… when you’ve got QR codes! No seriously (no offence to White Pages) but QR codes have made searching for brands online so much easier. Today the beautiful birthday girl Claire and I ventured to Manly and it didn’t take more than a glance down at our lunch menu to find a QR code enticing us to visit their Facebook page for discounts and recipes – love it!

It’s crazy how time has flown – and how marketing is evolving. We recently produced our vintage inspired book, Social Media to Boost Your Brand, which dives into brand engagement across digital platforms. And need we say, you’ll find our QR code on the back, waiting to take you straight to our online destination Facebook. And the journey doesn’t stop there (but you’ll have to snag a copy and find out for yourself)!

Back to Claire’s and my lunch – we came across at least 8 QR codes – some of which had made some hefty mistakes. But as we always say, the wise learn from other people’s mistakes. So here we go:

One – Using QR codes online

Avoid uploading the QR code to your website – it forces customers to get out their smart phone and open up the QR reader app. It’s called Quick Response for a reason! Simply use links in this case.

Two – Watch where you’re directing them

Curiosity goes hand in hand with QR codes. People need to be enticed to scan. Make sure the landing page is customised. Give them instructions on what to do next and incentivise them with something of value – discounts, exclusive footage, tips – things they wouldn’t be privy to if they hadn’t scanned and found you.

Three – And finally, make sure the web page is available!

There’s nothing worse than going to all this effort to find the web page isn’t mobile-optimised. Websites built on flash won’t be encrypted to open on a mobile browser. Test and check your code works first! And as we learned today, there’s nothing more frustrating than actually getting out your smart phone, opening up the QR reader, scanning and finding out the web page could not be found.

Well that’s all from me today xxx L

OK so it’s not rocket science that everyone is looking to increase their numbers on Twitter. To some it’s purely a numbers game, to others – it means greater reach.

Twitter provides you with essentially a greater presence and bigger sphere of influence. It also provides you with more social authority which, if used correctly, will inevitably lead to more of whatever it is you are selling. Let’s face it, we’re all selling something even if that is just the very end bi-product.

So how do you do it? Well I’ve been building and engaging with my following for the past six weeks and have gone from 1300 to over 9000 quality (mostly) followers. A lot of people have been asking me how I’ve done it and seem to expect that there is a simple pill you take and it automatically happens. Not the case.  I spent on average 6 hours a day for the first 20 days and then at least 3 hours a day since. I have staff monitoring my tweets to see which are popular and I am very strategically building my following.

Here are a few of the tips I have been using:-

One: Emulate your offline life. When online, the same rules of social engagement apply.

Two: Great profile pic – make sure you have a good headshot that really reflects who you are. In the absence of a photo you are going to be assumed a spammer or someone not worth following.

Three: Make your bio interesting – you’ve got 140 characters to catch attention. Make sure it’s powerful, memorable and reflects you as a brand.  For ranking purposes, make sure you include your city (not country). Make sure you link them back to a greater page about you ie. your blog – which in my case is www.lisamessenger.com.au or your website ie. www.themessengergroup.com.au

Four: Make your content awesome! (You can look at mine for ideas but if you like it, don’t steel it – RT it – and I’ll do a whole other post on this!)

Five: Tweet great photos.

Six: Make your Twitter presence visible across other platforms ie. include the Twitter icon with a link from your email signature, your blog, website, business cards, books etc.

Seven: Post frequently – I generally post at least 24-36 times a day. Now that sounds like a lot but it’s important to have quality relevant posts positioning you as the leader in your industry.  You can use scheduling tools like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to schedule out some generic tweets but make sure that you jump on there as well to make things relevant to the day and what you are doing in the moment.  You will lose some followers for sure but remove your ego and know that if your content is good, you will gain more than you lose.

Eight: engage with the Twitter greats. There are ranking tools out there who will tell you who are the influencers – get them to notice you.

Nine: Keep your posts short enough to retweet.  Retweets are the only thing that will get noticed by people who don’t follow you. This is the perfect example of why your content must be brilliant – so that others want to retweet you.  Keep your tweets short enough for people to add the RT symbol. Try to keep your tweets to about 122 of the 160 allowable limit to be safe.

Ten: Be generous in retweeting others – twitter is largely a game of reciprocity. The more you interact with people, the more likely they are to #FF (Follow Friday) you, retweet you and recommend you to their friends. 

Eleven: #FF – make a list of anyone who has inspired you or made an impression during that week. On Fridays #FF them. They are likely at some stage to reciprocate the favour.

Twelve: Reply publicly – always acknowledge anyone who sends you a comment, retweets or follows you.

Thirteen: Practice strategic following – follow people in your industry: people who use certain keywords in their bios or even people who follow the people in your industry (it is likely they may want to follow you back). If your content is good, they will retweet you therefore introducing you to their followers.

Fourteen: Avoid too much promotion – I generally go with a rule of about 100 tweets of really great content, to 1 tweet promoting my blog or an offering we have. Even then I still try to keep it really relevant to my followers. Twitter is a lot more fickle than Facebook – followers will drop you like hotcakes.

Fifteen: Run contests – people love the chance of winning – come up with all sorts of ideas – just make sure you adhere to the local lottery rules.

Sixteen: Never use an auto-responder such as SocialOomph to thank everyone who follows you. It just annoys people. Again, don’t do anything impersonal that you wouldn’t do in real life. People see straight through it, it clutters up their inbox and it’s the quickest way to get unfollowed.

Seventeen: participate in trending topics.

Eighteen: Tweet during peak times depending on your audience. I generally tweet between 7am and 10pm Sydney time. If you are using platforms like Hootsuite don’t set them for when you are sleeping. There’s nothing authentic or engaging about that.

I could keep going and going and will in future Blogs, and I’ll be including a lot more tips and tricks within my tweets @lisamessenger

We’ve written a whole book on social media so if you want to order go to http://www.themessengergroup.com.au/shop/business/social-media-to-boost-your-brand/

Happy tweeting tweeps x L

I have been on Twitter for a couple of years, but truth be told, I only started taking it seriously in earnest on 17 March 2012, prior to that I dissed it as a complete waste of time.

We’ve been producing content in the form of books as marketing tools for the past 9 years and since I could read, write and talk, I have been a Messenger of content in some shape or form. Like the racing driver, Scott Speed; the surfer, Layne Beachley; the weather reader, Chris Landsea – somehow I seem to have become one of those people who also grew into their name.

As part of www.themessengergroup.com.au we’ve had Messenger Interactive, the social media platform, for 3 years. We’ve never done much with it but we always knew there was a huge need for companies and individuals to do social media really well. Like anything we do, before we teach it or offer it as a service we become the very best at it that we can be. We make all the mistakes on ourselves, we trial it, we learn the tools. We even often write the book – I know for many of you this seems strange – surely you become an expert then write the book – well, we sometimes reverse-engineer that process – why not. So, yes, we’ve written a book called Social Media to Boost your Brand http://www.themessengergroup.com.au/shop/business/social-media-to-boost-your-brand/ and we’ve learnt so much along the way through our entire team being involved in the research.

The past 32 days, I have totally immersed myself in Twitter – I have lived and breathed it and made it my mission to understand what works and what doesn’t. When to apply hash tags, who to follow, what time to tweet, what to tweet about, who to retweet, what measurement tools exist, how is it impacting my business … I have stacked and recorded strategy upon strategy. And not just for egotistical purposes but rather to build up my own following of genuine people who genuinely have an interest in what I might have to say, but also to really understand how to make the absolute most of it so that we will be fully equipped to service our social media clients.

So why have I been doing it and why haven’t I outsourced it to my staff? Well, for two reasons. Firstly, after almost 11 years in my own business I know that unless I fully understand something I cannot expect my staff to buy into my vision. Once I understand the mechanics fully, I can then hand it over and leverage myself. Secondly, I need to put my money where my mouth is. We’ve noticed that so many of the agencies out there purporting to be social media experts have very small followings across the primary business and brand building platforms – twitter, linkedin, facebook (note – before you choose an agency to undertake your social media, have a look at how successful they themselves have been – for example don’t hire us for Facebook just yet as we haven’t quit nailed it ourlseves).

I’m making it very public. 32 days ago I had 1366 followers. Today (19 April at 11am) I have 6684. By 30 April my intention is to have 10,000 and by 31 December 2012, 100,000. Why – because it is an incredible tool but mostly because if we are going to do this as a business and serve our clients well, then we need to know absolutely everything there is to know about this platform. Facebook, you’re next!

We look forward to sharing this journey with you and working with you to increase and fully leverage your followings. If you want to find out more give me a shout lisa@themessengergroup.com.au or give me a holler on twitter lisamessenger xx L

The weather over the last few weeks has been bizarre – it is sunny and gorgeous one minute and then raining ridiculous amounts the next.

My regular running routine is interrupted, I dress for winter and am stifling hot all day.

But as I was ranting with my team, it got me thinking about how easily we adapt – going to a spin class instead of a run, keeping an umbrella in the office (and now we’ve all got jackets here). It’s got me thinking about other changes, especially with the release of the new iPad. Technology is forever evolving and we are continuously adapting to newer, more advanced gadgets on the market. There is always going to be some brand new model that everyone will be rushing out to buy – a new social media platform that we’re all dying to try – and just as we start to fall in love (or get used to) something, there’ll be a faster, more improved, smarter, visually and physically better option.

We have come a long way from the days when mobile phones had no colour screen (except for my Dad ), and texting was used with buttons that had 3 letters to each key. I say this as I’m looking across the room at everyone’s iPhones! Actually, I can’t remember life without them!

So what’s the verdict on change? For me, I love a good challenge. I get bored quite easily and I have a short attention span. Technology is exciting and let’s face it – inevitable. It’s like social media. Once upon a time there was nada! Then there was MySpace. Then Facebook. And now whatever new platform is launching as we speak. It’s exciting! It gives us another opportunity to engage with our customers, our friends and to join other networks. Sure, it’s a pain to start learning the new nuts and bolts. Actually, I find the new timeline on Facebook quite frustrating! But in the long run, there’s so many conversations happening out there and technology (oh and social media) is giving us this ability to tap in and get across it all.

We can learn. Inspire. Keep inspired. Listen. Communicate. Adapt. And let’s face it, the more we’re on Twitter, the easier it gets

xx L

On my run this morning, I came across one of the most craziest ads I’d seen in a while and I just can’t seem to stop thinking about.

The ad, bang smack on the bus stop board, was promoting energy drink V’s new flavour. As you know I’m not one to advocate intrusive advertising, but I’ve got to hand it to V – they nailed it. The ad went something like this: ADVERTISING = HEY YOU, BUY THIS. Genius!

This is what honest advertising looks like. Quite frankly it’s receptive and engaging. The thing about living in an ever increasing tech world is that expectations are getting higher – ridiculously higher. It’s not enough for brands to get social media for the sake of it, nor can they expect a lifelong customer from a 10% off coupon. Brands need to actively engage with their consumers – in their space and on their terms.

You’ll notice one thing the big guys and small fries that are doing well in marketing all have in common: they know their consumers and they’ve figured out the best way to interact with them.

There’s so many platforms out there and it’s really important to find a combination that works for you. It’s not cool to just sign up to everything you can find. Sure have a play with different platforms so that you can work out what suits.

Like V, they’ve found what works for them – and obviously what gets people talking. Isn’t that the whole point of marketing – building positive conversations around your brand?

So here’s my two cents. If you’re going to run a campaign then it’s simple: keep them unpredictable, interesting, educational and, entertaining! The reality is – as the tech world grows on us, attention spans are getting smaller and smaller. And in saying that, I’m off to buy myself a V!