Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog

What are your plans for 2010? How about for Dec 16th, 2009?

2009-12-03T11:25:00-05:00

It's hard to believe the year is almost over, isn't it?

Although December has only just begun, some are no doubt already gearing up for that one magical moment when they can get drunk on champagne, count backwards from 10 to 1 and then attempt to make out with some unsuspecting stranger before getting forcibly removed from whatever party they've crashed. But the rest of us are thinking about our 2010 marketing plans.

Whether you look back at 2009 and see a year of struggle, a year of innovation and experimentation or a year of nothing at all, I'm sure you're hoping 2010 will prove to be bigger, badder and better for your brand. A lot of you might have already integrated social media into your marketing mix over the past several years, but are looking to 2010 as your year to make social shine.

With this in mind, I'll be joining Aaron Strout and Doug Wick from branded community platform provider Powered for a live online event on December 16th, during which we'll answer your questions about getting social in 2010. At 3pm Eastern/2pm Central on the 16th, Aaron, Doug and I will discuss "planning for social in 2010", field questions from the live audience and offer responses to a batch of additional questions that folks (like you) submitted in advance. This is not a presentation. It's a discussion. No Powerpoints, no sales pitches, no B.S.

So I hope you can join us. (Register Here)

And whether you tune in or not I hope you'll visit the webinar page on Powered's site and let us know what questions you have about social media, social marketing and what you might want to think about as you plan for the upcoming year.

Friendster? For real...

2009-12-03T10:30:53-05:00

Interesting... Ancient social networking site Friendster is relaunching tomorrow as a "why be like everybody else" alternative to Facebook and MySpace. Thoughts?

Here a friend, there a friend, everywhere a friend, friend...

2009-11-30T20:51:24-05:00

Just before Thanksgiving, I posed a question to my Twitter followers: "Has social networking made 'friendship' the highest form of interpersonal relationship? Or has it all but stripped the term of its meaning?"

I suppose this was a moment of idle thought as much as it was a moment of deep thought. OK - mostly idle thought... But when people started responding with a mix of snark and serious consideration I figured maybe I was touching upon a significant issue associated with being a human in the age of social media. Think about it...

Are your Facebook friends or the people you follow on Twitter really your close friends?
On the flipside, what about the people you made your MySpace Top Eight (you do remember MySpace, don't you)?
Do you think of your real friends differently if they aren't connected with you on social sites?
Have you forged close relationships with unlikely others you might never have met if it weren't for the fact that you both lurked around on the same social networks?
If you're a marketer, does it mean more to you if someone is a friend, fan or follower of your brand than it does if they're just a plain ol' customer?

I think you get my drift. As for those sometimes snarky, sometimes serious responses from my Twitter friends, check 'em out.

So the Twitterati have had their say, but right now I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

Chime in and let me know -- has social networking changed the way you think about friendship? Has it given new weight to what 'friendship' means for your company, brand or product? Or has the word friend been thrown around so much that you're not even sure what it means anymore?

So ya wanna start a blog...

2009-11-18T08:48:15-05:00

Just a friendly reminder that I'll be co-presenting a free blogging basics webinar tomorrow afternoon (11/19/09). The event is hosted by Target Marketing magazine and sponsored by Compendium Blogware, and takes place online at 2pm ET. There's still time to register (or refer your clients and friends who could use a primer), and I hope some of you will be able to tune in.

My portion of the agenda explores the building blocks for creating a compelling, sustainable corporate blog that the people you're looking to reach will actually want to read (basically an updated version of my Blog DNA framework) and a bit of high level thinking about how you can gauge your blog's success during its first year. The second portion of the agenda -- presented by Compendium's Chris Baggott -- will deep dive into how to use blogging to juice your SEO, attract prospects and drive revenue. And then of course we'll get to the good stuff: a moderated Q&A, so if you have any blogging questions, you'll be able to get some quick answers.

Here's a peek at my presentation.

Blogging Basics

View more documents from Greg Verdino.

Hope to see you online tomorrow. If you can't attend but would still like to (ahem) join the conversation (or attended and stopped by this blog afterwards) feel free to drop your thoughts or questions into the comments.

Tim Goggin: looking for love in all the social places.

2009-11-09T12:28:17-05:00

Meet Tim Goggin. He's a single 32-year old entrepreneur who is (if you believe his pitch) the "most interesting man in San Diego." He's also pretty frustrated with the tried-and-true dating scene and thinks social media may be good for more than just a poke.

A couple of months ago, Tim created a mock-infomercial and posted it to YouTube, in hopes of attracting the woman of his dreams to a site where she might claim her "free date." Now, I'm not all that interested in single guys in San Diego but I am interested in some of the creative, low cost ways individuals--and by association companies--can use social media and new marketing techniques to accomplish their objectives.

This is classic content marketing (not to mention micromarketing) and it will be interesting to see if it delivers. As I write this, Tim's video has amassed more than 30,000 YouTube views and has landed Tim a handful of mainstream media hits.

But is it bringing the girls? Maybe. As Tim told me in an email late last month, "Results have been pretty good. I've been on a few dates. Still haven't met the right woman but I expect to soon."

I've embedded the video below for any interested ladies living in the San Diego area (or even just visiting for the PRSA conference this week.) Check it out.

As for everyone else, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Is this savvy social marketing or just a desperate ploy (note that according to Tim he is absolutely serious about this)? How might you use a similar approach to entice potential customers to get to know your brand?

Upcoming speaking: free blogging basics webinar

2009-11-04T07:23:15-05:00

You're probably not a blogging n00b but you probably know someone who is -- a client, a coworker, someone new to the industry or your mom perhaps. If so, you should let them know that I'm taking part in a free blogging basics webinar at 2pm ET on November 19th.

Target Marketing magazine will be hosting an hour long conversation (part presentation, part Q&A) featuring Compendium Blogware CEO Chris Baggott and me sharing everything we know about how companies can get started with corporate blogging and what this means for their SEO programs. Look for practical tips about how to get one of the most basic components of a social media plan going right.

So register today or pass the link along to anyone you think might be interested.

Podcaster J.C. Hutchins has killed the president

2009-10-27T17:30:27-04:00

Not the real president and not in real life. And technically speaking, J.C. didn't do the deed -- but he dreamed up the child/assassin who takes down America's main man in the opening lines of his sci-fi thriller 7th Son: Descent.

Regular readers know that I have a bit of a mancrush on J.C., who has the social media chops so many brand managers can only dream of. His last print novel, Personal Effects, was a participatory, multimedia tour de force (learn more) and with 7th Son he does it again.

Now, for those of you who haven't been poking around the social media space for the past few years I should mention that although today marks the first day 7th Son is available (as they say) everywhere books are sold, the story has already been told through social media.

A couple of years ago, frustrated by his inability to find a publisher for his work, J.C. released the novel chapter-by-chapter in podcast form. The series went on to become one of the (if not the) most popular audio podcast novels and amassed J.C. a nice-sized army of fans. And then, well, one thing led to another and now the man has a book deal with St. Maarten's Press. Solid...

But that doesn't mean he's kissing his social media friends goodbye. You can (and should) buy the book. But you can also download the first 10 chapters as a free PDF (available for download across a network of social media and sci-fi blogs) or read the entire book for free on Boing Boing, where it's being serialized chapter-by-chapter. Eyes too tired from staring at spreadsheets all day? He's also offering it all as a 10-episode audio serial that should appeal to both audiobook fans and his original podcast audience.

If you want to see a great example of social marketing done right (by someone who isn't a trained marketer, no less) check out the site. There are a ton of other goodies -- from free prequel content to a killer loyalty points program for anyone who helps evangelize and promote the book.

Disclosure: I am not a member of the points program but J.C. did send me a free copy of the book (no, I haven't read it yet, but I plan to as soon as possible.) I also recently interviewed J.C. for my book (which is certain to be less interesting than his, although I hope it will be marketed at least half as well.)

Now go and get your clone on...

What's the price of five dollars?

2009-10-22T11:57:47-04:00

That wasn't meant to be a trick question, but rest assured the answer isn't five dollars.

Here's the scoop. I drive a Nissan Altima and I've been reasonably happy with it. It's neither the best car I've ever owned nor the worst, but I'm not a car guy so if it gets me from point A to point B safely without costing me an arm and a leg in gas money I'm satisfied. The Altima more than fits the bill.

I don't mind telling you that the lease runs me about $315 per month and I'm pretty diligent about paying right on time, almost always by check through the good ol' U.S. mail. This month though, I lost track of time and when I woke up this morning realized that I hadn't yet mailed the payment that is due today.

Luckily, Nissan offers an online payment option -- so I logged onto their site and authorized an electronic deduction from my checking account. No worries, but here's where the $5 comes into play.

Nissan, for whatever reason, charges customers an additional $5 for online payments (more if you prefer to charge it to a credit card.) Now, don't get me wrong -- $5 isn't a ton of money and, for all I know, other auto manufacturers levy similar "convenience changes" for online payments. But I pay plenty of bills electronically and none of my other creditors ding me for choosing my preferred method. Some -- Peapod springs to mind -- even offer discounts for customers that choose direct debit over other forms of payment.

Why? Because (and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this) even taking into account any fees charged by the third party payment processing vendor, it has to be less expensive (not to mention simpler and more reliable) to accept an electronic transfer than it is to print, stamp and send an invoice then receive, open, log and deposit a physical check.

So if it's better for their customers and ostensibly better for their company, why does Nissan charge $5 for an electronic payment? If I told you, I'd have to kill you. OK, the truth is I can't tell you because I have no idea. I suspect that someone (I'm guessing some dude or dudette in the finance department) figured that the incremental service charge would for the most part flow directly to the bottom line. In terms of pure dollars and cents, the decision seems like a smart one.

But in terms of perception and sense, I'm not so sure. Like I said, I'm a pretty happy Nissan driver but on this fine Fall morning I'm pretty annoyed with Nissan as a company. Even a minor inconvenience (in the form, ironically, of a convenience charge) takes its toll on how I feel about the brand itself and my experience as a customer. So much so that I'd not consider trading in and trading up to another Nissan when the time comes? Maybe. I'm not sure. But if that were to happen, wouldn't the lifetime cost to the company (in the form of lost opportunity and lost business) outweigh the near term $5 windfall?

Perhaps this is a case of accidental blame (should I be railing against the payment processing company?) but that almost doesn't matter. Despite my generally acceptable experience with my car, my perception of the Nissan brand takes a hit over this one trivial thing. And of course, when I tweet or blog about my frustration I potentially influence how others perceive the brand as well.

And so, a seemingly simple accounting decision ladders up into a potentially thorny sales and marketing challenge.

But enough about Nissan...

If we view this through a wide angle lens, the truth is that most of us work for companies that do things (no matter how small) that might look like good ideas when viewed up close, but turn out to be slippery slopes with plenty of downside when seen from a distance. I've written about this before but it's worth repeating... cuz in the race to bump up this quarter's numbers so many businesses don't stop to take in the long term view.

A fiver for your thoughts. Chime in.

What if the future of technology is more sand than silicon?

2009-10-20T11:41:50-04:00

This is just flat-out smart and cool.

The Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsytems and Boing Boing to host The Digital Open, a tech expo for teens under the age of 17. Last week they announced a series of winning projects, one of which caught my eye -- not because it made use of amazing, forward-looking technology, but because it ostensibly uses no technology at all...

Actually, that's not quite true. Let me explain.

The project, developed by a 17-year-old girl named Alexis McAdams, is called "DiorActive" and essentially takes the big world issues -- political, social, cultural, economic, environmental, etc -- that we all hear about (in the abstract) through the constant barrage of information available at our fingertips every day and brings them to life in a tactical, experiential way at a human scale. How? By portraying them live in the real, physical world, reenactment style or interactive diorama style.

You can learn more about the project and its inspiration in Alexis's own words (video):

So of course technology plays a role -- the real world experiences are informed by all of the online and media information available to DiorActive "builders" as they research the issues they'll bring to life. But the idea of using technology simply as a conduit to bridge a world-scale issue that we hear about to a human-scale physical experience that hammers the issue home in a meaningful, personal way is brilliant. And I think that it also speaks to an interesting blur between the digital, virtual and physical and provides a firm reminder that even for a generation that was "born digital," real world connections matter most of all.

As marketers, we intuitively (if not through hard and fast data) understand that online activities ranging from traditional digital advertising to web-based research and social media word-of-mouth translate into real world behaviors. As social computing evolves and becomes increasingly mobile -- and increasingly blurs the distinction between online connections and real world friendships -- the distinction between the digital and physical worlds will become less, well, distinct. And as we geek out over shiny objects that tap technology to enhance the physical world, it's good to remember that it flows the other way too -- that real world experiences can, do and will absolutely serve to enhance the digital (think about even the humble tweetup...)

I love the way Alexis's DiorActive project reminds old people like me, "hey, while you guys talk about where this might all be going, some of us are already there..."

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What do you think?

Miscellaneous Monday

2009-10-19T15:54:38-04:00

This is just a quick jumble of recent and new items that may be of interest (to me, if not to you.)

Blog World & New Media Expo: I'm fresh back from Las Vegas where, as I noted last week, I presented at Blog World. Home improvement blogger Tony Saucier attended my session and wrote a nice summary of my presentation. I believe a video of my speech will surface at some point, but in the meantime Tony captured the gist of it.

Time Off in Las Vegas: If you were at Blog World and we didn't see one another, that's probably because I didn't spend much time at the conference. What was I doing? No - not getting married... Check out my photostream to find out.

Now More Famous in Lawrence, MA: While I was on the road, I heard from a cousin-of-a-friend who is currently a student at Emerson College in Massachusetts (the cousin, not the friend.) She is taking a social media class and needed to profile a blogger. So apparently I was that blogger. Check out the write-up on her blog. Wanna know what's most interesting about it? She wrote the post before I had the chance to respond to some specific questions she sent my way, so she was working off nothing more than my blog itself. And she managed to get a pretty good sense of who I am, what I'm interested in, how I think and even how to pitch me properly. Why is this interesting? Well, that's more than most PR reps who actually pitch me bother to do. So riddle me this: if Dana Evans can learn so much about me by simply spending some time with my blog, why do so many so-called social media pros get it wrong? Someone offer this girl a job (or at least an internship.)

Because I'm a Fashion Icon: My buddy and ace media man Darren Herman has booked me to speak alongside Sir Ian Schafer from Deep Focus, and Media Kitchen president Barry Lowenthal at a Fashion 2.0 Meet Up in NYC next week. We'll be talking about the future of media and showing off our latest couture duds. The event goes down on the evening of October 27th, and although the RSVP list full you can throw your name on the waiting list if you'll be in the city and are interested in grabbing a seat if one opens up.

Panasonic LiHD Insider voting begins: And last but not least, the Living in HD Insider competition I blogged about at the beginning of September has entered its final phase -- with the ten finalists going up for a public vote that will crown the winning Insider. Votes must be in by October 23rd, so I hope you'll take some time to check it out and cast your vote. I think we have an interesting batch of social media content creators in the running, so I'm excited to see what happens. (If you're a regular reader, you already know that Panasonic is a crayon client. If you're a first time visitor, now you know too...)

Peace...