Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog

You can b(2b) a microMARKETER too.

2011-06-08T14:50:13-04:00

True story: It has been so long since I've posted here that when I logged in to write this I couldn't remember how my credentials. So understanding just how hard it can be to keep up with workload and still find time to not only read business books and blogs but also share your thoughts about them, I have to say I'm always floored when busy professionals make the time to read and review microMARKETING.

I had one of those moments this morning when I saw some tweets linking to a thoughtful, comprehensive and (ahem) mostly positive video review by Marketing What's New principal Glenn Schmelzle and Canadian marketer Danny Starr.

Check it:

microMarketing - A book review from RDVProductions on Vimeo.

One of the things I love about this review is that Glenn and Danny reflect on how companies can apply the ideas from the book not only to engage b2c audiences, but also to reach b2b buyers. I'll be the first to admit that I leaned heavily on b2c case studies throughout microMARKETING, although I peppered in a few b2b examples were appropriate and I've done some b2b event speaking where I focused much more heavily on what this means for business-to-business. And while Glenn (who tackles the b2b implications in the review) points out some important nuances that business marketers need to consider, it's gratifying to see that my theory holds up in practice no matter what microcommunities matter to a given marketer.

Would love to hear from other b2b marketers who have read the book, with thoughts about how you've applied micromarketing approaches to address your goals.

Next event: PRSA Digital Impact NY on May 5-6

2011-03-25T14:49:47-04:00

Visit the Digital Impact website for more information or to register. Event is open to PRSA non-members. If you're not a member and would like the PRSA rate, email me or DM me for a special code.

What an enchanting Guy...

2011-03-08T10:30:50-05:00

This must be book review month here at gregverdino.com, because my mail has been overflowing with freebies and my posts are full of read this, buy that, download the other one for free. Next up, Guy Kawasaki's new book, Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions.

You'll find full reviews elsewhere - my buddy C.C. Chapman gave it a rave, and Guy has compiled a long list of reviews from blogs and the mainstream press. So rather than post yet another plain vanilla review, I reached out to Guy and asked him a few questions about the book. In addition to giving him the opportunity to chat about some of the ideas in Enchantment, this should help you decide if you're enchanted enough to buy yourself a copy.

Q: Hey Guy! As I read Enchantment I couldn't help thinking that a lot of the advice is common sense (smile, shake hands, be honest, make a good product) but then remembered that old adage, "The problem with common sense is it isn't so common anymore." Which brings me to my first question - what was the inspiration for Enchantment and why did you decide to write this particular book?

There are two answers to this question. First, I was in a two-book contract, and my editor wanted the second book. :-) Second, I've been evangelizing things for twenty-five years now. It's required trying to enchant, influence, and persuade people, so I've become a student of these techniques. Dale Carnegie and Robert Cialdini inspired me. I wanted to document and distribute everything I've learned about the subject.

Q: In the book, you seem to place equal weight on how the reader can be more enchanting as a person and how the reader can create a more enchanting company. Do you see this as a necessary one-two punch? In other words, can a disenchanting leader create a wonderfully enchanting company? Can an enchanting leader have success at the helm of a business that is inherently disenchanting?

It's hard to imagine an enchanting company with a disenchanting leader or a disenchanting company with an enchanting leader. It's possible, but I suggest that companies not try to explore whether it can be done and strive for both. There's an old saying that when a fish gets rotten, the head stinks first, so I would recommend that you start at the top.

An enchanting leader will have enchanting employees who will in turn enchant customers. That's the ideal model.

Q: The CEO of a company that has suffered a major moment of disenchantment - let's say BP - calls you in and asks for help. Can a company like this become enchanting? And what's the most important piece of advice you'd offer?

The most important piece of advice is, "Make your reality enchanting." That is, enchantment is not about putting lipstick on a pig. Step one is to fix the pig. After that, work on likability and trustworthiness. Enchantment is not "spin"--it's reality.

Q: On the flipside, let's take a look at a current social media darling - Groupon. They've had some stumbles (the controversy over their Super Bowl spot for example), might be a bit arrogant (turning down Google's billion dollar offer), and I know a number of small business owners who gripe about their business model (most sellers take a loss on the deal and few can definitively say they got repeat customers as a result). Yet people love Groupon and the company has gotten a ton of positive press. Do you think Groupon is enchanting? If so, what makes it enchanting and what can other start-ups learn from it?

It's too early to tell. A company can achieve commercial success and not be enchanting. I can name a dozen tech companies that fall into this category. But suffice it to say that no enchanting company would run a spoof about Tibet. That was shockingly stupid. It created a crater, not just a hole, that Groupon has to dig itself out of.

Want more? Guy offers a handy-dandy infographic that provides a snapshot of all his advice for how to be enchanting in both life and work, a nifty quiz to test how enchanting you are today, and if you want to see what enchantment looks like to other readers to show Guy what enchantment looks like to you be sure to check out the Nikon-sponsored Enchantment photo competition too.

Have Guy and his ideas enchanted you? Ready to get your crow's feet on? Pick up a copy of Enchantment wherever books are sold.

Want to make authentic connections? 18 experts tell you how in a free e-book.

2011-03-07T07:45:00-05:00

Ask just about anyone who does a fair amount of thinking about social media how to connect with customers today, and the content will most likely turn to compelling content. So it's always cool when someone comes along and compiles a bunch of compelling content from a group of smart thinkers, all in one place. So when Codrut Turcanu, internet marketing strategist, reached out to let me know he was putting together a collaborative e-book featuring a batch of marketers and pro-blogging experts -- and asked me to contribute my thoughts on content, social media, micromarketing and even book marketing -- I responded with (something like) "hella yeah".

Codrut's free e-book, Authentic Connections 2.0 is out now and - in addition to my trademark genius (j/k) - it includes a lot of good thinking about how to make great content, earn attention, attract an audience, and get social media and marketing right. Whether you're a marketer seeking good ideas, a blogger hoping to earn a living doing the social media thang, or a n00b looking for sound tips in an easy-to-read package, you'll probably find at least a few things of interest between Authentic Connections 2.0's virtual covers.

A few of my favorite quotes concern - pay attention people - content. How to think about it, how to get it right, interesting ways to make it work for you, and why great social content creation is about so much more than just getting the word out far and wide.

Go ahead and download your free copy or read it all online at the Authentic Connections 2.0 blog - but if you'd like a few tastes of what you'll find inside, here are some of the thoughts that had me saying, "Right on."

One of my BFFs (best Boston-area friends), Ann Handley, writes about why content marketing can't be an afterthought. Ann writes:

Instead of thinking about "repurposing" or "recycling" your content as an after-thought, think of "reimagining" it. Repurposing is about slapping the same stuff in various places. Reimagining is about thinking through your content, from the point of inception... Noting is a one off... but a piece of a larger whole.

Speaking of best friends, MEC Interaction's Richard Fitzgerald got plenty of offers from girls looking to be his new best friend after he won 52 weeks' worth of free Mexican food as a giveaway at a social media conference. He took the experiences that followed and turned them into a blog called 52BurritoDates. Fun idea, but also some interesting insights for businesses. Richard writes:

I think that the model of 52 burrito dates and by applied to any company, in any industry. Social media marketing is all about creative a narrative, a sustained engagement. It's not necessary to aim for wide reach, concentrating on what the unique offering is... So many companies have... customers who would be perfect to create online content. Specifically, I think service companies could look to copying the format of 42 burrito dates, by handing over their social media presence to a loyal customer in exchange for free services.

And this brings me back to another social media friend, Toby Bloomberg - to my knowledge she wasn't one of Richard's burrito dates (at least not yet) but an awkward segue is better than no segue at all. Toby has been blogging and helping businesses get smart about social media for as long as anybody in the business. She points out that at the end of the day, social content needs to be a two-way-street. It's not just a way to say but a mechanism for meaningful two-way interactions (just like good burrito date conversation, I'd imagine). Toby writes:

When blogs entered the scene they brought with them a unique visibility that also occurs in social networks. Since people could interact with each in real time a la comments, tweets, status updates, etc. relationships and friends began to form in the digital world. Friendships that began with two or three people developed into networks among twenty and thirty and hundreds of people...That’s the way it was for the corner grocer or baker or candle stick maker. Not only was she involved with her customers but with the community at large. She was the person you bought your cupcakes from but also the women who you met at the PTA. Shop keepers were integrated into the community. That’s what blogs brought back. A way to for the people in companies to get to know their customers better and a unique opportunity for customers to put a face to a logo.

Obviously Ann, Richard and Toby have plenty more to say - as do the rest of the 18 or so contributors (all laid out in handy-dandy interview format, with Codrut asking the questions and the experts answering). And then there's me - and you already know you love me, so what are you waiting for?

Grab it, share it, spread the love.

Jay and Amber's new rules for the NOW revolution

2011-03-02T19:59:59-05:00

Search Amazon for books about social media and the site offers up more than 140,000 choices. I haven't read them all, but I'd wager that most focus on social from a marketer's perspective: how to use Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, influencer engagement and all sorts of social goodness to reach consumers and sell them stuff. Soooo along come my friends Jay Baer and Amber Naslund, throwing their words in the ring with their new book The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social (disclosure: Jay and Amber's publisher - Wiley - provided me with a free review copy).

The basic premise? Consumers are more connected than ever, are always on, and demand more from the companies they bless with their business and bucks. Now those companies had better get in gear and change the way they operate. The book has plenty of brass-tacks tips for setting up a listening and response program, dealing with crises and measuring impact. But the real difference between this book and I'd wager most of the other 140,000 is that it isn't really about "doing" social - it's about "being" social.

The best parts of this book aim to convince you (yes you) why you need to lead the charge in making your companies more social at its very core. Jay and Amber advise companies to begin not with showy social marketing tactics but with wholesale cultural and organizational shift (a tall order, but the right starting point for businesses that see social as a driver for something greater than itsy bitsy incremental improvements), and offer practical tips for how to hire the right types of people, models for organizing for success and empowering employees to be part of the shift, and garner the right kinds of support.

Recently, I chit chatted (over email) with Jay and Amber about The NOW Revolution. Read on to learn more about the book and why you may want to read it.

* * * * *

Q: As a blogger turned author, I'm always interested in why other bloggers went traditional... So let's start with: why this book? Why now?

Jay: As social practitioners, we hear so often questions about tools and tactics, when in reality social success is more about culture and sociology. There are so many books about how to "do" social media - and some of them are great. We figured it was time to write a book about how to "be" social as a company.

Q: One of the key premises in the book is that revolution comes from witihin - that to truly realize the potential inherent in realtime and social, an organization needs to start by building a culture around those principles. I believe you're 100% right but I also hear the voices of countless client-side worker bees crying that they CAN'T affect this kind of change, they really just need a Facebook tab right now. Why is the first step so difficult and what are your top tricks for getting over the hump?

Amber: The truth is that *anyone* can affect change if they're willing to stick their neck out a bit to do it. There's no question that culture shift can be difficult, and slow-going, especially if the business is established in processes and protocols that have been developed over years and years. The trick is that culture change has to be wanted - at every level - and not just endorsed from the top, but believed in at the top as well. Organizations need more than buy-in, they need intent to actually act on and engineer change, and they need volunteers to do the nitty gritty work. Sometimes that means having some difficult conversations in meetings and on the phone about fundamental value disconnects. Those are the things we can't attach to our P&L directly, so we hesitate to spend time on them. But the power of a simple set of conversations around shared values and company purpose - aside from any operational strategies - can be a good jumping off point to translate beliefs into purposeful plans.

Q: In the book, you're essentially talking about what Dachis Group calls social business design - the intentional creation of culture, organization, systems and filters that allow your company to be more social in both how it connects its workforce and engages its outside constituents (consumers, business partners, supply chain, etc). Do you believe that all businesses will need to become social businesses? And why?

Jay: Exactly... Indeed, all businesses will need to become social eventually - customers will simply demand it. It's not too different from customers demanding businesses have a phone, or a website, or an email address. But, the one big difference now is that every customer is a reporter, and every employee is a potential marketer. Social business is an imperative - eventually - for all. But there hasn't been much of a playbook for getting there, so we wrote one.

Q: The NOW Revolution is packed with case studies - including stories about big companies who are making the shifts. Among these companies, which one would you say is furthest along the path and why?

Amber: If I have to pick one company that really embody the principles we lay out in the book, I'm going to go with ThinkGeek. They're not a "big" company so to speak, but they've got the culture and hiring thing down, which I think is so very fundamental, plus they're actively out there listening and engaging with their community, and building and growing their business to bake that stuff right in. I'm also super excited about what larger companies like H&R Block and Autodesk have done to organize cross functional teams to steward company-wide social strategy; that's really how you get started treating social as more than just a marketing channel, and it's quite an accomplishment to rethink your organizational design and progressively keep up with the shifts brought about by real-time business.

Q: You use Microsoft Tag throughout the book to link readers to enhanced content and additional material. How have readers reacted to the blend of traditional and mobile/digital?

Jay: Of all the pieces in the book, the use of Microsoft Tag has probably gotten the most chatter. To some degree, that's intentional. Very few books have incorporated Tag (or its cousin, QR codes) as comprehensively as we have. There are 22 Tags in the book, each unlocking videos, PDFs, lists, downloadable infographics and other stuff that extends the book's impact. Truthfully, some people absolutely love the idea. Some people think it's a bridge too far and wish we just put URLs in the text. Other people love the notion, but prefer QR over Tag. The good news is that people are talking about it, and thinking about how meta content of this type can be utilized in their own companies. If Tag starts to take off (and USA Today just incorporated it in the printed paper), we'll be happy to take credit. ;)

* * * * *

Sound like your cup of tea? Visit the NOW Revolution site to learn more and download a free chapter, visit your favorite bookseller to buy a copy now, or if you'd like a shot at winning a freebie drop a comment on this post. Monday morning, I'll pick one random commenter and mail off my own copy to you.

Image Credit: ReachCast Blog

Speaking and signing microMARKETING at SXSW

2011-03-01T09:24:46-05:00

Are you heading to Austin for SXSW this year? Well, me too - just for one day, but I'll be speaking. So I hope you'll find time to squeeze me into your schedule.

I'll be taking part in the SXSW Interactive book reading series. I'm pretty sure I won't actually read from the book, but I'll spend 20 or so minutes talking about some microMARKETING topic or another then sign copies until by hand cramps. Bring your copy if you have one - or buy one onsite from the SXSW book store.

Here's just about everything you need to know:

When: Friday, March 11th at 2:00pm

Where: Austin Convention Center, Ballroom G

What: microMARKETING (of course)

Who: Me (and you - let's definitely include you)

Why: Fun book talk, sloppy sigs and lots o' South By goodness

Get the complete details and addmy session to your schedule by clicking over to SXSW.com (direct link to the session).

See you there.

microMARKETING over coffee

2011-02-03T14:52:47-05:00

Hey kids - do you like marketing? How about coffee? Yeah, me too!

So you'll want to listen to this week's episode of the Marketing Over Coffee podcast. Host John Wall spent the full episode chit chatting with me about my book microMARKETING: Get Big Results by Thinking and Acting Small. In just over 30 minutes, I talk about 7 shifts every marketer must understand to succeed in social media, share my thoughts on how a big company like Samsung and a cool chick like Natasha Wescoat have used micromarketing approaches (even if they didn't know it at the time) to rock the web, the problem with big agencies, and the Dachis Group acquisition of Powered.

To listen, visit the Marketing Over Coffee site or click here to link directly to a Quicktime audio file.

P.S. Not into audio? Or even if you are - be sure to check out my written conversation with Ann Handley for American Express OPEN Forum.

Get (and give) the gift of good ideas courtesy of McGraw-Hill

2010-12-20T08:52:32-05:00

My friends at McGraw-Hill are giving the gift of good ideas this holiday season -- in the form of a free e-book highlighting smart thinking for 2011. They've tapped their stable of business authors (including me) to deliver a hearty batch of practical, thought-provoking, useful and insightful notions on leadership, management (not the same thing as leadership, people), innovation, the economy and micromarketing.

It's free but like lots of great gifts, you'll have to unwrap it first.

Visit McGraw-Hill's sign-up page, drop in your name and email, then you can download your free copy of McGraw-Hill Professional's What's Next 2011: Leading Minds in Business on the People, Trends, and Challenges Ahead.

Like what you see? Feel free to share with all your colleagues.

Hello, friend. Do I know you?

2010-11-17T10:54:11-05:00

Today is National UnFriend Day. That's not what this post is really about, but hearing my local morning show radio jocks chit chat with listeners about who they would unfriend on Facebook today got me thinking.

In the past, I've pondered how social computing is changing the way we think about relationships. I've blogged before about my belief that building and maintaining meaningful relationships with the right few is more powerful than amassing the many. I expound on that concept in microMARKETING - in fact there's a whole chapter devoted to it and the idea of "being everything to the right someone rather than offering something for everyone" is a recurring theme throughout the book.

Yet I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say that when it comes to social media, most of us aren't building relationships so much as collecting headcount. We count our Facebook friends, Twitter followers and blog subscribers. We count hits, clicks, listens and views. I'm not excluding myself - my heart jumps when I pass some arbitrary follower or subscriber milestone; I might notice when my counts surpass those of a friend of colleague. It's all petty BS, isn't it?

If the conversations I have with clients and prospects are any indication, marketers are the biggest offenders of all. Ask most (not all, but let's be honest with ourselves - it is most) how they define social media success and they're likely to prattle on about fan and follower count, pine for "likes" in the seven figure range, gun for millions of video views - essentially anything they can point to that let's them "prove" their brand is bigger and badder than their competition's. Anything that helps them believe in the illusion that social media can (and should) look a whole lot like traditional mass media. 250 million people log onto Facebook each and every day? Wow! That's just like running ads on the Super Bowl every day of the year.

Except it's not.

A network like Facebook isn't one community with half a billion members. It's half a billion personal communities, each one is unique and different and defined by the people who belong; most are inherently micro: not only small - much smaller than half a billion - but also focused, united by common interests and grounded in real relationships. Social is all about the company you keep.

Right? Well, kinda.

This brings us back to National UnFriend Day. Today is the day people all around the web will be weeding out the random strangers they've accumulated in their Facebook network - the people you don't really know, have never actually met, used to hang with 100 years ago but haven't spoken with in years. And maybe even a few of those brand you don't really "like" so much after all. The idea is simple: social networking shouldn't be about the mindless hunt for numbers; it is about the quest for connections. Real connections among individuals that mean something to one another.

Now look at the people that comprise your network of Facebook friends (or likers for the business people among us), the faces that adorn your Twitter stream, the names of your blog commenters, you get the pticture -- can you honestly say you are looking at a solid core of people united by a common set of interests? Do you know what these people mean for you (or your company) and why you (or your company) matter to them?

Or has your hunt for headcount given you nothing more than a rag tag disconnected collection of folks you'd just as soon unfriend? Or who might as well unfriend you? That's "old marketing" thinking: let's get in front of lots and lots and lots of people - odds are a percentage point's worth of the herd just might poke their heads up and make eye contact now and then. When what we really want - and need - is to surround ourselves with a small set of real people that we can count on to make eye contact each and every time.

I'm not necessarily saying that getting to scale doesn't matter - sure, having a million true fans, truly engaged, holds more potential for a marketer than having just a few thousand. But just a few thousand truly engaged fans is worth a heck of a lot more than a million unengaged strangers. How would you describe the company your company keeps?

Just something to ponder (and react to - comment away, friends) for your business while you're picking and choosing the fake friends you'll be bidding adieu today.

Even I'm impressed. Well, not impressed so much as...

2010-11-10T10:17:35-05:00

In the press...

In support of the book, Powered, Planned Television Arts and I drummed up a heaping pile of love in the blogosphere but - at the same time - I've been living on the road and working the traditional media for reviews, interviews and coverage.

Most recently - yesterday, in fact - as I was sharing an Atlantic City stage with Nick Bilton (NY Times editor and author of I Live in the Future and Here's How it Works) at a Prudential Douglas Elliman event, Investor's Business Daily featured the book and me in its Leaders & Success column. Visit Investors.com for a nice set of simple no-nonsense tips on how to get started with social media and micromarketing.

And OMG I can't believe I never got around to telling all y'all I was profiled in Bloomberg BusinessWeek way back in September. I spoke with small business editor Nick Leiber about how companies of all sizes can apply micromarketing principles to market smarter and get business done. Nick forgot (oops) to mention the book or my day job but it's a great piece with a nice, plaid-infused photo. Visit BW to give it a read.

PTA also landed a couple of mostly positive publishing industry trade reviews - one from Publisher's Weekly and the other in Library Journal. You can find them on the editorial reviews tab of the book's Barnes & Noble listing (buy the book while you're there), or scan on down the page to read them here...

Publishers Weekly wrote:

In his first book, industry veteran Verdino argues that the gold standard in advertising is no longer the Superbowl spot, but rather DIY viral efforts aimed at generation-Y. Urging companies to "market smarter," Verdino describes how Proctor and Gamble spent millions in a failed attempt to launch an online brand of personalized cosmetics while an unknown make-up artist turned how-to videos on YouTube into a successful partnership with Sephora. Authenticity is key, and large companies are jumping on the brand wagon, developing ingenious methods of connecting with this coveted consumer group. Ford Motors, for instance, hoping to make the Fiesta cool to this generation, loaned the cars to 100 young social media mavens as a means of "building evangelism, generating buzz, and sparking a movement" (drivers were required to compete in themed challenges, like poetry slams and star sightings). It's an interesting glimpse into the persuasive forces of constant contact, and an up-to-the-microsecond guide to new media marketing, but in Verdino's world, every relationship has commercial potential; the idea that there might be a pure human interaction seems never to have occurred to him.

Library Journal wrote:

In this clear, easy-to-read volume, Verdino, vice president of strategy and solutions at the social marketing company Powered, Inc. argues against "intrusive" marketing that interrupts and annoys, such as mass-media advertising and pop-up windows, and in favor of marketing based on trust and relationships. Although Verdino sometimes repeats himself, he accompanies his thoughts with a variety of enlightening examples from companies large and small, demonstrating the components of successes and failures and showing how a company can build brand awareness through authentic campaigns that target well-connected customers or through highly attentive customer service. The last chapter invites reflection on each previous chapter through open-ended questions and space to respond; Verdino provides his email address and other ways for readers to obtain further guidance. VERDICT Recommended for its extension of "buzz marketing," but it might overlap with Shama Hyder Kabani's The Zen of Social Media Marketing. However, while Kabani's book seems better suited to practitioners, Verdino's illustrative examples would appeal to both practitioners and academic libraries.—Heidi Senior, Univ. of Portland, OR

Have you read the book (or even just attended a presentation based on it)? Here are just a few ways you can share your opinions and feedback:

Leave a comment right here.
"Like" the book on Facebook then post your thoughts to the wall or in the "your reviews" topic on the discussions tab; upload your photos with the book too.
Tweet a key idea or two, using the #micromktg hashtag.
Visit your favorite online bookstore and post a full review and rating there.