The strategies behind branding efforts and building a real-life relationship are comparable.

Think about it: When you’re starting a relationship you try to prove to the other person that you’re trustworthy and good for them. You don’t do this in one particular way, but you express yourself across multiple platforms – calling, texting, dating, and yes, shockingly enough, you also make things “Facebook official” by becoming one of their social media friends. If you want the relationship to last and you’ve done something wrong, you inevitably have to fix the problem, but more importantly, gain back their trust.

Similarly in branding, marketers not only want to gain awareness, but also want to establish credibility and trust. In order to achieve these things a brand does not just market to their consumer over one platform — it engages in a variety of mediums.

A digital audit can determine metrics to measure against a larger marketing goal.

Keeping this in mind, it would seemingly make sense that, especially when things are not working out, marketing managers would conduct a comprehensive analysis of their efforts, right? Not always, and unfortunately this analysis is especially deficient across the digital platform!

As more and more companies discover the digital marketing universe, it seems less actually utilize the full scope that digital has to offer. This inability to optimize is partially due to the fact that most companies don’t actually know what they’re supposed to be doing or why they’re suppose to be doing it. It seems that many companies either believe that the more users they touch, the more the success, or that having a mere digital presence is enough.

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Doctor Tweet? (Image courtesy of thenextweb.com)

It sounds like common sense. The British Medical Association recently warned doctors against befriending patients on social networking sites because it could potentially violate confidentiality.

Now a conscientious medical professional is unlikely to make a mistake of that caliber, but it does illuminate how difficult it can be to build relationships with your patients and still maintain that all-important clinical distance. Continue reading »

The Future: Ivy Bean became famous at age 102 as the oldest social media user in 2008

It’s been no secret that over the last few years the fastest growing demographic on Facebook has skewed older. Nearly half of Twitter traffic is from users over 35, with nearly 10% of all internet users 50 and over using it. Last year it was reported that the social networking presence of those 65 and over grew by 100% and, currently, nearly a quarter of all grandparents use social networks.

At Welt we’re experienced in reaching target audiences with social media, so we didn’t understand why some are surprised by this news. You can reach any and every demographic marketing online, not just the specific youth market. Continue reading »

In the last week, nearly a million people have willingly sat through an almost 3 minute ad for Intel’s Core i5 processor for no other reason than it was customized to them. Not only was I enthralled, I authorized Intel to “Hoover up” every bit of my Facebook profile in exchange. Sounds like an Ad Win, but is it? Continue reading »

Facebook launched photo tagging for pages this month. Now anyone can tag products alongside the people in your pictures. I recently had first-hand experience of why this could be the new “power tool” for a brand’s page.

Last week, pleased with the results I was getting from an expensive new home appliance, I decided to post a photo of it. I was amazed one mediocre photograph generated more feedback in one day than anything I’d posted in weeks. How is it a vacuum cleaner can accrue so much attention?

Well, I’d ponied up for a Dyson. Thanks to great advertising, strong design, and an impressive price-point, the everyday Joe sees them as the leader of the vacuum pack.

My friends responded to the Dyson brand strong enough to act on it. The comments were equally divided between gentle ribbing and enthusiastic sharing of their own Dyson experiences. Continue reading »