Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Marketing podcast with Mitch Joel: I've been sensing a change these days. Actually, like most change, it happens in a way that is imperceptible, until you step back and look at something like a six month window....

The change we are undergoing right now will dwarf what we’ve seen over the past five years. Every bit of data and information we share and consume is headed towards a single source or, as Joel calls it, a single pipe. We are moving beyond customer service and marketing messages to a era where businesses must be built to interface directly with the customer at every level. The customer and the direct relationship with the customer is an organization’s greatest asset and greatest risk.

An organization’s ability to respond directly and in real time will determine success and failure. Proactively leveraging opportunities in real time is the new landscape. One of my favorite lines from the book sums this up – “Instead of asking people to like us Facebook – why not trying liking them first.”-...

...In 2010, Weber Shandwick released a study on the state of leadership reputation (Socializing Your CEO: from (Un) Social to Social), stating that 64% of the surveyed CEOs did not engage through company websites or social media outlets.

“There are several reasons why CEOs are not more Social,” wrote Leslie Gaines-Ross, Weber Shandwick’s Chief Reputation Strategist. ”Time is better spent with customers and employees…the return on investment has not yet been proven, legal counsel tends to caution against it and anything that smacks of ‘celebrity CEO’ is a no-win.”...

As for ROI, the evidence is growing. Earlier this year, the Chief Strategy Officer of Dachis Group, Peter Kim, published 101 Examples of Social Business ROI. Among them...

The catch phrase of 2013 seems to be “Big Data” – the concept of how massive amounts of strategic data collection (can you say “google”), analysis and targeting can generate huge ROI for businesses. I’ve written how I believe technology for marketers has finally caught up (technology-wise and cost-effectiveness) to where “lazy marketing” is no longer a valid excuse.

Do you know which of your marketing channels are bringing in the most customers? In today’s multi-channel world, it can be tough to tell. Generating engaging content marketing media is already tough enough – we need tools and processes to know what’s working and what’s not in order to maximize ROI. Savvy marketers know and use closed-loop analytics tools to measure, analyze, and act on the performance of all the elements of their marketing, from blogs to social media, landing pages to leads, and calls-to-action to email marketing and more.

Take a look at the infographic/study below, conducted by the gurus at SEOmoz. The standout takeaway: “….lastly, it turns out that 60.2% of marketers are looking for analysis options, as well as other analytics options, in their social media management tools”. This comes as no surprise. When savvy social media marketers are communicating their messages online, they want to know exactly how those efforts are benefiting them by analyzing whether each social strategy is connecting to their end goal: revenue….” …and how do your social media channels stack up against your blogs, videos email touches and landing pages?...