Back to the Facebook

Mar 29
2012

Social media, like Marketing, never lets you rest on your laurels. No matter how expert one may be in a medium or field, changes require constant updating, relearning, and re-honing of skills. And yet, the basics always remain the same. Yes, it’s always Back to the Future, or this week Back to the Facebook.

On Friday, March 30, 2012 Facebook is forceably changing all business sites over to its new format. The change has been a boon for the webinar industry, with every social media consultant offering tutorials on how to switch a site from the old to new format. So for all of us who believed we had mastered Facebook and were on to Pinterest, Tumblr, Wanelo, or Spotify, it was, instead, of week of back to the drawing boards on Facebook.

Back to the drawing boards must be taken literally as a key change in Facebook was the need to create a cover. Yes, all of our mothers advised us not to judge a book by its cover, but our marketing professors taught just the opposite. Packaging, aka covers, is a key marketing component, without which success is less likely in the marketplace of goods, services or ideas.  Consultants were proliferating on how to create a cover that best represents your company when Facebook rules exempt most items a classic marketer would include — namely contact info and Calls to Action.  ”The cover photo is the new landing experience,” states the SocialMouths blog.  I think experience is taking it a bit far, as it’s really a pretty picture indicative of our increasingly graphic age where people seem dazzled by image rather than substance.

Speaking of serious marketing – Facebook should, in many cases, be part of the mix, but let’s stay focused on marketing that works. In a recent sales seminar given by Mike Blinder, he unequivocally noted that for most small businesses Facebook is like a billboard in a basement. There’s tons of hype and, therefore, a strong sense that a business owner should somehow be involved in this Facebook thing, but with 25-125 followers, largely of relatives and friends, the marketing potential is limited. Blinder (pronounced Blyn-der), doesn’t wear blinders.  He calls himself a street fighter and is one of the most motivational, clear sales trainers I’ve ever heard.  As a street fighter, he believes in qualifying prospects, having a clear story to tell, doing homework on a client, and closing sales. Anything that helps him do that more successfully is marketing, but his marketing is his story of success. There’s no better kind.

There are exceptions to any rule, and Facebook marketing does have its place for some entrepreneurs– namely realtors.  Many, if not most, are women, who thrive on personal connections and local contacts.  Facebook has evolved from a teenage silo with as many moms and a growing number of grandparents Facebooking to keep up with the kids, if nothing else.  I get personal pleasure on watching my own young adult kids suddenly delving into my professional arenas on Twitter and LInked In.  If you’re talking business to business contacts, these latter two have much more to offer.

So lets Facebook the facts. Facebook was not started to be a marketing tool, but a social interaction tool. If you’re young, single and on the “meat ” market, yes it might help you market yourself.  If you’re a serious, committed entrepreneur or small business owner, it’s really the minor leagues.  The majors are playing in larger arenas, to bigger crowds (called reach), and on a consistent basis (called frequency).  They are packaging themselves as serious players, commanding well-deserved prices, and have followings that many Twitter and Facebook dabblers would crave.  Find them, and watch what they’re doing. They are your true North stars.

 

 

Land of the Free

Feb 01
2009

If you think Land of the Free refers to the U.S.A., you are showing your age.  Land of the Free is the Internet.  In the January 31 edition of the WSJ's Weekend Journal, author Chris Anderson wrote a thoughtful piece on "The Economics of Giving it Away."   If I can, I'll post the article on the news section of the group.  I posted a NY Times article there earlier in the month, and if you come across a great news story or other material from your neck of the woods, please try to post it on the news section of the our Linked In group so we can continue to gain from our collective experience. Unfortunately, the news posts get buried quickly so you have to dig a bit to get to older uploads.

The gist of the Anderson WSJ article is that the price of goods and services is continually going down, courtesy of innovation and the Internet.  The question for all businesses — mature and start-ups — is how to make money in an increasingly "free" world. Anderson writes: "It's now time for entrepreneurs to innovate, not just with new products, but new business models."  Easy to write — harder to implement, eh?

Even Microsoft, he writes, is feeling the pinch but is responding by providing free services to a segment of the market in hopes that when they mature to larger companies they will already be loyal to Microsoft branded products.  What does that mean for you?  It means finding a model that allows you to provide something free to provide outreach to potential and future customers.  You can't do free forever, but you can rob a page from the supermarket industry and provide some things as a loss-leader.  If you haven't figured it out yet — here's my dirty little secret – that's where Linked In fits in my NAPL marketing strategy.  Now, I've broken a marketing rule here — don't tell people when  you're marketing to them, but you're the Linked In Group and, by definition, a bit more hip than the rest of the industry so there it is… my secret.

This is why I believe so strongly in NAPL. As an association, we are supported by dues, but much of what we provide is value added or "free."  In January, alone, we sent out six different free e-newsletters (four exclusive to members, two open to the general industry), posted more than a half dozen free blogs, and took on the US Postal service on a proposed new regulation.  That's in addition to our member services, economics research, magazine and events.  If you'd like to subscribe to any of the free newsletters, go to our special request page. If you'd like to sample any of the management blogs (giving you a free sampling of some of the best thinking of our brightest consulting minds) go to NAPL's web site (www.napl.org) and click on the blog links.

This past weekend was the amazing Super Bowl XLIII between Pittsburgh and Arizona.  And, as with all Super Bowls, the commercials are almost as important as the game. In that tradition, I hope you'll indulge me with this mini-commercial for NAPL as a real-life example of how free can play out in today's economy.  For more on this business model, I strongly suggest Seth Godin's book Free Prize Inside. Written in 2004, it again shows why he's ahead of his time. To save you time, here's what it's about: We all loved getting the free prize in the Cracker Jacks box, didn't we?  Studies showed kids wanted the box as much, if not more, for the prize than the Cracker Jacks themselves. People still love to be surprised. So, don't just give what you have away… give it in a way that surprises and delights your audience, and make it part of your business model to turn that audience into paying customers.

Black Boxes

Sep 07
2008

In preparing for a speech I’m giving on Marketing at GraphExpo, I’m currently reading Wikinomics by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams. It’s not easy reading, so here’s my confession: I’m actually listening to it on an Ipod while walking the dog. It’s not great, but it’s the kind of book you almost have to be familiar with in this day and age. Here’s one simple phrase I got out of it last night: “The computer is not a box, but a doorway.” It’s a simple look into how the world of computing and marketing has changed.

TV was the original black box and, in many ways, still is. Its one-way communication with advertising that can easily be skipped through the magic of DVRs. When TV first came on the scene, it was a social experience with entire neighborhoods gathered around one set for a Milton Berle show. Today, more sets are watched by just one person. Even children’s programming seems increasingly watched by a child alone rather than a parent and child.

Computers are almost the exact opposite. The computer started out as a solo black box but with the emergence of Web 2.0, is an increasingly social and multi-faceted communication vehicle. Even if you appear alone at the terminal, the odds are you are increasingly interacting with someone.

It’s my hope that this Linked In group won’t be a one-way communication, but that you’ll respond to the occasional post, ask questions on the discussion board, find things of interest from the group that will lead you to other resources and ideas, and make suggestions back to me about what you’d like to see more of from us.

~ Rhona
rbronson@napl.org

P.S. If you’re going to GraphExpo, please stop by the NAPL booth and say hello. Or, better yet, sign up for my seminar on Wed. at 10am. It’s almost the last seminar of the show and although a few hardy souls have signed up, I’m sure I could use the extra company. The time slot is almost as bad as being the first speaker after a large lunch!