Marketing-Gimbal

Social Netwoking: What's Old Is New Again

Lisa Rowan of IDC hits the nail on the head with her recent email “Social networking: what's old is new again”

In it she points out that the whole concept of networking is not all of sudden new. We humans like to network, and it’s always been said that networking is the key to business success, but the buzz words have certainly changed. In addition she recalls back to the day of Vax Notes in the 80’s and eventually Lotus Notes. Remember Lotus Notes. This was social networking digitally enabled.

Lisa goes on to point out that what is really new is that in today’s environment is the ability to socially network is greatly expanded from inside your company or immediate peer group into parties both internal/cross divisional, but also externally as well.

I think this is correct. In addition I think the folks just coming into the game have grown up in a Facebook, My Space world and consider this broad networking ability as second nature. So why wouldn’t you want to use it in your marketing.

So if you’re a guy (or gal) like me I recommend you get a Facebook page, and start to social network with the latest tools of the day. Look at how companies like Coke and Starbucks are using Facebook to reach out to their customers and create a two way dialog with their brand.

The concept of networking is nothing new. What’s new is the DNA of the young consumer has changed so that digitally enhanced social networks are 2^nd nature. This means you and I MUST start becoming familiar with the social networking platforms like Facebook to get an understanding of how to use these new capabilities to create a two way street for our customers & prospects. Don’t be afraid to start, you might actually like throwing a sheep at someone.

Nuff said

If your interested in Social Networking my friend Steve Mann (Our Guru on Social Networks in SAP), will be doing a webinar on how to use social networks to grow your business. He will be presenting along with Seth Godin and Jeremiah Owyang, both gentlemen very respected in the digital marketing realm. A great line up of experts so register to attend.

Ten Marketing Ideas for 2008

Here are some excerpted "Top 10 Marketing Ideas to Consider in 2008" from Chief Marketer Magazine. I thought these we're a great selection of old and new and how the new is changing the old. Note Outdoor. While those of us that are traditional think of airport or billboards there are some new innovative things taking shape. For example with RFID technology electronic billboards can change. Don’t forget video. Look at all the ways video is used in what’s called narrow casting (i.e 1tofew..think of your health club video advertising etc..). Marketing as a service…definitely relates to the shift that we must be having a conversation with our prospects and not a shouting match.

Gaming is another interesting idea. The article points out that B2B companies should consider gaming as well. What about a supply chain game? or a customer service game to promote your products? Social Networks and widgets are things all marketers need to be looking at now and seeing how they can leverage these new opportunities. If you’re not using video to communicate with your target audience you’re missing the boat. Brand experience is key today, but you need to make a shift of thinking about your website as a "telling" medium to a selling medium. Today’s website must work harder and sell your brand values, customer experience, as well as your products. Here are the ten:

Time to Green
A "green" plan is no longer a luxury…..

The Great Outdoors
This year's surprise was the rebound of out-of-home advertising, which grew faster than any channel except the Internet. Outdoor reinvented itself as a technology-rich means of engaging, entertaining and educating commuters. & "Narrowcasting" video networks continue to sprout, enabling marketers to put their messages in front of selective targets

Get Game
Gaming now permeates society, creating fresh ways for marketers to connect…..Even B-to-B marketers will be smart to give gaming a fresh look while blending in messaging, training or recruiting.

   Mobile- I Can Hear You Now
This may be the year mobile deserves a closer look and listen as tech improvements create new opportunities. .

Join the Club
Wise marketers will capitalize on the growing appeal of social networks. ….Marketers will be smart to create a social network, or take an existing one and make it physical. (Second Life held its first offline convention in 2007.)

Rise of the Widgets
Mini-software applications, "widgets," provide unprecedented access to hard-to-reach targets, as Facebook and MySpace can attest. According to ComScore, 220+ million folks used widgets last May….

Roll Video
With 70+% broadband penetration, streaming video is a must marketing tool……

From Behavioral to Contextual
Marketers will add behavioral targeting to contextual "search" efforts. ……

Focus on the Experience
The need to focus on integrated marketing approaches isn't news. But what will be news is how brand experiences will move to the top of the integration food chain, becoming the driving force of communications……

Marketing as Service
For years, marketers were more concerned with what they said, rather than what their target heard, resulting in endless monologues. …..

Why Marketing-Gimbal

Let’s first start with a definition of a gimbal from wikipedia:

A gimbal is a pivoted support that allows the rotation of an object about a single axis. A set of two gimbals, one mounted on the other with pivot axes orthogonal, may be used to allow an object mounted on the innermost gimbal to remain vertical regardless of the motion of its support. For example, shipboard compasses, stoves and even drink holders typically use gimbals to keep them upright with respect to the horizon despite the ship's pitching and rolling. In other words its the structure that keeps the ships compass level in the middle of a storm.

I thought that Marketing-Gimbal would be a fitting title to my blog. Why? you might ask. Well I think we’re in the middle of a storm as well. A marketing storm filled with hype, bull shit and fear. Especially if you we’re born when LP’s were around. For those of you that don’t know what an LP is send me an email. You see when you work in a large corporation like I do and people start to hear of things like RSS, Blogs, Social Media..etc a few things start to happen:

1.      A few folks bright enough to read a magazine seize on these hot topics, and rattle the cages to a point where upper management (who have no idea what these terms mean) start thinking the ship is going to synch if we don’t do "RSS".

2.      Others have no clue and put their head in the sand, and hope all this stuff goes away so we can just place our pretty advertising in the coolest magazine, and call it a day.

3.      The rest of us have to sift through the BS and try to understand what it really means, and how to leverage these new tools in way that increases our marketing effectiveness, and efficiencies.

What’s more interesting is I find my “over 40” colleagues completely confusing themselves, and truly believing that the world as we know it, in a marketing context, is coming to an end. As they see it the fundamentals of marketing have changed, it’s a totally new world and you must be 12 to understand it. You’ll here them use terms like: I just don’t get all this stuff, or why did he throw a "sheep" at me?

Of course a few of the over 40 crowd completely embrace all this new hype even though they really don’t know what it means either. You know the ones. They start dressing in black, and start to sound like Tim Gunn, of Project Runway, as they tell you that you "so don’t get it", and that you need to be put out to pasture.

So why not start a blog for the over 40 marketing professional. A blog where we can explore all this hype. You see I don’t think the fundamentals for marketing have changed at all. I think the tools, the communication channels, and the way in which people collect, create, and share information has. This means there are new opportunities to link our messages together, cast a wider net, and generate more demand. The new challenge of marketing professionals is more about how to optimize against reaching a networked audience versus a completely new playing field and rules.