Are you using social media platforms to social network? Or, are you using social media platforms for social media marketing? Or perhaps you are using web 2.0 to socially market your social media platform for social networking to maintain active in the web 2.0 space?

Does this sound a bit confusing? Good!

Anyone else want to poke themselves in the eye with a bamboo shoot every time they hear all the different web 2.0 words?  I mean it’s one thing if we had some consistency but it seems like we are just all over the map!

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I’ll be honest here, I’m a bit tired of people asking me what the ROI is on social media; everyone wants to know how much money they can make, and how fast they can make it. Well you know what? If that’s your agenda and that’s your goal, then don’t join the conversation, we don’t want you. Stick to your mass media advertising and stay out of the social media space.

Think of it like this, how much money would be willing to spend to keep your friends in your life? Think about your valuable experiences, your life stories, the things you have learned and the memories you have shared. How much is that worth to you? Can you quantify how much money you have made as a result of your friends or long term relationships? Now flip the question around, don’t ask how much money you are going to MAKE from your customers. Ask how much you are willing to GIVE to your customers. It’s not about you, or your brand. It’s about your customers; it’s about what they want.

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Steve Rubel’s latest blog post provides a few examples of how companies are asking for feedback on their advertisements (this picture is from his blog). The examples Steve points out are AOL and CNET. When you come across an ad, you have the option to provide feedback based on the ads relevancy, marketing message, what actions you will take as a results of the ad, etc.

While ad feedback is a step in the right direction, it is far from being an actual solution. The reason is that more and more companies are joining the “social media” bandwagon. Now, more then ever you can start to see corporate blogs popping up all over the internet. The reason is that companies assume that a blog = reputation management. Well actually, blog = blog. Reputation management has nothing to do with the creation of a blog at all; it has to do with WHY the blog is created to begin with and HOW they are being utilized. If you have a client asking for advice on blog creation, or if you are recommending blog creation to a client, ask your client and yourself WHY the blog is being created to begin with and HOW the blog is going to be utilized. I am a proponent of blog creation, however creating a blog just for the sake of creating a blog does not mean much, nor does it provide much value to your readers, figure out the WHY and the HOW, then CREATE.

Jermiah Owyang states that one of the impossible conversations for corporations involves asking for feedback. Asking for feedback is not difficult, what is difficult is acting on the feedback that you receive. What most companies need to realize is that from a user’s point of view, asking for feedback and acting on feedback is virtually the same thing. Think about it, if you visit a website that is asking for your feedback, you are going to expect some sort of action on the company’s behalf. Dave Charbuck, the global VP of web marketing at Levorno, had this to say about Jeremiah’s post on “impossible conversations for corporations to have.”

If you do not intend on acting on the feedback that you receive (somehow), then do not bother asking it at all.

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I was washing my hands in the restroom at LAX (flying back to San Francisco) when I noticed something on the back of my boarding pass. I flipped it over and saw a coupon for Papa John’s Pizza. This was the first time I have seen (or noticed) a coupon on the back of a boarding pass. The offer was for two free coke products with any purchase of an extra large specialty pizza ONLINE SPECIAL ONLY.

I began to wonder how many people actually noticed the coupon on the back of their boarding pass. My guess is not many. Furthermore, why would Papa John’s even bother advertising on the back of a boarding pass to begin with? How many people will even notice the coupon? Let alone actually keep the coupon to use when they arrive at their destination. People in airports are in a hurry, trying to get to their destination, scrambling to make their flight. They don’t care about coupons, they care about getting from point A to point B.

Let’s just say I saw the coupon and then decided “wow, I could really go for some Pizza right now.” Well guess what, there was no Papa John’s Pizza in the airport (at least not in the domestic section).

So there I was with a coupon for something I could not buy (even if I wanted to). I could have been ready to buy, with credit card in hand, but nobody to give the payment too. That meant that I would have to hang onto the coupon while waiting at the gate, take the coupon with me on the plane, and then make sure to bring the coupon home with me and purchase a pizza. Not likely.

If you spend money on marketing a product that nobody sees, than your product does not exist, why would you spend money to market something that does not exist?

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With Valentine’s day just around the corner retailers are scrambling to send out as many ads as they can. Recently, I received an e-mail from ProFlowers advertising their wonderful flower bouquets. There was something different about this advertisement though; the e-mail appeared to have been addressed directly to me, my girlfriend’s name was mentioned, and the letter was signed by the CEO. Now that is targeted advertising, and guess what, it works.

Here is what the e-mail looked like:

Notice how the “send to” information is already filled out for me at the bottom of the page. If I act “now” I get an extra 25% off everything they sell, and I can contact them anytime, any day to place my order.

ProFlowers gets it.

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