By Leo Valiquette
When I worked in the newspaper business, there was a screening practice for job applicants that I wholeheartedly embraced – giving the strongest prospects freelance assignments on tight deadlines.
There is no better way to gauge someone’s abilities. Writing samples are all well and good, but there is no telling how much they have been cleaned up by a third party. The same approach was taken at our affiliated inmedia Public Relations practice, only in this context the assignment was a media release.
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By Denzil Doyle
In my last article I wrote about the role that a board of directors can play in the success or failure of a company and how to go about recruiting one. In this article, I will give an example of a board model that shareholders could feel good about and one that had danger signals written all over it right from the beginning.
A rough ride for RIM
I will start with the one with the danger signals. About four years ago, when Research in Motion was flying high, I attended a talk by a seasoned CEO who was very critical of many aspects of corporate governance at RIM, but particularly about the existence of two CEOs. It was the strong consensus of the meeting (which took the form of a panel discussion) that a dual-CEO system does not work and that the RIM board was negligent in allowing it to happen there.
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By Daylin Mantyka
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Version One Ventures, Ventureburn, MarketingProfs, Techvibes and SmartBlog on Social Media.
Does your product pass the toothbrush test?
Are the products you are building important enough that people will use them at least twice a day? Boris Wertz of Version One Ventures uses the toothbrush as a metaphor for user engagement. He states that “High repeat usage = large potential business.”
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By Leo Valiquette
As Francis wrote yesterday, content marketing is nothing new. It’s the way in which that content can be presented, distributed and promoted that has changed dramatically since the days when we had to use these dusty things called books to do research.
I define content marketing as a process to engage, inform, educate and otherwise woo a target audience with some kind of narrative. This narrative can be anything from a post on your corporate blog to a paid advertising spot that features a client case study (often referred to as an advertorial), or a thought leadership piece that has earned, rather than bought, its way into an influential industry publication.
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By Francis Moran
I gave a presentation yesterday to a new networking meeting, the Montreal Startup Breakfast Club. I talked about developing a content marketing strategy, and reviewed the rigorous methodology we have developed to govern our own internal content-marketing activities as well as those of clients. The novelty of using the term “content marketing” was evident to the people in the room and my presentation was well received, notwithstanding my explanation that I use this relatively new term to describe things I have been doing all my working life.
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Don’t give your customers reasons to ask for apologies
March 12, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
This is a story about a dining room set and organically grown frozen meat products, but it could just as easily be a story about a B2B technology product or service […]
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Drafting your own patent disclosure document
March 11, 2013 by David French
In our previous posting, we addressed the issue of getting to the point in drafting a patent application. I suggested that inventors would be well-served if they did make the attempt to draft their own patent disclosure document. I strongly recommended against proceeding without the support of a patent professional […]
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Great articles roundup: Accelerators, gunslingers, customer service and startup founders
March 08, 2013 by Daylin Mantyka
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Techvibes, MarketingProfs, Co.Create and GigaOM […]
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Oracles, shamans and storytellers
March 07, 2013 by Bob Bailly
Artists, poets, writers, revolutionaries, magicians, explorers, musicians and creative innovators of all kinds are among us today. Their muses, oracles and inspiration are available to us all if we want to understand their secrets. And one of those secrets is that they are all great storytellers […]
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You can’t rely on the channel to grow sales in new markets
March 06, 2013 by Jeff Campbell
I had an interesting call with a long time colleague and friend today. He is a well known and respected leader in his field. His expertise and notoriety has been developed over years of innovating and perfecting processes that are measurable, repeatable and produce consistently high-quality results […]
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From courting Hollywood’s A-list to navigating the Chinese New Year
March 05, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
Growing a startup is all about establishing and managing relationships. There are the relationships that open doors and create opportunity. And then there are the more pedestrian ones involved with the day-to-day processes that get product to customers. Relationships in both categories gave the Screach team plenty of reason to lose sleep […]
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February roundup: What does it take to get technology to market?
March 04, 2013 by Leo Valiquette
It may have been a short month, by we still pulled together in February a rich lineup of content for marketers, entrepreneurs and investors alike. Hot topics included how not to do customer service, what’s to love and hate about technology marketing, what’s really going on with the so-called Series A crunch, and the risks of “mentor whiplash” […]
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Case Study: MapSherpa
March 04, 2013 by Francis Moran
What we did: MapSherpa engaged Francis Moran and Associates in September, 2011. The company had successfully brought to market a direct-to-consumer version of its online map-making application as well as a custom version for a large outdoor recreation association. MapSherpa was now contemplating building its second-generation product, but was uncertain which market segments it ought […]
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The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]