Social media: what’s in it for retail?

My colleague and yBC founder Mark Sinclair recently spent a very interesting couple of hours speaking to a breakfast meeting of high-end retailers about social media opportunities. They came to the topic with little information but plenty of curiosity. His job was to answer that all-important question, what’s in it for me? The answer, we
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Bestselling author supports Power’s ORS philosophy

Sometimes it takes a random, unconnected experience to shed light on something you thought you already knew. Recently I read an interview with science writer Steven Johnson, author of the book Where Good Ideas Come From, and was struck by how his conclusions were in harmony with Thomas Power’s philosophy that we need to be
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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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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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Engagement through participation

Looking through the footage we shot at Alterian’s Engaging Times summit in Chicago, one thing is clear. Leading companies have rethought engagement and they’re a long way ahead of the pack. Instead of thinking about “engagement” in terms of “exposure to the marketing message”, either on a webpage, not unsubscribing to an email or being
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Are we engaged?

If you’ve been following social media you’ll know that interruption is out. Engagement is in. The next question, obviously, is what is engagement? And that’s where the fun begins. At yBC we’re currently researching a new series looking at “engagement” as a marketing strategy. What is it? Are there different ways of achieving it? How
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Why social media marketing is the smart option

The internet is a game changer for many businesses, including yours. You know it, but do you believe it? Here are some stats to convince you digital media is a force you need to reckon with. Social media is now officially more popular than porn on the internet. Universal McCann study finds 33% of social
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Signs social media is serious business

If you’ve been thinking social media is “optional”, all that may be about to change. If you follow the marketing and PR industry, you’ll see big players like Edelman are repositioning themselves. Digital is now a core part of the communications mix. All companies need to become publishing companies because telling their story through traditional
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What does engagement mean to you?

Not long ago, I was in London with 400 marketing professionals filming our client Alterian’s Engaging Times Summit. It’s all about how marketing is changing and Alterian had some leading speakers – including DM pioneer Stan Rapp and Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic. The interesting thing has been how different marketers interpret “engagement”. At
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