We’re talking about Sony and the debacle in April 2011 when their PlayStation Network was hacked and the security of an estimated 100 million records was breached, including data from more than 700,000 Australians.

User names, passwords, credit card details, security answers, purchase history and addresses could all have been stolen.

The terrible publicity rolled on for days but it took Sony almost a week after the network was switched off to confess it had been hacked.

The company has now admitted the incident has cut into its profit by about $US170 million.

Don’t think something like this can’t happen to you!

Crisis handling planning should be a part of your business. “Hope for the best, plan for the worst” should be your mantra.

These days, there’s a very good chance that, like Sony, your crisis could involve electronic data security or data loss.

Your electronic data is extremely valuable and can be linked inextricably to the value of your brand. In many cases, if the data loss involves your clients’ confidence , you could well kiss your business goodbye.

A true crisis should not involve something preventable. Could Sony have tightened its security? Probably … and it definitely should have reviewed operations after it raised the ire of known hacking coalition Anonymous a few days before its troubles began.

Likewise, you should look at the more vulnerable areas of your data control to minimise risk and retain control.

Your marketing and communications teams could well be your weak links.

Your marketing team is probably storing client data “on the cloud”. The third-party vendors that you are relying upon to keep your customers safe may well not be as security conscious as they claim to be – or that you believe.

Your marketing team probably controls the most sensitive data but is also most likely to be the part of your business the least trained in IT security. Let your IT experts run an eye over your customer databases and storage protocols.

You cannot plan for a crisis.

Almost by definition, it will be expected. However you can plan how you will handle it.

A crisis can either demonstrate to the world how disorganised, uncaring and irresponsible you and your business is. Or it can reveal that you do care, are responsible … but are human.

There may well be powerful forces attacking your business: interest groups, the media, disgruntled former customers, lawyers.

Strong forces will also come into play within your business. Your legal advisers will tell you to stop all communications immediately to reduce liability. Your communications teams may want to react equally aggressively in the opposite direction … spinning all communications in as positive a light as possible.

These different points of views will cause delays and confusions. You could end up looking like Sony who stayed silent for too long while the world speculated about its troubles and rumours abounded.

Take charge. Appoint a company spokesman immediately. No one else should speak publically about the incident except this person.

Here are some suggested guidelines for crisis management:

1. Expect that at some stage, you will have a crisis.
2. Have a predetermined crisis communication plan in place. Know who is going to attend the meetings; who is going to be the company spokesman.
3. Make sure your spokes person is trained in how to present themselves and your company to the media.
4. Acknowledge the problem immediately.
5. Be pro-active not reactive. Break the news … don’t wait for the media or customers to contact you.
6. Leverage social media. If you search for “Sony Playstation” now in a search engine, the April crisis has almost disappeared. Sony has conducted a strong campaign of news releases and product releases that have pushed the PS3 hacking issue off the front page.
7. Be accountable. Admit it … there was a mistake. We’ll fix it and make it sure it can’t happen again.
8. Make it right. If people deserve compensation, do it.

The hack could have been the end of Playstation as an online gaming platform, but so far Sony seems to be riding out the crisis … even if their initial reaction was glacial.

After finally admitting the breach, Sony offered PS3 players free streaming music as some sort of consolation .

Will this be enough to win back long-term confidence? Only time (and future PS3 console sales) will tell.

You Have Less Than 3 Minutes To Sell Yourself

Imagine this … you’ve walked into a room filled with people you don’t know. Some are talking, some are listening. How do you feel? What do you think? Can you figure out the pecking order?

We know snap judgments can be wrong but that doesn’t stop us doing it. We make value judgments subconsciously all the time.

When we first walk into a room of strangers we can’t help but judge them …  do I trust them? Will I like them? Will they like me?

We are programmed from birth to use all our senses to decide how we will interact with a stranger. Thousands of years ago, this quick decision-making skill was necessary to save our lives … do we greet the sudden stranger as a friend, fight him or run away?

In the jungle of sales, this unconscious decision-making process could mean the difference between you closing a sale or literally scaring a potential client away.

It’s a fact that when a prospect first meets you he will decide in less than three minutes whether he likes you enough to continue the conversation.

Sales is about building relationships. You know people will buy from you if they like you and trust you. The prospect wants to know you have authority, professionalism and high standards.

Your image will communicate this to your prospect at an unconscious level and your prospect will connect your image to the product you are selling.

Studies have shown that people are judged 55% on appearance, 38% on body language and only 7% on the words they say.

Nothing will escape your prospect as they absorb information when they first meet you … how you sit or stand, the colour of your hair, how it is combed, your facial expression, the crease in your slacks or how short your skirt is, the colour of your shoes or are they scuffed. Remember, this is all done on an unconscious level and is automatic and habitual.

Your prospect is absorbing all manner of impressions but is totally unaware of most of them. The problem is, these unconscious impressions will flavour how he will make his purchasing decisions.

Are you authoritative? Do you believe what your are saying? Can you be trusted?

Style is also important because not only does it make a difference to people’s perception of you but it also alters how you feel about yourself.

Take a critical look in the mirror now. What image are YOU projecting to your clients? What image are you projecting to YOURSELF?

So … a simple rule, that’s often overlooked. Dress for success!

Word Of Mouse Bites Both Ways!

It’s been a marketing truism since Roman times ( remember those scrawled recommendations found on the walls of Pompeii? )… word of mouth pays!

It doesn’t matter how many ads you read, hear or watch, when your best mate says he loves XYZ product, there’s a great chance you’re going to try it, too.

This, of course, is the basis for all social marketing, (see previous stories), especially those which successfully entice real people to endorse your product. This has been dubbed  “word of mouse” (not original, but a great phrase!).

However something that is often overlooked is that gossip can also be extremely negative to your business.

If a friend tells you that she got food poisoning after eating at the ABC Cafe, then there’s an extremely good chance that you’re not going to risk eating there. In the old days (ie pre-Facebook) the owners of the cafe would probably never know why their sales started slipping.

These days, there’s a good chance the alleged food poisoning victim will write about her tribulations online with hundreds – if not thousands – of readers viewing it. There’s even special websites which publish nothing but consumer complaints e.g. www.notgoodenough.org. Others, like the American phenomenon Yelp, publish both positive and negative reviews.

Eventually the business owner will probably find this, too … so what is the next step?

1. The answer is NOT to ignore it in the hope it will go away. Complaints that took less than a minute to post online could still be turning up in search engine results years later.

2. Take a deep breath, gather your facts and then register as member on the website so you can make a reply.

3. You may well be angry but don’t let this show when you post. If you can’t hold back, don’t post anything! It’s better to wait a few days until you are calmer.

4. Don’t insult or threaten the dissatisfied customer. Don’t let your emotions run away … and definitely don’t call them names! Stick to the facts.

5. Try to be gracious. Apologize for what the customer didn’t like and offer to make it right. Offer a refund. Invite them to contact you privately. In other words, deal with it in the same way as you would handle a face-to-face complaint in your shop if there were a hundred other customers standing there watching you.

6. If you think the comments are unfair or malicious (eg posted by a competitor), try contacting the website owner directly and ask that the comments be removed.  However, still ensure that you have posted something conciliatory so that in the meantime readers will leave with a more positive view of your business.

Case Story: How Not to Handle An Online Complaint

1. Create Your Profile

Facebook is all about personal relationships, i.e. “friends”. People probably DON’T want to make friends with your business, but they may like to be friends with you. In any case, you are not allowed to create a profile for your business. What you can do is create a profile for yourself, using your real name (false names are also against Facebook’s Terms of Services and risk instant deletion if detected).

Don’t forget to check your Privacy settings. You may, or may not, wish to share those “cute” family moments with the world and potential customers.

2. Work At It.

Upload your contact database to see if any of your contacts – or customers – are already on Facebook. Send “friend” requests. Then continue working at it! There is no point in starting a social networking marketing strategy unless you are willing to spend time at it, usually every day! Chat and joke with your new “friends” and answer their questions.

3. Create Your Company Page

Once you have created a personal profile, you can create a page for your business (this option is also available from Facebook’s initial log-in page)

This company page looks similar to your personal profile and can also be enhanced with applications that, as Facebook describes it, “capture new audiences virally through friend recommendations, News Feed stories, Facebook events, and beyond”.

Business pages should have your company contact information as well as photos, videos, news about upcoming events, discussion forums and links back to your corporate website. You can also include an RSS feed from your blog, embed videos from YouTube or re-tweet Twitter posts. And the bonus is, these company pages are spidered by search engines so your info will show up in Google!

The Facebook residents who become fans of your company are putting up their hands to tell you they like your product. They are inviting you to stay in touch with them and share information and advice. Do it!

4. What not to do

Don’t privately message too many individuals. You’ll be identified by Facebook as a spammer and you risk having your profile deleted.

Hard-selling doesn’t work!

Remember Facebook – and in fact all social media avenues – aren’t “get-rich-quick” schemes. Social media is about building networks and your reputation slowly over time. People will like your page and absorb your message if you provide content that it interesting and gives them value.

5. Advertising on Social Media

Of course, you can also advertise directly on Facebook in an attempt to drive people to your business page. There are benefits of advertising with a social media network, for example, Facebook ads allow you to target a select demographic.

6. Be Alert & Keep On Your Toes

One of the real problems – and opportunities – with social media outlets are that they are continually evolving.

More likely than not, these changes will be beneficial to marketers but you have to be alert to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Facebook, for example, seems keen to improve its revenue streams and often tweaks its users’ settings. However, it is important to watch how these changes play out in the marketplace as privacy issues can arise and Facebook can “pull the plug” on a feature almost instantaneously.

For an interesting oversight of some of Facebook’s history of changes, visit CNET

Here’s A Few More Ideas About Social Media

“Social media” marketing has been the buzz internationally for the past few years. In Australia, it has had a slow start but the wave is starting to build up now.

1. What is social media? Social media is simply a conversation between people online. Common social media forums include Facebook, Youtube and Twitter. These allow people to easily chat about what they’re doing, swap jokes, photos, videos and play games together. When marketers join in, the theory is that when someone you know says “Joe’s pizzas are great”, you’re very likely to believe this and try the pizza … more likely, in fact, than when Joe himself says his pizzas are great in a flyer in your letterbox.

2. Social media does not replace other forms of marketing. A social media marketing strategy should be part of an overall promotional package. Social media may be less expensive than other forms of marketing but don’t forget to factor in the cost of your time. It takes a substantial investment in time to build relationships with potential customers online as well as posting regular updates, engaging with followers and responding to comments.

3. Set aside a time in your weekly diary to do your social media work. The whole point of social media is to keep your followers updated regularly. Stale content will reflect badly on your business. If your updates aren’t regular, your followers will quickly lose interest.

4. Link your social media platforms. Here’s some ideas … Create a Facebook group … link this to a blog on your corporate website. Create a Twitter account and link this to your Facebook account so your tweets appear automatically on Facebook, too. Create a Linked In account and link this to your blog, Twitter feed and Facebook account. Upload a video to Youtube. Link your Yourtube account to Twitter and Facebook or post the Youtube video on your blog. Remember: be consistent in your message in each forum, and if appropriate, use your company colours and logo. And don’t be lazy when setting up your accounts. Fill in all the fields and be honest. For these daisy chains to work smoothly, you don’t want website administrators cancelling an account because it looks suspicious to them.

5. Be authentic with your content. Nominate someone in your business to do the updates. Readers can detect when a “different voice” is writing. And your content must be interesting! Only a small amount – less than 20% – should be directly promoting your product or service. Chat with followers, answer comments, promote local events.

Every business exploring the world of social media is probably hoping to hit the promotional bullseye by having a message “go viral” on the Internet.

If this happens, thousands – maybe millions – of people will be watching your video or reading your message, and then re-posting it to their friends, tweeting about it etc etc.

Here’s an example of one of the most successful viral advertisements (this was spread around the world, before it went to TV and the cinema):

But be careful … some messages “go viral” for all the wrong reasons!

A United States hamburger chain created a Facebook application called Sacrifice. The idea was simple: “de-friend” 10 people on Facebook and the player would earn a coupon for a free hamburger. The rejected friends would also get an email letting them know that they had been dropped in exchange for a free burger.

This negative campaign was so unpopular that even Facebook eventually banned it – and the story about the campaign? Well, it has gone viral. Not good publicity for the company involved!

Understanding Your Web Statistics

1. Make sure you have web statistics available!

The two most common types currently available are “Webalizer” or similar systems which are provided by your web host and “Google Analytics” which are provided free (after a bit of geekiness that your web builder can do for you!) by Google. Beware of free add-on counters that are shown at the base of the front page of your website. These not only cheapen the look of your site but may also provide some security issues. After your web stats have been running for a while, it’s time to get drill down into what it all means (remember, a few days isn’t enough to establish real trends …)

2. The two most important parameters to consider at first are the “number of visitors” and the “number of page views”.

The “number of visitors” shows you how many people have actually come to your website and requested a webpage. This visitor can move around inside your website visiting several pages, but will only be counted as one visitor.

The “page views” parameter shows how many pages have been requested. This measures the “stickiness” of your site, i.e., if you have 5 “number of visitors” but 50 “page views”, it means that on average each reader has viewed 10 pages! Likewise, if you have 5 visitors and only 5 page views, each reader has visited just one page (maybe accidentally) and then clicked away …

3. The number of “hits” is not important!

You often see people claiming that their website has received 100,000 hits a day. What does this mean? Well, what it doesn’t mean is that they have received 100,000 visitors or had 100,000 pages viewed. “Hits” represent the number of pieces of separate information downloaded by a user after they have requested a page. Each part of the webpage counts as a hit. So, if one person views a webpage that includes 50 images, this single visit will be registered as 51 hits (50 for the image components and one for the actual page itself.) Measuring “hits” is virtually meaningless so beware anyone who hypes this in their sales spiel!

4. Where are my readers coming from?

You should be interested to find out where your website visitors are coming from. Your web stats can show you which pages are the most popular “entry pages”, i.e. where visitors first land when they visit your website. For example, a recipe website may find that most of their visitors are landing first on the “spaghetti bolognaise” page after searching for this term in Google. The “apricot chicken” page, in comparison, is rarely an entry page … so this may be a clue to include more Italian recipes! Your stats will also include a list of the most common “exit pages” (the last page your users visited prior to leaving your site).

The list of “referrers” is also very important and many useful insights can be drawn from this information. “Referrers” are the other website URLs that lead a user to your site. The majority should be pages from within your own site (as people move around inside your site following links) however, if you ignore these you will see the external URLs that are most useful in enticing visitors to your pages. These external referrers are usually search engines (like Google) or other websites that have posted a link to your site.

Another important entry in your referrer list is labelled “direct request”. This shows the number of times somebody accessed your website by either directly typing your URL into the address bar of their browser or by following a bookmark. This can be a measure of the success of your marketing in other arenas, e.g. print advertising that includes your URL, and this can also indicate the usefulness of your website by suggesting the popularity of return visits.

5. What “keywords” are people using to find your pages through search engines?

This is extremely important as it is another gauge how best to optimise your website to attract your ideal visitor. Using the recipe website mentioned before as an example, it is no use if all the visitors landing on your spaghetti bolognaise page have arrived after Googling “spaghetti westerns”. If this is the case, it’s time to talk to your webmaster about better optimising this page!

These are some of the most important information that can be deduced from your web stats, but there are many. many others insights that can also be drawn. For example, where in the world are your visitors coming from? What type of web browser are they using (i.e. if your website looks great in IE6 but 25% of your visitors are using Firefox, it may be time to check out what it looks like in this other browser). What time of the day are visitors dropping by (at lunchtime, after work etc etc)?

So you’ve decided your business needs a website …

Here are five of the most common mistakes that I have watched small businesses make when they start thinking about the web:

1. Failing to weigh up the true cost of a website.

The “I know nothing about computers”-type of business person … You would think this species would be rare nowadays but it’s surprising how many business owners and middle managers are not “tech savvy” – and almost wear it as a badge of honour. They rely on their younger employees – or their children! – to bring them up to speed.

These decisionmakers usually make one of two fatal errors:

• Spending too little: Would you rely on your young nephew “who’s good with computers” to do your accounts? Well then, don’t trust him to shape your web presence and then expect results
• Spending too much: This can happen if the project parameters are not clearly defined and your web designer is working on an hourly rate. Always sign a contract with your developer that spells out exactly how many hours are going to be spent on a project. Don’t let this become “open-ended”. Clearly define what both parties are responsible for (eg. who is supplying the words and photos? who is signing off on the design?) and watch out for hidden extras like “search engine optimisation” (see below)

2. Domain Name (or URL): What you are actually purchasing is a registration which can last from one year to more than five years. At the end of this time, your ownership will lapse unless you renew it before a deadline passes. Don’t be afraid to “shop around” as domain name costs vary widely, however be aware that cheaper resellers may not remind you when your domain comes due for renewal. Australian (com.au) domains cost more than American (.com) domains but for Australian businesses this investment is worthwhile. Australian consumers expect Australian businesses to be on a .com.au domain!

3. Development Costs. Set a reasonable budget, (see above), and stick to it. And make certain at the end of the project that you own the website and no copyrighted material remains vested in the developer. Make sure the package you have negotiated does not include extra charges for items which should be included as a matter of course, e.g. meta tags. Sometimes web developers will charge an arm and a leg for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Be wary! Shonky operators can charge a large sum to list your site on a link network which may actually devalue your website in the long term – both in the eyes of customers who stumble upon this “link farm” and Search Engines which will eventually identify it as a scam.

4. Hosting. You get what you pay for! The company that is offering the super-cheap $2/month deal probably has a superfast website but don’t let that fool you! Your $2 site won’t be put on this server. You will be sharing bandwidth with a few thousand other sites. Not only could this make your website unbearably slow but the “uptime” of the server could also be unreliable. Flaky servers that come and go off the Internet can give the impression that your business is flaky too!

5. Maintenance costs. This is the one item that most people forget. They budget for the monthly hosting fee but put nothing aside to keep the website up-to-date. The search engine “robots” that visit your website detect when content changes. Human visitors also notice this too! To draw visitors back to your site, provide interesting changing content. Changing content will help your website rank better in Search Engine results.

Written by Juli Robertson
Tuesday, 09 March 2010 04:14

Do you use social media as part of your marketing package? If not, why not?

The top 100 companies in the Fortune 500 certainly do. A recent study found that 79% of them use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or blogs to communicate with customers or other stakeholders.

Two-thirds of the companies operate at least one Twitter account, 54% have at least one Facebook fan page and 50% have at least one YouTube channel.

These platforms are most popular in the US and Europe. In Asia, corporate blogs are more popular.

The most amazing thing is that, unlike traditional advertising channels, consumers actually like to engage with companies via social media.

US social media analyst Ravit Lichtenberg, a keen blogger, has identified 10 ways that social media will change in 2010:

1. Social media will become a single, cohesive experience embedded in our activities, more integrated into all our online and offline experiences via various devices and platforms.
2. Analyzing content is producing a “predictive web”, in which the Internet already knows what you want before you know you want it. Scary isn’t it?
3. Mobile phones will be king. Analysts predict that the number of users linking to the Web via their mobiles will hit one billion this year.
4. Quality and relevance of content (the old web maxim “content is king”) will continue to grow in importance. Companies such as News Limited are already talking about protecting their original content, controlling its location and cost.
5. Enterprises will shape the next generation of social media. Large institutions are increasing their investment in social media by up to 25 per cent.
6. Return on investment on social media marketing will become better measured. Companies able to analyse and predict hard returns on their social media investments will find the most success.
7. Online-offline integration. Customer review websites with geo-tagging such as Yelp already allow mobile phone users in some countries to find relevant information and people depending on their location. Twitter 360 (augmented reality for the iPhone) enables users to visualise their Twitter friends in the nearby environment. Imagine scanning products on shelves, getting product reviews and then processing the sale online.
8. The “old” skills of traditional marketing will be needed again. To make the most of this online-offline integration buisinesses will turn back to marketers who specialise in understanding customer psychology and demographics.
9. Women rule! Surveys in 2009 revealed the growing role women play online. Women make or influence 85 per cent of all consumer purchases and women aged 35-55 make up the fastest-growing population on Facebook.
10. Social media will move into new domains including job training, education and health care.