Marketing in Real Life

My company has a lot of internal dashboards.  We love metrics and keeping our eyes on them on a daily basis is what helps us be successful.  But lately some of the most important metrics we watch have started being sent around by our interns.  Don’t get me wrong, our interns are great. But is that really the best way to communicate?  Here are three reasons I think the answer to that question is no. 1) Loss of importance.   Again, I love interns but regardless of how great they may be I know that I am more likely to pay attention to something sent by a higher level employee.  Having a senior level person send the metrics also allows r some qualitative color to be added to the numbers. 2) What’s the feedback loop?   If I have a question about what I am looking at I’m not sure who to ask.  Do I ask the intern?  Their manager (if I know who that is)?  The fact that I’m not sure who to follow up with is a problem in itself....

Perhaps the hardest thing for any business to admit - regardless of size - is that something just isn't working. It is easy to tell someone else to pull the plug on their idea, but doing it yourself is never quote as easy as it should be. Here are three signs that now is the time to stop investing time and money in your project and consider moving on to your next great idea: 1) When you try to explain the value proposition of your idea to friends and family you can't make it simple enough for them to "get it." 2) You are working harder than before and getting less in return than you used to. 3) You are losing your passion for the idea.

Late last week Simply Measured  put out a widely covered story talking about how engagement was 46% for brands on Facebook since converting to Timeline.  A timely (and very tweet-able) headline for sure as brand pages were being forced into Timeline.  Being a researcher at heart I felt it was my duty to read beyond the headline and check out the sample used for the study.  And what I found was an examination of a handful of brands, most of whom were of Fortune 500 size.  So, while the headline was great,  the data was misleading and of minimal relevance to most readers. In a blurb centric world this kind of reporting can be dangerous and highlights why headlines and small sample sizes don't mix well.