These two presentations on Social Media made it to the homepage of slideshare.net.

I love it when a plan comes together.  On Friday and today my presentations made it up to the top of slideshare.net’s home page.  Check them out:   Facebook: Breaking the Sales and Engagement Myth http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/6652163 View more presentations from Gilbert Direct Marketing, Inc. The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/3240767 View more [...]

How to Mess Up a Perfectly Good Customer Experience

As a marketer, you should be overly concerned about how your customers experience your brand, products and customer service. I evangelize how in the internet age it’s very easy for a company to wind up getting skewered via social media. But all isn’t the same out there. I come across businesses daily who don’t have [...]

Does humor belong in business?

Folks, business is serious business! I’ve worked for too many companies who took themselves way too seriously.  And why not be serious – its important work bringing great products to consumers, right? Wrong!  Given the growth of social media and its ability to put a human face on your companies business, its time to have [...]

How Integrating Social Media Into its Marketing Mix Brought The Fresh Diet Success

By Melissa Campanelli, from eMarketing and Commerce Magazine Integrating social media into its marketing mix has helped drive revenue for The Fresh Diet, a gourmet diet delivery service established in 2005 that delivers freshly prepared meals and two snacks directly to its clients’ doors each day. The Fresh Diet’s newly redesigned website makes it easy for [...]

What Multichannel, Direct and Ecommerce Marketers Can Learn From the Way Old-School Retailers Do Business

This week I want to tell you a story, and pay tribute to a local businessperson who recently passed away.
So Why Am I Telling You This?
Think about your company: Do you know your customers by name, or are you just a nameless, faceless entity that people buy product from? How about your staff. Are they, especially your customer service reps (CSRs), connected to your customers? Via how many touchpoints?

New Year’s Recap: 19 Direct Marketing, Call-Center and Social Media Tips of 2009, Part 1

After a careful review of all my columns this year, I’ve come up with a list of 19 top tips for you. Implement these strategies into your planning to help prepare your business for a prosperous 2010. (Part 1 contains tips one through seven, dealing with hot-button topics such as social media, lead generation and Twitter. Then check back next week for tips eight through 19, focusing on direct mail marketing and analysis, call centers, and e-commerce websites.)

The 9 Immutable Laws of Social Media Marketing

“What can I expect from social media?”

“What kind of return on investment will I get?”

“I tried social media and got no customers!”

These are the kinds of questions and responses I hear daily in my conversations. From these conversations I’ve come up with a set of nine laws of social media to provide all marketers with proper expectations. 1. Brand…

6 key takeaways for getting a handle on this new-fangled social media customer service

To me it’s simple: Make it easy to speak with me or my business goes elsewhere. But the big impact on my life was the discovery of social media as a customer service tool

Win a Free One hour Social Media Consultation as Part of My One Year Anniversary Celebration

So here is a contest for you….

Guess how many blog page views I have had in the last year to win.

Winner gets a free one hour review and recommendation of either your linkedin profile, or your own social media sites. Closest the the exact number of page views wins. Post your answer to the comments below to win. Contest ends 11/30/09.

My blog is singing happy birthday to me! (and a contest to win for you!)

Dear friends and readers. Exactly one year ago today the Gilbert Direct Marketing blog was born. Frankly I never expected it to take off the way it did. I want to offer you my readers my sincerest thank you for turning this blog into one of the top rated (99th percentile, based on Grader by Hubspot) direct and social media blogs.

Your comments, both public and private have kept me going.

So here is a contest for you. Winner gets a free one hour review of either your linkedin profile, or your own social media sites. Guess how many page views I have had in the last year. Closest the the exact number of page views wins. Post your answer to the comments below to win.