Tiger Woods The Golfer

As for the marketing side of things?  I don’t really think there will be too much fall out from this entire scandal, especially if we were to win The Masters this week.  He is still the best golfer on the planet and he is still the biggest draw the golf world is likely to see for many years to come.  The fans were yelling “welcome back Tiger” all day yesterday as he walked down the fairways at hallowed Augusta.  You see… true sports fans don’t really care what he did or does away from sports… and that is important to remember.

As the Mouth That Roared at the social media agency, The Big Fat Mouth, people ask me all the time what i think of the scandal and what it will mean for marketing with celebrities in the future.  I always tell them the same thing – absolutely nothing!  People love athletes and celebrities and they will always be drawn to them.  We are a voyeuristic society and we want to know what is going on with the people we admire.  Some people revel in the mistakes that they make while others don’t care.  When I watch Tiger Woods play golf I am not looking for parenting or relationship tips, I am looking for him to play golf!  As long as he does that well he will continue to be a marketing Juggernaut.  You didn’t see Nike go out and sponsor a slew of new golfers did you?  No, of course not.  They know Tiger will be back and likely stronger than ever.   He actually appears to be human now.

Although Tiger is not active in social media himself, he is a big topic.  People love to talk about him and everything that surround him.  Many other athletes however are active in social media and they are the ones that will be changing the way marketers work with athletes.  As these athletes build bigger and bigger fan bases on social media platforms, they are going to become more desirable to marketers.  The formula is really no different than it has been for years.  Brand marketers want eyeballs and now the eyeballs are in social media rather than mass media.  You tell me which is more powerful, a TV commercial that reaches 10 million random people across every demographic or 2 million targeted people following an athlete who have all opted in and basically said “I want to hear what this guy has to say.”  Of course it is the opted in, targeted list that is more valuable.   That is not to say that mass media is going away any time soon, because clearly it is not, but niche media through social platforms is certainly chipping away the power of the mass media.   One message on Twitter from an athlete, celebrity or anyone with a large following can easily have as much, if not more impact than any :30 second spot.  If I were in the business of creating ads, I would be awfully scared right now.

The most exciting part of this social media becoming more powerful than mass media phenomenon is that the control has been taken away from the big guys and put into to the hands of the every day man.  Look at any social media platform and you can find regular people with tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands or more fans/followers.  These are people who would never see the light of day via mass media channels unless they committed a crime or cheated on their wife (OK, I had to tie it back to Tiger Woods somewhere).  Web celebrities like Fred would not exist without social media, yet they are signing mass media type endorsement and marketing deals as a result of the audience they have created.  The really interesting thing here is not the fact that people can become celebrities through social media, but rather the fact that viewers can choose exactly what they want to watch and tune out the rest.  All of the garbage that many networks produce and show every day could fall upon deaf ears in the not so distant future as people continue to customize what outlets they read and watch.  Social media provides both choice and opportunity on both sides of the fence.

So what does this mean for all of us moving forward?  I guess one day in the future we might actually be able to watch Tiger Woods just play golf, which is what he is paid to do, rather than hear about things that many people don’t really care about.  If the time should come when I need help with my relationship with my wife or kids, I could always navigate my way over to DrPhil.com. Until then is www.TheMasters.com for me!

This is CenterGreen Four...Possibly my new home

The whole environment has a good vibe and the team is great, friendly and couldn’t be more helpful. I give them the big thumbs up!

The Smith School of Business at the University Of Maryland just published their findings in the 2009 Small Business Success Index on how small business is using social media.  They conducted 500 telephone interviews of small businesses and found that adoption of social media technology actually doubled in 2009 from 12% to 24%.  They also found most businesses use social media through company pages with Facebook and LinkedIn as the clear leaders.  Now that makes sense to me.

Facebook recently passed the 400 million user mark, which is just an astounding number.  To put that in perspective, if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest country in the world behind only China and India.  That is an awful lot of people to have 24-hour access to for any business.    Another great advantage for small business in Facebook is that things go viral and when they do they can go very quickly.  Imagine of you just reached 1/10 of 1 percent of the people on Facebook which is 4 million potential customers.  Now imagine if you just make a sale of $19.99 to ½ of 1 percent of that group and you just did an additional $400,000 in sales without leaving your business.  The number can be astounding when you start to think about them.

Another interesting fact is that 45% of the small businesses that were surveyed believed that their social media efforts would pay off financially in the next 12 months.  That is an extremely encouraging number because it means people are truly starting to see the value of social media and how it will pay big dividends in a relatively short period of time.

Take a look at the chart below for some insight on how small business is using social media and know that if you are not using social media to drive your business, it is likely that someone else will be driving it for you in the near future!

Small Business Social Media Usage

This Friday night, March 5th, Renaud Dutreil, Chairman LVMH, Veronica Webb, Moet Hennessey, Eli Wilner & Company and others are all taking part in Marassa, a celebration of Haitian art and style at The Cooper Square Hotel to raise money for the earthquake victims in Haiti.  Works from a number Haitian artists are part of a silent auction with the proceeds will go to LakayPAM and H.E.L.P., both of which are 501(c)(3) non- profit organizations providing aid to youth in Haiti.

Master Frame Eli Wilner

Master Framer, Eli Wilner has generously framed ten paintings for the silent auction, and is pleased to offer a fine replica frame for each unframed artwork purchased through the event. Our guest may select any one of the ten styles shown on the ten framed works offered this evening and Eli Wilner will provide them the frame free of charge to benefit the Haitian relief effort.  The usual price of a replica frame by Eli Wilner is

-       Small size:                             $10 000

-       Medium size:                          $18 000

-       Large size:                              $28 000

10% of the frames usual retail price has been added to the painting estimate price to set the price of starting bids.

You can find out more about Eli Wilner and his antique frames at www.eliwinner.com or on Facebook at Facebook.com/EliWilner

The Invitation For Marassa This Friday Night

I am not sure if it is just me or if everyone thought those were the absolute worst ads in recent Superbowl history. Granted there were one or two good ones, like Doritos House Rules, but the rest of them were pretty damn bad.

I think my vote for the absolute worst ads…and this is an honor, because there were some horrible ones… has to go to Coke.  Wow…what were they thinking?  I didn’t like them, I didn’t get them and they certainly did not entertain me in any way.  Someone at their agency is a great salesman!

I get that the economy is horrible,  that we are in a recession and people have less money than every before, but does that translate to a creative recession too?  There was not a single commercial that I want to see again or that I would have been upset that I missed.  It was one huge disappointment and more importantly a huge waste of money for all the brands that

I guess Pepsi made the right choice by skipping the big game and putting their money into social media with the Pepsi Refresh program.  Check it out here.

I think I am starting to see some light with respect to the economic recession, but if these Superbowl ads are supposed to set the creative tone for 2010, we are in for a long and cold creative recession.

It is time to jump oin the bandwagon if you have not already!

EConsultancy recently published following mind-boggling statistics on their blog – Here is a peek into the numbers.  Of course you have to take them all with a grain of salt, but they are staggering nonetheless.

Social Media Statistics

• Facebook claims that 50% of active users log into the site each day. This would mean at least 175m users every 24 hours.

• Twitter now has 75m user accounts, but only around 15m are active users on a regular basis.
• LinkedIn has over 50m members worldwide..
• Facebook currently has in excess of 350 million active users on global basis.Six months ago, this was 250m…This means over 40% growth in less than 6 months.
• Flickr now hosts more than 4 billion images.
• More than 35m Facebook users update their status each day.
• More than 700,000 local businesses have active Pages on Facebook.
• More than 250 Facebook applications have over a million combined users each month.
• 70% of bloggers are organically talking about brands on their blog.
• 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews.
• Purpose-built Facebook pages have created more than 5.3bn fans.
• Wikipedia currently has in excess of 14m articles, meaning that it’s 85,000 contributors have written nearly a million new posts in six months.
• Photo uploads to Facebook have increased by more than 100%. Currently, there are around 2.5bn uploads to the site each month.
• Back in 2009, the average user had 120 friends within Facebook. This is now around 130.
• Mobile is even bigger than before for Facebook, with more than 65m users accessing the site through mobile-based devices. In six months, this is over 100% increase.
• There are more than 3.5bn pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, etc.) shared each week on Facebook.
• Towards the end of last year, the average number of tweets per day was over 27.3 million.
• The average number of tweets per hour was around 1.3m.
• 15% of bloggers spend 10 or more hours each week blogging, according to Technorati’s new State of the Blogosphere.
• At the current rate, Twitter will process almost 10 billion tweets in a single year.
• About 70% of Facebook users are outside the USA.
• More than 250 Facebook applications have over a million combined users each month.
• 70% of bloggers are organically talking about brands on their blog.
• 38% of bloggers post brand or product reviews.
• More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since December 2008 and more than 60m Facebook users engage with it across these external sites each month.

How’s that grab you for the power of social media??

Jonathan Ressler is The Mouth That Roared at The Big Fat Mouth, a social media agency with offices in Raleigh and NYC.

After reading the email  about 30 times, I felt I had to share with my readers, many of whom are New Yorkers like me, but live somewhere else…at least in the geographical sense.  I guess social media has given us all the ability to stay more connected even when we are not physically in a place we love.  In my role at The Big Fat Mouth, which is to a large extent a social media agency, I get to spend a lot of time on social media site.  I get to look at status updates, read tweets and follow links, see photos, watch videos, and a bunch of other stuff.  It is funny how a lot of the stuff I look at is from people I know and love in New York.

We all know where to get one of these

I guess what I am saying is that social media helps me to stay connected to my New York roots!  If you are a displaced New Yorker or know one, read this and you feel all warm and fuzzy.

I am a New Yorker

REMEMBER THE WTC Author – Vincent Pasquale, Maspeth, NY

Thank you Vincent for allowing us to share this with our fellow New Yorkers all around the world.

Only those that grew up or lived in NYC can understand the meaning of this:

THERE IS NO NORTH AND SOUTH. IT’S ‘UPTOWN’ OR ‘DOWNTOWN.’ IF YOU’RE REALLY FROM NEW YORK , YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONCEPT OF WHERE NORTH AND SOUTH ARE… AND EAST OR WEST IS ‘CROSS-TOWN.’

YOU KNOW HOW TO MAKE AN EGG CREAM.

YOU RIDE IN A SUBWAY CAR WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING JUST BECAUSE THERE ARE SEATS AVAILABLE.

YOU TAKE THE TRAIN HOME AND YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE ON THE PLATFORM THE DOORS WILL OPEN THAT WILL LEAVE YOU RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE EXIT STAIRWAY.

YOU KNOW WHAT A ‘REGULAR’ COFFEE IS.

IT’S NOT MANHATTAN …IT’S THE ‘CITY.’

YOU CROSS THE STREET ANYWHERE BUT ON THE CORNERS AND YOU YELL AT CARS FOR NOT RESPECTING YOUR RIGHT TO DO IT.

YOU MOVE 3,000 MILES AWAY, SPEND 10 YEARS LEARNING THE LOCAL LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE STILL KNOW YOU’RE FROM BROOKLYN, LONG ISLAND OR THE BRONX , THE MINUTE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH.

YOU RETURN AFTER 10 YEARS AND THE FIRST FOODS YOU WANT ARE  ’REAL’ Fresh Seafood, Sabrett Hot Dogs, Carvel, Egg Roll or Spare Ribs AND A  ’REAL’ Breakfast sandwich on a ‘REAL’ Roll or Bagel, Ring Dings or Devil Dogs I could go on but this story is long enough

A 500 SQUARE FOOT APARTMENT IS LARGE.

YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE MISTAKEN IMPRESSION THAT ANY HUMAN BEING WOULD BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND A P.A. ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE SUBWAY.

YOU WOULDN’T BOTHER ORDERING PIZZA IN ANY OTHER CITY.

YOU GET READY TO ORDER DINNER EVERY NIGHT AND MUST CHOOSE FROM THE MAJOR FOOD GROUP MENUS: CHINESE, ITALIAN, MEXICAN OR INDIAN.

YOU’RE NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED IN GOING TO TIMES SQUARE ON NEW YEAR’S EVE.

YOUR INTERNAL CLOCK IS PERMANENTLY SET TO KNOW WHEN ALTERNATE SIDE OF THE STREET PARKING IS IN EFFECT.

YOU KNOW WHAT (AND WHERE) A BODEGA IS.

SOMEONE BUMPS INTO YOU AND YOU CHECK FOR YOUR WALLET.

YOU DON’T EVEN NOTICE THE LADY WALKING DOWN THE STREET HAVING A PERFECTLY NORMAL CONVERSATION WITH HERSELF.

YOU PAY ‘ONLY’ $230 A MONTH TO PARK YOUR CAR.

YOU CRINGE AT HEARING PEOPLE PRONOUNCE HOUSTON ST. LIKE THE CITY IN TEXAS

THE PRESIDENTIAL VISIT IS A MAJOR TRAFFIC JAM, NOT AN HONOR.

YOU CAN NAP ON THE SUBWAY AND NEVER MISS YOUR STOP.

THE DELI GUY GIVES YOU A STRAW WITH ANY BEVERAGE YOU BUY, EVEN IF IT’S A BEER.

THAT’S NEW YORK, BABY!

YA GOTTA LOVE IT!

I read a blog post today that was talking about how brands can’t wrap their brains around the ROI of social media so they think that social media is still an innovator’s game.  I couldn’t disagree more.  Social media is one of the most powerful tools every brand should be using today.  Not only should they be using it, but also they should dedicate a fair amount of time and resources to learning how to use it effectively.

Vegas Baby

Last week I spoke at the Winter Meeting of the Women’s Board of the AAIA, In Las Vegas.  I gave a presentation called “The Top 10 Myths of Social Media,” where I took them through 10 myths/excuses that most brands fall back on when they think of social media.  Before I got into the presentation, I asked the room “How many people in this room use Google?” Every hand in the room went up.  The I asked them “How many people think that their customers use Google to find them or information on related products?” Again, every hand in the room went up.  Next question… “How many of you use social media as part of your brand marketing?” Maybe 5 or 6 hands went up.  While it was not a big surprise, because I see it all the time, it never ceases to amaze me how many brand marketers do not understand the power of social media for their brands.

As I am sure you know, Google and other search engines index most of the social media sites these days, so all of a brand’s activity drives their Google rankings.  In fact, in the not so distant future, if you are not using social media, your brand’s page ranking will be significantly hurt by those that are active in the space.  While nobody really knows the algorithms that the search engines use, we do know that social media is becoming a bigger factor in them every day.  Further, a static website, with no new content will fall in the Google rankings.  Google and other search engines love new content and active sites and it gives them a lot of “search engine love.”

So back to the ROI conversation.  At a very minimum, social media is a powerful SEO tool that can yield remarkable results in a short period of time.  If your brand thinks that SEO and page ranking are important to your business, and I can’t imagine what brands don’t, then look at social media ROI simply in terms of SEO.  One interesting fact is that 25% or more of the results of a Google search of the top 20 brands in the US point to user generated content…aka…social media.  That is astounding an it is growing every day.

Social Media helps this on go to 11

Armed with that information, we can move any brand up the search engine rankings very quickly by using social media applications to communicate new and fresh brand information that people want to read.  The search engines eat it up and your brand’s customers either get reengaged or engaged for the first time.  It is a win-win in the truest sense of the word.  You get to tell your story, your customers get more valuable information and your brand gets tons of “search engine love.”

So back to Vegas…  The talk was scheduled for 1 hour and after about an hour and 45 minutes of lively conversation, we had answered all of the questions and taken away all of the excuses.  By the time I left the room I am pretty sure I had convinced many of the attendees of the power of social media and how they could sell it to their “conservative companies.”  I always say that social media today is just like a website and online advertising were 10 years ago.  Those who took the time to understand the true value and power of the web reaped huge rewards.  Those who sat on the sidelines until the other guys did it….well they are like the gamblers at the tables in Vegas…still chasing the dream.

Jonathan Ressler hold the title of  The Mouth That Roared at The Big Fat Mouth, an agency dedicated to helping brands connect with consumers by being real and being relevant.  He has worked with hundreds of brands ranging from Fortune 50 companies to start-ups in the area of influencing consumer behavior.

So here are some things for all brand people to think about when considering social media.

Contrary to popular belief, social media is not a popularity contest -  Most people believe that they need to aggregate as many friends and contacts as they possibly can, regardless of the quality of the connections.  I wholehearted disagree.  If you have 100,000 followers on Twitter but only 100 really read your tweets, what are the other 99,900 doing for you?  Nothing is the short answer.  You can have more influence with 100 quality followers than 100,000 who do not read a word you say.  You need to focus on the people who will help you build your Influence Stream.

There is no difference between B2B and B2C - This one drives me crazy.  What is the difference between B2B efforts and B2C efforts?  Nothing other than the target and the message.  We are all consumers at some point in the day unless you are that famous young cult hero thief, Colton Harris, living in the woods.   The person you are trying to influence to buy is a person and a consumer.  The only thing that needs to change in your efforts is your message not the platform.  Again, quality messages lead to quality fans/followers/friends/connections, all of whom can help you to build you Influence Stream.

Social Media is a phenomenal SEO tool – If your target customers use the Google then you are nuts of you are not using social media.  Blogging, wikis, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media tools are all indexed.  Now that many social media platforms appear in real-time search data, things you blog about and tweet about quickly appear in Google and other search engine searches.  Why wouldn’t you want quality information on your brand to come up in Google searches quickly?  Talk about instant gratification.

Social Media has turned the tables with respect to brands and audience- It used to be that brands had to go out into the world and find consumers.  In the old days (2 years ago) people had to go out and find the news if they wanted to know what was going on in the world.  Now the news comes to us…quickly…through social media.  That same paradigm shift is happening, just in reverse with brands.  Now people are researching and finding brands they like in social media platforms and online.  Brands need to be present to be found.  The old “scream your message from the mountaintops” technique is not just brand noise.  People don’t care and really are immune to one-way messaging.  They want to find the brands they like and connect with them in a 2-way conversation, which is what social media is all about.

This list could go on and on, but this should be a decent conversation starter for brands when they are thinking about social media.

Merry Christmas to all!

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees, Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are, Christmas trees.

It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, ‘Merry Christmas’ to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her ‘How could God let something like this happen?’ (regarding Hurricane Katrina).. Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said, ‘I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?’

In light of recent events…. Terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem ( Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said okay.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing yet?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.

Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit.

If not, then just discard it… No one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

My Best Regards,

Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein

With that… All of us at The Big Fat Mouth would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and a great whatever else you may celebrate.