In this 7-minute video, marketing legend David Ogilvy implores every marketer to build their career on a foundation of direct marketing disciplines. He chastises those who "worship at the altar of creativity."
Do Ogilvy's "old school" principles hold true in today's media landscape? Are Twitter, Facebook, mobile, etc. are changing everything? Does the "new school" make the lessons taught by direct marketing obsolete?
If you think Ogilvy's lessons are still valid, you can get a full dose of his powerful ideas in his book Ogilvy On Advertising.
Tag – you're it!That's the game we used to play as kids, but it was conducted offline and had a 'two-way street' where the predator would instantly become the prey at each touch point. That's not the case with online tag – you can run, but you can't hide!
With online tag there are no list owner clearance approvals, just millions of individuals (with user IDs and passwords) who check boxes without ever having read the terms and conditions or a privacy policy. It's not just tagging you need to worry about. Just about anything can get posted, blogged or tweeted nowadays – and RSS feeds only help to power the distribution.
It's no wonder that, "I always feel that somebody's watchin' me, and I have no privacy." – Rockwell (1984)
Facebook privacy settings
Although there are several settings that Facebook users can adjust to manage privacy, they won't protect you from your misspent youth. According to All Facebook, "the best way to prevent embarrassing items from showing up on Facebook is to not make bad judgments in your personal life."
Well, I couldn't agree more – do you have a big eraser I can use to clean up my teen years? In the meantime, here are 10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know:
Use Your Friend Lists
Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results
Remove Yourself From Google
Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake
Protect Your Albums
Prevent Stories From Showing Up in Your Friends’ News Feeds
Protect Against Published Application Stories
Make Your Contact Information Private
Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts
Keep Your Friendships Private
Keep in mind, that although Facebook is currently the most popular social network service it is not the only online social utility. There are hundreds of frequently visited sites on the web that allow your friends and your enemies to share information about you, both visually and textually, but not necessarily in context.
Respect from direct mail service providers
Fortunately, direct mail is less concerning because there are many controls in place to guard against the improper use of mailing lists. Direct marketing services providers work together and share information about unethical mailers to prevent scams on the front-end of the process. There are clearance approvals and list rental agreements that are required, and most lists are seeded to ensure compliance. In addition to these and other controls, the members of the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) abide by a Privacy Promise and a Code of Ethics.
The DMA has also made it easier for consumers to manage their incoming mail and email preferences by registering for the mail preference service at 'DMAchoice.org'. The site also includes links to the forms needed to stop mail from being sent to deceased individuals or to manage mail sent to a dependent living in your care.
Media channels are good
It's not that direct mail is good and social media is evil. Media channels are not the source of the problem — it's human nature out of control that will lead to chaos. Treat others online the way you would like to be treated and we'll all be better off.
You know every name squatter in the world will be raring to go at 12:01 a.m. and will be rushing to snatch up valuable names in the hope of extracting a ransom from you and everyone else who cares about their brand.
Did you know that as of this month (April 2009) there are over 200 million active users on Facebook? That's double the number of users the company had just eight months ago. That's impressive considering that Mark Zuckerberg and three of his buddies launched the application from their Harvard dorm room in February 2004. Within a year there were a million users and it took off even more rapidly from there.
After reading Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business, I decided to create a page for NextMark. Although this network is more appropriate for consumer marketing than business-to-business, it is still a good place to be. Most of our blog traffic comes from LinkedIn and other networks, but the Facebook page is a great way of keeping others informed about what is going on here at NextMark. We have some nice pictures of our data center posted on our company page, an active poll about Barack Obama's use of Twitter, live updates from our blog, cutting edge videos from our YouTube channel, and more. Direct marketers are facing some real challenges right now, but many of those who have embraced social network services appear to be more optimistic. Only time will tell how well these outlets deliver in terms of paid advertising ROI but the effort to create a page on Facebook is minimal and time well spent for your business.
About 4 million users become fans of Facebook pages each day. We'd love to have you as a NextMark fan. You are also invited to join the NextMark groups on Facebook or Linkedin and keep up on what's happening with next generation marketing. We hope to see you there!
February 23, 2009 – The Dow closed at 7,114.78 today, an 11-year low. The S&P 500 hit its 12-year low, while today's NASDAQ posted a 3.71 percent loss which actually exceeded the percentage losses of the DJIA and S&P 500. An estimated $10,000,000,000,000 market value of U.S. stocks has been wiped out since the October 2007 high.
There is no better time than the present to leverage marketing freeconomics for your business. The information renaissance is a breath of fresh air in the midst of the current economic crisis. While many physical doors have been closed due to cutbacks, a greater number of virtual windows have opened online. Here are NextMark's examples for 10 free ways to market your business online: