Month: April 2014

How a Retailer’s Mobile App Could be it’s Best Friend

Posted on | by Ketner Group

This blog post originally appeared on Digby’s The Mobile Retail Blog, contributed by Caitlin New

Last weekend I went to a big box home goods store, lets call them Cot, Tub & Forever, armed with its mobile app and a few gift cards from the holidays that were burning a hole in my pocket. As an experienced shopper, PR/marketing communicator and retail technology professional—skills that could be my best or worst enemy while shopping—I shopped with an analytical eye on how the home goods retailer used its mobile app to improve my in-store experience.

I’d like to start with the ways this retailer’s mobile app is very helpful. If you’re a bride, groom, parent-to-be, college-bound student or other individual who’d create a registry, then this retailer’s mobile app is extremely useful. Gift-seekers can scan items in-store to add them to a registry that is manageable at any time, in or out of the store.  Conversely, if you’re there to shop from a registry for one of the above mentioned individuals, and you forgot that pesky registry print out, you can pull it up and access it on the mobile app.

You can also pretty easily search for products using the mobile app and see photos and basic product details. Have gift cards like I did? You can look up the balance using the app while you’re in the store so you can decide how crazy to be with the amount of toss pillows you toss in the cart. Speaking of carts, if that amazing ruffle pillow is not available in the store, just add it to your mobile cart and buy it right there.

However, while I found the mobile app an excellent baseline, I could not help but feel that if the app knew more about my context, including location, the experience could have been that much better. Here are a few ideas about where I think Cot, Tub & Forever can maximize the effectiveness of its app to make my experience even better.

Let me store my coupons and gift cards in the app. I get email and mail coupons often from this retailer and I always set them aside so I can use them when I’m feeling the home goods shopping itch. I also have received a number of gift cards from friends and family for Christmas because I recently became a new homeowner. However, I never seem to have the gift cards or coupons with me when I find myself in one of the stores! Mobile loyalty apps and wallets are becoming more and more visible in retail, and storing coupons and gift cards in the mobile app for use in-store is an easy step towards this capability. I most likely would have done my in-store shopping spree much earlier if I had been able to store the gift cards in my phone.

Communicate with me when I’m near the store. What better way to remind me of those coupons and gift cards than when I’m near the store? Installing location-based capabilities in a mobile app is the best way to reach me precisely when and where I’m in the position to make a purchase decision. The parking lot of Cot, Tub & Forever is usually shared with other retailers, and if I’m in the parking lot for something else, a friendly reminder that I’ve got ‘money’ burning a hole in my pocket…or app…goes a long way towards closing a sale!

Give me more product details—make it social. Having product search functions as a part of its app is a good start. However, when I’m in the store, I want to know more about the toss pillow I’m holding before I drop it in my basket. If ratings and reviews, product videos or recommended products were added to the product pages, I’d be much more likely to buy that pillow and its recommended throw.

Let me add customer profile preferences. I actually want to hear from my favorite retailers, and it would be amazing if our conversation was tailored to my preferences and shopping behavior. If Cot, Tub & Forever wanted to know which product categories interested me the most, I could easily tell them that I most often search for home décor, bed and bath more than any other category. They could adjust their marketing messages to me accordingly. Also, if they knew how frequently I shopped there, they could reward me with different levels of incentives to bring me back in.

Regardless of my mind constantly working in “work mode” while I shop, I did have a pleasant experience during my recent Cot, Tub & Forever visit. My living room sends its thanks for the new toss pillows that now give my couch the pop of color it needed.

couch

PR as Storytelling: What Flash Boys Teaches Us About the Art of Technology Storytelling

Posted on | by Jeff Ketner
By Justin Hoch at http://www.jhoch.com (_MG_2932)

I’m a huge Michael Lewis fan. And like countless other readers, I’m eagerly devouring his latest book, Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, which rocketed to the top of the New York Times best-seller list immediately after its publication.

Lewis is a gifted storyteller who excels in bringing previously obscure topics to life, as he did with the arcane world of baseball statistics (Moneyball), Michael Oher’s journey from the streets of Memphis to NFL offensive lineman (The Blind Side), and how subprime mortgages and Wall Street greed fueled the Great Recession (The Big Short).

Lewis has a particular genius for explaining and making us care about topics that were previously unknown to typical readers: think on-base averages in baseball, or real-estate derivatives. But he’s outdone himself this time: Flash Boys shines a much-needed light on the dark side of Wall Street and how insiders have gamed the system through high-frequency trading systems, creating an unfair advantage that’s measured in microseconds – about 1/200th of the amount of time it takes to blink your eyes.

It’s storytelling at its best, complete with heroes, villains and mind-boggling technology. And like the most important stories of our time, it’s touched off a national debate (complete with lawsuits and a U.S. Department of Justice probe).

At its heart, Flash Boys is a technology story. And for all of us who make our living in high technology PR and marketing, it offers important lessons in the art of telling compelling, believable stories. What can we learn from Michael Lewis’ latest best-seller? Here are a couple of principles to keep in mind.

Keep it simple. As technology PR pros and storytellers, our job is often to write about topics that are difficult to understand. We have to resist giving in to buzzwords and techno-speak, instead focusing on explaining features and benefits in everyday words that any business editor or reader can understand. Many years ago an Austin American-Statesman humor columnist poked fun at a press release I wrote in one of his columns, taking me to task for using one tech buzzword after another. True, he wasn’t the target audience (he grabbed the release from a business writer), but the lesson has stuck with me ever since: keep it simple.

Simplifying complex topics is part of Michael Lewis’ genius and one of the reasons he’s such a popular storyteller. As one reviewer notes, “When it’s Michael Lewis doing the writing, previously incomprehensible topics become clear as day. That’s dangerous stuff for financial types who fare best when their activities are dense and misunderstood, and perhaps a tad threatening to the rest of us in the writing trade who wish we could be in Lewis’ league. Even Grandma can read Flash Boys, understand it and be entertained by it.”

Keep it credible. Keeping it simple is only part of the equation; as PR pros, we also need to remember to keep it credible. That means stripping out the excess adjectives and adverbs; for a press release, is company XYZ really the “leading provider of (fill in your favorite tech phrase here)?” The best writing strips out unnecessary language and gets straight to the point, without the fluffy language or over-the-top adjectives that create a barrier to credibility.

Focus on your heroes. Flash Boys turns an obscure band of Wall Street brokers and technologists into heroes. Brad Katsuyama, the highly principled, mild-mannered trader who is the central figure in Flash Boys, comes alive as an ordinary person who asks tough questions when his computer systems start behaving differently during routine trades. And now, he’s seemingly everywhere: from the cover of the New York Times Sunday Magazine to 60 Minutes. He’s the hero at the center of the debate over high-speed trading, proof that every good story deserves a great cast of characters.

It’s a reminder to all of us that if your CEO or client has a unique or particularly inspiring storyline, put him or her at the center of the story. But what if you’re dealing primarily with a technology rather than a person – which is so often the case in technology PR? Then look for ways that the technology touches people in everyday ways they can easily relate to. Do everything possible to personalize it. Does the technology make people’s work routines easier, or allow them to work better, faster or more accurately? Then say it, as simply and cleanly as possible, using examples to drive home your point.

Even better, if your company or client has customers that are willing to talk, make them the focus of your press releases and PR outreach. After all, nothing is more believable than seeing how companies and individuals put technology to work in the real world. We may not be writing about the next Flash Boys, but as PR professionals, we’re charged with telling great stories. And writers like Michael Lewis can inspire us to do our very best.

 

Buggin’ Out Over Heartbleed: How to Fight Back

Posted on | by Ketner Group

We’ve all been reading about the recent security breaches caused by a large hole in OpenSSL security called Heartbleed. Now what? There are tons of articles out there on things everyone should be doing to protect themselves from potential hazards of the bug, and we’ve compiled the top tips and facts that you need to know.

Get to Know the Enemy
What is the Heartbleed bug? It’s a security vulnerability in OpenSSL that can scrape a server’s memory where sensitive user data is stored, including private information such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers.

According to a recent article in Digital Trends, “OpenSSL is a method of encryption employed by many websites that safeguard the data you type into your Web browser. OpenSSL contains a function known as a heartbeat option. With it, while a person is visiting a website that encrypts data using OpenSSL, his computer periodically sends and receives messages to check whether both his PC and the server on the other end are both still connected. The Heartbleed bug means hackers can send fake heartbeat messages, which can trick a site’s server into relaying data that’s stored in its RAM — including sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, emails, and more.”

So What Can I Do?
CNET lists a few steps to take to ensure the best protection of your personal information until all sites have upgraded to the debugged software:

  • Don’t log into accounts from afflicted sites.
  • Once you receive confirmation of a security patch, change passwords of sensitive accounts.
  • Don’t be shy about reaching out to small businesses that have your data.
  • Keep a close eye on financial statements for the next few days.

Keep Your Eyes Open
Mashable published a comprehensive list of sites that notes which ones were definitely affected and which ones to keep an eye on. Take a look for yourself and act accordingly. Major sites include Facebook, Google/Gmail, Yahoo/Yahoo Mail, Instagram, Pinterest, GoDaddy, Netflix and YouTube.

If you want a more in-depth look at the bug, check out this New York Times article and video on how the security flaw happened, what it means, what people are doing about it, and how to protect yourself in the future. Be proactive about your security, and stay cyber-safe out there!

Four Ways to Refresh Existing Website Content

Posted on | by Ketner Group

Gini Dietrich

Guest post by: Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich and lead blogger at Spin Sucks.

In late 2011 and early 2012, the Public Relations Society of America undertook the big task of redefining public relations.

Before this happened, the industry was working with a definition that was 40 years old. It hadn’t been reviewed since 1982.

In 1982, E.T. came out. John Belushi died. Knight Rider was a popular television show. Prince William was born. Seven people died from taking cyanide-laced Tylenol. The first issue of USA Today was published. And the Times “man of the year” was the computer.

A lot has changed since 1982. Not only have TV shows and movies grown up, so has Prince William and an entire industry. Social media has completely turned the PR industry on its head and technology is changing more quickly than ever before.

The evolution of technology is so fast, it’s reaching millions -and even billions-of users in no time at all.

Consider this: It took older technologies years to reach 50 million users…and then just a few months as it evolved.

  • Radio: 38 years.
  • TV: 13 years.
  • The Internet: Four years.
  • IPod: Three years.
  • Facebook added 100 million users in just nine months.
  • iPod app downloads hit one billion in nine months.

Nearly every year we have a new social network introduced. Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Vine, SnapChat. The list continues to grow and it’s not only the job of communicators to keep up, it’s your job as business leaders to stay abreast of the changes so you can lead your team during the digital age.

Websites are about the Customer

Technology is creating some amazing opportunities for all of us, but also causing some distress. You used to have a PR team (internal or external) that focused on employee communications, media relations, reputation management, financial reporting, the annual report, public affairs, and maybe some events.

Today PR professionals also have to be knowledgeable about web development, mobile marketing, search engine optimization, content marketing, and more.

The web, it turns out, is extremely important in the job of a PR professional. Much more important today than it was in the previous decade, as new technologies are introduced and companies are struggling to figure out how to add the latest and greatest tool to its overall marketing strategy.

It used to be your website was an online version of your corporate brochure. But times, they are a changin’. Your website now needs to be a living and breathing document that changes consistently (at least once a week, according to a Hubspot study⁠) and becomes less about you and more about your customer.

Refresh Existing Content

The first place you want to start is your website by taking out the French – the we, we, we (oui, oui, oui – get it?!?).

  1. Find the French. Depending on how you like to work, you can either print out every page of your website (not very green, but it works) or you can go into your content management system and do a search. Look for every word that is about you. Look for “we,” “our,” “us,” and similar words. This is the copy you’ll have to rewrite.
  2. WIIFM. What’s in it for me means the copy you rewrite becomes about the customer, instead of about you. You tell them what your organization does for them. You use words such as “you” and “your.”
  3. Testimonials. Update your testimonials. Some of you will have them in text as a quote. Get these on video. We have a client who held a user’s event a couple of weeks ago. They hired a videographer to spend two hours at the conference and the marketing director got users on video talking about who they were, what they do, and how they use the client’s product. The stories ended up being really compelling. One user rescues dogs and finds them permanent homes. He talked about that and then spent 30 seconds talking about the client’s product. Mailchimp also does this really well. Rather than have the customers talk about how much they love the email software, they talk about their own businesses or interests or hobbies and how the product fits into their lives. Very compelling stuff.
  4. Case studies. This is what we’ll call social proof – the reason another person should buy from you. Most case studies are boring text with nothing interesting in them. Make them multimedia. Add images. Add charts. Add infographics. Even think about whiteboard automation. Make them so interesting, prospects can’t wait to buy.

Once this project is complete – and it will take some time – you can focus your energies on other owned media, such as white papers, webinars, blog posts, and videos.

To learn more, check out Gini’s latest book – Spin Sucks – on sale this week!

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Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm. She is the lead blogger here at Spin Sucks and is the founder of Spin Sucks Pro. She is the co-author of Marketing in the Round and co-host of Inside PR. Her second book, Spin Sucks, is officially here!