A 1000 Little Pictures, A 1000 Little Conversations

Gary Vaynerchuk makes a great point here about the effectiveness of mass marketing vs. conversational marketing.  In this case he argues that telling stories about your brand on a daily basis is more effective than blasting out a generic press release and hoping that it gets covered.

The part I like the most is when he’s talking about “painting a thousand little pictures”.  For me, these little pictures are also conversations.  By interacting with consumers on a daily basis, you’re planting the seeds of PR.  Journalists today don’t need press releases.  They have Google, Twitter, Facebook and REAL people to tell them what the stories are.  They don’t need (or believe) BS press releases that pound their inbox everyday.

Instead of taking the short cut and *hoping* that a journalist will buy what you’re selling on press release, go out make it real and make them *want* to write about your brand.

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Big Companies Freak Out Way Too Much

Last week when I participated in a panel discussion in Chicago at the KMG Marketing Symposium, the subject of big companies participating in social media came up.  One of my fellow panel members brought up a story about his client Frito-Lay freaking out when a person they hired to manage a activate social media mentioned Coke on Twitter.

No big deal right?

No, it’s apparently a HUGE deal because Frito-Lay is owned by Pepsi.

Here’s the deal with social media: it works best for brands when it’s a free-flowing conversation built on trust.  It’s inevitable for these conversations to occasionally mention your competition.  Or your holding company’s competition.  Or the competition of your CEO’s spouse’s company.  It’s gonna happen, and it’s totally ok, people.  One mention or acknowledgement of the competition is not going to affect sales.  In fact, acknowleging the competition will grow trust between you and your consumers.

It you don’t believe me, go back to believing in the mass media model that says that impressions = sales.  We don’t want you in the Social Media neighborhood.

Is Social Media a Fad?

I’m taking part in a panel discussion this weekend at DePaul University’s Kellstad Marketing Group Symposium.  Our topic of discussion is: Social Media – It’s Not a Fad Anymore.

Really?  We’re already SURE that it’s not a fad?

But what’s your definition of “social media?”  Is it just blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc?  Or is it the intersection of online interactions, sharing and conversations?

If it’s just the current online networks like Twitter, then I say it’ going to be a fad because the technology isn’t going to stop and there will always be new “networks” that break on the scene.  Think about MTV 20 years ago vs the MTV of today.  It’s not nearly as relevant or important now as it was back then and I see social media networks sorting out much like television networks of the past 30 years.

Let’s look at the numbers.  Here are a few examples (as of 4/21/09) of how many people are following some HUGE brands:

• Direct TV: 3380
• Rubbermaid: 2769
• Burger King: 2598
• HP: 2093
• Esurance: 293

With big brands like those still talking to small numbers like that, I’m just not ready to declare that Twitter will be around forever.  A brand like Rubbermaid could still go have meaningful conversations with 3000 consumers in one day AT the point of purchase without spending much money.

Maybe the real issue is that mass media is a fad?  Maybe marketers are finally coming to the realization that anything that doesn’t include conversation is a waste of money.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all over Twitter and Facebook.  But I’m also all over talking to consumers any way that I can, which includes at email, retail, at events and anywhere else I can have a meaningful conversation.

Don’t Do Social Media

Everyone’s doing it so why don’t you? I’m talking about SOCIAL MEDIA.

I’m not here to tell you why you SHOULD do social media – I’m here to tell you why you SHOULD NOT.

1. You don’t have anyone to manage it. Social Media isn’t advertising.  You can’t just assign it to an Associate Brand Manager, have them write a creative brief, hand it over to the agency, get the creative, make some changes to put your stamp on it and have the media buyer send the file off to the publication/station/etc.  Social Media requires DAILY attention because it is a CONVERSATION. No one in your department really wants to have conversations with consumers on a daily basis! Your consumers are nuts!  You prefer pumping out one-sided advertising that barks out meaningless messages but makes people at the company feel good.
2. It creates more work. Yes, you will have to answer product questions and help your consumers find your product.  You might even have to deal with a consumer complaint.  That’s what the Customer Service or Quality Assurance depts are for, right.  You didn’t pay all that money for college to be answering complaints!
3. Speaking of complaints, consumers might say something negative. You like to keep it positive, right?  You have any time for negativity and besides, you don’t want your boss to find out about some flaws or bad press.  That would be DISASTER!
4. You’ll have to train people how to understand social media. Let’s face it, your boss doesn’t understand it, the sales team doesn’t understand it and your peers will think you’re just screwing off if they see Facebook open on your computer.  That spells D-R-A-M-A to me, and you don’t need that.  Just stick to the traditional stuff.  A recession isn’t any time to be a renegade.
5. Isn’t this what agencies are for? Yes, agencies are the ones that are supposed to create and execute.  Your job is to analyze and strategize.  Oh, and write PowerPoint decks. And make your boss look smart.  Your agency is in the midst of getting all this social media stuff figured out – and when they do LOOK OUT!  It will be BIG!

So there, five reasons why you don’t have to worry about social media.  Don’t you feel better about it now?  Now get back to that deck that’s due by 9am tomorrow.

“You Can’t Buy That!” dot com

You might have noticed that I changed the name of this blog.  This is now the home of: http://www.youcantbuythat.com.

Why the change?

First off, I never really liked the last name (Blg Slice of Awesome) since it was relatively meaningless.  Second, it occurred to me last week that the best marketing is the kind that you can’t buy.  In fact, you hear people say “You can’t buy that that kind of marketing!” when they see a brand truly connecting with consumers.

• You CAN buy advertising (that’s why they call it an “advertising/media buy”) – but if you’re here reading my blog, you probably know that advertising old school thinking.
• You can’t buy product innovation that captures consumer attention and imagination.
• You can’t buy passionate consumers who recommend your brand, product or service to their friends.
• You can’t buy meaningful interactions and conversations with consumers that educate them on your brand’s folklore or functional benefits.

Of course you can spend money to facilitate these “priceless” opportunities, but you can’t flat out buy them.

So this blog will focus on the idea of the best marketing tactics being the ones you can’t buy.  Sure, I’ll have some other odds and ends here and there, but my focus will be on the ideas that connect with consumers in a personal way.

If you have an examples or ideas for marketing program that ar better than anything you can buy, email me at: nealdstewart (at) yahoo dot com.

How NOT to Sample

For those of you that know me, you know I try to play tennis.  I don’t play nearly as much as I would like, but I try to get out there and play.

Last night, I was playing in a tournament at City Park in Denver and about half way thru the match, the MONSTER Energy Drink Truck came by and a girl yelled out, “Does anyone want some Monster?!”  She yelled it a few times and it actually got to be somewhat annoying.

This is NOT the way to sample for a couple reasons:

1. Know your audience.  Tennis players like quiet.  So don’t come out to sample at a tennis tournament and start yelling to tell people you’re sampling.
2. Have a conversation.  We implemented this when we did a lot of sampling for PBR: don’t just hand crap out and expect it to mean anything to the consumer.  Have a conversation and make the experience memorable
3. Have a conversation (part deux): My friends at Fizz and Brand Autopsy would argue that you really only get the value of the sample if you have a conversation with the consumer and share the brand story or the product benefits.