Social media initiatives such as blogging are long-term strategies that function cumulatively, gradually building the author’s (and/or firm’s) reputation via quality interactions and boosting search engine rankings via organic links that are far more valuable than any paid links. Corporate blogs, rather than promoting products or rehashing the latest sales pitch, should aim to make serious, constructive contributions to the body of industry knowledge online. They should also encourage and facilitate reader participation via constructive comments, meaningful links and trackbacks, social bookmarks, collaborative tags and so on.
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I love del.icio.us. Partly because I found out it was a truly spectacular way to consolidate, organize and find new recipes. A few clicks on my cloud and I can find that whole grain and protein rich meal that I can prepare in 15 minutes or less. Also, who knew before del.icio.us that there were over 1,400 ways to prepare quinoa?
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We marketers like to think that we’ve evolved our function into a finely tuned discipline. We have expertly crafted marketing plans, we relentlessly measure results, and we hold ourselves accountable for sales goals. All well and good, but Anne Holland puts it nicely when she says that while marketers have raised their reputations as tacticians, we are still not seen as mission-critical strategic leaders.
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When I initially decided to work in marketing (coming from R&D technology management), the first words our VP of Marketing told me were: “That’s great news! Only you do understand that you just lost 50% of your brainpower simply by joining the marketing team!” Really? In marketing? With all this left-brain / right-brain activity you do here?

I hate to say he made a good point. Marketing is definitely not what is meant (and paid for) to be. You see that in every industry sector and especially in technology.
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