Yesterday, I had a long and interesting conversation with the president of STIMA , Belgium’s largest association of marketing professionals. He told me the main issue that surfaces in his daily contacts with marketers is ROMI (Return On Marketing Investment), a.k.a. Marketing ROI. The crisis is hitting hard, and accountability is priority number one today. The results of the annual marketing survey by Belgian The House of Marketing , in collaboration with STIMA, are a clear illustration of the need for ROMI. Marketers are uncertain and even scared. And it’s about time. MORE >>

Social media practitioners: want to get better at your job? Learn one word: Why? Used well, asking “why?” ” can help you get to the bottom of almost any problem, push your colleagues to explore new options, and force a new level of honesty in decision making. Those are nice side effects. “The conversation” and “engagement” are just means to that end.” ” We’re operating in a field which is still full of kumbaya and hugging. In that context, asking “why” is critical to improving your odds of success. B: Fair enough. B: Great. MORE >>

In a great article by Barry Densa on his blog MarketingWitandWisdom.com , Barry identifies the concept of Google penalizing, a.k.a. “slapping”, your website for being overly optimized. He also goes into detail about what that means and would be worthwhile to read the entire post. My (still true) philosophy is creating great content and value on a website that people naturally want to link (vote for) to your website. You can increase site rankings in the search engine if you do this. Many people don’t understand SEO or are knowledgeable enough to be dangerous. MORE >>

Seems we can’t turn a virtual corner without bumping into a post about the hottest social network Pinterest. What started as a playground for mostly women to share life style images is morphing into a serious business platform. Many brands, B2b, B2C, as well as, nonprofit and even the military and higher ed are  pinning. Recently I was contacted by an Israeli agency about a Pinterest campaign that they launched for Kotex:  Kotex Inspiration Day. The strategy capitalized on Pinterest in an innovative way beyond brand pins on a board. In fact, it might be the first. About smoyz. My Style.  MORE >>

A lot of the stuff you’re probably reading online about “humanizing your brand” is about social media tactics. Like this post on Social Media Examiner, 5 Ways to Humanize Your Company With Social Media. Take a look, you’ll recognize all of that stuff. And it’s not wrong, exactly. It’s just nowhere near enough.   “Humanizing” is MUCH more than having a real face instead of a logo as your avatar. It’s more than being friendly in your tweets and sharing more of others’ content than your own. And let us know what you think. MORE >>