Chris Moody - Marketing Strategy for Startups | ChrisMoody.com
Here’s a common scenario I see with some early stage tech startups… Incredibly smart/tech-savvy people start a company around a cool idea. These founders build amazing tools/products that demonstrate their concept and their abilities. At this point they might decide they need to get funding. And, what will they use the money for? Often times, the word “marketing” will show up near the top of their funding needs (Sales and Business Development are also near the top, but that’s another post). The trouble begins when you start to dig a little deeper on the “marketing” bullet point. 1) Marketing is not a bolt-on component of your company that you can outsource to another person. 2) If you don’t know anything about marketing, the odds that you can hire a good marketing person are pretty slim. 3) If you don’t have a solid marketing strategy, your new marketing hire is either going to drive you crazy or accomplish absolutely nothing or both. So, how do you avoid this common mistake?
World Business Strategist Association
10 Blended Social Media Marketing Strategies A Company Might Want To Consider
We have been talking a lot lately about… talking. When we should be doing a lot more… doing. So the thought for this post, interestingly enough, bubbled up from a client request, that I should supply a document that mapped out the ways that you can blend social media into your marketing mix. 1) Twitter. Time suck rating: Depending on how much you want to monitor and participate. Use case: Created structured conversations around hashtag to create community, market under the radar, build credibility and lead source. 2) Search is not going away soon. Time suck rating: Extensive. 9/10 Use case: Created reputation management program built on all elements of search using Flickr micro-websites, robust white hat SEO tactics and product specific blog sites. 3) Social Bookmarking- In recent years, social bookmarking has become more sophisticated, somewhat diminished and yet no less important. Time suck rating: Not bad 3/10 4) YouTube-Video is permeating our lives. Time suck rating: Nominal 5/10
The Long Tail
Business - The Offline Stealth Tactic
WSJ Chief: There Are Two Types: Creators And Aggregators - Creators Carry The Burden Of Costs - SiliconValleyWatcher
Posted by Tom Foremski - October 22, 2009 Hat tip to Danny Sullivan for pointing out the above panel at Web 2.0 Summit, which featured Robert Thomson, Wall Street Journal chief, and Marrissa Mayer head of search products at Google, plus Martin Nisenholtz, The New York Times Company, and Eric Hippeau from the Huffington Post, moderated by John Battelle. Title: "Whither Journalism." YouTube - Web 2.0 Summit 09: "Discussion: Whither Journalism?" The reason this discussion is interesting is because Mr Thomson is a close confidant of Rupert Murdoch, the head of News Corp and one of the leaders in trying to create new business models for online journalism. This has been criticized by many online pundits who believe content should be free and that Mr Murdoch, and others that want to charge for content won't succeed. This is a ridiculous argument because it doesn't address the issue of how content is created and the costs in creating content. Producing original content is very expensive.
The 12-Step Social Media Marketing Manifesto
I have three types of clients coming to me for help with social media . There’s the “Gimme-Gimmes”, they’re the folks who’ve already been converted and are chomping at the bit to blast their online marketing through the roof via social media. There’s the “Huh-Whats”, the folks who, based on age, technophobia or simple busy-ness are totally out of the loop regarding social media. Then there’s the “Bitter-Nots”, folks who have attempted to incorporate social media marketing into their lives or business marketing and got burned one way or another. Social media marketing and social networking are incredible marketing tools and should – if not must – be integrated into today’s business marketing plans. Below are several reasons why you might not be seeing results from your social media efforts: 1. Social media IS marketing; and successful marketing requires planning. 2. What do you want to accomplish with your posts and tweets? • Visibility for your business? • New product announcements? 3.
The Case for Content Strategy—Motown Style
Over the past year, the content strategy chatter has been building. Jeffrey MacIntyre gave us its raison d’etre. Kristina Halvorson wrote the call to arms. Panels at SXSW, presentations at An Event Apart, and regional meetups continue to build the drum roll. But how do you start humming the content strategy tune to your own team and to your prospective clients? Listen up and heed Aretha Franklin. Article Continues Below What you want, baby I got it#section2 What’s your role? But what if there’s no one you can work with on the inside? If content strategy isn’t in the current budget, though, how do you convince your client to add money for it? At a more thematic level, first working through the “big issues” of content strategy, like communication goals and messaging, can help you hit the mark in your respective deliverables. Need to spell it out for them? Approaches for information architects#section3 But how do you know if the content you have is good, or just present? So now what?
Little bricks that breed [The Guardian]
I remember seeing St Catherine's College, Oxford, for the first time and a companion announcing that the buildings were made of Lego. This was meant to be disparaging. On the fringe of all those dreaming, honey-coloured medieval towers and spires lay this blunt range of low-lying, seemingly characterless, biscuit-coloured modern building blocks. In hindsight, my teenage companion's throwaway critical reaction was reasonable, if not exactly spot-on, for the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen's 1960s college is very much the kind of building you can have a go recreating on a bedroom floor with the most basic box of Lego. And, how appropriate this is, for Lego (from the Danish phrase leg godt, or play well) was invented by a Danish carpenter, Ole Kirk Christiansen, and the familiar interlocking plastic bricks his workshop play led to have been around now for over 50 years, a happy symbol of Danish modernism: simple, clear, well-made, likable and, above all, enduring.
