Remember Voltron? When I was a kid I used to love that cartoon. You’d think that with those bad-ass robot lions the universe would be safe. But you’d be wrong. Because every episode some bad guy came along that couldn’t be defeated by the lions alone, not matter what they did. The same thing happened on every. single. episode. They had to combine to form freakin’ Voltron, and only then could they defeat everything in their path.
But why wouldn’t they just form Voltron at the beginning? I think that would have saved a ton of time, but then again, it wouldn’t have been much of a show (update: rented Voltron on Netflix and is isn’t much of a show through the eyes of a 20-something…in fact it sucked pretty bad).
Where am I going with this? I think a of people are seeing the value of social media and realizing that these tools can really affect your business. But we need to remind ourselves that it’s not a social vs. traditional world we’re living in. To have maximum impact, you need find out which channels, online and offline provide the best mix of message, experience, and sharability. In short, step back and look at where you’re putting your marketing dollars and determine if your message is effective and consistent both as letter and number and bits and bytes. Figure out how social can reinforce traditional and vice versa. Then Voltron your marketing from the beginning. You’ll see how much faster you’ll conquer the universe.
It’s hot and sunny here in upstate New York and for some reason it’s made some businesses think it’s already Halloween.
Last week on my drive home I drove past Little Caesar who was dancing and waving a sign for $5.00 pizzas on the side of the road as well as a guy dressed as a Giant Taco (I shall henceforth call him Taco-Man) pushing a special on burritos. Oh yeah, and just a regular non-costumed guy (unless you want to call him Super Bored Man) holding a sign telling me that I need to sell my gold jewelry now for top dollar on yet ANOTHER major intersection.
I’m actually a bit surprised that I haven’t seen anyone dressed as the statue of liberty on the side of the road advertising tax services - then again it wouldn’t be timely or targeted (as if these kinds of tactics are targeted).
Is this the most creative use your marketing budget? Have we as a species run out of creative ideas to attract customers? Granted, those giant taco suits aren’t cheap…but really?
How about instead of having Billy change into Taco-Man you worked to cultivate a following with some killer deals (Taco Tuesday, anyone?) or an event centric atmosphere that gives like-minded people a place to connect and grab a bite? There’s no reason bike-night should or needs to happen at a local McDonalds or Arby’s. Look around your area, find a group that isn’t having their needs met - and sponsor them through specials, cash or even a place to gather. Little Caesar should be making pizzas, not waving down traffic.
What do you think? Do street characters get your attention and impact your purchasing decisions? Fire away in the comments…
Search for Social Media Expert on search.twitter.com - go ahead. I’ll wait. There is amazing amount of people that talk about how to use social media and social media tools - on social media tools. Lately it’s felt a bit like an echo chamber, with thousands of people regurgitating the same articles on their own networks. And that’s made Social Media Expert a dirty word.
It’s very easy to set up an automated stream that will send out any article related to Social Media 10 times a day. But that doesn’t make a person an expert and it doesn’t really add anything of value to their network after the first few posts.
People that use the tools in the most effective ways are not just re-tweeting articles blindly. They’re reading posts, commenting, conversing and deciding if those posts are worth sharing. Will MY network find value in this post if I re-tweet it? Has this already been said 20 thousand times before? Those are the big question you should ask before each tweet.
There’s a lesson for businesses here. They need to bring value to their network. Whiles sales and ROI are certainly the end goals for most brands, those are the long-term byproducts resulting from the time invested in building relationships. To succeed in this space you MUST bring value and have dialogue. That takes time, but the good news for consumers is that you can’t automate those things.
Some of the bigger guns in Social Media have taken a pit stop recently into the more traditional scene and published books on their areas of expertise. Chris Brogan and Julian Smith put out Trust Agents recently (my review of the book coming soon) and Gary Vaynerchuk just released Crush It (currently reading).
Both have gotten a bit of criticism for jumping into a traditional method of disseminating information (the hardcover book) when their ‘business’ is talking about online communities, business, and social media. Furthermore, both Chris and Gary give away an enormous amount of kick-ass information, action items, and insight through both their blogs, and in Chris’ case, much of the basic principles served as the foundation for Trust Agents.
So why did I buy (and why will I continue to buy) their books when I can get a lot of the same content for free, online? First it’s about saying Thank You. It’s the same reason I became a member of my local NPR station. They give away the content, but I find value in it, so I choose to support it. For another reason that made sense to me, I have to bring in Seth Godin. Below check the embed of a talk that he gave to book publishers about the different methods he uses to publish his books and how they were received.
The short of it is that guys like Seth, Gary, and Chris are a bit different since they’re not in the book business. They’re in the building relationship business, the speaking business and the building community business. They give talks, put out great info for free on their blogs, and create experiences. The books are souvenirs. Now, of course for people who aren’t familiar with their online work, the books are a gateway, a CD sampler, an appetizer. But for the rest of us….souvenirs.
It’s part of what Gary V. has called the “Thank You Economy.” and it’s something that I also think is here to stay. So, thanks Chris and Gary for the great content, the videos, the blogs, the interaction and the community.
There’s been a small taxi driver who has been getting a lot of press today on everything from the Huffington Post, to NPR about his novel business idea. Since June, Recession Ride Taxi has been picking up riders and letting them pay what they want. No strings attached. They also have a small cooler in the car where patrons can grab a cold beverage - again, paying whatever they want. Oh, and they have punch cards. Every 7th ride is free.
So how is this working out? Eric Hagen, who is the taxi operator, says he’s never been shortchanged. Of course, people have had a lot of questions, but things have picked up considerably after a quiet couple of weeks. According to the article in the Burlington Free Press, Hagen used to work at the NY Stock exchange and that experience made him look for a different way to do business.
At first I thought it was just a cool and different business idea, and a little gimmicky. But Hagen insists that empowering the consumer to make a decision on cost has created a system that leaves customers feel valued and is profitable. I agree. But I think what this is really about is trust and the building of relationships. He trusts that if given quality service, customers will recognize this and compensate him fairly (interestingly enough, Chris Brogan had a similar experience recently). Eric is a Trust Agent. And trust scales. Trust spreads. And trust is based on relationships. With both parties vested in providing value to the other, I’d argue that this has the potential to create a much more loyal customer base. It creates evangelists, if only out of the initial curiousity.
Anyway, cool story, cool concept and I hope it works out for Eric. Well done.
So, do you think this is a sustainable business model? More importantly when was the last time a business melted your face with their service and earned your trust? I want to know. Show some love and leave a comment.
Remember Voltron? When I was a kid I used to love that cartoon. You’d think that with those bad-ass robot lions the universe would be safe. But you’d be wrong. Because every episode some bad guy came along that couldn’t be defeated by the lions alone, not matter what they did. The same thing happened on every. single. episode. They had to combine to form freakin’ Voltron, and only then could they defeat everything in their path.
