Highlights from 2010

What a roller coaster year 2010 has been.  I use the term "Roller Coaster" because even when a roller coaster is at a low on a straight away it is still traveling with speed.  One of the most important components of a successful Advertising/Marketing/Digital Agency is the ability to evaluate past work of the agency and others then transform that into teachable moments within and outside the agency.  In my past work (Psychology) we called this "teachable moments".

Teachable moments can be overwhelming, just ask a parent, but the key is knowing when the right environment exist that will elicit the best response.  This past year seemed to be moving at light speed with the meteoric rise of the desire for almost every business to be have a Social Media Strategy.  In several blog post I discussed the "Scammers, Spammers, Internet Marketing Experts and Network Marketers" and how they all claim to be Social Media Experts, Gurus, blah, blah, blah and to run as fast as you can from them.  Knowing that Social Media and even Search Engine Marketing is changing daily, it is virtually impossible to be an expert in this moment.
*follow the few key leaders in the industry who amass all the new tools, apps, data, strategies and news.

A few highs for WCN Group this year:

• TedxConejo assisted client with Marketing & Sales achieving a sell out for the 1st annual conference
• Secured Product Placement for brand Skitter Toys on "The Ellen" show.
• Secured Print Placement in "Seventeen" Magazine for apparel client Three Peas Co.
• Created Social Media Strategy & PR outreach for World Record Setting client Ventura Deep Six Team
• Developed PR plan for client Roberts Surfboards providing 10 minutes of prime time News Coverage in Los Angeles market

Thanks for the ride to the above WCN Group agency client's and the others not on this list.  We had many "teachable moments" that we will continue to implement and share with clients.

Truth Be Told

As more and more businesses pursue social media, the discussion always involves what content to share.  Content is King no matter what industry you are in.  The better the content, the more engaged your audience and more willing they are to share. 

As the year comes to close and marketing strategies are finalized the main discussion is Social Media (why, how, what, where and when).  One of the main social media factors is authentic and transparent communication.  Discussion after discussion with clients is what to post.  My experience in social media has lead to nervous clients wanting to pull down post that provoked a strong response with some negativity. 

My first question is why?  The typical response, "it's bad press and making people mad, people are emailing and calling to complain".  After a few minutes of nervous ranting and concern we start to discuss why exactly people are having this reaction and the positive and negative factors from the interactions. 

The main social media concepts I share with clients are: 1) you are not going to please everybody 2) within your audience are multiple subsets of customers (one shoe does not fit all in size and style) 3) perception is the editor of reality and 4) if they do not talk on your site (page, website, blog etc) they will find a place to do this, thus making it appear as if you were trying to hide the conversation, not trust worthy and un-authentic. 

To exemplify my point, recently a well know band called Paramore had a falling out within the band with two of the original founders leaving at the height of their popularity.  Before the news was officially released, one of the remaining members posted on the band's website their take on the breakup of the band (this was obviously orchestrated by the record label and management). This tactic backfired because details of the break up were not finalized thus creating a "Truth be Told" moment online.  The two members that were leaving the group decided to post their side of the story in a blog post which then was countered with a post from the remaining member as questioning the authenticity of the post.  This prompted the two leaving members to post a Video stating that their blog post was authentic revealing the truth within the band and its demise. 

Bottom online, you can hide and ignore but the discussion will continue with or without you.  As played out in the press for years, ignoring and hiding create speculation of guilt.  Being able to respond to negativity within your context (website, blog, social media site..) allows for editing control, this we did not have when the media controlled all. 

Spammers, Scammers, Internet Marketing Experts, Network Marketers...

With the rising popularity of #social #media which opened the door for poaching thousands of unsuspecting individuals, the tactics and strategies used are bolder than ever. Give me your $ money and you will get nothing in return should be their tag line because it is so blatant scamming. In some of my previous post I talked about "Social Media Gurus", "Social Media Experts" etc which promise some of the same returns as the spammers, scammers, internet marketing experts and network marketers.

In a well explored article by Bob Sullivan called, "The Women of Twitter: Behind those sexy tweets" he tried to reach out to these Twitter accounts to interview them but none responded.  Bob explains in the article the scam, "their methods are always the same -- steal clicks, sell ads against them, then try to upsell some other crazy service".  The majority of these scams come from International locations and I have witnessed a quote a few from New Zealand.  

I should also throw in some of the SEO black hatters, Link builders and Directory sites that  continue to fill our in boxes with emails claiming to act now or loose your domain, build thousands of links and enter your business here in our Directory etc. 

Bottom line, be careful, do your Google search, if they do not have a legit presence online stop there and run.  Use your trusted connections off and on line to further your investigation.  If you still have questions, you can send an email and I will investigate. 

Have fun and play safe.

Authenticity is a Must

Social Media is not going away and will be a permanent part of our societal communication infrastructure.  Companies, organizations and individuals must be aware of this trend that has been approaching on two years.  There are many, many examples of this #marketing #social # media #failure currently still taking place daily.  Here is one from today that was shared via @MichaelNewhouse #Twitter:
@LoriMorenoRT @KevinMinott RT @HuffingtonPost: Leaked memos show Fox News boss telling staffers how to spin health care debate http://huff.to/fJEpfo

Social Media Experts

                                     Who are they?

               Do they really exist?

There have been many now that proclaim to be  the so called "Social Media Expert" status.  These people attempt to define their status with amount of followers, training they have conducted, who they know etc.  If it is an Agency, they claim to have worked with name brand clients with "look how many followers" we got them, ran a social media contest that was "Lead Generation" activity, developed Facebook landing page etc.

As Social Media acceptance grows and all businesses realize they need a social media strategy, more so called Social Media Experts, Social Media Gurus and Marketing Agencies that provide social media solutions will be posing as Experts and soliciting their social media solutions.  Be Ware!

 I always pose the example of the Domino's Pizza Facebook account: if given this account to establish it would not be difficult to get over 100,00 followers or even 500k.  For the record, the Domino's Pizza Facebook account has over 1 million followers.

Malcom Gladwell's book Outliers, he introduced research from Dr. K. Anders Ericsson that suggested being great at something takes 10,000 hours of practice.  The study is subjective because depending on the activity pursuit, learning curves and mastery level may take less hours and some individuals master activities faster than others.  So, who has over 10,000 hours practicing social media?  5000?  2500?

Here are 10 questions to ask your social media expert or agency.

Facebook gives MySpace a bandaid

In another  hyped up press conference yesterday (11/18/10), Facebook announced they will be partnering with MySpace allowing users to log into the site with their Facebook login and share content more easily between the two properties.  The partnership called, Mashup with Facebook, further reveals MySpace's strategy to reposition itself as more of a music and entertainment hub than a Social Platform which is Facebook's strategic direction.

The new feature leverages Facebook Connect and builds on an initiative that MySpace unveiled in August called Sync with Facebook that let its users sync status updates with their Facebook profile and share content more easily with Facebook friends. The latest alliance is intended to match users' Facebook profile data and interests with music, movie, TV and celebrity-related content on MySpace. MySpace will let users port their Facebook "Interests and Likes" information into MySpace to create customized content streams on the site. *MediaPost 11/2010 article.

MySpace CEO Mike Jones said the new integration with Facebook rolling out globally today illustrated the company's strategy to be the Web's "leading social entertainment destination."   Facebook  easily surpassed MySpace over two years with current estimates on users at over 500 million with MySpace bleeding users with a highly speculative report of 130 million users.

Is this a case of a brilliant PR move by Facebook allowing for MySpace to have dignity in their eventual death and/or knowing that the MySpace platform will eventually be reduced to what it started out to be, a social platform for bands/artist to market themselves which will be a viable platform for advertising.  Once MySpace becomes stabilized within their strategy of being the Web's "leading social entertainment destination"I believe Facebook will purchase MySpace because why invent the social platform wheel. 

MySpace, owed by News Corp., COO Chase Carey said earlier this month in a conference call with analysts that MySpace's "current losses are not acceptable or sustainable," raising speculation that the media giant could shutter the site. News Corp. acquired MySpace in 2005 for $580 million.  This statement could have very well been strategic positioning to raise awareness for the MySpace possible investors looking to purchase this out-of-control drunk collage kid of social platform that thought it could take over the World.  I believe MySpace, or at least News Corp., has sobered up enough to realize that it is time to make immediate changes in their life and this is one of them.

As a Brand and Marketing Strategist, I rarely hear myself suggest to client to create a MySpace account.  Again, we will have to see how this new Mashup partnership works out and if MySpace is just going to be a joke we tell of Social Platforms past.

QUESTION: Who is your first Point of Contact

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