Companies are shifting the focus from traditional, basic marketing strategies to online marketing strategies. This could yield more profits in the long run and enable the company to run as effectively and efficiently as possible.

In order to boost profits companies must understand and implement a number of key strategies. The following three strategies could help:

1. Know how to optimise for search engines and drive free traffic to your site. Focus on getting your business’ name to pop up in search engines by providing useful info, valuable content and links related to your business and by keeping your content current.

2. Take advantage of profit generating opportunities with pay-per-click advertising. Use the most relevant keywords to get top results in search engines. This would probably be the easiest and fastest way to attract potential customers to your site.

3. Integrate blogging into your online marketing strategy. Blogging can boost your ranking in search engines, increase your traffic and improve your credibility. Blogs are easy to start and maintain and are a simple way for anyone to post new content in an easy to read website format.

Another important component is to understand the more user-friendly your website is, the more sales it will generate. Elements like an attention-grabbing headline, user-friendly navigation, well chosen images, a strong opt-in offer to remain in contact with your customers through email, an About Us page, a FAQ page as well as optimised content, your site will be well on its way to creating a platform that will attract all the sales you need.

Cheers
Claudio

Posted by Claudio Silva for Medios Marketing Communications

In my opinion only two general laws of the universe are worth observing. The first is the law of averages, and it is very relevant to the topic of this blog: information overload.*

Don’t sigh. I know it has been covered to death, but if you read this one last article you’ll be able to lighten your load, promise.

The problem is the amount info available. If you’re reading this blog I don’t have to say any more on the Internet. The second problem is the amount of channels through which the information is distributed. Email, Twitter, your mobile phone, texting, magazines, journals, newsletters, seminars, meetings, books, e-books, websites… Make it stop! Make it stop!

Avoiding all the info out there is not ideal. You still need to know what is new in your industry. I make a living taking on what others choose to ignore “because it’s just too much”. The trick is simply to know how to work your way through the massive amounts of info available.

Making the most of the avoidable info without having your head explode in a somewhat artistic red mist is twofold. The first step is to take control of the channels that feed information. The second is to know the value of paying attention to the person selling the information – and they are always selling. Remember, no free rides.

The first step is easy. Split your personal communication channels from your business channels. Stop direct access and filter information through channel managers like Google Reader and TweetDeck. Dedicate time to looking at information and ignore information coming outside of that time.

The second part of the solution depends on how much you think you know. If you are a twenty-something it’s probably less than you think. Look at your seniority in the organisation where you work. If you are the boss chances are that your attention is worth more than the intern’s.

The information out there is like training. If you are short on experience and knowledge you need a little more than someone else. Adjust the volume you expose yourself to.

Those who sell information do so because they fish for leads. They hope that you will return to their site, submit a question, take part in a survey, and communicate with them.

Information sources that value your attention will post valuable, relevant information. Look out for people who try to build a reputation as a supplier of valuable content. Allow these people to filter the online noise and deliver distilled information to you.

Now for some practical advice:

Understand that information won’t get stale in a half an hour. In other words, you have time to read it at your leisure.

If you miss something, the information isn’t gone. Businesses want you to visit the website.  By the time you read an article someone else has written about the same topic. It is the point of information overload. There is no shortage.

Find the few you trust. Follow them and read their stuff. Rotate some of the others. Delete information sources you don’t get around to reading, even if they are valuable.

Seek new sources and delete some of the old ones.

If someone’s message becomes monotonous, can them.

If you receive contradictory information from the same source, get rid of the source.

A little humour and some entertainment value go a long way.

Use the tools like Google Reader and TweetDeck.

Find sources that give you synopses of what everybody else is saying. If there is a topic you think you need to know about, the info will be out there.

Read reviews of books. Sometimes it will save you having to read the book but still tell you what you need to know

I hope this blog helped. Remember not to cut me from list of regulars and visit my website. I need the leads, man!

Cheers

Jacques

*The second is: All clichés are true. Not that relevant to this week’s post, but now you know.

Posted by Jacques van den Bergh for Medios Marketing Communications

I spent the past two months on a proposal for a potential client. The research and amount of hours spent have been duly paid for by the potential client.

This is the first complete marketing proposal that I’ve done for a client. I had to cover above the line marketing and below the line marketing in the proposal. Considering I have no formal training in below the line practices I have come along way.

I have been taught and mastered what I regard as the three things you need to know about marketing. If you can understand your client well enough to understand these three things you are well on your way to becoming a rocket marketer.

1. What do you want to say

What is the message you would like to communicate to your audiences? Each message for each target audience will be different, as will the way in which you choose to say it. There is one golden rule when it comes to this message: All content MUST be valuable. If your message and the content don’t add value, you need to rethink your strategy.

2. Who do you want to say it to?

Target markets can vary widely. They can include all sorts of people who have any kind of interest in your organization. The trick here is to choose the people who matter.

Don’t cast a 100m wide net into the sea in the hope that you’ll catch 1 000 fish. You will just make yourself tired and take a really long time to bring the net back in with a small result. Instead cast a 10m net out where you know the fish are, pull it in quickly and do the same thing again.

3. How will you say it?

Choose the best marketing tools to reach the target audience.
Speak to the same person more than once. Traditional views of marketing have to be adapted to suit the online market. However, there is one traditional marketing tip that will remain forever as it is: repetition, repetition, and repetition.

How you speak to your market is where the marketing guru comes in. How you talk to your audience is the fun part of marketing. Finding cleaver ways to communicate your message to your audience is what it’s all about.

A summary: Repeat the same message to the same person over and over and over again.

I really enjoyed putting this campaign together. I did the strategic planning to the actual budget and finally put together the presentation.

We pitch on Wednesday the 30th June. I’ll keep you posted, or Sparrow will, I’m sure. Intellectual property seems to be on the poker table at Medios these days ☺

Easy enough?
Abs

Back to proposal

Posted by Abigail van Zyl for Medios Marketing Communications

The Godfather is one of my favourite stories of all time. I’ve read the books and seen the movies umpteen times. After every encounter I am a little more in love with it. I generally love that whole in-the-name-of-honour thing; I love the depiction of immigrant societies; I love the traditions and the sense of family, the religion, the composed and civilised meetings followed by incidents of extreme and ruthless violence. It makes me feel like that level of coolness can one day be mine. We all have our little illusions.

My latest re-watch made me realise that The Godfather is full of useful advice on running a business. Here’s what I got:

1.            Family comes first

“Fredo, you’re my older brother, and I love you. But don’t ever take sides with anyone against the family again. Ever.”

If you hope to make a success of your career, you have to be loyal to the company you work for. Just like a family, someone will piss you off at some point – whether it’s your boss, colleague or subordinate. However, you eventually forgive your mother for not understanding why you’re in love with the tattooed, longhaired biker. You don’t have to sit down and decide to forgive her, it just sort of happens. You can yell at her today, and be over it when you meet the guy with the funny nose.

In a company, you will get pissed at someone. It’s inevitable. You can complain to your other colleagues, you can yell and scream, but you never, ever use a disagreement with a colleague to discredit the entire company.

2.            Bloodshed is expensive

“I don’t like violence, Tom. I’m a businessman. Blood is a big expense.”

Disagreeing is constructive. Firing a valuable person due to a disagreement is a bad and expensive business decision. If an employee has been with the company for a number of years and suddenly becomes a problem child, it is most likely the symptom of a bigger disease within the company. It’s better to negotiate and keep an experienced employee than running the risk of appointing and training someone who ends up being a terrible fit. The devil you know, and all that.

3.            When in doubt, ask the Godfather

“Mr. Corleone is Johnny’s godfather. To the Italian people, that is a very religious, sacred, close relationship.”

Think of your boss as your Godfather. You might not always agree with or even like your boss. However, the odds are your boss is your boss for a reason. You can always learn something from your superiors, even if it’s just how to manipulate your way to the top. If that’s how people get ahead in your company, chances are it’s a skill you’ll need at some point. Also keep in mind your productivity is beneficial to your boss, which makes bosses a little more sympathetic to your cause.

When you have a problem, talk to your boss about it. Trust that your boss will attend to the problem, and if he/she doesn’t, go higher up. Eventually someone will see your point or convince you that the alternative is better for everyone.

If you hate the corporate world or your job, get out. It’s counterproductive to take your frustrations out on another person.

4.            Keep a lid on it

“Never tell anybody outside the family what you’re thinking again.”

Never discuss what’s going on in your business with your clients or competitors. It’s not only disloyal (refer to point one) but it can be to the detriment of the entire company, including you.

5.            Be kind

“Some day, and that day may never come, I will call upon you to do a service for me. But uh, until that day, accept this justice as a gift on my daughter’s wedding day.”

If you want to be benevolent, become a volunteer or a nun. If you want to do business, you have to give a little to get a little. Any service, no matter how small, will eventually benefit you. Be sure to give what you can.

6.            Indulge your kids

“I have a sentimental weakness for my children and I spoil them, as you can see. They talk when they should be listening.”

If you’re a boss, you need your employees. Don’t be a dick. You’re there to guide, not bully. Like the Godfather, you should indulge your kids a little. Give them an opportunity to develop in the business environment. You are more experienced, but you should give others the opportunity to gain experience by disagreeing with you and bumping their head. Of course you should intervene when you start losing money, but there’s no point in sweating the small stuff.

6.            Be polite

“Neri, take a train to Rome. Light a candle for the archbishop.”

If you’re upset, say so. There’s no need to insult, yell or swear at anyone. You achieve just as much (if not more) by saying that you’re unhappy than by throwing a tantrum.

7.            Eye the competition

“My father taught me many things … keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.”

Know what the competition is up to. You have to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry. This means identifying your competition and keeping tabs on what they’re doing. Did they just launch a new advertising campaign? Do they have a new website? Do they blog? Are they moving into different technologies? Do they offer new services? If you want to compete, it’s wise to know whom you’re competing against.

8.            Cut your losses

“Fredo, you’re nothing to me now; not a brother, not a friend. I don’t want to know you, or what you do.”

While it’s important to keep valuable employees through difficult times, it’s just as important to identify who will benefit the company and who won’t. Not every type of employee will be suitable to your business. Know what you want and get rid of the dead weight.

9.            It’s only business

“Otherwise, who can say how long your stay with us will last. It’s not personal, it’s only business. You should know, Godfather”

Disagreements in a business environment stay at the office. When you grab a drink after work, leave your grudges behind and bond with your colleagues. Who knows, that might solve some things.

Posted by Kristia van Heerden for Medios Marketing Communications

Physicist Niels Bohr once said, “An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.” I am much closer to being an expert in pitching for outsourced marketing jobs.

The Medios Marketing Communications team and I screwed up during a pitch to industrial giant Schneider Electric. I am ashamed to even write about the pitch, but in the spirit of transparency and honesty I will share what we learnt.

The Background

Zonke Ignition Advertising (ZIA), who has a current relationship with Schneider, asked us to co-pitch with them for an outsourced public relations (PR) account.

We were hesitant at first, not sure if we wanted such a corporate client. We have been down this road with Schneider before. On a previous occasion Medios’ Wordsmyth content generation division worked hard to produce an excellent bit of sample writing. Schneider never moved forward. Later they asked us to quote on another job. Yet again they made no decision.

This time we were off the mark at first, but we lost momentum. After the initial work we left the presentation development to our partner. We lost interest and did not give the pitch the time and respect it deserved.

What went wrong?

On the day of the presentation we saw the presentation that ZIA had prepared. We weren’t happy with it and tried to redo our bit of the presentation in a couple of hours.  We used www.prezi.com. It is an interesting and good tool, but we do not know it well enough.

You know the commercial with the guys who use the wrong paper and cannot get the big presentation printed so they end up dancing for the bosses? I was dancing like a motherfucker.

Had we looked at how ZIA had taken some of our suggestions to heart and tightened their presentation we would not have meddled. This is what set us back:

• We did not know what the presentation room was going to be like.
• We were unaware that people were watching the pitch via screen share.
• Never did we check on the technical requirements.
• There was no dry run.
• We never updated ourselves on facts about Schneider – facts we knew but have forgotten.

Worst of all, we didn’t speak with Schneider and did not understand their need. If we did, we would have known that we were the perfect outsourced marketing solution for them.

Damage

Calculating the damage is not as easy as it sounds. Sure, we don’t have what we never had. We can also calculate the man hours lost. Truth is the damage runs deeper. Schneider deserved better and they know it. ZIA also knows we tanked. Worst, we know it.

So the damage total: Two hits in the reputation department, one in the morale department.

The Fix

The fix is easy: learn from it. We should share our experience to design a pitch protocol. We should make sure we tick all the boxes next time. To Duryn, Rupesh, Isabel, Jackie, Pierre and the guys from Schneider in France, I apologise.

My father, who retired as great and well-respected CEO once told me, “I don’t care if people make mistakes, as long as they don’t make the same ones twice.”

I guess I can forgive my people and myself, but I sure am glad my father didn’t see me on Thursday.

Jacques

Posted by Jacques van den Bergh for Medios Marketing Communications

Like Tom Riddle says in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Medios Marketing Communications is my “past, present and future.”

One year into working at Medios it became clear I would be here for a long time. Working at the company have been the best years of my life. I always thought I would own my own company, true leadership taught me that it would not be needed. Jacques had spoken to us about being part owners in Medios. Exciting us all.

A year after the discussion Medios had made progress. Although what we had imagined it to be. Medios recently had a meeting where the proverbial fire was lit under us again. I realized that I needed to take action. As it was only by my actions that Medios would get to where I want it, and myself to be.

I sat down the following day and wrote a marketing plan for Medios. I included a budget, as we would do for any client.

In previous weeks I had asked all the employees at Medios to submit one blog and one press release a month. To date four releases have been submitted to the media. Of those four releases three have been published. I understood that if I could get everyone to put more effort in Medios would be a firm the size we imagine it to be.

People often become complacent about their futures. Dreaming of the big time will not get you there. If you see a clear future you have to take action. I am so enthused my Medios and the future we have promised each other. When the name “Medios” roles of your tongue and you have no idea where you heard it. My hard work would’ve paid off.

At 23 I have reached the goal I set for my self five years ago. My career goal was to be a marketing executive for a beauty house. I am, the account executive for an international beauty house.

Thank you Jacques and thank you Medios

Posted by Abigail van Zyl for Medios Marketing Communications