I remember being totally enamored by the story of Mozart the first time I saw Amadeus. One of the things Mozart did was change the way the Austrians viewed operas. They thought they knew what an opera was and then they experienced Mozart’s operas. He built on the foundation of operas as they had been done but improved on it dramatically.

In many ways that’s how I see the new marketing opportunities with social media and social networking tools. They build on the foundation of old marketing for something better. The video below from Amadeus drives home the difference between the old and new. Be sure to listen for the quote, “It doesn’t really work, does it?” Seems like it fits the old marketing vs. new marketing analogy pretty well. Here’s the clip for the feed readers.

I’m always interested in the latest social media stats that come. So is my friend Aaron Linne. Aaron pulled some stats together for a meeting at his company recently. There’s great info here if you haven’t seen any social media stats in a while.

Becky is a marketing strategist for a large company here in Nashville. One evening she was planning some snacks for an evening with friends when her search for a snack led her to purchase a book she didn’t know she wanted. Here’s the email Becky sent to her director the next day:

“I Googled Chili’s because I wanted to find out how much it would cost to get chips and salsa to go. When I Googled Chili’s, this link came up that said “Brand Autopsy: Would you miss Chili’s?” That intrigued me, so I clicked on it and found the blog of a marketing guy who used to work for Starbucks and Whole Foods. He, in turn, raved about this new book that is all about marketing and social networks. I thought it might be something that our whole team would benefit from. Isn’t it ironic that I was looking for chips and salsa and found a marketing book? But it hit the right audience at the right time!”

I really like this story at a number of different levels because:

• It shows the power and influence of blogs even in the most unlikely of connections.
• It reminds me that people trust blogs that seem trustworthy.
• It reminds me that your target audience cannot be segmented so neatly all the time because Becky the marketer wasn’t looking for a book but she found one and bought it (and will likely buy one for the entire marketing team at the company) when she was Becky the snack shopper.
• It reminds me of the power of a Google search and how blogs could make (or break) the positioning of your brand.

The book Becky found was called “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed By Social Technologies” by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. I’m reading this book now too but I found out about it through Twitter via Jeremiah Owyang.

I’m keenly aware of the irony here (and also the affirmation of the power and influence of social media) that a book called Groundswell benefited from the groundswell in at least two cases I can point to directly (mine and Becky’s) and I’m sure countless others. So the question is, what are you waiting for if you’re not getting in yet? Don’t fight the groundswell.

“All right stop, collaborate and listen…”

Vanilla Ice in “Ice Ice Baby”

Ever think Vanilla Ice had anything to teach you? Me either…but my friend Scott Mills jokingly pointed out at lunch recently that Vanilla Ice had a few things to say about social media marketing when he said to stop, collaborate, and listen. Scott was joking. I’m not.

Vanilla’s advice is actually pretty good for social media marketers. We have to stop, collaborate, and listen if we’re going to be good social media marketers. Checking out the hook while his DJ revolves it is optional.

Stop: If you’re dabbling in social media marketing you need to stop. Do you have a plan or are you playing around with social media because it seems like the thing everybody is doing these days? Do you have measurable goals? Do you even have goals? The worst thing you can do is not stop and figure out how social media will work for you and then how best to move forward within it. If you don’t stop first you’re probably going to create a meatball sundae…and nobody wants that…so stop first. Once you stop I recommend you begin to think about a content strategy to really take full advantage of the new marketing tools.

Collaborate: In some form or fashion collaboration is at the heart of every good social media initiative. It may be the type of collaboration that involves a wiki (which Google spreadsheets even does now) or simply allowing comments, tags, trackbacks, and other forms of feedback to your social media. Collaboration is both active and attitudinal. You must convey that you actually care what other people think…and not just that you care, but allow them to participate and contribute in some form. Mitch Joel does a great job of this by allowing audio comments on his podcast, Six Pixels of Separation. Mitch actively allows people to collaborate and also has an attitude that reflects this. Collaboration is one of the biggest shifts from web 1.0 to web 2.0. It was a shift in technology that enables collaboration and it was a shift is tone and attitude toward collaboration.

Listen: Social media is as much about conversation as it is collaboration. The two go hand in hand really, but did you ever talk to someone who was more interested in talking than having true conversation? The missing piece of course was that they weren’t listening. They were just looking for an opportunity to talk. Social media marketing isn’t about one way communication or disruption tactics. That was the old way to do marketing. True conversation, like true social media marketing, doesn’t interrupt. Rather, it engages and listens. The fact of the matter is these conversations are already happening. You just have to decide whether you’re going to join the conversation or not.

So there it is…wisdom from Mr. Ice. Word to your mother.

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.

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.

This video really made me laugh. I usually don’t connect the videos of the week to new media marketing but there are a lot of parallels here to the marketing world and the major shifts that have been occurring for the last few years.

I have talked with some traditional advertisers and marketers who are like the patient in this video. They refuse to accept the changes regardless of what reality may be. Be willing to hear the truth even if you think you’re not going to like it.

For the feed readers, here’s the video: May I Be Blunt With You?