Shot at SXSW08 If there’s one person who personifies the words, “Internet Rock Star” or “Internet Famous,” there’s no need to look any further than Gary Vaynerchuk, host of WineLibraryTV. Gary is the epitome of the old adage, “If I can do it, anyone can do it.” Vaynerchuck’s passion, dedication, and perseverance has given way to success that has yet to reveal it’s full potential. He’s moving on up… The Web is fertile ground for those who can transcend its…
Transforming Customers into Evangelists: The Art of Listening and Engagement
I recently hosted a workshop at the Satisfaction event, Customer Service is the New Marketing. The topic I’m focused on was, “How to Listen to the Market and How to Engage Customers Online.” Fellow workshop leaders include Christopher Carfi, Deb Schultz, Chris Heuer, Jeremiah Owyang, Becky Carroll, and Douglas Hanna. Empowering your customers to become an extension of your marketing and sales forces isn’t new, but it isn’t widely embraced either. In fact, the function of most customer service has…
Customer Service is the New, New Marketing
The topic of empowering your customers so that they become an extension of your marketing isn’t new. Transforming people into a surrogate sales force is the dream of any service organization. The difference today is that the landscape has shifted to the point where good customer service is no longer the minimum ante to play the game. Over the next decade, customer service will fuse with marketing to become a holistic inbound, outbound campaign of listening to and engaging with…
Now is Gone, Now Available
Wow. It’s real. Now is Gone is now officially available. The book that Geoff Livingston and I worked on together is finally out there and I am humbled. It’s currently available on Amazon and Bartleby Press (autographed edition). For those on the West Coast, we’ll be hosting a launch party in early December and for those on the East Coast, we’ll see you in either December or January. Thank you Geoff for this opportunity and thank you to everyone out…
Dear Chris Anderson, an Open Letter to Make Things Right
Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired and also author of The Long Tail, is someone whom I deeply admire and respect. We’ve linked to each other in the past and for the most part, I agree with his views and observations. Every now and then Anderson discusses the state of PR and when he does, it causes nothing less than a full-blown blogstorm that reverberates across the entire industry. But, what matters is that we all learn from it….
Conversational Marketing Versus Market Conversations
The much discussed and highly revered Cluetrain Manifesto is proving to be more relevant than ever. As Social Media becomes more pervasive in marketing, it’s imperative that we become gatekeepers to prevent opportunistic marketers from bankrupting the conversation economy. As someone noted, aren’t all marketers opportunistic? Yes and no. It’s the difference between leveraging an opportunity because you can bring value to the discussion vs. selling an opportunity simply because you can capitalize on it. Jakob Nielsen added a unique…
Social Media Manifesto Makes Junta42’s Most Popular Articles of the Week
The Future of Communications – A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing is still going strong, and I hope it continues to do so. Things have such a limited lifespan in the blogospere these days, that I am happy to see that it is still making the rounds. Junta42 promoted the article as one of its featured articles for the week in an email newsletter that was sent to site members. Junta42 is new expert and user-generated search engine…
PR 2.0 Makes the Advertising Age Power150 List
There are many blog rank lists out there, but this is one that only seems to gain greater relevance as each day passes. Kudos to Todd Andrlik for starting the Power150 list where he tracks the most influential marketing blogs covering advertising, new marketing and PR. The list has made Advertising Age, aka Ad Age, and PR 2.0 is among some of the best and brightest. Looks like we could use some additional Technorati and Bloglines points though. Nonetheless, it’s…
Social Media Manifesto Translated into Russian
The Future of Communications – A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing is now available in Russian. Thanks to Yuri Aksyonov for the translation. You can find it at PRweb. For those of you looking for the English version, click here. Stay tuned for additional languages!
Defining Social Media
After publishing, “The Social Media Manifesto, A Manifesto for Integrating Social Media into Marketing,” I decided to take a short break. I wanted it to reside online for people to discover before it was pushed down the page with every post to follow. Afterall, we do have a very short attention span these days and the important posts that exist across the blogosphere are unfortunately quickly forgotten. But that’s the point of the manifesto. There are conversations taking place across…
