marketing Archives - Page 5 of 21 by Mark Murnahan

Search Engine Optimization is Not a Technology Job!

Whether you work in a large corporation or a small company, this applies to you. I am going to explain why SEO is far more than just the technology it makes use of. If you think SEO is a technology skill, or worse, you are guilty of leaving your SEO to the IT department, duck and take cover! This may hit you between the eyes.

Did somebody ever tell you that SEO is a function of IT? If so, I want to explain how terribly misinformed they truly are. If you believed them, this may be upsetting, but at least it’s the truth.

First, allow me to break away from the acronyms for a moment. “SEO” stands for search engine optimization, and it involves the art and science of helping websites to rank in the top of search engine results for given search keywords. “IT” stands for Information Technology, and one way to look at it is the people who help keep your computer network running, and who you call if your email stops working.

I just dramatically understated each of the skills involved, but that gives you an idea to start with. What I hope to explain in a way you can appreciate is that IT is a technology skill, and SEO has more to do with people than it does computin’ machines. It is a marketing skill that makes good use of technology, and not a technology that makes use of marketing.

A surgeon uses scalpels, but is not defined as being in the scalpel industry. Similarly, a search engine optimizer uses technology, but should not be defined as being in the IT industry. Use of technology is just one subset of SEO skills.

Sure, there are important matters of technology involved, such whether to use www or no www and how to do a 301 redirect, or the very important difference in a slash or no slash at the end of your web address. That is just SEO at its most basic level, but if you want to rank well in searches, there is a whole lot more to it.

How the Absurdity of SEO Being a Technology Skill Began

Search engine optimization, in its earliest days, was looked at as something to do with computers. It was all a part of that new Internet craze that told everybody to have a website. Companies who wanted a website needed “computer people” to make it happen. After all, the Internet runs on computers, and having a website was a pretty technical thing.

Websites really are very technical when they are done well. Most people who look at websites don’t understand all the programming that goes into it, the security features, or the server architecture that it all runs on. So, it looks really technical to them, and for many people it implies that everything surrounding it surely must be technology-oriented.

Let’s take another look!

Why Do Companies Have Websites?

Let us consider the most common reason any company has a website. It is to emphasize the assets of their business. Websites are built with technology, but their most common purpose is marketing. Whether that marketing is just to share information for free, increase sales, or impress investors, it is still a tool of marketing and communications. There are very few cases where a company will create a website “just for the heck of it” or to intentionally waste money. There must be a reason, and that reason almost always has its roots in being more visible to others.

Doesn’t this begin to sound a bit outside of the scope of those “computer people” who keep your email working? Sure, there are many aspects of SEO that require technical skills, but definitely not the kind that fit into an IT job role. Save your IT people for something more up their alley.

Many SEO professionals have been falsely embedded into IT departments, and they simply do not belong there. The most important and effective job functions of effective search engine optimizers have little to do with computers or technology. Sure, we know a lot about technology, because we have to, but that is not our most valuable asset. Again, I submit that a surgeon may know a lot about her scalpels, but that does not make her a “scalpel person”.

Here are a few basic examples of how technology is a part of SEO. See the articles as follows:

There must be at least a squillion more technology matters related to SEO. I think I’ve probably written something about most of them over my 15+ years in the industry. Even if you put them all to perfect use, it will never make up for the importance of understanding how to make things more marketable.

I’m not trying to fool you into thinking technology does not matter. I mean, I did write those earlier technology-related articles about SEO, and many more. I also have a significant amount of proof that I know the job of SEO. The technology does matter … a lot … but it will not trump the other magic that a truly talented SEO professional brings to the equation. Those things include defining what moves people to action, analyzing demographics, psychographics, geographics, and deeply understanding Internet usage on the human level. It also requires analyzing the competition and knowing what makes you the stronger competitor.

The many non-technology creative marketing assets of a good SEO professional with measurable marketing talent are vastly more valuable than any amount of technology.

Understanding SEO as a Hybrid Skill Set

Most companies understand that when people search the Internet for something, it is good to be found at the top of the list. People start clicking at the top of the list, and not at the bottom. So, it makes sense, right? The difference a few spots down that list can make is astonishing. See “Improve SEO Return on Investment (ROI) With Simple Math” to understand the difference.

It is a bit harder to understand SEO as a hybrid between multiple departments within a company. It involves defining and distilling the best assets of a company into something people will love. It involves putting those things to work on the Internet where people will see them and link to them from their websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, social bookmarking sites, and more. It involves making a company popular based on its own previously hidden merits. Within the mix, there is technology, but the technology is just to support the awesomeness. The awesomeness is not there to support the technology.

It may help to consider that the single most prominent factors for top search engine ranking is the number of other websites linking to yours, and the quality of those websites. You don’t get those links from technology, you get them from people who think you’re amazing, and you get those people by repeatedly doing amazing things.

Reciprocal link exchanges are a bad idea, and you don’t have enough friends to link to your website to outrank any significant competitors. It’s going to take more than that, so isn’t it wise to at least have the right department handling it?

Why was this stuck in my craw?

I recently wrote a proposal for a company that I really like. I like them because of their industry, and I like them because I know I can do amazing things for them. When I discovered that they are relying on the IT department to handle their SEO efforts, it made my stomach hurt.

I don’t take on projects if I am not 100 percent confident that I can help them. In this case, there should be little wonder why their websites have a miserable response. They just don’t know how much they don’t know. I hope to fix that!

Photo Credit:
Washington State Cage Fighting Championships by Kelly Bailey via Flickr

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Social Media Marketing is More Than Social Networking

Have you ever noticed that there are a lot of people trying hard to have a big social media audience? I’m sure you’ve seen things like television shows promoting their Twitter and Facebook. You’ve probably seen companies running contests and offering free goods if you will just follow them. You’ve undoubtedly seen the links all over the Internet screaming “Follow Me”. On the more absurd side, you’ve likely had complete strangers with nothing in common, and no real interest in you, follow you or send you a friend request, just to add to their perceived worth.

A couple years ago, I described it as the “Twitter Follower Frenzy“, and it still persists.

Seeking an audience is not all bad, but it is one of the more misunderstood components to social media marketing. It has been widely promoted that if you can gather a big audience, it will provide some unrealistic value to your business.

Once the audience is assembled, many people talk about “engagement”, but then don’t even know what that really means. They will say how important it is to “engage” your audience, so a lot of companies take that as just trying to make friends and be chatty with everybody they can.

Friends are fine, but that is not marketing. That is networking, and social networking can do amazing things for your marketing, and building social media equity is important. However, by using tactics without a strategy, social networking alone will lead most companies to huge disappointments.

Who Are Those People in Your Network?

It baffles me how many people and companies are so desperate to have “Followers” and “Friends” that they will completely give up on understanding who they are, why they came, and what they want. A lot of them are so desperate that they engage in the absurdity of implied reciprocity. You may know it as the “I’ll follow you if you’ll follow me” tactic, and I hope you don’t waste your time with that.

Without knowing who they are, why they came, and what they want, and by just having a bunch of random communications with random people, the value is greatly diminished. After all, just try to “engage” me about knitting needles … it will not help you sell more knitting needles … not even one. Even if I like you, I’m also pretty unlikely to tell all of my friends about how awesome your knitting needles are. It’s just not my thing.

Let’s be clear on this! If you are just trying to reach people, it will not provide the same benefit as reaching the right people. This is the biggest single missing link I find with most social media campaigns, and it is because of an utter lack of strategy. Struggling along this way will cost a lot more time, effort, money, and the worst of all … the huge cost of missed opportunities. So, why don’t people get this?

Without knowing about the audience, it is futile to create the right message they care about and will respond to favorably. It causes many brands to become very boring, and even annoying. A brand without a meaningful brand voice that resonates among their audience is really missing the point.

I realize that things like “knowing the audience” seems mythical to a lot of people. It must seem almost impossible to know who they are as a group, and then to figure out what they want, or what moves them. This is something that you will hear people talk about in theory, but putting it into practice is a much more refined skill.

On a side note to emphasize knowing who they are, and what they want, just look at the recent insults Chris Brogan received when he mass-unfollowed tens of thousands of people on Twitter. You can bet the ones who were upset didn’t care what he had to say as much as they just wanted him to follow them … as if that was really going to grant them three wishes.

See The Great Twitter Unfollow Experiment of 2011

You’ve Got the Audience, But Now What?

Aside from the job of defining the right market for your offering, successful social media marketing requires being creative enough to determine what they want, and also deliver it. Marketing creativity is not a native asset for most people. Optimal creativity comes when a person is utterly immersed in the creative world as their career. Like any career, people who do something day in and day out get better at it. You can have a degree in dentistry, but if you work full-time as an accountant, you are probably not the best dentist.

I have described the best SEO and social media marketing tools in a previous article titled “The Best SEO and Social Media Tools Are Not As Expected!” As a preview for that article, I offer this video.

Warning! The following includes a high concentration of truth, which some people may find unsettling or offensive. Please be warned that this is not suitable for all audiences!

Successful Social Media Marketing Requires More

I am not out to discourage or offend anybody who is trying earnestly to learn effective social media marketing. Quite the opposite, I make many sincere efforts to help them. At the same time, I am convinced that there is a huge lack of critical thinking when it comes to online marketing. When I say critical thinking, I mean being willing to question what you’re told, enough to discern the truth from the lies.

There are enough people promoting that “you can be an expert, too” and “easy money” mentality that even things which have no basis in reality or common sense are accepted as truth. When people desperately want to believe something, they make it more believable in their own minds. The one thing I find many people struggle to believe is the truth. That is because the truth is far more complex than what you find in an ebook, a blog article, or a conference.

I am going to share a bit of harsh truth. Some people will respect the honesty, and some will hate it. That never stopped me before, because I write to my audience … the people who care about my industry, people who care about the things I do to help my industry, and people with a propensity to become my clients. That is the voice of my brand, and that is my audience. All of the others certainly matter, but they are not a part of my strategy, and do not affect my business results.

So here we go … this is a small snippet (edited to include relevant links) from a recent 11 page, $200,000, four month marketing proposal that I submitted. No, it was definitely not presented as a $599 pathway to success. We told the truth, and it is up to them to accept it or not. Tear it apart if you like, but the truth is what the truth is, and you cannot change that.

Most people get social media completely wrong. After all, they are often listening to others who are only slightly less confused than they are. They come to think that it means just socializing with a bunch of friends, and that with enough friends, their business will become a smash hit. It doesn’t work like that!

Social media is not identified as easily as Facebook for sharing college party photos, Twitter for telling people what you are having for lunch, LinkedIn for finding a job, and YouTube for showing off funny videos. It is also not so basic as having a large audience, which is a common fallacy.

A lot of people will try to point to facts and figures about social media, but something very few of them will tell you about are the downsides. They overlook how very quickly The Pareto Principle comes into play when you send in a novice to do your bidding. The Pareto Principle is the rule that tells us 80 percent of success comes from 20 percent of the people, and 80 percent of the people will fail miserably, while the other 20 will take 80 percent of the rewards.

When applied to online marketing, there is a very long tail. The percentage of success is much smaller than 20, while the percentage of failure is much larger than 80. In fact, only a very minuscule percentage of social media marketing efforts will become truly successful, but we can explain why.

Most companies fail to realize the critical importance of audience modeling and knowing who they actually need to reach. Most will not make proper use of the invaluable discovery tools to help them reach their ideal audience. Most will not understand the psychographic research enough to know what their audience will respond to favorably. Most will lack the creativity to inspire action. Most do not have the time or patience to invest in knowledge, nor the confidence to invest the money needed to gain that knowledge.

The responsibilities of social media marketing professionals are a lot more than making friends and socializing. It is far more detailed than a person can learn in a month or two, and it is usually not intuitive. Many of the people who do this job the best have been doing it for many years, and put thousands of hours into learning. They are also the ones who are happy to help others learn what really works, and stop believing the myths. That is because when the industry is less confused, eventually each of our clients become less confused.

I know it is a very challenging and sensitive topic for a lot of people. I try to help others to improve their knowledge. I’ve got to say that it also really brings back my earlier question that has been asked around the world many times. That question is “Why Do You Want to Become an SEO and Social Media Expert?”

For those who are just certain they want to be in the business of social media marketing, be sure to subscribe and keep reading. There are very few secrets of effective online marketing. Volumes of good information are available right here on the Internet, and there is a good amount right here in my blog archive. If you take the time to study reliable information, work smart, and exercise due diligence, your marketing will improve regularly.

On the other hand, for those who are certain they need help, call me anytime.

Of course, I can only help a limited few at a time, so whomever you choose to help with your marketing efforts, be sure they understand the importance of what I have expressed here.

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Paradigm Shifting, Initial Perceptions, and Marketing Communication

Paradigms change when we look at things from a different perspective. We often sincerely believe something from one perspective, but when we view it from another angle, our beliefs can change. It changes how we think, and how we react to something.

What some people call “magic” is based on this same principle. Once you understand an illusionist’s “trick”, your paradigm shifts, and you will likely never see that trick the same way again.

A paradigm shift can be explained with many examples, and I want to share a deeply meaningful example which occurred this weekend with my family.

I do not enjoy negative drama, or sharing bad news. I like my life to be very peaceful, and with a positive and inspiring outlook. In fact, some have even expressed a sense of awe by just how seasoned I am to overcoming adversity and seeing the bright side of tragedy. From my perspective, delusion is a skill, and not a deficit.

With that said, I am still going to share this with you as an example of looking at things differently. On the other end of this story, I will try to share a positive outlook, but for a moment, I will sink to the dregs of my own emotion, and perhaps yours.

My Weekend Family Getaway is Teaching a Lesson

Last weekend was one that will have a haunting affect on my family, perhaps for a long time. It has caused a paradigm-shift in multiple ways.

My wife, Peggy, made plans for our family to have a great weekend. She is a fantastic planner, and we were all very excited to attend the Kansas City Air Expo. She planned this day-trip getaway long ago, and our excitement peaked as we saw the first precision aerobatics act soar into the heavens.

Our oldest son, Simon (8), is very interested in aeronautics, and has become like a youth encyclopedia of aircraft. Incidentally, his interest has been shared by his little sister, Madeline (6), and brother, Jack Walden (2). Of course, being doting parents, our interests have also been piqued by our children’s passions, and our knowledge has grown accordingly.

The air show was impressive. We got to see a lot of interesting aircraft, inside and out. One of our favorites is the A-10 Thunderbolt II, also known as “Warthog”. We got to hold a simulated version of the depleted uranium munitions that the Warthog fires at the astonishing rate of 4,200 per minute. We didn’t even mind the passing rain showers, because we got to eat lunch under the wing of a Warthog. That was the perspective we chose.

We were having a nice time, just being together, and out of our normal workday routines. It was a very welcome break.

Duck or Rabbit? It depends on how you look at it.

What Shifted Our Paradigm?

At approximately 1:45 in the afternoon, things changed. While watching an astonishing flight by pilot Bryan Jensen, our family was instantly shaken as Jensen’s plane became uncontrollable and he crashed into the ground.

This single moment changed many perceptions for us. We encountered a swift rush of emotions, and they continued to change throughout the day. Our immediate reaction was that of grave concern for the pilot. Although we now realize that any chance for Mr. Jensen’s survival was extraordinarily slim, we clung to fleeting hopes for his rescue.

Later in the day, we discussed it from a perspective of my racing, and how Peggy would deal with this if it had been me at a race track. From that perspective, I explained how it feels to be in a high-adrenaline moment of danger, and that Bryan Jensen likely maintained exceptional control and a lack of panic to the very end. Time slows down in moments like this, and for trained professionals, there is a surprising reaction of calmness and ability to maintain control. Knowing what I know from high performance driving gave us each some peace of mind. Knowing that he also died doing something he was very passionate about made it easier to accept.

Yes, I Know Danger, Too. This is Me After Braking From 165 MPH.

Our opinions and points of view changed repeatedly, and were shifted from one extreme to another. One very difficult perspective beyond our feelings for Jensen’s friends, family, and others came as I read comments on the YouTube video I uploaded, which included the crash. The user comments inspired anger, compassion, sadness, and more. It became a very confusing mix of feelings. With over 10,000 views within the first 24 hours, there was sure to be many expressed perspectives from one end of the human spectrum to the other, with each having an impact on my own perspective.

There were vulgar comments including everything from teasing my son who immediately just wanted to go straight home where he could feel safe and cry, to saying that a crash is why people go to air shows. Others were frustrated, as I was, that the rescue crews were very slow to arrive on scene … too slow for a race track, a concert, a county fair, and certainly too slow for an air show at an airport.

I normally just moderate comments on YouTube and on my blog after they are made, but after more than a hundred crude and inhumane comments, I set it to require my approval. I didn’t take this lightly, but after some of them truly made my stomach hurt, I decided I had enough of that raw human experience. I was noticing a sense of really looking at humanity differently than I like to, and being reminded that most people simply are not like me … not like me at all.

Perceptions Depend on Perspective

Something that was striking about the comments to this video was their given perspectives. As I read through each comment on YouTube, and in my initial blog post, I found that many pilots, aeronautics fans, event promoters, and others agreed with my view, and were appalled by the response time of the fire crew. After all, there was an economy car, an SUV, a pickup, and an ATV at the crash site, each long before the first fire truck entered the runway. On the opposite side, I found that there were many emergency response personnel including a high number of EMT (emergency medical technicians) who were angry that I criticized the response time.

This showed a very strong two-sided view of the incident, with one side like mine who count on emergency workers, and the other side who took a defensive viewpoint.

In the end, some people may say that my initial reaction of horror was negative toward the emergency response. Others will see that my response was very positive, because even against all odds, it was my reaction to put out the fire and try to save a life. Following that, I knew that the next objective was to preserve evidence in order that a future life may be saved.

The reality of the whole thing is that it came down to perspective. My son, Simon, just wanted to go home and feel something different. I wanted to get somebody there to preserve any hope for life, and to not look back and wonder “what if?” Not just for me, and not just for my family, but for Jensen’s family, friends, onlookers, and anybody who may find themselves feeling less secure at an airport.

Sure, you can say that it was not a commercial flight, and that only one life was at risk, but would the response have been any faster if the plane had crashed into the crowd? Would it look differently if that flight had 200 people on board? These are the questions I pondered.

The Positive Side of Marketing Communications

A positive side to the topic of paradigm shifting is that we each have a chance to change our own perspective, and even that of others. Depending upon how we choose to view things, we can see it as a rainy day at a family outing, or a chance to eat lunch under the wing of a Warthog. In marketing, it is our objective to understand how to help others with a new view of something.

We can choose to see a criticism of the fire crew’s response time as being a negative view toward them, or as positive for the desire to save a life against all odds.

We each have many chances to change our perception each and every day. We also have the same opportunities to help mold others’ perception. This is a marketing blog that teaches people how to create positive results for their companies, and improve their consumers’ perceptions. Others will see marketing as an evil plot to deceive people and get them to spend more money on something they don’t really need or want.

I see marketing as the difference between a company laying off employees, or becoming successful. I see marketing as the reason I have been able to discover the many things I enjoy in my life. Others will see marketing as the reason they made bad decisions and spent more than they could afford.

Many matters in life change depending on perspective. The perspective you use to base your own decisions, and the perspective you deliver to help mold the perception of others will each be huge factors in your success or failure.

Now, I want to ask you for your perspective. Do you view things from multiple perspectives? Do you realize how your communications can change the views of others? Go ahead and add your comments.

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Strategic Marketing Failure: Are You Giving it Up Too Easy?

Good sense tells us to not give it all away upfront. If you kiss on the first date, anticipation often fades, and there may never be a second date. It may get you into their fantasies, or even into their bed, but this will seldom get you into their hearts, where trust and loyalty thrive. I find it easy to apply this to concepts of marketing.

I really believe in giving away a lot of great ideas for free. Sharing useful thought is one of the best reasons to blog. In fact, there should be little wonder why some of the most popular blogs are popular. It is because they are giving away great information that people want.

A free sample is great, but can it go too far? I believe it can, and I think it is likely why there are so many people like my example of “Pete and The Amazing Pee-Pants Pizza Parlor” in my recent article titled “Marketing Clients vs. Crybaby Sissy Bed-Wetters“ who think marketing should be cheap … or free … and easy.

The concern of giving away too much information for free is not limited to my field of marketing. There are a good number of idea-based and information-focused industries where there is a legitimate need to balance enough information to show credibility without inspiring people to do it themselves or shop for a “cheaper” option. Of course, there is always somebody to do it cheaper, but shoppers often forget there is a difference between good and bad in any industry.

There is a line to be drawn between sharing concepts, and giving away the things which should and must be paid for. It is a blurry line for some people. Of course it is very blurry from the client side, but I also find it to be blurry for people on the selling side.

People Understand Value of Items … But Ignore the Value of Information

Information is one of the most valued assets to a company. So how can it be so easy for people to neglect this fact from a buyer’s perspective?

I think of it along the lines of a recent freebie I received from Subway. Subway sent me a $10 gift card to try out their new pulled pork sub. When I used that freebie, I bought more than $10 from them. I’ll go back, too. It was a freebie associated with a promotion through Klout, a company I wrote about recently, and it gave me incentive to walk through Subway’s door, become a more active customer, and potentially bring others.

Since they are giving away tangible goods with a defined cost, people understand they cannot just give away the whole restaurant. When the freebie is something that comes right out of somebody’s thoughts or research, there is a common perception that it does not still have a cost. I guess you could think that way, but when my three kids get hungry because Daddy gave away the whole restaurant, I am inclined to disagree. There is a cost, and there is a point when you have to stop giving everything away. I know that point, and I intend to illustrate it.

Try Asking Somebody Close Enough to Know

When I recently asked my wife for her opinion of a project I am strongly interested in, she said something I guess I should have expected. Her chilling words were “You know the routine, Mark. You give people enough information that they think they know all they need to go shopping for somebody to do it cheaper.”

Of course, I stammer to inject the notion “but they cannot implement it like I can, and they can’t make a meal from a free sample of caviar.” Yes, and I can make that argument until I am blue in the face and holding my breath for the next soul-sucking chance to send another great marketing client to the wolves for a price comparison. It does not change the facts.

You see, I am literally the guy rocket scientists ask when they need a better strategy. They are in an industry that sells flights for over 200 million dollars per seat, and mistakes in their industry are expensive. These are bright people, but social media strategy is not their area of expertise. If I give them a big hunk of brain candy to munch on, it is easy for them to imagine that mister “SuperheroUnderpants” marketing guru in his mom’s basement can do the same job by promoting them on his MySpaceyTwitterBook.

The reality is that far too many of the people I share my brain-samples with use what I give them and go shopping for price. Sure, I can resent that, but it is my own fault. I kiss on the first date, like a sophomore girl hoping to be loved. Actually, I think I do worse than that … I get naked for the whole football team to come and enjoy. I do it all the time, but I am a lot better about it than I used to be. These days, I at least get them to buy me dinner and a movie before I strip myself naked.

I Hate Marketing Marketing!

I love marketing, but I hate selling the services of marketing. I am over-the-top, and almost autistically good at marketing “something else”. I can prove it, and I have earned millions of dollars because of it, but asking me to sell it is like asking to borrow a couple of my teeth.

Yes, marketing is awesome fun, but it feels like a daily trip to the dentist for a colonoscopy to promote and sell it. This is why I have often explained that When I Go to Hell, They Will Have Me Selling SEO.

I can man-up enough to admit that it actually made my chest hurt as I internalized my wife’s insight, but not because it was insulting or untrue. It was very true, and she went on to remind me about other stunning examples when giving too much killed my hopes. It has not just happened once or twice, either. Somebody attempts to brain-rob me every day, but I stick up for myself these days. It is because I have learned the hard way, and forgone great projects and sent them to SuperheroUnderpants who will work for a case of Red Bull and a pirated copy of the next Nintendo game.

A True Story of Giving Too Much for Free

One such project was with a company where I really felt I belonged. I already felt an emotional attachment to the brand and the people. In fact, I was prepared to uproot my family and move to a different city for them. We were already shopping for schools and homes. I wrote about it in the article titled “99 Percent of Marketing Fails, But Eleanor Can Fly!“ and a follow-up titled “How Good SEO Becomes Great SEO: Feed the Gorillas!” It was the perfect scenario … or so it seemed.

Where the ugly part came in was after I returned from our meeting in Chicago where they had wanted me to bring my vision and build a new marketing crew for them. As I look back, I suspect that even before my plane landed, they were seeking somebody who would try and implement my ideas for a fraction of the salary. They found one, too … but wait for the real kicker!

That “somebody” totally destroyed the campaign, and in fact, destroyed it so badly that it is hard to even describe. Let me give you the quick version. They sent a $70,000 motorcycle and a $5,000 guitar on tour with a Grammy award winning band to promote a giveaway. It was to have a significant social media marketing push behind it, and the company said they were very dedicated to my ideas. They already had a significant investment leading up to it. How significant? They bought the company that made the motorcycle, because they thought it fit well with their brand … the brand that I was to build.

Now get this: By the time they gave away that $75,000 in prizes, their Twitter account had under 350 followers, their Facebook account had about the same, and their YouTube account did not have a single upload. Not one video of the band, the motorcycle, the fans, the guitar … nothing!

They failed, and I know, with mathematics and two decades of very successful experience on my side, that they caused their own demise. Although you could call me guilty for not explaining that great plans fail without implementation and the right crew, I don’t feel guilty. I just feel bad for giving too much for free.

Defining Free vs. Paid Knowledge

Each of us will have ways to define giving away “too much”, but here are a few of mine. I hope they will inspire you to think about yours.

First and foremost … a client only needs to know enough about me to realize that I have sufficient marketing creativity, experience, and talent to make them more successful. Period! If they are unwilling to consume enough of my freebies to realize these things, they will not be the kind of client I can work with, because they will second-guess my advice. That is a true recipe for failure, the likes of which I refuse to be a part of.

Another key is anybody indicating they are still shopping around for price. When that is the case, there are no freebies beyond my blog. If they are looking for price above value, they are not the paying type. Even if they pay, they will stand in their own way. They simply are not ready. They are the ones who search Google for “How much does SEO cost?” (where I am listed on the top), and then email me because they were too rushed to get numbers to actually read the correct answer. If they don’t hire me today, they will come back in a year or two, jaded by the failure I tried to warn them about. Both scenarios are like a bad case of herpes … I don’t put my love there!

If they say they are interested in meeting in person, that is not going to happen without their dollars. I don’t pack bags for free. If somebody needs to shake my hand, they need to pay me for it. They are a buyer, and I am not about to turn them into a looker. There is always a reason to ask me to meet with them, and it always involves custom brain-work. The custom stuff is never free.

I have a long list of things which define what is free versus paid, but I want to know what you think.

Should We Give Away Less Brainflow?

It really isn’t so different from the restaurant or sporting goods store giving away a freebie. It cannot all be free, or the company is not sustainable.

I will never stop giving away free ideas, but those are the ones like the $10 Subway gift card to bring buyers through the door. I give enough that people understand my knowledge, creativity, and credibility. I also do it for the people who need help, but cannot afford to hire my services, and I feel good about that, too. I believe in altruism, but I also recognize that even Mother Teresa, Ghandi, and others do things for well-intentioned but calculated reasons, and that altruism in its purest sense, is not what people told you.

I have learned the hard way. If you are giving away something better than the stuff other people are selling for money, you will damn yourself to lackluster clients if you cannot bring them to understand that there is a lot more where the freebies came from … and it’s for sale!

I know that I’m not alone in this battle. I’ve heard it from many respected others in my line of work. If you can relate to this, I want to hear your stories. I would also love to hear from you about where you draw the line between free ideas and the ideas you count on to buy your lunch.

If you are giving away too much, I’d also be curious to hear how your back feels after sleeping on the couch because you bought into the myth that information is “free”. I’m sleeping in the big bed tonight. Later sucker!

Photo Credit:
Birthday Present by Christopher Matson via Flickr

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Social Media Self-Analysis: How Are You Being Influenced?

I think it is safe to say that some people are self-conscious when it comes to social media. After all, as an audience builds, it kind of takes on something not so different from public speaking. Many people are terrified of public speaking, and being on a stage where others can pick apart every nuance.

Scarier yet, social media is kind of like public speaking where everything you say is recorded so people can go back later and catch all of your screwups, point them out to others, and make a mockery of you.

Those public perceptions, especially the criticism, can change how you think, how you communicate, and how others will treat you. In fact, I believe that strong peer influences like this can create a profound impact for many people. Sometimes this is good, and sometimes it is bad.

I think it is also safe to say that there is another opposite end of this self-awareness spectrum where people have little or no consciousness at all. They really don’t care what others say, and they take little benefit from criticism or good advice. These are the people begging for you to follow them on Twitter, sending Facebook friend requests to everybody … from a business profile instead of a Facebook Page, and have an urgency to achieve over 500 connections on LinkedIn because if the profile says “500+” it will make them feel more important. They are the ones using tactics without a strategy, and may never understand the greater value of social media.

They don’t let criticism from others affect their actions, and they think it is all done in the name of marketing … which really irritates me. These are the people who will send you automated messages promoting their website that you have absolutely no interest in, and use their favorite keywords instead of a real name when they comment on your blog. It is almost creepy to even glorify it with a mention, but it has become a huge part of our online world.

Here are some examples of utter absurdities in social media that I have discussed, and I think each of them are worth a read. Other people thought so, too, and the reader comments are definitely worth attention.

Does Bad Influence Become More Acceptable En Masse?

We should question whether bad influence becomes more acceptable in large groups, or if it is just more tolerated. What we should be really clear about, though, is that it does not become more effective or useful.

Spam and other ineffective thinking is here to stay. As society has adopted social media as a preferred communication medium, we have each encountered even more spammers and atrocious thinkers than before. As social media begins to reflect an even more accurate cross-section of our world as a whole, the smaller thinkers and late thinkers come in greater abundance. A few will develop excellence, while the majority will try to slide by on the least possible effort. This is very well defined and quantified in the long-standing Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule.

This tends to affect us all, as we become more skeptical and we scrutinize things just a bit closer. Otherwise, in many cases, people just begin to believe whatever the masses (that 80 percent) tell them as they give up any “common sense” filter. After all, if the masses are saying that you need more Twitter followers, and you don’t already know any better … you must need more Twitter followers, right? It created a Twitter follower frenzy, and a similar frenzy is in place across other networks. It is absurd, but it is a strong reflection of where these people receive their influence.

As my father would sometimes question, “If everybody was jumping off a cliff without a parachute, would you jump, too?”

People Adapt to Their Surroundings

There is a whole lot of truth to judging people by the company they keep. I don’t care how hard you argue against this, it is a fact of life. If you spend enough time around people with a regional accent, you will likely develop an accent over time. If you consume bad information from small thinking people, you will begin to adapt to that, as well. People don’t even need to know the company you keep, because it is written all over you.

Fortunately, a similar type of influence occurs when you surround yourself with bigger thinkers, with better ideas. It is why some people try hard to leave a ghetto, while others settle in and join the gang.

I hesitate to imagine that the bad influences of social media are actually more influential than the more beneficial influences. However, what I can say for certain is that they are in much greater abundance, and can create a whole lot of noise.

The more tragic part yet is when the ones making the noise are the same ones I mentioned earlier that do not learn from criticism or good advice, because they don’t even hear it. It becomes a case of the blind leading the blind, and even helping to take away others’ vision.

Avoid Becoming a Schmuck!

Yes, I could rant on this kind of thing, but the question at hand is whether you give enough self-analysis to your online communications efforts. I think it is something valuable to consider, because it is what sets the tone of who you are, either as a person, or as a company.

Watching where you pick up your influence, and asking others’ opinions can be important to helping you avoid schmuckdom … or is it schmucknaciousness? It can also help you to avoid influencing others in a bad direction.

I was reminded of it today as I went through a list of new people following me on Twitter. I found myself making fast judgments about them, to decide if I should follow them back and get to know them. It all got me to wondering how I might look, on the surface, and before people get to know me. I was giving myself a cursory audit of sorts.

We often only have a brief moment to make an impression. I think it is important to be aware of those things we do which can tarnish that moment. It should not be so surprising that a lot of it can come from who we listen to and interact with.

I hope I have encouraged you to step back for a self-analysis. Try to imagine how others see you, and how much it is influenced by others. You may find that you are not making the best connections, or that you are accidentally imitating some of the wrong elements.

What do you think? Do you notice how the people around you affect how you think, and how you communicate?

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