Social Media Marketing Continues!

So I have decided to dive into a few new social media sites to try their worth and I must say I am impressed with what I see. I am going to list a few of the newer services I have been trying out and mentioning what I see as the marketing opportunity for the service.

First let's go with Google Wave. This new service is invite only (for those that may want to try I have a few invites.. let me know). This service has great potential... for the business end of the spectrum. I see this service as a supplement to an instant messenger/email service with a little bit of the conferencing built in. I can see Google is trying to take over the internet and doing a really good job of it. This is a great cooperative site that may not be for consumers but by using Google Groups with this could really do a lot. Sadly this needs a little something extra  to really be pick up on by the consumer masses.. still a great product.

Next is Loopt. Loopt is a great little service to get to know your surroundings. Hungry, find some good food close by. Need to find your friends? Well as long as everyone has a GPS-enabled phone your can find them if they are close. Need to find something to do? Find events nearby. It is a great service to fill up your weekend. Enable it to connect with your other Facebook and Twitter to let your newer social media challenged friends know what you are doing. Great little service to figure out what is going on.

Finally I am now trying out Foursquare. This app seems to be a great idea for local businesses. One can check in at different place (much like Loopt) but the kicker is you can set up your own list of your Top 12 places and your Top 12 "To Dos" for the new people coming in. What is great is you can become a "Mayor" of certain places by checking in so many times. Really like your local bar? Check in and become Mayor. Then you can let everyone know. While this service is still pretty new, Mashable's founder has spoken very highly of it, including the fact that it could very well be the next Twitter. Check out this article detailing the possibilities behind the service.

Check out the new social media platforms and vote for your favorite by using it. I am really leaning towards Foursquare myself and if you need a friend... on these services, comment and let me know!

Chew-a-licious Advertising

So as I was looking over some of the news articles on my phone this morning I came across one from Mashable that I really enjoyed. This article shows a great deal of "social sensitivity" from Trident Gum. Honestly a great piece.

So what I find great about this print ad is the fact that Trident took the time to find out what people were saying about their new gum. They way they did it was even better. I am so happy to actually find a company truly using Twitter in an advertising sense (yes best buy has done this to an extent with the @twelpforce but has not used unsolicited testimonials). This is what social media was made for. This is a great way for a company to find out what people are saying about the products and services and best of all.... it is FREE!!!! Previously one had to send out surveys or create a focus group to really find out what consumers were thinking but with Facebook and Twitter, Marketers are able to figure things out quickly and efficiently.

I really hope more small businesses and large ones get used to social media marketing. It is a great tool and not hard to learn. I look forward to more great ads like this one. Great job Trident Layers!

I wanna be like Mike.

So as you may have heard by now, Michael Jordan (the ungrateful basketball star of yesteryear) did not show up for a half-time show for an NBA development league game in Orem, Utah for a charity shoot-out that he never even agreed to. The nerve of some people. Ok maybe you have not heard of this latest marketing blunder made by the owner of the Utah Flash... and you have probably never even heard of the Flash.... or for that matter the NBA development league but I will will allow you to mosey on over to KSL.com's news report on the incident and then come on back to hear my take on the whole ordeal. Go on.... I will wait.


Welcome back. So as you now know Brandt Andersen, the owner of the Utah Flash, decided it would be a good idea to try and get Mr. Basketball, Michael Jordan, to come to his game to bring in a crowd. The only problem.... MJ did not agree to anything while Mr Andersen slyly promoted the event as a possibility. That is kind of the gist of the article. Brandt did try to apologize via his blog but that did not go over too well.  At least he tried.


Ok here goes the "real" meat of the blog. Was this a good idea for Brandt and the Flash? In theory yes. Was it carried out well.... obviously no. Brandt did try to cover himself with his statement, "Michael Jordan will be here, and if he's not, we promise to make it entertaining." Now if it would have been left at that the whole situation would have been avoided.... for the most part. The problem comes with the organizations desire (read Brandt's desire) to experiment with Social Media Marketing. In the right hands Social Media Marketing can lead to great growth and loyalty among your customers and potential customers. In the wrong hands it can cut you in two. Whoever said bad press is good press lied. Would you like to go to an event that continually lied about what was going on or a restaurant that continually received poor health code ratings? No. Hence no press can be better press then bad press. You want people to come back and purchase again, right? 


So to go back. This "experiment" as he put it entailed taping the MJ look-a-like in various spots around the city. That would have been great if there was a possibility of His Airness actually showing up but by creating the "viral" wave, as he put it, and not having a disclaimer, Brandt stepped over the ethical line. Was it technically illegal? Probably not. Was it a good idea? Far from it. Now the Flash will have to overcome the bad PR blitz that has already come their way. Can they recover? Yes. Will it be easy? Of course not, nor should it be! Social media is not the only answer but it is a great option. Maybe he should still try to donate the $100,000 to a very deserving charity to help make up for the lost goodwill. 


Brandt, reach out to your community. They are the only ones you can rely on... they just need to know they can rely on you. Show them that you care beyond the refunds and free tickets. Run social media contests on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Loopt. You need them more then they need you. Good luck and you can overcome this. Just try harder.

"There's an ad for that!"

So I will take a little turn from my typical Social Media Marketing blog post and dive a little more into the realm of business and business strategy (of course I am throwing the advertising in the post).

There are many truly great rivalries in the world of sports. Fortunately we also have great rivalries in the world of business. Whether it is the PC vs. MAC, Pepsi vs. Coke, out-sourcing vs. in-sourcing, or AT&T vs. Verizon. As a disclaimer, I have been a customer of AT&T (and Cingular) and am a current customer of Verizon. I was not impressed with the cell service I received at AT&T while the customer service at Verizon is not always the best.... there I got that all off my chest.

As for the reasoning behind my post, the new "fight" these two companies is making me laugh... mostly at AT&T. Unless you have been living under a rock... or just do not watch television, you have probably seen Verizon's ads poking fun at AT&T's inferior 3g coverage with their "There's a map for that" tagline. From a truly strategic and creative stand point, the ads are very well done. AT&T, understandably, was not happy with these spots (my favorite is this one that uses the island of misfit toys with the iPhone being the misfit toy because of the spotty 3g coverage). In fact AT&T even went as far as to sue Verizon for the ads, which the court threw out.

This is where poor Luke Wilson comes in. In this, the first spot done by BBDO (that just seems a little rushed by AT&T), Luke tries to tell us why AT&T is the better cell phone provider. This spot just does not do it for me. I understand the thinking behind it, as AT&T is trying to save face but from the commercial it appears as the only thing they really have going for them is the iPhone. It is the hottest phone by far in the market right now and will continue to be that way. Verizon just happens to have the largest 3g network, and that is what they have going for them. There is no disputing those points. Unfortunately for AT&T, Verizon is starting to catch up on phones. These phones do not have the app capabilities of the iPhone but the Droid has some great offerings.

Back to the strategy. AT&T's current strategy is more of a retaliatory one. They feel that they must "clean up" the image of its service when really, at least to this blogger, they still have nothing to worry about. Look at the iPhone. It is still a very highly sought after item. They also have many other phones, like the line of Blackberrys they carry, that will continue to work out really well for them. Yes it is a matter of market share but until Big V can come up with a phone that matches the iPhone's popularity (or if the internet rumors hold true and VZW gets an iPhone by 2011) AT&T will still sell more phones. People will still "defect" between carriers. That is the American way.

Now do not get me wrong. I really love the ads done by BBDO. They are one of the better ad agencies. Unfortunately an agency many times has to play by the client's rules. Sometimes agencies are order takers. This stifles creativity. Honestly it is only recently that McCann Erickson has been really creative with Verizon's ads. Sometimes a little competition is good not only for consumers, but creativity too.


UDPATE: I finally saw an AT&T ad that was good. Ok so it was more of an Apple ad that AT&T kinda jumped on to. It actually showed how one could make use of the data and voice that AT&T's network allows. It then sent a jab straight to Verizon. Thanks guys. I am glad to see a good ad.

Are we trying to improve our reach?

So I am going to continue my little tyraid from my last Blog post. I spoke about wanting to put my social media knowledge to work at my place of employment and the marketing department's unwillingness to branch out into the world of social media marketing. It is my turn to do some branching (as I do not want to "complain" about my something I cannot change).



What I see in this economy is the lack of small businesses trying to improve their reach. I have read many reports that state the more you put into marketing your company to the masses in a recession, the quicker and stronger will be your growth once we are out. Now you may be saying, "I thought we were "officially" out of the recession? Why do we care now?" Yes we are apparently out of the recession but ask yourself this... does it truly feel like it yet? We are going to be hearing bad news from many companies for a while longer as consumers are still afraid to spend...with good reason. The thing is you need to market yourself. The good news is it does not have to cost a lot.


One of the best ways to begin to get your name out there (which is essentially all marketing really does) is social media marketing. I feel like I am beating a dead horse but it works. I personally achieved results of a 300% increase in unique site visits with just the use of Facebook, a blog and a little viral marketing for a website I ran. Guess what... it was all free. I just had to spend some time on it. 


Really though, can a form of Marketing that is free and is proven (not just by me) to work hurt? Only if you do not go about it correctly. For advice search reputable sites or ask me and I will be glad to help. Now the big question is will I continue my rant on Social Media Marketing for my next post? Only time can tell.

Ever get that feeling...

So recently I have been job hunting. Graduating during this recession has not lent itself well to finding a job. This is for a completely different blog post though. Like many of my peers, I have returned home to focus my energies on actually finding a job. In the mean time I picked up a job at a local credit union as a teller. I figured with this part-time job I would be able to completely focus on my task at hand, which is to find a real job. Normally I would also be working on something to increase my experience for my resume and while I continue using Facebook Twitter and the occasional blog post, I have not tried anything Marketing related. I have tried.... on occasion; and this is that story.

To give you a little more insight into the story, I will begin by saying that I have previously worked at this credit union in a marketing intern/analyst/consultant position. I worked on the re-branding analysis of the credit union, sales consulting, worked on the budget and had a few other projects while there. They liked my work and heard I needed a job to get me through the period from graduation to career so I got a part-time job. The marketing position was filled by a great lady while I went back to finish my schooling. Now comes the meat of the story.

A little while back (as I had not found a job) I was talking with the lady from the marketing department about starting a social media campaign for the credit union, as that is a very inexpensive yet effective way of reaching your end consumer. During this conversation I learned that they recently sent her to a conference about this very subject. Everything I had learned from my "experimenting and observing" on the social media front held true with everything she learned. I then proceeded to offer my assistance in starting this campaign (as I wanted to really try this out) and was told that in September they planned on implementing something and she would keep me in mind.

Well we are now half way through October and still no social media from this credit union. I am getting the feeling that it is not a priority for many companies. The only reason I can come up with is fear. Many companies, and those in the marketing departments, do not understand social media marketing and do not take the time learn. I, on the other hand, am not afraid. I ran a website for over a year and implemented a social media campaign designed around Facebook and a blog. After implementing this campaign I increased unique site visits 300%. That is a huge increase. I never would have achieved such results without social media marketing. My advice... take the leap and if need be, follow my advice in a previous blog post.

Dive in and take a chance. At least it will not cost you anything.

I can be creative like you!

Creativity, the power or ability to invent. Now ever time I tell someone I graduated in Marketing I am then asked, "Oh you must be creative then, right?" My answer tends to be a little shocking for most but I at least feign creativity in life. I have heard that creativity involves relevant combinations (at least in advertising) and I can be very creative if need be. What gets me is the apparent lack of creativity in the marketing world for those that are truly good at what they do.

I am sure that whoever first came up with the term "Marketing Ninja" thought it would be funny to coin this phrase but probably thought it would not leave his group of friends. Now let's face it, in Marketing everyone has a little bit 'o nerd in them, I certainly do. What I do not understand is why can we not come up with a new term? Why does every company that is in the Marketing realm, looking for ninjas? Is it because a ninja can make something from very little? Well use the term McGeyver, a true modern day ninja. Or is it for the sneak attacks that the ninja are so famous for? Maybe we could be "Marketing Suicide Bombers!" (Maybe not)

This is my conundrum. Why are we so "creative but cannot think of a new term for ourselves that is not over-used. Creativity breeds new ideas or at least can breed new life into an old idea through a new way of looking at things. Let's start with a new label for our "elite." Time to brainstorm.

How about "Marketing gods" or "the supreme being of marketing." OK those may be reserved for Ogilvy, Burnett, Bernbach and the rest of the advertising minds.

Let's try "MVM -Most Valuable Marketer" or even something as simple as "Game Changer."

To move away from sports we will proceed to "P.H.A.C. - Pretty Hot and Creative" or the "Don Juan of Online Social Media." (I may claim that one one)

There are many more options to choose from. Most will probably be related to military positions but at least we can let the ninjas rest. If not i may bring out my Advertising Samurai for a legendary battle that would make Hollywood jump.

Tweet me something interesting

So lately I have really been enjoying the Twitter phenom that has swept the... well really the world. I can keep track of a few bands I like, get job postings and (sometimes) hear something from a brand I like. Now I say sometimes because I will send a tweet into the world and I get a "following" message from a company. I have no problem with that as I do not mind looking in on my favorite things, hence the Twitter account (that and I am no Oprah so I have to find my own favorites). What I have a problem with is the fact that they do not post. I understand that it is hard to keep track of every social media aspect but if you are going to do something it would be better to go all out, or at least part of the way.

Case in point, I have an obsession - yes I admit it - with a certain watch brand. I have yet to find the actual manufacturer on Twitter but there is an "authorized" retailer with the watches' name. Their last update was on July 4th. Pointless, if you ask me (but no one ever does).

Of course on the other hand I am following someone else who, amidst the few actual tweets of job positions I was promised, tweets "Mom Loses 48 Pounds in 2 Months. Read How a Busy Mom Lost 48 Pounds in 60 days with 2 Simple Products." Am I really following him so he can sell me this product? No.

Now I understand that he wants to make some money, we all do. I also understand that people are learning to use Twitter in new and exciting ways but this sort of promotion does not flow with Marketing. First off if he really wanted me to click through he should try something a little more in line with the "theme" of his Twitter page. I do not look at CNNMoney to learn about cooking and same thing goes here.

So after that rant comes how Twitter (and any other social media marketing) should be used.

The number one rule of Twitter, be genuine. We do not want to be sold a product but we want to feel like we are actually talking to a human. Social media needs to be a dialogue to really work. A great example of this is Best Buy's Twelpforce. The experts at Best Buy are on hand to answer all questions, via Twitter. That is service. Products are bound to be sold through this service and good will is established. Great PR and Marketing.

Number two. Search and Respond. Many companies and people are doing a good job of finding those who mention their products or even the competition's products but few go as far as to really work through problems. If I was a big time marketer I would be scouring the Twittersphere just as they now scan the blogosphere. It is a great way to find out what people think of your brand and you.

Number three. Don't forget to post. My pet peeve is a non-posting business account. Why spend all that time to find people and set up an account if you are not going to use it? I can honestly say that if an account goes without update, I will not follow it unless I have a very special interest in the Tweet-er.

I know this seems like it is going to take a long time to get set up and especially when there is only one person in the Marketing department. Well luckily there are a myriad of programs to run your Twitter. Programs like HootSuite work beautifully. Of course there are many more as this is the new "in" medium.

Twitter can be a great ally or a vengeful enemy. You choose.

P.S. I dare you to not follow my Twitter as it is not interesting and I use it more as a spot to air my thoughts....