Archive for year 2012
Is there anything new in blogging? No.
Jul 31st
I walked away from the recent Blog World and New Media Expo a bit depressed and I haven’t been able to shake it.
Running concurrently with this conference — in the same convention center space — was the National Book Expo. Here is a rough comparison of the two events:
Blog World attendance: Maybe 2,000?
Book Fair attendance: 20,000
Blog World keynote: Chris Brogan
Book Fair Keynote: Neil Young
Blog World space: In the basement of the convention center, next to the taco stand
Book Fair space: The top level (with windows!), taking up tens of thousands of square feet of display space
Blog World schwag: Free frozen ice cream treat
Book Fair Schwag: Lunch with John Grisham
Blog World Tech: No wi-fi and maybe 30 exhibitors
Book Fair tech: Interactive exhibit produced by Disney and hundreds of industry exhibitors.
Weren’t books supposed to be dying? Isn’t new media supposed to be overtaking traditional publishing?
To be fair, this is probably not comparing apples to apples and the SXSW event is probably bigger and more star-studded than any book show. But it did drive home a point for me. I didn’t see anything ( repeat: anything) new or exciting at Blog World, one of our industry’s signature events.
Now of course I could not attend every session but I attended as many as I could and even looking through the program, I could not find anything that I had not heard many times before. Like …
What is the ROI of social media? Gag me.
How do I build a blog audience? This was a new topic in 2007.
How do I monetize a blog? Just Google it and find the 14.8 million hits on this topic, Bub.
My five keys to blogging success. If you read Chris Brogan’s blog, you would know the main points of his keynote speech by heart.
I interviewed Mike Stelzner about the biggest thing in blogging and he named “podcasts,” a technology that was introduced in 2001.
Instead of being inspired, I walked away with a sinking feeling that was only made worse by the pulsating energy and glitzy production values of the book event. I understand that for those who are trying to set out as a blogger for the first time, these are really important sessions to attend. But as somebody who has been around for awhile, I’m trying to distill some meaningful trend from this conference and I’m just not grasping it.
Is there ANYTHING new to be excited about in blogging? I’m not talking about a tweak to a commenting platform, a new way to schedule tweets, or a WordPress plug-in. What is going to change the game in blogging? What is going to take us to the next level? What IS the next level? What will replace blogging as a means to provide rich content and ideas to our audiences?
If we stagnate, we die. What’s next?
Community note: This post prompted a follow-up dissenting article by Mitch Joel and a subsequent podcast on the future of blogging where we debated this topic. This debate is not to be missed!
The Social Media Minefield: Five factors blocking your success
Jul 29th
When I work with clients on marketing strategies, we spend a lot of time working through the hurdles to implementation success, particularly if it is a large, bureacratic company.
Part of the process is to have a brain-storming session to think through all of the factors that could cause our ideas to fail. Then, one by one, we come up with proactive countermeasures to knock out those landmines before they blow our plans to pieces.
One Fortune 500 company I have been working with has been aggressively moving its marketing team into the digital age. They reported to me that no matter where they go in the world, the same five factors come up over and over again. As I compare this to my experiences working with organizations of every size and type, I think these five factors are universal. These seem to be the same obstacles EVERYBODY is struggling with:
1) Budget and resources
“We already have a full plate. We don’t have time for something new.”
“We’ll let the intern do it.”
“This will have to wait until next year’s budgeting cycle.”
2) ROI – KPI
“Until you can demonstrate an ROI for this, the project is on hold.”
“Social media is fine if you can fit this into our existing measurement dashboard.”
“We need to make social media a profit center that pulls its own weight.”
3) IT – Tech support
“Shouldn’t the IT department own social media strategy?”
“We’re too busy figuring out cloud computing to help with your Facebook app.”
“The IT department budget is fixed on project work like infrastructure.”
4) Legal and regulatory
“Federal guidelines prohibit us from having a social media presence.”
“The Legal Department will have to approve everything we publish each day.”
“The legal risk of responding to consumers is far too great. Say nothing.”
5) Culture and change management
“Facebook is for kids. This is not something for our company.”
“I tried Twitter and I hated it. Nobody on the board uses it either so our company doesn’t need it.”
“Our company is very successful with what we have been doing for years. If it isn’t broken, why fix it?”
Sound familiar?
Of these, “Culture” is the most pervasive challenge. It’s sort of an umbrella problem for all of these issues because even if you fix the others, if the company culture doesn’t align with the requirements of being a “social organization,” you will never create sustainable change.
As you create marketing plans for your own business — or if your current efforts are stagnating — maybe it’s time to step back and look at your own “landmines” that are keeping you from your goals. Focusing on removing the internal roadblocks will give you the only chance of long-term marketing success.
This takes time and patience, but if you don’t do this hard work upfront, even the most brilliant plan is destined for a slow, painful failure.
How does this resonate with you? How are you dealing with your Social Media Minefield?
Should Ralph Lauren lie low over Olympic flap?
Jul 28th
I was somewhat surprised to be reading the New York Times today and see a Ralph Lauren ad touting its line of Olympic-related clothing (above).
Last week, the company admitted that its official Olympic uniforms were manufactured in China, setting off a highly-politicized flare-up on the patriotic considerations of dressing America’s athletes with foreign-produced goods. Some federal elected officials called for the team to abandon the uniforms.
Now that the Games have begun in a glorious setting of beauty and peace created by the City Of London, this will blow over.
Or will it?
It seems like Ralph Lauren is almost rubbing salt in the wounds of the issue, boldly promoting its products in the wake of a national PR nightmare.
On the other hand, being an Olympic sponsor is a huge commitment. How could the company abandon the expensive promotions already in progress?
What do you think? Let’s set aside political feelings about the issue and look at this from a business perspective. Is Ralph Lauren asking for trouble by promoting its controversial line of Olympic clothing? What would you do?
Universities are out to prove the ROI of social media
Jul 28th
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research continues to do an excellent job documenting the social media progress of organizations such as Fortune 500 companies, INC 500 companies and non-profits. In a new research release, the team shows that universities continue to lead the way in the use of social media and its measurement.
If you think about, using social media at the university level is the perfect test case for what all our organizations may be seeing just a few years from now:
- Its primary audience uses the social web as its primary tool for communication.
- It is an essential strategy for connecting with, and nurturing, its “customers.”
- The relatively low-cost effectiveness of social media fits with programs under constant budget pressures.
- Reduced costs for traditional media are attributed to use of social media. Schools report 33% less spent on printing, 24% less spent on newspaper ads and 17% less spent on radio and TV ads.
- One in 3 schools say social media is more efficient than traditional media in reaching their target audience (this number increases to 44% for top MBA programs).
- 92% of undergraduate admissions officers agree that social media is worth the investment they make in it and 86% plan to increase their investment in social media in the next year.
- The most useful tools for recruiting undergraduates include Facebook (94%), YouTube (81%), Twitter (69%) and Downloadable Mobil Apps (51%). Mobile apps are a favorite of top MBA programs with 82% citing them as an effective recruiting tool.
- Monitoring the schools name and relevant online conversation has declined over the past few years. In 2009-2010, 73% reported monitoring their brand. In 2010-2011, that number dropped to 68% and now is reported to be 47%. This could have consequences for any school that becomes the target of negative online buzz and is unaware of that conversation.
- Less than half of those surveyed have a written social media policy for their school. In the 2009-2010 academic year 32% had such a policy. That number increased to 44% in 2010-2011 and stands at 49% now. While this increase is encouraging, it is disconcerting to note that less than half have such a policy and that 19% of the undergraduate admissions officer report they did not know if any such policy existed at their school.
- 29% of the schools surveyed report having NO social media plan in place for their Admission Office and an additional 15% report not knowing if there is a social media plan in place.
- 78% report that these tools have changed the way they recruit.
How are you seeing social media being used at educational institutions?
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-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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