February 24, 2010
Perhaps I was wrong. In this new 2.0 era, I thought communications was all about having conversations.
Conversations require interaction where people talk and listen. Maybe I’m missing something, but I observe a lot more talking than listening. It seems everyone has something to say and everyone is clamoring to be heard. To me, it looks like the talkers far outnumber the listeners.
Was I mistaken to assume that things would be different with the arrival of the social media revolution? Am I naive in thinking that people would connect with each other because 1) they were genuinely interested in what others had to say and 2) they actually had something of value to share?
As we interact, as we share information, we connect with each other. Social media give us the tools to connect and converse. Sometimes during our conversations we’ll encounter negative or inaccurate information. Does that mean we should immediately end the conversation? Should we refuse to talk because the conversation may be a little awkward or uncomfortable? Absolutely not! Read the rest of this entry »
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Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: 2.0, communications, conversations, donors, listening, marketing, nonptofits, social media, volunteers | 
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Posted by Duane Hallock
February 17, 2010
We hear a lot of people talking about the 2.0 world we live in. Marketers refer to social media tools as Web 2.0. The titles of business books increasingly contain that magical number—2.0.
But what does “2.0” mean? How are things different now than they were before? What has changed?
For starters, let’s agree that the social media revolution has created an entirely new landscape—a 2.0 world. The changes are so profound that those who do not understand it will soon find themselves on the sidelines, confused and perhaps even angry that the world has passed them by.
The social media revolution is really not that confusing. The more we understand and embrace the changes, the more powerful social media will become. Here is my brief comparison of the differences I see between a 1.0 and a 2.0 world:
Let’s look at the nuances between the two. Read the rest of this entry »
6 Comments | Marketing Oneself | Tagged: 2.0, communications, community, Facebook, marketing, social media, Twitter, YouTube | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
February 10, 2010
I believe the social media revolution may be the greatest advance in communications since Gutenberg invented movable type.
A critical mass of people has joined the revolution. Their enthusiasm has prompted them to talk about their “social media strategy.”
There is nothing strategic, though, about either movable type or social media. Both are tools—means to an end. They are inventions that help people communicate quicker and better.
At first, I loved the phrase “social media strategy” because my mantra has always been strategy before tactics.
I’ve often criticized people who act before they think. I have little patience for people who try to communicate without first asking themselves some very basic questions.
Non-strategic communicators don’t really communicate. They just make noise. They write news releases without knowing why. They produce brochures without having a target audience in mind. They bore us with PowerPoint presentations because they have not given thought to what they want us to do with the heap of meaningless, irrelevant information they’ve just dumped on us.
Just because we’ve moved into a 2.0 world doesn’t mean things have changed much. The proliferation of noise continues. People tweet without having a clue who they’re talking to. Too many bloggers ramble on without thinking things through. Nonprofits create Facebook fan pages with no real understanding of why. We live in a world where too many tactics are not tied to a strategy, so the clutter and confusion accumulates. Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: 2.0, communications, Facebook, nonprofits, questions, social media, strategy | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
January 27, 2010
Here at the American Red Cross, our role changes through different phases of disaster relief. All relief efforts—regardless of the disaster size—transition through four distinct phases. Anticipating how a relief effort will unfold helps us better serve those affected by the disaster.
Each stage of recovery demands a specific type of public affairs response. (In case you’re unfamiliar with that term, “public affairs” is used by the military, government agencies and the American Red Cross to describe public relations, communications and media relations.)
The American Red Cross recognizes that our disaster relief unfolds in the following stages:
- Heroic Phase.
- Honeymoon Phase.
- Disillusionment Phase.
- Reconstruction Phase.
What happens in each phase? What should we anticipate as each unfolds? How do public expectations change? How should our communications strategy shift in each phase? Read the rest of this entry »
1 Comment | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: communications, disaster public affairs, marketing, planning, Red Cross, social media | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
December 8, 2009
Exactly 20 years ago today on my birthday, I received my very first PDA (personal digital assistant).
I immediately began keeping my appointments and contacts in an electronic format. Today, two decades later, I have more than 20,000 calendar items that are each tagged, categorized and sorted. I love having a searchable database where I can find anything quickly should my memory someday need augmentation.
I was the first person I knew to own an electronic organizer. Because there were no other such devices to covet I had not yet developed what psychologists might call “gadget envy.”
Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Life in General | Tagged: computers, Facebook, Palm Pre, smart phones, social media, technology, Twitter | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
November 12, 2009
The mission of my marketing department, as described in a previous post, is to 1) build interactive relationships, 2) increase community support and 3) generate revenue. How do we actually do that?
My marketing team here at the American Red Cross accomplishes its work in these three steps: Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: 2.0, communications, Facebook, Google, mission, mission statement, personal mission, publications, Red Cross, social media, TweetDeck | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
November 3, 2009
In these strange economic times, too many good people are unemployed. I’m grateful for my job, yet I know there’s no such thing as complete job security. This is a scary time, yet I fear something more frightful than unemployment.
I’m afraid of obsolescence—becoming obsolete, irrelevant and dispensable.
Every employee, every worker and every professional has an expiration date (and I don’t mean a date with death). Like milk in the grocery store, everyone has a “Best If Used By…” label. Everyone has a skill set, a knowledge base or a network of contacts that will be outdated very quickly in today’s fast-paced world. No one buys sours milk, no matter how fresh it once tasted. Neither do employers hire or retain obsolete workers, no matter how productive they once were.
Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | Life in General, Life's Transitions, Marketing Oneself | Tagged: blogs, Chris Brogan, Job Search, job security, mentors, new media, podcasts, Seth Godin, social media, strategy, Susan Bratton, traditional media, unemployment | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
August 27, 2009
In my opinion, too many nonprofit organizations have Facebook fan pages.
They were probably created because 1) everyone else was doing it 2) the technology was available or 3) someone with influence told them they needed to be on Facebook. The problem is they don’t know why they have a Facebook page.
At the American Red Cross of Greater Kansas City, we decided not to launch a Facebook page until we could tie it to our strategy. As marketing director, I did not want to naively launch a traditional 1.0 tactic using a new 2.0 tool. Though I’m a huge proponent of the social media revolution, I wanted to understand how a Facebook page would fit into the smorgasbord of all the communication tools available.
We had just redesigned our Web site (kcredcross.org) and I wanted our Facebook page to be complementary rather than redundant. Our Web site would continue to serve as a useful reference in the 1.0 world of broadcasting or pushing information, whereas our social media activities would hopefully spawn interaction, provoke conversation and ultimately engage members of our 2.0 community.
The strategy came into focus as I re-read Seth Godin’s book Tribes. The Red Cross Facebook page could become the place where our “tribe” would gather to share information and rally around a common cause. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: 2.0, communication, donors, Facebook, fundraising, nonprofit, Red Cross, Seth Godin, social media, stories, strategy, volunteers, Web site | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
August 20, 2009
Having earned a master’s degree in marketing, I feel confident in asserting that marketing is not really all that complicated.
When I taught marketing at a local university, the CEO of a major company invited me to speak at the planning retreat of his regional managers. He sheepishly asked, “Can you condense into 15 minutes everything you teach in a 16-week class?” Tongue-in-cheek, I replied, “Actually, I only have 15 minutes of marketing knowledge. The hard part is stretching that over an entire semester.”
In more than 20 years of working on projects and coaching others as they engaged in their own marketing endeavors, I have learned the following 10 things about marketing:
- Marketing is based upon common sense, though such sense is uncommon.
- The social media revolution is the best thing to happen to marketing in a long, long time—even though the rules for marketing success are forever changed.
- Old-school marketers who try to tightly control the message will become increasingly frustrated, disoriented and ultimately obsolete.
- If you’re not creating community and engaging people in conversations, then you’re still living in a 1.0 world—even if you are using 2.0 tools and technology.
- Communications comes at the end of the marketing process, not at the beginning.
- If you aim your message at no one in particular, don’t be surprised if no one in particular responds.
- Marketing will always flounder when not in pursuit of a measurable goal.
- If a product, service or person cannot be differentiated, it cannot be marketed.
- Without a quid-pro-quo exchange, you’ll never have a solid marketing program. After all, marketing is the exchange of something of value for something you need.
- Value can be defined only by the customer, not the company producing the product or service. (Nonprofit organizations especially have trouble with this.)
From your experience, what additional observations can you share? Can you elaborate on any of these axioms? Do you disagree with any of them?
3 Comments | Marketing & Strategy | Tagged: 2.0, communications, differentiation, goals, marketing, message, social media, strategy, technology | Permalink
Posted by Duane Hallock
I communicate with passion and purpose to inspire those searching for beauty and truth.
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