Larry’s posterous

I received this article by Bruce Marcus, a contributing Editor to RainToday.com from a terrific new client and collaborator – Alice Heiman.  I found it to be so well written and insightful, that researching and writing my own article seemed a futile attempt to make his points different or better in any way.

So without further qualifications, please read Mr. Marcus’ thoughts:

“And now a word to clients and partners who think they know marketing…

Unless you’re that rare bird who’s had some successful experience because you have some kind of inborn talent for marketing—and there are some of you like that—you don’t know beans. And you won’t know beans until they start teaching marketing in law or accounting schools, which is long overdue. Or until you’ve had long experience with a terrific marketer on your staff.

But, if you don’t have a natural affinity for it, there are things you should know that will result in your competing successfully in this wildly competitive market. Or until you hire marketers who know their stuff, and can teach you what you should know.

You should know, first, that the mechanics of marketing—the media relations and the writing and the direct mail and seminars and such—are not marketing. Marketing, in the final analysis, is an art form. The mechanics and tools are not the art. (And, as I’ve often said, when you’re hiring a marketer, don’t look for a mechanic, look for an artist.)

OK, then, how do you hire an artist to do your marketing? Even before you talk to your first interviewee or read your first resume, you need to know this:

• Understand and respect the skills of marketing. You can understand a lot, if you don’t try to gum it up with trying to do what you’re not trained to do.
• Don’t take seriously the opinions of non-marketers about technical marketing matters. They’re not likely to know.Some of the best articles, brochures, and other written marketing material wouldn’t pass muster with a seventh-grade grammar teacher. But know that marketing writing isn’t designed for grammar teachers. It’s designed to communicate ideas clearly and persuasively, with credibility and passion. Writing ain’t wordsmithing, any more than fine cabinet making isn’t just hammering and sawing. It’s communication of ideas.I couldn’t begin to tell you how much of what I write drives seventh-grade teachers and English majors nuts. But not, apparently, my many thousands of readers, nor the editors of the publications that print my stuff. Nor, thank goodness, my consulting clients.
• At the same time, know the difference between what promotional activities are, such as activities that enhance name recognition and reputation, and what the activities are that actually get clients to build a practice. The difference is strategy, and a range of practice development activities that get you in front of prospects. Promotional activities are important, but won’t do much to get you clients if you don’t follow up with practice development activities.
• Either trust your marketer’s judgment, or get a marketer you do trust. No, your spouse, who has a degree in English and did a fine job of raising the children, can’t write your brochure. Your spouse doesn’t know how. And the consensus of your partners about marketing copy is about as useful as your marketing team’s consensus about an audit or a brief.
• Read resumes carefully, and know (or find out) the differences between different kinds of marketing professionals.In the early days following Bates, one Big Eight accounting firm hired its first marketing director from an ad agency. But the guy had been in ad traffic, and knew nothing about professional firm marketing, or writing press releases that someone would publish, or creating a brochure. “But he worked for a major ad agency,” was the excuse.
• Make sure that you and your prospective marketing hire both understand the same things about your marketing objectives, and that both of your objectives are realistic.
• Make sure you both understand what you’re willing to do—or not do—to achieve marketing success. Most marketing activities, particularly as prescribed by good marketers, might not be within your experience. But they should be within your marketer’s experience. Again, either trust your marketer or get a new one.
• Listen to what your marketer has to say. Listen carefully. If you can’t live with what’s being said, either don’t hire that person, or forget about marketing. You’ll waste your money and the marketer’s time.
• If you don’t know how to hire a marketer—and if you’ve never worked with one before—then learn.There are good books. There are articles. There is, of course, The Marcus Letter and other good marketing blogs and websites. You can speak to marketing professionals in other firms that have successful marketing programs. There are the marketer’s associations such as the Legal Marketing Association (LMA) for law firm marketers and the Association of Accounting Marketers (AAM) for accounting marketers.
• It sometimes helps to judge a prospective marketer’s experience by the questions he or she asks you in an interview. A good marketer should ask…
  • How many practice areas do you serve?
  • Which are your strongest practices? Which are your weakest?
  • What are the industries you’re strongest in, and which are your weakest?
  • Do you use client service teams? How many? Which practices? How are they organized and how are they monitored?
  • Will I be able to regularly attend practice group meetings?
  • Is there a marketing committee? How often does it meet?
  • To whom will I report?
  • How many partners are sympathetic to marketing and supportive of the marketing operation?
  • How strong are your cross-selling activities? (This will tell whether the partners cooperate with one another, or whether the firm is a collection of individuals who think of themselves first and the firm second.)
  • How large is the marketing department?
  • How large is the marketing budget?
  • How will marketing success or failure be judged?

Any marketing applicant who doesn’t ask these questions—or questions like these—is going to be gone in eighteen months or less. Don’t waste your time or the applicant’s time.

At the same time, it helps to hire the best marketers if you consider…

• • Whether the applicant asks the foregoing questions.
  • The resume is only the tip of the iceberg. If it merely lists jobs, ask what responsibilities each job actually entailed, how they did it, and with what success.
  • Get an assessment of how much they actually know about your profession. It may or may not be much, but the longer the experience the greater the knowledge.
  • Successful marketing requires a great many different skills—writing for many different kinds of media, from brochures to press releases; networking; strategy; media relations; planning and running seminars; list management; and many more. Ask which skills the interviewee has, and in which are the strongest. Don’t ask about weaknesses and expect a straight answer.

  Thinking in terms of the above, and not what you think you know about marketing but probably don’t, will more likely get you an effective marketing operation—and knowledgeable marketers as well.

  Why do some firms succeed and grow, empowered by great marketers and marketing programs, and others don’t? Start from the beginning of this article and read it through again.”

At SmartBrand, we utilize social media channels as a tool to help our client’s connect with a wider audience that is interested in what they’re sharing and offering.  Of course, we wouldn’t be good brand stewards for our clients if we weren’t deeply engaged in the growing aspects that social media offers today – and tomorrow.

First, we like to invite you to join our free networking site on Ning:

click to connect

Our free networking site a great way to connect with others that are interested in innovative marketing ideas and techniques, while establishing relationships that can help grow your business.

For those of you who are interested in renewable energy, sustainability and ecology – you might want to connect with our fast growing network of “green” professionals and businesses on our free eco-networking site:

click to connect

And of course, we’ve established ourselves throughout the social media sphere, enabling SmartBrand to connect with any number and variety of targeted groups you may need to reach.  Here’s a few listings that you can explore to connect with us:

What say you?

Having conducted a couple of informational seminars and networking meetings recently, I’ve been hearing a pattern of questions from a wide range of entrepreneurs from my community:  “I know social media is something I need to be doing for my business, but I don’t know where to start, or how much time to devote to it”.

It’s a complex social media world out there, and while many people only think of a few channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, there are literally hundreds of other choices (including blogs, wikis, podcasts etc.)  that might be good options for your communication and marketing strategy.  Add to that the somewhat long development period required to establish yourself and your company as a credible “voice”, and you’ve got a recipe for confusion and misguided time investments.

When I came across an article by Leo Babuata on Mashable, I was happy to see his basic step-by-step summary of “How To Simplify Your Social Media Routine”.  For me, this seemed an easy-to-understand, basic summary that anyone could follow, and avoid the risks of wasting time and ruining long-term productivity.

Here’s Babuata’s recommendations for your consideration:

Step 1. Use simple tools to make the most of social media.

The simpler the tools, the better. But tools that combine two or more social media into one are best, because that means you need fewer tools. An example is TweetDeck – not only does it incorporate Twitter , but you can see your Facebook  friends’ updates at the same time.

Another good example is Digsby, which combines email, IM, and social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn.

My setup uses Gmail , as it’s the communication tool that I use most often. I’ve set it up to be my all-in-one inbox: I can Twitter, Facebook, delicious, Flickr, IM and more. You can make Gmail your ultimate productivity center.

Step 2. Focus on sending out high impact messages.

Here’s something that many people who use social media don’t understand: if you send out too many messages, people might stop following you or might even block you, because you’re flooding their inbox.

The secret is to try to make every message you send, or at least a high percentage of them, high-impact messages. Examples: share really useful links, news related to your field, things that are really funny or inspirational, or inside information about your business or blog. The key is to make sure almost every message is something that people will want to share with their friends.

Limit yourself to high-impact messages to reduce the time you spend communicating.

Step 3. Let go of the need to read everything. Learn to scan.

It’s impossible to consume ALL the information that comes at you. It’s like trying to drink from a fire-hose — not only is it a waste of your time, it can be damaging, because you have other important things to do.

So be selective. Find sources of information that are valuable. And scan to get the gist of what’s going on, instead of trying to read every message. Let go of the need to stay on top of everything. Let it go! And instead, just take a dip in the river now and then.

Step 4. Figure out which social media give you the most value, and simplify.

I recommend trying the main forms of social media, but only for a little while. It doesn’t hurt to try them out, but you simply can’t keep up with it all, and what’s more, it’s not the best use of your time. Not all forms of social media are effective for all goals, for all people.

Instead, find just one or two or three that are most effective for you. For me, blogging and Twitter are the best. I try to stay in touch with Facebook, but MySpace and the rest are not worthwhile, for me.

Your choices will be different. But in the end, be selective and guard your time wisely.

Step 5. Form close relationships with people who give you the most value, not everyone.

I’m not suggesting you only follow a handful of people on Twitter or Facebook. But while you can have a large number of friends, you won’t have the same degree of closeness with all of them. So find the people who give you the most value — who share great info, who make you laugh, who inspire you, who give you great suggestions for improving, who help you on a regular basis, who you enjoy talking to. Then focus on building relationships with them. They’re worth spending time with.

Step 6. Manage your time wisely.

It can be easy to do social media too much. Find ways to integrate social media activities in your life without them overwhelming the other work you have to do, and your personal life.

You can set regular schedules, such as doing it 2-3 times a day at certain times, or 10 minutes every hour, or at certain times when there’s a lull in your schedule. But be sure to have boundaries — the rest of your life should be held sacred too.

No article is able to effectively help manage anyone’s social media campaign.  And for that matter, social media in itself is just one small part of an integrated marketing communications strategy.  I continue to find that many business leaders, especially smaller companies, continue to think that social media is a panacea for marketing effectiveness – and continue to struggle with establishing themselves with credibility and measurable results from thier efforts.

Like any profession, social media offers experts that can help guide you to establishing a process that works for your company specifically.  If you don’t know where to begin, or how to strategize a social media campaign that will help your efforts, I’d recommend you team with an individual or company that can show you the results from their efforts – and not just anyone claiming to be an expert in today’s social media sphere.

And don’t forget: Social Media is a communications channel (like traditional media, public relations, etc); not a comprehensive, integrated communications marketing strategy.

First, I’d like to thank Nevada EcoNet and REA250 for the opportunity to contribute an article to the special section of the Reno News & Review that was published today here in the Reno-Tahoe region.  It’s really an honor to be considered worthy of this opportunity, and I hope my perspectives helped paint a good picture of our community and “green” brand marketing.

And so, here’s the article in it’s entirety:

Today’s consumers are increasingly socially conscious, with a growing concern to know if companies honestly treat employees fairly while doing their part to protect and save the environment. Brand values like social responsibility, benefit to the community, and “being green” are at the top of more shopping lists than ever. Not unsurprisingly, enthusiasts of technology are leading the way.

The recently published Forrester study titled Making The Case For Environmentally And Socially Responsible Consumer Products, a survey of over 5,400 U.S. adults were asked about their purchasing habits between April and May of 2008. Amazingly, 65% of those polled consumers confirmed they were “concerned about the environment or global warming.” This trend is up nearly 23% from a November 2007 study, which found that 53% percent of consumers were concerned about sustainability. In short order, business has been quick to leverage this social trending with products and marketing offers – some more successfully than others.

Today’s “green marketing” offers a unique set of challenges; the least of which is a prevalent lack of standards for identifying what it actually means to be a “green” product or company. In combination with the increase in consumer awareness, marketers are seeing a growing demand for eco-labeling, “green” advertising and the overall importance of reporting on sustainability and renewable energy oriented products and projects. This obviously has created a glut of misguided opportunities to nearly everything to be positioned as being “green”, from a minor packaging change to actual services and products that truly reduce energy and waste.

As so many new and old companies jump on the “do good” bandwagon, factions of green marketing have arisen — cause marketing, cause-related marketing, cause branding, conscious marketing, social good marketing and many other new ways of positioning brands within this growing market sector.

What binds this growing set of terms is simple: establishing your marketing efforts in a way that’s truly responsible. Often this can be misunderstood to mean aligning tactics with a cause, but it is certainly not limited to that description. It may also mean the responsible use of funds, reducing unnecessary print marketing materials, or not deploying a controversial ad that might benefit the company financially. Taking this effort a bit further might be easiest to simply call it “Ethical Marketing”.

This trending presents a unique challenge to green marketers like ourselves as products and messages become much more common, often resulting in great confusion in the marketplace. “Consumers do not really understand a lot about these issues, and there’s a lot of confusion out there,” says Jacquelyn Ottman (founder of J. Ottman Consulting and author of Green Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation.) Advantageous marketers can take advantage of this confusion by intentionally making false or exaggerated claims to being “green” – what we now know as “green washing”.

Mintel Reports completed a recent study noting that approximately 12% of consumers in the U.S. can be identified as “True Greens” – individuals who seek-out and regularly purchase so-called “green products”. With them, 68% can be thought of as “Light Greens” – those who buy green on occasion. “What chief marketing officers are always looking for is touch points with consumers, and this is just a big, big, big touch point that’s not being served,” says Mintel Research Director David Lockwood. “All the corporate executives that we talk to are extremely convinced that being able to make some sort of strong case about the environment is going to work down to their bottom line.

Given the obvious social and economic demand, how can companies honestly take advantage of today’s consciousness toward sustainability, renewable energy and ecology? I believe you have to do three things: Be Genuine, Educate Customers, and Offer Participation.

Being genuine simply means that you are doing what you claim in your green marketing campaign – and ensuring your business policies are consistent with your claim. Both of these elements must be met to establish valid credentials that allow the green campaign to succeed.

Educating customers is not simply letting the public know what you’re doing to protect the environment, but more importantly, letting them know why it matters. If education is not reason oriented for your target market, you’ll encounter a general “so what” response that will dash bottom-line results from the campaign.

Providing your customers with the opportunity to participate enables you to personalize your green initiatives — often by enabling the customer to take part in truly positive environmental action.

The lesson here is obvious and simple: you have to “walk the talk” and actually implement green policies and act in environmentally friendly ways for green marketing to work. If you do, you’ll create a powerful selling point with those who are environmentally and socially conscious and want to act to make the world a better place — a market that’s growing exponentially today.

“Green marketing” isn’t merely a catchphrase; it’s a marketing strategy that can help you get more customers and make more money. As in any marketing effort — the challenge is doing it right the first time.

Probably no news to you…color matters.  Alot.

According to a University of Loyola, Maryland study, color increases brand recognition by up to 80 percent.

Color is also very influential to  brand identity in a variety of different ways. Consider the unexpected success Heinz EZ Squirt Blastin’ Green ketchup has had in the marketplace in the past few years. More than 10 million bottles were sold in the first seven months following its introduction, with Heinz factories working 24 hours a day, seven days a week to keep up with demand. The result? $23 million in sales attributable to Heinz green ketchup [the highest sales increase in the brand's history]. All because of a simple product color change.  Obviously, the success of this change was culturally based as the product did not sell as well in America as first anticipated.

Consider how Apple brought color into a marketplace where color had not readily deployed before. By introducing the colorful iMacs, Apple was the first to say, “It doesn’t have to be beige or white”. The iMacs reinvigorated a brand that had suffered $1.8 billion of losses in two years. (And now we enjoy a rainbow of colorful iPods.)

There is a great new tool which can help out with color selection called Cymbolism. It’s an interactive survey of color and word associations. Every page loads a new word, for which you have to select a color you feel best represents it. The results are then aggregated and you can see most popular associations either by color or by word.

To help you consider color choices  for your brand Usabilitypost aggregated the results from Cymbolism, and also provided examples of logos that use each color:

courtesy of usabilitypost

So what color do you choose? There are often many considerations, some of which are purely cultural. Here in the Western hemisphere, white is often considered the color of peace or purity, but in some parts of Asia white is the color of death.  The color you choose should be researched with the target market you have in mind to be sure there are not cultural translations you may be overlooking.

Most importantly, the color you choose should really be something you like, not just something you worked out through a “formula”. If you not happy with the color options in your brand image’s logo, then it’s unlikely you’ll be happy to see it every day on your website, business cards or any other application. Consider choosing something that represents your company’s personality, but be sure it’s something you’ll like personally as well.

Social media isn’t for everyone.  But in today’s economic climate, small businesses are attracted to the inexpensive, self-promotion new media channels in droves.  The problem I’ve been seeing recently though is nothing new; the old 80/20 rule still applies.

It all starts out well enough, until like anything shiny and new, the excitement quickly wears to a grinding halt.  Like dating a pretty girl with nothing in common, it’s fun for awhile, until you realize you have nothing to really talk about, and the physical attraction becomes nothing short of boring, and eventually, even annoying.  Social media can be a fickle date.

That leaves a small percentage of marketers who are drawn to the sharing of relevant, cutting-edge information.  Or so we think.  Many of us have become quite vocally skeptical, which for the short run makes us look very smart indeed.  We might look very intelligent for the short term to those who can’t comprehend our brilliance – but it’s a very bright light that can just as quickly burn out.

Recently, one of my favorite resources, TechCrunch reminded me that 80% of Twitter participants are… for lack of a better word… squatters.  Many of them are web 2.0 gurus who shouted a collective cry of self-assurance.  Now some are stepping up, like those at Shoemoney Blog to let us all know they’ve been right since day one.  And perhaps they have been right in  waiting for this all to transpire in due time.

The point here is that Twitter (and other social media channels) are not unlike any other web based media.  The early adopters rush to grab their place in line, hoping to manipulate their advantage into megabucks.  How many people grabbed Twitter account names, Facebook pages, or Myspace sites in hopes of selling them to the brands that followed into the social media sphere?  How many of those sites are inactive because of that early greed today?

But I digress, and think  TechCrunch put it best: “Twitter is no different than any other form of social media. A small fraction of users produce the overwhelming amount of content, even if it is just 140 characters at a time. Everyone else just drinks from the stream.”

There it is… the good ol’ 80-20 rule.  80% of your outcomes come from 20% of your input.  Surprise! Nothing new here. The biggest results come from approximately 20% of (in this case) users.  But there’s good news here.  Noone is forcing anyone to provide content to get anything out of social media.  It’s perfectly acceptable to monitor a variety of news and information whtout engaging anyone for any reason.  You can learn quite alot that way through research and good old listening. But like all rules of quid pro quo…you get what you give.  Don’t give?  Don’t expect to get.  It’s a pretty simple equation.

But if you don’t engage in any conversations, or provide any content, I personally don’t think you have the right (or knowledge) to criticize others who do (or don’t do).   Just sit back and enjoy the ride – and start with what I believe to be the #1 rule of good marketing – listening.

So how are you using Twitter in your business or personal life?  What do you expect to get, or give from this relatively new channel in the marketing mix?  I’m “all ears”…