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• How To Track YouTube Conversions

  John Chow dot Com

  Guest Blogger

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:06 pm

  Do you have a YouTube conversion tracking strategy? If you’re like me, then you’re probably uploading product reviews, screen capture tutorials and other short videos on YouTube to promote your affiliate website or affiliate links. But how are your YouTube promotions really impacting your profits? Is YouTube really worth your time? There’s no real way to know unless you implement a systematic way of tracking your YouTube clicks and conversions. And of course, you can do this easily with LinkTrackr. The easiest way to do it is to embed your LinkTrackr tracking link right on the video…

• How to Instantly Transform Your Landing Page Images from Good to Great

  Copyblogger

  Sean D'Souza

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  Reading this post made us smarter, richer, more fascinating, and an average of 3 inches taller. Let’s say you place a photo of a client on your landing page. Just the photo. No client name. No title, or business name. No clue as to what industry that client is in, or where they come from. Now, photos are a great addition to landing pages. Photos of happy clients help to build trust with your readers, showing the type of people who do business with you. But would anyone even know that person was a client? The moment you add in a few important details — the client name, the…

• How to find profitable Clickbank niches

  Affiliate Marketing Blog

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:39 pm

  Hi there, a few days ago Sam wrote a blog post on How to Find Hot Physical Product Niches, and to follow on from that, today I've recorded a video for you which shows you how to find great digital products to promote through Clickbank. The good thing about Clickbank products is that they often have high margins and some also offer recurring billing too, which means you get paid over and over once you make a sale until the customer cancels their membership of the site you recommended. Just click play on the video below and you'll see me walking you through how I go about finding profitable…

• How To Find Hot Physical Product Niches

  Affiliate Marketing Blog

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:39 pm

  Many affiliate marketers tend to skip over promoting physical products. If you aren't promoting physical products, and are just focusing on digital products such as eBooks sold through Clickbank, then you are leaving a lot of potential niches (and money) on the table. In fact, when done properly physical products can often be more profitable to affiliates than digital products, it depends on the affiliate and the plan that they have. Today you're going to learn how to find hot physical product niches that are overflowing with eager customers; and how you can profit from them. One of the…

• Free Social Listening Tools

  Talent imitates, genius steals

  farisyakob

  12 Jan 2012 | 11:31 am

  Social Listening Tools View more presentations from rosie siman Very useful little deck on free social listenting tools that some of my work family contributed to. Enjoy.

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  Ads of the World™

• GE X500 Camera: Wall

  ivan

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:23 pm

  Handle the distance. Advertising Agency: BangkokShowcase, Bangkok, Thailand Associate Creative Director: Chokchai Tupanyakanok Art Directors: Sakon khanawuthikarn, Pathrawee Homkanjan, Chaitat Sookate Copywriters: Krittayot Opassatavorn, Thiti Boonkerd Photographer: Montol Anusasamornkul Production House: Silhouette Published: September 2011 Post a logo contest on StockLogos for $100 and get dozens of designs within a few days.

• GE X500 Camera: Clock

  ivan

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:23 pm

  Handle the distance. Advertising Agency: BangkokShowcase, Bangkok, Thailand Associate Creative Director: Chokchai Tupanyakanok Art Directors: Sakon khanawuthikarn, Pathrawee Homkanjan, Chaitat Sookate Copywriters: Krittayot Opassatavorn, Thiti Boonkerd Photographer: Montol Anusasamornkul Production House: Silhouette Published: September 2011 Post a logo contest on StockLogos for $100 and get dozens of designs within a few days.

• GE X500 Camera: Face

  ivan

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:23 pm

  Handle the distance. Advertising Agency: BangkokShowcase, Bangkok, Thailand Associate Creative Director: Chokchai Tupanyakanok Art Directors: Sakon khanawuthikarn, Pathrawee Homkanjan, Chaitat Sookate Copywriters: Krittayot Opassatavorn, Thiti Boonkerd Photographer: Montol Anusasamornkul Production House: Silhouette Published: September 2011 Post a logo contest on StockLogos for $100 and get dozens of designs within a few days.

• Hafslund: Pull Out the Plug

  ivan

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:08 pm

  Advertising Agency: TRY/Apt, Norway Production company: Bacon Director: Martin Werner Post a logo contest on StockLogos for $100 and get dozens of designs within a few days.

• BMW: Matchbox gearbox

  ivan

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:35 pm

  The new 8-speed automatic transmission comes standard with the 1, 3 and 5 series Advertising Agency: JWT, Netherlands Creative Directors: Massimo van der Plas, Joep de kort Art Director: Joep de Kort Copywriter: Massimo van der Plas Photographer: Simon Warmer Postproduction: Magic Group Published: January 2012 Post a logo contest on StockLogos for $100 and get dozens of designs within a few days.

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  Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing

• Two Weeks In, Google Says “Search Plus Your World” Going Well, Critics Should Give It Time

  Danny Sullivan

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:11 pm

  Two weeks ago, Google launched Search Plus Your World. Since then, Google has faced strong criticisms that SPYW is making its search relevancy worse and favoring its Google+ social network too much. Not so, says Google search chief Amit Singhal. Most Google users are happy, Singhal said. Of course,... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

• Bing Out Of “Betaphase” In Germany, Claims 10 Million Users

  Greg Sterling

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:27 pm

  Bing is reportedly now out of betaphase in Deutschland. According to Microsoft, Bing has 10 million users or 20 percent of active internet users in Germany: Mittlerweile benutzen fast 10 Millionen Nutzer in Deutschland regelmäßig Bing, das sind 20 Prozent der aktiven Internetnutzer hierzulande.... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

• SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 27, 2012

  Matt McGee

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pm

  Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

• Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity – SMN Tuesday, Jan. 31

  Claire Schoen

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:57 pm

  Search Marketing Now will present “Mobile Search: The Agency Opportunity,” on Tuesday, January 31 at 1 PM EST. The free webcast features Steven Schuler and Patrick Peters, both from Yahoo!’s mobile division. They’ll give an overview of the current mobile landscape, then... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

• Search In Pics: David Beckham At Google, Google’s Moscow Office & Bing Bar

  Barry Schwartz

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:14 am

  In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more. David Beckham At Google: Google’s Moscow Brick Desk: Bing Bar at... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

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  Marketing Pilgrim - Internet News and Opinion

• Cup of Joe: Leveraging Culture

  Joe Hall

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:30 pm

  Back in November I shared this image on Google+. Chris Brogan, re-shared it and then 370 others followed suit! It is by far the most popular thing I have posted on Google+. Also, in April I blogged about how a piece of my content went viral on StumbleUpon, which as of today has gained over 1.2 million visitors. Every time a piece of my content goes viral its completely unexpected and leaves me asking, why? I could just ignore things and go eat hot dogs, but, as a marketer its my job to answer that question. Recently Jared Keller tried to answer this question, and in my opinion did a great…

• ‘Tweets Still Must Flow’. . .Except When Twitter Stops Them

  Cynthia Boris

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:16 pm

  Free speech is one of those topics that always sends people in a tizzy. Most would agree that censorship is a bad thing, but at the same time, it’s not right to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. Unless, of course, the theater really is on fire. This idea is tricky enough when you’re talking about books and speeches and what people say on TV. Social media, makes it even trickier. Take Twitter. It’s a public forum where people can feel free to say whatever they want — to a point. Twitter doesn’t allow excessive spam or threats and they don’t allow…

• Social Sign-Ons Help Marketers Discover the Real You

  Cynthia Boris

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:13 pm

  Xander: “Sure he says he’s a high school student, but I can say I’m a high school student.” Buffy: “You are.” Xander: “Okay, but I can also say that I’m an elderly Dutch woman. Get me? I mean, who’s to say I’m not if I’m in the elderly Dutch chat room?” Xander makes a good point. The one cool and also creepy thing about communicating over the internet, is you can be anyone you want to be; a high school student, an elderly Dutch woman or Snow White. People create alternate personas in order to be better than who they are…

• US Mobile Ad Spend Grows Faster Than Predicted

  Frank Reed

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:34 am

  In what seems like a rare moment these days, analysts are saying that they actually underestimated something rather than hyping it beyond recognition. Maybe there is hope after all . This time it is about mobile ad spending in the US. eMarketer writes The US mobile advertising market is growing far faster than expected, driven by the rapid ascension of Google’s mobile search advertising business, advertisers’ growing attraction to display inventory on tablet and smartphone devices, and the growing roster of mobile ad networks such as Google’s AdMob, Apple’s iAd and Millennial Media.

• Paid Apps Giving Way to In-App Purchase Model

  Frank Reed

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:14 am

  Interested in building that killer app that will be your grand slam home run of your career? Convinced that you are absolutely certain that there are AT LEAST 5 million people out there that would give up $.99 in a heartbeat for your “awesome” app or mindless game? Well, that is great copy for someone trying to recruit developers but the reality of the app world plays out a bit differently. That’s not to say that paid apps are dead. It’s just that they are going to be more like hitting the lottery rather than a solid business plan. According to a study by IHS Media…

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  Brian Solis

• Nissan Embraces Social Media to Improve Customer Experiences and Foster Advocacy

  Brian Solis

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pm

  In this episode of (R)evolution, Nissan’s David Mingle, Director of Customer Management and Erich Marx, Director of Marketing join me for a refreshing conversation about social media’s impact on business transformation, customer experiences, and building an adaptive business model to learn and evolve based on new opportunities. We explore Nissan’s approach to new media for not only marketing, but also how the company uses social media to invest in and shape the customer experience over time. Having both David and Erich on the show offered a 360 view of the customer and also…

• The Mobile Marketing Value Exchange

  Brian Solis

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:21 am

  Guest post by Scott Forshay, creator and editor of mobi.luxe. Following him on Twitter @mobiluxe Establishing consumer relationships through mobile marketing, as with any successful, productive relationship, inherently requires a mutual exchange of value. Whether consumers are opting-in for brand communications via SMS or engaging with the brand in a single instance through scanning a QR code, the onus is on the brand to deliver value in return for customers’ valuable time and information. Without the perception that value has been exchanged for value, the relationship becomes essentially…

• Likes, Genre, Action – Facebook Introduces Clicks to Action

  Brian Solis

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:51 am

  Following the official roll out of its new Timeline, Facebook is introducing Actions, a series of new applications that change how people interact with apps, content, brands, and each other. The new apps will extend Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of frictionless experiences based on Facebook’s Open Graph platform, where apps introduce new ways to share your actions with your friends either implicitly or explicitly. With the new Open Graph platform, developers will introduce new Actions and Action buttons that extend the functionality of sharing beyond Likes to now include a dictionary…

• Looking Beyond 2012: Trends for Leading Transformation

  Brian Solis

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:11 am

  Part 16 in an ongoing series that serves as the prequel to my new book, The End of Business as Usual… It’s a new year and a new set of predictions to set goals and expectations for 2012.  I won’t bother you with the top 10 emerging social networks or apps to focus time and resources. Nor will I gaze in the crystal ball to reveal the five secrets to viral marketing and user/customer acquisition. Instead of adding my forecasts to the endless sea of debatable prophesies, I chose a more aspirational path. 2012 is the year of transformation as digital Darwinism threatens rigid and…

• How Suntrust Uses Social Media to Engage Customers and Comply with Regulation

  Brian Solis

  20 Jan 2012 | 12:37 pm

  Financial institutions are bound to rules and regulation than other companies experimenting in customer engagement, specifically in social media, can ignore. Over the years, SunTrust has stood out as one of several examples that understand how to use regulatory boundaries to inspire a new generation of customer engagement. The result is finding balance between risk and reward to meet customer expectations and improve customer experiences now and over time. As I’ve always believed…constraint forces creativity. Bianca Buckridee, AVP of Social Media Engagement at SunTrust shares her…

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  Posts from the Econsultancy blog

• Techmeme: this is what happens when aggregators aggregate aggregators

  Patricio Robles

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:03 pm

  For many in the tech community, Techmeme is one of the top places to turn when you want to discover the latest news. Launched in 2005, Techmeme was at first automated, but since 2008, it has employed human editors to curate the best tech news on the web. The idea: human involvement is necessary to filter the wheat from the chaff. Which seems like a good idea given just how much chaff there is on the web. But is it working for Techmeme?Recently, former TechCrunch writer Sarah Lacy launched a new blog, PandoDaily. She raised money from a cadre of some of Silicon Valley's most influential…

• US job moves: Blackberry, Nokia, Comcast, Virgin America

  Heather Taylor

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:20 am

  As this week's news is dominated with the news of another founder splitting ways with his company, we're reporting moves in the US by RIM, Virgin America, Nokia, Comcast and Zynga amongst others.Did you hear of any big moves that will affect our industry that we didn't catch? Let us know.Research in Motion co-chief executives, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, have stepped down to make way for COO Thorsten Heins to become president and chief executive.Nokia's chief designer Marko Ahtisaari has been promoted from Senior VP to Executive Vice President, Design. This move comes after the success…

• Kermit takes over Disney's Twitter feed for film promotion

  David Moth

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:55 am

  Kermit the Frog took over Disney UK’s Twitter feed yesterday to promote the new Muppet movie. As part of Disney's marketing around the film’s London premiere fans could post questions using the hashtag #AskKermit. Hundreds of people took part, including actor Stephen Fry, and the hashtag was in the top ten trends on Thursday.Kermit tweeted responses back to fans and also posted personalised videos on YouTube as he toured London for various promotional events. Using Twitter as a marketing tool is nothing new, but allowing fans to interact with an iconic character like Kermit in…

• G20 economy predicted to hit $4.2tn by 2016

  David Moth

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:25 am

  The G20’s digital economy is set to double to $4.2tn by 2016, according to the Boston Consulting Group. The Google-commissioned study found that key drivers behind the increase will be the growth of mobile internet, the popularity of social media and the continued strength of emerging markets.However the main factor will be the dramatic increase in the number of web users, which it predicts will increase from 1.9bn in 2010 to 3bn in 2016 – this accounts for around 45% of the world’s population. Within the report, IBM predicts that by 2015 1tn devices will be connected to the…

• What we've been reading this week: UK edition

  Vikki Chowney

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:05 am

  Here are the stories and links we’ve tweeted, posted, passed around the UK office and shaken our heads at. Check back later to get the skinny on what our US team has been reading too.   Men Not Allowed: The First Ever Female Social Network Belinda Parmar’s delicate dissection of ‘women only’ social network Luluvise. Originally posted 26-Jan-12   Europe proposes a ‘right to be forgotten’ Arstechnica discusses the EU’s reform of the EU's data protection rules. Originally posted 26-Jan-12   Observations on #savetheintern Tom Watson…

• Photostream from Daylife

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  Online Marketing Blog

• Online Marketing News: Women Dominate Community Management, Google Privacy, FBI Social, Twitter Censorship, McD Hashtag Gone Wrong

  Ashley Zeckman

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:40 am

  The 2012 Community Manager Report Community Manager is an essential, yet still uncharted territory for many companies that are expanding their presence on the social web.  What should you know about the current state of this position? 67% of Community Managers work for a brand The most popular city for Community Managers is New York 65% of Community Managers are Female Be sure to check out the rest of this report presented by Social Fresh. Google & FBI: All Your Social Data Are Belong to Us For non-geeks, here’s the reference (Zero Wing video) “Google Privacy Changes: What…

• 5 Basic SEO Troubleshooting Tips for Content Marketers

  Lee Odden

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:34 am

  Content Marketing Not Performing? Troubleshoot SEO Basics. This post is a preview of a new downloadable guide I will be offering for those who pre-order Optimize by March 13, 2012. The full guide will have screenshots, examples and more “SEO Deep Dive” advice. If you want the full, illustrated Content Marketing SEO Troubleshooting Guide, visit OptimizeBook.com to pre-order and subscribe to our mailing list for more details. Content Marketing at its core is about planning information that is thoughtful about the needs and interests of target customer groups as they take the…

• Optimize Your Social Media Schedule: 4 Tips for Avoiding the Social Media Time Suck

  Ashley Zeckman

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:56 am

  Making the time to execute on a social media strategy can rattle even the most experienced marketers.  Unlike traditional marketing, social media marketing can present many different challenges and distractions.  According to a study by eMarketer 73% of marketers say finding the time to create content as their biggest marketing challenge. I recently ran a poll of @TopRank Twitter followers to get a sense of how they spend their time online.  I asked “If you had only 20 minutes a day to spend on social media what would you focus on?”  Some of the answers we received were:…

• 11 Ways to Get Smarter & Stay Current in a World of Social Information Overload

  Lee Odden

  23 Jan 2012 | 6:41 am

  Online Marketing is all about information. And people. Making connections that solve marketing problems in today’s environment of social and technological innovation can be challenging. Like many readers of this blog, a big part of what I do as an Internet Marketer centers around being able to consume large amounts of information or better, the right information, synthesizing it and using insights to help others make sense of the challenges and opportunities they face with marketing on the web. As an author, frequent speaker at industry conferences, advisor to clients and the people who…

• Online Marketing News: Say NOPA to SOPA, Google+ Strikes Again, Coca Cola “Gets It”, Twitter Gobbles Up Summify

  Ashley Zeckman

  20 Jan 2012 | 6:31 am

  The Social Job Seekers The social media job market is hot! This infographic visualizes the 2011 Social Job Seeker Survey that was conducted by Jobvite.  It examines who the job seekers are and how they are utilizing social media to find jobs.  Some interesting statistics you may not be aware of: 61% of all employed Americans are open to a new job or actively looking for a new one. 4 out of 10 job seekers are “Super Social” and have 150+ contacts on Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin. 1 in 6 job seekers found their last job through an online social network. This Week in News About Google…

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  PSFK

• Twitter To Censor Tweets In Select Countries [Headlines]

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:06 pm

  Social networking platform will monitor activity in certain nations around the world

• MasterCard Rumors Apple Is Developing Contactless Payments [Headlines]

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pm

  The credit company gossips that computer giant is creating a new touch-free way to make purchases.

• Tablets Are Hurting Your Neck [Headlines]

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:31 pm

  New study out of Harvard suggests that iPad, Kindle Fire and others are bad for your health.

• Occupy Design Launched By London Protest Movement

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:55 pm

  The kick-off weekend for Occupy Design includes a hands-on series of workshops examining design within the context of protest.

• New Culture Website Is The New Yorker Of Live Content

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:35 pm

  Hibrow.tv.com curates video of visual art, music, literature, theatre, dance and cinema for an upscale audience.

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  Search Engine Journal

• Tips on How to Help Uninteresting Pages Rank Better

  Melissa Fach

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pm

  The following video was done by Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz. He has some fantastic tips on how you can help the boring pages of your site rank better. Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournalFollow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

• Industry Discussion: The True Nature of Social Media ROI

  Martin Solar

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:04 pm

  There is a common misconception about the return on investment (ROI) via social media. For reasons most of us do not understand, Social Media has been classified primarily as a marketing tool by many. Because of this misconception at the foundation of a social media strategy, calculating actual ROI can be a circuitous and inexact [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

• Want More Clicks on Twitter?

  Melissa Fach

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 am

  The following infographic is by Dan Zarrella of HubSpot. This IG a lot of great recommendations if you are looking to increase your clicks on Twitter. I especially liked the suggestions on using words correctly and the use of action words. I guess I will be tweeting more on the weekends too. To find out [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

• Top 10 Reasons Your Facebook Campaign Isn’t Working

  Sujan Patel

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  To most PPC marketers, the Facebook paid ads program represents an ideal marketing opportunity. Finally, you aren’t limited to targeting your ads based on geographic location and time of day alone (I’m looking at you, Google Adwords!). In fact, if you wanted to run a campaign targeting 16 year old boys in San Francisco who [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

• Google Plus Promotes Network and New Security Features to Young Teens and Parents

  David Angotti

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am

  On Thursday afternoon, Google+ announced that the rapidly growing social network is now available to teens ages 13 and up. Although minors can sign up for and use Google+, the social network also introduced new privacy and security changes designed to protect underage users. Bradley Horowitz, Google’s VP of products, said the following of the [...]Follow SEJ on Twitter @sejournal

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  chrisbrogan.com

• Make Better Video

  ceb

  23 Jan 2012 | 6:52 am

  I’m learning about video because I believe, strongly, that 2012 is the year that companies and individuals who can create interesting video will be able to stand out better in the oversaturation of social media. My own practice, Shhh! The Secret Show, has me learning about lighting, sound, editing, interviewing, content planning, camera angles, titles, screen casting, how to make b-roll, and more. It’s quite a step up, technically, from what I used to do with a Flip camera and a bit of waggling it around in front of my face. And when I say this, it’s most definitely not…

• 97 Ideas for Building a Valuable Platform

  ceb

  20 Jan 2012 | 11:25 am

  2012 is the year where social media oversaturation hits hard. We will scale back on our participation in social networks, and we will most certainly scale back who we choose to follow as sources. This won’t be because someone is bad or good. It will be based on whether the connection with that person adds value to the stream of information we’re cultivating or not. In determining how to deliver value and stay relevant and visible in this new landscape, I’ve written down 97 ideas to help you build a valuable platform. Note: some of this thinking comes from writing a new book…

• A New Project for 2012

  ceb

  16 Jan 2012 | 3:30 am

  I’m pretty excited about my new video show, Shhh! The Secret Show, which has its first episode here. The premise is that it’s a show to help you be a better you, and to improve your business through the effort. It ties to what I’m working on with my company, and it’s going to be a lot of fun to build. Instead of starting off with something fully polished and perfect, I wanted to “build it in front of you,” which means that I’ll show you how I improve it each episode. I’m learning lots of new skills at the same time, including lighting, how to…

• Doing the Work is Sexy

  ceb

  9 Jan 2012 | 7:21 am

  Dorothy Parker said, “I hate writing. I like having written.” I know many people who are like that about their business, their trade. I know many more people who love to fantasize about what life will be like when they make it, but they like to skip over the part with the hard work, or they give it a sentence or two. Here’s a hint: the work part is what brings the money part. How to Get Very Lucky In Life A few days ago, I came a lot closer to being able to cross something huge off my bucket list. I can’t talk about it just yet, but essentially, I was able to shoot…

• Email List Building the Lazy Way

  ceb

  4 Jan 2012 | 9:17 am

  People seem to want to know about email list building, and how to get a big newsletter subscriber base. I have my ways. I’ll share what I know. I sell premium WordPress themes (affiliate link) from StudioPress, because I’m a fan of the company, but also because I use them and they have served me very well. At present, I’m using the Generate theme (scroll down a little), which features a prominent email subscription link at the top of the page (see the above graphic or just click through to [chrisbrogan.com]). This is perhaps the least customized version of a StudioPress…

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  John Chow dot Com

• Five Steps to Stronger Email Relationships

  John Chow

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:36 am

  Aweber and MarketingSherpa have released a special report and five-part email series on how to create stronger relationship with email. The report is based on a survey of over 2,700 email marketers, and features in-depth analysis, the latest benchmark data, and five actionable step to creating a strong email relationship with your readers. Research reports from MarketingSherpa normally cost $97. However, Aweber is making it available for free to their customers. The information and advice in the report are dead on, and you should definitely download a personal copy to add to your success…

• Newport Beach Restaurant Week – The Cannery

  John Chow

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:15 am

  Newport Beach Restaurant Week allows you to “Savor the Flavor” of the OC’s best restaurants for a reasonable price (reasonable for Newport Beach anyway). Running for a full nine days and two weekends during January 20th – 29th, this citywide culinary celebration, serves up special prix-fixe gourmet menus that would normally cost you an arm and a leg, but during restaurant week, will cost you only an arm. The Cannery Restaurant in Newport Beach covers nearly 90 years of history. It started life in 1934 as a real cannery and turned into a seafood restaurant in 1973.

• Six Practical Tips for Better Blog Content

  Guest Blogger

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:11 am

  For all the tutorials available online regarding SEO and marketing techniques, you could be forgiven for forgetting about the true key to successful blogging, quality content. It doesn’t matter if you are an SEO genius or have the flashiest wordpress theme around, if your posts aren’t up to scratch, you’re blog will never really take off. And while keeping the quality up can seem relatively easy when you first start a new blog, after a few months your enthusiasm can start to fade and with it the spark that was present in your early post. So how do you ensure that your content remains…

• Affiliate Summit West 2012 – Shoemoney Keynote

  John Chow

  25 Jan 2012 | 3:08 pm

  The closing keynote of Affiliate Summit West Las Vegas was delivered by my good friend and enemy (frienemy?) Jeremy Schoemaker of Shoemoney.com. The keynote would be Shoe’s 50th presentation and his last. I actually recorded the entire presentation and was going to process it with Shoe’s slides, but had to scrap the idea when I found out that recording of any Affiliate Summit sessions were not allowed (this is why the other ASW session videos were removed). Shoe went and got special permission to make the presentation available. He then had a member of his staff processed the…

• How To Track YouTube Conversions

  Guest Blogger

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:06 pm

  Do you have a YouTube conversion tracking strategy? If you’re like me, then you’re probably uploading product reviews, screen capture tutorials and other short videos on YouTube to promote your affiliate website or affiliate links. But how are your YouTube promotions really impacting your profits? Is YouTube really worth your time? There’s no real way to know unless you implement a systematic way of tracking your YouTube clicks and conversions. And of course, you can do this easily with LinkTrackr. The easiest way to do it is to embed your LinkTrackr tracking link right on the video…

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  Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

• Fyves – Free Shirt Friday

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am

  This site is perfect for those of you who send me all these free t-shirts. Fyves is an online custom t-shirt and apparel service that ensures low prices, fast shipping, and great customer service in fact if they don’t respond to your problems in 12 hours they’ll send you this beautiful tee I am modeling here. Check it! If you would like to see your website or company featured on Free Shirt Friday click here

• ROI on out of the box stuff (UFC & Starcraft Sponsorships)

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:07 am

  Recently we have done some out of the box marketing.  Everything from sponsoring Starcraft maps (millions of views for less than $1,000)  to sponsoring MMA fighters on FX (1.3 million viewers). Lots of people have been asking about the ROI on these things. I know in our world we look for instant gratification of I spent X and my return was a positive X. For these items both of them cost me about 1/10th of what I would consider a “test” buy for a affiliate campaign.  They were huge opportunities to put our brand in front of millions of people. Instant ROI ROI on sponsoring the…

• Affiliate Summit 2012 Closing Keynote With Slides

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  24 Jan 2012 | 4:26 pm

  Here is my closing keynote with slides   Check out my experience with Cutting Edge Media

• UFC Sponsorship (w video)

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  24 Jan 2012 | 10:25 am

  After traveling for the last… what seems like month I am back in the office catching up big time. I think I have been in the office a total of 4 days in the last 3 weeks. Ouch. I know there is a view versions of my closing keynote but none contain the powerpoint. I am making one with the powerpoint and will post it tomorrow (hopefully). Here is the video from the UFC on Fox event the other night if you missed our logo on the fighters Do you knowPace Latin?

• No longer speaking at events

  Jeremy Schoemaker

  23 Jan 2012 | 10:45 am

  During my closing keynote at Affiliate Summit I announced that it would be my last time speaking. This marks the 50th time I have spoken in the SEO/Affiliate industry and it’s time to hang it up. This led to a barrage of questions on Twitter, Facebook, and emails. So I thought I would address the main ones here. Are you going to continue to attend events where you used to speak? Yes I will always attend Affiliate Summit and AdTechs for sure. These are must attend events for anyone in the space. I also like to attend the TechCrunch and Demo events. If you have not been to one of these…

• 

  AdWeek: AdFreak

• Jcpenney Gets All Patriotic With Its New Logo

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:03 pm

  Resist the urge to salute as you admire jcpenney's spanking new logo, a lovely red square with a superimposed blue square that's intended to evoke JCP's proud American heritage and commitment to treat customers "fair and square." (Ha! It's a pun, get it?) In a statement, the company adds: "The new jcpenney logo, which combines the elements that have made jcpenney an enduring American brand, by evoking the nation's flag and jcpenney's commitment to treating customers Fair and Square. The square frame imagery will be evident throughout all of…

• FirstBank Urges You to Go Pee During Its Super Bowl Spot

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:49 am

  FirstBank's regional Super Bowl debut (the ad will air only in Colorado) via agency TDA in Boulder, touting superior service, features a banker type who sits in a comfy chair and says, "If you’re a FirstBank customer worried about missing one of the exciting commercials, or the game, now would be a great time to go to the bathroom." He takes a long pause before adding, "Seriously." The commercial is, as we've been known to say in Boston (home, more or less, of the soon-to-be NFL champion New England Patriots), a wicked pissah. That's a good…

• Coke's Fan-Bears Will React to Super Bowl in Real-Time Ads

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:24 am

  Coca-Cola rolled out the details of its Super Bowl advertising on Thursday, and compared to what else we've seen, it looks pretty good. At first blush, the campaign, by Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Ore., is just another take on the brand's classic arctic mascots—the polar bears. But the whole concept is built out around tying into the game itself, in real time—aiming to enhance the overall experience by adding a little topical extra entertainment value. The TV work focuses on two polar bears, chilling out on their "snowfa" and watching the game, rooting for…

• Ferris Bueller to Return in the Super Bowl, but for Whom?

  31 Dec 1969 | 6:00 pm

  So, this mysterious Super Bowl teaser popped up on YouTube today, with Matthew Broderick reprising his role as Ferris Bueller, 26 years after his fateful day off. Says the YouTube blurb: "We hate to be such a tease, but on a day like today, we just have to. Stick it out until the Super Bowl, or take a 'day off' on Monday and catch the big reveal." It could be for sausages, although Abe Froeman might not have $3.5 million lying around. He seems to be in a hotel room—so, perhaps a hotel chain or a vacation marketer? Any other guesses?      UPDATE:…

• AdFreak Readers, We Want to Know More About You

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:20 pm

  Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

• 

  Search Engine Watch - Latest

• Google Maps Adds Emergency Alerts

  John Rampton

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:00 am

  If a major storm is headed you way, Google wants to be your information guide. The Google Crisis Response team is looking to be your go to information source on when a storm will strike, how bad will it be, and what resources are available to help.

• Con Artist Shares Inside Story of Google Pharmacy Ad Sting

  Miranda Miller

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am

  In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, career con man David Whitaker spilled the beans on his experience as undercover operative Jason Corriente, an agent for wealthy clients seeking online ads. The sting led to a $500 million forfeiture for Google.

• Measuring ROI: How to Collect Meaningful PPC Conversion Data

  John Lynch

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  Learn how you can track and collect significant conversion data and then bring it all together in one dashboard. Use these three levels of conversion data tracking that vary in terms of pros/cons, costs, effectiveness, and sophistication.

• SEO Chicks Competition - Win a ticket to SES London!

  Laura Roth

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  SEO Chicks have launched a competition for the next generation of search marketers. Have you been in SEO less than a year or have a desire to join the industry? If so, this is the competition for you. Here is your chance to win a ticket to SES London

• 7 Steps to Prepare For the Search Alliance in the UK

  Duncan Parry

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am

  After a year’s delay, Microsoft adCenter will start to power the PPC results on Yahoo UK in Q2 of 2012. Discussion of its potential for success aside, here are some useful links and an action plan for preparing UK paid search campaigns.

• 

  Copyblogger

• 7 Useful Marketing Articles for Your Weekend

  Robert Bruce

  28 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  This week on The Lede … Seth Godin’s simple cure for writer’s block. Why David Ogilvy called himself a lousy copywriter. A case study in the power of the blog. 10 ways to use Pinterest for your business. If you want more links you can use than the seven we highlight here every week, follow @copyblogger on Twitter. // A Stalker’s Guide to Competitive Research If you ever wanted a shot at becoming a private detective (without the hassle of becoming a private detective), this is it. Comprehensive does not begin to describe this article from Ms. Narayanasamy. In it, she…

• Answers to the 3 Biggest Email Marketing Questions We Get

  Robert Bruce

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  We’re back and we’re ready to talk email marketing. I asked two pros to come on and spill their best advice on the three biggest email marketing questions we get here at Copyblogger. DJ Waldow joins me and Sonia Simone to discuss: The best way to build an email list The 2 reasons why people open an email The most important element of an email that sells How to write emails that get opened How to stay out of your reader’s spam filters Sonia’s secret weapon of email marketing that works This one’s fast and useful, so keep your ears on … Hit the flash player…

• The Glee Guide to Attracting a Raving Horde of Social Media Fans

  Beth Hayden

  26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  If your memories of high school involve wedgies, broken hearts, and getting stuffed into your locker, you probably love Glee. The musical comedy TV show — Ryan Murphy’s smash hit about the nerds, misfits, and social outcasts of McKinley High School’s glee club — is equal parts quirky, cheesy, heartbreaking, and surprisingly delightful. Over its first two seasons, the show has also attracted millions of obsessive fans from all over the world. Glee fans, or “Gleeks,” follow the moves of their favorite show with a passion once reserved for Cabbage Patch Kids…

• 4 Simple Steps to a Facebook Timeline that Tells Your Marketing Story

  Andrea Vahl

  25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  So how about that new Facebook Timeline? Love it? Hate it? Either way it’s here to stay (until it isn’t). As always, Facebook loves to change things up and people love to kvetch about it. You can always use new Facebook Features to improve your marketing, so how can you use the Facebook Timeline to your advantage? Read on. First, a few facts about the Facebook Timeline. The Timeline only affects personal profiles at the moment. Facebook has not announced when (or even if) they will roll the new Timeline look out to Facebook Pages. Second, not everyone has the Timeline yet. If you…

• How to Instantly Transform Your Landing Page Images from Good to Great

  Sean D'Souza

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  Reading this post made us smarter, richer, more fascinating, and an average of 3 inches taller. Let’s say you place a photo of a client on your landing page. Just the photo. No client name. No title, or business name. No clue as to what industry that client is in, or where they come from. Now, photos are a great addition to landing pages. Photos of happy clients help to build trust with your readers, showing the type of people who do business with you. But would anyone even know that person was a client? The moment you add in a few important details — the client name, the…

• 

  Logic+Emotion

• Launching a Social Command Center (Without The Center)

  David Armano

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:05 am

  "Social command centers" are all the rage today and it's not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put "monitoring" in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn't enough. And to make matters worse, I've seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P's (People, Process, Platforms).

• Trust Shifts From Institutions To Individuals

  David Armano

  23 Jan 2012 | 11:44 pm

  Today I had the opportunity to present to academics and industry experts from the international poultry industry (you can listen to a re-cap via a short podcast from "Agwired" here). During the presentation I was able to share some results from the recently released 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, in which the overarching theme is a general skepticism toward institutions such as government and big business with signs of hope when it comes to empowered individuals. A Person Like YourselfIn last year's study, it was the expert and even the analyst who enjoyed some degree of trust from the public…

• What's A Picture Worth?

  David Armano

  13 Jan 2012 | 1:45 pm

  Just updated my "Visual Thinking Archive" on Flickr. It provides a variety of frameworks, visual thoughts and non text based strategic thinking would could apply to a variety of business cases. What's a picture worth? It's up to you to determine the worth. For me, it helps the thinking process.

• The Year of the Change Agent

  David Armano

  2 Jan 2012 | 8:55 pm

  We've always lived and worked in a state of flux but one can make the argument that recent developments in technology, society and business seem to have accelerated the pace of change we have to contend with. Our mobile devices would have been considered fairly high powered computers not that long ago. We live in a hyper-connected state of existence, constantly sending out signals to friends, family, work associates, peers , etc. If this year belongs to anyone, it is the change agent. You may be thinking—"that's exactly what I am," but chances are, if you aren't frustrated or feeling like…

• Holidays

  David Armano

  22 Dec 2011 | 10:25 am

  Ended the year with a flurry of activity. We went public with our newly elevated offering around social business—have delivered significant milestones with several clients and wrapped up my frequent air travel for the year. The next couple of weeks will be spent catching up with family, friends and even some snowboarding. Here's to you and yours in 2012.

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  Social Media Explorer

• Employees on Social Networks: To Be or Not To Be…

  Jason Falls

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:30 am

  Editor’s Note: This is a guest post written by Ann Davlin who works at MotoCMS – an advanced Flash CMS and Flash templates provider. It’s not a secret that many recruiters and business owners use social networking sites to screen prospective employees. According to the survey of 300 hiring professionals conducted by Reppler the most popular online resources for time wasting are Facebook (76%), Twitter (53%) and Linkedin (48%). It probably means that the whole (online and offline) business world considers it necessary to take social networks activity into account and use it…

• Death to Bot Talk: Tips On Voice In Writing For The Web

  Jason Falls

  26 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm

  Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Suzanne Norman, director of brand at Emma, an email marketing and communications company. The bot problem Let’s face it: most companies write marketing copy for the web and email that reads like it was written by a robot. And nobody likes bots. (See: spambots, twitbots, fembots, that 80s movie with Emilio Estevez where all the semi-trucks come to life.) photo by davedehetre I spot this kind of writing all the time in email marketing campaigns — that’s the realm I work in — but it’s just as rampant in every other…

• The Power of A Blog

  Jason Falls

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  Why are blogs such a powerful communications tool in the arsenal of a company? There are lots of reasons, really. But the explanation I’ve used that normally gives those who don’t quite understand blogging have their “ah-ha” moment is a simple one. To understand the power of a blog you have to compare it to something familiar. Think about your company newsletter. If you’re not that hip to blogging yet, your company newsletter is probably still printed and circulated in everyone’s box in the mailroom. Or maybe it’s mailed to everyone’s house. But…

• Can Big Brands Go Local?

  Jason Falls

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  I’ve argued recently that we are entering the Age of Relevancy in Marketing. The more relevant your message is, delivered to the more relevant audience at the more relevant time and in the more relevant place, the better your marketing will be. One critical element of that Relevancy Bullseye is location. Local is better because local is more relevant. But corporations and brands struggle with local. It’s hard to sit at corporate headquarters and be connected on a 1:1 basis with every single customer, worldwide. It’s not just hard, it’s impossible. Or is it? Kevin Magee…

• The Sad Reality Of Silicon Valley

  Jason Falls

  24 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm

  Say goodbye to CoTweet. As of February 15, the free version will no longer be offered. Free customers will be given a chance to transition to ExactTarget’s new Social Engage product that is essentially an improved version of CoTweet’s enterprise product, but they’ll eventually have to pay for it. And frankly, they should have to. The innovation and integration with ExactTarget’s long-standing excellent email suite isn’t something the company should give away. And it’s not something they have to. ET supplies email marketing and (now) social media management…

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  I Believe in Advertising | ONLY SELECTED ADVERTISING | Advertising Blog & Community

• Harley Davidson Motorcycles: Headmaster, Board, Corner

  Filippo

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:40 pm

  “Harley Davidson Motorcycles. Handpicked By The Establishment.” Advertising Agency: McCann-Erickson, UK Creative Director: Vince McSweeney Art Director: Shaun Loynds Copywriter: Vineet Raheja Photographer: Martin Brent Post production: Martin Brent

• European Commission: Take Control of Your Personal Data

  Filippo

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:38 pm

• BMW: Matchbox Gearbox

  Filippo

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:57 pm

  “The new 8-speed automatic transmission comes standard with the 1, 3 and 5 series.” Advertising Agency: JWT, Netherlands Creative Directors: Massimo van der Plas, Joep de kort Art Director: Joep de Kort Copywriter: Massimo van der Plas Photographer: Simon Warmer Postproduction: Magic Group

• Stihl Leaf Blowers: Nacklebell, Lumbiddie, Fudwick

  Filippo

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:27 pm

  “Incredibly powerful, surprisingly quiet.” Advertising Agency: Publicis, Johannesburg, South Africa Creative Director: Matthew Barnes Art Director: Martin Schlumpf Copywriter: Ryan Whitelaw Photographer: Paul Shiakallis Retoucher – Remmert Steyn

• Kerozen: Breeding Ground For Ideas

  Filippo

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:26 pm

  Advertising Agency: Kerozen, Rennes, France Digital creative: Jean-Charles Debroize Photographer: Raphaël Auvray

• 

  Conversation Agent

• What Keeps You up at Night?

  Valeria Maltoni

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  I'm a night owl. Often people will hear back from me in the wee hours because I get creative at around 4pm and then stay in flow for hours after that. By the time I realize I'm cold from the heating going to low for the night, it's way past bed time. When I get into flow, I shut everything else... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent]

• Keep the Faith. Demand Proof. Relentlessly.

  Valeria Maltoni

  26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  There are two aspects to doing business -- believing in what you're doing, and verifying that it works for your customers and clients. To succeed, you need to do both, relentlessly. When it's only about keeping the faith, you may be worshiping at the altar of hope (or its shady cousin, ego), and... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent]

• How to Win Customers and Influence Word of Mouth

  Valeria Maltoni

  25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  When I met Stan Phelps for coffee a little over a year ago, I learned for the first time there was a term -- lagniappe -- that meant a small gift given to a customers by a merchant at the time of purchase. It cannot be faked of forced, for it to work it must feel real. Our conversation on the... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent]

• The Truth About B2B Social Media Adoption

  Valeria Maltoni

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  While we've been sharing examples of creative content strategy executions for a couple of years here, it's easy to forget that the rest of the business world may still be wrestling with different issues. The truth about social media adoption, according to the results of a survey conducted by Penton... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent]

• How Much is a Lifetime Customer Worth to your Business?

  Valeria Maltoni

  23 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  For Zane's Cycles, it’s $12,500, says CEO Chris Zane in Reinventing the Wheel. That means if we start by providing a child his first bike at 4-years-old and continue through the retirement bike, we will collect $12,500 in fulfilling all of the cyclist’s lifetime needs. But to actually sell an... [Click on the title to read this article in its entirety at Conversation Agent]

• 

  SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog

• How to Increase the Odds of Your Content Going Viral - Whiteboard Friday

  randfish

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:59 pm

  Posted by randfish Having content that goes viral can seem like the luck of the draw, but there are a number of steps you can take to improve your odds. In this week's Whiteboard Friday, we will show you a few things you can do to increase your chances of having that well crafted content spread through the internet like a wildfire. Thanks for watching and don't forget to leave your comments below. Video Transcription Howdy SEOmoz fans. Welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're talking about how to give your content a better chance of going viral, and from…

• Are You Wasting Budget With Online Press Release Distribution?

  Tim Grice

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:04 am

  Posted by Tim GriceThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. The title of this post may come across a little contentious, however I hope by the end of it you understand where I am coming from. Over the years, I have been privileged enough to work with some large businesses that can afford to throw big budgets at online marketing. One of the first tasks I undertake is a meeting to discuss previous strategies. As…

• Face-off - 4 Ways to De-personalize Google

  Dr. Pete

  25 Jan 2012 | 1:34 pm

  Posted by Dr. Pete Just over a week ago, Google launched a massive change to search personalization, Search Plus Your World. Along with this change came a new toggle switch to shut off personalization. Below the Google search box and above the results, you’ll see something like this: The default, person icon is personalized results, and you click on the globe to shut off “your world” (I won’t comment on how little sense that makes). Of course, we already had personalized results and a handful of ways to shut them off before, so what does “personalization”…

• Comparing the Top 4 Retargeting Companies

  JoannaLord

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:23 pm

  Posted by JoannaLord For the past year retargeting has been getting some serious attention. I've been fortunate enough to speak on it at a variety of shows, brainstorm over coffee with some cool companies and even blog about how to use it and how to leverage it for SEO.  No matter who I am talking with or what the venue the number one question asked is "Who should I use for retargeting?"  Over the past two years some retargeting companies have really emerged as leaders. While we haven't used them all personally here at Moz, I thought it would be valuable to…

• Video Sitemap Guide for Vimeo and YouTube

  jhammack

  24 Jan 2012 | 4:26 am

  Posted by jhammackThis post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc. Videos Indexed in the SERP Did you know that major search engines want you to make video sitemaps for all of your embeds, even if you're hosting on Vimeo or Youtube? Not only does it help them spider your website by giving the search engines clues as to where to look for video embeds, it may also earn your site a click through boost by giving you a…

• 

  Seth's Blog

• The honest broker

  Seth Godin

  28 Jan 2012 | 4:42 am

  It really is a choice, one or the other. Either you happily recommend the best option for your customer, or you give preference to your own items first. Either you believe in what you sell, or you don't. Either you treat your best partners better, or you treat everyone the same. Either you shade the truth when it's painful to do otherwise, or you consistently share what's important. Either you always keep your promises or you don't. Either you give me the best price the first time, or you make me jump through hoops to get there. Earning the position of the honest broker is time-consuming and…

• Reconsidering Gartner's Cycle of Hype

  Seth Godin

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:22 am

  One theory of technology marketing and acceptance goes like this: A technology causes a media hypestorm and rising expectations. Then it crashes to Earth as the popular press and the public discovers that it's not all the hypesters said it would be--through no fault of the technologists who brought it to the world in the first place. Then, gradually, the truth about the technology seeps out until finally it reaches its use case--and then becomes that status quo, just waiting to be disrupted as it previously disrupted what came before. While the violent vicissitudes of this chart make for good…

• Who cares?

  Seth Godin

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:09 am

  Unless someone does, things start to fray around the edges. Often it's the CEO or the manager who sets a standard of caring about the details. Even better is a culture where everyone cares, and where each person reinforces that horizontally throughout the team. You've probably been to the hotel that serves refrigerated tomatoes in January at their $20 breakfast, that doesn't answer the phone when you call the front desk, that has a shower curtain that is falling off the rack and a slightly snarky concierge. This is in sharp relief to that hotel down the street, the one that costs just the…

• Solving problems (vs. identifying them)

  Seth Godin

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:27 am

  Often, we're hesitant to identify a problem out of fear we can't solve it. Knowing that we have to live with something that we're unable to alter gives us a good reason to avoid verbalizing it--highlighting it just makes it worse. While this sort of denial might be okay for individuals (emphasis on might), it's a lousy approach for organizations of any size. That's because there are almost certainly resources available that can solve a problem if you decide it's truly worth solving. Put yourself and your people on a path to finding problems without regard for whether or not they are capable…

• "It's completely up to you"

  Seth Godin

  24 Jan 2012 | 4:06 am

  ... and that's the problem. I was picking out the mat for a framed photo and there were a thousand colors to choose from. The framer uttered the scary invocation, putting the choice back to me. So many things are now completely up to us, more than ever before. Where and how and when we work and invest and interact and instruct and learn... If you think you have no choice but to do what you do now, you've already made a serious error. It seems to me that passing the buck on this merely because it's easier than choosing is precisely the wrong strategy. It enables an abdication of power that…

• 

  MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog

• Free Friday: Learn How to Give Your Customers a Fantastic Brand Experience

  Veronica Maria Jarski

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:01 am

  Want to gain and retain more customers through improved cross-channel customer interactions? Then check out this Free Friday’s offering: the opportunity to attend the free seminar Optimizing the Customer Journey: Strategy and Case Study. Guest speaker and vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research, Shar VanBoskirk, will give you the scoop on how to optimize your interactive marketing and improve your customers’ brand experience in four steps using CORE principles: Customize Optimize Respond Empower By attending this free seminar, you’ll learn how to speed…

• How to Define Public Relations

  David Reich

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:02 am

  The Public Relations Society (PRSA) recently announced an effort to update the formal definition of Public Relations. They invited PR professionals to submit their suggestions for how to define what we do. And they unveiled the three leading contenders to become the new official definition of what we in PR do at work. The top three were compiled from more than 625 responses PRSA received. If you go to the site and click on “read annotations” under each definition, you can get a good idea of why certain words and phrases were used. I’m really not crazy about any of them,…

• Marketing Smarts Podcast: Sally Hogshead and the $500 Cup of Coffee

  Matthew Grant

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:57 am

  What if you wanted to open up a coffee shop in a hip, urban neighborhood? Chances are you would already face competition from other indy shops, Starbucks, and the local equivalent of Dunkin’ Donuts. How could you go about differentiating yourself? The main problem is simple: You and your competitors basically sell the same thing. This means that your point of differentiation will have little to do with your product and everything to do with creating an aura around that product that others find fascinating. One way to do this, according to this week’s guest on Marketing Smarts,…

• Sharing Your Way to B2B Social Media Lead Generation

  Jeffrey L. Cohen

  24 Jan 2012 | 12:39 pm

  Social media has always involved sharing quality content with your network, but in its current state, B2B companies need to understand how social media can connect with their sales cycle. Companies need to find prospective customers for their products and services, and they need those prospects to find them. Traditionally, B2B marketers were responsible for generating leads at their companies. That role of marketing has not substantially changed with the advent of social media. But many social media purists have rejected the notion of using any part of social media to fill the sales funnel.

• Marketing Study Shocker: QR Codes & Social Media Have Little Impact for Shoppers

  Ted Mininni

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:58 am

  “As much as people embrace all things digital, they’re much fussier when they turn into actual shoppers. In fact, QR codes and social media have very little impact, according to new research from Catapult Action-Biased Marketing, a Westport Connecticut-based researcher.” Those are the opening lines of a recent Media Post Marketing Daily article, “Shoppers Spurn Social, QR Codes.” Wow. So let’s dig deeper. According to Catapult Marketing’s Brian Cohen, digital shopper marketing director, “We looked at 1,200 consumers, and the role that social media is playing is not as large as…

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  Personal Branding Blog - Dan Schawbel

• Direct Sellers: Mobile Tips for Your Personal Brand

  Maria Duron

  28 Jan 2012 | 4:30 am

  Millions rely on mobile devices to communicate and handle all of their computing needs. Customers can receive text promotions, and all a consumer has to do is show that text in exchange for a discount. In fact, in our local Office Depot, all I have to do is show a competitor’s ad on my smartphone and they honor the price of the advertisement if it’s lower than theirs.  Much business and many exchanges occur through mobile formats, and that trend will only grow.  Mobile exchanges just like any exchange, if done poorly, can steer someone away from our brand. 5 things to remember that…

• Storytelling and Your Personal Brand

  Oscar Del Santo

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pm

  All indicators are pointing to the growing importance of storytelling in the intertwined social media, PR and advertising worlds. In fact, one could go as far as claiming that storytelling is one of the current buzz words in online and offline marketing as proven by the recent attention it has drawn from sources as varied as Hubspot, Simply Zesty, Fast Company, Social Media Today and many other quality blogs and publications. All predictions are indicating that digital storytelling is on the way up as one of the most proven and valuable tactics and techniques to engage with communities and…

• What’s in a Name?

  Katie Marston

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:30 pm

  Many of our ancestors came to America with a dream, a promise, and a name that was hard to pronounce or sounded too “insert nationality/religion here”. Names were altered to ease the way into society and increase employment opportunities. Today, in a world of self-marketing and personal branding, name changes happen for all kinds of reasons, especially for those in the public eye. Personal name changing amongst those in the entertainment business has been happening for years. Just click on the site Famous Name Changes to see hundreds of names From John and Jennifer Aniston to Loretta…

• Twitter Personal Branding Q + A #14

  Jacob Share

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:30 am

  Responses to recent tweets by people about personal branding and Gen-Y, Twitter, presentations and lack of focus. Taylor B., @thbrogan, twittered: can my personal brand involve not taking twitter too seriously? because i enjoy this option. Jacob Share, @jacobshare: “Taking Twitter seriously” should mean carefully using Twitter to achieve your personal branding goals (in this case). If the personal brand you’re trying to build is one that’s a little lighthearted, then you can not only joke around on Twitter, you should. However, if you’re trying to build a brand…

• Most Important Job Interview Question Is Asked By YOU!

  Skip Freeman

  26 Jan 2012 | 12:30 pm

  Throughout the job hunting process you will be asked many questions, from “Why do you want to work at our company?” to “Tell me about your current (or previous) boss,” as well as a multitude of similar “qualifying” questions. How you answer each of these questions is of course very important. There is, however, one single question that arguably is the most important one that will be asked during a face-to-face job interview, and it’s a question that’s not asked by a hiring manager. It’s a question you ask! And . . . it’s a question that can actually get you hired!

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  @ProBlogger

• 25 Reasons Why Google Hates Your Blog

  Guest Blogger

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:02 am

  This guest post is by Belinda of The Copy Detective. Your blog is a good read. Everyone says so. Although “everyone” is really just people you already know. Like your Mum. So why isn’t your blog being found by other people? The millions and millions of people hungrily consuming blog content out there in the global online space we call the Internet? The cold, hard truth is that Google hates your blog. And it’s nothing personal. You just don’t have anything that Google wants. Creating high-quality, relevant content is a must if you want your blog to be noticed by search engines but…

• 2 Different Tales of Blog Growth

  Darren Rowse

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:01 pm

  “What was ‘the tipping point’ for your blog?” This question is one that I’m regularly asked in interviews, and it is one that is challenging to answer. The assumption behind the question is that there is often some kind of event that pushes a blog into the limelight. The reality is that it’s not always this way. Let me illustrate this by telling the stories of my two main blogs—ProBlogger and Digital Photography School. ProBlogger’s tipping point: dramatic growth Here on ProBlogger, the only real tipping point-type event that I can identify is when…

• 6 Fatal Symptoms You’re in the Wrong Niche

  Guest Blogger

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:06 am

  This guest post is by Martyn Chamberlin of Two Hour Blogger. “What should I write about?” It seems such a silly question. Of course you know what to write about! In fact, you could argue it’s even impossible to write about the wrong thing. That’s like ordering the wrong iPod! Whoever heard of such a thing? As you know, if you write long and hard enough, someone will listen. An audience of five is great if you’re just blogging for fun. But what if you’re trying to build a profitable business? Can you get enough people listening to make a business? The answer…

• 10 Ways Multi-blog Authors Can Stay Creative and Generate Great Posts

  Guest Blogger

  25 Jan 2012 | 2:02 pm

  This guest post is by Jo Gifford of Cherry Sorbet Creative. Keeping fresh and creative is key to keeping on top of the game when writing different blogs across various sectors, and for various clients. Working with efficient workflows, time management and organization all help to keep that valuable information harnessed to be used when you need it, but how about making sure you can produce great content on time and on demand? Keeping creative and informed means you are working efficiently to produce content that’s engaging, informative, and, of course, profitable for you. After all,…

• Ramit Sethi Exposed: How He Earns Millions Blogging

  Guest Blogger

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:07 am

  This guest post is by Michael Alexis of WriterViews. In this post, I’m going to show you the exact steps one blogger used to earn over $1 million. Not long ago, I interviewed Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. If you’re serious about making money blogging, then you need to read this interview. But a heads-up: this post is long and extremely detailed. It took me over 20 hours to write. It will take you about 15 minutes to read. If you like, you can download a PDF of the entire article here. I know you may be skeptical about the $1 million, so let’s start by looking at…

• 

  HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog

• 5 Tricks for Generating Traffic When Nobody's at Work

  Melissa Miller

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:30 pm

  Are you doing anything this weekend to generate traffic to your website? If you’re a B2B marketer, chances are you’ve probably asked yourself at some point: How do I keep marketing effectively when nobody is in the office? You want to continue to drive traffic and leads, but you don't know exactly how. The wrong thing to do is assume that nobody is listening on holidays or during weekends. Depending on your audience, this could actually be a good time for a new blog post, video release, or email. Data from a recent Xobni survey shows that people are still wired into work during…

• What a Top-Notch Lead Management Program Looks Like

  Meghan Keaney Anderson

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:45 pm

  Walk into any active sales room, and it’s easy to tell how time-intensive most sales operations are. To make the hours spent worthwhile, it’s important to ensure that your sales team is only talking to the most qualified leads. Lead management is a strategy and set of corresponding tools that help companies filter out unqualified leads and better understand the buying cycle of their good leads. When executed well, lead management makes your marketing team more effective, your sales team more precise, and your leads happier. Lead management programs vary from company…

• Facebook Timeline Likely Coming to Business Pages Near You

  Pamela Vaughan

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:30 pm

  Earlier this week, Facebook announced it will finally be rolling out Facebook Timeline to all users in the next few weeks, replacing the design of existing personal profile pages. While Timeline won't directly affect the look of your Facebook business page (yet), the rollout does have some powerful implications for marketers. You can read more about those implications here. Timeline Design Likely Coming to Facebook Business Pages But, notice how we said yet? That's right, while Facebook business pages aren't affected by the current Timeline rollout, we have good reason to believe that, in…

• 12 Critical Elements Every Homepage Must Have [Infographic]

  Jessica Meher

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:20 am

  If you’re considering a website redesign or are wondering how to generate more leads from your website, there are several critical elements you must never forget to include.  Let’s first take a look at the homepage. Ah yes, “thee page of all pages.” It’s undoubtedly one of the most important areas on a website. That’s understandable; it’s a company’s virtual front door, and, in most cases, it gets the majority of the traffic. While homepages generally get the most love, I find it surprising that so many do a poor job of generating leads or…

• The 7 Slides You Need for an Epic Monthly Marketing Report

  Rick Burnes

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  Here's a challenge for all you marketers who are on top of your game: How do you make sure your marketing team is taken seriously within your own company? One important step you should take is publishing a thorough, thoughtful, quantitative monthly report on your marketing team's impact. For as long as there’s been marketing, marketers have struggled to show their impact. But today, there's no need to struggle. Today, it's simple to collect the data you need to show how your marketing investments are generating revenue for your business. You just have to pull together the right…

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  ReelSEO Online Video Marketing Digest

• Revision3 Saw Major Increase In Viewership, Revenue In 2011

  Chris Atkinson

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:24 pm

  Revision3 CEO Jim Louderback took to the Rev3 blog this morning and announced a 359% increase in total views and a 53% increase in revenue for the year of 2011.  Revision3 made smart acquisitions last year, including the extraordinarily successful Epic Meal Time, and by the end of the year, picked up one of YouTube's all-time hits, The Philip DeFranco Show, which should make 2012 even better.  Rev3 also increased its YouTube subscribers across all shows to 4.5 million.  In addition to the audience and revenue, Rev3 is proud of their technological advancements over the year. Revision3 Saw…

• Android Video Viewing Gaining On iOS Devices

  Christophor Rick

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:15 pm

  Encoding.com just released new numbers pulled from Vid.ly which show that Android is gaining on iOS in terms of video viewing. It's no surprise as the operating system has been steadily stealing market share quarter after quarter and is available on far more different devices than iOS. Since Vid.ly is a universal URL for videos and does browser and device detection, it knows exactly what it's streaming that video to. That means all they need to do is keep track of the operating system on the device and they know who's watching what. But not in the creepy Big Brother sort of way, or at least,…

• Google Plus Opens To Teens Age 13 & Up

  Jeremy Scott

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:50 am

  Google Plus continues to get more open bit by bit, and just today made the service available to teens age 13 and up. Previously, Google Plus was restricted to people 18 and up. Along with the wave of new teenagers, Google Plus is also getting new privacy and security features--a fairly important thing if the service is to become something parents encourage their children to use. Google is probably doing the slow rollout on purpose. This is their third or fourth wave of opening the service up. Each time it's followed by new statistics on membership, and this time will be no different. Millions…

• 20th Century Fox Gets YouTube Stars To Promote "Chronicle"

  Chris Atkinson

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:20 am

  20th Century Fox has teamed with Big Frame, a YouTube talent company, to produce videos promoting their new movie Chronicle opening on February 3.  And Chronicle is the perfect type of movie to get some YouTube promotion, as it is one of the latest films to use this-is-really-happening video, "found footage," very much like Cloverfield did a few years ago by adding crazy special effects.  Big Frame got YouTube stars DeStorm, MrDeshawnRaw, and Mystery Guitar Man in on the act, a subscriber base of more than 3.5 million. More Great Creative Advertising From 20th Century Fox Fox was behind…

• The Week's Best Viral Videos & Video Marketing Lessons - Singing Obama Edition

  Jeremy Scott

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:10 am

  After YouTube's latest updates yesterday to the Browse page, many of you probably spent some time casually playing around with it to see what's new. If you did, you might have come across some of the selections in this week's round up of the best viral videos. Most are probably worth watching again, but I'm sure we've got a few you haven't seen as well. So grab your coffee, put on your headphones, and start your Friday off right with some outstanding viral videos. Artists Question: What happens when you cross Bon Jovi with hot musical act, Bon Iver? Answer: A hot viral video to launch a new…

• 

  mUmBRELLA

• Gay dating site Manhunt hits Sydney billboards

  Robin Hicks

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:15 am

  A gay dating website has launched a billboard campaign in Sydney’s Paddington area to promote a new mobile product that helps gay men hook up. The campaign was devised by Pink Media Group, a gay media specialist that launched in Sydney in September, which also now works with gay hook-up app Grindr. Manhunt has 65,000 users in Australia.

• ‘The back’ is back for Oral-B

  Robin Hicks

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:20 pm

  Procter & Gamble toothpaste brand Oral B has revived ‘Rob the Dentist’, a character in its TV ads in the 1980′s, as part of a Facebook campaign. The character known as “The back”, as he always had his back to camera, first appeared in Oral B ads in 1982, and made a brief comeback in 2003 to promote the Oral-B Power Toothbrush range. Fans of the Facebook page can decide and share where they think Rob has been since the 80′s via an avatar. The best entry wins $10,000. Joel Cotter, Oral-B brand manager, said: “Rob has been responsible for some of the…

• Cottee’s Cordial goes back to its roots

  Robin Hicks

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:30 pm

  GPY&R Melbourne is behind a new campaign for Cottee’s that takes the cordial brand back to its roots with a celebration childhood. Troy McKinna, ad manager manager at Cottee’s, said “We’re hoping the generation of Australians who grew up with classic ‘My dad picks the fruit’ ad will share this new Cottee’s classic with the next one. Credits: Production Director:  Rey Carlson Producer: Bonnie Fay Editor:  Rohan Zerna Music: Electric Dreams Sound engineer: Paul LeCoutier Agency Producer: Romanca Jasinski/Sheridan Bott Executive creative director:…

• ABC boss Mark Scott ‘contender for top job at BBC’

  mumbrella

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:34 pm

  ABC boss Mark Scott has been named as among the front runners to lead the BBC. According to Media Guardian, Scott is one of three obvious outside choices when the BBC’s current director general Mark Thompson steps down in the next few months.   The ABC declined to comment on the story. Mark Scott talks to Mumbrella editor TYim Burrowes in 2010:

• Emma Alberici to host Lateline

  mumbrella

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:16 pm

  Former Europe correspondent Emma Alberici is the new presenter of Lateline alongside Tony Jones, the ABC has announced. The announcement:   Emma Alberici is the new presenter of Lateline sharing the presentation role with Tony Jones. Replacing Ali Moore, Emma will anchor the program on Monday, Tuesday and Friday evenings in 2012. Emma was the ABC’s Europe Correspondent based in London from August, 2008 and has just returned to Australi Emma Alberici said, “After four years in London reporting the news around Europe, I’m excited to be back in Australia and I feel privileged to…

• 

  Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik

• The 2015 Digital Marketing Rule Book. Change or Perish.

  Avinash Kaushik

  9 Jan 2012 | 4:26 am

  It is the season to be predicting the future, but that is almost always a career-limiting move. So I'm not going to do that. It is a lot easier to predict the present. So I'm not going to do that either. Rather, I'm going to share a clump of realities/rules garnered from the present to help ready you for the predictable near future . Now here is the great part… if you follow these rules and act on these insights I believe you'll be significantly better prepared for the unpredictable future. Awesome right? Now here's another surprise: These rules/insights/mind…

• Best Web Metrics / KPIs for a Small, Medium or Large Sized Business

  Avinash Kaushik

  12 Dec 2011 | 4:11 am

  We have access to more data than God wants anyone to have. Thus it is not surprising that we feel overwhelmed, and rather than being data driven we just get paralyzed. Life does not have to be that scary. In fact a data driven life is sexiest digital life you can imagine. In this blog post we are going to bring the sexyback. I am going to attempt to significantly simply your life by recommending the critical few metrics you should use to analyze performance of your digital marketing campaigns and website. You'll be able to quickly go from "omg what can I do!" to "omg what…

• Smarter Data Analysis of Google's https (not provided) change: 5 Steps

  Avinash Kaushik

  21 Nov 2011 | 4:22 am

  It is astonishingly common that we are asked to analyze the impossible. In perhaps a career-limiting move I'm going to try to do that today (and for a controversial topic to boot!). In this post about an important Google change, I want you to focus less on the data and focus more on the methodology. And – so important – I want you to help me with your ideas of how we can do this impossible analysis better, in the complete absence of data :). So please share your ideas via comments and let's together make a smarter ecosystem. On board? Let's go…. In an effort…

• Data Analysis 101: Seven Simple Mistakes That Limit Your Salary

  Avinash Kaushik

  31 Oct 2011 | 4:42 am

  Data analysis is not easy. It takes years to get good at it, and once you get good at it you realize how much more there is to learn. That is part of the joy. You are always learning. You are always growing. This blogpost is a collection of tips I share with my friends who are just starting out. Each tip is a "simple" mistake that is easily avoided. My hope is that you'll skip them if you are aware of them, and move on to making more important valuable mistakes. :) My plan is to wrap each tip with additional observations, context that will be of value even to those who have…

• Best Social Media Metrics: Conversation, Amplification, Applause, Economic Value

  Avinash Kaushik

  10 Oct 2011 | 5:01 am

  I am going to break one of my unspoken cardinal rules: Only write about real problems and measurement that is actually possible in the real world. I am going to break the second part of the rule. I am going to define a way for you to think about measuring social media, and you can't actually easily measure what I am going to recommend. So why break the rule? Social media is evolving at an incredible pace. Most of us have no idea how to participate optimally in this unique channel – we are doing TV on Twitter (breaks my heart). The impact on the data side of the ecosystem is that…

• 

  NevilleHobson.com

• Integrated CIPR news on your desktop – shame about mobile

  neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson)

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:21 am

  The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) launched a social media newsroom on January 23. In  their words, it “integrates announcements on our website with our Twitter feed, Facebook and LinkedIn pages and with the CIPR Conversation.” It’s a good example of an organization evolving how it communicates information about itself (and, in this case, about a profession and its membership) and how it enables easier sharing of its content in ways that are measurable, eg, social-share buttons, and linking content in diverse online places. I heard about the newsroom…

• Social media: word of mouth at scale

  neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson)

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:31 am

  Among some compelling metrics about Facebook’s contributions to Europe’s economies last year – led by $15.3 billion value and 230,000 jobs – is this description of social media by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg: [...] She argued that we’re living in the midst of a revolution and said that social media has resulted in three key trends: the shift from anonymity to authentic identity, the shift from wisdom of the crowds to wisdom of the people, and the shift from being receivers of information to being broadcasters of information. “This is a revolution that touches…

• The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #635: January 23, 2012

  neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson)

  23 Jan 2012 | 2:35 pm

  Content summary: FIR Book Review of ‘YouTube for Business’ is up; reminders: inaugural FIR Book Club on Jan 27 with Christopher Barger, GaggleAmp webinar on Jan 31; new FIR Interviews posted: Bob Fine, Social Media Monthly magazine, and Adam Kmiec, Walgreens; CREWE project to audit Fortune 100 on Wikipedia; News That Fits: of course employees are three times more active on social networks; Ragan promo; Dan York reports on the first battle against SOPA won, and more; could a ‘Secret Facebook of Power’ work for your organization?; the Media Monitoring Minute with…

• FIR Interview: Walgreens Social Media Director Adam Kmiec

  neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson)

  22 Jan 2012 | 3:07 am

  FIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz interview Adam Kmiec, director of social media for Walgreens, the largest drug store chain in the US and a Fortune 50 company. Walgreens has engaged in the last 10 days or so in a social media-focused effort to build awareness among customers of alternatives to Express Scripts, the prescription benefit manager through which hundreds of thousands of people in the US pay for their prescription medications. Unable to reach an agreement to renew their contract, Walgreens no longer accepts Express Scripts but using mechanisms like Prescription Savings…

• Pick up the pitchforks

  neville@nevillehobson.com (Neville Hobson)

  22 Jan 2012 | 2:26 am

  Powerful stuff from Clay Shirky who describes the US entertainment and media industry thus in his call to ‘pick up the pitchforks’ re SOPA and PIPA: “[...] This is an industry that demands payment from summer camps if the kids sing Happy Birthday or God Bless America, an industry that issues takedown notices for a 29-second home movie of a toddler dancing to Prince. Traditional American media firms are implacably opposed to any increase in citizens’ ability to create, copy, save, alter, or share media on our own. They fought against cassette audio tapes, and photocopiers.

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  Convince and Convert Blog: Social Media Strategy and Social Media Consulting

• Klout, the Super Bowl, and Our Addiction to Shooting the Messenger

  Jay Baer

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  Two weeks ago, I received a Klout Perk to be part of the Social 46, a gathering of Indiana’s top social media influencers. According to the Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee, Klout was used to help identify the participants, and the list was augmented manually with known local bloggers, gadflies, and connectors. I do not know how many of the 46 were “found” by Klout versus already known by the committee, and it’s not particularly relevant. Last week, the group convened to learn more about the Super Bowl festivities – which have a breadth almost unfathomably…

• Marketers, Here are the Keys to Your IT Department – Good Luck

  Jay Baer

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:02 am

  Clinton Bonner is an Open Innovation author/blogger, futurist and Marketing Manager at TopCoder – a global Open Innovation platform and community. Look no further than a very recent post by the purveyor of Convince and Convert and you’ll notice something remarkable. As Jay lays out 4 Nearly Guaranteed 2012 Social Media Predictions, what do you notice? Have a quick look at his 4 predictions: Multi-Media Soars – Jay is speaking about video and photo apps that enhance social media, draw more users off of the likes of Facebook and into new channels driven by mobile app…

• Comparison of 100 Top Companies on Social Business and Corporate Culture

  Jay Baer

  22 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am

  Are social business and corporate culture inevitably linked? In a recent podcast, Mitch Joel interviewed Fred Reichheld, author of The Ultimate Question 2.0, and creator of the Net Promoter methodology. Fred made a statement that has stuck with me in the several weeks since I tuned in: “You can’t be the best place to buy, if you’re not the best place to work.” As social business moves from the toddler stage to youth stage, it’s becoming accepted wisdom that the best and most social organizations transform from the inside out. Whether it’s Charlene…

• Social Media Success May Depend on HR

  Mark Schaefer

  19 Jan 2012 | 12:00 am

  Guest post written by Mark W. Schaefer. Mark is a consultant, college educator, and author who blogs at {grow}. There is a growing gap between the social media “haves” and “have-nots.” Some companies I visit have embraced social media enthusiastically and are moving into some pretty advanced ideas. Other companies are simply checking the box.  They have a blog and Facebook page… and they view the job as complete. Still others are paralyzed and have not done anything at all. What’s the difference between these scenarios? It’s not necessarily…

• The Power of Transparent Marketing to Rock Your Business in 2012 and Beyond

  Marcus Sheridan

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  Guest post by Marcus Sheridan. Marcus passionately speaks and writes about business and marketing on his blog, The Sales Lion. Make sure to download his popular, 230-page FREE eBook—“Inbound and Content Marketing Made Easy” ‘Transparency’ Ahh yes, one of the most over-used words, yet under-utilized actions, in our society today. News stations, despite their incessant claims, aren’t close to being transparent. The folks in Washington DC, on both sides of the aisle, couldn’t be any less transparent. And as for businesses small and large, this void of true transparency is the M.O.

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  Danny Brown | Social Media Marketing Blog

• Collaborative Marketing and the Natural Progression to Real Customer Satisfaction

  Danny

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:52 pm

  I’ve been thinking a lot about collaborative marketing lately, and how we can turn co-existing businesses more into partners and less about missed opportunities. I think there’s a great untapped market for someone that really wants to grab collaborative marketing and run with it. For example – imagine you’re going on a trip. You have to fly to get there, so there are a few processes you need to go through before, during and after: Buying your ticket. Driving to the airport. In-flight activities. Hotel or accommodation when you land. Rental car. These are just the basics – I’m…

• The Only Thing That’s Dead Is Your Crappy “Everything Is Dead” Meme

  Danny

  22 Jan 2012 | 10:06 pm

  I’m a little tired. Not physically. I could always do with a little more sleep, but then so can everyone. No. I’m more tired about the constant “The End of PR”, “The End of Marketing”, “The End of Print” and “The End of Advertising” missives  that seem to be flying about at the minute. I can’t open my email subscriptions without the latest link shouting out “The end of…. Where now for Industry X?”. I’m an avid blog reader and use Alltop regularly to find interesting stories from my industry and beyond. Yet it seems that there’s an “End of…” blog…

• Before We Believe You

  Danny

  19 Jan 2012 | 8:04 pm

  We buy products and services every day. Some we need, some we don’t. But we’ve heard good things about them so we buy them. Who have we heard good things from? Our friends. Our family. Our colleagues. People we trust. Why do we trust them? Because they’re not a mystery to us. They don’t wear masks. They don’t hide behind veils. They don’t try and fool us with trickery. They simply are. You’re in business. You have a blog. You have a podcast. You want to be popular. You want people to like you; connect with you; follow you. You want people to trust you. We will. Just don’t wear…

• Hope, Change, Belief – The 12for12k Story and How You Can Be a Part of It

  Danny

  16 Jan 2012 | 11:52 am

  Back at the end of 2008, I had an idea for doing something through social media to help charities. Thanks to some amazing friends and people like you that supported with your time and donations, that idea turned into a great example of how we can all make change if we really want to. The 12for12k project has raised over $100,000 for various charities to date – an amazing figure, given the “buy-in” was deliberately low, and the project took an enforced absence during most of 2010 and 2011. The reason for its success? You, and the power of the crowd when there’s…

• Introducing Social CRM Insider

  Danny

  13 Jan 2012 | 10:57 am

  Over at Jugnoo, our goal is to help educate business owners on the social web, and really help them both understand and improve their visibilty on it. Part of our approach is to offer resources that will act as a go-to for news, best practices, tips and awareness for all the various parts that make up today’s business scene. Recently, we launched the first salvo in this in the form of Social CRM Insider. A blog dedicated to the increasingly important area of customer relationship management in the social media space, Social CRM Insider will show why this is such a key part of any…

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  Beth’s Blog

• Peeragogy: Self Organized Peer Learning in Networks

  Beth

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:16 am

  Photo by Aussiegal My dream is to see more robust informal peer learning networks in the nonprofit sector. As a trainer,  I’m intensely interested in creating learning experiences that integrate or about how to use the technology for nonprofits that engage and inspire people to put the ideas into practice.    I’ve been obsessed with peer learning and self-directed learning models in my own learning and the trainings I design and facilitate. The term Peeragogy came fluttering through my network, like a butterfly, and it caught my interest.  It resonated.  When an idea or…

• What Do Facebook’s New Timeline Apps Mean for Nonprofits?

  Beth

  25 Jan 2012 | 11:39 am

  Source: developers.facebook.com via Beth on Pinterest   Remember last September when Facebook announced all those changes to individual profiles, including the timeline?    One of the changes  was that your friends and fans can do more than “Like” or “Comment”  on Facebook. Three new actions were announced at the time, including:  Read, Watch, Listen to  help people better understand what their friends are doing online.     Facebook called it the “Open Graph” and the pr people called “A revolution to the whole meaning of listening to music together or family…

• What Comes First, Content Creation or Curation?

  Beth

  24 Jan 2012 | 10:59 am

  Flickr Photo by Carissa Marie This is definitely not a chicken and egg question!   A debate in content marketing circles is whether or not you should simply focus on creating original content and forget content curation.   Let’s be clear as my fellow content curator, Jan Gordon, says:  There is no curation without original content. I might qualify this a bit by saying, there is no curation with awesomely addictive social content!  And that means creating content – blog posts, tweets, Facebook updates, YouTube Videos – that is valuable and high quality.   Not sure if you…

• The Information Diet: Not Just A Book, A Movement For Conscious Consumption of Information

  Beth

  23 Jan 2012 | 10:51 am

  I’ve been curating resources and teaching workshops on the topic of information coping skills for a couple of years.   I first became interested in the topic after reading  David Shenk’s “Data Smog” in 1998 using the metaphor of environmental problems to talk about the dangers of having too much online information, primarily email.  This was in the era before Facebook and there was far less information available compared today.  (My favorite practical principle from Shenk was “Give A Hoot, Don’t Email Pollute” when talking about the need for…

• Social Media and Cute Dogs Go Mobile And Other Cute Animal and Nonprofit Tales

  Beth

  20 Jan 2012 | 9:37 am

  The Cute Dog Theory or more precisely the Cute Animal Theory states that including cute animals in your social media content inspires more people to share the content.    If don’t believe that is true,  check out this YouTube video from VW of dogs barking the theme from Star Wars as a Superbowl Teaser.   In less than a day, it has over 1 million views.   The cute animal theory has not gone unnoticed by nonprofits, even those that are not animal welfare organizations,  zoos or aquariums are sharing content featuring cute animals on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. And now, mobile.

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  Social Business Blog RSS | ZDNet

• Groupon purchases Mertago to change social shopping

  Eileen Brown

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:38 pm

  Groupon has purchased member shopping site Mertado. Will it change our online social shopping behaviour and make us more loyal to the brands we buy from?

• 'Cash Mob' email helps Chagrin Hardware thrive

  Eileen Brown

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:55 am

  The owners of the Chagrin Hardware store had a really great trading day on Saturday due to a simple ‘Cash Mob’ email rallying local support for the local store

• McDonald's #McStories gets 'supersized' with Twitter backlash

  Eileen Brown

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:15 am

  McDonald’s Twitter campaign asking for #McStories and #MeetTheFarmer tweets has brought a storm of protest from people complaining about the brand.

• Overtime for answering email out of hours? What about Tweeting?

  Eileen Brown

  19 Jan 2012 | 1:43 pm

  Brazil has passed a law allowing workers to ask for overtime for answering emails out of working hours. What does that mean for workers responding to corporate social media communications?

• Facebook Gestures: Bringing better insight to the Social Business?

  Eileen Brown

  18 Jan 2012 | 4:04 pm

  Facebook is unveiling new features of its Open Graph applications and adding Gestures to applications. But will this extra information bring more insights to businesses?

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  Daily Blog Tips

• The Two Biggest Guest Blogging Mistakes You Can Make

  Daniel Scocco

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:55 pm

  I receive around 20 guest post submissions per week. Usually I let them pile up and once a month I go through all of them, replying to the ones I think would be a good fit for the blog. There are two types of submissions I discard right away, though, without even taking a look. I also consider those the two biggest mistakes you can make while trying to guest post on some blog. They are: 1. Not including the name of the blog owner If by opening your email I see something like “Dear Sir” or “Dear Blog Owner” I’ll send it to the trash bin immediately. Why? because…

• The Top 7 Twitter Imperatives For Bloggers

  Hal Licino

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:08 pm

  Many bloggers accustomed to dealing with topics in 400 to 600 words are finding concentrating their messages down to a mere 140 characters to be extremely challenging. Twitter can be a minefield and the slightest error can cost you readers and reputation, so follow these top 7 blogger imperatives for Twitter and rise to the level of a whiz tweeter, not a whizzing twit. 1. Wach ur Spelink & Gramma – Your Twitter content represents your blog and if you’re illiterate in your tweets then the reader can expect more of the same in your blog. Even though you only have 140 characters to work…

• 6 Actionable Tips to Really Improve Your Blog in 2012

  Gregory Ciotti

  24 Jan 2012 | 10:54 pm

  Enough of the quasi-motivating “New Year posts” which promise you the world but show you no actions to take. This post is just gonna give you the facts; no B.S. about “taking charge” of your blog’s success, just stuff you need to get done to rock it in 2012. So, how about you stop reading the intro and start taking notes, and after that, don’t go check Twitter, start implementing them right now! 1.) Take Your Email List Seriously It’s time to start taking your email list seriously, because building it is the “do or die” component of your…

• And the Copyright Infringement Hunt Begins…

  Daniel Scocco

  23 Jan 2012 | 10:58 pm

  You probably already heard about SOPA/PIPA and the whole debate around it, right? Last Wednesday it was a really interesting day on the Internet, probably representing the biggest online activism movement ever, with all major online companies and websites protesting against the bills. The movement was pretty successful, with many senators reversing their stance on the SOPA/PIPA bills, and making it much harder to get them approved now (i.e., the Internet folks won the first battle of the war). The day after, however, another blow stroke. The founders and key employees of the site…

• How to Add a Call to Action to Your Post

  Ali Luke

  22 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  You might have written your best post ever — but without a call to action, it’s not going to get you the results you’re hoping for. A “call to action” is a copywriting term. It simply means asking or telling the reader to take a specific action. That might be: Subscribing to your blog or newsletter Buying your ebook Sharing the post on Twitter or Facebook Downloading a free report Trying out a particular technique or idea … or almost anything that will benefit you and/or the reader. Your call to action should be clear and specific. Don’t simply link to a post and assume…

• 

  PR-Squared - Social Media Marketing and Public Relations

• It’s the End of the Web as We Know It … or, Speed Kills

  Todd Defren

  23 Jan 2012 | 11:46 am

  Those of you who follow me on other social nets like Twitter or Facebook know that I am pretty opinionated when it comes to politics.  Suffice to say that I am a card-carrying member of the “Liberal Coastal Elites.”  (I try not to over-indulge or bore folks with it; and I certainly can play nice with my right-leaning friends.) I bring it all up only as a segue to the fact that I am a big fan of Andrew Sullivan’s Dish blog.  Sullivan’s one of the big dogs in blogging; he’s been freshly-empowered by his move to the Daily Beast to experiment…

• Thoughts on a Twitterversary

  Todd Defren

  19 Jan 2012 | 9:18 am

  Let’s take a ramble. One of those automated spambots on Twitter informed me that today was my 5–year anniversary of microblogging.  Wow.  Five years.  Really? What was I up to five years ago? I was living in Boston, in-between my family’s quinquennial moves to San Francisco.  My brain was on fire, as I’d hit upon a worthy successor to the Social Media News Release concept and was just a couple of weeks away from debuting the Social Media Newsroom template. As I look back, 2007 was a prolific time for the entire Social Media industry.  It was not only the year Twitter…

• The Measurement Silver Bullet Does Not Exist – So Stop Searching

  Todd Defren

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:57 am

  Measuring social media was one of many hot button topics of 2011. Chances are good that it will be the hot button topic of 2012, and every year thereafter until we have a standard set of metrics for brands to use. Unfortunately, the chance of arriving at a standard set of metrics for every brand is small. Brand goals differ, as do the metrics tied to those brand goals. It has been this way in public relations for years, and it’s likely to be that way with social media as well. Similarly, communications professionals should be leery of approaches that advocate measuring social like…

• 2012 Prediction – Here Comes the Boring Part

  Todd Defren

  9 Jan 2012 | 9:41 am

  Sorry it’s been a while since my last post.  I was recharging the batteries.  In-between sitting by the fire, walking the dog, going to the movies, etc., I got to thinking about Social Media.  It’s gotten so … big.  There are something like 800M folks on Facebook.  Walk away from your Twitter account to grab lunch, and there are 1,500 unseen tweets waiting in queue.  Social Media has even been given outsized (if controversial) credit for powering the Arab Spring. Crazy, right?  And when you are a marketer? — Unwieldy.

• Lovin’ It: McDonald’s Advertising Cooperative Taps SHIFT

  Todd Defren

  20 Dec 2011 | 8:23 am

  I am delighted to announce that SHIFT Communications was recently named the Agency of Record for McDonald’s Advertising Cooperative, representing franchises from across New England. Around here we just call it McDonald’s, in-between the high-fives and exultations of “I’m lovin’ it!” While the work doesn’t officially begin until January, we’ve already plunged elbow deep into the culture of the company.  If you’re the type who still holds an image of McD’s from the era of “Supersize Me,” I want to disabuse you of such notions.  I…

• 

  CenterNetworks

• API Hackday Comes to Austin This February

  Allen Stern

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:06 pm

  It seems these days hackdays, hackathons, hack this, hack that events are popular across the world. Some of these developer events have created very successful startups and some of the companies have been acquired. Austin will be holding an API Hackday on Saturday, February 18 at the HubAustin coworking location. The event is free for everyone – just make sure to register for the right category so the organizers can make sure there is enough of each type of attendee (developer, designer, investor, etc.). The event will run from 8am-8pm with free lunch, dinner and post-event beer…

• Newbie PhoneGap Training Coming to Austin

  Allen Stern

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:28 pm

  This Saturday, January 28, 2012, the LoneStar PhoneGap group will hold their first meetup. PhoneGap is a mobile platform that helps you easily create mobile applications and more importantly helps you distribute one set of code to all of the major phone OS systems (Apple iOS, Google Android, Blackberry, WebOS, Windows Phone 7, Symbian and Bada). Nitobi, the parent company of PhoneGap, was acquired by Adobe last October. I think it is awesome that a group is meeting on a Saturday afternoon! The meetup will be held at a public library just west of the university area. Free pizza and drinks will…

• Web Jobs – January 21

  Allen Stern

  21 Jan 2012 | 7:54 pm

  Check out some of the latest web technology and business jobs posted for January 21, 2012 on the CenterNetworks Job Board. Subscribe to the CN Jobs feed and get all of the latest Web industry jobs delivered directly to you. Featured Jobs: Front end web developer at Artisan talent Interactive Developer at Garmin International Lead Ruby Engineer at Howcast More Jobs: Senior Theme Developer / Front-End Developer at Sony Music Entertainment Project Manager, BI Applications at Beachbody Senior Web Developer at Saatchi Online Web Development Specialist at Columbia College Chicago Employers –…

• Does Your Startup Have a Disaster Plan?

  Allen Stern

  19 Jan 2012 | 8:02 pm

  Last weekend our hosting company moved the physical location of their servers — from San Antonio to Chicago. There were a number of very serious issues that appeared post-migration caused by the hosting company. I will address the issues and the responsiveness from the hosting company in another post once all of the post-mortem details have been provided to me. But what the downtime and issues made me quickly realize is I need to have a current, well-documented disaster plan for both the blogs and for my startup. With a WordPress blog, there is the website (css, html, images, video,…

• Startup Weekend Coming Back to Austin This March

  Allen Stern

  15 Jan 2012 | 9:05 pm

  I’ve covered the worldwide Startup Weekend events over the past couple of years. The concept behind Startup Weekend is to bring the community together in a different city each weekend to create a startup (or multiple startups) during the weekend. The event is coming back to Austin during the weekend of March 30th, just after SXSW. The weekend of events will be held at Hub Coworking which is a few minutes south of the city center. Pricing runs from $75-$99 and if it is like the last event, meals will be provided. You can register here and there is an early bird registration that runs…

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  Compete Blog

• Should GoDaddy say uncle?

  Jared DeLuca

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:12 pm

  Image from: Edw / Shutterstock Known for their overtly sexual advertisements, an elephant-hunting CEO, and supporting questionable Internet legislation, domain registrar GoDaddy.com has been in the news lately more than ever. Even after completely reversing their stance on the controversial SOPA legislation that got put to rest late last week, GoDaddy has been suffering from an influx of lost customers and bad publicity. I decided to check out the data available from Compete PRO to take a better look at whether or not GoDaddy should “say uncle” and back off from branding…

• Giants vs. Patriots – Who’s In the Lead Online?

  Jen Duguay

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:05 am

  Image from: David Lee / Shutterstock It’s 9 days and counting until the one and only Super Bowl 46 and whether or not your team has made it to the top probably has little to do with the fact that Sunday, February 5th, you will be glued to the biggest and brightest TV amongst your circle of friends or braving it at a bar with 500 of your closest football buddies. Or maybe you’ll be knee deep in Buffalo wings with your marketing friends having vowed to each other that there will be NO talking during the commercials. As for me, I’ll be wearing my Brady jersey with pride and waving a…

• As Amazon Presses Pause on Amazon Mom, Parents Mourn while Rivals Rejoice!

  Matt Pace

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:23 pm

  Savvy parents looking for bargains on diapers have undoubtedly heard of Amazon Mom.  Unlike its subscription-based Amazon Prime cousin which offers free 2-day shipping for a $79 annual fee, Amazon Mom is a free program designed with parents of young children in mind.  Until this past Tuesday, Amazon “Moms” received 15% discounts on most diapers and wipes on top of the 15% discount and free shipping available via Amazon’s Subscribe and Save auto-replenishment program.  Amazon also threw in a year of Amazon Prime for new Amazon Moms. With Amazon Mom, the world’s leading online…

• Megavideo is Down… is Online Piracy Adrift?

  Scott Cooper

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:32 am

  Image from: Kletr / Shutterstock This post was co-authored by Trevor Morgan. The FBI shutdown of Megavideo.com on January 19th combined with national interest in SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) has pushed online piracy directly into the media spotlight. This prompts the question, what is the current state of the online piracy landscape and what repercussions can we expect in light of these events? The online piracy ecosystem consists of thousands of domains at any given point in time.  As many domains increase in popularity, others are taken down or fade away. This…

• UP is Down

  Nathan Kollett

  25 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pm

  Gone are the days when caloric intake, sleep time and workout activity have to be logged into a notebook only to be later entered into a spreadsheet for any meaningful analysis to be done. We now live in a world where wearable and low-profile, low-powered electronic devices track all of your physical activity and later sync your data with a whole host of available software your iOS device. Two of these devices, the Jawbone UP and the FitBit Ultra debuted last Fall and our data at Compete tells the story of these two products: one which sustained steady growth and another that could not live…

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  FreshNetworks Blog

• Why Capital One and American Express are the top financial services brands on Facebook

  Jo Stratmann

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:51 am

  TweetCapital One and American Express are the top financial services brands on Facebook, according to a chart compiled by social media analytics tool socialbakers. While Capital One’s Facebook page features within the top 150 brands on this list, and the American Express Facebook page is just outside it, the next most successful financial services brand on Facebook is US based direct banking and payment services company Discover, which charts at the 300 mark, saying a lot about the use of Facebook among global financial services brands. In fact, this forms a large part of the…

• Why internal culture is much more important than employee social media guidelines

  Matt Rhodes

  26 Jan 2012 | 5:16 am

  TweetImage via Wikipedia January has seen a spate of people tweeting things they shouldn’t – from Diane Abbott to Ed Miliband in the UK to countless people working for brands across the world. We’ve also seen a renewed debate in the UK about how the professions should use social media – notably about teachers befriending their pupils on Facebook. One way that many organisations deal with this is to create social media guidelines but even more important than any guidelines you might right is the internal culture change needed to real to make yours a true social…

• Social media for financial services: Wedbush Securities firm-wide social media use

  Jon Stokes

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:43 am

  TweetSocial media use in the financial service industry is a tricky area given the issues around compliance with regulations and risk. This is why I was interested to read that Wedbush Securities, a privately held financial services and investment firm based in USA,  has announced that they will give the “green light” for firm-wide adoption of social media. With 100 offices across the United States, employees at Wedbush Securities are now free to craft their own networks and conversations,  and so can move away from “canned responses”. It’s certainly a bold…

• Creating engaging content: US department stores Barneys vs Saks in social media

  Katie Glass

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:58 am

  TweetThey’re two of the most iconic department stores in New York, but just how well are Saks Fifth Avenue and Barneys using social media? We used Social Bakers to take a look at these two US retail giants and see whether they are making the most of their brands online. Despite being a mere ten minute walk down the street from each other, Barneys and Saks are already miles apart when it comes to Facebook fans. Whilst Saks has a healthy 288,000 fans, Barney’s has almost half with 162,000. But as we all know, it’s not just about how many ‘likes’ you’ve got but what you do with them…

• ‘Search, plus Your World’: Why your social search strategy will fail without Google+

  Jon Stokes

  19 Jan 2012 | 5:07 am

  TweetHere at FreshNetworks we’ve been keeping a close eye on the significance of Google+ for brands.  We were very excited about the arrival of Google+, and predicted, a back in July last year, that it would impact  social search: …”Potentially, in the future, this could mean that the more popular pages from within your Circles could outrank those pages that are better optimised in the traditional sense of the word.” The launch of Google’s new personalised search results display, known as ‘Search, plus Your World‘ means that this has indeed become…

• 

  Breaking News: CBS News

• Magnitude 5.5 quake shakes Japan

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:37 pm

  No immediate reports of damage or injuries, and no tsunami warning was issued

• Officer in Katrina shootings probe to be retried

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:18 pm

  Prosecutors intend to retry a retired police sergeant charged with helping cover up deadly shootings on New Orleans bridge

• NYPD officers rescue dangling suspect

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:52 pm

  2 officers rescued a suspect as he dangled from a seventh-floor Manhattan apartment window

• Paul hunts for GOP delegates in Maine

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:18 pm

  Texas congressman attracted a packed house in Bangor despite a powerful winter storm that brought traffic to a standstill

• Twitter's censorship plan sparks furor

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:42 pm

  Outrage follows company's plans to allow country-specific censorship of tweets that might break local laws

• 

  Social Media Marketing

• Social Media and Travel

  Scott Monty

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:37 pm

  If you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel -…

• Revealing a New Ford in a New Way

  Scott Monty

  13 Dec 2011 | 8:00 pm

  Ford Motor Company has been at the forefront of social media for some time. The Fiesta Movement, the Explorer reveal on Facebook, Doug the Spokespuppet, Ford Social (formerly known as The Ford Story) and being the first brand on Google+ all stand as examples of Ford's success that spans from clever campaigns to a daily commitment to engage.Ford played a significant part in how the automotive industry thinks about social media (and in some cases how large companies think about social media) and now, as we near the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), at Ford we have an…

• Infographic: 5 Companies That Are Rocking Social Media

  Scott Monty

  29 Nov 2011 | 10:47 am

  This infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as…

• Twitter Business Guide

  Scott Monty

  7 Oct 2011 | 10:53 pm

  I was recently introduced to a compact guidebook for businesses trying to get a sense of Twitter. The microblogging site that allows you to update in no more than 140 characters at at time is deceptively complex and nuanced - especially for a newcomer.This short guide, entitled Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing was written by Jean-Christophe Barré and Dr. Andreas Schroeter and in just 32 pages covers some of the things that may be keeping you and your business away from this platform. For someone who is new to Twitter, this e-book will prove a helpful compass as you…

• iLife

  Scott Monty

  5 Oct 2011 | 7:04 pm

  Steve Jobs has died at the age of 56. His life's work at Apple literally changed the face of the earth. Undoubtedly, he'll go down in history alongside the likes of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.Let's remember Steve in his own words, "How to live before you die," in his Stanford Commencement speech of 2005:R.I.P. Steve Jobs. We thank you for the innovation you brought to this world. May we all live such a life.-- (Disclosure: http://cmp.ly/5)

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  Web Strategy by Jeremiah

• A Worldwide Salute to Community Managers

  jeremiah_owyang

  23 Jan 2012 | 5:43 am

  It’s the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day (every fourth Monday of Jan) and I’d like to salute the folks working on the front lines at companies big and small leading the charge. These folks are critical in the change as companies have moved from the static website to the dynamic human focused social business we’re seeing across every agency. Charged with the following four key responsibilities: a community advocate, brand evangelist, savvy online communicator, and involved in shaping future products and services they’ve got their hands full. This exciting new role…

• People on the Move in the Social Business Industry, Jan 16, 2011

  jeremiah_owyang

  16 Jan 2012 | 2:04 pm

  Mark you Calendars now that Community Manager Appreciation Day is coming this coming Jan 23rd, please salute your community professionals. Both the submissions on this job announcement board, as well as available social media positions at corporations continue to pour in. In this continued digest of job changes, I like to salute those that continue to join the industry in roles focused on social media, see the archives, which I’ve been tracking since Q4, 2007. People on the Move in the Social Business Industry: Len Devanna joins Ant’s Eye View as Vice President, Social Business…

• Buyers Guide: A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation (Altimeter Report)

  jeremiah_owyang

  5 Jan 2012 | 11:57 am

  Get account control now –or risk a career of continual social media sanitation. To match the growing consumer adoption of social media, many companies have launched social media efforts with little planning. As social media spreads beyond corporate communications and marketing, business groups are deploying social media without a standardized process. In fact, enterprise class corporations (those with over 1,000 employees) have an average of 178 social media accounts and this number will only grow if left unchecked. Companies that don’t control these accounts are at risk of having…

• A Taxonomy of Tech Bloggers –Who Will Lead Beyond The Golden Age?

  jeremiah_owyang

  29 Dec 2011 | 8:53 am

  In order to understand the movement in the ever-changing tech blog space, let’s dissect the market to identify trends. Whether folks agreed or disagreed, the assertion that Tech Blogs are evolving from the Golden Era to the next, continues to resonate as a healthy discussion. I saw responses from many of the blog management teams (Techcrunch, Mashable, RWW, VentureBeat, BoingBoing, and more) both agreeing and disagreeing, as well as traditional journalists at Wired chiming in. Recap: Four Trends Why Blogs Are Evolving Out of Golden Age In the previous post, it was identified there are…

• End of an Era: The Golden Age of Tech Blogging is Over

  jeremiah_owyang

  27 Dec 2011 | 11:01 am

  Update Dec 29: I posted a Taxonomy of Tech Bloggers in response to the growing conversation. That’s right. We’re at the end of an important period. The tech blogosphere as we know it, is over. Four Trends Show the End of this Era: Like the film industry, the Golden Era is the emergence period, when fresh innovation in a new medium is born. New techniques, revolutionary content, and different business models emerge as innovators pioneer a new medium. I first had this discussion with Chris Saad, which triggered some thinking on my end. I asked some of the foremost tech bloggers of  their…

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  Steve Rubel

• The Clip Report: An eBook on the Future of Media In the early...

  3 Jan 2012 | 1:39 pm

  The Clip Report: An eBook on the Future of Media In the early 1990s when I began my career in PR there were clip reports. These were physical books that contained press clips. It seems downright archaic now but that’s how I learned about the press - by cutting, pasting up and photocopying clippings. My fascination with the media never abated. Today my role is to form insights into how the entire overlapped media landscape - the pros, social channels, and corporate content - is rapidly evolving and to help Edelman clients turn these learnings into actionable strategies. As part of this…

• It was a sizzling summer for social media. As we move into fall,...

  5 Sep 2011 | 9:28 pm

  It was a sizzling summer for social media. As we move into fall, here’s a look at some of the major milestones.

• ¶ Could Mobile Apps Be Wilting in the Heat of Summer?

  18 Aug 2011 | 1:03 pm

  Image credit: Financial Times It’s hard to believe, but mobile marketing didn’t really get going in earnest until Apple launched its App Store in 2008. Three years later there are now marketplaces on all five major device platforms - Apple’s iOS, Android, BlackBerry, HP WebOS and Windows Mobile. What’s more, there seems to be a constant footrace between brands not only to be first to market with their own apps, but to refresh them for a fickle public. Some of what’s driving this is the zeitgeist. Overnight, it seems, apps have become deeply embedded in our culture. To stand out at a…

• → Media Tops in Corporate Social Media

  25 Jul 2011 | 7:27 pm

  → Media Tops in Corporate Social Media: Fire up the PowerPoint. Here’s a fantastic, data-rich report (PDF) from Netprospex on the state of social media adoption in Corporate America. What’s notable is that the media continues to shine. One reason? Content matters. via Lost Remote

• ¶ Three Key Things Google Is Doing While We Focus on Google+

  25 Jul 2011 | 2:41 pm

  The following is also my AdAge column… With all of the attention that’s being paid to Facebook and Twitter it’s easy to forget that no single company impacts media and marketers the way that Google does. Even small changes in Google’s algorithm and/or its underlying search technology can cause a massive ripple effect in consumer traffic patterns and buying behaviors. The intentionally low-key launch of the Google+ social network - which ended up being quite strong out of the chute - is no different. It’s Google’s effort to encourage more consumers to create and share content it…

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  Adverblog

• AXE – The Cleaner

  Rocco

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:15 am

  In Argentina, AXE runs an interesting online campaign featuring The Cleaner. This guy makes sure no evidence is left behind after that very wild night. The campaign is completely video based, and starts with a 3-minute long adventure. When visiting the website, you will get to know The Cleaner in two different episodes. And although my Spanish is pretty bad, I get the picture easily, and so will you. The cool thing is that due to lenght, size and quality of the video’s, it feels like a little movie you’re part of. The campaign is set up to promote different AXE showergels, among…

• OOH advergame by BMW

  Martina

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:53 am

  Very interesting interactive campaign by BMW in South Africa. For the launch of the new 1 series car, they’ve attracted and engaged consumers with a racing game projected on buildings and scaffoldings. The fun thing is that consumers had the chance to join the game by connecting their iPad to a dedicated Facebook app. It’s not the first time that we see advergame interfaces projected on outdoor surfaces or megascreens (see this Blue Bloods billboard or this McD campaign) but I believe this BMW idea is one of the first examples of a Facebook Connect OOH advergame. I also appreciate…

• Net A Porter Window Shopping

  Tim

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:09 pm

  To celebrate the launch of ‘Karl’ by Karl Lagerfeld, a range available exclusively at Net-a-Porter, the online fashion giant produced a real window shopping experience. Fashionistas are invited to come to shop fronts in Paris, New York, London, Munich and Sydney. There they can use the Net-A-Porter mobile app to scan, inspect and buy the hottest items. The film below documents the premiere of this idea in September 2011 at Fashion’s Night Out in London and New York. Launching the new range ‘Karl, sees the concept rolled out globally, including a chance to spot Karl…

• androp: World.Words.Lights.

  Tim

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:42 pm

  Japanese agency PARTY have created another stunning music video-robotics crossover, again for androp. Interestingly, you can purchase the hero robot (singer?) as part of alimited edition on eBay. If you can spare $5,000 that is. Check out androp’s site here. The creators explain the inspiration like this: “When we listened to the track, keywords such as “lights” and ” dance music” stood out. In order to visualize the mechanical beats, and these 2 themes, we came up with an idea to create a group of “toys” which dances to the music.”…

• The VFX secrets of Boardwalk Empire

  Martina

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:22 am

  Get ready for some “wow”. Brainstorm Digital shares with the public (some) of the secrets of the visual effects in HBO’s hit series “Boardwalk Empire”. The images are pretty amazing, especially if watching the show you had no idea of the amount of computer graphics involved. What’s real? What’s CG? I bet your will never watch a TV series with the same eyes again. These are VFX breakdowns of season 2: While this is season 1. via Notcot

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  SocialTimes.com

• Socialize: Google+ May Be More of a Social Layer Than a Social Network

  Neil Vidyarthi

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:14 am

  At today’s Socialize conference here at the beautiful St. Andrew’s Club onthe 27th floor of the Sun Life Financial Tower there was a great session discussing Google+ and its role within the greater Google suite.  The most interesting idea was that Google+ shouldn’t be looked at as a social network, but rather a social layer that improves Google’s core product, search. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Pinterest, Copia, and Cheddar Bay Biscuits – Social Media for Books [Podcast]

  Devon Glenn

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:45 am

  Today on mediabistro’s Morning Media Menu podcast, GalleyCat editor Jason Boog shared with me his take on how social media is changing the landscape of the publishing industry. What do gardening manuals have in common with the Red Lobster seafood chain? Listen to the podcast to find out. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Social Media Explained – Possibly by a Dog [Infographic]

  Devon Glenn

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:27 am

  Warning: do not read this post if you are in a meeting or stuck in line somewhere. You might pee your pants. Thankfully, this picture also explains the best social network on which to break the news. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Socialize Conference: Facebook Advertising for Results and ROI

  Neil Vidyarthi

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:08 am

  Today at Socialize Toronto, there was a great discussion discussing the role of Facebook ads in business, with a panel of experts on the subject.  The panel included Hussein Fazal, CEO of Facebook Ad platform AdParlor, Seth Lieberman, CEO of Pangea Media, Nikhil Sethi, the Co-founder of Adaptly, Veronica Stecker, the media manager for Gordmans, Mario Zelaya, the Managing Director for Majestic Media and it was moderated by Brian Carter, the CEO of FanReach. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

• Why You Should Take a Look at Google’s New Privacy Policy

  Devon Glenn

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:45 am

  Google plus Your World has the tech community up in arms about the impact of integrating Google+ into its search engine on the user experience. Yesterday I opened an email from Google that read, “We’re getting rid of over 60 different privacy policies across Google and replacing them with one that’s a lot shorter and easier to read…reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.” I checked it out, and so should you. continued… New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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  SmartBloggerz!

• Social Networking vs SEO – Which is Better For Internet Marketing?

  Noah Mark Rodolfo

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:58 pm

  This is a guest post by Noah Mark Rodolfo from BestOnlineBusinessGuide.netSocial networking is one of today’s biggest arena when it comes to online marketing. It’s been an effective gauge for Internet businesses, not only for e-commerce sites but also for bloggers. Facebook, Twitter and even Google+ are making a big impact on the Internet and many practical users are taking the bait. So the question is – “does SEO still have relevance for your online business?”.SEO against social networking is an interesting topic especially if you are looking for the best way to…

• The Best Advice for Home Office Success is More Simple than You Might Think

  James Martell

  21 Jan 2012 | 1:32 pm

  This is a guest post by James Martell from AffiliateMarketersBootcamp.com.Starting an Internet Marketing business, or any home-based business, can be intimidating.Where do you start?Perhaps you have already started one, but are feeling like you are in a rut.How do you get out of it?Whatever you do, don’t take that as a sign that you should give up on your dream. It’s normal to have these concerns.What isn’t normal is to actually push forward and not give up. If you look at the statistics for home-based businesses, it’s not pretty, and will discourage most people. Why? Because most…

• 5 BEST Strategies To Get Your Guest Post Published On Popular Blogs

  Michael Chi

  17 Jan 2012 | 12:36 pm

  This is a guest post by Michael Chi from Blast4TrafficNow.net.Do you want to get your guest post published on A-list blogs?A single guest post on a popular blog can cause and influx of targeted traffic, relevant and unique backlink and increase your Google pagerank. I’ve seen the great potentials in these authority blogs and my major goal is to get at least 2 articles featured on their homepage monthly.The strategies I highlight below can get you started on your quest for successful guest blogging.You’ve 3 things to do right away; Read. Understand. Implement.1. Research Your Topic…

• Effective Blogging In Your Downtime

  David

  12 Jan 2012 | 12:48 pm

  This is a guest post by David Sumner from twago.Except for the lucky few, most bloggers have to fit their passion for writing in and around their 9-5 jobs.Unless you’re a professional freelance blogger earning good money from your blogging (which let’s be frank most of us aren’t), and the only time you can dedicate to your blog is in your free-time, then you’ll need to hone your writing skills and blog to the world without becoming a social outcast and gluing yourself to your laptop all weekend.However, blogging on the weekends or at other times brings with it a whole host of…

• GetlinksPro Review – Are They Any Good Or Should You Use Another Linkbuilding Service?

  Sushant Risodkar

  6 Jan 2012 | 10:39 am

  If I am going to use a link building service I definitely want to use one that is going to make it their job to perform their best for me.I know what I qualify as being the best may not be what everyone else considers the best.That is why when I tried out the services of “GetLinksPro” I wanted to see about a few core attributes that I feel would be universally appreciated.Will I Be Satisfied With The Services If I Use Them And Have Others Been Satisfied In The Past?I did a quick check of the testimonials at “Getlinkspro” because I needed to make sure the company has delivered on the…

• 

  The Inspiration Room

• Pentecost

  Duncan

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:22 pm

  “Pentecost”, a short film by Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane, has been moninated for Best Short Film (Live Action) at the 2012 Academy Awards. The Irish film is a coming of age story of a young boy who learns how to rebel against his father and the community. Against his will, Damian Lynch (11) is called in at the last moment to serve as an altar boy at an important mass in the local parish. He faces a choice: either conform to the status quo or serve an extended ban from his passion in life, football. Click on the image below to play the Pentecost Trailer in YouTube (HD)…

• Time Freak

  Duncan

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:34 pm

  Time Freak, a short film by Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey, has been nominated for Best Short Film (Live Action) at the 2012 Academy Films. The 11 minute film features Evan (John Conor Brooke), a neurotic inventor, supported by his friend Stillman (Michael Nathanson), creates a time machine only to get lost trying to make yesterday perfect in his relationship to Debbie (Emilea Wilson). Click on the image below to play the trailer in YouTube (HD) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_DLkVR7hK0 Credits Filming was shot by director Andrew Bowley, producer Gigi Causey, director of photography Luke…

• Raju

  Duncan

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:20 pm

  Raju, a short film set in India, has been nominated for Best Film (Live Action) at the 2012 Academy Awards. The film, by German director Max Zahle and producer Stefan Gieren, follows the story of a young couple who travel to Kolkata to adopt a child from the slums. After braving the bureaucracy and emotional upheaval of international adoption, they are horrified to learn that Raju has disappeared somewhere in Kolkata. See more at raju-film.com. Click on the image below to play the Raju trailer in YouTube (HD) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFBhTPMVmS0 Credits Raju was shot by…

• The Shore

  Duncan

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:37 am

  The Shore, a short film directed by Terry George, has been nominated for Best Short Film (live action) in the 2012 Academy Awards. The Shore is the inspiring story of two boyhood best friends, Joe (Ciarán Hinds) and Paddy (Conleth Hill), who meet up 26 years after their world and their friendship was shattered by the conflict escalating in Northern Ireland. Joe returns for the first time to his homeland with his 24-year-old daughter, Patricia (Kerry Condon). In his absence Paddy has married Joe’s former fiancée Mary (Maggie Cronin). What happened all those years ago? Can old wounds be…

• United Airlines Animation by Forbis and Tilley

  Duncan

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:47 pm

  Canadian animation directors Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilley, nominated for an Oscar this week for their short film “Wild Life“, caught the attention of the advertising world in 2004, 2005 and 2006 with three animated commercials for United Airlines. Part of the “Time To Fly” campaign, “The Interview”, “Mr Pants” and “The Meeting” were released over three years alongside a wide range of animated commercials by various directors, all set to George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. They follow on from the success of the NFB…

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  SmartBlog on Social Media - Best Practices and Case Studies on Social Media Marketing for Business

• This week’s most clicked

  Doris Nhan

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:55 pm

  Tips for a 20-minute social media campaign; the details on McDonald’s hashtag nightmare; and the top 50 social media experts that you need to know. It’s all in this week’s top five most-clicked links in SmartBrief on Social Media: PeekYou rates the 50 most influential social media experts Can you run a social campaign in just 20 minutes a day? McDonald’s finds itself embroiled in “a hashtag horror show” Should social media pros be paid extra for after-hours tweets? Long sales funnels require looking beyond Facebook and Twitter Image credit: narvikk, via…

• 5 traits of a great custom-built Facebook tab

  Guest Blogger

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:02 pm

  Chelsea Hejny is a social media writer at ShortStack, a tab-designing tool that creates custom Facebook Pages. Hejny also works as a president of the American Marketing Association in Nevada. Great Facebook Pages are easy to spot; however, the reasons for their greatness might not be so obvious. Visually appealing and well-designed tabs are good, but there are five traits that make a Facebook tab great. Purpose. With every Facebook tab, there needs to be an easily understood purpose of its existence. For example, a page’s landing tab, sometimes know as the welcome tab, should clearly…

• What does it take to be prepared for a social media crisis?

  Jesse Stanchak

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:56 am

  SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Social Media — tracks feedback from leading marketers about social media practices and issues. This week, we asked: If a social media public relations crisis were to hit your brand tomorrow, do you think you would be prepared to respond effectively? The results: We have the capacity to respond, but there’s no formal plan in place: 63.81% We wouldn’t know it was happening until we read about it in the media: 15.24% Yes, we have a well-documented social media crisis-control strategy: 15.24% We’re monitoring…

• Is your company prepared for the next digital evolution?

  Doris Nhan

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:38 am

  There’s a gap growing between an increasingly digital society and the organizations that serves it, B. Bonin Bough, senior global director of digital and social media at PepsiCo, said during the second annual What’s Next D.C. event. As consumer consumption of technological advances increases at a breakneck pace, brands are fighting to keep up with a society that thinks in 140-character status updates. But most companies are failing to evolve, Bough said, and instead are staying stagnant, unable to keep up with the technology that has captivated their customers. Society thinks…

• Social media for the complex sale: Where should you start?

  Guest Blogger

  23 Jan 2012 | 6:45 am

  Andy DeBrunner is social media manager at Godfrey and has worked with Fortune 100 companies to tackle their social media needs. He was also a contributor to Godfrey’s e-book “Jumpstart Your B2B Marketing.” Follow him @adebrunner or follow Godfrey @GodfreyB2B. Your customers are using social media. That’s no surprise. So is it appropriate for you to join in on the fun and get your business on board? I know what some of you are thinking. “Sure, I know everyone’s using social media, but my company sells products that cost a ton of money and sales can take years to close. I…

• 

  SEO by the Sea

• How Classification of Page Elements and Search Results May Influence Alternative Titles and Snippets Displayed in Google

  Bill Slawski

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:30 pm

  Has an improvement in how Google understands the layout of pages, and understands and classifies different elements found on page had an impact on the titles and snippets that we see in search results? Google may classify queries to decide what to show for those page titles and snippets in search results, but it’s [...]

• Google’s Query Based Analysis and Reranking of Search Results

  Bill Slawski

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:36 am

  Somewhere in an alternative universe, it’s possible that one of the most feared hitters in baseball might have instead been known as one of its greatest pitchers. Babe Ruth started out as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in 1914, and when approached about getting his bat into the lineup on a daily [...]

• Apple’s Siri Patent Application

  Bill Slawski

  19 Jan 2012 | 4:49 am

  A patent application was published today which describes the kind of intelligent automated assistant that we see in use on Apple’s iPhone 4S, known as Siri. But the patent isn’t necessarily limited to the iPhone application itself, and the describes how such a system could be used in a number of ways, including with [...]

• 10 Most Important SEO Patents: Part 7 – Sets, Semantic Closeness, Segmentation, and Webtables

  Bill Slawski

  12 Jan 2012 | 11:10 pm

  Yesterday, I wrote about how Google may be looking at the semantics associated with HTML heading elements, and the content that they head, and how the search engine might be looking at such content with similar headings across the Web to determine how much weight to give words and phrases within those headings.That [...]

• Heading Elements and the Folly of SEO Expert Ranking Lists

  Bill Slawski

  12 Jan 2012 | 8:51 am

  How important are heading elements to the rankings of webpages by search engines? I’ve seen arguments by people who write about and study search engines and SEO very closely, which often appear written up in “SEO Expert Ranking Lists,” that HTML heading elements (<h1>, <h2>, etc.) are very important, arguments that heading elements [...]

• 

  Conversation Marketing: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon

• Great marketing, small marketing: How it all fits

  Ian

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:05 pm

  I did a presentation today at Emerging Media Conference: How marketing can change the world. I’ve distilled it down to the essential bits here. It’s not the best organized ever, but it covers the essentials. Give it a read: Streeeetchhh First, a quick mental stretching exercise: “Marketing” is not “Selling stuff”. “Marketing” is: Communications created to deliver and promote concepts and offerings that have value. Maybe we’re convincing our kids to eat broccoli. Or we’re trying to convince someone to go out on a date. Or we’re…

• Google Analytics Tutorial: Install (updated)

  Ian

  20 Jan 2012 | 1:27 pm

  I noticed that my original Google Analytics video tutorial is a wee bit out of date. Like, 4 years out of date. So, here’s a new basic install video:

• SOPA, and content thieves: They both suck

  ian

  18 Jan 2012 | 11:25 pm

  Watching the argument over online piracy unfold in the US is like watching chimpanzees drive a car. They fight over direction but they don’t give a crap if they take the rest of us off a goddamned cliff with them. Here’s my problem with both sides in this Greek tragedy: SOPA = stupid If it passes, SOPA will be a total failure: It’s written by a Republican congressman who, as near as I can tell, doesn’t own a computer. The guy violates copyright law on his own web site. Dude. Did you even know you had a web site? It’s being pushed by big companies who don’t…

• Webinar number 1: Internet marketing, content, and all that jazz

  Ian

  16 Jan 2012 | 5:23 pm

  Portent’s starting a free webinar series, presented by yours truly. The first one is January 31, 2012 at 11 AM Pacific time. I’ll be doing a deep dive into inbound search content social media internet marketing strategy: The role of search engines, social media and other channels in your internet marketing campaign. What ‘inbound marketing’ really is. How to use content to drive marketing. How to use analytics to direct your efforts. How it all fits together. These webinars are free, as in beer. You do have to register, though, so I’ll forever have your e-mail in…

• In internet marketing, be significant, or be roadkill

  ian

  13 Jan 2012 | 1:40 pm

  You send an e-mail to 40,000 people, and get 1 response. Or, you run a Groupon deal that brings 1,000 new customers, who never buy from you again. Wonder why? You got everyone’s attention. They just don’t care. Now you’ve got a choice: Rend your garments, tear your hair and whine about how stupid the average consumer is these days. Or, you can realize something: Attention does not equal significance Getting attention is nice. It gives you a proto-audience: Folks who might stay to listen. Now, though, you have to show them you’re significant. That’ll get everyone…

• 

  How To Make My Blog

• Blogspot Blogger or WordPress: Which blogging platform to use

  Marko Saric

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:00 am

  Blogspot Blogger or WordPress - If you have bigger ambitions like creating a professional web presence or building a business from your blog, read on. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• How To Prevent A Facebook Epic Fail!

  Marko Saric

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:00 am

  Facebook is great and growing at an impressive rate, but many blog owners have been extremely slow to react with Facebook’s ever changing marketing environment. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 6 Ways Your English Teacher Wrecked Your Writing

  Marko Saric

  17 Jan 2012 | 3:00 am

  If you want to improve your blog copy, you have to unlearn some of the bad writing habits you picked up at school. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Tumblr or WordPress: Where should I start my blog?

  Marko Saric

  10 Jan 2012 | 3:00 am

  Tumblr or WordPress - where to start your own blog? It all depends on what you want to do with your blog. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• How to get more likes on Facebook

  Marko Saric

  3 Jan 2012 | 3:00 am

  You need to feel and see the value before you decide to include a specific page on your Facebook profile. Here are 7 tips on how to get more likes on Facebook. [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• 

  Noah Brier dot Com

• Building Products

  Noah Brier

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:54 am

  I promise I’ll get back to blogging more non-Percolate things, but here’s one more item. Over at the Percolate blog I wrote up a quick description of how our product development process has changed since we moved to running everything off an API: We start by sketching everything out and finalizing flows. Once that happens everyone gets to work: Backend writes some Python, frontend writes some javascript and design finalizes interaction and visual design. Because it’s all just data being passed around, no one needs to wait for anyone else. As long as the data is modeled, we can…

• Sales, Selling and Titles

  Noah Brier

  24 Jan 2012 | 10:40 am

  We’re hiring for a bunch of different positions at Percolate and one of the big ones is sales. My co-founder, James, wrote a good post outlining how we approach sales and hiring salespeople. This part in particular hit close to home: I’ve thought a lot about my profession as my career in digital advertising sales has evolved. It is an interesting profession that I’ve enjoyed but there are things about being a salesperson that I’ve always been intrigued by. For starters, a lot of salespeople, even very good sales people, don’t like to think of themselves as being in a sales…

• The Other Side of Kickstarter

  Noah Brier

  17 Jan 2012 | 7:10 am

  Matt Haughey (of Metafilter) has a good post about a bad Kickstarter experience. First off, I’m surprised this is the first one of these I’ve read. Second, I think there’s actually a really interesting question in the post around what you’re really doing when you “fund” a Kickstarter project. The project he talks about, a metal iPhone case, shipped with serious signal issues. In an email explanation the creators wrote, “This is also to remind people about what KickStarter is about. KickStarter is about investing/backing a product or idea and funding…

• Bad Psychology

  Noah Brier

  9 Jan 2012 | 10:04 am

  Hardly shocking, but it turns out people are much better at predicting the behavior of others than themselves: Psychologists have identified an important reason why our insight into our own psyches is so poor. Emily Balcetis and David Dunning found that when predicting our own behaviour, we fail to take the influence of the situation into account. By contrast, when predicting the behaviour of others, we correctly factor in the influence of the circumstances. This means that we’re instinctually good social psychologists but at the same time we’re poor self-psychologists. It’s…

• Instagrammed

  Noah Brier

  9 Jan 2012 | 8:54 am

  Clive Thompson, who I usually really dig, has an unexpected (for me at least) take on Instagram. He likes it (which I also do), but specifically he thinks the filters encourage people to look at things with a more critical/artistic eye. Makes me think about a few things: 1) I think Thompson’s point is true of photography generally. When people have a camera they look at everything as a possible photo and that changes the way things look. 2) It makes me think of Daniel Kahneman’s research around remembering self versus experiencing self and how Instagram encourages optimization…

• 

  Get Elastic Ecommerce Blog

• Social Networking Stats and Trends From Around the World

  Linda Bustos

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:03 am

  Kicking off our new weekly feature Infographic Friday are our friends at Invesp Consulting, who have compiled some interesting stats and trends on social networking from around the globe.Why does this matter to ecommerce?We have become a social networking culture, and this behavior is permeating every area of our lives. Even solo activities like using search engines is becoming socialized, as is shopping, travel, education and even work. Ecommerce organizations should be paying attention to the conversation about them, and starting their own conversations in the social-sphere. Innovative…

• 4 Reasons Why Entitlements Are The Future of Digital Content

  David Chiu

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:30 am

  Not long ago, owning content meant holding a physical item – either you had a disc in hand, or you didn’t. Distribution and storage may have changed dramatically with digital formats, but ownership was still mostly defined by the files you had on your local device. Remember how iTunes reminded you to back up often or risk losing everything? The entitlement or right to consume content has always been rooted in possession of the content itself.But this model of ownership is becoming problematic as technology and customer sophistication advance. Better connectivity, cloud services, and…

• Are Your CPCs Out Of Control? 5 Ways To Rein Them In

  Linda Bustos

  25 Jan 2012 | 2:03 am

  It’s easy to spend too much money on pay-per-click.The infographic below (source) breaks down Google’s top spenders in Google Adwords, but also highlights how CPCs (cost per click) vary across industries.While some of these click prices are not surprising, like for health insurance or wireless Internet deals (high ticket value and/or recurring revenue), others like ‘zumba dance dvd’ are considerably high relative to retail prices. According to Google Shopping, these vids sell between $18 and $90. An average CPC of $5.18, even at the high end of margin, is an alarming…

• How Bounce Rate Optimization Can Improve Your Search Rankings

  Linda Bustos

  23 Jan 2012 | 2:03 am

  Straight from Google’s Quality Guidelines comes the mantra for the white-hat SEO community: “Build your site for users, not search engines.” And Google means it.The search giant disclosed its latest algorithm update includes page layout as a ranking factor, with a focus on how much above-the-fold real estate is dedicated to visible content vs. advertising or other distracting, useless shiny things (like splash pages).Google states that customer feedback influenced this change, as it’s no surprise that sites with buried content make for a crummy user experience, as do…

• How Facebook’s New Open Graph Features Impact fCommerce

  Linda Bustos

  19 Jan 2012 | 9:48 pm

  Facebook announced yesterday regarding its developer platform — namely, new features in its Open Graph are now available to all application developers.The new features were no secret, but we can now see them in action from 60 partner applications involved in the Open Graph Beta including Netflix, Hulu, Zynga, Spotify, Washington Post and Kobo.So what’s the big deal?2 New Features for Facebook Open GraphOpen Graph applications use elements of the development platform to provide ‘frictionless sharing’ to Facebookers’ Timelines and Tickers, which will also appear in friends’…

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  Digital Buzz Blog

• Bear 71: A Real World Multi-User Experience

  Aden Hepburn

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:05 pm

  You’ll know by now I’m a huge advocate of digital convergence, and this piece is one of the very best I’ve ever seen, it takes the concept to new heights… It’s called Bear 71, an interactive, multi-user documentary experience and installation that debuts at the Sundance Film Festival. Bear 71 Live observes and records the [...]Related Digital Buzz Posts:NZ Airforce “Real World” YouTube ExperienceMulti-Touch Wall of World Cup HistoryThe Multi-Touch Experience Cube

• BMW 1 Series: Projection Mapping Racing Game

  Aden Hepburn

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:02 am

  BMW South Africa recently created an interactive projection mapping experience for the new 1 Series, in the form of a social racing game. The experience was projected to an area of just over 100sqm and allowed participants to play via Galaxy tablets after connecting with Facebook. Players times were posted to the real-time Facebook leaderboard [...]Related Digital Buzz Posts:Chevy Sonic: 3D Projection Mapping Claw GameB-Reel Eels: Mobile Projection Mapping GameATG: Multi-Player Swedish Horse Racing Game

• Net-A-Porter: Augmented Reality Shop Windows

  Aden Hepburn

  25 Jan 2012 | 7:30 pm

  NET-A-PORTER are rolling out Augmented Reality Shopping Windows, around the world including Paris, New York, London, Munich and Sydney. The video demo above is from late last year for Fashion’s Night Out celebrations in London and New York, but as of today, it’s been rolled out globally for the new Karl by Karl Lagerfeld collection, [...]Related Digital Buzz Posts:Tissot: Augmented Reality Product ExperienceDisney: Augmented Reality In Times SquareJWT Augmented Reality Business Cards

• Air China: Facebook Check Ins

  Katy Daniells

  24 Jan 2012 | 4:33 pm

  Here is a nice social integration campaign from Air China. In order to increase consumer awareness about the airline’s flight services to Sweden and throughout the extended Asian region, Air China launched a campaign around Facebook check-ins. The airline created partnerships with a number of popular Asian restaurants in Sweden, to act as ambassadors for [...]Related Digital Buzz Posts:Facebook Timeline: Visual Check-In LogosInfographic: Facebook and RelationshipsIntroducing The New Facebook Timeline

• Xbox Kinect: Dancify Yourself Mobile App

  Aden Hepburn

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:45 am

  There is a growing trend towards launching promo mobile apps for console games which I’m not sure every buys into just yet, but when you see an example like this from AKQA for Dance Central 2 (the sequel to the most popular Xbox Kinect game) you’ll soon realise the potential for fun-based feature apps and [...]Related Digital Buzz Posts:Project Sk8: Xbox Kinect Controlled SkateboardMicrosoft: The Future of Xbox KinectXbox Kinect Launch: Projection Mapping Game

• 

  Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

• How to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to Action

  John Jantsch

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:24 am

  How to Drive Sales Offline With Local Online Calls to ActionThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the real underutilized opportunities these days is to use your online presence to drive local offline sales. In order to do this you must think beyond the content aspects of your website and start to think about ways to tap local buying behavior and enable local buying tools. The heart and soul of this kind of thinking is the tried and true call to action. Marketers have been using the simple act now, buy now, call now language to get prospects to take all manner of action since the dawn…

• Admitting We Have a Problem Is the First Step

  John Jantsch

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:46 am

  Admitting We Have a Problem Is the First StepThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of the most fulfilling moments in my consulting work comes when a client finally flashes a hint of realization that they do indeed have an affliction. And that affliction is – that they desperately need to be exactly like everyone else in their industry only older, bigger, and more results oriented, cost effective and partner centric. The treatment for this is not pretty, but it usually starts by showing them a series of test results like the ones listed below that include comparison results from…

• What Our Fears Are Here to Tell Us

  John Jantsch

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:57 am

  What Our Fears Are Here to Tell UsThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’m going to get a bit personal today, but I believe there’s a solid business context for the message. I was sitting around a dinner table with a number of colleagues, which in this case meant people speaking at the same event as me. Martin Lopatka via Flickr CCA couple of the folks were pretty engaged in a conversation about another speaker that was not present and suggested that he was a fraud. The sentiment was that he didn’t really know what he was talking about because he had never really done what it is he…

• Creating a Company of Owners

  John Jantsch

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:28 am

  Creating a Company of OwnersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I believe that one of the greatest opportunities we have as business owners is to create wealth. By that I don’t necessarily mean get wealthy. I mean create an asset, a business, which is worth more today than it was yesterday. All too often this view gets buried in the push to create a paycheck. In my view there are much easier ways to draw a salary than owning a business. The real magic in the wealth creation opportunity comes when you also see it as a way to create wealth for all of the people the work to increase the…

• 5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your Marketing

  John Jantsch

  23 Jan 2012 | 8:03 am

  5 Ways to Use Other People’s Content in Your MarketingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing You need lots of content, you know that, but you also know that content creation is one of the more time intensive marketing activities you have to tackle. While you do need to create your own content as the foundation for your total content and teaching strategy, you can – and should – supplement your content with that from other people. Image hazel.estrada via Flickr CC One of the best services marketers can provide these days is to act as a filter for all that’s being produced out there and…

• 

  VIRALBLOG.COM » Viral ideas.Trends. Inspiration

• Viral Friday: Samsunged

  Martin Michalik

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:39 am

  Viral Friday is the weekly viral video chart of ViralBlog, showing the 5 most popular viral videos, commercials, games or user-generated videos, carefully selected and ranked by popularity, viral impact & spread. This week’s Viral Friday #1 position goes to Samsunged, the sequel to the next big thing video.  The runner up is NIKE+ FuelBand – this futuristic gadget challenges you to #makeitcount. And Chevy Happy Grad completes this week’s top 3, showing (almost) the best parents of the world, they were really, really close. Do you want to see this week’s list from 1 to…

• Facebook #1 Social Network In 127 Countries

  Igor Beuker

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:31 pm

  Strategic social media planning is about Owned, Earned and Paid media. And many global CMO’s are breaking their brains on global, glocal and local social media strategies. This new world map of social networks will make your life much easier… The map, created by Vincenzo Cosenza, an Italian digital strategist, shows the global popularity of various social networks. Unsurprisingly, the blue monster called Facebook tops the list in 127 countries out of the total 136 countries in the list… Facebook has over 800 million active users. And its userbase will hit 1 billion, since…

• Check-in With Air China At Selected Restaurants

  Laurens Bianchi

  24 Jan 2012 | 4:58 pm

  To promote Air China in Sweden, and highlight the fact that it flies not only to China but to destinations throughout Asia, Air China have been using restaurant check-ins on Facebook in a cool concept. The airline created partnerships with a number of popular Asian restaurants in Sweden, to act as ambassadors for Air China. At each restaurant guests were encouraged to check-in with Air China on Facebook as they sat down to eat. Check-ins were displayed on a leaderboard on Facebook and every week those with the most votes won two tickets to China. The campaign garnered over 3000 Facebook…

• 3 Reasons Why CMOs Should Care About CNY

  Chi Chung Man

  23 Jan 2012 | 4:59 pm

  Today marks Chinese New Year, big festivities are going on in China. What’s the big fuss about? Well, it’s one of the biggest holidays for Chinese people. And why is this important again? Because you’re an early bird and are eager understand a market that will most likely change the world economy. Chinese New Year is a very interesting holiday marketers should pay close attention to. Chinese New Year festivities lasts almost two weeks. During this time they eat festive meals, visit relatives, gift red envelopes which contains money. The list goes on but you can probably look it up in…

• Weekly Recap #3

  Martin Michalik

  23 Jan 2012 | 5:35 am

  Time flies and since it’s not easy to follow, read and catch-up with everything, we bring you a Weekly Recap from ViralBlog: all of the past week in one place. Last week on ViralBlog among others “Measuring The Business Impact Of Social Media”, “How Should CMOs Change The Communication?” and “Retail Trends 2012: Bricks Perish, Screens Profit”. Top 25 Stories On ViralBlog In 2011 It was a busy year in the social media space and tech. Google+; new iPad, Facebook launched Timeline, Twitter with a new design for users and  brand pages and embeddable tweets…

• 

  The Tom Peters Weblog

• Race to Nowhere

  Shelley Dolley

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:51 am

  Tom has said, "We tell our kids to 'be still,' then tell them to 'read history books'—which are replete (100%!) with tales of people ... who never sat still." This is obviously not the ideal way to cultivate a talented workforce. The education system in the United States still seems to be attempting to churn out well-behaved factory workers. With the enormous pressure placed on teachers to produce sufficient test results, the classroom becomes more about test preparation than exploration and discovery. Albert Einstein, long since deceased, had this to say: "It is nothing short of a…

• Advice, For What It's Worth ...

  Tom Peters

  25 Jan 2012 | 9:20 am

  I was asked to contribute (a very few words) to a family page offering words of wisdom to a graduating high school senior. That's a serious challenge—and I literally spent days on the task. Here, for better or for worse, is the result: Rules For Living Life to the Hilt Nothing will turn out the way you thought it would. There is no bigger waste of time than making plans. Any success you have will be the byproduct of having thrown yourself headlong and without reserve into what you were most passionate about—and then ridden the wave you created wherever and at whatever speed it…

• Off the Cuff Series

  Shelley Dolley

  23 Jan 2012 | 8:56 am

  We're happy to announce the start of our Off the Cuff video series. A few months ago we asked for you to send us questions you'd like us to ask Tom on camera. The first question was posed by longtime fan Dave Wheeler, about how it came to be that Tom realized the importance of front line supervisors. We find the timing of this particularly remarkable, since it dovetails so well with the latest part of the Mother of All Presentations released at ExcellenceNow.com, First-line Supervisors Rule.

• RSS at ExcellenceNow.com

  Shelley Dolley

  20 Jan 2012 | 11:06 am

  You can now subscribe via RSS to ExcellenceNow.com so that you're alerted as soon as a new Part of the Mother of All Presentations is released. Go to ExcellenceNow.com and use the little orange button at the bottom of the Slide Set list to subscribe. Happy reading!

• "Tom Peters Still Rocks"

  Shelley Dolley

  18 Jan 2012 | 9:30 am

  We're quite excited about the overwhelmingly positive response we've seen to our new ExcellenceNow.com site. We hope you're finding lots of inspiration about why you do what you do from Part 2's Moral Basis for Enterprise, and are starting to focus in on your front line supervisors after this week's release of Part 3. Erika Andersen wrote a kind review of the site at Forbes.com that we think you'll enjoy reading. She talks about her first encounter with Tom through In Search of Excellence, and describes him as a "tribal elder." As 2012 marks 30 years since In Search was published, perhaps…

• 

  Brass Tack Thinking

• The Great Irony of Social Velocity

  Amber Naslund

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  I had a brilliant conversation with Justin Kozuch last evening on Twitter. If you don’t know Justin, you should. Smart, introspective, determined to find more in all of this, just like I am. I really like talking with him because he’s always looking more closely at something, which is a rare and wonderful quality in humans and it delights me when I find it. We were talking about feeling the need to “push the envelope” more in social conversations. I’ve even said this myself, many times, about needing to step into more uncomfortable territory. But as we were…

• The Power of Slow Thinking

  Amber Naslund

  21 Jan 2012 | 4:29 pm

  I had a bit of an epiphany this last year. Contentious discussions can be stressful for the best of us. Some people are formally schooled in the art of debate, and I am not one of them, so often I blamed my discomfort in confrontation or extended debate on the fact that I really wasn’t sure how to do it properly. Even watching debates online between other people makes me cringe. (At some point I realized that it was more because those ended up being mud-slinging, juvenile name calling fests more often than actual discussions or intelligent debates about valuable topics. But I digress.)…

• Take Back Your Attention

  Amber Naslund

  16 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  The amount of attention we have to give is finite. The receipt of attention is earned, both initially to capture it, and continually to keep it. No one is entitled to it, ever. The online experience you immerse yourself in is, to a large degree, under your control. You can give your attention easily with a click, and add information to the stream you take in. But never forget that you can remove it as easily, and sometimes you absolutely should. I’m not a fan of the piling-on, lynch mob tactics that seem to be doled out as routine punishment for online misbehavior. I’m also not…

• 

  davefleet.com

• Seven Social Media Insights on CES

  Dave Fleet

  18 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  By now you’ve probably had more than your fill of analysis from the many, many products and announcements revealed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Now that I’ve had a few days to decompress, I thought I’d do something slightly different and provide a few insights from a social perspective. CES is not a social media conference (duh) CES is, first and foremost, an electronics show. It attracts a very different audience compared to conferences like SXSW or BlogWorld. While those social-focused conferences are fertile ground when it comes to social media programs, CES is…

• My 2012 Reading Challenge: 36 Books

  Dave Fleet

  9 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  For the last two years I’ve set myself a challenge – one I adopted from Julien Smith - to read at least 26 books per year. That’s one every two weeks. In 2010 I managed 26 books; last year I managed 32. Stand-out books for me last year included: Fiction: The Hound of the Baskervilles A Game of Thrones Series (4-Book Set) The Book of Lost Things The Last Ringbearer Non-Fiction: Workarounds That Work (here’s my review) Game-Based Marketing Manager’s Guide to Crisis Management (review coming soon) Brand Turnaround: How Brands Gone Bad Returned to Glory and the 7…

• Six important shifts for social media in 2012

  Dave Fleet

  31 Dec 2011 | 6:00 am

  It’s hard to believe we’re about to tick over to another calendar year. So, as usual, I got to thinking about the shifts I think companies need to make in their social media activities in the next year. These aren’t necessarily trends that are already happening (although I’d like to say they are), but they’re certainly where my head is at and hopefully where others are, too. Here are six shifts I hope to see in social media use by business in 2012. Better objective-setting Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen a slow maturation in the way companies…

• Search Engines Are A Conduit, Not A Source

  Dave Fleet

  21 Dec 2011 | 6:00 am

  Let’s get this out of the way: Search engines are a key part of communications nowadays. Take a look at your website analytics and it’ll be clear – there’s no avoiding it. Search engines usually drive a significant proportion – if not the majority – of traffic to companies’ websites. However, I’m tired of seeing “studies” showing that “search engines” are a source of information for consumers. Search engines are a conduit – a step along the path – not a source. Think about it – when you look for…

• Should you let social media conversations direct your business?

  Dave Fleet

  22 Nov 2011 | 6:00 am

  Here’s a question for you: Should you let conversations in social media direct your business? If you’ve worked in the social media space, that seems like a pretty straightforward “yes”, right? I mean, we’re always talking about how listening and responding is critical. What if we ask the question a couple of other ways: Should you always let conversations in social media direct your business? Should you let individual conversations in social media direct your business? The answer isn’t quite as simple now, is it? All of a sudden, we’re facing…

• 

  The Denver Egotist RSS Feed

• New #Jobs This Week

  The Denver Egotist

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:15 pm

  Local [Freelance] Programmer - MOYO, Boulder [Full-Time] Senior User Experience Strategist - KARSH HAGAN, Denver [Internship] Design Internship - Moxie Sozo, Boulder [Internship] Research & Strategy Intern - Red Door Interactive, Denver [Internship] Online Advertising Intern - Red Door Interactive, Denver [Internship] Marketing Communications & Business Development Intern - Red Door Interactive, Denver [Internship] Business Services Intern - Red Door Interactive, Denver [Full-Time] Senior Interactive Web Developer - KARSH HAGAN, Denver [Internship] Art Director Internship - Factory…

• S**t Programmers Say

  The Denver Egotist

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:53 pm

  National Bookmark/Search this post with: Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon Twitter

• Cool Web Cam Montage Helps Prius Wagon Ad Cut Through

  The Denver Egotist

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:25 pm

  National Agency: Gijs & Joris. The new Prius Wagon from AmsterdamAdBlog on Vimeo. Via Bookmark/Search this post with: Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon Twitter

• THE FLPPIN REEL

  The Denver Egotist

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:28 pm

  Local Flippin Entertainment is a sports, lifestyle and entertainment content production company here in Denver. This is a personal collection of Dennis Flippin's video work. Videography, editing and motion design by Dennis Flippin. Original score by Chris Eagleton of Dynamite Laser Beam. Logo design by Adam Espinoza. Tight package. THE FLPPIN REEL from FLIPPFILMS on Vimeo. On Screen Talent: Barack Obama - President of the United States MIchael Jordan - NBA Player Kevin Durant - NBA Player Floyd Mayweather - Pro Boxer Carmelo Anthony - NBA Player Kobe Braynt - NBA Player Rosie Perez - Actress…

• Denial is a Drug

  The Denver Egotist

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:22 pm

  National Interesting spin. Agency: Energy BBDO. Bookmark/Search this post with: Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon Twitter

• 

  Web Ink Now

• Thinking Right (and Left) about Content Marketing

  David Meerman Scott

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:11 pm

  As I evaluate Web marketing such as blogs and websites, one thing I look for is evidence of both left-brain and right-brain thinking in the creation of the content. This obsession might seem trivial, but I guess my right-brain outlook on life causes me to take a holistic view of content. The right-/left-brain concept is widely credited to have developed from the thinking of American psychobiologist Roger Sperry in the late 1960s. Sperry's Nobel Prize-winning work opened whole fields of psychological and philosophical debate including the idea that there are two different sides of the…

• Playing for Change

  David Meerman Scott

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:28 am

  When I first saw the original Playing for Change video Stand By Me on YouTube I was moved and fascinated and jumped for joy. Wow. As a music lover and collector of social media success stories, here was both music and social media triumphantly on display and coming together to support a good cause. I talked up the videos via social and in person to everyone I saw. Stand By Me now has 37 million views on YouTube and has sparked a movement. Now, Playing for Change has 15 videos in the Songs Around the World series with a combined 140 million views. If you haven't seen a Playing for Change video…

• Stop SOPA Silliness

  David Meerman Scott

  18 Jan 2012 | 5:36 am

  It didn't work with music: The music industry killed Napster and sued 16-year-olds to protect their dying business model of selling "albums" via top 40 radio. Instead of understanding the immense power of social media like YouTube as a marketing tool to sell single songs (iTunes) and streaming subscriptions (Spotify), the music industry honchos preferred to destroy in a ridiculous attempt to save the status-quo. Listened to top 40 radio recently? It didn't work with email: I get many times more unsolicited (and illegal) email than I did prior to CAN-SPAM. Tons of it from legitimate companies…

• Content Arbitrage

  David Meerman Scott

  16 Jan 2012 | 12:45 pm

  When I worked my first job on a Wall Street bond trading desk, I was fascinated by financial arbitrage, one of the ways that traders made money. This technique involves taking advantage of a temporary price difference in two or more markets and is usually executed by simultaneously buying and selling the same security. A pure arbitrage involves nearly zero risk. For a simple example, imagine the price of gold is at $1,600 an ounce in London and at the exact same time it is $1,620 in New York. A trader could simultaneously sell in New York and buy in London to lock in a $20 profit. (This…

• Go Mobile

  David Meerman Scott

  11 Jan 2012 | 9:38 am

  In Tokyo's Roppongi entertainment district you find several hundred bars within walking distance of the subway station. Yet only a few are visible from the main street; the vast majority are tucked away on the upper floors of back-street buildings. To differentiate, many cater to highly refined customer preferences. So if you want to listen to classic reggae while sipping a Red Stripe, there is a bar for you in Roppongi. But how do you find these establishments when you’re thirsty and confused in an unfamiliar city? Your mobile of course! Because buyers use their mobiles to search for…

• 

  Andy Sernovitz | Damn, I Wish I\'d Thought of That!

• Abuse of trust

  Andy Sernovitz

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am

  Did you ever wonder why so many consumers hate businesses? Often it’s because businesses take advantage of the relationships we have with them. When I bought a camera from Casio, I was pretty excited about the relationship. I bought several models over the years, convinced many friends to buy one, and blogged about them more than once. I was a fan. I gave them my email because I trusted them. But to them, I’m just a name in a database — a name to be marketed to. Even if it makes no sense at all — such as these emails that I’ve been getting for keyboards and…

• Newsletter #868: The “Use What You Have” Issue

  Andy Sernovitz

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am

  [Welcome back to the Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That! newsletter. This is text of the great issue all of our email subscribers just received. Sign yourself up using the handy form on the right.] Great marketers aren’t just looking for the new and shiny — they’re also looking at how to get the most out of what they already have. Here are a few examples to inspire you: 1. For recruiting 2. For innovation 3. For competition 4. Check it out: Events from your birth year 1. For recruiting Finding new, talented people to join your team can be expensive and time consuming. But…

• I can’t tell you about this

  Andy Sernovitz

  25 Jan 2012 | 9:30 am

  Seriously, I can’t. I was at the mall and some guy in a kiosk was selling special iPhone screen protectors that are supposedly better-feeling, better-working, and don’t fall off. With a lifetime guarantee. For $20. My regular screen protectors keep falling off or getting bubbles, so I decided to try it. It’s amazing! You should get one. I show it to everyone, every time I pull out my phone. But here’s the big word-of-mouth lesson: I have no idea what it’s called. I don’t know the name of the store. There is no brand name, no package, nothing to tell me how…

• How long are your shirt tails?

  Andy Sernovitz

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am

  A good men’s shirt has long tails (it keeps the shirt tucked in). A manufacturer can save millions by slicing a few inches off the bottom of every shirt. Bad companies look at this as a spreadsheet question: How much money can we save by reducing fabric quantity? But the most important data never shows up on a spreadsheet: Customers who bought the shirt, thought it seemed short/cheap, and never came back. Your “fabric cost” spreadsheet doesn’t have a column for “customer retention costs.” Which means you may be saving money on a cheap product, but losing…

• She left me standing there, and I don’t know why

  Andy Sernovitz

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am

  I was a customer of a very good web hosting service for many years — until I cancelled my account last month. Cancellation was easy — I did it online and it was hassle-free and efficient. I left with a positive feeling. But they have no idea why I left. Why didn’t they call? Why didn’t they ask? Was it an unsolvable problem, or could they have won me back with a quick fix? Was I upset about something that they could apologize for? Or was there a mismatch between my needs and their product line — information that would help them in the future? Don’t let a…

• 

  Holtz Communications + Technology | Blog

• Rejoice! Employee use of social networks has tripled!

  shel@holtz.com

  23 Jan 2012 | 3:20 pm

  Palo Alto Networks is out with its annual numbers on employee work time spent on social networks. The company’s conclusions are based on analyzing raw data from 1,600-plus companies for a seven-month period last year. Their press release on the study confirms something we already suspected: “explosive growth in global social networking and browser-based file sharing on corporate networks, with a 300 percent increase in active social networking. (e.g., posting, applications) compared with activity during the same period in the latter half of 2010.” The press release quotes…

• The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #635: January 23, 2012

  shel@holtz.com

  23 Jan 2012 | 1:37 pm

  Content summary: FIR Book Review of ‘YouTube for Business’ is up; reminders: inaugural FIR Book Club on Jan 27 with Christopher Barger, GaggleAmp webinar on Jan 31; new FIR Interviews posted: Bob Fine, Social Media Monthly magazine, and Adam Kmiec, Walgreens; CREWE project to audit Fortune 100 on Wikipedia; News That Fits: of course employees are three times more active on social networks; Ragan promo; Dan York reports on the first battle against SOPA won, and more; could a ‘Secret Facebook of Power’ work for your organization?; the Media Monitoring Minute with…

• FIR Interview: Walgreens Social Media Director Adam Kmiec

  shel@holtz.com

  21 Jan 2012 | 2:19 pm

  FIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz interview Adam Kmiec, director of social media for Walgreens, the largest drug store chain in the U.S. and a Fortune 50 company. Walgreens has engaged in the last 10 days or so in a social media-focused effort to build awareness among customers of alternatives to Express Scripts, the prescription benefit manager through which hundreds of thousands of people pay for the prescription medications. Unable to reach an agreement to renew their contract, Walgreens no longer accepts Express Scripts but using mechanisms like Prescription Savings Club…

• FIR Interview: Social Media Monthly Publisher and Editor Bob Fine

  shel@holtz.com

  20 Jan 2012 | 7:16 pm

  In this FIR Interview, FIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz chat with Bob Fine, publisher and editor of The Social Media Monthly, a new print publication that is also a current Kickstarter project. The Social Media Monthly was conceived at the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive conference and launched a mere 53 days later, on May 20th, 2011 at BlogWorld in New York. Three weeks later Fine secured national distribution for the magazine with Barnes and Noble. The magazine was honored as one of the top magazine launches of 2011 by MIN, an organization that reports on the publishing…

• FIR Book Review: YouTube for Business, by Michael Miller

  shel@holtz.com

  20 Jan 2012 | 10:09 am

  YouTube for Business: Online Video Marketing for Any Business, by Michael Miller, is the latest book to be reviewed by FIR Book Review editor Bob LeDrew. From the book description: “YouTube’s 120 million viewers are a tempting target for any business, large or small. How can you tap into the potential of YouTube to promote your business and sell your products or services? YouTube marketing is easy enough that any business can do it. All you need is some low-cost video equipment—and a winning strategy. After you figure out the right type of videos to produce, you can use YouTube to…

• 

  Adrants

• Forget Twitter. Play Super Bowl Bingo During the Game

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:29 am

  If you need yet another thing to do while watching the Super Bowl, check out Super Bowl 2012 Bingo from Sharethrough.

• 30 Ideas For Your 2012 Social Media Plan

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:15 am

  The team at Radian6 compiled their most-shared posts from 2011 into this eBook. Download it.

• Axe 'Cleaner' Saves Cheating Guy From Getting Caught by Girlfriend

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:06 am

  We all have "those nights" once in a while. The ones that were fun while they lasted but they don't quite fit properly into our everyday life.

• Go Daddy Makes Every Geek's Dream Come True

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:21 am

  Well...here's yet another Go Daddy Super Bowl spot. This one's called Cloud and it features an angelic, leggy Danica Patrick along with a trio of Pussycat Dolls.

• See the Priceline Super Bowl Commercial That Offs Shatner

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:10 am

  So here's the Priceline Super Bowl commercial that says goodbye to William Shatner as spokesperson.

• 

  We Are Social

• New FB permissions: bad news for apps?

  Simon Kemp

  26 Jan 2012 | 5:07 am

  Facebook recently announced a new apps permission process, and it appears these changes are already live. The changes appear to be designed to make apps more transparent to users, as this excerpt from the Facebook Developers blog highlights: More Control & Clarity for Users Similar to the inline privacy controls people have when they post content, we are introducing a new, inline privacy setting that allows a user to control who can see their app activity on Facebook. So what do these changes mean for marketers? Here is a screen shot of the permissions dialogue for Schweppes’s new…

• The return of Heinz “Get Well” Soup

  Hannah Johnson

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:59 am

  You may well be familiar with our “Get Well” Soup campaign for Heinz last year, which Ad Age crowned as one of the best social media campaigns of 2011. Heinz’s Facebook fans fell in love with it and it caused some consternation when the campaign came to an end. Heinz have a deep commitment to their fans on Facebook and we’re happy to announce that they have responded by giving the fans what they wanted. We asked fans which Heinz soup variety they’d like to be able to personalise and send as a gift (alongside the perennial favourites of Cream of Chicken and Cream of Tomato). Four…

• Google’s ‘Ask A Friend’ Goes Live

  Simon Kemp

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:47 am

  There’s been plenty of coverage about the integration of Google+ into search over the past few days, but this particular iteration really caught our attention: As you can see in the screen shot, the ‘ask a friend’ option sits at the bottom of the first page of Google’s search query results, just before the links to subsequent pages. As such, it’s a great way to extend the brand’s meaning beyond what its existing algorithms can deliver – especially considering that 85% of users never look beyond the first page of search results. Clicking on the…

• We Are Social’s Monday Mashup #103

  Lauren Wellicome

  23 Jan 2012 | 1:39 pm

  US online ad spend to grow to almost $40 billion Online spending on ads in America will grow 23.3% to $39.5 billion in 2012 as the internet proves its worth to advertisers in a tough economic climate. Fast growth has seen online pull ahead of some traditional media and this year US online ad spending will exceed the total spent on print magazines and newspapers for the first time, at $39.5 billion vs $33.8 billion. This is the sort of thing that a faux-savant would described as ‘a seminal moment’. UK Marketers also shift spend to digital as general confidence falls Similarly, in…

• We Are Social gutted by Razorfish

  Chris Mason

  20 Jan 2012 | 8:22 am

  Vince Lombardi famously said “show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser”. So if I read from this that Vince approves of bad losers then he would have been delighted by my reaction to this particular defeat. It may have ended 6 – 3 in Razorfish’s favour, but it started ever so promisingly. Within 5 minutes, Olly had ‘megged their onrushing keeper to put us one nil up. Then Joe Weston scored a goal so good I thought the referee had asked him for his autograph. In fact he just wanted his name for the post match report, but still, the goal merited it. Anyway,…

• 

  Social Media B2B

• 12 Revealing Stats About B2B Social Media Marketing

  Jeffrey L. Cohen

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:30 am

  Articles about B2B social media marketing adoption often paint a rosy picture of the current landscape, but when you dig in deeper, there are many challenges in effectiveness and understanding the results. In a recent survey of 5,000 B2B marketers from all industries, Penton Marketing Services found some pretty revealing statistics. Click the link for the full report (registration form required). 1. 81% of B2B Marketers find online marketing moderately to extremely challenging. 2. 77% of B2B Marketers said their websites are not that effective at generating leads. 3. 60% of B2B Marketers have…

• The B2B Social Media Book Launches

  Jeffrey L. Cohen

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  Many months ago, Kipp and I looked forward to January 24, 2012 as a monumental day in our lives. That was the publication date of our book, The B2B Social Media Book: Become a Marketing Superstar by Generating Leads with Blogging, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Email, and More. The manuscript was due in the middle of August and January seemed so far away. Well, it turns out that not only did it get here before we knew it, but the book came out a little sooner than we thought. It turned out to be a soft launch. In the world of online commerce, once books arrive in the warehouse, they can be…

• 4 Reasons For B2B Marketers To Explore Pinterest

  Karlie Justus

  20 Jan 2012 | 6:00 am

  Pinterest has made a big splash on the social media scene, by quickly earning passionate users who log multiple hours per day on the site. Pinterest saw a 4,000% increase in site traffic from June to December of last year, and many consumer-facing and female-centric brands are already using it well. While Nordstrom pins its latest shoes and fashions by boards organized by department, Whole Foods uses the site to pin kitchen design inspiration and recycling projects in addition to recipes using its foods. But despite its reputation as a service for brides and decorators, only 58% of the…

• 6 Ways to Create and Share B2B Social Media Content Without a Blog

  Jeffrey L. Cohen

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:33 am

  One of the best ways to use social media to drive traffic to your B2B website is to create a blog on your website and publish relevant articles to your prospects and customers. Rather than posting this content only on your social media channels, it is hosted on a site that you control. And you can use your social channels to share your content and bring visitors to your site. For some organizations it is not currently possible to create a blog, but B2B marketers are still interested in creating and sharing content. In addition to the awareness benefit that sharing new content brings,…

• Awesome Content is Key to B2B Social Media

  Jeffrey L. Cohen

  13 Jan 2012 | 6:41 am

  Whether you believe that content is king, queen or the court jester in your B2B social media activities, there is no disputing that creating and distributing remarkable, valuable content is key to success. No matter if your goals are to drive awareness, traffic or leads, content is a big part of that. Below are several articles that help frame the discussion around content, as well as tips to create better content. I have also included the latest in string of awesome infographics (read “content”) from the partnership between Eloqua and JESS3. If you have one great tip about…

• 

  Chris Garrett on New Media

• Why You Shouldn’t Drive Traffic

  Chris Garrett

  16 Jan 2012 | 9:58 pm

  In the first 7 days of this blogs life, 20,000 visitors checked it out. Sounds like a pretty nice result doesn’t it? I was super happy, but a little disappointed in one specific respect. Only 500 people subscribed. Now, don’t get me wrong, I loved and nurtured those 500 subscribers and 500 subscribers in any time frame is not to be sniffed at! My problem was, how can you have 20,000 visitors check out my blog and only 500 of them want to stick around? The cause? I was “Driving” traffic … Big Lessons Learned I had been involved with a couple of successful blogs at…

• How to know what your audience really wants

  Chris Garrett

  23 Dec 2011 | 1:53 pm

  Your audience does not want your content. Your audience probably does not want to hear from you at all. If you think that because your website looks great that people will want to visit it … think again. What do they really want? Your audience and potential customers know who they are and probably have a very good idea of their goals. At the very least they know their immediate needs. They are looking for answers to questions, advice, and resources that help people like them get the stuff people like them want. When someone seeks out and clicks on your content it is only as a means to…

• Finding and Communicating Your Value

  Chris Garrett

  5 Dec 2011 | 1:06 pm

  Many bloggers don’t have a value problem. They have a great deal to share. I am sure you do – I have never met someone who doesn’t. Why then do people struggle to find an audience. Never mind an audience who knows, likes and trusts them – ANY audience? It’s weird but a lot of the time it is because you have SO much to offer, it’s hard to know who you are for and what specific benefit you provide. A lot of my coaching clients have this problem and, thankfully, there is a solution. The solution is simple, but it isn’t always easy. Check out Ryan…

• How to REALLY make money from a website

  Chris Garrett

  23 Nov 2011 | 5:08 pm

  As much as I tell people to seriously reconsider buying too much into the hardcore “Make Money Online” hype, I can not argue against its allure and the fact that, well, people DO make money online. The problem is, there are the usual caveats: It’s not fast. It’s not easy. You WILL encounter problems and tough challenges. You might not always enjoy it. These are challenges facing Roman who asked me for a blog critique. He has been building a site all about his experience of creating a website that makes money called “How this website makes money” (how meta).

• Moving the Fear Line

  Chris Garrett

  15 Nov 2011 | 4:39 pm

  Imagine being under water, upside down, trapped in your Kayak. You can feel your lungs burning because you didn’t have time to grab a full breath … though you are surprising yourself how long you are managing to force yourself from gasping down a lung full of water … All you can hear is your heart pounding. Scary? I don’t need to imagine what that would be like because I can remember in vivid detail. In fact I have had nightmares about it. My overriding thought was drowning myself was a heck of a way to celebrate my birthday! Learning from the things that scare us…

• 

  Branding Strategy Insider

• Brands Live In The Mind

  Thomson Dawson

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:10 pm

  Brands are not things; rather brands are a representation of a highly valued idea that resides in the minds of consumers and stakeholders alike. Brands represent a set of unifying principles that guide an organization’s behavior and its manner of delivering experiences customers highly value above the available alternatives in the marketplace. Strong healthy brands maintain an intrinsic value to customers that over time translates into tangible financial value for the brand’s owners.  Consumers care about what a brand represents to them on the highest emotional level. The physical…

• Consumer Behavior: From Trading Up To Trading Off

  Derrick Daye, The Blake Project

  25 Jan 2012 | 11:10 pm

  The opposite of trading up is not trading down. In fact, there is no opposite of trading up; shopping behavior is more nuanced than that. When shopping hit the skids after the financial crisis, there was a lot of talk about a new normal of frugality, as if the only thing possible after a decade-plus of trading up was a generation to come of nothing but trading down. It’s clear now that those prognostications were flawed, not to mention overly pessimistic. This is not to say that consumers aren’t buying less. Indeed, they are. The drop in discretionary consumer spending from the…

• Achieving Brand Success In Developing Markets

  Derrick Daye, The Blake Project

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:10 pm

  Almost 20 years ago, I first set foot in developing China, and into the early boom years of that country’s remarkable transformation. As the first Marketing Director for Procter & Gamble China, over the next 3 years I saw the incredible vibrancy, growth and opportunity of a developing market firsthand. Since then, I’ve led organizations with businesses in virtually every major developing market around the world. While no two markets are precisely the same, they share many important features when it comes to Marketing success or lack thereof. So, it’s natural to reflect: what have I…

• The Life Span Of Brands

  Thomson Dawson

  23 Jan 2012 | 11:10 pm

  Like people, brands don’t live forever.* They’re born into the marketplace, grow and become successful, then iconic, and then stale as week old bread. The driver underpinning all these phases is unrelenting and rapid change. Seemingly, the forces driving our global economy are getting harder for brand owners to keep up with. Brands are dynamic. Brands have their cycles and they run their course. What’s difficult for brand owners and managers to grasp is when to continue to invest precious capital into a tired under-performing brand or move on.  This is particularly true if the brand…

• Branding Lessons For Entrepreneurs

  Brad VanAuken, The Blake Project

  22 Jan 2012 | 11:10 pm

  It is never too early in the process to understand who your brand’s customers are, what motivates them and how to reach them. Doing this at the end of the product development process is usually too late. You will have developed a more unique and compelling solution if it was based on these insights earlier on in the process. Your solution needs to deliver greater value (that is more functional, emotional, experiential or self-expressive benefits for less money or effort) than competitive offerings for it to break through and gain share. Make sure you understand what your brand’s unique…

• 

  Andy Beard - Niche Marketing

• ACTA? Dead Man Walking

  Andy Beard

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:06 pm

  Apparently 22 member states wasted a huge amount of resources signing the ACTA treaty. If the current version had in some way been publicized previously they might have had a vague chance of it not causing a multinational revolt across Europe. The internet population already know how to mobilize… they are SOPA trained. It is easy to slip something past novices who are timid. The internet is now full of battle veterans confident in their ability to use the skills they have learned and the power of their voice to take on governments. The guy from the European Parliament assigned to…

• Dear @twittercomms – A Basic Search Query For Your Engineers

  Andy Beard

  24 Jan 2012 | 12:34 am

  I am not sure why Twitter engineers are struggling with this, and potentially misleading tech journalists (and even some well respected SEOs) with the SEO issues hampering the indexation of Twitter.com This is all pretty basic technical SEO Here is a very simple cleaned up Google search query that will bring up some interesting results https://www.google.com/search?q=site:twitter.com+inurl:andybeard&filter=0 It doesn’t exclude a subdomain such as www.twitter.com or fr.twitter.com or api.twitter.com Twitter splits their domain authority between lots of different subdomains which…

• Really Evil – The “Don’t Be Evil” Bookmarklet

  Andy Beard

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:56 pm

  It is not as benign as you might think. Here is a link to the original 720p mp4 Some of the points raised in the video We need to avoid a cartel of top sites with limited access, especially with Ggoogle and Facebook currently buying ads from each other in the free market. Identity is important and both Twitter & Facebook fail to provide a method of bi-directional ownership – the “Don’t Be Evil” bookmarklet fails by linking Mark Zuckerberg’s Google+ to a Quora topic page about him… not his actual profile (if he has one) – it is possible for Google…

• Tech Blogging Triple Rainbow

  Andy Beard

  13 Jan 2012 | 5:45 am

  I just had to share this achievement by Mike Masnick as he might not see it himself. The Techmeme page updates extrememly frequently pulling in stories algorithmically with some additional human curation but I have never seen one writer with a lead story and 2 additional reference posts without any additional “noise”, unless you count the larger child branch below. He has one post in that child branch as well. I am not going to link to the posts… that would most likely spoil the “triple rainbow”. Even more remarkable:- none of the articles were…

• Updated: Facebook & Twitter – Lucky To Be In Google At All

  Andy Beard

  11 Jan 2012 | 6:14 pm

  Facebook & Twitter have some of the worst landing pages on the web. At least if you look at it from a search engine perspective, who should assume that every visitor isn’t a member of the site they are referencing in the search engine. It should also be understood that both Facebook & Twitter are bursting at the seams with former Google engineers & execs – they can’t claim they were unaware of what Google is looking for from content owners on the web, webmaster guidelines etc. Twitter You can’t look at the Google cache and see exactly what Google sees,…

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  Mastercom | viral marketing | viral video | mobile marketing

• How to go viral with goviral

  mastercom

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:17 am

  Nice video presentation of goviral (my company).

• What’s happening in 1 second on Youtube

  mastercom

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:25 am

  Impressive stats about Youtube!

• BETC new logo sucks

  mastercom

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:39 am

  Have you seen the new logo of BETC Euro RSCG made by Ich&Kar? It really looks cheap for such an awesome agency! The bee to symbolize the buzz is really ridiculous and check the font below they have used! It could be a logo for a blog about buzz…

• Megan Fox island vs. Mike Tyson island

  mastercom

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:47 am

  2 brazilian boys arrive on Megan Fox island… Advertiser: CCAA

• Feeling naked online ?

  mastercom

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:55 am

  When you are surfing online, you think you’re safe but you’re probably exposing your personal data… Take control of your personal data Advertiser: European Union

• 

  Jim's Marketing Blog

• How to love what you do

  Jim Connolly

  28 Jan 2012 | 4:14 am

  I’m in the process of launching a new site right now, dedicated to helping people think more creatively. You will love it! It’s a new and exciting project, which reminds me a lot of how I felt when I launched this blog, almost 4 years ago. Interestingly, I am even more passionate and enthusiastic about Jim’s Marketing Blog today, than the day I wrote my first post. It is something that has grown into an increasingly important part of my life. This got me thinking: Why is it that some projects enthuse and excite us more as time goes by, and others fade with time? I’d…

• 6 Common errors that crush small businesses

  Jim Connolly

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:06 am

  After 17 years spent helping thousands of small businesses, here are 6 of the most common errors I’ve seen. Negative association. There is an undeniable link between how successful you will be, and the people you habitually associate with. Mix with pessimists and those lacking direction and one day, everything they have will be yours! Starting without the commitment to finish. Many small business owners are wonderful at starting projects, but less good at finishing them. If you have an idea and you think enough of it to get started, at least give it the effort it needs in order to fly…

• Dream again – Believe again!

  Jim Connolly

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:17 am

  My mentor, the late great Jim Rohn used to say: Just as you once dreamed, you can dream again. Just as you once believed, you can believe again. No matter where we are right now, we still have the ability to change it all. Changing course It’s easy to look at where we are right now and think that this is it. The reality, is that we are in a constant process of becoming. As soon as we decide we want something better, we can change the set of our sail and point ourselves in the correct direction. It starts with the decision to improve our thinking. Just as our past thoughts led us to…

• How to stop your competitors getting the sales leads you deserve

  Jim Connolly

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:43 am

  Do you ever feel frustrated, when you see low quality competitors making all kinds of inaccurate claims about their services? If you do and you would like to ensure your genuinely awesome service attracts the high quality clients it deserves, you will love today’s post! First, a question! Let us assume I am a prospective client of yours. I have a question in my mind, which you need to answer if you want me to invest in your services: Why should I use your services, rather than one of your competitors? Here’s the thing: Your competitors, even those who offer low quality services,…

• 7 Things to help you build a super successful business!

  Jim Connolly

  23 Jan 2012 | 2:37 am

  Almost exactly 17 years ago, I set up my marketing business. In the months leading up to the launch, I took the 10 most successful businesspeople I knew out to lunch, to ask their advice. The following 7 pieces of advice were the most useful to me, so I wanted to share them with you. They are as true and valuable today, as they were back in 1995, maybe even more so. Keep it human. Business is all about people. Do all the work. Most business owners claim to give their business 100%. What they really mean, is they do 100% of the comfortable stuff and neglect the rest. Every business owner with…

• 

  David Airey, graphic designer

• How do you find new clients when starting a design business?

  David Airey

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:12 am

  I’ve just put pen to paper on a new contract with publisher Peachpit. This book will focus on the business of design, answering the most frequently asked questions about starting and running a successful design business. The copy deadline is October, so the release-date should be just before the end of the year. Many of you will run your own studio, be in self-employment, or freelance in your spare time. I’d love to share your experiences in the book, and for now, there’s one topic I’m particularly interested in: How do you find new clients when starting a design…

• Music video for the deaf blind

  David Airey

  24 Jan 2012 | 2:57 pm

  Here’s a kind of science experiment that had me thinking. “This video is made to be connected to a metal pad that a low-strength electrical current runs through. The current’s strength modulates in conjunction with the frequency of the wave of the color depicted on screen. Low frequency colors (red/orange) emit a lower level of current than higher frequency colors (blue/green).” By Evan Drolet Cook who lives and works in Los Angeles. But it’s not the actual video I was contemplating. It was our eyesight and hearing. Just as we do our health, it’s incredibly…

• From the reader #7

  David Airey

  19 Jan 2012 | 3:28 am

  Land art. Worth a look. On Kuriositas. The importance of a good crop. A nice visual demonstration of photo manipulation, and how you can use cropping to improve your photos. On ISO50. “Instead of doing two jobs at 50%, or four jobs at 25%, just do one job at 100%.” Do one job properly. Dave Trott on why specialising is the way to go. On Dave Trott’s blog. Beautiful colour in this 60-second ad for Lurpak Butter (embedded below). Via Creative Review. Typographic chocolate holiday gifts. Lunch time yet? Via inspire me now. Uncloaking a slumlord conspiracy with social network…

• Paper from GF Smith

  David Airey

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:54 am

  The postman delivered a nice surprise this morning. “The design of our latest selector reflects the different ways in which people select our papers. In some instances, colour is the primary concern, before material type, texture or weight. However, these priorities are often reversed, making style the key point of reference. So now we give you three modes of paper selection: Select Colour, Select Black+White or Select Range.” Beautifully designed by London-based SEA, request yours from paper-specialist GF Smith. Published on David Airey, graphic designer Related posts on David…

• The design company is not the only place to be a designer

  David Airey

  10 Jan 2012 | 4:04 am

  I’m often asked for advice on getting hired. As most of my design work has been done in self-employment, I’m not in a great position to answer — that’s one reason why I started the “What employers look for” series — but if you’re finding studio-work hard to come by, I overheard this valuable tip in a chat between Mike Dempsey and Michael Wolff. Mike Dempsey: Younger designers [are] getting into a very overcrowded business, and increasingly so. Do you have any thoughts? Michael Wolff: “I do actually. The main thought I have is don’t think a…

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  Radian6

• Community Management: An Integral Part of Radian6′s Social Media Strategy

  David B. Thomas

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:10 pm

  This week was a big community management discussion thanks to the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day on January 23. But we celebrate community management every day given its impact and important role in our enterprise social media strategy. As with past weeks, we’re highlighting the people who are engaging in social media, creating a human connection with our community (or creating helpful content for them), and embodying a key element of our “Radian6-ness.” This week we highlight two more Community Managers. Genevieve Coates, Community Manager If you’ve met…

• 25 Ways Social Media is Like a Good Book

  zoegeddessoltess

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:11 am

  In the same way a novel or memoir draws a reader in, there are certain qualities about social media that make it memorable and engaging. This inspired me to come up with 25 ways social media is like a good book: 1. They offer an escape 2. Both tell a story 3. Both have a cast of characters 4. They can cause sleepless nights 5. They can be enjoyed repeatedly 6. They are easily shared 7. They inspire conversation 8. They are open to interpretation 9. Both evoke emotion 10. Both can be controversial 11. They bring people together 12. They influence change 13. They can make us feel less alone 14.

• Social Media in the United States 2012 State of the Union

  Genevieve Coates

  26 Jan 2012 | 1:03 pm

  The State of the Union address Tuesday evening brought a large amount of social media conversations to Twitter and many other social channels. We’ve looked at this data over the past few weeks revolving around the 2012 Election primaries and decided that digging in to the conversations around the State of the Union would be another interesting topic to cover. Some of you may remember the work we did in 2011 around the Twitter Townhall with the Whitehouse which hit home the fact that the United States is definitely a social nation. Looking back at that report and comparing it to what we…

• TD Shows how the Financial Services Industry Can Offer Great Social Customer Service

  Sarah Carver

  26 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm

  TD offers a wide range of financial products and services to approximately 20.5 million customers worldwide. With such a large global presence and strong commitment to customer service,  TD has embraced social media as a new way to connect and engage with their customers. While some organizations in the financial service industry have been shy to reach out to customers on social media, the team at TD did their homework, prepared a great strategy for online engagement, and went to work successfully interacting on the social web. The team at TD believes in being there for their customers, and…

• 13 Things You MUST Know About Social Media

  Trish Forant

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:40 am

  Using social media takes some good common sense. It does not have to be convoluted or complicated. Since your social media presence can make or break your business, here’s 13 things everyone must know. You don’t have to have it all figured out to get started. Pick your name wisely, it’s your brand. Be consistent across social networks. (With your name, logos and branding.) People WILL judge you by your profile picture. Even MySpace isn’t MySpace anymore. Everything changes, learn to adapt. Slow and steady wins the race. What you share on the Internet, lives forever. Ever, ever,…

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  nick burcher

• David Beckham on Google+ and hanging out live

  15 Jan 2012 | 5:41 pm

  David Beckham is now on Google+ and on Thursday January 19th Google+ users can hang out with Beckham after he has participated in a live video Google interview.    David Beckham on Google+ Interview questions can be submitted by posting to Google+ with hashtag #GoogleBeckham and the David Beckham Google interview will be posted to YouTube afterwards.  The David Beckham Google interview starts at 1700 GMT / 1200 EST / 0900 PST and the Beckham Google + Hangout is scheduled for 1830 GMT / 1330 EST / 1030 PST - more details can be seen in this video: David Beckham is the…

• Moxie 2012 Trends Report from Moxie Interactive

  9 Jan 2012 | 4:04 am

  Moxie Interactive have published their Moxie 2012 Trends report and it contains a host of useful information alongside fascinating predictions for the year ahead. The report description states: "At Moxie, we publish a report each year that analyzes existing trends in order to gain insight into what will break over the next year. It’s an important and interesting exercise, which helps us focus our energies and filter out the noise. We apply ascendant trends to our clients digital marketing efforts and all year long we meet with innovative technology companies in order to get a jump on the…

• Facebook usage statistics by country Dec 2008 - Dec 2011

  4 Jan 2012 | 7:35 am

  I have been collating Facebook usage statistics by country for a few years now and this means it's possible to look at growth in Facebook usage by country from 2008 to the present. Facebook continues to grow across the world and the big story is the Facebook usage growth in so called developing markets such as Indonesia, India, Brazil and the Philippines. The table below shows the top 30 countries by number of active Facebook users according to the data available from Facebook (leave a comment if you want to know statistics for other countries.) Top 30 countries with highest number of…

• Happy New Year 2012 from London! [HD fireworks video and music download]

  1 Jan 2012 | 1:49 am

  Happy New Year from London! Awesome London New Year's Eve fireworks again, kicked off by Jacques Rogge's Olympic announcement and the 'Chariots of Fire theme' before including Adele, Coldplay, the Prodigy, Faithless and all sorts of other tracks mashed together. The London New Year 2012 Fireworks mix was put together by BBC DJ Nihal with Dan Mumford over a month in a Radio 1 studio - you can download the full mix from Nihal's Soundcloud here : http://soundcloud.com/dj-nihal/fireworksmix2012-by-dj-nihal FIREWORKSMIX2012 BY DJ NIHAL by DJ Nihal Happy New Year! Related posts Like this…

• Heineken social Christmas tree on Facebook and in the real world in Singapore

  12 Dec 2011 | 7:50 am

  Heineken has created a 'social Christmas tree!'   Heineken Social Christmas Tree on Facebook The Heineken Social Christmas tree is a Facebook app that allows users to select a Christmas message, a style and 16 Facebook friends, with everything then displayed on a sendable Facebook christmas tree graphic. Heineken have also taken the Heineken social Christmas tree into the real world too.  Between 17th Dec and 26th Dec messages will come alive on an 11 metre tall / 48 LCD screen real world social Christmas tree at Clarke Quay in Singapore. More information in the video below and…

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  aimClear® Search Marketing Blog

• Shhh! Duluth Social Media Marketing Conference Planned By Business Leaders

  Marty Weintraub

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:55 pm

  You heard it here first! The Duluth Chamber of Commerce is about to announce an ambitious three track social media marketing conference. “Zenith Social Media Marketing Conference 2012, Tips, Tools, Tactics, & Beyond,” will be held May 23, in multiple locations in our beautiful city. Here’s the cool secret: The agenda was sequenced by aimClear and we’re importing a number of our accomplished colleagues to set the speaking roster’s tone.  Yep, these are some of the same illuminating panelists you’ve see us presenting aside at international conferences over the…

• Dear #Facebook Ads Global Marketing Solutions Team: #WTF?

  Merry Morud

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:39 am

  At a valuation of about $50 Billion Dollars, with oodles of advertising revenue marching through its doors every day, we’re concerned that Facebook is not effectively servicing advertisers. We think the newly launched “Facebook Global Marketing Solutions Team” is a downgrade-wolf in the suit of a buzzwordy-sheep. From our own experience, we can vouch for that fact that speaking for millions of dollars of media spend does not rate a dedicated account rep’ any more. WTF? Read on for the gory details.  Where did the account reps go? What happened to familiar support…

• 32 Totally Free Google “Search Plus Your World” #SEO Resources

  Marty Weintraub

  21 Jan 2012 | 1:24 pm

  Businesses: Raise your hand if you barely cared about Google+ until your SEO consultant called to say now you just have to. While the disproportionate weight Google is placing on + driven results may be unhealthy for SERPs in the short term, opening a relatively easy + door to bomb Google SERPs serves the function of enlisting SEOs to goad businesses into participating in Google’s fledgling social community. Google’s strategy is brilliant, sort of like a sardonic dominatrix forcing her ambivalent quarry to capitulate with promises of immediate pleasure, ultimately resulting in…

• Harnessing Headline Theories! Flashpoints To Final Polish

  Marty Weintraub

  19 Jan 2012 | 7:49 am

  My content marketing mentors were marvelous gray-haired men and woman, who cut their teeth during the Mad Men era. They trained me to develop story headlines first by brainstorming quickly through numerous theory statements, choosing the appropriate concept to develop, and then taking time to build out a polished headline. The timeless premise is that it’s important to fully understand what needs to be communicated before attempting to package it in a headline. Otherwise, time may be wasted on spin and tone without a clear vision of what needs to be imparted. When one attempts to shred…

• aimClear’s Facebook Marketing Workshop Gets Rad Makeover @ #SMX West

  Lauren Litwinka

  12 Jan 2012 | 12:22 pm

  A new year calls for a new look… at least, that’s what any hot-blooded fashionista will tell you. Here at aimClear, we’re embracing that concept and mapping it to, among other things, our Facebook Marketing Intensive– just in time for it’s one year anniversary, to boot. Yes, it was one year ago we unveiled our full-day workshop on the stage of #SMX West. The aimClear team is stoked to return to sunny San Jose, armed with an exciting new curriculum brimming with even more hot, juicy, actionable takeaways in a radically revamped agenda. This is one Facebook…

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  Osocio Weblog

• The trick with banknotes still works

  Marc

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:02 pm

  It’s an old trick but it still appears to work. The trick with banknotes on the street, with a message on the back. Here it is an anti-littering campaign done in Beirut Lebanon by a group of graphic design students. They call themselves Metel Ma Shelta (Just as You Picked it Up).  The text on the banknote: “Just as you picked this up… you can pick up litter from the streets” Campaigning can be so easy. The Facebook Page of Metel Ma Shelta already have over 2,800 likes and is shared many times. This is their statement: As we were strolling around the beautiful…

• Hey! Ayatollah! Leave those kids alone!

  Tom Megginson

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:20 pm

  Canadian band Blurred Vision have teamed up with music legend Roger Waters to promote Amnesty International’s campaign against executions in Iran. The group cover Waters’ Pink Floyd classic “Another Brick in The Wall (Part 2)” as the video shows a variety of activists demanding that Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i stop sentencing political prisoners to death — including Canadian Saeed Malekpour, an Iranian-Canadian web designer condemned for “insulting Islam.” The musicians (and AI) encourage supporters to sign the petition, share the video, and upload…

• You want me to wear a condom to the casino?

  Tom Megginson

  25 Jan 2012 | 12:55 pm

  I spotted this strange ad on the bus this morning. While I can understand the parallel of problem gambling with other kinds of “risky” behaviour, the condom package seemed like a very lazy bit of borrowed interest. The safeorsorry.ca campaign site continues the condom theme. This campaign could only be conceived in Ontario, where gambling and gaming are regulated (and often run) by government, and casinos aren’t associated with prostitution so much as retirees. If you’re curious what the gambling equivalent of safe sex is, the campaign gives these six tips: 1. …

• Drug-driving

  Tatjana Vukic

  23 Jan 2012 | 12:31 pm

  Unwitting passengers have been taken for a ride in a new campaign against drug-affected driving. In the advertisements, covert filming was carried out by the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) over four days last year, involving more than 100 actors who thought they were being driven to a costume-fitting for a television commercial. Their drivers were also actors who pretended to be on drugs while driving. This is the first stage of a long-term behavioural change campaign aimed at reducing the harm caused by drugged drivers. At this point, the initial aim is simply to raise awareness of the…

• Highlighting a human rights breakthrough in Brazil

  Tom Megginson

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:59 am

  Not a pretty ad, but legal language is usually drab. Nice use of a rainbow palette of highlighters to show the moment, captured in a newsletter of judgements by Brazil’s supreme court, when everything changed for gay couples in Brazil. Full text after the break Author: Tom Megginson

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  Social Media Darwinism

• Trust is hard to come by these days

  Paul Dunay

  25 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm

  For years I have kept tabs on the Edelman Trust barometer report, which comes out every January in Davos.  And this year was no exception. After last year I figured this years report could make an excellent gauge of the economy worldwide! Simply put the report states: Trust is down in every industry and every country across the board by an average of 6%. So what does this mean for marketers and for major brands in an era of social media? Well 2 things … Hidden in the data is the fact that CEOs and Government officials are at the very bottom of the totem pole when it comes to delivering a…

• Brands: It’s not enough to be liked

  Paul Dunay

  15 Dec 2011 | 12:00 pm

  Imagine a company that has upscale retail locations around the United States receiving tens of thousands of customer visits. Now imagine not having anyone there to greet and interact with those customers. What’s the point of the storefront? Facebook fan pages are much the same thing. But only 0.2 to 2 percent of fans go back to a page. Why? Because there is nothing going on that interests them. Fan pages are a unique marketing canvas to connect with avid consumers. Yet some brands are terribly underutilizing these pages, making them basically brochureware repositories — essentially…

• How important is real-time data? It’s all relative

  Paul Dunay

  7 Dec 2011 | 8:35 am

  The speed with which social media spreads ideas and information has led many marketers to place a premium on capturing data in real time. But should real-time data be such a priority? Real time means different things to different people when the term is used as a proxy for recency. To an evolutionary biologist, real time could mean thousands of years of species development data. To a 911 dispatcher, real time is a few seconds worth of critical information from a telephone call. What about marketing and advertising? This notion of “relative real time” extends there, too. To a marketing…

• Making Marketing Agility Cool

  Paul Dunay

  23 Nov 2011 | 12:00 pm

  Chief Marketing Officers take pride in being the trendsetters around the corporate corral – the arbiters of hip, the sharpest dressers, the consummate gadgeteers. But when it comes to using data to support decision making, the CMO is likely not to be the smoothest operator. Each year the Marketing team works hard to distill consumer insights into planning documents that will guide its programs in the months ahead. Meanwhile, there are already other departments within corporations that are continually refining their budgets and plans using the latest business intelligence data from…

• Romi Mahajan leaves Microsoft to Join Metavana as CMO

  Paul Dunay

  17 Nov 2011 | 8:00 am

  Long time friend and well respected CMO buddy of mine Romi Mahajan is leaving Microsoft to join Metavana. Romi has been profiled on my blog several times so its only fitting that reached out to find out why. What follows is a transcript of what I learned. Q: Thanks for taking the time to chat with me Romi, I’ve been a fan of your blogging on ResearchAccess for quite some time and it’s great to finally have a chance to reconnect. I understand that you’ve recently made a significant change in your work situation what can you tell me about that? A: After an aggregate of 9 years at…

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  Web Analytics World: Online Marketing & Analytics

• The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) Applies to Any Data Stored in the USA

  Irene Bodle

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:59 am

  The US Court of Appeals has ruled that the ECPA, an American law, protects the data of non-USA citizens when their data is stored on servers in the USA. Suzlon Case Korean firm, Suzlon Energy Ltd, wanted Microsoft to disclose email

• How does Google make money? 2011 Revenue Infographic

  DG

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:40 am

  We know that digital marketing has turned traditional marketing models upside down however has the global economic backdrop affected the trends? Who has been spending online marketing budget and on what? To understand how Google makes mone

• Basics of Debugging Google Analytics Code: GA Chrome Debugger and other tools

  Lukas Oldenburg

  20 Jan 2012 | 5:23 am

  Is that Virtual Pageview really being sent to Google Analytics when someone submits my registration form? Does the Event Tracking Call for outbound links get to GA in time before the visitor has left my website? Why do I not get any data for clicks

• New Video Tutorials – Using Google Analytics to track on-site campaigns

  Angela Wilkinson

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:31 am

  We learn so much by reading, but humans are visual creatures, and there are times when a video makes learning a new point easier to understand. In essence you're watching over someone's shoulder, albeit remotely, as they walk you through the infor

• Predictive Analytics World Conference – 15% Discount code for our Readers

  Angela Wilkinson

  13 Jan 2012 | 9:00 am

  Want to optimise your business performance by predicatively scoring customers, establishing new opportunities and seeing real examples of how predictive modelling is employed?  Predictive Analytics World are in San Francisco Marc

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  AdPulp

• Like It Or Not, Spec Work Has Its Place On Super Bowl Sunday

  David Burn

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pm

  Dorito’s Crash the Super Bowl competition is fully underway and some of the finalists aren’t bad. For example: Sadly, the same can not be said for Chevrolet, which is about to put this piece of “consumer” generated crap on the air: You just finished reading Like It Or Not, Spec Work Has Its Place On Super Bowl Sunday ! Consider leaving a comment!

• Jaffe Seeks To Connect Startups With Their Brand Soulmate

  David Burn

  26 Jan 2012 | 5:30 pm

  After selling his consultancy, crayon, in January of 2010, Joseph Jaffe is back in the agency saddle again. His new company is called Evol8tion, LLC. Evol8tion aims to change the way brands work with technology-based startups via early stage participation with early stage ventures. “The startup lives in the epicenter of technology-inspired innovation,” said Jaffe. “But brands are often not brought into the picture until the startup is so far downstream in the process that it’s too late to influence direction, partner or truly innovate.” Jaffe, who is also author of Flip the Funnel,…

• Cars.com Has Your Back

  David Burn

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:24 am

  Cars.com grows one’s confidence in car buying situations. Seriously. For more on that, let’s view the brand’s new Super Bowl spot from DDB Chicago: According to Tim Nudd of Adweek: Ad people will see echoes of Richard Grant’s character in How to Get Ahead in Advertising. To me, it’s a happier though no less weird version of the classic “Second Evil Head” spot for Mike’s Hard Iced Tea. As reported here earlier this week, Cars.com is a brand likely to connect with the Super Bowl audience. And this spot will likely do the trick, as well, given that…

• The Art Of The Pitch Aims To Help You Get Ahead

  Dan Goldgeier

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:07 pm

  What’s the difference between a talented ad executive and a talented and successful ad executive? Often times, the successful one knows how to present. While many people are lamenting the pervasiveness of spec creative, or the futility of the pitch process, Peter Coughter argues the case for successful presentation and pitching skills in The Art of the Pitch: Persuasion and Presentation Skills That Win The Business. Coughter knows his stuff. He co-founded an agency in Richmond and is now a professor at VCU Brandcenter along with a consultant to ad agencies around the world. What he imparts…

• Can Chevy Plug In To Some Good Vibes For The Volt?

  Dan Goldgeier

  25 Jan 2012 | 3:02 pm

  Amidst recent news of recalls and skepticism from the general public, Chevrolet is seeking to regain support for the Volt by featuring Hamtramck, the Detroit neighborhood where the car is built. Ad Age has more background: In its open-letter-format newspaper ads, GM CEO Dan Akerson writes that the Volt is “the most significant step in GM’s history to give customers a choice beyond oil” and “a technological ‘moon shot’. …Yes, the world is learning from Detroit again. And we couldn’t be prouder.” I think this is a good spot, but it’s…

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  Campaign Brief

• Case Study: Special's integrated campaign for NPA shows Kiwis connected by newspapers

  CB

  28 Jan 2012 | 2:21 am

  CASE STUDY - An integrated campaign for the NZ Newspaper Publishers Association via agency Special proves in an innovative way that Newspapers connect kiwis like no other media. VIEW THE CONCEPT Comments (0)

• 'Power breeds confidence' is the message in new spot for Toyota Camry Atara via Saatchi's Sydney

  CB

  28 Jan 2012 | 12:02 am

  Power breeds confidence, as illustrated in this new spot for the Toyota Camry Atara via Saatchi & Saatchi, Sydney. VIEW THE SPOT Comments (1)

• Miami Ad School set to open in Sydney with two study programs: Art Direction and Copywriting

  CB

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:44 pm

  Miami Ad School, the global advertising college, will open its doors in Sydney on 2 April, with two study programs: Art Direction and Copywriting.  Sydney will join other world cities Miami, New York, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Madrid, Berlin, Hamburg, Istanbul, to be the 11th  city to host a Miami Ad School. The school has been ranked by the Gunn Report as 'the best advertising school in the world' for the past four years. Its students win more awards than graduates at any other top advertising school, the Clios, One Show, Andy's, One Club, One Guns and…

• Cottee's cordial returns to its roots in new tv campaign via George Patterson Y&R Melbourne

  CB

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:50 pm

  This Sunday will see the launch of a new campaign for Cottee's cordial. Created by George Patterson Y&R Melbourne, the commercial aims to take the brand back to its roots by celebrating the simple goodness of childhood - and the fact that no matter how many kids end up in your back yard at the end of the day, there's always enough Cottee's to go around. VIEW THE SPOT Says Troy McKinna, advertising manager at Cottee's: "We're hoping the generation of Australians who grew up with classic 'My dad picks the fruit'‚ ad will share this new Cottee's classic with the next one." AGENCY:…

• Colenso BBDO and Fresh-up get behind Kiwis petitioning for an extra day in lieu of 'the most rubbish and rainy summer holiday ever'

  CB

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:38 pm

  New Zealand holidaymakers are set to petition Prime Minister John Key this summer for a day off, a national first.   The petition, which asks for an extra legal day in lieu, is the first documented petition against a wet New Zealand summer.  Fresh-up has picked up the petition due to local interest and will send it to John Key once it gains 50,000 signatures.   Thousands of New Zealanders have taken to social media and other outlets to proclaim their disappointment at the weather conditions during the holidays. Key venues such as the Wellington Waterfront were blocked off over…

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  Blogstorm

• Will Google penalise itself for excessive ads above the fold?

  Patrick Altoft

  20 Jan 2012 | 3:34 am

  Google has released an algorithm update today designed to penalise websites that have too many ads above the fold (in the visible area of the page). This is a great move by Google because nobody wants to see pages full of ads. The problem is that Google is being very hypocritical here because over the years the amount of ads on the search results pages have been getting bigger and bigger. When you take into account YouTube and Google Places the space for organic search results (the only real content that Google offers) is getting much smaller. As suggested in Googles blog post I went to their…

• Thoughts on Google Search plus Your World

  Patrick Altoft

  12 Jan 2012 | 2:55 am

  This week Google has announced a major change to their search results called “Search plus Your World” which isn’t a particularly catchy title. There is an excellent summary of this feature here and examples of how Google favours Google+ here – this post is mainly my thoughts on the service. When I first tried the system yesterday afternoon I searched for “golf” and Google came up with pictures of myself and some friends on a golf holiday in 2005. For an average searcher they probably wouldn’t think this was amazing but I think it’s pretty mind…

• Clever fake New Years Day PPC ads using DailyMail.co.uk as display URL

  Patrick Altoft

  1 Jan 2012 | 4:52 pm

  If you were to click on the Google logo on New Years day it would have taken you to the search results for the phrase “New Year’s Day” as shown in the screenshot below. When I looked at this the dailymail.co.uk advert stood out to me because although the Daily Mail isn’t noted for high level journalism I very much doubt they use PPC to promote stories. Sure enough when I clicked on the ad it took me straight to a really really clever site about some kind of wrinkle treatment. The clever bit about this page is that it uses a geotargeting script to automatically insert…

• iOS 5 Disables Cookies & Breaks Loads of Sites

  Patrick Altoft

  5 Dec 2011 | 6:20 am

  A little known feature of the latest iOS 5 software for the iPhone is that it disables cookies by default. I wasn’t aware of this until yesterday when I tried to book a hotel and was trying to browse three of the largest travel websites – Premier Inn, Late Rooms and Travelodge and none of them were working. All these sites detect your user agent, set a cookie and then display the mobile version of the site. In iOS 5 this results in a redirect loop which I only fixed by enabling cookies in the settings, something that most users wouldn’t know they needed to do. I’m…

• How to Build Conversions Using SEO – Slides from Conversion Conference

  Patrick Altoft

  1 Dec 2011 | 3:14 am

  Yesterday I was speaking at Conversion Conference about building conversions using SEO. The slides are below. How to Build Conversions Using SEO View more presentations from Patrick Altoft Not getting the rankings you want? Hire us for Search engine optimisationHow to Build Conversions Using SEO – Slides from Conversion Conference

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  Ypulse

• Ypulse Essentials: Nintendo’s Network, Few Tweens Wear Sunscreen, Ferris Bueller Is Back

  emily

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:55 pm

  Gamers rejoice! Nintendo is finally launching a digital network for the 3DS and Wii U (which sounds similar to Xbox Live and PlayStation’s Network in that users can have a personal account to connect with other services, participate in competitions, and interact with other players. It’s about time Nintendo! In other gaming news, board games may seem obsolete, but they’re making a comeback as they get a digital update online, via apps, or in video game form. Who’s ready for game night?) (USA Today) (Fast Company) - We’re a little alarmed that only a quarter of tweens wear sunscreen…

• Youth Media & Marketing Jobs: MTV World, Disney, Current

  melanie

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:25 pm

  Today we bring you our weekly sampler of cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven’t yet, and post there for focused career networking! Editorial Director at MTV World Industry: Television, Online Location: New York, NY Description: MTV World, a Viacom Media Networks division focused on global pop music and culture, and a creative engine, content, and production resource for advertising partners, is looking for an Editorial Director. This role is…

• Ypulse Essentials: JCPenney Gets A Fresh Start, Google+ Is Now Open To Teens, Getting Into College

  melanie

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:03 pm

  We’ve been eagerly awaiting news of how JCPenney would re-imagine the shopping experience (since we first heard that new CEO Ron Johnson was considering adding Genius Bars, a concept he devised while with Apple. Believing that “the department store is the number one opportunity in American retail,” he’s slashing prices on items and creating “Best Price Fridays,” a regular sale day when consumers can take advantage of discounts. Cutting through the “insanity,” promotions will be trimmed from 590 a year to just 12, but with initial prices down by…

• Ypulse Research Roundup: New Ypulse Report, Kids’ Favorite Brands, Dishing On Dining

  melanie

  26 Jan 2012 | 1:55 pm

  Today we bring you another installment of the latest youth research available for sale or download. Remember if your company has comprehensive research for sale that focuses on youth between the ages of 8 and 24, email us to be included in the next roundup. New Ypulse Report: Holiday Shopping & Winter Fun During the 2011 holiday season, retailers rejoiced as customers flocked to stores, spending record amounts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Students happily did their part in boosting the economy — they went into the holiday season planning to spend more than they did the prior…

• Ypulse Essentials: Facebook’s Open Graph In Action, Another ‘Beauty And The Beast’ Reboot, HootSuite University

  melanie

  25 Jan 2012 | 3:48 pm

  Here’s a roundup of some of the best ways that brands are using Facebook’s new Open Graph (to encourage their fans to share their brand interactions on the site. We’re big fans of Ticketmaster’s mashup with Spotify’s app to tell you when the band you’re listening to is going to be playing in your area. The social net is probably hoping that the new apps and features fight “Facebook fatigue,” which is apparently happening among young people in India and has also been reported in the U.S., with young users consciously cutting back their time on…

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  Social Business Advisor: Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0

• Emergent Collaboration Vendor Review: Atlassian’s Confluence

  Jacob Morgan

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:58 am

  Every Friday, I’ll be reviewing a vendor in the emergent collaboration space and will provide an overview on that vendor which includes aspects from leadership and vision to technology and market focus. If you are vendor and would like to participate, please contact me (my email address is in the sidebar as is my Twitter link). The goal of these posts is not to bash or praise vendors but to simply offer an objective view on what various vendors offer so that YOU can decide if they are a good fit for your business. Every post will cover the same elements for each vendors. If you have ideas…

• Collaboration is a Business Requirement

  Jacob Morgan

  24 Jan 2012 | 2:08 am

  I find it interesting that when it comes to collaboration; oftentimes it still need to be sold as a line item.  I mean, doesn’t that seem a bit ridiculous that a company needs to have someone explain why they need something that can connect their employees together? Some companies have some type of tool in place and others have nothing but either way it’s still looked at as option that the company may or may not purchase.  Perhaps I’m a bit biased or have spent too much time swimming in the collaboration pool but I wonder.  What if phones were optional? What if computers…

• Emergent Collaboration Vendor Review: ThoughtFarmer

  Jacob Morgan

  20 Jan 2012 | 5:56 pm

  On Friday’s I’ll be reviewing a vendor in the emergent collaboration space and will provide an overview on that vendor which includes aspects from leadership and vision to technology and market focus. If you are vendor that would like to participate, please contact me (email is in the sidebar as is the twitter link). The goal of these posts is not to bash or praise vendors but to simply offer an objective view on what various vendors offer so that YOU can decide if they are a good fit for your business. Every post will cover the same elements for different vendors. If you have ideas or…

• Where are Collaboration Budgets Being Allocated?

  Jacob Morgan

  18 Jan 2012 | 2:29 am

  When it comes to deploying a collaboration solution for the enterprise there are a lot of things to consider especially when it comes to budgets.  Towards the end of the 2009 I wrote an article called, “Companies Interested in Enterprise 2.0 Need to Take Strategy Seriously,” which looked at data collected from a 2009 report on collaboration.  What I found particularly shocking was the small budget allocation that strategy was receiving.  Towards the end of 2011 Chess conducted another survey on the “State of Enterprise 2.0 Collaboration” and one of the topics we…

• Charles Darwin on Collaboration

  Jacob Morgan

  17 Jan 2012 | 2:08 am

  I’m always on the lookout for interesting quotes dealing with collaboration that I can use in presentations.  I came across this quote by Charles Darwin which I wanted to share with you. “It is the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” - Charles Darwin

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  Everything PR

• RPR Public Relations Expands Social Media Team

  Cristina Drafta

  28 Jan 2012 | 4:23 am

  Romano Public Relations, an agency serving clients throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia, has recently expanded its social media team within its consumer PR division, adding two new Account Managers: Alexis Lauren and Isabella Sophia Varese. Launched in 2004, the social media division of RPR has developed outstanding personal relationships with online media outlets and bloggers, serving a broad range of customers, from startups through FORTUNE 100 firms. “Our social media team provides affordable yet high quality brand exposure quickly, while stimulating web traffic and sales for…

• PalDrop Helps Publishers Sell Cloud Hosted Files

  Delia Gavrilescu

  28 Jan 2012 | 3:58 am

  PalDrop allows Dropbox users to sell their files over the internet within seconds.Dropbox users have the opportunity to sell their files with ease using PalDrop, a cloud sales tool recently launched by Tradebit. PalDrop adds a publishing mechanism and payment gateway to files and folders hosted on Dropbox – basically, the platform creates PayPal buttons for files hosted on Dropbox. In seconds, and with a few clicks, Dropbox users can build an online store and immediately sell digital files. Users can choose to sell individual files, or whole folders. Payments are made straight to…

• Job of the Day: Social Media Interns for Skirt PR

  Cristina Drafta

  28 Jan 2012 | 3:10 am

  Skirt PR is a full-service agency with focus on the fashion and lifestyle industries.Skirt PR, a public relations agency specializing in fashion, beauty and lifestyle, is looking for social media interns for its 2012 internship programme. Candidates must be an undergraduate student, graduate student, or a recent college graduate. Interns may receive academic credit if an agreement is made between Skirt PR and the intern’s college or university. Interns are expected to work 3 days a week from the hours of 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. during the 4 month internship program. In addition, interns are…

• UK Consumers Reject Big Brands’ Marketing

  EPR Contributor

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:30 am

  Practically two-thirds of the United Kingdom does not want to be bothered by big-name brands on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, according to a survey. The survey of more than 72,000 internet users demonstrates that the UK is less inclined to online marketing messages and corporate blog posts than internet customers in other countries. As stated by the survey, 61% of internet users in the UK do not want to participate with brands on social networks, compared with 57% in other urban countries and 45% in Latin America. However, the research highlighted a digital divide in…

• Small Town Boredom Killer: Super Wi-Fi Goes Live

  Sheepy

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:08 am

  For those of you living on the periphery of net connectivity, small town USA or elsewhere, your download pleas may soon be answered. News from SlashGear tells of the very first so called “Super Wi.Fi” network having been deployed. Now even Mayberry and Dogpatch could soon have blazing Internet. The first ever long range Wi-Fi network in the nation has finally been deployed in Wilmington, North Carolina. The idea of a Super Wi-Fi network has been around for some time. For those who do not know, the term was created by the FCC to distinguish a new long distance Internet connectivity…

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  Trends in the Living Networks

• Open business: Sharing our group priorities for 2012 – Why not?

  Ross Dawson

  23 Jan 2012 | 5:02 am

  A year ago I shared a visualization of our AHT Group Business Model. Following that, I am now sharing our group 2012 Priorities. This comes from the principle of Open Business you can see in the 7 Enablers for our strategy. Our intention is to share more about the drivers of our business. The 2012 priorities document was created for our own internal use to guide our activities and use of resources through this year. However we are happy to make that open, in case anyone else finds looking at our approach is useful to them. Click on the image for full-size pdf Our AHT Group business model…

• Looking for crowdsourcing workshop/ event partners: Europe, North America, Asia

  Ross Dawson

  23 Jan 2012 | 3:53 am

  A book can be a very good way to distill and present useful information and guidance. We have done our best to make Getting Results From Crowds as pragmatic and practical as possible in helping organizations to use crowds to grow business and new possibilities. However for some issues and some people, a high-impact workshop or participatory event can be a more direct way of learning new ways to do things. As such I am planning a series of participatory workshops around the world that will build on the content of Getting Results From Crowds. We are looking for event partners around the world…

• Looking for exceptional events/ sponsorship manager in Sydney: Future/ tech/ influencers – Part-time

  Ross Dawson

  22 Jan 2012 | 4:19 pm

  We have just advertised on Seek for an events manager. We have been less active in the events space for the last two years as other priorities have been taking our attention, but we are beginning to build back our activity. Please pass this on to people you know who may be interested. Exceptional events/ sponsorship manager in Sydney: Future/ tech/ influencers – Part-time We want talent! We believe in talent and we want exceptional people. We see a particularly deep pool of very talented people who do not want full-time work. As such we are looking for someone working around 8-16 hours per…

• OPEN: Using crowdsourced legislation to beat SOPA

  Ross Dawson

  19 Jan 2012 | 6:40 am

  SOPA, The Stop Online Piracy Act, is big news in many ways, not least in marking what is likely to be a historical landmark in the battle between traditional media and a now-powerful new media, played out in political influence and the shaping of critical legislation. One of the most important ways to beat SOPA is to provide a good alternative. The majority of politicians seem to think that online intellectual property rights need better protection, so to kill SOPA requires providing something that can supplant it. Into this field comes Rep. Darrell Issa, whose involvement in legislation to…

• 5 important ways in which crowdsourcing creates business value

  Ross Dawson

  18 Jan 2012 | 3:10 pm

  The intelligent use of crowdsourcing can have many benefits for companies – as well as government and non-profit organizations – in achieving their objectives. Here is a brief excerpt from Chapter 3 on Crowds and Business Value of Getting Results From Crowds The business value of using crowds Through history, companies have been limited in what they can achieve through the scope of their internal resources and how well they can draw on external resources. Crowdsourcing has the potential to create enormous value for businesses by giving easy access to an essentially unlimited pool…

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  Dan Zarrella

• [Infographic] How to Get More Clicks on Twitter

  Dan Zarrella

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:18 pm

  I’ve often said that the best use of Twitter is as a broadcast medium. You should be creating a ton of interesting content and sharing it with your followers. To that end I’ve done a bunch of research on how to optimize the clickthrough rate (CTR) of the links you’re tweeting. For the purposes of this data, I’ve calculated CTR as the number of clicks on a tweeted link divided by the number of followers the account had when it tweeted that link. Below is an infographic presenting some of my past findings as well as some entirely new data I’ve found about…

• [Infographic] What are the Best Times to Blog?

  Dan Zarrella

  23 Jan 2012 | 12:54 am

  One of the most popular webinars I’ve ever worked on, The Science of Timing was also one of my favorite. If you haven’t seen it, go check out the on-demand recording now. In it, I present data I’ve collected over three years about the effect timing has on a variety of online marketing activities, including blogging. Below is an infographic that represents a collection of the three most important stats I have about when to publish blog posts. In the webinar, I also make the point that my results are based on huge aggregates of thousands, millions, or even in some cases,…

• [Infographic] The 2012 Republican Candidates by the Twitter Numbers

  Dan Zarrella

  17 Jan 2012 | 11:59 pm

  I’ve studied the relationship between Twitter success and politics before, and since this year is a big year in elections, I figured I’d do it again. This time I looked at how the 4 front-running republican presidential candidates are doing on Twitter. I analyzed the obvious numbers, followers, retweets and mentions, but I also looked at a few of my favorite, deeper metrics: retweets-per-follower, link-percentage and reply-percentage. I also looked at Twitter “penetration” in two upcoming primary states: South Carolina and Florida. Notice anything that surprises you in…

• [Infographic] How To Use Contra-Competitive Timing for More ReTweets, Likes, Comments and Clicks

  Dan Zarrella

  17 Jan 2012 | 1:44 am

  One of the most interesting patterns I’ve found while studying social media and marketing data is what I call in my book “contra-competitive timing.” I’ve found in numerous cases that the most successful times and days to publish new content are off-peak times. It’s like when you’re at a noisy party and it’s hard to hear the person talking to you 2 feet away, but suddenly you say something awkward and the room quiets down. Now everyone can hear you. The same is true with the internet. When there is less other noise to compete with (ie fewer Tweets,…

• [New Data] What Percentage of your Tweets Should be Links or Replies

  Dan Zarrella

  10 Jan 2012 | 11:25 pm

  If you like myth busting social media data like this, be sure to buy my newest book, Zarrella’s Hierarchy of Contagiousness. One of the social media questions I’m most interested in is about whether Twitter is best suited for conversation or broadcasting. To many people’s surprise, I generally find myself on the broadcast side, and most of the data I’ve analyzed seems to back me up. Just yesterday, I started a little informal Twitter poll and found that respondents were pretty evenly split between broadcasting and conversation. This time, I looked at more than 100k…

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  scaryideas.com: Advertising Archive

• Kinect Star Wars : Duel [Video]

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:11 am

  Kinect Star Wars : Duel [Video]Clients: Microsoft Xbox & Lucas Arts Microsoft Xbox Aaron Elliott – Digital Marketing Group Manager LucasArts Roger Evoy – Senior Creative Services Manager Matt Shell – Senior Product Marketing Manager Agency: AKQA Pierre Lipton – Executive Creative Director Stephen Clements – Creative Director Miranda Maney – Senior Copywriter Warren Frost – Art Director Vicente Montelongo – Senior Designer Nancy Cardillo – Executive Producer Monica Stephen – Program Manager James Jenkins – Group Account Director…

• Alive Strong Filter Coffee : Alarm [Image]

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:06 am

  Alive Strong Filter Coffee : Alarm [Image]Advertising Agency: Chirpy Elephant, India Creative Director / Art Director: Jayaraman Creative Director / Art Director / Copywriter: Leela Ram Digital creative: Sivakumar Account Director: Raam Prasad Illustrator: Pravin Arasu

• Alive Strong Filter Coffee : Rooster [Image]

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:06 am

  Alive Strong Filter Coffee : Rooster [Image]Advertising Agency: Chirpy Elephant, India Creative Director / Art Director: Jayaraman Creative Director / Art Director / Copywriter: Leela Ram Digital creative: Sivakumar Account Director: Raam Prasad Illustrator: Pravin Arasu

• KFC : Australia Day [Image]

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:05 am

  KFC : Australia Day [Image]Happy Australia DayAdvertising Agency: Ogilvy, Sydney, Australia Executive Creative Director: Brett Howlett Group Creative Director: Michael Raso Art Directors: Luke Chard, Rob Omodiagbe Copywriter: Mietta McFarlane Photographer: Mathew Zammit

• Plant for the Planet : Traffic [Image]

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:03 am

  Plant for the Planet : Traffic [Image]Every leaf traps CO2.Advertising Agency: Leagas Delaney, Hamburg, Germany Executive Creative Director: Hermann Waterkamp Creative Director: Michael Götz, Florian Schimmer Art Directors: Felix Boeck, Robert Westphal Copywriter: Heiko Franzgrote Illustrator: Lorenzo Durán, Nadine Hoenow Account manager: Heinke Kraack

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  Affiliate Marketing Blog

• Want to Contribute to Issue 18 of FeedFront Magazine?

  Shawn Collins

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:28 am

  The seventeenth issue of FeedFront Magazine is out, so we’re on to issue 18. The next issue of FeedFront will be coming out in May 2012, and the deadline for article proposals for issue 18 of FeedFront is February 22, 2012. If you are interested in writing an article, go to the FeedFront article proposal form to submit a one sentence summary on what you’d like to cover. No ghost-written articles. We only want content from people writing from their personal industry experience. If you have previously been accepted to write an article and either failed to meet the deadline or did…

• Meet Market is Sold Out for Affiliate Summit Central 2012

  Shawn Collins

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:05 am

  The Meet Market for Affiliate Summit Central 2012, taking place May 15-16, 2012 at the Hilton Austin, has sold out. If you’re not familiar with the Meet Market, it is an extended session of structured, face to face networking we’ve been running at Affiliate Summit since summer 2006. Affiliate programs and networks have tables set to meet with affiliates to discuss their offers and cut deals. Vendors that cater to affiliates and merchants will also have tables to share information about their products and services. Each table is a meeting spot for teaching, learning, closing deals,…

• Examples of Direct Mail to Recruit Affiliates

  Shawn Collins

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:38 am

  I was digging through some old files, and I came across a few of the postcards I used to recruit affiliates for the ClubMom.com affiliate program between 2000 and 2004. The first one I mailed was from a company called Web Cards back in 2000. Their thing was to take a screen capture of a site and make that the front of the postcard. Then I got a few lines to write copy at the bottom. Web Cards was good at the time, as I didn’t know of other vendors that provided such a service, I don’t known that I was aware of how to take a screen capture myself at the time, and I didn’t…

• Affiliate Summit West 2012 Keynote Videos, a New Kindle Book You Need, and Affiliates on @Pinterest

  Shawn Collins

  24 Jan 2012 | 1:33 pm

  This week on the Affiliate Thing podcast, Shawn Collins and Lisa Picarille talk about Erik Hom tucking in his football jersey, Shawn running the Austin Gorilla Run, and keynote videos of Jon Spoelstra, Eric Thomas, and Jeremy Schoemaker from Affiliate Summit West 2012. We also talked about affiliates working with Pinterest, speaker proposals for Affiliate Summit Central 2012, and Internet Marketing from the Real Experts available cheap on the Kindle. Show Links Erik Hom Tucks His 49ers Jersey into Jeans Austin Gorilla Run Video of Jon Spoelstra Keynote at Affiliate Summit West 2012 Video of…

• Submit Your Affiliate Summit Central 2012 Speaking Proposal

  Shawn Collins

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:46 am

  Speaking proposals for Affiliate Summit Central 2012, taking place May 15-16, 2012 in Austin, TX, are now being accepted. The submission deadline is February 29, 2012. Accepted speakers will be notified no later than March 14, 2012. Due to the volume of submissions, we will not notify applicants if they have not been accepted. Therefore, if you have not been contacted by March 14, 2012, your proposal was not accepted. Submit your speaking proposal at http://www.affiliatesummit.com/12c-speakers/.

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  Vladimir's Blog

• Meaningful Gamification

  Vladimir

  22 Jan 2012 | 10:21 am

  Gamification has been one of the hot Internet trends lately.If you are not familiar with the term - Gamification is a process of taking game mechanics and bringing it to businesses that are otherwise boring.There is a lot of talk about Gamification and it seems that every new service nowadays has some form of it implemented. This Ted Talk suggests that 50% of all innovation and 70% of top global 2000 apps will be gamified by 2015.The guy is all excited about it, but I cringe in horror. Why?Since Stack Overflow started using badges, and then companies relying their entire business on…

• 40 million minutes

  Vladimir

  18 Jan 2012 | 9:33 am

  This is, more or less, how much every one of us is expected to live.More than a few times I can remember minutes lasting like an eternity. For example when holding my breath. Or when I was watching my daughter being born. So looking at the number from that perspective, it really seems a lot, with plenty of spare time to be bored even.Yet when I remember that I lived almost 19 million of those minutes already, it does not seem that much. It would be cool if I had 19 million memories to associate with those minutes spent, but I don't.I think everyone should know there is still long way to go…

• Things are good. Actually, great.

  Vladimir

  17 Jan 2012 | 1:58 pm

  In case you are wondering why it took one month for this blog post, it's because things were doing really good. Great, actually.Two days ago I became a dad to a beautiful baby girl, Petra. As my friend says, I am no longer the son, now I am the father. I have witnessed the birth and it's the kind of experience I would recommend to all future dads.We started preparing for this about a month ago, buying all the things for the baby's room. Gosh there are so many things you need, and you have no clue about them.At the same time I was approaching the high point of my professional career so far,…

• What should we write about next – WordPress plugin

  Vladimir

  15 Dec 2011 | 5:37 pm

  After a long time here is another plugin from our brewery. This one is really handy."What should we write about next" allows your users to quickly leave feedback at the end of your posts.The idea behind this plugin is very simple - allow your visitors to leave a quick feedback about what would they want to read next on your site.This improves interaction, gives you topic ideas and makes your visitors feel useful. It's a win-win plugin.We originally used it on ManageWP blog but I decided to share it with WordPress community as well.Click to visit What should we write about next plugin.Funny…

• We have liftoff! ManageWP pre-order launched!

  Vladimir

  6 Dec 2011 | 2:44 pm

  I am happy to announce the launch of ManageWP pre-order. Go ahead and secure your 30% discount during the pre-order by signing up now.In the backIt was almost 30 hours of non-stop work to get the things done in time for the launch date (oh, that sweet start-up launch crunch time). And it also took 18 months and a crew of more or less 10 people around the whole world, to offer this service I am so proud of at this moment.This exclusive picture shown below depicts the dev team moments after the launch (of course taken with a mobile, as nobody remembered to bring a proper camera - we did…

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  adland.tv

• Moe’s Southwest Grill - Microwaves ruin everything - (2012) (USA)

  Dabitch

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:43 pm

  Moe’s Southwest Grill doesn't want you to try this at home. Really, don't. "Especially if you like to see, smell, hear, touch, talk and breathe...." Then they microwave pretty much anything you've ever considered microwaving, from an egg to a lightbulb and a big watermelon that explodes all over the place. While all the fire, flashes and squirting tomatoes are fun to watch, Moe’s Southwest Grill actually has a USP to tack on to this destined for viral video. They don't microwave their food. Mmmm. Tweet

• Condom08 - QR code condoms + app promote safe sex (2011) case study, Sweden

  Dabitch

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:34 pm

  There's a lot of ways to remind young people to wear a condom during sex... But has a QR code ever been considered before? Actually the QR code itself is just a shortcut to the real meat (pardon me) of this campaign, the app. The smartphone app that measures the length, noise and rythm of your sexual encounter as well as the location it is in and uploads the results to a website. Fun statistics can now be had from these results, such as "dog lovers are louder than cat lovers" and "musicians last for 3 minutes". Tweet

• UPDATED! Super Bowl XLVI Commercial 2012 *Spoiler Alert*

  caffeinegoddess

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:10 pm

  Super Bowl of Advertising 2012 - SPOILER ALERT - UPDATED 1/26 UPDATED! 1/26 More goodies have been released. We expect even more to come. Look out for another couple updates of the most complete ad bowl spoiler on the net. Super Bowl XLVI is just around the corner. This year NBC is charging an average of $3.5 million for each 30 second spot. Here’s a peek at what you’ll see in addition to a ton of NBC self-promo and most likely considering this is an election year, some political ads. 1ST QUARTER Hyundai Veloster Turbo and/or Genesis Coupe R-Spec: Spot will use testosterone to “play up…

• Ferris Bueller for the Super Bowl

  caffeinegoddess

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:54 pm

  So far no one knows what it will be for, although there are rumors (via the Hollywood Reporter Priceline is going to reveal a new spokesperson to replace William Shatner as the spokesperson for Priceline after he blowed up in the ad below. Ferris Bueller Super Bowl Teaser: Priceline Blow Up: As always, we'll keep you informed as we hear. Got your own guess? Let us know. And, catch the The Super Bowl Advertising 2012 Spoiler Alert for more on other ads you'll see in the game. Tweet

• Steel Panthers poster banned for having balls.

  Dabitch

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:53 am

  The Guardian reports that Steel Panthers posters promoting the "Balls Out" album are banned for being "overtly sexual". The ASA received four complaints about the poster which shows a barely dressed woman caressing herself while holding a pair of silver balls. The record label Universal Island used the "we're mocking stuff from the 80s" defense and said that the ads were meant to "poke fun at the ridiculousness of the attitude to women, outfits and music in that [1980s] era". They also pointed out that the posters are meant to be "ludicrously over the top and not meant to undermine women".

• 

  brandflakesforbreakfast

• sex gamified

  Kristien Del Ferraro

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:10 am

  This is a campaign absolutely deserving of a WOW. Apparently the young adults of Stockholm, Sweden are among the worst at practicing safe sex. Sure, you can hand them all condoms and hope for the best, or you can take it a step way further and turn sex into a fun, competitive game... as long as it's safe of course. That's exactly what Swedish agency, Ester, did with this campaign. They handed out 50,000 condoms to young adults with QR codes on them (yeah, I know, but it's actually a good use of them). The QR code downloads an app that measures your sexcapades for motion, rhythm and duration.

• snugglin' with celebrities

  Kristien Del Ferraro

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:09 am

  It's pretty easy to love comedian / filmmaker Mark Malkoff. Apparently so easy that he convinced 13 celebrities to let him sleepover their houses, including Dave Coulier (cut. it. out.), Kate Walsh (who is clearly not attracted to Mark) and the adorable Lisa Loeb, who reads him a bedtime story from her book. You can't help but smile when you watch this fun little video.

• thanks for letting us pee

  Kristien Del Ferraro

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:08 am

  FirstBank - Super Bowl Commercial from TDA_Boulder on Vimeo.Most of us are sick of Superbowl commercials already and it's not even the Superbowl yet, but this one from FirstBank gets a pass. Why? Because it's pretty awesome without even trying too hard to be awesome. Playing off the fact that since commercials are now just as much part of the "show" as the football game, we no longer have a free second to pee, this simple ad features a man in a recliner who remains silent for most of the commercial so that you can go take your bathroom break. Then it just ends with "Better Customer Service."…

• gaming for a good cause

  a_blodder

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:10 am

  Amnesty International 'Amnesty Rescue' Call Of Duty MOD from Strange Day on Vimeo.In November, we reported on Amnesty International's "Slide to Unlock" campaign. They've joined forces with Call of Duty: MW3 to take the campaign further with seamless in-game advertising and potentially reach millions more potential volunteers and supporters. Players can buy the Amnesty Rescue MOD (additional map) for $1, which gets donated to Amnesty, and players can rescue and save people suffering from human rights violations. And let us thank Amnesty for giving gamers a chance to contribute to society.

• fun with pharmacies

  a_blodder

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:05 am

  Who says pharmacies have to be so cold and clinical?Swedish Design Labs doesn't. They have designed new collateral for pharmacy chain Vardapoteket in Sweden that is full of vivid colors and fun designs that incorporate organs and body parts in a fun way. The design isn't just a pretty face either. It's also informed by research that proves positive environmental factors help lessen anxiety and promote overall well-being. Now there's an idea.

• 

  Webdistortion

• 3 digital storytelling apps to watch out for in 2012.

  Paul Anthony

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:20 pm

  Storytelling is hot right now. As the web has grown and become more and more personalised, storytelling on the web has also transcended its traditional roots into a much more interactive experience. A number of social platforms and digital tools have cropped up which aim to become the campfire of self expression Status updates? That’s so last season. StoryWheel URL: http://storywheel.cc/ Released by Johannes Wagener and Katharina Birkenbach during the music hack day boston in 2011 Story wheel is a great example of what opening up your platform to hackers can do. Recognising the…

• Improving click through rates with killer organic results.

  Paul Anthony

  22 Jan 2012 | 4:47 pm

  There are few sites on the web which truly embrace all aspects of search engine optimise best practice, and fewer again which recognise the all important power of the click through. There are a number of things that you can do to increase traffic on your site, but by far one of the easiest is to increase the number of clicks your results in the SERPs receive. I thought I’d have a go at listing at least some of the ways that you can go about increasing your click through rate, particularly considering recent developments in Google. Meta Description Probably the most well known way to…

• Small is the new big – social media is growing up.

  Paul Anthony

  17 Jan 2012 | 12:47 pm

  Small is the new large in social media, and I’ve no doubt that trend will only become more evident in 2012.  As users have got to grips with the platforms already available to us, we have come to realise the benefits in cultivating tighter, smaller and more valuable relationships with others online (as we do in real life). Social is growing up and scaling back. Seth Godin nailed it recently. The signal to noise ratio is far too low in many cases to be useful, and for our voice to be heard we’ve begun to realise that sometimes we are really better off concentrating on providing…

• Will Google link business pages to profiles in the SERPs?

  Paul Anthony

  9 Jan 2012 | 3:01 am

  With the new introduction of  a social platform there are a number of challenges that Google currently face. Perhaps one of the greatest of these, is getting businesses to engage with people on their platform as opposed to competing platforms such as Facebook. When you have major brands and businesses showing proof of interest, typically you’ll find small businesses and others following suit, driving more and more visitors and in turn giving the platform more kudos, more engagement and increasing the likelihood that others will join. There is however something of a chicken and egg…

• 10 reasons why people didn’t share your last blog post.

  Paul Anthony

  5 Jan 2012 | 11:36 am

  You can’t expect every piece of content you create online to be a hit. It takes a while before you recognise the patterns in your writing that have become successful with your readers, that you can use to replicate that success. Ultimately, there’s always going to be peaks and troughs in your traffic over time, as you experiment with what your readers want, but as with any skill, the more you write, the more you recognise what demands people have, and what knowledge they find useful. That said, there are things you can do to make sure that people don’t ignore it when they…

• 

  Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing

• The Shady Practice Of Spinning Articles To Avoid Duplicate Content Penalties

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:33 pm

  by Miriam Ellis If you've been walking on the sunny side of a clean street on your Search Marketing journey, hopefully you've skipped right past that dark and narrow alleyway in which lurks the spin monster. The practice of 'spinning' articles for directory submission isn't new, but it has come to my notice that marketing firms are currently utilizing this as a post-Panda effort for avoiding the dread Google duplicate content label, and I'm writing this article today to describe what the process is. If you're about to hire a marketer/SEO whose methods of promotion include submitting 'spun'…

• Don't Waste Time Looking at Web Data Until You Do This

  23 Jan 2012 | 2:21 pm

  by Mike Fleming ...life is about taking action, and if your work is not driving action, you need to stop and reboot...hits and pageviews don't mean anything except that someone came to your site and consumed some content...metrics are a dime a dozen, so how do you know which ones to use?  They should have the following four attributes...Uncomplex - If you want action, everyone involved in the decision-making must easily comprehend performance.Relevant - they must be measuring the success objectives that are unique to you and your website.Timely - Even the greatest metric in the world is…

• The Difference between Good SEO and Great SEO

  18 Jan 2012 | 9:56 am

  by Stoney deGeyter Designing a great looking website is good. Putting it on a strong information architecture is better. Rolling out a newly optimized website is good. Checking it first is better. Investing in SEO is good. Investing in ROI is better. Optimizing your e-commerce site is good. Using optimized concantenation schema is better. Quick-fix SEO is good. Long-term SEO is better. Performing SEO correctly is good. Doing what you can quickly is better. Keyword research is good. Keyword research and segmentation is better. Adding keywords to content is good. Following user-friendly keyword…

• Where You Should Invest Your Web Marketing Budget

  16 Jan 2012 | 6:46 pm

  by Mike Fleming ...the bottom line for magnificent success is the people...invest multiple times more in her or him, or more of them, if you truly want to take action on your data. Otherwise, you are simply data rich and information poor...a great tool in the hands of your reporting squirrel is useless.  A free/inexpensive/underpowered tool in the hands of your analysis ninja will yield massive results that impact your bottom line...-Avinash Kaushik (@avinash), Web Analytics 2.0Web data is easy to get at; and it can even be free.  Yes! That is awesomeness.  But, you know what's…

• Editing: Is social media realtime or permanent?

  13 Jan 2012 | 2:42 pm

  by Mike Moran As social media has (somewhat) matured, an interesting culture has grown up around the idea of editing social media content. And for reasons that I don't understand, it isn't one culture--it seems as though every kind of social media has developed its own culture around editing content. It is as if we can't decide whether social media is a realtime force that is stream of consciousness and should never be changed, or it is a permanent record of activity that ought to be updated as it changes, or something in between. Some kinds of social media (Wikipedia) couldn't exist without…

• 

  Brand Autopsy

• Revisiting My Starbucks Idea

  johnmoore

  26 Jan 2012 | 11:28 am

  Starbucks is proud to say they’ve listened to nearly 125,000 customer ideas and implemented 185 of them from their MyStarbucksIdea.com (MSI) program. (MSI is a website where customers submit and discuss ideas on ways Starbucks can improve its business.) A year ago I dissected the 53 customer-submitted ideas Starbucks took credit for implementing and found Starbucks should only take credit for implementing 6 ideas. For example, Starbucks credits a customer idea for the Splash Sticks they offer customers to help ensure coffee doesn’t spill out of the plastic lid. Reality is this idea was…

• Marketing Hasn’t Changed

  johnmoore

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:58 am

  Daniel Milstein is running an interview he did with me on his blog. He asked questions related to word of mouth marketing and social media. My responses might surprise you. Here’s a snippet… DANIEL: How has the world of marketing changed since you began? Especially in terms of the social media revolution? ME: Strategically, marketing hasn’t changed. Marketing will always be about getting the right product and right message to the right customer at the right time in the right way. If a business does that, sales will happen. Tactically, things have changed because of technology and…

• Episode #3 | Talkable is Bankable

  johnmoore

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:54 am

  The Talkable Brand video series continues… Episode #3 | Talkable is Bankable In this episode, you’ll learn marketers can absolutely bank on the fact if a brand is in the conversation then it will be under purchase consideration. DIRECT LINK TO VIDEO BACKGROUND INFO: The Talkable Brand video series will help you to strategically think about ways to make your brand, your business worthy of word of mouth. Every Tuesday on the Brand Autopsy blog a new episode will premiere giving you knowledge and a nudge. Knowledge being interesting information. The nudge being compelling motivation…

• Dwight Eisenhower on Leadership

  johnmoore

  19 Jan 2012 | 7:06 am

  “Leadership is the art of getting someone to do something you want done because he wants to do it.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower

• Episode #2 | Talkable is Believable

  johnmoore

  17 Jan 2012 | 7:08 am

  The Talkable Brand video series continues… Episode #2 | Talkable is Believable In this episode, you’ll learn believability is the bedrock of a truly talkable brand. DIRECT LINK TO VIDEO BACKGROUND INFO: The Talkable Brand video series will help you to strategically think about ways to make your brand, your business worthy of word of mouth. Every Tuesday on the Brand Autopsy blog a new episode will premiere giving you knowledge and a nudge. Knowledge being interesting information. The nudge being compelling motivation to make the information happen. The result, I hope, is helping…

• 

  ClickZ News Blog

• Obama Sticks to Jobs Message in Florida Web Ads

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:33 pm

  Also in Florida, Mitt Romney is attacking Newt Gingrich online.

• Super Bowl Ads Online: To Seed or Not to Seed?

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:32 pm

  Marketers use digital to get most out of big game spends. But is it effective?

• Google Responds to Lawmakers' Privacy Policy Concerns

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:20 am

  Legislators asked Google to respond to detailed questions about changes to its privacy policies.

• Florida Group Emerges With Web Centric Anti-Romney Campaign

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:50 am

  A campaign attacking Florida Governor Rick Scott is serving as the template for a new online effort with Mitt Romney in its crosshairs.

• Coke's Super Bowl Ads Will Change With the Game

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:40 pm

  Coca-Cola's polar bears will react to game action in real-time, while second-half ad will reflect who's up.

• 

  FUEL LINES Fueling Ad Agency New Business Through Social Media

• Leo Burnett Still Wins Ad Agency New Business 40 Years After His Death

  Michael Gass

  25 Jan 2012 | 9:22 am

  Leo Burnett is one of the most enduring ad industry legends. He broke all the rules. Even after 40 years since his death he is still winning new business for his agency. “The Burnett agency has accomplished something that has eluded so many other businesses: It has managed to keep the spirit and drive of its founder alive and well almost two decades after the founder himself passed on.“ Rita Koselka of Forbes To celebrate Leo Burnett Worldwide’s 75th anniversary, Lobo, an animation and design studio, produced this animated spot. It is based on a speech given by Mr. Burnett…

• Bob Hoffman: 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising

  Michael Gass

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:49 am

  An ad agency principal who is an example on how to use content marketing and social media to build awareness and new business opportunities for your agency. I am a Bob Hoffman fan. I have read everything he has written, from his book The Ad Contrarian, to every ADWEEK and blog post article and now his new book, 101 Contrarian Ideas About Advertising. Bob is the CEO of Hoffman/Lewis advertising located in San Francisco and St. Louis. Bob has created marketing strategies and advertising for some of the world’s most successful companies: McDonald’s, Toyota, Shell, NBC, Pepsico, Bank of…

• B-2-B Agency Gains New Business from a Narrow Niche and Social Media

  Michael Gass

  16 Jan 2012 | 9:41 am

  Social media can end the anxiety of creating a niche and differentiation for ad agency new business. John Sonnhalter, CEO of Sonnhalter, a B2B ad agency located just outside of Cleveland, OH, shares an example of an agency that found a way to finally “draw a line in the sand” and openly declare his agency’s area of expertise for a particular market. John was able to first ‘test the waters before jumping in’ by creating a ‘niche blog’ clearly targeted to a very specific audience. Sonnhalter’s primary ability was knowing how to reach the…

• It is time for ad agencies to pay attention to Pinterest

  Michael Gass

  13 Jan 2012 | 10:01 am

  Pinterest has great potential for ad agencies: storyboards, branding strategies, concept ideas, campaign ideas, design ideas, even organizing agency pitches. Time Magazine named Pinterest one of the top 50 websites for 2011. It is one of the hottest new social media sites with enduring specialties that qualifies it as the next ‘Twitter.’  Its value through venture financing has soared from $40 million to over $200 million in only a few months. Pinterest (pronounced to rhyme with interest) is a vision board-styled social photo sharing website and app where users can create…

• How to Qualify Leads for Ad Agency New Business

  Michael Gass

  11 Jan 2012 | 10:16 am

  To begin a successful agency new business program one of the first steps is to identify and qualify your best prospects. A business development person without leads is like a fish out of water. Neither can survive very long. Yet … Only 30% of B2B marketers know the names of decision makers in the companies they are targeting. The RAIN Group It is imperative that you know who your prospects are or you are wasting time, energy and valuable agency resources. Here are a few things you should know: Your agency’s best target market (industry, geography, size, etc.). Specific names of…

• 

  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal

• Google’s Algorithm Update Targets Ad Heavy Sites

  Nick Stamoulis

  26 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  Just last week, Danny Sullivan over at Search Engine Land reported the latest Google algorithm update which targets ad heavy websites. As Google’s official blog post announcing the page layout algorithm says, the update affects “… sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads. Matt Cutts warned that this update was coming back in November at PubCon. How many ads is too many? As a user, I appreciate Google’s attempt to take on ad heavy sites. It’s annoying to have to dig through a page…

• Rebuilding a B2B Website? Incorporate SEO Now!

  Nick Stamoulis

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  On-site optimization has become more important than ever to capitalize on changing user search behavior and the new search algorithm updates. Aged and established B2B sites that had never done any previous SEO have the luxury of a strong search engine trust factor, something that only time can bring. A little onsite SEO and they see dramatic results relatively quickly. New B2B sites that build SEO right into their web design get off on the right foot and don’t have to worry about scrambling to catch-up down the road. If you’re looking to redesign or re-launch your B2B website, optimize it…

• Common Onsite Enterprise SEO Challenges

  Nick Stamoulis

  19 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  While the same white hat SEO guidelines should apply to all websites regardless of size, larger websites (think 1,000+ pages) face a unique set of challenges that smaller website may not have to deal with. Smaller websites are often able to make decisions quickly and act on them ever quicker because they don’t have to worry about these 3 common onsite SEO challenges: Scale The most obvious problem facing many large websites looking to begin their onsite SEO is the sheer size of their website. I can tell you first hand that optimizing a 1,000+ page website is no small feat; the keyword…

• Outbound Linking from Your Business Blog

  Nick Stamoulis

  17 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  Knowing when and how often you should develop an outbound link from your blog to another site is a tricky thing. No website is an island (that’s why it’s called the World Wide Web), but obviously you don’t want to lose your hard-earned traffic to another site, especially a competitor. The Internet is full of distractions (so many YouTube videos to watch!) and once a visitor leaves your site there is no guarantee they’ll come back. If they get more than a few back clicks away from your blog, you’ve pretty much lost them until they rediscover your blog another day. So when should you…

• Attempting a Guinness Book World Record for Social Media SEO Link Bait

  Nick Stamoulis

  17 Jan 2012 | 5:00 am

  Guest Post Written By Brian Hawkins If you’ve read enough posts here on Search Engine Optimization Journal. You’ll know that there is no silver bullet to high search engine rankings. So if any SEO agency could guarantee top 10 rankings, it’s simply not worth the risk. Which is why Brick Marketing is a huge advocate of quality original content with its SEO infused social media services http://www.brickmarketing.com/social-media-seo-service To prove my point why you should obey Google’s Rules: What would you do if you went to work and noticed that you were no where to be found in the…

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  Marketing Technology Blog

• Free Speech Doesn’t Protect Your Reputation

  Douglas Karr

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:18 pm

  Sam Montgomery is a reader of the Marketing Technology Blog and contacted me regarding a story of a young football talent named Yuri Wright. Yuri was actively being recruited by Michigan State… up until some folks read his tweets. The tweets are displayed at Chat Sports and not safe for work (NSFW)… just know that they’re pretty vulgar. Yuri Wright, the 4-star CB from New Jersey, was once though to be headed to Michigan in the 2012 class. Earlier this month, the Michigan coaching staff took a deeper look into the prospect after a concerned alumnus sent the school verbatim…

• 27% of Marketers Have No Tablet Plans… Yet!

  Douglas Karr

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:46 am

  We love having a great sponsor like Zoomerang and their free polling software to figure out what and how marketers feel about both our content and to provide insight into what strategies are deploying. Our latest poll asked about plans for marketers when it comes to the tablet market. Last year, Forrester predicted huge growth in the ereader and tablet market – and the market produced. It didn’t produce with simple sales, but the aggressive discounting of ereaders and tablets are making them more affordable than mobile phones! What does that mean for your organization? Thankfully,…

• Enable Authorship and Publishing Link in WordPress

  Douglas Karr

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:28 pm

  I keep telling folks I’d share how we’re integrating authorship microdata to produce search result rich snippets. It’s working well for our clients in increasing their SERP CTRs) so I figured I’d document it here for WordPress sites. There are two pieces to this… and the two elements are not related. The authorship data is now being displayed in Search Engine Results Pages. I have not seen publisher info displayed yet… but I’m sure it will be! Publisher Google Plus now has a verification system where a publisher of a site can point to their Google+…

• Infographic: Small Business Social Cheat Sheet

  Douglas Karr

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:52 pm

  I love my peeps over at Column Five, but I think they may have tipped a few many watching reruns of Diggnation. Digg? Really? By any stretch of the imagination, Digg‘s grave has been Dugg and StumbleUpon is the one planting flowers. Too soon? Sorry folks… when the audience leaves, the social app dies. It’s social media evolution. But wait… really… we missed LinkedIn, too? Google Business? Are you kidding me? Perhaps it was something a little stronger than beer. Alright… we’ve made enough fun of the project manager on this infographic for Flowtown.

• Robby Slaughter of Slaughter Development on MTB Radio

  Jenn Lisak

  23 Jan 2012 | 6:16 pm

  We are proud to announce that we will be having Robby Slaughter, trouble maker of social media, of Slaughter Development on the Marketing Tech Blog Radio Show this Friday, January 27, at 3 p.m. EST. On the show, we will be talking about the meaning of “productivity” (it’s not what most people think), the connection between online marketing and productivity, and why companies need outside experts for fundamental work. Robby Slaughter is a workflow and productivity expert. His focus is helping organizations and individuals to become more efficient, more effective and more…

• 

  Drew's Marketing Minute

• What’s your purple goldfish?

  Drew McLellan

  11 Jan 2012 | 1:30 pm

  Get your free copy of Stan Phelp’s book! A few years ago, I met Stan Phelps, another marketing guy, online (I think he commented on my blog and we started chatting via email) and before I knew it — we were friends.  He was just dipping his toe into the blogging waters and I tried to be helpful along the way. Fast forward to today, January 11, 2012. Stan’s first book, What’s Your Purple Goldfish*, is being released today.  I’ve read it and know you’re going to love it.  Really love it. I’m also very humbled to say that Stan asked me to write the…

• You cannot ignore Google+ for your business

  Drew McLellan

  10 Jan 2012 | 12:59 pm

  Google+ cannot be ignored When Google+ emerged last summer, people’s reactions were to be expected.  The early adopters were all over it. But for most people who were already suffering from social media fatigue — their response was “oh no…not another site for me to maintain!” And many people simply opted out, not wanting to use/try yet another social networking site.  All along, I have been saying that it  simply could not be ignored. (like here) Let’s look at time line for those of you who aren’t familiar with how this played out. Summer 2011…

• Mitt Romney is getting tired (or lazy) in Iowa!

  Drew McLellan

  3 Jan 2012 | 10:03 am

  This upcoming Presidential election will be my daughter’s first opportunity to vote. Combine that with the fact that we live in Iowa, the caucus is upon us and she’s a registered Independent and you can only imagine the flood of mail and calls she’s received leading up to the caucus. You know what all the candidates are thinking…. fresh meat! So I was a little surprised and appalled at what front runner Mitt Romney sent her late last week. The front of Mitt’s postcard to my daughter.  Understated would be a nice way to describe it. The back of the postcard sent…

• 5 questions to define your 2012 game plan

  Drew McLellan

  30 Dec 2011 | 7:58 am

  Define your 2012 game plan Over the past month, I’ve been posing what I hope have been some head scratching, thought provoking questions to help you get ready for 2012. If you can answer these five questions — I think you’re going to have a solid foundation for your marketing efforts moving forward. In case you missed one, here are the five questions (with links to the whole post): What do you really sell? Who is your ideal customer? What’s the lifetime value of your customer? What’s your marketing foundation? What’s your legacy sentence? So — have…

• Marketing insights question: What’s your legacy sentence?

  Drew McLellan

  28 Dec 2011 | 6:59 am

  What’s your legacy sentence? Over the next few weeks, as we head towards 2012, I want to get you thinking about your business in a new/fresh way.  I’m going to ask a single question in each post — but I’m warning you, these aren’t slam dunk questions. I’m hopeful that as you ponder my question — it will give you some ideas for making 2012 a break out year for your organization.  If nothing else — this exercise should fine tune some of your marketing efforts. What’s your legacy sentence?   If a customer/potential buyer was going to describe your business in a…

• 

  The Future Buzz

• Broaden Your Digital Skills, Leave Specialization To Insects

  Adam Singer

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:24 am

  Avinash Kaushik, one of my favorite bloggers, recently published an unmissable post titled: The 2015 Digital Marketing Rule Book. Change or Perish. If you’re an Avinash fan you’ve likely already read it, but if not it’s worth a read (and a bookmark). I wanted to higlight one point he made that should resonate with Future Buzz readers: Multiplicity: Competencies, Campaigns, Systems, Everything. This is something we are most unprepared for. You can no longer be good at just one thing, or two. It is a 10-thing world now (and maybe a 20-thing world soon). If you are a catalog…

• How Social Technologies Can Smooth The Road To IPO

  Guest Author

  24 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am

  The following is a guest post from Deirdre Walsh. If you’d like to contribute thinking here, please read the guidelines. An IPO is not just one of the most important marketing events in a company’s history. It’s also one of the biggest tests of a company’s ability to orchestrate and manage communications, internally and externally. Going public means juggling all sorts of legal requirements, investor sensitivities, and strategic concerns—while still keeping a steady flow of information going out to a public eager for the latest news. The stakes are obviously huge, and the room for…

• Priorities: Curing Social Media Overload

  John Boitnott

  20 Jan 2012 | 11:27 am

  The following is a guest post from Future Buzz community member John Boitnott. If you’d like to contribute thinking here, please read the guidelines. Pinterest. Pinterest?! Really? Do I have to? That was what I first thought. I’ll admit it. The last thing I wanted to do was add another network to the long list of online communities I was already attempting to participate in. It’s tough enough just to send out a few tweets, speak in a few conversations on Facebook and update my Tumblr. Now they want me to join Pinterest. Let’s not even mention the mobile apps that have entered into…

• With PR Pros Like This, Who Needs Amateurs?

  Guest Author

  17 Jan 2012 | 11:16 am

  The following is a guest post by Jonathan Rick. If you’d like to contribute thinking here, please read the guidelines. Chris Abraham recently published a case study on the “art of writing the perfect blogger pitch.” There’s a lot to like here. For one, the time and thought Chris and his team devote to this esoterica are rare. For another, spilling your trade secrets takes guts. And yet, for a purportedly “perfect” pitch, the Abraham Harrison technique and approach leave much to be desired. Here’s why in web-friendly fashion, via a list with headings: 1.  Spam. In a classic…

• Random Thoughts On Reposts

  Adam Singer

  16 Jan 2012 | 11:09 am

  While I don’t think we suffer from information overload, I actually think we suffer from a more sinister problem. Curator overload. Not good curators like Robert Scoble or Jason Kottke. Those guys are worth their weight in gold, in fact we need more curators like them: they uncover unique, useful and obscure things before everyone else. And if they do repost they always add something. I’m talking about curator overload in the form of people taking popular content (usually images, but not exclusively) surfaced on sites like Google+, Reddit, or Stumble and reposting again (as if…

• 

  Squeak of the Week

• Our Favorite Typefaces of 2011

  Sean

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:50 pm

  After a long hiatus @Typographica is back with their annual review of the year in type.

• Eat Less. Give More.

  Sean

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:02 pm

  When you choose to @gohalfsies at a participating restaurant, you'll receive 1/2 a portion and pay full-price to help those in need.

• World Map of Social Networks

  Sean

  25 Jan 2012 | 1:01 pm

  800 million+ active users worldwide, @Facebook is the #1 social network in 127 of 136 countries analyzed as of December 2011.

• Method of Action: Color Matching

  Sean

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:20 am

  Test your ability to match color (hue, saturation, etc.).

• The 11 Most Innovative Online Retailers

  Moonshine

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:45 am

  Online MBA list the 11 most innovative Online Retailers.

• 

  ZK's Web Marketing Blog

• 4 Ways to Make Your E-Mail Marketing Mobile Friendly

  Jessica.Sanders

  28 Jan 2012 | 1:20 am

  E-mail marketing, with 92% of the U.S. internet users sending and reading e-mail, according to E-mail marketing no longer reaches your audience the way it used to. People used to sit at their Gateway desktops every night, dial into their Netscape and check e-mails while watching Family Matters. The story is now a bit different. One in five marketing e-mails is opened on a smart phone. This changes a few things for your e-mail marketing campaign. Though you may have to modify a bit, you can and should make it work in your favor. Give Your Newsletter a Mobile Lift More than ever, it’s now…

• 8 Effective Tips to Get More Traffic to your Blog

  jasmine

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:41 am

  “If You Build It, They Will Come” is the famous quote from the show having developed a blog does not automatically guarantee us any readers, no matter how attractive your blog is or how informative your contents are. You would need to put in internet traffic sources. The major internet traffic sources include search engines, social media websites and advertisements. But since I plan to discuss on free traffic sources, I will focus on the first two sources. Tip 1: Quality of Content First and foremost, you should Quality content is crucial in determining traffic to your blog. If a…

• One Surefire Way To Improve Your Writing

  Joe Pawlikowski

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:18 am

  Sometimes the most obvious advice is right in front of us. In fact, people might be screaming it at the tops of their lungs. But for some reason, we are deaf to these pleas. That is, until it’s laid out for us in the clearest, simplest possible terms. For that we’ll turn to ton of motivation, but it pays off in the end. It will imbue you with a sense of style and authority, two qualities necessary for any writer’s success. Here’s how to start your reading regiment. Remember King’s words here, too: “If you feel you need permission to do all the reading and…

• 5 Essential Upgrades your Blog needs for 2012

  LauraMoisei

  23 Jan 2012 | 11:52 am

  Your New Year’s resolution as a blogger surely sounded something like “I’ll take more care of my precious and make it grow like never before”. fresh plugins for WordPress? This means 14 out of the box features you’ve never experienced before. Technology is constantly evolving. New trends in graphic design and content writing are round the corner. And the readers can sense if your blog is keeping up to the times or not. So where to start upgrading? Here are a few tips. Polish your blog’s design and usability. - Most bloggers stop thinking about updates once…

• Good Morning Sunday: 8 David Ogilvy Quotes to Help You Write Better Blog Content

  ZK

  22 Jan 2012 | 7:21 am

  He dropped out of college. He had been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer. He knew nothing about marketing, had never written any copy. He was unemployed at 38 when he approached advertising agencies to hire him. No American agency hired him, however a London agency did hired him. Three year later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world. “The King Of Madison Avenue”, Ogilvy was know largely to help clients understand consumer insights. Real advertising or copy works best when based on consumer…

• 

  Interactive Marketing

• Snickers, Twitter, And The Problem Of Compliance

  Anthony Mullen

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:42 am

  The following is a guest post by Senior Research Associate James McDavid: When tweets from Katie Price (aka Jordan, a British glamour model) talking about the recently released Chinese GDP figures and the potential effects of large-scale quantitative easing on the liquidity of the bond markets began appearing in my Twitter stream early this week I was a little surprised. Not entirely shocked (I "accidentally" read her autobiography and she's undoubtedly a smart cookie and a successful businesswoman) but certainly a little confused. Had her account been hacked, had she decided that…

• New Analyst With The Interactive Marketing Team: Darika Ahrens

  Darika Ahrens

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:36 am

  After more than seven years in marketing, media, and tech -- four of which were running my own marketing and social media consultancy -- I've landed at Forrester as an analyst serving Interactive Marketing Professionals (EMEA) based in London. My role at Forrester will start to focus on content as content creation becomes more and more vital to the interactive marketer. Content will also apply in a multitude of ways to mobile, online video, search, and across interactive brand ecosystems. My first report is underway and will look at online video content in your marketing. If you have anything…

• I'm Back In NYC

  Nate Elliott

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:25 am

  I'm really pleased to announce that I've moved back to New York City. I actually started my interactive marketing career in New York almost 15 years ago, and I started my analyst career in New York nine years ago. But for the past seven years I've been plying my trade elsewhere: in London, Berlin, Vancouver, and then back in London again. Now, after half a career spent abroad, it's great to be back home. What does this mean for my research coverage? Not much, really. I've still got the same job on the same team, and I'll still be focused on the same topics I've…

• SOPA/PIPA - what really stunts the growth of the Digital Economy?

  Anthony Mullen

  19 Jan 2012 | 1:06 pm

  The recent furore about SOPA and PIPA has set me thinking afresh about my position on copyright ownership legislation. I myself suffer, albeit in a very small way, from the kind of pirates being targeted by the bills and regularly find my Indian classical arrangement of Silent Night being illegally sold by pirate sites in China and elsewhere. It's frustrating but my views on the topic are not simply to create the biggest hammer possible to crush the activity. What really stunts growth and adoption of the Digital Economy? There is something wider at work here beyond simply piracy. The short…

• Ham-Handed SOPA Loses Momentum, But This Issue Isn’t Dead

  Ari Osur

  19 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  So it appears that the progress of SOPA and PIPA is grinding to a halt, largely due to the massive online backlash inflamed by the influential new generation of digitally focused companies like Google, Amazon.com, and Facebook. For interactive marketers, this is a good thing. But protecting content creators from online piracy is fundamentally important and the movement is funded by deep pockets. If SOPA and PIPA are dead in their current incarnations, they're certain to resurface in another form. The new question for interactive marketers and the online community is whether that new form will…

• 

  SEO Book.com

• The Future of SEO Campaigns with Jon Henshaw & Taylor Pratt from Raven

  Eric Covino

  26 Jan 2012 | 12:50 pm

  Here is the audio if you'd prefer to listen :) Play File (mp3 link) Eric: All right, this is Eric over here at SEO Book and today I'm fortunate enough to be joined by Taylor Pratt and Jon Henshaw from Raven SEO Tools, thanks for joining us today guys. Taylor Pratt: Yeah, thanks for having us. Jon Henshaw: Yeah, good to see ya! Eric: All right, so we just have some questions here that I think our readers will appreciate and some of our members have been interested to know about as well. So, without further ado I'll jump right in here. Obviously you guys are essentially the creators of an…

• From AdSense to SpamSense to Spam Cents

  Aaron Wall

  20 Jan 2012 | 6:57 am

  Google announced they rolled out their anti-overly-aggressive-ads algorithm. They didn't give a specific % on how much of the above the fold content can be ads, but suggest using their browser preview tool. Using that tool on Google.com's search results would of course score it as a spam site, but for some small AdSense webmasters that avoided Panda, Google may have drew first blood. Much Quicker Updates With a limited number of recoveries nearly a year after Panda, the first bite might seem like a big concern, however the "too many ads" algorithm updates far more frequently than Panda does:…

• Is Google Selling Investors Private Search Data?

  Aaron Wall

  18 Jan 2012 | 7:29 am

  This is an interesting play: BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank by assets, is teaming up with Google to use its search engine results to provide advanced forecasts of hotel and tourism demand in the country, part of a plan to market real-time economic indicators to its clients. The bank and internet group will announce on Monday a scheme called the “BBVA-Google tourism activity in Spain indicator”. The first pilot project has focused on measuring advance demand for hotel stays and tourism interest in Spain by using search engine data. Private investors get to see that search data before…

• Was Google Caught in a Sting Operation in Kenya?

  Aaron Wall

  13 Jan 2012 | 7:04 am

  Wow...this is pretty...um...transparent. According to this post, Google was caught scraping Mocality, calling the listed businesses, soliciting that they move to Google "Get Your Business Online", disparaged the directory they were scraping in the client call, and then lied about having the permission of the directory they were scraping to try to con businesses into working with Google. A few select quotes: There are absolutely no costs, and this will be agreed on before it’s put on… No one will come and tell you like Mocality used to do, someone tells you it’s free and then they come…

• Scalable Link Outreach with Gmail and Boomerang

  Eric Covino

  10 Jan 2012 | 3:42 pm

  Sometimes it's the little things in life....Boomerang for Gmail (and Outlook) is an incredibly useful, lightweight, powerful link outreach app. Link building has a special place in the SEO industry. Beyond being one of the harder skill-sets to master and acquire, link building is likely the most important element of an SEO campaign. Link building can also be the most difficult job to: Scale internally and externally Train someone to do efficiently Outsource Hire someone for How to hire link builders and how to train them are certainly worthy of their own (upcoming) blog posts but this post is…

• 

  Community Building

• How independent is your online community?

  Martin Reed - Community Manager

  19 Jan 2012 | 3:37 pm

  A great community manager can build a great online community. That being said, a community shouldn’t be reliant on one person for its success. Yes, it needs a leader – but it shouldn’t depend on that leader for its daily survival. Here’s a quick and easy way you can determine just how independent your community is – find your community’s total post count, and figure out how many of those posts were made by you. When you’re building a new community from scratch, it will be largely reliant on its manager – you need to encourage the development of…

• Don’t draw attention to your community’s weaknesses

  Martin Reed - Community Manager

  11 Jan 2012 | 6:40 pm

  Movie-Vault does a great job at highlighting its weaknesses. Take a look at the homepage; as of Wednesday January 11th, in the left column we see 67 RSS readers and 55 Twitter followers. In the articles section, we are repeatedly reminded that nobody is commenting on the articles -there are four articles all with a large button proclaiming ’0 Comments’ (apart from one article lucky enough to attract the attention of a spammer). Furthermore, on every article we have the opportunity to be the first to ‘Like’ the content on Facebook. Not all online communities have the…

• Online communities should highlight quality, not quantity

  Martin Reed - Community Manager

  22 Nov 2011 | 3:33 pm

  Woot does a great job with its online community. Not only does the community content appear prominently on the homepage, the site highlights what it considers ‘quality posts’ – only posts it deems to be useful, interesting or otherwise valuable to the community make it to the homepage. Click to enlarge Furthermore, when you delve into a product discussion thread, things look a little different. Before you even see the discussion thread, you see the quality posts. Click to enlarge If you scroll down further, you get to the actual discussion thread. In a typical forum…

• Creating a mission statement for your online community

  Martin Reed - Community Manager

  5 Oct 2011 | 5:07 pm

  It’s impossible to be a great community manager if the community you manage doesn’t have a mission statement. Without a mission statement, how do you know what kind of culture you’re trying to develop? How do you know what kind of content should be encouraged? How do you know what kind of members you want to attract? A mission statement is critical if you want to build a successful online community. The mission statement will influence your community’s rules and guidelines. It will determine how you grow and it will remind you (and your members) of the…

• Hold your horses, community manager!

  Martin Reed - Community Manager

  17 Aug 2011 | 1:23 pm

  One of the most important traits of a good community manager is patience. You need to be patient with members, you need to be patient when encouraging relationship building and you need to be patient waiting for conversations to develop. Unfortunately, patience is rarely seen on the list of desirable skills for a community manager (normally because employers want quick results). Consequently, I come across a large number of online communities where the community manager is effectively running the show. As a community manager, you shouldn’t be at the top of the ‘Top Posters’…

• 

  BlueVerse

• Simple Ways To Make Money With Facebook

  Ryan

  2 Jan 2012 | 7:18 am

  Online Business is an ocean of opportunity to all Internet marketing aspirants. You can make money online in various ways and you don’t need to be an IT geek or a millionaire to start your own web business. Plus, having a website or a blog is certainly not a requirement. All you need is a Facebook [...]Thank you for subscribing to Blueverse!Simple Ways To Make Money With Facebook

• 3 Ways SEMRush Can Make Your Life Easier AND Make You More Money

  Ryan

  30 Dec 2011 | 7:13 pm

  I’ve been meaning to write this review for some time now. About 4 months to be exact. I’ve had a hard time getting going on it because I just couldn’t see the any real value add in SEMRush over their competitors. Sure they do some of the basic stuff well, but their interface feels less [...]Thank you for subscribing to Blueverse!3 Ways SEMRush Can Make Your Life Easier AND Make You More Money

• Testing the Waters for Blog Ideas

  Ryan

  24 Nov 2011 | 11:41 pm

  Once you really start getting into the practice of blogging, you start to see blog and post ideas for everything. With the rise in popularity of niche blogs, this is only getting truer. Particularly if you have a fairly good number of specialized interests, it can be extremely difficult to determine which interests would make [...]Thank you for subscribing to Blueverse!Testing the Waters for Blog Ideas

• How To Make Money With Amazon Associates

  Ryan

  17 Oct 2011 | 6:18 pm

  It’s fair to say that Amazon had a heavy hand in pioneering the affiliate landscape with it’s Amazon Associates program. In a nutshell, Amazon Associates offers you the ability to get paid by Amazon simply by referring buyers over to their site. Most people know of Amazon’s affiliate program, but most don’t realize the power [...]Thank you for subscribing to Blueverse!How To Make Money With Amazon Associates

• Dumb Users Complain About Appalling Changes To A Free Service

  Ryan

  26 Sep 2011 | 12:18 pm

  On Wednesday, Facebook announced what they built up to be monumental changes to their service that was supposed to blow my socks off, redefine innovation in social networking, and massively one up the competition. Based on the hype I was seeing, you’d think they’d discovered the cure for cancer. I was massively disappointed. Course I’m [...]Thank you for subscribing to Blueverse!Dumb Users Complain About Appalling Changes To A Free Service

• 

  Tribble Ad Agency

• Bitcoin Madness – Price Doubles in 72 hours – Rumors lead to more increases

  TheFounder

  6 Jan 2012 | 12:19 pm

  The price of bitcoins start spiking roughly a week ago, then over the past 3 days they literally doubled. Of course there are rumors, with the most wide spread being “we’re in another bubble” such as another June / July 2011 where bitcoins hit briefly $35 dollars before they crashed in price to 2.x levels. The other reason stated for the price increase is that bitcoin mining levels are close to a reset of 25 added instead of 50 added by the end of the year. This means new bitcoins are about to be twice as hard to obtain. This of course is logical and if demand was similar…

• Media Cheat Sheet For Ron Paul

  TheFounder

  30 Dec 2011 | 10:03 am

  National Main Stream Media Checklist, Must follow below guidelines: 1 – Do not mention the word Ron Paul, or if you must bury the mention on page 2 or lower of the article as long as he is polling below a critical threshold. 2 – If Ron Paul does exceed the threshold, do not write any articles about him unless they contain the words “racist newsletters” above the fold in the articles. Do not mention the fact that the decades old articles were not written by him anywhere on page 1 of the article. 3 – If Ron Paul does win Iowa, dismiss the entire state as non…

• The Pottsville Plan

  TheFounder

  21 Nov 2011 | 5:52 pm

  What is the Pottsville Plan? Why do I keep hearing about it? Below is the step one plan. It’s a single step that can and will fix the economy with one simple step. It doesn’t require a bailout, it doesn’t require another stimulus, it doesn’t raise taxes. In fact it doesn’t add to the deficit at all. Economically it’s sound, financially it’s sound, environmentally it’s sound. We all know that the root of the problem is the housing crisis. It limits mobility, it limits peoples ability to find jobs in other areas (since they can’t sell their…

• Inflation : Redbox jacking up rates 20% – 27% in Maryland

  TheFounder

  27 Oct 2011 | 4:24 pm

  New Daily DVD Rental Price Redbox is making an announcement about its prices today, and we want to make sure that you hear it from us first. Starting on Monday, October 31, the daily rental charge for DVDs will change to $1.20 a day.* The price change is due to rising operating expenses, including new increases in debit card fees. Daily rental charges for Blu-ray(TM) Discs and video games won’t change.** Additional-day charges for DVDs rented before 10/31 won’t be affected, either. In order to make the transition easier, Redbox will discount the first day of all online DVD rentals…

• NASA updates AG5 2011 – Earth might be hit in less than 3 decades

  TheFounder

  20 Oct 2011 | 12:19 pm

  Nasa quietly updated their results for the most recent survey of AG5 2011 . We reported on AG5 2011 back in May when it’s mass and Impact threat was much lower at 1 in 3,570 … now it’s updated to 1 in 625 chance. The updated impact threat went completely under the radar without NASA making any announcement and the media completely ignoring it. 28 years. That’s it people. We have 28 years to deflect it. Based on our current technological level we needed to start planning and spending money in a huge way to deflect it yesterday. Each day that passes it will be harder and…

• 

  Advertising Lab

• Future: The Pirate Bay Loads Up on Physical Goods

  24 Jan 2012 | 5:25 pm

  Not science fiction anymore, this: "Once chairs and other things become content, the prospect of rampant chair piracy turns from unimaginable into very real."  The Pirate Bay is opening a new category for the new kind of piratable stuff: "We believe that the next step in copying will be made from digital form into physical form. It will be physical objects. Or as we decided to call them: Physibles. Data objects that are able (and feasible) to become physical. We believe that things like three dimensional printers, scanners and such are just the first step. We believe that in the nearby…

• In Memoriam: Kodak Scenic Spots

  19 Jan 2012 | 12:50 pm

  I took my first Kodak Photo Spot (wiki) pictures at my spring break trip to the Disney World in the mid-1990s, and through all these years I've never stopped admiring their genius. It's a marketing idea whose elegance has rarely been emulated. I love how organically spreadable the signs were, how they subtly nudged you to spend another scarce frame of  film, and how they made people's lives a little bit better by giving their memories just the right composition. Of course today the Kodak Picture Spot is something that could probably be built straight into the digital…

• Spy Plane As Propaganda Tchotchke

  17 Jan 2012 | 5:06 pm

  An Iranian company Aaye Art Group ("designer and manufacturer of artistic and cultural goods") is making replicas of the American RQ-170 drone aircraft downed in Iran last month:  "Most of the toys, which come in several colors and are made of Iranian plastic, have already been snapped up by Iranian government organizations. [...] The firm is now making 2,000 of them a day. "  (Washington Post) If you want to buy one but are affected by the embargo, you could pick up a similar one on eBay.

• Augmented Reality Glasses from Lumus

  15 Jan 2012 | 2:46 am

  Ever dreamed of watching a video or a favorite TV show on the go?  Well, aren't you lucky: Daily Mail: "Translucent TV: Lumus' PD-18-2 is a set of spectacles that can beam high-quality images directly into your eyes but allows the user to see through the images too." (This is Lumus.)

• Memorable Metal Plaques From Impact Signs

  10 Jan 2012 | 11:04 pm

  This is a sponsored post. The many uses for fine metal plaques are as varied as those who commission them. Whether they're intended for individual recognition, as a treasured memorial, or to identify a landmark or location, customized plaques make noteworthy markers. Impact Signs creates metal plaques with distinction. Shapes of any style are available, and in most cases, turnaround is complete within eight business days; no extra fees apply. With exacting standards and superior services, Impact Signs is a leading source for metal plaques. Abundant choices make it easy to create a unique and…

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  PERSONALIZE MEDIA

• Are you Experiential? Designing for the Pervasive Entertainment Era – Beyond 2012 Wired

  Gary

  1 Jan 2012 | 4:55 pm

  Originally published (& cross translated?) Oct 2011 in Wired Magazine ‘Change Accelerators‘ by Gary Hayes 5 of 5 “Anyone up to battle aliens at the local museum tonight?” It might sound like a farfetched idea at the moment, but this question may soon be another option rather than the old invitation to go see the latest 3D [...]

• Through Rose-Tinted 5D Glasses – Situated Augmented Reality Entertainment – Beyond 2012 Wired

  Gary

  31 Dec 2011 | 4:48 pm

  Originally published Oct 2011 in Wired Magazine ‘Change Accelerators‘ by Gary Hayes 4 of 5 When planning your next holiday to London with the fam, don’t forget to sync up your iGlasses and load up the London experience packs. On arrival, slip on your augmented reality sunglasses and take a look around: Roman-era London appears [...]

• Personalized Entertainment – Social, Transmedia Storytelling – Beyond 2012 Wired

  Gary

  30 Dec 2011 | 4:36 pm

  Originally published Oct 2011 in Wired Magazine ‘Change Accelerators‘ by Gary Hayes Grab some nibbles, pour yourself a drink, and sit down. You’re now ready to immerse yourself in a TV show. And then you notice that CSI Miami is placing Facebook photos of your aunt, uncle, and cousins onto the desk of a perp. [...]

• Stories-To-Go. Locative Entertainment Futures – Beyond 2012 Wired

  Gary

  29 Dec 2011 | 4:25 pm

  Originally published Oct 2011 in Wired Magazine ‘Change Accelerators‘ by Gary Hayes 2 of 5 The alarm rings. Get out of bed, have a shower, dress, breakfast, grab your briefcase, and bus ticket and out the door. Now start RUNNING! Zombies are chasing you. Or is it pirates? Or the Mafia? Games and stories have [...]

• Sensory Futures, Experiential Entertainment – Beyond 2012 Wired

  Gary

  28 Dec 2011 | 4:22 pm

  Originally published Oct 2011 in Wired Magazine ‘Change Accelerators‘ by Gary Hayes 1 of 5 We all do it.  We sit in our local multiplex waiting for the latest blockbuster film to start. The room darkens and minutes later your world has disappeared. The seats and people around you evaporate and for the next hour [...]

• 

  Banner Blog V2

• Agency Christmas Cards 2011

  9 Jan 2012 | 9:24 am

  It took a lot longer than expected and the page is so heavy with Youtube videos I warn you now to be patient but 180 agency and brand Christmas Ecards await you. If we have missed your agencies card post a comment in the article and we'll update the page near the end of January.

• Deadmau5 & Nokia Projection Porn

  3 Dec 2011 | 8:48 pm

  This is just as much an ad for Deadmau5 as it is the new Nokia Lumia but either way it shows that if you are going to throw your hat into the projection ring it's go big or go home. They even released a teaser which got 200,000 views. Read about the logistics behind the production here on Nokia's site. The company behind the work is Drive Productions.

• Toyota Yaris: 'It's a Car' Retro Game Series: Paperboy

  3 Dec 2011 | 7:30 pm

  See the others in the series: Marble Madness & Sonic. These banners produced by Soap Creative.

• Toyota Yaris: 'It's a Car' Retro Game Series: Sonic

  3 Dec 2011 | 7:13 pm

  See the others in the series: Marble Madness & Paperboy. These banners produced by Soap Creative.

• Toyota Yaris: 'It's a Car' Retro Game Series

  3 Dec 2011 | 6:34 pm

  All this for 44k! Interesting that the McDonalds student campaign previously featured also had a hidden game in it too. The entire Yaris "It's a Car" campaign is refreshing for the industry and if it wasn't for the Ford Focus Doug campaign it would be my fave car campaign for the year. Loved the Yaris Unboxing. Both campaigns feature writers from TV and film. Hats off to the creatives for calling in the big guns of LOLs. These banners produced by Soap Creative. And yes That's my agency but my comments on the campaign come unbiased :)

• 

  Global Neighbourhoods

• Yahoo CEOs: less vision than Ray Charles

  shelisrael

  4 Jan 2012 | 3:34 pm

  Yahoo! has announced appointment of a new CEO: Scott Thompson. Who, you might ask? Well he’s a guy who lifted PayPal from a billion-dollar subsidiary of eBay into a multibillion dollar entity. What does he plan to do, you might ask. Well, he doesn’t yet. In a conference call with press and analysts he kept emphasizing that he just got there and he needs time. That’s precisely what Carol Bartz said for the years during which she was at the helm, watching the Yahoo ship slowly and steadily sink below the sea of change that the company has ignored for more than a decade. How…

• My Favorite Books of 2011

  shelisrael

  31 Dec 2011 | 12:41 pm

  It’s the last day of an odd year and many people are reflecting on life. Some of my friends are using blogs to write about the death of the blog. Others are reviewing the great moments in technology or social media in 2011. But too me, there were very few truly great moments in technology. We have as an industry evolved from a period of great disruption and are now focused on refinement. This may be good for users and business, but it is pretty boring for writers, or so it seems to me. So, I thought I would dedicate my last post of the old year to one of my great passions: books. I read…

• Is EMail Dead?

  shelisrael

  20 Dec 2011 | 11:13 am

  John Naughton, writing in the Guardian has a good piece based on email he received from Mark Zuckerberg, forecasting the death of email. It will be replaced, if Zuck has his way, with Facebook’s new Messenger service. Naughton does a good job of refuting the self-serving prophesy, but I think there are more reason why the imminent death of email is less vision and more hallucination. Naughhton is wrong on one point. Predicting the death of email is not new. I’ve been hearing such forecasts ever since blogging and social media started gaining momentum. Dr. Danah Boyd, the a…

• A Jew’s View of Christmas

  shelisrael

  17 Dec 2011 | 10:48 am

  Wife Paula, dog Brewster & some bearded guy. Photo by Shel [Note: I first posted this in December 2003 and have reposted it almost every December since. I hope you enjoy it.] I grew up in the 1950s in New Bedford, Mass., an overwhelmingly Christian city. Christmas was the biggest day of the year.  Schools were closed. Parents enjoyed rare paid days off. Often, snow coated the ground. Churches stood in every neighborhood and their bell towers would chime carols all day long. I was a Jewish kid and I knew this day was not for me, But, I just couldn’t help feel the excitement. My…

• Needed: An Annual Tech Conference Calendar

  shelisrael

  12 Dec 2011 | 3:53 pm

  It’s December and like a great many professionals in the tech industry, I’m trying to determine what events to plan and budget what I do for next year. There are a great many people looking at the same time/place/budget issues, ranging from home office folk like me, to C-elevel global enterprise executives. It surprises me how incredibly difficult it is to gather what I need. I asked about this on my social networks, and three sites were frequently recommended: Plancast, Upcoming.com and Gary’s Guide. Each of these sites is useful if you want to find a meetup, tweetup or…

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  Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image

• A World With No Keyboard And No Mouse

  Mitch Joel

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:16 pm

  How's that user experience working out for you? I often ridicule the masses (I know, that's very snide of me). When computers were first introduced the mantra was that, "screens are not easy to read or work on." Forget the fact that many dismissed the power of a mobile phone ("is your life that important that you need to make calls when you're not at home or at the office?"), and let's not forget the many people who would often say, "I could never type with my thumbs." To this day, there are still people who don't see the value in platforms like Facebook, YouTube…

• How To Do Everything Wrong In A Presentation

  Mitch Joel

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:55 am

  Watch this video... Brutal (and funny)... I know. I was unaware of the book, Habitudes For Communicators, so Dr. Tim Elmore gets high marks for not only cutting through the clutter, but for creating something so funny (because it's true). What's scary is that this video (in all of its humor) is a basic round-up of about ninety-percent of the presentations I attend (I'm sure your experience is similar). The tools are here for us to get better. If you want to make a difference in your world (and the world of your co-workers), please pass this video around, watch it... and then go out and read…

• And In The End...

  Mitch Joel

  25 Jan 2012 | 2:20 pm

  Do you have a morbid fascination with the end? I'm not sure why (but I'm pretty certain that a psychiatrist would love to figure it out of with me), but I often think about the end. I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm scared about how my life will end (which is in direct relation with the many issues I have around control) and that I don't want it to end any time soon. There are plenty more things that I want to accomplish in my life and I often play the "which would you rather game" when it comes to deciding between family and the rest of my life (in case you're wondering, family…

• Does This Blog Make Me Look Fat?

  Mitch Joel

  24 Jan 2012 | 12:49 pm

  Is it just a question of getting the facts straight when it comes to our media? What Blogging brought forth is the notion that opinion lies neatly next to news (and that it is sometimes very difficult to tell the difference between the two). In fact, it's worth arguing that opinion is the new news. Without looking at the political sphere for examples (you get more than enough of that here on The Huffington Post and on other websites, news outlets and Blogs),what does it take create great media? The heart of the matter. Emotion is key to driving interest. Human beings are creatures of habits.

• Thinking Smarter

  Mitch Joel

  23 Jan 2012 | 10:18 pm

  I've been thinking a lot about thinking lately. I know, that's very "meta" of me. When was the last time you spent five minute thinking about not only how you learn, but where it's all taking place? People often laugh when they hear that I am reading all of my books exclusively on my iPhone with the Amazon Kindle and Apple iBooks apps. In fact, most people scoff at the notion (as if I'm doing some kind of retinal damage or that it's heresy). The truth is that technology has not only facilitated our ability to learn but it has sped it up. I read over thirty books last year,…

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  Marketo B2B Marketing and Sales Blogs

• Tying Facebook Leads Directly to Revenue: A Marketo Example

  Jason Miller

  25 Jan 2012 | 2:22 pm

  by Jason Miller Want to know the ROI of social media? So do we. With our latest Facebook campaign, we are doing just that; tying leads generated by Facebook directly into our revenue pipeline via Marketo. How did we do it? We developed a custom Facebook application that generates a special offer and is powered by a Marketo form. Sticking with our Revenue Rockstar theme, we designed three limited edition “Marketing Rockstar” decals. Visitors to our Facebook page are prompted to “Like” our page which then lets them select their favorite decal. Once they make their selection a form pops…

• How to Measure Engagement of Your Thought Leadership Program

  Jason Miller

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:17 am

  by Jason Miller I’m pleased to welcome Heidi Bullock, Sr. Director of Marketing at Ingenuity Systems as a guest blogger. She discusses thought leadership and how she developed a successful campaign to overcome the challenge of accurately measuring her thought leadership efforts. For b-to-b organizations, thought leadership is a critical component for driving awareness, sparking excitement, and creating engagement within a very skeptical market.  While thought leadership has always been part of Ingenuity Systems’ marketing mix, in the past it had never been a formal program.  This…

• Can B2Bs Use Social Media to Improve Marketing Effectiveness?

  Maria Pergolino

  19 Jan 2012 | 11:42 am

  by Maria Pergolino Have you ever stopped to think which segment of marketers hold the bag on marketing effectiveness when it comes to social media?  Many might think that B2Cs clearly leverage social better than B2Bs.  However, the numbers show that B2Bs are making up ground. A study by Accenture found that while B2Bs lag in integrating social media into marketing plans, they are realizing the value of social media use.  Nearly two thirds of marketing execs questioned said they believe social media is an important way to reach customers. Even though there hasn’t been a huge explosion in…

• How to Use LinkedIn to Generate and Qualify B2B Leads

  Jason Miller

  18 Jan 2012 | 12:43 pm

  by Jason Miller LinkedIn is often considered a jobseeker-only social media platform. As a result, B2B marketers sometimes overlook the professional social media site’s ability to support lead generation and qualification. LinkedIn enables brands to offer bite size chunks of content that support business objectives. To better understand LinkedIn’s value, it’s useful to understand its usage patterns. At first glance, LinkedIn’s main usage appears to be during the workweek across the U.S., with less activity on the weekends. This is in contrast to Twitter and Facebook, which seem to have…

• 5 Tips for a Social Media Profile Extreme Makeover

  Jason Miller

  17 Jan 2012 | 12:04 pm

  by Jason Miller It can be difficult to stand out in the fast paced world of social media, but having a well branded cohesive design across your social profiles can help differentiate your business from the masses. Doing so will help reinforce your brand with existing customers and give a fantastic first impression to new prospects. We just finished a complete social media profile redesign across all of our channels and we are thrilled with the results. Here are five tips to help your business do the same. Have a running theme – It’s a good idea to unify your social profiles with a…

• 

  hobo

• Award Winning Think Visibility 7 – March 3rd 2012 (Leeds)

  Shaun Anderson

  18 Jan 2012 | 8:40 am

  I will be propping up the bar and keeping my room in order at Award Winning Think Visibility 7 – March 3rd 2012 (Leeds). You should go – it is quite excellent and lots of REAL experienced nice people to meet at the conference and the parties. Wikipedia down, Reddit down, wordpress.com blacked out, there was [...] Check out - Award Winning Think Visibility 7 – March 3rd 2012 (Leeds) This REALLY IS just about your last chance to download your free seo ebook and linkbuilding guide for beginners: Hobo SEO Book For Beginners Hobo Linkbuilding Guide For Beginners Search Engine…

• Topseos Complaints Awards 2012

  Shaun Anderson

  17 Jan 2012 | 7:47 pm

  (This will be my last ever post on Topseos. I have also been told I am not allowed to play on Twitter today as I have excel spreadsheets to work.) When I wrote my post about Tops SEOs recently (which was retweeted some very influential seo) and questioned the reporting by the Drum Magazine in Scotland, [...] Check out - Topseos Complaints Awards 2012 This REALLY IS just about your last chance to download your free seo ebook and linkbuilding guide for beginners: Hobo SEO Book For Beginners Hobo Linkbuilding Guide For Beginners Search Engine Optimisation by Hobo! Originally shared by Hobo SEO…

• Lady Gaga on Google Plus

  Shaun Anderson

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:20 am

  Marketing Land have posted that Lady Gaga is on Google Plus – it really might be time to get on there, if you are not. Although – don’t try searching Google for it – at the moment anyway – well, I couldn’t find it. Ironic – but then again Google does get a kicking for manipulating the [...] Check out - Lady Gaga on Google Plus This REALLY IS just about your last chance to download your free seo ebook and linkbuilding guide for beginners: Hobo SEO Book For Beginners Hobo Linkbuilding Guide For Beginners Search Engine Optimisation by Hobo! Originally…

• Opinion: TopSEOs Sewage Leaks To Scotland via The Drum Magazine

  Shaun Anderson

  16 Jan 2012 | 1:14 pm

  TopSEOs Sewage Leaks To Scotland via @thedrum hobo.im/xBQQzf — Shaun Anderson (@Hobo_Web) January 16, 2012   Man. I was so disappointed when I saw the Drum Magazine today – surely recognised as one of Scotland’s – and the UK’s –  top marketing and advertising publications – at least it used to be (or I had that impression) [...] Check out - Opinion: TopSEOs Sewage Leaks To Scotland via The Drum Magazine This REALLY IS just about your last chance to download your free seo ebook and linkbuilding guide for beginners: Hobo SEO Book For Beginners Hobo…

• Ifttt – Automatically Post Blog Posts To Twitter, Linkedin & Facebook

  Shaun Anderson

  15 Jan 2012 | 6:51 am

  IFTTT stands for If This, Then That, and the name is practically self-explanatory. If one of the several triggers you setup happens, then the service activates whatever multiple commands you designate When I publish a post on Hobo, ideally I want it to automatically be shared to the Hobo Facebook page, Linkedin, Google Plus and Twitter profiles. [...] Check out - Ifttt – Automatically Post Blog Posts To Twitter, Linkedin & Facebook This REALLY IS just about your last chance to download your free seo ebook and linkbuilding guide for beginners: Hobo SEO Book For Beginners Hobo…

• 

  Jaffe Juice

• It's Time to Evolve: Introducing Evol8tion and Startups for Brands

  Joseph Jaffe

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:11 pm

  OK, so it only took me a year to finally announce what I've been up to, but trust me...it was worth the wait.  It is with great excitement and anticipation that I can share my latest venture: it's called Evol8tion - pronounced Evolootion as in Evolution, but with an "8" which represents infinity (or two "o" 's on their side). You get the drift... Evol8tion is an innovation agency that puts brands back in control by reverse engineering the startup to create technology solutions to business problems. Let me explain: Innovation Agency = Innovation is typically associated with product…

• Cracks in the Bricks 'n Mortar

  Joseph Jaffe

  12 Dec 2011 | 8:45 am

  File this one somewhere between Holy Sh1t! and Who gives a Shit... When you see a headline that reads, "Amazon will pay shoppers $5 to walk out of stores empty-handed," it definitely warrants a further read. Turns out Amazon was in fact offering consumers $5 off if they compare prices using their mobile app during a one day promotion, which took place on December 10th. Actually it was 5% off or up to $5 on a maximum of 3 items. So yes....lots of conditions, but this is a probe being launched to scour the realms of possibilities and potential. Or of course, if you're a traditional retailer…

• Jaffe Juice #158 - Chatting with Mitch Joel about Ideas, Time and Money

  Joseph Jaffe

  12 Dec 2011 | 7:20 am

  In this monthly debate, Mitch and I have a meaty conversation about one of the hottest and endless topics in the marketing world: how to correctly value, price and position ideas. It all stems from an article which Scott Montgomery wrote in Ad Age, where he attempted to debunk the myth about how long idea generation takes and on a parallel path, how ideas should be valued and compensated as such. We also open on a brief conversation about blogging, authentic voices and being re-certified. Join the Conversation dammit (it's not a cliche when I coined the term and wrote a book on…

• Revenge of Startup Nation

  Joseph Jaffe

  21 Nov 2011 | 5:01 pm

  Matt Straz just wrote a short and succinct post on Mediapost's Online Spin, giving 6 reasons why you *shouldn't* join a startup. In short, the idea is that you should do it for the right reasons, as opposed to: You probably won't get rich The odds are against you You will work really hard Things could get ugly You may have to buy your own drinks Someone has to work at the big companies One comment by Kurt Ohare adds 4 more: Don't join unless you are passionate about the product Don't expect a normal work-life (paraphrasing) if you're not a self-starter, then this isn't for you i.e. if you…

• Jaffe Juice #157 - Chatting with Author Geoff Ramsey about Digital Impact

  Joseph Jaffe

  21 Nov 2011 | 4:22 pm

  I recently sat down with co-founder and CEO of eMarketer, Geoff Ramsey to talk about his new book, Digital Impact. In addition to being an industry veteran, he's also an all round nice guy and friend. It was really great to catch up with an "old timer" about the evolution of the new media space. Buy the book here. @jaffejuice on Twit-tah. Listen to it LIVE (left click) or download it HERE (right click) Subscribe to the show via iTunes here

• 

  Neuromarketing

• Time Warner Opens NYC Neuromarketing Lab

  Roger Dooley

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:42 am

  Time Warner Inc. is opening their new “Medialab” at its New York City headquarters. The media giant expects to “generate valuable insights into consumer behavior, evolving media habits and industry trends across all of Time Warner’s businesses, brands and advertising partners.” The lab sounds like one of the more diverse facilities dedicated to this kind [...]   CommentsCommentsRelated StoriesPut Your Customer in the Ad!Solving the “Invulnerable Customer” ProblemStarbucks Loyalty Fail

• Put Your Customer in the Ad!

  Roger Dooley

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:05 am

  In my direct mail days, we used personalization whenever possible. Starting a letter with “Dear Roger” instead of “Dear Friend” responds better every time (if the recipient’s name is Roger, that is!). A sweepstakes that uses a personalized address message like, “Imagine our Prize Patrol ringing the doorbell at 123 Shady Circle,” will garner more [...]   CommentsVery cool, Daniel, and exactly the kind of thing I was talking ... by Roger DooleyThis advertisement not only uses your face, but it log's into ... by Daniel GonzalezPlus 7 more...Related…

• Solving the “Invulnerable Customer” Problem

  Roger Dooley

  19 Jan 2012 | 7:22 am

  Often, consumers don’t buy products because even though they recognize a risk exists, they don’t think they will be victims. The belief may be irrational, but they see themselves as invulnerable. So, they don’t buy life or disability insurance, they don’t invest in healthcare products products or services, they don’t join a gym, or take [...]   CommentsYes, there is a high-ticket product that baby boomers are ... by Margaret J. KingHi Roger, Great post! This is one of the key issues that we ... by JenPlus 8 more...Related StoriesPut Your Customer in the…

• Starbucks Loyalty Fail

  Roger Dooley

  17 Jan 2012 | 7:08 am

  Starbucks knows a thing or two about loyalty. I’m a Gold Card member, and enjoy the free refills as well as the periodic free drinks I accrue by using it. (Green Card members get the refill benefit, but not the free beverage after every 15 purchases. In addition, Gold Card members get a personalized card [...]   CommentsThere is such a competition now. In order to keep its clients, ... by Anna[...] Starbucks Loyalty Fail [Neuroscience Marketing] 0 ... by Build a Loyalty Program—Just Don’t Be Like Starbucks - Printing HubPlus 8 more...Related StoriesWhen Loyalty Points Beat…

• Upcoming Appearances – Early 2012

  Roger Dooley

  16 Jan 2012 | 6:42 am

  The first quarter is shaping up as a busy time for neuromarketing speaking gigs – I’ve booked a few more than usual to publicize my new book, Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing. For those who can’t attend one of the conferences, there’s one free webcast this week (from the American [...]   CommentsComments

• 

  Christopher S. Penn : Awaken Your Superhero

• Why social media is like ranch dressing

  Christopher S Penn

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:38 am

  Have you ever wondered what the heck ranch dressing is? I have. It’s very tasty stuff, making almost anything better. According to Wikipedia, it was first invented in 1954 by the Henson family at their dude ranch, the Hidden Valley Ranch. Eventually, it became so popular that in 1972, it was bought by Clorox (yes, the bleach maker) and made commercially available. Internet-savvy cooks have managed to replicate the original recipe as follows: 1 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 teaspoon dried chives 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder…

• 4 signs that you’re not actually a marketing ninja

  Christopher S Penn

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:16 am

  “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride Marketers love hyperbole, and when we ran out of superlatives like guru, expert, and maven, we turned to sillier superlatives like ninja. However, like many foreign loan-words, you have to be careful about using it. Here are 4 signs you’re not actually a ninja, and therefore probably shouldn’t use the word in your marketing efforts unless you want to be laughed at a whole lot. 1. You can’t spell or say ninjutsu correctly. In fact, the Japanese…

• 6 AM in St. Louis

  Christopher S Penn

  25 Jan 2012 | 5:24 am

  Two years ago I was wandering around St. Louis at 6 AM before one of the Social Fresh conferences. I had my digital camera with me, and was looking for interesting photos to take. Right around 6:15, I saw the sun start to come up. A look to the east revealed the reds and golds of a spectacular sunrise about to make its way over the horizon, even if obscured by all the local buildings. Amidst the urban clutter was the landmark St. Louis archway. A look to the west revealed my hotel, all 28 stories of it. Sunrise was on the way. If you’ve ever done any photography, you know that moments…

• Never make this professional speaking mistake!

  Christopher S Penn

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:08 am

  4:45 AM, January 21. The alarm shouted its usual cheerful “WAKE UP” to me in my hotel room, urging me to get out of bed in time to get to the airport for my flight home. I groggily packed the remaining bits and pieces of my luggage and stumbled downstairs to the taxi stand for a cab back to Hartsfield Airport. The weather forecast in Boston said heavy snow, which might mean some delays. I stepped out into the foggy, rainy Atlanta morning and headed for the airport, expecting to be home right around 1 PM, plenty of time to enjoy the day. 5:40 AM. Getting through security was a…

• Ask on G+ redefines be there before the sale

  Christopher S Penn

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:18 am

  A long time ago, Chris Brogan coined the phrase “be there before the sale” with regard to social media. Google takes that yet another step further with the revelation of “Ask on Google+” to search results. Here’s the scenario: you search Google along your line of inquiry and don’t find anything super helpful. When you don’t, you see at the bottom of page 1 results a link asking if you want to ask your friends on Google+. Click it, the box appears, and you ask your network. Think about the implications of this as a marketer. Why bother going to Page 2…

• 

  SEOgadget.co.uk

• Get More International Links With This Infographic Linkbuilding Tactic

  OliverM

  25 Jan 2012 | 5:54 am

  In my last post (Infographic Clean-up as Link Building Outreach) I mentioned that I’d be experimenting with various approaches to acquiring infographic links from websites that publish in languages other than English. This post is an update on my success to date and how you might replicate it to squeeze even more juice from those discarded infographics. This process has (so far) gathered us and our clients additional links from China, Japan, Ukraine, Russia, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Brazil and Mexico. This isn’t all that surprising considering infographics…

• Content Auditing for Link Builders – Why You Should Do It, Tips, and a Spreadsheet

  Kristi

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  When it comes to link building, one of the toughest challenges I ran into was clients who only wanted links built to specific pages on their site. Sometimes it was just one specific page – their homepage, and other times it would be to their homepage plus various product pages. Pages that no one really would want to naturally link to unless they were already buying the products. The best link building clients were the ones that were open to link building towards any of their pages, including and especially to their great content. There is nothing easier than link building for a website…

• Tips for Making Your After Sale Emails Work Harder

  danielbutler

  20 Jan 2012 | 3:20 am

  At the Gadgetplex we recently ordered some awesome new monitors, and following our purchase received the below email: Dear Richard Baxter Thank you for your recent purchase from domain.com. We hope the experience met your expectations. We always strive to offer the highest quality service to all of our customers, and we rely on your feedback to help us achieve this. We’ve partnered with the independent review site, Trustpilot to collect reviews from our customers. We hope you’ll take a couple of minutes to write a review of your experience with us. All reviews, good and bad, will…

• How to Manage an Awesome Copywriting Team (Part Three)

  Ally Biring

  13 Jan 2012 | 5:23 am

  Copywriting Game Plan, Team Management and Selection Managing a copywriting team is a tricky business; each copywriter is an individual, has their own specific needs, nuances and their own style. It is your job as their manager to understand them fully, know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and know what they will excel at and where there is room for improvement. Most of all get to know them. Game Plan You have now selected your new copywriters from the trials and they just as much as you are eager to get started. So what do you do? Do you ask them how many articles they want and pay…

• Why You Should Supercharge Your Video Strategy & How to Do It

  James Carson

  12 Jan 2012 | 4:33 am

  Introductory video: Video vs. Copy & Infographics Since users only read an average of 28% of words on web pages, we can conclude that copy just isn’t a great conveyer of information online for human users (although I’ve had to use it along with videos in this post – I hope you read it all!). Copy’s weakness is one of the reasons for the infographic boom, yet video can go further than infographics at conveying information quickly. Consequently, I’m surprised videos aren’t used more widely in SEO. They are probably the most distributable form of content online…

• 

  The Michel Fortin Blog

• Get More Done Faster With These 6 Tips

  Michel Fortin

  17 Jan 2012 | 9:51 am

  The other day, one of my coaching students emailed me about his dilemma — something that’s all too common in our business. “Too many times,” he said, “I’ve known what I needed to do, and I always end up waiting weeks on end to do it.” He asked, “How do you cope with procrastination?” Procrastination is indubitably the copywriter’s most stifling problem. Since our job is fraught with deadlines, procrastination can be one of the costliest problems in the copywriting business. It can murder your reputation… … And your…

• My 2012 Predictions Are In…

  Michel Fortin

  29 Dec 2011 | 11:57 am

  Ah, yes. The new year is right around the corner. I’m no futurist by any stretch, but I do observe and notice trends. And I love talking about how these trends are going to shape the business world. So in keeping with that famed tradition on MichelFortin.com since I wrote The Death of The Salesletter, here are some of my predictions based on simple observations. 1. Mobile Commerce is Going to Explode Yeah, sure. You’ve heard it before. “Mobile is going to be big.” That’s old news. It’s already massive. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

• When And How To Use An Alias In Business

  Michel Fortin

  1 Dec 2011 | 7:03 am

  A member in my coaching program asked a question about the legality of using an alias or pseudonym in copy. In other words, a pen name. That is, is it legal to write the copy in the voice of a fictitious character, or telling the story of a fictitious character enjoying the benefits of your offer? Using an alias in business is a common practice. However, if you’re considering using an alias or already are using an alias, there are a few things to know to keep your head above water with the law. I’m not a lawyer so this is not legal advice. But with my years of research and…

• A Mother’s Love

  Michel Fortin

  28 Oct 2011 | 8:27 am

  We are getting ready for mom’s funeral next week, and I was looking for a poem. But all the ones I found were too somber or about a child’s love for their mother. I wanted one that describes my mother, and what she did for us. And I found this one below, which says it all… A Mother’s Love A Mother’s love is something that no one can explain, It is made of deep devotion and of sacrifice and pain. It is endless and unselfish and enduring come what may For nothing can destroy it or take that love away. It is patient and forgiving when all others are forsaking, And…

• R.I.P. Louise Olivia Quesnel Fortin 1944-2011

  Michel Fortin

  15 Oct 2011 | 11:16 am

  This morning, one day after my birthday, mom died peacefully at home surrounded by friends and family. It’s the best birthday gift because she suffers no more. It was truly an honor to be there for her. She allowed me to give back to a person who gave so much of herself, and to discover a part of her I never knew. She was selfless until the very end. Even when in constant pain, as she struggled to swallow and drifted in and out of consciousness, she was still thinking of others. She was always making sure she paid for any of her expenses, always asking about others, always stopping…

• 

  trendsspotting blog

• LEADING DIGITAL WOMEN PREDICT 2012

  Taly Weiss

  11 Jan 2012 | 8:20 pm

  For the last five years TrendsSpotting trends research company has published prediction reports covering trends in tech, mobile and social media, suggested by leading technology and business experts. TrendsSpotting’s Influencers Prediction Reports 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 are read by thousands of readers and are used by leading companies to plan their future (viewership at Slideshare/TrendsSpotting). As TrendsSpotting is involved in re-placing the role of women in the digital world (see us at Microsoft’s Women Think Next and WIFT), we have decided that this year we will dedicate this…

• Emerging market for mobile health products

  Taly Weiss

  9 Nov 2011 | 5:15 am

  In the past year, products using mobile devices to monitor health conditions are becoming more popular with the first ones now getting accepted by the Food and Drug Administration. Among health care apps entering the market are blood pressure monitoring cuffs, CT-scan viewers, and pocket ultrasound machines. The market is still at its first steps but rapid growth is expected: according to mobile market consultancy research2guidance, by 2015 30 percent of the world’s smartphone users will be using mobile health products, up from 5 percent today. The big promise for consumers are…

• 2020 Predictions -Model for Future Innovations

  Taly Weiss

  14 Oct 2011 | 4:12 am

  Based on the concept of “The Internet of Things” TrendsSpotting has developed  a working model for NPD.  ”The ANA Model” was developed  and implemented while working with tech companies, and allows us to predict future products and services. The “ANA Model” identifies the process where data is collected from reported “Actions”, then delivered to predefined monitor systems or professionals by “Notifications”. The outcomes can “Alert” people through a visualized system. Few daily activities are presented to reflect the…

• How crowdsourcing games help solve scientific problems: Review of current projects

  Taly Weiss

  6 Oct 2011 | 9:09 am

  It has been shown that the human capacity has still important advantages over computers. Scientists have learned to use crowd sourcing tools to improve their research. To achieve cooperation, they present models of the problems in a game like display and challenge the partipants to find solutions. Scientists in Carnegie Mellon University (look up Luis von Ahn) were the first to use human brains to help them solve problems associated with searching for images on the web (computers are not very good at distinguishing images from each other using visual cues). This lead to the development…

• Critical mass – can it get lower than 10 percent?

  Taly Weiss

  28 Jul 2011 | 9:11 am

  Cognitive scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have reported that according to their recent studies simulating social networks, 10 percent is the critical mass for spreading ideas to the mass. If that proportion of the population emphatically embraces an idea, then there is a good chance for a mass follow. “When the number of committed opinion holders is below 10 percent, there is no visible progress in the spread of ideas,” said researcher Boleslaw Szymanski, director of the Social Cognitive Networks Academic Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

• 

  Technobabble 2.0

• Invite social media week @ Edelman London

  Jonny Bentwood

  26 Jan 2012 | 1:06 pm

• Twitter Chats – fish where the fish are

  Jonny Bentwood

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:10 am

  Fishing where the fish are is something that bears have known for years but many folk who use Twitter seem to have forgotten. We cannot simply think our message will be heard by tweeting ourselves which is why we try and target influential people via tools like TweetLevel and BlogLevel. However, this isn’t the only way of doing it. What I have been doing successfully over the past year is taking part in twitter chats. These are regular conversations that take place about a specific subject on twitter normally for an hour and owned by a specific hashtag. For example, · if you are targeting…

• RIP–the social media influencer.

  Jonny Bentwood

  5 Jan 2012 | 10:50 am

  To attend this BrightTalk conference click here Date: February 9 at 4pm UK, 11am EST This is the sermon to commiserate the death of the influencer. This expert and all-encompassing figure who would magically solve marketers problems by regurgitating a tweet, a blog post or by liking a Facebook page. This magus who cared little for context, community or conversation but whose narcissism for their own popularity made them believe their power of their own word. But on this sad day, we welcome a newcomer to our fold. This person, this new influential – who understands the way knowledge…

• Christmas cracker quiz

  Jonny Bentwood

  14 Dec 2011 | 11:53 am

  T’is the season to be jolly and take part in a quiz or two. These jokes come from the very best of the crackers – we tried this in the office and it didn’t take long for the groans and guffaws to filter their way back to my desk. How long will it take you to get all 15 answers… Why was the AA man crying? He was heading for a B______ I tried ringing the Swine Flu Helpline, but all I got was C_____ What’s the difference between snowmen and snow-women? S______ What’s the quickest way to kill a circus troupe? Go for the J______ As Sean Connery said when some books fell on his head,…

• How analysts see each other

  Jonny Bentwood

  7 Dec 2011 | 5:50 am

  Obviously not meant to be taken seriously – hope you like. For previous puns directed at the analyst community – see: Downfall: Gartner MQ, view on YouTube

• 

  welcome to optimism

• one little health lover enjoys our new lurpak lightest spot

  neil christie

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:12 am

  Found on Youtube - one young convert.

• making a rainbow

  neil christie

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:24 am

  By now, if you live or work in London, you will probably have seen our outdoor campaign launching new Lurpak® Lightest. It’s a hard one to miss. It’s everywhere. On everything. How very exciting. The rainbow was lovingly constructed by hand (not Photoshop, fact fans) by set designer Nicola Yeoman...

• Wieden + Kennedy wins 'best campaign of the year' for Honda at ANNAs

  neil christie

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:51 am

  The other night team W+K went off to the bash for the 2011 ANNAs - the awards for the best advertising in UK national newspapers. We were chuffed to pick up the main award of the night: The ANNAs Hall of Fame winner for best press campaign of the year...

• Wieden + Kennedy places twice in Creativity's best agencies of 2011

  neil christie

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:00 am

  Creativity Magazine just published their 2011 Agency of the Year 'most creative shops' List. Wieden + Kennedy showed up twice in the top ten, with our London and Portland offices both getting a mention. Of London they said, "Cats with thumbs, sexy butter and daring digital make for a creatively...

• can you count, suckers?

  neil christie

  22 Jan 2012 | 3:38 am

  New for Nike Fuelband from W+K Portland. Great fun.

• 

  IZEA

• Casting Call: Walgreens

  amelia

  11 Jan 2012 | 4:09 pm

  Today, speed and convenience seem are undoubtedly two extremely important factors for Americans, especially in matters related to health. Walgreens stores position you and your family’s health as a top priority where their pharmacy focuses its efforts to be sure your experience is affordable, worry-free, pleasant and convenient. They believe you shouldn’t have to sacrifice one aspect for another. Love Walgreens? Make sure to check our your SocialSpark account for a lead or offer for our Walgreens campaign; they’d love to have you on board! Please note, this is a U.S.based campaign, so…

• Casting Call: Pimp My Cube

  amelia

  10 Jan 2012 | 1:31 pm

  Cubicle. Sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry, huh? Well, Contest Factory is seeking the best of the worst in the land of nine to fivers. They want to break the stereotype of these boring boxy work spaces and help you relinquish your inner CEO in their Pimp My Cube contest. They say dress for the job you want, not the one you have so why eliminate cubes from the equation? Contest Factory wants you to submit a video showcasing your cubicle catastrophe; from the outdated computer to the carpet coffee stain from 1985 (no judgement.) They want your video to encompass everything that…

• Casting Call: Gear Up With Your Greens in the Guac Off by Avocados from Mexico

  amelia

  5 Jan 2012 | 4:00 am

  It appears Avocados from Mexico have take healthy competition to the literal level. They’re asking you to get creative with your recipes using these healthy and oh so tasty green gems. The Superbowl is just around the corner and we can bet the competition will be on the rise through February 5. But why limit it to the field? Avocados from Mexico is hosting the “Guac Off” recipe contest on their Facebook page where they are encouraging their fans to submit their meanest, greenest recipes.Three lucky chaps will receive a coveted iPad2 AND an autographed cookbook from celebrity chef…

• Viva la Revolution

  amelia

  3 Jan 2012 | 12:49 pm

  Although the social media revolution caused no raging war, a violent rebellion or a desire to end a corrupt governmental force, like any revolution, it did shake societal norms and redefined the status quo, and it did so more rapidly than almost any other.   SOCIAL DEFINED According to Wikipedia, the term social refers to a collective co-existence between populations of organisms, irrespective of whether they are aware of it or not, and regardless of whether the interaction is voluntary or involuntary. In the world of media, where social is now mainstream, it is interesting that this…

• Our 2012 Resolutions for Our Lives Offline

  amelia

  28 Dec 2011 | 6:00 am

  Believe it or not, we have lives that aren’t completely surrounded by the web and social media; after all, we have to take a tweet break to prevent carpal tunnel. Although the Internet and social media are two gifts we’d never be caught giving back, we do like to take a step back and be thankful for what we have apart from the screen. We asked around the office… “What is your number 1 offline new year resolution?” Here’s what the IZEAns have to say: Pam: After approximately 2 seconds she responded with wide eyes and a smile… “To go…

• 

  BBH Labs

• Interview with Mr John V Willshire, founder of Smithery

  Mel Exon

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:56 am

  Every now and again, we like to interview someone doing something interesting. It’s a pleasure to say that this time we’re featuring a good friend of Labs, John V Willshire, (or @willsh, as he’s known to the Twitterverse). John broke free from agency life last year to set up his own business. In this, the first of a two-part interview, we asked John to tell us a bit about it – along the way sharing his thoughts on a bunch of things from The Smiths, social connectivity, the economic viability of social production today and, er, rocks vs water.. Social Winter, Oslo,…

• Majority report: looking through the digital hype

  Mel Exon

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:13 am

  This post originally appeared as an article in Viewpoint at the end of 2011. Briefed to one of BBH London’s smartest strategists, Ed Booty, as a deliberate polemic, it’s a provocative argument designed to question our assumptions about the constant pace of change. We like being challenged (we enjoyed Matt Edgar’s post last year along similar lines) – please let us know what you think in the comments. Author: Ed Booty, Strategy Director, BBH London Image: Seattle Space Needle, by Patricia Kranenberg (via Flickr under a Creative Commons licence) It is commonly accepted…

• CES 2012: Why marketers should be relieved

  Saneel Radia

  20 Jan 2012 | 9:10 am

  Image source: http://www.rickycadden.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/cessign.jpg Authors: Saneel Radia, Head of BBH Labs NYC & Tim Harris, EVP/Managing Director of Innovation at McCann Erickson* Last week was the Consumer Electronics Show, an event more widely attended by brand marketers than ever before. Although the show resembled last year’s a bit too closely for our liking, we’ve resisted simply republishing our 2011 recap. What was unique however, is the sense of relief we feel upon our return. Instead of feeling intimidated by the speed of innovation, or anxious from the…

• The Barn Returns: BBH NY’s 2012 Winter Term Internship Applications Are Open

  Saneel Radia

  15 Jan 2012 | 10:51 am

  The Barn is BBH's global internship program Author: Eric Fernandez, Strategist, BBH New York The Barn is back in New York, and we’re looking for a special new team of genius interns to fill our ranks. This isn’t your run of the mill ad internship, so we’re not looking for typical marketing resumes. We’re looking for resourceful MacGyver types who are curious about everything, comfortable doing stuff every day that they haven’t done before, and are natural wizards at technology. We want the kind of folks that can grasp a program like Final Cut Pro after watching a…

• I Feel For You

  Mel Exon

  13 Jan 2012 | 9:07 am

  Jules et Jim (1962, Francois Truffaut) Author: Jim Carroll, Chairman, BBH London I was watching the splendid Truffault film, Jules et Jim. There’s a scene in which Jules, courting the mercurial Catherine, endeavours to impress her. ‘Catherine, I understand you’, he says. Catherine replies,’ But I don’t want to be understood.’ I paused for thought. Don’t we spend our lives trying to understand consumers? What if, like Catherine, they don’t want to be understood? Understanding implies explanation, logic, rationality. And, critically, it…

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  .eduGuru

• It Looks Like College Students are the Majority of Google+ Users

  Kyle James

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:40 am

  It wasn’t that long ago that Mike Petroff wrote this blog post about Google+ Pages Launch.  Some new data about Google+ demographics pointed out some interesting trends that I couldn’t help but share.  With a sample size of 45 million crawled public profiles I feel pretty good that the sample data is accurate.  Google+ is estimated at 90 million total profiles.  I definitely recommend looking at the report but here are a couple of things that stood out to me. Read the Google+ Demographics Global Report Male vs Female Ratio Google+ is 70% male.  This is especially weird when you…

• FollowEDU Launches: Searchable Directory of Twitter Users in Higher Ed

  Mike Petroff

  23 Jan 2012 | 10:00 am

  I (@mikepetroff) am very pleased to announce the launch of my new website FollowEDU! It is a searchable directory of Twitter users in Higher Ed. FollowEDU allows users to sign in with Twitter and create an account, list their profile under Interests within higher ed, schools, companies, and more. I invite you to add your Twitter profile today. It’s very easy to create your account. Just visit FollowEDU.com and click the Join button, then follow the steps to connect your Twitter account. Join FollowEDU » During registration, you can add Interests to your profile. FollowEDU organizes…

• Why you should ask your vendors for an ROI analysis breakdown

  Kyle James

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:00 am

  All educational institutions work with vendors in one way or another.  Some like to bring lots of their services in-house and have almost internal agencies who do the work where others tend to outsource quite a few projects.  Either way, when you are preparing a new project you have to factor in an ROI (Return on Investment) analysis in the discussions. For a college or university it still comes down to money and this almost always comes from one of three sources: student tuition, donations or  government spending.  Because of our audience here I’m going to strictly focus on web…

• Why You Should Ignore Pinterest (for now)

  Michael Fienen

  12 Jan 2012 | 11:19 am

  Blame Travis over at EMG for this article – he pulled me into this question on Facebook about what higher ed should be doing about Pinterest. It was something that shouldn’t have riled me up, and yet it did. It doesn’t help that many of you may have also caught the article over on the CASE blog about Pinterest as well, and are now wondering: “Is that for us?” It was written to showcase the work Oberlin is putting in to their Pinterest account - which I applaud their effort, if not their methods. Warning: This is a rant. You can jump to the end if you’d…

• Why now is a great time to do an OAuth audit

  Nick DeNardis

  4 Jan 2012 | 7:00 am

  The beginning of the year is a great opportunity to start fresh and look at everything with a new set of eyes. Something that is easily overlooked is who (or what) has access to your social media accounts. It’s easy to change your password and revoke access from co-workers but it isn’t as easy to identify which websites and services have access to your accounts. What is OAuth? OAuth (Open Authorization) is an open standard for authorization. It allows users to share their private resources (e.g., photos, videos, contact lists) stored on one site with another site without…

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  SEO News PageTraffic Buzz

• Google Confirms Panda 3.2 Update!

  Navneet Kaushal

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:17 am

  In 2012, Google has continued its Panda Update with a Panda 3.2 update rolled out on January 18, 2012 (estimated date of the roll out). Google has revealed to search industry professionals that it has done a data refresh of the Google Panda algorithm with no algorithm changes. Webmasters... Please visit PageTraffic Blog for the full article.

• Average Search Rankings Redefined By Google!

  Navneet Kaushal

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am

  The definitions of average position in the search query report in Google Webmaster Tools and search optimization report in Google Analytics is being changed by Google. The change was revealed in the Google Webmaster Blog and Google Analytics Blog. Read more on Average Search Rankings Redefined By... Please visit PageTraffic Blog for the full article.

• Presenting Google’s Whole New Submit Content Page!

  Navneet Kaushal

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:35 am

  Google has a newly redesigned Submit Your Content page. The URL submission tool page has also been updated. You can now submit content at google.com/submityourcontent. This page was launched in September 2008, and now has been given a facelift by Google. The purpose of the page was to act as an... Please visit PageTraffic Blog for the full article.

• Google Rolls Out New Privacy Policy : Information to be Shared Across All Google Products!

  Navneet Kaushal

  25 Jan 2012 | 7:19 am

  Google Inc. has announced through their official blog that they will be changing their current Privacy Policies and Google Terms of Service. These changes will assist Google to link their users across all Google products like Gmail, youtube, Google+ and so on. Google has indicated that the changes... Please visit PageTraffic Blog for the full article.

• Matt Cutts HangsOut With Indian Webmasters!

  Navneet Kaushal

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:28 am

  The head of Google’s Webspam Team, Matt Cutts in on a trip to India and did a ‘HangOut’ with Indian Webmasters from Hyderabad. This HangOut was a part of his webmaster outreach program with a group of Googlers involved in the same. In order to interact better with the Indian... Please visit PageTraffic Blog for the full article.

• 

  The Content Marketing Revolution

• McDonald’s Social Media Goes Wrong? Not a Chance

  Joe Pulizzi

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:49 pm

  You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware of the now historic McDonald’s Twitter campaign launched a few days ago. If you’ve been out of it for a while, here’s the CliffsNotes version: McDonald’s promoted a Tweet using the Twitter hashtag #McDStories that went like this: ‘When u make something w/pride, people can taste it,’ – McD potato supplier #McDStories http://t.co/HaPM5G9F‘ (source). The link is a video  of McDonald’s potato supplier Frank Martinez and includes a heartwarming story about his life as a potato farmer.

• Tablet Content Marketing: Crazy Stats and Time to Move

  Joe Pulizzi

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:14 am

  If you are not up on the latest statistics on the tablet, here are some to chew on: Apple reported first quarter earnings, selling over 15 million iPads during the quarter.  This is a 111% increase from the previous quarter. In just under two years, Apple has now sold over 55 million units. According to Pew Internet’s latest findings, the share of Americans who own a tablet computer nearly doubled from December 2011 to January 2012.  The number of Americans now owning at least one tablet device is now at 29%. Tablet: The Curl-Up Device Historically in marketing, we have talked about…

• 2 Examples of How Non-Profit Content Marketing Should Work [and grab a tissue]

  Joe Pulizzi

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:10 pm

  Joshua with his LEGO bricks at age Six As many of you regular readers know, my oldest son Joshua was diagnosed with autism at two years of age (Joshua is now 10). At the age of three, he could barely speak.  Today, Joshua would be considered “high-functioning” autistic, which means that, if you don’t look closely, you may not notice he actually is a child with autism. To be honest, Joshua is one of those amazing gifts in life that just keeps giving.  We are so blessed to have him in our lives. [NOTE: To give just a bit back to all those who've helped Joshua along the way,…

• Content Marketing and the War of Attrition

  Joe Pulizzi

  17 Jan 2012 | 6:35 pm

  There are a lot of reasons why content marketing doesn’t work for some companies. If we were making a list, they would include: A lack of understanding reader/customer needs Focusing on the wrong metrics and objectives A soloed approach to content marketing Poor execution Bland storytelling Lack of authenticity Creating information that, simply put, is not helpful or engaging Sales pitches disguised as content And the list goes on… But the biggest culprit (and it’s not even close) is a lack of consistency, and, in some cases, a content stoppage. Research from IBM in 2010…

• 10 Content Marketing Books to Help Sell the C-Level

  Joe Pulizzi

  12 Jan 2012 | 6:16 pm

  Just ended a pretty impressive Content Marketing Institute webinar hosted by Joe Chernov, VP of Content Marketing for Eloqua and Rebecca Lieb, Analyst for Altimeter.  During the Q&A session, Joe talked about how to sell content marketing to the C-level through some amazing books.  Below are some recommendations from Joe (and some that I would recommend as well) for the marketing pro that needs more content marketing budget. The New Rules of Marketing & PR I consider this David Meerman Scott book mandatory reading for all marketers.  This best seller, now published in over 25…

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  Internet Marketing for Business - Jim Kukral - Small Business Web Consultant

• Free Blog Setup & Design

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:33 am

  At the beginning of every year I have a few ideas in my head that I want to work on. This year, one of those was giving. I mean true giving. I have built a 16-year career on the Web by helping other people find success, and I’ve learned that the more you give, the more you get back. So naturally, it’s time to give EVEN MORE! So one of my first initiatives was to create my free blog setup and design service. You can read about it here. I’ve partnered with a top-notch hosting company to provide a start-up hosting package for people who want to either get started, or need a…

• Crowdfunding Tips: My Interview With Matthew Lesko

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  24 Jan 2012 | 2:19 pm

  I did a fun interview with Matthew Lesko a few weeks ago about the power of crowdfunding. You can watch it here. The article also has a ton of crowdfunding resources on it that you can check out. If you haven’t picked up a copy of my book on how I crowdfunded over $35k to pre-fund my new books, then you should get a copy here and learn how I did it and how you can do it too!

• 10 Tips for 2012

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  30 Dec 2011 | 10:59 am

  I never have enough time to write out a super-long, super inspiring end of year post. Hey, I’m writing books, not blogs these days. (Yes, I know I’m writing a blog now, you know what I meant.) But… I do have a short list of things to tell you before 2011 ends. If you want to be successful in 2012… you must: 1. Trust your gut 2. Stay on course 3. Get past the hard part 4. Stop pitying yourself 5. Stop envying other’s success 6. Ship a ton of products/services/content 7. Do your own thing 8. Work on things that are fun 9. Read a lot of books 10. Decide on your…

• Too Much Influence Is A Bad Thing

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  15 Dec 2011 | 10:56 am

  There’s a severe disadvantage when you have too much influence. Sure, having smart and successful people around you is VERY important. However, when you begin to let their influence overwhelm your gut ideas and thoughts and shape your direction, you’re in trouble. That’s where I was in 2010. I had a massive circle of smart, influential people guiding me. Believe me, they helped, a lot! But after a while I realized that I was letting them guide me too much. I saw their success and tried to emulate it, instead of sticking with my gut and moving forward on what I really wanted…

• Fox Business News with Neil Cavuto

  jim@jimkukral.com (Jim Kukral)

  6 Dec 2011 | 7:44 am

  I had the pleasure of being a guest on the Neil Cavuto show on Fox Business News yesterday. You can watch the clip below. I talk about how I got on the show below. So how did I get on this show? Step 1: Have a good website (your platform). No-brainer, right? You have to have a professional looking site, assuming you’re in a professional business. My website features videos of me speaking and testimonials from clients and media I’ve been mentioned in. Step 2: Create content in other places. I got this invite because a show producer found my guest post article on Self-Growth.com…

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  Email Marketing Tips

• Animals in Email Design: The Trick to Grabbing Your Readers’ Attention?

  Crystal Gouldey

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:02 am

  You want to be memorable. Shared. Go viral, even. The solution? Animals. People can’t resist cute animals. They’re even reported to get more attention than major media outlets. It’s the reason why John St.’s “Catvertising” pitch became a viral hit. But you can’t just slap a random picture of a kitty in your design. It looks out of place, and a little desperate. The key is to use images that work with the flow of your email. Here are five examples of how other businesses do that, and how you can apply it to your marketing. Put Animals in a Logo…

• Beyond Email: 17 Easy Techniques to Optimize Your Mobile Marketing

  Amanda Gagnon

  23 Jan 2012 | 8:59 am

  As the “60 Second Marketer,” Jamie Turner’s used his marketing ideas to grow his own consulting business. Here, he shares tips and resources he’s found most helpful tools to help you get all set up nicely. According to the Email Stat Center, between 60% and 70% of all smartphone users check email on their mobile devices. The good news is that if you’re an AWeber user, your emails are pre-formatted to be easily read on mobile devices. But email isn’t the only way to use mobile marketing to connect with customers. You can also use QR codes, mobile apps,…

• Your Emails Are Seen By More Than Your Subscribers…Right?

  Amanda Gagnon

  20 Jan 2012 | 8:54 am

  This is a guest post by Brian Whalley, a marketing manager at HubSpot. HubSpot is an inbound marketing software company based in Cambridge, MA. Email marketing and social media are two platforms for spreading your company’s message and products across the web. One of the toughest questions about social media as it grows and starts to mature a little is not just how to use social as a general marketing platform for buzz, promotion, and handling public relations, and develop the other uses that it may have just like email and email marketing have turned into an part of the modern daily…

• 43 Free Animated Gifs for Your Email Campaign

  Rebekah Henson

  18 Jan 2012 | 8:08 am

  The new year is the perfect excuse to freshen up your email campaign, and we have a free gift to help with your improvements. Animated GIFs in emails are getting more and more popular – about 40% of retailers use animation in their emails at least occasionally. You can use them to liven up your campaign, too. We’ve got 43 animated buttons waiting to get clicked on in your messages. But first, a few thoughts on using animations in your email appropriately. Making the Most of Animations Like many email practices, using animated GIFs in your messages has positive and negative effects…

• How Your Baby Booty Integrates AWeber and Unbounce

  Crystal Gouldey

  16 Jan 2012 | 8:01 am

  You may have heard about the Unbounce app, which was introduced some time ago. For those that were already using Unbounce, this was great news. But for those that were not familiar with Unbounce, and perhaps maybe still not, it may not be as obvious why this is so awesome. How do real people use Unbounce? Why do they want to integrate the two? We talked to an AWeber customer who’s actively using both our service and Unbounce to get some answers. Sarah Blight, who owns Your Baby Booty, shed light on the four key reasons Unbounce and AWeber are a match made in heaven. 1. Even the…

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  Small Business Search Marketing

• Hey Dentists: You’re On Avvo

  Matt McGee

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:46 pm

  From lawyers to doctors and now … dentists. Avvo has announced that it’s building out a dentists’ directory in the U.S. to complement its existing lawyer and doctor directories. But it sounds like this is still a work in progress. Avvo says dentists from all over the country are available to take part in the site’s question-and-answer product, but the actual dentist business listings are only formal right now in seven states: California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Washington, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Dentists in other states, though, can still claim their listing by…

• Small Businesses Measure Social Success The Right Way: New Customers

  Matt McGee

  24 Jan 2012 | 10:39 am

  This was a pleasure and relief to see: In a new report about small businesses and social media, SMBs listed “new customers” as their most important metric for measuring the success of social media marketing. Whew! Here’s a look at the chart from Borrell Associates, which is based on a survey of almost 4,300 small businesses last year. My fear was that “getting more fans/followers” would be the top response to that question … but it came in No. 2, which is still too high, but at least it’s a distant second to something that actually moves the bottom…

• Touché Google & Yelp! Foursquare Now Has Restaurant Menus

  Matt McGee

  19 Jan 2012 | 8:18 am

  Still not sure if Foursquare is serious about local search? Consider this: The site just added menus thanks to a partnership with SinglePlatform. I’ll explain below why I think this matters. First, how many menus are we talking about? How many restaurants? Foursquare says it’s getting more than 13 million menu items from nearly 250,000 restuarants “in major U.S. cities.” I don’t live in a “major” city, but I’m already seeing a couple menus here and there from restaurants in my small town. Bob’s Burgers & Brew is a small chain with…

• SBSM Flashback: January 2011

  Matt McGee

  18 Jan 2012 | 4:54 pm

  For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading. How to Be a Great Client Google: Goodbye to Real Estate Search Quick Way to Find Interesting & Influential Twitter Users 5 WordPress Plugins To Help Keep Your Blog Secure Foursquare Finally Finishes Features for Businesses 2010: My Blogging Year-in-Review Previous Flashbacks SBSM Flashback: December 2010 SBSM Flashback: November 2010…

• Google Emails To Let Me Know My Wife’s Merged Listing Will Be Merged Again

  Matt McGee

  16 Jan 2012 | 5:10 pm

  I think it’s great that Google is trying to improve customer service. In trying to fix my wife’s current merged listing cluster****, they’ve sent me more emails than I could’ve ever imagined. Yay Google! Except the last email they sent wasn’t so good. Yesterday, Google emailed me to let me know that they’re going to unmerge my wife’s listing, and then re-merge it with another listing. Here’s the email, and then I’ll explain after you see it. Isn’t that the nicest email? I’m serious – that’s exactly the kind of…

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  Marketing to Make Money Online

• Get a .CO Domain for just $17.99

  Brian

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:40 am

  A new .CO domain coupon good until 2/29/12 allows you to obtain a domain for just $17.99. Go Daddy typically charges $30 for .CO domain but with this coupon you can obtain a nice discount. Offer:... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• New Coupon Swapper Feature

  Brian

  24 Jan 2012 | 10:54 am

  Coupon Swapper now has a new feature. As a user you can add coupons that you find online and swap with others. Each store has an individual page and now each coupon has it’s own page. This... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Holiday Season 2011 Online Spending over $35 Billion

  Brian

  2 Jan 2012 | 5:31 pm

  The 2011 year ended with online holiday spending over $35 billion. The same period last year, 2010, was just over $30 billion. This is from a Comscore report released recently. The report covers... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• GoDaddy Virtual DataCenter Coupon

  Brian

  21 Dec 2011 | 8:40 pm

  You can use this GoDaddy Virtual DataCenter Coupon below for 25% off and try their service for only $1 the first month. The 25% off coupon is good until January 31, 2012. It is interesting to me how... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

• Top 5 GoDaddy Coupons for the Holidays

  Brian

  13 Dec 2011 | 7:20 pm

  Here are five GoDaddy Coupons for the 2011 holiday season. You can obtain hosting for only $1.99, or Free private registrations, .CO domains for just $13.99, .ME domains for just $6.99, and even 20%... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]

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  Cherryflava

• Shopping mall 3D mapping

  Jonathan Cherry

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:42 am

  This mapping idea doesn’t have to just be done on a huge scale outside on the side of buildings. It can also be used inside shopping malls, which have become our modern-day forests (where people roam and forage and spend family leisure time instead of outside where you may get skin cancer or strung by a wasp). This one was created for such a modern-day forest mall in San Fransisco over Christmas time.

• Net-A-Porter’s augmented reality shop window

  Jonathan Cherry

  26 Jan 2012 | 1:59 am

  Soon there will be no reason to walk into a shop and have to deal with humans, ’cause we augmented reality is here to give you that consistent brand experience that a 19 year old gum-chewing, hungover student never could anyway. After downloading the NET-A-PORTER iPhone/iPad app, customers who turn up at stores can activate an Augmented Reality shopping experience by pointing the camera at the various pieces in the window, revealing 360 degree product models, video catwalk showcases, product information, pricing and the ability to buy instantly… It’s also a great way to generate…

• Good customer service doesn’t require anything other than compassion

  Jonathan Cherry

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:25 am

  A customer is never too young not to be taken seriously. 3 1/2 year old Lily Robinson had an important question about Sainsbury’s Tiger bread that needed sorting out… So she wrote them a letter. Sainsbury’s reply Bravo. That’s like a BoB T card right there. via

• Skirting Board Sunset

  Jonathan Cherry

  25 Jan 2012 | 2:15 am

  A night light for your skirting board. Kinda looks like last night’s sunset in Cape Town. Or half an egg. Pacmac on a strict diet… via

• Jägermeister: Struck by lighting

  Jonathan Cherry

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:35 am

  This is apparently a Jägermeister ad. Perhaps that’s who will be sponsoring Jackass from now on. We can totally see it. If you live in Joburg – perhaps grab a bottle and go stand in an open field during a bout of lighting while wearing a foil beret and see what happens. Sweet china.

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  @NewCommBiz

• How Google is Using Ads To Combat Bad Privacy Press

  Tac Anderson

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:29 am

  When you mention bad press around online privacy, there are two companies that come to the forefront: Google and Facebook. Go ahead, do a search for “online privacy” and be sure to click on the news section of Google search or Bing, and let me know what you get. As I was following my morning news on Twitter, I saw a link from a Seattle friend of mine, @Weave. Eric Weaver has had some issues with Facebook’s policy changes and has scaled back and limited his use of the service. Oh yeah, and Eric’s a consultant like myself, so he knows the space really well. This…

• Facebook Credits Tied Directly to Your Credit Card

  Tac Anderson

  26 Jan 2012 | 9:45 am

  This is seriously big. This is a short post but *you need* to keep an eye on this. Plink is going to be seriously disruptive to many industries, not just the loyalty card industry. Restaurants Will Offer Facebook Credits Incentives: Plink. To earn Facebook Credits, users join Plink by logging on with their social network credentials and securely registering their credit or debit cards. The more people purchase at participating restaurants and retailers, the more Facebook Credits earned. I would be shocked if this company goes un-acquired very long.  And I’d put (virtual) money on…

• Why Business is War [Video]

  Tac Anderson

  26 Jan 2012 | 6:27 am

  It struck me that modern business over the last 50 years, and even more recently, has become the new modern warfare. I think man (both the generic term for mankind and also men specifically) needs conflict. We need to fight and conquer. Sadly that has usually involved human life, but in business, CEO’s are generals, the new battlefields are markets, customers are land and all the normal marketing metaphors (which we stole from the military anyway) still apply. Books mentioned in this video: Nick @Harkaway’s Angelmaker & The Gone-Away World. Christopher Simpson’s Science…

• Socialbots Can Facilitate Interactions Between Humans

  Tac Anderson

  25 Jan 2012 | 3:06 am

  I’ve written before about new communication theory which describes Masspersonal Communication as a framework to think about our Interpersonal communication that takes place in a Mass Media environment. The theory is actually a lot richer than that. So much so that as I was re-reading the paper where it discusses trust and how we form trust among each other I started to ask myself how do web services, a.k.a. non-humans, gain our trust? I think a lot of it boils down to a shared history and the ability to rely on that service for personal needs. Some services or objects are easier…

• We are not bored.

  Jeremy Meyers

  24 Jan 2012 | 12:01 pm

  A helpful tip for all you business social media types. If you’re sending questions out through your twitter feed with no particular goal other than to get @replies. If you’re posting things on Facebook like “What is everyone having for lunch?” so you can say that you’re “engaging with your community” If your plan for building a loyal following includes a bunch of ‘community building stuff’ like fun quizzes and stuff. Just remember: We are not bored.  We don’t need you to entertain us or to keep us busy. Add awesomeness, reward our…

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  SEO Chicks

• Hate Twitter? Here’s How To Keep Up!

  Julie Joyce

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:01 am

  Many people whom I know and respect have engaged in self-imposed Twitter bans recently. I have found myself fuming over tweets and fussed about it to people who don’t care, for ages and ages it seems. However, I totally rely on Twitter to keep me informed about absolutely everything that’s going on in our industry. If someone writes a blog post, I find out through Twitter. If Google decides to do something insane, I hear it through Twitter. I don’t rely on RSS feeds or bookmarks or word of mouth anymore; it’s just me and Twitter. However, Twitter is quickly killing my…

• SEO: The Next Generation – WIN SES London Tickets + Mentoring with the SEO Chicks

  Lisa Myers

  20 Jan 2012 | 7:48 am

  We have put together a truly galaxy class competition for all SEO cadets out there. Have you been in SEO LESS than 1 YEAR or WANT TO GET IN TO SEO? Then YOU are the next generation SEO, and WE would like to help you become the best SEO cadet that you can be. The enterPRIZE: 1 FULL CONFERENCE pass to SES LONDON 2012 (21st-23rd February) AND access to ClickZ Training Academy (Monday 20th February). Courtesy of the guys at SES Conference Series. 3 Months MENTORING with the SEO-Chicks! YOU will have access to ALL of the SEO-Chicks to help you with any questions or guidance you need. You will also…

• Pro-active updates, Re-active opinions or just plain active thoughts: Sharing is Caring!

  Annabel Hodges

  12 Jan 2012 | 5:49 am

  Greetings chicklets! Or chicklettes. Chickhims? Whatever floats your boat really. The blog is back, live and kicking, and getting started with determination on the pebbly path that is 2012. First up, a few thoughts from yours truly, as the most recent member of the blogging team. My topic? Sharing is caring. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have noticed  the world and his wife posting up their thoughts on Google’s latest upset – Google Search plus Your World – over the last 48 hours. SEOs in general are very very good at jumping on hot new topics and getting an opinion…

• Welcome to the team; Annabel Hodges

  Lisa Myers

  28 Oct 2011 | 10:58 am

  I’m so excited to welcome the wonderful Annabel Hodges aka Search Panda to the SEO-Chicks blogging crew. We’ve been eyeing her up for ages thinking she is probably crazy enough to become one of the SEO Chicks, and turns out she is. Yay! We asked Annabel a few questions before “hiring” her into the crew of course, some very qualifying, difficult and important questions: 1. How did you get into SEO? I was a translator back in the day and getting very very bored of it. I started trying to learn a little more about search and analytics in my spare time as my housemate got…

• Interview Alert! It’s Wordstream’s Elisa Gabbert!

  Julie Joyce

  24 Oct 2011 | 12:45 pm

  Elisa Gabbert is the content manager at WordStream, where she runs the WordStream Internet Marketing Blog and helps market the company’s AdWords software, PPC management services and keyword research tools. She also writes poetry and perfume criticism. She currently lives in Denver. You can follow her on Twitter at @egabbert (but expect tasteless jokes and bad puns).   1. Can you give us a summary of your SEO experience thus far? What is your current niche? I got into the SEO industry about five years ago, sort of by accident – I was working as an editorial assistant on a website at…

• 

  Blog of Ronnestam

• Got Kids? Get Culture! Introducing Buildo Museum.

  ronnestam

  24 Jan 2012 | 3:35 am

  Today is a great day. Over at JAJDO we’re releasing our third app. Buildo Museum is aimed to get kids all over the world interested in culture. Get your free copy in the appstore before the 6th of febrary!

• Gotland Grand National 2011. Ett av mitt livs största utmaningar.

  ronnestam

  13 Jan 2012 | 7:13 am

  This post, written in Swedish tells the tale about my 2011 start in Gotland Grand National. För 32 år sedan gick jag i skolan med Marie Hessel. Sedan dess har vi setts någon gång då och då i samband med någon klassåterträff eller i liknande sammanhang. Sen plötsligt står hon där och hänger i baren på Scandic Anglais Hotel i Stockholm. Lika sprudlande glas som vanligt berättar hon glatt att om 14 dagar ska hon åka till Gotland och köra Grand National på sin endurohoj. Ju mer hon berättar desto mer minns jag de klassiska bilderna från 1989 när Grand National var lerigare…

• 15 keys to deliver a fantastic keynote presentation on stage

  ronnestam

  12 Jan 2012 | 4:51 pm

  Inspired by Swedish blogger Fredrik Wass who stated that he will blog for a 100 days in a row I felt I had to get my blog going again. So here we go! Photographed by Paulina while forecasting trends at the Creative Summit together with among others Brian Solis and Alf Rehn. In 2011 I was honored to be selected as the keynote speaker for events all over Europe. I delivered more than 80 keynotes on entrepreneurship, creative ideas, future branding, communication and business development, some of them shared here on Slideshare. In more than 90% of the occasions I was given the highest ranking…

• Merry Christmas from me and the JAJDO team!

  ronnestam

  23 Dec 2011 | 2:17 am

  One day left. What’s up with this time thing. It felt like we passed midsummer only days ago. Scary! I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year. I’ll also take the opportunity to tell you that over at my other company JAJDO we’re giving away our apps for free as a christmas gift to children all over the world. So if you’ve got access to an iPhone or iPad. Head over to JAJDO and grab your gift!

• History in the making

  ronnestam

  16 Dec 2011 | 4:44 pm

  Earlier today we (my other company JAJDO), launched our second iPad and iPhone app. This one is called Buildo History or as in the picture below if you’re Russian. (we’ve translated it into 18 languages) Buildo History. This one translated into Russian. This is the second app in the Buildo Series. Our idea has been to create a simple yet creative app that allows for kids to create their own stories with as little guidance as possible. True creativity isn’t about us grown-ups creating rules that they need to follow. Our children will have plenty of that when they grow older. The…

• 

  Direct Marketing Observations

• Chances Are You’ve Met Less Than 5% of the People in Your Social Network

  marc meyer

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:17 am

  The difference between a friend, an acquaintance and the friends and acquaintances we have met online is blurring…Social media would seem to dictate or would assume that I’m supposed to develop or have developed these deep online, networked, connections, i.e. That I have met them. Jay Baer calls it false intimacy. Does it matter that I have not met them? Absolutely not. Or maybe it does… But maybe we should quickly look at what the definition of “connected” is. Check this out: con·nect·ed http://img.tfd.com/m/sound.swf (k-nktd) adj. 1. Joined or…

• Who does Google make it’s money from? A breakdown (Infograph)

  marc meyer

  23 Jan 2012 | 8:01 am

  © WordStream, a Google AdWords partner company.

• Internal Social Networks Versus Social Networks-Where Should You Spend Your Time?

  marc meyer

  17 Jan 2012 | 3:07 pm

  The tug-o-war for your time when you participate on multiple social networks can be difficult. Who get’s it and who doesn’t?  Who get’s the honor of your participation can also affect your impact because THAT will be where you spend the bulk of your time. Where should you spend your time? On the networks that matter to you or on the networks where you HAVE to participate? Does it matter if you create content or if you lurk?  It might, though either exercise require an investment of your time. The fact is, the more networks you’re in, the more likely that your…

• Some Social Tools You Should Know About

  marc meyer

  12 Jan 2012 | 10:55 am

  Thanks to the folks at imediaconnection, I give you 15 social tools you should know about Friend or Follow tells users whom they’re not following on Twitter. Conversocial.com helps users manage customer service at scale on Facebook and Twitter. Conversocial enables workflow for multi-person teams to tackle the consumer communication for large brands. NutshellMail users social network updates so they don’t have to login and check. Nice! UserVoice creates engaging survey forms on Facebook and other sites to solicit feedback from fans and visitors. MemoLane is a “virtual…

• How Do Organizations Get Better? Reward Simple Behavior

  marc meyer

  10 Jan 2012 | 1:40 pm

  I coach. I’ve coached for a number of years spanning every sport from basketball to baseball and I have to say with utmost confidence that most of my teams have had winning records and most of my players have learned something and have had fun along the way. But…There are always those teams and those players that either don’t get it, didn’t get it,  or don’t want to get it. “It” being the magic that is winning, learning, growing and having fun. Success. It happens in sports. It also happens in the business world.  I for one love sports and business…

• 

  KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

• Automated Vs. Human Analysis | The Social Analyst

  Queen of Measurement

  19 Jan 2012 | 8:39 am

  Author: Michael Woldhuis via www.online1984.com This is a great indepth post on the plusses and minuses of automated vs human analysis

• It might be harsh, but it just might work

  Queen of Measurement

  17 Jan 2012 | 6:26 am

  via badpitch.blogspot.com I've loved Kevin Dugan's Bad Pitch Blog ever since I first stumbled upon it five years ago, and have submitted numerous entries to it over the years. Now Gawker has picked up on the theme and taken it up a notch with its PR Dummies Blog. Interesting that at the same time, there is a debate going on in a LinkedIn Group about whether purchased lists sold by some of the industries leading  brand names are just spam. Now we all know good PR practitioners, but there's a long chain of command from the savvy people at the top of an agency to the person who…

• I couldn't have said it better, predicting elections by counting words is complete bunk

  Queen of Measurement

  16 Jan 2012 | 7:57 am

  So glad to know I'm not the only one who rolls her eyes when she sees all of the annoucements of how automated sentiment analysis is going to predict the 2012 Election outcome. Huffington Post is just as skeptical   

• Interesting analysis of Social Media Measurement Tools and Needs

  Queen of Measurement

  13 Jan 2012 | 5:37 am

  2011 has been a year of extraordinary growth in our practice at Semphonic. But no part of that practice has grown as dramatically as Social Media Measurement. There's tremendous interest right now in Social Media but it's an area - perhaps even more than mobile - where companies are still struggling to formulate a coherent strategy. That hasn't necessarily stopped or even slowed the pace of investment and maybe that's not unreasonable. If you wait until everyone figures out how to do this stuff, you may find that your competitors enjoy insurmountable advantages. via…

• Talking Sense About Marketing Metrics

  Queen of Measurement

  13 Jan 2012 | 5:21 am

  Without metrics, marketers cannot manage investments or show the value of marketing. However, without careful selection of metrics, diligent analysis and a clear overarching vision, measurement can become the biggest barrier to successful long-term marketing programs. via blogs.imediaconnection.com Eric does a great job summarizing the pitfalls of what most people are measuring

• 

  Ogilvy PR 360 Digital Influence Blog

• Brand Personality Goes A Long Way

  Jacques Oury

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:58 pm

  Consider the famous exchange from Pulp Fiction in which Jules and Vincent debate the rationality of abstaining from pork. Jules just doesn’t dig on swine, that’s all, because they’re basically dirty, like dogs. VINCENT:     Yeah, but do you consider a dog to be a filthy animal? JULES:          I wouldn’t go so far as to call a dog filthy, but they’re definitely dirty. But, a dog’s got personality. Personality goes a long way. VINCENT:     Ah, so by that rationale, if a pig had a better personality, he would cease to be a filthy animal. Is that true?

• Sh*t We Say: Lessons from a Long-Tailed Meme – Part 1

  Blake Bowyer

  26 Jan 2012 | 4:21 pm

  “It’s an English basement.” That might not mean much to you, but it probably made you chuckle if you fall into one of the two groups: Current or former D.C. residents Viewers of Sh*t People In D.C. Say Of course, this video is one of many variations of the Sh*t Girls Say series - which has a cumulative YouTube viewership of 20+ million and growing. You know the premise: Stereotypical expressions from people of a certain ilk, organized by gender, hobby, lifestyle, or geography. There are takes on skiers, hipsters, suburban moms, and even sh*t nobody says (a personal favorite)…

• Breaking Down Polarization

  John Stauffer

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:38 pm

  In a recent Washington Post article, Polarized News Market has Altered the Political Process in South Carolina Primary, we peak into the news consumption habits of a South Carolina voter. Two election cycles ago the South Carolina native would read newspaper for political news, now she “settles in at her desktop to fire up Facebook.” “Selective Exposure”, described by researchers from UCLA and Stanford suggests to that consumers are “tucking themselves inside information silos” and that this is compounded by the speed and like-mindedness of social…

• The Great Web Blackout

  Aimee Rose

  20 Jan 2012 | 9:43 am

  We all survived the blackout, but how effective was it? The question may take some time to answer, but support for SOPA/PIPA appears to have weakened in its wake. The biggest light shed this week may have been that on the rift between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. And why not? I mean, we have content creators and content access providers – and they both have their interests. But when Bills are drafted that seemingly only protect the rights of one, surely the other will see a few ruffled feathers. We ‘Creatives’ are lucky. We get compensated for our ideas and the intellectual property…

• SOPA, PIPA, & Digital Activism

  Emily Achler

  19 Jan 2012 | 12:34 pm

  Yesterday’s battle royale over the future of the Internet has been characterized in many ways - technology companies vs. media conglomerates, content vs. distribution, and perhaps most convincingly by the Harvard Business Review as the Young Startups vs. the Old Guard. And indeed, change was in the air (and over the servers) yesterday. In protest of a pair of laws now before Congress that address online piracy, some of the most highly-trafficked websites in the U.S. made their sites inactive, dark, or otherwise blocked access in some way. Sites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, and…

• 

  PR Communications

• Looking For A Content Marketing Writer?

  jcass@nwlink.com (John Cass)

  25 Jan 2012 | 8:08 am

  Wow, I cannot believe that one of my talented former interns and a great writer cannot get a job... please, please, if you are looking for a great content writer who is just starting out, ping me and I'll put you in touch with a hard working individual who knows SEO content writing, churns out the copy on demand, loves sports, and has a wry sense of humor.

• Project To Audit The Fortune 100 Entries on Wikipedia

  jcass@nwlink.com (John Cass)

  18 Jan 2012 | 10:13 pm

  The CREWE, a Facebook group of PR professionals, Wikipedians, and marketers like myself are working together on a number of projects to bring more accurate corporate data to Wikipedia through the help of corporate representatives. As part of the discussion we have a few different projects, including an effort to audit top corporations for their data in Wikipedia. By doing so we have to establish the need for more corp. representative involvement in the wikipedia site. Robert Lawton, a Wikipedia editor suggested the CREWE project here are the details: An audit of the Fortune and FTSE 100…

• Coca Cola's Content 2010 Business Comic Video

  jcass@nwlink.com (John Cass)

  7 Jan 2012 | 2:52 pm

  As Joe reports Coca-Cola has developed a new content marketing strategy for the next decade. The company developed a video to explain the new strategy. Check out the videos: Coca Cola Business Comic Video 1 Coca Cola Business Comic Video 2 Here's my initial take on the videos: Content development is seen as important. However, what I noticed was that it wasn't just about creating the highest quality content, but also, an understanding that rich engagement with audiences has to be conducted in order to improve content, and also gain insights and promote content effectively. Good content,…

• Government In The Lab’s Content Strategy

  jcass@nwlink.com (John Cass)

  4 Jan 2012 | 9:16 pm

  John Moore runs Government in the Lab, a site dedicated to creating a positive transformation in government and politics, throughout the world, via shared knowledge and community. John and I talked about how the site’s content strategy, he explained that most of the content is shared by their writers; the majority of the content are posts from the author’s original sites. John said, “today the ratio is roughly 90% existing content, 10% new content’. This means Government in the Lab is a content farm by Google’s standards, the site has a lot of duplicate content. However, that…

• The White Whale Is Dead, Long Live The Whale

  jcass@nwlink.com (John Cass)

  1 Jan 2012 | 11:20 am

  Moby Dick... an important book in American literature, but one I have to admit I've never totally enjoyed. My problem was never with the story, rather the long sections in the book on dissecting whales and the intricacies of the whaling industry, by the gods, boring beyond belief; who cares about the machinery of whaling I wanted to the story to flow, and I thought the interludes stopped that flow. While I remember the story fondly, I shuddered at the thought of those long sections on whaling, until that is I attended a musical called, "The Whale," based on Herman Melville’s famous book. To…

• 

  No man is an iland

• If the email’s legal, it can’t be spam. Can it?

  Mark Brownlow

  20 Jan 2012 | 2:55 am

  Sometimes it helps to have a “fact” sheet to whisk out when making an email marketing case to colleagues (or yourself). Today’s post fills that role for an issue that often confuses those not directly involved in email marketing… Does compliance with anti-spam law confer immunity from being filtered, marked or even perceived as spam? No. Now for the summary and the evidence… Summary Legal compliance is not the main factor used by those who manage incoming mail (ISPs, webmail services and IT departments) to decide if your email should be delivered to the inbox or…

• Email more popular than beer…and other fun facts

  Mark Brownlow

  22 Dec 2011 | 5:06 am

  As I close down for the holiday break, I though I’d leave you with some lighthearted statistics about email. Something to impress the relatives with. Ready? 1. According to Google Trends, email is more popular than Elvis, the Beatles, chocolate, beer, Justin Bieber and Harry Potter…but not sex. 2. Say you printed out each non-spam email sent in the world on a single piece of standard A4 copy paper: One day’s worth of emails would produce a stack of paper 2,159 times taller than Mt. Everest It would take just over 20 days for the stack to reach the moon In just under 2 hours,…

• Double your sign-up rate? Practical advice for popover forms

  Mark Brownlow

  20 Dec 2011 | 5:50 am

  Spiders, scorpions, snakes…and popups. Improvements to browser security largely killed the popup window, but the fear and loathing remains. As a result, email marketers have been reluctant to use “in your face” website sign-up forms that in any way resemble those popups of the past. But times and technology have changed. Is this reluctance to consider more brazen approaches to sign-up forms still relevant and reasonable? With marketers reporting huge sign-up lifts from using them, what are the impacts on user experience? Are there any recommended techniques in this field? I…

• Six approaches for future-proof email marketing

  Mark Brownlow

  2 Dec 2011 | 2:53 am

  So in a terrifying moment of weakness I found myself saying: “It would be nice to get 3000 Twitter followers by the end of the year” Oh dear. Why 3000? Why by the end of the year? Why focus on THAT metric? Why, Mark, why? I’m only human. The seductive appeal of using a random number of followers, likes, +1’s or subscribers as your measure of success is a tricky one to resist. But the mistake led me to ask whether I’ve learned anything over the past 13+ years of online and email marketing. Cue a brief period of panic…followed by a longer period of…

• Did Monty Python write your unsubscribe page? 9 tips to make it better

  Mark Brownlow

  8 Nov 2011 | 8:48 am

  All your calls-to-action are happily driving sales, searches, downloads, donations, phone calls or Facebook love. But not the unsubscribe link. No indeed. This sniveling wretch spends his days sucking subscribers out of your database. (And his nights cavorting recklessly with dental appointments and taxes down the “Needed but not Nice” gin and whisky joint.) As we’ll see, however, unsubscribes are not all bad. And there are good ways and bad ways to manage them. Make it difficult? One school of thought says the best way to keep people on your list is to make it as difficult…

• 

  Empowered

• How social networks make money

  Josh Bernoff

  27 Jan 2012 | 11:35 am

  by Josh Bernoff We're arguably 10 years into the social network phenomenon (Friendster was founded in 2002). By now we should know the main business models. But popular sites like Tumblr (no visible means of support) raise the question, are there really any other good ways to make money other than advertising? Here are the significant models: Advertising. Facebook is already making multiple billions on ads on pages. Networks without ads on pages make money form ads on search (Twitter promoted tweets, for example). Brand pages. Twitter has started to roll these out. As I understand it, you…

• Five stages in dealing with Google's control of your data

  Josh Bernoff

  26 Jan 2012 | 1:42 pm

  by Josh Bernoff There's plenty of serious analysis going on about Google assembling all your data (and using it to improve your experience across devices). This is going to make Google stickier and harder to live without, ramp up the pressures on how they expose controls on data collection and use, and increase the seriousness of possible data breaches.  But most of all, it's raised everyone's consciousness about just how much data Google collects, and made us wonder if we should be worried. As we're all grieving the loss of our privacy, maybe Elisabeth Kübler-Ross can…

• We are all pirates -- SOPA-inspired stories from 15 years of media analysis

  Josh Bernoff

  19 Jan 2012 | 8:57 am

  by Josh Bernoff With SOPA blackouts all over the news, I wanted to take a step back and ask: do we know what piracy is? Sounds like a simple question, but here are a few stories that show just how confused people are. In the 2000s, I wrote a Forrester report about file sharing. Our reports are available to paying clients or for a fee. But we share the reports with the people we interview as a courtesy. Among the people I interviewed was one at a prominent media-company lobbying organization that represents copyright owners -- one of the very organizations that is right now pushing SOPA and…

• Do people care about the data you collect? Now, more than ever, they do.

  Josh Bernoff

  18 Jan 2012 | 12:00 pm

  by Josh Bernoff Today Forrester published survey results intended to answer the questions "Do people care if companies collect their data, and does it affect their decisions about the companies?" The short answer to both questions is, yes. In a survey of 37,000 US and Canadian online adults, we first asked how concerned people were with companies accessing their personal information. More than 70% were concerned about social security numbers and credit cards. Less than half cared about their phone number, and only 19% were concerned about their online reviews. This proves people are…

• The Global Social Takeover

  Josh Bernoff

  4 Jan 2012 | 1:35 pm

  by Josh Bernoff I recently pointed out that Social 2012 is Web 2000 -- in the hype that surrounds it, and the reality that social interactivity, like the Web, is becoming embedded in everything people do. Forrester Research just published its annual global review (for clients) of participation in social interactivity, and it bears this theme out on a global scale. Even more fascinating are the variations around the world. If you've read Groundswell, you know that we analyze participation on a ladder, with different consumers reaching different rungs. At the top are activities that…

• 

  Bad Pitch Blog

• Gawker Follows Our Lead

  Kevin Dugan

  16 Jan 2012 | 12:05 pm

  We've worked with Gawker in the past to help further our cause. Trying to change the industry from the inside out has been an ongoing task (psst, our sixth birthday is this Friday!).And, while we're proud of the progress we've helped create, we've learned over the years that we need all the help we can get.Our friend Hamilton Nolan knows of our valiant quest and he's "reaching across the aisle" on behalf of the fourth estate to help us out with his new blog item: PR Dummies. Hat tip to Judy Gombita for alerting us to the homage.It's great to see someone follow our lead. This is a case…

• 3 Ways National Media Use Social Media to Find Sources

  Kevin Dugan

  16 Jan 2012 | 11:44 am

  We've seen some interesting examples of how journalists are sourcing stories via social media. Here are three national journalists using three different social media platforms to get things done. And in this MLK edition, we've also got some tips for being a better source via social media.The New York Times: social media editor Liz Heron on FacebookLiz sourced several quotes via Facebook and even followed up with her sources after the fact. It's a reminder to PR people that everyone's quotable -- regardless of what platform they might be on.CNN/MTV: author Brenna Ehrlich on…

• New Year, New Content

  Kevin Dugan

  3 Jan 2012 | 8:15 am

  Help The Bad Pitch Blog suck less in 2012.If you want more trending, less trailing and no tired* content in 2012, we need your help.Leave us a comment on this post, drop us an email or send us a tweet if there's a specific topic you'd like to see us discuss in the future. Richard and I try and give you what you want to read vs. what we think you want...or what we want to write about.It's All About YouWe're knocking the dust off this blog in 2012. The best way to give you what you want is to simply ask. So thanks in advance for your comments and feedback.And yes it really is all about you.

• 5 Reminders of Word Choice's Importance

  Kevin Dugan

  2 Jan 2012 | 11:00 am

  What's in a Word? A lot. A chain of links this morning reminds us of the importance of word choice.A Tale of Two ClichesYou're thinking, "But we also say, 'don't sweat the small stuff.'" There's some substance in this trite phrase as well. Word choice shouldn't paralyze us or slow us down. But there's a happy medium between clear, concise Hemingway-style writing and writing that helps differentiate us that also makes sense.So here are a few reminders of how important word choice is, starting with this video from Good magazine on URLs.2) The best invoice terms to get you paid faster:…

• Ocean Marketing's Emails Are NOT a PR Fail

  Kevin Dugan

  28 Dec 2011 | 2:49 pm

  Yes, the author of Ocean Marketing's email exchange turned meme is an idiot -- at best. But is this a public relations mistake or is this a customer service mistake?I'm dead serious. Paul has zero credibility and I'm not trying to give him any. But I also refuse to become a part of the pile on. It's too easy and Paul's already being fossilized by the weight of the online pile on alone.At the same time, I also refuse to let our industry accept this failure as one of our own.Just Do It (Your Job)According to Know Your Meme, Ocean Marketing "was contracted to handle customer…

• 

  crowdSPRING Blog

• Twitter Link Roundup #117 – Small Business, Social Media, Design, Copywriting, Marketing And More

  Ross

  27 Jan 2012 | 12:20 am

  Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about logo design, web design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week! The image above is a fun look at bottled water from Apple – if Apple made bottled water. That post, and other interesting posts are in the “Other” section below. Crowdsourcing: a 7+7 Primer (tips for businesses on…

• 12 Questions: Meet Vinay and Asha (India)

  Audree

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:13 am

  In our 12 Questions blog series, we feature interviews with someone from the crowdSPRING community. For these interviews, we pick people who add value to our community – in the blog, in the forums, in the projects. Plainly – activities that make crowdSPRING a better community. Be professional, treat others with respect, help us build something very special, and we’ll take notice. We’re very proud to feature Vinay and Asha (crowdSPRING username: Knifeonbutter) today. Vinay and Asha live and work in Goa, India. 1. Please tell us about yourselves. We have traveled around the world,…

• Small Business Spotlight of the Week: Studyers

  Amanda

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:05 pm

  Current education (I speak as a U.S. citizen) is a little–  how to say this delicately– well, stale. Kids come from playing highly interactive video games or browsing on the collaborative internet to sit in uncomfortable desks, read from textbooks published in 1969 that are falling apart, and take notes on paper in cursive.  How students are learning in the classroom isn’t super relevant to how they are learning vasts amount of information outside the classroom.  But how do you start to connect this disparity? It can start with a service like Studyers. Studyers is an…

• Crowdsourcing: a 7+7 Primer (Pt. 2)

  Mike

  22 Jan 2012 | 11:04 pm

  Last week I posted the first part of this article on crowdsourcing strategies. In the post, I discussed some of the big-picture issues that I believe should be considered carefully when planning a crowdsourced project. Best practices for crowdsourcing require managers to first determine the best venue for their project, effective management of the process, careful quality control, executing a well-planned recruiting strategy, active engagement of the intended audience, express ’training’ of the participants, and the anticipation that pushback may be encountered. Today I’ll…

• Small Business Spotlight of the Week: Twittapolls

  Amanda

  17 Jan 2012 | 11:05 pm

  So, we all know that social media is this thing that we’re supposed to use to promote our businesses. There are a billion articles telling small business owners that this is REALLY IMPORTANT and NECESSARY and VITAL,  or else we should go crawl into an analog, Web 1.0 hole and end it. This is mostly for good reason. After all, it makes it relatively easy for your company to interact directly with customers and for said customers to submit feedback and suggestions. However, organizing this feedback can prove to be quite the challenge. Twittapolls is a service does just that: organizes the…

• 

  Marketers Studio - David Berkowitz's Marketing Blog

• Links for 2012-01-27 [del.icio.us]

  28 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am

  About – Google in Education Google's Education portal with resources for teachers, organizations, and students: Leading-edge technologies will play a vital role in helping equip future generations with the skills they need to thrive in the workforce of today and tomorrow. That is why we support collaborative learning in communities around the world, and why we invest heavily in education programs initiatives and partnerships through our products and tools. Sortable - Taking the pain out of buying Comparison shopping engine, for consumer electronics right now Find information - Wisdio…

• Links for 2012-01-25 [del.icio.us]

  26 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am

  LEGO® CUUSOO | Home LEGO community to crowdsource recommendations for next lego sets - pretty amazing that they're going to create a Minecraft edition because of this Likes! for iPhone and Android Another Facebook app to try - seems similar to MicroStrategy's Wisdom app: Likes! sorts your Facebook friends' favorite places, people, and things.

• Links for 2012-01-24 [del.icio.us]

  25 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am

  Udacity - Educating the 21st Century New online education platform - "We believe university-level education can be both high quality and low cost. Using the economics of the Internet, we've connected some of the greatest teachers to hundreds of thousands of students all over the world. " Neiio Contact A new contact management site. Not sure if I need or want this, but some may find it useful. Via Netted by the Webbys: "The site pulls contacts from Facebook, Linked In, Outlook, and Gmail and allows you to sort them into custom groups. Once built, those groups can be exported and uploaded to…

• Instant RFP in Jeopardy at Social Media Insider Summit

  David Berkowitz

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:24 am

  image of four great presenters and a moderator talking too much courtesy of Drew Neisser via Foursquare Instant RFP in Jeopardyoriginally published in MediaPost's Social Media Insider Summit Florida is one of our more unpredictable states. The weather, the voting patterns, and the Florida Marlins can constantly surprise the locals, and there aren’t many other places where you can reasonably ask, “Is the Buick driver in front of me taking a nap, or is there an alligator crossing the highway?” That helps to explain why MediaPost’s Social Media Insider Summit in Florida this week sparked…

• Links for 2012-01-23 [del.icio.us]

  24 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am

  Cardcloud - Your online business card An online business card - I've tried a lot of these and haven't stuck with them but will give this a shot buzzdoes - Effective App Distribution Tool | Mobile Apps SDK for iOS & Android Startup designed to incorporate reward marketing into mobile apps: Turn your app users into your app distributors! buzzdoes is a word-of-mouth marketing tool that helps app developers penetrate the crowded market and increase exposure easily and effectively. Reward-based viral distribution encourages your users to recommend your apps.

• 

  PSFK

• Twitter To Censor Tweets In Select Countries [Headlines]

  27 Jan 2012 | 4:06 pm

  Social networking platform will monitor activity in certain nations around the world

• MasterCard Rumors Apple Is Developing Contactless Payments [Headlines]

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:58 pm

  The credit company gossips that computer giant is creating a new touch-free way to make purchases.

• Tablets Are Hurting Your Neck [Headlines]

  27 Jan 2012 | 3:31 pm

  New study out of Harvard suggests that iPad, Kindle Fire and others are bad for your health.

• Occupy Design Launched By London Protest Movement

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:55 pm

  The kick-off weekend for Occupy Design includes a hands-on series of workshops examining design within the context of protest.

• New Culture Website Is The New Yorker Of Live Content

  27 Jan 2012 | 1:35 pm

  Hibrow.tv.com curates video of visual art, music, literature, theatre, dance and cinema for an upscale audience.

• 

  RKGBlog

• Leveraging Google+ Pages for Search Marketing

  Ruben Sanchez

  26 Jan 2012 | 8:30 am

  As suggested in a recent post on brand ad cannibalization, each search engine results page hosts a dance between organic search results and paid ads.  The dance between these SERP elements can range from ugly to lovely (potentially from a negative to positive sum game for retailers). Enter a new Dancer With Search Plus Your World, Google acknowledges that social is a disruptive dimension that can make search results even more relevant and increase profits for online businesses.  Social content can be used by businesses as a lever to increase the click-through rate on organic search results…

• SEO and Social in 2012: 4 Takeaways (plus my upcoming speaking gigs)

  Adam Audette

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:08 pm

  This post started as a short announcement of the recent conferences where I’ll be speaking in the next few months. But once pen hit paper, I guess I had more to say! The merger and acquisition of AudetteMedia by RKG has certainly taken some time and attention. It’s good to be back at my desk. Let the work begin! SEO and Social in 2012: 4 Takeaways Welcome to another chapter in the ever-unfolding saga of search marketing! This year feels a bit different somehow. First Panda disrupted SEO, then Google Plus disrupted social media (but the bigger change was how Search Plus is…

• Another Reason to Advertise on Your Brand Name in Paid Search

  Matthew Mierzejewski

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:52 am

  RKG has always stressed the importance of distinguishing brand and non-brand keyword performance. That has not changed and likely will not ever change. However, that doesn’t suggest buying brand keywords in paid search is a waste of money. In fact, just recently, I noticed yet another reason to continue buying these keywords as a way to ward off the competition and ensure that every user searching for your site by name, winds up getting there. The gold standard manual process for auditing “squatters” on your brand name is to go to Google.com, query your brand name, and see…

• RKG Digital Marketing Report: Q4 2011 Released

  Mark Ballard

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:05 am

  Today we released the RKG Digital Marketing Report for the fourth quarter of 2011, offering data and analysis for paid search, SEO, CSEs, Facebook advertising and more.  We’ve taken steps to make sure our report is representative of the larger marketing fields covered so that it can serve as a credible benchmark for individual advertisers and offer insights into the numbers the major players like Google and Yahoo end up reporting in their financials. Historically, our approach to quarterly analysis has been a strong predictor of the engines’ high-level performance and, if that…

• The Cardinal Sin of Paid Search

  George Michie

  16 Jan 2012 | 8:51 am

  My SEL column from this morning, in case you missed it there. There are plenty of good reasons to advertise on your brand name. Advertising on your brand allows you to: Control the message. The text of the message can be kept fresh, highlighting promotions, shipping cut-off dates, whatever makes sense for the brand. Direct traffic. Site-links provide an opportunity for users to navigate to the next page deeper rather than just the home page, thereby aiding conversions. Occupy real estate. Taking up more space on the SERP means less leakage to affiliates and competitors. Capture incremental…

• 

  The Friday Traffic Report

• The One About YouTube Video Marketing

  Jack Humphrey

  27 Jan 2012 | 2:22 pm

  Listen to internet radio with The Friday Traffic Report on Blog Talk Radio Today we discussed the massive-ness of YouTube, the importance of video content marketing, and how to tap into 800 million users, or, the “Beast With A Billion Eyes.” Also: Google privacy update Links from today’s show ou the Friday Traffic Report Fan Page

• The One About Google’s Personalized Search

  Jack Humphrey

  15 Jan 2012 | 12:11 am

  In this, the second episode of 2012, Jack and Jim discuss the major change to Google’s search this week. Learn how it affects how you’re found on Google and how you can increase your traffic with social. Listen to internet radio with The Friday Traffic Report Related articles Google Personal Search Will change the way [...]

• First Friday of 2012!

  Jack Humphrey

  6 Jan 2012 | 3:28 pm

  On today’s Friday Traffic Report we hit the hot button issues.  Important things like, what gadgets we got for Christmas.  And why Twitter lets 3rd parties do things like Paper.li instead of doing them themselves. And, you know, all the other marketing and social tech goodness that comes with every serving of FTR radio! Links [...]

• $50,000 spent by individuals on Mafia Wars.

  Jack Humphrey

  16 Dec 2011 | 1:44 pm

  Where are people spending the big bucks online? And how might you take advantage of human nature to get more from your own customers? Today’s show takes a look at what people are willing to spend on online services and games.  And I bet you’ll be floored by what we found! Think about how the [...]

• Personal curation tools, privacy, and stuff we don’t like…

  Jack Humphrey

  9 Dec 2011 | 1:44 pm

  My co-host this week was Brandon Hall.  Jim Stroud was flying somewhere over North America at show time. Today we talked about: Clipboard, Scoop.it, Facebook, privacy and #D5D5D5 You’ll have to listen to figure that one out.  :) Check out our links on Facebook.

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  Small Business Branding

• Communicate the Write Way: 7 Tips for Written Communication

  Karl Walinskas

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:03 am

  In the fast-moving environment we live in today, those who jump to the top have fantastic communication skills, and that means better business writing than the competitors. You’ve heard the cliché, “the pen is mightier than the sword.” Well, in business, you’d better be able to flourish a pen or else you may just fall [...]

• The Near-Sighted Brand

  Ed Roach

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:17 pm

  Sometimes I think I should put an branding eye-chart on my website for companies who have a hard time seeing the truth about their brands. If they were only 20/20 they’d be able to take on the competition from a leadership position and have clarity in their actions. If these 5 observations leave you squinting [...]

• Grow your small business with online appointment scheduling

  Marc Woodward

  20 Jan 2012 | 6:04 am

  There are more than 27 million small businesses in the U.S., and in this tough economy, the competition can be intense. As a result, online marketing is playing an increasingly crucial role for attracting and retaining customers. The first step to marketing your business online, of course, is to create a website. But then what? [...]

• Welcome to the Cloud

  Charlie Townsend

  16 Jan 2012 | 4:57 am

  Your business needs to work everywhere. In this day and age of endless connection with others, it is becoming more imperative that businesses not be tied down to a physical business aspect that limits their capabilities. If you’re looking for more mobility, then welcome to the cloud. Cloud computing is delivering host services all over [...]

• Me-Too Positioning gets you Nowhere in B2B Marketing

  Kevin Levi

  11 Jan 2012 | 6:10 am

  The other day I was speaking with a prospective B2B software client who needed to better differentiate itself in its market. When I asked the President of the company to tell me what makes his product more special than the next provider, he referenced the following: Our product is easy to install We provide incredible [...]

• 

  Dose of Digital

• Translating the New FDA Social Media Guidance

  Jonathan Richman

  4 Jan 2012 | 11:34 am

  [Get your copy of the FDA Guidance Translator Flow Chart later in this post] It’s been a long wait, but the FDA finally delivered. They’ve come through with at least some direction for how pharma companies can properly use social media. It’s not a complete answer to every issue, but it is a good start. I’ve reviewed the full contents of the guidance that the FDA released on December 30, 2011 and found it, not surprisingly, a bit hard to follow at times. The full title of the guidance they released is: “Responding to Unsolicited Requests for Off-Label Information…

• Digital Marketing Lessons from 2011′s Top Memes

  Jonathan Richman

  14 Dec 2011 | 9:21 am

  I love memes. They’re simple. They get one point across. They tend to be amusing. I also like being “in the know” and there’s typically some backstory to the meme that you need to understand for it to make sense. It’s kind of like an exclusive club for the Internet set of us out there. What I really like about memes is how you can use them to express a really simple concept. For those of you who don’t really know what a meme is, here’s the official definition (thanks to Google’s handy “define” feature): An element of a culture or…

• Pharma Companies That Have Proved Me Wrong

  Jonathan Richman

  9 Nov 2011 | 9:16 am

  It takes a big person to admit they’re wrong. This is especially true when it’s me, as I really don’t like doing this. Ever. Well, here comes one of those rare times where I do admit it. There is one caveat: I’m not totally wrong. Just partially wrong. You see, almost two and a half years ago I wrote a post called  Ten Digital Marketing Ideas Pharma Companies Will Never Try (But Should). It ‘s actually  the second most read post ever on Dose of Digital (second only to Facebook Pages Just Got Easier for Brands). That means about 8,000 of you will understand why…

• The Right Way to Use the Facebook Like Button

  Jonathan Richman

  31 Oct 2011 | 8:35 am

  This has annoyed me for a long time, so I’m finally going to fix this for the entire world once and for all. You’ve probably all found yourself on a Facebook page and have seen something like this: (Try it out on the Oreo page for yourself). What’s annoying about this? Rather than including a Like button in the tab, they point you to the button at the top of the Page. Sometimes this is more egregious like in the case of BMW’s Page. From a design standpoint, I don’t know what’s visually less appealing than a giant arrow jutting out of your Page.

• Visualizing Pharma’s Use of Social Media

  Jonathan Richman

  24 Oct 2011 | 2:57 pm

  A while back, I got a note from Leigh Householder (@leighhouse) who had the idea to take the Pharma and Healthcare Social Media Wiki and make it much more visual so people could appreciate just how much the pharma industry has dove into social media. Since infographics are all the rage these days, I gave her the go ahead. A few iterations later and her team at the IQ Lab at GSW developed this simple, yet elegant (I think) way to visualize pharma’s participation in social media. Rather than a bunch of confusing stats, Leigh’s team took a page (literally) from each of the existing…

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  GROWMAP.COM

• Small Business Trends Book Awards Nominations Close January 31, 2012 #smallbusiness

  growmap

  27 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pm

  There is still time to make sure your favorite small business related book is nominated (or your own!) for the Small Business Trends Book Awards – but only until Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Don’t take the chance of being shut out by waiting until the last minute. Head over there NOW and make sure your favorites are listed. If you’re an author that goes double for you. Small Business Book Awards Twitter Chat Join all our fellow book lovers including Anita Campbell from @SmallBizTrends and our blogging collaborators @Ileane @mmangen @VernessaTaylor @CoachNotesBlog and many more…

• Social Networking, LinkedIn, Blogging and Music

  ManuelMarino

  26 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pm

  This is a guest post by Manuel Marino where he shares how he has combined using LinkedIn for connections with blogging to build a community of artists helping artists. Is it possible to merge an artist’s talent with social networking, adding some blogging spice for a perfect mix? My name is Manuel Marino and I’m a music composer and producer, but I consider myself an all around artist, blessed with many talents, from music to painting, graphics and design. I have many websites, most important are my weblog about music and arts ManuelMarino.com and my studio homepage…

• Future of Engagement: Video Content Creation

  growmap

  25 Jan 2012 | 6:39 pm

  Click Image to Find out more about Spark Media Solutions In the latest episode of Future of Engagement, Murray Newlands interviews branding expert David Spark (@dspark on Twitter), founder of the custom publishing company Spark Media Solutions which provides custom content marketing services. David and Murray discuss how content including video content creation works for business. They go beyond creating videos to how to use them to share your content and build relationships through blog outreach, guest blogging, and relationship building using social media. “To be shared, your content…

• Social Media Monitoring and Management with Alerti

  growmap

  19 Jan 2012 | 7:05 am

  Alerti: How it Works This is a guest post from Murray Newlands sharing a new social media monitoring and management solution. Social Media Monitoring It’s the new year, and if you’re like me, you’re taking a good, long look at your business goals and the services you use to achieve those goals. If your goals include lead generation, networking, becoming a thought leader, engaging in more conversation, or understanding your competition better, then I want to introduce you to Alerti social media monitoring and management service. This short (under 2 minutes) video shows how to set up…

• SOPA Blackout Strike Already Started; Why Major Sites and Blogs Went Dark in Support

  growmap

  18 Jan 2012 | 2:04 am

  If you haven’t heard about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) so far, most are bound to have noticed Tuesday, January 18, 2012 when they were unable to get to many of their favorite sites from Wikipedia to Reddit to WordPress to Mozilla to Craigslist. NEW: Where do members of Congress stand on SOPA MUST WATCH VIDEOS: CBS C/Net Complicit in Piracy SOPA LOSING SUPPORT VIDEO Do not fall for the red herring that these bills – both SOPA (in the House) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) (in the Senate) are ONLY about stopping “renegade pirate sites”.  ANY site could be taken down!

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  Social Media Strategy | Online PR | Proactive Report | Sally Falkow

• Building A Simple Social Media Dashboard with iGoogle

  Sally Falkow

  21 Jan 2012 | 9:14 am

  When you start monitoring social conversations it takes a while to figure out which words and phrases return the most relevant content. There are many excellent subscription tools available, but until you have narrowed down your search terms and brand terms, it’s a smart idea to use a free tool. iGoogle is one easy-to-create and easy-to-use dashboard.  Here’s how to do it: If you don’t already have a Google account, set one up. If you have an account, sign in. Once you’ve signed in to your Google account, click on the gear icon on the top right and select iGoogle. If…

• Video Soon to be 90% of Online Traffic

  Sally Falkow

  13 Jan 2012 | 8:59 am

  Each year at this time  new technology ideas emerge and tech predictions are made at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. In his keynote speech Robert Kyncl, vice president, global head of content for YouTube, predicted that in a few years video will be 90% of all the traffic online.  In case you missed my earlier posts and webinars about the importance of using video in PR, I’m a believer. Video is obviously a big platform for entertainment. But it is just as important for news content. The vast majority of media websites now use video to enhance and supplement their…

• PRSA’s New PR Definition – 3 possibles

  Sally Falkow

  12 Jan 2012 | 8:22 am

  A few months ago when PRSA announced that it was engaging the PR community in an ‘open and collaborative effort’ to modernize the definition of PR, there was a spate of posts from PR people.  Many applauded the crowd sourcing approach, but there were also detractors. As with any such effort, there’s always the risk that individuals or groups with zero, limited or even slanted knowledge of public relations will chime in. There will also likely be a number of agenda-driven folks aimed at unfairly smearing PR.  Phil Gomes Not sure PRSA’s “fill in the blanks”…

• Good Writing Remains a Core PR Skill

  Sally Falkow

  11 Jan 2012 | 7:05 am

  I read a post in CommPRO.biz today about 5 trends for 2012 that will  affect your PR resume. A statement in the first point absolutely floored me: While a press release does not necessarily need to be well-written.… What could possibly lead anyone to the conclusion that a press release doesn’t have to be well-written? The purpose of a press release has changed; that I am the first  to acknowledge.  I started telling PR people that back in 2005.  But that doesn’t mean there is no value in a press release today and one should not bother with how they are written.

• The Customers’ Voice, Your Social Graph and Your Reputation

  Sally Falkow

  9 Jan 2012 | 9:14 am

  Social media impacts every part of your business.  Online PR has assumed greater importance and in 2012 it is imperative that a business Knows who their customers are and where they are active online Understands the power of social media for positive and negative impact Makes social media a part of their risk management strategy Educates their employees – all employees – about the far-reaching effects a social media comment can have Strives to give the best possible experience to all customers Understands how social content gets indexed in search results and how search affects…

• 

  Richard Edelman - 6 A.M.

• 2012 Trust Barometer: Business Can Earn the License to Lead

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:18 am

  In 2008-2009, in the wake of a recession that saw large, global companies such as Lehman Brothers and AIG collapse, trust in business imploded. Government stepped in with bailouts and new regulations. But in 2011, government became paralyzed by the politics of extremism and endless haggling – and the public lost confidence. The 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer sees an unprec¬edented nine-point global decline in trust in government. In twelve countries, it trails business, media, and non-governmental organizations as the least trusted institution. This has pushed more countries into the…

• Media Cloverleaf Comes to Life

  20 Jan 2012 | 12:14 pm

  I met with senior management of two of the best emerging media companies this week. I come away even more impressed with their ambition and willingness to experiment within the boundaries of quality and integrity. Mike Allen of Politico addressed our global public affairs team in Washington on Wednesday. He said that there are 225 people working at the company. They have gone beyond their digital roots to offer a print product. He joked that Politico is now available in vending machines along Park Avenue in New York City (4,000 print copies are distributed every day in NYC). He noted that the…

• Implementation Science

  13 Jan 2012 | 11:50 am

  I went to a breakfast Wednesday hosted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health at the World Economic Forum offices in NYC. It was a terrific panel, with five professors and senior members of the corporate healthcare community from important companies such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and BD. The Dean of Mailman School, Linda Fried, started the conversation by challenging the group to come up with new healthcare modalities to offer better quality and broader access within the present level of spending. The first big idea was Implementation Science, based on customer…

• Government and New Media

  6 Jan 2012 | 12:51 pm

  I had a chat this morning with my friend Steve Goldsmith, professor at the JFK School of Government at Harvard. He was mayor of Indianapolis and deputy mayor of New York City. We commiserated about the low opinion of government. He believes its reputation problem worsens the farther away its get from a close connection to the people. Local government is still liked by more than 50 percent of voters, state government is in the middle, while Congress has only a nine percent approval rating. Goldsmith had a wonderful anecdote likening government’s reputation woes to a quip he heard growing up…

• Highlights of My Year

  22 Dec 2011 | 8:45 am

  January—The World Economic Forum in Davos saw investment bankers pushing back on government leaders. A particularly heated exchange between French President Sarkozy and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase comes to mind—also early commentary by Bob Diamond at Barclay’s Bank on how the period of remorse for banks must be over. February—Howard Schultz addressed our US leadership team about the turnaround at Starbucks, giving us a preview of his book, Onward. Then I drove from Seattle to Vancouver, over the Peace Arch crossing into Canada. In Vancouver, I met a doctor who works with heroin…

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  advertising/design goodness - advertising and design blog

• Robin Wood: Felled Tree

  Freddy

  25 Jan 2012 | 4:39 am

  “Every second tree is killed to produce paper. Every single donation saves” Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Berlin, Germany Executive Creative Director: Oliver Kapusta Creative Director: Anne Petri Art Director: Christopher Jones Copywriter: Kathrin Schaller Photographer: Bernd Ebsen

• WWF: Hand Drawn

  Freddy

  20 Jan 2012 | 3:41 am

  Agency: Ogilvy, Cape Town, South Africa Creative Director: Chris Gotz Art Director: Prabashan G. Pather Copywriter: Sanjiv Mistry Illustrator: Alistair Grant Director: Ian Chuter Editor: Ric Shields Production Company: Platypus Productions Sound Engineer: Stephen Webster

• Mini: Fan the Flame

  Freddy

  19 Jan 2012 | 4:06 am

  A MINI Countryman was placed on a slope of 15% hanging only on a thick rope. Under the rope a bunsen burner was placed. Once you have liked the Facebook page you can watch the live construction, which was build on the parking lot of the Brussels Motorshow and remote ignite the flame from the campaign website. Agency: TBWA\Agency.com, Belgium Creative Director Online: Gert Pauwels Creative Director: Hendrik Everaerts Art Director: Lander Janssens Copywriters: Paul Van Oevelen, Bout Holtof Account team: Bénédicte Ernst, Hadoum Ghassab Online Project Manager: Tine Anthoon Digital Project…

• BMW Screen

  Freddy

  18 Jan 2012 | 4:18 am

  Advertising the new BMW 1 Series, iLogic allowed consumers to engage with the brand in a new, exciting way. Keeping in mind that unmatched innovation is always part of the BMW driving experience, iLogic developed Interactive Video Projections. Full activation on the ground took place over eight nights in major cities across South Africa. Locations were vibey, high-traffic main streets. Through a high powered, HD projector, iLogic projected an interactive racing game onto buildings and scaffoldings (Screen measuring 108m2). Consumers engaged in real time, while having serious fun with new…

• Audi: Ahab

  Freddy

  17 Jan 2012 | 4:17 am

  Over 30 years ago, Audi pioneered permanent four-wheel drive with Audi Quattro®. Today it’s the world’s top selling AWD system. But sadly for one tormented soul, its legacy is more a source of humiliation than celebration. Inspired by one of the all-time classics in American literature, Audi re-imagines Herman Melville’s epic struggle between obsessed sea captain and elusive white whale to bring the legend of Quattro® to life.

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  VerticalResponse Email Marketing Blog for Small Business

• 5 B2B Email Marketing Takeaways from Tebow-Mania

  verticalresponse

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:38 am

  Photo credit: Jeffrey Beall If there's anything I've learned from the Tim Tebow craze, it's that giving the right pitch to the right (or wrong) audience can get your name out there, for better or for worse. If your message is irrelevant, if it is controversial or if you're too aggressive in the delivery, you may end up polarizing your audience or losing followers. Being known for something, whether it's good or bad, may be beneficial in the media world, but in business communications being infamous can hit you right in the pocketbook. In order to keep your business in the…

• Has Communication on Twitter Gone to the Birds?

  verticalresponse

  25 Jan 2012 | 10:25 am

  I don’t want this to be one of those nostalgic posts that remember the “good old days” on one of the more popular social networks. No, I just want to share some very unscientific findings that made me scratch my head. See, I’ve been on Twitter for almost four years now. Not as long as some of the more pronounced early adopters, but long enough to see the changes in the social network for better or worse. Like I said earlier, this is not a post to bash on what Twitter is today, but just to bring to light what those changes are and get input from other users to see if they're…

• How to Customize Your Email Marketing With Little to No Effort

  verticalresponse

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:30 am

  This article originally appeared on iMedia Connection, an online resource covering the latest and greatest in interactive marketing. In a market that’s saturated with mass email campaigns for every product and service known to man, being able to consistently strike a chord with your customers isn’t easy. High-level customization of email marketing campaigns usually requires collecting various types of data on your customers, segmenting your lists and using (and paying for) complex enterprise-level tools. But for many of us – especially the small agency or small business marketer – we…

• How to Put the Love in Your Valentine's Day Marketing

  verticalresponse

  23 Jan 2012 | 9:05 am

  Valentine's Day 2012 is coming fast! According to the experts at the National Retail Federation, retail spending for the holiday will increase nearly 13 percent this year - that's huge! On top of this, the average person will spend $116.21 on traditional Valentine’s Day merchandise this year, an increase of 12.8% over 2011’s total, with expenditures on jewelry and clothing expected to rise substantially. This makes this Valentine's Day the fourth most popular shopping holiday of the year, just behind the winter holidays of Christmas/Hanukkah, Back-to-School and…

• Calling All NonResponders - Don't Give Up on Them Yet!

  verticalresponse

  20 Jan 2012 | 10:05 am

  Who and what exactly are nonresponders? These are subscribers who continue to get your emails, but haven't opened, clicked or responded in a long time, if ever. We've all read the advice to clean up our email lists and get rid of the "dead weight," the unengaged, the nonresponders. But wait! Have you tried to reengage them before you cut them loose? More than 90% of consumers unsubscribe, “unlike” or stop following brands because of too frequent, irrelevant or boring communications. Did you read that, 90%! And that b-word...BORING! I'm sure you've never,…

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  Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

• INTENTclick – Contextual Advertising that Clicks

  Zac Johnson

  6 Jan 2012 | 3:56 pm

  When it comes to monetizing a web site or blog, you have a lot of options. In the last monetization post I wrote, I covered a few different methods, which ranged from promoting yourself as a brand, selling your own product and also through contextual advertising. Contextual advertising is a hot trend lately, as site owners are moving away from the idea of adding banners to their sites that will take up more web site, and potentially lower the user experience. One contextual network that has been on the rise and making a name for themselves is INTENTclick. How Contextual Advertising Works As…

• Knowing How to Best Monetize Your Site’s Traffic

  Zac Johnson

  3 Jan 2012 | 12:46 pm

  The ability to create a web site or blog and know how to make the most out of your traffic is an art in itself. Every type of web site has it’s own type of traffic. What are visitors to your web site looking to accomplish? When someone visits a blog like this one, they are most likely looking for information on how to make money online and are more likely to join an affiliate network mentioned on the site, or maybe even sign up to an affiliate forum or training program. As the owner of a web site or blog, it’s not only important to know what your audience is looking for, but also…

• Live Fights at ClickBooth’s Affiliate Fight Night at Affiliate Summit West 2012

  Zac Johnson

  30 Dec 2011 | 5:48 pm

  A couple weeks ago I gave a little teaser about a sweet looking party that ClickBooth is throwing during Affiliate Summit West 2012 in Las Vegas. While other parties might be dying down as the night comes to a close, Affiliate Fight Night is just beginning, and live fights will go on all through the wee morning hours! The party will take place at the Xtreme Couture MMA with Randy Couture on Monday, January 9, 2012 from 10:00pm until 3:00am. The RSVP process for the party has just opened up, so make sure you get on the list asap! In addition to getting access to some premium fights and…

• Online Reputation Management: Top Firms

  Zac Johnson

  27 Dec 2011 | 1:18 pm

  When it comes to advertising and building a brand online, reputation is everything. Though it may take years and several happy clients for you to establish yourself as a trusting brand and service, there is always the potential for negative feedback and people out there just making it their mission to tarnish your name. Just as quickly as you can build your reputation online, someone can come along and bring it down even faster… even if the information they are posting isn’t true. Think about it for a second… is there anyone from your past, maybe a client, friend or even…

• UPrinting Die-Cut Business Card Giveaway

  Zac Johnson

  20 Dec 2011 | 1:54 pm

  If you only had 30 seconds to tell someone about your business in an elevator and never see them again, would they remember to contact you? Better yet, would you have an impressive business card to give to them, that not only has all of your information and what your business is about, but leaves a lasting impression? You should! How many times have you gone to conference even and collected a ton of business cards, then look through them when you get home and find that most of them are boring and only a couple actually stand out? Wouldn’t you like to be one of those cards that stands…

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  Mihmorandum: Local SEO + Web Design

• Is Verizon a Data Supplier to Google Places?

  David Mihm

  17 Jan 2012 | 4:09 pm

  Obviously, I've claimed my consulting business on most of the major search engines and data aggregators, and done my best to make sure that my NAP information (Name, Address, and Phone number, for those of you new to Local Search) is consistent everywhere. Sure there are a few minor variations of my official DBA (David Mihm Web Design / Local SEO) due to various aggregators' limitations on length of business title. But, I recently came across a crazy bug on my Google Place Page! I couldn't believe it. My phone number had all of a sudden changed from 503-560-2755 to 971-400-6360. I had two…

• [Infographic] A Brief History of Google Places

  David Mihm

  10 Jan 2012 | 1:57 pm

  SEOs tend to work themselves into a frenzy over every minor news announcement that comes out of Mountain View–and one could probably say Local SEOs lie on the extreme end of the spectrum. In some respects, it’s understandable. Our space is constantly evolving, and to ignore these announcements can put us at a significant disadvantage relative to [...]

• BIA/Kelsey Group ILM West Day Three LiveBlog

  David Mihm

  14 Dec 2011 | 11:53 am

  Back on Day Three — off to a bit of late start again :) Bo Fishback, Zaarly Zaarly is 10 months old, $1MM in seed funding, $14MM in Series A funding, and got Meg Whitman on the board.  They are doing peer-to-peer selling.  Say what you want, what you are willing to pay, and how [...]

• BIA / Kelsey ILM West 2011 LiveBlog Day Two

  David Mihm

  13 Dec 2011 | 10:33 am

  And we’re off! Recap of Day 1 from BIA Kelsey’s Jed Williams Companies are partnering even with traditional enemies these days (ClearChannel and Cumulus, for example). Your biggest competitors are coming from markets you can’t even see right now. Being “average” at a bunch of different things means you are doomed to fail in today’s [...]

• BIA / Kelsey Group ILM West 2011 LiveBlog Thread

  David Mihm

  12 Dec 2011 | 11:31 am

  I'll be blogging sessions on this thread throughout the next couple days. Looking forward to the conversations in the comments and/or on the ol' Twitter.

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  SEOptimise » blog

• Foursquare 2012 | Experience, Thoughts and 6 Immense Tips for Your Business

  Pak Hou Cheung

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:32 am

  My Foursquare Experience so far… Like many other people over the past few months I have been using Foursquare quite a bit, as shown below.  I have knocked up quite a few mayorships and badges, but sadly I have already found it very monotonous and not at all engaging.   To be fair, Foursquare is great at the beginning with collecting the badges, stealing mayorships, getting those “Foursquare specials” and “Sharing with your friends”.  Well the last two I did not experience; working in Paddington I would presume that businesses would be flocking with specials, but sadly not,…

• What Could Google’s New Privacy Policy Mean for PPC?

  Tamsin Mehew

  26 Jan 2012 | 10:33 am

  Earlier in the week Google announced changes to its privacy policies. The main changes are that: Now nearly all Google products are covered by one privacy policy. Information you give Google’s various different services can be combined. Google still promises not to sell personal data, but to only share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information. It hasn’t announced that it’s collecting information it wasn’t before, just that it’s combining what it has differently. You can preview the new policy here. According to Forbes, combining information between Google services has…

• What Brands Need To Know About Google+ Pages

  Gillian Cook

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:25 am

  The recent integration of social and search at Google marks a huge change in how information on the internet will be presented to us. When a logged in user now performs a search, they will be given two types of search results: the anonymous search results that we are all used to and personal search results, which are generated from information shared within that user’s network of Google+ circles. This new platform presents a major marketing opportunity for brands and it requires a developed strategy just like other social media platforms. It would be daft for brands to consider Google+ as…

• Did Google Just Roll-Out Panda 3.2 (2012 Edition)?

  Kevin Gibbons

  20 Jan 2012 | 4:26 am

  Yesterday Google announced a new page layout algorithm update – this is a landing page quality update, which looks at “the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result”. As opposed to having the need for scrolling beneath ads to get to this. Doesn’t this sound very similar to Panda though? At Pubcon in November last year, Matt Cutts mentioned that: “If you have ads obscuring your content, you might want to think about it,” asking publishers to consider, “Do they see content or something else that’s distracting or…

• Time Management for SEO

  Daniel Bianchini

  18 Jan 2012 | 4:23 pm

  Over the last few months I have been trying to work on improving my time management skills, not only at work but in my personal life as well. I am forever being told that I am late or don’t do anything on time, and that is just from the wife. So I took to improving my time management skills, and thought that I would share with you a few techniques that I am using now in my working life. Time Planning Whether you have your time scheduled out for you by management or you prefer to manage your time yourself, ensure that you plan your work in advance. I use a spreadsheet within Google Docs…

• 

  Only Dead Fish

• Media = Maths + Magic

  neilperkin

  25 Jan 2012 | 12:56 pm

  Before Christmas, in an exceptionally insightful post on Ad Age, Adam Cahill suggested that it was time to change the orientation of media agencies and departments to be more reflective of what people do and toward what he called the math and the magic (hence the borrowed title to this post) of media. The maths bit of this referred to the kind of automated trading platforms and exchanges (like DSPs) that are becoming increasingly prevalent in traded digital media, and the magic referred to an approach driven by creativity that seeks to bring people in to fun/interesting/entertaining…

• Reinventing Libraries

  neilperkin

  23 Jan 2012 | 2:59 pm

  According to the 2010/11 Taking Part survey published by the Dept of Culture, Media & Sport the proportion of adults in the UK who visited a public library in the past year fell from 48.2% in 2005/6 to just 39.4% in 2009/10. At that rate of decline in less than two decades nobody will be visiting libaries. This upsets me. I remember weekly childhood visits to my local library, gathering up another small pile of books to take home. Those visits were full of anticipation. I can remember the almost overwhelming sense of wonder when I first walked into the Library at the sheer number and…

• Shut Down Or Restart?

  neilperkin

  22 Jan 2012 | 3:55 am

  Regular readers will know my views about the need to completely reinvent the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) curriculum in schools. Having written a few pieces on the subject I was invited along last week to an interesting meeting of representatives from industry and education (including Google, Microsoft, Rewired State, Nesta, BETT, the IPA and UKIE) who have come together to structure a response to the government-sponsored Next Gen report which called for a radical revamp of the tech curriculum. The good news is that there seems to be real consensus about the need for…

• What Is Competitive Advantage?

  neilperkin

  19 Jan 2012 | 3:47 pm

  Terminology like competitive advantage, differentiation and value creation tend to get overused in businesses. This HBR piece on the work of Michael Porter from Joan Margretta who worked with him for almost 20 years succinctly captures how often such terms are misappropriated ("Competitive advantage, for example, is often used to mean 'anything we think we're good at'. Any plan or program is called a strategy. Managers confuse differentiation with being different…most companies think they have a strategy when they don't"). It pulls together a list of Porter insights that are so pithy I'm…

• Stop SOPA And PIPA

  neilperkin

  18 Jan 2012 | 3:09 am

  It's a day of many voices of protest across the web (even on the Google homepage), but I didn't want to post about anything else today. I don't believe that censoring the web is the right thing to do and I don't believe SOPA and PIPA are the right way to end piracy. So for what it's worth I'm adding my voice to the many calls to vote no. If you are one of my US based readers, please consider signing the online petition.

• 

  So Good

• Review: Panda Express Firecracker Chicken

  Peter

  27 Jan 2012 | 7:36 am

  If you’re wondering why there have been dragons roaming Chinatown all week, let me lay it out for you: it’s Chinese New Year. Also known as Lunar New Year, the 15 day celebration signifies the end of Winter and beginning of Spring. At Panda Express, Chinese New Year means one thing: the return of Firecracker Chicken. Now, before this year, I had never heard of Firecracker Chicken. Asian food is not part of my regular diet, so I don’t frequent Panda Express. When Eick mentioned they had a coupon on their website to try Firecracker Chicken for free on the first day of Chinese…

• Eating Styles: Favorite Italian Ingredient Edition!

  Sam

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:45 am

    See this? You’re looking at Giada’s Roman-Style Chicken, made by yours truly. The florescent lighting in my kitchen and sub-par iPhone camera don’t do its beauty justice, but trust me, this recipe was a work of art – a combination of everything good in Italian food. I encourage you to click on the link to see what it really looked like. Look at all that great stuff floating around in there. Garlic, red and yellow bell peppers, mushrooms, thyme, oregano…all those little pungent ingredients that add up to one delicious, full-bodied bite of exquisite taste…

• Foods You Love & Hate: The Science of Taste (and Smell)

  Mark

  24 Jan 2012 | 11:14 am

    Think of a food or ingredient that you hate. Think hard, can you taste it? Do you get a visceral reaction to that taste ? I know I can trick myself into sense memories for a variety of things, mostly terrible ones. For example, tongue depressors or Popsicle sticks. As I sit here and type those words my lips are puckered, my tongue is curled up inside my mouth and I can feel my skin crawl. Chocolate is the food item that gets me. The smell of chocolate is enough to make me leave a room. Oddly enough, the taste of  it may not be so bad for me ( I had…

• So Good Blog/News Round-Up 1/24/12

  Andy

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:39 am

  McDonald’s turns up the heat in the dipping sauce wars. Soothing nicotine lozenges for kids. Cough, Cough. Man arrested for carrying around booze soaked Gummi Bears. Jolly Rancher introduces new line of crunch and chew candy. People still take the phrase “Drive Thru” too literally. Top 10 dumbest Fast Food related crimes. Fired woman sues snack food employer over her fake Ding Dong. Snacks all the cool people eating at Sundance Film Festival. Ancient popcorn unearthed. Preserved by fake theater butter. Food Porn from the Fancy Food Show 2012.

• Deep Fried Everything Ep. 60

  Sam

  23 Jan 2012 | 7:45 am

  (Click to enlarge)

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  Kyle Lacy - Social Media Training and Digital Marketing

• I Love Buying Twitter and Facebook Friends

  Kyle Lacy

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:15 am

  Of course I don’t. I find it completely ridiculous. I do receive emails from vendors, suppliers, and marketers requesting a sponsored blog post, link, or guest post. There are times when money is offered and other times when they would prefer something free. However, I experienced something different last night while reading new emails. Ready? I hope this message finds you well. I’d like to advertise on your site kylelacy.com for our WEBSITE. It wouldn’t be anything obtrusive; I’d like to get either a mention & link in a post leading to our site. If you help me out we’d be…

• If You Feel Comfortable You Are Dead

  Kyle Lacy

  24 Jan 2012 | 6:48 am

  Last night, I was reading a blog by Christopher Stuzman of Forrester called The Five Habits of Adaptive Marketers. Great post. You should definitely check it out. In the blog Chris discusses the different steps marketers need to take in order to survive the fast changing climate of marketing (both digital and traditional). At the very beginning of the blog Chris states: “I recently interviewed a top marketing executive who summed up her journey to becoming a digital-era marketer by saying, “If you feel comfortable, you’re not transforming.” It might sound cliche, but today’s…

• Is Email More Important than Social Media?

  Kyle Lacy

  23 Jan 2012 | 1:00 pm

  The debate rages on surrounding the value of email marketing and social networks (social media). Should businesses focus more attention on their social media accounts like Twitter and Facebook or email interactions? I’m pretty tired of people just arguing for the sake of arguing. What does the customer want? How does the customer want to receive YOUR information? Sometimes businesses fall short and forget the simple age old rule: Customers First. And remember the second rule – Market dominance requires integration of all marketing channels… not separate silos. I don’t…

• 3 Ways to Cater to Your Niche Through Social Media

  Kyle Lacy

  20 Jan 2012 | 8:12 am

  If you’re running a small business of nearly any variety, it’s incredibly important to understand who your niche market is. Unless you’re one of the Wal-Marts or Amazons of the world, you definitely do have a niche and being able to define and cultivate it will help you with improving your web analytics, increased sales revenue, and robust brand management. Here are 3 tips for catering to your niche through social media: Offer promotions, contests and incentives. Creating a verdant garden of discount possibilities, savings, and incentives is one of the best ways to cater…

• Today I Start My New Journey at ExactTarget

  Kyle Lacy

  16 Jan 2012 | 5:51 am

  I’m a firm believer that change is fundamental in the development of a person. Extreme change helps develop experiences that shape careers and life. With that said, I decided that 2012 was the year for change. It is time to shake things up in my life. Extremely shake things up. As of today, I will be starting my new job with ExactTarget, where I will be working with Jeff Rohrs and Joel Book, who are thought-leaders in the world of email and interactive marketing. As a Principal of Marketing Research and Education, I will be focusing on the development of educational and inspirational…

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  Wiep.net - SEO & Link Building blog

• The Different Styles of Link Building

  Wiep

  13 Jan 2012 | 8:49 am

  In my opinion, there are three things that play a crucial role in what your ideal link building strategy should be: the size of your Budget, the quality of your Content and the quality of your Outreach. Which link building tactics you can use, depends on how much (or how little) you have available from each of these three elements. In general, when you lack one (or more) of the elements, you’ll have to compensate it with one or more of the others. So if you have maximized Budget, Content and/ or Outreach, these are the link building styles that would probably suit you best. (click to…

• Link Building this Summer

  Wiep

  1 Aug 2011 | 6:51 am

  With my most recent blog post being a few months old, saying that I haven’t been blogging much recently would be an understatement. This probably won’t improve a lot this year, so please expect an irregular posting frequency for at least the next few months. I’ll keep sharing my favorite stuff from the blogosphere every once in a while, with this being the best link building articles I’ve read during the past few months: Link building with the experts, the 2011 edition – Rae Hoffman-Dolan Content based outreach for link building – Justin Briggs The complete…

• Link Building this Month (03.2011)

  Wiep

  5 Apr 2011 | 2:22 pm

  A little bit later than usual, but here are the link building articles I enjoyed reading last month: Linkbuilding in competitive niches using communities & content – Pete Wailes Creating exceptional content for boring topics – Michael Gray 21-Day Link Builder Relationship Challenge – Jeremy Bencken Its not about link placement as much as link discovery – Paul Madden The link builder’s guide to tracking, documentation and productivity – David Wolf How to unnaturally naturally vary your anchor text – Ross Hudgens Link building in 2011 – Maria…

• How to Promote Existing Content (or Failed Linkbaits)

  Wiep

  29 Mar 2011 | 9:15 am

  Any link builder has experienced it at least a few times. You’ve carefully crafted an amazing piece of content. The graphics and the text are top-notch, you’ve compiled a list with highly relevant targets to contact and you’ve dusted off your old Digg profile, since Reddit no longer likes SEOs. As soon as you’ve hit the launch-button, you hold tight to your chair and hope for hundreds or thousands of links to appear out of nowhere, but in stead… **crickets** Ouch. If linkbait fails in a forest, and no one is around to hear it... Now there’s two things you…

• Link Building this Month (02.2011)

  Wiep

  1 Mar 2011 | 6:13 am

  Link building articles I enjoyed reading last month: Don’t break the cardinal rule of link bait – Debra Mastaler Original ideas for building content for links – Ken McGaffin Link building with developers – Will Critchlow 9 Ways to work with your client’s PR agency – Nicola Stott Link building for speed, efficiency and quality – Ben Wills How to rank nationally with local links – Ross Hudgens How I failed at link building – Adam Audette How to make a link bait that goes viral – Rohan Pawale The preciprocation link building flowchart…

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  blankanvas

• delfonics roll pen case

  Pat Law

  25 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm

  The Delfonics Roll Pen Case is a minimal roll-up pencil/pen case made out of sturdy cotton canvas. Fits up to 13 pencils or pens with space for a condom or two. Available in Gray, Beige or Black at USD23.00 each. QUICKIES 1. Buy a Delfonics Roll Pen Case

• ivory malmö handbook 2012

  Pat Law

  24 Jan 2012 | 9:00 pm

  So gorgeous, you can even carry it on its own. The hot-stamping seals it in for me. Available at ¥1,260. QUICKIES 1. Buy an Ivory Malmö handbook 2012

• renn lim by renn lim

  Pat Law

  24 Jan 2012 | 8:00 pm

  Irreverent Scribblings & other Nonsense Art Book by a young eight-year-old chap named Renn. Like father, like son. I want me one of these books now. Each booklet is hand-numbered, out of a limited edition of 300. Available at SGD35.00. QUICKIES 1. Find out more at Holycrap 2. The Artist and his Model (source)

• rent mother nature

  Pat Law

  24 Jan 2012 | 1:00 am

  I’ve finally found something for the friend who has everything. This is absolutely perfect for the foodie friend, I’d imagine. I don’t think there is anything cooler than saying “Hey this brie came from my own rented cow,”. LOL. QUICKIES 1. Rent Mother Nature 

• vintage money bags

  Pat Law

  23 Jan 2012 | 2:00 am

  They make me happy. I don’t know why. I don’t need to know why. Available at £7.50 per set. QUICKIES 1. Buy a set of Vintage Money Bags

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  Techipedia | Tamar Weinberg

• 5 Things I’ve Learned from Running BizSugar

  Guest Author

  24 Jan 2012 | 7:03 am

  This is a guest post by Anita Campbell. When my company, Small Business Trends, LLC, first purchased BizSugar in the summer of 2009, the best way I could describe it was as a miniature version of Digg, except that BizSugar focused soley on sharing information geared toward small and mid-sized businesses. This is still true. But as BizSugar has grown over the last couple of years, it’s also become a small business networking site where business owners can discuss issues, get and give advice, and gain insight into the ins and outs of running a small business. As the site has changed and…

• Attack of the Consumer! The Many Ways Consumers Can Put You Out of Business Online

  Guest Author

  17 Jan 2012 | 8:04 am

  This is a guest post by David Rodnitzky. Having the best prices and largest selection of products means nothing on the Internet if you don’t back it up with incredible customer service. Treat customers badly and you will be out of business – period! Bad customer service will get you banned from major advertising networks, skewered in organic results, and ridiculed on social networks. Here are the top ways consumers can crush your business online. Advertising Bans If consumers complain about your business, your money won’t be green enough to buy advertising online. Both eBay and Amazon…

• How to Hire Your Social Media Marketing Partner

  Guest Author

  11 Jan 2012 | 7:51 am

  This is a guest post by Brad Shorr. Want more? See How to Hire Your SEO Partner from November. After taking the social media plunge, companies quickly discover that it is vastly more complicated and time-consuming than they thought.  The normal response is, HELP! But companies must avoid a panicky response, because hiring a social media marketing (SMM) partner requires careful study. As I’ll run down in a minute, SMM involves a wide range of activities that require totally different skills. So, First, we’ll take a look at what the activities are, to help clarify the type of support you…

• Best Internet Marketing Posts of 2011

  Tamar Weinberg

  5 Jan 2012 | 7:19 am

  It’s my birthday and I have some great news! In January of 2011, I said that I’d make our Internet Marketing Posts of 2011 subscriber only. And I did. Many loyal readers have checked in on the newsletter throughout 2011 to get both evergreen content, the content that typically embraces these monthly updates, in addition to something completely new, monthly digital trends – the stuff you use for presentations and proposals, for arguing that social media and online marketing does have a firm place in today’s landscape. The newsletter, which was sent within the first…

• Looking Back on the Year of the Panda: Google Algorithm Changes

  Guest Author

  27 Dec 2011 | 8:09 am

  This last year Google brought a large number of algorithm changes to the table.  Although these changes helped increase traffic and rankings to many large corporations such as YouTube and eBay, it hurt a large majority of small businesses. According to Search Engine Land, some domains saw a 94% loss in visibility, and others were left picking up the pieces after they lost 80% of their keyword positions. Consider this graph by Sistrix, created to describe where mahalo.com’s keywords landed on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) before and after one of the Google algorithm updates:…

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  Psychotactics Zingers

• Why The Wrong Uniqueness Fails Quickly (And Why The Right Uniqueness Is Built On A “DNA”)

  Sean DSouza

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:20 pm

  The biggest problem with most companies is that they are afraid of their uniqueness becoming obsolete. You have your uniqueness one day, and they it is gone. So how do you stop that from happening? Let’s take an example Let’s suppose you’re a teleconference company. And you say that your equipment is so darned good that a conference is like being  in the ‘room next door’. Now what does that mean? Surely it means that your equipment is the latest and the greatest. But that can quickly become obsolete, right? It’s easy enough for other companies to do the…

• Understanding Plots and Sub-Plots When Writing Salesletters

  nardene

  23 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pm

  Imagine you’re having a discussion with a hyperactive, talkative teenager. And the conversation goes like this… “We went to the mall, and like, there was this fire in the mall. And we went from there to the cinema, but we didn’t have any money and anyway the popcorn machine was broken, and so we didn’t really want to go to the movies without popcorn. But right after that we went to have some pizza and there was this creepy guy outside the store. But listen to this—because that’s not the best part. The best part is the Sylvie dumped Josh, and like, they…

• Reminder for the Uniqueness Mastery (FREE) Course—But first a case study!

  Sean DSouza

  20 Jan 2012 | 11:00 pm

  If you haven’t been to sign up for the free uniqueness course yet, then you should. And here’s just one reason why. Read this case study and judge for yourself. Hey Sean When you first sent through the link for these videos, I dropped everything to watch them. (Dropping everything to watch 45 minutes of video is not something I ordinarily do.) There’s at least a negotiation with myself before I do a time consuming thing like that. Oddly enough! Not this time. As I’m watching I’m noticing my unusual behaviour and thinking that Sean did such a great job of preselling with his…

• Why I Gave Up Video (And Why I’m Back)

  nardene

  16 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pm

  I didn’t give up video. I just got busy. You know how it is, right? You want to do something and then you make this grand list. Then you do a bit of it. And you do some more. And some more. And you get results. And then you do a spectacularly stupid thing. You give up. Why? No one knows for sure. It’s not like video took me more time. In fact, the first time I tried to make a video  (I say ‘try’ because I didn’t complete the video) it took me five hundred and eight hours. A couple of hours of shooting. Five hundred hours of wondering how lousy I’d look and…

• Free!: How To Create Your Uniqueness Series (Yup, it’s here!)

  Sean DSouza

  9 Jan 2012 | 10:00 pm

  Have you heard about Domino’s Pizza? What about FedEx? And how about the uniqueness of Volvo? So yeah, these companies found their uniqueness. But what about you? Why can’t you find or create your own uniqueness? Why does the uniqueness of your products and  services play hide and seek with you? And is there a way to end this hide and seek? And more importantly, is it free? Oooh yes it is! So as promised here’s your uniqueness series that starts on Jan 10th (3pm Eastern). You get videos, articles, cartoons—and pretty much anything else I can think of. And you get it…

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  Ad Operations Online

• E*TRADE Announces Advertising Plans for Super Bowl XLVI

  Otilia Otlacan

  27 Jan 2012 | 10:36 am

  Talking Baby Returns with New Ad Campaign Focused on “Life Events” NEW YORK – E*TRADE Financial Corp. (NASDAQ: ETFC) announced that E*TRADE Securities LLC will return to the biggest advertising event of the year with a new Talking Baby commercial slated to debut during the NBC television network broadcast of Super Bowl XLVI on February 5, 2012. This marks the fifth anniversary of the iconic E*TRADE Baby campaign. An additional new Baby spot will be debuted this weekend during the AFC and NFC conference championships. The new Baby ad is part of an integrated multi-channel campaign…

• Tremor Video Purchases InPlay Publisher Analytics Technology From TubeMogul

  Otilia Otlacan

  27 Jan 2012 | 8:19 am

  Deal Gives Tremor Video Robust, Enhanced Reporting on Publisher-side Video Performance while TubeMogul Retains its Promise of Complete Transparency and Detailed Reporting to Advertisers NEW YORK – Tremor Video, the largest independent online video advertising technology company, and TubeMogul, the fastest-growing media buying platform for video advertising, announced that Tremor Video has purchased InPlay, TubeMogul’s industry-leading video analytics for publishers. Tremor Video will integrate InPlay directly into VideoHub, its enterprise video platform, enabling a complete end-to-end…

• Tribal Fusion Named World’s Second Largest Display Advertising Provider

  Otilia Otlacan

  27 Jan 2012 | 6:53 am

  comScore Reports Premium Publisher Network Reaching Nearly 500 Million Unique Users Worldwide Emeryville, CA – Tribal Fusion, the global online advertising provider owned by Exponential, is the world’s second largest source of display advertising, according to comScore’s December 2011 rankings of the leading global display networks. The measurement service reported that Tribal Fusion’s premium publisher network reached more than 490 million unique users globally, behind only Google (1.2 billion) and just head of AOL Advertising (477 million), which includes its Advertising.com…

• LiveIntent Announces Support for Ad Choices; Incorporates Consumer Notification into Banner Ads Served in Email

  Otilia Otlacan

  27 Jan 2012 | 5:36 am

  New York – LiveIntent, the platform for buying and selling email ad inventory exactly like display, is now supporting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s (DAA) consumer notification offering, AdChoices. This self-regulatory service is being deployed by LiveIntent to support consumer awareness and choice in online advertising. Consumer privacy and control is a top concern for LiveIntent, and complying with the Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA) is a priority. LiveIntent’s technology serves ads into a publisher’s email newsletters. When the user…

• VINDICO Accreditation Renewed by Media Rating Council

  Otilia Otlacan

  26 Jan 2012 | 7:45 am

  Renewal of MRC accreditation demonstrates VINDICO’s commitment to building trust in online video advertising NEW YORK – VINDICO, the leading online video ad management platform, announced the renewal of their Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation, which was initially granted in June 2010. Through this MRC accreditation renewal, VINDICO continues to demonstrate its commitment to building trust in online video advertising.  The accreditation will continue to benefit the global brands that work with VINDICO, as well as institute a benchmark for success in the industry. Established to…