A client just sent us information on an “exclusive opportunity” for an event being put on by a “value transformation company” and targeted to their industry. As soon as I saw it I started shaking my head. It’s a perfect example of how companies who don’t yet grasp the workings of social media can easily [...]
You’ve seen it a hundred times – the cheerful sign, prominently displayed. It might be in a restaurant, a clothing store or a gym, or on a website. There’s the familiar thumbs-up and the text “Like Us on Facebook!” I ignore it every time. Not one of those signs has ever sent me scrambling for [...]
The other day at a meeting with one of our business-to-business brands, I raised the topic of social media. When I suggested that there could be some value in it for their company, the CEO disagreed. “No one is going to buy a five-million dollar software solution on Twitter!” he laughed. His opinion runs parallel [...]
C’mon marketers. How about you impress us by doing the right thing for no other reason than that? Some companies do, and it hasn’t seemed to destroy their business model or hurt their sales. On the contrary, Zappos, Trader Joe’s, USAA and others like them seem to be growing at a fabulous rate. But somehow [...]
When marketers talk about the different types of media, typically you’ll hear about three forms: owned, earned and paid. Owned media is controlled and managed by the marketer and includes your website, collateral, presentations and the like. Paid media is advertising – print, out-of-home, radio, broadcast, online and any other for which you pay for [...]
I was pretty excited the day my Twitter account went over a hundred followers. I’d been building it for awhile, tweeting what I hoped was quality content, engaging with others, retweeting good stuff and participating in Twitterchats. It was always a thrill to see when a new person had followed me, and I usually went [...]
It’s not too late to start learning the social media ropes. If you’d like to get on Twitter but have no idea how to do it or how it works, you’re in the right place. This post is for you – no one here will call you a noob, give you side eye or think [...]
Snail mail seems so last century. Once email came along – faster, easier and cheaper – post offices began closing one by one and street mailboxes disappeared along with postal employees. Another casualty of the e-revolution was direct mail. The ability to scale, at minimal if any additional cost, plus the overall value, quick development [...]
Taylor Swift hacked Google with her very first hit song. Smart girl that she is, she figured out that if she named her song after a major country music star, it would start to show up in searches relating to that genre. “Tim McGraw” became her first single and her first hit, and the rest [...]
Chances are, you have followers who you never hear from – possibly hundreds. They never DM you, tweet you or comment on your Facebook or LinkedIn posts. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that these followers don’t bring you a lot of value. Some of them are your best listeners. These are people who [...]