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To Avoid Hucksters, Try This Trick…

Too Many Social Media Hucksters? Try This Trick…

We watched a great video from that @garyvee guy today. In it, he says that “social media” is becoming such a worn-out phrase that, in his opinion, it will soon just be called “media.”

Good point.

Here’s another way of looking at it, and another trick you can use to sniff out hucksterism. Or huckstering. Hucksterization. Whatever…

Replace “social media” with the word “email.”

Really. Try it:

John Smith is an email guru.

Wow, those guys over there at XYZ Associates, they really “get email.”

I don’t know if I should trust a PR firm with my email marketing.

Stop thinking TOOL or you’ll soon become one. Start thinking what you’re saying, how you’re saying it, how often you’re having conversations with people, clients, customers, consumers.

(Yes, we’re guilty, too — we say “social media success” on this very site. Guilty as charged.)

BUT, the point here is that companies are rushing to shoehorn social media into their communications strategy — without having a strategy in the first place. Or an objective for even communicating.

Websites were all the rage at one point. Later, Web 2.0. And, while we do maintain that Social Media Marketing — SMM — will soon replace Search Engine Optimization — SEO — as the most important acronym…we don’t want you to forget that what you say and how you say it are so much more important than what tool you use.

Thanks. Now we need to go send a social media. I mean an email.

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Yes, We Want You To Invest 3 Weeks With Us!

It is only 9 webinars, after all.

But one thing we’ve heard about Social Media from just about everyone we’ve talked to:

There’s so much out there!

Our goal with the 3 Weeks to Social Media Success program is to do what we’ve been told we do best: demystify. Break the complex down into digestible chunks.

Some of you are trying to translate this for the boss. Others of you need to get social to find the next gig. Maybe you have to sort out the strategy for your company, or you need to see if a Facebook Fan Page makes any sense for your B2B firm.

We can help. And we hope you’ll join us…

Got 3 Weeks?

How Tiger Can Get Past the Crisis – Hint: Social Media Can Help

Area 224 Managing Principal Dave Van de Walle has been part of crisis communications teams at Aon Corp., TransUnion and U Sphere. He was also Sports Information Director at Chicago State University in the mid-1990s. Here are his thoughts on the Tiger Woods accident and the aftermath:

If you think this is a complex crisis communications problem – the one being faced by Tiger Woods, uber-golfer, the first billion-dollar athlete, spokesperson for Gillette, and multi-ethnic role model of epic proportions – you might be under-estimating how complex it is.

There used to be a maxim about crisis communications: “tell it all, tell it early, tell it honestly.” These are organizational communications rules – but not personal brand management communications rules. BIG difference, and one that Tiger must confront head-on.

He’s his own team.

Seriously, as much as you might THINK he and his caddie (Steve Wiliams) are a team, or he and his wife, Elin, are a team – the reality here is it’s just Tiger Woods.

Now that everyone has a theory, what’s the world’s most famous athlete to do?

Tiger issued a statement asking for space, saying that “my family and I deserve some privacy.” Given the fact that golf reporters respect the guy for his class and dignity and how he treats them, I’d be inclined to cut him some slack.

Let’s borrow rather liberally from the playbook of another World-Class Athlete, Michael Phelps. Remember him? When he won all those gold medals, he grew a large Facebook following. VERY LARGE. 2,800,000+. He engaged with them as much as an athlete of his stature can – not a ton, but you felt like he was at least spending some time interacting.

When Michael Phelps had a problem,  he confronted it head-on, through Facebook friends. Apologizing for letting them down. Then he went back to business, and his support kept growing.

He took control of the story, sure; but he engaged the masses where they were. He worked with the Groundswell. Not against it.

[Remember: after Michael Phelps did all this public apology and sorry I let you down stuff, he had a minor fender-bender? He got out in front of that story, too. On Facebook.]

Meantime, back to Tiger. His site is one-way — comment on the site, but don’t talk with Tiger. In fact, the one-way nature of his site is part of the problem: his is a brand, and it’s personal, but it’s not, well, personal. You feel like you’re interacting with a corporation. Which you are.

Not a regular guy who dominates but doesn’t have too much time for the little people.

How to confront this head-on? Through social media? Some advice for Tiger:

Engage. The masses, the little people, your favorite reporter, another golfer. Someone.

Comment back. Please, give us a token “hey Bob129, thanks for your support! Elin and I are doing well, we’re both a little jarred by the accident.”

Tweet. Seriously, Twitter got out in front of this story and it took on a life of its own. You can start taking it back through a verified account, a little interaction, and some honesty. Even if all you want to say is “my face hurts.”

Tiger, I’m with you on the respect for privacy stuff. I’m sorta with you on the “I’m human” stuff. I’d really like to believe your story — when and if you share it. So long as you start talking with the gallery.

The gallery is out here, on Social Media.

Thank You for Becoming a Fan of… #in #fb #outofcontrol

Endorsement ImpliedIt’s officially out of control. All of it. Fanhood. Convergence. Brand ubiquity. Time to make sense of it all, somehow, someway.

First, a slap on the wrist and 100 lashes with a wet noodle for us here at Area 224. We are guilty of the Fan thing on a couple of levels. We paid for fans for our Real SMM site. We are even doing a random, no cash value, Slurpee Coin thing for Area 224. It’s not sanctioned by 7-Eleven. Maybe it could be and we’d get some buzz, but maybe that would cause more problems than it’s worth.

But if you feel the quest for Social Media Meaning and Enlightenment, like we often do, it’s about to get much much more confusing. And potentially out of control. Why?

  1. The Federal Trade Commission. The picture of the girl above (ain’t she cute?) wearing the hat (from Steak N Shake, a Midwestern USA restaurant chain) should be disclosed, right? Since it’s on a blog, and was given to the girl by the restaurant, and the girl’s parent decided to use it on a blog — after December 1, that’s technically an endorsement.
  2. Those symbols up in the headline. Seen them a few places? Like in the Grand Slam of Social Media — Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube? Posts and cross-posting and mass confusion aplenty. Even here — where we track this stuff. The LinkedIn stream for yours truly now seems to be a wacky combination of letters and numbers. (We’re reminded of the classic Jerry Seinfeld line “Amal and the symbol for Boron.“) Why are we mixing all of these sites — especially the ones that shouldn’t be mixing? Facebook is oil, LinkedIn is water. Twitter is gasoline. YouTube is probably air.
  3. Failure to answer the question: “Why are you here in the first place?” That should be your first question before diving into Social, Social Networking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing. And it’s something a lot of businesses and a lot of people seem to forget. LinkedIn is not a tool for Realtors to sell houses on — yet so many actually post every single listing of theirs on LinkedIn. Huh? [Disclosure: we can help those clueless real estate marketers.]

People, one man’s Facebook time suck is another person’s entree into Farmville or MafiaWars. One person’s Twitter addiction is another person’s question about why all those “@” signs and “#” signs that aren’t even called “pound signs.”

Is there a cure to all this? No, but here are just a few guidelines worth thinking about:

  1. Take all fandom with a grain of salt. Facebook fans can be bought, same way that brands can use Google Adwords to make their way up the search chain. I’m fanning things right and left — sometimes it’s research, sometimes it’s a competitor, sometimes it’s a quid pro quo.
  2. Try to use LinkedIn to make meaningful business connections with people. Nothing more. You’ll need to turn on your filter and get past all of the pound signs.
  3. Get out there and actually shake a few hands this week. Really, all of this social stuff is turning us into a world of introverts.

If you liked this blog post, please consider becoming a fan of a book, your kids, a nice hot cup of tea. Whatever. Thanks.

Why Having a VP of Social Media Marketing is More Important Than PR or IR

This post is virtually guaranteed to cause an uproar. It’s intended mostly for public companies – those who might find themselves stuck in the old ways of doing things.

Okay, so we said it out loud. Your VP of Social Media Marketing (SMM) is vital; and we’re about to share five reasons why it’s more important than Public Relations or Investor Relations.

If you are the CMO at a public company — especially one that deals in the direct-to-consumer space — this is your most important hire. Here goes:

Why SMM is more vital to the growing organization than PR?

1. It’s Not About Press Releases. It’s About Selling Stuff.

Back in the olden days — say 2004, when this reporter was actually VP of Global PR at a Fortune 500 company — we were fighting a losing battle against one thing: irrelevance. That’s right, PR wasn’t trackable where we were. The best we could do was a two-pronged strategy involving (1) keeping us out of bad news and (2) getting people on the same page globally.

Couldn’t track it. Didn’t need it. Expendable.

Flash forward to 2010 and envision a similar organization taking a look at where leads are coming from, whether or not the widget division is driving traffic to the stores. Try doing that with a traditional PR campaign.

Oh, and the press release? Not irrelevant anymore — thanks to folks like PitchEngine. But, if the PR team is seen as the press release production shop, that’s Big Trouble. With a Capital T.

2. Ye Olde News Media Have Been Replaced.

Much ado about the death of the newspaper — in fact, so much ado that we’re not going to talk about it here. Rather, let’s discuss something like Zynga and TechCrunch.

Michael Arrington is more than just a guy with a popular blog. He’s a thought leader who uncovers things — like questionable business practices — and writes about them. He’s done so for years and he’s pretty good at it. His coverage of Zynga’s questionable business practices led to a change in the way they do business.

Rarely do reporters outside of the really big enterprises have the time, wherewithal AND malleable publication schedule and format to be able to break news like he did.

In this case, story after story, video back-and-forth, conference discussions — all around one theme: getting Zynga to admit that they need to change business practices. Which they did.

Granted, he’s reporter, editor, and owner of the medium — his blog.

Why SMM is more important than IR.

3. It’s Not About Analysts, It’s About Selling Stuff. Main Street hates Wall Street. See cover of Time Magazine. SO, if given the choice as CMO, should you (a) hire the guy or gal who can manage through analyst meetings, talk about growing top-line revenue, fun stuff like that or (b) hire the guy or gal who can put together the social media marketing program that sells product.

4. You Don’t Have Time For Earnings Releases – Real-Time Results with SMM Trump a Nickel-a-share.

Are we advocating the elimination of your Investor Relations Department? NO. We’d never do such a thing.

Are we advocating going private and ignoring the whims of the markets? MAYBE, but that’s another discussion for another blog.

Are we saying that you’re going to be able to A/B test, track, measure, quantify with SMM? And engage your customers, prospects, the general public at the same time?

ABSOLUTELY.

Reason 5 is going to be the most controversial one yet. Here goes:

5. The talent is much, much less expensive.

Upon graduation from college in 1992, this reporter learned that the going rate for a television sports reporter in a small market was $12,000 a year. 8 years later, from friends in the media, he was told that the going rate for a television news reporter in a small market was $10,000 a year.

Social Media Marketing, at the early career level, is just as “sexy” as television journalism used to be. Thus, pay rates — while not $12,000 a year — will tend to be lower.

Think about other sexy fields. Sports Marketing, for instance. Inexpensive labor pools there because, if one recent grad doesn’t want to work for next-to-nothing in a backwoods outpost, someone else will.

Reason 5 sucks. But it’s life.

Marketing Executives can use reason five alone to their great advantage.

So, after you’ve heard all five reasons, what do you think? VP of SMM — important? Vital? Or do you vehemently disagree?

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