1. Many [brands] don’t know who they really are, and what their true value proposition is
2. Many [brands] want everyone to like them, as the de facto measure of success

Okay, so that’s actually two problems.  My argument stands.

The problems, as I see them, are inherent to us humans. Variants of these same problems appear in our personal lives. And yet as marketing strategists and practitioners, one might think we’d see getting this part – brand value –  right as, well, kind of critical. The first item on the list. A checkpoint on the QA procedure. A juncture on the flowchart. The part of the process that doesn’t get skipped over, ever. You get my point.

Selective Authenticity

And yet the problems persist.  Value props get muddled or shifted in a desperate attempt to hit the right chord. Wide acceptance weighs more heavily than the smoldering passion of a small tribe. With no clear idea of our brand’s reason for being and a rabid compulsion to snare any slow-moving target with a dollar in her wallet, we continue to vie for the attention of the crowd. Take big, swooping swaths out of prospectkind. By intentional design, we strive to appeal to anyone that ambles buy our sites or stores. It matters little who they are or what’s important to them or if we’ll mesh beyond the transaction on a service, satisfaction, or value level.  It’s a big world out there, why narrow our focus? Sigh.

We lay good offers on top of bad design on top of “meh” messaging over and over again.  Then later we huddle around the meeting table, eyes wide and mouths agape, stupefied about why our programs and campaigns didn’t blast through the upper atmosphere. I mean, everybody likes <insert bland thing here>, so by sheer statistics we should have hit our numbers for the program.

<taps mic> Hello? Anyone listening?

“Everyman” Branding Doesn’t Work

A lot of time and money gets spent trying to persuade consumers to buy stuff. We work like mad gerbils to convince them just to try it (whatever “it” is) – they can unsubscribe/cancel/return for a full refund later.

But here’s the rub:  you can’t make everyone like you or your brand. And you should stop trying. Your product isn’t appealing to everyone because it’s truly impossible to meet the emotional and functional needs of the entire population.*  When plans are mapped, creative designed or content written in hopes to please the mass majority (or not polarize the minority), the good stuff is spread so thin that it becomes transparent. Insubstantial. The brilliance, the luster, the magnetic power that makes price point a non-issue is gone.

It’s been a long time since a brand struck me as so acutely self-aware, organized, and bound with a taut cultural thread that I stood up and took notice. I’m on the lookout for marketing communications that effectively bridges honest brand positioning with real consumer sentiment. Because everyman branding just doesn’t interest me.

* So why not set your sights on being superfreakingly awesome to a select group of users instead?

Online and offline marketing can and should be connected in order to increase the overall benefit gained by a company. The best integrated strategy will generate inbound marketing traffic that results in new leads, greater brand recognition, or higher sales.  This integration of marketing efforts is on the rise.

Here are five tips for fusing your online and offline marketing efforts.

Standardize Your Cross-Platform Message
Don’t let separate departments create different images and messages. An integrated campaign targets the same people with the same images, promotions, and words. For example, an ad placed in the newspaper targeted at adults seeking security should not provide a URL to a company website that advocates an edgy lifestyle and taking risks.

Grant Powell, the CEO of the marketing agency Pomegranate, suggests “creating a single, concise set of guidelines and making sure they are clearly communicated across all parties and mediums involved. Whether it’s a style guide, a branding document or a handful of rules, these are the building blocks of your integrated campaign.”

Use Unique URL’s You Can Track
One of the real advantages of connecting an online and offline campaign is the ability to generate tracking information.  For example, you could offer a special coupon on your company’s Facebook page for redemption at a physical or online store. You could also include a coupon code or URL that customers can only find in specific print ads that can be redeemed online.

By using a unique URL or coupon code in your offline ads, you can track their effectiveness. Unique URLs should be used in each instance where you’d like to link to a piece of company-owned content within your web site ecosystem.  By evaluating analytics, you will gain insight into which messages and keywords prompted the most action. You can then replicate what works in future programs.

Provide Clear Action Steps for Customers
When customers view your print or online ads, there needs to be a clear call to action telling them what to do with the URL or coupon code you’ve provided. The verb in your call to action should be obvious.  If you want a customer to use a coupon code, the words “Redeem” or “Visit” will be key to a call to action.

Create a Hashtag for Events or Promotions
Part of getting a conversation about an event off the ground is to provide a central place for everyone to discuss it. Using a Twitter hashtag for online promotion is one way to generate more buzz for your event by networking attendees and customers with common interests together.  The hashtag may be used long after the event is over as a means to continue cataloging tweets and ideas which still fall under the main theme of the event.

Use a QR Code to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Another effective way to quickly gain the attention of potential customers is through a QR code in print advertising. Kipp Bodnar of HubSpot writes, “2 dimensional barcodes allow someone in an offline situation to use their mobile phone to scan a code that automatically performs a specific action such as taking them to a website, showing them a video, sending them a text message, etc.”

QR codes are easy to create and provide an even easier way to draw more potential customers in to your website. Just be sure the code directs to hidden, useful content not available publicly to non-QR code users.  You’ll be able to more easily track their site activity in your analytics while providing a richer, more rewarding experience because of the exclusivity the hidden content creates.

In conclusion, integrating a marketing campaign will sometimes take more planning and collaboration, but once you tap into the greater reach of a fully integrated online and offline campaign, you’ll discover that a little extra planning can pay off.

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a psd to html company, and who also consults for a neon sign online store.

But there’s this kernel of a problem, and it grew from my subconscious mind to pulse in the forefront of my brain each time my friend and I talk.  I realized she steers clear from the meaty and deep stuff, from the personal topics we used to slog through together regularly. We no longer talk about the whys and hows behind choices and decisions or the things we see and do.  Instead, we talk about fairly inconsequential or superficial fluff before breezing on to social niceities.  Our calls are “sanitized” conversations instead of debates and discussions.  Nothing raw or ugly gets put on the table, any more than any truly beautiful revelations.

Our relationship has been sanitized. The basic elements are still there, but the chunks that made it real, made it sticky and spottedly colorful have been sponged away.

How did that happen? When did we stop looking at the stuff that matters and shift our gaze to focus only on the comfortable stuff? When did we move to auto pilot and start whistling oblivious?

The relationship is still there.  But we’re operating day-to-day without the depth of feeling, of information and common understanding we once had.

And I think many marketing programs come to pass as sanitized, superficial, and weak variations of what could be more substantial efforts to construct enduring relationships with customers.

Sanitized, Hands-Free Marketing Programs

Case in point:  The Realtor who sold us our house 5 years ago obviously subscribes to some sort of auto-program managed by the realty company she’s affiliated with. Every month since closing, we’ve received one piece of direct mail or another from her. Some months it’s a recipe card. Other months it’s a letter on company stationary that begins with a random quote (it feels as peculiar as it sounds). The billboards set in prime locations throughout town either feature creative of her riding an adult-sized tricycle wearing a goofy expression, or in wearing a gingham apron in a sepia-toned photo bearing chocolate chip cookies, circa Beaver Cleaver. Her marketing efforts are random, and she’s all over the place.

Never once in 5 years has she connected with my husband or I in any meaningful way. She has no idea if the marketing stuff that gets broadcast resonates at all.  Truth is, the home we own is the first one she showed us and there were no problems through the negotiations or closing. For very little effort, she was rewarded with a hefty commission (which, evidently, I’m still bitter about). Because things went well for her, she must assume we have some sort of affinity for her Realtor-awesomeness that resulted in our happy homeownershipness. Her drip marketing efforts kind of rub salt in my “What did she actually do to earn that commission?” wound. And she has no clue.  Some of her mailings even ask for referrals from “valued clients like the Rasts.”

In short, her perception of our “relationship” (and her ensuing marketing programs) are not my reality. They’re not even close.  Had she found a way to get the raw, ugly stuff on the table by surveying what we really thought about her services and how off-the-mark her marketing really is, she’d probably come away a little battered. But at least she’d have the information necessary to make good decisions about how she approached building client relationships and the means by which to try to sustain them over time.

It’s relatively easy to keep doing what you’re doing. To put your marketing on auto-pilot by using the same messaging in the same channels with the same frequency as you’ve always executed.  To dip into a new color palette or lead with a new hero image.  We have busy schedules, and sometimes there’s something to be said for just getting some shiz done and out the door.

It’s just that auto-pilot marketing programs sometimes do more harm than good. Sometimes they distance you from your customer and foster a complacency that keeps you from seeing that something – be it product or service – is broken. When you take the time to surface the raw and blemished feedback alongside the kudos, you learn things. Sometimes important things.

Like stuff people were reluctant (or lacked a pathway) to share, or felt you wouldn’t find value in knowing.  Imagine the downstream effects of asking – really asking – for the unsanitized version of their experiences with your brand or company.

Toggl

A useful time-tracking application, Toggle has both a browser version and a mobile app. An account can be used to track time accrued for internal projects, for example if personnel time is distributed across cost centers. It can also be used by contractors and freelancers to allocate time spent on client projects. The data can feed into a Freshbooks account, too, saving time transferring entries while also mitigating entry errors. There’s also a timer feature, so if you’d like to track time spent completing a task, then report that time as a unit in Toggl, you can do that too.

Get It Done

There are a ton of to-do list type task manager applications on the market, and several good freemium project management programs, too. Get It Done is an app that dovetails with the principles from the book Get Things Done by David Allen and may be used independently (I haven’t read the book). The system is set up f.or a user to create list items tagged in accordance with categories you establish (a topic, a priority level, area of responsibility, etc.). Individual tasks can be associated with higher-level projects, with each task given a due date. Tasks can be delegated or assigned to other team members as well. Graphs are a way to visualize progress to goal, or individual tasks as part of a whole body of work.

Buffer

With my tendency to use my home feed tweet stream  as one way to identify links to articles and posts I may like, I end up with a lot of tabs open in my browser (see below). As I read (or scan) material, I can quickly and easily share my favorites to followers of my Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles using the Buffer browser extension. Buffer pushes the links out at optimized times to maximize exposure to my audiences. In addition to taking part in 2-way online conversations on these platforms (responding, striking up a spontaneous chat, etc.), I can consistently distribute useful material to others at times convenient tome.

Google Chrome To Phone

I’ll admit it. I’m a habitual browser tabber. At any one time, I could have between 40-60 tabs open in one window of Chrome, and a handful of tabs open in a second (um, and probably Safari open too. You know, for client accounts I’m logged into). And while I’m always on the run to hockey practice or baseball practice or soccer practice or the orthodontist, I have to remain productive. I don’t have an iPad, so I use my mobile to stay on top of the sites I have open on my computer in the office. Sometimes it’s an article I need to finish digesting, other times it’s a service or a company I want to learn more about. In any case, Chrome To Phone lets me keep browsing on the go so things aren’t on pause while I play chauffer.

Dwolla

The simple, completely usable, and low-cost payment gateway, Dwolla is great for making and receiving payment between clients and contractors. Don’t even think about using PayPal again. The mobile app also allows account holders to locate businesses that accept Dwolla within a local area and make purchase transactions with those merchants. Dwolla is directly connected to your bank account of preference, so there are no worries about running up a balance that racks up interest. The fee to send amounts over $10? A mere quarter (but that can be passed on to the recipient if you prefer).

Dropbox

The Dropbox that you enjoy on your desktop or laptop (and who doesn’t?) is equally as useful from your mobile. Downlod the app, synch your account, and voila! Cloud storage you can access on your mobile. You can double-check the details on a PDF in a folder, share folder access, or export items right from your phone. **Sign up for your free account using my link, and you get 250MB of free file storage!**

MProfs Moble App

Like many, I use Google Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds from the long list of blogs I enjoy reading. In addition to my Reader being a great source of information (I tag everything I want to save using Delicious), I also recommend the MarketingProfs mobile application. It offers mobile access to articles and posts from the great collection of authors that contribute to the marketing education platform. When you find yourself with down time on site between meetings, in a cab, or in the airport, the MProfs app can help you make use of time that might otherwise be lost. (I’m kind of partial to the great folks at MarketingProfs)

Evernote

Evernote’s been around for awhile now, and I’ve read many posts where users sang its praises. I heavily use Delicious to bookmark content I like so conceptually had some trouble adding Evernote to my box of tools – even though I know it’s useful for much more than cataloging web pages. I’m starting to realize new usefulness for the app since migrating from Blackberry to Android OS last fall. Now I can capture and catalog idea snippits or images of random things (funny signs, etc.) that are bite-sized for sharing on Google+.

Skype

If you collaborate with an internal team or base of contractors, Skype can be an immensely helpful way to get work done. Sometimes an email is too much or too formal, or not quick enough. An IM conversation or video call over Skype can help someone else get their facts right or the one detail needed to finish a call, send an important email, or look up a record in a database.

WordPress Mobile App

While I haven’t used it with great frequency, the WordPress app for Android is one way to keep on top of my blogging when I can’t access my computer. I’ve used it several times to write and publish posts to my hockey blog and while I suffer from “fat finger” syndrome, I’m  glad for a way to stay on top of my writing to make good use of the time spent on the road driving to away games. I suspect I’ll get more adept at this as time grows.  Tom Martin spent a year blogging to his web site exclusively using his mobile which included WordPress, camera, and video capabilities.

Creepy is fun to rant about, so let’s do that. There’s some ‘stupid’ thrown in so you can catch some sleep tonight.

10 Ways Your Digital Marketing Creeps Me Out

1. Minutes after registering to access information on your site, my phone rings. It’s your sales rep calling, just to see how I’m doing. And he sends me an email before I can even bug off the phone. #premature
2. Making me register in order to have access to cost information. (I’m looking at you. Double creepy when your company is also the perpetrator above.). We’re not even dating yet!
3. Amassing the kind of statistical-data-mining-quantam-actuarial-mumbo-jumbo that allows assumptions like Y combined with A and F, overlaid with N, to devise “custom” marketing offers. It’s unsettling, Big Brother.
4. Being unable to answer my questions after I listen to your advertising/promotion pitch. If you’re selling space to companies, you should really know more data than visitors per month. ['stupid' category]
5. Having a web site and user interface that looks like the bathroom floor of a frat house during rush week. Confusing and complicated are not really reasons you want conversions, right? Not really a long-term or customer-centered strategy. I *have* to do business with you, but doing so creeps me out.
6. Pretending our one-time, five year-old transaction makes you my _____ of choice. Car dealerships, real estate agents, and furniture stores take heed: if someone hasn’t responded to your drip (e)mail in five years, you can probably direct your production costs elsewhere. Me breathing + an aged transaction does not automatically constitute a prime referral. I’m not even dormant; I’m dead. I see through your recipe cards and inspirational holiday cards, and you should know that I thought your commission was too high in the first place.
7. When you automagically sign me up for your email marketing list (without express consent) during the checkout process. It’s a hassle to unsubscribe from some systems, plus you gotta figure some people aren’t going to need to buy more than one 3″ ratchet strap with a double “J” hook in their whole life. Buying one doesn’t necessarily make a career over-the-road trucker out of me, mkay?
8. Countdown scare tactics that incessantly pop up with messages like “Warning! You have 95 days until your antivirus protection runs out. Renew today or risk infection!” next to a flashing red triangle with a skull and crossbones in the center. Maybe some subscribers stick around because they don’t realize they can switch providers without having their door busted in by the McAffee police. But don’t you want people to re-up because your product worked well, was unobtrusive, and saved them infinite hassle with data corruption and privacy exposure?
9. When you use your personal Facebook page as though it was a business brand page and want to friend me – and all I did [by way of personal interaction] was put my name down on your waiting list for a bag I was interested in looking at. I don’t want to be your friend – and now the bag has much less appeal.
10. When a special offer is relative to one of my email addresses, and because I signed up [for your thing] with another address, the special offer is far less special-y. I’m one customer, have been with you since 2005. Do I really have to use such caution when wielding my online personalities, just to make sure I get that $250 off? The separate offers feels kind of smarmy.

I get it – personalization and, to some degree, automation, help make digital marketing scalable. In many cases tactics work, escorting prospects down the maturation pipeline posthaste. But I think it bears consideration – while a pop-over, pop-under, or whatever may snare 35% more email list sign-ups than the plain offer box on the web page – how do your customers and prospects feel when they see those messages? Some may be desensitized and can escape easily. Others may find the tactic a bit overt and distasteful.

Consider choosing a  few tactics that fit neatly within specific business objectives instead of going with a full hodge-podge of all the ideas you’ve ever stumbled across. Lest you kind of creep people out.

With data-rich mobile internet browsing, context determines content. Here are four ways context is changing online marketing.

1. The Rise in Mobile Browsing
The future of internet browsing is mobile. A 2011 report by the Pew Internet Project  found that 44% of Americans access the internet through their cell phones—a number that has only continued to grow in light of subsequent reports. That means that nearly half of Americans could, for example, potentially view mobile promotions for your store while shopping in it.

According to a Pew Internet Project 2012 update, “46% of American adults now have a smartphone of some kind, and for the first time smartphone owners outnumber users of more basic phones.”  Not only does this mean that overall mobile internet usage has climbed steadily since the 2011 study, but the majority of those who access the mobile internet have a high level of connectivity to a variety of apps and tools that you can use to both gather data and to send them promotions wherever they are.

2. What is the Customer Doing?
Since the right message needs to be delivered at the right time, it’s essential to send the right mobile ad when a customer is most likely to be receptive to it. Time of day can play a significant factor in helping marketers correctly position their promotions.  For example, you wouldn’t try to target teens in the middle of a school day with ads, but later in the evening you’ll find a captive audience as they interact with their friends.

Regarding the timing of ads, Jonathan Gardner writes at Mashable, “Our contexts change dozens of times a day: In the morning, you’re an athlete, working out on the elliptical — while at the same time you’re an executive, watching the early business news. Then you’re a cook, making breakfast. Then you’re an executive again, making decisions at the office.”

3. Where are Customers?
The real power of mobile will come into play as location becomes intertwined with mobile usage.  If you know that a FourSquare user has checked in at a downtown hotel, there are opportunities to send ads for local restaurants and cafes for meals with colleagues or meetings. Location marketing will allow marketers to send relevant coupons and promotions to customers when they’re in the perfect spot.

4. Specific Marketing Moments
There may be other opportunities to target customers when they are in the middle of a moment where they could make an additional purchase. By comparing data in a customer’s spending habits, you may be able to catch a limited trend in a customer’s spending.

For example, Tom Wentworth writes at Mashable, “Say a middle-aged husband with no kids prefers action movies, but suddenly orders a barrage of Disney movies from Netflix. Chances are, he has nephews and nieces over for the weekend. He has entered the uncle context. If you anticipate that and hit him with a discount for the nearby amusement park, you may have landed yourself a decent sale.”

Mobile marketing will continue to grow since mobile web usage and smart phone ownership will continue to rise for years to come. The prospect of having location-specific, contextually rooted data on customers provides marketers with a powerful tool they can use to further engage customers with their products and to create new revenue opportunities.

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for a company that specializes in a to do list tool.

But there’s a saying to keep in mind even as the big dog stereotype makes some sense: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight. It’s the size of the fight in the dog.” And I think that’s a phrase of caution worth remembering.

Taken in a business context, the big dog-little dog metaphor could be a way of looking at national brands in comparison with local brands. Of automated franchises and chains with operationalized models compared to mom-and-pops more vulnerable to market and economic flux. And even while there’s no denying that national brands, by definition, enjoy larger share, recall, and revenue, there’s something to be said for the local business with the flexibility to be responsive and more customer-centered than its scaled brethren.

For example, payment gateway Dwolla (based in Des Moines, IA) has, in my opinion, taken a bite out of PayPal’s hind quarters. When I started my business, I knew about PayPal from my occasional consumer purchases. As a potential way to pay contractors and receive payment from remote-based clients, I took a look to see how it might fare for work purposes. The user interface, regulations, and set-up were completely off-putting for me. The pronounced delay between receiving funds (and subsequently transferring my money to a connected bank account) is highly annoying. One could get lost trying to figure out item history. I had 5% of my revenue shaved off when an international client failed to process payment in such a way that their company incurred the currency exchange fees. But Dwolla is different. First, it uses plain language and simple videos to explain information to customers. The fees are uber reasonable. Over time they’ve revealed a model that not only facilitates money transfer, but simplifies personal finance. It’s a company that communicates it’s values straight away, and in my experience demonstrates them through the product and external communications like email. I regularly evangelize Dwolla to new contractors and clients in good faith.

Another example is I&I client, Jodi K’s Boutique. Yes, we’re partial (let’s get THAT over with). But the truth is self-evident: Jodi K’s brings fashion-forward womens styles to Cedar Rapids in a store that doesn’t make your skin itch, staffed by clerks who more closely resemble personal stylists than the gun-snapping stick-of-a-girl working at the big chain who snickers at the size 8 pant you’re buying. Writing Jodi K’s marketing plan eight months ago, I discovered owner Jodi Cobb’s passion for smart, current fashion that makes women feel good about themselves. Jodi’s clothes are not cookie-cutter designs found at any Younkers; instead they’re recognizable, quality labels that help women master their day – work, board meetings, and play – with confidence. The store offers special programs for preferred customers and regularly phones customers when merchandise they pined for comes available. They send thank-you notes to customers they spend significant time helping build a wardrobe. When was the last time you felt like you had a friend at your favorite clothing store?

Remember: little dogs can mean big business. So give the toy poodle nipping at your heels a second look before he eats your lunch in your own back yard.

Shareaholic, a company that provides tools for content sharing, disclosed that “According to our findings based on aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that reach more than 260 million unique monthly visitors each month, Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google Plus, LinkedIn and YouTube combined.” Pinterest is too big for companies to ignore as they work to gain the attention of users. Here are five ways to reach more customers with this growing online sharing tool.

Make It Easy to Share Your Content on Pinterest

Effectively using Pinterest begins with using high quality images with all of your online content and offering a “Pin It” button your website. Brian Gardner of Copyblogger suggests adding a button at the top of every post on your company’s blog.

Gardner writes, “For example, let’s say you want to link to your business blog. You can post actual pictures from your blog with a link back to the specific blog post those images come from, driving traffic to that page on your blog and others. It’s a quick and simple way to market your business website or blog.”

Use Pinterest to Share the Images You Already Have

One of the key benefits of Pinterest is that you can post images of products and catalogues that you’ve already created. The only time you need to invest is finding the images and posting them.

This is an irresistible part of using Pinterest according to Brian Gardner, “Many clothing companies have already done this using Pinterest – pinning images of their entire catalog while linking back to their site.” This is a simple way to recycle your content and to continue reaching new customers who can easily share what you’re doing.

Use Pinterest as a Social Media Focus Group

Like other social media sites, Pinterest is valuable because it creates lines of communication between brands and their customers for no cost. Constance Aguilar writes at Mashable, “When launching a new product, whether a new dress, dinner dish or cellphone, companies want to determine initial reactions to the product’s look and feel. Because of Pinterest’s commenting ability, it’s an ideal platform on which to introduce a new product and gather firsthand opinions.”

Use Pinterest for Contests

Looking for a new logo for your company? Interested in redesigning a product? Since Pinterest thrives on sharing images with users, you can easily create a contest where your customers can participate in what you do and draw attention to your brand at the same time.

Marketing site ClickZ notes that, “Lands’ End recently held a contest it coined: ‘Pin It to Win It.’ Participants were encouraged to browse the Lands’ End site, create pins of items they liked, and the most creative and stylish entries won prizes. This kind of contest can engage your audience and also gets them to your site, browsing your products, and linking to them!”

Use Pinterest to Inspire Customers

If you know what your customers are looking for, why not put together a Pinterest board based on your products that will help them accomplish what they want to do (see how to use Pinterest). If you have a clothing business with customers who are trying to figure out what to wear this season, you can either create pin boards with fresh ideas or invite customers to pin pictures of themselves with your products. Whether or not you get customers involved in the process, Pinterest makes it easy to connect with the needs of your customers.

As Pinterest continues to grow, companies will need to think about ways to integrate better visuals into their website content and how to use tools like Pinterest to capture the imagination of their customers. The beauty of Pinterest is that part of the solution may well come from the creativity of customers who are already using this growing social networking site.

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for Tel Aviv University’s international program in ma in security.

But that buzz and interest doesn’t amount to a bushel of beans if the brand itself isn’t memorable (a tagline can help).  If  people in need of your service can’t connect the dots between what they want, a recommendation given to them, and your brand.

Unfulfilled needs leave customers settling for next-best solutions. That kind of missed opportunity does more than equal the a loss of a one-time sale. It’s one less chance to positively affect a customer with a strong potential lifetime value. It’s one less person (connected to other people) acting as an ambassador for your brand in the coming months and possibly even years. Indeed, one missed sale amounts to a number of downstream results.

This kind of marketing power – endorsed customer preference – can’t be bought. It’s earned. And if you’re killing it out there on the street, why wouldn’t you do everything in your power to reap every possible reward?

Case in point -

[Home phone rings]

Me:  ”Hello?”

Caller:  ”Are you the guy? The one Lynell talked about? The one who pushes snow and delivers wood? I need my house and my uncle’s taken care of for the season.”

Me:  ”Um, sorry. This is a private residence. And I don’t do those things.”

Caller:  Silence. “Are you sure? I heard about you. And I really need this squared away before the snow comes.”

Me:  ”No, really. I don’t know how to push snow, and I don’t own a chainsaw. I’m sorry, I can’t help you.”

Caller:  Heavy sigh. Sound of frustration. “Well. Alright then. Agnes said this was the number, but…Maybe I can figure it out. Goodnight.”

“Preferred” status is elite. As consumers we collect frequent shopper points to attain it. As business owners, we need to nurture and cultivate the preference and trust we’re earning. And we need to make darn sure positive impressions and endorsements are easily and readily attributable to our brand. The lady who called me accidentally? She had a need, and had received a referral. She was ready to do business. She just didn’t have that one piece of information – a brand name – critical to helping her overcome what must have been a typo in the note she’d undoubtedly jotted down when talking with her friend.

Being the best seamstress/plumber/cheese maker/tutor/whatever doesn’t mean a bushel of beans if the tie between reputation and brand is weak. Help your customers, help yourself.

Flickr image courtesy of fab4chicky.

In November, Google launched a competitive product to Facebook’s Fan Pages, called Google+ Brand Pages. Companies can set up Brand Pages to connect with customers and affiliates in the same way that they can with Fan Pages.

Brand Pages and Fan Pages, at least in appearance, are incredibly similar. They both feature a primary image, a row of images, a collection of fans/followers, and a stream of updates that can be commented on or shared by those who visit their page.

Which is better? Is there a benefit to having both? Let’s compare the two.

1. Usage and Adoption

There are still more Facebook users than Google+ users. Depending on the brand, it’s very likely that the bulk of the fans are going to be located on Facebook. Undoubtedly, this reality will affect the time and effort placed on building up a following on Google+.

See the Southwest Airlines example below. As of this writing, Southwest had been on Google+ for over a month, and had gathered just 482 plus 1’s and was in 187 people’s circles. Meanwhile, over on Facebook, the brand is at 1.74 million fans. That’s a massive difference.

2. Engagement

Engagement will be determined primarily be usage and adoption. The more people that have a brand in their circles on Google+, the more likely there is to be engagement occurring on a page.

For example, Mashable.com, an online publication that is focused largely on technology and social media, is one Google+ brand page where you will find a fairly consistent pattern of engagement. It’s still less than their Facebook engagement level, but it is there and growing.

3. Search Benefits

One area where Google+ Brand Pages potentially outshine Facebook Fan Pages is with the Direct Connect feature offered to brand page owners. Google created this feature to allow users to add a + to the end of their search query to find Google+ pages that are relevant to their search.

The obvious drawback is that many users may not know that the Direct Connect feature exists, so brands will need to rely on Google to help promote this feature if they are to benefit from it.

One other current drawback of Google+ Brand Pages is the confusing, long URL problem that Facebook Fan Pages had not too long ago, before the ability to customize the Fan Page URL. It may be in the pipeline, but offering brands the ability to create custom URLs for their pages would be a nice feature to have, as it allows brands to use the URL everywhere and make it easier to fans to connect.

4. Measurement

Both Facebook and Google+ offer sophisticated ways in which a company can analyze their own influence in the social network and the measurement tools are not significantly different. Both services offer enough measurement tools to allow a brand account holder to understand how and when their content is being spread throughout the networks, and both offer API integration capabilities.

Google+ Brand Pages is still in its infancy, and has not caught up yet to the demographics reporting that is useful for Facebook Fan Page owners, but according to their website it is well on its way.

Result: Social Networks are What You Make of Them

Ultimately, social networks are created by the users, in this case, the brands. Brands that go out of their way to build up and promote a Google+ brand page will do well there, and eventually it will have some nice search engine benefits, plus all of the unique features Google+ has to offer to profile users.

There is no clear winner. As shown above with the Mashable and Southwest Airlines examples, it isn’t a matter of how large the brand is, but rather, what they are doing with Google+ and how familiar with Google+ their particular fans are to begin with.

At this point in time, it is probably well worth it for brands to be in both places, and then nurture the network that is most active/profitable as time goes on.

What do you think about Google+ Brand Pages? Feel free to share your thoughts!

This guest post is written by Lior Levin, a marketing consultant for various online companies including one that provides shipment inspections.