All in on Woo Woo, or My Philosophy of Marketing

Disclaimer: I am not a business person. I am an English major turned business school administrator who moonlighted as a baker and is now a writer. Take my advice at your own peril.

A couple of months ago, Adobe Marketing had this great commercial about the hot new thing–Woo Woo. A company scrambled to put all their ducks in a Woo Woo row, but by the time they pulled it together, the hip guys were already on to something else. Quoth the cool guy, “Naw, man, my mom’s on Woo Woo.”

It was funny, in part because saying “Woo” so many times in forty seconds can’t not be funny. It was an interesting message, though.

The marketing guy at my day job just left and, for the time being at least, I’m taking care of our website, the digital monitors in our building, and our social media. I’m tweeting and instagramming and web profile managing. Oh, and designing a whole new set of brochures for our admissions efforts. And then there’s my author website, blog, and social media accounts.

I feel like I could spend all day on this stuff. But I can’t. Because there’s the actual day job I’m paid for and the editing and the writing and the house and the dogs and the partner and all the other things of life. It’s tempting to throw up one’s hands and do nothing at all.

As tempting as that is, I’ve learned a lot in the two weeks I’ve been our stand-in marketing guy. Marketing is important. It’s how you interact with your audience and, perhaps even more importantly, your would-be audience.

So what’s a girl to do? I think it’s about strategy and balance. Give yourself permission to schedule time to tend to your online presence. While there, update Facebook without sliding down a cute dog video worm hole. (It’s hard, I know.)

Most of all, remember why you’re doing what you’re doing. Eye on the prize and all. And whatever you do, don’t go all in on Woo Woo.