Many thanks to the PistolShrimps for making all our Star Wars fantasies come true in one fell swoop. Full story at YouTube via Neatorama. Tweaking Star Wars. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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Most Topular Stories
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The Star Wars film we’ve all been waiting for: “Bye Bye Jar Jar” [video]
Holy Kaw!13 Feb 2012 | 11:33 am -
Three Minutes On Social Media
chrisbrogan.com12 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amI had the pleasure of talking to deputy editor Teri Evans at Entrepreneur Magazine after keynoting their Growth Conference in Long Beach. This ends up being a few tips about small business and social media. Hopefully there’s something useful in here. (Oh, and for a behind-the-scenes detail, check out what I shared with people on Google+ about the day we shot this.) Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE To see more from the series, click here. -
Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
How to Change the World20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
MRI Scanners: Now Used to Look Inside Batteries [VIDEO]
Mashable!13 Feb 2012 | 11:39 amResearchers are trying to create a better battery with MRI scanning — looking at batteries from the inside out for the first time. Previously the only way scientists looked into a battery is by destroying it. Now researchers at Cambridge University, Stony Brook University and New York University are adopting the MRI technology that doctors use to look inside the body. MRIs are not typically used where there are large concentrations of metal. People with pacemakers and metal implants are urged to tell their doctors before getting an MRI because metal makes an MRI’s radio… -
Keen On… Vertical Media: Glam’s Big Hairy Arsed Idea (TCTV)
TechCrunch13 Feb 2012 | 10:27 amFounded just seven and a half years ago, Glam Media is one of Silicon Valley’s few media success stories. Beginning in the women’s interest vertical and expanding to entertainment, health and wellness and now food, Glam acquired Ning last September and is rumored to be preparing an IPO for later this year. Glam’s great achievement, it claims, is to pioneer “vertical media” and thus to “transform the way consumers interact with content”. But the truth of Glam’s success, its CEO Samir Arora acknowledged when he came into our San Francisco studio…
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Holy Kaw!
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The Star Wars film we’ve all been waiting for: “Bye Bye Jar Jar” [video]
13 Feb 2012 | 11:33 amMany thanks to the PistolShrimps for making all our Star Wars fantasies come true in one fell swoop. Full story at YouTube via Neatorama. Tweaking Star Wars. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
Ship gets into the action at Mavericks, nearly capsizes [video]
13 Feb 2012 | 11:16 amMavericks at Half Moon Bay, California offers some of the most extreme surfing in the U.S., made famous by the legendary wipeout of Jay Moriarty, the subject of an upcoming film for which the ship, the fifty-five-foot Huli Cat braved the killer surf and almost capsized this past week, seemingly lulled into a false sense of security by beautiful weather. "Their intention was to get close to the lineup...but not that close," says Frank Quirarte, a Mavericks photographer who works as part of the water rescue team in his spare time. "They'd made a few close escapes earlier, then that happened."… -
How to leverage Pinterest for restaurants
13 Feb 2012 | 10:34 amPinterest is a virtual pin board that lets users organize and share their favorite online visuals, and while brands are quickly adopting it for marketing, Sociallybuzz CEO Andre Kay advises restaurants to take a methodical approach. Take the time to understand the network, upload mouthwatering food photos that link to your restaurant's menu, and expand your efforts by sharing your Pinterest postings on other social networks. Full story at SmartBlog on Restaurants by SmartBrief. More SmartBrief stories. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
How to leverage Pinterest for restaurants
13 Feb 2012 | 10:34 amPinterest is a virtual pin board that lets users organize and share their favorite online visuals, and while brands are quickly adopting it for marketing, Sociallybuzz CEO Andre Kay advises restaurants to take a methodical approach. Take the time to understand the network, upload mouthwatering food photos that link to your restaurant's menu, and expand your efforts by sharing your Pinterest postings on other social networks. Full story at SmartBlog on Restaurants by SmartBrief. More SmartBrief stories. Permalink | Leave a comment » -
How to leverage Pinterest for restaurants
13 Feb 2012 | 9:43 amPinterest is a virtual pin board that lets users organize and share their favorite online visuals, and while brands are quickly adopting it for marketing, Sociallybuzz CEO Andre Kay advises restaurants to take a methodical approach. Take the time to understand the network, upload mouthwatering food photos that link to your restaurant's menu, and expand your efforts by sharing your Pinterest postings on other social networks. Full story at SmartBlog on Restaurants by SmartBrief. More SmartBrief stories. Permalink | Leave a comment »
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chrisbrogan.com
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Three Minutes On Social Media
12 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amI had the pleasure of talking to deputy editor Teri Evans at Entrepreneur Magazine after keynoting their Growth Conference in Long Beach. This ends up being a few tips about small business and social media. Hopefully there’s something useful in here. (Oh, and for a behind-the-scenes detail, check out what I shared with people on Google+ about the day we shot this.) Can’t see the video? CLICK HERE To see more from the series, click here. -
The Connection Will Carry You – or What Skrillex Taught Me About Platform
11 Feb 2012 | 5:09 amI’m currently a little too obsessed with the musician/DJ Skrillex, as he’s known (real name Sonny Moore). He’s become the “from out of nowhere” face of a movement. Interestingly, he’s not the face of dubstep itself, exactly, but instead, I’d offer that he’s the face of “the mainstream’s introduction to dubstep.” The distinction is huge. ( If you want even more on dubstep, Spin produced this primer.) It also means that Sonny Moore has a lot in common with Tony Robbins, Run DMC, Banksy, and Sir Richard Branson. And, quite… -
Throw Away the Maps
6 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amPeople judge us by the path they’ve seen us walk before. They can’t anticipate our future steps. We, ourselves, look to how things have been, what seems to be the lay of the land, without realizing that the maps are not the territory. Want to succeed at work? Then don’t try to do your job. Instead, work towards something larger, more meaningful, and something that blends your convictions internally with your best ability to help others externally. Want to create something new? Then throw away the old, or maybe join two disparate old things together into something new. The… -
The Next Social Networks
5 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amThe rage in social networks right now is Pinterest, partly because it’s probably the first social network that has a much higher adoption rate by females than males, and partly because it’s an interesting concept: somewhere between visual social bookmarking and scrapbooking. What also might not be immediately obvious is that it’s just “easier” to interact there. In that way, Pinterest has something in common with Instagram, which is community around photos. What I’m interested in, though, is Gentlemint, which I keep calling “Pinterest for… -
Learn From Adele – Build Your Platform
3 Feb 2012 | 1:30 amJacq and I just watched Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall (amazon affiliate link), and though every song was just wonderfully done, I found myself fascinated by what Adele was doing in between each song. Because even though most people would be interested in hearing her belt out her amazing repertoire of hits, what I took away from the performance was Adele’s real magical ability: the ability to resonate with her audience. What Adele Could Teach You About Impact I’m writing something about this right now for my upcoming book with Julien Smith, but I had to share some of the…
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How to Change the World
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Raising Money: What Not to Say and What Not to Believe #OfficeandGuyK
20 Jan 2012 | 10:46 amOver the past two weeks via my partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve provided templates of models for you to create enchanting PowerPoint pitches, Word business plans, and Excel financial models. They are all available for you to download from my SkyDrive account. I hope these documents and blog posts help you save a boatload of time and increase the quality of your efforts.I leave you with two sets of top ten lies: one of entrepreneurs and one of investors so that you know what not to say and what not to believe. Top Ten Lies of Entrepreneurs “Our projections are… -
Design a Sam Adams beer
20 Jan 2012 | 8:24 amNow this is a fun project. I’m helping Sam Adams “tap” the knowledge of beer drinkers and crowd source its next brew. Join the party by getting the app and designing your beer: The final brew will be released in Austin in the first week of March. #sponsored -
How to Create an Enchanting Financial Forecast #OfficeandGuyK
17 Jan 2012 | 1:52 pmThis is the third post in my Microsoft partnership, and it’s all about numbers. The topic is crafting your financial forecast to include in your pitch. Bill Reichert, my partner at Garage Technology Ventures, created an Excel model and wrote this blog post. There’s a lesson in this too: Get the best person for the job. His grasp of financial models and how to present them exceeds mine by two orders of magnitude. The Purpose of Financial Projections When it comes to financial projections, there are two types of entrepreneurs: first, the “visionary entrepreneur” who… -
How to Create an Enchanting Business Plan #OfficeandGuyK
12 Jan 2012 | 8:16 amHere is the second post in my series about planning, pitching, and launching a new business venture. In partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps, I’ve created a Word document that outlines a good business plan. It’s saved to my SkyDrive folder here. Feel free to download it and use it as inspiration. And if you’re working with a partner, you can use the free Word Web App to stay in sync. I provided the PowerPoint document before the Word document because a good business plan is an elaboration of a good pitch as opposed to a good pitch being a distillation of good business plan. -
How to Create an Enchanting Pitch #OfficeandGuyK
9 Jan 2012 | 8:01 amWelcome to the first in a series of blog posts I’ll be doing as part of a partnership with Microsoft and Office Web Apps. Over the next two weeks, I’ll cover everything a budding entrepreneur needs to turn an idea into an enchanting investment opportunity—from the perfect pitch to a killer business plan to financial forecasts. I’m going to start with a little dissertation on creating effective PowerPoint pitches for your company. I embedded the sample deck for you to click through by using the PowerPoint Web App. When you’re ready to get started, you can download the…
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Mashable!
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MRI Scanners: Now Used to Look Inside Batteries [VIDEO]
13 Feb 2012 | 11:39 amResearchers are trying to create a better battery with MRI scanning — looking at batteries from the inside out for the first time. Previously the only way scientists looked into a battery is by destroying it. Now researchers at Cambridge University, Stony Brook University and New York University are adopting the MRI technology that doctors use to look inside the body. MRIs are not typically used where there are large concentrations of metal. People with pacemakers and metal implants are urged to tell their doctors before getting an MRI because metal makes an MRI’s radio… -
Google-Motorola Gets European Seal of Approval. Is U.S Next?
13 Feb 2012 | 11:25 amGoogle announced on Monday that European regulators have approved its proposed acquisition of Motorola Mobility. “This is an important milestone in the approval process and it moves us closer to closing the deal,” Google’s vice president and deputy general counsel Don Harrison wrote in a blog post. “We are now just waiting for decisions from a few other jurisdictions before we can close this transaction.” Reuters reported last week that regulators in the United States will soon give their go-ahead on the deal, as well. Many reports have predicted that decision to… -
Did the Dad Who Shot His Daughter’s Laptop Go Too Far — and Will it Work? [POLLS]
13 Feb 2012 | 11:12 amThis week’s social media lesson, in case you missed it: be careful what you write about your parents on Facebook, even if you think they can’t see it. Just last Wednesday, Tommy Jordan posted this video to YouTube, in which he fires his .45 caliber handgun into his 15-year-old daughter’s laptop. In the video, he reads a status update from her Facebook profile in which she complains about her chores and obligations in her family life. He says that despite her use of privacy settings, she should have known that he works in IT and would be able to figure out how to see her… -
MySpace Gains a Million New Users in a Month [VIDEO]
13 Feb 2012 | 10:59 amIs Justin Timberlake really bringing MySpace back? Could be, according to data released by the company on Monday. MySpace claims that it now has “an average of 40,000 new registrations daily” and says it has added more than a million new users since launching its new MySpace Music Player in December. The site also touts its library of 42 million songs as the world’s largest collection of free music, signifying that services like Spotify — not Facebook or Google+ — may be its real competition. “The numbers tell an amazing story of strong momentum and… -
Jennifer Hudson’s Tribute to Whitney Houston Tops Google Trends [VIDEO]
13 Feb 2012 | 10:46 amAmericans woke up Monday morning with the Grammys and Whitney Houston on their minds — and they rushed to Google’s search bar to get their fix of both the topics that dominated conversations over the weekend. Pop icon Houston died Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles on the eve of music’s biggest event. Producers of the 54th Grammy Awards immediately handpicked Jennifer Hudson to sing Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” hit at Sunday’s ceremony. As of 1 p.m. ET, 19 of the 20 most-searched items on Google at that moment dealt with Grammy topics, and…
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TechCrunch
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Keen On… Vertical Media: Glam’s Big Hairy Arsed Idea (TCTV)
13 Feb 2012 | 10:27 amFounded just seven and a half years ago, Glam Media is one of Silicon Valley’s few media success stories. Beginning in the women’s interest vertical and expanding to entertainment, health and wellness and now food, Glam acquired Ning last September and is rumored to be preparing an IPO for later this year. Glam’s great achievement, it claims, is to pioneer “vertical media” and thus to “transform the way consumers interact with content”. But the truth of Glam’s success, its CEO Samir Arora acknowledged when he came into our San Francisco studio… -
ThinkGeek’s 8-Bitty Gamepad Promises Fun Times And Blistered Thumbs
13 Feb 2012 | 10:24 amThe folks at ThinkGeek, bless their souls, have a knack for taking off-the-wall ideas and turning them into real products. After their tablet-friendly arcade cabinet made the leap from joke to reality last year, ThinkGeek has turned their attention to whipping up a retro gaming accessory for the on-the-go crowd, and the resulting 8-Bitty already looks like a winner. Oh, and did I mention that it has fake wood-grain trim? Be still my heart! In fairness, the 8-Bitty (which I’m really enjoying saying, by the way) doesn’t actually exist yet. In typical ThinkGeek fashion, they’ve… -
Libsyn Offers MyLibsyn, A Cross-Platform Premium Content Repository For Podcasters
13 Feb 2012 | 9:49 amAs everyone and their dog moves to online production, podcasters have long hunted for a way to monetize their goods. Apps are available that let you sell podcasts for a set price, but what about aggregation over multiple platforms and using varying monetization models? More important, podcasters don’t want to do all the computerin’ to make these things work. That’s why Libsyn created MyLibsyn, a cross-platform (web, iOS, and Android) system for disseminating free and paid content from a central app. Libsyn has just created something akin to the Netflix of content… -
Majority Of Google TV App Install Base From Pre-Loads
13 Feb 2012 | 9:35 amNew data from app search firm Xyologic released this morning paints a picture of the relative success (or lack thereof) of the Google TV platform. By examining the install base for the apps exclusive to the Google TV platform, it’s clear that the Google media center product is still only attracting a niche crowd of early adopters. Of the nearly 4.8 million installed apps that are exclusive to Google TV, only 352,000 of them represent user downloads – the remaining 4,441,000 are pre-installed applications. Xyologic, which has been following Google TV since August 2011, notes that… -
Top Domains: ViSalus Dishes Out $825K To Buy “Challenge.com” & “Vi.com”
13 Feb 2012 | 9:15 amDomain names are important, and some might even say that a premium, memorable domain name is priceless. It’s become increasingly difficult to argue against businesses scooping up those short, relevant, easy-to-remember domain names when they’re available. Doing so can give your business, customers, and search engines a simple and quick way to find your business, along with the bonuses of brand protection and a potential increase in traffic, not unlike prominent placement in the yellow pages or the local shopping mall for brick-and-mortars. Thus, to some, making a big purchase on a…
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NYT > Media & Advertising
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Media Decoder Blog: 40 Million Watch Grammys, With Whitney Houston in Viewers' Minds
13 Feb 2012 | 10:40 amThe CBS telecast's rating among 18- to 49-year-olds put it in an elite category, and only the 1984 edition of the Grammys, with Michael Jackson center stage, reached more total viewers. -
NBC Is Looking for Big Payoff on Olympics
13 Feb 2012 | 10:35 amNBC Universal paid $1.18 billion for the right to carry this year’s Summer Games. So far, sales appear to be off to a strong start. -
The TV Watch: In Putin’s Russia, TV Mirrors Longing for Normalcy
13 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amAfter a decade of Vladimir V. Putin’s rule, Russian television has shed its dispirited past and embraced a more playful self-awareness, with hints of the country’s harsher realities. -
Q. and A. With Stuart Elliott
13 Feb 2012 | 10:20 amA sharp-eyed viewer notices a change in a humorous Volkswagen commercial. -
Campaign Spotlight: When the ‘A’ in U.C.L.A. Stands for ‘Achievement’ — Campaign Spotlight
13 Feb 2012 | 10:19 amA campaign for the university spotlights people, many of them celebrities, who are graduates, received advanced degrees, or attended the school but did not graduate.
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I Believe in Advertising | ONLY SELECTED ADVERTISING | Advertising Blog & Community
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Audi: The Audi Night Vision Assistant Experience
13 Feb 2012 | 9:39 amDuring the night life-sized, self-luminous wild animal figures were put on the sides of roads – roads with frequent traffic but no lighting. This stunt allowed the target group to experience the benefits of the Audi Night Vision Assistant – without owning an Audi themselves. Advertising Agency: Young & Rubicam, Zurich, Switzerland Chief Creative Officer: Markus Gut Creative Director: Dominik Oberwiler, Martin Stulz Art Direction: Sarah Paul, Oliver Glutz von Blotzheim Production Company: Markenfilm Zurich Account Managers: Susan Baumgartner, Rémy Mueller -
Pastas La Muñeca: Cannibal, Witch, Lobster
13 Feb 2012 | 9:16 am“Hot water is for the noodles.” Advertising Agency: LOWE-SSP3, Bogota, Colombia Chief Creative Director: José Miguel Sokoloff Creative Director: Jaime Duque Art Director: Sebastian Pelaez, Duvan Villegas, Daniel Delgado Copywriter: Diana Mariño Illustration: Juan Romero Account Director: Juan Camilo Piñeros Account Executive: Gary Sanchez -
Colgate Pro Gum Health: Floss, Bread, Toothbrush, Toothpick
13 Feb 2012 | 5:28 amFloss “Don’t ignore the signs” Bread “Listen to your gums” Toothbrush “Your gums are trying to tell you something” Toothpick “Gums disease” Advertising Agency: Young & Rubicam, Paris, France Creative Director: Carmine Coppola Copywriter: Ned Selover Art Director: Laurent Baghdassarian Agency Producer: Annapaola Rossi Photographer: Edo Kars -
Johnson & Johnson Reach: Corn
13 Feb 2012 | 4:07 amAdvertising Agency: JWT, São Paulo, Brazil Chief Creative Officer: Mario D’ Andrea Creative Director: Mario D’ Andrea, Roberto Fernandez Copywriter: Bruno Geiger Art Director: Fernando Sperb, Paulo Medeiros Illustrator: Roberto Fernandez, Fernando Sperb Account Supervisor: Luciana Rodrigues, Yves Rodrigues, Isabel Rossetto, Priscila Arakelian Advertiser’s Supervisor: Eduardo Siqueira Account Manager: Luciana Rodrigues Planner: Ken Fujioka, Newton Nagumo, Lia Bertoni -
British Airways: The Race
13 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amAdvertising Agency: BBH, London, United Kingdom Creative Director: Justin Moore, Hamish Pinnell Art Director: Matt Moreland, Chris Clarke Copywriter: Matt Moreland, Chris Clarke Production Company: Moxie Pictures Director: Neil Gorringe Producer: Charlotte Woodhead DOP: Tom Townend Post Production: The Mill Editor: James Rosen Editing House: Final Cut Sound: Nick Angell, Crawford, Angell Sound
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Social Business Advisor: Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0
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Emergent Collaboration Vendor Review: Xwiki
10 Feb 2012 | 12:08 amEvery Friday, I’ll be reviewing a vendor in the emergent collaboration space and will provide an overview on that vendor which includes aspects from leadership and vision to technology and market focus. If you are vendor and would like to participate, please contact me (my email address is in the sidebar as is my Twitter link). The goal of these posts is not to bash or praise vendors but to simply offer an objective view on what various vendors offer so that YOU can decide if they are a good fit for your business. Every post will cover the same elements for each vendors. If you have ideas… -
Do Organizations Need a Chief Collaboration Officer?
8 Feb 2012 | 4:06 pmMore organizations are starting to deploy new collaborative tools and strategies as a core part of their business evolution to connect and engage employees. It’s becoming increasingly difficult (especially at large companies) to oversee these initiatives as typically there isn’t a role devoted to collaboration. Usually collaboration falls on the shoulders of employees (such as the CIO) with an existing full plate of things that need to get done. So is it about time for organizations to create the role of the CCO (Chief Collaboration Officer)? In 2010 Morten Hansen and Scott… -
Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Pt 4: Financial Impact, Future Changes, and Lessons Learned
6 Feb 2012 | 12:08 amThis is the fourth and final post in a series of posts on how the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (The Foundation), is implementing emergent collaboration strategies and technologies within its organization. You can read part 1 on Business Drivers, part 2 on Organizational and Culture shifts, and part 3 on Technology Adoption and Operational Impact. The Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention, care, and treatment programs. The Foundation, currently working in 17… -
Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Pt 3: Technology Adoption and Operational Impact
3 Feb 2012 | 12:08 amThis is the third in a series of posts on how the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (The Foundation), is implementing emergent collaboration strategies and technologies within its organization. You can read part 1 on Business Drivers and part 2 on organizational and culture shifts. The Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention, care, and treatment programs. The Foundation, currently working in 17 countries, was founded in 1988 and experienced significant growth… -
Implementing Enterprise 2.0 at the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation Pt 2: Culture and Organizational Structure Shifts
1 Feb 2012 | 12:08 amThe first part of this case study on the Glaser Foundation discussing business can be found here. The Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing pediatric HIV infection and eliminating pediatric AIDS through research, advocacy, and prevention, care, and treatment programs. The Foundation, currently working in 17 countries, was founded in 1988 and experienced significant growth in the last five years, with its employee base increasing from 200 employees in 2006 to over 1,500 in 2011. This was due in part to increased funding from new global health initiatives, such as the…
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HubSpot's Inbound Internet Marketing Blog
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How Marketers Can Capitalize on the Sharing Revolution
13 Feb 2012 | 11:00 amA few weeks ago, I saw AOL co-founder Steve Case give an interview on The Colbert Report about his company Revolution, which is investing in people and businesses that disrupt the traditional concept of consumer ownership with a more practical and efficient consumer-sharing model. The consumer-sharing concept as a revolution that will impact the way we do business in the future (and now) has been mulling around in my mind ever since. Then on Feb 9, Cynthia Boris at Marketing Pilgrim wrote an interesting piece called The Sharing Economy: Could It Be the Next Big Thing? Well, I think that yes,… -
How to Master the Design of Compelling Calls-to-Action
13 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amCalls-to-action (CTAs) are one of the most important elements of lead generation, and they should be used in each and every one of your marketing tactics: emails, social media updates, press releases, trade shows ... the list goes on. In fact, whenever you want to ensure your team is moving in the right direction, pose the question, “What’s the call-to-action we're using to drive people's behavior?” Once you have a strategy in mind for which calls-to-action you'll feature on your website, you'll probably start obsessing over their design. In this blog post, we present you… -
Blogging Trumps Traditional Advertising in ROI Head-to-Head (Case Study)
10 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmAs a follow up to last week's post about things a marketer could buy with a Super Bowl ad budget, we wanted to share this real life story of a Super Bowl ad buyer's remorse. This week, we discovered that a HubSpot customer ran commercials for his business during last weekend's Super Bowl. Turns out that customer learned a tough lesson about the cost and value of outbound marketing as a result. Truth be told, this company has made great progress implementing an inbound marketing strategy using HubSpot software, but it also hired a PR agency that wanted to help them make a big splash. The… -
The Laws Marketers Need to Know to Avoid Legal Backlash
10 Feb 2012 | 10:19 amLaw has been all over the marketing news lately. First, there was all the SOPA/PIPA drama. And you might have also noticed that privacy has been quite a hot button issue recently, with the launch of Google's new one-size-fits-all privacy policy as well as the latest debacle with the up and coming (or maybe not?) social network, Path. With so much talk about laws governing the internet, as a marketer, you may be wondering how it could affect the way you do your job. So if you want to make sure you're not being a marketing outlaw, here's what you need to know to comply with the major laws that… -
Before & After: The Optimization of a Flawed Landing Page
10 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amMarketers talk a lot about advanced techniques for working with their leads: lead flow, lead management, lead nurturing. But all of that is meaningless without consistent lead generation, and landing pages are the strongest tools in a marketer's arsenal to meet that looming monthly lead goal. Because landing pages are so important to lead generation, attention to detail is in order to ensure you have the highest conversion rate possible. And as it turns out, landing page visitors are pretty darn fickle about which pages they'll convert on. To show you how to prevent landing page abandonment,…
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Drew's Marketing Minute
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The psychology of color
13 Feb 2012 | 5:38 amColor (or the lack of color) triggers a very powerful emotional response in us. We can use insight as we select company colors, design logos, create ads, build websites and even create products. Check out this fascinating infographic on how we react to color. Bravo to CertaPro Painters for creating this and Cool Infographics for originally sharing it. Related articles The Psychology Of Color In Design | designrfix.com (designrfix.com) You might also like Pantone announces the 2011 color of the year Color trends for 2011 How/why we buy: Social commerce infographic -
Put your email auto response to work
11 Feb 2012 | 5:31 amWith the volume of emails we all get every day, we can’t afford to let our emails go unattended. We don’t want the people who email us to think we’re ignoring them, so if we’re going to be out of the office — most of us use some sort of an automated response system. You know what I’m talking about: “I will be out of the office until Tuesday, March 3rd. If you need assistance, please call my co-worker Biff at 555-123-4567.” And that does the trick. They don’t freak out if we don’t answer within an hour or two. But if… -
The 5 things that will derail your marketing in 2012
8 Feb 2012 | 6:37 amI don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the truth is — most organizations’ marketing efforts stink. And they stink for reasons well within the marketing department’s control. If you’re worried that your own efforts might fall short — beware of these five danger zones that can derail you in a blink! Inconsistency: Does your monthly newsletter go out 5 times a year? Does your copy tone/style fluctuate between somber and casual? Are your weekly sales calls happening every week? Inconsistency not only waters down your results but it also… -
Crisis communications – don’t wait to create a plan
6 Feb 2012 | 6:10 amDoes your organization have a crisis communications plan that you could actually put into action at this very moment? All of the hubub surrounding the Susan G. Komen decision to stop funding Planned Parenthood and then their reversal of that decision following a 72+ hour firestorm of public outrage should have scared the bejesus out of you. If an organization as large, powerful and well respected as Komen can get into that much hot water — and is that ill-prepared to handle it then what in the world would happen to you if there was an accident on your job site, if your CFO embezzled… -
Don’t add frill until your core is rock solid
2 Feb 2012 | 6:15 amA couple times a month a cleaning company comes into our house and does a deep clean. Every time I walk into the house after they’ve cleaned… the toilet paper rolls and tissues sticking out of the boxes are folded in some sort of origami art. Sometimes, they leave a truffle on the kitchen counter. I get what they’re trying to do. And it’s a lovely little extra. Unfortunately, I also find things like: Every waste basket in the wrong spot (they’ve been cleaning the house for over a year) The back door unlocked or a window left open A few lights left on…
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Search Engine Watch - Latest
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Google Encrypted Search, Gmail, YouTube, Blocked in Iran
13 Feb 2012 | 9:30 amIran’s government seems to be ramping up its censorship of popular websites, targeting Google’s encrypted search, Gmail, YouTube, and Google Videos, among others. The government began blocking these sites Feb. 10, the company confirmed. -
Basic SEO Troubleshooting With XML Sitemaps
13 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amA quick overview of sitemap guidelines and limitations on Google and Bing and some sitemap optimization tips. Also learn a technique that will help you identify crawling and indexation issues using multiple sitemaps in Google Webmaster Tools. -
Richard Petty Driving Experience Revs Up Fan Engagement 700% on YouTube
13 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amWorking closely with Google, the Richard Petty Driving Experience team implemented a “hugely successful” YouTube TrueView in-stream ad promotion that raised viewership from just over 14,000 to more than 117,000 during a 30 day promotion. -
Power Guest Posting for SEO
12 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amProviding great content to authoritative people who are searching for it is a great way to build relationships with important people. This process outlines the basic tactics for power guest posting: finding websites, coming up with content, and making the -
Google Readying Google Drive, Dropbox-Like Cloud Storage
11 Feb 2012 | 8:00 amGoogle is readying a Dropbox-like service and will soon enter the cloud computing storage market. The Google Drive is expected to allow users to store documents, photos and videos on the cloud and make them accessible from any connected device.
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AdWeek: AdFreak
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Tell Ted Williams to Tell That Special Someone You Love Them
13 Feb 2012 | 9:40 amAs we recently noted, it's been a year since Ted Williams, the ex-radio announcer from Ohio with the velvety voice, who was living on the streets and battling drug and alcohol addiction, got his second chance—along with a voiceover deal for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. Now, he's giving back with a Valentine's Day promotion for the brand. Kraft is inviting you to tag your Valentine's Day love tweets with #VoiceOfLove for the chance to have Ted's silky voice bring your words to life. Ted will record personalized videos for up to 100 tagged tweets, in which he will… -
Unlock a Mercedes With Your Own Car Keys on These Subway Ads
13 Feb 2012 | 8:25 amGerman ad agency Lukas Lindemann Rosinski did a nice job with these digital outdoor ads for Mercedes-Benz that passersby could control with their remote car keys. The point was to show off the Viano's roomy passenger cabin. So, every time someone clicked their car keys at the ads, the Viano's side door opened to reveal what could fit inside. Examples included an entire Chuck-E-Cheese ball pit, hot girls, giant robots, a Power Ranger dance troupe, hot girls again, sumo wrestlers, and a sauna (full of hot girls). Oh, Europe. Never change. The ads were installed in Berlin's… -
Infographic: Designing the Perfect Blockbuster Movie Poster
13 Feb 2012 | 6:19 amYou think you just randomly ended up in that movie-theater seat watching things explode? No, that was the end result of a meticulously crafted propaganda campaign by the movie studio, utilizing all the persuasive powers of graphic design—as wonderfully elucidated in the infographic below, from Colour Lovers, examining the posters from the top 10 blockbusters of 2011. There are lots of interesting tidbits—note the preponderance of sans serif fonts and all caps, and the various textures and sight lines utilized. Did these factors alone fill theaters? Of course not. It helped that… -
Another Pet-Food Ad Makes a Dog-Whistle Sound
31 Dec 1969 | 4:00 pmEmploying what sounds like a far-fetched idea, Bakers dog food, a Purina brand in Britain, has embellished one of its commercials (in which pooches hijack a delivery truck filled with product) with a whistle sound that the client claims only canines can hear. The goal is apparently to make dogs take notice and bark at the TV, thus catching the attention of their owners. (Yeah, great way to endear the brand to humans. "Dammit, Fluffy, shut up!") Beneful tried the same tactic in Austria last year. We haven't heard much about that campaign since, though of course we wouldn't,… -
The Week on AdFreak: Feb. 3-10, 2012
11 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amThe 10 most-read AdFreak posts from the past seven days: 1. Old Milwaukee Airs Will Ferrell Super Bowl Ad in Nebraska 2. Super Bowl Backlash: The Five Most Debated Commercials 3. Falling Man on 'Mad Men' Posters Gets Some Visitors 4. Grainy Footage Reveals Draftfcb's Unorthodox Training Methods 5. OK Go Smacks 1,157 Instruments with a Chevy Sonic 6. Was This the Best Movie Poster of 2011? 7. James Franco Tries Advertising, Directs Spots for Seven Jeans 8. Courtney Stodden Stars in Worst Ad of 2012 So Far 9. Doritos Pays Double to 'Crash the Super Bowl' Winners 10. Jack in…
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Influential Marketing
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The Best And Worst Of Super Bowl Marketing Strategy 2012
6 Feb 2012 | 1:40 amI couldn't help but feel sorry this year for anyone who only watches the Super Bowl ads for entertainment. Perhaps the most defining feature of all the ads this year was how uniformly uncreative and dated they were. Marketers turned to old and obvious gags like girls in bikinis and dogs (lots of dogs) to try and carry their ads. The result was a very disappointing collection of ads for anyone who loves marketing and the hype of Super Bowl advertising. Still, there is plenty of marketing to learn from all the efforts this year, so let's get started in breaking down the strategy behind the ads… -
What The Amish Paradox Can Teach You About Marketing
3 Feb 2012 | 4:01 amLast year on a trip back to the US from South Africa, I picked up a magazine about a topic I knew very little about. It is of the common tricks I use to learn about different industries outside of the ones I work directly with – and in this case, the magazine I ended up with was called Farmer’s Weekly. The content was as you would expect, advice for farmers on techniques, information about regulations that will affect their industry and ads for tractors and things like that. In the middle of the issue I picked up was a feature article about what the author called the “Amish Paradox”… -
The 4 Principles Of Delusional Economics
27 Jan 2012 | 4:59 amWhen it comes to economic theories, there is plenty of fascination in the business world around how to explain what drives business and purchasing activities. Behavioural economics, the field of economics concerned with examining why people behave the way they do when it comes to their purchasing behaviour, is hot right now. Bestselling books like Freakonomics and Predictably Irrational dig deep into the psyche of people to try and explain seemingly illogical actions. My own upcoming book called Likeonomics, to some degree, looks at a similar theme of why we do business with people and… -
FinnAir, Republic Day & Why Celebration Is The Best Marketing Strategy
26 Jan 2012 | 8:28 amA few weeks ago it was my birthday. The day before on a Saturday morning, my two boys came leaping into our room very excited to wake me up. It wasn't so much about my birthday, unfortunately, as it was about getting ready to do their favourite thing on a Saturday morning: going to IHOP for pancakes. And when there is a birthday involved, it is an even bigger deal. Your birthday is a celebration there. They bring over at least 6 of the wait staff to sing their own version of the birthday song to you. You get ice cream for breakfast (what kid wouldn't love that?). People love celebrations -… -
Honda Masters The Art of Marketing Timing
23 Jan 2012 | 6:44 pmEvery year at the start of the new year there is something that most of us do without realizing it. It is related to making new year's resolutions, but it is more about sequencing your long term goals into the order in which you want to achieve them. One example might be saying to yourself, "I want to be married and then have a kid before I turn 35." Life is full of these little promises. So full, in fact, that often we make them to ourselves without even thinking. It raises an interesting marketing question as well. What would it take to get a customer to reevaluate the life sequence they…
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AdPulp
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One Badass Product Positioning
13 Feb 2012 | 8:47 amIn the world of rock guitar, you can never have too many effects pedals. Especially distortion pedals. Guitar players talk about distortion the way wine drinkers talk about wine. One pedal has “a brittle edge with a sweet undertone.” Another features “boosted mids and a smooth top-end.” One pedal pairs well with a vintage tube combo amp, while another goes better with a modern head and half-stack. Some players prefer the mystery and mojo of vintage gear, some the promise of the latest technology. Boutique (think craft-brewed) or mass-produced? It’s all part of… -
Advertising Is The Wrong Answer For Non-Advertising Problems
12 Feb 2012 | 4:12 pmIt’s a $2.5 billion slice of the online advertising pie, but few brands or their agency advisors are prepared to fully bake mobile in to their campaigns. David Hewitt of SapientNitro, writing in TechCrunch notes that “many brands still do not have a mobile or encompassing digital strategy in place. Moreover, many agencies are still growing a set of basic mobile capabilities.” Why haven’t brands made more gains in mobile? Maybe because mobile is so much more than another platform for serving up ads. Mobile is a lifeline to one’s world, via phone, email, social… -
Don’t Stress Dude, It’s Just A $20 Mil. Account On The Line
10 Feb 2012 | 5:06 pmSouthbay is a lifestyle magazine serving one of the most culturally, economically, and ethnically diverse areas in the United States. The current issue features Lee Clow of TBWA\Chiat\Day on the cover and inside contains profiles of Clow, Paolucci Communication, Team One and Margaret Keene and Chris Adams, co-executive creative directors at Saatchi/LA. Both Margaret and Chris have young families, and Saatchi’s emphasis on a prioritization of life appealed to them. “It’s the concept that everyone matters … that everyone’s ideas matter. All the shops in the South Bay agree with… -
Industrial Film From Another Era? Not Exactly.
10 Feb 2012 | 9:23 am“Can our account director in training balance between the steel trap of client concerns and groundbreaking ideas?” Talk about asking the hard questions… According to Adfreak, this video was part of a staff town-hall meeting at Draftfcb Chicago in January. See Adfreak for the other video about the agency’s approach to copy. You just finished reading Industrial Film From Another Era? Not Exactly.! Consider leaving a comment! -
Manage Customer’s Expectations In Social Channels — Save The Brand’s Ass
9 Feb 2012 | 10:23 amI am not a social media fan boy, but I recently had a customer service experience enabled by social media that gave me new found respect for the channel (as a customer service opportunity of untold magnitude). More on my story in a minute, but first, let’s have a view from the mountaintop. Open Forum points to a new study commissioned by Conversocial and conducted by New York University professor Liel Liebovitz. The report argues that “businesses seem to be struggling to deal with the volume of communication on Facebook and Twitter; they aren’t equipped to deal with this new…
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Conversation Agent
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Best Chocolatiers Miss Pinterest Opportunity on Valentine's Day
13 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amEspresso, red wine, and chocolate -- a delightful combination. With Valentine's Day upon us, I thought I would take a tour of some of the best Chocolatiers in the world via their Websites. My goal -- to create a Pinterest board aggregating their delightful offerings. The most challenging part of the task was to find visually delicious product photographs large enough to pin. The collection took me more than two hours to research and pin, partly due to small or no images and only flash sites. Larger images and stronger descriptions would have made the products pop more. Now that people are… -
reThinking Business
12 Feb 2012 | 2:42 pmThe image of this cover could be interpreted as a frame, a box, a mirror, or a portal and conduit for creative connections. We ascribe meaning to situations based upon our guideposts and growth stage as well as the challenges we face in moving forward. Which is why frameworks are more useful than prescriptions. A couple of days ago, we talked about reThinking Business in the age of the Social Customer at Social IRL. It was a very rich and rewarding experience with many senior professionals from brands and agencies in the room. Tony Faustino pulled together five takeaways from the session and… -
Social Content, Writing Better, and Trusting People
11 Feb 2012 | 1:56 pmThe WSJ had a wake-up call when its Tiger Mother story on its Facebook page had more comments than the paper's online website, at over 50,000 comments. The Journal's YouTube channel counts 8 million monthly streams. A.J. Liebling said: “I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better.” Who is a "person like me" today? Social content, writing better, and trusting people These questions are brought to the fore by the changing nature of context both for content and relationships in social networks. Every brand and publisher… -
Freebies
10 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amDon't you? It's fairly easy to think that a friend might be willing to do something for free for you. Generally, with friends, I trade services, paying referrals and opportunities, if we agree that it works for both. Because there is an existing connection upon which we are both trading. It is not uncommon for agencies to treat bloggers like media channels these days. Whip up a list, reach out with an Ego2C-dripping email where you drop names of (other) famous bloggers who (seem to be) are in the project and collect from your clients. Two dis-connects with this kind of approach: media people… -
Being in Control of the Interaction
9 Feb 2012 | 3:00 amI don't know about you. I wasn't terribly impressed by the Super Bowl ads this year. With the exception of the seducing commercial of the FIAT Abarth, where they are clearly in control of the interaction, most ads seemed to have sacrificed newer creative executions for safer ones. At the per second dollar spend, it was an understandable move. Disappointing because of the high expectations created through social media ahead of the big day. I got many ad preview offeres from the PR Agencies working with brands this year. A few days ahead of the game I saw that FIAT was making the rounds on…
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ReadWriteWeb
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Instagram Gets a Prettier UI and New Features - Prelude to an Android App?
13 Feb 2012 | 10:30 amEveryone's favorite photo filtering and sharing app for iOS got a significant update on Friday afternoon. Version 2.1 of Instagram adds a new filter, a tool for easily enhancing low-lit photos and a redesigned navigation. Sierra, the latest filter to join the Instagram family, is a white-bordered filter that adds a lightened, low-contrast vintage look to photos. As far as Instagram filters go, it's pretty standard stuff, but it's always nice to have new options. The more substantial addition to the app is a feature called Lux, which lets users automatically increase the brightness of photos… -
Is That Online Dating Profile Real?
13 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amTomorrow is Valentine's Day. People, especially Internet users, are either happily coupled up and doing something lovey-dovey, or they're hunting around on dating sites for their soulmate. Because, you know, true love only happens on the Internet. Unfortunately for some, there's danger in online dating. "Cyber criminals are constantly looking for that common interest to capitalize on and in this case it's love," said Molly O'Hearn, Vice President of Operations at Iovation. "Just like in the face-to-face world, if something seems too good to be true it probably is." Sponsor Iovation explains… -
Google+ Gives Users Noise Controls for Popular Posts
13 Feb 2012 | 9:44 amGoogle+ is putting its volume slider on the What's Hot feature. What on Earth does that mean? It means that Google+ is giving its users fine-grained control over what appears in their main streams. The volume slider came out in December to let users adjust the prominence of posts from individual circles in their overall streams. It's now available for the What's Hot feed as well, which is where Google+ shows users popular posts from across the network. Sponsor The Google+ stream is a noisy place where posts from anyone in that user's circles can appear. That means text, photos, videos,… -
92% of Google TV Apps Were Pre-Installed, Not Downloaded
13 Feb 2012 | 9:18 amGoogle TV is supposed to be Android's entrance into your living room, the pioneering cusp of the "smart TV" revolution. It appears that it has been anything but. Since its release last year, only about 4,793,000 Google TV apps have been downloaded, according to Xyologic. While nearly five million downloads may seem like a success, six of those apps come pre-installed on Google TV devices, making up 92% of the ecosystem. Only 352,000 dedicated Android apps for Google TV have been downloaded. While the idea of the smart TV is intriguing, consumers are still warming up to adoption. We expect… -
European VP Suggests FRAND Patent Fairness May Require Enforcement
13 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amCould the growing number of device manufacturers demanding intellectual property royalties of somewhere around 2.25% per device sold be establishing a de facto cartel, establishing fees that collectively render it impossible for new competitors to enter the field? That would appear to be the subject matter to which European Commission Vice President Joaquin Almunia alluded during a speech in Paris last Friday. Comm. Almunia now has the job made famous by Comm. Neelie Kroes during her relentless pursuit of Microsoft as Commissioner for Competition. During Friday's speech, Almunia appeared to…
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@ProBlogger
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How to Systematically Build a Mountain of Links
13 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThis guest post is by Neil Patel of Quick Sprout. We’ve all been taught to create high-quality content to attract links. This argument is usually stated in the context of a blog that basically becomes an authority where you start to build a following around consistent, fresh content—think big sites like Problogger or Boing Boing. This is not the technique I’m talking about. Today, I’m talking about a link-building technique that’s bigger, better and quite possibly able to put you on the map faster than you would ever imagine. I’m talking about building a linkable… -
Is Your Blog Doing Okay?
12 Feb 2012 | 12:03 pmLast week, I told the story of how I achieved my best month ever on DPS. While I used that post as a case study to present some ideas that I hoped you may be able to use on your own blogs, there’s a hidden hitch with that kind of post: it can give you the impression that you should be aiming to triple your revenue each time you hone a promotion on your site. We could take that a step or two further—a post like that could give you the expectation that you should be selling products, or even that you should be monetizing your blog. Neither of those ideas is necessarily appropriate for… -
How to Set Up an Email Account that Uses Your Domain Name
12 Feb 2012 | 6:09 amThis guest post is written by Kashish Jain of digiupdates Most of the people who are new to web design and blogging don’t understand the capabilities that come free with their domain, so they don’t take advantage of them. How many times have you visited a site for www.something.com and on the Contact Us page, you find that the sales or customer service personnel have email addresses like username@gmail.com? It certainly is not the main measure of business quality, but the average person usually thinks, “Geez, what is that, their personal email address?” I, too, began… -
How I Expanded the Demographic of My Niche Blog to Include Every Person Online
11 Feb 2012 | 6:00 amThis guest post is by Sonal Pandey of Tap Easy. Some things don’t get better with time. This was going to be one such case. Here I was, sharing an awesome technique capable of changing lives, but not many were paying attention. My niche had the perfect demographic—open-minded, receptive, and suitably educated, with interests ranging from psychology to health and fitness. And yet… I had over 35 solid posts on the blog. I had a video up on the sidebar demonstrating exactly how to use the revolutionary technique. I also had a newsletter opt-in with a desirable giveaway. Three… -
A Tale of Two Ebooks
10 Feb 2012 | 6:04 amThis guest post is by Alexis Grant of The Traveling Writer. During the last six months, I’ve published two ebooks: one that’s selling wonderfully, and another that flopped. Why did one succeed, while the other—at least in sales terms—didn’t? What was the difference? It wasn’t a beautiful cover, nor a pre-launch sale, nor an impressive newsletter list. The differentiator was a factor you have to consider before you even begin writing your ebook. But we’ll get to that in a minute. First, some background on the products, so you can avoid making the mistake I made: EBook No. 1: How…
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Logic+Emotion
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Permission To Fail
9 Feb 2012 | 10:15 amI love my job. Seriously. The skeptical among you may read this as shameless corporate cheer-leading, or a PR ploy (given I work at a PR firm). It's not. You have to understand that I work for a very unique company—in fact, it's been the most unique career experience in my life. A sixty year old company—technically family owned (not public) with over four thousand employees globally and the CEO of the company wears the last name of the founder, his father. Which brings me to the video above. I had the opportunity to interview our CEO, Richard Edelman on the topic of trust as it relates to… -
Will The Real Social Business Experts Please Stand Up?
7 Feb 2012 | 10:23 amStop what you're doing and check out this thread (on Google Plus of all places) started by Francine Hardaway. She started it off with a simple question. "Who are the best experts in social business?"What followed was a robust discussion on what social business is, isn't and who's driving the agenda forward in the space both in thought and action. If you're interested in the emerging definition of social business (aka the convergence of enterprise 2.0 and social media) I highly recommend you taking a look. Some of my favorite thoughts:"the thread that social business is not the same as social… -
People, Places & Events
3 Feb 2012 | 11:01 amA few significant events happening over the next few months—here's where I'll be: Chicago: February 6th, Social Media Club, An Interview With Richard EdelmanOur I'll be interviewing Richard Edelman our CEO in our new office space as we host the Chicago Social Media Club. We will be discussing this Year's Trust Barometer findings. If you can't make it to Chicago, we will be live streaming video the interview at 5:00 CST. London & New York: February 13-16, Social Media Week Our London office is hosting a panel titled "Social Business In Action". A topic I'm very passionate about—then… -
How To Be A Social Media Self-Righteous Jerk
1 Feb 2012 | 4:28 pmThe scale above shows the many stages one has to go through in order to become a bona fide self-righteous jerk in social media. Still, there are many people who aspire to reach this peak, but fall short in executing against it. Given this observation, I thought it would be worthwhile to piece together a few best practices which will ensure your status as a social media self-righteous jerk (or SMSRJ). In no particular order: 1. Join The Klout GestapoAll social media SMSRJ's know that Klout is simply evil incarnate and requires a organized force to take on this evil axis of influence wherever… -
Launching a Social Command Center (Without The Center)
27 Jan 2012 | 8:05 am"Social command centers" are all the rage today and it's not without some merit. Many organizations now find themselves in a real-time business environment where news travels faster than sound, and information is set free. As a result, some forward thinking companies have put "monitoring" in place either in-house or in combination with partners. This isn't enough. And to make matters worse, I've seen companies make the classic mistake of buying a tool BEFORE putting any thought into the design that goes into effective monitoring and response, forgetting the 3P's (People, Process, Platforms).
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MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
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The Evolution of Social Business [Infographic]
13 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amA guest post by Haydn Shaughnessy. People are saying that 2012 is the year of social business—making social sound like one more passing fad. In fact, when you look into the background of what goes into the “social business movement,” the threads reach back a long way, giving social business far more momentum and much deeper roots than many people realize. There are three major strands in this infographic I helped produce for social business platform Global Dawn: Technology—which has been pushing businesses towards greater openness and collaboration for a decade. It has… -
Free Friday: Attend DMW to Broaden Your Content Marketing World
10 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amThe content universe is wider and broader than many folks imagine. Find out how to expand your content marketing by attending our free Digital Marketing World: Content Marketing virtual conference on March 9, 2012. This free virtual conference features three sessions to help you extend your definition of content marketing and learn more about: How to develop conversational content for your brand in social media. You can’t have a monologue in social media (and if you do, you will suffer a serious backlash from your followers). But how can you use this online conversation for your brand? -
Has Pinterest Broken a Golden Rule?
9 Feb 2012 | 11:26 amWhy are we so concerned about a report by LL Social that popular online pinboard Pinterest is making money off our interactions when Facebook has been doing it for years—but with our much more personal information? Is it because more people understand affiliate marketing—and have experienced the spammy nature of its content? Or is it that most people just don’t understand how Facebook makes money from them? The interesting or perhaps biggest risk I see Pinterest facing is in the relationships it will now have (or perhaps, not have) with brands. The launch of Google + brand… -
The Biggest Challenge for Marketers: Engagement
9 Feb 2012 | 11:17 amA recent McKinsey Quarterly study revealed that having the ability to engage their customers and leverage those relationships is the No. 1 digitally related challenge facing marketers today. The survey, which was conducted over a two-week period, queried nearly 800 marketing executives representing a wide range of industries from business-to-business marketing and business-to-consumer marketing. The results of the survey were quite fascinating insomuch as over 50% of the respondents indicated that engaging their customers and gleaning deep insights from those engagements is their most… -
How to Find ROI in the Multichannel Marketing Haystack
9 Feb 2012 | 6:51 amA guest post by Irv Shapiro of Ifbyphone. Admit it: Sometimes, you get knots in your stomach when you think about trying to attach measurable outcomes to all of your company’s multichannel marketing campaigns. The (sort of) good news is that you’re not alone. Even veteran marketers are having a tough time finding ROI in the ever-expanding haystack that is today’s multichannel marketing environment. But the unsettling news is that easy, online tracking tools and a shaky economy have created a C-suite expectation that every dollar spent must be connected to a quantifiable and measurable…
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MarketingProfs How-To Articles
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We Are More Than Marketers: Integrating a Human-Centric Approach
10 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amDo you treat customers and prospects as if they were whole human beings--with hearts, minds, and spirits? You should. Learn six steps that lead to a human-centric approach to marketing. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
A Five-Step Process for Hosting a Webinar That Generates Sales
9 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amWhen hosting a webinar, you want people to show up and you want to generate leads. But meeting those goals isn't easy. Here's a five-step plan that'll take the guesswork out of hosting an effective, successful webinar. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
Five Steps for Building Your Email and SMS Lists via Social Media
8 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amWant to grow your SMS and email marketing lists? Your social media fans and followers--who've already demonstrated their interest in you--are the perfect targets. Learn five steps for converting your social fans to subscribers. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
Never Waste an Opportunity: The Value of Lead Nurturing
7 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amWhen new visitors arrive at your website, you have two ways to seize the opportunity and guide them toward becoming customers. Both opportunities can evaporate in the blink of an eye--if you don't have the proper systems in place. Read the full article at MarketingProfs -
Four Keyword Research Mistakes to Avoid at All Costs
6 Feb 2012 | 7:00 amIf you are serious about the words "sales," "profit," and "conversions," you must master keyword research. Learn four common pitfalls marketers make when selecting keywords--and how to avoid them. Read the full article at MarketingProfs
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Church of the Customer Blog
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Playbooks and visual explanations
6 Feb 2012 | 8:30 amBy the time the New York Giants and the New England Patriots took the field Sunday for their Super Bowl matchup, the players on both teams had read, re-read and rehearsed their respective game playbooks dozens, if not hundreds of times. They'd studied each play via multiple diagrams and photographs, stats and descriptions of assignments for every player on the field. A playbook is an apt metaphor for any business team that needs concise, how-to plans to deal with the complexity of systems, processes and moving variables, especially with social business. Whether it's for one of the world's… -
People trust people
1 Feb 2012 | 12:27 pm[Click on chart to see larger version.] The latest edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer study just came out showing CEO's in the dog house when it comes to being trusted. Who do people trust? Academic and tech experts, sure. But the biggest movers in the study are "a person just like me" and "regular employee." Look at your 2012 marketing plan. Are you providing ways for your customers to get together in-person and online to encourage word of mouth? Are you showcasing your best employees in social media, at conferences, and at private events with customers? Source: 2012 Edelman… -
FedEx's apology: expertly delivered
21 Dec 2011 | 8:29 pmWe've seen this before: 1) company makes an egregious service mistake and is outed by a customer via a YouTube video, 2) video goes viral, 3) mainstream media picks up the story and amplifies it, 4) PR nightmare begins. This week's culprit is FedEx. A California FedEx driver is caught on a security-camera video flinging a package containing a computer monitor over the fence of a gated Southern California house. At no time does the driver attempt to ring the bell for delivery. Just a toss over the fence, and he jumps back into his truck. In two days, the video has over three million views. … -
The simplest definition of word of mouth marketing
28 Nov 2011 | 12:38 pmNice video from WOMMA on the basics of word of mouth marketing. Tweet -
14 new statistics about word of mouth marketing
17 Oct 2011 | 11:45 amThe Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) has a neat infographic detailing the latest stats about word or mouth marketing, online and offline. Source: WOMMA Note: the WOMMA Summit is coming up November 16-18 in Las Vegas. It's a great conference to learn the latest WOM marketing techniques from leading brands and agencies. Tweet
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Brian Solis
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A Critical Path for Customer Relevance, Part 1
13 Feb 2012 | 5:30 amA key objective for senior executives over the next several years is to use disruptive technology to get closer to customers, to improve relationships, and enhance experiences. It is a considerable move and the result will usher in a new era of adaptive and empathetic business models. However, this is a move that is easier said than done., especially when vision and execution are two sides of different coins. This is a critical path where businesses must not only commit to new technology and goals, but also invest in the methodologies, systems, processes, and people to bring about change from… -
The GRAMMY Awards 2012: How social media changed the DNA of the Recording Academy
10 Feb 2012 | 8:10 amIn celebration of the 54th GRAMMY Awards, we are debuting a special edition of (R)evolution. Shot on location in Los Angeles, Evan Green, CMO of the Recording Academy discusses the fusion of two worlds, the social explosion and the increasingly sophisticated expectations of consumers. In this fascinating discussion, we learn how a 54 year old industry body adapted to the change in how people interact with television, music and one another, shifting from watching the conversation to engaging and helping facilitate shared experiences. More importantly, you’ll hear what it took to get… -
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,…
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Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
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Nick Morgan Explains How To Give A Presentation That Changes The World
12 Feb 2012 | 7:54 pmEpisode #292 of Six Pixels of Separation - The Twist Image Podcast is now live and ready for you to listen to. When I got my first offer to speak in front of a large audience, I wasn't sure where to turn for more professional public speaking and presentation skills training. Many names of individuals and organizations were fed my way, but one name that kept rising to the top was Nick Morgan. I immediately purchased his book, Give Your Speech, Change The World, and it did - in fact - change my world and perception of what a presentation is really all about. I eagerly bought his other book,… -
Six Links Worthy Of Your Attention #86
11 Feb 2012 | 3:53 amIs there one link, story, picture or thought that you saw online this week that you think somebody you know must see? My friends: Alistair Croll (BitCurrent, Year One Labs, GigaOM, Human 2.0, the author of Complete Web Monitoring and Managing Bandwidth: Deploying QOS in Enterprise Networks), Hugh McGuire (The Book Oven, LibriVox, iambik, PressBooks, Media Hacks) and I decided that every week or so the three of us are going to share one link for one another (for a total of six links) that each individual feels the other person "must see". Check out these six links that we're… -
Get Lost On YouTube
10 Feb 2012 | 6:48 pmIt's one of my favorite past-times and guilty pleasures. After all of the work is done and the house is quiet, instead of sitting back and letting the television waft over me, I go and get lost on YouTube. I usually start with some cheesy hair metal bands from the eighties, but it quickly devolves into this amazing world of acoustic music discovery that traipses across genres and generations. It takes me back, it pushes me forward and it moves me into directions I could have never imagined possible back when I was much younger and much more interested in music. Long live serendipity. Many… -
Endless Aisles
9 Feb 2012 | 1:40 pmWhat has your shopping experiences been like lately? I was recently in New York City giving a presentation at the National Retail Federation's Big Show 2012 event. I was part of the Shop.org First Look series and talked about the massive changes that retail will face as technology, Social Media and mobile collides at the retail level. We have more and more consumers who are connected with highly powerful smartphones at the store level and they're doing a lot more than just price comparison shopping. When you think of the potential and the opportunity to bring those different worlds… -
The Death Of The Unconference
9 Feb 2012 | 8:23 amDoes anyone remember the unconference? There was hope for collaboration and self-organizing groups, but it seems to have gone the way of the corporate spin machine. I was a massive proponent of the unconference movement (I still am!), but that word has been used so poorly by so many groups that it seems to have all but disappeared. In short: calling your conference an "unconference" just to sound young, hip and with it, actually makes you sound old, out-of-touch and stupid. This past month, I've seen a handful of events that are billing themselves as unconferences when, in reality,…
