Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

Peter Kim recently shared 5 thoughts on blogging after a break from posting. I found his comments worth dissecting – let’s have a look:

1. Once momentum is lost, it’s a lot easier for the blog to remain at rest.

This is true, and is the unfortunate reality most blogs succumb to. The companies or people behind a majority of blogs never last long enough to see results (consider only .06% of blogs have a Technorati ranking of 50 or higher, as just one KPI).

You have to love the wiki definition for buzzword:

A buzzword is a term of art or technical jargon that has begun to see use in the wider society outside of its originally narrow technical context by nonspecialists who use the term vaguely or imprecisely. Labelling a term a “buzzword” often perjoratively implies that it is now used pretentiously and inappropriately by individuals with little understanding of its actual meaning who are most interested in impressing others by making their discourse sound more esoteric, obscure, and technical than it otherwise would be.

This definition perfectly describes the largest buzzword of 2009 and 2010: social media.

2009 was a big year for me personally and professionally. Just a few highlights include:

• Moving from South Florida to Minneapolis to work at TopRank Online Marketing.
• Speaking at PubCon 2009, liveblogging SES San Jose, liveblogging MIMA 2009, and participating in various other marketing industry events.
• Contributing content to A-list blogs such as Online Marketing Blog and LouisGray.com.
• Releasing a new album of original music as a free download (and being featured for it on the Creative Commons blog). Also releasing a social media mixtape.
• Lots of great conversations generated around the web.
• 2 awards won for previous campaigns.

The other week I analyzed the Business Week social media article. It rubbed me the wrong way for several reasons, however John Sviokla who writes for Harvard Business Review left a comment that well-summarized my main motivation to dissect it:

I don’t care much for birthdays. Or holidays. Or traditions. I’m one of the few people in America who doesn’t watch the superbowl. My peers probably view me as a “bad friend” in that a birthday comes and I don’t treat them any differently than I would on a normal day.

And why should I? Why should any day be treated differently than another? Instead, I hold others in high regard daily and live each moment with the same positive outlook. Instead of perpetually looking forward to occasions which have no real significance other than that assigned by society, I’m awake in each moment.

To say I’m interested in marketing blogs would be an understatement. I’m irrationally commited to the niche as both a reader to several hundred blogs and contributor to a handful.