B2B Marketing Entrepreneur?
I’ve always been deeply suspicious of anyone introducing themselves as an ‘Entrepreneur’. It’s one of those wank words I find impossible to say out loud. Women don’t seem to like the word ‘moist’, but for me, it’s ‘entrepreneur’. Eww. I’m less disturbed when the term’s used to describe someone else. It’s strictly the self-use of the word that bugs me. So, “Richard Branson is an entrepreneur”, is wholly acceptable. “Hello, I’m Bob. I’m an entrepreneur”, isn’t. See what I mean? Wanker.
So when I walked into a client meeting I was relatively relaxed as the introductions were made and the Marketing Director said, “…and this is Bob.” It was only when Bob himself then repeated, “I’m Bob – I’m an Entrepreneur”, that I knew we were all doomed.
I’d been asked to the meeting to discuss social media, something I’m increasingly integrating into on and offline marketing strategies so I was slightly perplexed as to why we might need an ‘entrepreneur’ in the room. Was it just in case a brilliantly creative idea sprang out of our conversation and someone needed to throw money at it? Or maybe if we had a good idea, but suddenly and mysteriously ran out of creativity, we might need Bob to step in and… ‘preneur’ over everyone? His role wasn’t clear. And I didn’t like him. Mainly because of his self-proclaimed title.
I let it go for all of about a minute and a half and then said, “So, Bob, what does an entrepreneur do then?”
There was a pause while he composed his best Dragon’s Den stare and he replied, “I seek the alternative.” I waited for the subject in his sentence, but it never came. That was it. Bob sought ‘the alternative’. I admired the brevity, but I wasn’t really any the wiser. “I suppose people ask you what ‘the alternative’ is quite a lot?” I enquired oh so casually. “No” he said.
Everyone shuffled their papers and cleared their throats so I kind of knew I was supposed to shut up. But that’s never stopped me before and I wanted to understand his purpose in life. “Well, are you entrepreneurial in the social media space?” “No”, he said, “I think social media’s a complete waste of money.”
Now that, I thought, was interesting – for someone who ‘seeks the alterative’. Social media is surely THE alternative at the moment. Markets have changed, audiences have moved, tools have improved, knowledge is being shared and the world is responding to new ‘social’ methods of communication for their brands – we’re all doing at least something in the social media marketing space now even if it’s just blowing the dust off our Linkedin accounts and trying to make sense of Twitter. Of course, some brands are doing considerably more in the social space – they’re using social tools to create very active, vibrant communities online, they’re harnessing customer opinion, influencing perceptions, engaging in conversation and debate, they’re even transforming sales methods, processes and revenues.
Those companies are re-capturing audiences that had been lost to the internet and are finding new audiences at the same time. In a commoditised marketplace, those companies are achieving elusive competitive advantage by staying a step ahead of the competition and finding their social voice. And they’re doing it in truly creative ways – using music, video, photographs, conversation. What’s ‘the alternative’ anyway – another brochure? Really? Is that really going to work this time around when it hasn’t worked for the last couple of years at least? The companies that will survive and accelerate through the recession are learning to balance traditional communications strategies with the social mandates of their audiences. If the customers want it – you’d better deliver it. New, inspired, thinking and brand development starts when digital and direct strategies are properly aligned and it’s the steps forward in social media that are truly… ehh… “entrepreneurial”. Oops.
Naturally, I regurgitated those thoughts in a demented stream of consciousness mad professor kind of way and only stopped to draw breath when spots started appearing in front of my eyes and I thought I was going to faint. Waste of money? My arse. In the last 12 months the current British Government has increased the Gross National Debt by more than the combined total of Governments over the last 300 years. Now THAT’s a waste of money. I dunno – somehow I expected an ‘entrepreneur’ to know the difference. Does that make me the real entrepreneur, the alternative… or the wanker?
Scot McKee
Managing Director
Birddog Ltd.
+44 (0)20 7323 6666
Twitter.com/scotmckee
April 27th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
If this entrepreneur lives part of the year in Malta and drives an old Jaguar then I’ve met him.
Wanker.
April 28th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Kieron – You may be getting confused with Morse? If you hang around the world of B2B Marketing long enough, you’ll meet a ‘Bob’.
S
April 28th, 2009 at 10:59 am
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.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:22 am
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.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:55 am
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
May 1st, 2009 at 7:03 pm
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.
May 5th, 2009 at 10:05 am
[...] 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 [...]
June 9th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
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…
June 9th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
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
June 9th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
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.
July 18th, 2009 at 1:37 am
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…
July 21st, 2009 at 10:41 am
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