Managing the Gray – Positive Advice That Everyone Can Use to Succeed

Once again, Advertising Age gives me something to talk about on the show today. I think they have stepped up their writing or something because it is certainly getting bigger reactions from me lately.

Today I focused on discussing their 5 New Rules for Marketing and what I thought about them. You can read the whole article right here.

The rules Ad Age laid out were:

1. Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them.
2. You can’t hide the corporations behind the brand anymore – or even fully separate the two.
3. PR is a primary concern for every CMO and brand manager.
4. Cause marketing isn’t about philanthropy, it’s about “enlightened self-interest.”
5. Social media is not a strategy.

I’d love to hear what other rules you’d add so please put them in the comments.

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The hot assignment that everyone seems to be getting or looking for is to develop a social media strategy. Every day I hear about someone having to figure this out for their company and they don’t know where to start. So, today on Managing the Gray I thought I’d give my advice on how to approach this and succeed at it as well.

Links that I mentioned during the show include:

• Robert Scoble discussing the need for humans on web sites
• Using Social Media to Listen to Consumers article in Ad Age
• The 2009 Digital Issue of Ad Age (not all online so find a print copy if you can)
• Steve Coulson’s Mashable post on 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence

At the end of the day I think every company from the smallest of corner shops, all the way up to the biggest global companies have got to figure out where social media enters into their mix. It should not be tacked on to each program, but integrated from the start into all your programs. There is so much to gain if you do this right.

I hope this show helps you and if you need further help please contact me.

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