Straight to the Point

A Look Ahead to 2012

2012-01-06T16:08:00.000-05:00

As I'm swinging into gear after a long holiday season, I'm reading a lot of articles with predictions about how marketing is going to evolve in 2012. I've linked to two below.

I agree with a lot of what these two authors wrote, but I think they leave out the continued integration of sales and marketing, via the social media content development process.

Marketing Predictions for 2012, Jeffrey Hayzlett, Huffinton Post

1. Mobile, Mobile, Mobile.

Throughout 2011, you heard me saying "mobile, mobile, mobile". In 2012, I predict the mobile wallet will be the next big thing. With more and more online companies like eBay, Amazon, PayPal, using the mobile device as a platform to make instant online purchases, we're now seeing technology built into smartphones that allows customers to swipe their phones rather than their credit cards at retail outlets. Banks are really taking advantage of this technology and offering their customers a new level of service. This is a space marketers need to not only be aware of, but be involved in.

2. Social - Crowdsourcing vs. Friendsourcing

Crowdsourcing is a cool tool for spot surveys, quick answers, and general engagement, but friendsourcing is about trust: reaching out your most valued advisers -- the people you really know -- and finding out what they think. These people can be your close friends, colleagues, or mentors. However, they can also be your brand ambassadors--the social media friends and followers you've built those relationships of trust with over your social media network.

3. On-Line Qualitative Market Research

2012 will be an exciting year for the research industry. It is clear that the shift to on-line qualitative research has begun and likely to accelerate in the coming year. The need for deeper and richer insights to support making better marketing and business decisions is critical. Companies must be prepared to act fast. This category is rapidly growing and the corporate researchers that make the move will be best positioned to be the winners in this new game. It is a business imperative in my opinion.

Search and Social Media Marketing Predictions for 2012, Alex Wall, Business 2 Community

2011 brought us Google+, Siri on the Apple iPhone, the Internet cloud, the Panda updates, and widespread changes across every major search engine and social platform. With all of these new technologies at our fingertips, the only thing that remains uncertain is what changes and challenges the New Year will bring. With that in mind, here’s our forecast for search engine and social media marketing in 2012.

Prediction #1 – Search and Social Will Become Irreconcilably Intertwined

Bing took a bold step when it upped the ante on social signal integration in May 2011 and pooled data resources with Facebook. You may have noticed that when you search through Facebook, beneath your standard Facebook search results is a listing of Bing-powered Web results.

By the same turn, Bing began to incorporate social signals from Facebook, creating a more personalized search experience for its users. It’s important to point out, however, that this isn’t a seamless integration. You have to sign in to Bing and use your Facebook log-in credentials in order to see the effects.

This integration is similar to – and, in fact, nearly mirrors – Google’s integration of Google+ social signals and +1 indicators. By using likes, retweets, and +1s as votes of confidence, these search engines are pooling the collective intelligence of your trusted social connections to influence the search results that you find.

As social media plays an increasingly larger role in the search algorithm, social media marketing will become a necessary component of SEO, likely to the point that they will nearly be indistinguishable.

Prediction #2 – Customer Interaction as a Vital Marketing Strategy Component

In 2012, Facebook will reach 1 billion users, and social network profiles have become an extension of modern identity as much as, if not more, than our cars, cell phones, and homes. Social signals have become a part of search, Google has started to index Facebook comments, and Google+ has started to play a native role in search engine results pages.

If search and social are indeed wedded for life, the companies that will outperform will be those who find a way to manage customer relationships while balancing perceptions. This is a bigger task than a marketing department can handle alone, and calls employees and brand loyalists to influence consumer perceptions of brands, services, and products through the creation and sharing of organic Web content.

So what are savvy SEOs and inbound marketers to do? Stay engaged. It’s much easier to say than to put in to practice, we know, but in terms of staying power, long-term strategy will trump a viral YouTube video any day of the week, for not only brand recognition, but also for conversion.

Prediction #3 – Mobile Search and Social Will Grow Exponentially

Try though you might, you can’t keep hardware out of the picture – tablets have fundamentally changed the game of content consumption.

Studies have reported that as many as one-third of American adults use smartphones, a number that’s expected to grow. An entire generation of teenagers and adolescents are growing up using smartphones and tablets, so companies who optimize their strategies for mobile devices will benefit the most.

Online purchasing has been moving in an irrefutably mobile direction – Google has estimated that 44% of last-minute shopping searches originate on mobile devices. Click-through rates are already higher on mobile devices than they are for their personal computer corollaries, and location-based services like FourSquare, Gowalla, and Yelp continue to expand as they battle one another for geolocation supremacy.

Whatever changes 2012 has in store, the path to success will be one that integrates strategic search and social campaigns, and we expect that 2012 will also be the year of refined social ROI tools so that marketers can effectively and efficiently monitor multiple channels of interaction.

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

2011-12-20T18:00:00.002-05:00

Best wishes to everyone and have a great holiday season!

Pivotal Play Event- Government Meets Sports

2011-11-07T13:46:00.003-05:00

I wanted to make sure you were aware of this event organized by the fine folks at Morgan Franklin. The event is free, but there is limited space, so register now to reserve your spot. This won't be your regular boring panel, as it is being filmed as it were a live TV show. I'll be there if you want to catch up.

Here is the relevant info...

Pivotal Plays™ Event:
Government Meets SportsFeaturing Panelists from the FBI, Washington Redskins, and Dateline NBC

Join us to learn how executives in government and sports make Pivotal PlaysTM in their organizations every day. You will hear unique perspectives on strategy, managing change, taking risks, team building, and making difficult decisions.

Register Now

Date
November 9, 2011

Agenda
10:30am Registration
11:00am Panel Discussion
12:00pm Networking Lunch

Location
The Newseum
555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20001

Our event will feature the following distinguished panelists:

Bruce Allen, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Washington Redskins
Shawn Henry, Executive Assistant Director of the Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch (CCRSB), FBI
Special Guest: Chris Hansen, Correspondent, NBC News, "Dateline NBC"

Mobile Social App Usage Skyrocketing

2011-10-24T13:38:00.002-05:00

ReadWriteWeb posted last week about new statistics from ComScore about the rapidly increasing use of mobile apps to access social networking platforms. Here is the link...

Analytics firm comScore released new data today showing that U.S. mobile social media audiences increased 37%, and more than half of social mobile audiences read a post from an organization, brand or event on their mobile device.
While the mobile browser accounted for more visits, research shows that the social networking app audience has grown five times faster in the past year. While the mobile browsing social networking audience has grown 24% to 42.3 million users, the mobile social networking app audience shot up 126% to 42.3 million users in the past year.

And...

People are increasingly checking social networks more from their mobile devices. More than half (52.9%) read posts from organizations/brands/events. One of three mobile social networkers snagged a coupon/offer/deal, and twenty-seven percent clicked on an ad while visiting a social networking site.

Good News! Honeycomb Consulting is Born!

2011-10-13T15:17:00.000-05:00

The good news here? I'm very proud to announce the birth of a new company.

After standing up the marketing infrastructure for a division of the largest privately held management consulting company earlier this year, I have started my own firm. Honeycomb Consulting brings to you the expertise and best practices I’ve learned from fifteen years of building and executing business development, social media, mobile, public relations, marketing and advertising campaigns.

Faced with an uncertain economic environment, senior executives I speak with can’t or won’t bring on new employees or full service agencies. However, the need remains to find prospects, close clients and strengthen relationships.

That is where I come in…

I founded Honeycomb to address the projects sales and marketing leaders have not been able to get to.

Think about these questions…

Are you generating enough leads?
Is your social media strategy suffering from a lack of good content?
Does your website copy need refreshing?
Do you have a mobile app?
Are there prospects that haven’t received phone or email outreach?
Do you have projects that you have just not been able to kick-off?

Interested? Email me and let’s schedule an initial phone call and walk through your to-do list... and talk about whether you have the right or enough resources to achieve your goals. If it makes sense, we will work together to develop a project that addresses any neglected or under-resourced priorities.

Register Now for Social Media Survey Results Event

2011-10-12T13:33:00.002-05:00

Click here to Register...

Event Information

Join Market Connections and Strategic Communications Group for the release of the Public Sector Social Media Study.

The second edition of this popular study takes a comprehensive look at use of and perceptions around social media among government agencies and contractors.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EVENT:

Learn how your organization stacks up against leading agencies and contractors using social media

Find out which devices and social media networks government target audiences prefer

Bring three repeatable social media success stories and the latest study results back to your office

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:

Marketing, Communications and Business Development professionals serving the government and contractors, including marketing, promotions, public affairs, public relations, digital and new media communications.

AGENDA:

8:00-8:30 a.m. – Networking and breakfast
8:30-9:15 a.m. – Presentation of study results
9:15-10:30 – Panel discussion and Q&A with industry and government experts

PANELISTS:

D.J. Caulfield, GSA - Branch Chief, Communication and Digital Marketing
Jack Holt, DOD - Former Sr. Strategist for Emerging Media
Meredith Lawrence, Polycom - Director, North America Federal Field Marketing
Steve Lunceford, Deloitte - Strategic Communications for Federal Public Sector
Nancy Nolting, Intelsat General - Marketing Programs Manager

Lisa Dezzutti, President & CEO, Market Connections will present the study findings.
Marc Hausman, President, Strategic Communications Group, will moderate the panel.

Government and Social Media - Take the Survey!

2011-09-23T12:37:00.001-05:00

Market Connections, in partnership with my old firm, Strategic Communications Group, have organized a survey on the attitudes to and the deployment of social media in the public sector. Whether you are a government employee or a contractor, please help these fine folks out and take the survey!

http://survey.confirmit.com/wix2/p1893178742.aspx

The results are going to be announced at an event in Tysons Corner, this October 18.

Big News Day- Apple, Facebook and Google

2011-09-21T10:54:00.001-05:00

Kind of a busy day in tech news...

Apple is announcing its next earth shattering event will be held on October 4. Two big pieces of news? iPhone 5 and new CEO Tim Cook will be headlining the event, not Steve Jobs. Personally, I'm waiting for iCloud and cloud based iTunes. But that's just me...

Facebook revamped its interface. Again. It is proof that we are just slaves to Facebook that they make these changes and have absolutely no desire to let us know about it in advance. They simply don't care because they know they rule the world. Hubris, my friends. Hubris.

And Google opened up Google+ to the masses, including a big blue arrow on the worlds most expensive real estate, pointing right at it. Is Google+ going to defeat Facebook? I doubt it. It has some nice features, but it seems like whenever someone else creates a cool, new social networking tool, Facebook copies it and adds it to their platform. Thus, all the secret interface revisions.

This Recession is Boring

2011-09-07T14:48:00.000-05:00

This recession is boring. I know we aren't really in a recession any more, but it certainly still feels like one. I am bored with the feeling. Time to flip the switch.

Businesses are waiting for smooth sailing before hiring and investing. Waiting for the idiots in the White House and Capitol Hill to behave a little less stupidly. Waiting for our European friends to deal with or ditch Greece, Italy and Spain, etc. Waiting for Americans to deleverage and pay off the debt of the 2000's. Waiting, waiting, waiting.

We can't wait forever. There are 17,000,000 Google results for "innovation during recession." Everyone knows that the strong invest, innovate and take market share during tough times. Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has had no trouble taking over the consumer electronics space. Whole Foods (NASDAQ:WFM) continues to rake in boatloads of cash. Read here:

I was just reading an interview of Whole Foods CEO John Mackey by USA Today. The most interesting part of the interview is his discussion of how Whole Foods is entering the health and wellness services business.

The company is open up 5 prototype stores with “Wellness Clubs” to expand their business into the services sector.

“We’re opening Wellness Clubs in five prototype stores. It’s potentially a new paradigm for people being healthy. All of the key diseases killing Americans can be largely avoided or prevented through healthy diet and lifestyle, but people don’t know exactly what to do. Whole Foods will help educate them."

I find this fascinating for a company with $8 billion in sales that is the clear market leader in its niche. Instead of resting on its laurels, it decides to innovate instead.

The whole economy is being held back by a lack of confidence, by just about everyone, consumers and businesses alike. Confidence, or animal spirits as economists like to call it, is a fragile thing and hard to build. When you don't feel confident, you should fake it until you make it.

The article How You Too Can Be an Optimist in Prevention points out, "In research at Wake Forest University, for example, scientists asked a group of 50 students to act like extroverts for 15 minutes in a group discussion, even if they didn’t feel like it. The more assertive and energetic the students acted, the happier they were".

Or...as Barney would say...

Whoah...New Blogger Look and Feel

2011-09-06T15:27:00.003-05:00

You can't tell by reading this but there is a new management interface here on Blogger. Apparently, Blogger has been at work on this new system for a while. Frankly, it is going to take some getting used to.

Read the explanation here on the Blogger Buzz Blog:

It’s been a few years since we made major updates to Blogger’s look and feel, and there’s a lot more to these changes than just shiny new graphics. We’ve rewritten the entire editing and management experience from scratch so it’s faster and more efficient for you—and easier for us to update and improve over time.

I'll let you know how it goes...I'm still getting used to my iPhone.

How Gullible Are We?

2011-05-06T09:21:00.000-05:00

StumbleUpon is a marvelous site. Found this today...and had to share it!

From: http://www.math.psu.edu/tseng/H2Ojoke.html

This was found on the newsgroup: rec.humor.funny

H₂O: Dangerous Chemical!

A student at Eagle Rock Junior High won first prize at the Greater Idaho Falls Science Fair, April 26. He was attempting to show how conditioned we have become to alarmists practicing junk science and spreading fear of everything in our environment. In his project he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide." And for plenty of good reasons, since:

it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting
it is a major component in acid rain
it can cause severe burns in its gaseous state
accidental inhalation can kill you
it contributes to erosion
it decreases effectiveness of automobile brakes
it has been found in tumors of terminal cancer patients

He asked 50 people if they supported a ban of the chemical.

Forty-three (43) said yes,
six (6) were undecided,
and only one (1) knew that the chemical was water.

The title of his prize winning project was, "How Gullible Are We?" He feels the conclusion is obvious.

The Top List of Marketing Blog Top Lists

2011-03-28T12:55:00.000-05:00

Looking for a handy guide of the top marketing blogs...but don't want to search yourself? Well, here you go... all the top lists...of marketing blog top lists!

Forbes Best of the Web Marketing Blogs

AdAge Power 150 Marketing Blogs (Top Five)

Kluge Estate and Winery heads to auction- another over-leveraged homeowner?

2011-03-24T16:56:00.001-05:00

Interested in buying a 900 acre vineyard down near Charlottesville, VA? Here is your chance...pretty beautiful if you ask me, but probably out of my price range...

From the WBJ:

Less than a month after Bank of America took possession of Patricia Kluge’s Albemarle Estate near Charlottesville, Farm Credit is set to auction off the Kluge Estate and Winery.
Farm Credit repossessed the property by buying it at a foreclosure auction in December.
The 901-acre property will sell at auction April 7, according to J.P. King Auction Company, which will handle the sale.

Read more: Kluge Estate and Winery heads to auction | Washington Business Journal

Apparently, Donald Trump is interested in buying the property, according to this article in Luxist.com. Normally, The Donald's taste isn't for me, but this house is pretty fine.

Crushing Debt. Sounds like an Opportunity?

2011-02-25T12:10:00.000-05:00

The whole country is struggling with the issue of too much debt. From families struggling with under water mortgages to states trying to figure out how to cut costs to the federal government's difficulty dealing with the $14 trillion national debt, it seems everyone is trying desperately to deal with this issue.

This month, there are 869,000,000 entries for "debt" on Google. And there are fun widgets to track everyone's debt

Economists are saying that economic growth will be stunted for years as families, states and the federal government divert money into debt and interest repayments.Check out a few random stories:

This intractable problem pervades everyday life, business and politics.Doesn't this sound like a business opportunity? Smart companies and clever marketers could address this issue by developing products and services to help people and governments either cut costs or raise revenue or both.

Small is Beautiful in Government Contracting?

2011-01-18T11:28:00.000-05:00

The always prescient Nick Wakeman at Washington Technology has a good article out today about trends he is hearing from the market place. Entitled "Welcome to a New Era of Government Contracting", Nick compiles his take-aways from a finance seminar on the government market organized by Raymond James.The pressure to accomplish a mission while cutting costs is impacting government leaders and the contracting industry in some interesting ways...

Is insourcing dead? Is the era of big systems integrators ruling the roost coming to a close? Will the defense cuts save the economy?

These were some of the dominant themes I heard executives and others talking about at investment bank Raymond James' 10th Annual Government Services & Technology Summit on Thursday.

A variety of public and private companies gave presentations on their strategies. Because three presentations were usually going on simultaneously in different rooms, I couldn’t hear all of them, but the ones I did hear often shared similar themes.

The easy one to explain is the death of insourcing. Several executives and other speakers commented that a year ago insourcing was a big concern, but not so much now as Defense Secretary Robert Gates has publicly admitted that the cost savings he envisioned from moving contractor jobs to government jobs did not materialize.

Well, so much for that effort...however, I think it is indicative that government leaders are getting more creative and experimenting with new methods to cut costs, reorganize processes while maintaining their missions. More...

The theme that people came back to repeatedly was this idea that size and bulk are not the measures of success they once were for government contractors.

Brian Gesuale, senior vice president of Raymond James, used two leading companies of the past decade as examples.

In the mid-2000s, CACI International and SRA International both were rewarded with growing market valuations as they grew. But while they have continued to grow larger, both have seen the value of their stock decline, Gesuale said.

“The supersizing strategy is not the strategy going forward,” he said.

Instead, Gesuale and other speakers emphasized the need to build value by focusing in on niche capabilities that are close to the customer’s mission.

“We want to be close to the flagpole of the agency” is how Vangent CEO Mac Curtis described it during his presentation.

In other words, whatever your company sells, you need to be able to tie it directly to supporting the mission of the agency.

Well, no truer words have been spoken....

Friday's Links: This Week...On Monday!

2010-11-29T17:20:00.000-05:00

Most Fridays I compile a short sampling of links that have tickled my interest that week. With Thanksgiving and four glorious days of football watching, I regret that this post was delayed until today. With that said...

Can you really see who viewed your Facebook profile? Rogue application spreads virally. - no, no you can't install a program to see who viewed your Facebook profile. Its. A. Trap.

Google buys Groupon for $2.5 billion? - No one knows...but everyone is assuming...

10 Ways to Be a Better Manager - I find myself at bnet.com on a regular basis to read their how-to style business articles.

The Algorithm + the Crowd are Not Enough -just read this compelling post about the limits of the current model for web applications...and the return of the editor? Could it be? Read a sample here:

Why does a page rank first in Google for a particular query? Why does one link stay on Reddit’s homepage for hours while another, with a similar number of votes, fall off in just a few minutes? Why does Facebook show me ads for customer service jobs at Comcast? Why did Amazon recommend buying whole milk with this Badonkadonk Land Cruiser?
If we don’t understand why these suggestions were made, couldn’t that bias us against trusting future recommendations from these services?

Fred Wilson recently made a compelling case that we shouldn’t invest in something we don’t understand:

…sectors of the venture capital market are filling up with investors chasing returns. And some of them do not understand what they are investing in. I got a call a few weeks ago from an individual investor who wanted to invest in one of our portfolio companies. He asked about the company and from his questions it was pretty clear he did not understand the business very well. He went ahead and made an offer to invest. That scared me.
I’ve been visited recently by a number of foreign investment vehicles, many of whom are investing billions of dollars of sovereign wealth. They all want to get into our funds and our deals. When I talk to them about why, they can’t really articulate a cogent argument about the economic potential of the social web. But they see the returns and want some of them too. That scares me.

I’d argue that some people will find it equally hard, and perhaps similarly foolish to trust suggestion/ranking services whose algorithms they can’t understand. These same people might turn to recommendation sources they can easily grasp and results they can logically dissemble.
My point isn’t that Google, Netflix, Amazon, Yelp or any of the others are doomed. But I do think there’s an opportunity brewing for entrepreneurs, websites and companies to add editorial components to the algo-crowd paradigm.

Overview of B2B Social Media Applications- Marc Hausman

2010-11-29T16:31:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already read the post, Marc Hausman, CEO of Strategic Communications Group, lays out the three main B2B applications for social media.

They are:

Social Media for PR
Social Media for Corporate Positioning
Social Media for Sales

"During the past four years, Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) has designed, executed and evaluated nearly 40 social media campaigns for the world’s largest, fastest growing and most successful technology companies. Our clients have included global brands such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, EMC, Sun Microsystems, British Telecom, NeuStar, Monster and BearingPoint, as well as emerging vendors like Merchant Link, Cimcor, ePok and govWin.

While the practice and influence of social media can be applied across the organization, our experience teaches us there are primarily three high-value viable applications of social in a B2B environment."

Straight to the Point Podcast: Hank Dearden of Capital Cabal

2010-11-17T11:12:00.001-05:00

When I joined Strategic Communications Group almost seven years ago to head up the firm's marketing and business development efforts, one of the first tasks I had to take on was identifying venues where I could interact with local technology and marketing executives. The year was 2004, and most of the tech networking events in DC had been swept away by the dot-com bust. However, a revival was about to occur, lead by one man, Hank Dearden.

I'm happy that Hank has taken some time to sit down with me and share his experiences standing up and growing a professional networking organization, The Capital Cabal. While I am very much a proponent of social media and online communications as a way to develop and maintain relationships, in person interaction is absolutely key to any B2B or B2G sales and marketing campaign.

What did we cover?

How important are networking events in the DC area?
What are the marketing strategies he used to grow 2nd Tuesday with little to no budget?
How important is it to include off-line or face-to-face (FTF) events in your overall marketing mix?
Is the DC area tech community strong and growing or still suffering from the effects of the recession?

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio...

or just click play...

Listen to internet radio with JeffMajka on Blog Talk Radio

Off Topic: Blood Glacier

2010-11-17T10:17:00.001-05:00

Well, of all the crazy things I have ever seen, this may take the cake. A bleeding glacier?

Nope. Its iron rich water created by bacteria in an underground lake. Really...

Read the story here: Extreme Weirdness: Antarctica’s “Blood Falls”

A bleeding glacier. Discovered in 1911 by a member of Robert Scott’s ill-fated expedition team, its rusty color was at first theorized to be caused by some sort of algae growth. Later, however, it was proven to be due to iron oxidation. Every so often, the glacier spews forth a clear, iron-rich liquid that quickly oxidizes and turns a deep shade of red. According to Discover Magazine –

The source of that water is an intensely salty lake trapped beneath 1,300 feet of ice, and a new study has now found that microbes have carved out a niche for themselves in that inhospitable environment, living on sulfur and iron compounds. The bacteria colony has been isolated there for about 1.5 million years, researchers say, ever since the glacier rolled over the lake and created a cold, dark, oxygen-poor ecosystem.
Even weirder: scientists think that the bacteria responsible for Blood Falls might be an Earth-bound approximation of the kind of alien life that might exist elsewhere in the solar system, like beneath the polar ice caps of Mars and Europa.

Procrastinating? Here are 4 ways to fix it.

2010-11-12T07:00:00.001-05:00

I found an interesting page today on how to stop (or lessen) procrastination, a malady that I suffer from time to time. Most "get stuff done" blog posts I read are either way mamby-pamby or just too dry. This one is helpful without talking about my chakra or recommending that I set up a complicated filing system. Read the whole article here and here is a quote that describes four powerful solutions to procrastination:

1. Stop and think. When we allow the above thoughts to go on without really being conscious of them, we procrastinate. When we actually pause and think about those thoughts, we can rationally see that they’re wrong. Instant gratification in the form of goofing off or eating junk food can lead to problems later. Fears are overblown and shouldn’t stand in our way. Not having negative consequences now doesn’t mean there won’t be consequences later. Our future self isn’t as bad-ass as we like to think. So think about what you’re doing, and start to do the more rational thing. Use the strategies below as well, but thinking is the start.

2. Enjoy the process. When we dread something, we put it off — but instead, if we can learn to enjoy it, it won’t be as hard or dreadful. Put yourself in the moment, and enjoy every action. For example, if you want to go out to run, don’t think about the hard run ahead, but about putting on your shoes — enjoy the simplicity of that action. Then focus on getting out the door — that’s not hard. Then focus on warming up with a fast walk or light jog — that can be nice and enjoyable. Then feel your legs warm up as you start running a little faster, and enjoy the beautiful outdoors. This process can be done with anything, from washing dishes to reading to writing. Enjoy yourself in the moment, without thinking of future things you dread, and the activity can be very pleasant and even fun. And if it is, you won’t put it off.

3. Set up accountability. If no one is looking over our shoulder, we tend to let ourselves slack off. So set up a procrastination-proof environment — find people to hold you accountable. I joined an online fitness challenge this month, for example, so that I’d report my workouts to the forum. I’ve done the same thing for running, quitting smoking, writing a novel. You can even just use your friends and family on Facebook or email.

4. Block your future self. Your future self is just as likely to put things off. So block that sucker. Use a program like Freedom to block your Internet access for a predetermined amount of time, so your future self has to actually focus instead of reading blogs. Turn off your cable TV, get rid of the junk food in your house, cut up your credit cards … do whatever it takes to make it really hard for your future self to procrastinate or give in to temptation, or at least force your future self to pause and think before he does anything dumb.

Pretty obvious- but sometimes its good to read what you already know, but need to hear again...

Compelling Content is the New Advertising

2010-11-09T17:11:00.000-05:00

As more and more companies adopt and incorporate social media into their overall marketing structure, understanding of what makes social media marketing effective is spreading. Back in the day, most companies would consider the "social media box" checked if they found a young, college graduate to set up a Twitter account. Now, a more sophisticated, strategic approach is being rolled out in many places...

We at Strategic have always said that creating and aggregating compelling, value added content was one of the keys to successfully building and engaging with a targeted audience. You company has just as much right to a computer screen as the New York Times, but if your content stinks, guess who is going to get the traffic. Your content has to be the Three E's: engaging, education and entertaining. And it has to be distributed to the right folks in the appropriate way. Tweeting your latest press release is a waste of time.

More and more people are getting on board with this approach. Check out this latest post from Copyblogger, "3 Steps to Foolish Online Advertising" (I highly suggest reading the whole thing...)

Remember this first and foremost – educate first and foremost. Give people something they can use, and they’re primed for more value. And that’s exactly what the Motley Fool report does.
While delivering on its promise and providing value, it becomes clear that this information is just the tip of the iceberg, and clearer that deeper analysis is valuable and worth paying for. That’s the natural point to make an offer – when people have been educated enough to do business with you.

Do You Have to Pay for Advertising?
Absolutely not. We’ve been preaching for almost five years that compelling content is the new advertising, thanks to the fact that compelling content spreads for free via social media.
People actually want content.

Compelling content is the new advertising. Compelling content is the new marketing. Compelling content is the new...everything.

Friday Links: Edelman, Twitter, Mergers, Microsoft, Jackbe

2010-11-05T08:00:00.001-05:00

It is Friday! Time to review some of the interesting, compelling, fascinating blog posts, news stories and whatnot of the week.

Study: Social awareness up with consumers, businesses should follow

"Americans seek deeper involvement in social issues and expect brands and companies to provide various means of engagement," said Carol Cone, Managing Director of Brand and Corporate Citizenship with Edelman. "We call this the rise of the 'citizen consumer'."
The study found:
• 30% of consumers believe government should 'do the most' to support causes, an 11% decrease Year over Year (YoY)
• 23% believe 'people like me' should do more for causes, an 8% increase YoY
• 87% believe that businesses should be more involved with social issues
• 74% believe a combination of brand and consumer 'doing good' for causes is the best option
• 47% believe brands are working with causes only for the publicity

Ad agency abandons website for Twitter presence

A few weeks ago, a Swedish ad agency moved its website to Facebook and, before that, another agency based their web presence entirely on Youtube. Now, another agency has decided to ditch its website and establish its online presence elsewhere - this time on Twitter.

Government is hot, hot, hot for M&A

Investors were not kind to publicly traded government services companies in Q3 2010. In fact, you could say these companies took a beating from their investors. The federal services space took the brunt of it, with pricing down 19%, while defense prime contractors declined 5%. Even worse, valuation multiples are at the lowest levels in the past decade.

While this sounds like a lot of ‘glass half empty’ perspective, it isn’t all bad news. Recently ACG National Capital member Jean Stack of Houlihan Lokey wrote an article in Washington Technology regarding mergers and acquisitions in the government services sector. She, like so many others, predicted the M&A pace will remain strong into 2011 even though the industry has experienced downward momentum in pricing. Why? Companies and investors are cautious about organic growth prospects and are looking at M&A opportunities in order to support growth.

Create Mashups in the Cloud with Microsoft Azure DataMarket and JackBe

Mashup tool provider JackBe is working with Microsoft to create dashboard apps using Azure DataMarket. In our coverage of the DataMarket, we noted that it's a marketplace, not an app environment. That's where JackBe comes in. JackBe can run in Azure to help end users create their own mashups using data sources from the marketplace. JackBe shares an example app in a company blog post. The example is a logistics app designed to plan routes to keep perishable food fresh and incorporates the following data from the following sources:

Bing maps: with Navteq dynamic routing information and Microsoft's Dynamics CRM on Demand customer data;

Microsoft Dynamics CRM on Demand: customer order data, and real-time Weather Central information visualized in Microsoft Silverlight, this App also supports write-back capability to the Dynamics CRM;

Microsoft SharePoint: aggregating information on delivery trucks and their locations;

And from Azure Data Market services: dynamic fuel prices and geographically correlated fuel station locations.

There's a video on the blog post that explains how it works.
The advent of cloud computing and big data makes huge amounts of data available to organizations, but it's not always clear how to make practical use of it. Tools like JackBe can help turn all this data into something end users can work with minimal support from IT.

And finally, the GOP won the House of Representatives but didn't quite gain control of the Senate.

Is This The Right Way to Court A Customer? Sue them?

2010-11-01T14:23:00.001-05:00

Google is suing the US government for not buying Google Apps. Hmmm. I just read this on TechMeme..so check it out for yourself...

Google Sues The US Government For Only Considering Microsoft Solutions

Eric Goldman alerts us to the interesting bit of news that Google has sued the US government -- specifically the Department of the Interior, for not seriously considering Google Apps when it put out a Request for Quotation (RFQ) to handle its messaging needs. Specifically, the DOI stated upfront in the RFQ that the solution had to be part of the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite. Google is making the argument that this is "unduly restrictive of competition," and it seems like they've got a decent argument there.

Most of the lawsuit details the history of meetings and conversations between Google and the DOI, where Google sought to convince the DOI that its solution was acceptable. The DOI justified limiting its offerings to Microsoft, by saying that Microsoft had two things that other solution providers did not: unified/consolidated email and "enhanced security." Google disputes this (not surprisingly) and notes various problems with Microsoft solutions -- including well reported downtime issues. Google protested the RFQ when it was released, but the GAO dismissed Google's protest saying that since Google does not have a GSA schedule contract (i.e., what you need to sell to the gov't), it was "not an interested party." Anyway, should make for an interesting lawsuit if it goes anywhere...

Wait? What? Google isn't on the GSA schedule? Kind of a oversight, don't you think?

(Full disclosure: Microsoft is a client at my employer, Strategic Communications Group.)

Things Politicians Say- 1917 Edition

2010-11-01T14:08:00.000-05:00

This always happens to me when I'm looking up information about a company or technology or whatnot. I end up at Wikipedia and stumble upon something astounding or remarkable....Never fails.

So, here is something that made my jaw drop...from the bio on James W. Gerrard, Ambassador to Germany (1913-1917)...

In 1914, he was the Democratic - Tammany Hall candidate for U.S. Senator from New York. He defeated Anti-Tammany candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Democratic primary, but lost the election to James W. Wadsworth, Jr. On the declaration of war by the United States, he was recalled from his post of minister at Berlin...

Gerard once said in a speech: "The Foreign Minister of Germany once said to me your country does not dare do anything against Germany, because we have in your country five hundred thousand Germans reservists [emigrants] who will rise in arms against your government if you dare to make a move against Germany. Well, I told him that that might be so, but that we had five hundred thousand and one lamp posts in this country, and that that was where the reservists would be hanging the day after they tried to rise."^[1]

Wow. Just reminds you how much America has changed in almost 100 years. Can you imagine any politician of any political party saying something like that? And this from the guy who beat FDR in a Democratic party primary...