Posted in community, hub, hub and spoke, hubs, network, social media, social media hub, social network, spoke, transformation on Jun 21st, 2011
I am raising my children in a small town. I love that they have some of the same benefits that I had growing up. But, sometimes in a smaller school district, the communication we receive form the school isn’t what it should be. This really hit home when I missed the [...]
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Posted in SPURspectives, Uncategorized, financial services, investment, leader, marketing innovation, network, nonprofit, social network, transformation on Apr 3rd, 2011
This week marks the 2nd anniversary of one of my favorite books written by one of my favorite people — The Pollyanna Principles by Hildy Gottlieb. Loyal readers of Spurspectives may have seen a few posts referencing this book. There are links to some of them below. This is one of my favorite books because [...]
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Posted in banking, consumer behavior, customer relationship management, donor engagement, financial services, marketing, marketing innovation, personalized marketing, social media, transformation on Jan 3rd, 2011
Gartner predicts U.S. tablet sales will exceed 20 million in 2011. By this time next year 10% of all Americans will have a tablet and half of us will have smartphones - a year later will see ⅓ of us with tablets. Gartner goes on to predict that by 2015 most [...]
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Posted in community, donor, donor engagement, economic recession, front porch, fundraising, network, non profit, nonprofit, social network, transformation on Oct 4th, 2010
Today is World Habitat Day. Last week I wrote a post about Habitat’s international efforts here. Habitat for Humanity is also raising awareness of the need for improved shelter and highlighting Habitat’s priority in the United States, neighborhood revitalization. This theme echos the United Nations’ chosen theme for 2010 for events in the host city [...]
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Posted in SPURspectives, follower, imitation, leader, lifecycle, marketing, marketing innovation, network, social network, transformation on Sep 7th, 2010
Book Review: Managing (Right) for the First Time by David C. Baker
Twitter version: Manage people? Buy this book now.
This is a first for Spurspectives, a book review. Those of you who know me are aware that I read a lot, so it may seem strange that this is the first book review that I’ve [...]
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Posted in branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, customer relationship management, marketing, marketing innovation, network, seth godin, social branding, social marketing, social media, social network, transformation on Jul 14th, 2010
This is a simple, straightforward question. Is your first touch selfish? Is the first contact that you have with your prospects about you or about them? It’s surprising how many businesses only realize this is important when they are asked. Even then, some folks never get it.
In 1999, Seth Godin published Permission Marketing: turning strangers [...]
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Posted in SPURspectives, banking, branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, financial services, follower, leader, lifecycle, marketing, marketing budget, marketing innovation, social branding, social marketing, social network, spur communications, transformation on Jul 13th, 2010
Regular readers of SPURspectives know that Spur Communications provides marketing services for financial services and community benefit organizations. We are routinely asked to help with brand development. So, we spend a lot of time asking why — Why do you exist? Why do you matter? Why should someone care? As you can imagine, our nonprofit [...]
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The South African World Cup has come and gone. Spain is the World Cup champion for the next four years and Paul the Octopus has proven to be the most reliable gambler’s aid on earth, albeit below the waves. This is one final post on my observations of the World Cup and what it can [...]
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Posted in SPURspectives, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, customer engagement, follower, imitation, leader, marketing, network, seth godin, social network, transformation on Jul 7th, 2010
Championship competitions are great for studying the microcosm of team cohesion. The World Cup may be the greatest study of all due to its global reach. This Cup’s German team is showing something very unique and I think reflective a change in how the world does business.
Teams have long been assembled like armies, with top [...]
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Posted in branding, community, consumer behavior, consumer engagement, consumer perception, customer engagement, customer interaction, donor engagement, marketing, transformation on Jun 29th, 2010
There is a major intersection that a friend of mine cannot drive through. It isn’t blocked or under construction. There’s nothing technically wrong with the intersection. It is simply that 3 out of 4 of the corners have businesses with horrible logos on their signs. He’s not a design snob. The 3 bad logos are [...]
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