This morning I attended an event hosted by IBM. The topic of the half day conference was The Future of Interactive Technologies. I decided to title today’s post as The Future of Interactive Technologies is NOW. Why? As I sat beside many businesses – both retailers and suppliers such as myself – many of these business on the retail side or B-C sector, are just starting to implement their social media strategy. For me the future is now. Every business needs to be involved in finding ways to engage and build their tribe/community – as so aptly written – by one of my marketing guru’s Seth Godin. There were some great stats about the trends of social media, the emergence and importance of mobile and of course the value and power that is now wielded by your customer. Over the last 3 years we have written about all of these topics. The power of the brand ambassador, the idea that they are talking about you whether you are there or not, understanding how your target market wants to communicate and then focusing on those digital tools to engage them and featuring businesses that have been doing social media right. Read the rest of this entry »

I read the most wonderful post written by Seth Godin this morning. He called his article Quid Pro Quo (Santa Math) The idea that most people are selling something in the exchange for something. SO you buy a sandwich you pay $3.00 for the sandwich and you get it with no onions. “This for that he says“. He goes on to say “that when you engage online – like I am doing with this blog – he says “I don’t write this blog to get gigs or business, although it may happen” it is not the highest intention. It is more to build a relationship with the people that read it – in the hopes that on this long, fun and interesting journey – I can SHARE with others the knowledge, success and challenges that come – with the integration of social media – as an important marketing channel for your business. Read the rest of this entry »

One of my colleagues and friend – put forth a wonderful opportunity to me today – to pitch a new client. Nothing is more rewarding than receiving a referral. It came forth via the client – that the idea that I – as the leader of our firm – with a long career in the fashion business prior to building our agency – might only understand social media in the context of related products such as consumer packaged goods for instance. Read the rest of this entry »

We live in a world where consumers actively resist marketing. So it’s imperative to stop marketing at people. The idea is to create an environment where consumers will market to each other. (from Seth Godin’s Super Ideavirus Vook)

I think for many now jumping on the social media bandwagon, one area of measurement is based on the number of fans that one has. In some cases, it’s great to have hundreds of thousands of fans—IF you can lead them to click throughs on your site or directly track them to retweets of products and services or sharing via Facebook (from all of your friends to their friends and so on…). But many are, as in life, “fair-weather friends”: they come, look around, sign up…but don’t really engage or connect. Especially when you don’t have a strategy that is going to ensure that you connect with them for a direct call to action. Yes. You want a call to action. One that includes a mutual passion for the give and take that is going to be SHARED by your business and the friends/customers you are going to friend and follow.
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We all have a story. I always ask new customers “what is your story and is it being told?” Many times most businesses, brands, products and services begin with their story and then get caught up and forget how it impacts the value—they forget who the brand is targeting and lay that story to rest. In the “new world economy”, as I like to call it, your story is integral. It’s what draws potential evangelists and creates a connection that gives you permission to share with them. And in turn, they’ll share your story with others.
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It has been a while since I have used one of Seth Godin’s posts. Everything he writes is of value and I urge all of you to sign up for his blog. I have suggested, on many occasions, that having a strategic plan before you implement any kind of social media is vital. Many people have a problem with this as they can’t find the extra budget for this part of a project and time for this extra process. The decision makers for many businesses sometimes feel that they need to just dive in—the plan from their perspective was discussed in meetings. All the papers from the Economist to the Wall Street Journal talk about the success of social media so they dive in without a strategic plan.
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Hi everyone. I apologize for the lack of posts. I have had a series of technical challenges that has made it difficult for me to post for the last two weeks. I hope to get everything rectified in the next few days and get back on track.
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As Michael Jackson’s memorial service is about to take place today, I thought this post about measuring metrics (for what will be invariably your own 15 minutes of fame—coming in the very near future!) was definately appropos!
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I talk about and post many of Seth Godin’s blog posts quite regularly as he is truly one of my marketing gurus and teachers. He is very clear and concise about his explanations of how you can maximize technology for marketing success and always has a plethora of case studies of companies who have found success using the tactics of which he speaks.
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