Greg Verdino

Writing what you know and knowing what you write

Earlier this morning, I posed a question to my Twitter community:

Here's what some of my followers had to say:

 

Mostly what you'd expect, but with a few (reasonable) dissenting opinions thrown in for good measure.

I'd love my blog readers to chime in as well, but let me add some additional context.

First, my question isn't just about Twitter -- the same could be asked of any new experience, but since Twitter is the current media darling and since I posed the question on Twitter it was a good hook to spark conversation. 

Second, because of my own frame of reference (and the focus of this blog) I was thinking mostly about the coverage of Twitter from a business and marketing perspective.  As a marketer, should you be taking your cues about if, how and when to add Twitter into your mix from someone who writes for a reputable industry publication, very well may be a solid journalist, but is basing their POV and advice on second and third hand knowledge? So while, to @seanscogin's and @jmoonah's valid points, a journalist couldn't possibly be expected (or required) to experience everything they write about first hand (drug abuse, violent crime, war, disease, tragic loss) it doesn't seem too much to ask that a media and marketing reporter actually make the time to get at least some first hand experience about new media and marketing tools before writing articles advising agency and brand people about how to think about those tools.

Third, while my question was specifically about journalists you can, of course, ask the same about practitioners. It takes the form of the commonly asked, sometimes debated, question of whether a social media consultant needs to be personally active in social media. In my opinion, the answer to that question is a resounding yes, so should the answer be any different for a reporter covering the media/marketing beat?

Finally, I should point out that - yes - my question was spurred by a piece I read this morning by an ad industry reporter who, as far as I can tell (and it isn't that hard to tell), isn't on Twitter. I won't name names; kudos to you if you can suss out who it is. :-)

Have at it, gang.

Search ads are now more clickable than ever

Like most marketers nowadays, I understand the importance of both organic and paid search as key components of the digital media plan but (confession time) I don't have even half a clue about how SEO or SEM really work -- or how to optimize either to deliver maximum results.  Sure, I know enough to hire someone who knows more than I do when my clients ask me for help with search. And I've somehow managed to dominate the first page of Google results for my own name but don't ask me to tell you how. I don't know.

But I'd like to learn more.

Enter Clickable's Max Kalehoff, an innovative program he has been spearheading to help marketers get the most out of their search initiatives, and a free e-book that presents some best-in-class thinking about search.

In Max's own words (from the Clickable blog):

When I joined Clickable in late 2007, we began assembling a team of experts dedicated to public service - to help struggling marketers succeed in search advertising. We named them "the Clickable Gurus." For over a year, they've contributed expertise directly to hundreds of marketers in popular online communities, face-to-face, and on this blog. They've indirectly helped tens of thousands of marketers by leaving a permanent record of their wisdom and teachings on the Web. Indeed, the Clickable Gurus have been one of Clickable's most valuable investments to listen and connect with the search-marketing community. As a result, we've made better products for our customers. We all thank the Gurus for their great work, including: Andrew Bernero, Hanny Hindi, Trace Johnson, Ehren Reilly and Tony Soric...

To commemorate the Clickable Gurus' debut after one year of undercover service, we've released the first anthology of their teachings... The Guru's Guide To Better Search Engine Marketing is full of practical tips and best practices that demystify search and help marketers succeed. Just like Clickable's award-winning products, the Guru's Guide is simple and accessible to beginners, yet equally valuable for advanced search-marketing professionals.

If you're all geeked-out on digital you can download the free electronic version of the Guru's Guide. If you prefer good old fashioned wood pulp, Clickable offers a $10 hard copy through LuLu.com. They're also offering free hard copies to blogger who promise to write reviews -- not the reason for this post by the way. This isn't a review and I haven't read the book yet, but if you blog and think you'd like to review it you can get the details from Max's post.

To extend a great-sounding program and promising book, they also offer online forums where you can interact with the Gurus, ask questions, get answers and add your own advice. And they're running a contest that gives search experts an opportunity to vie for their own place in Clickable's Guru gang.

And finally, like all good content marketing efforts, this one supports Clickable's own brand positioning as "a trusted advisor" that helps clients make better search marketing decisions, is bound to generate enough social media buzz to fill at least a few big plastic cups with some extra Google juice, and (the clincher) actually intriques me enough to make me want to find out what that actually means.

I hope you find The Guru's Guide useful. Feel free to drop a comment with your own thoughts.

Coopetwition gives two soda giants bubbly feelings

The story: a member of the Twitterverse suggests that @pepsi and @cocacola put age-old competitive rivalries aside and become Twitter friends.  The brands agree and shake virtual hands.

Sure the person who made the suggestion isn't quite an everyday Joe -- he is the founder of the Aussie arm of Razorfish and has done work with PepsiCo -- and the gesture between the two soft drink giants is as silly as it is symbolic.  But still, it makes for a fun story.

Can Twitter teach the world to sing in perfect harmony?

 

(via Darryl Ohrt; image reposted from my Posterous.)

5 ways every marketer can have a "dancing man moment"

Last night, social media serendipity led me to a video of a man dancing at an outdoor music festival. The dancing man himself isn't anything special -- a clumsy show of flailing arms and legs that wouldn't get him through the first round of auditions on So You Think You Can Dance. 

What happens next is pretty special (or at least interesting.)

When the man starts dancing, he is the only member of the crowd moving.  In fact, it almost seems as if the rest of the audience is blissfully unaware that they're at a music festival at all.  But within seconds he's joined by one, then two, then three other dancers.  Within three minutes, hundreds of people are dancing.

And like countless other seemingly insignificant moments, all of it was caught on video and uploaded to the web.  Within a month of being shared on YouTube, more than one million people have viewed the clip, more than five thousand have rated it, and more than three thousand have left comments. And it turns out that these few minutes in time were captured and uploaded by several different amateur shooters who were there to witness it, so the cumulative numbers are higher still.

That's a pretty impressive ripple effect (or maybe it's a butterfly effect) for something that began with literally just one person willing to do something nobody around him was doing.

Now is probably as good a time as any to watch the video, if you haven't seen it:

[Feed and email readers, click through to view.]

OK, so what does this have to do with marketing?

Certainly the dancing man provides a clear (if trivial) example of how the actions of a sole individual can provide the catalyst that not only directly influences the behavior of the people around them, but also have the potential to scale up to have something approximating mass reach.  Rather than reaching out to millions in the hopes of finding and connecting with "the one" (who responds, who buys, who changes their behavior), why not start with the one who can influence hundreds and ultimately reach millions?

Perhaps the dancing man also offers a lesson about risk and reward -- as a marketer, are you willing to try something (and potentially look foolish) on the off chance that it will deliver an exponential result?  Or will you sit on the sidelines for fear of failure?

But mostly, it leads me to ponder how marketers can have their own Dancing Man Moments.  Off the top of my head, here are five ways:

1. Be the Dancing Man: do something remarkable to spark a movement; star in the story yourself
2. Bear Witness to the Dancing Man: document his actions; capture the moment; be the storyteller
3. Put the Dancing Man on a Bigger Stage: celebrate him; tell everyone you know (your customers, audience, fans, friends); provide access to your larger network of distribution (after all, chances are your brand is bigger than his...)
4. Join the Dancing Man: tap into the momentum of the movement; follow the dancing man's lead but play your own unique part in how the story unfolds
5. Be the Song to His Dance: go beyond just joining in; contribute something unique and different, yet complementary; in fact, why not inspire him to dance in the first place

But enough of my yammering. I'd love to hear from you -- what do you think marketers can do to have their own Dancing Man Moments?

Tomorrow is gone too: social media RIP

Friend, look-alike, PR man and Now Is Gone author Geoff Livingston is stirring the pot today, with a pretty provocative proclamation -- "social media is dead."

Tucked away in a post about why the next Blog Potomac conference -- slated for October 2009 and featuring fellow crayonista Jane Quigley -- will be the last, lies Geoff's eulogy for a form of media and marketing that many still consider the latest shiny object in the marketing practitioner's box of baubles.

The technology adoption cycle has been maturing for social media (and social media, web 2.0 whatever you want to call it is definitely inspired by technology) for some time. Widespread corporate adoption is happening as we speak, albeit with many stumbles. Based on conversations I’m having, even the most conservative organizations are adapting now.

The time when social media as a special or unique or “shiny and new” type of communication is rapidly ending. Does that mean it’s going away? Hardly.

But from an innovators standpoint, as someone who lives on the edge, who wants to be where new frontiers are being created, we’re at the end. For me, social media is dead… That means it’s future forward.

While my experience with conservative organizations leads me to suspect that Geoff thinks we're further along the Technology Adoption Lifecycle (or more precisely the "marketing adoption cycle" - I don't think we can debate that the technology itself is mainstream) than we really are, I'm not sure that Geoff is wrong.  At least not entirely.

If we're talking about social media as a category, as something special, unique or new, then it probably is (or should be, anyway) dead or dying.  The notion of social media as a silo and as something that warrants specialized expertise is nothing more than a point of inflection between a new media landscape that is entirely, seamlessly social and an old media landscape that was always social anyway (even if we didn't know it.)

Then again, I'm not sure the death of social media matters a whole lot to anyone but the "next new thing" innovation junkies.  Is Geoff arguing in favor of shiny object syndrome at a time when, frankly, most marketers are still not making the best use of the last big thing?  Hey, I'm an innovator too (or at least, I like to think I am) and I'm also keen to identify and understand whatever lies around the next bend, but I also know that tomorrow's toys don't amount to a hill of beans to an in-the-trenches marketer who is (let's be honest) at best dabbling in social and still thinks they've had a coup if they convince their agency creative director to display the corporate URL at the end of the new 30-second spot.

So on the one hand we have a small band of serial innovators already seeking out greener pastures.  On the other, we have the rest of the herd who are just beginning to suspect that the ground might be shifting right beneath their hooves.

So whether social media is dead or not, it surely seems to be trapped in limbo.

What are your thoughts?  Is social media dead or is Livingston burying it alive?

Three B2B marketers dish out social media tips & tricks

Tomorrow morning, I'm heading to Boston, where I'm slated to moderate a panel at the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum.  This post isn't really about my speaking engagement per se, although I should mention that there's still time to register if you're interested in attending a great, no-nonsense event.

What this post really is about though is no-nonsense.  My session asks the question, "What will social media do for my business?" and we'll offer answers not from the usual gaggle of consultants, agency social media gurus or platform vendors (you've been to that panel a few too many times, I'd suspect) but directly from three client-side marketers who are deploying social programs for their companies today.

Even if you can't be at the event, I thought you might be interested in some of the tips and advice the panelists will share.  Take a gander at a hand-out we prepared, bringing together 15 practical points from three seasoned marketers -- Aneta Hall at Pitney Bowes, Donna Tocci at Ingersoll Rand and Monique Trulson at Hello Direct.

View more presentations from Greg Verdino.

[Feed and email readers may need to click through to see the embedded slide show.  Or you can view it directly on Slideshare.]

Now, I suspect some of you have great tips to share as well.  So chime in (especially if you're a client-side marketer) -- what does social media do for your business?

Book 'em Verdino: announcing microMARKETING

I'm excited to announce that I've inked a deal with McGraw-Hill for the publication of my first business book, microMARKETING: A Breakthrough Approach to Building Brands by Thinking and Acting Small.

If the title alone isn't enough to clue you in, I'd like to give you an idea of the ground I'll cover in the book.  Here's a bit of how I described the book in the proposal itself:

A media revolution is underway, fueled by a micro-content phenomenon that is shifting the balance of power from mass communications to masses of communicators.  This shift plays out daily on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Ustream and other social sites.  It’s in the notion that an otherwise normal individual can use social media and low-end technology to become a micro-celebrity with a significant following.  It’s in the viral effect that takes hold when even one online influencer (in essence a one-person media outlet) sparks a conversation that makes or breaks a brand.  It’s in the shift in behavior that is turning the smart phone into the “first screen” for Gen Y and many increasingly-mobile Gen Xers.  It’s in the shift from watching 60 minute television shows interrupted by 30-second advertisements, to watching 30-second pieces of online video content with no advertisements at all.  It’s even in the changing of our expectations of product design and retail sales, giving rise to dozens of successful small businesses and individuals (think Threadless, think Etsy, think Mimobot, think Lemonade) that can create and sell enough high quality, unique or custom merchandise at a premium to shoppers for whom choice and individuality matter more than convenience and price. 

These are exciting times, but they can also be scary times for marketers who have been trained to think that bigger is better, and for whom the excesses and successes of the past 50 or so years – big budgets for major media ad campaigns designed to sell mountains of product through big-box retailers – seem to be the only way to build a big brand.  For better or worse, the new reality is that the old way doesn’t work so well anymore. Simply put, micro-content and macro-marketing don’t mix – and trying to maintain the status quo while consumer behaviors and expectations change amounts to little more than a recipe for failure.

Enter micromarketing – a new approach to building brands, marketing products and services, and growing meaningful long-term customer (and corporate) value.  Micromarketing emphasizes relationships over reach, interactions over interruption, and the network effect over the broadcast network.  It is built upon the premise that the “next big thing” is really lots and lots of small things, and that to survive and thrive, even the biggest marketers must think and act small (make that “micro”), too. 

microMARKETING is not a "Twitter book."  Puh-leeze... In signature Verdino-style, I will aim to help marketers understand the larger trends that are driving the popularity of tools like Twitter and what the real world implications are for businesses (even if Twitter itself -- or Facebook or YouTube, for that matter -- goes away), but my focus will be aimed squarely at the big picture.  I also don't plan to trot out the same ol' tired social media case studies.  In fact, one key piece of my approach is to help large companies understand how to thrive in the era of micro-content and micro-culture by taking lessons from the people and organizations that are involved in the revolution at the grassroots level.  In other words, I'll be looking at what the biggest of big corporations should learn from "whatever experts." 

Again, from the proposal:

Over the past several years, social media has evolved from a trend to watch to an irrefutable fact of life for marketers of all sizes.  Now – before most companies have even gotten social media right – the mainstreaming of micro-content services, the ubiquity of powerful low-cost handheld technology (from Internet-ready phones to consumer-grade HD cameras) and the rise of DIY culture promise to change the rules of consumer engagement yet again.  It is important to understand how these changes impact our ability to build brands, manage customer relationships and drive sales today, and this will only become more important over the coming years as more and more consumers flock to the technologies that are powering the shift.

On the flipside, it is also important that marketers not get swept up in the hype surrounding a single tool or tactic, losing sight of the bigger implications for their businesses.  As has happened with core social media tools like blogging, podcasting and social networking (and short-lived fads like Second Life), marketers now run the risk of not seeing the forest for the trees – of jumping on the “Twitter bandwagon” with short-lived, ill-advised tactics that do little to impact their businesses.   

On the one hand, microMARKETING educates decision makers about larger trends and what they mean for companies who are looking to more effectively engage consumers through new digital channels.  On the other hand, it delivers tangible and practical case studies, stories, tips and tricks from familiar competitors (other large corporations) and unlikely sources of inspiration (micro-businesses and individual creators.)

microMARKETING is slated for a May/June 2010 release.  I need to hand in the final manuscript by mid-October.  Needless to say, I've got my work cut out for me over the next few months.

That may mean less blogging for the next few months, although I'll still try to post here at least once/week.  And you should stay tuned for periodic updates on the book, my progress and the process.  Hell, I may even ask you for some input along the way.

Finally, I'd like to thank the good folks at McGraw-Hill -- especially Donya Dickerson -- and my agent Ethan Friedman at LevelFive Media.

Good times, ahead...

Storytelling at the brink of the future?

Although the odds are pretty good you'll never read a fiction review on this blog, I can't help but tell y'all about J.C. Hutchins' forthcoming novel Personal Effects: Dark Art.  It's a supernatural thriller that pits an art therapist at a psychiatric institute against a blind serial killer/patient -- it may or may not be your cup of tea, and the actual content of the book isn't why I'm telling you about it.

The thing that probably will interest you is the way (ways plural, really) J.C. has taken what he has learned through years of social media self-publishing to create a work that goes well beyond the printed page, encompassing digital, mobile and the physical world to create a fully participatory multimedia narrative.  In many ways, Personal Effects is a novel custom-designed for digital natives (although J.C. and his publisher may not think of it that way) and it just might offer a glimpse at the future of storytelling.

 And the future of storytelling should matter to you no matter what products your company produces or promotes because, as marketers, our success often rides on both our ability to tell compelling stories and our customers' willingness and ability to spread their own stories about their experiences with our brands.

 Of course, everything begins with the book itself.  Let's assume it's good -- I haven't read it yet, but look forward to digging into the advance copy I received over the weekend (thanks J.C.)

But Personal Effects really gets interesting when it gets innovative.  If you aren't familiar with J.C. Hutchins (frankly, I only knew of him through some mutual contacts and from hearing his name bandied about in social media circles), he is a good example of what I have called a "whatever expert" -- someone who is good at what he does and has found a way to succeed at it through smart, effective use of social media.  Although Personal Effects is his first published novel, he has been writing for years, releasing his work as free audiobooks and using the web and social media to build a loyal audience.

J.C. isn't a marketer by training or trade, but the digital and multimedia components of his project offer a practical blueprint for any marketer looking to transform their brand storytelling into an active, participatory experience that is fueled by community and optimized for customer-to-consumer word of mouth.  Readers can enter the world of Personal Effects in a variety of ways:

• Technology-Fueled Calls-to-Action: Clues peppered throughout the novel and in the killer's personal effects packaged with the novel (e.g., a drivers license, photos, hospital paperwork) drive readers to companion websites, forums, onto email lists, into mobile phone voicemail systems and opt-in text messaging programs and more where they can find and explore additional layers of narrative.

• A Distributed, Online Experience: Readers can get inside the heads of key characters through their social network profiles, personal blogs and Twitter streams.

• Original, Distributable Content: Tapping into his heritage as a popular and well-established podcaster, J.C. has produced an exclusive audio-only novella prequel, as well as a series of YouTube-friendly video promos featuring well known horror personalities.

• Seamless Integration with Relevant Third Party Sites: One of the characters (yes, a fictional character from the book) has written columns for Suicide Girls, a site (some content NSFW) whose readership seems to be well aligned with J.C.'s audience, and there is a planned deep integration that brings Suicide Girl models into the novel's fictional world and provides readers with an additional web-only subplot.

• A Fan Community: Readers can 'commit themselves to the Brink' (aka Brinkvale Psychiatric, where the novel takes place), submit their own artwork for display in the community gallery (a logical tie-in with the fact that the book's protagonist is an art therapist at the Brink) and receive personalized intake paperwork.  In other words, readers don't just consume the story; they become part of it.

• Creative, Innovative Influencer Outreach: This is how I became aware of the book in the first place and may bear some of the most relevant lessons for social media marketers.  Over the weekend, the mailman delivered an unexpected package, a good-sized box that contained materials that immediately piqued my interest, earned my attention and (true to the spirit of Personal Effects) drew me directly into the fictional world of Brinkvale Psychiatric.  Containing not only a reviewer's copy of the book and the obligatory media kit, the package was filled with my personal effects from my own stay at the Brink.  Everything was hyper-personalized and it was impossible not to dive in (and just as impossible not to tell others about it -- and last time I checked, that's what influencer outreach is all about.)  Here are a couple of photos and you can check out more on Flickr -- but be warned, you're bound to dismiss your run-of-the-mill blogger outreach emails as downright asinine...

 

 

So what's the bottom line?  J.C. is tapping into the power of digital and the potential of social to turn the lay-back (and some might say dying) act of reading a novel into a fully immersive lean-forward experience.  It's equal parts fiction and alternate reality game, powered by a healthy dose of practical Web 2.0 know-how. Followers of pop culture may draw parallels between Personal Effects and the similarly rich multimedia storytelling approaches used to fuel films like Blair Witch Project, television shows like Lost, video games like Halo 2 and even a recent album release by Nine Inch Nails.  Brands have occassionally tapped into this form of multimedia storytelling to do cool and interesting things -- see Audi's Art of the Heist, for example.  But to my knowledge, this is the first time an author has undertaken something so ambitious in association with a novel -- and it just might get digital natives to pick up a plain old printed book. 

Am I gushing?  Sorry.  It's pretty cool and makes me want to curl up with Personal Effects, my laptop and my iPhone right now.

Barring that though (damn you, workload, damn you), I'd love to hear from you.  Which of J.C.'s approaches do you think you can apply to get your customers involved in your brand's story?

Want to get the most from social media? Look inside...

    Regular readers know that I've sometimes criticized companies for dressing up their marketing plan with a superficial layer of social media without first understanding how the very same tools and technologies, when applied inside their own organizations, can have truly transformational impact.

Needless to say, I like what Pitney Bowes' emerging media manager Aneta Hall has to say in her latest blog post:

"Don’t forget that social media is not limited to your customers and external stakeholders. Through Enterprise 2.0 tools including wikis, blogs, instant messaging, internal social networks and microblogging apps, social media can help improve your employee communications and help them collaborate with one another regardless of office location, business unit association or position on the corporate ladder. At my workplace we are exploring several social media applications to help us share information in real time and be  more productive which, in today’s economic environment, is no longer an option, but a requirement."

Smart advice -- and even smarter actions for a corporate giant like Pitney Bowes.  This is just one of five insights Aneta offers, so give her post a read if you want to get her take on how any company can tap into social to listen, learn, love and live.

Aneta is one of the panelists participating in my "What Will Social Media Do For My Business?" session at the MarketingProfs Business-to-Business Forum on June 9th.  We'll be tackling this question with a clear focus on what social means to marketers working in the B2B sector specifically, and delivering straight talk from actual client-side marketers who are doing social today.

If this sounds interesting, there's still time to register.  Use this link to register and receive a $200 speaker's guest discount.

[Image: Rob Howe]

Best Buy CMO on digital and social marketing

The importance of listening, and engaging with customers directly in an open and honest way.  The growing importance of the mobile web and the ways it can empower consumers throughout the buying process.  The fact that everything is going digital and what this means for the products and services companies offer.  The realizations that a great customer experience is the best marketing money can't buy, and that brands are inherently social.

Heard it all before?  Of course.  But somehow it sounds more credible when spoken by the CMO of a large corporation, even more so when that CMO works for a company that actually practices what he preaches.

Check out this video of Best Buy CMO Barry Judge, talking about the future of marketing.  Judge offers a nice overview of how Best Buy's marketing approach has evolved from old school tell-n-sell, where it is now, and where it's headed tomorrow.

[Feed and email readers, click through to the blog for the video.]