Posted on Tue, Nov 17, 2009
It is Tuesday and Daily Bytes is focusing on strategy. I have picked two posts – one from Randall Rothenberg at the IAB and the other from iMedia. Both posts look at marketing from a strategic perspective and how creativity can matter to building successful strategies.
Creative Content: Why Brands Need to own their content channels
The plethora of digital platforms and tools coupled with heavy consumer digital engagement (social media, blogs, podcasts, photosharing, video surfing and email subscriptions) has prompted a new strategic mindset for many companies. They are more than just what they produce and provide – they are also a media channel with many consumer touchpoints. Some have even said “the company is the media”.
In this post from iMedia, Gordon Plutsky provides an overview of how companies can build their own media channels to achieve their strategic objectives. He references Whole Foods as a leading company creating an effective media channel:
I follow Whole Foods on Twitter and find the information helpful. However, as a loyal Whole Foods shopper, I now want to check out the other channels more.
Other companies building interesting media channels include:
- Best Buy IdeaX: Best Buy’s forum for customer ideas and sharing.
- MyStarbucksIdea.com Community site set up by Starbucks which enables customers to share their ideas for building their business, comment on them and vote for the best ideas.
Strategy Question: Is Marketing a Strategic Resource or a Procured Commodity?
This is an incredibly meaty piece from Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of the IAB. It is a terrific overviews of the history of the U.S. marketing business and the constant tug of war between strategic creativity and cost efficiencies. It throws into question as to whether the much touted efficiencies made possible by technology will trump creative thinking. I think not . . . because creativity does matter when it comes to building your marketing strategy.
Posted on Mon, Oct 19, 2009
Happy Monday! A start to a new week and a time to look at the many perspectives of social media: why it is not working at some companies and the questions you need to ask to make it work, the realities of social media, the need to integrate social media into your presentations and four strategies for social media success.
5 Things You Must Ask About Social Media
This post by Jay Deragon in The Relationship Economy blog is built off of Amy Mengel’s recent post on the five reasons why companies are failing at social media. The reasons include: 1) they can’t talk about anything other than their products, 2) they listen to customers but don’t take action, 3) they aren’t calibrated internally with the technology, 4) they are not framing risk accurately, and 5) their internal culture isn’t aligned for social media success. Jay agrees with Amy’s assessment and points out that “Marketing and messaging is no longer isolated, rather it is now a reflection of the organizational quality and effectiveness of management.” Organizational quality and effectiveness of management requires asking the right questions. The diagram below illustrates what Jay suggests as the needed framework for asking the right questions.
Organizational Effectiveness Facilitates a New System of Communicating
3 Realities of Social Media
Michael Brito writes a guest post for PR 2.0 where he focuses on his observations of social media at this juncture: 1) consumers already get it, brands are trying to figure it out; 2) brands should focus on people first, tools last, and 3) thee is no such thing as a social media expert quite yet. I totally agree that the focus should be on people first and tools last. Before you focus on tools, you need to know where your audience is and how to engage with them. And I love the comment on there is not such thing as a social medi expert “quite yet”! We are still in early days and figuring everything out.
Do speakers need to weave social media into their presentations?
This post from James Gurd in the Econsultancy blog was inspired by blog post from Jeremiah Owyang last week about integrating social media into their presentations. In contrast to Jeremiah’s “two-fisted speaking” strategy (clicker in one hand and mobile device in the other), James recommends enlisting a social media executive to help monitor the social media back-channel. He also provides some other useful pointers to manage the tweet-speak during presentations.
Four Steps to Social Media Marketing Success
This is a great post in Search Engine Watch from Erik Qualman, whose recent presentation – Social Media is Not a Fad - became a viral sensation. In the post, Erik asserts that there are four simple, yet “critical” steps to executing an effective social media strategy as illustrated below:
Four Critical Social Media Strategy Steps
Erik points out the steps are laid out in stair fashion to illustrate that companies need to start with listening and build up to the selling step.
Posted on Mon, Aug 10, 2009
5 Tips for Low-Cost Marketing in a Recession
Good common sense tips on how to strengthen your marketing efforts and spend less. This MediaPost piece is written by Yves Darbouze, CEO and Creative Director of plot Multimedia who is practiing what he preaches.
Comments – The missing link in your social media toolset
If you or your company maintain a blog, this is a great article from KnowtheNetwork.com on the importance of the comment section on your blog, including the possibilities for improving the reach of these comments through tools like Disqus.
22 Things You Don’t Know About Your Customers
The size of the list is intimidating, but the information is easy to read and very useful for building an internet marketing strategy. This list was put together by Ian Laurie for Conversation Marketing.
Building a Brand vs. Building a Business
Is building a brand the same as building a business? Not necessarily. However, when you focus on your brand dominating a market.