And journalism is the new marketing. For better or worse, we are moving rapidly into a state of brand-produced journalism. It’s happening on two fronts: Sponsored Content and Brand Publishing Sponsored Content There’s no doubt traditional media companies are dropping like flies. Circulations and subscriptions have flat-lined – print advertising revenue is moving to digital […]
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The Eyes of Lots & Lots of Strangers
March 25, 2013 
3 Comments
They are watching you. And if you install Ghosterly on your browser, “they” will finally have names. Names like KissMetrics, Quantcast, Google Analytics, ChartBeat and MediaMind. These are just some of the many companies pilfering your data online. They are watching and recording your every click and then selling it to corporations, governments and private […]
Read moreWhy a “Like” Doesn’t Matter Except When It Does
February 27, 2013 0 Comments
Too many brands troll for likes. And that’s because the people who manage the Facebook pages – be they internal or external – are often measured by the number of “likes” the content generates. And that’s why brands often post compelling content like this (actual posts – names withheld to protect the guilty): Remember having […]
Read moreCommunity Management Isn’t Content Creation
February 11, 2013 21 Comments
Here’s the job of a community manager: Managing social media assets Monitoring conversations/posts/tweets Engaging with the community Providing a voice/face/contact for the community Providing expertise and counsel about utilizing social/digital channels Here’s what the job of a community manager shouldn’t be: Primary content creator Yet many brands have their community managers providing most – if […]
Read moreWhy Brands Should Resist Participating in National Tragedies
December 18, 2012 8 Comments
Every weekday a popular retailer sends out an 11 a.m. daily deal email to subscribers. Yesterday there was no daily deal. Just a branded message to its subscribers, which said: “For the lives lost at Sandy Hook. We grieve. We remember. We honor.” Then the brand listed all of the first names of the children killed […]
Read moreIs Facebook Dead as a Marketing Channel?
November 26, 2012 3 Comments
Of course not. Let’s not get crazy here. But believe it or not there seems to be a mounting number of alarmist obituaries about Facebook’s effectiveness as a marketing platform. If there were any truth to this speculation then we might as well ring the death knell for the Internet as a marketing platform was […]
Read moreHere Comes Brandtainment
September 25, 2012 1 Comment
One of the reasons why social media exploded was the concept of brands having direct communications with their customers. Especially around news. In the old days, brands wrote press releases, posted them on distribution wires, and then pitched the media in hopes they would write news articles. Social media flipped that model on its head. […]
Read morePawngo Stunt is an Example of “Vile” Marketing
February 7, 2012 8 Comments
Today most of New England is still bruised from the Patriots loss in the Super Bowl on Sunday. For the last 48-hours the city that has been spoiled by championships in football, baseball, basketball and hockey in the last decade was numb at the sudden and heart-breaking loss by the Patriots. You can feel it […]
Read moreThe Joy of Social Media
November 30, 2011 0 Comments
It’s easy to get caught up in the minutia of the industry. Communications and marketing pundits have a tendency to dive into the trivial aspects of social media – how we should define influence, how a new feature on Facebook works, a rant about a brand making a social media snafu, etc. No doubt some […]
Read moreEarly Adopter Disease
June 20, 2011 1 Comment
I’ve been accused of being an early adopter of technology and social media platforms. But I’m really not. Here are the stages of technology adoption and the percentage of the population in each stage, according to Everett Rogers Technology Adoption Lifecycle mode: Innovators – 2.5 percent Early Adopters – 13.5 percent Early Majority – 34 […]
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