Matt Dickman is a blogger, speaker and technology evangelist working as SVP, Digital Marketing at Fleishman-Hillard. He has the rare ability to look at a situation from a traditional, big business PR perspective as well as a dynamic social media view.
Matt Dickman was the plenary speaker at the 3rd annual eMarketing Techniques Conference in Cleveland on May 8, 2009. His rapid-fire bursts of useful social media tips was certified "bullet-point" proof. It was also being commented on in real time on Twitter by many of us in the audience.
Matt Dickman at the 2009 eMarketing Techniques
With his broad background, it was natural to ask Matt what he saw in the future of marketing. Dickman says it will be "very integrated." He sees social media strategies weaving their way into traditional marketing.
At its core, Social Media is just people connecting with other people through technology. Dickman predicts that effective campaigns will use integrated efforts to build something virtual to connect to the physical and continue in the virtual space.
He predicts that the days of spamming millions with the hopes of responses from a fraction of a percent of them are over. The new equation is to find the influencers and empower them. These influencers then affect their networks who in turn affect their networks and so on.
Matt Dickman and Great Lakes Geek Dan Hanson
For smaller operations his prediction that David has an advantage over Goliath is exciting. Smaller businesses can be more nimble and more dynamic. There are fewer layers to pierce before getting the message out.
One of his statements on Social Media may surprise you. We all know people who have gone to a seminar or read a book and got all excited. They then start a web page or blog or Facebook Page, LinkedIn Profile, Twitter account - whatever. But the excitement fades after a while and they don't update and work their social media. They then give up because they aren't getting results.
Matt Dickman is blunt in response to such scenarios. He says if you are not willing to commit to 2 hours every day to working your social media, don't even bother. That may seem like a lot but he has the measurable results to back up his claim.
Listen to Matt Dickman
