Content marketing used to be about customer magazines and mailed newsletters.

And today’s methods, according to the infographic, mirror the way the stock market works: In each, there’s a buyer, a seller, an adviser, a facilitator, the trading technology and a marketplace.

Data analysis is not easy. It takes years to get good at it, and once you get good at it you realize how much more there is to learn. That is part of the joy. You are always learning. You are always growing.

Now, the online ad industry - from the buyer and the seller's point of view - went to Boy Scout camp. We tied ropes and knots and we made them look like a noose and we hung around our necks and attached them to the rafters. Thus clicks became the dominant thing and we hung ourselves on them.

Most people think innovation is all about ideas, when in fact it is more about delivery, people, and process.

It really is time to call bullshit on ‘engagement’.

It really is time to call bullshit on ‘engagement’.

I am smiling. I know that the long time readers of my blog would know that I would never let you get away without measuring hard business bottom-line impact of any digital effort!

It is foolish to believe that just Conversation Rate, Amplification Rate, Applause Rate will get you the eternal love and gratification (and perhaps budget!) of your company's leadership. Yes they care a little bit about this "social media thing." But if you want their adoration (and let me repeat: budget!) you are going to have to quantify the economic value created via social media.

Magid Generational Studies, using data compiled by Advertising Age, has released an infographic breaking down media consumption by hour of day and generation.

A great user experience is the result of setting concrete goals that meet both user goals and business goals. Unfortunately, I have seen many teams kick off a project with nothing more than a goal of, “Let’s create a great UX!” While a noble thing to strive for, it’s not specific, actionable or measurable. It contributes nothing to the planning or design phases, and it is the UX equivalent of a motivational high-five.

So, then what do you see as the difference between content marketing and custom content?

These experiences are not just frustrating for us, but are bad for businesses as well. How bad? User Interface Engineering’s analysis of a major online retailer found that 45% of all customers had multiple registrations in the system, 160,000 people requested their password every day, and 75% of these people never completed the purchase they started once they requested their password.

Email is, besides all its flaws, still the cornerstone of the Internet.

This post is to solve that problem. I'm going to present a cluster of what I think are digital "crimes against humanity." A mighty term, used in a very unmighty sense here, but I hope it makes you sit up and take note.

Are there lessons you can apply from brain development to the lifecycle of a company?

A: I am not sure about the lifecycle of a company, but certainly for the environment in which the company’s lifecycle takes place.

I am often asked to speak to business audiences on the potential of applying findings from the cognitive neurosciences to business practice, something about which I am very skeptical. I usually say three things to explain my skepticism:

 

a) We don’t know enough about how the brain works to apply anything to business practice. We don’t know in real terms how your brain knows how to pick up a glass of water and drink it. Let alone be prescriptive about how business should work.

 

b) That doesn’t mean we are clueless about brain functioning. We know a lot about the brain’s performance envelope, for example. The brain appears to have been designed to solve problems related to surviving in an outdoor setting—in unstable meteorological conditions—and to do so in near constant motion.

 

c) So, even though we don’t enough to be prescriptive about how companies should run their business, we do know this: if you wanted to design a business environment that was directly opposed to what the brain is naturally good at doing, you would design a cubicle. And you would place it in a building with very few windows surrounded by people who were constantly gunning for your job.

Learn to talk SMAC

Every trade needs a standard vocabulary to refer to its environment, users, actions, products and results. Surprise, social media didn’t have one! So we took the bull by the horns, collected over 200 terms that we’d seen or used, and then edited, sorted and defined the list. The result is documented here, on the SMAC Wiki. As our industry grows, we will continually review and add those terms that reach a critical mass of usage.

We invite you to be part of the process! Learn to use these terms properly; share them with your colleagues; and by all means, give us feedback. The SMAC Standards Board reviews all submissions and publishes approved terms with proper credit.