From Stina Stockholm, Flickr

When I became a corporate “outsider,” almost three years ago, I felt that marketing as a business function was changing fundamentally.  I plunged into research mode to learn how the “old media” (print publications, radio, network & cable TV, with staff writers employed by giant media companies) were giving way to the “new” (citizen publishers producing content on the web for free).

I launched my consulting business by exploiting social networks, this blog, and free content (see Resources) in order to stimulate my network and tease out interest in project work ranging from part-time-CMO to white papers.  It worked.

I also witnessed “tulip mania” as self-styled (and genuine) experts emerged and captured the attention of almost everyone on a marketing career path.  For a time during 2009 old media events (conferences) were popping up left right and center headlined by new media gurus extolling one of the movement’s foundation principles: Give, give, give… listen, listen, listen… engage… and in the end you will be rewarded a hundredfold with opportunity (and, presumably, filthy lucre).  Become known as a source of quality content, and customers will beat a path to your door.

A couple of months ago, I spotted an ad on Facebook which quoted social media beacon Chris Brogan’s daily rate at something in excess of $20,000.  The offer was to gain all of that wisdom by joining a new community featuring Chris, Darren Rowse, and Brian Clarke — known as Third Tribe Marketing — for a mere $97 initial payment, followed by $47 per month.  As their blogs, collectively, have over 300,000 readers, even using the old school marketing yield on direct mail of 2%, that’s a neat $3 million (with an M) per annum!  Now that’s capitalism for you.  My guess is they timed that initiative just right.

Go for the promotional material on the website if you wish (after all, they’re amongst the best at web copy writing), but let’s be clear: as well as these guys have been doing living off the “give it away for free” model, these leading lights have clearly seen an opportunity to do business one $500-per-year subscription at a time.  Perhaps, like Lebron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh — it’s not about their ego or the money — they just want to win the new media world championship.  Time will tell.

Another recent observation: though the new media mantra of “inbound marketing” (nowhere more religiously observed than at Hubspot) poo poos the old-school outbound tactics of telemarketing and direct mail, I know many of us with marketing in our online profiles were bombarded with offers to sign up for the April Inbound Marketing Summit in San Francisco — notably as the conference’s dates were drawing perilously near.

So should this mini-bubble burst, should the petals drop from the precious tulips (and I believe it/they will), what can we take away?

First, it is true that the media have irreversibly changed. The problem is, the changes are not that dramatic, nor are the implications that difficult to understand.  There isn’t a huge amount of magic; no need for wizards; no new secret handshakes and shibboleths for the elite of this new marketing paradigm.  Brands are their own publishers, and they are largely in control of their own media.  A capability once outsourced to one or more agencies has moved in house, and media costs are heading toward zero.  That’s about it.  I speak to groups of young entrepreneurs from time to time… and after two hours of very high level teaching, they are off and running and becoming their own content foundries.

Psst… guess what… it’s not really that hard to figure this stuff out!

Second, brands (and marketing professionals in particular) need to take much more seriously the content responsibility with which they are now saddled.  We used to talk about a people to programs ratio of 40:60.  Leverage in marketing meant distributing costs 40% in human resource costs, and 60% in media and external programs designed to “drive the fish to the nets.”  Today companies need to invest much more heavily in the creation, curation, and distribution of content — using human beings to do so.  Marketing departments will be moving discretionary spend (which is easy to cut in case of a revenue shortfall) to personnel expense (which is difficult to cut, at least for most sentient humans).

Finally, marketing needs to attack with every fiber in its being the “signal-to-noise ratio” problem which all of this new media and social networking technology has created.  Zero barriers to entry for publishing and vastly expanding user-generated content volume conspire to create a polluted information environment which makes the BP Deepwater Horizon mess look like “On Golden Pond.”  In addition to relentless promotion of our own messages and achievements, we are going to have to exhibit leadership in filtering the extremely high volume of extremely low value information, and continuously enhance our web sites to make them more like museums, libraries, and exhibits — destinations for quality, creativity, and clarity — and less like cheesy storefronts.  Content curation solutions, like the one just launched by HiveFire, may be extremely valuable in attacking this enormous challenge.

What do you think?

Merry Christmas.  Whatever your celebration at this time of year may be — may each of you enjoy a warm and restful holiday break.  I most certainly intend to!

2009 has been one of those “Best of Times, Worst of Times” years.

In what ways was it “Best?”

• My consulting business not only survived, but thrived.  I added several new accounts, including Acquia, GolfTripGenius, and Rosen Law Offices.
• My most significant piece of marketing advisory business, RSD, remains a strong account for me.
• I added Presence Engineering, or interactive website design and delivery to our offerings, launching several small business sites including Olde Thyme Home, Dana Landscaping, and Todd Michel Construction.
• I added photography services, bridging my lifelong hobby with my business, via my ‘affiliate’ Synopshots.

In what ways was it worst?

• Many friends and former colleagues experienced varying degrees or financial or professional hardship.
• The markets are seeing signs of recovery, but somehow no one believes we are in a dynamic recovery just yet.
• Our domestic political atmosphere is as partisan and replete with hypocrisy as I have ever observed.

So looking forward to 2010, here’s a few things I foresee:

1. Glacially, buyers will be authorized and funded to invest… and well-positioned businesses will begin winning and growing once again.
2. The businesses that are in position to win have the following characteristics:
   1. Rather than reinventing themselves under the stress of the last 18 months of economic uncertainty, they further refined and in many cases narrowed their “addressable market” scope.  Did you?
   2. They pulled back, perhaps both in overall spend and in staff levels, but are poised to reinvest in calendar Q1 as the number of indicators of recovery, however soft, begin to build.   Are you?
   3. They have built strategic reinvestment strategies and tactical plans, which are not radical in their love embrace of social media, but aware of the need to earn a loyal prospect / buyer community.  Is yours?
3. Small and growing businesses (most of the companies I work with) will clearly see that in the online world, they can stretch their brand to have every bit of the presence, authority, and reputation that far larger businesses possess.  And because they can act with more agility, they can disrupt those larger competitors with decisive strikes and aggressive tactical actions.  In other words — it’s going to get fun again!

And that’s what I miss most… the fun.  Let’s raise a virtual glass to seeing the fun return to our business lives in 2010!

I work with executives and entrepreneurs in businesses large and small.

Most are technology firms.  They are trying to innovate — to create a solution which never existed before to a problem which is plain to see but perceived to be difficult or impossible to solve.

On the other hand, I also work with small businesses, like a couple who just opened a gift shop where they want to offer quality crafts,  gifts and decor at an attractive price.  Far more straight forward.

Both, however, need to build a brand — create a memorable impression for potential customers about who they are, what value they offer.

Larger, more sophisticated businesses seem to have a far harder time remaining steady and consistent in expressing their essence to the community.  Smaller firms in niches, in general, do a better job “sticking to their knitting,” than larger companies hoping to serve many segments or industries.

“Who am I?”

Here, I am a writer and from time to time the provider of advice and services related to marketing and communication.  I may be other things to my family, loved ones, and even to my enemies.  But here, I am an advisor to businesses seeking to grow — not only to survive but to thrive.

In that role, I try to inspire my customers / partners to imagine and to stretch — but I also try to help them avoid making mistakes — including some which I have made myself.

Have you ever rolled down your car window so that you can honk the horn, make a gesture, and holler all at the same time after getting cut off in a downtown intersection?

When I was younger, I used to do that a lot.  I do it far less frequently since a friend offered me this timeless piece of advice: “Breathe.  Once in the morning is not enough.”

Well I stopped breathing yesterday.  I was riled up after a very busy (if productive) day.  I was packing up at night and feeling energized about my final day on my current business trip — and excited about getting home again.

I “checked the traps,” which is my term for catching up on email and other networks, reading some news, and so forth.  Someone sent me a link to a funny YouTube video which got me clicking through several related links of very funny and irreverant celebrity impressions.  I have no idea what he was singing, but I was laughing myself silly at a Korean band where the lead singer was doing an impression of a pop duet — both the male and the female parts.  Switching gears, I checked out some the blogs I regularly read.

Then someone must have cut me off in the proverbial downtown intersection of cyberspace.  I decided to “rant,” which I think is to blogging what a “flameogram” used to be to email.

It felt great to get some of my deepest darkest feelings off my chest.  I swore in my blog post.  I was vitriolic and mean.  It felt great.  I got more comments within an hour than I’d received on my best-read posts in weeks.  By some blogosphere standards this was a good thing.

Another questions: have you ever wished you’d waited just a little longer before pressing the “send” button on an email?  I know I have.  And a trusted friend who has, too, called me up and provided me with some marketing advice: Unsend.  Hit the delete key.

What I had done was wrong.  And so I took advantage of my self-publishing power and I hit the delete key — a privilege one has in the blogosphere (which my rant had just viciously criticized).

Today I can’t wait to get home.  Today, I will breathe.  Once in the morning is not enough.

Have you made ever made a mistake?  It feels great to admit it, and to learn from it.

Happy customer!

About a year ago, I had the good fortune to work with an aggressive and entrepreneurial team at a company known as FirstDIBZ, based in Chicago. They are a very interesting and innovative group — having taken on the challenge of inventing a new type of market: forward rights to highly desirable events.

All That

Mashable had a nice write-up on the company back in September.

The FirstDIBZ founder had nice words to say about our work together, which made me blush:

Tim Dempsey came into our shop, an established corporate entity with 5 years of serious revenue generation under our belts, and quickly showed us how much character our overall marketing personality was lacking – no real authority, no real presence and zero reputation. We were stunned into silence and then into change. Tim’s honest and pointed prodding of our goals truly opened us up to his methodology, which continues to inform our marketing efforts to this day. In a simple and clear manner, with his enormous marketing intelligence, deep experiences and razor instincts, he led us through 2 days of focused and well planned marketing work. We learned more about our company in those two days than we had in the previous 365!
Richard Harmon
CEO, Founder, Ticket Reserve -dba FirstDIBZ
Chicago, Il.

There are many definitions of the marketing term “brand.”  There are brand managers.  We speak of the brand experience.

Companies craft and shape their brand image.

Loads of lucre is spent to preserve, protect and defend brands.

The definition I most like?  An

Enduring

Buyers believe that value will remain consistent.  Coca-cola conjures a shapely bottle, bright red cans.  Mouths salivate in anticipation of that unique taste.

Promise

I lace up my Nike shoes and suddenly I can “Just do it.”
of

Value.

“No one ever got fired for buying IBM.”  “Volvo.  For Life.”

We just know these things about these mega-brands.  But we should be asking, and answering, these questions about our own brands.

If that’s what a brand is – then how can a brand be elastic?  Why should a brand be elastic?

Because this notion of a “brand” was established when the world was r_ouⁿd.

And as we know from Tom Friedman, the world is now flat.

Technological advances have not just leveled the competitive playing field.  They have redefined the cultural and commercial structures of the global economy.  The “flat world” has created both enormous threats to well-established businesses (think of the phenomenon of outsourcing to India in the 90’s), and laid the groundwork for the emergence and rapid growth of a whole new generation of businesses, business models, and – yes, brands (dare I mention Goog… nah).

And what it means to be and to manage a brand must change as well.

I suggest that along with these great technological advances and planet-flattening changes, there has been a fundamental change in the power balance between buyers and sellers.

There was a time when brands could control what information buyers had about their products.  Those days are over.

There was a time when the owners of newspapers and magazines, billboards, television and radio stations, owned the only communication vehicles consumers could consult for information about products and services.  Vendors financed those businesses through advertising, and thus had great influence over what information reached subscribers, viewers, or listeners.  Those days are over, too.

Brands, or vendors, have lost control over what information buyers have access to, and how they get it.

Thanks a lot, Vice President Gore!  Your internet has taken our flat world, and turned it upside down!

Thanks to Guy Kawasaki and team, for including my humble site in Alltop’s Marketing section.  If you haven’t already checked out Alltop, it’s an aggregation of “All the Top News.”  Feeds are aggregated and categorized in a simple fashion… A great resource and all should submit their feed for inclusion, in this writer’s humble opinion.

If you’re new, or you don’t already, please subscribe to Elastic Brands by Email
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6:00AM. Wake up. Coffee. Pop Tarts in the toaster oven. Check that all of my computers have operated without interruption all night long — ensuring that I haven’t missed a Facebook update, an instant or skype message, or, God forbid, a Tweet. Submit reluctantly to the social niceties of “good morning, dear,” “have a great time at school, kids,” and the like. Uggh.

6:45AM. Thank goodness they’re all gone. Time to settle in for a session at the TweetDeck. Here’s a screenshot of this “without-which-life-would-lose- all-its-meaning” tool for managing your presence in the microblogosphere.

Crank up Pandora.

Check out the Twitscoop. No I did not say TwitterScooper. Inside the TweetDeck, this awesome tool reveals in a cool “tag cloud” what is “Buzzing Right Now” [sic] on Twitter. I see an irresistible term, and decide to click through: “hump.” Though I expected quite another topic to be driving this kind of chart on the Twitscoop radar, I click through to find out that it is merely a global celebration of “hump day,” which is how people who don’t yet know that they are about to be laid off refer to “Wednesday.”

Come on people… Repeat after me… “I love my job, I love my boss, I love my company.” What is wrong with you?

Anyway. There is one interesting “Tweet” amongst the other mid-week celebrations, from Twitter user “nematome,” which reads: “Happy Hump Day! My hump, my hump, my hump.” So I click through. There’s some really good stuff here. From his bio:

“I’m a technical communicator. I haven’t missed a day of blogging in 5 years. I line-dance and two-step. I love my life.”

That’s encouraging. A few excerpted tweets:

• I need java and not of the script kind.

• @andreaball Or, He told us that Helen had said, “When I gave David the ball, he said to me, ‘No, keep the ball in your court.’”

• @andreaball He said, “I wouldn’t call it a ’slow boat to China,’ but it wasn’t very fast at all.”

• Your heterosexuality & Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler lesson in a flowchart. New blog entry: http://dailyafirmation.live…

• “When and how did you first know you were a heterosexual?”

Twitter displays “tweets” in reverse chronological order, suggesting that “nematome” is: a) a sociologist by night; b) a screenwriter in his sleep; and c) a programmer by day. This is what is possible with Social networking and the new media! Time for a new riddle of the Sphinx!

OK. Though entertaining I find “humping” a dead end. Next big tag cloud item to check out: “sheep.” Thousands are tweeting on this topic suddenly. This could be good. Amongst the usual references to sheep (“men are men and sheep are scared” kind of thing), I learn that the spike has to do with an old story. You probably remember it:

It all started in August 2008, when Aleksandra Vdovina’s five-month-old sheep – just because of sheep stupidity – ran off, got onto a road and was accidentally hit by a Ford car driven by neighbour Oleg Kuznetsov. The car was slightly damaged, and the poor animal died.

What, you don’t remember this story?

Another dead end.

Do you know anyone who does this kind of thing habitually?

7:30AM. As if by a bolt of lightning, I am startled into consciousness that I have to try to drum up an additional consulting project. Better focus my activity on what’s happening amongst the “New Media Elite,” the superstars of the blogosphere, web marketing — the crowd some call (I not among them) “The Tarts of Tweet,” or “The Big Twits.”

I “follow,” which is Twitspeak for “stalk,” a lot of Twits — one of which has a URL like mine (www.getelastic.com). roxyyo tweets:

“I’m reading my own tweets in an attempt to get to know myself better.”

I put that in my calendar for later on today.

Twitter veterans all know the names “Scobleizer,” and “guykawasaki,” “chrisbrogan.” I take about an hour and a half to check into the tweets they have issued between 9:02 and 9:02 and ten seconds.

9:00AM. All of this leads me to a really valuable nugget, a HUGE list of resources attempting to assess the measurement of social media. I check out whostalkin.com and realize there is a lot of fear within the enterprise environment: fear of litigation, exposure, brand damage — because of the free-wheeling nature of social subnets.

10:00AM. I’ve been digging into the idea that fear is on the critical path at many non-bleeding-edge organizations considering social media strategies and actions. Can I come up with an analysis and some methodologies that will help reduce this fear? Should I?

Part of the moral code of social networking is the giving back. In my parlance, and as “humped” mercilessly in my free e-book, this means acknowledging that your online affect or identity is about the dynamic between three things: presence, authority, and reputation. Presence is about being there: where are you on the network? Can you be found? Where to you comment / contribute / cajole others? Authority is the ego: what expertise to you project, what experience and value do you believe you offer? I pick some of the interesting topics of the day and offer pithy remarks or challenges for about an hour.

Most noteworthy during this particular session? Read and reflect!

10:05AM. OK the tweetdeck is chirping away, but the time has come to “step back from the workstation.” I have five 12×18in prints to make and mount — which will be culled from some of the work I discuss over at the photography blog. Thanks for reading.

Thanks to industry colleague and friend Lance Shaw for this post to his Facebook profile: “Gartner cancels 2 upcoming ‘flagship’ conferences.”

I wrote back at the time of the Gartner Symposium in Orlando – their surviving ‘flagship’ conference — pleading with their junior anal-ysts in particular to take a couple of affect lessons and consider how their basic and stereotypical interaction model just might need to change in the face of economic hard times.

As a perennial vendor representative, and often small and upstart vendor representative at that, I have been on the receiving end of “helpful advice” for years.  So I admit it: guilty as charged of schadenfreude!

But on a more serious note… this is yet another reminder of what is required of leaders in these trying times — humility, honesty, and refreshed and recalibrated vision.

Overdrive SEO -- Boston MA

I was having trouble reaching a vendor I’d worked with in the past — Harry Gold at Overdrive.  Went to the site, filled out a form to get a briefing…. couple of days and no response.

I’m in a hurry to help a client get up to speed on SEO — and Harry’s firm does a great job at that.  He’s got a great reputation — but I guess his presence dimension needs some attention.

I posted an inquiry to a mutual colleague’s “wall” on FaceBook… and before I went to bed last night Harry had gotten back to me to offer to set up the briefing.  Don’t wait to start building your “Swirl.”  Interconnect your networks.  Establish your presence.

good advice #1

Originally uploaded by sarah …

I have worked with many technology companies over the past twenty years, and most of that time in marketing or product management roles. As a result, I have had oh say 5,000 meetings with journalists and industry analysts, so I have seen how they do what they do as a big honkin’ large vendor, a small startup, and unknown restart.

Young analysts in particular have an interaction style that I find almost insulting. It is a way of managing a conversation with a vendor that suits the analyst’s need to appear broadly knowledgeable, but which after dozens of like interactions I now realize is purely a rhetorical avoidance trick.

The interaction goes something like this:

Me: “Hello — I’m Tim, and I’m with TechnoSphere — we have some exciting news this week and we’d really like to let you know about our company and our business strategy.”

Early thirty-something analyst, professionally dressed and confident looking: “Hi I’m from Intelligenter Than Thou (ITT) Group — I cover your product area. Tell me what you guys do.”

Me: Here I roll out the elevator pitch. “We are a software company in the [pick your industry analyst-defined category and insert here] space. We are only in the market a few years, but our product has a key differentiated capability which we think will…”

Early thirty-something interrupts: “So you are like MacroCo. Sounds like you’re in the same space as NeetoTeam is heading next quarter.”

Me: “Well we are actually trying to illustrate a limitation in current approaches, and how our innovation might disrupt the current market land…”

Another interrupt: “Yes, I here Gargantutron talking about their aradigm 5.0 strategy — have you read that?”

You get the idea. Interrupt, namedrop, divert and distract — all the while believing you are projecting expertise.

Well it doesn’t work with this client-side guy — and my advice would be that ambitious youngsters think about the following:

1) listen.

2) track your reactions and points of interest.

3) thank the vendor for their thoughts, and offer your thoughtful feedback and pointed comments.

Analyst firms will improve their brand, and vendors will feel someone understands that it’s still important to show basic respect.