Warren Buffett and the Goldman Sachs Brand

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

It’s not easy to keep the luster on a big Wall Street financial services brand these days. And Goldman Sachs has been it the thick of the financial crisis these days. I caught an interesting article by Ben Stein (everyone’s favorite economist/actor) about his dinner with Buffett. Besides being worth reading for his views on business, the economy and the recent financial crisis, it has a great tidbit on professional services strategy and branding. He gives a great perspective on why Goldman Sachs can command such high fees and his view of what they do to manage their risks. I found it thought provoking. Enjoy!

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‘The State of Social Media Marketing’ Report

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

MarketingProfs, an online resource for more than 350,000 professional marketers, announced the release of its 2009 “The State of Social Media Marketing” report. The report surveyed 5 ,140 MarketingProfs members that represent more than 40 industry verticals about social media usage and trends. The comprehensive report offers considerable statistical data including:

• 27% of viral video is released for Arts and Entertainment purposes while only 19.8% is used for Education. 16.2% of Professional Services firms use viral video.
• 2.7% of Professional Services firms actively maintain a MySpace profile.
• While 18.3% respondents say that their employer has no social media policy, 12.9% say that they have a restrictive, social media policy.

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What Your Professional Services Firm Can Learn From Zappos

By Jen Sterling

Recently, I took notice of Zappos, the online shoe company.  Stories abound about their astounding customer services, as well as their unconventional company culture.  Both are remarkable.  But I want to focus on their customer service first and how (or if) it can possibly be applied at professional services companies.

Zappos was founded back in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn after he became frustrated by his inability to find the exact size and type of shoe he wanted in a mall and then finding there was no major online seller of shoes.  However, the customer service style that Zappos is known for today was designed by its present CEO Tony Tseih, who got involved as an investor and advisor about 2 months after the company was founded.

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Social Media Smackdown

By Lee W. Frederiksen, Ph.D.

Is social media a critical tool for marketing professional services or merely a passing fancy? If you follow this blog, you already know what Beth thinks. But with any emerging trend there are a variety of perspectives. I just came across two interesting takes on social media’s value in the form of predictions for 2010 that appeared in the online pub TechBiznow.

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Five Trends for Social Media in 2010

By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent

As we enter this new year, what new technology is on the horizon? How will our existing technologies evolve? Here are a few of my predictions.

1. Sharing Via Email Will Lose Popularity. Widgets are making it incredibly easy for users to share and broadcast articles, video and other content through services like Twitter, Facebook and iPhone apps. While email won’t disappear completely, I think that it will become significantly less important for sharing.
2. Mobile Websites Will Be a Must. I get excited when I open a website on my iPhone and find that they’ve taken the time to create a mobile-friendly website. Mobile websites might be optional now, but in the future companies will need to go mobile to be successful online.

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