Janet Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I met Kathleen Brush a couple of week ago, but had heard of her months before we were able to meet in person. She’s the CMO at WebTrends (a client of mine), and a marketing turnaround executive - which fascinates me as I continue to consult on marketing strategy with different kinds of organizations.

One should always look to masters of marketing for inspiration. And Kathleen is clearly a master. From her bio:

Kathleen Brush has been the senior marketing executive at several enterprise software companies including WatchGuard Technologies, Stamps.com and Websense. She has a Ph.D. in Management and International Studies, has been a professor of international marketing and is a published author on business and marketing strategy.

In our first meeting I found her to be direct, thoughtful, and a real thinker. I could see the wheels turning as we talked.

She’s sharing her knowledge in an upcoming series of three “Work Smarter” web seminars focused on helping marketing professionals improve their skills and the outcomes from their online marketing strategies.

The first free seminar, telling how to produce a 90-day, low cost, high ROI integrated online campaign, is to be held on May 15. The second seminar, on marketing skills that matter in today’s global marketplace, will be held May 29.

In addition to her web seminars, she’s written a couple of articles Want a 1200% ROI Improvement? and PSST! Your Skills Require an Upgrade, both of which appear online at Adotas. They’re delightfully ’spin free’ and content rich - exactly as I found Kathleen.

I’m signed up and ready to learn from a (fortunately local) master CMO.

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I tell people who write blogs (business blogs too) that the blog is your living room. In visiting old acquaintances in the blogosphere, I ran across Susan Getgood’s Marketing Roadmaps blog again.

Susan and I were are both speakers at early Blog Business Summit events, and I’ve been remiss about staying in touch with those from the earlier days… but I digress.

I was thrilled to find one of the best examples of blog etiquette posted in her /about section:

“Marketing Roadmaps Code of Ethics:
Marketing Roadmaps is my opinion, based on my experience. Your mileage may vary. I will be respectful of my readers’ views, and expect the same courtesy.

1. When I have an opinion, I will be completely clear about it. You won’t have to guess.
2. I won’t delete posts unless the content proves to be completely off base, in which case I will leave a placeholder that explains what happened so search engines won’t perpetuate any mistakes I have made. Typically I will annotate the original post with new material rather than delete the post.
3. I will not blog information learned offline or in private conversations unless I am absolutely certain that it is public information or I have obtained permission from the person who shared the information. When in doubt I will err on the side of caution.
4. I will not delete comments unless they are spam or off-topic. Ditto trackbacks.
5. I will link and trackback to other blogs appropriately, and always endeavor to add to the conversation.
6. I will say thank you, replying to emails and comments promptly and pleasantly, even when I disagree with you.
7. I will be honest about my clients and relationships so my readers will understand my loyalties.”

I don’t think you can do any better than that as an example of excellent blog ethics.

Good on you, Susan.

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I’ve been doing a bit of networking lately, and have received some fascinating feedback as a result:

“I occasionally read your blog to catch up, and rarely understand a word you say; but you sound very, very smart.”

<ouch>

“I’ve seen your blog, and it’s quite a collection of ‘bright and shiny things’ you talk about.”

<guilty as charged>

“I went through your paper, and it’s very, very technical. Who’s your audience?”

<great question!>

These comments have given me pause, and they couldn’t have come at a better time, as I am personally trying to define my own use of social media tools in my business, in order to better clarify their uses for others.

In an effort to do so in public, here’s a stake in the ground:

RSS: Every time I get a new client, I set up a new RSS feed in my Attensa RSS reader to gather news and information about them. (I posted screen shots on SlideShare, in case you like pictures to walk you through how it works.) I also subscribe to a few blogs that I find interesting - and read them within Attensa because it’s more convenient to have one place to go to read and comment on them all.

RSS is like the nervous system of social media - it grabs news from the entire universe and routes it to the brain.

RSS readers are the brains of social media - we train them to understand what we pay attention to, and the smart readers anticipate how to prioritize the information to feed our attention properly.

Blog: I use my blog to personally comment upon things that move me. Whether it be a new tool, a personal experience, or software to help marketers. I agree with Ken, though, that it seems a collection of bright and shiny objects. I’m okay with that, although I think it might be time to mix it up a little more. The danger in blogging is that I seem to be obsessed with, and harp on similar themes; so my posts might become boring for those who subscribe or visit often. But this is my space, so I get to be the medium of “me.”

Blogs are the hearts of social media to me - if I care enough to write about something at length, I’ll blog it. My readers know how I feel about pretty much everything I choose to share. For businesses, blogs can create a glimpse inside your organization and get right to the people who make it work, connecting with their obsessions, thoughts and (yes, even) emotions.

Twitter and other “micro-blogging” tools: I use Twitter to connect with what people are thinking/doing “in the moment.” It fits my “bright and shiny object” proclivity to a tee. Through it, I can check out breaking news, get to know people I work with in a much more casual, personal way, and share thoughts/jump into conversations and engage quickly and directly - right now.

Twitter is like the eyes and ears (maybe all the senses) of social media to me. Blink, turn your head, sneeze and you’ve missed something. But it adds color, depth, taste, and texture to the people, problems and knowledge of those I follow. I tell people in business that teams who are working together should follow each other on Twitter. Especially virtual or geographically diverse teams… they’ll learn more from each other, be more accessible, and get more done with each other as a result.

I ‘d love to hear what others think… as I’ve found this week, it’s most enlightening and helpful to get feedback. It helps focus my thoughts and further define my messages and how I relate them to others.

Which is the true beauty of social media and marketing to me.

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In a great post last Friday, Marshall over at ReadWrite Web set forth a great set of examples of how they (RWW) use Twitter in their journalistic efforts. Head on over and read the whole thing - but in a nutshell, he tells how they use Twitter:

• the discovery of breaking stories,
• performing interviews,
• quality assurance
• and promotion of our work.

What was fun for me personally about this post is that I finally met Marshall (in person) the afternoon he was writing it - via Twitter. I was waiting for another networking meeting, and was watching my Twitter feed via iTweet:

How many “Earthhippy” buildings in the Pearl are there? I surmised I was sitting in the exact spot (EcoTrust Building/World Cup) I’d find him. And I looked up toward the register, and le voila… an introduction eased by coincidence.

Fast forward to Monday. I went to meet Scott Kveton, also down in the Pearl. On autopilot, I had neglected to check where we were to meet, and went to World Cup again. I wondered whether I had crossed my wires, when, at 2:08, I hadn’t seen Scott walk through the door for our 2:00 yet. Knowing Scott is an avid Twitter advocate, I checked my feed only to see:

Ugh! wrong place… so I immediately DM’d Scott (sent him a direct message) letting him know I was in the wrong spot, and we quickly arranged to meet in the middle. He DM’d me back saying “meet in middle?” and the rest was captured here:

So: (and I know I’m on a rave about Twitter recently) the two events are linked in my mind forever as little examples of the beauty of “in the moment” speed, usefulness and connectedness that Twitter provides me.

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I got a note last week that I just have to take the time to expose to the air… from my friend Gillian. Her words struck so personally I feel moved to blog them:

::::

I hope you don’t mind me reaching out to each of you on a rather personal note…As most of you know, I lost my father to pancreatic cancer 9 months ago today. Although pancreatic cancer is one of the major cancer killers, it still receives little to no government funding or support.

Some of you may have heard of Dr. Randy Pausch, a 47 year old Carnegie Mellon professor who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, whom through his “last lecture” has gotten lots of media attention (Prime Time, Good Morning America, and yes, even Oprah). Well, here is his recent powerful appeal to Congress - it would mean a lot to me if you would take a moment to listen to it.

If you are so moved, here are a few additional ways to help:

1. Write your local legislator
2. Donate to the cause (be sure to earmark your contribution for RESEARCH) - through my mother’s efforts to raise awareness we have raised almost 30K in research funds in my father’s name, James J. Kennedy
3. Continue to stay educated through http://www.pancan.org/ and http://www.lustgarten.org/

I appreciate your time with this and I can only hope that what we do today will make a difference.

::::

Apparently Gillian received a huge response to her note, and there were some further follow-on clarifications:

::::

I know there were some questions about donating to PanCan - it sounds like the only way to earmark the donation for research and/or make the donation in my father’s name (James J. Kennedy) is to either:

• call PanCan at 1-877-272-6226 and make the donation over the phone or
• mail in a check that has the information in the memo. The form for this and info about how to do it is here.

::::

Gillian and her mom are just trying to raise awareness. Apparently her mom is quite an expert on pancreatic cancer now. If anyone has questions, I’m happy to connect you with them.

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