Garret French and others have recently re-started conversations concerning Social Media and marketing. Two camps of though have been proposed, which you can read more about at the links above. I myself find I am in camp 3. I, unlike most web developers, began in print design, a more traditional marketing medium.

Camp 3 is simply this:
Social media was once the truest form of online journalism/news/sluething/diaries/etc available. Drudge being a great example. Fark.com still being one of the truest sites out there. Big time marketers saw potential in social marketing(Blair Witch Project being one of the first) and decided to utilize it, no different really than product placement in movies and television. American Idol is nothing more than digg geared towards wannabe pop stars as opposed to blogs/news. If you watch American Idol(which I don’t past the embarrassing audtions), you’ll see Coco-Cola cups in front of each judge. Now, informed comsumers see two types of content simultaneously taking place. The first bit of content takes place via the judges, contestants, interviews and montages. The second piece are the product placements. Now, no one feels that the product placements taint the other content on the show, they simply co-exist. No one would be disappointed to find out Simon is really drinking coffee, Randy is drinking Pepsi and Paula is drinking liquid Valium. We understand why the cups are there and their intentions and we are not alarmed, offended or tricked by this.

Now, online social media is no different. We, as consumers and average Joe’s, understand what is taking place online. We don’t get our shackles up(sorry, a southern colloquialism for getting upset) over the corporate placements within any social media. SNL post clips online. Does it bother us? No we understand it is there as both an advertisement for the show and for our enjoyment. Fortune 500 companies pay employees to maintain corporate blogs and they have discretion over what is posted like wartime morale officers comming down on Robin Williams in Good Morning Vietnam. Does this bother us? No, we take it for what its worth and move on.

Garrett is an old friend of mine, his post is worth the read as most of his client base resembles mine. Neither one of use are going to land a big Nike or Sony or Microsoft contract anytime soon. And thats great with us, we’re not going to get our shackles up.

Just a little tidbit here….Owning a website is really no different than catfishing. When people catfish, no matter what actual method they are using, they basically throw a line out there with bait and a hook and then you wait. You hope the fish likes what it sees and takes a bite. Owning a website is really no different. Millions of people own websites. There’s millions of things in that lake a catfish can eat. You put the best product out there that you can get your hands on and hope you land the fish. Bass fishing on the otherhand, you’re trying yo make the fish think it is eating something other than what you’re presenting. While there are people out there that practice such unethical methods, most websites I build for clients and my person websites are more like catfishing. Sure, you can spend tons of time researching the best landing pages the direct people to take the action you want, just like I can spends hours trying to get the attention of a catfish. But, when it’s all said and done, people, like catfish want the best thing available. In the case of catfish, it’s the stinkiest, stationary object out there. With people however, its always about quality. The quality could be in the product itself, in customer support or even in pricing.

Ok, I know this is kind of an obscure and random post, but when you are sitting by the lake enjoying time with your kids and you own a web development business, weird things pop into your head.

Website ChowNowOnline.com Will Make Searching and Ordering For Delivery and Carry Out Easier For Residents of the Greater Greenville Area

ChowNowOnline.com wants to improve the interactions between restaurants and their customers.
Residents will be able to search by their address and discover which participating restaurants deliver to their home address then place their order online. Residents who want to carry out their orders can place them online and pick them up when ready. Restaurants will be able to increase accuracy and efficiency in their ordering process and provide a service their customers desire. We are currently looking for restaurants in the area to participate. Please visit us at http://www.chownowonline.com/registration.php to register.

For more information, please email support@chownowonline.com