3 marketing topics to school yourself on this fall.

Labor Day marks the second start of a new year, an opportunity, as with the one in January, for a fresh start and self-improvement. As marketers, it’s a good time to take stock of what we don’t know, in order to stay on top of the latest innovations in accountability, effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.

Social media. It may seem obvious, but the proliferation of platforms, broad use of them for customer interaction, and still-experimental state of the industry can result in huge opportunities for you or colossal blunders. Study up to learn from past mistakes and to prevent your own.

Content marketing. Understanding the changes in creating intelligent dialogue with customers is a larger change in the marketing landscape in the past several years than even social media, which has merely accelerated the process. Marketing as a provider not only of information but also of unbiased value is a sea-change and must understood to be properly executed.

Mobile marketing. There are more mobile internet users online than desktop users. Understanding the needs of the mobile user goes beyond device compatibility. Get ahead of your competition because companies that do not adapt to mobile will suffer the same fate of the latecomers to the internet in the 90s.

There are many others, including marketing automation, search engine optimization (Google makes sure you are out of date almost monthly), and alignment of social and search. 

What others are you studying up on?

Deja vu all over again

In this concise epilogue to the BP spill in the gulf, Fast Company points out that:

1. "...it’s clear that in the age of social media, a company can’t spin and rebrand its way out of a mess like it used to."
2. "...it's what companies do, not what they say, that really matters."
3. "...BP is an example of how companies' misfortunes are going to unfold going forward with all the tools and weapons the Internet and social media afford."
4. "Companies screw themselves when they let perception get ahead of reality..."

Gee, where, I humbly ask, did

1. You
2. See
3. That
4. Before?
   

Twitter Quitter

I quit Twitter today. Oh, this isn’t going to be some minimalist manifesto, just a statement of fact.

I deleted my posts, all 1500+ of them, shared over the past two years or so. Some were moving, insightful. Most were fun. None were ever drivel. No one ever knew what I had for breakfast, I never foursquare’d myself into a virtual mayoral coup d’tat, no one knew when I was ill, and only occasionally did I mention the weather. I even gained a friend or two.

I just got tired.

I initially joined Twitter and other social media to remain up to date on the social media communities important to my clients. I even joined MySpace back in the day – closed the account when it became irrelevant to me.

I like to write, and Twitter and Facebook are good virtual water coolers for office at home types like myself. But they are an extension of me, that is, my personal brand, and before every tweet I’d have to consider that. That can be tiring, particularly for someone such as myself, given to dark humor and sarcasm – 140 characters is plenty of room for a zinger, but never enough for context.

So I’m not dropping out in some Luddite fantasy, I’m just lightening my load a bit. I can be distracted and Twitter is nothing if not a distraction. It was one more thing that took my time from things that were clearly more constructive, useful, profitable, enjoyable, important. Like all good business decisions when faced with limited resources (in this case, time) I had to determine if it was core to my business or life, and if I could justify the continued investment in it. The answer was clearly, no. It was not core, and there are other, arguably better ways to market myself and my ideas, and interact with others.

So my Twitter account is inactive. Of course, I’ll stay in touch, though my number of followers will undoubtedly fall sharply in the coming weeks (another invented preoccupation I'll not miss). I’ll follow the Twittersphere for news on how to leverage Twitter in marketing, and from time to time check on tweets from those I follow who continue to leverage Twitter expertly. The end of this relationship is amicable. I can tell you about Twitter. I can help you create a presence on Twitter. I can now see commercial purposes for Twitter I couldn’t see just a few months ago.

But for now, I’ll just be observing.

Social Media, personified

If your favorite social media site were a person, who would they be? An artist? Engineer? Troublemaker?

In a fun post "Internet University Cast" by artist and DeviantArt contributor elontirien, social media sites are brought to life with personalities inspired by a short story.

A common question in the branding process has always been something along the lines of giving a brand a personality: "if your brand were a fictional character, who would it be?" Such an exercise allows us to identify personality traits and emotions that the brand is intended to produce.

And while I find the Google character a little uptight for my imagination, the others appear spot-on. I especially like the young Twitter character, that seems to underscore the fact that Twitter shares a narcissism and self-importance common of a 'tween'.

For another similar post regarding the Obama and McCain 'brands', click here.

What is your brand? An researcher like Jonas Salk? A granddad like your own? A revolutionary?

Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant?

Below is an intriguing re-post from Mashable regarding the ever-changing face of business and relationship marketing. In the late 90s we used to call Web 1.0, still one way electronic communications, "New Media". I imagine in "NEW" much the same way television was going to destroy radio, radio was to destroy print, and so forth. Yet the interesting thing about the 'new' in this 'New Media' is that it is the first to change the 'old media'... with newspapers weakened (I will not predict their demise), radio and television streaming, and now... old New Media replaced by Web 2.0, the new New Media. Now that's change.

Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant?

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The Internet, in dog years

This is not your teenager's Internet.

The latest news from the Pew Internet and American Life Project will not surprise a colleague who has a 90+ year old father who regularly "Tweets" his family.

Older Americans are going online more than ever before.

According to the study, in the past three years the 'hockey stick' in Internet adoption has been in the 70+ demographic. 70+, folks. God love 'em, these are the same folks that still re-use aluminum foil. Growth in Internet use among people ages 70 to 74 increased by 19% and for those above 75 (b.1924!) growth clocked in at 10%.

Other studies concur that older demographic groups spend more time online than their younger counterparts and while many go online to get health information and visit government Websites, the growth actually stems from use of the Internet for activities such as games, watch movies, use social networking sites or read blogs.

The assumptions and biases that the Internet, social networking and digital media are all tools to reach younger demographics needs to be readdressed by marketers as in this economy particularly, no opportunity to reach out to prospective customers should go unexplored.

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