10 comments

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  evansdave

  9 months ago

  Right on, Max. Your key insight -- "The imperatives lie in deconstructing and rebuilding their cultures and attitudes toward customers and the marketplace" -- sums up the challenge. It's no longer about spin/push/control but rather listen/pull/participate.
  
  Simply using a social channel - posting TV spot on YouTube in the hopes that it "go viral" - is not all what social media is about. Instead, it's the re-engineering of the organization to first listen, and then act in unison across operations and marketing to deliver on what was learned from the marketplace collective.
  
  The agencies that do this will be the long term winners.
  reply
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  maxkalehoff

  9 months ago

  Thanks Dave. There are too many "me too" clueless people throwing useless
  tactics around! With that, key disclosure: I don't know that much, but I
  know what keeps me up at night. And I know this: I'm a humble student.
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  Ani SEO Firm

  9 months ago

  These "me too" crowd consists of SEOs and internet marketers. They don't understand the social media angel. They only wonder about the links.
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  Jay Bryant

  9 months ago

  Great stuff here Max. It is so much beyond having a campaign based mentality that you see from most marketing folks. This fundamentally is about how a company becomes transparent to their clients. Zappos is a great example of how to embrace this and grow to grow significantly in revenue in 4 short years.
  reply
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  pblackshaw

  9 months ago

  So spot on Max. This is precisely the way we should be thinking about the social media space. We also need to be more diligent on the consistency front. Too many brands don't know what the other hand is doing, and it's creating a major credibility gap. Major fast food brands, for instance, are talking up a storm about social media -- even blogging -- but shunning consumers when they try to provide feedback or suggestions on the brand website. We need to drive more consistency.
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  AdamSinger

  9 months ago

  What would help is if these people were active bloggers and social media users. In many cases they are not, they merely READ about bloggers and social media in trade pubs or see a conference. That's not enough.
  
  You have to live and breathe it!
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  Peter Kim

  9 months ago

  So I assume that you think this thing called the "Social Media Advertising Council" is a bad idea?
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  maxkalehoff

  9 months ago

  All, thanks for your comments.
  - Pete Blackshaw: Consistency makes sense. Organizations can't talk out of two sides of their mouths at the same time.
  - Jay: right on! Relationships with customers can't be campaigns.
  - Adam: Yes, during Advertising Week most agencies were not doers, they were talkers.
  - Pete Kim: Social Media Advertising Council sounds kind of....no comment.
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  Dave Kerpen

  2 months ago

  Just found this and I couldn't agree more. Great analysis, Max. Just mentioned this article in a blog post at http://BuzzMarketingDaily.com comparing the work of 1 month from college students to the work "agencies" are passing off as social media marketing. Classic.
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  maxkalehoff

  2 months ago

  Thanks. The barrier to entrance to social media marketing is almost
  non-existent. Good communications skills help, but there's no major secret
  sauce. In fact, most individuals today market their own personal brands to
  some degree, and therefore have very hands-on personal experience. The
  barrier for agencies, particularly advertising agencies, is they start from
  the wrong place. Instead of marketing to people, they market to "audiences",
  or worse. They are less interested in delivering value, and more interested
  in delivering interruptions and impressions. They are less interested in
  long-term relationships, and more interested in short-term campaigns. And so
  on and so fourth.
  reply