Individuals are beating your entire\u00a0marketing and PR\u00a0department online.\u00a0 Not by just a little \u2013 they\u2019re running circles around it.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re\u2026<\/p>\n
All with far less effort and stress.<\/p>\n
A majority of businesses just aren\u2019t structured (or comfortable) with empowering team members to engage in value-oriented digital marketing activities.\u00a0 Instead, they are tied up with superfluous approval processes, legal teams and meetings to over-polish every little detail.\u00a0 Individuals just act, and that\u2019s exactly what the web rewards.\u00a0 This is\u00a0devastatingly effective\u00a0\u2013 marketing is not the same as it used to be, and your perfectly polished messages will never do as well as the messages that come from the soul of a real person.<\/p>\n
Setting objectives and strategy is a requirement, don\u2019t get me wrong: but my point is that good digital marketing is messy.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s messy to build links –<\/strong>\u00a0you need to get creative, you need to combine multiple skill sets and wear many hats: technical, creative and even relationship building.<\/p>\n It\u2019s messy to build a community –<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>it has strategy and can have some structure, but needs the freedom to think outside the lines and improvise.\u00a0 Most businesses love planning and hate improvisation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s messy to be consistent with updating a blog –<\/strong>\u00a0be structured and have an editorial calendar all you like, but at the end of the day the individual with passion, motivation and connections can soar above your entire team\u2019s results.<\/p>\n It\u2019s messy to continue a dialogue on Twitter –<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>individuals can link or say anything they want and there are no repercussions.\u00a0 And those people are far more interesting than any brands, or even employees of brands following strict rules.<\/p>\n It\u2019s messy to network –<\/strong>\u00a0not like an individual has to ask permission to build affinity with\u00a0social media power users.\u00a0 They just make the connections.<\/p>\n It\u2019s messy to play with code<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 my friend\u00a0David Malone, a java consultant in the Twin Cities, runs a social network he built from the ground up in his free time.\u00a0 He tweaks the code and gets creative with it never worrying not about what others will think, only if users will dig the results.\u00a0 For it, his development process is both agile and only focusing on what matters.<\/p>\n On the web, your brand is getting outmaneuvered not just by business competitors, but individuals.\u00a0 The competitive landscape is different, you\u2019re competing for attention amongst so much. Bloggers who are more creative than you get more traffic than your company blog.\u00a0 No one misunderstands and shoots down their seemingly crazy (but in reality clever) linkbait.\u00a0 Agile affiliate marketers are outranking your product website.\u00a0 They are tweaking their sites to be more search friendly without asking permission and working with partners they\u2019ve forged alliances with until late into the night.\u00a0 Creative coders are making products out of passion that deliver on what people actually want, not wasting time creating superfluous mockups\/versions to please different constituents.<\/p>\n There\u2019s actually just one thing stopping your business from having an edge over competitors, and even those individuals currently running circles around your brand.\u00a0 It\u2019s your own business.\u00a0 That\u2019s because it is structured for a world that no longer exists.\u00a0 Why not consider something radically different and stop letting individuals eat a free lunch on your market?<\/p>\n The simple fact is the web gives the power to the individual due to:<\/p>\n The amazing thing is companies willingly give up these advantages daily.\u00a0 It\u2019s not like there are rules saying you couldn\u2019t be agile and restructure yourself in a way that makes sense with the technologies we have in 2010 and activate members of the workforce with\u00a0passion.<\/p>\n On the other hand \u2013 if you\u2019re an an artist, a marketing\/PR professional or entrepreneur and not using this advantage for yourself: what are you waiting for?<\/p>\n Artists:\u00a0<\/strong>build a following for yourself by giving out music free.\u00a0 A creative commons license is the\u00a0ultimate music promotion tool.\u00a0 Where major labels fear filesharing, put it to your advantage to build subscribers and create\u00a0true fans\u00a0who you can later monetize.<\/p>\n Marketing and PR professionals:\u00a0<\/strong>if you\u2019re\u00a0not blogging\u00a0or creating your own web projects in your free time you\u2019ll never have the insight of your peers .\u00a0 I know you\u2019re busy, but it\u2019s absolutely possible (and worthwhile) to\u00a0fit web projects into a busy life.<\/p>\n Entrepreneurs:\u00a0<\/strong>disrupt the current players through marketing and communications more agile than existing companies.\u00a0 In fact, make light of the fact they\u2019re so slow to respond, highlight the absurdity of the current marketplace (and subtly shine the light to your idea instead).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Individuals are beating your entire\u00a0marketing and PR\u00a0department online.\u00a0 Not by just a little \u2013 they\u2019re running circles around it. They\u2019re\u2026 … <\/p>\n\n