Are New Customers Killing Your Company?
(Originally written for MarketingProfs MPdailyfix blog) I’m sure you’ve heard the maxim that it costs a lot more to get a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. It makes perfect sense, right? So why is it that we spend so much time and money in violation of that credo? At the […]
Optimizing the Impact of Please and Thanks
When was the last time you applauded a company? On a Southwest Airlines flight to Austin for South by Southwest a couple weeks ago, our plane was delayed due to a flat tire. The tire was changed in about 30 minutes, and we were on our way. The flight landed late in Austin of course, […]
Friend or Faux – 6 Ways to Activate Customers
Two questions. How many Facebook fans does your company have? What do you want your Facebook fans to do on behalf of your company? Way too many people can answer the first question, but not the second. And that’s the biggest weakness of company-based social media at present. The Friend Bubble Doing something (buying Google […]
The Inefficiencies of the Reputation Economy
Nothing gets bloggers more excited than a discussion about blog rankings. Many conversations I had at South by Southwest touched on this subject. Jason Falls asked Guy Kawasaki to move his Social Media Explorer up the list on http://alltop.com (a great resource to find first-class blogs, by the way). Mack Collier told me that his […]
Yoda Was Wrong – Trying Counts
Are you too caught up in getting social media “right?” Yoda said “Do or Do Not. There is No Try.” When it comes to social media at least, the little green guy is full of it. If you accept the fundamental premise that social media’s power lies in its ability to change the nature of […]
Social Media Adds Viral Frosting to the Email Cake
Are you enabling your email subscribers to spread your message via social media? Call it Forward to a Friend 2.0. Call it the inevitable marriage of two sides of the customer relationship coin. Call it the next big thing in email marketing. The hand-wringing in the email community about the impact of social media is […]
David Alston – The Twitter 20 Interview about Social Media Listening
David Alston is a singer. A photographer. The former host of an improv comedy show. He’s also a vastly experienced technology marketer – currently the Vice President of Marketing for the conversation monitoring software company Radian6. He’s also Canadian, so is helpful and kind as a default setting. I first met David at the excellent […]
AdAge Social Media Blindness
Ken Wheaton penned an acidic column in AdAge that discounted the impact and legitimacy of social media. And not just in a “I’m not sure this social media thing is all it’s cracked up to be” kind of way, but with snarkiness, derision and hubris. Here are excerpts from the piece, titled “Web 2.0 cured […]
7 Critical Elements of Your Social Media Strategy
(Originally written for MarketingProfs Daily Fix) It’s fantastic that interest in social media is so high, but I’m alarmed at the number of brands and agencies that are ready to jump into social media to take “advantage” of audience concentration in Facebook, Twitter, and other fast-growth outposts. What’s lacking in most social media programs is […]
The Incredible Efficiency of Social Media
(originally written for TalentZoo) The explosion in marketing and message conveyance opportunities is simply breathtaking. We’ve gone from 3 TV stations to 500+. Satellite radio. Hundreds of new magazines. Out-of-home advertising on every available surface. And a little something called online advertising that’s now larger than radio in ad dollars spent. As a result, audiences […]
Think Bottom Line, Not Top Line, on Social Media ROI
There’s been a lot of conversation lately about social media ROI but the hand-wringing about it is totally misplaced. True ROI (return on investment) calculations are possible in cause/effect marketing scenarios where you can isolate tactics and variables to determine incremental revenue generated. Today, the only marketing programs that can semi-reliably generate “real” ROI calculations are SEO, […]
Why Social Media Isn’t Marketing At All
What’s the worst thing about social media? The name “social media.” It’s incredibly vague, and that lack of definition has enabled “social media” to become a watered-down, catch-all term with different meanings for each person – like “recreational drugs” and “process improvement.” The Characteristics of Social Media: Duration: Ongoing Target: Current and previous customers Goal: […]