Straight Talk Blog
Ted RubinBrand Advocates are People Too… Nurture that Relationship!
Originally posted at ZuberRants It is true that Brand Advocates have value in part due to the reach of their relationships within and across their social networks. When they encourage their friends and colleagues to buy our products, our brand’s buying power...
Be the Change Your Customers Want You to Be!
Originally posted at SheSpeaks In today's fast-paced, ever changing environment, most brands rank poorly when it comes to customer service. We might argue that it’s to be expected, since change is now more constant than ever... but the hard truth is that if we don’t...
Proud Father
Parents do not realize when their daughter is a child, how fleeting the moments are. And in the blink of an eye, the little girl who did pirouettes (cartwheels) down the hall is dancing her way through her own life. What a joy it was then, what a joy it is now, what...
Send Your Ego to the Back Seat and Bring Your Consumers to the Front
Originally posted at SheSpeaks Thanks to the continual evolution of social media, we have a growing set of useful tools for gathering feedback about our brand reputation. Online branded communities, for example, are becoming increasingly valuable meeting spaces...
Customer Service “is” the New Marketing
Originally posted at ZuberRants Remember the old small business customer service mentality? Where pleasing the customer came FIRST, and the need to delight them was “a given” not an option? Great news – it’s back (or at least on its way back)! The democratizing...
Don’t Forget to Ask Women for Direction(s)!
Originally posted at SheSpeaks In this new social media marketing world -- where it's less about demographics and more about relationships -- one demographic still clearly matters: WOMEN. Women control 85% of household spending, and (according to Bank of America...
How do *You* define ‘Best Customer’?
Originally posted at ZuberRants Seth Godin has it exactly right when he asks in a recent blog post, "…what if you define ‘best customer’ as the person who brings you new customers through frequent referrals, and who sticks with you through thick and thin?" In other...
The Antidote to Negative Commentary
Originally posted at SheSpeaks As much as we might not want to admit it, something negative about our brand will be said sometime by someone in a social network. It might be due to a change, or something out of the brand’s control or only one little misstep in many...
Don’t Simply Ride the Social Media Wave… Guide it with Strategic Intent
Originally posted at ZuberRants 2011 needs to be the year of strategic intent with regard to social media. Social media is hot, hot, hot, and it can be tempting to just dive in and ride the social media wave without any specific plan. That’s a great way to guarantee...
Women’s Online Communities Powerhouses of Trust
Originally posted at: SheSpeaks It’s becoming more and more clear that women’s online communities are the true powerhouses of trust. Social networks have their place, but it’s the online communities that women trust the most for brand and product referrals. New...
Women's Online Communities Powerhouses of Trust
Originally posted at: SheSpeaks It’s becoming more and more clear that women’s online communities are the true powerhouses of trust. Social networks have their place, but it’s the online communities that women trust the most for brand and product referrals. New...
Thank you all! With love, Ted 🙂
“Most of us, swimming against the tides of trouble the world knows nothing about, need only a bit of praise or encouragement - and we will make the goal.” Thank you all! With love, Ted 🙂
Emotional day… been a long haul.
On to the next chapter. Hoping for good days ahead. Never give up... NEVER! I love my girls... always have, always will.
Questions/Answers: Relationship Marketing and Relationship Commerce
Title: Questions/Answers: Relationship Marketing and Relationship Commerce 1 - Relationships... how do you build them online? I believe everything we do in our personal lives and business revolves around relationships… now more than ever. With effort, an online...
Current Situation – posted June 8, 2010
I so appreciate all the support I have been receiving here, via phone, text, email, and Facebook. This is all so unfortunate for the girls, especially this publicity. Not at all what I wanted 🙁 This has been going on for 3 years now... and the 5 years before that...
Step aside, Aspiration… INSPIRATION is the way to go
Originally posted at: ZuberRants Forget Aspiration in the years ahead… the new challenge is to give customers INSPIRATION for your brands and products. I’m not suggesting we throw away our sales and marketing goals (aspirations), just that we give more value to the...
Fences make good neighbors
Originally posted at: SheSpeaks Fences make good neighbors -- even in the social media world. Too many brands assume that the most effective way to market in this digital age is to use social media to post and tweet as many marketing messages as possible to the widest...
Does your product pass Social QC?
Advocates are a whole new type of quality control: social quality control. If your product is fantastic, when identified and energized your Advocates will spread the word like wildfire. Social networks and traditional word-of-mouth will start buzzing with your...
Social media, Sleeping, and my Daughters
Social media truly never does sleep but what I find is that social media is very reactive. You have to put out to get back so at some point, usually late at night, you simply have to put a hard stop in place. That is hard for me since I am a content producer on...
The socially-focused organization – Brand Survival for 2011
It’s a whole new year – literally and figuratively. Social media is quickly changing the way we need to think about our brands and marketing. We can no longer expect to be successful if we just focus our marketing efforts on telling our target market how great our own...
Brands Setting Up Shop on Facebook… no big deal
Not sure why the media, and some "pundits," are so ga-ga over this. Seems to me to simply be another place to sell stuff and nothing unique about it... think "click to buy here" or about shops offered in the past from Yahoo, etc. Shoppers tend to buy most in dedicated...
2011 Social Marketing Predictions
I think 2011 is going to be a very interesting year in the social media world. Generally speaking I believe the marketing world is going to start understanding better the value of, and how better to assign value to, deep consumer relationships. Right now everyone is...
The Heart of Groupon’s Business Model
The heart of Groupon's business model for their clients is not direct profitable commerce (it is only profitable upfront for Groupon). As many understand Groupon is not an ecommerce business. The business proposition that Groupon offers its clients is lead generation....
The Heart of Groupon's Business Model
The heart of Groupon's business model for their clients is not direct profitable commerce (it is only profitable upfront for Groupon). As many understand Groupon is not an ecommerce business. The business proposition that Groupon offers its clients is lead generation....
Agencies give Clients too many Choices
Recently I have had this conversation too many times with" social media" agencies looking for guidance in pitching a prospective client. They live by the old rules of offering a host of "great" ideas and suggest the client pick what they like. All this does is open...
“Google’s Groupon Bid Rejected” BIG mistake in my opinion…
Groupon is getting way ahead of themselves. My 2011 prediction... Google buys Twit Richard Bashara says: Ted I'm going to agree with a "but," look at Facebook. Zuck's had how many chances to sell FB? You can't deny that Groupon has set a trend. Perhaps trying to stay...
"Google's Groupon Bid Rejected" BIG mistake in my opinion…
Groupon is getting way ahead of themselves. My 2011 prediction... Google buys Twit Richard Bashara says: Ted I'm going to agree with a "but," look at Facebook. Zuck's had how many chances to sell FB? You can't deny that Groupon has set a trend. Perhaps trying to stay...
"Google's Groupon Bid Rejected" BIG mistake in my opinion…
Groupon is getting way ahead of themselves. My 2011 prediction... Google buys Twit Richard Bashara says: Ted I'm going to agree with a "but," look at Facebook. Zuck's had how many chances to sell FB? You can't deny that Groupon has set a trend. Perhaps trying to stay...
Ruben Quinones of Path Interactive interviews me
Ruben Quinones interviews me about Social Media Predictions For 2011 with @TedRubin https://bit.ly/ffER0q (via @PathInteractive)
What does experiential marketing entail?
What does experiential marketing entail? It entails allowing a customer/prospect to engage & interact with a brand, product, and service in sensory ways that provides an additional intimate level of experience and information. Personal experiences help people...