Social Media — Think Like A Bride-Marketing Mojo for Wedding Businesses

Mastering a World in Flux

January 21, 2012 By ndulj 3 Comments

I caught this great quote in the editors column in the February issue of Fast Company magazine

“In our hyper-networked world, the rules and plans of yesterday are increasingly under pressure; the enterprises and individuals that will thrive will be those willing to adapt and iterate, in a disciplined, unsentimental way.”

This is more or less what I have been saying since 2008, much more eloquently stated. You have to keep your eyes open and be agile and unafraid; but that isn’t what this post is about.

This post is about this philosophy in action; a case study if you will. This is a post about my dear friend, Paul Pannone and how he is single-handedly and unflinchingly transforming a very stuffy, nearly dead industry.

The men’s formal wear industry had all but written its own obituary. Stuck firmly in the past; saddled with outdated looks and hopelessly chained to traditional marketing channels, it was sinking fast. They were living in a bubble. Paul, however saw the bigger picture:create product that followed fashion and market it in a way that would appeal to a younger demographic. To survive, the industry had to get with the program…This ain’t your Grandpa’s tux!

To accomplish anything he had to break down the walls of the stuffy, ‘this is how we’ve always done it’ men’s club that ran the industry. To do that he had to get noticed and show his chops. Chops in formal wear he had in spades having been in the industry for 28 years and publishing a successful industry newsletter, E-formal News. What he needed was to show his mastery of the new marketing. Enter eWedNews. Well, that worked for a while, but it still wasn’t quite it. It did open his eyes to what it was going to take to get this done. Throwing off the bonds of a traditional milquetoast editor he struck out on his own with eWedNewz. Look out world!

Paul understood that in today’s fast paced, information heavy, 24 hour news cycle world you needed a little sensationalism and controversy to shine through the haze. Love him or hate him, he got your attention. More importantly, he proved to the powers that be that he knew what the hell he was doing in the new social media world.

Enter the Weintraubs and FLOW Formal Wear. One of the largest manufacturers of men’s formal wear in the US, they had a lot to lose if the industry failed. Seeing that it was time to adapt to a changing market, they brought in Paul.

Finally in a position to influence change in an industry he had been in since 1984, he stepped up to the plate. Styles were updated, marketing changed and you started to see formal wear that didn’t look antiquated. That was the first step.

Time to raise the roof.

A big part of marketing today is celebrity endorsements. What you want is a celebrity that understands social media and eyeballs. Oddly, it’s less about how closely the celebrity personifies your brand as it is whether or not they are getting the eyeballs of your target market. So who does Paul pick? Not a dapper James Bond type, but the Situation from Jersey Shores, Mike Sorrentino. Again, love him or hate him, he loves clothes and gets a ton of media attention.

The traditionalists in the formal wear industry blew a gasket! To say they were appalled is an understatement.

This is what MyTuxedoCatelogBlog.com had to say:

When FLOW Formal Wear announced that Mike Sorrentino (aka “The Situation”) from reality TV series ‘The Jersey Shore’ was going to be the celebrity face for their new line of tuxedos, we were admittedly… concerned? Confused? We didn’t really get why anyone would choose for a tuxedo line spokesperson a guy best know for losing his shirt

Get over it, you wanted new, you got it. The Situation got his own branded line to stand alongside the lines of Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren. You want to appeal to a younger demographic? Here you go.

Was it a risk? You bet it was. The top style in the line, the Avalon is just beginning to arrive in stores and according to Mr. Pannone, “Without going into numbers, let’s just say if this was a book, we blew away our first printing and are already on our third.” Here is how the industry reviewed the Avalon once they actually got their hands on it.

From the original quote,”adapt, iterate in a disciplined and unsentimental way”; I would say that pretty much sums it up. How one man, unafraid to take risks but with a vision of what can be is on his way to saving an industry.

So what are you doing to shake up your world?

Filed Under: Inspiration, Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: advertising, Marketing, social media, Target Marketing, Trends

Facebook or Blog?

January 18, 2012 By ndulj Leave a Comment

I ran across an interesting question today about where you should put more effort, in your blog or your Facebook page.

I’m not really sure why that is a question. Let me break it down for you.

Your website is your own personal piece of internet real estate. Think of it as your home because in terms of your marketing, it is. Your blog should be the heart and soul of your website. In web design today, integrating your blog as a page on your website is the only way to go. If your blog is off on another url from your main one you are missing the boat.

Today’s brides go to one place to find their vendors above all others:

SEARCH.

If you aren’t ranking high in search engines for what you do and where you do it, you are behind the game.

Reread that last sentence. Notice I did not say for your name. I hope to hell you rank number one for your name. Unfortunately, that isn’t how brides search. They search for things in places.

Huh?

They search for florists in Bucks County.They search for wedding planners in Washington, DC. They search for caterers in Fairbanks, AK. They don’t search for Polly Sue Purebreds Catering. If they do it is because they have already been made aware of Polly Sue from a referral and that is a post for another day.

Now that you understand this, you understand why your personal piece of real estate is so important.

Back to the original question: your blog or Facebook.

Every time you post to Facebook, you are sending all that Google juice to Facebook.com, not to Polly Sue’s url. Great, I’m sure Mr. Zuckerberg appreciates the Google juice, but frankly, you need it worse than he does.

Think of it this way, you have an office or a store but you still meet people in the local coffee-house. Instead of investing to improve your office or store, you take time and treasure to improve the coffee-house. That’s just dumb.

How about this instead, you work on improving the store, and then post updates on the coffee-house bulletin board. When your potential customers start looking for you the coffee-house bulletin board is one of the many signs pointing to your store. When they get to your store, they see how amazing you are.

Enough with the analogies, if you don’t get it yet you never will.

Your blog should be an integrated part of your website.

Facebook should send traffic to your website, not the other way around.

Post to your blog and have it automatically cross-post a headline and an excerpt to your Facebook page leading them to your website.

Done.

Filed Under: Announcement, Marketing, Social Media, Website marketing Tagged With: blogging, blogsites, bridal marketing, Facebook, twitter, web/blogsite, Website traffic, wedding marketing

Groupon for Wedding Vendors? Not!

I am willing to wager that it wasn’t wedding vendors looking for a boost that sent that traffic through the roof. Now as far as I know, there are still more brides than wedding vendors. (Although some days I question that!) I will bet you money that it was brides looking for a deal. You should see the list of search terms used to find Think this year! Of the top 50, 10 were Groupon related.

wedding groupon
groupon wedding
groupon for weddings
groupon weddings
groupon wedding deal
wedding groupons
groupon wedding deals
wedding deals on groupon
groupon for wedding
wedding planner groupon

Right about now you may be thinking , “Hey, I could get a lot of traffic if I did a Groupon”. Well, yes, yes you could most likely use that to get a ton of traffic, but is it the traffic you want? You may want to read this first…

A photographer works for free for a year through Groupon

Sounds like fun to me.

Here is what brides have to say on Wedding Bee. You might want to notice the comment by the bride than got a deal on here engagement photos…not a word about her booking them for the wedding. Hmmmmm Also the one that bought cake pops, didn’t see her commit to a cake from that baker.

What does this mean to you? Front and center it means brides are looking for deals, but you already knew that. I think that you would be smart to find a way to offer some deals, just not through Groupon-type sites. Come up with your own deals and publicize it yourself with your social media. Put it out on Facebook and Twitter. Publicize it on the local wedding platforms you advertise on.

You might even consider doing it in a Groupon-type manner. Limit the number and require a tipping point. Have a deal on a regular basis, say weekly or monthly posted on your website to keep brides coming back to check.

I can’t even begin to tell you what kind of deal to offer. You will have to think long and hard about that one. Make sure that it gets them into your store or your website. Make sure you will at least make something off of it. Make sure that you don’t do something that will overwhelm you.

Just don’t do what the photographer above did. I want you around next year!

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, Outrageous Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: advertising, bridal marketing, Groupon, internet marketing, social media

How to Handle a Bad Review

December 23, 2011 By ndulj 1 Comment

I don’t know if you have been following the recent string of articles over on eWedNewz concerning reviews on wedding websites. If not you can catch them here, here and here.

What started as a story regarding the sale by Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia selling their interest in Wedding Wire grew to be an indictment of Wedding Wire and it’s review program. Whether you like Wedding Wire and it’s review program or not isn’t really important to my point. They are only one of many review programs out there and I happen to think Wedding Wire does a pretty reasonable job.

Here is the thing, you are not going to please everyone.

Yes that is what we all strive for, but it isn’t going to happen. So on that rare occasion when someone is upset enough to take finger to keyboard and put it out there, how you react is of vital importance.

The first thing you want to do is step away from the keyboard. DO NOT post a response in the heat of the moment. Your feelings are hurt and you are probably angry. Give it a day or two to filter.

Then post one or two reasonable sentences. Something along the line of

“I am sorry that we did not meet your expectations. We are actively reaching out to you via private channels to help resolve these differences.”

Of course you will need to reach out to them, but the point of the post was to let anyone reading the bad review know that you stand behind your work.

What you don’t want to do is post some long, rambling explanation or string of excuses. That is just going to start a very public pissing contest and that is the last thing you want.

Be sure to contact the hosting website to have the review verified or moderated. Sometimes this works. Sometimes.

What if you have no idea who this bride is?

Yep it happens. What if a competitor that is sneaky, malevolent and underhanded lies and posts a bad review on your page?

First you will contact the hosting website to have it verified. That can take forever and they may not even take your side. In the meantime, you need to respond to the review.

“I am not finding any reference to such an incident in my records. Would the poster please poivide her wedding date and location so that I may attempt to resolve this issue.”

Now you have publicly called them out and the ball is in their court. If they continue without providing the information they look like fools. You have also done a lot to CYA.

The main thing you want to keep in mind is that today’s bride is savvy enough not to base her opinion on just one bad review in a long list of stellar ones. In fact in some ways, it makes the other ones look more real. If every single review is Amazing!! Stellar!!! Way beyond expectations!!!!! they start to look a little fake. You know, like those late night infomercials.

Come on now, you do that yourself when you read reviews.

If worse comes to worse and you just can’t take it or find a way to resolve it; contact the website and have yourself removed entirely from the site.

Since this whole bruhaha started with a Celebrity planner’s bad review on Wedding Wire, I reached out to Sonny Ganguly, CMO at WW to be sure you could have your business removed. Here is his response:

In regards to your question, a wedding professional can inactivate their WeddingWire account by sending a request to our Support team at support@weddingwire.com. Our team will then inactivate the wedding pro’s account and remove personal information that they entered from the Storefront.

Ok, so that was kind of vague and didn’t really answer my question; so I followed up with this:

I need just one point of clarification please.

Our team will then inactivate the wedding pro’s account and remove personal information that they entered from the Storefront.

Would you remove ALL information regarding said wedding pro? All traces of them, including reviews or would you leave a basic listing?

I still haven’t received an answer to that one yet, but I will post it to the comments when/if I do.

If nothing else comes out of this dust up and the press from it, I do believe that WW will be more closely watched with regard to the review process. To quote one of their, umm, associates “That’s a good thing!”

As I was writing this I saw this come through my Twitter stream

@idillionaire: If you’re not making enemies, you’re not doing well enough.

Filed Under: Announcement, Social Media Tagged With: advertising, internet marketing, social media, website design

Facebook or Your Website? What’s More Important?

October 25, 2011 By ndulj 2 Comments

I was out trolling the internet for inspiration this morning and ran across a little website I rather liked until I saw this on the portfolio page…

For current photos, please visit our blog or facebook fan page.

Excuse me but that is exactly backwards. Exactly Backwards. Your social media presence is (or should be) designed to funnel people to your website, not the other way around.

Your website is the main hub of all your marketing. Everything else you do should be designed to get them to that point. It is where you have (or should) the most real-estate to capture their undivided attention. It is where your contact forms are, your full portfolio, your pricing information and for goodness sake your freaking sale pitch. Why would you use it to send them somewhere else?????

But wait! there’s more…

What this one statement told me is that first off, the website was not designed with the clients needs in mind. You, as the site owner, should have full control of your site. You should have full reign to update any and everything on it. Moreover, you should have been trained on how to use it. If you weren’t, you are being held captive by your web designer.

Then there is the issue of the blog being on a different url. Why? Your blog should be a fully integrated part of your website. Your blog is one of your best SEO tools. It is a near effortless way to add important keywords and tagged images for the search engines to delight over. Why put that much effort into a blog in the hopes that people will make the leap to your website. Dang it, they should already be there.

{can’t your tell I am just slightly irritated}

How about this…

Your blog is an integrated part of your website, just another page really. You work hard and keep updating your blog. The best of the best pictures you also ad to your gallery/portfolio. Every time you do that, your site is set up to automatically post it to both your Facebook page and your Twitter account. Now doesn’t that sound simple?
How about…If you have a website, a separate blog and are still putting all you effort into your Facebook page you are working way to hard. Just like the hub that it is, your website should not only be the central point you bring everyone, but it should also radiate out your hard work.

One page to rule them all

or is that to Lord of the Rings?

Filed Under: Back to Basics, Blog, Rants & Raves, Social Media, Website marketing Tagged With: blogsites, search optimization, SEO, websites

…of Pirates, Rockstars and Wannabes

May 23, 2011 By ndulj Leave a Comment

There has been much grumbling swirling about lately of some wedding vendors getting a bit to big for their britches; or as my father used to say “If your head gets any bigger I’m going to have to enlarge the door!”

Then along comes the best quote on the topic I could imagine. On the DVD extras for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, Keith Richards, one of the biggest, honest to God Rockstars, has the the following exchange with Johnny Depp, a star in his own right. Depp calls Richards “The Maestro” to which Richards responds,

“I didn’t become one, everybody out there made me one. Pleased to meet you, glad you know my name.”

YouTube

Now baby, that is genuine humility.

Follow this up with the article on the front page of Sunday’s New York Times titled “The Gossip Machine, Churning Out Cash” and you begin to get an understanding of what is going on in our industry. The article talks about B and C list celebrities that are busy feeding the tabloids their latest atrocities just to extend their 15 seconds of fame. People like Lindsay Lohan’s dad and the Kardashian’s. People who have done nothing and have nothing to offer besides their meager ‘fame’.

In our industry, you have 2-bit planners feeding the media machine with there greatness. You have videographers stating on their blog that the other vendors at a wedding are only there to make the video look good. Meanwhile, the real celebs in the wedding industry are keeping a low profile and doing what they do best. They are working hard and attracting clients by putting on the best weddings possible.

Now you know me, I am all about marketing.

But I have got to tell you that using social media to market how famous you are is not the same as marketing what you do. If you have to tell people how famous you are, you aren’t famous.

I am beginning to get the distinct feeling that some of these freshly minted, self-proclaimed wedding gurus are having a really hard time making a living doing weddings since the crash and are now earning their income just being celebrities.

Listen to Mr Richards. Let your fans make you a star, don’t try to make yourself one. You just end up looking foolish, like Micheal Lohan.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, Social Media Tagged With: Fairy Dust, industry news, rants

Twitter. How the Big Boys Roll

May 4, 2011 By ndulj Leave a Comment

…and I bet you are doing it better than some.

I ran across this article that shows the results of an experiment digital agency IQ ran to see just how Fortune 500 companies were doing at social media. With the exception of a few, most of them sucked. Check this quote:

The results? HP, UPS, Wells Fargo and GM stood out as top-performing brands, according to five best practices that IQ gleaned from the study: clearly labeling the purpose of a Twitter account; clearly identifying who is replying to a question; keeping the tone light and friendly; making sure you respond; and responding quickly.

Of the 50 companies, IQ did not send tweets to 16 because the agency couldn’t find a Twitter account, couldn’t find an account that seemed credible, or the Twitter accounts it did find were too specific in their topics.

Of the remaining 34 companies, 23 responded to McFather’s tweets. Among the 11 that didn’t: Boeing, Exxon Mobile, Home Depot, Walgreens and Wal-Mart. The fastest to reply were GM, UPS and Best Buy — getting back in 2,3 and 4 minutes, respectively. (Best Buy has previously gained recognition for its Twelpforce customer service page on Twitter.) These companies also quickly redirected messages sent to the incorrect accounts for customer service.

For companies that spend more on marketing than you or I could ever fathom, that says something. What that something is I’m not quite sure.

Are they afraid to take risks?
Do they just not get it?
Are they still trying to turn the battleship of their giant company?
Like so many, are they deluded into thinking that things will go back to the way they were 10 years ago?

I follow the Twitter feeds of many of you and I see how in touch you are. I also see far too many client come to me with no plan or in some cases even a glimmer of understanding of the what, why and how of Twitter.

Everyday, social media like Twitter becomes standard operating practice as a way for people to find the information that they need. The simple fact that Twitter is searchable is reson enough that you can not ignore it.

You can read the full article here at Media Post Publications or download the white paper with the full results from IQ’s website. It’s a short paper; be sure to check out page 2 for some great examples.

Filed Under: Social Media, wedding marketing, What's Hot Tagged With: bridal marketing, search optimization, social media

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