HFTB Marketing Blog

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I spend a lot of time in Starbucks. In between client meetings I tend to locate the nearest coffee shop to check email or catch up on other work.

One thing I notice in just about all Starbucks is the state of the condiment bars.

I don’t actually use the condiment bars, as I prefer a black cup of coffee to the multi-syllabic, linguistically confusing creations that have become the norm.

Who knew, by the way, that so many are lactose intolerant. Crazy.

Anyway, Irritable Bowel Syndrome aside, the point of the condiment bar observation has little to do with what you are, or aren’t, putting in your coffee. My issue is the way people leave the bar after they’ve used it.

As I see it, there are two types of people.

1.) Those who leave the bar as it was, or better, than when they arrived

2.) And those that contribute to what I would call, condiment bar entropy

Entropy is defined as “inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.”

Look, we all know that at some point the barrista will have to come over and clean the bar. Fair enough… that’s part of their job.

But how some people scatter cinnamon and Equal and half and half all over the bar and then just walk away, is totally beyond me.

What goes through these people’s minds? They just too busy? Or maybe they just don’t care. Maybe they believe the $8 they spent on their tome-titled beverage entitles them to act like petulant children refusing to clean-up a spill.

As I see it, this is a real dividing line in society. It has parallels in the way people treat servers in restaurants, service people in hotels and manual laborers like janitors and housekeepers.

And quite frankly, you can tell a lot about someone by observing these types of behavior.

I know this is a social media and marketing blog, and I could go on and make a half-ass analogy (although I typically try to use my whole ass) about how the same type of people affect the new media marketing world. And there may be some validity in those comparisons.

But for now, just clean-up after yourself when you fix your coffee. Or maybe even, I don’t know, clean-up after those that don’t.

Might feel good to leave the bar a better place than you found it.

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New Marketing coffee shop, email, Marketing, Social Media, Starbucks

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I remember a certain social media/blogging conference I attended in 2006. The mantra of which was, “email is dead.”

Of course, this was in the context of online marketing. In other words… no one answers email, especially commercial email, so what’s the use.

The solution, which most, if not all, of the presenters put forward to the unwashed masses (read-in “attendees”)…

Stop emailing.

So given the “death of email” prognostication, where are we in 2009? Is email marketing truly dead?

Resurrection

Sonia Simone at Copyblogger doesn’t think so. In her post, Why Email Marketing is Dead (And How to Bring it Back to Life), Sonia explores some of the reasons email is not, in fact, dead… contrary to the post’s title.

So what were the gurus at the new media conference basing their predictions on back in 2006? Well, for one, technology.

The argument was that because of RSS and the public’s limited bandwidth to filter through the enormous number of emails that present themselves in inboxes daily, people would simply stop using email for commercial communications. RSS would step in to allow for more efficient screening of what is, and isn’t, wanted.

So has this happened? Not really. Email remains an extremely effective method of reaching a target audience. But there’s a rub.

It’s the Content, Stupid

It happens that email was not the problem. BORING email was the problem. And by boring, I mean email that really doesn’t provide value to the intended audience.

What’s interesting here is that the same can be said for all types of new media. If the content doesn’t deliver, don’t blame the technology; blame she who misuses the technology.

Wasting people’s time through blanket emails that are sent to purchased email lists or unsolicited recipients isn’t email’s fault. It is, however,  the fault of he who doesn’t take enough time to build a following through consistent and frequent valuable contributions.

Take a look at Sonia’s post here. She lays out the case for effective email use and some tips to help you keep the medium in good health.

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Email Marketing Email Marketing, new media strategy, Online marketing, Simone, Sonia

Too busy to really manage your online presence?  It can definitely be time consuming.

But there are things you can do to minimize your time constraints and more importantly, maximize the effectiveness of your online efforts.

Chris Brogan has posted a couple of times in the last few weeks on routines for managing your web presence.  Thought I would pass along the links in hopes his ideas will help you become a more effective social media contributor.

And heck, hard to argue with his results.

19 Presence Management Chores You COULD Do Every Day

Five Tasks in the Morning

Any other suggestions, love to hear your favorites.

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New Marketing, Social Media Chores, Chris Brogan, Contributor, Favorites, Heck, Love, online presence, Presence Management, Social Media, Time Constraints, Web Presence

The term “going corporate” has always bothered me. It’s often used as a catch-all term for selling out. Why? Mostly because whoever is being accused of it is likely making more money than their accusers.

But is it fair to level criticism against those that succeed… merely for succeeding?

Image by Tony the Misfit

David Meerman Scott’s blog, WebInkNow, has a post highlighting a video done by Engage | ORM comparing the punk rock movement to the social media movement (if it can be called a movement?).

The video is definitely worth taking a look at. It’s well done and points out some interesting parallels.

But the thing I find interesting about the comparison has more to do with a couple of the comments on the post. Specifically, the idea of corporate America’s inability to really get social media and its implications.

So how does this tie to the punk movement of the ’70s?

Those that are in at the beginning of a movement, no matter how counter-culture or against the grain it might be initially, will impose their own rules as to what defines that movement as it gains steam – or more accurately, becomes more popular. It happened with punk, and unfortunately, looks to be happening with social media.

While I consider myself a punk rock fan, one of the things I’ve always really disliked is the exclusion of great bands as soon as they sign their first big deal. Or in other words… go corporate.

There is a possessive tendency amongst most bands’ first fan bases. This is the “I knew about them when…” syndrome. And although some bands surely change with money and fame, there are many that don’t.

Social media suffers from some of this too. The idea that there is purity in certain types of content or techniques is dangerous because it necessarily excludes those that might innovate. And if anything, one aspect of social media, or more inclusively, new media, is a divergence from the norm (characterized by the mainstream media).

But as the boundaries to what is social media are drawn by those that are initially successful, we fall into the trap of discounting those that take a different position or that would innovate within a more inclusive medium.  And after all, what could be more inclusive than social media?  A medium seemingly designed to give everyone, including those nasty big corporations, an equal voice.

The analogy with punk is strong here. I know many former fans of some great bands that stopped listening when they hit MTV or appeared in a big budget Hollywood movie. Once again, why? The music was still the same. They just weren’t the only ones listening anymore.

Corporate America is getting social media as we speak. It is simply too powerful a force to remain relegated to a small group of enlightened souls.

Does this mean that it will be irreparably changed? Maybe. But not necessarily for the worse.

Just as bands like Rancid and Green Day continue to be punk rock to the core despite their mainstream success, so will social media continue to be an outlet for candid and frank expression – regardless of how “corporate” it gets.

There is a place for all sorts in the social media world.  Value is the true measure, and doesn’t discriminate.

So don’t tell me what is and what isn’t punk rock,… or social media.  Always good to throw in a horn section, reggae rhythm, or corporate blog for that matter.

Nothing like pissing off the purists.

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New Marketing, Social Media New Marketing, new media strategy, Online marketing, Social Media, social media marketing

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No such thing as a free lunch?

How about, no such thing as a free link.

Christopher Ross publishes a web design and marketing blog I read and comment on frequently. The blog has a lot of useful content, including tips, how to lists and recommendations for online marketing and site/blog design. In fact, I list it on my blog roll here.

One of the tactics Christopher has used to drive comments on posts is a free page rank 5 link from his site to the top 10 commenters – by number of posts. Interesting idea. Incent visitors to comment – those that comment drive traffic – both his site and his top commenter’s sites’ page ranks go up as a result.

Only one small problem. There was no subjective measure of a post’s worth. And as a result, many virtual spammers (my words, not his) climbed to the top of the top 10 commenter’s list. Comments soon became more about quantity than quality. Those looking to grab a spot in the top 10 barraged the blog with short comments that best case had little to do with the post, and worst case were completely devoid of any type of thought about the topic at hand.

So Christopher made the tough call of taking down the backlink incentive.

The reaction – entitlement.

For some reason, people had come to believe they were entitled to the links – regardless of the quality of their contribution.

As a frequent contributor, but someone who never scratched the top 10 list, it seemed a reasonable thing to do. After all, a comment that actually contributed to the topic of the post was less valuable under the old system than a quick and dirty comment posted to get into the top 10. The assumption being that more comments were better than quality comments.

So I wasn’t really that surprised when the practice was dropped.

The same cannot be said for many of the other visitors to the site. Christopher actually chose to address the issue in a post following a number of emails and posts from commenters who felt they had a right to their links. They had grown accustomed to getting the links, regardless of their contributions to the blog community.

In other words – they felt entitled.

To me, entitlement is lazy. It fosters a belief that no matter what happens, you deserve whatever benefit, right or privilege you currently have (or think you should have).

In business, entitlement is deadly. And from a marketers perspective, will almost certainly lead to the loss of sales, clients or your business.

So how do you fight the entitlement urge?

Constantly deliver value. Whether it be new and better products or services, impeccable customer service, or relevant and valuable web content, the idea that you have to earn your clients and their continued business every day is a hallmark of a successful and enduring company.

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Links, Marketing, SEO content, customer relationships, linking strategy, links, Online marketing