Tom H. C. Anderson - Next Gen Market Research

Social Media Marketing Must Contain Value

Today I’m talking to Technology, Media & Entertainment Consultant and Host of MediaBytes, Shelly Palmer. I became aware of Shelly after one of our studies was covered in his Media Bytes Vlog. His use of video as a marketing and communications tool is second only to his ability to leverage this medium on social networks. We kept the interview short as he’s currently traveling in Rome, but I encourage you to check out his site for more information.

Tom: You invented “Enhanced TV”, can you tell me a bit about that?

Shelly: Enhanced Television is a brand name that ABC used to describe a system they built based on my underlying technology.  The system allows a user to receive data (like web pages) in relative synchronicity with broadcast television and radio signals.  So, for example: if you were watching “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” you could play along on your laptop in sync with the broadcast.  The system allows for one-screen (just a tv set) or two-screen (a tv set and a computer or cell phone).  It does much more stuff, but this is the most popular application.

Tom: You have a book “Television Disrupted”, tell me a bit about that and the transition from network to networked TV

Shelly: Television and Radio have been one-to-many or broadcast media since their inception.  We are now squarely in the middle of the transition from one-to-many to one-to-one communication on a mass scale.  We are also learning to deal with many-to-many and many-to-one as a result of the new technology.  It is quite exciting and highly disruptive to existing businesses that have evolved to prosper in a “walled garden” broadcast environment.

Tom: How do you view the convergence of video and the web? Our research shows that online video is obviously very engaging. Yet it seems that not many companies are leveraging it, do you agree?

Shelly: It is going to be very, very hard to monetize programming on an open network.  Scarcity makes content valuable.  If you can only see something at 9pm on a Thursday night (and it’s something you want to see) people all along the value chain can get paid.  However, if something is always available, everywhere, it is very difficult to monetize it.  Scarcity vs. Ubiquity.  Open vs. Closed.  Supply vs. Demand.  It’s all the same concept.  There are very good solutions available, helping media companies understand how to make money in an open network is what my company does.

Tom: In regard to Podcasting and Vlogs, one of the downsides I can see is that the web and therefore SEO is very text based. Do you have any thoughts on how to work with SEO related to video?

Shelly: We live in a world where Metadata is more important then the data it describes.  SEO is a function of proper text-based metadata.  It is up to the industry to make sure that some kind of package or wrapper is adopted.  XML works, but it is far from standardized.  Adobe and the other tool set makers are very aware of the issue and I know that there are all kinds of smart people working on the problem.

Tom: You also offer digital skills training via video such as Facebook 101 and Twitter 101. Are these intended for corporate or lay user?

Shelly: In my experience, there is no difference between a corporate and a lay user.  My video training is for people who need to know everything, but don’t have the time to learn.  The videos offer key strategic insights and tips as well as an indexed set of short lessons that will turn a newbee into a power user in no time flat!

Tom: Can you share a few tips on how marketers can better leverage social media?

Shelly: The number one mistake marketers make with social media is thinking that you can market with it.  All you can do is become part of a contextual conversation that tangentially relates to what you are marketing.  Everything else you try will be met with cynicism, skepticism or worse.  Social media tools are used by people to interact with each other.  If something gets on someone’s radar, they will pass it along.  If you try to put something on someone’s radar, they will ignore you.

The golden rule of social media is “be honest.”  If you are creating messages that have value to your community of interest, they will reward you with their attention.  If you are providing messages that are worthless to everyone you will be regarded as a spammer.  So, if you “must” hawk your product or service because your client or boss told you to do it, put your marketing message in the context of valuable information.  You can craft that kind of message by mixing news and opinion or information and knowledge.  When you add something of value to your messaging, people respond.

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