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Effective networking is all about giving. One of the best ways to give to your network members is to help them build their personal brands. And if you help them build their brands on the Web, you demonstrate how savvy you are about the new Web 2.0 world we live ... more
There are many similarities between social-media marketing and email; but they are two distinct marketing channels, and they should be used separately to enhance or magnify, not just promote, each other. Think of it this way: Social media is for awareness; email is for retention. more
Things were different in 2007, when Saturday Night Live aired "Lazy Sunday"—a hip-hop ode to movie-going—and a copy of the clip went whizzing around the Internet. "Back then," says Maria Russo in a post at The Wrap, "the video could be found on any random blog or website and you ... more
If you haven't embraced some form of social networking in your B2B sales organization, chances are you're wondering how to start. Not surprisingly, sales experts have different viewpoints on how field managers should most effectively adopt social media. In an article on The Ultimate Sales Executive Resource, sales guru Christian ... more
"One of the best ways to grow your blog, is to leave it," says Mack Collier in a recent post at The Viral Garden. "What I mean by this is, leaving comments on other blogs is a great way to create value for others, and ultimately grow awareness for your ... more
Have you ever heard the expression "eat your own dog food"? It's a concept that essentially means that one is "walking the talk," or leading by example. Many companies have talked about being "customer-focused," but how many really are? Unfortunately, just saying you're committed to doing something is dramatically different ... more
You might have seen the PSA in which a teenage cyber-bully reads her hateful words from the podium of a school assembly. The absurdity of the scene illustrates a disconnect that often exists between our online and offline behavior—when emboldened by the impersonal buffer of a social network, we might ... more
No doubt about it: marketing and selling even the best of solutions in a bad economy is a hard job. On the sales front, cycles are longer, it's tougher to close business and profit margins are thinner. For marketing, the pressure is on to produce better results with less money. ... more
So you say you're still a bit iffy about investing in Facebook's panoply of paid brand offerings (virtual gifts, banner ads, homepage takeovers)? Not to worry: we've done some legwork for you, and turned up some freebies at the site that could actually serve your marketing plan to a "T." ... more
Headfake (noun): A situation in which you are familiar with a person's online avatar picture, which gives you an inaccurate idea of how that person appears in real life. more
You're a marketer who's hip to the idea of social media: You have a blog, you know Facebook inside and out, and you can Tweet with the best of them. But the big question is, Are you listening as well as talking? Here are some of the top tools for ... more
In this new age of conversation between corporation and consumer, chip-maker Intel and PC-maker ASUS have embraced "crowdsourcing." Allowing consumers to design the ideal PC, they are gaining valuable consumer insight and in the process building not just a PC but customer loyalty. more
It's an average morning at the Liverpool Street train station in London, England, with travelers crossing the main hall on their way to platforms or the street. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, 400 people break into a precisely choreographed dance as a medley of toe-tapping songs blares from the ... more
You've probably made a practice of asking customers to review your products, but are you using their praise to its full advantage? "Recently," says Kelly Lorenz at the Bronto blog, "I have seen an uptick in retailers utilizing customer reviews to sell products in their emails." Why? Because user-generated reviews ... more
Last month, talk of Volvo invaded the blogosphere when the company embedded live Tweets into a YouTube banner ad for its XC60 model. The feed kept viewers abreast of live coverage of the NY Auto Show, then gave them the option to follow Volvo on Twitter. It's a simple enough ... more
Twitter has swept the world as an Internet phenomenon. What would it be like if we lived out our offline lives speaking in 140 characters or less? The results would be hilarious, if this video is any evidence. more
The first few months of 2009 have already been tumultuous for reputations. So what can be done? Below, some of the findings of that online-reputation study as they relate to seven realities of managing online reputation in today's world—and some solutions to strengthen your reputation in the months ahead. more
Today's buyer is in control. This transition means that our sales teams are no longer required as a conduit of information. Industry websites, vendor sites, blogs, social media, and search all make the required information readily available and, by doing so, leave the sales representative out of the room. As a ... more
How does helping out a friend, or a friend of a friend, become a million-dollar business... with not a penny spent on advertising? When those little favors are in huge demand—and word-of-mouth and social media spread the good news like wildfire. more
Because we've grown so accustomed to the steady, incremental flow of new technology and information, we might lose sight of how dramatically it has changed, and will continue to change, the way we live, work and market. "Did You Know 3.0," a five-minute slide show set to the Fatboy Slim ... more
When using DVRs to watch television, we've gotten used to zipping through commercial breaks. We've been also spoiled by limited interruptions at online services like Hulu, where ads rarely last for more than 30 seconds. In such an environment, sitting through five-minute advertising blocks on live television seems downright onerous. ... more
We hear lots of advice about maintaining a clean list, and much of it centers on how to handle subscribers who seem uninterested in your messages. At a certain point, you might decide it's time to take them off your list. Before you do, though, consider these four "hidden" segments ... more
If you're a mother, or perhaps you have one, check out this fun promotion by MomsRising.org to celebrate someone you consider "Mother of the Year." more
Last year, Southwest Airlines refused passage to two young women for obnoxious behavior. The ladies immediately went out and told the press they weren't permitted aboard because they were "too pretty to fly"—sparking a media-driven feeding frenzy on Southwest's precious brand equity. It didn't matter that it wasn't true. It ... more
"It's not news to anyone in our industry that we're having to take on changes of tectonic proportions," Gavin Hilton says in a recent post at the RAPP Blog. The RAPP direct marketing agency serves a range of clients worldwide. The debate still rages, Hilton notes, as to which creative "silo" ... more
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