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The Marketing Edge, one of the longest running marketing and public relations podcasts.
Host Albert Maruggi weaves his 25 years of marketing and PR experience across business, technology and national public affairs in interviews with newsmakers, authors and business leaders.
Maruggi is a frequent speaker and conducts workshop sessions on new media. For more information or to discuss your business challenges and goals, e-mail him.
It used to be back in the day, that all you needed do is be on social media and your non-profit cause was welcome with open arms. Ask Stacey Monk of Epic Change, the organization that launched Tweetsgiving and raised money to help build a school in Tanzania in 2008. Ah the good old days there was little competition on Twitter for non profits, but the early mover advantages are short and sweet. Today, Monk believes creativity, a focus on love, and fresh look at combining talents are what’s needed to get a non-profit’s message beyond the noise.
In this Marketing Edge podcast, I speak with Stacey Monk on how non profits can use social differently than in the early days of Twitter and Facebook. The heart and soul of Monk’s advice is for the non-profit to believe in and use the word love as a rationale for their work. Connecting to the emotional side is what attracts attention, drives satisfaction, and sparks the desire to give. Least we not forget, Monk reminds, that having a set of proof bullets, that this progress report on the Epic Change site helps the thinking side of the equation be comfortable with the gifting.
Here’s Stacey’s impassioned video about Epic Change and the need to be almost raw in the emotional connections between the non-profit and its beneficiaries. That’s the love portion of being a non-profit. Listen around the 8 – 10 minute mark and tell me if you are moved to do better.
Monk mentions that when it comes to fundraising, challenges are a good tactic to use, so let’s see how this goes. In the podcast I mention to Stacey that that Marketing Edge will give $100 to Epic Change if Marketing Edge listeners donate a total of $500 by January 31. Just include the #MktEdge in the note section when you donate to help with Epic Change’s ongoing supportof their mission in Tanzania for Shepards Junior primary school and in helping other non profits raise funds.
Just like a 1960s father complaining about his teenage daughter being on the telephone constantly, social media is entering into its adolescent phase with some growing up to do. The novelty of receiving tweets has worn off, and Facebook posts are commonplace, so now comes the phase when the value of social will have to meet some higher standard. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports more than 65% of online adults use a social network Ironically while the aggregate numbers may lead to the conclusion that social is mainstream, I believe it is still a core group of early adopters that drive “active social media usage”. The trend line of new users and unique visitors does, however, force companies to switch attention and dollars to social channels in 2012.
Social Media 2012 Adolescence
The novelty is worn off, the “that’s cool” reactions to new functions on the social web are not as frequent as the early days of Twitter et. al. We are now somewhere between what Gartner’s Technology Hype Cycle calls the Trough of Disillusionment and Slope of Enlightenment depending on where you sit.
In my work with and research of larger companies, 2012 will be a year to reassess the criteria by which they will judge the success of social media implementation. My suggestion to some enterprises is that social media’s major benefit will be with internal efficiencies and not the number of followers a brand secures.
Social Media Mainstream
This is not a question of dumping social media or the death of social media. I will however, point readers to a wonderful piece by Paul Wallbank on Business Insider commenting on social media’s business model. It is a question of how to make social media efficient in both discovery and content creation. This is similar to the challenge the web faced with search and one which Google seems to have solved to the satisfaction of many. The entire web is whittled down to the first page result on Google for any keyword. A bit simplistic for sure, but a dose of reality for those who never venture to page two of Google results. Is this the future of social commentary and creation? Are we looking at a day’s summary in a nice, neat one page set of bullets about our network and selected topics?
One can make the case we are almost there with apps such as Flipboard, Zite, and Boxcar –
Mainstream Real Life
The life of mainstream America is less centered on technology as it is facilitated by technology. Blaspheme to the geek in you, but please forgive me. The obligations one has to themselves, families, employers and friends is the focus of mainstream individual’s day. Technology companies, especially need to keep that in mind. To paraphrase James Carville, it’s the people stupid.
In this last of a three part episode with Laura Fitton, Inbound Marketing Evangelist for Hubspot, we discuss the time management aspects of building a social media brand, while being a parent and entrepreneur. It’s a great conversation if you are thinking social has gotten out of hand, too much selfless promotion and has diverged from its original course of facilitating the needs of a community. Part One, What Will Change Social Media in 2012 and Part Two Keys to Integrating Content That Motivates Audiences
New Year’s Resolution
Get better. Ok that’s a general resolution, but nonetheless a good start. If you want to be a better marketer in 2012, then start with Hubspot’s Marketing Grader – Similar to their website grader, it’s a free resource to benchmark your website against a criteria that measures content, readability and sharability – the ability for your content to be shared. (i kind of just made that word up )
Sometimes your own website gets stagnant, (guilty), so I’m using Market.grader.com to turn a new leaf for 2012. The report goes in depth, but it also has some great quick tips on actions to improve your site. Here’s an example for me.
Sure there are some boilerplate responses that are part of the report, for example a premise of the report is for the business to have a Facebook page. I concluded early on that I did not want a business Facebook page, for several reasons among them, time, producing new and different content, I already have a personal Facebook page, and it is a lot of “me tooism”. This is also one of the reasons I’m not big on solutions headlines, e.g. 5 ways to make great fried chicken, but they do work. Hubspot does give you food for thought with its Market Grader report as you implement your New Year’s Resolutions for 2012.
Happy New Year to all listeners of the Marketing Edge Podcast, thanks for listening.
The year-end blog posts about marketing ideas for 2012 are endless. The one constant included in the majority of them is the importance of content. Now now, everyone and their brother has a book out about the latest consultant buzz word “content marketing”. Stop it; this should almost insult your intelligence, if you are a thinking person, for consultants to raise the content flag as what’s new in marketing.
The irony here is that digital and social media have created an environment similar to advertising. Here’s what I mean, in the last 20 years every space is open to place a logo for payment, from sidewalks to mobile apps. That same environment applies to content of all types, from “how to” videos to tweets about your blog post. The challenge is how many ways can you essentially say the same thing and how will it convince those who receive the information.
We get into a conversation about content with long time social media advocate Laura Fitton aka @Pistachio. She is one of the early adopters in the social community, an entrepreneur founder of OneForty, co-author of Twitter for Dummies, and is now an inbound marketing evangelist for Hubspot. I have no affiliation with Hubspot. Hubspot was all about content and digital crumbs long before today’s latest push for content marketing.
In this Marketing Edge podcast episode Laura and I discuss the shift from seeking customers to customers seeking. A difference that requires a shift in how you approach your own company and it’s role in the world of information. People have written books about this topic, I sum it up in one messily blog post Newsroom PR saving you time and money : ) .
Hubspot has a new twist on the way they analyze website content. Give marketing.grader.com a try, it will give you a report on whether the content on your website is attractive to readers and can help generate inbound marketing inquiries.
Maruggi’s Trends for Social in 2012
Mobile will drive foot and digital traffic so be there
Bloggers and customers want more to do your marketing
Companies will demand more feedback from consumers in exchange for something you value
There are hundreds of surveys these days about social media usage with varying degrees of accuracy. Suffice it to say this one from GlobalWebIndex showcases the general mood of fatigue by users of social networks. It describes Facebook registered users decline, perhaps defecting to Google+, perhaps just being tired of the constant need to be engaged and requests to Like, to Give, to Attend, and so on, and so on. and so on.
Beware Marketers
Gartner has a similar survey of consumer fatigue with social networks with similar results. These snapshots of mood are an early warning signal to social marketers and more importantly to those in decision making positions whose only contact with the social web are two charts they see at meetings – those charts usually contain some ROI data about number of Likes, follows, mentions, retweets, blog posts, or related data.
These individuals who like you and have carried some marketing water for you, are not your employees. Sure at the beginning of this social experiment it was humbling to be Liked by so many. Then it was fun to see what subsets of this “fan base” would do. Would they like a product? Share a discount with their friends? Get others to Like you too?
In the ivory tower it is easy to look down on this picture and see individuals scurrying about at your every instruction, clue, deal etc. That’s a relationship that can be easily taken for granted. When they stop doing what you expected them to do in that maze you created, you wonder if the thrill is gone. After all social media gurus you said this was about relationships, speak with a human voice. And now, just like any relationship, it’s time for the hard part. The equivalent of the seven year itch. Does one of you bolt? Just a thought as the end of year budgeting battles begin in corporate America and you gather the information about what resources to dedicate to social media for 2012. I submit the equation needs to change in the tone and activities of many business social media strategies.
We, and I say we because social isn’t anything without we. We tried something last night that felt like what social media is supposed to be. It was a night that recognized one of hundreds of groups that contribute content in social. The group was sports bloggers, true bloggers in that they are not part of a news media organization that also blogs. They blog because they like to write about a sport they love. The bloggers were:
These bloggers were contestants in a live sports trivia show. The audience, who filled the back room at Gabes by the Park, (a St. Paul old school sports bar) was into being there for the interaction. Some were active participants in social media and others could care less about tweeting answers or checking in on Facebook. The joy for me was seeing them together, laughing, guessing answers, learning about each other, and that Bill Bradley and Manu Ginobili are the only two NBA players to win Olympic gold, a Euroleague championship and an NBA championship.
In the midst of this was also the sponsor component. Verizon in the Great Plains region has been an active supporter of social communities for a couple of years now, some examples is there support of Social Media Breakfast, Mobile Twin Cities, and many others. Their 4G network was featured throughout the promotion of this event, we streamed the event using the Verizon MIFI and Samsung Charge, and they had their devices on display at the event. More important to me, however, was they were there.
Some people were here because they saw the event on a social channel, some because they were friends of someone at the event. It was not a case of social gamesmanship, you know, tweet 5 times and you get a piece of cheese. Those tactics work and there is a place for it in the large landscape of social, this was different. The implementation this event was about recognizing the effort made to create content and to engage with a community of interested people.
A measure of excitement ( i use this word instead of success because I think success is overused ) was the conversations after the game. We talked about doing it again, and how to get others involved and, and, and… This is how innovation works in a very open way. It underscored for me, the we in social. Thanks to everyone for being a part of this fun experience.
Disclosure:Verizon is a client and I appreciate all that @vzwkarendoes for the social community in our region.
Chris Brogan is like the James Brown of social media. Brown was called the hardest working man in show business and the same moniker can be applied to Chris Brogan in social media. Brogan and I met over $.99 margaritas in Vegas at an early Blog World conference. Fast forward several years and the social space has changed, matured to some extent, but still with many challenges for individuals and firms to monetize on a platform of abundantly free information.
There is always a rush to learn and determine whether shiny new objects are worth your time. Google Wave, Buzz, etc have not created the rush of praise and participation as Google + has in the last couple of months. Brogan has spent more than 250 hours on Google + with an eye toward how business can use it. As of this writing business brands are not welcome on Google + which prompted some criticism of Brogan’s webinar. In an era of personal brands, however, there are plenty individuals in business who can benefit from learning about the Google + platform. We get into Brogan’s big 3 reasons for business to understand the direction of Google +.
indexing
longer content
greater ability to follow
Debate, Differences and Gratitude
I wanted to interview both Livingston and Brogan in light of their public differences to highlight the social nature of this medium which is important to me. Keeping a dialogue about how to monetize information, whether in the form of a book, a webinar, a community or a consultancy, is critical for the space to develop. This open disagreement is also critical for brands to see as it gives them a picture of how individuals within different schools of thought engage online in a civil discourse. This is how our economic and organizational culture will adjust to a faster, more open way to reflect nature of how individuals communicate in a public forum. It’s my belief that if corporate hierarchies and individual perceptions don’t change from their pre-social media habits of controlling information and perceptions, then social media will be more a fad, or a niche event and not a cornerstone for global development that I hope it can.
For a variety of reasons, professional and personal, I am not as prolific as many of those who read and listen to the Marketing Edge and who I interview on the program. The fact is I do personally benefit from much of the work of others, including Geoff Livingston and Chris Brogan. The all of them I say thank you.
I realize how hard original content providers work to make the social space a intellectually rich. This podcast is a labor of love and a way, limited I acknowledge, but a way, I contribute to the social space.
Sports Bloggers Trivia Night
We are recognizing four Twin Cities area sports bloggers on Wednesday, August 3, at 6PM at Gabes by the Park. Come out and see a live sports trivia show, have free appetizers, get your hands on the latest 4G devices from Verizon and maybe win some free stuff. Here’s the details. at bit.ly/sportsbloggers
I scheduled this interview with Livingston to talk about his book Welcome the Fifth Estate, but issues surrounding Google+ rose to a higher level so we talk both in this podcast. And yes we do get into the online differences between Livingston and Chris Brogan, two friends of mine.
First the book and the idea of making your corporate culture receptive to being open. This is the issue of restructuring organizations to be nimble enough in a fast paced, socially engaged environment. This involves two issues:
1) Can you speak about the issues surrounding your organization without having your organization be the focus of that conversation? This paradigm is critical to your organization’s future credibility and the ability to build a community that will expend energy on your behalf. Think like you were an embeded journalist in your company.
2) The social web has no geography or silos, can your organization and its processes accommodate this very different structure?
Google + Observations
Use it as a person, nothing like getting in the pool and judging for your self whether the water is cold or not.
Hangouts are very useful, even for a quick video group call with Grandma. And yes just because your brand can’t use it, 10 people can collaborate from your global offices.
Circles can serve as a Yammer-like platform, remember Yammer?
+1 can serve as a voting function for more than my comedy posts, for example your ad campaign slogans, designs, food at the office party.
Bottom line, use it as an individual building your network and seeing through your own work processes how it can benefit
Google + Dust Up
This story is moving fast, suffice it to say here. Google + for business is a lot like the history of the Oklahoma land grab. Just as I post this here is an update on Google booting brands off + and NBC News left Google + but are keeping their reporters on.
As soon as the invites were flowing, businesses opened pages claiming we know Google +. Some by being insiders like Mashable, others by spending hundreds of hours in the + playground. All this despite Google not having an official business policy other than “no brands allowed,” yet.
It’s getting ugly because social is a maturing business. Plenty of individuals in this space are businesses, me included. I am for hire and I am on Google+ and I do know more about it than someone who has not been on Google+. The rub is that brands are being told they can’t play on Google+ (as of this writing) , but in an era of personal brands, how is that possible to not be on. For example, in the social web, Scott Monty is Ford, Jeremiah Owyang is Altimeter Group, etc. etc.
This is a confusing and rapidly changing issue, with some major camps of difference. Livingston and Brogan, two guys I admire greatly for what they have given to the community and me, have sparred over how to monetize their expertise. Brogan this week produced a webinar for how business should prepare to use Google+. Another friend of mine, Jen Kane once called me Switzerland because I get along with folks so I feel uniquely qualified to be in the middle of this Kerfluffel
Here’s my take, this is the result of the “free” economy of information which resides in a mostly socialist state with individuals contributing to a larger community each benefiting each other, while the same individuals responsible for the information reside in a capitalist financial state who some how must monetize a portion of that same information.
It comes down to how you package what may well be available for free, how you add value to that information through analysis or experience, and whether the market is willing to pay for that package. An example in free and paid information of the same topic is software training programs. I get a tutorial and support forums where users offer their experience freely with most software I purchase. However, there are also companies that package “how to use it” information in such a compelling way that some people are willing to pay for it because it saves them time or allows them to understand the software better.
While packaging is the means many in social media are adding value and making a living, the underlying issue remains that the foundation of social media involves individual contributions to the larger group. The irony or the beauty is the community raises the level of “influence” of individuals by their own accord (gaming tactics aside) and the market is willing to pay for it. Perhaps through social media we are seeing capitalism in a more raw form over the last couple of years, and like sausage, sometimes it ain’t pretty – but damn tasty.
So many mixed messages these days. First its declining active users vs awareness on Twitter – according the the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Second, Inside Facebook reports Facebook lost 6 million users in the United States base of users. But not a day later, consumer products manufacturing giant Procter and Gamble announced it was opening several product Facebook Commerce pages for Tide, Gillette, Olay, Gain, CoverGirl, Luvs and Febreze. So there seems to be mixed messages about whether social media is growing or leveling off.
In this Marketing Edge Podcast with Garrick Van Buren, we talk about the characteristics that attracted the early growth of social media, and the attributes it has developed over time that may be responsible for the current pause in growth. Garrick is a web application developer and person who is an astute early adapter with an understanding of consumer interface fundamentals. He gives to the community but does like to fly under the radar which is one of the reasons he stopped using Twitter several months ago.
Key elements of the social trend curve
Early access to new information and people (enlightened conversations)
Efficient communication paths (quick messaging with clear intent)
low noise to clear signal ratio (no or little advertising )
As social grew
abundance of new information and people (quality high, but potentially overwhelming amount of relationships)
cluttered communications paths (advertisers and company participation)
noise increases and signal distortion grows (public and private agendas muddy the message)
The conversation highlights potential pitfalls marketers can avoid as they attempt to be valuable to social consumers and responsive to their internal business clients.
1) Be aware of consumer apathy
2) Frequency of ask can lead to fatigue
3) Divide social consumers in to smaller groups with greater interest and topics to keep enthusiasm
Marketing Edge Survey
Looking for your input on topics and other potential channels bit.ly/marketingedge
Patrick Strother, A long time, thoughtful practitioner of strategic communications and public relations is the guest on this episode of the Marketing Edge Podcast. He is the Chief Creative Officer and founder of Strother Communications Group and a visiting faculty professor of PR and strategic communications planning at the University of Minnesota.
The inspiration for this conversation was an article written by New York Times executive editor Bill Keller, The Twitter Trap. In this article, Keller (@nytkeller) laments giving his 13 year old daughter permission to be on Facebook, and I as a father of three teens, can empathize with Keller.
The journalist also highlights his concerns about how Twitter, et al. social is impacting out ability to give serious thought to issues, demand our attention, and perhaps even erode a bit of our humanity by undermining “complexity, acuity, patience, wisdom, and intimacy.”
Strother (on twitter @patrickstrother )and I talk about Twitter’s impact on parenting and the decisions that social media participation forces on adolescents. I thought this particularly appropriate given that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants to explore the possibility of children younger than 13 joining social networks safely. This agenda advanced at a summit of internet and public policy leaders called the eG8 last week.
Strother and I take the conversation to uses of Twitter in building relationships with journalists. In his eyes, Twitter is not a pitching tool, but an effective research and relationship tool. Agreed. I also enjoy using Muck Rack to discover the journalists using Twitter. I read Poynter.org to stay close to the heart and soul of being a journalist in changing times. It pursues the agenda of independent journalism’s importance to democracy.
We discuss some of the skills necessary for companies to effectively participate on the social web, a place shared by journalists and company thought leaders. A place that can reward discourse.
The Social PR Paradigm in corporate communications operation should include:
1) Editorial planning as if you were a news organization for social spaces that feature your company’s expertise. I’ve talked about this for a while as the idea of an embeded corporate journalist
2) Read, engage, and comment on journalists blogs and twitter profiles that cover your industry
3) Gain a greater understanding of writing with a news , as contrasted with say marketing collateral.
On this last point, Strother makes a strong case in the podcast and is working to incorporate this concept for his students.
I don’t use this space for personal stuff, but I’ll make an exception for several reasons.
1) My mother died when I was 12 and truth be told I probably never “got over it”
2) Overall in the world, women still get treated poorly and do most of the work to hold a family together. (generalization, yeah but anyone want to debate me on that one I’m open)
3) George Carlin had a great line about God being a man, he said “I know he’s a man cause the world wouldn’t be this messed up if a woman was running things” (not sure about that one, but it is funny)
4) I very much admire Stacey Monk the founder, organizer of Epic Change. She ran the first Tweetsgiving which succeeded in helping Mama Lucy Kamptoni build a school to educate children in Tanzania. Stacey has tirelessly continued to turn the spotlight on women of the world. All types of women. Women who do routine work under stressful conditions, in poverty-stricken environments, or under oppressive governments.
This year to celebrate Mother’s Day, Epic Change features To Mama with Love, a collaborative online art project that honors moms across the world. The funds raised by this art project will go to several remarkable women and their programs to help children.
You can learn about these women including Suraya Pakzad in Afghanistan, Maggie Doyne and Renu Shah Bagaria in Nepal at the To Mamma with Love website.
Happy Mother’s Day
Oh the marketing tip, don’t let another moment go by without telling a mom, any mom, how special they are to those who love them.
constantly, social media is entering into its adolescent phase with some growing up to do. The novelty of receiving tweets has worn off, and Facebook posts are commonplace, so now comes the phase when the value of social will have to meet some higher standard. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports 
about the characteristics that attracted the early growth of social media, and the attributes it has developed over time that may be responsible for the current pause in growth. Garrick is a web application developer and person who is an astute early adapter with an understanding of consumer interface fundamentals. He gives to the community but does like to fly under the radar which is one of the reasons he stopped using Twitter several months ago.
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