Thanks, watradehub.comWant to be a real, live, in-the-flesh Social Media Marketer Extraordinaire? Start with these steps. Seriously.
The Daily Dose of Advice comes from Scott Stratten, UnMarketing himself.
“Reminder to take 5 minutes to reply to others today. Engage. Interact. Build.”
But how, really, truly, do you DO that? And can you invest only 5 minutes and make connections?
Well, yes. And no. We went with 10 minutes, you may want 15 or 20 or 30. But 2011 is all about small steps toward big things. So here goes.
1. Set the e.ggtimer. We said that you can learn from the big boys here, and there’s no bigger boy in the world of lifestyle redesign than Tim Ferriss. He’s the guy who first tipped us onto the timer. It is awesome for two reasons: (1) simplicity and (2) keeping you on task. We recommend you set it for 10 Minutes.
2. Begin surfing. We recommend you do this BEFORE looking at emails but AFTER getting your daily fix of Facebook and Twitter. Why? You want to get some mental cues from what you’ve seen on those sites – but you don’t want to make this reliant on what work is clogging your inbox.
Huh? Well, there are folks we are friends with on Facebook and connected with on Twitter who aren’t world famous. That’s part of the mission here. Learn from the Big Boys, but connect with the others, too.
3. Comment if you have something to add. We hit up a couple sites upon the recommendations of friends and contacts. On Quora, which is getting a tremendous amount of buzz, we had, well, nothing to add. Yet. But the standout site from Danny Brown got us thinking. And commenting.
4. Keep track.Chris Brogan recommends a spreadsheet or a Google Doc or a CRM program. Awesome.
Is that it?
Well, this should be part of a daily ritual. ESPECIALLY if you want to make real connections with real people.
Thanks to the inimitable Saul Colt for the inspiration here.
“Everybody is an armchair marketer.” This was one of the quotes floating around back in my HR Consulting days. (I was part of the Marketing team for an HR Consultancy. It was fun, I learned a ton. More on that later.)
Saul Colt — feel free to follow him on Twitter — first got me thinking about “advice” and “the right way” and “social media” (all three; I’ve thought about each separately before) when he said something to this effect:
There is no right way. Do what works for you.
And there we are.
So, I’m guilty — a little — with this “Be Holistic” and all that. Not my intention — it seems that everybody’s an armchair social media marketer, too.
But the goal is not to point out that You’re Doing It Wrong…but, instead, to point at some folks who are doing it right.
Then, you make the decisions based on what works for You. Your business. Your social time.
We are not sure this is the best use of brand dollars by Knob Creek.
With all due respect…this is just not focused. It’s the opposite of Nichification. Don’t despair, whiskey drinker…We’ll give some advice below.
First, the background:
Visiting LinkedIn, and someone in our network, who is in the SEO space and appears to be a rather smart cookie, had the ad you see over there right below all of the “Send a Message,” “See Profile” options.
And this jumped out at us.
What’s wrong with it?
Well, first of all, truth be told, we’re not against the marketing of alcoholic beverages. And we’ll assume that LinkedIn has a filter of some sort that only shows this particular ad to people who are above 21 years of age.
Once you get past that…Is LinkedIn really the place to ask questions about whiskey?
You’re on LinkedIn for professional connections. Professional networking. So, when I’m seeing what one of the smarter SEO people in the planet is up to lately – am I even in the mood to talk whiskey?
Beyond that…this is a poorly worded Poll.
They’re asking two questions. The first one asks if I’m a fan. What if I’m not? What if I’ve never tried the stuff? What if I don’t know the difference between Knob Creek and Boon’s Farm?
What if I don’t know the difference between “complex flavor” and “full-flavored?”
Since Area 224 is looking out for you, brand marketers, we’re not just going to raise a problem – we’re going to propose a SOLUTION.
In three steps.
Step 1 – Scrap the poll.
I’m not inclined to vote for or against alcohol when I’m on LinkedIn. I’m treating LinkedIn like a combination of Twitter and Google – I want to see what my network is up to professionally, but I’m also searching for something or someone.
Step 2 – Buy a bunch of laser-focused keyword ads.
You can spend just as much if you know what you are doing. If you don’t know what you are doing, find someone who does and get them to buy the ads for you.
Step 3 – Reach out to a bunch of bloggers and see if they want to try your stuff.
Turn them loose – let them comment on the full-flavor, or the fine craftsmanship, or the fact that they can really taste the aging. Or not.
You can invest probably a couple grand, watch what gets said, and get so many more insights than you’d get from the LinkedIn poll.
Social Media Cliches include “Ninja,” which Area 224 finds exceedingly annoying. Want to really be able to call yourself a “Ninja?”
Do what this thing does:
We watched the infomercial for this bad boy, and we couldn’t help but think about Social Media Ninjas – and how they are often self-appointed and can rarely back up their claims of Ninjahood.
Let’s go to the Tale of the Tape.
The Base Unit – Ninja 1100.
The Ninja 1100’s base unit is the kind of blender your puny blender wants to be when it grows up. Armed with blades that aren’t just at the bottom, this keeps the flow of all the creamy goodness of your smoothie moving up and down while blending.
Imagine an army of little ninja warriors chopping blueberries into bits of antioxidants while barely breaking a sweat.
Pitcher, blades, etc. are all dishwasher-safe.
“More than just a food processor. More than just a blender.”
We could go on and on. We officially want one.
The Base Unit – Social Media Ninja.
Will use a bot-focused approach to get your Twitter account to 2000 followers, and will also use a bot-focused approach to get you a few hundred “Likes” on Facebook. Both of which you can choose to ignore when you realize there’s no real reason for doing this.
The Extra Pitcher – Ninja 1100.
You have GOT to be joking. There’s another pitcher? It’s bigger – like 70, no 72 ounces!
What isn’t even mentioned on the website – but is mentioned on the infomercial to a point where you won’t forget it – is that this machine turns “ice” into “snow.”
This is the key for restaurant-quality frozen drinks.
SNOW.
You can make 72 ounces of snow.
They even demonstrated a mocha drink that was nothing more than chocolate syrup and ice, maybe milk or coffee or something. 50 calories per serving.
The Extra Pitcher – Social Media Ninja.
What, you want more? We’ll give you more.
Except, as a “Ninja” of the Social Media type, we can’t totally tell you what exactly that “more” is.
We didn’t know you needed something like “snow” to differentiate your product from other products.
We were too busy focusing on the fact that we’re Ninjas.
The Dough Hook – Ninja 1100.
You need bread dough. Cookie dough. Dough for that Ninja Pizza you’re gonna make.
Enter the 1100’s Dough Hook.
So you don’t just have a blender, or a “snow maker,” but you also have a food processor that makes dough.
Awesome. Totally awesome. This might be the only kitchen gadget you will ever need – and you didn’t know you needed all of this.
The Dough Hook – Social Media Ninja.
What now? We have to make bread dough, too?
Our bots can’t handle that.
We give up. This is not fair.
Final Tally: Ninja 1100 – 3, Social Media Ninja – 0.
And what does this mean for your marketing – no matter what your industry?
Well, while the Ninja 1100 might seem to be positioning itself based on “Features” vs. “Benefits,” a closer look tells us that, in this case, a masterfully designed product can have “Features AS Benefits.”
Feature: great base unit with different blades and stuff.
Benefit: the only kitchen product you’ll need. (You benefit by clearing out your cupboard.)
Feature: additional pitcher is huge and makes snow.
Benefit: snow makes better drinks, you can please a crowd.
Feature: dough hooks.
Benefit: see the part about needing less contraptions in your cupboard.
The Social Media Ninja is likely to focus on “numbers” as your feature. And “leads” as your benefit. And maybe that can all be quantified. But still…give me a Kitchen Ninja over a Social Media Ninja any day.
Disclosure: Area 224 has no relationship with this product. If you buy one, you are free to invite us over for a smoothie.
A positive experience at a big box retailer? And one that isn’t on Twitter or Facebook or (gasp) Foursquare – but IN THE STORE?
Maybe the move toward “The Social Brand” needs to start with brands actually being social – something we learned first-hand in a trip to Dick’s Sporting Goods this weekend.
We (myself, my lovely wife and the 3 #224lings) were in Glenview, IL – and, I took my eldest and middle to Dick’s while the others went shoe or clothes shopping or some such.
Big Box Retailers get a good virtual paddling now and again. Some of it is justified – as you don’t know what the service is going to be like, or you feel like you can have a better experience shopping online.
Our time, however, was positively notable for the following:
1. We could touch the merchandise. There were soccer balls and golf clubs. Flip-flops, more varieties of Crocs than I knew ever existed. Basketballs, which had a tendency to bounce on the floor.
No crook-eye, stink-eye or evil eye from anyone who worked there. In fact…
2. Anything we can help you find? If you’ve worked retail, this sort of question is better than the “are you finding everything okay?” we were told not to ask back in the day.
It’s also the kind of question that gets you to let your guard down for a half-second – “why, if I say ‘no’ I’d be lying because he could certainly help me find something, right?”
3. The staff made us feel like they wanted to be there. And they wanted us to be there, too.
The manager came up, when all five of our gaggle was in the lacrosse aisle, and asked us if we needed help with anything. Then proceeded to offer to high-five my kids. (All three accepted.)
