Original Signal - Transmitting Web 2.0

Seth's Blog

The edifice complex: Why do banks spend so much money on marble lobbies, high ceilings and yes, $400 million to name a baseball stadium?Why do marketers buy TV ads that dont increase sales in the short run?Why have a receptionist and not just

Don't get fooled again...: If you think thats a friend of yours on twitter, dont be so sure.If you wonder why your boss sent such an insane email to you, dont be so sure.If you get a chance to invest online, think twice.Dont buy

Blah, blah, blah, blah...: You hear yourself saying:First, let me apologize for the lighting. We tried very hard to make the screen brighter, but we failed. Before I start, I want to thank seventeen people by name... Now, on this third slide, we see

We feel your pain: Thats the current motto of the folks over at Motrin. Theres been a ton of buzz the last two days about a botched ad campaign they ran, but this post isnt really about that. Its about being a human being

Hungry: I had lunch (a big lunch) with a college student last week. An hour later, she got up and announced she was going to get a snack. Apparently, she was hungry.By any traditional definition of the word, she wasn’t actually

The Tribes Q&A ebook is here and it's free: Dozens of volunteers, working together, put together this ebook:Download TribesQA2.pdfYours to share or print or email, but please dont sell it or change it.Not only is

Do you know enough?: If not, what are you doing about it?If so, who do you think youre kidding?

The system doesn't know what to do with a movement: Scott reminded me of this post today.If youve been waiting for an opportunity, this might just be the opportunity youve been waiting for.

The number one secret of the great blogs: Every one of them leads a tribe.Boingboing readers recognize each other at conferences. We use the same shorthand, we recognize the same memes. Huffingtonpost editors dont try to reach everyone. Instead, they are hosting a digital cocktail party for invited

Too good to be true (the overnight millionaire scam): You probably dont need to read this, but I bet you know people who do. Please feel free to repost or forward:Times are tough, and many say they are going to be tougher. That makes some people more focused, it

Don't sell to bar owners: Rama wrote in and asked why I mentioned this. Whats so hard about selling advertising to bar owners, and what can we learn from that?My answer:1. theyre not eager to buy new stuff (like ads)2. they dont come to the

Good advice, easily overlooked: Number one rule for avoiding alligator attacks:Dont swim in bodies of water containing large alligators.Of course, sometimes the thing you want is on the other side of that body of water. If so,

The marketer's attitude: Traditional job requirements: show up, sober. Listen to the boss, lift heavy objects.Heres what Id want if I were hiring a marketer:Youre relentlessly positive. You can visualize complex projects and imagine alternative possible outcomes. Its one thing to talk about

Seen it all before: What can you assume about your audience?If you’re running a commercial, sending out a sales letter, making a presentation--what have they seen? What do they know?A hundred years ago, when people went to see live music, the expectation was that

Off the record: One of the best lines of Animal House, sanitized here for your enjoyment: You screwed up. You trusted me.In a world where everyone owns a media channel, I guess that makes us all journalists. Journalists have more power than ordinary

Three new jobs you might want to consider: Every company that works online today ought to consider hiring three amazing people to lead these projects:COMMUNITY ORGANIZER. Find and connect and lead a tribe of dedicated users that contribute to and benefit from the work you do.STATS FIEND. Measure

Tribal effects don't disappear (even in politics): This map from the New York Times is eye opening.It shows the counties that recorded an increase in Republican voting. That is, counties with more Republican

The sad lie of mediocrity: Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less.Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less.Thats because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie of mediocrity is the mistaken belief

The 90/10 rule of marketing a job: Most hiring managers dont understand organizations that go to extraordinary lengths to find and retain amazing people. And from their point of view, theyre completely correct. Pay market wage, run a classified, process the resumes. Done.It only takes 10% as

A friend in need: Your customers and employees and investors will remember how you treated them when times were tough, when they needed a break, when a little support meant everything.No one in particular will remember how you acted during the boom times.

MarketingVOX

Online Campaigns Bring Irony to Gift-Giving: UPS tapped agency T3 to produce UPSRegifter.com, a site that enables users to pass unwanted gifts off to others, just in time for the holidays.Regifting is the process of recycling bad presents....

Watershed Ruling in MySpace Suicide Case May Criminalize Fake 'Net Personas: This week Missouri mom Lori Drew was convicted for three misdemeanor counts of computer fraud. In 2006, Drew impersonated a teenage boy on MySpace.com and made comments that drove a 13-year-old girl...

LinkedIn Debuts Search Suggestions, Customized Queries: The 31 million business professionals registered on LinkedIn now have access to upgraded search features.New offerings include search suggestions for querying contacts, streamlined search results,...

Advertising Age

Young's Big Challenge at Ogilvy: Following Legend Lazarus: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The appointment of Miles Young to replace the legendary Shelly Lazarus at Ogilvy was more evidence that the future growth of the ad world is all about emerging markets such

NYSE Euronext Puts Global Account Into Review: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Securities exchange giant NYSE Euronext has placed its creative and media account into review, and is asking several global ad networks to participate in the process, according to executives familiar with the matter.

Biegel Ready to Move On -- but Will the Industry Let Him?: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After creating a ruckus by levying a slew of scandalous charges against his former employer, Dentsu America, and two former bosses, Steve Biegel has lately remained mum with the press.

J&J's McCarthy to Lead Publicis, New York: BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Joe McCarthy, Johnson & Johnson VP-worldwide advertising, is leaving to become CEO of Publicis Worldwide, New York. Effective Aug. 18, he succeeds Gill Duff, who is moving to a yet-unspecified

Wal-Mart Exec Tony Rogers to Join Idea City: BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- GSD&M Idea City is landing its second high-profile marketing executive in as many weeks, as Wal-Mart Stores Senior VP-Advertising Tony Rogers prepares to join the agency in a yet-to-be-determined executive role.

Lazarus to Exit As Ogilvy & Mather's Global CEO: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- After more than a decade at the helm of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide, Chairman-CEO Shelly Lazarus, 60, today announced internally a succession plan that will place Miles Young, chairman of

Omnicom Sees Opening for Acquisitions: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- The world's largest ad conglomerate, Omnicom Group, sees an upside to the sagging economy: a chance to get off the sidelines and become a bigger player in the acquisition game.

Latest Happy-Hour Hot Spot: The Office: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In-house agency bars -- seemingly a relic of 1960s Madison Avenue -- look to be all the rage once again. We visit a smattering of hot spots where creatives, account

A-B Shops May Feel Pinch as InBev Looks to Cut Costs: CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- What will Anheuser-Busch's purchase by InBev mean for its ad agencies? Quite possibly a revenue hit.

J&J Puts Pharma Group Into Review: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Johnson & Johnson has kicked off a soup-to-nuts review for its $25 billion pharmaceuticals group.

JWT Snags Creative Duties on Cuervo: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- WPP Group's JWT is expanding its spot on Diageo's roster, adding North American creative duties on the spirits giant's tequila brand Jose Cuervo, executives familiar with the matter say.

DDB Braces for Fallout From A-B Sale: CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Rick Carpenter, president of Anheuser-Busch's lead agency, DDB, Chicago, held a meeting with agency staff yesterday in which he acknowledged there could be cuts to the brewer's domestic media and marketing spending in the wake of its

Carat Wins Kohler Global Media Account: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Aegis' Carat has been tapped to handle consumer and trade media buying and planning for Kohler Co. in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the marketer announced.

Siltanen Snatches $100 Million Suzuki Auto Account: ETROIT (AdAge.com) -- American Suzuki Corp. has handed its $100 million-plus auto account to independent Siltanen & Partners Advertising, Marina del Rey, Calif., just three months after bringing on the shop to handle two

Apple Taps Eight Partnership, Not TBWA, for Asia Work: BEIJING (AdAge.com) -- Within days of starting the iPhone rollout in the region, Apple has appointed independent agency Eight Partnership to handle its marketing communications for Asia, snubbing its global creative agency, TBWA Worldwide.

Wieden Installs New Creative Execs at HQ: CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Wieden & Kennedy's Portland, Ore., headquarters is now under new creative leadership. The shop has named two of its veterans, Mark Fitzloff and Susan Hoffman, as its new executive creative directors,

BBDO Buys Cincinnati-Based Shop on P&G Roster: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In an attempt to broaden its relationship with Procter & Gamble, BBDO has made its first acquisition in decades with the purchase of 15-year-old Barefoot Advertising, a Cincinnati-based shop that

Tall Task for New Top Man at UM: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In the past few years, Interpublic, with a lot of loud talk and routine facelifts, has been the Joan Rivers of agency-media operations. With its most recent nip and tuck,

Sorrell Digs Deep to Snag TNS: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Martin Sorrell wants WPP to become the biggest marketing-services conglomerate in the world -- but at what price?

PHD Names Interim Leadership: NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- PHD, Omnicom Group's second-largest media agency, will be led by a quartet of executives as it searches for a replacement for Matt Seiler, who is leaving his role at North America CEO to run rival Universal

Online Marketing Blog

Listen Learn Change Grow: The thing about internet marketing is that there is no “one right way” to solve a single problem. So much of the advice and commentary about content optimization for search engines at conferences and on blogs is tactical. Five tips

Best Books on Social Media: Recently I had the task fo creating a resource for direct marketers on social media marketing and print books are something many people rely on as a portable source of information. The challenge with print sources on internet marketing related

Cirque du Soleil Jessica Berlin on Social Media Marketing: One of the opportunities from speaking at the Pubcon conference in Las Vegas recently was meeting many client side social media marketing practitioners. Jessica Berlin, one of my co-panelists and social media manager from Cirque du Soleil, offered excellent insights

Hands On Social Media for Direct Marketers: TopRank Online Marketing is pleased to announce a parternship with The Direct Marketing Association to develop and present a series of 2 day workshops on social media marketing for direct marketers. On December 4th in New York the new course entitled:

Post PubCon: Real-World Winning Tactics for Content Creation: Editor note: In order not to overwhelm readers with posts during Pubcon, we’ve saved a few additional sessions for posting this week. Enjoy!Content is king. In spite of all that has changed in the online sphere since its inception, content

Top Content Marketing Blogs from Junta42: Over at Junta42 Joe Pulizzi has announced the quarterly update of his Junta42 list of content marketing blogs. I’m happy to say Online Marketing Blog was again included in the list. This time in a slightly improved position as you

PubCon: Earning Big Bucks with Social Media Traffic: Have you considered developing content specifically to drive traffic from social media sites? Have you also considered what you want from that social media traffic, and what to do with it once you have it?In a session titled, “Earning Big

PubCon: Universal & Personal Search - This Changes Everything: Universal search has been touted as the biggest change to happen to search in recent years. Certainly universal and personal search have altered the search landscape to an extent, however to what extent is up for debate. In Universal &

Pubcon: In-House SEO and PPC: The last regular session of the day I decided to attend was on In-House SEO and PPC which was moderated by Melanie Mitchell and included Jessica Bowman, Dan Perry, Ana Schultz, Allison Fabella and Jill Sampey. The issues that in-house

Pubcon: Top Secret SEO Tools: The first post-lunch session of day 3 of Pucon brought together a great mix of SEO experts including: Todd Malicoat, Rand Fishkin and last minute fill-in for Jessie Stricchiola, Andy Beal. Moderator duties were handled by Joe Laratro.First up is Todd who

Pubcon Day 2 Favorite Photos: The second day of WebmasterWorld Pubcon didn’t dissapoint with great sessions throughout the day. In between sessions, I was able to take a few candids and had help from Lisa Barone and Ashley Bruce during the sessions where I was

PubCon: Online Reputation Management: The sheer quantity of different information sources online has resulted in a media circus. The various blogs, tweets and mainstream media outlets are like different acts vying for user attention. Online reputation management amid all the chaos can be difficult.

PubCon: Managing Brands Online: The speed and availability of information online has given more power to the individual to be vocal about their opinions and feelings, both positive and negative. Social media, blogs, forums and online groups can leave you vulnerable to negative attacks

Pubcon Day 1 Favorite Photos: As is tradition at Online Marketing Blog, we take quite a few photos at conferences. I’ve never come back from an event thinking that I took too many. Here are a few photos from day one of the WebmasterWorld Pubcon

PubCon: Social Media - The Big Sexy Buzz: You may or may not be using social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, or Digg in your business. The overarching theme from this panel at PubCon was… why not, what do you have to lose?Social media gurus, including Warren

PubCon: Understanding the Complex Social Media Marketing Playing Field: Building and designing a successful social media campaign can be a lot like designing and building a skyscraper. You need to research the materials, lay a strong foundation, and continue regular maintenance to ensure your building, or social media promotion,

Pubcon 2008 Keynote Shawn Rorick of Cirque du Soleil: The WebmasterWorld Pubcon conference in Las Vegas opened up today with remarks from founder Brett Tabke, who mentioned that only about 30% of the content of this year’s event are dedicated to search marketing. The rest is made up of

Increase ROI From Marketing Conferences: Now, more than ever, marketing companies and consultants need to get competitive for client dollars and what better way than advancing your knowledge and your network?There are many options for companies and agencies to train digital marketing teams and to

Managing Online Reputation with SEO, Social Media & PR: One of the hottest topics that transcends the public relations, social media and search marketing worlds is online reputation management. Search engines are fantastic for finding things. They’re also a significant contributor to influence online. Blogs, forums, social networks and

The New Rules of Marketing & PR: Several of the TopRank Online Marketing team attended a Social Media Breakfast last Friday, along with about 150 local business leaders, code warriors, internet marketers, agency peeps and social media enthusiasts, to hear a presentation by David Meerman Scott, author

Duct Tape Marketing

Great SEO Tool on Sale Today Only: This content from: Duct Tape MarketingGreat SEO Tool on Sale Today OnlyI just stumbled upon what looks like a very cool do-it-yourself SEO tool and for today only I get to offer it to my readers for $10/mo for life

Do You Suffer from Occasional Contentapation?: This content from: Duct Tape MarketingDo You Suffer from Occasional Contentapation?You’ve got a blog, you’re getting into the education based, content rich, web presence thing, but sometimes you just can’t think of anything to say. Don’t worry, you’re not alone

The Crowd Spoke and Was Heard: This content from: Duct Tape MarketingThe Crowd Spoke and Was HeardA week or so ago I publicized my partnering with Microsoft Office Live Small Business to produce a primer on using social media for small business.While readers appreciated the guide

Kiva Gives Entrepreneurs Some Wonderful Perspective: This content from: Duct Tape MarketingKiva Gives Entrepreneurs Some Wonderful PerspectiveMark Flannery co-founded Kiva.org with his wife a few years ago and their success has forever altered the way entrepreneurs in the developing world get access to the small amounts

Twitter for Business Live Webinar: This content from: Duct Tape MarketingTwitter for Business Live WebinarI get a lot of requests for more information about how businesses are using the hot social media Twitter for business.So, I’m teaming up with social media rockstar, Chris Brogan, to

Business Slogans to Live By: This content from: Duct Tape MarketingBusiness Slogans to Live ByI received word from a company called Wallblank, that is doing a pretty cool thing. It’s a form of fine art crowdsourcing. Wallblank curates limited prints from selected artists and then

Google Intros SearchWiki: This content from: Duct Tape MarketingGoogle Intros SearchWikiGoogle has added an interesting feature to the search interface called SearchWiki.Essentially what this allows is the ability to add notes to your search results - wiki style. In addition, you can move

SeoPedia

The new Airsoft Shop in Bucharest: www.airshop.ro: The Neutro team just released the project we’ve been working for for several months now: www.airshop.ro.It’s an Airsoft shop, with guns, pistols and accesories. For those of you who don’t know what Airsoft is,

SEO Specialist wanted in Bucharest: I, and the team at Neutro Marketing, a new startup company offering web marketing services, are looking for a few talented SEO/SEM people.Since the position is available only in Bucharest, and only full-time, the job announcement below is in Romanian

A new member: Mihnea Stefan Mezei: Today (actually, 3 hours ago) my wife gave birth to our long awaited boy, Mihnea Stefan Mezei.A very healthy boy, 2,8 KG in weight, with an APGAR score of 10 :)I’m the happiest man alive. I can’t even express in

Urban & Asociatii got the first ever SPAM fine in Romania: Just a few days ago, ANRCTI (the National Regulatory Authority for Communications and Information Technology) imposed the FIRST fine for SPAM in Romania, to a lawyer company called Urban & Asociaţii.The fine was 1000 RON, roughly 330 Euro:ANRCTI enforced the

Why thieves steal!: Yesterday I confronted myself with a very weird situation. Dudes broke my car’s windows.I had a lot of cars and I’ve been driving for a long time, but is the first time I’ve had this happen to me. I live

Google Sitelinks: The Ultimate FAQ: I have been testing these Sitelinks for quite some time now on several websites, from new to very old, from few to zounds of visitors.What are Sitelinks ? They are a collection of

New SEO & webmaster tools by IT Exchange: Ciprian has just uploaded all the recent tools he and his team have developed, and has bundled them all in one single SEO & webmaster tools package.I have been using the previous home for

NetCamp: Cristian invited me to speak at NetCamp, about Web 2.0.My presentation will revolve around reputation management for companies and individuals as well as how companies can communicate internally and externally, efficiently, Web 2.0 style.Will upload

Blogrush is a scam: Just received an e-mail from BlogRush letting me know that I collaborated and worked to increase my account, for two months now, for nothing, and that Seopedia is not good enough for this crap network.The mail souns like :We regret

Hide Affiliate Links: I just found a nifty HTML generator to hide affiliate links.The only drawback is that on rightclick, the affiliate URL still appears.

The power of web interaction and quality content: I just followed a link from a comment in Aaron’s blog, and ended up in Igor Mordkovich’s Bizmord.com blog.Igor blogs mostly about PPC, because that’s what his expertise is.From the index, I was just a click away from 17 Most

SEM gives you SOME satisfaction: I receive an email today in my inbox.I laughed my ass of. Who sends these kind of e-mails ?Mr. Christian, you the guru, the fish, the snake of SEM, you the greatest bear of them all.Could you, Oh COULD you

How a Venture Capitalist thinks and acts: Listen to an interview with William Quigley taken by the USF Entrepreneurship Club. William Quigley is one of the Managing Partners at Clearstone, a VC who invests hundreds of millions in startups.Whilst previously representing the interests of the Walt Disney

Paypal in Romania: This is already old news, beeing first reported in Seopedia, two days ago. PayPal is now fully accepting Romania, with sending and receiving capabilities, merchant account included.That means every Romanian citizen can now accept website payments (through PayPal funds, or

AdSense now pays through Western Union’s QuickCash service: Western Union Quick Cash payments will be available for pick-up the day after the payment date. The countries where Quick Cash is possible are :China (Mainland)MalaysiaPakistanRomaniaPhilippinesArgentinaChilePeruColombia The comissions for the Quick Cash service are NOT the same as for the

MarketingShift

Google Mobile App for iPhone is a Life-Saver for Road Trips: When we need instant info on the road, like a close restaurant, iPhones can easily become a deadly distraction. The urge to type in your

Spike TV VGAs will Preview Fight Night Round 4: Spike TV wants to show you something youve never seen.Gamers want to know whats coming, not whats already out, and thats why millions will tune into Spike TV for the sixth

Retailers wonder if Cyber Monday Success will continue: Market analysts think 2008 could be the year when the holiday shopping season proves to be a marathon, not a sprint. While its still too

Stocks Rise but Sears Website Stalls on Black Friday: Bargain Hunters hit the stores with cash in hand today, as the annual doorbuster sales blowout known as Black Friday commenced. Stocks for major retailers havent drastically fluctuate

Will Blu-Ray Eventually Knockout Movie Theaters?: Blu-Ray Players are one of the hottest items for Christmas this year, and as more Americans upgrade their home theater, movie theaters are searching for profit

China Mobile Limited to Provide 3G by March 2009: China Mobile Limited (NYSE:CHL) has bounced back from its drop on Wall Street,yesterday. CML, the worlds largest mobile phone provider, gained 3 points (7%). Positive momentum followed CMLs annoncement at

Technorati Layoffs- A Warning Sign for Blogs & Tech?: I dont want to sound like Chicken Little, but the latest report of layoffs at Technorati, the cost-cutting moves at Cisco, and the sagging

Report of Instability at Cisco Prompts Investors to Sell: Evidently, Ciscos (NASDAQ:CSCO) alliance with IBM (NYSE:IBM) and demo at the UBS Global Technology & Services Conference last week didnt generate the positive momentum neccesary to reverse its slumping

Black Friday Could be a Boom or a Bust for Retailers: An unprecedented culmination of economic factors are clouding the forecast for Black Friday sales. Virtually every American has taken a hit from

New iPhone Apps Ensure You Won't Lose Your Marbles: If you family is as big as mine,you could use a short break from the chaos that ensues during the midst of Thanksgiving Day and other

Universal Music Group / Meebo Launch New Music Video Interface: Millions of music fans will now enjoy socially interactive music videos, thanks to the fusion of Meebo- an in-browser program which supports multiple IM clients (Google Talk,Yahoo Chat,AIM,MSN chat)-and Universal Music

Campbells Sells More Cans but Projects Slower Sales in '09: Bad news for the American economy usually translates to good news for Campbells soup (NYSE: CPB), because when times are tough, one of the easiest ways

Motrin Babycarrier Ad: A lesson in Online Reputation Management: One of Motrins recent ads in its "We Feel Your Pain" campaign became an overnight controversy to moms with babycarriers. According to Compete Pro Search Analytics, motrin.com had a

The Great Soda Rivalry-Coke vs. Pepsi: Who's No. 1?: Whether its in sports, politics or competing corporations, most rivalries are defined by a storied history that features two teams of similar strengthIn politics, its the Bushs

Friday Trivia Question: Who owns Dr Pepper?: To all of you Dr. Pepper fans out there- I wonder if you can tell me which company owns Dr Pepper?Is it Pepsi, or Coke? If you said Coke,

Google Street View Highlight of Apple Iphone 2.2 Update: Only two days after I compiled my wish list to Steve Jobs, the 2.2 update for iPhone arrived. Evidently, email,maps and safari were

Twilight vs Trueblood: Vampires are the New Pirates: Move over Jack Sparrow- and make room for Dracula.After several years as the hottest thing in Hollywood, Pirates are in the past, and Americans are bloodthirsty for Vampires.HBOs new series Trueblood

Verve Wireless and Zvents Boost Local Content for Mobile Publishers: Verve Wireless and Zvents hope link mobile customers with local business and events, regardless of where they travel.Verve Wireless, the leading provider of mobile publishing technologies to

Adfreak

If nothing else, be thankful for all the beer!: The National Beer Wholesalers Association tells us that beer is now a mandatory part of any Thanksgiving meal.

4 out of 5 headless women prefer Treximet: Now and then, the warm and fuzzy world of morning TV gets interrupted by a vision from hell.

Adidas finds groove with Frankie Valli song: The remake of Beggin is catchy as hell and fits the commercials retro/of-the-minute vibe perfectly.

PSAs battle drunk driving with grim humor: Using dark comedy to draw attention to such a charged issue can be tricky, but Mullen gets it right.

Canadian Tire has power over the seasons: Theres a decent payoff at the end of this initially perplexing Taxi spot.

Bruce Lee, totally badass Ping Pong player: This amazing viral video leads to a Web site where a digitized Lee kicks some ass with his Nokia N96 phone.

Lego brightens the boring old fashion show: Jean-Charles de Castelbajac shatters convention with an animated Lego fashion show titled Plastic Architecture.

Marketing Profs Daily Fix

Paul Williams: Black Friday: How Black Will It Get?: Today is Black Friday, the beginning of the American Christmas shopping season, and one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year.Some shoppers think it is called Black Friday because - to take advantage of the deals - you

Paul Dunay: Proven 'Big M' Marketing Techniques: Marketing is the interface a company builds to interact with the marketplace and the customer base. The marketing group, combined with the sales force, is the point in the company where the market understanding resides. This should be the group

Mack Collier: Ten Elements Every Company Blog Should Have: Thinking about launching a company blog? Great, now if you want to avoid being that guy, then heres the essential elements that you should incorporate into your blog.1 - A strategy. Why are you blogging? What are you attempting to

Jonathan Kranz: I'd Like to Buy the World a... Moxie?: The markets have crashed. Credit is scarce. Consumers are scared. Everywhere, there is fear, uncertainty and doubt. Theres a new kind of media thats taking the world by storm, but investments are shrinking fast.And marketers? Their heads are on the

Paul Barsch: Don't Forget The Turkey!: Will tomorrow be like today? In planning assumptions for budgeting and forecasting, most marketers believe that events of tomorrow, next week and next year will be much like this year, or years past with just slight deviation. However a review

Beth Harte: Want to Figure Out Your Social Media ROI? Consider a Plan.: It’s all the buzz these days, what is the ROI of social media? What’s the return? How much money can I make off this social media stuff? What’s the investment? How much time and money is this going to take?

Paul Williams: Orienteering Skills For Marketers: Ever heard of Orienteering? Orienteering is an outdoor sport where you have to figure out where to go based on figuring out where you are. Running a business in today is a lot like Orienteering. I figure there are Orienteering

Paul Dunay: Statistics On Advertising During a Recession: I think Seth Godin outlined marketings Catch 22 best in his book The Purple Cow (and I am paraphrasing here): When times are tough the tendancy is to conserve capital vs. when times are good the tendancy is to not

Ted Mininni: What Does Loss of Customer Trust Actually Cost Companies?: We all know that in challenging economic times, consumers are less brand loyal than ever. They’ll drop their favorite brands and seek out lower priced alternatives. But what happens when consumer trust is violated due to safety concerns? Or when

Leigh Duncan-Durst: Loyalty and Lifetime Value: I recently began to wonder how many of the airlines and hotel chains have really considered “Customer Lifetime Value” in the creation of todays largely calendar-driven loyalty programs. Beyond the motivation to examine year-over-year performance, how was it decided that

Paul Dunay: Secrets of Web Analytics: A Podcast with Avinash Kaushik: Stop everything you are doing and listen to this podcast! Seriously, if you have never met or had the opportunity to listen to Avinash Kaushik, you must hear this podcast – I guarantee you will learn something!Sometimes you meet someone

Steve Woodruff: Personal Branding: What's Your Value-Add?: Theres been a bit of buzz in the blogosphere of late about personal branding (if you want to catch up on the kerfuffle, kicked off my occasional blogging provocateur Geoff Livingston, you can pick up the thread here and here

Jason Baer: Find Your ONE THING Before Launching In Social Media: The history of marketing has been an unending stream of biggest sale ever, now with extra raisins, and easy financing available. The power of social media is that it allows consumers to peek behind the curtain of brands that have

Amber Naslund: We Need To Talk: 6 Keys to Bringing Up Social Media: You understand that getting involved in social media is something you need to do. As a marketing or communications professional, you already understand the inherent value in giving your customers a clearer voice and connecting with the people who want

Lewis Green: Marketing Is a Lot Like White Socks: White socks are great. They go with everything, wear forever, and are excellent value for the price. And for those who love this argument, you cant measure ROI.On the downside, white socks are vanilla to the bosses and not always

Brandweek

P&G Tries Again with Pantene: New ads for underperforming haircare brand feature TV celeb Stacy London and tout silicon technology, but category is crowded.

Campbell Couldn't Resist Uni's Tale of Mouse and Soup: Soup giant, Wendys, Nutella, Kodak line up for studios family-friendly animated Tale of Desperaux.

Mobile Marketing Gets Hung Up: Economic pressures could cause spending in the burgeoning mobile marketing channel to stall in the coming year.

Sobieski Vodka Has Anything But a Sob Story: How one Polish vodka brand joked its way into Americans hearts and minds.

Feil Reveals Resolution For the New Walgreens: CMO Kim Feil on how the retailer is differentiating itself from drug store competition.

Auto Sales, Search in Decline: Study: Unique audience levels online showed a strong correlation to vehicle sales.

Holiday Traditions Go Viral: The success of OfficeMaxs Elf Yourself has sparked similar viral campaigns from UPS, Virgin Mobile, Lexus and other brands that hope to create memorable hits of their own.

Naked Conversations

Mumbai, Twitter, Hatred & Gandhi: For much of the past two days I have watched with horror and sorrow as events unfolded in Mumbai. Mostly I have watched through Twitter. Some of what I have seen at #mumbai--where 10s of thousands of posts from people

My Twitterville Worksheet: This is sort of an executive summary of Twitterville essential to my writing the book. It does not precisely

Twitterville Table of Contents-Part 4: > NOTE: This is the 4th & final part of my Table of Contents for Twitterville, my new book on why business should use Twitter. Just scroll down

Twitterville Table of Contents--Part 3: 8. Getting political in TwittervillePoliticians are no strangers to social media. presidential candidates--or at least their professional support teams--have been using interactive media for at least the

Twitterville Table of Contents-Part 2: Chapter 5 Comcast Service Faster service with a tweet than with a vanComcast, a company whose customer satisfaction ranking has an historically abysmal ranking in May 2008.

Open Letter to CEOs: Don't Cut SM Staff.: Dear Chiefs,These times really suck. You didnt sign up for meeting after meeting about cutting once and cutting deep, non-essential staff and bottom line. You get it. When you walk around the company, you see the look in their eyes

Twitterville Table of Contents-Part 1: Below is Part One of my Table of Contents (TOC) for Twitterville. It is the road map that I will follow as I write the book. It is not complete, I need more content to reach the 65,000-70,000 words Im

Media Orchard

Getting into Hot Water Once in a While Keeps You Clean: I believe in getting into hot water; it keeps you clean.-- G.K. ChestertonSometimes its good for brands to get into trouble -- that is, for customers,

Reason and Emotion Are Not Antagonists: Reason and emotion are not antagonists.-- Nathaniel Branden Try as we might, its impossible for us to separate reason from emotion. Theres no such thing as

A Brand for a Company Is Like a Reputation for a Person -- Except When It's Not: A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person.-- Jeff BezosBranding is all about personification -- giving human traits to things that arent

A Gentle Tongue Can Break a Bone: A ruler can be persuaded through patience,and a gentle tongue can break a bone.-- Proverbs 22:4Ive never been the loud, brash, in-your-face type. As a child,

Nine Ways to Honor the Memory of 9/11: With its anniversary approaching, weve been asked to republish our list of nine ways to commemorate September 11. Heres the full post:If youre like us, when an anniversary

How to Tell When a Reporter Plans to Flip the Script: I love journalists. Hell, I used to be a pretty good newspaperman myself, and the blogosphere has given me a chance to dabble in the discipline of journalism again

When You Always Tell the Truth, You Never Have to Remember What You Said: If you were to ask 100 people on the street what professional group is the least honest, our guess is that the following would be the top three

What's It Like to Work in PR? The Answer Depends on You: Young people who are just starting out in their careers often ask me what its like to be in public relations. Like so many things in life, the answer

Eight Tips for Happiness (and Success) in PR: We saw an article on happiness lessons being offered to schoolchildren in the U.K. and thought it was a pretty good idea. We all need lessons in happiness

Rielle Hunter Bikini Pic: (Sorry...old habits die hard.)

Follow Us on Twitter: Until the return of Media Orchard, you can continue to keep up with the Idea Grove at Spin Thicket or by following us on Twitter. Go head, click it: https://twitter.com/OrchardoWe encourage you to keep in touch!

COMING SOON: MEDIA ORCHARD 3.0: Stay tuned.

Pick of the Thicket 6.17.08: Want to be a pick? Submit your story!Same-sex weddings: Good for the wedding photography business? (Black Star Rising)ESPN columnist compares Celtics to Hitler (Romenesko)So, this client walks into a conference... (Flacks Revenge)Check out Spin Thicket for more media, advertising, PR,

Pick of the Thicket 6.13.08: Want to be a pick? Submit your story!Tiger Woods meets M.C. Escher (Photoshop Disasters)Hide the wife and kids; Dick Cheney wants to drill the whole planet (DeSmog Blog)Gore Vidal and the art of the political insult (Gawker)Check out Spin Thicket

Pick of the Thicket 6.12.08: Want to be a pick? Submit your story!Business media letting Gap CEO off the hook (Talking Biz News)San Antonio Express-News says music columnist used a ghostwriter (Romenesko)The King is I (Flacks Revenge)Check out Spin Thicket for more media, advertising, PR,

Pick of the Thicket 6.11.08: Want to be a pick? Submit your story!Planet Green? Why not call it the Pomposity Channel (Deceiver)Fox News pretends crackpot Hillary fan whos now voting for McCain represents a movement (News Hounds)PowerPoint patch hits market a day early (Client Service

Pick of the Thicket 6.10.08: Want to be a pick? Submit your story!Spike Lee: uppity? (Regret the Error)Revenge top 10 (Flacks Revenge)Social media beefs up resumes (The Buzz Bin)Courtney Friel: hottest newsbabe? (Bikini Beat)Check out Spin Thicket for more media, advertising, PR, celebrity and politics

Want to Know Which Sites Have the Most Google Juice? Click Here: So Ive been thinking a lot about anchor text lately (sorry, did I admit that?), and it occurred to me that the word that is probably used as anchor text more than any other is here. As in, click here.Being

Pick of the Thicket 6.5.08: Want to be a pick? Submit your story!Uncle Leos all-time favorite story (Client Service Insights)China approves official Olympic chant (Collateral Damage)Neil Cavuto worried that people are mistaking Obama for Jesus Christ (News Hounds)Check out Spin Thicket for more media, advertising,

Yours Truly on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet: eDrugSearch.com has been a longtime client, and I was asked to represent the company on a panel on the nationally syndicated Morning Show with Mike and Juliet on Monday.I came with three talking points and was able to spit out

All credits go to the authors of these sites. Without their hard work Original Signal would not exist. Last updated on December 1st 2008 23:06 | Contact