Roberta Rosenberg On Bridging New & Old: Social Media Series

This week's guest for Flooring The Consumer's Social Media Series: Bridging New & Old is Roberta Rosenberg.

Roberta Rosenberg, aka The Copywriting Maven, is an amazing woman. Not only does she know direct marketing and copywriting, but she also knows SEO and social media. She promotes all of these disciplines via her direct response, SEO and social media marketing consultancy, MGP Direct, Inc. Yes, she truly is a 'Maven' -- Yiddish for Expert.

There's more. Roberta launched an online gift store in 1999, AdoptShoppe.com, and in 2003, the adoption and alternative baby book company, AdoptShoppe Press. Pretty neat. To me that says that she practices all that she preaches, and constantly tests, modifies, improves and retests.

Roberta blogs at CopywritingMaven.com, writes the popular landing page makeover series at Copyblogger.com, teaches new copywriters for the American Writers and Artists Institute, and reviews children's books for Adoptive Families Magazine.

Roberta's contribution to The Age of Conversation 2 - Why Don't They Get It? - the book that 237 authors from around the world collaborated on to benefit Variety, the children's charity [please consider buying the book] is "Another Tale of The Accidental Marketer - How A Broadcast Management Major Became "The Copywriting Maven." It's a great story that helps me better appreciate the unbridled enthusiasm that Roberta so readily shares.

C.B.: Roberta, how/why did you get involved in social media?

Roberta: I think I've been involved in social media for the past 20 years. I had the great fortune to be one of the creatives behind the launch of GEnie, one of the first online networks in the mid 1980s. Being able to chat and interact real-time with others worldwide, even in its primitive '80s technology trappings, was amazing. I knew early on that connecting people with people in real-time without concern to geography, timezones or other artificial barriers was really what the web was built for. Being part of the web’s early evolution from a hobbyist's plaything to a global driver of ideas, education/training, commerce, friendship -- and even romance -- still enthralls me. I can't help but be excited about what else lies ahead.

As far as what we mean by social media now, I came to it a little late, I'd say. In early 2006, I started to explore blogging as an extension of website work I had been doing for nearly 10 years. I found and followed up-and-comer marketing folks who were doing and saying some interesting things. Within a few confidence-building months, I started my own blog, The Copywriting Maven (copywritingmaven.com) as a personal "lab" that I could tinker with. Soon after, I added LinkedIn, Facebook and ultimately Twitter. The latter, of which, I had some initial reservations about but now use and recommend regularly.

C.B.: What do you like most about social media?

Roberta: There are probably three main factors to my social media enthusiasm. I love the speed in which information can be shared intimately between 2 people or globally with 2 million. I also like the borderless nature of social media. As I already mentioned, you're not restricted by where people live or work or what their time-zone is. Like a constantly flowing stream, you can dip in and out with ease, when and how you want. Lastly, social media provides consumers and businesses with unprecedented opportunities to connect on multiple levels both large and small. You can quickly assess trends, solicit opinions, get recommendations, address critical concerns, or even share a laugh with a goofy story or video.

As my grandmother might say, "What's not to like?"

C.B.: What do you like least about social media?

Roberta: What is the flipside of virtue? What do we lose for every gain? I think the speed and facileness of online social interaction can too easily blunt the value of context, thoughtfulness and nuance. Like the difference between a news headline and a single story deeply analyzed, we click and send ... click and ship ... click and friend - but do we think about it? Interactions are many, but genuine engagement of heart and mind? I'm still mulling that one over.

I’m also thinking about what defines relationship vis-à-vis the social media. We may have 5,000 Facebook friends or Twitter followers but how well do we really know each other? For example, I now have clients all over the world as well as in the Washington DC area where I live. I don't expect to see clients who live in Australia, but I rarely see clients in person at all anymore for no other reason than we're all busy and online interaction is more efficient. As a species we're hardwired for face-to-face contact. So I wonder as more of our personal and business relationships are conducted online what ultimate price we pay when we sacrifice inexact, sloppy, face-time intimacy for razor-sharp efficiency.

Lastly, social media all too easily crowns celebrities and experts. It reminds me of the "As Seen on TV" red badge. If someone is on TV and/or online enough, they can get a credibility gloss that may or may not be earned. Of course, it works to someone's favor when they're genuinely and knowledgeably fabulous and deserving of, um, Mavenhood-status.

C.B.: How has social media changed how you interact with the marketplace as a consumer or customer?

Roberta: This is an easy question. It's changed EVERYTHING, but I say that with a caveat. I come from a direct response marketing background. (I'm not only a direct marketer but I'm a direct marketing consumer, as well.) So as a consumer, it was easy for me to move seamlessly from being a big catalog consumer to a big online consumer, especially for niche, hard to find products and services. This was one of biggest drivers behind my interest in experimenting with ecommerce in the late 1990s. I saw it as a direct line extension of the catalog experience. So the shopping didn't change -- just the medium in which the shopping was performed and transacted. The trick was to replicate the personal, tactile experience of shopping offline to the online environment and perfect it.

Another area where social media has changed EVERYTHING is how consumers are now interacting with companies (and we thought toll-free 800#s in the 1980s were a big deal!) Consumers are getting hip to their power. Smart companies know it, too. Rather than brushing off consumer complaints with an eye-roll and half-hearted, "We’re listening" response, companies are listening, blogging, Twittering, and taking quick action -- emphasis on the quick. This, as Verizon's FIOS advertising likes to say, is big. Everyone gets a win-win here.

C.B.: What 5 suggestions do you have for companies to implement so they can more effectively bridge old media with new media and connect with end users?

Roberta:
1 - Be where your customers not only want you to be, but expect you to be. Then delight them when they find you. A website that's clean, informative and intuitive. A well-written blog with style and heart. Tweets that deliver more than self-congratulatory promotional hoo-hah. I'm thinking Zappos 101. But don't leave traditional media behind if your market still uses and trusts it. It's really all about 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 great message.

2 - Don't let the technology drive the message: Too many companies fall in love with the latest and greatest tech-delivery toys and the ultimate marketing message gets lost in the noise. Think people, think message and then think the best, most effective ways to connect the dots between the two.

3 - Be respectful, transparent and responsive in all pre- and post- sales communication, digital and otherwise. To quote David Ogilvy - "The consumer isn't a moron, she is your wife!" (or husband, partner, parent, child, best friend, etc.)

4 - Embrace the fact that all consumers have access to their own digital bully pulpits and aren't afraid to use 'em: Consider the super-heated blogger blaze that forced Tropicana to return to its classic straw-through-the orange package design or how raging Mommy Bloggers laid waste to Motrin's recent marketing debacle. Listen and learn. Act and respond.

5 - Remember the power of a simple phone call or a hand-written letter: Years ago before I opened my own little marketing shop, I was the Account Executive for a direct marketing agency; Special Olympics was my account. One of the SO staffers shared with me that every week without fail, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, then the Executive Director, would personally call every super high-dollar donor to thank them for their support. Today, just imagine the impact that kind of personal gesture might have on keeping donors happy and donor dollars flowing.

C.B.: Any other thoughts to share about the effectiveness of social media in forging stronger relations with customers and how best to do so.

Roberta: Think 40%/40%/20% for social media messaging: inform and solve/share and surprise/promote and publicize and let the optimal mix of people, market and message drive the delivery technology. Lastly, don’t forget to push away from the tools and toys and meet your customers and friends for a little face-time.

Thank you, Roberta!

Comments? Questions? Feedback?

Some of what resonated with me include:

+ "Social media provides consumers and businesses with unprecedented opportunities to connect on multiple levels both large and small. You can quickly assess trends, solicit opinions, get recommendations, address critical concerns, or even share a laugh with a goofy story or video."

+ "Consumers are getting hip to their power. Smart companies know it, too."

+ "... Delight them [your customers] when they find you... But don't leave traditional media behind if your market still uses and trusts it. It's really all about 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 great message."

+ "Remember the power of a simple phone call or a hand-written letter" [which must have inspired Small Gestures That Communicate Strongly].

+ "Think 40%/40%/20% for social media messaging: inform and solve/share and surprise/promote and publicize and let the optimal mix of people, market and message drive the delivery technology."

What did you identify with?

For additional insights from other participants in the Social Media Series: Bridging New & Old, please visit The Entire Bridging New & Old series, which includes a link to the e-book based on the first 26 interviews in the series.

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