Social Commentary: Social Media, Online Marketing, Podcasting, and Your Business
Social Media, Online Marketing, and You
We’re glad to have Jon Zemke in the studio, revealing his beta site project and talking about the stories people don’t want you to see. Total run time, 8 minutes, 16 seconds – and 20 minutes from completion of recording to “air time.”
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We’re recording Jon Zemke from Metromode on a project he’s working on – will post soon.
I am filled with pure joy, pride, and amazement amid my exhaustion from walking, standing, flag-waving and shivering.
Wow~ what an amazing event! It was great to experience this historic event first hand, knowing how crowded and hectic it was going to be. I really wanted my 15 year old to this event, as something she will remember and cherish for the rest of her life. She shared the moment with me but also with friends who are students in NC without a place to stay, but gladly opted to sleep on the couch in our suite.
It was great to see patriotism exhibited on a large scale as the result of something positive (with the election of the first African American) instead of something negative (like 9/11).
The National Mall was tighter than a Michael Jackson concert in a high school gym! I’ve told everyone there are three phases to attending an event on the National Mall. First, the excitement of being “ in the house”; second, the possible unpleasantness of realizing the much-anticipated event you “had” to see may not have been all that (definitely, yesterday wasn’t in the category) and third, the unpleasant reality when you realize that everyone probably will be LEAVING at the same time! As soon as the 18- minute speech from the President ended, the crowd shifted stage right. It took all of an hour and ½ to get off the mall. I spoke to some attendees who were closer to the stage and they indicated that it took them three hours to get off the mall. This is my only real criticism is that there was a lack of guidance and crowd control after the event ended. The National Guard and mounted police could have been better prepared.
What was remarkable is that with the huge crowd and folks being pushed to and fro everyone kept their cool. There were zero arrests reported for excessive demonstrations or fighting. Everyone was cordial, peaceful and tolerant of one another. Civility was the word for the day.
What made the event so memorable is that:
This as a true symbol that the country is ready to look past race to choose an intelligent leader who has the best interest of everyone in the country at heart. I see this victory as validation and the fulfillment of MLK’s dream. Obama, looking out over the crowd from the Capitol face the Lincoln Memorial, could have taken this opportunity to focus on the racial implications of the realization of King’s dream; however, he obviously didn’t see a need to do that. Everyone is fully aware of the significance of this historic election and he has chosen to focus on what really is at stake, the survival of our society. It’s time for everyone to “get to work”.
It’s important sometimes to face issues when they come up – so I will here.
Unfortunately, things didn’t work out so well with a particular client. We did our level best, but due to a scheduling mistake, we definitely upset Dennis Fassett. It was not our finest hour.
And our apologies for our honest mistake, which now we need to talk about in public.
I had inadvertently double-booked time (as I had mistakenly written down 11a for my time with Dennis, because of a previous conversation around recording things on his lunch break) on the day we were to record between the home and the work studio. However, I canceled the one recording and got downtown as fast as I could. We would of had plenty of time that morning, as I live 15 minutes away from work, to lay down the tracks we needed to, and then the plan was to wrap up the re-edit of the first episode to get it up that night.
I attempted to explain that, and that I was only going to be a few minutes behind, but that was impossible because Dennis wouldn’t pick up his phone when I called him four times that day. I was already going to tell him about the discount I would give him for our scheduling mistake upon my arrival… regardless of the fact that the first contact I had with him that morning was him texting me to tell me that he was running a bit behind because of a car problem.
My phone was off because I was recording at home earlier. I don’t leave my phone on when I’m recording for interruption and technical reasons. Even if I put it on silent, the GSM radio waves interfere with recording equipment something fierce. After all, and this is my mistake, as I had him down for 11a.
We worked 11+ hours on the project, delivering outlines, consulting, graphics, paying license fees for music, etc. I was more than willing to work something out, but as email is an imperfect medium for communicating, and it didn’t work so well this time.
I probably shouldn’t of emailed anything and just kept trying Dennis until he answered (which I proceeded to do, and he has not has answered a call from me since).
As to “pitching services,” we’re a business. I won’t apologize for doing that, and I included more because I was asked to during a lunch meeting.
As to “learning about his business,” that’s part of our responsibility, but also part of the work that’s involved in creating great content. If you had a copywriter who didn’t take the time to learn about your business as part of their work, then they’d deliver a pretty bad product. And that takes time, time that most agencies I’ve worked with charge for, as they should. This was a flat-rate project, and whatever time I took to learn or needed to I was willing to spend, even if it put me “in the hole” in an hours estimate at first because that’s what makes great stuff.
And yes, with the holidays, things got busy. But we had agreed on adjusted time lines together, were ready to roll, and release that night.
I’m not going to post the first episode because it’s not our place to without permission, but I gotta say, Dennis has some pretty compelling and interesting content. And I’d still tell you that if you want to learn about cash flow real estate, go talk to him. He can teach you a lot, despite our issue on this matter; you should seriously consider the $500+ for his two day seminar if you want to learn about how to make money with property in this economy.
I apologize for any mistakes that we made. Nobody’s perfect, and I sure am not. Dennis, you know how to find me to work this out, I’m going to be running around taking care of things for tonite’s tweetup, but I’ll make sure to get back to you if I miss you. And I will leave my comments open for anyone for anything respectful and cooperative.
On this Martin Luther King day, I remember what I learned from old hands in the TV news business; that until the civil rights movement with Martin Luther King Jr.’s masterful use of the 90-second story, as the leadership of the SCLC were among the first to truly understand the timing of television and set up their demonstrations and messaging to have maximum impact - TV news didn’t have anywhere near the impact or reach it did.
In fact, TV news here in Detroit really didn’t come of age until the 1967 rebellion; it’s where some of the great reporters that went on to serve our town for two or three decades were first proven. It was a turning point, if you will, from TV news being an experiment and in some ways rag-tag operation to a professional organization that people trusted.
Why do I mention this parallel? Media buyers know that companies do not buy advertising on TV news because of the audience alone; they buy it because of the magic combination of Trust + Audience. And the social media platforms which will succeed will be the ones that ensure that equation continues, because a) that’s what drives audience and b) that’s what brands want to be associated with.
Much like Martin Luther King helped the ascension of TV news, Barack Obama is helping the ascension of social media. This is because we’re talking about a media format, a way that people are still not in the majority comfortable consuming messages.
But as this changes, in some ways, services like Youtube, Facebook and Twitter are going to be the ABC news of the next generation, “where more Americans turn to get their news than any other source.” And it’s possible that ABC evolves into this generation, and keeps it’s mantle (traditional media is NOT dead; they just haven’t figured out how to monetize their sizable audiences at the levels they’re accustomed to). I wouldn’t put all my chips on it, but it’s very possible.
An example of this equation in action online, in part, is Google’s early success because from the beginning as they created a culture of “Trust.” And what’s the most trusted brand? Yep, you guessed it, Google. That’s because they know they’re there to be a platform to which then put content through and bring people back over and over again. And because they’ve realized that it’s a Trust + Audience = Revenue equation (millions trust them in different ways for search, email, web site statistics, advertising, etc) they’ve been the early leaders in making ridiculous amounts of money. Their evolution isn’t done yet, and there will be more to write a year and five years from now with what they do with what they have.
I venture to think that’s what Mahalo is busy trying to do, too. Since their articles are human-powered, it seems like they’re trying to tap into a culture of “trust” as well. We’ll see how well they do, as well, with their usage seeming to grow month over month.
So the ascension of social media is nowhere near complete (and the old timers will tell you that TV was going to kill radio, and that didn’t happen, so I have no reason to believe online is going to kill TV) since sure, it helped to a degree get him elected, but I believe Barack Obama is going to show over the next four years how effective this will actually be more than any private company, or especially any agency or marketer ever could, even without budget as a constraint.
If, in fact, Obama is able to activate that audience from voting once to calling congresspeople and rallying for his causes, it shows it works with something that REALLY matters.
In general, content is starting to appear, and will continue to appear, that has audience’s trust, and that will be something that advertisers and companies really want to be associated with. And then, the right kinds of dollars and “CPM” will flow to make the economics work.
What are your thoughts?
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