10 quick tips to remember when pitching the client

Posted on December 9, 2008 by marc meyer

I’ve been thinking a lot lately how marketers and social media “experts” or consultants talk to their clients before they have the client in the fold. Given today’s economic climate, it’s a delicate fine line in the ways we talk or “pitch” the client with a solution. Since I have been having a lot of those conversations of late, I have been told in equal parts, “man you don’t understand”, “wow you get it”, “what are you talking about”? and “you know nothing about our challenges.”

These are serious times, and rolling in touting social media is completely missing the mark.

So I decided to create a short list that both we the marketer/social media/seo-sem practitioner should read or remember before we have any future conversations with potential clients and prospects. Trust me this is purely subjective.

People still don’t get it, never assume they do.
There’s always a disconnect somewhere.
People are hurting, don’t underestimate how much.
Life gets in the way…
They really might not have any money but that doesn’t mean you can’t help them.
You don’t know their pain, don’t pretend to.
You don’t walk in their shoes.
They need what you have, but you need to speak their language.
They need what you do but might not know it, help them understand.
Be respectful

You know, a lot of this is common sense but I think sometimes we want so much to get the project and get the deal that we forget who we are talking to. We end up forgetting the tremendous challenges that not only do we face, but that our potential customers are facing.

Essentially what I’m saying is that it’s always a challenge to get a new client or a new customer, but now more than ever, we have to understand that these are not normal times. I’m going to explore this more at length because i think it’s a topic that will eventually make us all better at what we do if we can understand the challenges facing our current and potential clients.

The 10 points above, make sense in any economic situation but they resonate more today December 9th 2008.

Where are your customers?

Posted on December 2, 2008 by marc meyer

Are you where they are?

I was reading an old post by Drew McLellan in which he basically asks the same thing. He says, “Where do your customers gather? What are you doing to make sure you’re there too?”

Good point. Might make sense on Twitter too. If you’re a marketer and your hangin with other marketers, then you might not run into many clients or customers or leads. That’s not actually your fault, it’s the nature of the way we follow and are followed. But maybe it might make sense to find people in a certain vertical and follow them? I’ll give you an example.

When I was in college, I sold concert t-shirts. It paid well, I loved music, and it was a helluva gig. There were a couple of challenges though. First, they were bootlegs, and second, I wasn’t the only one selling them. So whenever there was a big stadium show for example, every t-shirt seller from here to BFE was out selling them. Too much competition. In fact, there was so much competition that we would all end up clustering by the same places hoping to make a sale and ultimately end up talking to each other and selling/yelling at customers. Oh and third? Some of the shirts were of lesser quality and limited sizes and yet, some of the sellers would sell at a lower price that ultimately disturbed the economic balance of the business. Sound familiar?

However the shirt sellers that hustled, broke off from the rest, and found quieter pockets of customers that were tailgating for instance, had a much better chance of talking with the customer and also having an exclusive captive audience, thus resulting in not just one sale, but perhaps selling 4-6 shirts at a premium price.

I know it’s a stretch for an analogy but the point is that now more than ever, your strategy needs to be more focused, refined, flexible and targeted. Instead of yelling and selling, go find the quiet bunch of tailgaters chillin and grillin and ready to buy. But don’t wait for them.

Lets Focus

Posted on December 1, 2008 by marc meyer

When thinking of writing another blog post, it’s often about social media, or marketing, or web 2.0. All really big topics, and all with champions and thought leaders in each. But chances are if you come here to my blog, you’re looking for something. I want to give it to you. But today what I’m going to give you is some advice. It’s advice I need to heed but don’t from time to time.

It goes something like this.

How many blogs are in your feed reader? Mine? Somewhere between 150 and 200. I would love to read them every day but I don’t. Maybe I should focus on about 10 per day and rotate them from time to time? Want some suggestions? Instead of the obvious, here are some with some variety in the content like Valeria Maltoni, Mark Story, Peter Kim, Toby Bloomberg, B.L. Ochman, Paul McEnany and Beth Harte

How many social networking sites or groups do you participate in? Me? At least a half a dozen, maybe more. How many can I actively participate in? That’s a good question. Maybe 3, maybe 6 and not much more. I’d rather be really active in 3 instead of marginal in 6-10. How bout just Linkedin, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, and your blog? 2 of those are somewhat passive so you could manage them all fairly effectively.

How often do you read email? Me? Too often to really even narrow down. But it least 2-3 times per hour. I’m not sure what I’m hoping to get, but surely it can wait an hour or 2 before I respond. I believe Tim Ferris says read it twice a day?

How often do you use Twitter? What actions during your day revolve around the usage and participation of Twitter? Me? I have Tweetdeck running from the moment I step in my office. Not sure if that is wise. Does Mr. Tweet enhance or hinder this?

I think you see where I’m going, but let’s continue.

What amount of your day is spent reading about what is going on in our country right now? I admit that my day revolves around what is happening on a local level (Naples, Florida) a national level, an economic level, and globally. Does it consume me? No, but It concerns me, so I read a lot. Should I reduce that amount like I should email?

What am I doing about IT? and what can I do about IT? What can you do about IT?

You see the challenge here is that we have a tremendous amount of tool sets and new web sites at hand right now, from social media tools to web 2.0 tools, and we can use them to improve what we do. We can also use aspects of them to improve our companies, our clients and our prospects, but we need to focus on which tools will work best for whom. We need to focus on doing what we do better. We need to refine it. Hone our skills, if you will. We need to better manage our time, our focus and our ability to cut through the clutter of filling up our day with a lot of social media bullshit apps and web 2.0 alpha and beta sites. Focus on what you know and do it better. I know I’m going to try. I need to. We need to. I don’t have a choice and neither do you.

Sports and Social Media

Posted on November 30, 2008 by marc meyer

We talk a lot about the fabric that is sports and how it is weaved throughout the daily routine of our lives. Whether we like it or not, we all have some type of passing interest in sports and our communities. Either on a local, regional, national, or international level. Face it, if sports didn’t mean anything it wouldn’t be a section of the newspaper. It wouldn’t have it’s own segment on the local nightly news and it wouldn’t dominate our attention every four years, or every sunday in the fall.

But how has social media changed the landscape of how we view or participate in sports? Here are some sites and examples that have already or seem to be elevating how we use social media with sports.

Ballhype is a social news site that’s sole focus is on sports, but it uses sports content/news as an entry point to encourage more interaction amongst its users.

Sports-focused social media company Citizen Sports recently acquired a few social media application developers: Sportacular, Sport Interactiva, and FantasyBook. Citizen Sports launched its first fantasy football app on Facebook in July, and the acquisitions of Sport Interactiva and FantasyBook add new fantasy sports content to the roster, as well as securing Citizen Sports a coveted spot in mobile, as Sportacular has a leading sports application of the same name for the iPhone.

Yardbarker breaks down traditional barriers, allowing fans and athletes to debate sports, read and write articles, and watch videos. It also features thousands of sports websites and blogs,

Pat Coyle runs a site called sports marketing 2.o that is related to all things web 2.0 and sports. Pat is obviously understand the effect that social media is having on sports, as he also created the NING group, Sports Marketing 2.0

The Sports Business Journal recently mentioned the 5 people that you need to know in social media-

Open Sports Led by Mike Levy, the founder of CBS SportsLine.com this site is a comprehensive platform of products and services that brings together breaking sports news, social media tools, user generated content, fantasy sports games and multimedia applications.

Want to see a professional athlete who has leveraged his blog to a degree that journalists and fans use it for his latest sound bite? Look no further than the baseball player Curt Schilling

Then we have XOS technologies a leading technology partner for maximizing the value of content, commerce and services for sports organizations and fans.Whether it’s a coach assessing recruiting content, a video coordinator creating game-video highlights, a team streaming a press conference online or a fan engaging in interactive content.

Jason Peck uses his blog as a platform for sports, business and social media. In fact, Jason provides a great resource in his 50 sports social networking sites, which is a must bookmark blog post. Along the lines of citizen journalism in sports, look no further than Deadspin.

Mashable, the great provider of all things social media list related chimes in with it’s own 20 sports social networks, though it is a year old.

MVP Spot is an online community that provides amateur athletes the ability to showcase their talents to the world.

And SportMates is a global sports social network founded by a group of passionate sports fans who have created and managed some of the largest sports communities on the Internet over the last eight years. They have created an environment where fans and athletes from all cultures and geographical locations can share their passion for sports with likeminded fans.

The point of this post was really to show you that sports is permeating every thing at every level, related to sports. From fan blog sites, to communities devoted to teams and activities, to Facebook groups devoted to teams and athletes, to teams reaching out by creating social networks devoted to their most ardent of fans. and to professional athletes themselves blogging.

Sports and social media are at the cross roads of fan participation like we have not seen at any other point in time sports. Look for it to continue to escalate with even more user generated content and platforms created to showcase that content. With that being said, look for the voice of the fan to become more and more prominent in the industry of sports.

What has been your “Ah-Ha” moment for 2008?

Posted on November 28, 2008 by marc meyer

As we fall forward and 2009 approaches, I was reading a blog post in which the reader talked about her Ah-Ha moment in twitter and I started thinking about what was my “Ah-Ha” moment for 2008. Was it a connection? Was it one of those seminal moments with a client? A conversation? A conference? An e-mail? A tweet? A blog post that took the conversation to another level?

I’m curious as to what it might have been for you.

Given that 2008 might have been lean for some on certain levels, I’m sure you can still point to some thing or some moment in 2008 that might have either helped make the light bulb above your head brighter or just enriched you on a level that you never thought possible. What was it?

I’ve had many moments that were game changers this year but the one that stands out is the effect that Twitter has had on me professionally. In short, not only has it allowed me to connect with my peers but it has connected me to information and resources quicker than if I would have done the search myself. It has kept me dialed in to what matters in my industry and from a networking standpoint, there is no comparison. So to the 500 or so people that I follow, I want to thank you for providing me with my “Ah-Ha” moment in 2008.

Talk with them…

Posted on November 26, 2008 by marc meyer

I’m learning as much as you right now. If you are a marketer or an advertiser then you need to be talking with your customers and not at them. We have been talking about that for a while now. IDC just came out with a report that says that advertisers are failing miserably at communicating with social net users. Why? Because they are used to pushing shoving? their info and their product down people’s throats. According to IDC:

There are four major reasons why consumers use SNS: to connect and communicate; in response to peer-pressure; for entertainment; and for work-related purposes. Advertising does not factor into consumer motivations.

Ouch. So essentially advertisers still don’t get it. Keep reading, it gets better. IDC continues,

One of the potential benefits of SNS that the advertising industry has discussed is whether peoples’ connections (i.e., whom a user knows or is linked to) could be used for advertising. For instance, publishers could show a car manufacturer’s ads to a user’s contacts because that user’s online behavior has indicated that she is interested in a particular brand of cars. Anecdotally, there has been some indication that this “social advertising” might be more effective than behavioral targeting. However, that idea is stillborn. Of all U.S. Internet users, only 3% would allow publishers to use contact information for advertising. For instance, publishers could show a car manufacturer’s ads to a user’s contacts because that user’s online behavior has indicated that she is interested in a particular brand of cars.

If you have been reading some of the thought leaders in the social media marketing space like a Jason Falls, like a Beth Harte or Amber Naslund or Valeria Maltoni or Paul Chaney– they have stressed the importance of brand champions and community influencers who can shape the decisions and actions of the group or community or social net-naturally.

IDC’s report says that “One of the potential benefits of Social networks is that the advertising industry has discussed is whether peoples’ connections (i.e., whom a user knows or is linked to) could be used for advertising.”

I’m not sure what to think. Should I admonish IDC for putting out a report in which this comes as to no surprise to a lot of us? Or should advertisers be ashamed for not listening to some of the people I mentioned above who so obviously “Get it”? and have been saying what was put out in the report for a long time? A LONG TIME. IDC and advertisers could have saved a lot of grief, time and money just by listening to what is being written and talked about every day online in blogs and on Twitter.

Advertisers need to start listening to the thought leaders in the social media space to start with.

We need social media mentors not evangelists

Posted on November 24, 2008 by marc meyer

Be a mentor. this thought occurred to me while watching a vid on Todd Adrilik’s blog titled, The dumbest generation, don’t trust anyone under 30. While it was a compelling piece about how anyone under 30 might be more inclined to be lazy and check on their social networks and do nothing else- I would like to think that there is a tremendous opportunity not only for them to lead us even further into the digital age but also for us, as digital marketers, to do the same. Lead them, and show them now, how to do it right.

You see, at some point all of that digital knowledge you have, those social media experiences in your head, needs to be transferred to others. Just telling people about how great it is, is one thing, but showing them, and taking people under your wing to guide and mentor, and to teach and explain, is something completely different and much more valuable.

Ok, so for those of us in the social media bubble, we get it. Now go out and instead of telling people how great social media is, show them how great it can be.

Put your social media mentor hat on and make an even bigger difference.

Social Media and Sundry Quotes

Posted on November 20, 2008 by marc meyer

This first quote actually was found due to a tweet from Chris Brogan and can be attributed to Rachel Rubin who was guest posting on Kyle James’s blog, did you follow that?

One of my biggest professional challenges is to find a credible, valuable way to assess the effectiveness of our electronic media. Using Web Analytics and calculated ROI for certain projects are great starts, but I think there’s more to it.

Joseph Jaffe goes off on the Big 3

Bottom line, they did not join the conversation. I can’t put it any differently. They never listened to their customers; they never listened to the market; they never listened to the industry.

Kyle Flaherty tells you what we’ve been saying for a while on Twitter and elsewhere, in this guest post on Jennifer Leggio’s ZDNet Blog:

Do NOT ask “How will the economy affect social media?”
DO ask “How can I prove and then improve how social media affects my business?”

Chris Brogan

it’s water…

Read this wonderful article by John Kotter in The Harvard Business Review

Real urgency is a belief that, yes, there are big hazards and big opportunities out there (not just the former). More importantly, true urgency is a set of emotions, a gut-level feeling that we need to get up every single day with total determination to do something to deal with those hazards and opportunities and make some progress, no matter how modest, and do so today.

Toby Bloomberg asks a very simple question:

In this overwhelming world what One – 1 – I thing would you just do?

We focus a lot on personal brands and Frank Martin writes a lively piece titled Personal Brands(again) in which he says:

You HAVE to focus on adding value first, not your shine

Fred Wilson “rocks it” on this blog post which asks, “Do you do any real work”?. Check out this blurb then go read it!

And that’s one of the main reasons I keep writing, commenting, discussing, and participating in blogs, tumblr, twitter, disqus, and the social media world at large. Its about the “realest” work I do

OK folks, read them,share them and retweet them…