Digital Marketing Consulting, Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Marketing
driving web, search and social media marketing solutions
This recently posted video has become top of the viral video charts and for some reason the author has prevented embedded. It looks like they may even be removing it from YouTube. Why did it go viral?
1. The video makes you smile.
2. The video is real.
3. The music is shocking for a church and surprisingly appropriate for the ocassion.
4. It’s a unique kind of wedding entrance and fun to watch from the very beginning.
5. Don’t you wish you were at or in this party?
What a great find! I just learned of the joys of Jay Baer (@jaybaer)and I’ve decided he’s my new boyfriend for social media advice. You can convince and convert me any day, Jay! I love your blog. Not only do you practice what you preach, but you share it too! Thank you.
Since I’ve been a fan of Beth Kanter for several months now I was tickled to find this twitter interview with her that Jay is doing as part of his 20 Twitter Interview series. My favorite question and answer from the Twitterview was:
13. @jaybaer: Social media is inextricably linked with inbound marketing. How important is search engine savvy for NPOs today?
Good to hear we the web site and SEO still need to get attention in this wildly social time.
“Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” — John Wooden
Thanks to Coach Joe of my running team for that one. And here’s a quick reminder of the importance of persistence.
Since I’m teaching tonight at the downtown campus of SFSU CEL, I was particularly interesting in the Groupon email in my inbox this morning. The offer is for $35 worth of scrumptious Italian food at Zuppa for $15. That’s a $20 savings and in any economy, that sounds like a deal!
Zuppa is on 4th Street, just around the corner from SFSU, so perhaps some of my students would like to take advantage of it for a late dinner.
If you haven’t heard of Groupon, it’s worth a look because there are some great offers and because they are usually one day only you feel special if you can take advantage of one. The limited time offer is the exclusivity.
The fact that the offer will only happen if enough people buy-in, i.e. want to take advantage of the offer and commit to being there is the power of the group. You see the business can only offer the special if they have enough people. With a critical mass, they are willing to make a special offer. If not enough people sign up, the deal is off.
So it’s one of those win-win propositions. The business uses Groupon to promote business and the customers receive a special deal because they are Groupon members.
Group (rock) on!
Since I just finished Putting the Public Back into Public Relations by Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge, I am trying something new with regards to sharing my thoughts about the book. There may be a few more posts talking about the book in the future, but for the book is highlighted and I am revisiting all the highlights to pull out my favorite points for discussion and emphasis. Here are a few of my favorites just in the first 50 pages. The book is well worth reading especially if you are a PR professional, but even if you are just getting into social media and trying to get a feel for the New Media landscape today.
“Great PR has always been about telling stories in a way that makes people identify with like-minded individuals to share information and build strong relationships.” — p. xx, Preface, Public Back into Public Relations by Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge
Stories are everything. I am reminded of Daniel Pink’s book A Whole New Mind, that drills this point home in his story about selling wine and if I tell you the story here I will ruin it for you, so if you’re interested read or even better, LISTEN to the book.
“Broadcasting your “message” to your audience with top-down PR campaigns no longer works in New Media. You have to engage people through the diverse segments that represent your target markets.” — p.14, Public Back into Public Relations by Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge
In other words, know your audience and not just how old they are, where they live and how much income they earn, but really know them. Know where they spend their time, what they like, how they participate in social media, what they do at work and at home. Know how they think and what makes them engage in conversation.
“New PR is about people and relationships, not just new tools… PR in the era of Socialized Media requires a fusion of traditional PR, Internet marketing, Web-savvy market intelligence, and the ability to listen and engage in conversations without speaking in messages.” — p.35, Public Back into Public Relations by Brian Solis and Deidre Breakenridge
Since I started my career in PR and am now in Internet marketing, this quote makes me feel like I am in the right place to listen and engage.
Have you read the book? What do you think?
Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon
4o years ago today, the first humans landed on the moon. It was a major milestone with Neil Armstrong’s moon walk to follow the next day. What seemed impossible had been accomplished and many people worldwide watched in awe as the news unfolded on the black and white television, across radio waves and in the newspaper.
Today, most people first hear of important news via their social network. Whether it is Twitter, Facebook or just a friend telling you, who probably received it in “Twitter-time,” the news has shifted from something that is not just reported by big corporations, but also distributed by word-of-mouth over short messaging systems and wifi.
We’ve come a long way in 40 years especially when it comes to marketing and relationships. 40 years ago marketing used to require messaging and money was crucial to building a strong campaign and there was very little opportunity for the small Mom and Pop shop to compete. Today, marketing requires relationships, connections, conversations and participation. Even the little guy can succeed if he is smart and driven enough. It still takes time though and that’s where the skills come in. Do your research and you’re likely to find a lot of people sharing a wealth of knowledge. For example, this article by Mari Smith that Michaela Hayes shared with me is a very good strategy for social media.
We are now well into the share economy where sharing and connecting over common interests is the name of the game.
I enjoyed this Nora Jones song I found during an Apollo 11 search on Twitter. Sometimes reflection on our progress is a great way to continue moving forward.
I am teaching my Internet Marketing Now: New Tools and Trends class at San Francisco State University’s College of Extended Learning in the Integrated Marketing Program. (If that is not a mouthful I don’t know what is.) The course name is soon to be changed to Social Media and More because since it began a couple of years ago the material has morphed into being more social media than anything else, because that is what is most popular online today.
When you work on the Internet, the trends change so rapidly that was “it” six months ago is now “old” and the new is really H O T, “hot”!
I watched a rather long video today from a marketer I have stumbled upon before on Twitter called Jonathan Bud. He is certainly confident, exudes confidence and loves himself, and that is all totally fine. There is nothing wrong with it. You may want to hate him for it, but you can’t, because he just seems so genuine.
One of the things he says near the end of the video is to become a master marketer, you must become a student of marketing. Follow other marketers, make note of what they do, study successful marketing campaigns and case studies and have lots of fun with it. I like to study other marketers and really admire people like Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Brian Solis, Rand Fishkin, Danny Sullivan and more. There is always something to learn and I feel like I am a perpetual student.
This is humbling and I also learn from my students when I teach. One of the assignments in the Internet Marketing Now: New Tools and Trends class is to blog everyday for the duration of the class. I ask my students to do this and I promise to do it too. It sounds easy, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. The challenge is good and I believe the exercise helps students understand what being a blogger is like and what kinds of things you need to do to make it. I am always inspired by my students with this exercise. There are so many great writers out there and so much potential. Follow your dreams. Do what you want to do and don’t let anyone ever tell you you can’t, because by golly, if you believe you can, yes you CAN.
Today I started reading Chris Anderson’s free FREE: The Future of a Radical Price on my free Kindle for iPhone application. I’m not very far in the book yet, but am loving the fact that I have a whole book on my phone that I have with me wherever I go, that it was free, that it’s all about how offering products and services for free CAN be and often is a means to making money and everything about the whole experience is well… freeing!
I have been telling students in my classes that there is such a thing as a free lunch for a while now, beginning with the introduction of podcasts. Offering knowledge and services for free is a great way to build goodwill, get yourself noticed and build your customer base. Google is a glaring example. And have you ever paid for using Wikipedia?
Chris Anderson also talks about Monty Python who were disgruntled by the fact that so many of their videos were being shown on YouTube without their permission. They decided to create their own channel of clips with much better quality and asked their fans to just buy their videos, DVDs and other merchandise. The result? After the three month experiment giving away the high quality clips, sales had increased 23,000 percent! Wow!
@Jason_Pollock on Twitter posted a video introducing the Mountain Dew Box. It’s an exclusive box of several unmarked cans of different flavored Mountain Dew which they will be sending to an undisclosed number of participants in the Dew Box Campaign. To receive a Dew Box, contestants must send in a 2 minute video about why they are the best candidates for the taste testing job or just send an email explaining why.
Mountain Dew commissioned 50 artists to design the box and is will be using the artwork in the campaign as well. It’s a social media campaign and a creative way to engage customers in discovering the next new flavor of “Dew” and really involve brand and product fans.
The contest is short – starting on Friday, July 17th and ending on Tuesday, July 21st, so those “Doing-the -Dew-ers” are going to be drinking lots of @Mtn_Dew to get that video in this weekend.
Here’s Jason’s introduction:
And here’s the campaign landing page: DewLabs 12 Seconds Challenge. It looks like 12 Seconds, a new video sharing service (social video) is partnering with Moutain Dew. What a great way to increase exposure for 12 Seconds as well as do something fun and exciting for Dew drinkers.
No surprise that there’s a way to connect via a Facebook page, a YouTube channel and a Flickr gallery. But no MySpace? No link to Twitter from the DewLabs page? Interesting.
What dew yew think?
In the last five days I posted responses to an article titled 5 Reasons why Facebook is better than Twitter for your Business. Here’s the conclusion to those posts:
While both services off ways to expand your network and become more visible in the social sphere online, I don’t believe it is wise to focus on just one over the other.
I use Facebook mostly for personal connections with friends and family, for sharing photos and for having fun. The entertainment value on Facebook is big, but for me, it’s not really a place to be thinking about business. That’s not to say businesses shouldn’t be there, but if you are, you need to engage your fans and group members to keep them interested in what you are doing.
Is having a Facebook page a way to keep in touch with your customers and reach out to potential customers? YES, but only if you actively monitor it and keep adding interest to it.
Does Facebook have something to offer advertisers? YES, especially if your customers are active on Facebook.
Can Twitter help you understand your customers and build your brand? YES, but you also need to listen to what people are saying on Twitter and engage in conversation with them around your brand and related industry topics.
Does Twitter itself offer value for advertisers? No, but third-party sites can help you reach out to Twitter users who may be interested in publishing your ads.
Finally, I don’t believe it is an either/or question. Participating in any marketing medium means you have to do the research to understand what the medium has to offer and whether it is the right medium for you. For some businesses a presence on Facebook will perform better than a Twitter presence, and for other businesses vice versa. Comparing Facebook to Twitter is like comparing apples to oranges. Yes they are both fruits, but they have different textures and flavors and require different preparation and treatment for consumption.
It’s interesting that Facebook is ranked number 4 and Twitter is ranked number 25 on Quantcast and also that both sites skew more towards women than men.
Also according to Quantcast, Facebook “attracts a more affluent, teen and young adult, very slightly female biased following.The typical visitor reads USA Today and subscribes to People,” and Twitter “attracts a slightly more female than male group.The typical visitor reads Perez Hilton, subscribes to Entertainment Weekly, and visits tennayalayouts.com.”
What does that say about Facebook and Twitter? Could it mean that Facebook is old and Twitter is new?
The conclusion: It all depends on who you are talking with.