Take It Face To Face

The world is a strange place, often early adopters and innovators get nailed to the wall and forced to fail. I often see this when companies are trying to find a use for social media. They fumble around with Facebook applications and other things that really won’t help them market their ideas or products.

I have never been one of those marketing/pr types who suggested something to a client because its trendy. More often than not I tell a client that diving into social media isn’t the right thing to do. Something I tend to push clients towards is a text program.

Think about it like this: why do you want to use social media? To connect with your potential customers or brand advocates on a direct level. What better way to do that than with a the device that they can’t let go of? I might be in front of my computer 4 hours a day, but I am with my phone 24 hours a day (really I shower with it).

Text programs are a great way to push information to people who are already interested in what you do. By creating a creating a reason for customers to sign up for you text program you have created a channel directly to customers who want to hear from you.

The two examples I have shown here are great, discounts on food and chance to win a trip to Dublin. The Guinness text program really has a nice gimmick to it as well. By making potential customers ‘rate’ their Guinness, Guinness is making the customer feel included in the voting process.

I have actually created several really neat text programs for a variety of clients ranging from political to holiday planners. The one thing they have in common is creating value through information and connections.

Have you ever signed up for a text campaign or helped orchestrate one? Let me know.

Last night, at around 2 in the morning (I was up playing Saints Row 2), I received an email from my Pownce account.

The email was to inform me that Pownce was shutting down. While I have a Pownce account I can’t say that I have been too involved with it. The idea was sound, make a more robust form of twitter that can send pictures and audio clips. The problem is that it really didn’t offer anything to far removed from twitter to make it of real value to me.

Sure I posted to it, but I never engaged users like I did with twitter. According to the Pownce blog they are being acquired by Six Apart. This move makes sense, since Pownce is more of a blog posting tool than a community connector like twitter.

It will be interesting to see how many of these start ups will change face and re-brand themselves as the economy trudges along. As angles fly away and investors become more scarce many of the less tangible start ups will have to rethink their models.

I am excited to see what Pownce will be in the future and it is good to see social media becoming leaner and leaner and you can read more about thier futre on thier blog.

I was at an event not to long ago when I was approached by some guys with a local tech start-up. The idea they have is great, a very creative and intelligent way to move information socially. What it seems like they, and many others, are struggling with is the concept of taking a great idea and making it into a business. No one seems to focus on the fact that there should be money to be made after venture capital or a buyout. Why not strive to create a self sustaining business, as opposed to something that’s only success is to draw eyes to its new potential parent company?

I really think someone will fund anything regardless of how irrational it may be, so long as it is on the cutting edge of technology or includes the venture buzzword de’ jour. It is in this light that I present the 5 dumbest web 2.0 social media tech start ups yet to exist.

Snoozler - Wake or sleep at your friends’ hands!

Snoozler is the new social media platform that allows you to tie your alarm clock, cell alarm, or desktop alarm into your existing social profiles. Allow your friends to set your alarm, set custom alarm sounds or hit the snooze button for you! (And don’t worry about sleeping in too long - you can set the days it is accessible.)

RafflR - Enter all the online contest your friends do!

RafflR allows you to use your facebook and myspace pages to see what kind of online raffles, contest, and sweepstakes your friends have entered. From there you can select any of those that you would like to enter as well and RafflR signs you up. You can also invite friends to participate in a contest. Pick your top friends and RafflR will automatically sign you up for any contest they sign up for!

Tipster - Are you a cheapskate or a tipping heavyweight?

The Tipster platform lets you enter your bill and the tip you gave, as well as notes about service. Then your friends can vote on if the tip you gave them was too high, too low or dead on. You can also share tipping stories from the night out or the delivery guy bringing it in! Check out Tipster Pro if you’re a tip-dependent industry to see what Tipsters are saying about you.

Once Removed - No relation or bound by blood… or marriage?

Once Removed allows you to pick any friend through any of your networks, from bloggers, flickr, youtube, facebook, myspace and many others and see if and how you’re related. Using online available public records and genealogical research Once Removed will tell you if and how you may possibly be related to your friends.

WhoozShooz - Narrow or wide, low top or high, dress or casual shoes tell you a lot.

WhoozShooz is a survey application that matches you with people who have similar taste as you in footwear. Whether it is to match you up with a good friend for shoe shopping, or matching you up with someone who wears the same running shoes or cleats as you, WhoozShooz puts you in touch. And WhoozShooz works with all kinds of footwear, from heels and sandals to skis and skates!

The sad fact of the matter is that some of these ideas, or something very similar will inevitably become something you’ll see online someday. I think what may be even more depressing is the fact that in the course of writing this I thought of ways to monetize 4 out of 5 of these.

What dumb social media start ups do you envision coming to be in the future?

I am an account manager. I come up with creative ideas and guide my clients through the marketing process. I am also a huge proponent of social media. I blog about social media and I use it in my daily life.

As an account manager one of my side jobs is new business development. I don’t approach new business as a sales men. That is to say I don’t cold call or hound potential clients about using my company’s services. I approach more from the perspective that I enjoy what I do and have great ideas for potential clients.

I often approach companies or agencies with good ideas and just talk with them about how they could use my idea to promote their brand or service. I do this free of charge and really with no intent on selling them anything. Some times it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Either way I typically make a great contact that can help me develop my company’s brand in some way.

When it does work it is because a potential client has looked me up before we have even meet. The see articles I have written, blogs I have authored and people who have quoted me regarding social media and marketing. By the time we sit down I have already ’sold’ them on my ideas.

When a real salesman approaches them the salesman needs to sell their ideas to the potential client. This often puts things in a bad frame for the potential client. If I take you out for lunch to chat I really just want to chat with you. I could careless if I sell you on an idea. If a salesman takes you out to lunch he or she sees you as a mark.

I think social media is turning thought leaders into salesmen. I am not saying social media will turn your team into guys that will go out and close deals. I am saying that social media allows everyone to share their ideas with anyone who wants to read them, hence turning them into salesman with outstanding reach.

I could be one off on this idea about salesman. In fact many of my friends, who are salesman, see my idea as being to far fetched to work. They argue you always need someone to close the deal. I really see the death of the salesman in four to five years. Am I wrong? Let me know.

Met with a potential new client yesterday for dinner, and ran through a quick bout of education that I seem to run through with anyone who is familair with more traditional media but have only recently become aware of social media.  Everyone has heard of MySpace and FaceBook, and many believe if they use only those channels they’ve got thier bases covered as far as social media goes.

For the sake of this conversation we will not discuss how to correctly leverage those networks nor will we discuss the arguement of a continuosly fragmenting marketplace.

The quick and easy comparision is to relate each social network to a particular broadcast channel or genre.  A common misconception is that by using one social network you are reaching the majority of the social media market.  It’s just like buying TV spots, if you have network spots on NBC or CBS you’re reaching a lot of viewers, if you’re on a cable channel you’re reaching a more niche audience.  In no case are you touching 100% of TV watchers or radio listeners.

Social media is the same way, consider FaceBook the social media equivilent to NBC, and MySpace as… oh I don’t know… Fox.  Their your larger networks and have a larger user base.  But then you have your more focused niche communities, LinkedIn for example, would be more akin to your CNNMoney.

Just as with traditional media you can focus your marketing to reach your target demographic - pick the right channels, content, copy and creative and let ‘er rip.