Blog

Looking through some of my most recent articles on Sensei’s blog, one would think I’m on some mission to malign all social networks. Over the last two weeks I’ve questioned Instagram’s new advertising platform in one post and the questionable use of “influencers” by brands on that same network in another.  It wasn’t that longRead more

We’ve all heard the analogy of social media acting like a megaphone, digitally amplifying your voice to a large crowd. While this is technically correct, amplification  no longer the end-goal of social media marketing.  Well, at least it shouldn’t be. When we were first introduced to “Web 2.0,” marketers were excited about the fact thatRead more

Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Quora, LinkedIn….businesses are pushing harder and harder at engaging customers across multiple digital channels and social networks, each experiencing varied levels of success. It’s that success that I wish to discuss today. When asked what is social media success, most will give you the typical soft metrics including follower count,Read more

Social media was heralded as the greatest thing to happen to brand marketing since, well, since ever. Consumer-generated advocacy and publicity, direct conversations with customers and advocates, and free advertising through YouTube and other social networking sites were supposed to turn garage-based businesses into mega-conglomerates and save businesses tens of thousands in marketing costs. Yeah,Read more

I’ll start this post with the disclaimer that the title may be a little misleading. This article won’t argue that businesses can’t benefit from Facebook pages but it won’t kneel at the altar of Zuckerberg either.  The goal here is to shed some light on misconceptions generated by “social media gurus” about the importance ofRead more

I started blogging more than ten years ago. During this time, the reason I blogged – and the focus of those blogs – have varied based on my personal experiences and situations. It began with a small blog that shared my personal views on business and morphed into a corporate blog dedicated to starting debates onRead more

“People trust people, not brand advertising.” For the last few years, marketing analysts and social media marketers have been sharing copious studies and statistics which reiterate that sentiment. They give credit to social media for this new reality and point to the “wisdom of crowds” effect, which references the observation that people tend to believeRead more

How many of your customers are using their mobile device appendages to capture photos? A study conducted by Edelman and Shutterfly this year reports that 81% of US photo-takers (people who have taken at least 10 digital photos in the three months prior to polling) have done so using their smart phones. Consider the factRead more

According to a recent study conducted by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), 96 percent of consumers research online before making a large purchase, especially when considering a new car.  And the auto industry has taken notice, embracing digital and social platforms better than most of their colleagues in other industries. However, there’s nothing new inRead more

AdAge conducted an interview with Ross Hoffman, Twitter’s director of brand strategy, that revealed the social network’s plans to, well, plan social engagement spontaneity.  A program called Hatch is a new initiative within Twitter’s ad team, which is essentially a stable of marketers that work with brand advertisers to plan ad campaigns months in advanceRead more