Is your Out of Office marketing for you?

Check out the mayor of New Plymouth Peter Tennent’s automated out of office response:

 

GREETINGS – I hope your new year is going well!

There’s no way I would be in the office – this is the place judged the best place to live in New Zealand (2008 – North & South, ACP Magazines) and the best place to live in the world (2008 – Liveable Community Awards). Of course I’m not in the office!

I’m probably out enjoying a good coffee in one of the town’s many cafe’s…… strolling the award winning coastal walkway…… catching a wave at one of our blue flag accredited beaches….. enjoying the entertainment at the TSB Bank Festival of Lights…… catching a world class show at the TSB Bowl of Brooklands…… the cricket at Pukekura Park (judged one of the world’s top six cricket venues)….. the Yachting at Ngamotu Beach….. one of the beach carnivals…… the latest exhibition at Govett Brewster Art Gallery or Puke Ariki…… chasing a golf ball around one of our magnificent international courses….. training for one of our round mountain cycle challenges….. taking a leisurely jog……. enjoying a “retail fix”…… tramping Mt Taranaki…… taking in the wonders of the glorious parks……. or relaxing with good friends, family, or visitors – because that’s what we do in Taranaki!

But – I also check my emails pretty regularly.

So, when it gets cloudy (not very often in Taranaki), or when the skin needs a break from the sun (far more often in Taranaki), I’ll respond to your email.

I’m very happy to take calls though – my mobile: +64 (21) ………

Keep the passion!

Kind regards

PETER TENNENT

NEW PLYMOUTH MAYOR

Judged the best place to live in New Zealand and now the WORLD!

New Plymouth

“The best and most liveable community in the world (population 20,001 to 75,000)”

“The best project in the world making a positive difference – the New Plymouth Coastal Walkway”

“The world’s best and most sustainable community”

2008 International Awards for Liveable Communities “The best place in New Zealand to live, love, work and raise a family”

North & South, ACP Magazines

This email message is confidential.

If you are not the intended recipient, any use, distribution or copying of this message is prohibited. Please notify us immediately and erase all copies of this message and any attachments.

Thank you.

For more information about New Plymouth District Council, visit our website at

 

www.newplymouthnz.com 

Best job in the world? best dam viral marketing example in a while

Tourism Queensland have pulled off one of the best destination marketing campaigns in a long while. I’m talking of course about their “Best job in the world” which went viral via twitter, and every news channel on the planet it seems. And I wonder what it cost them? probably very little. Ingenius. I doubt it was a fluke!

Would be interesting to see the stats on visits to Hamilton island site since the ad went live.

Siobhan Bulfin

Marketing Now! April 15/16

thanks for the tweet Simon ! other speakers include Sharon Crost, Stephen Johnson and Jim Stewart the site will be up soon!!

And being the great guys that they are, Chris and David will be around during the entire two day event and will be keen to meet and talk to you.  There will also drinks at end of day one which will give you a chance to talk to them both and other speakers.

And I’m thinking of some fun stuff for the Friday (twisting their arms to stick around), any ideas?

Chris Brogan and David Meerman-Scott are coming to town

Marketing Now! NZ’s first event dedicated solely to social media and new marketing is happening in Wellington at Te Papa on April 15/16. Confirmed speakers include the number one blogger on social media and online communities; Chris Brogan, and international author and expert on new media and online PR; David Meerman-Scott.

 

Website live Jan 19.

 

More soon! 

 

Siobhan Bulfin

Who are the people in your neighbourhood?

Remember the sesame st song?  

I look around my neighbourhood and it’s pretty diverse, even for a relatively conservative part of the political capital of New Zealand. New Zealand’s population, our communities, are changing. We’re becoming more multi-cultural, less parochial and thanks in part to the internet,  less isolated.

Yet if you glanced at the majority of corporate produced publications and websites, you’d think we’re all white and middle class with a sprinkling of Asians and an occasional indiscriminate brown face.  And the brown faces tend to be doing blue-collar jobs if they’re in ‘work’ shots at all.

I was looking at some photography the other day meant for ‘business’ customers when this really hit home.  I then did a search on bank and insurance websites and it was the same – white middle class people with a few Asians.

Now I know that there are plenty of TV and other advertisements that do have a better and more realistic representation of our changing community, but we have a long way to go.  And as I was contemplating the implications of this, I thought back to when I lived in Japan many years ago, and how I was impervious to advertisements on the whole.  This wasn’t because I couldn’t understand the language – let’s face it most ads get by on imagery and brand alone – it was because I didn’t instantly relate or connect to the people in the ads.  They weren’t like me.

It may sound vain.  Maybe it is.  There were ads in Japan of course with Caucasian people – celebrities endorsing products they wouldn’t be caught dead with aligning themselves with in the US.  But it’s more I think to do with recognising something of ourselves in the person in the ad – or finding an association with that person.

So I wonder how well these companies are doing in marketing their products to our Maori and Pacific people in NZ.  Perhaps they should pause to look at their marketing material and the images and stereotypes they’re portraying.

Siobhan Bulfin 

Don’t be a Bob

 

In one of Chris Brogan’s recent posts (Chris is currently the number one blogger on social media), he tells the story of ‘Bob’ a social media enthusiast who risks getting fired for ‘talking’ to customers and being (god forbid!) helpful.

To protect your organisation, and importantly yourself (from becoming a Bob) recommend the development of some some social media guidelines and get them approved by the necessary people so you and the boss agree on what’s acceptable and what’s not.

Social media guidelines can vary from the sublime (Microsofts; “blog away”) to the ridiculously litigious.  The most important thing is that they’re clear and straight forward with no room for ambiguity.

Here are some things to think about before you get started.

The first thing you want to do is refer to your organisation’s Code of Conduct (or equivalent) and state that the same principles and guidelines that apply to employee’s conduct in general, apply to social media activities (this should cover off most of the legal/defamation/conflict of interest stuff).  And then tie in your organisation’s values or vision (hard for the boss to argue if they reflect the company values!).  

Always speak in the first person and think about how you present yourself – once on the net, content can be near impossible to erase.

Use a disclaimer if you’re talking about something while wearing your company hat, and state that the views expressed are yours and not necessarily that of the company.

Protect confidential information – in other words don’t tell company secrets or disclose sensitive or financial information – and if unsure, always check.  

Protect your organisation’s clients – very important.  Never disclose names of clients or any other details that could identify them unless you have their and your bosses agreement.

Respect your audience and colleagues – don’t dis your audience or your colleagues. Bad form.

Add value – your organisation’s brand is best represented by you, so think about what you say and do and how that will reflect on your brand. 

Don’t get into arguments – if someone is being deliberately provocative, don’t take the bait. Respond, and offer a point of view but don’t get into a fight and never get personal.

Admit your  mistakes – if you screw up, admit it.  And if you make a mistake on a blog – and then modify it – make sure you tell your readers it has been modified and why.

Go with your gut feeling – use your best judgement.  If you’re about to blog or comment about something in social media but you have even the slightest reservation – there’s probably a good reason for it. Don’t do it.

And lastly, don’t forget your day job – don’t blog etc during work time (unless it’s part of your job).

Paul Gillin has links to various corporate blog and social media guidelines on his blog as has David Meerman-Scott.

And although in this current economic climate rash departures from the workplace isn’t probably the wisest of moves, if you’re working for an employer that despite your best attempts to educate them otherwise, is adamantly averse to using social media to listen to your customers, I go with Seth Godin, David Meerman-Scott’s and Chris Brogan’s advice: find someone that is. 

Siobhan Bulfin   

 

 

Staff communities

Who works in an organisation that operates in silos?

One of the things I learnt about while away, is how to use social media to solve problems of knowledge silos, generation gaps and geographical boundaries in the work place. 

How?

By combining traditional intranet features with social networking capability – fostering more staff collaboration and communication, and knowledge sharing.  I’m talking about self-service internal community models that don’t require someone to constantly be managing them. 

There are plenty of models about which are free such as yammer and drupal, They’re generally secure and private and could complement an existing intranet but utilise a full-featured enterprise social network deployed specifically for staff.

Why are they free?

Generally they offer the basic tools for free then allow you to upgrade to (for example) more sophisticated reporting mechanisms or use of video etc for a small monthly fee.

Benefits?

Staff can send in questions, ideas and status updates on projects – this can be done either from the desktop or from their phone (if they have remote access).  People who register put up a profile about themselves: name, role, where they work, what they’re currently working on etc. It can put the entire organisation’s brain to work and can flatten heirachies – enabling those at executive level to participate should they wish to.

Example:

A case manager in Invercargill is having difficulty managing his case load especially with all the admin associated, so he sends out a question ”Can anyone help me with my time management?”  Someone he’s never met contacts him from Whangarei “Try this”..   or someone from HR in Wgtn sends him some suggestions.

Opportunities are endless.

Staff will feel more engaged, less isolated and more valued.

These models are being used across the US by Fortune 500 companies, where security and privacy is of paramount importance.  They can be hosted either on an existing domain or externally, and they can be administered internally or externally.  Most models allow for sophisticated reporting. And, they’re inexpensive.

Another great free tool out there is oovoo which is basically a video conferencing tool.  Similar in premise to skype  you can have up to 6 users talking to each other at one time.  You can send emails with attachments to others while in conversation, and for a fee of US$10 per month can video record your meetings.

Imagine the potential savings on meeting related travel costs!  

There are plenty of these interactive tools out there that encourage; dialogue, information and ideas exchange and contribute to staff feeling engaged and probably more content!

Siobhan Bulfin

Marketing Dis-content

I figure I’m not the only marketer who experiences discontent from time to time as they struggle to persuade the boss that there are new tools and new channels for marketing and we need to consider them in line with our business objectives.  Not to suggest we ditch the old ways – or use social media because it’s cool, but rather look at where our audience goes to get information, and make it available to them. Chances are, a large percentage of that audience is online.

I work in marketing and communications at ACC, and we’re at least considering social media and all its attendant tools and uses, for both internal and external communications.  But being a government agency, we’re inherently risk averse and that can be frustrating for social media enthusiasts like myself and maybe you too, as we see opportunities everywhere, where we could be engaging our audience – finding out what they think of our services – giving them an opportunity to provide feedback/make suggestions -then giving them info they want, and enabling them to generate ‘content’ that in turn can help us do our jobs better – more sustainably and undoubtedly more economically.    

When I refer to social media, I’m not just talking about social networking sites such as facebook etc, but creating and participating in a dialogue with the target audience, rather than forcing messages on them. And using these ‘conversations’ to gauge public awareness; for consultation; to build advocates and gain feedback.  It’s the idea that by listening to customers, we’ll understand what the customer wants, needs and values.  

A turning point for me was reading The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman-Scott, which I urge anyone who is interested in social media/new media/interactive marketing – to read. Apart from explaining what the various social media tools are and how to use them, he shows how marketing has gone from ‘push’ to ‘pull’ and is now about participation and connection – not force feeding. For those of us working in government depts tasked with effecting behaviour change via social marketing campaigns, social media is our greatest gift. And it’s through this blog I hope to offer some  things I’ve learnt to date, and provide a forum where we can draw from each other’s experiences because there are no crash courses out there, or quick and easy answers, and the majority of the design and advertising agencies we work with are no further ahead in understanding these new channels than the rest of us are.  

And before I sign off, if you work in a govt dept, and you’re unsure about what you can and can’t do social media-wise, check out Jason Ryan’s blog. Jason is the comms manager at SSC and his blog is a gold mine of resources and info.

Siobhan Bulfin