Selected by chrismoody

• 
  Marketing + Branding + Design

• Create a social media dunking booth in your company

  Chris Moody

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:13 pm

  After attending SocialFresh Tampa (#sofresh) and chatting with the Community panel Amber Naslund (@ambercadabra), DJ Waldow (@djwaldow), Rich Ullman (@richullman) and John Andrews (@katadhin) - I'm convinced that a dunking booth is the best analogy for gaining internal social media use.

• Do you have questions about companies using Twitter and Facebook?

  Chris Moody

  3 Feb 2010 | 11:12 am

  If so, there's an app panel for that. The Real Facebook and Twitter Results Panel at SoFresh Tampa will field your questions. Do you want to know how Twitter can help you handle customer complaints? How can Twitter increase your reach? How can you add content without being spammy? How can Twitter or Facebook improve the customer experience?

• Everyone Needs A Dumb Guy – please vote! Money Back Guarantee.

  Chris Moody

  26 Jan 2010 | 6:10 am

  I feel like I have a killer presentation for Ignite Raleigh. Too many times companies are made up of similar people with similar interests doing smart things in big conference rooms or dimly lit computer labs, but is that enough? I say no. To succeed you need a dumb guy. As this post goes active, I'll be sitting in jury duty (fun times) and I can't actively promote and engage folks to show them why this would be a great presentation. With that, I ask for a bit of your trust and votes so that I can unveil this to the world at Ignite Raleigh.

• Want to improve your company, product, career or self? Be humble.

  Chris Moody

  20 Jan 2010 | 1:02 pm

  It is extremely easy to keep pushing forward without evaluating your performance. Do you have a baseline? As companies and professionals, representing products and services, it is all to easy to find ourselves in the superiority bubble trying to inform the masses on why our widget is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Which coincidentally, the inventor of the bread slicer never made a huge impact...he sold the slicer and not the sliced bread.

• Are You Really Listening to Your Community?

  Chris Moody

  11 Jan 2010 | 9:55 am

  The folks at SocialMediaB2B.com had a great post on listening to your community. I was fortunate enough to be involved with the situation as the team at Bandwidth worked to provide a couple customers with great service.

• 
  ProductMarketing.com

• Setting prioritites grounded in the market

  Steve Johnson

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:44 am

  If you've ever had to review a long list of requirements, you'll appreciate this. I was recently asked: I wonder if you have insights on good feature/function/backlog prioritization – especially when there are a ton of them (700+).  Specifically, best practices for how to store and retrieve the important ideas, while being able to ignore the ones that will never matter.  Some think we need to store any and all ideas so that we don’t forget them, but the noise is overwhelming and the organization of the content is impossible.A fast way is to rate all 700 with +1 or -1. Give it a +1 if…

• Friday fun: The Reality of Meetings

  Steve Johnson

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:45 am

  Saeed at OnProductManagement has another great slideshare in his series on product management in pictures: What People Do In MeetingsView more presentations from Saeed Khan.

• Leaders and losers and competitive checklists

  Steve Johnson

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:15 am

  Robin the product manager has yet another request from Kevin, the world's worst sales person: "I can't sell your product without a competitive checklist showing how we're better than bigsoftware.com" He attached something that he's been using: More developers than Oracle More marketing spend than Microsoft Better implementation assistance than SAP SaaS-ier than Salesforce.com More carpeted areas than our leading competitor Poor Robin. How does she deal with this request? She knows that checklists are the sales tool for followers and losers. Only the leader can win at the checklist game, and…

• Setting prioritites grounded in the market

  Steve Johnson

  2 Feb 2010 | 5:50 am

  A common sight in agile shops is the product owner shuffling his user stories. "This before that. Oh this is a good one. Ooh, move that one to later." It sure seems that many people use a prioritization scheme based in opinion, deal-of-the-day, and "whoever I talked to last." In Requirements That Work we recommend a prioritizing formula grounded in market problems: how many people experience it and how bad is it? In a recent session, Adrian shared this scale representing the impact of the problem on customers: 50: solving the problem will make money for customers40: solving the problem will…

• Setting priorities...

  Steve Johnson

  30 Jan 2010 | 7:29 pm

  ...is a challenge. If everything is "must have", how can you choose?http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2010/01/priorities.html Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

• 
  Holy Kaw!

• 13 geeky Valentine’s Day gifts

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:33 pm

  Looking for a way to knock the argyle socks off your geeky lover this Valentine’s Day? Skip the computer programmer-themed porn and try gifting your nerdy loved one some HTTPanties or “Tweet Me” Sweethearts candy. The Huffington Post tracked down thirteen geeky gifts that scream “I love you, nerd face.” Full geeky gift list at Huffington Post. Get your geek on. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• Google Buzz's official demo [video]

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:25 am

  Google has just unveiled its latest attempt to become more relevant in the social media space—Google Buzz. The product is integrated within Gmail and will be rolled out gradually to all of the webmail service’s users over the next few days. While this development is still unfolding, you can check out Google Buzz’s two-minute demo of Buzz in action both online and via mobile. What are your initial reactions? Another soon-to-be-forgotten Google product like Wave, or a Facebook/Twitter killer? Full story at Mashable. Total Google coverage. Permalink | Leave a…

• Darth Vader’s original wimpy voice [video]

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:15 am

  Imagine a galaxy far, far away where Darth Vader sounded like any other British bloke strolling down the corridors of the Death Star. Before James Earl Jones provided the menacing voice of the Dark Lord of the Sith, English actor and bodybuilder David Prowse delivered the lines from inside the Darth costume. While George Lucas never intended for Prowse’s voice to make the flick’s final cut, it’s weird to imagine how different Star Wars would have been with a different Vader voice. Full story at Huffington Post. Tons of Star Wars tidbits. Permalink | Leave a…

• 7 things you didn’t know about condoms

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:14 am

  Rubbers. Raincoats. Inconvenient. Whatever you call 'em, condoms remain a must-have in the safe sex tool box. Long before the days of Durex and Trojans, men used animal intestines to protect their willies (that sounds lovely, eh ladies?) and still to this day use lambskin condoms for latex allergies and supposed extra sensitivity. Want to learn even more fun facts about condoms that will surely impress your friends and potential lovers? Check out Asylum's seven things you probably didn't know about condoms that includes tantalizing tidbits like: Vaseline + condoms = Disintegrated rubber and…

• Horror flick mirror scare mash-up [video]

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:25 am

  Horror movies love to rely on cliches to scare the bejeezus out of us, but does it really surprise anyone that the axe murderer is going to pop in the reflection of a mirror? Ok, yes, it still totally sparks a few pee-in-pants moments. Check out this mash-up of mirror scare moments (fair warning: don’t watch alone in a big, dark, scary house): Full story at Four Four. Boo! Tons of scary and not so scary movie news. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

• 
  Rocket Watcher

• 5 Considerations when Marketing to Early Adopters

  aprildunford

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:30 am

  I had a conversation with a reporter last week who was writing a story on how to market to early adopters.  It got me thinking about how much marketing and product come together to improve adoption of a new product or service.  Research shows that there are a set of factors that effect the rate of adoption of a new innovation.  Clearly product characteristics are a critical factor each of these but there isn’t a single one where marketing can’t have at least some impact. 1/ Complexity – The difficulty in understanding the offering will impact how quickly it gets…

• The Google Superbowl Ad: Why Now?

  aprildunford

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:57 am

  Google launched their first ever major TV ad last night at the Superbowl and thinking about it I had a moment where I thought – “Oh dear, I’m watching the beginning of the end.” I’ve worked at tech companies that spent a fortune on TV ads and I have always been a skeptic.  Unless you are doing pretty sophisticated brand tracking to measure the changes in the perception of your brand, the effects of tactics like that are almost impossible to measure and even then, trying to connect those results back to a specific TV ad is impossible.  If you can’t measure…

• 7 Rules for Perfect Press Releases

  aprildunford

  2 Feb 2010 | 7:45 am

  Nearly every startup I have worked with has been nervous about writing press releases.  Lack of experience is one reason but people also think there are a set of secret rules to writing one “properly.”  I’m also hearing startups say they believe press releases are irrelevant in an age of social media.  I disagree.   The majority of press releases really stink but they stink because they are written like we wrote them 15 years ago.  A modern press release can be a valuable marketing tool for startups and I believe anyone can create a great one.  Here’s…

• Everything You Say Matters

  aprildunford

  28 Jan 2010 | 8:44 am

  This week I got an invitation from someone to connect on LinkedIn and I noticed a change in the text they are using.  The previous invitations I received had the subject line that said: “Join my Network on LinkedIn.”  The latest one I received said “John Smith wants to stay in touch on LinkedIn.” The difference might not seem like much on the surface but from a product marketing perspective this seems like a big change to me.  There are the obvious benefits to putting the person’s name in the subject line, thus making it easier to figure out who’s doing…

• Crafting Simple Value Statements

  aprildunford

  26 Jan 2010 | 7:30 am

  Products can be like babies for founders and we all know what babies are like.  When we’re talking about MY baby, I’ve got a lot to say.  Look at her remarkable crawling technique! Her charming smile! And she smells like flowers!  Meanwhile there isn’t much to say about other babies that are just doing regular baby stuff like crawling and smiling and stinking like poop. Much like proud parents, founders often go overboard with messaging by talking a lot about features that are either non-differentiating or irrelevant for their target market.  When working on messaging…

• 
  On Product Management

• Product Management in Pictures #3: The Reality of Meetings

  saeed

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:29 pm

  Filed under: Humour, Product Management, Saeed

• Is Customer Service dead?

  saeed

  1 Feb 2010 | 8:30 pm

  Is it just me or have you also been experiencing this problem lately? I’ve recently had a number of really unbelievably bad customer service incidents. One was with a wireless carrier — should I be surprised?? — and another, a real doozy that I’ll detail in the near future on this blog, with an online retailer. A third one happened at a restaurant during a recent trip. The restaurant incident was small next to the other two but strange in it’s own way. I went for an early dinner at a Pakistani restaurant in the Bay Area. There were only a few customers in the…

• Product Management in Pictures #2- Feature Requests from Sales Reps

  saeed

  19 Jan 2010 | 1:18 am

  Posted in Humour, Product Management, Requirements, Saeed, Sales

• A Shiny Badge for Our Efforts…

  saeed

  14 Jan 2010 | 6:34 pm

  When you least expect it, you get some recognition for your work. We lobbied hard for your votes for the Canadian Blog Awards. We got to the final round of voting but didn’t make it to the podium. We asked for your support in the ComputerWeekly IT Blog Awards.  No success there either. Today, via a tweet, I learned about the following: Cool. And if you want to see the details, click here. Also, here’s a list of the other blogs in the Product Management category and their rankings. The Top 3 are: Leading Agile On Product Management Cranky Product Manager So, it feels good to be…

• Product Management in Pictures #1 – Requirements and Reality

  saeed

  7 Jan 2010 | 9:22 pm

  Going to try something a little different here. Perhaps this will become a regular feature on the blog. Saeed Posted in Humour, Innovation, Product Management, Requirements

• 
  Forrester: Product Management

• Stock photos are the Muzak of the Web

  Tom Grant

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:38 am

   Stock photos on corporate web sites are lot like Muzak in elevators, or the distracting TVs left on in restaurants and bars. They're portions of the user experience that normally attracts none of your attention. If you do stop and think about them, they're just plain weird. Why does anyone think I'd like to hear a mash-up of Bruce Springsteen and Mantovani? Why is the TV turned on to a soccer game, or for that matter, turned on at all? And why are all these people in the stock photos shown here so damn happy about using their computers? Everywhere I've ever worked,…

• Not all innovation needs to be disruptive

  Tom Grant

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:21 pm

   You might applaud this recent op-ed article by former Microsoft executive Dick Brass, grumbling how his ex-employer can't innovate the way that Apple does, as evidenced by the recent iPad announcement. Or, you might dismiss it as sour grapes from a disgruntled ex-employee. Both reactions are probably wrong. Brass' op-ed completely misses a basic point about innovation: not every company does it the same way. Apple is certainly the poster child for disruptive innovation. Tom Bodett's reaction to the iPad announcement is a good illustration: at first, he thought, …

• IBM’s Growth Markets grow…and get smarter.

  Jennifer Belissent

  3 Feb 2010 | 5:21 pm

  February 3, 2010 by Jennifer Bélissent A couple of weeks ago IBM announced its 4th Quarter and Full-Year 2009 results.  Their Growth Markets Business Unit which includes 140 of the 170 countries that IBM operates in – grew 14% in Q4 compared to 3% decreases in the Americas.  For the quarter, Growth Markets represented 20% of IBM’s revenue.  For the year, Growth Markets were 19%, up just slightly from 18% of total IBM revenue in 2008.  The signs are clear: Growth Markets are growing, even as other markets fell.  Much of the success in Growth Markets has come…

• Inside Sales And Telemarketing Help Boost B2B Brands: Really?

  Zachary Reiss-Davis

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:44 pm

      [Posted by Laura Ramos] First of all, I’d like to extend a big “Thank You” to my readers and followers who responded to an invitation last month to participate in the 2010 B2B Marketing Budgets and Mix survey that Forrester fielded together with MarketingProfs.  Without your responses, the research would not be as broad or relevant — so thank you again!  After closing the survey and digesting some of the results, I was really surprised by one finding. After reviewing our process and validating the data, my researcher, Zack Reiss-Davis, and…

• Best Practices For Marketing To Buyers “In The Cloud”

  Zachary Reiss-Davis

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:43 pm

  [Posted by Laura Ramos] “Cloud computing” is a very hot topic, and like social media, subject to much debate about “what is cloud computing?” and “what does it mean for business?” Simply stated, cloud computing lets your customers and potential buyers take advantage of services and resources delivered as an online utility. Buyers get the benefits of using your technology without worrying about the technical details as much as they would if they implemented software inside their data centers. The benefits can include: lower capital investment, faster implementation, reduced…

• 
  The Accidental Product Manager

• Case Study: What To Do When A Large Competitor Shows Up On Your Block

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  7 Feb 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit NCR Is Getting Into The DVR Rental Business – Bad News For redbox Who Doesn’t Like A Little Competition? There’s not a product manager out there who doesn’t dream of the day in which their product is the only show in town. Man – wouldn’t that be great? You wouldn’t have to worry about any real competition, you’d just be spending your time working to grow the market. And then you wake up. The new-kid-on-the-block firm Redbox who has taken the DVD rental market by storm with their low-price, limited selection kiosks that have been popping up everywhere. For the…

• Are You Listening To Your Customers Product Manager?

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit It May Seem Strange, But Listening To Your Customer Really Works Why Bother Listening To Your Customers? One of the best interviews that I’ve ever read was with Steve Jobs (of Apple fame) in which he scoffed at doing things like focus groups and such in order to get input for the fantastic products that Apple makes. He said that since what Apple is doing is so revolutionary, getting input from potential customers wouldn’t help much because they couldn’t even imagine what a product could do. I do respect Steve, but could he be wrong? For those of us product managers whose…

• Hey Customer: Would You Like Some Time With That Product?

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  26 Jan 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit Don’t Mickey Mouse Around With Your Customer’s Time Quick: what’s the most valuable item in the world? Gold? Diamonds? Nope, it turns out that the thing that most of us would gladly give our left arm for more of is: time. Now since I can see that you are nodding your head in agreement with this, I’ve got a question for you. Why aren’t you selling time along with your product? Don’t Worry, Nobody’s Doing It Study after study of both consumers and businesses have shown that both share our view that time is the most valuable of resources. Nobody has enough of the…

• Product Managers Need New Product Flop Insurance

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  24 Jan 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit Even The (Seemingly) Best Product Ideas Can Fail Is there any part of a product manager’s job that is more exciting then being responsible for introducing a new product? For that matter, is there any experience that can be more nerve racking than introducing a new product? If only there was some way that we could take out “flop insurance” that would help to prevent our becoming known as the product manager who introduced the next “new Coke” disaster… Why New Product Fail In 2003 34,000 new products were introduced. 90% of them failed. In 2008 122,743 new products were…

• Is Dancing With Yourself Wrong For Product Mangers To Do?

  Dr. Jim Anderson

  17 Jan 2010 | 8:01 pm

  Image Credit How Will Microsoft What’s a product manger to do when your #1 competitor is your own product? What can you do if you spend a lot of time and money developing a new version of your product and then roll it out and the customers that you want to sell it to appear to be happy using the old version of your product? This is exactly the situation that Microsoft’s Office product managers now find themselves in… Done In By Their Own Success Everybody knows what Microsoft’s Office product is don’t you? It’s the premier suite of business software tools…

• 
  Product Management Tips

• 4 lessons from Massachusetts Senatorial election

  gopalshenoy

  21 Jan 2010 | 4:13 pm

  The results of the Massachusetts senatorial election this week to elect the replacement for the senate seat held by Ted Kennedy shocked the entire nation. A Republican named Scott Brown who not many people had heard about about as recently as a month back won the seat convincingly in a largely Democratic state. Ted Kennedy [...]

• Communications – RASCI approach

  gopalshenoy

  18 Jan 2010 | 8:55 am

  I am currently reading the book Art of Scalability by Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher, both of them ex-eBay executives. An approach they have described to make sure the entire product development team stays on top of things caught my attention. The model they recommend to use is called the RASCI model. It stands for: R [...]

• Donations for Haiti earthquake victims

  gopalshenoy

  14 Jan 2010 | 9:54 am

  Sincere request to all readers of this blog : Unconfirmed reports in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake put the death toll at 50,000 and the suspicion is that 100,000 may have perished. The earthquake has affected more than 1 million people. This makes this earthquake a disaster of epic proportions. I am making a request to [...]

• Software product manager’s first 45-90 days at a new job ….

  gopalshenoy

  13 Jan 2010 | 7:24 pm

  This is a continuation of my previous blog post of Software product manager’s first 30 days at a new job ….. Now that you are already settled into your new job and the first 45 days have gone by. You have done everything that was listed on the 30 day checklist. You have met with the stakeholders, [...]

• Software product manager’s first 30 days at a new job ….

  gopalshenoy

  6 Jan 2010 | 2:45 am

  Happy New Year! I wish you all a prosperous 2010. So you found a new software product management job or you are moving into a software product manager’s role in your current company. Congratulations! Now what do you do in the first 30 days to make sure you start off on the right foot? Here is [...]

• 
  Guy Kawasaki

• How to Avoid Gullibility

  GuyKawasaki

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:45 pm

  We’ve all been sucked into doing something stupid, right? Fortunately, Steven Greenspan has written a book called Annals of Gullibility. In its conclusion he explains how to avoid gullibility, and I’ve provided a synopsis for you. Read the full story at the American Express Open Forum. More on psychology if you need the advice.

• How to Be Empathetic

  GuyKawasaki

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:24 pm

  By definition, good marketers are empathetic. That is, they have a capacity to understand and care for the needs of others. Bruna Martinuzzi explains how to be empathetic over at the American Express Open Forum.

• How to Not Be Annoying on Twitter

  GuyKawasaki

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:19 pm

  Amber MacArthur explains how to not be annoying on Twitter over at the American Express Open Forum. Sage advice for you to develop a great reputation and following on Twitter. More Twitter tips.

• The Elements of Guyle: British Blogging

  GuyKawasaki

  27 Jan 2010 | 10:06 pm

  Want to make your blog classier? You should blog like a Brit. I explain how to do this in ten easy steps.

• How to follow the Apple announcement

  GuyKawasaki

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:56 am

  Follow the Apple announcement at Apple.alltop. We aggregate over 200 sources there.

• 
  Church of the Customer Blog

• A tale of 2 birthday cards

  Jackie Huba

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:48 pm

  It was my birthday this week, so that usually means birthday-related direct mail from women's retail stores. I have two examples that showcase distinct differences between doing the minimum amount and doing something worth buzz. Ann Taylor delivered a typical postcard: 15% off a one-time purchase in February. "On your special day, treat yourself with your Birthday Bonus," says. "It's your birthday. May all of your wishes come true." Anthropologie sent a card in a odd-sized bubble pouch featuring a perforated cupcake with a candle on it. The candle is part of a necklace. It, too, offers 15%…

• Simplify your objectives

  Ben McConnell

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:50 am

  Strategic objectives are the Holy Grail of a company's being. They typically involve big plans, so the natural inclination is to compose a lengthy description of each objective. That means strategies and tactics are often piled into the wording of the objective. That unnecessarily complicates the objective, making it less likely to be understood quickly and efficiently. Anything not understood easily is unlikely to spread. Here's a fictitious, slightly over-the-top example of what a top-heavy objective might look like: Understand how to create better innovation opportunities for our products…

• Why it's important to be a linchpin and an artist

  Jackie Huba

  25 Jan 2010 | 9:00 pm

  If you want to succeed in today's world of work, author Seth Godin says you should focus on being a "linchpin." That's the title of his new book, so we asked him a few questions about it. Q: What is a linchpin, and why is it important to become one? A linchpin is the part you can't live without, the thing that makes a difference. In every organization there are one (or several) people like this. It might be the brilliant inventor who creates the impossible, but it's far more likely to be the great sales rep or customer service person who makes a connection, or the marketer who knows how to…

• 5 new ways to compete for book PR

  Ben McConnell

  18 Jan 2010 | 4:15 am

  (Editor's note: This is a guest post from Barbara Henricks of CaveHenricks, a public relations firm for business books and authors. She's considered by many to be one of the best book publicists in the publishing industry. She can be reached at barbara@cavehenricks.com.) I’ve been in the PR business nearly 20 years, and there’s been more change the past two years than in the first 18. That’s created much fear and confusion. Readers are consuming content from more outlets and with a staggering number of devices-- via iPhones, computers, Blackberries, Kindles, Nooks and Sony Readers, to…

• Please donate to Haiti earthquake relief

  Jackie Huba

  15 Jan 2010 | 10:49 am

  If you are able, please consider giving to the Haiti relief efforts. We have given to Yele Haiti, a grassroots movement that builds global awareness for Haiti while helping to transform the country through programs in education, sports, the arts and environment. Yéle Haiti was founded in 2005 by Wyclef Jean, Grammy-award winning musician, humanitarian and Goodwill Ambassador to Haiti.

• 
  Thingnamer

• We Are SO There.

  29 Jan 2010 | 6:35 am

  Okay, maybe not quite yet, but in about a month we will be.WE ARE MOVING! Nothing drastic, mind you, at least in terms of distance.  We're moving about 15 blocks West on King Street to occupy a two story building about a block from the Old Town (King Street) Metro ...

• iPad? No one has said it better than...

  28 Jan 2010 | 2:09 pm

  Mad TV ...

• Baby Name Judgement: A %(*# Finding

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:17 am

  For those of you that don't yet know, my wife and I are the proud parents of another wonderful baby boy. On 1/16/2010 Sarah brought seven pounds, six ounces of newly minted Linden into the world.  There were a couple complications after delivery, but I am exceedingly happy and proud ...

• Misconceptions, Passion, Alligator Pits... Discuss

  26 Jan 2010 | 6:49 am

  (Warning... I'm running on little sleep and lots of coffee, so I may be a little off my game. That makes me even more dangerously passionate I suppose...)The most common misconception I find in organizations struggling to create or modify their brand is that their brand is something distinct from ...

• Seriously?

  25 Jan 2010 | 6:35 am

  I thought this was a joke.  Evidently it is not. Somehow that makes it even more funny and tragic.  Click the link and read the details... Would you hire this team?If you would... then perhaps I'm not commicating clearly enough. Hat tip to @name_inspector ...

• 
  MarketingProfs - Smart thinking ... pass it on.

• Five Simple Link-Building Tips

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

  Link-building services are the most commonly outsourced aspect of SEO. The process involves finding qualified and thematically relevant one-way linking partners who will link to your website. Spammy, automated products often never cultivate valuable links and tend to do more harm than good. Doing it right means link-building by hand. ...

• Six Keys to Writing a Great Proposal

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

  :ooking for ways to create a proposal that sets you and your company favorably apart? Ways that capture the great things you have to offer? Here are six suggested best-practices intended to not only maximize your chances to stand out and land the job but also manage the risks.

• Innovation Matters: Balancing Sustained vs. Disruptive Innovation

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

  While we struggle to emerge from a full-blown recession, marketers know all too well that advertising and (unfortunately) innovation are the first budgets that are most likely to get cut. So how can marketers continue to innovate?

• 50% Click-Through Rates? Yes, You Can!

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

  You'd think that to get half of your subscribers to click through, you might have to give away a million dollars every month. Publishers Clearing House actually does give away millions of dollars, but that wasn't enough on its own to earn a significantly higher-than-average response rate on its email ...

• Revamp to Revenue: Five Ways to Turn on the Profits With Your Website

  2 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

  In the current economic climate, more business owners need to evaluate their website and revamp it to turn it into a presales tool, lead-generation machine, or even a revenue-producing cash cow. Can it be done? It just takes a few tweaks to turn on the profits.

• 
  Social Media Marketing Strategy, Tactics, and Tools

• How Comcast Approaches Social CRM

  Jacob Morgan

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:28 am

  Since I’m speaking on the topic of Social CRM at the New Comm Forum in April,  I decided to reach out to a few folks to get their ideas and impressions on what’s going on in the space.  One of the people I reached out to was Frank Eliason from Comcast (many of you may know him on twitter as @comcastcares) to find out how they were approaching Social CRM.  I chatted with Frank for over an hour and here’s what he had to say. Comcast monitors pretty much every social media channel that is relevant to them.  In other words, they exist where their customer and conversations…

• Forrester to Analysts That Have Their Own Blogs: Umm, No

  Jacob Morgan

  6 Feb 2010 | 3:23 pm

  According to Sage Circle, Forrester is telling all of their analysts that have their own personally branded research blogs that they must either take them down or re-direct them to the Forrester site. Apparently Forrester feels like they can provide more value to their clients if they aggregate all of the content into one space, that place of course being Forrester’s site.  My favorite comment on this issue came from Dave McClure who said:  “What is the downside for Forrester? Likely not much unless there is a big stink in the blogosphere…” Seriously, do you think that’s the…

• The Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0 Experience Continuum

  Jacob Morgan

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:53 pm

  I’m a big fan of the work that Esteban Kolsky has been doing with Social CRM and he recently stated that he is going to be branching over towards the Enterprise 2.0 space.  Social CRM and Enterprise 2.0 efforts need to work in conjunction with one another and that’s what this whole post is about.  Dion Hinchliffe recently wrote an article stating that Social CRM is Ground Zero for Enterprise 2.0 and I couldn’t agree more.  This is why I have been working with Esteban Kolsky on thinking through some of these ideas and developing frameworks around them.  Esteban and I are…

• Introducing Social Business One

  Jacob Morgan

  3 Feb 2010 | 12:50 am

  Towards the end of last year I was approached by Bob Thompson from Customer Think and Axel Schultze from the Social Media Academy to be a part of a new type of community that just debuted a few days ago called SocialBusinessOne.  SBO was designed to be a home base for everything from Enterprise 2.0 to Social CRM (anything social business related).  There are plenty of other sites such as The Social Customer, The Customer Collective, and Social Media Today that all aggregate content and build a community around their specific topics.  However, none of the other sites have as strong of a…

• Don’t Forget About the Enterprise

  Jacob Morgan

  2 Feb 2010 | 10:28 am

  Yesterday I had the pleasure of writing another post for Marketing Profs which I hope will get more people to think about social media and collaboration WITHIN the enterprise.  Here’s an excerpt from the article: “Oftentimes when we refer to social media we refer to how a brand can engage with customers or prospects to build relationships.  These relationships are external facing; meaning brand to consumer, and are used for functions such as product development, customer service, increasing sales, and marketing.  Through social media companies seek to understand and do things…

• 
  The Marketing Minute

• Examples of social media policies

  Drew McLellan

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:35 am

  In corporate America (and probably corporate World), rules get created when people make bad choices.  It's how child labor laws came to be and why we now have sexual harassment policies.  The few and the stupid are the catalyst to regulation.Which is why it's not a shock that companies big and small are beginning to institute social media policies.  After the Dominos pizza incident and the world famous FedEx tweet -- who can blame business leaders from wanting to protect themselves by setting down some rules?I've put together a long list of social media policy…

• Have you built a rock solid foundation for your personal brand?

  Drew McLellan

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:10 am

  Whether you work for someone else, are a serial entrepreneur or anything in between -- in today's world, you can't afford to ignore the idea of personal branding.A generation ago, employees often stayed with one employer for the lion's share of their career.  Today, most professionals will not work for several companies -- but they will most likely change their entire profession.And even in the unlikely case that you do find the employer of your dreams right off the bat -- you still want to distinguish yourself by standing out from the crowd.Enter personal branding.

• Nuggets of smart

  Drew McLellan

  2 Feb 2010 | 6:21 am

  I don't know about you, but one of my struggles is sifting through all the information out there to find the real nuggets of smart.  I thought, from time to time, I might point out some of the really smart stuff out there so you don't have to go digging for it.  I'd love to know if you find value in this sort of post.  (Just click on the bolded text to get to each offering) New study on customer gratitude:  Elaine Fogel talks about a new study done by the American Marketing Association that looks at the sales impact of generating a sense of gratitude in…

• The best Superbowl commercial of 2010

  Drew McLellan

  31 Jan 2010 | 7:43 pm

  Remember when the Superbowl was about the game?  Now it's the halftime show wardrobe malfunctions and of course, the commercials.  Here's one of my favorites from last year, to get you in the mood! (e-mail subscribers, click here to view) Want to get a jump on Sunday's new spots?  Don't want to have to wade through 60 minutes of football just to see what Budweiser, GoDaddy and Doritos have in store for us?Head over to MSNBC's site where they are hosting an Ad Showdown.  You can watch each and every spot and then in a nod to the NCAA tourney…

• Extinction is right around the corner...

  Drew McLellan

  27 Jan 2010 | 7:22 pm

  For getting lost, desktop computers and glaciers.  At least according to The Future Trends book called Future Files by Richard Watson.  (buy it by clicking here) As part of the promotion of the book, the author released the chart below.   It's an extinction timeline...predicting that newspaper delivery will be gone by 2012 and FM radio by 2027.  I promise you...you'll find this fascinating and its content will be your conversation starter for at least a week. If you're having trouble reading the timeline, you can click on the chart to open a…

• 
  Andy Beard - Niche Marketing

• I Use Aggressive Hype & Obnoxious Tactics To Fool People

  Andy Beard

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:08 am

  I just read a sales page for an information productYou had to read the words carefully to find the guaranteeNo terms of serviceNo privacy policyNo mention of confidentiality expectations but suggestions of sharing candid informationNo contact form, just a company name in the footerNo trust marks of any kindThe Third Tribe is a published book by Rob Chidley – maybe a brand/trademark conflictThis is the exact premise of the sales letterOne tribe is called the Internet Marketers. They use aggressive hype and obnoxious tactics to fool people into believing there really is a “get rich…

• MyBlogLog R.I.P Long Live Blogcatalog

  Andy Beard

  23 Dec 2009 | 5:49 am

  I have long been a supporter of MyBlogLog and in many ways it was the many articles I wrote about how they could improve their site that led me to doing some limited consulting with Blogcatalog.So news of MyBlogLog possibly departing saddens me, and will affect the web materially.In many ways the only reason I still have a Yahoo account is MyBlogLog as I still log into their stats daily. The other reason is for Site Explorer and other webmaster tools – I don’t do paid search advertising with Yahoo.The silly thing is MyBlogLog whilst it has never lived up to it’s promise…

• Vimeo – Remove Your Videos & Links Now

  Andy Beard

  22 Dec 2009 | 8:52 am

  Paul had a nasty Christmas present, an email notifying him that his training videos were in breach of Vimeo’s no commercial use policy.You could believe his shock, with so many popular tech, web design & SEO blogs being allowed to flaunt the rules.A couple of months ago I pointed out that Vimeo isn’t for commercial use, but that message seems to be largely ignored.To me it seems that any large commercial undertaking using Vimeo fits one of the following scenarios:-Walking a tightrope with a demand to take their content down imminentIn some barter arrangement for link juice…

• Warning: Amazon Blogger Integration Broken

  Andy Beard

  17 Dec 2009 | 3:43 am

  Blogger (Google) and Amazon it seems have collaborated and introduced a way for people using Blogger to monetize their blogs using Amazon. I wonder if Google is making some money as a 2-tier affilaite referring so many affiliates to AmazonAnyway the implementation is broken for average usersThis is what the interface looks likeSeems very simpleYou search for somethingClick buttonsCode is inserted into your postPerfect… not!Average UsersAn average blogger blogspot user will seeThis as a nice text linkKindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)This…

• Google Real Time Search Too Personal?

  Andy Beard

  14 Dec 2009 | 3:21 am

  I think Google have got their priorities wrong with Real Time search, though I haven’t seen this on other “ego search” terms. I checked with Danny Sullivan and Michael Arrington to start with.As I have mentioned before, I could understand and even encourage Google to somehow decide to pull in my most recent blog posts as part of their real time search. Most people searching for me it is most likely a regular reader doing a navigational query looking for my latest blog posts, not my latest tweets.I see this with both a UK and US search, personalization switched off in the…

• 
  Branding Strategy Insider

• Brand Protection in a Global Market

  Derrick Daye

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:10 pm

   Not long ago, brand owners could take comfort in the intrinsic barriers hampering black marketers. While most large cities have places known by its dwellers to be sources of cheap goods of dubious origin, consumers have to consciously decide to explore these markets in addition to or in lieu of conventional establishments. Canal Street in New York’s Chinatown is a well-known example. The street is lined with densely packed shops offering watches, purses, and other luxury items at prices that are corruptively low. Until relatively recently, these markets did not pose a significant…

• Brand Messaging: Visual Over Verbal

  Al Ries

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:10 pm

   In a song, what's more important, the words or the music? I think most people would agree that the music is more important.  Take "Moon River," first sung by Audrey Hepburn in the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's." The song itself won an Academy Award for composers Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer, one of four won by Mercer. Later, Andy Williams adopted "Moon River" as his theme song. Here is the first verse. Moon river, wider than a mile I'm crossin' you in style some day Old dream maker, you heartbreaker Wherever you're goin', I'm goin' your way Johnny Mercer, in my opinion, was the best…

• Brand Naming Origins: Academy Awards 'Oscar'

  Steve Rivkin

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:05 pm

  It’s Academy Award season again, and  movie buffs everywhere await the results of the annual competition. So how did Hollywood's beloved Oscar, the 8-pound gold statuette get its name? Most awards nicknames have obvious sources. For instance,  The Tony Awards on Broadway are nicknamed in honor of actress/director Antoinette Perry, who died in 1946. The Tony Awards began the next year. The Grammy Awards, given by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, are a diminutive of "gramophone,” coined way back in 1887 to describe a device to record and reproduce sound.

• Legal Influence And Marketing Decisions

  Brad VanAuken

  2 Feb 2010 | 9:26 pm

   Lawyers are retained to minimize legal exposures and risks. Marketers are employed to sell more stuff. This is oversimplified but generally true. Lawyers can help marketers better understand trademark law, trade dress, copyright law, trade secrets and false or deceptive advertising.Companies vary quite a bit in the power afforded their attorneys. Most use them to deal with corporate legal issues and agreements and contracts. At Hallmark, I was advised by my boss, a corporate officer, that legal advice was just that, advice. He recommended that I seek legal advice when appropriate but that I…

• How Color And Flavor Names Affect Choice

  Steve Rivkin

  1 Feb 2010 | 9:00 pm

  Is Moody Blue a better name for a flavor than Glacier Freeze? How will consumers react to a color named Razzmatazz instead of Bright Orange? And what’s wrong with good old Fire Engine Red?  Two marketing professors have been studying these shades of meaning and publishing provocative papers on color-coding and what it does to buyers’ expectations. So we went to Barbara E. Kahn (at Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania) and Elizabeth G. Miller (at Boston College) for some answers.  Q: Is there anything wrong with good old “Fire Engine Red” to identify a nail polish?  We find in…

• 
  Wallpaper.com

• London, by the Future Mapping Company

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:26 am

  Launched this month by the cartographic specialists at The Future Mapping Company, is a brand new, high-colour plan of the capital city. See more from the Future Mapping Company Stretching from Richmond Park across to the Olympic site, and from Hampstead Heath down to Dulwich - the new map, from The Future Mapping Company�s founder and one-time tailor, Marcus Kirby, has…

• Khouri Guzman Bunce showroom, NY

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:31 am

  Pulled together by designers David Khouri and Roberto Guzman of Comma, and Christiaan Bunce - formerly of Christiaan Bunce Design � the first Khouri Guzman Bunce Ltd furniture and design showroom opened last week on NYC's West 25th St. See more of the KGB collection Slotted in neatly among the galleries and exhibition spaces of West Chelsea, the 3,500 sq ft KGB Ltd showroom…

• Look Both Ways by Matt Stuart

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:47 am

  British photographer Matt Stuart attempts, in his own words, to capture �genuine moments, which hopefully burrow deep into people�s memories�. A noble aspiration, the results of which Stuart will this month showcase for a three-week solo show at London�s KK Outlet. Armed with little more than a Leica camera and a bucket load of patience, Stuart wanders parks, tube stations…

• David Rock exhibition, London

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:28 am

  Architect David Rock has had a prominent and multi-faceted career by any yardstick. He worked in Basil Spence in 1950s, made partner at inter-disciplinary practice BDP in the 1960s, formed his own practice Rock Townsend, and presided over RIBA as its president between 1997 and 1999. More of David Rock at Eleven Spitalfields Paralleling this rich architectural career,…

• 'Divided Divided' by Carsten H�ller, Rotterdam

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:23 am

  Carsten H�ller has filled the Tate Modern with giant slides and helped Prada plant a Congolese eatery in North London - now for his latest exhibition, �Divided Divided� at Rotterdam�s Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Wallpaper* Design Awards judge (and past-life biologist) has turned to fungi for inspiration. See more of H�ller's 'Divided Divided' Launching in-line…

• 
  TREND HUNTER - The Latest Trends

• Traumatized Toystrations - The Yenifer Cano 'House Things' Portfolio Binds Childhood Playthings (GALLERY)

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:40 pm

  (TrendHunter.com) At first glance (and even the second and third), I couldn’t quite believe that the Yenifer Cano ‘House Things’ collection was illustrated. So detailed the images are, I thought they were simply vintage…

• Aviation-Inspired Fashions - The Acne SS10 Collection Takes Notes for Amelia Earhart (GALLERY)

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:30 pm

  (TrendHunter.com) Seems the Amelia Earhart fashion phase is not at an end, at least not yet, considering the latest Acne SS10 collection. Inspired by this formidable female aviator, their loose interpretation is actually…

• MJ Action Figures - The Michael Jackson ‘Thriller’ Figurine (GALLERY)

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:20 pm

  (TrendHunter.com) For those of you still mourning the iconic King of Pop, the Michael Jackson Thriller Figurine is for you. Gone are the long lonely nights where you tossed and turned in bed, wondering how you were going…

• 100 Unique Theme Restaurants - The Most Offbeat Places to Eat and Drink Around the World (CLUSTER)

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:10 pm

  (TrendHunter.com) Over the last few years, I’ve seen some very unique theme restaurants from around the world; that an hotels belong to my favourite topics to cover, which is why I’m so excited to have some of the most…

• Saucy Wordvertising - Cheeky Valentines Day Ads by RobertRedd.com (VIDEO)

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:00 pm

  (TrendHunter.com) Anti-Valentines day parties are all the rage. Or maybe you are one of those romantic types who can’t wait to be showered in chocolate, flowers and red foil (maybe massage oil)? This ad for RobertRedd.com…

• 
  Customized Marketing

• Favorite Tools for Web Design

  admin

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:25 pm

  I am frequently asked what tools I use for web design.  Many of the add-ons and plugins that I use are free and you might want to investigate for your own use if you don’t already use them. Hardware, etc.: Macbook Pro 3.06  8GB RAM(upgrading the RAM to 8GB makes all the difference in the world!), Dell 24″ LCD, Apple wireless keyboard and magic mouse Rain Design M stand – raises the MB Pro to right height to use  as 2nd monitor with the Dell,  cools the Mac, and gives me a little space underneath for stuff Harmon Kardon Speakers – you gotta have good sounds when…

• Free Income Blogging Guide

  admin

  18 Jan 2010 | 8:32 pm

  Well, my pal Joel, is at it again.  He has recently unveiled his new income blogging guide and you can get it for free here. If you want to discover: - The 2-step process you need to choose a proven money-making niche…get it wrong and you’ll never make any money - The 3 golden rules of keyword analysis…get one rule wrong and ALL your future efforts are wasted. - The exact step-by-step methods to find the best domain name for your blog …99% of bloggers miss this crucial “Search Engine Optimization” step - How to install WordPress in under 1 minute (as long…

• Grit and Glimmer

  admin

  3 Jan 2010 | 12:37 pm

  Heidi Swift’s new site.  Quite a transformation from her white site of last year.

• 7 Must Have Gadgets for Techies

  admin

  20 Dec 2009 | 9:37 pm

  Want to know 7 gift ideas for the Techie on your list? The Amazon Kindle allows you to get and read the latest book without leaving your chair. The Chill Pill RapCap is a tiny microphone for your iPod and comes in colors to suit every taste. Want a new digital camera with 12x zoom, and super fast shutter that also records movies in HD?  Check out the Panasonic Lumix ZS3. Livescribe makes a smartpen that is a great idea for designers or anyone who wants to record thoughts or information. Any size 3rd Generation  iPod Touch holds lots of music, videos (including TV and movies), your email,…

• Massive Collection of Over 1,300 Free Icon Sets

  admin

  19 Nov 2009 | 8:20 pm

  Okay, I admit it.  I am a compulsive collector of free icons (and some paid ones).  Just always have to have one more set for the arsenal, and I have been known to stockpile.  What you have here is a list of some beautiful icon sets and many posts that have collections of icons for social media, web functions and applications.  All told there are over 1300 sets of free icons for you to bookmark or download.  Some of the compilations repeat sets, but I didn’t eliminate them if they had some unique sets that were worth noting. Think of these sets as a good excuse to download a few…

• 
  Building43

• Boxee: Entertainment in the Age of Democratized Content

  Robert Scoble

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:00 am

  Chances are if you watch building43, you aren’t just plopping on the sofa and watching countless hours of mind-numbing TV by yourself. Modern entertainment allows us to share videos on YouTube, hunt for great tunes on Pandora, and catch the latest episode of “Lost” on Hulu. Fortunately for us, there’s Boxee. Boxee is a centralized control panel for the media you consume online. Users can easily switch between GeekBrief.TV, the latest episode of Jon Stewart, and the Flickr pics they took on their latest Europe trip. It delivers a similar experience you’d get with…

• 9 Quick Tips Learned While Raising $33 Million In Venture Capital

  Dharmesh Shah

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:54 am

  As the market improves, my guess is that many of you will likely be thinking about raising funding for your company.  With my latest startup, I’m now a venture-backed startup founder (I’ve raised $33 million in three rounds of capital for my marketing software company).  So, I’ve got some direct experience with the process.  Several of the companies I’m an angel investor in or otherwise involved with have also been in the fund-raising process.  So, along the way, I’ve learned a few things, and I’d like to share them with you. There’s already lots of great content on the…

• The Anti-Bullet Test

  Jason Cohen

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:39 pm

  I’m sick of generic feature/benefit bullet points. They’re just too easy to make fun of. Here’s a sampling from a website that will remain nameless to protect the guilty: Easy to use Robust features Innovative systems Really, it’s easy to use? As opposed to what, difficult and temperamental? Robust, huh? Great, because it looks tenuously held together, the slightest breeze threatening to crumble its delicate construction, so it’s good to know that, actually, it’s robust. Oh I’m sorry, its features are robust, whatever that means. If you want to not…

• Gillmor Gang 02.05.10

  Alex Polvi

  7 Feb 2010 | 10:31 am

  The Gillmor Gang — Andrew Keen, Danny Sullivan, Kevin Marks, and Robert Scoble — talk smack about Flash. Recorded live Friday, February 5, 2010. Audio only (right click to save to your computer)

• A new personal assistant on your mobile phone

  Robert Scoble

  4 Feb 2010 | 9:01 pm

  The ultimate personal assistant allows you to find task-oriented information on the go, by connecting to the best services around the Internet, Siri is not a search engine; it is a do-engine. The app works by pairing your spoken request with the best services available by connecting you to these services to fulfill any request. The application takes a request, and breaks it down into parts. The user can tell Siri they want to go on a date consisting of an Italian dinner for two and a movie, a comedy. The application will then return movie times for comedy selections; Italian restaurants near…

• 
  ReadWriteWeb

• Can Google Buzz Succeed Where FriendFeed Couldn't?

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:20 pm

  Google just launched Google Buzz, the company's new social networking service which will be tightly integrated with Gmail. There can be little doubt that Google Buzz looks a lot like FriendFeed, the social aggregation service that was acquired by Facebook in August 2009. Today, FriendFeed's developers are Facebook employees and aren't likely to continue to improve the service in any meaningful way, while the active user community on FriendFeed continues to shrink rapidly. Given the similarities between the two services, we can't help but wonder if Google Buzz will be able to succeed where…

• How Google Buzz is Disruptive: Open Data Standards

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:31 am

  Google rolled out a social stream service today called Buzz. It looks on the surface like Facebook, FriendFeed and other stream reading and writing services. It will compete with Facebook and Twitter. Under the covers, though, this major product was built by a team of people taking a radical new approach to online publishing: Buzz is all about open, standardized user data. Google Buzz data can be syndicated out to other services using the standard data formats called Atom, Activity Streams, MediaRSS and PubSubHubbub. That couldn't be more different from Facebook. Google has taken open data…

• Mobile Health: Will Network Applications Help Us Get Healthy?

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:30 am

  Last week, we were at the mHealth initiative conference in Washington D.C. The keynotes were all about the impact mobile health applications are having in shaping the future of the health care system. Nothing demonstrates that more than the iPhone. In the 18 months since it was released, it has been perhaps the biggest thing to happen to health care electronic records, which has seen billions of dollars worth of investment in past decades. Mobile and wireless health applications directly impact the individual's health and have the promise of ensuring that when a patient leaves a doctor visit,…

• Foursquare Partners with Zagat, New York Times

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:17 am

  Foursquare has come out strong in recent weeks with partnership deals that look to put it at the top of the location-based app game. Last week, it announced a partnership with Bravo, the style and fashion-centric television network, and today it has come out with a partnership with Zagat, the restaurant guide, and the New York Times. As we wrote last week, Foursquare is competing in an increasingly crowded space. These partnerships may help it attract a whole new audience and remain competitive against other services like Yelp that are just joining in the location-based arena. Sponsor…

• Live Blogging from Google: Launch of Google Buzz

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:11 am

  This morning, Google is announcing some exciting new features for two of its most popular applications. Team Red, as we affectionately call ourselves, is present at the Googleplex in Mountain View, and we'll be live blogging the event, giving you, dear reader, a fascinating play-by-play. Stay tuned for updates! The event will begin at 10 a.m. Pacific (UTC -8). Just refresh this post to see new content as events unfold. Additional on-the-fly research and images from RWW journalist Frederic Lardinois. Sponsor 11:11: The event is over! Time to chase people down and ask some more pointed…

• 
  Mashable!

• 5 Ways Airlines and Hotels Can Drive Revenue with Social Media

  Shashank Nigam

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:18 pm

  Shashank Nigam is the CEO of SimpliFlying.com, an award-winning blog on airline branding. He tweets at @simpliflying.Social media is no longer the “new” thing, especially for airlines. JetBlue has over one an a half million followers on Twitter. Lufthansa allows passengers to update their Twitter or Facebook status about where they are in the sky. AirAsia drives buzz about its new destinations through custom micro-sites. However, most airlines (and airports and hotels) are still struggling to earn direct revenue from their social media efforts.Yet if Dell can make $6.5 million from…

• Google Buzz: The Official Demo [VIDEO]

  Adam Ostrow

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:08 am

  Google has just unveiled its latest attempt to become more relevant in the social media space: Google Buzz. The product is integrated within Gmail and will be rolled out gradually to all of the webmail service’s users over the next few days.We’re still digesting all of the implications of Buzz (and will have more coverage throughout the day), but in the meantime, here’s the two-minute demo of the product in action both on the Web and via mobile that Google showed off during today’s press conference:This video from Google looks specifically at the mobile features of Buzz:What are your…

• BREAKING: Google Goes Social with Google Buzz

  Ben Parr

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:21 am

  It’s official: Google has just announced Google Buzz, its newest push into the social media foray. This confirms earlier reports of Gmail integrating a social status feature.On stage revealing the new product was Bradley Horowitz, Google’s vice president for product management. While introducing the product, Mr. Horowitz focused on the human penchant for sharing experiences and the social media phenomenon of wanting to share it in real time. These two key themes were core philosophies behind Google Buzz.“It’s becoming harder and harder to find signal in the…

• Facebook Kills Lexicon, Focuses on Analytics for Page Admins

  Samuel Axon

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:20 am

  Facebook has removed its Lexicon analytics app, blogger Steve Rubel noticed last night.Don’t know what Lexicon was? That’s OK, a lot of people didn’t; it was announced very quietly, but it was a neat tool. You could use Lexicon to see how frequently, and when, certain terms were trending in status updates, just like you can use Google Trends to do the same with search terms.For example, our own Stan Schroeder was a bit perplexed a couple years back when the word “sex” had a massive spike in usage on May 30, 2008. It was the launch day of the Sex and the City…

• 7 Ways to Promote Your Offline Event Using Social Media

  Susan Payton

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:10 am

  Susan Payton is the President of Egg Marketing & Public Relations, an internet marketing firm. She blogs at The Marketing Eggspert Blog, and teaches marketing courses at Marketing EggSchool. Follow her on Twitter @eggmarketing.We all know about Tweetups and online events, but what about events that you didn’t specifically invite the Twitterati to attend? Conferences, meetings and parties are all events that might not have started online, but which can definitely benefit from online promotion and mention.Leverage your offline event with some smart social media marketing. Here are…

• 
  TechCrunch

• TED: Now with More Elitism?

  Sarah Lacy

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:33 pm

  Let me say upfront: I have never been to TED, mostly because I have never been invited and I can’t imagine a world where I justify paying $6,000 for a conference. But I live in Silicon Valley so every year leading up to the star-studded event, I have to hear about it from nearly everyone I know: People who love it and people who hate it. For the last few years, these conversations have gotten ugly. What I’ve seen and heard from the outside depicts the sad transition from what used to be an inventive, elite industry conference that cross-pollinated experts from the worlds of technology,…

• Microsoft Slams Google Buzz

  Michael Arrington

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:20 pm

  “Busy people don’t want another social network, what they want is the convenience of aggregation. We’ve done that. Hotmail customers have benefitted from Microsoft working with Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and 75 other partners since 2008.” – Microsoft statement on Google Buzz. When one of the big guys launches a new product, competitors generally just sit it out and let the press do its thing. But Microsoft made a point of reaching out today with the quote above, criticizing Google Buzz as “another social network” and noting that Hotmail has aggregated Flickr,…

• Yahoo Not Pleased With Google Buzz’s Buzz

  MG Siegler

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:18 pm

  Google officially unveiled Buzz, their major step into social statuses through Gmail today at an event held at 10 AM PT. Within the hour, Yahoo PR was set in motion to let everyone know that they actually did this first, almost a year ago. Here’s the humorous email that was sent out: It’s been almost a year and a half since we first launched Yahoo! Updates – a social feature that lets people share their status, content and online activities and stay connected to what their friends and family are doing on Yahoo! and across the Web – and we wanted to share the latest on what’s…

• Sergey Brin Used Google Buzz To Write His NYT Op-Ed On Google Books

  MG Siegler

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:54 am

  During the Q&A session today following the Google Buzz event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin revealed something both humorous and interesting. When asked a question about practical uses for Google Buzz, Brin noted that he actually used the service to help him write his op-ed about Google Books that ran in the New York Times last year. Brin noted that he was having difficulty with the article because it’s just his one point of view. So he put out his draft on Google Buzz (which Google was testing out internally within the company at the time), and quickly got dozens of comments. Brin…

• Screenshots: Google Buzz In Action

  MG Siegler

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:17 am

  Now that the Google event is over, the company has started turning on Buzz for Gmail users. Here are some quick screenshots of it in action. CrunchBase InformationGoogle BuzzInformation provided by CrunchBase

• 
  Social Media Today

• Google, Gmail, Relevance Filtering & the Future of Social Media

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:43 am

  [This blog post was cross-posted with my new blog on the Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketers:  http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2010/02/google-gmail-relevance-filtering-the-future-of-social-m...

• China and Feeling For Stones: a Conversation with Zhang Hai Hua

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:25 am

  Author of Think Like Chinese on Des Walsh & Friends show The other week on my Des Walsh & Friends show on BlogTalkRadio, I had the pleasure of speaking with a woman of great accomplishment and busi...

• Forresters Blogging patch

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:46 am

  I have never been a fan of  Forrester Research – but  they produce a lot of good research. By the way, have you noticed a lot of the research firms have been acquired  or are merging of late.   So, ...

• Splitting Up the US – How About the Rest of the World?

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:05 pm

  That’s the map of the US based on Pete Warden’s analysis of Facebook profiles. So I live in Socialistan – of well, I grew up in a Communist country, if this is Socialism, I can handle it But wha...

• User-review sites, when shills go wrong

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:35 am

  Urbanspoon, the user review site and social network for foodies, has been running a contest to find the "most romantic restaurant" in cities across America. Great idea with Valentine's Day coming up, ...

• 
  ProBlogger Blog Tips

• Blog Like a Cartoonist – Six Stunning Secrets to Help You Break Through Bloggers Block

  Darren Rowse

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:24 am

  And now for a guest post with a difference from Cartoonist Mark Anderson from Andertoons.com who created this comic to illustrate the writing techniques he uses to create his cartoons, and how they can help bloggers push through writer’s block. Post from: Blog Tips at ProBlogger. Blog Like a Cartoonist – Six Stunning Secrets to Help You Break Through Bloggers Block Share This

• Have a 37 Minute Coffee Break with Me [Audio Interview]

  Darren Rowse

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:43 am

  If you have a spare 37 minutes today to grab a coffee with me (or at least are doing something that will allow you to listen to something for 37 minutes in the background) check out this interview I did with Robb Sutton late last week. Robb’s also transcribed it for those who prefer to read. In the interview Rob asks me about a whole range of stuff including: my background in blogging my philosophy on lots of sites vs focusing upon a single (or just a few) sites the process of going full time (and my wife’s six month ultimatum) my shift in focus to e-books and membership sites a…

• What Is Your Blogging Goal for February?

  Darren Rowse

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:22 am

  A few days back I asked readers a question: What Have You Been Putting Off and What’s Holding You Back? Some of the responses to the question in comments (and via email and Twitter) revealed a lot of bloggers really wanting to step things up and get what they’ve been putting off done. So – lets set some goals – what do you want to achieve by the end of February? I’m not going to be calling you up to check up to see if you’re meeting your goals – but hopefully in putting them down publicly you’ll find yourself a little more spurred on to reach…

• 9 Tricks I Used To Triple My AdSense Earnings In 30 Days

  Daniel Scocco

  7 Feb 2010 | 6:34 am

  Guest post by Daniel Scocco from Daily Blog Tips. I have been using Google AdSense to monetize my blogs and websites for as long as I remember. In fact it was the first method I ever tried (I made a whooping $15 on my first month… back in 2005). Over the years I migrated to other methods (e.g., direct sponsors and affiliate marketing), which made AdSense become merely an inventory filler. I was still making around $1,000 monthly from it, but whenever I could I would use other methods over it. Then some months ago I started noticing an upward trend on the CPC of my sites, and I figured that…

• How I Got Some Paying Sponsors Without Really Meaning To

  Darren Rowse

  6 Feb 2010 | 6:21 am

  A guest post by Josh Hanagarne. World’s Strongest Librarian was about four months old when I got interested in sponsors. I’d read the articles about how to do it, and none of them sounded that plausible for me and my situation. For one, my traffic wasn’t impressive, certainly not to the point where sponsors were approaching me. And, while my blog has become slightly more focused in its first ten months, it wasn’t targeted at any group of readers in particular, so I wasn’t sure how confident niche advertisers would be. It’s a little more focused now, but I can’t really think of a…

• 
  chrisbrogan.com

• Earn Your GED- Find Success Tomorrow

  chrisbrogan

  9 Feb 2010 | 1:30 am

  No, not your General Equivalent Degree. The GED to which I refer is “guest experience design.” What the heck am I talking about? I’ll tell you. Old words: customer service. New words: guest experience. Disney, where I am this week, has a concept called a Moment of Truth. A moment of truth is “any time a guest comes into contact with any aspect of a business, however remote, is an opportunity to form an impression.” Note that it’s “an impression.” It can be good; it can be bad. Why “guest?” Because guest is much more hospitable than…

• Pursue the Goal Not the Method

  chrisbrogan

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:30 am

  In the back of a town car hired to take me to the Kansas City International airport, talking to Jeff, a driver with two kids, self-proclaimed ADD, and a history of quitting rote sales jobs every few months, I realized something of importance to the story of what’s brought me to this place: I am a seeker of the goal, not the method. Now, to unpack. The Method Is What We’re Taught to Pursue We learn our times tables. We learn the 50 states (in the US, at least). We are taught all these rules, these patterns, these systems, these methods. Musicians learn their scales. Painters copy…

• Your Blog From the Prospect’s Point of View

  chrisbrogan

  7 Feb 2010 | 7:34 am

  When you use your blog to complain or report sideways about the industry at large, what message is that sending to your potential new clients? If you’re spending your time analyzing what other people in your space are doing, citing why they’re wrong, and providing your commentary about all the things they’re doing, what does your next potential customer come away thinking? Is your negative commentary helping them make a buying decision? I’ve rarely seen the tactic work in traditional advertising. You can graze them a little bit. For instance, I’m a bit fond of…

• Just Lucky I Guess – Kitchen Table Talks

  chrisbrogan

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:46 pm

  In this Kitchen Table Talks video, I just want to address all the nice folks who call me lucky, or who think I’m just sitting around being handed my lot in life. Can’t see the video? Click here. Direct link to the video “Lucky” is absolutely what I am. Here’s what I do to earn my luck: Write a blog post or two a day. Write a newsletter every week. Comment and connect with others daily. Answer and send hundreds of emails daily. Read voraciously. Work with the best clients I can find. Reach into new markets weekly. Travel extensively. Seems lucky to me. People…

• Some Of The Third Tribe Conversations

  chrisbrogan

  6 Feb 2010 | 1:02 pm

  I’m really enjoying participating in the forums at the Third Tribe site. I was just adding my two cents to a handful of forum postings, and thought that I’d show you what some of the topics we’re talking about are, so you’d have a sense of what’s going on. We don’t really share the contents, because the people participating there like having the chance to speak openly/candidly about their marketing challenges, but I don’t see the harm in sharing a few of the topic titles. Here they are: Favorite copywriting and marketing books? Third Tribe Blogroll? 2…

• 
  JasonKeath.com

• Cottonelle Almost Gets Social

  Jason

  22 Jan 2010 | 7:21 am

  I really enjoyed the Cottonelle “How do you roll?” commercial when I first saw it last week, asking people how they prefer to present their paper, over or under (apparently the answer is over). But, for a campaign that can get people to the internet pretty easily, their integrated social media, if you can call it that, reminds me more of any empty roll that needs to be replaced. Yes they have two of their commercial’s characters on Twitter, and a Facebook page, and the poll itself with a nice map of results. But these small efforts are social for social’s sake with…

• Social Media is Just a Hobby

  Jason

  19 Jan 2010 | 5:15 pm

  Jason Falls delivers a little Gary Vaynerchuk impersonation at Social Fresh Nashville, a social media conference for marketers. A good portion of Social Fresh spoke to what social media can really do for business, including Jason’s talk on “Moving the Needle, Social Media for the Bottom Line”. In the quick video above, taken at the Social Fresh photo opp zone, Jason recaps why the social media purists (dirty hippies and treehuggers) do not get that if social media is not making you money, it is just a hobby.

• Chipotle’s Organic Social Strategy

  Jason

  16 Jan 2010 | 5:47 am

  While I was in Florida preparing for Social Fresh Tampa on Feb 8th, I got the chance to meet and speak with Chris Arnold, Director of Communications for Chipotle Mexican Grill, and we discussed their slow, but deliberate, adoption of social media as a corporate controlled marketing channel. From taking over a customer created 500,000 fan Facebook page to supporting consumer driven blogging, Chipotle is focused on staying true to their word or mouth and earned media roots while evolving their social media efforts. Not everyone has the good fortune of a massive and committed fan base, like…

• Superbowl Commercials and Youtube with Bridgestone

  Jason

  20 Dec 2009 | 8:54 pm

  Bridgestone has had several top ranking Superbowl commercials over the last few years and has seen great return from them. From this, they have begun to see the value in sharing that media through social sites like Youtube and are beginning to actively invest in these tools and social media as a whole. Michael Fluck, Director of Brand and Retail Marketing, had a quick talk with us about this and more. Bridgestone will be attending Social Fresh Nashville, a one day social media conference for marketers, on Jan 11, 2010 One of my favorites of their Superbowl Commercials

• Who Made the Biggest Media Moves in 2009?

  Jason

  14 Dec 2009 | 7:01 am

  My take on some of the biggest splashes made by media companies in 2009. Take fair warning, this list is completely subjective and purely my take on a vast landscape of evolving media. The list is also not a “who made the most money” but more of a “who made a big impact or a big move”. Answer the poll in the sidebar to let me know what media company you think made the biggest splash in 2009. Facebook triples in size from 125 million users to 350 million. They took major steps toward becoming more open and “twitter-like“. The status stream became the focus…

• 
  Logic+Emotion

• We Are The Media. Do We Trust Media?

  David Armano

  9 Feb 2010 | 9:22 am

    First, an informal disclaimer. While I work for the firm (Edelman) that conducted the 2010 Trust Barometer, the following opinions expressed are personal and I was not involved with the research or creation of the report. That said, I wanted to express a few non data based thoughts around the the specific finding that there is less trust in a "person like yourself".Now, let's get into why this is worth discussing. Based on comments and conversation which I've seen in industry publications and elsewhere there seems to be a concern that this finding flies in the face of social conventional…

• The Unofficial SXSW Survival Guide

  David Armano

  6 Feb 2010 | 12:07 pm

    Having passed on my slot to the folks at Dachis Group, I will not be speaking this year at SXSW (interactive) but I will be attending. It will be my second time, and I'm happy to share that there will indeed be a sequel to the sleeper hit event last year known as "Allhat". This year we are going with "Allhat II: Return of the Cattle", and it's sure to be even better complete with local live music thanks to the support from Edelman Digital. That said, there were several things I learned from surviving SXSW, and you might want to take some of them into consideration.Go With The FlowSXSW can…

• Why I'm Not Writing a Book (Right Now)

  David Armano

  31 Jan 2010 | 8:17 pm

  There's really nothing like a book—they are portable, intimate, useful, influential and the good ones tend to go "viral" in the sense that you share them with people you know. And of course today we have new ways to digest them: from audio to Kindles to iPads etc. A question I've been getting a lot lately is:"When are you writing a book"?I've had some interest—from publishers you've heard of. But the answer is:"Not right now".My logic is simple. One cannot serve two masters—and serve them well. Either my full time job or the book would suffer. So the time is not now. I've got things to…

• Six Ways to Find Social Media Talent

  David Armano

  29 Jan 2010 | 6:40 pm

  More articles on Harvard BusinessAs organizations move their social media strategies from theory to practice, they discover a difficult truth they must confront: Finding the "perfect" social media talent is practically impossible. To start, the field is flooded with thousands of self proclaimed "experts" who have reinvented themselves to take advantage what looks like a growing business opportunity. Maybe they do know social media, but many don't. They need to be vetted. More broadly, most candidates for social media positions fall at the ends of a spectrum. On one end is the person who…

• The 5 Reasons You're Failing In Social Media

  David Armano

  21 Jan 2010 | 1:28 pm

  1. You really don't want to engage directly with customers, employees, etc.—you just want them to hear what you have to say. 2. You're not ready to create new roles, update process, re-distribute resources and budgets, re-train people, and revise old policies. 3. Social media actually threatens how you make money—but you pay lip service out of fear.4. Politics.5. You see it as a career advancing opportunity as opposed to a significant business transformation.Reverse any of these, and you've likely improved your chances of succeeding in a business environment that's becoming increasingly…

• 
  Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

• PR is Only Dying If It Isn’t Evolving

  John Jantsch

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:51 am

  SharePR is Only Dying If It Isn’t EvolvingThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Brian Solis (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes For this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast I asked Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks and co-author of Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, about the future of the PR industry as we know it. There’s plenty of doom and gloom surrounding the practice of public relations in the social web world, but Solis suggests, and I totally agree, that there’s a…

• 5 Questions You Should Ask Every Customer

  John Jantsch

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:33 am

  Share5 Questions You Should Ask Every CustomerThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Constantly seeking feedback from your customers is a great way to learn how to market your business more effectively. If you’ve never done this before, do it immediately as it is one of the best ways to discover what you do that actually differentiates you from your competition. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worked with a small business that had no idea what its competitive advantage was until we heard it right from the mouths of happy customers. Seeking feedback is also a great way…

• Weekend Favs February Six

  John Jantsch

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:14 am

  ShareWeekend Favs February SixThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing I’ve added a weekend post routine that I hope you enjoy. Each weekend I write a post that features 3-4 things I read during the week that I found interesting. Generally speaking it won’t involve much analysis and may range widely in topic. (Flickr image included here is also fav image of the week) Image credit: Dr Swan Enjoy! Good stuff I ran across this week: Siri – An iPhone app that acts like a personal assistant – you can ask to find things by name – nearest Starbucks or by broad category –…

• Extending Your Presentations Through the Backchannel

  John Jantsch

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:18 am

  ShareExtending Your Presentations Through the BackchannelThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing The term “backchannel” was coined in the field of Linguistics in the 1970’s to describe listeners’ behaviors during verbal communication. It is commonly used these days to describe the behavior or conversation going on in social media while a speaker is making a presentation. In some conferences the majority of the people listening may be actively Tweeting throughout a speech. Like it or not, managing the backchannel has become a part of presenting, in person or online.

• Analytics from a Really Smart Guy

  John Jantsch

  4 Feb 2010 | 1:19 pm

  Analytics from a Really Smart GuyThis content from: Duct Tape Marketing Marketing podcast with Avinash Kaushik (Click to listen, right click and Save As to download – subscribe now via iTunes Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0 is one of those rare people who can take a somewhat dry and mathlike subject of web analytics and make it sound easy and even fun. I got to spend a few minutes with Avinash for this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast for some tips about this important, but often overlooked topic. Web Analytics can seem like a scary subject, but it’s…