If customer service isn’t number one on your list of priorities, you are gonna lose big. I don’t care what industry you are in—if you put anything else over the experience your customer has while engaging with you, quit now and go find something you really enjoy doing so you can stop making customers miserable. If you don’t love what you are doing, it gets pretty difficult to give great customer service—pull up any recent bad experience with a retail clerk, motor vehicles attendant, cable TV guy—I know you can conjure something up! Now, think about the last really excellent experience you had, especially when someone was helping you deal with a not-so-pleasant situation—perhaps you lost something, needed to change a reservation, needed help.

Good customer service isn’t about being nice only when things are going along swimmingly. It’s more about how you conduct yourself during difficult or stressful situations.

Interesting Fact: If you look around, you can find some recent studies showing that experiences which produce lots of adrenaline also cement those experiences into your memory more firmly than experiences that might have produced less of a chemical reaction.

When I get mad, my adrenaline gets going and, thus, I remember it—for a long, long time. Whereas when I feel happy, I don’t necessarily feel my adrenaline pumping, although my endorphins are definitely assisting my state of happiness. Though it feels good in the moment, its impact isn’t enough to have the same effect on my physical memory. I suspect I would have to be 500% happy to produce the same lasting memory that 80% mad generates.

Why does this matter? Well, you have to work harder at keeping people happy; making people mad is easy. And, for every person you make mad, you create a negative and long lasting memory. Although you’re making people happy, they may forget about it or they may not realize just how great it was to feel happy—or they may be distracted by an angry memory. So, you have to remind them more and more often about how great feeling happy is and you must make sure you don’t ruin all your hard work by making them angry along the way.

This is my motto when it comes to customer service. The only time I stray from it is when I am faced with a customer who is “toxic”, or impossible to make happy. Then it’s clear that we should part ways—hopefully, in the most pleasant manner possible!

This post was inspired by pictures our client shared with us showing their celebration of the launch of their new Website. I would say these pictures helped me create a lasting positive memory of working hard for this client—definitely something worth caring about. And a client who is celebrating this joyously over what we all know can be a long and painful journey is definitely a happy customer.

Recently we launched a site for University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as part of a collaborative project with Neustadt Creative Marketing. The site and campaign behind it is called College.Be and the site lives here. The success of this project hinges on how the current students use it, but the project was born out of trust. UMBC had to trust its students and trust that they understood what this site was all about. You see, the site is a social media aggregator, meaning once a student creates an account and ties in their social media accounts (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, etc.) anything they post to those networks gets pulled into this site. And this site is being used to market UMBC to prospective students. The fact that UMBC liked this idea is a sign of a very healthy university and of great students.

I am often asked by admissions and communications folks working in higher ed, “How many Facebook Fan Pages should we set up? One for admissions? One for transfers? One for prospective athletes?” I always respond with a question, “Well, would you become a fan of something you had no idea about yet?” My point is - I doubt prospective students are scouring Facebook looking for schools they may or may not apply to or attend and becoming fans. I also seriously doubt they are giving as much weight to what an Admissions representative has to say as they are to what current students have to say. Thus creating the case for why the in person visits are so critical, as well as why student tour guides should be carefully selected by schools. Don’t get me wrong, I think Facebook is a great resource for schools to use to keep in touch with alumni and current students. I just don’t see the tremendous value in relying on it to connect with prospects.

I do think that allowing prospects to connect with current students in social networks they are comfortable within is the ideal scenario, assuming the school trusts its students, and assuming these students understand what it is they are being trusted with. I was pleasantly surprised at how excited and positive the UMBC students were when they were told, “This is a site for you guys to use, but it’s also a site we plan on using to market the school to prospective students. We want to ensure that the right kind of kid knows about UMBC and applies because they see what you all are doing.” They totally got it, and not only did they get it, they have embraced it. Personally, I would have loved this idea back when I was in school. I remember flipping through the viewbook every year, hot off the press, and grumbling to myself about bad photo choices or pictures of students who had graduated 4 years ago. With a site like College.Be I could have jumped online and ensured that every kid looking at my school knew all about it from my perspective.

What do you think? This is a hotly debated subject and I welcome all opinions and thoughts! Also - you can read Mark Neustadt’s thoughts on the project on his blog - here.

As I attended my first NACAC conference last week (National Association for College Admissions Counselors) I was struck with all the tools for targeting prospective students. From direct mailers based on SAT scores to lead generating portals to new sites popping up that mimic a Match.com approach, colleges and universities are being bombarded with ways to reach out to prospective students. Then throw in social media - and one can easily begin to feel overwhelmed. These admissions teams are already some of the hardest working people in higher education!

I was particularly interested in one admissions counselor who discussed how simply redesigning an application led to more applicants. Amazing! A change in design affected the results? The old adage still holds true, it’s quality over quantity, and in many cases - good design and usability = better quality.

While the reach of these schools continues to be very important, the “way” they reach out is of equal if not more importance. As admissions staffs fight against a rising tide of tuition and travel adverse families, with students tossing viewbooks in the recycling bin with growing disdain, how will they make sure they connect?

It will still boil down to one basic element, marketing. It is the marketing (the “usability”, the tone, the feeling), that will make the lasting and compelling connection, and using the right media to send out these marketing messages must also be strategically approached. The NACAC keynote speaker Nancy Giles couldn’t have made a stronger case when she shared this quote from Maya Angelou. “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”.

So my advice? Before you begin blasting out your materials, and watching your admissions counselors hit the road, take a good long look at your messages. What are you saying about your school? Are you making a compelling and unique case that will connect with the right students in the right ways? Do you know how you will be making these students feel? Because the way you make them feel is the thing they will remember.

Fastspot recently formalized a collaborative partnership with Neustadt Creative Marketing with the creation of a second company, Door No. 2. Over the past 18 months, Fastspot and Neustadt Creative Marketing have been working together on a series of exciting projects with higher education clients. Door No. 2 will deliver these integrated marketing solutions to a targeted client base of colleges, universities and schools who are seeking an agency to address strategy and research, print and Web, social media and mobile marketing solutions. Door No. 2 will provide the best of both worlds, previously divided between differing approaches and methodologies. Combining our efforts ensures continued focus and expertise in these unique areas of importance, with all the pieces becoming critical parts of an integrated strategy and execution.

Fastspot will continue doing what we have been doing over the past decade, creating and producing outstanding interactive work and delivering unparalleled client service, which is the foundation of our success. However, as the world of higher education marketing undergoes major shifts which require an integrated and progressive approach, we are fortunate to have formed a fruitful relationship with one of the leaders in the industry, Neustadt Creative Marketing. This partnership is generating exciting work for our current clients, and we look forward to Door No. 2 making it even easier for our friends out there in higher education to make the right choice, which as we all know, is always behind Door No. 2.

In this post I am questioning the rationale behind online marketing or communications initiatives being directed or controlled by technology oriented guidelines.

Face it, today technology can do whatever we want or need it to do. And one of it’s primary roles is to act as a facilitator for a message. So why would we first worry about the “how we want to say something” before we think about the “what we want to say”?

Typically technology and marketing departments are separate entities, with the tech people focused on internal software, security, protocols, databases, all very technical stuff. Then you have the marketing folks worried about the message of the institution, the look and feel of the new brochure, the copywriting and tone in the radio spot, all very non-technical stuff.

And then the issue of the Website comes up (or talk of a microsite, or an email campaign, or an employee portal area) - and suddenly - both groups must work together, because these things involve technology. This is where the first mistake is made. A company’s interactive marketing has very little to do with the internal technology or protocols. Sure, there will be some areas that “cross over”, where security or the transferring of sensitive data should be monitored, where databases will need to be able to speak the same language, or technical nuances will require some sort of expert IT guidance to move forward. However, if the initiative is oriented towards “marketing”, then it should live in the hands of the marketing folks. Yet I can’t recount how many times I have found a marketing team struggling with an overly complicated content management system (CMS), or worse, a marketing team dependent on a few skilled coders over on the IT side, who are the gatekeepers of the marketing projects.

Lets face it, when someone encounters your interactive marketing initiative, be it a Website, a HTML email, a microsite, perhaps even an iPhone app - the last thing they will be thinking about is the technology… unless of course, it doesn’t work well. I am not simply talking about something being “broken”, I am talking about overall “usability”, the ease with which an interested viewer can access the content they seek while experiencing the brand of the company. This is one of the most important experiences your audience will have with your brand, and if technology has lead the way, chances are, usability has been delegated to what “works” with the technology - not the other way around. This shift in importance is a critical mistake, and will leave your viewers feeling they experienced something that was more about tech than communicating with them.

So, before you start shopping for software, adding firewalls and overhauling your servers, stop and ask yourself, “Is this an IT project or a marketing project?”

Just because things live on “servers” vs. on paper, doesn’t mean they necessarily need to be controlled by IT folks. After all, these days your marketing team probably does much of it’s work online in places like Twitter, the company blog, Facebook, press release sites like Pitch Engine, etc. Why would the Website be any different?

One common cause for the confusion is due to the “types” of information being shared or distributed through the Website. I often see people confuse Websites with “Intranets”, and this is something that is very important to differentiate. How do you find the answer? It’s all about the audience! If your Website is primarily geared towards outside audiences, who don’t have a need for or interest in your internal stuff, then don’t build in an Intranet. If the site is to market to your internal audiences, like a company wide bulletin board, an area to log in and review tax information or payroll, etc., then focus on security - and don’t build a public facing Website!

Bottom line - give your audiences what they are looking for, and empower the people who need to constantly craft those messages and content the tools they need to manage it themselves. Empower your teams with tools that work for their needs, and be very clear about the goals, audiences, and most importantly, who needs to be able to take the wheel and work with the tools you give them.

Our friends at Happy Cog Studios asked if I would participate in a proposed panel discussion for the upcoming SXSW festival, and I happily agreed. While its nice to talk about all the great projects, its more valuable to look at the failures. I believe it is counter productive to hide your head in the sand when things go wrong, and personally I can say the most valuable things I have learned, in life and in business, are from when things get f*cked up.

Please take a moment to sign up and vote for our panel idea. If we get the green light, I promise to post a full account of the panel and our discussion after the event, for anyone who can’t make it. Thanks in advance for your support! Vote for us here!

- Posted by Tracey Halvorsen

I have experienced first hand the fears many clients are facing when I was asked to do a UStream live interview with the guys from Lucky Startups to discuss fly-post, a pet project here at Fastspot. Shortly before getting started, I realized with sudden terror, that absolutely anyone could not only watch the interview, but post comments in the chat room. I have since come to recognize this same fear in the eyes, voices and emails of clients. Which has led me to ask, What are we afraid of? Conversation? No, I think we are all afraid of one thing, criticism.

Until the explosion of social media, most marketing was a one way street. Put your message, brand, brochure, product, commercial, website, whatever - out there in the world, and hope people like it. Now, its not so simple. Now, you have to endure the slew of feedback - good, bad and indifferent. It means we all need to put on our thick skins, and realize that criticisms, while often easily dismissed, can be extremely valuable feedback. In art school we called this critiques. As painful as they could be, those negative comments would force us to take stock and consider our creations, and make adjustments back in the studio. It was literally the life blood of “growth” as an artist.

So I challenge fearful clients and nervous marketers, don’t let this fear freeze you in place. Engage your audiences as they expect to be in this day and age of constant connections, and welcome the criticism. Use these slightly negative or uncomfortable bits of communication as a way to engage in constructive conversations, explanations to your audiences, and perhaps, even, as a vehicle for growth.

Fastspot works with a number of higher education clients and the topic of social media and marketing is a hot one. On one hand, many higher educational institutions are scared pantless of the notion that content might be getting created that they can’t control. They are very used to being tight-handed when it comes to their own marketing materials. But then, social media arrived. Obvious culprits like Facebook and YouTube made it very easy for students to post embarrassing or less-than-”academic” content to share with the world; or, worse yet, hijack what might appear to others as the “official” school Facebook page. Then even more sinister sites like StudentsReview.com and College Prowler came on the scene, promoting student reviews. All of a sudden, it didn’t really matter if colleges and universities thought social media was something beneath them—it was something they couldn’t ignore.

Here is what some schools are forgetting: Your brand, your reputation, the overall impression people have of you is comprised of many things. If I go to a party, get drunk, cause a scene, break expensive things, and offend people, then I will have tarnished my reputation, my personal brand. And, likewise, if I hear that a story is circulating about my antics at the party, I will know that I may meet people who have now formed an opinion about me based on that story. So, I manage my reputation by acting in a way that I feel best reflects who I am and how I want others to perceive me, even people I haven’t met yet. And here’s the real kicker: If I do go out and act inappropriately or embarrass myself, chances are that word will spread fast thanks to the social media networks that are becoming embedded in our daily realities. It’s not only words that are spreading; I should probably expect photos and videos to accompany the posts spreading like wildfire through my social networks about my less-than-optimal activities.

The above situation in corporate situations is called “crisis”. Many PR agencies sell “Crisis Management” services to help these companies deal with bad news in a proactive manner. This is very important for companies; they need to show their board, their stock owners, and the public that they are aware of the realities facing them, and are addressing them head on. However, higher education—especially top tier institutions—face an interesting dilemma. Since part of their appeal to those top-tier-seeking students is their selectivity, the last thing they want to do is advertise any bad news or address any unsavory situations. This creates a predicament: Do schools acknowledge difficult situations, or do they try to ignore them and keep up a good front? Regardless of the decision, schools need to recognize that others outside of their control will be speaking of it whether they like it or not. In my opinion, this makes the case for embracing all the realities—the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Talking heads: Twitter avatars courtesy of fixoutlook.com, a Twitter-driven social site.

Now we arrive at the question: How do we embrace the realities being posted about us on these social media networks? Do we create a brochure talking about our Facebook page in hopes prospective students will become fans and get our take on things versus what they are finding elsewhere? Do we write long blog posts about things happening on campus with a positive slant? Do we hire a PR firm or advertising agency to help us spin things the right way?

None of those are the solution to the problem. The fact is, the people colleges and universities are seeking to communicate with are the very people who abhor direct marketing efforts, who can smell spam a mile away, who toss paper into the recycling bin with prickly disdain for the wastefulness of a mailer; all while juggling 20 text message conversations, checking their RSS feeds, commenting on a new video on YouTube, and posting to Facebook that they will not be applying to your school because you just ticked them off. Yes, the generation of the “entitled” and “self-righteous” may be one way to categorize this group. The other vantage point clearly shows a generation who places greater value on peer to peer networks, short blips of information, brands that put stories and reality in the forefront and embrace the “anti-marketing” approach. In the age of reality TV, social networks, blogger reporting, and instantaneous information sharing thanks to the newly-emerging real time sites like Twitter, a long winded page of copy about how great you are has a slim chance of getting any attention, let alone making a connection.

I was once given a very good bit of advice and some clever author made millions on this same tip when they published the book, The Secret. If you want something, ask for it. As a college or university, you undoubtedly have more fans than critics, especially if you consider not only current students, but also your faculty, staff and alumni. Chances are these fans are out there on campus right now, updating Flickr with some beautiful pictures they just took of their newly-decorated dorm room or of a speaker at commencement. Next, they are possibly shooting some video of friends at a party before they head off-campus for the summer. And most of them are probably posting their status, pictures or video to Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. With the exception of Facebook, you can see if my hypothesis is correct simply by going to these sites and searching for your institution’s name, then sorting the results by “most recent”. Amazing. All this great content is being poured out there on these networks, and most of it is probably benign, humorous or even flattering—it is, most importantly, real. Here lies the gold vein glittering in the mountain side. Now, how do you mine it?

Let me back up a bit and talk about Twitter. One of the reasons for Twitter’s meteoric rise to fame and popularity was due to the open platform on which it was developed. Any programmer can easily create their own app or Website, tweaking the way in which Twitter’s feeds are displayed and managed. Hundreds, if not thousands, of third party apps and Websites now jockey for a slice of this ever-expanding user group, and Twitter is happy to have so many dependents riding on its platform.

This idea isn’t new; it’s been a critical element in the success of earlier Websites like YouTube and Flickr. This concept of aggregation allows users to access, gather and arrange all this great content in any variety of ways which cut down on the need for redundant behaviors (like uploading videos to multiple sites; who has the time?), makes sharing content in multiple places easier (I update my status in Twitter and it feeds into my wall on Facebook), and helps users stay connected with an ever-expanding social network. I get comments on my video, my blog, my Facebook status, a new follower on Twitter and I know about them all thanks to my handy email alerts. I check my RSS reader to see if any new mention of my brand has appeared on Twitter, on a blog, anywhere on the internet. I review Google Analytics to see who was visiting my Website, what they were doing and how long they were doing it. Are you seeing the trend here? All this information, content, everything—its portable and malleable. And trust me, the companies who are winning the battle to have the most users on their sites are spending millions ensuring they keep them there—by giving them what they want.

So, the key is to ask your fans to keep doing what they are doing, but ask them to allow you access to certain parts and in certain ways. You are asking them to become ambassadors for you, empowering them to shape the future of the place they love so dearly by being their own “reality TV star”. Of course, you will be keeping a close eye as some ambassadors may get overzealous or misguided in their efforts, but you won’t tell them that. As you find the real gems in their mix, you will encourage them further by giving them a $100 Flip Cam to ensure they can make a video of graduation; highlighting their photos or blog posts; praising them for their witty status updates. And you use the power of these open networks to aggregate all this great content into your very own social media site. You’re saying to your prospective students, “Here, have an unfiltered, non-marketing, authentic and real look at who we are. If you like what you see, get in touch.”

They’re there browsing the photos being pulled in from Flickr and the newly-uploaded videos from YouTube, and considering following some of the students on Twitter who are posting interesting things. Guess what? You just tricked them into letting you market to them. Now you are speaking their language, giving them what they want, and staying out of the way. You are letting them decide to share a funny video within their own protected network of friends, comment on something they find interesting, or simply browse through the short, random, unmediated blips of data which form their opinion of you. You have the confidence of knowing you do in fact have some control over what has made it to the site, while also knowing these visitors are now less likely to seek that kind of user generated content out on their own. Why bother? It’s just been served up to them in one convenient location.

Note: Facebook is one gigantic exception to this scenario due to their limited accessibility to outside programmers. However, they are slowly moving towards a more open network as a necessity to stay as relevant as newly-emerging networks such as Twitter. We hope to be pulling in Facebook profile data, wall posts and photos in a matter of months.

So, we propose this to our higher education clients: Are you giving your prospectives what they want? If not, we suggest you get in touch, we have lots of ideas to share with you on how to go about doing this. And, make haste as you read this because another photo or tweet or video that may be painting your institution in a less than vibrant palette is probably making the rounds out there somewhere.

Here are two sites that are using user generated content to promote their own marketing agendas:
Sharpie
Baltimore City
We expect to be adding to this list soon, and if you have any great examples please let us know!

The first step is to set up a Twitter account and username. (You hopefully already know you do this at Twitter.com) Your username should reflect your organization and you should include all of the requested information within the “Settings” fields. Make sure you include an email address that is monitored; you will receive email notifications of new followers and any direct messages (private messages) you receive at this address.

Make sure you include the link back to your Website and the copy in the “One Line Bio” field that explains who you are and the purpose of your Twitter account; this can also be your organizational one line bio. Here is a critical reason why you should ensure your bio info and picture are unique: When you follow someone, they will see you in their list of “Followers”; all they will see is your username, real name, and picture. If they hover their mouse over your username, they will be able to take a quick look at your one line bio and this usually prompts them on whether they will follow you back or not. If you don’t share information about who you are, people will be less likely to want to follow you back, or even follow you at all.

If you choose, include your real name and upload a portrait vs. a logo. There are some studies supporting the notion that people prefer to make a personal connection as compared to following a corporate presence. Also, customize your profile. Don’t leave the default Twitter visual settings—picture, design, colors, etc.—in place.

Managing Twitter

Whoever is managing your Twitter account should be willing to “tweet” several times a week at the very least on topics related to your organization and area of focus. Ideally, you should contribute useful content, links of interest, upcoming program or event information, etc., as often as possible. The more content you contribute, the more likely you are to gain visitors who may be searching for words included in your tweets or simply watching the public timeline. You will also appear more “active” to a prospective follower, which will encourage not only more followers but “retweets”. Remember, Twitter is quickly becoming a search resource, so the more content you have out there and the more your content is “retweeted”, the more likely you are to grow your audience.

The person managing the Twitter account should also be available to answer questions and should browse Twitter’s search engine (http://search.twitter.com) for any mention of your non-profit or other related topics. It is important to keep the account active so potential followers will feel that they will get interesting posts and answers to their questions. We recommend you check your Twitter account for posts directly to you in the form of public tweets or private messages. You will also be able to see in the @username listing if anyone has mentioned your twitter account in a message to another Twitter user. If you see anyone mentioning you, make sure you follow the contributor or reply to a question they may be asking.

Twitter protocol is rather vague, but here are some good rules to follow: If someone follows you, follow them back; however, when you review your followers, we recommend you take a close look at each follower’s bio (by hovering your mouse over their username in your “Followers” list on the Twitter.com Website). Make sure they aren’t a spammer or completely unrelated to your organization. Follow anyone that seems to be a legitimate person or organization. You can always opt to “Unfollow” them anytime in the future or block them if they become a pest.

Twitter Tools and Applications

There are many useful Twitter desktop and mobile applications which make the service even more powerful than it is in the twitter.com browser experience. Consider using TweetDeck for your desktop application. If you are using a BlackBerry or iPhone, try out different apps until you find one you like. TweetDeck lets you spread out all of your messages and replies and sort those you follow into categories, which makes staying up on the posts much easier.

TweetLater.com lets you set tweets up to be automatically sent out over the coming hours and days. It’s a very useful Website if you are going to be traveling or want to enter a batch of tweets but not have them all go out at the same time—something we don’t recommend doing, as you will annoy your followers by taking up the entire browsing space with all of your posts.

I am a big fan of Twittelator Pro on my iPhone, but have heard great reviews of other iPhone Twitter apps, as well. Each has its pros and cons; try a few of the free versions out and see which one suits you best.

Another tip and perk to using an application like TweetDeck is the built-in URL shortening functionality. This will automatically shorten long links to be more Twitter-friendly and take up less space. Additionally, Twitter apps usually include tools for embedding pictures in your posts. Most studies show that tweets most likely to be clicked on, generate followers or get retweeted include links or pictures. The Website Bit.ly (http://bit.ly/) also allows you to create shorter URLs, as well as track your click through rates.

Twitter for Marketing and Promotion

Here are some great ways to consider using Twitter to promote your marketing and communication initiatives—and grow overall awareness of your non-profit.

Generate traffic. Twitter can be used to get traffic to your Websites or the sites of partner organizations. If you ask your Twitter friends to tweet about it (”retweet”), the message will spread faster and further as other active users pick it up.

Remember, don’t be afraid to join the conversation. If you see someone asking a question or asking for advice, jump in! Also, if you want your message to be spread, ask users to retweet it for you. Usually, if you end your post with “Pls RT” (RT meaning “retweet”) and keep your original post short enough to make the RT easy, you will get your post spread to more readers.

Tip: Since each tweet is limited to 140 characters, if your original post is 135 characters and you ask people to retweet it for you, their newly-created message will automatically be too long. retweets append the post with “RT@yourusername” included to give credit back to the original poster. So, keep it short and sweet!

Help generate interest in fund raising. If you are running any kind of contest, give away, etc., Twitter can be a great way to spread the word.

Hire People/Find Volunteers. Need a new employee, freelancer, intern or volunteers? Send out a message asking for recommendations or resumes or send out a link to your site with more information on the open positions. This is a very quick and easy way to find good potential matches for your staffing or volunteer needs.

Get Feedback. Need an impromptu focus group? Send out a message asking for advice and you’ll receive replies from other users. This is especially effective if you offer an incentive, like a free T-shirt to the tenth person who replies, etc..

Networking. Twitter can be used as a great platform for you to interact with other like-minded people and organizations. It can be used to establish relationships which you may call upon in the future for a variety of needs.

Real-Time Event Updates. Organizations can use Twitter as a means to inform event participants and announce latest event happenings/changes. Use hashtags (#) as ways to universally tag and group tweets in one place.

Tip: Hashtags can be anything you want to make them so, if you are hosting an event called “Give Our Non-Profit Money”, you can add “#gonpm” to every tweet and your followers or fellow tweeters will be encouraged to do the same for any related tweeting. Then, clicking on that hashtag within any tweet will take the user to a listing of all of the tweets including that hashtag. It’s a quick easy way to group tweets so other readers can follow along with the thread or event postings.

Find people who need you. Twitter can be used as a means to find potential resource recipients online. Do a search for keywords related to your non-profit on Twitter Search and then follow those users.

Twitter Resource Links

Morning News article on Twitter Etiquette: http://www.themorningnews.org/archives/the_thoughtful_user_guide/writing_my_twitter_etiquette_article_14_ways_to_use_twitter_politely.php

Another great site for Twitter information on getting started: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/the-ultimate-guide-for-everything-twitter/

Cold Kiwi posted “The Top 15 Reasons to Use Twitter” and they cover many of the benefits Twitter provides: http://larrison.blogspot.com/2008/01/top-15-reasons-to-use-twitter.html

http://cutedogtheory.wikispaces.com/

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2009/01/05/social-media-target-strategies-for-a-better-2009/

http://www.toprankblog.com/2008/03/social-media-marketing-strategy/

http://www.twitip.com/whats-in-it-for-your-followers-how-to-be-a-useful-on-twitter/

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2009/01/creating-your-organizations-social-media-strategy-map.html

Have some other useful tips for non-profits or are you a non-profit using social media in new and successful ways? Let us know by adding a comment to this post!

You can follow me here. See you on Twitter!

Russell & Mackenna has reason to be happy. Several months ago they decided to re-route the money they had been planning to use to open another physical store to showcase and sell their cottage style furniture into an e-commerce Website. And not just your run of the mill e-commerce site. This Website needed to let potential buyers customize their furniture to their exact preferences, to match the options experience the company has been offering via catalog and in-store for the past several years.

Fastspot worked diligently to make sure the user interface was easy yet engaging, and we were all banking on the idea that if you let users create exactly what they want, even entire collections of pieces they want, that they will make the big decision and actually purchase. There are big ticket items, when you buy from Russell & Mackenna - you are purchasing hand crafted, made in America, beautifully designed and conceived furniture, ideally suited for your house in the Hamptons or your imaginary house in the Hamptons wherever you happen to live.

While usability and customization were our top priorities, we also wanted the design of the site to tell the story of this brand. We looked at Emeco as a great example of how a brand’s story and marketing can help support a high price for a high quality piece of furniture, especially when cheaper, lesser quality knock offs are easy to come by. We certainly stand behind the importance of well conceived and produced interactive design, but this was the first time we would be putting that to the test with online purchases in a retail environment. And it didn’t help that as we neared the launch date, the economy continued to nose dive.

So, the site quietly launched in late February 2009, and on March 3 an email went out to about 2000 names (gathered from past customers, people who had requested catalogs, or who had simply provided the info so they could get emails) announcing the new site and offering a 2 week discount offer for online purchases. We waited, and as the weekend approached (when we expected these shoppers to actually sit down, discuss with the significant other and make the purchase) the sales started coming in.

I am very happy to share with you what Russell & Mackenna shared with us recently. When they compared their sales from March 2008 to March 2009, they were up 425%. Yes, you read that correctly, 425%. And yes, most of that was from the Website. They were making money while they slept, while they ate breakfast on Sunday mornings and while they juggled more orders than their builders had ever seen. Needless to say - we have a very happy client.

So, next time you think about ROI and how much the Internet can impact a business and a brand, think about this post. When you compare the impact to that of a traditional print ad, billboard, commercial or even a physical store, there is simply no comparison. Not only is the Web accessible to millions, 24/7, it is accessible to the exact people who are looking for “you”. How many people flip past an ad because its not compelling to them, or drive past a billboard and never think of it again? Online, these same buyers are actively searching for the brand, the company, the product. And with the Internet, you can tell who they are, when they come, what they do, what they look at, where they leave from, how long they stay, the list goes on. In fact, the next post will be a long long list of all the reasons why every company out there should be devoting their budgets to Interactive, I have too many for this story.

Feel free to join the discussion, and if you are a retail brand that isn’t doing what Russell & Mackenna is, I suspect you are already dialing our number. In fact, I will probably be expecting to hear from you since I will have seen you in our analytics.