Web Marketing and Common Sense – What’s Your DUH Moment?
June 17, 2010 By Chad McComsey, aka TheChad
It seems that all to often much of what “web marketers” do when they talk about the industry and especially during “webinars” is common sense. We have been in the industry for over a decade (each) and have witnessed the inception of web marketing, search engine optimization and social media. During that time some pretty basic rules were established and people went about their merry way. When blogging hit it’s height it was a huge need to have a blog and now with Twitter hitting 2 billion tweets per month everyone also has a Twitter account (we’re at @minddnd by the way). Now Twitter and blogging is a huge market and everyone is using them.
Here’s the rub…
Twitter users typically follow tweets from what they are interested in whether it’s sports, celebrity, entertainment, music or news, people follow what they like. Now ask yourself, as a web marketer, what do you like? You like blogging tips, SEO tips, you enjoy webinars and new technology. Now ask yourself a follow-up question (because all good marketers should follow up) – since you like these things, who do you follow? If you’re like 90% of the internet marketers and advertisers on Twitter you’re following other marketers and advertisers!
Basically, web marketers are advertising to each other
You could say that it’s simply sharing information and that the community as a whole is learning from this sharing. To a degree you would be correct but what we usually see coming across our tweets are links and retweets about the same old information… It’s either the same drivel that’s been said a thousand times or it’s just painfully obvious information that everyone should already know. As an example, let’s take some tweets that were recently retweeted from a webinar. We’re not using names here, there is no blame or attack, we simply would like to point out how insanely obvious this stuff really is. (If you’ve fallen into this trap, maybe its time to redesign your website or clean up your social media).
“If you don’t have passion for what you’re doing, don’t bother promoting it.”
Really? You needed to be told this? In school an instructor talked about a seven letter word that no one could use until they graduated. That word was “Passion” and the reason you couldn’t say it until you graduated was because you had yet to prove that you had that passion for what you did. If you don’t love what you do, why the hell would you ever talk about it? (see Twitter points above)
“Say thank you! Thanking people is the most underrated action in the world.”
Again, it’s pretty obvious and if you need to be told to say “Thank You” the problem lies less with you and more with your social graces. It’s just the civilized thing to do. If someone provides any information to you, whether it’s good or bad, a simple “thank you” can make all the difference in the world. It’s professional, it’s nice. Say “Thank You”.
“It’s up to you to figure out how to use social media tools at your disposal to your advantage!”
Now this one just really puts the icing on the cake. Ultimately this is a cop-out. So people tuned in to hear what you have to say. You speak about social media and marketing and then you tell the audience that “it’s up to you to figure it out”! Then please tell me why anyone should listen to you? If all there is to it is to figure it out for yourself why bother doing a webinar? If anyone can do it and do it themselves how valuable is your information, how valuable are you? 
To make a difference, stick to one of the oldest and most prevalent rules: be original. It’s such an easy concept yet is often not followed. Teach something people don’t already know; provide them with actual value instead of teasing them. Most of all please use common sense when retweeting or blogging. Reiterating the same painfully obvious content gets us (and your other followers) nowhere.
“Where you goin? NOWHERE!”
That’s your DUH moment of the day.
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