Social Media Is NOT Free
Ever been in a meeting with a senior executive who says, “So why is your budget this big? I thought we were relying on Twitter and Facebook and all that social media stuff more. And that’s free.” There’s a widespread myth out there that social media is free. It isn’t. For a social media marketing campaign you need people, time, and technology – all limited, non-renewable resources in most marketing departments. In fact, maybe the executive who poses a question about social media being free doesn’t understand that there is a near 100% overlap between the items that go into the marketing budget and the resources that 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
Repetition, Transparency, Multi-channel Communications Help Rebuild Trust
One of the daily challenges for marketing is building trust among consumers. It’s never been easy, but it’s gotten harder over the last two years. Luckily, multi-channel marketers have a clear path to reaching out to the public through web, social media, PR, and trusted local agents or managers. Building trust in difficult economic times is all about repetition, transparency, and multi-channel communications. Consider the three tables included in this blog post, all from Edelman’s 11th Annual Trust Barometer study, released earlier this year. Then there’s this table — where consumers look first for information. It may be a little misleading because Google Read More
Why Distributed Marketing Needs Naked Conversations
Technology industry journalist Tom Foremski wrote recently that social media is not corporate media, and that the current gold rush among consultants and social media experts who are exhorting corporate marketers to turn social media into a powerful sales channel will ruin social media. The trend, he said, is inevitable and sad because as the corporate presence becomes more pronounced, social media will cease being a valuable source of naked conversations about companies and brands and become simply another channel for multi-channel marketers to use to deliver a message. When that happens, consumers will find another less accessible place to Read More
Friday News Round-Up: Size Doesn’t Matter in Marketing, Facebook Takes on Telcos
Here’s this week’s round-up of “must read” news stories for marketers. What makes these stories stand out? They offer key information or lessons that multi-channel distributed marketing organizations should take to heart. Facebook Launches SMS Service – This week, Facebook launched Facebook Messenger, a free app that lets users access Facebook messages from their phone without installing Facebook Mobile. It’s the first time Facebook has unbundled one service from the rest of its services, and the media reaction has been mixed at best. Some love it, because it simplifies the process of checking for messages without waiting while your friends photos attempt to load Read More
Friday News Round-up: Five Stories Marketers Shouldn’t Miss
This week brought a number of interesting stories that will affect nearly anyone who uses a multi-channel distributed marketing approach to sell products or services, regardless of their industry. Here are five of the most interesting: NLRB Targets “Facebook Firings” and Social Media Policies – North Carolina law firm Nexsen Pruet publishes a monthly employment law update that always contains interesting information for managers. The July issue looks at several recent cases taken up by the National Labor Relations Board which involve blogging and social media policies. In one case discussed, the NLRB ruled that the common practice of requiring employees to sign a social media Read More
Looking Ahead for Life Insurance Marketing
The 2011 Life Insurance Conference sponsored by LIMRA , LOMA, SOA, and ACLI was one of the most positive events we’ve been to in a long time. One of the best things about the conference was the way industry leaders talked about where the industry will be in 10 years. Here are some take-away points we picked up at the conference from visionaries who are really focused on the future – instead of the “survival mode” that we were dealing with just a year or so ago. Where will the life insurance be in 10 years? Steve Callahan – Robert Read More
