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Getting Employees Engaged: When They Really Don’t Care

Dustin Walling is a very good friend of mine who works with the construction and technology industries on the gap between management and experts within a company, or "performance management" as he calls it. Anyway, he wrote a great post about team building at a Caterpillar dealership that I want to share with you. Enjoy!

When Doug Fabick became the 4th generation owner of Fenton, MO-based Fabick CAT, a Caterpillar Tractor dealership, his father left him with one key piece of advice, “Build your …

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Santa’s Secret Exposed: It is Possible to Fly Around the World and Support Local Economies

Child-Safe Spoiler Alert

Dear Kids,

Have you ever wondered how Santa is able to visit every child in the world and sit in the mall for the whole month of December? If you were like me when I was young, then you are sitting there nodding and thinking yes. I have to admit that I “figured out” the whole Santa thing at an age that most parents would say is unfair. But what I didn’t know is what really happened—that took much longer to figure out and was revealed to me at the most unsuspecting time, …

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Most Innovative Ways to Recognize Your Employees

I posted the below text about a year ago to get some feedback, when I was switching my site, I rediscovered it and wanted to share again. Hope you enjoy it and it gives you some great ideas for saying "Thank you" this year. Recognizing your employees (when done properly) is an incredible element of your culture. It can be a driving force that leads to the most amazing results. Your employees end up feeling like what they do matters. Happy employees lead to happier customers and better results fo…

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Do You Want a Chief Marketing or Metric Officer?

http://blogs-images.forbes.com/onmarketing/files/2012/08/1223_super-cmo_392x392.jpg

How important do you think it is for a CMO to be creative?

Traditionally, a CMO is defined as Chief Marketing Officer. I saw an interview with a company that was seriously considering changing its definition to Chief Metric Officer. They felt measuring the metrics of campaigns was far more important than the creativity in today’s market.

When you look at recent economic events, let’s say over the last three years, and factor in that an average CMO remains in one job for only 18 months, to me…

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Truth Bomb: You Will Fail in Marketing and It's OK.

It’s true, 90% of all B2B companies market in pretty much the same way. It goes something like this:

  • Make a product/service

  • Talk a lot about their product/service

  • Produce a load of boring content and collateral to sell their product/service

  • Use various techniques to attempt to stand out and cut through the noise

  • Use a variety of channels and platforms like advertising, email, or direct marketing, as well as social media to make people aware of their product/service

  • Build a sales funnel and manage and …

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Brush Masters: Construction Companies Using Social Media-Behind the Scenes

Welcome back to part 2 of my interview with Josh Brottlund of Brush Masters. Make sure you check out Part 1 to learn about the tools he uses and the results he's received.

 

Behind the Scenes: the Marketing Strategy & Policies Around Social Media

Q: Does your company have a policy on social media?

A: No currently, we do not.

Q: What is your marketing strategy?

A: In the typical year, Brush Masters participates in several tradeshows, has heavy involvement with local construction associations (BATC – …

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Brush Masters: Construction Companies Using Social Media–The Tools

As construction companies begin to embrace social media, some are finding it harder than others. So to encourage using social media, I am sharing with you construction companies who have already had success with it. Today's interview is with Josh Brottlund of Brush Masters Painting, Drywall, and Pr-Finishing.

The Tools: Social media tools that are used and how they are utilized

Q: Please introduce yourself Josh, the company, and tell us about your responsibilities.

A: Hello, my name is Josh Brott…

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How Far is Too Far When Setting Hiring Criteria?

I once met with a company that openly admitted and bragged about their hiring criteria. They were certain they had figured it out—perfectly. This I had to hear!

The company prided itself on being a ‘green company.’ Being green, they felt was a core aspect of the business. Decisions were made and green policies were enforced around this concept. Being green was a key aspect in all of their marketing and they even educated customers and prospects about it. I commend this company for taking such an…

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Remember, Your Customers Are Busy

I was reading Steve Pavlina’s series about how to network with busy people. The article itself is great. He goes over a lot of common sense things, and uses great analogies and stories to prove his point. His main point throughout the series is to help you see how a busy person perceives the way you are trying to contact them.

While I was reading this, it got me thinking that a lot of the points Steve makes, are the same points that companies tend to be ignorant of in their approach to marketing…

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Interview with Bonin Bough of Pepsi Co & Marian Salzman of Porter Novelli

I had the opportunity to interview Bonin Bough of PepsiCo and Marian Salzman of Porter Novelli about PepTrends and social media in general. Bonin Bough is the Global Director of Digital and Social Media at PepsiCo and Marian Salzman is the CMO at Porter Novelli and one of the top five trendspotters in the world.

#Peptrends was the first known campaign of its kind. “Anything you learn is a great learning,” Bonin comments on the results. “By no means do we have a monopoly on great ideas or great th…

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