Social networking and web 2.0 technologies are powerful business models.  Companies, brands and investment dollars flock to these powerful tools like moths to a flame.  Recently, New Corp’s $580 million dollar investment in the social networking giant MySpace was suggested to have grown in value to a whopping $3 billion in three ...

In the November 2007 issue of CRM magazine I recently read an article titled 'Have You Caught It?'  The premise of this article was that Viral Marketing is striking out...but viral isn't to blame. The article starts out like this.  ''Disappointing numbers have convinced many marketers to decrease their viral marketing (spend) by 55% ...

Recently, I got a call from a friend of mine. He’s a pretty smart guy, but he began our call like this. “Hey, I may be an idiot because I don’t understand something that seems so mind-numbingly simple. Can you help me?” I asked him what was bothering him. He said that over the last couple of days he’s responded to a couple of surveys. One ...

The following is an excerpt of a story that brings home the power of influence and social networking.  This is an off-line example that took place back in 2004/2005.  The account is written in first person and took place in the Midwestern United States.  It is sort of long and I didn't want to edit it down, as it would lose some of ...

Recently, there has been a lot of chatter about the importance of social media and influential consumers.  Recently, there was an article published (see 'What's Plaguing Viral Marketing', Advertising Age, July 16) in which Duncan Watts, a professor of sociology at Columbia, asserted that influential consumers don't play as much of role as ...

  On the eve of the Dow Jones board of directors voting to accept (or maybe deny) Mr. Murdoch's offer to buy Dow Jones, which includes the venerable Wall Street Journal, it struck me that News Corp maybe isn't the company name but also its motto.  With the ownership of a vast media empire that would be 'book ended' by the social ...

For me especially, the firm Brains on Fire evokes an interesting set of emotions.  The reason is pretty complex.  BOF (Brains on Fire) is a competitor to ComBlu.  They are talented people, so they are a worthy competitor.  One of their WOM team members, Virginia Miracle (Vee Dub) used to be ComBlu's client when she ...

The other day I was talking with somebody who made a really smart comment that led to a fascinating debate.  His point was that brands are terrified to a) embrace customers as part of the innovation process.  You know, those best customers who really get it (aka Customer Advocates) and b) fire those toxic customers who do nothing ...

Well the stock market is on fire again.  On Thursday, it hit another record.  Of equal but not as well reported importance was that the S&P hit 1,500, which it hasn't done since 2000.  Why is this important and what does this have to do with marketing? An excellent question grasshopper.  The answer is measurement ...

They say that the proof of the pudding is in the eating.  Who 'they' are and why 'they' say this, I do not know.  The last couple of mornings I have began my day in two different coffee houses, neither of which were Starbucks (yes, they exist!) This post has to do with one of these.  I was in a coffee house that was about a half ...