Social Media World Forum New York (SMWF)

“Social media is a research platform.”

Love Greg Cargill’s definition. Greg is an early social media expert and currently VP for Client Services at the Blitz Agency.

He spoke at the Social Media World Forum, which took place in New York’s Javits Center November 1-2, 2011. I jotted down several take-away quotes from his session that I thought you might enjoy – and may help your business strategy evolve.

Pitching a client

Don’t pitch a strategy to a client without having sold your time to do the research.

The golden circle of why, how and what starts with “why”. You can’t define a worthwhile strategy without answering the “why” question first, and that takes research, lots of it, on variables such as culture, people, context and category.

Do the research, get paid for it, design the strategy and get the client to sign off on it *before* rolling out your marketing campaign.

What are you selling?

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

Successful marketing is emotional. You need to resonate with your target audience. I’ve spoken about this often on this blog, such as here and here.

Do business with people who believe what you believe.

Choose clients, colleagues and team members who share your values and with whom there is an easy and comfortable dynamic with which to foster creative ideas.

Not 3 but 7 Ps

You’ve heard of marketing’s 3 Ps: product, price and positioning.

The 7 Ps are a golden rule to remember before launching a new project:

Proper prior planning prevents piss poor performance.

Enjoy this post? Share it! And feel free to add great quotes you’ve heard recently in the comments below.

Tags: freelance marketing, linkedin, siteEN, SMWF, social media