Learning from Scott Stratten's "UnMarketing"

I am in the final weeks of my Social Media Marketing course and I am feeling inspired, savvy and way more passionate about social media than I thought possible.  As part of my course work, I had to pick a book about social media marketing and complete a "digital book report" on two different platforms.  Lucky for me (and now you!), I chose blogging as one.


The book I read is UnMarketing by Scott Stratten.  Scott is a Canadian marketing expert who speaks and consults on all matters concerning customer engagement.  If you work with the public at all, this is a really great read.  Even if you yourself don't have a role having to do with social media, he hits home on a lot of important things to keep in mind through case studies and personal experience.  

Here are four things I really took away from UnMarketing:

1) Expertise
If you have a job, you were likely hired because you have some level of expertise in your field.  Stratten insists that you must be an expert to run your own business.  But be careful- there is a difference between claiming to be "an expert" and claiming to be "the expert".

Stratten explains, "People who claim to be the top expert in a certain field often do it in a way that excludes everyone else.  In declaring the top spot, these people claim they know the most and everything there is to know about a certain thing.  Really, nobody can claim that."

2) Shared responsibility
Too often, we consider our marketing departments "over there".  It's easy to chalk up poor sales to a bad website or an unsuccessful marketing campaign.  In his chapter "Pull & Stay", Stratten encourages us to think of marketing as a bigger picture.  He says that "Marketing is not one department.  It is every point of engagement."

Be responsible for your personal piece of the marketing pie.  Go the extra mile to put yourself out there and stand out amongst the businesses around you.  Pull & Stay refers to the ability to draw or pull someone in, collect their information and stay present and connected after your interaction.

3) Do one thing well... and then get bigger
Finding the right social media platform for your business or brand can be confusing.  There are so many out there and many businesses feel the need to be present on them all.  Stratten suggests choosing one platform where you want people to find you and do your absolute best in that space.  Once you have built a good following, you can think about where it would make sense to be next.

In order to successfully build your platform, Stratten gives the following 3 steps:

1. traction
2. momentum
3. expansion

4)  Customer Service

Social media platforms are just that- social!  They allow for conversation, interaction annnnnd public displays of customer (dis)satisfaction.  On such a public forum, it is important for businesses to keep their cool online and really listen to their happy or not-so-happy customers.  When things go wrong, it's ok (and recommended) to acknowledge the customer and own the mistake.  

I would love to hear all of your social media advice or questions.  Please comment below or join the conversation @midtowndiaries #midtownmarketing