Margie Clayman

I am happy to announce that this Saturday (September eh…18th, yes) at 9 PM EST, Stanford Smith, aka @pushingsocial, and I will be opening up a diner.

Not a real diner, mind you, but a special Twitter Diner. We’re calling it..the Tweet Diner (#Tweetdiner)

I wanted to use more than 140 characters to explain a bit about what we are hoping this will be. Essentially, we have a few goals.

1) To create a venue where folks learning Twitter or other Social Media sites can ask questions

2) Where subjects of interest can be discussed – no specific focus like other chats, but just across the board. And not just business-related either, because…

3) We also want this to be a place to socialize. Network. Meet people. Engage. It’s hard to do sometimes during the work week, so we thought we would create an opportunity for actually being social on a Social Media site. I know. Gross.

So on Saturday night, after your kidlets have been slumbering, and when you think, “Man, #blogchat is so far away and my Thursday chats are just a distant memory,” c’mon over and visit us at #tweetdiner. We’ll be there chatting, and we’d sure be jazzed if you joined us. Woncha?

If you have any questions, comment below or find one of us over on Twitter 🙂

Image by Michal Zacharzewski. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/mzacha

When I first started in this business, I was a media buyer. I still work a lot with media. One way that publications entice advertisers is by offering a series of “value adds.” These might be free promotional tools, they might be discounts – it really depends. The bottom line, though, is that the value adds are intended to “sweeten the pot.” They are intended to show advertisers that they are appreciated and are valued themselves.

Gimme gimme gimme

In Social Media, we ask people to do a lot of things. Speaking for myself, I ask you to converse with me and “listen” to my incessant tweeting. I ask you to read things that other people have written. I ask you to come over here and read what I’ve written. I ask you to think about and comment on what I have written or read. I sometimes ask you to help out a cause I believe in. That’s a lot of favors.

This is on my mind because of 2 comments I got last night about the fact that I seem to have a hashtag (for a Twitter chat) every night of the week. The comments weren’t mean, but it made me think a little. It made me feel a little self-conscious, like you might feel after going into one of those dreaded fitting rooms with the honest lighting and oh so many mirrors.

And I have been asking myself today, am I giving you a value add to balance all of the favors I’m asking of you?

It’s easy to feel important

When you are writing blogs, tweeting, and participating in Social Media, it’s easy to feel important and smart, if that’s your thing. Unlike in real life, you don’t see the fidgeting, the yawning, the rolled eyes, the “she is cuckoo” hand gestures (or other hand gestures). All you see are the responses people type into their computers. Fortunately for me, a lot of people have bothered to type in a lot of nice things in response to stuff I say or do. It’s easy to let that go to your head sometimes. “Yeah, I am brilliant. Geeze!” What a life.

But all of that is really about you, and we all know that Social Media is supposed to be about serving others. So I’ve been asking myself today, “What are other people really getting from my various and sundry Social Media engagements?”

I’m not sure I have a clear answer to that question.  And that’s not me asking for an RSVP to a pity party, byob. I’m just saying, I don’t know that I’ve been focused enough on what I’m actually offering. I hope that for people that I chat with on a friendly basis, I’m offering friendship and fun, but that isn’t really the essence of a professional presence in Social Media, right?

I know what I want my value to be

I have my eyes on a prize. I know what I want my value to be. I want to be a resource. I want to be a person that can be considered a reliable, credible source of assistance and information in the marketing industry. I want people to be able to come to me and say, “This charitable organization or person needs help. Can you spread the word?”

Is that what I am working towards with these blog posts? With my tweets? I don’t know. I may be, but I haven’t given it thought, and that’s what’s disconcerting.

What is your value add?

One of the reasons (of many) that I respect Stanford over at Pushing Social is that he knows what his value is. He calls himself the “beat reporter” for his Twitter followers, and he wants to inspire people to blog and engage with passion everywhere. All that he does builds towards those goals.  The more I ponder this question, the more I respect him for being so sure of his path in this world.

What is your value add? What are you aiming to do when you sign into your Twitter account or when you ask people to read your blog? It’s worth some thought.

Image Credit: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/Leonardini

I haven’t been watching a lot of TV lately, but on Sunday I had the immense privilege of watching my Cleveland Browns lose their first game of the 2010-2011 season in rather typical Cleveland Browns fashion. In between screaming at my television, I saw a new Geico commercial. Perhaps you’ve seen it. The “CEO” is sitting at at able with the gecko, and they are surrounded by bobble-head geckos, gecko t-shirts, and other paraphernalia. The gecko says, “Shouldn’t we be talking about the fact that Geico can blah blah blah?” The CEO says, “Nah, I think we’re fine.” The gecko then says, “OK, as long as we don’t overdo it.” Meanwhile, a giant inflatable gecko is being loaded into the room.

The commercial was actually very interesting to me (sad what a career in marketing can do to you) not because it made me think of Geico as a company whose services I want to explore, but rather because it made me realize that maybe we are getting past the era in which gimmicks like the Gecko or the Aflac Duck are the best ways to advertise. It goes back to my blog post about how to save advertising. Do people want to see talking animals, or do they want you to tell them how you can help them?

It’s about the customer

One important thing I have learned from Beth Harte and our weekly IMCChats is that integrated marketing in its truest form can’t be realized until everyone realizes it’s all about the customer. I am noodling in my head whether the ads that I see that are easily recognizable (Flo for Progressive would be another one) are really more about these companies being on peoples’ minds. That’s about the company.

Is it easier to remember what a company does for you if there is a gimmick involved? Progressive lets you compare your rates. That’s about the customer. Geico saves you money and time. That’s customer oriented. The ads are essentially about solving problems. So, in that case, maybe the gecko and the duck are good things. But then again, maybe they would just be gimmicks if there wasn’t a central mission statement in all of the ads, or if the ads hadn’t been running for years and years.

What do you think? In an age when people barely give ads any time, is it time to mature and get straight down to the message, or is it better to entertain as well? What would be “overdoing it,” to reference Geico’s own commercial?

Let me know what you think!

Image credit: Found this at a site called stangnet.com. Ironically and not surprisingly, it was part of a forum focused on problems with Geico. Not sure who gets credit for the image.

A few weeks ago, I started noticing that a lot of people were talking about Blog World Expo 2010. BWE, as it’s known, is held in Las Vegas, and it’s basically a Thanksgiving buffet of everyone I could ever want to meet from my Social Media world. People I admire will be speaking. People I admire will be roving the halls. Did I mention it’s in Las Vegas?

I have been hearing about a lot of other shows and conferences aimed at the Social Media world as well, and I have been dreaming about attending. I have fantasized about how nice it would be to get to have one of my Twitter chats in real life with some of the folks I talk to every week like, SITTING RIGHT THERE. It sounds terrific. It sounds like it would be a blast. But then  I say to myself, “Hold up a minute, self. How would this help you reach your goals? How would this help your clients?”

Marketing is a service industry

Everything I do comes down to the core of my professional self. I am here to help our clients. I am here to help my co-workers help our clients. I am here to help other people, either in a friendly way or in a business-related way.

For me, right now, the best way for me to accomplish those goals is to be at work, fully accessible to our clients and to my co-workers. Times are still uncertain, as everyone knows. I want our clients to know that I am keeping my nose to the grindstone at all times, learning so that I can pass knowledge to them, working so that they can flourish.

Does going to Blog World meet that criteria? I would certainly learn a lot. But the fun I would have would far outweigh the direct business benefits our clients or our company could get out of my trip. Meanwhile, I would be rather inaccessible, not only due to being at various panel talks but also because of the time difference. Does that send the right message?

Preaching to the Choir

For me, going to a Social Media show would be a selfish trip right now. I would be hobnobbing with other agency people, with other people who love Social Media, with other people who know all of the panel speakers and who think of the whole thing like a Social Media Lollapallooza. Don’t get me wrong, there are tons of people I’d love to meet in person. I think it would be fabulous. But having a fun time at a conference is not my job right now, and it’s not where I am needed. The only way I’d really be able to rationalize a trip is if I was going as a speaker for a panel that would be there educating people. I would be living up to my mission in that way, but do I think I am at that point just yet? Not yet.

I am not judging

This is the way I see things. I am not sitting here saying that this is the Holy Grail of marketing philosophies on conferences. Like I said, I would love to go. I understand the networking potential. I understand the learning potential. I am jealous of the fun that attendees will have in Las Vegas this year. In the end though, for me, none of these factors outweighs my complete commitment to our agency and to our clients.

Being a marketer is being a server of ideas. Being in advertising is being a server of organization and efficiency. Being in a family-run business of any kind is knowing your priorities. I am in the business of providing marketing ideas and services. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

I was looking through several publications yesterday doing some research for a proposal (a tactic that apparently very few marketers still do, but that’s a different post). I in particular needed to study the ads in there, and what I saw filled me with a series of raw emotions. “Gee, maybe this is why advertising is said to be dying,” for example. Rather than do what a lot of people do and harp on the bad ads, I want to talk about what makes a good ad. But before that, a brief word.

Advertising, as I have written before, is not dying, but it is changing. It is clear, from looking closely at a lot of ads, that some people know that change is happening, but they are reacting in a way that won’t be helpful. They are following the adage (no pun intended) that your ad needs to stick out in some way. So, they are going the way of really out there designs, overly cheesy (er, clever?) headlines, and gimmicks. These methodologies are in turn what turn people off to advertisements. Ads have never been popular, but if you just see a mess or something that is of no interest to you, you’re not even going to take 5.7 milliseconds to find out what the ad is about. Advertising, therefore, perpetuates the stereotype of being a waste of space.

To save advertising, you need to apply the same logic that we talk about in Social Media. You need to make it more about your customer’s perspective. You need to make your point clearly. And the print equivalent of red flashing lights is probably no longer a good idea. So here are some basics that a good ad should cover.

1. Your product should be in the ad somewhere. It doesn’t have to be a typical beauty shot, but I should be able to tell what you are doing or selling. Take Dyson as an example. Everyone knows that they make really high-end vacuum cleaners, and yet the product is shown in every TV ad they do.

2. Have some useful information. Show that you are steeped in the business of your customers. Speak their language. Explain why your product or service is beneficial, not why they should buy it.

3. Make sure your copy is legible. I see several ads that try to use white type against a really crisp, beautiful, dark picture. It doesn’t work. If people have to work to read your copy, you are done.

4. Have a call to action. Customize the call to action for your industry. A highly technical audience will probably not be interested in entering a drawing for a beautiful set of artist’s pencils, for example.

5. Don’t try to be clever. Some of the headlines I saw made me imagine what was going on during that creative meeting. I was not wondering, however, about the product or what it might mean for the industry. Let your product be clever. Cheese, even Swiss, can get in the way of your message.

6. Don’t try to fit your entire website into your ad. When you are trying to represent something really important, you can get a bit…carried away. This is why an outside perspective (like, say, the perspective of an agency) can be helpful. You don’t need to put your entire product line plus your company biography into a half-page ad. You just will create clutter, and people will turn the page.

7. Remember to link your ad to other marketing initiatives. This might not strike the reader of a magazine right away, but if they see your ad, then they go to a trade show, there should be some moment of recollection. “Oh, this is the company whose ad I always see.” It helps you get a foot in the door, or said another way, it lets customers know you door is open and your house is organized.

8. Don’t worry about your competitors. Just like politicians always say that they are going to focus on what they can do, that’s what you need to do in an ad. If you spend a lot of time on the competition, you might direct readers to them, plus, essentially, you’re contributing to their marketing and you’re coming off as defensive. Be confident that your product is worth the reader’s time.

9. Have a clear and consistent sign-off. Let people know where to go to learn more about you and your product. Have some contact info there. And make it legible.

10. Most important – make sure you proof your ad. Proofing doesn’t mean just reading the copy. It means looking at the image, it means looking at how the text is wrapping. All of the little details that you think no one would ever notice can contribute to the overall reception of your ad. One “little” mistake can make you look sloppy.

If you follow these 10 steps,  you’ll be on your way to making a better ad, one that is useful for the customers, not just a selling tool for you.

If you want help analyzing your ads or creating a new ad for the coming 2011 campaign, our agency can help you with that.

Image by kamila turton. http://www.sxc.hu/profile/kamila_t

My new friend @tommyismyname wrote a thought provoking post today about the duality of our existence in Social Media – the temptation to create a character while also wanting to be authentic. The struggle to be yourself while also creating a persona or a brand is something I have thought a lot about myself. I was trying to think of an example of a person who seemed to have similar struggles and who ended up benefiting from and blooming as a result of new-found authenticity. Then it hit me – one of my heroes, John Lennon.

Beatle John

One thing becomes apparent when you read about The Beatles or when you listen to interviews (even the interviews from the at the time 3 remaining Beatles from The Beatles Anthology). During the early years of Beatles fame, through, let’s say, Help!, the Beatles each created caricatures of themselves. They really had to do this to protect themselves from the onslaught of media and fan attention that haunted them at every turn. George was known as the “quiet” Beatle. Paul was the romantic. John was kind of the brooding Beatle. Even at the height of fame, John couldn’t avoid letting some of his true self show. He wrote songs like “Baby’s in Black,” “Hard Day’s Night, and “Help,” songs that didn’t mesh entirely with the head-bobbing, happy-go-lucky image the Beatles as a band were sending out at the time. You sense, as you watch interviews with him during this time, that people weren’t getting the real him, and you sense that he was struggling with that. He talked in interviews about how people came to see the Beatles for the experience, and how he easily could have been replaced with a mannequin and a sound system.

The feeling of being replaceable is comparable to what happens in Social Media when you try to jump in as a caricature of yourself. As I told Tommy, when I first started doing this, I envisioned creating a “character” called Read Life Mad Man. I thought that I’d be able to make quips about how we sure didn’t do marketing like they do on the show, or “it sure stinks being a woman in a man’s world. Oh wait, it’s not 1967. What’s going on?” I was going to try to intersperse little comments like that with useful information (perhaps like the songs that John wrote while he was showing his clownish exterior). During the time that I tried that approach, I was uncomfortable, I was frustrated, my blog traffic was pretty much nothing, and I was right around 67 followers for about 3 months.

John begins to emerge

After a few experiences that he couldn’t ignore, John decided that he wanted to use his extremely unique position to actually use his brilliance for some good things. He started to speak out against the Vietnam War, and he started to speak out against Britain’s continued efforts to remain “the great empire.” As you probably know, John encountered quite a few hardships as he began to show his true feelings. The people who had thought he was just another happy rock star (a myth in itself, clearly) were a little taken aback. He angered several countries, and then, of course, there was the “Jesus” incident, where John’s frank words about how people were more excited about a Beatles concert than they were about Jesus became interpreted as “We’re bigger than Jesus now.” In Social Media, this might be a tweet that gets taken out of context, or a tweet that the wrong person sees. Just like on Twitter, there was no taking it back. It is the biggest fear people have about being authentic. If you are bullied, if you are quoted out of context, there is no rewind key, and even more frightening, you have no idea who can take that bad information and run with it.

Plastic Ono Band John

Regardless of what you might think about the Yoko Ono chapter of John’s life (I think he made a lot of mistakes in his treatment of Cynthia & Julian, but I also think that the way many people treated him and Yoko was tragically misinformed and bigoted), you have to admit that the music on the Plastic Ono Band record is about as far removed from Meet the Beatles as one could get. Not only was this John being himself, it was John showing the entire world all of his demons. It was the chip on his shoulder melting into a pool of vulnerability.

Regardless of what you think of the songs on that album, you have to admit, that takes some amazing strength and bravery.

I certainly have not gotten that point in my Social Media world, and really, my various and sundry vulnerabilities aren’t all that relevant to helping people in the world of business, so I wouldn’t wait for my own version of The Plastic Ono Band to come out. However, I think the act of being yourself can be just as scary as being yourself and completely vulnerable.

I started acting like myself on Twitter almost by accident. People like Lisa Alexander and Suzanne Vara kept saying hi and responding to my posts, so I would chat with them. Then I got involved in Blogchat and the multitudes of chats after that, and found that you don’t really need to worry about being a caricature or bleeding all over your twitter stream. You can just talk to people. Is it scary? Sure. If someone doesn’t like how you say something, that’s the real you that they’re saying that to. It’s risky. It’s scary. By the same token, though, people who engage with you know that you’re not going to be an entirely new person when they talk to you on the phone or when they meet you in real life. You are who you are. It sounds so easy, right?

Just John

Ultimately, “John Lennon the Beatle,” or “John Lennon the Walrus,” evolved to become, quite simply, that guy John. He was a dad. He was a husband. He baked bread. He went to coffee shops. And occasionally people would ask him when the Beatles were getting back together.

Ultimately, we remember John Lennon for the spectrum of authenticity his career followed. We remember the brilliance of Beatles days, but those seem all the more special when we realize how far askew that persona was from who John as a person really was. We remember John because, in the end, he got the courage the be the one thing he had run away from for years. Himself.

Can you get to a point in Social Media where you are “just” you? What does that mean? What is your “baking bread” daily activity? For me, it’s writing here, reading elsewhere, and sharing ideas on Twitter. It’s really quite blissful, but it took awhile to get here. If I can help you in any way with your struggle, or if you have questions, let me know.