Marianna — I’m afraid to tell you that I can only have one Southerner post here at a time. We are using a FREE trial of the translation software we use to convert your language into English and it only allows one post per day. I suppose I could upgrade, just for you. Seriously, thank you for posting. Not sure if you know this but Richard used to have a column called the Loose Cannon in Direct Magazine. It was unequivocally one of the best things ever written in the direct marketing world and was responsible for at least 10 points of my blood pressure. Needless to say, your cannon analogy was perfect, especially here.

I will say this, I think this space is MUCH smarter than it was 2-3 years ago. Then, all companies were complete idiots, and the devil. If ANY company launched any type of social media effort, 1,000 bloggers immediately ripped it to shreds. Then I think some of those bloggers got to actually work on the other side of the fence, and started to see the space from the company’s point of view. Attitudes have softened and bloggers and others in the social media space are now much more supportive of companies that are getting their feet wet in this space.

I think in another 2-3 years that we won’t see social media being championed as a ’stand alone’ set of tools like they are now, but I think companies will begin to integrate what works about social media into other areas of their marketing and business.

I am thankful he’s saved the QLOG as it makes us all laugh so hard…the members of the Amy Africa Fan Club. I thought MIchael would bust with the black knowing they are black write-up there.
And, of course I’ve framed, Are Crazy Women Better In Bed? Because of course, you know there’s lunacy in genes.

Mack, I LOVED your last comment… I can’t help getting a little crazy about it in most of my presentations: “Social media is just that – it’s a media, the channel that carries your (hopefully) perfect message to (hopefully) your perfect client.” And then we start talking about ALL the ways that could go awry. I dunno, like if you aren’t even aiming the cannon (aka social media) at your target audience in the first place by using a terrible message – or if the audience didn’t show up to receive the message or worse, if you know nothing about your customers in the first place and think the tools alone deliver results? At the end of the day, media are all still media. Some of them are just more social than others… Keep up the great work, both of you.
Posted at 11:55 pm on July 07, 2009 by

What did the second company say when you asked ‘em HOW they planned to accomplish these lofty goals?

The result, more often than not, is a foray into social media that is either abandoned (a sin in relationship marketing) or which degenerates into banality – also a sin, but given the amount of noise to signal in social media, seemingly a lesser sin. Alas. ”

Richard this is so right. So many companies are wanting to start using social media based on hype, not on having actually examined their company & marketplace and deciding that these tools can best help them reach their business goals. I was at a recent event and talked to two companies that both said they wanted to launch a blog. I asked them both ‘Why’. The first said ‘well we wanted to start one’. The second said ‘because we want to use the blog to establish our company as a leader in our industry, and as a way to better connect with our customers’. The second company had actually done some homework and had an understanding of what they could accomplish with a blog, the first company was simply buying into the hype.

Looks like we all owe a debt to Mack Collier, if he’s one of the few keeping you from giving up the Qlog. We’d miss your substantive, well-informed and personality-infused essays — which, by the way, give lie to your claim that “content is king in blogging is total BS.”

From my misanthropic perch, I’ve seen a lot of companies rush into blogging, Tweeting, Facebook and MySpace pages, and a whole host of other social mediums for a simple (and unfortunate) reason: Someone at a given company with hire/fire power thinks the company needs to be partaking of ‘em.

The result, more often than not, is a foray into social media that is either abandoned (a sin in relationship marketing) or which degenerates into banality — also a sin, but given the amount of noise to signal in social media, seemingly a lesser sin. Alas.

Former Washington Post columnist Bob Levey (no relationship — and we pronounce the names differently) has a sweatshirt which, on the front, reads “Anyone can be a columnist” and on the back says “For about three weeks.” Exit strategies are one of the most overlooked aspects of marketing campaigns — and with social channels being so easy to abandon, transitioning what followers one can get should be part of the initial, not the last-minute, thinking.

Mack is correct in that social monitoring is essential. Generation Y, and successive generations, are being trained to expect that organizations will listen to them. And these generations will punish organizations that don’t, either by returning the favor or being ignored, or by allowing unfortunate stories — justified or not — go unchallenged or unresolved.

As for content’s role: I do get what you’re saying about it not being enough. Brilliant content which is not actively touted will die on the vine, and the rules for promoting it are being written in light pencil, erased and re-written on an almost daily basis. But heavily promoted content which is uninspired ain’t doing one’s readership any favors, either.

The answer, by my lights, is twofold. Really great social media content starts out with more than just snark: It works ideas, adds a little analysis (it’s called a calculator, folks: learn to use it) and presents fresh information on old ideas. It also helps if the content provider has an obsessed mind, and genuinely believes the world turns on his or her subject matter.

And then there are ways to promoted it which are specific to the channel — namely, going out and offering opinions on other blogs and demonstrating your chops. And that’s before we get into speaking gigs, book deals and the like.

Case in point: There’s was an academic blog called Political Arithmetik which fed right into my obsession of electoral politics. The political bent of the author probably ain’t mine, but he is fairly even-handed in his analyses.

During the 2008 campaign season, I found his crunching-and-commentary riveting. His musings, rather than offering snarky comments on various candidate hair styles, offered very real information worth chewing on. And he was presenting data I hadn’t seen anywhere else — except in the Washington Post article where I originally found the reference to his site.

(The author doesn’t seem to be updating the blog of late, which is fine — midterm electoral season won’t start up for in earnest another nine months or so.)

Twitter is another story. Like you, I’ve done little more than dip my big toe in the Tweet stream. It’s a question of time, or time sucking. A good chunk of what’s out there is either snark or updates on lunch — and that’s true even of business Tweets. The very real value proposition a good, juicy blog offers (when one can find a good, juicy blog) is, on Twitter, diluted by the numerous accounts of turkey sandwiches being consumed. I can come up with snark on my own.

And marketers are making the classic mistake on Twitter they initially do with all new media: They don’t realize a new media requires a new approach. One hundred forty characters isn’t a lot of room to demonstrate a value proposition: It’s enough for a headline and a tease. Or an aphorism. Or something which leads to a more-thought out pitch.

So why not ignore it completely? Because once marketers — especially creative copywriter types — figure out how to use it, it could well become another, viable channel with its own set of rules. A Tweet directing consumers to a free-for-all online focus group, or a VERY limited time offer (think offer durations that last minutes, as opposed to days), are two such examples.

For the right brand — one which lends itself to an audience that loves puzzles — a Tweet could contain a cryptogram which incorporates a pun or funny message. Nantucket Nectars puts amusing facts on the inside of its bottle caps: Scramble up one of those, blast one out every day (or week — let the subscribers decide) and you’ve got brand affinity for a very engaging campaign. Stressed at work? Here’s your five-minute distraction from Nantucket Nectars!

Aside to Nantucket Nectars: I’ll be sending you a bill, payable in pineapple orange banana or pomegranate cherry juice, shortly.

Final note: Amy, don’t consider the “Are Crazy Women Better In Bed” post a failure. The information in it was damned good — you just overshadowed it. It’s a mistake I’ve made, too.

And I’m not so sure it’s a mistake entirely without redeeming value. There’s something to be said for getting tongues wagging on your behalf. And yeah, you can refine your qlogging technique to insure your points really do hit the marks you’re aiming for. But — as you point out — kids go full-steam into new adventures, make mistakes or scrape their knees, and then get up and start running again.