I won’t go into the plot in detail, but ultimately it’s about savant poker player Mike McDermott (Matt) who gambles big, loses and then spends the rest of the movie trying to earn back his money in an attempt to save his criminally minded friend and build a bankroll big enough for a seat at the World Series of Poker (whew that was a nice run on sentence).

One character in the movie I admire is Knish (played by John Turturro), who is Matt’s mentor. Knish is an old pro on the circuit. He shows up to every poker game putting in his time, grinding out a little profit one hand at a time. He never makes huge gambles, but he makes a solid living for himself and his family. To Knish, Mike’s gambling approach to cards is just about ego and pride.

The characters of Mike and Knish remind me of two different types of marketers: The Grinder (Knish) and The Gambler (Mike).

The Gambler is all about the big splash. The gamble. They gravitate towards the public relations stunt. They are willing to take huge risks. Their default plan is the proverbial ‘ad on the Superbowl’.

The Gambler usually doesn’t have a written marketing plan. He usually has no lead capturing process. No system in place for measurement. No capacity for true customer engagement. No audience profiles. to him it’s all about the ‘fun of marketing’. It’s all sizzle but little steak.

The Grinder is a different character. He often has a well-constructed marketing plan. He thrives on systems. He’s as much a data nerd as an artist. He loves systematic customer engagement. To him it’s all about making profit for his organization or client and little to do with ego.

I understand the allure of the Gambler, you can’t always play it safe. Most marketers have a short time to prove results, or they face walking the plank. But, the problem with gambling is if bet and lose you are often left without any capacity to continue.

Both gambling and grinding have a place in marketing, but a better approach is to invest some time in grinding. Get your bankroll built up enough so you can afford to place a high risk bet or two. If you lose the hand at least you can live to fight another day.

The question:

“Hi! I want to know the most effective social media strategy for getting more fans and more or less getting our organization out there. We talked the other day about a blog, and Twitter and Facebook and I want to know how that works. Should Twitter to link to the blog, the blog for small business tips etc, and FB to the website??? Does that make sense or can you give me a good “map” to work off of more or less.”

My answer (expanded):

Thanks for the question. I think it would be difficult for me to answer this question wholly in an email but I can give you a few tips.

First, it’s less about the configuration of the tools and more about how you use them to build relationships. Many organizations get wrapped up in worrying about trying to automate the broadcasting of their message. They want to post once through one tool and have it propagate through the system (on Twitter, Facebook, etc). This is exactly the wrong approach.

You need to define who you want to reach with these tools, and then understand how/whether they use these tools.

If the people you are trying to connect with aren’t on social media, then what’s the point for your organization. It’s a nice exercise in ‘warm fuzzies’ but for most organizations they can’t afford to spend time and money focused on activities that will net little result.

Second if your audience is on social media but they are using different tools than you are, it’s a bit like talking to yourself in the middle of a barren forest. FB, Twitter and LinkedIn are all great places to start as a rule of thumb. But do the research on your audience before you commit in a big way.

Realize that that audience can turn off the channel at any point

Social media is not a broadcast tool. Your audience can easily unsubscribe to the channel if the posts are just noise. Be Absolutely, positively, rock solid sure that your post ADDS VALUE (yup, it was worth the all CAPS). Before you update your status, ensure every post passes the ‘Why would anybody care test’.

Ways to add value include giving people tips, interesting stories, recognition, communicating status, connecting the community together etc…(add more ways in the comments please).

Focus on using the tools to build personal relationships. Your organization’s logo is often on the website, but the point of connection is not with some nebulous organization or building…it’s with the folks who are there.

A good analogy: Use it just like you would the telephone. A telephone is a very personal form of communication. You use it to talk to people and often use it for building/strengthening relationships. But, it can be an annoyance if overused. Imagine some organization phoning you everyday to tell you they were having an event next week. Soon, you would likely tell them not to phone again. But, if you knew that person and they phoned with some very specific purpose you would likely take the call. If every call resulted in some nugget of gold everyday, you would anticipate the call.

Was this useful? Got a good tip for others? Leave a comment and make me feel good about spending my time blogging.

I find it an interesting statement, but one that I almost immediately dismiss.

You see, there is a natural tendency to focus on what’s new. We love to hear about new products and services. We love to be on the ‘edge of what’s coming next’.

I get it. Inventors are often idolized and the rewards for being ‘first to market’ is an attractive offer (pipe dream?).

The reality though is there are very few completely original innovations. If you look back on history you’ll see that even seemingly new products are often derived off other ideas or are simultaneously invented (like the computer).

Take for example plot lines in movies or books. Leo Tolstoy once said “All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” I challenge you to find an exception.

The app store is nicknamed the ‘crap store’ for a reason. It’s filled with ideas, that are often poorly executed.

Most advertising channels are filled with advertising derived from other campaign ideas (just look back through a few years of any graphic design magazine).

And, most company social media campaigns are even becoming copycat havens. You get the point.

An alternative (better) strategy would focusing on ‘better’. Better executed. More creative. Polished to an extreme shine. Art.

A friend of mine once said, “Ideas are meaningless. Everybody has ideas. It’s all about the execution.”

After listening to their story I realized their marketing problem was very simple: they simply weren’t connected to the right people. The community they were trying to reach already existed. They didn’t need to grow it. They just needed to become a participant.

So, rather than taking their money I told the I would made a few introductions to the folks that could get them hooked up with the community they wanted to connect with. I suggested they sponsor one of the community events. The cost of entry was a few token dollars.

A couple of weeks went by and the potential client hadn’t contacted the people I introduced them to. It was if they couldn’t be bothered. Their excuse was, ‘they didn’t have time and it slipped through the cracks.’

I felt extremely disappointed. Here I had gone out of the way to tee up a plum opportunity, and they just could take a few minutes to connect. It was an act of extreme laziness.

You see, the fact is that we are all busy. We are all swamped for time. We are all bombarded by our Twitter feeds. We are all struggling for an extra hour in the day. No matter what you think…you are not the exception. Period.

So, when you say ‘I’m too busy to get involved. Or I’m too busy to respond to email. Or I’m too busy to volunteer. Or I’m too busy to help out.’ …

What you are really saying is, “This isn’t important enough to me to make time for.”

So if your community isn’t important enough to make time for, why should they make time for you?

They go for the quick sale and try to make a quick buck. They are ok with swindling their customers. They are ok with pilfering their environment and community. They are fine with trying to enforce ‘the fine print’.

They are racing against the clock until their money runs out. For them it’s all about short-term profit.

They grind their suppliers. They argue with their customers. They treat every interaction like an annoyance. All they are looking for is ‘wham, bam, thank you ma’am.’

Smart companies realize it’s all about the slow burn. They’re in it for the long haul. Their customers are always right. They could care less about ‘the fine print’.

For them it’s all about long-term brand building.

These companies interact with and care about the community. These companies love their customers. For them, every interaction is a blessing. All they are looking for is ‘how can I add value to you today.’

Fast burn companies are like dynamite. They are flashy. They are loud. They make a big noise; a big boom. When the smoke is cleared all they leave is destruction in their wake.

Slow burn companies are more like a candle. No flash. Little noise. There is no big puff of smoke. Just a steady, unassuming flicker which provides warmth and nourishment (value) for an extended period of time.

Be the candle.

For example, over the last few weeks I’ve been learning about iOS development and I built a prototype of a very simple app (just to see if I could). The app basically displays random, and dirty, pickup lines that guys could use in bars. I spent a fair amount of time designing a nice pink icon with hearts all over it, and a beautifully pink gradient background and used a script font to display the text. When I was finished I thought, “Wow, that looks pretty good.”

I showed it to my wife and she said, “Yes, honey that looks good!”

I showed it to my friend and he said, “Looks good buddy.”

I was feeling pretty confident and good about myself. I had conquered building an app (albeit a very simple one) and people thought it looked good. Gold star for me.

Then, I sent a test version to a colleague.

“What do you think?” I probed.

*pause*

“Well, it looks kind of girly. And, it seems the target market is men who would use cheesy pickup lines.” my colleague replied.

In my head I thought,  for just a split second I thought, “Did he just call my baby ugly?”

But then I realized that he was right. The way the app looked was totally targeted at the wrong folks. How did I not see this? Why was I so stupid? Oh the horror.

The point of my story is that great work (and great marketing) doesn’t happen in a vacuum. You need to test and get real feedback from your customers and colleagues.

Sometimes it can be as simple as just talking to your customers. Other times you might want a well-designed survey tool.

But for sure, you need to give people a real chance to tell you your ‘baby is ugly’.

Hint: A Facebook page could be used just as much for customer feedback as it could be for marketing.

What bugs me even more is when the icons are accompanied by a tagline ‘Find us on Facebook!!!!’.

In my mind I’m screaming, “I’d love to find you on Facebook…but I don’t know how!!!! (that’s right I triple exclamation marked that sentence in my head)”

Facebook’s search generally sucks. I am almost never able to find the page I’m looking for…and if I do it’s often after two or three variant searches. But what’s most annoying is the fact that it’s EASY (that’s right I’m shouting) to provide full URLs to your profiles and not doing so is just lazy.

If it’s in a mobile setting where you can easily take a photo and the audience your targeting is ‘tech savvy’ you could embed the URL in a QR code for easy access. One for each profile please.

For everybody else for the love of Twitter please provide full URLS.

P.S. In case you are interested you can ‘Find me on Facebook’.

Today I’ve pretty much given upon on ‘selling social media’ to the non-believers.

It’s not that I think social media isn’t still important. In fact, just the opposite – I think it’s more important than ever. But, I now believe that the people who were once classified as skeptics are now viewed as laggards. Their credibility has completed eroded.

I always run into one or two in every crowd. They proclaim, “I just don’t get it. This is completely useless. Why would anybody use Twitter? This can’t possibly be used for business.”

I’m tempted to hold their face and shout, “Look. Look. See what’s happening around you? People are tweeting, posting and commenting so much you can almost hear the hum from the internet. And it’s not all just about what people had for lunch. Businesses are selling products, consultants are building networks, and the people of the world are using these tools to make their world a better place.”

But then I realize that they’ve likely heard this message a thousand times before. Probably from people who are way smarter than me.

So I calm down and remind myself, eventually they’ll come around or they won’t.

The world they are operating in is a different one from that they are living in…

I see this all the time on Facebook. A potential prospect will go to the Facebook page and ask a question about the process for becoming a customer and the response from team is to say, “Just go to our website. All the information you need is there.” Often in the tone of, “Who are you to bother me?”

This is garbage.

It’s a sign that you don’t really care, and that you aren’t invested enough in social media to be able to offer real value.

If a person asks you a question on social media have the decency to response with an ACTUAL answer.

The reasons you shouldn’t just pass them off are two-fold.

First, most websites suck. Sure many look great, but many organizations just haven’t spent the time to properly think about making their sites easy to use or easy to find information on. Additionally they likely haven’t invested in proper content development to ensure that their pages convey the information accurately. Instead they treat their site as the dumping ground of miscellaneous crap. And dumping a potential customer into that shitty site isn’t helping anybody.

Second, instead of treating your marketing like an expense, treat it like one of your most valuable assets. And, instead of treating your customers like ‘annoyances that need to be guided to some shitty point of customer service’, consider answering their questions.

A question on Facebook is a potential sale. Make it happen right there.

Can you imagine a retail operation where the salesperson answers an in-person question with, ‘Just go to our website?’

Of course not…they do everything to convert the customer right there.

So why would you do this on social media?

P.S. If that isn’t possible, send them the direct URL to the information. At least that way they won’t get lost along the way. It’s still shitty…but less shitty than the alternative.

It’s not that my presentations ever go horribly wrong, and likely the mistakes I notice..nobody else does…but getting up in front of a room full of people is a daunting task for anybody and it’s hard not to run the ‘post-game’ in your head.

After my last speaking event the organizers were kind enough to send me the feedback scores and comments. The event went well in my opinion, so I wasn’t surprised to see just about everybody gave me solid fours and fives on a five point scale (there were a few threes, but they were due to technical issues).

I was happy they weren’t ones…but I still couldn’t help but wish they were all fives…

As Scott Stratten states, “People love awesome. People share awesome.”

In the case of my speaking scores five equals awesome. The people giving fives are the ones who walk away from the event talking to their friends and colleagues about how great it was. It means a greater likelihood that I’ll get a referral from the event.

Four means that people were happy with the event, but they aren’t as likely to talk about it. Three is the equivalent to a big ‘meh’ and one or two likely means they will actively tell their friends and colleagues to ‘avoid at all costs’.

Of course, everybody wants their work to be loved so much that they receive referrals but I always have to remind myself that there is variability in everything we do and nothing goes perfect 100% of the time.  In statistics this is known known as ‘Regression to to the Mean’ and it’s a phenomenon that means if a variable is extreme on one measurement the next measurement is likely going to be closer to the average.

What does this mean? A home run hitter isn’t always going to bat it out of the park. A runner isn’t always going to run their best time. A rock star isn’t always going to have the best show of their life. And…not every presentation is going to be perfect…for everybody… and that’s ok. That’s natural.

Even though lack of perfection is natural it’s still important to strive for it. To succeed in life and social media you need to collect more fives than ones if you want to succeed.