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My 36 Days of Brian: An “Engage” Challenge.

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

Brian Solis is coming to Minnesota on Tuesday, July 27 to talk about his new book Engage (and I’m sure a host of other smart things – if you’ve read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about).

I’ve got 36 business days between now and then to assemble a tribe of people to come see him.

How am I going to do that?

In order to spread the word about this event, I’ve created a challenge for myself based on a key concept in the book (and one of my personal soapbox issues): engaging through effective social media content.

(And yeah, the title of the challenge is a nod to the movie, “500 Days of Summer,” too. Um … cause it’s summer and this dance number makes me happy).

So, why a content challenge?

As social media has grown in popularity, it has contributed to a rise in the art of “short form communications.” We’ve got a lot to say, but now we have less space to say it in and readers who will devote less time to reading it.

Applications like Twitter are forcing us to find new ways to make an impression and engage with our audiences. As James Poniewozik said in this week’s TIME, “Twitter is pure voice, an exercise in implying character through detail and tone.”

It’s a style of writing that we’re still learning to master.

If I were to tweet: “@BrianSolis is coming to Minneapolis on July 27. Register Now: http://bit.ly/aigVPP” every day for the next 36 days, the repercussions would be troublesome. And yet, this is how many people approach their social media content:

  • Facts included? Check.
  • Link attached? Check.
  • Optimized keywords seeded? Check.
  • Shorten for “retweet-ability” Check.
This is Brian Solis. We are quite fond of him.

This is Brian Solis. We are quite fond of him.

But those qualities are just scratching at the surface of what makes good content for social media engagement, (It’s akin to thinking that you’re going to get lucky at a party tonight simply because you know for sure that your breath doesn’t smell.)

You devalue and dehumanize your social audiences when you limit yourself to a checklist of content logistics.

Think of the doors that you could open, and the relationships that you could deepen, if you were to ask yourself bigger questions, like:

  • Is this content interesting?
  • Will anyone want to read this?
  • Does this content offer a solution to anyone’s problems?
  • Is this content about/relevant to “them” and not just “me?”

Professionally, I’m often tasked with teaching clients how to artfully marry the answers to the questions above with the practical logistics of short-form communications. And I’ll admit, it’s not always an easy process.

The reality is that it takes practice to write 140 characters of content that is both optimized and eloquent.

The “36 Days of Brian” Challenge

To that end, I’ve developed a “36 Days of Brian” challenge for myself, as both an exercise and an illustration of the power/practice of writing for the social web.

Each day, for the next 36 business days, I’m going to share one post, tweet or update about Brian Solis through one of our Kane Consulting social media channels. (Most likely, many of these will be tweets, primarily because I like Twitter best.)

My goal is to produce content that people will actually take a moment to read (and, ideally, share), to take advantage of all the hallmarks of short-form writing and (of course) to entice you to come hear him speak next month.

I’m human and hardly a master of the form, so I’m sure I will write some clunkers during the next 35 days (this blog post is fulfilling my requirements for day one), so I hope you will hang in there with me. But, I hope you will learn with me, too.

As Poniewozik also said in his article, “give people 140 characters and they’ll take a mile.”

I’m going to try to run mine in 36 days.

I look forward to your feedback, participation and questions along the way and hope you can join me for Brian’s talk on Tuesday, July 27.

For more information on An Evening With Brian Solis, visit our website or check out the press release.

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Posted in Education Opportunities, Kane Co Events, New Media Marketing, New Media PR | Comments Off

Marketing Personas: The “Non Grata” Guest on the Social Web

Friday, May 7th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

I just returned home from Boston, where I attended my third conference produced by Marketing Profs.

I came away recharged by the event’s two outstanding keynotes, David Weinberger and Mitch Joel, and, as always, enjoyed networking with some fabulously smart people from around the country.

As a marketer who works most heavily in the social space, it was through that lens which I viewed the breakout sessions I attended at the conference.

What I saw often surprised me.

The Marketing Profs conferences attract some pretty traditional marketing types (lots of suits at this event).

While there seemed to be much more acceptance of social media among these attendees than in the past (last year, participants seemed far more wary), there wasn’t much indication that marketers were making fundamental changes in their business practices when it came to working in that space.

Social seemed to be just other marketing channel – the assumption being that you take the tried and true schema of push marketing, move it to this new environment and, “presto!” – “viral” magic will abound.

In this scenario, the marketer is still comfortably driving the bus – setting editorial calendars, directing traffic and counting clicks.

The marketing power of reality.

The most striking illustration of this “same practice; new channel” thinking was the continual reference in sessions to “marketing personas.”

Marketing personas are an integral part of the marketing process at most companies, born from in-depth client and customer research, but also including some insights from “the land of make believe.”

Understandably, marketing personas are enormously comforting to businesses:

  • They give your customers/clients a face you can relate to.
  • They help you get a fix on a moving demographic target.
  • They don’t argue with your ideas when they’re still in their embryonic form.

But, the problem is that personas don’t exist in social media … people do.

Each one of these people offers the world a very public profile of who they are and what they want and need.

Hi! I'm Carol, a generically attractive stock photo selected to serve as the focus of your marketing daydreams.

Hi! I'm Carol, a generically attractive stock photo selected to serve as the focus of your marketing daydreams.

With all that information at our fingertips, why put so much faith in fantasy debates about whether “Carol” likes television or is “fashion-forward?”

If you’ve strategically built and cultivated social networks for your company, you have access to a think tank of thousands of “Carols,” whom you can poll any time and use to crowdsource a host of new ideas.

What’s more, those interactions can give the real “Carols” an opportunity to develop a relationship with your company. As a result, not only will they be acting as sources of customer intelligence, they’re likely to double back and be your actual customers, too.

Real people are mean and scary.

One session at the conference provided a fascinating example of the enduring power (and pitfalls) of marketing personas.

The presenter was describing her B2B company and put up a slide with a picture of a young man in a snarky T-shirt (which incidentally, is the official dress code of SXSWi). Next to this photo was an equally snarky quote from this man’s blog.

The quote (and the blog) was written by a man named Todd.

Todd, the presenter explained, was their target client and one of their key marketing personas. His snarkiness and sarcasm represented all of the potential hurdles this company might have to overcome in their marketing efforts. “This guy HATED us,” the presenter confided.

So at the end of the session, I asked the $100,000 social media question … “Did you ever talk to Todd?”

The answer was … “no.”

Sadly, no one in the room seemed shocked by this answer. But, I certainly was.

Todd is not an archetype or a fictional persona. He is real person, accessible through social channels.

So what would be the harm in following Todd on Twitter? Posting a comment on his blog, thanking him for sharing his insights? Wooing him in some small social way?

Well, of course, the harm is that Todd is scary. He’s real and complex and could be a handful to control. Todd also may not welcome this company’s overtures with open arms. (Actually, he most definitely won’t if they start the conversation by sending some “push marketing” his way).

On the other hand, Todd could also be the linchpin brand advocate that could take this company’s marketing to the next level. Not only is he vocal, he’s a publisher, who, if won over, could share his testimonial with THOUSANDS of potential clients.

At the very least, he might ultimately decide that he’s still not wild about the presenter’s company, but will refrain from bad-mouthing them (a show of respect, in return for the respect the company had shown in reaching out to him).

Ultimately, this is a hypothetical scenario. (I don’t know Todd and I don’t know this company.)

But, I do know that this case study is not an anomaly.

Take the new road.

I am not suggesting that the practice of establishing marketing personas be abolished. They serve a purpose, and in most marketing practices, they make a lot of sense.

But social media (although it is a marketing channel like any other) has its own unique needs.

Marketing personas are not one of them.

Assigning imaginary qualities to real people to better understand them makes about as much sense as anthropomorphizing a grizzly bear and determining that he’s lonely and needs a hug.

(You may be right … but more often than not, you’re going to get eaten alive.)

To be successful in the social space, marketers need to evolve and modify their approach:

  • Listen first; market second.
  • Crowdsource editorial ideas and THEN publish.
  • Direct traffic intuitively, without manufacturing social corrals.
  • Measure clicks, but also the value of your human connections.

As Robert Frost so eloquently put it:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

If you want to market using social media, you need to take that new road.

This less traveled one may be bumpier, but the journey will be no less productive. And, if you can loosen up on your reins, indeed, it will make all the difference.

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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 4 Comments »

Content Catering for Social Media

Monday, May 3rd, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

Last summer, in an effort to teach our daughter the wonders of science, my husband and I helped her make her own ice cream.

It was a pretty slick process that involved pouring a bunch of ingredients into a plastic bag, shaking it for about five minutes and, voila – instant dessert.

I was reminded of this experiment last week when I was doing a webinar for Vocus on integrated communications.

During the Q&A portion of the webinar, a few people asked specific questions about content for social media …

  • How do you come up with it?
  • How do you establish a consistent tone?
  • Should it be different in each channel?

Social media content, for me, is like the list of ingredients we placed into that bag when we made ice cream.

Each one was strategically selected for its scientific properties and pleasantness to the palette. But none of them were, in and of themselves, “ice cream.”

Strategic Groceries.

I think a lot of companies approach their social content as they would any other web content. They menu out a list of “dishes” that they hope people will consume, cook them up and then parcel them out to audiences in snackable bites.

The fatal flaw of this approach is that it overlooks the first step in engaging in any successful social interaction – listening to your audience.

You can serve me the most beautiful, bamboo-plated array of sushi the world has ever seen, but if you neglected to ask me if I like the stuff first, (I don’t), then you just wasted an enormous amount of your time and annoyed me in the process, (particularly if I had clearly indicated to you multiple times that I was craving something else.)

Like any good cook, before you make your content “menu,” you should think about the people to whom you’ll be serving that content.

  • Who is going to eat it?
  • What are they hungry for?
  • Do they have any special requests or requirements?
  • What’s appropriate for the “occasion?”

From this intelligence, you can prepare a “grocery list” of content “ingredients.”

Just as you would with real ingredients, it’s O.K. to make some judgment calls when it comes to actually selecting your ingredients off the shelf. For instance, you can narrow your selection to words that are brand-appropriate, search-friendly and conversation engaging.

Catering, Social-Media Style.

Again, our natural inclination is to then take our ingredients and start cooking.

Try to resist that urge.

Remember, you are a creative content caterer, not a short-order cook.

Like the ice cream experiment; your goal should be to divide the ingredients into collections that will enable your audience to create their own unique dishes.

Whether they ultimately combine their eggs, flour and milk to make a cake or a soufflé is beside the point. Your primary concern is that they, ultimately, end up satiated and happy.

Order Up!

I believe that each social media channel has its own distinct vibe, which necessitates some customization when it comes to content “ingredients.”

By choosing and parceling your ingredients to play to each channel’s strengths, you’ll ensure that your content performs effectively. For instance:

  • Twitter: To me, Twitter content seems like the “assemble your own” fast food you’d pick up at a convenience store. (Like a container with yogurt and a pouch of granola to sprinkle on top, if you’re so inclined.) The choices for customization are limited and the whole thing is designed so it can be both prepared and eaten in a few gulps in your car.
  • Facebook: Content for Facebook feels more like a picnic basket of morsels that you can leisurely combine when the mood strikes. It’s content that has the potential to be traded, savored and enjoyed with good company. It can’t sit there in the basket all day, but it has a longer shelf life than your Twitter ingredients.
  • LinkedIn: To me, LinkedIn content feels like the kind of ingredients you’d find in a corporate cafeteria. Nothing risky or unexpected here … just solid choices you can customize into palatable, made-to-order dishes that stand the test of time and appeal to a wide common-denominator. (In my imagination, there is lots of “chicken” content in LinkedIn-land.)
  • Blogs: Blog content feels like the ingredients you’d find in a restaurant kitchen – each one hand-selected, at the peak of freshness and prepared to-order to please the discerning tastes of a diner who intends to linger and savor each bite.

I could go on (and officially beat this metaphor to death), but I think you get the gist here – one “ingredient” can be served in all of these environments, but how you prepare, serve and combine that ingredient with others can (and should) change based on the context and conversation.

Next time you’re producing content for social media, I challenge you to put on your chef’s hat and see how creative you can be with your content catering.

Just don’t forget the second part of that ice cream experiment: no matter what you decide to toss into your Ziploc bag, it’s not going to do you much good unless you hang around and shake things up.

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Marketing and PR: Can Social Media Bring them Together?

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

In a recent blog post, Beth Harte commented that social media gives us “a window into what our customers are really thinking, where they interact, how to engage with them, etc.”

The question I’ve been absorbed with this week is … who owns that window?

Social media is a tool we can use for marketing, public relations, customer service, sales, networking, conversation and a host of other functions.

For some companies, finding a common ground on strategy, tone and approach between all of these areas is simply a matter of compromise and consolidation.

In most cases though, this isn’t the case.

Survey Says …

My colleague, Kary Delaria, and I are currently working with Vocus on a white paper reviewing the results of a recent survey they administered to nearly 1,000 marketing and PR professionals on the topic of integrated communications. (We’ll be presenting the results in a free webinar next week.)

Social media was a common theme running through the survey data.

It was often cited as the impetus for companies to revisit integration strategies. But, just as equally, it was also cited as the source of some of the biggest turf battles that are preventing integration from being fully possible.

While I imagine these battles are playing out among many departments, this particular study focused on one that may be perhaps the most gnarly: the struggle for ownership between marketing and PR.

Not surprisingly, one of the key findings in this study is that social media is blurring the lines between marketing and PR.

Personally, I think this is a great thing. I love that social media can serve as a “common denominator” for both marketing and PR objectives.

But, apparently not everyone is such a fan of this idea.

Now play nice, you two.

While the big picture data in the Vocus survey was pretty straightforward, it was in the responses to the open-ended questions in the survey where some of those turf battle claws started coming out.

The big surprise to me? How much sharper they were on the PR side than the marketing side.

When it came to their views on marketing, there was an underlying tone of exasperation, frustration and even condescension in many of the PR responses. For instance,

  • “Marketing thinks everything a company does is ‘newsworthy’ when it’s not.”
  • “Whereas I believe PR people understand how marketing works, for the most part, I have found the opposite to be true.”
  • “PR is often used when marketing is unable or unwilling to support either due to resources or timelines.”
  • “Integration shouldn’t be allowed to reshape how PR functions based on others limited understanding of what it is/can do; but should allow it to enhance marketing efforts in its own way.”
  • I believe they should ultimately role up to the same executive, however you need a senior PR person to help refine messages. Otherwise you end up sending messages to the press that are too ’salesy’ or marketing.”
  • “PR and Marketing should work together, but PR should report to the top person of the organization so it is not encumbered with other corporate agendas, which might make it counterproductive.”
  • “PR does more than marketing – it should be integrated as needed with one reporting line for specific programs/projects dependent on the objective.”
  • “Companies that place their Public Relations functions under the Marketing department are missing the boat in terms of building a relationship with customers and potential customers.”

Whoa.

I mean, seriously … whoa.

Now, don’t get me wrong, the vast majority of the respondents were in support of better integrating marketing and PR functions. Also, there were undeniably a few snarky marketers in the mix that had their own, “over my dead body,” spin on the topic.

However, the number and flavor of these PR responses is of note … and I think, of concern.

Social media is quickly becoming the lifeblood that runs through the veins of both of marketing and PR, whether we want it to or not.

As one respondent said, marketing and PR “Are two peas in a pod … both are an important part of any communications program.”

While two peas they may be, apparently we’ve still got some work to do before everyone is willing to jump into the same pod.

For more on this topic, register for the Vocus webinar on April 29 and receive the complete research report and analysis.


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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 1 Comment »

Developing Social Media Content: New Game. New Rules.

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

When I ask companies or clients what their content strategy is for their social media engagement, I usually hear one of three responses …

  1. What’s that?
  2. No, I don’t have one.
  3. Yes, I have one (and then they go on to describe the content strategy for their website or brand as a whole).

Each of these answers is perfectly reasonable …

  • If you use social media primarily to “talk to people,” you may not consider the words that you and others type during your conversations to be “content.” (But it is.)

  • If you believe that social exchanges are comprised of “content,” you may not think that this content could or should have some sort of strategic purpose, since that’s kind of antithetical to the very nature of the medium. (But it can.)

  • If you’re using the same content for your social media that you use for your website (which makes sense, since one may likely have been born from the other), then you may think it’s logical to treat them, strategically, the same. (But it’s not.)

Social media content is its own unique beast for one key reason: when you talk in social media, people talk back … and you can never predict what exactly it is that they’ll say.

I think this is fundamentally a “game changer,” that makes social media content worthy of a new set of rules.

It doesn’t walk like a duck. So let’s stop calling it one.

From content to analytics to optimization, as social media matures and grows, we’re learning that it often requires its own unique approaches and processes.

In the case of content, social media is comprised heavily of words, but also just as heavily of communications … the ways in which we exchange that content with other humans in real time.

The intersection of the two is uncharted terrain that is both an art to navigate as well as a science to strategize for.

In this new area, traditional Web rules don’t necessarily apply.

Pile-Magnet-PoetryIf you take your existing content strategy and apply it to the social web, it may be successful (particularly if you are using social media as a broadcast platform), but it won’t create the kind of rabid brand evangelists that are the holy grail of most marketing plans.

Broadcasting a schedule of brand messages in an engaging or entertaining way can convince someone to “fan” or “follow” your brand, but …

  • To get people to fall in love with your brand;
  • To get people do your marketing for you;
  • To get people to virally shepherd your content on your behalf;

… you need to establish a connection or build a relationship.

And that means using social media SOCIALLY.

Do you have a content strategy for that?

A new approach to “content.”

Much of what we could call “social media content strategy” is just revisiting the basics of human psychology and communications that are the seeds of most of the marketing and PR practices we employ today.

What makes us successful in our virtual engagements is the same thing that makes us successful in our face-to-face ones – having the ability to explore and improvise within the gray area that occurs between creating words and exchanging them.

Social media has just made that space a little more gray and a lot more lively.

In social media, your “content” won’t always take the shape of a collection of “on brand” phrases, but rather, will consist of the words you develop and use to:

  • Engage people in an open and interesting way.
  • Actively listen, in addition to sharing.
  • Ask compelling questions based on intelligence you’re gathering in real time (i.e. “Tell me more about the trade show you’re producing.”) rather than topics identified in advance (i.e. “Did you know that my company does X?”).
  • Present your brand as a solution for a client or customer’s identified problem, rather than a kick off for a marketing or sales qualification process.
  • Draw effective conclusions from your interaction that can lead to the next engagement, (i.e. “Are you going to X Conference? I’d love to take you out to lunch and continue this conversation there.)

As a society, we were once great at this navigating this gray area. But after decades of building layers of communication bureaucracy between marketer and consumer, we’ve become pretty rusty at just plain ole talking to each other.

It’s as if we’ve all been using the “communicating with people” script so long that all of our inherent improvisation skills have atrophied.

Get your words back into fighting shape.

I invite you to come explore this topic with me at our Kane Camp event on Thursday, April 15. We’re going to break it down and talk about how to develop a strategy for choosing the words and communication style to use for your social media engagement.

While this is still an evolving concept (I’ve never seen it covered at a conference, webinar, etc.), even if I can’t provide all the answers, I can promise that you’ll leave asking the right questions.

Hope to see you there.

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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 8 Comments »

Do you integrate PR with your marketing strategy?

Thursday, February 18th, 2010 by Kary Delaria

“A decent PR campaign, rooted in traditional media relations, can be executed on its own. A great PR campaign will work in harmony with each of these other disciplines and guide their success.”

Read my guest post on the Minnesota Public Relations blog.

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Where are the 201 Conversations? A Social Media Call to Arms…

Friday, February 12th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

I haven’t learned anything about social media at an event in the Twin Cities in a very long time.

Is this because I’m brilliant?

Heck no.

If anything, I have a lot to learn. And that compels me to continually seek out new educational opportunities at meetings, workshops, webinars, teleseminars and conferences, both locally and nationally.

But lately, everything I go to has had the same soundbite loop of examples, (Zappos!) ideas, (”Listening is key”) and anecdotes, (”Gary V was just a guy with some wine and a dream…”) all framed by the uber assertion that, “Social Media is AWESOME!”

And, sure enough, there is always a hungry crowd of people sitting at these events.

These are, ironically, the same people I talked to about social media more than year ago who regaled me with questions about Twitter as if it were some sort of mythical Sasquatch–like beast that I had stumbled upon in the woods.

In time, these people got the message that social media was here to stay, so they started using these tools, too. And now they too want to get together and talk about how it works, why it works and how to use it for their business.

Don’t get me wrong … I think that’s a great thing. There should continue to be events for these people to go to. (In fact, I’ve created some of these events myself, where, I too, am guilty of using the soundbites mentioned above.)

My problem is that personally, I’m not interested in those questions or events anymore.

I’ve been working with social media intensively, extensively and exclusively for nearly two years.

I’m ready for some new dialogue.

I want to talk about questions like …

  • How do we create metrics that can adequately measure the nuisances in the qualitative and quantitative data gained from measuring social media conversations? (Because, yes, we can measure this stuff. Yes, there is a science to this. And yes, there are whole conferences being devoted to this topic.)
  • How do we navigate the ethics of social media when qualities like, “authenticity” and “transparency” open the door to a host of landmine issues like, “Who determines what data is private?” “Where should the disclosure line be drawn between being someone’s fan and being their marketer?” “How do you maintain authenticity while at the same time being highly strategic about your engagement?”
  • How to we develop and manage a content strategy for social media when the message is not being used for the traditional two-way exchange of sender and receiver, but rather is a living dialogue that ping-pongs between senders and receiver (and each receivers’ receivers) ad infinitum?
  • As more and more learning and interaction happens virtually, what will the new role be for real-time events and interactions? How can we respond to the needs of online communities for face-to-face connection? How do we capture the “a ha!” moments that occur offline and relay them back to the online network?
  • How do we build and integrate social media into a larger marketing and PR strategy so that it serves as an invaluable new tool in a company’s arsenal (with its own strengths and weaknesses) rather than a “bell and whistle” to tack onto an already overextended business workload?

Where are these types of conversations happening?

Locally? Yes. These questions pop up at most every coffee meeting I have. People are creating word-of-mouth support networks, but that’s generally where the “education” ends. Most events are still being built to simply help professionals sell social media to their clients and companies (and that’s a fine goal). But this means that, for now at least, they are trapped in Social Media 101 mode.

At national conferences? Maybe some, but not at the ones I’ve been to lately. Those have been the lands where the giant corporate case study reigns supreme, even when they are entirely devoid of nimbleness and innovation. (Note to conference planners: the hottest ideas in social media are NOT coming out of giant corporations.)

Online? Always. I am currently attending Twitter U to get my Social Media MBA. The ideas are coming in a steady stream from networks and blogs, (thank you Mack Collier, Brian Solis, et al), but the answers many of us seek will still ultimately be found through application and interpretation. For those, we need community and clients – areas where offline interaction can still hold the most impact.

Not sure what the solution is to this problem. But I know it’s not one I can solve on my own.

I don’t have all the answers, but I know I do have good questions, so I’ve pitched myself to speak on these topics both locally and nationally, but have had little success.

I’d build my own events to tackle these ideas but, since I’d be trying to pull in an audience of my peers, I think it’d be an exercise in futility (especially if I had to charge money for the events to cover my costs). As Chris Brogan so aptly put it last week, the Twin Cities is still pretty siloed when it comes to forming tribes to support each other in the social media community. That’s a damn shame.

So this morning, I watched the Twitter stream as the social media faithful here in town gathered for yet another event. They likely tackled social media again, twisting the topic like some programmatic Rubik’s Cube to examine and discuss from some new angle.

Ultimately, I’m not sorry I stayed home.

I have work to do and clients to help. Not sure anything they would have found would have helped me with either.

As usual, for now, it looks like I’m on my own.

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Posted in Events Industry, Thoughts on the Industry | 4 Comments »

What the World Needs Now is…You.

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 by Jennifer Kane

I love to dance. But I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a dancer.

(I always figured you needed training, recitals and a monogrammed bag with ballet slipper patches on it to officially be called a “dancer.”)

Yep. That's me in the sailor suit in the middle. Don't ask. Long story.

Yep. That's me in the sailor suit in the middle. Long story.

But, I can dance. And, I can make up moves and build whole dance routines in my head. So, earlier in my life, I often found myself in the role of a choreographer, too.

I choreographed routines for cheer teams, marching bands, musical casts, and once, a huge crowd of people who fell down like Dominos at the end of the song, spelling out the word “W-E-L-C-O-M-E” with their bodies.

And you know what?

I loved every stinkin’ minute of it.

But then I got old, injured, and intimidated by the girls who were dancing “in the big leagues.” So I decided that I wasn’t a dancer or a choreographer anymore.

End of story.

But recently, I read a blog post that made me rethink that decision…

THE BIRTH OF “THE CHOREOGRAPHER”
In the post, the writer lists the top 5 “people, places and things that will be on top of the mountain a year from now,” one of which is a role he dubs “the choreographer”…

“…quick moving, creative, optimistic businesses are going to need someone who can harness all this dynamic energy. This is where the choreographer comes in. Someone who can align the researchers with the account teams; coordinate the digital team with the ad buys and make sure that it all looks and feels right. No mean feat, but crucial to insuring that an integrated marketing plan delivers the goods.”

When I read that description I thought, “hey, that’s me!”

Every day I wake up, look at my Twitter feed and think, “Crispy crackers, I missed a lot while I was sleeping! Time to take the pulse of the industry, make a game plan and start making things happen.”

Then, my team and I do just that.

We read up on the latest technologies, navigate uncharted terrain, translate and train, pull it all together into uber marketing or PR strategies, and then direct everyone’s efforts to implement them so they achieve measureable results.

The reality is that I never stopped being a choreographer…I just started choreographing different things.

SO WHAT’S YOUR NEW ROLE THIS YEAR?
The nature of doing business is changing daily, giving birth to a host of new job titles, responsibilities and roles like “the choreographer.”

So, let go of your preconceived notions of what your industry really needs this year (Another book? Another blog? Another “Twitterlebrity?”) You don’t have to be an author, start a blog or be the next Gary Vaynerchuck to make an impact.

I’d wager that what your industry needs most are solutions.

And, it’s entirely possible that you alone have the innate skills to provide those solutions – skills that may take the shape of a role no one has even dreamed of naming yet.

Think back to those moments in your life when your passion reared its glorious head and revealed your natural talents for all the world to see.

Those are the skills your industry needs.

Those are the skills that will put you and your business on the map this year.

For me, the lesson is that, at heart, I will always be a choreographer. And perhaps the world needs my ability to “stage the big production number” now, more than ever.

So instead of mapping out a physical journey through a song, now I’m aggregating the information in tweets, posts and feeds and using it to create a different kind of path for people to follow.

In the end, it’s no less beautiful for me to watch unfold – a series of calculated moves that, once implemented, leaves a wake, stretched out end to end, that spells one word…

S-U-C-C-E-S-S.

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Posted in New Media Marketing, New Media PR, Thoughts on the Industry | 6 Comments »

Five Things Marketers Could Learn from Ashton Kutcher

Thursday, December 10th, 2009 by Jennifer Kane

I try to keep up on news in my industry, so it was with great interest that I read the latest cover story in Fast Company about fellow Twitter lover, Ashton Kutcher and his production company, Katalyst.

The cover provocatively asks if Kutcher could be “a new kind of media mogul.”

My answer?

Unequivocally.

As a strategist, I can recognize a solid and smart marketing process when I see one – and Kutcher’s is watertight:

  1. Be hot, famous and prolific in some key social media channels.
  2. Watch as step 1 generates a large following of gawkers and fans.
  3. Watch as steps 1 and 2 attract large corporate brands who want to sell stuff to hordes of gawkers and fans.
  4. Let those brands piggyback on, or co-opt the content within, the aforementioned channels.
  5. Monetize participation, release co-opted content to the aforementioned hordes and make beaucoup money.

As the article states, Kutcher intends to become, “the first next-generation media mogul,” using his own brand as a springboard and syndication system.

And, I have no doubt he’ll be successful at it.

But his strategy (heck, his whole company) is uniquely suited to capitalize on Kutcher’s stature, connections and lifestyle.

So where does this leave the rest of us whose personal brands aren’t so much springboards as they are teeny planks?

Me? I was never on a TV show. I’m not married to a celebrity. I have no pre-existing corporate endorsements. I’ve never punk’d Justin Timberlake so bad that he nearly cried (btw…that was a great episode, AK).

And yet, I’m working this space just as aggressively as Kutcher and his posse. And, I’m looking to magazines like Fast Company for ideas and inspiration on how to be successful in my own right.

Is there anything a regular lady from the Midwest like me can learn from “team Ashton?”

While the consensus online seems to be that Fast Company took a gigantic jump over a very attractive shark in writing this article, I still think the answer is “yes.”

1. Find your hook

I’ve got two words for you: trucker hat. Kutcher knows the value of a gimmick, a prank or a well-positioned must-have accessory, and he works that sucker for all its worth.

Do you have a “trucker hat” idea for your business?

  • Is your value prop that you “do good work?” (Congrats, that’s true for every other company in America too. What else you got?) Are you the “first,” the “best,” the “only,” or the “award-winning” anything?
  • Is your hook easy to identify, ubiquitous and a key player in every facet of your overall marketing strategy?
  • Will your hook translate well across multiple platforms and media spaces?

2. Mix the mediums

Social is not the end-all, be-all of marketing. Part of the key to the success of Kutcher’s company is that they are integrating content across multiple platforms, and seeding projects in television, movies and the Web.

Are you thinking outside of the social media box, too?

  • Are you creating marketing content that is snackable, portable and customizable across a range of platforms?
  • Are all your marketing channels designed to work together symbiotically?
  • Are you keeping an eye on emerging technologies so you can be the first to identify the new places where your clients or customers might want to play?

3. Pretty it up

Yeah, Kutcher’s good looks are doing him some favors in his race to “mogul-ness.” But, “be hotter” isn’t a real practical strategy for the rest of us to pursue. Perhaps a more tangible lesson we can learn from this former model is that working your looks is just as important as having them.

Is your company ready for its close-up?

  • Do you have a consistent and appealing visual identity across all your marketing platforms and spaces?
  • How is that headshot of yours holding up? (Is it reinforcing your brand, or is it just a so-so pic you shot with your laptop cam?)
  • Are you striking some awesome, “blue steel” marketing “poses” via your podcasts, video and writing?

4. Keep an eye on the Benjamins

Kutcher knows Hollywood, and he’s cannibalizing that world to build his new business model. One lesson we can learn from him (and that world), is that everything costs money. (In Hollywood, it takes a village to raise a celebrity…and all those villagers need to get paid.)

Are you ready to capitalize on your new media investments?

  • Are you approaching your contacts and pitching unique marketing partnerships where you can share the work and the wealth?
  • Do you have clear strategies in place for ensuring that the content you give away will come back to you as revenue down the road?
  • Have you identified some companies who are doing this well? Are you tracking their every move and taking copious notes?

5. Enjoy yourself

For all we know, Ashton Kutcher could be reading Ayn Rand books in his spare time. But in public, the AK brand is all about having fun. And you know what? People loooove to have fun, and they are attracted to other people having fun. Marketing doesn’t get any more simple than that.

Are you having any fun?

  • Do people enjoy reading/watching/listening to your marketing? (Um…do you?) Is it interesting? Provocative? Funny?
  • Are you enthusiastic about what you do? Are you letting that enthusiasm bleed into and invigorate your brand?
  • Are you remembering to break a few rules now and again?

Ultimately, Ashton is an anomaly…

So it doesn’t really matter if he’s the “first next-generation media mogul,” or not.

Really, the more interesting question is…

…who will be the second?

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Posted in New Media Marketing, Thoughts on the Industry | 1 Comment »

The Top Five Essentials for a Successful Company Twitterfeed.

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 by Jennifer Kane

It’s started.

Companies everywhere seem to have received the “We gotta be on Twitter!” memo and are swarming to the application to fire up a feed.

But does anyone care?

Since I’m a “heavy tweeter” and follow a lot of people, I seem to be on the radar of many of these corporate feeds.

The number of corporate followers I get seems to double each week. While the amount of time I have to vet each follower is growing smaller.

As result, I’ve developed a Twitter litmus test to help me decide which companies I should follow back.

Corporate marketers? Take note:

1. Is Your Company’s Twitter Profile Complete?

Your Twitter profile is your company’s online business card. Make it an effective one.

  • Include a picture. It’s O.K. if that picture is your company’s logo. Just make sure it’s a version of the logo that looks good on multiple color backgrounds. I view my Twitter stream in Tweetdeck against a black background. If you use a gray logo with a transparent background as your avatar, I will literally never see your tweets going by.
  • Tell us where you’re located. I make it a point to follow local companies. Leave off your locale and you could be missing the opportunity to transfer the Twitter conversation to a face-to-face forum.
  • Write a keyword-rich, informative company description. Don’t waste this valuable (and searchable) real estate with dippy slogans like, “We work hard, but have fun too!” or obtuse mission statements like,  “Creating authentic experiences for consumers.” I want to know, in a glance, what you do and if it’s relevant to my business.
  • Include a URL. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a link to your corporate website. But it does have to be a link to a location that will provide me with more detailed information on what it is that your company does.

2. Does Your Twitter Profile Show Your Company Having Conversations with Actual People?

When I’m vetting a company, the Twitter profile page is an invaluable research tool.

  • Do you have hundreds of followers, but follow none of your clients or customers back? (My first impression? You don’t seem like a very nice person to do business with.)
  • Do you follow a ton of people, but have no followers in return? (My first impression? You probably post some pretty boring tweets.)
  • Is your feed full of posts, but includes no @ replies? (My first impression? You like to talk…just not to us.)
  • Is your feed full of @ replies, but no posts? (My first impression? You don’t have much to say, so you use gratuitous, “Me too!” and “LOL” comments to make your company appear “engaged.”)
  • Is your feed full of retweets? (My first impression? You have nothing original to say, so you repeat others’ tweets so you can appear relevant in the space.)

3. Is There a Sense of Human Voice in Your Twitterfeed’s Content?

Nearly all the companies that I see jumping on the Twitter bandwagon are under the mistaken impression that it’s the world’s cheapest and fastest broadcast medium.

Couldn’t be further from the truth, my friends.

If I want to know all about your company’s news and hear how awesome you are, I will go look at your website. If I want to engage with you and learn more about why your business may be relevant to mine, I will go to Twitter.

You need to have something interesting to share with me when I arrive.

You wouldn’t just walk around a cocktail party distributing promotional flyers and call that effective networking. Treat your twitterfeed the same way.

Ask questions. Be helpful. Throw your two cents into conversations. And most importantly, give me a sense that there’s a person behind the Twitter curtain.

I don’t care if that person works in marketing, PR, or the C-suite. I just need to know that they are a human.

4. Does Your Company Use Twitter to “Sell” or to “Brand?”

What is your social media content strategy? If you don’t have one, don’t be surprised if you don’t see a big return on your Twitter investment.

Write your tweets so they sound like the sponsorship messages you hear on public radio, not the ads you hear on a Clear Channel station.

Go ahead and mention your company. Share with us what you do and how you feel about the work, (Feelings? In business communications? Why yes!) and ask people questions about their businesses in return.

Structure your content so that the process of sharing and “telling” your story also serves as the “selling” of your company.

5. Does Your Company Respond to Followers and Follow Backs in a Genuine Manner?

I met a really great business contact recently and had some lovely face-to-face discussions with him. Shortly thereafter, I looked him up on Twitter and started following his company (he manages their feed).

In response to my follow, I received an auto-generated direct message with a generic “thanks for the follow” and an offer for me to download “an exclusive whitepaper which could help me double my follower count overnight!”

Needless to say, this person is no longer one of my business contacts.

If I meet you, and you know my name, but you treat me like an anonymous cog when you reach out to me through social media channels, I will treat your business like an anonymous cog in return.

Treat your clients and customers like you’ve had a dirty one-night stand with them, and you’ll see a whole other side of Twitter’s power – a side that has the ability to break your company’s reputation just as easily as make it.

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Posted in New Media Marketing | 5 Comments »

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