Bob Cargill’s Marketing Show

A Few Words with Christina Inge

Episode 43 - A Few Words with Christina Inge 

At the New England Direct Marketing Association's Marketing Technology Summit on December 3, 2018, I had the opportunity to talk to Christina Inge about marketing, social media, her tech consulting company, Thoughtlight, and much more. Listen.  

A Few Words with Kate Milkosky

Episode 42 - A Few Words with Kate Milkosky 

I was happy to talk recently to Kate Milkosky, a mathematician, math tutor and founder of Ms. Milkosky, a company that creates online and app-based mathematics resources for students, parents, teachers and school systems.

In this episode, we talked about Kate's company and how she uses social media, especially YouTube, to get the word out about her business.

Listen. 

Rock Your Audience

Episode 41 - Rock Your Audience

I recently saw a ridiculously awesome movie, Bohemian Rhapsody.

You know the story.

It's about the legendary rock band, Queen, and their late, great lead singer, Freddie Mercury.

There's a scene in this movie in which the band is developing the idea for their song, "We Will Rock You."

You know the song.

They wanted to engage their audience. They wanted their fans to be part of that song. Watching that scene and listening to that song gave me a thought.

As it was for Queen in playing that song then, it is for all brands and businesses now.

You want to engage your audience.

You want to involve them in whatever it is you do in some way, shape or form.

You want to rock your audience.

Employee Advocacy

Episode 40 - Employee Advocacy

In this episode, I talk about the importance of employee advocacy...enabling and encouraging the members of your team to use social media on your behalf.

 

Corporate Culture Counts

Episode 39 - Corporate Culture Counts

The importance of having a good, positive culture in the workplace cannot be underestimated.

The Boston Red Sox won 108 games during the regular season this year, the most in franchise history, and then cruised through the postseason to their fourth World Series title since 2004.

The Sox had to compete against plenty of other talented baseball teams in 2018, but perhaps none had the camaraderie and culture the Boston team had in their clubhouse.

Maybe none had such a supportive, selfless manager like Alex Cora at the helm, either.

Talent and skills aren’t always the determining factors in winning.

Without the right culture instilled into the workplace, even the best teams – and businesses in general – can fall behind the competition.

Without a strong leader installed at the top, even the best teams can fall apart.

Businesses and brands, companies and organizations of all sizes, shapes and forms…ask yourselves if you have the culture and leadership in place to win in the marketplace like the Red Sox won on the field this year. Corporate culture counts.

Use Social Media to Become World-Famous

Episode 38 - Use Social Media to Become World-Famous

Speak your mind.

Share your knowledge.

Express your opinion.

Sell your stuff.

Use social media to your advantage.

You can’t afford to be shy in this day and age, not if you’re in marketing, advertising, sales or PR.

There really is no excuse for anyone in business today to not have their 15 minutes of fame – and then some.

This is no time for businesses and brands to hem and haw over what they’re going to say on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and the like.

This is their time to wake up and realize they’re going to fall dangerously behind the competition if they don’t get after it now.

The 90-9-1 Rule in Group Communications

Episode 37 - The 90-9-1 Rule in Group Communications

In this episode, Bob explains the meaning of the 90-9-1 rule in group communications, and what it has to do with your success on social media. Listen. 

 

Transparency Beats Privacy on Social Media

Episode 36 - Transparency Beats Privacy on Social Media 

You can't have social media without being social.

And...you can't really be social without being transparent.

That’s why transparency beats privacy on social media...everytime.

Being private means to be holding something back, to be hiding something from public view…and ideally, social media is transparent, fully transparent.

That's what I believe, anyway, and that was the premise...kinda sorta...of the 2017 movie, The Circle.

The Circle was based on a novel written by Dave Eggers in 2013. The movie is about a tech company called The Circle which places small cameras everywhere to provide real-time video of practically everything.

It's a little creepy, sure, and certainly scary for some.

But it is my opinion that the premise of the movie, the pros and cons of being fully transparent, is something that not only those of us in social media and marketing will be dealing with more and more in the future, but also society at large.

Brands, businesses, people who are using social media for professional reasons…those whose attention you covet will be far more attracted to you if you let down your guard and share who you really are with them.

They will respect you for being just like them, human, as opposed to being some far-fetched, unrealistic image of perfection.

That's how it should be in both our professional and personal lives, if you ask me. Share and share alike.

In my opinion, transparency beats privacy not just on social media, but in real life, too.

The Importance of Customer Service

Episode 35 - The Importance of Customer Service

It's known as friction.

It's anything that gets in the way of anything less than a stellar customer experience.

Brick-and-mortar retail operations can't afford to have any degree of friction come between them and their customers in this day and age.

There are simply too many competitors vying for the same sales, whether that competition is located down the street or somewhere on the internet.

Customer service can be the difference between success and failure.

Poor customer service is not only bad for business, it can put you OUT of business.

The best products, the best prices, the best marketing, the best advertising...can't overcome an abundance of friction.

Create Social Media Moments and Memories for Your Audience

Episode 34 - Create Social Media Moments and Memories for Your Audience

Look all around you. Everybody is taking pictures everywhere they go.

You want to capitalize on this trend.

Anything you do as a business, organization, team or individual needs to be optimized for social media.

Your people. Your office. Your content. Your events. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, you want to be making it easy for your connections and customers to share something to do with your brand with their own respective networks.

Your fans and followers want to talk about you. They want to amplify everything about you to a wider circle of people. They’re looking for something to capture and disseminate via their own feeds on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and the like.

Give them the opportunities.

Give them the inspiration.

Create social media moments and memories for your audience.