When people do silly things with DMCA (GoPro)

03/21/2013

 
Wow, what a dustup! I love scenarios like this; it shows how much things have changed regarding "rapid-response PR". 

I won't go to the point of rehashing the whole boo-boo; but I imagine some marketing and PR folks are in the hotseat today, and wishing it was over already. The short version is that GoPro sent a nastygram to an online reviewer/seller of cameras -- and the Interwebs just blew up with, ahem, "feedback" about the action.

What struck me at a fast scan of this article (and not taking the time to dig into the apparently vast array of source material that has materialized) is that the corporate communications seemed to be a ham-fisted mashup of warm 'n' fuzzy informal outreach ("Hey Greg, we're posting to Reddit..." the corporate head of communications says to a reporter) alongside a legal bray about copyroght infringement. Just a strange tactic.

Look -- I think GoPro's got a great product; I don't have anything negative to say about them. It just seems that their comm and PR folks got caught making a mistake -- WHICH ANY OF US COULD DO -- and now it's just going to leave a negative impression.

You know what this makes me think of? The "Gotcha" speed-rounds of political maneuvering you see during the heat of a campaign (go back and watch Wag the Dog again).

And for the many "armchair attorneys" who've chimed in -- it's a tidbit of entertainment, and then on to the next.

We live in strange times! 


 

Again with "the decline and impending death of Facebook"

03/20/2013

 
I read an article today citing a recent Pew Internet Research study that notes that (surprise!) some people are getting bored with Facebook. Articles predicting the demise of Facebook started cropping up not long after the mass market began to get familiar with the site. One reason seems to be that young early adopters don't like the fact that all these mass market/laggard/Luddites started stinking up the place, and sucking the cool out of the site. I know a young twentysomething who was an early adopter who dropped Facebook years ago -- only to find that she had to reluctantly re-engage with the site as part of her job working on the social media team for a cell phone company! Why is her company there? Because customers are there, and they reach out for customer service support, to give feedback, and to complain.

So, what's a marketer to do? Drop Faceboook? Reduce the emphasis on it? Stay the course? 

Depends on your customer base. Monolithic thinking never helps with marketing; what works for one company might totally bomb for another. Sure, people get bored with "the same old thing" over and over... and honestly I would not use Facebook at all if I didn't have to because it's pretty much expected, given what I do for a living. My reason is simply because as we all know "there's no such thing as a free lunch." 

Facebook is free to use -- because WE, the users, ARE the product. That's how they make their money -- highly targeted advertising and promoted posts. Facebook is a mechanical sifter of your individual interests that ensures access to you can be bought. We do this at my company every week as we place Facebook ads and promote posts: we're buying your attention. 

Sure, some people are going to drift away to something else... but then again, some people are passionate and totally "into" their Facebook lives. 

Thank heaven, we all have choices, and don't have to do the same thing!

 

Encouragement! A dating site for EVERYONE!

02/09/2013

 
Not encouragement if you're single and searching -- I mean encouragement for entrepreneurs who are trying to find a good idea to market and monetize. I had to scroll through this super-hilarious Buzzfeed piece twice -- it just floored me to see how many ways people have decided to slice n dice the age-old search for a mate!

Speechless... but very encouraged. If THESE entrepreneurs can tap a nichey-niche-niche, why can't YOU? 
 

Chris Brogan equates Twitter to soap operas.

01/02/2012

 
"Don’t waste two to four hours a day on Twitter and call it lead generation. It’s the same as watching soap operas."             
-- Chris Brogan
Certainly, social media matters -- but it's not the ONLY thing that matters.  The biggest problem with social media is that it can be a time-waster, and your Klout score notwithstanding, it's still difficult to track and measure the impact you're having.  Not impossible, but not easy, either. Most brands need the whole package:  even a pure online play will need to show up at targeted events from time to time!  That requires a skill set that is more than online-focused.  Most brands cannot Tweet their way to the bottom line.
 

Social media : not the cure-all so many marketers promised

12/27/2011

 
  I just noticed this post on Alltop about how social media has plateaued.  I'm not surprised!  I remember when marketers got all hot and sweaty about email marketing in the mid-90's; it was supposed to kill off virtually all other types of media, and we;d even stop killing trees.  Anybody remember the promises of "the paperless office"???  

Twitter's tapering off... Chris Brogan made a great point about this, and as usual I agree with him. Believing you NEED more Twitter followers is like believing you NEED more Facebook friends.  Heck, I routinely bump people off my back because I don't cotton to spam or irrelevance.  

It's not going to die, certainly, but I think we'll start seeing a rebound in 2012, where people start to reconnect to other people in real life, face to face.  It will be interesting to see how the trends continue to shift.
 

Facebook: I'm just not that into you...

02/06/2010

 
Of course I'm on Facebook -- I'm in marketing; it was made mandatory.  I think Mark Zuckerberg managed to have something dumped into the coffee supply at every single marketing conference that was held in 2008-2010 -- and if you attended virtually any sort of marketing event during that time span, you instantly became a Facebook devotee, whether you wanted to be or not.  I presented at and attended a lot of marketing events and conferences in the past few years, and I love coffee, so I certainly came out with the craving for having a Facebook page, just like everybody else.  

However...
I'm just not that into Facebook, and I doubt that will change. I read recently that the fastest-growing age demographic on Facebook is women over 55 -- not my tribe. I've known a few people who have become fixated on Facebook, downright addicted to it. YES, I use it; YES, I get it -- but it's not MY killer app. 

I'm glad we still have freedom of choice!  That said, I can see the writing on the wall: a couple of years from now, Facebook login integration's going to be the hot-hot thing; you'll be able to log into countless other sites using your Facebook credentials -- and naturally, Facebook will have access to all that intel on your preferences and interests. 

I know we're moving toward a Big Brother world -- a lot faster than many people would want to think -- but I'd rather have a bit more payoff than what you get from Facebook! Cute kids, cute kittens, drunken college students and personal diatribes are not things I like spending my time on. 

 I keep my hand in, but other than a brief stint playing Mafia Wars when it was brand new (um, and probably when the effects of the Zucker-Coffee was the strongest), I spend more time on LinkedIn because I think the discussions are more interesting.

So, please don't ask to Friend me on Facebook -- but by all means connect with me on LinkedIn!