So What Would You Do?

So imagine your marketing a company that is just entering the social space.  And you see the NCAA Tournament, also known as March Madness, coming down the calendar with determination.  What do you do?



What do you do if you're marketing Nike, or some other sporting wear brand?  What do you do if you market a college or university, especially one in the tournament?

What would you do if you market any product or service that targets men 18 - 49 who follow college sports?

You got Facebook, Twitter, Google +.   Those are your advertising media.  They present the way that you get word out to consumers.  But what word to you send out to those people?  This is what they call content marketing.

Now, not tomorrow but now, is the time for you to start blogging.  Not about your product or service, but about how your product or service answers the questions of your targeted customers.  If you're that university, you're blogging about student life and how it changes when exciting things happen during the tournament.  If you're a sporting goods manufacturer you're blogging about how many players in the tourney are wearing your gear and how well those players are doing (not how well your products are doing, those players... it's about them, not you!)  If you market beer or nacho cheese or delivery pizza you probably want to blog about how basketball fan celebrates the tournament.  Viewing parties.  Menus.  Recipes.  Stories of fellowship and great times.

Me?  I'll be a consumer.  I'll be following sports commentators and bloggers on Twitter while I watch.  I'll be following friends who will be rabid in their interest, people who will probably be following brands and people that I don't directly follow through social media and commenting on those brands on Facebook and Google +.  I'll  be looking out for contacts on all these sites, maybe a few more, who I think I should probably follow.  And above all...  I will be involved in a huge, wide-reaching conversation with friends and their friends and their friends and the products and services with which they most closely connect, with whom who I will probably come connected.

I wouldn't have been doing any of that three years ago.

What will you be doing?  As a marketer?  As a consumer?  Are you thinking about these things? 

Has Social Media Changed the Way You Watch Television?

I thought I was a little nerdy last year when I keep my laptop burning while watching my Tampa Bay Buc's blow game after game.

It seemed a little overboard.  I'll admit it.  But it was fun...................

So today I find this info-graphic.  Don't you love info-graphics?  Check out what is happening with the age-old tradition of watching television.  Click on this link and check it out:  Really... It's okay!!!!

Laptops.  Tablets.  Smartphones.  They can all join us in the living room as we watch television.  And many are starting to find that they can make the whole experience more fun!

So here I stand, telling you face-to-face that I'm doing it.  Are you doing it?  What's the next big television event coming up?  March Madness!!!!  Yes.  I will have the tv and the laptop fired up for that!  Won't you?

Update:  Tonight I will follow up with some thoughts about how/why social media enhances television viewing.

Less is More? More or Less...

I have this little voice in one ear reminding me of how many times I read that a constant flow of content is the secret to successful blogging. 

I have another voice in the other ear reminding me of how many times I read that everything you post better be worthy of the readers' time. 

So it's late Sunday afternoon.  I really don't have any marketing ideas to write about.  But I know I should post something... I think.

Forget it.  I'm going to go open a bottle of wine. 

Social Can Be So Simple

My friend Patty owns a little Italian restaurant.  We've been going there ever since we moved to Seminole.  About 12 years now. 

Give her props for owning a small, family-owned restaurant that long, keeping it in business.  What a tough business.  Truth is, she's probable cooked more dinners for us over the past several years than my wife has.  And I'll share that blame....  But still, these businesses open and close with regularity.  Not Patty's.  She's survived. 

About a year ago, maybe longer, she asked me for my email address.  I gave it to her.  Never thought about it again/  And didn't hear a thing about it, until a few months ago. 

A few months ago she sent out an email to about 45 people announcing that she had a few new items on the menu.  I got it.  Showed it to my wife.  And we laughed about not having to cook that night!  I went to pick up the brand new chicken bruchetta and got a chance to talk to Patty.  She was thrilled.

She said a simple email was all it took.  It did not cost her a penny.  She has been slowing adding the emails to her list.  And she sent one email out to all of us.  And she said a bunch of us showed up to try the new stuff.  She was thrilled.  She kept collecting email addresses.  She announced that she was moving to a new, larger location, and kept collecting email addresses.  And she's been keeping us informed about the move and the upcoming grand opening.  And she's pretty confident, excited about the future even in a tough economy.

Just look at what this marketing neophyte learned.  She learned that email marketing, the way she was doing it, carried absolutely no media cost.  She learned that she could also contact us through Facebook for free.  All it took was a few minutes of her time.  She was able to reach all of us, her most loyal customers, with just a few minutes of effort.  And we showed up.  It worked and she was able to pay the bills for another month.

This is a very small business that put forth a very small effort and enjoyed a comparatively large return.  That is the business model that so many more businesses could enjoy.  If the company is bigger and has a much larger customer base, it may take more time (=effort = labor) but it still will carry no media cost.  And the communication will be direct, personal, and effective. 

My friend Patty, who has spent her life in a kitchen, with long periods behind the counter, can teach us all a bit about social and email marketing.  Think about this story.  Look for other examples in your circle.  And learn. 

Cord-Swapping?

Nielsen recently issued a new report with details about a "development to watch."

It was about people who are referred to as cord-swappers, people who are cancelling their cable or satellite television services and are instead hooking their televisions up to the internet.  It's forced Nielsen, the television ratings monopoly, to create a new category of tv household.  Add the "broadcast only/broadband" household to "broadcast only," "cable," and "satellite" homes as the types of households they measure. 

 
Most new televisions come with a built in USB port.  Some have built-in wifi receivers.  There are Google TVs available right now at your local store.  You can connect your current television to an Apple TV box and watch all sorts of programming stored on the iCloud. 

Internet companies like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube are starting to provide original video programming available only online.  Netflix made headlines just last week with it's launch of "Lillyhammer," a dramatic series starting Steve Van Zandt ( of The Sopranos) as a New York gangster forced to re-locate to Norway.  Netflix further challenged television status quo by releasing the entire series at once, instead of piecing the episodes out one week at a time. 

What does it all mean?  Nielsen says that the number of "broadcast only/broadband" homes is still small, about 5% of households, but it is the fastest growing segment they measure.  Last year it grew 22.8%.  I predict it will pick up steam.  Television manufacturers are pushing television toward the internet.  Internet companies are working hard and investing big money to pull television viewers to the internet.  What does it mean to your local cable company with it's thousands of miles of coaxial cable planted in the ground throughout your community?  What does it means to satellite providers who once thought they could challenge cable?  I'd say they have some serious thinking to do. 

What does it mean for your local television station?  They have some thinking to do too.  Localism seems to be a big advantage that they have in terms of news reporting and local program production.  That's content that they can distribute any way they want.  But they better get around the old "appointment viewing" strategy and come to terms with our "demand-fed" generation.   No body wants to wait anymore.  If you like the first episode of "Lillyhammer" you can make a weekend out of it and watch the entire season.  No need to wait.  I think I'd enjoy doing that with "House" or "NCIS."

I can also think of two or three (probably more) broadcast companies which own and operate local television stations across the country that are achieving expense savings by moving all of their stations to a common look, feel and operating structure.  They are enjoying the economies of scale by sharing production elements and content around the country. I believe they are sacrificing localism for a better bottom line.  That may prove to be short-sighted.

Are you a cord swapper?  Have you taken content from the internet and watched it through your television?  I have.  That's how I watch a bunch of blacked-out football games last season.  We have watched "The Tudors" and a bunch of movies on our 47 inch set that were downloaded from Netflfix.  We don't do it often... yet... but the opportunities are increasing.

I will let the tv, cable, satellite and internet folks duke it out between themselves.  I'll gladly sit on the side and watch carefully.  As a marketer, you have to ask yourself, does this make your marketing and advertising opportunities more complicated, or more plentiful?  Will all these changes make our work more effective, or increasingly invisible?  It's a great time to be involved in this business, don't you think?