I’m proud to announce I’m the new CMO at Artesian Solutions

I’m proud to announce I’m the new CMO at Artesian Solutions.

I won’t assume you already know Artesian, so to explain a bit more the company is a leading provider of Social CRM and brand surveillance software.  I believe the company is set to really go far and a measure of this is another announcement that Octopus invested around $4M in a Series A Round to support our explosive growth (200% yoy) at a time when market demand for social CRM solutions continues to soar.

I’m proud to be at Artesian for a number of reasons.  Firstly, the business has ambitious goals and a seasoned Board of Directors.  That is important to me (and in fact they’ll be more on the latter in the coming weeks).  But perhaps more importantly, I am really looking forward to being part of the management team that is going to ensure that Artesian deliver commercially valuable insights that change the way businesses engage their customers, for the better, forever.  That is a hugely significant purpose and mission from where I am sat!

In my opinion, the social software industry is the sector to be working in today if you are a B2B marketeer.  Fold in ‘Social Business’, ‘Big Data’, the ‘Cloud’, ‘SaaS’ and the fact that data really is ‘the new oil’ and you can see why I am excited about my future with Artesian.  In my (humble) opinion there are no EMEA HQ’ed vendors in the Social CRM market with the pedigree and track record of Artesian.

So what next?  Well, first and foremost is an exciting re-brand of the business to get my teeth into.  And the team is already using the VC investment to significantly increase sales operations in new and existing vertical markets; so an inbound engine and infrastructure needs to be set-up.  That makes Artesian an exciting and dynamic place to be working at, particularly as the funding will additionally be used to increase investment in our engineering team, new product development and service delivery to our existing enterprise customers as well.

In the coming months I’ll post occasional anecdotes and stories about the re-brand as it gets delivered.  Let me know what you’d like to hear about and wish me luck!  And if you have participated in a branding project recently, why not send me some tips and recommendations?

Always say ‘Thank You’

Always say ‘Thank You’.  

Even if you can’t say it in person, there’s not many things more powerful than a somewhat unexpected & well-crafted ‘thank you’ that’s delivered in style.

like this.

This ‘Thank You’ appears on the Silver Seas Album, Chateau Revenge btw.

Unfriend Everyone

“Unfriend Everyone” says Sam Biddle of Gizmondo.

Moreover: “You have too many Facebook friends. You’re following too many people on Twitter. You’re connected to too many people who don’t care too much about you. Get rid of them. Get rid of all of them.” (More here)

In the past year I’ve heard a few senior discenting voices of a similar nature, but none have been as high-profile (and as public) as this.

My Perspective:

I’m no futurist, but I see three patterns of response to the deluge of data emerging.

First up there is the ‘tear it all up’, ‘stick your head in the sand’ approach.  For the record I can’t stand this.  If you’ve been following too many people and can’t keep up, that’s your fault.  And if you are spread to thin – across too many networks – that’s your fault too.  But adapt, ride the storm.  That’s what’s humans do.

Secondly, you’ve got solutions like Path, who offer a limited, more private, simple, personal, dare I say ‘quality’ approach.  For the record I like this perspective a great deal and Path has a truly wonderful user experience.

And then there is the third approach.  Take a step forward Content Curators.  

Whilst there are lots & lots of content curators (for e.g. Summify – which was just bought by Twitter btw), it is this category of high tech computing that I find incredibly exciting.  Why?  Because these solutions aim to deliver ONLY the most RELEVENT content (hint: that’s not all of it) from your social networks – and additionally deliver it WHEN (8.00am perhaps?) and WHERE (your CRM system for example?) you need it.

Clearly everyone is entitled to their own opinion and can do what they want to evolve their social strategy.  Yes, you can stick your head in the sand, but in my humble opinion what is needed are many more efficient web and content curators & filters (of a semantic nature), which will distil the massive amounts of information on the web in usable ways.  After all – Data is the new oil.

The right approach is ’Content Curation’.

For me, that’s the Holy Grail.

links for 2011-06-21

• The Ultimate Guide to Keyword Research
  (tags: marketing research tools tips web)

links for 2011-06-14

• Social Commerce Directory
  Social commerce means different things to different people and lots of companies claim to be in social commerce.

  http://www.metalinq.com/social/ serves retailers, by helping identify vendors that provide solutions to online retailers that fall under the social commerce umbrella.
  Because social commerce is a broad topic and making sense of vendor offerings can sometimes be difficult, the authors have attempted to categorize the various vendor products into a clear set of solution categories.  Each category has a concise definition at the bottom of this page. The authors hope that developing a common vocabulary will benefit both the vendors and the retailers. 

  A brilliant resource, with huge potential.

  (tags: social socialcommerce)

links for 2011-04-26

• The New Rules Of Marketing: Introducing The Five Habits Of …
  Christopher Stutzman [Forrester] recently interviewed a top marketing executive who summed up her journey to becoming a digital-era marketer by saying, “If you feel comfortable, you’re not transforming.” 

  To avoid extinction, he says, marketers must replace the bad habits of traditional marketing with the habits of adaptive marketing.

  (tags: marketing future new adaptivemarketing Forrester)

links for 2011-01-31

• Anatomy of an Effective Blog Post
  Michael Hyatt's blog post template, which he doesn't follow slavishly, but always starts with it. It includes all the elements that he has learned make for an effective post. It also helps him write faster, because it provides a track to run on.
  (tags: blog communication tips)

links for 2011-01-27

• http://www.techvibes.com/blog/google-predicts-that-online-display-advertising-will-be-smarter-and-sexier-by-2015-2011-01-26
  Google predicts that online display advertising will be smarter and sexier by 2015.  Barry Salzman, Google’s Managing Director, Media and Platforms, Americas educated the Toronto Advertising Week crowd today on the topic of "The Future of Display Ads: 7 Predictions for 2015."

  In case you missed the presentation online, this link summarises Google's predictions and how they will leverage their real-time, video, mobile and social media technologies to impact the display advertising market and make it smarter and sexier by 2015.

  (tags: Tech Events, Internet Marketing, Video, Google, Digital Media, Mobile)
• The Future of F-Commerce is Here: And It’s Called ASOS [Screenshots] | Social Commerce Today
  So ASOS, leading European fashion e-tailer launched its f-commerce store yesterday.  And in Social Commerce Now's view, the new f-store lives up to the pre-launch hype, setting a new gold standard for Facebook stores.
  (tags: facebook f-commerce fcommerce asos eCommerce social socialcommerce)

links for 2011-01-26

• New research study: advertising engagement in digital magazines « Adobe Digital Publishing
  Adobe released results of a research study that finds interactive advertising in digital magazines can more effectively engage readers and create stronger purchase intention than similar static ads in print.  The result is a new brand advertising paradigm where advertisers can engage consumers with a brand in the immersive context of a digital magazine – in contrast to the interruptive, templatized, and commoditized nature of current digital display ad inventory.
  (tags: advertising digital analysis Study publishing Adobe)

links for 2011-01-25

• 10 important front end considerations when developing mobile ecommerce solutions
  Here’s a Salmon front-end authored post, that aims to highlight 10 important front-end considerations that should be made when developing mobile eCommerce solutions.
  (tags: mobilecommerce mobile ecommerce frontend trends optimisation)

links for 2011-01-19

• What’s hot in etail? | In Depth | Retail Week
  Ecommerce technology is developing at a lightning-fast pace, stoked by unprecedented consumer demand.  Retails Week's list of what's hot is a good read.
  (tags: etail ecommerce Retail)
• 22 social media management tools – a wiki in development | Social media agency London | FreshNetworks blog
  Social media management tools can help businesses listen to, manage, measure and respond to conversations about their brand on the social web.  This is a great Fresh Networks list.
  (tags: socialmedia tools analytics social planning)

links for 2011-01-10

• Speed Summary | Wired Feb 2011 Cover Story on Social Commerce | Social Commerce Today
  Commerce Gets Social: How Your Networks Are Driving What You Buy
  (tags: socialcommerce journalism entrepreneurial)

links for 2010-12-14

• CrossView – The New Business as Usual
  A complimentary Gartner analysis – Multichannel Retail Redefined
  (tags: multi channel cross-channel multichannel)

links for 2010-08-04

• Shopkick – New Mobile Service To Drive Legitimate Foot Traffic
  Julie Ask [Forrester] attended the unveiling of shopkick's new location-based technology. Here are her highlights.
  (tags: mobile commerce location loyalty scanner POS)

links for 2010-08-03

• Online retailers lose sales with poor customer services
  Online retailers could boost sales by brushing up their customer support, a new survey has found. Poor customer care and a lack of quality guidance could be driving potential web shoppers to the high street, the findings suggest
  (tags: ecommerce commerce multichannel multi-channel convergence retail service customer spending revenue)