The Musings of Scott

For those outside of marketing I thank you with putting up with the 100+ tweets I relentlessly produced (and for those that are I hope they helped). This year’s Inbound Marketing Summit was terrific and had plenty of value for all of the returning attendees. Last year marked the height of the social media revolution, with many moralities predicted for outbound practices and businesses. The way people are consuming information is indeed changing, but culture is still lagging technology in regards to social media; many companies are failing to effectively use it to communicate in its full potential. The values of creating compelling content, authenticity, effectively using metrics, and interaction with the community were evangelized. No one except the sales people were telling us it would be easy.

The social knowledge bank at Gillette was well stocked, and as an information glutton, I often found myself engorged with the vast amount of intelligent views and experience I was being bombarded with. Branching beyond the regular marketing community, I was exposed to how the military, state government, nonprofit, and public relations sectors are using social technology to achieve their goals. It was refreshing to see a new perspective and theories on the using same social tools.

If there was one unspoken theme among the marketers it was that we are taking on more and more responsibilities as the speed at which businesses are conducted accelerates. Businesses and brands need to react faster than bureaucracies and committees are capable of operating at. It requires a certain degree of freedom and trust from the decision makers of the company for social creatives to achieve maximum results. Being a Swiss army knife for your business can be a blessing and a curse, but it is crucial to operate on social schedules in addition to business hours.

5 Faves of 2010 (in no particular order)

Casestudy from Pixability & PerkettPR :  How to Create Persuasive Videos by Using ‘Social Proof’ This session demoed a case study with a children’s hospital, stressing authenticity and a connecting with your audience over fancy editing and expensive equipment. It was presented sharply, focusing entirely on the end result with their customer, and the companies’ respective services sold themselves without need for a hard pitch.

David Meerman Scott & Brian Haligan: Video While this session was a book pitch, there is no denying the wisdom inherent with this duo. Finding a great analogy with how the success of the Grateful Dead is a business model to follow with Social Media, they put very simply a key element to keeping the modern consumer’s attention: Being remarkable and encouraging the uniqueness of your community. Their book will undoubtedly find its way into my iPod over the next year.

Tom Webster – Video (Starts at ~10:00) He preached an evolution of Social Media from simplistic click tracking, and actually measuring the before, during, and after on the evolving Sales Funnel. I was actually a fan of Tom’s before I ever realized it, as I sourced information from this webinar Twitter Usage in America as reference materials for Social Best Practices.

Amber Naslund – Amber made this list for two main reasons: She truly practices what she preaches, and she resonated with the audience on the difficulty for those who handle social media for a company have communicating just “what we do.” Her down to earth style and near superhuman ability to communicate with her communities made her a must for this list.

Tim Washer: Video “When all else fails, be ridiculous.” I knew early on that Tim Washer was going to be making my 5 this year, giving me fodder to experiment and justify my own habits. Humor is one of the most popular and effective ways to connect with potential customers. Another advantage of humor is that is widely available, and if you don’t have a supply internally it can be found cheaply (Tim suggested Film students or Improv Comics as a place to start). Just remember that your audience sets the definition of funny, and to tailor your humor to be funny for your target demographic.

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