Direct Marketing Observations

DECEMBER 14, 2011

But then I started to think about 2012 and the challenges that most brands will face and thus the basis for this post was born: The challenges for a digital marketer or a digital brand in 2012. Marketers and brands will need to land the plane in 2012. What is your perception of the branded web experience? Guess what?

Brands 176

Brands Discount Sites SEO 176

Direct Marketing Observations

JULY 20, 2010

So much so that Frank’s personal brand grew, and grew and grew. One of the other questions we threw around early and often as well was, What if that personal brand leaves the company, what happens then? We name dropped Comcast along with Zappos and Starbucks and Jetblue. Comcastcares was as much Frank as it was Comcast.

Company 187

Company Case Study Brands Posterous 187

Direct Marketing Observations

AUGUST 16, 2010

As I was glancing at my other machine, I saw this post tweeted by Tom Cummings from Dachis Group- Social Media Middlemen: The Missing link between brands and Consumers. Thus the need to find those conduits between the brand and the consumers who use your brand. The “Middlemen&# as Tom puts it.

Brands 122

Brands Discount Organization Social Media 122

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 13, 2022

Brands finally get it in 2022 that the key to great social media engagement is telling real stories. The value of how “to do” social “right” for brands and businesses becomes non-negotiable in 2022. Everyone is a creator even if they are not creative and thus teaching a man to fish has never been more attainable. It’s a natural fit.

B2B 112

B2B Social Media Conversation Platform 112

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 25, 2011

If a brand hooks it’s customers up with coupons, and a customer takes them, because that’s what they are demanding, does that mean they are telling you or us that you can have their business? It means that I may recommend you solely on the basis of how much you give me and not necessarily on how good the brand experience was.

Loyalty 207

Loyalty Brands Products Facebook 207

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 12, 2018

I’ve been in the social media space for over 10 years now and without a doubt the two most vexing topics year in and year out are how best to leverage a brands presence in social media and how to engage with influencers. In my opinion, influence in social can have many faces. There’s a better way. Look Beyond the Numbers.

Influencer 131

Influencer Social Media Meeting List 131

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 12, 2018

I’ve been in the search and social media space long enough to know that without a doubt the two most vexing topics year in and year out are how best to leverage a brands presence in social media and how to engage with influencers. In my opinion, influence in social can have many faces. There’s a better way.

Influencer 131

Influencer Social Media List Meeting 131

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 28, 2011

For some, and it may be brands that are more guilty of this than others, engagement is viewed as garnering a “Like&# or a “Follow&#. Some brands are collecting Likes and Followers at rapid rates and then are telling everyone who will listen, that they are engaged with X amount of customers on social networks.

Engagement 258

Engagement Social Networking Meeting Conversation 258

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 1, 2017

When a brand pushes out a “piece” of social media content, they’re hoping that content will move the needle in the form of a standard KPI, i.e. mentions, likes, favorites or followers. How long are brands hoping that content will last? Brands have to act accordingly. Does that mean a brand should use them?

Content 100

Content Social Media LinkedIn Platform 100

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 12, 2010

Unfortunately given the trying economic times, sometimes big brands think that a wholesale change in look and feel, brand identity and messaging is the thing that will pump new life into a company. UGC (user generated content) can, in some cases will, bring the big brands to their knees. Gap sales were off 4%. Your trust them.

Social Media 209

Social Media Crowdsourcing Retail UGC 209

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

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. Though it was a great read, I was struck by two particular exchanges that I’m semi-condensing.

Loyalty 226

Loyalty B2B Metrics Curation 226

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 21, 2013

Now I’m pulling this next blurb from Vivaldi Partners via wikipedia but pay attention to it: Vivaldi Partners defined social currency as the extent to which people share the brand or information about the brand as part of their everyday social lives at work or at home.

Wikipedia 208

Wikipedia ROI Influencer Social Media 208

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 16, 2015

You’d think brands would know what the customer wanted at this stage of the game, right? Could you have actually been getting more out of your brand experiences all this time? Clearly the customer now has a voice; and that scares the crap out of really large brands as well as small and medium sized businesses. Until now.

Compete 100

Compete Sample Samples Focus Group 100

Direct Marketing Observations

DECEMBER 16, 2016

Trust issues were a common thing on some of my pages when it came to privacy, the customer and brands. Where does social fit in a brands mobile strategy? I wrote a lot about customer focus and for good reason, a lot of the data coming out, basically says, either focus on the customer NOW or you’re gonna lose them. Insensitivity.

Pluck 100

Pluck Crowdsourcing Mobile Analytics 100

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 18, 2015

If I asked you to engage with the people, the followers, the brand champions of your product or your brand, could you do it? Can you represent your brand via social without sounding like a novice? Can you hold your own, representing the company, in a space that YOUR company is supposed to own?

Social Media 100

Social Media Marketing Discount Engagement 100

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 19, 2011

Brands could learn something from this. ” Brands are you listening? What it was, was that 1) he had a personality 2) he wasn’t pushing a product and 3) he actually provided some value from time to time. Lastly, the tweets had a flavor to them, a no holds barred flavor to them. I think I might have forgotten about that.

Brands 178

Brands Products Conversation Twitter 178

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 30, 2012

According to a study from Accenture , comScore , and dunnhumbyUSA aimed at helping consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers, visitors to CPG brand websites buy 37% more in retail stores than non-visitors to the brand site. Reward their loyalty and visits to the site. Give them an incentive to visit the site and a physical location.

Retail 152

Retail comScore Loyalty Study 152

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 4, 2011

i.e. We’re going to use social to drive sales, for lead gen , for referrals, for bookings, for awareness through brand mentions etc. It was really because they are the brand, Starbucks. Klout is breaking new ground in this space and I anticipate it getting better in identifying people who can move the needle for a brand.

Klout 206

Klout Facebook Metrics Engagement 206

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 12, 2018

Point being, if you’re actively engaging, managing and participating, and you are the owner of the branded social media accounts of your organization, then you know what’s up. By the way, that’s the description of an actual person on Twitter that brands and sells themselves as an influencer.

B2B 276

B2B Influencer Conversation Social Media 276

Direct Marketing Observations

DECEMBER 19, 2011

This is going to happen but I am starting to see little tiny micro-cracks in the Facebook brand. Well they sorta are making money and they are rolling out custom pages for brands. 11) Brands knew what they were doing on Twitter. Can you say Facebook Burnout, Blowback or Billion ? Does that count as truly making money?

Social Media 228

Social Media Policies Consultant ROI 228

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 25, 2010

According to a May 2010 study by Digital Brand Expressions , 59% of social marketers are operating “without a game plan.” Clearly, we still have a long way to go in this industry… Tags: Social Media marketing marc meyer digital brand expressions. And yet it’s happening, alot! How is that possible?

Company 159

Company Social Media Study YouTube 159

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 27, 2011

I’ve often said that the majority of people that follow brands on Facebook do it not because they are supposed brand champions but purely because they are hoping to get something out of the engagement. It may create awareness of the brand, product or company but there is no value in free. But does free work ?

Compete 162

Compete Case Study Social Networking Small Business 162

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 12, 2012

Conversocial enables workflow for multi-person teams to tackle the consumer communication for large brands. Twylah allows users to create a branded page for their Twitter stream. Conversocial.com helps users manage customer service at scale on Facebook and Twitter. Slideshare is a home for sharing presentations and white papers online.

Tools 215

Tools Social Bookmarking Aggregator Disqus 215

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 14, 2010

1) Here’s a cool little tool: Type in a brand name. 5) According to Brand Tags a brand exists entirely in people’s heads. Therefore, a brand is whatever they say it is. Check out this collective experiment in brand perception. There’s no in between here on the interwebz.

RFP 218

RFP Bookmarklet One Spot Flickr 218

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 25, 2010

It started with this: It is a good post in Adweek about how food marketers are trying a new approach when it comes to winning followers on Facebook by using online coupons and incentives that grow in value as more consumers “like” a brand on Facebook. His point, the value of the consumers data in exchange for what you have as a brand.

Data 143

Data Facebook Loyalty Social Networking 143

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 28, 2010

Increase awareness of and interaction with a company’s brand through brand mentions and participation in social networks. Show and educate brands and companies how to use social networks and how to act on those social networks. Create customized social media landing pages to reflect brand. Create and Post videos.

Social Media 203

Social Media Marketing Social Bookmarking Widget 203

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 31, 2017

And marketers and bloggers and brands struggle. After indulging in hedonism and committing suicide numerous times, he begins to re-examine his life and priorities. But everything repeats. But everything repeats. over and over and over again. Just like the content clock or the content calendar does.

Blogger 137

Blogger Eventful Questions Content 137

Direct Marketing Observations

MAY 22, 2012

Recently in the Wall Street Journal, there was an article titled , Why Successful Branding Still Happens Offline. The article was good but it was really similar to a thousand other articles that I have read over the years about how brands need to do this or that in social in order to be successful.

Social Media 178

Social Media Avatar Journal Conference 178

Direct Marketing Observations

JUNE 7, 2011

One, there is a lot of useless “social&# content to sift through and Two, if the majority of people are not using Twitter and everyone is using Facebook, then why do we make brand assumptions based on a Twitter stream? If the answer is yes, this troubles me.

Crimson Hexagon 189

Crimson Hexagon Social Media Radian6 Klout 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?

Video 164

Video Products Brands Marketing 164

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 17, 2015

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. Brands can and will measure its effectiveness, they fish where the fish are, and every day they push out more content.

Content 100

Content Curation Data Platform 100

Direct Marketing Observations

JANUARY 31, 2018

A brands message. For brands, that’s the great potential. We call it content, but back in the day it was a newspaper insert, a magazine ad, a radio spot, a 30 second commercial on TV. The form has changed but not the function. Get our attention. What’s consistently baked into that content? The point of that message?

Social Media 164

Social Media B2B Metrics Analytics 164

Direct Marketing Observations

DECEMBER 8, 2011

When Jason first called me, he was looking for ways to brand his previous company. 14) Businesses, brands and companies should incorporate tweetchats into their marketing mix. At the time, the Tweetchat, “ Journchat “, was on fire and that was our inspiration. 11) Every Tweetchat will be different. No two are the same.

Social Media 218

Social Media Hosting Hashtag Collaboration 218

Direct Marketing Observations

MARCH 23, 2015

In fact brands and the companies that monitor brands have even redefined engagement. We’re so enamored with the platforms that allow us to say something quickly, or publish or push out a piece of content in just 2-3 clicks, that we have lost our way. Just go look up the definition. We can fix this though.

Activities 100

Activities Social Media Conversation Engagement 100

Direct Marketing Observations

OCTOBER 29, 2010

Some people think engagement for a brand has to revolve around the conversation-No… Conversations are derivatives of engagement. Especially when you’re looking at this from a brand perspective. Tom pissed off a bunch or people when he said that social media isn’t all about conversation and you know what?

Conversation 143

Conversation Content Study Social Media 143

Direct Marketing Observations

APRIL 13, 2012

According to a recent survey published by eMarketer , four in five North American brand marketers considered brand lift to be the most important metric for evaluating the success of their online branding efforts. But is brand lift the right metric at all? But does that definition correlate to digital correctly?

Brands 166

Brands Metrics Survey Advertising 166

Direct Marketing Observations

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

Businesses are starting to realize and understand that social provides or could provide another way to extend brand identity and establish a better connection to internal and external communities. Social is here to stay. Yea I know, understatement of the year right? Social is enhancing personalized interactions.

Social Media 168

Social Media Reputation Policies Influencer 168