What’s Wrong With Social Media
by Josh Levine
Sometimes the Hard Way Is the Only Way
Check out this social media conference:
In one day you’ll become an expert in:
- How to get people to “like” your brand
- Developing a winning content strategy to engage your followers
- Measuring the impact of your Facebook initiatives
- Creating your Facebook dream team
- Mastering Facebook’s latest features and adding a new gear to your PR efforts
- Integrating Facebook into your overall communications plan
At least they’re not over-promising.
Have you ever become an expert in anything in one day? What about six things? If it were that easy, would you really need to attend a conference about it?
The real promise of social media is that it helps human beings create a more connected, more creative world. The promise for brands is that they get to participate in that world and more importantly thrive in it.
But it isn’t going to be easy.
If you think it’s about a one-day seminar, you are sadly mistaken. If you think it’s about having the receptionist, intern, or PR person load your TV commercials into YouTube, you are in big trouble. If you think you can outsource it and forget it, you had better forget it.
Social media is not a new media channel that companies can buy, like the way they buy billboard space. I know it would be SO MUCH EASIER if it was, but it just isn’t. It’s a new way of having relationships with customers, and non-customers, and people who may never be interested in your product at all but might have something to add to a conversation that makes it more interesting for everyone else.
What the marketing world needs right now is not seminars and white papers that purport to make everyone experts. What if they said:
You know what, this is hard stuff. You’re not going to get it right over night. We can help you ease the pain and make sure you get it right over time and avoid the potential disasters along the way.
I guess if they did that, they’d sound a bit like us and ticket sales would surely be affected.
The Problem With Listening
by Josh Levine
Image Source: PaulDunay.com The biggest innovation of our time is not the ability to send brand messages directly to consumers through Twitter and Facebook. It is the ...
Pepsi Refresh Just Needs a Refresh
by Josh Levine
Image Source: Mashable.com Back by popular demand, more rantings about why you should be thinking long-term about your marketing strategies. The Pepsi Refresh Project is catching a lot ...
AA to Shanghai
by Josh Levine
I fly a lot, and I've figured out how to make effective use of the time that would otherwise be wasted on travel. Last week I'm ...
4.5 Million Fans! So What?
by jlegarda
You've got 4.5 million fans. What are you going to do next? Take the summer off. As marketers we evaluate a partner's social media profiles and ...
Social Media Gone Wrong… The New 5
by Josh Levine
Disclaimer: This post may not be all that helpful. I just need to vent. I've just come from the YouTube page for the United States Treasury, ...
Shut Up and Let Me Market To You
by Josh Levine
Oftentimes I'll get an email from some company's list for which the sender's address is noreply@____.com. I'm sure there's an email marketing expert out there ...
Dear Audible.com…
by Josh Levine
So I sign up and give you my money, and then show you more support by following you on Twitter. You respond by sending a ...
We the People…
by Josh Levine
There's so much evidence that in this World 2.0, it's power to the people. It's not just agency websites telling us this. The mainstream news ...
The Tiger Woods Problem
by Josh Levine
Let's dub today Tiger Woods Day, and make it the last day on which public apologies will be abided and accepted. I hereby call for ...
Propel // Don’t Believe the Hype
by Josh Levine
You may have noticed by now that I like to report whenever I click on a web ad, mainly because it's such a rare ...
Infiniti // Don’t Believe The Hype
by Josh Levine
Disclosure: I drive an Infiniti and I love it. So, I sort of root for the brand because I like the product, and it benefits ...
MySpace // Don’t Believe The Hype
by Josh Levine
Social networks are not brands... A recent TechCrunch article quotes MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta as saying “Our users don’t know if we’re a social portal, ...
Mine Magazine Part 2 // Don’t Believe The Hype
by Josh Levine
Second issue of Mine came today. Let's see if they did any better than the first issue... My name in the Lexus ad upfront: check. By ...
Mine Magazine // Don’t Believe The Hype
by Josh Levine
Time Inc. launched Mine Magazine earlier this year, leaving Slate and others wondering "Could a personalized magazine help save print media?" Seems like a fair ...
Lakers // Don’t Believe The Hype
by Josh Levine
Listening to NPR this morning, two stories jumped out. No, it wasn't the latest on Jon and Kate — one was about California's raging debt ...
Engaging the $$$ Audience // Headlines: Rebel Makes News
by Josh Levine
Last month Rebel produced the first in a series of ultra-high-end house parties. This one, which we called A Taste of Tuscany, The Thrill of ...
Pepsi Again // Don’t Believe The Hype
by Josh Levine
I’ve already given Pepsi plenty of shit for its gross irresponsibility on the logo redesign. Today a writer from a leading business magazine, both of ...
Rebels Are Like Pilots // Reading for Rebels
by Josh Levine
We've all read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers by now, right? (Or it's sitting in that big pile of books you're meaning to read.) After I ...
Amsterdam // Don’t Believe The Hype
by Josh Levine
The mayor of Amsterdam says he’s going to clean up his city. Translation: he’s shutting down the brothels. If you don’t know the story, Amsterdam has ...
Emirates // Don’t Believe the Hype
by Josh Levine
Does this even need explaining? It's an ad for Emirates first class that I saw yesterday on the BART in San Francisco. I also saw the ...
Ad Age Doesn’t Get Our New President // Don’t Believe the Hype
by Josh Levine
Ad Age says now that we have a black president, the White House will now be the place from which urban trends emanate. I'm not ...
Pepsi’s New Logo // Don’t Believe the Hype
by Josh Levine
This story is a few days old, but with all the election hype, you may have missed it. The good people at Pepsico have seen fit ...
Blackberry // Don’t Believe the Hype
by Josh Levine
BlackBerry is blowing it. The long-standing mobile email champ took the early lead by focusing on product, making devices that worked and appealing to consumers' ...
