The Follis Marketing Report

Listen to the podcast that lets you hear how other buisness owners solve their tough marketing problems.

“http://twitter.com/ObamaNews”

Social Media is an online approach to communicating and sharing ideas. Social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and blogs let people become more involved with the messages they send and interact with the messages they receive. So, if you have a business or cause to spread awareness about, social media can help.

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Coors Light is extending its presence in the new media with efforts on the social networking Web sites Facebook and MySpace.
Read full article.

It pays to be creative. The more creative your message is, the more memorable it will be. The more memorable it is, in a positive way, the better your chance of making a sale. Here’s one Follis example:

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Don’t confuse “marketing” with “advertising”. Some people hear the word “marketing” and think “advertising.” Not the same thing. And to grow your business you must understand the difference.

Traditional “advertising” is about paying for traditional media exposure via newspapers, magazines, Yellow Pages, radio, TV, billboards, etc. It’s generally designed to reach a broad audience and the ad/media costs will reflect that. For many products and services advertising works great if it’s done right.

“Marketing” is a broader term that involves any possible way to get your message out. That includes PR, direct mail, your logo and tagline, personal networking, giving talks and writing articles, and many non-traditional and online strategies like having an effective website, sending out email newsletters and promotions, buying Google Adwords, pay-per-click, SEO, and using “social media” like blogs and podcasts.

Effective marketing includes the right mix of traditional advertising and non-traditional online strategies.

You can’t expect to do it yourself and do it well. I don’t know why some business owners still challenge that idea. Then again, maybe I do. Because it doesn’t seem like it should be that hard a thing to do. After all, it’s your business, right? So, when they try something and it doesn’t work, they simply conclude that marketing doesn’t work. It doesn’t occur to them that their marketing strategy is off base, or that they’re not really targeting the right audience, or that their creative excecution or production value is horrible, or that their website and/or online strategy sucks, or any number of other things that they’re not aware of because 1) it is their business and they don’t have the necessary objectivity, and 2) they don’t have the marketing expertise.

Businesses that are most successful, hire the best lawyer when they legal help, the best insurance person when they need insurance help, the best CPA when they need tax help, and the best marketing resource when they need marketing help.

In this hype-happy, what-to-believe world, it comes down to a very basic, fundamental thing: credibility. How does one get it? How does one convincingly communicate it? And is there a Good Housekeeping Seal of the 21st century? Yes, there is, and it’s called “G cred.”.

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Today I loaded up my iPod with 3-hours of podcasts and learned all kinds
of great new things about social media, blogging, and Web 2.0 marketing.
This was my classroom: