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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Brands on Twitter: 76% of Accounts Infrequent Users

Many Apply Traditional Marketing to Emerging Channel

from AdAge...

I often have a love-hate thing going with Twitter.

On one-hand it's a platform for the trivial. A time-suck. A platform to distract and, at the same time, isolate ourselves from subjects out of sync with our own world-view. On the other, it's a proven platform that carries incredible power to reshape how we learn, interact and share with communities online. For marketers and media-makers, it's hard to think of a recent innovation that's altered our landscape more than the simple 140 character platform. And for that I'm skewing to the love side of the spectrum.

Where do companies fit on the spectrum? Is it on the collective corporate radar? How is it being used? And in an age where advocacy carries the day, is it being used as a way to truly engage customers and other important stakeholders to the brand?

Our firm, Weber Shandwick, analyzed the Twitter phenomenon this fall, specifically into how Fortune 100 companies use it as a barometer to share with our clients.

The take-away: Most companies fail to realize Twitter's full potential as a market engagement platform. While 73% of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts, effectiveness based on level of activity, interaction and engagement were off the mark. Brand-squatted accounts, as reported last week in Ad Age, remains an issue for many companies. For those that are on board, many more are largely tepid accounts with limited activity and interactivity (76% of accounts tweet infrequently). Even more telling is how companies apply currently traditional marketing practices to this new media channel, including:

  • Twitter as a newsfeed: 26%
  • Twitter as brand-builder: 24%
  • Twitter as direct marketer/sales channel: 16%
  • Twitter as thought-leadership channel: 11%
  • Twitter as customer service channel: 9%
Clearly there is much work to be done to cultivate an engaging brand presence through Twitter. It starts with a clear, company wide-strategy for using the medium to its full advantage, then following through with consistent and meaningful presence that engages relevant communities of interest.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Ten Things Social Media Can't Do!

A Healthy Reminder for Setting Expectations

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B.L. Ochman
B.L. Ochman
Amid the endless pronouncements about social media -- often shortened to "social" these days by consultants trying to sound like they know what they are talking about -- is the reality that social media is not a solution, or a sure bet.

Social media can't:

  1. Substitute for marketing strategy.
    A Twitter campaign or a Facebook page that announces your weekly specials is not a marketing strategy.

  2. Succeed without top management buy-in.
    Social media requires a way of thinking that includes willingness to listen to customers, make changes based on feedback and trust employees to talk to customers.

    The culture of fear (of job loss, of losing message control, of change) is ingrained in corporate cultures. Top management has to want to change.

  3. Be viewed as a short-term project.
    Social media is not a one-shot deal. It's a long-term commitment to openness, experimentation and change that requires time to bear fruit.

  4. Produce meaningful, measurable results quickly.
    One of the complaints about social media is that it can't be measured. But there are many things that can be measured, including engagement, sentiment and whether increased traffic leads to sales.

    Those results can't be produced or measured in the short term. Like PR, social media marketing often produces its best results in the second and third year.

  5. Be done in-house by the vast majority of companies.
    A successful social-media campaign integrates social media into the many elements of marketing, including advertising, digital and PR. Opinion and theory are no match for experience and the best social media marketers now have more than 10 years of experience incorporating interactivity, blogs, forums, user-generated content and contests into online marketing.

    You need strategy, contacts, tools, and experience -- a combination not generally found in in-house teams, who often reinvent the wheel or use the wrong tools.

  6. Provide a quick fix to the bottom line or a tarnished reputation.
    Social media can sometimes provide quick results for a company that's already a star. When a well-loved company like Zappos or Google employs social media, its loyal fans and followers pay attention.

    However, there's a lot of desperation in a lot of corporate suites these days, and many companies seem been convinced that a social-media campaign can provide a quick fix to sagging sales or reputation issues. Sorry, nuh, uh.

  7. Be done without a realistic budget.
    Building a site that incorporates interactivity, allows user-generated content and perhaps also includes e-commerce doesn't come cheap from anyone who knows what they are doing.

    Even taking free software like WordPress and making it function as an effective interactive site, incorporating e-commerce and creating style sheets that integrate with the company's branding, takes more than time. That takes skill, experience, and money.

  8. Guarantee sales or influence.
    Unless your effort can pass the "who cares" test -- and most simply can't -- your social media efforts will fall flat.

    And unless you know how to drive traffic to your contest, video, blog, event, etc., you'll have little more than an expensive field of dreams.

  9. Be done by "kids" who "understand social innately"
    You can climb Mount Kilaminjaro without a sherpa guide, but why would you? Experience and perspective can make the trip easier, or even save your life.

    Companies trying to run social media without experienced consultants waste time, money and reputation on their efforts. And then, sadly, many decide that this new-fangled approach doesn't work.

  10. Replace PR.
    No matter how great your website, video contest, blog, Twitter strategy, etc., you still need publicity. Or you may end up with a tree falling in the forest and nobody hearing it.

Friday, October 9, 2009

President Obama Awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize!

Keep Moving Forward!

(CNN) -- President Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.

Less than nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Less than nine months into his presidency, Barack Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

The first African-American to win the White House, Obama was praised by the Norweigan Nobel Committee for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

"Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future," the committee said. "His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population."

What do you think of the decision to award President Obama the Nobel Peace Prize? Sound Off below.

The committee also said Obama has "created a new climate in international politics."

The announcement came as a surprise -- Obama's name had not been mentioned among front-runners -- and the roomful of reporters in Oslo, Norway, gasped when he was named.

In his short time in office, Obama has acted on a wide range of issues from the economy to terrorism and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Obama also lobbied unsuccessfully to bring the 2016 Olympics to Chicago, Illinois. After returning from Denmark, Obama expressed no regret about his trip, saying it is "always a worthwhile endeavor to promote and boost the United States."

Former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, last year's Peace Prize laureate, said it was clear the Nobel committee wanted to encourage Obama on the issues he has been discussing on the world stage.

"I see this as an important encouragement," Ahtisaari said.

The committee wanted to be "far more daring" than in recent times and make an impact on global politics, said Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the International Peace Research Institute.

Wangari Muta Maathai, the Kenyan who won the 2004 Peace Prize, said Obama's win will help Africa move forward.

"I think it is extraordinary," she said. "It will be even greater inspiration for the world. He has shown how we can probably come together, work together in a cooperative way."

The award comes at a crucial time for Obama, who currently has administration officials dispatched on global peace missions.

Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, has returned to the region to advocate for peace negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. Mitchell met Thursday with Israeli President Shimon Peres. He plans to meet Friday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before talking with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton starts a six-day trip to Europe and Russia on Friday. On the trip, the secretary will discuss the next steps on Iran and North Korea, and international efforts to have the two countries end their nuclear programs.

The centerpiece of the trip will be her visit to Moscow, where she will work toward an agreement to take the place of the Start II arms control pact, which expires December 5. She will also address the new bilateral presidential commission that is working on a broad range of issues, from arms control to health.

Obama became the third sitting president U.S. president to win the prestigious prize. Jimmy Carter was the fourth American leader to win, but he was long out of office when he was recognized in 2002.

This year's peace prize nominees included 172 people and 33 organizations, the highest number of nominations ever. The committee does not release the names of the nominees.

The Nobel recipient receives a prize of about $1.4 million.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

7 Reasons Why Your Marketing Plan Doesn’t Work

(Duct Tape Marketing)
Sep 03, 2009 -

Every business NEEDS operate with a set of plansa plan for the business, a plan for cash, a plan for growth, and certainly a plan for marketing. Opening a business with no plan is kind of like driving somewhere you’ve probably never been without a map or GPS device.

A marketing plan is commonly accepted as standard fare, but still,few businesses operate from any semblance of one. In my experience it’s not because they don’t think they need one, it’s because they’ve either never gotten around to creating one, or worse, they’ve created a marketing plan only to check it off the list and shove it in the bottom of drawer somewhere.

I’ve worked with many small businesses, created many marketing plans, and I can tell you that a big part of the problem is the current plan mindset. Marketing plans are essential mind and stress freeing tools, and you can and should lean very heavily on yours - if you can avoid these marketing planning pitfalls.

1) It’s not about the plan

People think plan and immediately envision the document. I’ve seen people spend more time making the cover of a marketing plan look pretty than they take to make something meaningful inside.

It’s a lot like Lance Armstrong’s book title – It’s not about the bike. The plan is a vehicle, but it’s the planning steps, stages, meetings, questions, and inputs (training for Lance) that create marketing plans that work.

If fact, I’ll go a step further and state that a marketing plan, like a marketing system, is just a start, it’s a systematic marketing planning approach that makes a marketing plan a living tool that can power and guide your business.

To have an effective marketing plan you must have an effective marketing planning process and that, as you’ll discover in the next set of steps, never ends

2) Deal with today’s reality

Almost every business (start-up to mature) wakes up one day and decides to create a marketing plan. What usually occurs is that they create a plan from scratch – as though nothing has occurred in the history of the business to date.

It’s a though the plan architect attempts to simply add on rooms and floors and markets and products without regard for retaining walls, foundations, - maybe even budgets. Anyone who has remodeled (an appropriate analogy I think) knows what a disaster this approach can create.

It’s okay to have a plan that’s a stretch, maybe even taking you in totally new directions, but you’ve got to deal with where you are now and plan transitions that make sense for your culture, customer, and message or you’re destined to fail.

3) Look for the right questions

Everybody wants the magic answers (I’ve written a marketing planning software tool and the #1 request is for sample plans.) The problem with someone else's answers is they are almost undoubtedly wrong. Throw on top of it that, even if they are right today, they will be wrong tomorrow.

The systematic planning approach suggests that instead of the right answers you should be focused on finding the right questions. Answers, like a system, are rigid. Questions, or a process of using key questions to produce answers, are an approach that will yield the right answers no matter the current circumstances.

Southwest Airlines simply wanted be known as the low-cost airline – period. There’s a well worn story about how Southwest Airlines founder, Herb Kelleher, used to ask his executives when they posed some innovation whether it contributed to Southwest being the low cost carrier or not. If they could answer yes it got looked at, if no, it was scratched from consideration.

4) Simplify meaning

A marketing plan isn’t sufficient unless it starts tilting towards the 50-60 page mark, right? Actually it’s far tougher, but far more useful generally, to create one that stays in the 4-5 page range. That way you might actually do it and potential readers might actually view it.

The quicker a prospect can make an important & meaningful distinction of how your message is different, the easier everyone’s job will be. The only way to do that is to work very, very hard at creating simple, metaphor-like, messages that make it very easy for people to understand instantly what you’re about.

Tear everything in your business to shreds and find ways to tell a very simple marketing story about your products, services, people and processes. Make it so simple that anyone can tell it.

5) Monitor friction

Marketing planning and implementation is mostly about doing the things that slowly build momentum, it’s not about hitting it big next week. When you dig in and look closely at every marketing action, measure specific results of each campaign, landing page, or direct mailing, you can begin to spot the places that are causing friction and thereby slowing momentum.

If you don’t hold every initiative accountable you can’t make your plan work – it’s also a great way to waste a lot of money. Failure to monitor, analyze, and measure marketing actions is the single greatest factor holding businesses back.

If you don’t know what’s working there’s a pretty good bet you don’t know what’s not working either. (Metrics work for best-in-class businesses...globally.)

6) Take out the trash

You don’t have to do something just because it’s in the plan. I’ve seen so many businesses so tied to the plan document that they commit time and resources to things that are clearly counterproductive once released into the real market. But, hey, it’s in the plan.

Of course this goes hand in hand with point #5, you’ve got to know what is and is not productive, but once you do, you’ve also got to take the steps to cut your losses.

This one’s a bit tricky because some things don’t work as planned right away. I’ve seen an advertising program bombing until the organization started to receive some favorable press, then all of a sudden, the advertising took hold.

7) Guess again

People don’t want to admit it, certainly consultants don’t, but a marketing plan is a set of (albeit, thoughtful) guesses, hopefully based on some knowledge, but no matter what, you need to commit to correcting the course.

I suggest that you meet at least every six weeks to renew your questions, assumptions, results, goals and objectives with an eye on using your flexibility to make real time adjustments based on real time results.

The main point is that you commit to a schedule so that your plan never has a chance to decay. There will be things that work better than expected and those that don’t, but having a group, or even all staff, check-in on the marketing twice a quarter you can keep it alive and driving while you make the adjustments to take advantage of new found opportunities.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

65+ Must See Resources...

Especially For Designers To Discover The Best Of The Web (Sep09)

We are always in search of great free resources, tips, tricks, etc. for our readers. Every day we work hard to find new resources and inspiration for designers like you. Today, we have another great post, “Discover the Best of the Web” on SmashingApps. In this, we made a list of 65+ Must See Resources Especially For Designers. We obviously cannot cover all the best from the web, but we have tried to cover as much as possible.

You are welcome to share if you know more best of the web in the month of September which our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feedyou can follow us on twitter as well.

Design Tips, Tricks and Tutorial
”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””
82 Earth-Shattering ZBrush Tutorials

82 Earth-Shattering ZBrush Tutorials

56 Absolutely Brilliant and Intriguing Photoshop Video Tutorials

56 Absolutely Brilliant and Intriguing Photoshop Video Tutorials

45 Tutorials for Learning Pixelmator

45 Tutorials for Learning Pixelmator

27 Excellent Digital Photography Tutorials

27 Excellent Digital Photography Tutorials

40 Useful Photoshop Tutorials for Photo Manipulation

40 Useful Photoshop Tutorials for Photo Manipulation

10 Wonderful Letterpress Type Tutorials

10 Wonderful Letterpress Type Tutorials

6 Different Ways to Make Your Text and Images Glow [Tutorials]

6 Different Ways to Make Your Text and Images Glow [Tutorials]

11 Fascinating and Educational Tutorials Teaching You How to Produce Better Photo Effects

11 Fascinating and Educational Tutorials Teaching You How to Produce Better Photo Effects

How to Effectively Use Contrast, Auto Levels, and Batch Processing

How to Effectively Use Contrast, Auto Levels, and Batch Processing

50+ Most Amazing Adobe After Effects Tutorials You Need to Learn

50+ Most Amazing Adobe After Effects Tutorials You Need to Learn

20+ Car Pimping and Tuning Photoshop Tutorials

20+ Car Pimping and Tuning Photoshop Tutorials

15 Of The Best Character Illustration Tutorials Online

15 Of The Best Character Illustration Tutorials Online

Photoshop Tutorials You Do Not Want to Miss

Photoshop Tutorials You Do Not Want to Miss

Urban Art Tutorial in Photoshop and Illustrator

Urban Art Tutorial in Photoshop and Illustrator

Top Places to Find Quality Illustrator Tutorials Online

Top Places to Find Quality Illustrator Tutorials Online

Artwork, Digital Photography and Inspiration

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Typographic Portraits That Are Absolutely Beautiful

Typographic Portraits That Are Absolutely Beautiful

100 Artworks from the Top 20 Designers in The Middle East and Africa

100 Artworks from the Top 20 Designers in The Middle East and Africa

23 Colorful And Smart Examples Of Beautiful Web Designs

23 Colorful And Smart Examples Of Beautiful Web Designs

70 Fresh and Inspirational Blog Designs

70 Fresh and Inspirational Blog Designs

Stunning illustrated typography on dark backgrounds

Stunning illustrated typography on dark backgrounds

Best of Best WordPress 404 Error Page Designs

Best of Best WordPress 404 Error Page Designs

20 Amazing Examples of Vector Artwork

20 Amazing Examples of Vector Artwork

Website Design: Some of the most uniquely designed E-commerce websites

Website Design: Some of the most uniquely designed E-commerce websites

40 Gorgeous Fantasy Wallpapers to Spice Up your Laptop

40 Gorgeous Fantasy Wallpapers to Spice Up your Laptop

40 Creative and Inspiring Website Backgrounds Techniques

40 Creative and Inspiring Website Backgrounds Techniques

13 Striking Digital illustrations of Horror Girls by Yoshitaka Kawakami

13 Striking Digital illustrations of Horror Girls by Yoshitaka Kawakami

CSS: Design Out Of The Box

CSS: Design Out Of The Box

40 Excellent Examples of Interior Designs Rendered in 3D Max

40 Excellent Examples of Interior Designs Rendered in 3D Max

25 Examples of Web 2.0 and Traditional Design Rules Coming Together

25 Examples of Web 2.0 and Traditional Design Rules Coming Together

33 Creative and Beautiful Logos

33 Creative and Beautiful Logos

50 Inspiring Web Application and Service Web Site Designs

50 Inspiring Web Application and Service Web Site Designs

50 Beautiful & Unique Twitter Profile Designs

50 Beautiful & Unique Twitter Profile Designs

30 Powerful and Inspiring Street Fighter Characters Artworks

30 Powerful and Inspiring Street Fighter Characters Artworks

50 Websites (and More) for Your Design Inspiration

50 Websites (and More) for Your Design Inspiration

20 Creative Illustration Advertisements from behance

20 Creative Illustration Advertisements from behance

40 Breathtaking & Creative Logo Designs Just to Inspire

40 Breathtaking & Creative Logo Designs Just to Inspire

TOP 35 Grunge Websites

TOP 35 Grunge Websites

Amazing Character Designs: 75 Brilliant Examples

Amazing Character Designs: 75 Brilliant Examples

25 Inspiring Examples of Abstract Vector Design

25 Inspiring Examples of Abstract Vector Design

15 Mind Blowing Dragons Illustrations and Artworks

15 Mind Blowing Dragons Illustrations and Artworks

Javascript and Ajax

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40 Super-Neat JavaScript Plugins

40 Super-Neat JavaScript Plugins

25 Useful jQuery Tooltip Plugins and Tutorials

25 Useful jQuery Tooltip Plugins and Tutorials

35+ Create Amazing Image Effects and Sliders with These Awesome jQuery Plugins

35+ Create Amazing Image Effects and Sliders with These Awesome jQuery Plugins

10 Easy jQuery Tricks for Designers

10 Easy jQuery Tricks for Designers

xHTML and CSS
”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””

Create a photorealistic web layout - CSS/XHTML available

Create a photorealistic web layout - CSS/XHTML available

CSS Wishlist: New Ideas, Debates and Solutions

CSS Wishlist: New Ideas, Debates and Solutions

51 Form Element Resources and Tutorials Using CSS And Javascript

51 Form Element Resources and Tutorials Using CSS And Javascript

30 CSS Best Practices for Beginners

30 CSS Best Practices for Beginners

Resources
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60+ Totally Free Rusted Metal Textures for Designers

60+ Totally Free Rusted Metal Textures for Designers

460 Free High Quality Icons For Web Designers

460 Free High Quality Icons For Web Designers

60 High Quality Photoshop PSD Files For Designers

60 High Quality Photoshop PSD Files For Designers

Massive Collection of Stunning Photoshop Actions

Massive Collection of Stunning Photoshop Actions

27 Best WebSites to Download Free Seamless Patterns

27 Best WebSites to Download Free Seamless Patterns

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Fresh Free High-Quality Icon Sets

Style Switchers Showcase and Resources

Style Switchers Showcase and Resources

76 Dirty, Extreme And Creative Free Grunge Fonts

76 Dirty, Extreme And Creative Free Grunge Fonts

99 High-Quality Free (X)HTML/CSS Templates

99 High-Quality Free (X)HTML/CSS Templates

Five Free Tools for Multi-Monitor Computer Set-Ups

Five Free Tools for Multi-Monitor Computer Set-Ups

14 Best Online Typography Tools for Web Designers

14 Best Online Typography Tools for Web Designers

16 Free “Premium Quality” Wordpress Magazine Themes

16 Free “Premium Quality” Wordpress Magazine Themes

13 Excellent Firefox Add-Ons That Are Absolutely Useful

13 Excellent Firefox Add-Ons That Are Absolutely Useful

49 Amazing Resources for Free Vector Graphics

49 Amazing Resources for Free Vector Graphics

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20+ Powerful Wordpress Security Plugins and Some Tips and Tricks

20+ Powerful Wordpress Security Plugins and Some Tips and Tricks

10 Revealing Infographics about the Web

10 Revealing Infographics about the Web

30 Incredibly Useful WordPress Hacks

30 Incredibly Useful WordPress Hacks

The Only SEO Tools You’ll Ever Need

The Only SEO Tools You’ll Ever Need

The Difference Between Art and Design

The Difference Between Art and Design

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