Content Marketing

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  Junta42-Content Marketing

• 10 Corporate Blogging Tips and Strategies

  Joe Pulizzi

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:33 am

  Ambal from Click Documents asked me if I had any tips/strategies for corporate blogging.  The presentation below is a corporate blogging basics presentation useful for beginning bloggers.  That said, here are the main takeaways.  For more indepth understanding of a content marketing strategy, this content marketing white paper will help. A blog is just a tool, nothing more, nothing less. BUT, it can be a powerful tool to distribute consistent and valuable information to your prospects and customers.  Be sure to focus on the informational needs of your customers, and…

• Custom Publishing Council Announces 2009 Pearl Awards

  Joe Pulizzi

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:41 pm

  Had an outstanding time last Thursday at the 2009 Custom Publishing Council Pearl Awards (Junta42 was a sponsor of the event). A sign that the recession may be over? - many more attendees at the awards event this year over last year. A great site to see.Finally, congrats to Junta42's parent company, Z Squared Media, on their silver place best blog finish in association with Razorleaf Corporation. Here are all the winners below:Winners are listed by category, title, custom publisher and client name, included in parentheses. DESIGN | Best Cover Less Than 50,000 Gold: Lamborghini Desk…

• Create Content that Sleeps, Creeps and Leaps

  Joe Pulizzi

  13 Nov 2009 | 9:10 am

  I had a great conversation today with Dr. Sandra Bauman from Bauman Research about start-up companies.  She shared with me the idea about "sleeps, creeps and leaps." In the first year of a business launch, the brand sleeps.  In year two, you start to see the company creep toward success.  But it's in the third year that the business leaps and really begins to grow.Fascinating concept.The same principle can be applied toward corporate content marketing.As the corporate content program starts (let's say with a blog, white paper, enewsletter strategy), success…

• Top 10 Twitter Basics Questions Answered

  Joe Pulizzi

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:51 am

  Just about every day I answer a question about using Twitter, the microblogging tool. I've put them together in this handy post.  Enjoy, and, if you like getting information on content marketing, feel free to follow me @juntajoe. Question #1What is the easiest way to find someone's @ name? If I read an article or hear them speak, how do I easily find their Twitter call sign. Use Twitter Name Search Question #2What are other ways to find twitter names? If Twitter Name Search doesn't work for you, try Twellow, the Twitter Yellow Pages. Question #3What does the # mean and how…

• Custom Print Magazines - Why Can't MasterCard Produce Inc. Magazine?

  Joe Pulizzi

  4 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  I don't know about you, but I've been reading more print magazines lately.  Seems odd at first, but in a way, it makes perfect sense. I spend most of my business day and night on the computer. When I'm on my computer, I need to get things done. But when I want to relax and engage in an inspiring story, print is my choice...books and magazines. At the top of the list is probably Inc. magazine. This month's article about how 37Signals founder Jason Fried spends his day was priceless. Speaking of "priceless", shouldn't MasterCard be producing an Inc-type…

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  Online Marketing Blog

• SEO for Flash: 5 Tips and Best Practices

  Michelle Bowles

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:32 am

  SEO for Flash – is it a reality yet? One of the most common issues for web sites with poor search visibility involves Google not being able to crawl and index a site’s content. Web sites made entirely with Flash are problematic because there are often no links for search engine crawlers to follow or HTML text to copy. According to the Opera (browser) developer center, somewhere between 30% and 40% of all pages tested contained Flash files representing a lot of content that may not be included in search results or only partially indexed. Despite a large number of sites publishing…

• Google: Social Media is a Party, SEO is Bullsh*t, Advertising is Good For You

  Lee Odden

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  I noticed someone using Google suggest in another story today (honestly forgot where) and thought I’d see what Google “thinks” about social media. Then I tried SEO. Not surprising. Funniest of all, considering Google’s business model, was advertising. Pretty telling when you think about it. Of course this isn’t what Google “really thinks” about social media, it’s Google’s response to search queries and effort to predict what we’re really searching for. Google Suggest works by drawing from searches by other Google users, sites in…

• Book Review: Socialnomics by Erik Qualman

  Lee Odden

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:33 am

  “It’s a people driven economy stupid” and “Online word of mouth has made many traditional marketing strategies obsolete”. Those are powerful words and central to the theme in “Socialnomics” by Erik Qualman, Global VP for Online Marketing for EF Educatio, the world’s largest private educator. I appreciate Erik’s characterization because it’s how I’ve viewed social media since our digital marketing & PR agency started blogging and using social news/bookmarking sites in 2004: as technology that facilitates word of mouth. At…

• Why Use Social Media For Public Relations

  Adam Singer

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am

  Recently, I presented at PubCon on the intersection of social media and PR.  The session title was “experts on PR and Twitter,” however the session description went on to discuss a variety of networks.  Therefore my interpretation was to speak on the intersection of social media and PR, and not just PR and Twitter. The social web is far more than just Twitter, and if Twitter is the extent of your participation you’re missing out.  Lee’s diagram of social media and channels of distribution presents a visualization of a strong approach, where the centerpiece is a blog.  The…

• 5 SEO Tips for Online Retailers

  Michelle Bowles

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Online retail websites face a unique set of obstacles when it comes to improving sales through better search engine visibility.  Repetitive product descriptions, a lack of content and frequent churn of products can all be hurdles to overcome. But with these specific tips for retail search engine optimization, online retailers can turn those challenges into opportunities and maximize their organic search traffic. 1. Add fresh content to the website. Many online retail websites focus on selling products rather than informing and providing value to customers, and hence severely lack content.

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  Copyblogger

• The Art of the Paragraph

  Jonathan Morrow

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:11 am

  Anyone can write a paragraph, but not everyone knows how to write one that other people want to read. You’ve seen it: You open a book, and the whole page is one long block of text. Each sentence in the paragraph makes exactly the same point, said in a slightly different way, and you wonder why they didn’t just say it once and be done with it. Every paragraph is the same length (five lines, maybe?), whether it makes sense or not, and it gives the piece a monotonous rhythm. The paragraph makes a point without telling you why that point is important, and you can’t help…

• How to Persuade People to Accept an “Unfair” Offer

  Dean Rieck

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:36 am

  Ever heard of Charley Hill? He seemed like an average, ordinary guy. He lived in a mid-sized town with his wife, two children, and a dog. He went to church on Sunday, coached Little League, and drove a pickup truck. He was friendly but quiet, the sort of guy you could walk by on the street without noticing. But appearances can be deceiving. Charley Hill was one of the most successful farm equipment salesmen in the Midwest. People would travel hundreds of miles to see Charley, even when there were plenty of dealers much closer to home. What did Charley have that other salesmen didn’t? Not a…

• Free Report: How to Become a Creative Entrepreneur

  Brian Clark

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:58 am

  I’ve written another piece of extended content, this time for Lateral Action. Rather than sending you over there, I’ll just tell you about it here. It’s a free 31-page PDF report (don’t worry, it reads fast) called The Lateral Action Guide to Becoming a Creative Entrepreneur. It’s probably the most personal I’ve gotten about my history, but it’s still heavy on actionable, real-life examples. Here’s what you’ll discover: Why I quit my cushy law firm job and turned to online publishing. How I failed miserably. How I then succeeded miserably. How I…

• Landing Page Makeover Clinic #20: TantricSexforBusyCouples.com

  Roberta Rosenberg

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am

  This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. Is it hot in here or just me? Diana Daffner and her husband want to help people find a renewed sense of joy and connection in their intimate relationships through tantra. Their business, IntimacyRetreats.com, offers couples retreats throughout the year, but realizing not everyone can attend a retreat, they also want to promote their books and media products. The URL referenced above is actually the “/shop page” off their main site. Diana would like to use the page as an…

• What I Learned From Writing 42 Guest Posts in 7 Weeks

  Josh Hanagarne

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:12 am

  Before you get too impressed, hear this: I did it all in self-defense. Let me give you some quick background. I have extreme Tourette’s Syndrome, as Sonia noticed recently. Tourette’s makes people move or vocalize involuntarily and occasionally results in unspeakable awesomeness. My motor tics range from eye blinking to punching myself in the face to even stranger things. My phonic tics range from clearing my throat to hooting and yowling and snarling and slobbering and screaming like the Tasmanian Devil. Did I mention that I work in a quiet library? There are only a couple of things that…

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  Writing on the Web

• Making Readers Feel at Home: 10 Comfy Blogging Tips

  dr-patsi

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:40 am

  How long do readers stay on your blog? A minute? Two or three? Your site meter will tell you. It doesn't take long to read a blog post. And it's not the length of time that matters, it's what they do while they're there.Do they read more than one post, more than one page? Do they check out your bio, easily find related info? Do they see your subscription form and sign up to get email updates to your blog?Greet visitors to your blog as if they were visiting your home, welcome them in, offer them a comfortable chair, a cup of coffee, and ask them to stay a while. Ask them questions, ask them…

• Attract Clients: Publish Your Ebooks on Kindle

  dr-patsi

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  Do you have a book on Kindle? Why not? Did you know you can publish your books on Kindle for free, and sell them there? This is another great way to attract clients, get known, gain visibility and credibility. My husband has transformed himself into a novelist (Die Laughing, Future Schlock: 2047, and his 3rd novel will be Azteca) and while searching for publishing options, put his first book for sale through Amazon's Kindle store. It costs nothing to do this, it's great marketing, and so far he's sold several copies. So I wondered if it would be possible to make my ebook Content Marketing…

• What Can You Stop Doing? 6 Steps to Becoming More Profitable

  dr-patsi

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:38 am

  What can you stop doing in your business? There's always too much to do, and if you're smart and ambitious, you're always on the look-out for new marketing tactics that will bring big results. But you can't possibly use anything new if you're overbooked, overworked, and out of time. Part of thriving in business has to do with keeping more of the money you make. How can you make your business more profitable? The best tools and tactics can't make you more profitable if you don't have time to learn and use them. You've probably already got too much to do. So what can you stop doing? How can…

• Wanna Be First? Save 75%? Join Patsi's Private List

  dr-patsi

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:22 am

  Name Email Join my private list and be first to get content marketing tips, save 75% off public prices, and attend teleseminars. More info here...

• How to Turn Your Blog Into a Content Genie...

  dr-patsi

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:07 am

  What's the difference between a blog and MyKnowledgeGenie? This turned out to be a great question yesterday in the interview with Milo Sindell, founder of the content-creating wizard. Think about it...visitors arrive at your blog everyday, and they read whatever you've posted that day. If they aren't in a hurry, they'll scroll down the page and scan a few other recent posts. Maybe what you've written this week is critical to your core message... or maybe not. Maybe you've gone off on a tangent and written something off the wall. Click...and bye-bye. (Photo credit: Shutterstock) First…

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  Influential Marketing

• Don't Call Me A Social Media Guy

  Rohit

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:48 am

  Yesterday I hosted a conversation on Twitter all about authenticity and what that truly means. It's a buzzword, to be sure, but it was interesting that the 140 character based conversation yielded many different perceptions of what authenticity means. For most honesty was a big part of it, as was having real one on one conversations with people and not taking yourself too seriously. As I thought about my own use of social media both in building my personal brand as well as what I do for clients working my day job at a big marketing agency ... I realized that I'm not a social media guy. Social…

• 6 Ways To Protect Your Brand With Social Media

  Rohit

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:48 am

  Just about every week I see an article or have a conversation with a client about the potential risks of social media and how to manage them. Quite frankly, there are many ways that social media can go wrong and cause problems for a brand, and as someone who shares advice on using social media for marketing - I can readily admit that. What I haven't seen as much discussion about is how social media could be used to protect your brand. Not fighting back after a crisis happens, but proactively as a tool to prevent people from hijacking, corrupting or negatively impacting your brand. What if you…

• What You Don't Know About Surgeons

  Rohit

  13 Nov 2009 | 4:29 am

  What if you only had to do your job once or twice per year? Apart from the tempting thought of how great your life would be without work, imagine the practical fact of how your skills that you use on a daily basis might be affected by only using them once or twice per year. How much would you forget in the time between using your skills? How much of what you do could be like riding a bike - just inherent knowledge that you'll always have? Now imagine if you were a surgeon doing procedures on patients. Seems like a fairly complicated thing - and we generally tend to trust in the surgeons that…

• 100 Ideas To Save The Planet (And What They Can Teach You)

  Rohit

  11 Nov 2009 | 11:07 am

  For the next three days the World Bank here in Washington DC is hosting a world changing event that few people know about. Called the Development Marketplace - it is a gathering of organizations behind 100 innovative ideas from 50 different countries on how to save the planet. The ideas can affect everything from a small village of 60 to a large population of millions. The only requirement is that the funding request from organizations participating must be less than $200,000. As I went through the list of projects that are being featured in the marketplace, there were 10 that stood out to me…

• Passport Marketing At The Berlin Wall

  Rohit

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:39 am

  Today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall and people across the world are focusing on this momentous day. Last week I was in Berlin and spent an afternoon looking at remnants of the Berlin Wall and its defining place in German history. As the German chancellor from the time (Helmut Kohl) said, "we [Germans] don't have many reasons in our history to be proud, but as chancellor I have nothing to be more proud of than German reunification." Seeking to see if an experience I had written about some time ago still existed, on a free afternoon in Berlin I headed to a place called…

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  Web Ink Now

• Making stuff up

  David Meerman Scott

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:48 am

  How do you market your company, products, and services? Are you sitting around your comfortable offices with your colleagues just making stuff up? Or do you really understand your buyer personas and what problems they have that you can solve? I share my thoughts on making "stuff" up in this short video. Thanks to Stacy Melillo Spognardi at Cisco for asking the question that prompted this answer. I spoke with Stacy in my office (yes that's my junk you see in the background of the video). The six-part series resulting from our discussions called “Social Media Marketing for Telcos” will be…

• A surprisingly fun and interesting B2B ebook from CareerBuilder

  David Meerman Scott

  18 Nov 2009 | 10:09 am

  Most B2B communications is dry and boring. Most B2B content offers send buyers to a squeeze page requiring an email address. As a result most buyers just can’t be bothered. I really enjoy when I find a B2B ebook that surprises me by its originality. Here's one from CareerBuilder. Once you get to the landing page, you can punch that big, sweet Download Now button to get the ebook right away. Better Recruitment Starts with Better Search CareerBuilder's Search Smart eBook: The insider's guide to better resume database search (with tips and tricks for finding the best resumes) The purpose of…

• Online video as lead generation

  David Meerman Scott

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:17 pm

  Video has been available on the Web for years and with YouTube it is simple for anyone to create and post a video online. However, a legitimate criticism of video (especially from B2B marketers) has been that it is tough to do lead generation. Sure you can have a URL mention at the end of a video or you can embed a video within a landing page with some lead offers, but that's not fully integrated. My friends at VisibleGains have developed a video application that solves this problem. Here is an example program we created from the four videos I shot at GM a few weeks ago. The VisibleGains…

• Hey B2B marketers: It's okay to have fun!

  David Meerman Scott

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:14 am

  Why is so much business-to-business marketing dreadfully boring? I think it's because the marketers involved think "business" as in "I am marketing to a business" and this results in an overly serious tone. After all, if you are marketing to, say, technology companies that’s different than consumer marketing, right? Wrong. B2B marketers seem to forget that what all marketers need to do is communicate to people. People want to do business with people and the companies that understand that in the B2B world develop a following. National Instruments is a B2B supplier of measurement and…

• Eugene Mirman is on television, is very nice, and likes seafood

  David Meerman Scott

  9 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  "There is no middleman between me and an audience," says Comedian Eugene Mirman, known for his work in Flight of the Choncords, his book of satire The Will to Whatevs: A Guide to Modern Life, and appearances on Comedy Central and Late Night shows. He has a blog, a Facebook page and is on Twitter. "I want to be entertaining on the web," he says. "That's what's fun for me. While there is a store on my Web site, the push is to provide things to entertain people." And entertain he does, Eugene's Twitter bio reads: "I am television's Eugene Mirman. I am very nice and like seafood." Sample tweet:…

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  Marketing with Meaning

• ChangeThis Manifesto: Meaningful Digital Strategy

  Bob

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Way back in 2004 or 2005, I first recall coming across the concept of the ChangeThis Manifesto. It’s a concept that was first envisioned by Seth Godin as a way for passionate change agents to share their beliefs in a simple, straightforward medium. Seth and his original team created ChangeThis, a collector and distributor of killer ideas. I cannot recall which manifesto I read first, but I do remember printing off about a dozen and reusing and spreading many of the concepts that I came across. And I was immediately convinced that I had to write my own ChangeThis Manifesto someday.

• Digital Agencies “Do” Think Differently

  Bob

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Across the world of Twitter, Power 150 blogs, and advertising trade magazines, the marketing industry is increasingly obsessed with the question of what’s next for digital agencies. Just last week, Jacques-Herve Roubert wrote the latest salvo in Advertising Age that we digital agencies are, in fact, ready to lead. And today, the same publication asked whether or not the industry needs big digital agencies anymore. The lesser-known story is that this debate is perhaps more active in the halls of some of the biggest companies in the world. Although clients are getting that digital is…

• Inside the First Google and WPP Research Awards

  Bob

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  I recently got to sit in on the first presentation of results from a joint research program between Google and my holding company, WPP. At the Google office in NYC on November 3, a handful of people got the chance to see what a group of professors from around the world were able to do thanks to receiving data from the Google vaults. It was a great time-out from the day-to-day, and I hope the first of many more experiments and presentations in the years ahead as we all try to figure out how to best deploy digital marketing. The Google and WPP Marketing Research Awards Program was first…

• My Visit to the VCU Brandcenter

  Bob

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  For well over a year I’ve been hearing great things about a special program at Virginia Commonwealth University called “The VCU Brandcenter.” My friends Jim Stengel and David Knox both told me about their visits to the school and suggested that it would be a great place to recruit from. About a month ago I got connected with Ashley Sommardahl, the Assistant Director of the program, and I decided to take a day trip to Richmond, Virginia, to meet some students and faculty. Overall, I have to say that I was really impressed by many aspects of the VCU Brandcenter. But first,…

• Survive Breast Cancer, Get a Free Bloomin’ Onion

  Bob

  11 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Well, not exactly, but bear with me and read on if you don’t mind, because I do have an important point here and I sincerely need your help in figuring out the meaning of this marketing. It all started over the weekend when I was catching some college football on good old-fashioned network television. I was actually getting ready to head out and was coming out of the shower when I heard the Australian voice from the Outback TV commercials in a very serious tone. This surprised me because the guy is usually full of “We’ll put a shrimp on the bar-bie for ya!” optimism…

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  Nigel Hollis

• Is market research useless? Or is that a dumb question?

  Nigel Hollis

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:44 am

  Last week I attended the 7th Annual Marketing Directors Conference in Athens, Greece. The topic of the conference was marketing accountability. As I suggested in my previous post, I am not sure we got a definitive answer on how to measure the full contribution of marketing to a business, but we certainly heard some strong [...]

• Marketing accountability: Can you link the intangible to the financial?

  Nigel Hollis

  15 Nov 2009 | 5:54 pm

  Last week saw me speaking at the 7th Annual Marketing Directors Conference in Athens. The topic for the day was marketing accountability. Creating my presentation caused me more frustration than it usually does, probably because accountability is so difficult to define. Even so, it seems that everyone has an opinion on the topic. At the beginning [...]

• The global village is dead. Long live the global village.

  Nigel Hollis

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am

  When one of my Dutch colleagues referred to “hives” in a conversation about social networks couple of days ago I have to admit that I was confused. Why had a discussion about Facebook morphed into a differebt one about a nasty skin rash? As the conversation proceeded it became clear that Hyves was in fact a big [...]

• Crowdsourcing: Is it a crowd pleaser?

  Nigel Hollis

  8 Nov 2009 | 11:43 pm

  In recent months we’ve observed a rash of well-known brands seeking to leverage the power of the people through “crowdsourcing.” In this post, I’ll consider a couple of new examples of crowdsourcing and its implications, and also share an exchange I had with John Windsor, the founder of a new agency dedicated to crowdsourcing, on  [...]

• If at first you don’t succeed, try another poll

  Nigel Hollis

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:36 pm

  I am fascinated by Kraft’s attempts to find a name for their new Vegemite variant in Australia. The trouble is that time, distance, and possibly corporate pride are making it tough to get an answer to the fundamental question: How on earth did the new version of the iconic Vegemite brand end up with the name [...]

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  Conversation Agent

• Twitter and Google Reader Aren't at War

  Valeria Maltoni

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  There have been conversations recently about abandoning RSS readers, and specifically Google Reader in favor of using Twitter as a human filter for information. The idea is that if you follow smart people, they read good material and will pass that along to their network - you. Part of me says, maybe. Somehow I think that if you come across a really good post filled with juicy information that will make you look good when you implement it, you'll probably keep that more to yourself. Maybe use it to build on when you write on your own blog. How far off am I? Others, are in favor of continuing…

• What is Your Purpose for Blogging?

  Valeria Maltoni

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  Personal Branding In A Wired WorldView more presentations from Valeria Maltoni. That is the first thing you need to think about if you're planning to be strategic about your blog. Then, instead of focusing on success, focus on the path that will keep you on purpose. Why? Because success changes and stays in the future - be honest, you keep upping the ante. While the path, part of which is a process that will help you stay productive, is the here and now - the decisions you need to make tonight, every day and every week. Dan Pink quotes the recently departed Russell Ackoff (emphasis…

• Architects, Meet Collier Ward, Content Creator

  Valeria Maltoni

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  As an architect, he writes, I believe that, even in the current economy, there are institutions, firms and individuals which could benefit from professional architectural consulting and design services; even if only to be poised for the next construction cycle.Collier Ward is a member of the architecture and author community - and of this community. He shared his thoughts on the About You page and returns with us for a more in depth conversation__________ Why are you online? Collier: Being online maximizes the number of meaningful connections a person can make. I took the opportunity of being…

• Is Social Media a Marketing Thing?

  Valeria Maltoni

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  In the last couple of weeks, we've been talking about leveraging content to start or continue a conversation with your customers or prospects. Offering something of value in exchange for attention towards a mutually accepted goal or direction goes to the heart of communications. There is still plenty of unrealized opportunity for B2B companies to unlock this value through social media. That's because the greatest value to the organization that gets involved in social media is not the cool promotional glitz. We talk about customer support regularly. What about customer acquisition and real…

• Customer Contributions Build Preference

  Valeria Maltoni

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  During our conversation at the Inbound Marketing Summit, we talked about writing engaging content for the next web and the socializing of information. One of the slides in my deck visualized the customer contribution part of content, which we said gives you permission to connect. I stack ranked the ideas in order of complexity - with the simplest being a "like" button.I think many companies are not implementing that on their Web sites because they're somewhat anxious that nobody will like their pages. So why, oh why, is the site still static and displaying the same stale content? What if you…

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  Buzz Marketing for Technology

• CMO Challenges in Driving Data into Insights

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:47 am

  A good friend and former colleague of mine Dan Neely, CEO of Networked Insights reminded me recently that there will be more data created in this year than in the previous 5000 years combined!With all this data the question many CMOs wrestle with is – How to manage so much data from so many sources and separate systems to drive insights on how customers behave? With the goal being a seamless and consistent experience as customers and prospects pin pong across a variety of channels.A recent Forrester report called The Intelligent Approach to Customer Intelligence does a good job outlining…

• What to look for in a Social Media Marketer?

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:26 am

  Now that we are beginning to feel the relief of the economic uncertainty that has been hanging around us for the past few months, I am beginning to hear a lot about the invention of some new roles inside organizations looking to get “social media”.Typically this means hire someone who knows our “space” really well and someone who is an expert in social media.Well it’s the latter part that is the hard part. Consider that in Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book The Outliers he goes into a discussion about Violinists and how long it takes them to become a master at their craft. So without…

• 5 Tricks to B2B Marketing Socially

  9 Nov 2009 | 11:36 am

  Whenever I ask members of sales team from around the globe what they need – the answer never changes – more case studies. Its not to say that we don’t respond but for whatever reason it takes a village to get a single case study done.The reason the sales team loves case studies is it gives them evidence. Evidence for them to start a conversation around your solution and gauge whether there is a need with the potential buyer they are talking to.Then how do B2B Marketers use that content with Social Media to do the same - here are 5 tricks to Marketing B2B content socially ...1) Tell good…

• The Tipping Point and your Contact Center

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:06 am

  Back in the year 2000, Malcolm Gladwell published his landmark book called The Tipping Point. And little did he know 9 years later he would have set the stage for how many Contact Centers handle Social Media?Let me explain …Many of the most Socially advanced Contact Centers today are using tools to listen in on Conversations. Conversations that are happening about their brand, conversations that are happening about their competition, and of course conversations that revolve around Customer Support! Customer Support makes for an easy anchor of any good Social Media strategy so it stands to…

• Some Weeks are Hard to Top!

  1 Nov 2009 | 4:45 am

  Last week was the perfect storm of 3 major life moments all coming together in one week to form the perfect trifecta. It’s a week that is going to be hard to top in Dunay history but don’t put it past me to try!It all started Friday, Oct 23rd when my wife came into the house and said “oh yeah, I think your books have arrived – I saw a whole bunch of boxes out by the garage”. Little did she know in that moment I became a published author! I spent the weekend packing up copies of Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley) and sending them to family, friends, long time mentors but most…

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  Post Advertising

• Find the Stash to Get Your Wings

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am

  Red Bull has long soared above the competition with real-world branding experiences—like Flugtag, which every year sends people plummeting into flying over large bodies of water. For its recent campaign, Red Bull abandoned the air for the web in an e-scavenger hunt promo. The game’s called Red Bull Stash. The brand hid energy shots all over the country for anyone to find. Fans just had to log into the Facebook page for hints on the secret locations. Enthusiastically, winners showed off their prizes online (who knew the beverage got them this worked up?). The final answer came as a…

• Get Rewarded for Being Bad

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:43 am

  Saying “we want to create a viral campaign” is a bit of a fool’s errand, isn’t it? It’s like trying to capture magic in a bottle or discover the elusive cure to Heidi and Spencer. But, as recently reported by MediaPost, that didn’t stop an ad manager at MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas from describing its new social media campaign like that anyway. The promotion, “Get Rewarded for Your Sins,” urges the Twitterati to tweet their sins followed by #mgmsin, so you’re oversharing with everyone, not just friends and family. In exchange, they have a…

• Letting the Consumers Make Up Their Minds

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:21 am

  The cheap stuff’s always crap, right? That’s exactly the perception the makeup brand E.L.F. (Eyes Lips Face) is trying to overcome. But to change your mind, it’s also taking the inexpensive approach to advertising—by talking to the blogosphere. E.L.F. has never had a traditional media budget, relying heavily on product samples and word-of-mouth, which seems to have worked for them. EyesLipsFace.com gets hundreds of thousands of visitors a month. Thus, its latest move into social media seems like the natural next step. So it leapt. The brand created Ask E.L.F., where it…

• SoCo Bros

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:54 am

  The holidays are ahead and you know what that means: break out the liquor!  So, to intoxicate college-boy boozehounds, Southern Comfort reached out to Break Media to produce an eight-episode web series, Social Sportz Net. Each webisode features roommates Ted and Neil battling it out in a party-off. A referee keeps score as the two prep and host holiday-themed bashes. From the music to the drinks, from dress to the décor, the videos offer party-planning tips for more clueless, twenty-something guys looking to entertain this season. And in the limelight? Why, SoCo of course. Break…

• Do the Dew—Literally

  10 Nov 2009 | 8:14 am

  In true post-advertising fashion, the folks at Pepsi are giving power to the people. For the next Mountain Dew line, the brand’s created a Dewmocracy. Say what now? Crowdsourcing is growing more and more popular for many brands. Campaigns from Vitamin Water, CareerBuilder, HP, and others have looked to consumers for material. Brands trusting consumers—imagine that! In Dew’s case, it let Dew-drinkers invent and name three new flavors as well as design the packaging. The Dewmocracy mantra: “Harnessing the collective intelligence of Dew fans.” (I’ll refrain…

• 
  Conversation Marketing

• 11 ways to be a schmuck

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:09 pm

  Use Twitter auto-follow tools. Cut other people down. Sell products you know are crappy. Don't take advice. Ever. WRITE E-MAILS IN ALL CAPS. Misuse words. Amelioratingly. Latch onto one idea and don't let go. Two legs good, four legs baaaaad. Whatever you do, never admit you're wrong. Whatever you do, never stop reminding others of their mistakes. Let fear rule your marketing. Sell to the loophole, not the customer.

• The speed factor: Google algorithm change favors small business

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:16 pm

  I'm here tonight to clear up a little misconception: Douglas Karr wrote an article a few days back titled "Is Google really trying to make the web better?" He talked about Matt Cutts' implication at PubCon that site load speed is becoming a search ranking factor. Karr implies that this favors businesses with deep pockets, I'm assuming because they can spend more on improving load speed. Mashable picked up the thread, too: 1. Favors big / powerful sites: As Karr notes, big companies are best able to plow resources into technical prowess. This could disrupt Google's egalitarian basis, and the…

• 7 Tips for StumbleUpon Success

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:50 pm

  If you want to learn about StumbleUpon and what it is, read my previous article about Stumbleupon traffic quality.. StumbleUpon is my friend. In a weird, they-just-showed-up-and-were-nice-to-me kind of way. I'll write an article about, say, The Plague that is Powerpoint. Nothing happens. I shrug and move on to the next piece. Then BAM, weeks later traffic goes ballistic: Pretty dang cool. I have no idea who started that Stumblefest, but thanks! No manipulation First: I am not manipulating StumbleUpon. I don't have 50 accounts so that I can stumble my own stuff. In fact, I no longer stumble my…

• 7 Reasons PubCon is a must for next year

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:03 pm

  I go to conferences, eat the dry sandwiches, sleep in the hotel room and then head home. Usually, it's a wash - I learn a thing or two, bounce around outside the circles of the 'in' people like the smallest puppy in the litter, and that's it. This year, though I went to my first PubCon. And it was fantastic! Here's why: I didn't attend a single session that was a 50-minute sales pitch. That's a first. Not one speaker I heard said something that set my teeth on edge: No recommendations like "Optimize your keywords meta tag" or "You'll rank #1 when you get 35 links". I learned. A lot. I'm not…

• Using eBay as a keyword research tool

  12 Nov 2009 | 8:24 pm

  Quick post tonight: I've been using eBay's keyword research tool for a while now. It may just beat the more established toolsets when it comes to commercial keyword research. Here's how you use it: First, go to http://labs.ebay.com/raghavgupta/demoto/to?. Type in your query: When you click 'submit' you'll get a report like this: The 'Popularity' column shows searches performed by eBay users. You can't define the time frame - eBay does that for you. The 'Availability' column shows the number of items returned, on average, when you search on eBay. And the 'Bay Estimate' column shows how many…

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  Marketing Interactions

• Dreamforce 09 Day 1 - Lots of Chatter

  ArdathAlbee

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:54 am

  The first thing I have to say about Dreamforce is WHOA! 19,000 people registered this year, from 60 countries. So many were in attendance that they had to have an overflow room for about 3,000 to watch Marc Benioff's keynote from afar.Salesforce.com clearly wants to see everything in the cloud...their cloud. What's not to like? A multi-tennant, pay-as-you-go, elastic platform that allows your company to expand or contract as needed is pretty compelling. And according to IDC, it's 5X faster and about half the cost to build apps in the cloud. IDC found that companies were able to…

• Manticore Technology VII is All About Marketers

  ArdathAlbee

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:24 am

  I've known the folks at Manticore Technology for quite a while. I've been watching their progress and I've been impressed by their interest in learning what's working and what's not for the companies who implement marketing automation. Based on feedback from their customers, they've taken note that a one-size-fits-all mentality doesn't work for marketing, nor does it work for the technology that supports it. Bravo! Manticore Technology's VII release has a really intuitive user interface that allows each marketer to customize their display so they have…

• Nurturing and Engagement - Webinars and Book Giveaways

  ArdathAlbee

  15 Nov 2009 | 7:37 pm

  I'm excited to share some events coming your way. I'm participating in two webinars that will help you get a handle on designing nurturing programs that drive sales and how to integrate 3 "must have" components to make it happen.How to Design Nurturing Programs That Drive SalesDate: November 19, 2009Time: 11AM Pacific, 1PM Central, 2PM EasternBrian Carroll, CEO of InTouch, and the B2B Lead Generation Roundtable are sponsoring this webinar where I'll share insights to help marketers create a nurturing program that parallels how your prospects move through their buying…

• Audit Your B2B Website for Engagement

  ArdathAlbee

  13 Nov 2009 | 10:53 am

  B2B companies say that improving their websites is a priority for 2010. I'm not sure exactly what they're thinking, but I do know that — before they do anything — they need to evaluate the website they have now in order to create a renovation plan. I suggest that an audit be conducted for each web page, or at least your main pages if your site is really intense. The benefit of doing this audit will help to position your web pages to generate more responsiveness from your prospects and customers. Some of the things overlooked on B2B websites include: Web pages are not…

• eMarketing is Not a Formula

  ArdathAlbee

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:50 am

  I've been asked a lot of questions lately about formulaic approaches to eMarketing. People want some kind of measuring stick to compare their results to those of others. Some kind of way to prove they're succeeding in comparison to the guy down the street.I'd like to propose that that kind of perspective is a bunch of bull puckey.Buyers are not the same. They don't think the same ways and they don't go through their buying process in the same order of activities. Their thought processes and their situations have different nuances that won't match up with a…

• 
  PR 2.0

• The Social Media (R)evolution: Your Time is Now

  brian

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:23 am

  Source: ShutterstockThe Future of the Social Web is here today and we’re learning that engagement is not a matter of if or when, but to what extent, how and what value can we deliver and derive from it. The Social Web is much more than a window into information and interaction, it is a completely transformative medium that is changing how we forge relationships, interact with one another, and distribute and discover information. In many ways, the online social revolution is reminiscent of the Industrial Revolution.Access to free and expansive media platforms and distribution channels has…

• On Twitter, What Are You Doing Was Always The Wrong Question

  brian

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:18 pm

  What are you doing?Perhaps, Twitter asked the wrong question all along.In all honestly, who cares…it was really never about “what you were doing” that inspired your network to stay connected nor was it the siren for attracting new followers. We chose to follow you because you moved or encouraged us to do so – with every update.For many of the users on Twitter, the question that engendered a response and also also aroused a cultural movement was, “what are you doing?” It was a prompt that, for the most part, was taken quite literally. Its answer served as…

• On Twitter and Social Networks, Brands Benefit from Conversations

  brian

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:40 am

  Source: ShutterstockA recent study revealed 20 percent of tweets published are actually invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives. Now we learn that Twitter users are actively paying attention to brands on the popular information network.According to research conducted by Performics and ROI Research, about half of Twitter users who were introduced to a brand on Twitter were compelled to search for additional information.The companies studied the activity of 3,000 users of social networks in the U.S. Of those polled, 70% use…

• The Golden Triangle

  brian

  18 Nov 2009 | 4:11 am

  Source: ShutterstockPrior to keynoting the PACA conference in Miami, Maria Kessler, president of the PACA Association, asked me if I had read a recent post by Fred Wilson entitled “The Golden Triangle.” We were deep in conversation as I was seeking an alternate title for my next book that identifies the divide between brands, information, and consumers and how we can, as social architects and engineers, build the bridges between people, contextual relationships, and technology. While “The Golden Triangle” isn’t a contender for the name of the next book, it did get me thinking.In…

• With Klout Comes Influence: How To Find Influencers on Twitter

  brian

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:20 am

  This is the uncut version of my latest post on TechCrunch…Measuring individual influence in Social Media is as coveted as it is elusive. While many tools claim to calculate authority, it is the definition of influence that requires clarification in order to grasp the relevance and differences of existing tools and services.For the sake keeping this discussion on track, let’s define influence. According to Merriam-Webster, influence is having the power or capacity to cause an effect.San Francisco-based Klout is no stranger to measuring influence on the Social Web. The company launched…

• 
  Nick Burcher

• IKEA Facebook showroom - tag photos on the profile of the Malmo store manager and win the tagged item

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:21 am

  IKEA Malmo have been using Facebook to promote their new store - creating an IKEA showroom on Facebook!IKEA Malmo store manager Gordon Gustavsson has set up a (public) Facebook profile here:Gordon Gustavsson, IKEA store Manager Malmo, Facebook profile(click for larger image)Gordon's Facebook photo albums contain photos of different IKEA rooms featuring various IKEA products:Gordon Gustavsson IKEA Malmo store manager Facebook photo albums(click for larger image)The headline states 'Tagga dig själv och vinn möbeln!' meaning 'tag yourself and win the furniture!'The instructions are further…

• Flash mob evolution - even Microsoft stores are trying them now!

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:45 am

  In March 2006, Bill Wasik, inventor of the Flash Mob, wrote a great report on how he created and grew the flashmob phenomenon - Harper's Magazine (March 2006 issue.)He talks about how events moved from the original email he sent out ('Q: Why would I want to join an inexplicable mob? A: Tons of other people are doing it') through to discussing the MOBs at the New York shoe store, the Grand Hyatt next to Central Station and the dinosaur worshipping in Times Square Toys R Us. Bill discusses how the phenomenon grew and analyses the different stages of awareness, participation and media…

• Social Media ROI video by Socialnomics

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:01 pm

  In July Erik Qualman uploaded a video to YouTube entitled the 'Social Media Revolution.' This video consisted of a range of social facts and figures set to a Fat Boy Slim soundtrack - and this film has now had over 1m views on YouTube.All posted under guise of Socialnomics, Qualman has now posted another nicely crafted stats video called 'Social Media ROI' - and this time the soundtrack is provided by Bob Sinclar:(NB - though if you are not going to do due diligence on sources for these stats then I would advise potentially taking some of them with a pinch of salt.)If you like this sort of…

• Eurostar ads on Ryanair website?!

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pm

  Since the beginning of this year Ryanair have been monetising their customer website by selling ad space on the homepage with various ad sizes available - the most prominent being the MPU in the centre of the page.Even though Ryanair don't fly from London to Paris or London to Brussels, I was still surprised to see the Ryanair homepage carrying prominent display advertising for Eurostar recently!Ryanair homepage with Eurostar adIt appears that I'm not the only one to have seen these Eurostar ads on the Ryanair site - a thread on Airliners.net discusses the same placements (though they noticed…

• Calvin Harris, Jedward and Twitpic pineapples! Socialised stage invasion......

  14 Nov 2009 | 11:16 pm

  Last night the Jedward performance on the X Factor was interrupted by a stage invader (who had a pineapple on his head.) You can see the Jedward invader at 2:24 in the Jedward YouTube clip of their performance last night (and it's referenced in Louis' judging comments afterwards):The Jedward interloper is not on screen for long and the camera moves out of close up quickly but you can see the arm reaching out and the figure dancing beside them (though not much coverage of the pineapple):John and Edward with pineapple stage invaderJohn and Edward with pineapple stage invader (2)However, as…

• 
  The Toadstool

• I Guess This Means We're For Real

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:19 pm

• Announcing the Hive Awards

  12 Nov 2009 | 5:24 am

  The Hive Awards are now live!The Hive Awards started as a pipe dream, about a year ago, when I was looking at web award shows and realized that none of them rewarded things like user experience, content strategy or even coding. At least not on any significant level. What’s more, the awards that were being given out seemed to go to big, high profile sites in glamor industries. Which is not to say that those sites weren’t deserving, just that they didn’t seem to reward all the people working in the trenches, what I called the unsung heroes of the internet.And so an idea was born.When I…

• Life In The Bubble

  8 Nov 2009 | 8:22 pm

  Over the past year, I'd say well over 150 of my friends and relatives joined Facebook, none of whom work in any sort of media or technology related function.Maybe 5% of them post regular status updatesMaybe 5% of them post pictures beyond the half dozen or so they put up when they joinedMaybe 2 or 3 of them regularly share outside articles on any topic.Maybe 5 of them have actually shared an outside article, period.Maybe a dozen of them have used Facebook at some point to promote their own business or a charitable endeavor they've been a part of.Maybe 2 or 3 of them do that sort of promotion…

• Enough With The Guilt, Facebook

  5 Nov 2009 | 6:37 pm

  "Your mother is just sitting there. Alone. In the dark. But that's okay, you're busy. You go right ahead and play Bejeweled Blitz. I'm sure she won't mind."Facebook has introduced a lot of boneheaded features over the years, but one that seems particularly insidious is the new configuration of the "Suggestions" feature, which "suggests," you get back in touch with people whose wall you haven't written on in a while or whose profiles are only half filled out.You see, if my "social graph" is any indication, one of the most common Facebook Suggestions is the account holder's mother, followed…

• Towards A Two-Tier System of Media Consumption

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  One of the trends I’ve been keeping my eye on is the speed at which we seem to be headed towards a two-tier system of media consumption, with commercial free content available for those willing (and able) to pay for it, and ad-supported content for those who are not.It’s a trend that’s mirrored in other industries, from health care (many doctors in affluent areas no longer take insurance: they have enough patients who are willing to pay out of pocket and take whatever “out of network” reimbursement they can get in return for what they regard as a superior, more patient-centric…

• 
  Servant of Chaos

• Seeing the Trees in the Social Media Forest

  Gavin Heaton

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  With each passing day there are more and more case studies, examples and justifications for brands to use social media. There are best practices emerging (or easily found with a Google search), thousands of “how to” blog posts explaining every aspect of social media (or perhaps the same aspect repeated 1000 times) and agencies devoted to social media as their core competency. But it seems to me that we are beginning to swim (or is it drown?) in data. Because our social media interactions are digital, we can measure plenty of things – the time you spend on our sites, the things you click…

• Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week

  Gavin Heaton

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:54 pm

  In the last week there have been a plethora of posts looking at short term futures – what’s ahead of us, what it takes to get there and even some suggestions of how real change takes place. There’s Plenty to read for marketers on the client and/or agency side. In this Ad Age article, Jacques-Herve Roubert suggests that Digital Agencies are Ready to Lead when it comes to engaging clients, creating campaigns and building their clients brands. Neil Perkin explains that it could just be social media that saves mainstream TV. In The Socialisation of TV, Neil suggests that scheduling and…

• Can Curating the Crowd Work?

  Gavin Heaton

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:29 am

  Having worked on two, and heading into the third Age of Conversation book (bringing together hundreds of thought leaders in a single, crowdsourced book), not to mention our recent efforts around The Perfect Gift for a Man (30 crowdsourced stories reinventing manhood), I feel like I have a fairly good grasp on crowdsourcing and its potential. But can it work for advertising? Will it work for agencies? And, perhaps, most importantly, will it work for the communities which emerge almost spontaneously to become part of a crowdsourcing project? Unilever are putting this to the test. Via Idea…

• One Wish - The Charter for Compassion

  Gavin Heaton

  12 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am

  If you had a wish, what would it be? Would you direct it inwardly or towards others? Would it be personal or would it be communal? Would it be larger? Would your wish be transformative, transactional or fanciful? Could you name it, nail it down, write it on a sign? Is it something you could share or would it remain a personal secret? Would you wear your wish upon your sleeve or swallow it like a burning truth? Karen Armstrong has a wish. The TED Prize winner’s wish is as follows: I wish that you would help with the creation, launch and propagation of a Charter for Compassion, crafted by a…

• Ten Ways to Kill Community

  Gavin Heaton

  9 Nov 2009 | 1:00 pm

  Sometimes the best way of understanding HOW to do something is to think how NOT to. In this fantastic short presentation, Marilyn Pratt steps through the 10 things that you can do to kill off the community that has begun to grow around your brand (or products, services etc). There is some great insight that can be applied to any business’ community – and each point is backed up with the hard won experience of working in, building up and evangelising a large corporate community. Marilyn is one of SAP’s community evangelists and knows first-hand what works (and doesn’t) – but does…

• 
  Chaos Scenario

• The Value of Y-O-U

  Cam Beck

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am

  Recently I read Value-Based Fees: How to Charge and Get What You're Worth by Alan Weiss. I've coveted this book since I wrote Innovation by the Hour last year. After I worked through my rather large (and growing) stack of reading material, I finally was able to get my hands (and eyes) on it, and I am glad I did! (Thanks to Lisa for the recommendation).Many, if not most, people in service industries bill for time and material. This is problematic in industries whose output includes ideas, for who is to say when (or on whose dime) ideas were generated? Who owns the idea formed in an employee's…

• What is "The Fun Theory" really worth?

  Cam Beck

  13 Nov 2009 | 6:23 am

  A couple of people took note of VW's campaign "The Fun Theory." Most recently Corley suggested it "further's VW's corporate social responsibility." Ultimately, I believe she is correct in saying that, but it's a broad statement begging to be unpacked.To be sure, this campaign isn't about VW being socially responsible. It's about VW wanting others to associate the word "Fun" with VW. The campaign is simple, unexpected, concrete, and each of the demonstrations have the trappings of a story, and presumably the effort is designed to get people excited about the possibilities (emotion). Together,…

• Happy Birthday, U.S. Marine Corps

  Cam Beck

  10 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  Related PostsA (Marine) Corps of MarketersHold and DieLest We Forget...Some Gave AllFollow @USMC on Twitter.

• Have a Solemn "Freedom Appreciation Day"

  Cam Beck

  9 Nov 2009 | 7:10 am

  For the East-bloc countries and those bordering them, there was a long buildup to November 9, 1989 -- now recognized as the day the Berlin Wall fell. Those of us living in West Berlin were abuzz with anticipation because the cries for freedom began to crack the Iron Curtain.Still, if you'll pardon the pun, nothing was set in stone. In February of that same year, Chris Gueffroy and Christian Guadian, believing the standing order to shoot those who tried to escape had been lifted, made an attempt to breech the wall. Guadian was captured, and Gueffroy was shot dead. The border guards fired 10…

• Beware of Zombies

  Cam Beck

  20 Oct 2009 | 6:21 am

  Facing a deadline for my contribution to the Click Here blog, I finally settled down on a subject. However, it was a bit different from the one I previously said I'd write about. John Keehler asked to see it before I posted it, so I took the opportunity to tell him that I had changed subjects, but -- not to worry -- he'd love it."Is it about zombies," he asked.And I thought about it. No, it really wasn't, but it with a tweak here and an insertion there -- it very well could be. Or at least I could use them as an analogy to make the point.Home pages have historically been a hotbed of…

• 
  No Man is An Island

• Best, safe and optimal practices in email marketing: not always the same thing

  Mark Brownlow

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:34 am

  If you're looking to take the next big leap with your email marketing, one way is to distinguish between two types* of best practices.There are best practices that help optimize your email marketing. Truths that are as near-universal as we can get them. A good example is sending new sign-ups an immediate welcome message.It's hard to imagine a scenario where not sending some kind of welcome message is the best course of action.That's what best practices are supposed to be about: proven approaches that are better than the alternatives.But there's another type of best practice. One that does not…

• Future of deliverability: resources, tools, further reading

  Mark Brownlow

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:46 am

  Part 1: User interactionPart 2: AuthenticationPart 3: Domain-based reputationPart 4: CertificationPart 5: B2B and sender reputationAnd so we come to the end of this series. To finish, I compiled a list of 192 deliverability resources available for you at this site and elsewhere.These cover: introductory articles, themed article collections (e.g. authentication, sender reputation), blogs, Twitter accounts, tools/services and a special section on deliverability's future.If you have any recommended sites, services etc. to add to the list, use the comments to let me know. Though 192 is a nice…

• Future of deliverability: 5. Sender reputation and B2B email marketing

  Mark Brownlow

  10 Nov 2009 | 1:06 pm

  Part 1: User interactionPart 2: AuthenticationPart 3: Domain-based reputationPart 4: CertificationYou can't avoid the idea of reputation when talking about deliverability.And we've already seen how your reputation as a sender of email will become associated with your domain, making you more accountable for your email activities.[Accountability is a good thing as long as you're delivering true value to your subscribers. It helps keep bad emailers out of the inbox.]Still, some marketers wonder just how much attention to give sender reputation.OK, it plays a major role at big B2C webmail…

• Email software popularity: 5 lessons for your list

  Mark Brownlow

  5 Nov 2009 | 12:36 am

  Who cares what software people use to read your emails?If you have a "safe" email design, you know each message displays gracefully whether viewed in Outlook 2007 or Gmail.The only exception is when people use a mobile device, but you can get round that with the assumption that they'll save your mail to view on a desktop later.But there is value to knowing exactly where your emails are viewed.Getting the statsYou may be wondering how on earth you can tell whether people are viewing your messages on AOL or Apple Mail. It's only recently that the right tools have become available.I used the…

• Future of deliverability: 4. The role of certification

  Mark Brownlow

  30 Oct 2009 | 6:39 am

  Part 1: User interactionPart 2: AuthenticationPart 3: Domain-based reputationIf your emails are certified by an authoritative third-party, then you get priority delivery treatment at ISPs that recognize that certification.Sound good?Yes, no, maybe: the pros and cons of getting your emails certified are outlined here.In theory, certification simplifies life for ISPs and others managing incoming email by pre-identifying "good" messages.So some might suggest (I have in the past) that certification is the future of email deliverability.But does our panel of experts agree?Will certification become…

• 
  What's Next

• Why Do So Many Companies Hide Their Social Media Involvement?

  BL Ochman

  18 Nov 2009 | 9:16 pm

  While thousands of companies have either experimental or well-established presence on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media sites, those communities remain invisible on all but a tiny fraction of company homepages. Why do companies hide their social media efforts from visitors? My guess is that their reasons include o fear that they'll lose control of their brand if too many people know they can have a say; o lack of cooperation between marketing and IT; o and perhaps pressure from lawyers who are nervous about new-fangled new media. It's hard to find a company website whose…

• Three Top Reasons Why Social Media is Still a Tough Sell

  BL Ochman

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:47 pm

  By B.L. Ochman Big companies have moved cautiously for eons. While many are corporations are making forays into social media, very, very few are taking huge risks. Instead of jumping in, they're still standing on the edge of the pool, diipping a toe in the water. As a result, getting companies to add social media into the marketing mix is still a hard sell. Here are three of the top reasons why. 1- Consultants make social media sound scary. Consultants, eager to prove the viability of social media in the marketing mix, are overwhelming stodgy companies by making social media sound more…

• Think There Are No More Real Heroes? Meet Zoe Koplowitz

  BL Ochman

  2 Nov 2009 | 8:13 am

  I hope you will show this post to someone you love. This morning, at 9:30 a.m., I had the great good fortune to meet up with Zoe Koplowitz, as she approached mile 24 of her 21st NYC Marathon - on purple day-glo crutches, 27 hours after the start of the race. She, and a team of Guardian Angels who acompany her as she keeps her pace of approximately one mile per hour, were on course to finish her race in just under 29 hours. She told me she felt "fine," and we talked about her dog, as Benny - clearly recognizing a great soul - bowed before her (his best trick.) I told her she was a great…

• 10 Things Social Media Can't Do

  BL Ochman

  31 Oct 2009 | 11:30 am

  By B.L. Ochman Amid the endless pronouncements about social media -- often shortened to "social" these days by consultants trying to sound like they know what they are talking about -- is the reality that social media is not a solution, or a sure bet. Social media can't: 1. Substitute for marketing strategy A Twitter campaign, or a Facebook page that announces your weekly specials is not a marketing strategy. 2. Succeed without top management buy-in Social media requires a way of thinking that includes willingness to listen to customers, make changes based on feedback, and trust employees to…

• Top Five Reasons Why Free is a Good Business Model & How We Plan to Use it to Retire Before We're 90

  BL Ochman

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:21 am

  Pawfun, the site I hope will one day allow me to say "I used to be a corporate social media consultant", is one year old this month. My partner, Caimin Jones, and I started out thinking we'd sell a ton of t-shirts, customized photo note cards, and personalized pet photo greeting cards to pet lovers. We've sold a bunch, but not enough to allow us to retire from consulting before we're 90. Then, Eureka! We realized that we weren't using the very community-building tools we've spent the last 10 years cajoling our Fortune 500 clients into trying. Pawfun's new focus: free We're changing our focus.

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  Buzz & Viral Marketing

• The Body Shop: The Love Etc... Pre-Launch Event

  Acia Baghdadi

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am

  There were 40 of them, they were full of enthusiasm, but most importantly they were with us for a whole weekend in Marseille, France, for the presentation of the new The Body Shop fragrance: Love Etc...™. It is in a kind of crazy but mostly relaxed and a little magical atmosphere that the BuzzParadise team met up with 40 of its bloggers from France and Switzerland on a Saturday to embark on a very special train journey to Marseille. In honor of the launch of its new Love Etc...™ fragrance, the ethical beauty company decided to invite the blogging ladies to the French metropolis Marseille…

• The Internet: The No. 1 Purchase Persuader In France

  Julien Delubac

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:25 am

  According to a study by Ifop Nurun, in France the Internet has become the decisive media when it comes to purchasing, even surpassing the power of television and print. Among the people polled, 29% say they trust the Web and say that it can help them make relevant decisions when it comes to making purchases. Sources emarketer The original post on culture-buzz.fr Translated by H. Turner Source images emarketer

• The Big Warm-up: An Interview with Susan Sachatello

  Thierry Daher

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:35 am

  Please introduce yourself: Susan Sachatello, Senior Vice President, Marketing for Lands' End What is Lands' End's mission statement in the US today? What is the promise the brand brings to its clients? Lands' End promises to give our customers a great shopping experience where they will find stylish, high-quality products at an amazing value. We strive to be the beacon for what's real… real value, real people, real difference. Can you please describe the campaign and how it came to life? The Big Warm-up was inspired by a similar endeavor in Boston known as the Big Boston Warm-up. In…

• Tweet Level: Measure Your Influence On Twitter

  Valentine Nancy

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:58 am

  Tweetlevel is a new tool developed by Edelman that allows you to measure your own influence and credibility on Twitter. Do you want to find out? The answer is at tweetlevel.edelman.com. Sources Tweetlevel The original post on culture-buzz.fr Translated by H. Turner Image source Tweetlevel

• Listorious: Discover The Best Twitter Lists

  C. Werle

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:53 am

  Recently, we told you about the new Twitter function that allows you to create lists and share them with your followers. Listorious has now made a list of the 140 most popular Twitter lists. Among them, you will find the list that Vanksen has dedicated to international buzz, advertising and web agencies. You can follow us on twitter.com/vanksen_com. And how about you, what are your favorite lists? Sources listorious.com The list of the best advertising agencies on Twitter The original post on culture-buzz.fr Translated by H. Turner Image source listorious.com

• 
  Really Pratical Marketing

• Content Marketing and Social Media Quotes

  Mark Nagurski

  2 Nov 2009 | 9:40 am

  A collection of interesting quotes from social media and content marketing peeps – and we get a mention on page 7. ClickDocuments: Great Content Marketing & Social Media Marketing Quotes 2009 Part5 View more documents from Ambal Balakrishnan.

• Really Practical Gets a Rebrand (Kind Of)

  Mark Nagurski

  26 Aug 2009 | 2:36 pm

  As some of you may know, we’ve been working on a bit of a rebrand / relaunch over the last few months. The idea was simply to expand the kinds of projects that we work on – moving up the food chain from content writing on other people’s digital media projects to developing our own. We could [...]

• What Does Building 43 Do for Rackspace?

  Mark Nagurski

  27 Jul 2009 | 9:19 am

  A few months ago, renowned blogger and social media guy Robert Scoble left his previous job at FastCompany TV to start work on a content and social networking community with his new employers Rackspace, the hosting provider. The new community, Building 43, is described as a site to: ” … bring together thought leaders in a variety [...]

• How Much Does Budget Matter in Digital Media Publishing?

  Mark Nagurski

  21 Jul 2009 | 8:23 am

  This is more of a question than an answer but I thought I’d throw it out there anyway. We all know that traditional media companies are struggling to make online content pay. They can attract audiences but generating enough advertising revenue to cover the cost of the endeavour has proven difficult (and in some cases impossible). The [...]

• Content: The Meat in Your Social Media Sandwich

  Mark Nagurski

  20 Jul 2009 | 11:15 am

  Social media marketing is, of course, all the rage with businesses these days. Every time I meet with a prospective client or hang out at a networking event, everyone wants to know how to put Twitter (or Facebook, or LinkedIn or YouTube) to work for their business. Can you really get business from them? How do you [...]

• 
  Bringing Brands to Life

• Employee Engagement Lessons from Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” Part 2

  Thomas R. Clifford

  18 Nov 2009 | 6:07 am

  Here’s part two of my conversation with Ellen McGirt, Senior Writer for Fast Company magazine and Dean of Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” website. Part one can be found here. Thanks again, Ellen, for participating! 5. Many organizations see and hear the potential benefits of incorporating an internal social media framework into their communication strategies but are hesitant to make the leap. What would you say to these folks? Grow a spine. You’ve already lost control! You might as well have some fun. And by the way, this is the golden era of the communications professional. In…

• Employee Engagement Lessons from Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” Part 1

  Thomas R. Clifford

  4 Nov 2009 | 6:04 am

  I’m a big fan of Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” site. The minute it launched, I felt it offered a simple yet highly effective way for organizations to integrate social media concepts into their internal communication strategies. I wanted to know more. So I asked Ellen McGirt, the Senior Writer and Dean of “30 Second MBA,” a few questions about her experiences in launching the site. I was particularly interested in seeing how the “30 Second MBA” framework could be adapted for internal communication purposes. Here’s part one of the interview. And many thanks, Ellen, for…

• 5 Big Ideas: What Honda’s Mini-Documentaries Can Teach Non-Filmmakers

  Thomas R. Clifford

  21 Oct 2009 | 7:05 pm

  Here are five ideas from Honda’s new corporate documentary, “Racing Against Time,” to help you take your videos from talking heads to interesting and believable stories. (RSS readers click thru to see the video.) Have you checked out Honda’s “Dream the Impossible” mini-documentary series? The video series features several big ideas in a series of mini-documentaries. And yes, they’re beautifully produced. But here’s the thing. If you deconstruct Honda’s new documentary, “Racing Against Time,” you’ll find five big ideas you can use to make your own videos just as…

• Tom's SpeedLink #12

  Thomas R. Clifford

  20 Oct 2009 | 5:52 am

  Time to share some pretty cool links... 1. New book: "Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story." Michael Margolis, my friend and remarkable business storyteller, just released his first book yesterday entitled, "Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story." It's a "storytelling manifesto for change-makers and innovators." Yes, I ordered my copy and can't wait to dive in to it! 2. Honda Launches New Docu-Series On Twitter Honda's corporate mini-documentaries are some of my favorite programs. I'll have a full article on this new video…

• 9 Super Simple Ways to Rock Your Company Video

  Thomas R. Clifford

  7 Oct 2009 | 7:18 pm

  It’s the small things that can make a big difference. Anyone can implement these ideas. And the cool part? They’re free or next to free. See if you can sneak a few of these tricks into your next project. It will help your video story feel more believable and interesting. And rockin'. 1. Talk first. Your best storytellers are hiding right under your nose– your employees. Figure our what your video is about. Pull up a chair and get talking. Ask lots of different questions. Employees rarely get this kind of chance to be heard and recognized. You’ll be amazed at what you hear and capture.

• 
  ContentMarketingToday

• Take Your Elevator Speech to a Higher Level. Be Both Brief And Compelling.

  Newt Barrett

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:49 pm

  Engage your listeners so effectively that they will ride with you to the top floor and accompany you all the way to your office enthralled by what you have to say. I was inspired again by Jay Baer’s August 12 post about elevator speeches in which he asserted that the typical elevator speech is too long for today’s attention span. As he put it, "Understand that the Elevator Pitch is Dead. You remember the elevator pitch. The notion that you should be able to describe what your company does in the length of time consumed by the average elevator ride. I’m here to tell you,…

• 6 Reasons to Embrace Social Media Today

  Newt Barrett

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:47 am

  Social media marketing is a trend, not a fad. But,  most small to medium-sized businesses have yet to participate fully and enthusiastically. We have just written about a powerful new research study that paints a picture of how thousands of smart companies are already benefiting from the inclusion of social media.  What’s clear from that research is that when we evaluate social media, we are not talking about the marketing longevity equivalent of the hula hoop or the Lambada. Social media marketing is here to stay.  Because you want your organization to be here for the long…

• Terrific New Social Media Research Study Means It’s Time for Small Business to Get with the Program

  Newt Barrett

  6 Nov 2009 | 7:19 am

  If you’ve been dragging your feet on social media, it’s time to take both of those feet and jump right in. The just released study on business use of social media from the folks at Business.com is must reading for content marketers who are active, tentative or hesitant about social media. Their research, 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study makes it clear that even small business owners need to take social media very seriously indeed.  The study was designed to assess current trends in the use of social media in North American businesses. Based on 2,948 valid responses to…

• Give Your Marketing Real Depth to Deliver Offline and Online Results

  Newt Barrett

  6 Nov 2009 | 5:57 am

  It’s All About the Power of Deep 3 D Content Over Skinny 2 D Content What’s the difference between 2-D marketing and 3-D marketing you might ask? Plenty! Think of all the junk mail you receive at home or at the office.  Tons of envelopes and a few postcards.  Virtually everything but the bills will be tossed–and much of that without anyone looking at the individual pieces.  There is no depth to all that stuff. But what if you receive a well-designed magazine that clearly matches your interests, even if you haven’t requested it?  What’s the…

• Top 10 Lessons Small Businesses Can Takeaway from Smart Content Marketers

  Newt Barrett

  23 Oct 2009 | 6:37 am

  This week, several client meetings reinforced a vital truth:  Content marketing isn’t an arcane theory taught in expensive graduate schools that only billion dollar companies can use. In fact, great  content marketing is much more about brains than big bucks. Those client conversations took me back to lessons learned from more than a dozen case studies we featured in Get Content Get Customers. What came through loud and clear was that content marketing requires discipline, patience, and persistence, but it doesn’t require an enormous budget.  It’s particularly gratifying…

• 
  Hard Knox Life

• Fred Wilson’s perspective on the rise of Social Recruiting

  Dave Knox

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:01 am

  Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures always puts together amazing presentations that really stretch your thinking.  Last month it was his look at what makes the New York City Startup Scene so special.  And now Wilson is moving onto the theme of “Social Recruiting” or how companies are finding the best talent by leveraging Social Media. People are your company’s biggest competitive advantage and attracting the best talent is probably one of the toughest jobs in business.  Social Media is quickly emerging as an invaluable tool for attracting the best employees and the…

• Sometimes it is better to not have an “end goal” in mind

  Dave Knox

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:28 am

  This week while at an offsite brainstorm, I was reminded that sometimes not knowing what you hope to accomplish is actually the best approach.  So often we are challenged to identify the “end game”…the goals we hope to accomplish.  People want to know the objectives of a meeting, the agenda for a trip, etc.  This is especially true in the world of marketing and brand n management where time is seen by many as the most valuable commodity. But there is something to be said about taking the complete opposite approach.  There is real value in going into a meeting with eyes…

• The Virtual Goods Gold Rush

  Dave Knox

  31 Oct 2009 | 8:40 am

  I have to admit, I have been fascinated by the Virtual Good / Social Gaming market lately.  It is something I am going to be thinking / writing about more often in the coming weeks for sure.  In the meantime, here is a great presentation that was recently given at the Virtual Worlds Conference.   Great primer for those new to this space.  [presentation embedded below]. Virtual Goods in Asia View more documents from Benjamin Joffe.

• Digital Strangelove (Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Net)

  Dave Knox

  24 Oct 2009 | 2:28 pm

  Talk about a presentation getting some nice buzz.  First Fred Wilson posts about this new presentation he just saw and then Henry Blodget writes about the same presentation on Silicon Alley Insider.  Looks like David Gillespie knows how to catch the eye of the right folks in the marketing blog world. But then again, after taking a look at the presentation myself, I needed to jump on the bandwagon because it really is filled with some great insights.  Hands down my favorite quote is this: Advertising got really good at speaking in 30 second chunks to a captive audience… Then quickly…

• Mary Meeker’s Web 2.0 Summit thoughts on the Economy & Internet

  Dave Knox

  22 Oct 2009 | 5:04 am

  For the past 6 years, Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker has been one of the highlights of the Web 2.0 Summit.  Last year was the first time I saw her presentation in person but every year is a must read report / powerpoint.  This year is no exception as Meeker gives an overview of the economy and then dives deep into why the “Mobile Internet is and will be bigger than most think.”  The full PowerPoint is embedded below and filled more valuable nuggets than I could possibly hope to capture in a summary.  Take the time to read this thing all the way through…it is a must…

• 
  Web Strategy by Jeremiah

• Social Impacts Every Customer Touchpoint

  jeremiah_owyang

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:58 pm

  Forbes CMO Network, An Insightful Resource For Marketing Leaders I’m serving CMOs by teaming up with the Forbes as a regular contributor. My goal? To guide marketing leadership on how to leverage disruptive technologies and meet business goals.   At a more detailed level, this blog will continue to aim at providing nitty-gritty breakdowns, frameworks, and insights.  Use these two resources in tandem to both develop strategies, and then implement best practices across the organization. [Companies Must Develop A Holistic Strategy, As Social Technologies Impact Every Customer Touchpoint]…

• Matrix: The Four Social Support Strategies

  jeremiah_owyang

  18 Nov 2009 | 8:44 am

  At the Altimeter Group, I cover Customer Strategy, which encompasses not only marketing, but also support, expect our discussion to grow as social technologies impact the whole enterprise. The Social Support movement is afoot (see opportunities), and more companies will be connecting existing marketing and support systems with the social web. Many companies, like Comcast, Wells Fargo, Intel, BestBuy, JetBLue are responding to customers and in some cases, supporting them in near real time. The challenge is that these teams are unable to scale, even a support team of ten full time folks at…

• Breakdown: Lego’s “Digital Box”, an Augmented Reality Kiosk

  jeremiah_owyang

  16 Nov 2009 | 3:51 am

  Augmented Reality provides brands with an engaging experience that merges both the digital and the real world. This 30 second video shows how a 3D animation on the product box enabled me to understand the assembled product. Lego’s “Digital Box” Provides Customers with an Interactive 3D Digital Experience This weekend, I went to the local Lego store here in Silicon Valley (Hillsdale) to see a practical version of Augmented Reality. I was previously briefed by Metaio, the technology vendor that empowers the software for the Augmented Reality kiosks called, Digital Box. This…

• Personal Goals and #OperationBluewater

  jeremiah_owyang

  15 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  Most people miss out on life because they don’t have a strategy around personal goals. Most Lack a Personal Goal Strategy Let me lay out some the observations I’ve noticed from some of the smartest folks I’ve watched achieve success in their lives.  Often they first tell me about the challenges, that most people don’t even have a personal goal strategy.  1) Most people don’t even have personal goals, seriously try it,  ask folks you work with: “What’s your personal goal?”   2) Most people think the end goal is a at 65 and do all their…

• Is Your Company Trusted or Do You Have a Digital Comb Over?

  jeremiah_owyang

  13 Nov 2009 | 7:15 am

  Many companies are entering the social/green/community space, with hopes of impressing customers, yet despite their best intentions, they could come across as inauthentic, and be damaging their own brand.  Companies should first take a self-assessment of their brand to see if they’re ready before they decide to enter the social space. Companies should first assess their culture and ask: Is the company ready to talk about the good –and bad– with the market? Is the internal culture ready to embrace customers on their own terms? Is the culture ready to make changes based on…

• 
  Drew's Marketing Minute

• A creativity whack for your head...and your iPhone!

  Drew McLellan

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pm

  Roger von Oech is responsible for whacking me upside the head more times than I can count.  20+ years ago, he created a fantastic creativity tool called A Creative Whack Pack.  It's an illustrated deck of 64 creative thinking strategies that will whack you out of habitual thought patterns and enable you to look at your life and actions in a fresh way. It's an awesome way to think different, to see something fresh and to get yourself unstuck. Well, it's 2009 and so of course Roger has created an iPhone/iTouch app for thiscreativity powerhouse.  And...he's…

• You can put a dash of brand just about anywhere

  Drew McLellan

  15 Nov 2009 | 2:51 pm

  There's nothing less interesting or more standard than a bar code, right?  Not according to the people at Design Barcode, where the status quo is anything but!Check out these jazzed up bar codes. (click on the images to see a full-size image in a pop up window)   Lest you think this is a new idea, apparently Rick Tharp was doing it (see his version) way back in 1986.  (Hat tips to Beverly Koehn and Beth Wampler for sharing this Fast Company article on the bar code designs)

• Calling all art directors, designers and logo creators - win $250

  Drew McLellan

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:24 am

  I will try to make this brief.  Last spring, I was approached by a company in the UK called Logo Inn who creates logos and identity packages online.  They wanted to do a contest, demonstrating their services.So I did a series of posts on logo design and offered one organization a chance to win a free logo....as long as the entire process could unfold here on the blog, so we could all learn from it.The series looked like this:. We talked about 5 tips for designing a new logo Announced the contest and gave the rules Shared a creative brief, with questions you should ask yourself…

• Turn your sales letters into workhorses!

  Drew McLellan

  11 Nov 2009 | 10:24 pm

  Neil Sawers, a 25+ year corporate writing veteran can show you how.  In his new book, How to Write Proposals, Sales Letters and Reports, he spells it out in easy to understand, follow and learn examples and guidelines.But don't take my word for it.  Listen to what the Midwest Book Review (one of the most respected reviewers out there) had to say:"Examples, recommendations of common tools to organize one’s thoughts, and a sprinkling of solid business advice fill out this superb, easy-to-use guidebook recommended for business writers of all skill and experience…

• 5 ways to promote internal training and events

  Drew McLellan

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:18 am

  I had a meeting with a client this morning and one of the topics on the agenda was how could they better promote an internal training event that was optional for the employees.When I asked how they would normally promote it, they said...we'd make up a flier with all the information and attach it to an e-mail.  We'd send it out to everyone.  We might send it out a couple times or ask their supervisors to also send it out.There's nothing wrong with what they're doing.  But, there's not enough right. You've got to toss a lot of messages and media into…

• 
  Writing White Papers

• Why ‘Forced Registration’ Can Backfire for Case Studies and White Papers

  Rachel Karl

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:28 pm

  Being bombarded with marketing from all directions, people have become skeptical. They require proof that your marketing hype isn’t just that – hype. Case studies and white papers provide that extra ‘push’ customers sometimes need to make a buying decision. So, why make it difficult for prospects to get that further bit of proof? If it means the difference between clicking, “YES! I want to buy your widget,” and walking away from your website empty-handed, does it really make sense to force someone to give up his name and email address first? Having prospects register for content…

• Major Study Shows White Paper Power Increasing!

  Michael Stelzner

  29 Oct 2009 | 3:06 pm

  Listen up businesses!  The white paper is here to stay and it’s only getting more important.  Or so says a brand new study by Eccolo Media. I covered the main take-home message of their last report earlier this year.  But this new study has some amazing findings covering everything from the influence of white papers compared to other marketing tools, how they are shared, their ideal length and when they are used in the purchase cycle. I outline the key findings below. (more…)

• Using Twitter For White Papers

  Apryl Parcher

  26 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pm

  Are you scratching your head trying to come up with current trends on a particular white paper topic? Why not tap into Twitter? By using applications that harness the power of this vast network, you can selectively search the Twittersphere for trends in your industry. Set up alerts around key phrases (more…)

• Learn How to Master Facebook and Twitter Marketing in Free Live Streaming Event

  Michael Stelzner

  12 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter… To some they’re social media. But for those in the know, they’re free marketing tools that can attract thousands of customers and make millions of dollars for businesses willing to get in the game. That’s according to the “The Social Media Dream Team,” four powerhouse social media professionals (Mari Smith, Jason Falls, Chris Garrett and Denise Wakeman), who will be fielding live viewer questions on finding customers and making money online with social media. The group will appear in free real-time video streams on Monday,…

• White Paper Client Interview Template: Good for Sales Letters, Too

  Apryl Parcher

  6 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pm

  An interesting thing happened while collaborating on some sales letter work recently. While sitting in on the initial client interviews, I found myself going back to Mike’s white paper interview template to “fill in” some gaps while we were talking to the client. Mike’s white paper process is much more interview-heavy than other types of marketing writing, but it’s also much more comprehensive. The “Stelzner method” is more of a guided discussion than an in-depth creative brief filled out over the phone, and I’ve found it much more efficient for gathering information than your…

• 
  Seth's Blog

• The amateur scientist (that's us)

  Seth Godin

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:41 am

  Many people buy a car (probably their single biggest discretionary purchase) based on slamming a door, kicking a tire and judging the handshake of a salesperson.We choose a surgeon based on the carpeting in his office and a politician by his hair cut.During the first week of swine flu vaccines in New York, most parents (more than half!) chose to keep their kids out of the program.Interviewed parents said things like, "I'm not sure it's safe," and "I wanted to see if it affected other kids..."No mention of longitudinal studies or long-term side effects. No science at all, really, just rumors…

• Embracing lifetime value

  Seth Godin

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:46 am

  If you walk into a company-owned cell phone store to sign up for a contract, what are you worth?Given the huge gross margins at AT&T and Verizon and the standard two-year contract, I think it's easy to figure on more than $2000 in lifetime value.If you ran a business where a customer represented an additional $2,000 in profit, how would you staff? How long would you make someone wait? If staff costs $25 an hour, how long would that extra person take to pay off?Few businesses understand (really understand) just how much a customer is worth. Add to this the additional profit you get from a…

• Some books for November

  Seth Godin

  18 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  Random thoughts from all over for those of us hungry for new ways to think. This month's list is here. The previous list was blogged in September.

• The reason they want you to fit in...

  Seth Godin

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:03 am

  is that once you do, then they can ignore you.

• Breakthroughs and drips

  Seth Godin

  17 Nov 2009 | 2:25 am

  There are only two ways to win in the market.You can create a breakthrough. A promotion so powerful that people can't help but engage. An innovation so remarkable, people can't help but talk about it. A pricing strategy or ad campaign that breaks the mold and is worthy of attention. This takes huge guts and substantial investment.Or you can win with consistent benefits, delivered over time. You win by incrementally earning share, attention and trust. This might take years.Almost all marketing attempts to do neither of these, and of course, fail. Painless and quick are rarely associated with…

• 
  Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog

• So ya wanna start a blog...

  Greg Verdino

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:48 am

  Just a friendly reminder that I'll be co-presenting a free blogging basics webinar tomorrow afternoon (11/19/09). The event is hosted by Target Marketing magazine and sponsored by Compendium Blogware, and takes place online at 2pm ET. There's still time to register (or refer your clients and friends who could use a primer), and I hope some of you will be able to tune in. My portion of the agenda explores the building blocks for creating a compelling, sustainable corporate blog that the people you're looking to reach will actually want to read (basically an updated version of my Blog DNA…

• Tim Goggin: looking for love in all the social places.

  Greg Verdino

  9 Nov 2009 | 9:28 am

  Meet Tim Goggin.  He's a single 32-year old entrepreneur who is (if you believe his pitch) the "most interesting  man in San Diego." He's also pretty frustrated with the tried-and-true dating scene and thinks social media may be good for more than just a poke. A couple of months ago, Tim created a mock-infomercial and posted it to YouTube, in hopes of attracting the woman of his dreams to a site where she might claim her "free date." Now, I'm not all that interested in single guys in San Diego but I am interested in some of the creative, low cost ways individuals--and by association…

• Upcoming speaking: free blogging basics webinar

  Greg Verdino

  4 Nov 2009 | 4:23 am

  You're probably not a blogging n00b but you probably know someone who is -- a client, a coworker, someone new to the industry or your mom perhaps. If so, you should let them know that I'm taking part in a free blogging basics webinar at 2pm ET on November 19th. Target Marketing magazine will be hosting an hour long conversation (part presentation, part Q&A) featuring Compendium Blogware CEO Chris Baggott and me sharing everything we know about how companies can get started with corporate blogging and what this means for their SEO programs. Look for practical tips about how to get one of…

• Podcaster J.C. Hutchins has killed the president

  Greg Verdino

  27 Oct 2009 | 2:30 pm

  Not the real president and not in real life. And technically speaking, J.C. didn't do the deed -- but he dreamed up the child/assassin who takes down America's main man in the opening lines of his sci-fi thriller 7th Son: Descent.Regular readers know that I have a bit of a mancrush on J.C., who has the social media chops so many brand managers can only dream of. His last print novel, Personal Effects, was a participatory, multimedia tour de force (learn more) and with 7th Son he does it again.Now, for those of you who haven't been poking around the social media space for the past few years I…

• What's the price of five dollars?

  Greg Verdino

  22 Oct 2009 | 8:57 am

    That wasn't meant to be a trick question, but rest assured the answer isn't five dollars.Here's the scoop. I drive a Nissan Altima and I've been reasonably happy with it. It's neither the best car I've ever owned nor the worst, but I'm not a car guy so if it gets me from point A to point B safely without costing me an arm and a leg in gas money I'm satisfied. The Altima more than fits the bill.I don't mind telling you that the lease runs me about $315 per month and I'm pretty diligent about paying right on time, almost always by check through the good ol' U.S. mail. This month though, I…

• 
  News from the Herd

• European marketers to up online spend, but click throughs still poor

  liesdamnedlies

  19 Nov 2009 | 9:40 pm

  The European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) has published its Internet Barometer Report (via Marketing Charts), which shows that 83% of European marketers plan to up their online ad spend in 2010.   One in three (33%) organisations are now including mobile in their strategies confirming the increasing importance of the mobile Internet. But at the same time,one of the key drivers for marketers, in addition to changing consumer habits, is the perception that you get more bang for your buck online, with 31% citing cost efficiencies as a factor behind their decision. There’s…

• Most online discussions now happen off-site

  liesdamnedlies

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm

  For the past few weeks at Cow Digital, we’ve put together a weekly email digest for our clients and anyone in marketing who wants to receive it - this week’s copy is here, and if you want to have it land in your inbox every Weds, sign up here. One of the items we covered today was the recent Postrank report on blog and website engagement. Postrank - which we use internally at Cow for measurement - doesn’t look at raw numbers of people visiting a blog, it looks at engagement.   Did they tweet about it, did they tag it, did they comment? The crux of Postrank’s research…

• Study confirms US dominance of Twitter

  liesdamnedlies

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pm

  A study by Royal Pingdom, which looked through three weeks worth of tweets from 21 Oct - 11 Nov, confirms that Twitter is still very much a US dominated network. The average number of tweets per hour showed a dip between 8am - 1pm Central European Time (or between 7am - Noon GMT), when Europeans get into work but still the middle of the night for the US.   But at the same time, things clearly picked up around 4pm central Europe, or 10am East Coast US, so near the start of the American working day. Royal Pingdom also found that people tweet a lot at work with activity going down at…

• Who owns your tweets? The answer might actually be your boss

  liesdamnedlies

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:22 am

  Steyn and Aziz, two of the Cows in Cape Town, posed an interesting question this afternoon. Who owns your tweets? Clearly re-tweeting is a big part of Twitter culture, but do you have any sort of intellectual property claim over what’s your content? There are several answers to this question.  One of them from analyst Jeremiah Owyang, is that quite possibly your boss might be the owner and not you…in addition to owning any Facebook photos, You Tube videos etc developed and posted at work. The reason? “Employees sign employment contracts that may indicate that all…

• Warning: Being good at video games could make you poor (but only if you are a man)

  liesdamnedlies

  14 Nov 2009 | 5:04 am

  This study from Canada is fascinating - research done by a fourth year economics student shows that being good at video games can have a negative effect on your income. According to the Telegraph Journal in Canada, Ryan MacLeod of Mount Allison University did a study of gamers, which won him top prize at the Atlantic Canada Economics Conference.  Says MacLeod, “my work confirms that, in general, the more income a person has the more time they spent playing video games. But that playing video games could also have a negative effect on a person’s income.” In other words, you…

• 
  EyeCube

• New Advertising Trend: Ads within ads

  Rick

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:17 am

  I’ve written a lot about advertising trends this year: fake infomercials, product displacement, product placement jokes, brands with authentic (and inauthentic) voices to name a few.  Here’s a new one – product placement, in other brand’s commercials. First I saw this Geico ad featuring their familiar Gecko that has an ad for the Disney movie The Frog Princeinside it: If you can see this, then you might need a Flash Player upgrade or you need to install Flash Player if it's missing. Get Flash Player from Adobe. Interesting.  Then I see this ESPN – This is…

• Strategic Planning: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask

  Rick

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:08 am

  If you work at an ad agency, the role of the strategic (or account) planner is well known to you. Originally conceived by J. Walter Thompson and Boase Massimi Pollitt in the UK in the 1960s, the discipline has played an increasingly important role in advertising over the years.  If you want to read the definitive book on the subject, check out Truth, Lies and Advertising by Jon Steel. More great planner info and resources at the Plannersphere wiki and the Plannersphere Ning group. A couple of developments in the world of planning recently that I thought were worth sharing. First, PSFK, in…

• Product Placement: That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore

  Rick

  10 Nov 2009 | 11:33 am

  A week or so ago I took a look at the fake Infomercial creative concept (as did others), which seems a little played out at this point. A similar concept I’ve seen a lot of is the “isn’t funny how we’re – wink, wink – acknowledging that we’re doing a product placement and by doing so we’re actually cool and not really selling out, but actually we are, but at least we admit – nudge, nudge – that we don’t like doing it, but don’t dislike it enough to actually not do it.” Brandchannel speaks of the technique here,…

• New Jersey Nets – Identity crisis on and off the court

  Rick

  9 Nov 2009 | 6:34 am

  Nets - A franchise in search of an identity I went to a New Jersey Nets NBA game on Saturday. They were playing my favorite team, the Boston Celtics, and the experience became a good lesson in branding. First, some context: As an NBA franchise, the Nets have never really had a strong identity. They don’t have a consistent track record of winning, will always play second fiddle in this market to the New York Knicks, they are trying to move to Brooklyn and right now they don’t have any really marketable players. Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln? So I take my seat at…

• Crowdsourcing a Discussion on Crowdsourcing: Agency Nil, Anomaly and Victors & Spoils

  Rick

  5 Nov 2009 | 10:33 am

  Occasionally a topic comes up that inspires a longer post with commentary and viewpoints beyond my own. With so much talk recently about crowdsourcing it seemed like a good time to really tackle the issue. I’m positively thrilled to have input from some of the top minds in advertising and marketing communications contribute to this post. I want to thank Johnny Vulkan, Cliff Lewis, Evan Fry & Aaron Bateman who provided thoughtful commentary to this post as well as those who I have linked to for adding their insight to the discussion. I encourage you to print it out, bookmark, and of…

• 
  Find and Convert

• Linking In to Pay it Forward by Chuck Hester

  Bernie

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:39 pm

  Paying it Paying Forward with Chuck Hester. In this podcast interview, we get to meet Chuck Hester. Chuck is Communications Director with iContact, an email marketing software service. Chuck considers himself a LinkedIn maven because he so willingly imparts his knowledge with others. Chuck has been active on social media for about six years now. Obviously, Chuck was an early adopter of social media, in particular of LinkedIn. He got very involved in social media when he joined iContact and became communications director and he started to use social media for PR and relationship building.

• Boston Tweetups Equal Joselin Mane

  Bernie

  15 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm

  Podcast interview with Joselin Mane. Joselin is a former IBMer who runs an internet marketing consultancy and a Tweetup service called Boston Tweetups. Joselin is a colorful character. You’ll enjoy meeting him in this blog post and the video links below. I met Joselin at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Foxboro, MA in October where we connected very quickly. We both run inbound marketing agencies and we talked shop for a while and hit it off. I knew Joselin would be a great guest on my podcast show because he has so many interesting stories about Tweetups and SEO and social media…

• Measuring Results in Social Media Marketing

  Bernie

  7 Nov 2009 | 1:36 pm

  This blog post an updated excerpt from my book, Marketing 2.0. Measuring results is one of my favorite topics in marketing. Since the invention of marketing (I couldn’t find that date in Wikipedia), executives have wanted to measure the effectiveness of marketing dollars against sales in order to determine their return on investment, or ROI. The reality is that in recent years, measuring marketing results, at least at the quantitative level, has become increasing sophisticated through tools and techniques. In addition to quantitative metrics, measuring qualitative results can be just as…

• Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy

  Bernie

  1 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pm

  Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy When I devoted an entire chapter in my book, Marketing 2.0, to developing a social media marketing strategy, my intent was to inspire marketers. In other words, I want marketers to avoid making the most common mistake, which is the mindset that you need a Twitter or Facebook strategy. You don’t. You need a social media marketing strategy! Consider assembling the marketing team and your CEO and asking these questions: •    Why do we think we need a social media strategy? •    What is our objective? •    What will the costs be?

• Marketing Insights…. 10 Little Lessons on Content Propagation

  Bernie

  29 Oct 2009 | 10:43 am

  Billie Ginther: Marketing Manager and PR Optimizer The two pillars of social media marketing are delivering excellent content to your intended audience and building great relationships. A crucial aspect of building upon these pillars is how you share your content with others. An effective content strategy has to include a well-thought-out bookmarking strategy to propagate your content. 1. It Is All About Them Focus on your target audience. Joe Pulizzi, CEO of Junta42, a content vendor and project matching service preaches that delivering consistent editorial-quality content means that you…

• 
  Techno//Marketer

• Behind the Work: Jack Schulze goes deeper into Nearness [del.icio.us]

  mattanium

  RFID Rube Goldberg machine

• MySpace Strives to Recover Its Cool [del.icio.us]

  mattanium

  Interesting move, but is it too late? MySpace still is the leader in music, but can they get traction again?

• Where you at, Matt?

  Matt Dickman

  15 Oct 2009 | 8:09 am

  A number of you have noticed that I have been scarcely around the blog and Twittersphere over the past couple of months. I have a lot going on and wanted to step back and gather my thoughts. I just wanted you to know that I am not gone, I am just on a short hiatus. I have a couple of big announcements coming up as well as a little branding overhaul for Techno//Marketer. Long story short, I'm going to be back soon, better than ever (I hope), so thank you for reading and I'll be back in the conversation with you very soon. If you liked this post, you can subscribe to the Techno//Marketer RSS…

• Facebook Connect Goes Mobile [del.icio.us]

  mattanium

  Facebook is extending its Connect data portability technology to developers of mobile sites and applications, following its launch six months ago for iPhone developers, the company announced Thursday in an official blog.

• Want better digital strategy, ban seven dirty words

  Matt Dickman

  8 Aug 2009 | 2:13 pm

  If you love strategic planning as much as I do then I am sure that one of your biggest pet peeves is when people jump to tactics straight away in a planning meeting. Despite your most desperate attempts to steer things back on course, and define what the overall strategy looks like, you die a little when someone blurts out "Let's set up a YouTube channel and Tweet about it!". How do you get around this? Here is what I have started doing in my initial planning sessions and it seems to be working well so far. I've banned what I consider the seven dirty words of digital strategy. They are:…

• 
  Eat Media Blog

• CS and IA Unite Already, Will Ya!

  Ian

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:47 am

  Content Strategy is not Copywriting. Design is not Window Dressing. Information Architecture is not Boxes and Arrows. Content Strategy (CS) isn’t a new practice, but it may be the most comprehensive practice, and one made possible through the maturation and morphing of many puzzle pieces—editorial, print, digital, design, CMS systems, SEO/SEM/search, IA/UX/IxDA and advertising. When done correctly, Content Strategy requires practitioners to follow every piece of content, in every direction, for every use case and optimize the message in order to support business goals. That last line is…

• Content Strategy is My Micro-Scope

  Ian

  4 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  Too many articles and blogs (ours included) have set out to define Content Strategy, called it King, whitewashed it as “content marketing/SEO.” Some have hyped it with agendas and sales pitches, others with heartfelt enthusiasm for the buzzword d’jour. The more I think about Content Strategy, the more I see it centered in and around project scope. As budgets tighten, content measurability logic matures and ROI has a smaller and smaller proof of concept window. Defining a robust scope for CS-related projects is paramount for all involved. For the Client At the simplest level, scope…

• Lies, Damned Lies and Compelling Content

  Jonathan

  21 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pm

  Is it ever OK to lie with your content? Quick answer: Yes, but only if you are very good. More on what “good” means in a second. Back in July, spy photos and brief video surfaced on several automobile enthusiast websites. Depicted was a prototype Porsche station wagon, known in automotive parlance as a shooting brake. The photos and video caused a sensation and spread throughout the enthusiast community, driving loads of comments on blogs and rampant speculation as to when the boys from Zuffenhausen were going to release the official car to the public. The Frankfurt Auto Show? Tokyo?

• Tips for Recording Audio in the Field

  Wendy

  1 Oct 2009 | 2:10 pm

  It has never been easier to gather audio. Free editing programs (like Audacity) and recording device applications for many cell phones make it possible for anyone to gather audio without additional financial obligations. For many print writers, the transition to audio storytelling is intuitive: at the very core, it’s your story, narrated by your voice, with added sound to set the scene. Here are a few tips to get you started: Know your device because if you don’t, you’re not going to have any audio to edit. Before you start formal recording, it’s important to spend some quality time…

• Content Strategy Smackdown: Johnny Appleseed (Social Media) vs. Mother Nature (Google)

  Jonathan

  29 Sep 2009 | 2:31 pm

  Still not using social media to its full effect to promote your content? Well, maybe you can take a lesson from the President. A couple Sundays ago, President Barack Obama pulled a what’s known as a “Full Ginsburg” by appearing on all five major Sunday morning political talk shows on the same day. Obama was plugging his healthcare reform package, and hitting all the talkies at once, and although politically risky, was really the only way to spread his message far and wide. Why? The multiplying effect. • Obama makes his plea on each of the news shows. Most politicians, policy wonks,…

• 
  Emerson Direct Marketing Observations

• danah boyd deserves better

  marc meyer

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:23 pm

  Web 2.0 expo is in full swing right now in New York, and so are the idiots that can make social media and Twitter a train wreck.  I’ve been dialed in pretty much this whole week and I wasn’t really going to blog about it until I read this from danah boyd on her blog. Unfortunately, my presentation at Web2.0 Expo sucked. The physical setup was hard and there was a live stream behind me. I knew something was wrong because folks started laughing in the audience. Unable to see anything (the audience, the stream), I found myself closing down. And so I collapsed and read the whole…

• The Facebook Song

  marc meyer

  19 Nov 2009 | 7:35 am

  Are You F*cking Kidding Me? (Facebook Song) LIVE This is a NSFW type of video, but still very very funny.  

• The Duration of a Conversation

  marc meyer

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:28 am

  Chris Brogan recently blogged about the addiction of giving one’s opinion. As I read it a few questions and thoughts entered my mind on why we comment. Do we comment for the sake of commenting? Are we going through the motions of commenting because we know it has an underlying effect on our social media status? We really want to engage in a dialogue. We want to meet this person. We want this person to notice us. We want business We want something from this person We want others to notice us. None of the above. I like reading blogs I think that the nature of why people blog has changed…

• The Ubiquity of Social Media

  marc meyer

  17 Nov 2009 | 5:01 am

    Through the course of  11,000 plus tweets, 2  years of using Twitter, as well as creating, hosting, and participating in some very high level Twitter chats around the business of social media, I have oftentimes been struck with moments of absolute, 140 character clarity when it comes to all things social media. Luckily I have been able to document those moments with the help of Twitter archives and compile them into a manifesto of sorts that hopefully helps the reader think more about the “why it sucks”, the “how” and the “wtf for”, of this maddening space. The clarity,…

• Social Media Rock Star Syndrome

  marc meyer

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:07 pm

  Twankers, Rock Stars & Gurus – Authenticity In A World of Exploding Egos The term “Authenticity” get played out a lot.  I mean – ALOT!  It gets used to discuss personal branding issues like what kind of avatar should you use and how to disclose if you get paid to communicate a product or experience.  Authenticity is used to discuss ethics in business including can you outsource moderation of your community or what if corp communications manages the CEO’s blog?  Most of the discussion comes down to the distaste for people trying to be posers online.  The fact is whether…

• 
  Internet Marketing Blog

• Learning From Leaders: The Inc. 500 and Social Media Usage

  Shannon Sweetser

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:29 am

  For the third consecutive year, the Center for Marketing Research at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth has concluded that social media is on the rise among businesses. Just released is a rare, in-depth study of how social media is being used by the US’s fast-growing private companies. The study should be an exciting find for any marketer or CEO looking for data on how US companies are navigating the social landscape online.Social Networking and Blogging is on the RiseThe most important takeaway from the study is profound proof that knowledge about social media is on the rise. The study…

• HubSpot TV - The Long Tail and Pigtails with Guest Mike McDerment

  Rebecca Corliss

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am

  NOTE FROM THE PRODUCERS: Have you ever caught the live show? We broadcast in real-time every Friday at www.hubspot.tv. Click here at 4:00pm ET today to watch the show live.  Episode #66 - November 13, 2009(Episode Length: 23 minutes, 33 seconds)  Intro How to interact on Twitter: @mvolpe @repcor and @MikeMcDerment with www.HubSpot.tv in your tweet.Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tvYesterday we loaned the stage to Pokin' Holes of Dart Boston Special Guest Mike McDerment: FreshBooks CEO and Co-Founder So, What's FreshBooks?What was your background before FreshBooks?You…

• What Inbound Marketers and Microsoft Can Learn From St. Vincent Hospital's "Pink Glove Dance" Video

  Shannon Sweetser

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:00 am

  Today I came across a dancing themed video that rocked the khaki pants off Microsoft’s awkward experiment with viral video.  The video, posted this week, features the entire staff of St Vincent’s Medical Center in Portland, Oregon donning pink gloves and dancing for Breast Cancer Awareness. As the grand-daughter of a Breast Cancer survivor, I thought the video was touching. As an inbound marketer, I thought it was incredibly fresh and different from the other videos I’d seen of its type. So what’s the deal? Why is this video succeeding while the Microsoft employee video was…

• Top 5 Inbound Marketing Stories of the Week: Online Marketing Dominates

  Pamela Seiple

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:05 pm

  Do you (or your boss) still need some convincing that modern inbound marketing is more overall effective and successful than advertising and the other outbound marketing techniques your business has relied on since the Stone Age?  Well, we've found a nice little list for you that explains how. The top article on InboundMarketing.com this week offers a concise list of 10 ways online marketing dominates traditional advertising (that's right - just like a ferocious lion dominates its prey)... 1. Top 10 Reasons Why Online Marketing Dominates Traditional Advertising Author: Kim Kolb of…

• Twitter's New Retweet Feature Makes Quality, Unique Content Even More Important for Marketers

  Pamela Seiple

  19 Nov 2009 | 4:59 am

  Twitter sure has been busy lately.  First, Twitter lists.  Now they've recently rolled out their new Retweet function to a beta group of users, making it easier to regurgitate others' tweets.  The feature was rolled out to me today, but after testing it out I've started questioning, Does the new feature enhance or diminish the quality of the retweet? Explanation of Retweet Features: The following is Twitter's example of a retweet.  Retweets appear in a user's timeline as the original tweet with a note below indicating the user (the person you're following) who retweeted…

• 
  Marketing Profs Daily Fix

• Paul Williams: Three Ps For Better Leading: Pace, Process, Pulse

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  One of the characteristics of a great leader—no matter whether that leader is a person, a brand, or a company - is the ability to stay "tuned-in" to the needs of their audience. Are they still "with" you? Do they get where you're going? Do they have confidence in the direction? Out of college, my first job was at Walt Disney World in Orlando. I was a tour guide at the "Listen To The Land" boat ride in Epcot's Land Pavilion. I led Guests on a 20-minute journey through farming methods of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. It was one of the easiest "leading" jobs I've ever had. I didn't have to…

• Stephanie Miller: Are Email Preference Centers Worth It?

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:40 am

  Add global compliance and cultural custom to the list of why email preference centers are really hard to sell internally and build well. I had a meeting this morning where we started to list out all the different country and local laws governing choices across various brand service agreements, and it quickly became overwhelming. It was no help that the database guy kept saying, "That'll cost you more."No wonder the director of marketing looked at me and said, "Is this really the best way to spend our precious time, energy and IT resources?!" So many email marketers say that they know a…

• Ann Handley: Innovation Matters: Balancing Sustained Versus Disruptive Innovation

  18 Nov 2009 | 5:06 am

  This is a guest post by Eric Zeitoun, president of Dragon Rouge USA, a leading independent brand and design consultancy. While we struggle to emerge from a full-blown recession, marketers know all too well that advertising and (unfortunately) innovation are the first budgets that are most likely to get cut. So how can marketers continue to innovate?Before we answer this question we need to go back to the definition of innovation since it has become a very popular and often misinterpreted topic. There are four distinct types of innovations: Product optimization (which seeks to optimize a…

• Elaine Fogel: Cash-for-Grades Fundraiser Just Another Marketing Incentive

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  What's all this outrage for North Carolina school principal, Susie Shepherd, for supporting her parent advisory council's innovative use of marketing incentives? Who are we kidding? I used to teach, so I know how some schools operate like they're in the third world, without proper books and resources. This school was just looking for creative ways to raise much-needed money.In my opinion, the outpouring of disdain is hypocritical. The days of doing well in school for the intrinsic value are waning, as more parents offer reward systems. Read Barbara Coloroso. The kindergarten sticker turns…

• Ted Mininni: Taking a Bite Out Of Apple

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:10 am

  Indications are that Apple--long admired for setting the bar high when it comes to beautifully-designed, innovative, game-changing consumer products--may be facing some stiff competition. According to Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey: “Apple is under threat on the brand front in a way they haven’t been in recent years.”A recent Brandweek article: “Amid Transition, Rivals Are Descending on Apple,” questions whether the company’s competitors are finally launching products that might take a bite out of Apple. Apple’s response doesn’t seem reassuring, either. New ads have…

• 
  Occam's Razor

• Web Analytics 2.0 Book: In Stores Now!!

  Avinash Kaushik

  13 Nov 2009 | 1:38 am

  I am absolutely thrilled that my book Web Analytics 2.0 has been released and is in retail stores now, online and offline! Hurray!!Even with a broken right hand I can’t help but write this post!The waterfall of positive feeling stems from the fact that this book was very hard to write.I only had one job, at Intuit, when I wrote my first web analytics book. I now have several full time jobs, plus this blog, plus speaking around the world, plus a family, plus… so much more.It took weekends of writing and nights of editing and days of research combined with practicing the preaching…

• Analytics Becomes Intelligent. Hello Insights!

  Avinash Kaushik

  26 Oct 2009 | 1:24 am

  A while back I walked into a meeting and said:“You know what… web analytics tools like Site Catalyst, Yahoo! Web Analytics, WebTrends, and yes even Google Analytics, are mostly glorified data pukers. Each tries to outdo the other in trying to collect ever more data and regurgitating it. For all the math they do, it is astonishing how little intelligence they have, how little actual smarts are applied.”Silence for a a few mins.Awkward glances.Then this: “What do you mean, and what can we do?”Me: “I wish the tools would use an algorithmic approach to…

• Web Analytics Success Measurement For Government Websites

  Avinash Kaushik

  12 Oct 2009 | 1:45 am

  If you know what the desirable outcomes are from your website, it is not hard to measure performance of the website for you and your customers.Measuring top line success of ecommerce websites is not very complicated, all the sweet revenue based outcomes are there (at the least).Measuring non-profit websites is a bit complicated, but not really all that hard because we can, with a small amount of love, figure out outcomes to focus on (donations, # of sign-ups for the protest in DC, # of petitions signed, volunteer applications, etc).Measuring government websites is a bit more complicated, if…

• Brand Measurement: Analytics & Metrics for Branding Campaigns

  Avinash Kaushik

  29 Sep 2009 | 1:34 am

  One of the ultimate excuses for not measuring impact of Marketing campaigns is: “Oh, that’s just a branding campaign.”Admit it, you’ve heard it.I suspect you’ve even used it liberally!! : )Before we go any further I must clarify that I love branding campaigns just as much as the next guy.I love campaigns that Visa runs. I love watching the IBM ads (with the Linux kid perhaps the best of the lot). I loved the I’m a PC ads from Microsoft (and I am a proud PC!). I loved the Wario Land: Shake It ad from Nintendo on YouTube (now that’s creative!). I love a…

• Web Analytics Books!

  Avinash Kaushik

  14 Sep 2009 | 2:07 am

  Yes, books with a s. : )It is with immense excitement that I am sharing the news that I have just finished writing my second book!Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability & The Science of Customer CentricityIt is a long title ain’t it? The good news is we are going to refer to it simply as Web Analytics 2.0.In this post I wanted to share thoughts about the book, the process of writing it (and doing three rounds of edits!) and outcomes.The BackgroundSince mid-2008 Willem Knibbe, my wonderful Acquisition Editor at Wiley, was very kindly encouraging me to update my (best…

• 
  Social Internet Marketing and Jess Sloss

• How I might use Google Chrome OS

  Jess Sloss

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:12 pm

  What is Google Chrome OS? The video above does a great job of explaining it, but if you’re not all about video then Chrome OS is Google’s challenger to Microsoft Windows. The Google folks have re-imagined the Operating system, putting the focus on internet functionality rather than local storage. This means that most of your files, applications and documents are stored online in that thing we call ‘the cloud’ aka the internet. How I might use Google Chrome OS I don’t see Chrome replacing my current operating system ( Snow Leopard ) anytime soon. That being said,…

• Office Max Digs Deep to Elf Yourself Union Square

  Jess Sloss

  20 Nov 2009 | 9:20 am

  Huge ‘Flash Mob’ style Event takes over Union Square If you haven’t heard of Elfyourslef you’re one of the lucky few . The application created by JibJab , allows you to put you or a friends face on a dancing elf. Le the fun ensue. Elfyourself.com is sponsored by Officemax who seems to have reached into their deep pockets to pull off the event in the video above. It was obviously arranged by a PR firm and thus should not called a ‘flash mob’ ( at least wikipedia doesn’t think so0 ) but kudos are deserved for the shear number of elves they were able to…

• Shhh Don’t Tell Lou Dobbs. The Transboarder Migrant Tool is Here.

  Jess Sloss

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:46 am

  Sure Lou probably won’t like it. but given the massive number of migrant workers who risk their lives for a better life in the US of A, this app could prove useful. Transboarder Migrant App According to Viceland , the Transboarder Migrant App is designed to “The Transborder Immigrant Tool Helps Mexicans Cross Over Safely” . Fron Viceland: “The primary goal of the Transborder Immigrant Tool is to increase safety during border crossing by directing heavy-footed immigrants to safe routes, shelter, food, water, and friendly sympathizers. With the recent surge in militia…

• Twitter ‘costs businesses £1.4bn’ – ya right

  Jess Sloss

  19 Nov 2009 | 11:46 am

  Morse, a UK based IT consultancy, has published a study that reports Twitter costs businesses £1.4bn, so apparently, does the BBC. I, of course, think they’re full of sh*t. From the BBC: Staff who use Twitter and other social networking sites while at work are costing UK businesses £1.38bn every year, a report has said. Over half of those surveyed admitted using social networking sites during the working day for personal use. On average those people spent 40 minutes per week on these sites. IT services group Morse, who commissioned the research, said that such online behavior clearly…

• Useless App of the Week: The iPhone Blower

  Jess Sloss

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  Blower – Blow real air with your iPhone I guess it could come in handy when I’m 90 and no longer have the capacity to blow out my own candles. I think even the late Billy Mays would have passed on this one. From the developer: Unlock the new mind-blowing secret feature on your iPhone. Turn your iPhone into a real Air Blower! Enrich you iPhone with a new and never seen before capability. You have to see and feel it to believe it. Fun Examples: Blow out candles, blow herbs away, refresh your skin during hot summer nights. I can’t wait to see what other mind-BLOWing apps these…

• 
  Outsmart Internet Marketing Blog for Entrepreneurs

• A Lesson for Web Marketers: Forget About Cool and Think About the Consumer

  Karri

  17 Nov 2009 | 9:16 am

  A couple of weeks ago I informally polled my newsletter readers to find out how they *really* feel about web marketing. It’s been pretty clear to me for a while that that small business owners and other entrepreneurs just aren’t “getting” the Internet. They’re interested in it. They know it’s a happening place. And they’re [...]

• Website Domains: 7 Things Your Web Marketer or Designer Might Not Tell You

  Karri

  25 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pm

  Most businesses who hire a web marketing company or designer to put up a website are more interested in results than process. While that’s understandable, blind trust is a liability in any business transaction. By not taking the time to understand what’s inside the black box, you may be putting your business–and even your reputation–on [...]

• 3 Little Things (and 1 Big Thing) Anyone Can Do To Create Winning Web Copy

  Karri

  1 Oct 2009 | 10:26 pm

  I cannot count how many times a client or colleague has told me how much they hate to write. And if you hate to write, how can you possibly scrounge up enough desire to try your hand at copywriting? Yet copywriting–especially for the web–doesn’t require brilliance so much as it requires a willingness to know your [...]

• Reality TV Came to the Web & We Rocked Small Business Websites With Some Tough Love.

  Karri

  24 Sep 2009 | 3:55 pm

  I want to give a big virtual hug to everyone who attended our wildly successful last-minute *surprise* Live Web Makeover Call on September 17th. I still cannot believe how many of you actually WANTED to be the star of what I think is the next big thing in “Reality TV” for the Internet. [...]

• Web Copywriting for Dummies: Be Interesting, Not Brilliant

  Karri

  17 Aug 2009 | 9:59 am

  Today my Dad sent me this YouTube video titled “Ebay wicked sick BMX.” He knew I’d love it. And I did. If you’re okay with a sample size of 1, then get ready to suspend your long held beliefs about what it takes to be a rockstar web copywriter. This clever vignette proves that you don’t [...]

• 
  Connect the Docs

• ClickInsights: How to make marketing messages memorable?

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Think quickly. Which marketing slogan or jingle can you hear in your ear? Which marketing logo or picture appears before your mind's eye? Why do we remember only some marketing messages over others? What are characteristics of a memorable marketing message? Here is an interview about with Chip Heath, author of Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die -  Making B2B Marketing Messages More Memorable. We have invited B2B Experts to shed light on the following question: "What can B2B marketers do to make marketing messages more memorable? Define one or more (no more than 3)…

• What is HARO?

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:26 am

  Chances are, if you're not a journalist, you haven't heard of HARO. It stands for Help A Reporter Out, and it's a site that was created to help journalists connect with experts or sources to interview for articles that they're writing. Chances are, you're thinking: OK, but I'm still not a journalist, so why is HARO useful to me? Well, if you're blogging or creating content regularly, you are similar to a journalist in some ways. You're trying to come up with interesting ideas, connect with an audience, and potentially find interesting sources to interview. Once you have signed up on HARO, you…

• ClickInsights: What is your favorite case study? Why do you like it?

  12 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Case studies come in all shapes and forms. Our Panel of Case Study Experts have written and reviewed thousands of case studies over the years. Which case study stands out in their mind? We have invited Case Study Experts to answer this query: "Give one example of your most favorite case study and why you like it". Cindy King Blog CindyKing Twitter CindyKing  “Highlight business impact” Cindy King's Bio Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Specialist based in France.  She uses her dual background in sales & marketing, in…

• How to Be a Content Marketing Winner

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  Do you feel like a content marketing loser? Like even though you're using the same strategies as the celebrity bloggers, the crowd keeps passing you by? In a super post about "getting lucky" in the content marketing world, Tracy Feit Love breaks it down to this memorable example: "Two guys walk into a bar (humor me here). The first guy walks up to a woman and says, 'Hi. I make a lot of money and drive a really fast car, so you will definitely want to go out with me. Here’s my number. When you’re ready to go out, call me.' "The second guy sits down at the bar…

• ClickInsights: What is your favorite white paper? Why do you like it?

  5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  White papers come in all shapes and forms. Our Panel of White Paper Experts have written and reviewed thousands of white papers over the years. Which white paper stands out in their mind? We have invited White Paper Experts to answer this query: "Give one example of your most favorite white paper and why you like it". Read on to get their insights.    Jonathan Kantor's Favorite White Paper -- Transforming Sampling into Shopper Marketing: Walmart’s “Bright Ideas” Event Program Michael Stelzner's Favorite White Paper -- The Expanding Digital Universe…

• 
  SEO Copywriting

• PubCon presentation: Real-world winning tactics for content creation

  Heather

  17 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am

  Couldn’t make it to PubCon (or were there so many fantastic sessions that you couldn’t hit them all?). For those who missed it, here’s my presentation from last week’s “Real World Winning Tactics For Content Creation” session.  I discuss how to improve existing sites and how to leverage the power of content for better search rankings and conversions. Enjoy (and zip me at tweet at @heatherlloyd if you have any questions!). SEO Copywriting: Working With Existing Sites View more presentations from seocopywriting.

• New SEO copywriting and content marketing blog for Target Marketing Magazine

  Heather

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:26 am

  Well, it’s official! My new Target Marketing Magazine blog about SEO copywriting and content marketing has finally hit the streets. I wrote my first post on the way home from DMA ‘09 – a conference, where I (sadly) saw marketer after marketer ignoring their content marketing strategy. Check it out, read, comment and enjoy! C’mon – I’d love to hear from you!

• 5 reasons why this fitness website kicks SEO copywriting butt

  Heather

  3 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pm

  I’m often asked if small businesses can really compete in the SEO content marketing space. After all, between creating customer personas, writing the copy and understanding the SEO nuances, a good SEO copywriting campaign seems like it would be out of reach of the typical business owner. Hardly. I want to share a site that “gets it” from a SEO and a content marketing perspective. The man who owns it, Daniel Iversen, isn’t a SEO expert. Nor is he a full-time copywriter (although, granted, he’s a naturally talented writer.) But, his combination of video, good…

• 15 tips for a successful PubCon conference

  Heather

  28 Oct 2009 | 10:35 am

  PubCon is one of my favorite conference series ever. It’s not just the speakers (always top-notch) or the vibe (always fun.) PubCon is a great combination of smart people, talented speakers and excellent content – much of which you won’t find anywhere else. And it’s coming up in less than two weeks. Are you ready? If you’re new to PubCon, you’ll find your “survival guide” below. I’ve compiled this list after 4 years of speaking at PubCon (and 10+ years of speaking at other search engine industry conferences.) If you follow these 15 tips,…

• 6 ways to handle it when a client changes your copywriting

  Heather

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:53 am

  Talk about frustrating. You thought what you wrote showcased your best work ever. You expertly followed your client’s content marketing strategy. You chose good keyphrases. And when you finished writing your SEO copywriting masterpiece, you could almost hear the harp music playing softly and feel the sunshine on your face.  Your copy didn’t just sound good.  It sung. Then a week later, you see what the client actually uploaded. All of your tricky turn-of-phrases were gone. Your Title was changed from a compelling statement to a list of keyphrases. And your headline…you…

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  Tippingpoint Labs

• Podcast: The New World / Thanksgiving

  Josh Cole

  20 Nov 2009 | 3:00 am

  The Tipping Point Podcast Subscribe in iTunes or you can enjoy the podcasts at Blubrry.com Find us in iTunes Each podcast journeys into the world wide web, exploring various aspects of what makes people successful on the internet. We’ll cover almost anything. We’ve learned all about StuffedRobots, explored Twitter, learned about SpyFu, and had a lot of fun along the way. In This Podcast Josh Cole Andrew Davis James Cosco Brad Schwarzenbach This week on The Tipping Point: The New World Today on the Tipping Point we’re getting out our trans-temporal spyglass-microscope hybrid…

• Why We See More Micro-Apps Every Day

  Andrew Davis

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  Social Great Interface - crowdsourced content from Twitter, FourSquare, and others. Last week, I spent some time analyzing a new channel I happened upon called TheHotList.com. In my analysis, I attempted to coin a new phrase to describe the channel — micro-apps. As I’ve watched new channels emerge, even just over the course of the last week, I’ve found more and more applications that fit the definition of a micro-app, so I thought it might help to better define my new term. A micro-app is an application that sources very specific content from at least one external (or…

• Be Careful When it Comes to Contests

  Brad Schwarzenbach

  18 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am

  When I think of contests, my mind goes in a very macabre direction — I think of Shirley Jackson’s classic short story, “The Lottery.” Fortunately, online contests don’t end with a stoning … usually. No amount of Binging could yield when, exactly, the concept of giving away product through contests began. I know it’s older than I am, so I’m not going to give you a history of contests. Instead, I’m going to talk about the current trend. Remember, nothing in this world is for free Photo by kalandrakas It’s a universal truth, like death…

• Google Insights for Search 101

  Brad Schwarzenbach

  17 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am

  One of our driving philosophies here at the Tippingpoint Labs is that, for brands, your website is not the center of your web universe anymore. Conventional (read: outdated) thinking holds that your homepage should be the starting and ending point for all things you. With the rise of user-generated content, social networking, and social media, the masses now have a place to find what is perceived as unbiased, objective, informative, valuable content about your products and services. What used to be measurable within your own domain has now become scattered across a web universe seemingly as…

• FourSquare and My Personal What-Now Factor

  Andrew Davis

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:00 am

  FourSquare.com: What exactly are you? Badges? I don't want no stinkin' badges! I’ve been using FourSquare for months now. I can’t recall where I heard about it, but I immediately signed up and started using it on my iPhone. If I were pitching FourSquare as a television show I’d pitch it like this: FourSquare is Facebook meets Twitter meets Google Maps meets Yelp meets the Boy Scouts. The Boy Scouts? That’s right. Basically, FourSquare allows you to connect with friends, ‘check-in’ at real-world places, add tips (or to-do’s), and earn points…

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  Brain Traffic

• Communicate clearly with online customers

  Erin Anderson

  16 Nov 2009 | 12:42 pm

  Writing error messages and instructional text isn’t exactly a sexy undertaking. Which is part of the reason it often gets left to the last minute. Here’s an example of why that’s a really bad idea. I recently encountered this screen while reviewing my domain name renewal information (click on the image to enlarge): I spent about two minutes here (which was about a minute and 45 seconds too long) trying to decipher the phrase “Bad username and/or password.” Because although I definitely had an account with the company, I couldn’t recall whether I’d…

• Rupert Murdoch vs. the “Content Kleptomaniacs” and “Plagiarists” (See: Google)

  Kristina Halvorson

  10 Nov 2009 | 8:06 am

  There’s a big fuss being made over the fact that Mr. Rupert Murdoch has said that his media empire will "probably remove our sites from Google’s index." How DARE he hide his content behind the iron curtain of non-indexing? Murdoch isn’t stupid. (Old and confused, yes. Stupid? Not so much.) He’s talking about making a seriously bold move, here, in the interest of keeping his empire from crumbling. So why are people freaking out? It’s JUST WRONG. Right? When the religion of the Web is that you can find anything you want, from anywhere, at any time,…

• Be your own content expert

  Amy Wallace

  5 Nov 2009 | 11:52 am

  Whether you’re a writer, editor or content strategist, you probably spend a lot of time thinking about how to effectively reach your audience. Maybe you pore over personas and case studies for inspiration. But there’s probably one resource you’re not considering—you! As a web user, you can be your own content expert. Think about it. You know what an effective user experience feels like when you come across it: An instantly identifiable objective. Clean, concise copy. Benefits front-and-center. Easy navigation and clear task instructions. Sure, style guides and success…

• Useful, Useable Costume Strategy

  Elizabeth Saloka

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:07 am

  Creepy, kooky, and altogether spooky, Brain Traffic paper face masks are specially designed to be worn on your face. They’re also: 100% paper 100% for your face Flat Brain Traffic face masks come in four bone-chilling varieties.  For best results, follow directions carefully. Brain Traffic President Mask Trick AND treat. Then write a book. On occasion, nap. Tweet that you’re going to put a mask on your face. Put your mask on your face. Tweet that you’ve put a mask on your face. Respond to several @ replies about you putting on a mask. Go to airport.   Account…

• Web Developers and SEO: Contentiousness and Common Goals

  Kristina Halvorson

  28 Oct 2009 | 1:00 pm

  A few weeks ago, there was a rather heated debate (some might call it a "smackdown") between a few industry luminaries and their supporting communities. On one side, the web development/user experience community. On the other, the SEO community. This battle has been fought more than once before. Is it possible for well-built, awesome websites and products to be findable simply by being built "right"? Are web developers behind the curve when it comes to the latest, most effective SEO techniques? Is either practice absolutely necessary for online success? Are they both?

• 
  Convince and Convert

• More Is More – A Social Media Case Study

  Jay Baer

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:23 pm

  The last in a 3-part series this week on social media case studies. Sometimes, your customers should be the star of your social media show, not the brand. Such is the case for Spellbinders Paper Arts, a five year-old manufacturer of tools for the paper crafting enthusiast. If you’re looking to create the all-time greatest holiday card from scratch, Spellbinders is your outfitter. Based in Peoria, Arizona, Spellbinders sells primarily to papercrafting stores and craft chains like Hobby Lobby. They also sell direct to consumers on the Spellbinders Web site. Follow the Customers…

• The Art of Social Media – Crowd Sourced Photography

  Jay Baer

  17 Nov 2009 | 7:51 pm

  Part 2 of this week’s 3 post series about social media case studies. Tyson Crosbie is not your ordinary photographer. Since stumbling upon Twitter nearly two years ago, he’s ignored the norms and customs of commercial photography, and found a way to incorporate social media into every element of his work. As a food photography apprentice, Tyson observed how closed and parochial photographers were about their work, and aimed to make photography an open and educational process. Social Media Customer Acquisition Shortly after moving to Phoenix, Tyson saw a tweet from the sublime…

• 11 Must-Dos for the Serious Blogger

  Jay Baer

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:54 am

  First in a three post series this week about social media case studies. 11 Must Dos For The Serious Blogger View more documents from Jason Baer. If your blog is essentially a post-modern diary where you share your deepest, personal feelings about life in a cathartic way, this is not the post for you. However, if you blog (or want to) because you are trying to build or grow your business, read on. For my presentation at the recent PodcampAZ, I boiled down everything I’ve learned about blogging in the 16 months since launching Convince & Convert into 11 must-dos. You, the readers of…

• What Do Twitter Lists Say About Your Personal Brand?

  Jay Baer

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:29 am

  Taking a long overdue page from the Seesmic and Tweetdeck playbook, Twitter.com recently launched Twitter lists, enabling you to segment the people you follow on Twitter into groups. This is particularly useful in organizing people by industry, geography, or even the type of content they typically tweet. But what’s more interesting is that Twitter Lists help define your personal brand. You Are What You Are. Not What You Wish You Were A long-standing tenet of search engine optimization is that the search terms that people use to find your Web site reflect the reality of how your site is…

• The Geometry of Social Media – Why Triangles Rule

  Jay Baer

  11 Nov 2009 | 3:56 am

  Whether it’s your Facebook page, your blog, your Linkedin group, or your private brand community, your social media home base operates like a sports bar. You first go to a sports bar for the amenities. The TVs. The food. The beer selection. But you return again and again not for the elements that brought you initially, but for the people. The regulars. The characters. The waitresses. In my pre-fatherhood days, I used to go to a place called Big Daddy’s in north Phoenix. It was a little sketchy, but the food was decent, the beer was cold, and it was within walking distance. Then…

• 
  Dan Blank

• The Future of B2B Media: A Clouded Vision?

  Dan Blank

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:00 pm

  Image by Raphaël Fauveau The New York Times homepage has more than 300 things you can click on, and includes more than 2,000 words. Is this how the brand sees themselves? Is this providing value to advertisers? Is this the best experience for their audience? Perhaps that is a difficult question to answer for a brand that serves a city of 8+million people, plus its larger national and international audience. But what about for more focused media brands in the B2B and B2C world: Are there digital products clearly defined, and acutely attuned to the business needs of their market? How much…

• Finding Room for Improvement in Your Online Product

  Dan Blank

  10 Nov 2009 | 5:28 am

  "It’s really scary out there." That’s a phrase I keep hearing again and again. When I consider the challenges facing editors & content creators, among them is the fact that they have precious few resources to do a massive amount of work. On top of that, there is a constant barrage of reports of their demise, which is never pleasant. So, the question I have isn’t: "How do we do more with less," but rather: How do we do exactly the right things - and only those right things - really really well? I have been exploring this issue recently with some posts…

• Editorial ROI: Going from Good to Great

  Dan Blank

  3 Nov 2009 | 9:40 am

  I have been swimming in the web metrics for several of RBI’s brands recently, and am constantly amazed at the insights that pop up. The question I am given again and again is: "How can we increase performance?" Sometimes this question is with regards to an entire editorial strategy, other times it is focusing on just one content channel such as blogs, or it gets into focusing on one particular blog, newsletter, video series or Twitter account. When looking for improvements, you try for the straightforward solutions first - tried and true tactics for online content: SEO…

• Editorial ROI: Maximizing Performance With Few Resources

  Dan Blank

  26 Oct 2009 | 9:02 am

  Today, I want to discuss how an editor or content creator can use some really basic web analytics to improve the performance of their products and deliver higher return-on-investment for their efforts. The chart above is a pretty typical example of a "long tail" graph. I made up the numbers above, but let’s consider that it represents articles by a single editor for a B2B media brand. So, what we are looking at is the performance of 37 articles based on page views, over a given time frame. And that is well and good. When you consider things like this over a longer time frame -…

• Why B2B Blogs Matter

  Dan Blank

  22 Oct 2009 | 5:48 am

  Something special is happening in a Publishers Weekly blog, and I wanted to share the story with you. PW has a blog called ShelfTalker that is authored by 3 childrens booksellers - folks who spend all day selling books to kids & their parents. Now, oftentimes people express to me that they feel blogs are about "controversial" topics and opinions - as if it is supposed to be a sideshow for cheap jabs and silly topics. But what is happening on ShelfTalker is important, and serves as an example as to why blogs matter, and why they are pushing things forward in B2B media. In…

• 
  PR 20/20

• Is Social Media for Everyone?

  12 Nov 2009 | 10:00 am

  In 2009, companies and the consuming public have been focused on the idea of social media and its increasing role in the evolution of business marketing. Great examples are being set by brands like GM, Whole Foods and possibly your local news station, which have led to businesses in every industry scrambling to get connected. Whether it’s Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or the large amounts of social sharing tools (e.g. digg, delicious, StumbleUpon and so on), businesses are starting to realize if they aren’t participating, then they will be left behind. So should every company start…

• 13 Website Migration Steps to Keep Your Rankings

  6 Nov 2009 | 8:05 am

  If not done correctly, migrating your current Website to a new site with different URLs can have grave consequences. We’re talking drops in keyword rankings, a dramatic decrease of indexed pages, less traffic from referring links, dogs and cats living together, MASS HYSTERIA!  Fortunately, if you follow the 13 steps below, you can seamlessly transfer search engine credit and links from your current site to the new site. NOTE: If you don’t have a Website development background, be sure to work with someone who does. There are numerous technical elements in this process that if…

• Social Media Transforms Spokesmodels Into Friends

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pm

  When finding inspiration for your Halloween costume this year, did you turn to TV commercial breaks (remember that stuff you fast forward through on your DVR)? If so, you might be one of many dressing as "Flo" for Halloween. Flo, the face of Progressive Insurance, has garnered more than 209,000 Facebook fans, is the topic of multiple fan sites and forum chatter, and the cornerstone photo of the insurance company’s Twitter feed. The Facebook group, "I'm dressing up as Flo for Halloween," had more than 350 members at the time of this post. Enter the spokesfriends The advent of social…

• How to Land a Job in PR

  28 Oct 2009 | 11:30 am

  Six months ago, I was sitting in a college classroom at Ohio University anxiously awaiting graduation. It was an exciting time, yet also scary and frustrating. I couldn’t wait to move on with my life and put all my education to the test. But, at the same time, I had no job lined up and like the rest of my classmates, I was facing the grim truth of today’s economy: many companies aren’t hiring and worthwhile PR and marketing jobs are few and far between. With this reality, I knew I needed to do something different – something that would make me stand out from the rest…

• Does Inbound Marketing Really Work?

  26 Oct 2009 | 8:30 am

  Inbound marketing is on a roll: A new book. A growing online community with a free university. A skyrocketing startup with a wildly popular blog and a fresh $16 million in Series C funding. Plus jam-packed summits in cities around the country. So is it a fad, or is it fundamentally changing the way organizations think and market? And, more importantly, does it work? One PR Firm’s Story I had my first conversation with Dan Tyre of HubSpot in September 2007, just months after Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah founded an upstart software company based on their belief in what they termed…

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  Keysplash Creative

• There’s a Brand Opening in Hollywood – Who Can Fill Oprah’s Shoes

  Susan Gunelius

  20 Nov 2009 | 1:06 pm

  Calling all females in Hollywood! Oprah Winfrey announced she is leaving the Oprah Winfrey Show after 25 years as the face of afternoon television for women — a role that helped position her as one of the most powerful women in entertainment and the world. The official end to her run as the queen of daytime TV is scheduled for September 9, 2011 — plenty of time to position a successor. Those are big brand shoes to fill.  Who can step up to the challenge?  Some might point to Ellen Degeneres who is already positioned firmly with her own talk show, but Ellen and Oprah represent…

• Are You Overthinking Your Marketing?

  Susan Gunelius

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:14 pm

  I have written many times about my preference for transparent marketing and an aversion to marketing buzz words and rhetoric.  My motto is, cut to the chase.  If I hear the word ‘paradigm’, I’m leaving.  So I laughed out loud today when I came across a video published on Ad Freak, which was created by U.K.-based freelance animator and illustrator Joseph Pelling. Joseph’s hilarious video pokes fun at the overthinking of the advertising and marketing creative process.  I have to share it here. I’m all for thinking out of the box, but you need to know when…

• Dan Schawbel Interviews Susan Gunelius about Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter

  Susan Gunelius

  3 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am

  This week, I answered some questions posed to me by Dan Schawbel of Personal Branding Blog about my new book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, and my book about the Harry Potter brand, Harry Potter: The Story of a Global Business Phenomenon. You can read the full interview on Dan’s blog and learn how Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter are connected in terms of branding strategy. Bet you never thought you’d hear that Playboy and Harry Potter can be compared to each other! Here’s a brief excerpt from the interview: Dan Schawbel: What branding lessons can we learn from…

• Mercedes E-Class Ad Copy – ‘Butt’ of Critics’ Jokes

  Susan Gunelius

  30 Oct 2009 | 3:19 pm

  One of the points I stress in my book, Kick-ass Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, is the importance of writing copy that speaks to your target audience.  If your audience doesn’t ‘get’ your copy or it doesn’t speak directly to them in a language they understand, appreciate, and relate to, then your ad won’t drive the sales you need from it.  Case in point — the new Mercedes E-Class print ads shown below. Ad #1 Copy Reads: “Superfect. The E-Class Coupe. It deserves a whole new language.” Ad #2 Copy Reads: “Fabuttractive. The E-Class Coupe. It…

• Building Brand Value the Playboy Way – Now Available in Book Stores and Online

  Susan Gunelius

  26 Oct 2009 | 6:20 pm

  My new book, Building Brand Value the Playboy Way, was released this month through Palgrave Macmillan.  It’s available through online book sellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Borders as well as in stores. This was an incredibly interesting story to research and to tell.  You can read an excerpt here. If you have a chance to read it, stop back by and let me know what you think or leave a review on Amazon and share your thoughts.

• 
  Social Media Explorer

• Determining Your Friends

  Jason Falls

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  I’ve been pondering the value and validity of the term “friend” lately. Until a few years ago, we all probably had a couple hundred friends, give or take. Social networking not only incrementalized that number, but changed the definition of the word for many people. I have 1,300 or more “friends” on Facebook. I’ve probably met and spoken with more than you think, but not all of them. There are 18,000 or so people who follow me on Twitter. I follow most of them back. We are “friends” in a sense, too. But online friendships are very different than…

• Sysomos Adds Facebook Feature To Social Media Monitoring Solution

  Jason Falls

  19 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  When businesses are looking for social media monitoring services these days, they normally hone in on two or three capabilities. Because Facebook is this year’s blog, monitoring messages on the platform is a big one. While all social media monitoring services have the same access to Facebook data (it’s all dependent upon what Facebook makes public which is dictated by their terms of service), more creative ways to position Facebook data are surfacing. Image via CrunchBase Social media monitoring service Sysomos launches a new version of their Heartbeat product today which has a…

• The Four Spheres Of Social Media Strategy

  Jason Falls

  18 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  A crowd of 80 or so attended yesterday’s social media boot camp hosted by the Kentucky chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Social Media Club Louisville. I was honored to serve as one of the presenters along with the undisputed queen of measurement, Katie Paine, and The Bad Pitch Blog man himself, Kevin Dugan. Rest assured, lots of learning was had, even if you just count my experience. Part of my presentation, which was focused on developing strategic plans for social media marketing, included my Four Spheres of Social Media Strategy. Until…

• New Study Reveals Surprises In How People Share

  Jason Falls

  16 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  We’re starting to see an interesting by-product of cool social media tools emerge: Research pulled from user data. One such effort, a new study released by SocialTwist, makers of the content share widget Tell-A-Friend, reveals some interesting facts about how people share information online. You can see the report in its entirety on the SocialTwist website. First, let’s set the expectations appropriately. The data behind the study is collected from anonymized user data for people who click on the Tell-A-Friend widget where it is used on blog posts, newspaper websites and more.

• Where Interactive Marketing Dollars Are Going

  Jason Falls

  13 Nov 2009 | 2:00 am

  Forrester Research has released a new report forecasting interactive marketing spend in the U.S. for the next five years. The report, authored by Shar VanBoskirk, is available in its entirety on the Forrester Research website. The report details how certain industries currently spend, and projects how they will spend, on interactive marketing. It also offers some interesting insights for businesses trying to ensure they are either catching, or keeping up with the Joneses. VanBoskirk talks more about it on the Forrester Research blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals. Current Interactive…

• 
  Content Rich

• Will the C-Suite Ever Embrace Social Media? Hmmmm…

  jonwuebben

  5 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pm

  Most people out there know the famous quote from Calvin Coolidge about “Persistence and determination being omnipotent.”  Amazing that this quote was probably his lasting legacy as well…much more compelling than anything he ever accomplished as President. For those who don’t know it or forgot it, here is a refresher: ”Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and…

• Content Rich Readers Speak Out!

  jonwuebben

  3 Nov 2009 | 11:40 am

  As an author, you get the chance to meet and help so many people that you otherwise wouldn’t.  I’m very grateful to these readers who all have gotten something out of my book, Content Rich. If you haven’t already picked up a copy, check it out!  It may help your business the way it has helped these folks…

• My Q & A with Write On!

  jonwuebben

  22 Oct 2009 | 12:56 pm

  Debra Eckerling of Write On! recently interviewed me about my passion for writing. Write On! is a virtual – and live – writers support group, which helps writers of all abilities, mediums, and specialties take their projects to the next level.  I enjoyed the opportunity to speak with Debra and encourage every writer out there to follow your dream!

• Review of Scott Fox’s “e-Riches 2.0″

  jonwuebben

  25 Sep 2009 | 1:42 pm

  Scott Fox has done it again with his latest book, “e-Riches 2.0”, putting together an easy to understand, thoroughly comprehensive “how-to” on all the latest online marketing tools and strategies. Like Scott, I believe that there is a huge opportunity to provide this type of instruction to the millions of small businesses out there who may be challenged in the online marketing space. There are still many business owners who feel overwhelmed by all the stuff coming at them when it comes to Web 2.0. I love how he emphasized the importance of social media and attempted to allay any fears…

• Local Search – It’s Getting Bigger

  jonwuebben

  22 Sep 2009 | 2:15 pm

  Of all the projects we’re working on and all the topics I speak about, I’m the most excited about local search and the growth of what’s happening out there on Main Street, USA. In fact, there are so many smaller, local retail businesses “getting it” now that the growth of Local Search is out pacing overall online search. And you know that’s big because the web continues to explode, month after month, year after year. What does this mean? It means that the landscape of search is changing right before our very eyes. It means that small mom and pop companies that service the city…

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  9 Inch Marketing

• MISSING: Have you seen me?

  Stan Phelps

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:17 am

  IN SEARCH OF A PURPLE GOLDFISH The Purple Goldfish Project: I need your help.  I’m desperately seeking a purple goldfish.  I’m in search of 1001 Examples of Marketing Lagniappe for my upcoming book, Marketing Lagniappe – In Search of Your Purple Goldfish. A marketing lagniappe,  i.e. purple goldfish,  is any time a business goes above and beyond to provide a ‘little something extra’ for the consumer.  Here are the basic ingredients of a purple goldfish Unexpected, Relevant, Unique and Authentic.  Here a four examples / thought starters: Southwest Airlines…

• PR Workbench

  Stan Phelps

  19 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am

  I had the opportunity to meet Jack Monson during my trip to PRSA International.  Jack writes a blog called PR Workbench where he explores how the worlds of technology and public relations are intersecting. It’s a small world as the company that Jack works for is based out of my hometown of Norwalk, CT.  eNR Services helps communications, marketing and PR pro’s improve their performance via technology solutions. Jack and I were talking at the conference about marketing lagniappe.  He told me a great story which I will feature on marketinglagniappe.com as part of the Purple…

• Marketing Lagniappe – Pareto’s Law and Flipping Traditional Marketing on its Head

  Stan Phelps

  10 Nov 2009 | 8:34 pm

  Click on the image above to view the Slideshare presentation I just uploaded a new presentation to Slideshare.  Here is a synopsis of the presentation: It talks about how traditional marketing is broken and the need to flip it on its head. It discusses Pareto’s 80/20 law and how it applies to traditional marketing. I put forth the Phelps 80/20 corollary on traditional marketing. It examines the flaw of focusing the majority of your marketing efforts on the purchase funnel. It discusses the poor ROI from traditional marketing and the revolving door effect. It introduces the idea of…

• Book’em Danno

  Stan Phelps

  25 Oct 2009 | 8:13 am

  I shared a new goal this new goal with my friends and family this week: “I will write a book on ‘Marketing Lagniappe’ by March 1, 2010″ Here is the premise of the book: The book in a nutshell is that 90+% of marketing is in the traditional funnel whether its the old guard ‘outbound interruption model’ or the updated ‘inbound enticement model’.  Marketing Lagniappe deals with the vital 1% who make it through the funnel and actually purchase your product or service.  It aims to answer two questions: How do you get them to be a repeat…

• Value is the New Black, part deux

  Stan Phelps

  7 Oct 2009 | 7:46 pm

  A couple of months ago I posted on the concept that ‘value is becoming the new black’.  There is now a study out by Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, also proclaiming that “value is the new black,” predicting that post-recession shoppers will transform into “value hunters” as they look for true value and meaning from brands, rather than just discounts. I was just reading that this trend looks like it’s going to steamroll into 2010.  Here is a summary of a report submitted by Brandkeyswith my thoughts in parentheses: Brandkeys analyzed the likely consumer…

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  The Content Wrangler

• Writing for Translation: Internationalization Skills for Content Developers

  scott

  20 Nov 2009 | 4:08 pm

  Aaron SchliemBy Aaron Schliem, CEO, Glyph Language Services What’s wrong with this sentence: Some people prefer their coffee with cream and sugar, while others are straight, black coffee drinkers. Let’s look at this from the perspective of a translator who is not a native speaker of English but needs to transform this into a sentence that is accurate and stylistically correct in the target language. Unfortunately, to describe coffee that has no added sugar, milk, cream, etc. as “straight, black coffee” is not a universally understood noun phrase. If you were to provide this English…

• Unlocking the Special Powers of the English Language

  scott

  17 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm

  By Jeff Deck, Founder, Typo Eradication Advancement League Jeff Deck, Founder, Typo Eradication Advancement LeagueSince I’m both an editor and a writer, it would be fair to say that I think about words a lot. It would, perhaps, be unfair to say that I obsess about them, but not necessarily inaccurate. Caring about good spelling and grammar is, at least for me, just a subset of appreciating English in all its Frankensteinian splendor, and I’d like to address that aspect more often. Rather than pedantry for the sake of pedantry, I view typo-hunting as cleaning the glass that…

• Best Practices and Worst Mistakes Businesses Make on their Global Websites

  scott

  14 Nov 2009 | 1:04 pm

  To make content available to 80 percent of the total online population holding 90 percent of the world online wallet now requires a minimum of 15 human languages.In 2009, 1.6 billion people crowd the internet seeking news, information, entertainment, goods, services, social interaction, and more. These individuals are located in over 200 countries and territories, speak hundreds of languages, and have a combined spending power, both online and off, of more than US$35.7 trillion per year. How do the most successful online brands succeed or fail in reaching out to international visitors? Market…

• Leading Content Agency Seeks Web Content Strategy Guru – Greensboro, NC (full-time)

  scott

  13 Nov 2009 | 5:57 pm

  Are you a forward-thinking, experienced web content strategist looking for a great full-time opportunity (in Greensboro, NC) that will be rewarding and exciting? If so, drop me a line and let me know why you might make a good candidate for the job. Here’s a little bit about the gig from the company looking to fill the position: Our Clients Say: “We need to figure out a content strategy. We have existing customers we want to stay loyal and buy more stuff. We have a segmented customer base that we think we should reach with a combination of print, email and web content, but don’t…

• The Kindle 3 Parody: CollegeHumor.com Takes A Stab At Video eBooks

  scott

  1 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pm

  eBook readers are making big news in the publishing industry and in businesses of all types around the globe. Organizations small and large are realizing that in addition to the products and services they offer for sale, they are also publishers. As a result of this realization, we expect to see all sorts of business-critical content released in a format that can be viewed on eBook readers and other devices (smart phones, netbooks, laptops, etc.) One of the most common eBook formats is PDF, which provides much more functionality than many people realize. Today, PDF supports 3D graphics,…

• 
  Idea Launch

• Inviting Guest Bloggers to Contribute to Your Company Blog

  Carolyn McKibbin

  20 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pm

  Image c/o http://www.cbc.ca At ideaLaunch, we agree with Kipp Bodnar of Social Media B2B that having an army of bloggers is the best way to build hoards of great content and offer in-depth coverage on industry trends. It also takes the pressure off any one person being solely responsible for producing all the content on our company blog. You’ve seen regular blog posts from iL staff members and Jen Byck, our Content Monkey; now we’re inviting guest bloggers with proven experience in content marketing to share their insight. Stay tuned for posts by Vince Font and Britt Reints later this…

• Twitter Tweaks Tweeter Text Trigger

  Jamison Cush

  20 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pm

  Yesterday, Twitter CEO Evan Williams announced via tweet that Twitter was changing its user prompt, asking tweeters “What’s happening?” instead of “What are you doing?” Big whoop, right? A minor and inconsequential change, correct? Well, the folks at Valleywag asked renowned linguist David Crystal, author of Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, for his thoughts. Here’s a snippet: I’m not surprised. Twitter has become steadily more discursive, with people maintaining t hreads and introducing a great deal more interaction, rather than posting isolated tweets. So, it seems that with the change…

• Every Industry Can Use Content Marketing: Video Edition

  Jen

  19 Nov 2009 | 5:07 pm

  You too can YouTube! Content marketing isn’t simply about blathering your latest corporate news online. Good content marketing is  about what the audience is interested in and delivering that to them in digital ways that are relevant to your products and services. To boil things down to a very basic level, people are looking for: Helpful information, tips and tools Entertainment Free stuff (via contests, samples, downloads and so on) The genius of content marketing is that through it, potential clients also learn about you and gain confidence in working with you. By demonstrating your…

• Hey Twitter, What’s Happening?

  Patrick

  19 Nov 2009 | 1:57 pm

  In case you haven’t heard (or noticed), Twitter announced today that it changed its prompt question from “What are you doing?” to “What’s Happening?” The question has been shortened by only 2 characters, but represents a big shift in the way people, companies and organizations are using Twitter. You didn’t even know there was a question there, did you? Don’t feel bad. I didn’t notice it either. But it’s still kind of a big deal. “What are you doing?” has been the question to which users are meant to respond in…

• You’ve Got Hate Mail: Dealing With Negative Feedback

  Jen

  18 Nov 2009 | 3:24 am

  Content marketing isn’t just about spouting your opinion and making subtle (or not so subtle) sales pitches into the great interwebian abyss. In fact, good content marketing isn’t anything like that. It’s listening, adapting, understanding your audience, providing content of value, engaging with communities and participating in and leading conversations. Feedback is necessary and coveted. But what if that feedback is negative, or even ugly? While the Internet is a great connector, staring at a screen and ‘speaking’ through taps on a keyboard can sometimes dehumanize communication.

• 
  Rexblog

• Wikis can be maps, too

  Rex Hammock

  17 Nov 2009 | 11:29 am

  Longtime readers of this blog (and the two of you know who you are) are aware that I love maps. I’m on record as saying the greatest software ever is what is now Google Earth. In presentations about social media, I always emphasize that the way in which people “express themselves” on the internet is often not in blog posts or tweets or sharing-photos or video. For some people, expressing themselves is more about making lists, or bookmarking websites, or helping out on wiki mapping project. A wiki mapping project? (In this case, I’m using the term “wiki” to…

• Wikipedia is running its first banner ad

  Rex Hammock

  13 Nov 2009 | 8:25 am

  I had a minor jolt seeing a big banner ad across the top of Wikipedia this morning. However, the “ad” (actually a few are rotating) is a link to a message from Jimmy Wales encouraging users to donate to the WikiMedia Foundation. Part of the pitch: Wikipedia will stay ad-free forever. Sidenote: If you’re a registered user of Wikipedia, check out the new “Beta” look of the site. I’m assuming it will launch around the first of the year. It’s a part of the “Wikipedia Usability Project. Sidenote 2: We recently moved to what is the Wikipedia…

• If ‘advertising’ is your middle name, your surveys will always suggest the solution is …

  Rex Hammock

  12 Nov 2009 | 11:31 am

  I have a theory that goes something like this: If the name of your organization is Interactive Advertising Bureau, any study of the needs of internet marketers is going to suggest that “advertising” is the solution. According to my theory, such a study will focus on how media companies should involve getting a salesforce of “category experts” and interactive marketing gurus who can help develop more “engaging options and formats.” So, having this theory, I’m not in the least bit surprised that a new study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and…

• Always grateful

  Rex Hammock

  11 Nov 2009 | 7:22 am

  One of the magazines Hammock has the honor to publish is Semper Fi, the national magazine of The Marine Corps League, a congressionally-charted national auxiliary organization founded in 1923 that promotes and preserves the spirit and traditions of all Marines who serve in, or who have ever served in, the U.S Marine Corps. Today it is veterans day in the U.S. I think of the hundreds of Marines (once a Marine, always a Marine — there are no “former Marines”) we have featured on the pages of Semper Fi when I thank veterans — Marines, and all veterans of the U.S. military…

• Google, I salute you (for free airport wifi)

  Rex Hammock

  10 Nov 2009 | 4:30 am

  Long-time readers of this blog know that I’m a fan of airports that provide free wifi to travelers. I think wifi should be like air conditioning or rest rooms — part of the convenience infrastructure, not a profit center. Airports can profit from the service in a number of ways: Letting travelers know about the airport shops and restaurants within a few hundred yards of them, for example. Secondly, free wifi allows passengers to go online to self-manage travel changes should bad weather or other factors arise. Well, I’m getting my wish: At least between today and January 15.

• 
  Sales Lead Insights

• 2009’s 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management

  Mac McIntosh

  16 Nov 2009 | 6:56 pm

  I promised to link to the list of the top 50 most influential people in sales lead management. The ballots are counted. (Imagine the drum roll.) And the winners are: http://www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/news/2009_Top50_SalesLeadManagement.htm To those of you who voted for me, my sincere thanks! -Mac If you'd like to learn more, please use my Contact Form, call me directly at 1-800-944-5553 or +1-401-294-7730, or check out the marketing consulting or speaking and training pages on my website.

• B2B Copywriting: Interview with Miller McMillan

  Mac McIntosh

  16 Nov 2009 | 7:58 am

  This is one of a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners on topics of interest to B2B lead generation, marketing and new business development professionals. Miller McMillan is a copywriter who worked on high-profile accounts at ad agencies in Atlanta and Boston before establishing his copywriting boutique in Los Angeles. Miller has worked with such clients as CNN, Hughes, Nestlé, Avery and Microsoft. His copywriting capabilities include websites, direct mail, email, ad campaigns, brochures, slogans and names. Miller, it seems to me that copywriting plays a big…

• The Top People in Sales Lead Management in 2009: Friday, November 13th is Your Last Chance to Vote!

  Mac McIntosh

  12 Nov 2009 | 9:36 pm

  Don’t miss this opportunity to vote for your top five candidates to be among the fifty most influential people in sales lead management in 2009. Why? Because the Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) is closing the polls at Midnight Pacific Time (UTC-8) on Friday, November 13th. Both members and non-members can vote. So why don’t you click this link to cast your votes right now: www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/top50_vote.htm  Then be sure to watch for the results on November 16, 2009. I promise to publish the list of winners right here, whether I make the cut or…

• Web Inquiry Management: Interview with Mike Wallen

  Mac McIntosh

  11 Nov 2009 | 8:48 am

  This is one of a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners on topics of interest to B2B lead generation, marketing and new business development professionals. My guest is Mike Wallen, CEO of The Lead Dogs, a B2B lead development company that provides sales lead generation, telemarketing and telesales services. Mike, I understand that you recently published a special report about the handling of web inquiries, titled "The Truth Behind Web Inquiry Management." What do you include under the definition "web inquiries," and why did you focus the report on them?

• Your B2B Lead Generation Budget: Start by Cutting It Into Thirds

  Mac McIntosh

  9 Nov 2009 | 11:58 pm

  Here is a simple and effective way to allocate your business-to-business lead generation budget. Use the first third of your B2B lead generation budget for Internet marketing. Start with: Search engine optimization (SEO) so your web pages will be found when prospects are using the leading search engines to find companies, products or services like yours Improving your website so it does a better job of helping visitors move from awareness to inquiry to consideration to purchase (Help yourself to my complimentary Web site design checklists for B2B marketers.) Adding your company and its…

• 
  Savvy B2B Marketing

• Savvy Week in Review - November 20

  20 Nov 2009 | 6:58 am

  Can Thanksgiving really be next week? Well, we're thankful for all of the great posts around the web. Here are our favorites this week. Happy weekend!The Savvy Sisters What the Heck is Integrated Marketing Anyway? - by @ducttapeJohn Jantsch sets the record straight on the definition of "integrated marketing" and provides a great example to make things crystal clear.Effective Criticism - by @ambercadabraAmber Naslund of Radian 6 provides some solid advice on how to provide feedback that garners results. Good tips for community managers, and for human beings in general.Is Social Media…

• Are we making money yet? – a lesson in Social Media ROI

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:18 am

  I had a chance to sit down recently with a Vice President of Marketing with a software company that is thriving in the recession.  She was proud to tell me they had experienced six straight quarters of growth and hadn’t laid off a single staff member during that time.  A very different conversation than I have had with others in the same industry.  I was interested to find out what part their social media strategy contributed to their staying ahead of competitors.  She assured me they were in fact proud of their efforts. Their blog, launched only nine months before,…

• Blogging for Position – How to Set Up and Run a Keyword Blog

  18 Nov 2009 | 11:32 am

  I am going to start of this post by saying, emphatically, that Savvy B2B Marketing is NOT a keyword blog. Savvy B2B is a real blog, with a lot of heart and soul in it, written for the purpose of sharing and discussing ideas about B2B marketing. But there does exist a different kind of blog, one that has sprung up in recent years once the idea got around that search engines LOVE blogs. And they do.Blogs offer fresh, changing content, links into and out of your website, and, if you are writing about something that is relevant to your website, you will naturally use a lot of keywords that are…

• How to Improve the Unsubscribe Process (Yes, This is Something to Think About)

  17 Nov 2009 | 4:19 am

  Even though winter is quickly approaching here in Michigan, I'm doing some spring cleaning . . . cleaning of my inbox, that is. I'm a naturally curious person, and I would love to spend my days reading, but it's simply not realistic. The first thing I decided to simplify was my email. I recently was out of town for a few days, and I came back to a deluge of email. I found it oddly liberating to purge much of my email without even reading it (unless it was from a client or a friend, it went in the trash). And you know what? I didn't miss any of it. Now, if I receive an email from a company or…

• 10 Things Fashion Can Teach Us About Marketing

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:19 am

  My inner girlie-girl wanted to come out and play. Here are ten fashion rules reinterpreted for the world of marketing. Let's test your catwalk savvy.1. It's about the whole package: Nothing ruins a great outfit like a pair of bad shoes. Your marketing is only as good as its weakest link. Your kick ass social media campaign will fall flat if it links to a dowdy Web site that hasn't been updated in over a decade. To create the best impression, you have to integrate and coordinate your marketing across all media.2. It's about the details: When you're putting yourself together, details matter.

• 
  Social Signal

• Thanks to everyone who suggested their favourite cartoons!

  Rob Cottingham

  16 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pm

  A week ago, I asked if you'd lend me a hand choosing which cartoons I should start with as I begin offering limited-edition prints... and you responded with dozens of suggestions. Thanks so much - it isn't going to be easy to choose! But what was easy was picking a name at random... and lakes, of the Chilean tech blog raton.cl, will be getting his pick as a snazzy print. (Kind of cool to send the very first one off the continent!) I'll let you know as soon as I've chosen the first three cartoons to get the limited-edition treatment. In the meantime, thank you all again... and feel free to…

• Measure your social media influence with Influ-a-rama-matic Pro 2.0! (beta)

  Rob Cottingham

  13 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am

  Are you eager to track your social media influence? Desperate to boil down the complex intricacies of human interaction into a single number? Of course you are! But you're also probably sick of getting results that suggest you could be doing better if only you had more followers... retweeted more often... wrote more interesting blog posts... or, y'know, really worked at it. Well, my friend, do I have the social media measurement instrument for you. Carefully calibrated, precision-coded and guaranteed accurate to .025 microScobles, the Influ-a-rama-matic Pro 2.0 is nothing less than the…

• Help me choose Noise to Signal limited-edition prints (and win a print for yourself)!

  Rob Cottingham

  9 Nov 2009 | 2:06 pm

  Ever since I started drawing Noise to Signal, people have asked me if it's possible to get a print. I've finally gotten around to looking into that question - and lo and behold, making prints turns out to be perfectly feasible. So I'm going to start selling prints of Noise to Signal cartoons. And I'd like to do it in two ways. First, I want to make prints available for any cartoon someone thinks is good enough to hang on their wall (it's a hell of a compliment). That's still in the works. But second, there are some special cartoons where I'd like to create a few limited-edition prints. And…

• Is Twitter devouring itself?

  Alexandra Samuel

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:58 am

  Twitter lists have been around for all of one week and already there is a site that exists to make a list of lists. So I am hereby inaugurating my new Twitter destination site, consisting of this one page, on which I will offer a definitive list of the lists of Twitter lists. Listerfluous: the list of the lists of Twitter lists Listorious Read Write Web's 10 Twitter Lists You Should Follow Do you have a list of Twitter lists that you'd like to see included on Listerfluous? Please let our editorial team know so we can consider you for inclusion. You know that this is a really serious Twitter…

• Another take on how to present social media options and opportunities

  Alex and Rob

  30 Oct 2009 | 12:00 am

  A few days ago, we wrote about the social media options document that is the final deliverable in the Concept Jam. Today, the fine people at BC Children's Hospital Foundation have allowed us to release the options document we prepared for them last year after their Concept Jam workshop. That work led to the birth of the Be a Superhero! social media campaign. You'll see the beginning vision for this campaign in the options document we're sharing here. Since the work included additional options that may be partially incorporated into the Foundation's future efforts, we've removed them from the…

• 
  B2B Content Marketing

• A common taxonmy for your content strategy.

  Seamus

  7 Nov 2009 | 4:08 am

  Why a taxonomy? A little background, when I started in IT, back in 1981, I worked with a reference librarian at a large global company, her system would allow us to pull data up on request, serve it and on to the next request.I liked that, it was simple, there was process, it was repeatable and best of all it was labeled, cataloged, sorted.It was manageable. Then what happened? From 1986-1992, my wife and I had 4 children, if we did not implement and have a process and order, things would of gotten out of hands very quickly.I think that is where we are now, everyone is in a race to get their…

• 27 Oct 2009 | 8:46 am

  Seamus

  27 Oct 2009 | 8:46 am

  The Sarbanes-Oxley Act put the CFO as the manager in charge while business intelligence, software as a service and open source has caused a democratization of IT. CFO’s have inherited the mantra of “do more with less” and must transition from aligning IT with the business to aligning IT with your companies’ customers. Their two primary objectives are: • Increase total return to shareholder • Achieve operational excellence The changing role of the CFO The CFO needs to be part of the business instead of chasing the business and needs to drive innovation, differentiation,…

• Ice cream sundaes and the art of customer satisfaction.

  Seamus

  24 Oct 2009 | 7:39 am

  It’s college application and essay time.  This was written by my niece Erin Colonnese, on the art of customer satisfaction: It wasn’t until my fellow co-workers told me that I “should be charging six-hundred dollars for a sundae” that I realized a little bit more about myself. For the two and a half years that I have been working at Dairy Queen, I have always been told that I pile on the nuts as high as the sky, or that the caramel shouldn’t be drowning the ice-cream. It’s not that these extra efforts are a problem; it’s that my co-workers think I am too…

• How a sales information portal can reduce the cost of sales.

  Seamus

  19 Oct 2009 | 7:47 am

  With the economic rebound in play and knowledge and content gaps at an all time high, a sales information portal can transform process activities efficiently and effectively with just in time information.  Let’s first lets talk about the components, Figure 1 identifies a typical work flow of  a sales information portal: Sales: Current inside and outside sales force and marketing. Legal: Current terms and conditions document IT: Technology used to support process ATS: available to sell WIP: work in process (product) AR: accounts receivable SME: Subject matter expert CRM: Customer…

• Business value, SG&A optimization and the CFO

  Seamus

  9 Oct 2009 | 7:46 am

  The ROI of Business Value  Now more than ever before business value and ROI  is the decision driver for SG&A optimization based projects, i.e  for top line growth, using the internet and inside sales to add top-line revenue.  For bottom line improvements,  SG&A expense reduction through layoffs, downsizing and right-sourcing allows CFO’s to cut costs not without a knowledge loss risk.  Cost of sales and most SG&A costs can be softened with implementation of empirical best practices and a common taxonomy. SG&A functions as a utility. A SG&A  taxonomy has, on…

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  Article Writing & Marketing Insights - EzineArticles Blog

• Anchor Text Rule Based on Word Count

  Penny, Managing Editor

  20 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am

  A quality guideline now becomes a rule. Every month we raise the quality bar a little. This month is no different. Effective immediately, we’ve tightened our standards on how many words are accepted in anchor text links – and for good reason. An “Anchor Text Link” is a clickable word or phrase that links to another web page. [How to create an Anchor Text Link] Sadly, some authors abuse this ability by linking-up extremely long key phrases – or worse yet, entire sentences. Before you know it, a quality article looks like SPAM because it’s filled with giant…

• EzineArticles.com Celebrates 10 Years!

  Marc, Public Relations

  19 Nov 2009 | 10:07 am

  Today marks the 10th Anniversary of EzineArticles.com - but we’re giving YOU the present! On this day in 1999, EzineArticles.com was launched as an online Expert Author community where authors from around the world could share fresh, high-quality articles and make them readily available for limited niche syndication by ezine publishers. The site was envisioned to be a matching service for ezine publishers seeking supplemental content for their next email newsletter and expert authors who wanted to share their expertise in exchange for exposure, credibility and qualified traffic…

• Find Your Article Writing Zone

  Marc, Public Relations

  18 Nov 2009 | 1:03 pm

  Being in the right place, in the right mood, at the right time, could be key to your article writing success. We often hear about athletes and other competitive individuals getting into “the zone” before a competition. “The zone” is really nothing more than a frame of mind that focuses all of our energies, both mental and physical, on the task at hand. The techniques that help get these people into their zone are as varied as the people themselves. For some it’s a routine, born of superstition and experience. For others, it’s a place or a smell or a sound…

• Calculating Your Resource Box Size

  Penny, Managing Editor

  17 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pm

  Is your article’s Resource Box too big, too small or just right? EzineArticles recommends that your Resource Box be around 15% of your Article Body’s word count. If it’s too big, your article will look spammy and be of little value to the reader. If it’s too small, you may be missing out on a great opportunity to market you and your products. So how do you calculate the relative size of your Resource Box? Use this formula: Take the Article Body’s word count and multiply it by .15 (15%). The result is the target size for your Resource Box word count. Example: An…

• Your Keyphrase Leverage Strategy

  Christopher M. Knight

  16 Nov 2009 | 11:13 am

  You may already know about our Traffic Search Terms feature where you can access the top 5 keyphrases or keywords that were used to find your published articles on EzineArticles.com. [Premium members can access the top 30 keyphrases] While this is one of our coolest tools, it has one downside: It can take 60-90 days after your article gets published on EzineArticles.com before it starts to produce really useful keyphrase referral data. What if you want to leverage this keyphrase strategy right away? Watch this video to discover how! Downloadable Versions:          …

• 
  Shelly Bowen: Exceptional Web Content

• Web Content Strategy: Planning for Ongoing Engagement

  Shelly Bowen

  19 Nov 2009 | 3:44 pm

  This sign reminded me of something us Web site content strategists and marketers don’t like to think about: the end of a site user experience. The bounce. The exit. People will leave. It’s inevitable. But can you help guarantee their return? Sure. 6 Easy Ways to Increase Repeat Visits to Your Site Here ... continue reading Web Content Strategy: Planning for Ongoing Engagement

• The Big Picture: End-to-End Content Strategy

  Shelly Bowen

  21 Oct 2009 | 11:38 am

  It’s true what they say: The sum of the parts is larger than the whole. Just consider content marketing, content strategy, branding … each piece might be brilliant, but still not drive results. A cohesive message and creative across all content delivery vehicles will help raise awareness and need and ... continue reading The Big Picture: End-to-End Content Strategy

• The Power of (Empty v. Juicy) Words

  Shelly Bowen

  5 Oct 2009 | 2:10 pm

  A Little Refreshment “What a big martini!” I said to the woman at the networking mixer. And it was. But the woman just glanced at me and back to her companion, and I quickly realized the sad, negative connotation I just lobbied her way. What I meant was, “Impressive glass, classic choice, ... continue reading The Power of (Empty v. Juicy) Words

• Every Exceptional Business Has a Key …

  Shelly Bowen

  2 Sep 2009 | 5:11 pm

  PYBOP Scribbles #2. What exceptional content will your key unlock? Click to enlarge image. Improve your business and improve the world? Why not? It seems many exceptional business are doing just that. Imagine the impact of: Better working conditions. Healthier environment. Stronger appreciation of individual talent over conformity. Healthier, stronger people. Broader cultural awareness and ... continue reading Every Exceptional Business Has a Key …

• I Fell Hard for Soft Sanuk Flops

  Shelly Bowen

  26 Aug 2009 | 12:38 pm

  Content Marketing Works … When People Fall in Love With Your Story Every year I search for a pair of summer sandals that are: A. Stylish enough to wear with a sundress B. Comfortable enough to wear all day at Disneyland (Not that I do either very often.) And every ... continue reading I Fell Hard for Soft Sanuk Flops

• 
  Mike Paul Jr - The Blog

• Pic from our Visalus Party

  Mike

  20 Nov 2009 | 5:32 pm

  Sent from my iPhone Posted via email from Mike’s posterous

• Just had the greatest pizza in the world…

  Mike

  6 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pm

  It’s been awhile, but it’s just as fantastic as I remember. Sent from my iPhone Posted via email from Mike’s posterous

• Can You Really Buy Web Site Traffic for Cheap?

  Mike

  30 Oct 2009 | 9:08 pm

  I decided to start this post with a question that I hear more and more people ask all the time, “Can you really buy web site traffic for cheap?” Most people that have spent any time online creating or learning to create web sites know that one of the most effective ways to get more traffic to your site is to buy it. If you want to buy web site traffic, you should know that there are literally thousands of sites that you can pay to advertise your site on.  Of course, there’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room know as Google Adwords, which is undoubtedly the king of all…

• Finding Hidden, Really Cheap Traffic sources

  Mike

  29 Oct 2009 | 7:59 pm

  Traffic.  We all know that getting traffic to your website is one of the most important tasks that any website owner, business person, affiliate marketer, or online marketer has to do. Without traffic, your website will die. Without traffic, no one will see your fantastic offer. Without traffic, your big idea that is going to change the world will never see the light of day. But getting that traffic is not the easiest thing to do sometimes, especially if you’re not paying for it. A guaranteed, super quick way to get immediate traffic to your site is to pay for it. But how much…

• Think You Can’t Make Money with Twitter? Think again…

  Mike

  29 Oct 2009 | 10:19 am

  I’ve heard a lot of people over the last several months (maybe even the last 2 years) talking about how much of a waste of time Twitter is and how there is nothing productive that can be gained from it.  I’m here to tell you that Twitter is an incredibly powerful tool if you know how to use it, and you use it well. Let’s just talk about that fact that last night from one “tweet” I received over 600 clicks to a test offer.  All in about 5 minutes. Granted, I’ll give you that the conversion rate was low (around 1%), but I haven’t put a lot of…

• 
  Word Sell, Inc.

• Taking a Break from the Blog

  Brad Shorr

  15 Nov 2009 | 9:56 am

  Time for Some Traveling This week I’ll be on the road, combining business with a little vacation. No blog, no Twitter, pretty much no computer. It’s healthy to take a break once in a while, don’t you think? Back November 23. Have a great week, everyone! Related Posts:Time to Hit the RoadTaking a Blog BreakOff to SOBCon09If You Live Somewhere, Join Robert's ProjectHappy Fourth of July!

• 4 Blog Typography Tips that Do Nothing for SEO

  Brad Shorr

  12 Nov 2009 | 4:38 am

  Recently I wrote a post on four typography tips that enhance SEO. Here are four more ideas that will improve the reader experience on your blog or website – even though they have no bearing whatsoever on SEO. I make a point of pointing them out for the following reason. Search engine optimization is worthless if people don’t like what they see when they get to your site. Web pages should be easy to read, easy to navigate, easy on the eye all the way around. Four Ways to Make Your Readers Happy Margins. Exceedingly wide or narrow lines of text are hard to read on a computer screen.

• Add a Media Room to Your Corporate Website

  Brad Shorr

  11 Nov 2009 | 5:10 am

  Whether your company is large or small, putting a “media room” on your website provides a host of benefits. I’m really surprised more companies don’t do it. A media room is a section -or page – of your site that includes such things as links to press releases, company announcements, a company profile, client case studies, informational podcasts, bios of key leaders, and contact information. Why Add a Media Room to Your Site? Legitimacy. When potential customers check you out on the web – and they all do – a robust media room shows them that you are an…

• How to Use Twitter Lists

  Brad Shorr

  9 Nov 2009 | 3:55 am

  Lists Are an Awesome New Twitter Feature Like many of you I’ve been playing around with Twitter Lists over the last few weeks. This new feature has captured my imagination on many levels. While I certainly haven’t figured out all the ways to use Lists, I thought I’d share what I’ve been doing – maybe it will spark ideas for you. And I’d love to hear what you think of Twitter Lists and how you’ve been using them. Lists allow me to selectively organize people I follow… Every time I follow someone, I try to assign them to one or more of my Lists. I…

• What Do You Do When You Can’t Think of Anything to Blog About?

  Brad Shorr

  5 Nov 2009 | 3:40 am

  Do You Have a Cure for Writer’s Block? How I Feel When the Words Won't Come Every now and then a chill comes over me because I can’t think of anything to blog about. Everything I know has been shared, or is already known. Every observation I can make has been observed. Inspiration is nowhere. Nothing I read or see suggests a topic. And most disconcertingly, this state of affairs for all the world feels permanent. I shared my feelings on Twitter, and Muse Crossing bailed me out with a simple suggestion. Wisely and with a helpful heart, Christine said, And so it is. What do you do…

• 
  Online Content Writing and Copywriting Blog

• 10 ways of generating interest in your readers

  eshadani

  11 Nov 2009 | 2:28 pm

  If both the roads are safe and the drive smooth, would you take the shorter way or the longer one? Time is short and sweet, definitely the shorter one, most of us would agree. Longer distances are good if you are on a vacation, you want to tune yourself with the nature and spend some quality time driving. Now, think your reader is the driver of the car and the roads the writing. If you are penning down something for the daily news, columns about technology, climate, retail etc, reports, etc – your reader will like the short road. For novel, thesis, poetry, stories or sometimes elaborate…

• 10 Reasons NOT to become a writer

  Shreyasi Majumdar

  10 Nov 2009 | 9:49 am

  Yes you read correctly. The word “NOT” is too clear to go unnoticed. Scanning random articles on the internet, on ‘writing’, I came across lots of pieces wherein I was being goaded into ‘101′ ways to write effectively or being told about its top ‘25′ benefits and sometimes also being reminded about the ‘few’ essentials to keep in mind if I was to build a profitable writing career for myself. While all of that was very good advice( I also love sharing my own experiences with “how-to” articles like these), I think first and…

• 10 ways of generating interest in your readers

  eshadani

  3 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am

  If both the roads are safe and the drive smooth, would you take the shorter way or the longer one? Time is short and sweet, definitely the shorter one, most of us would agree. Longer distances are good if you are on a vacation, you want to tune yourself with the nature and spend some quality time driving. Now, think your reader is the driver of the car and the roads the writing. If you are penning down something for the daily news, columns about technology, climate, retail etc, reports, etc – your reader will like the short road. For novel, thesis, poetry, stories or sometimes elaborate…

• Stupid writing mistakes to be avoided

  Amrit

  16 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am

  Language, I believe, is not as inflexible as it is made out to be by the so-called purists and impurists. Anything forced sounds unnatural. A sentence can be interpreted in thousands of ways, and you can convey the same thing in thousands of different sentences. So unless there are some glaring grammatical or spelling mistakes, I don’t think there is right writing or wrong writing — the underlying objective is to convey in the most compelling and comprehensive manner. Here is a nice blog post on stupidest writing mistakes. I won’t say that all the mistakes listed there are…

• Twitter Lists: list to follow

  Amrit

  15 Oct 2009 | 6:17 pm

  Twitter has added a features that allows you to create a list of your favorite people you’re following and would let others follow them with a single click. Currently, as this Mashable blog post states, this feature is available to a select few, but gradually it’ll be available to all Twitter users. This I think is a nice way of recommending people and this will help you gain more followers. Also, as it happens in almost every sphere in life, this features is firstmost being offered to well-known Twitter users, but the good thing is, if they recommend you in their list, it’s…