Google abused its trust and misused its power when it blacked out its logo and encouraged its millions of users base to “Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!” At least according to the Recording Industry Association of America’s CEO.
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Most Topular Stories
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RIAA President: Google ‘Misused Its Power’ by Protesting SOPA
Search Engine Watch8 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pm -
10 Ways to Win Over Writers
ReadWriteWeb8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pmAs a PR person, product developer, CEO or whatever, you're probably more interested in getting noticed by the media than developing a relationship with a particular writer. That's one way to go about it. Then there's that old-fashioned "building a relationship with a real person not a robot" idea. You know, treating people like people and taking the time to get to know them. Oh right, yeah, forgot about that. Writers, like artists, are sensitive to ideas and people. But not every writer will get you or your product - and in the tech world as in any world, each writer has their own… -
7 Pinterest Clones: Can You Tell the Difference?
Mashable!8 Feb 2012 | 7:11 am“It’s like Pinterest, but…” Welcome to my inbox for the last several months. Just as the world now has a Groupon and a Birchbox for everything, so too is Pinterest creating a wake of copy-cat sites. We’re not talking about sites that merely incorporate Pinterest’s design elements. There are sites that have copied Pinterest’s style, functionality and even portions of its name. Pinterest hasn’t released user numbers, but one study found it drives more traffic to websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. Copy-cat sites are another… -
Do you worry that Facebook will start charging brands for Facebook pages after its initial public offering?
SmartBrief on Social Media8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 am-More- -
SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 8, 2012
Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing8 Feb 2012 | 2:23 pmBelow is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Testing New Search Results Design Bing is testing a new design for the search results layout. The new design seems a lot cleaner, fresher and more organized... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Search Engine Watch
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RIAA President: Google ‘Misused Its Power’ by Protesting SOPA
8 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmGoogle abused its trust and misused its power when it blacked out its logo and encouraged its millions of users base to “Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!” At least according to the Recording Industry Association of America’s CEO. -
Privacy Group Sues FTC to Stop New Google Privacy Policy
8 Feb 2012 | 1:00 pmThe Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) is suing the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in the hopes of stopping the new Google privacy policy, which is set to become effective March 1. The complaint was filed today in federal district court. -
Google Debuts Chrome for Android
8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 amThe mobile version of Chrome runs on smartphones or tablets with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich or above. Although Chrome for Android was designed from the ground up for mobile devices, it has many of the same features of the desktop version. -
5 'Moneyball' Tips for Search Marketers from Billy Beane
8 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amOakland A's General Manager Billy Beane talked baseball, metrics, and people calling him crazy, with an audience of search marketers and corporate executives in a keynote yesterday at Covario’s InflectionPoint 2012 conference in California. -
2 Non-Obvious PPC Split Tests
8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amSimple PPC split testing can provide market insights that allow you to connect deeply and powerfully with your prospects. All that’s required is a willingness to think, wonder, and ask. Here are two questions to jump-start your own deep curiosity.
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ReadWriteWeb
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10 Ways to Win Over Writers
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 pmAs a PR person, product developer, CEO or whatever, you're probably more interested in getting noticed by the media than developing a relationship with a particular writer. That's one way to go about it. Then there's that old-fashioned "building a relationship with a real person not a robot" idea. You know, treating people like people and taking the time to get to know them. Oh right, yeah, forgot about that. Writers, like artists, are sensitive to ideas and people. But not every writer will get you or your product - and in the tech world as in any world, each writer has their own… -
Nginx Continues Growth, Adds Commercial Offerings
8 Feb 2012 | 4:30 pmAccording to the Netcraft Web Server Survey for February 2012, Nginx was "the only server to experience a non-negligible market share increase this month" by picking up 0.27 percentage points. Good news for the upstart Web server, just as the brand-new company behind Nginx takes the wraps off its commercial packages. Nginx has had quite the growth spurt over the past year. In February of last year Nginx had 7.57% of the market, or about 21 million domains hosted with Nginx. Microsoft had 20.04%, or about 57 million. Apache was at 60.10%, with more than 171 million domains. Sponsor… -
Do Your Users Get You? Test Them With Solidify
8 Feb 2012 | 3:59 pmZURB launched yet another handy design application to help anyone test Web products they're working on. This one is called Solidify. It takes care of one of the most annoying parts of building an interface: testing clickable prototypes. Solidify lets you build a working test of your design and give it to users to see if it makes sense to them. It also gives you analytics on how your testers performed. Along with the new app, ZURB opened a new apps page showcasing all the great Web design helpers it has made, many of which we've covered on ReadWriteWeb. ZURB's tools let you make simple… -
Google Confirms Motorola Licensees Pay 2.25% Per-Unit Royalties
8 Feb 2012 | 3:45 pmIf all goes according to plan, the same company which last year asserted that patents were essentially legal weapons in an unfair war against the Android operating system, will find itself the owner of one of the largest technology portfolios anywhere in the world. Today, Google took steps to assure many of Motorola Mobility's (MMI) existing licensees that it would adhere to that company's existing reasonable and non-discriminatory (RAND) licensing practices for mobile technologies. This after Apple sent a letter to a European Telecommunications Standards Institute last November 11 - as first… -
Akamai Invests in Obliterating America's Broadband Speed Deficit
8 Feb 2012 | 3:30 pmLast week, my colleague David Strom reported on the latest annual "State of the Internet" report from content delivery network Akamai. The report showed that while Americans are finally experiencing faster average broadband speeds on a quarter-by-quarter basis, those speeds only began eclipsing those of Sweden in the second half of 2010, and still have about 40% of gap to close if it hopes to achieve par with Japan - which, at this rate, it might do in about a decade. If Web connection speeds are, as Google has said so often in touting the performance of its Chrome Web browser, essentially a…
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Mashable!
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7 Pinterest Clones: Can You Tell the Difference?
8 Feb 2012 | 7:11 am“It’s like Pinterest, but…” Welcome to my inbox for the last several months. Just as the world now has a Groupon and a Birchbox for everything, so too is Pinterest creating a wake of copy-cat sites. We’re not talking about sites that merely incorporate Pinterest’s design elements. There are sites that have copied Pinterest’s style, functionality and even portions of its name. Pinterest hasn’t released user numbers, but one study found it drives more traffic to websites than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. Copy-cat sites are another… -
Brazil Sues Twitter Over Speed Trap, Roadblock Tweets
8 Feb 2012 | 6:55 amIn what may be the first test of Twitter‘s new international censorship strategy, Brazil is suing the company over tweets that warn drivers of police roadblocks and speed traps. The suit, filed in a federal court in Goias by the attorney general’s office, is also going after users who compose the tweets. Brazil’s government is levying fines of $290,000 until Twitter changes course. The government charges that such tweets break the law and directly endanger “life, safety and property,” CNN reports. The roadblocks, the suit contends, may thwart purveyors of other… -
Sprint Reports Strong iPhone Sales in Q4 2011
8 Feb 2012 | 6:39 amSprint‘s Q4 2011 earnings report is out, and the results aren’t stellar, but strong iPhone sales are among the highlights. The company reported a $1.3 billion net loss on a $8.72 billion revenue, with much of the losses attributed to iPhone subsidizing costs. Sprint said its iPhone sales in the quarter were 1.8 million, 40% of which were to new customers. However, one has to keep in mind that if Sprint sold more iPhones, its loss would be even bigger. Overall, Sprint now has 55 million net subscribers — 1.6 million more than in Q3 2011; 33 million of those subscribers are… -
8 Legal Steps for Starting Your Business
8 Feb 2012 | 6:23 amThis post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business. With each new year, budding entrepreneurs look to turn their vision into a business. These startups are often overflowing with tremendous ideas, energy and optimism — but don’t always have a roadmap for the legal aspects involved in starting a business. In the flurry of drumming up new customers, getting ready for a website launch and building the first prototype, it’s all too easy to put off some of the less… -
Paul McCartney’s Next Performance Is Coming to You Live, and for Free, on iTunes
8 Feb 2012 | 5:48 amEver since The Beatles and Apple kissed and made up in 2007, Apple products and its fans can’t seem to get enough of the fab four and its surviving members. The service already has the legendary group’s 13 studio albums (added to iTunes in 2010) and now Apple is helping former Beatle Paul McCartney promote his latest album with a free live stream of his performance from Capitol Studios in Hollywood, Calif., on Feb. 9. The album, Kisses on the Bottom, is not a Beatles retrospective. Instead, McCartney is treading the well-worn path of countless other aging rockers and singing songs…
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SmartBrief on Social Media
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Do you worry that Facebook will start charging brands for Facebook pages after its initial public offering?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 am-More- -
Twitter under fire over Brazilian traffic-stop tweeters
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amBrazilian authorities are suing Twitter over accounts that publicize the locations of police roadblocks and speed traps to he -More- -
Interested in writing for SmartBlogs?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amEveryone knows that SmartBrief aggregates the best content from around the Web, but did you know we also feature original blo -More- Manager, Digital & Social Media Research Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. -
Doritos' bandito baby wins USA TODAY-Facebook poll
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amAn ad featuring a grandmother sling-shotting a baby to snag a bag of Doritos won the USA TODAY-Facebook poll of best Super Bo -More- -
10 ways to write headlines that compel your customers to click
8 Feb 2012 | 9:29 amWithout an eye-catching headline, even the best blog posts and announcements can easily get lost in the often-overwhelming fl -More-
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Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
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SearchCap: The Day In Search, February 8, 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 2:23 pmBelow is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Testing New Search Results Design Bing is testing a new design for the search results layout. The new design seems a lot cleaner, fresher and more organized... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Bing Testing New Search Results Design
8 Feb 2012 | 1:43 pmBing is testing a new design for the search results layout. The new design seems a lot cleaner, fresher and more organized compared to the older design. Jason Hart tipped us off listing out the key differences: Vertical tabs removed Top and bottom search boxes widened Search button icon changed... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
How To Make Unstructured Data Actionable In Display
8 Feb 2012 | 11:05 amI wrote recently about the new era of display marketing, and how real time bidding and other advances are bringing the precision and performance of search advertising to display. Well…a new era of unstructured data is also upon us. A widely cited 2011 IDC study found that the amount of data in the... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Survey: People Largely Negative About Google’s Personalized Search Results
8 Feb 2012 | 10:48 amEarlier this month market research tool provider Ask Your Target Market surveyed 400 US adults about their attitudes toward personalized search on Google. The results were reported today in eMarketer’s email newsletter. We went back to the source to check out the survey and discovered that... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article. -
Why Does Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine Hate Rick Santorum?
8 Feb 2012 | 9:14 amUS presidential candidate Rick Santorum pulled off a surprise last night, winning caucuses and primaries in three states. So what’s with Bing listing an anti-Santorum web site first in its results in a search for his last name? Does Microsoft have some type of liberal agenda! Wait, you... Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
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Social Media Explorer
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What Happened To Saying Something Nice?
8 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amSocial media has certainly given the power back to the consumer. But sometimes the consumer doesn’t do nice things with that power. While it could be a matter of perception (the overwhelming sentiment of most brands in online conversational analysis is positive), it certainly seems like the only time we take note of brand mentions online is when someone is whining or bitching about them. AT&T is one brand that gets unnecessarily beaten about its head and face a lot online. I’ve never quite understood this, perhaps because I’m A) Practical in nature and understand… -
Get Out of Your Own Way: 5 Excuses Marketers Use to Avoid Social Media ROI
7 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amYou see it everywhere. Management teams and marketers desperately want to understand how social media is delivering to the bottom line. Marketers are getting tons of pressure from their management teams and are desperate for a way to prove their strategies are working. With so many chomping at the bit to get at true return on investment (ROI), how has it remained so elusive? Has social media become the marketing channel that we know we need to have, but can’t demonstrate why? What if Social Media ROI was really simple, but we let a bunch of excuses get in our way of measuring it? -
Empowering Your Employees With Social Media
6 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amEditor’s Note: This is a guest post by Emily Eldridge, Senior Vice President of Pure. It’s tempting to think that employees’ online discussions about your company should be curbed. Most company policies in the modern workplace exist to protect us from lawsuits – and to ostensibly protect employees from themselves. While it’s understandable to want control over our corporate image, this fear dimishes our employees’ ability to communicate. A stronger approach is to empower our staff to be brand advocates. Advocate for Your Employees Companies should decide whether their… -
How Small Businesses Can Go Big With Social Media Marketing
6 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amIt’s no secret to many of you — it-getters in the sense that you at least read Social Media Explorer and are likely bought in — that social media marketing can have a huge impact on your business. But we still see more case studies from major brands playing in the social channels than we do small businesses. With the fact that 44 percent of small businesses don’t even have a website, much less social media efforts, it’s no surprise that there’s a gap between success cases in small versus medium and large businesses. Small businesses typically face one… -
Integrating Social Media Across The Organization
3 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amOperationalizing social media across the organization is perhaps on of the most challenging aspects of social media for companies and brands. Too many look at social media as a consumer-facing communications channel and forget that departments from HR to research and development and even internal collaboration among divisions can all be helped by social technologies and strategies. We’re addressing that issue at Explore Dallas-Fort Worth in several discussions, one major one led by Zena Weist, Vice-President of Digital Strategy for Edelman. Her experience at brands like Embarq, Sprint…
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Brian Solis
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Meet the Mother of All Processes
8 Feb 2012 | 10:32 amGuest post by John M. Bernard, author of the new book, Business at the Speed of Now, and Chairman and Founder of Mass Ingenuity. Imagine going to work in one of Henry Ford’s factories a century ago, proud that management referred to you a “hand” or a “hammer” or maybe even a “wrench.” The labels reflected Ford’s emphasis on automation and management’s view of laborers as mere cogs in the machine. Screw this nut onto that bolt; weld this strap to that frame; do it over and over and over again until your brain froze with boredom. Of course, management needed workers to get the… -
2011 Was the Year of the Mobile Consumer, What’s in Store for 2012? Value.
7 Feb 2012 | 10:10 amChris Silva, my colleague at Altimeter Group, released a useful report today that I wanted to share with you here. Mobile is important and I believe you know this. However, when we consider mobile, we often think about the experience when and where it begins. But, we often miss the opportunity to lead a more meaningful journey as it may travel from small screen to larger screens across laptops, desktops and beyond. And along the way, we must now determine our role in this journey to provide information, shape decisions, and influence behavior. In Chris’ report, he reminds us that 2011… -
Season 2 Finale: How Yamaha invests in new customer experiences
3 Feb 2012 | 10:52 amThis is it…the Season Finale! And, what a way to end Season 2 of (R)evolution…. In this episode, Yamaha shares what is by far the most expansive view of disruptive technology’s impact on business infrastructure and culture on the show to date. What you’ll see is a genuine discussion with Jeff Hawley and Rick Williams of Yamaha explore how an already successful business is exploring new opportunities to better define the customer experience before, during and after transactions. It comes down to workflow. Nowadays, it either works for you or works against you. Here,… -
Smartphones, Tablets, PCs, The Devices People Use to Discover Information in Social Media (and when)
2 Feb 2012 | 3:13 pmMy friends over at bit.ly published an interesting graph that reveals the devices as well as the days/times that people use different devices and how and when they consume information. As you can imagine, it’s across the board, but as you can see, there are waves that every device follows, except the desktop. Desktops are of course the devices that we can assume people use during work hours. As such, they are most heavily used on weekdays before noon. Interestingly enough, phone traffic peaks at about the same times, but not to similar effects. What’s also telling is that tablets… -
What’s Love Got to Do with It? The 3P’s of Identity
2 Feb 2012 | 6:16 amGuest post by Allison Cerra, author of Identity Shift With the 2012 Presidential election looming, there’s no shortage of polls to help narrow the field of candidates. I find a recent one from Fox News to be particularly fascinating. Among other questions, Republican primary voters were asked which Republican presidential candidate is most likeable and which they would most trust with a nuclear weapon. While Newt Gingrich scored at the top of the heap in earning the trust vote, he scored only marginally well on the likeability scale. The topic was discussed on the network’s “Fox &…
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Social Media Marketing
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Foursquare in Context
29 Jan 2012 | 8:11 pmIf you're a regular user of services like Twitter or Foursquare, you've undoubtedly been met with skeptics and naysayers who wonder aloud, "Why would I want to tell anyone what I'm having for lunch?" or "Why would I care if someone is having a ham sandwich?"Fair enough, but the inquisitors fail to take into account the all-important factor in any conversation, whether it's in person or online: context.Context is what allows us to make sense of much of the world around us. "He's so bad!" could have two very different meanings, depending on the the rest of the conversation surrounding it. With… -
Social Media and Travel
26 Jan 2012 | 9:37 pmIf 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
13 Dec 2011 | 6:00 pmFord 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
29 Nov 2011 | 8:47 amThis 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
7 Oct 2011 | 8:53 pmI 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…
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Brand Insight Blog
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Conversion Branding. How to make your website work — on many levels.
17 Jan 2012 | 2:00 pmThere seems to be a trend in website development these days… more and more cookie-cutter, template-driven websites that are wearily one dimensional. The fact is, if you want the maximum return from your website investment, it needs to work on many different levels. Let’s look at what those are: The Functional, Phonebook Level In case you hadn’t noticed, the phone book is fading faster than the first generation Blackberry. Now that we all have a web-enabled computer in our hands at all times, Google is the phonebook of choice. So on the most basic level, your website needs to… -
Incongruity: Breaking through all the babaganoushit.
11 Nov 2011 | 3:58 pmSometimes, one single word is everything. The difference between a marketing home run and a dribbling bunt. I recently ran into a client who was completely fixated on one word in a headline: “Precious.” “Babies are precious, not parking places,” she argued. “Yes, but diamonds are also precious. And what’s more valuable than diamonds?” I countered. By using that one word I exaggerated the value of the free parking and elevated that little product feature to an entirely different realm. It was an effective use of incongruity in advertising, and she just couldn’t get her head… -
Brand authenticity — Keeping it real, honest, genuine and true.
28 Apr 2010 | 2:14 pmI hate buzzwords. Every time a new marketing term shows up on the cover of a book I find myself having to translate the jargon into something meaningful for ordinary, busy business people. Lately, it’s “Authenticity.” Seems “keeping it real” has become a household term. And a branding imperative. In The New Marketing Manifesto John Grant says “Authenticity is the benchmark against which all brands are now judged.” If that’s the case, we better have a damn good definition of what we’re talking about. “Authentic” is derived from the Greek authentikós,… -
Masterful Brand Management
8 Apr 2010 | 10:18 pmIt’s Masters Week — the biggest week of the year in golf, and a tide-turning event for several brands. Most notably, this one: The Tiger Woods logo for Nike Over the last 9 months the Tiger Woods brand has, shall we say, strayed a bit. The “indiscreations” of Tiger’s personal life have cost his brand millions in endorsement deals, and even more in public goodwill. As one sports writer put it, “it’s the most dramatic fall from grace in the history of sport.” For Tiger Woods and company, The Masters represents the perfect venue for a comeback, and an ideal brand affiliation. -
Inspiration For Office And Website Makeovers.
14 Mar 2010 | 12:30 pmMoved into a swanky new office building last week. (Great views of Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, Three Sisters and the Phoenix Inn parking lot.) The Alexander Drake Building, Downtown Bend, OR As I was unpacking boxes, lifting heavy furniture and contemplating the feng shui, it occurred to me that professional service firms spend a lot of time and money on their office space. And rightly so. For companies with no tangible product to sell, it’s a crucial component of the brand. For instance, when it comes to selecting an ad agency, office space always figures into the equation. The workspace is…
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Ignite Social Media
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Disney Parks Prove to be Big on Magic, Short on Social Media
8 Feb 2012 | 5:48 amRecently, my family and I went to Orlando to escape the arctic tundra that is the North Carolina winter and go to the happiest place on Earth. While there, I figured I’d see what kind of social media efforts were present within the Disney parks. As the Disney Corporation is one of the great marketing forces on the planet, I figured it would be a time for me to take notes and learn from the great masters behind the Mouse. However, what I found was quite to the contrary. My first stop was at Epcot (my personal favorite). I whipped out my smartphone and started looking for @Epcot so that I… -
NASA, Reuters, NASCAR, Social Media Project – Topics That Are Igniting
7 Feb 2012 | 10:08 amNASA Releases First Multiplayer Facebook Game NASA recently launched its first online game for the social media age, Space Race Blastoff. Available through NASA’s Facebook page, the multiplayer game challenges players with trivia of NASA history, technology, science, and pop culture. Players who correctly answer questions earn virtual badges depicting astronauts, spacecraft, and astronomical objects. David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for communications hopes the game opens up NASA to a wide new audience of people accustomed to using social media. Reuters Debuts… -
Social Media Marketing Examples from Super Bowl XLVI
6 Feb 2012 | 11:54 amLast year, I made a few predictions about this year’s Super Bowl 46. And most of them actually came true. This year we saw the first ever QR code integration into a Super Bowl ad, over 20 ad leaks on YouTube before the big game and a better use of hashtags in commercials. While I still think improvements can be made building more integration into traditional advertisements with social campaigns, here are a few examples from this year: Jumping on the ‘Volkswagen’ Last year, Volkswagen broke ground by releasing their ‘The Force‘ Super Bowl commercial early on YouTube… -
Top 50 Branded Facebook Fan Pages, January 2012: Nokia leaps, Monster slips
2 Feb 2012 | 6:08 amThe latest monthly list of the Top 50 Branded Facebook Fan Pages is now available for January 2012, and several brands made impressive runs to kick off the year. While some brand grew slowly in the way I described recently on Mashable.com, many more brands bucked that trend and grew 5, 10, even 39% percent in one month. Fastest Growing Facebook Pages The fastest growing branded Facebook fan pages of January 2012, by percentage growth, are: Nokia, which grew 39% and broke on the list at #50 Xbox, which grew 19% and moved up 3 spaces to #17 McDonalds, which grew 18% and moved up 1 space to #18… -
Jim Tobin Discusses Facebook IPO with NBC17
1 Feb 2012 | 11:09 amPresident of Ignite Social Media, Jim Tobin, stopped by the NBC17 studio this morning to discuss Facebook’s recent announcement to go public. Watch the video below to learn what’s led Facebook to this momentous occasion and how going public might affect the other social networks like Google+ and Twitter.
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MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
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How Social Media Is Changing the Agency/Client Relationship
8 Feb 2012 | 10:03 amThis week on the Marketing Smarts Podcast, we discuss the evolving relationship between agencies and clients in the era of social media. Our guest is Glenn Engler, CEO of Digital Influence Group, a full-service digital agency with “social media at the core” of everything they do. The jumping-off point for our interview was that “social at the core” position. I wanted to know what that meant, and Glenn explained that, in a nutshell, it doesn’t make sense for an agency to offer “social” as a capability to its clients (as in, “We can also do… -
5 Super Bowl XVLI Ads That Could Have Been Improved with a Mobile Call-to-Action
8 Feb 2012 | 6:49 amMarketers buy into the Super Bowl telecast because it is the one time of the year when consumers are actually tuning in to commercials instead of muting the volume or fast-forwarding on their DVR. Here’s an old school recipe for success: One part new product or service offering upgrade A tear-inducing script (Tears can be a result of hilarity or a message that pulls at the heartstrings.) One teaspoon of a timely message (Think Valentine’s Day and/or tax season.) A cute animal or hot celebrity A tease in the media What’s missing in this day of 24/7 social, mobile consumers? Mobile calls… -
The Questions I Would Ask If I Were Marketing Your Business
7 Feb 2012 | 6:53 amAdvice from Internet marketing pundits is becoming like rock and roll was to a previous generation—it sounds like just a bunch of noise. Every blog-as-media-outlet, thought-leader platform, and social technology company’s website screams top 10 ways to do this and how-to posts to do that. And marketing professionals are left trying to filter the wheat from the chaff. The challenge marketing and brand managers face today, however, is not the basic how-tos of social media. They need less of the top five and top sevens and top 10s, and more content that marries the tactical to-dos… -
How to Deliver Your Sales Pitch, So Folks Listen
6 Feb 2012 | 6:56 amA guest post by Sarika Periwal of karmaCRM. Talking is the best tool of a salesperson. The only way that you have face to face of convincing a person to buy a specific product or service is by convincing them that they need it. This includes highlighting the benefits that the product brings to their life to make it simpler. It also means that to be a successful salesperson you need to have impeccable communication skills. However, this is not an inherent skill but one that has to be developed through practice. Here are a few things that you should keep in mind when you next deliver your sales… -
Free Friday: Marketing Smarts Podcasts
3 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amOn this Free Friday, check out all the free Marketing Smarts podcasts organized neatly on one page for you. Hosted by MarketingProfs own Matt Grant, this weekly podcast features in-depth interviews with bright, engaging marketers. You’ll get insights and advice that will inspire you to pump up your marketing. Podcast topics include: Making the Most of a Mobile Moment (with Tim Hayden of 44Doors) Sally Hogshead and the $500 Cup of Coffee (with author Sally Hogshead) Have You Killed an Innovation Today? (with author and professor David Owen) Calculating the ROI of Social Media (with guest…
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Chris Garrett on New Media
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When Should You Start Selling from Your Blog?
31 Jan 2012 | 3:18 pmHow do you know when your audience is ready to buy from you? Should you wait to “monetize”? How big does your audience need to be? These are common questions and the answers have been debated over the years. I am going to share an answer I gave George from the Man Up Blog during his blog critique. George spent some time in the dating world, sometimes called the “pick up artist” niche. This is shy dudes learning to pick up the ladies mostly, but obviously the market caters to all genders and tastes. It’s pretty obvious what people want from dating advice, but… -
Why You Shouldn’t Drive Traffic
16 Jan 2012 | 7:58 pmIn 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
23 Dec 2011 | 11:53 amYour 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
5 Dec 2011 | 11:06 amMany 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
23 Nov 2011 | 3:08 pmAs 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).
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Webinar Marketing & Marketing Success With Webinars for Business
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How to Have Your Best Year Ever
1 Feb 2012 | 7:19 amWould you like to finally become as productive, happy, healthy and successful as you know you are capable of? Silly question right? I mean… who wouldn’t? Well this webinar training was put together to help you achieve exactly this… Oh, and it also contains sock-based tips, and amusing photos of cats (what mire can you [...] -
What Worked BEST in 2011?
2 Jan 2012 | 7:59 amIt is that time where everyone is looking forward and planning for the year ahead, but to plan for the future, you MUST first learn from the past. So this is a look back at SOME of the things that worked best for me in 2011. So let’s activate “list mode”. #1 – Filtering [...] -
Paralysis by Analysis
30 Nov 2011 | 10:00 amIf you have ever struggled to complete a project, failed to follow through on your goals, or felt completely stuck, then read on…. I have but one rule in life… “if it rhymes, then it must be true”. So imagine my glee when I heard the term “Paralysis by analysis”. Let’s kick this thing off [...] -
WTF is Brand Against the Machine?
29 Nov 2011 | 9:05 amWhat on this big blue sphere that we call “earth” is ‘Brand Against the Machine”? If that is the question you had in your head when you turned on your computer today… then wow, you are in luck… for the other 100% of you, I am going to shed some light on my [...] -
The Dangers of Turning a Loss Leader into a Bait and Switch
23 Nov 2011 | 11:47 amHave you ever heard of the terms “Loss leader”, or “Bait and Switch”? If you would like to know the down and dirty on these two… or my recent story of seeing the dangers of pulling a “bait and switch” on a “loss leader”… then read on dear reader…. Ok, it seems to little old [...]
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Online Marketing Blog
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Innovative Search Features Drive Engagement – Paul Vallez #OMS12
8 Feb 2012 | 3:30 am"Google taught us how to search." - Paul Vallez Paul Vallez admits that when he started at HP less than a year ago he had just come from Ask.com and was pretty cocky about what he knew. Vallez also shares that he wasn’t very open to new ideas and wanted to step into his new position at a big brand and immediately demonstrate value. What was his approach? 75% Cocky 25% Open to new ideas In Vallez’s presentation he identified what he called “3 Key Learnings” that he shared with the audience for improving the way that your search strategy is implemented for… -
#Optimize This: Online Marketing Summit 2012 Presentation
6 Feb 2012 | 7:21 amI’m headed to (hopefully) sunny San Diego today for the annual Online Marketing Summit conference where I’ll get to present on one of my favorite topics: Optimization. Of course, if you read Online Marketing Blog very often, you’ll know my definition of optimization is a bit different than traditional SEO. My post last Thursday “Are You Optimized?” touched on this. The competition for attendance during the breakout sessions at OMS is really tough during the time slot I’m scheduled for. SAP, Wider Funnel and SAP are all presenting at the same time as… -
Online Marketing News: Facebook IPO, Harmonize with Google+, Pinterest Dominates Traffic
3 Feb 2012 | 4:55 amFacebook in Numbers: Prior to the IPO The big news in social media and business this week is Facebook’s new IPO. This infographic from statista and creative commons shares some very interesting figures about Facebook, before it goes public. Highlights include: In 2012 Facebook is expected to reach: 90% of U.S. Social Network Users & 60% of Internet Users. Assuming a valuation of $100 billion, Facebook would be work 67 to 100x’s it’s estimated 2011 net income. The Social Media Buzz “How to Harmonize Google+ With Your Other Social Platforms” Search Plus has placed even more… -
Essential Shifts in Online Marketing: Are You On Board? Are You Optimized?
2 Feb 2012 | 7:21 amIs your company adaptable? Is your marketing optimized? I think most online marketers get the fact that marketing and communications on the web is a fast changing place and that most companies are structured to move at a slower pace than the digital world is evolving. Take for example, the notion of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s been around for about 15 years or so and in just the past few months Google has made the most significant changes ever. Despite the crystal clear focus towards search integration with social, many companies and digital pundits are still skeptical about… -
Blogger Relations: Push or Pull? How to Get Bloggers to Mention Your Brand
1 Feb 2012 | 9:38 amIs Your Blogger Relations Using Push & Pull PR Tactics? Yesterday digital PR maven Adam Vincenzini pinged me about a post he was researching on how brands could make it easier for bloggers to talk about them. It’s a great question because mentions and links from influential content sources are priceless for credibility, awareness and in particular, social SEO. This is a topic close to home because after 8 years of blogging here at Online Marketing Blog attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors, nearly 50k RSS subscribers, 13k blog Facebook Fans and 16k blog Twitter followers,…
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Denver Post: News: Breaking: Local
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Colorado court says fugitive Dougherty sister has plea deal
8 Feb 2012 | 4:36 pmOne of the three Dougherty siblings accused in a multi-state crime spree has reached a plea deal with prosecutors, a spokesman for the Colorado court system said Wednesday. -
Central City settles discrimination suit against its free shuttle
8 Feb 2012 | 4:33 pmCentral City will pay a $2,000 settlement plus attorneys' fees to a woman who was denied a ride on the city's free shuttle in August , because it wasn't equipped with a wheelchair lift, the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition Legal Program said today. -
Denver Public Schools loses two appeals before state ed board
8 Feb 2012 | 4:25 pmDenver Public Schools today lost two appeals before the state board of education and now must prepare to open a new elementary school by August. -
After dog bite, TV news anchor undergoes reconstructive lip surgery
8 Feb 2012 | 3:55 pmDenver TV anchor Kyle Dyer underwent reconstructive surgery today to repair injuries to her lip after being bitten by a dog during a live segment on the 9News morning show. -
Rep. Laura Bradford's attorney blasts House speaker for ethics inquiry
8 Feb 2012 | 3:38 pmRep. Laura Bradford's attorney says there's no basis for an ethics complaint against her because there's no evidence she was driving drunk or impaired.
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TheDenverChannel.com - Local News
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Douglas County Schools Explains $66M Surplus
8 Feb 2012 | 5:30 pmDouglas County school officials are trying to explain how they ended up with a $66 million budget surplus. -
Jury Finds Ex-Cop Not Guilty In Sex Assault
8 Feb 2012 | 5:23 pmA jury finds a former Greeley police officer not guilty of sexually assaulting a woman during a traffic stop last spring. -
Man Dies After Falling Under Denver Bus
8 Feb 2012 | 5:10 pmDenver police are investigating after a man fell under a bus in Denver. -
Clouds Increase Over Front Range As Mountains See Snow
8 Feb 2012 | 4:53 pmA quick moving system brings snow back to Colorado and keeps temperatures cool in Denver. -
Credit For Prior Education Bill Gets 1st Nod
8 Feb 2012 | 4:23 pmA bill is under consideration to direct colleges to award credit to students with prior job and military experience.
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Denver News
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Extend that Rocky Mountain high in Denver
8 Feb 2012 | 2:51 pmIn the Highlands, where Tejon Street and 30th Avenue meet, fluorescent white tubes illuminate the word Linger, overlooking downtown Denver, back east across the South Platte River. -
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper Now Questions The Existence Of Climate Change
8 Feb 2012 | 10:36 amColorado Gov. John Hickenlooper , elected in 2010 in one of the states most affected by climate change, now questions whether it is even happening . -
Bearsnail: full of bare-naked sincerity
8 Feb 2012 | 9:31 amKyle Harris began writing songs at the age of twelve, but it was another two decades before he decided to play them publicly. -
Colorado GOP voters make case for November victory
8 Feb 2012 | 5:12 amMitt Romney, after being introduced by his son Josh, takes the stage Tuesday night at the Auraria campus near downtown Denver. -
Variety is theme as Denver's 1099 Osage project welcomes its first residents
8 Feb 2012 | 12:57 amPam Hiddleston takes in the view of downtown Denver on Tuesday from her unit at the 1099 Osage housing complex.
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Denver Business News - Local Denver News | Denver Business Journal
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Legislature kills measure to help business navigate regulations
8 Feb 2012 | 5:19 pmA House committee killed a bill Wednesday that would have established a “navigator” at each state department to help businesses understand the regulatory requirements they must comply with in order to operate in Colorado. State Rep. Max Tyler, D-Golden, said he got the idea for House Bill 1025 from the “pits and peeves” process that the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) conducted last year to discover regulations that business leaders felt were hindering their operations... -
Capitol Business: Horse tracks roll the dice on video lottery measure
8 Feb 2012 | 4:46 pmVideo lottery terminals (VLTs) placed at horse tracks could generate nearly $50 million a year in tax revenues for Colorado community colleges, college scholarships and school construction, according to proponents of a bill introduced in the Legislature. House Bill 1280, sponsored by Republican Reps. Don Coram of Montrose and Jerry Sonnenberg of Sterling and introduced late Tuesday, would allow VLTs, which are similar to slot machines but are operated by the Colorado Lottery, at three tracks — one on the Front Range, one near Pueblo and one on the Western Slope... -
Profit slips at TW Telecom despite revenue rise
8 Feb 2012 | 3:22 pmFourth-quarter profits at TW Telecom Inc. declined despite a 8.2 percent revenue increase. The Douglas County-based business telecom on Wednesday reported earning $16.4 million, or 11 cents a share, on fourth-quarter revenue of $351.5 million. That’s a 6 percent drop in profits compared to the $17.5 million profit, or 11 cents per share, on $324.8 million in fourth-quarter revenue it posted in 2010. The company’s fourth-quarter revenue increase beat analyst expectations. For the full year of 2011, TW Telecom (Nasdaq: TWTC) earned $57... -
Colorado stocks: Level 3 up 9%; Western Union down 10%
8 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pmThe Dow and Nasdaq again edged upward Wednesday. In Colorado, Level 3 and UQM led actively traded gainers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the trading day at 12,883.95, up 5.75 points (0.04 percent). The S&P 500 closed at 1,349.96, up 2.91 points (0.22 percent). The Nasdaq Composite finished at 2,915.86, up 11.78 points (0.41 percent). Among actively traded Colorado-based stocks, Level 3 Communications Inc. (LVLT) led the day’s gainers percentagewise, up 8.78 percent ($1.72) to close at $21... -
Colorado lawmakers push for film production funds
8 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pmA bipartisan group of legislators introduced a bill Wednesday to increase incentives for film production in Colorado, pushing forward a proposal that previously had run into opposition by some members of the Joint Budget Committee. House Bill 1286, sponsored by Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, and House Minority Leader Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, would dedicate $3 million to the Colorado Office of Film, Television and Media to use for tax breaks and for guaranteed loans to production companies...
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Branding Strategy Insider
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Time For Brand Marketers To Lead A Comeback
7 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmIt’s a good thing the game between the NFL's New England Patriots and the New York Giants was exciting because this year’s Super Bowl commercials were dull, and what a weird thing to say about the Super Bowl. Generally, it’s the very opposite of that. Perhaps it’s best not to read too much into Super Bowl ads vying for viral buzz (many of which adopted a new pre-game, social media preview approach to generate buzz, albeit some have argued it was poorly done). But there was one thing that stood out. In a noticeable departure from the tradition of Super Bowl Sunday, this year’s crop… -
When To Reposition Your Brand
6 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmBrand repositioning is necessary when one or more of the following conditions exist: Your brand has a bad, confusing or nonexistent image. The primary benefit your brand "owns" has evolved from a differentiating benefit to a cost-of-entry benefit. Your organization is significantly altering its strategic direction. Your organization is entering new businesses and the current positioning is no longer appropriate. A new competitor with a superior value proposition enters your industry. Competition has usurped your brand's position or rendered it ineffectual. Your organization has acquired a… -
How To Transform An Under-Performing Brand
5 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmOnce the decision has been made to continue to invest in an under-performing brand, brand owners will be faced with a new set of challenges completely foreign to them. The temptation is always to do more of what got you there. That rarely works when brands face reinvention. By that I mean brand relevance. The main reason brands begin to under perform is that people no longer care. When that happens, like it or not, you’ll be starting over from scratch. This is a hard pill for brand owners to swallow, particularly if the brand was once an iconic leader in its category. For brand owners… -
Logo Design Requirements
4 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmA brand’s identity is a combination of visual, auditory, and other sensory components that create recognition, aid in memory encoding and decoding, represent the brand promise, provide differentiation, create communications synergy, and are proprietary. The logo is one key component. Here is what we look for when we evaluate logo design: Memorable – highest recognition and recall (both of which can be tested for) Including recognition at maximum distances (can be tested for) Aesthetically pleasing Timeless quality - the logo will not become dated Appropriate for the product/service… -
Brand Tagline Requirements
3 Feb 2012 | 9:10 pmIn definitive global research, The Conference Board has found the development and consistent use of a tagline to be a key factor in brand strategy success. A tagline that succinctly and powerfully communicates the brand’s promise is one of the quickest, easiest and least expensive ways to communicate the brand’s new position to internal and external audiences. It should consistently accompany the brand’s logo in situations outlined by the brand architecture. I believe that developing brand taglines (and elevator speeches) are the most important next steps one can take once a brand has…
