Why The Analysts Are Wrong About Twitter’s Ad Platform

Media Buyers Are Dinosaurs: Picture of a FossilWhat happens when you survey 50 media buyers? You learn that media buyers have put a bit of social lipstick on their buys but they still don’t understand the potential of social media, the importance of content, and so much more.

About two weeks ago, two equity research analysts at Cowen & Co surveyed 50 ad buyers. 60% said Facebook delivers the best ROI, 25% picked LinkedIn and just 5% chose Twitter.

The analyst’s conclusion? Sell Twitter. They expect Twitter’s stock price to fall to $32 (it closed at $62.53 on 1/21).

My conclusion? The majority of media buyers are doomed. And Twitter will be just fine. [Read more…]

Invisible Brand Marketing Is Not Just a Facebook Problem!

Invisible Brand MarketingStop grumbling about Facebook’s latest blow to marketers.

You’ve increased your likes 100-fold in the last two years, and many of your competitors have too. Others have finally jumped on the social media bandwagon, adding their own voice to the marketing cacophony of Facebook.

Of course your posts aren’t reaching as many people on Facebook! [Read more…]

6 Cringeworthy Marketing Technology Failures

Marketing Technology FailToday’s marketing simply wouldn’t exist without marketing technology. From marketing automation to demand side platforms to content management systems, technology puts the right message in front of the right person at the right time.

Or at least that’s how it is supposed to happen.

You no longer create your marketing communications. You just create the rules. The system does the rest. [Read more…]

3 Ways To Use the Value of a Like or Follow

Dan Zarella and Hubspot gave the “what is your social media audience worth” pot a good stir last week.

It doesn’t matter if you like Hubspot’s formula or not (at least not for this article). One day many businesses will put a value on their social media audience, if it is in the form of monthly impact to their business or the average value of an audience member.

Then what? How do you use the value of a like, follower, circler, or similar to improve the value of your marketing and your business? [Read more…]

Will Jet Engines Ever Be Social?

What would a jet engine say if it was on a social network?

The CMO of GE talked about this in a video earlier this year at Dreamforce. Wow, what a question. To think, soon your refrigerator, car and, yes, jet engines may be part of your social network.

But as devices join you on Facebook, Twitter or other social platforms, are they really becoming social? [Read more…]

10 Ways to Kickstart Your Inbound Marketing Program

You are creating great content and your website delivers a great experience with a strong conversion rate. Your initial inbound marketing results are promising, but you need more.

Inbound marketing represents a major investment for B2B marketers. Not only do you still need to create content to capture leads, nurture prospects and support sales, you need to create sharable and discoverable content also and then patiently wait before you see the return on this new investment.

Traditional B2B marketers face a challenge. You have a proven marketing formula that includes investments in acquiring new contacts (or lead generation) and in nurturing those contacts. You want to change, but investing in inbound ahead of significant results throws a wrench in your budgeting and planning. [Read more…]

Klout’s Best Move: Making You Not Care About Your Score

KloutWere you upset by Klout’s recent algorithm change? Do you pay less attention to Klout than you did before the algorithm changes? If so, you may be doing exactly what Klout wants you to do.

If you care about grades in school, you study for your exam. The algorithm is clear (test results, possibly quizzes, attendance or participation) and you work to influence the result. [Read more…]

All Media Will Be Social Media

This is a forward looking opinion post on the potential future of digital marketing.

The future of digital media is social. With the far-reaching tentacles of Google and Facebook, no digital marketer will be able to approach marketing without engaging in some form of social media.

Today, companies can choose to ignore social media. Although they cannot stop the conversation, they can ignore the conversation that is happening elsewhere.

In the future, social media will be harder to ignore. Social media will not be integrated into marketing, it will be integrated into our experience as individuals. As social media is integrated into the applications we use, marketers will no longer be able to ignore it or choose not to integrate it. Marketers will lose even more control than they already have.

Here are three predictions for what this future may include. [Read more…]

Buyers to Marketers: Don’t Call Me, I’ll Call You

“Why do you want my email and phone number again? So your sales consultant can contact me? No thanks, I’ll pass.”

Boonville Missing Bucky Walter PhoneMost B2B marketers are still fixated on capturing registration data, and no wonder. The marketing automation machine lives on a diet of email and your sales process is built on the telephone.

The problem is, your buyer’s process is not built on your email or your phone. According to research, buyers only engage with companies directly during the last 40% of their research process.

When you insist on registration, you are in effect telling prospects:

  • We don’t want to be involved in the first half of your research.
  • We are only willing to engage with you on our terms and timetable.

[Read more…]

Can We Save Twitter From Ourselves?

Canyon ItaimbézinhoTwitter is not a communication channel, it is a platform that allows each of us to create and evolve our own custom communication channel.

If Twitter is not working for communication, it is not a problem with Twitter. As a platform, Twitter is developing and our behavior reflects its infancy, with the full spectrum of human behavior on display.

The societal norms for Twitter have yet to be established. The fact there are so many posts on Twitter etiquette is proof. A Google blog search for “Twitter Etiquette” returns 32,000 results, to just 11,000 for “Dinner Etiquette”.

If Twitter is no longer an effective channel, like Kary Delaria postulated in Three Reasons Twitter is Beginning to Suck, the problem stems from how people are building and evolving their own communication channels on Twitter. [Read more…]