February 2nd, 2010
Last week, I wrote a guest post on the Social Media Examiner about real time search and it’s affect on businesses. Now that Google and other search engines are displaying real time feeds from Twitter and Facebook in the search results, brands need to understand the implications. I would suggest reading the full article; but here is a quick synopsis.
Here is real time search can drive business results:
January 19th, 2010
Every year closes with summaries of the top stories as well the predictions for the year ahead. Heading into Twenty-Ten, I contributed to several prediction roundups including Junta42, ContactCenterWorld, ZDNet, among others. What I didn’t do however, is write about the endless predictions for the future of marketing, media, business, et al. While there were many excellent contributions, I focused on other writing priorities.
January 5th, 2010
Like many bloggers, I have already started reading some “predictions” for 2010 - which often take lessons learned for 2009 and project them into the next year. For my own part, I have done these sorts of blog posts before and the tough thing is to highlight things which will be relevant not just on the first of the year, but throughout. It’s not about observations of things that are hot right now - but about what people can and should be thinking about throughout the year. Continue Reading »
December 22nd, 2009
Forrester recently released a new report tracking the future of US interactive marketing through 2014. Authored by Shar VanBoskirk, with Christine Spivey Overby, Niki Scevak, and Angie Polanco, Forrester predicts that interactive marketing is poised to grow at a 16% compound annual growth rate (CAGR).
December 8th, 2009
As marketers, we spend a lot of time thinking about our message, as well we should. Our job is to tell prospective customers how we can help them, so we focus on what we say. The Internet has turned the tables on marketers, however. Time was that marketing messages were conceived by extremely creative people to get attention for products, but now, listening to what customers say and do are just as important as creativity. Old-time marketers have always listened to a few customers in focus groups, so you can think of the Internet is the biggest focus group of all time.
December 1st, 2009
Salesmanship has always been a little bit about hype. Putting a shine on what you’ve got. Painting it in the best possible light. You get the idea. But when it crosses a line, it becomes fooling your customers. Not only is it unethical, but it doesn’t really work very well anymore. The Internet makes it a lot harder to do than it once was, because you don’t have to fool just one customer. You have to fool all of them. Because if anyone figures out your trick, they tell everyone online. So, how good is your magic act?
All this was brought to mind last weekend as my wife looked over our credit card bill. She saw a small charge that just didn’t look right to her and she questioned me and our kids as to what this might be. No one knew.
November 17th, 2009
There’s a lot of talk around the interwebs about building a business by making passive income. You know — the kind of income that brings sales into your business when you’re sleeping and turns your email box into a cash register — ka-ching, ka-ching! For most people that means they need to become affiliated with another company and promote that company’s products. Online, this is called affiliate marketing and there are tons of people silently creating successful businesses using this model.
One of the most successful is Rosalind Gardner, author of the Super Affiliate Handbook. Ros actually built her business using the affiliate marketing model and then wrote a book about it. She’s what they call a “super” affiliate. And because of her book, countless numbers of small business owners are using this model to find success online. I’ve had my share of success with affiliate marketing and creating passive income streams, so I know it works.
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