relationships

7 Ways for Your Company to Break the Ice with the Blogosphere

Does your organization have a blog? Though it seems the evidence that blogging pays off is everywhere, some companies are still struggling to get a blog up and running. (Consider this 2011 HubSpot study where 69% of businesses surveyed attributed their success with lead generation directly to blogging. Business is built on consumer interest, and […]

5 Future-proof Ideas For Your Website

Predicting the future of the web is nearly impossible. Ever-changing technology provides fodder for our imagination to run wild. And it typically does. Imagination outpaces invention. And invention outpaces convention. Which is why we should focus less on technology, and more on human nature when we’re future-proofing our websites. If we bet on technology, we […]

4 Reasons Your Facebook Fan Stopped Liking You

“You like me, you really like me!” It’s hard not to get excited when someone likes our organizations page on Facebook, especially early on. It could be the beginning of a beautiful romance of brand and consumer. But then things go wrong. Brand statuses are ignored. Questions are left to wither alone in silence. The flame is […]

Why Distractions Mean Failure in Football and Marketing

Once, after a loss, former Tennessee Titans’ coach Jeff Fisher made this statement to the media about his team’s effort: “I think you have to be able to deal with distractions, put them in perspective and move on. Distractions are the primary reason for losing football games. ” He didn’t chalk up the loss to […]

Just Another SEO Manifesto

If I had only one thing to say about search engine optimization, it’d be this: don’t chase the search engines, instead chase what the search engines are chasing. Search engines are in the business of getting people what they want. In an ideal world, people ask search engines an honest question and receive an honest […]

Give Me One Reason to Share It and I’ll Spread Your Post Around

There are a lot of blips on our daily radars. We check our Twitter stream. We drop in on Google+. We comb through our RSS feeds. And for the most part, we ignore most of the content we see. Why? Because we’ve read it before. Because it sounds too familiar. Because it’s obvious. Because it’s […]

Magazine ‘App’-titude

When CNN announced plans earlier last week to acquire Zite, an upstart creator of magazine apps for Apple’s iPad, it wasn’t exactly Earth-shattering news. The East Coast was still sweeping up after Irene. In the wake of a disaster that almost was, the acquisition caused nary a ripple in the blogosphere. Understandable. The announcement didn’t […]

7 Common Reasons Email Subscribers Stop Subscribing

7 reasons email subscribers stop subscribing

The email inbox is a battleground. There’s a lot of competition in the marketplace – nearly a quarter of a trillion emails are sent per day – and keeping subscribers happy is a challenge. Every email you send is a potential invitation for someone to unsubscribe. Here are seven commons reasons subscribers choose to end […]

4 Tips for Developing a Blog Comment Policy

If you’ve spent much in social media, you’ve probably been warned not to “feed the trolls.” Trolls, as Wikipedia will tell you, are defined as “someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into […]

Lessons Learned from a Twitter Robot

A robot didn’t write this post. But if technology continues at the current pace, a future with bot-authored posts may not be too far off on the horizon. Depressing? Definitely. Crazy? Maybe not. Automation is alive and well in the world of social media and the debate rages on whether social media automation defeats the […]

Is Your Content Worth Stealing?

I hope you steal this blog post. There won’t be an alarm that goes off. The Feds won’t come to get you, and no one will probably ever know that you did. It’s not a trick, it’s not a trap, and it’s not a lure. I actually want you to. Because that means I’ve done […]

The Joe Paterno Guide to Branding

Whether you bleed blue and white or boo when you see it, it’s hard to deny that Penn State football has a strong brand. And most of the credit for that is probably due to the life work of Joe Paterno – the de facto face of Penn State football and the winningest coach in […]

5 Marketing Cliches You Shouldn’t Roll Your Eyes At (Much)

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times, but that doesn’t always mean the marketing mud you throw against the wall is sticking. The only thing we’re bombarded with more than advertising in our media saturated world is the clichés that guide the teams that create them. And both, for better or […]

5 Powerful Stats That Make Content Marketing Worth Drooling Over

Unless you’ve spent the past decade or so in a pillory, you’ve probably heard that content is king. The adage is most certainly played out, but the fact is that content still reigns supreme when it comes to organizations building relationships with people. And research conducted by the Custom Content Council with Roper Affairs only […]

You’re a Human, Act Like It. Unless You’re OK with Being a Digital Marketing Failure

human digital marketing superior to robot digital marketing

Audiences are made of people, they aren’t made of logos. And when building an audience, you must connect with other people as a person, not as a logo. There are very few that can succeed while ignoring this basic mantra. According to the law of averages, you are not one of them.

5 Things a Troll Taught Me About Content Marketing

When I wrote my first blog post, I was proud and excited. I posted it and anxiously awaited the comments that might follow. (What would the Internet have to say?) Then, I got a notification for that long awaited response from a thoughtful reader. It was not quite what I had anticipated. Instead of oohs […]

What Has Your Blog Done For Me Lately?

You probably fell in love with a blog once. You subscribed to the RSS feed, liked it on Facebook, and followed it on Twitter so you never missed an update or witty remark from your editorial superhero. Maybe you met through a friend or maybe you stumbled upon it (literally or figuratively). Regardless, you fell […]

Fighting Words: Marketing Lessons From the UFC

Your organization can learn a lot from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Yes, I’m serious. No, I don’t mean you can learn flying knees or triangle chokes, although those might come in handy when meetings get heated.

Why It’s OK For You to Hate This Blog Post

We spend a lot of time wooing people to like us. “Follow us on Twitter!” “Like us on Facebook!” “Get our email updates!” “Share us with your friends!” “Please hang out with us Friday night!” (OK, so that’s from my personal life, but you get the drift.) And it makes sense that we do, kind […]

The Boy Scout Handbook of Social Media

The lessons the Boy Scouts taught me about being a good citizen are the same lessons that can be directly applied to your organization’s social media strategy.

That Website Ain’t Gonna Visit Itself

If you build it, they will, well, probably go somewhere else. Your target audience probably doesn’t share the same level of enthusiasm that you have toward your new website/redesign/mobile app/digital venture. More than likely, they won’t even notice. They’ll go about visiting their normal destinations online; checking Facebook, maybe Twitter, and dipping into their pool of […]

Are You a Real Expert or Do You Just Play One on the Internet?

There’s a lot of advice being given out these days. People are publishing pointers, tips, and suggestions on every topic under the sun. But how valid are the viewpoints expressed therein? Is the everyman author as credible as we seem to be giving him credit for? Data suggests that what our “friends” are saying online […]

7 Things Good Marketers Have in Common

It takes more than a snarky attitude and knowledge of hashtags to be successful in social media. Being likable, retweetable, and ultimately generating leads and developing new partnerships is more art than it is science. But which personality traits separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to social media marketers? The same traits […]

← Previous Entries