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August 13 CMOs Optimistic, but Still Tight-Fisted- Ad Week 8/12/09CMOs Optimistic, but Still Tight-FistedSocial media spending is expected to rise, but traditional ad outlays will fallAug 12, 2009 NEW YORK When it comes to the current economy, chief marketing officers are starting to feel a lot more optimistic. They expect an increase in customer activity over the next year and plan to shift more dollars toward Internet marketing, per a study released this week by Duke University's Fuqua School of Business in conjunction with the American Marketing Association. July 23 Sharing an Artilce from Harvard Business Publishing on Social Media Strategy and DesignYes, Your Social Media Strategy Needs Design10:42 AM Tuesday July 21, 2009
In nearly every conference room across the business landscape it's inevitable that at some point the phrase "social media" enters the discussion. Marketers, PR and salespeople are among the first to engage in the discussions, trying to figure how networks can be leveraged to sell more stuff. But I'd like to propose another way to approach the topic. What if we looked at "social media" as a design problem? If you take a trip over to Wikipedia and enter the word "design" you'll see this at the very beginning of the entry:
Notice any key words in this small excerpt? There are a few, but the two that stand out for me are the words "planning" and "intention." As someone who started a career as a designer (graphic design and user experience design) and is currently exploring business opportunities in social media — which I think of as social business design — I can't help but see the challenges and opportunities in this definition as it applies to social media. Let's start with the challenges — the term "social media" itself is indicative of the state of affairs. "Media" limits our view of the movement, and brings with it the baggage of decades of advertising. Marketers are only too happy to view the social web as a new array of channels to market their goods in some shape or fashion. That's because it's a model they've used since the beginning. And there's no doubt that "social media" has become effective as a communications channel — just turn on the news to see how companies like Ford, Comcast, etc. etc. are using the channels as a new form of marketing, PR, or customer service. But communication is one thing and the intentional act of designing a product or system is yet another. Think iPhone (product) and iTunes/app store (systems). These are complex objects and ecosystems, which are conceived, developed, prototyped, tested, iterated upon and evolved over time. Designers and developers from all backgrounds work together to pull off this intricate system of product and ecosystem. In fact, upon recently purchasing the latest iPhone, I noticed that Apple was asking for access to my device's usage data. They made it explicitly clear that it would remain anonymous. The purpose was for them to improve the design of the product and ecosystem in future iterations. This is not how any design process begins. It's not a purposeful or intentional act of originating and developing a plan for a product, structure, system, or component. It's a reactive fragmented approach that may achieve short-term results for marketing but usually ends up living in isolation (a social media department). And while reactive tactics can produce some tangible results (PF Chang's recently delighting a few customers via Twitter), it can become difficult replicate or scale to the size of your entire organization. It may be time to approach social business by design. This means moving beyond our current definition of "social media" as a PR tool and thinking of it as something that can evolve the way we work, communicate, interact and collaborate at a core business level. If your organization has a Twitter account with someone practicing "transparent communications" while your entire ecosystem is siloed, then your existing system may be in need of a re-design. Even MacGyver knows that duct tape and bubble gum will only go so far. Sustainable solutions only happen by design. Good design is strategic, intentional and — as companies like Apple demonstrate — profitable. David Armano is part of the founding team at Dachis Corporation, an Austin based start-up delivering social business design services. He is both an active practitioner and thinker in the worlds of digital marketing, experience design, and the social web. You can follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/armano See details at http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/07/yes_your_social_media_strategy.html May 22 Should Twitter be Confined to the Marketing DeptHere is a great overview on the Value of Twitter in Marketing. I copied this from The Financial Times May 13, 2009 Page 12Should Twitter be confined to the marketing department?Published: May 13 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 13 2009 03:00 Twitter, the microblogging service, which limits posts to 140 characters, has become a favourite of celebrities and digerati. Businesses worried about being left behind are experimenting with using the service to promote themselves. Done badly, the effect can be like watching your grandfather dance at a wedding disco. So should it be left to a company's marketing department to tweet? THE ADVICE THE MANAGEMENT GURU Don Tapscott Twitter is a godsend for marketing departments. They should embrace it. At its most basic, tweets are a useful way to send information on your product or service, or to respond to critics. Your brand can be seen to be cool by showing you have a large following. By attractingfollowers, your company can reach a wide audience. But it's not just the size of the audience that matters; those who use Twitter are likely to hold sway over others. Keep track of what companies are saying about your brands. Use search.twitter.com or desktop applications such as TweetDeck. Create a hash tag for any marketing initiative - from a conference to a big promotional campaign - and encourage customers to discuss it. Profit from lessons learnt. Employees who attract many followers become brands themselves; make the special effort to retain them. The writer is author of 'Grown Up Digital' and 12 other books, and the chair of nGenera Insight, an international business strategy think tank. Follow Don Tapscott on twitter@dtapscott THE EXECUTIVE Richard Pinder Much has been made of Ashton Kutcher reaching 1m Twitter followers more quickly than CNN. I am not surprised. People already pay good money to read details of a celebrity's life in Hello magazine. Ashton's Tweets are giving them something even better. We already have a number of access points to CNN. Another is fine, but it is not giving us content we did not have before. The same is true for marketing departments. Their job and that of their agencies is not to "manage the brand". Brands are no longer under their full control. Their job is to manage, as skilfully as possible, the conversation going on around that brand to increase the likelihood of positive endorsements. This has to include social media. So yes, marketing departments should have a Twitter strategy. The writer is chief operating officer at Publicis Worldwide THE CONSULTANT Bernhard Warner The company's marketing department should tweet only if it can live up to these 10 commandments: * We can articulate the company vision in no more than 140 characters, minus PR puffery and cliché. * We give credit to cool, innovative or thought- provoking ideas, even if coined by someone else. * We will challenge a potentially destructive position even if our position generates criticism. * We are willing to listen to and engage with others, even if "others" are employees, customers or activists. * We will not get carried away, never tweeting about a fresh "cuppa" or, worse, some banal corporate achievement. * We will dedicate time each week to reading what others have to say and may even re-tweet ("RT") the most clever. * We will never include in a press release, speech or annual report our "Twitter followers" figure, no matter how tempting. * We actually have something meaningful to say. * If we don't have something to say, we'll find the person in the organisation best suited for speaking/tweeting on behalf of the company. * If we cannot live up to these commandments we will reflect on whether corporate marketing is the right role for us. The writer is head of editorial at Radar DDB, social media agency THE ACADEMIC Olivier Toubia Twitter is a unique social network that offers several potential applications for a company's marketing strategy. Unlike other social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter is what is called a "directed" social network: person A following person B does not necessarily imply that person B is following person A. (In contrast, you cannot be friends with someone on Facebook unless they are also friends with you.) This feature makes Twitter a better tool for identifying opinion leaders within your target market. Look for users who have many followers, but are not necessarily following many users back. One you have identified these key Twitters, engage in a two-way dialogue with them. Twitter allows you to disseminate information to your target market, offering them content and shaping your brand image. But it can also be an ear to the ground: follow your (potential) customers and "listen" to their Tweets. Text-mining techniques enable you to learn a great deal from Tweets: not only what customers are talking about, but how they are talking about it (ie the specific words and phrases they are using). This information may be used to develop products, services and advertising messages that better resonate with your customers. The writer is David W. Zalaznick associate professor of business, Columbia Business School March 31 Search Engine Strategy Conference in NY March 2009The current economic conditions are putting huge demands on the marketing function:
Reduced marketing budgets. Increasingly, results must be measured and ROI is the name of the game. Consumer expectations are rapidly changing – more and more they expect to be engaged in a dialogue instead of talked to. Marketers must stay on top of these trends lest they lose their customer connection to a competitor.
But, as tough as things are, the glass can be viewed as half full; First, there are still opportunities to reach new audiences, more deeply engage existing customers, and build market share as some of your weaker competitors struggle in the economy. Second, Web 2.0 has changed the way consumers interact with the web, with each other, and with brands – mainly through the 3-screens of PC, phone and web. For instance, per a recent study by EPM Communications (2008 Research Alert Yearbook), “20% of adults say the internet is the first medium they turn to when they want help with a purchase decision” which is a 25% increase over 2004 survey results. But, where do we go next?
Here is my presentation from the Search Engine Strategy Conference in NY
December 19 Snow Day 11 inches of Snow in RedmondThursday December 18 we had 11" of snow in Redmond. This is incredible for this area. We have never had this much snow in 5 years living here-- combined. I don't know how we survived so many years in Chicago and New York. Bruno had a "Snow Day" and did not have to go to school... come to think of it he has never been to school.... Here is a picture of our home at sunrise--
   December 10 Paul Rapino Speaks to the Journal of Finance Conference Dec 3-5On December 3-5 Paul met with 50 Top Financial Services Execs in San Diego for the "Journal of Finance and Marketing Summit"
"Financial Marketing 2009: New Game, New Rules, New Strategies for Success” http://www.financialmarketer.com/node/320?destination=node%2F52
Here is the outline and presentation from his talk
•Vertical Industry Observations
•Custom Targeting with Third Party Vendor’s
–CPG using Nielsen’s off-line purchasing insights to create a custom behavioral targeting segment for CPG clients who run an online campaign on the Microsoft Advertising network.
•Engagement Mapping
–Telco Tracking all of the touch points where users see ads, giving advertisers a more complete picture of the various ways they interact with consumers prior to an action such as a click or purchase.
•Online Video
–Pharma to test creative and regulatory issues
–Get your Story out
•New Platforms Emerge and Change the game of Marketing
–Games
–Mobile
–Mobile Scanning Bars- POP, Displays, Packaging and Coupons
–Social
–Enterprise Ready Software in the Cloud
•Align to Invest in Public Interest
–US has significant room to grow again but global footprint will be necessary
–Road/Bridges
–New Technology
–Environment
–Co-habit these “Social Spaces”
•Consumers are Saving
–Encourage this
•Pursue and Embrace Financial Reform
–Global Platform- Common Currency/Oversite/Risk
–Operate like a Pharma and Market like the Post Office or Visa Versa
–Regulated Networks “wikibanks”
•When the Economy is down, Do More With Less.
You need both ROI and Innovation
Considering more holiday shoppers who use the Internet will buy online than in stores this year, clients should continue to focus their budgets on digital media so their brands are seen and messages delivered at each stage of the funnel, on the actual medium on which the purchases will be made. --eMarketer, October 2008 Media planners/buyers are under even greater pressure to be more creative and show more value. They need to find ways to execute on innovative, complex, strategic buys often with less staff and less budget.
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