I wrestled with the subtitle of this blog and went back and forth a few times which is why the about page makes no mention of this as I write this post.  But I feel that I can wrap up all want to do here with this simple title.

I am a huge Quentin Tarantino fan and the line comes from the last scene in 1994’s Pulp Fiction, one of my favorite movies of all time.  The character of Jules Winnfield played by the legendary Samuel L. Jackson utters this line (its actually, “tryin’ real hard to be the shepherd”) in the dinner scene as he talks down a pair of armed robbers from making out with his boss’ briefcase rather than trying to kill them. His character is a hitman in the movie could have easily killed them.

Jules at the start of the movie is like much of traditional marketing and promotion, just trying to get the quick sale (the easy kill) or trick you.  Bang bang, another promotion, another conversion, another profit collected.  I see new Jules as what Chris Brogan refers to as human business.  Relationships and being human should come first for individuals and businesses.

At one point in the conversation with the robber Jules even utters,  “I don’t want to kill you, I want to help you”.

“Trying to be the shepherd” is about making a meaningful change (trying to become a better version of yourself or your business).  I want to empower you or your business by sharing in my experiences and thoughts.

Here is the complete ending scene.  If you have scene it, watch it again but think about what I wrote here. (Warning: tons of explicit language)

human business, marketing, merille, new media, pulp fiction, shepherd, social media, tarantino Hide

Forget what you know about marketing, marketing is a conversation. Traditional marketing (ads, direct mail, push) is not dead but it is less and less effective everyday.  I am often asked for assistance in marketing education programs and specifically using social media to connect with prospects.

The biggest challenge comes from explaining the idea that your/our job should be to listen, provide great content and engage.

Listen, because today more than ever there are many ways to get feedback on your product or service.

Provide great content, meaning content that is useful and entertaining to your target market.

Engage, social media has made engaging with your customers easier than ever.  When coupled with active listening, this will allow you to react quickly and address issues before they affect your institution’s reputation.

Marketing has at times had a sleazy salesy connotation.  Truth is, that is usually bad marketing.  Usually when you cannot identify it, its great marketing.

If your exposure to marketing is limited or you have not read anything on the subject in a few years I can understand why it may be easier to not think of it as marketing.  So don’t.  Consider and take to heart the three points above and you will succeed.

Here is a fantastic explanation by Perry Belcher:

engage, inbound marketing, marketing, non-marketing, unmarketing Hide

“We need a Social Media Policy”

Why.

This is the most important question that an organization should ask themselves. Because the answer to this question will dictate the nature of the policy.

If the reason stems from a control issue, wanting to ensure content which is not sanctioned is not created, then the policy will be of no use.  The very nature of social media dictates that it not be vetted, sanctioned or filtered.  It is afterall, real conversations by real people.

The policy should provide a guideline and as in the case of IBM’s policy, it should refer back to a business conduct policy if one exists.  Technology does not change the ethics of interacting with others.  Online or off, people should be treated with respect and employees should take ownership and responsibility over their actions.

Make sure to take a look at  Sharlyn Lauby’s article on the 10 Must-Haves for your Social Media Policy. She referenced two great policy examples. The IBM policy (referenced above) and a shorter example by Headset Bros embedded below.

The Headset Bros policy is a great example for a small to medium size business.  It embraces the nature of Social Media by asking employees to go out and join as many networks/communities as they like.

The only thing I would add is something specific to the employee representing themselves online. There are cases where a network, such as facebook, requires a profile to interact with a group and there is no language in the policy about representing the company via your profile as well.

Bottom Line: The Golden Rule should be a part of every social media policy.

HEADSET BROS – SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

marketing, new media, policy, social media, social media policy, web Hide

best buy, cmo, marketing, social media, transparency Hide

I read this post last night on Techcrunch about Best Buy’s twitter campaign and thought it was a fantastic idea.

I think this would be a phenomenal way to improve customer service and live our brand promise. I understand that not everyone is on twitter but getting an account is so simple and there are so many ways to access it (a new user is bound to find one they are comfortable with).

Training
Obviously, the first step would be to make sure employees understand how twitter works and what the do’s and don’ts would be. (identifying oneself as an employee, not asking for any personal info, etc).

It is also important to offer training to new twitter users.  An easy solution to this might be to aggregate the best training videos (for the various twitter applications) from the web.

Sign-up
Best Buy created a custom web application that includes an employee number for sign-up.  The legal information is also a great template.

How it works
It is actually a rather simple solution for the users. By signing in, employees add their tweets to the best buy stream and also have the ability to tweet under the collective twitter account.  They do this by adding a keyword to their tweet.

Alternates
I know there are solutions out there to have multiple users share an account (co-tweet, hootsuite) but I really think that this is a better enterprise wide solution that does away with the scheduling aspects and makes it easy for all to get involved quickly.

Imagine if your university could have at least 1-2 employees from each department/school/program using this system.

best buy, brand, marketing, social media, twitter, web 2.0 Hide

Well, sort of.   I just wanted to share an incredible customer service experience from an unexpected source.

I was leaving work a couple of months ago and the traffic light that leads out of the campus was only allowing one or two cars to turn before changing to red again.  I sat in the car for nearly 20 minutes about 500 feet from the light waiting to make my left turn.

While sitting in the car, I searched for “miami-dade traffic lights” on my iphone goolge app and ended up on this page.  There was an email at the bottom
(gomiamidade@miamidade.gov)

At this point the light changed and I had to move but I left the email open and drove home.  Still fuming from the idea that I may have to deal with the light again the next day I continued writing the email on the phone as I got out of my car at home.  My wife asked what I was doing, to which I replied,  “Writing an email about the traffic light changing too fast”.  Her response to this came with a slight chuckle and an eye roll, “To who?- Are you serious?”

Deep down I did not really expect anything to come from it but thought perhaps the email would have a cathartic effect, so I finished my note and hit send.

Here is my exact email to gomiamidade@miamidade.gov:

The traffic light behind FIU at 117ave has been changed.  It only lasts about 30 seconds.
Was this done for the fair? (I was talking about the county fair which was over at this point)
Can it be changed?

The very next morning I received a reply:

In order to investigate the request we would like to know the direction that the back up was occurring. Was it the SW 117 AV or the Exit at FIU that had 30 seconds?

So I replied with a google map link, giving the precise location of the light and hours later I was sent this message:

Mr. Merille:
Thank you for the information that you have provided.
The area engineer will investigate your reported problem as soon as possible and you will be advised by Monday afternoon.
Have a nice weekend.

A day or two later I received a confirmation that the issue had been addressed and by monday, when I left work, the light had been changed.  I was so amazed by the service that I had to write this post.  Here is the full email thread.

So thank you Miami-Dade Public Works Department (Francillon, Harry; Badrampour, Ferydoun; Williams, Robert; Hernandez, Hiram; Molins, Delfin; Penland, Milen) Keep up the great work!

Some Marketing takeaways: (This story has quite a few)

1) Great search engine optimization – I was able to find a contact point very fast.
2) Up-to-date contact information – Are there emails on web pages for your institution that are not monitored? I know I would have to answer yes to that.
3) Team work - If you click on the thread you will notice that the email went through a few people and then back again. From engineers to support personnel, the chain was never broken.
4) Courteous instant feedback – I did not give enough information in my initial email and they responded immediately asking for detail.  I got a thank you email and even a time frame for a reply.
5) Follow-up – They even sent me an additional follow-up email with a summary of what changes they made and a confirmation that they checked the light again throughout the day.

customer service, marketing, miami dade, traffic lights Hide

Just came across this slideshow on on slideshare.net and thought it was incredibly informative.

In short: It describes the importance and the process of creating a community of brand ambassadors and/or users.

I think this is yet another great take away for higher ed from the corporate sector.  While there are many great examples of social media and communities being used by universities, I have not seen any take on the subject of creating a brand community.

Perhaps the closest example I know of may be @rachelreuben’s cafe new paltz ning network but then again I believe that is more about connecting new admits.

I would envision a university brand community including students, alumni and faculty who love the institution and want to contribute on all levels.

If anyone has other examples, please post in the comments.  I would love to see some.

brand, community, marketing, social media Hide

South by South West or #sxsw, as referred to in twitter is a yearly festival on the topics of interactive (web, mobile, etc), music and film. I am only speaking to the interactive portion in this post as that was my area of exposure to the event (for the first time this year).

The interactive portion alone was massive.

As my friend and collegue @mherzber described it, “its like opening up a fire hydrant and sticking your face in the stream of water”.

Nearly every successful online company is represented in some form or fashion.  Panel discussions, book signings, interviews and keynotes are happening all day in multiple locations on extremely different subject matter, which all tie back to interactivity.  At times there were 3-4 conferences that I wanted to attend at the same time.

It was very fitting that at the entrance they set up a massive piles of legos because this conference is truly what you make of it.

Who should go and why?

Anyone working in or interested in the interactive space.  It sounds broad but that’s because it is.

Web developers, designers, technology companies, game developers – these are all “no brainers” for attending.

If you’re a marketer, you need to be there to learn about managing brands online, managing communities and learning how to use social media technology to be more effective. Same goes for public relations, journalism and communications in general.

I was sent to SXSW by my university.  Based on some of the panels I attended, I would say there were around 100-200 higher ed folks at the conference. Also based on how full one of the higher ed specific talks was, this seems like it will be growing niche at SXSW.

Party like a SXSW Rockstar

Yes they are plentiful and yes there are mostly open bar events.  Much like the conferences during the day, the parties at night offer the same variety.  Many people feel that they are the most important part of the SXSW events.  From a networking perspective, you could meet web celebs like @garyvee or even get a chance to speak with the entrepreneurs behind the most successful websites in the U.S.

As a marketer,  I would mention again that it’s what you make of it.  There were meet ups specific to higher ed but I personally found the most value in learning at the conference and following the “back channel“, as twitter is referred to if I was unable to attend a discussion.

Can’t we just get most information online after or even during the conference?

This is absolutely true.  Especially this being a conference full of web cams, bloggers and social media mavens.  If you have the discipline to do this, you could absolutely try.  In fact, I wonder if a good exercise for my communications team back at FIU would be to take a full day and watch a best of, or a tailor made list of events and discuss amongst ourselves. The truth is however, that the amount of knowledge and excitement about these topics is only present at the conference.  One could also argue for not needing to go to class to learn and I say if you have that discipline or you are wired that way, it just might work for you.  I for one do not believe it would be even half as beneficial.

It’s what you make of it

Chris Brogan used “legos” to describe social media in general while speaking in a panel discussion and this analogy is fitting for the entire event as well.

marketing, social, social media, sxsw Hide

It’s fairly obvious to most marketers that metrics and ROI make for the most convincing discussion when talking to your CFO or Vice President about investing more in anything .  However, this is often a catch twenty two, in the sense you have to first make the investment (whether its time or money) to get the metrics. This is what we decided to do.

About a year ago we started pages and accounts (with help of a student assistant) on a wide variety of social media and sharing sites.  Below is a summary slide which helps us explain to leadership that we need to continue to provide content and expand on these pages and accounts.

Many of these could use some work (increasing views and interaction) as our university is very large (38,000 students) and there is little doubt that we could grow these well beyond their current size.  However, one cannot ignore all the increased exposure that we have gained as a result of a bit work on our end and a system of using these video and photo sites to host content.

One of the most common arguments that I hear from leadership: “Lets just post the video/image on our site, I do not want it on youtube/myspace”

The easiest way I can respond to this is with a question: “Would you rather be on local cable or a national broadcast?”  As many have mentioned in the past, these sites are merely channels, additional means of getting our messages out.  You can ignore them and have others talk about your brand or you can own an official home on each and control your own messaging.

marketing, social media, value Hide

Its been quite a while since my last post so I figured that I better come back with some interesting news to share.  We went through a logo change and I survived it. Hows that?

The task was simple enough, lets launch a new logo before football season and the inauguration of the new stadium. I won’t go into details here but that was essentially the goal which culminated with these logo and style guide pages.

I believe our largest success with this endeavor lies in the system we call “labels”.  Our designer made a system of logos which incorporate the university’s new mark yet maintain a sense of identity for our colleges, schools, centers, institutes and other externally focused units.

New Institution Logo

‘Label’ samples for Colleges, Schools, Centers, Institutes

(The left shows all the variations we currently have and the right side show what this new system will allow us to accomplish in terms of brand recognition and increased awareness.)

We created vector art for these labels, taking into account nearly every possible application and then made all the art files accessible via the website.  Our leadership is behind this and although not all faculty agree, nearly all schools and colleges as well as centers and museums have begun using the new system.

Here is a brief overview PDF that we prepared to inform our internal audiences of the process.

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