Janet Lee Johnson | The Art of Marketing

I’m speaking at The Link for Women’s May meeting this evening, bringing attendees gently into the world of social media as a marketing channel. I’m very excited about the presentation, as speaking is one of my favorite things, followed closely by bringing newcomers into awareness of new opportunities.

I guess I’ve found a new love: teaching. Somehow I always dreamed of teaching when I was young. And here I am today, regularly offered that opportunity. That’s bliss.

But I digress… I dutifully sent off my presentation to The Link for Women last night. And this morning find myself trumped by a beautifully articulated and illustrated presentation on social media by Seth Goldstein, CEO of SocialMedia.com. I want to share it here for its sage advice, simplicity, elegance and wonder.

I’ll post my own presentation on SlideShare tomorrow, but in the meanwhile, wow.

From a brilliant post by Gwen Bell comparing yoga to social media:

“Just like you don’t get fit drinking diet cola, eating energy bars and snacking on “low-fat” cookies, you don’t get social media results doing as little as possible and hoping for a big payout at the end of the week.”

Gwen compares the kind of effort and mindset you need to be successful in both yoga and social media; and the quote above is my favorite from this delicious post.

I have a little bitty issue with this paragraph (emphasis is hers) but love the warning about “social media experts” crawling out of the woodwork:

“What you can do with social media is going to come from your gut, not from someone claiming to be a social media expert. Mind you, it doesn’t bother me that some do claim expertise. In the yoga world, the equivalent would be Bikram Choudhury who famously said, “I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me.” Then he proceeded to sue yoga studios that he felt infringed on his special brand of yoga. It takes all types.”

I appreciate that we all need to find our own way in our social media practices, but just as in yoga, one needs to learn the basics in order to practice safely and effectively. That’s where training and understanding the rules of the road comes in, and maybe some atomic balls.

Like standing on your head, it takes a fundamental understanding of what can go wrong to give you the confidence to attempt the pose. I think Gwen might agree with me there…

I’m speaking on a panel today at the annual SOCAP symposium in Chicago. Academic Network, a Stericycle company, invited me to join other panelists in talking about social media in food recall situations, and I’m going to live tweet the day’s events.

Follow my tweets @academicnetwork or use the #symp09 hashtag. I know I’ll learn a ton today, and hope to share some social media in action…

According to an article on Nextgov, the National Defense University is about to release a research paper saying that the US Department of Defense must adopt a comprehensive social media strategy in order to improve national security. From Nexgov:

“This is not just techie-geeky stuff, but serious stuff with national security ramifications,” said Linton Wells, a distinguished research professor at NDU who co-wrote the report. “We can’t ignore [social media] if other nations are using it, both friends and adversaries. If the government keeps not making use of these technologies, we’ll fall behind and be unaware of things that could affect us.”

Dividing social media into four categories, researchers recommend several ways to improve security through social media communication channels:

• Inward sharing: sharing information within the agency or department
• Outward sharing: sharing information with other agencies and external groups
• Inbound sharing: obtaining information and input from the public and outside organizations
• Outbound sharing: sharing information with people outside the government, including the public and other nations

It’s only a matter of time before most government agencies begin to utilize the power of social media to gather, share and deliver information. As I prepare for a panel next week on social media and product recalls, I can only hope that businesses and government (most particularly the FDA, CDC and their food and pharmaceutical constituents) begin to engage in the work of collaborating together in the social media realm for the greater good (and safety) of consumers.

Stay tuned for more from the SOCAP (The Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals in Business) Symposium in Chicago next week, where I’m appearing on a panel about Leveraging Social Media in Product Recalls… I’ll be Tweeting about it as well, tune into #symp09…

According to the Inside Facebook blog, Facebook hit 200 million active users seven months after the most popular US social network hit 100 million users and only 90 days after reaching 150 million. (That’s the power of a site built from the ground up to be viral.)

On average, Facebook has added 500,000 new members a day since late August. 70% of its members are outside the U.S., which I find extremely interesting. Kinda debunks the myth that this social media phenomenon is something businesses can ignore… small, medium or large.

I like Facebook for consumer brands and causes especially, and have found it a great platform on which to blend the personal with a tiny little bit of the professional, or vice versa. (Your mix is up to you - no one should tell you how much of which is okay…)