Friday, October 29, 2010

Marketing Handy Episode #3 Thank You


The most important thing I can do is let people know that they matter. This video is my attempt to do that, thanks to everyone who contributed this week!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Most Americans Dont Have Smart Phones...

CNN ran a story today calling attention to the fact that most Americans don't have smart phones... (link)... more disturbing is that small business owners still haven't crossed the 50% threshold!

If you are a business owner and you don't have a smart phone what are you doing?

I just got a smart phone (finally) after just 2 days it has revolutionized how I communicate. Owning a business is not a reason to turn off! If you need a break from your work (beyond a total day off once a week) why do you do what you do?

Every project I am currently working on I love, and most aren't even live yet. I am doing the grunt work the stuff that most people think sucks and I love it! If you don't love what you do why are you doing it?... why are you putting up contact barriers?... let people get to you at all hours who cares push the limit!
Business owners smart phone ownership should be in the 80% to 90%.. range lets fix this!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Related to my last Video


Thanks to @malbonnongton on twitter for sharing this infographic from the Propagation Planning blog.

Look back a few infographics on this blog and you will see a infographic from flow town highlighting the value of retaining a customer... Statisfaction is the ROI not dollars (at least at first), if/when business gets this, they will get more Social...


Marketing Handy Episode #2 ROI and Social Media

Im really passionate about Social Media... it will be a common trend in these vlogs.
Today I highlight ROI and why it might be the wrong conversation when talking Social Media.

Monday, October 25, 2010

The First Episode of Marketing Handy

This is the first Marketing Handy show so congrats you are here at the beginning. I said this is weekly but lets see how this goes it might be more often. This week I highlight how Facebook pages should be treated as a back stage pass

Marketing Handy Vlog...coming soon

Check out the intro...

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Lowdown on Linkedin

Linked in is a great business tool if you haven't heard of it here is a quick info-graphic.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Value of an Existing Customer

Social Media plays a huge role in retention. If you are looking to figure out ROI consider retention as a metric...


Friday, October 15, 2010

The Social Media Case For A Shorter MLB Season

The October classic as it is widely known may be a bad idea strategically. This season especially there has been a growing contingent of baseball fans calling for the sport to start their playoffs in August Rather than October. We have had a more than few conversations around the office about this topic, and it seems like we aren't the only ones.

After having, hearing, and engaging in these conversations I decided to do some Social Research. Using just the MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL as keywords I decided to do a comparison test. The objective was to determine weather a strategic advantage from a Social standpoint actually exists in having Playoff games start in october.

This chart represents conversations from the past 30 Days

mlbnhlnfl-last-30-days

This chart represents conversations in August

mlbnhlnfl-august

During August (a non-playoff month) MLB has a 4% edge in the percentage of Social conversations occurring. The volume of conversations are down significantly during August which suggests the ability of the MLB to grow their share of voice by generating conversations. Strategically from a Social Stand-point the shift would make sense.

(Repost of my work from Nostrum Inc.)

The New Gap logo... Was It A Stunt?


One week ago Gap pulled off either the biggest blunder in branding history or one of the most brilliant moves ever...

I agree the Gap logo needs an update but the logo to the right is clearly not the solution. The new logo barely provides a hint as to what the brand was/wants to be. The outcry against the brand was fast and furious making Gap a trending topic on twitter in recored time. The brand even trended above Brett Farves...*ahem* so needless to say the new logo created a stir.

The Problem:

Gap as a brand has been loosing relevance year after year. Brand sentiment was at a near all time low, and this problem had nothing to do with bad press. Gap stopped being remarkable, they stopped pushing the edge...in short they became the poster child for average.

Was it a stunt?

Gap an average brand that had lost their ability to be remarkable, found a way to do something pretty remarkable. The new logo pushed forward far too fast. The speed of change reminded people what they loved about this brand. Their loyal fans didn't want it to change that fast and they spoke up. This left Gap had two choices ignore the backlash which would indicate a true re-branding effort (ala Pepsi) or cave... 10 days after launch they caved... I cant say for sure it was or wasn't a stunt but this conversation timeline might tell the story...the timing on the decision to revert back is questionable at best... my guess next week they will have a new logo with a subtle update.

Gap Logo conversations

(Repost of my work from nostrum inc.)

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

The Devil is in the detail



Sure a lot of people have bad credit, but should they really be forced to drive their car over their flower beds?

No matter how great an idea is poor execution can result in a poor product. Take the time to finish the task with attention to detail behind schedule rather than submit a mistake that will live on the interwebs for all time.