Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Many CMOs see their digital future, but still struggle to make the case across the executive ranks....

... Digital CMOs also think beyond digital marketing. They look for opportunities to create digital experiences and revenue streams enabled by the nexus of forces, which is Gartner's description of the convergence and mutual reinforcement of social, mobile, cloud and rich information. The collision of these factors unlocks opportunities to reach and engage with consumers across the physical and virtual worlds, drawing them closer with targeted, contextually relevant experiences and offers. Further, it can allow brands to redefine how value is created and delivered — the way Apple has with music, Amazon has with IT infrastructure, and Netflix has with movies.

Last year, Gartner predicted that by 2017, the CMO's technology budget will exceed the CIO's. Why? Because more often than not, it's the CMO who is expected to drive this digital transformation, which is deeply dependent on technology. Is the average CMO ready to step up to this challenge?...

Like most people who do marketing for startups, I have a love-hate relationship with the term “growth hacker.” On the one hand, it has allowed startup marketers to differentiate themselves from their counterparts in corporate America. On the other, it just sounds like one of those Silicon Valley buzz words that makes you want to puke every time you hear it (can anyone say “pivot”?).

That said, “growth hacker” is here to stay. So we may as well own it and make it clear what it means — that way, we can actually use it, hire for it and train for it. The difference between “growth hacking” and “marketing” A growth hacker really is just a marketer, but one with a different set of challenges to tackle and tools to work with.

There are a few key differences between startups and big companies (for simplicity’s sake, I’ll call them “corporations”) that best explain the difference....

At the end of 2012, the University of Massachusetts presented their annual survey of the digital presence of the Fortune 500.

Among their findings were the following: 28% of the Fortune 500 companies had blogs, 62% had a YouTube account, and (here’s the shocker) an incredible 23% of Fortune 500 firms had neither a Twitter nor a Facebook account at the end of 2012.

Not only that. As we reported, according to the 2012 Fortune 500 Social CEO Index report from CEO.com, only 19 CEOs from the world’s top 500 companies use Twitter (or have someone use it on their behalf) – and only 9 of these are active.

Like… seriously?...