“Traditional marketing — including advertising, public relations, branding and corporate communications — is dead. Many people in traditional marketing roles and organizations may not realize they’re operating within a dead paradigm. But they are. The evidence is clear.”

Lee supports his claim by stating that buyers are no longer paying attention to traditional forms of marketing — and for this, I agree with him. Traditional marketing — via television, radio, out-of-home, print, and even web-based ads (that push marketing messages out to consumers) just aren’t reaching people in the same ways that they used to. For the most part, people have simply learned how to tune out these once-pervasive messages.

So what works now? Enter digital marketing.

These days, people tend to associate digital marketing with social media, but there’s more to it than that. Content strategy, inbound marketing, landing pages, analytics, engagement, and email marketing are all disciplines of digital marketing. The advantage here is engagement, and reaching people on a one-to-one personal level.

In general, engaging consumers via social media and keeping that relationship going will create loyal customers (influencers) who will act as advocates for your brand. In turn, brands can give these influencers early access to new products, information, discounts, or preferred-customer status. These influencers tend to recruit their peers to become engaged with the brand, and the process (if monitored and executed properly) will replicate itself.

So is traditional marketing dead? Not quite. Marketers have simply found a better way to engage consumers through digital channels. Traditional marketing is still very useful in reaching people on a large scale and in keeping awareness levels up. When it comes down to where the rubber meets the road — the sale — this relationship-based, peer-influenced, community-oriented marketing is now what’s driving sales (and sustained growth).

• In one month’s time the Fortune Global 100 were mentioned about 10.4 million times!
• There was a 39% rise in video content creation for companies with a branded YouTube channel.
• 79% of corporate accounts on Twitter actively engage with other users via retweeting and @ mentioning them.
• Companies are using multiple accounts on social media platforms in order to position themselves to segmented consumer groups.
• Companies are getting quicker in adapting to new social media platforms. For example, the report noted that when Google Plus pages for businesses launched in November of 2011, it only took to February of 2012 for 48% of Fortune Global 100 companies to create a presence on that platform.

So what does this tell us? Companies are getting better at creating content, they’re adapting to (frequent) changes in the social media landscape, and they’re engaging consumers more often. The lessons learned here are all applicable to smaller businesses, no matter what industry — it all boils down to giving your brand/company a human voice. Consumers feel more comfortable engaging with a “person in a company” rather than just a “company”.

1. Quality of fans/followers. Are your fans/followers your customers? Are they interested in your message?

2. Social demographics. What is the composition of the groups where you broadcast your marketing appeal? Furthermore, can you draw conclusions about the types of fans an followers you have? Can you segment them for your marketing purposes?

3. Most popular pages, posts and tweets. Maintaining your social accounts in a consistent manner is important, but what is more important is knowing what makes your content popular.

4. Page views and click-throughs. Your social media content is driving traffic to your website — what are your prospects looking at (and sharing) while they’re there?

5. Conversion. At the very bottom of the funnel is where you convert your leads to customers; your social media channels are at the top. How are you converting, and  how can you keep converting? This is where your efforts convert to ROI.

Are you confused about how to begin, or do you need to “sell” the concept to senior management? Either way, these links will help you to get started:

• Social Media Sells More B2B Leads [link]

• The Inbound Marketing Explosion [link]

• Marketing on Social Media [link]

• How Business Can Incorporate Social Media [link]

• How Important is Google+ for Business? [link]

• CMOs Say Some CEOs ‘Don’t Get’ Online Marketing [link]

• How to Defeat the Social Media Skeptics in Your Company [link]

• 3 Strategies to Boost Your Business with Social Media [link]

• A Case Study in Social Media Demographics [link]

• Quark Summary: What Every CMO Needs To Know About The Six C’s Of Customer Engagement [link]

• Why Every Company Needs a Social Media Conductor [link]

One of the topics I recently researched for an organizational behavior class covers managing your boss. The premise of managing your boss, or managing “up” deals with cultivating a trusting relationship with your immediate supervisor.

When good managers manage down, they give their people a clear understanding of what’s expected of them, a basic script to work from, and an understanding of the time they have to accomplish their work. In doing this, the manager ultimately creates a work environment in which there is mutual support, mutual trust, and genuine lines of communication.

When a subordinate (or manager) manages up, they should first have a good understanding of both the other person and themselves. One should use this information to develop and manage a healthy working relationship; one that is compatible with both people’s work styles and assets, is characterized by mutual expectations, and meets the most critical needs of the other person.

Managing up is easier than it sounds. Here are some starters…

• Appreciate your boss’ goals and pressures
• Know their strengths and weaknesses
• Learn their personal and organizational objectives
• Adapt to their preferred style of working
• Know how they like to get information
• What are your boss’ needs?
• Do they strive on conflict or avoid it?

Essentially, it’s all about communication—those who don’t communicate effectively with their superiors, for example, won’t be able to win support for pet projects or promotions for subordinates… they also aren’t likely to be included in helping make important decisions or weigh in on strategy. Learning to adapt to the boss’ preferred way of doing things actually helps you maintain control of your career… once you have that skill you’ll never need to feel apprehensive about working for anyone.

(Click to enlarge.)

Get Personal With Your Customers

“Keep your customers engaged in your brand. Create a buzz and keep your customers talking about your brand. If treated properly, they’ll do a better job advertising your brand than any planned campaign.”

Tweets, Inc.

“If you’re going to invest time in getting your customer base to recognize your company’s presence on twitter- keep it up. Your customers will recognize your disinterest in maintaining you account more negatively than if you never made the commitment at all.”

Avoid In-House Burnout by Getting to Know Your Customers

“Get out of your cubicle and get to know your customers so you can see first hand how you fit into the bigger picture, and why in-house design is so valuable to a company.”

Customer Retention > Customer Acquisition

“Joseph Jaffe (of JaffeJuice.com) explains how through things like customer service, customer experience, dialogue, a proper listening/response strategy, brands can show that they care about their customers.”

Inevitably, I needed to move that printer/scanner/lava lamp after I tamed my cords. I thought about it for a while and came up with this solution. Here’s what you’ll need…

Pick up yourself a pack of cable tie mounting bases, some plastic zip ties, and a few carabiner key chains. You can buy everything online or you can pick everything up at your local Home Depot/Lowe’s.

Crawl on behind your desk, shelf, or credenza and start sticking the cable tie mounting bases in the path that you to want your cables to follow. Then zip-tie a cheap key chain carabiner to each mounting base. Finally, put all of your wired gadgets in place, and “clip” the wires into the carabiners. Use one, use ten- it’s up to you (and how messy your cord situation is).

The beauty of this system is that it’s both temporary and permanent. The sticky backs on the mounting bases are sticky enough that the weight of your cables aren’t going to separate them from your furniture (or wall), and the carabiner allows you to “clip in” or “clip out” wires as needed. Granted, there are a ton of cable management solutions out there, but this is what worked for me (and there’s not a stray cord in sight behind my desk).

Delphine Hirasuna at @issue shares the story of how our country’s flag came to be, and how branding standards were finally adopted.

“By 1912, when the nation had 48 states, Congress decided that enough was enough. It adopted the graphic guidelines that are in place today. When we consider the history of the American flag, it is a miracle that the Stars & Stripes has become so iconic and recognizable when it ignored every rule of how to build a strong graphic identity.”