Don't be a Clutter Generator LEMMING! But you are!

Clutter! You cause it. You are part of it. Don't be a Clutter Creating LEMMING. You do your clients zero good. Be unique. Be special. Be powerful. But don't be a Clutter-Nut!

On the Sky Pulse Media website we ridicule the LEMMINGS! But YOU ARE A LEMMING! Trust me you are. Look in the mirror!

Get a Sharpie and write LEMMING on your forehead. 

It's OK. It will remind you of who you are. It sickens me to see the Big Name Marketer Names telling Brands to all do the same things. When really they are giving ZERO advantage to the Reader or Client or Brand. This goes for Traditional Marketing, Digital Marketing, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing.

I want to use this as my reference point. After 14 years of having a personal hotmail account it got corrupted. So I decided to create a Gmail account which now is over a year old. I was so excited to start fresh. But as is normal I started subscribing for emails from all sorts of places. From Entertainment, Music, News, Politics, Retail, Travel. When I log in to Gmail this is what I see. The check marks are what is being deleted unopened.

So think of this. What if every Brand that has a Fan Page sent you 1 update a day to your Facebook Feed. Or 1 Tweet into your Twitter Feed. Or 1 alert to your Mobile Device. Or 1 email to your Email Account.

That is what is happening. That is why the Big Name Marketers are lying to you. It benefits the Gurus who give talks and sell books that you are a LEMMING. It benefits the Social Networks. It benefits LEMMING News sites like Mashable. That is the big scam! It does not benefit you. Whether it's LBS, SMS, Social, Digital it's all Clutter! And adding more to the Clutter will not get you seen. It is why people only engage with 4.6 Brands via Social. They run from Clutter yet Advertising thrives on Clutter because more Advertising means more Billings! And it is why the Industry seriously STEALS money from clients through lies and deceit. It's why Brands with 5 million Fans on Facebook get only 500 responses.

My advice to you. Be different. Be creative. Opt In RULES! Its not the Message. It's not the Ad. It's getting it seen that makes you relative. Figure out how to separate yourself from everyone else. Trust me standing on a corner in NYC with a Sandwich board during rush our will earn you more impressions than posting to your Fan Page with 5 million Fans.

My next post will highlight a few unique campaign strategies that worked from being creative.

The Gini Dietrich Movie

If you did not know I am just fascinated with www.xtranormal.com

Awhile ago I did movies of the Adverve Podcast and Quick-n-Dirty Podcasts (Links to your left), which are two of my favorites. Recently I connected with Gini Dietrich who is the CEO of Arment Dietrich in Chicago and also the main contributor to their blog Spin Sucks (which is also linked to the left). Not only is Gini a prolific weekly Video Blogger which this movie is about, she is also very funny! I recommend you follow her and read Spin Sucks. I always embrace people who didn't drink the Social Media Koolaid, is a straight shooter, and knows reality vs the hype out there in the Advertising/Marketing/Media industry (see my list to the left!). Plus I am getting a ton of Livefyre points from stalking the Spin Sucks blog, and great people tend to lurk there.

Without further a do......drum roll please...The Gini Dietrich Movie:

The Alien's Take on Social Influence

 

Recently I have seen a lot of blogs being written on Social Influence. This has me thinking about the meaning of Social Influence. What is it you are influencing? Just something being passed on?

Recently Tom Moradpour had a nice blog post about Social Influence. He wishes there were standards so we can all agree on what it is, then we can find it's actual value. I agree we need standards 100%. I also agree Klout has done the best to create a Brand. Even more impressive they respond on Twitter. I had the CEO and Founder respond to me on Friday over some tweets!

Tom's Post

Klout has improved  significantly now that the scores update on their own. In the past unless someone manually refreshed it was stale and old.

My specific issue with Influence Analysis is context and important information is not included.  Who is this person in real life? Are they someone who gets photographed and put in People Magazine thus causing products to be sold? Are you someone who moves sales needles just by people you call on the phone or places you hang out at? What if I am not on Twitter or Facebook and I have 3 close friends who tweet stuff I email them and it travels. What if I see something on Twitter and then call my friend who is the head buyer for Macy's and that call just got a huge order placed to a small fashion house? How can you determine where the influences came from in these scenarios? Is it just about pushing info that get's re-pushed?

What about the content? Great content get's moved on it's own. It has nothing to do with a person's influence it has to do with the content's influence. If I am a source of great content, and I don't share poor content what does that mean? It means you have to get me to see great content to have it passed on. 

And what about the goals of the influence? Is it page views so you can increase advertising revenues? Is it sales in retail stores? Is it people coming to your restaurant? Is it exposure for your art or writing? None of this gets captured in influence scores. How can you connect these things, especially with anything that happens offline. How can you know the kind of Influencer I am?

And what about the fact that most of our lives take place off line even if we are online so much. We have no solid way to measure off line Word of Mouth, Phone Call Influence, In Person Influence, the Influence from seeing Billboards/Print Ads/TV Ads/People on the Street, or even the influence of the Sales guy or the Special Deal at the store. And to really get Social Media Influence we have to tie this stuff in!

I know you think 'Well this is only online influence we care about.' Yes and No. All depends on your goal. I have mentioned before how much Ad Spend goes up in smoke at point of purchase. Social Influence does as well! Passing of Information is one thing, Action is another. Does it matter that my Chic Restaurant used Social to expose my place to 3 million people via Social for Free if no one shows up at my Restaurant? Or that 3 million get shown a teaser of my new book resulting in zero sales?

This is very complex stuff. My point is online Social Influence to me is a small piece to a bigger puzzle. It can mean way too many things. Every person or company hoping to push something via Social has completely different Goals and a Klout Score won't solve this. I still think Great Content, Great Product/Service, Great Customer Service, Great Price Point still trumps everything.