So, you want to tell me about your company or why every start-up needs marketing I recently reviewed several dozen start-up websites, some for competitions, others for advisory work, and a few as part of an initial introduction. In all cases, I was asked to give the companies feedback on their products, not their websites.…
Writing good thought leadership content isn’t easy. Writing great thought leadership content is even harder. Follow these 10 Tips for Creating Great Thought Leadership Content to transform it from good to great. 10 Tips for Creating Great Thought Leadership Content Write about what you know. If you are researching a topic and trying to find…
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What is thought leadership? Thought leadership content associates an organization or an individual with ideas. Thought leadership strives to establish credibility in a domain with the intent of making the organization or individual more attractive as a supplier, partner, or advisor. Many collaboration companies, for instance, develop thought leadership that looks at the future of…
What is a thought leader? A thought leader establishes a unique perspective on some aspect of the world. A thought leader shares their perspective, and they bring people along in their learning journey. Thought leaders don’t lock into a perspective and keep repeating the same ideas over and over. Thought leaders recognize local variances, the…
Many visitors to Serious Insights ask How to become a thought leader. This post offers six fundamental steps every thought leader must traverse. Learn how to create a thought leadership strategy here. 1. Establish credibility Thought leaders offer a unique perspective. They own their voice. They write with authenticity and authority. The first step toward…
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A customer service story. This morning I spent way too much time trying to get a $10 credit for car service I had performed last week. You might think, “ten dollars, let it go.” While $10 is a good lunch, it was more about the initial response than the $10. The $10 became the token…
Presentation Tips: How Not to Give THAT Vendor Presentation Trade show and conference attendees don’t like vendor presentations, and neither do conference organizers. Why? Because most vendors send a sales or marketing person up to do the company pitch, even when they committed to not doing the company pitch. The problem is, the vendor probably…
Thought Leadership’s Golden Rules Thought leadership isn’t just for individuals. In the Serious Insights guide “Thought Leaderhip’s Golden Rules,” you will learn how to use thought leadership to shape people’s perception of a company, its products and its services. Firms large and small want to be thought leaders. Thought leadership derives from strategic differentiation, a…
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What Is a Thought Leadership Strategy? How do you think about the future of your market? Does your organization include people who help shape your industry? What unique insights does your organization have about its market? What is your vision for the future of your customer? The answer to these questions should be coordinated by…
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Inside Comic-Con Exclusives What Can Marketers Learn from the Comic-Con Exclusives Strategy? A lot if you want to increase the worthiness of your product by making it look scarce. Exclusives are a big deal at Comic-Cons (I covered the exclusives process in GeekWire last year. See Exclusive! The inside story of Comic-Con’s most coveted collectibles).…
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CMOs and technology mastery CMOs and technology: CMOs need to master the technology that automates processes, provides analytical insights, and facilities collaboration among teams. I was reading the most recent CMO research data from The CMO Study published by Deloitte US and Duke University [the study can be found here]. The findings are very interesting,…
Introducing Fametek. For the last couple of years, people visiting Las Vegas for CES may have noticed a Dalek, Doctor Who’s most persistent enemy, roaming in front of a booth at the edge of the iLounge. Those who wandered the show were sure to see it. The cyborg crafted mostly of speakers was a selfie-worthy…
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I was sitting on a couch in my hotel room while attending the Acumatica Summit 2016 in Orlando, Florida. I opened twitter and in the middle of the stream was an invitation to join a NASA Social event. I applied. I was accepted. I flew to San Jose, arriving near Midnight, and took an Uber…
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Star Wars ‘Jakku Spy’ comes to the very little screen in VR ILM Labs, through the Star Wars App, has delivered a VR experience for iOS and Android. I just downloaded that content to my iPhone 6. It was short, but ran well, had a good frame rate and delivered a compelling little vignette. I…
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Top Ten Things Job Hunters Should Do on Social Media I just spent the last two weekends teaching Social Media for Job Hunters at Bellevue College. It is always a great learning experience for me, and I hope, a valuable experience for the students as well. Here are some of the major takeaways. Please feel…
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The saga of my Google Chromecast Anniversary Gift or Lessons Learned in Not Delivering Well on a Promise. Yesterday I read that Google was offering a free movie to celebrate with owners of Chromecast. So I went over to my Galaxy Tab S 8.4, connected to my Chromecast and went to offers. I had six offers…
Not everything at CES 2015 will prove to be a profound forecast of future consumer acceptance. Some of the “trends” were not trends at all, but things that want to become trends. There were trends in things being shown, perhaps, like Smart Watches, but Smart Watches are not a trend. Watches are not a trend either. Telling…
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I spent most of my first day at the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) listening to press conferences, mostly from big companies. Some, like Dish, made a big splash with an LED drum parade followed by multiple marching kangaroos. The Dish CEO, Joseph P. Clayton, marched on stage with a drum and was pretty entertaining. And…
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Happy New Year from Serious Insights! Strategic Thinking in Review Here are the top 10 2014 insights from SeriousInsights.net: What is an Information Worker? Welcome to the Serendipity Economy Scenario Planning: Getting to the Matrix How to write a good scenario planning focal question? Five Flappy Bird Addictions That Will Make You a Better Manager Why…
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Angry Birds Layoffs Rovio announced layoffs today as reported in Wired Rovio Layoffs Prove Mobile Gaming Is an Industry of One-Hit Wonders (October 2, 2014,) and elsewhere. I don’t believe, however, that Rovio’s issues stem from the inherent nature of mobile gaming. If we look at their iconic games, we find “innovations” that distract from gameplay…
3 Marketing Technology Mistakes Marketing technology mistakes are all too common in small businesses. I just called a landscaping company for a quote. They may be a fine company, I don’t know, but they exhibited all three mistakes that small businesses make when it comes to technology, which makes me worry about their attention to…
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Kim Kardashian has faced some rocky PR with a quickly failed marriage, a self-serving app, and a very public pregnancy shared with rapper, baby-daddy, and now new husband, Kanye West. Regardless of what she is facing, Kim remains a good case study in marketing. With the announcement of her yet-to-be published Rizzoli book of selfies titled, “Selfish,”…
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Apple: Buzz Marketing Isn’t New needs perspective and history. Back on May 2, Apple posted a job around “Buzz Marketing,” as reported in MacRumors (Apple Expanding ‘Buzz Marketing’ Team Focused on Product Placement). I always find the lack of historical perspective on the Internet amusing, amazing, and saddening. Apple was one of the first to…
If you are young and spend your time on YouTube, or if you track the world of pop culture through Twitter, you probably know Tyler Oakley. If your YouTube experience is limited to talking dog videos, expand your horizons, and go find Tyler Oakley. Tyler has something to teach you about personal branding, and more…
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E-mail signatures are the calling cards of the 21st Century. Although social media channels provide bios, sometimes links to websites, e-mail remains the primary means of business communication. Some systems are now capable of converting signatures into contacts, which is great, except when an e-mail you receive doesn’t include a signature. For solid business relationships,…
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If you missed the story, and few in the tech industry did, Michael Bay experienced a technology and preparation glitch at Samsung’s CES 4K curved television announcement. It needn’t have gone the way it did. Here are seven simple rules that can help marketers avoid live celebrity spokesperson meltdowns. Those celebrity spokespeople would do well…
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I’m not ashamed of telling people I like to play Rovio’s Angry Birds. I liked the game better before Rovio decided it was OK to advertise to me even in games that I paid for. Sure, they are advertising in-app purchases, plush toys and their own games, but they are still advertising and it still…
This is the first in a series of whitepapers that will explore how to think like a scenario planning within the context of a particular market or role. This first paper explores marketing and provides the following recommendations: Lead Information Technology Master Data and Analysis Own Brand Management Foster Holistic Marketing Be the Voice of the…
CES may put in many strictures to keep those not anointed of the consumer electronic business at arm’s length, but more than any other show, CES is a populist event—and it should embrace those its serves most directly. CES’s sprawling, slightly organized event would do well to spend time introspectively examining its near-Hydra-headed attributes. In…
Thought leadership isn’t just for individuals. Here’s how your business can use thought leadership to shape people’s perception of your company and its products–the right way. Read the complete post at Fast Company: The Golden Rules Of Creating Thoughtful Thought Leadership
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Here is the list of suggested readings for my students. Do you have an interesting post you think they should know about? Please send via e-mail, tweet or as a comment here. Thank you! Tips and Tricks 10 Social Media Failures (and How to Avoid Them) Email Copy That Converts: 5 Tips for Success from…
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The traditional categorization of collaboration software no longer reflects the way people actually work. As we text over phones in the same room, or chat via instant messaging in the same meeting, the very idea of same time, same place or different time, different place seems archaic. Those categories reflect a good intellectual view of…
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