Take the Quiz: Are You A Caveman (in an Era of Social Media and Technology)?
As something fun for Friday, I thought I'd write up quiz: Are You a Caveman (in an Era of Social Media and Technology)? Have fun with it!
Should I Use Social Networking as a Marketing Tool?
Many people who are just getting into Marketing 2.0 assume if there’s an internet-based tool available for marketing, they should use it. Not always the case. When it comes to social networking (Facebook, Twitter), it’s not always the best use of your time when it comes to marketing (and it can be pretty time-consuming). I myself wasted a lot of time setting up a Myspace account for Egg Marketing only to find that the few people that were interested in our services really couldn’t afford them. It’s important to know the demographic of these networking sites (the highest percentage being teens) before determining whether they’ll be useful in your marketing efforts.
1. Don’t join these sites just because you can and because everyone else is doing it. Really developing a presence on any one of these sites is labor-intensive, so have a purpose for doing so.
2. Most of these sites aren’t business-oriented (teens could care less about your paper company) so don’t be intrusive with your product mention. Find a way to work it in.
3. Just like anywhere else, your brand needs to represent something important to the consumer.
Resistance is Futile: Why you Shouldn’t Wait to Implement Social Media into your Marketing
Many businesses are afraid to step into the wonderful world of technology and marketing. That includes social media.
This is a shame, because their competitors are indeed moving into this technolosphere. Ironically, it seems that consumers or end users are more embracing of social media and technology when used in marketing than businesses are. Here are some reasons I believe businesses are afraid to adopt new technology in their marketing efforts.
1. Businesses think starting a blog or podcast is harder than it really is. Without real understanding, no decision maker ever wants to take on integration or implementation of a new technology.
2. Executives don’t have time to learn the technology. If they don’t understand it, they won’t advocate it.
A 5 Point Description of Marketing 2.0
If you follow my blog (and I understand there actually are a few of you who do), you hear me talk about Marketing 2.0. You heard it here first! I want to break it down into its most basic form so that you can better understand the importance it is playing in our world of ecommerce.
- First, it is interactive. No longer are we forced to sit on the couch and take our daily dose of advertising. We now can jump in the television (or computer) and change the color of the background, choose what pose the personality takes, and tell them how we like to get our messages. More or less.
Take YouTube, for example. What started out as a way for teenagers to post inane videos of skateboarding falls has turned into the single biggest factor affecting media today. Yes, there are still the ‘idiot videos,’ but now they’re mixed in with product spoofs (spoof or not, it got iPhone attention), commercials that are actually interesting, and now even political debates. What used to be solely for the tech-savvy consumer is now being wooed by major players like CNN.
YouTube works because it is interactive. Once you view a video you can share it with friends. That’s how a silly Transformers rap has been viewed over 510,000 times!
- Marketing 2.0 is a conversation between consumers and companies. Since we have all but removed commercials from our television viewing repertoire thanks to Tivo, companies have to find new ways to reach their audience. That means they have to ask consumers what they want. They’re listening for once!