A friend and colleague was recently describing common failings noticed at marketing departments, especially in startups, with a number of companies where he has consulted (not as a marketer).
His first observation:
What marketing VPs do often looks like voodoo to him. And a lot of it looks like a me-too game. “If I pull up our [...]

Seth Godin just gave some really out of the box advice on how to structure equity in a new company.
It’s actually great advice, but I disagree with his claim that his method offers a better way to value the company.
Here’s why: just as Seth points out that we don’t know what the company’s going to [...]

For you non marketers, here’s a secret of the trade. Many marketers maintain a little box called the Swipe File. It’s just a collection of marketing tactics we’ve observed that caught our eye as an example of a good idea, good execution, clever humor, whatever.
My tip for your swipe file: Tatum LLC. They have a [...]

Most human beings (except for a few superpeople) experience moments where it’s tough to make a phone call. Or perhaps a whole set of calls.
Each of us faces the call that no one else should make. Hiring someone. Firing someone. Delivering bad news to a key stakeholder. A crucial conversation in a negotiation. Saying thank [...]

For the corporate brand, online social media represent the end of top-down message control.
If media have gatekeepers, then messaging is a top-down event. To be heard, I have to make friends with gatekeepers. (In many markets/niches, that’s not over. It’s just not as powerful a channel as it once was.)
If media are democratically owned and [...]

OK, here’s a disclaimer: This is completely personal. It’s not intended as a best practice for building your business or landing good PR or anything like that.
I refer to this post on a good inbound marketing blog (Hubspot). “Ever wonder how often you should be tweeting? How much is too much…”
They ran some analytics to [...]

Another reaction to the Barcamp-style event I attended last week…
Ten years ago, I founded a concert series called SALON: live classical and jazz music concerts in people’s living rooms. It occurs to me that the Barcamp forum has a lot in common with the structure I have developed over the years.
- User generated. The audience [...]

Attended my first barcamp-style event today. (What is a barcamp?) Fascinating mix of very old and very new ideas about community and events! And in-person relationship building plus social media. Loved the experience, both as a marketer and as a human being.
Here’s how I saw the barcamp format play out at this event (vs traditional [...]