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Archive for September, 2010

I am heading for Minneapolis’s #MIMA Summit, but…

Posted in conference, conversations, greenville SC, Social Business, Social Communications, social media, tagged amber Osborne, brandbuilder, conference, Danny Shortt, miss destructo, olivier blanchard, phil yanov, rick murray, sean buvala, social story, Tim March, trey pennington on September 25, 2010 | 17 Comments »

I find myself speaking at a good number of events these days, but last week’s Social Story was one of the first whose speaker photo looks like a promo for a new TV superspy show. Left to right – Murray: The master strategist and brains of the operation. Buvala: The master of disguise and infiltration [...]

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Because we all need a little more win.

Posted in acts of rebellion, motivation, setting goals, sport, success, tagged brandbuilder, olivier blanchard on September 24, 2010 | 15 Comments »

My last three posts have outlined problems and failures. I don’t know about you, but all that #fail is starting to bum me out, so I need to break the cycle right here, right now. I’m in need of a little win today, if only to finish out the week with some pep. No need [...]

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Blockbuster: The End.

Posted in account planning, brand relevance, broken brand, building value, business, competition, competitive edge, corporate culture, excuses, expectations, management lessons, market disruption, marketing leadership, mediocrity, opportunity, strategy, user experience, tagged blockbuster, brandbuilder, Fast Company, jim keyes, olivier blanchard on September 23, 2010 | 21 Comments »

Sad news today: Blockbuster Video has filed for bankruptcy. This doesn’t necessarily mean the end for the former market leader, but considering its downward spiral over the last few years, the state of the economy, and a broadening gap between its business model and the way people actually consume movies nowadays, let’s just say that [...]

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Social Media Management 101 – Cardinal Roles, management Roles, and Basic Social Business Organizational Structure – Part 3

Posted in account planning, business, leadership, management, Social Business, Social Communications, social media, tagged brandbuilder, Director, hiring, management, Manager, olivier blanchard, recruiting, social media, VP on September 20, 2010 | 23 Comments »

Part 3. (Read Parts 1 and Part 2.) 4. Expertise is specific, not general. Understand this before hiring someone for a Social Media oversight role. Of the four Cardinal types of roles we mentioned at the beginning of this post, none requires a Social Media “expert.” Let’s define what a Social Media “expert” is: … [...]

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What the McDonald’s social media team got wrong about Foursquare, Social Media strategy, measurement, and ethical reporting.

Posted in account planning, ROI, Social Communications, social media, tagged brandbuilder, foot traffic, foursquare, Mashable, McDonald's, measurement, metric, olivier blanchard, R.O.I., revenue, Rick Wion, ROI, social media, success, transactions on September 17, 2010 | 109 Comments »

Alternate title: McFib? Thanks to Mike Zavarello (@brightmatrix) for the #McFib suggestion. I wish I had thought of that. Okay. This is not going to be a kind, warm and fuzzy post. Before I start, let me say this: I would much rather have a brilliant Social Media case study to champion. A story about [...]

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Social Media Management 101 – Cardinal Roles, Management Roles, and basic Social Business organizational structure – Part 2

Posted in account planning, Social Business, Social Communications, social media, tagged brandbuilder, Business Intelligence, community management, CSR, customer service, HR, Market research, marketing, olivier blanchard, pr, social media, social media management, structure on September 15, 2010 | 13 Comments »

Part 2. (Read Part 1 here.) 2. Social Media “management” is not about Social Media as much as it is about business functions. Let’s look at the enterprise space (large companies. Say, a Fortune 1000.) Consider this. What makes more sense: a) Having a Social Media/blogger “manager” who assists PR, advertising, marketing, HR, business intelligence [...]

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Social Media Management 101 – Cardinal Roles, Management Roles, and basic Social Business organizational structure – Part 1

Posted in account planning, Social Business, social media, tagged brandbuilder, management, olivier blanchard, planning, social business, social media, social media integration, structure on September 15, 2010 | 3 Comments »

Last week, we asked this question: If hiring a Social Media Manager serves the purpose of driving a Social Media strategy, then the purpose of the Social Media strategy is to drive… what? A Social Media Strategy? No. Strategies are driven by objectives and objectives are driven by purpose. The purpose of a Social Media [...]

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Social Story: My very candid interview with Brandon Walters

Posted in acts of rebellion, brandbuilder, conference, conversation, ideas, social media, south carolina, tagged brandbuilder, Brandon Walters, conference, interview, olivier blanchard, social story, video on September 7, 2010 | 2 Comments »

Brandon Walters interviewed me kind of on the fly last week about the upcoming Social Story conference (Greenville, SC – September 24). The interview was obviously completely unscripted (at least for me). I haven’t watched it yet, but here it is anyway. (Click here if the video doesn’t launch for you.) We shot a lot [...]

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Social Media program planning 101: Purpose matters

Posted in account planning, adoption, brand insights, brand ownership, brand planning, brand strategy, building value, business, smart business, Social Business, Social Communications, social media, social network, solutions, strategy, tagged brandbuilder, business, marketing, olivier blanchard, planning, purpose, social media, strategy on September 6, 2010 | 18 Comments »

Just a quick note to start off the week: Purpose matters. Just a year ago, many of us were bemoaning the absence of major brands on the twitternets, myself included. PR departments were too slow to get into the space. Brand managers were still, for the most part, alien to the world of Social Media. [...]

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The Social and the Media

Posted in account planning, compassion, corporate culture, customer experience, customer relationship, customer service, Social Business, Social Communications, social media, tagged ADMA, Australia, brandbuilder, customer experience, customer service, fruit, olivier blanchard, sydney, westin on September 3, 2010 | 26 Comments »

The social: Less than an hour after checking into my room at the Westin in Sydney, my doorbell rings. (Wait… I have a doorbell?) At first, I think I am having auditory hallucinations, which isn’t good. I start to do the math: I left the Greenville-Spartanburg airport on Saturday at 11:05am. Passing through ATL, LAX [...]

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Ads vs. reality: The fast food stink test.

Posted in advertising, brand consciousness, brand erosion, brand promise, brand valuation, social media, tagged advertising, brandbuilder, ethics, false advertising, fast food, olivier blanchard on September 1, 2010 | 28 Comments »

This. Is. Brilliant. Every time someone does a piece like this, I find myself grinning ear to ear. First, some attribution: The piece, published by www.boredpanda.com is tagged as a guest post by Dario D., who first published his images on his own site www.alphaila.com. I recommend that you check them both out for the full [...]

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Happy employees = Good business

Posted in adaptation, happy customers, happy employees, tagged brandbuilder, olivier blanchard on September 1, 2010 | 10 Comments »

From the vault: I had a fascinating conversation with a friend a few days ago who is on the verge of quitting his job. He’s always loved working where he is now, is friends with all of his colleagues, likes his boss, loves what he does… but the magic seems to be gone. I was [...]

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