Capulet Communications

We're pleased to introduce Shoshana Berman to Capulet's blog readers. She is a writer who is working with us on some projects and is writing blog posts about social media, using our book "Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook" as inspiration.

Shoshana has a varied background in both science and drama. Writing for Capulet is low key compared to past jobs, including doing reptile education shows for children. She's also a classically trained chef. When she isn’t reading, cooking or eating, Shoshana is mildly obsessed with following online news. Having watched the internet progress from a science experiment at universities in the 1980s to surreptitiously “talking to people in Russia” to become the ubiquitous communication tool it is today, she is fascinated by Web 2.0 and its potential to connect like-minded people around the globe.    

For a tech marketer, like me, Computerworld is the big time. Getting ink in the publication is on all of our clients' wish lists and goes a long way to validate a product. Which is why I'm so delighted that Todd R. Weiss included Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook in his article, "Social media marketing: 5 must-read books".

The "essential" books on Weiss' list provide a starting point for businesses that are new to social media marketing and are looking for some help planning their strategies and getting social media programs up and running.

We're in good company with Joel Postman's SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate; David Meerman Scott's The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly; Maria Azua's The Social Factor: Innovate, Ignite and Win Through Mass Collaboration and Social Networking; and Tamar Weinberg's The New Community Rules: Marketing on the Social Web.

If implementing a social media marketing strategy is on your list for 2010, these resources will put you in good stead. Happy reading!

After months of writing, rewriting, editing and then editing again, our book, "Friends with Benefits: A Social Media Marketing Handbook" is finally hitting bookstores this month!

We've been delighted and, frankly, relieved to see good reviews coming in early. Here's a roundup of some of them:

“If you’re ready to get off the sidelines and get serious about social media marketing, you must read this book first. Friends With Benefits is tactical, practical, and above all, useful.”
- Lee LeFever, Common Craft

“Friends With Benefits is a must-read for social media marketers and those new to the field.”
- Monique Trottier, So Misguided

“This book is invaluable and there’s nothing like it out there in terms of a realistic portrayal of what works and what doesn’t.”
- Chris Abraham, Marketing Conversation

This month, our book is featured in BoxCar Marketing's Underwire newsletter. Not sure if you're spamming your customers and potential customers? Check out the section of our book BoxCar excerpted on that topic.

We'll be sharing more tips from the book with you on this blog and at the book's website, www.friendswithbenefitsbook.com.

We've had a fantastic month leading Social Media Marketing Bootcamps in BC and Alberta. We've met many creative marketers who are ready to embrace social media and who ask great questions and bring new marketing insights to the full-day workshop. Thanks to all of you who have made the sessions so fun and thought provoking.

And we're not done yet! There was so much interest in Social Media Marketing Bootcamp in Calgary we're heading back over the Rockies next week for sessions on September 29 and October 1.

If you're in Calgary and would like to join us, there are a few spots left on both days. Find out more about bootcamp or register now. We're looking forward to seeing you in Calgary!

During our social media marketing bootcamps and some of the other speaking we do, we briefly cover advertising on the web. The 15-second precis: only spend your money where you can target your audience with razor-like precision, and rapidly measure outcomes. Google AdWords and Facebook ads are two good places to start.

It's right around this time that somebody usually raises their hand and offers some variation of "I'm skeptical about your advice, because I never click online ads".

It's a classic misstep of logic that everybody makes occasionally: "I behave a certain way, so my customers will behave the same way". Its assumptions like these that can limit new ideas about reaching your audience.

I also sometimes encounter a certain snobbishness from tech marketers, who assert that most of their geeky target audiences uses browser-based ad-blockers, rendering online advertising ineffective. As with the above assumption, I encourage them to spend a little money and test that hypothesis. We've had clients who get the lion's share of their annual revenue (which was not insubstantial) through judicious use of Google AdWords.

I guess this is just another blog post about assuming, an ass, you and me, but I encounter the behaviour often enough (and sometimes in myself) that it's worth keeping in mind.