Biznology

Photo credits: www.roadtrafficsigns.com

Those who had the opportunity to attend the 2013 IDC Directions conference saw  IDC Senior Vice President & Chief Analyst, Frank Gens, talk about how business technology is migrating to the 3^rd Platform.  He defined this 3^rd platform as the intersection of mobile, social, big data and cloud.   He predicted that these technologies will change how business gets done and enable the customization of intelligent industry solutions.  It was clear from his talk that the changes that will be brought about by these technologies may exceed those ushered in by the 2^nd Platform of client servers/PCs or the 1st Platform of mainframes/terminals. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: C. G. P. Grey

Though traditionally online and offline experiences are frequently juxtaposed, they work perfectly together. Your customers hang out online but they didn’t turn into robots, so the offline part of your interactions is a must. Online and offline are not foes – they’re friends that are mutually supportive.  Want to know why? Read the remainder of this entry »

Word cloud for content marketing.

As I have been writing in this space for the last three posts, SEO is not just the domain of consultants. It is a vital skill for every role in marketing and communications. Of course, SEO is essential for teams building digital experiences, and the communications professionals supporting those experiences. But none of that matters if their executives don’t support and fund what I call outside-in marketing, but what most people call content marketing. Because the pull marketing model is so new to these folks, it is often difficult to get their buy in. Without their buy in, digital marketing experiences don’t have a chance. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Yeah, I know it is a sensationalist headline. Sue me. I am reacting to everyone constantly telling me that social media listening provides “wrong” information. They do. Every technique that purports to provide insights into markets has some kind of error in them because this isn’t an exact science. But to pooh-pooh social media listening on the grounds of inaccuracy is just as dumb as my headline that takes to task all market research. What’s really true is that different research tools have different strengths and weaknesses and we should understand them so that we use the right ones for the right purposes. Read the remainder of this entry »

Photo credit: Vanderelbe.de

The holiday season is an interesting time to observe marketing tactics, especially when it comes to large businesses. Black Friday (now fading into Gray Thursday), Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday — these are official shopping days that have almost become holidays in and of themselves. It is true that without these named shopping events, retail businesses would likely still rake in the cash during the holiday season – but riding the wave of seasonal excitement ups end of the year revenue. Read on to find out the three digital marketing techniques your small business should be using.

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