It was a post by uber-geek Wil Wheaton that caught my attention:

I totally agree with him.  I love my Kindle, but I also love perusing bookstore shelves.  I especially love small, independent bookstores where the shelves are stocked with books people believe in — not just the latest blockbuster.  But truthfully, I love all bookstores; from the biggest Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com to independents like Kramer Books to second-hand wonders like Second Story Books.

I’m fairly like to buy an armful of second-hand books at a buck or two from Second Story, but what happens when I go into Kramer or another first run bookstore?  I peruse and take notes.  The first thing I have to think about is, do I need a hard copy of this?  It’s a new calculation for Kindle owners.  I’ve had my Kindle for well over a year now, and I’ve opted for the soft-copy most times.  Everyone once and a while I buy the Kindle edition, and then a second-hand hard copy to share.

Yep.  I’m a geek.

But, back to the bookstores.  Everytime I take a note on some great book I find at Kramers, and then go buy at Amazon.com — I feel terrible.   I have no problem supporting Amazon.com, they have great prices and great service, but I always want to find a way to compensate Kramers or the other bookstores that directed me to the book.  What I always want is an Amazon Kiosk at the bookstore, and I always wonder why there isn’t one.

Why don’t independent bookstores set up a laptop with a big sign that says:

Buy your Kindle edition through us and support this store!

Truthfully, they could just sell any book Kindle or otherwise and take the Amazon Affiliate commission.  It may only be pennies, but at least they would earn their finder’s fee.   I would love to see small bookstores just take the initiative and set up a laptop next to the register.  I would love to see Amazon set up a true kiosk system that would be affordable to the bookstores.

I think I’m on to something here.  I think this model could help small bookstores survive.  It could reduce their inventory needs, and their costs, and still allow them to bring incredible books into people lives.

Despite my outgoing personality and insane level on social media involvment, I’m not very good at the conference/cocktail party networking thing.  I attribute this to my being an INTJ and a Virgo.  The “I” of INTJ means I tend to be introverted, and not comfy making small talk with tons of strangers. The Virgo means that I like to control situations and have things neat and orderly (not my house, just my life).

Nutshell is I suck at just chatting up strangers unless I have some specific thing I wish to say to them.

Thank goodness for the “back-channel.” I’m at the ePharma Marketing Summit and if it weren’t for Twitter (and my colleague Croom), I wouldn’t have spoken to a soul.   Twitter is the introduction to a whole bunch of new people and thanks to one smart person, Shwen, we had a “tweeple” lunch yesterday where many of us met in person.  Social media and technology has opened up an entirely new avenue of conference and post-conference networking.

Here’s my approach:

1. Twitter during the conference. always using the conference “tweme” code (trust me they all have them now, and they are usually pretty simple to figure out). I do it almost as a way of taking notes on what is being said more than commenting and giving my opinions.
2. Start following interesting conference tweeple, be sure to “@” them when they say something interesting and “retweet” good posts by other people. Be sure to look for the official conference Twitter person. There’s probably one there.
3. Ask at least a couple of public questions during QA sessions, if you can come up with anything good. It gives other people a reason to come and talk to you! Do start with your name. I’m terrible about remembering that part. Today I would have been the “woman in lavender.”
4. Organize tweeple meals or at least attend them. You can just listen and nod attentively, if nothing else.
5. When you do talk to people in person don’t just take the business card and file it away.  That night, the next morning — hit LinkedIn.com! Send them a network invite( mention that you just met them at the conference, refer to your conversation to jog their memory).

My boss insists that I at least talk to a couple of people at every conference and convince at least one person that I know what I’m talking about when it comes to social media, so I’ll get invited to participate on panels at future conferences.  I guess you could call the whole approach “influencer networking.” Often conference back-channels can be thoroughly overwhelming and distracting,  thank goodness for the back-channel at ePharma or I’d never speak to anyone!

[tags]networking, social networking, conferences, back channel, twitter, linkedin[/tags]

I have nothing I can possibly add to this.

Last week I had the privelege of speaking at a 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies) meeting of Kansas City advertising agencies executives. They were in NYC for a day of marketing & advertising fun for the Kansas City Council Board of Governors meeting at AAAA headquarters. It was quite a full bill of speakers with topics ranging from trends in media planning to consumer insights, and of course social media.

I decided to take advantage of SlideShare.net to socialize my social media presentation to the folks at AAAA, and anyone else who might be interested.

This is the second or third time I’ve done this presentation, and I’m now inspired to do a part two. So look out for the 5 Myths of Social Media & Marketing (Part II) in the near future. Here are the Ten Myths of Social Media & Marketing, the first five are covered in this presentation:

1. Social computing is a niche activity
2. Only a few people are involved in social computing/media
3. Only millenials are into social media
4. It doesn’t matter if your audience are "inactives"
5. Social computing has hit its peak
6. If you build it they will come
7. Social media is free
8. I should build a community for my brand
9. Social media has no trackable ROI
10. Blogging is done

[tags]social media, presentation, myths, marketing, 4as, aaaa[/tags]

This will be the 4th or 5th time I’ve done this particular presentation to either staff or clients, so I’ve got the shtick pretty down.  I’m also grateful that this is a topic I’m more than well enough versed in that if I need to go off script, I can.  I’m never sure how much people know about social media from a marketing context.  Sometimes the basic presentation is a “duh” for people, so if the information I planned on presenting doesn’t thrill and chill — I can just move into something more compelling for them.

Truthfully, this really doesn’t happen often.  The data in the “5 Myths of Social Media and Marketing” presentation I developed really is new to most people.  Marketers, understandably, stick to the tried and true most of the time.  Another factor in my favor is that while they may see the data, they may not really know how to apply it to their clients or marketing plans yet.  And, frankly, most people have lives so they don’t follow this nonsense like I do.   Thank goodness for that or I wouldn’t be nearly as employable.

I’m also hoping to be able to post this presentation deck to SlideShare in the near future.  Been talking to the folks at RTCRM about posting it to the blog, with fairly good results.  Of course, most of the time I’m busy working on client business or pitches — hence the long gaps in my professional blogging here and at RTCRMs blog. I do find time to post to Twitter.  Thank goodness for the low pressure of micro-blogging.

[tags]presentations, blogging, social media, 4as, aaaa, advertising[/tags]

There’s been lots of buzz around Twitter since it launched in 2006. Twitter really came onto the scene at 2006’s SXSW conference and has been growing steadily since. Lots of brands are jumping on the Twitter wagon and more are wondering why anyone would care. At today’s Digital Coffee Klatch (DCK) for the RTCRM staff in DC, we’ll be discussing what Twitter is and how it is used for personal and marketing reasons.

One of the biggest issues right now with social media and marketing is that people seem to forget to match the technology to the business goals. There are specific types of social media technologies that lend themselves to specific types of business goals. Before jumping on the Twitter wagon you should know what it is you want to achieve and how you will measure success.

However, it’s good to have an understanding of what Twitter is first.

Here is the dicussion guide used at the Digital Coffee Klatch, I hope it helps to illuminate Twitter and the marketing possibilities for you. Questions? Twitter @carlenlea.

Meet Twitter

• Twitter in Plain Language
• Twitter History
• Quick Tour
• Twitter from anywhere
• once you sign up you never need to go back again
• It’s a service — not a destination
• Twitter in the News

Brands using Twitter
Questions for Discussion: Why use Twitter? Is it good for Awareness, Aquistion, or Retention? What are key business or marketing goals that Twitter would be a good tactic to achieve? How would you measure success? What are the operational issues to plan for?

• How Companies use Twitter to Bolster their Brands
• Presidential Campaigns
• Who I’m Following on Twitter

Tools to Manage your Brand Reputation

• Search.Twitter.com
• Quotably
• Tweet Beep Alerts
• Ping.fm

Twitter Alternatives

• Get Satisfaction.com
• Plurk
• Pownce
• Tumblr

Cool stuff with Twitter

• Current TV Debate Hack
• Twitter Vision
• 140 Char resume | See mine
• Twemes
• TwitterVision
• Group Tweet
• Loud Tweet

Twitter Terms:

• Tweets = Twitter Posts
• @username = reply to someone else
• #word = twitter meme

[tags]twitter, lunch and learn, social media, education, coffee klatch[/tags]

“Natural or not, finding oneself in an ad unexpectedly is a worrisome prospect. I enjoy Facebook and the fun my friends and I have therein. And I have been careful not to join a group that might come back to bite me. Still, I shouldn’t have to worry about my face–or rather the faces of my daughters–ending up in an ad.”

I don’t know how many people have come across these ads yet, but in effect they turn you, the Facebook user, into a product spokesperson.  Ostensibly this happens with your permission, but most people really have no idea what they have agreed to.

Working in this industry and as focused on social media and emerging technologies as I am, the first reports about this issue with Facebook’s Social Ad platform really got my attention.  When I discovered that making myself a “fan” of a company or brand gave them the right to use my face and name in their ads on Facebook - unless I expressly blocked them from doing so — kind of bothered me.

In Facebook’s defence, they have some pretty solid privacy controls for users.   Most people just don’t even know they are there, which benefits Facebook’s advertisers.  I have my privacy settings now to block anyone from using my name and face in their ads.  This is why privacy literacy is so important.  It’s really on the users to make sure they know what is going on, because it benefits companies like Facebook to not really tell you.

Here’s a few recent articles on Facebook’s ad programs and privacy concerns:

• What Is Stuart Elliott Doing On Facebook Shilling For Canadian Club? - Online Media Daily
• MoveOn Launches Privacy Campaign Against Facebook Social Ads - Marketing Vox
• Are Facebook’s Social Ads Illegal? - Bits, New York Times Blog
• Apologetic, Facebook Changes Ad Program - New York Times

[tags]privacy, facebook, social ads[/tags]

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I think I’m officially in love with “Bonafide Marketing Genius.”  No, it’s not just for dropping the f-bomb in this presentation. It’s for voicing what every client and have the people I work with ask me — and then giving a great, clear, concise explanation.

~ I tip my hat to, BMG!

Thanks to B.L. Ochman for pointing this out!

[tags]social media, plain english, presentation[/tags]