social media marketing

February 26, 2015 by Marc Hausman

Infused with the Start-Up Thrill

The turn of the millennium was a grand time indeed.

Still shy of my 30^th birthday, Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) was on a wicked role. Clients were fairly easy to come by. Sales jumped every quarter. And we had plans to expand the business into new geographies like Philadelphia, Atlanta and Boulder.

Why select those cities? Heck, why not?

The NASDAQ stock correction in March 2000 and related rupture of the dot com bubble dashed those lofty expectations.

Strategic’s business retrenched and we found comfort in the stability of post 9/11 corporate and financial communications work for government contractors.

The evolution of our business since 2008 has been as thrilling as Disney’s Rock and Roll roller coaster . From public relations…to social media marketing…to integrated content marketing and sales enablement…and…now…Web2Sales.

We have reinvented our core and infused innovation in every facet of service delivery. Yet, the client base has remained static in its maturity and stability.

I even subscribed to an unwritten rule that precluded us from representing a company that lacked a clear and sustainable track record of revenue generation. No emerging growth shenanigans here!

Well, the time has come to scratch away that rule. There are market segments that ripple with an entrepreneurial enthusiasm that is both infectious and unrelenting.

This start-up innovates in a multi-cloud world.

Cloud, cybersecurity, health IT and network infrastructure are areas of accelerating customer and investor interest. Strategic has been fortunate to play in these markets via our work for global brands. We’re now diving back in through representation of start-ups such as DivvyCloud and Authomate.

The Web2Sales value proposition of more quickly identifying and nurturing sales prospects is relevant and meaningful to these growth-driven companies.

Plus, we have the dot com collapse sting seared in our psyche. It makes our work smart and savvy.

July 16, 2014 by Marc Hausman

Ferris Bueller and the 3Es of Content Creation

In the 1986 movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, the lead character played by Matthew Broderick explains to his pals, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

The speed of life struck this morning when I realized it has been six years since I wrote my blog post about the “3Es” of content creation – engage, educate and entertain. I vividly recall the inspiration which helped the words to this seminal post flow while I was in flight to the RSA Conference in San Francisco.

While my contention about the 3Es remains relevant, the content narrative has evolved to a multimedia orientation.

Words on a screen simply are not enough. Marketers have a responsibility to produce and publish video, podcasts, infographics, e-books, presentations, etc. The rationale for this diversification is clear: your audiences consume and digest content in different ways.

That’s why I asked my friend Joe Witte of ISEBOX to join me on Tuesday, July 29 at 11:30 AM ET for an exclusive online conversation entitled “Become a Visual Storyteller: the Evolving Role of Multimedia in Content Marketing.”

I have chatted with Joe at a couple of industry conferences and found him well informed, engaging and…yes…entertaining. Join us for 30 minutes on July 29 by registering at this link. It will be time well spent.

May 30, 2014 by Marc Hausman

McCormick Gets Cookin’ with Content, Digital and Social

Jennifer LaFrance’s life is an Old Bay journey.

The director of digital communications for the US Consumer Products Division at McCormick is responsible for content marketing, social and digital programs for the company’s spice and seasoning mixes, including the cherished Old Bay brand.

Last month at the Mid Atlantic Marketing Summit in McLean, VA, LaFrance took the stage to engage and inform attendees with an entertaining overview of how McCormick has leveraged emerging media to connect with consumers. Her Old Bay story begins with three bold (yet achievable) objectives:

1. Be there

2. Give fans a stage

3. Celebrate the community

To meet these benchmarks, McCormick put in place a campaign that relied on customer provided content (i.e. photos, videos, recipes, etc.), leveraging Facebook as the publishing platform. The more than 500,000 likes is a testimony to how beloved this product is by its fans.

The social-oriented campaign was so well received that McCormick re-purposed its content into a television ad to celebrate Old Bay’s 75^th anniversary. Amazingly, this was the first time McCormick had ever invested in broadcast media to promote Old Bay.

With a homerun campaign for Old Bay in her portfolio, LaFrance turned her attention to McCormick’s GrillMates product. Although a national brand with a significantly larger promotional budget, GrillMates lacks the iconic status that defines Old Bay.

As a result, McCormick has invested considerable resources in traditional media and advertising promotional activities to encourage consumer engagement and participation in its Grill Mates Facebook page, contests and requests for user provided content.

The results are equally impressive with more than one million likes and a comparable level of content creation by consumers.

Plus, McCormick analyzes user interaction trends and feedback to make decisions about product strategy and promotion.

Now that’s smart thinking by a “seasoned” marketer!

May 7, 2014 by Marc Hausman

Two Pauls and My Informative (and Entertaining) Marketing Talk

The two Pauls know how to fill a room with exceptional marketers.

I’m referring to Paul Duning, the publisher of Capitol Communicator, and his partner Paul Sherman, who is editor-in-chief of Techwire Publications. Together, the Pauls host the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit, a gathering of communications professionals, corporate and field marketers, agency and service provider representatives, and technologists who work for companies in the Washington, DC area.

More than 400 people came together last month at the Gannett/USA Today headquarters building to network, share best practices and listen to an exceptional set of speakers. I was fortunate to be on the agenda with a presentation entitled “The Intersection Point: Where Content, Social and Sales Collide.”

In addition to my talk, I also hosted a panel discussion that included marketers from FireEye, ICF International, Iron Bow Technologies and Privia Health.

So…how did it go?

You can watch the video of my entertaining and informative talk and panel below, and check out blogger reviews of the presentation here and here.

And, if you’d like more insight about how companies like yours are aligning their content marketing programs with tactical sales activities, join me this Friday, May 9 at 11:30 AM ET for a Webinar hosted by marketing automation provider eTrigue. You can register at this link.

April 21, 2014 by Marc Hausman

News Flash: Google and Facebook are in it for the Cash

The two consumer technology powerhouses created in the past 15 years were both founded on philanthropic philosophies. While wealth creation was certainly on the agenda, the entrepreneurs behind Google and Facebook proclaimed their mission to be primarily altruistic.

Google espouses a don’t be evil code and commitment to provide users with “unbiased access to information, focusing on their needs and giving them the best products and services that we can.”

Similarly, Facebook places its members desire for a social online experience above all else. Playing the role of co-founder Sean Parker in the movie The Social Network, Justin Timberlake explained, “We lived on farms, then we lived in cities and now we’re going to live on the Internet.”

Yet, as it plays out, the sobering realities of the public markets and lofty expectations of shareholders have forced Google and Facebook to stray from such noble aspirations.

Last year Google introduced its new Hummingbird search algorithm to supposedly provide better results for its users. In a flash the mainstays of search engine optimization – such as cross-linking and key word tags — penalized a Web site owner and sent their organic ranking tumbling.

Of course, this lost traffic could be recovered through an investment in paid search. Cha-ching!

Now it is Facebook’s turn to hype up its advertisers at the expense of those organizations that seek visibility and connections without scratching out a check.

In an open letter to Facebook published earlier this month, a food delivery service called Eat24 complained the content that appears in a user’s News Feed are weighted towards those way pay to promote their posts.

“We give you text posts, delicious food photos, coupons, restaurant recommendations … and what do you do in return? You take them and you hide them from all our friends,” Eat24 said in its letter.

Computerworld’s article about Eat24’s break-up may be mis-titled Marketers are Losing Faith in Facebook. It all depends on what a marketer understands “faith” to mean.

This is all about expectations. Facebook and Google can still deliver access to their engaged communities of users. You’ll just need to pay for it.

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