Marketing Pilgrim

When I first read about Siri I was instantly intrigued. Mainly because back in 2002 I wrote a similar piece of software called Sivle. Now of course Siri is much more sophisticated, but both applications rely on natural language processing for their conversational interface. But Siri takes this a step further by leveraging the cloud to continually improve. As you can see, I am excited about Siri, which is where my current hipster angst is sprouting from.

The other night I posted the above video on Google+ with the caption, “What an idiot.” Shortly after, the amazing Melanie Phung responded with:

It’s a matter of framing the assumptions. If you assume he wanted to come in, then, yes, he’s an idiot. But if you understand that he just wanted to sit on the deck and stare at his reflection in the window, then he’s just a chill dog. (And he doesn’t appreciate his owner filming him and trying to make him look like an idiot, thankyouverymuch.)

Wow Melanie! Bring out the wisdom!

The other day I saw someone Tweet about MC Hammer starting his own search engine. And I laughed. I mean seriously, who would ever expect this guy as being an innovative tech entrepreneur? I honestly thought the tweet was a joke about silicon valley hype. A little later I went and actually looked at the supposed site, and again thought it was an evolving joke. This is because the site (that hasn’t launched yet) currently consist of a sign up page and a poorly done logo. And then later, I stumbled upon the above video.

Wow. Looks like Mr. Hammer knows a thing or two about tech!

Last week I had the honor of attending and speaking at Search Exchange in Charlotte NC (along with the likes of Andy Beal).

My talk was about building brands social media. As I was preparing for my talk I felt kind of weird about the topic. The truth is, to build a brand in social media effectively you have to do a lot and spend a lot, and I mean a lot, of time doing it. True brand building in social media is an ongoing effort that entails content development, brand managers, monitoring, and strategy just to name a few. Which is why some are starting to realize that for many small businesses social media is a waste of time and other valuable resources.

They are in our work places. They are in our churches. They are in our schools. They are in our government. And some times they are even in our families. There are naysayers everywhere. From this point on you have a choice, buy in to their garbage, or continue to play ball. Either way the choice is yours.

So you hire an SEO, social media guru, business coach, and who ever else is willing to take your money, and they all tell you the same thing: You need better content. At this point there is a 50% chance that they are right. So let’s take a look at what you should do if they are wrong, and what you should do if they are right.

If they are wrong.

So your consultants have told you that you need better content. But, you know for a fact that you produce amazing products and services, and all the content in the world isn’t going to change that. Here’s what you do: Fire them. Don’t waste anytime, pick up the phone right now and fire them. Find a new marketing or PR person that understands your business and can see the real value in your products and services. Hire people that appreciate your work because those are the ones that understand that outstanding product sell themselves, not content. All they need to do is let others know that as well.

Let me start off today’s COJ with a little disclaimer: A lot of what you read in today’s column might be wrong. Because today I am talking about football! And the truth is, I know crap about football. I mean I understand the basics, but beyond that I am kind of useless. For example, today I learned what a onside kick is, thanks to, Coach Kevin Kelley, from Pulaski Academy in Little Rock Arkansas.

That’s because Coach Kelley used the onside kick as part of an odd strategy to score 29 points before their opponents even touched the ball. Apparently, the team was able to use onside kick’s to push the ball down the field, recover them, and then score. They did this 4 times in a row. Allowing for complete control of the football, touchdown, after touchdown. Granted, on their 5th try they failed, but this was an astounding feat for a team that was ranked nearly last and ended up winning big, 64-34.