Today I learned… Much of the period between July, 2016 and March, 2020 was a combination of thrilling, frustrating, exciting and nerve-wracking. After being let go from Voce Communications I embarked on the roller coaster life that is freelancing, eventually adding on my full-time position at Starbucks, meaning each week and month involved a fun … Continue reading Learning As a Vocation
The Marriage of Colleges and Social Media Influencers Is Bad News
Last week a lot of people’s cages were rattled when it was revealed dozens of the nation’s wealthiest individuals had paid outrageous sums to consultants and others who would help their kids get into the most elite colleges and universities around. The situation starkly revealed the disconnect between the ideal - that an education is … Continue reading The Marriage of Colleges and Social Media Influencers Is Bad News
Marketing Is Partly Fixing Non-Existent Problems
One of the hallmarks of the first era of PR blogging was that everyone was a problem fixer. Any time a company made the slightest misstep and experienced any kind of blowback from its behavior there were a dozen experts right there to identify what went wrong and share their solutions to the reading public, … Continue reading Marketing Is Partly Fixing Non-Existent Problems
Content Marketing Insights: Developing a Program Framework – General Principles
A content marketing program is more complex than some would have you believe. This is one in a series of posts laying out some best practices and essential steps to take when developing or evaluating a program for you or your organization. When you, your team and whatever other stakeholders are laying the groundwork for … Continue reading Content Marketing Insights: Developing a Program Framework – General Principles
No, Ethics Have Been Around For A While Now
Of all the various issues raised by the dueling documentaries - one on Hulu, one on Netflix - recounting the events of Fyre Festival, one of the most pervasive has been the actions of Jerry Media, a creative agency hired by the founders of Fyre to promote the event online. The agency, which produced the … Continue reading No, Ethics Have Been Around For A While Now
Everyone Is Competing Against Everyone, Just Like Everyone Else
The only thing surprising about the comments made by Netflix in its shareholder report about how it’s competing against Fortnite more than it is HBO is how surprised so many people were. That level of surprise and bewilderment seems indicative of how companies are viewed almost solely within the silos of their industries, assumed to … Continue reading Everyone Is Competing Against Everyone, Just Like Everyone Else
“Brand Safe” Has Never Been a Thing
Last week AT&T made headlines when it was revealed it would once more be advertising on YouTube, something it hadn’t done in two years after discovering to its great dismay and shock that those ads might be appearing alongside offensive - or at least questionable - material. The company had decided that YouTube had addressed … Continue reading “Brand Safe” Has Never Been a Thing
Take the Pressure Off Social Responses
More terrible data pushing the terrible notion that brands engaging in marketing efforts via social media should feel the need to respond to each and every comment directed at them. This time it comes via a survey of U.S. adults, gauging what they feel is an appropriate response rate. Unsurprisingly, most people feel such responses … Continue reading Take the Pressure Off Social Responses
Content Marketing Programs Require More Than Three Steps to Develop
Over the course of the last several years there have been countless blog posts, videos and other material shared by various experts (both real and otherwise) on how to effectively create and and manage an online content marketing program. Just recently there was a post that crossed my RSS feed that boiled developing such a … Continue reading Content Marketing Programs Require More Than Three Steps to Develop
AR is the New QR
Walmart, according to Sarah Perez at TechCrunch, has begun adding AR to its in-store experience, with tags on select items that add price and other details to shoppers using the story’s mobile app. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s only a slight variation on what was promised years ago when companies and marketers were … Continue reading AR is the New QR
Chris Thilk 