Marketing Integration

Social media and online communities are taking off like a hot Italian sports car with 500+ horses under the hood... 0 to 60 in 3 seconds flat (I'm an automobile fanatic). The possibilities and value added that these tools provide are quite diverse and limitless. However, a lot of businesses tend to leave other marketing efforts on the side of the road instead of in the passenger seat.

Integration of marketing channels and efforts has a synergistic effect that is too important to ignore. They build off of one another, improving effectiveness and reach. Often times businesses don't integrate traditional marketing with new social media marketing. You are asking a lot of your customers (or potential customers) by assuming that they will seek you out in the social media world. The need to be told that you have a social presence and that you do inform, promote and interact with them there.

Some ideas for accomplishing this:

• Include twitter and facebook links in your traditional advertising such as print, TV and radio ads.
• Put twitter and facebook on your business cards.
  
• Post signs in your store.
• Announce your online community at events held at your business or events that you and your customers attend.
• Have employees ask customers that they interact with if they follow you on twitter or are a fan of your facebook page. If they don't, recommend they do and why they should!

Comments, additional ideas and your experiences are welcomed and encouraged!

My Take on the Automaker Bailout

The proposed bailout of the major three US automakers has been all over the news lately. For those of you who may not know about it, they are proposing to give Ford, GM and Chrysler 25 billion dollars to mitigate cash flow and operational problems. I am strongly against the bailout for reasons that I shall discuss here.

What proponents are arguing is that these three automakers are essentially the entire US auto industry and if they fail there will potentially be 5 million people out of work. They need to realize that this is not the case. If one, some or all of these automakers declare bankruptcy they will be required to restructure and make operational changes under supervision of the courts. Will some people lose their jobs? Yes, however it will not be all 5 million as I can guarantee their operations will continue. Bankruptcy would be a good thing because it will trim up their workforce, make it more efficient, release them from the strong grip of workers’ unions and promote the much needed innovation that they have been severely lacking.

US automakers have been behind the times for quite some time now. Foreign automakers have surpassed them in sales and reputation. The CEOs and executives of our country’s automakers have been too hung up on their pride and the idea that American’s are all about the bigger is better philosophy by producing big, gas guzzling cars instead of investing in new technologies and alternative fuels. If they receive this bailout then it will be looked at as a slap on the hand and they will continue as they always have. If they are allowed to fail (as they should) they will be forced to trim the fat and innovate in order to remain competitive.

Our government should not in any way compromise innovation in our economy and industries by bailing everyone out. First a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry and then a $25 billion bailout for the automakers. Who is next? Where does it stop? I should not be responsible for bailing out poorly managed companies, you shouldn’t be either and neither should the taxpaying American public. Let these companies learn from their mistakes and better themselves. If they are unable to do this, then there is no place for them in the competitive marketplace.

What are your thoughts and opinions on this matter? Please post comments here or email me at james.plotnik@gmail.com.

Consistency

Picture this: You talk with a customer service representative over the phone and confirm that everything is ready to go for you to upgrade your cell phone. Then you go into the actual store to get your fancy new phone only to be severely disappointed that you are not eligible for an upgrade due to using the upgrade option nearly 2 years ago for a phone that you returned within one week of purchase. What’s worse, you were ensured upon returning that phone (almost 2 years ago) that your upgrade option was reinstated.

Now here you are ready and willing to give a company you have a great, long-term relationship with more business and you’re being denied due to their mistake. A mistake that you were told would never be an issue. Well, you take it upon yourself to call customer service while standing in the store to clear things up and they tell you they have to process a special request that will take 7 days. Are you serious?

This was an experience I recently had with AT&T Wireless when I wanted to upgrade to the new iPhone 3G. Needless to say, it left me very frustrated and unhappy with AT&T Wireless and I’m sure it would do the same for you. Oh, and I should mention, that I have yet to upgrade to the new iPhone simply because I don’t want to deal with that hassle again.

So, what is the biggest issue here? Lack of consistency. You’re told one thing and here another from someone else. One customer service rep notates your account about your conversation, and others do not.

My point: Be consistent! When operating your business, working in your place of employment and living your personal life, be consistent. Inconsistency degrades your credibility and frustrates people so that they will no longer want to continue a relationship with you. If you’re a business you will lose customers. If you’re an employee, your employer will not give you the projects or responsibility you want.

In order to be consistent you must set policy and procedures that promote consistency and then enforce them. Make consistency fun by promoting it in creative ways. Just be consistent.

Feel free to share comments and stories about your experiences with consistency (or lack there of). You may also email me at james.plotnik@gmail.com if you like.

Reignite a Long-term Job Search Podcast Tonight

The Savvy Jobseeker Blog & Podcast is presenting Reignite a Long-term Job Search this evening at 6pm (Eastern). The show is about the job search process and will involve a panel of speakers discussing their experiences. I will be one of the panelists and my goal is to present how I have been conducting my job search so that others may be able to make their searches more effective. My other goal is to learn different ways to jumpstart my search and get better results from the panelists and guest expert, Annemarie Segaric.

I recommend checking this podcast out if you are currently looking for a job or are considering looking for a job. And... let's face it, with today's economy and ever evolving job market, you should always be informed about job searching because you never know when you may be the one needing to do it yourself.

So go ahead, just click here at 6pm to listen to the podcast. It will also be archived so you can listen to it whenever you want.

Your Shopping Habits...

There is a shift happening in the way we do our grocery shopping and it has to do with the bags we use. More and more cloth shopping bags are popping up and I would like to gather a little information about them.

Do you use cloth shopping bags to do your shopping? If you do, what is it that you like about them? What do you dislike? What would prompt you to use them more often? Would you use them for shopping outside of the grocery store? If you do not use cloth shopping bags, why don't you? What would cause you to use them?

Feel free to answer these questions in the comment section of this post. Thank you for your participation!