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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

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Archives for March 2010

Social Media — Hype or Reality?

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Today’s Wall Street Journal Small Business story “Entrepreneurs Question Value of Social Media” contains the usual pro/con, plus/minus stance journalists must take for fair reporting. It also states new evidence suggests social media is more hype than reality.

A marketing professor, Larry Chiagouris of Pace University’s Lubin School of Business, believes strongly social media can be harmful…if you say something stupid, offensive or grammatically incorrect.

Certainly, he’s right — words can kill, hurt or maim.

But, social media provides an opportunity for the small business owner (SMB) and entrepreneur to saddle up with the big guys. In fact, the SMB can do social media a whole lot better — with more flexibility, speed and targeted messaging.

According to the story, in 2009, “social-media adoption by businesses with fewer than 100 employees doubled to 24 percent from 12 percent in a study by University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business and Network Solutions.”

The crux of the matter is this — any new communications channel provides opportunity. Stick the big toe in, test the temperature. Being timid may be safer for your company’s culture and comfort zone; however, with time comes confidence. Once you understand that you cannot be on Twitter alone or launch a Facebook page strictly to regurgitate press releases, you’ll have more success.

So, here’s something to chew on SMBs:

1. Listen to the naysayers and get the eyes wide open to what may be a passing fad (says academicians). Then ignore it!

2. Stick your neck out of the comfort zone and jump in — tweet, do a Facebook fan page, try a blog, do some Internet press releases that point to a content-rich landing page, etc.

3. Lower the expectation and get ready to be pleasantly surprised with the experience.

You see, there’s something the academics are not telling you in their lofty commentary and market research. When you engage with real people who are peers,real or potential customers, you learn. You learn more than you ever expected, and that’s the value social media brings.

Nope, it’s not hype; it’s definitely reality. What do you think?

Paint, Pizza and Social Media

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Look around the walls that confine you. How many layers of paint make up what you see? The very first layer of paint on the dry wall was primer followed by several coatings of tint. Color is intended to complement the core structure; instead, it does a good job of hiding it.

In Chicago, Lou Malnati’s, along with my other faves Nancy’s Pizza, Rosati’s, and Leona’s make pie — deep dish, can’t-get-anywhere-else Chicago ‘za. (Yes, I’m salivating.) Malnati’s offers a butter crust, among other delights. When the home-made Italian sauce zingy with oregano, basil, etc. is added along with the four-blend cheese not to mention the veg toppings (spinach, onion, tomato anyone?) and, and, and…who can taste the crust?

Social media is akin to paint and pizza. In North America, Internet usage penetration is 74.2 percent, and there are 1.73 billion Internet users around the world, according to Internet World Stats. To find the actual number of blogs, good luck. In a post two years ago on Blog Herald, estimates by Technorati suggested 112.8 million blogs. Add micro-blogging via Twitter, and Facebook, MySpace, with social networking on LinkedIn and a variety of other social media layers/levels applied daily (whew), and where the heck is the crust and dry wall?

In your business, rather than stacking bricks willy-nilly in the hopes of decorative art, focus on the foundation. Concentrate on several initial layers of basic messaging WITH A STRATEGY and build from there.  Social media can be dangerous, especially when a public relations practitioner or marketer is caught up in the bells-and-whistles frenzy to add more, more, more. “Less is more!” said my former boss, Jodee Stevens, founder and creative director of Cardthartic.

So, as you paint and dine on “salivacious” (I do a lot of word coining) Chicago ‘za, stay focused on the first layers. Over time, spurred by on-tap strategy, add the anchovies — or not.

Twitter & the Hash Tag

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As I toil to design this deal, I will attempt to delight with awesome lingo. Twitter will provide an array of topics. Tonight’s is about the awesome use of the # (hash tag). I’m following these several days #LMA10 — the Legal Marketing Association annual meeting in Denver.

For those not in the know, when you tweet, add that hash tag to each tweet, and it’s captured along with other tweets throughout the conference.

Today I gathered all the negatives about the event — WiFi non-existent, SRO, no break-out rooms listed, no photography, etc.

In addition, I got some great points relating to social media, alternative fee arrangements, branding, and public relations in law firms.

The most interesting, yet troubling, point came from a public relations session where folks were told that social media is a fad. Legal marketers need to look for the next place to hang their hats.

Really?

Well, I’ve been tweeting an entire year, and this “fad” shows no sign of slowing down. Coming from an industry traditional slow to adopt, I’m not sure where that statement originated.

Fad or not, social media is here to stay — very alive and well. If you’ve got any thoughts direct from the legal marketer perspective, please share!

Inspiration Via Perspiration

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My colleague, peer Twitterer and blogger mentor extraordinaire @markwschaefer who blogs incredibly strategically at https://businessesgrow.com/blog/ provided my inspiration for this second post.

Thank you kindly, Mark, for my first so fitting comment on the newly born “Soulati–‘TUDE!” I’m thrilled to join you, although, please bear with my “perspiration” to reach levels untold.

The learning curve is steep, challenging, complex, fun, inspirational, enjoyable, and rewarding. Please come along for the ride and watch it all come alive!