Social Media ROI is not just a catch phrase used by stealthy marketers of the past. A new generation of corporate marketing managers are finding innovative ways to redefine return on investment for the social space. The marketers toolkit now includes Facebook applications that entertain, encourage customer engagement and distribute content in return for measurable data. Marketo developed the “Revenue Rockstar” multi-marketing platform to do just that. Continue reading
Tag Archives: twitter
America SCORES Record Breaking Weekend
The Great St. Louis Soccer Dribble took place at Robert R. Hermann Soccer Stadium on Saturday, September 10, 2011 at Saint Louis University in the heart of Midtown. A grand total of 428 dribblers and countless spectators participated to break the world record. Mayor Francis Slay, @Mayor Slay on Twitter, was the honorary chair and Bill McDermott was the vibrant MC. Each participant received an event t-shirt, ball and tickets to the SLU vs. Akron soccer game the same evening. Continue reading
TSPN: Is Twitter the new headquarters for sports information?
Twitter has become an outlet for just about everything. Celebrities, brands, bots – you name it, and they probably have a twitter page. But what about sports? Every professional team has their own page, and now athletes are filling up the Twittersphere with friendly battles (i.e. Anthony Stewart (@astew22) of the Carolina Hurricane and brother Chris (@cstew25) of the St. Louis Blues), adventures during the lockout (see Chad @ochocinco of the Cincinnati Bengals), to their favorite music (sounds like @SerenaWilliams really loves @KellyRowland).
However, sports and twitter do not always mix in perfect harmony. With the MLB trade deadline quickly approaching, it is no surprise that ESPN, MLB Network and Fox Sports bottom lines cannot keep up with trades. However, how many “rumors” and “trades” get lost (and created) in the Twitter-sphere?
Twitter gives fans, analysts, “insiders,” and really anyone who can type the option to throw their own opinion into the world regarding a potential trade, a game, a bad call – you name it. That’s great, but coming from a sports writing background, how on earth can I trust these “insiders?”
Can you tell the difference between these two accounts?
Aside from the amount of tweets, they both look pretty convincing. During the NHL trade deadline on March 1, reports coming from TSN analyst Nick Kyperos (@RealKyper) had Dustin Penner heading up north to Montreal, which wound up being retweeted 75 times. Too bad for Canadians fans – the “@RealKyper_” was actually a real fake, and Penner went south to Los Angeles.
So how can you tell the difference between these fakes and the real people they claim to be? It’s not easy. Most athletes become verified, such as David Freese, with a blue checkmark next to their name.

Newer accounts may not have the verification, but many organizations will have a link on their website with their personnel’s twitter pages like the St. Louis Blues.

If you aren’t sure, check out websites such as tweeting-athletes.com for a listing athlete’s real twitter pages, as well as checking your favorite sports station for analysts and broadcast personalities.
Twitter isn’t perfect, but with a little common sense and verification, twitter can be the new sports hub of the Internet.
Howard Stern – King of All “Social” Media?
“Hi, I’m Matt Fitzpatrick… and I’m a Howard Stern fan…”
“HI MATT…BABA BOOEY!!!!”
1. Know your audience, and know what they want.
2. Don’t be afraid to be spontaneous.
3. Share the love
Less Is More: Designing For The “New Twitter”
or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the interface.
Hear ye, hear ye: the new Twitter is upon us. While many of the Twitter pundits are weighing in on just how “improved” the new design is, the fact is very clear: New Twitter is here to stay. The anticipation and excitement that preceded the rollout of the new design has now given way to much wailing and gnashing of teeth — and nothing has been as infuriating as the widened body of the interface. Our brilliantly-designed, information-rich Twitter backgrounds have been obscured by the wide columns of the updated design, leaving us frequent Twitter users confused and concerned. How do we squeeze all that information in such a small space? How do we guarantee that a viewer will be able to see the design we’ve spent so much time on?
Worry not, tweeps. The answers are simpler than you think.
Social Media For Restaurants – It Works!
Many businesses across the country are grapping with the question: “Should we be using social media?” Or maybe they’re asking an even more pointed and inappropriate question: “Should we be trying to sell more product using social media?” Companies that have been sending direct mail pieces, and running print ads, radio ads, even TV ads… they’re asking themselves, “Is social media a space we should be playing in?”
Scorch’s answer (and my own answer) is a big YES! But perhaps the greater question is, “Which of those traditional interruption-based advertising mediums should we be replacing right now with a devoted and concentrated social media engagement strategy?
When it comes to restaurants’ use of social media, AJ Bombers in Milwaukee, WI is just killing it. Joe Sorge, owner, has used social media exclusively to promote his burger joint, and it’s working because of his undying belief in the medium (along with excellent food. Including a burger with peanut butter on it. Don’t argue with me. Eat it once and you’ll know). You would struggle to find a business owner that’s more on top of the tweets swirling around his business than Joe.
An agency like Scorch can help with something like this, and we do an excellent job. Joe has a leg up and he helps himself, because he truly believes in the core principle of what Gary Vaynerchuk calls, “The Thank You Economy.” When I visited AJ Bombers for the second time in a week to conduct my interview, Joe was engaged in conversation at a customer table. I grabbed a beer and chatted with this staff, thinking he might be awhile. I was right – he spent a ton of time chatting up the folks that made their way into his establishment. Joe is hands-on, both online and offline, and the combination is helping AJ Bombers meet with huge success.
Thanks to Joe for talking to me, and thanks for the hospitality when I came in with my family. My daughters loved throwing peanut shells on the floor! Joe, I’ll be back up next summer – see you for a Quad AJ Burger – I can do it!
Buy Joe’s book, TwitterWorks, Restaurant 2.0 Edition.
Scorch Agency CMO Named Most Influential Saint Louis Twitter User By STLTweets.com
At the July gathering of the Social Media Club of St. Louis, Jason Fiehler, CEO of Infuz, released the findings of a very interesting report. STLTweets.com completed a comprehensive study of the tweets made by St. Louisans during the first six months of 2010. They were able to locate over 220,000 St. Louis Twitter users, and logged almost 5,600,000 tweets they made during the six month period. A great deal of very interesting data was culled from the study (Friday is the biggest usage day, one in seven tweets includes a link, etc).
Near the end of the presentation, the Top 10 Most Influential St. Louis Tweeps were announced. Jason did the countdown from 10 down to 1, and we were pleased to find out that our own Chris Reimer (@RizzoTees) was named the most influential Saint Louis Tweep for the first six months of 2010. Congratulations Chris!
I can still remember the day I started Scorch Agency, over 18 months ago. Sort of a scary but exciting day for me – I was just a guy and a laptop at a desk. On that first day, Chris took the time to send me a congratulatory Direct Message on Twitter. I always appreciated him reaching out to me. Back then he had 15,000 followers. Now he has over 40,000 followers, and he’s tweeted almost 40,000 times. That’s an awful lot of tweeting – don’t worry Chris, we’ll get you the help you need!
Once again, congrats on this “Most Influential” honor. As we go forward, my advice to you is two-fold:
1. Don’t let it go to your head, and no more holding the award over your head like it’s the Stanley Cup.
2. Get better after-party celebration food next time.
Here’s video of the presentation, as taken by our friends at @PioneerSTL. The discussion of St. Louis’s most influential begins at 49:50, and Chris gets a little embarrassed at 54:40.
STLTWEETS-SMCSTL PRESENTATION from PioneerSTL on Vimeo.
Thanks again to Jason Fiehler of Infuz, Marc Brooks of STLTweets.com, Hatch Research for hosting, and to the Social Media Club of St. Louis for its continued work in the St. Louis social media community.
Let Your Hair Down To Market Effectively
I was meeting with a business colleague recently – a company that I would love to work with. As I was discussing things with the head of marketing, I was explaining what Scorch specializes in and how we might be able to help. Almost immediately, he said, “I know, I know, social media is the place to be.” The person was trying to assure me that, even though they had no money budgeted for social media, they understood the importance of it. I believe in it, too – I would not be at my dream job without it.
However, just “being” on social media misses the mark. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are just tools. They are not the magic elixir, or the secret password to get into the exclusive nightclub. They themselves don’t make good things happen. They’re just tools. They are tools that came on the scene, and they will eventually go away or be supplanted (Myspace and Friendfeed, come baaaaack!)
It’s a much bigger deal than just using social media. It is this: no matter what kind of company you are, LET YOUR HAIR DOWN. This is the challenge facing companies and brands today. It’s not about registering a Twitter account and handing it to the summer intern. Great, you opened a Twitter account – here’s your cookie! (*cookie not included). What are you going to do with that account now?
Well, if you shotgun blast buy buy buy messages from it, prepare for disappointment. If your tweets look like they went through “Legal,” that won’t do. If your company has a policy of not engaging people on Twitter for fear of potential negative publicity (yes, there are companies like this), you’re completely missing the boat.
Companies do not need to embrace the idea of talking about their products. They’re already way too good at that. Every company thinks they have the most awesome product ever. I am just as guilty here! My tees and Scorch’s product offerings are so great! So what? No one will care unless you engage them, entertain them, inform them, and help them. Traditional marketing sometimes entertains, and sometimes helps. Letting your hair down by using social media allows you to easily do all four.
Radio, TV, print, direct mail, sponsorships, and billboards = traditional media. Come on, let your hair down! Grab a Flip Cam and interview your employees about what it’s like to work for you, and put those videos on YouTube and embed them on your site. It will help with recruiting, and no, you’re not selling anything at this point. Volunteer in your community AND blog about it. You’re still not selling. Share your expertise in the form of a regular blog series (video, podcast, or the written word. Or all three!). You are still not selling, and yet people will be sold.
Best yet, try to do something as freaking amazing as Old Spice. Their now-famous series of 200 near-real-time Youtube video responses is, from a marketing logistics perspective, completely shocking. Try to picture their agency Wieden + Kennedy pitching this idea to a conservative consumer products company like Proctor & Gamble. Pampers, Tide, Bounty… these are huge venerable family brands that P&G has to protect. ”So you want to stick a muscular dude in a towel – our now-famous spokesperson – and shoot 200 YouTube videos and blast them out on this Twitter thing? We don’t get it.” Instead, they said “Go for it.” Proctor & Gamble let their hair down. Frankly, so did Wieden + Kennedy. They’re in the business of creating high-budget knockout 30 second TV ads, and here they made 200 slightly lower budget ads in two days. Does this cheapen their high-budget 30-second ad offering? Who knows, it might! But they went for it anyway. Huge kudos to Proctor & Gamble and Wieden + Kennedy.
What do you guys think? Can architects, CPA firms, law firms, and the like let their hair down and engage, inform, help, and entertain people in a way similar to Old Spice? I encourage you to comment below and let me know what you think.
What We’re Reading – July 14th 2010 – Hot Links From Scorch
Playing the part of Internet DJ, here’s a sampling of what Scorchers have been reading lately.
1.) Darren Rowse at Problogger.net has a nice article on how to get things done when you’re feeling overwhelmed. Often when we’re freaking out, when we have a plate stacked high with things to do… we end up getting less done. It can be a paralyzing feeling, and our new 140-character culture is changing us from being task-oriented beings to ADD Shiny Red Ball beings. Darren’s article is what I call a “duh” article – his four steps seem like common sense. That’s grand – now go get started! I have 10+ things on my to-do list today (yes I use lists in an attempt to keep things from slipping through the cracks), and yet I had to force my butt into the Aeron to write this post. Choose to get things done!
2.) Chris Brogan writes about the countless ways people can now communicate with us. Scorch Agency is in the communication business, so you might think we’d be excited at the explosion of communication options. However, just look at the list he offers: multiple email accounts (some with chat), Facebook (wall, chat, private message), Twitter (public tweets and DMs), SMS, the contact form on your website or websites, LinkedIn, the telephone (even voicemail!), and face to face. I didn’t even include Google Wave or Google Buzz. Companies are being communicated with on each platform, and the trick is to listen extremely well and communicate back. Chris’ point is spot-on — this new world actually makes a smart phone completely necessary.
3.) Renée Revetta over on Marketing Pilgrim writes about Facebook’s ability to dynamically create ads for your business. When you provide Facebook Ads a URL, it instantly creates a suggested Facebook ad for you by pulling the title tag, meta description, and an image associated with the main content. For those that want to get an ad done quickly, Renée thinks the service works pretty well. However, if your ad requires a specific call to action, you’ll probably want to edit your auto-generated ad content.
Mike’s Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) for The Week: June 5th – June 13th
I was definitely excited at the response to my first Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) post and have taken some of the things that I wish I could have done better, or differently, into account this time around. This is a fun opportunity to try some different things with the Scorch blog and to use that trial-and-error to further develop the format of this post series.
Ironically, the best feedback that I received on the initial post was via Facebook, about a week later.
Well Allison, I have taken part of your advice for now. This installment includes some of my favorite tweets and blog posts, by people other than just social media folks, and is geared more around great uses of the protocol(s) for starting the conversation. Any conversation that is!
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(1) The #needWaffle campaign. A Twitter conversation between @michaeltomko and @NadozCafe.
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/michaeltomko/status/16073819259"]
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/NadozCafe/status/16074046792"]
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/michaeltomko/status/16076527995"]
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/michaeltomko/status/16087172760"]
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/NadozCafe/status/16113310678"]
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/michaeltomko/status/16113928562"]
[note: The word "touché" is not being correctly displayed in the above tweet. Thank you Blackbird Pie]
I’ll admit, I was most definitely baiting Nadoz Café to figure out a way to respond to the gauntlet that I had publicly thrown down. In my mind I was going to see 1 of 3 possible “reactions”.
- They wouldn’t respond to the bait.
- They’d go all Nestle on me.
- They’d come back with something either witty, creative or both.
In all honesty, Nadoz Café far exceeded my expectations and came back with something not only witty and creative, but also quite worthy of me publicizing via word-of-mouth, social media and now this blog post. This is a fantastic example of a small business using social media to create empowered, and localized, advocates of their brand. And the other very important thing to realize here is that I haven’t even been in to eat their food yet and I’m already evangelizing how impressed I am with them. Thank you Nadoz for showing me the person(s) behind the curtain and responding to my bait like a real person would. I will be in very soon to claim my waffle.
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(2) “Google Rolls Out Local Business Tags Nationwide, Soon on Mobile Too” via @SEOPRO4U
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/SEOPRO4U/status/16013557425"]
A quick post by Arnold Zafra at the Search Engine Journal documenting a cool and inexpensive new way to get yours, or your clients’, businesses to stand out in search.
If you’re running a local business and you have placed listings on Google.com or Google Maps, you can enhance your listing with yellow tag emphasizing specific information about your business such as coupon, video, website, menu, reservations, photos and even custom messages. Getting this yellow tag to appear on your Google listings is not free though. You would have to pay a flat monthly fee of $25. The tags will not affect your listings’ rank and Google will clearly indicated which parts of the search results are sponsored when you’re local business is displayed.
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(3) “Products That Are Earth-and-Profit Friendly” via @sarahfelts
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/sarahfelts/status/16008077342"]
A lengthy article by Sindya N. Bhanoo at The New York Times that goes in-depth into the growing trend of businesses making a concerted effort to incorporate sustainability into their products. Great read!
As the world’s greatest soccer players take to the fields at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, many are wearing jerseys made almost entirely from plastic bottles rescued from landfills in Japan and Taiwan.
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(4) “Farewell to Globe Drug Store on Cherokee” via @jcohen111
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/jcohen111/status/15900627501"]
This blog entry from B.E.L.T. really hits home for me. As a fellow Cherokee Street resident, I’ve frequented Globe Drugs for awhile now. It is really sad to see it go as it was one of the few remaining landmarks on Cherokee still in operation.
The Cherokee Street News broke the news that the venerable Globe Drug store had closed its doors, and got the sentiment right in the headline: 1939-2010. It does feel like a friend has died.
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(5) “Cassette Lamp” via @emilyfitzhugh
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/emilyfitzhugh/status/15630133169"]
Do I really have to tell you how cool this is? I need one of these for my desk!
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(6) “Trying To Make A Right Out of Two Wrongs Or Why We Started Our ‘Sprockets’ Program” via @spoke_marketing
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/spoke_marketing/status/15498453505"]
Spoke Marketing is doing the St. Louis marketing community proud with their Sprockets Program. As someone who has helped coach and place interns before, I have had to have the conversation many times about paying ones dues. The analogy I often use is that if a you pass an empty coffee pot, it doesn’t matter if you are the gopher or the owner, you start a fresh pot. That said, interns are all too often abused and treated as if they are only worthy of scrubbing the toilet. The rule of thumb should be that if the owner of the company isn’t willing to do the work, then it isn’t fair to make an intern do it either.
The goal of Sprockets is to solve these two problems by letting our interns work on pro bono projects for nonprofits, and early stage start-ups. The clients get free marketing help, and the interns get a meaningful experience, a portfolio, and case studies to show future employers.
Don’t worry…we don’t just throw our interns to the wolves. We work with them on each of the projects, point them in the right direction, ask the right questions, and help them make the right decisions. But, at the end of the day (summer), the decisions are theirs, the work is theirs, and the success is theirs.
They might learn that they hate marketing, and that they should go to dental school. But at least they won’t learn it basking in the glow of a copy machine.
Well done guys. This is a great program.
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(7) “Dear Honda Lawnmower” via @amveats
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/amveats/status/15497139168"]
Schlafly Summer Lager now comes in a can. That’s all you need to know.
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If you want to get your tweet featured here A) follow me and B) write better tweets! As always, your feedback is much appreciated. Until next week…
Mike’s Favorite Tweets (and Blog Posts) for The Week: May 31st – June 4th
With my preferred, and most used, Twitter client being Tweetie 2 (I kind of refuse to call it Twitter for iPhone), I actually do most of my personal and business tweeting with two thumbs.
And due to the small size of the screen, and an even smaller amount of patience for 3G, I frequently just mark tweets as “favorites” so that I can read them later on my laptop. Being that I now find myself with hundreds of favorites on Twitter, I thought that each week it would be good to compile a few of the ones that were actually worth reading, once I finally got around to them.
And so the story goes…
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(1) “Taylor Momsen Did Not Write This Headline” via @BlakTwigPR
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/BlackTwigPR/status/15419687304"]
A well written article by David Carr in The New York Times about the use of popular and seemingly unrelated search terms in web headlines to boost blog traffic.
People who worry that Web headlines dumb down public discourse are probably right. But some of the classics would still work. Remember “Headless Body in Topless Bar,” perhaps the most memorable New York Post headline ever? It’s direct, it’s descriptive, and it’s oh-so-search-engine-friendly.
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(2) “Facebook Advertising: 10 Laws Every Marketer Needs To Know” via @lisackeller
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/lisackeller/status/15434622648"]
Fantastic insights from Nick O’Neill at All Facebook on how to advertise on Facebook effectively.
If you’ve come to Facebook looking for instantaneous sales than you’ve come to the wrong place. Facebook presents businesses with the opportunity to reach their target market throughout the entire marketing cycle. While a small percentage of users are ready to purchase while they’re browsing Facebook, a much larger percentage of users are going to make a purchase in the future if not now.
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(3) “50 Ways To Optimize Your Blog” via @heidithorne
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/heidithorne/status/15387142198"]
A solid and comprehensive list of ways to blog better by Jeff Bullas. While obviously there are some no brainers on here, the fact that they are all in one compilation is pretty awesome.
3. Customer’s Pain Points – Write posts that provide solutions for your customers problems
4. Customer’s successes – Write up a case study about a clients successful project, they will often let you publish their name
5. What not to do – highlighting where something hasn’t worked (the names shall remain anonymous of course)
6. Create a video blog post by interviewing a successful client – this can a powerful providing authentic evidence of authority and credibility for both you and the client
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(4) “Social CRM is Just the Beginning: Looking Beyond Customers” via @briansolis
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/briansolis/status/15249866176"]
It’s no secret that Brian Solis is a social media visionary and this post is yet another gem. Oh, and I very much appreciate his relentless use of infographics!
Customer service, combined with participation and engagement, forms a powerful foundation of marketing without blatant marketing. And, as the socialization of our business is introduced through open leadership, engagement brings into focus the fifth “P” of the marketing mix – people.
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(5) http://thetwitcleaner.com/ via @STLBeds
[blackbirdpie url="http://twitter.com/STLBeds/status/15410717728"]
An interesting new tool to help you manage your Twitter followers. Will need to play with this a little more to see if it will actually prove useful, but I am always in search of applications help maintain the integrity of our clients’ Twitter networks.
Q. What does Twit Cleaner do?
A. It analyses the profiles & tweets of every single person that you follow, looking for certain patterns of behaviour (people not talking, being over repetitive, common spam tactics, posting the same links repeatedly, etc).
It’s then up to you to decide who to save & who to unfollow.
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I would love to hear how others are using the Twitter favorites function. To me, it is the perfect way to bookmark those useful, funny or cool tweets that you either don’t want to forget or simply can’t fully enjoy right at the moment.



