Betty Benton Mann, the “Betty” Behind the Betty Factor, Died Friday Morning

Betty Mann (of "The Betty Factor" fame)

Betty Benton Mann, my 83-year-old mother-in-law and the inspiration behind The Betty Factor, died in her sleep early Friday morning, December 4, 2009 of health matters incident to old age and having her gall bladder removed earlier in the week.

Here is a copy of her obituary.

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After 83 wonderful years on earth, Betty Benton Mann returned home to her Father-in-Heaven, the Savior, Jesus Christ, many loving family members and friends, and her beloved husband, Ray, on December 4, 2009, nearly two years to the day after Ray’s passing.

Born July 3, 1926 in Boise, Idaho to Mamie Thompson and Otto G. Benton, Betty was the fifth of nine children. She was raised in Boise, Twin Falls, Idaho and Redondo Beach, California.

From the day she first walked herself to services as a young child, Betty was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). As a teenager, she was president of her ward Golden Gleaner organization and helped plan and run the first ever LDS Youth Conference in southern California.

After graduating from Redondo Union High School, she moved to North Salt Lake to help her oldest sister, Wanda, care for her children, and it was there that she met her future husband, Ray Elwood Mann.

Betty and Ray were married in the Salt Lake Temple of the LDS church on May 4, 1948. They settled in Bountiful, Utah where they raised three daughters and two sons, while she also worked as a dental assistant for many years. Betty was active in the PTA in Bountiful where she ran the Halloween Carnival for three years and served as PTA president for two year.

After their youngest children graduated from high school in 1975, Betty and Ray spent an adventurous year in 1976 in West Germany for Ray’s employer, Chicago Bridge & Iron. The next year, Ray was transferred to world headquarters in Chicago where they lived until 1984. During their time in Naperville, Illinois, Betty filled an eight-year volunteer assignment with LDS Social Services working with out-of-wedlock mothers, including service as a counselor to birth mothers and transporting newborns to adoptive parents. She also served for a time as a member of the Relief Society presidency in the Glenbard Ward in Illinois.

Betty and Ray moved to Sandy, Utah in 1984 where they made their home for the rest of their lives. In Sandy, Betty served for 18 years in the LDS church’s Data Entry Program in the Canyon View Stake. She and Ray also served a one-year LDS Service Mission in 1994 near Bakersfield, California for the Home Management Department.

Betty was preceded in death by her parents, five siblings, her husband, and one son, Clyde. She is survived by four children, Linda, Pam (Harold) Egginton, Todd, and Allisha (David) Politis; 18 grandchildren (evenly divided between boys and girls); and 14 great-grandchildren.

A viewing will be held at Mountain View Mortuary at 3115 East 7800 South in Cottonwood Heights, Utah from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tues., Dec. 8, 2009. The funeral will be held at the same location at 11 a.m. on Wed., Dec. 9, preceded by an additional viewing from 9:45 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. Interment, on site, will follow immediately after the funeral.

The family extends its heartfelt thanks and admiration for all of the fantastic doctors and medical providers who worked with Betty in addressing her health concerns during the past few years. In addition, Betty (and Ray) loved living at South Towne Ranch in Sandy, Utah where they made many wonderful friends.

Betty had a sharp mind and wit her entire life, and she loved studying the gospel of Jesus Christ and learning about LDS church history. She was a devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and friend, and although she will be missed, we are happy she has “graduated” from this life to be reunited with her husband and best friend, Ray.

Goodbye for now, Betty.

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Although we had some initial son-in-law / mother-in-law challenges early in the 28 years of our relationship, we both grew to love and respect each other over time, and I’m grateful Allisha and I were able to have both Betty and Ray live so close by as we raised our five children.

She was a good person and taught me much, not the least of which was to always remember to work and work and work to make sure what I wrote could be easily understood by anyone, even my mother-in law.

To that end, I will always use the phrase “The Betty Factor” as a shorthand reminder of that lesson. I will also keep this blog alive in her honor and as a way of continuing to teach about the importance of keeping all marketing messages simple and on-point.

Thank you, Betty, and for now, goodbye. 

Becoming Socially Ambidextrous

Why Using Two or More Social Networks is Becoming the Norm

Today’s blog post by Brian Solis (”The Competition for Your Social Graph“) got me thinking:

• Do I use more than one social network?
• And if so, why?
• And if you don’t, “Why don’t you?”

When I was growing up in San Carlos, California, my best friend was Alan Daines. Not only were we best buds, but Alan was unique among my friends in that he could bat and throw with both hands. By definition that means that Alan was ambidextrous (or could use both hands equally well).

Alan was a lefty by birth, so he ended up playing first base for the San Carlos High School Dons. But he also taught himself to first bat righthanded, and then to throw righthanded as well. Man, that was cool!

After a lot of work I learned how to bat lefthanded; but throwing? Nah, that was another matter.

I’m Not Socially Ambidextrous - I’m Actually Socially Multidextrous

When it comes to my use of social networks and social media, however, it turns out that I’m socially multidextrous. By this I mean that I’m not dedicated to using one social network, tool, service or media to the exclusion of others. No, I actually use multiple social networks/media/services/tools, and sometimes I use more than one at the same time.

My first exposure to social networking was MySpace. I signed up years ago because we were trying to get my daughter, Melea, into the entertainment industry as a singer. (Tough, tough world, by the way.)

Today I visit/use MySpace rarely as I find its focus on music and entertainment to be overrun with skanks, ho’s and people typically interested in their next hookup. (No thank you.)

Facebook, however, is another thing. I now visit nearly every day and use it for both professional and personal networking and staying connected.

Twitter is the same for me. I use it almost every day, especially through HootSuite (which has some great tools for managing URL shortening and providing stats on people who click through URLs you embed into tweets).

I also use two business-focused social networks: LinkedIn and Plaxo. Of the two I like and use LinkedIn the most, although I really like the ability within Plaxo to send e-Birthday cards to my friends.

I also use a number of other social media/network tools/services, depending upon what it is I’m trying to do that day, especially services and tools tied to Twitter. Of these, I probably use

• HootSuite,
• TweetChat, and
• Hashtags

the most.

Why I Use Multiple Social Networks, Media, Services and/or Tools

What works for me is using different social networks, media, services and tools for different purposes.

For example, I use Facebook (in part) because it’s so dang big — more than 300 million members at last count. That’s a massive potential marketplace, and we advise ALL of our clients to use and be on Facebook.

I also use FB because it allows people to create and post multiple types of content onto their “Walls,” profiles and other users’ Walls, especially longer posts/content. This can be a good thing (if not used to excess).

Additionally, I have the ability to filter who is actively following (or Friending) me on Facebook. That can be important from a “noise” standpoint.

The microblogging service Twitter, on the other hand, is great for instantaneous, short messages, which makes sense since you are limited to a total of 140 characters max on Twitter.

(NOTE: If you want others to retweet, or re-post/re-tweet, what you’ve written, however, I’ve found it’s best to keep your Twitter posts/tweets to around 120 characters instead of using all 140. People are less likely to shorten your tweets this way.)

I also like the fact that I can “legally” have more than one Twitter account (as per Twitter’s Terms of Service). {You’re not supposed to do that on Facebook, with the exception of having a FB profile and a FB Fan Page.}

Ergo, I currently have one main Twitter account that I use most of the time (@dpolitis), but I also have several other Twitter accounts that come into play depending upon my particular area of interest or need.

LinkedIn, however, is all about business and networking for business purposes, and I use it as such. (And to be honest, I use LinkedIn a LOT more than I use Plaxo for two reasons:

1. LinkedIn has more than twice as many users as Plaxo (50MM+ vs. 20MM+), and
2. I get fewer random (read spammy) connection requests on LinkedIn vs. Plaxo.

And then as I wrote above, I use other social services and tools based upon what they allow me to do, especially with other social networks and media.

So . . . how about you?

• Do you use social networks/services/media/tools for your marketing and sales efforts?
• And if not, why not?
• And if so, which one(s) do you use the most (and why)?
• Or are you socially ambidextrous? (Do you have two favorite social networks you use all the time?)
• Or . . . are you really socially multidextrous, using multiple social networks/media/tools/services to engage with your customers, partners, investors, etc., all in the name of selling more products and services?

Tell me what you’re doing with social networks (and why) by posing your comment below. Thanks.

Hispanics and Marketing

Hispanics make 15.1% of the U.S. population, and it’s projected that by 2050 the Hispanic population in the U.S. will grow to 24%. With such numbers, I believe Hispanic marketing and PR could become an even more profitable way of doing business in the near future.

I’m originally from Chile (South American country), thus my opinion might sound a little biased, but during my six years in the U.S. I have come to realize the important role that Hispanics play in the marketplace, as well as the social and political U.S. arena.

Though Hispanics are considered the largest ethnic minority in the U.S., I think there are two main problems when attempting to interact with them: lack of marketing exclusively towards Hispanics, and a lack of marketing from Hispanics.

While living in the U.S. I have noticed that a number of large companies could be doing a better job with Hispanics. Some companies try so hard going after “the one,” they forget about some of other potential publics.

Though the problem mentioned above is a fact, I think the greatest problem lays in marketing and PR being generated from Hispanics.

While walking around town I have seen so many Hispanic restaurants and stores go out of business after two or three months in business, that I wanted to find out more behind this tragedy.

Not too long ago I decided to go to a new Mexican (owned by a Mexican) restaurant in Provo. As some of you may know, Provo is a college town (home of Brigham Young University) thus the whole town is full of college students. While eating and having a good time there, I noticed the owner was close by so I decided to talk to him.

After introducing myself and talking for a while, I asked him how the business was doing so far. After looking at me for a second he went on to confess they were doing fine, but they weren’t getting many new customers. I then went on and asked him if he was trying to target college students or younger publics besides Hispanic families. The owner told me he had tried to but wasn’t willing to spend much money on it. I asked if he had tried social media, I added that it was free, reached a lot of the younger generation, and that his message could be heard by a lot of people in short period of time.

After discussing a couple of good strategies to start with, and some other ideas to generate more customers through Twitter and Facebook, the owner was sitting in our table, exchanging phone numbers, and thanking me for that simple advice. I’m sure that restaurant is not going to generate millions of dollars in revenues because of my advice, but I think the owner has learned a great lesson on how to interact with his publics in a better way.

I sure hope that restaurant does better in the near future, in the meantime I will keep my eyes open for more opportunities and if I’m lucky I might get a free taco out of the whole experience!

Korean Taco Tweetup

Would you try Mexican food fused with Korean BBQ? What if a taco only cost you $2? What if the taco truck selling the cuisine had 10,000 followers on Twitter?

At the time the NPR story Tweeting Food Truck Draws L.A.’s Hungry Crowds aired, Kogi, the Korean taco truck that cruises around the streets of L.A., had over 8,000 followers on Twitter. Tweeters follow kogibbq to track the Kogi truck’s location and its specials and promotions. One Tweet reads: “Trojans… we’LL be in yer neighborhood Wednesday. Free taco for the 1st 100 peopLe!”

Twitter updates drive neighborhoods, commuters and college students from L.A. and surrounding SoCal counties to the mobile street vendor of Korean short rib tacos. Just as Kobi has used food to merge two ethnic cultures, Twitter has used social networking to create and unify the virtual and face-to-face Kobi communities.

175 Million Reasons Why You (and Your Company) Should be on Facebook

The latest comScore numbers are out, and there are now 175 million users on Facebook.

In other words, in less than a year, Facebook has now caught and surpassed MySpace as the most relevant and compelling social networking platform in the world. (Hmmmmm, maybe those guys at Microsoft are pretty smart after all.)

Recognize that roughly 70 percent of all FB members are from outside of the United States (or approximately 122 million users), which may or may not be a good thing for you and/or your company.

But for those of you just focused on the U.S., that still means that more than 50 million Americans are on Facebook, which is pretty mind-boggling when you stop and think about it. In other words, since its founding in February 2004, Facebook has now captured more than 1/6th the entire U.S. population as users/members.

Assuming you’re reading this because you work in some aspect of marketing, communications, public relations, shareholder relations, sales, management or a combination of these areas, 50 million of anything is a BIG DEAL! And if 50MM is a BIG DEAL, then certainly 175 million is an even bigger deal!

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Four Marketing Lessons from the TweetSum Video

TweetSum is a brand new tool for Twitter users that launched just a few weeks ago.

As Twitter tools go, TweetSum is interesting in that it allows those in the Twitter-universe (”Twitterverse”) to quickly review their Followers and people they are following, ranks each by a TweetSum ranking, and allows you to Ignore, Follow or Un-Follow people very easily. But that’s NOT why I’m writing about TweetSum here.

Actually, I recommend you check out TweetSum’s explanatory video on its home page. Here’s why.

1.   The video communicates the TweetSum brand perfectly.(At least I think it does.) According to the About section on the site, TweetSum was banged together over a weekend by a bunch of friends/colleagues in Seattle. And given

• the titles the TweetSum-ers have given themselves,
• the style of writing on the site,
• some of the terms/language they use (FYI - the rating system noted above is called the Douche Bag Index or DBI for short),

I’d say TweetSum is a tongue-in-cheek, we-don’t-really-care-if-you-like-us-or-not just-use-our-service kind of a company.

If I’m correct with my read on the TweetSum brand, the brand message comes across clearly in the video in the opening lines when a voice intones “TweetSum : So filled with awesome your head will explode.” Yeah, it made me smile too.

2.    The TweetSum video quickly explains the problem (and the answer) faced by most Twitter users — deciding who to Follow (or stop Following).

3.     The video simply shows how TweetSum works.

4.     And the TweetSum video is only two minutes & 19 seconds long.

So why am I writing about TweetSum and its online video? Two reasons.

A.   TweetSum shows how easy it is to both introduce and reinforce your brand from the very beginning by using an inexpensive, yet very informative, video on a company Website.

B.   Online video is becoming more and more important to the search engine algorithms as they spider across the Web. Those sites with video and other forms of multimedia content receive a stronger rating by the search companies. And the more relevant such content is to the site where the video is found, the better off the content is judged.

When you use video on your site(s), consider reinforcing such content with written content as well. This can either be a word-for-word copy of the video or supporting language.

As I understand it, the Web-spiders and the algorithms are not quite to the point yet where they can “read” the videos and what they contain — just that they’re on your site, what metatags and headlines they have, and what “closed captions” (if any) they contain.

Since most videos on the Web do NOT contain closed captioning, adding on the word-for-word and/or supporting copy is a good idea (at least for now).

Congrats to the TweetSum team for a good use of online video. You get a “Happy Betty Award” for your efforts.

P.S.  The “Twitter in Plain English” video is another great example of an online, how-to video. It’s found on the Twitter homepage as well as on YouTube.com. Here it is:

Five Reasons Why Twitter Matters for PR Professionals

Anytime a new technology product or service begins to get national consumer play in media outlets like the Wall Street Journal, New York Times or CNN you know that product/service has reached the Tipping Point (a la Malcolm Gladwell’s book of the same name) and is well on its way to mass market acceptance.

That’s obviously the case with Twitter, a free social media tool that allows users to write and publish extremely short pieces on the Internet. How short? 140 characters tops.

Twitterers can also create a short bio which is hosted on a blog-like page inside of Twitter (one of my accounts can be seen at www.twitter.com/dpolitis). Users can then follow one another, sending microblog posts out into the general Twitterverse or directly to another individual via a Direct Message.

In less than three years since Twitter’s founding in March 2006, more than six million Twitter accounts have been created, with close to four million active Twitterers last month.

And yet, the purpose of this post is not to provide a Twitter 101 primer - there are several other resources that do just that.

Rather this post is designed to specifically address the issue of the near- and long-term viability of Twitter as a potentially valuable communications tool/service for use in the public relations arena, particularly for media relations.

During more than 25 years as a public relations/marketing communications professional, particularly working with technology companies of all varieties, I have seen dramatic changes in the tools and services that we PR pros use to conduct our campaigns and programs.

That said, after nine months of using and experimenting with Twitter, I am totally committed to ongoing and expanding use of Twitter - for myself, for our agencies (Politis Communications and SOAR Communications), and for our clients.

Here (in reverse order) is my list of five reasons why Twitter matters for PR professionals, especially in the realm of publicity and media relations.

5.   More journalists/bloggers/media outlets begin using Twitter every day (and the more journalists, bloggers & media outlets on Twitter, the better Twitter becomes as a tool for PR people).

It only makes sense that the number of journalists using Twitter is growing right along with the overall growth of the service.

Can I put quantitative figures behind this assertion? No.

But I can point the interested PR person toward two links that will help them begin to build a list of editorial types on Twitter: namely, Twellow and the My Creative Team wiki.

Specifically, Twellow is an independent, Twitter-focused search engine, and you can use it to search for just about any one individual or any group of people, including journalists and bloggers.

Similarly, the wiki from My Creative Team includes lists of both journalists and media outlets on Twitter.

There are also a growing list of posts that contain their own breakdown of journalists on Twitter, such as this list from Carlos Granier-Phelps on Red66.com. (Make sure you check out the more than 70 comments for additions to Granier-Phelps’ initial list, some of which were added within the last week.)

The point is journalists (and media outlets) continue to adopt Twitter, and this trend does not appear to be slowing down or stopping.

4.   Twitter provides a new mechanism for connecting with journalists.

Back when I got started in PR more than two-and-a-half decades ago, we used printed directories of media outlets and contact information to help identify editorial team members.

Such databases still exist, but most have moved to an electronic format, at a minimum these are encapsulated onto a CD-ROM or DVD, or better yet, maintained online so they are accessible in real-time 24X7. A number of these services, like Cision, also contain information about the individual preferences of these journalists.

Additionally, many (but not all) media outlets have Websites, many of which contain the names, titles, beats and contact information for their reporters and editors.

Certainly, search engines like Google and Yahoo! have also shown they can be valuable services in the PR toolkit for indentifying which journalists cover what topics and what they’ve written about or covered in the past.

Now . . . enter Twitter.

Central to the entire concept of Twitter is the ability to identify individuals and/or organizations one is interested in and to be able to learn about what’s important to them. In addition, there’s also the potential to follow and be followed by said journalists.

All of which makes it easier to begin to develop the beginnings of a relationship, be it professional, personal or both.

3.   Cream rises to the top.

Just because a so-called PR pro has identified a reporter on Twitter, that doesn’t mean she has good Twitter etiquette.

Specifically, if all you do is use Twitter to pitch story ideas or hound a journalist about covering your employer or clients, you will quickly find yourself banished to the Twitter garbage bin and “blocked” from contacting said journo.

And if you’re really pesky and break Twitter’s own rules, you’ll probably find your account suspended from the Twitterverse. That wouldn’t necessary prevent you from creating a new Twitter account and starting all over again. Regardless, bad form is still bad form and cretins tend to remain cretins.

Remember, that Twitter is part of the entire social media landscape, the Web 2.0 world, a world centered around openness and conversations.

The best PR practitioners understand this and are true PR pros in every sense of the word.

Such professionals understand that passing along information to a reporter that is germane to his/her beat is a good idea, a smart idea, even if it means such efforts generate zero media coverage in the process.

What a concept! It’s called the Golden Rule. It’s called common courtesy. It’s called being nice to other people.

The best PR people also understand the constraints and restraints placed on journalists. They understand deadlines and beats and assignments and journalistic integrity and many (if not most) of the ins and outs of the media world. And they respect the editorial professionals who do their best to create new news product day in and day out, particularly in countries that enjoy freedom of the press.

 Just because Twitter is a new service, one that allows near real-time interaction and connectivity with anyone, but especially journalists, real PR pros do NOT abuse such capabilities. Instead, they judiciously use Twitter to meet end goals and objectives while respecting the needs and wants of others.

2.   Media relations is STILL about the story idea (or the angle or the fit).

Although some media types claim that they never use information or materials provided by a PR person, the truth is that smart journalists recognize that good sources can come from anywhere and from anyone.

That’s why the most key element of successful media relations efforts is finding the right story idea for the right journalist at the right media outlet at the right time.

Just because Twitter is some newfangled technology tool doesn’t obviate this fact.

Case in point, use Twitter to “pitch” a non-tech story to one of the many C/NET journos on Twitter and 99.9 percent of the time your pitch will fail.

Conversely, pitch a cycling story via Twitter to @FredCast or @carltonreid and chances are you’ll generate serious interest.

Bottom line? Wasting a reporter’s time is NEVER a good idea. That’s been true for as long as I’ve been in PR, and just because I can pitch a journalist an idea in 140 characters doesn’t mean I’m gonna be successful if I’ve got

• the wrong reporter,
• the wrong media outlet,
• the wrong story idea,
• at the wrong time.

1.   It’s the 140 characters, stupid!

With credit given to James Carville - he’s the consultant who gave Bill Clinton the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid” - in Twitter, it’s all about the 140 characters.

That’s it. Everyone has the same limitations.

Even if you use such tricks as URL shorteners to display a Web address within a tweet, such as TinyURL.com or bit.ly, there is no guarantee anyone will click on your shortened URL.

You still have a mere 140 characters to catch someone’s attention, and this reality is multiplied many times over for media types who get pummeled with long-winded, poorly written and off-topic story ideas day after day after day.

Microblogging a story pitch to a journalist inside of Twitter is like the elevator pitch in the VC world. Get it right and doors begin to open. Screw it up, and that door may never open.

Consultants working with businesses looking to raise money from venture capitalists tell the executives to shorten their business proposition down to an “elevator pitch.” In other words, they’re told, make sure you can describe your company’s value propostion between floors when riding an elevator.

Those entrepreneurs who can best fulfill this elevator pitch guideline have the best chance of catching the attention of a prospective investor, and that’s just the potential beginning of a relationship between a company and an investor.

Microblogging a story pitch to a journalist inside of Twitter is like the elevator pitch in the VC world. Get it right and doors begin to open. Screw it up, and that door may never open.

In that regard, creating the perfect Twitter pitch is rarely something that’s thrown together; rather, perfect Twitter pitches tend to be crafted, often offline first where they’re vetted and reviewed before being DMed directly to a journalist.

And with only 140 characters to play with, precise brevity is key.

Bonus Idea: Create Unique Twitter Accounts for Your Company/Client, Product/Service or Individual

One last thought.

Although you’re limited to 140 characters per each microblog post within Twitter (also known as a “tweet”), you have fewer limitations if you create a separate Twitter account for your company, client, product, service and/or individual.

Case in point. If you visit www.twitter.com/SchwinnTailwind, you will find the Twitter account that we (SOAR Communications) recently created to promote the new Tailwind brand electric bike from Schwinn Bicycles.

In addition to creating the layout so it fit within the corporate brand identity for both Schwinn and the Tailwind, we also crafted a page background that allowed us to highlight a few key facts that we believe differentiate the Tailwind from other eBikes.

We also listed the booth address (#74840) where Schwinn will be exhibiting this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, as well as contact information for journalists interested in checking out the Tailwind at CES09.

Has it worked? Well, it certainly hasn’t hurt as we’ve got interviews, demo rides and briefings set with some of the top media outlets attending CES, including a slot coming early this morning on The Today Show — so you tell me. 

Your Thoughts?

So what do you think? Did I nail the top reasons why Twitter matters to public relations professionals or do you have a different list altogether? Or do you disagree with the premise entirely and feel that Twitter is merely a passing fad?

Please include your thoughts, additions and/or deletions to this list in the comment section below. And on Twitter as well. 

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AUTHOR’S NOTE: A special thank you to everyone who has participated thus far in the weekly #journchat sessions every Monday evening, 7-10PM CST. In addition, a special thanks to Sarah Evans (@PRsarahevans) for her role in envisoning, creating and organizing the virtual @journchat meetups as a vehicle for PR and media professionals to engage and share on a weekly basis - all via Twitter.

Learn Social Media Tools and Services Fast with Links to 200 Social Media Sites

The biggest challenge for anyone working in marketing is how fast the entire Web 2.0/social media/social networking scene is moving.

In fact, things are moving so fast in the social media/networking space, if you blink, you’re suddenly behind the curve. 

It’s with this in mind that I point readers of TheBettyFactorblog with this link to a great resource I just found online written by blogger Jason Mayfield at OpenJason.

Specifically, you should check out his blog post titled “Knowledge is Power: Here’s 200 sites that give you power.”

is Jason’s list comprehensive? No, as some very obvious social media/networking services/tools are missing from his post, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace, just to name a few.

However, it’s a very good list and a great starting point for anyone looking for a fast overview of just some of the Web 2.0 things people and companies are doing on the ‘Net.

Good job, Jason.

Want Better Results? Write Better Headlines!

Regardless of the specific industry you work in, everyone is always looking for ways to be more successful and generate better results. For those of us with marketing and/or communications responsibilities, that means getting more people to read, listen to and/or watch our stuff.

Why? Because the more people we can engage with our marketing/communications stuff the more successful we will be and that invariably means MONEY!

So if you really want better results, that means writing better headlines . . . at least that’s what MarketingSherpa says.

MarketingSherpa is one of the leading publishers of information and data on what really works in all areas of marketing and marketing communications. They have hundreds of thousands of subscribers to their free online newsletters, and do a substantial business in selling reports and studies and producing conferences around the U.S.

Last week, MarketingSherpa.com ran a great story in their online newsletter titled “4 Takeaways from MarketingSherpa’s Newsletter Subject-Line Analysis.” (Not necessarily the snappiest headline, but it does follow one of the four rules. See below.)

In summary, MarketingSherpa had their own people go back and analyze every headline for every article they had published in the last year to see if they could identify which articles were the most successful. Naturally, each article topic stands on its own and one topic may be inherently more interesting and/or relevant to more people than the rest.

But by the time they were all done - particularly analyzing click-to-opens (the number of people who clicked on a link to see an entire article) and reviewing clickthroughs (the number of times people clicked on a link within, or connected to, an article) - they came up with Four Takeaways, namely

1. The first two words in any headline are the most critical (such as How To, Top 12, Simple Email, and HTML vs, among others),
2. Use “trigger words” in your headlines (you’ll need to read this one because there isn’t a simple rule to follow, but they did suggest you “dedicate at least a few hours to the subject line“),
3. Avoid hard-sell headlines or headlines that ask for reader action (NOTE: The worst performing 10 headlines for MarketingSherpa last year ALL USED HARD-SELL LANGUAGE OR REQUESTED READER ACTION), and
4. Use “hot brands” in headlines wherever possible and practical (headlines that included company names like Facebook, Google and Wikipedia pulled the best for MarketingSherpa articles).

They also came up with a BONUS TAKEAWAY, which is

• Shorter headlines are ALMOST ALWAYS better (but there are exceptions, and MarketingSherpa provides a few examples).

This article has really inspired me to work smarter, harder and longer (when necessary) when it comes to writing any headline.

I believe that anyone who is focused on following the principles of The Betty Factor will do the same.

The Role of Social Media in Branding Efforts

My friend Jason Kintzler (@PitchEngine) - founder of Pitch Engine and overall social media junkie - started a personal blog the other day called New Media Cowboy and launched it with a post entitled “Social Media is Branding.”

Kintzler’s post reminded me that many internal branding efforts are misdirected at best because they’re caught up in the old world way of marketing-think: Specifically, “I (the big, important marketing executive) will tell you (the lucky consumer) what to think about and how to act toward my brand (be it product, service or organization).

This approach is so bass-ackwards it’s laughable, and yet it’s still the way many companies attempt to brand themselves, their products and/or services.

In reality, the definition of a brand has always been directed by those on the receiving ends of any and all communication and marketing efforts and NOT by those on the sending end.

It’s like my very first communications professor at BYU said: “You cannot not communicate.”

In other words, everything we do or say is a form of communication (or marketing, if you will). But since an effective form of mind control has not yet been invented (thank goodness), we cannot control how others will perceive such communication efforts.

Hence, communication has NEVER been a one-way street; rather (at a minimum) communication is a two-way thoroughfare (marketing too). And it is the perception of those receiving any marketing message that determines the brand of an organization, a product, a service or person and NOT the other way around.

“The perception of those receiving any marketing message determines (one’s) brand . . . NOT the other way around.”

That’s what intrigued me about Jason’s post.

He suggests that social media and the tools/services that make up social networking efforts are in fact branding efforts at their very core because they’re all about two-way communication and engaging individuals with one’s organization, product, service or person.

The reason why this observation is so critical is that the best customers are not just repeat customers - they’re evangelizers. They tell others about their great experiences with your brand and as a result they expand your sales, marketing and communications efforts many, many fold.

Why? Because they’re not on your payroll; they’re independent from your organization. As a result, what they write, say and/or do has a HUGE CREDIBILITY - often times generating more impact than virtually any other thing that you might attempt.

Kintzler’s right - social media is ALL ABOUT BRANDING. 

This is a very important concept to grasp and it should flavor any social networking effort undertaken by every marketing, PR, new media and/or communications pro from this point forward.