Monthly Archives: August 2011

What’s Your Number?

I read a lot of marketing related publications.  Newsletters, blogs, magazines, etc.  Obviously, all of them have written extensively on the change in media and how marketing through those media have been affected.  I think the most recently evolved form of media – social media – gets most of the ink of late, along with mobile although more traditional forms of media such as TV still get the bulk of the investment.

One thing I find disturbing in all of this is a kind of legacy from my TV marketing days:  a focus on the numbers.  I don’t mean obsessive measurement – I’m a big believer in accountability.  What I mean is what Bob Seger wrote about:  feeling like a number. Continue reading

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What Is It And Why Do I Care?

A screenshot of a web page. The computers to s...

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A group of very smart web executives and I were talking about content and how to present it to increase engagement.  The discussion centered around defining how we should be thinking about user engagement with content – is it just page views, is it time on a page, is greater time on fewer pages just as good as a lot of quick views, etc.  I tried to simplify it down to the basic question I think is in the user’s mind:  what is this and why should I care about it.  Let me explain. Continue reading

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What Ails Us

Black Monday -- FTSE 100 Index from 19 July 19...

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Over the weekend, S&P downgraded the credit rating of the United States, something that was unthinkable not such a short time ago.  This morning, markets worldwide are tumbling.  As you know, we don’t talk about politics here unless those political activities bring us enlightenment from a business perspective and I can’t think of a more perfect example than this.

To reduce this to its simplest form, the credit downgrade was caused (and I’m NOT placing blame on either side here) by our “leaders'” inability to govern.  The effects of this are mostly unfelt yet, but the ones we’re already feeling are pretty bad.   But let’s keep it to business, shall we? Continue reading

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Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks