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There’s little argument that social media has changed the way we think about business, about marketing and about consumer behavior. Whether or not most businesses have figure out how to properly prioritize, leverage and measure social channels, everyone can admit social is a big factor in how they think these days. But remember the good […]

The public relations world that does know me, knows I like to kick up dust. In fact, my first national speaking engagement was a talk with Cision’s Heidi Sullivan and Jay Krall at PRSA Digital in New York after I criticized media database firms like theirs for being complicit in PR spam. John Cass and […]

It’s become an amusing hobby of mine to pick on Jeremiah Owyang for his giddiness over what he calls the “collaborative economy.” Services that, through some aspect of consumer sharing or non-traditional commerce are disrupting old guard ways of doing things. For example, Uber is often cited as being “collaborative” by Jeremiah. But it’s not. […]

And here we are, the day after Super Bowl XLIX. It’s back to the grind for the social media talking heads, the digital marketing gurus and the PR pitch artists. And that means it’s back to telling everyone that advertising doesn’t work. Except today, all we’ll talk about are which television commercials were our favorite […]

Independent candidates fight an uphill battle in any election. It’s as if they’re driving against a blinding snowstorm of big company money and contributions, nonchalant dismissal as legitimate leaders from opponents and media alike, or, if they actually gain traction, character assassinations from the left and the right. Fitting then that the first real snow […]

For the last 8-10 years or so, I have been an informal analyst of sorts in the social technology space. As a result of that, I’ve had to use, review and get to know dozens, if not hundreds, of software companies. Everyone who has launched a social media marketing toolset in the last decade has […]

NOTE: The 2015 Marketing Pricing Guide inspired a full bi-annual effort to offer insights into what marketing costs across a range of disciplines and executional needs. Please see the main Marketing Pricing Guide menu to see updated information from 2017 and 2019 surveys. A small business owner I spoke with last week needed a marketing pricing guide. […]

The problem with crisis communications is that when people feel wronged, we yearn for sympathy. It is our human nature to wish both for someone to assure us that we are justified in that negative emotion and reassure us that someone will take the blame for whatever misdeed occurred. When businesses or their employees wrong us, […]

I am not a regular podcast listener. They tend to aggravate me. Understand that it’s not that I don’t like the content or the hosts or even most guests. It’s all the technical execution of the show that drives me nuts. Perhaps it is helpful to know that my first job out of college was […]

The Sugar Bowl, generously sponsored by AllState Insurance New Year’s Day, was certainly the more entertaining of the two national semifinal football games. But for social media users and enthusiasts, there was a disturbing undertow, brought to you by AllState as well. The company’s popular Mayhem Campaign — admittedly clever and entertaining — made its […]

In the coming year, the average American will consume 15.5 hours of media every day. We’ve come quite a long way from the 57 Channels (And Nothin’ On) days, and that was just 1992. In 2015, there are countless television networks, radio stations, satellite and streaming radio channels, media websites, blogs, social networks and beyond. […]

If you’re like me, you need to see a psychiatric professional. But if you share the same experience I do on Facebook, you see a lot of people in your stream posting items you don’t care about.  For me, if it’s not sports, digital marketing or Elizabeth Shue, I  wonder who you are and why we are friends? […]