I missed posting about my two year blogging anniversary a few weeks ago so this is my post to make up for it. In my very first post for this blog two years ago on the topic of social media I wrote:

Everything available to you through web 2.0 takes time to get off the ground. Some people will be fine with that, but for those of you with mandates and timelines you’re going to come to a fork in the road of whether you want to do something that people can see soon (old marketing methods) with something that will have an enduring impact (web 2.0 methods). Consider it your own little blue pill vs red pill. One will take you to a world you couldn’t imagine and the other…will keep you right where you are.

So, do I still believe this two years later? I sure do. In fact, I think this blue pill/red pill decision is one that more marketers are deciding on today than they were two years ago when I first wrote this. I had lunch today with some people from a company who are deciding right now which way to go. I had a similar lunch meeting yesterday. The tide seems to be coming in on social media.

Some people thought social media was a fad (and have since admitted so to me) but now see the communication/Internet/marketing world has changed and they need to change with it. Other people just weren’t paying attention or maybe were paying attention but didn’t take the time to get their hands dirty in the social media sandbox. Whatever the case, there’s is a rapidly widening awareness of the choice that needs to be made.

So which will you choose? If you choose the blue pill (blissful ignorance) then congratulations, you don’t have to do much. You can relax knowing you won’t have to go through the possible discomfort of change and new learning. I also hope you’re planning to retire in the next 12-18 months, otherwise you may regret the choice. If you choose the red pill (hard truth) then congratulations, you’re about to enter an exciting and unsettling journey. If you feel like the rules have changed you’re wrong. It’s the game that has changed and it has its own rules…but now you’re choosing to play, and that’s the best place to start.

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.

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.

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?

Last week I got to hear a former General Motors advertising consultant talk about his work with the company about 20 years. He was with them from the late 70s through the late 90s as I recall. He referenced the phrase, “As goes GM, so goes the country.” I hadn’t heard that before but with a quick Google search I discovered this phrase has been around for many years. GM’s influence on our country and economy isn’t nearly as strong as it once was, though I’m sure people would debate me on that. Whether or not it’s true some interesting news today out of GM sparked my curiosity…

According to MediaBuyerPlanner.com, GM is putting $1.5 billion (yes, billion) into digital marketing. That’s half their annual marketing budget. GM is the third largest advertiser in the country so the speculation will begin as to whether this will trickle down to significantly smaller marketing budgets as other companies see what GM does and follow their lead.

My hunch is that many of the smaller marketing budgets are already there. In fact, the smallest of marketing budgets…like people who have about $100 in annual marketing budgets, have been there for a while. In my observation it’s the big companies that are getting on board last. Making the shift to digital marketing at the corporate level, however is still big news and quite bold of GM to shift a full 50% of their budget to a medium that some people still question as a practical advertising platform and marketing channel.

I commend GM for what they’re doing and I’m sure this news has already been passed around marketing departments and advertising agencies all over the country by now. Who knows, maybe that old saying will turn out to be true after all.