Marketing Pilgrim

It’s starting to feel like colonial Boston around the Internet these days. Has anyone developed a Paul Revere avatar or something that races around screens yelling “SOPA is coming! PIPA is coming!”?

The Internet is coming together for what will likely be just enough time to move a politician or two from the realm of the clueless to that of “maybe I should listen”. Of course in the social media world of “click activism” this will be short lived and probably just as misunderstood as most things as people will join anything that looks like they are “sticking it to the man” only to move on an order their frappachino or whatever.

Pubcon has been one of my favorite marketing conferences over the past decade. It has been an honor to speak at the various events held around the country.

Now the joy-o-meter just cranked up to 11, with Pubcon Paradise! Yes, my favorite conference is now heading to my favorite destination in the world….Hawaii! And Marketing Pilgrim readers can save 20% off registration until Feb 7!

February 14-15, at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki is the location for the must-attend event. And, how can you not go? Especially when you can tell your spouse you are taking them to Hawaii for Valentines!

The conference will have a strong travel and toursim focus, but broad enough that any marketer will walk away with their head spinning with awesome SEO, PPC, Social & Affiliate marketing tactics.

Once upon a time there was a commercial printing company. Of course this wasn’t just any company. This particular company was once regarded as a leader in its region, often winning awards for excellence. However, as time passed technology evolved and changed not only the process of printing but also the consumer demands. Needing to respond to these changes, the owner of the company upgraded their production capabilities by purchasing a digital press. In layman’s terms a digital press is similar to a giant computer printer. With it, a company can produce the same high quality printing that a large commercial offset printing press can but at smaller quantities and directly from a computer or workflow server. Digital presses not only allow for companies to streamline the production process but they also open up new avenues for more customized products such as variable printing.

I am not a stock guy. Never have been. I also find discussions about who has the larger market capitalization number equivalent to the “My dad can beat up your dad” playground stuff kids engage in. The following chart, though, is interesting because it tells the story of two companies and gives insight into the larger picture of where we are today in the increasingly digital world we all live in. This come from SAI.

Once Google reached a zenith sometime in 2007 the companies have mirrored each other. They have been slaves to the same market conditions and swings and have acted accordingly. That is until very recently. As Microsoft continues to struggle to make itself into a digital company for the future, the market is starting to see it for what it may very well be: a big company that may not be nimble enough to transform itself for the future.

In the Internet and social media marketing space content is king but the data that is generated by that content in the next in line to the throne and many would contend is the “real” king. In fact, unless you can truly monitor the impact of all the great content your company has produced then you can only really say that you have produced great content. News flash: Great content doesn’t make the cut in C-level business discussions, revenue and profits do.

What is happening is that businesses have more data than ever at their disposal but it’s not manageable thus it can almost seem useless. It’s like having a huge uncut diamond but having no way to refine it to the point that it realizes its true market value. A recent study by Connotate as reported by eMarketer shows that companies are wrestling with this problem every day. Heck, 21% of the people polled couldn’t even define big data!

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I know it’s the in thing to put together a wish list of things to do and accomplish in the new year. We are all full of hope and ideas. That’s fine but it’s also a distraction. It’s a distraction that can make us sound full of something else as well.

Just because the calendar has changed the year has anything really changed for you as an Internet marketer? I sincerely doubt it. You may have the desire to try all kinds of new things in 2012 but that is a more of a distraction, especially in the Internet and social media marketing space that can be dangerous. We like to chase the newest shiny object but we leave our current practices (you know the ones that can actually produce results?) under attended and under performing. Then we wonder what happened. It’s the same story every year.

Looking forward to a real good 2012!