“Right now, your customers are writing about your products on blogs and recutting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you in social networking sites like Facebook. These are all elements of a social phenomenon — the groundswell — that has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works.”
GROUNDSWELL is the definitive guide to what is happening now in the citizen marketer online world we live, work, and frolic in. You’ll learn about the online tools people use and the motivations for why people participate in the Groundswell. You’ll also gain access to previously super-spendy analysis reserved for Forrester clients … such as … ROI of an Executive Blog, ROI of Online Ratings/Reviews, and ROI of Online Community Forums.
Charlene & Josh refresh some of their smartest blog posts in GROUNDSWELL. They’ve written about the Social Technographics ladder before, but the updated analysis in the book will help you better understand the motivations and activities of consumers today. And, their easy-to-understand P.O.S.T strategy to participating in the Groundswell will help many in demystifying how to get started using online media to connect with customers.
GROUNDSWELL is must-read material for all Marketing Managers and Marketing Directors who want to use the power of the Internet as an extension of their marketing department.
[Prerequisite reading includes: THE CORPORATE BLOGGING BOOK (Debbie Weil) and CITIZEN MARKETERS (McConnell & Huba).]
It’s not about vanity when registering your personal name as an Internet domain. It’s simply a cheap way to protect personal real estate.
Let this wretched conversation saga be your CALL TO ACTION to register your name as a website address.
At the GOT SOCIAL MEDIA conference in Houston last week, Kelsey Ruger, from Pop Labs, infused his presentation with elements from The Matrix. Brilliant.
As the above image depicts, companies today can take the Blue Pill and pretend that nothing has changed in the marketplace. Or, companies can take the Red Pill and begin to experience a deeper connection with customers through using Social Media. I hope Kelsey sees how deep the rabbit-hole goes with THE Social Media MATRIX. He is onto something potentially big in helping more people understand why it is important for companies to swallow the Red Pill of Social Media.
For those who missed the GOT SOCIAL MEDIA conference, you can riffle through some of the presentations on SlideShare. (Video of the presentations will also be uploaded somewhere online soon.)
The one-day event was co-organized by Erica O’ Grady, a social media dynamo. She is doing big things and will do bigger things with all this social media stuff. Get to know Erica on her blog and follow her on Twitter.
The line-up of presenters hand-picked for the event were outstanding.
Besides Kelsey, Giovanni Gallucci (aka Digg the Link Hunter) shared his take on how to maximize links and views. Steve Latham outlined a few methods to measure the ROI of social media marketing campaigns. Stephen Anderson delivered a thought-provoking presentation on how design matters in social media. Ed Schipul entertained and informed us about how tapping into the 3 Motivations of People can help non-profits (and for-profits) make a difference. And, Laura Mayes sprinkled smart tid-bits throughout the day. (Unfortunately, I missed Chris Bernard and his presentation.)
While reviewing some family history, notably the early death of my Father’s Father, I was struck with how Twitter today was a Telegram yesterday.
Think about it.
With Twitter you are limited to 140 characters. With Telegrams from the bygone era you were essentially limited to 140 characters because anything more would have been super-spendy.
People using Twitter are answering the question of “What are you doing?” People who used Telegrams were answering the question of “What are you thinking?”
Twitter’s interface resembles a Telegram’s interface. Have a look ... below is a telegram from friends of my Grandmother expressing their condolences over the passing of her husband, Al Moore. The crux of the message is a mere 100 characters: Have just heard of your great misfortune our heartfelt sympathy is with you = Elizabeth and Luttrell.
Yes, this analysis is limited and flawed. Twitter’s ability to connect with people in real-time with words makes it difficult to truly compare it to a Telegram. However, back in its day, a Telegram was the most instantaneous way to send a note to someone. Much more instantaneous than the Pony Express.
Hey Tom ... you really do have a dream marketing job introducing Method to the UK. (And, congrats on getting BrandWeek to publish your cartoons.)
A new addition to my Bloglines feed is Andy Sernovitz’s “Damn I Wish I'd Thought of That” blog. Andy is a networker’s networker. He’s also an experienced business professional, college teacher, past CEO of WOMMA, and an unfailing evangelist for Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
Andy contends the best marketing is marketing that earns the respect and recommendation of customers. For his blog, he’s asked a slew of marketers for their answers to a few seemingly simple questions. Andy wants to know …
What is your advice for any company that wants to ... (a) Make people happy? ; (b) Earn respect? ; (c) Get a word of mouth recommendation?
So far, Andy has received advice from the likes of Seth Godin, Geoff Ramsey, Peter Kim, and many other marketing-types (including me).
Gary Vaynerchuk is a wine enthusiast and evangelist. Fittingly, he's the Director of Operations at Wine Library, a wine retailer in New Jersey. Gary has been sharing his passion for wine with daily online videos where he sniffs, slurps, and spits wine all the while imparting wit and wisdom about wine (and about the New York Jets).
Don't expect a prim and proper haughty toddy video lecture about wine. Oh no. Gary ain't goin' out like that. New York Magazine labels Gary's style as an "unpretentious, gonzo approach to wine appreciation." Yep. That's right on.
The so-called wine establishment doesn't know what to do with Gary's unbridled evangelism for wine. In an interview with New York Magazine, Gary answered his critics by saying...
"It’s amazing how intimidating wine is; all the wine geeks want to keep everybody out. I get these real wine-snob d--kheads who think I’m dumbing wine down. And now wineries are starting to get mad at me. I used to be their darling—because I’m a buyer—but some of them don’t want to sell to me anymore because I panned their wine on the show. That’s been really difficult. I get a ton of positive feedback, but I also get a little zing-zing."
Spend a few minutes watching Gary's latest video and think to yourself, who in your company SHOULD do something similar?
If you could only read one marketing-related blog which blog would that be? Tough question. Easy answer …
Ann Handley has compiled a strong tail list of interesting marketers sounding off on relevant marketing matters. Andrea Learned, Jeanne Bliss, Stephen Denny, Ted Mininni, David Armano, CK, and Lewis Green all consistently post worthwhile reading for any marketer. Add in some of the infrequent contributers like Spike Jones, Jill Griffin, Mike Wagner, Debbie Weil, Roy Young … and you have a stable of marketing bloggers that are unrivaled.
Kudos to the Marketing Profs Daily Fix for helping to make this marketer smarter. Thanks.
And if you haven’t added the Marketing Profs Daily Fix to your RSS reader, you should. (And if you have yet to start using an RSS reader, START.)
We began with 64 interesting marketing-related blogs in an NCAA March Madness-style tournament. Using the Gladwellian thin-slicing approach, I parsed the list from 64 to 32 to 16 to 8 and then to a Final Four. (It should be noted, no statistics were harmed or used in my parsing process. I went with off-the-cuff, ad-hoc gut instinct.)
The Final Four has Seth Godin taking on Church of the Customer in one match. The other match pits Creating Passionate Users against Marketing Profs Daily Fix.
The Seth Godin/Church of the Customer match-up lived up to its hype—a barn-burner. Seth played his usual relentless and rapid-fire style putting pressure on the Church early. Ben and Jackie of the Church withstood Seth’s early onslaught and managed to go to halftime only down by a few points.
The start of the second half saw the Church play with a poignancy seldom seen. Seth got into early foul trouble with some wayward posting and the Church took advantage at the free throw line. Down by one point with seven ticks on the clock, the Church blogging duo ran a classic give-and-go play leaving Seth stuck in his shoes and Jackie zipping through the lane for an easy, last-second game winning layup. The Church of the Customer defeats Seth Godin.
No one knew what to expect with the Creating Passionate Users match against Marketing Profs Daily Fix. As game time neared, speculation rose that Kathy Sierra of Creating Passionate Users blog was not in the arena. Recently, Kathy has been the target of some cowardly online bullying and hearsay was her blogging sabbatical would prevent her from playing.
Ann Handley and her stable of Marketing Profs Daily Fix bloggers were warming up when David Weinberger, tournament commissioner, addressed the crowd. David read a statement from Kathy Sierra explaining why she was passing on the opportunity to play. Everyone in the arena understood Kathy’s gracious and heartfelt reasoning. Marketing Profs Daily Fix advances to final game.
The Marketing Bloggers Bracketology FINAL GAME pits the Church of the Customer against the Marketing Profs Daily Fix. Results to be announced on Monday.
For those living in Austin, you should consider attending this Thursday’s SOCIAL MEDIA CLUB event. It’s the second such meeting of the Austin chapter of the now global Social Media Club. I’m on the agenda to share some social media ideals to spark ideas. Please come.
I know some of us get hung-up on defining all this conversational online media stuff as Social Media. And some of us probably question why a Social Media Club should exist. But here’s the deal. Social Media Club events are great opportunities for experts to share all they know about blogs, vlogs, podcasting, etc. and for neophytes to learn the know-how/know-why behind "social media." The mantra of this club is: IF YOU GET IT, SHARE IT. At the inaugural Austin event, the experts who “get it” were sharing “it” with neophytes who do not yet get “it.” Get it?
Learn more about the Social Media Club here. Register for the Thursday event in Austin here.
Have you heard about the just-published book, THE ENLIGHTENED BRACKETOLOGIST: The Final Four of Everything? It’s a fun read where the authors have mocked-up NCAA March Madness-style brackets as a systematic way for “…parsing people, places and things to determine what is good, better, best in the world.”
The authors have invited “subject matter experts” to fill out these brackets with such offbeat categories as the Best Game Show Catch Phrases, Best Sports Rivalries, Best Guilty Pleasures, Best Plastic Surgery Disasters, etc. Fun stuff made even more fun at their DailyBracket website where you can submit your own bracket creations.
Since this is “Bracketology Season,” I thought it would be interesting to compile a Marketing Bloggers Bracketlogy chart parsing through a list of 64 somewhat-randomly chosen marketing blogs to find the BEST marketing blog. (Please note, this list was put together as something whimsical and not meant to be the final judgment on which marketing blog is really the best.)
I’ve whittled down the 64 marketing blogs I chose to include in my bracket to a FINAL FOUR. Three #1 seeds made it to my Final Four and one Cinderella seed made it. Seth Godin’s blog (#1 seed) takes on The Church of the Customer (#1 seed) in one match-up. The “winner” of that contest will face the winner between Creating Passionate Users (#1 seed) versus Marketing Profs Daily Fix (#3 seed).
You can access my full bracket by clicking on the image below to open it as a PDF.
I’ll post the results from my Marketing Bloggers Bracketology Chart on Monday of next week. In the meantime, you can also create your own chart by using this TEMPLATE (.xls). It would be fun to see a slew of other Marketing Bloggers Bracketology charts out there.
If a posting on your blog has ever been dug by Digg or dotted by Reddit or tagged by Del.icio.us then you know how much influence social bookmarking sites have in not only driving traffic to your blog, but also in spreading the reach of your idea. A simple mention on such popular social bookmarking sites can catapult a blog and/or an idea into a new realm of awareness.
But would it surprise you to learn that of the 300,000 registered Digg users, a mere 30 users are responsible for submitting 33% of the postings which regularly land on Digg’s homepage? Would it also surprise you to learn that one of Reddit’s most influential users is a 12-year-old boy? (Sounds like another occurrence of the “1% Rule.”)
The Wall Street Journal recently dissected the underbelly of social bookmarking sites by detailing how the few impact what the many view as being popular online with a well-written and highly informative article titled, “The Wizards of Buzz.”
This article also explains how payola schemes, which pay people to plug certain websites in hopes of gaming the system, are impacting the algorithms social bookmarking sites use to filter out the most popular postings on the web. Interesting stuff!
If you subscribe to the WSJ, you can access this worthwhile article here. For free access to this article, click here.
Okay. I’m a sucker for anything related to old school TV Game Shows. Name practically any Game Show from the 70s & 80s and I can ramble on-and-on about the hosts, celebrity guests, and game play. (Yeah, I know all about Rodeo Drive, Just Men!, and Hot Potato – don’t try to stump me. I’m unstumpable when it comes this.) So when I saw Toby taking the cue from David, I just had to play.
You see … David, from the Learfield InterAction blog, brilliantly linked blogrolls to the celebrity panel from Match Game, a hallowed TV Game Show. Every episode of Match Game featured six celebrities as part of their panel. (Okay, so maybe Debralee Scott is a D-list celebrity at best but don’t you dare tell me Shecky Greene is D-list. Maybe C-list but no way D-list!)
>> Sorry for the digression … back to the regularly scheduled blog post. (Focus John. Focus.)
The game play of Match Game was simple. The affable Gene Rayburn would toss out a fill-in-the-blank question or statement like, “King Kong ____blanked___ on the building.” and the celebrity panel would fill-in-the-blank by writing a word on a card that was either far-out wacky or right-on legit. Rayburn would then turn to one of the two contestants and ask them for their one word fill-in-the-blank answer. The contestant that managed to MATCH more of their answers with the celebrity answers won and then, went on to compete in a head-to-head bonus round with one of the celebrity panelists.
The real draw on Match Game was the celebrity panel. I know I would tune in to see if Nipsey was playing that day or if wacky Fannie Flag was playing. But if David Doyle was playing, I would usually change the channel and watch Password instead.
>> Dang, I’m digressing again. Sorry.
In his post, David filled the six celebrity panel slots on his blog-world version of Match Game with the likes of Steve Rubel, Amy Gahran, Hugh McLeod, Toby Bloomberg, Seth Godin, and Tara Hunt.
Well … I also decided to field my Match Game celebrity panel with marketing bloggers.
Since I’m into this blogging thing, a book about business blogging wouldn’t seem appropriate for me. And chances are if you’re reading this, you also do not need to read a book about business blogging. But you probably know someone who does need to read a book on business blogging.
(Come on … we bloggers all have friends at businesses who have yet to embrace the blogging/social media cause. Right?)
While prepping for a presentation I’m giving next month on Applying Online Word-of-Mouth [website | .pdf brochure], I riffled through Debbie Weil’s just published book, THE CORPORATE BLOGGING BOOK, and found it to be the best of the blog book bunch.
(The blog book bunch? It’s becoming an industry in itself as evidence by these books … book one, book two, book three, book four, book five, book six, and more.)
Debbie’s book is the best of the bunch because it’s actionable. She wastes little space in telling stories about blogging and instead, shares practical insight and guidance on all the relevant issues businesses face when deciding how, when, where, and why to blog.
In other words, THE CORPORATE BLOGGING BOOK is chock-full of everything you need to know to better champion the blogging/social media cause at your business. Learn more on Debbie’s companion book website.
Mike Manuel, of the Media Guerilla blog, twists the Budweiser Real Men of Genius radio campaign to salute you—Mister A-List Blogger Unkeynote Speaker. Nice work Mike! Now we just need someone to produce this spot. So, who's gonna be the first blogger to put these lyrics to music?
Last November I blogged about Michael Levine’s BROKEN WINDOWS BROKEN BUSINESS book and I subsequently mentioned how his abandoned website/blog was a broken window that needed to fixed.
Well ... it may have taken him a few months to do it but the Broken Windows Broken Business website is no longer broken. Levine recently updated his book companion website and this time around, he doesn’t try to accomplish too much by having links to a blog and discussion board. Instead, Levine sticks with the basics and doesn’t make implied promises he might not be able to deliver upon.
Not overpromising and under-delivering ... good move Michael.
Question … do you expect authors of business books to maintain a companion blog? I’ve come to expect authors to either maintain a companion blog to support the book or a catch-all blog with wide-ranging ruminations. To me, having and maintaining a blog has become a cost of doing business be it as an author or as a markerting medic with Brand Autopsy.
Scoble said this.
Shel said that.
Werner said this.
Shel piped in again.
Scoble then challenged Werner to meet after school by the flag pole to settle things.
Shel backed his buddy and buoyed the brouhaha.
Werner added this.
And Shel said more stuff.
Anyone else feel like we are in Junior High again with all this "He Said. Shel Said." babbling? Too bad this conversation went from being naked to wretched with all the back-and-forth bickering blogging. Let’s hope things simmer down between these three so a productive conversation on the business case for blogging can happen.
Recently I riffed on Michael Levine’s BROKEN WINDOWS BROKEN BUSINESS book which applies the broken windows crime theory to business. Levine contends a broken window in business happens when someone isn’t paying attention to details and that these are telltale signs to customers that a business doesn’t care, that it is poorly managed, and or it has become too big and arrogant to adequately deal with little details.
I hate to point this out but Levine’s website has a major broken window –– he last updated his BROKEN WINDOWS BROKEN BUSINESS blog two months ago. (Ouch.)
UPDATED | Dec. 8 | repaired a broken link
For this week's installment of the Carnival of Marketing, I have divided it up into two parts. The first part includes smart marketing-related posts culled from reader submissions. The second part contains a few links to worthwhile marketing reads as selected by me. Since you are all over-achievers, I expect you'll be interested in reading both sections. Right?
Be Proud of Your Mistakes
Matt Heinz explains how to turn failures into learning experiences creating a culture of innovation.
Participate in the Reputation Marketplace
John Winsor’s thinking syncs up with my thinking that managing a brand is really just managing a reputation. Yep, brand management is reputation management.
According to this Wall Street Journal online poll, 62% of voters do not read blogs. [Ouch.] And, only 17% read more than five blogs. [Double Ouch!] Seems to me we need to get folks to read blogs before we worry about whether or not they use RSS.
Whattaya say we all agree to tell five people this week about a few blogs we like. Then after we get these five new folks hooked on blogs, let’s agree to tell them how to use RSS to make reading blogs easier. Deal?
It’s always great to connect offline with someone you’ve connected with online. And this week I was able to put a few faces to a few blogs.
First up was DUST!N from the Casual Fridays blog. As the VP of Programs for the Business Marketing Association (Tulsa Chapter), DUST!N invited me to share some Starbucks Tribal Knowledge at the chapter’s last meeting. Afterwards, DUST!N and I discussed a cool online venture we may introduce. If you have yet to wander over to the Casual Fridays blog … do so now.
Next was Matt Galloway from The Basement blog. While at the BMA Tulsa event, I met Matt (and Hetty, his super-savvy marketing research wife). Matt has emerged on the blogging scene recently with his passionate takes on the power and potential of word-of-mouth marketing. His recap of the WOMMA NYC event was excellent!
And I also met with Ethan from The Vision Thing blog. Recently I shared some thoughts about Whole Foods Market and in comments to my post, Ethan clued me in on the Sprouts Farmer’s Market store in Plano. After trading a few emails, we scheduled a time to tour the Sprouts store and then Ethan recorded our conversation where we dissected … I mean discussed … the Sprouts shopping experience. This conversation should turn up on one of Ethan’s The Sound of Vision podcasts.
But wait, there's more … I get to put a few more faces to blogs next week when Steve Rubel (Micro Persuasion) and Shel Isreal (Naked Conversations & It Seems to Me) are in Austin speaking at The Blogging Enterprise Conference. And … on Thursday, Mike Landeman (Here’s the Thing [blog] & Ripple [business]) and I will connect over a few beers at the Ginger Man.
It’s about time a conference on business blogging came to a top-ranked creative class city like Austin, TX. On Wednesday, November 2nd, THE BLOGGING ENTERPRISE conference will invade the badlands of Central Texas.
This conference has been designed to offer attendees provocative, yet practical, ideas on how businesses can get smarter about using blogs, vlogs, and podcasts to better connect with customers.
Steve Rubel (MicroPersuasion blog) will kick-off the conference and Shel Isreal (Naked Conversations [blog | book]) will close the conference. And in-between … there will be panels on Citizen Marketing, Anticipating & Managing the Blogstorm, and Using Blogs to Position Businesses as Thought Leaders.
[Psst … I’ll be sharing some Brand Autopsy wit and wisdom as a panelist on the Using Blogs to Position Businesses as Thought Leaders discussion.]
Come join us at THE BLOGGING ENTERPRISE Conference. The registration fee is only $170 and by attending … you’ll be the first on the blog block to receive a copy of NAKED CONVERSATIONS.
Wander over to Sam Decker’s blog for his <<Jim Cramer meets Seth Godin>> Web Site Lightening Round blog posting series. Sam is reviewing websites and offering insightful and actionable advice on ways to improve them. Good stuff … well worth a visit.
A couple of Brand Autopsy readers have e-mailed John and I with the clever subject line:
That's the stereotypical line listeners use when they call into a radio show...
Thinking about this line for a few minutes made me realize, that's basically what a blog is... a special-topic radio program.
A program that anyone with an internet tuner can adjust their web dial to...
There are so many people who have heard the word BLOG, but don't know exactly what it means.
The call-in radio program is an easy to get metaphor that bridges the understanding-of-technology gap.
Folks understand that certain radio programs appeal to certain audiences and that you have the option to tune in or tune it out.
They get the concept of calling into a radio show.
They get that the opinions of the radio personality and the opinions of the callers are just that... their opinions.
From a business perspective, perhaps this is a good filter for determining whether your company should engage in blogging.
"Go ahead caller, the lines are open."
No, really... What is blogging doing to help marketing? Customer communications? Innovative ideas? How is it helping tell the story?
What types of marketing advances are being accomplished? How are we helping ourselves?
INFORMATION SHARING
Blogs have offer marketers a way to exchange thoughts to a broader group of folks than normally could be reached. We've formed little town centers... gathering spots... each with their own set of topics.
ONLINE NEWSLETTERS
We've created online newsletters where editors can share their perspective on a topic, link to those who are like-minded, and challenge those who disagree.
BROADER PEER BASE
We're able to meet and discuss topics with folks from around the globe. Normally you would only be able to reach folks at your own company... or professionals you'd meet at a conference... or at professional organization meetings. Blogging is a nice way to network.
These ways of connecting are great. They allowed us to broaden our peripheral vision...
But...
TALKING TO OURSELVES
We've formed small communities, but we're still talking to ourselves... I feel like we've formed on-line clicks... A new version of chat rooms. Other than sharing stories in our own group... What are we doing to share our perspective outside of our group? (If you're not in the chat room, you'll miss the conversation).
ARE WE MAKING A DIFFERENCE?
But HOW is blogging helping us? Our profession? Most effective groups have found ways to organize themselves... form some rules... create process... ensure different folks have different roles... drive a common vision among the group. Should we be better organized either as individuals or as a whole?
I'm not suggesting that we have to unite and lose our individuality... But what are we currently accomplishing? We seem like armchair quarterbacks... back-seat drivers... We view the world from behind out keyboards and make observations and ponder to one another...
What can we do to make ourselves more productive? How can we best use this new tool?
As a marketingologist with the Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice, I give companies “Second Opinions” about the business and marketing activities they are currently doing or considering doing.
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