April 28, 2008

I attended a conference in Houston this week and I lost count on how many times I heard "I don't know what I'd say" in response to why that person wasn't blogging or on Twitter. But by the end of the conference on Tuesday, I was talking to many of these same people on Twitter.

April 14, 2008

There's been much discussion recently, and some concern, over the idea that as our blog content becomes more easily distributed, that the overall conversation around each post may suffer.

April 10, 2008

It's a question we bloggers hear early and often from friends, family members, current and potential clients. What IS the big deal about blogging anyway?

April 2, 2008

For all the talk about how individual blogs have been growing for the past years, it seems that only bloggers with massive amounts of traffic have been able to make any serious coin from their blogging. Perhaps both bloggers and advertisers should instead be looking to monetize their influence, and not their traffic?

March 21, 2008

Starbucks announced Wednesday that it is launching a new customer-suggestion site MyStarbucksIdea. The site will take customer ideas and let the community rate and vote on their favorites, similar to Dell's groundbreaking Ideastorm site. But the big question now becomes: Will Starbucks actually be willing to act on the ideas that the community supports?

March 19, 2008

Last week I finally made my first trip to the Geekfest that is South By Southwest. And if SXSW really is a sign of what's to come, there were some interesting trends that marketers should be following.

March 5, 2008

Starting Friday, thousands will descend upon Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest festival, and I will happily be among them. The festival has become THE place where tech startups come to hopefully win over attendees with their hot new app/widget/site.

February 26, 2008

I am learning the hard way that Twitter, while a valuable social media tool, can also be very high maintenance. Despite telling myself that I could handle following 400 then 500 then 600 members, I finally hit Twitter overload. It was time to re-organize my Twitter community.

February 14, 2008

A new study by NYU has revealed that blog chatter about upcoming CD releases does more to increase CD sales than how many "friends" an artist adds on MySpace. But the findings also tap into the potential of embracing customer evangelists in industries other than music.

February 4, 2008

Kraft is hoping the answer is "yes." Two of the company's brand managers have donned blogging caps to try to drum up excitement for a new low fat version of its Philadelphia Cream Cheese. The blog, at AdamandTyler.com, features a pair of brand managers as they develop and execute a marketing strategy for the launch of 1/3 Less Fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

January 29, 2008

Dell announced last week that the company is joining (PRODUCT) RED along with Microsoft. Dell will add RED products to its lineup, with a portion of the sale price benefiting The Global Fund. This by itself isn't a particularly newsworthy item, as several large companies have joined the (PRODUCT) RED campaign. But if we look at how Dell became involved in this initiative, well that's a pretty interesting story...

January 16, 2008

Blogs, for all their hype and promise, don't function very well as a direct-selling channel. But that doesn't mean that blogs can't increase sales, and no one knows that better than the brand manager for Masi Bicycles.

January 9, 2008

This week at CES, Deloitte released a second edition of its State of the Media Democracy survey, designed to examine how Americans are interacting with emerging technologies and content. The survey's finding were interesting, and reinforce the notion that social and digital content continues to enjoy healthy growth.

January 8, 2008

It happens all the time. A business sets up a blog, it looks great, the content is excellent, and yet they couldn't buy a comment. These companies are learning a hard lesson that Mike Sansone once explained best as "content may be king, but community is the kingdom it serves." But in such a chicken/egg senario, what happens when you don't have that community?

December 20, 2007

Your instructions are clear; proceed to a nearby bakery and give them the name "Robin Banks" (Robbin' Banks, get it?). There you'll receive a cake with the words "Call Me Now!" written in icing, along with a phone number.

December 19, 2007

Proving that there's no reason why all those young whipper-snappers should have all the fun, behold Pensionbook, the Facebook for old people! The names of the groups these guys are joining are hilarious, and how can you not love that they poke each other....with their walking sticks?!?

December 17, 2007

As more and more companies begin experimenting with social media, they struggle with how to get the results they desire. This is usually because these companies view social media as a direct selling channel, instead of as a way to create value for others. Here's an example from a few days ago of how content to that's found to be valuable can spread very quickly.

December 14, 2007

A new report by Strategy Analytics claims that roughly one out of every 6 people on the face of the earth will be using social media in 5 years. The report also adds that there are currently approximately 373 million people using social media.

November 13, 2007

Creating a "social media campaign" doesn't have to be as daunting as it sounds. In fact, in many cases, your customers and evangelists are already doing the heavy-lifting for you, you just have to bring it all together.

October 17, 2007

As Facebook becomes the hot social networking site of the moment, companies are salivating for a way to reach its millions of members. So I wrote a premium article for MarketingProfs that walks companies through the steps necessary to make BIG money on Facebook, and on any social site/network.

October 15, 2007

Vaspers the Grate has a "grate" list of 20 Reasons a Business Should NOT Blog. They are all spot-on, but I wanted to mention a few of my favorites here. Don't blog...if your business...

September 26, 2007

Social media gives us all -- you, me, your customers -- the ability to create and publish content, for free. So why does that matter to you and your company?

September 20, 2007

A new report from ComScore promises to track the readership for blogs, both popular and obscure. The report, entitled Conversational Media Report, according to ComScore comes from working with Federated Media Publishing, which sells advertising on many existing blogs.

August 22, 2007

Ann let me know about a Twit from Michael concerning several evangelists for the V1, a three-wheeled alternative energy vehicle, organizing themselves and attacking a blogger that they felt painted their beloved V1 in a negative light.

August 7, 2007

I read an interesting story about how South Africa is attempting to curb the spread of AIDS by making condoms available to students. On the surface, the plan appears to be working, as the condoms are very popular with the intended audience.

July 25, 2007

Todd Andrlik, who publishes a list of the top 150 ad/pr/marketing blogs, announced Monday that Ad Age will soon begin publishing his list, which he calls the Power 150. As Todd explains, Ad Age can now reference bloggers in its articles such as “according to David Armano’s Logic+Emotion, No. 15 on the Power 150 ranking of marketing blogs.”

July 20, 2007

Andy and Jake are pretty excited that WalMart.com, as of Thursday, is allowing customers to rate and review all the products it sells. That's right, all of them. The feature was rushed into implementation after a testing-phase produced twice the number of expected customer submissions.

June 28, 2007

The other day I was checking out Monster's blog, and while at first glance it appears to be a solid company blog, I noted a glaring problem. The blog's comment policy states that "Comments are moderated; they should appear on the Monster Blog within one business day." One business day? Are you kidding me?

June 19, 2007

Chris Thomas likes sandwiches. In particular, he likes the sandwiches at his local Which Wich sandwich shop. So much so that he decided to not only eat one of every 51 sandwiches the shop offers, but he's blogging the experience. And he's gotten his readers involved, before each installment, he will give his readers several different sandwiches, and ask them to tell him which one he should eat that day.

June 14, 2007

One of the biggest areas that most company blogs seem to struggle with, is how to position its content. The natural inclination for many companies is to use a blog as strictly a promotional vehicle. But of course, readers are looking for information and content that will inform and entertain them.

June 8, 2007

As you may have heard, fans of the CBS series Jericho have accomplished their goal of bringing the series back after the network cancelled it. The series, which CBS originally canceled after one season, was saved when its fans rallied together to petition the network via signatures... and nuts.

June 6, 2007

Over the weekend I listened (once again) to a podcast that Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba did with Maker's Mark CEO Bill Samuels, Jr. In the episode, Samuels gives the fascinating account of what the distillery's marketing mindset was, which they dubbed "marketing without fingerprints."

May 21, 2007

Business Week recently ran an article on how Nintendo has "given up control" of its marketing message in promoting its Wii gaming console. The article focused on how Nintendo was going where their customers are -- be it malls, parties or MySpace.

May 2, 2007

Nikon recently became the latest company to include bloggers in its promotional efforts when it launched its 'Picture This' blogger-outreach program. The program involved sending a Nikon D80 digital camera to 50 "online personalities," including myself. We are allowed to use the "loaner" cameras for six months.

April 17, 2007

How many times have we seen a company do this? They start blogging, and their initial efforts are less than spectacular. We forget that many of us had the same hiccups when we started our own blogs. It takes time and quite a bit of trial and error to run a successful company blog. By now, many blogs need a checkup.

April 12, 2007

Recently I had a marketing group contact me about helping their client with a music promotion. They were working with a band that wanted to give away CDs to music bloggers in order to boost exposure for their client. Since I frequently blog about music marketing, it might have seemed like my blog was a perfect fit for this promotion, but it wasn't the case.

April 9, 2007

Have you noticed that so many companies continue to struggle to come to grips with how to reach their customers? Especially online, customers are communicating by using tools such as blogs, podcasts, and wikis, and companies are left wondering what in the world is happening.

March 14, 2007

I'm hearing from more and more companies/individuals that want to know how to create online communities. Most imply, and some come outright and say, that they want to create an online community so they can monetize it.

February 22, 2007

More and more companies are adding a blog to their marketing efforts. That's the good news. The bad news is, many of these companies aren't using their blogs as a tool to engage their customers, but rather as an extension of their Web site, as a way to simply promote their products and services.

February 7, 2007

One of the first '"blogging truths" most of us hear when we start blogging, is that you can measure the health of your blog by looking at its traffic. This idea has caused me some confusion for months, as I've watched my blog appear to be growing steadily, yet the traffic doesn't reflect that....

January 11, 2007

Paul McEnany isn't a regular customer of Kohls, but he decided to visit his local store last month. And what he saw shocked him into action....

December 29, 2006

As I told a fellow blogger yesterday, one of the great things about blogging is that every post is a new experiment in viral marketing....

December 7, 2006

I was watching an interview with Willie Davidson, grandson of the co-founder of Harley-Davidson, earlier this year. The interviewer asked Davidson if the motorcycle maker did any market research to determine more about the wants and needs of their customers....

November 30, 2006

David Armano had a great post recently on Logic + Emotion asking his readers what, in their opinion, was the most significant event or aspect of 2006 in regards to marketing, advertising or user experience.

Many wonderful comments were left, and as I thought about the question for myself, I came to my own conclusion....

October 25, 2006

If your blog accepts comments, then you have four alternatives when you receive a negative comment on your blog....

October 17, 2006

Embrace the chaos, or be consumed by it. The future of the music industry lies in the hands of those labels, artists and individuals that are brave enough to relinquish control today....

October 11, 2006

At the annual ANA conference last week, the big companies talked a good talk.

September 20, 2006

When the New Jersey Nets wanted to boost sales of their season ticket packages, one thing was obvious: They were going to have to start eating more pancakes....

September 12, 2006

In the music industry, you could call Terry McBride a bit of a rebel....

September 1, 2006

Last month I left a post on The Viral Garden about a promotion that T-Mobile was using in the UK where they sponsored free concerts for their customers....

August 15, 2006

So it all comes down to this: After months of building hype, we will soon know if New Line's strategy to embrace the internet users that were promoting Snakes on a Plane pays off....

August 8, 2006

MySpace is so June. Today's hot social media site is YouTube, and that means mainstream media's new favorite buzz-phrase is 'viral video'....

July 31, 2006

In the past few months, I've seen a pair of perfect examples of what can happen when marketers take the time to join and empower their communities....

July 24, 2006

Recently Universal Studios did something incredibly smart. One of their representatives contacted Chris Thilk. Chris runs the blog Movie Marketing Madness, which, as the name suggests, covers all things movie marketing....

July 5, 2006

Or....take Door #4. Didja know that if you drop Mentos in a Diet Coke that it will result in a chemical reaction that shoots the candy up to 20 feet in the air, resembling a geyser? Of course you did....

June 27, 2006

Tara Hunt creates a 'Pinko Marketing Manifesto'. David doesn't like it....

June 13, 2006

When I first started blogging I read all manner of advice and 'rules' for having a successful blog. Some of these rules worked, some of them didn't....

May 31, 2006

Are you always the best source for your marketing message...?

May 23, 2006

Have you noticed how easy it is to hear/buy your favorite music these days...?

Have you noticed how easy it is to hear/buy your favorite music these days...?

May 18, 2006

New Line Cinemas has gone from a position any studio would love to be in, to being on the verge of one that every studio dreads....

May 10, 2006

Is Phil Angelides a better marketer than you are...?