Hey y’all! Let’s get cracking with another week of business and marketing goodness! Tik Tok rejected Microsoft’s offer to buy the company then an hour or so later turned around and agreed to partner with Oracle as a ‘trusted tech partner’. This is not a sale (at least not yet), and it appears Oracle […]
Buzzwords Are Ruining Careers and Destroying Companies
Have you heard of the latest buzzword, ‘Emotional Intelligence’? I hadn’t either till I saw marketers using it all over Twitter last week. What is ’emotional intelligence’? Or rather, what other idea or thing has been co-opted by this buzzword? As soon as I heard the term, my first thought was ‘Wait, they mean empathy, […]
Research: CMOs Say Social Media Budgets Are Surging, But Finding Solid Results Still a Struggle
Companies are spending more on social media marketing according to CMO Survey, but they also continue to struggle to see quantitative results from their digital efforts. The survey of 324 marketers sheds light on where CMOs will be focusing their budgets and attention in 2019. Spending on digital marketing will increase by 12.3% over the […]
How We Find Podcasts, Why AR is beating VR and Mobile Marketing Implications of iOS 12
Hey guys, I found a few links I wanted to share with you. These are articles that I found interesting, but couldn’t justify writing a stand-alone post for. So I decided to corral a few of them here and share with you as a group. We bloggers used to do this all the time in […]
How to Convince Your Skeptical Boss to Invest in a Brand Ambassador Program
Whenever you attempt to sell your boss on launching a new initiative, there’s a few things you need to do to improve the boss’ chances of signing off: 1 – Help the boss understand the value 2 – Help the boss understand the cost 3 – Help the boss understand the scope of the initiative […]
It’s Time For Your Company to Move on From Facebook and Twitter
This has been a frustratingly difficult post for me to write on multiple levels. For years, I have advised my clients to ‘plant in the gardens that they own’ when it comes to social media. Focus on your blog and newsletter, or the delivery channels that you control versus putting all your eggs in a […]
How to Create a World-Class Brand Ambassador Program
This post on 10 Thing to Remember When Creating a Brand Ambassador Program remains one of the most popular posts I’ve ever written. So to start off the new year, I wanted to do a deeper dive into the topic of creating and launching a successful brand ambassador program, and walk you through the process from […]
Research: Online and Offline Conversations Account for 19% of Sales
An exciting new study from Engagement Labs (Formerly Keller-Fay) had some very interesting takeaways for brands concerning the impact that online and offline WOM has on sales. The study tracked the correlations between conversations (online and offline) and sales for 170 brands. The research found 19% of sales resulted from both online and offline conversations. […]
Social Media Isn’t Hard, Your Company Makes it Hard
I spend very little time here breaking down how to use social media tools. I don’t do the deep dives that some other sites engage in where they show you all the advanced tips on how to get the most bang out of Facebook or Instagram or Snapchat. Here’s the reason why: It’s not about […]
The Rise of the T-Shaped Influencer
About 10 years ago, it was incredibly cool to call yourself a ‘social media consultant’. Social media in a business context was new and exciting (and in too many ways still is 10 years later), and those that marketed themselves as social media consultants were coveted. Yet even as social media consultants were enjoying popularity, […]