Social Media ROI – You have to “play” to play
With 2009 drawing to a close, and 2010 almost upon us there has been an increasing amount of buzz online regarding social media costs & the return on investment (ROI) that it offers. 2009 will most likely go down in history as the "year of social media", a designation that has businesses and marketers scrambling to figure out how they fit in, and how they can quantify the results. Social media activities are proving to be one of the more difficult marketing strategies to measure, but the general consensus seems to be overwhelmingly positive. As I was reading this article discussing the fact that PEPSI is pulling their TV advertising from the superbowl next year in favor of online initiatives, it really made me stop and think. PEPSI has been advertising in the superbowl since 1987. They have spent over $140 million on superbowl advertsing over the years, including an estimated $33 million last year alone. The fact that a company who was comitted to the superbowl (to the tune of $30 million/year) has done an about-face, really adds weight to what we have been discussing with our clients and in presentations all year. This is a monumental shift that will have enormous ramifications within the advertising world as we know it.
Social media is here, and it is here to stay. The general buying public has dramatically shifted their decision-making behavior, and I feel that we are in the midst of the most fundamental shift in consumer activity seen in decades. Social media tears down borders, unites those with common interests, and creates an almost singular consciousness that a new wave of marketers is trying desperately to tap into.
So what will work? I wish I had the answer to that question. What seems to be working is companies that have dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to a new, open, honest & transparent business model. A model based on honest communication and responding to the needs to the consumer. It may sound old fashioned, but in many ways this marks a return to business ethics and fundamentals that we haven't seen since the onset of the industrial revolution. It does not matter if you are marketing real estate, or trying to sell a new type of socks - the time to get involved, to get started is now. It will not be easy (to this I can attest) and there are no right or wrong answers. Be honest, be yourself - as a business, or an indiviual. The rules are changing, and this is going to be a VERY interesting year.
I'll leave you with another video that discusses the topic - many of you may have seen it, but it really should make you stop and think, no matter what business you are in.
Niche Marketing – Vancouver Real Estate Tech Meetup
In October 2009 Dave deBruyn was invited to speak at the Vancouver Real Estate Technology Meetup on the subject of marketing your Real Estate business online. The premise of the presentation was niche marketing - something we feel very strongly about, and a strategy we recommend to clients in order to maximize their marketing dollars.
The folks at Ubertor were kind enough to videotape the event, and also have provided a transcription of the video below. A word of warning - the video is over 30 minutes long, but there are some gems in there. Any questions, comments or feedback? Feel free to get in touch, we would love to hear from you.
Video Transcription
Dave: In the back if you can’t hear me just let me know. I’ve got this big speaker behind my head, so it sounds loud up here. So, basically we do marketing for realtors and developers and over the past years, we’ve developed a good relationship with Ubertor and we’ve built a lot of real estate sites on their platform. Tonight isn’t a platform specific speech. It’s just a bit of a talk about what I think the big benefit is to niche marketing and for realtors to take a bit of a different approach when they try to market themselves.
Quick little obligatory slide here - I know going to have an American audience on the video side of things so I should probably explain that niche is a "Nitch". So if your anywhere in the south of the Canadian border tonight’s speech is on "Nitch" marketing. I prefer niche.
A niche is defined as a distinct segment of a market, a situation or activity specially suited to a persons interests, abilities or nature or a special area of demand for a product or service. My favorite definition is the second one. I think that the best fit for a niche in the marketing sense is a situation or activity that’s related to you, your core values, your love, the things that you like to do. I will talk a bit more about that later but as long as your values align with your business you’ll actually go really far.
The beginning of this presentation is essentially that the mass media is dead. So, once upon a time (specially in the real estate business) it was often thought that he who advertises the most wins. Essentially he who throws the most money at it, will win. For many years that was true in this business. Each & every one of us gets a stack of real estate flyers every week saying they’re the best in this area or the top realtor in Vancouver... and they all go straight to the recycling bin. Unfortunately the general public has grown immune to that system and we are...
Best iPhone App Ever?
Being a designer I seem to have evolved into quite the font junkie. I am constantly on the lookout for the latest fonts, new fonts, new trends in branding & advertising. I can't even count the times that I have been walking through a store, or down a street & spotted the "perfect" typestyle for a project. Inspiration comes from strange places, and rarely do I have my laptop with me when it strikes. By the time I get back to my desk, the inspiring font is just a memory.
Enter my new best friend - WhatTheFont for the iPhone. I have long been a fan of the WhatTheFont website, an incredible tool for sourcing fonts from a sample. Simply scan and/or upload an image of the font in question, and the magical WhatTheFont system analyzes the font and provides a list of potentials. More often than not this website is BANG on with its guess, saving literally hours of combing through thousands of rarely-used typestyles, trying to find a perfect match.
The mobile version couldn't be handier. You can literally walk up to the font you admire, open the app & use your iPhone's camera to snap a photo, upload to the WhatTheFont database and presto - a perfect match, on the go, without even putting down your latte.
I'm in...
What is your % mobile?
I stumbled upon a very cool new site called Percent Mobile that allows you to track users viewing your site on a mobile device. To top it off, it even allows you to see what kind of device they are using to browse your site. Better still, the service is free (by invite). Please leave me a comment if you wish to receive a free invitation code to try out the service, we have only 25 invites... Was reading a post this morning written by Jennifer Harper for the Washington Times, regarding "The Obama Brand". This particular topic holds a great fascination for me, as I believe that Obama should be hailed as one of the leading marketers of this generation. Quoting from the article: "Does President Obama need more FDR, less Jimmy Carter and a dose of Ronald Reagan to ensure the staying power of his personal brand? Media discretion could be the secret of commanding the global stage. "Let's face it, a president should probably be rarely heard and seen and then only strategically. There's a reason why the Wizard of Oz stayed behind his curtain. There is something about the office of the presidency that just doesn't do well with too much accessibility and too much of a human touch. Ronald Reagan understood this and played the presidency with the right doses of warmth, balance and gravitas," says John Tantillo, a Manhattan marketing expert and Fox News contributor." I wholeheartedly disagree, and if this article is written with comments from the "best marketing minds" then it is a BOLD example of what it lacking in America's big-business / political marketing approach. I firmly believe that the #1 reason that Obama succeeded in his bid for presidency is that he is AUTHENTIC. Not fake fireside authentic, not "wearing a suit / authoritative " authentic, but truly open, honest and trustworthy. Remember those words? People believe what he has to say, and will support his authentic image. Think about it - if your brand is honest, authentic, your followers will support you - even as you might make minor mis-steps. Look at his quip on the Tonight Show. Oops! But in reality, no big deal -after all, he is human. People are flat-out LONGING to trust their leadership, and this has long been forgotten. Dropping the dress code, appearing on Late night TV, all of the items that the article above "questions" are the key reasons Obama is succeeding. He is narrowing the gap between Americans at all ends of the class spectrum. He will look you in the eyes, and with no speech writer present, talk directly to you and tell you "everything will be ok" - and for the first time in decades, people believe him (worldwide). A President should be rarely seen or heard? I hope these people work for my competitors - makes my life...
A President should be rarely seen or heard?
