YOUTILITY

Why Smart Marketing Is About Help, Not Hype

The difference between helping and selling is just two letters. But those two letters are critically important to your company’s success.

You’re not competing for attention only against other, similar products. You’re competing for attention against everything. To win in this hyper-competitive environment, you must ask “How can we help?”

If you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life. This is Youtility.

Includes interviews with dozens of companies practicing Youtility, and provides 6 blueprints for building Youtility in your company.

Available for pre-order soon (get up to 7 exclusive bonuses) at http://YoutilityBook.com
Content Marketing 20  |  Add Yours

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 [...]

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Book Reviews 5  |  Add Yours

How to Market to People Not Like You

Sometimes business success isn’t about changing the message, but rather changing the market. That’s the premise of the new book How to Market to People Not Like You: “Know It or Blow It” Rules for Reaching Diverse Customers(amazon link), written by my friend Kelly McDonald. Bursting with fascinating anecdotes, sound advice, and interesting facts about [...]

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social media strategy 19  |  Add Yours

The Reality of Competition in a Maturing Social Marketplace

Interview with Steve Lundin from Big Frontier when I was in Chicago for a presentation of The NOW Revolution. We discuss: Competition and social media gurus, wheat, and chaff; The future of Twitter and its stickiness problem; Agencies stubbing their social media toes; Do social crises create measurable business declines; The path to social ubiquity [...]

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Book Reviews 21  |  Add Yours

How to Be a Presentation God

Scott Schwertly is a rabid hockey fan and founder and CEO of Ethos3, a presentation design and consulting company in Nashville. (disclosure: Scott’s company build the presentation Amber and I are using for The NOW Revolution book tour). Yesterday, Scott released his first book, called How to be a Presentation God: Build, Design, and Deliver [...]

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Social Media Marketing 132  |  Add Yours

What Brett Favre Can Teach You About Social Media Strategy

I went to the Arizona Cardinals vs. Minnesota Vikings game last Sunday. In addition to pitting two strong NFC teams against one another, the game included an interesting milestone – Brett Favre’s NFL record-tying 283rd consecutive game. 283 NFL games. In a row. Except for sleep and breathe, I’ve never done anything 283 times in [...]

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Blogging and Content Creation 70  |  Add Yours

Give Them Something to Talk About

Last week, I spent a few days in Calgary with my clients at AdFarm, the largest agriculture-focused communications agency in North America. In addition to the single best room I have ever spoken in (see photo), I learned a lot from the good folks at AdFarm. Every Company Will Be Social Every company, regardless of [...]

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brand communities 64  |  Add Yours

Social Media is About People, Not Logos

How will you be human? The people of your company are far more compelling than the company itself. Why they work for the company. Their dedication. Their interests outside of work. All of these provide “personality hooks” for your brand, and combined with a regular focus on your customers’ humanity, they are foundational elements of [...]

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brand communities 55  |  Add Yours

Crowdsourcing Your Dog Food

One of the most overlooked benefits of building or facilitating an online community around your brand is the market research opportunities. Your brand community – even if nascent and emerging – consists of hundreds or thousands of customers that are familiar enough with your company (and care enough about it) to self-identify as a fan/friend/member. [...]

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personal branding 14  |  Add Yours

The Social Media Reality Show

A recent survey from Netpop Research showed that U.S. Internet users are spending much more time communicating online, instead of entertaining themselves. That got me thinking? Aren’t they the same thing?

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Integrated Marketing and Media 6  |  Add Yours

4 Critical Steps for Marketing in a Recession (video)

Greetings. I’ve put together another video blog post, this time on a subject that’s on everyone’s mind: How to Market in a Recession. Do you believe?

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