In April I spent a week fly fishing in Montana with a friend of thirty years. It’s our annual trek to Bozeman to fish the lower Madison and the Yellowstone in Paradise Valley.

I’m always puzzled by large number of fly fishing shops near Bozeman, Montana. How do they all survive?

Every fly shop looks to be the same. Each carries rods, flies, waders and boots, rain gear – the basics. Each shop promotes guided fly fishing trips. There are small shops and slightly bigger shops. The bigger stores simply carry more gear or a wider selection of brands than the small shops. One fly shop boasts that it is the official Orvis (a well known brand in fly fishing rods) dealer in the area. Each shop has an online presence, of course.

But that doesn’t really give the business that much of a competitive advantage over the others, does it?

My friend heard that Dan Bailey’s fly shop in Livingston, Montana, was doing well, and we stopped in one morning before floating the Yellowstone.

The downtown Livingstone store looked about the same as the other fly shops, but with less gear, perhaps, than some of the other, newer shops. We were the only two in the store.

Then I learned why Dan Bailey’s fly shop might be doing better than some of the others: the retail outlet is mostly a front for its business-to-business strategy.

Dan Bailey’s is a distributor of fly fishing products to other fly shops across the country. That’s where it has found success.

Strategy does matter.

The American Red Cross had a big problem. The blogosphere was peppered with negative comments about the organization. So the American Red Cross decided to listen to the conversation taking place on the web.

They soon learned there was a gap between how they positioned themselves and how their stakeholders’ described their experience of the organization. Through daily monitoring of blogs and other Web 2.0 tools, the Red Cross changed the way they engage their advocates and recruit volunteers.

According to Geoff Livingston, author of Now is Gone: A Primer on New Media for Executives and Entrepreneurs, this is what today’s customers and donors expect: to be listened to and understood.

Here Livingston offers his advice for making new media marketing programs work for your organization:

Brand & Strategy: Does social media increase lead generation?

Geoff Livingston: It really depends on the program. If you don’t integrate calls to action and natural ways for people to engage further, then your effort is for naught; social media is just a hot shiny object.

Your strategy should treat social media like a toolset, with different ways of communicating. Do your homework. By exploring this site, you can research how organizations have used social media successfully.

Can social media help a non-profit organization increase the number of new donors?

Again, if there’s no integration into your plan, then it won’t! If you do integrate, it will. It all gets back to strategy. Are you talking to donors to accomplish something, or are you just Tweeting? Check out Beth Kanter’s blog for more insights.

How do you convince management to engage in conversations with customer-communities without controlling the conversation?

Show them a blog search with all of the conversations about their company. Or even better, point them to the conversations about their competition. But really, at this stage in the game, if they are still not going forward with social media, it may be time to consider a more innovative organization.

How should “social media releases” be fundamentally different than traditional press releases?

They should be more of a story board for bloggers, providing them multimedia tools to create their own story. Rather than a positioning document, it should provide facts and paths for others to figure out the position, so they can tell it their way.

How do you reach out to bloggers, podcasters, and individuals with high-traffic social network profiles?

You get to know them through conversation over time. You definitely don’t pitch them out of the gates. It’s Relationships 101, really. Treat people like you want to be treated.

How should organizations integrate social media on their own web site?

First, they need to get to know their online community and listen for a while. Then once you understand what your stakeholders actually do online–what they talk about–build your strategy. It should flow naturally.

The only thing I despise more than car payments is paying for car repairs.

For the past 17 years, I’ve taken my cars (vans, trucks, etc) to a small garage run by two brothers. The other day when I picked up my truck, the younger brother (who is the boss) had on a shirt with the words: “Specialists in Imports.”

Years ago, my brother-in-law referred me to the garage, saying, “Mello Motors is really good at imports.” That resonated with me since, at the time, my wife drove a Toyota Camry.

I remember, though, thinking, “How will the garage do with my Buick?”

Of course, the Mello brothers had no problem with an American engine.

They had positioned themselves as experts in one thing: imports. It worked. The Mello boys ended up servicing our Camry and our Buick … and every car since.

This is an important point about messaging: You always message specifically to your position. Mello Motors advertised as a specialist in imports. That doesn’t mean the garage won’t service domestic cars.

You always grow by focusing your messaging on your one thing – while still providing services in other areas. The only exception is if you want to lay claim to the generalist position (which is the death knell for most organizations in today’s highly specialized environment).

I’ve found that in general, most organizations fight the strategy to specialize, but it’s the only way to stand out.

I have a 13-year-old whom I love every other day.

I pray that someday my affection will get back on schedule, once pubescence wanes.

On the off days, he toys with my emotions. He messes with my head. I carp that he should quit skateboarding, since he broke his index finger in his pitching hand while trying to skateboard across the railroad tracks. Yes, the railroad tracks. He’s out for much of baseball season.

He counters that I should quit my business because it interferes with my coaching responsibilities for my 8-year-old son’s baseball team.

I am not able to follow his logic, but therein lies the problem: logic and a male 13-year-old do not go together. It is logical, however, for him to sneak a peek at himself as he walks by the dining room mirror.

The other night, in one of his “I’m smarter than you” modes, he asked, “Dad, how much did you pay for that web site you created?”

He was referring to the social media community for new nurses that our team from CZ designed and built several years ago.

I was about to say something fatherly and loving like “None of your business,” when he added, “By the way, I just created a web site for my English project. The teacher said we could create a website or a PowerPoint, and the web site looked easier. Take a look!”

I was reminded by the innocent hubris of my oldest that one of the biggest barriers to communicating on the web is gone. The tools of technology have been created for 13 year olds.

Now, contrast that with the fact that the law firm that created the incorporation documents for my business back in 2000 just sent me an enewsletter. Now how “old world” is that? It was the firm’s first digital communications in 9 years. Not all organizations are part of the sea change.

The real question with all marketing technology, of course, is always strategy. Should you really Twitter?

Or is it an exercise in narcissism? Are your thoughts worth 140 characters of attention?

Is the busyness of social media (monitoring a Facebook fan page, for example) really a good investment? Or, given the scarce resource of time, should your staff be calling your student prospects by phone?

The devil of technology is not so much in the details but in the strategy.

Several years ago on a late Saturday evening, my wife let out Cassidy, our golden retriever, into the backyard to do her business.

As part of her late-night liturgy, Cassidy scratched the door to be let back in, and when my wife opened the door, the dog flew past her into the family room. And so did a stench that burned the hairs in your nostrils. I arrived on the scene about 10 minutes later and I swear I could almost see a faint haze in the house. Cassidy had been sprayed by a skunk. In fact, as I gave the dog a bath in tomato juice and dishwashing soap 30 minutes later, I saw the stream of skunk fluid on the coat of Cassidy – a direct, close-up hit. Golden retrievers are not known for their intelligence.

By the time Jana got the dog back outside, the house had absorbed the smell. It took 2 weeks from that night for the smell to work its way out of the house, thanks mainly to lots of fresh air.

About a week into the 2-week ordeal, I awoke and sniffed and thought, “Hey, I think the smell is finally gone.” But when I returned at 6 PM later that day, after 10 hours at work, I entered our front door, greeted by skunk-smell. I suspect that even our clothes reeked of skunk for a time.

Here’s my point: The longer you’re in the house, the less you can smell the odor.

That’s also true of marketing. The longer you work at the same thing, the less you are able to see what’s not working. That’s why continuing education is so important. That’s why you outsource. That’s why you read. That’s why you hire staff with different experiences.

The attention of our prospective clients is in scarce supply these days. Arresting their attention requires that we don’t grow accustomed to the smell.

You can’t trumpet something you’re not. Or, rather, you can, but good luck. You won’t have much of it. There’s no befuddling your potential clients.

According to Harry Beckwith, author of, among others, Selling the Invisible, and You, Inc the positioning of your organization demands authenticity. CZ President Dave Goetz interviewed Beckwith on why consumers buy into “true stories” and how to position yours:

CZ: What does positioning entail?

Harry Beckwith: To establish your position successfully, you must consider two things—how you are seen and how you want to be seen. From there, you measure the gap between the two. Then you can determine how to get to your end goal. Positioning is about moving that perception.

How do you obtain the best position?

There’s no such thing as an inherently superior position. The tendency is to reach to be “the best.” The superior product. The superior service. You can’t because “the best” doesn’t exist. However, each position has strengths and weaknesses. Part of positioning is being mindful of your inherent weaknesses.

Take cell phones, for example. What’s a superior cell phone? To some people, it’s the iPhone, because it’s colorful and does a lot of stuff; it’s even prestigious. To others, the iPhone’s features represent a whole lot of things that can screw up their work. They don’t even want a camera in their cell phone.

So it’s about staking a desirable niche, in which people will catch something really positive—and giving up on this notion of superiority.

Can you change an established position?

Yes, but you can’t position yourself as something you’re not or cannot be perceived as. It’s a waste of energy.

The most vivid example is when Gerber tried to market adult food. The mind didn’t allow it. Frito Lay tried to do lemonade. They produce salty and crispy snacks, so your mind won’t allow you to drink Frito lemonade.

The stronger your identity and the stronger you’re identified with something, the less able you are to be perceived in any way different than that. So it really depends of how flexible your brand is. How far does it stretch?

How does branding relate to positioning?

Positioning is about your message being perceived in a consistent way—like “sexy,” “fast,” “reliable,” or “safe.” Branding reinforces that single message as well as the nuances and subtle sub-messages that come within that.

I always use branding to describe all of the activities you engage in to reinforce your message. And an enormous part of this is your internal activities. Your staff activities create a sense of authenticity. For instance, if you’re a wealth management firm and the assistants are cold and ruthless, then chances are a warm, friendly service message will hurt you rather than help. It will raise expectations, and you won’t meet them. You have to deliver that position—you have to do what you promised.

How often should you change your position?

Re-positioning yourself demands real changes, not just cosmetic ones. You need confidence in your investment so that you will stay with it for a long period of time. When that position succeeds, you continue to build on your investment.

Take, for example, a University with a well-established School of Optometry: “Okay, we are known for optometry, how might we grow from that? You start to consider adding specialties closely related to optometry—audiology, for example, or other subspecialties in health care. You might offer health care administration in the general university—in short, growing from your strength into closely related areas that expand your offering. Whatever you do, you must begin your strategy by asking, “For what are we known?” And then ask how you can build on that, add to it, and grow.

Good marketing is rooted in good communication: It is concrete, not general. If you’re general—a little of this, a little of that—you’re not strategic. You don’t have a bona-fide, authentic position—and people will perceive it that way.