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Making Cents of It All – Part IX: Future Trending
Posted in: Blog, Social Media by Christian on April 3, 2009 | No Comments
Companies who depend too much on branding and not enough on content will go by the wayside. Remember when radio, movies, and television were the new technology? Yeah me either. It was before my time, but just try to imagine how that was the new technology. Movies like Star Wars, War Games, Hackers, The Matrix, and TV Shows like Star Trek have always reflected society’s need and want for innovation. Nothing is outside the realm of possibilities and often they are a metaphor for real life. Well known author and futurist, Alvin Toffler, predicted that this was the direction we would go. The Amazon Kindle, Adobe Acrobat, etc. = Paperless Office. I would say we are in the fourth wave and entering the fifth. Read more…
Making Cents of It All – Part III: Currently Speaking
Posted in: Blog, Social Media by Christian on March 30, 2009 | No Comments
Companies should realize that investing in social media actually is low overhead because the setup, for the most part is already taken care of, it is just a matter of managing the content in its various forms whether it is marketing, public relations (PR), etc. Social media is no longer about the why, but the how does one or a group of individuals leverage social media to be an advantage over the competition. Your target market and competition is using social media, why aren’t you? It is about attracting the consumer on a personal level and bringing them back in house to be a brand loyal customer. Every new client I take on, that is interested in social media business strategy and marketing, gets some homework. They get two quick pieces of literature to read in order to better understand why it is important to their business. The first is known as the Edelman Report: The Social Media Pulpit – Barack Obama’s Social Media Toolkit.(#) Probably the most well known case study and best example of the power of social media is that of the 2008 Presidential Campaign between Republican candidate, John McCain and Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. The second is by popular marketing strategy author Seth Godin (#) and his book appropriately titled, Tribes.(#) Seth’s book is a quick read and doesn’t go into detail about the “how-to’s”, but points out the fundamentals of marketing as it applies to social media. Read more…
Making Cents of It All – Part II: History Lessons Learned
Posted in: Blog, Social Media by Christian on March 25, 2009 | No Comments
We live in a world where content is king and those who have the best combination of rich media content, (website content, social media content, video, networking skills, etc.) will be the top influencers and leaders of this new shift in paradigms. It is most noticeable in the marketing and advertising industries as it applies to the traditional media outlets (newspaper, TV, and radio). These traditional gatekeepers no longer have control over the content. The thing is it didn’t happen overnight and I would trace it back to the deregulation of communications and telecommunications industries (#), or as I put it, big companies getting bigger. The problem with this is you kill off competition and when you do this you kill off original thought and innovation to some degree. Then when you are so top heavy and have no room for growth you start to cannibalize your company and even more importantly your industry. The product or service tends to lose value because the R&D budget stays the same and the marketing budget is increased. Companies like Viacom, AOL Time Warner, Clear Channel, AT&T, Bell, etc. who have created mega conglomerates were so focused on getting to the top of Everest that their product and customer service started to suffer. In turn their customers tuned them out and looked elsewhere to new entrants in the industry. In the case of communications, new channels/mediums and business models like social media. Read more…