Tag: Social Media Marketing

“Everybody” is Not Your Target Market!

Even Ma and Pa Kettle Demand Good Targeting

Even Ma and Pa Kettle Demand Targeting


I spoke with a friend recently who said that his target market is “everybody”. He didn’t just say it, but he actually meant it, and even defended it. What’s astonishing to me is that he actually fancies himself an Internet marketing professional.

Now, I’m not calling my friend an idiot. There are a lot of great rocket scientists, school teachers, surgeons, firemen, and others who do not understand marketing. We cannot all know everything, and the fine details of marketing are certainly not something everybody wants or needs to understand.

My friend is in the business of building websites, but this applies to any company, of any size, in any industry.

His belief was that since “anybody” may need a website, that he didn’t want to miss any of them by segmenting his market. In his mind, I guess he just didn’t want to leave anybody out. So, he is running Google ads directed at a massive audience.

I am a marketing professional, so you can probably imagine my head exploding at this point, right? I tried to suggest targeting specific segments which had historically been good customers to him. I tried to suggest taking a careful eye toward A/B testing to discover the audience with the highest response rate. I was shot down with every point I tried to make. I guess he was feeling generous with his ad budget, but he turned me down when I suggested he just drop it in the mail to me as a gift. I mean, he is wasting money either way … why not?

Maybe you never heard this before, or maybe you just shook your head in disbelief when you heard it, but I have an extremely valuable message for you. If you believe, like my friend, that your marketing should be directed to everybody, I hope you will accept this small piece of valuable advice.

Market Segmentation is Essential to Success in Marketing

There is a basic principle of marketing that is a cornerstone of success, and that is “Everybody” is Not a Target. Not now, not ever, and not for any company of any size, in any industry! Whether it is Pepsi Cola, McDonald’s, or any other product or service, market segmentation is a foundation-level component to success of any marketing campaign. Even if you are selling water or air, there is always a good, better, and best market segment for your offering.

Perhaps I should clarify that when I say “success in marketing”, I mean return on investment (ROI). Optimal return on investment is where we measure success in marketing. There is a reason people invest in marketing, and it is to earn a higher return. If you have a positive return on investment, but it could have been a higher return, you have still wasted money. You have forgone the best alternative, which is called “opportunity cost“, and that cost is very steep!

If you are trying to market to anybody or everybody, you are missing the portion of that “everybody” who will become your most valuable assets. You will waste huge amounts of marketing resources by trying to reach an unsegmented market. Those marketing resources are precious! They include two of the most important components of business: time and money. So why would anybody waste these?

Let’s just assume for a moment that there is actually something which includes a market potential of anybody or everybody. Doesn’t it make more sense to reach the ones who are more likely to become a customer? Doesn’t it make sense to reach the ones who have a better reason to buy, or who are more appropriate for your offering? What about targeting the market of people who are actively in the market for what you offer?

There are enough reasons to segment your market to fill textbooks, but here is just one to consider: If you target the right market segment, it is far more likely to find customers who will become brand loyal and tell all of their friends.

In the case of this individual, shouldn’t he target something, rather than everything? What about new companies, companies that just changed names, merged, or are under new management? What about the people who need a website more than grandma does? If you sell $599 “economy websites”, would it make sense to spend money to reach people who need a $250,000 website … or the other way around?

I tried to use common sense to explain the importance of targeting a segment. I explained that McDonald’s knows to focus on specific targets, and if there was ever a company who could sell something to everybody, they are in the running. They target kids. They target busy people on their lunch break. They target single moms who worked all day and just can’t tolerate another dirty dish. Is it possible that they grew so large with a worldwide recognition just by marketing to everybody? No, it may look like that on the surface, but it is absolutely not the case!

If you are marketing to an audience of “everybody”, your message will suffer. It will not resonate with the person seeking to buy. It will become boring. It will also cost many times more money and effort to achieve the same result.

Are you targeting the right people, or do you still want to sell office furniture to retired people? They may buy, but the results will not be as favorable.

If you have read my blog before, you have likely noticed that my message often addresses the huge importance of targeting a market rather than shooting into the wild. I am going to add a few related links below just to make the point clear. Each of them has a message of the importance of targeting and its huge impact on return on investment.

Please share your thoughts on this topic. It may help somebody else, or it may help you!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

SEO and Social Media Fear of Being “The D Word”

Beware of The D Word ... They May Be Right!
Beware of The D Word ... They May Be Right!

I believe there is an unrealistic fear that challenges many people in my line of work, and I am bold enough to address it even if others are not. I also seek your input, so please don’t be shy.

There are certain elements within the fields of SEO and social media marketing which cause many misunderstandings and hardships for reputable people with good means, and good intent. People have chosen many names for the people representing those bad elements, but one stands out more prominently than others. For now, I’ll call it “the D word”, and it is something that wise people must be cautious of being tagged with.

It seems that the bad elements in social media and SEO have caused some quality people to become unreasonably afraid to properly promote their goods or services. It affects many other industries, and it seems to have created an overall hypersensitivity which causes many people to only hint about how they actually keep their business running, rather than be upfront about it. This is often an unreasonable fear, but definitely worth some consideration. I’ll explain this with a story.

Not so long ago, I tried my best to be less self-conscious about what others might say, and become more promotional of my own services. Yes, more promotional, rather than less. It felt kind of awkward, because that is the opposite of what I often suggest to others. This is because over-promoting your own value is often looked down upon, regardless how worthwhile it is. Being less promotional and more promotable by focusing on others often leads them to do the promoting for you. The trick is in having a good balance. After all, even if you are astonishingly good at something, if you rely solely on others to do your promoting, you will often be let down.

Finding a Promotional Balance in Social Media

What I am describing can really go either way, and finding just the right balance between self-promotion and being promoted by others is a tricky matter. You see, there is this awkward little piece of our psychology that makes us far less likely to promote something that benefits somebody else more than it benefits us. This often holds true, even if we actually think something is worth promoting. It is a bit cynical, but it is a common reaction of people, and it is hard to change that.

An ideal marketing balance lies somewhere between remaining highly “promotable” by others while still effectively promoting things which actually sustain our business needs. To meet this challenge, it is often considered best to keep our efforts more useful to others than to ourselves, and I believe that’s an excellent goal. It makes us more creative and helps us to be more fun and entertaining. It can also have a really big downside.

In my case of seeking that balance, it is not about a lack of confidence. I know that what I do for others benefits them more than it benefits me. I work hard to be useful to others, and I have a solid record of helping companies to become very successful by implementing effective marketing strategies. I am extremely good at getting websites ranked in the top of search engine results, and I know how to make something very marketable … except my own services.

So why is it that I find it so challenging to create a balance? In simple terms, I don’t want to be one of “those people” who are unfairly chastised for trading money for the things in my brain. You know, because people often think things like experience and knowledge should be free. For more on that mentality, I seriously suggest reading “Strategic Marketing Failure: Are You Giving it Up Too Easy?”

Why the Social Media Promotional Balance Occurred to Me

My moment of introspection came differently to me. It was not because anybody called me “the D word”. It came after several friends told me that my own self-marketing didn’t have enough “bite”. Really, they told me I needed to be more upfront by saying “Hey, look at me! I accept money from companies to make them more successful in their marketing … and I have a hell of a track record of success!” They said I needed to be more clear that the things I write about are the things I get paid to do, and that i don’t cost companies money … I make them money.

That should be simple, and I can support that with facts.

My argument was that I didn’t want to be one of those “douchebags” (the “d word”) so many people were talking about. I didn’t want to be berated for that horribly ugly term, “self-promotion”.

I am very critical of the way some people promote themselves in my line of work, because I can see through the hype. I despise the dishonesty and sleaziness of many people’s marketing approach in my industry, and I refuse to do it. I have always been extremely opposed to taking the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” approach, even to the point of under-hyping myself to less than half the level of my own credibility and experience. If I boasted with truth half as much as others in my field boast with lies, I could knock a bunch of them right off the totem pole … but risk being a “douchebag” by doing it.

I even felt really awkward the first time I placed ads on my blog, because “douchebags” do that. I was even more concerned when I added that awesome popup reminder to subscribe to my blog … but now I’m really glad I did it. I described the considerably tiny amount of friction I got from it in my earlier article titled “Social Media Goals and Complications of Winning“, but it has been an overall success.

The Cynics Are Not Buying your Lunch!

I have said it before, but it is worth reiterating … The cynics are not buying your lunch!

It is easy to forget that many people are cynical and insulting without good reasons. I realize some people will not immediately recognize that I actually teach people good and sensible no-hype ideas about their marketing. Most people who look a little closer change their mind once they get to know me, and my work. Unfortunately, that initial concern of a “douchebag” moniker held me back, and still does to some degree. The good news is that I’m getting over the concern and finding it easier to say “Hey, look at me! I accept money from companies to make them more successful in their marketing … and I have a hell of a track record of success!” I am also finding it a lot easier to say “I would like to talk with you about improving your marketing.”

I’ll tell you why it got easier … because it is all true, and it is how I earn a living. Just because some few outspoken people do not like it does not change the fact that I am still providing more value for free than many people do for pay.

I was reminded of all this today as I went through a list of new people following me on Twitter. I found myself making fast judgments about them. It all got me to wondering how I might look, on the surface, and before people get to know me. It made me wonder how many people suffer on one side or the other of this balancing act. It appeared to me that more of them were afflicted on the opposite side of the self-promotion equation.

I think it is an important thing to be aware of in either instance, and I hope I have encouraged you to step back and try to imagine how others see you. Maybe you are a little too “douchebag”, and maybe you are not quite enough “douchebag”. If you are like me and not making it clear enough about the action you want people to take, you may need some more “bite”, too. It is worth some consideration.

This sort of insecurity has begun to fade for me, and it is because I took another look at just how successful I have helped others to become in their businesses. Yes, in the end, I came to understand that I really am damn good at what I do. If you hate me for it, maybe you just hate me for being a “douchebag”. As long as it is totally unfounded, I’m OK with that.

I’d like to know what you think. Have you encountered this, too?

Photo Credit: Shattonbury via Wikipedia

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Social Media Marketing is More Than Social Networking

Marketing is Much More Than Networking
Marketing is Much More Than 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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Can You Value Each Blog Post at $10,000?

How Do you Value a Blog?
How Do you Value a Blog?

It takes less than a single minute to find somebody willing to write a blog for under $10 per article. There are thousands of writers begging for business. Not unlike the phenomena that anybody with a camera can be a photographer, it seems that anybody with a computer is an eloquent writer. That’s fine, but with such a low cost to have a blog, it is easy to confuse cost with value.

What is the value of a blog article? There are obviously some variables, right? Do you know the variables, and do you value them appropriately? Some important considerations are the time or money to produce the article, its usefulness to the public, the accuracy and experience of the writer, and the longevity of its circulation. These are easy factors for many people to overlook, and can inspire a lot of confusion about the value of a blog.

When you consider your business efforts, we can all surely agree it is important to stop doing things that do not benefit the company. Doing things that cost the company more than they benefit the company is popular, and we see it every day. When done in enough volume, that kind of math will break even the biggest bank account.

Whether the benefit you seek from a blog is improved customer relations, brand awareness, attracting investors, increased sales, or otherwise; if you spend more money on blogging than its potential benefit, then it is time to stop it! This means blogging is worth some evaluation and serious consideration of the downsides, weighed with the potential benefits. Many companies fail to consider the benefits, and so there should be little wonder why some companies still do not have a blog.

I have written about good reasons to blog, and it is not filled with a bunch of talk about making money, but it does address the importance of value. Many bloggers will agree that it is important to give more value than we take. That absolutely does not mean to imply we should give more value than we receive … and there is the confusing part.

Providing more value than you take is just as simple as providing value. If somebody receives benefit from it, and you have not taken anything from them, except perhaps an email address, you have met this value objective. You gave more than you took, as it should be. At the same time, you have added potential for your own benefit. At least it should happen that way.

Value of a Blog Article From a Longevity Perspective

Many of the best blog articles remain useful for years, and it is why smart bloggers keep them around in a blog archive. Some people like to assume the latest is the greatest, but this is very often not the case at all.

I spend a lot of time preparing each of my blog articles, but I also expect them to perform very well for a long time. It would be easier to just whip out my thought of the moment and keep my fingers crossed, but that would not be worth as much to others, or to me.

I value the average article on my blog at over $10,000. This may sound totally absurd to some people, but only on the surface. If you look a little closer, it makes sense. Of course, the exact amount is between me, some taxation fellas, and my wife. The exact dollar value I place on a blog post is irrelevant for this example, but I’ll explain.

I should add that this is about business blogs, and not blogs about where your family spent their holiday. This is also about blogs, like most, that do not charge a subscription fee.

This subscription is free, so feel welcome to subscribe before you forget.

Subscribe by Email or RSS
or Subscribe Subscribe in a reader.

In my instance, the math is easier, because I have been here on this Internet a long time, but each of us must begin somewhere. On this particular blog, this is the 77th article I have written in 2011, and the 334th since I re-purposed it in 2008. If I did not believe what I have written in 2011 is worth a minimum return of $770,000 ($10,000 each), I would not have done it. It took a lot of effort, a lot of time, and a lot of experience.

Here’s the part where people often get confused: That’s not just to say these 77 articles of 2011 will yield an immediate return on investment of $770,000 … but they will.

Consider how I look at this. There is an article I wrote about H1 tags on another of my websites. H1 tags are in the programming code of a website, and they are a web page heading. The topic relates directly to my industry, and most people who search for and find that article have an actual need for my services. That particular article has been there for over 10 years, and still consistently receives over 2,000 unique visitors per month from search engines.

Another instance is a little piece I wrote about screen resolution. I wrote an article explaining screen resolution, and also a handy javascript to help users open their website in a browser at different sizes to see how it may look to others. That particular piece receives well over 3,000 visitors per month … every month … for over ten years!

In a more recent instance, I wrote an article titled “How Much Does SEO Cost?” is The Wrong Question. I wrote that one in February 2011, and in the past week alone, I have received enough telephone calls from people who found that article by searching “how much does SEO cost” that I wrote new business proposals totaling over $50,000. Yes, just as a direct result of that single article … this week alone.

These are just a tiny sample to consider, but what about the many other hundreds like them which support them? They are not so shabby either, and each one provides value to readers, and also returns a value to me. Looking at it like this, doesn’t it begin to make sense what the value of an article may become, over time?

I count on each and every article on my blog to return its cost in multiples, and they do. Sometimes the exact dollar value is not obvious at the time you publish something, but if you are doing it well, the value will become clear, in time.

To answer my opening question of “Can You Value Each Blog Post at $10,000?”, my answer is yes! I believe you can, too, if you give it the appropriate effort, usefulness, and longevity.

Blogs Provide Compounded Value

We surely all heard how popular the Internet has become. When it comes to blogging, there is value on top of value. Aside from the value to me as a blog owner, the value to any given subscriber is often far greater than $10,000 if they implement the experience I share freely … even if they don’t pay me a penny. I feel really good about that!

Although many businesses may think of blogs as a burden, or that they must only be for purely altruistic purposes, they are an excellent source of additional business. This holds true for nearly any type of industry. For example, in my job role, this blog is the primary way people get to know what I do, and to discover if they want to hire my services.

Some people who believe that blogs are only for giving away free information and that nobody ever actually receives any business benefit from them may hate me for valuing this article at over $10,000. Some may even think I am evil or conniving for seeking a profit from my hard work. In their mind, it should just be about providing information for free … you know, like it’s a hobby.

I believe in giving away a lot for free, but the fact is that most people cannot implement everything I know by themselves. After all, I do this professionally, day in and day out, and I have done so for many years. Some of those few who do not know everything there is to know about online marketing call me to help them. The value to me of that minuscule few who do become customers is more than $10,000 per instance. So, again … my answer is an emphatic “Yes!”

What about you? Do you think a blog is an altruistic burden? How do you value a blog article? Go ahead … add your thoughts to my blog.

More Valuable Articles About Blogging

Just one more thing, before you go: Here are some articles about blogging that I think you may find interesting and useful. It will not zap your brain and render it useless to read them, either. In fact, you may find that they are significantly useful to you. At least read the titles before you decide. 😉

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Paradigm Shifting, Initial Perceptions, and Marketing Communication

Is it a Duck or a Rabbit?
Is it a Duck or a Rabbit?

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.
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.
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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download