Best Practices posts, articles, and infographics

Drink Up… This is How Listening Builds a Brand

February 3, 2012 by Keith Paul
with 35 views

When was the last time you acted upon recommendations from your customers? No, I mean you really acted. I like to make sport of calling out companies for botching their social media activities (see Chrysler and Starbucks). I seldom see awesome successes like Narragansett’s. And yes, I count it a success even though the ultimate... [read more]

Selling to Sales People With War Stories

February 3, 2012 by Steve Reeves
with 15 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

How do sales people sell to other sales guys? You might think they get very technical, preening themselves with demonstrations of their intellect. You might think they brag about past achievements and future opportunities. [read more]

8 Marketing Trends to Implement in Your 2012 Marketing Plan

February 2, 2012 by Yasmin Bendror
with 66 views

As I’ve said before, social media needs to be INTEGRATED into your overarching marketing plan. It’s not the magic pill. It’s not the hard sale, it’s the soft sell. It’s not going to blast your sales from $0 to $10,000 overnight. But social media is a powerful marketing tool that must be used in your marketing tactics today. And other important marketing tactics must not be ignored either. [read more]

Make that Social Content Shift… 5 steps to creating social content assets out of what you already have!

January 30, 2012 by Maggie Fox
with 49 views

Most companies and organizations already have lots and lots of content. There are likely some real social content gems in those archives of Powerpoint presentations, pdf files, binders and Web pages that have built up over the years. In mining your existing content archives, the challenge becomes finding the time, energy and motivation to unearth those “gems”. [read more]

Nissan Embraces Social Media to Improve Customer Experiences and Foster Advocacy

January 29, 2012 by Brian Solis
with 339 views

In this episode of (R)evolution, Nissan’s David Mingle, Director of Customer Management and Erich Marx, Director of Marketing join me for a refreshing conversation about social media’s impact on business transformation, customer experiences, and building an adaptive business model to learn and evolve based on new opportunities. We... [read more]

5 Free Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Website

January 26, 2012 by Benji Hyam
with 125 views

Benji Hyam is a Social Media Coordinator at Vistage International,an <a href="http://www.vistage.com/">executive coaching</a> organization that helps CEO members build better companies through unique <a href="http://www.vistage.com/programs-overview/small-business.aspx">business coaching</a> opportunities. [read more]

When They Google Will You Be There?

January 24, 2012 by Todd Schnick
with 79 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

Content is king. Waste not a minute more time on anything else until you have 50 pieces of great content. Not on key words. Not on page views. Not on bounce rates. Not ANY of that stuff. [read more]

A Different Take On Challenging Conversations

January 24, 2012 by Dave Brock
with 28 views

Image by Ian Bertram via Flickr

I’ve been writing a lot about changing the conversation, about challenging our customers, about getting them to think differently. A lot of readers have been sending me notes, asking for advice on how to do this. While I agree with many of the principles outlined in Challenger Selling and Provocative Selling, I take a little... [read more]

Ways to Brand Your Business on a Budget

January 20, 2012 by Dominique Molina
with 61 views

Creating your business’ brand requires both internal and external elements. Internally, you need to determine the message that your brand conveys. What’s the one thing your brand is known for? What’s your USP, or your core business principle? [read more]

This Is Kodak's Golden Age

January 19, 2012 by Jon Burg
with 47 views

Kodak should have been Flickr. They should have been Dropbox. They should have been Snapfish and they should have been Camera+. [read more]

On SOPA And PIPA

January 18, 2012 by Dave Brock
with 49 views

I’m taking a bit of a departure from some of the “rules” I have established for myself and this blog. One thing I have avoided is taking political positions, using this blog as a bully pulpit for those types of things—though I use it as a bully pulpit for a lot of other stuff. In this post, I have no intent of taking a... [read more]

Report Shows SEO Still Ahead of Social Media Marketing

January 13, 2012 by Mac Ocampo
with 128 views

Many local businesses still depend on SEO for potential customers to find them and improve their lead generation. But SMM is catching up in a tremendous way, according to this report that estimates that $6.2 billion was spent on paid-social in 2011. [read more]

A Not-So-Wonderful Kodak Moment

January 12, 2012 by Robert Passikoff
with 36 views

Image: Arty Smokes/Flickr(creative commons)

By all rights, the 131-year old company isn’t really much of a brand anymore. Not if you expect a “brand” to stand for something meaningful and differentiating in the mind of consumers. [read more]

Working with a Web Designer: Help Us Help You

January 10, 2012 by Josh Cunningham
with 43 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

I’m a very retrospective person, particularly when it comes to how I do business. I’m always looking back at projects, looking for what I could have done better and making changes to my planning process along the way. During this retrospection, I find myself coming back to the design process far, far more often than any of the other... [read more]

Hearing What We Want To Hear

January 10, 2012 by Dave Brock
with 18 views

Image: Brianna/Flickr(creative commons)

Sales people are eternally optimistic–it’s a great strength of sales people and critical. After all, we get a lot of “no’s,” if we let them stop us, we would never achieve anything. Yet sometimes our optimism is our downfall. [read more]

A Healthy Diet of Email

January 5, 2012 by Mitch Lieberman
with 38 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

Here is the question: How does email communication fit into your 2012 corporate diet? Specifically, is there such a thing as a healthy diet of Email? Within your organization do you encourage email use, discourage it or leave well enough alone and go with the flow? [read more]

Being Mindful of Appropriateness of Online Content

January 5, 2012 by Michael Cohn
with 41 views

Image: Sean MacEntee/Flickr(creative commons)

You post content on a regular basis and you are sensitive to what you can and cannot appropriately post online. With that in mind, you should share your knowledge with others who are not as aware of what to do. [read more]

The Death of the Sales Magazine

January 4, 2012 by Jeff Blackwell
with 43 views

Image: Jessica Spengler/Flickr(creative commons)

Has yet another traditional information source forever been changed via the World Wide Web? Specifically, are printed sales magazines becoming obsolete? [read more]

Not Worth The 'Paper It’s Written On'

January 4, 2012 by Dave Brock
with 59 views

Photo via Flickr, Creative Commons

Companies spend billions of dollars each year in training people on sales and related methodologies. Billions more are spent on tools like CRM systems and others that help improve sales people’s effectiveness and efficiency. Yet much of that is simply wasted. Too often, sales people simply don’t use the tools that have been... [read more]

Connectivity Does Not Mean Availability

January 4, 2012 by Jacob Morgan
with 37 views

Image: Courtesy of author blog

Not too long ago your workday started when you arrived at work and ended when you left work. Then, overtime, as new forms of communication were introduced and implemented in the workplace, work started to play a more central role in our lives. [read more]