I enjoyed participating on the Local marketing panel at The Local Social conference sponsored by Advice Interactive Group. My fellow panelists shared great insights on the convergence of search, social, mobile and local marketing. And the keynotes by Mike Grehan, CMO of Acronym and Larry Kim, founder of Wordstream, were outstanding. Be sure to follow both of those gents on twitter.
Great infographic by Qwaya over on the AllFacebook blog. Nicely simplifies the myriad options for targeting campaigns on the Facebook platform.
I'm guessing that Santa is the least of Justine Sacco's worries right now.
Clearly I'm no comedian or graphic designer but it's the thought that counts.
Nice to see a local business cut through the clutter of bad names like AAAA Plumbing from the days of competitng for the top spot on the yellow pages.
This is simple and memorable branding, that also works really well for digital marketing. That said, they could've used images of bacon on the B and P to make it pop more 😉
I couldn't resist sharing this Vine video my daughter made featuring our dog Carmel [funny what happens when we're not home during summer break].
I know that video has nothing to do with business marketing, but 1. it's cute, and 2. it reminded me that you can convey a lot in just 6 seconds of video. So why don't more businesses use video to bring their stores/services/people to life and differentiate them from all the other boring competitors out there? Many I talk to think it's too hard, or takes too much time [scripting, lighting, editing, music, etc.] but that's just not the case. Vine and Instagram make it so easy the Geico caveman could do it.
Here's a handy guide to get you started and a list of 10 types of videos you can create in no time.
The team took my ebook about the new consumer buying journey and turned it into an infographic.
– See more at the ReachLocal Learning Center
The "Bad" – having so many social followers that conversation becomes impossible
I just read another great article by Clive Thompson in this month's Wired Magazine. "In Praise of Obscurity" points out that socializing doesn't scale. This seems like a "duh" observation in the real world since we all know that its impossible to chat with everyone at a large party (40-50+ people).
But online it's a bit easier to "converse" with lots of people since they all aren't "there" at the same time. That said, once you get more than a few hundred followers social stops being social according to Thompson. "It's no longer a bantering process of thinking and living out loud. It becomes old-fashioned broadcasting." And further, "when the conversation gets big enough, it shuts down. Not only do audiences feel estranged, the participants also start self-censoring. There's no pretense of intimacy with the audience, so there's no conversation to spoil."
The lesson for businesses is that while it may seem cool to have many thousands of followers, it makes it impossible to realize the value of the relationship and conversation with each person. Why use social media if you're just going to blast messages like an email newsletter. Wouldn't you rather use social tools to have relevant and timely conversations with your best customers? And if so, are Facebook and Twitter the right tools? I don't think so. Business conversations seem out of place on Facebook where I go to check in with my friends, and Twitter is really better for short frequent broadcasts than long/deep conversations. There is clearly the need for a better tool for businesses to connect with their customers.