Who is Scott Stratten? “An author, speaker and kind of a big deal on a fairly irrelevant social media site which inflates my self-importance” says his Twitter bio. A peek at Scott’s Twitter timeline…
http://twitter.com/#!/unmarketing/status/271239015305461761
Scott generously gave My Book Club some of his time and answered a few questions for us.
Question: How did you get started in social media? And how has Twitter evolved for you from when you started until now.
Answer: A lot of us got started in social media years before we called it that. I was active on forums, social bookmarking and even Ryze.com which was truly the first social business media site online back in the day. I started on Twitter in April 2008. Although it functions still the same, the landscape has changed immensely. Back then we were all on Twitter because we wanted to be, not because we should or had to. It was all conversations, and no Justin Bieber. Sigh.
Question: Which social media platform do you feel is “winning” right now?
Answer: Well, obviously in numbers it’s Facebook but the “winning” one is what works for you. Twitter is still the best for me, but not necessarily for you. Pin your heart out on Pinterest, spend 6 hours on Instagram, +1 everything on Google+, if it works for you, keep doing it.
Question: “Going viral” is a term that gets thrown around a lot, can you explain what viral marketing is and how you work with your clients with viral marketing videos.
Answer: The thing about viral marketing is it’s a lie right in the term. No one can make anything “go viral”. You create content and hope it goes viral. A video with a million views isn’t viral if it was sent to 10 million email addresses. We don’t do client work anymore but when we did make the videos we tried hardest at two things: Evoke emotion and reduce the commercial aspect. Most content is the reverse.
Question: One of your most famous quotes is “Don’t try to win over the haters. You’re not the jackass whisperer.” Can you explain how this phrase came about and how you deal with the jackasses?
Answer: Ha! if I don’t get someone hating me online everyday, I’m not doing it right. It came out of me realizing that I, and most other people spend a lot of our time focusing on the haters out there. I can recite to you the 1 star reviews of my book but not the 5-star, which are the majority.
The term itself came after someone was hating on me on Twitter, so I smacked him right back and I got a private message from someone that said “why don’t you try to win him over with kindness?” And my reply was “I’m not the Jackass Whisperer.”
Great advice!
Question: Your new book, The Book of Business Awesome, is now on the market. Who should read this book and how will it help them with their business?
Answer: Everyone? :) it shows good and bad examples of what really is marketing: Customers sharing their experiences. Marketing is a verb. It’s our actions. We don’t define our brand, our market does.
Please make sure you follow Scott on Twitter and check out his two books The Book of Business Awesome and Unmarketing.