Comments on: B2B Marketing Entrepreneur?

By: Scot

Scot — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 09:41:29 +0000

Thanks Steve. I agree – but still think SM is viewed as the ‘alternative’ by most. That doesn’t make them right. It just makes it the challenge. Birddog has been the alternative for years. There are agencies, and there is Birddog. But we’ve always been right. It just takes a while for the rest of the world to recognise genius… S

By: Stephen Folkes

Stephen Folkes — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 00:37:55 +0000

Just found your blog (don’t ask), it’s a cracker and I’ll be tuning in regularly from here on in. Aside from agreeing with you on Captain Wanker, I wanted to pick up on a different aspect of your post: “Social media is surely THE alternative at the moment.”

Social media is no longer alternative marketing, but it’s very easy to describe it as such – particularly to an audience that hasn’t got its head around it yet.

Over at Nudge we’re in our second year of (good) trading as a dedicated social media agency – a sign in itself that we’re not dealing with an emerging niche area, or something weird or new. Facebook (obviously just one example) now has 250 million users collectively spending more time daily on its pages than the combined viewing time of a few of the more mainstream TV channels.

It’s still going to take a while yet for many to take notice of social media as an established and respectable channel in it’s own right. For every one of our clients that has truly embraced it, we get ten that come to us with very limited forethought for social-based marketing efforts; often it’s a tacked on afterthought to the main marketing masterplan when an under-spent budget needs to reach that bit further.

Appreciate I’m preaching to the converted here and Birddog has long been blowing the social trumpet, but thought I’d sit alongside with my big trombone and kettle drums…

By: Craig Killick

Craig Killick — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:36:58 +0000

IT is a system. A bunch of technology nuts and bolts that make things happen. It’s what you do with it that counts Glenn. For me, it’s marketing, for someone else, it may be pure function.

The web, IT, call it what you will is changing, but so are people and the way they interact with their brands. Problem I see in the creative industry is that many don’t understand and yearn for the eighties again – the high fees and all. Take a look back 5 / 10 years at how many of the large agencies in London dismissed the web and didn’t dive in – same with retailers.

All I have are my case studies – some that worked, and some that didn’t. It’s not about chasing a shiny car, it’s about chasing the deliverable.

IT doesn’t change it’s mind – people do.

By: Scot

Scot — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:13:27 +0000

Thanks Glenn – interesting comment, although I’m inclined to agree more with Craig. I think many businesses fail to adapt and adopt the latest technologies until it’s too late and the opportunity has passed. Craig was encouraging businesses to at least try to keep up and I’d go along with that sentiment. I think we can all agree that IT is very much a moving target though. Scot

By: Glenn Platt

Glenn Platt — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:52:45 +0000

I disagree with Craig about the virtues of his blog http://www.craigkillick.co.uk/2009/05/05/marketing-the-evolution/
His is an admirable attempt to make sense of the insensible as IT constantly changes its mind as it chases the latest shiniest car… but as the Heath ‘The Joker’ Ledger says, it wouldn’t know what to do with one if it ever caught up. I guess that’s why IT remains a moving target…

By: Marketing - The Evolution

Marketing - The Evolution — Tue, 05 May 2009 09:05:19 +0000

[...] I came across a great Blog post by Scot of Birddog about a B2B ‘entrepreneur’ dismissing social marketing online and I had to laugh. Not only at Scot’s engaging writing style (I like it a lot – even the [...]

By: Craig Killick

Craig Killick — Fri, 01 May 2009 18:03:51 +0000

Agreed Scott. I think it’s this compartmentalisation that will hold people back. Like the ‘entrepreneur’ in your meeting.

Loving the Blog by the way. Wish I had the blox to speak my mind as much as you. Keep up the good work.

By: Scot

Scot — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:55:39 +0000

Thanks Craig – good comment. I think at some point we’ll all have to stop talking about ‘traditional business’ and just accept that business is business – online and off line and social media’s part of business. S

By: Craig Killick

Craig Killick — Fri, 01 May 2009 09:22:32 +0000

Scot,

Agree completely. The paradox is that Twitter seems to be full of ‘entrepreneurs’ and CEOs of X startup, etc but of course it’s just the tool… still takes people to send the messages.

I treat the word with caution but have found myself using it recently… 11 years after starting in business and only because I have two. That said, I’m often called a wanker so I guess that’s part of the qualification

It is funny how traditional business still doesn’t take the social web seriously, even in the marketing and PR industry. Funny thing is, the smaller guys that do are catching them up based partly on the exposure they have gained via… the social web.

By: Kieron

Kieron — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:59:35 +0000

Yes, that is what he calls himself.

Oh and by the way you are bang on about women’s dislike of the the word ‘moist’. I know more than a couple of women who list it as their most hated word. Apparently the only context in which it is permissible is in reference to cake.