I feel honored to be in such great company: thanks for the shout out.

As you know, I have been away with the newborn and trying to keep my sanity with the 2AM diaper changes!

I will be back soon. Btw, I am betting my money on mobile as the next game changer. 2010 is when we will see a lot of innovation in the mobile channel. Thoughts?

Best topics in b2b for 2009-11-14…

And I do want to say that I’m so glad you’ve pointed me to other blogs and good thinkers that I should be reading. It never ceases to amaze me how in the heck I ever got by before social media… but I do know that I was lacking in the amount of new ideas, viewpoints, methodologies and needed debates that could never be possible without these media (and of course these marketers). In fact, when people ask me “Can you imagine blogging the rest of your career?” I often answer “I can’t imagine I got this far without this real-time, timely and rich knowledge share.”

(Hopefully that encourages more to dive in instead of missing out).

PS: good luck on your very noteworthy and thrilling projects ;-)

Now, as for the WVU thing, I’m wondering how much the Cincinnati Boosters Club paid the replay officials last night to reverse that call.

Them Mountaineers was robbed! There should be an investigation!

You and I could have a fantastic discussion and debate about this! The key area where I disagree is your statement: “When the challenge is to sell something — a product, service or brand — PR’s gotta be on board.”

I contend, there is ALWAYS a challenge to sell something. Even supposedly altruistic endeavors like company foundations, or United Way campaigns, or settling community disputes are designed to burnish the reputation of a company (or hospital or college) with the ultimate aim of attracting more dollars (or patients or students).

The purpose of a company is to increase shareholder value and that means increasing profits. Every activity of the organization should be geared in some way to supporting that goal or it should cease.

And that’s why I say “it’s all marketing.” Whether you’re in PR or sales or HR or manufacturing, at the end of the day your activity ultimately supports one goal: selling more stuff to more people for more money. In other words, “GROW.”

On a serious note, though, I worry that too many of the marketers don’t really see the difference between PR and marketing. So, just to piss them off (Hey, you started it!), I offer this old post that explains my view.
http://tr.im/EWD1

Welcome back!