The BIG Omaha came. The BIG Omaha went (way too soon, we might add). If you missed BIG Omaha, you missed Awesomeness and Grand Ideas. But don’t worry. We’re going to share.
Overheard in Omaha
Jason Fried with 37 Signals - “Planning is really guessing. Don’t focus on planning. Focus on Doing.”
Jason gets some "visual assistance" from Gary.
Joe Olsen with Phenomblue - “Look for opportunities around you. Find other companies that can help you do bigger business.”
Christina Maki with The Social Lites - “They’re throwing a Vegan Feast at the Secret Penguin? I haz a happy!”
Micah Baldwin with Lijit - “Since we’re supposed to be transparent, this is my DNA. Those 3 lines on the left say I’m male. That huge blob in the middle. That’s my brain capacity. And those 3 big lines over there, that’s my penis size.”
Micah gets transparent.
Unknown woman to Simon Kuo with LightThread - “Is this like a Star Trek convention or something?”
Jeffrey Kalmikoff with Threadless - “If your brand was a person, would you be friends with it?”
Gary Vaynerchuk with Wine Library - “Story telling IS the game.”
Gary does his best impression of the ShamWow guy.
It was a difficult decision, but we did manage to come to one. Congratulations to . . .
Steve Klein - Steve is a self-employed web designer and was nominate by his sister, Linda. She was hoping this would be a way to “give a little back” for all that Steve does for her, their family and others.
Mike Wasmer - Mike is an Autism advocate who is hoping Social Media will help him educate and influence people, communities and lawmakers.
Gentlemen, welcome to the Boot Camp. Now drop and give me 20!!
Wow!
Great to hear from you all. What wonderful feedback we got on our offer of 2 scholarships to the Social Media Boot Camp. We will be announcing the winners at noon on Monday. Thank you to all who participated and good luck. Wish we had more spaces to offer,
Know someone who could benefit from Social Media Marketing training? Could you? The Social Lites is very excited to be involved in a Social Media Marketing Boot Camp. We’re joining forces with two other companies - Aspire Business Development and Brandworks to offer this 4 Sessions in 4 Weeks training program. Cost? $395.
So, how does that make you a hero? Because we’re offering a scholarship to two deserving people and you get to help us find them. We know there are people out there who could benefit from this training. We also know that, with our current economy, the person who might benefit most, might not be able to afford it. We’re asking you to nominate yourself, or nominate someone else to take part in this in-depth, small group seminar for FREE! Social Media is all about sharing and empowering the individual. Our three companies have encountered the generosity of this community and we are thrilled to pay it forward.
All you have to do is let us know how you or your candidate would benefit from this training. Comment here, or contact skinkade@aspirekc.com, alicia@thebrandatwork.com or jenn@thesociallites.com by End-of-Business on Friday, April 17th. Scholarship winners will be notified Monday, April 20th and announced here on The Social Lites blog.
Thanks for joining the fun and spreading the word. We can’t wait to give somebody . . . hang on! . . . two somebodies, an awesome opportunity!
Lori Howe posted this comment today on one of our older posts on blogging mistakes, and I thought it was so good, we’d do a whole post on it:
I get that blogging is part of an integrated social media & web marketing strategy and that it takes time and patience to see results. and that it’s difficult to compare to how PR or paid advertising is valuated. However, I’m curious to know if there is any measurement that represents the value of blog posting for a company’s product/service on relevant industry blogs? Like it on not, we live in an ROI-driven business world and some business folks simply need a measurement. Perhaps they’re not a good fit for social media?
ROI is always a hot topic when you’re pitching social media to businesses, especially if the business in question is used to dealing in traditional media marketing with traditional, measurable results. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that social media isn’t a good avenue for that business to take. Any business can benefit from social media interaction, if it’s done correctly. The hardest part is often selling the idea to the people at the top of the company heirarchy.
So, how can your ROI be measured when you’re dealing with social media? [click to continue…]
It’s all here, folks. President Obama’s promise to change the look and sound of Government is realized.
http://tinyurl.com/ck84d3
Cheers.
I read this article today and wanted to bang my head against the computer screen. I find it incredible how advertising companies understand the importance of targeting audiences and yet still go about it so badly. They see it, but they don’t get it. The new advertising brain child is called Gaze Tracking, although some are calling it Face Counting, and yet the majority have dubbed it Face-Based Audience Measurement. Gosh, those names make me feel all warm and fuzzy as a consumer. Obviously they care deeply.
So what is face-based audience tracking? It’s video screens. Video screens that, while showing me an ad at places like malls, health clubs, airports or grocery stores, are also watching me. Why? To determine what kind of ad I’ll be interested in. Of course they’ll know, just by looking at me, that I own a dog, enjoy the beach and am in desperate need of chocolate donut. I mean when you gaze over a crowd of people, don’t you know what their interests are? What their needs are? NO?!? If you looked at a group of people on Facebook would you? Yea. Why? Because they’re telling you what their interests are, what their needs are. And that’s my point. Why complicate something that is relatively simple? Why replace systems that exist and work?
AdSpace, one of the companies that works with these face-based audience measurement systems, charges $765,000/month for a 15 second ad to run on its national network. They charge so much because they promise to bring companies “rigorous information about those who see the spots”. How rigorous can they be? While watching crowds of people in a crowded space, the screen is gathering data to three criteria - age, gender and ethnicity. The machines accurately guessing gender only 85% of the time. Rigorous. And the other two criteria, age and ethnicity, suffer from even lower accuracy percentages. I love the researchers response to this. “Even the human brain can’t always determine gender, age or ethnicity.” True, but if someone was giving this human brain $750k/month, I’d darn well go up to people and ask them.
The inaccuracy and expense of these systems aside, there is another problem being raised - one of privacy. As of this posting, the kiosks do not have to tell the watcher they are being watched. Hello, Mr. Orwell. Two organizations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Center for Democracy & Technology, have already voiced concerns and are taking an active and opposing interest in the technology.
Why, oh why, would a company dip its toe into such turbulent waters for such flawed information? Aren’t there better ways to “rigorously” quantify your audience? Sure there are. So, companies, if you want to know what your customers want, if you want to know it they’re interested, if you want to know if they even like you, Ask Them. Don’t spy on them. Ask Them. Then Listen for the Answer. We’ll tell you.
FYI: The author of this post is female, does own a dog and occasionally splurges on donuts, but not chocolate.
Poor Motrin. They dip their toes into the pool of Social Media and truly end up sticking their foot in it. Now other large companies will surely point to their failure as an “I told you so” tale and shy even further away from the use of Social Media in their marketing and messaging. Exactly what we advocates for SM don’t want to see. But was it really Social Media’s fault?
Motrin devised a little YouTube ad campaign. It was in recognition of National Baby Wearing Week. The video was to be a sneak peek of a larger traditional media campaign now launching - a media campaign Motrin is already apologizing for. If you watch the video (if the link works, it is still up) you will see an animated road map of how and why moms “wear” their babies and that any ensuing pain from this practice can be alleviated with Motrin. Sounds fine, so why the fervor? It’s in the way the message was pitched. The ad told Alpha Moms they wear their babies as a fashion statement for reasons that may, someday, be considered legitimate. The ad basically says these moms are only suffering through baby wearing so they can “look like an official Mom” in the eyes of society. That message is so wrong on so many levels for the audience Motrin was reaching out to, that you’ve got to wonder if they did any research at all.
Alpha Moms are educated women who take pride in caring for their families. They are savvy enough to poke fun at themselves, and don’t need companies to do it for them. Motrin could have garnered the favor of this economically powerful group by aiming at their hearts rather than by pricking their egos. How’s this for a story line: “You thought the pain would be over after childbirth? How could it be when you’re still carrying that baby? But you carry her because you love her. Let Motrin help ease the aches.”
Unfortunately, the viral backlash Motrin is now suffering gives them every reason to pull out of future Social Media usage and that is a shame, because that is the wrong lesson to learn from this episode. Why? Just look. Everyone is talking, tweeting, blogging and podcasting about Motrin. There is a definite buzz so, from a Social Media view, the campaign has worked very well. It is Motrin’s message that was bad. It’s Motrin’s message that has caused controversy, not the way that message was delivered. Regardless of how companies reach out, they still need to know their audience, and Motrin didn’t.
As promised, here are a couple of photos from the Highlight Midwest reception last night at the Kauffman Center here in Kansas City. Due to the fact that I lack a *real* camera (well, one that doesn’t suck, anyway), and a lot of my iPhone shots didn’t turn out, there aren’t many. If you want more photos, go bug Zach Cobb. He’s got all the good shots.
Our panel made of awesome, from left to right: Zach Cobb, Bo Fishback, Dusty Davidson, Jeff Slobotsky, Matt Secoske, Zena Weist, Adam Coomes, Aaron Webb, Nathan T. Wright, and Jason Walsmith.
Bo Fishback asks the panel a question. Look how serious and pensive you all look!
Adam Coomes answers a question, and everyone looks on with rapt attention.
Zach Cobb talks very animatedly about social media. (But then, Zach ALWAYS talks animatedly!)
The panel looks on as Dusty Davidson answers a question.
I’ll get the video of my presentation up as soon as I get the link. :)
