Small businesses live and die by our marketing abilities. Marketing is reaching your market, having a conversation, meeting people's needs. With this view, online tools are just new tools.
I've never bought into the negative view of marketing, and so that influences my willingness to throw myself into it.
Eban Crawford
· 2 years ago
I really liked this entry.
Yes, those of us with a presence in the online community are marketers of sorts.
Some of us, it is just ourselves that we market through the social webs. Others, like myself market for a living, plus I do a good bit of marketing for my Podcast and my blog as well.
I like your advice about transparency. I find businesses that come to the web fresh from the brick and mortar world seem to have trouble getting through to the citezens of the Web 2.0 world, and transparency is the key. At least I believe it is.
I can go on my Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever and see what people like you, Calacanis, Scoble, Sigler, and so many others are doing and cooking up. It is so much more intimate, and refreshing.
The B.S. meter is so much higher on the net these days. Old media style marketing to the lowest common denominator just flat out turns people off in this setting. But that is what makes the Social aspect of the web so appealing.
Your post brought up some very good thinking points.
Connie Bensen
· 2 years ago
I agree with Eban. We are marketing ourselves & transparency is key!
Whitney
· 2 years ago
Completely Amazing Post!
The "Be Your Own Brand" and "Market your own brand" message is important, because I think everything I do says something about my brand. It doesn't have to be loud in everyone's face or spotlight seeking, it is what it is. That's why sometimes it's hard to realize that you are still "marketing your own brand" even when you think you're doing nothing at all.
The things I admire about you most is your ability to be just totally Chris. I trust you because you always point me to interesting stuff and ideas, and then I go off and spread the word elsewhere, or take the idea and spin it off into something new and useful.
I guess I don't understand why it's hard for some people/companies to just be themselves and know that's more than just good enough. It's the genuineness and honesty that always show through. And that's what makes a difference in the end- you don't need subtitles, or feel someone is always looking for the win rather than looking for the solution to the problem at hand.
Britt Raybould
· 2 years ago
I think one of the biggest things you hit was the idea of telling a good story. We've seen thousands of posts on the topic, but it's still something we seem to skim over. Our strongest negative reactions to marketing usually happen when someone has told a "bad" story, when marketers misrepresent. Even worse is the condescending pat on the head.
Once marketers realize that respecting the audience is part of the equation, they can do so much more.
sriram
· 2 years ago
wow love the new look of your site chris. good going.
Rachel Luxemburg
· 2 years ago
I am a professional marketer; have been one my entire career, more or less. I love some of the changes that are coming to marketing, because "traditional" marketing can feel like a straitjacket over time. The grooves in the record are so well-worn that to produce a traditional marketing campaign you hardly have to think at all anymore. It's deadly boring.
I'm thrilled by the changes that are happening in the marketing world. We have a tremendous new toolset to work with that's giving us all sorts of new ways to communicate and connect with our customers and our prospects. It's an exciting time to be in this business.
To be sure, just because things are changing doesn't mean that everything we've done before was bad, nor does it mean that everything we're doing now is going to stand the test of time. With luck, we'll be able to take the best of both old and new marketing styles and more forward into a better future.
John C. Havens
· 2 years ago
Hey Chris,
First off, thanks very much for calling in to the show. I'm also really glad you'll be on the show in October and perhaps we can continue some of this conversation then.
I think with all of our desire not to schill we forget that we all work for companies that in some way or another have to sell something or that business/company goes away. So some of the conversation about, "I don't want to market," or "I hate selling" is really irrelevant. Okay, so you may be in HR versus selling the widgets that your company develops, but if those widgets don't get sold, you're out of a job.
My point here is that it's high time we gave more credit to salespeople/marketers if we understand that at the end of the day, nobody buys things they don't want to. I get a bit fed up with the notion that "evil salespeople coerce you to buy something Madison Avenue is pitching." If you buy something, you've made the decision to buy. I think I've been tricked to purchase something a few times in my life, but more often than not, someone exposes me to something in a way that makes me want it. Buying it is my call.
Does that make sense? Let's remember that commerce involves communication and the consumer is typically pretty smart. Especially these days. So as a marketer (or in my case as VP of Business Development) my focus is always on fostering relationships first, with the tacit understanding that OF COURSE I want to sell you something. That's how I pay bills and feed my kids! But OF COURSE I understand that you (person I'm talking to) won't buy from me unless I demonstrate value for my product/service and you trust me. Period.
We in the new media world have to stop thinking in the "us versus them" mentality, re: buying and selling. Commerce has always inspired a refining of communication through the ages, and keeps us on our toes. And just because someone is trying to sell you something doesn't make them evil. We're all trying to sell ideas as well as stuff. So let's get over the knee-jerk reaction of saying, "no pitching!" and move on to quickly identify how we can best foster lasting relationships that last beyond any particular potential sale.
JoeC
· 2 years ago
Being a technologist, I share your suspicion of marketing. Guys like me actually believe that something worthwhile and good will find its own fan base without a marketing department at all.
The list of projects, products or sites that made it this way is long and impressive. craigslist, Twitter, gmail, linux, ruby, php, and any number of other open-source languages and projects.
And they're not all non-profit exercises. Blip.tv, which is now entering its serious let's-try-to-make-some-money phase, had virtually no promotional or sales effort when it started, and has little more now. Rather, their marketing strategy was and is simply to help their users and be responsive to problems and ideas. To this day, you will still get support email from "mike". That's Mike Hudack, the CEO.
The thing all these projects have in common is being first concerned with helping people. Being truly interested in making something good and useful is different than trying to persuade people that what you've made is good and useful. Ultimately, to someone like me, "marketing" is always about spin, about persuading, convincing, yes, even deceiving. It's all about selling not satisfying. It's never about your users, it's about the people that aren't your users yet.
So, for sure, I'd agree that actually wanting to help people and build something you can be proud of is key.
BarbaraKB
· 2 years ago
Marketing is making a plan and setting goals for growth. There are many ways to grow but the good marketer is the person in the group who hounds the plan and the goals. We are a part of that planning process and we are committed to the goals. Find ways to plan, then execute and *measure.* Find a way to measure. That's marketing. BTW, in my book, many here are describing sales, which is a piece of marketing. Peace!
Geoff Livingston
· 2 years ago
Chris: I think mass communications gave marketers a lot of power, and the ability to manipulate buying audiences. We still see this with folks like Karl Rove, etc.
Social media is ripping that control away. I think Cluetrain manifesto is a great ideal. Something to strive for... It is far from becoming a reality. in the interim, we can change one by one.
I'd like to share a quote I've been using lately when I talk about PR. It's the dictionary definition of public relations (via Dictionary.com):
1. the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
2. the art, technique, or profession of promoting such goodwill.
Novel concept, huh? How did we stray so far away from this?
briansolis
· 2 years ago
Geoff, spot on referencing that definition.
Chris, you ask how does social media turn marketing upside down?
It starts by having marketing executives pulled by their neck ties and fancy handbags into the conversation. Once you start listening and participating it completely transforms everything, from how you think about marketing, things you say to the way you view people.
It's all about relationships, not the sale, and social media is forcing that reset.
chrisbrogan
· 2 years ago
@Rachel politely points out that we can't throw all traditional marketing under the bus. In fact, we should learn what worked the best, learn how that might or might not work in the new world, and reconsider all the tools that seem worth using.
I'm often guilty of abandoning it ALL in pursuit of shiny and new, the innovative. But there's lots to be said about the foundations of things.
All Comments
I've never bought into the negative view of marketing, and so that influences my willingness to throw myself into it.
Yes, those of us with a presence in the online community are marketers of sorts.
Some of us, it is just ourselves that we market through the social webs. Others, like myself market for a living, plus I do a good bit of marketing for my Podcast and my blog as well.
I like your advice about transparency. I find businesses that come to the web fresh from the brick and mortar world seem to have trouble getting through to the citezens of the Web 2.0 world, and transparency is the key. At least I believe it is.
I can go on my Facebook, or Twitter, or whatever and see what people like you,
Calacanis, Scoble, Sigler, and so many others are doing and cooking up. It is so much more intimate, and refreshing.
The B.S. meter is so much higher on the net these days. Old media style marketing to the lowest common denominator just flat out turns people off in this setting. But that is what makes the Social aspect of the web so appealing.
Your post brought up some very good thinking points.
We are marketing ourselves & transparency is key!
The "Be Your Own Brand" and "Market your own brand" message is important, because I think everything I do says something about my brand. It doesn't have to be loud in everyone's face or spotlight seeking, it is what it is. That's why sometimes it's hard to realize that you are still "marketing your own brand" even when you think you're doing nothing at all.
The things I admire about you most is your ability to be just totally Chris. I trust you because you always point me to interesting stuff and ideas, and then I go off and spread the word elsewhere, or take the idea and spin it off into something new and useful.
I guess I don't understand why it's hard for some people/companies to just be themselves and know that's more than just good enough. It's the genuineness and honesty that always show through. And that's what makes a difference in the end- you don't need subtitles, or feel someone is always looking for the win rather than looking for the solution to the problem at hand.
Once marketers realize that respecting the audience is part of the equation, they can do so much more.
I'm thrilled by the changes that are happening in the marketing world. We have a tremendous new toolset to work with that's giving us all sorts of new ways to communicate and connect with our customers and our prospects. It's an exciting time to be in this business.
To be sure, just because things are changing doesn't mean that everything we've done before was bad, nor does it mean that everything we're doing now is going to stand the test of time. With luck, we'll be able to take the best of both old and new marketing styles and more forward into a better future.
First off, thanks very much for calling in to the show. I'm also really glad you'll be on the show in October and perhaps we can continue some of this conversation then.
I think with all of our desire not to schill we forget that we all work for companies that in some way or another have to sell something or that business/company goes away. So some of the conversation about, "I don't want to market," or "I hate selling" is really irrelevant. Okay, so you may be in HR versus selling the widgets that your company develops, but if those widgets don't get sold, you're out of a job.
My point here is that it's high time we gave more credit to salespeople/marketers if we understand that at the end of the day, nobody buys things they don't want to. I get a bit fed up with the notion that "evil salespeople coerce you to buy something Madison Avenue is pitching." If you buy something, you've made the decision to buy. I think I've been tricked to purchase something a few times in my life, but more often than not, someone exposes me to something in a way that makes me want it. Buying it is my call.
Does that make sense? Let's remember that commerce involves communication and the consumer is typically pretty smart. Especially these days. So as a marketer (or in my case as VP of Business Development) my focus is always on fostering relationships first, with the tacit understanding that OF COURSE I want to sell you something. That's how I pay bills and feed my kids! But OF COURSE I understand that you (person I'm talking to) won't buy from me unless I demonstrate value for my product/service and you trust me. Period.
We in the new media world have to stop thinking in the "us versus them" mentality, re: buying and selling. Commerce has always inspired a refining of communication through the ages, and keeps us on our toes. And just because someone is trying to sell you something doesn't make them evil. We're all trying to sell ideas as well as stuff. So let's get over the knee-jerk reaction of saying, "no pitching!" and move on to quickly identify how we can best foster lasting relationships that last beyond any particular potential sale.
The list of projects, products or sites that made it this way is long and impressive. craigslist, Twitter, gmail, linux, ruby, php, and any number of other open-source languages and projects.
And they're not all non-profit exercises. Blip.tv, which is now entering its serious let's-try-to-make-some-money phase, had virtually no promotional or sales effort when it started, and has little more now. Rather, their marketing strategy was and is simply to help their users and be responsive to problems and ideas. To this day, you will still get support email from "mike". That's Mike Hudack, the CEO.
The thing all these projects have in common is being first concerned with helping people. Being truly interested in making something good and useful is different than trying to persuade people that what you've made is good and useful. Ultimately, to someone like me, "marketing" is always about spin, about persuading, convincing, yes, even deceiving. It's all about selling not satisfying. It's never about your users, it's about the people that aren't your users yet.
So, for sure, I'd agree that actually wanting to help people and build something you can be proud of is key.
Social media is ripping that control away. I think Cluetrain manifesto is a great ideal. Something to strive for... It is far from becoming a reality. in the interim, we can change one by one.
I'd like to share a quote I've been using lately when I talk about PR. It's the dictionary definition of public relations (via Dictionary.com):
1. the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc.
2. the art, technique, or profession of promoting such goodwill.
Novel concept, huh? How did we stray so far away from this?
Chris, you ask how does social media turn marketing upside down?
It starts by having marketing executives pulled by their neck ties and fancy handbags into the conversation. Once you start listening and participating it completely transforms everything, from how you think about marketing, things you say to the way you view people.
It's all about relationships, not the sale, and social media is forcing that reset.
I'm often guilty of abandoning it ALL in pursuit of shiny and new, the innovative. But there's lots to be said about the foundations of things.
I learn all the time, and YOU are how I learn.