Workforce
Andrea Siedsma

Reid Carr’s de facto mode of communicating with his employees is via his mobile phone, an HTC 7 Trophy Windows phone. With the recent explosion of mobile applications, Carr and other executives can manage their teams and handle much of their other daily tasks while on the go.

These smartphone apps allow business owners and professionals to work better, faster and cheaper in many cases. They also enable quick and critical collaboration, which execs say is the key driver for innovation, productivity and growth for their companies.

“With this thing in my pocket, I have everything I need to run the company,” says Carr, CEO of San Diego-based Red Door Interactive Inc., a 10-year-old Internet marketing agency whose customers include Rubio’s Restaurants Inc., Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes, Qualcomm Inc. and Quiksilver Inc.

One application Carr and his 70 employees (who are spread out between two offices in San Diego County and one in Denver, Colorado) use on a daily basis is Windows Live Messenger. Members of the Red Door Interactive team use this instant messaging tool from Microsoft Corp. whether they’re in or out of the office.

“When I come in the office in the morning, for example, I’ll say where I am: ‘Downtown San Diego, extension 101.’ That way everyone will know where I’m going to be,” Carr says. “If I have to be out of the office in the afternoon, my employees will know they can reach me on my cell phone.”

Carr is part of a growing cadre of business executives using mobile applications to conduct real- time business from almost anywhere they want. It’s a trend that will only continue to grow with technology advancements and widespread adoption of Android smartphones, iPhones, tablets and iPads. In fact, market research firm Gartner, Inc. forecast that worldwide mobile app store downloads would reach 17.7 billion in 2011, a 117 percent increase from an estimated 8.2 billion downloads in 2010. By the end of 2014, Gartner forecasts more than 185 billion applications will have been downloaded from mobile app stores since the launch of the first one in July 2008.

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Mashable
Anne Buehner, Associate Social Media Strategist, Red Door Interactive

Toasting the new year is not what it used to be. Which comes first – a kiss from your loved one or uploading a photo of the ball drop to Instagram?

This type of midnight social media madness provides a great snapshot into the lives of the consumers who may buy your product or service in 2012. It’s time to take direct aim at your audience, or at least try to satisfy their appetite for moment-to-moment content.

With 2011 in the rearview mirror, you’re likely forecasting a fresh social media/instablogging strategy for the new year. You’ve probably heard that a brand relationship needs to mirror a personal one, but which self-publishing platforms can really accomplish this esprit de corps? One of the easiest ways for brands to leverage warm and fuzzy feelings is to play in the same social spaces as your friends and family would.

However, it can be difficult to decide which platform is the right fit for your brand – in addition to the standards Facebook and Twitter, of course. Which sites help brands keep up in the real-time content race? Which sites really drive engagement? Here are a few I see as emerging leaders.

1. Tumblr

Brands use Tumblr to create a community and to build a following fast with its quick and easy setup, seamless tagging and sharing capabilities. Existing brands also use the short-form blog to breathe life into content through a host of mixed-media that includes photos, links and video. However, you don’t want to shoot from the hip with Tumblr — it requires a content strategy, branded “look and feel” and management approval to re-blog other images. You’ll want to use Google Analytics to track traffic since Tumblr does not offer a reporting platform. Tumblr also does not have the best reputation when it comes to collaborating with brands on advertising opportunities.

Anthropologie recently launched a Tumblr blog called Etymologie. The posts are inspired by reader-submitted words and the content is more lifestyle-driven, rather than promotional. Ace Hotel uses a Tumblr called Everything Will Be Okay, with a philanthropic focus and subtle “get a room” reference to its hotels.

The Tumblr platform isn’t just suited for big timers; it can work for a small companies looking to find fans in a target audience of 34-years-old and younger.
 

2. Pinterest

Brands use Pinterest to build brand personality and inspire trends and influencers through instant social sharing. Pins are typically centered around major life events such as weddings and holidays. Users create theme-based collections through the site’s virtual pinboards. Dialogue is generated through the simple act of Pinning, Repinning, Liking and commenting on images taken on a smartphone or from the web. Pinterest presents a helpful tool for brand direction by analyzing what is frequently Pinned and why.

With over 400,000 visitors per month – and rapidly growing – Pinterest is a huge referral source for brands. Real Simple recently reported that Pinterest drove more traffic to its website than Facebook in the month of October. Smaller brands should take note of Cabot Cheese, which uses Pinterest to curate photos of food that can be made with its cheese — other boards include fun photos of cows, farms and Vermont.

While the site’s list of etiquette states “avoid self-promotion,” aka soft sell, it does not include stipulations around contests. Lands’ End took advantage of this in December with the engagement contest Lands’ End Canvas Pin It to Win It. The promotion encouraged users to browse its modern clothing line and make Boards for a chance to win apparel.

3. Instagram

Brands use Instagram to showcase products, services, events or just a behind-the-scenes look through a feed of photos, instead of a slew of text. The photo sharing application for iPhone uses dazzling image filters, and features cross-posting to other social networks including Twitter, Facebook profiles, Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr and Posterous. The goal is to attract new fans with Instagram’s search and keyword function, and to draw engagement through likes, comments, @replies and #hashtags. Instagram provides relatively seamless integration with dozens of third-party applications, including Statigram, which offers analytics.

Brands with an existing following can thrive on Instagram. In 2011, more than 150 million images were uploaded to the platform in less than a year by more than 8 million users. Popular t-shirt company Threadless is a great insta-success story, recently passing 70,000 followers, some of whom submit their own designs.

One big drawback: Instagram is still not available for Android, and the application doesn’t integrate with Facebook brand pages. What it does do is make your pictures look good – really good. For me, Instagram feels like a safe space, where I can sift through gorgeous real-time photo updates from friends, family and my favorite shoe company, all in one place.

4. Tout

Brands use Tout to create real-time, 15-second video status updates captured from Apple and Android smartphones, and then distributed through social networks. Instant video sharing is on the rise as more and more consumers use smartphones. Tout offers integration across multiple platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, and does include analytics. It’s essentially video Twitter.

Brands that want to utilize creative ways to showcase new products or services, make announcements, give a behind-the-scenes look, or “tout out” to show appreciation for fans or staff may want to experiment with this platform. You might remember when Shaquille O’Neal famously announced his retirement from basketball via Tout. Similar to Instagram, brands without a decent following shouldn’t start with Tout first, but add it on to their existing social strategy.

Tout is still in its toddler stage, asking for suggestions from its community to help drive the product road map for the platform. Perhaps you can help navigate how Tout would best suit your brand.

I also think Tout requires client management, and doesn’t really work in the B2B space. You can’t share Tout directly from your smartphone to YouTube, only to Twitter, Facebook and email. You can cut YouTube videos down and then upload your favorite 15-seconds to Tout.

No matter what platform you choose, if you’re providing springboards for spontaneity around your brand, you generate a more transparent, empowering and compelling message for the audience — one that can help build and strengthen communities at a rapid pace with the snap of a camera, Pin or click.

Understanding and developing a strategy around these tools gives your brand control over the real-time moments that today’s connected generation craves. After the midnight toast, it’s time to Pin, Tumble and Tout.

Image courtesy of Flickr, libraryman

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MarketingProfs
Brett Johnson, Sr. Strategist, Red Door Interactive

Featured on FastCasual.com

Background:
In 1983, Ralph Rubio opened up his first restaurant, debuting what would become a culinary cult classic—the beer-battered fish taco. As popularity grew and demand increased, Rubio’s began battering their famous fish tacos at a partner facility in 2006 instead of by hand in the kitchens of their restaurants in an effort to create a more consistent taste. With Rubio’s 30th anniversary on the horizon, Ralph planned to bring The Original Fish Taco® back to its beer-battered-by-hand roots. Rubio’s looked to Red Door Interactive to introduce its homecoming in a way that would not only raise awareness, but generate in-store trials as well.

Solution:
Red Door Interactive devised the Chase the Taste: The Return of The Original Fish Taco game where players had to search through action-packed, illustrated scenes to find The Original Fish Tacos, along with other hidden items such as a Rubio’s cook, Ralph, lime wedges and other appetizing accouterments.

Participants were tasked to locate all of the objects before time expired. If the game was completed, players were entered into a drawing for a chance to win exciting prizes, including a $2,500 gift card. In addition, every player received a coupon to try The Original Fish Taco.

“We counted on Red Door to create something that would be interactive and allow people to have fun,” explained Ralph Rubio. “They brainstormed several concepts that would attract interested players and enable them to spread the word through share functions.”

Results:
During the first week the game launched, more than 30,000 players set their sights on finding The Original Fish Taco. Over a period of 42 days that the game was available, the game’s landing page received 101,469 visits and the play page acquired 68,430 visits. This resulted in a 67 percent conversion rate. Of those that played the game, 69 percent won, 37 percent ran out of time (68 percent of those individuals opted to play again) and only six percent quit the game.

What’s most interesting is that when the email was distributed on the first day, it resulted in the highest engagement through the share and social functions. For example, more than 19,000 people shared the game in one way or another. The “Post Your Time” on Facebook share option was the most used with more than 7,000 shares. In addition, nearly 4,625 people shared the game via Facebook message and approximately 1,880 individuals shared it on Twitter. Equally important was the 5,198 shares that occurred through email.

“We were very pleased with the results. Red Door provided an exceptional value in producing our game; I was impressed by their energy, creative ideas and ability to produce an outstanding product. The commitment level with the game was extremely high and it was a great way to announce that the Original Fish Taco is back,” said Ralph Rubio.

Read article on FastCasual.com>>>

ColoradoBiz
Reid Carr, President & CEO, Red Door Interactive

I marvel at organizations that stand the test of time, and enjoy learning from and being a part of them. For example, my Rotary Club recently celebrated its Centennial, and I’m proud to say that I’ve been an active member for nearly five years. General Electric and IBM are two other marquee entities that have operated for more than 100 years that I greatly admire.

I’m also a big fan of lesser-known, but long-standing companies such as insurance brokerage Barney & Barney in San Diego and the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver for what they’ve achieved this past century without any expectation of fanfare or recognition from anyone else but their customers.

I’m not sure any of these organizations ever planned on being around for 100 years. Truth be told, I would imagine all of them were just wanting to survive in their early years. However, I am equally certain that all the entities I mentioned have one thing in common; a strict adherence to core values that have allowed them to grow in good times and withstand the hardships of challenging days. This has enabled them to continue long after many of their competitors have come, gone, returned and left again.

What I think differentiates these entities over others is their commitment to a philosophy that focuses on building a solid culture with altruistic ideals. Those that are looking to “build and flip” generally flop without recouping the initial investment made by its founders. So as my firm celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2012, I am working hard to create a company that is built to last by adhering to these five basic principles:

• Practicing servant leadership: I feel my primary role is to take care of our people. Those in a managerial role keep their position by getting others to follow them. Employees will not perform at their maximum potential for bosses they do not believe have their best interest at heart.

• Showing a sense of community: Organizations that care about their neighbors display a concern for others that is not only the right thing to do, but elevates brand recognition and value while also improves business development and employee morale. I strive to lead by example and be active in various entities, be it for my own backyard or for various places around the globe.

• Providing clarity of vision: I take care in ensuring that I clearly articulate my organization’s purpose as well as its big, hairy, audacious goal in a passionate and inclusive manner. I feel that this will serve as a rallying cry for others to follow that will generate buy-in and action that will exceed everyone’s expectations.

• Fostering a sense of higher purpose: Companies that continue for generations do so with the understanding that what they do as an organization matters not just for current stakeholders, but future ones and, quite possibly, others with whom they might never encounter. I want our team to know that they are working for a cause far greater than ourselves and a feeling of being a trusted steward to something that we can pass on to those who follow us.

• Showing genuine respect for others: A Florida State University study found that people “leave bosses, not jobs.” While a paycheck is important for most everyone, having dignity and respect from their employer and peers reign supreme. I make sure that I openly express my sincere gratitude to staff members for their contribution. I feel that the two most common phrases I should use are “please” and “thank you.”

• Planning for my successor: While I don’t have this etched in stone quite yet (I plan on sticking around for some time), I feel it is essential to my company’s long-term viability to help team members develop their leadership and business acumen with the idea that one might replace me at some point. Some may view this as distracting, but all the great, longstanding companies do this with due care and consideration. GE is a prime example, where past chairmens identified and trained their potential successors as much as 10 years ahead of the actual transition.

I’m of the firm belief that focusing on building companies that will be around a century later is a good way to ensure both short term as well as long term success. It’s not a question of whether I intend to be around that long, but rather a desire to remain a vibrant and competing entity throughout its lifetime. A company that does not adhere to tried and true principles will undoubtedly mean that its life will end prematurely.

Read article on ColoradoBiz here>>>

 
iMedia
Charles Wiedenhoft, Director of Business Planning & Optimization, Red Door Interactive

With social networks, mobile devices, web sites, and blogs, consumers have more resources to inform their purchasing decisions than ever before. As shopping experiences become increasingly complex, it’s necessary to explore new methods of communications planning. Linear models which fail to portray fundamental shifts in consumer behavior must be replaced with flexible, multi-directional approaches. Customer journey maps are growing in popularity to solve for this problem. They reveal the best opportunities for brands to engage with customers along dynamic paths to purchase.

What’s a customer journey map?
Customer journey maps show the interactions that occur between people and brands. They make it easier to understand how shoppers engage with a company’s employees, processes, messaging, products, and services. Most importantly, customer journey maps reveal factors that have the greatest impact on purchasing decisions. Some customer journey maps cover the entire purchasing lifecycle while others focus on individual phases and micro-conversion events occurring throughout the funnel. In recent years, user generated content has brought more attention to post-purchase activities, such as the out-of-box experience, which increasingly influences loyalty and advocacy in social channels.

Touchpoints are a key feature of all customer journey maps. They are centered on understanding the needs, expectations and motivations of shoppers. Touchpoints represent activities such as exposure to product packaging, dialogue with sales associates, visits to brand web sites and advice sought from social networks. Touchpoints are often moments of truth and reveal opportunities for building consumer confidence and removing barriers to purchase. They also provide a reference point for measuring the influence of previous journey steps and ensuring future steps are part of an overall cohesive experience.

Benefits and uses of customer journey maps
Opportunities to engage customers in mobile and digital channels have increased the complexity of many shopping experiences. Purchasing paths nowadays bear little resemblance to classic conversion funnels as expanding sources of influence such as location-based marketing, daily deals and social chatter have scattered a linear sequence of steps. Customer journey maps provide the structure that is needed to plan communications around these touchpoints ensuring that it’s meaningful and relevant. Routes shown on journey maps can accommodate flexibility in purchasing paths and reveal how shoppers actually think and make decisions. This makes it possible to align shopper behavior with the right message, at that right time, in the right place which is far more effective than a singular approach.

Marketers who aim to acquire and convert more shoppers must do better than their competitors at simplifying purchasing decisions and increasing consumer confidence. Mapping the customer journey isolates points of tension and reveals barriers to purchase that lead to indecision or selection of competing alternatives. Each touchpoint offers a chance to understand why shoppers buy, and often more importantly why they don’t.

Customer journey maps also make it possible to develop attribution models for comparison of need states, stimuli and purchasing paths. Marketers can use this information to identify high-value audiences and messaging touchpoints. Performance benchmarks can be set for individual steps and optimized over time (e.g., engagement, memorability, satisfaction, and trustworthiness.) Active governance ensures brand experience remains consistent across the journey map.

How to create a customer journey map
A customer journey map starts with identifying the experience you want to capture and specifying target audiences involved. You’ll then determine the rational and emotional triggers that prompt shoppers to action. While this information can come from people within your company who interact with customers directly, it’s always best to speak with customers themselves (provided you have the resources to do so.) In-depth interviews are preferred over surveys and focus groups because they leave no answers open-ended and avoid potential bias.

Let’s imagine you want to map the journey of wireless customers who are shopping for a smartphone. You might discover that a rational need of a business persona is to keep up with the constant flow of email while traveling outside the office. On the other hand, a teenager concerned with showing off the latest technology to the delight of a peer group has an emotional need for the same kind of product.

After exploring need states the next step in mapping the customer journey is to identify stimuli that create awareness of a brand. Stimuli might include display advertising, paid search links, a catalogue, direct mail, or product review seen on Facebook. In between these stimuli are a myriad of brand engagement touchpoints. This is where customer journey maps become most actionable. At each touchpoint, you’ll want to understand what customers expect, their motivations, issues, and potential roadblocks. Here are a few questions to get you started. The insights conveyed will ensure every interaction a customer has with your brand is a positive one.

• What kind of touchpoint is this? (e.g., web site visit, phone call, product packaging, blog post)
• What is the customer’s motivation here?
• What did the customer experience before this touchpoint?
• What questions, barriers, issues or concerns are customers expressing here?
• How does this touchpoint align with our brand platform?

Finally, determine if a touchpoint is a moment of truth, and get a sense of how you’re going to prioritize optimization efforts moving forward. Don’t be surprised if you learn about shoppers adding to consideration sets even after starting the process of narrowing down options. It just validates the importance of staying relevant and top-of-mind throughout the purchasing lifecycle.

Read article on iMedia here>>> 

ColoradoBiz
Scott Esmond, Dir. of Business Development – Denver, Red Door Interactive

When it comes to brainstorming your next creative marketing strategy, companies use a variety of tactics to uncover their next big idea. While it might happen during a brainstorming session or over happy hour, successful brands know how to inspire new ideas and continually drive their business.

During a recent Red Door Interactive Speaker Series, well-known brands shared their insight on exercises and tools they implement in an effort to get the creative juices flowing. Here are five tips to help you inspire your company’s next creative solution.

1) Incorporate tools: For Red Door’s Executive Creative Director, Lisa Schiavello, an old-school favorite tool is the Creative Whack Pack. Each of the 64 cards in the box offer strategies and techniques to provoke and inspire new thinking, and coincide well with Red Door’s core values. In addition, Candyce Johnson, Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing at Eagle Creek Travel Gear, says their company uses Watizit, a fun and free idea generating exercise. Whether you’re devising ideas for an upcoming project or trying to solve a problem, this game helps individuals think outside the box.

2) Immerse yourself in the brand: When companies are attempting to create new concepts or expand on an idea that’s already in place, one of the best ways to accomplish this is to immerse yourself in the brand. When it’s time to get the creative juices flowing, Stone Brewing Company does just that. “It doesn’t hurt the creative process when you have an award-winning beer garden attached to your office,” says Mike Palmer, Creative Director, Stone Brewing Company. The company incorporates their products while brainstorming in hopes it might help spark some ideas. How else do you think they came up with the name Arrogant Bastard Ale?

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Skiing Business
Ryan Dionne

About 50 percent of offline sales are influenced by online research, says John Faris, Red Door Interactive’s online acquisition director. So retailers that don’t put much emphasis online, should rethink their marketing strategy to target customers where they are and how they want to interact.

Faris, as well as Ben Friedland, Whole Foods Market’s Rocky Mountain region marketing vice president, presented during Skiing Business’ first webinar September 14. The topic: “New Communication Strategies for In-Store Promotions: Early Season Tips to get People in the Door.”

Watch the webinar by clicking here or on the image below:

It’s those customers, too, who are more prone to tell their friends about the store, populate social media sites, and submit online reviews, he says.

And when it comes to reviews, retailers should pay attention because about 83 percent of consumers say online customer reviews influenced their buying decision, Faris says. Retailers shouldn’t be afraid to ask for product reviews or even store reviews to boost free marketing efforts.

Faris also recommends retailers claim their Google Places location as well as their location on Yelp and other similar sites. Claiming that location not only helps consumers find the store when they are searching from home, but it also makes the store more visible while on the go.

Of the people who searched for a local business on their smartphone, 77 percent contacted the business, and of those, 44 percent bought something, Faris says.

Both Faris and Friedland say digging into customer databases is crucial for any business’ marketing strategy and is bound to get people in the door.

The webinar was part one of two that takes a look at getting people into stores early in the season. The second part, scheduled for 9 a.m. MST on Wednesday, Sept. 28, will feature Jonathan Georger, Backbone Media’s online brand manager, and Eric Dieter, Movement Strategy’s co-founder.

Georger will discuss how businesses can transform their online fans and followers into offline customers. Dieter will discuss co-branded partnerships that businesses of all sizes can implement.

Read about & watch the webinar here>>>

iMedia
Trung Ngo, SEO Specialist, Red Door Interactive

Many “Top X list of easy link building tips” articles have been written, and it’s done nothing more than promote lazy and uninspired SEO. The worst part is that some of the tactics actually work, prolonging their general acceptance as a standard practice or what some might consider foundational link building.

The following three tactics should sound familiar to every SEO, and with a little bit of analysis it should be clear why the tactics are short-sighted and potentially a huge waste of time.

Tactic: Creating profiles on social media sites you never plan to be active on
Your everyday SEO is sold at “Get do follow links from sites with domain authority 40+ quick,” so any social media site that meets this minimum criteria will seem like an obvious opportunity. Worse yet, there are services that automatically populate company information and the all-important back link to hundreds of social media sites. SEO is easy!

If you dedicated weeks to updating and connecting with other users on these sites and increasing the page authority, at best, the links would fall into the low quality bucket. Why? Because it’s likely that no one is linking to your profile page, and even less likely that the link is coming from a source that search engines find credible. And if you happen to be able to get links from quality sites, is a social media profile really the best place to link to?

The amount of time spent creating and maintaining these accounts versus the potential link value alone should detract SEOs from this tactic. But if that’s not enough, think about how the company will look to users once you abandon this tactic and the page is no longer being updated.

Tactic: Submitting your site to any and every directory that’s marginally related to your industry
Directory submissions are usually at the top of the list of easy link building tactics. It’s not hard to see why. It takes a minimal amount of thought and effort and will quickly boost the total number of inbound links that you can include in your client reports.

Are all directory links bad? No. Is there a better way you can be spending your time? Probably.

Directory link building is a problem when it becomes more than a baseline effort and is passed off as an effective means of increasing rankings. There’s definitely some merit to getting links from high-quality, trusted directories that actually have an audience, because if it doesn’t provide link value it can at least help drive traffic to the site. But if the strategy relies on this tactic, there needs to be a serious reevaluation. Consider that Google’s patent for information retrieval based on historical data explicitly states that links from “free-for-all pages that let anyone add a link to a document” may be a sign of link spam. Directories fit this description all too well.

Tactic: Syndicating articles across a network of “relevant” sites
In general, the word “syndication” in any link building tactic should raise a few questions. Among the many obvious problems, article syndication inherently creates a duplicate content issue. Companies that advertise article syndication across a network of sites as a method of gaining quality backlinks operate under the premise that search engines have not evolved in the last few years.

Search engines have become substantially more sophisticated in the last year alone, continually working to remove irrelevant pages and sites from search results. As part of a continued effort to reduce clutter and improve relevancy in results, search engines are filtering out pages that have a significant amount of matching content, with the goal of having one primary version of a particular piece of content. Given this fact, duplicate pages (e.g., articles replicated across multiple domains) will be filtered out of search results and ignored by search engines. If the pages are removed from search results, it stands to reason that the search engines do not see use for it and will likely devalue all links associated with the page.

Article syndication has its place in internet marketing, but as a link building tactic it is quickly becoming useless. While there may be short term success, it’s clear that search engines are dedicated to removing duplicate content, and they’ll only get better at identifying these pages in the future.

When it comes down to it, links shouldn’t come easy. If links are so easy for you to get, it’s probably easy for everyone else too. This is the fundamental problem with low quality link building — if everyone has the link, no one is getting any relative value out of the link. You’d be much better off going after quality links that take a reasonable amount of effort to get, because your competitors are probably not willing to put in the work.

In addition to cancelling each other out and being a poor use of your time, low quality link building can actually hurt your rankings if search engines identify the links as spam. This is especially true for tactics advertised as large-scale link building because search engines use rate of link growth as a signal for identifying link spam. And ultimately, if a tactic is too effective in influencing search results, search engines will work to negate its effects despite the initial intention.

Search engine algorithms will evolve over time, but it will always be in their best interest to provide a great user experience by delivering the most relevant content for any given query. Align your link building tactics and overall SEO strategy with this to mitigate the risks that come with the ever-changing nature of search engines.

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