Catherine Taylor of Social Media Insider makes a point that no marketer should ignore. In her observation of the mommy blogger summit Blogher she notes that brands are building relationships with influencers rather than running ads.
Money quote:
“I’m going to quote a competitor to Mediapost, Advertising Age, but its packaged-goods reporter, Jack Neff, said it best: [...]

Knowing the business eco-system, be it hard, soft or a combination, that your company is part of is critical to understanding new patheways to grow.
‘Soft’ business models
I have a background in software marketing. Techrigy, the last company I worked for, and BlueTie, a previous employer, are both software as a service or SaaS companies. In [...]

The problem with our current business models
There is a seismic change going on in the way companies communicate with their customers and prospects. In the traditional model there are three company departments that communicate with their market, typically in a silo-ed manner:

Product Development. Through research, including panels and focus groups, savvy product developers try out [...]

Can you imagine a company that was started less than ten years ago and is now worth $104 billion dollars that never spent a cent on advertising? How about an online application that has over 200 million users and never spent a penny on advertising? Or a local bar that was spending $800/month on print [...]

First post on a new blog- whew! I’ve been blogging in various places for several years and have watching communications change in the process; change completely and forever. Social media has gone from a fringe novelty to a communications layer that connects virtually everyone on the planet in real time. As a marketer who has [...]