R2 Marketing, LLC

Combining social media and CRM.

This podcast provides a case study of how the NHL integrates social media and their customer relationship management programs (CRM). I continue to strengthen my belief that applying direct response techniques and methodology to social media will make for a richer experience for the customers. It will also provide the data for marketers to be highly targeted in their other interactions with customers.

Podcast from 1 to 1 Media

Does my company need to be in the mobile space?

This article provides some excellent thought starters when considering mobile marketing. A recent study by Ogilvy showed that women would be more willing to sacrifice their TV’s rather than their mobile phones.

Article from PROMO

Making money with social media.

Socialmediaexaminer.com discusses the results of a study by R2integrated: is your company seeing an increase in sales from social media. 65% of the marketers surveyed said that social media is not improving their sales numbers. The study examines the differences between those companies showing a sales increase and those that do not. The primary factor that emerged for successful companies was “those who responded that their company had profited or increased revenues using social media were almost twice as likely to have a formal social media strategy.”

Social Media Examiner article (via Holy Kaw!)

Full R2integrated report

Is email on the way out?

It appears that the Facebook COO’s prediction of email’s demise may be greatly exaggerated. While social networking sites are growing at a faster pace than traditional email, some reports are showing email usage has continued to grow. There is interesting data on both sides of the argument from this article in Fast Company.

Fast Company article

10 things we can learn from Apple.

The tech media was all about Apple this week in the days before the launch of the iPhone 4. However, this article reminded me of the real reason that I’ve been an Apple fan since my college days in the 80’s when I first saw an interview with Steven Jobs.

Fast Company article

Ice cream for a smile!

Mashable reports on an ice cream machine being tested at the Cannes Advertising Festival. The integration between POS and social media is interesting. The real test will be if customers tag themselves on the Facebook page to complete the interaction and to allow for information capture by the client. I will be watching for follow-up case studies.

Mashable article

Sapient Facebook page

It’s all about the chocolate.

Awesome site for custom designed chocolate bars (via Holy Kaw!.) A great gift idea for employees, clients or anyone who loves chocolate.

Chocomize

Just for fun.

Why do the goats cross the bridge?

Video from Holy Kaw!

One of the benefits of no longer having a two-hour-round-trip-commute is that I now have much more time to read. While I initially thought this to be a luxury, I’ve found that it has become a critical part of my business. I’m able to keep up with the newest developments in the marketing field and in the quickly evolving digital world. I also found myself forwarding articles to friends, colleagues and clients with greater frequency. So, I’ve decided to post interesting articles in a weekly digest on this blog. Some of the articles will be useful for marketers, but some will also just be for fun. I’ll typically post each Friday, but here are a few items to give you a hint of what to expect.

Where Americans are moving.

This map from Forbes shows how people are moving across the country (in 2008). I’ve selected my home base of Tulsa, OK. You can click on any market, and the map will personalize inward and outward movement from the county you selected. I see this as a very helpful tool for marketers in a number of areas such as hospitality and real estate, but also for those marketers who simply want to understand any market a bit better. (via brandflakesforbreakfast.com)

Forbes Interactive Map here

What’s a Facebook fan really worth?

This article in Ad Age provides two very different approaches to answering the “$64,000 question”. Neither is perfect and both require some leaps of faith. As a direct marketer by origin, I am happy to see more and more companies attempting to apply some mathematical rigor to the ROI challenge. However, I am firmly in agreement with David Armano, senior VP, Edelman Digital, quoted in the article, “we would do well to think of Facebook as part of a larger marketing ‘ecosystem’ [emphasis added] where there are practical and actionable set of measures like customer lifetime value, acquisition costs and sales.”

Ad Age Article (including formulas!) here

New AARP Survey shows increase.

A new survey from AARP shows that social media and internet usage is increasing dramatically among the 50+ demographic. The days of saying, “the Seniors market is not online” are quickly fading.

AdWeek Article

AARP Survey

Startup to Watch.

I’m an avid music lover (some, including my spouse, might think “junkie” is more appropriate), so I found this startup featured in Mashable’s Spark of Genius series to be quite intriguing. The site, tastebuds.fm, is a dating site that matches potential mates based on musical tastes. While the database of users is still small, this will be an interesting concept to watch.

Mashable Spark of Genius Article here

Words to live by.

Live with Art It’s Good for You