Basic Google+ Cheat Sheet
Less than a month after it launched in late June, Google+ had over 25 million registered users — a milestone that took Twitter 29 months, and Facebook 3 years to reach. Have you tried it yet? Or are you waiting to see whether it’s a useful tool for multi-channel marketing? If you haven’t made up your mind yet, here are the absolute basics that marketers need to know. What is Google+? It’s not exactly a social network — it’s a sharing network where people create contact circles. Here’s how Shimrit Ben-Yair, Google’s product manager for the product describes it. “Google+ Circles solve Read More
Managing Complex Marketing Projects
Multichannel marketing is a given for most marketers. None of us can afford to bet our company’s success by trying to reach our customers through just one channel. In large, distributed marketing organizations where creative and brand management are handled at the corporate level and local or field sales and marketing organizations execute their own campaigns, the process of planning, managing, executing, measuring, and reporting on marketing activities can become very complicated, very quickly. So what do you do to simplify a process that isn’t simple? Start by recognizing the three basic problems that are inherent in a complex marketing Read More
Become a Marketing Legend
By Deb McAlister-Holland Once upon a time, there was a brave knight who rode into battle and (a) slew the dragon (b) rescued the princess and (c) earned fame and fortune, becoming a legend for his many deeds. At least that’s how the story goes. In real life, deeds of derring-do are rare but it’s possible to accomplish great things by following the example of a modern-day knight in shining armor. What can a marketer learn from a knight-in-shining armor? Quite a lot, as it turns out. I know this because I happen to have my very own knight-in-shining armor Read More
How Engaged Are Your Customers?
Jasmine is a mixed-breed dog adopted from the Las Vegas dog pound. She’s a great dog. That’s her in the photo — patiently enduring being posed with a catalog of high-end dog beds while wearing a pair of silly eye glasses. Most of the time, she did what she was asked, (which was to look directly at the camera) but every now and again she couldn’t resist looking over at her trainer to see if it was time to go home yet. Jasmine was giving her attention to the humans around her — but she wasn’t engaged with what was happening. She was Read More
Four Marketing Lessons from The Grateful Dead
By Deb McAlister-Holland On April 15, 2010, IDC analysts Frank Gens and Amy Konary presented an executive briefing called The Maturing Cloud: What the Grateful Dead Can Teach Us About Cloud Economics. In addition to IDC’s usual carefully researched data, the webinar included a wealth of thought-provoking information that used analogies from the band’s storied history and correlated it to the technology industry. When I thought about how Gens and Konary used the Grateful Dead analogy to clarify many of the most confusing aspects of cloud computing, I realized that I could apply the same lessons to distributed marketing. In some ways, of Read More
Writing Guaranteed Press Releases
by Deb McAlister-Holland Long ago, in an office less than three miles from the one I am in today, I wrote my first press release on an IBM Selectric typewriter. The goal was simple: to persuade a reporter (radio, TV, or print) to take one or more of the sentences in the press release and include it in a story they were creating, or to get them to arrange an interview with my client. The release was ephemeral and disposable. We hoped that the small number of journalists who got it (via fax, postal mail, hand-delivered as part of a printed press kit, Read More
Measuring Earned Media vs. Paid Media
The newest buzz word for engaging current and prospective customers through social media is earned media. It’s measured with the same metrics as traditional paid media (advertising, press releases, telemarketing, direct mail, and email marketing): impressions/audience size, lifts in brand awareness, message awareness, and purchase intent. Quantifying the value of earned media has moved up the priority list as multi-channel marketers have learned that “free” marketing tools like social media aren’t really free. (Yes, it’s free to set up a Facebook page or a Twitter account, but it takes time and dollars to create the strategy, messages, campaigns, and marketing Read More
Two Examples of Multi-channel Marketing Gone Wrong
Here’s this week’s round-up of news stories that we think offer insights or lessons that can help multi-channel distributed marketing organizations. Usually, we select five items, but this week, we’re focusing on just two because they seemed especially compelling. Court Approves Lawsuit Over Toyota Advertising Stunt In 2009, Saatchi and Saatchi (Toyota’s agency at the time) came up with the idea of a website called “YourOtherYou.com”. The idea was to create a site where friends could sign up 20-something guys who hated advertising for a prank that would expose them to a video about a Toyota car. Ads in print, Read More
Improving SEO Ranking: All Tools Are Not Equal
Everyone knows that optimizing your website, press releases, and blog posts for search engines make it easier for people to find your site and improve traffic. It’s less well known that search engines like Google and Bing change and update their algorithms regularly. If you’ve noticed a recent change in the visibility and ranking of your site or blog, it may be because of recent changes in Google’s algorithms. Google is the leading search engine, with around 90% of the global search volume. Yahoo and Bing take second place in popularity, with less than 5% of searches, with all the Read More
Managing Customer Service & Employee Privacy
After the LIMRA Social Media Conference in Cambridge, MA a few weeks ago, one of the attendees who downloaded the presentation deck used for the Customer Service Meets Social Media panel posted this question: “One of the points made in this panel is that front-line employees are often recorded (audio and video) and the results can be posted on social media sites immediately. How do I stop people from doing that? I could be held liable if one of my employees is photographed or videotaped without their permission.” In following up with the person who drafted the question, we found that Read More
