You wouldn’t dive into a pool without first sticking a toe underneath the surface. Even if you relish the shock of cold water, you still want to know what to expect. Yet countless businesses dive into social media without testing the waters.
I experienced this with one prospective client who was starting an online business, and wanted some low-cost marketing options. I suggested Facebook and Twitter.
“I tried both of those, but neither one worked,” he said. “I kept posting and posting, but nobody responded. They’re all too enmeshed in their own world to actually listen.”
I asked him if he had done any listening to determine what these people were talking about and what kind of messages they responded to. He hadn’t.
How To Listen to Social Media
Luckily for him, performing a listening exercise on social media couldn’t be easier. Just get on Facebook, Twitter and any other social media platforms you intend to use, then see what people are talking about. What brands are they interacting with? What times of day are they most active? What types of content generate the most responses? read more
For a company that has successfully marketed their services to millions, their most loyal customers needed to search for more information after reading negative online posts. Netflix didn’t make it easy or “convenient” for loyal customers to defend the decisions Netflix made.
Normally, using the phrase “feel your boobies” around the office would result in a visit from Human Resources. But boobies were all the rage at JPL last week, and for good reason: nearly 20 JPLers from different departments gathered to brainstorm marketing ideas for a breast cancer awareness charity called 
If strategy and tactics are the main ingredients of marketing, passion and fun are the spice. You can make a recipe without them, but your food will taste bland.
Whether you’re working with an advertising agency or doing the bulk of your marketing in-house, these steps can improve the success of any project – and boost morale in the process.
Beyond Digital
It’s easy to immerse ourselves in the comforting clarity of ones and zeroes. After all, the outside world is ambiguous. Its infinite gray scale is hard to pin down. But the world isn’t digital. And the insights we need as marketers don’t always come from a computer.
The world sometimes seems digital. Facebook has 3 gazillion users, and everyone and his uncle Tweets. We shop online. We play games online. We learn online. We comment online. We even talk by texting. And all our friends LOL.
That’s an awful lot of screen time. But sometimes we need to just disconnect and experience the world. Go old school. See how people are feeling and reacting beyond the keyboard. read more