I’m doing a series of workshops for the Center for Spanish Language Media at UNT.

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Contact Denisse Olivas (denisse.olivas@unt.edu) to attend multiple sessions.

There are some marketing efforts that just fall into the category of Gimmicks. Marketers use these cheap little “tricks”  to get an action out of people (purchase, share, whatever). These tricks range from taste-testing products to sappy stories made for a few heart-string tugs. Most of us are aware of these gimmicks. We allow them work on us occasionally, but usually we ignore them.

However, there’s a reason that these marketing tactics have endured. Sometimes, they work.

Twitter gives us a great example of a gimmick not only used by marketers but by parents of four-year-olds as well. You’ve probably even said it to someone in the pas month. It goes like this, you tell someone “don’t” when you actually mean “do”. In other words you tell people to do the opposite of what you want them to do, in hopes that they’ll do it just because you said not to.

Twitter hopes by saying don’t do it! More people will tweet and blog about their new Lists.

I’m sure you’ve gotten this little message on your twitter page. I’m not going to talk about lists because Twitter got exactly what they wanted, there’s a million blog posts covering it. But do check out the little highlighted section on Twitter’s notice.

Yeah, Twitter, way to use the oldest trick in the book.Oh and congrats, since its apparently working.

So what DO you think of Twitter lists? If you blogged about it, feel free to share.

Twitter made some subtle design changes recently and I couldn’t help but comment on them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about sleek designs. Except the new bird is kinda weird. But here’s my problem: why is Twitter spending money on a redesign when they could put that cash towards greater/smoother functionality or finding a monetization strategy? Or, you know, adding a “ReTweet” button, like other apps have (TweetDeck, Tweetgrid, so on…). That’d be cool. Hello?? Twitter? Are you listening?

What awesome feature would you have spent Twitter’s money on?

(Also, go rate that video. I lost the password to my YouTube account and I can finally get on it after a year! I need some love.)

Wanted to do a quick blog post. Last week I was a panelist at the Dallas SEO/SEM Meetup along with Damian Skinner & Erick Osia. We discussed a number of topics from social media to viral video to Blackhat SEO. I posted a recording of this event on the Meetup’s Upload section here.

Feel free to go listen to it. I know some of the questions are hard to hear but the answers are great. (If anyone knows how to edit audio, feel free to fix it!) Some examples of questions answered:

• How do I use social media to make money for my business?
• What should I use for my business on Facebook: a profile or a fan page?
• Does Wordpress index its pages?
• What does “Black-hat” mean?
• Should I use forums as part of my social media outreach?

Also wanted to give a shout-out to all the Twitters there!

Panelists:

@erickosia – Erick Osia

@damianstweet – Damian Skinner

@Veribatim – Kat Rice

Our Awesome Guests

@blueprintrealty – Bill Nicholson

@mktgmaster724 – Scott Saldinger

@smartacusguys – Rudy Lopez

@gushin – Dennis Guten

@natefalconer – Nate Falconer

@Andiqa – Andrea Duncan

We had more guests, so if you attended and would like to share your twitter, please leave it in the comments below! Be sure to check out the Dallas SEO/SEM group. Its a fantastic group. And I’m not just saying that because I’m an organizer. Check them out, and consider attending once a month with us.

Taking a break from our regularly scheduled Top 10 Ways to Ruin Your Website series, I recentlt was emailed a question I wanted to share.

Most business people have heard of Twitter, but still have no real sense of how to use it to promote their business. So why should they add this to their daily PR & marketing activities?

And here is my response:

I get asked these questions all the time by clients and when I’m speaking. “Right, I know Twitter is supposed to be the new shiny thing but I just don’t see what it can do for me.” This is usually followed by some comment like: “I don’t care about what someone eats for breakfast” or “no one wants to know about my personal life”. I used to spend a whole lot of time answering the question and explaining, but I’ve gotten down to saying just this:

Let me give you the top 3 reasons you should be using twitter for your business*:

1. Industry Pulse.

2. Polling.

3. News.

1. Imagine having the ability to put your finger on the pulse of your industry.

There are 3 groups of people you need to follow. Don’t follow the people who talk about their coffee break!

• Follow your perfect client, anyone from your target audience. Find out what they are thinking, what matters to them. Ask them questions! (And I mean really ask them questions, not: message me if you have a question about such-and-such)
• Follow your competition. Get in touch with what’s going on in your industry. Learn from their mistakes and advice. This alone makes Twitter invaluable to me.
• Follow people who are movers & shakers in your physical area. Search by city and find out who knows what’s going down. Then you can know and get involved if it helps you business. And, it’s incredible when you become one of the people who others ask: where should I be this week?

2. Polling.

Once you’ve followed the big 3, ask them questions. Smaller companies can’t afford focus groups and big surveys. So do it on Twitter. Ask about products, what they do or don’t use and why. Ask what they think of work you’ve done, etc. I poll before I speak so I have immediate feedback about my topic before I even say a word. Then I know where to focus.

3. Relevant, Fast, News:

My example of the overwhelming ability of Twitter as a news source was the terrorist attacks on Mumbai around Thanksgiving last year. I had CNN on my TV and Twitter streaming live on the Mumbai topic on my laptop. I was getting news on Twitter 30-40 minutes faster than through the television. In fact at some points CNN just read off Twitter and blog entries or used photos/video posted there from people in the middle of everything. But that’s not even the part that hit me hardest. It was that people were using Twitter to find their loved ones. A list of missing people went up on a blog and people forwarded it along through twitter and when someone was found they’d update the list. The news couldn’t even keep up with that, they just listed the website.

If that’s not reason enough to consider spending ten minutes on Twitter while you’re having your bagel in the morning and then ten minutes when you’re winding down from work, I don’t know what is.

*Exceptions are: Twitter is not your target audience. Seriously, research it. I can tell you really quickly who twitter attracts, if that’s not your market don’t waste your time. But since Twitter normally attracts business owners, moms, baby boomers, early tech adopters, bloggers and male executives… that relates to most people on some level, so this disclaimer is mostly just to make naysayers feel better.

Last week I was asked to do a talk for the DFW Social Media Marketing Meetup. They already had some great speakers cover Facebook and Twitter so I suggested talking about social media in the context of Viral Marketing. I’ve decided to post my notes here. A lot of this information is common sense, but that is, in fact, the beauty of viral marketing. The only difficult part is doing the research to make the right decisions.

Viral Marketing

1. Introduction: The “Holy Grail”

I refer to Viral Marketing as “the Holy Grail of the internet”. Most people aren’t sure where it is, how to get it, what it does, or what will happen to them when they find it. Much like crusaders of old, the journey to successful viral marketing is no easy task.

2. What is Viral?

Viral does come from the medical concept of a virus. If you have the flu, anyone you come into contact with may catch it, and then anyone they touch will get it and so on. Viral works the same way. You can connect with a few people and spread an idea which will in turn spread to possibly thousands of people you never came in contact with. It is Word of Mouth marketing, but online.

Some Aspects are:

• Word of Net: Like Word of mouth but faster and able to reach more people in a short amount of time
• The Power of NOT marketing: The goal of viral is in a sense, not to have to market. In other words you create the snowball and give it a push, but it will keep rolling down the hill and gaining mass whether you’re still running behind it or not
• Insider Phenomenon: Viral marketing should establish some kind of community. I like to use the example of Star Wars because its one lots of people can relate to. If I’m sitting with a bunch of people at a networking group who I may or may not know and I make an obscure Star Wars reference, chances are someone at the table will get it and laugh. When I hear that person laugh I know we have a connection even if I’ve never spoken to them before in my life. At that moment we are both “insiders” and part of the same community. A video or concept that goes viral will draw people together and create “insiders” who will network BECAUSE of your marketing.
• The Fluke Function: Unfortunately, there is no formula to viral marketing. There is no magic key, no map. There is only research and experimenting. In fact the majority of great viral campaigns went viral on accident. They were flukes. Sometimes, things just happen, and there’s only so much prediction you can do. A good example is TV series. Every show on television went through tons of market research, pitching to CEOs and TV network heads, focus groups and pilots, and even then, some shows don’t make it. They run one season or less and disappear forever. Others, run for ten years. We can only speculate so much on “why”.

Great Examples of Viral Campaigns:

• Got Milk. Even before the internet, the print marketing of milk has made an impact that we still imitate today.

• Wazzzzzzzzzzzup. Next step on the evolutionary ladder was video viral. Still a YouTube favorite.
• RickRoll. This is a great example of the Fluke Function. Rick Astley has made a ton of money off of people using his video as a joke. He was even asked recently to tour again (I think he also came out with a new record but I haven’t confirmed that). Either way, his song because part of an insider phenomenon.
• WOW Characters. The World of Warcraft videos using famous people as characters has a huge “gamer” following and is another example of the insider phenomenon.
• Anything to do with Apple. I’m not a huge fan of the Mac, but it has created images and symbols that have gone beyond branding and become a lifestyle.
• President Obama. Politics was not really considered a viral form of marketing until our current President broke the mold. Now social media and viral marketing are considered essential in a political campaign. His is a perfect example in the sense that he started rolling the snowball but other people continued to make him viral (aka ObamaGirl, JibJab, the ObamaRoll).

3. Is Viral Marketing a solution for you?

So who uses viral marketing? Obviously, big businesses do. But small companies and can be very effective with viral. Small companies who have a niche audience can really lean on the Insider Phenomenon. Who is your target market? 30 years old women in Dallas with a Deep South background who happen to like cooking apple dumplings as part of Sunday Supper? Imagine if you pulled all those people together with your marketing and created a community where those women would want to share with each other about your product/service. This is the time where I tip my hat to the Long Tail effect. Go read it if you haven’t. So if you think you have something that you can create a community around, than viral is a good bet for you. Great branding and good ideas may get passed along but a community gives people a value they can touch, that’s what really makes something persevere. The example I use, is again, a personal one. I know a lot of gamers and when things they think are funny or interesting hit social media then they all share it with one another. If they saw it last week and I haven’t yet then I’m told, “What? Where have you been?!” and I’m forced to sit down and watch some crazy YouTube video. Seriously, that’s how viral marketing really works.

4. Where to start?

Again, there is no real science behind why things go viral. But there are some things you can do:

1. Target market. Who are you trying to reach? Get the perfect client in your head (and in person if you can). Get this as clearly defined as possible.
2. Research. Research. Research. Find out everything you can about that target market. What medium do they like best? What kind of marketing has worked in the past? Is there a particular site or blog that seems to promote material similar to yours? What else are they interested in that you can connect to?
3. Branding. Make your message clear and tight. A video can be long, rambling or just plain spasmic but the message and the final burning impression should be flawless. If you make a great video and 100,000 people see it but you have not created any brand awareness, your efforts were useless.
4. Trial and error. After that its trial and error. I hate to say throw mud against a wall and see what sticks but in the end, that’s often how it goes. When you test ideas, make sure to track and get feedback on everything. When it doesn’t work go back to step 2 and start over.
5. Side note: hire a professional. I’m giving you tips and ideas but in the end, it does make a difference to have a specialist on your team.

I’m going to tell you that research counts way more than production on the whole. Think about all the random pictures of people’s cats seem to end up all over the internet. Sometimes a random video caught on someone’s phone makes it to the news. Your branding and message should have quality but remember the Fluke Phenomenon, sometimes things just “go” viral, for no reason. In other words, feel free to start small.

Final Thoughts

• The Players: Again, let me say RESEARCH. The players can be whatever medium your target market responds to but I have seen fantastic viral done with: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email marketing, Blogs, Forums, Print, Video, podcasting, soundbytes…. and so on. Someone at the talk suggested Linked-In to me. Don’t get me wrong I’m a huge fan but I don’t have any good examples of a viral campaign on Linked-In, though I’d be happy to learn. Also, let me just note that video is the most powerful tool in a viral campaign. Most people are visual. Plus, video can be shared through any of the other mediums.
• Create a Champion: Look, one of the goals of viral marketing is to be lazy. Get someone else to market for you. Create people who will champion your brand because in the end, someone else saying how great you are matters far more than how great you think you are.
• Community: Don’t forget: the goal is to create a community. A community will perpetuate anything you market. It will breed champions. It will provide feedback and research opportunities and even expansion. Don’t underestimate its power.

Personal Aside: I’ve fleshed out my notes a bit because I think my speaking was not up to par that night, I was was mildly drugged from a CT scan… so, needless to say, I was very entertaining!

Feel free to share your favorite viral campaign!

Today I want to hurt the feelings of a tiny tool that every salesman I’ve met keeps on his desk; the rolodex. I hate the rolodex. I hate its infernal little tabs and its mindless organizing system and today I’m going spend an entire post tell you why it sucks. But not to worry, your contacts deserve better and I have a solution.

Your Rolodex and Its Many Short-Comings

• Organization: So a rolodex may look more organized that my original method for keeping business cards (a shoe box) but instead of empowering you, it restricts you. You can only search one way: alphabetically. And you can only alphabetize by one method (first name, last name, company name – pick one). You can’t search through it by category or need.
• Infuriation: Not everyone’s cards fit in the box. Some people like to be special (ever seen those cards that try to be cute and are shaped like a square? They just want to mess up your system!). Or better yet you have to write the information onto a card, wasting your precious time.
• Transportation: Its not exactly portable either, is it? You can’t go to a lunch with it in your pocket.
• Inspiration: So what happens if you want to give some a referral on the spot? You can’t unless you happen to have them in your cell phone! You have to make a note and hope you remember. The moment of opportunity is gone.

So what can you do?

Get Rid of the Rolodex. Forget all that paper work. Call it going “Green“! (Or whatever helps you sleep at night.)

Now, let me tell you what I do.

1. I go to a meeting and come home with a handful of cards.
2. I log on to Linked-In during the next week and type in their name.
3. If they’re on, I connect with them, adding a note about where we met. If not, I send an invite.
4. Then I upload the contacts to my outlook through the Linked-In Toolbar.
5. (Extra step for my Blackberry/smart phone users: I synchronize my Outlook with my phone.)
6. Then I THROW THE CARDS AWAY. That’s right, I toss them.

I know what you’re thinking: What if they don’t connect with you and you could have used their service? Too bad. I figure I would have stuck them in my rolodex and forgotten about them anyhow. But now since they are in my phone and their information is updated through, I can connect them to other people or get in touch with them any time. It may sound crazy but it works. I stay better connected, I don’t have as much paperwork all over my desk and I have their information with me all the time.

So I suggest getting all your cards together this 4th of July weekend and roasting some marshmallows on them.

What do you do to simplify your business with technology? Are you really using Linked-In to its great potential or are you just there?

I don’t know about you, but my life exists at the speed of the keyboard. So when we decided it was time to hire a new sales team (new meaning we tried this before, unsatisfactorily), I knew we wanted to do something a little outside the box.

Don’t be this Guy

I’ve heard lots of success stories about people finding jobs or hires just through social media. Since so much of what we do at Veribatim is related directly to sites like Twitter, I thought this might be worht a try. Plus, no one likes reading resumes. They rarely show people’s real strengths, anyhow. Recommendations (like those on Linked-In) are way more accurate. A resume shows you on a perfect day, a recommendation is what you’re like in the trenches, and its the trenches that matter.

So here’s our plan. We put out info on Linked-In, Twitter and Facebook. We don’t want resumes or phone calls. Email us recommendations, email us why you think we rock (flattery gets you everywhere) we want to connect with YOU and the people who know you. Then, we just want to talk! We’re less interested in where you worked and more in what other people think about you, because, let’s face it, often times its who you know in sales! If we feel like you’d be an asset to the team we’ll do a personal interview.

If you are interested in this position or know someone who might be, we posted a few details on our Facebook page. Check it out and connect with us. We’re looking for passionate, focused people who love social media. Find details here. Also feel free to ask us questions on Twitter.

We’ll keep you updated on how this goes!

Everyday I meet people who ask me about social media. Each of these people have unique thoughts and experiences with online networking. Some of them are whole-heartedly involved, some don’t even want to consider it as viable marketing. But I’ve noticed a sort of pattern emerging. Much like grief, there seem to be five major stages of social media, they pass quickly or last years, but everyone seems to experience them.

1. Avoidance – People at this stage pretend social media doesn’t exist. If you ask them about it they’ll respond, “Oh, yeah, my daughter uses that site.” This stage usually involves lots of sticking fingers in your ears and yelling “lalalalala” at the top of your lungs.
2. Fear -Or “the excuses” phase. During this phase, you know social media is out there and that you should probably get involved, but you’re just too scared to try it. Some of the excuses I hear most often: “I’ll jump in when I know what I’m doing” or “It just confuses me” or “I don’t see how this service can help my business”. Hint: Just like crocodile wrestling, you can watch it on tv, study it, even take classes, but its never going to be the same as jumping on the back of a real crocodile and just doing it!
3. Paranoia – Okay, so you finally decided to take the plunge. You create an account. Now what? As with all new things, a little bit of fear continues to nag in the back of your mind. “Am I doing this right?” “What if I piss off all my personal friends by talking business (or vice versa)?” “I don’t know any of the terminology!” This fear of screwing up can be paralyzing. This is why some people never get past the -checking this out for the first time!- post.
4. Obsession – If you can get past the Paranoia stage social media suddenly becomes fun. Once people start connecting with you and commenting on your posts, the rush can be come addictive. This stage can be positive, the surge of activity can really put you on the map. You also may need to find a help hotline for your Social Morphine habit.
5. Comfort -Once the adrenaline rush fades, a regular pattern emerges of when and how you use social media. Perfect balance is next to impossible, but comfort comes very close. This doesn’t mean that you won’t slip back into one of the previous stages. In other words, once the social media cycle claims you, THERE IS NO ESCAPE.

I will add, however, that there is a stage outside of the five that some social media users fall into. The unfortunate post-stage:

6. Apathy – Apathy can creep into any relationship. You loose the spark and have to work to regain the love. It happens for lots of reasons: not enough time, not fun anymore, negative experiences… Unfortunately this reminds us that not every social media experience is positive, and it does take work. However, like any marketing strategy it should bee taken seriously. Besides, the reward tastes better after you wrestled a crocodile to get it.

What stage are you at?

Like a cockroach, MySpace continues to crawl forward even after its head has been chopped off. Yes,  Facebook has overtaken Myspace eMarketer shows us. TechCrunch predicted the fall of MySpace’s empire back in May, and like vultures, we’ve all been watching. (Also, of note, MySpace today cut 30% of its U. S. staff, says Caroline McCarthy at CNET).

Sure, there’s still thousands of people using MySpace, but its just not the giant it once was. Nowadays, MySpace exists mainly for celebrities and bands. At one point, businesses tried to make MySpace their space, but Facebook offered a much sleeker deal and so began the downward cycle.

Here are some of my thoughts on why MySpace is dying:

• Poor Design – You’ve seen it. Clutter. Just pick a random page and its busy enough to cause early eye-strain. The navigation tools aren’t user friendly and the interface just screams 90s. MySpace assumed that its connectivity out-weighed simple design.
• Advertising – They could probably change the name from MySpace to AdSpace. Modern audiences want their ads to unobtrusive. MySpace made “LOOK-AT-ME!” obnoxious video ads famous.
• Bathroom Wall - I once heard MySpace called the bathroom wall of society. Of course every chat room, forum or social website has people without decency. MySpace just made the news more often with them.
• Younger Audience – Based on a presentation by Bob Hazlett of One Half Amazing the average user age on MySpace is significantly lower than other social media sites. This audience has less money, more time and less… restraint. Many migrate to other places, like Facebook, after they “grow out of” MySpace.
• Fluidity – Most social media sites rely on ease of use. The fact that each profile is so customizable often causes more confusion that personalization.

As MySpace takes its nose dive, I have very little remorse. The site will probably continue to limp along, and markets may even continue to seek a target audience there (musicians and teenagers) but most of us will move on to greener pastures.

What are your thoughts on MySpace? Sad to see it go? Hardcore supporter? Don’t care either way? Why do you think its declining?