Conversational Media Marketing

Ever since Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow said "the app is the new ad unit" (paraphrase) during a panel at OMMA Social, I've been intrigued with the notion of how advertising and social media successfully converge, or whether they will at all.

Conventional wisdom says advertising and social media make for strange bedfellows. Nobody goes to their favorite social networking site to see ads after all. At the same time, advertising is not going away, no matter how badly we wish it would.

What seems to be happening is, rather than social media adopting to traditional ad models, advertising is adapting to social media in the form or "app-vertisements."

Two companies leading the charge toward a more engaging, shall we say "creative" form of advertising, is the aforementioned Buddy Media, based in NYC, and PopularMedia, based in the Bay area.

Buddy Media creates interactive Facebook applications for large brands and PopularMedia offers what it calls Influencer Ads, which are standard ad units with a social element.

A report released today by research firm InsightExpress says, "According to the social networkers themselves, opt-in advertising works best, while behavior-based campaigns and randomly generated ads are far less successful." It goes on to state that 40% of social networkers condone the practice of opt-in advertising.

"Recognizing the rapid growth of social networks and social networking audiences, advertisers have focused on creative engagement and how to apply their brands within a new environment," said Drew Lipner, vice president and group director of the Digital Media Measurement team at InsightExpress. 

Is this the future of advertising in social media? Is it a matter of creating a better mousetrap? It the app the new ad unit as Lazerow suggests? At this point, all I have are questions, but am watching this space to see if oil and water can indeed mix to generate profitable ROI.

You think I stuffed enough keywords into that title?! 

I'm pleased to announce that Wiley Publishing has contracted with me to write a book on social media marketing, to be called The Digital Handshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media.

It's set for publication in September and I have three months to write it.

I won't bore you with the minutiae of how all this came about, just happy that it did. I do, however, want to address some questions.

Another book on social media marketing?!? Isn't the market glutted with them?

In case you might be asking why Wiley would want to publish yet another title about social media, I admit I asked the same thing. It's not like they haven't cornered the market already with the likes of David Meerman Scott's New Rules of Marketing and PR, Dave Evan's Social Media Marketing an Hour a Day and Joseph Jaffe's Join the Conversation, just to name a few. (Oh, let me not forget Larry Weber's Marketing to the Social Web, soon to be released in its second edition.)

Not only that, they have several new social media titles set for publication the early part of this year: Content Nation, Social Influence Marketing For Dummies and The Social Media Bible.

Of course, all of these are in different divisions and intended for different audiences, or so I suppose. Mine, btw, was originally considered for the professional and technical division, but is going in the business division. (Not sure who I have to thank for that, but a couple of people do come to mind.)

The bottom line is, while I'm aware the market is glutted, who am I to turn down such a wonderful opportunity? After all, it's not my place to determine for Wiley how many books they publish on the subject of social media...just as long as they publish mine. :-)

Why Wiley?

Considering the number of titles Wiley is producing, you might think I would have been better served to go with a publisher who doesn't have as many.

There are two reasons I chose Wiley. First, I have a long history with them dating back to 2005 having served as technical editor on a number of For Dummies books. I know several editors there and believe Wiley to be a company that has my best interests at heart.

The second reason, they are the ones who offered me a contract! I did have the book in front of some other publishers, one of whom showed great interest, but in the end, money talks.

What sets this book apart from the rest?

That was a question asked by the editor in trying to determine the positioning of the book.

At its heart, this book is "a practical application of principles." It's focus is on providing principles, explaining the tools (not everything, but the ones in most common use) along with an understanding of how to use them, accompanied by concrete examples and case studies of how they're being used in real world settings, mostly by SMBs. It culminates with a four-prong strategy for social media engagement.

It is a comprehensive treatise whose target are those just getting started in this space and those needing to learn more about social media itself and its application where business is concerned.

Practical application of principles written in language everyone can understand and that everyone can deploy. That's it in a nutshell.

Why the title The Digital Handshake?

That was probably the eighth or ninth title suggested. The original, Conversations Create Customers, was not liked by any publisher who looked at the proposal.

We went through a litany of other ideas including:

• Handyman's Guide to Social Media
• Social Media DNA: Are you changing your mindset or just changing your tactics?
• The Fifth P of Marketing: Participation
• Common Sense Social Media: What really works, why and how
• Making Sense of Social Media
• Making Dollars and Sense of Social Media

They didn't bite on any of them. Nibbled on a couple, but no bites.

Finally, a light turned on in my head and I submitted the title that was ultimately chosen, The Digital Handshake.

The title builds on the idea that relationships tend to start with a handshake and grow from there. In the virtual world, social media is a way of extending a "digital" handshake. There are certain unwritten, yet accepted rules of engagement. Don't push, pull. Use the power of attraction. Take a Dale Carnegie type approach and express interest in others first. A "seek first to understand, then be understood." That's the spin this book will have.

The editor LOVED it! (emphasis hers)

Last question, why me?

Of all the questions I asked myself about why Wiley or any other publisher would choose to take on this project, the one asked most often was "why me?"

I mean, I can think of at least a dozen or more people much more qualified to do this than I. Still, the same refrain echoes in my head, it's not for me to question, just be grateful the offer and opportunity was extended.

So, there we go. I'm going to be a hermit for the next three months and my dear wife, Amie, will be a widow. BTW, she's in complete support of this. After all, she's been through it once already with my first book, Realty Blogging. Honestly, I could not do this without her help and I'm extremely grateful to have it.

Bizzuka CEO, John Munsell, and I are working on a video series dealing with how businesses can use the web to thrive in these difficult economic times. (Hopefully, we'll unveil it next week. It contains interviews with some of the best marketing minds in the country, nay, even the world.)

Comparing social media to, say, advertising is like comparing the American Cancer Society's Relay For Life to a "walkathon." If you've never participated in Relay, this won't make sense, but if you have, you know what I mean. (BTW, if you haven't, you should.)

asked the question last week, Is social media the same as marketing? 

A newly released survey done by Marketing Executives Networking Group of top marketing trends of 2009 indicates that "twice as many marketers are 'sick' of hearing about Web 2.0 and related buzzwords such as 'blogs' and 'social networking' compared to last year’s survey."

The survey goes on to say that "marketers still admit they don’t know enough about it" and that " 67% of executive marketers consider themselves beginners when it comes to using social media for marketing purposes."

This represents real opportunity for true social media marketing consultants, so long as they can make this stuff palatable and speak in layman's terms.

One person who does this very, very well is , a veteran marketer who recently started her own agency, Harte Marketing and Communications. Beth has the good sense to see where social media fits into the overall marketing spectrum, and I believe her's is a well-reasoned, studied approach. (Doesn't hurt she's an adjunct professor at a local university.)

In a recent post, Beth asks, "Is social media the same as marketing?" To which she answers...

As you can tell, Beth has some strong opinions on the subject and I highly recommend you read the post referenced above. Whether you agree with Beth or not, it will spur some critical thinking.

Another thing you should consider doing is joining us tomorrow, Friday, January 9, for User Friendly Thinking Radio, where Beth will be our guest. We're going to discuss this and other issues of importance to marketers today. The show airs at noon central and lasts for 30-45 minutes.

Chris Brogan has a practice he's used since 2006, that of distilling his goals for the new year into three or four words. Seems like a good one to follow, so I'm giving it a try this year. 

If you've yet to read Joe Pulizzi's you should because it contains some eye-opening predictions from leading marketing professionals.

While, as you might expect, there is a wide range and divergence of opinion, some themes emerge.

1. Advertising will gradually be replaced by information.
2. Content and conversational marketing strategies will converge.
3. Social media marketing will continue to gain acceptance

Let's take these one at a time.

Recently, a co-worker's husband opened a new franchise restaurant and she asked me about ways to use social media to help build awareness. Literally, the first thought that came to mind was to go to Twitter and crowdsource the answer. So I did, asking fellow twits to finish this sentence, "If I were a restaurant, I would use Twitter to...."