Selected by designdamage

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  designdamage - Strategy + Design: Social Branding

• What Should You Consider When Integrating Social Media

  Eric Tsai

  9 Feb 2010 | 1:15 am

  As we progress into 2010, the rapid growth of social media has allowed more access to information, consumers, communities, and experiences.  This new medium has enabled a new way to communicate and share, from B2C to B2B marketers are all trying to figure out an edge.  Many brands start to focus on the hybrid approach which I believe will be the next phase of digital and web marketing.  The question is what role will it play in the marketing arsenal? Here are 3 steps to consider when integrating social media to your marketing practices: Brand Strategy Reassessment Understand the changing…

• B2C Social Media Marketing Tips To Kickoff 2010

  Eric Tsai

  31 Dec 2009 | 8:19 am

  I’ve been busy with end of the year work and now I’m back on track.  For those of you that follow the designdamage blog since the beginning, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for the support and hope I can continue to provide value for your time. Although no new entries were posted for the past weeks, I continue to follow industry trends and send out useful content via my Twitter account.  You can follow me via @designdamage Now back to work. After reviewing some important data and content from 2009, I’ve come to these conclusions that in 2010 social media will follow the…

• 3 Web Marketing Trends That Will Accelerate in 2010 – (Part 2)

  Eric Tsai

  22 Oct 2009 | 2:54 am

  It will be increasingly difficult for brands to ignore the web when making marketing decisions. The brands that get ahead will be the ones that harness the web to work in conjunction with their existing offline campaigns while adopting more social marketing strategies to generating new consumer insights.  Customers will continue to increase their time spent online and they need to be reach where they prefer to be reached. Even for companies marketing entirely online or B2B businesses, the question will be how to benefit from blogs, social media and search engine to achieve the marketing…

• 3 Brand Marketing Trends That Will Continue in 2010

  Eric Tsai

  15 Oct 2009 | 1:19 am

  When you hear something enough times, it may be a fad.  But when you start to see email spam about it, you know it’s a trend.  That’s the case with marketing trends such as email marketing and social media.  The problem with trends is that it’s usually a lagging indicator which means to seize the opportunity you may need to be an early adopters to reap the rewards. If adopting new strategy and implementing fresh tactics sounds too risky, just take a look at the troubled newspaper and magazine companies and you’ll realize what I mean.  Similar to technology innovation, brand…

• A Social Media Marketing Handbook

  Eric Tsai

  6 Oct 2009 | 12:21 am

  In an effort to keep up with the rate of change in the marketing landscape, it’s important to understand the tools available to drive results.  Social media is the fastest growing tactic according to a survey by virtual events provider Unisfair, “Marketers’ top priorities for 2010 will be customer acquisition and retention and the most common tactics marketers plant to increase was social media, selected by three-quarters of marketers polled, followed by search (51%) and e-mail (49%).” It’s indicative as the internet gets more social, the speed at which information is shared…

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  Core77

• Free Fonts for Creative Types

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:26 am

  Once you've finished signing up for a chance to win the Eames House Tour with House Industries, checkout this awesome collection of free fonts collated by the design blog unstage. Our pick: Public Gothic by the crew over at Antrepo.(more...)

• Jitterbug: A study of kinetics in pine and white tape

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:47 am

  Simple, yet mind-blowing, Ryan McCaffrey demonstrates a study of kinetics made from rhombic units cut from pine and white tape. Holds its shape in certain orientations, but I still can't quite figure it out. (more...)

• Making it work in the recession: ID'er turned metal fabricator James Woggon

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:40 am

  Maybe you graduate with a degree in ID, but times are tough and you can't find a job. What to do? Would you try to put your hand skills to use and take a job as, say, a metal fabricator on an assembly line to pay the bills? [photo credit: Gary Porter] That's the situation ID grad James Woggon found himself in, and after the recession claimed his lighting and furniture design studio he signed on with Wagner Companies on their assembly line. Wagner makes these neat Lumenrails, handrails with a self-contained light, which are essentially aluminum/stainless steel extrusions with a slot to…

• Stockholm Furniture Fair: 48m2 by Beckmans College of Design

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:15 am

  48m2 is a collaboration between product and graphic design students at Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm. The first group created a series of products and the second a tight campaign for their exhibition. Furniture was developed by the product design students for a 48 square meter apartment, with the intent of "questioning and twisting preconceptions of home styling". In response to this work, the advertising/graphic design students developed a killer campaign for the exhibit, creating the concept "Same but Different," described below: Is a chair always a chair, an apartment always an…

• Core77 Gallery: New York International Gift Fair 2010

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:35 am

  Our gallery from the January edition of the New York International Gift Fair 2010 is now live. Core contributor Rain Noe shares the best from this show, with new work from products from Kikkerland, Boym Studio, Gaia & Gino, Joseph Joseph, and more! >> view gallery(more...)

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  PSFK

• Twitter-Powered Device Connects Popcorn Maker To The Internet Of Things

  Implementing an example of human-powered physical computing, Popcorn Tweets is a device that Dave Britt and Justin Goeres have connected to Twitter for the purpose of cooking popcorn. Popcorn Tweets encourages and draws from posts mentioning #popcorn, with each one triggering the placement of a kernel onto a heated surface. [via Switched]

• (Pics) The Standard X Julia Chiang

  Only in New York could the hotels have better art than most galleries. First The Standard brought us Heaven and Hell, now they've recruited Brooklyn-based artist Julia Chiang for an exclusive edition of 50 glazed porcelain apples as part of a project entitled "All For You". The series will be in ...

• Box Bottle Bag: A Collection Of Design And Innovation In Retail Packaging

  The collectors of compelling package design at TheDieline alerted us to their newly released work Box Bottle Bag, which features the best manifestations of design and innovation in retail packaging. TheDieline gives their description below: Box Bottle Bag showcases examples of the best of the best from the website, plus never-before-seen ...

• iPhone App To Keep Track Of Our Politicians

  Labour MP Derek Wyatt has taken the idea of "public servant" to the next level.  Wyatt is allowing his constituents to follow his every movement via a free iPhone app called "MyMP."  The app, which is available through the iTunes store, allows people to see where their MP is at ...

• The Ford CNG Transit Connect, NYC’s Next Taxi?

  The yellow New York City cab is an iconic element in Manhattan's streetscape. The taxi and limousine commission has put out a bid for a vehicle to replace the  last of the aging Crown Victorias. Ford is eager to retain the contract to supply vehicles to the commission. They just ...

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  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.

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  metacool

• metacool Thought of the Day

  Diego Rodriguez

  9 Feb 2010 | 7:34 am

  "Ship early, ship often, iterate and listen to all of the feedback. I think that if you have the courage to listen and the ability to take the feedback and iterate on your product, you will better off than waiting and trying to deliver something perfect. Imagining your product or project as a way of communicating with people and thinking of product development as a conversation might be one way to think about it."- Joi Ito

• All quiet at metacool, but not so quiet!

  Diego Rodriguez

  5 Feb 2010 | 3:32 pm

  Hi there!Things have been a bit quiet here at metacool over the past few weeks.  While I've been busy dealing in gnarlyness over at my other blog, I haven't forgotten about the art and science of bringing cool stuff to life.  In fact, I've recently written two articles which might be of interest to y'all:Why Design Matters,  BusinessWeekIs that a Porsche in your pocket?,  Aol AutosI'll be writing more about metacool-ish topics in the world of transportation for Aol Autos in the coming months, and maybe more at BusinessWeek, too.  Writing essays like these is not…

• Is the iPad the New Edsel?

  Diego Rodriguez

  28 Jan 2010 | 2:18 pm

  I have a policy of only engaging in constructive critique here at metacool.  As a person who has made a living doing this stuff for almost two decades, hard and difficult to bring new stuff to life, so we must be respectful of those who try.  We need to celebrate errors of omission, and strive to learn from them. But, this is one of those rare occasions where I have to say out loud, and out in public,  "What were they thinking at Apple?!!!!????!!!"  Remember the Edsel?  It was touted as a ground-breaking offering, but its market success was stymied by a cultural oversight.  In…

• metacool Thought of the Day

  Diego Rodriguez

  8 Jan 2010 | 4:15 pm

  "Today, what defines the most innovative, and the most successful, people is their willingness to fail. And, that’s especially true in journalism, media and advertising...This is the key to the future for all of us. It’s not how we deal with success but how we embrace and learn from failure that will define all of us during the Great Inflection...Instead, dare to fail. Fail fast. Learn from failure. Build on failure. Share failure. Understand failure. Most of all, enjoy failure. Life is so short. Hold nothing back."- John Winsor

• Innovating takes courage and faith

  Diego Rodriguez

  7 Jan 2010 | 8:34 pm

  Earlier this week I made the following statement on Twitter (if you're interested in following, I'm @metacool):Innovating takes courage and faith. You've got to jump from the plane believing your chute is going to pop. Having thought about it more this week, that statement isn't right.  Parachuting out of a plane is not a good metaphor for the act of innovation.  Instead, it's all about being able to jump out of planes in a way that's more akin to this: Don't try this at home, kids.  Or this, for that matter. The reason the parachuting metaphor…

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  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…

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  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…

• 
  Valeria Maltoni

• How I Participate in Social Networks

  Valeria Maltoni

  9 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  I'm borrowing a page off the Communicatrix blog to lay out how I participate in social networks. Why? Because we all have a different strategy to how we spend our time and energy to be social and to achieve our goals and since we have a strategy, in the spirit of social, we should make it transparent. [hat tip to Skip Shuda for suggesting it]I've been getting more than many requests from several people in many networks lately. Requests to friend, requests to tweet, to forward, to bookmark, to stumble, the list goes on. Being online for the best part of my day makes me very accessible. That I…

• Are You Customer-Averse?

  Valeria Maltoni

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  We all know the story of how Comcast went from customer-averse to customer-friendly. It started online with a person, and it's making its way to the rest of the organization. You will agree with me that Comcast went from this episode, to this action, to this thinking. They went from customer-averse, to customer-friendly. It didn't happen overnight, still it did. Competition helps, too, so we keep our fingers crossed on any one company getting too big to care.Businesses continue to look for more ways to get new business either from new or current customers -- usually both, in this order. Shiny…

• Trust in Media Down, Good News for Experts

  Valeria Maltoni

  7 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  Trust in business and Government has gone up in the last year, while trust in media seems to be declining across the board -- this is the latest finding of the latest annual Edelman Trust Barometer survey. Take a look at the executive report and see that:Trust in traditional media is trending downward: TV news dropped by 20 points radio news dropped by 17 points print news dropped by 12 points Trust in digital media is still pretty low, and although corporate communications are trending higher than social networks, they're still not that high.We've all witnessed the decline of stretched news…

• The Future Online is Subscription-Based: Why I Joined Third Tribe

  Valeria Maltoni

  5 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  Clearly, the title left out a few pieces of information. I believe there is still a future online for free, but increasingly, the way to get things done, to go from conversation to agent, is subscription-based. Why? Accountability, resources, self-selected network, and opportunity to syndicate service, for a fee.The service for a fee model interests me most. That's why I joined Third Tribe as a member this week. The whole velvet rope community concept should make brands pay attention. This is not just a build a community to push your products, or just engage customers in your stuff kind of…

• We Still Get Things Done Through Search

  Valeria Maltoni

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  With all the talk about social networks and engagement, when it comes to getting things done, we rely on search. The image above was part of the set I used last Fall at the Inbound Marketing Summit when we talked about the importance of creating content for sharing.There was another interesting study I did not mention at the time that confirms a few of the following statements on social media as content delivery mechanism to: help conversions connect to value build relationships extend to influentials engage via education They are all outcomes I've had the opportunity to experience and…

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  Design Observer: Main Posts

• Phoenix – Barcelona: Cities in Transformation

  Design Observer

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:48 am

  The School of Architecture + Landscape Architecture at Arizona State University sponsors and exhibition and symposium Phoenix – Barcelona: Cities in Transformation.

• Hungarian Rhapsody

  Design Observer

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:06 am

  This collection is the record of the immensely productive life of György Kepes.

• Chicago Self-Park

  Design Observer

  6 Feb 2010 | 10:21 am

  In Chicago Self-Park, editor and photographer Alan Thomas explores the city's large multistory parking structures, which "give the viewer inside a particular way of framing the cityscape beyond."

• DesigNYC

  Design Observer

  5 Feb 2010 | 10:28 am

  DesigNYC is the latest grass-roots organization to match socially minded designers with nonprofits.

• Left Me Speechless

  Design Observer

  4 Feb 2010 | 6:37 am

  Our work should not merely address the political injustices wrought by discriminatory laws: it should register the sense of loss inflicted on those who suffer them.

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  Jeremiah Owyang

• Quicktake: What Google Buzz Means

  jeremiah_owyang

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:26 am

  Google launches status update features Google launches Buzz, which is similar to Friendfeed, which is now part of Facebook. Content will be aggregated, and then prioritized based upon the people you already email with, Harry McCracken and I call this a social graph based on history, “Historical social graph” or HSG. Secondly, this Google Buzz feature will rate and rank content based on activity and interaction within your social group. Users can choose to publish the Buzz in public, which will display on the Google Profile page. They also announced the ability to input this data…

• Register For Webinar: Developing a Social Strategy by Objectives

  jeremiah_owyang

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:11 am

  Left: There are four main categories of social strategy, yet with over 20 subset objectives, which we’ll discuss at a high level. Organizations that focus on social technologies suffer from the symptom of ‘Fondling The Hammer‘ .  True social strategy stems from business objectives –not the latest technologies. So often, companies develop social tactics based on the latest tool that’s sprung forth.  Yet, so far and few in between to organizations develop an actionable plan based on business goals. This second in our no-cost webinar series is coming up on the…

• People on the Move in the Social Media Industry: Feb 4, 2010

  jeremiah_owyang

  4 Feb 2010 | 8:31 pm

  The submissions are defintly picking up, I’m seeing more submissions than before. Why? I attribute this to the start of the new year when many folks change up jobs, and the slight uptick we’re starting to see in the economy. In an effort to recognize the changes in the social media space, I’ve started this post series (see archives) to both track and congratulate folks who get promoted, move, or accept new exciting positions. Please help me congratulate the following folks: Congrats to Jeannette Gibson (Twttier) who has moved to corporate marketing to run social media at…

• Matrix: Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ Into Total Customer Value

  jeremiah_owyang

  3 Feb 2010 | 6:00 am

  Case Study: An Influential Mom Blogger Caused Mainstream Crises Popular blogger, Heather Armstrong (@dooce) was dissatisfied with her non-working Maytag appliance.  Following protocol, she called their support number, yet her issue was not solved.  Stonewalled, she argued/warned the support staff that she was on Twitter, yet didn’t receive special assistance.  Escalating further, she then flexed a muscle and told them she had over 1,000,000 Twitter followers –yet the support rep did not budge.  Finally, she blogged and Tweeted against Maytag, initiating a boycott by her…

• List of Corporate Social Media Strategists, Corporate Community Managers in 2010

  jeremiah_owyang

  30 Jan 2010 | 9:36 am

  As an industry watcher, I look at trends, data, spending, technologies, yet what’s really important is watching the trend of professionals as they grow into these roles managing disruptive technologies.  Update: Brian Hayashi has created a spreadsheet of this with additional info –like Twitter handles. We’re staying coordinated so the data is matched, follow Brian on Twitter. [Connecting with customers using social technologies is deceptively challenging, as most outsiders don't recognize the leadership to change internal cultural. Now, in public, let's recognize those who…

• 
  Seth's Blog

• TEDthink

  Seth Godin

  9 Feb 2010 | 3:00 am

  Can you factor this? If you're like most people, you get a little queasy at the thought. And when you were in tenth grade, you surely wondered why they were bothering you.(the answer is (x-2) times (x-2), in case you were curious.)It turns out that the real reason you needed to do this work was to be able to play with numbers in your head. Abstract numerical thought is an important skill among educated people.Which brings us to TED, a conference held every year in Long Beach. It's going on right now. Watch a few TED videos and try to get ahead of the speaker. They have an idea...it's probably…

• Frightened, clueless or uninformed?

  Seth Godin

  8 Feb 2010 | 2:57 am

  In the face of significant change and opportunity, people are often one of the three. If you're going to be of assistance, it helps to know which one.Uninformed people need information and insight in order to figure out what to do next. They are approaching the problem with optimism and calm, but they need to be taught. Uninformed is not a pejorative term, it's a temporary state.Clueless people don't know what to do and they don't know that they don't know what to do. They don't know the right questions to ask. Giving them instructions is insufficient. First, they need to be sold on what the…

• The least I could do

  Seth Godin

  7 Feb 2010 | 3:35 am

  One way to think about running a successful business is to figure out what the least you can do is, and do that. That's actually what they spent most of my time at business school teaching me.No sense putting more on that pizza, sending more staff to that event, answering the phone in fewer rings... what's the point? No sense being kind, looking people in the eye, being open or welcoming or grateful. Doing the least acceptable amount is the way to maximize short term profit.Of course, there's a different strategy, a crazy alternative that seems to work: do the most you can do instead of the…

• iPad app of my dreams: the digital talking pad

  Seth Godin

  6 Feb 2010 | 8:10 am

  Here's the spec. If you build it and it's great, I'll use it and I'll blog it.A while ago, I posted about the talking pad and a modern version of it.I think there's a killer app version of this for the iPad, and I hope someone will build it. The talking pad is an interactive presentation tool for smart people.OverviewIt's a very simple concept: a collection of pages (slides, images, type, let's call them pages) that are easy to navigate in a non-linear way. Along with the standard zoom features, I'd like to be able to write on any of them in real time using my finger. I can also call up, on…

• The relentless search for "tell me what to do"

  Seth Godin

  6 Feb 2010 | 2:26 am

  If you've ever hired or managed or taught, you know the feeling.People are just begging to be told what to do. There are a lot of reasons for this, but I think the biggest one is: "If you tell me what to do, the responsibility for the outcome is yours, not mine. I'm safe."When asked, resist.

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  Hugh MacLeod: Gaping Void

• the new seth godin “linchpin” prints: available at the gapingvoid gallery

  Hugh MacLeod

  8 Feb 2010 | 3:16 pm

  [The "Linchpin" Series- available over on the gapingvoid Gallery etc.] Last month my friend and mentor, Seth Godin released his longest and probably most important book, “Linchpin”. I interviewed him about it here. To celebrate the book, Seth let me design a portfolio of four fine art prints, inspired by the book, entitled “The Linchpin Series”. You can go check out over on the gapingvoid Gallery here. What else is there to say? Seth wrote a great book. Like I said in my review on Amazon, “And Seth then challenges us, the readers, to become linchpins ourselves.

• women are now calling the shots at gapingvoid

  Hugh MacLeod

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:51 am

  I remember reading one of Tom Peter’s books about five years ago, when this sentence popped right out at me: “Make appealing to women your Marketing No. 1 priority.” It seemed like a very bold statement to me at the time, though Tom’s rationale was rock-solid. Not only do women account for over half of the nation’s GDP, their power over what is spent in the household is vastly greater than their menfolk’s. Sure, it’s a no-brainer. Did I pay any attention at the time? Of course not. I’m a Man. And men are stupid. Fast-forward half a decade and…

• front & back

  Hugh MacLeod

  8 Feb 2010 | 8:08 am

  [Another early one: showing the front & back of the same drawing. Laminated. New York, 14 January, ‘98] This was drawn in a very crowded bar, very late at night. I think it shows.

• the new official gapingvoid logo: “remember who you are”

  Hugh MacLeod

  7 Feb 2010 | 9:14 pm

  This image to the left you should be seeing a lot of from now on, scattered around the gapingvoid empire. It’s now our official logo. OK, so why “Remember Who You Are”? Because it ties up everything I’ve been working on these last few years. First with the cartoons, the prints and the “Cube Grenade” private commissions. Like I said earlier: I’m inte­res­ted in how art affects “The Real World”- the work­place, the world of work, the world of busi­ness. That’s what the Cube Gre­nade idea is all about. My adver­ti­sing buddy, Vinny Warren,…

• “commitment”, revisited

  Hugh MacLeod

  7 Feb 2010 | 12:05 pm

  Within 1 week of meeting this person you realize that not only have you found your soulmate, but you’ve found your soulmate who likes to have sex 4 times a day in the bed, on the dining table, on the kitchen floor, in the changing rooms at Bloomingdale’s etc. Within 2 weeks you’re already talking about moving in together. Within 3 weeks you’re talking about having babies together. Within 4 weeks you realize this person is a complete psychopath. Within 5 weeks this person also thinks you’re a complete psychopath. Within 6 weeks you’re sitting at a restaurant with an old friend who…

• 
  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…

• 
  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…

• 
  Copyblogger

• Does Writing for People Work for SEO?

  Brian Clark

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:16 am

  Hang around web writing circles for any length of time, and the inevitable “write for search engines or write for people” debate comes up. It’s a bit strange, really. Last time I checked, it’s people who use search engines, not some other life form. So you’re always writing for people. Obviously, the debate stems from the fact that search engines are powered by computer algorithms. But as search engines have gotten smarter, writing that pleases people and satisfies spiders is not that far apart, if at all. Let’s look at four factors that work well for SEO and see how well they…

• The Art of Shameless Self-Promotion

  Nathan Hangen

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:49 am

  I’ve found it just doesn’t pay to crow too much about what I’ve accomplished. Sure, I celebrate when things go well. But I’ve found that talking too much about my achievements leads not only to criticism, but to disappointment. There’s always going to be someone who’s done more or worked harder. And until they carve my name into the side of the moon, I see no reason in puffing myself up. The minute you get a big head is the same minute that reality smacks you and you realize that you aren’t as cool as you think you are. So self-adulation is something I try to stay…

• Five Areas to Focus On for Effective SEO Copywriting

  Brian Clark

  5 Feb 2010 | 8:51 am

  When I first started Copyblogger in 2006, I was almost militantly against on-page search optimization. Seems strange, since I’d been a successful student of SEO since 2000. It was because I saw all these people fretting over keywords like it’s 1999, and yet they had no links. Their content was weak. Their sites weren’t trusted. You can’t optimize something that’s dead in the water. So my initial goal was to get people to focus on content that attracted attention and links first. Only then do you have something you can make better (that’s what optimize means, naturally). Fours…

• Landing Page Makeovers 2007-2009: Where Are They Now?

  Roberta Rosenberg

  4 Feb 2010 | 6:46 am

  This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. It occurred to me late last year, as I was readying yet another Landing Page Makeover, that the end of one year and the beginning of the next was a good time to do a “Where are they now?” post. So first things first, I went back and contacted all makeover participants from the very beginning of the series. Of the more than 20 contacted, I learned that one is no longer in business, MagicPumpkinArt.com (Makeover #14) and two are in the midst of developing new products or revising…

• Does SEO Copywriting Still Matter?

  Brian Clark

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:28 am

  If there’s any one thing that can be said about SEO with certainty, it’s that it manages to cause a lot of confusion. For example, it seems like many people’s idea of SEO was formed 10 years ago, and hasn’t bothered to change with the times. Even an online veteran like Robert Scoble is completely clueless about modern best practices for search engine optimization. So, before we go any further, let me answer the question posed by the headline . . . Yes, SEO copywriting still matters. Here’s why. Search is still the biggest game in town “Pick your survey, search remains one of the…

• 
  Chris Brogan

• chrisbrogan: RT @jaybaer: With Social Media "Friends" Like These, Who Needs Friends? http://bit.ly/9pOTjx

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:30 pm

  chrisbrogan: RT @jaybaer: With Social Media "Friends" Like These, Who Needs Friends? http://bit.ly/9pOTjx

• chrisbrogan: RT @Ed: Google Buzz: Google Takes On Twitter, Facebook & Even Foursquare http://selnd.com/b2qhl9 (via @DannySullivan)

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:29 pm

  chrisbrogan: RT @Ed: Google Buzz: Google Takes On Twitter, Facebook & Even Foursquare http://selnd.com/b2qhl9 (via @DannySullivan)

• chrisbrogan: RT @jeffjarvis: Updated my post: 7 profound opportunities I see in #GoogleBuzz: http://bit.ly/bCLjHN

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:29 pm

  chrisbrogan: RT @jeffjarvis: Updated my post: 7 profound opportunities I see in #GoogleBuzz: http://bit.ly/bCLjHN

• chrisbrogan: @avosters - very kind of you. I hope you enjoy your day. :)

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:33 am

  chrisbrogan: @avosters - very kind of you. I hope you enjoy your day. :)

• chrisbrogan: @johnheaney - unless my tweets are driving business. cc: @tentoglou

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:50 am

  chrisbrogan: @johnheaney - unless my tweets are driving business. cc: @tentoglou

• 
  Neuromarketing

• Cookie Framing

  Roger Dooley

  9 Feb 2010 | 5:34 am

  Years ago, when The Tonight Show ruled late-night TV and when all the guests weren’t celebrities promoting their latest book, movie, or TV show, host Johnny Carson interviewed the Girl Scout who sold the most cookies that year. This young lady, Markita Andrews, set a cookie-sales record that has yet to be broken. [...] CommentsThe title of this post caught my eye immediately when it popped ... by Jon

• Post-Super Bowl Briefing

  Roger Dooley

  8 Feb 2010 | 6:36 am

  Very soon, we will be subjected to a variety of neuromarketing-based opinions on which Super Bowl 2010 ads worked, and which didn’t. While we are awaiting these analyses, I thought I’d point readers at a good article on one kind of neuromarketing study methodology by WIRED writer Alexis Madrigal. It’s accurate, largely devoid [...] CommentsHi Roger- Thanks for the post. You are correct that we are in ... by Ron Wright

• Neuromarketing Foes Use Subliminal Text?

  Roger Dooley

  2 Feb 2010 | 5:08 am

  Yesterday I wrote about the latest anti-neuromarketing flap in Guard Your Reptilian Brain! While researching that post, I found an interesting spinoff at another site, Progressives, South Bend. I initially couldn’t find the text “neuromarketing” on that page. When I searched the page text, I found what looked like a short horizontal [...] CommentsGreat catch Roger. As someone very famous once said : Judgment ... by christophe morinhahaha, and I even mentioned subliminals in my comment ... by Sculptor?!?Plus 2 more...

• Guard Your Reptilian Brain!

  Roger Dooley

  1 Feb 2010 | 4:28 am

  Every year or so, some fuzzy-thinking critic reads an article about neuromarketing, becomes extremely agitated, and tries to raise the alarm about marketers turning consumers into mind-controlled zombies. The latest push of the neuro-panic button began with an article on a site called Truthout (fresh out of truth, perhaps?). Truthout seems to be a [...] CommentsThe writers from Truthout are not fully aware that the ... by CindyLet's be fair. To those who don't understand something, it's ... by Brendon ClarkPlus 7 more...

• WIRED Throwing Biometric Super Bowl Party

  Roger Dooley

  29 Jan 2010 | 10:21 am

  Every year, there is a burst of neuromarketing-related activity coinciding with the Super Bowl. After all, that game features commercials that people actually watch, and the cost of airing each ad is the highest of any program throughout the entire year. One staple of Super Bowl Sunday is the party – millions will [...] Comments*reposted to my blog* Thanks Roger! by CindyI am a fan of neuroscience and marketing and am glad that there ... by CindyPlus 2 more...

• 
  The BrandBuilder Blog

• Back by popular demand: Is Your Social Media Director Qualified?

  Olivier Blanchard

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:57 pm

  You guys asked for me to re-post this piece, and your wish is my command. Share this with hiring managers, your CMO, and everyone looking into considering either creating or filling a position requiring Social Media management skills: Tip #1: Social Media Directors should know how to do their jobs without having to ask for help every five minutes: So I look down and the (twitter) DM reads: “Hey, can you help me out? Not sure how to do this. How do I use Twitter to gain traction for my company? Thanks!” I stare at it for a while and decide to blow it off for now, not because I have…

• My Ode to Nutella – Part 2

  Olivier Blanchard

  4 Feb 2010 | 10:21 pm

  If you missed Part 1, click here. In honor of World Nutella Day (today is #NutellaDay) and by special request, here is some completely unauthorized Nutella-inspired nonsense. For extra credit, see if you can figure out what brands those ads were originally for. And last but not least… Have a great World Nutella Day, everyone. Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: nutella

• Where Do Brands Go To Die? Part 2: The Diagnosis

  Olivier Blanchard

  27 Jan 2010 | 4:01 am

  In Part 1 of this series, we looked at what it takes for business managers and CMOs to come to accept that their brand is in trouble. We also discussed why it is often difficult for them to admit that they need help, and how to get over that fear-driven reflex. Today, we are going to look at the next step in fixing a broken or distressed brand: Diagnosing the problem – which usually involves hiring a specialized firm, agency or individual with the skills, insight and experience to help you navigate through this crucial step. (If you screw this one up, everything that comes later is…

• Where Do Brands Go To Die? Part 1: Accepting Reality

  Olivier Blanchard

  25 Jan 2010 | 4:26 pm

  From Brand Building to Brand Rescue: What to do when things go very wrong. Back in late 2008, Valeria Maltoni posed a great question on Conversation Agent: What happens when brands die? It was a fascinating question, and one that frankly doesn’t get enough coverage. Even now, in the middle of a global recession that may have already cost us several: Saturn, Circuit City, and perhaps even Saab, for starters. As companies continue to bleed jobs, sales, profits, liquidity and funding, perhaps this is as good a time as any to start discussing the  topic of… well, the specter of brand…

• Bringing operational wisdom to Enterprise 2.0. Maybe.

  Olivier Blanchard

  18 Jan 2010 | 9:21 am

  Jacob Morgan and I want to bring our wisdom and know-how to the #e2conf in Boston this spring, but we need your help. To be clear, there’s really nothing in it for us: I speak at conferences pretty regularly, so I don’t need the exposure, and as far as I can tell, #e2conf doesn’t pay its session speakers, so Jacob and I aren’t looking for a payday. We want to be there because we feel that what we already teach companies behind closed doors is well worth sharing with the enterprise community at large, especially in the context of enterprise business planning. Not being…

• 
  Ries' Pieces

• Super Bowl Ads 2010

  Laura

  8 Feb 2010 | 12:49 pm

  Best ads of the game Google: Google transformed how we think about search and now Google has transformed how we think about Super Bowl ads. Without any celebrities, special effects or juvenile jokes, Google did what Google does best. It showed us in a simple clear how Google had changed the world. The ad is unlikely to win any creativity awards but unlike most ads I think it made a powerful, lasting impact in the mind on consumers. Doritos: Who needs a fancy award-winning agency when you can hold a contest and get your ads for free? Doritos showed us again that there are a lot of aspiring…

• Verizon and its Atomic Bomb

  Laura

  27 Jan 2010 | 11:02 am

  Marketing wars are fought with lots of words, but wars are won when you combine your words with a visual.                  We have seen several epic marketing wars: The Cola War of Coke vs. Pepsi, The Beer War of Budweiser vs. Miller, The Mouthwash War of Listerine vs. Scope and The Battery War of Duracell vs. Energizer. But they all fail in comparison to the money and firepower currently being expended in the Cellphone War between AT&T and arch-rival Verizon Wireless.

• Domino's Should Apologize

  Laura

  12 Jan 2010 | 10:53 am

        Everybody knows the rule. When you do something wrong, you say you are sorry. As a society we love to scold but we also love to forgive. And the simple act of just “saying” sorry goes a long way in righting many wrongs.       But how, when and why you say you are sorry also matters.       Say it too often and nobody will believe you anymore. Detroit has been begging for forgiveness for decades.       Say it with advertising instead of PR and it looks phony. JetBlue…

• It's what Tiger does next that counts

  Laura

  8 Dec 2009 | 2:02 pm

      Tiger Woods was a rare breed. A phenomenal athlete who delivered consistent record-shattering victories on and off the course with style, grace and integrity.       In an intense game like golf, Tiger built his reputation by performing under pressure. And like his idol Jack Nicklaus, Tiger transcended from being one of the best athletes ever to being one of the best celebrity brands ever.       The latest Forbes Celebrity 100 list put Tiger at number five just behind Angelina, Oprah, Madonna and Beyonce. And ahead of…

• Under Armour: Too Big for its Shirt?

  Laura

  4 Nov 2009 | 12:19 pm

      It's amazing how many of the world's most successful entrepreneurs quickly forget what made them famous.     The latest example is Kevin Plank, CEO of Under Armour.     What made Under Armour famous? It wasn't a Super Bowl ad. It wasn't a massive marketing campaign. It wasn't ego or hype. What made Under Armour famous was "performance apparel" a new category Kevin created and carefully nurtured.      As an ex-Maryland football player, Kevin Plank was sick of wearing sweat-soaked cotton T-shirts. So he visited New York City’s garment district and found a polyester-Lycra…

• 
  Online Marketing Blog

• Two Biggest Advantages of Small Businesses SEO

  Adam Singer

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  With search engine optimization, small businesses have two advantages larger competitors often can’t match: creativity and agility. By embracing these two philosophies as part of their digital marketing DNA, small businesses can carve out a search marketing strategy that runs circles around larger competitors. Today, we’ll briefly explore why creativity and agility are advantages small businesses have for search marketing, and some quick tips to activate each. Creativity as a search marketing advantage Large = more risk management – Small = creativity/individuality can…

• 5 Ways to Show Digital Assets a Little Respect

  Michelle Bowles

  5 Feb 2010 | 5:00 am

  Don't ignore digital assets in your optimization efforts Don’t fight it: Blended search results, and hence digital asset optimization, are here (at least for now). Text content may be your SEO poster child, but with images, video and audio content often appearing in standard search results, digital assets can no longer be treated as the ugly stepsister in the online marketing family. Many companies produce a variety of content and media that never make it to the public web. To this point, the majority of marketers have either overlooked or ignored optimization of non-text digital…

• BIGLIST Update: SEM Blog Reviews Snarky Edition 020410

  Lee Odden

  4 Feb 2010 | 4:13 pm

  Welcome to the newest  BIGLIST review of Search Marketing Blogs. We have a little bit of everything today ranging from Chinese focused PPC to the World’s Greatest SEO to a steaming pile of SEO Bull$#*t. Enjoy! If you think your blog deserves to be included, then write a compelling and maybe humorous comment below. We’ll almost certainly ignore it but you never know. The SEO blog design recognition for this week’s BIGLIST update goes to a newer blog from an experienced search marketer:  SEO Mofo. I like the clean, yet colorful (and irreverent) design of this blog by…

• 2010 MarketingSherpa Social Media Marketing Guide

  Lee Odden

  3 Feb 2010 | 9:00 am

  One of the most trusted sources of marketing research and information is MarketingSherpa. I’ve been a subscriber for many years and always look forward to the reports on Search Marketing, Email Marketing and B2B Marketing. Last year MarketingSherpa started conducting research and publishing a Benchmark Report on social media marketing. The new Social Media Marketing Benchmark Report was recently released and I’ve had a few days to take a look and will provide a review for our readers. As you can expect, this guide is a “meaty” 250 plus pages of research, charts &…

• Upcoming TopRank Social SEO & PR Events

  Lee Odden

  3 Feb 2010 | 4:00 am

  Our team works hard to stay on top of current best practices and as a result, we’re asked to speak at a variety of conferences, workshops and webinars. One of the goals at TopRank Online Marketing is to help companies better understand the current landscape of the digital marketing & PR environment. That includes strategies that can be executed more efficiently and marketing programs that can adjust to persistent change. Hopefully you’ll find an event below that fits your needs. Feb 9, 2010 Webinar: Secrets to B2B Marketing Success TopRank, along with our client Marketo and…

• 
  The Tom Peters Weblog

• Link Roundup #12

  Shelley Dolley

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:20 am

  Keller Graduate School of Management has an online roundtable discussion series on how "businesses of any size can encourage an environment of corporate entrepreneurship." The Job Search Difficulty Index "measures the difficulty of finding a job" either by state or major U.S. city. For January, as I'm sure you can guess, Michigan was the the most difficult state in which to find a job. With the current state of the job market, many people are turning to self-employment. Reader Stephen Garner pointed us to How to Succeed in the Age of Going Solo from the Wall Street Journal. If you're as…

• Leadership: The Problem Isn't the Problem

  Cathy Mosca

  3 Feb 2010 | 2:16 pm

  Tom argues that the reaction to the problem often becomes more of a problem than the original misstep would have been if dealt with honestly. As he's been known to say: "Foul up. Fess up. Fast. Fastidiously." You can watch the 2:10 minute video on YouTube and, if you like, download a PDF of its transcript.

• Scary!

  Tom Peters

  1 Feb 2010 | 4:59 am

  Scariest start of an article award 2010, from yesterday's New York Times: "China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world's largest maker of wind turbines, and is poised to expand even further this year. China has also leapfrogged the West in the last two years to emerge as the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels. And the country is pushing equally hard to build nuclear reactors and the most efficient types of coal power plants. These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may…

• The Fortune Guy Is the One With the Problem

  Tom Peters

  28 Jan 2010 | 12:22 pm

  There's a Fortune article on a Goldman guy who quit. ("The Man Who Walked Away from Goldman Sachs," William Cohan, 0208.10.) The Goldman guy was worried about Goldman doing a header like Lehman. The Fortune guy wrote: ""If Goldman's stock went to zero as Lehman Brothers' had ... then Winkelried's decades of hard work would be vaporized in the blip of a Bloomberg screen." What a horror. Namely, the fact that the Fortune guy could produce that sentence, presumably with no sense of irony. Suppose my net worth was 100.000% wiped out this morning. I would be unhappy. Very unhappy. But ... But…

• What is Excellence?

  Seth Godin

  26 Jan 2010 | 3:59 am

  [Our guest blogger is Seth Godin, who needs no further introduction here. We'd like to thank him very much for this, his first post at tompeters.com.] Twenty-five years ago, my life (and yours, too, probably) was changed by Tom and Bob's book, In Search of Excellence. After that, on a regular basis, Tom has provided us with shots of brilliance and unsettling reminders that we've got a long way to go to reach our potential as organizations and individuals. Along the way, there's a question that's been nibbled at but never really answered. I mean, I already know many of the 687 ways to create…

• 
  Influential Marketing

• Twiangulate Lets You Follow Your Followers' Followers

  Rohit

  9 Feb 2010 | 12:12 am

  Let me go on the record to say that if you happen to be a vendor of some type of social networking solution or software that would be useful for an agency like Ogilvy, hands down one of your most effective methods of advertising has to be to target the Ogilvy network on Facebook with a customized ad. I have seen several ads like this for solutions and find myself always clicking on them - not because they say Ogilvy but because I presume that someone has done their homework and identified that whatever they are promoting is particularly relevant for someone who works at an agency like ours.

• The Emasculated Man, Super Bowl Ad Themes & 5 Best Strategic Ads

  Rohit

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:31 am

  For several years now, I've taken the slightly different approach to doing a recap post of Super Bowl ads and instead of focusing on which ones I thought were the best or most entertaining, I try to break them down from a marketing point of view to share some lessons for anyone in marketing who may not have been able to afford the $2+ million dollar price tag to experiment on the Super Bowl on their own (ie - most of us!). This year, there were lots of examples of what NOT to do, as there usually are. So to start, here are a few major themes across this year's Super Bowl ads, including a…

• The 52nd Grammys Offer Hope For The Future Of Music

  Rohit

  31 Jan 2010 | 10:01 pm

  Last night was an unlikely stage to unveil the future of music. The 52nd Annual Grammys were on the last Sunday in January as they have been many times before ... only this time they were up head to head against the NFL Pro Bowl being played for the first time in the week before the Super Bowl instead of the week after. Add to that the continued financial woes of the music industry and perception of recording studios as relics of a time past and you had the perfect recipe for a show that was at best mildly entertaining, and at worst completely irrelevant. That's what I might have thought a…

• The Undiscovered Marketing Potential Of A USB Stick

  Rohit

  26 Jan 2010 | 3:58 am

  My laptop doesn't have a CD-ROM drive. Like many owners of smaller notebooks, I don't see the value of having that piece built into my computer as I would rather save the space and have a lighter and smaller machine. As netbooks become more and more popular and the rumored tablet becomes a reality (either from Apple or other manufacturers), larger computers with built-in CD-ROM drives will be less and less common. Despite this shift, most content you can purchase today is only offered in two forms of distribution. You can either download something off the web, or you can buy a physical disk…

• Social Media & The Axe Murderer: How Privacy Is Evolving Online

  Rohit

  25 Jan 2010 | 10:30 am

  Everyone knows there are certain pieces of information that you just don't share online, right? What if you used Twitter or Foursquare to broadcast your location at a bar, and an axe murderer was reading your stream? You just signed your own death sentence. Or how about sharing details about where you live and or pictures of your family vacation, or even your innermost thoughts and emotions? All are things that are getting easier and easier to share online, both purposefully AND inadvertently. Combine this with a new generation used to a different standard of privacy and you have a recipe for…

• 
  trendwatching.com

• February 2010 | FUNCTIONALL

  24 Jan 2010 | 5:01 pm

  FUNCTIONALL highlights a new breed of products that are simple / small / cheap (with a dash of sustainability), giving them global appeal, from India to Sweden. Now, if that doesn't warrant a brainstorming session... Read FUNCTIONALL »

• December 2009 | 10 CRUCIAL CONSUMER TRENDS FOR 2010

  16 Nov 2009 | 5:01 pm

  All yours: ten consumer trends that will inspire you to introduce new products and services over the next 12 months. Remember, you can't shrink your way to greatness ;-) Read 10 CRUCIAL CONSUMER TRENDS FOR 2010 »

• October 2009 | NOWISM

  12 Oct 2009 | 6:01 pm

  As the future is uncertain, and the past is, well, the past, instant-gratification seeking consumers are embracing anything that is 'real-time' with more passion than ever before. And despite this trend's seemingly ephemeral character, it is rich in solid, applicable trend examples... Read NOWISM »

• September 2009 | TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH

  30 Aug 2009 | 6:01 pm

  Think 'transparency' is an established, maturing theme? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Here’s a fresh look at the latest and greatest in the transparency arena, where savvy consumers (as well as on-trend brands) can score triumph after triumph. Read TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH »

• August 2009 | Catching-up is the new looking ahead

  14 Jul 2009 | 6:01 pm

  Instead of ambushing you with yet another Big New Trend this month, we decided to make life (somewhat) easier for all of us, and send you an overview of the trends we have so far highlighted in 2009. From ECO-TRANSIENT to LESS & LONGING. Please study the theory, scan the many examples, and get ready for a no doubt turbulent remainder of 2009... Read Catching-up is the new looking ahead »

• 
  TechCrunchIT

• Synctus Aims To Speed Up Inter-Branch File Sharing

  David Diaz

  9 Feb 2010 | 2:10 am

  Larry Ellison isn’t the only one who has his reservations regarding the legitimacy of cloud computing. Synctus, a bootstrapped Manchester-based startup, is emerging from stealth with the introduction of a hardware product that aims to increase the speed and efficiency of file sharing between different offices of the same company. Traditional file sharing between branches often relies on virtual private networks (VPNs). But when a VPN is utilized by multiple users, it is many times bogged down due to the fact that every action has to be relayed to the main office and back again to the…

• Apotheker Steps Down As CEO Of Enterprise Software Giant SAP

  Leena Rao

  8 Feb 2010 | 11:43 pm

  Business software giant SAP was rocked by a change of guard this week as CEO Leo Apotheker resigned on Sunday. He is to be replaced by Bill McDermott, head of field organization, and Jim Hagemann Snabe, head of product development. Apotheker will also relinquish his role as a member of the SAP executive board. The New York Times reported today that SAP “would focus on restoring its damaged customer relationships,” after the executive shakeup. Hasso Plattner, co-Founder of SAP and Chairman of the SAP Supervisory Board, will continue to advise the company. In a statement issued…

• Oracle Buys AmberPoint To Boost Application Management And Performance Offerings

  Leena Rao

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:39 am

  On the heels of the EU's approval of Oracle's $7.4 billion deal to acquire Sun Microsystems, the tech giant has opened up the purse strings to acquire application management software provider AmberPoint. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and the acquisition is expected to close in the first half of this year.

• I Want my iTV

  Steve Gillmor

  6 Feb 2010 | 4:16 pm

  Rumors of the death of Flash are greatly exaggerated, says Jeremy Allaire in a TechCrunch guest post. Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch touts the ability to update the millions of Flash-powered devices over the network. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz resigns in realtime over Twitter. Nexus One updates the Android OS in realtime when I switch it on this morning. The iPad arrives in March. Here’s another couple: Netflix streaming is now available on PlayStation, Wii, and Xbox, over Silverlight on Macs and PCs, and via 48% of its customers in the fourth quarter. The company expects 66% will stream by…

• Here Goes the Sun

  Steve Gillmor

  4 Feb 2010 | 12:17 am

  Jonathan Schwartz deserves better. Sure, he’s got a rich payout from his years at Sun. Sure, he’s leaving because Ellison doesn’t need anybody explaining why the cloud is a good thing. Sure, there are a lot of hurting people who can use Jonathan as an easy target for what’s become of the dot in dot.com. But what Jonathan did for Sun, and the rest of the industry, was to twist the conventional wisdom of the enterprise into a new shape now being leveraged by a host of successful players. Jonathan somehow got that ubiquity in the consumer space would translate into…

• 
  Being Peter Kim

• What you can learn from Forrester's new blogging policy

  Peter Kim

  9 Feb 2010 | 6:02 am

  I've been following the discussion around Forrester's new blogging policy. In case you weren't aware, I was formerly a Forrester analyst covering social computing and wrote some of the early drafts of the company's blogging policy. Now I'm building a strategy consulting practice at Dachis Group and advising companies on social business - wherein policies and guidelines play an important role. Based on my experience, I understand where Forrester's management is coming from. Forrester makes their money by curating information and social media poses a threat to its core intellectual property.

• Super Bust XLIV

  Peter Kim

  8 Feb 2010 | 5:08 am

  Outside of Indianapolis and New Orleans, most of the U.S. will have forgotten about Super Bowl XLIV by Monday evening.  Across the US, most of the ads were forgotten by the time viewers fell asleep Sunday night. Enough about how bad the ads were in general.  [Along with the halftime show.]  Many ads deserve their own special recognition and I'd like to highlight some of them here, by category. The violent:1. Snickers2. The movie/video game trailers 3. Doritos The sexually suggestive:1. GoDaddy2. CareerBuilder3. Motorola The heartstrings appeals:1. Google2. Coca-Cola3.

• Four years ago today

  Peter Kim

  28 Jan 2010 | 8:30 am

  I started this blog on a snowy Saturday in Boston, telling you about how I learned to love the blog. A lot has changed in social media since then. Curiously, my early posts are closer in style to tweets or posterizing than the long form that I publish here more often. Thanks for reading!

• Case Study: Managing Risk in Regulated Industries

  Peter Kim

  26 Jan 2010 | 7:00 am

  Common wisdom says that being a large company in a regulated industry somewhat forfeits your ability to conduct business in a social manner. There are just too many rules; it's just too risky. Right? There is some truth to this belief, but we think there are several ways to engage. Think of social engagement in phases, balanced by the risk and reward of each. Dachis Group recently finished an engagement with a client that operates in a regulated industry. We conducted a thorough analysis of their social media landscape and recommended several ways to move towards becoming a more social…

• The Marketer’s New Clothes

  Peter Kim

  12 Jan 2010 | 6:12 am

  Not too long ago there was a marketer, who was obsessively focused on “the next big thing” and spent a great deal of his budget on the latest fads; his only ambition was to be written up in Ad Age and Brandweek. He did not care for sales spreadsheets and customer databases did not interest him; the only thing that really interested him was to focus on the next brand campaign. The industry in which he worked was very social and every day many new agencies from around the world gave him a call. One day an agency came calling and let everyone know they were social media gurus and could build…

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  KillerStartups.com - all

• GreenGoose.com - A Different Way To Save Energy

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:08 am

  A service that might seem a little on the gimmicky side but which turns out to work quite well, Green Goose will let you estimate how much energy you are spending and how much you could consequently save. This solution is web-based, and it also entails buying a basket of green eggs to measure your expenditure. Yes, you read right.Read moreLearn more about GreenGoose.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much GreenGoose.com is worth with Stimator.com

• Dcyder.com - For Women In Need Of Advice

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:05 am

  Dcyder is a brand new site that aims to let women young and seasoned alike convene online and answer questions collectively. That is, the dynamics of the site imply that one asks a question and the online community will then offer its insight. The questions that are featured go by the names of “dilemmas”, and they range far and wide.Read moreLearn more about Dcyder.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much Dcyder.com is worth with Stimator.com

• CapsuleCRM.com - Managing Customers In An Easy Way

  9 Feb 2010 | 11:03 am

  Small businesses could find a visit to the Capsule website convenient. In general terms, Capsule is a management system both for customers and sales teams. Using it, anybody can keep the ones he does business with fully in track, and never let any vital communication slip unheeded.Read moreLearn more about CapsuleCRM.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much CapsuleCRM.com is worth with Stimator.com

• ToDoTweet.com - Managing Your Tweets

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:59 am

  There are people out there that use Twitter for more than letting us all know that they are watching the final season of “Lost” , and reminding us about that every five minutes. There are actually people to whom Twitter is a true professional tool, and these individuals are the ones who will maximize this site for certain. TodoTweet is a task manager for Twitter.Read moreLearn more about ToDoTweet.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much ToDoTweet.com is worth with Stimator.com

• Bandize.com - For Bands That Want To Be Organized

  9 Feb 2010 | 10:59 am

  There is no reason why a band shouldn’t be run like a serious business. I mean, it is not like Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention sang - nobody is “only in it for the money”, but money is there and it is a big part of the equation. So is keeping your finances in order - you don’t want to end like Willie Nelson and record an album just to pay the Inland Revenue Service.Read moreLearn more about Bandize.com in Dataopedia.comFind out how much Bandize.com is worth with Stimator.com

• 
  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, ...

• 
  trendsspotting blog

• Is Twitter “Losing” or “Gaining”? Recent Stats

  Taly Weiss

  26 Jan 2010 | 8:26 pm

  Recent analysis by RJMetrics pulled from Twitter’s API may suggest that Twitter is losing popularity: The average Twitter user has 27 followers, down from 42 followers in August 2009. Twitter is losing 20% from its July peak: The monthly rate of new user accounts is currently around 6.2 million new accounts per month (or 2-3 per second). A large percentage of Twitter accounts are inactive, with about 25% of accounts having no followers and about 40% of accounts having never sent a single Tweet. Only about 17% of registered Twitter accounts sent a Tweet in December 2009, an all-time-low.

• Summary: TrendsSpotting 2010 Influencers Series: Trend Predictions in 140 Characters

  Taly Weiss

  20 Jan 2010 | 2:41 pm

  TrendsSpotting Market Research has completed the release of the “2010 Influencers Series: Trend predictions in 140 characters”. We have followed major trends in six of the most promising categories to dominate the web this year: Social media | Consumer Trends | Tech and IT | Online Marketing | Video | Mobile. In this series we featured the predictions of digital and marketing experts on the big changes awaiting us. By adopting the “tweet style” format (limited to 140 characters), we were able to provide our readers with a more focused image of the predicted trends. Many of…

• 2010 Mobile Influencers: Trend Predictions in 140 characters (6th report)

  Taly Weiss

  18 Jan 2010 | 12:20 am

  “2010 Mobile Influencers” is the sixth and last report from the series “2010 Influencers Series: Trend Predictions in 140 Characters“. Findings: Major trends in 2010 Mobile: Across many of these predictions, we have identified the following trends suggested to influence Mobile in 2010: # Payment      # Commerce      #Metrics # Advertising:  networks,  SMS, display, search, premium # Smartphones: Apple, Apps, iPhone, Google, Android # GPS      # Location      # Augmented Reality # Gaming      # Music      # Video 2010 Mobile Influencers: Trend Predictions in…

• 2010 Video Influencers: Trend Predictions in 140 characters (5th report)

  Taly Weiss

  8 Jan 2010 | 2:39 am

  “2010 Video Influencers” is the fifth report from the series “2010 Influencers Series: Trend Predictions in 140 Characters“. Findings: Major trends in 2010 Online Video: Across many of these predictions, we have identified the following trends suggested to influence Online Video in 2010: # TV Everywhere      #live      #mainstream      #search #data      #direct      #mobile      #standards #advertising      #30- second #YouTube      #Hulu      #boxee 2010 Video Influencers: Trend Predictions in 140 characters, by TrendsSpotting View more slides from…

• 2010 Online Marketing Influencers: Trend Predictions in 140 characters (4th report)

  Taly Weiss

  5 Jan 2010 | 8:34 am

  “2010 Online Marketing Influencers” is the fourth report from the series “2010 Influencers Series: Trend Predictions in 140 Characters“. Findings: Major trends in 2010 Online Marketing: Across many of these predictions, we have identified the following trends suggested to influence Online Marketing in 2010: #social media #games #e-mail #real time #direct response #measurement #mobile #geo-location #video #niche 2010 Online Marketing Influencers: Trend Predictions in 140 characters by Trendsspotting View more slides from TrendsSpotting. TrendsSpotting Market Research is now running its…

• 
  Brains On Fire Blog

• Care is a big word

  Spike

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:04 am

  This blog post was inspired by a with Kira Wampler, Word of Mouth/Social Marketing Leader at Intuit Inc. What do I care? Why should I care? What do your customers care about? For the company that doesn’t, “care” is a four-letter word. For the company that does, “care” is a big word. Huge even. Because when you care, emotion enters into the equation. For some companies, emotion is a scary thing. Because emotion doesn’t show up as a line-item on a P&L report. Emotion can make things very sticky. And emotion is unpredictable. But caring can be your…

• Doodle Book…

  Geno

  8 Feb 2010 | 7:55 am

  If I’m sitting in a meeting, or an airplane, or at dinner… I’m usually doodling. I’ve kinda refined my doodle’s to be a personal gathering spot for ideas, reflection, and fears. Last week I was traveling with Robbin Phillips to Austin, Texas and she spied on one my doodles. Robbin thought it was worth posting. This particular doodle is a continuous doodle thought…

• Twitter. A love story.

  Robbin

  5 Feb 2010 | 7:37 am

  Photo by the Hotel Saint Cecilia pool via Geno Church and his trusty iphone Okay. I woke up this morning – a gray day in Green Vegas – but the sun was shining in my heart. Can’t explain it really. Maybe it is because I am getting out of town. Austin. One of my favorite cities. And I have decided I might stay the weekend and play around. With that smile in my heart, I read this direct message from someone on Twitter. I won’t give his name but I want to share. Indulge me: yrs ago, i sent my wife a link to your site and said, one day i’m going to build my company like that:…

• On anthropology and what you are doing for your closest fans

  Eric

  4 Feb 2010 | 7:56 am

  Who’s heard of Robin Dunbar? For those of you who haven’t, his most widely known work as an anthropologist is called “Dunbar’s Number,” which proposes that the ceiling of ’stable interpersonal relationships’ that the average person can maintain is 150. Though his initial work studied groups of people offline, he has recently moved his research online to study the same principle in social networks. Aside from being thought-provoking in and of itself, the variety of responses that Dunbar’s research has drawn is also interesting. Some people use…

• Invoulntary ambassador

  Spike

  3 Feb 2010 | 8:53 am

  Maybe you’re not in a formal ambassador program or even consider yourself an ambassador of, well, anything really. But when you start thinking about it, you might be surprised that you choose or not choose to be an ambassador every day. Case in point, if you’re a runner and like to run outside in public places (like downtown), more than likely you’ve been stopped and asked directions by pedestrians or even drivers. At that moment, you have a decision to make. Because in that moment, you can choose to be an ambassador for your city. You can choose to take the time to stop and…

• 
  Signal vs. Noise

• PHOTO: Stewart Butterfield's resignation letter

  37signals

  9 Feb 2010 | 8:12 am

  Stewart Butterfield’s resignation letter from Yahoo (from Watching the birth of Flickr co-founder’s gaming start-up)

• PHOTO: There's quality control for you. This is

  David

  8 Feb 2010 | 4:06 pm

  There’s quality control for you. This is the latest entries in the Entertainment category on iTunes.

• The App Store: Quality control without the quality

  David

  8 Feb 2010 | 1:42 pm

  I love my iPhone and I love Apple (cue images of flag pins and “I love muh countray!”), but I believe they’re blowing it with the App Store gate keeping. That’s of course not a new opinion. Developers left and right have been decrying the broken process. But there’s nothing like feeling it on your own bones to make the point. We have a couple of new features in the wing for Campfire. They’ve been done for more than 10 days now. Why haven’t we released them yet? Because the iPhone app Ember needed to have a simple regular expression updated to support…

• Scope a variable to a block in your template code

  Ryan

  8 Feb 2010 | 10:38 am

  Sometimes you are coding a template and you need to refer to the same method chain over and over. For example, you’re coding a template that summarizes activity on recent messages. You iterate through a block of messages, and for each message you want to display some information pertaining to the last comment. You could do it like this: <div class="active_messages"> <% @active_messages.each do |message| %> <h1><%= message.title %></h1> <div class="latest_comment"> <div class="avatar"> <%= avatar_for(message.comments.last.creator) %>…

• Descriptive words and phrases found on a $6 bottle of hand soap

  Jason F.

  8 Feb 2010 | 9:38 am

  Extremely mild Richly foaming Naturally gentle Deeply cleanses Nourishes Pure and soothing Synergistically Refresh and restore Skin radiance Cool soothing Protects and restores balance Harmonize and replenish Additional moisturizing benefit What doesn’t this stuff do? Lather up and this naturally gentle, richly foaming, pure and soothing nourishing cleanser will synergistically refresh, harmonize, replenish, protect and restore balance with cool soothing botanicals. Kinda ridiculous, isn’t it? Reading this should remind you to read your own site, your own marketing copy, your own…