Marketing in Real Life

Throughout my career I have never really had anyone telling me exactly what to do, so I have paved my own way and set goals that I thought were important. And at times I have valued my work more than others for one reason: I was never told what I should try to achieve and never forced an answer to the question. As a brash young marketer I always felt like I knew the best way and it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. But now I know that I needed to fight for more clear direction from my managers… and with direction I would have been happier and more effective. Simply put, good management provides direction that creates: - Alignment between your activities and the company’s goals - Agreed upon, clear check in points to measure success and determine if you are on the right path - Clear value of your work to the organization if/when you want to be promoted or need other people’s time - Room to breathe and be creative within a larger framework for success; and - A sense ...

Sometimes I feel like I am just getting old. Sometimes I think I am just getting smarter. The truth is that when it comes to work work, I think I am actually maturing. Sure, I'll make the occasional sophomoric joke and get really excited for our Friday afternoon beer cart but I'm not a kid anymore. Here are five signs of professional maturity I've been noticing: - I recognize that there are lots of "right" ways to solve a problem, and they aren't all mine - I am proud when employees move on to a better job, even if it hurts - I proudly admit that there are things I don't know (and don't need to) - I'm willing to criticize and happy to be criticized - I'm okay with silence in a meeting and waiting the person on the other side of the table to speak first Maybe I'm delusional, but it feels like progress... what do you think?

Facebook takes a lot of heat in the blogosphere but they have made on the fly page management much easier in the last few weeks and should be applauded for it. With the ability to schedule posts and see/respond to comments quickly from their new mobile Pages app they've made the life of an admin who is not paid to be a community manager much easier. Here's how I'd do it spending just twenty minutes a week on the computer: 1) Set up a like-gated exclusive offer using a tool like Constant Contact's Social Campaigns ; 2) Schedule a series of related promotional posts for the week (3-5 should do it); 3) Keep an eye on any comments using the pages app and respond on the fly (turn your notifications on!); 4) At the end of the week log on to Facebook and/or Constant Contact, see your results using campaign stats and facebook insights, and build your next week of activity That's it!