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
Power Of 3  |  Add Yours

The Power of Culture

Culture is the bedrock of an organization.

Make it strong, and it will become the backbone of your business. Culture is reflected in the words and actions of everyone in your company. Official spokesperson or not, each of them is a living, breathing ambassador for what you value.

It’s no accident that the companies excelling on the social web have strong, positive cultures. They believe in hiring for mindset, attitude, and values and training for requisite skills. They preserve and nurture their culture above all, because it’s the foundation for smart decisions, good judgment, and an environment of learning and collaboration.

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Power Of 3  |  Add Yours

The Power of Listening

He’d kill us if he had the chance.

This ominous phrase lies at the center of the plot in Francis Ford Coppola’s brilliant 1974 thriller “The Conversation”.

The film tells a story about listening. Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul – a surveillance expert with a unique ability to record private conversations. He’s a clever investigator and he’s skilled at manipulating (the hilariously analog) 70s-era surveillance technology.

After bugging a particularly important conversation, Hackman’s character spends hours and hours listening to the tape in search of answers.

But he doesn’t really listen. And people die as a result.

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Power Of 3  |  Add Yours

The Power of Information

They say we’re in the Information Age, and from the looks of it, they’re right. We live in a time of immediate answers. If you have a question, you get it, right then and there.

 And if you don’t get it, you keep looking, because that’s what you (and the rest of us) have now [...]

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Power Of 5  |  Add Yours

The Power of Storytelling

Sometimes this notion of “storytelling” in business seems folly, conjuring up thoughts of bedtime, folklore, embellished narrative, and performance art. It reminds me of entertaining my young children on long car rides by listening to Kipling’s take on how the camel got his hump. (Spoiler: The camel was a jerk, and that hump was a magic [...]

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Power Of 4  |  Add Yours

The Power of Brand

As a recovering attorney who dabbled in trademark law back in the day, I have long respected the power of brand. Brand cuts through clutter. It transforms the mundane into the emotional. It raises expectations. The best brand stewards understand that they aren’t responsible for protecting mere words, symbols, and sounds. They’re responsible for delivering [...]

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social media tools 9  |  Add Yours

Don’t Be a Social Media Guinea Pig

When it comes to social media, there are few sure bets. One thing’s certain, however: people go nuts for new stuff. Show someone the latest gizmo, doodad, or whatchamacallit dubbed the “Next Big Thing,” and it will be very difficult for him or her to resist the urge to jump aboard. There’s something a little crazy, however, [...]

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Content Marketing 16  |  Add Yours

5 Content Marketing Assets You Forgot You Had

Stanford Smith obsesses about how to get small business blogs noticed and promoted at Pushing Social, except when he’s chasing large mouth bass! It’s usually a look of pure terror. I’m sitting across the desk from a professional and confident marketing executive. We’ve discussed the benefits of social business. He is on board with making [...]

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mobile 7  |  Add Yours

Voice Computing Puts the Words Back in Your Mouth

Guest post by Tim Hayden, co-founder and CMO of 44Doors, a mobile SaaS and consulting firm based in Austin, Texas. As tens of thousands of technophiles rolled into Austin last week, many of them pondered the possibilities of voice search and interactive voice response. The week prior in New York, I had a number of [...]

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Blogging and Content Creation 15  |  Add Yours

Will The Rise of the Photo Apps Kill the Written Word?

Ekaterina Walter is a social media strategist at Intel. She is a part of Intel’s Social Media Center of Excellence and is responsible for company-wide social media enablement and corporate social networking strategy. She was recently elected to serve on the board of directors of WOMMA. Overall, the statistics point in just one direction: blogging [...]

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Guest Posts 29  |  Add Yours

Social Media Success May Depend on HR

Guest post written by Mark W. Schaefer. Mark is a consultant, college educator, and author who blogs at {grow}. There is a growing gap between the social media “haves” and “have-nots.” Some companies I visit have embraced social media enthusiastically and are moving into some pretty advanced ideas. Other companies are simply checking the box. [...]

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