Mitch Joel's Blog: Six Pixels of Separation, page 373
January 9, 2011
What Was And What Shall Be
Episode #235 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to.
As I explained last week (more on that here: No Six Pixels Of Separation Podcast This Week), I had an amazing conversation with Mark W. Schaefer from the Grow Blog that covered topics like the power of Klout and the evolution of Marketing, Communications and Blogging in 2010. We even pushed out into this new year and discussed creativity, analytics and what might be in store for Social Media. The Skype line that we connected on sounded great, but there was a technical glitch and the audio file was unusable. Thankfully, Mark agreed to re-record our conversation and this is the result. Between us, this version came out much stronger than our original conversation, and I hope you'll agree. Enjoy the conversation...
You can grab the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation here (or feel free to subscribe via iTunes ): Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast #235.
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The Great Old Minds Of New Media
Curious to get some fresh thinking in your New Media diet?
Yes, there are countless brand spanking new business books, Blog posts and answers on Quora to help you better navigate the new media channels. You could do that, or side-step and delve deeper into the history of mass media communications to discover some gems. Just now, I was reading the article, Marshall McLuhan: Media Savant, which was featured in The New York Times Sunday Book Review today as book review for, Marshall McLuhan: You Know Nothing of My Work! written by Douglas Coupland.
Check this out:
"Coupland explains that it was McLuhan's ability to anticipate the homogenizing and dehumanizing effect of mass media when the phenomenon was in its infancy that made him remarkable. Both a prisoner and a product of academic life, McLuhan broke out because he recognized the toxic effects of media long before media became the air we all breathe. And he did it before there was any genuine understanding of how human beings process mediated information. As Coupland writes: 'One must remember that Marshall arrived at these conclusions not by hanging around, say, NASA or I.B.M., but rather by studying arcane 16th-century Reformation pamphleteers, the writings of James Joyce, and Renaissance perspective drawings. He was a master of pattern recognition, the man who bangs a drum so large that it's only beaten once every hundred years.' Put less charitably, McLuhan was the clock that was spectacularly right once a century. What made him singular was not his precision -- anybody who takes 'Finnegans Wake' as an ur-text will probably have a low signal-to-noise ratio. In between the puns, the aphorisms, the digressive language that seemed to chase itself and riddle the reader, McLuhan came up with a theory of media generation and consumption so plastic and fungible that it describes the current age without breaking a sweat."
And there you have it.
You've heard the phrase, "every new is old again." While this may be true and while history does repeat itself, it's amazing to step back (instead of staying in the present or looking too far into the future) to get an idea about how Marketing, Communications and Advertising can change. It wasn't just McLuhan either. Long before the term "Social Media" was in our vernacular, a book called, The Cluetrain Manifesto was written (and it's one I am constantly referring to). You can pick that book up right now, open it up to any random page and something will jump out at you that says, "why don't brands do this! why don't I do this?" People like Don Tapscott (you can listen to a conversation he and I had a few months back right here: SPOS #225 - The World Of Macrowikinomics With Don Tapscott) have been beating these drums for over twenty years.
A Sunday is always a great day to reflect.
Your next great idea may not come from being a head of the game, but rather for having a strong grasp on some of the great minds who had an uncanny ability to feel how the world would move. Today gave me pause. While it's easy to look at the latest and greatest, it's also critical to spend some time doing some critical thinking with those who have walked before us. A fun Blog to help get you in the mood is called, From Marshall And Me. It's written by Michael Hinton, and five days a week, he presents one of McLuhan's observations and Blogs about its relevance today.
What are some of the great minds of the past that inspire your New Media thinking?
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marshall mcluhan you know nothing of my work
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quora
the cluetrain manifesto
the new york times
January 8, 2011
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #29
Is there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see?
My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for each other (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see".
Check out these six links that we're recommending to one another:
Temptations and Self-Control - Dan Ariely . " Dan Ariely is always fun to listen to. This video is a great example: he looks at how bad we are at delaying gratification, and how we can trick ourselves into being better behaved. It's sad that we need to hack our jungle-surplus wetware to get it to do what we want." (Alistair for Hugh).
Disney Tackles Major Theme Park Problem: Lines - The New York Times . "Turns out, managing the happiest place on earth is a lot of work. Disney knows exactly how much you'll wait, and when you're getting impatient. They can even cue a parade to move you to a less crowded area. As we move into a world where machines watch--and try to optimize--our every move, will malls, banks, and employers start trying to optimize our lives? This piece in The New York Times might be a peek at tomorrow's 'optimized' dystopia." (Alistair for Mitch).
10 Business Models That Rocked 2010 - scribd . "Preso from the Board of Innovation analyzing 10 successful business models from the Web in 2010." (Hugh for Alistair).
The Web Is a Customer Service Medium - Ftrain . "A brilliant essay about the nature of the Web, and why it's so difficult for traditional media people to understand: The (successful) Web is driven, claims Paul Ford, by this question: 'Why Wasn't I Consulted.'" (Hugh for Mitch).
4 Predictions for Web Design in 2011 - Mashable . "Everyone is so excited about iPhone apps or an iPad -friendly version of their website that they are, in essence, forgetting how important their website still is to their business. Avinash Kaushik (the Analytics Evangelist at Google and author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0 ) has a great line: 'don't write cheques with Social Media that your websites can't cash.' The truth is that I am slowly watching the rotting decay of most websites as the corporate communications and marketing teams shift their focus to mobile, Facebook , Twitter and beyond. Avinash is right, it's a big mistake. The challenge now, is that web design has evolved too. This article should inspire you to take a look at look at your current website, and to start thinking about how it plays into your overall business strategy." (Mitch for Alistair).
The Handwritten Letter, an Art All but Lost, Thrives in Prison - The New York Times . "Dear Hugh, as someone who has a complete passion for the written words - in all of its shapes and forms - I thought it would warm your heart to know that the art of writing a handwritten letter has not disappeared in our world of zeroes and ones and touchscreens..." (Mitch for Hugh).
Now it's your turn: in the comment section below pick one thing that you saw this week that inspired you and share it.
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alistair croll
avinash kaushik
bitcurrent
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great links
handwriting
hugh mcguire
human 20
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iphone app
librivox
link
linkbait
managing bandwidth
mashable
media hacks
paul ford
rednod
scribd
social media
the book oven
the new york times
traditional media
twitter
web analytics
web analytics 20
web analytics an hour a day
web design
The Question Of Quora
When someone asks, "what's the next Twitter?" more often than not, there is not a response.
Over the past few years the answer has been, "Foursquare, Gowalla or Groupon" until recently. Over the past little while, a new online platform has been gaining ground, momentum and attention. It's called Quora. At it's core, Quora is a question and answer service. Anyone can post a question and anyone can answer it. Answers can be voted up and down (ala Digg) and you have the ability to follow the individuals and topics that are of interest to you.
"It doesn't sound all that groundbreaking."
If that's what you're thinking, please remember that they never sound all that groundbreaking. I still get the old, "Twitter just sounds stupid to me," or "why would anybody want to post all of their personal information on Facebook?" First off, never be a "market of one" (just because you would not do it or that you do not find it interesting, it does not mean that others will feel the same). Quora seems to be working because the questions are smart and the varied answers are smarter... and coming from some very smart people.
What makes Quora cool?
Here's a great example: Someone asked: What do people at Twitter think of Facebook? While this question can be answered by anyone, in this instance, Albert Sheu, a former Twitter Search Engineer (and current employee at Quora), candidly replied, "I will try to step through this question carefully, but honestly, people at Twitter are generally not fans of Facebook," (but you'll have to click on the question above to read his full response). Part of Quora's cool factor is that it seems to have captured the hearts and minds of the Silicon Valley luminaries and all of the Bloggers and Tweeters that follow them. They're not just watching Quora become popular, they're actually diving in and mixing it up... answering questions (and even posting questions).
And this is how media changes.
Just this week, Jeremiah Owyang (a well-known Blogger and industry analyst) noticed that he was now being quoted in more mainstream media spaces by journalists who were pulling his answers off of questions he responded to on Quora. Think about the ramifications of that for just one moment. Now, without the ability to always get an interview, a journalist can either ask a question on Quora or search for an answer if their question has already been asked in the space (more on that here: Quora: a tech journalist's utopia, but what does it mean for journalism at large?). Pushing that further, what happens when a well-known entity is active on Quora (posting questions and answering them), but then ignores a question being asked on Quora by a legitimate source?
The Marketing Implications.
While it is still early days and it's hard to tell if Quora is something that will be sustainable, the data, information and search engine optimization is already impressive. Quora knows what kind of questions gets answered, how they spread, who spreads them, who those people are connected to and, ultimately, what interests them. Much like many of the other online social networks we have seen to date, Quora is quickly going to have a lot of valuable and highly targetable data. On top of that, because of its current popularity many generic searches done in places like Google, Yahoo and Bing are now showing Quora questions high on the first page of organic search results (which speaks to its quick rise in power).
Where can this take us as Marketers?
Imagine the ability to really ask serious and honest questions of your consumers and community members. Think about the significant back and forth that can take place. Imagine what it's like when each answer can be voted up by everyone in an equal and public fashion. While all of that has been doable for some time, it's now taking place in a very public forum (that neither brand nor consumer "owns"). It's also a place that is not limited to 140 characters or being mixed in with a personal profile page or a Blog that sits within a walled garden.
What do you think about Quora... and the potential for Quora?
Tags:
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albert sheu
blogger
digg
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quora
silicon valley
tweeters
twitter
walled garden
January 6, 2011
The Confident Marketer
Want to know a secret about me: I'm an introvert and I'm shy.
OK, that was two secrets (but don't tell anybody). How can someone who is both introverted and shy run a multi-office company, speak in front of thousands of people and publish almost every thought they have about the media, marketing, advertising and communications space so openly and freely?
Confidence.
I get nervous. I get uncertain. I question my own ideals. I still hope that people like me. I want people to know that I'm trying to do the right thing. But, it is the confidence. Many people confuse being cocky with confidence (and that's where the wires get scrambled). I've been interested in media and marketing since the mid-eighties. Even before working at it professionally, I studied it out of passion. I remember being very young and wondering to myself why one, specific story made it to the front of a magazine cover. Being the type of person I am, and finding a place where I am confident in what I do professionally has been a journey... and there is no destination... it still is a continuous journey. Much like finding a voice for this Blog (or for a newspaper column or for a book), the only way to get the confidence and find that voice is by picking at it - day by day and minute by minute.
Don't confuse confidence with education or years of experience.
Education and years of work experience should help build some of the foundations for you to become confident, but at some point in time, you're going to have to be able to look in the mirror and say to yourself that you know (literally live and breathe) the work you do, and that you're beyond simply being competent at your work. You have to know that should your professional world implode tomorrow that you will be just fine because you know your stuff and you know how to make it work.
Express your confidence.
Many people use Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Quora and more to self-promote. They use it as a platform that says, "look at me" rather than a platform to say, "look at this." It's fine to publish whatever you want. If you find an audience because you're beating your own chest, good on you, but there is that other thing. The Confident Marketer can now (and finally) use these platforms and channels to inform, empower and connect. If you know what you're talking about and can express it by pointing people in directions that adds value to their lives, makes them smarter, helps them become more informed and do better in their own lives, your confidence will jump... and it will jump a lot more (in my humble opinion) than if all you're doing online is the Social Media equivalent of "look at me!"
What confidence does...
It allows you to express yourself.
It empowers you to push ideas through.
It enables you to connect to more people.
It teaches you to keep an open mind to new ideas and differing perspective.
Great ideas, stories and people happen when their confidence is honest and sincere. It's not about ego. It's not about success. It's not about money. It's about knowing that you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing... and you're doing it well.
(small hint: this isn't just about individuals... it's about companies, brands and teams too).
Tags:
advertising
blog
communications
education
facebook
marketer
marketing
media
newspaper column
personal brand
publishing
quora
self-promote
social media
storytelling
the confident marketer
twitter
work experience
The Confident Marketer
Want to know a secret about me: I'm an introvert and I'm shy.
OK, that was two secrets (but don't tell anybody). How can someone who is both introverted and shy run a multi-office company, speak in front of thousands of people and publish almost every thought they have about the media, marketing, advertising and communications space so openly and freely?
Confidence.
I get nervous. I get uncertain. I question my own ideals. I still hope that people like me. I want people to know that I'm trying to do the right thing. But, it is the confidence. Many people confuse being cocky with confidence (and that's where the wires get scrambled). I've been interested in media and marketing since the mid-eighties. Even before working at it professionally, I studied it out of passion. I remember being very young and wondering to myself why one, specific story made it to the front of a magazine cover. Being the type of person I am, and finding a place where I am confident in what I do professionally has been a journey... and there is no destination... it still is a continuous journey. Much like finding a voice for this Blog (or for a newspaper column or for a book), the only way to get the confidence and find that voice is by picking at it - day by day and minute by minute.
Don't confuse confidence with education or years of experience.
Education and years of work experience should help build some of the foundations for you to become confident, but at some point in time, you're going to have to be able to look in the mirror and say to yourself that you know (literally live and breathe) the work you do, and that you're beyond simply being competent at your work. You have to know that should your professional world implode tomorrow that you will be just fine because you know your stuff and you know how to make it work.
Express your confidence.
Many people use Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Quora and more to self-promote. They use it as a platform that says, "look at me" rather than a platform to say, "look at this." It's fine to publish whatever you want. If you find an audience because you're beating your own chest, good on you, but there is that other thing. The Confident Marketer can now (and finally) use these platforms and channels to inform, empower and connect. If you know what you're talking about and can express it by pointing people in directions that adds value to their lives, makes them smarter, helps them become more informed and do better in their own lives, your confidence will jump... and it will jump a lot more (in my humble opinion) than if all you're doing online is the Social Media equivalent of "look at me!"
What confidence does...
It allows you to express yourself.
It empowers you to push ideas through.
It enables you to connect to more people.
It teaches you to keep an open mind to new ideas and differing perspective.
Great ideas, stories and people happen when their confidence is honest and sincere. It's not about ego. It's not about success. It's not about money. It's about knowing that you are doing exactly what you are supposed to be doing... and you're doing it well.
(small hint: this isn't just about individuals... it's about companies, brands and teams too).
Tags:
advertising
blog
communications
education
facebook
marketer
marketing
media
newspaper column
personal brand
publishing
quora
self-promote
social media
storytelling
the confident marketer
twitter
work experience
Your 2011 Digital Marketing Reboot
Just how serious is your business about the digital channels?
Any other year, I may have used the words "online channels" instead of "digital channels," but 2010 tilted the marketing world a whole lot more. We can't just talk about world-class websites and getting found on the search engines anymore. The pervasiveness of mobile smartphones (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry), tablets (iPad, Samsung, Dell) and the entire app economy that surrounds it is quickly becoming a dominant business force.
We also can't ignore the powering growth of Facebook.
Over the holiday break, Facebook was named the most visited site in 2010... beating out Google (according to Experian Hitwise)! And we're not just talking about big business, either. Groupon - which enables local businesses to offer a unique discount once a pre-determined amount of people commit to purchasing the deal - turned down a six billion dollar acquisition attempt by Google, which validated that hyper-local has finally arrived. Small businesses can now effectively leverage the digital marketing channels in a cost-effective way. If brands were feeling a tad intimidated about leveraging all of these channels before, I hazard to guess at how overwhelmed they're feeling right now (but the word "dizzy" does come to mind). It's the beginning of January, so before things start to pick up and all of your New Year's Resolutions for 2011 become things you'll think about (once again) this coming December, why not commit to a Digital Marketing Reboot?
Here are the 6 questions you should answer and then act on as soon as possible:
Are you committed to a real strategy? Sadly, most businesses get tactical and caught in the weeds. They hop on Twitter because their competitors are there, but they have no strategy in place. Think about why you need the digital channels, and develop a holistic view of the digital marketing landscape. Figure out how the digital channels can best serve your brand. The net result should be a focused strategy that is based on your overall business objectives, economic value to the organization and a tactical plan.
Do you own your brand online? Make sure you own all of the right domain names for your business (and renew the ones that you currently have). This should include all .com and country-specific iterations (I'm less concerned about .net and some of the other ones, but feel free to grab them if you can). Make sure to also protect domain names for your products and services as well as your key management people (buying the misspellings of your keywords is a great idea too). Don't forget about the social media spaces: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc... all allow you to customize your direct URL for these spaces (i.e. I try to secure "mitchjoel" and "twistimage" anywhere and everywhere possible, so if someone is on Twitter, usually www.twitter.com/mitchjoel will get you to me). Regardless of whether or not you're active there, it is better to be safe (and have the names) than to be sorry (should you ever need them).
Does your website suck? Avinash Kaushik, the analytics evangelist for Google and the bestselling author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0 says, "don't write cheques with Social Media that your websites can't cash." There has been such a focus on Social Media that many business websites look tired, out-of-date and lack many of the baseline functionality that consumers now expect. It may very well be time for a refresh or a complete overhaul of your website.
Is your content up-to-date? Is your content representative of where your business is at in 2011? Is it filled with industry jargon that only your competitors will understand? Do you have a news section? How up-to-date is it? Does it have a RSS feed? Now quickly review your "about us" and "management" sections... are they fresh? Do they allow your consumers (and potential ones) to truly connect to you? What about your more visible profiles in places like LinkedIn, Facebook and Wikipedia? Update your content. If you don't have profiles in some of the more popular online social networks, you should get started on populating your content there as well (it bodes well for making your business more findable).
Is your website mobile? More and more people are doing searches and navigating the Internet via their smartphone or tablet. If your website does not automatically redirect these people to a mobile version of your online experience, there's a high probability that these people are having a bad brand experience. Pay heed to this: the mobile web is where the desktop browser was in the mid-nineties. Mobile will quickly become more important than the Internet as we've known it to date.
Are you findable? Are you shareable? If someone searches for your business, brands, management people or the industry you serve in the major search engines, where do you show up (in both the organic and paid listing)? What about if someone does a search for you on YouTube or asks about you on Twitter? Are you listening? Are you responding? Do you allow the content on your websites, Blogs, etc... to be shared in places like Facebook and Twitter with ease? Do you respond to the conversations about your brands and the industry you serve? While all of this should be defined in your strategy, it's still important to know that in 2011, the consumer has an expectation. If you don't offer the same type of functionality that consumers have come to expect in their daily digital interactions, it's not that you will be perceived as old or traditional, it's that you are not meeting the bare expectations that they have.
There's no denying that a Digital Marketing Reboot will take a lot of work. Does your business have what it takes?
The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here:
Montreal Gazette - Commit to digital marketing reboot or get left behind .
Vancouver Sun - A 2011 digital marketing reboot.
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avinash kaushik
blackberry
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business column
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experian hitwise
facebook
google
groupon
hyper-local
ipad
iphone
linkedin
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montreal gazette
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postmedia
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search engine marketing
search engine optimization
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web analytics an hour a day
website development
wikipedia
youtube
The New Journalism
Everyone likes a feel good story.
It's part of the reason why the latest online viral video sensation is the story of Ted Williams - a homeless Columbus, Ohio man who was a former radio broadcaster. This is an amazing story (and you can watch the video that started it all below), but it's also another shot against the bow of traditional journalism as we've known it to date.
"Just post it on the Web or something."
A story about a homeless person rarely makes waves. It's not the type of story you see kicking off the evening news on CBS or on the front page of your daily newspaper. It rarely makes it on the local news radio and there are not that many magazine features about people like Williams. Doral Chenoweth III is a videographer for The Columbus Dispatch. He had seen a sign that Williams was holding up by a freeway panhandling about how he has a great voice for broadcasting. The video of their encounter (which was originally posted to Disptach.com) is now clocking in at 8 million views on YouTube. Now, Williams is on the CBS News (and Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel), he's had multiple offers from companies like NFL Films, countless radio and TV stations and other offers of help and work.
It took us... not them.
What brought this story into our hearts wasn't the work of great editors or producers... it was the work of the new journalists. People like Chenoweth III, who are beginning to see that a truly great story doesn't need a gatekeeper... it just needs a home. Social Media is this home. It is an instant publishing channel that treats all pieces of content equally. How far that piece travels and who it reaches it not based on a fixed distribution system or promise of reach. It's based on who passes the story around (and well beyond YouTube and into other channels like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc...).
A nose for news.
The new journalism (and the new Marketing) is about having a nose for news. It's about being able to tell a story that will connect with people. If no one is following you on Twitter or posting to your Facebook page or watching your videos on YouTube, here's the cold, hard truth: it's not resonating. Watch the story of Ted Williams. Think about this videographer and the story they uncovered. There are more stories like Ted Williams - where the mass public will see it and feel it... and act on it. The new journalism (and the new Marketing) won't be a as heavily reliable on the traditional media channels, because now we have other ways to get stories to spread and reach critical mass. We've been waiting for the Web to truly deliver on this promise... and now it can.
This is the new journalism. This is the new marketing.
Tags:
cbs evening news
content
critical mass
distribution
doral chenoweth iii
editor
facebook
instant publishing
jimmy fallow
jimmy kimmel
journalism
magazine
marketing
new journalist
news radio
newspaper
nfl films
producer
radio broadcasting
social media
storytelling
ted williams
the columbus dispatch
the new journalism
traditional media
twitter
viral video
youtube
January 5, 2011
The New Journalism
Everyone likes a feel good story.
It's part of the reason why the latest online viral video sensation is the story of Ted Williams - a homeless Columbus, Ohio man who was a former radio broadcaster. This is an amazing story (and you can watch the video that started it all below), but it's also another shot against the bow of traditional journalism as we've known it to date.
"Just post it on the Web or something."
A story about a homeless person rarely makes waves. It's not the type of story you see kicking off the evening news on CBS or on the front page of your daily newspaper. It rarely makes it on the local news radio and there are not that many magazine features about people like Williams. Doral Chenoweth III is a videographer for The Columbus Dispatch. He had seen a sign that Williams was holding up by a freeway panhandling about how he has a great voice for broadcasting. The video of their encounter (which was originally posted to Disptach.com) is now clocking in at 8 million views on YouTube. Now, Williams is on the CBS News (and Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel), he's had multiple offers from companies like NFL Films, countless radio and TV stations and other offers of help and work.
It took us... not them.
What brought this story into our hearts wasn't the work of great editors or producers... it was the work of the new journalists. People like Chenoweth III, who are beginning to see that a truly great story doesn't need a gatekeeper... it just needs a home. Social Media is this home. It is an instant publishing channel that treats all pieces of content equally. How far that piece travels and who it reaches it not based on a fixed distribution system or promise of reach. It's based on who passes the story around (and well beyond YouTube and into other channels like Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, etc...).
A nose for news.
The new journalism (and the new Marketing) is about having a nose for news. It's about being able to tell a story that will connect with people. If no one is following you on Twitter or posting to your Facebook page or watching your videos on YouTube, here's the cold, hard truth: it's not resonating. Watch the story of Ted Williams. Think about this videographer and the story they uncovered. There are more stories like Ted Williams - where the mass public will see it and feel it... and act on it. The new journalism (and the new Marketing) won't be a as heavily reliable on the traditional media channels, because now we have other ways to get stories to spread and reach critical mass. We've been waiting for the Web to truly deliver on this promise... and now it can.
This is the new journalism. This is the new marketing.
Tags:
cbs evening news
content
critical mass
distribution
doral chenoweth iii
editor
facebook
instant publishing
jimmy fallow
jimmy kimmel
journalism
magazine
marketing
new journalist
news radio
newspaper
nfl films
producer
radio broadcasting
social media
storytelling
ted williams
the columbus dispatch
the new journalism
traditional media
twitter
viral video
youtube
January 4, 2011
Your 2011 Digital Marketing Reboot
Just how serious is your business about the digital channels?
Any other year, I may have used the words "online channels" instead of "digital channels," but 2010 tilted the marketing world a whole lot more. We can't just talk about world-class websites and getting found on the search engines anymore. The pervasiveness of mobile smartphones (iPhone, Android, BlackBerry), tablets (iPad, Samsung, Dell) and the entire app economy that surrounds it is quickly becoming a dominant business force.
We also can't ignore the powering growth of Facebook.
Over the holiday break, Facebook was named the most visited site in 2010... beating out Google (according to Experian Hitwise)! And we're not just talking about big business, either. Groupon - which enables local businesses to offer a unique discount once a pre-determined amount of people commit to purchasing the deal - turned down a six billion dollar acquisition attempt by Google, which validated that hyper-local has finally arrived. Small businesses can now effectively leverage the digital marketing channels in a cost-effective way. If brands were feeling a tad intimidated about leveraging all of these channels before, I hazard to guess at how overwhelmed they're feeling right now (but the word "dizzy" does come to mind). It's the beginning of January, so before things start to pick up and all of your New Year's Resolutions for 2011 become things you'll think about (once again) this coming December, why not commit to a Digital Marketing Reboot?
Here are the 6 questions you should answer and then act on as soon as possible:
Are you committed to a real strategy? Sadly, most businesses get tactical and caught in the weeds. They hop on Twitter because their competitors are there, but they have no strategy in place. Think about why you need the digital channels, and develop a holistic view of the digital marketing landscape. Figure out how the digital channels can best serve your brand. The net result should be a focused strategy that is based on your overall business objectives, economic value to the organization and a tactical plan.
Do you own your brand online? Make sure you own all of the right domain names for your business (and renew the ones that you currently have). This should include all .com and country-specific iterations (I'm less concerned about .net and some of the other ones, but feel free to grab them if you can). Make sure to also protect domain names for your products and services as well as your key management people (buying the misspellings of your keywords is a great idea too). Don't forget about the social media spaces: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc... all allow you to customize your direct URL for these spaces (i.e. I try to secure "mitchjoel" and "twistimage" anywhere and everywhere possible, so if someone is on Twitter, usually www.twitter.com/mitchjoel will get you to me). Regardless of whether or not you're active there, it is better to be safe (and have the names) than to be sorry (should you ever need them).
Does your website suck? Avinash Kaushik, the analytics evangelist for Google and the bestselling author of Web Analytics - An Hour A Day and Web Analytics 2.0 says, "don't write cheques with Social Media that your websites can't cash." There has been such a focus on Social Media that many business websites look tired, out-of-date and lack many of the baseline functionality that consumers now expect. It may very well be time for a refresh or a complete overhaul of your website.
Is your content up-to-date? Is your content representative of where your business is at in 2011? Is it filled with industry jargon that only your competitors will understand? Do you have a news section? How up-to-date is it? Does it have a RSS feed? Now quickly review your "about us" and "management" sections... are they fresh? Do they allow your consumers (and potential ones) to truly connect to you? What about your more visible profiles in places like LinkedIn, Facebook and Wikipedia? Update your content. If you don't have profiles in some of the more popular online social networks, you should get started on populating your content there as well (it bodes well for making your business more findable).
Is your website mobile? More and more people are doing searches and navigating the Internet via their smartphone or tablet. If your website does not automatically redirect these people to a mobile version of your online experience, there's a high probability that these people are having a bad brand experience. Pay heed to this: the mobile web is where the desktop browser was in the mid-nineties. Mobile will quickly become more important than the Internet as we've known it to date.
Are you findable? Are you shareable? If someone searches for your business, brands, management people or the industry you serve in the major search engines, where do you show up (in both the organic and paid listing)? What about if someone does a search for you on YouTube or asks about you on Twitter? Are you listening? Are you responding? Do you allow the content on your websites, Blogs, etc... to be shared in places like Facebook and Twitter with ease? Do you respond to the conversations about your brands and the industry you serve? While all of this should be defined in your strategy, it's still important to know that in 2011, the consumer has an expectation. If you don't offer the same type of functionality that consumers have come to expect in their daily digital interactions, it's not that you will be perceived as old or traditional, it's that you are not meeting the bare expectations that they have.
There's no denying that a Digital Marketing Reboot will take a lot of work. Does your business have what it takes?
The above posting is my twice-monthly column for the Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun newspapers called, New Business - Six Pixels of Separation . I cross-post it here with all the links and tags for your reading pleasure, but you can check out the original versions online here:
Montreal Gazette - Commit to digital marketing reboot or get left behind .
Vancouver Sun - not yet published.
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