Category: Economy (Page 1 of 2)

Does LinkedIn Still Belong in 2025 Marketing Budgets?

December 15, 2024 / Andy

As companies (like my clients) finalize their 2025 marketing strategies, many are asking whether LinkedIn still warrants a dedicated line in the budget. Once a critical space for B2B visibility and thought leadership, the platform now faces new competition, rising costs, and declining returns for some sectors. Plus, it seems like hardly anyone actually works there.

It seems like for every reason to keep it, there’s an equally valid one for abandoning it.

Engagement Is Still Strong—But Flattening

For B2B marketers, LinkedIn has historically been unmatched in terms of audience intent. But engagement metrics suggest the platform may be nearing a plateau. According to LinkedIn’s own Benchmark Report, click-through rates on thought leadership posts declined year over year:

2023: 0.55%
2024: 0.49%

Meanwhile, a June 2024 Socialinsider study found carousel posts remained the most engaging format, especially for professional services firms. Short videos, once seen as a growth area, now underperform outside of HR or recruitment content.

The Cost Equation Is Shifting

Advertising on LinkedIn remains expensive—often prohibitively so for performance marketers. Wordstream’s Q3 2024 report shows stark differences in average CPM:

LinkedIn: $38.12
Meta (Facebook/Instagram): $14.74
TikTok: $8.91

For campaigns focused on lead generation or direct conversions, the ROI may be difficult to justify compared to cheaper alternatives.

When LinkedIn Still Delivers

Despite those challenges, LinkedIn still drives value for certain brands—particularly those with high-ticket offerings or a professional audience. Sectors continuing to see returns include:

SaaS and enterprise software
Management consulting
HR technology and recruiting firms
Financial services
Executive coaching and leadership training

These industries benefit from the trust and credibility that LinkedIn still holds with decision-makers.

For Consumer Brands, Less Justifiable

For lifestyle or direct-to-consumer brands, LinkedIn rarely makes sense. The professional context limits emotional storytelling, and users are less receptive to brand content unless it’s tied to employment, entrepreneurship, or career development.

Even brands experimenting with employer branding and culture posts are seeing limited traction unless the content is truly unique or backed by a hiring initiative.

A Tighter, Smarter Approach

LinkedIn isn’t dead, it just isn’t automatic. Marketers should reevaluate its role based on goals, cost, and audience fit. For brands that use it well, the platform can still offer high-quality engagement. For others, 2025 may be the right year to scale back and reinvest in channels with broader reach and better value.

An Olympic Sized Irony

July 11, 2021 / Andy

My deep thought of the day.

This is backwards-looking of course. But if the IOC powers-that-be had figured out last year how to test potential Olympic athletes for COVID-19, quarantine them when they got to Tokyo, and accept that they would have to ban all spectators, then a global population stuck at home would have made it the most-watched Olympics ever. Maybe by 25-40%. People would have been arguing on Twitter about archery and synchronized swimming.

But instead, out of safety, the Olympics were postponed a year. And in the summer of 2021, when we can all go outside again and do other things with friends and family, who really wants to sit at home and watch the Olympics? Instead, this could be one of the lower-rated Olympics ever. Tough break for NBC.

Tips for Buying Your Next Seattle Home

June 25, 2021 / Andy

So, let me share some intel you may not know – trying to buy a house in Seattle is terrible right now. I’ve heard about some people losing 7, 8, 9 bids in a row. That’s brutal.

We were not the unfortunate. We went scared into the home-selling process, and got a bid well over asking and about as high as any reasonable person would be willing to pay. So we were happy with what we got, but then we immediately had to take the money we were overpaid, and use it to overpay for another house.

Our first attempt was an absolute dream home. Truly immaculate in every sense of the word. We would have been able to move in, and not touch a thing for 15 years. The problem – just competing for it was sending us out of our budget. We were able to generate a little more capital by selling naming rights to the baby and peddle MyPillows door to door for 12 years, but end the end we still lost to someone with less financial restrictions. If only we’d have bought Bitcoin in 2010!!!!

But, having been on the winning side when we had the supply to sell, and now being on the losing end when we were the people with the demand, we had a pretty good sense on what to do next. So here’s our advice:

I know it sounds obvious, but know your budget. It’s easy to get carried away because, “it’s only xx more dollars after all. If we can spend x, why not 1.25x?”
If you set that cap, then you can go look at the homes at about 75% of your cap and find the best one of that bunch.
At that price point, provided you find something that hits all your parameters, now you are dealing with the fatter wallet than the other people. You can just throw down a Max bid at your Max budget, and you are going to be competitive.
But the other thing you can do is release an obscene amount of earnest money. Long term it really doesn’t matter. The money is leaving your account on Day 2 or Day 21 anyway. But making that gesture shows the buyer you are serious.
And then of course is the financing. Being completely underwritten is as good as having a briefcase full of cash, and in some ways, preferable to sellers who don’t want to have to worry about a call from the FBI in a year and answer questions about where the money came from.
There are some other gimmicks as well. Some people want a long rent-back. Those who want it REALLY want it, so you might as well do it. Also, you can offer little things like paying for moving or giving them access to a storage shed. At some point, convenience becomes a factor to the seller and the few extra dollars you spend to make their life easier can pay off.

Do you have any stories or suggestions?

4 TED Talks on Bitcoin

January 31, 2018 / Andy

Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies have joined the ranks of “Controversial topics with no clear answer.” Today, the average person has no need to use any sort of Blockchain transaction. But at the same time, in 1986 the average person didn’t need a cell phone.

So as all of the machines around us become connected to the Internet, maybe we need an independent way to transfer funds instantaneously without a central regulatory body in the middle. Or maybe not.

I don’t know the answers, but some people think they do. And four of these people have given TED talks. CNBC aggregated these talks together into one convenient page.

(WARNING – Annoying auto-play ads are enabled on this page, so check your volume.)

On Culture and Chemistry

May 31, 2016 / Andy

I heard an interesting interview with Mariners Manager Scott Servais last week. He discussed some of the differences between this year’s team and last year’s, especially when it came to how the players acted in the dugout and clubhouse.

Servais brought up a distinction I hadn’t thought about before, the difference between Culture and Chemistry. I’m going to paraphrase some of his comments, because they make sense to bring into a corporate or start-up environment.

To summarize, “Culture” is the foundation of the organization. It’s embodies the mission your organization is on, the processes and programs you implement and the latitude people have as individuals inside the system. “Chemistry” is how everyone gets along with one another – peer to peer, manager to employee, employee to manager.

So with those definitions in mind, here are some insights he brought forward.

1) Not everyone has to get along, but they all need to be bought in: A culture can’t just be dropped into place from above. It’s going to be started by someone, adopted, and expanded. The Mariners culture isn’t as simplified as, “We always want to win.” From an in-game perspective, it’s focused on, “We’re going to own the strike zone, on offense and defense.” Every member of that team knows that the team philosophy is about owning the strike zone. A guy from Korea and one from Venezuela don’t have to have anything else in common. But as long as they know the process that the organization has designed, and they both contribute to the process, then the culture will be strong. If you don’t believe in the process, then you are a bad cultural fit, and it’s better for both parties to have you move on.

2) You can have great Chemistry and deliver a lousy product: Having everyone love each other is great. But if your team enjoys 2 hour lunches with each other and 4pm happy hours, your culture of laziness and good times isn’t going to net you much success.

3) You can generally define a good Culture in few words: In the case of the Seahawks, the culture is simple – “Always Compete.” You know that whether you are Russel Wilson or a walk-on free agent, you are there to battle for a roster spot, bigger salary, and field time. There’s no gray area for interpretation. If you are going to be a Seahawk, you have a mindset that you will have to win anything you get. You know the guy behind you on the depth chart is trying to take your job. You are only going to continue being a contributing member of the organization for as long as you can outperform everyone else at the job you do. There are no bonus points for tenure. Experience just means you should be able to do the job better, faster and thus be able to do more.

I think you can find the interview on the 710Sports.com web page. Would love to know if you took away any other insights.

Saving Greece and Soccer at the Same Time

July 6, 2015 / Andy

In case anyone wonders, this is a completely facetious comment. I don’t honestly believe this is a good idea… But in a make believe world, here’s how you could save Greece and International Soccer at the same time.

Qatar buys Greece.

Think about it. It’s win-win-win-win.

Win 1: Qatar gets the recognition it desires.
Qatar has a ton of money that it can’t spend. They want to change their image and have a larger presence in terms of global awareness. By buying Greece and renaming it “North Qatar,” they get all of the history that comes with it. Just like Gary Payton is somehow the leading scorer in Oklahoma City Thunder history, North Qatar would be where the Olympic games originated. Zeus and the rest of the Qatari gods lives on Mt. Olympus in North Qatar. And where would the world be without the contributions of famous Qataris such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle?

Win 2: Greece pays off its debt.
The banks want to get paid. The Greeks don’t want to pay anyone back. Qatar has dump trucks of cash sitting in gold plated garages. Let’s redistribute some of that cash and keep the country – and Europe – from collapsing.

Win 3: We don’t have to play soccer in 120 degree weather.
The 2022 World Cup can stay in Qatar – it’s just going to be played in North Qatar. (Except they’ll make Germany and the U.S. play their games in South Qatar out of spite.) Tourists will now want to attend the games. And Qatar can send all those poor abused migrant workers home.

Win 4: FIFA moves to North Qatar
Nothing significant in the world can happen without it benefitting Sepp Blatter in some way. This works for him. Qatar can revoke any extradition treaties it has with the U.S. and FIFA can build a 200,000 square fit office complex overlooking the Aegean Sea.

Could it happen? Of course not. Should it? Hmm….

Advice for New Grads Seeking Those “Jobs” Things

January 6, 2015 / Andy

Young people seem to like to ask me about how to get a job. Sometimes I think they don’t really want my advice and just want me to actually “give” them a job, but I get asked all the same.

So here are a few quick thoughts for you new grads. In no particular order.

1) No one wants to “give you a job.” People do want you to “work for them.” These are two completely different sentences and they mean totally different things. If you can’t figure out the difference, then you may want to ask someone.

2) Hiring Managers expect you to bring a skill to the role. It’s your first job. No one expects you to be an all-star. What they want is to see that you have some skill – or set of skills – that they can add to their team that makes the overall team better. Know what you are best at, and get even better. In an interview be able to clearly articulate that you are able to solve some sort of problem that the manager has, because your skill set enables you to do so.

3) If you want to work in a start-up for a career, there is a lot of value in working in a huge company first. I know this sounds counter-intuitive. But working in a large, successful company gets you the following: A nice large network of colleagues to call upon later in your career, experience doing things the right way, an understanding of how large companies work so you know how to sell to them later, a nice brand name on your resume that indicates you *could* work in a big company if you wanted, and finally, stable money that you can sock away in a savings account, so you can take a risk later. Side note: Nothing is more liberating than money in the bank. Nothing is more chilling than being forced to work for someone you don’t like because the rent is due.

4) Your first job is probably going to kind of suck. Here’s why. You’re the low pup on the totem pole. That means your boss is second lowest, and that it’s probably their first time managing people. They will have some managerial growing pains. They’ll also be worried about their own boss 90% of the time and trying to figure out how to get promoted. So you probably will end up flipping from being ignored to being micro-managed based on what your boss just got told by their boss. Accept that this is going to be part of the game, so look for a boss that you like, no matter what the company is like.

5) Interview EVERYWHERE. It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to work there. Go practice. Nothing is more humbling than not getting an offer at a company you didn’t want to work for. But it will help you figure out how to nail the interview you really want.

6) Work for a product, customer base or marketplace you care about. It’s the natural truth. If you don’t like your customers, you can’t do your job. I once worked someplace where the customers were all rich, arrogant, conceited and hard to deal with. Do you know how little I felt like helping them? You can’t do good work unless you have an affinity for what you are doing. So at least identify early who it is that you want to be associated with.

In a nutshell – To “work” for someone, find a skill you are great at, optimize it, sell yourself everywhere, and try to find a manager you like in an industry you care about, no matter how large or small the company. Then save some money, build a nest egg, and never have to fear a lack of a job again.

Surfer Signs 5 year, $10 Million Deal with Nike

January 26, 2011 / Andy Boyer

This guy just got $2 Million a year for surfing. I will now go call my dad and ask him why I spent my childhood reading books.

Julian Knows Surfing from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo.

2010 Sounders – The Power of Scarcity and Supply & Demand

September 30, 2010 / Andy Boyer

Remember back to just before the 2009 MLS season started. There was a buzz around the Sounders. At first we weren’t sure what to expect. A sold out Thursday night opening match was electric. More games sold out. Tickets were impossible to come by. More seats opened up. More sell outs. Barcelona, Chelsea and the MLS Cup brought record crowds. It seemed that the team could do no wrong.

It was the perfect storm. A soccer enthusiastic public desired something positive to come from their city’s roster of not just losing, but atrocious, sports teams. That pent up demand, combined with a short supply of tickets, drove incredible buzz and success.

But perfect storms don’t last forever, and now the Sounders have to accept the bad that comes with the good of success. 2010 has been an interesting years for the guys in rave green. It’s a pretty interesting litany of environmental demand issues:

Key injuries got the team off to a slow start.
Spring optimism (which turned out to be very misguided) made the Mariners relevant for a brief period of time.
The Barcelona and Chelsea games were replaced with Celtic and River Plate.
The team’s European superstar was either whining, moping, in trouble with the front office, or hurt. We never really knew what it was – except he wasn’t drawing fans

So naturally demand fell. And that may have been fixable. But then at the same time, the Sounders faced a problem that no other American sports league has to face.

Supply rose.

The Sounders qualified for what’s called the Concacaf Champions League. Now this as marketed as the marquee invitation for North American and Central American teams. It’s a chance to compete in real matches against top talent from Mexico, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, etc….But in reality, it’s a kind of weir tournament for anyone to get too attached to. You see, you qualify in 2009 to play preliminary games in 2010 to make a championship round in 2011. You could have literally turned over your entire roster between qualifying and playing in the finals.

But the other thing it did was add 4 new mid-week home games to the tail end of the season. And these games weren’t part of your season ticket package.

Now, factor in that the Sounders qualified for the U.S. Open Cup Final, and are hosting it. That adds another game, and a very exciting one at that. That’s extra game #5.

Now, just for fun, throw in that the Sounders promised a 3rd free “Friendly” to season ticket packages. Here comes Chivas from Mexico, to play a friendly at the most unfriendly time of the year – right before playoffs. Imagine the Huskies scheduling a practice game with Nebraska the week before the Apple Cup. Yeah – not much sense to it.

There are 15 games in the season, starting in Mid-March. Most of those are on weekends, so by the time August comes around, some fans are feeling a touch of soccer fatigue. A playoff race can reinvigorate the base and get them out to the games they bought a good 10 months ago.

But adding another 6 home games to the season – that’s 40% for you math majors – when kids are in school and youth leagues are firing up, is just an unfortunate turn of events. And that is why you saw 11,000 people last night. Even your most ardent supporters and look at the home calendar:

9/29: Meaningless CCL game
10/2: Important MLS game
10/5: Important US Open Final
10/12: Meaningless Friendly
10/15: Possibly important last MLS home game
10/19: Meaningless CCL game

So what’s the 2011 solution? Because if they win the U.S. Open Cup, they’ll qualify again for next year. And that schedule won’t change, so you’ll be in a similar bind. Here’s what I’d do:

End the pre-season with a match vs Portland as a free ticket to season ticket holders.
Reduce down to 1 mid-season friendly, but make it a good one.
Let season ticket holders buy all 4 CCL matches for the cost of one game.

Now, there’s an economic issue with the CCL thing, in which the Sounders probably have to pay the CCL on every fan that enters the stadium. So, a 4 for 1 deal is going to cost them money. So they’d have to renegotiate some part of the concessions deal to make the money back. It’s not a perfect plan.

But the overall lesson is one of supply and demand. And once you lose scarcity, it’s hard to get it back. And the same people who wanted to go to the game they couldn’t go to, don’t want to go to the game that no one wants to go to. It’s a delicate balance. Interesting to see how they solve everything, now that a few land mines got thrown in their path.