How To Build Your Brand Like Angie Martinez

Posted on Updated Published by Chris Franco

I love hearing the perspective of people who built strong brands in the pre-digital era, and have successfully transitioned into present day. Angie Martinez is a prime example. During her interview on The Breakfast Club, Martinez shared his perspective on how the media has changed over the years.

It’s the easy thing to go for the [sensational] blog headline or whatever is going to get you a click online. That’s like fast food. It’s cool in the moment, but sometimes it deteriorates people’s brands because then who are you? [It makes you] a slave to a click or how many likes you get or how many posts you make. I feel like people lose themselves chasing the immediate hotness. Like, ‘Oh they’re talking about me today,” where it’s good or bad. I feel like that takes away from authenticity. You have to be patient. You have to be able to build an honest brand…

Spotify Playlists For Fictional TV Characters

Posted on Updated Published by Chris Franco

Halt And Catch Fire

Fans of AMC’s new show “Halt and Catch Fire” can listen to character-specific playlists on Spotify curated by the show’s music supervisor Thomas Golubić. Pretty cool move by AMC that also shows-off one of Spotify’s best features.

There are a lot of people trying to figure out how to link your TV set to your phone or tablet for a “second screen” experience. Here is one that actually makes a lot of sense: Spotify playlists for major characters in “Halt and Catch Fire,” AMC’s show about the PC business in the early ’80s.

These aren’t soundtracks for the show, though sometimes songs that appear on the drama will appear on the playlists, assembled by Thomas Golubić, the show’s music supervisor.

Instead, each playlist is supposed to “help elaborate on the different characters and their headspace, to articulate their journey with music,” said Golubić, who has also provided music for shows like “Breaking Bad” and “Six Feet Under.”

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Social Media Marketing: The 10 Step Guide To Success

Posted on Updated Published by Chris Franco

Social Media Marketing

Social Media Marketing: 10 Steps to Success

Building strong brands is the essence of marketing. If you want to build a strong brand in today’s digital world, your marketing mix is bound to include social media.

But are you using social media the right way, or are you just wasting time? That’s a legitimate concern for a lot of people, especially those who are growing their own businesses. You want to do things that get results; things that affect the bottom-line.

The purpose of this guide is not to convince you that social media is important for marketing your brand — you already know this — but rather to give you the framework for making the most out of your social media marketing efforts.

WhatsApp: Potential To Drive More Referral Traffic Than Twitter?

Posted on Updated Published by Chris Franco

WhatsApp

USA Today’s sports section, FTW, recently added a ‘Share to WhatsApp’ button to all of their articles. According to a USA Today case study, 18 percent of the total social sharing of FTW content is now happening using WhatsApp. That’s 5% more than Twitter. And that’s significant.

Since introducing a WhatsApp sharing button to its mobile site a week ago, FTW has already seen WhatsApp shares climb to 18 percent of the site’s overall sharing activity. That’s higher than Twitter (13 percent) but still significantly lower than email (35 percent) and Facebook (34 percent).

This Is The Craziest Thing You’ll Read About Tinder Today

Posted on Updated Published by Chris Franco

Tinder Swipe Photo

That’s a lot of swipes

If you’re not familiar with Tinder, it’s a dating app that shows you the faces of people in your area. When a new face appears, you have two options. Swipe right if you think they’re hot; swipe left if not. If some you ‘right-swiped’ swipes right on your photo, you have the ability to chat with them. Tinder let’s you take it from there.

I know plenty of people have gone on dates with people they met via Tinder matches, and all of them have lived to tell the story.

One of the craziest statistics from Mary Meeker’s latest recently-released Internet Trends report (.pdf) is about Tinder. Specifically, how there were over 800 million swipes per day on Tinder in 2013. That’s +21x Y/Y. That’s whoa!

I’m looking forward to when Tinder advertises how many people have found their husband/wife using their dating app. At this rate, it won’t be long until that starts happening. Or maybe it has?

Cheesteak Marketing: What Inspired Nipsey Hussle’s $100 Dollar Mixtape?

Posted on Updated Published by Chris Franco

Nipsey Hussle

Rappers release free music every day on sites like DatPiff. Nipsey Hussle is one of those rappers. But recently Nipsey Hussle did something that completely defied logic as to how music fans will consume music. He made the physical version his latest free mixtape available to purchase for $100. Within 24 hours, all 1000 copies of Crenshaw were sold out. Jay Z even bought 100 copies out of respect for the bold move.

Nipsey Hussle’s $100 pricing strategy came from something the California native read in Jonah Berger’s Contagious, specifically about a Philadelphia-based restaurant that started offering $100 cheesesteaks in 2004. Not only did the cheesesteaks sell, they also generated the kind of press that most business owners would kill for.