If you’re not first doing something compelling in the real world, don’t bother getting into social media.
Why? Social media simply extends conversations that should be happening “off the grid.” If nobody talks about you with their mouth, don’t expect Google to love you.
Old-mentality marketers wanting to jump on the bandwagon focus too much on the “media” and not enough on the “social.”
I’m guilty of having too few memorable days.
You know, those sort of “hey, remember that day I _____?” days that will resurface in my brain next month, next year, or during a round playing golf for life for free at The Villages, Florida’s friendliest hometown.
Tomorrow is a to-do list of things I didn’t have time for today. That’s not memorable. And I’m the only one who can fix it. I have 24 hours.
And… go.
Google Reader tells me that “from your 161 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 3,824 items.” I won’t even estimate how many tweets I’ve read.
Time for some spring cleaning on my feeds and on Twitter.
And time to start using this blog as a personal creative outlet. I’ve been talking too much business lately. In the past month, I’ve made 42 posts across three different blogs.
Although we’re a good 150 miles inland here in Austin, Ike is top of mind this morning – particularly because my employer is located in Brazoria County, Texas – where today voluntary and mandatory evac orders were issued.
So I’ll be updating our corporate blog throughout Ike. Fingers crossed that it somehow fizzles out in the Gulf.
I’m a loyal reader of Church of the Customer. I preordered Citizen Marketers before its release. So when I saw that Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell were planning the first ever SWOMfest ’08 right here in Austin, I didn’t just want to go, I wanted Young & Free Texas to help sponsor the event.
Ben’s post today covers the part of event we’re sponsoring (local dive to be rented out for this TBD) -
Pre-conference ’80s party. SWOMfest ’08 is during Halloween week, so we’ll blind ourselves with costume party science on Wednesday, Oct. 29, the night before SWOMfest. The pre-conference party theme? The ’80s. Bring your Devo energy dome and leg warmers. We’ll have prizes for best costume. Then we’ll adjourn to see the best ’80s cover band ever, the Spazmatics.
I am so excited about this I am typing it standing up. And it’s not just that the conference will have a live DJ throughout. Or that beer will be served throughout. It’s the content and the bright minds in the room that’ll make this so cool. Also I’ll be doing a brief case study on Young & Free Texas (it’ll be happening October 30th, right after the spokesperson gets announced).
BTW, Church of the Customer has over 209,000 RSS subscribers. My credit union has about half that many members.
Tags: ben mcconnell, church of the customer, jackie huba, swomfest
I’m sitting here watching the Olympics live without using the DVR to skip commercials. And I see the new Volt commercial and it induces chillbumps.
After following the product development for many months now, I’m still as excited by the Chevrolet Volt as I was about the Wii before its launch.
It’s sexy, it’s fresh, and it’s going to be just as hard to get.
It’ll be the GM-saver.
the more everything looks like a headline from The Onion.
Take these stories from today’s CU Times homepage:
Today, Seth Godin called into question State Farm’s promotion of MLB’s Home Run Derby:
Promotions work when they’re seen as generous or unique or tied into our needs and dreams. They also work as brand builders when they’re so ubiquitous we associate the brand with the event itself. But if I had written “Allstate” instead of “State Farm,” would you have realized the error? Doubtful.
Last week, Jeffry wrote a related post on Citi’s naming rights purchase for the Mets’ ballpark.
On the other side of the debate, one could side closer with Ben Rogers, who left this comment with JP:
In the SportsCenter age, you’ll get a couple of mentions per night on the most rabidly watched show for professional 18- to 49-year-old males. Owning the things that get talked about can make more sense than advertising on the channels where people talk.
I’m ad-immune from TV commercials (thanks, TiVo), radio (thanks, XM), newspaper ads (thanks, Yahoo! News) and phone (don’t even have a home phone, suckas).
Sometimes the only way to get your brand in front of me is by pounding your name in my head. That doesn’t mean I’ll choose you.
Here’s the $400-million dilemma: I shop on value (not on price – there’s a big difference).
If I’ve never heard of your brand before, I have Yelp or Wesabe or fillintheblankwithanytoolyouwant to help.
Tags: Ben Rogers, Citi, Jeffry Pilcher, marketing, Seth Godin, State Farm, Wesabe, Yelp
