Don’t Shoot at Fish in a Barrel. Blow the thing up!

Jeremiah Oywang has been ON FIRE the past couple of weeks with his posts regarding social media. I went through the slideshare (above) a couple of times and wanted to share.

When it comes to social media marketing you either understand the tools and then reach the customers…
or understand your customers and then find the tools!

Which choice do you think will grant you more success? The second.

Small business owners and business professionals are scraping to learn the tools presented to them. Whether it is for their personal use or for external marketing, they learn the tool and then broadcast it to catch the fish. They are choosing a gun… learning how to use the gun… and then firing into a barrel. Blow the thing up!

If you created a strategy and you understand your customer you don’t have to shoot anything… you will destroy the competition and the market. You will be picking dead fish up off the ground and cashing in. Dead fish apparently equal revenue/sales in my mind.

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Social Media is Valuable but Broken. We Need to Work Together.

There is always debate.
There is always debate on the topics of social media… the black magic of the business world. Should we do it? What is the best way to do it?

Traditional marketing, advertising and PR firms do not know what to do. “Social Media” companies do not have enough traditional strategy to make something stick. We are all scraping to find something to make this powerful tool work. It is going to be a long process of customization, personalization, and strategy.

My company, Brandswag, started out as a small business design and marketing firm in Indianapolis. We have thus grown to a 5 person shop dealing with graphic design, web design, and social media/internet marketing. The transition happened pretty naturally because all of us were so involved in social media already… Why not try to leverage this amazing tool for business benefit? And it has worked… to an extent. The tool is broken. Social media should be used strictly with a traditional strategy. Hire a traditional marketing firm. Hire a Public Relations firm.

This is not the “save-me-from-the-economy” tool. It is a new thing. It is a new product that is being slowly pushed and pulled apart to make it work. I am far from an “expert” and there are only a few that can take that title (Chris Brogan and Douglas Karr). We all have little pieces of the pie to maximize a marketing strategy.

What are we to do? Work together.

Traditional marketing, PR, and advertising companies need to open up their minds to the tool and also the opposite way. Social media and internet marketing companies need the traditional strategy and marketing of the agency. Let’s work together to measure and get results.

We are all in this together. We have (at our fingertips) a tool that could transform the way we communicate.

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The Real Value of Social Media: A Piece of the Pie

Elizabeth Friedland over at TrendyMinds has an excellent post about the concept of social media not being the end-all scheme to push marketing to the masses.

I wanted to bring up my thought on the real value of social media to the small business owner or CEO: Listening. You do not need to get rid of your tradtional marketing strategy. You shouldn’t. Whenever I am in front of a group of people I always say, “If you come to me and say you got rid of your press releases and direct mail pieces and started a Facebook Page. I will never talk to you again.”

So what is a business owner to do?

Learn the tool. Use the tool. Evaluate the tool.

You can either decide to take a class to learn how to implement the tool into your overall strategy or learn the tool yourself using videos from Common Craft. You need to understand the tool before using it. You need to use the tool before implementing it into your overall strategy. If you decide it is a waste of time and money… ditch it. At least you tried.

The important thing to remember is that whether you do it yourself or hire one of the numerous marketing, social media, and new media companies you should be staying ahead of the curve.

1.5 Billion people are connected to the Internet and 300 million use social media. It is an important tool and it will be in the future.

Be strategic. Be thoughtful and listen.

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Get 30,000 Followers on Twitter. What is it Worth?

I search constantly on the web for writers and thinkers who display a chip on their shoulder. They are brilliant thinkers but they have a sarcasm about them that keeps my days interesting. One of my favorite writer is Alexander van Elsas. There are times when I completely agree with Alexander and also times when I completely disagree… there really is not a middle ground.

He has a post talking about the real value of Twitter ‘s suggest user feature which was made a little more valuable after Jason Calacanis offered $500K. Congratulation Jason and Alexander, you have pushed me to a crossroad on the purpose of quality over quantity.

We talked about the purpose of quality over quantity all the time on the web.

“I would rather have 200 devout followers than 20,000 kind-of listeners.”

There is a reason we do this. We are the social-renegades of the marketing world. What? You think we should send out mass mailings? Buy an email list? AHH. I am dying from heart failure.

The truth of the matter is this… I haven’t come to any conclusions yet on the value of quality over quantity. Jason Calacanis shows the absolute value of driving traffic from Twitter to his start-up, Mahalo. He was willing to pony up $250,000 to drive two-million visits a month to his site. I would do it too.

And yet, Alexander talks about the quality of the followers being below zero. I also agree with him when he says:

“It makes the reach you have on Twitter as good as any spammer that hijacked millions of e-mail addresses. There is always a sucker that falls for it. The real-time effect is pretty much worthless when put into comparison to the nr of followers and the spam being produced. To me the only benefit, if you can call it a benefit, would be that the audience that follows you remains persistent.”

So what is the answer? You can always give the quality over quantity speech but does that drive revenue? In the world of business there is absolute value to use social media but what is the strategy? Quality over Quantity?

What are 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 Twitter followers worth to you?

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Is Conversation or Content King on the Social Web?

I am currently doing some research for my presentation at the Hoosier Hospitality Conference and I ran across this quote by Cory Doctorow from BoingBoing:

“Content isn’t king. If I sent you to a desert island and gave you the choice of taking your friends or your movies, you would choose your friends…. If you chose your movies, we would call you a sociopath. Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about.”

It made me think hard about my opinions on content and the use of such tools to drive leads to businesses using the Internet. Sometimes the point of conversation is missed by many Internet marketers. It is excellent if you are at the top of Google search for your keywords but what happens when the potential customer clicks through to your site?

Do you have the necessary tools and systems in place to create conversations with the users influenced by your search ranking? Is it even necessary?

Absolutely it is necessary. We are seeing an overwhelming demand for the marketers and businesses of the world to call consumers… PEOPLE… and not the other way around.

It is important to creat excellent content in order to push the conversation but…

Conversation leads to Relationships. Relationship leads to Aquisition.

What do you think? Is Content king or did Conversation just take the throne?

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Is Blogging for Search ruining Innovative Thought?

Let me preface this post by saying… I don’t know the answer… and if you are a social media professional or consultant.. you are at fault.

I have been debating with myself lately (you should try it) about the concept of blogging for search and how it could be affecting the . From a marketing standpoint it is brilliant to use a blog for search. I will be the first to say that my company, Brandswag, uses our corporate blog for organic search. The blog you are reading now is used for some organic search goals, as well as my own personal branding in the city of Indianapolis.

What am I struggling with?

If you are constantly focused on keyword rich writing and blogging for search is that taking away from building knowledge and innovation in your industry? Is it taking away from you actually writing your thoughts.. feelings.. and ideas?

Sometimes I get stuck.

We blog for many reasons. Maybe you want to learn and co-create interesting articles and discussions. Maybe you want to build your company brand in order to drive more revenue. Maybe… you just want to talk to other people with the same interest.

Blogging and the world of social media has created a spinning mass of information that is being consumed by hundreds of millions of people on a daily basis. Are we missing out on writing from the heart and helping industries/people become better?

Maybe. Maybe not. I don’t know the answer.

If you are focusing so intently on the right keywords and such doesn’t that take you away from being truly innovative and thought provoking in your writing?

Maybe we are all at fault.

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Facebook Just Got Twittered: The Twitter Rush

I feel like I am in the gold rush. We are all part of this massive push to join the online minions of the Twitter world.

I just finished reading a post by Sarah Perez from ReadWriteWeb about Nielsen Online reporting Twitter “has now surpassed Facebook and others to become the fastest-growing site in Member Communities.” I wasn’t really expecting this type of growth out of Twitter. And there is a reason for that…

It is hard to describe the concept or meaning behind the Twitter revolution. Facebook is easy to describe and (sometimes) use but Twitter?? No way.

In a way the growth of Twitter is encouraging to the Social Media enthusiast in all of us. The world of social media tools and marketing is no longer for the computer nerds stuck in their mothers basement. This world of two-way communication and online relationship building is starting to gain traction from small businesses to corporate America.

You may be asking…What do we do with this information?

To all the non-Twitter Users:

You use the stat of an increase of 1382% of unique visitors year over year (2008-2009) and beat yourself over the head until you at least TRY the tool. It is important to understand all communication tools available.

To the Twitter Users:

Congratulations. We now have a used tool.. now let’s figure out how it can be useful.

25 Steps to Choosing a Social Media Consultant and Educator

I have been discovering many people starting to enter the world of social media marketing in Indianapolis. It can be anything from an advertising firm to a small business coach. It is probably pretty confusing for business owners trying to learn about the amazing new tools available on the web. I wanted to help you out with your first steps in choosing a social media educator or consultant.

1. They need to use the tools they are teaching.

It is extremely important that the teacher is using the tools. Before you decide to use a social media consultant… investigate! Make sure they are using tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN, and Plaxo. If they do not use the tools on a regular basis, they are just riding a wave.

2. They communicate with their audience.

The last person you will want to hire is someone who throws content out on the bed and doesn’t allow for two way communication. The best way to test this? Go to their Twitter account and make sure they are actually sending “RT” and replies to people. 2-way communication is key.

3. Do they call themselves a Social Media Expert? Ask about the 10,000 hours rule.

The person that calls themselves a “social media expert” is the last person you want to hire. Read Paul Dunay’s post about 10,000 hours to become an expert.

4. Ask them their definition of social media.

If they give you a list of tools. Fail them.

5. They will run your Twitter account for you.

It is impossible to ghost a Twitter account. YOU either use it or you don’t. Ghostwriting for a blog is a different story and NOT for this post.

6. Their blog is less than six months old with no comments. (thanks Beth)

7. Ask them about social bookmarking. Do they know what it is? Do they use it?

8. Have they taught a class before on social media? Even a webinar?

It is important that your consultant or educator has experience in teaching or presenting on social media. The last thing you want to do is spend money for something that is going to be a DRAG. You want to know that you are not wasting your money.

9. Are they a Just-add-water expert?

10. They actually have a personality and GET people.

It is important that your social media consultant have a personality. What do I mean by personality? They are not stuck in an office all day pecking away at Twitter and have no sense of humor. ALSO, they are not overly bubbly and excited about everything under the sun. Sanity is key.

11. They blog more than once a week.

It is important that the investigation goes deeper into the blogging world. Your social media consultant should be learning on a daily basis and expounding upon what they are learning by blogging. This does not have to be catered specifically to a BLOG (wordpress or blogger). You can always check on Twitter on how they are communicating and learning.

12. They are linking and being linked.

Complete a Google link search and make sure your social media consultant actually has people and blogs linking back to their site. It is extremely important

13. Ask their opinion on viral marketing.

It is extremely important that your social media consultant and educator understand the concepts behind word-or-mouth marketing and viral marketing. Social media marketing is a relationship drive model. The evangelists and lovers of your product or service need to have the means to shout to the world… WE LOVE YOU!

14. Check out their website.

The first step to any Internet or social media strategy is the website. Do they have a communication drive website or is it a web 1.0 brochure driven site? Are they interacting with people? Are they talking about social media? Are they talking to YOU and not about their services.

15. What do other people think about them?

Mentors are one of the greatest asset to any small business owner. Who would they choose? Maybe they think social media is a waste of time. You need to take that into account. Maybe they were burned in the past? It is extremely important to get another perspective when entering into a relationship with any type of consultant or marketing professional.

16. They advise you to start a Facebook page as the first step.

It isn’t about starting in one spot. If you are new to the world of social media it may be smart to start USING Facebook other than trying to manage all 5 but the last thing you need to do is just start a Facebook fan page. SM strategy should be surrounding an integrated marketing approach. Period.

17. The instant success test

It takes time and knowledge to be successful at using social media as a small business strategy. If they promise instant results.. You should probably find another consultant.

18. What do they think about traditional marketing and advertising?

Ask them. If they come back to you and say that the traditional approach to marketing is dead. They are just riding a wave of no return. They will never understand the concepts of combining traditional and new media into an overall strategy.

19. Ask them about Radian6.

Radian6 is one of the better brand monitoring companies out there. If they have no idea about Radian6. FAIL.

20. What is their opinion of Quality over Quantity?

If your social media consultant starts talking about driving hundreds of followers to your social media account they don’t understand the concept of TWO WAY COMMUNICATION. Quality is so much better than quantity. Quality connections are the only way to succeed at using social media to expand your business.

21. They believe in actually listening to your problems instead of convincing you about the world of social media.

22. If they are still using an @aol.com, @aim.com, @comcast.net, or @att.net email. Fail them.

23. Listen for new approaches to strategy.

Everyone is offering to be a “social” consultant. Do they talk and think differently than anyone else you have listened to? If they do. You have a gem on your hands. Creative thinkers are the best social media consultants.

24. Are they a used car salesman? Do they seem genuine?

For the sake of argument I am going to list this. Do not work with someone you do not trust. Period.

25.Do they have any success stories?

Ask them about their history in using social media. The space is extremely new but there are people who are succeeding in using the tool. If they do not have case studies. Ask.

There are plenty more but this is just the beginning. Add to the list if you would like!

Interactive Marketers to Increase Online Spending by 50%

Have you ever been thinking about something only to read a blog post that is catered to the same idea? Just happened to me! I was reading a post by Chris Baggot about old media and his thoughts on the problem with the overall business model.

I (like Chris) love old media. There is something about getting a magazine in the mail and thumbing through the articles. Every once in awhile I also pay the money to buy a Wall Street Journal or an Indianapolis Star. Unfortunately times are changing and we are not just focusing on the journalistic side of old media.

Old advertising is slowly seeing a transition as customers start to shift more of their spending to online marketing. According to Forrester Research, interactive marketers are going to increase their online marketing spending by 50%. There are a couple of reasons to look at this stat from a social media and old media perspective.

Old media needs to shift their business model to cater more to the online medium. It is a fact of change. The evolve or die mantra still stands as old advertising starts to see a decrease in the effectiveness of their advertising model.

Chris and I both do not have answers for old media. I will still continue to buy my favorite magazines but my purchase does not prove that the advertising is working. As a business owner it is important to realize the effectiveness of both mediums.

How are you going to shift your spending to cater to the online marketing medium?

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Facebook Isn’t For Your Kids Anymore

I was reading a new social networking report from Nielsen called Global Faces and Networked Places and they had some stats about the growth of Facebook over the past year.

At Brandswag we deal with the Facebook paradigm from the older generations. Many of the small business owners we talk to would rather not think about using Facebook for marketing or networking because it is something their kids use. Now, we know that is not entirely true and yes… Facebook is used by your children but there is more behind .

The past few years have seen an increase in the use of Facebook by the Gen X and Baby Boomer crowd. According to the Nielsen report the greatest growth on Facebook has been from the people aged 35-49.

Guess what age group doubled that of their 18 year old children? The 50-64 year olds.

We are talking about one-third of the global audience on Facebook being between the ages of 35-49! What does this mean for small business owners? It means that you now have a viable source for business networking. It means that social media is no longer all about your children.

This small piece of your marketing strategy is now catering to all age groups… young and old. Is it time to start using social media to grow your business? Is it time to at least learn how to communicate online?

Absolutely. Start now.

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