Scott Moroney

Why are You in marketing?

If you have to think about the answer for more than a few seconds then your
in the wrong line of work.  Why ask the question?  Too many people assume they understand marketing...and don't.  It is not complex, it is not "rocket-science".  It is simply understanding that it is a way of working to understand who your customer is, what need you may be able to fill for them, all at the right time, place and price.  How you do that is the magic of marketers. 

Ebook - Blog Basics

Blog, short for Web Log, is a website with supercharged discussion forums.  The early popular web or internet, not the original web used in academia and government/military, was limited in how interactive the websites was for users.  You could leave a comment on some websites, but the connections and interoperability was limited – especially as we unfairly compare it to today’s websites and blogs.  Blogs open a dialog online that is open to all to see, for all to learn from universally and create a massive interconnection of resources.

Still not really sure what is the difference between a blog and a website?  Blogs are websites, but websites are not blogs.  Let’s refer to each in this way:

Website – digital product catalog without a customer service or technical support features

Blog – block party with friends and neighbors sharing what they know on a topic

So a website can’t be successful without a blog?  Not entirely true.  Yes, blogs are changing the way we use the web, but blogs are not the solution to all web needs.  Traditional websites are viable for a great deal of what we do on the web.  The Department of Motor Vehicles is a traditional website, and generally ignores what its users think of the site or need from it.    Amazon.com has become a traditional website, but is becoming more “social”.  EBay is a traditional site now as well, but has along the way paved a course for social media in general to grow through the creation of the world’s largest yard sale.  What each of these sites have in common, besides being traditional websites, is that they don’t use blogs on their sites in general yet.  There are many many blogs about these sites, but to my knowledge there is no blog component to their sites yet.

Getting started with blogs is easy with so many tools and information available. 

Blogger from Google - Free and easy

Yahoo - Free and easy...good luck finding the link though.  I gave up on it.

WordPress - Most popular pro tool, but requires some savvy and experience...and a hosting account.

TypePad - Seth Godin's tool of choice.  Easy to use with good features.  Inexpensive and flexible.

 Or the many, many options to choose from for all types of uses.  http://dir.yahoo.com/news_and_media/blogs/blog_software/

 

It is critical to note that a blog is a destination.  A tool like Twitter is an aggregator and connector.  They work well together, along with the other tools.

Ebook - Twitter Basics

Twitter – www.twitter.com , http://search.twitter.com

Twitter, in simple terms, is a bit like instant messaging on steroids.  Twitter is not a toy.  It is not aimless as is frequently reported.  It is a powerful tool to build a community of followers and share targeted information.  It is not all business.  It is a social tool of course.  Many people use it to create networks of like-minded or similarly interested people.  Dell recently shared that they attribute $1 million in revenue through their Twitter accounts.  It is for real.

How does it work?  Create an account at www.twitter.com and then visit http://search.twitter.com to start searching for topics, people or keywords.  The results will show you “tweets”, 140 character topics shared by users.  If you like someone or something they are “tweeting”, you simply hit the follow button.  No approval, confirmation or review.  Click follow and they are broadcasting to you and all other followers about whatever they like.  Most people on Twitter stick to some small range of topics to keep their followers interested, and to ensure their own relevance to their followers.

There are few rules outside of the good etiquette that is expected if you wish to keep these followers.  Burn a bridge and it is unlikely you will be very successful.  You are only one click away from being blocked or “un-followed” in Twiter speak.

Back to the Dell example.  This will help you understand how/why Twitter is something more than sharing what you are cooking, where you are taking the kids on a Saturday or what you are pondering in your navel.  These topics are fine if you have followers interested.  For business, Twitter takes a few forms: straight push marketing of information a company wants interested followers to see, and community building with no direct “buy” model.  Both work, both are great examples of how Twitter is growing as an effective business tool.

These are the basics.  Here are some experts who you can learn a great deal from by following them. Some are social media experts and some are just celebrities that have big followings.

 Chris Brogan.  Robert Scoble.  Shaq.  Ashton Kutcher.  Tony Robbins.

Don’t be discouraged by everyone who you follow, not following you.  Notice that the examples I provided in some cases have a few thousand followers.  It is impossible to follow everyone.  There are tools such as TweetDeck that allow you to sort who you will follow more closely and by topic.  This makes it reasonable to really use Twitter in its potential.

AS with all topics in this ebook, I will share with you how it all ties together at the end of the book.  Read on.

BackNoise Your not ready for this...or are you?

Back Noise is the next generation in employee engagement and listening.  I can't take credit for turning you on to this new tool.  I learned about it through a LinkedIn group and Chad Rothschild in his post on the new tool.  Take a look.  He explains it well and has a link.

Is this the onset of a mutation of Twitter?  In the right hands this can be very powerful.  Take what Comcast has done with their Twitter account.  They are listening and acting.  How about they take it one step further and promote their BackNoise "conversation name" and let it rip.  This expands their audience and encourages people to tell them how to improve their business.  Where else but in social media can you get your customers, those that tend to know more and mater most to your business, to help you serve them better.  Check it out and tell me how businesses...and of course the thick-skinned celebrities, can use this new tool.  I have some ideas.

Check it out.  I opened a conversation about Comcast.  Jump in and try it.

EBook - Social Media - Post 1 Developing the Contents

Social media is simple.  It is what the name states.  Media that is more friendly, social, than traditional types of media such as newspapers, television advertising, static web experiences, billboards and radio advertising.  For the most part these are mass media forms of communicating from a message.  These messages are about products, fundraisers, events or services.  These forms of communication are broadcast media, meaning they send a mass message out to as many people as possible with little technology and differing levels of research to reach the right person or group of people.  This is a weakness that has been realized as advertising and media have evolved over time.

Let’s stick to the web and how it has evolved.  You are reading this because you want to learn more about social media, aka “how the web is the most relevant tool in your marketing toolbox”.

The original commercial web, Lycos, Alta Vista, static HTML, “brochures on computer displays” and over promised returns.  Yes, that original web was entirely necessary to put us at the point we are at today.  The web as we originally knew it was necessary to shift our expectations about our work, how we communicate and how we will grow.  For as much as it blew up in a bubble, it was a success in shifting ourselves forward.

The new web, or social media as we will call it going forward in this discussion, takes basic search technology, static content and mass uploads of traditional media content and personalizes it to each person’s taste and forms communities of people organized around similar topics.  The tools all try to do something similar, each with a different piece to the puzzle. 

Next post...some tools to be aware of in social media.

E Book - A New Approach to Completing It

Yes, I was planning to write an EBook on social media with a new take on the overplayed topic.  I wrote a good portion of it to explain to novices what it is and why they should be using it while it is still in it's infancy.  I hit a wall in terms of motivation with the over population of content...but decided it is still something that can be helpful.  Here is how I am going to try and finish it:

• Post the sections on this blog one-at-a-time
• Keep adding to the draft as the posts evolve
• Compile it together
• Share it here and on Slideshare and Scribd...and anywhere else that will find it helpful.

Posting 1 will come tomorrow. 

Slideshare...Testing Embed. Very Cool

Have you heard of Slideshare?  I am testing it out to embed presentations and documents.  Try it out. Just to be clear this is a presentation owned and copywritten by Entegris.  I am testing this as an employee and do not own the content. 

Enhancement In Cmp Slurry Filtration For Achieving Low Cost Of Ownership Soltuion

View more documents from Entegris.

Twitter Trick - Hashtags in Your Blog Title

Yes, I tested it and it works.

To increase the reach of your blog or other feeds coming into Twitter, include the # (hashtag) symbol and a topic (#twittertricks, #comcast, #crazythingspeoplesay, etc...).  This will get your feed pushed into Twitter...and more importantly, the searches of the hashtag.   Keep in mind that Twitter and your Titles in a blog, YouTube, Flickr posts are character based (text).  This aligns to feed the # hashtag perfectly in the testing that I completed. 

The novelty of this idea is that you can reach people that are not already a follower, increase your following, and ultimately improve the performance of whatever you are doing using social media (promoting a cause, introducing a product, or entertaining with news/gossip/info). 

Pick a hashtag or create one and include it in whatever content you are feeding to Twitter.  The results may surprise you.

Testing a new Twitter Trick #TwitterTricks

I am testing a new idea to get my blog posts into the search results of Twitter.  The trick is to use the "#" in the title with something.  For example, #socialmediajobs.  Here is how I think it may work.

The hashtag or # on Twitter works like a keyword in any web search, except that it links together all the traffic on Twitter.  By having my blog fed to Twittter, I am trying to figure out if it will populate to Twitter as well with the hashtag.

That "Social Network" Called Twitter

Annie Slater gave me a new perspective today on Twitter.  It is in fact a social network.  We talk more about "social media" as a generic item.  There are actually at least three "social" things out there for marketers to use.

Social media - the use of new tools to promote and share information in a two-way dialog (vs. the one way traditional print and Web 1.0 methods)

Social marketing - how marketers use social media and networks to promote and research markets and customers

Social networks - tools or meeting places that bring people together.  Ning, Facebook, Twitter, etc...

Take a quick read through Annie's article.  It demonstrates how a social network like Twitter can work in some potentially unexpected ways.  Thanks Annie.