I (quite often) meet people in marketing that are not on facebook. WOW! Read that sentence again. Are there really marketers that somehow revolt against the biggest life-changing event of the last century? People that plan media and campaigns and are NOT in the scene … that really blows my mind away. How can they call themselves a marketer? How do they know what they’re doing? Why are they not using the tools that their biggest consumer groups live with, every day?
My belief is that as a marketing professional you HAVE TO experiment with the “new big things”. Buy that iPad, shop at Amazon, use Skype, tweet, share, blog … It will tell you what makes a large part of your consumergroup tick. <I’m even using facebook, twitter and LinkedIn as a stand-in for marketing books>
I for one LOVE facebook, and Twitter! It’s the first thing I check when I wake up, and the last thing I shut down when I go to bed. And although that may seem a lot, my >1000 fb friends are much much more active than me. That is HUGE, and relevant. And 1000 is statistically pretty significant! Here‘s my facebook Timeline profile. And here is the fb page for RedHotMarketingBlender!
When Second Life was a hype a good 7-8 years ago, I was there. Awesome. I still have an avatar sitting on a piece of land I own out there. Nothing much happens with it and I would even know how to log on if I wanted to, but I did it, and I know what it means and what it can do.
When Myspace was launched, I was there. That’s gone South since fb was launched but I still have a few pages and check it out now and again.
When LinkedIn was still in infancy, I already had over 500 contacts. It taught me so much about exponential growth of contacts, of how interactions and connections works. Today, I get about a resume per week of people that want to work for Pepsi, simply by finding me on LinkedIn. Imagine!
A couple of years back, I ran an experiment on Twitter, just to see what would happen. Wauw, the learnings for me where mindblowing. Twitter is now the lifeline to this very blog, and a great source of information, tailored to my every needs.
When fb launched ads, I made them for my own published books, as an experiment. When an advertising or media buying agency comes and presents their plans, they don’t have to explain how it works… I know! I do it!
I am not much of a gamer, but I experiment with games on my iPad, I have a Wii, and from time to time I read a magazine on gaming, just to understand what’s hot and what’s not. And certain apps make it so easy these days to be quick at following all your social media stuff… Flipboard being my ultimate favorite.
I ordered online groceries (although as a marketer I firmly believe you need to “feel” the supermarket), and I use Amazon a lot. Because the shopping “experience” at Amazon is just awesome – those guys know something about marketing seduction, and about upsell and cross-sell. And that makes me understand and believe why people go back, for that next repeat purchase we are all after as marketers. If you’ve never been there, you miss out on something.
My cell phone, like for many people, is an extension of my arm. I am fast at sms, bbm, using apps and surfing the net with a thing that used to be a fruit.
This is not a run-down list to show how great I am with new media. My point is, if you want to be a great marketer, you’d better gear up and be there!!
Agree?
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Agree!
merci!
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