Coach Prime – A Great Football Coach, A Great Personal Brand

Coach Prime – A Great Football Coach, A Great Personal Brand

Branding, Leadership, Marketing
Coach Prime. Great football player and baseball player back in the day. And now he's a great head college football coach at the University of Colorado Boulder. He's a great personal brand, too. He's not afraid to speak freely and frequently. He's always in the headlines, always on social media, always in the news, always on our minds. And because he's such a strong personal brand, his words carry weight. He has a huge impact on all of those around him. Me, you, all of us can be like Coach Prime. We just have to speak up, put ourselves in front of the camera, share our knowledge and expertise with our followers and fans, and be conspicuous in our presence whatever we do, wherever we go. That's how to be…
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The Importance of Having a Strong Personal Brand

The Importance of Having a Strong Personal Brand

Boston, Branding, Marketing, Social Media
My wife, Barbara, asked me recently why it was so important to have a strong personal brand on social media. Among other things, I told her that you can't be in front of people in real life, IRL, all the time, but you can be in front of them and heard by them almost all the time on #socialmedia. So you want to share content online on a steady, continuous basis that is a positive, accurate reflection of who you are as both a professional and a human being. I had a lot more to say about the topic, of course. Here's my answer to Barbara's question in its entirety...
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Teaching, PR, Inspirational Stories and More with Kim Ring

Teaching, PR, Inspirational Stories and More with Kim Ring

Boston, Business, Leadership, Marketing, Podcast
In this episode (Episode 173) of my podcast, Bob Cargill's Marketing Show, I talk to Kimberley Ring about her very inspirational career journey from founding her own PR agency, Ring Communications, over 15 years ago to her unbridled passion for teaching today as a faculty member at Suffolk University. About Kimberley Ring Allen Kimberley Ring is the founder of Ring Communications - one of the fastest growing integrated marketing firms in Boston. She is known as one of the leading public relations professionals and social media influencers in Boston and is known for her work with high profile brands in the lifestyle, hospitality, and sports industries. A self-made publicist and business owner that has built a successful career around joining “old school ethics” with “new school techniques,” she has been…
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Ridiculously Awesome Branding by Northeastern University

Ridiculously Awesome Branding by Northeastern University

Boston, Branding, Marketing
Meandering around campus at Northeastern University in Boston recently, I noticed the paw prints of the school's mascot, Paws, painted along the walkway, which made perfect sense to me. After all, the Husky is the school's official mascot and nickname. But I have to admit, I was impressed by the lengths that the school went to in putting those prints on the ground. That is branding at its absolute finest, make-believe paw prints as if the school's mascot had come to life and was actually making its way around campus with students, faculty, administrators and others. How can your business, organization or institution leave tracks so that members of your audience can't help but be reminded of your presence wherever they go? Online or in the real world (IRL), what…
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Using Social Media to Spread the Word

Using Social Media to Spread the Word

Marketing, Social Media
Wait! What? Yes, it's true. Believe it or not, I went to church recently. The Franklin United Methodist Church to be exact. The same church I went to as a kid growing up in the ridiculously awesome town of Franklin, Massachusetts. At the most, I go to church only a few times a year, on average. I always enjoy the experience when I'm there, though. Always. This was a particularly great day to be sitting in the pews with my wife, Barbara, and my mother - who's been going to this church for over 60 years. First of all, my sister, Cathy, was playing the organ, as she has done countless times there over the years going all the way back to when she was just a teenager. Watching her…
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Getting Customers to Wear Your Brand

Getting Customers to Wear Your Brand

Boston, Branding, Marketing
Many professional hockey fans will wear their favorite team's jersey, especially when they attend a game, like the scene I saw the other night when I was walking around outside the TD Garden in Boston. All those Boston Bruins fans milling about wearing black and gold jerseys like the players themselves. Why? Well, as fans, they're proud to wear that jersey, to wear the black and gold. They want to feel that sense of belonging to a close-knit community, a community of loyal Bruins fans. And frankly, they know they look wicked cool wearing that jersey. Tough. Rugged. Again, like the players themselves. Okay. So you're not a professional hockey team, but you do have products and services to sell. How can you do what the Bruins do with their…
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Social Media, Samuel Adams and More

Social Media, Samuel Adams and More

Advertising, Marketing, Podcast, Social Media
In this episode of my podcast, which celebrates its five-year anniversary next month, I talk about a number of topics. I start off by talking about how I'll be running the Boston Marathon again this year, the 15th time I have run this historic race for a charitable cause. I then share my feelings about how much I love teaching, something I've been doing a lot of at this new stage in my career, and being involved as a member of the leadership team - as president - of the American Marketing Association's Boston chapter. I talk about my new book, Twenty Jobs, Twenty Lessons - a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media. I go on about the importance of knowing how to use social…
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Spotify Wrapped is Ingenious Marketing

Spotify Wrapped is Ingenious Marketing

Marketing
Spotify Wrapped from Spotify is ingenious marketing. Users receive a ridiculously awesome visual presentation of the songs and artists they listened to most during the year. Along with this information comes a great deal of additional data including total minutes of listening time (my number was 47,878 minutes), top artist listened to (mine was HarryStyles), how many songs played (I played 3,598 songs on Spotify), etc. It is all such impressive data, if you ask me, data that users are inclined to share with their own respective online networks, amplifying the reach - exponentially - of Spotify's brilliant campaign. I explain a lot more how how strongly I feel about the ingeniousness of Spotify Wrapped in the video accompanying this blog post.
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