Call for Speakers: Digital Marketing

Dear Smart People:

I am the Programming Chair volunteer for the Colorado American Marketing Association Digital Dynamics 2010. Digital Dynamics 2010 is a series of Webinars on digital marketing topics. Our audience is client and agency marketing people from AMA chapters across the U.S.  The audience will lean toward Colorado, but we have had a much higher than expected interest from nationwide AMA chapters, so it is likely that these webinars will likely be highly attended. Our audience will likely have an intermediate level of digital knowledge level.

We’re looking for best of breed speakers on the following topics and months:

Social Media ROI and Delivering Value– Jan.
Mobile Marketing – March
Either Integrated Online/Offline or Digital Dashboards – April
What Does the Future Hold for Digital Marketing? – June (this one will be held in Denver.)

Once we find the appropriate speaker or panelists, we will solidify the topic and logistics (Panel v. singular speaker, etc.) Speakers can be anywhere with a quality internet access connection, but they must be familiar with speaking via a Webinar. The one exception is that the speaker in June must be present in Colorado. So, please forward me names, suggestions, etc. of people whom you regard as top of class in digital marketing.

DEADLINE: Oct. 9th.

I have to provide a consideration list by Oct. 10th for the committee to review.

Thank you! Monique

Monique@Conversify.net 720-897-6089

Exploring Enhanced Facebook Pages

Have you been implementing Enhanced Facebook Pages (EFPs) into your or your clients’ Facebook Pages?

I’m finding a dearth of discussion about the enhancements that are now possible within Facebook Pages such as:

• Custom Tabs
• Custom Pages
• Enhanced Wall Pages

But almost too quietly, companies are rolling out beautifully augmented Facebook Pages that thumb collective noses at the weak, poorly-branded default Page programming options.

Why have a company information page like this:

When you can have a branded, action-oriented, compelling and engaging landing page like this:

Am I missing something here?

I mean is there a reason why more people aren’t taking full advantage of EFPs and FBML to build out more clearly branded and interactive Pages to take a Facebook Page from a plain-vanilla, moderately interactive billboard into a visually-appealing, dynamic space? Even if we treat your Facebook Page as a gateway to your site, blog or other forum, shouldn’t we be leveraging the best creative options and features at our disposal to give a great first impression to our potential (and existing) customers and clients?

I’d argue that one reason for the slow and quiet rollout of these pages (Facebook did announce these capabilities in Q1 2009) is because it does take a certain degree of skill and understanding of FBML and Facebook Apps to develop these. But I think the real reason we aren’t hearing about these enhancements yet is because while there are awesome programmers out there with the capabilities, they may not be marketers. Seeing these EFPs warms the cockles of my marketer’s heart, and I sure other marketers – when shown the differences between default FB Pages and EFPs will be equally as giddy.

What we need to do is to get the awesome programmers together with the savvy social media marketers to best leverage these technical developments. Throw in a great designer in the mix, and we will no longer have to suffer through boring and confusing default Facebook Pages.

Pros of EFPs

Quick thoughts on the benefits of EFPs:

• Strong branding
• Enhanced visuals and multimedia placement
• More prominent calls to action
• More familiar – and less confusing – interfaces
• More positive emotional impact upon landing
• Ability to target an enhanced landing page to non-fans and the interactive Wall to existing fans

Cons of EFPs?

Here are some things I think naysayers might say about EFPs. Worth discussing.

• Could turn your Facebook Page into more of a destination which could split your audience away from your main destination so there might be an impact on traffic referrals from Facebook.
• Increases time of production and cost of Facebook Page development.
• Requires additional strategic planning, and design discussions to create truly effective EFPs.
• Just because something CAN be done might not mean that everyone SHOULD do it. You need a strategic reason to invest the extra time and money to execute.

So why am I talking about Enhanced Facebook Pages?

Shouldn’t I be hoarding the information within my own company to set us apart from other SMM firms? Of course not! We as an industry are better off as a whole by sharing knowledge and establishing a higher standard of best practices in social media marketing. As we all improve our services and offerings – and our understanding of the tools and tactics which constantly change – we create a bigger and more enticing pie as we prove that SMM is coming into it’s own and cannot be ignored.

Will you help me spread the word? Let’s talk about and compare EFPs – pros, cons, best practices, and the worst.

By the way, don’t look at our company FB Page – Cobbler’s Kids’ Shoes, know what I mean? But we’ll get there because we know we have to in order to remain competitive and to best leverage available technologies and tools.

Who do YOU think has a great EFP? Do YOU?

Getting Real With Social Media

I recently listened to some PR and marketing professionals discuss social media on a podcast geared toward a PR audience, and I was struck by the commentary about social media consultants. One comment was that too many social media consultants hype social media tools to their clients at the expense of good, solid strategy. I can agree with that statement. I cringe when I see people jumping on the bandwagon of social media marketing with little experience and nothing more than the ability to talk a good game, flash shiny objects in front of people and fail to be strategic. They are ruining it for the rest of us who have been in the trenches pioneering this stuff and thinking through the strategy for over a decade.

But the comments in the podcast that irked me were the ones where the PR and marketing professionals were saying that social media marketers are out of touch with what “real people” want or need and that they need to get back in touch with reality.

What?!? Let’s get REAL here.

Since when are PR people the holders and distributors of reality? Since when is PR and marketing based around what “real people” actually want? The entire premise of public relations, marketing and advertising isn’t “give people what they actually want and need” but rather “convince people that they want and need what we’re selling.” Public relations isn’t about “getting the truth to people” but instead is about “spinning the message to OUR truth so people buy it.”

The day public relations, advertising and marketing actually get REAL and are based in REALITY is when all those industries convert to journalism or what we all wish journalism would be – actually reporting on what is happening and giving voice to real people who are experiencing those things. As long as you are selling something, you are mostly inventing your own reality and repeating your message as often as you can in order to get others to believe in your reality to buy what you are selling.

So what the hell is social media marketing then?

Just using the term “marketing” at the tail end of social media creates a misnomer. Social media is about conversations, collaboration and community – it is the sets of tools and applications that facilitate conversations, collaboration and community. What we do isn’t really Social Media Marketing. It is Social Media Engagement. We’re not trying to push carefully crafted marketing messages and spin out to the public for their consumption. We are listening to what people are saying, and we’re seeding conversations to see what people have to say about issues. We take the best practices and smartest teachings from the old ways of doing things and apply them to an entirely new landscape.

Yes, we are listening to what people are saying on behalf of clients who have products or services to sell. And yes, we are seeding conversations to see what people have to say about issues that are somehow related to what our clients do. However, we aren’t convinced that the push, push, push PR/advertising/marketing methods of yesterday work anymore. The “dumb” consumer of the ’50s and ’60s is a skeptical grown up now and smarter than ever about the products they consume. The consumer of the 90s? They take all this social media stuff for granted – they were born with it. They’re even more skeptical than their parents.

This is not your mama’s marketing. Social media engagement is something entirely different. Social media is actually for, by and about the very people that PR folks, marketers and advertisers are trying to reach.

If you’re in PR, marketing or advertising, I know you’re getting nervous – maybe even scared – about the new way your audience is empowered and how the old way of communicating at them is not working anymore. But if you really want to GET social media, you’ll get out of your old comfortable worn-out box and stop deluding yourself that you are in touch with what “real people” want. Roll up your sleeves, get into the social media trenches, and actually find out what they. I think you’ll be surprised by what you find.

How are YOU getting real with your consumers? Or are you?

Marketing in Second Life

I spoke about marketing in Second Life on two recent podcasts:

The Digital Marketer Episode 48 - read the transcript here and listen…

and

Barry Moltz’s Business Insanity Radio - read Barry’s blog post about the show and listen…

I’m also hoping to get my Cybergrrl Oh: Living a Second Life podcast back up and running. After a too-long hiatus, I’m diving back into SL for events including:

Tuesday, April 14  7PM SL time (PST for the uninitiated) - 1st QuestioN!, a fast paced science themed show with the best & the brightest of experience in SL & beyond. With hosts Pooky Amsterdam &  Hydra Shaftoe broadcast live from inside the StudioDome. Here’s the SLURL to attend the show.

What are you up to in Second Life?