Well here we are in the first week of December. Thanksgiving is past; Christmas is fast upon us. The hustle and bustle of a San Francisco Bay Area holiday season is all around – by which I mean snarling traffic, and very stressed-out people who have to do their “regular” work in just three weeks AND go to holiday events AND plan for 2016. It’s insane. In this insane time of year, I plan for my Stanford “Marketing without Money” course (on SEO and social media marketing), which will begin on January 14, 2016.
Thoughts swirl in my head (based on previous classes). First, we never ever have enough time. The lectures go fast enough, there are always good (no great) student questions, and then the questions and answers can be time-consuming but are very much worth it. What should be cut? What should be left in? Google+ gets its head close to the chopping block: the troubled social network has all but abandoned Google local (its strongest suit), and the reality is that few people (if any) really use Google+ as it was once intended. Yes, it has a big impact on SEO / search, but no – let’s get real – it isn’t heavily used by “normal people” (read customers). So definitely worth dramatically condensing any discussion of it. Sure they have their new communities and Google+ has strength in photos. But compared with Pinterest and Instagram – two major, strong and upcoming social networks… it’s hard to justify much time on Google+ these days. Indeed, Tumblr is perhaps even more important than Google+. So perhaps Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr?
Beginners vs. Advanced Users
Second, the mix between beginners and advanced students. Inevitably, I get 90% beginner / basic students (and the class is pitched as a basic introduction), so I teach to them primarily. But inevitably as well I get 10% more advanced students… many of whom are required by their employer to take a certain number of technical classes… and they are not the happiest of campers. Inevitably as well, they “mark me down” in the Stanford evaluations (perhaps passively / aggressively marketing ME down because THEIR EMPLOYER required them to take the class). I hate negative energy and these folks just bring me down. What do do with them? Perhaps an early shout out that if you have ADVANCED questions, just reach out to me by email? I do offer to meet with students before classes, but (inevitably) they don’t always take me up on it. So perhaps just ignore the negative 10%, and teach to the positive 90%? Always a tough one.
SEO and Social Media Marketing: Learning by Doing
Third, how much lecture and how much hands on? The best use of “in class” time is probably lecture, but how to encourage the students to “DO” SEO and Social Media as well as just “LEARN” it. Both are learn-by-doing skills, yet back to the dearth of time… with so little time, it’s hard to justify spending a lot of time in class “doing” SEO. Fortunately in the Winter we have three “extra” classes, so perhaps that time can be allocated to more doing. I’m thinking “case studies” as a good surrogate – that way we can all “DO” SEO and Social Media by reverse engineering a few popular companies, and then taking that knowledge FROM those companies and applying it TO our own entrepreneurial ventures.
So, while the rest of the world is out Black Friday shopping, here I am brainstorming a very exciting and challenging “Marketing without Money” coming up January 14, 2016, at Stanford. Hope to see you there!
