Entrepreneurial Society Club

Failure is never bad, it is simply a learning experience and the stated fact that something just didn't work as expected.  However, it certainly should not define the final end stage of everything you have done, but rather a turning point and another chance to redeem yourself.  There have been numerous examples of entrepreneurs who have failed in their respective fields only to re-define themselves to a whole new level of success shortly thereafter.

Failure is a turning point of a business, as in fact is the moment where the owner must come to accept that a certain way of thinking, product, or service simply isn't going to be accepted as originally intended.  This acceptance must occur so that the change needed can be obtained as a reaction and actually still allow the individual to move forward.  When thinking about your own business, here are some guidelines to use to determine if a change is needed.  Keep in mind that change does not constitute failing entirely, but could be marketing related, product, or service driven rather than a failed concept. Here are some indicators to use:

Lack of sales or stagnant sales despite increased activities around marketing.

If you are in the sales business, then you certainly spend a lot of time monitoring sales and marketing products and services that will increase revenue.  Doing so should result in some sort of awareness leading to more sales or revenue.  If your efforts are not working at all, then perhaps your positioning or marketing skills have failed you, and the time has come to reconsider how you bring your idea to being publicly accepted.

No word of mouth referrals.

People should matter to the extent of capacity as they are the individuals that you cater to and should be appreciative of your product, efforts, or concept and certainly should share it with others around them that they believe will enjoy it as well.  When people choose to not talk about something, it is usually due to the poor nature of their experience or even based on their very worst than ordinary experience.  No one likes a business or organization that doesn't attempt to innovate or improve upon what exists already.  This could mean from lowering the costs or coming up with a higher quality product at the same cost, but remember that innovation is all around us, just that copycats are not welcomed and often looked down as.  Perhaps your business model has failed you.

Loss of users or income.

Money is not always a great measure of success, yet one way or another, growth must be occurring somewhere for a business to consider itself successful. Instagram never made money but instead grew users, and while others only focus on money, it is not always the accurate record of growth in the early stages of business.  You must, however, be looking for indicators that the idea you have is spreading and you can do so by measuring your reach, users, sales, or incomes. It is when it keeps going down month after month that you need to start questioning why it is losing its appeal and what others are saying.  Google your own business name to see what others are saying and certainly become aware that 90 days of consecutive losses is usually a really bad sign and perhaps an indicator that change is needed.

With just a little bit of focus and strategizing, businesses of any size can turn one-time customers or casual fans into influential advocates and repeat customers, says Danny Maloney, co-founder and chief executive of Tailwind, a social-media marketing intelligence firm company that builds tools to harness the power of social data.

Here, Maloney offers four ways companies can better leverage their social-media presence into an effective marketing tool:

1. Use a targeted approach. Fostering wide scale awareness on social media in the same manner as huge brands isn't economically feasible for small- to medium-sized companies. Instead, Maloney says companies with more modest budgets should spend their time and resources on the customers they're most likely to convert.

"With the right tools you can monitor keywords and phrases related to your business" and respond to what customers, fans and even detractors are saying in real time, Maloney says.

Mention, for example, is a simple program that lets users track mentions of their brands across Facebook, Twitter, RSS and the web at large. Tagboard is a similar program used to monitor hashtags on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Vine and Google+. Based on the query, the software puts together a curated display of content from various social platforms.

2. Let your fans know you're listening. Unlike other mediums -- like print and broadcast -- social media isn't a one-way channel, it's a conversation and brands have an obligation to be responsive.

"Brand advocates want to know that you're there and that they're heard," Maloney says. "If they took the time to share a blog post you wrote or to give you a positive review, be listening for it and thank them."

Some companies take it a step further by using their strongest brand advocates as a source of ongoing marketing content by asking fans to write testimonials or guest blog posts. "[Customers think] 'this company actually cares, they're listening, I'm going to go tell more people about them,'" Maloney says.

3. Target your special offers. The customers who already sing your praises on Twitter and Facebook sometimes need a just little nudge to keep them coming back. So as you thank them, consider offering them an incentive, such as a discount, to visit your business one more time.

It lets customers know you're listening and that they're valued, turning them into an even stronger advocate and a repeat customer.

4. Curate compelling content. One way brands can develop meaningful relationships with their fans and customers on social media is by finding and sharing interesting content around a specific set of topics. Larger brands are expected to publish content on par with quality magazines, but Maloney says companies of any size can develop an effective content-marketing strategy.

"You have to build relationships with people, engaging them based on an interest and not just going into a sale right away," Maloney says. "If you're a consumer-facing company, it's more important to share something that's interesting and sharable so your audience will propagate the message."

That Greek yogurt brand Chobani for example. In just a matter of weeks after joining Instagram a year and a half ago, Chobani (@Chobani) attracted a loyal clique of some 9,000 “Chobaniac” followers, which helped catapult the company from little-known to must-have. Chobani generated buzz about its brand on Instagram by encouraging followers to share their own pictures and holding weekly contests. A recent Chobani Instagram contest showcased Chobani fans’ photos of their favorite yogurt mix-in ingredients. Chobani chose a winning fan picture each week and awarded winners free cases of yogurt.

How can you use Instagram to take your marketing to the next level? Start with these five tips:

1. Promote your goods and services. Post creative snapshots of your company’s products and services and avoid boring stock photos, infographics or text-heavy images.

Show some flair when you tell your followers — potential clients, customers and business partners — who you are and what you do. Starbucks (@Starbucks) does this right. The coffee powerhouse posts casual, quirky close-ups of Frappuccinos, cake pops and other products for its 858,000-plus Instagram followers daily, as well as images of baristas frothing milk and sampling pumpkin spice lattes.

To avoid brand burnout, don’t show photos of your products more than three to four times a day. And avoid posting the same picture twice. Repeat photos are generally a turn-off in the Instagram community, which thrives on fresh, new imagery.

2. Host photo contests. Photo contests can be a fun, free way to attract, interact with and convert potential customers. Ask your Instagram followers to submit personal photos of your products and then post the best ones on your online store.

To keep followers coming back day after day, launch a photo-of-the-day campaign. Change it up and invite your followers to submit captions for your photos or answer trivia questions about your snapshots. Pick daily or weekly winners and reward them with prizes.

Make Instagram photo contests light and fun, but keep your eye on the marketing prize, as Levi’s (@Levis) recently did with its #iamlevis Instagram photo competition. In a bid to discover its next star model and reach a wider audience, the company asked fans across the globe to post Instagram photos of themselves wearing their favorite Levi’s clothing. During the contest, people shared more than 3,513 Instagram photo entries. Each follower’s image was a reinforcement of Levi’s brand, basically a free ad, and the winner took center stage in Levi’s 2012 “Go Forth” ad campaign.

3. Create images that feature promotional codes. Promoting exclusive discount and coupon codes for new products and services within a single Instagram photo is a fast, low-cost way to attract fans and boost sales. British clothing retailer Topshop (@topshop), which boasts more than 218,000 Instagram followers, uses Twitter and Facebook to drive consumers to Instagram images that reveal “secret” discount codes and sneak peeks at new store locations.

Don’t forget to hashtag your special-offer photos with #promocode. Hashtags on Instagram work exactly as they do on Twitter. They’re an effective way to attract and track deal seekers.

4. Go behind-the-scenes. Show your customers what happens at your company by posting candid snapshots of employees collaborating in their cubicles or kicking back in the break room. Post pictures snapped at company parties, charity dinners, product launches and industry events, too. Such behind-the-scenes glimpses help personalize your company and can create a sense of camaraderie and trust with your followers, making them more likely to do business with you.

Zappos (@Zappos), a relative latecomer to Instagram, is already a standout at posting brand-reinforcing, behind-the-scenes pictures. The online retailer predictably posts many pictures of shoes, but its designers mix up the feed a few times a day with colorful images of models on a fashion shoot or workers’ cubicles decked out with fake mustaches and cute family and pet photos.

5. Make your followers stars. Choose a follower of the day and promote him or her with an @mention. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, an @mention is how Instagram users tag each other in comments. This can fire up powerful word-of-mouth promotion and deliver more followers and potential customers. Many people — Instagram photo buffs included — like to be personally recognized by companies for their loyalty, and they’re more than happy to spread the word about their special status within their Instagram network.