Online Video Is the New Marketing Focus

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

We have been beating the drum on the rise of online video for some time. I recently ran across a new piece of research that brought home its likely impact on professional services marketing. A study by Permission TV looked at the digital marketing budgets of over 400 senior-level marketing professionals. Interestingly, online video was most frequently sited as the focus of budget increases (66.8%) and outscored perennial favorites such as social media (41.6%), search(34.1%), webcasts(32.0%) and mobile(17.4%).

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How to Bring New Customers to You

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

I’ve mentioned before that I am a huge fan of Scott Ginsberg. I love his no-nonsense mentality on branding and his motivational talks always speak to me. He recently published a particularly timely blog post – 11 Sure-Fire Strategies for Getting New Business to Come to YOU. I think that in tough times, businesses feel like they have to constantly be “pounding the pavement” in search of new customers. Scott brings us a refreshing view of how we can work smarter to bring new business to our door step.

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How Social Media is Changing Search Engine Marketing

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

A colleague recently told me a great story about how search engine marketing was having a difficult time competing with social media marketing. Her client (we’ll call them ABC company) was spending tens of thousands of dollars on Google Adwords monthly and was not appearing at the top of the Google rankings for his industry. Perplexed and frustrated, ABC company called my friend and told her that he must show up immediately at the top of Google’s search engine results no matter the cost. My friend, concerned about this request, made a crazy suggestion. Perhaps he should try social media marketing.

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Developing a Social Media Policy

>By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

I’ve had several discussions recently with both colleagues and clients about the importance of a social media policy. For smaller companies, creating a policy may not be as critical, but at some point, if you are participating in social media you may want to have a policy. Here are a few questions to ask yourself.

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Fortune 100 CEOs Drop the Social Media Ball

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

Well, I guess that BusinessWeek.com said it best – “Fortune 100 CEOs are Social Media Laggards.”

The article provides a comprehensive breakdown of a recent survey conducted by UberCEO.com (a blog about CEOs and not for CEOs) that tracks the social media habits of 100 Fortune 100 CEOs. The survey included such business giants as Warren Buffet and Michael Dell. The study concluded that of the 100 CEOs surveyed, only two had active Twitter accounts (one of which was Mr. Buffet who, despite having 8000+ followers, only had one update). None of the CEOs write blogs. Of the 19 CEOs on Facebook, none of them had many “friends.”

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Trading Mouse Ears for a Lab Coat

By Sylvia Montgomery

Not often does a city have an opportunity to brand itself as something different. Having grown up in Orlando, I’ve only known it as the land of Mickey Mouse. This week, I am making my annual trek to visit mom and dad. As I read the Orlando Sentinel, a story catches my eye. On Monday, August 3rd, the University of Central Florida opened the doors to its new medical school.

On another day in Orlando — October 1, 1971 — Disney World opened its doors to the public. With this event came an air of anticipation, innovation, celebration and economic benefits. Over the years, the Disney brand came to dominate the Orlando area. Although the region’s brand did not necessarily undergo an image crisis, it did suffer from stereotypes — as a city focused on having fun in the sun.

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