Sports journalists: Three tips to improve your ability to sidle

For sports journalists, building a rapport with athletes is a great way to get scoops. As an undergraduate student with an interest in sports journalism, I found two articles that discuss how reporters "sidle" next to NBA players for one-on-one interviews.

The Art of the Sidle: The Slickest Move in NBA Media; Bryan Curtis; The Ringer

This article includes several interviews with NBA reporters on how they approach players for interviews. The reporters talk about the challenges of getting players alone and how to build relationships with them. It also mentions how reporters get annoyed when their colleagues intrude on their one-on-one time with players.

Golub: Controlling the NBA media; Jack Golub; The Stanford Daily

This article explains how reporters are controlled by NBA players. The author uses the example of Jimmy Butler's situation in Minnesota to support his argument. He also responds to the first article and offers a different point of view.

Based on these two articles and my experience at Northwestern, I have developed three action items you should consider the next time you’re thinking about approaching an athlete for an interview.

• Build Unique Relationships - Don’t risk becoming a mouthpiece for an athlete when talking to him or her one-on-one.

• Ask Bold Questions - If you’re trying to get a scoop, don’t be afraid to approach an athlete with hard questions.

• Don’t Disturb Colleagues - When a fellow journalist is getting one-on-one time with an athlete, respect them and don’t join the conversation.

The next time you’re thinking about approaching athletes, use these three action items to improve your ability to sidle.

Chris Grismer is an undergraduate student at Northwestern University. He studies journalism and integrated marketing communications. You can follow him on Twitter @Chris_Grismer.

Digital Marketing Managers: 3 Ideas to Increase Revenue with Social Media Advertising

As a Digital Marketing Manager reaching your high value customers is becoming more difficult in the disrupted marketplace. Likewise, thanks to digital and new media, audiences and channels are more fragmented than ever before. As a graduate student in the Northwestern University Medill’s IMC program, I have been researching social media advertising and found two articles that will help you understand and use social media in a strategic way.

In the article, “Social Media Advertising: The Complete Guide”, Christina Newberry discusses how online and digital media advertising are growing, especially social media advertising. The most used platform is Facebook covering 35.4% of the total display advertising in the United States. Companies are switching their advertising spending from traditional media to digital at a fast pace. Therefore, Christina Newberry decided to share some tools and recommendations to easily create ads in six of the most used social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat. However, it is important to choose which platform is ideal for your organization and create unique content strategies that will engage your target market.  

-Christina Newberry @ckjnewberry, Hootsuite Blog

-https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-advertising/

Source: www.zeemo.com.au

Even though social media advertising has proven effective to reach a company’s target market, many consumers find targeted ads to be annoying and disagreeable. That is why ad blockers have become increasingly popular and this represents a problem for marketing communications. That is why Kevin Jennison enumerates in “Ad Targeting is failing users”, some recommendations that companies can implement to deliver a better targeted ad experience for consumers. His three recommended actions are to let consumers decide which ads they want to see, target users based on their actual context, or simply wait for advertising technology to improve with the hope that new algorithms will resolve this problem.

-Kevin Jennison @JennisonKevin, Ad Exchanger

-https://adexchanger.com/data-driven-thinking/ad-targeting-failing-users/

Based on my review of these two articles and relevant studies I have done in Medill’s Integrated Marketing Communication program at Northwestern University, I have developed three ideas you should consider when planning social media advertising strategies.

·      Symbiosis increases results-

Traditional media advertising is not dead; investing in it can help support your company’s social media advertising strategies.

·      Divergence engages consumers-

Creating unexpected, “outside the box” social media strategies will make you successful and attractive in a world full of options where customer loyalty is slowly disappearing.

·      Embrace change fast-

Customers adapt to changes in technology and social media platforms faster than marketers and companies; you must react quickly, but accurately to stay relevant with your target market.

If you take into consideration the three ideas mentioned before, you will be one step closer to successfully plan social media advertising strategies for your company that stay in your target market’s minds.

About the Author:

My name is Alexandra González. I am a graduate student in Medill’s IMC program at Northwestern University with an expected graduation date of December 2017. I am looking to increase my knowledge in Digital Marketing and Brand Strategy. I have previous experience in communications and digital film production. Contact me at Twitter @asg1616 or Linkedin.

College Marketing Students: 3 Tips for Navigating the Job Hunt

As students of marketing, we seek to learn this ever-important skill to help brands tell their stories to consumers, as well as to tell our own stories to prospective employers. Having done so at Northwestern University, on the job hunt and for brands such as Coca Cola, my experiences only echo the outcomes of advice about breaking into the professional market mentioned in two great articles.

In her “If You Need An Interview Script, You Shouldn’t Be Interviewing” article for Forbes, Liz Ryan, founder and CEO of Human Workplace, a prominent think tank, coaching and consulting business, emphasizes the importance of avoiding “the script” on job interviews for employers and potential employees. She holds that the strongest culture fits and organic conversation come from more humanized, natural-feeling conversation, rather than more contrived back-and-forth. In letting go of pre-rehearsed questions and answers, employers and potential employees yield more meaningful results from the interview process, and thus, better understanding of job fits.

Photo Credit: Quintcareers.com

In his “Landing an internship has become way more important and complex than anyone’s acknowledging” article for LinkedIn, Jeff Selingo, a prominent thought leader in higher education, emphasizes that this sense of fit holds true in the realm of landing internships as they become even more important in the ever-evolving job market. He underscores the paramount importance of internships (summer and school-year) in helping college students get a foot in the door for full-time jobs after graduation, or developing strong hands-on work experience.

After reviewing these articles, working marketing-intensive internships and studying Marketing Strategy at Northwestern, I offer three tips based on my experience, as well as Liz Ryan and Jeff Selingo’s expertise:

·      Beware of Scripts: Approach each interview not as a rigidly structured back-and-forth, but rather as an engaging conversation with someone you would like to work with.

·      Internships = Investment: Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty in the job market during and between school years, as even the job experiences you like the least give you perspective on the road ahead.

·      Think Big Picture: Always have a sense of your true north, as each step you take (whether in an interview or networking event) helps to guide you on your path toward achieving your greater goals.

With these three takeaways in mind, the job search should stand as a look to your future (near and distant), as well as an exercise in finding a work environment that genuinely fits your personality and skills.

Michael Schonfeld is an Integrated Marketing Communications student at Northwestern University, as well as a marketer experienced in helping brands use music to build their identities with consumers.

You can find him on LinkedIn or on Twitter at @MSchony.

Marketing Managers: 3 Ways to Harness the Power of the Internet of Things

Everyone seems to be talking about the Internet of Things (IoT) these days, and you might have wondered more than once just how this futuristic technology is relevant to your work as a marketing manager today. As a graduate student of Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, I have two articles here that help you understand IoT and how it can make you a power marketer.

As Chief Innovation Officer at DDB (APAC), Anthony J James wrote the article "What Use is the Internet of Things to Marketing?" on LinkedIn to help marketers like you see how IoT makes your job easier. With IoT, objects are becoming smarter with real-time data collection and connectivity, and this wealth of information makes you smarter too. Marketers can use the data to pinpoint and predict consumer needs, seizing that invaluable pre-purchase aperture without wasting resources. You can also use the data to identify problems at various points of communication and optimize your marketing process. It’s all about efficiency, intelligence, and simplicity.

The second article "Why Marketers Must Understand the Internet of Things" is written by digital expert Marko Z. Muellner on the Edelman Digital Blog. Soon, devices and people will be connected everywhere, every minute of the day. IoT is transforming your consumers’ lives, and you too need to transform the capabilities and methods of your marketing team. You should hire data experts, listen to data experts, and think like data experts. Simply put, IoT takes you straight to the head and heart of your consumers, but first you have to know how to work with what you are given.

Remember...

• Optimize your process - The data is there to help you see things you don’t normally see, and you can use it to eliminate inefficiencies in your tasks.
• Think with data - The value of IoT lies in the wealth of data it provides to anyone willing to learn.
• Focus on humans - Ultimately, the most important thing you can do with any technology is to create value for your customers, and IoT can help you with just that.

Next time you hear IoT in the coffee room or at a convention, recall these three points and join in the conversation on why it’s truly the next big thing for marketers.

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Shuyi Shang is a current graduate student of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School, Northwestern University. She has industry experience in digital marketing, social media analytics and market research. You can reach Shuyi on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Social Strategy: 3 Paths to Social ROI

According to eConsultancy, Only 8 percent of companies say they can determine Return on Investment (ROI) from their social media spending (source: Econsultancy).  From their Global CMO study, they find 63% want to measure the ROI of their social investment.  Yet, many social pundits - while giving "lip service" to the concept of ROI, have "surrendered" to the ROI challenge and, have instead, encouraged their followers to simply focus on the "intangible" justifications for a social strategy.  In other words, don't worry about the lack of social ROI, it is intuitive it benefits your organization and that is justification enough.

While these types of articles imply you don't need to really consider or develop the ROI from your social investment, nothing could be further from the truth.  If you consider the "opposite side" of the IBM quote, if 63% of all organizations would like to measure their Social ROI, this means 27% of them can.  That is the direction I used when I started researching my new book - "Social IMC - Social Strategies with Bottom-line ROI".

The fact is there are thousands of companies who are using Social as an integrated part of their marketing mix.  Their social strategies develop very specific KPI's and provide a way to track their social investment from first social contact through to final purchase from the organization.  And these companies are no different than yours.  In developing my book, I looked at B2B and B2C companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100.  I examined for profit and not-for-profit firms, governmental organizations, and organizations across the globe.  From Africa to China, to the Pacific Rim, to Europe to the Americas, companies are designing, developing, deploying, justifying and measuring their social investment with the same precision as their other marketing investments.  The key is not to simply rationalize the fact you don't have ROI today, the key to success is to look at your social investment through a marketing prism.  Start with your high value markets and you can develop strategies which transform your social programs into revenue producing, market share generating assets to your organization.

While my book goes into the strategies in great detail giving you the metrics, methodology, and best-of-breed examples from across the globe, there are three paths you need to consider in re-thinking your social investments from an ROI perspective.  They are:

• Start with your High Value Markets - Man pundits advocate specific site strategies.  Whether it is blogging, building your Facebook presence, Tweeting, building your PInterest presence, etc., they focus on content and engagement, not ROI.  The path to an ROI strategy starts NOT with social networks but with your High Value Markets.  The goal of social strategies with bottom-line impact is to develop strategies which build 1-to-1 relationships with your high value markets.  Using social to build relationships rather than followers is one of the paths to social with measurable, provable bottom-line results.

• Think Multimedia Engagement - If you look at social from a marketing perspective, it is logical that your high value markets are engaging on multiple levels of the social pyramid.  Whether they are consumers or business professionals, they are seeking expertise and information using blogs, websites, social networks, private virtual communities, videos, passion sites and a host of other social options.  For success, you need to understand where your high value markets are congregating, who is at the center of their conversations [the influencers] and where they are congregating.  This will allow you to maximize your impact by engaging them on the levels they "inhabit".  This is where social monitoring comes in.

• Build Relationship Funnels & KPIs - The final path is to begin thinking of your social strategy as a journey rather than a networking site.  To build a business relationship, you need to take your prospects through a process [a relationship or performance funnel] from prospect to customer [and beyond].  While many of these relationships will occur exclusively in social, many can use other marketing channels [sales force, conferences, meetings] to close the sale.  When I work with companies through my consultancy, we start by identifying all of the "steps" from suspect to customer.  Each level is quantified, valued, and then we begin by determining the performance required in each step of the process to be profitable.  Comparing every pair of behaviors in the relationship funnel gives us the KPIs [Key Performance Indicators] we need to manage the ENTIRE process from social contact through to purchase.

In summary, there are thousands of companies across the globe who are implementing highly effective, highly efficient, and highly profitable social marketing programs with their high value & high opportunity markets.  The key is to understand how best to use social as an integral part of your marketing mix.  Today, Social Strategies with Bottom-line ROI is a necessity and you need to know how to design, develop, deploy, measure & justify your social programs for your organization to grow and prosper.

Randy Hlavac is a social and integrated marketing expert.  In 1990, he founded Marketing Synergy, Inc [MSI].   MSI helps business and consumer focused companies define, engage & acquire high value communities using social, web, mobile and integrated marketing technologies.  Using value based predictive systems and marketing databases integrating social and integrated marketing channels, MSI’s clients build profitable, long-term relationships with their most valuable market segments.  Marketing Synergy aids its clients in developing and deploying the marketing database, analytical, and marketing systems necessary to achieve their business goals.

In addition to being the CEO of Marketing Synergy, Randy is also a Lecturer at Northwestern.  He teaches courses on digital, social and mobile marketing.  Randy is a social marketing blogger and his first book – Social IMC – Social Strategies with Bottom-line ROI is available on Amazon.  Randy also writes articles for the Journal of Integrated Marketing, Chicago Association of Direct Marketing and is a frequent guest blogger on social, marketing technologies, and integrated marketing. 

Randy can be reached at RHlavac@SocialIMC.com.  You can also reach Randy on Twitter at @RandyHlavac or on LinkedIn at randyhlavac