Entries in conversation (7)

Thursday
01Oct2009

This is not a social media blog

DateThursday, October 1, 2009 at 11:24AM

I have been struggling for content a little on this blog recently, despite having more time on my hands. As I write in my bio, I have never felt that social media is the only topic worth discussing, despite the fact that I am increasingly positioning myself as an expert in that space. But it's not the only space I have worked in, unlike anyone who has "guru" or "ninja" attached to their title. And that's why this blog needs to be more than social media. There are enough blogs out there discussing it, and most of them are redundant. As Rebecca Thorman writes:

Stop writing about social media. Talking about how Twitter is or isn’t an effective networking tool is boring. Really, freaking boring.

I read a lot of posts on social media hoping someone will say something new, but that never happens. We need to stop masturbating to what the tool is and start using it to see how it works.

This blog post is from March, by the way. And still relevant. Anyone who blogs should strive for something that is readable and relevant months (even years) later.  How many blog posts were wasted on "Twitter-killer" Plurk? How many will be written on Google Wave? Just this week, even Amber Naslund reached out to her readers for ideas that matter to them, due to the circular nature of the social media conversation.

My goal here is to write something different than everyone else, rather than recycle the same conversations and adapt them to whatever new technology emerged in the last week. I've have always believed in the difference between Soundbytes and Solutions, and I'll continue to apply that ideology to this blog. If I'm not writing, it's not because I'm not paying attention to what's happening in marketing, new media, etc. It's because I'm waiting to write something that I think is interesting, rather than just creating noise.

So bear with me as I continue to re-think the types on content I write about here. And stop by my Posterous blog, which is one of the top reasons I don't write here as much nowadays.

Authoradam stewart | CommentPost a Comment |
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Monday
06Jul2009

Facebook Activism vs. Real World Action

DateMonday, July 6, 2009 at 7:48AM

Mary Joyce, co-founder of DigiActive.org, on tangible activities generated from Facebook social activism.

“Maybe a maximum of 5 percent are going to take action, and maybe it’s closer to 1 percent. . . . In most cases of Facebook groups, members do nothing. I haven’t yet seen a case where the Facebook group has led to a sustained movement.’’

Same goes for marketing via social channels.  It's one thing to have a lot of followers and friends.  It's another (much better) thing to have them engaging and activating your brand.

via The Pros and Cons of Digital Activism (The Boston Globe and The Washington Post)

Authoradam stewart | CommentPost a Comment |
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Friday
05Jun2009

Anti-social as a differentiator

DateFriday, June 5, 2009 at 10:57AM

As brands continue their mad rush into social media -- building customer communities, tweeting with their customers and urging people to join their group on Facebook -- Influx Insights brings up a valid point: "Should Corporations be Nasty?".

The more you Tweet and Facebook friend your consumers, there's always the potential that you loose your point of view and edge because you're so busy trying to be "them" and cater to their every whim.

If every brand is following the same social formula -- "add me", "join me" and "what do you think of us?!" -- do the brands that don't become the differentiators?

To create a metaphor:

The social brand is the guy in student government. He knows everyone. He's friendly, he's outgoing and just about everyone likes him. There are no surprises. But some people may be more interested in the guy chain-smoking across the street from the high school who doesn't give a crap what you think.

Our perception of brands works the same way. For some, there is more value in being sought out vs. readily available.

Authoradam stewart | CommentPost a Comment |
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Monday
18May2009

"You've changed, man" (on twitter)

DateMonday, May 18, 2009 at 8:20AM

Of all the social networks that I participate in, I actually KNOW the fewest on twitter.  And I'm guessing if you follow/are followed by more than a few hundred people, you are in the same situation. twitter is one of the few social networks where it is completely acceptable to follow people you don't know, and want them to follow you back.  It is one of the things that makes twitter unique.

I am following marketers, technologists, designers, news services and a slew of early adopters, and I am followed by many of the same.  As twitter has grown over the last few months, the one group I have now added is friends.  As in, people I know personally -- relationships were constructed offline and are now seeping onto twitter.

I joined twitter as a digital marketer wanting to learn more about a tool that has now become essential to maintaining a social media presence, and ended up talking to people doing the same.  My real friends weren't there, so the people I talked to the most we like me: early adopters, marketers, people interested in new media.  Now that my friends have rolled into twittertown, my twitter personality is changing.  The people listening and talking back to me on twitter are no longer early adopters and marketers -- they are people I grew up with and had beers with long before twitter existed.

It is unusual for a social media service to become more social, but that's what twitter has become for me.  I'd rather tweet to and for friends I know than hope for a retweet from early adopters.  That doesn't mean it's one or the other, but the presence of my friends has changed the way I converse on twitter.

If I really want to maintain a certain personality on twitter, the obvious answer is to have a couple different twitter handles, but that defeats the purpose of social media.  Social media is about relationships - the new ones and the old - and one of the things that makes social media interesting to me is the fusing of the those relationships and the information/interactions that result.  As more of my friends join twitter, it becomes better (and more social) for me.  And to be honest, I think it makes the conversation on twitter better as well.  So I'll be sticking with my current twitter handle and look forward to more friends rolling into town.

Authoradam stewart | Comment2 Comments |
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Sunday
15Mar2009

Snuggie: Smart marketing and a little luck

DateSunday, March 15, 2009 at 10:15PM

After a bit of a layoff from posting, I'm easing back in with a topic close to my heart: sleeved blankets.

A few years ago, I stumbled across a revolutionary product: a fleece blanket with sleeves.  Living in an often-chilly apartment, this was the perfect product for someone that didn't wish to sacrifice their blanketed warmth to perform basic arm movements.  It was called The Slanket.

Most people would have probably assumed it was the Snuggie.  It wasn't.  The Slanket has been around for a while, but you would never know it.

So why has Snuggie wiped the floor with the Slanket so far?  The first, and very obvious reason, is price.  The Slanket was originally priced at $80 (they are now priced at $38).  The Snuggie -- $20.  That's pretty much a no brainer.

The second is advertising.  Snuggie had an enormous push this winter with cringe-inducing infomercial-style ads.  As PSFK points out, this may not have been such a bad idea.  The cost of a prime time TV spot has seen a big drop, and Snuggie took advantage of the discounted tv real estate to grab a firm hold of the competitive blanket-with-sleeves category.  Meanwhile, The Slanket relied on press coverage to get the word out.  This is not a bad strategy, especially given the state of the economy.  But with Snuggie on the offensive, what were they waiting for?

The third reason is that Snuggie was able to seize a prominent place in the conversation.  Snuggie emerged because of their quirky and hard-to-miss spots, but they became a pop culture mainstay with the emergence of the Snuggie Pub Crawl.

So here is where Snuggie got a bit lucky. People took the idea of the Snuggie Pub Crawl and ran with it, creating their own versions of Snuggie events. The founders of Snuggie Pub Crawl are not affiliated with Snuggie, so Snuggie didn't have to do a thing, except ship out their product to everyone buying it for an event.  With the help of Snuggie enthusiasts, Snuggie has managed to do something that every smart marketer out there is trying to do: get consumers involved with their brand and turn them into advocates.

So the question is -- would the Snuggie Pub Crawl ever have come about without a smart pricing strategy and some smarts ad placements?  My answer is no.

In Snuggie's case, they got lucky with the pub crawl.  If they had introduced the idea themselves, it wouldn't have worked.  It would have sounded ridiculous to consumers, and laced with marketing.  But Snuggie deserves a lot of credit for laying the groundwork with smart marketing that created the opportunity for the for the crawl idea to even emerge.  People can't talk about your product unless they know it's there.  Just ask The Slanket.

Update: A recent article from the San Francisco Chronicle talks more about the rise of the Snuggie (Warming to the Cult of Snuggie).

Authoradam stewart | Comment1 Comment |
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