Frank Patrick

The Future of Focus Groups: My Brain Knows What You Like

Not me…my brain.

First free will disappears as we learn more about the bran, now self-reported opinions are called into question as we learn to use what we know about the brain.

Plug me in.

Content Strategy - Both Strategic and Tactical

Whether managing living social media, or keeping sites fresh with blog-like efforts to engage, or even producing simple brochureware that’s expected to serve users’ information needs with minimal updates, it’s the content that lies at the core of success. The same way design (the role of which is to make one care about content) follows information architecture, information architecture lies in support of content. And content strategy requires both strategic and tactical skills separate from the marketing strategy it supports.

“… the growing demand for content strategy is often related to the need to bring an editorial viewpoint to organizations with no significant history of content creation. They need guidance on how to source, edit, produce, and maintain content. They need advice on staffing, governance, workflow, tone, quality, timing, and pruning the ROT from their overflowing archives.” 

- Tinker, Tailor, Content Strategist

Mobile Link: Mobile First!

Still a good case for “mobile first”, a year after the idea first got traction.

Marketing Link: The Digital Marketer's Checklist

A discussion of the things that should be taken into account in designing a digital marketing effort…

• What is the objective of the campaign?
• What digital measures align with the objective?
• What efforts outside of digital can we align with?
• What role should innovation play in this effort?
• How can we be smarter in this effort versus previous efforts?

Go read the whole thing…The Digital Marketer’s Checklist

[Originally shared in my Google Plus Marketing and Social Circle. If you circle me on Google Plus, and are interested in this topic and those like it, let me know of your interest via a 1-to-1 Google Plus post. (Other topical circles I post to are Project Management, Operations Management & TOC, and Development)]

Marketing Link: Feedback Loops

What are They and Why are They Important for Marketing?

Whether or not we could articulate what feedback loops are and why they work, this trend of reflecting useful data back to customers was going to grow no matter what.

From the head of Zeus Jones.

Social Link: LinkedIn basics for small business

Seven ways to actually get something out of LinkedIn for business…

1. Not all groups are equal…
2. Brand it properly…
3. Take you profile seriously…
4. Save your searches…
5. Create a company page…
6. Actually update your status…
7. Use questions and answers…

Go read Seven ways to actually get something out of LinkedIn for business for the details.

[via @swoodruff]

Social Link: Social Media: Understand the differences to overcome the challenges

A good intro to some social media basics.

…One of the first things a company needs to realize about social media is that Facebook and LinkedIn, for instance, are different animals. While all social media outlets have scalability, accessibility and immediacy in common, they serve distinct functions. For example, YouTube is a great way to demonstrate a product or method, while a Wiki (and yes, Wiki is considered a form of social media) is an authority-building tool. Facebook helps you connect with and engage customers and helps grow name and brand recognition, while LinkedIn is the foremost form of online networking…

Social Media: Understand the differences to overcome the challenges from Delia Associates’ Brand Matters blog.

Social Link: The Six Pillars of Influence

From David Armano - Six significant factors for analyzing “influence”…

• Reach
• Proximity
• Expertise
• Relevancy
• Credibility
• Trust

Read the whole thing for the details: The Six Pillars of Influence

Social Link: Pixie Dust & The Mountain of Mediocrity

I usually like to pull out a quote or a list from an article when I link to it, but that would only give you the excuse to read my excerpt and not “the whole thing”.

Stealing a line from Bush the elder, “not gonna do it” - not for this one.

Go read Kathy Sierra’s guest post on Hugh’s GapingVoid blog - Pixie Dust & The Mountain of Mediocrity - right now.

Social Link: Your Return Represents Your Investment

Social media maturity requires approaching it maturely, and an amount of effort equivalent to your desired outcomes.

From the linked article…

No matter how hard we try, we just can’t build a customer-centric organization if we do not know what it is people value. Social media are your keys to unlocking the 5I’s of engagement to develop more informed and meaningful programs:

1. Intelligence – Learn about needs, wants, values, challenges
2. Insight – Find the “aha’s” to identify gaps
3. Ideation – Inspire new ideas for engagement, communication, new products/services, change
4. Interaction – Engage…don’t just publish, bring your mission to life
5. Influence – Influence behavior and in the process, become an influencer

Read the whole thing - In Social Media, Your Return Represents Your Investment from Brian Solis.

Social Link: Everyone Should Hire 'Social Media Experts'

Good piece on the skills needed for effective social media marketing. From the piece…

Do as we’ve done, and hire folks with social media knowledge and expertise. It will open opportunities that wouldn’t be otherwise available, and if your other processes around monetization and customer acquisition scale, social is a phenomenal compliment to whatever channels you’re currently pursuing.

[Link: Everyone Should Hire ‘Social Media Experts’]

Mobile Link: Mobile is dead: 5 marketing trends

From the link…

It is no longer acceptable for campaigns to have a mobile section on the flowchart that only gets funded after other activities. Understanding consumer mobility and designing communications that reside throughout those movements must be core to campaign development.

Maybe even mobile first.

[Read the entire piece… Mobile is dead: 5 marketing trends]