David Meerman Scott's Blog, page 36

Mixing Business with your Personal Life on Social Networks

Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great places to engage both your professional network as well as your personal. However, most people separate business and personal on social media and I think that's a mistake. A fun aspect of social media is getting to know a bit about the personal lives of those we do business with.

What’s Your Price?

As I write this, it’s not even 8:00 am on Cyber Monday and so far, I’ve received 33 special deals via email. There are even more offers on my social media feeds. How your organization prices its products and services is a choice. Rather than default to what everyone else does like offer a sale today, you need to figure out what is right for you.

Your Story vs Your Product

When I speak or write about successful marketing, I frequently use the word “stories” when I describe the content that people are eager to consume. With content creation, it’s important to think of stories rather than simple product pitches. People love to share stories! Product information? Not so much.

This Is Marketing: You Can't Be Seen Until You Learn to See

Seth Godin’s new book releases today. I received an early copy and read it in two sittings. Yes, I am a Seth Godin fan having read all his books and every blog post he’s written since about 2004. This Is Marketing is Seth’s best book because it’s written for people who think they already know about marketing. It’s written for today’s era of polarization and spin. It’s written to help us all get back to basics.

12 Ways to Make Your Webinar Presentations WAY More Effective

Gosh, most webinars are dreadfully boring! The presenter drones on and on and we curse the moment we chose to tune in. Maybe we stay on because of the promise of some good information to come, but it is frustrating. It doesn’t have to be that bad! We can make webinars better! The key is to remember that when we present using virtual technology, we don’t have the same emotional cues as we do when we are face-to-face with our audience.

Can You Hear Me? How to Connect with People in a Virtual World

Humans are hardwired to connect with each other using many different in-person cues including tone of voice, a lift of an eyebrow, a shake of the head, and other things we don’t quite understand like air pressure changes. But the nuance, emotion, and detail that helps us to understand deeply is mostly lost in our virtual world of email, telephone, webcams, text messaging, and online content. That’s a huge problem that leads to boredom, lack of clear communications, and perhaps even our increasingly polarized political world.

5 Ways to Implement Business Casual Communications

When I first entered the workforce upon graduation from university, my Wall Street job meant that I wear a suit and tie with polished shoes every day. But gradually, over the several decades since, dress codes for men and women began to relax, first with casual Friday and later with casual every day. I’ve noticed a similar trend in communications over roughly the same time period. Thanks to social media, many people and organizations have gradually adopted a more casual approach to business communications. I think this is an important development.

How To Use Music and Sonic Branding to Create a Memorable Identity

While most marketers understand visual branding with images, colors, logos, and the like as well as branding using the written word, very few of us understand that it is possible to create (and own the rights to) your own sounds and music that align perfectly with your brand attributes.  My friend and collaborator Juanito Pascual and I delivered a talk on Sonic Branding at IMPACT Live in August 2018. This is the video from that talk.

Rebekah Keat Grows Coaching Business by Marketing to Beginner Triathlete Buyer Persona

Gosh I love when somebody takes my ideas and runs with them (pun alert) to grow their business. I recently caught up with Rebekah (Bek) Keat of Team Sirius Tri Club to learn about how she uses online content and social media to reach beginner and weekend warrior triathletes who want to know basic information. This approach to marketing by targeting a specific buyer persona has led to Team Sirius Tri Club growing from just 4 athletes to 240 in just under two years.

Nike Video Featuring Women And Sport In Mexico: Unstoppable Together

I really like the recent short film by Nike Mexico called Juntas Imparables (“Unstoppable Together”). The film showcases women overcoming obstacles to achieve their goals in a fun and humorous way. As such is an interesting example of how to appeal to a specific buyer persona.