Written by Carla Gates | 07 April 2011

What do I mean by Customer 2.0? And Why Should You Care?

Something happened to consumers during the past 10 years.

John Gerzema, in his fabulous book, Spend Shift, says, “Consumers are increasingly powerful and unpredictable”.

In Curation Nation, Steven Rosenbaum says, “brands, which for so long told their story with the massive voice of one-way advertising, now find consumer conversations about their products are happening in big, public, uncontrolled ways”.

KISSmetrics recently reported that 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations, while only 14% trust advertisements when making purchases.

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Written by Carla Gates | 07 April 2011

Ignite Your Business (but read the book first) | Review of "Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, EBooks, & Webinars"

I just read Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman's new book Content Rules. Get it? Content. Rules. It’s a great double entendre.

And yes, the book describes in detail 11 "rules of content marketing", but more importantly, it proves just why you now need to be a content creator and curator, or else you won't survive the shift in how consumers gather information, make buying decisions, and drive brand loyalty. Yes, you heard me: you won't survive.

Your prospects aren't looking at your slick TV or print ads anymore; they've learned not to trust traditional advertising, and instead to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations, which they get by interacting with their communities online.

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Written by Carla Gates | 07 April 2011

Don't Start to Tweet, if You Can't Take the Heat | Techniques to Make the Most of Your Twitter Account

Don't bother starting out on Twitter, unless you do it right from the beginning; as with any marketing effort, "be in it to win it" or you'll waste your business’s time and money.

As a Social Media Strategist, I hear clients who are trying to break into social media, tell me, "I don't really have much time for Twitter, but my boss told me to set up a company account, so I tweet once a week or so...but I don't really see the value."

Well, of course you don't see the value - if you don't invest the upfront effort in learning Twitter best practices, it won't provide any return for your company.

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