An Easy Rule When Writing Social Media Content for People Over 30.

Just remember WWBRD.

What would Bonnie Raitt do? Give people something to talk about. That’s it. Media has always been social when the message is compelling. If the message is not relevant or interesting then no one cares. Some things never change.

If you’re under 30 then you may not know who Bonnie Raitt is. When I threw this idea around my younger peers, they looked at me like I had horns on my head.

Any ideas for a younger, more hip way to remember this rule? I’m sticking with WWBRD.

Social Media Tips at the Nashville Technology Council

I attended the NTC Social Media Roundtable Discussion yesterday in the Microsoft Cool Springs office. It was a nice event.

Here are the top 10 things I learned:

1. Tweetdeck is a tool for monitoring Twitter/Facebook activity and trends. Cool.

2. Twitterfall is a tool for catching specific Twitter activity for specific groups using hash tags.

3. I sort of learned what hash tags were. We were #ntcpanel. We watched all activity from the meeting on Twitterfall.

4. To be a part of the social media marketing game means marketers have to be willing to have less control and be more collaborative with customers.

5. It’s not about reaching the most people. It’s about reaching the right people. Good lesson.

6. Book written called Ground Swell. It introduces the concept of POST for a sound approach to social media.
  • People
  • Objectives
  • Strategy
  • Technology

7. Another acronym used for setting goals is LACE. Pick which one you are trying to accomplish.
  • Leads
  • Awareness
  • Customer Service
  • Engagement

8. Twitter idea from sschandler. Use it like the old school radio promotion. The 13th Tweeter to twitter.com.XYZ gets a free gift card. This may work well for more retail oriented customers.

9. Twitter is a great way to create a call to action. But it must be inviting not commanding. “Give us instant feedback on your experience or follow us on Twitter”, and include your Twitter tag.

10. Set up multiple Twitter accounts for different objectives. If your company uses Twitter is it trying to accomplish several things on one Twitter account. Is that effective or should there be more than one Twitter account?

What does tomorrow's marketing agency look like?

I've been doing the ad agency thing now for about 15 years. I remember the good ole days. Clients would call us asking for help with their $5 million account. We would develop a plan to spend 50% on three TV stations, 30% on local market radio and 20% on 3-5 print vehicles. We spent three weeks developing plans and another 3-4 weeks in production. Cha-ching - ad campaign is finished. Okay, maybe we did a little research up front to control, oops I mean learn, consumers' preferences. This was used to support the decisions that had already been made, oops I mean influence our decisions that were ahead of us.

Cliff Shaluta, Professor of Advertising at Western Kentucky University, recently posted a blog entitled A New Model for Ad Agencies. He does a great job trying to shape the madness that has been created with the surge of social media such as Facebook. Ad agencies are scrambling to retool their processes to include more online communications. PR agencies are claiming the current world of social media is a natural extension of public relations (after all they've been in the business of creating natural consumer buzz for years). Online marketing gurus have elevated past being just web designers and are staking their right to be kings of the online universe - the business they were born into.

What do I think tomorrow's marketing agency looks like? I honestly have no idea, but it will be a fun ride.