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Update
I've made some changes based on feedback—I think it's better, a little less "marketing speak". See updated deck and comments:
Next Wednesday I find myself on a social media related panel at Promo 2007. Why am I going? Event Marketing is a little out of my range, but Herb Sawer from Carmichael Lych put together an interesting line-up including Noah Brier from Naked Communications and Rohit Bhargava of Olgilvy PR.
I'm going to be surrounded by marketers. Wait a minute—am I a marketer? Marketing is a broad term and it encapsulates a lot of things. Much of what I do falls under that category. In fact, many of you who read this blog probably deal with budgets that fall under either Marketing or IT departments.
So, what am I gonna talk about? Well, I thought a good place would be what I believe in. I believe that marketers—especially the "professionals" that call themselves marketers have a fundamental issue we need to confront.
B.S.O.S.
(Bright And Shiny Object Syndrome)
It affects all of us. You're kidding yourself if you think it doesn't. There's so much pressure to stay up to speed, things change so quickly—that we've become obsessed with the new, newer, latest, greatest, shiny, sparkly, dangling thing. But don't be fooled—It's just as bad to dismiss a trend that we may know very little about just because we're sick and tired of hearing about it.
You don't get brighter or shinier than "2.0". There are so many possibilities—so many opportunities that it's intoxicating. Hence the addiction to it. So what do we do? Do we ignore how advances in technology are changing the face of marketing? Do we embrace every new trend with unbridled enthusiasm? Do we sit on the sidelines, skeptical and wary? Do we experiment? I'm proposing a "prescription" for the ailment—it comes in 3 4 parts:1. Quantitative Research (3rd party research, reports etc.)
2. Qualitative Research (Ethnography, Interviews etc,)
3. Personal Experience (Experimentation, usage, adoption)
1. Doing our homework (3rd party research, reports etc.)
2. Talking and walking with people (ethnography, observation etc.)
3. Learning by doing (experimentation, usage, adoption etc.)
4. Sharing what we know (connectivity, shared experiences + knowledge)
I believe a combination of all three will result in Empathy, Understanding and maybe even a little Experience more openness (or what marketers like to call transparency). These three four things will help provide an informed perspective so we can pursue the best strategies and experiment in productive ways. This will help us as we work with clients and/or partners—and it will make for better marketers, marketing and less B.S.O.S. all around.
What else would you add? I've only got a little over 10 minutes, but if something good comes out of a comment—I'll try to add it to the deck.
