With social media, there are some tactics that stand out and have a large return on investment. For some brands, crowdsourcing can be the key to creating conversation, reaching beyond a current target market and creating brand loyalty, trust and strength.
American entrepreneurs may have a well-earned reputation for risk taking, but once we have a modicum of success, we tend to turn into a timid bunch—or maybe the better term is reluctant. We’ve figured out what works on our own for initial growth, so we start relying on that status quo experience, often refusing to recognize changes appearing on the horizon, reluctant to see what’s right in front of us.
There aren’t many organizations where the leader is just as famous as the brand itself. Sir Richard Branson, the Founder of Virgin Group, a collection of more than 400 companies, the most notable of which: Virgin Records, Virgin Mobile, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin America, has created an energy and excitement around the Virgin Brand that is unparalleled. Virgin Group has created more billion-dollar companies in more sectors than any other company.
“Are we like late Rome, infatuated with past glories, ruled by a complacent, greedy elite, and hopelessly powerless to respond to changing conditions?” — Camille Paglia
We are living in a real-time world. If you’re sitting down to read the morning paper, that’s yesterday’s news. The internet and the instant gratification it brings has changed how we receive everything from a news story to a brand message. So how do companies hold the attention of people who only pay attention when a message is valuable to them? By being in the right place at the right time and giving your audience valuable content.
Why Companies Care About Location-Based DataA recent article from Fast Company disclosed that both Yahoo! and Apple are very interested in Foursquare’s data. Foursquare is a database with more than 55 million places around the world and serves as the “location layer” in other apps like Instagram and Vine, but why are Foursquare’s insights so important to companies? The article notes:
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Last weekend I was out running my usual Sunday errands and one of my stops was the grocery store. I had my list ready and was ready to start shopping but when I walked through the door they were handing out coupons for 50% off toilet paper. Now, I normally stick to my list and get in and out, but the coupon seemed too good to pass up. So I added toilet paper to my list. When I got to the aisle and found the toilet paper, I stopped and sort of just stood there. There were so many options, how do I make a decision? This isn’t normally where I buy that kind of stuff so it all seemed really overwhelming.
Although a potentially “hot topic” in content marketing, Influence marketing has been around since the days of greek curators and royal or celebrity endorsements of soaps and beverages in the late 1800’s. Today, we’d defind Influence Marketing as the act of engaging with current and potential leaders in your industry in order to gain ranks as a leader yourself, to increase meaningful activity on social media platforms, as well as to build your digital (and face-to-face) community of brand advocates.
If I asked you if you were engaged in strategic marketing, you’d probably say, “Yes, of course I am.” But strategic marketing is more than just finding your audience and marketing to them.
I’m a pretty old dog. I’ve been in the branding and marketing business for over 30 years, so I tend to think I’ve seen most everything. But it’s been impossible for a while now not to notice a phenomenon that I really thought I’d never see — working for free. We’re surrounded with free access to really complex services. Facebook is free. Twitter is free. Even hosting has become practically free.
Are you just starting out with social media and interested in developing a content marketing strategy? After you’re done setting up your blog and numerous social media outlets, the next step is to create a clear and concise strategy for what types of posts you will make, and why.
