Marketing Talk

A few years ago, my wonderful parents bought me the John Lennon anthology. Many unreleased songs, all beautiful. One of my favorites is a song called “Serve Yourself.” In the chorus, John repeats, “You gotta serve yourself, ain’t nobody gonna do for you.”

Well, that’s not exactly true anymore, is it?

If you are looking to promote yourself, a product, a company, or anything else, you can find people who will promise to do any or all of the following:

Start your Social Media accounts

Run your Social Media accounts

Get you thousands of follwers

Get you ranked on the top of Google search results pages

And more.

On top of those folks,  you have consultants, experts, gurus, influencers, and other gangs of wandering advice givers ready to give you ideas on the fly.

Pardon the image I’m about to plant in your head, but this scares my pants off.

Why be scared?

Ultimately, marketing is like choosing where you’re going to go to college. It’s like mapping out where you want to work and what kind of work you want to do. It’s like choosing your friends. It’s very like creating a community. In other words, it’s a lot about guided personal preference. Or it should be.

I’m not so sure it’s that pristine now, though. Marketing is often an add-on to a middle manager’s job. In between taking calls from customers, pleasing the boss, and trying to figure out the new company management software, people are asked to consider how to promote the company. Are they going to turn down someone who says, “Let me handle that for you and get you better results than you could ever imagine?” Maybe. Maybe not.

You are not a sheep

So here’s my plea. If you are looking to market a new product or if you just want to learn how all of this goes, dedicate the time to really learn. Don’t go into Social Media marketing because an expert says you’re a coward if you don’t. Don’t avoid Social Media because someone says it might not be good for you.

Experts, consultants, gurus, influencers – they should not be viewed as sheep herders who are trying to get everyone in the marketing world into the barn of their particular thought realm. They are teachers. They are consultants. But they cannot talk with every tweet and with every blog post about your specific situation. Nobody can. Nobody except you.

Lots of people are around saying they have the answers. If you want to avoid getting fleeced, make sure you follow John Lennon’s advice. Serve yourself. There are people who wanna do for you, but only you can have your true best interests at heart.

Though I really hope, hypocritically, that you consider this particular advice carefully 🙂

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

Boy, there were some AMAZING posts this last week! I got some great recommendations, and making choices for the remainder was tough. I hope you enjoy reading these posts as much as I did. Maybe they will inspire you to write your own blog post in response.

Don’t forget – start your own 30Thursday post. Ask people to submit blog posts to you. #30Thursday becoming a community of blog reading, writing, and sharing is my dream 🙂

1. We were  off and running with this post from Matt Shaw. He calls it his “boogie man post” and he calls out Chris Brogan.

2. Another great post from Lisa Barone: 6 ways to lose customers, credibility, and  friends on social media

3. Stellar and to the point from @sueyoungmedia: “Hello, my name is Dumbass” (love it)

4. One of the more brilliant posts on Social Influence I’ve seen, by my buddy @JefftheSensei

5. My friend Ellen (aka @SweetSoaps) is gonna be on MSNBC on Sunday!!! 😮

6. @SbuxMel has a lot of insights about the business side of Starbucks in her post about “drip only” lines.

7. This is a really amazing post from @LisaPetrilli on the importance of asking, from May of this year.

8. In case you wanted tangible proof as to why I admire @JayBaer, read his “Chicken and the Egg” post.

9. Great article from toprankblog.com (written by Andy Beal) on 6 steps to take before you start monitoring of Social Media

10. There were a lot of posts about 9/11, but I thought @mayaREguru’s was among the most poignant.

11. Outstanding interview sent to me by @ckburgess: The 7 steps of creativity, interview of Tim Leake by Brian Slattery

12. How Eminem stayed relevant & how it can save your blog. Masterful post at copyblogger, written by Sean Platt.

13. @tommyismyname is struggling with character versus authenticity. Are you? Read this excellent post.

14. My new friend @CorpWriter4Hire debunks 5 myths about the corporate Ghost Writer. Very educational!

15. Are you so busy calling yourself an expert that you’re not even doing due diligence and researching your prospects? Read why @RickBakas groups “Social Media experts” with Santa Claus.

16. This will probably end up being the cutest post — about clouded leopard cubs 🙂 Thanks to @SarahLizLaw for the suggestion!

17. One of my favorite scenes from this week’s Mad Men also inspired @BrianSRice. The Wind and the Son, one of Aesop’s Fables

18. Internet Marketing is still very much like the Wild Wild West. @AllisonNazarian warns, “beware of the snake oil salesman” in her post, Enough Already (recommended to me by @cloudspark)

19. If you love metrics and ROI, you’ll love this fantastically researched post from @createdevelop

20. My always brilliant friend @knowledgebishop offers thoughts on how our current Social Media world is like Musical Chairs.

21. A checklist from @ementormarketing for driving traffic to your new e-commerce website (guest post at 365daysofstartups.com)

22. @smartel explains the wonder of a company both listening AND using good manners in Social Media. Great story!

23. @mitchjoel writes more eloquently than I ever could about one simple truth – Social Media might not be perfect for you or your company

24. @geoffliving is pondering how to stay relevant for your communities. And by the way, this is how you disclose that you are using your blog to work on a book.

25. @pushingsocial writes about trust as a  blogging power tool. Trust him, it works!

26. The press release is dead? @HeidiCohen says Au Contraire. The Press Release is Alive and Kicking!

27. Interesting peek into the future, and the present, and the past, in @julien’s Where the poor go post

28. I want to keep the spotlight on the awful situation Colin Bower is in. Here is @ChrisBrogan’s post about Colin, Noor, and Ramsay

29. @BethHarte wrote a brilliant post on why we don’t ask why. Can you answer any of her “why” questions? Awe inspiring food for thought.

30. Talk about thought provoking. @SuzanneVara on Twitter gone bad (or is it?)

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.