Author Archives: Marty Thompson

About Marty Thompson

I'm the social business strategist at DK New Media. Blame it on my parents, my heartland upbringing, or my obsession with the past, but folks tell me I am really, really good at relationship building and negotiating, bridging the gap between what customers expect, and what great companies should be (but usually aren't)

Maker’s Mark Has Social Under A Barrel – More Branch Water, Please!

Posted on by Marty Thompson
204
Makers Mark

I recently read the post over at The Church of the Customer, written by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell (two of the smartest folks in this business), regarding the hoopla over at Maker’s Mark. Maker’s Mark is one brand under the umbrella of the Beam family of products.  Even our friend over at Raidious, Dodge Lile, chimed in with some astute observations. It seems that Maker’s Mark had decided to dilute their product to stretch ongoing inventory, and thereby meet increasing demand. The backlash that the Maker’s Mark brand suffered through sharing … Continue reading →

The First Step in Social Business: Discovery

Posted on by Marty Thompson
34
Social Interaction

I recently finished reading (for the second time) the great book, Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company, by Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim. The question I often hear is “Where do we start?” The short answer is that you should start at the beginning, but how we define the beginning is probably the most critical step. How does an organization go about integrating social collaboration and social business concepts into all of their functional areas? Should it be an all or nothing effort, or … Continue reading →

Brands and Content Marketing: Beware the Hype

Posted on by Marty Thompson
131
Content Strategy

Michael Brito, the talented Senior Vice President of Social Business Planning at Edelman Digital (and all around good egg), recently wrote about two brands that are aggressively shifting much of their marketing focus into media centers. I find it encouraging that early corporate adopters are evolving their content marketing strategies into a much more holistic, participatory platform. Concurrent with this shift, however, there are other marketing trends that we should follow with a critical eye, and not confuse corporate media with journalism. The Trend There is a huge trend happening … Continue reading →

The Future Of Social IS The Future Of Marketing

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203
Future of Marketing

I recently had the opportunity to attend ExactTarget Connections 2012, and among several panel discussions, I especially enjoyed the one entitled Social 2020: What Will Become Of Us? Moderated by the inimitable Jeff Rohrs, VP Marketing Research & Education at ExactTarget, it included Margaret Francis, VP of Social at ExactTarget, David Berkowitz, VP of Emerging Media at 360i, Stephen Tarleton, Director of Global Channel & SMB Marketing Bazaarvoice, and Sam Decker, CEO and Founder of Mass Relevance. The panel had some thought provoking insights, and some predictions, or course. As a marketer, … Continue reading →

Alterian SDL|SM2: Social Media Intelligence

Posted on by Marty Thompson
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Alterian SM2

Alterian SDL|SM2 is a social media intelligence solution that provides companies with visibility into their presence in the social landscape and reveals where the relevant conversations are occurring, who is participating, and what customers think about them. Founder Mark Lancaster explains why SDL is key to your company’s online marketing efforts: This tool contains all the run of the mill functionality that most tools in the social media marketing offer, but goes that extra mile to deliver some hard to find functionality such as sentiment analysis, daily volume, key influencer … Continue reading →

Infographic: Website Privacy Standards

Posted on by Marty Thompson, Marty Thompson
167
Website Privacy Standards

Marty and I were up at the Social Media Club in Chicago held by the good folks at Edelman. The topic was Transparency in Social Media and the panelists were Tom Chernaik, CEO of Cmp.ly, Michael Kiefer, GM at BrandProtect, Rich Sharp, SVP of Digital Health Group Edelman and Roula Amire, Managing Editor of Ragan.com. The discussion focused on the threat and risk associated with social media and how companies could plan, protect and respond to issues. It was a great discussion and one that larger brands are tackling now… … Continue reading →