Marketing and Social Media Lessons from the Trenches

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At an event for women-owned businesses with Women's Business Enterprise National Council certification (which Miller Mosaic has) put on by WBEC-West, I spoke to a woman about her company's innovative product.

She described the resistance she was getting about using social media for the product. If I recall correctly, her colleagues thought a luxury product could not find its target markets on Twitter. (I disagreed.)

She was pleased to tell me that just that day the company had started on Twitter.

Back at my computer I looked at the company's Twitter account. Pretty background tiled photo and nice bio except, if she had not described the product to me, I would not have known what the product is or does.

Now is a good time to look at your own Twitter bio to check if it is current (things do change) and whether you are communicating what you think you are.

Then I looked at a full-page ad in The New Yorker from Lincoln cars. The error here is one of my pet peeves – social media icons put on printed material with no URL. And that had actually been warned against by one of the speakers at the WBENC event.

Lincoln ad headline in all caps: SPARK SOMETHING.

The copy in difficult-to-read reverse type begins: "Join us on Facebook for spirited conversation …"

Then the only other time Facebook is mentioned is in tiny print further down on the page without the Facebook icon: "Keep up on Lincoln news. Like us on Facebook."

Really? Lincoln's advertising agency paid how much for that ad? (BTW, the photo was unintelligible to me.)

Now do not get me wrong. Facebook can be an excellent marketing strategy for engaging with fans and potential fans.



I just do not think that the Lincoln ad is going to "spark" much "spirited conversation" on Facebook if the ad is difficult to read and there is no actual Facebook Page URL given.

What do you think?

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© 2012 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter and @ZimblerMiller on Pinterest) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com, which is now WBENC certified and helps clients effectively use social media and other online marketing strategies.

Check out Phyllis' books and other projects at www.PhyllisZimblerMiller.com