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This picture took 34 months to make.  It’s not a serious of pictures though.  It’s one picture.  You’re actually seeing the destruction and construction of a building as taken by Michael Wesely in 2001.  A snapshot is forgettable.  An image taken over three years is memorable and remarkable.  So here’s the question, “Is your marketing plan forgettable or remarkable?”

Old Spice had a marketing campaign a few weeks ago and the critics are already saying that it wasn’t a success because Old Spice hasn’t seen an immediate jump in sales.  Were they really expecting people to run to the drug store and buy Old Spice?  I think they’re trying to build something remarkable and they’re off to a great start (see the videos here).  Instead of looking at your social media plan or your web traffic as a 3 month or one year campaign why not look at it from a different perspective.  Will is be perceived as remarkable?

Remarkable is hard work and most people actually think social media marketing is less work than traditional marketing.  In fact social media marketing is more difficult because it requires transparency in a way that traditional ads do not.  No one ever expected the Ronald McDonald to create personal videos for kids and post them on the internet.  It’s easier to just create a packaged message and let it run.  Old Spice created something remarkable b/c they took part in conversations with real people. Read the rest… »

This week I sat down to talk about my journey with my good friend Kevin Miller, founder of the Free Agent Academy. It’s not every day that someone asks me to talk about how I’ve found success advising companies on how to use social media to grow their customer base and deliver better service.  It was perhaps my favorite interview of all time and at the same time a very humbling experience.  In the first 60 seconds of the interview I tell Kevin what percentage of my success I am responsible for.  Hint: it’s a small percentage.



If you’d like to hear some strong opinions then hit play. If you have disagreements or questions about stuff I’ve said then this is the place to voice them (in the comments below). I welcome the opportunity. Thanks for listening.

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Right click to download Andy’s Story with Kevin Miller

He was going to pay me thousands of dollars and I was going to take it. He wanted to pay me to help him promote a legitimate product to a demographic that really did need it. There was a problem though. He bought a list of email addresses but didn’t really know who they were.

I asked him if it was a list of people that had asked to get information from him specifically. He said that they had all opted in at some point. “Opted in to what?” I thought but didn’t ask.

If there’s on thing I’ve learned from reading 4,648 Seth Godin blog posts it’s that permission based marketing is the most powerful way to gain allegiance and build a business. For more than a few thousand dollars I thought I could let it slide. It would be about Read the rest… »

They don’t ask for permission.

Last week Old Spice showed the world how to use social media. They took one character who had been featured in less than five television commercials and produced over 100 commercials/videos in one day. It worked because they used tools and sites that require permission and options.  Here are their YouTube results as of 7/19/2010

Old Spice used Twitter (which requires you get someone’s permission before you can talk to them) to start their campaign. The videos they created were in response to Twitter messages and were posted on YouTube. That means that people had the choice to watch non-Old Spice videos when they arrived at their destination.  Old Spice resisted the temptation to change the surfing habits of users.  People like sites they’re familiar with. Businesses spend thousands of dollars to build a web site that very few of their customers go to. Old Spice understands that I’m already going to YouTube today so they showed up there.

Social media begins with permission. I see television, print and radio advertising happening like this..
Read the rest… »

According to a New York Times article it seems that Neilsen figured out that we spend 22% of our internet time on social networking activities.  I think that number is going to grow substantially.

In just one year the amount of social time has almost doubled from 3.5 hours to almost six hours a month.  

The momentum of social sites is unparalleled.  How can businesses take advantage of this growth?
How can your business position itself to be part of the future of the web (which has everything to do with “social” sites)?  Here are four fundamentals to move your business forward so they can be a part of the future of the web.

1. Stake your name or someone else will

BP learned this when they didn’t take the name of BPGlobalPR on Twitter.  This is what you find now when you search for “BP Twitter” in Google. The top four links are about the fake BP Twitter account.

Stake your claim to domains too. Get the .com, .net, .org and any other identity that could help or hurt your brand.  Get the YouTube channel name, the Facebook fan page name…you get the idea.  To see if they’re available use this tool Read the rest… »