What a guy!
Thanks to Phil Davies of bignews.biz for putting this list together of free press release distribution sites. For all of us who use these free services for all of their advantages and have met with success and sometimes failure with these sites, this compilation will help.
Marketing and the Chicken and the Egg
What comes first, the chicken, the egg or marketing? Or, I mean what comes first the egg, the chicken or marketing? Oh, I mean what comes first marketing, the chicken or the egg? Oh no!
I guess I just mean what comes first the chicken or the egg; but what I really want to say is what comes first marketing or business development?
This question has come into play most recently as I have watched businesses cut back on marketing and then put more resources into business development. But even what does that mean?
The questions:
1. Can business development really develop business if the brand of the business isn’t established, marketing plan or at least creative calendar set, and graphic identity and marketing support materials established and also maintained and on, and on and on…
2. Can a business afford to pay the marketing expenses if business development isn’t bring in the business to support marketing?
3. Can the business thrive without either or just with one?
With the turn downward in the economy there are several theories that I have heard mentioned:
1. Those who continue to market will be those who are remembered when this economy recovers.
2. Don’t cut back on your marketing; instead increase revenues to pay for the marketing so that you are remembered long after the recovery. Look at marketing as an investment for now and in the future.
3. Yes, there are ways to market without spending the budget you might have spent five years ago. Email marketing, public relations, social media are only some of those that can be used to support the business development of your organization whether it is a small or large business, or a non-profit.
Warning, warning, warning!
Last night I attended a Tweetup hosted by John Garvey of Garvey Communications, www.askmydog.com in Springfield. It was nice to see so many there and so many business friends who contributed so much, and so many experts. The Tweetup was about Facebook administration and was actually very well attended with wonderful presenters.
Towards the end, there was a comment/question about how the colleges in the room are handling/warning their students about what they post to Facebook; things that could affect their future when applying for jobs upon graduation, etc.
Well I thought it was time to talk about an experience I had and commented it is not only college students that are transparent on Facebook, but all of us on everything including Twitter as well. I experienced this last fall with a local business person who actually called me to make an appointment, and then tweeted in a non-complimentary way about this appointment. Within a day I came across this tweet and found this ‘insult’. So, to the question about college students and what they have to be careful with; to those in business and those with ‘supposed’ expertise in business and social media, warning, warning, warning!!!!
I must fly east!
Over the past 10 years, the first decade of the new millenium I professionally, in no certain order – learned about search engine optimization, wrote telemarketing scripts, branded a credit union, learned how to email with my cell phone, how to work on a website, how to use an email marketing program, continued to use direct mail – I am still a fan of postcard mailings, used Google Analytics, hired and fired and mentored and volunteered, changed the name of a credit union, laid out many business cards, directed the production of digital business cards, created conferences in Florida-twice in my technology industry days, directed a story for StoryCorps on NPR, was published nationally and locally and on wikipedia, spoke nationally and locally, laid out a newsletter, created a silent auction fundraiser for Boy Scouts, voted for the Best Margarita in the Pioneer Valley, learned how to use a PDA and Skype, owned four different laptops, five different cell phones – looking at Android OS one now, tweeted with Peter Shankman, wrote marketing plans, wrote social media plans, changed jobs, blogged and texted, used Lotus Notes and Outlook, attended seminars and webinars, conferences and teleconferences, marketed Girl Scout cookies, served on many boards – left many, created vinyl banners and created banner ads; and so much more; bought four digital cameras, joined linkedin, facebook, plaxo, myspace, and classmates, taped things on VCR tapes, DVR’d, burned CDs and DVDs, did live TV and radio, changed industries, created videos, love Open Table, became a stronger alumni of WSC, placed print ads, placed Google ads, sold on ebay but never bought, wrote hand-written thank you’s and will continue to do that, studied Catholic School marketing, raised money to help abused children and cried a lot, use ITunes for my IPod, used AAA TripTiks, drove to Kentucky with my GPS, took a train to Chicago, flew north, south and west-but not east. In this new decade, I must fly east!
A Weekend Of Customer Service
A weekend of customer service; you decide what is right!
On Friday I had an issue with using PayPal. I called them. They answered my question, walked me through the solution and made sure it was working right before we hung up. They were determined to be helpful. I also got a follow-up survey from the customer service rep to fill out about the type of service they provided. Guess what, I would recommend PayPal.
On Saturday I was trying to fix my Roomba. When I couldn’t fix it myself, I called IRobot. They assisted me through a number of different trials of attempting to fix the mini-machine. We finally got to a point where it should work. When I went to try it, it turned out it needed to be charged. So IRobot gave me a reference number and they said if it wasn’t working still after it was charged, to call back and use the reference number. Once charged, it still wasn’t working. So I called back, the woman apologized for all my trouble, and decided it needed a new part. She said even though it was a few months past warranty, they would send me the part free. Guess what, I would buy another IRobot product.
But today, I called a local interior designer. I had a gift certificate for a consultation for my home. I had called her in June and explained I had the gift certificate and that I planned on using it. She said fine, explained what she did for a consult and then I could hire her after if I wanted. I told her I would call her back when I was in front of my calendar to schedule an appointment. Well, the summer got busy, I had unexpected company for the whole month of July, then played catch up on everything in August, so I just got around to calling her back to reschedule. We set up an appointment for today at 1:30 p.m.
Today came and it turned out I had to be at my son’s school at 2:00 p. m. I called the interior designer and explained I got called to my son’s school unexpectedly for 2:00 so I was going to have to reschedule. What happened after that was one of the worst examples of customer service I have ever witnessed. She lectured me and said she was very unhappy that I had to reschedule, I had now done this to her twice, she had to reschedule things to accomodate by appointment today, and that she had a business to run and that the gift certificate was over a year old but she was making good on it. I let her talk and express all her frustration with me, the customer.
I then explained to her, that this was the first time I had to cancel and that she didn’t even give me a chance to say I could meet her later than the 1:30 appointment today. I also educated her on the fact that gift certificates in Massachusetts legally are valid for seven years. I then explained that as a marketing/sales/pr professional I was very taken back by her behavior towards a customer/potential customer. I explained also I was surprised at her attitude given sales are very hard to get today. That didn’t seem to bother her. She did say she would be willing to reschedule one more time, but I, the customer would have to definitely commit to making that appointment. I hung up on her. Guess what, I would not recommend her or buy her services.
Fluent – as in fluent
Questions, what is the impact of social media, what is it affecting, what is….
SEO tools and resources
Hi, thanks to my friends at Aston Services, just moved out of Northampton, MA to Westfield, MA for this info. Very helpful in marketing/PR SEO tools.
Communicate social media value to your boss!
After going through this information this morning, I actually now have a folder on my computer called ‘Social Media’. Guess it is about time. I guess this info was worthy of being saved. I often hear the question, how do I convince others about the value.
Check out the free #hubspot webinar ‘How to Demonstrate the Value of Social Media’ w @chrisbrogan – http://bit.ly/smvalue
WSJ Credit Union Marketing Tool
The Wall Street Journal handed a long awaited no cost marketing/pr tool to credit unions this weekend.
How lucky are they? …http://tiny.cc/LVV24
Shout Out 