Still, at the heart of it all for marketers is the message. Never forget that these new social technologies are just new ways to communicate. And technology by itself is not persuasive. Beware not to get the media mixed up with the message.

Every status update, tweet, and inbox message is nothing more than a communication between a sender and a reader. What you say and how you say it matters. Be relevant.

E-Mail: The Original Social Media App

Plain old vanilla e-mail still rules. By the numbers, people still interact and communicate using e-mail more than any other social media app, and most companies still earn more from their e-mail campaigns than from their social media efforts.

Yet I wonder how many have put their e-mail programs on autopilot and have starting chasing shiny new objects. I recently received a disappointing e-mail from Nikon. Like most people, I typically just delete promotional e-mails, but I decided to hold on to this one, considering the headline said “My Picturetown — 20GB for just a few cents a day!”

I clicked on the call to action: “Store my photos and videos” and landed on a page offering, “Sign Up For Free” in the headline, with a form and a graphic proclaiming, “2GB FREE!” (Pictured below.) Notice how the landing page scent, or messaging connection, to the e-mail is missing.

As you can see, there’s no mention of the 20 GB at all (I wonder if it was a typo), let alone information about the e-mail’s offer of 20 GB of storage for just a few cents a day. I was wondering how few cents it actually was: 2 cents, 10 cents, or 99 cents?

Nikon clearly did not maintain scent from the e-mail to the landing page. It got my attention but didn’t maintain it on the landing page (among other things). Message matters. Nikon started with the right message but lost consistency. Someone is asleep at the wheel.

Here’s an example of an e-mail campaign from Wyndham Rewards that offers 1,000 free reward points for booking a trip:

On the landing page, I see the message about 1,000 reward points, but there’s no clear call to action. The landing page features mostly a map and some links. I’m not exactly sure what I’m supposed to do. The call to action is weak. A simple statement of “Click Your Destination to Get Started” would have done just fine to move me through to the next step.

Bottom Line

Don’t get caught up in the flash of Web 2.0 technologies; work to understand how each works so you can use it to deliver a relevant message to your prospect. When you tear away the technology, you’re left with words and the actions they inspire — or fail to inspire. Don’t mistake the medium for the message.

A good message in any medium can be effective, and a bad message isn’t cured by Web 2.0 technologies. Remember, just because e-mail isn’t social media doesn’t mean it isn’t important and worth optimizing. Watch your message and make sure you maintain scent and clear calls to action, or even an effective message will twist in the wind.

If you have something to say, say it well and give readers clear calls to action. Give them a persuasion scenario to follow and you’ll get better results from your efforts.

Otherwise, you’ll just blend in with the noise and no one will hear you at all.

[Editor's note: the author of this post is now blogging at bryaneisenberg.com]

Many companies don’t fully understand what to do with social media. They don’t see the path to benefit from it. Others have tried using it and walked away not seeing the value of social media. Others still don’t get it at all, and have left themselves completely to the mercy of the online mobs.

Most of us are somewhere in between.

Social media is at its best when used as a tool to listen and interact with buyers in the early-to-middle stages of their buying cycle. This is the time to focus on providing consumers with content that matters to their buying process. While it’s possible to direct sell and find customers “in the market” today, it’s also difficult. Most of today’s companies are overly obsessed with late-stage buyers; thus, this kind of thinking seems to them less valuable.

What It Can Do

Relationship building, goodwill, and improved customer service are what social media can do for you. Also, social media can:

• Help your company communicate with early- and middle-stage buyers more effectively and push them closer to a sale.
• Help your customers communicate the bad and the good, with you and everyone else they know.
• Help you listen to what potential buyers in your sector are talking about.
• Help you find opportunities to delight customers.
• Push you to become more focused on the customer.

What It Can’t Do

If you think putting up a Twitter account or a Facebook fan page will build huge gobs of closable traffic overnight, you’re kidding yourself. Relationships need nurturing. Social media can’t:

• Drive hundreds of thousands of new qualified visitors (yet) to your site or store.
• Let you take control of the customer dialogue about your company. Those days are long gone.
• Be your primary channel for marketing your mid- to large-sized company.

More on Buying Stages

A short example: early-stage buyers have only identified a need (e.g., “I need a winter vacation this year”). Middle-stage buyers know approximately what they want (e.g., “I want to go to Florida this summer”). Late-stage buyers know exactly what they want (e.g., “I’m going to Florida and I’m making reservations and buying plane and park tickets now”).

Do you think someone in early or middle stage might be influenced to by social media? If you aren’t convinced, look at what happened to United Airlines.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anybody who is thinking about going on a winter vacation and happens to cross the “United Breaks Guitars” video (now watched over 3,000,000 times) will think twice about United. That is a negative influence on early-to-middle stage buyers.

Now, say it’s 10:30 a.m., you’re starting to think about lunch, and you come across this video?

Click here to view the embedded video.

Still, Not Everyone’s Convinced of Social Media’s Value

Patricio Robles, tech reporter at Econsultancy, recently wrote specifically about monetizing Twitter and real-time search. I agree, because Robles was talking about social media as an ad platform.

Where we part in our agreement is in thinking that real-time search and social media have no monetary value. Remember, social media can build relationships, though not paid traffic generation.

Some Practical Steps for Getting More From Social Media

• Reward customers who talk about your company in social media, both good and bad.
• Remember, bad word of mouth can be good for your brand too.
• Quit talking about yourself all the time. It gets old, really. Talk about your customers. Heck, just share a joke to break things up so you aren’t “wewe-ing” all over yourself.
• Unconvinced that social media has legs or is a match for your company? Test it. Offer a social media specific promo code and see if it gets traction.
• Use social media to take an interest in your customers needs. For instance, are you selling items in a vertical sector? Search for “follow” and “friend” people in that space. Add value to the conversation about their needs. (Early-stage buyer prospecting.)
• Use it to meet people. Meeting people is good.

Where’s the Value for You?

Social media isn’t everything people are hoping it will be, yet. Still, there’s value in participating and investing resources to be a part of the online 2.0 conversation. Just temper your expectation, and use it for what it’s good for.

Have you had to prove that social media has value to someone?

[Editor's note: the author of this post is now blogging at bryaneisenberg.com]

On June 18th, I posted a conversion rate exercise on this blog. Two simple exercises to help others understand why they should do business with you. Several people emailed me examples of what they did. However, I did want to point out two companies that took this “free” advice seriously and implemented it.

The first are my buddies from the segmentation, targeting and personalization platform extraordinaire, Monetate. They were at the Internet Retailer Trade show when they saw this exercise and realized how powerful the TwitterVP is in explaining to attendees what they do.

Empowers segmenting of traffic, targeting offers and messages to personalize the site experience, increasing conversion and AOV with zero I.T.

This is pretty solid! But more impressive was the second exercise about the “25 interesting things about you” which they turned into “25 Online Marketing Challenges You Can Meet and Beat with Monetate.” What do you think of this?

It makes me proud to be an advisor to Monetate because they took an idea and just executed it. I did not help them with this exercise at all.

A second example comes from renown photographer and educator Jim Miotke from BetterPhoto.com. He came up with several TwitterVPs and instead of just settling on one, he decided to ask his customers and followers to vote on it. Think that could generate some good word of mouth for his business of teaching photography?

Here are his choices: (if you care to vote, visit his BetterPhoto Jim Twitter profile).

Even if what they tried isn’t perfect, they now have a basis for continued experimenting and refining. But they got it done… have you?

If they are your competitors I’d watch out.

Click here to view the embedded video.

So, do you think that might have some rather profound effects on Domino’s marketing efforts?  Think you’ll be eating at Domino’s anytime soon?

What’s interesting is that the basic principle behind this was predicted not by some far-seeing futurist working in the technology field, but by Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Charles C. Krulak.

Gen. Krulak coined the term “strategic corporal” to refer to the possible strategic foreign policy impact of actions taken by individual Marines in an age of universal media coverage and counter-insurgency warfare:

“In many cases, the individual Marine will be the most conspicuous symbol of American foreign policy and will potentially influence not only the immediate tactical situation, but the operational and strategic levels as well. His actions, therefore, will directly impact the outcome of the larger operation; and he will become, as the title of this article suggests – the Strategic Corporal.”

Since the publication of Gen Krulak’s article in 1999, the rise of cell phone video cameras, YouTube, and twitter have further amplified the potential impact of local, tactical actions of seemingly “lower-level” or front-line individuals.

Granted, minimum wage workers operate in a far less dramatic and less-threatening arena than Marines, but the above video offers a stark example of the far reaching strategic impact of their actions.

The Marine Corps response to this has always been to recruit the very best individuals possible and to push decision-making and responsibility as far down the chain of command as possible. Many successful businesses take a similar approach with their front-line workers.  And the results pay-off when the great actions of individual employees hit the social media echo chamber.

What is (or what will be) your organization’s response?

Saying content is king is the equivalent of saying money is valuable; it’s true but obvious. Tell that to the even the most mentally challenged Web marketer today, and you’ll likely get a, “Duh, where have you been?” in return.

Nobody needs to be told content is of value. But how valuable is it?

Because there isn’t a $1, $5, or $10 denomination stamped on the front of Web content, it’s often difficult to know exactly how valuable content is to your company. Also, knowing content’s value isn’t the same as knowing how to create it, or even how to use it.

What Is Content?

This is a critical question that often goes underexplored. If you ask most marketers, they’ll answer that it’s the copy on a Web site. While this answer is certainly true, it’s inadequate. Content is more than copy.

We can debate the nuance of the possible answers to this question. But a good starting place is to think of Web content as the public conversation that happens between you and the visitor, whether the conversation is one-way (from you to the visitor), two-way (between the visitor and you), or conversation among visitors.

Content includes but is not limited to:

• The copy on your Web site
• Blogs and reader comments
• Content widgets (check out recently released ContentWidgets.com
• Product/service reviews
• Forums
• Videos, demos, and animations
• Tweets
• Facebook/MySpace fan pages and groups
• E-mail newsletters
• Articles and other intellectual property or knowledge sharing
• Whitepapers, case studies, Webinars

The more this content causes, persuades, or woos visitors to take a profitable action on our behalf, the more valuable it is. If it doesn’t do this, it’s more like bad entertainment.

Content Now Worth More Than Ever

The economic forecast remains rough for at least the near future. It’s easy to make a case for leveraging existing content for all it’s worth. I would also encourage you to determine the costs of content creation strategies (if you have in the past, revisit them now). You’ll likely find that content creation is becoming more affordable. Many of our clients are easily making room in their budgets to try at least a few content-centered marketing tactics.

Using content as a marketing tool is obvious for those with compelling intellectual property, but it isn’t just for those types any more. Almost any company or service can find a content-marketing strategy that will work for it.

An employee of mine has been looking for a home in a new area, and was impressed to find a few Realtors tweeting. He followed them. He was able to meet with one, walk through a property, and find he was from the same area as the real estate agent. Since he didn’t yet have a Realtor, whom do you think he is going to choose?

Getting Started With Content Marketing

• You don’t have to start from scratch. If you have content already, look to your analytics to identify popular content and find other uses for it. Rewrite it, update it, and send it as a newsletter. Even tweet it as an oldie but a goodie. Or have it formatted for mobile browsers.
• Crowdsource. Sometimes your customers will create better content than you can buy from a content creation firm. Why not use specific reviews or forum posts as landing places for campaigns or even as ads?
• Find the passion. Somebody in the company interested or fluent in a particular social media, or has been itching to write a company blog? Now is the time to let him loose. Let his passion be a lighthouse for potential customers. While it may not be polished or on message, it is likely not going to be sterile and flat like most polished, on-message marketing efforts. To get a sense of what this evangelist might do for you, check out my interview with Betsy Weber, chief evangelist of TechSmith:part one and part two.
• Let content come from your company’s strength. We have a client where almost everybody in the company participates in the forum. Every employee is knowledgeable about the service offered, and they all become part of the marketing vehicle, giving tips and comments and escalating customer issues. Not only is it transparent, it’s content marketing at its most organic.
• Content marketing should ultimately be a two-way conversation between you and your customers. While an e-mail newsletter or a static Web page with persuasive copy is technically one-way, it shouldn’t sound like it is. Talk more about them and what they get than talking about yourself. Those who do nothing but talk about themselves just end up “wewe-ing” all over themselves. Try our online calculator that tells businesses how much they talk about themselves in their copy; it is one of our oldest content marketing vehicles and has remained popular for years.
• Don’t be pressured to reinvent the wheel. If you don’t already have one, start a simple e-mail newsletter. Don’t feel forced to pick something new and shiny like Twitter or the latest social media frenzy.
• Content that isn’t relevant to at least one profitable segment of potential customers isn’t content, it’s spam. Spam is boring. Creating relevant content often requires planning.

Final Say

Ultimately, content marketing is about optimizing the dialogue between a company and it customers. The better, more interesting the conversation is, the more attention it attracts and the more your customers are compelled to talk and buy.

How is the conversation going with your customers?

However, after thinking about this tactical move more, and chatting with Bryan Eisenberg about it, I feared that I had just alienated some of my potential networking contacts. My social friends do not solely exist in bars and out at parties, they have careers and contacts too.

So, I’m asking you, the GrokDotCom.com readership – What do you think of Facebook, Myspace, etc. profiles when someone in your professional life incorporates their social life onto their online profile? Is there a happy medium out there? And, what should this social, fun, and professional 22 year-old do about her Facebook accounts? Is it better to separate professional and play online?

When the chiropractor complained about the review, Norberg replaced it with a new entry a few weeks later that said:

“I think that he is trying to scare me into removing a negative post (that might explain why he has only positive ones). I believe that he has been harassing me into shutting up, and I feel as a consumer I have a voice and that I can use it on forums made for sharing it, especially when I feel that the experience was unsatisfactory.”

Biegel said both reviews were malicious and in February sued Norberg for libel and invasion of privacy. If the case isn’t settled, it will go to trial in March in San Francisco Superior Court.

Have you ever had a bad experience that you wanted to tell people about? Should a negative review be considered libel? Should consumers have the right to express themselves freely?

As a business, should customers have the right to post negative reviews as long as they are true? As a business, what would you do if someone posted something negative about you?

You can read more about the case, don’t forget to check out some of the comments there as well, and then let us know how you feel about this in the comments below.

Don’t miss my interview with David Szetela on PPC Rockstars today. You’ll hear us discuss the top page and ad elements that every PPC advertiser should test.

What do you think – Is Twitter the Next Second Life? http://tinyurl.com/8nof7j. You may also want to read The State Of The Twittersphere? http://tinyurl.com/6upklq. GigaOm claims Followers Aren’t Really Friends on Twitter. This leads to some of the challenge of measuring influence on Twitter. http://snipurl.com/90lob.

If you are looking for more smart people to follow, here are the Twitter IDs for The Top 100 Most Influential Online Marketers http://tinyurl.com/4owzd4. Thanks for voting me #21.

Sex Sells, but a Commitment Can Help.

Multichannel Analytics: Tracking Online Impact Of Offline Campaigns.

Has anyone played with http://www.wordvision.com/. It uses an algorithm to recommend the hot topics and keywords for SEO writers. Thoughts?

40 Inspirational speeches in 2 minutes:

Click here to view the embedded video.

There are a lot of objections to linking, especially linking off the website. The web & the HT in HTML is all about links.

I won’t go there today.

This blog post about New York Times columnist Frank Rich titled “Frank Rich: Why I Link” is worth reading.

Why has Rich embraced linking when his peers have not? “The theory was: Why not be as transparent as possible by showing sources, when we could?” he told me recently.

That’s a philosophy followed by much of the rest of the Internet; it’s the very foundation of blogging. But most newspapers — including their top columnists — haven’t signed on. read more here…

I would like to see more journalists linking to their sources, providing background and generally acting like if they knew their work was going to appear online. What do you think?

]]> http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/12/22/linking-matters/feed/ 7 http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/12/22/did-twitter-cost-a-sale/ http://www.grokdotcom.com/2008/12/22/did-twitter-cost-a-sale/#comments Mon, 22 Dec 2008 14:32:16 +0000 Bryan Eisenberg http://www.grokdotcom.com/?p=2495 My friend Brian was checking out Dropbox on a tip from John Jantsch and they were feeding a Twitter search live feed onto their landing page. It is good in theory. The theory being that you create a bandwagon effect but check out what was said on the first live feed on the…

Bryan wrote in Understanding and Aligning Social Media:

“The biggest problem I have with the term “social media” is that it isn’t media in the traditional sense. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the others I don’t have the word count to mention aren’t media; they are platforms for interaction and networking. All the traditional media — print, broadcast, search, and so on — provide platforms for delivery of ads near and around relevant content. Social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content and ads.”

We’re not alone in saying it. Ted McConnell, General Manager-Interactive Marketing and Innovation at Procter & Gamble Co., was quoted in AdAge from a talk to the Digital Non-Conference, a program by Cincinnati’s Digital Hub Initiative presented by the Ad Club of Cincinnati:

“I think when we call it ‘consumer-generated media,’ we’re being predatory,” he said. “Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. … We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.”

“You can do really amazing things. But I’m not so sure I want to be targeted like that. … I don’t think everything every consumer says to someone else and writes down is somehow monetizable by the media industry.”

Thanks for saying that Mr. McConnell!

Building and deepening relationships is hard work, just ask Mack, not simply something you can buy like media.

We can’t change the name at this point but what can we do to give companies more realistic expectations?

Over the last few weeks, I’ve also been watching many self-proclaimed marketing gurus speak of social media’s role in filling in the gap during the economic downturn. While social media should be a part of any forward-thinking and transparent company, I would urge caution if you believe that you can monetize it easily or quickly. It’s also not a magic pill for traffic building.

But for those who think I’m a naysayer, I must admit I am a social media addict. I will also go on the record to say that you can successfully use social media for marketing.

The biggest problem I have with the term “social media” is that it isn’t media in the traditional sense. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and all the others I don’t have the word count to mention aren’t media; they are platforms for interaction and networking. All the traditional media — print, broadcast, search, and so on — provide platforms for delivery of ads near and around relevant content. Social media are platforms for interaction and relationships, not content and ads.

To be truly effective using these interaction platforms, you must understand why we use them.

Real-Life Example

Before Halloween I teamed up with Chris Brogan to play a game using Twitter. We called it Trick or Tweet. Here were our rules:

1. Send a tweet to someone and ask, “Trick or tweet?”
2. If they say, “Tweet,” you must provide them with a couple of interesting people they should follow. If you don’t provide them with someone new, then you owe a trick.
3. If they say, “Trick,” send them a link where they will have to contribute to charity using the ChipIn widget. The maximum we ask anyone to donate is $20 for the day. Every cent we collect will be sent to charity.

We raised $282. Not too bad. But more important, we learned more about what moves people to take action. We learned that people loved to play but are less willing to pay.

As of this writing, Twitturly shows there were 150 tweets with an estimated reach of more that 165,000. This only measures the number of people who sent the link around, though there were many others playing. Clearly it was a successful game, but the metrics didn’t translate into the big money I had hoped for charity.

While this is an anecdotal example, it demonstrates social media’s power to reach and engage people — on their terms, not yours. People are attracted to people. People used the game mostly to connect with other people.

Social media isn’t an advertising and branding platform; it’s a hyper-interactive relationship-builder. Social media isn’t a magic pill for traffic woes; it’s used to deepen longer-term relations.

When you engage in social media, you enter into an unspoken social contract. You are in a relationship; it goes both ways. There are boundaries. Respect and trust must be earned.

Tips for Using Social Media

Here are a few ways to view and use social media:

• Be transparent. Share the good and the bad.
• Be yourself. People want to connect with real people, not with plastic packaged images.
• Don’t breach the social contract by doing nothing but selling your wares.
• Take interest in others and share valuable information, even if it doesn’t benefit you directly.
• Listen. You can learn a lot.
• Be patient. Let things grow organically.
• Viral campaigns can and do work, but they are the exception to the rule. (In other words, only the masses have the power to deem something viral).

I look forward to meeting and tweeting and Facebooking with you about marketing and social media, or anything that we both find interesting.

P.S. As an update to the Trick or Tweet event, thanks to the Twitter community and an anonymous matching donor, we raised $200 each for Epic Change, Florida Borderline Personality Disorder Association, and e-Mail Our Military.

This is horrific – Retailers Report a Sales Collapse.

Amazon is launching “Frustration-Free packaging“. – I think this is an interesting way to save thumbs, offer “greener” packaging and differentiate their offering.

8 Tips for Selling Social Marketing to CFOs – my long time buddy, Sam Decker answers the question “with the economic downturn, how will you convince the CFO that “social” marketing is a priority?”

Test Your Awareness? – Are you perceptive? Can you pick up all the changes in the following clip (hint there are more than 20).

Click here to view the embedded video.

What “Average” means – Many of us use the term average when we discuss metrics, this is a great primer to understand the term better. You’ll learn how and when to use Average, Arithmetic Mean, Median, Mode, Geometric Mean, or Harmonic Mean.

Did You Know? is a must see video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Because like me, social media has connected us with so many friends from around the world it would be hard for us to go around and ring their bells and get candy (not that I need any candy )

There are 2 goals for Trick or Tweet:

1. Connect lots of interesting people with other interesting people they didn’t know before.

2. Do some good with our Tricks (there is enough tricky things going on in our worlds).

Here are the rules:

1. Send a Tweet to someone and ask Trick or Tweet.

2. If they say Tweet then you must provide them with a couple of interesting people they should follow (these people should have less than 1000 followers currently). At the end of your tweet add #TrickorTweet. If you don’t provide them with someone new, then you owe a Trick.

3. If they say Trick then send them a link to this page { http://tinyurl.com/trick-o-tweet } where they will have to contribute using the Chipin widget below to charity. The maximum we ask anyone to donate is $20 for the day. Every cent we collect will be sent to charity. We’ll split the proceeds among three charities; Reading is Fundamental, The Center for Autism and the charity that is mentioned the most in the comments below from your suggestions. UPDATE: Chris and I will give our donations to our respective preferred charities, the money collected will go to the top 3 companies voted for in the comments below.

Let’s have fun, connect people and do good. Have a happy and safe Halloween.

Chris @ChrisBrogan & Bryan @TheGrok

** UPDATE 11/2/08 – We have received a matching donor. We are currently at $280 donated. Our donor will match any dollars donated between now and the end of 11/3/08 up to $300. We have all weekend to continue using Trick or Tweet for some good.

Wired’s (and Valleywag) Paul Boutin writes a eulogy for Blogs. Link-bait? Probably, but he certainly raised the ire of several in the online community, myself included. Heck, he even got me to crawl out from the rock I was hiding these past few months and pen a few words of commentary, in defense of blogging (yes, I recognize the irony . I think Mathew Ingram wrote the best counter to Paul’s argument, so I’ll let you hop off and read his discourse before returning to hear a few questions I’m pondering.

Here’s what I found myself wondering after reading Paul’s post:

1. Why does having a number of different authors make the blog any less “blog-like” – i.e. if there are still good blogs out there, albeit less personal and more representative of a group of persons who all share a similar view on a particular topic, why can’t that be considered a blog? Shouldn’t the litmus test be the value of the content they produce, regardless of the person(s) who created the content?
2. Why does the fact that blogging about mainstream topics like presidential candidates makes it difficult to rank highly in google equate to “kill yr blog”? Google is all about relevance, always has been, always (most likely) will be. If the most relevant answer to a searcher’s query could be found on a personal (or professional) blog, it would rank high. For “Barack Obama”, aren’t most searchers looking for that wikipedia page, or the Fox News article (ahem, wouldn’t MSNBC be more likely?!) What about the blogger who writes about a passion topic, something like the greatest college basketball team, and wants to be able to connect with those who share that passion. Is this form of community no longer valid?
3. Why does the “insult commenter” need to ruin the fun for the rest of us? Assigning so much power to those silly flame comments seems to ignore the power the rest of us have to ignore things that don’t add value. It’s like the reviews people post on Amazon, with a absurdly high (or low) score but no substantiation for their claims. People today seem to be far better equipped to deal with hype and BS, and tune out what doesn’t make sense in favor of what does. I strongly disagree that these silly one-off comments really degrade the experience the rest of us enjoy.

His close though seemed to help me understand where he was coming from:

As a writer, though, I’m onto the system’s [Twitter] real appeal: brevity. Bloggers today are expected to write clever, insightful, witty prose to compete with Huffington and The New York Times. Twitter’s character limit puts everyone back on equal footing. It lets amateurs quit agonizing over their writing and cut to the chase.

Ok, so as long as you and I agree not everyone writes about topics covered by the mainstream media on a daily basis, I think Paul will agree with us that the platform still adds value. I’d love to try and have a meaningful and interactive and ongoing marketing optimization discussion, 140 characters at a time.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments- are you reading more or less blogs today than 4 years ago?

As well what are the topics you enjoy reading about *outside* of the mainstream media (and any blogs you like that cover those topics). For me, scanning my bloglines start page shows:

• Neuroscience – The Frontal Cortex; Cognitive Daily;
• Web Analytics – Marketing Productivity blog;
• Venture Capital – Feld Thoughts; Fred Wilson’s blog;
• Personal Productivity / Simplicity – 43 Folders;

… just to name a few! So if you’re out there blogging, please feel free to ignore the opening advice from Wired, and keep up the fine work- I’m sure your audience appreciates it.

There is nothing like social media to make people feel connected. However, that feeling can some times overwhelm people. Social Media Addiction (SMA) is a real concern. Please understand as a former counselor and social worker I have seen the impact that addiction can have.

If you find yourself with several of the following conditions you may be suffering from this affliction.

1. You have more “friends” than the population of Tyre, NY.

2. You find yourself calling family member by their @Name.

3. You start using extra consonants everywhere (ie. Digg, Sphinn, Mixx, etc.)

4. You find that you limit all your sentences to 140 characters.

5. You know all the words to Numa Numa and know all the dance moves from How to Dance Properly by Ze Frank.

6. You tell everyone you have a Mac even if you are a PC.

7. You have nightmares that involve whales, mob wars, or being buried.

If you find yourself addicted, the first step is to admit it. The second step is to realize you are not alone. Some well respected and suspected addicts include Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, Robert Scoble, Mitch Joel, Joseph Jaffe, Valeria Maltoni, C.C. Chapman and Linda Bustos. I think I may be getting dangerously close myself. Be social and make sure to friend these folks so you don’t have to face your addiction alone.

Click here to view the embedded video.

9:00 am – 9:20 am

Seth Godin on how to get your ideas to spread:

Click here to view the embedded video.

9:30 am – 10:00 am

Avinash Kaushik on how to create a data driven culture:

Click here to view the embedded video.

10:00 am – 10:10 am

Mike Grehan on the future of Search.

Click here to view the embedded video.

10:11 am – 10:15 am

CommonCraft on social media in plain english.

Click here to view the embedded video.

10:15am – 10:30 am

Please take a 15 minute networking break. Find some great people on twitter or friend some fine people on Facebook. On twitter you can follow me @TheGrok or on FaceBook @Bryan Eisenberg.

10:30 am – 11:10 am

Doug Mack, Carrie Johnson, David Daniels on Web 2.0 and what it means for retail from Shop.org.

Click here to view this presentation.

11:10 am – 12:00pm

Mitch Joel & Carrie Johnson on Social Shopping: How to Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Customer Control

Click here to view this presentation.

12:00pm – 1:00pm

Enjoy your lunch break.

1:00pm – 1:20pm

Ze Frank on …

Click here to view the embedded video.

1:30pm – 1:45pm

Gary Vaynerchuk on building personal brand within the social media landscape

Click here to view the embedded video.

1:45pm – 2:00pm

Rand Fishkin on SEO for branding and blogging for higher rankings.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-SEO for Branding from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

——————————-

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-Blogging for Higher Rankings from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

2:00pm – 2:05pm

Chris Anderson on Free! why $0.00 is the future of business.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2:05pm – 2:50pm

Bill Tancer on Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why It Matters.

Click here to view the embedded video.

2:50pm – 3:00pm

Chris Brogan on new media’s necessary evolution for progress. Rated R for language.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3:00pm – 3:30pm
Please take a break and speak to some real people

3:30pm – 3:35pm

Andy Beal on how to monitor your competitors.

Click here to view the embedded video.

3:35pm – 4:30pm

Adaptive Path staff on customer experience and how it integrates with marketing efforts.

Click here to view the embedded video.

4:35pm – 4:45pm

Chip Heath on making ideas stick.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There were several topics we wanted to include but didn’t make it in because either;  there we no presentations of it online, we weren’t thrilled with the content available, or Iweran out of time in trying to keep this virtual conference to one day.

Some of the important topics we wanted to cover:

1. the importance of good copywriting online
2. comparing search, display, ppc, cpm, cpa, etc.
3. creating efficiencies in your marketing
4. marketing in a recession
5. Integrated Brands & Interaction: connecting your online to your offline channel
6. preparing your organization for social media
7. why organization must adopt a continuous improvement process for their marketing efforts

What topics would you like to have seen?

P.S. We made the decision to leave any of our presentations/interviews out of the agenda to eliminate any bias, but if you want to watch some of our presentations, here you go:

1. How to get your organization to start testing

2. How to use personas to increase sales

Click here to view the embedded video.

3. Using Persuasion Architecture to improve your online results

Techcrunch sums it up:

Blogging is a volume game. The more you post, the more chances there are that someone else will link to one of your posts. (Technorati rank is based on the number of recent links to your blog). The majority of the Top 100 blogs tracked by Technorati post five or more times per day, and a full 43 percent post more than 10 times per day. Meanwhile, 64 percent of the 5,000 blogs ranked lower than 600 post two to four times a day, which is still a serious commitment.

The linking stats may be true, but what do readers think about it?

Do you prefer blogs that post 1 or 2 relevant posts a day, a few times a week or ones that publish more frequently? Which blogs are you most likely to remember?

Check out the video.

Editors Note: While we are talking viral videos, have you seen possibly one of the best “experiential” ads online?

It started as a Tweet:

Who wants a FREE $50 gift code? Here it is: TLTW7897 First come, first serve – and all tees are ON SALE FOR $12!! http://tinyurl.com/yqe9f

Bryan Eisenberg (@TheGrok) caught it among the noise that is twitter traffic, then predictably, he forwarded it to me and the rest of the staff. 50$ bucks off t-shirts at Threadless.com, very cool.

So like any wearer of T-shirts I followed the link and was immediately impressed by the home page. Copy easy to read and clear, check! Design functional and attractive, check! Navigation clear easy to understand, check! Images enticing, check! A cool variety of off-the-wall tees, check! Several ways to start browsing, check!

So I hover over the down arrow to “Browse by Size“. An attractive drop down appears on the hover, and I am presented with the following:
All is beauuutiful, birds are chirping, sun rays are shining. Next, I move my mouse down under Guys, and I click on my size…2XL.

This is where things go wretchedly wrong…

Somebody cue Homer Simpson.

Doh!
Now please correct me if I am wrong (I’ve been wrong about this once or twice before), but those are human beings of the feminine persuasion right? I’d be willing to bet anyone a FREE $50 Threadless gift code that I am looking at a whole bunch of ladies. Not that I am complaining about that, but I was expecting to see guy t-shirts. Wouldn’t you be?

So, I hover over the nav and click again on the 2XL under Guyyysss. Same thing. The same thing happened after I clicked on all the guys sizes.

I would be interested to see what the bounce/exit rate would be on this page. I would bet a lot more than $50 that Threadless.com is bleeding guys on this listing page. I wonder how many guys are thinking they are in the wrong place.

The reason I like to shop by size is that when I am shopping for T-shirts I hate to fall in love with a T-shirt that is not available in my size, it just grates me. Threadless.com must realize this, because they make it easy for you request notification if your size is not in stock.

The interesting thing is that many of the tees on the site have thumbs of male and female, so male model pics are available. Does Threadless know something I don’t? Do females modeling t-shirts sell more effectively to guys buying t-shirts for themselves? Are us guys that secure in our masculinity that we can buy shirts that ‘girlys’ wear?? Or, are the shirts at Threadless.com that cool that model gender just doesn’t matter?

P.S. I couldn’t even get the coupon to work either.

Consistency. Be consistent. In everything that you do. (The article link above will take you to Mitch’s specifics.)

Mitch is collecting best-practice ideas from folks in the industry.  He happened to tag me.

So here’s my take on what companies involved in Social Media Marketing should be considering.

In the recent past, companies have been using multi-channel social media – primarily blogs and podcasts – as a way to market.  What they typically haven’t figured out is how to use these channels effectively.  At FutureNow, we hesitate to call these best practices, because, for each company, tactics will differ depending on the business itself; and the appropriate tactics will change over time as audiences shift and tools/websites evolve.  So what critical guiding principles should companies pay attention to when employing social media?

1.    Disclosure, also called transparency, is probably the most important principle that should inform your outreach through social media.  Give it to your audience straight.  Let them know the upside.  And the downside (it happens).  If you don’t, they’ll figure it out through other sources, which will leave them thinking less, not more, of you.

2.    Understand the relationship you are building with your audience.  Social media is, well, social.  In social situations, the nature of the relationship defines how two people interact with each other.  Deliver your message accordingly, for communication is always about the message received and perceived. Good communication is also about listening.

3.    Identify and communicate your values.  These are part of your identity, and in social media, communicating your identity is part of the exchange.

I totally agree with Mitch:  Consistency is important!  But you can only be consistent once you’ve adopted the necessary level of disclosure, understood the relationship and defined your values.

“Fox News Channel wants more friends. But instead of reaching out on the News Corporation’s own social network, MySpace, the cable news channel is choosing to network on the site’s chief rival, Facebook.

Think it has anything to do with MySpace’s existing partnership with MSNBC? Fox says it has more to do with audience.”

This is a sign of the maturity of social media, but even more so of News Corporation’s new media sophistication.

Many of our readers are big fans of social networking sites so I want to find out your opinions. If you were in charge, would you have done the same? Would you have used both or perhaps even other sites? Do people want to find and consume news in a social network? Inquiring minds want to know.

“Think of it! Millions and millions of people we can hyper target with relevant messages and offers, contextual targeting, behavioral targeting – THINK OF THE VIRAL OPPORTUNITIES!”

Um, you’ve got a little bit of spittle there at the corner of your mouth…there, yeah, you wiped it off.

Yes, the potential is huge. But some companies have been disappointed with the results in their early efforts. They have some great ideas, but aren’t always sure how to monetize them. (Read this insightful article on the challenges of monetizing Facebook applications.)

I couldn’t agree more – the opportunity is huge. But how can you really make money from social media?

Go Into Relationship Mode

I was fortunate enough to get to spend some time the other day with Joseph Carrabis of NextStage Evolution. (Are you jealous? You should be.)

One of my many questions to him was about social media – it’s all the rage, but can advertisers really tap into that power to sell their products and services? I was particularly interested in advertisers hoping to reach women. Women are huge consumers of social media. A recent rapleaf study found, while both men and women are using social media in increasing numbers, women far out-pace the men.

Joseph pointed out that social media is about building relationships – if advertisers want to reach her in that medium, they have to be in relationship-building mode.

I thought this was interesting. I was at a recent marketing to women conference where two presenters talked about the “mode” women are in on the Internet and how you need to match that mode. Shopping, communicating, and entertainment are just a few modes she might be in.

Which brings up an important point. If she is in relationship mode, respect her space. She may not want to deal with anyone who is too pushy or does not respect her space. For example, look at women on MySpace decorating and customizing their pages. This is their private sanctuary – just like decorating their room in a house. Be aware of that. It’s one thing to barge into a website she is viewing (with your ad). It’s another thing to barge into her “room.”

Another idea we discussed in relation to women and social media and building relationships is the importance of the concept of fair value. As Joseph says, “You have to give as good as you get.” Is there something of value you can give to her? Are you giving more than you are asking for?

And how do you build that relationship? A great way to start is through a conversation. Social Media is often a great way to have a two-way conversation with your customers and potential customers. Just keep in mind, does she actually want to have a conversation with you? And if so, what does she want to talk to you about? A good place to start would be to answer her questions.

Use Persuasion Architecture to Get The Most Out of Social Media

Some of the best advice I’ve heard on the subject came during a recent podcast interview with Forrester’s Josh Bernoff. Josh points out that you can’t start with the technology. You have to start with people and objectives FIRST. What a great point. I can’t tell you how many times someone has come to me and said, “I need to start a blog,” or, “I need to tap into the Internet,” or, “I want to create a discussion forum.” My reply is always, “Who are your customers and what do they want?” THAT’S the first question. What do they care about? How can you make a difference in their lives? What are your objectives? Next, you can come up with which technologies can help you achieve those objectives (i.e., blogs, forums, Facebook, etc.).

It’s a novel idea – start with the consumer and what she wants. (This is the entire basis for Persuasion Architecture.) It’s also about communicating with customers in the manner they want to communicate.

How Do Your Customers Want to Interact With You?

FutureNow recently put up a Facebook page. As our Director of Marketing, Brian Bond said,

“The way I see it, technology evolves to better facilitate the needs of consumers, to have their questions and motivations addressed. The evolution of tools like Facebook is an answer to a need to communicate differently. Just like letter writing was largely replaced by email as a more efficient communication method, I see apps like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc., all evolving as alternatives to email and other current communication methods. For marketers and businesses, this represents a great opportunity to communicate with their audience with the method their audience chooses. This change is something we have to embrace because it’s how our audience wishes to interact with our brand. Who are we to tell them they are wrong? The beauty of the Persuasion Architecture approach, in my mind, is that is that it applies equally well to all marketing/communication methods. It’s all about communicating with customers the way they want to be communicated with and addressing customers’ motivations. If there are technologies that better support this communication, then we must embrace them to be relevant to the customer.”

How do your customers want to interact with you? How can you provide genuine value to them? Remember, relationships are a two-way street. You can’t always ask ask ask – you have to give in return. Think about what you could give your customers that would be of value to them.

Do Facebook Ads Relate

Here’s a Facebook ad that got my attention:

Now, I deleted the header because it was “(my age) year-old-woman.” That creeped me out. I don’t like someone calling out my specific age. It’s not that I’m that old (I’m barely out of my twenties, really). But screaming my personal information at me like that made me feel a little violated.

Despite the header, the ad got my attention because it was for free samples of products – many of which I recognized in the image. The fact that this company was willing to give me something first appealed to me. It felt like a welcome gift. It felt like the way I’d like to start a relationship. (Rather than flashing the usual banner ad at me, screaming at me, “Buy our stuff! Give us your money!”) Remember, I’m in relationship mode right now, NOT shopping mode. Offering me a gift appealed to me more than offering a percentage off a purchase.

I know some people would joke that women are always in shopping mode. But ads like this one to the left are a big flop; a belly flop. Ads like this make me want to ban all advertising on Facebook.

Want your social media ads to work?

Start with People

By all means, embrace social media. But start with people, in particular, your customers. Who are they? What do they want? Start with their goals first. THEN bring in technology to achieve your goals. And remember, conversations are a two-way street. Don’t just ask…listen. You’ll form stronger relationships. Isn’t that what it’s all about?

Since I’ve focused so much on Facebook, I’d love to hear from you – Advertisers – have you had success using Facebook? Tell me about it. Facebook Users – how do you feel about ads and applications on Facebook? Love ‘em? Hate ‘em? Sound off in the comments.

If you are doing social media advertising, would you like to do a research project with FutureNow to see how you can make those efforts more effective?  If you’re interested, let’s have a conversation about it. You can start by leaving a comment below.

The Ad Contrarian writes:

One of the axioms of Web 2.0 zealots is that “markets are conversations” (see Clueless and The Cluefree Manifesto) and that online social media (blogs, networking websites, Facebook, MySpace, etc.) are uniquely capable of stimulating “conversations” among consumers.

Just one tiny problem. They’re wrong.

On June 18, some facts arrived. And I think the social media maniacs are going to find the facts a little disturbing.

read the entire post

Let us know what your take is on this. If it’s true, then why do you think that is? If you think it isn’t true, then why not?