Marketing in Real Life

If you have a strategy, a plan, and goals you're doing social media marketing. If not, you're just posting stuff.  Strategy = what do you want people to think or do do differently by interacting with your social posts? How do they connect to your brand? How far afield do you want to go from what you actually "do"? Plan = How many times a day or week are you going to post? Who is going to do it? Where does the content come from? How much of it will be yours v. sharing other people's content?  Goals = How will you know if it's working? What do you expect for audience growth on a weekly or monthly basis? How does that translate into business success for you? If you can't answer all of those questions, you're not really doing social media marketing. But don't get discouraged, posting is way better than nothing and a great step towards becoming a social media marketer!

Remember 6 weeks ago when everyone was up in arms about Facebook’s Timeline being forced on brand pages?  Well, the conversion date came and went and anyone not obsessed with social media marketing didn’t seem to notice.   That’s because even with Timeline  in place (which I like), the average Facebook user doesn’t go to Pages, they spend their time in their own newsfeed.  In the end, all that matters is the content you are posting and whether it is relevant and engaging for your audience.  Which of course is nothing new and has nothing to do with Timeline.   Check out some recent research I helped out with below to see why people like your Page in the first place.

I watch a lot of tv - and I mostly love Twitter - but I often wonder why the networks are so focused on making sure everyone loves Twitter. I think the answer is actually very simple.  Twitter is one of the last bastions of the group, live experience with information and commentary being shared in real-time. That means it is also one of the few ways that the networks can really drive live, measurable engagement  with their viewers. So, shows like American Idol and The Voice are forcing all of their contestants and judges to tweet and pushing hashtags to show advertisers that they matter while they are happening (although the lack of social authenticity can be jarring.) In a DVR world, you have to admire that networks are at least making a valiant effort to give people a reason to watch together, whether they are in the same room or just sharing the online space.

Inspired by Martin Lieberman's blog (www.martinlieberman.com) post about change, I decided to try something new. Other than hitting the gym, the thing I have been most frustrated about lately is not getting to write more on the personal blog. So, while I fully realize its harder to write short than to write long I'll be shifting this blog (at least for a few months) to do posts that are six sentences long. I'll still write about market research, marketing, and social media... just shorter and more often. What do you think of the six sentence experiment? I'm looking forward to it!

Hey Twitter, I'm not sure I get you any more. I thought we had a good thing going but I am concerned. First of all, I love you Twitter. Even if I understand why others don't. I use you for work to keep up with the marketing, tech, and research industries. I follow companies I like, brands and people I find interesting, and those that I compete against. If knowledge is a gift, than Twitter for me is Christmas 365 days/year. But with brand pages and other enhanced features I am starting to worry about you. I feel like you are trying to be everything to everyone. You want what Facebook has and what Google is trying to take away. I get it. Facebook is printing money and all the cool kids love G+, but they don't have what you have Twitter. They don't have the constant influx of valuable content and the connections with like minded strangers. They don't have the beautiful simplicity of many mobile apps that make tweeting and reading tweets easy n any dev...

As an early snowstorm approaches I have been catching up on some long lost emails and articles from the past few months in hopes of reaching the holy grail of inbox zero (down to 35 right now!) One of the articles that jumped out from the pile talked about a recent study from Cone, a marketing agency out of Boston. The article talks about recently released survey data that says 80% of people have changed a purchase decision due to a bad review they saw, especially on social media. And I believe it. The skeptics will say that not many people ask for recommendations on social media sites, so how big can the impact be? But those people misunderstand how social word of mouth works. Those of us who spend a lot of time (probably too much) on social networking sites are constantly being influenced by others and their experiences in an informal way. We know when our friends have an amazing meal or an amazingly bad one. Or which airlines are keeping us stranded at every turn. Or wh...

As an early snowstorm approaches I have been catching up on some long lost emails and articles from the past few months in hopes of reaching the holy grail of inbox zero (down to 35 right now!) One of the articles that jumped out from the pile talked about a recent study from Cone, a marketing agency out of Boston. The article talks about recently released survey data that says 80% of people have changed a purchase decision due to a bad review they saw, especially on social media. And I believe it. The skeptics will say that not many people ask for recommendations on social media sites, so how big can the impact be? But those people misunderstand how social word of mouth works. Those of us who spend a lot of time (probably too much) on social networking sites are constantly being influenced by others and their experiences in an informal way. We know when our friends have an amazing meal or an amazingly bad one. Or which airlines are keeping us stranded at every turn. Or which re...

Dear Mr. or Mrs. Social Network Starter, I understand that you and your company have been working on building a social network for months, maybe even years, but most of the people you want to join and use it are not going to be interested. It's not that the functionality isn't great, I am sure it is. And we may even sign up to check it out. But we just can't divide our attention any further and we certainly can't convince our friends and colleagues and parents and children to move from one place to another. We appreciate your intentions but ask you to refocus your efforts. If Facebook is the new tv, you can be the AMC to our NBC. We are interested and eager to see how you can take Facebook or Twitter or Linkedin to a new level. But we ask you please... Do not make us sign up for a new network. Our dust covered Quora, Plaxo, and G+ (too soon?) accounts send their regards. Best, Internet users everywhere

I often hear people who are into social media talk about how their friends or colleagues or competitors are “doing social wrong.” But unless you are running scams or spamming, is there really a “wrong way” to do social? Certainly there are more and less effective ways to achieve your business goals using social media and there are lots of great tools and resources out there to help you get on your way, but saying someone is doing it wrong implies that everyone has the same goals and that there is only one way to be successful in attaining them. For example, here are three completely valid business objectives that require very different social techniques to achieve them. (Note: I haven’t included “building a large following” as a business goal. In my opinion it’s not, it is merely a means to an end.”) Drive increased foot traffic from existing customers [Activate your Network]: For many businesses, especially small businesses, driving increased foot traffic from the people who alread...