Tag Archives: Future of Marketing

“Be social to learn social” – College profs learn Social Media 101

Now that social media is more popular than porn on the Internet, it’s time for everyone to jump on the bandwagon — and that definitely includes our university teachers.

That’s why Wiley Publishers invited noted social media expert Erik Qualman to guest lecture a webinar attended by 22 profs and lecturers the first day of December.

Welcome to the Social Media Revolution

Erik’s Socialnomics slideshow seen on YouTube by more than 1 million viewers:

Below is a listing of 15 soundbites I “live-tweeted” during the hour lecture:

1 – Socialnomics is defined as the exponential return for individuals, derived from social media.

2 – “Wasting time” on the Internet can actually make people more productive. Erik gave an example of checking email and Facebook on a SmartPhone while standing in checkout lines.

3 – Most people can spend less time finding information online than offline.

4 – The key to social media success is Doing rather than Deliberating.

5 – Social media spans time and space, allowing much greater opportunities for connection.

6 – The Pope uses many forms of social media, including Wikis.

7 – Google’s new WAVE is going to be the 21st century email.

8 – Winners in this new world: (1) Consumers get best products and services; (2) Best companies will reap best Word of Mouth.

9 – Social bookmarking site is a great way to do research AND see what is resonating with the public.

10 – Four steps to use social media: (a) Listen; (b) React; (c) Interact; (d) Softsell.

11 – Students can use blogs, wikis, and forums to bounce ideas off one another.

12 – When using/experimenting on the Web, ask for Forgiveness rather than Permission.

13 – We no longer search for news; it finds us. Soon products and services will find us.

14 – People can look at their updates and take a real assessment of their lives.

15 – How to get the most from Social Media: “Be social to learn social.”

For added reading, check out my article commenting on Erik’s 15 Social Media Maxims

and check out Top Ten Mistakes Made by Social Media Newbies

Facebook for Business, Blogging, Posterous and more:

Twitter is like my personal bookstore, but so is most of Web 2.0

photos by Howard Blum
photos by Howard Blum

Sharing is one of the amazing benefits of Web 2.0, so it’s no wonder that Twitter is so important to me — both as a source and a repository. Here are some of the articles I read and Tweeted and Re-Tweeted this week:

  1. NYT article on Facebook for Business
  2. Blogs better Hubs than Twitter
  3. Social media will be your local marketing tool
  4. Future of Marketing – PR Squared
  5. Scoble’s video interview with Posterous

New York Times tips for Marketing on Facebook

Quick Tips worth repeating over and over [until people get them ingrained]: (a) Identify goals; (b) Share personality; (c) Engage, don’t shill; (d) Use Facebook data Here are some article highlights:

  • Be where your customers — and prospective customers — hang out.
  • Start small and add tools & apps slowly
  • Enliven page with photos and useful information
  • Buy-buy-buy messages do not work
  • Offer value and be patient

NYT article on Facebook for Business

HUBSBlogs are best HUBS for your content

Here are seven reasons why:

  1. With a blog, you control the agenda, whether you’re communicating on behalf of a company, or for personal reasons.
  2. Your blog can cater to a sub-group of your Twitter friends or a different audience altogether.
  3. A blog is less dominated by spam than Twitter.
  4. You can embed images, audio and video on your blog.
  5. Blog posts can be of unlimited length. You can express yourself in more than 140 characters.
  6. With some environments, you have almost unlimited control over the appearance, functionality and arrangement of your blog.
  7. Many blogs include the ability to offer contact forms, polls, chat and other functionality. You can even embed your Twitter stream into your blog.

Blogs better Hubs than Twitter

Local audience — where the money is

flowers Nope, even traditional media admits social media is NOT a fad. Local bloggers are being paid for page views. Viral nature of social media is fountain for success. Social media provides 2-way communication. Social media will be your local marketing tool

Facebook & Google win social network marketing race

“In the future, the Web you know will be based on the Web that knows you.”

“Social Media has simply become an unstoppable force.”

“Making special offers based on known behaviors and connections, will be automated.”

Future marketing outreach: “Maybe you’ll also reach out to one of the baker’s dozen’s worth of active baking-related groups on Facebook.”

Future of Marketing – PR Squared

Robert Scoble interview with POSTEROUS for the “GEEKY-ER” among you:

Top Geek-Thought-Leader Robert Scoble posted a video interview with the two creators of Posterous, a platform on which anyone can post content via email. Steve Rubel  stopped publishing his highly regarded marketing communication blog Micropersuasion in favor of a Posterous stream. Video is 17 minutes long and features Robert’s questions for Posterous founders: Sachin Agarwal and Garry Tan. Highlights:

  • Purpose is to provide a simple, clean platform for rich media and mobile application.
  • Only four full-time engineers do all the work.
  • To serve 1.8 billion people who don’t want the hassle of a traditional blog
  • Future business model to offer Premium features — far in the future.

Check out more of Howard’s Awesome photos on his website: http://faces-and-places.net/indexa.html

Give your Ideas the Power to Grow your Business

Thoughtful planning turns ideas into profits for small businesses, says Les Ross helps Why is it that 2/3 of small businesses fail within the first two-three years of operation?

One of the major causes for a company’s collapse is inadequate planning upfront, according to business consultant Les Ross, whom I first met this spring when he WOW-ed my SFSU advertising students with his Internet Marketing presentation.

Many students expressed their amazement at how web sites could be set up to operate on automatic pilot, maintaining customer contact and continuing to offer products and services for sale.

“Internet marketing allows the small guy to compete against the big guy — and not only compete, but outcompete — because there is no differentiation between a large business and a small one on the Web. Success is purely dependent first on the quality of the message and then on the follow-through. Product quality and customer service are essential.”

“The other remarkable thing is the ability to totally automate the entire sales and marketing process. It’s an effort to structure the system, but once in place, then it’s a process that builds on itself,” he explained.

Les has developed tools that allow a small business to grow under a structure that would easily allow its operational systems to evolve with growth. “Many small business owners put in basic systems and then when they reach a certain level, those systems cannot take them beyond that point, so the business stagnates or the owner must do a massive restructuring,” he said.

What typically is NOT planned for by many new companies?

They don’t understand their markets, according to Les.

“They run off with an idea that they think is so unique that no one has ever thought of it. And then, too late, they realize they are faced with stiff competition.”

In addition, many start-ups are inexperienced at financial planning and do not know how to identify the costs that their business will incur the first few years: “Coupled with inadequate marketing strategies, this is a recipe for disaster,” Les said.

Les is as excited as I am about marketing opportunities through social media platforms. That’s why he agreed to come speak to my class, and that’s why Les and I are starting a Social Media/Internet Marketing consulting business, which we are calling Performance Social Media.

“Some people think that you can only develop relationships face-to-face — and that you will never replace that experience. What they don’t realize is that the Internet offers opportunities to enhance your ability to offer information while you continuously build relationships.”

“With live exchanges, you have to manually follow up, and there is the danger that if you are overloaded, the necessary customer service actions for your ‘less important’ customers can be put aside.”

With an Internet marketing system, no customer ever falls through the cracks and feels ignored if you set up your system correctly to provide the information they want — it’s all on autopilot, according to Les.

Next post: In a PERFECT WORLD, how would you manage your Online/Social Media Presence?

Business will rebound when firms learn and use today’s new resources for marketing

Strategic thinker & Brand Specialist: Russell Volckmann
Strategic thinker & Brand Specialist: Russell Volckmann

Everyone wants to work for — or own — a successful company. And we are all looking forward to a positive turn for our global economy.

The news, whether from the beleaguered mass media or the intrepid bloggers and Tweeters, continues to depress us with seemingly insurmountable challenges from foreclosures to furloughs to bankruptcies.

It should be obvious that old systems are broken, and business people must figure out how to tap new resources for strategies and tactics that will benefit everyone.

Too many companies — and industries — are wasting money, time and other valuable resources by relying on metrics, customer profiling and science, according to Russell Volckmann, a marketing professional in the Bay Area of California. Russell was one of the five participants in a panel discussion that introduced me and my 48 advertising students at San Francisco State University to the overwhelming upheaval in the world of marketing.

Russell is a strategic thinker, storyteller, and positioner, who has helped entrepreneurs, small companies, Fortune 500 firms, and global organizations tell their stories and build their brands. He is currently the Executive Producer and Creative Principal at Volckmann (& friends), now focusing entirely on branding, visual identity, brand experience.

When Russell hears the cries that “Advertising is Dead,” his first reaction is that advertisers and their agencies are lazy:

They’re not creating branded experiences and other mechanisms that connect brands to people in meaningful ways. Instead, they continue to rely on the same tired old barking ad techniques that they’ve been using for the past 50 years.

“They also continue to rely increasingly on metrics that are decreasingly relevant,” explained Russell who blogs about Brand 3.0.

Since companies use the same metrics, we get the same kind of failed ad campaigns:

We need only look at the auto companies for an example of allowing MBA numbers to drive their business into the ground.

Russel’s new agency offers an 8-point brand audit process:

  1. Brand Research
  2. Brand Strategy
  3. Brand Positioning
  4. Standards & Systems
  5. Brand Marketing
  6. Organization Brand Building
  7. Brand Extension
  8. Employee Brand Competency

In addition, Russell is Executive Creative Director at partner agency Origami Tactical Creative & Branding (Montreal-based) now, and helping spearhead the new San Francisco office.

Why is Russell doing branding and branding-related experiences instead of advertising?

In 1965, thirty-four percent of consumers could name a brand advertised on a TV show. Thirty years later, only eight percent could do so. Consumers decreasingly find ads useful, informative, relevant, or differentiating.

Did you know that only six percent of people believe an ad is generally telling the truth? With numbers like these, it is no wonder even established brands are failing.

And with evidence like Russell provides, is it any wonder that our Advertising and Marketing textbooks are “incredibly impractical” as Seth Godin wrote in his recent blog post Textbook Rant. My SFSU students, as well as industry professionals, need to study “Today 101” while  organizations that want marketing success — not marketing waste — will need to work with those marketers who are continuous learners.

Next post: Les Ross suggests putting websites on autopilot

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Press Releases and Advertising are Dead

Social Media is Pushing Dramatic Changes in Marketing

There's light, new growth, beauty, and interconnection

TGIF. We’ll make this blog-lite, just in case you haven’t read my first post.

Yesterday’s adventure along the SM Revolutionary Road was anything but “lite” – information-wise. Three Bay Area social media players: John Harper, Dean Guadagni, and Pat Kitano visited my SFSU advertising and PR classes to provide all of us with a host of on-scene strategies they are currently implementing for their clients.

A few of the social media insights we heard:

  • The 100-year-old press release, the Hard Sell, is dead.
  • After celebrities Oprah Winfrey and Ashton Kutcher joined the Twitter Universe, its population grew 1.2 million – including a 12% growth in One Day!
  • Twitter is the perfect medium for broadcasting today, especially when building brands.
  • Speaking of branding, the Internet is an outstanding way to create and develop a personal brand. Resumes are passé. The paradigm is shifting in job search.
  • Google Alerts allow you to get an email notification every time your name [or any key word of your choosing] is mentioned on the Internet.
  • Information is going to be like the air around us.
  • We will be making chips from man-made diamonds so computers will get lighter and lighter.
  • Advertising, as we have known it, i.e., Madison Avenue strategies developed for the “New” medium of TV in the Fifties, just doesn’t work anymore.

More on all of these topics coming soon. In the meantime, check out (1) John’s April 23 blog post [and on-the-spot interview with me]: (2) Dean’s views and tips: and (3) Pat’s web explanations of how social media converges with mass media.

Next post: Build blog popularity with comments