Six Pixels of Separation, Groundswell & eMetrics
Mitch Joel has accomplished something that few others have: he has made the fundamentals of digital marketing and social media easily accessible. In his book, Six Pixels of Separation, Mitch makes the intersection between digital marketing, social media, personal branding and entrepreneurship digestible for nearly everyone. In BusinessCast #146, Robert sat down with Mitch to talk about this book — which is one of the few sources that we recommend for entrepreneurs getting a bearing on social media.
Once you’ve been inspired by Mitch’s book, the next step is developing the right social media strategy for you, your business and your audience. Without a doubt, Charlene Li’s Groundswell remains the most well-researched and practical book that we’ve found. Listen to the conversation that we recently had with Charlene, in BusinessCast #101, Leveraging the Groundswell.
Of course, if you’re trying to get a handle on social media, you’ll need to measure its effectiveness. The eMetrics Summit is a world-class event to help you tackle this challenge. And, the event is coming to location near you. **Special for BusinessCast Listeners**: You can get 15% off the attendee cost if you use the following purchase code: BCAST15. See you there!
Fotobabble – A Social Media Innovation
We continue to talk with entrepreneurs and thought leaders about why, how and when to leverage social media. Now, we’ve got something special: In BusinessCast #145 — Fotobabble, we get the inside scoop from an entrepreneur who is actually launching what could be the next social media tool.
And, while there are several common themes whenever you’re developing/rolling-out a product or service, bringing a new social media tool to market has some unique business lessons and challenges. Listen to BusinessCast #145 and find out what you can take away from Fotobabble’s innovation in action.
Reminder: Next month, the world class event, eMetrics Summit, is coming to Toronto. If you’re a leader or manager looking to truly leverage your online presence, you ask yourself the following questions:
- What online metrics should we collect?
- When should we collect them?
- Where should we collect them?
- Who should collect/interpret them?
- How much time/effort/resource should we spend on online metrics?
- How should/can these metrics integrate with offline metrics?
- What do these online metrics truly mean?
- How can we apply the learnings from these online metrics?
The eMetrics Summit helps you get a handle on answering all of these critical issues.
Seth Godin and the Art of Marketing
Seth Godin is probably best known for being the father of “permission marketing”. But, he’s also the World’s most renown marketing “thinker”. His books are international best sellers and senior marketers from across every industry flock to listen to his provocative analysis, insights and predictions. In BusinessCast episode #144, we caught up with Seth at the Art of Marketing conference in Toronto.
As the chosen podcast media guest and sponsor, we also gathered key insights from the event’s other leading speakers/authors, Max Lenderman and Frances Cole Jones.
If you missed out on the Art of Marketing event, watch out for the eMetrics Summit — touring the World’s major centers. The conference remains the gold standard for helping entrepreneurs get a handle on measuring the business value of the Internet’s many platforms (e.g. websites, email, social media and podcasts) and popular tools (e.g. Twitter, YouTube, etc.).
The Mitch Joel Interview
Mitch Joel is a successful entrepreneur, international author and social media guru. In BusinessCast episode #143, Mitch shares the story behind his success and longevity as well as his rare approach for helping business leaders succeed at leveraging social media tools and strategies.
A reminder of upcoming (Toronto) events critical for all business leaders:
- The Art of Marketing (March, 2010). Note: BusinessCast guest Mitch Joel is speaking at this conference.
- Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit (April, 2010)
Choosing the Right Buyer
You’re being courted by a handful of companies that want to purchase your business. Wow! That’s an exciting scenario that many entrepreneurs strive for and consider essential validation that they’ve been successful.
But, the truth is that rather than being an easy destination in itself, this is a critical cross-roads that takes a great deal of determination, patience and focus. The countless number of issues that you need to address include:
- How do you choose between potential buyers?
- Is this the right time to sell?
- What’s your role going to be once the purchase is complete?
- What are your key measures of a success?
- When should you walk away from the deal?
- Who should you involve in the selling process?
- What are the likely surprises that you’ll face?
To get the answers to these questions in BusinessCast #142, we interview Chris Carder, President of Thindata 1:1 — one of North America’s leaders in multi-channel and database-driven marketing solutions.
In March of 2008, Transcontinental purchased the company that Chris and his partners built. So, in BusinessCast #142 Chris provides practical hands-on insights and candidly shares his pre-purchase concerns and post-purchase lessons. This is essential listening for any entrepreneur who ever thinks about selling their company.
*A reminder of upcoming (Toronto) events critical for all business leaders:
- The Art of Marketing (March, 2010)
- Emetrics Marketing Optimization Summit (April, 2010)