s.m.o.g. talk

Moving forward.

 

Monday, December 21, 2009, Search Marketing Optimization Group Inc. will become Brandsurge. (brandsurge.com)

These last several years, our industry has been challenged at every discipline. Change has been constant and the dust is finally beginning to settle. As a group, we believe a change in name, combined with our added capabilities, will help position and focus our depth of expertise. Obviously, as our new name indicates, we will continue to be brand advocates and strong supporters of Enterprise 2.0 technologies.

Thank you for your support.

Food For Thought

Seth Godin Attacked By Tribe?

According to “published” reports, there is a very dangerous “cyberbogey” lurking at your brand’s door. And get this...it’s name is Squidoo®, or Seth Godin for short.

Personally, based on the endless accolades that have been rained down on this industry’s hairless icon, I’m very disappointed with his recent effort. It seems a little desperate and not completely through of thought.

Seth Godin has been every individual’s biggest fan. In short, start a community and personally grow as your community grows around you. Interact and influence, be all that everyone can be. I get that. We all do. Some start from one, others with beginnings from the analog world have a head start. The end results are only a matter of relevance.

So SG has decided to post an aggregated bulletin board about your tribal brand for anyone who finds this sort of thing useful, creditable, and/or insightful. Our friends over at Googleville have actually placed one at your brands front door, (Sidewiki) which will create an even larger uproar that is sure to upset SG’s plan of attention.

But who actually cares? And what non-child still believes in cyberbogeys?

The uninformed will be very afraid; unfortunately it comes with that territory. Since the beginning of mass communications, some brands have and will continue to use fear as a motivator to draw attention to their wares and claim “safe” harbor for the weak. It seems to me that SG is trying to turn the table on “big” brands. Good for him. He’s entitled, but the business model is really weak and misguided. In the short term, scary Squidoo will generate revenue from the uninformed. By offering a $400.00 a month safety harbor for the uninitiated and confused. Long term, most will once again realize the importance of a brand’s ability to understand and contain chaos. That complete control was never a realistic goal and that a brand’s ability to effectively maintain tribal engagement is based on a genuine and transparent reality that will simultaneously embrace relationships while disbarring any and all potential havoc.

In general, honest people who have something to say, both positive and negative, will come in the front door and say it to your face, as well as to anyone who will listen. A brands ability to survive and prosper will continue to rely on the same organic truths of past decades, its ability to remain true and relevant to a desire of participation and engagement. For those who believe that these innate truths can be farmed out, or provided by non-members, welcome to the uninformed.

OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING

Containg Chaos

On Your Mark…

Just as I resigned myself to the term “social media” along comes “social business.”

Good grief CB, did you have to name it that?

To me, it all depends on which side of the firewall I happen to be standing. If I’m on the inside, I really want everyone to be collaborative and focused. Save the “social” for break time and after hour drinks.

While standing on the outside, I would prefer that you focused on reliability and trust. Forget "social," that’s why I have friends. Sure, I want you to listen to what I have to say, and to speak when you’re spoken to, but dinner conversation just isn’t in the cards.

Don’t get me wrong. The “intended” meaning is spot on when it comes to the direction of business. “Social” platform technologies are being utilized on both sides of the firewall. Socialtext®, Jive®, and SharePoint® to name a few. As I’ve said before, the brand is now dynamic and the circle of commerce complete.

…Get Set – GO!

All consultancy’s on deck. It’s time to walk the talk. I can hear the cloud thesaurus requiring your laptop fan to engage.

Chris Brogan Is Dead. Long Live Chris Brogan.

Many of our social media pundits digitally buried their former poster-child recently.

After accumulating a following of some 29101 friendz, Chris Brogan unfortunately had the wherewithal, or audacity – e-dacity? - to leverage, or cannibalize, his digital apostles. After many years of development and nurturing, Brogan stunned his digital followers by appearing at the top of Mount SM with his carved tablets of “Trust Agents.”

Many purchased, some abstained. But all took notice. Before the “Bestseller” ink could dry, the calls of betrayal and deceit were already being tossed about in the blogosphere. “Et tu, Brute? Seth Godin wasn’t enough?

I’ve never met Chris Brogan. I’ve never had a digital exchange with him. And I did not purchase or read his book. But I’m one of his biggest fans. Seriously.

To me, the good news is that this sanctimonious event helped define and bring attention to the real currency within the SM space. You.

There are only two reasons why you would have purchased the book. You were one of the 29101 friendz. Or you were influenced by one of the 29101 friendz. The laws of marketing gave way to the laws of inertia; and Brogan became a New York Times Bestseller.

Now, Brogan did his part, for sure. He nurtured and embraced his growing “tribe.” He produced a product with great perceived benefit…rinse and repeat.

Brogan’s efforts also symbolize, to me, the completion of the transition from Marketing 101 to 2.0. His customer base - excuse me, his “tribe” - may not have been completely virtuous…but it was most certainly virtual. If Chris could have pulled this achievement off without physically having the book printed, however, I would have been more impressed.

Now can we all get back to work?

If your goal is to write a book, write it. If you’re the next great band, go for it. But, just as our digital music requires a digital player, a digital-only book still requires a digital reader. Until we all have some sort of wireless processor embedded within our physical selves, or until we mutate into our avatar existence, our digital world will still have to co-exist with (and within) our physical world.

As marketing professionals, we should recognize that Chris Brogan’s efforts represent a small, but significant, marker of the challenges and opportunities our clients face every day. 

But what if Brogan was selling washers and dryers? What if it were a new brand of ice cream or laundry detergent? These types of products, represent the diverse channels of dynamic communications that are required to successfully sustain a brand in today’s marketplace. Cross-platform integration isn’t just about corporate efficiencies. The circle of commerce is now complete. And, although it’s certainly about the conversation, it also has to be about implementation.

Thanks to CB, we may do less talking about talking.

Food For Thought

Forest Or Trees? The Root Of The Problem

Let’s say that your brand is the forest.

The trees represent everything that communicates and interacts with your brand. Your company’s brochure, its receptionist, its points-of-purchase, its President, its website, its custodian, the local news, a bumper sticker, its coworkers, their families, and its customers and competitors. Every touch point of your brand.

During the nineties, we referenced it as the gestalt. During the eighties, I found myself endlessly reciting the mantra, “Branding is inherent with doing business.” Once accepted, it becomes only a matter of direction.

Today, all I seem to hear is how “social media” is changing the landscape, rewriting the rules, etc. But that sort of thinking troubles me. Because, in actuality, these “new rules” are not really new at all; they’re really the same old rules we’ve had all along. The only thing new about them is that, now, they’re being repackaged from within the “social media” space.

Any marketing professional who believes that “transparency,” “genuine,” “ethical,” and “trustworthy” - to name just a few - are somehow the shiny new symbols of a company’s brand is, in my opinion, just being foolish. And showing their naiveté.

“Social media” is the forest roots system. It’s not replacing the forest; instead, it’s connecting the sum of its parts. Every single tree has an effect on the forest. And this is something for which most of us have been waiting for a long time. 

So again, people, let’s stop this madness. Quit running around the forest yelling “fire!” Some brands may embrace these newfound root-systems sooner than others. But all, eventually, will need to develop these roots to survive.

Right now, though, some are finding it difficult to see the forest through the trees.

OTHER POSTS YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT IS NOT A CAREER PATH

Back To The Future

A year from now, I believe, the majority of us will have purchased an e-reader. 

Personally, I’m waiting for the Apple® version, which will once again establish the platform standards. It will, once again, focus our attention on self- contained applications (the app store). These applications will, among other things, reinvigorate the gaming, magazine, and advertising industries. Just as iTunes® and iPods® re-energized the way we procured and listened to our music, 3G, touch-screen, and Wi-Fi e-readers will pull the publishing industry from its self-inflicted downward spiral.

The gestalt experience of consuming a novel, a magazine or a newspaper’s crossword puzzle does not translate well to a desktop or laptop-rendered website. These pursuits will, however, translate beautifully into portable, digital reproductions that can be read and viewed in the format for which they were intended. Even better, for those of us who embrace the “save our trees” mindset while still valuing credible information and entertainment, we’ll once again be willing to actually subscribe to these e-publications.

With distribution and reproduction costs at $0.00, the overhead then becomes content-creation and design. And when a $19.95-a- year subscription structure actually becomes a profitable business model, rather than a recipe for disaster, the dynamics of the industry will change. 

Toss advertising revenues into the equation, and a $9.95 yearly subscription fee, becomes a reality.

While weekly business- and news magazines scramble to re-position themselves as “in-depth,” and daily newspapers find themselves finishing out of the money in the information race, e-print versions of Esquire®, Men’s Health®, GQ®, Car and Driver®, and ELLE® - to name just a few - will once again demand our attention. The advertisements that engaged us in our analog world will again lay claim to our e-consideration. These “greener” versions will displace the carbon footprint of the obsolete platforms withering and dying today - while at the same time enhancing their ability to engage us as never before.

So get ready, all of you creative teams, designers, and advertising-industry diehards. Print-style advertising is coming back; it’s just that, this time, it can also be a video.

asknature.org

www.asknature.org

Containing Chaos

Saturday (8/1), I had a brief comment exchange with both Jason Falls (SME) and Mark Schaefer {grow}. And those exchanges inspired this topic.

Before I offer up my opinion, let me say that I’ve only been doing this “blog thing” for a short time. Initially, I was just an avid reader of many other peoples’ blogs. But, somewhere along the way, I made the decision to become an active participant in the active “conversation.” 

At the time I made that decision, there was an evolving (and revolving) conversation taking place regarding to the “death” of PR.

Let me add that the intent of my blogging is not to make me a media rock star. I actually blog because I know that my clients are “following” me…and because doing it offers them further insight into my developing mindset(s). Which is exactly why I don’t solicit comments, or use Twitter®. (Please, no more emails asking why?)

As you may know, my career started at Doyle Dane Bernbach/Los Angeles, during the time it became DDB/Needham. At that time, the agency encouraged those involved in media, creative, account service, and public relations to hold open discussion(s) about how we could find “new” ways to leverage and integrate our crafted brand-building messages. It was understood that - although the participants reflected several different disciplines - the focus should always be on an integrated message.

Now, before all of you start shouting that the message is no longer in control of the “brand,” let me say that I agree. But, in reality, it never has been. I would also suggest, for that reason alone, that we continue to find so many individual disciplines within the marketing communications field.

PR, in point of fact, is far from being “dead.” Creative and attention-grabbing messaging is alive and well, as is the selection of medium to deliver those messages. Conversation has been going on since the beginning of time; and since the beginning of time, it has never been totally-positive toward any brand. Finding a way to control the chaos, then, is really what building a strong brand is all about.

So - for the sake of my own sanity in the midst of all this chaos - here are a couple of things I‘ve decided for now:

1. Social networking is a discipline of PR.

2. Social networking is a discipline of Product Development.

3. Social networking is a discipline of Customer Service.

4. Social Networking is a discipline of Research.

5. I, personally, no longer care if you choose to call it “social media,” “social marketing,” “conversational marketing”…or even if you consider it a newly-found religion.

6. An integrated branding approach is just as relevant today as it was decades ago.

7. A strong “brand” presence is the most effective way to (try to) control the chaos…or, at least, contain it. 

8. The more things change…the more they stay the same. Focus, People