I am a stickler for marketing and sales results. Everything we do should be measured, including our social media and social networking efforts. If what we do doesn't return ROI, we should stop doing it. Of course, to measure ROI, it must first be defined. I define ROI by asking ... more

Ever wondered what the "rhythm" of your city looks like? In cities like Rome and New York, aggregated real-time data from mobile providers is helping government officials monitor traffic flows, efficiently utilize transportation networks, and even plan for large-scale events helping to improve overall "citizen satisfaction." Is real-time data visualization ... more

Ever notice how life lessons come when and where you least expect them? Sometimes, the best insights really do emerge, and the person becomes more engaged, when a negative (I could never do that!) transforms into a positive (I had no idea it would be that It's the same when ... more

Classically marketers have always been protective of their content locking them up in PDFs and then putting a registration page in front of them. This behavior is known to have a 1 in 10 download rate, which isn't bad by marketing standards. But on the flip side, that means there ... more

Entrepreneurialism is alive and well in America. Just ask Tom Szaky, the founder of . His big a commercialized liquid plant food made from biological waste–or as Szaky calls it "worm poop," in reused soda bottles from school recycling programs (after making donations for Cleaning the bottles, slapping homey labels ... more

There's been lots of great buzz about the MarketingProfs B2B Driving Sales forum. Matt , Greg , Jayne , Amanda , Kirk , Lewis , and " Robert shared the love on their own (If I didn't mention you here, please add your link The pretty girl at the dance ... more

Moving to the U.S. has certainly required adjustments on my part. One major thing I've noticed is the difference in sexual attitudes in the American advertising world. What is "no big deal" in Europe or Canada, is totally taboo in the U.S. Take this hilarious TV spot from the U.K. ... more

It should come as no surprise that the online gaming market is exploding. In fact, last year online gaming attracted 28 percent of the total worldwide online -- almost 217 million For a long time gamers were thought of as young guys with glasses and zits playing for 14 hours ... more

Sometimes you just have to ask a question and see where it takes you. Twitter started off with the same premise. What are you doing? Eliciting a variety of responses and prompting a banal moment-by-moment commentary before the community kicked-in and reshaped Twitter's reason for But while I have a ... more

In this Marketing Over Coffee we discuss closed loop marketing, B2B show wrap up, and Marketing Metrics covering outcomes rather than activities..... all that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program sponsored by MarketingProfs that covers classic marketing tactics and what's new on the technology Direct ... more

If your company is ready to dive into the social media waters, which tools such they examine first? Blogs? Facebook? Twitter? Wrong. Try Google Blog Search, Summize, and Before you can launch a successful social media strategy, you begin monitoring existing conversations about your company. This has several 1 - ... more

A recent Washington Post article caught my Sweet ," Under Siege, Companies Begin Replacing Familiar Junk Food Pitches and The first paragraph is especially telling. "An industry that has been skewered repeatedly during the past decade–blamed for the super-sizing of millions of American children–is altering how it makes and markets ... more

It amazes me how some people and organizations succeed even when they screw up. Many of us at MarketingProfs have discussed the need for consistency in building a solid brand. When we exceed customer expectations, we score. But what about those who don't walk the talk. How do they stay ... more

This conference has flown by and by all accounts (all the smiling attendees) has really been a great success. Here are some quick tidbits and insights from today's Michael Stelzner presented, "Attracting Quality Leads with White Papers" and encouraged attendees to create reader-focused white papers instead of self-interest focused white ... more

In business, a consistent experience is often the key to establishing comfort among your consumers. While I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't surprise them by going above and beyond their expectations, it's important to get the basics right first and deliver on your Here's a recent example of a situation ... more

One of my most trusted friends and mentors recently joined a very intriguing company called .... SuccessFactors (stock symbol ). They specialize in HR software with a SaaS product that is second to none in the From a marketing and social media perspective several things about this company got my ... more

I've talked with a lot of men lately about gender roles and stereotyping, and those issues come up in their personal and work lives. Most of them have said, after making clear they couldn't speak for all guys, that they see their lives with their spouses and kids as very ... more

JER Envirotech, a manufacturer of environmentally friendly thermoplastic biocomposite materials, needed to stand out in the green manufacturing industry. Its solution: create a white paper to both explain and build credibility for its offerings. Here's how that led to 500 new leads over 60 days. more

This afternoon had the pleasure of sitting in on Chris Brogan's session, "Successful Lead Generation in a Social Media World," at our B2B Marketing Forum in Boston. The session was superb and my favorite quotes from the session are as On corporate blogging - "If you can't take criticism, your ... more

Nancy Harhut presented, "Secrets and What's Really Working in B2B Creative" and covered the most common misconceptions about business-to-business creative and provided tips for identifying those lies and reinvigorating direct mail Here are three of the ten lies Harhut cited in her Lie Everything must come in an Sure envelopes ... more

We're all gathered at the MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum 2008 in Boston where it's nearly 90 degrees today! The morning kicked off with a great intro by Roy Young and Ann Handley and tons of inspiring presentations. I attended the B2B Web Delivering on the Vision of Lead Generation helmed ... more

Social and Social can be effective tools for growing our businesses when they are part of our marketing mix. However, if they are the sole source of our marketing plan, we fail to reach the majority of our potential customers, especially if we are a B2B Let's get real! Most ... more

And , we have all been talking about over the last week or so. And while many of us are talking about the site, I think the key point here is that Plurk's emergence could validate the micro-blogging space as a Twitter, Pownce and Jaiku all offer a somewhat similar ... more

In this Marketing Over Coffee we discuss spinning a PR Crisis, Marketers as deceivers and liars, and the Google Dance..... all that and more in this Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program sponsored by MarketingProfs that covers classic marketing tactics and what's new on the technology Direct Link to ... more

There's an interesting experiment going on - well, if you're reading this any time after AM EDT on June 6, 2008, it already has finished - that involves five prominent social media marketing experts and a charitable . If you don't typically follow social media (wait - you're reading this ... more