Marketer's Lab

Twitter-scape, Twitter-sphere, Twitter-verse, Twitter-iffic

My last post, quite a while ago (ahem), covered my entree to the world of Twitter.  I was, and continue to be, appropriately suspect of the hype around Twitter and all the Social Media "stuff" out there promising great and wonderful things for marketers.  Overall, I'm much more of a believer in Twitter now.  I thought it might be helpful to share some of my early thoughts and experiences.   

Practice "monogamiscuity" - No, this is not a Bush-ism for a youth health program, but a word that captures the essence of what has worked well so far for me in the Twitter-sphere.  (Stephen Colbert, you're free to run with this one).  The idea is to follow selectively, but follow many.  By casting a wider, but still discerning net, you access a lot of valuable information without having to wade through a ton of junk. 

Relax and lurk - Content shortages are yet to be an issue in the world of Twitter, so don't feel pressured to contribute for the sake of contributing.  Making quality contributions clearly makes you more attractive to potential followers, so it's important at some level, but I know a lot of marketers stressed out about fueling the Twitter machine.  Active listening through Twitter can be super-valuable.

Contributions = value to followers - Not flying in the face of the previous point, but if building a following is important you do need to provide value to your followers.  Seems obvious enough, a pretty basic Social Media principle, but worth mentioning if you intend to develop a meaningful audience.  There's a bit of snobbery out there on the value of re-tweeting and simply aggregating the content of others, I say if you find resources you like and think would be of value by all means share them. Make your followers happy and they'll spread the word.

Urchins are everywhere - While I'm not currently being followed, that I know of, by any deposed Nigerian royalty, it's clear many of the email SPAM contingent have moved over to Twitter.  It's too bad, but I suppose inevitable that these folks would find their way to Twitter.

Twitter as a marketing amplifier - In addition to being a great stand-alone platform, I see Twitter as an amazing marketing amplifier.  Used as an extension of other core marketing programs, Twitter can extend the reach and engagement of virtually any initiative.  I feel like this integration will evolve to be the sweet spot for Twitter. 

Still lots to learn about Twitter, I'm actively searching for good Twitter marketing resources which I will of course share here.  For now it's safe to say I've moved from skeptic to skeptical fan of Twitter.

Antisocial Media

I maintain a presence on a couple social networks, but I'm not on Facebook, I don't Twitter and I only post to my blog every couple days. (Pause while marketers reading this gasp and then transition to chuckles about what a Social Media loser I must be).  My Google reader,  until a recent "reader bankruptcy" where I nuked everything and started over, was a logjam of unread posts and other content.  With all the buzz about everything social, my inability/choice to limit my social stuff has me feeling a little antisocial.

Yes we're in the "age of conversation" and 'everyone is smarter than the few" and we all need to be transparent and collaborate while we watch the "world get smaller", but how much is too much?  I came across a piece by Phil Johnson over at AdAge who did a nice post on this very subject.  Phil also points to a more inflammatory post by Peter Madden who calls out "Facebook as a freak show", not surprisingly drawing the ire of many a Facebook fan. Interesting to read the comments on the freak show post, here's a couple excerpts: 

From the "You just don't get Social Media" camp:

"you seem to be echoing the standard sentiments of a neophyte user"

"Um, is this a post from about 3 years ago that's been accidentally re-published? I can't quite believe it would be current."

"Facebook is an early look at the future of digital advertising and social/consumer CRM."

"Facebook is to the future of advertising as Google was for search."

"If this article is satire, it's only mildly amusing."

"If the author is serious, then he's just one more dinosaur stuck in the tar pit that is traditional advertising."

From the "Skeptical of Social Media" camp:

"I'm tired of hearing about who posted what on your message board. Get back to work"

"Facebook, like any form or social discourse, faces the risk that the overall tone of the conversation is dominated by the lowest form of discourse." - Robert Heath

"I guess if your looking for depth in an online community stop playing in the shallow end of the social networking pool"

"a conversation consisting of "Peter is getting on a plane in Las Vegas... Brittany is having french toast for breakfast... Gary has the sniffles" is a bore in ANY medium."

Religion, politics and now apparently Social Media?  Why is this so hard?  My theory is that everyone is looking for the "right answer", when there isn't one.  Every audience is different, every product is unique and the marketing dynamics for every campaign vary.  To claim Social Media, however you define it, works or doesn't ignores all these unique characteristics. 

I am wildly passionate about the opportunities Social Media makes available, but also appropriately skeptical that it's a magical world where all your marketing dreams can come true.  If there's one thing Social Media has taught us is that there are few absolutes, probably not a bad thing to keep in mind as we evolve along together.

Google and SpotMixer Mix It Up

One of the biggest obstacles, amongst many, for marketers thinking about tapping into the benefits of web video is how to create decent video content.  The natural follow on challenge is what to do with the content once you have it.  SpotMixer and Google are working together to offer a solution that addresses these issues pretty effectively.

SpotMixer provides a decent set of templates and a wizard that allows you to very easily create a "spot".  SpotMixer customizes the wizard process and options based on the selections you make on the front end.  The screenshot below shows the options if offers.  

Once you've got your spot created, you then have a multitude of options for how you would like to distribute the content.  Distribution options include a network offering as well as CPM and CPC based options.  The screenshot below shows how you can easily select your options. 

Like any template based solution, there are tradeoffs in terms of the ability to do exactly what you want.  Most of the examples on the SpotMixer site could be considered more slideshows than video, although there are a couple that do use actual video footage.  Despite some of the limitations, the distribution options and integration with Google adwords combined with what seem to be extremely reasonable prices, make SpotMixer very interesting.

   

Marketers Exposed

Marketing is so easy, a (monkey, caveman, two year old, Vice Presidential candidate) can do it.  This is so incredibly obvious to anyone paying any attention at all and yet against all odds we marketers have continued to justify our existence through a dizzying volume of buzzwords, bizarre, confusing messaging strategies and distorted interpretations of research data.  The ugly truth about marketing has never been exposed, until now...

Someone has seen through our sad charade and has exposed the massive conspiracy that is marketing.  Consider the implications of our marketing truths just floating out there in the naked light of day.  No longer can we demand outrageous salaries or hourly rates to do our marketing magic.  Gone are the 10 hour work weeks, vacation boondoggles, and unlimited expense accounts.  Now we may have to actually do some real work. 

On the other hand, maybe Neil over at Citizen of the Month has a couple good points about marketing we should consider. 

Buzzwords - We are all guilty of this.  Yes, that means you.  Yes, that means me too.  It's hard not to get sucked into using the buzzword du jour.  It's pretty annoying when all marketing people start sounding the same, riffing the same marketing jargon-ridden phrases and descriptions.  We could all do with a little less marketing verbiage and a little more plain speaking.

Good writing - Neil is a professional, and clearly someone who carries a big stick in the writing department.  Fortunately, I completely agree with his comments about the gaping void that exists between writing that can and should invoke passionate response and most of the uninspired space-filler we've all seen out there.                     

Provide Something of Value - Entertain, enlighten but do something beyond self-promotion.  The irony is that the more you provide to others the more likely your content will be shared and promoted vs. content that is created primarily for self-promotion. 

Be Interesting - This one's a little trickier, like coaching someone to "get a personality".  The hallmark of great marketing is its ability to truly connect with the intended audience.  I'm not aware of any successful campaign that hasn't been interesting and engaging at some level.  Nobody is interested in reading anything that sounds like an instruction manual. 

There is some solace that even being exposed as we are in all this, we're probably still a couple notches above lawyers on the totem pole of credibility. 

Beginner's Mind

Are you a marketing know-it-all or are you a clueless marketing turtleneck?  Chances are you're like me and exist somewhere between one of those extremes with variations based on the topic in question.  No matter where you exist on the knowledge continuum, it can't hurt to do a little self assessment.   

Here's the challenge for all of us as marketers; there's a massive, and I do mean massive, volume of information to absorb to be really good at our craft.  The new breed of marketer needs to understand all the traditional 4 P's, but in the context of a fast moving and complex on-line marketing landscape, how to apply meaningful measurement and metrics, how to integrate across multiple media and channels and deliver tangible business results.  Add to all this the need for a sophisticated understanding of brand dynamics and positioning and how all the aforementioned elements impact that brand and it's easy to see how marketing has become a challenging place to be.  Welcome to Marketing 2.0.      

Years ago somewhere in the depths of a Tom Peters book there was a section where he challenged readers to develop and maintain what Eastern religions labeled "beginner's mind".  His assertion was that as people move in their careers they tend to develop the attitude that they "know what works" and were resistant to looking at things in a fresh way.  I've caught myself in this mode and have seen it many, many times so I know this is a real issue and can be a huge barrier to solving problems and getting things done. 

Of course if you mention this concept to any group of people you'll get lots of head nodding and agreement about the idea, but I know from my own experience that even when you're aware you should be in beginners mind mode, it doesn't always happen. With the challenges of navigating and thriving in the midst of all the moving parts I mentioned above, thought I would offer a couple ideas on how we might be better "beginners".

Humility - Seems simple enough, but I am always amazed how many marketers I see faking it, unwilling to seek out expertise elsewhere.  Acknowledge you need some education and you'll be amazed at others willingness to help.

Ask stupid questions - Related to the above, don't be afraid to ask if you don't know.  Chance are good you aren't the only one who needs the information. 

Be a sponge - This seems to be innate, or not, so harder to do if it doesn't come naturally, but aggressively seeking out and attempting to absorb as much as you can is a very good thing.

Seek out experts - If you don't have peers who can help, seek out experts elsewhere.  There's an expert out there on just about any topic you can imagine. 

Love what you do - I don't think I've ever met anyone in any field of work who was truly great at their job who didn't sincerely love it.

Let's all try to be better beginners.