Marketing Transformation? It’s Messy

March 31, 2010

Lately I’ve been struck by the messy, unintended consequences of the wrenching changes that the practice of marketing is going through. One such consequence is how hard it has become to get a big picture view of what’s going on in the marketplace, where your best opportunities might lie — whatever market your business or [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Ringtones at Work

March 17, 2010

Ringtones at work: what does your ringtone selection say about who you are? Is it appropriate for use in a business setting or professional context?

0 comments Read the full article →

Responding to Guest Blogger Requests

March 9, 2010

It’s been a curious 24 hours. First, snow falling on daffodils and cherry blossoms (our first of the season, here in Seattle). Then, 2 people emailed me, having found my blogs, to inquire about contributing posts for this blog and my personal blog. The requests, while flattering, caught me off guard. They made me realize [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Email Still Matters for Communication Purposes

March 8, 2010

As a practical indicator of social media adoption, I’ve been looking for signs of how Twitter is used by people within my business networks, and in particular, by my clients. My non-scientific research suggests that email, phone calls, or in-person meetings still dramatically outweigh the use of Twitter in the business communications and interactions I see on a day-to-day basis. What’s interesting about this is that my clients are all in the high-tech arena

2 comments Read the full article →

Solving Windows 7 RC Install Issues on Bootcamp

March 8, 2010

In a prior post I discussed my problems trying to replace Windows 7 Release Candidate on a MacBook Pro under Bootcamp. This weekend I took another shot at it, having found some posts that suggested my issues might be related to disk fragmentation. You may have to defrag your disk first Thanks to these posts, [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Windows 7 RC on a Mac? Beware!

March 2, 2010

If you’ve been running Windows 7 RC on a MacBook Pro in a Bootcamp partition, beware. The path to reinstalling Windows 7 is fraught with problems, hassles, risks and time wasters. Quick summary, if you don’t want to read the rest of this post. After several hours of effort each day, over several days, I [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

We’re in the “Customer Understanding” Business

February 8, 2010

Lately I’ve been struck by how we marketers may be losing our way, overlooking our core mission. Preoccupied with wrenching changes in how we launch products, retool the marketing mix, and engage influencers and stakeholders, it’s easy to overlook our core mission: understanding customers. How we apply what we understand about customers is what drives the marketing (and sales) engine.

0 comments Read the full article →

Apple Mini Server: Some IT Expertise Required

February 4, 2010

Just before the holidays I invested in Apple’s new server offering for small firms and workgroups, the Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server. It’s a sweet package.

For $999 you get a whisper-quiet, energy-efficient server not much larger than a paperback book. The device comes with 4GB of RAM and a terabyte of built-in storage, plus an unlimited client license to Apple’s powerful server software (10.6.x Snow Leopard).

Apple claims this combination of hardware and software can handle up to 25 concurrent users. To handle more users would require more powerful hardware. I’ve been using it to serve a handful of concurrent users, and it’s plenty fast. But it’s not perfect, and here’s why…

1 comment Read the full article →

Managing Biz Dev Contacts Online

February 3, 2010

Large enterprises have all sorts of choices when it comes to managing interactions with customers and prospects. The options available to solo practitioners and very small businesses, until recently, have been much more restricted, especially for people who want more than what Microsoft Outlook has to offer. Marketing firms like mine want a service that’s [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

What’s the ROI on Social?

January 19, 2010

During today’s presentation to the Seattle Social Media Club, Sean O’Driscoll, community builder and influencer marketing expert, revealed how he answers the inevitable questions about the ROI on social media and influencer marketing programs. He held up a phone and rhetorically asked, “How do you measure the ROI on your telephones?” Translation: it’s the conversations [...]

Related Posts with Thumbnails

0 comments Read the full article →