CXOTalk series by Vala Afshar and Michael Krigsman

The world of IT and Marketing is evolving faster than any other stream within our businesses. In the new social economy, we have to not only be up to date on the latest and the greatest but also strategically decide when, what and how to implement some of these changes to stay relevant in the marketplace.

Luckily, there is a weekly web show that is hosted by CMO of Enterasys, Vala Afshar and CEO of consulting and research firm Asuret, Michael Krigsman every Friday at 4pm EST on Google+ Hangouts. Vala and Michael host these sessions with high profile C-suite leaders to discuss the challenges faced by all of us in IT and Marketing in 2013.

I have been attending these sessions religiously for the past few weeks and I love the fact that these are authentic, real and non-scripted. Guests have included very high profile leaders such as Dion Hinchcliff, Kim Stevenson (CIO Intel), Ekaterina Waler, Guy Kawasaki and more.

This Friday, Vala and Michael will have Ben Haines, CIO at Pabst Brewing.

Click here to add to your calendar: https://plus.google.com/u/1/101981322245962603627/posts?hl=en. Do also make sure you follow and join the discussion on Twitter with #CXOTalk during the sessions.

The New Brand Narrative

A little while ago, I was invited to speak at the ITAC Digital Commerce Forum on the evolution of the brand. It was an interesting discussion where points were raised around the loyalty, user behaviours, content, and the strategies that utilize this medium in a manner that generates a positive return on investment.

“The medium is the message” is a phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. One of my main points was bringing this context back to our digital brands. Research indicates that 70% of all social + web activity on the internet is among people, yet brands, communications/PR and marketing folks are too focused on just the 30% branded activity which has no real impact. Or should we be focused on utilizing our brand to support and engage our ecosystem — in a true social business manner?

The New Brand Narrative

What are you focused on? Building a strategy that leverages the social behaviors online for organic activity or the strictly one way marketing “broadcast” that we are often more comfortable with?