Insight archive
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5 tips for working with visual designers
For many people, the most fun part of creating a website or publication is the visual design aspect. I know it is for me. It’s what I call “fun” creativity (as opposed to “not so fun” creativity, such as trying to transform a product data sheet into an interesting and engaging article for readers).
And yet because visual design… Continue reading
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B2B social media: Is it marketing or what?
B2B social media seems to be on everyone’s minds these days. EMarketer.com reports that B2B marketing activity on social networks is estimated to increase 43.3 percent in 2010, while spending is estimated to increase by $54 million in 2014 (up from $11 million in 2009)[1].
Despite these robust estimates, B2B marketers have lagged behind B2C marketers… Continue reading
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How do corporate websites coexist with social media strategies?
Following on from his controversial post of 2007 suggesting that corporate websites were irrelevant, social media guru Jeremiah Owyang told attendees at the recent GilbaneSF content management conference that corporate websites as we know them may not survive into the future.
As organizations begin to seed and continue customer interactions on external social networks… Continue reading
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Content strategy Q&A
Content strategy has come of age. While consumers continue to embrace social media and emerging Web channels and turn away from traditional media, large corporations are being pushed into a more direct relationship with their customers. Along with LinkedIn and Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, corporate websites are becoming the main channel for this new relationship
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Avoid PowerPoint abuse
Do you have PowerPoint skills? Can you size images and auto-create charts and graphs from Excel spreadsheets? If so, you might say that you indeed possess PowerPoint skills. It may even be listed on your resume as a job qualification. But if your definition of PowerPoint skills doesn’t extend beyond use of the software program… Continue reading
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Traits of an engaging blogger
Your organization has a blog. You’ve even got some employees who are eager to put pen to digital paper and produce content. But there’s a difference between blah content and the “I’m-subscribing-to-this-blogger-because-he’s-got-interesting-views” content. The writer of the latter often attracts regular readers, engages readers in conversation (not only on his or her own blog, but… Continue reading
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Minting customers with infographics
Imagine trying to explain the concept of deflation, the oil economy or how the Federal Reserve works so it’s easy to comprehend for the financially illiterate. Oh, and it must be interesting and you can’t use more than a Web page worth of space. That’s the type of challenge the folks at MintLife face day… Continue reading
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Less is more with YouTube redesign
I have to admit, I never got the fascination of YouTube. What I didn’t understand was how my friends, and the masses in general, discovered these video gems. Really, my trouble with YouTube was that the site was hard to use. For me, it was like walking into a thrift store. I knew there were… Continue reading
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3 keys to conversational marketing
Gone are the days when marketers could produce slick creative campaigns, then sit back and control a brand message through one-way mediums such as TV, radio, and print. The advent of new communication platforms and applications has created the opportunity for conversation between consumers and the brands and products they purchase.
This conversation is… Continue reading
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What’s the Buzz? Stop telling me what’s a-happening!
The birth of Google Buzz into the grand cacophony of social updates that is the modern-day Web is nothing special—not unless you want it to be. And you should want it to be. There’s a special place in Internet Hell reserved for those who connect their social networks together in one almighty amalgam of real-time updates… Continue reading
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Buy, try, choose: Are these calls to action still relevant?
Call it content marketing, conversational marketing, or permission marketing—the premise is the same. If the goal of traditional interruption marketing was for marketers to act like shepherd dogs herding prospects like cattle through a sales funnel for cowboy salesmen to lasso and corral, then under the new rubric we are now farmers tending to our… Continue reading
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3 things you should know about your audience
You’re regularly (read: frequently) monitoring blogs, social networks, and websites for coverage of your industry and mentions of your company’s brand. And you’ve even created a database of influencers for your industry based on this regular trolling. But how well do you know your audience? Probably not well enough.
When I’m not creating content… Continue reading
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Bigger isn’t always better
Several weeks ago I needed to buy a replacement electrical relay to address a problem with the power steering on my track car. While there was a 90% probability that the relay was the source of the problems, I was reluctant to spend a couple hundred dollars for a factory relay if this wasn’t the culprit.
A fellow MR2 enthusiast sent a link to an equivalent part that I could order online for $5 from a company called Digi-Key Corporation. A few days later, the nondescript electrical connector arrived in a padded manila envelope, and while it worked, it proved that the relay hadn’t been the culprit after all. And then things got weird… Continue reading
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