Social Media Marketing Maverick

I admit it, I’m a die-hard trend watcher. It’s a bit frustrating at times being a woman who naturally does this (for any of you StrengthsFinder 2.0 fans, one of my themes is Futurist ;-)) because I haven’t yet tapped into a network of women who get as excited as I do about what’s next.

Out of love, most of the women in my network get pulled along until they start to jog with me (just ask my best friend Michelle Anton about this - 4 years ago she could barely turn her new Mac on - last week she figured out how to map her new domain to her own social network that she set up after I told her about it!)

I’m a systems-thinker. Which means I look at things holistically first. Like “what is it?” - “it” being the role of whatever it is in whatever I’m trying to figure out. Once I figure THAT out, then it’s all smooth sailing. I have this burning curiosity about “things” and their role in the world.

So when I started to move from blogs to social networks to social media in my mind, I began that “systems-thinking” thing that I do to make it make sense, so I could help my women entrepreneur friends make sense so they could benefit from learning EARLY about it.

Blogs play a HUGE role in social media - and the real “killer app” of blogging (uh-oh, am I dating myself from before the “dot-bomb” of 2000 with that word ? ;-)) is the RSS feed that is already BUILT IN.

In fact, in my book blogs are the “new little black dress” for women entrepreneurs, if they can get past their “technophobia” to realize it. I often wonder if they think they can “break” something and that’s why they are afraid to experiment. Some old psychology at work I guess.

But I digress.

I was tickled pink to see Business Week’s new issue “Beyond Blogs - What Business Needs to Know” because it validated the trend I saw coming over year ago with the rise of all of the social networking sites, and a new industry that is emerging called Social Media.

See, in a systems-thinking world, blogs are a piece of the overall social media picture.

Along with

• social networks (Facebook, Linkedin, Biznik)
• social news-sharing (digg, de.li.ci.ous, etc.)
• social surfing (my words, but think StumbleUpon, Sphere-it)
• social video (YouTube, Google Video, Veoh, Blip.tv, etc) and I recently discovered
• …social radio! (Pandora.com, and also internet talk radio re-framed as “social radio)
• And whatever else comes along to try to ride the trend

The reason I say blogs are the foundation for social media marketing, is due to another emerging trend called Social Media Optimization (SMO) (SEO, move over, SMO is in the house!)

With the strategic use of your blog’s RSS feeds, you can be everywhere your customers and prospective customers are and never leave home base. (your blog)

Without further adieu, I present you the video where BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker discusses the Cover Story he co-wrote in May, 2008, on online social networks, an update of the May, 2005, Cover Story, “Blogs Will Change Your Business.”

In it, he talks about how IBM is using social media (Twitter) for market intelligence, and to connecting with consumers. And retracts his statement that blogging didn’t have a bubble that would burst, because there wasn’t any money in it (hey, tell that to Darren Rowse over at www.ProBlogger.com)

(I embedded below, so you don’t have to link over if you don’t feel like it.)
Take it away Stephen!

Okay, I’m borrowing a phrase from my good friend and colleague Mitch Axelrod. Caveat Vendidor is one of the tenets that underpin his philosophy “The New Game of Business”. He says that instead of the old game, where it was “caveat emptor” or “Let the buyer beware”, it’s now “caveat vendidor” or “let the SELLER beware”.

Case in point. Walmart.

The interesting thing about this David vs. Goliath WalMart story is that this is a case that Walmart won, and then an appeal actually went to the Supreme Court, who refused to hear it.

The Short Version: Walmart continued to proceed in it’s attempt to recoup $470k in medical costs for a now-brain damaged former employee because it’s policy allows for that if the person gets a settlement of any worth. However, in this case, the settlement ended up funding a trust to take care of this former employee who will never be able to work again.

So…somehow this came to light and one blog post, begat another post (you know the old shampoo commercial “she told one, and then she told one”?) begat a call for a boycott against and before you know it, Walmart bows down to the power of the citizen journalist.

To repeat: Walmart won this case. They let the family appeal it all the way to the Supreme Court and then bowed down to the bloggers! (See http://walmartwatch.com/)

And to think, I found this story on CNN, through following a Reuters Oddly Enough text ad link in my Gmail inbox “Children Find Woman’s Head on Beach” story (You know, I just can’t resist the power of a good headline sometimes- no pun intended!).

And now, for the rest of the story…

Wal-Mart: Brain-damaged former employee can keep money - CNN.com

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Technorati Tags blog-o-sphere, citizen journalists, social marketing, social media, walmart

Online Video’s Record-Breaking Month: 10 Billion Viewed in December - MarketingVOX

In my opinion, niche topic professional speakers listen up - better yet, take action to find out how to capitalize on this ever-increasing trend of social video-sharing. You could be owning this medium in a big way to get your message out to a global audience with not much more than what you probably already have - video of you speaking. But you’ll have to shift your thinking to “content” and “contribution” …the level of thinking that got you where you are, isn’t deep enough get you where you want to go…

Technorati Tags nsa, Online Video, professional speaker, social media, social video, YouTube