Archives for June 2011

The Problem With Perception

In public, people say and do things to build a perception of them.

Some of this is calculated; some, natural. After all, perception is everything. It gets you work; clients; a promotion; a date; a raise; and more.

No-one wants to be perceived as anything but awesome, so they build the perception about them carefully. Others buy into it, and the perception crafting reaps its reward.

The problem is, perception – by definition – is fragile. All it takes is for one slip, and the house of cards that is your perception comes crashing down. And the funny thing is, it doesn’t even have to happen in public for it to start making a difference in public.

All the more reason to be consistent across the board, no?

The Weird Thing I Want You To Do On My Blog

This is a guest post by Michael Schechter.

I’m noticing a pattern lately: ?the moment that a blogger starts to monetize his or her site can usually be tracked back to moment the content begins to suck. The minute that optimization becomes the priority, creation tends to quickly take a backseat. It’s not a perfect theory, but it is quickly becoming a common one.

Now, I’m fairly new at this whole blogging thing, but I have a pretty clear call to action on my site: I want you to read the crap I wrote on the page, with the desired reaction being that you derive value from said crap. If you really found it useful, who knows, maybe you’ll even comment. Apparently, this is wrong and I just don’t get how things work.

Apparently, I need you to engage, to end on a question no matter how obvious and patronizing it is. I need an offer to get you to sign up for my email newsletter, to get you to trade your first born for an ebook. I need to coerce you to come back, because apparently compelling you just isn’t going to be good enough.

I don’t want you to get me wrong; I’m not against making money. I love money… a lot! Hell, I may even throw in an affiliate link or ten on my site. ?What I am against is those making money at the expense of their audience. I’m against those who care more about you clicking a link than reading the words on the page. In other words, I’m naive, and that is just fine with me.

It’s been sad to watch once-great bloggers leveraging past trust in exchange for future dollars. We used to get your A-game for free, but now you expect us to pay for a subscription to your 8th website (you know, the super secret one where you really put all of the “good stuff” now) for the watered down version. Worse yet, we fall for it every time. Even those of us who should know better (Read: Me). We want to believe, badly, that the trust we once put in you is still worth it today.

I don’t see things changing any time soon, so for now, the best advice I can offer is the same steps that I am trying to adhere to myself: ?unceremoniously unsubscribe your attention from anyone who is working harder on selling you than teaching you. Take that time and start writing about something you care about. Pour yourself into it, even when no one is reading. ?If and when people do start reading the crap you put on the page, don’t ever take that for granted.

So am I alone, or do you see what I’m seeing out there? Damn, there I go with the patronizing question and I didn’t even monetize…

About the author: Michael Schechter is the Digital Marketing Director for Honora Pearls, a company specializing in freshwater pearl jewelry. He writes about all things digital over at his blog, and you can connect with him on Twitter at @MSchechter. He also knows his way around a fine single malt scotch.

image: The Sun and Doves

You Know What’s Wrong With The PR Industry?

Nothing. Squat. Zilch. Nada. No, seriously – there is absolutely nothing wrong with the PR industry.

There’s plenty wrong with some of the people in it, but is that the industry’s fault? No – it’s the person’s fault for being an asshat.

An industry, by definition, is either a collection of businesses, or the building of an idea around something or someone. Not a living, breathing person – but a collective of many things.

So blaming a whole industry for crappy practices is like blaming the complete city garbage removal system because one of your bags got left behind. Shit happens – but it’s people that cause shit, not industries.

Yes, there are craptastic shysters in the PR industry. But that can be said about pretty much every single industry full stop.

Social media (though I’m not sold on tools being classed as an industry) has idiots.

Marketing has idiots.

Advertising has idiots.

My local pool has an idiot for a lifeguard.

Industries don’t create bad results; or shameful practices; or questionable ethics. People do.

Something to keep in mind when you decry a whole industry and take down the good people that are doing all they can to counter the clueless ones.

image: JKonig

When Sheep Tell the Shepherd to Flock Off

There’s an interesting thing happening online at the minute – people are beginning to see through crap and filter out inane. Long-term fans and advocates of bloggers and social media “leaders” are looking at them and realizing that maybe they don’t have much to offer after all.

What’s even more interesting is not that this is happening, but that it’s being made clear on why it’s happening by the very people who might have otherwise been quiet and submissive until now.

Big name bloggers are seeing comments left on their blog’s, decrying the blatant self-promotion angle that’s taken over what used to be informative reading. Readers are questioning the value of a blog if there’s nothing but other writers on it, and not the blog’s owner.

Of course, does this really matter? After all, if a blog has subsciber numbers in the high thousands, who cares if you lose a reader here or there?

It’s a fair point. But the bigger question to ask might be this: if the sheep (and I say that out of respect and not as a generalization – sheep being loyal but quiet readers) are beginning to question you, and call you out, what do you think the more vocal and free-thinking web users are saying about you?

And how do you think this affects your business opportunities? To come back to the self-promoting blogger angle, the constant referencing to in-house products and offers changes in perception. Instead of seeming successful, the blogger (and their relevant companies) come across as not having had much uptake, and now that the sheep are thinking for themselves, we better try and make some money while we still can.

Of course, this is just an observation. Besides, sheep are good – the numbers must mean you’re doing something right. Right?

Maybe. Maybe not. But while your flock is questioning your leadership, they’re also looking to other bloggers who actually are providing A-list content all the time.

Folks like Nancy Davis, who’s writing some of the most personal and human relationship posts on the web today. Or Marcus Sheridan, who’s writing the kind of content marketing stuff that Junta42 used to be known for. Or Geoff Livingston, where every single post makes your brain razzle with the solid and real business content that Forbes should have, but don’t. Or Jk Allen, who uses his inimitable hustling style to give you some of the best entrepreneur information you’ll ever read.

And guess what? These guys, and others like them, have businesses. The kind that your business looks to win. So while you might be happy with the “loyal” silent readers boosting your traffic and AdAge rank, will they pay the bills when a business is looking at a blog and reaching out to the author for projects based on the content?

The mundane A-lister is dead. Long live the new real.

image: infamecless

How Smart is Your Local Business Marketing?

Every weekend without fail, my local electronics retailer runs a flyer in the local newspaper. It highlights special offers and discounts and proudly displays “This weekend only!” in the header.

The flyer’s nice and bright and there’s a huge collection of images, from large-screen TV’s to computers to video games to smartphones and more.

Great, you might say. Can never have enough advertising or marketing, right?

Wrong.

You see, every weekend the retailer puts out his flyer, it’s always the same. Same products. Same discounts. Same busy flyer with image overkill and small text.

Because it’s the same, customers now wait until the weekend to buy anything. They sit by their breakfast tables waiting for the newspaper to be delivered, grab the flyer, and drive on down to the retailer to maybe buy a new TV, or phone, or games console.

While this is great for weekend traffic, the store’s pretty empty during the week. The busiest it gets is when one of the sales associates gets the vacuum cleaner out and does a round of the store.

Sure, you could say that the retailer must be doing alright, as the weekend business covers the quiet week, right? Possibly. But think how much better it could be.

Mix It Up a Little, Mix It Up a Lot

With very few exceptions, the retailer’s flyer has the same products and offers on sale every weekend. Now, this could be down to the fact that he has less of a relationship with suppliers than the bigger outlets. But he could still make his offers more selective and therefore more effective.

Carry out an audit on what’s the most popular product, and then who the most popular supplier of that product is. Then look at what accessories are available for that product. Contact the supplier in question and show them your information and what that relates to in hard sales figures. Then offer to promote the heck out of their brand for a weekend. Better still, have a manufacturer appreciation day during the week to show off their products, with offers only for that day.

Take the “less is more” approach with the flyer. The human being is primarily a visual person – it’s how we’ve communicated through the ages and it’s still true today. Instead of assaulting the eyeballs, though, highlight one great product per page and then have four or five smaller additions to complement. The litmus test is how your eyes are drawn to the information – if they go where you want the eyes of the customers to go, you’re on the right track.

Stop the regular weekly offers. When something becomes a regular fixture, we know when it’s going to happen. This takes the edge of it, and lessens any impact. Change the advertising up. Compare a weekday ad instead of the usual weekend ones, and tie it into a truly unique offer. The promise of the sexy sale that day will beat the sameness of the weekend flyer – try it.

Take It to the Masses

The beauty with an electronics retailer is that you can pretty much guarantee the audience – male, 18-45, gadget-friendly geeks (and I say this with nothing but love, as I’m one of these geeks).

The great thing about that demographic is that they’re very web-savvy too. They’re hanging out on social networks, online forums and blogs. So take advantage of this.

Do the research to see where your audience is. Then market to that audience accordingly. If you find you have a lot of potential customers on Facebook, consider running an ad on there specifically tailored to your audience. The great thing with Facebook ads is that you can really drill down into your target audience.

Or try banner ads on forums and speak to niche bloggers about special offers that their readers can benefit from (obviously this works better if you offer e-commerce options as well).

I’ve used my local retailer as an example here, but you can swap the ideas for your own business. Yes, social media is international, but so many businesses forget that their local customers are online too – it’s not all down to simple local advertising. And if you’re unsure of how to market effectively online, speak to a company or agency that can help you.

The thing is, local businesses tend to market locally and with the same approach. A flyer in the weekend paper and maybe some radio ads, and with the same offers week in, week out.

This definitely works, and weekend sales might be all you need to get by. But do you really want to continue just getting by at weekends, or do you want to be a business for every day of the week?

image: Kodak Agfa