I thought this was a bit humorous, but I knew exactly how she was feeling. The minute someone tells you NOT to do something, it’s flipmode style. You then become hell-bent on doing the very thing you think you’re not supposed to do. It’s like a tick or something. Adam and Eve had the same deal.
My response to our client was, I believe, appropriate:
“Of course you can have ads for your products on your blog! Put two or three. The whole idea is not to be a sales eunuch, but rather shift to understanding and appreciating a more conversational sale.” (Well, that’s not the WHOLE idea, but baby steps with the clients, eh?)
I’m of the mindset that it’s OK to put links to products in your blog posts every now and again, obviously as long as it makes sense contextually. I suggest that our clients ask themselves: “If I mention this product, is it supremely helpful, or am I just advertising?”
And then, shazam, I made the connection…THIS is why so many people are scared to death of social media. THIS. THIS. THIS.
Pixel by pixel, social media is separating true thought leaders – people with something truly genuine and insightful to say – from the phony vacuous parrots because part of the social media “success formula” is being comfortable enough to let your thought leadership (read: your ideas) sell FOR you. (Thankfully, our client can run circles around everyone in her industry with her ideas – she just needs the right encouragement, like anyone else.)
This is why most brands would rather buy ads on Facebook. They’re scared to death of the eerie glow of an empty creativity container and they’re slowly realizing that, all this time…all this time of the 50’s, 60’s, 70′ 80’s and 90’s…they’ve been relying HEAVILY on ads. And, now that ads are no longer good enough, the two questions that’s got them keepin’ the lights on like Motel 6 is:
Can we stand on our ideas? Do we even HAVE ideas worth sharing? Help. Does anyone see us?

Anyway, I’m reading this article and I start to think about how many people I know (either personally or social media-ly) who have done the exact same thing, but with blogs. The parallels are voluminous.
“It’s not newspapers that might become obsolete. It’s some of the editors, reporters, and proprietors who are forgetting a newspaper’s most precious asset: the bond with its readers,” said Murdoch.
Ouch! Tell the truth, does that sound like anyone you know? You know it does. I personally need two hands to name the people I know who have successful blogs who used to give their readers “the business” but who are now absolutely, wholly out of step with their readers.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those people standing at the edge of the kingdom, throwing eggs at social media “royalty”; nor am I the disgruntled odd ball who says, “Wow, that person’s success sure has changed them!” Of course people change! It is my hope that no one is the exact same person they were yesterday. That would…um…not be good.
The hallmarks of social media narcissism are painfully obvious:

• Being totally unresponsive to comments – even the really good ones. Chances are you started a blog because you wanted to be in some kind of regular content with your market/audience. Why kill the vibe by being the blog owner who never responds to anything? That’s just bogus. Yeah, yeah, I get that you can’t respond to everything. Sure. If you’ve ever heard me speak, you would know that I don’t advocate responding to everything. But, dude/ette, that’s a cop out.
• Forgetting your peeps. Any blogger does a fair amount of blogging for themselves. That is, they blog about the topics they want, when they want. But, don’t forget your readers. Always ask yourself, “Do my readers want to hear all this stuff?” And, when in doubt, ask — or at least say, “Hey, I’m going to go off on a tangent here for a moment.” Remember, blogs are a conversation and you wouldn’t abruptly change the conversation during a face-to-face.
• Repurposing dead-as-a-doornail content. If I read one more blog post about J&J or Motrin, I think I’ll…. C’mon stop phoning it in. Unless you have something totally and shockingly original to say, link to a well-written story and bail on the topic.
• Going and staying for self. My Aunt Agnes has a saying, “Self promotion stinks.” Now, I don’t know if I agree with that totally, but I understand where she’s coming from. If all you’re doing is promoting your services, your events and your products and you’re not sharing good information that can help your readers, later for you. Pamela Slim said she goes by the 80/20% rule and I agree with that. The day of 75/25% are over.
• Becoming a hold-your-feet-to-the-fire expert who grills-the-experts and gets them to spill-the-beans. There’s not much explanation needed here except to say, don’t get all info-marketing on me, mmmkay?

Hey, you, get off your cloud…we’re over here!
This goes for you too, podcasters and community owners!
Total aside: And, speaking of self-promo (see, I’m not totally weird) I’m a track chair for next year’s NetPromoter conference in San Fran. Save 800 bucks on your registration. There, I did it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the services themselves are great…and the names are fine, too. As long as you’re talking to other new media types.
It’s just having to say them when talking about the benefits of social media to I-don’t-know-about-all-this-new-media-stuff CEO’s, CFO’s and investor relations types is a bit…weird. Even for me and if you’ve ever heard me speak, you know I don’t hold back much.
If we could play let’s pretend, what do you think it would have done to corporate new media adoption rates if Twitter was called Stay-in-Touch, Flickr was Photo Share, FriendFeed was New Media Dashboard and Pownce was Share Data? Or some other equally absurd boring easy-to-understand names?
Would new media professionals have to defend results, ROI and viability as much?
Would our projects get the left-over “experimental” budget?
Would we have to do so much gosh darned explaining?
Would we be able to keep our collective street cred as “the cool people who understand all that tech stuff”?

“Marketers, grappling with a sluggish economy, next year are likely to allocate less of their budgets for experimental media, including social networks, digital out-of-home and mobile, in favor of more proven segments…”

What I find interesting is while these execs were quick to name the types of emerging media that marketers wouldn’t be investing in during 2009 (digital out-of-home and mobile), they didn’t really mention what they meant by “proven segments”. Ah, yes, that would be TV. How could I forget?
Am I the only person who thinks that it’s very convenient for “agency and brand executives” – many of whom could use a bit of enlightenment about using emerging media effectively (there have been serveral surveys that have pointed this out so don’t kill the messenger) – to announce the dwindling investment in emerging media in 2009…and not only announce the spending slow down, but also refer to emerging media as “experimental”. Wow. I guess progress and growth become “experimental” when it starts cutting into the TV/ad spend budget?
Before agency pros jump all over me, keep in mind that I’m one of a few social media experts who has always said that many people are quick to play a game of “pile on” when it comes to brow-beating agencies for their lack of emerging media experience. I am constantly in contact with agency professionals and my company even created a special emerging media training program for agencies.
And, no, I don’t live under a rock. I can fully understand that emerging media is just that…emerging, but I just hope smart brands realize that in order to stay ahead during this challenging phase and be ready to hit the ground running when things turn around they shouldn’t pack up all their “toys” and go home.
The greatest companies understand and are mastering the art of continuing to move forward and push the envelope and not settle for just being good, but relish in doing whatever it takes to be great. Or, maybe it’s easier to be “tried and true”.