Lazy Marketing

A recent RIM television campaign for the BlackBerry Playbook has been released and revolves completely around the ability to play flash based web content on the tablet. The music is Queen’s soundtrack to the 1980 Movie Flash Gordon, and the voiceover talks extensively how the “best of the web” is now available on the BlackBerry tablet.

That is it.

RIM approved an entire campaign revolving around this difference. RIM and the agency that is taking their money need to get serious and stop jacking around. RIM is in serious trouble. They are watching Apple go farther and farther ahead.

Apple creates products that people desire. Technological superiority does nothing to promote brand desire and loyalty for the average customer. How are the sales of Linux Laptops going? People desire these products and form lines around retail establishments days before a new product launch. The iPad2 doesn’t play flash content and neither did the first iPad yet 25 Million units have been sold worldwide as of this month and not a single bit of flash content to be had on a single one of them.

Nobody cares that the PlayBook plays flash content. I have seen people who swore that a BB phone would be the only thing that they over owned again buy an iPhone or an Android based HTC based solely on the end user experience that these products provide.

Stop allowing your agency to be lazy. You can’t afford that right now. Your once innovative and stellar brand is dying in front of you and you haven’t done anything effective as of yet to revive it.

Should you hire a Social Media Expert?

As a follow up to something we addressed earlier, Who or what makes a Social Media Expert?, here are two different arguments for whether or not an organization actually needs one or not. Peter Shankman argues that social media is not a stand-alone profession and is merely a part of the larger marketing professional, and Rand Fishkin feels as though social media experts are deserving of more respect and perhaps a stand-alone title and responsibilities. To Mr. Shankman's defense, he does mention in the comments on Mr. Fishkin's blog that his approach is one that does not feel as though a social media "expert" cannot be someone who bills themselves as only a social media "expert" and know nothing else about marketing and what all goes with social marketing to make marketing effective.

What do you think? Let us know here.

While this topic has dominated the past couple of these forums, it may warrant sharing a few other interesting things regarding this new digital phenomenon.

The Social Business Imperative has a few interesting points regarding how social media reaches people here, and Digital Buzz Blog addresses the real cost of social media here, which is where the costs mentioned earlier were derived.

Who, or what, is a Social Media Expert?

Many businesses have cited low cost as a reason for moving more toward social media presence. Many businesses are actively recruiting ‘Social Media Experts’, and at a senior level.

What are these experts worth as businesses scramble to get a social media presence launched? Someone has placed a figure on it. $94,600 a year for a “Community Manager” that gets this community management completed in 30 hours a week. While this is an overall view of the social arena, it does place a monetary figure on this position, and gives a baseline to work from.

What are the requirements of a Social Media executive? It doesn’t appear to have a lot to do with Social media. The word social is only mentioned in the title and once in the body of the posting buried in a requirement along with design, and video. Do they want someone to design custom Facebook pages [Which is a skill-set in and of itself since FB decided to use a proprietary FBML language and not standard HTML] and craft tweets [a copywriter]? Do they need Facebook apps built and deployed [Application Development]? Do they need all of this? Do they really know or are they just convinced that they must have a Social Media Executive on staff to be able to tell clients that they do? It also seems as though prior agency experience is a huge contributing factor in being able to fulfill social media expectations in this particular case.

All of this social media is just a part of the larger marketing picture. Just because someone has a Facebook page and a Twitter account does that make them an expert at social media? I would assume not, but let me know if I am wrong. How does this Social Expert fit into the over all marketing strategy? Should this person be partitioned off from the rest of the marketing staff from a knowledge and expertise perspective? Should social media gurus, rock-stars, mavens, and divas come from an over-all marketing background and not just be some sort of niche subject matter expert? At this point in time what is that defines a social media expert? Is it like 1996 and if you know what HTML stands for you are a web expert? At the time, I guess that was the definition. It may be true today in social media.

If you can land a 30 hr. a week job making $94K, congratulations. You are a social media expert, although some might call you a great salesperson.

More later on why some folks say that they would never hire a social media expert and a counterpoint on why businesses should hire a social media expert…

Tod O'Brien
Director of Creative Services
One Eyed Dog Productions
www.oneeyeddog.com