by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded | One of the most common phrases in marketing today is, “What is your social media strategy?” Most marketers are concerned about how to leverage social media and what parts should they be utilizing. The problem is many are asking the wrong question. Social media is not a strategy. […]
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Grandma and Grandpa are best suited for the new economy
June 29, 2011 
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by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded | I’ve been watching a few videos by Gary Vaynerchuk, creator of the Wine Library, lately. This is one dude who is passionate, pure East Coast, and also gets today’s marketing arena. He lives, breaths, and die, marketing and social media, specifically. He regularly gives talks at places such as […]
Read more The first social media site to have an IPO is Linkedin, a business centered site. How surprising.
May 19, 2011 0 Comments
by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded Today, May 19, 2011, Linkedin became the first social media site to go public with an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. I believe most analysts thought it would be a high-flying stock and a very successful IPO. In reality, it exceeded all expectations. Linkedin currently has a […]
Read more A lack of brand and vision can even bring down superstar Twitter
May 9, 2011 0 Comments
by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded On the cover of the latest issue of Fortune is the headline “Trouble@Twitter”. Looking in from the outside, it seems that Twitter is a highly successful and profitable social media company. They are admired by millions of entrepreneur wanna-be’s and used by billions of people. So what can be […]
Read more Good social media should be tied to real business goals, not just collecting friends
April 29, 2011 0 Comments
by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded Social media is all the rage in marketing right now. It has started many companies who specialize in helping businesses make sense of this new world. Many claim they know how to help you succeed in the online and social media game. Some even trumpet that you don’t need […]
Read more Consumers shouldn’t control your brand.
April 25, 2011 2 Comments
by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded “The consumer is in control” is a popular marketing catch phrase these days. With the “perceived” dominance of social media, consumers can react in real-time and give their opinions both pro and con. But does that mean consumers have control of a brand? A more important question, should a […]
Read more Social media alone will not drive success in sales
April 19, 2011 0 Comments
by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded Too often, I meet with, and hear of, businesses announcing they are going strictly to “social media” for their marketing efforts. Unfortunately, it’s for the wrong reasons. Most are doing this because they believe it’s “free”. In other words, they are being cheap, not frugal (there’s a big difference). […]
Read more How to increase your twitter following
March 30, 2011 2 Comments
This is an article by Irina Slutsky. I thought her 10 tips are an excellent guide about tweeting, so I wanted to share them with you. I’m not starting with my name and signature as I usually do since I didn’t originate this list. It’s important to remember that chasing numbers can be futile, since […]
Read more Social media needs brick & mortar just as much as physical stores need them.
March 21, 2011 0 Comments
by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded For almost a decade now, many of the online evangelists have been predicting the demise of the brick-n-mortar stores, saying everyone will be shopping online and no one wants to go to a physical location anymore. The odd thing happened on the way to the internet, many of the […]
Read more Your brand is social, regardless of media
March 18, 2011 0 Comments
by Tony Fannin, President, BE Branded I want to propose that we look at your brand in a different way. Right now, there are accepted distinctions between branding, traditional marketing, social media, promotions, etc. I want to suggest that your brand is all of these and there should be no difference. Your brand is social. […]
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