marketing – Page 8 – THE SOCIAL CMO Blog

Most C-level Executives, CMO included, view “Social” as media—but they don’t know how to interact with consumers there in a meaningful way. They want to buy CPMs or Likes—but don’t know what to do with them afterward.

July 18, 2013December 20, 2014 by Ted Rubin

CMO’s also make the mistake of assuming that the social audience has the same pain and passion points as their face-to-face or store audience. Most often that is not the case.

In order to get the real value out of Social, you must connect emotionally to the people who are there and find out what they’re looking for. CMOs are used to ads and campaigns, so that’s the place they gravitate, but even Facebook ads are only media buys. Ads are good for building initial likes, but they really are targeted to demographics just like any other ad.

Read more

The Power of Community in Social Media ~via @GenFabulous

July 16, 2013December 20, 2014 by Ted Rubin

by Chloe Jeffreys on July 11, 2013 in Coffee with Chloe, GenFabTV, Social Media – VIDEO interview below

Last year at BlogHer I had the chance to meet Ted Rubin, co-author of Return on Relationship, in person, but didn’t take it.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTm5jhlYhTs&feature=player_embedded

MLB And Free Credit Score Team Up For This Year’s All-Star Game

July 15, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

I don’t know about you but I happen to love the MLB All-Star Game. I can remember as a kid watching and listening to the likes of Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek call the game.

Nowadays I am as much interested for what happens on the field as I am off. Much like the Super Bowl I watch to see what the marketing and advertising folks have in store for the viewing public. Always fascinating to me to see which brands will try and take advantage of what is normally a very captive audience.

But there’s also a very fond memory I have as a kid that deals with the All-Star ballot. Who else can remember trying to poke the little holes next to your favorite player on the rectangular-shaped ballot? Of course that was then and this is now, AKA the digital marketing age and while paper ballots are still being used, one would suspect most fans would cast their votes via the Internet.

Give your Brand a “Personality Test”

July 10, 2013December 20, 2014 by Ted Rubin

Have you given your brand a “personality test” lately? When you think of big brands that stand out, what comes to mind—just their product, or how their communications make you feel about them? It used to be that mass advertising was the way brands developed a personality, but that’s no longer the case. With today’s social communications being so important to a brand’s reputation and perception in the marketplace, finding a way to involve your friends and followers in building that personality is essential.

I’ll give you a few good big-brand examples (personal disclaimer… Duane Reade and Mastercard are Collective Bias clients).

The Content “IS” the Ad

July 7, 2013December 20, 2014 by Ted Rubin

There’s a lot of angst in marketing land right now. With Google’s Panda and Penguin changes and social algorithms that favor engagement, it may look as though SEO is dead, or that traditional ads will soon be going the way of the dodo. What’s a marketer to think? Are we supposed to throw out everything we learned about marketing and advertising to date and learn to ride a new horse? How the heck are we supposed to get in front of customers now?

Well, things ARE changing. Traditional advertising isn’t yet extinct, but there is simply too much noise out there, and people are sick of it. They’re shutting out the blast advertising that has crept into every aspect of their lives and centering in on the things they truly care about—friends, family, and social connections. You need to take a step back and study this shift in order to take advantage of it.

Blogging Strategy as it Relates to Building Relationships

June 27, 2013December 20, 2014 by Ted Rubin

Your personal and/or company blog, to me, should be at the heart of your social presence and be a driver for valuable content that can be used in so many places.

Here are a few things to consider in addition to just posting articles and working the SEO angle… four places to concentrate to enhance engagement:

1. User-Friendly Navigation: Keeping your blog easy to navigate with intuitive category labels will help people find the information they seek much faster. Here again, doing your research on what your customers are looking for is essential. Also, make it easy for readers to leave comments and share your posts on various channels.

Irrefutable Proof That Inbound Marketers Need A Major Reality Check

June 26, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Now I don’t know about you but being the sports fanatic I am, I am often in need of a “reality check” for sure. I think most sports fans need this from time to time as too often we get caught up in the hype or hyperbole of a given athlete or team.

It would appear that those who live, play and dwell in the inbound marketing world need to be “reminded of the state of things in the real world.” At least that’s the conclusion I drew from reading the findings of a study conducted by InsideSales.com which revealed that one sale lead after another is essentially being wasted as far too many in the position to respond to those leads – AKA sales folks, simply are out of tuch when it comes to reality.

Vonage Takes Generosity To A Whole New Level

June 12, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

No matter where we come from or where we’re headed or who we are, we could all use a little more generosity in our lives, right? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people had “a quality that’s a lot like unselfishness — someone showing generosity is happy to give to or share time, money, food, or whatever with others?”

Those of us who live, work and play in the marketing, advertising and branding world would love to have consumers look at us and our clients as being generous, yes? How priceless would that be? In today’s relationship marketing world, especially.

Well one national brand is doing something that they hope will convey their message of generosity in a somewhat “crazy” way. Read more

Why J.C. Penney’s Epic Mea Culpa Will Work

May 9, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Back in June of last year as I became aware of what was going on inside J.C. Penney headquarters I penned JC Penney’s Epic Rebranding Fail. I heard from some in the marketing world who thought my use of the word “epic” was too harsh. My response to them at the time was along the lines of “perhaps, but we just don’t know yet, do we?”

(Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)

And at that time I didn’t know if the rebrand campaign that ill-fated CEO Ron Johnson was undertaking would in fact be classified as epic when the dust settled.

Programmatic Advertising – My Curious Quest Continues

May 3, 2013December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Back in March of this year I penned What Is Programmatic Advertising And Is It The Future? The opening sentence said it all: “I am by nature a very curious person especially when it comes to the world of marketing, advertising and branding.”

I prefaced my column that day because I am indeed a very curious person and in that particular context in that particular article I was referring to “programmatic advertising.”

In the piece I shared a conversation I had with Gurbaksh Chahal who is the Founder, Chairman & CEO of a company called RadiumOne. whose platform“is designed for today’s real-time,programmatic media landscape.” And while I had a great chat with Gurbaksh, my curiosity remained piqued, as it were.