Indecision is awful. You want a yes or a no…not a maybe. So how do you turn the maybe into an advantage?

This might be one of the more counterintuitive posts you will ever see here. As business people, we want you to say Yes. And, if you don’t say Yes, we want you to say No. Not leave us hanging.

Thrive In The Maybe

Binary decisions. 1 = yes, 0 = no. Code gets written that way. You click the button, good stuff happens. You don’t click the button, nothing happens.

Limbo isn’t fun. I’ll get back to you. Let me call you later. I’m waiting on someone else to weigh in.

Time to Thrive In The Maybe.

We’ve beaten the Integrated Marketing drum over and over here, and we’ll continue doing so. Because Maybe is Marketing.

Maybe Is Marketing.

We worked with a client a couple years back whose initial goal was to “get going on Twitter.” (This happens quite a bit: there’s not a real reason to be there, except for the fact that everyone else is there. See our post on Holistic Social Media.) We got them going on Twitter. It was fun, too; as a lifestyle brand it was important for them to start engaging with the influencers in their space.

Here’s Where Maybe Came In.

These were decision makers – but the Yes/No question couldn’t be asked on Twitter. And it couldn’t be answered on Twitter. That would have looked stupid – we knew it, the client knew it, and our original plan to “get going on Twitter” had to include an element of non-sales. Of un-marketing.

If we spent all of our time getting people to constantly answer the Yes/No question – “do you want this product?” – we would have missed out on some actual real life experience.

“I love your stuff! I just wish I could get it in Singapore – I have to settle for the one time each year I make it over to Hong Kong.”

This is Maybe. Maybe I’d buy it if it were near me. Maybe you should consider selling it here. Maybe I should fly over to the States and come work for you. Maybe.

Thrive In The Maybe.

We’re so busy asking for the sale that we’re not busy enough paying attention to everything that happens in-between. Yes is great, and you want that. No is sudden and can be stunning – but sometimes you want that, too.

Maybe will drag you along, sure, but possibly teach you a lot about what you’re doing wrong, or what someone else is doing right.

New Marketing Funnel = A Whole Lot of Maybe.

We have had quite a few discussions about how the New Marketing Funnel is quite a bit different than the old one. (It’s one of the lessons in 12 Minute Marketing and you can check out the 12 Minute Marketing Sample Lessons here.) Old funnel was more up and down than New Funnel – which has a much wider opening (thanks to New Media) and is gonna have so much more Maybe.

Maybe I’ll take a look at the email. Maybe I’ll visit the website. Maybe there’s a mobile component. Maybe I’ll watch a video. Maybe I’ll want to try the product for a little while first.

These aren’t just maybes – they are opportunities for dialogue, to build (there’s that word) “community.” To strive for (here’s another word) “engagement.”

Old marketers will just shrug their shoulders and move on to the old tried-and-true ways.

New Marketers?

Thrive In The Maybe.

Thanks, http://heavyhittersales.typepad.net

Positioning. Figuring out where your product or service stands in the marketplace -- and using that standing to differentiate yourself.

Sounds generally pretty simple, but how do you actually DO it? How do you POSITION what you’re selling?

Time for a contextual exercise: about water.

There’s bottled water. There’s tap water. There’s premium bottled water. There’s discount water that’s basically tap water put into a bottle.

There’s flavored water, there’s bubbly flavored water.

Unless you’re in the CPG industry, though, you’re probably not paying too too much attention to the positioning of water.

I didn’t think about it much either…then I saw this commercial:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ5CykoHn-8

SO…there’s something interesting here: Nestle is positioning its water not as an alternative to other brands of  water, but as an alternative to another beverage.

Positioning may be more about “choice” than anything

You have a choice when you take the kids off to the soccer game. You can bring a bottle of water that you picked up at the store (at an insane markup) (at a potentially high cost to the environment), or you can fill up your reusable water bottle with tap water that costs you 0.2 cents per gallon.

You have a choice between tap water and bottled water. Pragmatism, cost, the environment: those factors help you decide to choose tap.

In Nestle’s eyes, though, you have a different choice -- and they have decided to position the choice of their water against a much more expensive drink. “If we’re losing water, why don’t we just drink water?” asks the soccer player.

You have a choice between bottled water and the much more expensive flavored water/electrolyte alternative. Cost, convenience, no artificial ingredients: those factors help you decide to choose bottled water.

You can take this positioning all the way up and down various choice “decision trees.” Should you choose tap over bottled? Cheap, generic bottled over more expensive brand names? Premium names over everyday brands?

How to apply this thinking to your brand

You have a brand -- even if you are in the service industry and it’s just you, you have a brand.

Let’s say you’re a Life Coach. You might succeed if you use similar positioning to Nestle: why would you go with an expensive consulting firm at thousands of dollars, when an engagement with me is just hundreds of dollars.

Of course, your target customer might ask itself whether it can just get an inexpensive alternative to your coaching through something like blogs, books,or a trip to the library. But, in this case, you are positioning your service as an alternative to paying someone nothing and getting average results in return.

And, beautifully for you, you can do this without negativity.

Positioning without cutting the competitor down

Notice how Nestle didn’t say anything negative about their perceived competition -- the sports drink category?

Notice how our Life Coach doesn’t have to say “I’m the best Life Coach, better than the other Life Coaches?”

In addition to being about choice, positioning can also be about value. You will value our bottled water product when compared to other products -- less cost, more money in your pocket, you’ll benefit. You will value my coaching services when compared with what you’ll get from doing nothing -- more growth in your life, and more money in your pocket when compared with the cost of hiring a really expensive coaching firm.

And you don’t have to say a darn thing about how much better you are than your direct competitor.

Positioning: Putting your choice on the canvas

You are painting a picture, you are telling a story, and your product or service needs to be one of the ones on the canvas. It is impossible to position your product without mentioning other categories -- but it is possible to position your product as a solid choice for your target customer without mentioning your direct competitors.

Join us as we discover whether or not the Facebook Fan Page is…uh…dying at the hands of the Facebook Group.

We started an experiment last night, and, even though it’s early, we are optimistic. The experiment?

What would happen if, instead of asking people to “Like” a brand page on Facebook, we started a group instead? AND, what if that group had a mission statement that didn’t try to ram things down people’s throats?

So we did it. First, the objective – increase connections between small business owners and give them access to information that can help them better market their products and services. We came up with a Mission Statement worthy of an H1 tag:

Mission: Share Small Business Marketing challenges, questions, concerns – in a non-threatening, non-salesy way.

This might seem counter to what you hear on Facebook – that it’s all about the Fan Page Numbers, and that, unless you have massive numbers of fans, you can’t do anything substantive. Like sell product. Or make connections that lead to business. Or whatever.

But what if it isn’t about that?

What if, instead of asking someone to “Like” your page (so you can try to sell them something) you, instead, invite them to join a group where they can share knowledge?

What if, instead of looking to be one of the nameless, faceless brands with 1,000,000 Fans but no engagement, you, instead, start conversations and jump in on other conversations?

What if, instead of trying to sell something, you, I don’t know, DON’T try to sell anything?

Why are we optimistic? 12 Hours in and we’re already up to 175 members of the group, and counting.

Want to join the group – and the experiment?

Here’s a link – Small Business Marketing Group on Facebook.

It is bound to happen – someone you thought was your friend, someone who you’re related to, someone who you thought you had on the hook…they’ll unsubscribe. Or unfollow. Or – GASP – unfriend.

First, background: “unsubscribe” is what happens when you use an email service to send out messages (newsletters, autoresponders, whatever) and someone clicks on the link and says, basically, they’re not that into you. Or, more accurately, they’re not that into your message.

What’s a marketer to do?

What to do When Your Own Dad Unsubscribes.

This is a true story – my own Dad, who was busy with his real estate business, clicked on the link to unsubscribe from my startup’s monthly newsletter. ACK! Was it something I said?

Well, when you dig a little deeper, like I did, you can learn a lot. For instance, it is quite possible that Dad didn’t need to get monthly updates from the startup I was running (since it was aimed at college-bound students).

I got over it – partly because I knew how much my Dad hustled at real estate, and partly because I knew how much he was indeed interested in my business ventures.

I since have received countless unsubscribes, a few rude messages, a couple pleasant apologies for unsubscribing – and, over the years, built and rebuilt list after list.

Your family may not unsubscribe from your messages, or unfriend you on Facebook (shameless plug for 12 Minute Marketing on Facebook), or unfollow you on Twitter (follow Area 224 contributor and one-half of 12 Minute Marketing Rick Strater on Twitter) – but here are ways to soften the blow if they do.

Permission, Permission, Permission.

Dad was in Real Estate, where the three most important words are “Location, Location, Location.”

In email marketing, the three most important words are “Permission, Permission, Permission.”

Don’t just take our word for it – visit a site that is much better at this stuff than 99% of the population, that of Outspoken Media, and hear what they say about email permission.

I have scores of business cards from my U Sphere days – most of them don’t have any value now, but I actually have notes on the back that say things like “send the monthly email” or “follow up with a phone call.” A good chunk of them had notes that would fall into the “unsubscribe” category – thus saving pain in the process. (I remember vividly a guy saying to me something akin to “don’t bother me until May, then I’m happy to talk, and I’ll remember you.” I didn’t, he was, he did.

Your Message May Not Be Relevant (to the reader)

We all have a ton on our plates, so you can forgive the person who thought they were into wine a couple months ago if they aren’t into wine right now. Relevance is subjective. The greatest message (“save thousands of dollars”) sent to the greatest list (that you built over years) may not be the right thing at the right time, at least right now.

And you may actually know some of the people who unsubscribed from your list.

Tough to not take these things personally, right?

Think again. Open rates – the percentage of people who actually OPEN your email – can be as low as 10% for people with great lists of potential target customers. The fact that someone opens your email AND takes a couple seconds to unsubscribe…that’s a win, in that you now know not to keep talking AT them.

Your Message May Not Be Well-Written

“Monthly Musings from XYZ Co.”

Welcome to an email newsletter that has increased its chances of the dreaded unsub.

We get some great stuff here at HQ. We also get some very average stuff.

Styles are all over the map. One woman likes to tell us the semi-intimate details of her life, warts and all – but does it in such a way that we can’t help but think she’s human and someone we’d like to have a beer with.

There’s another guy running a little info empire whose newsletters are close to poetry – and he sends them sorta like a waiter at a fine restaurant…exactly when they are needed and not a second later.

Like relevance, it’s subjective. Like Edwin Meese describing pornography, sorta, you’ll know good writing when you see it.

Move On.

You should have enough on your plate as you build your business that one little unsubscribe, one less Facebook friend, and one fewer Twitter follower won’t have you weeping and gnashing teeth.

Get permission, strive for relevance, and sharpen your writing. Now go get ‘em!

The QR Code has been around since 1994; the Microsoft Tag is just two years old.

QR Codes have the “open source” feel to them; the Tag comes from a corporate behemoth.

The deck is stacked…right?

First, a little background before we begin our study. You have no doubt seen QR Codes everywhere. You have read about them lots of places -- even here, where we asked if this is the Year of the QR Code.

Link to the post here: Year of the Q 

The basic concept goes like this: take out your mobile phone, use a QR Code reader, and snap the code to access digital content.

Microsoft Tag works the same -- take out your mobile phone, use the Tag reader, snap the code and access digital content.

While they might appear to be pretty even, this is actually not a fair fight.

Not by a longshot.

In fact, and the answer may shock you, Microsoft Tag wins hands down. Here’s why, along with some tips you can put to use in your business starting right now.

Reason 1: Flexibility -- and not just Color.

QR Codes sure could use some spice. Right?

Remember this photo from the Holidays, with QR Code Wrapping Paper? That is as flexible as you can get with a QR code. You’re stuck with a black-and-white square.

Thanks, emilychang.com

The basic information in a Tag still has to fit into a square -- either dots or triangles -- but, as long as the dots or triangles remain intact, you are free to make some magic happen.

For instance, let’s say you run an art museum and want to take people behind the artwork. Like this:

Thanks, tag.microsoft.com

(You can read the blog post for more on what the Steamboat Museum did with Tags.)

So you’re not constricted by color, and you can get rather creative with what goes behind the Tag -- as long as the important dots or triangles are there.

Flexibility Score: Tag 1, QR 0.

But what about actually using them -- like, putting the tag onto something printed, and getting more information to your audience?

Reason 2: Hundreds of Readers -- or Just 1?

Open Source technology is awesome -- WordPress we love, of course -- but there’s a problem with Open Source in that, well, it’s “open.”

Think about this for a second: WordPress is great and thousands of people are creating thousands of plugins for millions of websites. But what happens if your plugin provider decides they’re bored with the plugin -- but you find out that the plugin doesn’t work?

Try finding support.

Meanwhile, Tags are supported by Microsoft AND there is just one reader. Add reliability for your end user -- the person you want scanning your Tag and taking a look at your content -- and you have a winning combination.

Usability Score: Tag 1, QR 0.

Okay, one more category. Fixability.

Reason 3: Fix Your Codes on the Fly.

This is less about fixing the codes themselves -- once they’re out the door on some printed material, they’re gone.

This is more about fixing the links to your digital content.

Seriously, can you tell these two apart? And just try keeping track of them, where they link to, what you’re using them for. Without a place to keep them all, you’ll go nuts: one place to create them, storing them on your blog, knowing where all the creative goes for each…

Code 1

Code 2

Microsoft to the rescue with this category.

Let’s say I wanted to change the link on the above tag -- takes a few seconds, done, and done. And, since I customized it, or color-coded it with my logo, or have one that has my picture and another one that has my logo, keeping track mentally is a heck of a lot easier, too.

Fixability Score: Tag 1, QR 0.

So…now what? Are there any categories where the QR could win?

Maybe -- adoption numbers have QR way ahead. But Flexibility, Usability and Fixability -- give those to Tag, hands down.

Final Score: Tag 3, QR 0.

If you STILL have doubts about how to use these in your marketing efforts…listen to a chap named Kenny Powers.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRt4fCf86uE

Friendly Faceless LinkedIn Logo Guy

When I try to explain the difference between “social media” an “social networking,” I usually go this direction:

Social Media: Connecting information from people, places and things with technology to tell stories online.

Social Networking: Connecting people through technology to form real relationships, online and off.

The differences between the two might seem subtle, but, if you focus on the “Social Networking” definition, you’ll see why we want to focus on the title – “Practice Safe Networking” and get you to think differently about how you approach social networking.

How to Practice Safe Networking

The same friend I referenced above knows my strengths and weaknesses. Knows what I’m up to professionally. And knows how I can help him.

Whether he keeps a file on me or not is a whole other story – but, suffice it to say, if I ask him for a contact, it’s for a very specific reason.

Sometimes, it’s because I know he worked at a certain company. Other times, it’s because I see someone listed on his LinkedIn contacts.

“Hey, I’d like to connect with Mary Jones in HR at XYZ Corp.” That is not likely to get a positive response from him – nor would the same request get a positive response from me if you asked me. (Are we connected on LinkedIn yet? If not, this could make a heck of a lot more sense if we did connect.)

Tip #1: Always Have a Specific Reason for the Connection

“Hey, I’ve got a question about Mary Jones in HR at XYZ Corp. You two are connected on LinkedIn. Do you know her very well? I have a friend who is running a startup and they are looking for someone to head up HR, with a Comp and Benefits focus. From Mary’s bio, it looks like she’s got the right skillset. Do you think you could connect us via email?”

Odds of a connection are 50/50. Since this person knows me pretty well and I know him pretty well, the BS meter is always going off. If either of us detects it, then we’ll say so. “Great potential, but I know her well enough to know that if it’s not a pretty interesting company, then she won’t be interested.” OR “Our paths hardly crossed; I heard great things about her, but an intro from me would be pointless.”

Tip #2: It’s Not About Me. It’s About You.

When I reconnected with a former colleague recently, he asked tons of questions about what I was up to. Then, he started revisiting his own databank of people to connect me with – focusing on those that could help with my current endeavors.

Not-so-subtle hint: This is one of my current endeavors. 12 Minute Marketing. Now, back to regular programming.

This was a nice gesture on his part. And, maybe, down the road, I’ll be able to help him by making a connection that can help him with his current endeavors.

Tip #3: Pick Up The Phone.

Can’t stress this enough. Call. On the Phone.

Normally, the amount of time it takes you to craft the right email is 10 times what it would take you to find the phone number and reconnect.

Tip #4: Karma Bank.

Keep paying it and paying it. BUT to the extent that you’re not mucking up the Mojo you’ll need for our fifth and final tip.

Tip #5: Your Ace Connections are an Extension of You.

This is why I “get” LinkedIn, I don’t “get” Hashable, and I still love doing the Social Networking thing the old fashioned way.

If I send my friend the banker in the direction of another friend who is running a startup, I only do this because my friend the banker is someone I would have a beer with, and whose bank is someone I have done business with. And because the startup executive is someone I trust, and would also have a beer with.

(Beer doesn’t have to be the common thread. Still…)

Even the seemingly random “hey, you should talk to this guy” requests you might get are an extension of the person sending the request. Why should I talk to this guy?

Beyond that, requests to talk to one of your guys can come back to bite you. Wasting the time of one of your ace contacts is a surefire way to see that ace contact start recommending you less and less.

We’re done. For now. Be careful out there.

We’ve heard tons from small business owners about the concept of “Marketing Overwhelm.” You run a business, you know what it is you need to do to keep your business moving: but marketing is a complete jungle.

We launched 12 Minute Marketing to cut through that clutter – and train business owners, franchisees, coaches, solo practitioners, consultants and anyone else who needs to ramp up their marketing expertise.

We’re pretty darn excited about it. We hope you’ll check out the site and let us know what you think.

Investing 12 Minutes a Day can make you a Better Marketer…it’s part of our guarantee.

And, to make it official, we put out a “pitch” using the fine services of PitchEngine. http://pitch.pe/136996 is the short link. Love short links.

See you there!

Always Smiling

Missing my Dad, Tom, lots lately; he left this earth on June 1, 2009. He was – fittingly – born on March First: he had leadership qualities and was one of the guys you wanted on your team.

He never took the time to write a book – but what I learned about business from him would take up more than a few cocktail napkins. Here are a few highlights.

1. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself.

It was bound to happen: Northern Indiana’s economy was not doing so well, and the factory that had been the family’s lifeblood decides it want to relocate to Georgia. Not being much of a Dawg, not wanting to uproot everyone with three kids in high school, Dad did what everyone should do at least once in their life.

He reinvented himself.

Turns out, as is the case, “Quality Control Director” was not as fitting for him as the new life he invented: “Real Estate Agent.”

You may want to (if that industry you picked in college isn’t what it’s cracked up to be in the real world), you may have to (in walks the boss, pink slip in tow). But, at some time in your life, you NEED to. Reinvent. Yourself.

2. Play to your strengths.

We joked that Dad grew up on 7th Street, got married and moved to 8th Street, then, when the kids were grown up, moved to 13th Street.

This was true: the Belgian-American enclave of the West End of Mishawaka, Indiana was his home and, even when he and Mom moved for the last few years to a street without a number, he was still in the same 2 mile radius for his entire 65 years.

Hey, guess where he sold the bulk of his houses as a real estate agent?

Dad would do one deal a year that was outside of his normal zone, but his business was pretty much The Guy on The West End.

While he reinvented himself rather easily, he sure didn’t reinvent himself as something he wasn’t.

3. Show up.

Wish I had a dollar for every time Dad called me from a boring open house. Of course, he would never say that out loud; it was always something like “well, we’re waiting for the crowd to show up.”

He couldn’t just hang up a shingle and expect the business to start coming to him – he had to actually put in the work. That meant a lot of events – not just open houses but rubber chicken dinners and local sporting events – that were probably not ideal places to spend your time then…

But those events paid dividends down the road.

4. Give.

There’s something that is important to you. A charity. An organization. Your church. A club. A cause.

It doesn’t have to be financial – heck, Dad wasn’t rolling in dough – but he sure did give of his time.

I still remember him getting the frequent donor club card from the Blood Bank. As a kid, I thought it was nuts – I mean, who in their right mind would let you take their blood?

It’s not about “my cause is better than your cause.” He found the causes that were important to him. And he gave.

5. Please have fun.

I am 100% certain that my Dad did not take himself all that seriously.

I’m guessing, if Dad were around today, he’d probably chide all the “Social Media Gurus” for being “Guru” first, “Media” second. And “Social” third.

Dad would talk to anyone, and listen to anyone. And drink a beer with anyone.

His last birthday, March 1, 2009, found him at the casino, having gotten his faculties back and being good to go after his first stroke. He had a nice payday at some exotic sounding game – Mississippi Stud or some such – and was thrilled to tell me all about it.

I’m sure my Dad picked up quite a few lessons in business, and life, from his Dad.

So I always wondered, not totally “getting it,” why my Dad made a big deal out of his own father’s birthday, years after his father had passed away.

I get it now.

Notes: since it was a stroke that marked the beginning of Dad’s last days, consider this an invitation to understand the warning signs of a stroke:

Directly from the American Heart Association’s web page, be on the lookout for these signs:

• Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking or understanding
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, or loss of balance or coordination
• Sudden, severe headache with no known cause

If any of these things are happening, don’t mess around: Call 9-1-1.

Here’s a link to the American Heart Association’s web page. You can learn all sorts of things there and, even though February 28 was the last day of “Heart Month,” well, you can learn tons there. Please do.

thanks, fourhourbody.com

On one side of The Free Line is information that you get for free. On the other side, information you pay for. Pretty simple.

Information marketers such as the uber-successful Eben Pagan like to talk about “Moving The Free Line.” Instead of giving away a nickel’s worth of information, give away hundreds of dollars worth of information. Then, the theory goes, you can sell thousands of dollars worth of information. (Or, if you’re Pagan, tens of millions of dollars of information.)

But there are a couple of rockstar types – actual rockstars in this new digital world, not just guys or gals who say they are rockstars – with, arguably, completely different approaches to The Free Line.

Chris Brogan. Most things he touches turn to gold – he wrote a best seller called Trust Agents, and he’s constantly out there speaking and meeting with people. (Gee, he even has a Small Business Newsletter.) (And he gave us one of the more popular posts from the Area 224 blog last year; an interview you can read here.)

A Brogan Approach to The Free Line – a $9.97 a month blog advisory service. Which is interesting because, as someone who has been out there in the blogosphere since before it was called that (1998, according to his site), there is a TON of information out there from Chris, about blogging, that you can get for free.

Here, The Free Line is moved way into the expensive category, and the “Pay Line” is at under $10 a month. So the value here is not just in the how-to you’ll get from the newsletter, but in the fact that Chris Brogan is aggregating his own information, sharing with you the good stuff in regular intervals, and using the service to help “coach” you along.

Timothy Ferriss. To say Area 224 has a desire for a “bromance” with the author of The 4-Hour Workweek is an understatement. [Here's our affiliate link - I think if you buy the book from this link, we make about 52 cents. But, honestly, there's never been a book that we have recommended more. The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.]

So, when we learned that Ferriss was coming out with a new book called “The 4-Hour Body,” we pre-ordered it. So, apparently, did about a zillion other people, as the book is now number 4 on the Amazon best-seller list.

A Ferriss Approach to The Free Line – One concept in his newest book is called “The Slow Carb Diet.” Given my own age and newfound need for middle management, I am diving in with both feet and giving this diet a whirl.

Now, Ferriss has always been a proponent of “the companion site” – where anyone with a copy of the book can login and get so much more information than is found in the book. Worksheets, tools, links, those sorts of things. NOTE: “anyone with a copy of the book” meant, in the case of The 4-Hour Workweek, a password would be something like “the fifth word in the third chapter.” If you can’t find that somewhere, you probably don’t deserve all of the “free” content.

What intrigues this cub reporter about The Free Line for The 4-Hour Body is the Slow Carb Cookbook. Cookbooks are a unique animal – and another one that has changed because of the onset of the Internet. This one, available via instant, free, PDF download, is one that could be dressed up in hardcover and sold in stores for $20.

What he’s giving you is less of a cookbook and more of The Manifesto to the Slow Carb Movement.

Your Own Free Line

Where do you draw the line? How much do you give away? How much is free?

Maybe you’ve got a $30 E-Book, but you need to explain to the world that you can deliver on $3000 worth of content first.

Maybe you’re a high-priced consultant and you charge hundreds an hour – but you need to demonstrate that you are indeed worth that much.

In any event, don’t be afraid to draw The Free Line – and figure out when to move it, what to hold back, and how much to charge for your expertise.

[NOTE: Here's another Affiliate Link, this one for The 4-Hour Body. The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman]

Thanks, hucksters. (Image: The Mysterious Marketer)

Snowtorious BIG will pass away, but Social Media Hucksters…

Half my time here at Area 224 HQ is spent planning, strategizing, executing. (Writing is part of that mix. Creating, too.) The other half -- yes, that much! -- is spent on the web: interacting, surfing, “engaging” -- learning.

It’s the learning -- since I don’t have all the answers -- the LEARNING that is the most valuable.

Part of this learning takes me to the far corners of the Internet. The outer reaches of craptastic marketing, of poorly planned and even worse-executed Social Media Hucksterism.

For every good guy -- like Jim Alexander, whose path I first crossed two years ago, while discussing the spambots who tried to sell us all Multi-level Marketing schemes -- there seem to be literally hundreds of, well, not-so-good guys. (And not-so-good gals, either.)

And Guess What? The not-so-good guys are the ones who will sell you tactics, disguised as strategy, not fulfilling any business objectives whatsoever.

Wanna know something else about the not-so-good guys? They will gladly take your money. AND they will buy your business -- they’d rather undercut everyone out there and use the pre-wrapped Social Media In A Box solution to shoehorn into your business needs. If they ever ASK about your business needs.

One of the far corners of the Internet gave me this quote -- pulled from the comments on a legitimate site’s post about monitoring your social media presence:

“There’s been a lot of buzz surrounding social media in the past decade.  Social media marketing can be a powerful tool if used correctly.  It can contribute to Search Engine Optimization and it can be used to keep a relationship with existing clients.”

What. The. Facebook?

Time to go viral on their @$$es.

Is there any wonder that Ad people think Social Media Gurus are a bunch of slick know-nothings? And that PR people think Social Media Ninjas are full of crap? And Social Media Rockstars -- don’t get us started on them…

The point? Be Careful Out There.

Don’t fall into the trap. We’ve said it before, we’ll say it again:

Going Social Without Business Objectives is a Recipe for Disaster.

Hucksters are so easy to buy into. (Read this piece from Olivier Blanchard about Jack Scrib.)

But if the guy or gal on the other side of the table isn’t asking you why you want to do this?

You should ask them:

Why Do I Want To Do This?

[Editor's Note: Yes, there was a snowstorm. Want the coverage from Area 224? Here's a video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TSRNv2JkVM