Social Media & Experiences
Darren Herman
Covering My Ass: All views and thoughts expressed in this document are mine personally and do not represent my employer. If you have any
questions with the material contained herein, please reach out to me at @dherman76 or thru darrenherman.com

Before we begin, I just want to state on the
record that I hate the term “social media” and
that all media was, is, and will continue to be
inherently social…
Social media is a term that many people overuse
to get consulting gigs, book deals, and
remnant ad budgets.

Lets begin.

[I’m assuming] you were born with a mouth.

While you were developing your voice, you
began developing your brand.
What your brand stands for, is up to you.

Brands are amplified:[historically] in-person,
telephone, and written conversations.
2 people generally participated in these
conversations.

In some cases, brands go beyond intimate.
[insert celebrity of choice – Brad Pitt, Angelina
Jolie]

But for the vast majority of us, the late 1990s
saw the end of intimate brands.

Humans are born brands….
…. And technology has allowed for amplified
voices.

[Brands] need to better understand how
consumers react to their
product, services, and identity.

The smartest people in this world listen before
speaking.
…Brands should be listening too.
But not react…yet.

Why not react, you might ask?
Simple: what is your overall strategy?
Ha, thought so.

… and the strategy should not be limited to
online advertising.
Pssst! Television, Print, Radio, and OOH
aren’t dead. Sorry.

Using technology as an enabler, we’ve shifted
addressable media to addressable consumers.

Every single consumer you have touched has
an opinion of you….
I know their opinions…
Curious?

Positive
Neutral
Negative

Neutral opinions of your brand are the worst.
Whatever experience you delivered was
indifferent to the consumer and thus, a waste
of time and money.

Negative opinions can be addressed and
generally provide enough feedback to help
correct an issue.

So now that we know people are talking about
our brands, how do we stand out?
Simple: provide an interesting experience.

Who took you to your first Yankee game?

Who was your first kiss?

What was the first car you ever owned?

You remember every one of these… why?
They were experiences….
Sometimes great – and sometimes bad.
But you remembered.

Experiences have always blurred the lines of
advertising, media, product development, and
customer service.

We now have a systematic problem that needs
to be solved:
The flaw has been exposed in which companies
must unite their silos in order to react [and
proact] with consumers.

Who answers this tweet?

Who responds to this blog comment?

Time to figure this out.
But not this second.

Once we figure out our [brand] response
protocol, lets start participating.

Interesting Experiences +
Conversation = Memories

creative, media, product development, business
intelligence, customer service, and any other
stakeholder of a brand need to work
together, not against each other.
One P&L, One ego.

Where do we go from here?
Listen
Create interesting experiences
Communicate

Darren is a serial entrepreneur, adviser, and board member within the
media, advertising, and technology industries. Mr. Herman is fascinated with the white-
space that exists between the above industries and looks for companies who try and
bridge them together. Darren's belief is that 98% of ideas aren't really new; they are
repackaged and spun differently to the marketplace. He's been through the first and
second dot com wave, and learned quite a few lessons and look forward to applying
them to his latest endeavors.
Over the past few years Darren has started and/or been involved with several
companies including IGA Worldwide, The Media Kitchen, MDC Partners, Varick Media
Management, FortuneCity, Shopflick, and many others. Herman has raised over $40MM
for his own ventures and helped raise $30MM+ for ventures he's working with.
Herman has won numerous awards during his career for both execution and innovation
but most notably, BusinessWeek's Top Entrepreuenr Award in 2006.
Darren Herman / @dherman76
© 2009 / Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License
www.darrenherman.com