[es]

1.0 ENTENDIENDO LOS MEDIO SOCIALES

Adaptar los medios sociales a las estrategias de ventas en negocios se ha convertido en algo básico, sin embargo, entender que para que estos sean funcionales debemos saber cómo se operan y para que funciona.

Preguntas básicas.

P: ¿Para que necesito los medios sociales en mi negocio?
R: Vender, promocionar y mantener a mis clientes.
Recordemos que al añadir los medios sociales en mi negocio, expone nuestro producto o servicio y exponencía las posibilidades de ventas además de ayudarnos a mantener el servicio al cliente sin importar la distancia o edad.

P: ¿Qué puedo vender en los medios sociales?
R: Cualquier producto o servicio que se pueda beneficiar de la vieja estrategia de boca en boca y crear buena reputación. Los medios sociales no tienen límite. Importante mantener en mente que no es la forma de comunicarnos la que cambia, es la tecnología que revoluciona y nos da más herramientas para hacerlo posible.

P: ¿Hay reglas en los medios sociales?
R: Las mismas que aplicamos en nuestro día a día. Comunicar, compartir y mantener con respeto.

Partiendo de este punto exploremos los términos con los que debemos estar familiarizados.

Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn, Myspace, Hi5 y Flickr

Cada uno de ellos hace maravillas. Las combinaciones correctas con la información correcta nos llevarán al éxito.

P: ¿Me debe preocupar mi privacidad?
R: Si. Aunque las políticas de privacidad han evolucionado y seguirán evolucionando para mejorar, debemos tener en mente que nosotros manejamos la información que queremos exponer.

P: ¿Como asegurarme el éxito utilizando estos medios?
R: Constancia y congruencia. Nuestros productos deben mantener uniformidad en cuanto lo que se dice, se hace y se muestra. La constancia es la columna vertebral del éxito.

Finalmente tengamos en mente que los medios sociales son una excelente forma de promocionar nuestros negocios y que sin importar el tamaño del negocio o servicio existen 3 reglas de oro:

Constancia – Congruencia – Sentido Común

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

[en]

This is not news, this is barely something that should matter, except for the fact that is funny. Of course, some healthy fun is always great. This has gone all over the web, has been in the news in different places and now Antoine Dodson (the guy in the video) has a website and has created some controversy in his hometown in Alabama.

The original interview is here:

Then The Gregory Bothers took that interview and made it into an iTunes song. Its being sold and has had some popularity, the song is rather catchy. This is the final version of the interview:

Peace!

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

[en]

Let’s talk about digital marketing. Gone are the days when people used to think about the internet as only for nerds in a basement. Kids are at it with so much intensity, that any 5 year old can now explain you the best new tricks for Google, Facebook and Twitter.

Internet marketing was about promoting a website and helping it be seen by potential clients. We used to have only PPC and SEO (which is older than people think), and then came along social media. Youtube made the web a TV and Twitter and Facebook made it thing to be carried everywhere. So what is Digital Marketing all about?

Digital marketing is now about using every single channel, connect it using the internet, track, measure and respond to customers immediately (or as soon as possible). Companies that understand that long gone are the days of ignoring your clients, will succeed better, and faster than those who still think that making a client suffer through their services is a good idea.

The point is, if you don’t let your customers know you REALLY care, then there is no point for you to have customer service as this will create even more discomfort and issues than benefits, disgruntled customers who may end up giving bad reviews and finally, loosing business. Still, some companies go past this with lots of money, but that’s the point… it hurts spending so much money to keep yourself over the bad reviews. Why not just do a great service from the beginning?

Also wanted to comment on an excellent Cheetos campaign. They’re demographics are people from all ages,  but focusing on children and teenagers makes a lot of sense. They have created a website called “Battle of the Cheetos” which allows people to play a battle game of cheetos. It is quite cheesy, but the flavour of the site really makes sense. They are promoting this via social media outlets (facebook, Stumbleupon, etc) and allow you to save your progress if you use your facebook account. Fun, entertaining and a great way to reming people to go get a bag of cheetos.

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

[en]

There is a growing awareness of the need to go online. Most business owners today understand that you have to be online to even exist. The question that most of these business owners have is: Is it really for me? Or as an extension, if I go online, will I be able to sell? Is people really looking for my product online?

We tend to confuse online marketing with creating websites. And even though creating a website is an important decision and can be a powerful tool for your product’s marketing, it is hardly the only way to market online. The internet has more than websites, it is used for email, for social communication, for information and for entertainment.

A lot of times, small businesses don’t even need to have a full blown website, what they really need is a blending of their regular sales activities with the tools that internet offers.

Not having an online presence is the worst mistake ever. Hiding in your office pretending that you don’t need a presence online because of fear of exposure is not a smart move. Some businesses don’t need to do much marketing as the sales are owner driven, meaning the owner connects with possible clients as part of another activity or similar situations. These are obviously situations where the business is so small that it is only a one man shop. For larger businesses, utilizing the internet as part of the marketing strategies helps boost the sales process.

So, here the five signals that you need an online marketing strategy:

1. You have a sales funnel that needs to be constantly fed.
2. You depend on new clients as well as old ones and need to nurture relations to generate up-selling and cross-selling.
3. Your business deserves to be bigger and meaner.
4. You have ever heard a customer ask, how can I find you online? When trying to find your address or information about your products.
5. Your competition is online and crushing it. Or they are not there and you can take the lead being the first.

There are many reasons why a business can and should go online. What matters is that considering what online strategy can be applied to facilitate your business is always a great strategy. One more thing, with a proper internet marketing strategy, your customer service experience may be enhanced and provide a greater product experience to your customers, thus generating more sales and positive word of mouth effects.

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

[en]

Amazed, as most of you, that Spain and Netherlands made it through to the final. At the beginning of the World Cup no one could have predicted this final, most would have said they were good teams, with possibilities, but Germany, Argentina, Brasil, France, Portugal and even Italy looked like better options to most.

I thought Spain would get a nasty defeat from the Germans, I wanted to see this final between two nations that have never won the cup, but really thought it wouldn’t happen. Germany seemed simply formidable and yet, it fell by the closest of margins and by defense player’s goal (Puyol).

I have some very dear friends in Spain and they are wild with excitement. Most in Spain can’t believe it either, after many cups being big contenders and not living to expectations.

How is this related to marketing or the web? I could think of too many reasons why watching the World Cup has been interesting from a marketing perspective, even of the effects the internet has had on how people live it (nothing that new as we’ve seen this in other tournaments), but really, I just wanted to put this out. A great final, Spain Vs. Netherlands, up for grabs a new champion will rise and no one can guess who will this be.

My pick: Spain. After all, they’ve defeated Portugal and Germany, two of the biggest teams this tournament and Germany defeated Argentina. Netherlands are great, but have conceded 5 goals where Spain has only conceded 2 (even though 1 was a defeat). Will the Dutch be able to get through a tough Spanish defense? Will the Spanish be able to score the winning goals? In any case, excellent final to a tournament that started quite slowly.

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

[en]

A common misconception is that social media in the Hispanic markets is not as important as it is in Canada or the USA. Certainly, it will be hard for Colombians, Mexican, Chileans or Spanish people to prefer a primarily English based social media website. A lot of them do use the same websites as people in US or Canada, but there a few differences in choices that completely different and unknown to most English speaking users.

One question that comes a lot is: Is there a LinkedIn market in Latam or Spain? The answer is: Of course! (Don´t need to be a guru to know that one). Now the issue here is that there aren´t as many Spanish speaking users in LinkedIn as one would expect. So, where are they?

One big trend for business people is to use a site called Xing.com. Now, Xing didn´t open the Spanish market, in fact, Xing is originally German, but has been purchasing other social networks in many countries to grow its base. Such is the case with what used to be known as Neurona.com (which now redirects to Xing). Neurona used to be big in Mexico and Spain until it was bought by Xing and all its users were migrated into the new platform.

Anyhow, the point is that to get in touch with business people in Spanish speaking countries, the social network to use is Xing.com (although LinkedIn is beginning to get some attention too).

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

[es]

Para muchos usuarios de internet, es evidente que en México se utilizan los medios sociales. Facebook, hi5, Fotolog y Twitter. Aunque muchas empresas siguen creyendo que los medios sociales son algo que en México no tiene importancia o efecto, cada vez es más notorio que se equivocan. Para ejemplo, con la reciente victoria de México sobre Francia en el mundial (2-0 por si se les había olvidado), se pudo observar inmediatamente la rección de los mexicanos en Twitter, favor de ver este gráfico para mejor ejemplo:

Se puede observar que en los “trending topics” (temas tendencia) aparecen claramente “Mexico Cabrones”, “Gano Mexico” y “Pinche Arbitro”. Según algunos expertos, se requiere apróximadamente 1700 tweets en al menos 700 usuarios para que un texto/tema logre aparecer en la página de inicio de Twitter. Si consideramos que aparte de estos tres temas (o frases repetidas al menos 1700 veces por aprox. 700 usuarios) habian otros 5 temas más con el mismo toque mexicano en twitter en ese momento, tenemos que aproximadamente 4,900 usuario en México “twitearon” luego de ver el partido, lo cual nos dice que al menos 4,900  personas tienen cuentas en twitter. Por supuesto eso no es un gran número, pero cabe considerar que no todos ponen atención a twitter de forma dedicada y que es un calculo llanero con intención de reducir el número para no exagerar, por ejemplo, si le damos a cada usuario en México al menos 3 seguidores, tenemos que al menos hay 14,700 usuarios.

En México, el número de usuarios de telefonía celular es muy elevado. La mayoría cuentan con algún tipo de plan de texto o email y una buena cantidad (usualmente jóvenes empresarios y gente con poder adquisitivo real), cuentan con teléfonos con acceso a medios sociales e internet. No es sorprendente que tantas firmas americanas y canadienses estén tan interesados en ingresar al mercado mexicano (y latino americano).

Por cierto, ciertos estudios (luego de investigar un poco más) ubican el número de usuarios de Twitter en México, para Agosto de 2009 en 8,500. Mi pequeño juego aritmético no esta tan equivocado.

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

[es]

Finalmente, ¡Escribiendo en español!

Entrando al tema, aunque hay mucha gente capaz en Hispano América y España, parece que hay una verdadera carencia de especialistas en SEO (lo más cercano son bloggers que hacen blackhat y especialistas de PPC – resultados patrocinados). He hablado con mucha gente en el ramo del marketing por internet en México, Colombia, Argentina, España, Costa Rica y Ecuador y todavía no encuentro alguien que domine el concepto de verdadero SEO y conversión web. Tal es el caso que varias empresas que sé que realizan SEO o verdadero análisis de conversión web están trabajando con empresas americanas o canadienses.

Por mucho, hay un atraso importante en los mercados hispanos. Todavía se piensa que lo mejor es Flash (y entiendo a los diseñadores que lo adoran, pero no es bueno para conversión o SEO).

Google ha prometido trabajar arduamente en la categorización adecuada de Flash, sin embargo es todavía muy impreciso. Mientras tanto, HTML5 ya viene en camino (muchos de los sitios que creamos en Cualli Ohtli son HTML5 y CSS3) y promete tomar el lugar de flash en animación y carga de videos, pero mucho mejor. Algunos elementos ya permiten integrar elementos de diseño que antes sólo era posible con imágenes que hacian de los sitios lentos y pesados. Y hablando de lentos y pesados, Google estrenó Caffeine y pone un enfásis muy duro sobre calidad de código y rápidez de descarga. Sólo más motivos para no usar Flash.

Les invito a seguirme en twitter: http://www.twitter.com/mariocanamar o en Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mariocanamar

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

So here we are, getting ready to move to a new city. The usual boxing of all the old stuff and the review of what stays and what goes… time for a complete cleansing. Time to see all the stuff we have accumulated over the years and audit our past decisions.

The road ahead

We are about a month away from the move and this boxing game has already taken most of our space, the apartment is a mess. Its all for good, we are moving to a bigger space in a better, quieter, safer and kid friendly area. But as in every change, the fear of the unknown is quite palpable. Leaving all the connections and all the work we have done these past years, a question keeps popping in my head… are we doing the right thing?

Since we moved from Mexico to Canada we have not experienced such a thrill and such fears. With this new change, we (my wife and I) have found ourselves taking a strong look at our lives. We want to keep going in the paths we have chosen, but just as Steve Jobs said in his already insanely famous Stanford Commencement Address (see it here in case you haven’t), it is impossible to connect the dots looking forward. We trust that the dots will connect in the future.

So many things have happened in these past 5 years since we moved to a new country. I have been with two presidents (very, very recently with Felipe Calderon, president of Mexico), have met with 3 mayors of different cities and countries (and in their cities), have worked with dozens of brilliant business people from all over the world, have traveled to very cool and interesting places for business and have had the opportunity to have a great impact in so many people’s lives, but most importantly, I have learned.

In our lives, we have started many businesses and most have been a great learning experience. In coming to Toronto, we learned about the world, the people who live in it and the many different cultures. I studied a new career (which doesn’t get used much, but always wanted to do it, so it is a check in my list) and sharpened my skills in business, marketing and
the internet. I have grown along my beautiful wife and our wonderful children (our version of Yakko, Wakko and Dot).

Image via Wikipedia

As we head towards a new life, the first signs of a line become visible(a bunch of connected dots). We are not leaving the old, we are taking it with us and building upon it. Cualli Ohtli has been a brief and interesting experience and we will continue to develop it. As this move happens and in the coming months, our business focus will focus even more, my skills will become even more specialized. This is what we have realized in the last weeks, as we have been in contact with the new city and the new business opportunities. It still is a work in progress, but it seems already a very clear and unavoidable path.

It is hard to see it while things are happening, to me, most of it has been learning while trying to support the family. But I can begin to see it now, the things lived and the skills learned are now tools that will come  in very handy in our new adventures.

Change is scary, but it is good and necessary. If you ever find yourself stuck in the same place, doing the same thing over and over and feeling tired and unhappy, maybe its time you do a clean up, a review or a big change and see were life will take you. Its ok to be afraid.

Are you in a similar stage in your life? Do you have faith that the dots will one day connect? How have the dots connected before in your life?

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.

This is the future of Social Media. Better than Facebook and better than Youtube it creates a mix of both that will ensure better quality, entertainment and socialization.

Check this out. Its the next big wave in social media and all interested in promoting themselves should consider getting an account, NOW. This is what is hitting the internet soon and will make the world of social media spin on its tail and perhaps will create a new way of communication and sharing. To understand it, open this post and watch the video explaining it.

Gink is the product of DerrickComedy. Great talent, great work, go check it out in their website.

So, will you join Gink?

©2010 the Marketing stuff. All Rights Reserved.