Digital Marketing, Media, PR Analysis And Insight – The Future Buzz

Continuing my series on conquering common digital marketing strategy development problems, today we tackle problem number two:

Last Monday I shared 12 common problems associated with digital marketing strategy development. Since I’m not one to talk problems and not offer solutions, over the next few weeks I will address these problems one by one.

Marketing looks very different now than it did as few as five years ago. And yet most still approach developing strategies from the viewpoints they always knew. They develop for push, when in reality pull strategies are more effective and even scalable.

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.

As someone who helped replace my position as digital strategist at Pierson Grant (my previous employer) I have been through the process of successfully finding/recommending digital marketing talent (congrats again Michael, I hear you’re doing a great job).

In 2008, I wrote the fact that paid blogging is a lose-lose situation. I stick with everything written in that post. Upon noticing a slew of new services – including those which allow companies to pay for Tweets (it’s laughable in-and-of itself that anyone is gullible enough to pay for that) I’ve been reflecting further on the idea of sponsored conversations.

If you read no further in this post, just consider this point: you can’t commoditize something as organic as a conversation. The second you do, the people having those conversations cease to be people and transform into shills. You might trick some users but it’s not authentic and there is zero trust involved. It’s manipulation, not conversation.

While the business digital divide – at least in the marketing and media industries – feels to be closing, there’s another rift less discussed: a divide between those with digital influence/share of voice and those without. And it’s a rift that grows wider daily.

Many businesses and individuals who embraced content marketing years ago are seeing strong returns and are way ahead of those starting today. I started pondering why this is and jotted down the following list: