Malibu Boats Twittered into a Column

Just found this column by Lisa Cruz on PostCrescent.com. She writes about Twitter and mentions Malibu Boats along with companies like Southwest Airlines, Dell Computers and Zappos. That's pretty good company!

This kind of exposure is a nice little benefit of participating in new ways to communicate online. Go social media!

Thanks for the digital ink, Lisa! You can bet I'm gonna Twitter this.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | Malibu Boats | Lisa Cruz | Twitter | Southwest Airlines | Dell Computers | Zappos

Content Drives Action Online

“Great content in all forms helps buyers see that you and your organization, ‘get it.’” David Meerman Scott, The New Rules of Marketing and PR. This is a great book. Check it out.

Examples of content driving action for Malibu Boats. When web visitors originated at these supplemental social media content locations these are the changes in traffic we saw.

• Malibu: E-newsletter
• We saw 37% more leads the week of a Malibu e-newsletter release.
• News releases can work this same way.
  
• You can send a social media news release and see these same results.
  
• Malibu: YouTube.com Channel
• People coming from our YouTube channel spent 1 min 15 sec more time on average
• Malibu: Malibu Boats Blog
• People coming from our blog spent 3 min 44 sec more time on average.
• People coming from our blog spent 3 more actions per visit on average.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | social media | David Meerman Scott | content | Malibu Boats | YouTube | blogging | e-newsletter

How Do You Track the Effects of Social Media and PR on Sales?

I was e-mailed this questions a few times after the webinar earlier today so I thought I would answer the question on the blog. Here’s a brief overview of the analytics process we use at Malibu Boats to track our effectiveness with PR and social media online.

Here is a list of the tools we use. Nothing fancy and nothing too expensive.
GetClicky $100 per year (www.getclicky.com)
Google Analytics (free)
Channel Blade Technologies (lead management)
warranty card submissions

So we analyze the traffic to our web site with Clicky and/or Google Analytics. We look at where people are coming from and what part of our site their going to. For example... Are they coming to the Malibu Boats web site as the results of an e-newsletter we sent out, a news release, or are they coming from the Malibu Boats YouTube Channel or the Malibu Flickr gallery. We also pay attention to whether or not they fill out a lead. If they did, we track that lead via our lead management system to see where it ends up in the buying process with our dealers. Then we crosscheck that lead with our warranty card submissions to verify a sale.

This is pretty round about, but we have found it is accurate in getting us ROI for our PR and social media efforts. What this process doesn’t tell us is whether or not these types of PR were the only determining factor in the buying decision or if they based their decision on other influencers like the nearest dealer, a friend, magazine advertisements, etc. Of course, in reality that could all be considered PR. We assume that they are learning about Malibu Boats through several sources so we take the social media ROI data with a grain of salt.

It all comes down to managing relationships. If the customers you talk with, or communicate with via the web, are generally happy with your product and services that is a big indicator of your success, our analytics process simply gives us the number of actual sales that were affected by our online PR efforts. currently we still use other type of Marketing and PR to get the word out about the Malibu Difference.

Tags: Amy Mauzy | Malibu Boats | public relations |social media | analytics | ROI

Spoke in a PR Webinar for Vocus and PRSA Today

I was part of a PR webinar today. Pretty cool. The other speakers and myself presented some really interesting information about the New Role of PR for Public Relations. You can listen to a recorded version of the webinar free at the Vocus web site.

Here's some brief information about the webinar...

How has the role of public relations changed over the past few years and where is it headed? How can you prepare for and take advantage of new opportunities? Tasked with building corporate image, managing brand recognition and complementing marketing and other company initiatives, public relations now extends far beyond its traditional role.

Join Jeffrey Julin of PRSA, Jerry Swerling of the USC Annenberg Strategic PR Center and Amy Mauzy of Malibu Boats for “The New Public Relations Role; Connect to Strategy.”

More and more public relations professionals today are reporting to the C-suite and supporting the company’s strategic planning and growth. Hear from our panel how the public relations function has expanded to help align and lead other company initiatives and will continue to grow moving forward.

Topic:
The New Public Relations Role; Connect to Strategy

Speakers:
Jeffrey Julin, APR, Chair and CEO, PRSA Board of Directors
Jerry Swerling, professor, USC Annenberg Strategic PR Center
Amy Mauzy, public relations manager for Malibu Boats

Tags: Amy Mauzy | public relations | social media | Vocus | PRSA | Malibu Boats | GAP Study | Jeffrey Julin | Jerry Swerling