Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Is Your Market Strategy Wile E. Coyote or The Roadrunner?

When I was growing up, one of my all-time favourite cartoons was the one with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.

For anyone not familiar, Wile was (as his name suggests) a coyote, and he was always trying to catch his titular nemesis, the Road Runner (a large bird whose signature sound was ?meep meep?).

The problem was, no matter how many times Wile tried to catch Road Runner (and they were numerous!), he always seemed to fail in ways almost as spectacular as his plans were. It usually ended with Wile being flattened, falling off a cliff, being run over by a train or truck and more.

So what has this to do with taking social media and marketing from theory to operational? More than you might imagine.

Planning for Prolonged Success is Crucial

One of Wile?s biggest failings is that he only saw the immediate future and what he could do to make Road Runner his next meal. While short-term goals are fine for your business, it?s the long-term strategy that will see you succeed or fail.

Going for the quick hit may result in initial success, but you have to really plan for prolonged success.

Being fluid with your plans

Twitter and Facebook may be the golden child now, but you only need to look at MySpace and Friendster to see how the mighty can fall. You wouldn?t put all your eggs in one basket offline ? why act differently online? Watch to see how networks are being viewed by the analysts and be ready to change ahead of any meltdown.

Building partnerships for profit

Wile relied on Acme Products for some of the traps he put together to ensnare Road Runner. Having a loyal client partnership is one thing, but again, do you really want to just have one partner? Look at what your marketing needs are; look to see who?s enjoying significant success in the social space with tools that will meet your marketing needs; and build partnerships with each. Be prepared so if one partner falls, you won?t fall with them.

Having a solid back-up plan

Every time Wile failed to catch Road Runner, he?d move onto his next harebrained scheme, which was also doomed to fail. As the economic meltdown last year showed us, we never know what can happen ? but we can be prepared. Make sure you?re not relying solely on social media to make your business a success. You still need to adhere to the Four P?s of Marketing ? Product, Price, Place and Promotion ? and build upon your offline success with this matrix. Some products and services just aren?t built for a social audience ? use the Four P?s to define whether yours is or not.

Operation Social Audit

While on paper it might look like Wile had everything planned to a tee, the truth was a lot different. He didn?t really have any QA measures in place, and his projections on project success were always way off.

Again, he was blinded by the target and the possibilities as opposed to the mind of the target and the potential pitfalls.

Your success in mixing your marketing needs with the social media space can be defined early on by a social audit. This allows you to get into the minds of your target and also catch any pitfalls before you trip up on them operationally later on ? something Wile could have learned from.

The target is not the only thing to shoot for

Any business needs to know its target audience, sure ? but you also need to know how to aim properly. Connect with your existing audience before adapting to any social tools and ask if they?d benefit from you being there. If not, and you?re not aiming for a new audience altogether, do you really need to pull the trigger on an empty target?

Social media is not cost-free

No matter how many times you?re told social media is inexpensive, it?s not. It may save you on ?traditional? advertising or marketing costs, but the time expense and the strategy meetings, research and follow-through all cost money as well.

A poorly executed social media strategy could cost you much more money in the long run as you count the cost of wasted man hours, talent, development and
execution. The Price part of the Four P?s is very evident here ? make sure you scope your long-term investment costs and how you?ll measure return.

Another way to make social media operationally viable for you is to think how you can service your clients. Wile failed because he never had anyone in a similar situation to share his views with, and they could have corrected or recommended other methods to his approach, and taught him from their experience.

Your success so far has been because of your expertise in your sector. Clients and customers trust you. Why not use that trust and build on it?

Share some of your social marketing success with your clients and help them grow. Ask what?s worked for them. Build ideas together, both brick and mortar and online.

There?s no success more solid than shared victories and strengthened partnerships; as your knowledge and social marketing success grows so can that of your partners and clients, all led by you.

The Why of social media and marketing is long gone; the How is the now. Plan ahead; plan for longevity; build strong partnerships and best practices.

Learn from Wile E. Coyote and be the Road Runner. Be that one step ahead.

Faded Old Photos

Papa Peters

This is a Shared Inspiration from Ken Peters.

People from all walks of life go to work each day, do the best they can, then go to sleep and start over again in the morning – all the while hoping that what they’re doing has meaning.

Finding that meaning isn’t always easy.

Through the years, the American dream has been recast in the die of celebrity.

Contrary to what television teaches, life isn?t a talent competition, and Warhol?s proverbial 15 minutes aren?t an entitlement.

Merit isn?t measured in notoriety or fame. Value comes from hard work, and integrity. Life takes effort ? effort that sometimes goes unnoticed.

On my bookshelf rests a relic that reminds me of this every day ? a battered and beaten carbide headlamp that once lit my grandfather?s way in the coal mines of Ohio. It represents a work ethic you don?t find much anymore.

For me, it?s a reminder that a life of meaning doesn?t require celebrity.

My grandfather never achieved fame. He never cured a disease or created a stirring work of art. His name never appeared in lights. He never solved great mysteries or made amazing discoveries. You won?t find his pithy quips quoted for posterity on Twitter.

In fact, his was one of those anonymous faces you might ponder in faded old photographs and wonder, ?Who was that guy??

Who ?That Guy? Was

My grandfather was born in 1913, to an Ohio family of modest means. He came of age during the Great Depression and the Dustbowl, in what author Timothy Egan dubbed ?the worst hard times.?

Not much is known about his early life. Part of his young adulthood was spent tramping the Midwest, working in the circus, and doing the kinds of odd jobs available to someone with only an eighth grade education. By 1937 he?d made his way back to Ohio, and into coal mining.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor he enlisted and shipped to the pacific with the U.S. Army 37TH Infantry Division.

There he saw action during campaigns at Bougainville, in the Solomon Islands, and Luzon, in the Philippines ? enduring brutal jungle warfare where the malaria and conditions were as deadly as the enemy. He participated in two amphibious assaults, was awarded the Bronze Star, and attained the rank of Staff Sergeant.

Upon his honorable discharge in 1945 he returned to mining, where he would spend the next 15 years working for the Hanna Coal Company of Ohio.

Why he resigned himself to a life of labor in the mines rather than seek greater opportunity through government programs for returning veterans can only be speculated. Perhaps the lingering pall of the Depression, and a limited education made the familiar seem secure for a man with a growing family.

Through those years he and my grandmother raised three children, including my mother. Eventually, the family moved to Michigan in 1960, where he worked in a machine shop until retirement in the early 1970?s.

An Ornery Man

By the time I was born they tell me he?d become an ornery old man. Downright mean, in fact.

Understandably, early poverty, war, and years of arduous labor could cause a man to develop emotional armor, but I never saw that side of him.

As a child, I was his ?little buddy,? and toward me his manner was always gentle and kind. Heaven knows he often had reason to be angry with me, but he never was.

Decades of inhaling coal dust eventually took a toll in 1994. Pneumoconiosis, or Black Lung, rendered him weak and emaciated, while emphysema tethered him to an oxygen tank. That once strong soldier who stormed beaches under a barrage of enemy fire had become a thin, pale shadow of a man.

Nearing the end, he wanted to see me. He was in Michigan, and I was at college in Arizona, immersed in finals. I planned to visit after the semester, but his condition unexpectedly deteriorated and he died.

Not being there is the biggest regret of my life.

Whatever my grandfather?s aspirations might have been, he was an utterly common man whose life and accomplishments are barely a footnote in history. Yet, that ordinary life had extraordinary meaning that proffers an enduring legacy to all.

Through the years there was purpose without prestige, and fortitude without fame. In such quality of character is found the most authentic measure of a meaningful life.

Fittingly, perhaps, in a metaphorical sense, records from the Hanna Coal Co. cataloging his employment note that, ?All work was underground.?

This post is dedicated to my grandfather ? and everyone toiling in their own mine to make a life of meaning.

This is for people from all walks of life, doing their best each day, hoping that what they?re doing matters and that they?re creating a legacy.

It does, and they are, even if to the world they merely end up as nameless faces in faded old photos…

About Ken: Ken Peters is the co-founding partner and creative director at Nocturnal Designs, a brand amplification consultancy. You can follow Ken on Twitter @brand_BIG.