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Search Results for: invitation avalanche

Invitation Avalanches, Attention Infidelity, and the Science of the Social Break-Up

Is the golden goose poisoned before it’s even an adult? The current relationship between companies and consumers via social media and email is unsustainable. The backlash has begun, and abuse of any one channel has a spillover effect on consumer attitudes toward other channels. That’s one of my main takeaways from fascinating new research from […]

Youtility – The digital Marketing Strategy for the Age of Information Overload

What is Youtility About? Youtility is not about social media, it’s about marketing. Today’s consumers are staring at an invitation avalanche, with every company asking for likes, follows, clicks, and attention. This is on top of all the legacy advertising that envelops us like a straitjacket. There are only two ways for companies to break […]

Social Media Automation Does Not Have to Suck

In my ongoing quest to test and learn what works (and what can work) in social media and content marketing, I entirely changed our email program here at Convince & Convert. As you may know, we used to have a 5x/week email called The One Thing, that provided a collection of links to timely and […]

Are You Getting Better or Just Getting Busier?

In a remarkable interview in the recent Esquire magazine, Teller (of the famous magic duo, Penn & Teller) reveals his practice routine to master a new trick he has developed called the Red Ball (whereby a ball appears to roll all over the stage, moved by the mind). Writes journalist Chris Jones, “He practiced at […]

Is Youtility the Future of Marketing?

NOTE: This blog post became a book! And that book is now a New York Times best seller. Get a free excerpt and more here: http://youtilitybook.com Ever since the first caveman tried to sell a rock to another caveman, we’ve been relying upon some variation of the same marketing song and dance. It doesn’t matter […]

Blogger Outreach Changes the PR Timeline Forever

PR behemoth Ketchum (the PR agency of record for ConAgra) caught it’s foot in a bear trap of its own manufacture recently, when it thunk up and perpetrated a bait and switch blogger outreach program. Evidently, Ketchum invited a group of bloggers to a restaurant in NYC, where they would enjoy a “delicious four-course meal”, […]

Nobody Said Social Media Should Be Simple

Simple isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Social media is unique in that it is the only medium yet conceived where companies are playing in the exact same sandbox as we’re playing personally. Your employees and customers aren’t making TV ads on the weekend. Nor are they making their own magazine ads for fun […]

Content Without Advocacy is Just Words and Google Bait

Mike Stelzner knows a little something about building a successful company from thin air. He’s the founder of Social Media Examiner, currently ranked the #8 marketing blog in the world on the AdAge Power 150 (we’re lagging at #19 here at Convince & Convert). In just one year – from a standing start – SME […]

Holding Hands and Pointing Fingers – Promoting Social Outposts with Specificity

Specific promotion works. Vague promotion fails. I learned this first-hand when I ran azfamily.com, a pioneering local website in Phoenix powered by several TV and radio stations. We strongly encouraged our TV news anchors to reference the website on-air. I tracked traffic to the site on a second-to-second basis when it was mentioned on TV, […]

Why Won’t Facebook Give Us a Love Button?

Last week, Facebook celebrated the one year anniversary of the “like” button, the popular successor to the “fan” button, and the tip of the spear of its Open Graph gambit that it hopes will allow it to become the plumbing of the Web. By any measure, the “like” button is a smash hit. It is […]

What I Learned About Humanity From a Steakhouse

Last week, in the post “Why Your Special Offer Isn’t” we talked about the importance of humanization. Faced with an invitation avalanche, consumers will respond to the stories that resonate with them on a personal level. And those stories don’t just have to live in social media. Myril Arch’s Story — Humanizing a T-Bone Recently, […]

Why Your Special Offer Isn’t

Social media and its impact on business only exists because of the larger trend of customer information and consequent choice making. 15 years ago, most of us didn’t care so very much about where our meat came from, or which rental car company we used, or what type of permanent marker we wrote with – […]

Why You’re Pissing Off Half Your Facebook Fans

Sure it has 600 million members and is significantly more compelling than any film made by Nicholas Cage in the past five years, but even with those inherent advantages, Facebook for business is hard. It’s not just that Facebook has a distinctly Favre-like approach to features and decision-making. Or, that Facebook is very clearly in […]