In January, you’ll be hearing more and more about a new product called “Facebook for Work.” Envying products like Microsoft’s Yammer, Salesforce.com’s Chatter, Google Apps for Work and the current “it” product called Slack, Facebook is reportedly itching to dive into the enterprise collaboration marketplace where revenues are generated by fees rather than advertising.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving! We can’t thank you enough for not only subscribing to the Idea Email, but also for opening and reading it and emailing us back.
By Rex Hammock
Over the years, I’ve been surprised whenever I’m included on such lists as Chief Executive magazine’s “Top Ten CEO Blogs” or CEO.com’s Top 25 CEO Bloggers. Why am I surprised? Because I’ve done only two things to receive such honors: (1) I started blogging in 1999. (2) I didn’t stop.
Every two years during the weeks leading up to the first Tuesday in November, the phrase “ground game” spikes on Google (see chart, below).
By Rex Hammock
I’m honored when people call Hammock Inc. one of the agencies that pioneered content marketing. (This month marks our 23rd anniversary.) However, I’ve always felt the term “content marketing” can be confusing when it’s applied to everything from blogging and social media to animated kitten GIFs. Unfortunately, when a term is used to label anything, it can start to mean very little.
In a perfect content marketing world, the content that works—that helps accomplish the specific business objective that led to its creation and deployment—would be easy to pick out. But when it comes to content marketing, the outcome sought by the marketer rarely can be attributed to a single customer interaction. Determining whether it works is the result of multiple interactions between marketer and customer.
Way back before the internet browser was created (the year current college seniors were born), marketers were dependent on print and broadcast media companies to communicate with customers. Getting their message into channels controlled by such companies consisted of a strategy using two tactics: paid media (advertising) and earned media (public relations).
Next Tuesday, Apple will hold one of its famous new product unveilings. If you want to learn why Apple is the master of such unveilings, here’s our advice: Ignore the products they launch. Concentrate instead on watching Apple’s mastery of “The Prestige.”
We assume since you are reading this on the internet , that you know what the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is. So you won’t be surprised that Hammock’s John Lavey (video #1) challenged Rex Hammock (video #2) and that they both got cold and wet for a good cause.
You may have noticed how Google’s search results page has evolved from a list of website links to a collection of information boxes, categorized or localized resources, maps, calculators and other features. Google is no longer in the search business. It’s in the answer business. The company knows we aren’t looking for websites when we type into the search box—We want answers.