Category Archives: Case Study

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Marketers Fight Robots! Weapons and Wisdom from Ann Handley, Jerry Seinfeld, and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos

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A white cardboard robot shakes hands with a brown cardboard robot
Image by Matan Segev via Pexels

Sunday Links with Social Media ReInvention: October 14th Edition

Are marketers safe from robots?

Will robots take our marketing jobs with frickin’ laser beams manufactured by The Stark Corporation?

Will Skynet Terminators be able to write articles as well as their human marketer counterparts (or maybe even better than them)?

These Sunday Links to online articles and my accompanying Deep Thoughts tangle with this question — How Can A Human Marketer Co-Exist With Artificial Intelligence (AI)?

  • Deep Thought 1 — Writing and Productivity: Marketers Who Write Like Ann Handley (or Jerry Seinfeld) Don’t Need No Stinking Robots
  • Deep Thought 2 — Email Marketing: Watch Ann Handley Save Marketers From Villanous, Job Stealing Terminators
  • Deep Thought 3 — Marketing Analytics: What Should Netflix Marketers Do? Option 1: Trust The Algorithm or Option 2: Piss Off Jane Fonda

Please join me to read the full post. You will enjoy yourself (and maybe laugh in the process). I promise!

Unless you are a robot scraping my content.

Okay, time to get to work.

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Buyer Persona Case Study: CFO On-Call

Notes from HubSpot's Inbound Certification Video Class 3: What Does Inbound Look Like?

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Buyer Persona Case Study

HubSpot’s Inbound Certification Video Class 3: “What Does Inbound Look Like?” shares how a real-world company successfully practices inbound marketing. This is a valuable class as a real-world, spot-on buyer persona case study.

This buyer persona case study proves how well-crafted buyer personas can:

  • Drive inbound marketing strategy and tactics
  • Link together content marketing and SEO choices
  • Support a company’s sales and revenue goals

Here’s what to expect from this blog post on these inbound marketing best practices (and future blog posts) as I prepare for the inbound marketing certification exam:

  • Open Sharing. I’ll publish my study notes on this blog as I review each video in the twelve (12) classes.
  • Detail. My notes will be very detailed. Many of the slides in the video classes state the learning or take-home-message perfectly. If I think that’s the best way to state the learning, I’ll record the learning in my notes verbatim from the respective slide.
  • Context. I’ll provide my context whenever it may help us better understand the inbound marketing and sales concept(s).

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Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook Gun For Twitter’s and Google’s Hearts and Souls

Latest strategic choice: Personalize competitors' strengths into Facebook's closed ecosystem

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Mark Zuckerberg Facebook Conference Pic

Photo Credit: TechCrunch via flickr

The Wall Street Journal’s Deepa Seetharaman published this great article: Facebook Takes Aim at Search Again. Take time to read Deepa’s article because she delivers important insight on Mark Zuckerberg’s unrelenting competitiveness and strategic genius.

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For Our Children: Humans Are Underrated By Geoff Colvin

My book review of Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will

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Geoff Colvin Humans Are UnderratedHumans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will by Geoff Colvin is an inspiring book about how and what we can individually do to prepare ourselves and our children for the 21st century workplace revolution happening before our eyes.

White Collar Middle Management Ranks Will Continue Disappearing At An Accelerated Rate. Geoff’s detailed, fact-based research is sobering. Continuous advances in software design, machine learning, and artificial intelligence results in the need for fewer, white collar workers.

Remember, white collar workforces? MBA-types, MD-types, JD-types, aka the left-brain masters of the universe?

Cognitive, analytical work is on an accelerated chopping block. Increasing automation and computing power means replacing humans isn’t isolated to blue collar Americans.

A Phenomenon Extending Beyond Decades-Old Outsourcing. Why? Because machines do old-school, cognitive, and analytical work better than humans. That prowess IS EXACTLY what machines do better.

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LinkedIn’s Project Voyager Mobile App Still Has A MAJOR Shortcoming

Inability to customize LinkedIn invitations via revamped mobile app is a mistake

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LinkedIn Mobile Phone App flickr

Photo Credit: koka_sexton via flickr

 

(Updated November 28, 2015) Please refer to my post, LinkedIn Mobile App Hack: 5 Easy Steps To Personal Connection Requests: How to customize LinkedIn Invitations with LinkedIn’s Mobile App.

The Wall Street Journal, Venture Beat, and ZDNet published stories about LinkedIn’s improved and revamped LinkedIn Mobile App. Each article ignores an important, missing feature to improve the LinkedIn mobile user experience.

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Dorie Clark’s Stand Out: THE Career Management Strategy For Thriving 21st Century Careers

Book Review of Stand Out: How To Find Your Breakthrough Idea and Build a Following Around It

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Cover of Dorie Clark Stand Out BookSocial Media ReInvention Community Members know I value the teachings of Dorie Clark. Her first book, Reinventing YOU: Define Your Brand. Imagine Your Future., continues its profound influence on my own 21st century career management.

Dorie Clark’s Stand Out Is The Defacto 21st Century Career Management Strategy Manual. Dorie’s latest book, Stand Out: How To Find Your Breakthrough Idea And Build A Following Around It, is exceptional. The practical, accessible, and inspiring paths Dorie describes to becoming an industry thought leader are moving. Her actionable advice, superb writing, and real-world profiles are more relevant than ever in our increasingly robot-, algorithm-, outsource-driven world.

Stand Out IS the powerful and practical, how-to, user’s manual to accompany Seth Godin’s visionary ideas from Tribes and Linchpin. If Tribes and Linchpin are our target destinations, Stand Out maps out accessible paths we can choose to take.  (more…)

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Google’s $400 Billion Trusted Advisor Superstar: Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer

Spoken and Written Words STILL Matter in A Big Data, Algorithm-Driven World

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Wad of Cash in Rubberband

Photo Credit: Refracted Moments(TM)

 

Spoken and written words STILL have a powerful and influential impact in a world increasingly driven by computer code, big data, and mathematical algorithms.

Ruth Porat, Google’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), demonstrated during her June 16th investor relations conference call with Wall Street analysts why communicating with purpose, managing expectations, and showing “I’m actively listening” are still (and will continue to be) the hallmark skills of a successful 21st Century Trusted Advisor.

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Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention: 06/14/15 to 06/20/15

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Sunday Brunch Newspaper Large

Photo Credit: Anton Diaz

 

Please indulge me until Friday, July 31st 12:00 AM Midnight Central Time as I use the introductory paragraph of Sunday Brunch Reads with Social Media ReInvention to promote my nephew’s Kickstarter Campaign for his company, QuadshoX LLC. I wrote about Johnny Morris’ spinal cord injury and remarkable story in this blog post: America’s Gutsiest CEO and His Kickstarter Project Need Your Support.

Here’s the link to QuadshoX’s inspiring YouTube video to promote its Kickstarter Campaign:

The following news organizations wrote these wonderful articles about how Johnny’s and Team QuadshoX’s Corporate Mission is to transform the American wheelchair industry:

Johnny and Team QuadshoX have a limited window to raise $96,000 for the company’s initial inventory. Please join me in financially supporting the Team QuadshoX Kickstarter Campaign and join them in improving the lives of 6 million+ people wheelchair bound Americans.

Your Sunday Brunch Silicon Valley Catchphrase of the Week: “It’s like Uber for …

Thank YOU for Social Media Community Members who have generously financially supported Johnny’s Kickstarter Campaign. Here are this week’s Sunday Brunch Reads for your enjoyment:

1. Fortune.com: Why Ellen Pao Was Doomed To Lose. I’ve read Patricia Sellers’ Fortune Magazine articles for years because I’m a subscriber. She’s a top business journalist and an industry insider on women’s issues and corporate power in the elite Fortune 100. Her personal access to the men and women in CEO and senior executive boardrooms is one few people possess. That’s why I pay close attention to these quotes from her article on why Ellen Pao never had a chance of winning her sexual harassment lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers:  (more…)

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America’s Gutsiest CEO and His KickStarter Project Need Your Support

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America's Gutsiest CEO John Morris QuadShox LLC

Photo Credit: Arianna Kilmer, QuadShox LLC

The young man in this photo has a smile that could power New York City’s Times Square. He carries a heart bigger than North America. He Is America’s Gutsiest CEO.

He’s quadriplegic. He’s also my beloved nephew, John Morris, CEO of QuadshoX LLC.  (more…)

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When I Was 22, David Letterman Reigned Supreme Over Late Night Television

A Public Fan Letter to My Generation's King of Comedy

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David Letterman Autographed Photo

Photo Credit: Alan Light

Dear Mr. Letterman,

I and Millions of American Viewers Will Miss You. I grew up in a small, Indiana town not far from your hometown of Indianapolis, IN. When I entered college in 1984, I began following your brilliant television career every night at 11:35 AM Central Time. You made me laugh with millions of other students in American college campuses. You reminded me five nights a week why I shouldn’t always take life, myself, or the status quo too seriously. I needed your funny, unique, and irreverent perspective during a difficult time in my life.  (more…)