Social media marketing is muted without traditional-media base

Here’s the “Traditional Media and New Media Working Together" presentation I gave at Monday’s wOOt conference.

Presentation I gave at the wOOt social-media conferenceThe topic is not one I normally would present (it was assigned to me by conference organizers, given my position at a newspaper company overseeing digital media), but in diving into the preparation I was reminded at how much strength traditional media has in these turbulent times.

My daily life is consumed by so-called new media, whether in practice or in theory, so it’s easy for me to get all caught up in trends. Sure, we’re heading toward a digital dominance in media but for the near- and short-term, traditional media (print newspapers, TV, radio) still brings home the bacon in local markets.

As I note in my presentation, smart business people see social media as an opportunity -- not a threat. Based on very reliable local data released late in 2009, using social media to market your business will add, generally, 10 percentage points of net audience potential/reach when combined with other media.

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Free social-media advice for Taco Bell

After spending all day talking social media at the wOOt conference, it struck me to pass along this bit of advice to Taco Bell. it's my 2 cents, so take it or leave it.

Great concept but tired messagingIf you’ve been to Taco Bell, you know they have these short sayings on their hot sauce packets. Examples include “Will you scratch my back?”, “Ahhh ... we meet again” and “Help! I can’t tell where I am. It’s dark and I can hear laughing.”

They’re a great idea, in concept, because they're a mix of silly and stoopid, and leave a playful branding message that has a lasting impressions. But here’s the deal: These quotes haven’t changed much since launching five years ago. And it seems like the last 10 times my family has had Taco Bell, we’ve received the same three or four messages. We’re bored.

So, here’s my idea for Taco Bell to revive a tired concept: Ask customers to submit their ideas for new quotes to TacoBell.com and give the populace a vote in the winners. Everyone submitting a valid quote could get a something like a free taco (which they're giving away anyway) and winners could get something like free tacos for a year.

Taco Bell would need to screen the submissions to avoid crude (but funny) stuff like this
but too many submissions seems like a good problem for a business to have.

All they’d need to do to kickstart this thing would be to create the web presence, then toss out the challenge to the 16,000+ followers of @TacoBell. Zero marketing cost.

Just a thought.

Digging the Toyota mess through crowdsourcing

Digg will host a crowdsourced interview today with Jim Lentz, president and CEO of Toyota Motor Sales USA.

Toyota bigwig Jim Lentz will answer questions from the Digg community at 2 p.m. Pacific time todayThis is part of a regular Digg Dialogg series so the concept isn't new. But it's been awhile since the interviewee has been someone currently sitting in a boiling pot of water (I think you have to go back to this Timothy Geithner interview).

What's great about the Dialogg concept isn't just that the crowd is asking the questions but that the questions are 1) made public beforehand and 2) the Digg community votes on which ones get asked. Some of the questions are better than others, but there's some detail to some that wouldn't normally surface in a typical media interview.

I can't tell whether a professional/traditional journalist will be asking the questions, as is sometimes the case, but in these types of hot-button interviews on extremely important issues, I think it's an advantage. It's one thing to have the crowd submit questions, which builds depth and diversity, but a professional interviewer will be more skilled at calling B.S. on some answers and also asked pointed questions of his/her own.

Either way, it's an example of the continued evolution in media where the crowd gets more control for the benefit of all.