positive disruption by: Tom Martin | New Orleans based Social Media | B2B Digital Prospecting | Digital Strategy Agency

Hire Explorers not Experts

  

Today at the Omaha AMA's Hot Topics event, I gave a talk about Finding the Ying & Yang of Marketing 2.0. I'll post the video later this week but tonight, as I sit here at 30,000 feet blogging (so cool) I thought I'd expand on a thought I shared with the group today.

As I sat writing my notes for my talk, it occurred to me that it was odd to be asked in 2009 (almost 2010) to give folks tips or a road map for integrating old media and new media. Yet, I'm often asked to speak to various groups on just that topic. So why is that?

My answer is that we're all asking the wrong question and we're looking in the wrong place for the answer.

First, we're still asking folks how to do it versus asking how to think about doing it. That may sound like I'm splitting hairs but stop for a minute and think about what I just wrote. When you ask someone to tell you how to do something, you're asking for a process that you can replicate. But that is just one process. Sure it worked for them this time, but is it truly replicable. Will it work tomorrow or the day after that?

Instead of asking "how to" do social media we need to be asking "how to think" about social media, digital media, old media and the blending of all of it. We need to be asking folks that "seem" to have it figured out or at least seem farther along than ourselves for a framework not a solution. You see if I give you a framework for thinking, I've empowered you to think for yourself. If I give you a process to replicate, well I've just made you reliant on me to give you a new one when the old one finally fails to be effective anymore. But a framework, well you can take that learning and build upon it, make it bigger, stronger and better than I could make it myself. Sort of how the Open Source peeps write code.

So my first suggestion to the group and now to you is start asking the right question if you hope to get the right answer.

Second, we're looking in the wrong places for that elusive answer. We keep looking for experts. Social Media Experts, Digital Experts, Traditional Experts. But here is the problem with experts, (social, digital and traditional). Experts are looking in the wrong direction. Experts become experts by focusing on the now and more importantly the then. They look backwards and study what has been done and what is being done. That's gives them this huge depth of information, which we as a society define as expertness -- if that is even a word. Now don't get me wrong, he who thumbs his nose as the value of studying history is doomed to repeat the mistakes of history, but at some point you need to stop looking behind you and start looking in front of you. Experts by and large don't do that...otherwise they risk being less of an expert.

So my advice today was instead of hiring experts, hire explorers.

Explorers spend their days looking forward. They may not know everything there is to know about the past, but that is because they are busy dreaming up a future. Find the people on your staff or at your agency or at another agency for that matter who explore. Find the people that are bigger, bolder and dream more than the rest. Find the folks that are not afraid to fail, that embrace failure as the necessary precursor to knowledge. Find the folks doing things not because someone is paying them to do it but just for shits & giggles because they want to see what will happen. Find the people that don't know what questions not to ask. Get out of your geography. Get out of your industry. Go to places you've not looked before and find the explorers. Find them and then hire them. They are the key to the promise land of effectively leveraging old and new media. 

I go more into detail in the video... which you can see tomorrow. But for now, what do you think? Hire experts or hire explorers?

photo by goneforawander

Blog World Expo Travel Panel

Last week I had the extreme pleasure of sitting on a panel at Blog World. I promised to post the video of the panel for everyone, so here it is. The entire thing is about an hour, but if you're a blogger and you'd like to hear how big brands like Fairmont Hotels and Disney Parks work with bloggers, then well worth a listen. I also chime in with my two cents about how bloggers can better work with ad agencies. Enjoy and if after watching the video you have any comments, please share.

Stop Talking. Start Doing. Share the Knowledge.

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Just now I viewed this great post from Chris Brogan where he challenges us all to stop talking so much theory and start executing real projects that demonstrate what can be done with Social Media and such. I couldn't agree more. He also reminds us that if we really want to be helpful, we need to share the knowledge we gain. Help all boats to rise so to speak.

So in that spirit, I'm reposting a series of posts around my recent Mardi Gras Twitter experiment. For those of you that are new here, this past Mardi Gras I tried to use a live twitter stream to change the brand perception of Mardi Gras. Guess what? It worked.

The story, case study deck and a video of me presenting the case study are below. All are free for you to use as you need. But do please give proper credit. Enjoy. And if you're going to be at BlogWorld in Vegas this week, hollar... love to meet new peeps and talk marketing.

Here is the invitation post describing the experiment.

And this is the result post that shares all the detailed learnings.

And finally, the video of me giving the case study along with the slides.

 

 

Mardi Gras Twitter Branding Experiment

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5 Steps to better blogger/ad agency relationships

 

On Saturday I'll be participating in a panel at BlogWorld Expo in Vegas. I'll be alongside Doug Anweiler, Leanne Jakubowski and Mike Taylor trying to help travel bloggers understand how to better work with brands and the agencies that represent brands. As part of the panel, I have to do a quick 7-minute intro capturing my thoughts. As there will probably be a lot of bloggers who can't attend the session but might find the thoughts helpful, I'm capturing them here too.

Respect The Agency's Time
This one should be a no brainer but seems it isn't. Agencies run on razor sharp margins. And with client budgets getting cut back, most agencies today are trying to do more with less in order to keep their doors open. Often an agency exec is just hoping to put out today's fire before tomorrow's starts. So when you communicate with them, be succinct, be specific, anticipate questions they might have and answer them before they're asked. Lastly, think in terms of "cut & paste" so that the agency person can simply lift your stuff and paste it into whatever document they're creating for the client.

Agencies Live in the Crosshairs
The marketing/pr pie is getting smaller every day and the number of agencies is multiplying. With all the layoffs in the agency world, many highly talented peeps are setting up their own shop or creating virtual agencies. It used to be that brands shunned these thinking them too small or disorganized to warrant the cost savings. But those days are over. What this means is that agency peeps always have a target on their back. Every day new biz directors at competitive shops are pointing a riffle right at my head, just itching to pull the trigger so they can replace me. How do I know this? Because I'm doing the same thing to them. We're all hunting each other, every single day. This breeds a level of anxiety that makes everything become more important. The stakes are always higher than you understand, so keep that in mind and act accordingly.

Know Your Stuff
It's all about data. Make sure you can tell them how many unique's and page views you get each month. Show them graphs that make it easy to see the growth in your readership. But more importantly (at least to me) is show them your engagement. Track things like bounce rate, return readers, time on site, average views per post, average comments per post, in-bound links and if you really want to be smart, manually assign some kind of "engaged" level to each comment and then show how that breaks down. What agencies (and brands I think) really want to see is that you have a highly engaged following that truly values your thoughts and usually read all of your posts.

It's All About the Benjamins
You may be doing this as a hobby or sideline but I'm not and my client most certainly isn't. Working with bloggers is business. It's about creating more revenue for our clients. At the end of the day the CEO isn't asking the agency guy about conversations, no she's asking that agency guy about cash. As in how much of it did the agency generate versus how much the client is spending with said agency. (See crosshairs comment above). So if a brand sends you a product to review or pays for you to attend an event or visit a destination, remember that agency person and the brand manager have to justify that expense to someone -- client/boss. So write something. This doesn't mean you have to "shill for the man" but it does mean that if you don't write a post, you should CALL NOT eMAIL the agency contact and explain why you're not writing. Maybe you had a terrible experience or maybe you felt the product sucked, whatever, you owe the people that "compensated" you that much. And of course, if you do write something, disclose the relationship and be generous with your link love and tweets.

We Marry Our Cousins
This last point may be the most important one of all. In the almost 20 years I've been in advertising, I've learned over and over again what an incestous industry this is. It seems everyone has worked with everyone or at least a friend of everyone. We all know each other, which can be good and bad for you. Be a stand up person that works within the framework and your name gets sent around. Be an a$$hole and well, your name gets sent around. So be careful about burning bridges. You never know where they may lead. I don't offer this up as a threat but more of a word of caution. It's a small world, act accordingly. You'll be happier and more successful.

That's it. If you're going to be at BlogWorld and you happen to see me, please do say hello. And let me know what you think about the above. Any other words of wisdom you'd suggest? Panel isn't until Saturday so I still have time to change my slides!

Creating the future

There are two kinds of people in the world. Those that dream. And those that dream and do.

Luckily for me and you, there are two of the later here in New Orleans. Chris Schultz and Tiffany Starnes are of the latter breed. On a trip back from last year's SXSW festival, the two had a crazy idea.

"Let's start a conference here in New Orleans that focuses on Building Communities Through Social Network Platforms" and then tie it into an ultra cool music festival - Voodoo Experience. 

And in less than a year, it has happened. This October, the first ever TribeCon Conference will begin. 

What I think is really cool (and have thought since the first day Chris/Tiffany told me about their idea) is that the entire conference isn't just another social media conference. No, this one has a very specific, and I think immensely important focus -- community building. Have you read Godin's Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us? [amazon link] If not, you should read it right before you come to TribeCon... it will prime you for what I think is going to be a great group of folks talking about the future of advertising.

From Tara Hunt author of The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business [another amazon link] to Brian Oberkirch (wicked smart guy I've heard speak) to NOLA's adopted daughter Sloane Berrent (another wicked smart person I've heard speak) and a host of others that I'll give you the joy of discovering over at the TribeCon site, this is shaping up to be another great new conference. Can it be as great as the south's other new entry into the conference circuit -- Social South? I don't know, that one was pretty great, but the stars surely seem to be aligning in that direction. 

All of this to say, if you're interested in learning more about how to use Community to benefit your cause, yourself or your brand -- I think you might want to take a peek at this conference and give a good bit of thought to stopping down that weekend.

And me, I'll be there. Haven't finished my deck yet but here is an overview of my session:

Micro-Content
The fundamental dynamics of content creation and dissemination have changed. No longer must we be slaves to worldwide media conglomerates where a handful of executives creating safe, homogenous content that appeals to the masses call the shots. For less than the price of a new car anyone with a point of view can produce and disseminate high quality, engaging Micro-Content focused on even the most niche interest.

Video, web, audio, print and even book publishing has become available to the masses. And if you think only amateurs and teens are creating it, think again.

Come see how this change to the media landscape combined with the explosive growth of social media is creating a unique opportunity for marketers big and small to get Tivo’d by today’s savvy consumer.

So, you coming or what? If you do, the first round is on me. And by the way, if you're coming: feel free to use Promo Code TomMartin to save 25% off your registration fee. So I guess that means, you'll be buying the second round... and maybe the third right?

Virtual Table Hopping

Last night I had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts around how restaurants can use Social Media to grow their business. I didn't have much time so the deck was short but the key idea was there.

The most powerful marketing tool any restaurant owner has is table hopping -- you know when the owner or chef works the room saying hello to guests, asking about their meals, etc. Here in New Orleans it's an art and the great chefs/owners use it to their advantage.

And that is the power of social media for restaurants -- it virtually eliminates the Achilles heal of table hopping -- that you can only do it with the folks in your restaurant. With Twitter, Facebook and the like, you can table hop whenever you wish to. Drop by a patron's Facebook to congratulate them on the birth of a new child or invite them to spend their birthday with you at your restaurant. Use Twitter to say hello to your guests and keep in touch with them. Maybe even use it to notify them that you're got a that special "off menu" item they love, tonight only. You get the picture. I think I might be on to something as I saw a lot of light bulbs going off last night and no, they weren't cameras!

Anyhow, like most decks, you lose a lot without seeing me present it live but I've uploaded the entire thing to slide share so that all of you can see it. Let me know what you think and if you have a restaurant friend, send them the slides and let me know what they think. I'm seriously considering blowing this up into a more formal, one day training class kind of thing so I'm really interested in seeing if folks, especially restaurants, would be interested.

A Man. An iPhone. And a Dream. The Movie.

Download an iPod friendly version to watch later. (MAC users, place mouse on link and hold down Control key, then select Save Link As. PC peeps: right click link and select "Save as." Both should allow you to download the file to your hard drive.)

Well not exactly a movie but the video of my Social South Conference presentation of the results of a Twitter experiment I ran over Mardi Gras this past February. If you're interested in learning how to use Twitter to change brand perception or if you're a destination or event that is wanting to better understand how to use Social Media to market yourself -- you'll probably find the 30 minutes time well spent.

And if you were at Social South but you chose to sit in on David Griner's excellent presentation or the wonderfully smart Christina Kerley's session, which based on the post reviews of both sessions -- I can hardly blame you -- now you can see what you missed.

As always, I'd love to hear what y'all think of the presentation and the experiment. Thinking about doing it again this year but bigger!

Get the 411 on Social Media - Video

This is the video of my Get the 411 on Social Media presentation that I gave at the Ritz-Carlton, New Orleans on August 13, 2009. Would love to hear what you think in the comments below. And if you'd like to talk to me about speaking to your group, please contact me.

Where in the world is Tom Martin

One of the greatest things about doing the public speaking gig is the opportunity to visit places you might not otherwise visit and meet people you probably wouldn't meet. And luckily for me, I'm about to get a bunch of both. If you find that I'm going to be near you, I hope you'll stop by the event and most certainly say hello.

• August 20 - Jennings, LA:    LACCE Fall Conference where I'll talk about how Chambers can use SocMe to increase membership and more importantly, increase the ROI of their member's membership.
• August 21 - Shreveport, LA: Keep Louisiana Beautiful State Conference where I'll focus on how non-profits working to keep our great state litter free can use Twitter and Facebook to grow and manage their member base as well as increase donations. 
• August 22 - Birmingham, AL:   Social South Conference where I'm going to talk about how you can use Social Media, Twitter in particular, to change brand perception and how this approach is especially valuable for brands that have historical negative associations that they'd like to change. BTW, if you haven't yet, you should register for this conference. You can click on the registration widget on my sidebar and if you use NOLA as your promo code you'll save $30. Yes, you are free to use that savings to buy me a beer when we meet ;-) and yes, it is an affiliate link so of course, I'll buy you one back.
• August 26 - Dallas, TX:  The League of Extraordinary Marketers August event where I'll be showing how One Man, and iPhone and Twitter changed the brand perception of Mardi Gras. This is a pretty cool group of folks and if you're a Dallas based person, you should check them out.
• September 16 - Houston, TX: The Houston AAF September Luncheon where I'm going to do a shortened form of my Get the 411 on Social Media which we just did here in NOLA last week to over 200 people in the audience. So far the reviews are good so we'll see what you Texans think. 
• September 23 - New Orleans, LA:  I get to stay home for this one. I'll be talking general Social Media with the NFI Future Leaders group who is holding their meeting here in New Orleans.
• October 20 - Omaha, NE (tentative) where I've been asked by the Omaha Chapter of the AMA to talk about how marketers can and should blend online social media efforts with more traditional offline advertising efforts. I'm truly stoked about this one because not many conferences want to have this discussion but I'm convinced it is one that needs having. 
• November 4 - Des Moines, IA where the Iowa Chapter of the AMA has asked me to discuss creating Brand Passion. This is one of my favorite talks because in my estimation, more brands should be trying to do this and of course, brand passion and social media play well together.

Rumor has it I'm also going to do a piece at the first TribeCon - Community Conference here in New Orleans, which just so happens to fall around VooDoo Fest (darn). More on that as details finalize but after having talked with the organizers Chris Schultz and Tiffany Starnes, I think you might want to leave your last weekend in October open. Sounds like some really good stuff. 

And lastly, as long as we're talking speaking gigs, I've got a proposal into SXSW for the 2010 SXSW Interactive Conference that I think will be really cool. Scott Monty of Ford, Jackie Danicki of Qik, Dan Patterson of ABC News have all agreed to join me to discuss and debate if advertising or virtual experiences delivered via social media channels is more effective in changing brand perception. I think it will be one of the more interesting and advanced panels as we won't be just talking the same old stuff you hear at every Social Media conference. Instead, we'll be using real-life examples of advertisers and media to explore how this new dynamic may fundamentally alter the ad agency and media world. Should be cool. You can vote it up by going to http://budurl.com/SXSWPanel and if you could, tell a friend or 10,000. How this thing does on the vote picker supposedly influences whether or not SXSW will put it on the schedule.

And I almost forgot. If you're looking for a dynamic, fun and educational speaker for your next corporate event, conference or trade group meeting, feel free to check out my past work, read reviews, and contact me for availabilities and fees. 

As always, thanks for stopping by and if you're going to be in any of these towns when I am, let me know. I'm always up for meeting new people.

photo by djwhelan

Prepare Your Fields For Rain

They say luck finds those that earn it. I think that's true. In fact the headline of this post is all about being ready for luck or maybe destiny. I do a bit of public speaking now and then. I'd like to do a lot more.

So I write decks, I give talks, I post them to Slideshare and when I can, I capture them on video and post that too. Why? Because it gets the word out and helps folks looking for speakers qualify me.

I also make myself available on a moments notice (if necessary) to pinch hit for groups who have had a speaker cancel on them. I spent five years doing programming for the NOLA AMA and I know what it is like to have  speaker cancel on short notice. I also know how thankful I was to the person who pinch hit for me when that happened. So I make myself available whenever I can.

Like last Thursday. The speaker that was scheduled to speak to the NOLA AMA got stuck in Houston. One of the board members rang me at 10:30a and asked if I could pop over to the Northshore for a noon luncheon (note: it's about a 30 min drive). She knew I had lots of decks and talks and didn't care what I gave, she just needed a favor. Luckily I had a light day and so I agreed.

I been working on a new talk, Using Twitter to Change Brand Perception. And while it was far from finished, it would work.

Using Twitter to Change Brand Perception

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And it was great. I had a blast. The audience seemed to like it. And a number of folks came up after to let me know "they'd be in touch" to talk about opps to work together in the future. And best of all... I got to work out the kinks on that talk so that the next time I give it, it will be far stronger. Everyone wins. The AMA didn't have to cancel its lunch. The attendees learned something new. And I might even have picked up a bit of biz.

All because I prepared my fields for rain. Are you?

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