Has your company ever put out a job opening for a social-media manager and then received countless resumes for people with experience as community managers – or vice versa? You’re not alone. Many people – and even many businesses – mistakenly think that the two are merely different phrases that mean the same thing.
Read MoreFacebook is not just for relating with friends and family – companies that operate in the B2C services sector including hotels and restaurants need to invest in the social network as part of a long-term strategy to have a feedback platform that relates with customers as well. But too many businesses are not using Facebook for customer service effectively – if at all.
Entrepreneur writer Mikal E. Belicove recently reported on a study by STELLAService that discovered that only seven out of twenty companies in its analysis answered customer-service questions on Facebook within forty-eight hours. As Brian Person rightly observes at SocialFresh:
Read MoreCathryn Sloan was correct – but not in the way that she thought.
The 2012 University of Iowa graduate recently caused an online firestorm when she published “Why Every Social Media Manager Should Be Under 25” on the NextGen Journal website. In a nutshell, her reason:
Read More…we spent our adolescence growing up with social media. We were around long enough to see how life worked without it but had it thrown upon us at an age where the ways to make the best/correct use of it came most naturally to us. No one else will ever be able to have as clear an understanding of these services, no matter how much they may think they do.
Note: This is the second part in an ongoing series. Part one and three.
In the first part in this series, I introduced how I have been using holistic, integrated marketing to build and market a personal, hobby website of mine at night entitled Buffy the Vampire Slayer Online that aims to sell advertising and merchandise. (Yes, it is a website of the 1990s cult-television show because I have been a fan ever since I first saw it in college.)
Read MoreNote: This is the first part in an ongoing series. Part two and three.
If you are using a social-media marketing strategy without a corresponding content-marketing one, you are most likely wasting your time. As different parts of the Internet increasingly affect and influence each other in marketing terms, it is also increasingly important to use an integrated strategy that incorporates these numerous factors.
Read MoreOne of the most important goals of marketing is to make a sale.
It’s not to make pretty pictures, it’s not to exhibit at a trade show, and it’s not to get on the front page of the New York Times or Mashable. It has nothing to do with SEO or social media either. Nor is it to generate leads.
It’s to make sales.
In order to do that, there are certain things that are needed:
We’ve got marketing management all wrong.
We’re defining the tactic – email, social media, trade shows, conferences, PR – without clear goals.
As The Cline Group’s Josh Cline wrote, we’re putting the cart before the horse – running forward before we have the goals or a plan.
Read MoreThe following is sixth in a series of posts about high tech marketing strategy based on Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm
In order to win the battle for customers and revenue, you must define the battle.
One essential component to building a market is positioning.
Positioning is the image or identity in the minds of their target market for its product, brand, or organization.
Despite common misconception (and Wikipedia’s own entry), positioning is not a process but rather the market position itself.
Read MoreA prospective client recently contacted me after reading an article I wrote, “Debunking Myths of Cleantech PR.” We had a great conversation and he told me about his cleantech company – more than three years old, some partnerships in place, some impressive news coverage from about 6 months ago. All in all they seem like a perfect candidate for my agency to take on.
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By Josh Cline
I have met with over 200 companies, private investors, and angels since January 2011, both in the United States and Israel. Many companies have some market penetration, great ideas, and/or a product that can be sold or used today. But one thing that is almost unanimous is that they all need some type of funding. Whenever I meet with these types of firms, there are 10 questions that I always ask (which may seem silly). Here they are in no particular order:
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