I found this video via @jdale and @tshuttleworth and I had to share it with you. I have had several people this week ask me if Social Media is a fad. Well my simple answer is no. In fact I agree with the statement in the video that “it is the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution”. It is changing our habits, how we digest media, how we connect and engage with people and our description of community. Socialnomics09 did a great job pulling together my favorite quotes and statistics. Enjoy. I would love to hear your comments.
Archive - Marketing
RSS Feed
A guide rather than an expert: navigating social media
The world is beginning to fill with self proclaimed social media experts and Trust Agents
(even though Chris Brogan and Julien Smith warn against calling yourself such things). These people can not possibly be experts. We are all learning in this space. Yes, some have a true uncanny ability to connect and build communities.
An expert though, by definition, is someone who knows everything about a subject. Social Media is such a new frontier that there really is no way that someone could honestly claim to fully understand it. It is constantly changing, and rules of the game are continually being remade and broken.
Like climbing guides, a good consultant is someone who has survived a few impressive journeys and now wants to offer help to others. And like a guide, they usually fail when they become too cocky. When I was growing up, my dad would tell me stories of pilots who died because they were too confident. The good ones are always learning, always correcting and experimenting.
Recently I was watching an episode of Globe Trekker. Adventure diva Holly Morris had chosen to attempt a personal life goal of climbing the Matterhorn. She could have tried the climb alone with some chance of success. She chose wisely though to use a trusted Mt. Guide, Ricky Andenmatten. Her guide is what caught my attention. He was humble, kind, and most of all knowledgeable. He also offered a sense of safety and confidence to his client.
Guides are simply people who have gone before us. They come back from the journey and offer us the chance to succeed where we might have failed. They also offer tips for avoiding some of the least obvious pitfalls, as well as nuggets we might miss if trekking through the web on our own.
Guides can range from seasoned veterans to those just starting out. Right now we have a new frontier still being explored. Some of us have been to the far reaches and are now offering our help to others. Others are just starting out. If you have survived, offer what you found, but please leave the expert out of your title. Let others call you an expert, trust agent, or guru.
*Matterhorn image used under the flckr creative commons nordique
Tools to bridge communication: Science reaching the public
Yesterday Pew published a study showing the communication and understanding gap between the public and the scientific community.
As we face many critical future decisions regarding our environment, there is no greater time in recent history that the general public needs to be informed and educated about the natural world they live in. A few years back I was in Duluth Minn. for the yearly Society for Conservation Biology meeting . Like most of these meetings many of the topics centered around the public communication. We have all these findings, now how do we communicate them beyond the choir. Many of the closing workshops rehashed communication skills and press release writing styles, as well as the standard “public outreach” solutions. Many of the scientists I talked to were pretty skeptical that the divide we all knew existed with the public could ever be bridged.
Fast forward to today, and we now have tools we never imagined would exist. Twitter , Facebook , Youtube , and blogs have turned each of our offices into press briefing rooms and communication studios.In fact the regular outlet scientists have relied on for decades, the press, is still trying to play catch-up as print media outlets fold everyday. Now we not only have a way to get our papers, studies and critical findings to the public, we also have a way to receive instant feedback. We can engage in conversations all over the world. With the new search tools we can now find the conversation happening about the subjects in our field and add our input, correct false assumptions and bridge the gap. Are these tools and the social media phenomenon a cure all? No. But they are a far better tools than the regular press release and email blast. If you are a scientist and you are not using these tools, the world is waiting. They are talking and waiting for you to engage.
I re-posted this article from the blog I manage for @consbio.
*Image used under creative commons: flickr user amypalko
On being a heretic
We often need to break from tradition in order to make a change. This is especially true in 
established organizations. Programs in a business or organization can become encumbered with the expectation of mediocrity, regardless of how hard they try to succeed. Being a heretic can disrupt this pattern, especially if the heretic’s ideas result in a changed outcome.
In 1992 I served as the events chair for Oregon State Universities Memorial Union Program Council (MUPC), charged with bringing entertainment to the student body. The organization had a long history of draining the universities funds. A poorly planned event a few years before had left the administration having to pay Jay Leno for a costly failed event. His show had been scheduled on a Monday night during midterms. Each concurrent event was saddled with the task of adding its contribution to paying the debt.
So now it was my turn to bring a musical concert to OSU. I was told to book someone affordable (under 5K). The administration was already braced to lose money on the concert, but they wanted to keep the losses low. As I looked through the stacks of bands that promoters were offering me for that price, it quickly became apparent that there was no way I could book a band that would both satisfy the students desire for good music and keep within the administration’s budget. It seemed hopelessly set up for failure.
That evening I was listening to music with my roommates. One of our favorite alternative bands was The Violent Femmes. My friend Doug suggested that I book the femmes! At first I laughed. I knew they were nowhere close to being within my budget. I also knew the administration would frown on having a band named “The Violent Femmes” play on campus.
As I thought about it more, the rebel in me awoke. Why not? I knew I could fill any venue on campus. Just about any social group I could think of liked the femmes. You couldn’t attend a party without one of their hits, Blister in the Sun pumping out of the speakers at least once.
I called their promoter the next morning. I was shocked to find out that it would take over 10k to book them. There was no way I could get that much out of the university. Still I could not resist. I wanted to buck the system and take a risk. I knew it could work. I told the agent I would call her back. How was I going to approach the school with this crazy idea?
To my surprise, after a bit of nervous assurance from me, the administration agreed to front the cash, and I booked the band. The event turned out to be very successful. The fans were pleased, and the school made money on an event for the first time in years. I could have booked a mediocre band with no risk. Low ticket price meant minimal loss would incur. What’s the fun in that though? Being a heretic can pay off. Try it on and see what happens.
I would love to hear your heretic stories.
McAlexander Fieldhouse hosted a full house for the Femmes
Filtering Your Tweets
Just like the colander you have in the drawer below the kitchen knives, strainers filter out stuff we don’t want. We filter what we say to our friends, spouses and colleagues. Some of us filter too much and some too little. Our mothers have told us “if you don’t have anything nice to say…” you know the rest.
These same filters apply to social media and especially Twitter. Since writing my first tweet a year ago, I have had many moments where I knew I could not post what I had just written. My finger hesitated over the delete key and then, from those internal filters, a decision arose, and I blasted the 140 characters into oblivion. So what are these filters, and how should we use them?
I write for myself here at Flurry Creations, as well as for Soma Games, and Conservation Biology Institute. My filters are different for each account. In general I think they apply to most situations. Below are a few filters that I rely on:
- Is this useful to anyone and am I promoting something I really think is remarkable? I have to remember this one most of all when friends ask me to retweet something. It is so tempting to publish it because they are friends. Would you send hundreds of friends to a bad mechanic or a lousy restaurant? No. So visit the link and make sure. Don’t be afraid to pass. Also be honest and let them know why you won’t be furthering the promotion. By all means, pass it on if you agree that their new found product, post, or service is truly remarkable.
- Am I being a sleestak? This term comes from a post I think everyone using Social Media should read. A sleestak will post constantly to their own benefit and glean the popularity of others, while benefiting no one. If you have not read it you really should. (Really, go read it and then come back here and finish my post.) If you have that horrible feeling in your stomach because you know that you have been a sleestak in the past, don’t worry, we have all gone there. Just try not to do it again.
- Am I willing to make a mistake? This is big. We need to be willing to take risks and make mistakes. Two of Chris Brogan’s posts on mistakes and apologizing come to mind. We need to be willing to make them as well as apologize for them. Just don’t let this filter stall you from posting all together.
Use these or come up with your own.
What are your filters? Please share them here.
Using Twitter for Business -on Blog Laboratory
Many businesses are wondering “what is all this about tweet this and twitter that”. My Friend Loyan at Blog Laboratory has started a multi-part series addressing just that question. Check it out!
Every day your prospects, customers, partners and competition are communicating in a very public way. They are asking questions about your products, ranting about your service, praising your assistance and sharing information about your market. Every day, this is happening on Twitter, with or without you.…………….
Bare Shelves
Two weekends ago I stopped by a local bookstore to pick up some reading material for a relaxing weekend at the beach. I wanted to buy the latest INC magazine. The Saturday morning buzz, so familiar to our college town, was still evident in this store. Many customers were browsing. I walked past the lazy resident cat on my way to the magazine racks. This particular store has four rows of magazines; I love the selection. Today though, most of the shelves had several empty spots, once filled with the latest glossies. The first thought that came to my mind was, “dang another store is folding”. I walked up to the counter and asked about my missing INC. To my relief the clerk told me that they were doing fine, but their magazine distributor, Anderson News LLC, had gone out of business suddenly, leaving them with no supply.
When we reached our beach destination, I decided to slip out to the local grocery store and pick up a few items. As I perused the isles, I was constantly met by empty shelves. The candy section had four bare shelves and one bar of chocolate. The soda section had only the standards for Pepsi and Coke. Obviously the varieties had been ditched in this ever tightening economy. This is frustrating to the consumer. I did not have the nerve to ask the manager if the store was closing its doors, but that was the perception all of the customers left with. Right then perception was everything.
Folding when the taking is still hot.
My dad is a great poker player. When I was growing up, we would take a few trips through Nevada every year so he could join in some of the big games in Vegas, Reno and Winnemucca. Every morning he would give me a stack of silver dollars from his winnings. Part of playing poker well is knowing when to fold and when to stay in the game. It takes guts to keep your cards in the game, especially when it looks like the odds are stacked against you.
I have been thinking a lot about poker as I have watched businesses fold here in my hometown, Corvallis Oregon. It is a shame to see good businesses falter as their income dwindles. One reason I got into social network marketing was to help others get the most out of their dream business. Over the past weeks, I have often wondered how I could have helped the businesses now closing their doors. Many owners brush off tools like blogging, twitter, and facebook as passing fads. It is times like these that can convince them to take a risk on something new. Explaining the difference between interruption marketing and permission marketing usually gets their attention. Interruption marketing usually gains a 1% return on the dollar spent compared to ~5% return for permission marketing p.59 Meatball Sunday, Seth Godin. Permission marketing is so cheap that it hardly seems like a risk at all.
Social networking is really just another way to mobilize their greatest marketing tool, word of mouth. Little do they know, many of them are already benefiting from it without buy in.
Here are a few examples:
A few weeks ago my friend Lance posted on twitter that he was enjoying the coffee and internet at a local shop called The Vibe. Soon a few others were joining him. I myself went there for the first time today. My wife and I liked it so much we tweeted about our experience. The rest of the story is yet to unfold, but I know it has only gained them more followers than they would have without this publicity.
Another story started the old fashioned way. I was taking my daily coffee walk to the Great Harvest when we began to talk about where we have been eating out. One of my friends mentioned that my favorite restaurant, Big River, had a weekday entre menu where every item was only $9.99! This news made my day, and I decided to take my wife there on Wednesday. Tonight we both enjoyed a meal off the special menu. They kept the great quality, and it was such a remarkable experience I decided to post the menu to twitter and make sure others knew about the deal.
Neither of these establishments is willfully involved in social networking. The possibilities could be endless if they were to engage. Luckily, I don’t see Big River hurting for business. As our economic situation grows direr, many businesses that are still thriving today may find a similar fate as the ones currently folding. Engaging in the tools of today may be their only shot at getting their message out before they are forced to close their doors as well. Being a little gutsy early in the game may allow them to be the ones still holding their cards and cashing in on the pot.
Other than poker my Dad loves to entertain guests at his Mountain Lodge and Resort Callahan’s Siskiyou Lodge
This post keeps getting new traffic over time so I thought I would do a revisit.
My friend Kevin Miller posted a really good video on his blog: Restaurants should own their local market
with his permission I have embedded it here. Enjoy!
Free Agent Underground: Restaurants should own their local market from Agent Kevin Miller on Vimeo.
Did JCPenney Catch the Flu?
Too often marketers focus on getting attention. We have all seen the super bowl adds, and who doesn’t enjoy watching them. But are they really getting the attention that counts? Are they attracting new followers?
Seth Godin said recently in his blog that “viral marketing is an idea that spreads–and an idea that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause.” It is not really successful marketing when it gains popularity by being cute, clever or funny alone. Here is an example. I recently watched the now famous “dog house campaign video” from JCPenneys. It is funny, well scripted and shot. But what story are they trying to tell? Maybe it did increase their sales. JCPenny reported that December store sales only decreased 6.8 percent as reported by their corporate office
. They attribute the companies better sales during the holidays compared to their competitors, to “aggressive promotional pricing action”. There is no mention of the million and counting hits the doghouse video has received on YouTube. Even though the approach is different from the disruptive television or print ads so commonly used by large retail stores, it still shows that JCPenny is missing the mark on viral marketing. I believe they have a remarkable brand that does not need gimmicks like Facebook Connect applications (an application that allows women to put their male friends in the doghouse for poorly chosen gifts for their women). For years I have heard about their customer service and quality guarantee. I once bought a Citizen diving watch from their jewelry department. For a decade I was able to return to the department and have the batteries replaced by Citizen while the shipping was covered by JCPenneys. It was enough to make me consider them whenever I thought about major purchases. While my mother worked as a floor salesperson she prided herself on that kind of customer service. These qualities alone are enough to create honest and transparent marketing for the company. I can think of many promotional pieces they could have spent money on instead of a video that will be remembered for ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi’s cleverness (don’t get me wrong here, they delivered an excellent conventional advertisement for the company). Obviously it made the masses laugh, but did it move them to make a choice for JCPenny?
To be entertained go here. JCPenney spent incredible amounts of money to make it, and you get to see it for…. free.
One Great Day
Today was a great day. For about a month I have been working hard to honestly promote something I believe in, Soma Games. The best stories, and the ones we should be selling, are the great ones and Chris of Soma has one. Soma Games wants to change how Christians involved in the gaming industry are perceived by the world. Big task huh? I believe they have a good chance. Right off when you meet Chis Skaggs you know he is the real deal. His story and what he has to say about Soma are truly authentic. Rather than spoil it all, I will let my friend Chris tell the rest. Enjoy!
See more great Startup interviews at startupslive.tv. or startuplucky.com
