USC's Center for the Digital Future 2015 Report (PDF)

The Center's annual survey has always been an exceptional read about the Internet's role in daily life for consumers, families, economics, and society. It's a free download. Ninety-one percent of Americans go online and those who don't report negative experiences about exclusion them communications within their family and friends, and that others have trouble contacting them. The tools for access are changing, and the report speculates that computers are giving way to smartphones and tablets at a rapid pace. The study explores the latest changes in retailing, especially the challenges on brick-and-mortar stores. One of the best features of the report is that it details the historical trends of its prior surveys. You can see how the trends unfolded in great detail. I look forward to this report every year, and it's strongly recommended. 

e21's “Social Media Is Making Some Regulators Obsolete”

It's doubtful that regulatory bureaucracies will disappear any time soon, even if they are obsolete (as then representative John Kasich found out when he tried to de-fund the Rural Electrification Administration in the mid-1990s). This commentary explains how marketplace information shifts power to buyers as they change their behavior and preferences once they have it. Is your business using the power of market information, especially that found in social media (Facebook, Yelp, and others) in your business and your client projects

Content Marketing Institute Says “Lincoln Electric Believes Print is Relevant”

Content marketing has been the rage for the past three years as communicators realized that buyers and prospects seek information now, and if they can't get it now, they'll get it from someone else moments from now. Print is being rediscovered but in new formats. Rather than product brochures, read how welding equipment manufacturer Lincoln Electric created a magazine that ties to its digital presence. Custom publishing is becoming an essential part of total content management. Are you plugged into what your customers are doing? Do they need help implementing their content management strategies? Do they even have a strategy? Do you?

“New Rules of Marketing and PR” Now in its Fifth Edition

I recommended the first edition of “New Rules of Marketing and PR” back in 2009, and even recommended the ebook “New Rules of PR” before that, before the David Meerman Scott marketing bulldozer got running. At that time I said “I suggest reading it three times. First, read it for familiarity. Second, read it for ideas about services to offer clients and prospects. Finally, read it with an idea of how to implement it in your business.” That advice still holds, but it will take more time because the book is a lot longer and more comprehensive. Media and marketers tools have changed a lot since the first edition. When the first book was published, there was no Twitter or Facebook of consequence. This new fifth edition encompasses all of those changes and brings together all of Scott's concepts from his other books into one place. Over the years, chapters about mobile marketing, social networking, photo image platforms (like Instagram), and Scott's contributions to real-time marketing and “newsjacking.” The new chapter in this edition is particularly important to printing owners and CEOs: “How Marketing and PR Drive Sales.” This eleventh chapter strikes a vibrant cord with client CEOs and communications managers. Marketing and PR were always measured with how they affected sales, but those measurements were rough and calling them “qualitative” was a sophisticated way of saying “gut feel.” Marketing and PR have radically changed in terms of tools and execution, and this chapter alone makes the book worth getting.