Direct Marketing Doesn’t Have to Suck
Direct Marketing Doesn’t Have to Suck In the weeks leading up to the Direct Marketing Association annual conference in Boston this week, exhibitors were out strutting their best stuff. Last week I got two letters in the mail that appeared...
The Trouble With Klout
Estimating influence is a delicate balance of art and science. People are drawn to quantitative methods because scores are easy to understand. The downside of reducing influence to a number, though, is oversimplification. Lately, I’ve...
How to Mine B2B Gold From Facebook
How to Mine B2B Gold from Facebook In my work with B2B organizations, the question of how to use Facebook is invariably front and center. This is despite the fact that numerous surveys have shown that Facebook is one of the least effective...
Negativity, Social Gaffes and Farewell to Case Studies
I haven’t had a chance to send a newsletter for a few weeks because I’ve been so busy with other assignments. Here’s a sampling of what I’ve been writing about. Love Your Critics The CMO Site likes to stir things up,...
How Much Should You Pay for Content?
Marketers often ask how they can train engineers and technical people to blog, podcast and otherwise engage in deep online conversations with customers. My advice: Don’t bother. You’re better off investing in professional communicators and...
Five Tips to Make Your Writing Sparkle
Now that we’re all publishers, writing has become a core skill for marketers. I love good writing, and whenever I get the chance to teach it, I share these five tricks I’ve learned to make anyone’s writing better. 1. Write...
Business Blogging Gets More Disciplined
I’ve spent some time over the last week judging the finalists in BtoB magazine’s annual social media awards. This is a great chance to take a snapshot of best practices in the field, and I was struck by this year’s entries...
The Other Social Network
Have you checked out LinkedIn lately? If you thought the world’s largest professional network was little more than a place to post your resume, you owe yourself another visit. LinkedIn is set to eclipse the 100 million member mark sometime...
Let Your People Speak!
Earlier this week I wrote an article for SocialMediaB2B.com that made the case that last week’s IBM Watson Jeopardy challenge, in which an IBM computer thrashed the two greatest Jeopardy champions of all time, was the greatest B2B marketing...
CareOne Cashes In On Community
CareOne Debt Relief Services contends with a business climate that few of us (thankfully) have to face: Its industry has a terrible reputation. That industry is debt relief, a field that many people associate with fast talking pitchmen...
