Gap teaches us “community” is a reality that needs dealing with
If you follow business news you’ll have witnessed some interesting issues management by Gap of late. Whether you think what happened is right or wrong, there is I think a greater lesson for everyone in business today. That’s the fact that today a (relatively small) group of customers can make a big noise and derail
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Talking insights at BlackBerry Research in Motion conference
I’ve been invited to take the main stage at BlackBerry’s EMEA Alliance Summit in Berlin next month. I’ll be talking about business development, in particular how web-derived insights can help accelerate business results. Mobile app development and service delivery are competitive markets, and the value of mobility is extolled by some and questioned by others
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Off to Brussels and a brush with EU politics
Shortly I will be heading to Brussels to speak to some industry associations about social media monitoring. In some way the move into the lobbying arena will be a new one for yourBusinessChannel, but in others it’s very much business as usual. After all, what are industry associations but brands that need to understand what
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Connie Bensen, yBC’s reporter at Blogworld
This month the big news in social media marketing is Blogworld, the world’s largest social media conference, and it’s happening in Las Vegas over the next few days. For the many people who can’t make the event, the good news is that yourBusinessChannel has got its very own insider and she’ll be keeping us posted with all
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B2Bs find social media great for brand building, relationships
Building brand reputation and awareness are the most effective uses of social media for B2Bs, according to a new data just released byMarketing Sherpa and available free on their site during October 2010. The research found 92% respondents thought social media was very effective or somewhat effective at influencing B2B brand reputation, and 91% consider
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The changing face of B2B marketing
I recently read a blog post that eloquently joined the dots on why social media matters for B2B marketers. What’s interesting about this post, as opposed to many that document how customers are flocking to social media, is that this traces how the marketing goalposts have shifted over the past ten years in response to
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yBC’s social media is still about selling
Hopefully I’m not the only one who’s at a loss about how to have an engaging, authentic, non-selling, non-interrupting conversation with someone that ultimately leads to a sale and therefore justifies the expenditure? That’s what comes from spending an hour reading too many social media blogs. It’s Catch 22 – must engage but can’t talk
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Don’t forget technology
Content is critical, don’t get me wrong. But in order to get that compelling content to the right person, in the right format, in the right place at the right time, you also need technology. If you were head of marketing at huge corporation you’d be heading direct to Google or Apple or Microsoft to
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All social media is not created equal
If you follow the debate around social media, you’ll know there are a lot of gurus who argue passionately that “social” is the way to go. What intrigues me is the broad array of examples they use to make the case for “doing social media” – they are so diverse it’s comparable to advocating “doing
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Horses for courses
Recently we interviewed web marketing expert Jeff Molander. He has some strong views about “wasted” social media investment and over the course of the interview I realised why. Because he comes from a DM marketing background he expects actions to product measurable results. No wonder he thinks the advertising people who seek to engage via
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