Promenade Media

“This may be the best thing on the internet ever.”

“How is anyone going to watch anything on the net again? This blows everything away.”

“Leave it to the [Grateful] Dead camp to pioneer the next stage of evolution for online music.”

These are just some examples of the raging enthusiasm that came over the social media feed alongside TRI Studios‘ debut HD webcast last night. TRI stands for Tamalpais Research Institute and is the brainchild of former Grateful Dead guitarist and vocalist, Bob Weir – now a tried and true bandleader in his own right, currently fronting Further (with former Dead bassist, Phil Lesh), Scaring the Children, and his longstanding RatDog outfit.

Rob Wasserman, Jay Lane, Bob Weir, & Steve Kimock

TRI is a state of the art audio and video recording facility and “virtual venue,” allowing artists to create in an intimate space and transmit, in real time, across the web in the highest quality audio (including 5.1 surround sound) and HD video possible. They are affiliated with the Meyer Sound Constellation Sound System, “a revolutionary acoustic modeling technology which has the ability to dramatically change the acoustical properties of the room. With the touch of a button, an artist can instantly change the sonic environment from that of a small intimate club to sounding like a theater, an arena or even a cathedral.” Studio 1 at TRI is equipped with this technology where Friday’s performance took place.

After a few months of hype and teaser videos on their website, TRI Studios officially launched Friday night with its maiden voyage, a live HD video and audio webcast of a two-set performance from Weir that pulled in a cast of famous faces from the Grateful Dead family of musicians, including Jay Lane (RatDog, Further, Scaring the Children), Rob Wasserman (RatDog, Scaring the Children), Jeff Chimenti (The Other Ones, The Dead, RatDog, Further), Robin Sylvester (RatDog), and the legendary Steve Kimock (The Other Ones, Phil Lesh & Friends, Zero). The engineer in charge of the live broadcast mix was Academy Award Nominated Dennis “Wiz” Leonard (of Marin County based Skywalker Sound), while Justin Kreutzmann (son of former Dead drummer, Bill Kreutzmann) directed the wonderfully-shot, multi-cam HD video. Also on hand were former Dead engineer John Cutler and a host of others. For more technical info, check out the TRI Studios EPK here.

Aside from the addition of brass and woodwind accompaniment (thanks to members of the Marin Symphony Orchestra), the setlist and pacing of the show wasn’t that different from what has appeared in RatDog’s vast repertoire over the past decade – a flavorful selection of Bob Weir and John Perry Barlow penned originals and a lot of Dead. It’s been a long time since Jerry Garcia’s death, so Weir has dutifully adopted dozens of Garcia and Robert Hunter songs, embracing and exhibiting their performances as if they were his own – as he so masterfully did with last night’s exquisite renditions of “Sugaree” and latter-day Dead tune, “Days Between” (a song Phil Lesh first resurrected back in the late nineties with early incarnations of Phil & Friends).

Bob Weir

The show began with a solo acoustic Weir in the main performance room (Studio 1), set up with his stool, a teleprompter (don’t leave home without it), a road case used as a kick drum (for him to keep time – Richie Havens style), and an iPad with an app to control the Constellation sound system. In between several songs, Weir would “tune the room” – adjusting the settings on the iPad to have a direct effect on the way the room sounded, how the small in-studio audience would hear, how the internet audience would hear, and how the musicians would hear each other.

“West L.A. Fadeaway” from the TRI launch (VIDEO)

“Friend of the Devil” from the TRI launch (VIDEO)

As the show went on, more musicians wandered in. Jeff Chimenti, a definitive sound staple in the Weir lexicon, seemed to make the best use of the room. Perhaps because he was playing a grand piano, a versatile instrument that’s technically in the percussion family and has the ability to both groove and emote. The solid and beefy bottom end was expertly held together by Rob Wasserman on upright bass and Jay Lane on the drum kit, with flourishes of electric bass provided by Robin Sylvester. The energy in the room was brought to high levels whenever guitarist Steve Kimock let go. As in the past, Kimock’s shredding ability and sonic wizardry brought profound joy to otherwise somber Dead classics like “Cassidy” and “Bird Song.” And of course, Weir – the star of the show and a scraggly rock God. A fearless band leader who was always more of one than Jerry ever seemed to want to be (hey, Bob always stood front and center on stage). His youthful exuberance was alive and well at age 63 while leading two separate incarnations (between both sets) of his Friday night band in and out of a segmented rendition of the Dead’s best hard rock anthem, “The Other One” (a song he wrote almost 45 years ago). All of this while keeping the “room tuned” and engaging with a huge online audience. Weir seemed the most pleased when he went to shake hands and show his gratitude to the Marin Symphony players (including tuba!); many of their parts transcribed by him and first used at last week’s First Fusion performance.

Jeff Chimenti

“There’s an immediacy about live music… and I want to bring it into people’s homes,” said Weir when fielding questions coming in via Twitter during the set break of Friday night’s performance. This hearkens back to the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound system in the mid-seventies, which was an enormous wall of speakers that they also used as a monitoring system; paving the way for groundbreaking live concert sound, decades before digital exploration and surround sound in that realm. In an exchange with TRI’s live engineer Dennis Leonard, he stressed that “the Dead were always ahead of the game on the broadcast front and simulcasted often, even back when one used equalized phone lines to get to the radio station.” He went on to say that “one of the archetypal influences for the TRI venture was the 10/31/80 closed-circuit broadcast of the closing of the Radio City Music Hall run.” So the Dead have always been at the forefront of new music technologies, not to mention the way music is distributed, consumed, and marketed. Bob Weir’s (and the Dead’s) immediacy and risks taken on stage are the top selling points for his fans, as they always have been.

Bob Weir & Steve Kimock

Last night’s performance live stream, with its pristine sound and video, also included a Twitter and Facebook feed that resided next to the display on TRI’s website. Each viewer was able to read, whether they liked it or not, reactions, retweets, and replies from ecstatic and enthusiastic fans as the show unfolded. Some might say that they were a little too enthusiastic when exclaiming “the best thing on the internet ever” or “how can people move on from this?” Maybe not. The intimacy, quality, genuine vibe, and trust could never have been this strong in a live webcast. This could very well be the future of music. This could very well have been the greatest thing on the internet ever. I even played along in one of my tweets, tweeting “It’s official. Out of the 40,000 hours I spent online so far in 2011, these past 2 w/ Bob Weir & @TRI_studios have been the most fulfilling.” It was retweeted a lot.

Robin Sylvester & Jay Lane

Special thanks goes to Dead fans, who have been Weir’s trusty marketers for over forty years. As explained in David Meerman Scott‘s and HubSpot‘s Brian Halligan‘s Marketing Lessons from the Grateful Dead: What Every Business Can Learn from the Most Iconic Band in History, “The Grateful Dead teaches us that building a community and treating customers with care and respect drives passionate loyalty.” Dead fans Friday night were personally played to as well as directly marketed to, with TRI Studios also used as a music marketing tool (Weir plans to have other artists perform there, including The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson and a possible residency by Herbie Hancock). Imagine having that trust for nearly half a century?

Josh Sternberg’s excellent piece from 2009, “What Twitter and Facebook Can Learn From Phish” describes Phish‘s relationship with its audience and their community-driven marketing tactics. A band that formed nearly twenty years after the Dead, Phish’s core values are markedly the same, but less focused on newer sound technologies and more on pushing the limits of its improvisational techniques and its relationship with its audience, both online and off.

“The Other One” from the TRI launch (VIDEO)

Grateful Dead: (clockwise from top left) Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Mickey Hart, & Jerry Garcia

The trust both the Grateful Dead and Phish organizations put into their audiences is a highly sustainable business model – and it’s easier said than done. But last night’s performance proved to be yet another successful campaign – hopefully seeding the development of more music distribution methods like it.

Mounatin Girl & Jerry Garcia in the late sixties

Tamalpais Research Institute’s TRI Studios is located in Marin County and about 5 miles from Mount Tamalpais, the highest point near San Francisco. In a touching moment during set break, Carolyn Garcia (known to most people as Mountain Girl, Jerry’s second wife) explained some of the mystical connections the mountain has to the region and its people. It was a pleasurable reassurance that Jerry’s soul was indeed in the room that night; a man who predicted that music would some day be shared through wires over long distances and a man who would have given all his music away for free (if he could).

Josh Valentine is Chief Marketing Strategist at Promenade Media and current President of the Maine Marketing Association. He loves tender Garcia tunes like “They Love Each Other,” “Bird Song,” or “Lazy River Road,” but his favorite Grateful Dead song will forever be the monstrous “The Other One.”

Continue Reading

© Bill Browning

Having numerous digital voices (or e-personas) is important when you want to be an efficient and consistent communicator.

Have you ever found yourself in the awkward position when encountering someone at a party, stop-and-chat, or some other sort of event and the other person tells you point blankly, “you never responded to my email.” We’ve all been here and hard the truth is that our excuses (if we even have one) are lame. Socially acceptable ones may include, “I was in the wilderness,” “My kid was sick,” or “My iPhone died.”

I like to think that a reasonable turnaround time for answering an email is 48 hours, unless it’s a Friday afternoon or a matter of extreme urgency. There’s also the case of being busy. Not everyone sits at a desk all day, and if they’re in meetings their phone is usually turned off or set to vibrate. And the turnaround time for a colleague sitting three cubes from you should be pretty quick since, well, they can see you.

We also have different expectations for different types of people in our lives when it comes to communicating digitally. Responding to a friend’s public post on Facebook or Twitter tweet should be crafted carefully because, unless your privacy settings are meticulously selected (most aren’t), hundreds of people can see your response. This has forced most of us to adopt different personalities (or “e-personas,” as I like to call them) – catering to each type of person we need to communicate with.

First you’ve got your real-life self. Hopefully this real-life self closely matches the e-persona you use when communicating with close friends and family (unless you’re a sociopath or asshole of some kind). This e-persona is also adaptable to elements of sarcasm and, sometimes, e-bullying. And since the people you communicate with in this e-persona should know you well, they will have no problem telling you to shut the hell up if you’ve gone too far.

Then there’s the e-persona you might use with colleagues or fair weather friends. Dialogue in emails with these folks should be carefully crafted, especially if you desire that one of those fair weather friends might some day become a close friend. This e-persona might also be used with someone you just started to date.

Lastly, there’s the agreeable, robotic, e-persona. The one you wouldn’t fill in the “To” field in your email until the body was completely spell-checked and revised for proper tone. This is the one we would use when answering an email from your boss, the CFO, or when applying for a job. I should be clear that e-personas shouldn’t be falsifications of our true selves… just different versions.

With all of this there is, again, the importance of turnaround time and the expectations that lie within. If I don’t respond to an email thread or even a direct email from a close friend, they can safely assume that I’ll address it in a text, future phone conversation, or Facebook post. But sometimes I’ll ignore an email from friend completely simply because I thought it was stupid – and I’d tell them so (“respectfully, Mike, your email was pointless and dumb” – in which Mike might respond, “I know, but that link you sent me last week was really a waste of my time.”). My mom will sometimes ignore emails I send to her, but I don’t care – she’ll just follow up with a phone call… her preferred method of communication.

The above examples are the exceptions to the rule. Ignoring emails should not be taken lightly. The 48 hour turnaround time should hold true for everyone else (colleagues, co-workers, bosses, managers, customers, fair weather friends), or else you might come across as careless, inefficient, or untrustworthy.

The same can be said for doing business. Gone are the days of annoying the hell out of customers with overly loud radio commercials and TV ads. And gone are the days of really reeling in some new business with a full size newspaper ad. Even though we might have success with social media and other web marketing efforts, email is still an acceptable tool for engaging with customers, finding out their needs, and promoting the goodness of your products and services. Speaking as customer, if I email a business (or even reach out to one on Twitter or Facebook) to find out about a product or service and they don’t get back to me for a month – well, then, they pretty much suck.

I was born with a hearing impairment that created social, learning, and vocabularic deficiencies. I connected with the language of music and film almost immediately, as they made up for any losses attributed to the fact that I was the “shy kid who can’t hear very well.” I entered college in 1993, just as email had gone mainstream – this was a boon for my growth as a communicator. Yet still there was the struggle of finding a voice. Eventually as a married adult I became a confident person who knows where he fits in and what he wants. Did digital communication help with that? Tremendously.

You can still ignore emails from your friends – just make sure there’s that understanding of “I’ll touch base with you later” in place. It can even make you a more efficient person, leaving more time to respond to emails that hold up to someone’s expectations of you as a colleague, co-worker, employee, or person who he/she might want to marry some day. If you’re a business owner, then email is still a viable tool to use when responding to customers in a very timely manner.

Josh Valentine is Chief Marketing Strategist at Promenade Media and current President of the Maine Marketing Association. He usually responds to emails in a timely manner unless, of course, it’s crap.

Continue Reading

Listen to the full interview HERE.

The summer of 2010 saw Tears For Fears return to the road and, for the first time in years, schedule a string of dates in the eastern United States. Being a Maine resident (and a longtime fan), I thought the New Hampshire gig would be a perfect opportunity to not only soak in a performance by one of my favorite bands, but to also do an in-person interview with its very accessible co-founder and bassist, Curt Smith.

I did get to meet Curt in person, but that was after he granted me a phone interview from his home in California about a week before the start of the tour (the band had to rush to New York straight after the New Hampshire show). I wanted to follow up with him in person on something he said that stuck with me during our phone conversation: the idea that the “traditional” rock star was on the verge of extinction. As more and more young musicians take on DIY practices of promoting themselves and their music without the shackles of a record company, they also engage more with their fans – breaking down the barrier that once was. Curt is doing this with social media – and he enjoys being a “regular guy.”

Curt’s excellent interview on Mashable earlier this year left me wanting a little more. I wanted to dig deeper about his thoughts on the power of music promotion through social media, fan database generation (as in, collecting data from his fans), file sharing, mp3s, Creative Commons, his solo career and side projects, and of course, Tears For Fears. We spoke often about the so-called “death” of the music industry, which Curt is amused by, but also sympathetic for those losing their jobs who did predict doom while top executives did nothing about it (see: not immediately embracing digital music distribution ten years ago).

Curt Smith is co-founder of Tears For Fears, an active and independent solo artist, and host of Stripped Down Live with Curt Smith. Follow him on Twitter, Like him on Facebook, subscribe to him on YouTube, and visit his website. Also check out a new Tears For Fears fan site while you’re at it: tearsforfears.net.

Listen to the full hour-long interview (in four parts) below, from the Promenade Media YouTube channel:

Josh Valentine is Chief Marketing Strategist at Promenade Media and current President of the Maine Marketing Association. His favorite Tears For Fears song is still the relatively unknown “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”

Continue Reading

Not too long ago I posted a link to my Facebook profile directing to an article entitled “Telecommuting Two Days a Week Could Save Billions,” from Earth911.com. As you could imagine, the piece goes through the multitude of cost savings involved when a company allows workers to work from home, including gas, utilities, rental space, and most importantly… time. Time to spend on getting stuff done, time to spend with family, time to spend on things that make an employee happy. So you could say telecommuting also protects a worker’s sanity.

The Facebook posting resulted in a short discussion from a few of my friends (real names replaced with fake ones to protect privacy):

Marla likes this.
Bern: I’ll go you one better – Why not just a shorter working week? Let’s all spend less time toiling, spending $, consuming, etc.
Evan: But that could also cost you billions on lost productivity!
Bern: Yes. Less product and more free time.
Woody: Let’s all try this: fourhourworkweek.com
Bern: idler.co.uk
Kelly: I’m a big proponent of the four day work week (four 10-hour days) that some gov’t agencies in Utah (and other states) have adopted. A three-day weekend = happier employees. Happier employees = better productivity. Some countries with better qualities of life have 2 months of vacation. The American employee averages two weeks a year and rarely takes those two weeks. Where did that get us?

Marla is a photographer with dogs and kids. Bern is a New Jersey lawyer, married with kids. Evan is a web developer and marketing professional in his twenties. Woody is a self-employed graphic designer with a wife and kid. Kelly is me. We’re all somewhat progressive, interested in making money, providing for our families, and concerned with atrocities that occur in society. I agree with Evan that productivity can worsen, but it really depends on the product, the industry, the company, and the worker. I wholeheartedly believe that employee morale would improve, which is a sustainable concept in its own right.

I recently worked with someone who said he “hated” the word sustainability. Granted, he said he hated lots of things, but I can understand his disdain for an overused term with an enormously broad meaning. Broad in scope, maybe, but the idea of being “sustainable” – in business, in the way we treat the environment, in the way we treat other people, in the way we treat animals – is by and large a path to the same thing… the greater good.

The Facebook post above can be attributed to social sustainability. This is the concept that future generations of people will have better access to social resources based on sustainable business practices, causes, development, investing, etc. that are occurring right now. You could say that oil exploration off the shores of North America is not sustainable – considering the ongoing studies that explain we’ll run out of oil at some point in the near future. The oil spill in the Gulf is forcing oil and equipment executives to spend all of their energies on measuring public relation metrics instead of channeling everything into actually stopping the oil from gushing into the Gulf. Imagine a world in which oil profits and CEO bonuses are reduced and part of those funds sent back into learning initiatives on alternative energies. Employees of these oil companies can then know that they are part of not only ongoing exploration of oil to feed our country’s addiction to it, but also that they are working on a path to the greater good – even if the inevitable “good” in this situation (the permanent replacement of oil with cleaner energy) happens after they die. Now that’s a sustainable existence.

Being sustainable starts with people. Labor and civil rights, employee morale, and proper education are all starting points on the road to the greater good. We are lucky to live in a time when technology can offer a more transparent glimpse into how processes work and how many humans might be disenfranchised or screwed over – especially with social media on the web and internet-aided activism. Some call it “lack of privacy,” but I think it more has to do with re-educating America. Re-educating for a sustainable future.

Josh Valentine is Chief Marketing Strategist at Promenade Media. He is also an active member of Maine Businesses for Sustainability and the Maine Animal Coalition. Josh will be the next President of the Maine Marketing Association, starting June 2010.

Continue Reading

Cousins?

KISS is brand, not a band. Sure, they’ve written some respectable anthems and metal riffs and invented the destructive rock stage production, but when you strip them down to the core – ordinary consumers really only remember the images: the logo, the products, the face paint. And like any great small business or brand, KISS had their floundering years – the “non-makeup era” from 1983-1996. You could say they sold out during those years, attempting to portray the notion that they were serious musicians – even though that’s when they made some of their best music.

KISS co-founder and Family Jewels star, Gene Simmons, was recently interviewed by a British journalist during his band’s warm-up for their 2010 European tour. Simmons has never been shy about his prime motivator (money) or strayed from embellishing his accomplishments (he “discovered” Van Halen) – it’s what a good marketer does. Currently, he’s involved in so many different business deals and partnerships, including capitalizing on KISS’ golden years, that his interviews can be used as lessons in business and marketing. While his recollections and answers are mostly repetitive (repetition = consistency), Simmons still portrays himself as the most transparent business person in Hollywood. He even once said, “I don’t even know what marketing is. Sales and marketing? What’s the difference?”

The focus of talks with Simmons these days is understandably about his reality show. But more often than not, they touch on technology, the web, communications, messaging, new methods of marketing, and how he handles them.  Here’s what we can take away from the recent interview:

1) Organization (or, set a blogging schedule)

Interviewer: So just how do you keep on top of everything with all your various projects on the boil?
Gene: I do what Santa Claus does – I make a list, I check it twice. It’s all very organized. I need to spend time with my family and keep track of my projects and it’s all written down in order. I need to remind myself that Kiss is a brand, not a band.

Blog regularly to create fresh content and increase traffic for your website (you can even hire someone to maintain your blog and provide well-written and keyword-optimized web copy). I’m not saying you should keep a paper book like Gene, but don’t slack on your web efforts. Gene’s website is a mess and he doesn’t blog (he does tweet), but he probably never misses a meeting.

2) Is your Message Important? (or, is your message worthy of the hype?)

Interviewer: Do you have a full-time secretary?
Gene: I use a traditional diary with room for notes. The [portable web] means well, but it fails in that it treats [all] information exactly the same, when it’s not. “Blow up the world” is a big thing, [but] “clip your toenails” should be in small letters because they’re not the same value.

He makes a beautiful point here in that web users regularly struggle with (albeit subconsciously) balancing the steady stream of marketing messages they’re inundated with. A big mistake in many web marketing and social media campaigns is when matters of no importance, or of little interest, are meant to hold the same weight as the big exciting stuff. Being engaging is fine, but don’t waste your customers’ time.

3) Are your Emails Bogged Down by Words? (or, do you want the recipient to die in a fiery car crash while emailing and driving?)

Interviewer: Is modern technology important to you?
Gene: When you get an email with an attachment nobody reads it – they just skim. In my business where I deal with CEOs of companies – if Donald Trump sends me an email I want to understand what it says. For important stuff you need to consider it and digest it and that means a computer screen. So I sit down three times a day at a computer to digest and understand my emails. Other than that I use my traditional diary with a pen and lists.

It’s understandable that Gene wants to focus 100% on emails with Trump, his partner in megalomania and questionable hair. He’s The Donald, for crying out loud. We now know Gene likes pens, lists, papers. Mobile computing is a no-go for him for the important things. So, as a small business beefing up its web marketing you should figure out how to leverage the technological tools currently available. Should a social media campaign focus on blog posts and engagement? Or maybe a barrage of daily tweets or Facebook posts? The number one task should be to define your target audience. Part of this process is discovering which tools they’re using. Consult with a professional, if you need to. Trump and Gene are perfect for marketing to each other – both with their delusions of grandeur (that have obviously worked out well for them).

4) Be Direct. Be Transparent. (or, consumers are on to you – so stop playing games)

Interviewer: And do you still use an old fashioned telephone plugged into the wall?
Gene: I do have a mobile phone. Very few people use it but it’s called “the money phone.” You can reach me and if you have money you call. If you don’t, and you call up and say “hi Gene” you’ll get the reply “wrong number.” I don’t chat.

Wow. Just wow. Gene just summed up the company/customer relationship that’s existed for thousands of years in three sentences. In this case, we’ll say the people who “have money” are the companies – or the producers of products – and Gene is the customer. Consumers, audiences, your target market – they now fast-forward through commercials, stopped buying magazines, and barely listen to terrestrial radio. Can you help them? Can you provide a service they need? Can you solve a problem for them? Your market is not going to sit idle to “chat,” but they don’t mind being engaged with valuable content (in Gene’s case, money is the most valuable).

I swear, a series of web marketing and social media seminars can be developed on 40 years of Gene’s musings. Many of these ideas are mostly common sense, but Gene Simmons simplifies them, breaks them down, and rids them of the bull. As Van Halen’s David Lee Roth once said, “it’s not rocket surgery.” After all, Gene discovered him.

Josh Valentine is Chief Marketing Strategist at Promenade Media. He is also the upcoming President of the Maine Marketing Association and a lifelong KISS fan. His favorite KISS album is Revenge.

Continue Reading

I once met a web professional who claimed he “hates everything about popular culture.” I thought this was an absurd thing to say, coming from someone in a creative industry that thrives on the aggregation of billions of pieces of information relating to pop culture. I’d be nothing without popular culture. Without it, Ace Frehley would never inspire me to play guitar, Bono would never inspire me to try and eliminate extreme poverty, Henry David Thoreau would never inspire me to climb mountains, Jack Kerouac would never inspire me to see the country, Gary Busey would never inspire me to be deeply fascinated by the human condition, and Arnold Schwarzenegger would never become the Governor of California.

In 1987, Schwarzenegger busted the box office with Predator, a brilliant and fanciful piece of pop culture. What transpires throughout the film can safely be regarded as an early form of social media marketing on the web (just kidding – no really, I’m not).

Arnold and his band of special forces descend into the jungle for a classified military operation. Sooner than later, they realize they’re being hunted by a powerful alien warrior beast with the power to literally assimilate with its surroundings, become invisible, and view its prey with permanent night vision.

The movie is basically a Tom and Jerry scenario where, as much as Arnold wants to engage with the creature – to find out the why, when, where, and how – he really has no choice but to kill it. He participates in the Predator’s various chases, disguises, and even injures himself in the process, but ultimately gets frustrated, exhausted – fed up. Arnold finally decides to use a shameful, but necessary, device for a veteran soldier – using himself as bait. Face to face with the monster, with a booby trap all set and ready to go, Arnold demands, “Come on. Do it. Do it! Kill me! I’m here! Come on! Do it now! Kill me!” Sucks for Arnold, because the Predator recognizes the trap and goes on his merry way – extending the cat-and-mouse… temporarily. Long story short, Arnold wins, but not without the Predator self-detonating and destroying half the jungle.

So who’s Arnold in social media marketing? That’s right – all of us: web users, product purchasers, fans, likers, followers, outspoken protesters, voters, and audiences. Of course, we don’t see our favorite companies, organizations, artists, and makers of our favorite products as “predators.” And we certainly wouldn’t lay a trap for them to fall into or want them to kill us (although some might argue against the latter… see: fast food chains). But all good marketers (and web marketers) are able to imagine themselves in those shoes. They are able to step into the lives of their customers, to engage, to participate, to listen – and to see/hear what they want.

Now, as a predator company, you no longer have the clout to intrude on our lives. Viewers fast forward through commercials, have stopped buying magazines, and no longer have time to flip through cumbersome (and inky) newspapers. They are letting you know IF they want to be contacted by sharing their interests – and themselves – through Facebook fan page comments (“I just love your new album, Justin!”); tweets (“The new [company] vegan cheese is disgusting”); or blog participation (“I hear what you’re saying, [Blu-Ray player maker], but your player still explodes after two hours and my house exploded.”).

Social media optimization (SMO) is gaining strength in a web marketer’s world. Not as a replacement for SEO (yet), but as a viable method in getting higher search rankings and more traffic to your website. You’ve got the accounts set up, the blog up and running, and the necessary tools to generate these quality leads, but you need to be active. Your customers are willing and welcoming and are ready to let you into their lives. Consistent activity, open-minded participation, and relevant and interesting content are the only ways to be successful at marketing with social media. This is the new marketing – being transparent and available. Like Arnold’s character in Predator, consumers are tired and fed up. They’re wise to the games and old ways of advertising.

It’s time to optimize your social media presence. Come on. Do it. I’m here. Do it now.

Josh Valentine is Chief Marketing Strategist at Promenade Media. He is also the upcoming President of the Maine Marketing Association.

Continue Reading