Podcasts about solosegment

Why Enterprise Site Search is Hard for IT Teams Let's face it, managing a large, B2B website is challenging -and IT owns the problem! In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur take another deep dive into site search technology, and discuss how IT teams can overcome obstacles, and help… The post Why Enterprise Site Search is Hard for IT Teams – SearchChat-Ep 2.19 appeared first on SoloSegment.

The Customer Journey IS the Goal There's a better way to think about your B2B website traffic! In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur talk about some of the mistakes companies are making when analyzing visitor data. Join Tim and Steve as they talk about: Why the customer journey… The post The Customer Journey IS the Goal – SearchChat-Ep 2.18 appeared first on SoloSegment.

Listen to our Influencers Podcast as Mike Moran, a Senior Fellow of the M&C Center and the Chief Product Officer of SoloSegment, an AI powered martech company that predicts which content should show on your website, uses his real intelligence garnered from 30 years in the space to illuminate what you need to know about the Artificial side of intelligence.

Finding the Right Search Technology for Your B2B Site If you (or your team) manage your B2B's website's tech, this is an episode for you! In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur take a deep dive into site search technology. Join Tim and Steve as they talk about: The… The post Finding the Right Search Technology for Your B2B Site – SearchChat-Ep 2.17 appeared first on SoloSegment.

Why Visitor Behavior is More Valuable Than Personal Data for B2B In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur discuss why B2B, enterprise organizations should focus more on visitor behavior -not personal data for successful growth. Join Tim and Steve as they talk about: Apple's pro-user privacy change that caused… The post Why Visitor Behavior is More Valuable Than Personal Data for B2B – SearchChat-Ep 2.16 appeared first on SoloSegment.

How MarTech is Failing B2B Marketers We get a little disruptive in this episode of SearchChat. Co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur talk about the unique challenges B2B marketers and B2B website/stack “owners” face when it comes to driving traffic, engaging prospects in journeys, and ultimately, converting those clicks and interactions. Join Tim… The post How MarTech is Failing B2B Marketers – SoloSegment SearchChat -Episode 2.15 appeared first on SoloSegment.

The Conversational Website In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur discuss the concept of “The Conversational Website”, and how content, chat, and site search can work together to create a better overall customer experience, and drive business results. Join Tim and Steve as they talk about: What “Conversational Websites”… The post The Conversational Website – SoloSegment SearchChat -Episode 2.14 appeared first on SoloSegment.

The (Site Search) Struggle is Real! In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur talk about why you need smarter site search, and why paying attention to site search is critical to growing your business. Join Tim and Steve as they discuss: Why investing in smarter Site Search is one… The post The (Site Search) Struggle is Real! – SoloSegment SearchChat -Episode 2.12 appeared first on SoloSegment.

Stop Groundhogging Your MarTech Stack In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur talk about the Groundhog Day effect of looking for new tech to solve problems -instead of understanding your data better. Join Tim and Steve as they discuss: 4 Must-haves you need to create great customer experiences on… The post Stop Groundhogging Your MarTech Stack – SoloSegment SearchChat -Episode 2.13 appeared first on SoloSegment.

Why Better On Site Search Can Help Grow Your Business in 2022 In this Episode of SearchChat, co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur explore the ever-expanding footprint and value of site search. Join Tim and Steve as they discuss: How the role of Site Search is changing, and becoming even more impactful for… The post Why Better On Site Search Can Help Grow Your Business in 2022 – SoloSegment SearchChat -Episode 2.11 appeared first on SoloSegment.

Why 2022 will be “The Year of Site Search” Co-hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur ask the question: “If you're not engaging customers and progressing journeys, then what are you doing?” In this packed episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, Tim and Steve talk about why your tech tools need to demonstrate real business results,… The post Why 2022 will be “The Year of Site Search” – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.10) appeared first on SoloSegment.

Your Most Engaged Customers are Using Site Search In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur share their thoughts on highly engaged and high intent customers – and how Site Search is where they're looking when they're trying to do business with you. Join Tim and Steve as they… The post Your Most Engaged Customers are Using Site Search – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.9) appeared first on SoloSegment.

Why Site Search Plays a Critical Role in Growing Your Business In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur discuss how using a data-driven approach to delivering the right answers to your customers will make your customers happier and help your business grow.  Join Tim and Steve as they… The post Why Site Search Plays a Critical Role in Growing Your Business – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.8) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur discuss the value of on-site search and how it can be used as both a listening tool and a technology to help you better understand your customers, and improve your business overall.  Join Tim and Steve as they cover: The importance… The post Value of On-Site Search: Increase Revenue and Customer Engagement – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.5) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur discuss how to use data to improve customer experience. Topics covered include: How to measure Customer Experience and what you can do with Customer Experience data. What a lack off good on-site search results and a backlog of help tickets are… The post Improve Customer Experience by Mobilizing Your Data – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.4) appeared first on SoloSegment.

  In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur discuss how B2B marketers and their technical teammates can improve on site search effectiveness through a combination of preparation, automation, and collaboration with vendors.  Join Tim and Steve as they discuss: How bringing IT and Marketing departments together can improve… The post 5 Proven Methods For Improving On Site Search Effectiveness – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.7) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur discuss how B2B marketers and their technical teammates can improve on site search effectiveness through a combination of preparation, automation, and collaboration with vendors.  Join Tim and Steve as they discuss: How bringing IT and Marketing departments together can improve customer […] The post 5 Proven Methods For Improving On Site Search Effectiveness – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.7) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur talk about the 4 big reasons on-site search fails, the root causes of these problems, and some of the ways B2B marketers and their technical teammates can address those challenges.  Join TIm and Steve as they discuss: Avoiding the “Shiny Object […] The post 4 Reasons On-Site Search Fails and How to Overcome, Improve & Drive More Business – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.6) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur share even more insights about on-site search from SoloSegment's new report, “B2B Website Engagement in a Changed World”.  Join Tim and Steve as they discuss: The extra motivation of site searchers, and why you need to offer site searchers a better […] The post Site Search and Customer Experience – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.3) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this episode of SoloSegment SearchChat, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur dive even deeper into SoloSegment's new report, “B2B Website Engagement in a Changed World”. Among other topics, Tim and Steve take a look at: How the shift to digital during the pandemic has changed B2B marketing forever Why remote work makes […] The post Why Remote Work Makes B2B Personalization More Challenging – SoloSegment SearchChat (2.2) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In the first episode of SoloSegment SearchChat’s second season, hosts Tim Peter and SoloSegment CEO Steve Zakur look at our new report, B2B Website Engagement in a Changed World. Tim and Steve explore the stats that show how important digital has become for B2B companies during — and following — the pandemic. And Steve explains […] The post Website Engagement in a Changed World: SoloSegment SearchChat Podcast (2.1) appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this podcast episode, we interview Steve Zakur, CEO & Co-Founder of Solosegment, which provides software that drives engagement and leads with anonymous data and AI.  Steve shares his journey to co-founding Solosegment, and explains the meaning behind anonymous personalization. He also shares the key challenges of searching behaviour and how Solosegment helps its customers overcome this. 

Philip Resnik, PhD, returns to the Psychcast, this time with his research partner and wife, Rebecca Resnik, PsyD, to discuss the interface between language, psychiatry, psychology, and health. Dr. Philip Resnik appeared on the show previously to discuss artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and mental illness. He is a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park, and has a joint appointment with the university’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Dr. Philip Resnik has disclosed being an adviser for Converseon, a social media analysis firm; FiscalNote, a government relationship management platform; and SoloSegment, which specializes in enterprise website optimization. Some of the work Dr. Philip Resnik discusses has been supported by an Amazon AWS Machine Learning Research Award. Dr. Rebecca Resnik is a licensed psychologist in private practice who specializes in neuropsychological assessment. In 2014, she served as cofounder of the Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology workshop at the North American Association for Computational Linguistics. She continues to serve as a workshop organizer and clinical consultant to the cross-disciplinary community. She has no disclosures. Dr. Norris disclosed having no conflicts of interest. Take-home points Dr. Rebecca Resnik and Dr. Philip Resnik are interested in finding measurable, observable features to apply to the assessment of psychological and psychiatric diagnoses. They point out that finding an objective measure is essential for scaling up mental health evaluations and treatment. Natural language processing (NLP) is focused on analyzing language content. NLP technology has generated tools such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Translate, and NLP allows computers to do things more intelligently with human language. Individuals are using machine learning and NLP to analyze language data sets to evaluate diagnostic criteria. The goal is to create or use language sets that can be analyzed outside of the clinic. Dr. Rebecca Resnik imagines a world where a patient gives a “language sample” to an app or an avatar that would be evaluated by NLP that would, in turn, offer some overarching hypotheses about the person. So much of evaluations is trying to home in on the correct signal, explicit and implicit, from the patient. In addition, neuropsychiatric tests/scales are standardized against a limited scope of the population, so NLP would be matched to the individual. Dr. Philip Resnik looks at signals in text and speech content, acoustics, microexpressions, and even biometric data. Machine learning can process and distill a huge amount of data with various signals more easily than any human. Dr. Rebecca Resnik revisits the idea of clinical white space, which is the “space” or the time between clinical encounters, and this is where decompensation and high-risk suicidal behaviors occur. She suggests that NLP software could be used to fill this white space by using apps to collect text samples from patients, and the software would analyze the samples and warn of patients who are at risk of decompensation or suicide. If clinicians were to use text or speech samples from people’s smart technology, we could assess an individual's risk in the moment and use nudge-type interventions to prevent suicide. Finally, Dr. Philip Resnik emphasizes that there are technologists who have the skills and technology that is on the verge of helping clinicians, but the key to progress is collaborating with clinicians. References Resnik P et al. J Analytical Psychol. 2020 Sep 10. doi: 10.111/sltb.12674. Coppersmith G et al. Biomed Inform Insights. 2018;10:1178222618792860. Zirikly A et al. CLPsych 2019 shared task: Predicting the degree of suicide risk in Reddit posts. Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology. 2019 Jun 16. Yoo DW et al. JMIR Mental Health. 2020;7(8):e16969. American Medical Informatics Association and Mental Health: https://www.amia.org/mental-health-informatics-working-group Selanikio J. The big-data revolution in health care.  TEDxAustin. 2013 Feb. CLPsych: Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology Workshop. 2019 Program. *  *  * Show notes by Jacqueline Posada, MD, associate producer of the Psychcast; assistant clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University in Washington; and staff physician at George Washington Medical Faculty Associates, also in Washington. Dr. Posada has no conflicts of interest. *  *  * For more MDedge Podcasts, go to mdedge.com/podcasts Email the show: podcasts@mdedge.com

Philip Resnik, PhD, joins host Lorenzo Norris, MD, to discuss the use of AI and natural language processing to help clinicians identify patterns in the behaviors of patients with mental illness. Dr. Resnik is a professor in the department of linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park. He also has a joint appointment with the university’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies. Dr. Resnik has disclosed being an adviser for Converseon, a social media analysis firm; FiscalNote, a government relationship management platform; and SoloSegment, which specializes in enterprise website optimization. Some of the work Dr. Resnik discusses has been supported by an Amazon AWS Machine Learning Research Award. Dr. Norris disclosed having no conflicts of interest.  And don’t miss the “Dr. RK” segment, with Renee Kohanski, MD.  Take-home points  Artificial intelligence (AI) refers to the effort to get computers to develop capabilities that humans would consider intelligent when people do them. For example, a “smart” thermostat learns patterns of behaviors and changes the temperature accordingly. Natural language processing (NLP), an AI approach, focuses on the content of language from the words used and looks for cues within the content. NLP technology allows computers to do things more intelligently with human language, and NLP has generated technologies such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Translate. Much of clinical work is focused on language, and clinicians look for cues within the content. Dr. Resnik is a technologist who believes that NLP can help facilitate clinical progress, especially in the face of a shortage of mental health clinicians and the limited amount of time that clinicians are able to spend with their patients. Research aimed at using machine learning and NLP to analyze social media and other types of online presence to evaluate for suicide risk and the presence of mood disorders is underway. Dr. Resnik imagines an ecosystem in which computers and humans balance their efforts, with each “brain” doing what they are best at; he believes in technology’s ability to save us time so we can prioritize our efforts. Summary A common example of NLP is automatic dictation and transcription software embedded in medical records. Dr. Resnik thinks of technology as an enabler and augmentation strategy. Resnik and his wife, Rebecca Resnik, PsyD, completed a study using NLP to automatically detect clusters of language in the writing samples of college students. NLP software evaluated the natural patterns of language that might correlate with vegetative and somatic symptoms of depression and social isolation. His team was able to home in on language themes specific to college students that suggest specific symptoms of depression. Another example of NLP in mental health is using predictive modeling, taking in data, and then making a prediction about a pertinent variable to understand mental health outcomes. For example, Glen Coppersmith, PhD, and associates evaluated social media posts with NLP software and concluded that analysis of language in social media posts can accurately identify individuals at risk of suicide and facilitate earlier interventions. Resnik imagines a future in which speech and language samples are used to give a point-of-care evaluation of a patient’s mood and suicide risk. “Clinical white space” is all the “space” (for example, the time between clinical encounters) and this is where decompensation occurs. Resnik suggests that NLP software could be used to fill this white space by using apps to collect text samples from patients. Software would analyze the samples and warn of patients who are at risk of decompensation or suicide. Barriers to using this technology include engaging the technologists and clinicians, and accessing data samples because of privacy concerns, especially because HIPPA was written before the emergence of mega data. References Coppersmith G et al. Natural Language Processing of Social Media as Screening for Suicide Risk. Biomed Inform Insights. 2018 Aug 27. doi: 10.1177/1178222618792860. Zirikly A et al. CLPsych 2019 Shared Task: Predicting the Degree of Suicide Risk in Reddit Posts. In Proceedings of the Sixth Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology. 2019 Jun 6. 24-33. Lynn V et al. CLPsych 2018 Shared Task: Predicting Current and Future Psychological Health from Childhood Essays. In Proceedings of the Fifth Workshop on Computational Linguistics and Clinical Psychology: From Keyboard to Clinic. 2018.  37-46. Selanikio J. The big-data revolution in health care. TEDx talk. Graham S et al. Artificial Intelligence for Mental Health and Mental Illnesses: An Overview. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2019 Nov 7;21(11):116. doi: 10.1007/s11920-019-1094-0. Show notes by Jacqueline Posada, MD, who is associate producer of the Psychcast and consultation-liaison psychiatry fellow with the Inova Fairfax Hospital/George Washington University program in Falls Church, Va.  Dr. Posada has no conflicts of interest. For more MDedge Podcasts, go to mdedge.com/podcasts Email the show: podcasts@mdedge.com  

In today’s podcast episode Steve Zakur and I respond to a recent article that criticized anonymous data, with the main critique being that it isn’t really anonymous. If you can grab the IP address and dig further to find identities, is that really anonymous personalization? Our answer: not really, but that isn’t what anonymous data […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Is Anonymous Information Really Anonymous? appeared first on SoloSegment.

In today’s podcast episode Steve Zakur and I respond to a recent article that criticized anonymous data, with the main critique being that it isn’t really anonymous. If you can grab the IP address and dig further to find identities, is that really anonymous personalization? Our answer: not really, but that isn’t what anonymous data […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Is Anonymous Information Really Anonymous? appeared first on SoloSegment.

Time and time again we see that people are uncomfortable with the ways companies are using third party data. GDPR was just the beginning. The latest move representing the new wave is Google’s recent adoption of ITP. This podcast episode tackles the move from personal data into anonymous data through behavior-based personalization. In this episode […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Cookies are Dead. Now What? appeared first on SoloSegment.

Time and time again we see that people are uncomfortable with the ways companies are using third party data. GDPR was just the beginning. The latest move representing the new wave is Google’s recent adoption of ITP. This podcast episode tackles the move from personal data into anonymous data through behavior-based personalization. In this episode […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Cookies are Dead. Now What? appeared first on SoloSegment.

Gartner’s prediction that personalization will be dead by 2025 was an attention grabbing headline. Irresponsible use of personal data continues to unnerve consumers. But if consumers increasingly expect companies to know them, how can personalization be dead? This podcast episode explores personal data and the possibilities for anonymous data. Steve Zakur breaks down the assertion […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Gartner Predicts the Death of Personalization appeared first on SoloSegment.

Gartner’s prediction that personalization will be dead by 2025 was an attention grabbing headline. Irresponsible use of personal data continues to unnerve consumers. But if consumers increasingly expect companies to know them, how can personalization be dead? This podcast episode explores personal data and the possibilities for anonymous data. Steve Zakur breaks down the assertion […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Gartner Predicts the Death of Personalization appeared first on SoloSegment.

Google’s business model was built on a symbiotic relationship between companies who want their content to be seen, and Google rewarding them for quality content. To be fair, this was so Google could sell ads, but it worked out well for mostly all parties involved.  That’s broken down. In this episode of SearchChat we talk about […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Google Is Evil appeared first on SoloSegment.

Google’s business model was built on a symbiotic relationship between companies who want their content to be seen, and Google rewarding them for quality content. To be fair, this was so Google could sell ads, but it worked out well for mostly all parties involved.  That’s broken down. In this episode of SearchChat we talk about […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Google Is Evil appeared first on SoloSegment.

On this episode of SearchChat, SoloSegment’s CEO, Steve Zakur and I talk about personalization and the lessons we’ve learned from working with clients. We talk about the data that you need to get started and lessons that you can learn about how to deliver on a personalization initiative from both musicians and the military. We […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Marketers Succeed at What They Rehearse appeared first on SoloSegment.

On this episode of SearchChat, SoloSegment’s CEO, Steve Zakur and I talk about personalization and the lessons we’ve learned from working with clients. We talk about the data that you need to get started and lessons that you can learn about how to deliver on a personalization initiative from both musicians and the military. We […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Marketers Succeed at What They Rehearse appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this week’s episode of SearchChat, we interview Mark Schaefer, co-host of Marketing Companion Podcast, on what it means to make companies more human. What does he reveal? That the needs and expectations of our customers are seriously far off from where companies think they are.  We don’t have the needed emotional connection to customers. […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Making Companies More Human with Mark Schaefer appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this week’s episode of SearchChat, we interview Mark Schaefer, co-host of Marketing Companion Podcast, on what it means to make companies more human. What does he reveal? That the needs and expectations of our customers are seriously far off from where companies think they are.  We don’t have the needed emotional connection to customers. […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Making Companies More Human with Mark Schaefer appeared first on SoloSegment.

Steve and I spent time together recently at both a Red Sox game but more importantly, at MarTech East in Boston. The shift in conversation was wildly fascinating: the focus seemed to be personalization, privacy, and security. When it comes to personalization, people are finally seeming to focus less on the shiny objects and more […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Key Marketing Lessons from MarTech East appeared first on SoloSegment.

Steve and I spent time together recently at both a Red Sox game but more importantly, at MarTech East in Boston. The shift in conversation was wildly fascinating: the focus seemed to be personalization, privacy, and security. When it comes to personalization, people are finally seeming to focus less on the shiny objects and more […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Key Marketing Lessons from MarTech East appeared first on SoloSegment.

There’s a serious need for changing the way we deal with customer data. How you can use data and still maintain a good relationship with your customers, even among the distrust? We also take a look at who has failed at that, so you can learn what not to do. Take a listen. First: There’s […] The post SearchChat Podcast: A Data Backlash Is Coming appeared first on SoloSegment.

There’s a serious need for changing the way we deal with customer data. How you can use data and still maintain a good relationship with your customers, even among the distrust? We also take a look at who has failed at that, so you can learn what not to do. Take a listen. First: There’s […] The post SearchChat Podcast: A Data Backlash Is Coming appeared first on SoloSegment.

As summer hits its hot, vacation-filled days the work world slows down for a minute. In these slower moments, there’s a chance to reflect on the speed of business.  We discuss how B2B buyers are spending more time researching their purchases —75% said they are now using more sources and taking more time. B2B marketing […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Surviving the Dog Days of Summer appeared first on SoloSegment.

As summer hits its hot, vacation-filled days the work world slows down for a minute. In these slower moments, there’s a chance to reflect on the speed of business.  We discuss how B2B buyers are spending more time researching their purchases —75% said they are now using more sources and taking more time. B2B marketing […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Surviving the Dog Days of Summer appeared first on SoloSegment.

Is martech marketing? Can you market without it? Do mature marketing organizations need to be including martech?  In a recent blog post we mentioned that 67% of B2B companies doing personalization are either entirely or mostly using manual processes for content personalization. That’s an enormous amount of people engaging in manual processes instead of automation. […] The post SearchChat Podcast: Can You Do Personalization Without MarTech? Would You Want To? appeared first on SoloSegment.

In this episode of the If You Market podcast we discuss Site Search with Stephen Zakur.  Site Search is often overlooked causing a substantial percentage of many companies SEO and brand investment to slip through the cracks.   Stephen Zakur is the CEO of Solosegment, a Site Search analytics company. He has been building and leading technology organizations for twenty years. During the late 90s, he was part of the first internet wave running sales at a tech start-up founded by a buddy from business school. The rise and fall of that new venture was deeply humbling. But the experience also turned him on to the high that can only be achieved in entrepreneurial experiences.   Steve’s business philosophy is best summarized by a shamelessly stolen phrase: Think Big, Start Small, Go Fast. In his world, the perfect is the enemy of the good. Launch. Iterate. Improve. The good will soon turn out to be excellent. And you’ll learn a bunch along the way about how to add value to your clients.   Prior to joining SoloSegment, Steve worked at tech giant IBM where he was recognized for his ability to turn around low-performing organizations. These rescues required him to draw upon the full suite of general management skills to move organizations forward towards success.

Five years ago I predicted that Facebook would become the most evil company on earth. The claim was tongue-in-cheek, but the logic was solid: The "raw material" that Facebook uses to build its wealth is our personal information. As a public company, Facebook has a mandate to grow its profits every quarter, without exception, without end. At some point, to meet that relentless financial goal, Facebook will have to take greater and greater risks in both collecting our personal information and monetizing it. ... and that sets up the potential for evil. We caught a glimpse of how Facebook might do this when the doors were blown open on a controversial experiment the company conducted to manipulate emotions through the news feed. What is really going on at Facebook? Will my prediction eventually become true? Is Facebook evil? Facebook evil, the inside story A number of high-profile executives have recently weighed-in on the "Facebook evil" factor: In his final days as president, Barack Obama himself warned that Facebook and Twitter were becoming a threat to democracy. “We become so secure in our bubbles that we accept only information, whether true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that’s out there.” Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya recently echoed this sentiment. “Do I feel guilty? Absolutely I feel guilt,” he told CNN. “Nobody ever thought that you could have such a massive manipulation of the system. You can see the reaction of the people who run these (social media) companies. They never thought it was possible.” Sean Parker, who briefly served as Facebook's president, said the social networking site exploits human psychological vulnerabilities through a validation feedback loop that gets people to constantly post to get even more likes and comments. “It's exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you're exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology,” he said. “The inventors, creators understood this consciously. And we did it anyway." The psychology behind Facebook became the center of a public debate when a story about a company called Dopamine showed how it is using psychology and neuroscience to manipulate users into a state of social media addiction. And, it's working. Is social media addiction OK? What is the ethical boundary? Don't all business people want customers to be "addicted" to their products? If you're a public company like Facebook, don't you in fact have a mandate to make customers addicted to your business? “God only knows what Facebook is doing to our children’s brains,” Sean Parker said at a recent event. But it doesn't take God to figure it out. Some university researchers are already putting the puzzle together. A study shows that the number of teens experiencing severe anxiety (with social media a leading cause) is exploding. When does business and public health collide and crash? I have to wonder ... when will the world wake-up and understand the full truth of Facebook? And what will it mean to marketing when that happens? Let's explore some more ... Tom Webster and I thought this would be an excellent debate for our latest episode of The Marketing Companion. What are the ethics of social media addiction? In this episode, Tom and I also cover the current state of Twitter. Their third quarter earnings announcement beat Wall Street expectations and user growth had a surge. How does Twitter fit today in the marketing mix? A third topic on our program is a news event that shook social media and I'm not sure most people caught its significance ... A Chinese company bought part of Snapchat's parent company. We discuss why this is a watershed moment in the history of social media marketing. And finally, Tom brings out a favorite piece of spam to demonstrate once again that it's not annoying ... it's an art form! Let's go ...  Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide Find the podcast on Stitcher Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity. Many thanks to our friend Scott Monty for the awesome show intro. Be sure to check out his amazing newsletter The Full Monty and his new podcast available here: fullmontyshow.com. 88% of Consumers check online before making a purchasing decision. Brand24 gives you instant updates about what your customers are saying about you. Now you can give them timely responses and give your customers peace of mind. With Media monitoring you can search the web for key topics, trends, or discussions. Brand24 enables you to reach customers, so you can react and engage quickly to real-time comments made about your brand. Imagine having all your channels in one place – that’s Brand24. Plus, with Apple and Android apps, you can track customers, trends, and insights on the go. At Brand24.com/companion you’ll receive THREE MONTHS FREE, just for our podcast fans! The results don’t lie: Typeform has a 57% completion rate on surveys, against the industry average of 20% (according to Survey Gizmo). The difference? Typeform’s one-question-at-a-time interface creates a memorable user experience. Use images, animated GIFs, and even video to express yourself more fully. And Typeform integrates with your favorite tools including Google Sheets, MailChimp, Airtable, and hundreds more. Remember: What you ask matters. How you ask is everything. Try this extraordinary application today and go to Typeform.com/companion for a special 30 percent off discount for our podcast fans! SoloSegment’s Site Search Inspector illuminates a huge blind spot for marketing teams and helps them unlock the revenue trapped there. If you’re like 85% of companies, you have no idea what’s going on in your site’s search engine. You either don’t have measurements or you ignore what you have. Up to 30% of your visitors search and they could be your best customers. Site Search Inspector targets the site search customer experience with a set of proprietary measures designed to improve success. They’re so convinced you’re going to improve your success rates, they’ve tripled the free trial period to 45-days and they’re offering 10% off an annual subscription. You can find this special offer on solosegment.com/companion

On the new episode of The Marketing Companion, Tom Webster and I open up a discussion on three touchy issues in the digital realm. YouTube's deplorable algorithm: The New York Times reported that evil people have been slipping violent cartoon knock-offs into the YouTube Kids channel. In this case, relying on an algorithm to vet children's programming is unacceptable. This is a problem that is not difficult to solve but it appears to us like greed and laziness is driving the wrong behaviors. We make a case that YouTube should be held to the same standard as traditional television networks. Is regulation in the cards? We say yes. Social sharing in decline -- Steve Rayson of Buzz Sumo published research that shows an apparent correlation between the amount of content that is published on a subject and the amount the content is shared. In other words, as a topic grows saturated with content, people become weary of the content and engage less. We discuss how Content Shock isn't a trend, it's a wave. One touchy implication for marketers: A very common strategy of "piling on" to popular content topics doesn't work. Outing people on social media -- We discuss the recent sexual harassment episodes involving Weinstein, Spacey and Scoble and how social media has become the engine for "outing." What are the implications for business, for marketing, for working with influencers? And what is the psychology behind accepting or rejecting these claims? Are we in a world where accusations become facts? We also introduce Nipsey: The new Marketing Companion smart speaker system. Let's just say it still has some development work ahead! This is a very provocative and interesting show. You won't want to miss it ...  Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide Click here for the show’s RSS feed – for Android listeners. Find the podcast on Stitcher Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity. Many thanks to our friend Scott Monty for the awesome show intro. Be sure to check out his amazing newsletter The Full Monty and his new podcast available here: fullmontyshow.com. 88% of Consumers check online before making a purchasing decision. Brand24 gives you instant updates about what your customers are saying about you. Now you can give them timely responses and give your customers peace of mind. With Media monitoring you can search the web for key topics, trends, or discussions. Brand24 enables you to reach customers, so you can react and engage quickly to real-time comments made about your brand. Imagine having all your channels in one place – that’s Brand24. Plus, with Apple and Android apps, you can track customers, trends, and insights on the go. At Brand24.com/companion you’ll receive THREE MONTHS FREE, just for our podcast fans! The results don’t lie: Typeform has a 57% completion rate on surveys, against the industry average of 20% (according to Survey Gizmo). The difference? Typeform’s one-question-at-a-time interface creates a memorable user experience. Use images, animated GIFs, and even video to express yourself more fully. And Typeform integrates with your favorite tools including Google Sheets, MailChimp, Airtable, and hundreds more. Remember: What you ask matters. How you ask is everything. Try this extraordinary application today and go to Typeform.com/companion for a special 30 percent off discount for our podcast fans! SoloSegment’s Site Search Inspector illuminates a huge blind spot for marketing teams and helps them unlock the revenue trapped there. If you’re like 85% of companies, you have no idea what’s going on in your site’s search engine. You either don’t have measurements or you ignore what you have. Up to 30% of your visitors search and they could be your best customers. Site Search Inspector targets the site search customer experience with a set of proprietary measures designed to improve success. They’re so convinced you’re going to improve your success rates, they’ve tripled the free trial period to 45-days and they’re offering 10% off an annual subscription. You can find this special offer on solosegment.com/companion

Mike is one of the most distinguished guests we’ve ever had as he brings his expertise in internet marketing, search technology, social media, text analytics, and web metrics to show. Mike is a certified speaking professional making regular speaking appearances. Serving 30 years at IBM, Mike served in several executive-level technical positions. He now serves as a senior strategist for Converseon, is a senior consultant for SoloSegment, and is the founder of Biznology.

Mike is one of the most distinguished guests we’ve ever had as he brings his expertise in internet marketing, search technology, social media, text analytics, and web metrics to show. Mike is a certified speaking professional making regular speaking appearances. Serving 30 years at IBM, Mike served in several executive-level technical positions. He now serves as a senior strategist for Converseon, is a senior consultant for SoloSegment, and is the founder of Biznology.

One of my great marketing heroes is Tom Fishburne. Not only is he a brilliant innovator and marketer, he is THE WORLD-FAMOUS MARKETOONIST: On the new episode of The Marketing Companion, Tom Webster and I had the great fun and pleasure of interviewing Tom about humor in marketing including ... The "slow revelation" that made him realize humor could be a key part of his marketing future The connection between "story" and humor in corporate communications The process companies go through to add humor to their marketing communications Why the best humor starts with pain points What happens when you get it wrong How you consider humor, cultural references, and the international audience Tom discusses his new book Your Ad Ignored Here: Cartoons from 15 Years of Marketing, Business, and Doodling in Meetings And Webster and I challenge each other to a joke-off. I won. You won't want to miss this interesting (and funny!) episode about humor in marketing ...  Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide Click here for the show’s RSS feed – for Android listeners. Find the podcast on Stitcher Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity. Many thanks to our friend Scott Monty for the awesome show intro. Be sure to check out his amazing newsletter The Full Monty and his new podcast available here: fullmontyshow.com. 88% of Consumers check online before making a purchasing decision. Brand24 gives you instant updates about what your customers are saying about you. Now you can give them timely responses and give your customers peace of mind. With Media monitoring you can search the web for key topics, trends, or discussions. Brand24 enables you to reach customers, so you can react and engage quickly to real-time comments made about your brand. Imagine having all your channels in one place – that’s Brand24. Plus, with Apple and Android apps, you can track customers, trends, and insights on the go. At Brand24.com/companion you’ll receive THREE MONTHS FREE, just for our podcast fans! The results don’t lie: Typeform has a 57% completion rate on surveys, against the industry average of 20% (according to Survey Gizmo). The difference? Typeform’s one-question-at-a-time interface creates a memorable user experience. Use images, animated GIFs, and even video to express yourself more fully. And Typeform integrates with your favorite tools including Google Sheets, MailChimp, Airtable, and hundreds more. Remember: What you ask matters. How you ask is everything. Try this extraordinary application today and go to Typeform.com/companion for a special 30 percent off discount for our podcast fans!  SoloSegment’s Site Search Inspector illuminates a huge blind spot for marketing teams and helps them unlock the revenue trapped there. If you’re like 85% of companies, you have no idea what’s going on in your site’s search engine. You either don’t have measurements or you ignore what you have. Up to 30% of your visitors search and they could be your best customers. Site Search Inspector targets the site search customer experience with a set of proprietary measures designed to improve success. They’re so convinced you’re going to improve your success rates, they’ve tripled the free trial period to 45-days and they’re offering 10% off an annual subscription. You can find this special offer on solosegment.com/companion

I had an opportunity to attend the outstanding Marketing Profs B2B Forum and witness a truly tour-de-force speech by my friend and podcast co-host Tom Webster. Although we had mentioned this talk in a previous podcast episode, I had not seen Tom's presentation and I found his insights to be remarkable and very relevant to marketing today. I thought our Marketing Companion fans needed to hear some of those insights. Using lessons from his political research, Tom makes the case that you can't win in marketing today by staying in the "treetops," by immersing yourself in dashboards. You need to get down in the trees and get back to basics by visiting customers. He argues for radical segmentation to the point that "personas" may be out of style. In the new episode we also discuss quite a remarkable revelation made by Dharmesh Shah, one of Hubspot's co-founders. Shah said that content marketing is now pay-to-play and that content today has a "cover charge." In addition, you'll hear these snippets: "I'm feeling this in my loins" "I've found a younger podcast host." "We want our freedom, we want more Mark." You'll have to hear it to believe it, I suppose. Here we go:  Click here to download the latest episode or subscribe in iTunes Complete Marketing Companion Episode Guide Click here for the show’s RSS feed – for Android listeners. Find the podcast on Stitcher Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity. Many thanks to our friend Scott Monty for the awesome show intro. Be sure to check out his amazing newsletter The Full Monty and his new podcast available here: fullmontyshow.com. 88% of Consumers check online before making a purchasing decision. Brand24 gives you instant updates about what your customers are saying about you. Now you can give them timely responses and give your customers peace of mind. With Media monitoring you can search the web for key topics, trends, or discussions. Brand24 enables you to reach customers, so you can react and engage quickly to real-time comments made about your brand. Imagine having all your channels in one place - that’s Brand24. Plus, with Apple and Android apps, you can track customers, trends, and insights on the go. At Brand24.com/companion you’ll receive THREE MONTHS FREE, just for our podcast fans! The results don’t lie: Typeform has a 57% completion rate on surveys, against the industry average of 20% (according to Survey Gizmo). The difference? Typeform’s one-question-at-a-time interface creates a memorable user experience. Use images, animated GIFs, and even video to express yourself more fully. And Typeform integrates with your favorite tools including Google Sheets, MailChimp, Airtable, and hundreds more. Remember: What you ask matters. How you ask is everything. Try this extraordinary application today and go to Typeform.com/companion for a special 30 percent off discount for our podcast fans! SoloSegment's Site Search Inspector illuminates a huge blind spot for marketing teams and helps them unlock the revenue trapped there. If you're like 85% of companies, you have no idea what's going on in your site's search engine. You either don't have measurements or you ignore what you have. Up to 30% of your visitors search and they could be your best customers. Site Search Inspector targets the site search customer experience with a set of proprietary measures designed to improve success. They're so convinced you're going to improve your success rates, they've tripled the free trial period to 45-days and they're offering 10% off an annual subscription. You can find this special offer on solosegment.com/companion

“Whether you’re scared or not about AI is mostly a personality test.” - Mike Moran   The onset of incredibly sophisticated artificial intelligence is inevitable. People on both sides of the coin—panic and relief—are predicting the same reality, they just have different perspectives on what that means for them.   Today, we’re focusing on what AI means for marketers. To learn that, we interviewed Mike Moran, author, professional speaker, and consultant on digital marketing. Mike has a wealth of experience in content marketing and AI, and he shared his thoughts on what marketers actually need to know about machine learning and what’s better left ignored.   Some places to check out:   Mike’s Vimeo   His book, Outside-In Marketing   His LinkedIn profile   The Biznology blog Converseon.com and SoloSegment.com, places where you can see AI-infused marketing solutions happening now.

It seems like everywhere you look the news is bad for the ad industry. In just the last few weeks, the news has reported ... The stock value for many large agencies is in decline as company billings fall. Traditional ad impressions are down almost everywhere as newspapers, radio, and magazines struggle to survive. Many of their customers -- the big CPG brands -- are cutting ad spending as their most valuable products struggle to be relevant to today's digital consumers. Ad blocking continues to rise in developed nations (Ad Age called it an "apocalypse") Many companies are bringing the rising areas of influence and content marketing in-house to save costs and maintain direct relationships. Like I said ... a mess. What's the future of Madison Avenue and how does it turn things around in this rapidly changing world? That would be a fun discussion to have ... which is exactly what Tom Webster and I do in this new episode of The Marketing Companion. You won't want to miss this scintillating analysis! Resource mentioned in this episode WSJ article on advertising decine Please support our extraordinary sponsors. Our content is free because of their generosity. Many thanks to our friend Scott Monty for the awesome show intro. Be sure to check out his amazing newsletter The Full Monty and his new podcast available here: fullmontyshow.com. The results don’t lie: Typeform has a 57% completion rate on surveys, against the industry average of 20% (according to Survey Gizmo). The difference? Typeform’s one-question-at-a-time interface creates a memorable user experience. Use images, animated GIFs, and even video to express yourself more fully. And Typform integrates with your favorite tools including Google Sheets, MailChimp, Airtable, and hundreds more. Remember: What you ask matters. How you ask is everything. Go to Typeform.com/companion to receive a special 30 percent off discount for our podcast fans! Between 30 percent and 50 percent of your online visitors use your website's search function. But analysis proves that customers rarely see the precise content that leads to a sale. Why leave this conversion opportunity to chance? Deliver search results that create sales conversions by deploying the powerful machine learning intelligence of Site Search Inspector from SoloSegment. Site Search Inspector can be set up quickly and continuously "learns" how to improve your search conversions. Visit the SoloSegment discount page to get 10 percent off your order for Marketing Companion fans!

Join us Tuesday, March 28th, as we keep making 2017 our best year. Mike Moran joins Search Talk Live to discuss How to Improve Your Website Search. Mike is one of the most distinguished guests we’ve ever had as he brings his expertise in internet marketing, search technology, social media, text analytics, and web metrics to show. Mike is a certified speaking professional making regular speaking appearances. Serving 30 years at IBM, Mike served in several executive-level technical positions. He now serves as a senior strategist for Converseon, is a senior consultant for SoloSegment, and is the founder of Biznology. You can check out Mike’s latest book, Outside-In Marketing: Using Big Data to Guide Your Content Marketing, and read his latest article contributions as a featured columnist to the Rutgers Business School blog and Business2Community.com where Mike shares his expert digital marketing advice.

Join us Tuesday, March 28th, as we keep making 2017 our best year. Mike Moran joins Search Talk Live to discuss How to Improve Your Website Search.Mike is one of the most distinguished guests we’ve ever had as he brings his expertise in internet marketing, search technology, social media, text analytics, and web metrics to show. Mike is a certified speaking professional making regular speaking appearances. Serving 30 years at IBM, Mike served in several executive-level technical positions. He now serves as a senior strategist for Converseon, is a senior consultant for SoloSegment, and is the founder of Biznology.You can check out Mike’s latest book, Outside-In Marketing: Using Big Data to Guide Your Content Marketing, and read his latest article contributions as a featured columnist to the Rutgers Business School blog and Business2Community.com where Mike shares his expert digital marketing advice.