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.

Social Media Pitch-Raise your hand if you understood anything I just said.

Posted on November 20, 2008 by marc meyer

This is starting to become a recurring theme of late. I pitch a social media project and spend the majority of the time explaining my vision and my passion for what the possibilities might be, and I get the blank stare:

Except this time, they nodded their head as I was speaking. So the whole time I’m thinking.. “I’m building momentum”, but something tells me I better ask the following question just to make sure.

You guys know what social media is right?

Before they could answer, I though to say, “Better yet I said, Raise your hand if you understood anything I just said.” Now this is a group of fairly young, hip execs. 1 CEO, 1 CMO, 2 VP’s and 3 sales and marketing people. I got nothing. So I had to scramble. I said the 50,000 foot view of social media is that of a MySpace or Facebook. They all nodded. I tried going deeper but it was futile. I might have used the term SEO but now that i think back, there is no way they knew what that meant. I did get this question though:

Can you get us ranked #1 for __________ in the whole country?

Uhhhh.. no I cannot, unless I worked for Google, I think I mumbled that. At the end of the day I walked away with a project but it’s not going to involve any social media components. I guess that’s the upside. Here’s the moral.

I need to to do a couple of things going forward. Here’s what they are:

I’m going to determine if social media even makes sense for the company I’m talking to.
If it does, I’m going to work backwards with any company or individual I deal with or talk to, and show them examples of companies that do what they do and how they use social media successfully.
I’m going to simplify my examples of social media and explain some tools that might make sense
I’m going to show the sizzle of social media
I’m going to show even more value and demonstrate the power of social media in regards to extending the conversation with their customers.

Now before you say I should have done this homework beforehand, perhaps I could have, but the homework I did do, was on what their business model was. And the potential it posessed for social media adoption. My assumption was, “Every company has the potential” Maybe, maybe not. But as I head down this road even more, I’ll be able to determine if that is indeed possible.

You see, you have to understand, I’ve rolled out quite a few social media projects for my former company and it’s clients and their products, but now that I’m pitching the projects as well for my new company, all of a sudden it’s a whole different ballgame. One in which i was not completely prepared for.

Apologies to the social media community

Posted on November 14, 2008 by marc meyer

Here’s the thing, yesterday I posted a snarky, bitter, pessimistic post about how I didn’t want to talk about marketing in a bad economy using social media. And that was wrong. really wrong. In fact you know sometimes when you think you nailed a post and you feel all happy and proud. Well I actually did feel that way yesterday, and man that was wrong too. I used the wrong language, the wrong approach and the wrong forum. I even engaged some of my peers in the social media community on Twitter to read my greatest latest post. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. I’m so very sorry.

You see the deal is we need to fail forward right now. we need to try anything and everything right now and we need to share it, we need to keep trying and tweaking how we utilize social media marketing in a bad economy. Its funny, all it took was a simple question for me to see the light and to that I want to thank Jim Storer of Mzinga for asking me-“Do you want us to wait till it’s figured out before using social media”? Touche Jim, and thanks for helping me see the light. I also want to apologize to Adam Cohen. I value Adams opinion and went to him like a proud puppy happy because of the crap I just produced. I’m sorry Adam, that was not something I should have shown you. It was poorly written, and It ignored the spirirt of social media and social media marketing. The spirit to try and communicate and take chances and be willing to share those experiences with the community. If we preach about the conversation, and about being transparent and authentic- in a bad economy you do ALL of that and more, and you keep trying and you listen. In my previous post, I basically said, stop listening. and that couldn’t be more wrong. We need to be listening now, more than ever before. And that my friends is how we use social media marketing in a bad economy.

Social media marketing in a bad economy-this ought to be good.

Posted on November 13, 2008 by marc meyer

A) Don’t trust a single article about marketing in a bad economy, unless the writer has concrete proof. and B) If someone writes an article about marketing in a bad economy using social media- read it and then run the other way.

Puff pieces notwithstanding. Unless the person is making up the rules as they muddle through these ridiculously bad economic times, there is no template on how to use social media marketing correctly to market a business, product or otherwise, right now.

Why, you might ask? Because social media has not been around long enough. Sure there are case studies and examples of how companies and corporations are using social media right now to extend their product and brand, but that was then-this is now. We are in the motherfuckin moment. Excuse my language but… THESE ARE NOT NORMAL TIMES!. So anything that you knew or know about how to use social media and marketing to drive traffic and eyeballs and users and adopters to your site/product, all of it, is not as it seems.

The Rules are changing before your eyes. So I don’t want to see anymore of the “How to use social media marketing in a bad economy” blog posts or articles or stories yet. YOU DON’T KNOW HOW YET. You cannot sit here and tell me that the mindset of the online user and consumer is the same now as it was last year at this time. I dare someone to say that it is. And if you’re pitching to companies and business’s in that vein, that’s bullshit, shame on you.

I do know that they are starved for answers and solutions and business- And SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MIGHT BE A VIABLE SOLUTION, I’m just not sure that social media and social media marketing don’t need to be tweaked and morphed and melded into something that is creatively different right now. Just don’t promise social media as the cure-all for what is ailing businesses right now. But you can still pitch it.

We all need to figure it out (and we are) as we go. Please let’s document what we do, how we did it, what worked, and what didn’t. Then we can write all the posts we want on how to market and use social media in bad economy. Hopefully though, we won’t need to refer to them anytime soon in the not too distant future.

Let’s quit talking to each other

Posted on October 30, 2008 by marc meyer

This post is or was inspired by Liz Strauss. Actually though, I was going to write this post a long time ago. It’s origins can be found within Twitter, and it’s flourishing within the blogosphere. Part of my post is fueled by the innate ability of the late comers and the me-too’ers to echo what everyone else is saying via Twitter and their Insta-blogs. Some of them are merely trying to get in the game, while others are just trying to profit off of the efforts and sincerity of others. But the bottom line is they are bringing nothing to the table-zero. You know who you are.

The other part of my post is about the rest of us, me included, who tend to write about whats right, wrong, great, shitty, and awsome about social media, marketing, and all things related to what we do. There’s one big problem with this though. You see we get paid by companies who need what we do. We get paid by companies who have no clue. But our blogs and our Tweets are read by most people who already know or pretend to know what to do. I know that’s not completely the case but for the majority it is. Sure we share resources and blog sites with another “great post”, but the people that we need to be reaching out to are companies that need what you do for a living. And they might not have access to your blog or access to your Tweets.

We need to quit validating each other so much and patting each other on the back. We need to start doing more with clients, and talking less to each other. You need to figure out a better way of getting clients to listen to your Tweets and how you’re going to get them to your blogsite and your website. If that means changing your tune on your tweets or your blog, then so be it.

Wouldn’t you agree?

10 Social Media, SEO, and Marketing questions/thoughts I had in Church.

Posted on October 20, 2008 by marc meyer

So I’m sitting in church and they’re passing around the collection plate. At which point I started thinking that clearly the church is hurting too because the little baskets are really flying down the aisles. Given that church is a great place to take stock of all things in ones life, I grabbed my smartphone and jotted down the following thoughts and questions.

Social media measurement and its associated metrics will change with the changing of external markets and it’s influencers.
As the economy changes, so do the rules of engaging the consumer and marketing to that consumer. They have to. They must.
Will or should social media engagement be measured differently in tough economic times? Yes?
Should or will the tone of marketing and social media marketing change?
Do peoples expectations of social media change during economic woes? No. because they haven’t set any precedents yet.
Do we change benchmarking for social media? My thoughts are we would have to, since there is zero empirical data to go off of.
How important does social media optimization and SEO now become? I think it’s huge.
If times were different would some social media startups have a fighting chance? or do they now have an even better chance of surviving? Which is it?
Will social nets thrive now or in the next 24 months given the current state?
Their success will be determined by what? The same metrics? Or can startups afford to be measureed by engagement only?

So I was still feverishly texting these into my notes section of my phone well after the collections had been taken. At which point, I looked up and saw that I was getting some nasty looks from the following: the people in the pew to my right, the people directly to the left of me, my wife, an usher, and my kids, who thought I was playing Bejeweled.

That’s ok though, because If I’m thinking of these things, maybe marketers, social media marketers, start-ups and even GOD might be too! Though divine intervention as a variable into any metric is a given, right?

Quit talking about Social Media and Go Make Some Money!

Posted on October 14, 2008 by marc meyer

Ok so by now we all know the hows and whats of social media and social media marketing. At least, we better. Hell, I’ve written a books worth of articles myself on the subject. And lately we’re all writing about how to use social media in a down economy. Or whether social media can survive the meltdown. Or how to use social media to deal with the crappy economy. It seems everyone has their take on what to do. Scoble says we should listen.

The Buzz Bin says keep a cool head and keep morale up. We can even go to extremes and ask Will the Recession Spell the End of Web 2.0? or we can go to the opposite end of the spectrum and be forthright and ask whether you would tell your employees and customers how bad it is? Don’t get me wrong, those all are great and relevant posts, but we gotta move on. So let’s take this to the next level.

Seriously, you do not have to look far to read another article about how one can use social media to improve their marketing, or how bad it is out there. Between the two, We get it. It’s in our face all day every day. But now, it’s time to get serious.

Scenario one: I’m a big company and I don’t have time to be pitched and I don’t have time for social media marketing initiatives to ramp up, but I’m willing to try them. What can your social media marketing campaign, Mr. Agency/Marketer/In house CMO do for me right now? What can we roll out that will show immediate results?

Scenario two: I’m a marketer/agency. I now do not have the luxury of educating you Mr. Big Company on what social media is and how it can benefit your company- I now have to show you direct ROI with a timeline that is reasonable and cost effective. What’s your plan? And do you trust me? Because my ass is now on the line.

So wutcha gonna do? Do you have a plan? Playtime is over.

Even our “friends” over at Forrester have said, “quit dippin the toes and invest only in programs that can deliver on measurable metrics.”

So what are the programs? Do you even know? You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Page views and traffic aint gonna pay the bills. Talk to me. Do you have a plan? Which of these below can make you or your client money?

The 21st century Proust Questionnaire. Updated.

Posted on October 10, 2008 by marc meyer

Given our current state, yesterday I threw out the Proust Questionnaire to the blogosphere. It seemed like an interesting study in the human condition, especially now. But some of the questions, though applicable to Proust’s times, were not as timely or current to todays times. So I updated them. Here are the questions. Anyone for authenticity?

Would you prefer to rent or own a home?

What electronic device makes you happy?

What can’t you live without?

Who’s your favorite movie character?

Who’s your hero?

What moment in your lifetime stands out the most?

Name a woman you most admire.

Can you name a famous painter? If so, who?

Who is your favorite band or singer?

What qualities should a man possess?

What about a woman? what qualities should she possess?

What do you like about yourself?

What job would you love to have?

If you could be anything, what would you be?

What makes you different from others?

What common trait do all of your friends have?

What do you need to improve about yourself?

What is your biggest regret?

What pisses you off the most?

What do you want to be when you grow up?

What’s your favorite food?

What’s your favorite website?

What is always in your fridge?

What’s the best book you ever read?

What magazine could you read anytime?

What famous woman in history most sticks out for you?

Who’s your favorite actor?

Who’s your favorite actress?

Do you hate anyone?

What skill would you like to have?

What is your fondest memory?

How would you like to die?

What is your current state of mind?

Self-discovery has never been in more need. I think today, our transparent self needs to get in touch with the people who are having a hard time being “real”. Not only does this extend beyond social media, but I see it permeating everything these days. It’s about disclosure and what we are articulating or trying to say. It’s about having conversations. You should send this to the people that are in dire need of having or participating in conversations. Lets talk, lets exchange, lets share. and then lets compare answers.