Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 18, 2016

In the back of every Vanity Fair edition is the Proust Questionnaire which is devoted to the answers of someone who is fairly well known. The answers never cease to make me think about my own mortality and legacy. The questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.

Travel 100

Travel Questions How To 100

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 5, 2016

Recently via ESPN, a social media drama played out nationally as a Texas A&M football recruit and one of their coaches sparred via Twitter , over the perception of each other’s veiled tweets. There will be no good that will come out of this. The fall out is bad mostly for the football coach and his respective university. The fall out is additionally bad because it also shows how recruiting athletes in a social media world can go terribly awry.

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Sports Social Media Policies Team 100

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 21, 2016

Twenty six years ago at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival I watched Stevie Ray Vaughn rip it up in front of thousands of people. The only way people knew that I did was because I told them about it. Yep, WOM. I would go on to see SRV a few more times after that before he was taken from us too soon. My memories and stories of the times I’ve seen him and hundreds ( Yes hundreds, I sold concert T-shirts ) of other acts are solidly entrenched in a sense and duty that those stories are

Social Media 100

Social Media Fashion Eventful Industry 100

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 29, 2015

About four years ago I wrote a post/checklist on what you should require when you hire your next social media rockstar. Recently I was asked to build a roles/responsibilities description for a client who had a similar ask and thus I thought my old post might help me in building out that description. So let’s relook at the post and see how it compares to 2015 with comments, updates and observations in red. 1.

Social Media 100

Social Media Collaboration Team Resources 100

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 2, 2015

I was recently speaking to an entrepreneurship/marketing class in Naples Florida about what it takes to get something from cradle to grave. The main idea hit me like a ton of bricks, so I’m going to share it with you. It’s quick, so relax. It’s as simple as this. It starts with one person. It’s born from one idea. You take that one idea and you make it better.

Class 100

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Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 20, 2015

Sh*t is getting ready to hit the fan again. Just now on Twitter I was curious about the Ashley Madison scandal. So I did a trending hashtag search on the topic. I found it fascinating how it kind of exposed sunlight to the other side of or the ugly side of the web where people like to play, preferrably in the dark. Pun intended. Think Bitcoins and Silk Road but in the name of cheating… For those in the know, this is just another notch in the belt of just how “nonprivate” your

Marketing 100

Marketing Paid Search Privacy Hashtag 100

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 17, 2015

'It’s true, the internet has shortened our attention spans. We’d rather watch a video than have to read 400 words or more. As a digital marketer one of the great challenges is to figure out what your audience wants and then to package that into something that’s measurable and moves the needle. It’s getting harder. You’d think that with the advent of all the new data tools and analytics packages on the market, that we would know exactly what the customer wants.

Content 100

Content Marketing Education Analytics 100

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 23, 2015

'The world of the content marketer/social media marketer is changing. I had mentioned in a previous post how it resets every day. When it does reset, we no longer are responding to what our readers, followers and fan say as much as we’re responding to what the analytics tell us in regards to consumption habits and trends from the previous day.

Activities 100

Activities Social Media Conversation Engagement 100

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 18, 2015

'I promise you that what I’m about to say is worth reading. Before I elaborate though, let me stress that I am qualified to post something so link-baitish as this. I’ve been knee deep in social for the better part of 8 years. So much so, that it seems that not a year goes by now where I either hear or read about how social media doesn’t work or is useless or is dying.

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Discount Engagement 100

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 17, 2015

'I’m cutting to the chase. and feel free to disagree with me at any point when you think I’m wrong. Content curation tools are great. No really, they are, except all they do is pull the content in and that really is just half the battle. The content game played by every brand, everywhere, in some way, shape or form, is finding that content, every day, manually interpreting it and then tailoring it to their audience and then pushing it out.

Content 100

Content Curation Data Platform 100

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 16, 2015

'You’d think brands would know what the customer wanted at this stage of the game, right? It’s 2015 and companies left and right keep talking about their new mandate of delivering on a quality customer experience. delivering a powerful customer experience. It’s almost as if what has happened up to this point didn’t matter. I guess I want to know, what have I been getting all of these years?

Compete 100

Compete Sample Samples Focus Group 100

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 8, 2015

'The short answer is no. The easy answer starts with Google’s Nest. Which is a smart thermostat. From there things have quickly spriraled out of control so to speak. In a short time The Internet of Things has become akin to what it was like when social media became a “thing.” Everyone is writing about it, everyone is talking about it and everyone is trying to figure out what it does, what it means and how it will affect us.

Google 100

Google Social Media 100

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 17, 2014

'Picture this: You’re at a stop light. It seems to be taking forever for it to turn green. You become impatient. You start yelling. You’re wondering why it hasn’t changed. Finally it does change and you peel out. You’re angry because it took entirely too long. It’s been an astounding and unfathomable 3 minutes. Here’s another scenario: You’re at your computer, you’re on Google and you’re searching for something…The screen freezes, you s

Engagement 193

Engagement Hotels Types Google 193

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 14, 2014

'Did Facebook just jump the shark? Or does it just seem like it? Back in April of 2013, Facebook launched stickers but only in private messages. Now they’re is rolling out the “stickers” feature to everyone’s timeline posts, enabling users to voice their opinions with a cat, a smiley, or anything else that’s in the Facebook’s Sticker Store (social commerce?

Facebook 170

Facebook Features Social Media Questions 170

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 30, 2014

'I save way more than I need to. I’ll admit I do have a bit of a hoarder in me, not to the extremes that you see on TV, but only in the sense that the things that I save have a) some sort of lifetime business value or b) a sentimental family value. So, needless to say, there is a bit of an accumulation. That means not only do I occasionally print things out, but I also bookmark a lot of sites and I also write stuff down on anything and everything.

Sentiment 196

Sentiment ROI Company Strategy 196

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 3, 2014

'I haven’t been posting much, for that I blame it on client work. With that being said, I stumbled on this and thought I would share. It comes from a site called Funders and Founders. Good stuff!

How To 162

How To Sites 162

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

'One of the tougher jobs on any given days in the digital space is the curation and or the creation of good content. It’s everywhere and sometimes it doesn’t matter what RSS feeds ot Flip Boards or whatever you use to find it, it can slip through the cracks. Case in point, this morning I came across an interview with Erich Joachimsthaler, a former Harvard professor, author of over 40 articles & two books on brand strategy and the CEO of Vivaldi Partners Group.

Loyalty 226

Loyalty B2B Metrics Curation 226

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 26, 2013

'Twitter has the RT button and the favorite button. Linkedin has an endorse button, Facebook has a like button and G+ has the plus. I know you “get” what they all do, at least you should, but I have a question for you. Aren’t all of those social buttons just surface level engagement triggers that require little or no engagement by the user and the recipient?

Social Capital 170

Social Capital LinkedIn Social Networking Metrics 170

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 21, 2013

'Yahoo’s recent announcement of it’s intent to purchase Tumblr has brought out the virtual fangs. Let’s take a look at some of the more creative responses. . . . Tumblr users are passionate and are worried about what will happen to their platform. Is that passion enough to keep their pages safe from being “Yahoo’ed?” If the deal goes down, Tumblr as you and I once knew it, may be done.

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Tumblr Yahoo Posterous Startup 226

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 14, 2013

'It can’t be good… I was going to go off on a rant, but the fact of the matter is…it can’t be good. You feel duped and cheated and misled.

Content 185

Content SEO 185

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 14, 2013

Saw this picture and it so captures the essence of who we are now. We are a global, digitally enabled people. Amazing!

Mobile 189

Mobile SEO 189

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 12, 2013

Are we becoming a nation or a society that is devaluing certain aspects of online privacy? As more and more of our lives become intertwined with online networks we become desensitized as to what is private and what is not. Take for example the liberties or assumptions that Live-Hive would like with your personal information. CtoCloud Application is requesting permission to: Manage your contacts.

Privacy 168

Privacy Applications Data Examples 168

Direct Marketing Observations

FEBRUARY 21, 2013

Here’s a great infographic surreptitiously attached to an MBA in marketing lead gen site. Be that as it may on the interwebz, this inforgraphic nonetheless, is not bad.

Social Media 254

Social Media Marketing Sites 254

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 8, 2013

It’s safe to say that just because I waited until January 8 th , it doesn’t mean that I can’t roll out what I think will happen in the next 12 months. In other words, not posting prediction pieces in December does not diminish their likelihood of occurring. In the immortal words of former NFL coach, Dennis Green, predictions are what we thought they were.

Apple 222

Apple Data Google Issues 222

Direct Marketing Observations

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Don’t let the title scare you. it’s really a simple notion actually. It goes something like this. You’re a marketer, you’re tasked to sell something online. You know about Google’s algorithm, you understand how to optimize for search, you know that you will be using WordPress because of it’s ability to add plugins and content on the fly.

Price 182

Price Buy WordPress Meeting 182

Direct Marketing Observations

DECEMBER 6, 2012

There’s no doubt any longer about social media permeating every aspect of our daily live’s. Here’s a great infographic on the true ubiquity of social. Thanks to the folks from Socially Aware Blog.

Social Media 232

Social Media Social Networking 232

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 2, 2012

Chances are, you have given away more than you have charged for…. For a lot of people, what they expect and get from their digital experiences isn’t even close to being reality. Want a few easy examples? OK. One of the most prevalent business models in the online world is to build a product or service and then give it away for free. Another prevalent business model in the online world is to build a product or service, give it away for free while trying to make money on people buying “other” thin

Posterous 162

Posterous Tumblr Flickr WordPress 162

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 18, 2012

This morning’s thought: “I now need to go back and look at all my recent SEO work.” I like the competition of search. Every day is different and you have the ability and or the chance to “win” so to speak. It’ similar to watching the standings in Major League Baseball. Some days you may gain on the competition, other days you lose ground, and still others, nothing changes.

SEO 240

SEO Directory Engineering Compete 240

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 12, 2012

Recently, my work required that I evaluate some of the top global brands in a certain industry in regards to internal b2b social media usage. I’ve used upwards of 7-10 free and paid social media monitoring and measurement tools to do it. I’ve looked at social data for a month and I have discovered two hurdles and one gap. I’m going to boil it down for you and spare you the pain of elaboration and if you happen to see me on the street I will give you the lodown on my findings.

Social Media 187

Social Media Engagement B2B Small Business 187

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 10, 2012

I love baseball and I coach baseball and I’m a fan of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Recently I received an email from Pirates.com asking me to vote for pitcher Chris Resop for the Roberto Clemente Award which annually goes out to one player in major league baseball who selflessly gives back to the community. It’s a very prestigious award. It was nice to see that Chris was being nominated since my son holds Roberto Clemente in very high esteem, and Chris’s father happens to also coac

Case Study 189

Case Study System Study Communities 189

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 9, 2012

“The goal was not to sell units, but to increase favorability about the two brands among younger consumers,”? What do you think? The visual imagery, the soundtrack, it’s just done right and yet, where is the product? Created for Intel, does this have to make sense to be good or effective? Do you think the 55 million people who viewed it felt that they have been marketed to?

Video 164

Video Products Brands Marketing 164

Direct Marketing Observations

SEPTEMBER 6, 2012

Thanks to the folks at MDG.

Social Media 221

Social Media Marketing ROI 221

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 28, 2012

I’m doing some work in the retail sector right now and thought I would share this great Infographic from Campalyst. Though it’s from May of 2012, and we know how quickly things change in the space, it’s still a pretty bangin visual. Infographic by Campalyst.

Retail 190

Retail Social Media 190

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 9, 2012

I’ve been somewhat neglecting the blog over the last few months but I have a good excuse er… reason. Others are getting my good content. Or maybe I should just say they are getting my content, whether it’s good or not, well that’s in the eyes of the reader now isn’t it? Being a content producer is brutal, it’s hard and it never ends.

Content 207

Content Curation Smart Phone Yahoo 207

Direct Marketing Observations

JULY 19, 2012

I just came across a great study co-produced by FedEx and Ketchum, titled The 2012 FedEx/Ketchum Social Business Study. This study, updates and expands upon research first undertaken in 2010 and analyzes the changing impact of social media on business today. To quote, “Organizations are leveraging social media tools to evolve into social businesses – creating communities and relationships with external and internal stakeholders that are transforming the way they do business.

Study 176

Study Research Organization Communities 176

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 7, 2012

How have other top retailers responded to the mobile challenge? Big huge thanks to global IT and business solution provider Cognizant for this infographic.

Retail 162

Retail Mobile Marketing 162

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 22, 2012

The beauty of social media isn’t in the online connections. It’s not about the numbers, never has been. OK, maybe it is to marketers, but that’s because they operate from a different perspective. No the beauty of social media is in it’s potential. It’s potential to connect people from divergent backgrounds or in the same city or that have the same common interests.

Social Media 178

Social Media Avatar Journal Conference 178