Tag Archive - Social Media

Why Being a Maven Isn’t Enough Anymore

December 27, 2010 in Journal with 5 Comments

As demand for marketing expertise that bridges the analog and digital worlds increases, brands need “digital polymaths” to lead them where “mavens” cannot.

The past few years have seen the rise of the “marketing maven“, trusted experts that deal in a narrow, but deep subject (like PR or social media strategy). They’re brokers of intellectual capital, influencers, thought leaders, bleeding edge types. They tell companies and brands that the future is now and what steps they must take if they want to get left behind.

Mavens have become known for challenging and convincing brands to think differently about one corner of their world. Social media mavens, for example, help companies see the value in social communities, the power of crowdsourcing, and the difference between engaging in conversations and blasting one-way marketing messages. SEO and SEM mavens clarify the need to quantify hard to measure “stuff” and use the right words.

But being a maven isn’t as attractive as it once was and knowing one “language” just isn’t that valuable. Brands have realized that, as the world grows in complexity and the demand to engage in multiple places and ways increases, they need guides that are fluent, or at least conversant, in multiple areas of expertise.

The mavens are no longer the most important players in the game; the polymaths are. Continue Reading…

The BlessiCurse of Social Needia

March 23, 2010 in Journal with 0 Comments

Social Media is, maybe, the best thing to happen to the web. Few would argue that the connectivity and innovation are a great blessing. It is. But as time passes I hear more and more people say under their breath that social media is, perhaps, also one of the worst things that could’ve happened to us as people. A curse, if you will, or at least a slushy mix of good and bad.

Call it a blessicurse, like a Jackalope or those European man purses or skinny jeans.

True, I think the advent of social networking has created a generation of narcissists who believe celebrity is a God given right. I also think applications like Facebook give us the quick fix of acquaintance without any of the hard work that genuine relationships require. It scratches our bottomless neediness to feel noticed, wanted, and told that we really are living a meaningful life. Continue Reading…

Fiction Addict Podcast

November 12, 2009 in Journal with 1 Comment

Yesterday, I had the chance to participate in a roundtable with Miriam Parker, Tosca Lee, and Jake Chism to discuss the impact of social media on the publishing industry. Miriam is part of the digital media team at Hachette Book Group, one of Ted’s publishers. Tosca Lee, of course, is an acclaimed novelist that many of you are probably familiar with. Some people would be surprised to know that she is also a consultant with the Gallup Organization and has a real mind for marketing.

So, check out the roundtable that Jake Chism hosted and listen in as we discuss what we’ve learned and how that translates for aspiring and success authors alike. Thanks, Jake, for inviting us. It was a lot of fun.

You can listen to it here: http://fictionaddict.com/2009/11/12/social-networking-and-publishing/

Are publishers becoming an endangered species?

September 18, 2009 in Journal with 2 Comments

I live in “Music City,” aka Nashville. For many of my friends who work in music it’s also known as Ground Zero. Over the past few years they’ve had a front row seat to the greatest distribution shift of our time. It was a little thing called the mp3. Thanks to the advent of digital files, and the industry’s unwillingness to deal with change, my friends have watched record label after record label disappear, iconic empires crumble, and the entire landscape of the music business leveled and reshaped. We now live in a world that they couldn’t even conceive of twenty years ago.

When I talk with my friends, usually after they’ve told me about how so-so label went under yesterday after 40 years, they look at me and say, “I hope you publishing guys learn from our mistakes because, well, you’re next. So good luck with that.”

I think they’re right. Mostly. The publishing industry is next in line because a distribution shift is coming to our business, too. We’ve been talking about it since the Sony e-reader and Amazon Kindle hit the market. Our mp3 just has a different name: ebooks. The difference this time is the industry, I believe, is trying to innovate and stay ahead of the wave. But will it be enough? Will the majority of publishers go the way of the record labels? Will tomorrow’s authors even need publishers?  (Note: a great read on that question is a recent post by literary agent Nathan Bransford.).

Here’s what I think, for what it’s worth, and what you should be doing now as an author if you want to thrive in the coming shift: [READ MORE] Continue Reading…

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