Monday, June 29, 2009

Are Your Priorities Screwed Up?

The recent news of Michael Jackson's death has a lot of people rattled. When an icon of that stature passes, it's natural for a whole generation of people to reflect on nostalgic times, pine for what could have been, and think about lessons for our own lives.

In this case, I couldn't help but be struck by a similarity between Michael Jackson's status and that of some so-called social media "rock stars."

I've always been a little hesitant to anyone self assigning expert or "rock star" status. To me, experts are deemed so by others, after an individual has put in plenty of hard work and dedication. And the whole "rock star" thing boggles my mind. There seems to be a cult of weblebrities - people who are Internet famous - where social media types celebrate each other with more and more fervor. My question is: why?

The reason I tied it in with Michael Jackson is because I read a recent column written by the Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who was MJ's spiritual advisor for a time. He makes a very profound yet simple observation about what fueled Jackson's passion for fame:

"He needed the throngs, he thrived on the adulation of the crowds...In many ways his tragedy was to mistake attention for love...Money [or fame] is not a currency by which we can purchase self-esteem and being recognized on the streets will never replace being loved unconditionally by family and true friends."

The strange thing is, I see a lot of this behavior in some social media types. And it's kind of sad, really. It's like they're busily trying to replace something that's missing in real life. To understand the absurdity of it, I'll give you an example of an exchange I witnessed:

Person 1: "You've never heard of [insert name of social media "rock star" of your choice here]??" (I'm leaving the name out to protect the innocent)

Person 2: "When my mother has heard of him, then you know he's famous."

But let's not kid ourselves. Using social media as part of your marketing mix is far more than recruiting some uber-connected individual who can bring attention to your brand. It starts with crafting a strategy and understanding what your business objectives are. And it means never, ever taking your eye off the customer and doing what matters - providing value to them. After all, isn't that what you're in business for?

A poignant reminder from Seth Godin (as interviewed by Debbie Weil) on that very topic here:

(Facebook readers, click through for the video)

Photo source: ovaratli (Flickr)

Labels: customer relations, social media, social media takeaways, strategy, trends

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:35 AM

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Saturday, February 23, 2008

This is the Tops

I've got to hand it to Guy Kawasaki. The founder of Trumors and Garage Technology Ventures, who writes How to Change the World, is at it again.

Under the auspices of Nononina, he has launched a new site called Alltop, which is an aggregation of topics, sorted by category. For example, categories include

Autos - sites like AudiWorld, Motor Trend, and Fast Lane Daily
Gadgets - including Engadget, Gizmodo, and CoolBusinessIdeas.com
Egos - you'll recognize many of the names and discover new ones. I like that my friend Valeria Maltoni (whom I'd call a personality rather than an ego) is sandwiched between Rosie O'Donnell and Brian Williams.
Moms - featuring the likes of MommyBloggers, entrepreMusings, TechMamas and more.

Other categories include Celebrities, Cute, Design, Fashion, Gaming, Green, Mac, News, Photography, Oddities, Politics, Science, Small Business, Sports, and Tech.

And I'm pleased to say that The Social Media Marketing Blog is listed on the Social Media Alltop page. There are too many great sites to mention (and I don't want to offend anyone by accidentally leaving their name off), so take a look for yourself; you won't be disappointed.

Overall, Alltop is a worthy site. The design is clean - almost a minimalist version of a Netvibes page - and the sites they've selected contain a healthy combination of the usual suspects and sites that are new to me. There's almost too much to explore here!

I'm looking forward to watching this effort continue, as I know Guy does some great stuff.

Do you have any favorite sites that are listed on Alltop? I'd love to know which ones they are.

Labels: alltop, Guy Kawasaki, innovation, social media takeaways

Posted by Scott Monty at 2:02 AM

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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Social Media Takeaways #6

It's been a little while since I've posted a set of Takeaways... The past couple of weeks have been busy (what with 3 snowstorms and a set of bruised ribs to slow down my shoveling), not to mention plenty of work.

This installment is really only a single takeaway, but it's inspired by a number of selfless activities that I've been watching on Twitter over the past 3 weeks or so. During that time, we saw Twitter used for a variety of public service announcements:

Helping a young girl who ran away
(Courtesy of @Pistachio)

News of a BlogNation editor who suffered a massive heart attack and later passed away
(via @steverubel)

Public call for reinstatement of a post about said editor
via @danyork)

Computer algorithm matches donors and recipients to kick off transplant chain
(via @conniereece)

Fundraising to support One Laptop Per Child
(via everyone)

Collecting information on companies that share their revenues with charities
(via @AlbertMaruggi)

A number of tweets have promoted goodwill gestures for the troops, such as sending care packages or messages. Utterz has even gotten into the swing of it (via @jowyang)

And finally, one of the most significant: there has been an outpouring of support for Susan Reynolds, who is undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She took to using bags of frozen peas in lieu of ice packs, and Twitter turned out in force, updating their avatars, joining a Flickr group for Frozen Pea Friday, creating a fund for breast cancer research, and sharing links through an aggregated account.

SMT: Twitter can be used for any number of purposes, but it's encouraging to see folks using it for public good as well as just for fun. I hope that ths is not simply a side-effect of the holiday season, but something that wil continue throughout the year.

Labels: social media, social media takeaways

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:51 PM

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Social Media Takeaways #5

Well, here we are at Thursday and already the Thanksgiving leftovers are piling up. I hope you enjoyed the holiday last week, if you celebrated it. For those of you outside of the U.S., I hope you were able to get some work done thanks to some peace and quiet emanating from the U.S. workplace on Thursday and Friday.

So that gets us to this week's installment of Social Media Takeaways.
Blog Nothing Day
For one day - Monday, November 26, 2007 - we were asked to put down our keyboards and support the ongoing writers strike by not blogging. I'm happy to say I did my part, and then some. This is my first post since last Friday. But was this really an effective statement? Can you really prove a negative?

SMT: To me, it smacked of the urban legend about boycotting gas for a day. I think a much more beneficial approach would have been to ask people to write about the strike or link to a site supporting the Writers' Guild.

Facebook Beacon
Where to begin? Through its new program, Facebook is putting some of your online purchase history into its newsfeed. If you want a nice recap and implications on this move, check out what Geoff Livingston has to say or what Matt Dickman wrote and recorded. But I have to question the degree of uproar this is causing. After all, we opted into the network; we're willingly sacrificing some privacy (hat-tip to Sarah Wurrey) for the sake of a free service. As Jeremiah clearly states, "...for every free services people rush to use, they forget that they are the ones entering the data."

SMT: Facebook needs to listen to its community and take some action to make it more universally embraced.

'C' Is For Cookie (or, That's Not Good Enough for Me)
According to an excellent blog post by Toby Bloomberg, Pepperidge Farms has come up with a half-baked idea of a social media strategy called Pepperidge Farms Connections. The site, rather than encouraging people to connect and share information there, or hosting a contest, or anything else creative, for that matter - is simply a collection of tips on how to connect online. What a crummy idea. Toby makes some very worthwhile suggestions that can be used as the foundation of a social media strategy by any company.

SMT: Instead of being a how-to site, why not give them the tools yourself? There are plenty of bad ideas floating around out there, so take the time to study them, understand them, and avoid this yourself. Will Pepperidge Farms remember?

Boston Continues to Get Pulverized
Jeff Pulver has been making the social media rounds in Boston recently, connecting with lots of folks in person and connecting us with each other. Today, he stepped out of his Social Media Living Room to host a Social Media Breakfast at the S & S Restaurant & Deli in Cambridge (Full disclosure: I have an impeccable reputation for picking good eating spots, so Bryan Person asked for my recommendation for the breakfast. The S & S was it). Jeff instituted a neat little practice of having everyone wear a name tag with their tagline on it, coupled with little stickers everyone can use to physically tag each other.

SMT: Boston, in addition to being the Hub of the Universe, is a social media hub. I like to think that outside of Silicon Valley, it's got one of the most active and well connected communities in the new media space. And Jeff's insistence upon getting us out from behind the computer screens is making us better for it.

Have you had any social media takeaways over the past week? I'd love to know. Drop me a line or leave a comment.

Labels: Bryan Person, Jeff Pulver, social media, social media takeaways

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:09 AM

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Friday, November 02, 2007

Social Media Takeaways #4

This has been another busy week. What's new, right? Well this time, it's been courtesy of some seriously social social media, both in terms of getting out of the house / office and truly connecting with others.

The more time I spend in this field, the more powerful I realize the effect of communities. You just can't underestimate them - nor can you manufacture them. If a client came to me with a request to build a community, my counsel would be that it's not a Field of Dreams scenario. Communities take time, attention and true dedication.

Before B2B, Before B2C, There was F2F
There were big doings over the weekend with PodCamp Boston 2. It was my first time, and I thoroughly enjoyed it - meeting old friends, connecting with people with whom I had only known online previously, and meeting a whole raft of new and smart people - too many to list in this post, but people I'll be following.

SMT: Hitting the blogs on a daily basis, commenting and otherwise propping up the echo chamber is good, but when's the last time you stepped out to meet some of your community face to face? You just can't beat it. But don't take my word for it - see how Mark Blevis sees the world.

The Announcement We've All Been Waiting For
Google finally released what it's doing with regard to social networking: an initiative called Open Social. It's a collaborative effort among some of the most well-known socnets, including Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle. This is meant to thrust Google into direct competition with the likes of MySpace and Facebook.

SMT: As I understand it, this is huge, as it gives you a single place to create profiles and leave updates - kind of a master control center for your social networking efforts. Breaking down the walled garden approach of Facebook is going to get a lot of people interested - especially from the business side, since Salesforce & Oracle are involved. Stay tuned.

What Were You for Halloween?
When the kids go out trick-or-treating and you're left to guard the castle from the marauders, it can be pretty lonely. Just waiting for the multiple doorbell rings (or sounds of eggs splattering). This year, Twitter connected me with a whole network of other guys in the same situation.

SMT: Twitter is really amazing when you know how to use it. I felt like I was sitting around the room chatting with friends. Great updates from @DougH, @cc_chapman, to name a couple. And one final one that just cracked me up.

Labels: Google, pcb2, podcampboston, social media, social media takeaways, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:30 AM

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Thursday, October 25, 2007

Social Media Takeaways #3

This is a busy week - coming off of the great Boston Web Community dinner, courtesy of EMC, where I got to see some of my favorite new media folks (Jeremiah Owyang, Chris Brogan, Laura Fitton, John Wall, Sarah Wurrey, Steve Garfield, Dan Schawbel, Peter Kim, Yianni Garcia, Julia Roy) and meet new ones (Jeff Glasson, Christine Perkett, Amanda Gravel). In addition, I'm gearing up for PodCamp Boston 2, where I'll be speaking.

But that doesn't mean there wasn't still a bit of time for a few Social Media Takeaways:

My Apple Is a Lemon
No, this isn't David Armano's way of trying to score some free bling for his blog (like some other people we know). It turns out this is David's 2nd Macbook Pro that's given him inexplicable trouble, so he decided to write about it.

SMT: Uh-oh. Apple should be concerned. First they fired 800 employees for taking a $100 voucher on their free iPhones, now they've got a prominent blogger who's pissed off. I hope they're listening. But I like what Matt Dickman had to say on twitter: @Armano: I bet Dell responds before Apple does ;-)

Quick, Fire That Customer
It's not a good week to be a customer. Seth Godin and the Ad-Vocate both opine that the customer is not always right and call for certain customers to be fired. I like Seth's rejoinder to the phrase "the customer's always right": when they're wrong, they're not your customer any more.

SMT: Listen up. Get to know your customers well, through whatever space they inhabit. Find out what they're saying about you and join the conversation if you can. But realize when you'll never convert them and know when to let go.

Fa¢ebook
At this point, Facebook is steering clear of Google and instead opting for the cold hard cash from our friends at Micro$oft - a cool $278 million, to be exact. This amount, a 1.6% stake in Facebook, entitles the software behemoth to be the exclusive U.S. and international advertiser with the social network through 2011.

SMT: A $15 billion valuation for Facebook? What-ever. If the ad revenue can continue to stream in - and with Facebook's ability to target different demographics, it's an attractive site for advertisers - then perhaps it's not totaly off-base. But with today's fickle youth, I wonder if Facebook isn't going to be old school before 2008 is out. The only hope is continuing to get the more mature generations involved. And I wouldn't rule out additional funding for Facebook from other sources...

Labels: Apple, customer relations, David Armano, facebook, social media, social media takeaways

Posted by Scott Monty at 5:13 AM

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Social Media Takeaways #2

Busy week, this. The great topics started piling up on Monday -maybe it was that the Columbus Day holiday (for some) made a difference in the ability to crank out some top-notch blog posts, or that the news was especially slow. And then some big news from some major companies started pouring in on Tuesday. Santa Maria! We've got a nice lineup of topics this week.

Anyway, I wanted to get these to your attention before all of the newsy-ness wears off of them...

Die, Resume! Die! Die! Die!
Bryan Person takes a cue from Tom Foremski's shot-heard-round-the-world for the PR industry and suggests that it's time for an end to the traditional resume as we know it. The replacement? Why, a Social Media Resume, of course!

SMT: Great idea. I think it's high time this was instituted. I've always referred headhunters to my LinkedIn page when they ask for my resume, but they insist on the hard copy anyway (come to think of it, even crayon insisted on the old fashioned version).

Manhattan Sees a Mashup of Soup & Ice Cream
For fans of Cold Stone Creamery and Soup Kitchen International (aka the Soup Nazi), you don't have to visit more than one store. An aspiring entrepreneur is combining both stores in one and promoting it with a contest that rewards two grand prizes: a cup of soup a day for life and a cup of ice cream a day for life.

SMT: The kicker is that they're not using traditional marketing. They tried "buying local advertising and radio spots, but didn't get much bang for [their] buck." So, the co-branded shop is going entirely with word of mouth marketing. How's that for hot & cold?

Google Acquires Jaiku
Google buys Jaiku for an unspecified amount. A huge surprise, since Twitter seems to have the market share of users. But a brilliant strategic move from Google. And expect more soon - as Robert Scoble says, prepare yourself for November 5.

SMT: Rest assured that Google is assuming a take-no-prisoners approach with Facebook and Twitter. I think Google is getting more deeply rooted in the community space - and what's more, this clearly positions them for more mobile applications (can you say gPhone?). But will I still be able to stream Twitter through Jaiku?Neville Hobson recommends that we "refuse to choose" - use Twitku.

NBC Universal Acquires Oxygen Media
NBC announced that it was paying $925 million for the female-focused network that streams into 74 million homes in America, padding their portfolio of properties that cater to the fair sex.

SMT: It's an interesting way to assemble more of a focused audience - well, as focused as mass media can be. But I think Chris Thilk hit it on the head when he Twittered:

Now it has 2 female-targeted properties it can fail to integrate efficiently. Awesome.

Labels: big media, Bryan Person, Chris Thilk, social media takeaways, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 9:02 PM

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Friday, October 05, 2007

New Feature: Social Media Takeaways

I get a lot of industry news in my RSS reader and my inbox. You probably do, too. Typically I parse through it with a eye for what would be interesting to share with you here.

Lately, there have been some great examples of Top 10 or Top 5 lists of what's going on in social media, which I'm enjoying following.

But rather than acting as an aggregator, my goal in posting newsy tidbits is to give you a bit of commentary and perspective on each item as it relates to social media, marketing, PR and advertising. I call them Social Media Takeaways (SMT). I hope you'll find it helpful.

Online Advertising Up 27%
According the IAB and PriceWaterhouseCoopers, $10 billion was spent in the first 6 months of the year. Making up 41% of this was search, which is an increase over last year (via Just an Online Minute)

SMT: With search becoming increasingly important, now's the time to consider how a corporate blog might fit into your search strategy. With timely and relevant posts, your content is indexed and searched so that additional traffic can be brought to your company's site. Blogging is a natural for SEO.

The MySpace Crowd Migrates to Facebook
ComScore notes that Facebook attracted 69.3 million users in August, 33% more than in June. Visitors to MySpace declined 7.4% to 105.7 million. There are a number of reasons for the defection to Facebook, including more privacy, more functionality, less spam (you get bacn instead) and a cleaner look (via Bloomberg)

SMT: While there is a huge influx in Facebook traffic and we're seeing a boom in the resulting business uses of Facebook, don't count MySpace out yet. Steve Ballmer may think Facebook is just a fad, but you need to assess your marketing goals against where your audience is. And if they like sharing music on MySpace, then MySpace is still relevant for them. The bottom line is you should be aware of trends, demographics and new developments to make the most of them.

And that's all for this installment of Social Media Takeaways. What do you think of this new feature? Should I continue it? Do you have any news or insights that you can share from the past week?

Labels: facebook, myspace, news, search, social media, social media takeaways

Posted by Scott Monty at 3:23 PM

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