Social Media

Are you marketing to stand out or stand back?

The mission: Tell your target audience who you are and what you do.

I’m the marketing chick. I come equipped with a designer bag full of tricks. There’s Twitter, Facebook, blog posts, email campaigns, partner marketing, affiliate programs, you know the drill. But, there’s alot of noise. If you post a Tweet to 1,000 followers, do they hear it? In my opinion, not so much. So, my mission is less about getting the message out and more about standing out.

I watch my six year old with her friends. They pretty much do everything that the other person is doing, wearing, saying. Their mission? To be the same. Standing out is scary when your six. You could be placed on exile island during recess by the mean girls who are all the same. Most brands act like six year olds. Oh, we can’t say that or someone might be offended. Hm, we can’t show that or we might get sued. Jeez, we can’t suggest that or someone might think we’re not professional or perhaps semi-crazy.

What a load of crap.

Isn’t the whole point to create your differentiator and stand-out? As my friend, Alex Neihaus, so poignantly penned in his blog post yesterday:

In high tech marketing, the “blend” is everything. You gotta have creativity… you gotta have authenticity…and given that small tech startups are either a) a completely new idea and/or b) trying to unseat titans, you gotta have balls to make your point. Big ones.

And my friends at currensee.com have ‘em. Watch this video. In just 1:02, you get it all in the blend. The beans (what currensee.com is), the roasting (it’s a social network for currency traders) and the infusion of…well…tush into the blend. If you don’t smile — and then head right over to the site — it’s definitely your problem.

My hat’s off to Dave and Michelle for ignoring all the reasons marketers come up with not to stand out and delivering their message (make more money trading money with a group) with a liberal dose of authenticity and humor.

As you’ll see from my latest “project”, I put the big ones to the wall and admittedly teeter on the edge of controversial, sexist and down-right inappropriate. At the end of the day, producing another campaign or line of copy can only get you so far. I say, take a risk, put it out there, make your mark and have some fun. I sure did.

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Is Oprah Twitter’s shark?

Apr 17th, 2009

by Michelle Heath.

1 comment

Jumping the shark. Risky, dangerous and often fatal. The question is…can Twitter gracefully jump the shark and survive?

I have love this idea of jumping the shark. It is such an interesting phenomenon – one which doesn’t happen that often. I didn’t know much about where the term came from so I did a little research (god love Wikipedia.) The term was born from a 1977 Happy Days episode where The Fonz jumps a shark wearing swim trunks and his trademark leather jacket. If your shaking your head, your not alone. It makes no sense what so ever and appears that the producer was just grasping for material. Ends up that it was a pivotal episode and the producer, Garry Marshall, later admitted that “that he knew the show had lost something as the crew prepared to shoot the scene.” The show went on to produce another 100 episodes but things were never quite the same as those early Fonzerelli days.

Think about all the shows that you once loved that eventually died a slow death – plot lines thin out, bizarre characters are introduced and the quality of the show plummets. This sad but true happening transcends TV into our everyday lives. In my opinion, Starbucks (tho I love it so) has jumped the shark. Quality is not consistent and they’re everywhere. Used to be I’d literally walk a mile for a perfect non-fat latte. Now, I walk across the street and hope I get the “good latte” barista. As it relates to technology, who can forget the PDA – come on, you had one of these right? Oh, the little stylus and all my contacts in one place but holy crap. They completely missed the boat and got lost in the innovation of the smart phone. My kids now pay with mine and pretend it’s a Blackberry:) And who can forget the Walkman. Man, I thought I was so cool walking around holding my Walkman listening to my 80′s mix tape. Then along comes an MP3 player and out goes my Walkman with the trash.

So, now let’s talk about Twitter. I set up my Twitter account, thanks to the early-adopteritis of my friend Natty B, back in the Fall of 2007. I had no idea what Twitter was, checked it out and said to Nathan: “Who really cares what I’m eating for lunch??” Seriously, I just didn’t get it. But, I am social media girl and decided to give it a whirl. Put up my first tweet and was off following the few people I knew had any clue what Twitter was. I think I had a few handfuls of followers and the conversation was, for the most part, interesting. Lots of social media tips, ideas, news flashes, personal updates – I was in the groove. Then Twitter exploded with the digerati and the music set at SXSW in early 2008. My CEO started tweeting, we set up a corporate account and all my colleagues at matchmine (RIP) got in the groove too. It started to become useful in keeping up with people, getting interesting news and facts and learning more about how people think.

Fast forward to today, April 17, 2008. Some call it “Twitter’s big day.” Ashton Kutcher is on Oprah and is announced as the first “mainstream” user with over 1MM followers. Let’s just stop here – since when is Ashton mainstream? He is not a normal person on Twitter. He is a celebrity. Two very different things. And 1MM followers. BFD. How many does he know personally? I bet 4 – Ryan Seacrest, Oprah, Demi and Oprah’s dog.

Now let’s talk about the Oprah-effect. She can, in one show, make something jump the shark. I have to give it to her – that is some power, girlfriend. She has Twitter CEO, Evan Williams, on the show along with Ashton and BAM, in one day, I got about 50 new followers – 90% of which are, I hate to say it, total crap. I don’t have time to get to know these people and, quite frankly, I have nothing in common with any of them. Do I really care about some lady who likes to knit and is from Nebraska or some former weightlifer-turn-personal trainer who can pump me up? Does that make me a Twitter snob? Maybe. I find myself saying: “Remember when Twitter was…” It must be like the first person to have any of the deadpool devices listed above. Were they so over their Walkman when everyone had one? You betchya. That’s the way this whole thing works. The question now is what happens to Twitter? Can they jump the shark or is it so over? I have another theory on this but I’ll save it for a future post.

In the meantime, what’s your take…has Twitter jumped the shark or do they still have their Fonzarelli mojo?

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Pie and the secret of sharing

Feb 19th, 2009

by Michelle Heath.

2 comments

It seems we are encouraged at a young age to share. I am constantly telling my 2.5 year old to “be a good sharer” and “share with other people so they will share with you”. But, let’s face it. Sharing is just not natural. It’s learned and not everyone get’s on the sharing-means-caring bus.

I’m a good sharer. I love to share food – put a bunch of different plates in front of me and I’m in heaven. I always share my last piece of gum and I will let you borrow my clothes as long as you promise to bring them back in the same shape you borrowed them in (yes, I know). But it wasn’t always like this. Back in the day, I was a horrible sharer. So bad that I wrote the word “PIE” on all of my things – Baby Alive, Malibu Barbi, Easy Bake Oven, Raggedy Anne – PIE, baby. Why PIE? Who the hell knows. Pie is yummie, I guess. So, if it said PIE, it was mine. My sister remembers this phase fondly and didn’t give a crap about PIE and tried to use my stuff anyway. It wasn’t a pleasant stage. Well, luckily the PIE-phase passed (though my mom still has the dolls with PIE written across their foreheads) and I am the sharer I am. How did that happen? What changed? I am sure there are a bunch of you behavioral psych folks out there who can tell me why it changed, so come on and let us in on the secret.

For the rest of us, let’s fast forward to the here and now. So, along comes Web 2.0. The “social” era. What’s it all about….you betchya, sharing. Photos, profiles, music, friends, walls, lifestreams, hobbies, resumes, tweets, videos the list goes on. What makes some share and others adamant PIE-er? Here’s my $.02.

1. Privacy. This is probably the biggest reason. A guy in my office (who will remain un-named) will not disclose a photo of himself to anyone but his immediate family. I completely cannot relate but it’s his right to keep it to himself. I often wonder – is it the worry of what could happen if said photo hits the net and is used to begin stalking him? Or is it something simpler – perhaps a discomfort with putting yourself out there. I’ve even heard of the suppressed “Catholic Guilt” theory. In any case, people have their own reasons and for that they get the PIE stamp.

2. Time. Many of the non-sharers I talk to say it’s a waste of time. Who has time to share photos or tell people what they had for lunch? Well, then, how do you explain the droves of people on Facebook and Twitter? They have time. Some of them, yes, too much time on their hands. Others, like me, juggle a million different things and social media is just a natural part of the day. Like checking my email or sending a text message or getting my latte. It is how I live.

3. Aversion to change. Can’t teach an old dog new tricks. This is true with the people out there who just can’t change. These are also the people who say they have nothing to say. Everyone has something to say. Come on, people! These are also the people who don’t see the value in sharing, they don’t care and they’ll argue till the death against it. To them I say, bleh.

4. Generation. Age definitely plays a factor. How many of our parents are on Facebook? or iLike? or Twitter? or FriendFeed? My guess is a very small percentage. My 60 year old uncle sees Facebook as a privacy disaster waiting to happen and a good way to start a high-school girl fight (he’s a high school teacher). My dad is still trying to figure out how to upload his photos to Snapfish and send me an email to tell me I can view them. Then I see some of my friends’ dad on Facebook and wonder, would I want my dad seeing me out on the town partying it up? Hm, not so much.

5. Lifestyle. There are people out there who just aren’t in the know. Yes, I know, dear reader, it’s hard to imagine. I have a friend from high school who just got email. Yes, I said email. It’s beyond me but some people just don’t have the lifestyle desire to get on the technology or the sharing bandwagon.

So, what does all this lead to. Well, if sharing is caring, what does what you share say about you? Are you a frequent Facebook status up-dater or are you more of a lurker who is present but not participating? If you’re a sharer, what’s the quality of what you share? People are fickle. They want to be engaged and entertained. When your posting, writing, uploading – think about the quality of your content and what it says about you. If you’re a sharer, take the quality of what you’re sharing to the next level. If you’re still in PIE-mode, come on now. Maybe you can take a baby step. Try out a social media site and see what it’s like to connect with a few new people or find out something new about someone you already know. Sharing makes you a contributor. The old way of learning was very one-dimensional. Now, I learn every day thanks to social media and people who share. New websites, products, ideas, personal updates – I have the ability to take it all in and decide how to use it. That makes me smarter and that makes me happy. Be smart. Be happy. Be social.

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The future looks bright

Dec 12th, 2008

by Michelle Heath.

No comments yet

Not sure why that Pat MacDonald song came into my head but it captures how I feel right now. Anyhow, I am jumping out of my seat. Why you ask? Well, I just joined the team at Currensee as their brandy-new VP of Marketing. I am thrilled to join an amazing team of people and to help them bring their big idea to the market.

From my first meeting with Dave Lemont, the CEO and king of go-to-market strategies, I knew this position was made for me. It’s one part financial services (my past life), one part social media & community (my new life) and a healthy dose of innovation, testing and data gathering. Currensee is in stealth mode but I can tell you a bit about how they are changing the forex game. Say you trade foreign currencies. You chase the Aussie and play the Cable against the Swissy. You’re always trying to find an edge – tough to do when the markets trade 24×7 and most humans need some sort of sleep.

Well, Currensee, not only lets you stay connected to the market, it lets you understand and leverage the community of forex traders who are looking for an edge just like you. Kind of like a Facebook for forex traders. You can share a whole bunch of data with your Currensee friends and share charting strategies and trading ideas in real-time. I spent most of my life in financial services and have seen alot of products. Everything from active trader pro screens that look like a DOS terminal to level II quote screens that make you go cross-eyed. After seeing how the simple and intuitive the Currensee screens are, I know forex traders are going to love the product.

There’s alot of work to be done. Much to test and much to be learned. My job will be all about growing the trader community and figuring out which levers to pull and what buttons to push. I am thrilled to dig in and get my hands dirty. I will be a one-armed-paper-hanger so, I’ll be working my @ss off. But I am so jazzed about the mission and people, it will be worth every ounce of energy. I’ll be sharing more as I dig in and get us ready for beta.

Gotta wear shades.

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Is more better?

Dec 4th, 2008

by Michelle Heath.

2 comments

I guess if you’re talking cake, you betchya. But when it comes to social media, are more friends & followers better?

I just read a press release about Matt Bacak, The Powerful Promoter. So, this guy just issued a press release that states he now has over 5,000 friends on Facebook and is part of “the Twitter elite,” whatever that means. Okay, dear readers, how in the name of pete can one person keep up with 5,000 people?! I can barely keep up with the people in my immediate network, never mind thousands of people I have never met, probably don’t care about and, thus, will never meet.

IMHO, more becomes noise and noise is meaningless. I happen to be one of those people who gets very random Facebook requests from people I don’t know. Okay, can you say…creepy! Why would I want you to see me doing a keg-stand if I don’t even know you? You know I’m just kidding (sort-of). To me, Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and all the other social media tools lose their value when infused with noise.

But, there’s always two sides to the story.

What about the people who don’t see it as noise. What is it to them? Fame? Glory? Do they get a badge for their blog that says “I’m a Twitter Elite!” Come on now, is that really what this is about? Yes, there are people out there like The Powerful Promoter who appear to be in it for the fame and glory that comes from saying they have millions of followers. There are others like Guy Kawasaki who believe that nobodies are somebodies. Sounds like something my 2nd grade teacher told me.

At the end of the day, I suppose you need to decide what social media means to you. Is it important to have thousands of friends and followers who you don’t know and probably don’t care to know but who can carry your message to their network? Or do you want to have a group of friends and followers who you know, for the most part, and who you are interested in getting to know better? Better yet, are you more interested in a small group of influencers and hearing what they have to say and having them carry your message out to the world?

I grew up in the land of social media where targeting a few leads to the words of many. I am not convinced that a sea of nobodies is better than a pond of somebodies. I’ll stick to my guns for now but look forward to testing out the theory to see what kind of meat is on the bones.

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When will that tweet cost you?

Nov 18th, 2008

by Michelle Heath.

1 comment

I suppose it’s inevitable. There’s that old thing about, hm, what’s that? Oh, right Making Money. The bacon, the benjamins, the bill-payer, the thing that keeps companies alive and growing. It’s one of the trickiest nuts for all of these social media companies to crack (R.I.P. matchmine). I always wondered how Twitter would foray into the world of trying to pay their own way. Would they go the advertising route? Hard to do with all that user generated content. Would they offer an ad opt-out? They could charge a fee to users who choose to opt-out of ads. But how many people pay not to see ads? Right. Okay, so they could do a subscription model for users. Charge some sort of flat monthly fee based on usage (# of tweets, # of followers, direct messages). I suppose that could work but I have a feeling some other social media community site like Yammer would show up with no fees and eat their lunch.

So, maybe the best option is to go after the deep pockets. There are a whole bunch of companies like Zappos, Amazon and GoDaddy who have figured out the benefits of using Twitter to get real-time, real-honest feedback about their products and services. These companies are getting their social media on and creating loyalty, providing great service and connecting with their users – all free of charge. Brilliant! Why bother supporting an internal chat function or a room full of service reps when you can go directly to your users by creating a Twitter account?

Wonder how long it will be before Twitter starts to charge someone for something. The economy has made VCs more cautious about dishing out dollars and I’d be curious to know a) how much runway Twitter has with their existing funding and b) how much additional money they could raise without revenue either in-sight or in-pocket. So, Twitter, what’s it going to be?

And as for you, dear reader, any projections?

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Microblogging is the new black

Nov 7th, 2008

by Michelle Heath.

1 comment

It’s hard to keep up. First brown was the new black, then eggplant, then came Facebook and now microblogging. You’re in right? Do you know what the hell microblogging is? Okay, let’s start by answering a few simple questions: Are you on Twitter? Yammer? Pownce (no, not the cat food)? Do you religiously update your status on Facebook? Do you know how to fit your most clever thoughts into 140 characters or less? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions then you are a microblogger. Cool! If you answered, no, where have you been hiding? Go get yourself a Twitter account and check it out. I will tell you that when I first started tweeting last fall, I was completely intimidated. I thought, who the heck cares what I’m having for lunch? The amazing thing is that people do. Well, maybe care is a strong word, but people love to learn about other people. Whether you’re in the mix tweeting up a storm, or watching from the sidelines, microblogging, as it’s called, is where it’s at.

Today, I read the Business Week post on my friends over at Blip.fm. I worked with Jeff and his team while I was at matchmine (RIP). The guys at Blip are really on to something. They started with Fuzz.com – a site that connects artists with fans and has a whole bunch of cool indie music. As the Twitter started to gain momentum, they decided to integrate music with tweeting and, viola, Blip.fm was born. You can think of it almost as a twitter for music, which is brilliant because I can share music with my friends on Twitter and meet other people (they call them DJs) who share my taste in music.

The microblogging space will continue to get more interesting as companies begin adding unique features (like music, photos, video) to the standard short message. They say full-featured microblogging will be the next big thing. What do you think?

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Dear social media, thanks for helping me find a job.

Oct 30th, 2008

by Michelle Heath.

No comments yet

Well, I now am part of the 6.1% unemployment rate. I’ve gotta say, it’s a pretty surreal feeling. You see, I’ve only been unemployed once in my life. It was for 6 months, I was pregnant, we had sold our company for $1.6B and I chose to exit gracefully. Very different from being asked to pack up your desk, turn in your laptop, share the ceremonial hugs and “it will be okays” and exit through security at the door. At least I’m in very good company. So, what to do now? Drink, of course! Seriously, I really have no idea. It’s been an amazing time of reflection and possibility.

The most interesting thing about my recent unemployed status is how social media played the hero in getting the word out. I’ve been thinking about what today would have been like if I didn’t have Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Ning. I would have spent the day emailing everyone I know and making a zillion phone calls. But today was very different than that.

It all started with my message on Twitter yesterday afternoon – “Farewell Swamp. It’s been real. R.I.P. matchmine.” Within a matter of minutes, I had a deluge of direct messages, tweets and phone calls. Simultaneously, my Twitter status updated my Facebook status. Bam! By the time I woke up this morning, I had a list of people I had to reach out to on Facebook – about 20 direct messages, a whole host of comments on my wall and text messages waiting for a reply. Humbling and amazing.

By noon, I was exhausted. You see, I was thinking today would be sort of a re-group kind of day. Make some coffee, watch some Ellen and catch-up on the hundreds of shows on my DVR. No such luck. With all the social media activity, I didn’t even have time to work on my resume. Which brings me to my point.

Resume shmezume.

Okay, so your resume is important. It’s an artifact of what you’ve done. Check.

But, my friends, your resume is now about who you know – aka, your network, your community, your peeps. The people you know are the people who know someone who’s hiring someone for a job that might be a good fit. The not-so-good-old days of sending your resume in to some HR mailbox or Jobs@… are OVER. Sure you can still do that but your network is your Golden Ticket. It the most precious asset you ‘own’ and it’s your responsibility to care and feed it. It will teach you things you never knew, connect you with people you may never know, celebrate your highs and support you in your lows. It won’t let you down. But, this precious gift must be cultivated. It cannot be grown in a day by carpet-bombing everyone you know. If you are gainfully employed, well good for you. What have you done today to build your network? It should be part of how you live your life – brush your teeth, comb your hair, update your FB status…okay, maybe that’s a little extreme. Make your network a central part of how you do what you do and see how it gives back.

To all of my friends, family, fellow Miners, colleagues from another life, drinking buds and friends-of-friends who have reached out to help me figure out what’s next…I thank you. You saved me from drowning my sorrows in SNL re-runs and episodes of The Office. You made me pick myself up and realize there’s a whole bunch of stuff out there to go explore. Okay, so, here I go. I will certainly keep you posted on my progress.

Comments (copied over from my old blog):

Craig
craig_blum@hotmail.com | 96.233.101.212

The most relevant blog post I’ve read all year. Post matchmine day one was spent entirely on linkedin, ning, FB, & twitter responding to literally hundreds of requests & posts from both my network and Beth’s. Sped my search from a weeks long process to a days long one. Unbelievable.

Spot on, Michelle. Strong to very strong.

Homey
lifeat6knots@gmail.com | 71.184.141.245

Perfect. You couldn’t have described the (new) day in the life of an ex-miner any better.

And thank you for being my swamp buddy and social media sherpa!

Kathy T
kteehan@comcast.net | 24.91.19.79

Right on Shelly!

Great post and timed perfectly. This former co-miner is proud of you and to have you in my network!

miketrap
http://friendfeed.com/miketrap | mike@matchmine.com | 24.62.101.40

You go girl.

michelleheath
michelleaheath@gmail.com | 66.228.95.146

So true. I wouldn’t be the social media maven I am today without you, Natty B! Thanks for lots of laughs, innovation and hard work. We are so connected you have no choice but to hear my updates:)

Nathan
http://blogstring.com | nathan.burke@gmail.com | 24.63.205.211

I totally agree with you on this. I couldn’t believe how many people reached out to me on twitter, facebook, etc. with opportunities. Just think: 5 years ago, that would have been basically impossible.

Keep me updated, ok?

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