A Rock Star Marketer's Journal

A couple of months ago I had a very interesting meeting with a VC backed social gaming company.  Honest to goodness, I was told from this highly educated CEO of a social gaming company,  (don’t even ask, I’m not revealing the name),  ”We don’t need marketing.  Read Jeff Jarvis’ book, “What Would Google Do?”

SO, off I went, bought the book and read.  I do recommend the book.  It’s a lot about the “network effect”, social networking and marketing, although none of those words are used in the description of the book.  And it does in fact paint a simple picture, supported with examples (obviously the largest being Google), that marketing is not needed these days.  And, as this VC guy had done, had bought into the ideation of “If you build it, they will come.”

Well, as a marketer, I beg to differ.  And it’s not just about defending my talent or even my career.  Really.

But it can be very dangerous to think that anyone can have success in not doing “some” sort of marketing.  Unless of course you are first or the best. (more on that later).

Take social gaming for instance.  When games first appeared on Facebook, very few were actually marketed in the traditional sense.  However, the expansion of those games (take Who’s Got the Biggest Brain (from Playfish, who was purchased for $600M to traditional video game company Electronic Arts) for example took advantage of the network effect, viral loops, social media and lots and lots of publicity.  The marketing was built “in the product” from the beginning from its inception.  And now that there are more competitors in the social gaming space we do see games advertised on FB.  Social City certainly just made an effort to get out of the clutter with their new ads clearly targeted to other social gaming customers.

My point is this, at the beginning of any new business growing sector there are success stories of those that launched companies or products without marketing.   But as competitor’s step in, it’s time to add in your marketing engine.

As a social media consultant, I usually work with CEO’s or top executives on a daily basis.   My observation is this:  MOST companies are running scared with this new addition of social media.  ”And I use this how?”

Most don’t understand it, don’t know how it fits into their strategic objectives – they just know they need to be there and quick before they miss the boat.

Now as a consultant, I work for the client, so I make every effort to do what the client wants.  But I always lead with this question, “Why do you want to be there?”  And the answer I get, “Well, everyone else is there – we need to be there too.”

I don’t necessarily disagree with these statements, however, what several forget is that you need to have a reason for a marketing vehicle, a strategy and techniques that make sense.  Social media is another tool in a marketer’s toolbox.  Like this and all the others, they need to be integrated with the rest of your marketing initiatives to work.  A Twitter account with tweets about the company (ie, tweets of Press Releases) is not a way to get a following.  What you need to do is Tweet about what your customer cares about.  They don’t care that you are expanding, they don’t care that your financials were on target for the quarter, or that your top sales person was promoted to VP of Sales and Marketing.

What they do care about is how they can use your product or service.  Not the features, but the benefits.   A great example of a company that gets it is www.hubspot.com.  As for Twitter, they tweet about useful information to do with social media, its uses and how to use it to your advantage.  They offer a software application which they want you to buy eventually but they don’t talk about their product directly, just how important social media is and how to use it.

My point is this:  Don’t jump on the social media bandwagon without a good solid strategy.  Yes, it “may” be important for you to use these tools – but use them correctly.  And don’t forget that there is still a place for traditional marketing (more on that later).

Or even better, hire me.

I have found an important part of this blogging process is finding “your voice”.  Should I write in first person? Third? Casual? Professional?

This is the era of transparency; I’m going to err on the side of just being me.  I’ll try it on for a while.

Now honestly, I’m going to go to bed.