Last week I was in a meeting with people from a number of different organizations all discussing a common issue. I was the “social media” guy at the table with a few traditional marketers with various specialties along with non-marketing people working through an particular situation. During the course of the discussion I realized again how stark the difference is between the way I approach marketing and promotion compared to some more traditional marketers. I attribute this difference in thinking to people like Seth Godin, Chris Anderson, and Robert Scoble…all of whom have provided books and blog that have formed the way I approach the new technology for marketing purposes. I took some notes of my thoughts at the time and here’s what came out…

It’s not that television as we’ve known it doesn’t matter. It’s just that it doesn’t matter as much as it used to.

It’s not that newspapers as we’ve known them don’t matter. It’s just that they don’t matter as much as they used to.

It’s not that radio as we’ve known it doesn’t matter. It’s just that it doesn’t matter as much as it used to.

It’s not that marketing, advertising, public relations, and any other form of promotion as we’ve known it doesn’t matter. It’s just that it doesn’t matter as much as it used to.

It’s not that the way you’ve been marketing isn’t effective anymore. It’s just that it’s less effective today than it was yesterday and it will be increasingly less effective tomorrow, next week, and next year.

The lesson here isn’t that you have to make a total switch to social media marketing today. The lesson is that you need to be moving toward social media marketing and as you do, you can’t think about it the same way as the old way you did marketing.

Tomorrow morning from 9:30-11:00 CST will be the social media micro conference for marketing and communication professionals. There were five free spots available for non profits but those have been taken. There are still paid slots available. We’ll talk social media marketing strategy and tactics with some specific things I do when I’m working on a social media marketing campaign.

Up to 10 people from your organization can listen online or on the phone and an MP3 recording of the entire micro conference will be provided after the event is over.

If you’re ready to join us you’ll need to go here or if you want a little more information, check out the full description of the event.

Scott Schwertly and the folks at Ethos3 are presentation consultants and designers. Didn’t know such a thing existed? I didn’t either until recently, but once you see a really good presentation that tells a story like they do, it pretty much messes up every other presentation you’ll ever see…and that’s a good thing. This video is basically a presentation about how to do good presentations without feeling like a presentation. Watch the video and you’ll see what I mean.

Link for “The Voicemail” video for the feed readers.

PresenTired: “The Voicemail” from Scott Schwertly on Vimeo.

[Full disclosure: Ethos3 is a new MicroExplosion Media client]

John W. Ellis is our first batter to step to the plate for social media batting practice. He has some great insight on what he would do with the fly fisherman example. You can see the full post on John’s blog or read most of it below…

First up: How would a weekend fly fishing guide and instructor use social media to grow his business?

Here are 3 quick tips for this small business:

1. ‘Fly Fishing Tips’ Blog
   Creating an instructional blog is a great way to target specific customers. Don’t worry about revealing too much. You want to do just the opposite. This is a great opportunity to show your expertise in fly fishing.As an instructional blog, it has a clear focus. Many blogs are all over the place and have no consistency. Creating a clear, precise blog is a great way to target customers. Remember it’s not the quantity of visitors you want, it’s the quality. Five strong customers are better then 100 5-second visits.
2. Start the conversation on Twitter
   Start following friends, colleagues and competitors. Now of course, tweeting with friends will not expand the bank account. However, it does start the conversation. By discussing “fly fishing” the conversation expands beyond friends. After friends, begin following local lodging companies, restaurants, and local organizations. Don’t just follow. Join the conversation. Make friends. Make partnerships.Twitter creates followers, it creates buzz, and it eventually creates customers. It all begins with one sentence: “What are you doing?”
3. Flickr Photo Contest
   Ask for photographs of favorite fly-fishing spots. Then, give away free instructions to the best entries.After it’s over, be sure to give something to all entries. Even if it’s small, everyone loves winning.Flickr requires minimal time and investment. Plus, it has great photo sharing tools that allow you to integrate those photos into your blog and more importantly it allows “customers” to share those photos.

   Other tips, outside of Social Media:

   • Create packages with local lodging companies
   • Place brochures in state border Welcome Centers
   • Find ways to give away lessons. A small gesture will lead to great word of mouth
   • Email is a great way to talk with customers. Look for ways to collect email addresses.

John, thanks for the insight here. Very good thoughts. Ok, who’s ready to bat next?

I loved playing baseball as a kid and especially enjoyed batting practice. The great thing about batting practice was that it allowed you to work on your hitting outside of the pressure of the game. I’d like to invite you to some social media batting practice with me and here’s how it will work…

I believe there are no businesses or organizations that cannot benefit from social media marketing but for probably many reasons, social media marketing is still considered something that only quick, young, startup types of companies can utilize.

Social media batting practice will be our way to show that social media marketing can, in fact, work for any type of business or organization and this is where we’ll share those ideas. My hope is that this will be a way to stretch those of us interested in social media marketing (without the pressure of the pitch from a prospective client) and hopefully prove its worth to some doubters or skeptics. So…we need pitchers and batters (and those who want to do both.)

Pitchers will throw out an idea of a type of business or organization we might not think could or would use social media and it’s up to a batter to give some specific ideas of how that business would implement social media marketing. The batter can think about it like being temporarily hired as a social media marketer for the business or work. The only request for the “pitches” here is that they be real or at least plausible. For instance, a pitcher might say, “how would a gunsmith use social media? Or maybe, “how would a dog grooming store use social media marketing?” That’s more the spirit we’re going for here…businesses that people might think could benefit from social media marketing.

If you want to be a pitcher or batter just let me know in the comments or shoot me an email (Bill@MicroExplosion.com) All pitchers and batters will get credit and links to their respective blogs or websites. The pitchers really have the easy job here…just throw out a type of business and give some parameters so the batter can give a good answer. The batters are the ones who have to come up with a couple of things they could do and give some specifics. It’s not enough to say, “Start a Facebook group , create a blog, and post some video to YouTube. There, have a nice day.” That won’t cut it. You need to be more specific. This post might help if you need it.

Who knows how long we’ll play. Maybe through the summer. Let’s see how it goes. So, who’s ready for some batting practice? Here’s a pitch if someone wants to be the batter (email me if you do and I’ll have a full post with your response):

How would a weekend fly fishing guide and instructor use social media to grow his business? Assume the guide works a job during the week but would love to be a fly fishing guide full time if possible. He knows the best spots for good fishing in the region and is a great instructor as well. He’s only booked one weekend a month right now, but wants to be full every weekend. What should he do?

By the way…I totally made that up but that’s the kind of information a pitcher will need to provide for a batter.

Last week I announced the 90 minute social media marketing micro conference I’m hosting a week from today with twenty five spots for businesses and and five free spots for non profits. All the non profit spot are full as of a few days ago (and we’ve had to turn a few away too…we’ll get them next time around) but there is still space for paying attendees. Remember…the fee covers you and up to ten people from your company to participate and you’ll get an MP3 recording of the micro conference when it’s over. If you’re ready to participate go ahead and get in on it.

I’m going to admit this up front: I have a few issues when it comes to advertising agencies and marketing firms. I don’t think they’re all bad, but I believe there are a lot of new options (which are better for the client) for people who need the same types of services that ad agencies and marketing firms offer.

For instance, you can find really good graphic design, web design, or web development services from a multitude of companies that have no more than two people in the company. More than likely, if you go with one of those you’ll pay about half of what the agency will charge you because you’re not covering a large overhead. I once worked for a company whose annual rent was more than what most of the people who worked there made in a year. It wasn’t that the work was that much better or that the technology was that much more expensive or that the staff was that much more talented. It was just that the company had a lot of overhead to cover and that was passed along to the clients. Again, not all the larger places are bad, but the best big ones are specialists, not generalists.

Here are three things to think about that may lead you to fire your current marketing firm or advertising agency:

If your agency doesn’t communicate with you, fire them. If you don’t recall the last time you heard from them, how are they supposed to know what your needs are? Even worse, I know of a company today that has an agency on retainer but doesn’t use their services. Their agency never contacts them and doesn’t have a clue about what’s going on with them, but they keep on collecting the fees every month. I think it’s dumb for the company to keep paying the retainer and very bad business for the agency to keep collecting without doing a thing for their client.

If your agency isn’t a learning organization, fire them. The world of marketing is changing too fast these days. If they’re not keeping up then they’re selling you outdated (and less useful) services. Many agencies did something well many years ago and are still trying to sell those same services. A lot of them have come to the cold realization that the old way doesn’t work anymore and are scrambling to figure out what to do next. I can only imagine how confused their clients are.

If your agency hasn’t given you a new idea in the last six months, fire them. This goes along with the learning organization point above but takes it a step further by actually expecting the agency to be leading in some way. It’s not enough to be learning, you have to be applying the new learning as well. If your agency is still making the same recommendations you got from them a year ago, they’re probably not learning and they’re certainly not leading.

My cell phone died on me this week. I thought about getting this one…but figure I don’t need quite this many functions.

Check out the Samsung Turbo 3000 if you’re a feed reader.

Ok, quick tip if this applies to you…if you use Twitter, be a person. Don’t be a nameless, faceless brand. I’m seeing more of these lately and I’ve determined I’m not following them back. I know there’s someone behind the scenes, but why not introduce yourself? I can’t have a relationship with a brand. I can have a relationship with a person.

The same thing goes for social networking sites. Don’t created a Facebook profile for your organization or product without making it clear to everyone that there’s a person behind it. We know he or she is there…so why hide behind the logo?

Social media and social networking tools rely on personal interaction. This may be hard for some companies or counterintuitive to others, but at some point you’re going to have to get out from behind the brand to actually say, “Hi, I’m Jim. I’m the guy who handles this for the company.” If you’re not willing to do that, you can’t play in the sandbox…and not because I say so…but because you’re the one who put the bucket over your head. How’s anyone supposed to talk to you with that bucket on your head? Take it off and start talking.

The latest episode of The New Mediology is now available in iTunes or you can listen online.

In this episode, Nathan and I discussed the online advertising methods we have seen work since on the last podcast we talked about banner ads as something that doesn’t usually work online. If you listen to the podcast (or have listened to previous podcasts) be sure to leave a message on the comment line at 1-800-881-6059.