In early August, Bill Lee wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review titled “Marketing is Dead”, igniting a rather passionate internet-wide debate between bloggers and industry experts about whether this is indeed true.
Understandably, a bold claim such as this would spur an array of reactions, but should we really start preparing a eulogy for our old pal Traditional Marketing?
Just when you think you’ve finally got a handle on search engine optimization, Google enhances two sophisticated webcrawlers, codenamed Panda and Penguin, to enforce their SEO best practices policies.
Gone are the days where a technically well-optimized site is enough to maximize your organization’s Google ranking. Sure, it’s still important to strategically select and place keywords, post a good amount of meaningful copy on each page, and trade links with high ranking sites, but these three keys no longer open all doors within the house of SEO.
Panda and Penguin represent a new era in Google’s quest to encourage businesses to engage people genuinely and ethically. This development in optimization challenges brands to advertise and present themselves with integrity – no linguistic tricks or technological gimmicks, just quality content. The goal is to improve the ranking of websites that actually contribute valuable information to the internet (think original content, research and thoughtful analysis) and undermine sites that publish low-quality content, keyword stuff and scrape.
My revelation for the day: There’s money to be made in social media. I know, I’ve stated the obvious. From the gazillion-dollar prize that is the Facebook IPO to the growth in social media measurement applications (our new favourite is SproutSocial), the opportunity for getting ahead by getting together digitally continues to boom.
I just finished reading a recent edition of Advertising Age (April 30, 2012) which features its annual state-of-the-advertising business report. No surprise that digital agencies showed the most growth in both revenue (17.1%) and jobs (17.4%). In fact, more than 30% of last year’s U.S. agency revenue (an impressive $10 billion plus) was generated from digital services including media planning, analytics and digital offerings.
Social media has definitely taken its place at the grown-ups table. Omnicom President and CEO John Wren said, “We believe that 2011 was the year in which the historical distinction between so-called traditional media and digital media disappeared. …Everything we do has a digital component to it.”
Social media companies were the stars of the first worldwide digital ranking, reporting a more than 53% growth in earnings.
According to Advertising Age’s Bradley Johnson, “You can’t do PR without understanding social media.” Apparently you can’t make the big bucks without it either.
- Pamela, Guest Blogger
Did you ever wonder why our local entrepreneurs chose Burlington as a place to do business?
We had the same thought in mind. As a part of our engagement with the Burlington Economic Development Corporation, we set our team on a mission. Make Burlington stand out, be unique and embrace social media as an unparalleled medium for networking and instant communication.
We designed and developed a new website which promotes Burlington as a great place to live and work using bold imagery as a common theme. The best part? It is uniquely interactive. The BEDC engages in conversations via Twitter, promotes their efforts on YouTube and encourages people to attend events by easily registering online.
To launch the new state-of-the-art website, we had a party. The invitees included local business owners, high-profile executives, board members, the Mayor and councillors – Burlington’s ‘stars’.
Each Burlington star was given the opportunity to tell us why “Burlington is the best place to do business”.
Intrigued? Take a look at the first 5 BEDC Stars here.
Of course, Martin was asked to give his two cents. Stay tuned for his video launching on the BEDC website soon!
I remember having a pen-pal and parents telling me not to spend too much time on the phone. On my 17th birthday, I got my very first cell phone, a lovely hand-me-down from my dad to my mom, then to me. At 22, it seems like most of my time is spent on my cell phone – be it email, text, BBM, Internet, playing games, or on Facebook and Twitter. Friends in my circle know whom I’ve talked too, what I’m doing, and where I’m going.
My point is, I spend more time “talking” to my friends on social media sites, than actually seeing most of them face-to-face. When we do see each other, we already know what’s going on because we’ve “creeped” each other’s profiles prior to our get-together. Why would you see someone if you could just text them, Facebook them or view their photos online?