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image credit: icathing
Although I’m hesitant to proclaim that any traditional form of marketing or customer service is completely dead, the shifting social landscape has hallenged us to rethink even our most basic and deeply ingrained practices – like face to face customer service. Neal Rohrbach gives us a taste of what might be the future of customer service:
Despite the obvious connection between a certain feminine hygienic product and “iPad,” I think the name is brilliant. In fact, I think that Apple may have done it on purpose.
Sure, everyone from CNN to Twitter (iTampon was a trending topic for nearly 8 hours), has been poking fun of Apple. Many, including Shereen Meraji of All Tech Considered, are wondering: “maybe there weren’t any women in the room when that got decided.”
Image Credit: Jim Linwood
Twitter’s recent flatline has some Twitter-crazed marketers scrambling. After all, you spent all that time drafting and creating a Twitter strategy, and now we’re already looking for “next year’s Twitter” (which, incidentally, Pete Cashmore says is Foursquare).
This news neither alarms nor frightens me. We all knew this day was coming. Science tells us that exponential growth is unsustainable in cases of population and resource use, so should Twitter really be an exception?
I know it’s unthinkable, but some day we’ll most likely be having the same conversation about a Facebook flat-line.
image credit: Raymond Yee
Is marketing evil?
When Seth Godin pondered the question earlier this year, he came to this conclusion:
Just because you can market something doesn’t mean you should. You’ve got the power, so you’re responsible, regardless of what your boss tells you to do.
Last night in a Twitter exchange with Jessica Gottlieb (@JessicaGottlieb) about how people market and sell, I suggested that the question isn’t anything new. In fact, I think it dates back a few millennia…
[Disclaimer: this post is purposefully philosophy light.
Email theword[at]wordpost[dot]org if you’re craving discourse on metaphysics]
image credit: Bruce Berrien
Marketing has always been and always will be about telling stories. Godin’s All Marketers are Liars Tell Stories:
If you think that (more expensive) wine is better, then it is. If you think your new boss is going to be more effective, then she will be. If you love the way a car handles, then you’re going to enjoy driving it.
This is basic stuff we all (should) know.
The epic year of 2009, it’s dumpy economy and all of it’s social media glory hasn’t changed that.
Today I guest posted over at Jason Markow’s Think (Here) Blog. First thanks to Jason for the opportunity to post on his great up-and-coming blog project, and second a taste of what you’ll get:
As an entrepreneur (or, at the very least, someone involved in marketing), you know there are thousands of things to think about when executing a marketing plan.
You have to make sure that your copy reflects your USP, that your stories resonate with your target audience…(see these 38 marketing mistakes to avoid)
While all of those things can certainly make or break a campaign, if you want to boost the response from your marketing efforts, maybe it’s time to go back and think critically about your approach to marketing strategy…
Head on over to the post to see the three marketing mistakes to avoid.
a campaign by @shanemacsays
Running a business, executing a successful marketing campaign, analyzing your sales data, all of this can be very complicated. But the experience your customers have shouldn’t be.
Today I gave $5 to charity: water, partly because I believe in the cause (giving people access to clean drinking water), but mostly because Shane Mac asked me to. Shane explained to me that if he raises $5,000 (enough to build one well), charity: water founder Scott Harrison will play him in a ping-pong match in NYC.
This afternoon, Abby Wambaugh posted an email from me on The Picaresque without my permission (She’s lucky I’m not ragingly pissed, but since she’s one of the smartest people I’ve met on Twitter, I’ll let it slide. In fact, I’m really honored).
The best part of the post though, wasn’t what I wrote, but her response:
“Ultimately, I think marketing is simply an avenue to sell a product or service. Let the customer know about it, let them know why they should buy it and facilitate a positive experience in the process. If that doesn’t happen, then you have failed.” Say what you want about SM and the works, it’s usually about ROI. If your business isn’t making money, then it won’t make it. And if marketing isn’t contributing to the bottom line, then the department won’t last, no matter how pretty the pictures, words, relationships are. Call me old fashioned. And don’t throw your awareness BS at me, that too is eventually about the bottom line.
Image Credit: Thanachart R.
When we talk about the practice of community management, we often speak only of the external relationship between an organization and its customers. I contend that organizations must weave together the practice of active online customer engagement with the management of in-house culture.
Considering that 60% of employees are considering jumping ship for new opportunities as soon as the recession ends, I’d say we have some work to do in company culture development.
What’s scary is that your company’s culture is important not just internally, but externally as well. As Bradford Shimp remarks:
A couple iPhone snaps from Methodist Hospital in Omaha
We talk a lot about using relevant stories to earn trust in as we move into a new “human business” ethic. If companies are going to build trust by acting like humans online, I think they should act like humans in their ads and in their traditional marketing stories too.
In honor of the Great American Smokeout on November 19, Methodist Hospital in Omaha put up a number of “I Quit” posters to inspire smokers to quit, if only for just one day.
a blog by Andrew Swenson
wordpost.org by Andrew Swenson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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