The Inovis Blog

Geek Marketing. It may have been identified and defined by John Dodds. Steve Rubel picked up on it, adding additional focus to the job description.

But it was my friend Tara Hunt (msrogue on twitter) who really nailed the role of The Geek Marketer in the Web 2.0 world. Maybe it was because of the picture, sort of a cross between Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd. That’s an analogy worth a line of exploitation. Just one, it’s irresistible.

If traditional marketing is Elmer Fudd, then engineering is Marvin the Martian, leaving the role of Geek Marketer to Bugs. And that’s enough for that.

Being a self-proclaimed Geek Marketer herself, Tara easily identifies many of the traits to this unique role. Anyone working in, or with the VAN & EDI services industry will likely recognize him or her self, a colleague, or someone they do business with on a regular basis.

Bloggers are emerging as the 1^st wave of Geek Marketers, or at least identifying it, and bloggers love lists, so here’s Tara’s list with comments. Visit HorsePigCow for her complete version.

Geek Marketers:

1. Understand the tools intimately. The technical parts, yes, but also with an eye to the marketplace.
2. Understand how to handle feedback: Don’t take it personally.
3. Speak from the customer point of view with an understanding of the engineering point of view. Geek Marketers close the divide that probably arose when the wheel was invented.
   1^st caveman: wheel rolls, it good
   2^nd caveman: can’t sell it, add more features
4. Raise social capital daily. Tara believes this the most important trait because,“Credibility and trust are, above all else, the way to raise social capital.”
5. Integrate marketing holistically. “. . . their message is only as good as their product and their promise is only as good as their delivery…” Right On!
6. Provide or maintain the nerd values for the organization. Craig Newmark of Craigslist defines nerd values as: Do well by doing good. Nerd values are simple: It’s good to make a good living. It’s good to do well for your staff. It’s good to do well for your customers.
7. Your personal trainers. A good personal trainer doesn’t give you the big barbells until you are ready.
8. Agile Listen, learn and get more adept at predicting customers needs rather than reacting to them.

Tara Hunt believes the role of Geek Marketing is still emerging. Being involved with the growth of the EDI communication for over 20 years, we might differ on that, but we’re open to your commentary.

Jay Melton from our team is your Geek Marketer.

The Bottom Line: Are you a Geek Marketer? Is this an accurate list of your role? Let us know what you think?

picture credit: Tara Hunt www.horsepigcow.com