Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blogging, conversation, Dale Carnegie, IMC, Jeff James, marketing, Mythology, prezi, social networking, twitter, WVU
I attended the IMC Weekend Dinner on May 29th, and sadly my life has been very busy, so I have needed a little more time to get some notes down. Sorry! If you missed the dinner, it was fun and I felt the Keynote Speaker, Jeff James, was entertaining and his address was very relevant to what we are learning in class. Jeff James is a native West Virginian who founded Mythology, a company which focuses on market management and growth. He feels that in order for marketing to be effective and successful it has to “craft a compelling narrative” and that 95% of organizations of all sizes are “struggling on how to have a conversation” with their customers and clients, (James, 2009).
Here are some other highlights (some stated and some thoughts I took away):
1. He discussed that in the process of writing his speech, he consulted others in the field via Twitter. He asked these professionals about what he should speak on. He then created a PowerPoint presentation to emphasize his points, but somehow this was lost when he delivered to the IT people. However that wasn’t as important as the running joke of the lost slides and that a colleague told him that PowerPoint was yesterday’s news and that he should have done the presentation in Prezi, a new type of interactive presentation creator. For more info, go to , and if you click on ‘Learn Prezi in 4 minutes,’ you can actually play around while you watch the video. Very cool!
2. James also discussed a book, Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Li and Bernoff. In this book, the authors discuss the many roles of persons involved in marketing culture; (creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators and inactives) and the parts they play. Creators contribute, critics are evaluators and reviewers and collectors find and link things so they can be followed. This could be considered a ‘technographic ladder’ and James offered this question: “How do you empower people at all levels?” This is what many companies are trying to answer.
3. A discussion on news and its accessibility offered this thought from an associate at the Charleston Gazette: “social networking accelerates the news cycle.” This is because writing an article for print is time consuming and a tweet is immediate. Tweeting about your upcoming article allows others to be part of the creative process and creates demand for the article before it is completed or printed. This is preferable to the scenario of working on a great article and having no one read it because it’s buried on Page 9, Section B.
4. Twitter allows an organization to see the Everyman Point of View. It is the opportunity to get honest, real time feedback…whether you want it or not. However, it cannot be implicitly trusted. Just because anyone can post ‘news’ does not make it newsworthy. In a sense, social media can create a false reality. Just as the internet can be used to find up-to-the-minute news, it can also be a way for anyone to broadcast their views. These views can be illegal, immoral, slanderous, degrading, and hateful. We have become so dependent on this source for news that we may trust its content without thorough evaluation. The old adage was “let the buyer beware.” Now it seems more fitting to “let the searcher beware.” You can find any number of sources on the web to solidify your story so it is concrete and seems like immutable truth. Watch where you find your validity!
In the last several minutes of the address, James commented on Dale Carnegie’s book from 1936, ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’ And he mentioned several ideas that translate well into marketing any organization today.
Retrieved June 4, 2009 from http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B001MBV64U/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
• Become genuinely interested in others-get to know your clients, and their customers. Nothing is as effective as doing your homework and finding out what theur needs are so you can ascertain how to fill them.
• Smile-the electronic version of this may be color, space, ease of reading and navigating (through a site), interactivity and fun, pleasant images, etc. The design of your site or other marketing materials are how you ‘smile’ at those who view it.
• Remember that a person’s name is the sweetest sound in any language-Don’t forget who you are talking to. Even though he or she may be different than you, don’t forget who the most important element is to your business’ success.
• Be a good listener-when you ask someone their needs, be sincere and listen to them. If you are asking the right questions and keeping an open mind then they will tell you what they want or need of you.
• If you’re wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically-Don’t wait to get ‘called out’ or caught in a bad situation. You are accountable for your actions and inevitably someone will find you out. Today, not only will one person find you out but they will broadcast your ill-judgment for the entire internet-connected world to see…on every possible portal…in every language.
• Let the other person believe it’s their idea-You can plant the seed and water it, but you can’t tell it to grow. If you want to reach agreement, then give people all the information they need to believe they should do what you want, whether that’s buying your product or quitting smoking or whatever you are marketing to them.
• Throw down a challenge-if you ask people to step up and you do it in such a way that they want to step up to meet it, they will.
A few final quotes from Jeff James that may keep you thinking:
“Individuals have the power, not institutions.”
“Social Media is the product development process.”
“Visibility is accountability.”
References:
James, J. (2009). “Keynote Address.” Observed May 29, 2009 at Milan Pushkar Stadium, Morgantown, WV.
Prezi. (2009). “Learn.” Retrieved June 7, 2009 from http://prezi.com/learn.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: facebook, Food, Food Service, IMC, Media, myspace, WVU
Hi, my name is Rachel, but I go by Christie to most everyone. I am originally from Wetzel County, WV then moved to Clarksburg, Fairmont and Morgantown and have lived in Pittsburgh for the last 8 years. I graduated from Liberty High School in Clarksburg, WV, then went to Fairmont State College and received a BA in Theater/Speech Communications. I came to Pittsburgh because of a work transfer (I used to be a restaurant manager) and then worked in sales for 6 years. I recently left the corporate work force through a series of odd circumstances, (i.e. I was downsized) and now work fulltime as a bartender at an upscale wine bistro, Sonoma Grille in Downtown Pittsburgh.
I have two cats, Scooby & Jenna. I adopted them in December and they were ‘hard to place’ because they came as a pair; Scooby has a hole in his face due to being shocked by biting through a wire as a kitten, and is also missing half his tongue. Jenna is his adopted sister, and groomed him as a kitten when they were placed in the shelter together. Jenna had a digestive issue, finicky tummy, and had to have special food. Being a sucker for a good story, I adopted them and have since weaned Jenna off the expensive prescription food (at the advice of the vet) and everyone is happy and healthy!
As far as emerging media is concerned, I have been living under a rock. I do not have a Facebook or MySpace page, I don’t Tweet and I don’t have my own website. I started a blog once, but I obviously didn’t know what I was doing as no one could post comments on it; my friends tried and it didn’t work. I just don’t know how people have the time to do things like this…I don’t work in an office currently. When I did, I was a great multi-tasker and was able to do research for school in the background on the computer while I was working. Currently I tend bar, and so there is no multi-tasking, except to check on this table’s order, while I make this table a pomegranate cosmo, a mojito and 4 glasses of wine, answer the phone, ring in a room service order and check the score of the hockey game for the guy at the table who cannot see the score for himself. Whew…now do that for 10 hours and tell me how ‘socially networked’ you feel!
Any suggestions from anyone out there on how to make things work on this site is very much appreciated.
