There is one reason and one reason only I dislike listening to music radio stations—that is repeats of the same songs over and over again. Songs quickly become overplayed and out wear their welcome fare too quickly. Nothing is simpler then plugging in my iPod and listening to what I chose and only what I chose. Sometimes it is an oldie and sometimes it is a little Black-eyed Peas. Okay I feel better now that I have gotten that out of system.

What does this and the title of this blog post have in common?  Do a google search for me, better yet I did it for you. I searched the phrase ‘social media’ which returned 157,000,000 results and that is just the tip of it!  ( see for yourself ) You turn on the TV and guaranteed some news station or some infomercial is talking about ‘social media’.  Your email inbox is slammed with offers, updates, blog posts and the like all telling you about this ‘social media’.  You go to conferences and meet ‘social media’ experts or hear of a speaker coming into town that is a ‘social media’ expert. Even my blog post has been shoving the word ‘social media’ into your eyeballs!

Enough. Enough with the most overplayed word in human history.  Yes it is a hot topic, yes we have new vehicles of transportation in its’ world, but in no way is it new.  Let me take you back to the 1950’s when homes were separated by 3 foot picket fences and neighbors talked about children, vacations and yes even products right there over that little picket fence.  How incredible would it have been for Coca Cola to have installed microphones on the fences and each time someone said the word “Coca Cola” they would have it recorded? Well welcome to 2009 when business could start just that.

The art of communication as been around since the dawn of time and since the creation of the first wheel company, business owners have given anything to know and understand their consumers. Now businesses have these great tools in Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter and so on, where endusers freely post truckloads of content and data and somehow this has transcended time and social media was just created.  Somehow someone has made us believe that we don’t know how to be social and we need the media to educate us and train us.  Somehow the word social has become another word for Facebook or Twitter.  This is all just not the case.

Simply put as a business owner your social media has always been there and it will continue to be there long after Facebook and Twitter are gone ( yes they will be gone MySpace ). The word social has been overplayed and oversold.  It is a very important and part of your business, but it always has been and always will be.  Stop thinking you need to change yourself to be a part of a new transportation device.  No matter what car you drive there is always a gas pedal, a brake system, a forward, a backward and a left and right.  You may drive some cars faster and some may pull you out of the muck, but at the end of the day you will—drive.

For those of us out there that are looking to make this social world our world and consult others on it, lets remember the following; non of us are experts in Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare or the like, yet. We have to put the ‘time’ into it to become an expert. We may have social experience, but the transportation devices are infants and we need to respect that for our clients. We are all experimenting.  Further more lets stop overplaying the word and focus on the oldies which are still amazing goodies!

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Buzz Words, Content, Customers, Marketing, SEO, Social Media, Social Space, Website

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I am an avid music lover.  So much so that my iTunes is filled with over 529 days ( or over 13,000 songs ) of playable music ranging from classical to rap.  Music to me is one of the truest ways to express yourself or a message you wish to convey.  Those with musical talents truly have an art of expression and that art is a powerful and effective way of transportation of information.  With this said, what if I told you that your brand needs to ‘sing’?

Brand is another word that is often thrown out there in a general state not really understood.  Your company’s brand is the overall imagery of your mission statement and is not limited to your logo or color schemes.  Your brand is truly any messaging tool your company uses to express its self.  Your brand can be the way you handle client related issues or it can be the way you handle your social space.  Your brand however does have roots and those roots need to be planted, watered and fed correctly.

So what does brand have to do with music or art?  Everything.  Like music, your brand needs to engage the audience.  It has to communicate with a wide group and it must display your overall commitment to your industry and client base.  When you have truly identified your brand it will be a thing of beauty, it will be a modern piece of art.  Planting your brand starts with planning, planning and more planning.  Watering your brand means you look after it and you ensure that those you hire, outsource to and interact with all have your brands best interests at heart.

Now feeding your brand, is the fun part.  This is the part in which you are able to become incredibly creative.  Where you are able to work with your audience to share with them your visions, ethics and dreams.  Feeding your brand correctly, will take your business to new heights and you will soar above your competitors for years to come.  You may have set backs and feed your brand some raw meat, but it is always curable.

In today’s market place your brand must be ready to flex, but not break.  Your brand must be fine tuned, but not over the top.  Your brand must follow the curves, but lead the pack.  Do you think your brand is up to the challenge?  Re-branding an existing company or branding a newly formed idea is one of my favorite tasks and one of the most challenging.  It takes time, energy and a commitment to understanding.  It takes being an artist and understanding your canvas.  Not all brands are created equally, but all brands have the chance to become something great!

Your brand can be as amazing as Beethoven’s Fur Elise or as painful as a David Hasselhoff’s* solo album, it is truly up to you and those you surround yourself with.

*I have nothing against the “Hoff” as long as he isn’t singing.  

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Content, Customers, Design, LIME, Marketing, Print, Social Media, Social Space

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Have you every tried to please everyone in a day? How about for 12 hours? Better yet have you ever tried to please everyone around you for an hour? I will go out on a limb and say yes, you have tired, “tried” being the key word there. The crazy thing is tomorrow you will wake up and try it all over again. My advance—don’t. Stop right now and know that you can not nor will you ever please everyone.

Trying to please everyone will only lead to disappointment and in your business endeavors it will handicap you. You will quickly be throwing good money after bad efforts. When you get ready to share your product/service don’t think that your message needs to hit everyone, have it hit a targeted group. How do you find this group? Marketing. Before you even prepare a message take a step back and identify the type of person you want to talk to.

Think in specifics, not generalities. The more specific the group, the better the results. Now that you have them identified, listen to them. Find out what they want or need. Now you are ready to tailor your message. No longer will you get frustrated in creating that message as now you can ‘keep it simple’ and direct. Your days of pleasing everyone must end if you want your advertising messages to succeed.

They got it right when they said, “don’t use a shot gun to kill a mosquito”.

Image credit: http://bruceglider.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/mosquito-researcher-insect-photo-cartoon.jpg

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In the business world we tend to think that pushing ourselves to the limit is what will breed success.  I want to defunk that theory and give you a new strategy to incorporate, called “Time Outs”.

As you may or may not know, I am a father of five children and one of our family traditions are “Time Outs”.  Not those where our children are sent to their rooms or noses in the corner, these are treats.  Every so often my wife and I will take a child, just one on one, to their favorite restaurant or activity center.  This is one of our children’s favorite activities, as they are focused on and spoiled without the competition of their siblings.  This gives mom and dad a way to connect with them and to identify any areas we need to work on with our children.  All and all it is a win win.

So how does this apply to business and why am I posting it?  In business we tend to forget the ‘little things’ and focus so heavily on the big picture.  We wrap ourselves in our day to day grind and we lose ourselves in goals and todo lists.  Take a step back and look at your day yesterday, did you get everything done you wanted to get done?  Did you go to bed knowing that you checked off every todo?  Did you even go to bed?

Many business owners work 20 hours a day, but to what end?  What do you accomplish in doing this?  Boldly stated, nothing.  You have headaches, worries and self deflation.  If you have to work 20 hours a day it is a sure sign that what you are working for isn’t working.  So pushing yourself to the limits of time and energy will not create results.  In today’s world you need to be fresh, alert and ready for quick changes.  You can’t do this on 4 hours of sleep.

Here is what I want you to try next week.  It is not a secret that businesses are build on relationships and relationships are built on communication.  With that said, open up your address book, rolodex or business card folio and select two clients.  Doesn’t matter who they are, just pick two.  Call them up and ask them to lunch.  If they ask why don’t be shy.  Tell them you are wanting to communicate more with your clientele.  This is only stage one.

Now that you have set up a lunch or two with clients for the week, I want you to only work six hours a day for the next five days. Why only six hours?  You need to relax your mind.  Take all the tasks you have to do in a day and focus on them for six hours no more no less.  Try this for the five days and once you have, your entire work flow will change.  Even if you have to put more time into your business, you will see that twenty hours is not needed and you will be able to get more done in ten then you ever did in twenty.

The combination of networking and limiting your ‘limits’ will net you more results then pushing yourself to the edge.  You have now successfully been taught my business “Time Out” strategy.

If you try this and find that it doesn’t work—I will buy you lunch.

Technorati Tags: Advertising, Customers, Marketing, Updates

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A few days ago I read a blog post from AdAge and Bob Garfield on the topic of KFC and their recent ad campaign and yet again KFC got me thinking.

The blog post dives into some of the ‘issues’ with KFC and I encourage you to read it, but I want to take this in a different direction.  I want to discuss a principle that seems to be leaving the world as a whole and more noticeably leaving the world of advertising.  It all started decades ago and has been growing year over year.  What is that principle?  Honesty.  Or should I say the lack there of.

Lets take cigarette ads in the the 1960‘s.  Cigarettes were made to be glamorous and would magically turn anyone into a hollywood icon.  Was it a lie?  Did those marketing and advertising cigarettes lie to the world?  Now lets move up a few years and talk about super diets.  In the 1980’s the Atkins’ diet promised that anyone could lose massive amounts of weight by just eating.  By 2003 the Atkins’ diet was no where to be found, so was it a lie?

Now here we are in 2010 and as business owners we are trying to share our products and services with the masses and in doing so, are we being honest?  Are we upfront with our target audience?  If not why are we scared to be?  Why are we so hell bent on glorifying our products/services?  One word; fear.

Yes fear is what drives us all in business.  Fear of failure, fear that we won’t be liked.  Fear that we will lose everything and so on.  Sadly we are losing everything by not facing these and other fears head on.

As a marketing and advertising consultant I battle daily with clients to ‘tell it like it is’.  I push them to open up to their target base and to push the real un-edited version of what they have to offer.  Why?  Because they will stand out.  How sad is that?  By being honest they will stand out to the public and will be able to use honesty as a marketing and advertising angle.

So have I come full circle?  Am I consulting businesses to be honest with the intent to sell and is that deemed ‘frauding the masses’?  I will leave that for you to answer, but I will say this; there is nothing more enlightening then to have an honest and open dialog with an other member of the human race.

There is something about honesty that in the long run, just makes life—easier.  I consult each of you to take a step back and look at your ad campaigns.  Open up to the public and get real with them.  Cut the fluff, cut the junk and just tell it how it is.  Show your face—just make it an honest one—with that I promise positive results.

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So after 17 years of business I can truly say that what I am about to share with you, is the most exciting project I have ever worked on.

After months and months of work I would like to present to you Media Lemur.  For the first time in the world’s history print can truly become digital and not just a PDF, website or screen shot of print editions.  This won’t be a ‘flip book’ or a flash plug in, Media Lemur is a full feature digital creator.

The secret?  No software to install, no need to change the culture or processes of print production and best of all it won’t cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce.  Magazines, newspapers or any type of print publication will be able to use Media Lemur.

Media Lemur was built on the three principles to create digital success:  Rich Media Content, Track-ability of User Interaction and Social Integration.

Media Lemur gives any publisher the ability to create interactive, rich digital content.  We have begun launching Media Lemur in Utah and have already fully penetrated the market place.

How big is Media Lemur?  Time for some boldness; Media Lemur will be the key player in creating and generating profits for the struggling print world.  Don’t believe me, stay tuned.

More information to come on Media Lemur

Q7JCN5KHRSST

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So this week we had another player enter the digital media world, WIRED.  How did they do in this humble marketer’s opinion? I give it a two out of five stars.  It is an okay start, but honestly coming from a leader in the geek world I truly expected more from WIRED.

They did nail down the rich media content, but the delivery of the content was still laced with the feel of print and not the feel of digital freedom.  The ads are nothing more then copies from the print addition and lack zero capabilities of tracking success or impact.  The navigation of content is basic and lacks natural user interaction.  All and all the app is not worth the $4.99 price tag.  I hope it is a first step for WIRED and they look to strip away the print limitations and change the price point delivery system.  Only time will tell.

So what makes a good digital magazine and why am I so hard on all these guys?  I will answer the latter question first.  I expect more from companies that have budgets that are deep, brand penetration and have openly announced they have been planning these apps for the past year.  Spending upwards of $100,000 just to produce one issue and 10 to 20 people working on each issue.  Then in the end we get glorified PDF’s or an untraditional digital experience.  I get just a bit frustrated, but again it leaves the door wide open for the little guy.

With that said now I will give the three keys needed to making digital media content successful.  I won’t give away all the ‘how to’s’, but I will outline the basics.

Rich Media Content: This seems to be the obvious and simplest of the tasks.  Creating content and rich media content should be a no brainer, a 1, 2, 3, type of deal for these companies.  Sadly it just is not the case.  For years publishers have mastered the art of ‘less is more’ and working in the realms of print restrictions.  Now we are telling them to abandoned what they have thought, trained and done for centuries.  This process is more of a culture change then anything else.  It will take time, but it is key to the success of digital media.  ( more to come on what exactly Rich Media content really is, in a future blog )

Track-ability of User Interaction: One of the greatest advantages to going digital is the ability to track not only the ads, but the content as well.  Now publishers can rely on more than just letters and casual conversations about their content’s success, they can get hard cold facts.  What do readers like? What don’t they like?  Was the cover story the right story?  What content was the most popular, what content was interacted with the most?  All of these can now be answered.  Advertisers can now track their print ads much like they do for online ads.  Ad delivery becomes a whole new ball game and everyone benefits, the users, the publishers and the advertisers.

Social Integration: What are we as a society if we don’t share?  We are nothing and the same fate befalls digital media.  It is truly worthless if you can’t share it.  We have to remember that not EVERYONE owns a tablet or a portable media device…but odds are they have access to some type of internet connection.  This means that if I am reading the latest digital news story I can quickly share it to my social community.  In turn they can share it to theirs and so on.  Now the digital content is no longer ‘just’ on my device, but it has spread to thousands and do this enough times with the right content and users will pony up and get into the portable media revolution.  As a note this does not mean that ALL content needs to be shared in an open platform.  There are many ways to protect the publishers content and still share the experience.

Now these are just the building blocks.  Of-course there are other issues to address such as; Pricing, UI design, Flow, Gesture control, Speed and Delivery.  The three keys above are what is minimally required to truly compete in the digital media market place.

If you are interested here are the links to the ‘top’ digital magazines out right now:

WIRED ( 2 out of 5 stars )

TIME ( 2.5 out of 5 stars )

MEN’S HEALTH ( 3 out of 5 stars ) – there are a few bugs in the app, but those will be fixed.  As for content and user experience they have the most—so far.

POPULAR SCIENCE ( 2 out of 5 stars )

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In the world of marketing and advertising there always seems to be something new, something better and something you just HAVE to use.  After 17 years of watching, living and experiencing this, I have come to a solid conclusion—no.

No I don’t have to use the newest, latest or most revolutionary thing out there to be successful.  In fact it is just the opposite.  The most successful marketing and advertising campaigns use the oldest techniques.

I have developed a term for all the overnight newbies,  MSTI or Marketing Static To Ignore.  Running a business is hard enough without worrying about all the static that surrounds it.  Focus on your core and listen to your gut.  You are in business for a reason and that reason isn’t to get lost in the black and white fuzz, it is to succeed and provide for your family.

Listening to your gut will 9 times out of 10 put you right where YOU need to be.

Example;  three years ago FaceBook and business became the buzz.  For many it was a new way to reach people.  Article after article was written about how you MUST be on FaceBook if you owned a business.  Well many business owners had no idea what to do on FaceBook and I can guarantee that ‘guts’ were telling them not to even get on—yet.

Some listened and some didn’t.  Those that first went online with FaceBook spent energy ( and a lot of it ) learning how to use it, learning what to do and how to make it effective.  This energy took them away from their core and cost hundreds or thousands.  Not even the ‘professionals’ knew what to really do with FaceBook.  So now three years later FaceBook has changed, nearly 500 million people use it and starting last year ( end of last year ) we learned just how to use FaceBook with Business.

FaceBook proved it could stand the test of time.  It proved that it ‘could’ work.  So now it is no longer static.  It is a proven method of communication and now it will not take you away from your core, it will enhance it.  What about those that adopted it early, do they have a leg up? No they don’t.  Why?  They just learned how to use it and now you just have to follow, perfect and succeed.  This is only one example; an honest one that will get a lot of flack.

So my point?  My point is that things will come and go and as a business owner you need to stay focused and let things mature.  Right now there are so many ‘start up’ social projects, FourSquare, DeHood, Yelp, Ning and the list goes on and on.  Notice these, but don’t focus on them.  Remember all the technology in the world will never replace a warm hand shake and a smiling face.  When it does, this professional will retire and plant some trees.

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For the last week I have been fighting a nasty flu bug and have not had the opportunity to post.  While I am not at 100% I wanted to get back to the writing world, so here we go.

During my ‘rest’ I thought about a lot of different topics to write about, but one that kept coming out on top was ‘reach’.  In advertising your services or products, this is one of the most critical pieces to success.  Understanding your reach is something that takes time, data and patience.

Let me take a step back and define ‘reach’.  Reach is the distance, influence and penetration of your sent marketing/advertising message.  How far geographically is your message shared?  How do you influence your audience and what is your audience number?  Reach is the cornerstone of data gathered by both your online and offline efforts.

So how do you measure your reach?  This is where planning, patience and persistence, or the three P’s come in.  The first step is to plan.  Yes you must plan to measure and set the tools needed in-order to measure your reach.  Second you will need patience.  Gathering useful data takes time.  It will not happen overnight.  Third you have to be persistent.  This means you will need to send the message out at different times, in different ways and be able to adapt.  Once you have set up the three P’s you will be able to truly measure your reach.

Why is reach and understanding your’s so important?  As a business owner or as a marketer you can only sale to those that will listen and react.  You don’t use a shotgun to kill a mosquito.  Reach is a powerful tool and an unprecedented ally once you understand and use it.

Here is one piece of my reach; Geographical Location and Data.  These are the points from around the world where people came to this blog last week:

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Why such a negative title? I have a strong point to make and sometimes adding a bit of negativity to your message helps send the message home.

I get asked often how to create the perfect advertising campaign. At a lunch, in a meeting or at a business conference I will be asked, “How do I create a successful advertising campaign?”  My reply is short, simple and to the point, “You don’t.”

That is right you do not create a successful or perfect advertising campaign—you let your audience do that for you. Advertising your product or service can not be successful thought out in a board room or by using fancy charts, you have to get face to face with your consumers. You can not leave the perfect message if you don’t know the right number to call.

How then do you let your audience create your advertising message? Start with hiring a marketer, listening, get creative and do not be scared to ask. What if you have just started your company and haven’t built your network of listeners? Then advertising is the last thing you want to do. You need to build a small ‘following’. Create a loyal group of clientele that will assist you in the growth of your company. Don’t be pushed into advertising, get set up with a marketing plan, social media and good old fashion word of mouth. Then you can build into the full blown advertising mode.

It is key to understand that advertising is not as simple as throwing out an ad and hoping it lands. It is a planned event and you have a much greater chance of success if you slow down, listen and obey. Once you understand what your current clientele see in you, you will be able to share that with a wider audience and if needed correct any misconceptions that may be out there. Every company needs a fan boy/girl and the best way to get them is by listening.

Now this does not mean that you will incorporate/use everything that you learn or that your audience will do all the heavy lifting for you.  It is simply the way for you to truly understand how to focus your advertising message to the masses. Doritos has done several ‘audience based’ or social based user generated content campaigns, but they have not used all the generated content or information.  They have learned from it, created perfected messages and then have been consistently successful in the implementation.

You will be successful in creating the perfect advertising campaign if you:

• Seek professional assistance
• Listen to your audience
• Become creative
• Are fearless and social
• Plan, build, execute and track

We live in a world of talkers, simply open your door and let them in. Be educated by them, listen to them and then direct your message to the masses.

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