As we completed the Barack 2.0 project, we had the opportunity to speak with the professors at Wharton School of Business about the data exhaust that is created due to new media platforms and practices.

These are the questions that came out of that discussion:

• What data is required to produce a profit in business?
• What data is worth inspecting?
• You have the data… now what?
• Does it go into a nice report and sit on the shelf?
• Is all of this data collection and measurement meaningless?

It can be meaningless if the data is not useful and pragmatically applicable.

Let’s look at a few concepts that filter out a lot of the noise:

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How strong is your social network?  How many people can you pick up the phone right now and call right now?  How many would answer?

If you are networking online, are you translating to your activity offline?

Transactions are made out here, in the real world, with real people.

• Meetings
• Conference Calls
• Presentations

I tell my students all the time:

• Get offline.
• Talk to people.
• Develop a relationship.
• Add value to the marketplace.
• Be helpful.
• Befriend people with skills that you don’t have.

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Let’s look at a fundamental truth right from the dictionary. This is the textbook definition. Starting at the beginning.

mar·ket·ing (mär'ki-ting) n.

1. The act or process of buying and selling in a market.

2. The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

Taking a page from politics, marketing is getting an idea into the marketplace and getting people to change their minds and behavior.

Let’s examine a pragmatic definition you can use today:

Marketing is the practice of getting your idea not only into the marketplace but also into the minds of those who are ready, willing and able to take action to consume your product.

As a business, the first thing that your business has to do is promote the idea that it can produce a consumable product. But more importantly, getting the idea to the right people is critical. Traffic is crucial. Actional (conversional) traffic is even more important.

For politics, the consumable product that you market is leadership.

As a business owner, you too are promoting leadership in your chosen market.

So how does this pertain to social media strategy?

Social media for most is a place for chatter. Making that idle chatter actionable is your goal.

So…

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This is a continuation of Social Media Strategy Playbook Series. There is much to learn as we study politics and extract meaningful marketing lessons from the outcomes of the various campaigns. New media technologies are disrupting the landscape of both business and politics and the similarities are staggering. If you have the distinctions to see what is really happening, this is an excellent real-time ideation-to-transaction primer.

We have covered:

Rule 1:  Use All Available Media Channels from the Very Beginning

Rule 2:  Create a Short Meaningful Message, Speak It and Let It Work

More on Social Media Strategy Playbook: Transactional Situations

Social Media continues to disrupt the business of politics. While I continue working in the business sector, over the past year I have become increasingly engaged in the political vertical.

Neal Harrington of www.HarringtonFT.com and I had a conversation several months ago (July 2009) that proved to be very interesting. We are discussing the gap in technical expertise within the political arena in terms of social media deployment. These new communication technologies are completely disrupting the political marketplace.

More on Social Media Strategy: Disrupting the Business of Politics

I was looking on my hard drives and I found a folder full of interviews and conversations that I have had over the years. These are pure gold nuggets of information that I am so glad that I captured. Howie is featured in the interview below.  Howie Jacobson is a good friend of mine. Howie is the author of the “AdWords for Dummies” book.

There is so much in this 7–minute clip:

• PPC
• Salesmanship
• System Setup
• SEO
• Social Media
• Passion For Work
• Media Repurposing

Markets are changing rapidly. Hope that you enjoy it. More to come.

Is social media an effective tool for driving targeted traffic to a brand new website that is starting from a complete standstill?

Based on what we are seeing - yes. I am learning alot with this project, as it is in a market with which I am not at all familiar.

Getting traffic is only the first part of the equation. Motivating that traffic to take action is the part where most social media deployments break down.

More to come in a few days…

Be well…

Apparently, the social media marketing playbook got lost within a year. Folks, we outlined the blueprint as it was happening in 2008 in www.barack20.com.

1. We did not go with a major publisher.
2. We did not spend a fortune on advertising.
3. We used social media just like the typical small to mid-sized business to prove the point that any business could use these new media effectively.

Guess what?  The methodology worked and continues to work. Now it seems that the political world is waking up to the fact the social media is powerful if it is used correctly.

Presidential, Senate and Local Elections: A Different, Closer Look

Doing the same things will yield the same results. The tools are available for use for those who have the foresight to use social media correctly.

Both the Democrat party and the Republican party have recently seen clear victories with social media as the apparent point of leverage. Is that really the case? Or are there other factors beneath the surface that we can uncover with a cross-discipline inspection? Let’s take a look.

2008 Presidential – National Race (Global Reach)

2010 Gubernatorial – Statewide Race (National Reach)

2008 County Election – County Race (Statewide Reach)

The major media and pundits have weighed in with very superficial analysis about the effectiveness of social media.

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Obama 2.0 is in all the headlines today. A friend of mine just send this to me via Twitter (thanks @JillKoenig).  What does this mean?

The question that comes to my mind is how can a business, the backbone of the economy, learn from these political campaigns?

There are true nuggets of marketing, positioning and execution gold that can be found here.

More on Obama 2.0: The Business of Politics

By David Bullock

Watching the market as I have over the last year has been very interesting. Reporting on the market and what the “social media” market is doing has become a big business over the last several years. Heck, just trying to keep up with the new tools is hard enough. So, as we look at a dynamic market, what is the first thing that we have to do?

Find an anchor point.

More on Creating a Workable Social Media Strategy: Thoughts, Tasks or Talking