Viral Marketing…. I hear it all the time, basically know what it is, but the former journalist in me made me want to look it up anyway. Below are a few of the official definitions I found. In a nutshell, what it means to me is that you don’t have to have Coca Cola’s Super Bowl commercial budget anymore to successfully get the word out.

1. Marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness.

2. A marketing technique aiming at reproducing “word of mouth,” usually on the Internet or by e-mail, for humorous, political or marketing purposes.

3. Any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users.

4. A technique that is based on the assumption that people will share interesting and entertaining content.

5. A nontraditional promotional effort designed to quickly spread enthusiasm about a product or service, usually conducted through word-of-mouth.

Back in the days before the Internet, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a host of other keyboard connections, we just called this ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising or ‘marketing on a shoestring budget.’

Hey! Small business people, speakers, information marketers THIS MEANS YOU! Stop whining about social media taking up too much of your time. Stop complaining that you don’t know what to blog about. The Internet is the great equalizer – IT’S FREE. Maybe not scott-free, but compared to the traditional advertising venues – newspapers, magazines, TV, radio – it couldn’t be a better deal.

From my 20+ years working in and around small business, marketing, advertising, public relations, etc. I take away these three things. 1) You gotta advertise – build it and they WILL NOT come, 2) Advertising, marketing and PR all break down to simply getting the word out – by hook or crook, and 3) The Internet makes it so easy I don’t have to pull out my wallet, pawn my first-born or even leave the comfort of my keyboard. I just have to be willing to invest the time and the energy. Oh yea… and then there’s that learning curve thing!

Whenever my friend Peggy Duncan, the consummate shameless promoter, sends an email about her latest business service she ends it with a simple request… “Tell some people!” Viral marketing actually is just that simple.

PEACE.
Rick

PS. You’re welcome to tell some people about this blog!

Every day, I work to match college campus speakers to the needs of student activities/affairs professionals. In doing the work I’ve learned a lot from my SA friends and try to share that with my speaker friends. The more they know, the easier we can create a win-win for the speaker and the school.

I’ve run into a lot of speakers who think college students should want to hear whatever they have to say. Just because it’s a topic that interests them, they think it should interest everybody… or worse, that they can MAKE it interesting to everybody.

I don’t claim to be a guru, but If I tell them their topic won’t fly, or needs some adjusting to really impact today’s college student, they don’t agree, think I’m an idiot and wonder why they can’t get themselves booked. They’re in love with their topic and just don’t seem to get it.

Like I said, I’m no guru – and whether I’m an idiot or not is up for debate. But here are 13 speaking topic categories (I was born on a Friday the 13th and LOVE the number 13) I think work on college campuses TODAY.

1. Academic Achievement, Study Skills and Success in College

2. Alcohol and Drug Awareness

3. Campus Violence and Safety

4. Careers, Career Planning, Getting a Job After College

5. Cultural and Ethnic Diversity Issues, Cultural Celebrations

6. Dating and Relationships, Sex Education, Date Rape, Sexual Assault

7. Health, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Fitness

8. Leadership Skills, Student Leadership, Teambuilding

9. Money and Finance Related Issues

10. Social Media, Technology the Internet

11. Stress and College Students, Stress Reduction, Stress Management, Conflict Resolution, Life Balance

12. Veterans returning to college after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan

13. Volunteerism and Community Service

These are just one man’s opinion formed after taking a good look at the matter. If you’re in Student Affairs/Activities, help me out. I need to either confirm or deny my idiot status to my speaking friends. Can you add something I’ve missed? Delete something I’m delusional about? Tell me where the best chicken wings are in your neck of the woods? Any help is appreciated.

PEACE.
Rick

I always start these entries with the disclaimer: “I am NOT a social media guru.” There are plenty of people out there making that claim and I do not want my name added to the list. I am however, attempting to make social media “pay off” for me just like everyone else is – however they might define payoff. I’m just hanging on for the wild ride I call ‘learning curve!”

Whether your tweeting something of importance or not is a matter of finding tweeters that share your agenda in some way or another. If you have a strategy, good followers and people to follow are really not that hard to find. And if you’re tweetin’ good stuff, a lot of them will find you.

But even if your tweets aren’t worth a crap, the twitter spammers, mass marketers and other people who only want to extract your wallet for their next get rich quick scheme will find you. You’ll recognize them because they have 49,165 followers and will be following 52,304 other people – or some other equally ridiculous number! (No, the numbers have not been changed to protect the innocent) I see a lot of these, they can follow me all they want but I REFUSE to become a member of their gullible herd.

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I am not a social media guru. But in working with speakers, entrepreneurs and information marketers I hear that statement a lot. For them, social media is usually not working very well, which ought to tell you something. 

I’m still learning the ins and outs of social media myself, but one of the speakers I work with asked me for some feedback on a recent newsletter/blog post on Jane Atkinson’s blog, The Speaker Launcher. In a nutshell, Jane asks, “Did you with jump on the social bandwagon with a strategy?”

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What is your product anyway? Motivational talks, workshops, seminars and teleclasses? Informative articles, e-books blog entries? Published books, audio and video programs on CD and DVD? Coaching programs, mentoring and teleclasses? Blog radio programs, video blogs and podcasts?

How about: NONE OF THE ABOVE!!??

That’s my answer to the speakers, trainers, authors, coaches and information marketers I work with. That may sound like a confusing answer, but the answer actually clears up the confusion that inevitably exists around their frustration with developing and selling their ‘product.’

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Back during my magazine editor days I had an opportunity to lead a hardworking staff and dreamed of taking the publication to new heights. As things turned out, I changed entrepreneurial direction but have never forgotten the vision I had for leading my editorial, production, circulation sales and marketing teams.  A recent email conversation with my sister reminded me of this vision and although I’m not looking for a job, I think it’s still the kind of company that both my sister and I would love work at. It’s also one we’re beginning to think doesn’t exist, but we keep hope alive.

Our Corporate Culture

We understand that human capital can make or break a company and consider our people our most valuable asset. We hire skilled, qualified and experienced staff and build a corporate culture around them that promotes excellence, leadership and teamwork. By doing so we build a staff that will perform and deliver sustainable results. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s an entrepreneurial saying that “nothing happens until something is sold,” meaning that we’re all in the business of selling, whether we like it or not. But on the other hand, there’s the debatable fact that, “everybody hates a salesman.” At least I do - although ‘hate’ might be a little strong.

But you know what I mean. If there’s one person that we – the otherwise polite - can all excuse being rude to, it’s the random salesperson. We’ve all hung up on at least one. Being on the SOLD end of selling isn’t a favorite feeling for most of us. Whether we have the money to spend or not. (even more-so when we don’t!) And that doesn’t bode well if you’re convinced that selling is survival.

Here’s how I’ve seen it happen with SELLING speakers, but it’s the same with coaches, consultants, and all you other information marketers. 

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As a coach and agent to speakers I’ve worked with up to 50 speakers at a time, but now work with a much smaller group and enjoy it much more. We work together at a grass-roots level and get a lot accomplished.  I try to keep my finger on the pulse of the speaking industry so I can ‘give wise counsel’ and there’s so much crap out there leading professional orators astray I don’t often make recommendations. I especially avoid the ‘how to make big bucks…’ series of hype that we’ve all fallen victim to at least once at some level or another. I do, however, highly recommend SpeakerNet News.

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