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This morning, some of the popular daily insurance industry emails were hyping a youtube video that the reinsurance lobbies had released regarding a proposed bill called HR 3424 that could potentially raise insurance rates exponentially(for commercial and homeowners!) by levying a huge increase in taxes on worldwide reinsurers.  The point of this post is not to give you a crash course about what reinsurance is or how reinsurance works, the video below can do that for you, but to show you that even though ‘big insurance’ is trying to get involved in social media, they are still faltering.  When I first saw the youtube video mentioned on Advizen (a daily aggregator of happenings in the insurance world) I assumed instead of just talking about how neat and awesome this youtube was, maybe they would have included the link so that someone who read about the youtube could watch the youtube without googling it.  Even after googling it, I got links to more industry trade journals talking about it, but none of them included the link.  ALERT: if someone posts something on youtube, it is ok to provide a link to it!  I know how the insurance industry is terrified of someone reusing their precious articles in an effort to not get them out to the people that could benefit from them, but come on.  You have the resources.  Hire somebody that understands how information spreads over the internet.  Links spread information, and if you don’t provide links, information doesn’t spread.  A lot of web users won’t go to the lengths I did this morning to find a specific piece of information.  And if someone can’t easily find your information, it is useless.  Rant off.  (for the record, I’m not looking for a job doing social media for other insurance carriers or agents).  So here’s the youtube and link in question:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xGHj1yoVnY&feature=player_embedded

Well, that was easy!

Part two of why this whole situation frustrated me.  After watching the aforementioned youtube, I wanted to see what other people in the industry were saying about it since it was interesting and has considerable impact if it passes. Sure enough though, “adding comments has been disabled for this video”.  Of course… someone could make some smart ass comment about our video and it could hurt our feelings.  Or a lot of smart people could add  relevant commentary and connect with other people who watched the video and wanted to see what others were thinking about it.  I guess it could be chalked up to risk management, but honestly, how many smart asses are going to watch a 2 minute youtube on reinsurance?  Every youtube video will have a couple spammers and a few people with too much time on their hands (like the person who has enough time to write a 600 word dissertation on this issue).  However, if your content is interesting enough for people to make remarks about, it has just become remarkable.  And remarkable information is the kind that spreads.  For more information on being remarkable go to amazon and buy these books.

Final grievance about ‘big insurance’ and social media:  I’m ok with ‘liking’ your facebook page, but that doesn’t give you carte blanche to update me 7 times a day.  Your boss is probably requiring immediate ROI for you to be able to go on facebook during business hours, and you thought this was a great idea.  Wrong.  Overposting is the fastest way to lose fans, and the easiest way for people to stop listening to what you say.  I’m not going to name names, but please tone it down a little! Once a day is fine, create an RSS feed if people want to be updated more than that.  If you don’t know what an RSS feed is, learn about that before you post on facebook again.  Social media ROI is a marathon, not a sprint.

As everybody knows, google has a map function called google maps(duh).  The announcement today was that google has added another facet to how businesses are listed called Google Places.  In addition to the information google previously let you list, it now has analytics!  Such as where people were located when they googled you.  While the advantages of these upgrades are more applicable for “brick and mortar” businesses, it would be foolish for any business to not list themselves or take advantage of the free coupons.  Now before you poo poo coupons, there are still plenty of people across the country that still use them religiously.  If you’re an independent restaurant or car repair service, using these Google Coupons is a smart play.  Before you start in with the whole “we’re in a recession, our business is in the red, the margins are razor thin…” excuse, think of what the upside would be to acquiring a customer for more than one visit.  If you offer them a BoGo option for a pizza or a free appetizer they are still pretty apt to spend more money on drinks, apps, and desserts and are not dining out solely for the reason of ruining your margins by using a coupon.  Use the coupon to get them through door for the first time.  That’s the easy part.  The challenge is for you and your staff to impress them so much on their first visit that it becomes a no brainer to patronize your establishment and rave to all their friends about it.  The coupons are free to everyone, the experience you give the people that redeem the coupons is what can set you apart.

As a whole, there is the perception that (most) contractors don’t utilize or see the value in using social media.  While, I mostly agree with this, the 30% of contractors that are currently unemployed could probably benefit from it.  I follow a few construction industry people on Twitter, and earlier this morning noticed that they are posting job openings!  Roadtechs GC has an entire account dedicated to only posting nationwide job listings.   Roadtechs isn’t the only construction industry member that advertises jobs on via social media, so poke around once in a while.  All these services are free, and you can lurk around without having to contribute.  If you’re out of work, spend 15 minutes cruising around facebook, twitter, and linkedin.  You might be pleasantly surprised how quickly your employment situation changes despite what your peers say about the mean with which you got it.

If your buddies will disown you if they find out you’re using the same sites as their kids do, here’s the link to Roadtechs regular website

dig around.  you’ll find something

Had the opportunity yesterday to listen in on a Hubspot webinar about Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead, hosted by Hubspot CEO and deadhead, Brian Halligan and Marketing/PR Guru and deadhead, David Meerman Scott.  Aside from being one of the more entertaining webinars I’ve had the privilege of viewing, there was also some great participation by a lot of folks on twitter while the webinar was taking place.  As an added bonus, Brian and David and the Hubspot team had a Grateful Dead show playing softly(not softly enough for some on the webinar) in the background and the people listening in were encouraged to try and guess what show it was from.  If you guessed correctly, you won copies of all the books that Brian and David had written.  No one guessed correctly, but I guessed first and ended up winning them, so that was a plus, and pushed me even ‘furthur’ over the edge as a HubspotHead.  The construction division of my company switched our webhosting over to Hubspot in the fall of 2009 and we couldn’t be happier about how it worked out.  Not only is it a tiny fraction of what our previous host was charging, but Hubspot also gave us the tools so that we could do all the updating/tweaking/enhancing that we could ever want, and also taught us how they got so damn good at what they do and how we can do the same!  Drop me a line if you need any specifics about why you should switch your hosting to Hubspot ASAP.  Here’s our site www.constructionriskadvisors.com.

Sorry for ramblin’ on rose so long but here are the takeaways from the webinar, and because Hubspot is so good to their clients and prospects, the slides and video of the webinar are available HERE for anyone that wants to check it out.  If you like the Grateful Dead and Marketing, you’d be foolish not to chick this out.

• Watch Your Competition, but don’t follow them.  Throughout their 25 years as a band, and in all the incarnations the various other members of the Dead have taken on since Jerry Garcia’s passing, they have always invited their fellow musicians on stage to perform with them.   A lot of these guests were in direct competition with the Dead for album sales, but it was about putting out a superior product that ended up helping out both causes.
• Free Content is a Customer Magnet.  The Grateful Dead has allowed taping of their concerts FOREVER.  In addition to relying on radio stations and record companies to distribute their music, the dead enabled their ‘raving fans’ to share their recordings with whomever they wanted FOR FREE.  Most companies are terrified of giving anything, and would rather shut their doors that give something away for nothing.  But the Grateful Dead was a lot braver than most companies are, and  by giving away a lot of control, their fanbase swelled into the most rabid fanbase any touring act has ever been lucky enough to have.  And despite these fans learning about the Grateful Dead through a bootleg recording, they became worth up to $20,000 dollars in tickets, shirts, memorabilia purchased over their time as a Dead Head.  Give it away for ideas away for free, and the rest will take care of itself.
• Make it easier for customers to spread your message.  Every article/blog/or whitepaper you write and post should include twitter, facebook, and linkedin icons so that anyone that reads it and likes it can send it out to their network with ease.
• On stage, the Grateful Dead, and Jerry Garcia specifically weren’t afraid of taking chances musically.  Sure, occasionally they’d screw up and play a song terribly, but they’d learn their lesson and nail it the next time.  When you’re conjuring up content to publish, take some chances. Don’t be afraid to screw up.  Experiment. Get out of your comfort zone once in a while. Your fans will forgive you next time you post something Remarkable.  Seth Godin on Being Remarkable
• Put Customers in the Front Row.  How pissed do you get when you see your Comcast bill and it is $130, and then you see a commercial about getting a year’s worth of service for $99 a month?  They don’t reward their customers at all, they only reward prospects.  The dead have had a fan ticketing system for their concerts forever.  They know that their fans deserve a front row seat to their shows, and they make it possible for this to happen whenever they can.  Too many companies are focused about writing new business that they neglect the people that got them where they are in the first place.   David Meerman Scott showed some pictures and a Tour Book from the Spring 2009 Dead Tour.  Including some from the April 19 show in Worcester which I was lucky enough to go backstage at(here’s a terrible camera phone pic I took on my blackberry) According to David, both Bobby and Phil are iPhone guys…
• Hire DARCS.  Digital Native, Analytical, Reach(large amount of followers, blog subscribers, online network), Content Creators.  These are the types that don’t want to be another cog in your company’s factory.  And they’re the types that will get all the good marketing jobs in the immediate future.
• Pull them in with Freemium and Upgrade them with Premium.  According to Hubspot research, the clickthru rate is 50X hire for free content than it is for content that requires you to give personal information to receive.  If you impress them enough with the free stuff, buying your really good material and products will be a no-brainer.
• Transform your industry with technology.  In 1972, the Grateful Dead needed a better sound system.  Their benefactor at the time, Owsley “Bear” Stanley helped them with the funding needed to assemble the ‘wall of sound’.  At the time, no other band in the world had a sound system this advanced.  Because of the logistics with moving this behemoth around the country it proved fiscally impossible, but they tried it nonetheless.  As I mentioned before, both Bob Weir and Phil Lesh are iPhone users.  Phil Lesh turned 70 two weeks ago.  And you probably thought they were hippies living in Vanagons in the woods somewhere.

In closing, I hope you take some chances, give it away for free, and embrace technology to do it.

In case you listen to the Webinar, here’s what show it was from:  http://www.archive.org/details/gd1970-02-13.early.sbd.gans.2208.sbeok.shnf or http://www.amazon.com/Dicks-Picks-Vol-Fillmore-East/dp/B00000DEZ0

Almost a year ago today, I wrote a blog post about how Phish could more effectively market to their predominantly male fanbase.  The marketing geniuses at Hubspot took it a step further with a post on their INbound Marketing Blog today. 

Inbound Marketing Lessons from Phish

Maybe it’s a sign that I’ve become a total geek, but lately I keep spotting inbound marketing in unlikely places.

Most recently, with one of my favorite bands: Phish.  After a five-year break from playing music together, the band finally reunited, and did so with a three-day concert in Hampton, VA.

I went to their website to check out the show reviews, as millions of others did, and was surprised at what I found: a free download of the entire three-day concert!

Obviously, I was pumped.  But I also couldn’t help thinking what a great inbound marketing strategy this was.

Love the music or hate it, you have to respect Phish as one of the top revenue producing bands of all time — and you can’t deny the role inbound marketing played here.

With that in mind, here are 4 inbound marketing lessons from Phish:

1. Provide some value for free and results will follow

As I mentioned above, Phish is publicly allowing a free download of their reunion concert.  Although the band could have made some money selling the recordings, they let their fans have it for FREE.

In fact, Phish (and the Grateful Dead) have been doing this for years!  It’s a great strategy. By allowing people to easily experience and share live shows with one another, it helps build exposure to their music, i.e. their “brand.” Ultimately, this will lead to ticket revenue from the band’s relentless touring.

Marketing Guru (and Dead Head) David Meerman Scott talks about creating a Worldwide rave, and how it is necessary to create triggers that get people to spread your ideas.

That’s exactly what Phish is doing, and you as a marketer or business owner shouldn’t be afraid to do something similar.  If you’re a consultant or coach, give some free tips on your blog. If you’re a software company, offer a trial.

HubSpot’s Website Grader is like our own version of the free Phish download.  We could charge for it, but over half a million people have been exposed to our company and brand because Website Grader is free and offers great value.

2. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but you do need to stand out

The similarities between Phish and The Grateful Dead are many. Musically, philosophically and even right down to their marketing strategies, as noted above in their distribution of the “brand.” (There’s a good breakdown of the Dead’s marketing strategy here).

As a marketer or business owner, it’s important to study other successful marketers. Phish learned it from the Dead, so the question is: Who in your vertical is doing something outside of the box and getting great results?  Learn from them and put your own twist on it.  If there isn’t someone, well, maybe it should be you!

3. Inbound Marketing only gets you results if you’re persistent

Phish was a touring machine, playing concerts in different cities all over the world for month and months on end.  Their relentless touring resulted in a loyal fan base and nearly unparalleled ticket revenue.

Just like Phish’s dedication to touring, your inbound marketing strategy will only be successful if you are regularly creating great content.

By blogging frequently, you’ll improve SEO, traffic, and if done correctly, sales leads.  BUT, you must be persistent.

This type of persistence is how Phish built up an enormous following, and it’s how you’ll build one too. (Plus, it’s easier to follow someone on Twitter then a band up and down the East Coast!)

4. Interesting content will help you build a following

In addition to regularly creating content, you must be fresh and interesting to your market (not just to you).  Phish will play a different set list of songs every concert, and often throw in something theatrical to keep it interesting.  (One time I saw the band fly over the audience in a giant hot dog!)

Fans love them for this because we never knew what to expect.  It’s interesting, and it keeps people coming back.

Just like Phish, you need to promote your products and services by publishing new, fresh ideas about your business and your target market.

Many people ask me why their blog subscriptions have plateaued, and it’s often because the content they produce has become very familiar, almost jaded.  This kills your following, and doesn’t help you attract inbound links for SEO.  Look at your blog, are you doing this?  If so, don’t be afraid to change things up, keep it fresh, and be borderline unpredictable!

Phish was able to recognize a unique but successful strategy, apply it to their own brand, and effectively market it over time by providing free value.  The result was one of the top grossing bands of all time, and they never even had a hit on the radio!

Applying this inbound marketing approach, especially to a B2B business, is becoming increasingly effective, and now there are ROI numbers to support this.

Can you apply these Phishy lessons to your inbound marketing strategy?

Here’s a few pictures I took at Phish’s 11/28/09 Show in Worcester:

Phish @ Times Union Center, Albany, NY 11/28/09

Set I: Party Time, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, Uncle Pen, Sanity, Foam, Walk Away, NICU, Alaska, Split Open and Melt, Joy, Vultures, Backwards Down the Number Line
Set II: Seven Below > Ghost, Cool It Down > Gotta Jibboo, Let Me Lie, Wolfman’s Brother, Julius
Encore: You Enjoy Myself

I do a bit of lurking on several contractor forums and it’s very obvious that there are a LOT of talented workers out there with nothing to work on right now.  It’s my assumption that a lot of them own pickup trucks with 4WD.  It may be too late in the season, or it may  not be possible to secure insurance coverage for residential plowing, but there are going to be a lot more people in the Mid-Atlantic tomorrow and Thursday that would gladly throw money at anyone that has a plow, snowblower, or a fast shovel.  Since the Mid-Atlantic is not as well prepared for significant amounts of snowfall as other parts of the country(lack of plows, lack of shovels, lack of sled, lack of snowfort building experience)  there seems to be a large differential between driveways and people available to rid them of the several feet of snow that is currently covering them in addition to the 10-20″ that is expected in the next 36 hours.  I guess you can look at it two ways.

1.  I’m an experienced contractor and it would be below me to use my strength and laboring skills to shovel and plow snow.

or

2. I don’t have much work lined up, and some manual labor and plowing could be a very easy way to make some money fast.

Considering the amount of money that people are willing to pay to not shovel, you could easily clear several hundred dollars a day and with the legendary snowfall, the market is ripe for the picking.   This situation should be on wikipedia under the title of “low hanging fruit”.

If you do decide to step out of your comfort zone and make some quick money, please read these safety tips first:

Shoveling Safety

Cold Weather Safety

Assuming you implement some sort of safety measures on your job site daily, why don’t you post some videos on your website, twitter, facebook fan page, and blog?  I uploaded my first video to youtube last week directly from my point and shoot handheld.  It takes less than 10 minutes to do, and it will allow prospects, clients, and most importantly, Insurance Underwriters to see just how serious your construction company is about safety.  If you want to save $$ on your next renewal, instead of changing your auto deductible from $500 to $1000, post some videos that showcase your firm’s commitment to being safe.  The positive results you’ll get will make you scratch your head and wonder why you waited so long. If you don’t have a website, I will be more than happy to dedicate a page of this site to user submitted safety videos and toolbox talks.  Here are some ideas of what to do. If you decide to start posting videos, don’t get bogged down with the head trash that another contractor has made a video with a similar topic.  As long as someone in your marketplace hasn’t already made the same one, there is still plenty of room on the internet for you to add your own touch and philosophy on safety.

Couple things to keep in mind.  If you are a construction firm, don’t make “funny” safety videos like the one below.  OSHA can, and will fine you for videos and pictures of YOUR workers and job sites.  But don’t let that dissuade you.  If you are following the correct protocols and working safely, they will commend you on showing other not so smart contractors, the correct way to approach a safety issue.

If you don’t know what the title means, head to this LINK and follow the directions on how to create a fanpage, then come back here for some ideas on what to put on it once it’s up.

These are some idea I got from other contractors on Contractor Talk

BrainHay:

No, I don’t think anyone goes there with intention to look for a Contractor. When I started my page I was thinking much the same way as HomeSealed touched on.

A lot of the people on my friends list are into Earthmoving, Excavating and Construction as well. So are their friends and friends of friends. As Facebook grows in popularity more and more of our customers will be in there as well (many probably already are). Makes it real easy for them to tell their friends about us. They can also comment on the page and write reviews about our business.

So my hope with it is that some of them will like the Spyder Hoe pics or want to follow the progress of our business and become a fan of the page. When they become a fan of the page then a link shows to it in their profile and exposes me to all their friends.

Also people searching for others with common interests and groups to join will find the page adding even more exposure.

Homesealed:

I think the purpose is more for networking then advertisement. Many times a friend of a friend will notice your line of work and become a customer… At least that is my experience.

Smadax:

We’ve had a Facebook Page for a while, it’s a good way to network amungst your friends and family; but it’s also a great opportunity for paid advertising.

Advantages…
1) Direct marketing; States/Provinces, City, Age, Gender, Educ levels, etc…
2) Pay per click
3) Daily spend limit
4) FREE WEBPAGE
5) Easy to use and update
6) Directly bills to your credit card
7) Can have scheduled start and end dates.
8) Ads can be paused and/or deleted at any time.

Smadax:

Advertisement directly marketed to my city, approx 70,000 population.

Examples of market information, based on one day…
4,508 times my ad was displayed on facebook.
26 hits on my business page
4 unique visitors
2 linked through paid thumbnail advertisement cost me 60 cents
1 time picture file was viewed

General Statistics…
58% Female viewers 42% Male viewers
5% of viewers are 18-24 yrs old
47% of viewers are 25-34 yrs old
42% of viewers are 35-44 yrs old
5% 45+ yrs old

Pay per click is great because a person has seen your basic thumbnail advertisement (free exposure) and expressed interest by linking to your facebook page I spent 60 cents on this one day and I have my budget set at $2.00/day… with the market being slow, in January I was billed $14.67 and I did get one new client… this advertisment definitely paid for itself!

You can set your pay-per-click rate to whatever you’d like, minimum 19 cents. The reason you have a choice is because the higher you are willing to pay, the more facebook will expose your advertisement on facebook.

I even use my business page to keep in contract with my crew, when I add a new event, they are sent invitations and if I change anything on that event the crew is sent updates via facebook (email notification)

Devon Z:

Having a Facebook page adds one more place for potential customers to find you or your website. You can post photos of work you have completed, press releases, and articles. Also have current customers become fans and write testimonials about how great your work is on your wall. If you have a link from your website to your Facebook page, then people who are checking out your website have one more place to find out more about you. Plus it is free – just takes the time to set up the page and update with information. Having a Facebook page just strengthens your web presence and gives you another way to communicate.

Techie:

While I think having a Facebook page doesn’t hurt, I don’t see it paying off too much right NOW to be putting in a lot of everyday effort into it. Rather I would set up your facebook page to pull in any blog posts you make or twitter posts. I’d rather spend time on a blog if you have something to say and twitter if you’d like to network with others. I think a personal Facebook profile account as the owner of your business would be more effective if you insist on using facebook. Take an active role in being the spokesperson for your business, even if you’re a 1 man show. There’s definitely a lot of people on facebook but using your personal (make sure you keep it professional) profile would be a better tool on there than a page. Join in on relevant groups and join in on discussions. Search keywords that are relevant to your business and network with those people, and converse with them. I think that’s the way to go about it at the moment.

KCRemodeler:

Seems to be lots of different opinions about Facebook, so I will throw in my two cents for thought.

I would never used the paid advertising part of Facebook for the services we offer!

However, if you don’t have a “page” for your business on Facebook, you are missing out big time.

First of all, it give Google one more page about your company to index. I have some clients that if you search for their business name, their FB page shows up in the results.

Here is how to maximize your use of Facebook….

1. Ask every client to become a fan of your page on Facebook.
2. Post before and after pictures of every project.
3. If the client is a fan of your page, be sure and “tag” them in the picture. When you do this, the pictures show up on their “wall” which then gives you access to all of their network. Their friends will see your page when they look at the pictures. Nothing bettern than an inferred referral!

No more time than it takes to maintain a FB page, I think you are crazy if you don’t have one.

I have a friend that is a photography – kids, families, etc. He generates so much business from FB it is crazy! No reason the same can’t happen in our business.

These are cut/pasted testimonials from other contractors that are having success testing out new marketing ideas and leveraging free web based resources to get more eyes/potential customers on their construction firm.  Setting up one of these pages takes about 10 minutes for someone that knows their way around facebook.  Feel free to post the links to your pages in the comments to show other contractors some tips and ideas that they could use to better their fanpages, as well as to grow your own fanbases.

Time Lapse Photography.

What if you started taking a lot of photos at every one of your job sites and then mashed them together to make a time lapse video like this?  Have any of your competitors ever done this?  Do you think when people go to your website they’d be more apt to tell their friends about a video like this or about how many trucks you have?  The task seems daunting, but it’s really not. Time Lapse Photo Wiki If you have anyone on your staff that is handy with a camera, this could be a very cool project for them that wouldn’t take a whole lot of time out of their day, and it has serious potential to spread virally throughout your network.  How cool would it be to be able to watch an entire construction project(or the part of a huge, well-known project that your construction firm completed) in about 5 minutes?  This idea won’t work for every type of contractor, but for anyone involved in rigging, cranes, earth moving/digging, roofing, carpentry, heavy road/civil, as well as GCs and project owners, it has potential to work as a very cutting edge marketing tool.  If you put one together, I will be happy to help you get it seen by a few thousand people via social media, just to show you how this type of marketing can work to show off the good work done by your employees and your company.  If you know you will be at a jobsite for an extended amount of time, here’s how to get started

• Buy a Digital SLR camera and a tripod, or if you have an employee that already owns one, ask if they would lend it’s use to this project. Digital SLR Cameras
• Every hour of the work day, set it to take pictures, or have someone manually shoot 10-20 shots every hour
• Set the tripod up in the same place everyday.  Preferably somewhere higher than the jobsite itself, so you can get the whole scope of the job as well as capture the weather, sun, clouds, shadows, etc.
• Have a tech-savvy employee(or son/daughter of an employee that wants to earn $200) combine all the pictures and upload them to Vimeo.com or Youtube.
• Email the link to your mailing list, post on facebook, twitter, and the front page of your website.

Here’s some more videos if you want to see what other contractors are doing to utilize this awesome technology

Youtube Time-Lapse Construction Videos

How Contractors can use twitter to find jobs

http://dphelan.com/2010/01/07/10-ways-construction-firms-can-use-twitter/

What Contractors can do to stretch their marketing budget and get free publicity

http://dphelan.com/2010/01/06/10-ways-contractors-can-get-free-publicity-on-the-internet/

Why Construction Firms need to use the Internet now more than ever

http://dphelan.com/2010/01/05/internet-for-contractors/

How Contractors can leverage the power of Facebook to leapfrog their competitors

http://dphelan.com/2010/01/04/facebook-for-contractors/