Miscellaneous Uses for a Blog

I took a look at my ballot ahead of time and took the time to research ALL the candidates on my ballot. It made for a quick vote and a vote I felt confident in. Did you research ALL the candidates on YOUR ballot? (Hint: There are more than 2 presidential candidates… more than two in many races).

In this information age, it’s sad that few people actually take the time to look at ALL the candidates (including 3rd, 4th, Xth party candidates). Many still vote only Democrat or only Republican .  Some will cross, but still vote for only one of the two major parties because "they are the only ones with a chance of winning." How democratic is that?

If the Republican candidate fits you, vote for them. Democrat? vote them. Independent, Libertarian , Reform , Constitution, Green , etc. Vote who you believe is the best candidate, not the one that has the best chance of winning. Do your homework and vote like we actually live in the information age!

I’ve been thinking quite a bit about brands, the economy, and about the true value of social media. As I’ve said here on a few occasions, I believe that marketing through online channels are going to benefit during this economic downturn . One of the reasons is that online advertising is so much less expensive than traditional media. But… WHY?

Stuck in the old model

Raise you hand… do you like advertisements?  (If you are in marketing or advertising, put your hand down and really think about it). Why don’t you like them?

1. They have little relevance to me.
2. I’m tired of always being sold something.
3. The are an interruption.

Let’s focus on that last one: Advertising is an interruption. Some marketers will tell you that when it comes down to it, the ONLY way you can advertise is through interruption. Ads are placed in the middle of a magazine, or in the middle of a television show, etc. because by utilizing the engagement you have with the media source, they can get some eyeballs. The problem is, that we as a culture have been so saturated by advertisements that we immediately ignore them. Like Gary Vaynerchuk said in a recent video , buying an ad in a prominent magazine "for 50, 60, 80 thousand dollars is clown city in 2008." No one pays attention to them. There’s certain value to maintaining brand awareness, trust me… but is it worth obscene amounts of money to get very little return on your investment?

Unfortunately, outside of the ability to be more targeted,

MOST ONLINE ADVERTISING ISN’T ANY MORE EFFECTIVE THAN ADVERTISEMENTS IN TRADITIONAL MEDIA

Read that again…. most online advertising isn’t any more effective than advertisements in traditional media. How easy is it to ignore a banner ad ? How about that annoying preroll ad before your YouTube video ? These advertisements simply get IGNORED just like their traditional media counterparts. So why is online advertising inexpensive? They often deliver the same ROI with less people seeing them.

The Super Bowl

Every year, advertising in during the Super Bowl breaks records. Companies spend millions of dollars for a

30 second spot during the game, and millions more producing the ad. Why do ad prices continue to increase for this event? Viewership has been down in recent years. Shouldn’t that mean that ad prices should have dropped as well? NO! The value that advertisers get during the Super Bowl goes WAY past eyeballs. Ads during the Super Bowl are the one time when ads are not considered to be interruptive. In fact, many people now watch the Super Bowl simply because of the ads. The value is in the engagement. It’s in the fact that people don’t simply ignore the ads during the Super Bowl.

Social Media HAS value

Just like the Super Bowl gains it’s ad value from engagement, social media gains it’s ad value from engagement with a community of people with similar interests. Seth Goldin describes these groups as "Tribes." (btw, check out his book "Tribes ". It resonates in a big way with me). These tribes share, trust, and engage with either one another or with a set leader. With the tribe, you have engagement. Companies can engage with these communities and see incredible value from them without being interruptive.

Want and example?

Leo Laporte : People are engaged with Audible.com because the leader of their group, someone who’s opinion they respect and value says, "I have used Audible for years. I would promote them even if I wasn’t getting paid to." The result, Audible has been an unswerving sponsor for over a year on Leo’s media entities. That’s a LONG time in new media. Why? Because people are engaged with Leo, and because he recommends Audible, they can get behind that brand as well. The value in that is incredible. In fact, Leo has and his "TwIT Army" have often brought down websites simply because his listeners are so engaged, they’ll immediately check out a recommendation. THAT IS ENGAGEMENT.

Why is Oprah so valuable? Because she has more engagement than nearly any single personality in the world. Her value is also not in the numbers, but in the mass engagement her and her brand have with her viewers.

Yet, despite this incredible value we have available to companies, we still price advertisements too low . We price advertisements in social media similar to the easily ignored auto ad during the local news instead of the personalized Tom Brady endorsed ad in the Super Bowl that people actually pay attention to.

You may not have great NUMBERS, but you have great INFLUENCE. It’s time for social media influencers to price themselves more comparable to traditional media.

As the stock market continues to plummet and phrases like "the worst economic situation since the Great Depression " continues to make news, myself and others not knowledgeable about the economy get only more confused.  Confused and scared. What on earth is going on? What does it mean for me? Is this "bailout" a good thing?

One of my twitter followers forwarded a spectacular program from Ira Glass ‘ "This American Life " that explains just this. Have you heard of the "commercial paper market" or "credit default swaps ?" Do you know what "breaking the buck" means? Me either, but these things have helped to create the current global economic crisis.

Take an hour or so to listen through the program to at least familiarize yourself with what exactly has happened and what it means for the future.

This American Life - 365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy

Let me know your thoughts. Are you actively taking measures to ensure your finances in the midst of the panic seizing up the economy?

Way back in March I wrote a post contemplating the future of social media in midst of a collapsing economy . At that time, the economy was showing it’s first signs of instability. For the most part, the public was unaware of the road ahead. While most people are still unaware of what still lies ahead for the economy , they are certainly more cogniscent of what is going on with the markets in virtual free fall. So are bloggers.

Enter several blog posts from the folks in new media that echo what I said back in March. One in particular is Gary Vanynerchuk . He recorded this a few days ago .

Companies need to be in the business of optimizing their marketing, not in the business of keeping traditional media funded. Gary is absolutely right that traditional media is going to suffer in a big way. The spread of online media in conjunction with the economic downturn equates to bad news for traditional media. I certainly don’t see TV and radio going away, but this monstrous economic correction is going to REQUIRE these media channels to drastically change their paradigms. This includes many personnel cuts. With many friends in traditional media, this certainly scares me, and why it’s even more important to increase your value by leading the way in their outlet’s online and social media engagement if you are in that space.

The Christmas selling season is already upon us, and companies likely committed their dollars to tradtional media outlets before the market crash. It’ll be interesting to see how 2009 progresses as the shift gets into full swing.

After failing to get paint to stick longer than a year and a half, we had called in the pros to make our house look presentable again. We chose to add a little color from the drab white that it had been for years. The first leaves on the elm tree in our front yard and in our neighbor’s yard are showing the first signs of the season. Much like the house, they don’t get much color, but drop sooner than any of the others in the neighborhood. The first few leaves slowly descended on my wife and I as we inspected the work on our house.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. The sun shown down on us and our newly painted house, giving us the feeling of what this house would look like in the future. As we gazed on the house, a butterfly greeted us, fluttering around the two of us for quite a while. It seemed to like the bright yellow polo shirt I had worn that day, as it took several pauses, thinking of using my shoulder as a perch.

Eventually the butterfly that had greeted us landed on the small pine tree standing next to us. As it spread its wings, we realized that we had never seen this type of butterfly before. Apart from the usual orange Monarch butterflies that grace the area, this one was blue. A beautiful, welcoming blue. After some research, we found that this butterfly is not often seen around Kansas City. Most of them are found in Florida. This little guy was certainly unique to the area. We began to tear up.

Butterflies have always been a sign of peace, tranquility, and healing. Their gorgeous colors and playful flight seem to bring a smile to anyone’s face. Butterfly gardens are often planted around memorials to help bring that sense of peace and healing. Butterflies have also been rather significant in the lives of my wife’s family. Becca’s mom had designed and made a stained-glass blue butterfly for a hospice in her town. The thought being that the butterfly (which became a theme inside the hospice) brought that sense of peace in the most trying of times. But the meaning goes deeper. Numerous times during funerals for family members, a  lone butterfly seems to pay a visit. A friend of Becca’s died of breast cancer some years ago, she loved butterflies. Everyone still remembers the butterfly that flew around, touching nearly everyone during the service. Becca’s grandmother passed on last year. At her funeral, a single blue butterfly paid the family a visit. With nearly every death in the family, we’ve had a butterfly pay us a visit.

As the tears welled up in our eyes, we both knew the significance of this beautiful butterfly. Autum was upon us, the leaves were falling, and life was changing. Despite the fact that we were both deeply saddened by the loss of the child in Becca’s womb, God had sent this beautiful blue butterfly to remind us that he’s still there. He still loves us, and we know that he loves the little one we never got to see. As we watched this beautiful creature circle us once more and go on it’s way, we knew that he was in control. No matter the changing seasons in our lives, he’s shown us that his love continues…. all thanks to a little extra color brought to us by one blue butterfly.