Some people dismiss social media, but most that are smart realize that it can't be ignored. This article lays out a pretty simple premise - ignore it at your own peril
In the movie “The Blind Side” starring Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, and Quinton Aaron as Baltimore Ravens offensive left tackle Michael Oher, we learn how the left offensive tackle position became the second highest paid position in the National Football League. While the book by Michael Lewis, “The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game,” gives a far greater history of the left tackle than the movie, we learn that the left tackle protects the quarterback’s blind side when he’s passing the ball down field as most NFL quarterbacks throw with their right hand.
In the traditional marketing department, the chief marketing officer is typically the highest paid position, then maybe a vice president of advertising, vice president of PR and so on. I would suggest that the new left tackle for marketing should be the social media manager and here is why.
Social media is fast becoming one of the major hotbeds of marketing in the world. For companies that ignore the impact that social media has on consumers, or more importantly for CMOs who don’t fully grasp the potential, the results can be quite detrimental. Just as a quarterback who is setting to pass the ball and doesn’t see the defensive charge from his blind side (who happened to get past that left tackle), he is exposed to a sack, fumble, and potentially a game- or career-ending injury.
With the social media manager protecting the CMO’s blind side through daily monitoring and two-way interaction with the consumer, this is not likely to happen.
Thanks Milbank for telling it like it is. This event has become ridiculous even as fun as it is to watch. But that doesn't excuse Trump who attempted to dismiss the frivolity the next morning just because they roasted him like a marshmallow over a campfire.
Awkward though the Trump invitation is, it is just one of the many problems with the annual dinner and its satellite events.
The fun begins, appropriately enough, at the offices of the American Gas Association, where White House reporters are feted by the lobbyists of the Quinn Gillespie firm. More lobbyist-sponsored entertainment comes from the Motion Picture Association. Along the way, journalists wind up serving as pimps: We recruit Hollywood stars to entertain the politicians, and we recruit powerful political figures to entertain the stars. Corporate bosses bring in advertisers to gawk at the display, and journalists lucky enough to score invitations fancy themselves celebrities.
The correspondents’ association dinner was a minor annoyance for years, when it was a “nerd prom” for journalists and a few minor celebrities. But, as with so much else in this town, the event has spun out of control. Now, awash in lobbyist and corporate money, it is another display of Washington’s excesses.
I don’t fault any one host for throwing a party or any journalist for attending. Many of them are friends. There’s nothing inherently wrong with savoring Johnnie Walker Blue with the politicians we cover.
But the cumulative effect is icky. With the proliferation of A-list parties and the infusion of corporate and lobbyist cash, Washington journalists give Americans the impression we have shed our professional detachment and are aspiring to be like the celebrities and power players we cover.
My late colleague David Broder once recalled how, when he began newspapering in mid-century, journalists embraced the credo that “the only way a reporter should ever look at a politician is down.” He said they “prided themselves on their independence, their skepticism, and they relished their role in exposing the follies and the larceny of public officials.”
As I began to do the RSVPs for a few of this year’s parties, I thought about what our hard-bitten journalistic forebears would make of Cee Lo and SamRo and the Donald. Then I made other plans for the weekend.
The fact that Rick Santorum believes he has a shot at winning the presidency is a more damning indictment of the state of our politics in America than anything I've heard in a long time. This man doesn't have the brains to lead this country and if he can fool enough Republicans into thinking he should then I suspect even more of the smart, even-minded types that have left the party in the last 10 years, will continue to flee.
Rick Santorum's critique of Obama's foreign policy doesn't withstand scrutiny.
Rick Santorum doesn't doubt that President Obama was born in this country, but he does doubt whether he believes in it. In a wide-ranging foreign policy speech Thursday, the likely presidential candidate argued that because Obama does not believe America plays a special role in the world, he is unfit to lead America.
Obama, who has spoken regularly since the early days of his campaign about the unique qualities of the American character, thinks America is exceptional. It's just that his definition of exceptional isn't the same as conservatives'. This is a legitimate debate—but it's not the same debate as whether the president believes in the idea at all.
Obama, who has spoken regularly since the early days of his campaign about the unique qualities of the American character, thinks America is exceptional. It's just that his definition of exceptional isn't the same as conservatives'. This is a legitimate debate—but it's not the same debate as whether the president believes in the idea at all.
I asked Santorum about his claim that Obama believes "America had nothing to offer the world" given that, in the answer Santorum cites, the president also said: "I think that we have a core set of values that are enshrined in our Constitution, in our body of law, in our democratic practices, in our belief in free speech and equality, that, though imperfect, are exceptional."
Substantively Santorum may be right, but if Obama failed in those cases it was in part because he put too much emphasis on supporting the aspirations of the protesters demanding freedom. He behaved like the kind of president Santorum said he would like to be.
My friend, Khaled Elgindy, has written a smart piece for FP. I can't see the value in turning our backs on this Palestinian peace deal if we want peace for the region and security for Israel. The status quo is untenable and the longer it goes on, the less democracy can flourish within Palestine, allowing autocracy to put down deeper roots and further minimizing the chances for responsive leadership that will be more open to negotiations.
No sooner had reports surfaced of an Egyptian-brokered
reconciliation agreement between Fateh and Hamas than congressional calls for
cutting U.S.
aid to the Palestinian Authority began. A statement by House Foreign Affairs
Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen described PA president Mahmoud Abbas's decision
to end the four-year rift with Hamas as a sign that his leadership was "not a
partner for peace" and accused him of "standing with those who want only death
and destruction for Israel."
Such sentiment is not surprising given Hamas's designation
in the United States
as a terrorist organization and the general antipathy on Capitol Hill to most
things Palestinian. While Palestinian reconciliation would pose some serious
political, diplomatic, and legal challenges for U.S. policymakers, the Obama
administration should think twice before heeding such calls. American
opposition to Palestinian unity, particularly at a time when the peace process
and the entire region are in a state of flux, would be both futile and
counterproductive. Details remain sketchy, but the deal seems to center around
the formation of an interim government comprised of independents and
technocrats not affiliated with either faction -- but approved by both. New
parliamentary and presidential elections would then be held after one year.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's insistence that Palestinians must
choose between peace with Israel
and peace with Hamas is irrational, short-sighted, and ultimately
self-defeating. The notion that Palestinians must either remain at war with
each other or with Israel
is of course no choice at all. While Israel's
distaste for Hamas, which has carried out numerous attacks against Israeli
civilians, is understandable, a divided and permanently weak Palestinian entity
is of little value to Israel,
its security, or the peace process. Making "peace" with only part of the
Palestinians cannot be sustained for very long.
The unity deal is also a major breakthrough for the new government
in Cairo, which
is intent on reclaiming its leadership role in the Arab world and on pursuing a
more independent foreign policy. Egypt's
success in brokering the deal, accomplishing in just a few weeks what the
former Mubarak regime had failed to do over the course of several years,
highlights the extent to which both Egypt and the region have changed
since the onset of the "Arab Spring". It confirms long-held suspicions that the
mediation efforts by the former Mubarak regime, which made no secret of its
preference for Fateh or its contempt for Hamas, were less than serious. Openly
rejecting the deal would thus also complicate relations with Egypt's new government
and risks alienating the Egyptian people at a particularly delicate moment in
the country's transition.
With sufficient political will and foresight, the Obama administration
can and should find creative ways to accommodate the Palestinians' basic need
for national unity without compromising its own legal and political position. The
Palestinian unity deal will be a major test of the administration's handling of
the Arab Spring as well as the moribund peace process. How it responds will
help shape Arab public perceptions about the United States and its ability to
adapt to the new regional order.
Suzuki Extends Digital-Only Effort to Drive Leads to Dealerships
Suzuki is combining a big digital spend with a $1,000 coupon to clear out inventory at its dealerships nationwide. Since February 15, the brand has been running a bevy of banner placements and sprinkling in Google and Facebook ads to sell pre-2011 motorcycle stock. The campaign - consisting of no TV, radio, or print buys - was originally supposed to end on March 31, but it's been prolonged through May 31.
"We've had a big retargeting effort behind this one," Howell said. "We have been tracking people who have seen this ad and retargeting them across the web…. We basically blanketed the 'power sports' market with digital advertising."
His team's efforts have entailed both contextual and search ads via Google's platform. Some of the search terms purchased are "motorcycles," "2010 motorcycles," "inexpensive motorcycles," "cheap motorcycles," "Suzuki," and "motorcycle credit." In concerns to the last example, the campaign's offer includes a 1.99 annual percentage rate for financing. Howell and his marketing team are employing copy about the coupon and credit on Google and Facebook, as well as house ads on Suzukicycles.com and the aforementioned banners.
For Facebook, the marketing team performed an A/B split test on creative at the campaign's onset before quickly deciding on a winning ad (see image above). The paid promos have been broadly targeted on the social site, the account director said.
Suzuki has been building a digital marketing culture for the last several years, Howell explained. He addressed the challenges of orchestrating national campaigns that actually drive sales leads into dealerships. Automotive companies like Suzuki must create marketing strategies that simultaneously consider the national brand image, regional directors, and individual dealers.
"Outside of promotions that appeared within the dealerships, everything has been done digitally," Howell said. "Now we really have metrics that show if you have good creative, a good offer, and a big media buy behind it, you can actually move the needle."
Um....wow....so what does it mean if our kids can't tell what is an ad and what isn't an ad? I think it might mean "lemming" is going to apply to a larger universe
A thin banner with those words, or some variation of them, appears on various game sites that are aimed at children and sponsored by food companies like General Mills. The companies say such banners alert players that the games are a form of advertising, meant to encourage loyalty to cereals or junk food whose images often appear somewhere in the game.
But the banners and other notifications do not work, according to a study published in the spring edition of The Journal of Advertising. The paper finds that, despite the presence of the banners, children fail to recognize the games as advertising.
The banners “do not raise awareness of who put the game up or why they put the game up,” said one of the paper’s two authors, Susannah Stern, an associate professor of communication studies at the University of San Diego.
This reminds me of Walmart's early experiences in Washington. FB, like WMT, didn't see itself as "of" Washington but WMT learned the hard way that DC was going to be in its business whether the company was "of" DC or not.
President Barack Obama will travel to Facebook Inc.'s Silicon Valley headquarters Wednesday to hold a "town hall" meeting on the economy with users of the social-networking site.
But Facebook is still trying to find a path to Washington, where the company has only a fledgling lobbying operation, even though it finds its privacy policies under increasing scrutiny and is trying to navigate a politically sensitive expansion into China.
Until lately, Facebook has spent very little money in Washington, even by Silicon Valley's frugal standards. The company's outlays on lobbying totaled $351,000 last year, federal records show. That's a fraction of the amount spent by other technology giants, including Google Inc.'s $5.2 million and Microsoft Corp.'s $6.9 million.
In the past six months, Facebook has hired two outside lobbying firms and four new Washington staff members, bringing its staff head count to 10 at its D.C. office. Only two of those staffers are registered lobbyists, and they lack ties to the congressional committees that will lead the privacy debate.
People familiar with Facebook's Washington plans said it is looking to hire more people with deeper congressional experience and bring on more seasoned communications and public-relations hands.
Wal-Mart corporate raised eyebrows this week with its own purchase: a social media and search startup called Kosmix.
The Kosmix team, which will continue to be based in Silicon Valley, will form the basis of a new corporate skunkworks, @WalmartLabs, which will help dream up commerce and technology applications for online retail and smartphone services.
ADOTAS – Man’s endless search for more marketing real estate will finally take him to the final frontier: digital agency Space150 is working on technology to turn the moon into a giant billboard.
At first I thought the release and video — coinciding with Space150’s 27th image makeover as the company undergoes a complete rehaul every 150 days to mirror the constantly changing world of digital marketing — was an April Fools’ joke. A marketing guy says I’m half right — the projection technology used in the video below is real and turning the moon into advertising space could be done via projections deployed from a satellite orbiting the moon.
The number of people online in the Arab World has been growing by leaps and bounds and the graphic will continue to look like a hockey stick for a while yet. Why does this matter? We saw how the spread of information through satellite networks and through the web has already changed things and will continue to do so. In this case, more will be better. In addition, it indicates that the region has the potential to become an important market and also an important producer of technology and web content.
(Infographics) Digital Marketing Trends in the Middle East: 5.5 Million Twitter Users in the Arab World
Between 2009 and 2010 Twitter users from the Arab world were estimated to be around 15,000 to 40,000 but these figures were not official and not very accurate. But after the revolution on Tunisia and Egypt, as Twitter has been used as a tool to fuel the revolution,Twitter become a house hold name in the Arab world just like Facebook. An infographic about Digital Marketing Trends in the Middle East from socialbakers and IQPC estimated the number of Twitter users in the Arab region to be around 5.5 Million users, that is 136.5 % growth rate! The infographic goes to reveal that 40% of them are from UAE.
Other interesting figures from the report is that there is 15 million Facebook users, that number however might not be accurate as in Q1 2010 our sources inside Facebook estimated the number around 16-18 million users.
For Facebook, the marketing team performed an A/B split test on creative at the campaign's onset before quickly deciding on a winning ad (see image above). The paid promos have been broadly targeted on the social site, the account director said.
