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I remember the days when the common response to public criticism of your brand’s product or service was: “as long as they’re spelling my name correctly” who cares? Burying one’s head in the sand was a perfectly acceptable response. How bad could it get? Who could they tell? As recent as five years ago, manyRead more

Since 1776, when Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations, economists have been espousing the competitive advantages of “scale”, referencing to the almost guaranteed generation of revenue that enterprises enjoy when their sheer size provides a figurative barrier to a competitor’s innovation and price competitiveness. A business’ size has become a predictor of their scaleRead more

There is an old saying “It’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission”. In the realm of marketing, that is both sound and dangerous advice depending on the organization you are in.   More innovative, customer-centric organizations embrace the likes of social for its potential value to the brand while more traditional business is highlyRead more

I responded to the recent news of the resignation of RIM’s Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis with mixed emotions. As a Blackberry user and fan, it signals a possible change in direction to what I saw as an arrogant disregard for my patronage and loyalty. On the other hand, after reading some of the commentsRead more

Another battle has begun in the war for our customer’s attention and by extension, our marketing dollars. This war is being fought on many fronts by many content producers and media channels, all of whom are vying for the attention that our Brand’s audiences are giving to television and cable programming. During last night’s #bizforumRead more

In preparation for the last event on the Social Media Masters 2011 Tour (Kansas City, Oct 21st 2011),  discussion leader Shelly Kramer, CEO of V3 Integrated Marketing has me thinking about social media and sales.  It’s my opinion that many organizations fail to leverage the power of “social” because they equate it to marketing and relationshipRead more

Social Momentum is the public perception that a brand is up-and-coming, exciting, and a must-be-followed.  By contrast, a legacy brand is seen as having achieved its full potential; nothing new or exciting is expected from this company. Today’s fickle, over-stimulated consumers are more interested in companies – and their products – that have social momentum.Read more

The digital age [powered by the data computing power PCs, Servers and Networks] turned business decision-making into a science rather than a “gut feel”. Every internal and external activity in a corporation is tracked, analyzed, referenced and cross referenced in an unending array of dashboards, key performance indicators and reports that managers, executives and investorsRead more

The speed of evolution in digital communications and technologies has created a curious conundrum for marketers and business leaders alike. With such rapidly advancing technologies, even the early adopters are too busy trying to understand what is happening now to be capable of looking into the distant future to see what’s coming. Further, they’re so focusedRead more

Once again Chris Heuer has inspired another blog post here on the Social Roadmap. This past week Chris & I were back to back speakers at the Social Media Masters conference in Los Angeles, where we spoke about the future of the enterprise. Chris outlined his vision of the enterprise in the post-digital era: theRead more