Would You Rather Be Cool or Popular?
Or, asked another way: to whom is your marketing directed? On one hand, maybe you’re convinced that influencing the influencers is your best bet. Rather than spending money to reach an audience that isn’t prepared to act on your message, you’d rather focus on the…
The Sky Is Falling! Trust Is Dead!!
Do you hear that panicked murmur rumbling up from the masses? It’s worse than fear — it’s failure! It’s catastrophe! It’s the absolute Armageddon of social media business strategy! According to Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer survey, no one trusts anyone! (Which is ironic, considering Chris…
Using Social Media to Manage a PR Crisis
If there’s one recurring reason companies are reluctant to embrace social media, it’s that “something could go wrong.” But when something else goes wrong in your company, are you prepared to use social media as a way to steady the ship? Eileen O’Brien has an…
What You Can Learn from Bad Case Studies
It’s no secret that people learn more from their mistakes than they do from their successes. Maybe that’s why we’re all so reluctant to share stories about our failures: it’s not that we’re embarrassed about “doing it wrong,” but we’re afraid that someone else will…
The Spear vs. The Hook: Understanding the Difference Between Traditional and Social Marketing
Hunting is about obtaining food. Marketing is about obtaining sales. Either way, you can’t eat unless you first understand how to use the proper tools. A spear is a distance weapon. You refine the tip until it’s razor sharp and guaranteed to cut through anything…
Letting Go in the New Year: What Is YOUR Company So Afraid Of?
The Buzz Bin’s Mike Mulvihill kicks off the new year with an excellent observation about social media: the way companies obsess over “controlling the message” is strangling the industry. In Mulvihill’s own words (emphasis mine): I’d love to see a survey of how many of…
AT&T vs. Verizon: Why Bad PR Is Still Good for You
In Andrew Cherwenka’s recent case study, he explains how AT&T used Facebook to defend themselves against Verizon’s claims of a better 3G network, and how that plan backfired when the very customers AT&T expected to rally to their defense instead fell silent while the conversation…
Facebook vs. AOL: Why the Information Superhighway Still Has a Dinosaur Lane
As TechCrunch noted this week, Facebook has surpassed AOL as the fourth most-trafficked website on the planet. And while that news may not seem particularly surprising to the millions of Facebook users, here’s the really astounding part: AOL is still the fifth most-trafficked website on…
3 Lessons We Learned from One Social Media Campaign
This past week, we wrapped up a short social media campaign we’d been involved with for a client, Bigelow Tea. As is often the case, what didn’t work is just as valuable (if not more so) than what did work, and we thought you might…
What Your Own Kids Can Teach You About Better Messaging
Ever wonder if your messaging sticks with your audience? Just ask your kids. When we joined Cindi Bigelow on a trip to her alma mater (Boston College), we were blown away by just how many college students drink tea (we figured college was a serious…