Your success is determined by one thing

Posted on January 27, 2009 by marc meyer

I know this is going to ruffle some feathers, but right now your marketing initiatives, your social media efforts, your email campaign, your DRTV campaign and more- all of it will rely on one thing in the end. Consider the following scenarios:

You are going to launch a new product. You build a website but how are you going to drive people to the site? How do they find it?
You launch a new product with a new company, that no one has ever heard of before, how will people find out more about you, your company, and your product?
You launch a new social network, how will it grow? How is it found? You start a new blog and you want people to read your kick-ass content? How will they know you’re out there? You join a new social network, how do you meet others?
You launch a new brick and mortar business, how do you drive business? Newspapers? Radio? Magazine? What is a person’s first knee jerk reaction to your advertising?
Your reputation? Where can you find it? How can you find it? Do you know if anybody is talking about you, your company and your product?
Your friends? Your family, How do they find you? Old friends? How do they find you?
You need a new job. How will you get your next one?

I could go on. But I think you get the point. Everything. and I mean everything that you do revolves around…

Think about it.

5 life lessons I learned from social media this week

Posted on January 16, 2009 by marc meyer

Last night I was wondering what I was going to write about that hopefully someone new or old in the marketing, social media and PR space would understand. It’s been a crazy week but there were a few posts that caught my eye that led me to this topic.

The first was by Todd Defren about the value of modesty in which he mentions that some of the solid thinkers in the social media space are truly humble about themselves and about what they have accomplished. Imagine that? The people that you admire in the space, have no idea how good they are and in the grand scheme of things, it’s not as important, as it is to help others. Humility in social media.

Another post that caught my eye immediately was authored by Steve Radick essentially stating that social media is scary and the reason is, social media gives everyone a voice, whether they want it or not. It can instill fear and it can intimidate. Which made me ask via Twitter if some felt intimidated or scarred to talk to some of the other better known Twitterati and the answer was a collective yes. Which made me immediately wonder if I did and how can I change that? How can you change that perception if it exists? it’s unacceptable so thus I learned about-Fear of social media.

So in 2 instances we have humility and fear bubbling up from social media. I wanted to write about respect and how we, as social media practitioners may not give newcomers enough of that and that stemmed from the following:

I did a vlog on how I was going to start viewing social media differently; and the more I look back at that vlog, the more I realized that it’s not that others have to do anything different it was me. I complain about the echo and the people that repeat things but fail to really consider who might be the person behind it. Or really who is listening? I’ve judged, I’ve deliberated and I’ve executed before even doing any legwork to justify some of my criticism. For that I apologize. Though I still want to see more from both the N00bs and the sage veterans in this space, I certainly see that not everyone came aboard at the same time. And, they’re still coming aboard! I welcome you with open arms. I apologize with all my heart. Contrition in social media.

Lastly I want to tell you about the good in social media and the good that can come from community and how quickly people can open their hearts for others. David Armano for those of you who don’t know him has a friend that you should meet and get to know. I’m not going to steal David’s thunder but if he doesn’t do anything the rest of the year, he can rest assure that what he did for Daniela will have changed her life forever. Impactful. Social media can be love, can be generous and can be impactful.

So you see, even when I said I had nothing to write and was struggling, it was there all along, right in front of me. To be honest, it’s always there, sometimes it just takes the community we’re in to point it out to us in an ever so subtle manner. I thank you for that. and thus I have gratitude for social media.

Self discovery in social media-10 questions to ask yourself.

Posted on January 13, 2009 by marc meyer

Hey you, yea you. before you go and read or write another post that is about another post that is about another post, that chances are, was about another post, lets ask ourselves some questions. Better yet, before you go and tell someone what you “do”, and before you fold the term “social media” in to that, at least ask and answer these questions.

Are you willing to admit that social media is no longer the darling new kid on the block? It’s not new, you are.
Are you tired of being the “me too” person/ or are you tired of that person? or do you even know that you are? How could you be different? What makes you, you?-Bring THAT to the table please.
What does a social media junkie mean exactly? That you spend an incessant amount of time online? We need something better than someone who likens themselves to a junkie.
Why do you follow the people that you follow on Twitter? To learn, to emulate, to share, to echo, to stalk, to sell to? Is there a rhyme or reason/ or are you just glad to be playing in the sandbox? Contribute.
What are you hoping to get out of social media? To learn, to emulate, to share, to echo, to stalk? Is it a business reason, family, personal? How are you using the tools that define social media to define you?
What original thought if any, are you bringing to the table? What is your opinion? I know what theirs is, so I don’t need to hear it from you.
If you truly believe social media is about Facebook and Twitter, then be sure to fix your bio that says that you are a social media expert, enthusiast, consultant or other..
What do you think social media is? Right now…today. In your own words.
What are you telling people? If they asked you, what would you say?
If you could change one thing about it, what would it be?

Ask these questions, if not for yourself, then at least for the others out there that are struggling with trying to keep the client focused on what is possible and what is real and what is “doable” with social media. SMB’s hear the buzz but they also need to hear the skinny.

Social Media could be the savior for SMB’s

Posted on January 6, 2009 by marc meyer

6 days into 2009 and I’m sure we all have our goals set or we’re busy finalizing what we are going to do. I make these lists and I write down thoughts at a furious pace and still, in the back of my mind, I’m constantly wondering what everyone is collectively thinking right now. By everyone, I’m really referring to small and medium sized business owners. The economy sucks and business is wayy down..

They have to be wondering where the business is going to come from or how they are going to get business utilizing their existing forms of advertising, sales, and marketing. The problem is, how effective do those continue to be? Were they ever? Do they know they are not working? Do they utilize metrics or do they fly by the seat of their pants to measure their effectiveness? Do they understand that there is more for less out there right now? Or is it less for less? Their heads have to be swimming. I know mine is.

Initially I would have said No, SMB’s are not aware of their advertising, sales and marketing effectiveness, but in that sense I was referring to “as it pertains to social media”, as in how effective could all these initiatves be if they were using social media, and that is completely true. SMB’s do not know much about how social media might be able to turn the tide.The power. The effectiveness. The impact.

But they do know plenty about what is and what isn’t working in regards to their sales and marketing initiatives. I love what Christian Maurer says about this:

In today’s business climate, sales organizations think that they have to increase their activities to counteract the increased reluctance of customers to buy. These increased activities will however not necessarily be rewarded by higher revenue.One might end up trying to get more juice from an already squeezed out lemon

So enter Social Media. The darling of the last few years. We go from product centric to customer centric. But how do you articulate that social media could be just what the doctor ordered? Well I could wax eloquent on that question for awhile but I’d like to refer you to Kyle Lacy’s 4 part series on social media marketing for the small business as a primer. It’s a wonderful piece and more so, it exposed me to a great blog for small business called The Marketing Spot. I highly recommend you add it to your list in 2009.

Ok so back to you Mr. and Mrs. SMB how do you go about learning whether Social Media is the cure for what is ailing your business? And how do you do it quickly because you don’t have time to ramp something like this up. WHAT DO YOU DO FIRST?

-You could try and learn about “It” on your own but you need to know what “it” is. This might help.

-But then after you figure out what it is, you then need to know who you can trust or what to look for in a social media consultant, because you don’t have time to be doing this, right?

-Once you figured out what to look for, then you need to decide “who to look for”

-So now that you have “that” person or agency selected, now you have to have a strategy and they have to share that with you, so that you know exactly what they are trying to do for you and your business.

–A blueprint of how that person works is a good thing to have, it lets you know exactly how they work and it is a key component that we talk about all the time and that’s transparency in social media. Amber Naslund does a great job of discussing her “blueprint” in this post.

-Now that we have the strategy and the blueprint, it’s time to implement. Don’t worry though, your accomplished social media strategist knows just what to do.

OK, so you know what it is, you know what to look for, you know who they are, you know what they’ll do and you know how they’ll do it. But the last thing we have to do is we still have to measure what they’ve done.

-We talk all the time about how to measure social media but here’s a simple framework for measuring it’s effectiveness.

With that in mind, I end with this; As long as you know upfront what you are trying to accomplish and you adhere somewhat to these steps above, you may just have figured out how to incorporate social media into your SMB marketing plan! But don’t stop there and don’t rely solely on your social media expert/strategist. Take the time to learn as much as you can as you go, so that you can understand the sea change that is happening within the worlds of PR, marketing, advertising and communication.

–

Discontinuous change in social media marketing and marketing for 2009

Posted on December 19, 2008 by marc meyer

In 2009 you have a choice you can either do what you did in 2008 or you can look at 2009 as a chance to get it right. Everything is upside down, including the way we used to market to consumers and the way consumers used to listen to marketers.

If you’re relying on the way you “used to do things” then stop. If you think you have a robust social media marketing presence, because you have a lot of “friends” and “followers” then stop. Seth Godin likes to quote that this is the “imitation of turbulent activity” .You are in the echo chamber and your clients (if you have any) aren’t in there and chances are they not listening to you anyway. But you wouldn’t know that because of your personal social media involvement-and the fact you might have your self important blinders on.

You’re “moving for the sake of motion” as my friend Jason Breed over at Neighborhood America would say. And that will get you nowhere. We need you to change. You need to change and you need to adapt now to even newer rules of marketing that are evolving before our very eyes. Realize the current situation for what it is.

Your goal for social media marketing and marketing in 2009

Posted on December 18, 2008 by marc meyer

Today I talked to 1 clients, 2 prospects, 1 partner and 1 colleague. All very distinct and different conversations about marketing, social media and the client customer relationship. None of these individuals know each other and yet in so many words, all 5 of us agreed on the same exact thing. Here it is.

The way you market to your clients, the way we market to clients is not the same as it was 1 year ago and 6 months ago. Now you might be thinking, “I know that”. But do you really? Do you really know that these are different and challenging times? Lay off’s every day. Numbers down with all companies of all shapes and sizes across the board, and you might be pitching the same way you did 6 months ago? Forget 2008.

You need to take more time now with the client, the customer and the prospect, than you have ever done before. You need to understand their pain and their challenges before you can even think to market with them. Notice I said with, and not to. And you’re going to try and get the client to utilize social media marketing? Ha! Put yourself in their shoes. They don’t know social media, and in fact what they really care about is getting warm bodies thinking about their service or product.

So the question is, what are you going to do about it? What is your plan? 2009 is almost here. You have to have a plan that is going to separate you from the echo. Be different.

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.