Well hello! I know it has been awhile but I have been busy.
We got an Irish Setter puppy. It is as if a young child has moved into the
house, demanding attention from the moment he awakens to the moment he falls asleep.
Irish Setters are highly emotive, demanding, but worth the effort.
I dropped by to share a story. A prominent, retired
marketing executive from a local well known company started up a Facebook /
website page dedicated to women who have changed the world. This man used to
live behind me though I am not sure we ever actually met. We certainly had been
at the same places at the same time but a formal introduction never occurred.
He came to Columbus to jump start his new project and everyone who is anyone attended.
I of course did not. I was aware of the event;
in that strange way I am often aware of community events I rarely attend.
Because I was aware of this site’s existence I clicked “like: on the Facebook
page. Thought I would see if the old guy (he is 80) still had his marketing
magic, The posts would float by on my Facebook feed and I must admit I read a
few and learned a bit about women’s history. Then I commented on a post.
I make a distinction between knowing someone and merely
having been around someone. I think an actual introduction or conversation is
necessary to claim you know someone. This does not mean I do not know who
people are, and they know who I am. Well
this gentleman obviously remembered me. He posted a link to a current soft porn
best seller that is the “must read” book of the week. Huge sales, controversial
subject, lots of press but basically soft porn, and not that great of porn from
the reviews I have read. I challenged his post. Women of achievement are not
normally into promoting porn, even if it was written by a woman. I questioned why the link was included, thinking
I would be another voice in the conversation. I became the target.
The marketing guru attacked me. Asked why I had not added a
story to his site. He ignored the subject and attacked me as an individual. The
post was personal and reflected the author's awareness of my identity. It
was nasty, mean and uncalled for. Not out of character for this individual or
his crowd, but unprofessional never the less. I unsubscribed and in a digital
way, “walked out the door.”
Well this site popped up in my search box. I decided to see
how his site was doing. Given the type of local people he had at the kickoff
event and his level of experience, his site does not appear to be a resounding
success. Now if local media were reporting this story the site would be described
in glowing terms and a reader would think it was the next pet rock. It has 185
fans. In the Internet world 185 fans is nothing. The site has gone to a woman
focused magazine, recycling existing web content with very little conversation,
historical perspective or personal narratives. To put this in perspective, my dog,
Henry has over a 1000 twitter followers and his posts concern trips to the dog
park and bad hair days. I have a degree in communications but I never was a
marketing guru nor even a marketing exec. Most observers would describe this as an "epic fail."
Yes, I am taking a bit of malicious amusement
in this site’s failure. It may be a sleeper site and take off later but as of
yesterday only 185 people are following it and I am not one of them. The
concept of welcoming only the “right people” to your marketing party takes
another hit in the gut. It used to be a tried and true method of generating interest
in a product, but that was before the Internet. A wiser choice in
these days of instant Facebook and Internet referrals and information sharing is to appreciate all your
customers not just the “right people.” Just a thought.
