Marketing in it’s purest form is not about selling, it is simply a form of communication and as such is a neutral concept that can be used for good or for evil.

I’ve had newsletter subscribers tell me that even though they are not in business or marketing, they read my newsletters cover to cover and always find something that helps them. From the librarian who wants kids to know about the many fun, educational programs they can become involved in, to the kindergarten teacher who needs parents on board with her classroom policies, they find ideas on improving communication and getting better buy-in whatever their valuable, beneficial message.

Have you used a “marketing” tool or idea in a non-marketing context? I’d love to know about your experience. Leave a comment.

Courtesy of Kenneth Cole’s Twitter moderator and the ever-vigilant FAIL blog, here’s a social media insensitivity debacle:

No sir, I can’t imagine that.

Caught this in downtown Vancouver. OK, maybe I’m the only one who thinks it’s hilarious.

This was in response to Vancouver Sun Managing Editor Kirk LaPointe’s remark that bloggers, Tweeps and Facebookers seemed to be missing niche opportunities. He pointed to the lack of resources “traditional” media outlets were throwing at the Vancouver Paralympic games, seeming to suggest that bloggers ought to fill the vacuum. A participant from the audience suggested another example, where coverage of the Olympics protests petered out significantly after the first day.

With all due respect to LaPointe and the lady from the audience, I think their critique misses the point. It’s true that some social media creators, a very slim minority, do develop entirely original investigative pieces that are on par with reporting by paid journalists. But the vast majority of social media content developers prefer to piggy-back on the efforts of traditional media, focusing on offering alternative opinion rather than alternative raw data. Individually and collectively, social media makers largely don’t have the resources to do anything else.

Sure, we create all kinds of original content, from photos and videos to really thought-provoking essay-type blog posts. But as a rule, we don’t pick our themes from whatever the newsmakers have deemed unworthy of their attention — at least, not if we want people to actually see what we’re creating.

Why didn’t more bloggers cover the rest of the Olympics protests? I suspect it was because most realized that the real story was the hundreds of thousands of happy patriots gathered in our public spaces and an outpouring of positive feeling — not a few hundred increasingly fractured and inarticulate protesters accompanied by masked thugs intent on useless violence.

Why aren’t more bloggers covering the Paralympic Games (NOTE: the lack of coverage is only relative to the Olympic Games that preceded it. Bloggers, like regular media, are covering these Games)? The stories of courage and overcoming adversity are there to be recorded in spades, perhaps even more than with our Olympic athletes. In their absence, sponsors, reporters, bloggers and the general public have once more indicated something a little bit ugly about our society. Perhaps that is the real story here.

The bottom line is that when traditional media does its job well of investigating and providing the raw stories, social media makers can then do their job of being the gateways to that content through hyperlinks and also providing alternative opinions. There are benefits going both ways.

It’s happening at 7 pm on Thursday, March 18 at the BOB Coworking Space in Vancouver’s Gastown District, 163 E. Pender Street.

Register for the event at http://smcyvrolympiclessons.eventbrite.com

See more information about this event below.

VANCOUVER OLYMPICS DEMONSTRATE BOTH GOOD AND BAD IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Local leaders in traditional and social media gather to discuss impact of social media on the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

VANCOUVER, BC – In the afterglow of the 2010 Vancouver Games, top BC media leaders will come together on March 18, 2010 to discuss the positive and negative impacts of both social and traditional media on the Games. The panel discussion will be held from 7-9pm at the BOB Coworking Space in Vancouver’s Gastown District, 163 E. Pender Street.

For more information about Social Media Club Vancouver, please contact Guacira Naves at g@onlinestrategy.ca, or visit http://smcyvr.com.

The basic philosophy applies very well to written content as well. Less is more. Get to the point in the first line because if you don’t grab your audience’s attention instantly, they’re clicking on to the next website.

I heard a number of excellent elevator pitches this morning while attending a High Output Business Networking session at Buzz Coffee in downtown Vancouver early this morning. But the best one was delivered by Craig, the founder of Under the Piano, as he introduced himself to the group of business owners and professionals. Going from memory, I believe it went like this:

Hello, I’m Craig and my company is Under the Piano. I provide a unique form of relaxation… I play a grand piano and my customers lie under it while the music is playing for about 45 minutes. They feel the vibrations of the music go through their bodies as they listen to a unique composition that I’ve created just for them. It’s very relaxing. Most of my clients lately are couples and as you know, the spring wedding season is coming up soon, so if you or friends would like to experience something very unique, I recommend that you call me at Under the Piano to schedule a session.

Just as Craig finished, a colleague stood up and delivered a fantastic testimonial for his service, emphasizing that it was an unforgettable, romantic and positive experience. I could tell from the reaction of the other attendees that Craig was going to get a lot of direct and referral business from this one event.

It wasn’t just Craig’s fine delivery or the testimonial that made the attendees lap up his presentation. The words themselves were important. They could translate with very little adaptation onto a web page.

You’ve got a concise description of what Under the Piano does: “I play a grand piano and my customers lie under it while the music is playing for about 45 minutes.”

The value proposition: “They feel the vibrations of the music go through their bodies as they listen to a unique composition that I’ve created just for them. It’s very relaxing.”

A definition of the target market: “Most of my clients lately are couples and as you know, the spring wedding season is coming up soon…”

The call to action: “If you or friends would like to experience something very unique, I recommend that you call me at Under the Piano to schedule a session.”

Brilliant. My hat’s off to Craig.

Craig had to leave before I got a chance to meet him, but I did get to talk with many excellent entrepreneurs who offer a wide range of services. Hat tip to the following local business owners and experts:

* Bonnie Sainsbury, Duet Media. Bonnie brings creativity, new imaginative concepts and the most effective best practices in the social media world right to your door.

* Des Dougan, Dougan Consulting Group Inc. An affordable solution for planning, supporting and implementing information technology to meet your business needs.

* Jamie Graham, Vertical Grain Design. Vancouver-based web design and programming.

* Jen DeTracey, Lift Strategies. Assisting organizations in becoming more distinctive and more profitable through strategic marketing.

* Julien Fontbonne, Virtually Canadian. Providing guaranteed search engine results or your money back.

* Kerry Plowman, WestCoast Internet Marketing. Build your future with lead generation strategies.

* Lara Hildebrandt, Quadrus. Lara works with individuals and businesses to build the financial security plan that best fits their needs.

* Michael Koro, Financial Design Group. Insurance and investment planning.

Business Networking Done Right?

So if you’ve ever wanted a bit of insight into what exactly we do around here at WRITEIMAGE (and why our clients seem to like having us around), here are the first two case studies, hot off the presses:

* website content copywriting
* newsletter writing

I suddenly hear a faint murmur from that shy person sitting in the corner at the back of the room with their hand half-way up: “What is a case study, exactly?”

I’m so glad you asked, sir (and you can put your hand back down). There are many kinds of case studies. But the ones we like to write for our clients are one-page descriptions of projects, events and campaigns that were completed in a successful fashion. One format we like to use goes a little like this:

1. Describe the organization involved. Throw in some important details about what makes this organization totally awesome.
2. Explain the challenge this organization faced. Why was it such a challenge in the first place? Why did it need to be solved right away?
3. Describe the solution. You don’t need to give away anyone’s secret sauce. Still, you ought to be able to show how this solution worked a lot better than, say, waiting for the X-Men to drop by and save the day.

Slap that page down on an organization’s website and presto-change-o, you’ve got marketing collateral that explains precisely what kind of value you can provide to your customers, fundraising donors, supporters or Internet stalkers.

That’s pretty much it. We’re not really giving away any information here that isn’t already public knowledge. And if any company out there wants to use this format to write their own case studies, they’re welcome to it.

But we’re betting that if they instead call us and get us to write case studies for them, we can write them better, quicker, and (compared with the cost of devoting hours of an in-house non-specialist to the task) a fair bit cheaper.

This isn’t just for Vancouver or Canadian businesses, either. You need to get in on this, wherever you are.

* Content is king. Keep your articles and descriptions relevant and interesting. Cool flash graphics and streaming video are no substitute for bad text.

* Be authentic. If you’re going to use social networking platforms to reach a wider audience, you’re going to have to actually be social. Have real conversations.

Panel organizer Liz Gaige of Market Navigators also had some excellent points about ensuring you have clear goals about your marketing campaign. Given the nature of the seminar, it made sense for us to talk about social networking and SEO, though Liz was quite correct to point out that more traditional marketing methods such as print advertising placements, direct mail marketing and other tactics also still have a place in any marketing toolkit.

One topic I also pursued was the ease of syndication of content. I’m a big believer in the ability of social networks to extend the reach of messaging. Blog posts become RSS-fed tweets, which become Facebook fan-page status updates, LinkedIn updates, and more. With a few quick emails or phone-conversations, or just by filling a form, you can make arrangements to get your content streamed to high-profile websites and media sites. Sure, Google will downgrade duplicate content, so you’ll need to tweak your headlines and your lead paragraphs a bit to prevent that from happening.

Finally, I also stressed the importance of building links back to your site and making sure those links go back to the right page. Remember, your social networks are just hooks to bring eyeballs back to your anchor website where you can change minds, evangelize and most likely, try to sell stuff. When you run campaigns, you may want to link back to custom-designed landing pages rather than a home page or other section. This makes it easier to track metrics in Google Analytics (or whatever else you’re using to track hits).

I’m looking forward to presenting alongside these very talented women again sometime. If you were present at the event or have any other questions (or comments) about driving traffic to your online store, go ahead and leave a comment. Cheers.

Hope to see you there! Event synopsis and details below:

It isn’t enough to just launch your online store. Customers need to be able to find you in order to buy, buy, buy. Learn how to drive traffic to your site at November’s Ask the Experts Panel discussion. Industry experts will be on hand to answer all your questions at this fun, casual, interactive session. Get use-it-today information on attracting ready-to-purchase customers using traditional marketing, online options, and social media.

To register, go to Market Navigators’ Driving Traffic to Your Online Store