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…
Content Marketing
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Junta42-Content Marketing
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Custom Print Magazines - Why Can't MasterCard Produce Inc. Magazine?
4 Nov 2009 | 7:00 am -
Less of Me, More of You - A Stella Pop Content Marketing Video
2 Nov 2009 | 7:38 pmBig thanks to Mike O'Grady at Stella Pop for putting out the latest edition of eVidmagazine featuring yours truly. Although Mike was originally thinking a two or three minute video interview, he decided that the video worked best as a 10 minute segment. Hey, he's the expert, so I'm not going to disagree with him. My biggest takeaway from the video was this - Less of me and more of you (well, not literally since it's almost 10 minutes of me). What I mean is that brands are starting to focus much more on you (the buyer) and much less on the "me" (themselves). In simplest… -
BtoB Custom Media / Custom Publishing Special Report
29 Oct 2009 | 9:49 amBtoB Magazine just did an outstanding custom media special report for business-to-business brands. Here's an overview of the special report. Media, Agencies Battle to be Kings of Content: Publishers, advertising agencies, direct firms, pr firms - everyone is battling for the money flowing into content marketing and custom media. This article offers perspectives from both media companies and agencies on the battle for content. Custom Media Moves Closer to the Core: Great examples from the CME Group, Sherwin-Williams and IDG on how brands are leveraging both print and online custom media as… -
Who's Outsourcing Content? - A Junta42 Annual Report
29 Oct 2009 | 5:33 amWe just delivered the Junta42 annual report email to the Junta42 content marketing vendors and I thought I would share it with the community.As you'll see in the email, these are high-level numbers. Over the next few weeks, we'll be putting together a "State of Content Marketing Outsourcing" (better title to come) that will take the mounds of data we have on content marketing projects and put it together in a handy report. If there is anything specific you'd like to see, please let me know.>>>>Start of EmailHi John: First off, I wanted to… -
Personal Branding Success in 15 Steps
27 Oct 2009 | 7:35 pmDan Schawbel has put together a first-rate magazine about personal branding called (of course) Personal Branding Magazine. The latest issue includes an article from yours truly, which I've included below. I also included one of my PowerPoint presentations when I do in-person workshops on personal branding (this article was based on that presentation). If this topic is important to you, I suggest you check out Dan's magazine (get the free trial issue here). 15 Steps to Personal Branding SuccessBefore talking about the how of personal branding, it’s essential to talk about why…
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Online Marketing Blog
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5 Tips for Effective Email Copywriting
6 Nov 2009 | 4:34 amThe quality of email content is one of the core factors in determining whether an email marketing campaign succeeds or fails. But successful email copywriting is an art — rather than a science — making it different from most other forms of business writing. To start out on the right path, consider these 5 tips for effective email copywriting: 1. Focus on the subject line. The subject line may be the shortest piece of content to write, but it’s one your campaign’s most critical elements. The challenge is to create excitement for a special offer, provide enough information… -
Reader Poll Winner: SEO Dojo for Best Paid Subscription SEM Community
5 Nov 2009 | 7:53 amTopRank has been publishing the BIGLIST of SEM blogs since Jan 2007. We’ve created other BIGLISTs of resources as well including the BIGLIST of 100+ Search Marketing Resources posted in October. The categories for that list of SEM resources includes books, conferences, newsletters, blogs, forums and many more. We decided it would be interesting to see which resources from that list our readers felt were the best. In the past 3 plus years TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog has run over 50 polls: Everything from Best Social Media Podcast to best Keyword Research Tool to Best City for… -
How to Save Money on Social SEO Consulting
3 Nov 2009 | 5:45 amSocial Media Marketing is getting a lot of attention in the media on and offline, causing many business marketers to wonder how to adjust budgets and resources to participate. Others that have allocated funds to Social Media and SEO programs without proper implementation, timelines or measurement may question their return on investment. While businesses decide to push or pull budgets, companies that are focused on winning market share and driving revenue are soundly and consistently investing in a mix of digital tactics involving search, email, online PR and of course, social media. Adding… -
Pubcon Las Vegas 2009: Are You Ready?
2 Nov 2009 | 8:41 amAnother year in the Search Marketing world, another WebmasterWorld Pubcon in Las Vegas. Pubcon was one of the first search marketing conferences I attended and where I first met a number of highly talented SEOs in person. TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog has been liveblogging the Pubcon conference since 2005 and includes a mix of content ranging from interviews with Pubcon owner Brett Tabke to Google’s Adam Lasnik. Also videos (Neil Patel giving interesting tips), photos (see the 2006 Yahoo Party in the Playboy Suite and many, many posts from the sessions offering strategy… -
TopRank’s SEO Halloween Costume Contest
30 Oct 2009 | 10:42 amThe TopRank team loves to have fun – for holidays, on team outings, at conferences, etc. Because tomorrow is Halloween, a few members of the TopRank team decided to dress up for a costume contest. And it’s up to you to decide the winner! Winning includes at least $50 worth of coffee, so be sure to share this post and get your friends to vote too. We have a winner – Congrats goes to Dana Larson: Winner! Dana as Minnesota Strawberry Shortcake Safari Thomas Bad Angel Julie Michelle the Football Star Monkey Audrey and Veterinary Nurse Amie Mike as Zombie Soupy Sales Sue After…
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Copyblogger
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The Oscar the Grouch Guide to Building a More Remarkable Blog
6 Nov 2009 | 7:33 amThis week marked the 40th anniversary of the breakthrough TV program Sesame Street. I’ve written before about some of the many lessons you can learn from this cultural icon, but today I’m going to zero in something new. You might have an Elmo blog, a Cookie Monster blog, or a Big Bird blog. (How you define those is up to you.) But some of the smartest and most successful bloggers out there bear more in common with the show’s least-likeable character: Oscar the Grouch. Oscar was an important character from the show’s beginning, and on the surface he doesn’t seem to quite fit in. -
Here’s Something to Think (and Talk) About
5 Nov 2009 | 6:55 amI’m flying to New York City today for the Audience Conference, so I thought I’d share a quotation about the relationship between writers (or any content creator) and the people they hope to connect with. When talented people write badly it’s generally for one of two reasons: Either they’re blinded by an idea they feel compelled to prove or they’re driven by an emotion they must express. When talented people write well, it is generally for this reason: They’re moved by a desire to touch the audience. ~Robert McKee Let’s discuss. What do McKee’s words mean to you? About the… -
Get Off Your Computer and Become a Better Blogger
4 Nov 2009 | 6:45 amBloggers spend a lot of time on their computers. They’re posting, reading, commenting on other blogs, sending Tweets, checking half a dozen social networking sites, and generally being web-geeky. They find something interesting or random, and then clue in other people to that interesting or random thing. This is how blog posts gain steam on Digg or go viral. This is how we find out about new YouTube videos. This is how we communicate now. Except we don’t. We were people before we were bloggers Think about the blogs that you like the most. Like, to pick a totally random example,… -
The Quentin Tarantino Guide to Creating Killer Content
3 Nov 2009 | 5:58 amIn a recent Copyblogger post discussing how the king of content is being slowly usurped by the Crown Prince of Context, author Larry Brooks referenced the remarkable opening scene of Quentin Tarantino’s new movie Inglourious Basterds. There are few writers like Tarantino, and though his verbal carpet bombs and kinetic escalation of violence aren’t for everyone, there is no doubt that the dude follows his muse. Those who love him will eagerly wait in lines wrapped around the block to show their support. In short, Tarantino sells it every time. And by it, I mean an ironclad belief in… -
How to Get Lucky With Content Marketing
2 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amDo you feel like you’re fighting for every page view your blog receives? Do you wonder why you’re struggling to find readers when other bloggers seem to just hit “publish” and the world comes running? It may be tempting to throw up your hands and say, “those other guys have all the luck,” but it won’t get you anywhere. The truth is, those “lucky” people are doing something you’re not doing. (Or they’re doing what you are doing, but better.) If you want to get lucky, you’re going to have to give up the “poor…
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Writing on the Web
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Content Creation Made Easy, Interactive, and Affordable: My Knowledge Genie Free Class
6 Nov 2009 | 3:21 amYou may have heard the buzz about it already, My Knowledge Genie is a content creating wizard that will save you a ton of time and energy. I don't promote products unless I see them as having really good value. As soon as I set up a free account at MyKnowledgeGenie.com, I had to stop my fist from hitting my forehead too hard. This tool really is a genie. I started a free trial last week, and I'm almost finished with a comprehensive ebook that includes chapters, checklists, definitions, learning reminders, and summary questions. I'll be publishing it soon, and selling it for $97. Cost for… -
3 Key Content Questions You Must Answer
4 Nov 2009 | 3:51 amTo paraphrase Doug Kessler, Velocity Marketing:While there’s a lot of craft in the practice of content marketing, the core of the discipline is very, very simple: you have to be able to answer three questions quickly, clearly and compellingly: Who the hell are you? Why should I care? Why should I believe you? If you can answer these three questions well, you’ll have done the hardest and most important part of your content marketing job. You'll also make the other parts of your job a lot easier.While Doug writes this as part of his Holy Trinity of Technology Marketing, these questions are… -
Put Down Your Twitter Toys & Get Back to Work!
3 Nov 2009 | 4:45 amI am looking at the Twitterverse and shaking my head. So much going on there, so much noise. Looks like some of you are having just too much fun over there...And like a kid with a new toy, some of you are abandoning your old stand-by business blogs in favor of quick updates on Twitter.Tsk, tsk. Put down your Twitter Toys right NOW! Some of you are making too much noise. All that laughing, it can't be good for business, now can it? Really? You're getting new clients and making money and having a good time, too? Can't be true...and yet...just last week I got a new client who told me she found… -
Confessions of a Content Marketing Doofus...
2 Nov 2009 | 6:27 amI've got to confess to being my own worse marketing example...This weekend I read my own blog posts...and decided I talk a good talk but don't always walk the talk! What a doofus...(Another great photo from Shutterstock)It's the post about using client comments as part of a good content marketing strategy. If social proof is so darned vital in influencing readers to become clients, why don't I showcase the emails and comments I get from the people I've worked with?I can be demure and say I don't like tooting my own horn, but that would be lame since I am telling everybody else how crucial… -
What Does Your Content Marketing "Table of Contents" Look Like?
1 Nov 2009 | 5:26 amIf you were to write a book, gathering your expertise up and packaging it for your targeted audience, what would the table of contents look like? Could you list 10-15 chapters taking a reader from step 1 through to finish?I recently did this, in preparation for an informational product. It's not finished yet, but I discovered amazing results from listing the chapters: clarity and inspiration!For the last two weeks I've been creating fresh content and re-purposing old blog posts, following a trail of steps a person would take to create a strong online marketing presence for a small business.
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Influential Marketing
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Why Your Business Needs A Concierge
4 Nov 2009 | 6:21 amAdrian Moore is the best concierge in the world. At least, according to British travel magazine Monacle, he is. He works at the Four Seasons in Paris, knows all the best spots and restaurants, is intimately aware of any festivals or special events in his city and is, by any account, an authority on all things about Paris. As a business traveller, I appreciate a concierge like this. Unfortunately, the majority of hotels never have anyone like Adrian. Instead, they staff their "concierge" desk with someone who was checking people in at the front desk just the week before. In those empty cases,… -
A Marketing Lesson From Michael Jackson's This Is It Film
3 Nov 2009 | 6:32 amDeconstruction is a powerful idea. All it means is taking an experience or something real and breaking it down into its individual components. Deconstructing helps you to understand something. Deconstructing tells a story. I remember the first time I saw the movie Amadeus, the Oscar winning dramatization of the life of Mozart, there was one scene that stayed with me. It was the composer Salieri describing (and deconstructing) the music of Mozart: It helped me to understand classical music in a way I had never thought about. This weekend, as I watched the memorial documentary of Michael… -
5 Ways To Use Twitter's New List Feature For Marketers
29 Oct 2009 | 3:50 amThere is no denying that Twitter has had a huge impact on how marketers are thinking about using social media tools for marketing. One thing that is most interesting about it, however, is how the site has managed to avoid overcomplicating itself with more features. Twitter is simple, and it just works. Of course the one overused word that has been used recently to describe Twitter is that it is a "firehose" of information, shooting out at a speed and volume that has threatened to make it unusable for many people. So when I had a chance to try out Twitter's new Lists feature (which I had been… -
9 Marketing Lessons From The Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Campaign
21 Oct 2009 | 8:58 amIf you have watched any television or been inside a retail store at any point this month in the US, it would have likely been hard to miss the omnipresence of pink where it wasn't before. From pink clothes, to laptops, to banners to shoes and gloves on your favourite NFL players, the marketing blitz of pink has just about taken over the retail landscape. The color and ribbon are the symbols of the fight against breast cancer, and may easily represent one of the most widespread cause marketing campaigns in terms of partners since the RED campaign offered custom branded products to support… -
Do You Know Someone Who Loves Your Brand?
20 Oct 2009 | 11:54 amFor years in the automotive industry, marketers have known that getting someone to actually purchase a car depends on much more than the features and latest gadgetry. No one buys a car solely for the face detection alert software - though certainly something like that can influence the decision. What really sells those cars, though, is a person's prior experience with a brand and the opinion of others that they trust when it comes to experiences with the car or brand. Word of mouth and prior experience, those are at the top of the list.Unfortunately, we don't often see automotive advertising…
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Web Ink Now
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To gate or not to gate? Data from an ebook offer
5 Nov 2009 | 11:21 amAt my keynote speeches, one of the most frequent questions I get is around my position that it is almost always best to make valuable content (such as white papers and ebooks) totally free vs requiring an email address to download. The essence of this raging debate is that with a gate, each person downloading becomes a valuable sales lead, however making the content totally free with no registration required means many more people will download and spread your content via email, Twitter, blogs, and the like. Frequent readers of this blog know that I write about this topic from time to time,… -
Grateful Dead at the forefront of marketing technology
4 Nov 2009 | 6:14 amThis week I had a chance to hang out with Jay Blakesberg, long-time Grateful Dead tour photographer, in his San Francisco studio. We discussed how the band (now called The Dead) is at the forefront of using technology for marketing. This video is about 9 minutes and includes highlights from the discussions. Please take the time to hear Jay describe what a true marketing powerhouse of a band is doing more than 45 years after they originally formed. I suggest letting the video load before watching. Direct link to the video here. Details of what we discussed in the video: :00 - 1:50 Through a… -
Stupid press release spam
29 Oct 2009 | 12:24 pmI want to know why companies insist on sending me press releases via email in areas that I clearly do not cover. What a pain in the butt to have to wade through these things in my inbox every day. Don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of using press releases as a tool to reach buyers. You can read more about that in my free ebook The New Rules of PR. Press releases can be a valuable way to communicate. I'm also a fan of sending personal messages to people to alert them to things that they may find interesting. I really do welcome the many emails and direct messages that people send me about things… -
Who the hell ARE these people?
26 Oct 2009 | 6:14 amMaybe you can help me. I really want to know: Who the hell are these people? Who are these young, happy, pretty, multi-cultural people with great teeth and even better hair who hang out with notebook computers in sleek and modern conference rooms on B2B company Web sites all over the world? Who are these international inhabitants of virtual corporate locales? The reason I ask is because I've personally been inside hundreds and hundreds of B2B company offices in over 20 countries and have spent time in probably a thousand conference rooms over a 25-year career. Yet I have never seen these… -
The new rules of business-to-business marketing & PR
23 Oct 2009 | 7:23 amBack in June, I keynoted the Business Marketing Association annual conference. Fortunately, the BMA made a video of my presentation and gave me permission to put it onto Vimeo. This 45-minute keynote presentation The New Rules of Marketing & PR for B2B Businesses is the first time my entire keynote for a B2B audience has been made available in this way. After the keynote, I answer a few questions for another ten minutes. I hope you can find time to watch. Direct link to the video here. More information about my keynotes and a speaking calendar here. Gary Slack, BMA Chairman says of this…
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Marketing with Meaning
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Golden Tee Video Game Extends Experience with YouTube
6 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amA few weeks ago I was having a beer with a friend at a local watering hole, and something caught my eye in the background. It was a YouTube logo that flashed on the screen of the Golden Tee virtual golf video game machine behind our table. Being a passionate meaningful marketer and always on the lookout for a new blog entry, I ran over to the game to check it out. I discovered a very cool add-on to this ever-popular bar game. One of my personal goals in my job as head of strategy at digital agency Bridge Worldwide is to convince my clients that they don’t necessarily need a… -
Will “Droid Does” Be Meaningful?
4 Nov 2009 | 6:00 am(Today I’m turning over the keys to guest writer Marty Boyer, one of our top technology leaders here at Bridge Worldwide. Marty had some great thinking about a new campaign for Verizon that is meant to steal share from the iPhone, and I asked him to add his thinking to this space. Please also check out Marty’s blog over at Famine City.) If you are going to call out the iPhone for its shortcomings, you better bring a great product and the marketing cavalry. Unfortunately, I have to say that while the technology might deliver on the brand promise for Android, the “Droid Does”… -
Phish Has Halloween Fun and Serves Marketing Lessons
2 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amLast week I wrote a recap about how BlackBerry bombed in its “love” for the band U2. At the end of that post I praised U2 both for putting on a great show and for giving it away for free on YouTube. Today I wanted to share the story of how a band at the other end of the musical spectrum, Phish, continues to draw loyal fans by adding fun experiences to the period leading up to its shows. Phish’s annual Halloween act shows how entertainment properties must keep their act fresh, and I believe there are lessons for any brand in how to be meaningful by just having fun with your… -
BlackBerry Loves U2: Who Cares?
28 Oct 2009 | 6:00 amOver the weekend my wife and I took a break from everyday life to head out to Las Vegas for a long weekend featuring the U2 concert on Friday night. Your dedicated blogger took the opportunity to spend a little time sampling BlackBerry’s enormous sponsorship of the band’s 360 Tour, and what I found is Marketing Without Meaning. By now you have probably seen BlackBerry’s splashy, sexy TV commercials featuring U2 and the tagline “BlackBerry Loves U2.” The concert arena in Las Vegas had plenty of banners put up (like the above) announcing the brand’s love for… -
How Brands Can Partner to Add More Value
26 Oct 2009 | 6:00 amToday I want to share the second of two articles that I was asked to write for Entrepreneur magazine. In the first article from a few weeks ago, I explained the Marketing with Meaning concept to the small-business audience. In this piece, I write about how two brands or businesses can partner up to do more meaningful marketing for their combined audiences. Joint marketing between brands can also reduce costs for both sides, allow for brands to gain the direct attention of new customers, and increase the chance to stand out in a very crowded marketplace. Although I am writing for the…
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Nigel Hollis
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If at first you don’t succeed, try another poll
3 Nov 2009 | 9:36 pmI 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 [...] -
10 tips to make your online creative work harder
1 Nov 2009 | 8:47 pmMy colleagues at Dynamic Logic just held a 4As webinar titled “Online Creative Best Practices.” Over 300 people logged in to the webinar and the feedback was very positive. When I looked through the presentation, I was struck by the fact that there are both similarities and differences in what works for online and what [...] -
Social and environmental responsibility: moving beyond platitudes
30 Oct 2009 | 5:44 amThese days it is tough to find a major company that is not promoting its social and environmental responsibility efforts. However, many of their claims ring hollow, like TV commercials that depict emotion but leave viewers unmoved. But as I hope I have demonstrated in my prior posts, now might be a good time for [...] -
It takes a big business to make a big change.
27 Oct 2009 | 4:18 pmIn a previous post titled “Why brands should consider Mother Earth a stakeholder,” I commented that I am not a fan of the “government-should-do-something” argument. The government only acts on issues like these when a crisis is imminent and public opinion requires it. It seems to me that of all the parties that have a stake [...] -
Making more green from being green
25 Oct 2009 | 8:01 pmWhile most people to date have proven themselves unwilling to pay a premium for environmentally responsible brands, I think there are at least three reasons why companies should look seriously at making “green” works a part of their business plans. First, there is certainly a niche market for such products, and though it may currently [...]
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Conversation Agent
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Is Your Conversation About Scarcity or Abundance?
6 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amYou need to decide now, because your results depend on the answer. I have a problem with scarcity mindset - it's myopic, unnecessarily restrictive, and in fact destructive for you and your organization. Scarcity presupposes that you're the center of the universe, that the work box is the only box available for packing a life, and it doesn't have a good ending. It's a very lonely ending. Yesterday we talked about the difference between getting recognition for its own sake and getting the idea done. The latter is in the abundance camp. Which incidentally is the same place or context where weak… -
Participation and Getting Ideas Done
5 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am[Maestro Salieri and the priest, from Amadeus, 2:35]This week, so far, we talked about setting up listening posts to serve customers better as first line of response and to be proactive, building a framework to develop valuable content to deliver as a service, and measurement. Today we focus on participation. That mix of attention, time, interaction, with a sprinkle of human thrown into it that makes relationships start and grow.What did you see in the movie clip above? [hat tip Rohit Barghava for leading me to Amadeus] Antonio Salieri was the most famous composer in Europe. He wrote 40… -
Avinash Kaushik, Web Analytics 2.0
4 Nov 2009 | 4:00 am“In God we trust, all others bring data.” — Framed plaque from the ‘60s at NASA’s Johnson Space CenterWhen it comes to deep smarts, curiosity, with practical advice and sprinkled with a healthy dose of good humor, I cannot think of anyone more qualified than Avinash Kaushik. He's not only a real dynamo in all matters analytics, he's also a genuinely passionate, interesting, and kind person. Think that he wrote the answers to our conversation while his hand was healing from an injury because he had made a promise.Every single one of his posts - and now I can say the same for the… -
Developing a B2B Content Strategy: Start with Who
3 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amBusinesses that want to create long-term sustainable growth will be increasingly moving towards connected company status. That is the place where being social benefits the business by providing insights, strengthening relationships with partners and customers, and building and connecting a community with common grounds and needs. In many organizations, the listening post resides within the marketing group. As we discussed yesterday here and on Twitter, customer service should co-own the space and collaborate to develop big ears during customer conversations and interactions. In many B2B… -
Twitter, Customer Service, and Good Brand Management
2 Nov 2009 | 4:00 amIf monitoring conversations and knowing what you're listening for is the first ingredient in good online best practices, knowing when and how to respond is much more than good etiquette. It's become an integral aspect of brand management and can mean the difference between a flop - or worse, a crisis - and a deposit in your company's reputation bank.It's easy to dismiss Twitter's usefulness as a tool. That is until you figure out that on Twitter you can find mentions of your brand and you can actually connect with customers directly and provide a first line of response. Chances are, that in…
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Buzz Marketing for Technology
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The Tipping Point and your Contact Center
3 Nov 2009 | 6:06 amBack 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 amLast 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… -
Use Social Media to spot issues before they hit the Contact Center!
27 Oct 2009 | 10:35 amFirey laptop batteries, defective chips, tainted foods, toothpaste that stains teeth – these are just some real examples of issues that struck companies recently that might have been headed off at the pass by Social Media.When you have an issue these days – what’s the first place you go for more information? That’s right – the Internet – most likely Google but increasingly for real time information search you might use Twitter. Conversely most people don’t just pick up the phone and call a company anymore.Some of these issues first showed up on Twitter way before they ever hit… -
Spend More Time Planning your Content Strategy!
20 Oct 2009 | 7:12 amBecause of my new book, Facebook Marketing for Dummies (Wiley), which is launching next week - I have been getting a lot of emails and questions from my readers that are very focused on launching their Facebook and Twitter presence.Seems to me like these channels have gone mainstream in the minds of many marketers as evidenced by the number of inquires about these channels and also by my mom's Facebook profile and my dad's Twitter feed! But what scares me even more than that is the seemingly singleminded focus on the launch of these mediums rather than conversational aspect.Everyone seems… -
Why Social Strategies are Difficult for Agencies to execute?
15 Oct 2009 | 9:14 amMany agencies today are offering Social Media services (if they aren’t they need to). But for many of them it is often hard to architect the strategy since so much of the knowledge of ‘who to go to’ for ‘what type of Social Media conversation’ is very internal knowledge.A good Social Media strategy starts with looking at what Conversations you want to engage in, what Objectives you have for engaging in those conversations, what Strategy you will have to fulfill on those objectives and finally what Technology you will use to get there.In order to plan that out for a client, the…
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Post Advertising
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The Mags (and Ads) of Google Books
6 Nov 2009 | 8:18 amI’m pretty old fashioned when it comes to my books, newspapers, and magazines. Yet despite my marginalia, I’m forever forgetting where that certain line or passage is—right when I want to read it to someone. Enter Google Books. I can certainly see the utility in that! And now it’s added magazines to the lineup. I want to scream “Disconnect!” but I can’t stop reading New York. Like Google Books, the magazines are also searchable. What’s interesting here is that your search isn’t strictly limited to article content, but ads appear in the… -
Celebrating Movember
5 Nov 2009 | 8:55 amMerry Movember! Now even non-Williamsburgers have an excuse to grow a ‘stache. It’s Movember—“Mo” for moustache, “vember” for November. Say what? Men across the globe are spending 30 days growing and grooming their moustaches. And, um, why? To bring awareness of and funding for the cancers that affect men. But it wasn’t always this way. When it started over beers in Melbourne in 2003, the Aussies simply wanted to bring back the moustache. Then, the founders realized that the mo (Australian slang for moustache) had the potential for good. -
In Cell Phones We Trust
5 Nov 2009 | 7:51 amRankings released by Brand Keys recently demonstrate that consumers are the most brand-loyal to the thing that they use daily (if not hourly). Yes, the cell phone. The iPhone, predictably, was king. Samsung- and BlackBerry-made phones came in second and fourth place, respectively. So why are consumers so attached to these brands? Because they’re so attached to the physical phone. Even if they’re not in use, people always have one on them, in their pockets or lost in a purse. Also on the list was Hyundai. The car company has been successful because owners connected with the offer… -
A Difference of Opinion
4 Nov 2009 | 5:51 amIn September, The Huffington Post surpassed the Washington Post in terms of unique visitors. "The Huff Post was up 26% year-over-year to 9.4 million uniques, while uniques at the Washingtonpost.com dropped almost 30% to 9.2 million," reports Jennifer Saba at Editor & Publisher.Look out, media giants. You are never safe. What’s particularly interesting about this audience migration is that HuffPo often finds its stories from more established news sources — New York Times, Wall Street Journal, WashPo itself. Rarely (if ever) does it go the other way. But HuffPo’s reporters… -
Taking Back the Village
3 Nov 2009 | 6:46 amIt's hard for me to badmouth Marc Jacobs, but this needs to be said. The West Village has become the ritzy part of town cluttered with upscale brunch spots, luxury shops, and the beatnik-turned-bourgeois. And it needs to be stopped. That’s the reason for Mike Joyce's guerrilla-style campaign. After he saw two of his favorite restaurants close, he launched "More Jane Jacobs, less Marc Jacobs." It's supposedly a play on words, but it also appears to be a nod to the same-name activist and urban planner who lived in the neighborhood in the 1960s and is known for her writing on neighborhoods…
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Conversation Marketing
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14 social media lessons we can all learn
2 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pmYep, my least favorite marketing term finally gets its own list. Aside from my occasional outpouring of hatred. Truth is, though, whatever you want to call it, social media is teaching us how marketing should work, and how it's always worked. Here's a list of my thoughts on the subject: 1. It's just media. Listen to Gary Vaynerchuck. And Steve Rubel. And to me. The secret is that it's just media. What we call 'social media' is a fantastic evolution of media. It's media distilled down to a bazillion conversations, all going on, all at once. Sounds chaotic? That's because it is. Todo: Read… -
8 marketing messages we all know are lies
29 Oct 2009 | 8:25 pmAfter a few years in marketing, it's hard to say any of these without blushing. The louder we say it, the more you can depend on the fact that we're lying: We care about your business. Typically said as the customer service department shoves something splintery into whatever orifice you forgot to seal shut. Made with you in mind. Only if 'you' means '30 people locked in a room behind one-way glass, fed caffeine and sugar and then egged on by a facilitator until they were all ready to kill each other'. We will beat any price. Except prices in catalogs, prices from the store down the street,… -
RFPs Suck - Don't take my word for it...
27 Oct 2009 | 6:12 pmRFPs are like a colonoscopy: Someone you don't even know gets to inspect you from the inside out. Sorry, I prefer to have dinner first. Thankfully, I'm no longer raving alone. Tom Searcy has written an excellent book titled, guess what, RFPs Suck! How to Master the RFP System Once and for All to Win Big Business. Unlike me, he provides excellent help to navigate the RFP process. In fact, I used some of his advice in an RFP, and are now in the running for the contract. So his stuff works. Tom was kind enough to do an interview with me about the book and RFPs in general. Here it is: 1. What… -
Sound Transit Web Site Review: They get an F-
26 Oct 2009 | 9:02 pmSound Transit is soliciting comments and ideas to improve their web site. I've long seen this site as a blight upon all public transit, so I did a special edition video review. Note that I am having a crappy week, and it's only Monday, so any harshness is totally 100% authentic: For God's sake, guys, at least put a map on your home page. -
13 Internet marketing tips for Realtors
22 Oct 2009 | 7:39 pmYo, realtors: You guys rock. You help people make the biggest purchase of their lives. But you don't understand marketing. Or at least it seems that way. Here are a few tips: Don't send me canned e-mails with the same content that every other realtor is sending me. It does nothing for me, or you. Do send me a short note telling me about changes in the neighborhood, or big changes you think are coming to my block, or your new puppy. Pick something I care about! Build your own site. Your agency page is nice and all, but it looks like every other agent's agency page. Don't have the time/money to…
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Marketing Interactions
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Is Your Content Marketing the Conversation?
5 Nov 2009 | 7:06 amB2B marketers are focused on getting response to their content and outreach initiatives. They want click throughs and replies and inquiries to result from the calls to action they flow through their marketing programs. But, what B2B marketers of complex sales need to focus on—in addition—is marketing the conversation. There are a variety of conversations we need to influence and enable: Sales conversations - Yes, this is the big one that all marketers are focused on achieving. This is the one your sales team expects you to generate. A lot of them. Prospect conversations - As inside sales… -
CSO Insights Sales Performance Optimization Survey
4 Nov 2009 | 12:03 pmI don't know about you, but I look forward to digging through all the intelligence that CSO Insights compiles every year about what's happening with sales performance. In fact, this is their 16th year in doing so which pretty much makes them the authority on sales data.The other thing I think is important is that they get close to 2,000 Chief Sales Officers to participate, sharing their knowledge about more than 100 sales performance metrics. In an age when aligning marketing and sales is paramount, marketers can glean a lot of insights to help them work more closely with their… -
Answer Questions with Content
1 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pmQuestions are a staple of our lives. They are what inspire us to explore, learn, achieve, challenge and wonder. Imagine your life for just one day without asking a question — whether out loud or in your head. What the heck would you do all day long? (See, I can't do it.) Well, neither can your prospects and customers. Each challenge that arises is a question generator. What, where, when, how and why is a thought-process structure we've embraced since childhood.We're demanding. We want proof, knowledge and evidence before we believe. (Well, most of us do.)The trick to… -
What Nuances Differentiate Your Company?
28 Oct 2009 | 7:09 pmB2B marketers are so used to talking about their products that they forget about what makes them unique to specific markets. You've got to get your marketing content refined down to nuances to attract prospects who will become buyers. Why? Because, unless you do this, you sound like every other vendor selling the same product or solution that you sell. Seriously. Think about it. Do you want to do battle based on feeds and speeds? Companies can spin numbers to say the same things—or better—than you do. Numbers, usually used without enough context for clarity, are funny that way. Or,… -
Constant Contact Really Knows Their Customers
26 Oct 2009 | 1:48 pmI had the pleasure of speaking with the folks at Constant Contact last week about their new Event Marketing tool. It sounded pretty cool. So I tried to push them about how it could be useful to mid-size and larger companies whose marketers get stuck in the IT queue, waiting for their stuff to get posted. The timeline is horrific. I pushed about customized templates, about integration, about a lot of ideas that occurred to me. You know what they told me? That's not our market. Bravo! They then went on to share with me just how well they know who they are and who they serve. "Constant…
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PR 2.0
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Rumors of the Death of Blogs are Greatly Exaggerated
6 Nov 2009 | 4:02 amSource: feministingEach year at Blogworld Expo, Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra presents The State of the Blogosphere as one of the event’s prestigious keynotes. For those who are unfamiliar with Technorati, it serves as a directory and search engine for the blogosphere as well as a benchmark for the ranking of blogs worldwide.While there has been much discussion about the relevance and even demise of blogs as the statusphere and micro updates gained traction in addition to earning prominence in the mainstream spotlight, the reality is that blogs are a vital ingredient to the media… -
RT @Twitter: New Retweet Feature Goes Live
5 Nov 2009 | 7:29 pmSource: TwitterThis is breaking news at the moment, therefore this post will update as new information trickles in.Twitter is making good on its recent promise to introduce new features to bring users back to Twitter.com.Similar to the way that it rolled out Lists, Twitter is incrementally releasing its new Retweet feature initially previewed in August 2009.As described by @Biz, co-founder of Twitter:Retweet is a button that makes forwarding a particularly interesting tweet to all your followers very easy. In turn, we hope interesting, newsworthy, or even just plain funny information will… -
Social Media Influencers are not Traditional Influencers
5 Nov 2009 | 4:19 amSourceGuest post by Damien Basille, follow him on Twitter | Read his blogAs more and more brands are moving all of their ad spend online, defining how influence affects their return on investment is necessary and must be done as soon as possible. While some are making inroads to define these calculations many are overlooking the fact that influence affects everything. Without factoring in the real issue of different types of influence you run into a number of problems, for instance focusing on one group of influencers over another or getting broad sweeping numbers instead of knowing exactly… -
The Future of the Embargo
3 Nov 2009 | 4:25 amCreditIn media and blogger relations, PR typically wields two powerful tools to help boost the effectiveness of pitching and potential placement of news: the embargo and the exclusive.In the case of an exclusive, a story is usually packaged prior to official release for one particular writer, fully understanding their style, nuances, and audience. If the story is accepted, it is not pitched to any other media outlets until after the story runs. The benefit for PR is that it can bank on the publishing of a guaranteed, high profile story. The advantage for the reporter is that they maintain a… -
Twitter Releases New Widget for Lists
2 Nov 2009 | 7:14 pmTwitter recently expanded its new Lists service to users network-wide and in doing so, injected a sense of excitement, confusion, and also utility. Lists represent a significant milestone for Twitter as it transcends asynchronous conversations and and broadcast messages into a form of intelligence gathering, education, entertainment, and news.Twitter Lists are also stirring controversy as many believe that it sets the foundation for a new level of establishing a metric for influence. Whereas prominence was measured by the number of followers as well as the friends-to-follower ratio, now the…
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Nick Burcher
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Keep The Wave Going - the MLB 'Mexico Wave' on Twitter
5 Nov 2009 | 5:03 amTwitter is being overrun by (Kevin from the Jonas Brothers birthday tweets) and a message called 'Keep The Wave Going'.The 'Keep The Wave Going' tweet is designed to look like a stadium wave / Mexico Wave and was tweeted last night by @MLB shortly before the Yankees completed another World Series triumph.MLB 'Keep The Wave Going' originating tweet (click for larger image)This Keep The Wave Going message is being extensively retweeted and remixed and continues to dominate Twitter. The initial appeal was obviously to baseball fans as the World Series came to a close and 9 out of 10 trending… -
'Viral Loop' by Adam L. Penenberg - The Power Of Pass-It-On
5 Nov 2009 | 1:20 amAt the Adtech London conference I presented my model of 'the Destination and the Conversation' and spoke about how everything now works together.Traditionally it was (primarily) about pushing people to a Destination (a website, a microsite etc) through broadcasting a message along the lines of 'go here now!' However, the prolification of social platforms on the web has now added a second element to marketing, 'the Conversation.' The Conversation is where people discuss, share and interact in online social spaces - from blogs to Facebook to YouTube etc.The Destination and The Conversation from… -
Weezer and Snuggie - band sells new CD alongside the cult blanket with sleeves!
4 Nov 2009 | 6:00 amSnuggie have a huge (cult?) following in the US. Not yet a mainstream phenomenon in the UK, but internet appearances are starting to give visibility to Snuggie products - none more so than Weezer's decision to sell their new CD in combination with a Weezer Snuggie!Snuggie is a classic infomercial product. You never knew you needed a blanket with sleeves, but once the versatility of the product has been demonstrated you won't understand how you ever lived without one:SnuggieSnuggie has managed to crossover into mainstream conciousness quickly. A search for 'Snuggie' on Youtube reveals… -
Sherlock Holmes Facebook detective game builds pre-release buzz for 'Sherlock'
3 Nov 2009 | 5:12 amThe forthcoming Sherlock Holmes film, 'Sherlock', has launched a, Facebook based, online detective game called 221b.221b Sherlock Holmes Facebook detective game221b is a two-player game that runs through the events leading up to the first scene of the film. Players can choose to be Sherlock Holmes or Dr. Watson and investigate crimes, sift through evidence and solve mysteries.221b Facebook ConnectThe game is played out in 8 chapters, each with it's own mystery to solve. Based on Microsoft Sliverlight and Flash, the game also uses Facebook Connect (though won't update news feeds or Facebook… -
New Guinness TV ad - sneak preview
2 Nov 2009 | 9:40 amThe new Guinness TV is set to break in the UK this week. Shot in HD, the new Guinness TV ad will premiere on ITV and Sky Sports HD.I have no idea what the ad is about, but have some behind the scenes shots and it looks spectacular:New Guinness TV ad - behind the scenes (1)New Guinness TV ad - behind the scenes (2)New Guinness TV ad - behind the scenes (3)New Guinness TV ad - behind the scenes (4)New Guinness TV ad - behind the scenes (5)I'm intrigued to see what the final ad looks like!UPDATE:Here is the final execution - the new Guinness ad 'Bring It To Life':Definitely spectacular - the ad…
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The Toadstool
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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 amOne 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… -
The Stubborn Mule-Like Tendencies of Reactionary Thinking
28 Oct 2009 | 7:07 pmThree random events transpired recently. Each fairly innocuous, in and of itself, but together they served to remind me how much the world hasn’t changed once you leave our particular neck of the woods. (Or the internet, as the case may be.)The first epiphany happened during a session with a client, when I was trying to explain why flash sites had fallen out of favor. I decided to use that old standby LeoBurnett.com as an example of the sort of flashturbation and “ha-ha you can’t figure out what to do next” interface that was once held out as the gold standard. And in that ten-second… -
Real Time Goes Prime Time
21 Oct 2009 | 8:40 pmSo it seems like both Bing and Google are in the process of cutting deals with Facebook and Twitter to use their databases for real time search.The result would seem to be a boon for Twitter and a potential land mine for Facebook.Most people tweet with the understanding that their tweets are public, searchable (on both search engines and on search.twitter.com) and function as a broadcast medium. As such, Twitter results on many topics will be both relevant and interesting. Particularly in regards to breaking news stories.But Facebook? With the influx of the over-30 crowd, Facebook’s become… -
More Magic Advertising Words
20 Oct 2009 | 12:41 pmThe Wall Street Journal' Kara Swisherreported yesterday that Yahoo! was moving its ad account from Ogilvy to Goodby. The news was greeted in ad circles with the usual schadenfreude and proclamations that golden child Goodby would “finally give them a good campaign.”If only it were that easy.Once again we have a case of a company relying on the power of Magic Advertising Words to save them from doom when the real problem is a less-than-ideal product.I’m not going to fix Yahoo in a single blog post (though this one, from Nicholas Carlson over at BusinessInsider, is a good start) but the…
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Servant of Chaos
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A Cup of Chaos #25 - #Media140: Journalism and Social Media
6 Nov 2009 | 1:00 amOver the last two days there has been some great discussion around the impact that social media is having on journalism. I have been listening in to the #Media140 conference via a live Ustream feed - and in this part of the proceedings facilitated by Mark Jones, we get some interesting perspectives from Renai LeMay, Wolf Cocklin, Latika Bourke, Andrew Davies and Dave Earley. Some of the opinions and approaches arising from the various panels (more short presentations than discussions) have been fascinating. They are well worth a listen - and may just stimulate your own thinking this Friday! -
On Generosity and Grace
5 Nov 2009 | 8:12 pmI normally don't re-post articles that I write for the MarketingProfs Daily Fix, but I wanted to make sure that I shared this with you all. Generosity and grace is a topic that has been on my mind for some time - and something that goes, I think, to the heart of the transformation that we are seeing in consumer behaviour. It's also something that I touched on my post last night appealing to the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to address the crisis faced by Sydney's Wayside Chapel. You see, social media - or what I am increasingly calling "participatory media" is not just about connecting. It's… -
Dear Kevin Rudd, Wayside Chapel Needs Your Help
5 Nov 2009 | 3:28 amIt seems everywhere that I look that I see a problem I would like to help solve, an issue I’d like to address or a challenge that I’d like to take up. But after pulling together The Perfect Gift for a Man in support of the Inspire Foundation, kicking off the Age of Conversation III (supporting Make a Wish) and #Movember – I wonder how much more I can take on. However, tonight via Paul McKeon and Leigh Sales, I learned about the desperate needs of Sydney’s Wayside Chapel. Wayside is a charity that has been in the consciousness of Sydneysiders for decades – caring for and supporting… -
When Storytelling and News Meet
2 Nov 2009 | 11:15 pmIn amongst the pitches and requests that speed from my Inbox to the Trash, sometimes, just sometimes, comes something worth pausing over. An email from Todd Denis from Jawbone.tv made me curious enough to take a moment to check out the story – and I am glad I did. Not only does Jawbone cover niche news topics in an engaging way, there is always a storytelling aspect to the content that they feature. For example, this article on Significant Objects is not just interesting in itself, but goes into the detail of how storytelling has been used as the basis for a social experiment – where a… -
Five Must-Read Posts from Last Week
1 Nov 2009 | 6:48 pmWhen I look back over the previous week’s torrent of information, I try to find a theme that resonates with me. I look for an idea that jumps from one medium to another, that I hope will appeal to your radar – registering a point of interest or difference. Sure, I could go to the big blogs and pull their most read stories – but chances are you will have seen it already. My five must-reads are of a different order – they’re from writers with a particular point of view and are less about volume and all about value.I hope you find them fascinating! A couple of weeks ago, Tim Noonan…
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Chaos Scenario
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Beware of Zombies
20 Oct 2009 | 6:21 amFacing 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… -
The Lesson of Flight 93: Hope and Responsibility
11 Sep 2009 | 10:49 amLike most of us, the events of September 11, 2001 affected me profoundly. I can still recall -- to the point of almost reliving it -- the shock, grief and disbelief that followed the most heinous attack on U.S. soil that cost about 3,000 lives in a day. Though we are still actively engaged in the global struggle against those who still wish us harm, it is wholly fit and proper to mark the anniversary by reflecting on the bravery and nobility of all of those who strive to protect us from harm. Perhaps no act of sacrifice and fortitude deserves more attention and appreciation than that of our… -
A Case for Moral Selfishness
13 Aug 2009 | 6:25 am"[H]aving lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged, by better information or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that, the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment of others." - Benjamin FranklinI am a skeptic. To an outside observer, my skepticism may look a lot like cynicism. I don't just believe people and companies are motivated by self-interest, I've seen it with my own eyes. A person doesn't simply buy a book from Amazon because they believe it… -
The Palmer Brothers Save Your Bladder at the Movies
10 Aug 2009 | 3:30 pmThis is too long for a tweet and too good a nugget to neglect. Here's a short snippet from Peter King of Sports Illustrated.I think one of the things you may learn from the new season of Hard Knocks, beginning Wednesday on HBO and featuring the Bengals this year, is how open the network presents the normally reclusive Mike Brown, the club owner. And you may see a different side of Carson Palmer, who is bonding with brother Jordan, the backup quarterback, by developing iPhone applications in their down time. I'm praying for the network to use the story about runpee.com, which the Palmers… -
Little Wallet. Big World.
28 Jul 2009 | 10:37 amThe prevailing social climate suggests that the word "Big," put in front of everything, is arguably bad. Let's take a look at some of the bogeymen that pervade our popular lexicon: Big Business Big Tobacco Big Banking Big Media Big Government Opponents of such things derogatorily use the term when they're trying to incite public opinion against others. Typically (but not always), those who rail against what they describe in the first three groups are the same folks who are in or advocate the third and fourth. Of the five groups, I've always tended to be more ambivalent to the first three than…
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No Man is An Island
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Email software popularity: 5 lessons for your list
5 Nov 2009 | 12:36 amWho 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
30 Oct 2009 | 6:39 amPart 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… -
Future of deliverability: 3. The role of domain reputation
28 Oct 2009 | 9:25 amPart 1: User interactionPart 2: AuthenticationWhen organizations look at incoming email, they use a set of criteria to decide what to do with it.For many such organizations, particularly the big webmail services, the reputation of the sender is a very important criterion determining whether that email should go to the inbox.This sender reputation is itself built out of various factors, such as how many spam complaints the sender gets or how many defunct addresses they are trying to email.It's a pretty good way of regulating email, but problems arise through the definition of the "sender" part… -
Current and future use of email: info sources
23 Oct 2009 | 3:35 amA reader asked me if there was a central repository for all the statistics and articles rebuffing the regular media hype suggesting that "(insert new technology) killed email".One good source is Morgan Stewart's list of data sources on the state of email use and email marketing.Another is EmailIsNotDead.com. I put up that site as a one-page factsheet with stats and article links you can show to anyone whose head is turned by sensationalist headline writers.I deliberately stay out of "Is email dead?" arguments because I'm not convinced of the practical value.But I understand that people with… -
Future of deliverability: 2. The role of authentication
21 Oct 2009 | 12:29 am[Be sure to read Part 1 of this series: User interaction]OK, hands up if you don't understand how email authentication works.(This is where I sincerely hope I'm not the only one holding my hand up).The good news is you probably don't have to understand it. But your email marketing service or IT technicians should know how it works because your emails and/or email system need to support the authentication process. Here's why...Authentication is not a deliverability solution, but...A simplified definition of authentication is that it's the process by which the alleged identity of the sender of…
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What's Next
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Think There Are No More Real Heroes? Meet Zoe Koplowitz
2 Nov 2009 | 8:13 amI 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
31 Oct 2009 | 11:30 amBy 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
30 Oct 2009 | 9:21 amPawfun, 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. -
Top 13 Guidelines for Commenting on Blog Posts
29 Oct 2009 | 9:17 amLike most bloggers, I love comments on my posts. Comments help bloggers feel like we're not talking to ourselves. I've learned a lot over the years from the smart people who comment on my posts. And I've made many friends whom I never would have met otherwise. Sometimes, I sit at my computer laughing out loud at the funny things people say. And sometimes, I just shake my head and wonder what in the world a person was thinking. Even though blogs have been on the landscape for more than a decade, it seems that some people don't understand how to comment on blog posts. So here are some… -
Ricola Cougher: a sick campaign that needs to die is baaaack!
29 Oct 2009 | 7:42 amYes, the entire world is paranoid about Swine Flu. Yes, everyone is ready to lynch people who cough, sneeze or sniffle in public. And yes, The Ricola Cougher, surely one of the Top 10 most ill-conceived marketing campaigns in history, is baaaaaaaack! Since 2005, the cougher has been turning up in public places and coughing. The first person to run up and hand him a cough drop won a prize. He coughed in hair salons, movie theaters, malls, parties and parks. He's lucky he didn't cough on the subway in New York, where people kill people who look at them wrong. This year, for the first time since…
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Buzz & Viral Marketing
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Lands' End: The Big Warm Up
4 Nov 2009 | 8:10 amVanksen USA has launched its latest viral video to support Lands' End's Big Warm Up campaign (great flash website created by Firstborn) aiming at enticing consumers in the Boston region to donate their gently used coat for Boston's 8,000 or so homeless people. Produced by New York based Caid Productions, the original viral video not only delivers what the brand wanted but also puts the user at the core of the experience, activating emotions as a powerful trigger to engage consumers. In addition to the powerful creative concept and the flawless production, a new innovative technology was… -
Zappos: "The World's Fastest Nudist"
4 Nov 2009 | 2:52 amMeet Kyle Overstreet. An ordinary man? Absolutely not. Kyle Overstreet, this marginal man appears on YouTube in a few videos in which he is wearing nothing but espadrilles, a pair of socks, and a little Tarzan style skirt. In these videos in question, Kyle runs in New York City, proclaiming himself to be the "the world's fastest nudist". He explains people's comic reactions upon seeing him to journalists: “The first time you run by, they're like, ‘Oh my god, that guy's nude'”. “But the next time you run by, they're like, 'That's the world's fastest nudist!'” Following his… -
The Viral Film Festival On December 2
3 Nov 2009 | 2:03 amThe preparations for the Viral Film Festival are advancing at great speed, so mark your calendars now: the event is taking place on December 2 at "1515", 34 rue Marbeuf, 75008 Paris, France. With over 1,000 submitted videos and a large amount of guests, the 2009 Viral Film Festival is the event not to be missed by fans of video, buzz, creativity, and viral marketing. For an even larger, more festive, and crazy party, Vanksen collaborates with the FrenchiesParty by Barka Zerouali (La Chose agency) to bring together all the actors in communication: advertisers, producers, bloggers... A… -
Nikon Makes A Scene With The Helicopter Boyz
3 Nov 2009 | 1:39 amNo more watching your photos on the small screen of your digital camera, Coolpix projects them on the wall! It is through a rather original exterior event that Nikon has promoted their COOLPIX S1000pj digital camera. Two boys are acting out choreographies over stimulating music. At that point, nothing yet quite amazing. However, their stellar outfits are equipped with Coolpix cameras, which allows for the theatrical projection of images behind them. After the 14th of July, the Eiffel Tower wiggles its hips! This innovation offers new perspectives... Source The original post on culture-buzz.fr… -
TweetedBrands: The Top 50 Brands On Twitter
3 Nov 2009 | 1:24 amWith the explosion of social networks, blogs, and microblogging, monitoring the reputations of one's brand has never been more important. TweetedBrands is an online service that publishes a list of 50 brands that are talked about the most on Twitter every day. Here is a list of today's most popular ones: 1. Twitter (116357 tweets) 2. iPhone (29790 tweets) 3. Google (29169 tweets) 4. Youtube (29039 tweets) 5. Facebook (25258 tweets) 6. Myspace (14267 tweets) 7. Apple (11743 tweets) 8. Digg (7285 tweets) 9. Fox (6623 tweets) 10. Yahoo! (6121 tweets) Sources tweetedbrands.com The original post…
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Really Pratical Marketing
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Content Marketing and Social Media Quotes
2 Nov 2009 | 9:40 amA 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)
26 Aug 2009 | 2:36 pmAs 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?
27 Jul 2009 | 9:19 amA 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?
21 Jul 2009 | 8:23 amThis 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
20 Jul 2009 | 11:15 amSocial 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 [...]
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Bringing Brands to Life
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Employee Engagement Lessons from Fast Company’s “30 Second MBA” Part 1
4 Nov 2009 | 6:04 amI’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
21 Oct 2009 | 7:05 pmHere 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
20 Oct 2009 | 5:52 amTime 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
7 Oct 2009 | 7:18 pmIt’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. -
7 Fascinating Filmmakers to Follow on Twitter
23 Sep 2009 | 6:00 amThink today’s filmmakers are stuck behind the camera? Or the edit room? Think again. Many filmmakers are harnessing the power of the web to tell another side of the story– their story. Readers enjoyed my earlier post, “7 Interesting Storytellers to Follow on Twitter,” so let’s continue this series with some interesting filmmakers. Keeping in the spirit of Twitter, the following “tweets” are 140 characters or less. 7 Fascinating Filmmakers to Follow on Twitter 1. Errol Morris @errolmorris The Oscar-winning director of ‘Fog of War” often tweets zen-like koans. Witty and always…
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ContentMarketingToday
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6 Reasons to Embrace Social Media Today
6 Nov 2009 | 7:47 amSocial 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
6 Nov 2009 | 7:19 amIf 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
6 Nov 2009 | 5:57 amIt’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
23 Oct 2009 | 6:37 amThis 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… -
Yes! You Can Afford to Do The Research That Lets You Understand Your Customers
22 Oct 2009 | 3:39 pmHow to Get Started on Cheap and Powerful Customer Studies Unless you understand your customers, you risk painful marketing missteps. Because we know that effective content marketing depends on a thorough understanding of your customers, regular research should be a core component of your content marketing strategy. Of course, it’s possible to do way too much research. That’s when you wind up with the paralysis by analysis situation. But, most small to midsize companies suffer from too little research and too much gut feel. That’s when some very…
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Hard Knox Life
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The Virtual Goods Gold Rush
31 Oct 2009 | 8:40 amI 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)
24 Oct 2009 | 2:28 pmTalk 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
22 Oct 2009 | 5:04 amFor 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… -
Etsy shows the power of consumer co-creation
21 Oct 2009 | 4:02 amAre your fans passionate enough about your brand that they would make your ads for you? If you are Etsy, than the answer is yes thanks to their Handmade Moment contest. I don’t know about you, but if I saw this on TV, I would have never guessed it was “Handmade.” -
Can Cincinnati be the Silicon Valley of consumer marketing?
20 Oct 2009 | 9:57 amNews came out today of a national marketing campaign that aims to position Cincinnati as “the Silicon Valley of consumer marketing.” As the Cincinnati Enquirer states, “the work grew out of the Agenda 360 community-wide plan sponsored by the Cincinnati USA Regional chamber, which set as one of its goals the creation of 50,000 jobs by 2020.” In support of that goal, this work will specifically “support entrepreneurial companies in consumer marketing in Cincinnati.” In this regard, the effort seeks to build on a substantial core of marketing talent already…
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Web Strategy by Jeremiah
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Insights for CMOs: Writing Column For Forbes
6 Nov 2009 | 7:28 amI’m very thankful that Forbes has extended me an offer to be a regular contributor discussing emerging technologies for the evolving customer strategy. CMOs are hungry for information. Marketing leaders are finding that they have to quickly evolve as the media and marketing landscape is quickly changing from emerging technologies like social tools. As a result, they are hungry for what’s next, and how they can get ahead of the curve –with minimal risk. This regular monthly (or more) column on the Forbes CMO network (@ForbesCMO) isn’t reporting, but instead will marry… -
People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: Nov 6, 2009
6 Nov 2009 | 6:02 amThings appear to be picking up in the economy, and I’d like to continue to recognize those moving in the social media space. I’ve started this post series (see archives) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks: Mike Pascucci leaves AAA Mid-Atlantic, and accepts the job of Social Media Strategist with Ektron, a Content Management System (CMS) company based out of Nashua, NH. Find him on Twitter at @mikepascucci. Kingsely Joseph leaves Salesforce and joins Digital Chocolate an… -
How Facebook’s Open Strategy Shifts The Roadmap for Corporate Marketing and Support
3 Nov 2009 | 7:20 amBold Strategy Bolsters Users, Developers, and Brands In a recent meeting at Facebook HQ, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Facebook is opening its doors to share roadmaps, data, and it’s experience. This strategy shifts attention towards Facebook.com as a sole destination, and towards a distributed network to the open web. Looking deeper, these impacts should shape your corporate web strategy as you re-allocate resources for application development, prepare for Social CRM, and prepare your corporate webpages to become “Facebook Fan Page” enabled. To Combat… -
Quicktake: The Impacts Of Google’s Social Search
31 Oct 2009 | 5:02 amCurrently, search results serve up content that is popular –but not necessarily content that is accurate or relevant to your needs. With Google’s Social Search feature, it will serve up results based on a users’ specific contact list, here’s how it works: Using the recently launched Google Profile product, users will be able to add their name, then list out the various social networks they are part of. Google goes to work and finds out who’s your friend in those social networks, then applies it to it’s search algorithm. The end result? Search queries now… -
Behind Closed Doors: What’s On the Mind Of Chief Marketing Officers
30 Oct 2009 | 9:45 amWe attended the Forbes CMO Summit in sunny Palm Beach, to learn what’s on the minds of executive marketing leaders. The conversation from this group regarding social was more sophisticated, which Charlene and I don’t think is reflective of most chief marketing groups we speak with. What’s unique about these Forbes CMOs? Perhaps they are more progressive, well read, and tuned into the rapid changes coming. In consideration to attendees of this event, I won’t be giving any specific individual quotes, (this wasn’t a media event) but instead, I’ll focus on the insights related to…
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Drew's Marketing Minute
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How do you see your clients
5 Nov 2009 | 10:21 pmA client of ours, E-Myth Benchmark, who does excellent work with small business leaders (including yours truly) has this philosophy about their clients:"Our clients are much greater than they know. It's our honor to help them discover that truth about themselves."Imagine if every time you answered the phone, shot off an e-mail or met with a client, you were filled with that attitude. How might that change the dynamics of your relationship? How would a bit of reverence change your company's culture?I've said it before....if you can't… -
Free chapter chock full of marketing "ah ha!"
3 Nov 2009 | 7:30 pmI love many things about blogging and social media. But the #1 reason I love it is because it has afforded me the opportunity to meet some really wonderful, smart people. And sometimes it feels as though we've known each other forever. That's certainly true for me of Gavin Heaton, CK, Lori Magno, Luc Debaisieux and many others. But there's this agency guy named Jay Heyman who lives in New York City -- and he and I connect in a whole different way. For some odd reason, we end up writing posts on the same subject or about the same subject on a regular basis! Which of… -
What I'm reading (11/01/09)
1 Nov 2009 | 6:57 amSorry I've been lax with this feature in October. It wasn't that I was not reading....but I've been on the road and at conferences just about all month and I just didn't have time to get this post built.None the less, here's what I've been reading these past few weeks and my take on each. Word of Mouth Marketing by Andy Sernovitz (buy it here) If you think you've already read this book -- you haven't. Andy did a revised version in early 2009 and added lots of new case studies, worksheets and even some new chapters. So don't be fooled. -
How to make time for social media: Twitter
31 Oct 2009 | 6:53 pmAs I traverse across the country talking about social media, whether it's with clients one-on-one or with conference attendees from a stage -- the "I don't have time" mantra is a common response to the conversation. I'm with you. I get the time crunch thing. I'm caught between that same rock and hard place. But...I have figured out some ways to create time/time savers when it comes to social media. So, I thought I would share what works for me, with the hopes that you can steal some of these ideas/tools. I'm not saying… -
If they'll play on your site, they'll pay on your site
29 Oct 2009 | 2:00 amLast year, I told you about Meijer, a 180 big box store in the Midwest and the very cool promotion they unleashed on Chicago and Cincinnati around Halloween. Their headless horseman rode wild through the streets...having some fun scaring the downtown crowd. Well this year, they've upped the ante. They've created a 3D experience where you can "put on a mask" and record a Halloween greeting. Basically, it's a digital hologram called augmented reality. (Kevin Dugan explains it better than I can.)Using this technology and your webcam, you can…
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Writing White Papers
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Major Study Shows White Paper Power Increasing!
29 Oct 2009 | 3:06 pmListen 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
26 Oct 2009 | 3:13 pmAre 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
12 Oct 2009 | 12:00 amLinkedIn, 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
6 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pmAn 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… -
Should You Task Your Staff to Create White Papers to Spawn New Ideas?
24 Sep 2009 | 5:31 amLet’s say the idea vault is looking pretty empty. No one at your company has really contributed any new thoughts in ages. Does it ever make sense to ask your key players to contribute white papers, outlining new ideas for corporate growth? This is the essence of a question submitted by Jason, working for an international organization: I am working for a international high tech company and they have planned a management meeting with the 80 top managers (R&D, Engineers, Sales, Marketing, Finance). They will spend a week together, working on different issues. The outcome of the…
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Seth's Blog
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Everyone is clueless
6 Nov 2009 | 2:29 amThe problem with "everyone" is that in order to reach everyone or teach everyone or sell to everyone, you need to so water down what you've got you end up with almost nothing.Everyone doesn't go to the chiropractor, everyone doesn't give to charity, everyone has never been to Starbucks. Everyone, in fact, lives a decade behind the times and needs hundreds of impressions and lots of direct experience before they realize something is going on.You don't want everyone. You want the right someone.Someone who cares about what you do. Someone who will make a contribution that matters. Someone who… -
The unclicking 84%
5 Nov 2009 | 2:36 amMark points us to this great set of stats.Basically, all of the clicks for all the ads online come from only 16% of the surfers, and most of them come from just 4% of all internet users.So, if you optimize your ads for clicks, it means you're ignoring a huge population.If your business is built around the kind of person who clicks, you win. If it isn't, you either need to not buy ads online or buy ads optimized for attention and familiarity, not clicks.Imagine that only left-handed people clicked on ads (it's about the same percent). What are you going to do if you make a product for the… -
When data and decisions collide
4 Nov 2009 | 2:54 amUntil recently, most of the decisions we were called on to make were based on hunches, insight and a little bit of data. Occasionally, a field like direct marketing would develop into something quite data-driven ("I don't care if you like mailer one, Smythe, mailer #2 did three times, better! Number 2 it is.") but not often.It took Ignaz Semmelweis more than twenty years (he died before it happened, actually) to persuade doctors that washing their hands could save the lives of mothers giving birth. He had the data, he had the proof, but that wasn't enough to change minds.Data mining and the… -
Limited edition boxed set available today SOLD OUT!
3 Nov 2009 | 7:41 am[We ended up selling more than three a minute. You guys are so cool. We had a few counter problems, but it didn't effect the number we sold...they're all gone, 800 in total, and I won't be able to sell any more. Thank you for the energy and support!]It seems as though the Apple tablet is unlikely to be ready in time for the holidays... what to get? How about a boxed (a wooden box) set of five of my books? Very limited (only 800 will be sold, ever). Sold at a discount from retail, with cool packaging, assembled by elves, delivered by Martians, blessed by enlightened goats. My goal was to make… -
Ms. In-between
3 Nov 2009 | 2:50 amThe either-or world continues to decay, confronted by a shifting economy and the tools of the net.It used to be easy to tell if someone was a journalist. Either you were or your weren't. So giving special privileges to journalists was easy. Parking permits, press badges, first amendment protections... no problem, you're a journalist. Everyone else? No way.It used to be easy to tell if someone was an entrepreneur. Either you had a full-time job or you ran a business. So we could treat employees the same (health insurance, no moonlighting) and assume that the few that didn't have jobs were…
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Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog
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Upcoming speaking: free blogging basics webinar
4 Nov 2009 | 4:23 amYou'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
27 Oct 2009 | 2:30 pmNot 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?
22 Oct 2009 | 8:57 amThat 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… -
What if the future of technology is more sand than silicon?
20 Oct 2009 | 8:41 amThis is just flat-out smart and cool. The Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsytems and Boing Boing to host The Digital Open, a tech expo for teens under the age of 17. Last week they announced a series of winning projects, one of which caught my eye -- not because it made use of amazing, forward-looking technology, but because it ostensibly uses no technology at all... Actually, that's not quite true. Let me explain. The project, developed by a 17-year-old girl named Alexis McAdams, is called "DiorActive" and essentially takes the big world issues -- political, social,… -
Miscellaneous Monday
19 Oct 2009 | 12:54 pmThis is just a quick jumble of recent and new items that may be of interest (to me, if not to you.) Blog World & New Media Expo: I'm fresh back from Las Vegas where, as I noted last week, I presented at Blog World. Home improvement blogger Tony Saucier attended my session and wrote a nice summary of my presentation. I believe a video of my speech will surface at some point, but in the meantime Tony captured the gist of it. Time Off in Las Vegas: If you were at Blog World and we didn't see one another, that's probably because I didn't spend much time at the conference. What was I…
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News from the Herd
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Social networks and mobile phones, a round-up
5 Nov 2009 | 1:18 pmNMA has a piece on ‘social networks ignore mobile at their peril.‘ Though most of it is behind a pay-wall, the gist of it is that social media is being accessed more and more via cellphones. In particular, NMA talks about specially commissioned research for Nielsen and the fact that 65 million Facebook users - so more than 1/5 of the total - now access their social networks from their mobiles. These users are apparently 50% more active than purely web based users, my guess is that this is so due to the fact that purpose built apps make accessing social media via your phone fairly… -
The end of the press release? Or a necessary evil?
4 Nov 2009 | 12:32 pmNow here’s a subject close to my heart, the continued usefulness or otherwise of the age old press release. Publisher Ragan Communications and PollStream carried out a survey in the States, which found that only 49% of PRs think ‘it’s as useful as ever’, while 33% thought it was a ‘necessary evil.’ Ragan’s Lindsey Miller says press releases are becoming ever less useful due to - yep, you guessed it - social media. According to Marketing Charts, Ragan’s take is that communicators are using social media to get around ‘canned’… -
Tuesday lunchtime best day for online video
4 Nov 2009 | 12:29 pmResearch firm Sysosmos (the people who recently published stats on Twitter ‘power users’) has come out with a study on online video. However, rather than recycling the old line about how much online video is growing, Syomos looked at the extent to which bloggers use online video. That’s obviously important for the simple reason that if your viral is going to go anywhere, bloggers will have a great deal to do with it. Not surprisingly, You Tube leads in terms of bloggers embedding videos into their blogs, with 84% using it. However, Vimeo is ahead of Daily Motion and… -
The next time your kid says ‘everyone has one’, s/he may be right!
3 Nov 2009 | 3:14 amNielsen has published a ‘pocket guide to social media and kids’ (thanks to Erin Lamberty for sending it to me), it’s a US stats digest, and one that mirrors a lot of what’s been published in the UK, Australia et al. In particular, Nielsen looks at the theme that “to adults, cell phones are a communications device. To children, they are a lifelines” - or as Synovate found out recently in a global study, they are increasingly ‘remote controls for life.’ The following chart shows that 13-17 year olds significantly over-index in mobile Internet use… -
People will watch TV on their PCs…so long as it really is TV
2 Nov 2009 | 5:44 amI’m coming to this a few days late due to being in transit to Cow Africa, but UK comms regulator OFCOM has published it’s regular digest of facts and stats. Among other things, the look at adult media literacy reveals that online TV watching is relatively high in the UK. In particular, 29% of Internet users, watch TV online or download programmes or films. This is largely driven by broadcasters such as the BBC and its iPlayer service, but it means that with 73% of the UK population online, over one in five adults (21%) watch TV over the Internet. The research also shows that…
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EyeCube
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Crowdsourcing a Discussion on Crowdsourcing: Agency Nil, Anomaly and Victors & Spoils
5 Nov 2009 | 10:33 amOccasionally 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… -
Smart People / Smart Ideas October 2009 Round-up
4 Nov 2009 | 5:50 amThe smartest people and ideas I discovered or was introduced to via Twitter in October: Smart People / Smart Ideas October 2009 Kicking off Oct. Smart People / Smart Ideas #245 with @briansolis Great stats on SocMed: People Defining Social Networks http://bit.ly/fo11P Smart People / Smart Ideas #246 2 smarties for the price of 1: @GeoffLiving talks to #BlogPotomac Speaker @jquig99 http://bit.ly/25GvQk Smart People / Smart Ideas #247 @themshow creates the PR agency of future http://bit.ly/3cm14h [hat tip @DougH] Must read 4 PR agency CEOs Smart People / Smart Ideas #248 @BBHLabs talking AI and… -
Weezer Snuggie: Know your brand, know your audience
3 Nov 2009 | 11:39 amI haven’t always loved Weezer’s music (though the blue album is brilliant), but I love the band. They’ve always had a knack for understanding their audience and providing content (music, videos, blankets – more on that later) that shows they perfectly understand their fans. Here’s a quick review: First, the Buddy Holly video: 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. Directed by the brilliant Spike Jonze. Then they tweeked the Internet meme with their video for… -
Twitter Lists: Another Opportunity to Misuse Social Media
30 Oct 2009 | 5:59 amTwitter Lists How many lists are you on? Whose lists are you on? Who else is on the list with you? Aside from debating the overall functionality, those seem to be the questions regarding the new Twitter Lists function. In other words it took just a couple of days for Twitter Lists to become just another way of measuring ourselves and each other. It’s still early and people are just starting to use this feature, but it’s disappointing to see so many rush to the bottom. Mark Drapeau voices a similar concern here. Maybe it’s because I use Tweetdeck, but I’m having a hard… -
Pandora for Content
29 Oct 2009 | 2:01 pmThis is an excerpt of a post I contributed to Jinal Shah’s excellent new site, Content Decoded. You can read the entire piece here. I think one of the bigger trends of the last few years has been increasing ability for consumers to customize the content they receive. At first blush, this seems like a good thing. Being able to pull only the relevant content you want sounds great when there is an overwhelming amount of content out there. This sort of filtering can work on both qualitative and quantitative levels. But what is often overlooked is what is lost with this sort of filtering,…
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Find and Convert
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Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy
1 Nov 2009 | 2:09 pmDeveloping 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
29 Oct 2009 | 10:43 amBillie 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… -
Search This… Making Twitter Work for Your Business
29 Oct 2009 | 10:37 amJackie Weber: Inbound Search Marketing Analyst There are 14 million Twitter users in the United States today. By the end of 2009, Twitter is projected to reach 26 million users worldwide. Twitter is a very powerful tool. Used correctly, it can be extremely beneficial to a company of any size. If you look at Twitter as a marketplace and choose a strategy that makes your presence nothing more than a series of automated sales offers, you’re missing the whole point of Twitter. You become the cocktail party guest who can’t stop talking about himself. Pretty soon, the room empties. If you see… -
As I See It…. Ready, Aim, Fire
29 Oct 2009 | 10:37 amBernie Borges How many times have you heard the expression “ready, fire, aim?” This cliché is used often in business and sports when making reference to a plan that gets executed without much planning. It’s an oxymoron. Either a plan is a plan or it’s not a plan. You might as well admit that not having a plan is just winging it. Unfortunately, many marketers have taken a “ready, fire, aim” approach to inbound marketing. Whether it’s not doing extensive keyword or competitive research for SEO, or not planning out effective PPC campaigns and ad groups, a lack of planning is sure… -
Tips for Bulls-Eye Blogging: Getting Your Content Found
28 Oct 2009 | 11:39 amDianna Kersey: Information Architect Since the beginning of time, humans have been searching for ways to communicate. From sign language to cave drawings to paintings, humans have been trying to tell their stories. In fact, we humans have protected, copied and preserved the written word since its inception. From Dead Sea scrolls to naval captain’s logs to newspapers to the blogs written by the world’s 70 million bloggers, people have been (and continue to be) obsessed with communicating what is important to them. So, you say you are clean out of parchment, your hammer and chisel are…
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Techno//Marketer
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MySpace Strives to Recover Its Cool [del.icio.us]
Interesting move, but is it too late? MySpace still is the leader in music, but can they get traction again? -
Where you at, Matt?
15 Oct 2009 | 8:09 amA 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]
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
8 Aug 2009 | 2:13 pmIf 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:… -
Financial Times Confirms Apple Tablet for September | Gadget Lab | Wired.com [del.icio.us]
Interesting. Competes with iPod and Kindle.
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Eat Media Blog
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Content Strategy is My Micro-Scope
4 Nov 2009 | 11:19 amToo 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
21 Oct 2009 | 1:56 pmIs 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
1 Oct 2009 | 2:10 pmIt 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)
29 Sep 2009 | 2:31 pmStill 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,… -
Grayscreen Prototyping by Newfangled Web Factory
25 Sep 2009 | 1:24 pmYears ago I lived in Rhode Island and worked at an MIT startup, the commute was painful—5 1/2 hours a day—but the experience was worth it. Downtown Providence was an up and coming city in the late 90’s and Newfangled Graphics had the coolest sign in town. A ‘This Old House’ + small-press nerd + web fashionista wooden sign that implied, “Yep, we’re that good.” I didn’t know much about them back in 1996 but I have come to love their work and methodology. Here we are 13 years later and Mark O’Brien and the smart folks at Newfangled Graphics are…
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Emerson Direct Marketing Observations
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Talent is Everywhere On the Social Web
6 Nov 2009 | 6:08 amI met Sue Spaight through Twitter. She’s one of the smart one’s but she won’t tell you that. But what she will do is call bullshit on you if she has to. She’ll force the one’s who are smart, to think about another box and not just the one they’re currently thinking outside of. I had the pleasure to meet Sue a few months ago and even though our conversations were too quick, I was glad to see that she was just as genuine in person as was her written word. For that reason, another really smart and genuine mutual friend of ours, Tom Martin of Zehnder out of… -
Is the social web the answer to our ailing economy?
2 Nov 2009 | 12:44 pmI’m going to guess that for a majority of the people out there, the answers that they seek are not in social media. Nor is social media the answer for a lot of businesses that have fallen on hard times. But damned if they are not looking. They lift up the hood and they see this Yet the number of searches going on for the term “social media” per month hover close to half a million. So for most, when they get those search results, and try to make heads or tails of them, it looks like this: Yet people are wanting to know what it is and how they can make it work for their… -
The Depth of Your Social Media Growth
29 Oct 2009 | 7:32 amIf you were to look at the following image, what would you say the expanse of your social media exposure, involvement or engagement would be? Let’s assume that we all start off as seedlings in social media, and as we learn more, we grow. As the tree grows, so does our comfort level. Eventually we branch out and we all go in different directions, yet we all come from the same seed. We all have the same background and the same foundation. It should all start with listening, learning, lurking and laboring. Lurking? Yes, lurking. Call it passive participation, but we all have done it. We… -
#SocialMedia TweetChat led by Scott Monty-A different approach
26 Oct 2009 | 1:44 pmFord’s Fusion 41 Challenge – What Are We Missing? October 26th, 2009 Sit down and buckle in (literally), this week we are taking the #SocialMedia discussion in a very different direction. Instead of learning during these chats, we have been asked by Ford Motor Company’s Scott Monty to help teach. If you are not aware, Scott is on a tear of late with the tremendous success of the Ford Fiesta Movement, he is now going for the equivalent of an encore with the Fusion 41 challenge. Their newest challenge asks for: Current 2010 model Ford Fusion owners/leasees to… -
What do you do when an employee slanders you via Twitter?
26 Oct 2009 | 12:34 pmIn professional sports, there is the unwritten rule of keeping your dirty laundry in the clubhouse, or in the locker room. By that, if you, as an athlete or a coach, have a problem with a teammate or a coach, you addressed it internally and did not air it with the press or the public. But this is the age of social media and full transparency… Yesterday, after the NFL Kansas City Chiefs got throttled by the San Diego Chargers 37-7, Chiefs running back Larry Johnson decided to air his dirty laundry. Via Twitter! Though his Tweets are protected, this came via NBC Sports and thus I have no…
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Internet Marketing Blog
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The Rank Nazi: Your Content Is Not Worthy, No Rank For You! [cartoon]
6 Nov 2009 | 6:18 amShare Looking to get more organic traffic from Google? You need to create content that's worthy! (Yes, it's that simple. Not easy, but simple). If you liked this cartoon, you can find more cartoons in the recently released book: Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs. The book's been a runaway success (I think it's because of the cartoons, but my co-author thinks its the marketing advice -- you decide).By the way, if you're a Seinfeld fan, what's your favorite episode/scene? (I'm looking for more ideas for future cartoons). Become a Fan on… -
Study Reveals That Online Searches Affect Emotions, Memory
6 Nov 2009 | 4:48 amIf you’re not creating great content to help your company get found online, you’re missing an incredible opportunity to legitimately connect with people searching for information related to your industry or product.According to a new study from the University of Missouri, out of the 73% of American adults who use the internet daily, over half of them emotionally responded and remembered content that they found “searching” instead of “surfing.” This data, published as “The Effect of Searching Versus Surfing on Cognitive and Emotional Responses to Online News” in the… -
Top 5 Inbound Marketing Stories of the Week: Social Media Strategy
5 Nov 2009 | 10:11 pmDoes your company have a social media marketing strategy? If you're inclined to answer "yes" because you have a Twitter handle and a Facebook page, you may want to re-think your answer.Our top article on InboundMarketing.com this week urges you to take a step back, do your homework and form an actual strategy for social media marketing. What are your objectives? What are the opportunities? What are your competitors doing? After all, there's more to social media marketing than tweeting and Facebooking... 1.Developing a Social Media Marketing StrategyAuthor: Bernie… -
HubSpot TV - Facebook Halloween Horror with Guest Paul Dunay
5 Nov 2009 | 10:06 amEpisode #64 - October 30, 2009 (Episode Length: 24 minutes, 43 seconds)IntroHow to interact on Twitter: @karenrubin, @mvolpe and @PaulDunay with www.HubSpot.tv in your tweet.Subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tv Guest: Paul DunayBook Giveaway! Go to Facebook.com/FBMarketingForDummies! Global Managing Director of Services and Social Marketing for Avaya and author of Facebook Marketing for DummiesBlog: Buzz Marketing for Technology Question from @KirstenPetra - When I fan someone, I don't feel like I am actually their friend and that I don't actually get anything in return. How… -
You Don't Have to Be a Great Writer to Write a Great Blog
4 Nov 2009 | 11:30 pmI am an engineer by training who had very little writing experience in my career until I started HubSpot. In the early days of the company, I could not write software, so I spent a lot of time writing articles for our Internet Marketing Blog and was pleasantly surprised by how well it performed. Today, the blog has over 20,000 subscribers and over 100,000 new visitors per month.The good performance convinced me that I had been suppressing brilliant writing skills for the last 20 years! I was so excited that I sent a note to my eighth grade teacher, Tom Brown, who helped me learn…
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Marketing Profs Daily Fix
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Paul Williams: Catch More Fish With The Right Lure, In The Right Waters
6 Nov 2009 | 5:30 amA couple of fishermen are hanging out in their local bait shop. One has a new product idea for out-of-town visitors. Sell a lake map and fishing lure combo. Take specific fishing lures and tape them to the different lakes on the map. This way the out-of-towner will know the proper bait to use at each particular lake, and will lead to a more successful fishing experience. If you're at Watermans Reservoir and want to catch a Northern Pike, you need a spinner lure. At Worden's Pond after Jackfish? Use a fish-imitation lure or cut bait.* Here comes the business segue... We marketers and business… -
Gavin Heaton: On Generosity and Grace
5 Nov 2009 | 6:35 amWe are marked each day by the casual collisions that are the artefacts of our existence. There are phone calls, messages and the relative anonymity of online interactions. And in the search for connection, communion or community, we thoughtlessly mistake message for meaning, words for action and interaction for friendship. It’s a confusion of intention – and we are the poorer for it.When I began writing my blog I did so with no expectation of return. Like a long-dead star, I felt that I was emitting the weakest of signals with no hope of a destination. The gravity of my expectations was… -
Ann Handley: What's New: Introducing Our New Mobile Marketing Newsletter
5 Nov 2009 | 6:28 amYou know the end of every calendar year brings a bounty of blog posts and articles carrying business predictions for the New Year? Year after year for the past several years, pundits have prognosticated the rise of Mobile Marketing. And then year after year, it has failed to live up to its promise. Instead, Mobile seems stuck on the sidelines, perpetually benched. But with recent developments in the mobile space, it seems the prediction is now (finally) reality. I’ll even go out on a limb and make my own prediction: Mobile Marketing is here to stay. That’s why we’ve just launched a new… -
Suzanne Lowe: Digital Versus Paper: What's The Future For Professional Services?
4 Nov 2009 | 5:50 amIn the past several weeks, I've encountered questions about the effectiveness of digital marketing versus paper-driven communications. A recent WSJ piece "Marketers Still Prefer a Paper Trail," asserts that people are motivated to go to a Web site to buy when they see an item in a catalog. Some of my marketing communication friends tell me that their professional service clients are producing print newsletters in addition to (and in some cases, instead of) digital newsletters. They say, "my clients' clients are so overwhelmed with emails that they actually appreciate print newsletters!" It's… -
Kathy Bushman: Still Questioning The Value In Social Media
3 Nov 2009 | 7:04 amI had the pleasure of attending the Social Media Business Forum (#smbf) that took place October 23rd in Durham, NC. It’s the first event that was put on by Jeff Cohen, Wayne Sutton, and Ryan Boyles of OurHashtag, and Kipp Bodnar of Howard Merrell & Partners. They are passionate about teaching business people how to benefit from using social media and are responsible for many of the social media events and tweet-ups in the “Triangle” (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) North Carolina area. Jeff Cohen told me that they recognized a real need for business people to be educated on social media and…
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Occam's Razor
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Analytics Becomes Intelligent. Hello Insights!
26 Oct 2009 | 1:24 amA 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
12 Oct 2009 | 1:45 amIf 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
29 Sep 2009 | 1:34 amOne 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!
14 Sep 2009 | 2:07 amYes, 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… -
Six Tips For Improving High Bounce / Low Conversion Web Pages
25 Aug 2009 | 1:11 amIn my travels around the world the most frequently asked question is: “What’s your favorite web analytics report? “A close second is: “How can I improve my web pages with high bounce / low conversion rates?”Or “I have done all I can and I don’t know how else to improve my webpage, ideas?”If you think about it for a moment it is not a very hard question.I believe the insights for improvement exist at the intersection of customer intent and the webpage’s purpose.Let me explain.The Customer Intent – Webpage Purpose GapThere is a very…
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Social Internet Marketing and Jess Sloss
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That’s disgusting mom
6 Nov 2009 | 1:53 pmvia lamebook.com Oh man. That’s unfortunate, but he totally opened himself up to that one. No related posts. -
see what Google Knows About You. The Google Privacy Dashboard.
5 Nov 2009 | 4:25 pmvia mashable.com Interesting stuff, check out your Google Privacy Dashboard Mine showed me that I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time online. Related posts:Why I want Google Voice in CanadaApple Denies Google: Screw Up or Huge Gift?The 50 Hottest Brands on Twitter Right Now via @mashable -
Here’s $5 and 2 hrs to make as much money as you can. Go.
4 Nov 2009 | 12:41 pmvia instigatorblog.com This video was sent to me by @ddej and @kittenthebad, thanks! Tina Seelig, Executive Director of the Stanford Technology Ventures Program, tells about a project she assigned to an entrepreneurship class. How much money could you make in 2 hours with $5 of seed funding? The results were amazing and encouraging to those of us that like to overcome constraints. Ben from the Instigator blog, highlights a handful of important lessons, here are my favorite: 1) There’s no substitute for doing something. That’s clear with the groups that had success. It’s not that they… -
2 million TV’s are located in US bathrooms and other amazing media stats. (vid)
4 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pmvia bothernomore.com Did you know? What was the most shocking stat for you? Related posts:3 Online Marketing Campaigns that Show the Amazing Power of Internet MarketingSocial Media for Small Business: FeedbackGood Ideas Salon Vancouver: Media -
Latest Data on Facebook’s US Growth by Age and Gender
3 Nov 2009 | 10:41 amvia insidefacebook.com All Facebook has put together a great selection of stats. Worth a bookmark. Full Post here. Related posts:Facebook’s Redesign Puts an Even Bigger Premium on ActionBuskers of the Digital Age: Social Media and the future of the music industryAlignment in the Hyperconnected Age
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Outsmart Internet Marketing Blog for Entrepreneurs
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Website Domains: 7 Things Your Web Marketer or Designer Might Not Tell You
25 Oct 2009 | 11:00 pmMost 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
1 Oct 2009 | 10:26 pmI 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.
24 Sep 2009 | 3:55 pmI 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
17 Aug 2009 | 9:59 amToday 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 [...] -
Before I Write Your Web Copy, Please Put Your Head in This Vice
4 Aug 2009 | 8:00 am“Dear Web Copywriting Client, “If you hire me as your copywriter, we need to come to a special understanding before I write a single word. What I understand is that you want to tell your audience something important. You want to look good. You want to perpetuate a strong brand. You want people to sign up [...]
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Connect the Docs
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ClickInsights: What is your favorite white paper? Why do you like it?
5 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amWhite 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… -
Happy Holidays, Content Marketers!
4 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amNow that Halloween is behind us, watch out for fruitcake and Jingle Bell Rock. The holidays start earlier each year, which is unfortunate for those of us still mourning summer. But, in terms of content marketing, it's a great reminder to stay seasonal, relevant and creative. This doesn't mean jumping on the consumer bandwagon, in fact it may mean helping people do just the opposite. Read on for eight tips on how to ready your content for the holiday season. 1. Wrap up a gift. Put something in a box with a ribbon on top and it becomes a gift. Think of ways you can package your content so that… -
ClickLaunch: Ardath Albee's eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale
3 Nov 2009 | 3:00 amGround reality - 1. B2B sales cycles are long and complex. 2. Marketers today are under high pressure to close sales and show results quickly. 3. Buyers don’t want to be pitched to. How do B2B marketers successfully navigate the challenges along the B2B sales course map? In her new book, eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale, Ardath Albee recommends that it is important to find answers to the following questions - Who are you buyers? What are their critical priorities? What do they need to know to make a buying decision? We have invited Ardath Albee to get an insider look into her… -
Keep it Interesting: Strategies for Great Interviews
28 Oct 2009 | 3:00 amWhether you watch them on TV, hear them on the radio, read them online or in the newspaper - you absorb a lot of information through interviews. News organizations rely on interviews to get information from authority figures and to show the different sides of a story. Your favourite magazines use interviews to profile interesting people and find out what makes them tick. You are just as capable of using interviews in a content marketing strategy. Given that social networking is built around connecting with others and listening - rather than just talking - conducting regular interviews makes a… -
ClickDigest: Weekly Round-Up: 23-Oct-2009
23 Oct 2009 | 3:00 amIt’s a big world out there in the content-marketing/social media/B2B blogosphere, so we would like to save your time by rounding up the best posts and articles of the week. We highlight a take-home point of each post, giving you a snapshot of what thought leaders and influencers are saying. Dare to Give a Case Study Customer a Deadline? Author : Casey Hibbard Casey Hibbard writes "Customers can turn a story around in a day or take months". Many times, publishing case studies is based on a deadline. Casey has highlighted the subtleties of how to push the customer to…
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SEO Copywriting
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5 reasons why this fitness website kicks SEO copywriting butt
3 Nov 2009 | 12:49 pmI’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
28 Oct 2009 | 10:35 amPubCon 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
27 Oct 2009 | 8:53 amTalk 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… -
Double shot SEO content marketing sale – save $200 on SEO copywriting training and reporting!
19 Oct 2009 | 8:26 amWondering what’s wrong with your SEO content marketing campaign – and more importantly, how to fix it? No problem. I’ve got you covered – and you can even save $200 today! Because of your fantastic feedback (thank you!), I’m launching the Double Shot SEO Content Marketing Sale (I know, I know – I just had to include a coffee reference!) The Double Shot SEO Content Marketing Sale includes: 1-year access to the SEO copywriting training program, plus- Our 15-point SEO content marketing scorecard, outlining what you need to do today for better search rankings… -
DMA09 – Join us for the SuccessWorks Search Marketing Labs
17 Oct 2009 | 10:35 amHeading to DMA09 in San Diego? SuccessWorks will be running the Search Marketing Experience Labs on Tuesday, October 20th. I’ll be evaluating Websites with other experts including Lee Odden from TopRank Online Marketing, Kenny Hyder from Rockstar Consultants and Khalid Saleh from Invesp. This is a great opportunity to get (free!) advice on your SEO content marketing strategy, conversion effectiveness, technical SEO and social media campaign. Join us!
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Tippingpoint Labs
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Podcast: So Sorry.
6 Nov 2009 | 10:00 amThe Tipping Point Podcast The platforms where your customers are creating and consuming content are going to be the avenues they trust most. No matter what happens, a transparent, sincere “I’m Sorry” can make all the difference. 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, examined SpyFu, and had a lot of fun along the… -
Under Pressure: Don’t get too caught up in your users’ feedback
6 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amAs you launch your new online product or service I’m sure you’re excited to get some real-world feedback. Perhaps you’re launching a private beta, or maybe you’re going full bore and opening up the floodgates to the whole world. No matter what you do, don’t give those initial users too much credit. I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m bashing early adopters, because I’m most certainly not. It’s just that early adopters carry a lot of weight, and if you don’t communicate your vision for the new channel well enough, early adopters can take you way off track. You have a… -
There’s Hope for Hyundai Think Tank
4 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amHyundai Think Tank is a gated customer outreach community that attempts to bring current customers and potential customers together and give them an opportunity to participate with the brand on a deeper level. There are some great content concepts on the site — video with the designers, newsletters involving both the brand and Think Tankers, and updates about upcoming products. A real opportunity It seems to accomplish, in theory, the goal of being more participatory as a brand. If you look at the Google trends for the automotive vertical, you can see clearly that brand interaction has… -
Got Elevation?
3 Nov 2009 | 5:00 amIn 1993, the California Milk Processor Board enlisted the advertising skills of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners to create a campaign to boost sales of milk, which had been in the doldrums of a 20-year slump. Click here to view the embedded video.The campaign kicked off with this classic TV spot, directed by Michael Bay. Lifting sales of a product that had become passé in the minds of young people would be no easy task, especially considering the unique challenges facing the Board. The biggest challenge was that since the campaign was underwritten by an association of dairies, neither the… -
Podcast: Halloween Post Mortem
2 Nov 2009 | 5:05 amThe 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 about StuffedRobots, Bacon-of-the-Month, and SpyFu, and had a lot of fun along the way. In This Podcast Josh Cole James Cosco Brad Schwarzenbach Jim Theodore This week on The Tipping Point: Spooked Halloween just passed and it scared us all out of our seats. As you put your costume away, dress up your content…
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Brain Traffic
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Be your own content expert
5 Nov 2009 | 11:52 amWhether 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
30 Oct 2009 | 9:07 amCreepy, 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
28 Oct 2009 | 1:00 pmA 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? -
What vs. How
16 Oct 2009 | 8:04 amI’m reading Dov Seidman’s book about one simple concept: It’s not what you do that sets you apart, but how you do it. May I present as an example a recent plotline from one of my favorite TV shows, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: What the characters like to do is drink wine. How they drink it is out of a Diet Coke can. Similarly, at Brain Traffic, what we do is … Plan for and create content that’s: Useful Usable Purposeful Profitable But more importantly, how we do it is with … Teamwork and… -
Warning: This is a fake warning!
9 Oct 2009 | 1:19 pmRecently, our IT company sent us an email alert about "scareware" messages, warning that clicking on any of these messages could install some nasty malware on our computers. Here’s what they look like: "The text reads: Warning!!! Your computer contains various types of adware and viruses. "Your system requires immediate anti-viruses check! Personal Antivirus will perform a quick and free scanning of your PC for viruses and malicious programs. " "The text reads: Your computer remains infected by threats! They can cause…
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Convince and Convert
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Give Them Something to Talk About
5 Nov 2009 | 3:54 amLast week, I spent a few days in Calgary with my clients at AdFarm, the largest agriculture-focused communications agency in North America. In addition to the single best room I have ever spoken in (see photo), I learned a lot from the good folks at AdFarm. Every Company Will Be Social Every company, regardless of type or size, will be social at some point in the future. Some are already social. Some are just starting to embrace it. For others, it may take a while. But eventually, every company is going to have to participate, because that’s what customers will demand of them. Lack of… -
Dave Fleet – The Twitter 20 Interview About PR and Social Media
4 Nov 2009 | 2:51 pmIf you’re in public relations or social media (preferably both), and you aren’t following the thinking of Dave Fleet, you’re resource-deficient. A Brit living in Toronto and working as an Account Director at social PR powerhouse agency Thornley Fallis, Dave takes a lucid, common-sense approach to the upheaval that social media has brought to the shores of public relations. Despite his growing, deserved notoriety in social media and PR circles, Dave spends a lot of time on the social Web discovering and promoting new bloggers and helping PR pros work through tough issues like… -
How to Integrate Social Media Into Your Marketing
3 Nov 2009 | 3:37 am -
What Facebook and Email Stole from Google’s Playbook
29 Oct 2009 | 4:14 amA long time ago, you could get Web pages ranked in search engines solely based on how many times a keyword was present on the page. This of course resulted in the laughably loathsome practice of keyword stuffing, where Web pages were purposefully written with “discount Easter baskets for sale” 30 times in a row. This era was mercifully short-lived, as Google (followed by other engines) added a relevancy layer to search results, centered primarily around the number and strength (”authority”) of other Web pages linking to the page in question. This forced Web site owners… -
Finally! A Blog Post Scoreboard
27 Oct 2009 | 7:20 pmKnowing which of your blog posts are most successful, and in what way, is invaluable in the never-ending process of honing your blog’s content approach and community orientation. Bloggers have always been challenged by on one hand having both a surplus of potential success metrics, and a scarcity of data aggregation tools. The new PostRank Analytics (in public beta) changes that, and is a most welcome development in blog tracking and measurement. Just $9/month with a 30-day free trial, PostRank Analytics provides comprehensive success metrics for every one of your blog posts, including…
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Dan Blank
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Editorial ROI: Going from Good to Great
3 Nov 2009 | 9:40 amI 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
26 Oct 2009 | 9:02 amToday, 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
22 Oct 2009 | 5:48 amSomething 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… -
The Future is Now
12 Oct 2009 | 5:14 amThe comic above really made me take pause and realize that the future of media & publishing is being sown today. So, I decided to take a trip to the future, which turns out, is just a subway ride away. Over the past five years, I have worked with the PS 123 elementary & middle school in Harlem on various volunteering projects that involved publishing, literacy and community. These efforts began with a company sponsored volunteering program at RBI, and events co-coordinated with my colleague Champion Kathleen McNamara. Through the years, my involvement has grown, and this year, it has… -
Diversifying Media Revenue Streams
5 Oct 2009 | 5:36 amImage by Martha Nelson Let’s talk about paid content, and look beyond the discussions around paywalls and micropayments. I want to explore one example of an online brand creating multiple digital revenue streams, and consider lessons in this for media companies - especially B2B media companies. How a Blogger Earns Six Figures a Year One blog I follow is - of course - a blog about blogging, called ProBlogger.net. It is run by Darren Rowse, a really nice guy from Australia, who sort of fell into this whole thing several years back, and has since become the guru of blogging. This week, he…
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PR 20/20
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13 Website Migration Steps to Keep Your Rankings
6 Nov 2009 | 8:05 amIf 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... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Social Media Transforms Spokesmodels Into Friends
30 Oct 2009 | 12:00 pmWhen 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... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
How to Land a Job in PR
28 Oct 2009 | 11:30 amSix 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... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Does Inbound Marketing Really Work?
26 Oct 2009 | 8:30 amInbound 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... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]] -
Client Relationship Lessons for Sweetest Day
15 Oct 2009 | 7:35 amSaturday is Sweetest Day, a holiday for lovers that is said to have originated in Cleveland in 1922. This year it falls just three days after mine and my boyfriend’s five year anniversary. So,... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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Keysplash Creative
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Dan Schawbel Interviews Susan Gunelius about Hugh Hefner, Playboy and Harry Potter
3 Nov 2009 | 6:57 amThis 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
30 Oct 2009 | 3:19 pmOne 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
26 Oct 2009 | 6:20 pmMy 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. -
From WTF to TFW – How a Blog Caused a Logo Change for Wisconsin
6 Oct 2009 | 5:42 amEarlier this year, one of my favorite blogs, Your Logo Makes Me Barf, wrote a post called WTF Wisconsin? that pointed out a glaring error made by the Wisconsin Tourism Federation. If you don’t know what the acronym WTF stands for, I’ll tell you — “What the fu*k?” Take a look at the logo below. While it’s surprising that no one within or working with the Wisconsin Tourism Federation mentioned this problem to them, the more interesting point of the story comes from how they learned about it. The power of the blogosphere is demonstrated once again with… -
Why No One Believes GM, Ford and Chrysler Deserved Bailouts
22 Sep 2009 | 5:59 pmMonths ago, I published a post on another blog I write for about the fate of GM, Ford and Chrysler. I received a lot of negative comments on that post from people who disagreed with my assertion that mismanagement brought about the failure of the Big 3 U.S. auto manufacturers — specifically, focusing on short term gains rather than long term strategy. It’s a trap that executives and managers everywhere fell victim to as stockholders demanded double-digit growth year after year. There’s a reason why GM, Ford and Chrysler found themselves circling the drain. I think this…
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Social Media Explorer
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Three Tips For Social Media Management
6 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amI sat across the lunch table talking to Craig Bruenderman and Sam Gracie of ResonantVibes.com yesterday, talking about their community of electronic mix music producers and fans, smiling at what I heard. These are young, tech-oriented entrepreneurs, immersed in all the code and programming most of us fear. They use social tools to build their business around. They’re digital natives. What did they say that made me smile? “How do you choose which social networks and channels to focus on?” I heard the same thing from a small business owner in LaGrange, Ky., last week. I heard… -
The Dangerous Waters Ahead
4 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amThe era of the social web has given us unprecedented access. We can see more about each other’s lives, know more about each other’s daily routines and find each other easier now than ever before. We have access to what would have been millions of dollars in software applications and platforms now, too. But they, in turn, have access to us. Our lives, not just our computer programs, have become open source. And we plod along, going with the flow and accepting the fact that the creepy guy from junior high is now commenting on our Facebook pictures. We’ve mostly grown wise to… -
What Social Media Monitoring Won’t Get You
2 Nov 2009 | 2:00 amCompanies, brands and their respective marketing and public relations managers are clamoring to know what people are saying about them on the web. I would offer that social media monitoring has been the single-largest technology-based industry boom in the last 10 years, though search engine optimization firms might win that title. Image via Wikipedia On a parallel path, Facebook has surged past everyone else to emerge as the go-to social network. Brands grabbed up profiles, then group pages, now brand pages. Some still have all three. (You probably ought to move to the brand page exclusively,… -
What The Wall Street Journal Has, Few Will Match
30 Oct 2009 | 3:00 amMediaweek magazine puts together a “Digital Hot List” each year of the websites or companies they see as having the potential to wow the web world. Their list never seems to be much of a surprise, especially when you consider Google, Facebook and Twitter are sort of default entries, but there’s always one or two on it that raise an eyebrow. This year it’s the Wall Street Journal’s website, WSJ.com, in at No. 8. Yep! The website property of a traditional media outlet is on Mediaweek’s Digital Hot List. And no, it’s not a joke. To further perplex the… -
Shave My Goatee For Male Cancer Research
28 Oct 2009 | 9:01 pmA funny thing happened on Twitter last night. David Armano and I got into a (light hearted and fun) discussion about the two of us being sexy bitches. (I know … silly, but bear with me here.) Somehow the notion of me shaving my goatee to raise money for a good cause came up. So, I’ve decided to support Movemeber, the male cancer awareness movement, by pledging to you that if we can raise $1,000.00 by Nov. 15, which I will donate to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, I will shave my goatee. Sure, it’s a small personal sacrifice (I’ve had my goat since roughly 1977), but…
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Content Rich
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Will the C-Suite Ever Embrace Social Media? Hmmmm…
5 Nov 2009 | 1:07 pmMost 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!
3 Nov 2009 | 11:40 amAs 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!
22 Oct 2009 | 12:56 pmDebra 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″
25 Sep 2009 | 1:42 pmScott 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
22 Sep 2009 | 2:15 pmOf 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
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Book’em Danno
25 Oct 2009 | 8:13 amI 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
7 Oct 2009 | 7:46 pmA 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… -
Marketing Lagniappe – “In Search of Your Purple Goldfish”
28 Sep 2009 | 10:17 pmI just successfully downloaded my first presentation onto Slideshare. It’s a slideshow entitled: Marketing Lagniappe – “In Search of Your Purple Goldfish”. [Note: If you watch the slideshow, plan on manually advancing each slide by clicking the PLAY button to the right of the green PLAY button] Here is an outline of the slideshow: 5 reasons you need to consider lagniappe The pronunciation and origin of the word ‘lagniappe’ The two definitions of lagniappe What is a purple goldfish? The 4 factors that determine the growth of a goldfish The 4 ingredients… -
Top 10 Reasons why Stew Leonard’s gets an ‘attaboy’
23 Sep 2009 | 9:40 pmI live in Norwalk, Connecticut near a famous landmark. In golf terms I’m about a 3 wood up the hill from Stew Leonard’s. Stew’s is a grocery store without peer. Mark Twain had an interesting quote about the Taj Mahal, “There are two types of people in this world . . . those who have been to the Taj Mahal and those who haven’t”. If you are a fan of marketing . . . the same thing should apply to what the New York Times has affectionately called the ‘Disneyland of Grocery Stores’. Here are the 10 reasons Stew Leonard’s deserves a… -
Two for Tuesday: Marketing Interactions and Online Marketing
21 Sep 2009 | 9:29 pmHere is the second post in a series called, ‘Sharp Points – 2 for Tuesday’. The idea behind ‘Sharp Points’ is to highlight two blogs from the Junta42 list of top content marketing blogs. This week we’ll tackle #3 and #4 on the list: #3. Marketing Interactions – Ardath Albee authors ‘Marketing Interactions’. She is an expert B2B marketing strategist. The blog discusses how to increase and quantify marketing effectiveness through interactive e-marketing strategies. The key to an effective strategy is the creation of compelling content. Sharp point to share:…
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The Content Wrangler
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The Kindle 3 Parody: CollegeHumor.com Takes A Stab At Video eBooks
1 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pmeBook 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,… -
10 Irresistible Potholes that Writers find on the Road to Globalization
28 Oct 2009 | 10:08 amBy Mike Dillinger, PhD, Translation Optimization Partners (with contributions from Laurie Gerber) Previously published in ClientSide News Mike Dillinger, PhDOptimizing the translation process has two basic components: improving the writers’ source texts and improving the translators’ process. For the moment, we’ll focus on the writer’s job. Dear Translator: Please remember that most writers never had any training at all about translation and usually know one lonely language. Many of them can only rely on the limited writing advice that they got in school. They’re never aware of how… -
Oops! When Web Forms Disclose Personal Information
27 Oct 2009 | 2:21 pmI received an invitation to download an Adobe sponsored whitepaper by IDG Connect (the self-proclaimed “premier IT knowledge base”). I was interested in the topic, so I clicked on the link provided in the email. As expected, my web browser populated the registration form for me. But, when I looked closer, except for the “email address” field, the rest of the form was populated with someone else’s information. I asked others to test this form for me, but they were unable to replicate my experience. I don’t have this user’s information on my laptop. I… -
What is Intelligent Content? And Why Won’t Scott Abel Shut Up About It?
12 Oct 2009 | 3:57 pmScott Abel, The Content WranglerMany of my readers have heard me preach about the value of intelligent content, as if up until now, all other content was dumb. Well, there’s a certain amount of truth to that. But, to understand this line of thinking, it might help to grasp the concept of intelligent content. Intelligent content is content which is not limited to one purpose, technology or output. It’s content that is structurally rich and semantically aware, and is therefore discoverable, reusable, reconfigurable and adaptable. It’s content that helps you and your customers… -
Linked2 Connects Adobe FrameMaker to Documentum: Interview with Jim Fettes, Millennium Consultants
6 Oct 2009 | 8:58 amTCW: Jim, thanks for talking with us today. Before we dive into the interview, tell us a little about yourself and the company you work for. JF: I have been in the high-tech industry for 28 years. The company I work for, Millennium Consultants, Inc. is a Technology company that specializes in: Software Quality Assurance, Software Development, Staffing, IT Security and E-Learning. TCW: You’ve got a pretty interesting mix of products, one of which is of particular interest to our readers. It’s called Linked2. Can you tell us briefly what it is and what it does? Linked2: Seamless…
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Idea Launch
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The “Fancy Math” Behind Our Searches
6 Nov 2009 | 2:43 pmDon’t you love that Google politely corrects you every time you misspell a word (it’s Massachusetts, not Massatusets [face palm]). And how does it know, when you type “Hannah Montana tickets” into the search field, that you’re not looking for Greyhound tickets to Hannah, Montana? (I’m pretty sure no such place exists). It’s all thanks to the magic known as Latent Semantic Imaging (or LSI). LSI uses algorithms (or, as NPR put it in today’s Morning Edition, “fancy math”) to recognize and keep track of patterns in users’ search queries. What’s the point? This is… -
TweetMyJobs
6 Nov 2009 | 2:38 pmThe for-pay job posting sites are about to go the way of the Dodo. TweetMyJobs has declared themselves the largest Twitter Job Board available…in the universe! TweetMyJobs allows employers to tweet (140 characters or less) a job posting and anyone following TweetMyJobs will get instant notification of new jobs looking to hire. Forget refreshing Monster and Careerbuilder all day, waiting for the new posts to show up (no updates on the weekends, Mr. Fuzzy Bunny Slippers!) Featured companies such as AOL, Kelly Services, Citrix, Netflix and Sony are all using the vertical boards to post job… -
Twitter: At the Mercy of the Mob
6 Nov 2009 | 12:53 pmThe mob rules Twitter. The rabble is Twitter’s prevailing guiding force. At least, that’s the gist of an extremely interesting and insightful article in this month’s Wired Magazine. In Mob Rule! How Users Took Over Twitter, author Steven Levy recants the tale of Twitter’s attempt to incorporate retweeting into its architecture. You see, the “RT” and @twitterhandle that signified a retweet (that is, a repost of someone else’s tweet) was entirely user created. The suits at Twitter had nothing to do with it. So, when the suits tried to integrate retweeting into Twitter’s… -
What Is Metadata? Tips for Optimizing Web Pages
6 Nov 2009 | 12:43 pmIs it a fruit? A nickname for your avatar girlfriend (see photo)? A really complicated computer term? Guess again! Metadata is simply “data about data.” In the SEO world, it’s condensed data that helps search engines understand the data on webpages so that they can categorize and index them appropriately—helping you and me find what we’re looking for on the web. There are three primary metadata tags to optimize in the head section of your webpage HTML: the page title, description, and keywords attributes. Page Title Go to Google.com in another tab/window. Type the keyword phrase… -
Content Marketing Hero of the Day: Hyundai Canada
5 Nov 2009 | 8:01 amYou may have recently seen a video on YouTube about a spectacularly bad parking job in Toronto, Ontario. If not, you can take a look here: Brutal, eh? Just one week later, Hyundai Canada posted this video on YouTube: Admittedly, the video quality isn’t the greatest, but in this case, it was more important to be fast than polished. Hyundai did what all businesses that want to do well in content marketing should do: Monitor: Stay on top of trends, especially if they’re even just remotely related to your industry. React quickly: Our attentions are fleeting. If you want to connect to…
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Rexblog
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links for 2009-11-06
6 Nov 2009 | 9:02 pmNorville remembers the not-so-good-old days | unclebarky.com Gist: My friend Deborah Norville* says she should have ignored NBC and talked to the media during the Today Show debacle. "I don't think 'disrespect' is a strong enough word for what they did to me. I was vilified." (*Disclosure: Life's journey leads to interesting friendships.) Condé Nast Wastes Money On Everything Except Magazines | Mediaite Gist of article: It's easy to beat up on Conde Nast proligate ways. (tags: magazines) Google Magazines: Now Actually Findable! | Technologizer Former… -
The Last Days of Gourmet
4 Nov 2009 | 3:19 amWhen I started blogging almost ten years ago, I decided that I would not blog about the transactions of the magazine world: the buying, selling, launching, closing, hiring, firing stuff. Those things are what trade (business-to-business) publications and news websites focus on and I don’t really want to play the role of “reporter” here. (Self-appointed pundit is more fun.) However, I have made some exceptions to that rule. If transactions involve friends or someone who is especially newsworthy, or if the launch or closure involves a publication that reporters start pulling… -
What a surprise. Once again, the experts still haven’t figured out the DVR
2 Nov 2009 | 5:19 amToday, the New York Times has a story that was DVR’d two years ago and re-played today. 2007 story: Viewers Fast-Forwarding Past Ads? Not Always 2009 story: DVR, Once TV’s Mortal Foe, Helps Ratings I remember that previous story because I blogged about it at the time (more on that in a minute). Today’s story rounds up some industry experts who seem dumbfounded that users of DVRs actually like TV and use their DVR to time-shift the programming they enjoy. And, what’s more, viewers don’t always fast-forward through the commercials. Ironically — but… -
The best thing about blogging
1 Nov 2009 | 7:55 pmI’ve been so jammed with projects the past few days (yes, even through the weekend), I haven’t done my usual ego roundup checks (don’t tell me you don’t have a Google alert set up for your name). So I’ve been remiss in not saying a public thank you for the kind things Kate O’Neill and Dave Delaney said on their blogs last Wednesday. And since I’m shamelessly pointing to people who have said nice things related to me, I’ll point also to a recent post “My buddy Dave,” Dave Winer, wrote. (To my geek-free friends reading this on… -
Thoughts on Twitter #8: You’re going to love Twitter Lists, unless you don’t
1 Nov 2009 | 1:12 am[Notes: You can view all my "Thoughts on Twitter" posts displayed chronologically here: http://www.RexBlog.com/thoughts-on-twitter.] If you read this blog closely, you know I’ve been whining for a “lists” or “groups” feature on Twitter since, well, about the time I started using it. (About 90% of the complaints I hear from people who use Facebook could be solved if they understood and used the FaceBook “friends list” feature.) For those of us who use third-party services and software to manage our Twitter following and tweeting, solutions to…
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Sales Lead Insights
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B2B Email Marketing: Interview with Stephanie Miller
3 Nov 2009 | 7:32 amThis 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 today is Stephanie Miller, email expert and co-author of Sign me up! A Marketer’s Guide To Email Newsletters That Build Relationships and Boost Sales. Stephanie describes herself as a customer advocate who, through her work with email performance company Return Path, helps marketers reach the inbox and connect with prospects and customers via email and social marketing. Recent research sponsored by Google and… -
Who are the 50 Most Influential People in Sales Lead Management?
26 Oct 2009 | 1:10 pmHere is your chance to vote for up to five of the fifty most influential people in sales lead management. The Sales Lead Management Association (SLMA) announced today that it has opened the voting to determine the 50 most influential people in the field of sales lead management for 2009. Both members and non-members can vote for up to five nominees each. Use this link to vote. Or visit www.salesleadmgmtassn.com/top50_vote.htm The results will be published on November 16, 2009. -Mac P.S. I’m honored to be included in the list of nominees and sure would appreciate your vote! If you'd like… -
An Interview With Mike Damphousse About B-to-B Appointment Setting
28 Sep 2009 | 7:01 amThis is the first in a series of occasional interviews with top practitioners in the field of B-to-B demand generation. Today’s guest is Michael Damphousse, CEO/CMO of Green Leads, LLC, a firm that specializes in using the phone to get qualified appointments for its clients’ salespeople on a pay-per-performance basis. Mike is an experienced marketer, having served as CMO of two software companies before starting Green Leads. His blog, Smashmouth Marketing, has developed a wide following among B-to-B marketing professionals. Mike, I’m hearing a lot of buzz about appointment… -
Free, on-demand webinar on A/B and multivariate testing *specifically for B2B marketers*.
17 Sep 2009 | 9:15 pmIf you are responsible for business-to-business lead generation, you will want to attend this free, on-demand webinar about testing. I presented this webinar live on September 24, 2009, with Anne Holland. You probably already know Anne. She founded MarketingSherpa. The webinar is full of ideas you can put to work right away to improve your B2B lead generation results. In 46 minutes you’ll get: Case Studies of A/B tests run by B2B marketers to improve lead generation; Proven tactics for increasing the quantity and quality of leads you generate via online forms; Ideas on… -
Industrial Marketers: Is this News Good or Bad?
2 Sep 2009 | 9:48 amAccording to a recent survey of engineering, technical, manufacturing and industrial professionals: Although the majority expects their companies’ spending to remain flat or down, more than a third (36%) said they expect spending during the second half of 2009 will increase compared to the first half of year. You can get the free white paper with complete survey results and analysis here. So is this good news or bad news? I believe it is good news that more than a third of companies in the industrial sector are expected to increase spending during this second half of 2009. Some…
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Savvy B2B Marketing
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Savvy Week in Review - November 6
6 Nov 2009 | 5:02 amIs it really November?! It's hard to believe we're headed into the heart of winter (an especially chilling thought for those of us in New England). Ah well -- perhaps like us you can find escape in these thought-provoking posts from the blogosphere. Enjoy! -- The Savvy Sisters5 Ways Your Case Studies Can SCARE off Prospects by @casey_hibbard A valuable checklist for all marketers to keep at hand.Why ‘Personas’ Are the Secret Sauce for Effective Marketing Automation Campaigns and the Key to Achieving a ‘Mass One-to-one’ Strategy - by @abneedles Adam Needles of Silverpop… -
Are You Making the HYPErbole Mistake?
5 Nov 2009 | 7:36 amYou know that B2B consumers are a notoriously just-the-facts-ma'am kind of audience. Unlike B2C consumers who are frequently persuaded to purchase based on a catchy jingle, cute logo, or the endorsement of their favorite Hollywood actress; B2B buyers expect to be courted. The typical B2B purchase is not an impulse buy, so they want the chance to get acquainted gradually. They are not distracted by a pretty face; they want to get to know the inner you. They need in-depth information that proves you are who you say you are before they will commit to anything beyond the first date.Despite… -
Are You Scaring Your Customers with Too Much Doom and Gloom? Reframe Your Messaging Formula for Even Bigger Impact.
3 Nov 2009 | 12:23 pmAs marketers, we all know that you need to lead with the pain. And if you’ve spent any time watching paid shows on Saturday morning TV, you will be familiar with the dramatically grimacing faces of the TV actors as they attempt to cut a tin can with a regular knife, dry off their car with a regular rag, store food in the freezer with regular baggies: “You could spend hours trying to…” “You could spend hundreds of dollars trying to…” “You could create a big mess trying to…” You get my drift; identify the problem, make it sound as… -
B2B Marketing Case Studies: Is Shorter Better?
2 Nov 2009 | 3:16 amI was searching for some great examples of case studies, and I noticed something: the traditional 1 or 2 page case study wasn't as prevalent as I expected. Instead, more companies are featuring shorter, web-based blurbs. For instance, I like how Marketo refers to their stories as "Success Snapshots." There are likely a lot of reasons why companies are using this shorter form, and, in a many instances, it works well for both marketing and their prospects: A long list of customers inspires trust: As a prospect, there is something comforting about scrolling through a list of customers… -
Savvy Week in Review - October 30
30 Oct 2009 | 7:21 amBOO!!Did we scare you?No worries - nothing but treats here at the Savvy Week in Review. The Halloween holiday may be upon us, but our B2B community is still cranking out the good stuff.Enjoy, but don't over indulge!The Savvy Sisters How to Craft an 'About' Page: 5 Keys to Telling Your Story - by @patsiblogsquadYour About Us page is one of the most visited pages on websites. Is yours a boring bio, or is it an authentic story of you? Patsi Krakoff provides some suggestions. Top 10 Lessons Small Businesses Can Takeaway from Smart Content Marketers - by @newtbarrettNewt Barrett shares his…
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Social Signal
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Is Twitter devouring itself?
30 Oct 2009 | 12:58 amTwitter 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
30 Oct 2009 | 12:00 amA 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… -
How a bad haircut created the risk tolerance to go open-source
28 Oct 2009 | 11:57 amThe following post appeared in The Mark News earlier this week. When I was a kid I had the shortest hair of any girl in my class because my mum couldn't face the hassle of hair maintenance. As soon as I got old enough to take care of it myself, I grew my hair as long as possible, and by the time I graduated from university it reached halfway down my back. Then I got my first real job and needed a grown-up look, so I gritted my teeth and asked for a modest trim. Instead, my stylist sheared me back to my ear-baring elementary school years, and I left the salon in an emotional state usually… -
How to create a social media strategy document that identifies options and opportunities
27 Oct 2009 | 2:46 pmWe deliver the Concept Jam to clients who are seeking their best social media opportunities: the campaign, site features or applications that can help them reach build relationships with their key audiences, generate revenue or deliver a key message. The final deliverable in the Concept Jam is a document that gives them a set of options that reflects their organization's very particular goals, audiences and strengths. Today, we're releasing two documents that share our internal template and approach for delivering social media options. The Concept Jam is all about sparking ideas from within… -
How to create a great report summarizing your workshop's results, with an example from Vancity's Change Everything
22 Oct 2009 | 11:45 pmWe love the Concept Jam workshop for what happens in the room, as people get excited about the possibilities for social media in their organizations and their own work. And we love taking what happens in the room and teasing out the ideas and mashing them up with what we know ourselves until we can deliver a really varied, exciting set of options. But in between the room and the options lie at least a couple of weeks worth of work. Those weeks can give our clients a chance to reflect on the insights that emerged, and their team members a chance to start trying out the tools and approaches…
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B2B Content Marketing
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Sell your content strategy project to the CFO by first understanding their primary evaluation criteria.
27 Oct 2009 | 8:46 amThe 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,… -
Ice cream sundaes and the art of customer satisfaction.
24 Oct 2009 | 7:39 amIt’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.
19 Oct 2009 | 7:47 amWith 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
9 Oct 2009 | 7:46 amThe 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… -
The Holy Grail of the sales process: personal value.
30 Sep 2009 | 6:43 amThink about it, from autos to xylophones every person who sets out to buy anything envisions themselves utilizing the product or service prior to ownership.They might think about how others will see and perceive them, a sweeter note, or how it will save them time or money.I call this personal value. The same is true for B2B sales, people set out to buy goods and services to solve business issues, and a projects success or failure has ramifications to the buyer or buyers, a promotion, more responsibility or acceptance into a peer group.Often overlooked by most, personal value to the buyer, has…
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Article Writing & Marketing Insights - EzineArticles Blog
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2nd #HAHD Challenge Ends Sunday!
5 Nov 2009 | 1:46 pmImportant Reminder: The second “100 Articles in 100 Days Marathon Challenge” officially comes to a close at 11:59PM CDT Sunday, November 8th. To Qualify: All articles must be submitted under the same author name. Articles from multiple author names may not be combined. A minimum of 100 articles must have been submitted between 12:00AM CDT Saturday, August 1st and 11:59PM CDT Sunday, November 8th. Articles submitted within the 100 day window must be approved prior to November 15, 2009. Those who believe they have met the challenge requirements for any prizes must send a prize… -
From My Desk to Yours – 4th Edition
4 Nov 2009 | 5:23 amBy: Penny, EzineArticles Managing Editor Question: How do I crank up the word count in my articles without adding fluff, yet still deliver NEW quality content that will capture my audience? Hmmm, seems like an easy enough question. This challenge arises when you have already delivered as much as you feel you can and your articles are starting to sound like your grandfather’s favorite old story. Over and over, the same words are flowing and you’re trying like crazy to offer something new in your market. So what do you do? Answers: Join in Conversations - Sign-up for forums and… -
Halloween at EzineArticles
30 Oct 2009 | 12:22 pmThe EzineArticles Team embraced Halloween with a vengeance this year! Despite the fact that Halloween is not until tomorrow, many of the good little ghouls and goblins of EzineArticles got into the spirit of the holiday by dressing up for this year’s Spooky Feast and Costume Contest. In addition to the many wild and crazy costumes, there was an assortment of fiendish foods. And to top it off, Graphic Designer Shaun put his artistic skills to work on an incredible trio of EzineArticles Jack O’ Lanterns! …… …… Just in case you’re interested, the winners… -
Repackaging Articles is Not Derivative Content
29 Oct 2009 | 11:34 amIn this video, I clear up some common misconceptions about what qualifies as “derivative content”. A few days ago, you learned about our recent crackdown on derivative content. Unfortunately, many authors became concerned that this new guideline included existing articles from their websites and blogs. Let me be clear: You SHOULD submit existing articles and content from your website or blog. Here are the Key Points: Repackaging Existing Articles On Your Website Now and Submitting Them To EzineArticles Does NOT Trigger Our Derivative Content Filters Rehashing One Article into Many… -
Defining “ORIGINAL CONTENT” and “EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS”
28 Oct 2009 | 9:40 amAt EzineArticles, we only accept 100% original material for which you have exclusive rights. What does that mean exactly? In a nutshell, it means the words in your articles are uniquely YOURS (a.k.a. You’ve written the article yourself). If you employ a ghostwriter, it means you are sure no other author is receiving any version of the same material. Exclusive content is… Associated *only* with your author name Written by you personally from scratch, OR; Ghost written exclusively for you and no one else, from scratch Exclusive content is not… Re-written from another article A…
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Shelly Bowen: Exceptional Web Content
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The Big Picture: End-to-End Content Strategy
21 Oct 2009 | 11:38 amIt’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
5 Oct 2009 | 2:10 pmA 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 …
2 Sep 2009 | 5:11 pmPYBOP 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
26 Aug 2009 | 12:38 pmContent 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 -
How to Find a Great Writer — the Easy Way
17 Aug 2009 | 4:49 pmGetting the Words Right for Your Project Sure, you’ve written some good prose here and there, but you’re not a professional writer, and anyways, you don’t have the time to do it right for your business. A well-written article or Web site page can involve so much. Seriously. Just check out ... continue reading How to Find a Great Writer — the Easy Way
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Mike Paul Jr - The Blog
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Just had the greatest pizza in the world…
6 Nov 2009 | 4:37 pmIt’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?
30 Oct 2009 | 9:08 pmI 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
29 Oct 2009 | 7:59 pmTraffic. 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…
29 Oct 2009 | 10:19 amI’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… -
The wifey after a long day at work
29 Sep 2009 | 3:22 pmShe’s still beautiful even if she doesn’t feel like it…:) Sent from my iPhone Posted via email from Mike’s posterous
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Word Sell, Inc.
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What Do You Do When You Can’t Think of Anything to Blog About?
5 Nov 2009 | 3:40 amDo 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… -
Marketing Generation Gap Threatens B2B Survival
4 Nov 2009 | 3:56 amWhen I was young, I thought I had all the right answers. Later on, I thought I had all the right questions. Then, I thought there were no right answers. And now, lo these many years later, I’ve reached the point where I think I was right in the first place. Here’s what I mean. I was having a conversation with a young lady, a recent college grad with absolutely no business background or particular interest in marketing. We got on the subject of a b2b project I was working on involving website content creation and some social media work. At one point the conversation went like this. -
4 Blog Typography Tips that Enhance SEO
2 Nov 2009 | 4:34 amWhat’s good for the human reader is good for the search engine reader. To demonstrate, here are four typography tips that improve readability and SEO. Bold Fonts. Used judiciously, bold fonts draw the reader’s eye to important text. Search engine spiders value bold text somewhat higher than plain text – so be sure to incorporate keyword phrases. Too much bold text, however, can backfire by overwhelming or confusing the reader. Italics. Search engines also like italic text, but here, you have to be more judicious still. Italic text is hard to read, especially on a computer… -
Use Trade Shows to Boost SEO
29 Oct 2009 | 4:27 amAre you as sick as I am of the phrase, Think outside the box? Well, for all you b2b marketers, let me put a new twist on it for you - For Winning SEO, Think Outside the Web In other words, the real world is a real good source of content for your business website or blog. Even something as old school and old fashioned as an industry trade show can boost site traffic. This dawned on me (again) as a large industry trade show was about to begin. Manufacturers from all over the world would be showcasing their latest and greatest technologies and gizmos and productivity enhancers. Attendees would… -
How to Make an SEO Friendly Editorial Calendar for Your Blog
27 Oct 2009 | 3:53 amHaving an editorial calendar for your blog simplifies and brings discipline to the process of coming up with post topics. Taking it a step further, an SEO friendly editorial calendar simplifies and brings discipline to the process of writing blog posts that support your SEO strategy. Here is a simplified version of an SEO friendly editorial calendar format that works really well for me. This hypothetical blogger with an online golf equipment store has four categories he wants to blog about. Blog Categories. The editorial calendar lists and repeats the category group over and over, so the…
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Online Content Writing and Copywriting Blog
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10 ways of generating interest in your readers
3 Nov 2009 | 7:33 amIf 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
16 Oct 2009 | 4:00 amLanguage, 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
15 Oct 2009 | 6:17 pmTwitter 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… -
Initiating a positive climate change while operating your freelance business
15 Oct 2009 | 8:06 amToday’s post is about Climate Change (an initiative by BlogActionDay.org — Blog Action Day ). Climate change is not just the problem of those who think about it and want to take some proactive action. It is a problem we all face, whether we accept it or act like an ostrich. When the polar ice melts and costal cities get submerged the impact is all pervasive. When our kids develop asthma and other pollution-related illnesses it no longer remains an "activism" issue. When the marine life starts withering it affects the entire food chain. When there are flash draughts,… -
Is it really the end of email?
12 Oct 2009 | 9:33 amAccording to this Wall Street Journal article it is. It says people are becoming so used to communicating through Twitter and FaceBook (soon to be joined by Google Wave), but I think it is like the proverbial "jumping the gun". Of course I’m not denying that you can communicate faster using Twitter and FaceBook and some things you don’t even have to communicate through emails because you have already posted an update, there is nothing like "we’re always connected". I, for example, am not. Today I haven’t checked my Twitter and FaceBook streams…
