The 5 Whys of Data Driven Marketing

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-Whys: A best practice that helps you get to the root cause of a problem. Created by the Toyota Motor Corporation, it has been used in manufacturing operations for years. the 5-Whys concept is based on the fact that by asking the question “why” after each explanation of problem, by the fifth “why” you will get to the root cause. I use the 5-Whys to brainstorm ideas and to get the heart of a problem so the right solution can be created.

Now, do you know what data-driven marketing is?

Gartner defines data-driven marketing as acquiring, analyzing and applying information about customer and consumer wants, needs, behavior and motivations.

Now, let’s apply the 5-Whys to data-driven marketing:

– Why is data-driven marketing important?

Because it changes the “marketing game”.

– Why does it change the “marketing game?”

Because it applies new rules in place of old rules that have been in place for many years

– Why does it change the old rules to create new ones?

Because marketers require an understanding of the new marketing landscape of shrinking marketing budgets in an emerging digital and social world.

– Why is a new understanding of the new marketing landscape necessary?

To paraphrase an old adage ” Half of marketing dollars are effective, we just don’t know which half.” Metrics matter!

7 Reasons I Like LinkedIn better than Facebook

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Being an early adopter of new technology, I jumped on both LinkedIn and Facebook early on. It was much later that many of my personal and professional peers crossed the chasm and started accepting my invites to join my network! While I have mixed feelings about the benefits social networks can offer to society at large, and to us as individuals, I think the positives outweigh the negatives.
This post focuses on my experiences with my social networks over the years I have been on them and may not accurately reflect experiences others might have had on Facebook and LinkedIn.
1. Usefulness: LinkedIn has been more useful in my professional life than Facebook has in my personal life. LinkedIn has helped me land jobs and stay in touch with my professional network – it is heartening to see the career paths of old teammates, employees and managers and give them virtual high-fives every once in a while.
2. Learning: LinkedIn helps me get plugged into what thought leaders are saying about the business world in general and offers career advice that is useful, for the most part.
3. Contribution: LinkedIn helps me give back with articles and blogs on topics that are top-of-mind and worthy of typing 1000 words on.
4. Authenticity: I think this is a key observation: LinkedIn is a networking tool at its core while Facebook masquerades as a way to keep in touch with friends. In reality, my best friends keep in touch with me outside Facebook. I get to see the ones who are super-friendly on Facebook occasionally. Even with all the privacy settings, I am a little tired of people bragging on Facebook– it is the persona that people are projecting and not the authentic self and it seems that Facebook enforces this protocol.
5.Fewer ads: Yes, there are sponsored ads, but nowhere as near as many or strongly targeted as Facebook. The promise of big data and analytics is fascinating, but individual privacy is a very steep price to pay at the altar of marketing.
6. Guidance: When I am looking for advice, there always seems to be an article on LinkedIn that seems to be appropriate and written specifically for me – whether it is about women in technology, or mentoring younger employees – there is always an interesting point of view. Not that I agree with everything that’s written, but there are always nuggets if you look hard enough.
7. Social capital: The word social capital has made a resurgence recently, specifically in the online relationship world. Social capital can be likened to currency that you can trade with in today’s hyper-connected world. Lyda Judson Hanifan is credited with coining the term in 1916, but it has made a comeback lately to describe how relationships are a form of currency. When cashed in, it’s what you can ask people to do that benefits you (like buying your product or resume(LinkedIn) or having someone share what you wrote with others(influence and visibility).
All good reasons to like LinkedIn over Facebook given that we all have limited discretionary time to spend outside work and our homes.
What do you think? Which one do you like better – Facebook or LinkedIn?