The AI Marketing Companion

Have you figured out Facebook marketing? What if I told you that organic reach is GOING UP for many businesses in 2015? Impossible you say? Well, then you will need to catch up with our new episode of The Marketing Companion where we discuss the "secondary advertising ripple" and how it's creating new complexity for companies trying to figure out what's happening on their Facebook page. But wait!...

The entrepreneurial spirit was strong in me, even at an early age. I always had some gig going. I sold Christmas cards door-to-door. I raked leaves and cut grass. I watched kids and dogs. I did anything I could to make a buck. But my first entrepreneurial venture was also my shortest one and it occurred when I was five years old. That's right. I started my first business before I entered the first...

Advocate marketing is getting a bit ... prickly. While there are undoubtedly some wonderful programs out there, and many brands are doing it well, there is a rising tide of weird stuff going on in the influencer space, as we explore on the latest episode of The Marketing Companion. The ability for anybody to publish content and gain an active audience has transformed the media world and democratiz...

Real-time marketing is one of the hottest trends around, prompting entirely new agency specialists and tactics in the last few years. But it has also proved to be disastrous for several brands and the trend might even be losing some steam. This is an issue for rich discussion on the latest Marketing Companion podcast and, in fact, Tom Webster and I disagree on the promise and potential of this mar...

In this era of complex and overwhelming information density innovation will rule as brands find ways to cut through the clutter. In terms of leading content innovation, there is no better leader to observe than Jay Baer of Convince and Convert. Two years ago I would have introduced Jay as a blogger but that is not nearly sufficient enough to describe America's foremost new media mogul. In the past...

If you read through one piece of research this year it might just be a new report from the University of Pennsylvania on marketers, consumers, and privacy. The research is important not just for its surprising revelations about privacy but also for its unapologetic scolding of the way marketers have been mis-leading their customers. The new Annenberg survey results indicate that marketers are misr...

In a scathing blog post, the co-founder of Ello blasts Facebook as monstrous entity dedicated to hurting people in the margins of society. In this episode, hosts Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster blast Ello back and explain why Facebook's "real name" policies provide a healthier and authentic social media platform.

It's hard to believe but Tom Webster and I have been making beautiful podcast music together for two years and in this anniversary extravaganza we have a long list of celebrity appearances. None of them could actually make it to the show, but we did have a long list. Thanks to Marketing Companion Super Fan Rev Ciancio for this awesome graphic![/caption] Actually we do have moderately interesting g...

On The Marketing Companion podcast, Tom Webster and I continue to plow new ground. For example, in this latest episode, we become the first on-demand radio show to mention The Kardashians and B2B buyer personas in the same sentence. We discuss why Zappos employees are fleeing the holocracy, and explain how this concept began with Star Trek. Sort of. And just when you thought it could not get any m...

One of my predictions for 2015 was that the incredible wave of information density we all face as marketers will force innovation in content forms. Let's face it, the way we create and consume content has not changed significantly in a decade. The need to stand out will finally force companies to help us create and consume in new ways. And change is in the air. A few new ideas are percolating out...

Last week I was having a new Internet line installed at my home. I explained to the workers, all under 30, that I needed a period of quiet during the middle of the day because I was about to record a podcast. "What's a podcast?" one of the young crew asked. "It's an Internet radio show," I explained. "Oh," he said, "I have heard a few of those. But what's a podcast exactly?" I then launched into a...

Remember when social media was about engagement? I could argue that the biggest trends we are witnessing are all about NOT engaging! For example, The hottest apps right now are Meerkat and Periscope, essentially turning you into your own live-streaming channel. In other words, you're broadcasting. One of the fastest-growing platforms is podcasting. In essence, there is no engagement. Likewise, fas...

In the latest Marketing Companion, we take a "behind the scenes" examination of  The Content Code , a new book that charts a course for winning in a world of overwhelming information density. But along the way, Tom Webster and I also discuss ... A few takeaways from SXSW 2015 The virtures of a sub-premium dating service Why the four benefits of traditional publishing are obsolete, and what I did a...

I used to work for a big metals and mining company called Alcoa. Whenever I worked on a new customer contract, we always had an extremely conservative legal position, especially when it came to anything that had to do with the competition. Everybody in sales and marketing had to go through annual training programs about what to do if we ever saw a competitor, or a competitor spoke to us. If we wer...

Ad blocking seems to have the advertising industry in crisis but there doesn't seem to be a unified plan to do anything about it. Why? If you haven't become addicted to The Marketing Companion podcast yet, this would be a good episode to try it out. Tom Webster and I cover some amazing topics ... with a little humor and fun thrown in the way as well.  In the latest episode, we unwrap: Ad blocking...

A lot of people are ga-ga over the "social enterprise," a nirvana state where every employee is a brand advocate blissfully tweeting and posting on behalf of the company each day. Obviously this is far-off dream for many organizations, and perhaps not even desirable (gasp). The issue came to the forefront again last week when the web blew up over possible legislation in the state of South Carolina...

In the latest edition of The Marketing Companion podcast , Tom Webster and I climb all over today's hottest marketing topics. Here's a sampling of our latest audio adventure: Tom amazes Mark with his knowledge of the Seven Dwarves. Cancelling Google Glass -- Is this a blip on the wearable tech radar or has Google set the industry back a step? Under-used social media platforms -- Mark tried an expe...

This week we scrapped plans for the podcast we had planned to address a controversy that emerged at Edison Research, Tom Webster's company. It was time for us to reflect on the great two-edged sword we all face on the Internet: the historically important opportunity to publish and be heard, and the vulnerability we face to be skewered without compassion ... or facts. Overall, the Internet is a goo...

We've had a great year on The Marketing Companion podcast and Tom Webster and I thought we would end 2014 with a bit of fun. We've compiled a few of the most hilarious highlights from our podcast so you can ring in 2015 with a laugh.  Nothing But the Funny Bits features some of our most popular "products" that got us laughing the hardest, including: Google Pants -- The Party in your pants! Ass Ads...

Hosts Mark Schaefer and Tom Webster have been creating written, video, and audio content for years. In this episode, they share with you some of the lessons they have learned from the mistakes and victories they have experienced along the way.  

New from The Marketing Companion! Your favorite social media personalities as bendable action figures. Just $12.99. Limited quantities available except for the Mark Schaefer edition. We have plenty of those. One of my favorite activities is thinking and talking about what's coming next and there is nobody more fun to have that kind of discussion with than Tom Webster as we take on what's next in d...

I always find it curious when people compare our social media presence with our REAL presence in the "real world." What makes people think that Facebook is NOT the real world? Increasingly, we are beginning to see these lines blur. We create our personality on Facebook. But Facebook is also creating our personality. Facebook changes our behavior. Seriously. Recently, Facebook demonstrated how it c...

Do you nurture your online personal brand? Or is your brand simply your personality? Does your personality create your brand or does your brand create your personality? Tom Webster and I had a disagreement on this and the discussion was so compelling we decided to create some content around this in the form of a podcast. In fact, Tom characterizes personal branding as a "load of crap." What is the...

It seems at the end of every year, pundits predict that "this is the year of MOBILE!" And perhaps it is finally true. But as my podcasting partner in crime Tom Webster writes in his new book The Mobile Commerce Revolution: Business Success in a Wireless World  (with co-author Tim Hayden), it is mobility, not just "mobile", that is changing the world. You are not going to want to miss this insightf...

The advent of Ello has been one of the most interesting developments of the year. The new social network promises a simple, ad-free platform to connect and share. Wait. Ad-free you say? In fact, the platform's founder, Paul Budnitz, has been making the media rounds proclaiming he "doesn't care about money." While there is probably more to this network than pure virtue, Ello is undeniably HOT, sign...