book

The Importance of Brand in an Era of Digital Darwinism

Part of an unpublished appendix for The End of Business as Usual…

Think of your favorite brand, and the first thing to come to mind is likely a logo, such as the Coca-Cola scripting, a tag-line, such as Nike’s “Just do it,” or a jingle – remember the Oscar Meyer Wiener song? These may be the aspects of a brand you remember, but they are no longer the most important aspects of branding today. Identity, persona, essence and promise, are the new kings and queens of the branding kingdom, thanks to technology and the deeper connections it opens up between brands and consumers.

Markets, consumer behavior and how businesses connect with customers are all directly impacted by technology. Looking at the rapid erosion of Blockbuster’s business model, it’s clear to see the impact that technology can have on consumer behavior. During Blockbuster’s initial bankruptcy filing, CNBC’s The Faber Report summarized it this way, “At the end of the day, this is one of those bankruptcies that’s not really about a financial situation as much as it’s about seminal changes in how people ultimately watch video.”

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Digital Darwinism: Who’s Next?

This is the first part in a short series to introduce The End of Business as Usual…

Change is inevitable, but it is rarely easy. Among the greatest difficulties associated with change is the ability to even recognize its need at a time when we can actually do something about it. Sometimes, when we finally realize that change is inevitable, the vision  or energy needed to push forward in a new direction is elusive. Or worse, when competitors recognize the need for change before us, we are by default pushed into a precarious position where our next steps become impulsive rather than strategic.

If you follow technology as avidly as I do, we can agree that the volume of emerging technology is both awe-inspiring and overwhelming. As new technology makes its way into into everyday life and workflow, certain devices, applications, and networks disrupt the norm and begin to impact behavior. It is this disruptive technology that over time, influences how people work, communicate, share, or make decisions. The question is at what point does emerging technology or new behavior become disruptive? And more importantly, what systems, processes, and protocol are in place that recognize disruption, assess opportunity, and facilitate the testing of new ideas? The time to answer these questions is now.

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Social Media ROI: ROI Doesn’t Stand for Return on Ignorance

My good friend Olivier Blanchard recently released his new book, Social Media ROI, Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization. As he was nearing its completion, he asked if I would write the foreword and to be honest, I was flattered. I agreed to do so under one condition, that I get the opportunity to share the foreword with you here. Long story short, here we are. The book is extremely helpful and carries the endorsements of those I also respect including Chris Brogan, Jay Baer, Geoff Livingston, and Kyle Lacy.

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Everything you Need to Know about Twitter

If only Mark W. Schaefer and his excellent book, The Tao of Twitter, had been around when I first took up with Twitter a year and a half ago! I’d have saved a whole lot of time, frustration and energy and done a far better job on Twitter right from the get go!

A short and sweet, handy-dandy, how-to guide that’s chock full of friendly, easy to understand tips and advice, The Tao of Twitter is an absolute MUST read for anyone and everyone getting ready to dive into the social network’s rapidly flowing stream of news, information and salutations.

An internationally respected marketer, university prof and behavioral scientist, Mark Schaefer’s book humbly and humorously recounts his deep dive into the Twitter fire hose and how he lived to thrive and tell his story.

The Tao of Twitter focuses on business benefits derived from providing the Twitterverse with three key elements — targeted connections, meaningful content and authentic helpfulness. The book carefully explains how to meet and befriend like-minded tweeps; build and maintain a Twitter community through providing useful, authentic, meaningful news and information based on P2P – person to person connections; and the importance of human interaction that leads to valuable relationships, awareness and spread.

A joy to read and loaded with simple, actionable lessons on how to start, build and maintain a Twitter community, The Tao of Twitter should be required reading for PR and Social Media college students as well as shared with every CMO and Marketing VP you know! HIGHLY recommended!

Deborah Weinstein

@DebWeinstein

President, Strategic Objectives

The End of Networking as We Know It!

I loathe business networking.

The Chamber of Commerce meetings. Networking “speed dating.”  Trade shows.  Business Networking International.

But when I started my own business, this seemed to be the only alternative.  My last “corporate job” was global in nature. For years I had been leading teams in China, Russia, Brazil, Australia — almost every corner of the world — and really had no significant business connections — no business leads — in my own region of the country!  So I had to get out and press the flesh.

I dutifully began the circuit of lunch and breakfast meetings, hoping beyond hope that a connection would lead to a connection and conversations would turn into customers.  It was an endless loop of meeting the same insurance salespeople, bug exterminators and realtors over and over again.

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The Rise of Collaborative Consumption

A few weeks ago, I got a copy of Rachel Botsman’s new book, What’s Mine is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption.

The general theme of the book is that we’re shifting away from a society of hyper-consumption and equating personal self-worth with amount of material good accumulated, and instead to a world where our ability to access and exchange resources, develop a reputation, and build community and social capital takes precedence in how we choose to express who we are and what we choose to define us.

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Reaching out to The Social CMO community

As you may have noticed from some recent tweets, The Social CMO Crew are writing a book, entitled surprisingly enough The Social CMO!

But before we embark on this illustrious effort we want to get your opinion and input. More than four hundred thousand of you now follow the various member accounts of The Social CMO Crew and I know most of you have opinions!

The structure for the first part of the book is based upon the LEADS concept which is outlined in the companion post Mastering social media is all about who LEADS!

With this in mind, we have posted the contents for the first The Social CMO book below for you to review and comment on. So please do read them through and add your comments and suggestions below.

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