I have been fortunate to give a number of talks on social media and web marketing over the past 2 years. My audiences range from internet peers to business people from private industry to colleagues in the promotional products industry. While most people are pretty receptive to change, I have found that some people are downright hostile/scared about this freight train called the internet (and I might as well use the word “internet” and “change” interchangeably).

This post reviews some of the objections I have come across while presenting about social media, along with my typical responses.

1. Twitter is stupid. Why should I care that someone is in line for their Starbucks coffee?

Point taken. However, my view on Twitter (and Facebook, for that matter) is that “you are who you follow”. If you follow people who tweet about stupid and vacuous things, the easiest way to deal with this is to unfollow/unfriend them. Like the internet itself, there is plenty of noise on Twitter, but the magic is finding the gems.

Twitter is full of fascinating tidbits that keep me in the know on a range of topics (a memorable example of this was the Amazon purchase of Zappos).  Twitter is full of links to articles that are highly relevant to my interests (again, see point above). Twitter beats any newspaper as a news source as it’s reported in real time vs having to wait for the paper to be delivered to my doorstep in the morning.

From a business perspective, I get all sorts of insights into my customers (who I follow) as well as potential customers (who I spend time cultivating relationships with). To understand what makes your customers tick just makes good business sense. Tapping into the Twitterverse to gain real time insights into your customers’ daily lives has made us a much more nimble organization. Conversely, people who sell me things always get preferential treatment if they can demonstrate they have done their homework and know a thing or two about RIGHTSLEEVE.

For a longer analysis of Twitter, you can refer to My Take on Twitter

2. Why do customers turn to the internet when they need something, versus just contacting their preferred supplier?

This comment was made at a session I gave to a group of promotional products professionals, an industry undergoing massive change as it relates to how buyers research product information. Here was the tweet that prompted the remark:

“Have spent day on phone with vendors. Looking 4unique event ideas 4 female audience – forget cooking and wine tasting. Need smthg different”

This example sparked a lot of discussion, most of it hostile. The prevailing view was that if a distributor was doing its job correctly, then this person would not have had to tweet their request. True, but only to a point.

In this day of instant feedback, it’s in the customer’s best interest to reach out to their network (before social media, you can bet they called around on the phone asking the same question). Posting such a comment online is valuable as it may generate a flood of relevant responses from peers who have gone through the same thing before. In my position as a vendor, I follow this person and was able to reach out with some suggestions relating to the promotion. We got the order.

The question people need to concern themselves with is NOT why people are using the internet to conduct research, but rather HOW to respond to their queries in a way a that is respectful and relevant to the customer. The customer, not the vendor, is now firmly in control.

3. Social media is for anti-social geeks. The web has ruined personal selling.

I half expect this comment to come from an over-the-hill sales curmudgeon straight out of Glengarry Glen Ross. Needless to say, I disagree with this claim.

People who use social media well are among the most social people I have ever met. Sure you have some exceptions, but any “social media type” I have ever met in the offline world, has been incredibly friendly with a penchant to share a lot of information. I personally use social media to engage with a wide range of people, and when the time is appropriate to meet, I have a wealth of information to talk about. The intersection of the online and offline worlds has made business easier, not harder.  Personal selling, in many ways, has now become more personal.

I can accurately make this claim given that I had run my business for 7 years prior to the advent of social media, and 5 years since. There is no question that a critical part of my business is still “face to face”, but these in person relationships have only been enhanced via social media. In several instances, I would not have even made it in the door had it not been for social media.

4. Who has time for social media? Do I now need to work 24 hrs a day to keep up?

No. I will draw from personal experience when it comes to how I spend my “selling” time at the office. Think of my day as a pie. In the “old days” before social media, I spent 1/2 of my time on the phone/email and 1/2 my time in front of clients. Now, the distribution of the pie is different, not larger. 1/3 of my time is now spent on the phone/email, 1/3 is in front of clients and 1/3 is using the internet/social media. I made this switch as it was in response to the new market reality.  Some customers will now only communicate by Twitter Direct Message!

When email was introduced to the mainstream in the mid 90s, people started emailing more, talking on the phone less and faxing even less. Same pie.

The bottom line?

I understand why there is hostility out there. The internet (and specifically social media) has changed the way we buy, completely disrupting traditional business models. There is a great quote in Ken Auletta’s recent book on Google when the head of Viacom blasts Google’s founders for “fucking with the magic” after learning about their mathematical approach to advertising. The “magic” he refers to is the smoke and mirrors of traditional advertising.

Similarly, social media is impacting traditional business relationships. Relationships that were once forged on the golf course are now being cultivated online and cemented offline. Most people these days don’t have time for a day on the golf course, as their time has now migrated online. Balancing these two worlds is the challenge that the modern business person must rise to.

This blog is only as good as the readers who weigh in. Your comments are, as always, welcome.

I was recently interviewed by a promotional industry publication on why I blog.

I started blogging in early 2006 as I wanted to experiment with a new medium as well as connect with people on a different level. So, 5 years later, I reflect on the what, why and how.

Why do you blog? How do you get the most out of your blog for the purposes you intend it to serve?

I have always enjoyed writing. Blogging gives me a creative outlet as well as platform to express ideas I have about the industry and business in general.

I use the blog to write about my philosophies as they relate to our business, RIGHTSLEEVE. I have found this to be a more genuine way to express an opinion as it comes across as more authentic than publishing a marketing brochure (there is room for this as well, it just serves a different purpose). Clients and prospects read our blog to learn about the human side of our company.

What advice would you give to companies looking to start a blog of their own?

(i) Have Fun

(ii) Be Human

(iii) Write it yourself

What is your overall impression of your blogging experience? Have you found it to be a successful marketing tool? Why or why not?

I have really enjoyed blogging because it has given me a way to connect with people on a whole new level. It is not a direct sales platform, rather it is a conversational platform as people will weigh in on what you write about and this starts a dialogue. I have met a number of new and interesting people via blogging (and other web 2.0 properties like Facebook, Twitter, etc). As with all solid relationships, a level of trust is established which can often lead to sales. As a result, blogging can be a wonderful, albeit indirect, sales tool. 

It has been a very successful marketing tool as it puts us into a smaller group of distributors that have taken the time to maintain a blog. I would guess that 5-10% of the promotional industry has a good blog and it’s always nice to be competing against a smaller number of people who are blogging than the majority that aren’t.

We also operate within a very competitive and commoditized industry with little to differentiate distributors from one another. The standard complaint about our industry is that “you can buy the same products from any distributor.” However, a blog is something that is unique to a company, something that can’t be shopped like a product SKU from a supplier catalog. Anything that is unique like this is a good thing in the industry as it helps sets you apart.

Lyndsay and I presented to a group of camping professionals yesterday at the OCA Conference. The topic was “Youth Trends” and their impact on merchandise programs in the camp retail sector. As a successful merchandise program is an important branding opportunity for most camps, we wanted to shed some light on the key drivers behind teens’ and tweens’ buying decisions as it relates to fashion and clothing.

The presentation is available below:

This week I attended the PPAI Expo, the largest and longest running promotional products show in the world.

I was invited to present on how my experiences with social media have allowed RIGHTSLEEVE to grow and differentiate within this industry. I’d be reluctant to ever brand myself a “social media expert” (I am skeptical of the term), rather I like to think of myself of an industry entrepreneur that has dabbled in social media over the past 5 years and has learned a lot along the way, my trail scattered with a mix of failures and successes.

I have drawn inspiration from a number of people whose works I reference in this presentation. The links to their books  can be found here:

Chris Anderson The Long Tail

Clay Shirky Here Comes Everybody

Tara Hunt The Whuffie Factor

Joel Comm Twitter Power

Mitch Joel Six Pixels of Separation

2009 has been a learning experience, to put it mildly.

I have spoken to countless business owners across a range of industries about 2009 . Most people have indicated it was the worst year in their entire business careers. Industries are down on average 20-25%, bankruptcies and mergers abounded and I had to catch my breath when an industry colleague told me that his business was down 50% in 2009 …. 50%! 

All of this has given me pause to consider what we have learned in 2009 and how this will impact our business landscape in 2010. I have distilled this down to 3 thoughts.

 1. It’s not about the product, it’s about the process

The way companies have ordered promotional products has not changed much over the years. Most organizations place their orders through a promotional distributor who is responsible for the ideation and ultimate production of the order. I think this is an outdated process, one that will be replaced by more sophisticated web based processes that allow companies to procure their merchandise via simple to use order management systems. As a result of what technology enables, this will be available to companies of all sizes, not just the multi-million dollar programs.

Let me give an example. We were approached by an organization looking for a second opinion on their merchandise program. They had been working with an incumbent distributor who was doing a nice job in terms of ideas and execution. However, the organization’s real challenge was inventory risk and being stuck with product if it did not sell. We honed in on that specific challenge and offered our online retail store which collects orders across the entire organization and then produces the goods just in time, thereby eliminating the inventory risk. The product became secondary, shifting the focus to how the process could help solve their business challenges.

2. Social media is now mainstream

@techfanster tweeted the following which sums up exactly where we are in the social media space as of late 2009

If I hear “social media expert” once more I’m going to scream. Congrats on having twitter AND facebook… so does my mom. Really.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc are still enjoying the spotlight. Users have set up accounts in droves, web 2.0 conferences abound and “experts” have come out of the woodwork to educate the masses. People listened and started experimenting in a big way in 2009.

So, now what?

I see 2010 as being the year where we will see the true divide, specifically between the people who use these tools effectively to develop a strong community of friends, fans and customers vs the bandwagon jumpers who setup a Twitter profile only to spam people with product specials. My friend Bobby Lehew wrote a fabulous post about this very point, highlighting the difference between “social networking and social netbeing”. In the post, he suggests that having a social media presence takes a lot of work, just like networking in real life does. It’s just as hard to fake it online as it is in real life.

3. Differentiate or die.

The promotional industry shrunk by 20% in 2009 as buyers across North America scrutinized their budgets. Questions ranged from “do we really need to give polo shirts for this year’s tournament” to “are we spending our budget in the most efficient way possible?”

I believe that companies will be able to grow in 2010 by truly differentiating themselves from the competition. Focusing on a specific market segment, developing a proprietary technology, becoming the expert in a specific product category are all ways to accomplish this vs being the “I can get you anything” product generalist. As they say, “jack of all trades, master of none.”

Regardless of whether any of these predictions prove to be true, 2010 is certainly going to be an interesting year.

Please feel free to post your predictions for 2010 – I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I recently read Geoff Smart’s Who: The A Method for Hiring - a comprehensive look at how to interview and ultimately hire top talent into your company. I synthesized the main steps in his book and have listed here to help others who are involved in the hiring process.

Hiring is never a perfect science, but the process can be made more effective by digging deeper into a candidate’s career history and asking the right questions. After years of interviewing candidates for positions at RIGHTSLEEVE, I found this book a very worthwhile read with many clear takeaway points.

Part 1: Establishing a Scorecard