Marketing

Thanks Arianna, I'll Take a Nap

April 14, 2011

The advice of Arianna Huffington to marketers is to sleep more. Not to embrace social media - to blog regularly or multitask more. Instead, she suggests more shut-eye. I didn't hear the speech myself but I had to comment on her thoughts detailed in this article by John Obrecht on B2B who details her thoughts on local news and the coverage of Balloon Boy.

Recently, the Huffington Post was purchased by AOL for $315M and is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with a blogger/activist who is seeking class action status and $105M on behalf of more than 9,000 writers and content providers. Arianna Huffington discusses the lawsuit here.

Posted in Marketing, Technology

Mitel to Come Out Swinging, Will They Connect?

June 1, 2011

This past January I wrote a piece which compared Mitel to ShoreTel titled Is ShoreTel filling the Nortel Void and since the post Mitel has been in a state of flux with a new CEO Rich McBee recently joining. When the opportunity presented itself to come to the Mitel Business Partner Conference titled Mitel Freedom – in Florida, I jumped at it in order to get more perspective on Mitel’s strategic direction and future.

The conference officially kicks off tomorrow morning but I wanted to give my readers as much information as possible before things got going. Tonight I had a sashimi (no, the other one – without the rice) dinner with Ron Wellard, GM and EVP of Mitel Communications Solutions, Jim Davies the CTO and Jay Nichols the VP of Sterling Communications – the PR firm handling Mitel.

Posted in Android, Apple, Avaya, Broadband, Call Center, Cisco, Cloud Computing, Conference, Financial, IP Communications, Marketing, Networking, Nortel, Open Source, SIP, SaaS, Speech Technologies, Technology, Unified Communications, VoIP, Wireless

As if Publishers Didn't Have Enough Problems

June 7, 2011

TMCnet's Scott Bouchard points out something very scary for publishers and that is the face that the new Apple Reader has the potential to really hurt page view revenue based on ads as it strips the text of articles and presents them devoid of sponsors or ads. While this could be a short-term win for users, over time it could kill the ability for media companies to make money in the way they currently do. This may be a major concern. Something worth watching for sure.

I haven't had time to check this feature out myself yet and to learn more here is Scott's article.

Posted in Apple, Marketing, iPad

Webinar: Smarter SEO Techniques

June 16, 2011

TMC, the company where I am CEO will be hosting a webinar titled:

Rank Higher:
How to Practice Smarter SEO Techniques Through Your Online Community

This is the third part of our webinar series which has resulted from the frequent questions we get from companies about how to build communities, boost organic SEO, show up on news search and improve branding and thought leadership.

The next webinar takes place on July 12th, 2011 at 2:00pm EST. You can register here and as the presenter, I look forward to seeing you online in July.

Posted in Broadband, Facebook, Marketing, Search, Technology, Twitter

SEO Webinar Tomorrow With Search Engine Watch

July 11, 2011

Jonathan Allen, at SES London - courtesy of Flickr and Toprankonlinemarketing
Tomorrow, I have the pleasure of presenting on a webinar with Jonathan Allen, SEO expert and director of Search Engine Watch. This will be the third-part in a webinar series which has focused on helping companies build content-based and other types of online communities allowing them to gain increased thought leadership, branding, traffic and sales.

Jonathan is extremely knowledgeable about SEO and I can promise you this will be one of the most information-packed webinars on the topic you will find. You may even witness a discussion/debate on using white hat Vs. black hat techniques when it comes to search engine optimization.

Join over 1,000 other people who have signed up and register now. The webinar takes place tomorrow, Tuesday, July 12th at 2:00 pm EST.

More:

You likely know I am the CEO of TMC - a company who has built hundreds of sponsored online communities for our customers and for more on Jonathan, here is an excerpt of his bio below:

Jonathan became Director of Search Engine Watch with Incisive Media in December 2009 with the objective of creating a vibrant community of search and tech marketing professionals.

Posted in Marketing, Technology

SEO Webinar: Last Minute Butterflies

July 12, 2011

No matter how many webinars and speaking engagements you do - there always seem to be the last minute butterflies which encourage you to nail your subject matter before presenting. I am going through the slides for my presentation on the webinar titled Practicing Smarter SEO Techniques Through Online Communities which takes place today, July 12th at 2:00 pm EST. Hope to see you then. You can still register here.

This will be the third webinar TMC has done in its online community building series and thank you to the thousands of people who have signed up to learn more about how online community building can generate thought-leadership, improved branding and increased leads and sales.

Also - one final reminder - you don't want to miss Jonathan Allen from Search Engine Watch - he will add major value to the experience as he is sharp and knowledgeable.

Posted in Google, Marketing, Technology

TMC Dallas Video Interviews 2011

July 25, 2011

Recently I spent some time in Dallas doing video interviews with companies in the Dallas, Texas area and during the course of the discussions I was able to get a sense of where the markets have been and are going. The vast range of different opinions really comes together into a few themes.

They are simply that wages and turnover rates in India are skyrocketing meaning some jobs may be headed back to the US. This is offset by an interview with King White of the Site Selection Group - an organization which helps companies decide which countries and states they should locate in. He tells us that states with higher taxes are less attractive and subsequently deter companies from opening there.

Posted in 4G, Android, Apple, Broadband, CRM, Call Center, Cloud Computing, Communications Developer, Conference, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, FCC, Fax, Financial, Gadget, Google, IP Communications, Marketing, Networking, Nortel, SIP, Social Networking, Speech Technologies, Technology, Unified Communications, Video, VoIP, WiMAX, Wireless

Keep Bing at Microsoft

July 26, 2011

From a competitive position, it would be major trouble to remove Bing from the deep pockets of Microsoft. Talk of the business being potentially sold to Facebook when that company needs to focus on fighting Google+ makes little sense. There are few other strong software companies beyond Oracle and Salesforce who I think could do a better job with Bing than Microsoft.

But like I said in May, Microsoft is doing as much as can be expected with Bing.

We know Marc Benioff loves Google so count them out of such a purchase - and Oracle, no fan of Microsoft or Google probably doesn't need the headache or the money-losing business as it is doing fine right now, thank you.

Microsoft has to continue to make Bing better while simultaneously forging stronger relationships with companies who are competing with Google. Facebook and Twitter are two obvious ones - perhaps LinkedIn is another company to work very closely with.

You see as long as Google is a dominant player in so many spaces, Microsoft can play the underdog position and work with all the companies they want.

Posted in CRM, Consumer Electronics, E-Commerce, Facebook, Financial, Google, Marketing, Merger/Acquisition, Microsoft, Search, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter, Yahoo

Marketing Goes Almost Painfully Local

August 2, 2011

Pay attention, you might just overhear something

One of the most memorable business stories I hav e heard was when a consultant friend of mine flew to a large customer to quote on a substantial project. He was traveling with his business partner and happened upon a shuttle bus to the rental car company with his competitor and a partner. None of these consultants had ever met but my friend and his partner had the luck to keep quiet as he overheard the other two people on the shuttle bus finalizing their pitch and setting the price for the project.

Posted in Broadband, CRM, Call Center, E-Commerce, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter, Unified Communications, Wireless, Yahoo

CMO Summit at ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin

August 4, 2011

Marketing departments have never had to deal with the level of technology and complexity that exists today. SEO, social, deal sites, print, TV, radio, online ads, online communities, resource centers, lead generation, CRM management, analytics and so on. Just this week in fact I wrote about the frenzy in deal sites - just one area where marketers need to be following.

To help CMOs do their jobs better we (at TMC, where I am CEO) are holding the first-ever CMO Summit at ITEXPO West 2011 in Austin - Specifically September 13th, 2011 at 7:30 pm.

Attendance is invitation-only and is limited to CMOs and other c-level executives, company presidents and VPs. To request a space reservation and learn more, please click here.

Here are some more useful details as well:

Through networking discussions, and presentations from industry leaders Derrick Daye (The Blake Project) and Shawna Vercher (Technology Advisor to Governor Jeb Bush and Online Campaign Lead for the Obama Presidential Campaign), you will gather the latest cutting-edge practices to start adopting into your own marketing strategies for 2012 and beyond, including:

How to maintain your branding identity while marketing across multiple online channels;
Ways to strike the right balance between your lead generation, branding and thought-leadership efforts to maximize the impact of each (without compromising any);
Best practices for competing in the dynamic “SEO game” and techniques for ranking your web properties organically;
The latest ways companies are incorporating social media into their marketing efforts.

I hope to see you there.

Posted in Facebook, Google, Marketing, Social Networking, Technology, Twitter

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