The Superbowl is over. Lasted for one day. Done.

Congratulations to the New Orleans Saints on the win.

Congratulations to the advertisers that debuted their new commercials.

But let’s look beyond the Superbowl to the Pepsi Refresh Project.

For those of you who have not followed the story… In a nutshell, Pepsi decided not to advertise during the Superbowl. They decided to use the money that they would spend on “traditional advertising” on a social media project.

Here’s the background story (Dec 17, 2009) : Pepsi to end 23-year run of Super Bowl ads Company to focus on new campaign that will mostly appear online

This move changes everything.

A major traditional long time advertiser is making a move away from a traditional media channel.

• Advertising on television is a make-or-break, one-time shot. Money is spent. Media channel wins. Advertiser? Maybe, maybe not.
• Advertising online with a persistent presence is not a one-time shot because you can become a permanent part of the online landscape.

Hmm…

This is very similar to the way the social media technologies were used in the 2008 Presidential Campaign (Barack 2.0 Project). Obviously, I am very keen to this seismic shift in the marketplace. But even more importantly, we can learn from these moves and apply them to our businesses now.

Point 1:  Look at your actions and see if they align with your goals

Pepsi is redirecting their advertising dollars because they looked at the Superbowl advertising media as a channel. That media channel, they assessed, did not align with their goals. I speculate that they made this assessment based on the dynamics of the communication technology marketplace. Television as a media is being supplanted by online consumption of video content.

In other words, you can advertise once, but online you can create a presence that allows for people to consume your content over and over again.

** The ads that were shown on the superbowl are available online right now. So consumption, reach and exposure are no longer the only valid attributes to measure the effectiveness of advertising.

Point 2: Create an offer and environment where your audience can engage

Pepsi has created a community that fully engages the audience and “empowers” the audience to participate in a social improvement project that they support with hard dollars. This creates an everlasting ripple effect of good will and community support. This is priceless.

The new standard for effective advertising is engagement and ongoing participation with the audience. The audience is now in action for Pepsi.

• Are they becoming engaged with you and your offer?
• Are your dollars producing the returns that you are expecting?
• Are you doing what you have always done, expecting the same results?
• Are you still getting the returns from your actions?
• Is it time to think and act differently in the marketplace?

Point 3:  News Begets News Begets News

Run this search on Google: “Pepsi not advertising”. Here is the search link. At the time of this writing there are over 3.7 million listings on Google.

Major media has been covering this story for months.  Thus, the broad audience is well aware of Pepsi not spending money on advertising in lieu of spending money in the community.

Since Pepsi now has public support and media support, they have the advantage of good PR working for them.

Point 4: Supporting Marketplace Ideas

Social media is all about sharing of data and information. The most precious and most valuable commodity is a good idea. But a good idea is only the beginning. A good idea needs shaping and support to grow into anything that is valuable.

Good ideas are everywhere. But when you evaluate, activate and then support an idea with cold hard cash, you have the possibility of real success. 

Sharing ideas is just a “social and human” thing to do. Pouring money back into the community makes Pepsi a wonderful corporate citizen. They are using social media communication technologies to contain the messages from the marketplace, in the most cost-effective environment to let ideas flow, report progress and let the people continue to engage.

Idea, thinking, execution and community support are the cornerstones of human existence. The more that I see technology move forward, the more I see us as “just people” moving back to our core activities without restraint.

Bravo, Pepsi, for thinking differently and moving differently in the marketplace.

The question now becomes:

What can you learn from this Big Corporate example and how can this apply to your business?

By David Bullock

Howie Jacobson is a good friend of mine. Howie is the author of the “AdWords for Dummies” book.

I was looking on my hard drives and I found a folder full of interviews and conversations that I have had over the years. These are pure gold nuggets of information that I am so glad that I captured.

Howie is featured in the interview below.  There is so much in this 7–minute clip:

• PPC
• Salesmanship
• System Setup
• SEO
• Social Media
• Passion For Work
• Media Repurposing

Markets are changing rapidly. Hope that you enjoy it. More to come.

By David Bullock

Is social media an effective tool for driving targeted traffic to a brand new website that is starting from a complete standstill?

Based on what we are seeing - yes. I am learning a lot with this project, as it is in a market with which I am not at all familiar.

Getting traffic is only the first part of the equation. Motivating that traffic to take action is the part where most social media deployments break down.

More to come in a few days…

Be well…

Info PR: n/a I: 126 L: 0 LD: 1,504 I: 125 Rank: 627268 Age: Aug 01, 2008 I: 0 whois source Robo: yes Sitemap: yes Rank: 388884 Price: 6340 Links: 74|8 Density

By David Bullock

Social Media continues to disrupt the business of politics. While I continue working in the business sector, over the past year I have become increasingly engaged in the political vertical.

Neal Harrington of www.HarringtonFT.com and I had a conversation several months ago (July 2009) that proved to be very interesting. We are discussing the gap in technical expertise within the political arena in terms of social media deployment. These new communication technologies are completely disrupting the political marketplace.

If this is the case, this news that came out earlier this week is especially intriguing:  Plouffe to Play Expanded Advisory Role for Obama.  Who is going to step in to assist the opposition?

If both parties are using social media communication technologies effectively, what will be the deciding factor or secret weapon in the upcoming campaigns?

By David Bullock

Apparently, the social media marketing playbook got lost within a year. Folks, we outlined the blueprint as it was happening in 2008 in www.barack20.com.

1. We did not go with a major publisher.
2. We did not spend a fortune on advertising.
3. We used social media just like the typical small to mid-sized business to prove the point that any business could use these new media effectively. 

Guess what?  The methodology worked and continues to work. Now it seems that the political world is waking up to the fact the social media is powerful if it is used correctly.

Presidential, Senate and Local Elections: A Different, Closer Look

Doing the same things will yield the same results. The tools are available for use for those who have the foresight to use social media correctly.

Both the Democrat party and the Republican party have recently seen clear victories with social media as the apparent point of leverage. Is that really the case? Or are there other factors beneath the surface that we can uncover with a cross-discipline inspection? Let’s take a look.

2008 Presidential – National Race (Global Reach)

2010 Gubernatorial – Statewide Race (National Reach)

2008 County Election – County Race (Statewide Reach)

The major media and pundits have weighed in with very superficial analysis about the effectiveness of social media.

In the January 19, 2010 Wall Street Journal Article you can read about the large disparity in the number of:

• Twitter followers
• Facebook friends
• YouTube views

Let’s take a real look at what happened beneath the surface, away from the social media story that is dominating the landscape. 

What elements are critical as any business looks to deploy social media? These political events are most telling because politics is the highest level of conceptual marketing.

Definition: Leadership is an idea that has no form until someone executes an order or creates policy.

Now follow me…

Selling an idea is the first crucial step for any business venture. Selling the idea is the bedrock of sales and persuasion. If you can sell the idea of the product or service, then selling a product or service can naturally follow. The critical path for selling an idea is to make it relevant to your listener.

Listener Relevance Axiom: No one has the time or the energy to deal with or listen to ideas that are not relevant, important and meaningful to one’s own life. We live in a world of information overload. If you are not relevant you will be filtered out and marginalized.

I spent several hours analyzing the messaging and positional setup of the Massachusetts state senate campaign between Brown and Coakley, and a few things became very clear.

Rule 1:  Use All Available Media Channels from the Very Beginning. Should the other opponent not use social media at all, the social media savvy challenger will win. It is therefore not so much that social media “won” the election for the candidate. Social media was used to disseminate the message to a space beyond the market boundaries. This was a statewide race that was promoted to a national market, with complete saturation of the target market and pressure on the local market to pay attention, mobilize and act.

• In 2008, the Obama Presidential Campaign embraced Social Media from the very beginning – not as an afterthought.

Rule 2:  Create a Short Meaningful Message, Speak It and Let It Work. Having a clear message and establishing a clear position in the marketplace is key to communication (Marketing 101).

• In 2010, Brown’s message was “This is the people’s seat.”  This powerful language cuts through the clutter of the marketplace and penetrates the mind of the listener. Take note that the Democratic Party had to use this same langauge to rebutt Brown. To make matters worse the message of “this is the people’s seat” came from this video.  Watch it here with Brown first at the 38 second mark.  He uses very powerful language and then pushes forward with data to support his position.

The opponent then had to use the very same language later:

• Do you see how you can surround your target market by using new media tools?
• Do you see the powerful use of language and messaging here?

These are the first of many lessons that can be derived from this campaign.  

More coming…

____________________

We are dusting off the social media playbook that we documented in the 2008 Presidential Campaign in www.Barack20.com. Yep, we have the playbook and we have used our own playbook over the past year.

Here are the media and positional results based on using the strategies mapped out in the “Barack Obama: Social Media Lessons for Business” workbook.

The rules have not changed. The only thing that has changed is the players and the technological environment that continues to exhibit interesting dynamics.

This year will prove to be interesting.  This time we can refer back to over two years of real world experience as we read between the lines and extract the new media lessons for business.

Obama 2.0 Observed By David Bullock

Obama 2.0 is in all the headlines today. A friend of mine just send this to me via Twitter (thanks @JillKoenig).  What does this mean?

The question that comes to my mind is how can a business, the backbone of the economy, learn from these political campaigns?

There are true nuggets of marketing, positioning and execution gold that can be found here.

But I fear that just like during the 2008 Presidential Campaign – where a senator seemed to have come out of nowhere to rise to the highest office in the land – the world is paying attention to the politics and not the mechanics that they could use to gain market share, increase profits and reduce costs.

Here are some of the headlines that I believe take our eye off the ball.

Obama 2.0 Begins by Listening to Paul Volcker

Obama 2.0: Candidate Starts His Hard Move to the Center

Let’s focus on the lessons that can be learned for a business of any size to succeed against enormous odds.  That message is as true today as it was a year ago.

By David Bullock

Watching the market as I have over the last year has been very interesting. Reporting on the market and what the “social media” market is doing has become a big business over the last several years. Heck, just trying to keep up with the new tools is hard enough. So, as we look at a dynamic market, what is the first thing that we have to do?

Find an anchor point.

That’s right. As this market continues to change and flow, it is not required that you learn everything that is new in the marketplace. It is required that you find your place in the marketplace and then find the proper tools to support your position and place.

For the last several months, I have gotten very busy working on executing many ideas that are supposedly “new” in the marketplace. What I find in these ideas is that the very fundamentals of thinking, decision-making and execution are lacking.

It is “throwing mud against the wall” at a very high level. What is called strategy is hand waving to an audience the does not know what they are observing. Even when you show them something, there is no criteria in place to measure progress, success or failure.

To be fair, I have a different perspective. I view this space from the position of having been a:

• Manufacturing operative
• Engineer
• Project manager
• Marketer
• Salesperson
• Blogger
• Self-published author
• Public speaker
• Promoter
• SEO
• PPC practitioner
• Content creator
• Video editor
• Audio editor
• Consultant
• Tracking and testing specialist
• Affiliate marketer
• Webmaster
• Inventor

In other words, in the worlds I inhabit, we look at a new idea and see it all the way through from inception, to creating value in the market, to successful transaction.

I have had my sights set beyond simply watching the markets. In the last year, we have successfully launched a book and completely repositioned my business in the marketplace. This process of repositioning has created a complete shift in my thinking and how I will be moving in the future. I look forward to sharing with you how we are moving within the marketplace and adjusting thought and action accordingly.

Social media is part of the getting ideas into the marketplace.

Ideas are cheap. Ideas are everywhere. You just had another idea.  In fact, as you are reading this you will get a few new ones.

You can be inspired by anything. The key is what you do with the ideas that you or others have.  Innovation is the buzzword these days… but to truly innovate, someone has to build it and make it work.

In short, an idea that is not executed is nothing but a fleeting flash of brilliance.

However, doing something with an idea is the work of giants. This is what creates wealth and moves economies.

• Getting an idea to market.
• Following through with an idea.
• Executing an idea.
• Moving an idea into the physical universe.
• Making an idea tangible.

I was in a brainstorming session a few days ago that gave me a headache.

Why?  Because all of the ideas had inherent structural problems. In layman’s terms, the ideas that were being generated lacked the clarity of execution.

My background is in manufacturing. I build stuff.  Big earth moving machines.  Boilers.  Spinning machines.  Cars.  Huge metal presses. Robots.  Mile-long plants.  Warehousing.  Trucks.  Forklifts.  Hard hats.  Ear plugs. Steel-toed shoes.

This is the world I come from. Now I find myself in the digital world, which I consider to be close to the perfect machine.

Perfect Machine:

• No weight
• No space requirement
• No power consumption.
• Runs automatically
• Self-regulating
• Self-servicing

This morning I am awake to the fact that the world that I come from is still extremely valuable.

Why?

I am seeing a lot of people talk about what should be done and what should work.  After the fact, they tell you why it works. But only a few people can really build things from the ground up, meaning:

• See the idea.
• Build the structure.
• Pull the resources together.
• Design the systems.
• Create something.
• Keep working with it until it is producing something meaningful.

What are you not only willing to think, but willing to do to really make something happen and show up in the real world?

Contrary to popular advertising and marketing beliefs, you can’t sell a future that people don’t want or need anymore. The Obama Campaign was promoting a future that the people wanted. People wanted the future, thus they promoted the story and in the end acted to fulfill the story.

Social media are like the wind. It is there. You can see it moving. And more importantly, you see the effects. Social media are all about developing and engaging in consistent intentional conversations around relevant content within a meaningful context within an eager community.

Yes, that is a mouthful. If you look at that statement at a surface level you will most likely continue to advertise and market in the same manner that you have for years, and you will get the same dwindling results. However, with a true operating understanding of new media, that statement above not only sounds impressive; it is actionable and measurable.

Again, we witnessed the monumental rise of Senator Barack Obama to the White House using this new media and networking platforms as a catalyst for actionable conversations.

The proof is in the case studies, the businesses, the individuals and the causes that have been brought to the forefront of traditional media because the story was first carried by social media.

Social media is about communication. Not the one-way communication from a company to consumer that has been the standard for centuries; rather, true conversations and two-way dialogue based on common interest and concerns. The glamour and push methodologies that worked for decades are no longer valid.

Your customers can know more about your company than you do because they are able to understand and evaluate your:

o company
o products
o services
o customer service
o culture
o people
o reputation

before you have the opportunity to make your pitch. Thus the tables have turned. Companies come to pitch and convince and the marketplace comes to simply decide if this is a good fit based on everything you say and the world says about you. What you say now is not enough.

Now you are known by your content and context. And it is up to you to fill the void in the marketplace via reputation with the narrative that you want to be known for.

Now you are evaluated by the conversations that you are in, the conversations that you are and the conversations that surround you.

Those with power and money have typically controlled communication lines. At the present time, anyone with an Internet connection, a keyboard and an idea can broadcast to millions. This is the shift that was illustrated on a global scale in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Simple ideas are being promoted by ordinary people to the world without needing your blessing. Scary, isn’t it?

The power of communication – and thus, commerce – now lies with the individual. Not the corporation. Not the advertising agency. Now the power is with the individual who understands and uses communication technologies effectively.

Technology has finally made communication a commodity.

How are you going to increase the value of your message to lift yourself above the noise like a Senator from Chicago?

You have an opportunity here that never existed before.

Are you going to seize the moment?

Do you know how to seize the moment?

What is social media?

It is truly something new, or it is a communication technology that is misunderstood and miss-applied because these new broadcasting and networking platforms have commoditized messaging by allowing the masses to have access to broadcast capacities and influence that were only available to a few years ago.

The answer is very basic. It starts with being meaningful and relevant to those that find you.

And where should they find you?

Everywhere that they are looking. Social media allows you to be everywhere, talking to everybody and listening to everything.

First, you have to be where people are looking. Second, you have to know how to engage by being interesting to and interested in the audience.

The problem with new media and the access to an abundance of data is that people don’t need to you to bring them any new information. Your prospects want you to be useful, meaningful and valuable. And your clients want to find value instantly. If you are valuable, you can’t be found if you are not there. So you must first show up and then deliver.

Sitting on the sidelines and not being in the market is not a strong strategy.

These search engines allow us to find data about just about anything we can identify by name. The problem is that data, in and of itself, is meaningless, unless it is framed within the proper context. Case in point, the 2008 Presidential Campaign at any other time would have not been framed powerfully without the other issues that were looming in the background of the United States, such as the economy and the current state of the government. This speaks to timing and relevance as it relates to value assessment.

The key is to show up, saying the right thing and having others saying good things about you.