In the last few weeks two companies have released services that enable you to take tweets and turn them into a newspaper or magazine format: Paper.li and Flipboard. Alltop is a great source of information for both Paper.li and Flipboard newspapers. If you’d like to learn how to do this for Paper.li, click here, and for Flipboard, click here.
Selected by jstone
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Most Topular Stories
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How to Make Paper.li and Flipboard Rock
Guy Kawasaki24 Aug 2010 | 6:47 pm -
WiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to Life
Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing2 Sep 2010 | 7:33 amWiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to LifeThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing On the spectrum of really big marketing tactics, the email signature isn’t terribly sexy, but this little touch can say a lot about what you do and how you connect. If you’re like me, you send a lot of email so why not make sure your email signature is working in the background for you. This doesn’t mean you need flashing lights and honking horns, but you should supply recipients, even those that contact you often, with all the necessary contact details, including social profiles, so that you… -
Better than nothing (is harder than you think)
Seth's Blog2 Sep 2010 | 2:36 amMost of the time, particulary in b2b and luxury sales, the competition is nothing. "I will buy this treat or I will buy nothing, because I don't really need anything." "I will buy your consulting services, or I'll continue doing what I'm doing now on that front, which is nothing." None of the above. "I will vote for you or I'll do what I usually do, which is not vote." "I'll hire you or I'll hire no one." While you think your competition is that woman across town, it's probably apathy, sitting still, ignoring the problem... nothing. Stop worrying so much about comparing yourself to every… -
Lucky breaks
Lead on Purpose29 Aug 2010 | 12:27 amSometimes it sure seems like other people have all the luck and get all the breaks. They don’t seem to work any harder than you, they don’t appear to be more intelligent, and they certainly are not more handsome. So why do they get the breaks you long for? Robin Sharma, author of The Leader Who Had No Title, summed it up this way: Lucky breaks are nothing more than unexpected rewards for intelligent choices we’ve chosen to make. Success doesn’t just happen because someone’s stars line up. Success, both in business and personally, is something that’s… -
5 Ideas From A Global Journey Through Beer Marketing
Influential Marketing31 Aug 2010 | 1:20 pmIt is hard not to enjoy beer marketing. Even if you are not a marketer, this industry always offers creative advertising (particularly on TV) that is fun to watch and spends lots of money doing it. Every year at the Super Bowl, a good number of the Top 10 ads come from beer companies. In other venues beyond sports, beer advertising often promises good times, great parties and generally being able to escape from your daily life into a world of fun, travel and festivities. When it comes to marketing strategy, however, it often seems like beer companies focus on being entertaining at the expense…
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Guy Kawasaki
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How to Make Paper.li and Flipboard Rock
24 Aug 2010 | 6:47 pmIn the last few weeks two companies have released services that enable you to take tweets and turn them into a newspaper or magazine format: Paper.li and Flipboard. Alltop is a great source of information for both Paper.li and Flipboard newspapers. If you’d like to learn how to do this for Paper.li, click here, and for Flipboard, click here. -
Need example of a personal story of enchantment
19 Aug 2010 | 10:19 amI would like to include a few personal stories of enchantment in my next book. I am looking for examples of how people, products, services, organizations, ideas, or causes swept you off your feet. Specs: Written from your personal experience, not an external, academic view. 150-200 words Ideally, all the basics would be in your essay: who, what, when, why, and how. As an example, here is how something enchanted me: The second most enchanting moment of my life occurred in 1983 when Mike Boich showed me a Macintosh prototype. (The most enchanting moment was meeting my wife.) This life-changing… -
Best Twitter Client for IPhone and iPad
16 Aug 2010 | 9:43 pmAfter searching for months, I’ve come to the conclusion that Twitbird is the best iPhone and iPad Twitter client. If you’d like to see why, check out my post at the American Express Open Forum. -
How to get a free copy of my first book, The Macintosh Way
2 Aug 2010 | 10:01 amInformation wants to be free, and I just freed some. I got the rights back for my first book, The Macintosh Way, and I’ve made it available for free here. Hope that you find it useful. -
How to Find Freedom
28 Jul 2010 | 9:25 amLet me confess: I’m addicted to Twitter and email, and my addiction increases the more I have to do something important like write a book. Luckily, I stumbled across applications called Freedom and Anti-Social that really help. I explain how they works here at the American Express Open Forum. If you’re have a tough time prying yourself away from online fun, they could really help.
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Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing
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WiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to Life
2 Sep 2010 | 7:33 amWiseStamp Brings Your Email Signature to LifeThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing On the spectrum of really big marketing tactics, the email signature isn’t terribly sexy, but this little touch can say a lot about what you do and how you connect. If you’re like me, you send a lot of email so why not make sure your email signature is working in the background for you. This doesn’t mean you need flashing lights and honking horns, but you should supply recipients, even those that contact you often, with all the necessary contact details, including social profiles, so that you… -
Creating a Boutique Business
1 Sep 2010 | 5:57 amCreating a Boutique BusinessThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Sarah Petty (Click to play or right click and “Save As” to download – Subscribe now via iTunes The term boutique is often associated with fashion or beauty related businesses, but it’s a concept that can apply to any business. Case in point is this week’s guest on the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, Sarah Petty, who by her own designation, owns and operates a “boutique” photography business called Sarah Petty Photography. Her belief in the boutique way led her to… -
Duct Tape Coaching or Going It Alone
31 Aug 2010 | 5:55 amDuct Tape Coaching or Going It AloneThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing One of my long-term missions is to build a network of small business marketing consultants that are equipped to install the Duct Tape Marketing system and essentially bring an end to all small business struggles. I admit it’s an ambitious mission, but I love helping small business and so I created the Duct Tape Marketing Coach Network. This growing global enterprise uses our tools, systems, brand and network to create a marketing coaching business and attract small business owners that like the idea of a… -
5 Ways to Make a Database For Your Customers
30 Aug 2010 | 10:01 am5 Ways to Make a Database For Your CustomersThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Standard marketing CRM type practice suggests that you should create and supplement a database of customers and prospects with the idea that you build more and more information to use to help build deeper relationships and create additional selling opportunities. What if you look at database building as a service you provided for your customers? Now, in some cases that might be a good service offering as a profit center, but I’m talking about providing a service that simply allows you to differentiate… -
Weekend Favs August Twenty Eight
28 Aug 2010 | 6:54 amWeekend Favs August Twenty EightThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week. I don’t go into depth about the finds, but encourage you check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from Flickr. Image credit: Charles Lam Good stuff I found this week: Color Blender – Input two colors and this tool will show you all the mid-point colors created by blending the two – very useful for finding complimentary colors Building…
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Seth's Blog
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Better than nothing (is harder than you think)
2 Sep 2010 | 2:36 amMost of the time, particulary in b2b and luxury sales, the competition is nothing. "I will buy this treat or I will buy nothing, because I don't really need anything." "I will buy your consulting services, or I'll continue doing what I'm doing now on that front, which is nothing." None of the above. "I will vote for you or I'll do what I usually do, which is not vote." "I'll hire you or I'll hire no one." While you think your competition is that woman across town, it's probably apathy, sitting still, ignoring the problem... nothing. Stop worrying so much about comparing yourself to every… -
Launching the ShipIt Workbook
1 Sep 2010 | 11:16 amSix months ago, I put together a workbook that would help Linchpin readers ship. After testing it out on hundreds of people, it's now ready for retail sale. [UPDATE on 9/2--yesterday, the workbook was so popular it went to the top 10 of all books on Amazon. And they sold all the warehouse could take. So it's sold out... I have shipped more to them, but they probably won't go on sale until the 8th. I'll update this post then. Thanks guys.] You can find details here, or jump right to the buy page. The goal? To make you uncomfortable at the beginning of a project (and successful at the end). -
Responsibility and authority
1 Sep 2010 | 2:08 amMany people struggle at work because they want more authority. It turns out you can get a lot done if you just take more responsibility instead. It's often offered, rarely taken. (And you can get even more done if you give away credit, relentlessly). -
Just launched: Linchpin on the Vook on the iPad
31 Aug 2010 | 10:49 amThe details are right here. Created by Vook, based on the hardcover. Includes new video and interviews with some interesting folks... The long tail challenge of the iPad store is getting more and more obvious to people. The ratio of "shelf space" to inventory is about the worst of any retail experience in the world. There are more than 24,000 apps listed in the iPad store, and yet the front window (equivalent to the window of a bookstore) shows the user six choices. The spotlight coverflow up top shows another sixteen, fairly randomly. Meaning there's a little worse than a one in a thousand… -
The corporate conscience
31 Aug 2010 | 2:49 amThere isn't one. Corporations don't have a conscience, people do. That means that every time you say, "It's just my job," or "My department has a policy," or "All I do is work here," what you've done is abdicated responsibility--to no one. It's convenient and even comfortable to blame the anonymous actions of many working in concert on a evanescent brand or organization, but that starts you on an inevitable race to the bottom. Organizations have more power than ever before. They are better synchronized, faster, and possess more tools to change the economy and the people in it than ever…
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Lead on Purpose
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Lucky breaks
29 Aug 2010 | 12:27 amSometimes it sure seems like other people have all the luck and get all the breaks. They don’t seem to work any harder than you, they don’t appear to be more intelligent, and they certainly are not more handsome. So why do they get the breaks you long for? Robin Sharma, author of The Leader Who Had No Title, summed it up this way: Lucky breaks are nothing more than unexpected rewards for intelligent choices we’ve chosen to make. Success doesn’t just happen because someone’s stars line up. Success, both in business and personally, is something that’s… -
Flexibility and letting go
19 Aug 2010 | 2:22 pmFor the past several months I’ve been immersed in the experience of working with top designers and learning how to take their work, write relevant requirements at breakneck speed and work closely with development to build our new products. We’re essentially changing the focus of the product from enterprise to consumer. Talk about a learning experience! It’s been nothing short of transformational. The key for me has been a willingness to let go of past working habits — procedures I was very comfortable with — and embrace new ideas. One quick example: my main… -
Book Review: Trust Agents
14 Aug 2010 | 11:40 pm“Trust agents have a desire to connect good people together.” Making connections and gaining people’s trust is the premise of the book Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. The authors Chris Brogan and Julien Smith bring together a lot of great ideas that really strike a chord when you read them. I like the authors’ definition of trust: confidence and faith. Most of the ideas in the book are pretty obvious, such as “when you treat people well, they treat you well back.” However, the way Brogan and Smith weave… -
Commitment
11 Aug 2010 | 7:20 amOver the past few days it’s hit me squarely between the eyes that I have not been contributing enough to the online world. My excuse (and I’ve heard this from many product managers) is that I’ve been heads down on an intense product release and it’s sucking all my time and energy. While that is true, it’s no excuse. Two things have jolted me back to reality and to a new desire to stop making excuses: Reading Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. This is an excellent book that lays out simple steps to become a person other people trust, especially… -
Feedback
19 Jul 2010 | 5:48 amI heard the statement “feedback is the breakfast of champions” while listening to a recent podcast. There is a lot of truth to that statement. After hearing it I started to break it down to see if I could come up with a new statement for Lead on Purpose readers: Feedback: The word feedback is a technical term meaning “a mechanism, process or signal that is looped back to control a system within itself.” The term has evolved in business language to mean receiving information from others — either verbally or through written means — about topics important to…
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Influential Marketing
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5 Ideas From A Global Journey Through Beer Marketing
31 Aug 2010 | 1:20 pmIt is hard not to enjoy beer marketing. Even if you are not a marketer, this industry always offers creative advertising (particularly on TV) that is fun to watch and spends lots of money doing it. Every year at the Super Bowl, a good number of the Top 10 ads come from beer companies. In other venues beyond sports, beer advertising often promises good times, great parties and generally being able to escape from your daily life into a world of fun, travel and festivities. When it comes to marketing strategy, however, it often seems like beer companies focus on being entertaining at the expense… -
How Filmmaking Can Change The World (With Your Help)
19 Aug 2010 | 2:09 pmEvery community has its secrets. There are things that no one talks about because they are afraid to. Often, these things are not well understood and it is hard to know what to say about them. They are usually deeply personal as well and referred to as a stigma, which is a word that communicators who work in health care know well. When it comes to changing perceptions about a disease condition or issue, combating the stigma around it is usually the toughest battle to fight. But if we don't try, then the unthinkable can happen. About five years ago, the father of my friend Rashi put a gun to… -
25 SXSW 2011 Panel Ideas Worth Getting Excited About
12 Aug 2010 | 5:24 amEvery year the SXSW event starts the excitement around planning early by releasing their "panel picker" - an online interface that lists all the panel submission ideas for SXSW along with descriptions and offers anyone the chance to vote or comment on the panel choices. This feedback is then used by the planners of SXSW as 30% of the decisions to finalize all the sessions for the actual event. This year there were 2347 ideas submitted for the Interactive portion of SXSW, with the most popular category being Branding/Marketing/Publicity (of course) with 175 entries. Social Networking was the… -
The 5 NEW Rules Of Social Media Optimization (SMO)
10 Aug 2010 | 6:16 pmAbout a week ago I started seeing a curious number of tweets, links and Google Alerts to a popular blog post I wrote 4 years ago. The reason was that today happens to be the four year anniversary of that post which first introduced the idea of Social Media Optimization or SMO as it is now popularly known into the world of digital marketing and on Wikipedia. For many of the readers who consistently read my posts today, this SMO post may have been the reason they first stumbled onto my blog. It became an unintentionally big idea that captured the attention of a growing niche of digital… -
Gilty Secrets: 10 Marketing Techniques From Today's Hottest eCommerce Site
4 Aug 2010 | 11:08 amTo say that Gilt.com is on fire may be something of a understatement. The site, which features daily special sales of luxury products at discount prices is on track by some estimates to pull in $400 million in sales for the 2010 calendar year. The growth of Gilt.com has coincided with a shift in how many consumers are thinking about luxury products. As a recent USA Today piece noted, "the new world of luxury is less about designer labels and glitz and more about shopping savvy and an I-feel-good-owning-this mentality." Gilt.com has grown to over 2 million members by catering exclusively to…
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Suite 101: Marketing
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Tips for Marketing Your Business Online With Video
2 Sep 2010 | 8:47 amVideo marketing is a vital part of marketing any business online. Learn tips for web video production and quick video marketing using distribution systems. -
Marketing Technology: Apps for the iPhone, other Handheld Devices
1 Sep 2010 | 1:30 pmThere seems to be a smart App for everything these days. And for those selling technology, the Apps technology seems to market itself. -
E-Reading Goes from Niche to Mass Market
1 Sep 2010 | 8:22 amE-reading is on the rise. E-book sales increase a whopping 183 percent in past six months. -
Feng Shui Success for Restaurants: Menu, Sound, Color and Light
31 Aug 2010 | 3:00 pmFeng shui consultants have tips and cures for restaurant menus, sound, color and lighting. Good use of feng shui creates successful restaurants. -
Feng Shui Success Tips for Restaurants: The Physical Layout
31 Aug 2010 | 2:46 pmFeng shui consultants have tips and cures for entry, table placement, kitchen and bathroom design to make restaurants more successful, drawing in clients.
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PR, Social Media, and Marketing Mentor ?
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Client Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley’s Social Media Program Wins a 2009 SNCR Award for Excellence in New Communications
An animated fly-over video of what the new Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley hospital will look like when completed in 2013. Produced by The Devenney Group, the architecture firm for the new hospital. From: Highlights of the Past Year at Our Company—originally posted on December 10, 2009; updated June 1, 2010. Sutter Medical Center Castro Valley is [...] -
Society for New Communications Research Honors Award Winners for Innovation and Success in Their Use of New Media
From: Highlights of the Past Year at Our Company—originally published on November 12, 2009 For Immediate Release Society for New Communications Research Honors Award Winners for Innovation and Success in their Use of New Media Winning Social Media and New Communications Case Studies Published by SNCR San Jose, California, U.S.A. — November 12, 2009 — The Society for [...] -
An Unrelenting Passion to Make the World Better
Today is Beth Kanter’s 53rd birthday. I have met Beth in person several times and have always (not so secretly) wanted to work with her on a project. She is a complete inspiration, one of my heroes, a person whose excitement and enthusiasm for using social tools to help a good cause never wanes. In [...] -
Society for New Communications Research Issues Call for 2010 Fellows
For Immediate Release Society for New Communications Research Issues Call for 2010 Fellows November 11, 2009 — San Jose, California, U.S.A. — The Society for New Communications Research, (SNCR), a global nonprofit 501(c)3 research and education foundation and think tank dedicated to exploring the latest developments in new media and communications and their effect on business, media, [...] -
2009 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards Submission Deadline Extended to Thursday, September 10th
Each year, the Society for New Communications Research presents the prestigious SNCR Excellence in New Communications Awards. The deadline for application submissions for this year’s awards has been extended from September 7th to Thursday, September 10, 2009, to allow applicants who are away for Labor Day Weekend to finish and submit their applications. These awards honor [...]
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60 Second Marketer
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How to Use Mobile Media QR Codes to Promote Your Business
1 Sep 2010 | 6:22 pmDan Smigrod is the CEO and Chief Creative Officer at Great!, a company that generates innovative, breakthrough marketing ideas for a variety of well-known brands. Not long ago, Dan wrote a blog post called 101 Uses for Quick Response Codes. You're familiar with Quick Response codes. They're the little square boxes (like the one on this page) that can be snapped by a smart phone to drive a user to a website, an MP3 download, a contact card or any other number of uses. -
More Tips on Using LinkedIn for Business
31 Aug 2010 | 7:22 amIf you're like most people, you've updated your LinkedIn profile within the last month. That's good and it's a start. But it under-utilizes the power of LinkedIn. After all, LinkedIn has a bunch of very cool features that most people aren't all that familiar with. Given that, I thought I'd provide several new tips on using LinkedIn to grow your sales and revenue. At the end of this short post, you'll find 5 more insider tips on using LinkedIn. I've intentionally kept the video to about 60 seconds so you can get in, get out and get back to work. -
20 Questions to Help You Differentiate Your Brand
30 Aug 2010 | 2:19 pmHere are 20 questions you can use to help differentiate your brand from your competitor's brands. -
Free Online Social Media and Mobile Media Training
29 Aug 2010 | 5:12 pmIt’s time for another one of our fun and engaging Social Media Roundtable discussions. As you know, on the first Thursday of every month, we host a live, interactive online training session where we provide tips and techniques to supercharge your social and mobile media campaigns. This month, we’ll be covering a wide variety of [...] -
An Introduction to the Next Big Thing — Mobile Media
24 Aug 2010 | 2:34 pmDo you know the six ways businesses are using mobile media to connect with customers? To find out how you can use mobile media to grow your sales and revenues, check out this post from the 60 Second Marketer.
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PR 2.0
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Video: Bringing a Brand to Life in Social Media
1 Sep 2010 | 4:39 amWe’re approaching the last bits in this series of conversations where Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I examine the state and future of social media. In this installment we review the various aspects and formalities of bringing a brand alive, truly alive in social media. Everything begins with establishing the rules of engagement in order to define the boundaries, context, and objectives for conversations. Guidelines such as “don’t be stupid,” “use common sense,” “stay positive,” are not the most useful approach to steering… -
REPORT: Facebook and the New Age of Privacy
30 Aug 2010 | 4:07 amIt’s said that opposites attract. However, in social media, it’s quite the opposite. The idea of privacy and publicity are in fact at odds with one another. And at the heart of the matter, one social network is caught in the crossfire of sharing information and TMI (too much information). The line that separates privacy and openness remains undefined as it continues to shift as individuals learn important life lessons about the benefits and risks of living in public. As we evolve into a more open society, the economic value of privacy has inverted. Years ago it was inexpensive to maintain… -
What Makes an Influencer?
29 Aug 2010 | 6:33 amInfluence is the subject of some of important conversations lately. Each time we surface questions, answers and new thinking that starts to reshape the landscape for how businesses view, define, and embrace influence. The socialization has democratized content and equalized influence. As such, we are at the inception of an an era when everyday people are presented with an opportunity to earn authority, trust, and leadership based on their actions and words. I’ve partnered with Vocus to take the conversation to you. As I believe that we all have a voice in the shaping and direction of… -
Video: From Social Graphs to Interest Graphs
27 Aug 2010 | 10:54 amIn the next installment of discussions exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I review how relationships online are evolving from social networks to social “nicheworks” or contextual networks. In social media, how we connect with one another reflects our interests as well as our contacts. We’re adapting our definition of relationships to now also include a new, thinner layer of “relations” in order to refine our online experience as well as how we learn, discover, and share. In doing so, we create a social… -
Video: A False Belief in Numbers? The bigger part of the story = who you are NOT connected to
26 Aug 2010 | 4:07 amIn the next installment in a series of conversations exploring the state and future of social media, Chris Beck, founder of 26dottwo (@26dottwo) and I discuss social media by the numbers. At any given moment, your “fans,” “likes,” followers, commenters, readers, are expecting personalized experiences. Simply catering to an “audience” is borderline antisocial. Addressing the needs and expectations of the social consumer and the various roles they play in business is the minimum ante to continue to sit at the table. At the same time, we also need to look…
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Branding Strategy Insider
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What Brands Must Do To Succeed
30 Aug 2010 | 9:10 pmWe believe that brands must make promises to their customers. They must promise relevant, differentiated benefits. That is, they must offer unique value propositions. And, even more importantly, they must deliver on those promises/value propositions. Leading brands have a highly compelling brand promise and insure that the promise is delivered at each point of customer contact.According to The Conference Board’s rigorous 1998 “Managing the Corporate Brand” study, the following factors are critical for brand strategy success:Organization Support• CEO leadership &… -
When Your Brand Name Is Damaged
29 Aug 2010 | 9:05 pmThe Tea Party Bookshop in Salem, Oregon, has a generous selection of titles on personal growth and spirituality. There’s a poetry reading on the third Thursday of every month. And every once in a while, there’s a “pagan meet-up,” when folks are invited to enjoy a nice evening chatting with fellow pagans. (Well, this is Oregon.) People who are angry about new Federal healthcare and happy about Sarah Palin wouldn’t necessarily shop there for books. But as the Tea Party political movement gained attention, they began calling and stopping by to ask what time the next anti-government… -
Brand Marketing's New Reality
25 Aug 2010 | 9:10 pmIf for one reason or another, you’d slept through the past five years, only to find yourself suddenly awake in August 2010, you’d quickly realize the world of advertising and marketing has fundamentally changed in three major ways. First, subconscious or subliminal communication (and research) has become part of the vocabulary of most marketers. Second, power has shifted from brand owners to consumers - even the most powerful brands know that successful campaigns have to systematically engage consumers, who will in turn use their mighty word of mouth to spread the messages opposed to… -
The Brand Licensing Workshop
24 Aug 2010 | 9:10 pmBrand licensing is one of the lesser known techniques for extending a brand into new categories. The benefits of brand licensing are extensive and include:• Building brand presence by getting product to market faster with little to no investment or inventory risk. • Accelerating the ability to gain additional shelf space or enter into new channels or regions. • Delivering valuable and steady royalty revenue increasing cash flow and operating income. The Blake Project offers The Brand Licensing Workshop, a one-day engagement that is designed to deliver a… -
Exploring The Value Of Sub Brands
23 Aug 2010 | 9:10 pmRegular readers of Branding Strategy Insider know we welcome and answer marketing questions of alltypes. Today, Christine, a VP of Marketing in Detroit writes… "I was wondering if sub-brands are typically valuable for a company or if their value is dubious?"Interesting question, Christine. If a sub-brand is designed to reach a market or market segment that the parent brand could not reach by itself, it is worth it. That is the primary reason for sub-brands from my perspective, to make the parent brand more relevant to a new or different market or market segment. Having said…
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Business is Personal
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That unemployed psychology major…
2 Sep 2010 | 8:16 amphoto credit: auggie tolosa Lots of folks are looking for a place to take advantage of their training these days. Over time, I can recall a number of newly-graduated psych majors in that same boat… wondering what they would do with a psych degree, especially after figuring out that they didn’t want to become a psychologist. Back when I graduated from college with a Computer Science degree, the economy was in a post-Carter-era, inflationary slump that gripped oil companies and airlines alike. Why do I mention oil companies and airlines? Because in the white-hot mainframe computer… -
Why buy local? Because of the little pink shoes.
29 Aug 2010 | 7:58 amphoto credit: -mrsraggle- I‘ve briefly talked about the 3/50 Project, which encourages people to buy local, making change by spending as little as $50 a month between 3 locally owned stores that you’d miss if they went away. The pink shoes are another reason to buy local. You can read about them here, in today’s guest post from Catholic Light. Is there a store owner in your town like Mario? Someone who sponsors ball teams, donates building materials for Scout service projects, lets local organizations use their copy machine time and time again, and so on? Why not spend a… -
Who sells our stuff? Dont know, dont care.
23 Aug 2010 | 1:01 pmphoto credit: Clearly Ambiguous Who sells your stuff? Many wholesalers list the brick and mortar stores and online outlets where their products can be found, but a substantial number don’t, citing competitive issues and so on. Unless your products are in some way objectionable (which could mean almost anything), I really can’t see a reason not to let people know where they can find your wholesale products locally. Clearly, there’s at least one vendor here in Montana who disagrees, as I recently received this email: We recently got our dog back to live with us. I am a… -
Bad Haircuts and Big Box Ethics
22 Aug 2010 | 9:10 amToday’s guest post from Scott McKain shows us a how Office Depot stole copyrighted material from a friend of his and used it in a national ad campaign. One more reason to do your own marketing and shop locally owned businesses. All that aside, take a good long look at the pricing lesson in Mr. Slutsky’s video. Worth every second and a lot more. -
22 reasons your business needs a mobile app
21 Aug 2010 | 8:53 amphoto credit: Jesslee Cuizon Today’s guest post is from Jeff Bullas, and addresses 22 of the many reasons your business or organization – no matter how small – needs a mobile app. Just because your organization is small doesn’t mean you can’t have one. There are numerous tools to create simple ones, but the very least you can do is optimize your website for mobile browsers. The eventual goal should be not just to give them a mobile browser friendly site (which is a good start), but to create an app that puts a fence around your clients by making it easier to do…
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The B2B Lead
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How are you leveraging social media?
These days, social media can be not only a great marketing tactic, but a great sales tactic as well. Our sales reps make a habit of finding prospects via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This way they can leverage relationships, gain prospect insight, and do pre-call research to maximize the 30 ... -
Data Hygiene: Real Results Pt. 5
Poor data quality can not only be a waste of your time, but a real block at the top of your funnel. Every email that isn't getting through represents a potential lost opportunity. With our latest customer, we were able to auto-append 4,707 emails. For most companies, that represents a ... -
Data Hygiene: Real Results Pt. 4
How much are your email lists suffering due to poor data quality? One of our recent customers found out through our data hygiene process that over half of their emails weren't getting through due to invalid or missing information. Check out the results and see how your data stacks with ... -
Data Hygiene: Real Results Pt. 3
You may think that your accounts and contacts in your database would be mostly clean because those people are typically contacted and updated more frequently by sales reps, but check out the latest Data Hygiene results from a customer's contacts and accounts: How does your data compare? Find out with ... -
Data Hygiene: Real Results Pt.2
Continuing our series of real data hygiene customer results, here's the second installment: How does your data compare? Find out with our Dirty Data Calculator
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Marketing Profs Daily Fix
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Why Marketers Should Care About Reaching Latina Bloggers
2 Sep 2010 | 8:05 amby guest blogger Elianne Ramos, principal and CEO of Speak Hispanic Communications and vice-chair of Communications and PR for Latinos in Social Media Even with the well-documented explosion of the Hispanic market, Internet sources like Technorati, which by 2008 was indexing 112.8 million blogs, have never touched upon the topic of Latinas and blogging. With the release of the Latinos in Social Media’s Latina Blogger Survey, though, it is now official: Latina bloggers are increasing their numbers and spreading throughout the blogosphere. The intrinsic characteristics of blogging, where… -
Duane Reade Channels New York
1 Sep 2010 | 8:59 amDuane Reade is a uniquely New York retailer. With almost 250 stores across New York city and state, this drugstore chain has evolved as consumers have. No longer just a pharmacy, Duane Reade has methodically repositioned itself as a store with a pharmacy. By adjusting its product assortments to meet the lifestyle needs of New Yorkers and repackaging its successful private label, Duane Reade has captured that “New York state of mind” perfectly. After all, the first drugstore opened between Duane and Reade streets in Manhattan more than 50 years ago. It’s a New York institution. -
Keep Track of Conversations With Customers
1 Sep 2010 | 8:21 amCustomers today are more knowledgeable and can reach more ears faster with their message about a company’s products and services. To monitor and engage in those conversations, businesses must listen and engage with their community of customers and prospects. Adding social CRM to the existing tools and systems already in place, a business can level the playing field and be proactive with customer conversations that might impact the company. Social CRM is a powerful marketing asset because businesses can: Leverage the same reporting systems. Social CRM can be integrated with your existing… -
Behavioral Targeting: I Know You Want to Read This.
31 Aug 2010 | 7:26 amby guest blogger Mike Crosson, vice president of Sales, SocialTwist Behavioral targeting is all the rage these days, and for good reason in general. The caveat is just that, however: in general. When it works, it works great, creating greater recall, brand lift and ROI. However, when it doesn’t work, it really doesn’t work, and can lead to serious concerns over privacy issues. It often backfires by correlating consumer behavioral data and making assumptions about that person that aren’t true. For example, I recently did some research on some baby products for my daughter, who has a… -
4 Social Media Lessons From Cisco Systems and #TechChat
30 Aug 2010 | 9:33 amMarketing at the enterprise level has a unique set of challenges—lack of agility, decentralized teams, and long approval processes—to name a few. Lucky for us, we had the opportunity to chat with SocialTech presenter, LaSandra Brill of Cisco Systems, about ways they have overcome these challenges in their social media program, and consequently, have driven significant return on investment. As LaSandra revealed during #TechChat (transcript available here), social media made the launch of Cisco’s ASR family of routers one of the top five most successful launches in Cisco history,…
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The Retail Email Blog
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AM Inbox: Obliterating the grid
2 Sep 2010 | 11:22 amThe Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:Alibris, 9/1 — Pre-Labor Day Sale - Sneak Peak at Extra 20% OffI praised JCPenney recently for breaking the grid in their emails (see Aug. 19 AM Inbox), but in this email, Alibris dispenses with the grid entirely. In the place of a boxy body, Alibris uses a kind of doily shape to contain their copy. Surrounded by a white background, the unusual shape really stands out. This tactic works primarily because their message is simple. Trying this… -
The Most Popular Posts during August 2010
1 Sep 2010 | 10:18 amThe posts that were visited the most during the month:10. AM Inbox: Out of sync email and landing page content9. AM Inbox: One way to encourage scrolling8. AM Inbox: Backcountry redesign + when to drop whitelisting requests7. AM Inbox: 3 retailers redesign their email templates6. AM Inbox: Half-hearted sidescroller + Disney redesign5. Design Hall of Fame: 2008 Inductees4. AM Inbox: Crate & Barrel redesign + new J. Crew newsletter3. AM Inbox: Another great animated gif from Bed Bath & Beyond2. Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season 20101. Email Design Look Book 2010>>View the most… -
AM Inbox: Finish Line redesign + dynamic content misfire
1 Sep 2010 | 10:08 am>>The 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season: Download the 41-page guide for free. Register for the accompanying holiday planning webinar.The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:Finish Line, 8/31 — Take $10 or $20 Off Our Top Rated Shoes!Finish Line has redesigned their email template. Beyond sharpening the branding in the header, the big change is they increased the number of navigation bar links to nine from four. Those links are also HTML text, so they appear when images are… -
Season Finale: 4th of July 2010
31 Aug 2010 | 10:54 amA look back on seasonal trends, email activity and standout B2C marketing:Start to finish: The first reference to the 4th of July was on May 12. The final reference was on July 21. The biggest day for Independence Day emails was the 4th of July itself. Retailers sent the majority of their 4th of July-themed emails after June 30.Most interesting emails: In this June 29 email, Newegg seamlessly works in an “update your preferences” request into the Independence Day theme. Using a banner, they reiterated this request in several emails during the 4th of July selling season.Standout subject… -
AM Inbox: Video gif usage remains anemic
31 Aug 2010 | 9:53 am>>The 2010 Retail Email Guide to the Holiday Season: Download the 41-page guide for free. Register for the accompanying holiday planning webinar.The Retail Email Blog monitors the email marketing campaigns of more than 100 top online retailers. Here are highlights from my inbox this morning:Fingerhut, 8/30 — Fingerhut: Find Great Web-Exclusive Products Today!Over the past 12 months, only 4% of the retailers I track have used a video gif in one or more emails. That includes Fingerhut, which sent this email with a video gif yesterday. Video gifs are compressed, streaming animated gifs that…
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Mindshare Marketing
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A Manly Occupation
30 Aug 2010 | 8:00 amI was listening to a radio show the other day that claimed there wasn’t enough adventure left in modern society. The broad claim was that men needed some kind of battle to fight and some kind of adventure to pursue in order to feel like men. Unfortunately, modern civilization leaves us struggling to find a [...] -
The Dangerous Allure of the GPL
27 Aug 2010 | 8:00 amI am a huge fan of open source development. From the developer side of things, it means there are limitless tools at my disposal for creating the next knock-your-socks off application. I can build just about anything with insanely powerful libraries of code that the big guys like Microsoft can’t touch. It’s an amazing power, [...] -
What Bought You to Slavery?
23 Aug 2010 | 8:00 amWord of advice: Never borrow money to purchase a consumable item. Debt can essentially be lumped into two categories – rented debt and slave debt. Rented debt is what you incur when you borrow money to purchase a lasting good. When you borrow money for a house or a car. What you’re really doing is convincing someone [...] -
Reflecting on the Boundless Summer Challenge
9 Aug 2010 | 8:00 amOver the past month, I've participated in daily challenges sponsored by Boundless, a fantastic ministry for young adults. The challenges have helped me re-evaluate certain aspects of my life and reapply myself to certain standards and commitments to which I hold myself accountable. This essay is my reflection on the month-long challenge and a personal promise to continue challenging myself in the same way on a daily basis. -
Creativity
28 Jul 2010 | 8:00 amI was once called a “creative genius.” Not by myself. Not by my parents. It was a random comment from a complete stranger on the other side of the globe. He’d read my work online, perused my portfolio, and looked through other tidbits of miscellany that I’d scattered about the Internet. I tried my best [...]
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Great Leadership
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How to Read Your Way into the Executive Suite
1 Sep 2010 | 5:17 pmHere's an eye-opening and provacative post by Brad Smart, reprinted with his permission from his Topgrading blog:A Player executives have very common reading habits, and what they read varies dramatically from what C Players and lower level managers read. For anyone aspiring to be a successful CEO, or a C-level executive, emulating the reading habits of the best and the brightest might give you an edge. Sorting through my hard copy files of 6,500+ senior executives I focused on C-level executives (CEOs and those reporting to CEOs) who are North American, and only those whom I rated… -
Selection vs. Development Assessments
30 Aug 2010 | 6:16 pmThis post is written for the everyday manager, HR manager, coach, or consultant that doesn’t have the time or interest to learn about validation, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation coefficients, and adverse impact. However, you’re using assessments, and you know just enough to be dangerous. Oh yeah, that pretty much describes me. Maybe you too.I’ve written about assessments for leadership development before. While there are lots of them to choose from, the common ones used for development tend to be 360 degree assessments (multi rater) and personality… -
Why Do Businesses and Leaders Fail?
25 Aug 2010 | 5:38 pmI hate the term “soft skills”. To me, it’s a weak and misleading label that attempts to categorize everything that really matters about leadership and business success into a bucket of fluff. Any leadership development professional should know better.Given that, I know it’s a common term used by every day people. It’s because they don’t know what else to call “it” or how to define that stuff that seems to separate the haves and have nots. When I was first learning about competency modeling, I’ll never forget what a consultant said to me that underscored the… -
Get Real: Leaders are Judged and Asking the Right Questions
22 Aug 2010 | 5:39 amHere's a couple short guest posts from Donna Rawady, from her blog “Get Real”:LEADERS ARE JUDGED—REMEMBER IT’S SELDOM PERSONAL(posted 4/27/10)Regardless of how strong a leader you may be, how successful you are in your role, or how highly you may be regarded, the higher up you move in an organization, the more you will undoubtedly be judged by others. Whether you’re being judged positively or negatively, through casual comment or organized assessments, here are a few things to consider as you receive direct or indirect feedback about you and/or your organization:- Listen intently. -
Sharing Your Expectations
19 Aug 2010 | 3:14 amI’m sure most Great Leadership leaders have been though management 101 classes, read books or blogs, and have heard about the importance of setting expectations. We’ve all heard about SMART goals, inspecting what we expect, the importance of job descriptions, and yada, yada, yada.All good stuff, and I’ll tell you, it’s true.So why don’t more managers do it? Is it that, like a lot of management and HR practices, we make it sound more complicated than it needs to be? If you’ve ever sat though a lesson on how to write SMART goals, you might come to that conclusion too.
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Lead Change Group
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We or Me – It’s Up to You
1 Sep 2010 | 4:00 amSocial media, as with most things in life, can be exploited for personal gain or maximized as a tool for sharing, giving and inspiring others to live to their biggest and best potential. Are you in it to win it – for yourself, or for others? It’s that simple, and that complicated. At one end [...] -
Leaders: Be Gr-r-reat!
31 Aug 2010 | 3:20 amAs a lad, I lived for Saturday morning cartoons. Long before DVR, a boy needed an alarm clock catch the Super-Friends at 6 AM. And though a wide assortment of cartoons whizzed by until Noon, there was a consistent message throughout: “They’re GREAT!” See that was the catch-phrase of Tony the Tiger, the cartoon pitchman [...] -
Leaders Serving Leaders
30 Aug 2010 | 6:20 amI was reminded this morning of the potential for good and bad through social media. I read these two posts (here, and one written to Christians here) about the narcissistic nature of involvement in social media and they made me think. With a bit of reflection, I am challenged to keep the focus of my [...] -
Meet LeadChange Jen Kuhn
26 Aug 2010 | 12:54 pmOur guest for Meet LeadChange on September 2, 2010 at 3 PM Eastern is Jen Kuhn (web, LinkedIn, @JenKunhPR), co-founder of The Experience Factor. Jen and her partner, Kelly Ketelboeter (@KetelboeterPR) make the invisible visible at The Experience Factor; helping businesses understand their mission IS their customer experience. They help businesses make sure their leaders [...] -
Change Never Starts “Out There”
24 Aug 2010 | 9:10 amCraig Lambert in his book Mind Over Water talks about that frictionless state that rowers achieve when things become effortless. He calls it ‘swing’. He goes on to say ‘…our job is to simply work with the shell, to stop holding it back with our thrashing struggles to go faster. Trying too hard sabotages boat [...]
