What Marketing Is Really All About

Boy, do I wish this were true... and that my life was really like Mad Men without the blatant sexism.

How Much Social Media Posting Is Too Much?

I came across a blog post by Mitch Joel today that has me a little worried.  Here's the beginning paragraph of the blog, Your Brand Is Tweeting Too Much:

"How much is too much Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest for a brand?

It's getting ugly out there. Brands and fellow agencies will often ask me the same question: how often should we be on _____________ (insert your favorite social media channel here)? In the past, research be damned, my response would typically be: so long as it's quality and your audience cares, shares and keeps on about it, don't listen to the research reports or what any pundit has to tell you. The unique pulse between and a brand and its consumers is highly personal and unique on a case-by-case basis.

I may be wrong."

Not only do I hold Mitch Joel among the most well respected digital marketing and social media marketing experts in the world, I shared his view about how frequently brands should post on their social media platforms.

All the points Mitch makes are very relevant - I certainly can't name one single friend I want to hear from 30 times a week, let alone a brand I want to have that much interaction with.

It's time to reign it in and be more judicious about my posting.  My biggest offense is without a doubt Twitter, and I ascribed to the idea that the rapidly updating feed on Twitter is more forgiving of message overload than some of the other social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Building a Podcast Audience

My favorite podcast is Six Pixels of Separation, the Twist Image Podcast, by Mitch Joel.  I love most of what Mitch and his guests have to say about marketing, and I can easily listen to Mitch's voice for 40-50 minutes at a time.  

Episode #368 went live at the end of July and Mitch had comedian Marc Maron on the show to discuss podcasting and building an audience.  

It's useful information that you can apply to all aspects of your social media marketing strategy.

Tend Your Gardens

Too often life is about creating things by a deadline, handing in the project and walking away.  It doesn't matter what happens after you deliver, whether your work is solid or comes apart at the seems with time.  Seth Godin calls this method of thinking: buildings. 

But that's not really what life is about.  Seth says a better way of thinking about projects is to equate them to gardens.  

Gardens are living, breathing and changing.  They have to be tended and nurtured and we have to be willing to switch up our game plan and strategy to roll with the punches.  

Just like projects. 

So many brands start social media programs without realizing that they are taking on a life-long project that will need to be nurtured, managed and tended regularly.  It takes a real commitment, there is no set it and forget it option with social media.

Gardens, not buildings, is an amazing post by Seth Godin, and he has some real gems... I seriously suggest you subscribe to his blog.

Social Media: Where Do I Start?

There's no simple recipe for social media success... well there is, but it's not really a secret and it's definitely not a shortcut.

When people ask me where they should start with their social media marketing plan, I tell them to find out where their audience is and start there.  If your clients are big Twitter users, your first social media platform should be Twitter.  If your target audience is engaged on Facebook, your first social media platform should be, you guessed it, Facebook.

It's not rocket science, but it can take a little leg work.  You can do a social media analysis to see where your competitors are online, what their presence is like, and then make a judgement call as to whether or not you want to go down the same path.  You should also research where your clients are congregating and take that into consideration.

Ultimately, you'll have to tweak your social media marketing mix so that it's always reaching the target audience you define.  You may find that one or more of the social media platforms you launch doesn't fit the needs of your clients, is a waste of your resources or just isn't a good platform for your brand's message.  In that case, it may be time to throw in the social media marketing towel.

Market Yourself using Social Media

Social media marketing isn't just for your business, it can be a great tool to help you market yourself.  Instead of trying to cram all of your accolades and achievements onto one eight and a half by eleven inch piece of paper, embrace a digital resume using LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has come a long way from being the social media platform for jobseekers and headhunters. Savvy professionals are embracing digital marketing for their own personal brand.  

Not only does LinkedIn store the text associated with your resume, it allows you to add rich media to as well.  My LinkedIn profile showcases PDF documents created by vendors to highlight excellent service provided to clients, YouTube video testimonials and recommendations from clients, vendors and coworkers. 

Creating a Successful Website

Seth Godin has a pretty great formula for putting together a successful website.

I wish I had his blog post, Q&A: What works for websites today?, to refer to when I was designing a website eighteen months ago.

It's really hard to juggle the aesthetics and the expectations of the client but what marketing professionals know is that our personal investment (and that of the brand) doesn't mean a thing.

What matters is what the people who visit your website think, and ultimately if you build a user-friendly site with rich, useful content you'll find success.

The Secret to Digital Marketing Success

The famous line from Field of Dreams applies to digital marketing success:

If you build it, they will come.

You have to continually create content that is interesting, useful and relevant to your audience.  Sometimes your content can be humorous and sometimes you can do some blatant self-promotion, but for the most part you need to provide your audience with information that's relevant to them and easy for them to digest.

And creating content isn't enough, because if content is king, then context is queen.

There's plenty of content out there in the ether that we never see.  Making the right content available to the right audience at the right time is the context that makes marketing successful.  There are so many platforms in digital marketing - websites, social media platforms, blogs, etc. - and it's important to pick the right context for your message so that it hits with the biggest impact.