Top 5 Marketing Articles to Read This Week

Busy week! As always, I'm always reading a ton of articles on the Internets. Here are a few that caught my eye...


What You Can Learn From the Funniest P&G Marketer Ever, by Rajiv Satyal, AdAge

Good advice if you want to add some creativity to your work.


Breaking: Salesforce.com Announces the Marketing Cloud. So What is It?, by Jesse Noyes, Eloqua

Marketing, sales and technology are becoming the same process. Get it? Get it?


David Byrne on How Music and Creativity Work, by Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

Yet more insight into the creative process...


Are HTML5 and Hybrid App Development Strategies Ready for Primetime?, by D. P. Venkatesh, mPortal Blog

Building out your mobile platform? Wondering whether to go native, html5 or hybrid?


4 Reasons Facebook Dumped HTML5 And Went Native, by Todd Hoff,High Scalibility

Facebook has an opinion. You should probably listen...

iPhone Day Reading List, plus Cool Gif!

Well, iPhone Day is here, and if you'd really just rather watch the show, here is the link. I can't upgrade mine for another six months, so I don't really care. Really.

In the meantime, a lot of really smart people have been writing some excellent pieces on marketing, content development, economics and business.

Here is what I recommend you read...


46 Federal Technology Experts to Follow on Twitter, by Jimmy Daly, FedTech

Start your federal government marketing strategy off with a good look at the names on this list...


Social Media in the C-Suite, by David Edelman

For all the buzz around social media, one aspect has been largely ignored: the need for top business executives, especially CEOs, to personally get into the social media game. A recent survey by BRANDfog (PDF – 4.2MB) points out that when C-Suite executives become active on social media, it can increase brand trust, loyalty and purchase intent. In fact, 82 percent of survey respondents stated that they were more likely to trust a company whose CEO and leadership team engage on social media. And isn’t trust the most critical component of building relationships with customers?

The Biggest Mistakes Companies Make With Mobile Marketing, And 3 Strategies That Actually Work, by Aaron Shapiro, Fast Company

...the problem most companies are facing in mobile today isn’t simply a lack of appreciation for the realities of demand in the app market. Applications, just like any digital initiative, must be grounded in clear strategies that harmonize specific business needs and user interests, while reflecting a pragmatic view of the marketplace. Most marketers are making the same mistakes in mobile that they’ve made on the web for years--expecting consumers to dedicate time and attention to their brand messaging without providing any valuable service or fulfilling any consumer need. Aside from the potential short-term PR boost and the value of educating employees with limited backgrounds in digital and mobile, building a branded app for the sake of having an app is a waste of time and money for everyone involved.

And what are those strategies that work: Mobile as Marketing, Mobile as Service Enhancement and Mobile as a Business.


The Rules of Social Media, by Fast Company

Fast Company readers submit their own rules of the road...some of these are pretty awesome- "Don't try to be clever, be clever."


Need More Links and Social Shares? Try Making More Enemies, by Sonia Simone, CopyBlogger

Part six in their “Content Connections” series. All good advice...


In Case You Blinked: $23B+ in M&A Deals in Baltimore/Washington Region in Two Months, by CityBizList

In case you thought the economy around here was terrible.

Oh, yeah! and a cool cat gif! Because, why not...

Hey! It's September's Reading List Extravaganza!

September is off to a roaring start. I hope the rest of the year is like this!

Oh, by the way, scientists have just discovered that the 80% of DNA that they thought did nothing...actually are integral to how cells behave and how diseases progress. Chew on that..

Bits of Mystery DNA, Far From ‘Junk,’ Play Crucial Role, by Gina Kolata, New York Times

Oh and then there is this little piece of awesome...

Phones will get all charged up about new Ultrabook feature, by Eric Mack

Yes, charging your phone without cords is coming, and coming soon.

For now, here are some marketing/business/economics articles to read while your phone is charging.

BII MOBILE INSIGHTS: Multi-Screen Media Consumption Is The New Normal by Heather Leonard, Business Insider

7 Pros and Cons of Content Marketing, by Erin Nelson, Business 2 Community

3 Little-Known Social Media Misconceptions that Can Destroy Your Marketing Strategy, by Brad Smith, Social Media Today

Mobile Entertainment Consumption Soared 82% in One Year, by Samantha Murphy, Mashable

ESPN: Everywhere Sports Profit Network, by Karl Greenfield, BusinessWeek

ESPN’s $5.6 billion deal with Major League Baseball, announced on Aug. 28, is typical of the kinds of multiplatform rights packages the company now seeks to acquire. Not only will ESPN continue to televise regular-season and playoff games through 2021, it also gets radio rights, international rights, unlimited highlights and, most important, the right to stream all that content through its mobile applications.

“Right now,” says Norby Williamson, a vice president for production, “what you can pay for a property is based on what you can bring to a property, how you can surround a property.” ESPN’s continued success is predicated on its being willing to pay more for those properties than anyone else. It comes down to a race between ESPN’s ability to develop and succeed in new platforms—and sell ads and subscriptions against them—and the ever-escalating costs of televising live sports.

GIF Illustrates Massive Growth of Walmart, Mashable
Pretty awesome...

The Lost Bush/Obama Era Gave Us the Gold Commission,by John Tamny, RealClearMarkets

Monetary Angioplasty Required,By Barry Ritholtz, The Big Picture

Reading List for the Dog Days of August- Mark Cuban Edition

I've just returned from vacation and I'm catching up on some reading. Here are a few articles that have caught my eye...

Which USA do you work in?, by Mark Cuban
Mark says there is are two Americas: one is having the intelligence sucked out it (brick and mortar) and one is is desperate for intelligence (cloud). His advice? Learn to code.

5 Ways To Learn Code From The Comfort Of Your Own Browser, by Klint Finley, TechCrunch
Taking Marc's advice? Start here...

Amazon Web Services
And here...

Freelancer.com
And here...

Henry Rollins’ 3 Rules For Success As An Artist/Entrepreneur by Jason Gots, Big Think Blog
Still a big fan of Henry...I think I first heard a Black Flag song in 1985.

Groupon Visits the Bargain Basement, Marketing Pilgrim
Whoever said that Groupon/Livingsocial, etc were social media companies was seriously smoking something.

10 B2B Companies That Create Exceptional Content, by Meghan Keaney Anderson, Hubspot
Hubspot writes up some great, informational posts on marketing. Truly succeeding by drinking the content marketing kool-aid.

Copyspace
Ever wonder if someone is plagiarizing your website, or someone else's, this is the site for you.

MarketingBuzz: 5 steps for building a content marketing strategy, by Irving Frydman, ChannelBuzz.ca
Nice, quick highlights...

Content Marketing Checklist: 13 Things You Must Do Before You Publish Content, by Heidi Cohen, Business 2 Community
Another good take on how to set up and run a content marketing program.

The Marketer's Simple Guide to Creating Infographics in PowerPoint, by Anum Hussain, Hubspot
Hubspot scores again...and with a handy template.

Reading List- July

Here are some of the better articles so far in July...

How to Build and Operate a Content Marketing Machine by Toby Murdoch
A really good, easy to understand overview of the all the parts of a content marketing operation.

52 Incredibly Useful Sites: the Full List by Robert Strohmeyer, CIO Magazine

3 Tips to Integrate Social, Email Successfully by Karen J. Bannan, B2B Magazine

1. Publish your email newsletter to social accounts
2. Boost the chance that social and email content will rank high in organic searches
3. Make emails easier to share

The Forest of Rhetoric by Dr. Gideon Burton of Brigham Young University

An Interview with ITIL Girl by the LANDesk Software Blog
A blog post I helped pull together for a client.

What's the Point of Paid Media in Post- Advertising by John Thomas, Post Advertising

10 Things You Should Tweet by Jon Gelberg, Inc.

Read anything interesting lately? Send me the link at jeff@honeycomb-consulting.com