Writings from Force 5 Basecamp

12/15/23

Let’s face it, the world of marketing never sits still, and the changes seem to be coming at breakneck speed. How is one to keep up? Stop and take a deep breath.   You can and should be learning about all the latest marketing tricks and trends and implementing what makes sense for your company and marketing goals. However, all those

02/23/22

by Jim Ragosta, Director of Digital Strategy & Sales YouTube remains the #1 social media platform, and the #2 most visited website domain in the United States, only behind its parent company, Google. (SEMRush) If you want to build your brand, it’s a safe bet that you should be on YouTube, whether that’s with a paid advertisement, or creating content

02/03/22

by Deb DeFreeuw, President and Certified Brand Strategist We know that sustainability and eco-friendly are big buzzwords in our culture, and companies like Patagonia are champions of a circular economy. But what does this mean for the average business, who may or may not be directly connected to a market where sustainability is encouraged? You may know it’s the right

05/12/21

By Deb DeFreeuw, President, Force 5 Recently I happened to shop at two different Martin’s Supermarkets in our area and each provided very different experiences. The different experience at each brought to light the importance of brand enculturation. Brand enculturation is making sure that the people on the team understand, believe and live the brand promise. Understanding the promise to

03/12/20

40,000 search queries occur every second on average, which translates to 3.5 billion searches per day. Incredible right? And this is just from Google alone. Think about how often you search using Google each day? These searches could be as simple as: “What kind of oil does my 2012 Camaro take,” where multiple results appear, illustrating: Where you can purchase

01/29/20

TikTok is the latest social craze, as businesses and people alike are trying to understand the purpose of the media, as well as how to utilize it. Social Media still holds as a highly valuable medium to meet business objectives, however that doesn’t mean every business should be on every platform, popular or not. So, let’s try to answer the

03/03/15

March 3 marks the day that President Herbert Hoover signed a congressional act making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official national anthem of the United States, but that might not have happened if Francis Scott Key hadn’t practiced certain social media marketing principles that helped increase the song’s popularity. Francis Scott Key’s Social Media Tips… Find a way to be an ongoing

06/21/11

In a May 2011 Report authored by Michael Stelzner and sponsored by Social media Examiner, the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report set out to uncover the “who, what, where, when and why” of social media marketing. More than 3300 marketers provided insight on the latest trends in Social Media. Here’s a quick summary of the findings: Marketers place high

06/08/11

We see this phrase all the time. But as we dive deeper into the motivations of social network users, we see folks connect with Brands for many different reasons. I have a facebook friend that raves about a particular women’s clothing line. In my opinion, she’s a huge brand ambassador. So much so, that if I needed to purchase a

06/02/11

Hungry Twitter Recent news of Twitter purchasing Tweetdeck and cutting off third-party development of Twitter clients has me wondering where Twitter is headed. Twitter has no doubt proved itself as a contender in the online service arena. But can it prove it’s well-carved niche with the likes of Google and Facebook? With the limitation of additional third-party clients and Twitter

04/27/11

Facebook on Monday launched a new way to share content online – the Send button. While the functionality is nothing new, how you share content with friends may change with this new process of sharing. Facebook’s goal is to be that “pipe” in which you share more and more information, ultimately learning much more about you so it can deliver

04/21/11

A friend sent me this article from Rafe Needleman entitled, Facebook: Liked to Death.  It appears that advertisers in an effort to gain coveted Facebook Page ‘Likes’ are offering consumers premiums (or access to content) if they will visit their page and give them their valuable  “Thumb Up.”   Sounds like a good marketing strategy … or does it?  I invite you back to Economics 101 where you may have been introduced