Your mother was right, again.

How many times have we heard, “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?” Countless. Even Bambi’s friend Thumper talked about it. But it’s not just good manners handed down from our mothers and movie characters. This small phrase is becoming the underlying rule (and rule of law) on the world wide web.

Many must think good manners don’t apply in our modern cyber world. Consider this recent headline from the Star Tribune “Anything indiscreet you send out on Twitter, Facebook or a blog post might remain alive forever in cyberspace.” Many Star Tribune readers questioned why this was newsworthy and referred to their moms’ sage advice from their childhood. Doesn’t everyone understand that what is written on the web is there for all to see? It’s puzzling but apparently not. The article goes on to discuss liable and defamation lawsuits that are popping up left and right based on not-so-nice comments distributed across the internet. If good manners aren’t enough to guide what you write on the web, the fact that virtually nothing is private should.

The article’s “Corporate Concerns” section references a recent survey which concluded that even in this litigious environment surrounding careless web commentary, very few companies have social networking policies. Many either block employees from social networking sites or move forward without a strategy. Neither approach addresses the underlying issues: web comments live forever and a company must protect itself from potential damage to its brand – and its checkbook.

At SCG we are working with our clients to embrace social media as an effective marketing tool – not to avoid it. We’ve been studying many of the social media policies being adopted across the country and have developed policies for clients that allow companies and their employees to enjoy the advantages that Twitter and LinkedIn and other social media sites can bring while containing the content within the common sense rule extolled by mothers. The premise is fairly simple. If an employee identifies herself or himself as an employee of your company, they are now speaking for your brand, whether intended or not. In very general terms, as a spokesperson for the brand they must not write untrue or intentionally unkind statements about co-workers, customers or competitors.

Mothers everywhere can sit a little taller. Who knew that what they tried to instill in us through good parenting, is now being forced upon us by technology? Are there other “old school” lessons that apply even more aptly to our “new world?” We’d love to hear your thoughts.

-Patricia Henning

Social media is cheap, if not free.

Strategy, customization and updates to social media sites require both time and money to be successful.

When the cold winter breezes began to break and ice-covered sidewalks gave way to sunshine and flower blossoms last April, my mother and I decided it would be an ideal time to start a garden. Encouraged by rising food costs and the talk of trendy recession gardens reminiscent of the World War II Victory Gardens, we headed to our local nursery for soil, fertilizers and of course, seeds. The next week we labored in the backyard for hours, transforming what was once a plot of grass next to our neighbor’s fence into fertile land fit for corn, tomatoes, basil, Brussels sprouts, peppers, cucumbers and green onions. We weren’t quite sure of the work we were in for – or whether our hand-tilled soil would yield edible crops, but we were proud of ourselves.

Since then, I have moved from the suburbs. My mother has taken the reins on watering and weeding our recession-garden, and I gladly take the excess basil, tomatoes and peppers to transform into pesto, salads, and salsa to incorporate in whatever recipe I can find and easily make. Some of our crops didn’t make it. A cool spell in June and the end of July stunted the growth of our tomatoes, and the Brussels sprouts did not sprout. But the corn towers proudly over the fence and there are enough cherry tomatoes and basil to pass along to neighbors, friends, and frankly, whoever will take them.

News reports indicate that we are over the worst in this economic downturn- but I know next summer, even if food prices return to normal levels, I will be converting my urban yard into a garden; and hopefully the next time around, all of the crops will survive.

-Whitney McIntosh

In March we wrote “For Now Focus on Those Ready to Buy”. Just five months later not only have smart companies been doing this, marketing has plainly shifted toward this idea of greater focus.

By the time a salesperson makes a call now, the prospect could easily and quickly have learned your company’s history and reputation, what differentiates your product offerings, your relative pricing position and read through a number of case studies describing what it might be like to work with your company. Then they will likely check your LinkedIn profile to see where you went to school and what kind of experience you have. All of this establishes a baseline of trust, before the salesperson even meets the prospect. Because of all this, a sales person is much closer (or farther) to closing a sale on the first call than ever. It will still likely take more than one call because of proposals, approvals, budgeting and so on, but the actual decision to work with your company is largely pre-sold now with more effective, highly focused, well-messaged, targeted marketing.

I think this is an exciting environment to outperform the competition and represents a major opportunity for forward thinking B2B companies. Research on the cost of sales calls by Reed Business Information finds that the average cost of a business-to-business in-person sales call is almost $400. The same research said that it takes an average of 5 in-person sales calls to close a sale. So the total cost of sales visits required to close an average B2B sale is about $2,000. That cost can be lowered by more efficient integration of marketing with sales.

Several of the five in-person sales calls can be easily and more effectively replaced. For example, integrate within your sales process several lower cost-per-contact marketing tactics such as direct mail, e-mail, case studies, RSS feeds from your blog, an integrated social media strategy, or even highly targeted pay-per-click advertising.

Due to all these cost effective alternatives to five sales calls, the role of the salesperson has changed and so has the fundamental role of marketing. Markets are now clearly engaged in the selling process in a way that was not so 30 years ago, three years ago and in some cases three months ago depending on how savvy a company has been with Twitter.

This is moving very fast. Companies that don’t respond to the changes in marketing will put their sales people at a major disadvantage and watch the competition move pass them, not in a simple evolution of deteriorating market share, but rather a rapid disintegration of market share. Content is the new driver of marketing, and content is becoming an equally important component of sales. I think we will start to see leaders much more quickly become followers and close followers will much more aggressively dethrone the previous champ. Whoever slices the new larger marketing pie into the most strategic, integrated slivers will win.

The environment for marketing to contribute meaningfully to the sales process has never been better and never as potentially efficient. This could be a golden era for marketing and I believe we will see marketing’s influence in product and sales driven companies rise dramatically. It is becoming obvious even to sales driven companies, that marketing can do much more than ever with ROI that is measurable and compelling. The smart ones have already started to make a major shift in that direction.

-Patrick Strother

Modern forecasting models and technologies have eliminated much of the uncertainty about conditions likely to produce tornadoes.

Anyone who witnessed Wednesday’s sudden emergence of a tornado in downtown Minneapolis would take issue with this. Seemingly out of nowhere with no siren warning, a tornado hit Minneapolis with force and fury. Sure, we knew it would be an unseasonably cool and rainy day with likelihood of flooding. But here at SCG, we were surprised to find ourselves jolted from our seats as debris, branches, wood and part of the Convention Center roof flew by our 360˚ view shortly after 2 p.m. In fact, the wind was so forceful it seemed as if our heavily fortified windows 41 stories up just might implode. But by the time we congregated and contemplated fleeing to ground level, it was over. And it wasn’t until about 45 minutes later that reports began to emerge on radio, television and online that, in fact, an unanticipated tornado had touched down in downtown Minneapolis and the nearby Nokomis neighborhood.

Thankfully, no one was injured by this tornado though there is substantial property damage. So the moral of the story seems to be: Mother Nature is still a somewhat elusive force that every once in a while has the power to evade our modern models and technologies.

Being from Illinois as I am, you’d practically have to live in a vacuum not to be aware of Chicago singer songwriter Michael McDermott. A rising star with major record label backing and a hit song Wall I Must Climb in rotation on MTV, McDermott seemed headed for stardom when he first began in the early ‘90s. Well, it’s now 2009—nearly 20 years later—and Michael’s still making music and stunning his dogged fans (myself among them) with searing lyrics and unpredictable storytelling. His latest CD, Hey La Hey, is already receiving rave reviews since its August 11 release and can be purchased and downloaded here. I’ve heard it’s also available in traditional CD form at Electric Fetus in Minneapolis.

Because I’ll stump for Michael’s music any chance I get, I’m often asked what type of music he makes. That’s a tough one. For me, it doesn’t fit into a neat little genre box packaged for appeal to any one audience. He’s a bit roots rock, a bit folk, sometimes a bit alt country with the occasional spiritual hymn sprinkled in. He’s often compared to Springsteen, John Hiatt and Dylan, and occasionally Mellencamp. I suppose the best way to describe his music is to describe his fans. At any of his shows, you’re likely to find yourself in the company of priests, rabbis, drug addicts, strippers, college students, corporate types and retirees. But there is one common thread—the words.

In my opinion, there’s no one better at crafting lyrics that capture the pitfalls of life and journey to overcome. Having lived to tell about his own cycle of addiction and struggle for redemption, McDermott often casts an autobiographical twist on his tales of real-world people he encounters as well as those conjured from his own mind. Once again the words don’t disappoint in McDermott’s latest work, Hey La Hey. But don’t take my word for it. Here’s the lyrics to my favorite song from Hey La Hey.

Carry Your Cross
I’d carry your cross for you
I’d suffer your loss for you
I’d break all the laws for you
Babe, I swear I would

I’d right all your wrongs for you
I think I belong with you
I’d carry your cross for you
If I only could
I’d turn back the time for you
I’d make it unwind for you
You’ve been on my mind, it’s true
You’re the shadows in my room

I’d fight any war for you
I’d break down any door for you
I swear I could soar with you
to our house on the moon

I’d take your doubt and fear
when trouble’s looming near
Cuz without your love I might just fall apart
We’ll find a way I know
I swear it, even though
We’re readin’ roadmaps in the dark

I’ll carry your cross for you
I swear I’ll be tried and true
I’ll show you things that you never knew
If you don’t go

A kingdom I’d create for you
I’d take all your pain for you
Forever I’d wait for you
Cuz I love you so

I’d live and I’d die for you
I’d light up the sky for you
I’d find out why for you
if I didn’t know

I hear a blackbird sing timing’s everything
and I can’t find the door to your heart
My love for you is right here
It’s almost as if we’re
reading roadmaps in the dark

When it feels like your going down
and it feels like your wings are bound
My love I swear I’ll be
I’ll be coming around

http://michael-mcdermott.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-Mcdermott/31384295724?ref=s
http://myspace.com/michaelmcdermott

-Steph Haugan

One of the frustrating parts of working in marketing communications is the number of armchair quarterbacks that ridicule an ad, direct marketing piece, or other form of communication without being privy to the strategy and constraints of a program. But you know what? It’s fun, it makes for lively discussion, and I can’t help myself.

The other night I was watching TV when an advertisement for the University of Phoenix MBA program came on the screen. It’s no secret that online universities have been a huge success, but also that people tend to question the validity of the degree from those virtual institutions. This particular commercial detailed how rigorous the MBA coursework was and how hard students worked toward their degree. But do statements such as, “I took my laptop everywhere, even on vacation” do more harm than good?

As someone who believes learning is a lifelong process, I’ve contemplated seeking an advanced degree. But I have to say that commercial really turned me off. I understand earning an MBA is a rigorous process, a major time commitment and not for the unmotivated. Still, the appealing idea of an online education is the flexibility it allows, which was obliterated in my mind with the thought of being fused to my laptop whenever I’m away from the office.

And perhaps more importantly, is television the best medium to reach prospects who make the Internet such a integral part of their lives? I can’t help but think there would be a better venue to reach MBA candidates with your message than through a mass medium like TV. Perhaps an email campaign, online videos or a social media campaign would have been more effective.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a clip of the ad online. If you’ve seen it, do you think the University of Phoenix used the right vehicle to reach its audience?

-Jeron Udean

Tornadoes cannot cross over water.

While most people think they are safe by the natural barrier of a river or lake, tornadoes actually do travel across bodies of water.

Throughout the day on Saturday, the uncomfortable humidity suggested the threat of severe weather. By early evening, the combination of the National Weather Service Alert and the nervousness of our Brittney, whose forecasting skills are way better than a barometer, left no doubt. I knew to keep a close watch on the sky and stay close to home. I usually do watch the sky during storms. From our 41st floor panoramic view at the office or from the dock at the lake, I’ve always enjoyed watching the clouds get roiled up. However, this time when the emergency sirens sounded, I reacted differently.

As I started walking from the house to the dock to get a good look, I remembered the Prindle family. This family of four was forever altered in a matter of seconds when a tornado struck their Hugo home last summer. They suffered not only the tragic loss of their toddler Nathaniel, but now must contend with the daily challenges of raising their 5-year old daughter Annika whose resulting brain damage has transformed from her from a little girl who loved to run and dance to a child that may never walk again.

So I retraced my steps to the house. Our family of four, a visiting friend and the dog headed to a windowless room in the lower level now nearly pitch black due to the loss of electricity and dark sky. The kids ingeniously placed a flashlight in the ceiling fixture and played cards. The monotone updates from the weather radio offered a comforting back drop while Twitter from the iPhone informed us of the local television coverage. And I said a small prayer for the Prindles.

-Patricia Henning

There is a lot of discussion on blogs and throughout the Internet about the role that social media, and in particular Twitter, is having in changing the approach marketers must take. The theory being posed on the microblogging site Twitter is that brands need to “quit marketing” and instead engage and have conversations with their customers and prospects.

This idea of engagement and conversation is being presented as a major new revolutionary trend in marketing. But let’s look for a moment at the real scale of social media. After all, the amount of money pouring into the new media channel should give us a sense of its current intrinsic investment value to the very smart people that decide how to invest their marketing budgets.

First of all, social media is very small in relative scale compared with advertising and websites. Even though we know that the current size of social media is small, the general consensus is that it doesn’t matter because social media represents the future. Ok, let’s looks at the relative size of some key marketing activities currently compared with social media’s expected growth by 2014.

First, in 5 years social media spending is expected to reach $3.1 billion. That might seem like a lot until you compare it to other traditional marketing activities. For example, in 2014 social media will be less than 5% of the current spending level for corporate websites ($65 billion) TV advertising ($66 billion) and only 7.4% of the amount spent on newspaper advertising. Newspaper advertising!

So even though the newspaper business had had a very rocky year, they are still attracting 14 times the amount of revenue that all social media combined will in three years. Many newspapers are consumed with debt, but the forecast of their complete demise is quite premature.

My conclusion is that social media is a shiny new object that is indeed valuable and serves a very useful purpose for some marketers in select niche categories (especially B2B), who can leverage its unique relationship potential and geographic flexibility. But social media has major structural constraints that will likely always keep it relatively small in terms of real marketing impact and revenue generation, the main reason for that is most likely its very limited ability to actually ever achieve any meaningful scale.

So the next time you hear someone say that social media is the future of marketing, understand that it is in reality quite small and likely to stay a tool to enhance a marketing program on the margin rather than drive it strategically. A few rare exceptions like Zappos that does a nice job on Twitter (but had a recent public fiasco in their advertising agency review) just proves the rule.

-Patrick Strother