SmartMarket Media Blog

The Networking Philosophy Applies To Online Networking As Well

Thanksgiving is all about being thankful for what you have and originally being thankful for the bounty of the earth as the holiday’s history is rooted in a harvest festival.

From a business perspective “Giver’s Gain” is a philosophy that when you set goals to help others and honestly work to achieve these goals, it will come back to you ten fold as others will be looking out for you.  This is the mantra of BNI as a networking organization that is drilled into every member. If you want to receive referrals for business…you have to give referrals and be looking out for your business networking friends, associates and contacts.

Too often with online networking, people are saying “LISTEN TO ME” and are not spending enough time listening to others. Online networking shouldn’t be any different than a business after hours event at your local Chamber of Commerce or cocktail party. What you do there is engage, listen and talk in equal amounts. If there’s someone you can help, you try to set up a later time when you can get together and talk in more detail. If you hear them mention they need a certain service and you know someone at the event that provides that service – you introduce them.

It’s not everyone networking online mind you – many of my followers on Twitter hear someone mention they are looking for online video production, animation or Flash development and immediately let them know they should contact me. That’s because they know I’m always on the lookout for them. I’m constantly reading posts, comments, etc. to see how my network of connections can help each other out. Sometimes when I don’t have a ton of time to read through all of my updates I simply scan them looking for question marks to see if there is some way I can help them answer their question.

On this Thanksgiving, I’m incredibly thankful and in awe of my online and offline network of friends and business colleagues. I always feel a little humbled when someone I know recommends me or connects me with someone who needs my help, but there is no better feeling for me than when I can connect someone who needs help with the person who could provide it.

So what’s the moral to this story? Say “Thanks” to your network connections by “Giving” them a referral or valuable connection. Listen to your connections online and see how you can help them. Helping others in the long run will always come back to help you.

Okay so if you haven’t heard, (and if you are on social networking sites…chances are you have) there was a HUGE uproar about the online video by Motrin about “wearing your baby”. Which, to be frank, was a lame online video campaign to begin with. The problem was the video made the mistake of pissing off one of the most vocal communities online – Mom’s using social networking. This also happens to be the demographic the video was targeted at.

Just to be clear – I’m not siding with Motrin. Nor am I dissing the social networking juggernaut that is the collective community of Mother’s online. The video itself wasn’t anything breathtaking and may have been marginally condescending – I’ll give it that much. You can watch it below to form your own opinion:

Pretty dumb, right? Let’s be honest. The phrase “It totally makes me look like an official mom”…come on. I doubt there is a mom out there that wears her baby in a Bjorn carrier because all the other cool mom’s are doing it.

But all this blogging and Twitter conversation, with a very small amount being negative, is getting people talking about Motrin. What their ad campaign did was create a truly great viral marketing video. People are talking about their campaign although there are a small group who are angry about it, the vast amount of comments I read on Twitter just called it dumb or criticized Motrin for generally not connecting with their demographic. There were many complimenting it too. Think about it…when was the last time you had a conversation about a pain reliever or an ad campaign by one?

Here’s where Motrin really fell on their face with this campaign. Their first reaction when this small amount of negative feedback started trickling in? They pulled the site down that was hosting the video. That’s right…so the video finally generated some buzz about their product after it had been up for over a month with barely a blip on the radar and then they pulled the site down after a little negative feedback launched the video virally rather than trying to immediately put out the fire on their website with this group of social networking Moms who were offended or people who may just be curious about the video and to see what all the hub-bub was about. Brilliant.

Now that you already know you screwed up, why not engage the demographic you insulted and open up conversation? Don’t run and hide…engage.

Now that they’ve acknowledged they made a mistake, what they really need to do is launch a social media rescue campaign. Start checking Google alerts and comment on as many of the Mommy blogs as possible, start a Facebook group to allow public discussion and get feedback on their solutions, connect with Moms on Twitter and come up with an offer especially targeted to those offended by the ad. While they’re at it, they should start a blog themselves and speak from the heart about what they were thinking.

So what’s the moral to this story? What Motrin should have done originally was to hire a team of Mom’s using social networking to get their opinion of what they would find funny and what would appeal to them. Listening is rule #1 of social networking and Motrin tried to skip that step. If you’re going to speak on behalf of any group of people, you should listen to what they have to say first.

Back in August 2008, I was invited to write a short post which was published on HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog. Here’s a short snippet of the article with a link to the full post on the HubSpot Blog:

5 Tips To Creating An Effective
Viral Video Marketing Campaign

Viral marketing sounds like something you may be stuck in bed with for a few days maybe with a stuffy nose, and a fever…but it doesn’t have to be. Did you know that every minute over 10 HOURS of video are uploaded to YouTube. Think about it…10 HOURS…while you were just thinking about this…another 10 hours just got uploaded to YouTube! So how do you make your viral marketing video stand out? How do you get it passed on to others without you asking (hence the going “viral”)?

Here are 5 tips to keep in mind when creating a viral marketing campaign for your online video: >>> continue reading >>>