Their touch point, frame of reference, what gets their interest…is the ‘human experience’. Period.

Today’s American consumers (whose ever changing life stages must be taken into consideration) start their relationship with your business by examining and experiencing your intent and motivation. Consumers interact with brands like they do with other humans.  Since they highly value authenticity and transparency in relationships, all the more this is true regarding brand communication.

This is why your story…your purpose, your heart should be at the core of your branding. Your brand needs to be able to ‘touch’ the human heart in order to even get consideration in the first place. That is why sales pitches, hype, fast talking and slick in-your-face intrusive advertising does NOT work any longer.

Show me your interesting story (your human touch point) and you can call it a branding or anything else you like.

65% of Americans’ Believe Business Should Lead in Social Good

Even though many businesses are jumping on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon…they are finding they are on the outside of the bulk of conversations and not having the so-called instant success many of the Social Media gurus are promising. That is partly due to the fact businesses still think Social Media is just another form of advertising!! So how do they typically approach this? Well for the most part, they are still using the ‘old advertising model’ of shouting at people to get attention and conducting one way conversations about themselves, their brand, their great deal, and blah, blah, blah.

That is completely opposite of the way real live humans (consumers) converse and this certainly applies when it comes to social media. Conversations between people are two way. That is if you are really interested in connecting with people instead of just selling ‘at them’.

Marketers, businesses, and brands that are still pushing themselves on folks are being completely ignored and grouped with all the other annoying cyber noise class. Talking at your potential customer is OUT! It takes two way engagement to even get in the conversation game in the social media realm let alone influence someone to buy from you. Far too many believe they can just show up and Facebook friends will be eating out of your hands or Twitter broadcasts will ensure the masses come running. This is so far from the truth it’s sad.

Anyone selling you on the idea you can use cutesy or clever ads, quotes of the day, last minute deals or any other midway type of shenanigans to incite the masses to word of mouth you along like the greatest new ice cream flavor ever is just flat out lying to you.

People are talking! There is no doubt about that and this is what you want them to do about you. In my opinion, the social media platform is one of the greatest things that could ever have happened to businesses today if you understand what it really is, how to use it, and respect the people using it.

A perfect example of the incredible opportunities made available via social media is just this week Mashable.com reported on Facebook’s 500 million member milestone! That’s just amazing. One online application has managed to attack a cyber hangout of 500 million members and growing!!

Facebook 500 million

When it comes to Twitter, it’s also a powerhouse as well! Courtesy of Huffingtonpost stats as of the end of April this year check these few facts out…

• Twitter now has 105,779,710 registered users.
• New users are signing up at the rate of 300,000 per day.
• 180 million unique visitors come to the site every month.
• Of Twitter’s active users, 37 percent use their phone to tweet.
• More than 40% of all tweets start with @, which means they are directed at someone.
• 85% of Tweets are original and not re-tweets of other messages.

If you are in business, you MUST be in the social media space if you want to be taken serious and compete in this new business era. However…there is a right way to do it that can put you on the path to long term success. I’m telling you up front though, it’s not a quick BAM here I am kinda marketing thing. Expect it to take lots of smart work! And be clear here, Social Marketing Is Not For the Lazy, the Greedy, or the Arrogant. It not only takes smart and hard work to be successful in this sphere, but it also takes the RIGHT strategy, planning and execution. See more on this “Useless Social Media Plans” from my colleague Jay Deragon over at Relationship Economy.

Want Social Media Marketing to work for you?

Well you better get in tune with the right information flows that give it to you straight and truthful. Really take the time to identify who you want to have as customers and start talking to them. The best place a business can start the transformation they must embark upon in order for any of this to make sense or even work for them is to consider your motives and intentions for being in the social sphere in the first place. Yes, I get it…you are in business to sell, to make a profit. That is understood and expected by even your customer. But what worked in the past does not work now. This is really an age of connectedness like never before and people don’t want to be connected to fakes, wanna-be’s, get rich quick quakes, ‘get more eyeballs’ types, or the socially irresponsible and so on. They want and demand to be connected to the real deal. And when they read your mail (in the conversations you have socially) and see you are the real deal…they will gladly share you with their sphere of influence and on, and on. Powerful, but it can be unsettling if one of your business values is not integrity. Integrity is at the core of meaningful conversations and relationships online and off. Always had been…always will be.

He indicated a busy businessman would pay $20 month to have their Facebook, Twitter, Plaxo or Bebo account updated, messages replied and so on and this would be way cheaper than hiring a new employee in-house or contracting independent U.S workers.

Sounds reasonable right? Well I guess it is if you want a surefire way to go out of business quickly in this new day and age. Look…haven’t we had enough experience with what a bad idea this greed driven approach is yet?

The notion you can use ‘canned’ conversations, get rich quick schemes, famous quotes, and other non relevant chatter to build real relationships with customers in the ‘socialsphere’ is just plain gimmick and lazy approach thinking to try and capture consumers. People are way too smart for this!

Today’s consumer not only can read right through this type of hype and pitch…they will absolutely loathe you for it.

Am I saying having a 3^rd party service your social media marketing is a bad thing? Absolutely not! In fact, it can be a brilliant action on your part and certainly position your business probably faster and more effectively than you can on your own.

What I am saying here is don’t think you can be lazy or half stepping this stuff.  The work necessary to provide targeted and relevant content that is sincere and meaningful on behalf of your business rather than a bunch of noise, will and should rest on your shoulders. That means you have to be willing as well as sincerely committed to doing the work it takes to successfully engage with your customers and potential clients in the online social scene. It should be placed as a priority right up there with the other things you are doing to grow your business.

In my experience working with clients it saddens me to see many are not willing nor do they see the importance of truly committing to adding Social Marketing into their everyday marketing mix and strategies. And don’t think that I’m finding this with just small business. The folks over at Social Times posted an article on this very thing… 50% of Companies Entering Social Media Have Plan. Their take on a couple of recent reports on this topic revealed even large corporations are not investing their time, money and efforts to create meaningful strategies and plans in order to ensure their company is emotionally connecting with their target markets. Many think you can rest on your brand, just ‘show up’ or put on a charade to appear you are in the trenches with 21st century marketing and they are in with the customer.

Not true! Today’s new business era will no longer support or tolerate status quo mindsets and approaches. Just like having an offline relationship takes lots of personal investment, so it is with online. No free rides for marketers. No free rides for business. People do not care about your brand like you think they do. This is the age of the great awaking for anyone in business. Integrity, intent, motives and transparency are the tell-tell signs of what a business really wants from and with a customer.

What about you? Does your business have a plan, well defined strategies for incorporating Social Media into your marketing and business processes? If not, would you if you knew how to get started? Let me hear from you what you feel you need in order to transport your business into the 21^st century way of doing business.

This was the poll question…Do you care about Cannes?

Here is what the results were at noon (CST) on June 23rd…

Click to enlarge

I’m sure I’m going to hear it over this but to me this is a prime example of how out of touch many advertising, marketing, PR agencies and departments are concerning today’s new business era. Close to 80% participating in this poll are indicating this event is no longer relevant in the world of 21st century marketing. What do you think?

Now you tell me how anyone in business who is fairly intelligent can ignore this or not see the significance of what is going on here? Honestly, it does not take a PhD to see this in not just a trend! No this is the END of business as usual forever. This is a new age, a new business era, and huge shift in our culture.

This is so significant that anyone in business whether it be the local cleaners to the hair stylist…would be foolish not to embrace what is going on and partner up with professionals who can help them bring their business practices into the 21^st century way of doing business.

If you need referrals to fine folks who do this contact me. I will be glad to refer you.

Facebook Company Timeline

2010

• February

Facebook reaches over 400 million active users

2009

• December

Facebook reaches over 350 million active users

• September

Facebook reaches over 300 million active users

• August

Facebook acquires FriendFeed

• July

Facebook reaches over 250 million active users

• June

Facebook launches Facebook Usernames

• May

Digital Sky Technologies makes a $200 million investment for preferred stock at a $10 billion valuation

• April

Facebook reaches over 200 million active users

• February

Facebook reaches over 175 million active users
Facebook joins OpenID board
“Like” feature added

• January

Facebook reaches over 150 million active users
CNN Live/Facebook integration

2008

• December

Facebook Connect becomes generally available

• August

Facebook reaches over 100 million active users

• April

Facebook launches Facebook Chat
Facebook releases Translation application to 21 additional languages

• March

Facebook updates privacy controls to include Friend List privacy
Facebook launches in German

• February

Facebook launches in Spanish and French

• January

Facebook co-sponsors Presidential Debates with ABC News

2007

• November

Facebook launches Facebook Ads

• October

Facebook reaches over 50 million active users
Facebook launches Facebook Platform for Mobile
Facebook and Microsoft expand advertising deal to cover international markets; Microsoft takes a $240 million equity stake in Facebook

• July

Facebook acquires startup Parakey

• May

Facebook launches Marketplace application for classified listings
Facebook hosts F8 event to launch Facebook Platform
Facebook Platform launches with 65 developer partners and over 85 applications

• April

Facebook reaches 20 million active users
Facebook updates site design and adds network portals

• March

Facebook reaches over 2 million active Canadian users and 1 million active UK users

• February

Virtual gift shop launches as a feature

2006

• December

Facebook reaches more than 12 million active users

• November

Share feature added on Facebook, simultaneously launched on over 20 partner sites

• September

News Feed and Mini-Feed are introduced with additional privacy controls
Facebook expands registration so anyone can join

• August

Facebook development platform launches
Notes application is introduced
Facebook and Microsoft form strategic relationship for banner ad syndication

• May

Facebook expands to add work networks

• April

Facebook raises $27.5 million from Greylock Partners, Meritech Capital Partners and others
Facebook Mobile feature launches

2005

• December

Facebook reaches more than 5.5 million active users

• October

Photos is added as an application
Facebook begins to add international school networks

• September

Facebook expands to add high school networks

• August

The company officially changes its name to Facebook from thefacebook.com

• May

Facebook raises $12.7 million in venture capital from Accel Partners;
Facebook grows to support more than 800 college networks

2004

• December

Facebook reaches nearly 1 million active users

• September

Groups application is added; the Wall is added as a Profile feature

• June

Facebook moves its base of operations to Palo Alto, Calif.

• March

Facebook expands from Harvard to Stanford, Columbia and Yale

• February

Mark Zuckerberg and co-founders Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes and Eduardo Saverin launch Facebook from their Harvard dorm room

Source http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?timeline

So far I have covered two of the four mindsets I believe are deadly in today’s new marketplace.

The first was the Status Quo Mindset and the second was the Arrogance Mentality Mindset.

Today I will cover the third mindset I find very noted for the season we are currently in.

It is the Business Suicide Mentality #3: The “Hunker Down” Mindset.

The reference to hunker down means two things: One is preparation for some type of pressure you’re anticipating. The other relates to hiding.

With the jobless rates soaring, consumer spending way down and the incredible shifts occurring in new millennium business across the board today, it’s no wonder hunkering down would be a serious consideration for you if you are in business. The worst thing a business can do during this time is to hunker down and hide.

Hunkering down is not the same as being prudent or making more calculated decisions. There is nothing wrong in tightening the belt and paying close attention to your overhead and operating expenses. This should be a normal part of your everyday business processes.

The problem with hunkering down is it is mostly an action driven by fear rather than confidence. When you are making decisions based on fear for your business, you are positioning yourself to be moved into a negative mindset that fosters protection instead of retooling or repositioning. It dampens creativity and change and without these in today’s marketplace you are pretty much just going through the motions until there are no more motions left to go through!

In my line of business (digital marketing consulting and digital media development) we have seen a huge slow down of business as well in this tough economy. We have seen both large and small projects scheduled for production being postponed or pulled altogether. The story in each of these cases is just about the same. “We have to trim our spending, jobs are getting cut, or we don’t think we have the budget for this right now”.

Here is the sad truth about those kinds of decisions though. First, when you are faced with tough times no doubt you need to make some changes. But…don’t operate with a status quo mindset and purposefully resist change because of fear and because you are out of your comfort zone!

Rather, understand this is a remarkable time for you to redesign, retool, reposition, rethink your business. After all, we are in a new business age. If you are not aware of this then I would have to say you have some serious catching up to do. But for those who are aware of this but not sure what to do about it…I would like to offer some suggestions you may want to consider.

First, come to grips with we are in The Change Era. The world has changed. Business has changed. Marketing has changed. Your Client has changed.

Probably the biggest change any of us will see in our lifetimes is the amazing magnitude of change on modern society the Internet (and the World Wide Web in particular) has delivered. As it continues to morph and expand and reinvent itself something more deep-seated is going on as a result. A movement of sorts is being termed as the rise of the “New” customer as technology empowers consumers like never before.

Understand this is not merely a shift in new forms of technology use but it’s a shift in doing business in accepting the mindset of partnering and engaging with your customer on their terms…not yours. That’s a huge shift for many of us in business today!

Second, we are never going to see ‘business as usual’ again. This is not a temporary departure from business as usual…it’s a structural transformation, a lasting change.

• The old business models used for the past 60 years or so are going to be replaced with new ways of doing business that look nothing like we have seen so far because this no ordinary shift. It is a once-in-a-lifetime shift challenging the very foundations of the all economic order.

• 20th century business practices will not work for 21st century economics. Yesterday’s businesses were built for a world of over consumption, artificially cheap production, mass sales. Industrial-era dinosaurs are going to bite the dust hard if they don’t redefine and transform. This is true for both small and large business.  (Read the amazing Umair Haque)

Thirdly, strategy and creativity rules! They matter more now than maybe ever before in today’s marketplace.

I remember my days in corporate America and if you were strategic and creative, that was almost a liability for you if you wanted to be taken serious and be moved up in a company. But today, you need these working for you in just about everything you do in your business. From your marketing positioning to your niche, to your employees, etc., even right down to your logo!

Not just any old strategy and creative approach will work either. That is what is a bit tricky here. It must be totally in the know of this new business era we are in. It must understand the new consumer; it must embrace the digital world and know how to emotionally connect with your specific target markets.

There’s not a shortage of business to be had in this tough economy… there’s a shortage of knowing the rules have changed in business and marketing and what it is you going to do about it. Now is the time to reconsider how you are responding to a living, breathing, evolving and changed marketplace.

As I have said, fear has gripped many people in business today and to make matters worse, the course of action most are taking to deal with a soft marketplace is to ride it out by hunkering down and pulling back!  Believe me…being paralyzed by fear and hunkering down is NOT the answer.

What are you doing to position your businesses the rest of 2009?

So I decided to check out what was going on and lo and behold, many fellow tweets were voicing their not so nice things about P Diddy (Sean “Diddy” Combs).

See for yourself…

#unfollowdiddy is trending so I read his tweets. He’s less of a jerk than I expected, but arrogant as he**. Twitters taking him down a peg.

#unfollowdiddy FOLLOW ME FOR A FREE #unfollowdiddy T SHIRT -ONE WINNER EVERY HOUR SM L XL

Good Morning twit fam!! I see the movement #unfollowdiddy is still going strong!

I think I will #unfollowdiddy even though I never followed him because it seems to be the cool thing to do today.

@iamdiddy if you love your followers so much, why not follow them back? #unfollowdiddy {so…why not?}

#unfollowdiddy because he’s a loser!

#unfollowdiddy It’s not because he hit 1 million. It’s how he did it. He kept screaming at people to RT. It was unnatural.

WOW! He is getting slammed by ‘the people’!! This is just a very small sampling of what is on the mind of the fans.

This whole #unfollowdiddy campaign is freaking hilarious. I unfollowed him a long time ago because he was so annoying.

I think they hurt Diddy’s feelings…he’s taken the #unfollowdiddy thing personally…LOL

What did he do to receive so much wrath?

That’s not the focus of my sharing today but I can tell you it had to do with folks perceiving he has double standards.

The point I am wanting to make in bringing this to your attention is not to spread gossip but to AGAIN backup up my position with real live facts…your brand is in the hands of the people.

And as you can see…it doesn’t matter WHO you are. If you are a super star or a politician, a local restaurant, a freelancer, or whatever. In minutes, you can be swept up in a fury of good or bad PR (People Release) and it can have huge repercussions (both good or bad).

What can you do to try and make sure what happened to P Diddy (Sean “Diddy” Combs) today does not happen to you?

Here are just a few proactive things to help ensure you don’t get on the bad list.

Be Real! People are fed up with lip service and falseness. Don’t be fake! Old fashioned things like character, honor and integrity will take you a long way in today’s marketplace both online and off (imagine that, this is back in style!).

Care about People! Don’t get full of yourself. Pay attention to what you do and how you treat people online and off. Don’t treat some better than others because they have more stature. You never know who you are dealing with and that can come back and bite you someday. Someone is always watching and talking about you and your business or brand. You cant fake care!

Don’t be Just a Taker! In today’s community minded economy, being a genuine giver is an expected and appreciated quality. What can you do to help others better their lives?

Take Your Tribe Serious! If you are in the position to have a following no matter how large or small, see that as a privilege, not a right. If you have such a following it is your responsibility to learn all you can on how to be the best you can for them and how to nurture your tribe. Here’s something I don’t see much of… help someone you don’t know move up a notch in their business. Like Gary Vaynerchuck says (paraphrased)…Social Equity is as valuable to anyone in business as Financial Equity. This is Tribenomics for sure.

If you are not in tune with how social community and social media works and how to best position your business and brand…get a professional to help you get positioned for this right now! Because here’s the thing…with or without you, the people rule!

P.S. If you need some advice or referral for help on this please feel free to contact me at hn @ strategicbusinessdesigner.com

Apparently the marketing gurus in this company (and most other corporations for that matter) have not taken into consideration every move they make…we are watching them…and Twittering!

All over the country people were Twittering about their unhappy experience in “real-time“.  This is the power of the Social Network folks!

It’s for certain, many folks on were not happy campers. Just look at some of the comments I saw coming across Twitter…

one dollar flip flop day at old navy : hate hate hate flip flops : hate hate hate old navy : hate everyone buying flip flops right now

I just hope that Old Navy took names of everyone who CAMPED OUT for flip flops, in the interests of future gene pool cleansing

Da%$#^…old navy is out of $1 flip flops…i should have known.

In Old Navy people are fighting over the flip flops.I’m not even joking.

No more flip flops at old navy. Like 0 pairs left. People are intense.

Old navy was a bunch of B.S.

OLD Navy will remember the next time they have a $1.00. They had to close the store!

Craziness at Old Navy, all for cheap plastic shoes! So not worth it!

Will Old Navy try to do damage repair? That remains to be seen. What I do know is this should be a lesson for all of us in business but especially for you big guys.

No longer are you in control of your brand. The people are! Anyone in business not recognizing this must have checked out awhile back.

But here the thing, it’s not enough to just recognize this. You better be proactive and THINK through your marketing, services, products, advertising, etc.

Just sitting around the table dreaming up promotions and such is very dangerous in this new era. Heck, I’m still upset with KFC when they would not take my coupon I downloaded from the Oprah offer. That turned into a PR nightmare for them even if they don’t know it.

What matters is what the customer thinks…PERIOD!

In my 13 years as a web business professional I see this happen over and over. It happens with large corporations, to one man shop freelancers, to mid size and small businesses to entrepreneurs. Their website gets very little attention and nurturing at the stage of inception often handed off to the ‘web people’ to Make It So!

What’s wrong with that you ask?

Well for starters, your website and web properties (blogs, social pages, digital campaigns, etc) are not just flipping things that show up on the Internet! Rather they are digital jewels! They are exceptionally valuable to your business survival and well being.

They should not be looked at as just some text, images and a few things that go bump in the night on the web. Nor should they be just referred to as marketing ‘tools’.

No, your website and web presence is to be a digital expression of your business. It is your front door to the world to radiate the passion, heartbeat, culture, creativity, innovation, and emotion of your business. It should be your best ‘digi-friend’. I’m not joking.

Why do I take this position?

The world has changed. Business has changed. Marketing has changed. Your Client has changed.

I just love what Jeremy Dent at JuiceDigital says on this…

“With the obsession about financial ‘instruments’ and debt management, the business of innovation in products and services aimed at a sustainable future is bankrupt. Tomorrow’s growth won’t come from a particular person, place, or technology but from understanding why recent growth has failed.

The same growth models applied to new people, places, and technologies will simply result in the same crises, over again. We have to reboot growth (and maybe capitalism itself): the problem is not what is growing versus what is not, but how we grow.

So as marketers, let’s concentrate at creative thinking in those areas in which we have control. We know that the conventional advertising, public relations and direct marketing models are having less effective results. The consumer (and business user) is Web-savvy, resistant to interruption and engaging in more and more interaction online”.

Being in business and being Web-savvy is more than just using the Internet daily. It’s understanding and embracing the truth that at the core of succeeding in 21st Century business is a new mindset about the way you do business and the value you place on your digital presence and property!

It’s about taking control and responsibility in the ownership and nurturing of your digital business objectives and getting the best quailified professionals to help you make your onlone postion a strong and eveloing one. Not just leaving it to the intern, your high school son, some web shop or department. You better treat it right if you want to be around!