Collaboratory
The Collaboratory is our Social Business collaborative lab where we engage and explore an ongoing discussion, share thoughts, opinions, and ideas on Social Business.
Mixing Brands and Experiences; ACL Festival
Blog PostAnyone who can survive difficult parking, shuttle buses, lots of walking, scorching sun, and rain must value the experience of a large music festival. With over 70,000 people out to experience the Austin City Limits Festival, it's a fantastic opportunity for brands to be associated with memorable experiences. The opportunity goes far beyond just getting your company's name in the program and at the top of the stage. At this year's festival I was able to get a behind-the-scenes look at some interesting things that Dell had created.
Austin City Limits and Performance Brand Marketing
Blog PostThe launch of the Social Business Index (SBI) was exciting enough last week; add in my first ever Austin City Limits, and you have a giant ball of awesome in a seven-day span. The fact that they occurred in the same week aren't the only things that these two events have in common, though. I was actually witnessing the Spring of performance brand marketing and the Winter of the massive, blind brand sponsorship.
Social Media’s Growing Impact on the Top Global Brands
Blog PostDue to the downturn in the economy and the rippling shifts in consumer priorities, companies must be more aware of the multiple primary forces that influence a brand’s power. Business is rapidly changing, but the principles of powerful brands still stay the same. Interbrand is the world’s largest brand consultancy that annually ranks brands according to the financial performance of the branded products or services, the role of brand in the purchase decision process, and the strength of the brand. Interbrand’s brand strength components have undergone an update for 2010 to better reflect the factors that are reshaping the marketplace. These factors now include proliferation of social media, which underlines the growth of social media over the last couple years.
How Will Brands Deal with New Top Level Domains?
Blog PostIn case you haven't heard, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved a vast expansion of the top-level domains (TLD's) on the internet. Top-level domains are the last things on the end of the URL such as .com, .net, and .org. We've seen some expansion before with the addition of a few other TLD's such as .mobi and .jobs that were going to send shockwaves through the internet, but they never really did. Websites can easily tell if you're coming from a mobile device, or iPad so it turns out there is no real need for a separate domain for mobile. Despite the new .jobs TLD nobody has been able to oust the biggest job boards on the internet such as monster.com or indeed.com.
What Counts When Counting Fans
Blog PostSocial thought leaders have formed a consensus around fan counting: don't do it. The argument: if you measure what you manage, and you are only measuring fan counts, then you might rely on short term acquisition tactics that fail to result in long term engagement. And yet we hear every day that while a Social Strategy Director is focused on engagement, the Senior VP or CMO and even members of the board want to understand the plan to reach higher fan and follower acquisition benchmarks.
The Greatest Movie Review Ever Posted
Blog PostI walked out of Morgan Spurlock's POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold last night feeling pretty nauseated.
Activating the Masses
Blog PostIn the past couple of years brands have scrambled to “get social.” They’ve created Facebook pages and created millions of fans, and generated tweets to thousands of followers. Their YouTube channels sometimes have thousands of subscribers. The blog is seeing steady traffic. Great! They really get it, right? Sure they do, until someone asks what all the fans and followers mean… What’s the point? Many brands get caught up in increasing their fan and follower count. They forget that without some higher purpose, there really isn’t a point. In addition to building a network of enthusiasts, companies need to think about what’s in it for their fans.
