An open letter to Marketing

Dear Marketing,

congratulations you are once again making a fool of yourself! I mean don't get me wrong, eventually you've understood that people care about the way the product gets produced, its quality and the service around it.Good for you! But there is one lesson you never learn: It's not about saying, it is about doing it. And with nowadays technology and world-wide networks and organisations like greenpeace there is no easy hiding anymore. So what is your answer, marketing? You do greenwashing and adverts showing the company friendly, supportive and offering the best and easiest service - while they do not. We normal people call this "lying": you help companies to pretend being better than they actually are.

Of course, you are doing it for the money, so no harm there, eh? But do you guys know the story of the boy who cried wolf? And in the end no one believed him, when there was a wolf? When I was a kid I was told the story every time I was caught lying. And it has point; if you lie people don't believe you, don't trust you any. So if anyone at all is believing the ads you are doing lately, they won't do it much longer. Leaving companies who actually care at a bad place: they can't advertise with these terms and those promises. Those got broken too often for anyone to believe them. So even if those companies grow bigger the only way to make people believe that they care is by actual action, by doing it. Advertising this is pointless, might even does harm as people question it. Got it?

Even when those companies grow there isn't much point in doing classic advertising as no one will believe them! This way of pretending without action you, dear Marketing, are supporting at big companies nowadays isn't only bad for the company it is bad for you! By doing this you are making yourself useless, destroying your own future. You should seriously consider being more picky about your clients: choose those with the good product over the one with the pile of money and ensure that what has been said gets done. But most important: don't Lie! Only if people can trust advertisments, they might consider believing you. And only if people believe and trust you, you stand a chance when the upcoming companies with good service and high quality products grow bigger and re-evaluate their communication strategies. Think about it!

With kind regards,
Benjamin Kampmann

Don't "Go Viral"

Just real quick: Don't "go viral". EVER. And show every marketing guy saying something like "uhh.. nice and then we can make it go viral" the door. He is bad for your business. PERIOD.

Patience and Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk

After Gary Vaynerchuk took over his family business, Shopper’s Discount Liquors, he rebranded the whole thing. He launched a retail website and started one of the most successful social media campaigns in the history. With the idea of his store  as Wine Library and his Video-Blog Wine Library TV he was able to boost his revenue from $4 million to $60 million.

At the Web2.0 Expo he gave a 15min talk explaining the keys to his success: "Patience and Passion". No other talk concentrated the essence of social media and how to succeed with it as good as this one. Luckily his very inspiring talk  is available at TedTalks and on Youtube.

Take the 15min off your launch brake and watch this video right after the page break. It will change the way you look on social media for ever...

keep the fire burning

I am currently reading a few books about social media and the actions companies should take. I will share my thoughts on those in some reviews on this blog soonish, stay tuned. So long, there was one chapter in the book speak human by Eric Karjaluoto I would like to share with you. The sub-chapter is called "Staring a fire" and it says:

The part you probably don't want to hear is that little of this [Success with Social Media] comes for free. Some combat this by cutting corners, piece mealing efforts, or employing unproven partners whose sole benefit is price. I assure you someone can always offer a lower price; most times you get what you pay for.
This piecemeal approach to marketing can obstruct a company's efforts. Many are eager to create a one-off with hopes that it will prove a catalyst for change. This is hardly ever the case, and often results in frustration as sporadic efforts tend to bear little fruit. With this in mind, I ask you to instead look at such efforts as ongoing.
The analogy I liken this to is one of lighting a fire. Most small organizations put countless hours and resources into collecting dry kindling, finding matches, and getting it started, only to walk away once a small flame takes hold. A week, month, or year later they return to find that their fire has burnt out, and needs to be restarted. So they begin again, hoping for something different, only to repeat the process ad infinitum.
Fires need perpetual attention to grow. Once you have it going, the hardest part is over; from there you need to stoke it from time to time and add some dry wood when necessary. It's not hard, bit does require consistent attention. By keeping at it like this, you can build a roaring fire. If you're lucky, it might even turn into a wildfire, bigger than you ever anticipated. The trick is to keep going.

"Speak Human", Page 259, Chapter 23  

Get your time right

When we talk about Social Media we usually talk about private usage, we see people "hanging around" in networks for hours and ages. They update their friends on daily issues via mobile phones, notebooks and netbooks from work, school, home. This is a huge amount of information, especially modern companies need to deal with, if they want to offer good and up to date costumer support these days (e.g. SixtUk, Dell, Blackberry).

Now small and mid size enterprises get nervous: "How do I achieve this kind of support without spending hundred and thousands of Euro/Dollar each month on social media customer support?"

Listen to your mom

Social Networking is communication, just straight down its bases. The bases your mom told you when you were four years old. In case she didn't (or you forgot as more and more some people do) the rules are:

• be nice
• share
• don't steal
• help others
• listen
• be patient
• don't yell
• no fighting
• be thankful
• apologize when you caused trouble
• and eat your vegetables

If you want to be successful in Social Networking I have one advice:
Listen to your mom!