Yes I meant “revolutions” it’s not a typo.

A revolution can be defined in many ways but it can only mean one of two things. An overthrow of an established system / procedure or, course back to a starting point.

Only one type of revolution can help you make the upcoming year one to remember, at least from a marketing perspective.

Many companies get caught in a trap when it comes to marketing. They keep doing the same things over and over again. Round and round our marketing goes when it makes money we never know. The world changes too fast for anyone to think that doing the same old thing will produce new results. When it comes to marketing, that type of, “revolution” is the one to avoid.

Our customers are changing; in fact, you might even say they are creating a revolution of their own. There is no denying that the Internet has changed the face of business and marketing forever. One of the biggest changes brought about by the Internet is in customer behavior. We live in an on-demand society, a clickable culture where everything a customer wants is only a mouse click away.

Our customers have more choices and they can have whatever they want any way they want it whenever they want it. This limitless choice has created a very competitive environment for every type of business on the planet. You either work within the clickable culture or lose business to armies of competitors who are very anxious and willing to take your best customers.

In order to grow in the competitive Internet marketing landscape you are going to have to start your own revolution this coming year. Here are my 3 Internet marketing tips that will help you create a marketing revolution for your company.

Tip # 1 - Think like a customer

Sounds simple but in actuality it is very difficult. You must separate yourself from your products, services and solutions. Throw away what you know and put yourself in your customers place. When people search for products and services on the Internet try and remember that they do not search for the solution, they search for the problem. If they knew what the solution was they would not need you.

Does the content on your website speak to the problem or jump right into the solutions with industry jargon and other language a client may not connect with? Simplify things and get to the heart of the matter. What are the client’s needs, wants and overall issues that brought them to your site in the first place?  Review all the content on your website and make sure it speaks to the customers needs. Shake things up and start to change your writing style and messages to be customer centric or bottom up as opposed to top down.

Tip # 2 – Step out of your comfort zone

In today’s competitive marketplace a website alone just won’t cut it. We have to expand our reach and use more diverse methods to connect with connected customers. We’ve all heard of Blog’s and Podcasts, YouTube videos and MySpace pages but did you know that a lot of these communication tools are great ways to connect with customers? It’s true, corporate Blogging alone is one of the fastest growing marketing vehicles on the web.

Start using some of these tools. Look into creating a Blog, see what others are doing on YouTube and Facebook. Familiarize yourself with some of the new media tools and figure out how you can use them in your marketing. If you don’t step out of your comfort zone, your competition is going to step all over you.

Tip # 3 – Seek out opportunity

The best information to help your business grow will come form outside your industry. Stop looking at your competition when deciding what type of marketing to do or what should be on your website. The dumbest thing you can do is to do something just because a competitor is doing it.

When I sit with clients to help them create Internet marketing strategies they always give me the list of things their competitors are doing as if to say, “They are doing this so we should too”.

How do you know if what your competition is doing is actually working? Will they tell you? Probably not. You will end up spending time and money to create something that was doomed before you ever got started.

What you really need to do is figure out what your competitions not doing and then do those things. If your competitor has written testimonials on their website, you create video testimonials. Is your competition Blogging? No, then start a Blog. Are they Podcasting? No, do that.

Look beyond your industry for ideas. Seek out what has been successful for other industries that service your customers. If everyone is doing something and you do it to all you do is level the playing field. If you find something no one else is doing, you’ve found an opportunity.

Those are my tips that should help you break the oppressions of old tired marketing and get started on your New Year’s Revolution! Remember, most revolutions are started with a desire for a change from the norm; it’s only when you take action that true change takes place.

Written by Larry Bailin. Bestselling author of the marketing book,
Mommy, Where Do Customers Come From? ® Writen for Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog

I recently was invited to be a speaker at the Blog World and New Media Expo in Las Vegas where I gave a presentation titled, “Using social media to drive traffic to your Blog”. Personally I hated the title (not my choice) of the seminar. Being from New Jersey it’s hard to associate the term, “traffic” with anything positive. The word “traffic” sends the wrong message and is counterproductive to the thought process needed to succeed on the social scene.

I focused my presentation on changing the point of view of the 150 people in the audience. If they were to truly succeed in the competitive social media landscape they would need to remove, “driving traffic” from the top of their goals list and replace it with, “driving customers”.

In order to succeed in the social scene everyone needs to stop measuring visits and start measuring victories.

After my presentation I was approached by Michael Mattis of Yahoo and he told me that he’d like me to write a blog post for YSM (Yahoo! Search Marketing Blog) with a few points from my presentation. We agreed that my examples of, “social rules” would fit the bill.

Offline business rules have always applied in the online space so it would be a safe bet that the social rules we all grew up with, the ones our loving parents drilled into our heads, the rules that kept us safe and happy would also apply when used in online social situations.

Social Rule # 1 - Choose your friends wisely.

It seems that building a large number of friends is the goal for most online socialites. The more friends you have the more popular you are In an offline situation, a good example of this is high school.   The less popular nerdy type only had a few friends which happened to be other less popular nerdy types with similar goals and interests.

By grouping together, sharing ideas and staying hyper-focused this social solidarity seemed to always achieve levels of success later in life that most of us could only dream of (Bill Gates for example) while the more popular captain of the cheerleaders ends up marrying and divorcing the adulterous football player and having to move to Arizona and balance being a single mom with two crappy jobs. That’s the way it happens on television anyway.

Summary: Social networking works the same way. Be choosy when selecting friends. A smaller group of like-minded individuals allows you to spread your message through a more targeted audience. Large groups of broad targets and views will muddy the waters and stop you from achieving the results needed to succeed.

Social rule #2 – Treat people the way you want to be treated.

You get what you give is a rule that has stood the test of time. You cannot expect people to do for you unless you do for them. If you are to make a mark on the social scene first you have to do for others. You need to participate, comment, visit and support others if you expect them to do the same in return.

Summary: By participating you become part of the community. People start to recognize you and appreciate your efforts. These efforts will not go unrewarded. I started my marketing blog (ConnectedCustomers.net) eight months ago. I spent the first six months visiting other blogs in the marketing category and commenting on them. I added some to my blog-roll and even sent personal messages to a few that I really liked. The result was others responding in kind. Within eight months I developed a following of over 15,000 readers.

Social rule #3 – If you have nothing nice to say don’t say anything at all.

This one is simple. Bashing and negativity runs rampant through the social scene. I’m not talking about negative comments. If you don’t agree with something you should post your opinion. Bashing someone is something totally different. If you are nasty or tend to post inappropriate negative comments all the time it won’t be long before a community labels you a jackass and no one will take you seriously. Obviously this is counter productive to your goals.

Summary: Take the time to think through your comments and actions. Try to give constructive criticism as opposed to a negative view. Choose your words wisely and it will showcase your expertise as opposed to your dark side.

Social rule #4 – If you keep doing that you’ll go blind.

Whether it is a website, blog, or MySpace page, take the user into consideration. Lots of renegade code, widgets and advertisements can not only slow down the site but may even crash a browser or two. Take the time to think about how every element will be seen and reacted to by your potential customer (which is what a visitor is). Will it have a positive or negative impact and does it enhance or detract from your message?

Summary: The point of this rule is to take the visitor experience very seriously. This is where the rubber meets the road. Make things that you want viewed easy to access. When a site is cumbersome to use people will stop using it, they will become blind to your existence.

Wrap-up

Follow these rules to achieve higher levels of success and create your own personal set of rules to socialize by. Social media is a two way street and the oncoming traffic will either help you or kill you – the choice is yours.

This post written from Starbucks in Newark Liberty International Airport, Terminal C.

Marketing has changed dramatically in the past few years. Social networking and social media continues to stir traditional marketers into frenzy.  Conventional marketers such as ad agencies have barely come to grips with the proper usage of the Internet as a sales and marketing vehicle. They continue to disregard cornerstones of successful website design such as usability, load times, strategic content development and search engine friendliness. Instead these traditional marketers tout the benefits of creativity and unique design elements that go against the grain. Creativity ends up blocking communication and no one but the agency benefits.  The proper usage of the web continues to elude a lot of marketers but they seem to be slowly coming around as businesses become better educated on what works and what does not. 

Now throw social media into the mix. BLOGs, viral video, Podcasting and social networking sites such as MySpace, LinkedIn, Facebook etc. Most agencies I come in contact with have no idea how to deal with this ever changing medium. Businesses for the most part have no idea what to do in this space and more often than not dismiss the notion altogether citing reasons such as. “Only kids are doing this stuff” or, “We don’t have the time for that”. 

The fact of the matter is your average business owner is a wimp, afraid of spending money and failing or afraid to admit that they just don’t understand it enough to make a go of it. They don’t know where to turn since their traditional marketing channels are as bewildered as they are so they do nothing and hope for the best. 

Hope is not a strategy - Get over it! In the fledgling days of the commercial Internet there were many businesses that simply dismissed the internet as kids stuff or a fad. The ones that looked beyond conventional wisdom and took a chance online are reaping the rewards and the naysayers are licking their wounds and try to play catch up. 

As the title of this article states, “it’s hard out here for a wimp”, business is not for the faint-hearted, it’s tough and marketing is risky, but how is this different from any other time in history? Business has always been complex and marketing has always been a gamble. You cannot dismiss new ways to connect with customers as fads or simply ignore them and pray your business will flourish as it has in the past. The greatest business leaders of our time did not achieve greatness because they were timid. Good businesses do not become great businesses with a play it safe strategy. 

You think social media is going to go away? For the sake of argument, let’s say you’re right. Sites like Second Life or MySpace will eventually fade away. The fact still remains, they exist now and so does the opportunity. One of the foundations of marketing is identifying opportunity and exploiting that opportunity until it no longer has value. When it stops working – move on. So who cares where these sites will be in six months or a year? They are here now and represent an opportunity. 

You simply cannot keep doing the same things over and over again and expect to thrive. In order to grow you must keep moving forward. Don’t have time to BLOG, find the time. Don’t have the time to create a social media strategy, hire someone to do it for you. Contrary to popular belief it does not take that much time to get out there and make connections with your customers. A few hours a week is all you need to get started. 

Yes some people do get carried away and spend far too much time seeking out online friends and get completely wrapped up in the social aspects of this type of Internet marketing. I won’t deny that you can go overboard to the point where you are wasting so much time with social networking that it becomes counter productive. That’s why you never venture into any type of marketing without planning. It’s critical that you create a strategy for this type of marketing. Outline a detailed blueprint of where you want to be, how to properly use the tools and how much time can be allocated to these efforts. 

Your customers are out there connecting with new and exciting medium and you need to be there too because, you can be sure your competition is. 

You don’t have the time – make the time – before all you have it time (think about it). 

This post written from Starbucks in Glen Rock, NJ

There are two types of people in this world, those that Blog and those that do not.  It took me 38 years to narrow the world’s population down to two groups but I finally did it. Life should be much easier for all of us from here on in.

The business Blogger typically Blogging to market a company, service or product. Business leaders, marketers, authors and wannabes, all marketing while sharing expertise on a given subject to gain exposure. The business Blogger adds their own flavor to a topic in an attempt to connect with their potential customers and readers. Freely giving knowledge in exchange for that elusive subscriber and illustrious comment. Garnering real unfettered feedback that has never been so readily available in the past.

Blogs are a must have tool for today’s business. In our web 2.0 world of social media and user generated content, companies are striving to become transparent and trusted. Blog’s are a crucial first step on the road to corporate transparency. Sharing expertise can often reaffirm expertise in a noisy landscape overflowing with self proclaimed gurus. Giving away a little wisdom can provide benefits that far exceed the tightlipped status quo of yesterday.

The personal Blogger creates daily diaries of minutia about everyday life. They document the world through their eyes writing feverishly as they record the events happening around them. Connecting with friends and those of similar ilk. the personal Blogger is also trying to earn that elusive subscriber and the coveted comment.  The personal Blogger shares thoughts and perspective with the rest of the Blogosphere by creating off the cuff conversations for all to partake in.

Two distinct motivations, some for love, some for money, most for a little of both. Equally hoping to achieve the same result.

What about the do not’s? Do they get it? Do they understand the complexities, motivations and the stress of creating post after post after post? Can they even begin to empathize with the tortured soul behind the keyboard of mediocrity desperately trying to connect with the connected?

Apparently not.

A good friend, an internationally acclaimed marketing author, a gifted writer and world class story teller, the man who would be king (of the Bloggers) recently made me rethink my “Blogging is something everyone should do” posture. I led him by the hand, guided him directly to the promise land and helped him create what was destined to be greatest Blog writing of all time! After about two weeks and one post I was sent an email and for the first time in my life – I was speechless.

“My suspicions about Blogs seem confirmed. 18 days: zero comments. Not even an email, a phone call, a driver passing me at a crosswalk, rolling down his window, and shouting “hey Buddy, see you’ve got a Blog!”

In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream.  Or Blog, either.

Blogs seems like vehicles that let people ruminate and free associate, not unlike those students in “creative” writing classes who are encouraged just to “express themselves,” as if the inchoate expression of their feelings almost certainly contains some key truths–a provably ridiculous assumption, and an example of “promoting self esteem” gone mad.   

Free association–”Here’s some shit I’m thinkin’ about, in the way I’m thinkin’ ’bout it”–worked to some degree for James Joyce, but Ulysses got a free pass from readers–most of them confused by the words most of the time–because it was “literature” and Joyce was a genius– the kind of event that prompted the author of the Emperor Has No Clothes to point out that quite often, kings are naked.

Everything outside of literature is journalism, and the responsibility and necessity for a journalist is above all: be clear.  Bloggers don’t seem to feel that responsibility; they instead seem to share the conceit that their innermost thoughts are not simply interesting, but intoxicating, to others.  

Well, sorry: no.  BLOG:  Big Lumps of Garbage.
Some others, perhaps.  But not me.  I’ve never read anything in a Blog that would merit a few column inches of type and the cost of the newsprint.

I suspect it would be the same if I posted a reasonably insightful piece about the marketing implications of the Anna Nicole Smith case, Brittany Spears’s meltdown, or the marketing of this weekend’s Academy Awards.  No one would listen or comment, not least of all because they’ve learned what I have: BLOGs are bogs–thickets of mud.
Dopes have Blogs.  Schmoes have Blogs.  Anyone has a Blog.  Why in heavens’ name should I?”

You were the choosen one!
You were suppose to bring order to the force not leave it in ruin!

I was disappointed but at the same time enlightened. I saw the passing of the old regime. A gifted author - a marketing genius -  a man who is ready to pass the torch to a new breed of guru. A new expert, an expert for today’s connected masses.

Blogging is critical in our world, there can be no argument. The sharing of insight and experience is the way of our connected world. Blogs are agreeably not literature but more so a means of connected communication representative of the timeliness and participatory nature of a new and exciting connected culture.

Those that Blog will, and those that do not will fade away, having done their part to get us to the world we now occupy. They have passed the torch and I – (ehem!) I mean, we, gladly accept it.

Ironically his email to me would have made a fantastic Blog post.