The Problem With Marketing
So I've been doing a lot of research lately. Reading articles, interviewing "Gurus", watching videos, and everything else you can think of. In doing all this I found a HUGE problem with marketing!
I've talked to a lot of people both in the marketing realm and just small mom and pop businesses. It's sad, in 2013 most businesses are just now hearing about SEO and just now seeing that they need Social Media. But, That is NOT the problem!
Want to know the problem with marketing?
OK, Here Goes!
I'm going to use the fake business "Joes Plumbing" for an example... and lets just say the owner is Joe 
When Joe needs to grow his business he goes to the big box "Marketing Company" and asks what they can do to help. Now, the marketing company most "Joes" go to are "Traditional Marketing Companies" ..You know the type... Promotional items and they dabble a little bit in webdesign because they know they can make some money at it. But these companies aren't the ones who are growing businesses.
They, and most marketing consultants, are behind in marketing. Why? Because the stuff that works... when it works... is kept a secret because the firms who are succeeding for their clients, most of the time, don't want the competition!
Think about it, SEO is starting to "Blow Up" in the "Local Small Business" scene... Pepsi, Coke, Ford, Maxwell House and all these other companies have been pushing SEO for years! As soon as the word gets out ... they have already found new venues and are ok with you stepping in because they got the "New Thing"
Whats the new thing in marketing? Facebook? ... Twitter? ... Tumblr? .... Yes, ALL OF THEM!!!
But its bigger than just Social Media!
It's kind of like the early to mid 90's all over again! Everyone was having websites built but the big "know it all" companies were doing SEO when the rest of us didn't know anything about it.
So you have a Facebook Business Page... But, is it enough?
No, unfortunately its not. There is more to Facebook than just posting a status every now and then hoping someone comments on a post.
Image of VaynerMedia's Founder Gary Vaynerchuk. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I recently got to spend about an hour 1 on 1 with The Social Media Mastermind "Gary Vaynerchuk", Now, there were some "private" things that were shared that I'm not going to post on here but one thing I took away from our talk was that using "Photos" on Facebook ... converts!
Pictures that entice "fans" to click on like and share the photo! Now, it does take more than just a random photo to do this but it's what he is using with his clients like: Brisk, Pepsi, Campbell's Soup and many more!
Oh, and if you didn't know, everything you post on your Facebook Page doesn't get seen by all of your "fans"! (That's a post I'll have to write later on!)
Now, I know its not easy to jump into the Social Media Venues, especially if you are more of a Traditional/Old School kind of person. But, if you don't ... you WILL get left behind!
My Suggestion is...
Find 5-10 of your favorite brands ... Pepsi, Brisk, Red Bull, Ford, Chevy, Campbells, O.W.N., you can pick your own I'm just giving some suggestions. Open up 3 tabs in your internet browser (Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Operah or whatever you use) ...and study what they are doing because they are paying the big bucks for their marketing...
Tab 1: Their Website
How many pages do they have? Do they have a Blog Section? Is Commenting Suggested? Literally ... Tear their website apart and copy (don't break any copyright laws, use your judgement) what their doing.
Tab 2: Their Facebook
How is their page set up? Do they have a "Cover Photo"? How many "Feature Box's" do they have? Are they customized or are they left blank? What kind of things are they posting? Videos? Pictures?
Seriously try to think backwards for a bit ... ok so they posted a picture - Why would they post that specific pic? Is it something you would share? Did it make you want to comment on it? Was it funny or serious? ... Look at each post that they have and disect about 10 of them and use that as guidelines to know what and how to post! (1 more thing ... see what time they are posting and if there is a color scheme ... this may be important! ... yes that would be another post I have to write!)
Tab 3: Their Twitter Account
Don't get overwhelmed by the follower counts! But you can get overwhelmed by their Tweet counts!
Take a look at their interaction and what they talk about ... are they selling? Do they only talk about certain things or do they talk about everything almost as if it is a personal account? How many times do they @ Reply people? (This is a method of publicly talking to an entity on Twitter) Did they talk about the game the other night?
As you can see... just having an account is not enough!
Don't listen to a person who doesn't know what they are talking about ... find your local social media / online marketing expert now! Ask them what to do! Feel free to email me directly ( cj@visionetmedia.com ) with any questions or if you would like to work with someone locally just drop me a line and let me know where you are and I will gladly do a little research for you and let you know who is worth listening to in your area!
I truly hope this helped you understand a little bit more about marketing online and made you aware of the "Problem" 
Please, comment below and let me know what you think! Do you agree with me or disagree?
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Now, I'll let you go...Thank You for spending your precious time with me!
As Always,
To Your Success,
C.J. Hallock
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This post was written by
CJ Hallock is a nine year veteran of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. CJ speaks, blogs, writes articles and makes media of all kinds here at [visionetmedia.com]. He currently resides in Jonesborough, TN.
Tags: Facebook, Gary Vaynerchuk, marketing, Pepsi, Search engine optimization, Social media, Twitter, VaynerMedia
April 5th, 2012 at 3:04 pm
Thank you for this thoughtful post CJ. I recently wrote an article explaining how to get your favorite businesses to appear in your news feed which may be helpful, http://www.eileenlonergan.com/?p=3446.
April 5th, 2013 at 4:33 pm
Good post CJ!
You know me.. If you ask me to think of something I disagree with I’ll certainly try to find something. I’ll not simply agree with everything just because it’s the easy thing to do.
SO….
I can find nothing to disagree on. I think you nailed it on everything you said! Cool?
Gary Anderson II
aka- @GanderCo