Archive for December, 2009

by Pete Deutschman, Chief Buddy

How you refer to yourself has everything to do what how others perceive you and your abilities. Self referral has to be founded in reality, be proven and most important, be honest. I am an entrepreneur. I have started and run several companies starting with a DJ business in High School and I am most happy when I can see the impact of decisions made real time.

This week’s Business Week article titled “Beware Social Media Snake Oil”, is spot on. Let’s call these snake oil sales people the “Harold Hills” of our time (see the video below for reference).

Since entering the digital marketing and communications world 13 years ago (wow), I have seen a lot of smart people who call themselves experts, gurus or evangelists. These self proclaimed heroes see an opportunity to capitalize on market opportunity and pounce.

As an entrepreneur I can appreciate the desire to generate new revenue channels and get excited by opportunities. However, good entrepreneurs (Note: I didn’t say successful, I said good) posses a secret sauce that allows them to detect BS and see through smoke and mirrors.
It is not a skill you learn in business school. It is not a skill you learn from your parents (even if they were entrepreneurs). It is a skill you are born with. Like @GregGrunberg’s character Matt Parkmen, you need to unleash the innate gift and use it for good. (Note: I am a HEROES geek).

In the article they call out some of the self-made “Gurus” who collect thousands of dollars to show up and speak to organizations looking for the silver bullet. Most of us have attended these events. It’s true that many of the speakers are not teaching anything new to the audience, but rather being dynamic individuals who know how to read a room. Like Harold Hill, they found the pain point and capitalized on the situation.

I am more in the camp of approaching Social as just another channel, albeit a wonderfully dynamic and exciting one, in need of utilization as part of a larger strategy. We (those of us who practice digital communications) need to be responsible about how we are presenting ourselves and sharing information. In new client meetings at The Buddy Group, we often tell clients there are no “experts” in social media..it is too new to be an expert. However, we are experts in online, in communication, in brand building. So, that makes us ideally suited to shepherd their brand in the ever changing social media space.

Without responsible communication, we as an industry run the risk of being characterized, much as Harold Hill, as nothing better than snake oil salesmen.

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by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

Anyone that knows me knows I’m a big Clint Eastwood fan. By far, a favorite movie quote of mine is from Magnum Force: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” It’s an important quote in marketing because a brand has to both stretch its potential and also know its limitations. I love to push clients to try new things and take a chance, but you also have to be realistic about who/what your brand is, who your clients are and the perception equation between the two.

As an example, iTunes has the soundtrack for The Hangover (Yes, the quality movie where Ed Helms loses his tooth and a baby is found in a closet) available for sale — But, only for sale as a complete album. Consumers cannot purchase individual songs.

Apple knows the limitations of this soundtrack. Frankly, it’s not that good. But, it has some quality tracks on it from the movie. Songs custom from the movie that you can’t get anywhere else. Chances are fans of the movie will go ahead and drop the $9.99 to get the full album. However, if the individual tracks were available, it’s virtually guaranteed those same fans would only buy a couple tracks.

That’s smart marketing due to knowing the limitations of the product. Ideally, if you recognize the limitations, you try to better the product. If that’s not an option though, a business needs to make the best with what they have and not fool themselves by putting on blinders about their product(s). In the end, working with your limitations is always better than ignoring them.

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by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

They weren’t “350 million” — as in the number of people currently using Facebook worldwide. Neither were they “50 percent” (number of users who are regional network members) or “remove…completely” (Facebook’s plan to entirely get rid of networks).

No, the two most important words were: “or everyone.”

As in, you can choose to share your info and updates with only your friends, friends of your friends, “or everyone.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s letter is positioned as an update on how Facebook is dealing with its expanding user base and protecting the privacy of that user base. However, couple the two words “or everyone” with the recent news about Facebook’s impending homepage redesign, and you can start to see that these two feature changes make Facebook more competitive with Twitter’s feature sets.

Here’s how it will work: 1) Users can share their content with everyone, 2) Other users can search this treasure trove of status updates, link sharing, etc., and 3) Everyone starts to be able to share and find content more broadly, much as is being done on Twitter. No doubt Facebook will open up additional APIs so other sites can tap into this content as well.

How does it work now? Do a search via the Facebook search for the term “Zuckerberg Open Letter.” There will be results for Groups and, at the bottom, Posts by Friends where you will find Zuckerberg’s open letter. Now, go to Twitter and do the same search for “Zuckerberg Open Letter” via the Twitter search. Your results are filled with all the commentary people are making about the open letter, links to the open letter, etc.

Imagine the Twitter level of search results, but fueled by the level of activity going on in Facebook. Keep in mind Facebook has 350 million users and Twitter is estimated to have approximately 35 million…

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by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

With tentative optimism, I looked forward to Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. Not because I love shopping, but because I was eager for our customers like Western Digital, DTS and Bandai.

You see, I judge the economy not by CNBC, the Wall Street Journal or some other pundit. I use taxis and airports. And, things looked good.

We believe strongly in social media at The Buddy Group, and taxis and airports are truly real world social media conversations. Nowhere, other than online, can you get a better cross-section of people from places across the country. If the airports are busy, it means businesspeople are willing to spend money to make money. If taxi drivers are happy (as happy as they can be), it means consumers are spending more.

In fact, just last week a (more honest than normal) cab driver told me business the last couple months was back to normal levels again. He said many people were coming into the city to shop. They weren’t spending large amounts of money, but they were coming in larger volumes. This jives with data from the National Retail Federation released Monday that said 23 million more consumers shopped Black Friday weekend than the same weekend last year but the average consumer spent $343.51, down from $372.57 last year. See the full report here.

So, I encourage those of you that travel to ask your cab driver and flight attendant: “things been busy lately?” Remember, flight attendants will always be a little more optimistic because it’s their job to make you feel good, and cab drivers will always be a little more pessimistic to get a sympathy tip!

And, from all the online social media talk we’ve seen the last few days, we expect some pretty strong numbers from Cyber Monday, too. If taxis and airports are good prognosticators, then social media should hold especially true.

So, happy travels – both online and offline! From my conversations, things are starting to look up out there. But, I’d love to know what you are hearing. Hit me up on Twitter at @bboettger.

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