This document appears to be about pop culture and optimism. It references "@dmmink" and includes an interactive poll section. However, there is not enough contextual information provided to generate a fully informative 3 sentence summary.
Slide 2. At the risk of offending our professional predecessor’s, I am going to go out on a limb and say that advertising used to be a lot easier, although not nearly as much fun ;) In the early 1970’s a television ad on one of the Big 3 networks could reach up to 70% of the Viewing Audience!
At that time, it is estimated that the average American was exposed to 500 ads a day.
Of course technology really started changing in the late 90’s and as a result our whole society has changed. We went from being dictated to in terms of what we could watch and when -- to having complete control of what we watch and listen to and when we watch and listen to it.
Side result - it is now estimated that the average American is exposed to more than 5000 ads a day!
So, with this overload of advertising the question is raised? Do we hate ads? No, we are actually quite fond of a lot of ads. Many ads are elevated to becoming part of pop culture – WhaaasUhhhhhhp, I don’t always cook dinner, but when I do, it involves a perfect filet. Stay hungry, my friends… and the list goes on and on.
What we hate are bad ads and as consumers we have become pretty adept at avoiding and even completely killing ads we deem as bad. Toddlers with a DVR remote know how to avoid ads.
Which brings us to the reason we are all at SMX Social this week… how do we create and promote concepts people WANT to be exposed to? That is our challenge!
Not only does America hate bad ads. America is skeptical about information presented online. Just look at these stats – 98% of Americans distrust the Internet and the top three reasons why 1) too many ads, 2) outdated information (i.e. expectations are high!) and 3) selfish ads (speaking as a consumer - when we control our experience we don’t want to hear about you… we want it to be about us!)
We have some very bright people in our profession. Many have adapted with creativity! Campaigns like Toyota’s Swagger Wagon are genius.
Unfortunately, our zeal has also resulted in some pretty bone-headed moves. Talk about a selfish ad – what American Apparel did last year was pretty bad – you cannot turn a natural disaster into an opportunity to ask people to come spend money with you while they are “bored.”
So how do we put ourselves in the Swagger Wagon camp and far removed from the American Apparel camp? The very best social media campaigns are rooted in Entertainment, Being Helpful, and Making the Experience about the User.
Read that first sentence. Read it again. You just read that K Mart is entertaining. Is that even possible? Is this that same funky-smelling store that exists BELOW Wal Mart on the cool scale? Yes! How awesome is that? K Mart found a way to help me find my inner 12 year old self and have a hysterical time talking and thinking about “shipping my pants.”
A lot of small businesses hate AMEX, right? Why? High fees, ultra-consumer-protection. Well how about starting one of the most helpful small biz forums on the internet?
Who in this room tried his or her hand at coming up with the perfect copy for this little gem of a social campaign? This is making the experience about the user at it’s finest!
In sum, it can’t feel like an ad. Why do we love Uncle Rico’s character in the Napolean Dynamite film? Because we all know how uncomfortable it is to be sold!
And the thing about social media is that you find out quickly exactly how the audience feels about your strategy, products and services. I love the DAYUM DAYUM DAYUM rant by Daym Drops.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are all living and working through a cultural shift in how advertisers need to engage with an audience – and how as consumers we get to direct how advertisers engage with us. Consumers have the power now and they are saying, “don’t advertise to me unless you make it funny, you’re incredibly helpful, or you make you’re entire campaign all about me!”
This session is all about ROI. Well name a segment of the population that cares more about ROI than CEOs? Harvard Business recently released an infographic that attempts to paint a picture of the best CEOs in America. As I studied the concept, I realized that these same characteristics translate to describe the best social media marketers.
With our ROI caps firmly in place, let’s walk through the characteristics that must be present as you focus on making social media ROI positive.
When you are in a meeting with the C level suite and they ask why you are doing whatever it is you are going to do, one answer should roll off your tongue - Success looks like this…
Well you have to be pretty good at knowing how people will react to what you are doing.
The most tactical step you can take in making sure you are efficiently reading people is to be religious about creating personas for each of your initiatives. There are two excellent resources you should all look at 1) by hubspot, and 2) the super awesome content worksheet by @nawlready
Part of reading people is knowing as much as you can about the people you are trying to reach. So, it helps to know where your audience lives online and what different communities will respond to. There is a lot of great data available to you.
Disclaimer I went to the U of A for law school and maybe I am a little biased but if you follow college football at all you know that this guy is about as tough minded as they come. And it is the kind of meticulous attention to detail that Coach Saban is known for that pushes a good social media campaign into something great.
Everything matters. It’s about a lot more than great content or a great message. This should be a team sport and there are a lof of different positions market research, content development, content promotion, web design/web dev, legal, PR, etc. Make sure that your campaign is excellent from content, to technical, to promotion, to testing. Of course, you can’t forget about all of the organizational red tape that can trip you up just as you are about to launch out of the gates.
If you aren’t hyper entertaining be hyper helpful. One of the best ways to be helpful online is to give away really good information. It always surprises me how unwilling many organizations can be to share anything of value.
Especially, when it comes to “secret sauce.” Many of the most effective B2B social strategies hinge upon giving away a little of that secret sauce. I love the way Jay Baer responds to those who are afraid of this strategy in 140 characters or less – “A list of ingredients doesn’t make someone a chef!”
The most effective CEO’s are Biased Toward Action.
The ability to Make Ideas Happen is paramount! You have to have a team of creative, talented, and most importantly hard working people who are constantly engaged in bringing ideas to life. This means moving to action-oriented work and away from discussion-based work. At Avalaunch Media we don’t have large meeting to discuss campaigns. Rather we allow people to participate in the initial brainstorm via email or basecamp. If you have an idea take the time to write it up and throw it in the ring. Then a small committee sifts through the best ideas and we immediately begin working Making the Winning Idea happen.
It has to be an organizational culture of constantly monitoring, creating, engaging and promoting. Very little discussing.
Let’s admit it… coming up with a winning SMM campaign is hard. It really helps to believe in what you are doing and to have team members who believe in each other.
Please forgive me for getting a little philosophical here, but IMO its no secret that the best teams have a leader who is Very Optimistic. Why? Optimism keep you motivated and if you are going to be Biased Toward Action you are going to need a lot of motivation.
So take some calculated risks and have some fun. Build the next sweatergenerator.com. We all love to hate ugly Christmas sweaters and these guys just created a campaign to allow us to now design and possibly even wear America’s favorite ugly sweater!