tdog.blog

Back in April 1999 is when the Cluetrain Manifesto first declared that “markets are coversations.” Since then we’ve had an explosion of dialogue, and not all of it has been pointless blather about feline behavior.

So far, only a small percentage of the Fortune 500 (like 15% at my last count) is blogging. Another little chunk is exploring Twitter and YouTube. Still others are licking their wounds over Second Life. Yet most of their marketing dollars are poured into advertising and one-way promotional messaging.

It seems strange to me. In my world I zip through ads with a DVR. I get most of my news either through following breaking news on Twitter or via RSS. I used expert reviews from strangers to help me buy a flatscreen TV.

In other words, I’m part of that growing nightmare for Madison Avenue. I don’t sit passively. I engage and explore. I don’t need no stinking ads to make purchasing decisions. The last ads I viewed were on Super Bowl Sunday and even those have faded.

Mostly it seems like we’ve got two camps going in business: the rulers of the Lost World, lumbering around not knowing that you can’t repeal a paradigm shift (and some not aware that a paradigm has shifted); and a second group of much more agile businesses who will adapt to life in the post-cataclysmic age.

What cataclysm am I referring to? Well, like the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 70 million years ago, the Web and the advent of blogging and social media has obliterated a whole bunch of business models. There are businesses out there that are walking around dead and who won’t know it for years.

Ten years ago the Cluetrain gave us the first warnings. Stop the corporate happytalk. Stop the endless soma shots. Just talk to us at our level. Come out and play where we’re at. Trust us to be a partner in your success.

We’ll see who heeds the call, and who survives in the new environment.

Now go read the damn thing. It’s available free on line.

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If your current ad agency/interactive firm/PR firm fits any of the following, be afraid. If they meet five or more of these anti-criteria, run for the door.

1. Still thinks that the Web is just “TV with a mouse.”
2. Still thinks that web = branding, instead of web = content/information.
3. Killer marketing solution = print newsletter.
4. Killer marketing solution = email newsletter that’s just a print newsletter ported to HTML.
5. Wants to build a Flash-only site for your business.
6. Still trying to figure out “this whole SEO thing.”
7. Doesn’t really want to deal with accessibility, not really.
8. Thinks that online PR is simply sending “best of breed” press releases through PRWeb.com.
9. Thinks that social media = blogging.
10. Thinks that social media = Facebook.
11. Thinks that social media = Twitter.
12. Thinks Facebook is “just for kids.”
13. Doesn’t know what Twitter is.
14. Suggests that Twitter is a good place to post links to all those online press releases.
15. Wants to send press releases to all those bloggers. Every day.
16. Insists on spending $250,000 on snazzy commercial video instead of $100 on a DIY YouTube video that has some humanity, humor, and heart.
17. Suggests that you figure out how to draw attention to your new site with a “Facebook competition” or “Blogging Scavenger Hunt.”
18. Wants you to blog, but doesn’t want you to turn on comments.
19. Two words: Banner ads.
20. Wants to spend a quarter million dollars developing a lame advergame for the iPhone.
21. Thinks that RSS is “too technical” for anyone to understand.
22. Wants to design a web site for you, but without any input from an information architect or usability expert.
23. Thinks that interruption-based advertising still has a place at the table of high-integrity marketing approaches.
24. Wants to pay people to ghost-blog for you.
25. Cornerstone of CEO blog strategy = let the admin assistant write it.
26. Not understanding how insanely passionate and focused bloggers are, and what big allies they might become.
27. Doesn’t endorse Facebook for your company, because then you might have “weird ads in the sidebar.”

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In the past, I’ve been a pretty strong advocate for setting up lead generation programs that require up front registration. What you end up with is numbers like this: for every 100 people you attract to a site, you get 3-5 who actually register for the fact sheet, webinar recording, or what-not, and 95-97 who go away, mostly to some other site.

This approach works just fine if you’ve got a huge list. I’m talking hundreds of thousands of people, real people (not just mickey mouse AT foobar DOT com or somesuch), to make the math work. You end up with 300,000 on the email blast list and then 15,000 at your landing page (if you’re a rock star), then maybe 400 who get your white paper. But surprise, 300 of them are interns doing research for their boss, a business analyst in phase 0.1 of their research (who doesn’t want to hear from you), or somebody in the media trying to figure out what the heck you’re saying.

Of the remaining 100, chances are that you’ll just have to keep hitting them with more and more things to keep them engaged, such as a webinar series, an e-newsletter, a Twitter feed, whatever, until they build enough trust in you to make some kind of move in your direction.

And that’s all fine and dandy if you can start with a big enough list and can keep hitting them with high-quality stuff in a high-integrity way.

If that’s working for you, okay, fine, sure.

If it isn’t, let’s turn the model on its head and try the opposite. That’s right. No registration form at all. Let them watch your video free, download your ebook for free, whatever. Always embed a way to get ahold of you. Try something low-risk and unobnoxious, like a Twitter feed. It’s much better than email for this kind of thing. (If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you know that I’ve been ruthlessly killing BACN in my inbox.)

Just say, on the first and last page of your ebook: “Here’s where you can find me: @myerman on Twitter.” (Of course, you’re free to point them at my tweetstream, but you might want to use yours instead!)

If you’re on Twitter, don’t be a jerk, okay? Don’t do the autoresponse with 100 different messages and options and links. Who wants that? If you do an autoresponse, say, simply, “Hey thanks” and give them a phone number or email address. Then keep up with the good tweets.

If they like you, they will message you, or figure out a way to get a hold of you. But start it off by giving away this interesting bit of content. Something human, something that will make them laugh or think or rethink something. Especially if they can give it away easily to 10 of their colleagues or friends.

Try it for a month. Watch what happens. I bet you get a whole lot more downloads that way. (And notice that you can still track downloads of PDFs using things like Google Analytics. Sounds like a topic for next time!)

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There’s a different air about this SxSW, that’s for sure. Last year, we had the Zuckerberg/Lacey disaster, where the audience was tweeting away while the oblivious panelists just kept yammering about irrelevant stuff. This year, we had panel after panel (including mine, “Your First Year in Freelancing”) using Twitter to gather instant feedback and questions from the audience. 

The Small World Labs guys did it right — Sam Eder served as e-moderator (twitterator?), keeping the panel moving along by gathering and sythesizing tweets. I had a much smaller group (a room for 20 had 40 folks in it) and had set up a few hashtags (#geektopeak and #g2p) and at some point, the questions and conversations with those hash tags got too much to follow, so I went back to the audience directly. 

Here’s another thing I noticed: everyone is talking about ROI in social media. Realism. Pragmatism. It’s quite energizing, really. We’ve had these tools for a while, now we’re trying to make sense of them. Some of us are working at places where social media is the next big scary thing, and just being with folks who are also grappling with all this stuff fills me with hope. We’re on to something important here, and now there’s just this confident air that we will get it right, eventually.

In the “Selling Social Media to the Man” panel, I loved what Peter Kim had to say: “Either be the catalyst for change with social media, or get a new job.” I think he’s started something interesting. There’s going to be a huge shift of people and talent from old, stodgy places that put their thumbs down over to more progressive firms that embrace not only these new tools, but the new outlooks and DNA that these tools represent.

One of the things I’ve said since the beginning of Triple Dog Dare Media was: Fail fast. Don’t linger and dawdle. Figure what does and doesn’t work. Throw out what doesn’t. Move, move, move. And social media is like that, which I deeply respect. However, most corporate cultures don’t allow (or reward) failure. These places are going to have to deal with all of us out here who have been imbued with these technologies and philosophies.

SxSW Interactive 2009 is only half over, and I’m already brimming with ideas, plans, and thoughts about the future. After such a crappy 2008, it sure is good to feel good.

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Got home to a surprise…it looks like my latest book, Mac OS X Unix Toolbox, just arrived at the house. Got a box with 10 copies in it right in time for SxSW 2009!

I’ll carry some of these, some Professional CodeIgniters and some other books when I come in on Saturday…see you all there!

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