The Bonafide Marketing Genius Strikes Again

Smart, thought-provoking piece from Trendwatching.com (read the full article here http://bit.ly/4y4gQe) about what 2010 holds in store for the People Formerly Known as Consumers.

I enjoy #1 "Business an Unusual", #4 "(F)luxury", #5 "Mass mingling", and #6 "Eco-Easy", but am particularly interested in/inspired by trend #10 "Maturialism" mainly b/c it suggests that my no-apologies approach to cursing liberally in professional communication stands a snowball's chance in hell of landing me a lucrative book and/or TV deal.

Listen if @shitmydadsays can do it, then dammit, so can I.

I will admit that this post from Tremendous News (http://bit.ly/1IeIE8), heartwarmingly titled "5 Ways Twitter Lists Can Defeat Douchebags" made me giggle.

I will also admit that I LOVE TWITTER LISTS!!!! IMHO, they make finding the most worthwhile tweets even easier than Twitter monitoring tools like TweetDeck and Seesmic (though I would still go that route to monitor keywords, hashtags, brand names, etc.). Seriously. Before the lists feature launched, I would go days, weeks, sometimes even months without catching a tweet from a friend or one of the handful or so people who totally crack me up on Twitter (the horror!!!!!).

Now, I just click on http://twitter.com/#/list/mzkagan/friends to see what my friends have been saying or peruse http://twitter.com/#/list/mzkagan/people-that-crack-me-up for some great laughs or perhaps troll through http://twitter.com/#/list/mzkagan/super-smarties to see what the smart folks are tweeting about (btw, if you feel that I have wronged you by not including you on one of my lists, please take a chill pill. I'll get to you, assuming you actually belong on the list. A girl only has so many hours in a day, ya know?)

BTW, you are welcome to subscribe to any of the lists referenced above, should you also desire to snoop on super-smarties or friends-of-the-Genius or people-who-crack-me-up. It's a free country.

Well, unless you're gay and you live in one of the 46 states that have banned gay marriage. Or you have discovered the hard way that health care is anything BUT free.

But I digress.

Back to douchebags.

Is it me or does it seem like this somewhat-uncool term has become the retro-insult-du-jour, perhaps fueled by a few clever viral bits about Social Media and New Media "douchebags"?

Hmm...

I suppose that if you're reading this and you are a "douchebag," you may find solace in the Douchebag Solidarity movement captured so poignantly in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tqEBQjWRws

Bottom line, there will always be douchebags. I believe we used to call them assholes, but for whatever reason, the cool kids (probably the same people now referred to as DBs) decided retro terminology was better. And so everything old is new again.

Yay!

I am often harping on the "Less is More" philosophy of messaging—often to the intense resistance of clients who worry that opportunity will be missed and dollars left on the table if they don't cram every potential feature, benefit, and ambiguous adjective into their product/company description. *sigh*

Oh, and then there's the irresistible urge to load said descriptions with boring industry/corporate jargon and overused, meaningless terms like "market-leader" and "cutting edge". UGH.

This video does a fantastic job of showing how a remarkable product can get absolutely buried in the murky swamp of piss-poor-messaging (and design-by-committee) and clearly illustrates my view that more is... well, just MORE. Not better. Sorry.

Interestingly, this video was not created by Apple or by an Apple fan—it was created by some folks at Microsoft who also clearly agree with my Less is More philosophy. Of course, even if they peel back all the redundant and pointless language on their packaging, they'll still have that "product problem" to address. But we'll leave that elephant in the room for the moment.

Then again, who am I to talk? If they gave me the assignment, I probably would have just written "This F**king Rocks" on the front and called it a day.

I've always held the opinion that "Best Practices" are the fastest, most effective way to kill innovation. On the other hand, I can't argue with the need for some guidance and basic tips for newbies. And this one posted courtesy of The Buzz Bin is a good place to start for anyone planning to set up a Facebook Fan Page.

You might also want to check out Facebook's official Fan Pages Fan Page (say that 10x fast!) at http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages and this post on 10 Ways to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page http://bit.ly/2k5NOd.>

My 2 cents? Facebook is a virtually ubiquitous channel at this point; it reaches half of the US population and is consuming substantial amounts of our "free time" and mind share. You should figure out how to cultivate your presence there. But please oh please dont "just be there" — have a strategy. Put some thought into what people are already normally doing on Facebook and identify the threads that connect your Fan Page to that behavior. Make it fun. Make it share-worthy. Make it join-worthy. Remember that it's social > media, right? ;)

Hee hee

A few weeks ago, I shared a link to an article by David Berkowitz called "We Have Sinned" (in case you missed it: http://bit.ly/CPApc), which was a clever little Yom-Kippur-appropriate repentance for the many social media and social marketing-related sins that have been committed by brands over the past year.

At the same time, the Genius found herself bombarded by folks asking all sorts of questions about how best to integrate social marketing into their overall marketing mix, where to begin, whom to involve, etc etc.

And thus was born the "Social Marketing Health Check" embedded above. Though still a work-in-progress, this little quiz (which you technically can't fail as we have not devised a scoring system for it—yet) should help you identify the areas where your organization/team is strongest and weakest with respect to social marketing.

Mind you, this isn't intended to be an assessment of a specific campaign. We're not grading you on things like "influence" or "impact". Rather, we're looking at the foundation of your strategy and approach, across these key categories:

I'm very interested in getting some feedback on this from those of you curious (or crazy) enough to download and take the quiz. I want to know how you did overall, where you're strongest/weakest, and what you thought of the quiz itself. Was it helpful? Laughable? Frightening? Encouraging?

Talk to me, people. Please. :)

(PS if you're having trouble seeing the embed or clicking on it, here's a direct link to the doc on Scribd.com http://www.scribd.com/doc/21797667/Social-Marketing-Health-Check-by-Espresso

Ok maybe not EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know, but... a few pearls of wisdom perhaps? :)

If you liked the video, maybe go here for some more Genius-y reading http://bit.ly/1K9nWg.

Bye now!

Still think that tackling the social media beast is akin to brain surgery? Or rocket science? Or rocket surgery?

Allow the US military to assure you that's not the case. Like everything, it simply requires some planning, a process, training, and commitment.

Having taken all of the above steps, the US military is kicking social media butt and actively using key social channels like Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter to recruit the next generation of soldiers. For example, check out this site which provides a snapshot of the amazing job US Army is doing in social media http://bit.ly/1GrZdZ.

Now then... may I suggest you get your sorry, soft hiney off that cushy office chair, put on your Big Girl Panties, and start tackling this beast?

It aint gonna tackle itself.

 

Three lucky bloggers will embark on a year-long, 206 country journey around the world courtesy of Coca-Cola’s “Open Happiness” campaign. The adventure will include blogging, Tweeting and uploading videos to YouTube and is part of the soda giant’s dive into social media. The trip will kick off January 1 and the blogging trio will spend only a day or two in each country meeting with locals and taking part in events like the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Coke’s director of Office of Digital Communications and Social Media, Adam Brown, says, “It's not about having the Coca-Cola brand first and foremost, center of the screen. It's about telling the story that involves Coca-Cola, that involves the attributes of what Coca-Cola is about, optimism and joy.”

Harumph, more like the “Open Diabetes and Obesity” campaign. Yes, I’m just jealous and bitter.

By Annie Colbert.

Let's see...
- a lot cheaper than another Christina Aguilera commercial
- a lot more engaging and personal than the Polar Bears
- an opportunity for storytelling through the lens of the brand's loyal fans—not its marketing or PR department
- props for being "ahead of the curve" with this foray into social marketing

Clearly, the Genius approves.

Kudos to Adam Brown for pointing out that marketing WITH (vs. marketing AT) one's target audience IS the future.

For pete's sake, aren't you sick of hearing about it? And PAYING for it?

SO DO SOMETHING. Start by watching above video, then passing it on. If you like, make a donation here http://bit.ly/2MGzM7.

PUH-LEASE.