Having served in the Marine Corps for ten years as well as co-founding and operating a web strategy company, I offer a unique perspective on our military and its’ Web Strategy. The United States has the world’s second largest military, after the People’s Liberation Army of China, and has troops deployed around the globe. With an “All Volunteer” military force of 1,454,515 people serving on active duty and an additional 848,000 people in the seven reserve components, I think most people would agree that the military’s recruiting mission is of an epic scale compared to other organizations.

Having one of the most challenging recruiting tasks of any organization in America requires nothing less than an exceptional marketing plan. The five branches of the military each have a distinct military mission and therefore recruit a little differently. More specifically, I would like to discuss why I feel the U.S. military is using the internet to market more effectively than almost any civilian corporation in the world.

Just like any other organization, it is first necessary to have a thorough understanding of the military’s mission or business plan, in order to develop an effective web strategy. Let’s take a brief look at each branch of our military to gain a better understanding of their role in providing our overall national security.

I will be discussing the Military Branches in order from largest to smallest.

Data Sources: Wikipedia entries for Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard

*Special note – Although I served in the Marines and am somewhat biased, I think it’s pretty amazing how the Coast Guard, as small as they are, have such a big challenge in terms of their mission. Due to the fact that they are the smallest branch in size, their recruiting efforts don’t have to be nearly as aggressive as the other military branches. Therefore, I won’t be discussing their recruiting website. Also, their target demographic is typically a few years older than that of its’ DOD counterparts. Their message is very much like that of a civilian corporation rather than a military organization, “We’re Hiring”, literally.

What is the Military’s Product (what are they selling?)

They are selling what would be considered by any expert in sales, the most difficult product of all to sell, intangible benefits. Intangible benefits such as self-discipline, motivation, honor, and pride of belonging to name just a few. They are also selling the opportunity for higher education, career training, leadership development, worldly experience and travel.

Websites and Product Message

After carefully analyzing each branch’s recruiting website I was able to identify differences in messaging that address each unique demographic or target audience. The common demographic across all the military branches, though, are eligible males and females between the ages of 18 to 26 (approximately).

Over the past 200 years the military has been perfecting their recruiting efforts and understand their customer audiences better than most public corporations. But what I find particularly interesting is how quickly the military has fully embraced the use of the internet as an effective marketing vehicle and they have clearly put the pedal to the metal! Most corporations, however, have been slow to adopt or reluctant all together. More specifically, in regards to the use of social media platforms to reach their target audience.

Strategy

On each branch’s website, you’ll notice how they have integrated their T.V. commercial into the site providing maximum brand awareness and increasing the effectiveness of its’ broadcast reach. The following is an excellent example:

One of the biggest sales objections that a recruiter faces are the physical challenges that Boot Camp presents to a potential recruit. Most young people are intimidated by the horrific stories they hear about how Drill Instructors are constantly in your face screaming and yelling. Most prospective recruits are also apprehensive when it comes to facing the extreme physical challenges like combat water survival, repelling from a 50 foot wall, and the confidence course (an extremely challenging obstacle course each Marine Recruit must successfully negotiate in order to earn the title, Marine).

The second biggest challenge for all the branches is parental consent. Many parents are apprehensive about the thought of their children serving in the military. Each service has addressed this sales objection with a special website geared just for the parents of potential recruits. These sites are extremely easy to navigate and answer all of the most common questions and concerns that most parents have. All recruiting sites are also translated in Spanish as a significant portion of the military’s prospective recruits are Spanish speaking.

Breakdown of each Branch’s Recruiting Website

U.S. Army

Designed to appeal to high school students both female and males. Their message is geared toward the young adult that wants to develop the qualities that are in demand by civilian employers. They are clearly advocating that the Army will make you a stronger person. I would like to note that they have cleverly left that interpretation up to the individual. In any case it can only be construed as a positive benefit that will result from becoming a U.S. Soldier.

The Army’s site has one of the most advanced features I have ever seen on a website, the "Ask SGT STAR" feature. It is a database driven application that allows the visitor to ask a virtual Soldier any question that would typically be asked by a prospective recruit. What a powerful database! It answered every question I asked ranging from pay to duty station preferences. It even addresses questions on family housing and includes a sample floor plan. Most impressive!

U.S. Air Force

They don’t make an obvious attempt to reach out to either gender. Approximately 20% of the Air Force population is female compared to the Marine Corps’ 5%. This should not be surprising as the majority of duties in the Air Force are combat-support and do not involve direct combat. What is obvious from a customer demographics perspective is that the website clearly represents diversity in terms of race. The primary benefit to the prospective recruit that I noticed is self improvement through higher education. The Air Force’s marketing message is clear in its appeal to those who value continuing education.

When one thinks of the Air Force, the first thing that comes to mind is cutting-edge technology. The Air Force’s recruiting site truly lives up to that branding image. It is probably one of the most interactive sites on the internet. This site has countless activities that engage and stimulate the interests of a young high tech enthusiast. From video games that simulate piloting and destroying enemy targets with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to simulations that allow you to learn more about training military working dogs, the Air Force recruiting website delivers a user experience that is unparalleled in online marketing.

U.S. Navy – Accelerate Your Life ™

Many young people in high school are in a rush to grow up and be viewed by friends and family as adults. I can’t think of a life decision that requires more careful consideration than making a 4-6 year commitment to serve your country in the military other than getting married and having children. The Navy’s recruiting website is every bit as impressive as the other branches.

The major feature that differed from the other sites and caught my immediate attention, was an interactive area that connects directly with the female demographic. It showcases women in the Navy and allows the user to learn about the role(s) they have in the Navy. It’s a very engaging experience that most likely dispels any apprehension or concerns that a prospective female may have when it comes to meeting the challenges associated with serving in a male dominated military. This is an awesome feature and clearly illustrates the importance the Navy has placed on internet marketing.

U.S. Marine Corps

Designed to appeal to the male, high school student, who is looking for the ultimate challenge of self-discipline. Their message in itself is a challenge and is aimed directly to a small target audience. The Marine Corps needs candidates that are highly motivated and willing to take the challenge of becoming a member of the World’s Most Elite Fighting Force. It’s no surprise that only one in every one million Americans claims the title, “United States Marine”. Can you tell I served in the Marines?

The Marine Corps faces its’ biggest sales objection straight on by providing one of the most incredible user experiences I’ve seen on a website. They include excerpts of video taken from the recruits’ perspective while engaging in the most challenging activities during training. They have the entire 12 weeks of Boot Camp broken down on one, navigation friendly page. This user experience allows for the visitor to see first- hand the challenges Marine Corps Boot Camp Offers.

Summary

Each branch of service is augmenting their online presence with YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. They are benefiting from the power that social media offers in spreading their message virally. As a member of Facebook and a former Marine myself, I decided to become a fan of the Marine Corps’ Fanpage. Within minutes, I was bombarded by other fans asking me about my experience in the Marine Corps. Most of them are young people that haven’t reached the qualifying age yet, but had already decided they are joining the Marine Corps.  I was surprised at the amount of questions they were asking in regards to the Marine Corps.  I think they were intimidated to talk to the recruiter.  This was a way for them to get their questions answered without feeling pressured by a potential sales pitch.  It just goes to show that your customers are going to talk about your product with other people outside of your organization.  Companies can benefit by monitoring the conversation and learning about what concerns their customers have in terms of their product.

Once they have a better understanding of those concerns, they will be better able to address them via the social platforms they utilize. There is no other marketing tool more powerful than word of mouth. Conversations about your products by your prospective customers is your most powerful marketing tool. The military is one organization that “Gets It” and definitely participates in the conversation.

Are the same technologies that were skillfully used to crush his opponents during the 2008 presidential campaigns going to aid in destroying the President’s approval rating? Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama utilized various social media platforms to establish a grassroots movement that revolutionized presidential campaigning. He successfully connected with activists, donators, and voters in record numbers via the Internet. He was also able to set new fundraising records by gaining support from millions of individual small donors.

It is well known that the President has inherited a host of challenging issues including but not limited to the War in the Middle East and the economic recession. Most would agree that these challenges will take at least a decade to resolve regardless of who’s in office. The fact is that the President’s approval rating has dropped below 50% and many analysts suggest this number will continue to decline.

As social media communities such as Twitter, Facebook, and DIGG continue to grow at alarming rates, what will this mean for the President’s approval rating?  Will he stand a chance for re-election in 2013?  How much clout or social influence do his critics have on social media platforms?

Customers buy because of their perceived need. Most of the time, their perceived need is actually a want. Many companies fail to recognize this difference and therefore make costly mistakes by developing products and or services that don’t catch on. There are several factors that determine why customers buy a product or service from one source over others. The main factors are as follows:

Brand Awareness - Is your customer aware of your existence? They need to know about you as a source or option. Your location, whether it be brick and mortar or the first page of Google are important factors in determining your Brand Awareness and market penetration.

Product Features and Benefits - We are all customers. Have you ever compared features of a particular product or service? We all do it. A good example is when shopping for a Cell Phone Service Provider. We compare the features of various plans offered by the competing companies. Most importantly as customers though, we focus on the benefits. What will that cell phone do for me? Maybe it’s the security and peace of mind to know that I can call anytime or anywhere during an emergency? Or maybe it might make me feel good to know that my monthly bill will be a flat rate every month.

Product or Service Pricing - Let’s face it, there are customers that price shop. Then there are customers that are willing to pay more for what they perceive as a better value. Have you heard the term, “Getting the most for my money”? 

Brand Reputation - what does your market think about your brand? Dominos Pizza recently learned that the majority of their market had the opinion that their product sucks. They learned specific details as to why their customers felt their product was inferior against their competitors. Dominos then used social media to their advantage by asking for customer input to develop a new and improved product.

Word of Mouth - What are your customers saying about your company, product or service? Results from studies have shown that a satisfied customer may share their buying experience with 1-3 people. On the other hand, if they had an unpleasant experience with your company, they are likely to share that information with 10 people. This is one of the reasons customer loyalty is so important. Social media and customer rating sites have made it extremely easy for customers to review and share their buying experience. Smart companies are learning these new marketing concepts and using them to their advantage.

The most successful companies today are leveraging their knowledge of the fore mentioned concepts with social media technologies. In my blog post titled, “Corporate Marketing– Simplifying the Social Media Challenge”, I discuss a simple and effective way for companies to approach their social media strategy.

Connect with me:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• E-Mail

In a previous post, How To: Create a Facebook Fan Page, I took you through the Fan page creation process.  If you decided to create one you’re probably asking yourself, "Ok, I have this fan page set up, now what do I do with it?"  Well it’s going to take some effort on your part to get the ball rolling, unless you happen to be a well known brand of course.  As much as we all would love to have instant fans in the thousands, in this land of information overload, we are but a small glimmer in front of a big glowing sun.

So before you start inviting or suggesting your Fan Page to your Facebook and business connections, use the following methods to get the biggest bang out your invite.  People will be more likely to join your page if they see there’s an effort being made to stimulate their interest.

1. As I’m sure you’ve heard before "content is king", especially relevant and engaging content.  One of the fastest and easiest ways of producing content for your Fan Page is to feed your company blog to it.  Of course, this will only work if you’re company is posting to the blog at least 2 to 3 times a week, though more would be best.  Your posts should be informative, helpful, conversational, and don’t forget to bring a little of your company’s personality into the mix!

   There are different methods of connecting your blog to the Fan Page.  It can be as simple as setting up your Fan Page Notes to Import your Blog, or you can use a 3rd Party RSS application.  We use NetworkedBlogs to feed our blog which is much more robust than the Notes option.  It’s also a great way to find your Facebook friends’ blogs, if they have it registered on NetworkedBlogs, as well as subscribe to some of your favorite bloggers.

2. Create a "Landing Page" tab that will encourage people to join your Fan Page as well as give them a "Call to Action".  The CTA should be something easy and non-intrusive.  We use the Static FBML application to create custom Landing Page Tabs, it adds a box to your Page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced Page customization.

3. Upload Images or Videos of your product(s) or service.  If you are uploading videos, make sure they are short and to the point.  The YouTube Box application is an excellent tool to publish and manage your videos from your YouTube profile if you already have one or are planning on creating one.

4. Place a Fan Page Badge on your company website and/or blog.  Let your current visitors know that they can now interact with you via Facebook.

5. Keep your fans engaged!  They joined your page because they found it interesting, make sure they stay interested.  Update your page with new content as often as you can and then let them know about it.  Use the Insights tool to keep track of what works and what doesn’t and then adjust as best as your company can.

I hope you find this post helpful in getting your Fan Page started and on the road to great success.  As long as you’re providing quality information you will begin to see an increase in your fan numbers.  Just make sure that if a Fan posts a question or comment on your Wall or Discussion board you or someone at your company responds in a timely manner.  After all that is why we’re doing this in the first place

Please feel free to share your experiences in the comment section below or if you have a suggestion to add to the list, I’d love to hear it!

Building a Brand with social media is a long term commitment and is time consuming. With that in mind, you need to have a strategy to leverage the support of your fans. The most successful companies are benefiting from their fans acting as evangelists. In order to do that, your fans need a reason to get excited about your brand. Here are some questions that may help you with that challenge.

What is different about my product or service? What will make my fans tell others about my product or service? What digital information or media can we produce for people to share that is useful, interesting, or humorous? How can we tie it in with our product or service? Who are our fans? What are their likes and dislikes? What are their fears and concerns? Can we solve a common problem amongst our fan population? What have I seen from other companies that I have liked and passed on? Why did I pass it on?

Can you think of more questions? Please comment with your thoughts and suggestions…
 

I hope this list gives you some useful ideas so that you can create an amazing blog.

1. Create a good, unique design
2. Easy to navigate site
3. Posts that are Consistent and regular
4. Content that is helpful and useful
5. Create blog posts on niche topics that aren’t oversaturated
6. Original content using your, unique voice
7. Easy to share content- social media sharing tools/widgets
8. Comment on other blogs to become known
9. Make it easy for readers to subscribe
10. Organization with categories and sub-categories
11. Content variety including multimedia
12. Functionality- the ability to interact
13. Announce your latest blog posts on Twitter
14. Write powerful headlines for your articles
15. Don’t sensor yourself- Be You!
16. Monetize your blog- Banner Ads, Text Ads, etc.
17. Reference and link to other blogs
18. Engage with commenter’s
19. Who, what , where, why, when format
20. Use storytelling
21. Conciseness and brevity
22. Inspirational thoughts and ideas
23. Accuracy, sourcing, and references
24. Provide examples and demonstrations
25. Blog Post Topic diversity
26. Imagery and Illustration
27. Humor and occasional fun
28. Quotes and Acknowledgement
29. Controversial discussion
30. Sticky CTA’s (Call-to-Action) Entice visitors to return
31. Participate on LinkedIn “Answers”
32. Distribute posts using social bookmark sites (Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Etc.)
33. Proofread, Proofread, Proofread
34. Scannable Posts
35. Create relevant “Top 10” Lists
36. Create “How To” articles
37. Write a “series” post
38. Don’t duplicate other people’s content
39. Provide a picture of yourself and an “About Me”
40. Optimize the blog for the Search Engines (SEO practices)
41. Use Squidoo and Hubspot to write articles that point back to your blog
42. Use Youtube to host and embed video to your blog
43. Use Google Analytics to Analyze and Improve Traffic Demographics
44. Write content that will still be relevant tomorrow
45. Offer a download (free E-book or Guide) to build a e-mail distribution list
46. Develop a personal brand
47. Add your Blog Link in your E-mail Signature
48. Tweet useful news articles on Twitter besides your blog posts
49. Don’t over promote yourself or your products
50. Submit your blog to blog directories

If you have questions on blogs, blogging, or social media in general, please contact our website design company.

You finally made a profile on Facebook and have reconnected with friends and family. But how do you utilize this technology for your business or company? Simple, you create a Fan Page! A Fan Page really is the best way to network and promote yourself, your business/company, or organization on Facebook. This tutorial assumes that you are already familiar with setting up a Facebook profile. If not, please feel free to contact us.

Setting Up Your Page

Once you’re logged in to Facebook, there’s a couple of ways to reach the Pages area.

Method 1 is by scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page and clicking on Advertising.

Method 2 is by using the Ads and Pages icon on the Facebook bar.

Click on Pages then the Create Page button.

You should now be at the Create New Facebook Page. Select the type of business you want your Fan Page to represent and start filling in as much information as you can. The more the better, but if you’re pressed for time you do have the option of not making the Page public until a later time.

Now it’s a matter of uploading a logo or photo and finish editing your company’s pertinent information. Depending on what Category you chose, you’ll have a few fields available on the Info tab.

Congratulations! You have a brand spankin’ new Facebook Fan Page! We would love to hear from you and for you to share your experience in creating your Fan Page(s).

Also, stay tuned for our next installment… Now that you have a Fan Page, what do you do with it?! We’ll cover different strategies and technologies you can use to market your Fan Page successfully.

From the Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009.  Very exciting!

Found this on Jeremiah Owyang’s blog-  Thought it was interesting and wanted to share.

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/11/10/what-is-social-graph-executives/

We are posting a checklist for you to use when developeing a new website for your company.  We hope you find this checklist useful.

Web Site Design Marketing Objectives

• What is your primary goal with the site?
  • Establishing your credibility
  • Describing your products or services
  • Completing sales transactions
  • Offering customer service and support
  • Communicating company identity or branding
• What are your secondary goals?
  • Search engine friendly?
  • Generate repeat traffic?
  • Encourage visitors to recommend it to others?
  • Create an online community, send emails?
  • Increase customer loyalty?
  • Encourage visitors to stay and visit many parts of the site?
• What is your intended use for the site?
• How will people find the site?  By searching in a search engine or because you gave them your URL?

Who is Your Target Audience

• Who is your target audience?
• Will they be accessing your site via dial up or high speed connection?
• How will you be accessing the site (connection speed and browser)
• What is your target audience looking for?
• What questions are your customers constantly asking you?
• What can we include that would WOW your customers?

Web Site Design Look and Feel

• Have you seen any sites that you would like to model yours after? Or site designs to avoid?
• What do you like about those sites?
• What colors do you prefer for the site?
• What image the site should convey?
• Home page design: three column tabloid, two column information or splash screen?
• How wide do you want your site design to be?
• Do you want your pages to be easily printable or do you want to offer PDF files of information rich pages?
• Vertical or horizontal navigation bar preference?
• Do you want your site to use only graphics, only photos, or both?
  Are you interested in animation files?
• Do we need to take photos of you, your staff, your services, or your products?
• Do you have any vendor supplied photos or graphics you are authorized to use?

Logo and Branding Identity

• Do you have a logo?
• Do you have a digital copy of it?
• Do you need a logo or would a stylized typeset of your company name be sufficient?
• Do you have a tag line? How would you describe your business in one sentence to a family member?

Web Site Content Creation

• Do you have any existing written materials we can start from?
• Do you have this information electronically?
  • Hard copy brochures
  • Client presentations
  • Customer letters
  • Information flyers
  • Case studies
  • Customer testimonial letters
  • Your resume
• What menu categories make sense for you. Here are some common choices:
  • Home
  • Services-how many
  • Product categories
  • Customers
  • Testimonials
  • FAQs
  • Forms
  • Articles or other informative topics
  • Pdf files to include?
  • Links or resources
  • About us
  • Contact us

Website Promotion- Search Engine Optimization

• What search terms do you expect your customers will use to find you?
• What search engines will they be using?
• What organizations, companies or sites can we ask to link to your site?
• What organizations, companies or sites would be valuable resources for your readers?

Website promotion- Social Media Marketing

• Do you want people to share the useful information they find on your site with others (Viral word of mouth advertising)?
• Are you going to cross promote your site through YouTube, FaceBook, LinkedIn,etc.?
• Do you have the resources, both human, time, and financial to execute a successful social media marketing campaign?

Miscellaneous Considerations

• Have you registered a domain name?
• Have you secured hosting?
• Do you have your site access information?

Web Site Maintenance

• How often do you envision updating the site?
• What content will need updating?

Schedule and Project Timeframe

• What is your timing for this? Beginning and finishing?

Many companies call us inquiring about lead generation over the internet, only to find that pay per click is extemely expensive for their industry. Pay per click is a great program when used properly. It can be very expensive for certain markets, but it can generate immediate results.

A more economical solution to generating leads over the internet is to use social media. Setup a blog to discuss your industry topics. Blog posts need to be done on a regular basis. You can setup a free blog at either wordpress.com or blogger.com. Both sites are easy to use and will allow you to be up and running in short order.

Commenting on other peoples blogs is a great way to get noticed in your industry. Goolge your keyword or kewords that you are working on ranking well for (also include the word blog). Find a blog that comes up in your search results that you’d like to participate on. Make sure you put a link to your blog or website when commenting on someone elses blog entry. This way you benefit from a external backlink.

Commenting on someones YouTube video is also another way to build relevant backlinks. Over time, you will see your website increase in rank for the keywords you are focusing on. If you would like to find out how your business model could benefit from using social media, call us to schedule a free social media marketing strategy.

It amazes me the amount of free widgets and tools available to the Social Media crowd and across the different platforms. I’ve been collecting as I happen across them, but I’m sure I’m missing TONS more!

• Socialmarker – They offer a free service that reduces the time and effort needed to socially bookmark a website/blog.
• ShareThis – ShareThis lets you instantly access all of your profiles, blogs, friends, and contacts for easy sharing and updating.
• Twhirl – A fantastic Twitter desktop client that improves your twitter experience, and it offers various configuration options to adapt to your personal needs.
• Zemanta – It allows your browser to understand what you are blogging about and suggest pictures, links, articles and tags to make your posts more vibrant.

Plus all the great widgets available from Social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, etc… Have you come across any cool widgets or tools that you can’t live without? If you have, please share

A main goal of any franchise corporation is to sell franchises. I think it’s easier than ever for a franchise to build their brand’s reputation over the internet. For example, if you owned a fast food franchise, you could search on Goolge for blogs that are industry related. Get in on the conversations and contribute. Provide valuable feedback on the topics being discussed. Ensure to insert a backlink to your website or blog whenever possible.

Another suggestion I have for franchisors selling franchises is to contribute to community sites sucha as LinkedIn and facebook. Join and start your own groups within communities. You’ll soon find that it’s not too difficult to connect with people that are interested in similar Franchising topic(s).

I have started a Squidoo lense that is designed to provide information to Franchises on how they can grow rapidly using social media and web 2.0 technologies. For more information, you can visit the lens here: Franchise Marketing Ideas

Please bookmark the site as I will try to update with more information on a regular basis.

Here are just a few social media sites I like to use to market other websites with:

You Tube – I think everyone has seen or heard of YouTube by now. In order to succeed on YouTube and have your video shared, you may want to upload video content that is funny or has some other type of value to your potential audience. A sales pitch about your stuff probably won’t get a large response. The best example I can think of at the moment is a series of videos by a company called, “BlendTec”. The videos are titled, “Will It Blend”. The videos have seen over 20 million views. Now that’s market reach!

Facebook – Facebook is one of the most Web 2.0 social networking tools. You can join a group of people that all have a similar interest. You could provide that group with valuable information that relates to your services and or products and draw them to your website.

MySpace – At MySpace, you’ll have more flexibility when it comes to the way you display information. You can create a very professional design with your brand. You will be able to create a profile for your business, not just a personal profile like you would at Facebook. The objective here once again, is to develop a social group of people by offering them something of value.

Flickr – Flickr is a website that you can upload and share photographs and images with countless other users. You could upload photos of your website redesign, your store location remodel pictures or maybe some pictures of your product in action.

Squidoo – On Squidoo, you can build a reputation as an expert in your field. Rather than sell your products and services, just share your knowledge on your topic and become the “go to guy or gal”.

Digg – Digg will help drive a tremendous amount of traffic to your blog site. The strategy here is to create a network of friends. Find friends that have articles with a large amount of Diggs. When you post your article, have them look it over in hopes they will Digg it and share with others.

This is just a very brief list of some social media sites you can use immediately to drive more visitors to your website or blog. Just remember to post content that people will find valuable rather than pitch your business or products. Keep it social.

If you are interested in learning more about using social media to build your business, then give us a call at (858) 779-9170!  We love helping companies succeed on the internet.