Branding and digital marketing strategy | The Myndset by Minter Dial

What makes social media so disturbing? And why branding and politics are both changing together

Minter Dial — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:14:03 +0000

Few would quibble with the notion that change is in the air. This year, with heads of state/parliamentary elections in over 60 countries, we can expect many incumbent governments to change (witness the most recent cases of France and Greece…). Last year, we also saw a slew of non-democratic changes of heads of state in the [...]

What do beta mode and code naming have in common?

Minter Dial — Sun, 13 May 2012 11:50:11 +0000

The other day, I heard how a project with a code name was actually launched with the very same code name. It kind of makes a mockery of the secrecy that “code” names are supposed to provide, no? Also, under the “it sounds silly, but isn’t,” you can find some sites that launch in beta [...]

Social media theatre in New York

Minter Dial — Thu, 10 May 2012 16:28:09 +0000

I thought this street advertising for Godspell at Circle in the Square theatre on Broadway (NY) was brilliant. Clearly, this is one socially savvy Broadway theatre (and/or it has a good agency behind it). The play has a full (dare I say heavenly) battery of social media pages and accounts, including Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Anyway, [...]

Social Media Conversion – Why converting from one platform to another will become a major headache

Minter Dial — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:48:39 +0000

In my former life at L’Oreal, in the professional products division (selling professional products to hairdressers), we used to spend a lot of time trying to convert a hairdressing salon from one hair color range to another. When a color was well entrenched in the salon, all the stylists were confident with their formulae and [...]

Raising your Digital IQ – Why it’s important for all the C-suite

Minter Dial — Sun, 06 May 2012 14:05:41 +0000

It is my belief that a company’s Digital IQ – the way it integrates and leverages digital technology to service the business needs – will be a key driver and competitive advantage over the next decade. A 2012 Price Waterhouse Cooper report suggests that “… excellence in IT has not been commoditized and is still differentiating [...]

Is social media right for customer service – The right fit for you?

Minter Dial — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:52:28 +0000

There are now a good number of brands that have identified social media as a channel for customer service (Best Buy, Starbucks, Dell, Zappos to name a few). First, there was the automation trend. Then there was the outsourcing boom. Now there is the social media channel. It seems, however, that most companies still [...]

In defense of brand blogging – in need of some trust?

Minter Dial — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:30:56 +0000

USA Today recently wrote up an article about the end of corporate blogging. Refering to a study done by U Mass (Dartmouth) done earlier this year, it said that “…the percentage of companies that maintain blogs fell to 37% in 2011 from 50% in 2010, based on its survey of 500 fast-growing companies listed by Inc. magazine. [...]

Social Media and the Women’s Forum – The relevance of social media at events

Minter Dial — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 15:24:02 +0000

I was recently asked by the Women’s Forum to write about the relevance of using social media for their Forum event. Certainly, events and social media are a terrific match. And, for an event that is, by definition, women-centric, social media has even more sense. For brands, I believe that events are an extremely important [...]

Foursquare case study at Crowne Plaza – how to make geolocalization work for digital marketers

Minter Dial — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:31:51 +0000

Have you noticed of late the precipitous falloff of activity on Foursquare? If you are a user, I’m going to guess that you — like me — have taken the finger off the Foursquare pedal ever since they altered the scoring system. The race for first position has totally lost its appeal — even for [...]

Women in social media – Why she makes business sense

Minter Dial — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 07:55:19 +0000

Every day, it seems that a new social media site is being born. I don’t think that is an exaggeration. So, how to make head or tails of each of them? Sifting through the social media jungle If I were a venture capitalist or perhaps even an investment banker (and I did work at DLJ [...]