Wharton Undergraduate Marketing Conference
Posted on 08. Nov, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Marketing, Social Media, Speaking and has 0 Comments
I had the opportunity to speak at the Wharton Undergraduate Marketing Conference on November 6th. We got some great feedback and it was exciting to hear some of the students put some ideas in action right away.
MITX Event – Web Marketing on a Shoestring
Posted on 28. Jun, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Advertising, Inbound Marketing, Social Media and has 0 Comments
Garfield Group Interactive President Dean Whitney was a panelist at last week’s MITX Marketing Technology Series Event: Web Marketing on a Shoestring - Being Scrappy with Free Tools and Techniques.
Moderator: Jeff Cram – Co-Founder, ISITE Design
Panelists: Cappy Popp – Principal and Co-Founder, Thought Labs; Greg Slama - Manager, Contextual Marketing, One to One Interactive; Mike Volpe – VP, Marketing, Hubspot; Dean Whitney – President, Garfield Group Interactive
Discussion points included:
- Free or low-cost search, social media and analytics tools
- Successful examples of marketing on a shoestring
- What you can and can’t get with free/low cost tools – What are the pros and cons of free tools?
- What factors do you need to look for when evaluating the various technology options?
- Emerging technologies & the future: Are we moving towards a complete free, scalable “service” model?
- What do you need to know now to make your business ready for the future of technology?
See this event series on Twitter using hash-tag MITXMT
Find more great MITX Events in the boston area.
Social Marketing Funnel
Posted on 25. Jun, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Advertising, Inbound Marketing, Social Media and has 0 Comments
The Social Marketing Funnel illustrates the life cycle of customer acquisition that occurs when brands add value by educating consumers, providing quality content, engaging in conversation, promoting content, people and other brands through social media and networks.
The benefits normally achieved through marketing are supported throughout the entire custom experience, industry interactions and the business community.
20 brands you should follow on Twitter
Posted on 03. Jun, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Social Media, Twitter and has 0 Comments
Some brands do a great job connecting with customers on Twitter. If you are considering ways to leverage Twitter for your brand here are some to watch.
- Comcast – @comcastcares
- Dell Outlet – @delloutlet
- VMWare – @vmwarefusion
- NASA – @NASA/@MarsPhoenix
- Starbucks – @Starbucks (more…)
10 Questions: Are You On Track to Building an Effective Social Media Marketing Program
Posted on 22. May, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Inbound Marketing, Social Media and has 0 Comments
- Do you have a “Publishing Plan” to create meaningful content and reach your target audience?
- Are you actively listening to and having conversations with people in places they frequent such as blogs and online communities?
- Are your empowering employees and customers to act as “brand evangelists?”
- Do you have a systematic plan for your teams to promote your brand, your content and build reputations on a daily basis?
- Are you establishing a “Co-creation Experience” with your target buyers? An experience where their suggestions and insights shape the future of your offering? Can your customers become members?
- Are you planning “Research Initiatives” that will help your organization learn prior to making major investments in marketing initiatives?
- Is your strategy “Agile”, with regular checkpoints to analyze results and trending, to look at both qualitative and quantitative data, adjust your tactics and fine-tune your initiatives?
- Are you able to derive lead intelligence from your website? Can you analyze how specific events, content, activities affect traffic and lead conversion? When a website visitor converts to a lead can you tell what site they came from, which pages they read and see what they are interested in?
- Do you have a systematic program for keyword discovery and acquisitions? Are you sharing target keywords with your team so they can use them in when creating content (blogs, comments, twitter updates etc.)?
- Are you willing to “Lose Control” of the conversation?
Social Media Marketing (SMM)
Posted on 06. Jan, 2009 by Dean Whitney in Social Media, Web 2.0 Technology and has 0 Comments
“Create fans, not customers,” describes the goal of social media marketing.
Every company has a personality that consumers can identify and describe. For that reason, marketing is not so much about getting people to make purchases as it is about getting people to like and trust you.
New media marketing comes in many varieties: online banner advertising, viral marketing, social networking, interactive Websites, blogs, podcasts … the list goes on. But no matter the tactic, the purpose is the same–turning potential customers into enthusiastic fans.
The use of social media websites for marketing is growing fast. Social media marketing is a method of promoting your brand (be it yourself, a product, a service, or company) by strategically making your presence known across various social media networks (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Myspace, etc.) This may seem overly elementary but “Making yourself known” is the kicker because each category of social media has a different, sometimes intricate method for effective promotion.
Social Networking Kit
Posted on 09. Dec, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Social Media and has 0 Comments
On my way to Albuquerque NM tomorrow to give a talk on Web 2.0 and Social Media at the Opportunity Finance Network Conference. I will be talking to beginners and marketing folks looking to leverage new digital strategies. I use this kit to do some speed networking to demonstrate how people are much more influenced by social media (tags, comments, user generated content, ratings) and the creation of this content is becoming second nature.
The kit was inspired inspired by Jeff Pulver at the Social Media Breakfast last summer. I added the “speed networking component” and made the fancy little kits.
Angelsoft 3.0 – Web 2.0 matchmaker for angels and ideas
Posted on 02. Sep, 2008 by Dean Whitney in Social Media, Web 2.0 Technology and has 0 Comments
Angelsoft announced today their new release of their angel investor marketplace. I’ve heard the complaint that there was the application/quality ration was far too low on Angelsoft so they have built in some great crowdsourcing tools that allows members to rate both applications and portfolios. They have also reduced the number of applications, or how many angels an entrepreneur can submit an idea to. They have also included a Google mashup showing deals by location and they have a comprehensive listing of angel investors that you can sort and search through – that alone is a great resource. Unlike many Web 2.0 sites; its not free but if you have a great idea and have done the leg work its certainly worth the $250 to sign-up.
Angelsoft 3.0 Introduction Video from Angelsoft on Vimeo.
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