Articles

There is a myth out there—that you as a company or a marketing department create marketing results. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s simply not true.

I wrote a post a while back about the emerging trend of redefining CMO from “Chief Marketing Officer” to “Chief Metric Officer”. In that post I also addressed how the tenure of the majority of CMOs is around 18 months. The reason for this is many companies, boards and stakeholders are under the misconception that CMOs get burned out so t…

It’s no secret that you need to track your marketing efforts—how else are you going to know what works and what doesn’t!

But there is a trick to tracking your marketing that many companies either forget or don’t know about. The trick is in tracking multiple sources. When a prospect reaches out to you, make sure you are asking specific questions like:

• How did you first hear about our company?
• How have you recently heard about us?

Specifically wording your questions in this way, makes the pros…

There has been a lot of talk about ‘new marketing’ or ‘branding’ or 'marketing for tomorrow'  with the growing hold that social media takes every day. But I challenge you; have the rules of branding really changed? Or is it simply the tactics to achieve the goal that has changed?

The ultimate goal of branding is to create a consistent desired feeling or thought in the client or prospect’s mind when your company or product name is mentioned or visible.

In yester-year, that was achieved mainly by …

Imagine sitting in a bar and someone comes up and offers you a bottomless box of darts. No matter how many you take out and throw, there will always be more in the box. Sounds great right? Think of the scores you will be able to achieve with an endless source of darts. There is just one catch: to use the darts in the box, you must be blindfolded.

OK Let’s assume that the box is marketing and the darts are all the different marketing tactics—specific actions or ideas. I bet some of you are thinkin…

Getting involved in your local community and leverage the benefits are not as straightforward as you may think. Here are a few things to think about when making community outreach apart of your company.

• To have the best and most productive employees, work needs to be about more than just work. It is no secret that work and personal lives blend. What can be a secret is leveraging it. Employees like to feel that they personally make a difference, because of this when introducing a community out…

The essence of Employer Branding is about organizational authenticity, isn't it? But coming up with a really strong and differentiating Employer Brand seems to be easier said than done. It’s also usually filled with a lot of buzz words.

The more social and transparent that we become, the harder it is for companies to “say this” and “do that”. Accountability now comes from all angles—those who have financial power, those with political power, those with social power, and those that will have the p…

The other weekend I participated in Seattle GiveCamp held at Microsoft. This was my second year participating and yet again, I loved it! It is about 56 hours straight of helping non-profits solve one particular challenge that they have related to technology or online marketing.

This year, I had the opportunity to work with three non-profits: Hearing Speech and Deafness Center (HSDC), Friends of Eastside Seniors, and Plumbers without Borders.

Hearing Speech and Deafness Center (HSDC)

I was excited…

Redmond, WA.—Mel DePaoli, president of Omicle LLC, participated in Seattle’s GiveCamp. Similar to a Startup Weekend, but GiveCamp is for non-profits focusing on solving one specific challenge they were facing regarding technology in one weekend, 48 hours straight.

DePaoli worked with three teams on three completely different challenges: Hearing Speech and Deafness Center (HSDC) on redesigning their newsletter template; Eastside Friends of Seniors (EFS) on updating their websites, and; Plumbers wi…

That is a matter of personal preference!

The better question is, “What groups should I join?” There are three main reasons why people join Groups on LinkedIn: professional association (others in your industry looking for and willing to offer tips and advice), target market (the group attracts the people you are looking to meet), or personal interest (even these usually go back to business in some way).

When you look at groups from this perspective it helps making the decision of which groups to jo…

On LinkedIn, when you connect with someone, they become one of your “connections”, while on Facebook they are your “friends” and Twitter they are your “followers”. Its social media jargon, but understanding it will help you navigate the site.

It is inevitable, someone . . . well many someones' will reach out to you and ask to connect to you on LinkedIn. Some you will know, some you will know but not want to connect with, and others will leave you thinking, “who on earth is this?”. Those you know …