Insights

Be the first to promote a story. It seems tough but really isn’t. Is there something on the news, happening in your neighborhood or community that you haven’t heard of before? Changes are others haven’t either. Tweet about it, blog it, tell everyone you know. By being early to report on a story you will gain a ton of traffic. People will look to you as a source of information and you circle of influence will grow.

_______

If you are in marketing and are not on Twitter, I think you are missing the boat. As a marketer representing mostly smaller clients, Twitter is one of the most amazing tools I can use. If I go to http://search.twitter.com I can see what everyone on twitter (over 2 million users and growing quickly) are talking about. I can search for specific product or different key words and see what people have recently been saying. I can create an account and communicate with people and drive them to websites. I can find trends in Twitter and see what topics are becoming popular. I can also see real news stories break before the major outlets pick them up. If you are a marketer and you want to survive in the 21st century, please start a Twitter account.

___

Social media isn’t about blasting people with marketing messages. It is about community building and acting like a real person…is this obvious, idk. Some marketers still really don’t get it though. Some real estate person asked to be my Facebook friend accompanied by a sales pitch about how great his company was blah blah blah…that’s not why people use social media. They can turn on the TV, or Radio to get inundated with marketing messages. Social media is about connecting with people. Companies can benefit greatly from this, but they have to adapt to this and now treat it the same as direct marketing.

___

Change isn’t made by asking permission – Seth Godin (I just like this quote)

___

Transparency might be the biggest shift companies face as they engage with social media.

• This point is getting hammered over and over by the some of the big online marketers. The reason for this shift is that consumer feedback is so readily available now. Million dollar advertising can no longer cover up the problems that your product or company or brand has. Also, when you put yourself online in social media you open yourself up to attacks and critiques. This is hard for many companies to deal with and is a big reason why some or so hesitant to become part of it.

___

New online media helps you build trust with your consumers.

• If you haven’t heard about Comcast Cares and you are in marketing you have been living under a rock. (Comcast found out that in Twitter they were most associated with “Comcast Sucks”. To combat this they created a Comcast account, ComcastCares. Whenever someone was tweeting about problems with Comcast, the real person behind ComcastCares would help get them through the problem right then and there.) That is trust building for the new millennium, that is customer support!