Social Media Marketing ... Still No Love

I was reading Laurel's blog about the post she saw on BizReport about a study done by Coremetrics where they surveyed a series of companies to get their take on a breakdown of their marketing budget and where social media fell. I decided to check the post out for myself.

"78% of the marketing professionals stated that social media marketing was a way of getting an edge on their competitors"

An edge on their competitors and only 7.7% of their budget was going this direction. They say the waters are uncharted, they say it's because there's no way to measure the ROI; all valid points I guess. It comes down to what you are trying to "communicate" with the end consumer. Do you actually have a value proposition? Do you even have a great product? There are a lot of good products out there dipping their toes in the social media space and then complaining they don't have the tools to measure their return. Maybe it's not the best reason to invest in something because you think it gives you a competitive edge in your quadrant study. Here's my recommendations to the companies that are standing on the edge trying to figure out this how social media thing that's really been happening since the dawn of forums, chat rooms, bullet boards, etc:

1. Be authentic
2. Have a great product
3. Have a plan of action that includes metrics and how you are going to measure them
4. Tag everything, data is your friend
5. Know your audience, find out where they are 24 hours a day, what devices they use
6. Don't be afraid to test for 30 days and know where your money's going
7. Monitor, Optimize and Increase your touch points
8. At the end of the day, have fun doing it!

Planning is nothing without execution.

The Future of Advertising Agencies

There's a great discussion going on over at Gooruze.com about the future of advertising agencies and the shift from traditional to interactive to digital.

What does LaundryMEDIA mean?

I wanted to bring to light where LaundryMEDIA came from. I started it back in 1997 when I was attending Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Right http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.giffrom the get-go I knew that going through the graphic design courses at a "conceptual" art school wasn't going to provide me with the skillset I needed to get a job out of school. So I skipped classes during the week and started LaundryMEDIA, my own web design business. I did have a shillset at the time that included Quark, Adobe Pagemaker, Freehand and a Photoshop-like software (don't remember). I had designed logos, brochures for plays in highschool, my own aggressive inline skating magazine called DailyWorx that was local to the South Jersey/Philadelphia area. I started this with my good buddy Jimmy Shuda, who now is an acclaimed skater. Here he is on video and a link with more information if you are into skating.

I bought A LOT of books on website usability, designing for the web, typography, design books featuring firms that were Swiss, German, British, Asian and lots of books on the California surf/skate design scene. I was picking and choosing what I liked and trying to decide where my own style fit in. I was laying my path. The idea of sorting through ideas, tossing the ones I didn't like aside and mashing up the ones I liked and bundling them into each and every design led me to the word "laundry." At the time I was getting heavy into Flash. I remember at the time while everyone was trying to figure out the Adobe suite in college, I was teaching myself Flash and teaching our professor during classes. You can see my college portfolio here.

So LaundryMEDIA's formula looks like this: "laundry" + New Media + problem solving + sorting + sifting + mashing + multimedia + simplicity. As I grew into more of a marketing point of view I was able to look at campaigns, projects and microsites from all angles from UI design to marketing to programming to web standards to traditional business to strategy, making me quite the hybrid talent as the time. Now a new evolution...

I'm not big into dreams, but I thought what LaundryMEDIA could mean for me now. I found this:

"Dreaming that you are sorting the laundry indicates that you are trying to understand your own feelings and sorting your attitudes."

If we insert "Media" I would say that this is my feelings/attitude towards what is happening in Media from Marketing to Creative to Business to Strategy. I like that; purpose.

I'll not only be posting here a lot now, but you can find me over at bjcook.gooruze.com where I am a founding Gooru for this new online marketing community.

Discussion on Social Networking for Businesses

This was a discussion that I gave at an iMarketers seminar.


Online Videos by Veoh.com

Find me at bjcook.gooruze.com

How The Online World Can Help Burma

How Can you help?

Copy the following code and paste it into your blog, emails, Myspace profile, anywhere.



<a href="http://beta.razoo.com/causes/the_road_film_life_inside_burma"><br /><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1385/1444400481_b0af2503b5_o.png" alt="Click here to support the movement in Burma" /></a>

June 2007 Update

So I've shifted into my new role as Director of Business Development at dt, elected to Board of Directors for San Diego Ad Club, got married in February to Sarah Mingo (who is now Sarah Marie Cook) and doing the usual beach volleyball training, traveling and living life!

Not sure how long I'll be posting on here, but I noticed that my Pagerank is up to 6. Pretty cool. I started Laundry Media back in 1997 in a dorm room at Rutgers University in New Brunswick doing small business web design and development. What a path I've taken. If you still subscribe to this blog and I would like to either keep hearing from me or partake in writing some stuff let me know. It's a UGC state of the nation online now, so I welcome all bloggers!

thanks BJ

2007 UPDATE

So I've been gone a long time here from this blog as my laundrymedia.com domain got snatched up by some squatter who wants to charge me $500 to get it back after I've had it since 1997. I'm a bit bummed about it yes. I started a Google Group about Search Engine Marketing Strategy so feel free to shoot on over there to check it out and contribute.

I potentially could end up back on this blog talking about various topics, but for now I am blogging at blog.dtelelpathy.com under the surname: Digital Marketing Doctor.

digital-telepathy, Inc. Joins SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing Professionals

digital-telepathy, Inc., a San Diego digital marketing agency has joined SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization, to contribute to the awareness of search engine marketing best practices and to highlight the benefits of integrating search into your overall digital marketing strategy.

In an effort to raise awareness to the benefits of integrating search engine marketing services into your overall digital marketing strategy, digital-telepathy, Inc. joined SEMPO, Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization. SEMPO is a non-profit professional association working to educate and to promote the value of search engine marketing worldwide.

"Search engine marketing continues to steadily see growth year-after-year as an invaluable tactic in our client's overall digital marketing strategy. There is also an insurmountable number of businesses who do not have access to the proper education for search engine marketing," says BJ Cook, Digital Marketing Director at digital-telepathy, Inc.

With the abundant resources available on SEMPO.org, digital-telepathy Inc. understands the importance of participating in an active community of credible, reputable SEM agencies and contributing to the education of the masses. Aligning itself with SEMPO, dt sees its role as strategic to providing search engine marketing case studies and research documents highlighting client's return on investment from successful implementation of search engine marketing programs.

"The search engine marketing industry will only grow stronger as agencies learn to share their trials and tribulations with each other. We are all on the same path, striving for measurable results from our search engine marketing services and better ways to transfer that knowledge to our clients; SEMPO is a great tool," adds Cook.

About digital-telepathy, Inc.

digital-telepathy, Inc is a digital marketing agency with a unique blend of business expertise, online marketing prowess and innovative web design/development. They create engaging internet marketing campaigns that deliver a positive return on investment. Their dynamic and energetic team is comprised of experts in new media including website design, XHTML/CSS programming, Ajax development, Flash, copywriting, internet marketing, media planning, project management, business strategy, product launches and more. Their energy and thirst for innovation continues well beyond the first signs of success, making it natural for them to continue to create and improve upon their unique, lively and engaging new media campaigns.

About SEMPO

The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) was formed to help spread the good news about search engine marketing (SEM).

SEMPO exists to fill the gaps in awareness and understanding of SEM, including educating marketing managers worldwide about what SEM is and how properly implemented SEM programs can provide some of the highest returns on investment possible in the marketing world today.

SEMPO is primarily made up of search engine marketing firms and consultants, in-house marketing professionals, web developers, and advertising agencies that have seen search engine marketing's value first hand and believe in the effectiveness of educational materials and programs describing the value of SEM strategies and tactics.

For further information, visit http://www.sempo.org

Broadband Reaches 72% At Home

Nielsen//NetRatings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, announced today that nearly three-quarters of U.S. active Web users connected at home via broadband in May, growing 15 percentage points over a year ago, when just 57 percent of active Web users relied on broadband connections at home.

Research also indicates that broadband users are more likely to make better use of Internet functionalities and newer technologies, such as RSS feeds and blogging.

Boutique Hotel in Bocas del Toro

For those of you thathave no idea where Bocas del Toro is; Bocas del Toro is a Caribbean archipelago located in West Panama near the Costa Rican border. A little off the beaten track, your wondrous tropical island adventure begins after a one-hour flight from Panama City.

So where to stay?

Bocas del Toro Hotel of course!

Hotel Bocas del Toro features 11 room boutique hotel rooms with 300-thread count cotton sheets, safety boxes, air-conditioning, color/cable TV, phones and balconies with ocean and town views, as well as in-room massages.

Sounds like a veritable oasis to escape your laptop and marketing duties! The real reason I'm mentioning this is to highlight how you can use blogs to empower your branding and marketing strategies for even the smallest of clients. Think about it. Anyone reading this needs a vacation at some point. Why not let them know about a great spot that isn't your typical getaway and garner some branding awareness?!
Visit this Bocas del Toro hotel