Part One: Social media is dead!
Yes, let me be the first to say it, SMID. Got it? Now get over it; it’s done.
While I was driving to the airport, I was listening to BBC World Service and newscasters were discussing a story about a Twitter town hall meeting that, yes, no one less than the President of the United States, Barrack Hussein Obama (a.k.a. BHO in text talk), was going to conduct.
Wow, cool! So cool that this, our first Internet-friendly Chief Executive was going to use Twitter as a mode of media. Remember that BHO used the mobile revolution to assist in his election, and since then we have seen the popularity of mobile devices grow. Over the past few years, trends have changed—more people now use search engines via a mobile platform than via a desktop computing platform. If BHO can do for social networks what he did for mobile, well that could be beyond cool.
But no...while the President may be using the new media to talk to us, he is also the guy that has stabbed a knife deep into the collective user heart of social networking.
Why, you say? Well his advisers seem to think that the media of instant information flow, ground sweep measurement, immediate trending, Charlie Sheen, Kim (I may have great body but I would be better off with a great mind) Kardashin, and all-night-long texting regarding the Casey Anthony acquittal is better used in direct contrast to all that has made said media better than sliced bread. Questions were to be previewed with no live Tweets allowed. WTH...well you know what I mean!
I would be concerned if these advisors ever needed to assist a injured person or required to take a heartbeat or pulse. One can only imagine where they’d place the stethoscope and where they think a pulse is located.
No, for all the good the President may have done, he blew it this time..and he killed social media in the process. Did his advisors forget that those soon to be of voting age prefer the immediacy of texting and Tweeting over sending e-mails, or is this just a plot to get the other party (not the one at my house this weekend) to do something equally inept?
You heard it hear first—Social media is dead. I said it,and I am glad I said it. BTW, it is tough being a savant, a futurist and a mystic, but as they say, someone has to do it, so it might as well be me.
Part Two: Integrated marketing (IM) is dead!
Yes, sorry to say, but this wonderful institution died because it had so many supporters and so few true believers. But don’t worry, IM has risen like the Phoenix and it’s now called Diversification Marketing (DM).
Sure, we all as marketers, printers and communicators use some level of the process, but it seems that few really think the process out and utilize the full scope of the IM offering. Can you use a part of diversification marketing? It sounds counterintuitive to me; can you play baseball just with a bat?
I think it is an image issue—a branding concern. What the heck does integrated mean? To some, it relates back to the civil rights movement of the ’60s; to others, it means some game plan in some sport that I don’t follow.
No, we need a new name and I propose diversification marketing. Why? Integrated marketing is truly diversification marketing since you are getting the media of choice to the contact of choice with the message of choice. Diversification marketing—register the URL before someone else does! Too late, I just purchased it.
The madness of the two opening sections above is part of the lesson to be learned today—its important to know who you are, and, even more importantly, to know your market. Perhaps it’s just me, but when I am being pitched to, I at least like the pitcher to know my name (correctly spelled), my gender, my needs to a degree, and, yes, my buying potential. The same should be true when it comes to selling your services.
Knowing yourself sounds a little biblical and the statement may well have it’s origins in the deep religious past, but today the belief in money drives much of what we all need to do and that path is becoming harder and more difficult to walk each day.
I was recently paid two very positive comments, both about the NAK Diversification Marketing website (once known as the NAK integrated Marketing website) nakinc.com. Within a few hours of each other, two marketing professional provided the ultimate compliment to me regarding our site and, interesting enough, what they each said was nearly identical.
I was told how reviewing the site was so simple, effective and productive, that not only did they have a clear understanding of what we did and how we did it, they could contact the firm from any number of links or via multiple emerging media.
Not that I, or my firm, have it exactly right. We have made a number of mistakes in the past, but with a new future in a new world with a new normal, we seem to have gotten it right—at least for now. I hope I know, and continue to know, what my clients want.
Do two people’s opinions define the market? Perhaps not, but the fact that two people took the time to contact me and express their views is what I am in business to do—get a client talking to a customer and keep that smile on their face. BTW, both are potential customers.
Driving to the airport is a time during which I can think out loud, listen out loud and, yes, even make verbal notes via dragon on my iPad and keep the thought alive long after I’ve park my car and locked the doors.
Obama’s use of delayed social media is to me a critical miss reading of the market and I would not have allowed this to occur if I was the guy in charge of Twitter. To me, this is like drinking chocolate milk in a cup as if it were ice cream—sure, they may have the same basic ingredients, but they do taste different and provide a different path of use (Have you tried licking milk [cats excluded from responding] or drinking ice cream?).
Whatever the reasoning was, I think the event should have been not only social (aren't we all), but also included integrated—uh, I mean diversification—marketing as the correct communication vehicle of choice. But that’s me, and I am not the President, nor am I asked for my advice by him.
Use of one medium—no matter how strong it may seem to be—is just wrong. Much data has been posted that shows people use three diverse media to gain information and perhaps make a purchase. Some data indicates that as many as eight touches are needed, and social media is only one of them. Diversified marketing covers all the bases and, yes, you will need at least a bat, ball, glove and bases to play this game.
In the end, the issue is you need to be what you are, not what you are told to be. The times have changed so much that I am not sure who or whom really knows what is correct or incorrect anymore.
Ask yourself, How did you get to the position you are in now? Are you happy with that position? If you answered yes, then go for it. Use your instincts and go with your gut.
Recently, a Forbes’ blog (Why is the world run by bean counters?) indicated that all these financial experts with MBAs and extensive schooling got it wrong. All the planning, all the projections and, yes, all the research actually presented an incorrect conclusion. Some believe that the data was correct, it was just the need to be first, to be different lead many off the correct path.
If you know yourself and your firm, you are on the correct path. If you are around today—in business, maybe making money, maybe breaking even—well then you got it right. Maybe not fully correct, but right enough to be here, now.
I figure that the death of the American Business dream is premature; that dream is also undergoing change, positive change. But that does not mean you need to change your instinct, change your gut. No, what it means is that you are ready for the change; you will be able to adapt to the change and succeed.
Tired of licking milk thinking it was ice cream? Tweet me at thadcmce and I will get back to you—no previewed questions or answers allowed. Like to talk? Me too: (917) 597-1891; e-mail, thad@nakinc.com; snail mail, (Sure, why not?) 575 Madison Ave., Suite 700, New York, NY 10022—after all the name of my firm is NAK Integrated Marketing.
Thad Kubis is an unconventional storyteller, offering a confused marketplace a series of proven, valid, integrated marketing/communication solutions. He designs B2B or B2C experiential stories founded on Omni-Channel applications, featuring demographic/target audience relevance, integration, interaction, and performance analytics and program metrics.