Six Ways to Get People to Say “Yes” — Copyblogger
http://www.copyblogger.com/get-to-yes/

Getting people to say yes is the goal for any sales message. It's what psychologists call “compliance. However, my ...

Check out our list of 10 ways to watch your competitors below, and share other methods or tools that you use in the comments.

10 Ways to Spy on Your Competitors

Check out our list of 10 ways to watch your competitors below, and share other methods or tools that you use in the comments.

SitePoint.com - » 10 Ways to Spy on Your Competitors

Good short read; success strategies

Good info from copyblogger

Here's a great post written by my friend Beth Kanter. Must read.

social media engagement methodology

A comprehensive guide to creating a social media strategy that incorporates a deep dive into the tactics and tools of social media. Check the links

Chris Brogan is one blogger that gives the real down low on how to do things right. I have been reading his stuff for a few years now, he's worth checking in on - from time to time his posts can be nuggets of gold.

Great ideas about commenting on blogs from Chris Brogan: "If comments matter to you, read on. Here are some thoughts to help improve your back and forth."

1. Outcomes, not income. Dumb growth is about incomes - are we richer today than we were yesterday? Smart growth is about people, and how much better or worse off they are - not merely how much junk an economy can churn out. Smart growth measures people's outcomes - not just their incomes. Are people healthier, fitter, smarter, happier?

Outcomes, not income. Connections, not transactions. People, not product. Creativity, not productivity.

Social media professional John Jantsch goes through what his daily routine is. It's more intense than you'd think.

At a recent social media workshop a participant asked me to reveal my social media routine - how I track, converse, communicate and otherwise curate all my

The singular thing that distinguishes Twitter from blogs, RSS, IM, email, etc. is synergy

Using caution when depending on Facebook or Twitter for business.

You've probably heard how much the micro-blogging service Twitter can help your business, or that being on social networking site Facebook can boost your company's profile. But what you might not have considered is the potential danger in over-relying on these startups that could go out of business, get bought out, or close your account if you aren't familiar with their Terms of Service.

Don't rely on third-party venture-funded companies to build a business model on. That's just stupid. (But fun!)

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits

The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl. [us album sales] Instead, the Recording Industry Association of America said it plans to try an approach that relies on the cooperation of Internet-service providers. The trade group said it has hashed out preliminary agreements with major ISPs under which it will send an email to the provider when it finds a provider's customers making music available online for others to take.

When you retard fair use with pointless DRM and then sue anonymous children for illegally downloading music while ignoring those of the execs at the top of the music industry, you're asking for a public relations nightmare. Now, with more than 35k lawsuits to its credit, RIAA says it will finally end the legal assault against consumers that began back in '03. RIAA will instead, focus its anti-piracy efforts with ISPs. Under the new plan, the RIAA will contact ISPs when illegal uploading is detected. The ISP will then contact the customer with a notice that would ultimately be followed by a reduction or cessation of service. As you'd expect, the RIAA is not commenting on which ISPs they are in cahoots with. The RIAA also says that it won't require ISPs to reveal the identities of individuals but could, of course, go after individuals who are heavy uploaders or repeat offenders. For the moment though, it appears that single-mothers are in the clear.

Fuck the RI double A

s like Hadoop. All of these are mature, high capable, and new ways of tackling the enormous challenges that large-scale co

business for the economic

While some might look at the social aspects of things like Web 2.0 as marginal subjects when things get tough, nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to the deeper implications of Web 2.0 in the enterprise. Many of the more transformational aspects of the 2.0 era now have extensive groundwork laid for them, are available in genuinely enterprise-ready solutions/pilots, and many have just been waiting for the right situation; the driving need for businesses to change and transform in the face of radically different business conditions.

Business, it's a different story, some (harsh) points made about corporate websites.

The internet really is a revolution for the media ecology, and the changes it is forcing on existing models are large. What matters at newspapers and magazines isn’t publishing, it’s reporting. ...ja uskottava rahoituspohja, mutta se on eri stoori.

"Unfortunately for the optimists, micropayments — small payments made by readers for individual articles or other pieces of a la carte content — won’t work for online journalism. "

Clay Shirky tells us why micropayments for news will not work.

Guy1Emanuel Rosen is the author of the national bestseller The Anatomy of Buzz (Doubleday, 2000) and The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited: Real-life lessons in Word-of-Mouth Marketing (Doubleday, 2009). Prior to writing these books, he was vice-president of marketing at Niles Software where he was responsible for launching and marketing the company’s flagship product, EndNote. He holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco. In this interview he brings us up to speed on the techniques to generate buzz that every small business owner must master.

"The user must be given the option of whether to pay for a Web site's content (by financially supporting the site), or read it for free. I'm betting this one will be a tough pill to swallow for many industry executives with traditional media mindsets, but it's critical because it fits the culture, indeed the nature, of the Internet. Traditional micropayment schemes for online news content -- "pay up or go elsewhere" -- fight it, and thus are doomed to fail, in my view." Okei, en ehtinyt lukemaan tätä kunnolla enkä oikein ymmärtänyt, että mistä ne rahat tulevat. Mutta luen paremmalla ajalla...

Many people in the newspaper industry are already in full-fledged panic mode, and one of the recent responses has been a wave of calls to resurrect an online publishing business model that has not yet worked: micropayments.

Forget Micropayments -- Here's a Far Better Idea for Monetizing Content While Time magazine and others claim the answer lies in asking readers to pay in small increments, that model will only hasten newspapers' death spiral. Instead, consider what may prove to be the solution: a California start-up called Kachingle.

While Time magazine and others claim the answer lies in asking readers to pay in small increments, that model will only hasten newspapers' death spiral. Instead, consider what may prove to be the solution: a California start-up called Kachingle.

Web 2.0 tools present a vast array of opportunities—for companies that know how to use them.

Found on Delicious with Ultimate How-To: Grow your social media network

i like it

make Web 2.0 work

reference about 2.0

save

nt”. 3. Ask for a discount for paying upfront vs. net-30 or ask for the standard 2% discount for paying net-10 instead of net-30. This can often be negotiated with

Negotiation Skills

Three things you need if you want more customers Seth Godin I går, 12:26 PM If you want to grow, you need new customers. And if you want new customers, you need three things: 1. A group of possible customers you can identify and reach. 2. A group with a problem they want to solve using your solution. 3. A group with the desire and ability to spend money to solve that problem.

You'd be amazed at how often new businesses or new ventures have none of these. The first one is critical, because if you don't have permission, or knowledge, or word of mouth, you're invisible.

multiplayer online casual gaming

Recently, Britta Meyer of Eurekster, which makes an embeddable custom social search portal called a Swicki, posed a question on LinkedIn about how one

EC 参考サイト。

ECサイトのメディア事業戦略の資料を作った

* リスティング広告はやがてパフォーマンスに限界が来る* アフィリエイト経由の売上構成比が高まると原価率を圧迫する* 専門メディアの価値が高まり、ECサイト自ら運営するケースも増える

Google首席经济学家：I keep saying the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians. ... The ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it—that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades, not only at the professional level but even at the educational level for elementary school kids, for high school kids, for college kids. I think statisticians are part of it, but it’s just a part. You also want to be able to visualize the data, communicate the data, and utilize it effectively.

The McKinsey Quarterly - Hal Varian web challenge managers - Strategy - Innovation

Hal Varian, professor of information sciences, business, and economics at the University of California at Berkeley, says it’s imperative for managers to gain a keener understanding of the potential for technology to reconfigure their industries. Varian, currently serving as Google's chief economist, compares the current period to previous times of industrialization when new technologies combined to create ever more complex and valuable systems—and thus reshaped the economy.

Suggestions on whether to use Group or Pages as well as discussion of posted policies for comments therein.

KONGEARTIKKEL!

great checklist of what is and isn't possible in social media

Using social media to market your business is a good idea. Just don't plan on getting your whiz-kid nephew to do it for free.

Social Media Marketing, non gratis non facile, non tanti esperti! L'articolo menziona BackType, un servizio molto interessante per tracciare i commenti

Examples of how and how not to conduct email campaigns.

save

"It seems like a fool-proof plan: start up with a close friend. You’ll get along (obviously), and you’ll get to share the exciting, fantastic, scary experience of starting up with someone you care about. It’s not a bad idea, but there are a few caveats that you should be aware of before you proceed..."

Good advice on the early stages. This is targeted at friends starting up but also good for anybody starting with somebody else.

Interesting article about how to found a startup with friends.

lmost cost us our friendship. We got through this thanks to the help and mediation of anot

twitter tool

I am worried about Twitter. I love it the way it is today. But it's about to change big time, and I wonder whether it can survive the transition. Twitter …

Great insights into the difference between getting your name in the news, and getting people excited about your products/company.

Here's a common question I get from startups, especially in the early stages: when should we launch? My answer is almost always the same: don't. First off, what does it mean to launch? Generally, we conflate two unrelated concepts into the term, which is important to clarify right up front. 1. Announce a new product, start its PR campaign, and engage in buzz marketing activities. (Marketing launch) 2. Make a new product available to customers in the general public. (Product launch) In today's world, there is no reason you have to do these two things at the same time. In fact, in most situations it's a bad idea for startups to synchronize these events.

Twitter has multiple business models to choose from I get asked over and over: “How do you think Twitter will monetize? What’s their business model?” While it’s clear their already experimenting with ‘house’ ads, ads that promote features of their service, I’m not sure that’s going to be the right direction for them. We already know that click through rates on social networks are low, why? because people are there to communicate with each other –not search for information like Google or on a media site. It’s possible they could turn on ads in the search tool, as people are seeking information. Yet all of these tactics have been done on other social sites, I think that Twitter has a unique opportunity to tap into the lucrative CRM space. Manually tracking a large brand within Twitter isn’t scalable It’s important to first realize that managing a large brand on Twitter isn’t scalable, with hundreds –maybe thousands of tweets about a marketplace a day, individuals will have a very diffic

This is a great article about where Twitter is going. It says they have a lot of thing going for them right now (like customers) but are lacking many things too. If they find the right tools Twitter could be big.

Twitter

devthought

Which one are you? I'm probably a 3

The challenge of building your product around breakthrough design is that the design has to in fact be a breakthrough. And that means spending far more time or money than your competitors who are merely seeking a positive return.

Return on design

AIDA

In this post we’re going to look at a simple template you can follow if you need to create a design that “sells” - that is, creating a website landing page that intends to turn a viewer / user into a customer.

good tips by Seth Godin

start a business by finding ten people who are interested in what you're doing. They will find other people they can interest in your work

This, in two words, is the secret of the new marketing. Find ten people. Ten people who trust you/respect you/need you/listen to you... Those ten people need what you have to sell, or want it. And if they love it,...

John Gruber on #iphone http://bit.ly/Gp4hX [from http://twitter.com/igeeo/statuses/1437949138]

"The problem is that while successful complex systems evolve from simple systems that work, not every simple system that works can support additional complexity. It’s not enough just to start simple, you have to start simple with a framework designed for future evolution and growth."

“A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that worked. The inverse proposition also appears to be true: A complex system designed from scratch never works and cannot be made to work. You have to start over, beginning with a working simple system.”

1. every Tweet has to be approved by legal - CLASSIC 9. you plan to track Twitter with Google Analytics - OMFG ;)

Mainstream media is in an orgiastic frenzy of coverage about Twitter. Everyone's Tweeting, from celebrities to CEOs according to CNN, The View, Today, the NY Times, the Wall St Journal and just about everyone else. Each of them covers Twitter like it's an overnight phenomenon that came out of nowhere, although Twitter has been gaining traction for three years and now has 9 14 million members. Should your company be on Twitter? Not necessarily. Top 10 reasons not to join Twitter: 1. every Tweet has to be approved by legal. Twitter is a social network where conversation is fast and interconnected. If you have to wait a day, or even a few hours for your 140 character Tweet to gain legal approval, Twitter will be the wrong platform for you. 2. you plan to use Twitter like a giant RSS feed, broadcasting nothing but headlines, deals. People follow people they find interesting. If all your Tweets are a one-way street: Block! 3. you think using Twitter is a social media strategy

"It's a tactic, a tool, not a strategy. It works if you already have an online following who'll view your Tweets as a way to interact with your company on a human level."

Woody Lewis gives newspapers advice on how to remain relevant including developing alliances, finding a strong technology partner and taking full advantage of Twitter. Lewis argues that doing nothing is not an option.

Newspapers: 5 Ways to Avoid Extinction

An article on how major newspapers can use social media to avoid collapse.

Interesting article on Newspapers slow extinction and possible ways to battle this.

Good article about a business plan, taking offers and for freelancers

Educators would be wise to examine if these are some of the reasons email, admin blogging and other forms of social media (twitter) are failing to work/catch on in the public school systems. Annotated link http://www.diigo.com/bookmark/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.readwriteweb.com%2Farchives%2Fwhen_to_not_use_social_media.php

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/when_to_not_use_social_media.php

from SocialComputingJournal.com

new and hot bookmarks

mashable

So maybe instead of getting your company on twitter, paying marketers to mention you are on twitter, and paying people to blog about your company, forget all that and just make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products, hire people that represent the company well, and when your stuff is so awesome that friends share it with other friends, you may not even need "social media marketing" after all.

forget all that and just make awesome stuff that gets people excited about your products, hire people that represent the company well, and when your stuff is so awesome that friends share it with other friends, you may not even need "social media marketing" after all.”

The Rainbow company makes awesome stuff, has a great website (pretty damn slick all-CSS one at that), and helpful catalog materials (both online and off). They got on my radar when a friend dug up their details for a blog post, in a way no marketing budget could influence.

Clever words. Web Crisis Management 101

Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, the voices of all sorts of critics are amplified online. So what's a marketer to do when an online firestorm erupts?

Six tips for future amazons and domino's

"Do you want the people visiting this site to notice it?"

Great example of what sort of site a client would need.

De eerste vraag die een designer aan een klant moet stellen is, volgens Seth, "Wil je dat je site opvalt?" En dat is, hoe vreemd het ook klinkt een goede vraag die verschillend beantwoord kan worden.

Not for nothing, but I've been saying this for years.

Note to read later.

Business Center - PC World

Pioneers in Workplace Tweets suggest the most effective use of the microblogging technology.

Having trouble convincing your boss that Twitter isn't a waste of time? Then you might find it interesting to learn that social media evangelists across the U.S. federal government are blasting out Tweets several times a day to their constituents. Here are their suggestions for how to integrate new media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr into a large, old-fashioned bureaucracy:

Twitter has become the place for sharing content links. If your content catches attention on Twitter and spreads, suddenly you’re getting significant traffic from people who may have never visited your site before.

Artículo con consejos acerca de escribir entradas en Twitter con valor añadido.

Yes! This will be covered in @TheBook.

Not sure about the 10 mins bit, but some good ideas in here for writing blog posts

Ten Ways to Crank Out Killer Posts in Ten Minutes or Less

http://michaelmartine.com/2009/03/10/ten-topics-in-ten-mins/ TenWaystoCrankOutKillerPostsinTenMinutesorLess

Remarkable Blog Consulting and Coaching

there are distinct competitive advantages for both individuals and businesses from a better understanding of the social web. This post provides specific advice from in-house social media marketers

The benefit from a firm grasp of social media for companies is impossible to ignore. Whether you work in marketing, advertising, public relations or interactive, there are distinct competitive advantages for both individuals and businesses from a better understanding of the social web.

“Learn from the best, or die like the rest.” Sobering words for a freelancer! In this article we try to discover what separates the best from the rest. What are the world’s top freelancers doing that the rest of us aren’t? Some of the advice you read here might seem surprising or counter-intuitive. You may read hints you have never tried. The question is: Will you give them a go? 1. “End every prospect meeting or phone call with an agreed-upon next step.” - Ed Gandia Ed Gandia is a freelance copywriter with a lot of experience. Starting his business life as an entrepreneur at age eight, he spent eleven years as a sales professional and senior account executive before starting starting his copyrighting business which focuses on software and high-tech industries. This melding of sales experience and successful freelancing makes Ed a voice worth listening to. Ed’s advice could come straight from a David Allen “Getting Things Done” book. In his article “The Power of the Next Step“, Ed

Earlier this week, we posed the question “Where has the old Facebook gone?” to address the frustrating experience that many users are having with the latest homepage design. The post attracted tons of feedback, most of which agreed with the sentiment that the new homepage is less personal, less informative, and less attractive to application users and developers.

YOU might not love the new Facebook, but brands should ~via @mashable http://bit.ly/gQdt [from http://twitter.com/sbeckham/statuses/1355500301]

brands should love new facebook

Earlier this week, we posed the question “Where has the old Facebook gone?” to address the frustrating experience that many users are having with the latest

Users aside though, there is one audience that appears to be benefitting greatly from Facebook’s new design: brands. Not only are Facebook Pages – the network’s competitive play against celebrity Twitter (Twitter reviews) users – revamped and more social, but their updates are taking up space on member’s homepages, and in turn, as our data shows, driving lots of traffic and engagement for brands.

There have been many chapters in the book of my life, some sad but most really happy. I’m now at the end of another chapter and it is bittersweet. I’m leaving H&R Block to become the General Manager of a new online shopping site that will be launching this fall. I’m excited to start this new chapter as it is fulfilling one of my dreams, but, sad to leave behind a great brand and wonderful colleagues.

Forget business models. Focus on ideals. Reconceiving value creation depends on new ideals. Ideals shape what we wish to achieve in the first place: freedom, peace, fairness, justice — all are ideals vastly more powerful than mere business models. That's because they are what ensure the value we are creating is authentic, deep, meaningful value — not just the shabby, threadbare illusion of value.

RT @timoreilly: New post from @umairh on why ideals are the new business models http://tinyurl.com/aeqewz [from http://twitter.com/NicMcPhee/statuses/1325558744]

Take your pick: newspapers, autos, mobile, solar — across the zombieconomy, boardrooms are sweaty-browed with the task of business model redesign. It's the worst downturn for the better part of a century: business model redesign — lower costs, greater efficiency, choosing the most profitable customers and revenue streams — should be every boardroom's first priority, right?

"Forget business models. Focus on ideals. Reconceiving value creation depends on new ideals. Ideals shape what we wish to achieve in the first place: freedom, peace, fairness, justice — all are ideals vastly more powerful than mere business models. That's because they are what ensure the value we are creating is authentic, deep, meaningful value — not just the shabby, threadbare illusion of value."

It isn’t surprising that the tournament directors found Eurisko’s strategies beyond the pale. It’s wrong to sink your own ships, they believed. And they were right. But let’s remember who made that rule: Goliath. And let’s remember why Goliath made that rule: when the world has to play on Goliath’s terms, Goliath wins.

"Insurgents, though, operate in real time. Lawrence hit the Turks, in that stretch in the spring of 1917, nearly every day, because he knew that the more he accelerated the pace of combat the more the war became a battle of endurance—and endurance battles favor the insurgent."

A strategic approach for organizations which are using Twitter to connect with their audiences, developed by Ogilvy's 360 Degree Digital Influence group.

Here's how to strike the right balance when using this popular service to promote your business. (Hint: don't use it to spam everyone you know.)

James, I know how much you love Twitter. I think you should check this article out. It might give you more direction on how you should use your account.

A few neat tips on how businesses, not individuals, can use Twitter

various Twitter tip articles here -- see under RELATED on right side

CIO Magazine: How and Why to Launch a Business Presence on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/d54xbh (quoted) (via Twitter) http://ff.im/1vv44 [from http://twitter.com/FredericMartin/statuses/1326127701]

From an upstart airline to the cable company some people love to hate, organizations big and small have reaped success in improving customer service, receiving R&D tips, and marketing their products on Twitter. Here's expert advice on how and why your business should tap into Twitter.

The panhandler's secret /Seth's Blog/ - When there were old-school parking meters in New York, quarters were ... http://tinyurl.com/dcm4ub [from http://twitter.com/jorgefsb/statuses/1257713242]

I love this story. Brief, worthwhile.

Great way to solicit donations. http://is.gd/l5kT [from http://twitter.com/davidwees/statuses/1303875101]

The panhandler's secret: "Do you have a dollar for four quarters?" and then "Can you spare a quarter?" Smart man.

Last October, Gartner unveiled a study that stated that by 2010, 60 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies with a web site will be involved in some form of online community that is utilized for customer relationship purposes. What the research also goes on to state is that 50 percent of those that set out and establish or become involved in these communities will fail in their efforts. That's about 300 Fortune 1000 companies that will fail at social media: a striking number, especially in light of recent economic pitfalls.

a prediction -- focused on failure. based on a study released in October 2008, the prediction was that by 2010, 60 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies with a web site will be involved in some form of online community that is utilized for customer relationship purposes. What the research also goes on to state is that 50 percent of those that set out and establish or become involved in these communities will fail in their efforts.

ces, and companies listeni

The is a balanced look at social marketing. Addressing positives and negatives

Inexpensive, fast, viral, unmeasurable, optional.

Everyday great ideas come along and this is one of them

windows

Many people think that to achieve all of the above, they need to build a large list of Twitter followers and broadcast links to get free traffic. It’s a simple strategy. The more followers you have, the more people listen to you, and the easier it is to spread your messages. But do you really need a large number of followers to promote yourself successfully on Twitter? The answer is no. Not at all. But many people still persist in mass following users. Let’s look at some of the reasons why you don’t need to use this marketing tactic.

marketing

Many people are mass following Twitter users as a marketing strategy. Let's look at the reasons why you don't need to use this Twitter marketing tactic.

RT @doshdosh: Why You Don't Need to Mass Follow Twitter Users (New Dosh Dosh post) - share if you like! http://bit.ly/bQGlx [from http://twitter.com/lekahe/statuses/1606777218]

RT @DanHaneveer: RT @JetSetCitizen: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users from @doshdosh http://bit.ly/kAvfw [from http://twitter.com/AdamPieniazek/statuses/1768200431]

A few weeks ago, I wrote that your organization should have a social media policy, and one of the things I heard among all the great comments was: “Okay, but what should it say?” There are generally two approaches to social media policy making. Some organizations handle social media in an evolutionary way. Chad Houghton, the director of e-media and business development at the Society for Human Resource Management, told me that he thinks, “it might be beneficial not to create some arbitrary rules without first seeing where the opportunities and risks really are.” Other organizations, meanwhile, feel more comfortable establishing a clear policy from the outset. IBM, for example, has published their social media guidelines publicly for anyone to read. It’s a great policy, though rather long. Whether you’re writing your social media policy from the get-go, or letting it develop organically in reaction to situations as they arise, here are 10 things you should definitely consider. These

10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy

one for Neil Moodley

I’ve been working at start-ups and small businesses since I was 14 years old. My father and his father before him owned and operated their own small businesses. There’s something about the fight for survival for a small team that’s coded in my DNA. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy working at Undercurrent so much. We’re small and thus we’re nimble. We’re lean and thus we’re malleable. And our age and our medium demand both.

how to be happy in business - venn diagram

Good list.

Succeed in the war of the tiniest.

Inbound Marketing & the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web

From Hubspot Blog

blog article from May 2008 HubSpot materials

Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers

I keep saying the sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians. People think I’m joking, but who would’ve guessed that computer engineers would’ve been the sexy job of the 1990s? The ability to take data—to be able to understand it, to process it, to extract value from it, to visualize it, to communicate it—that’s going to be a hugely important skill in the next decades, not only at the professional level but even at the educational level for elementary school kids, for high school kids, for college kids. Because now we really do have essentially free and ubiquitous data. So the complimentary scarce factor is the ability to understand that data and extract value from it.

using own name in url

Facebook | Coming Soon: Facebook Usernames

RT @michelletripp: It's official: Facebook vanity URLs announced. Set your alarm clocks. These babies will go fast! http://ow.ly/dalI [from http://twitter.com/mikkokiviniemi/statuses/2100046951]

Facebook is adding usernames...finally! http://bit.ly/xlFEG [from http://twitter.com/AdamPieniazek/statuses/2098524709]

"From the beginning of Facebook, people have used their real names to share and connect with the people they know. This authenticity helps to create a trusted environment because you know the identity of the people and things on Facebook. The one place, though, where your identity wasn't reflected was in the Web address for your profile or the Facebook Pages you administer. The URL was just a randomly assigned number like "id=592952074." That soon will change. We're planning to offer Facebook usernames to make it easier for people to find and connect with you. When your friends, family members or co-workers visit your profile or Pages on Facebook, they will be able to enter your username as part of the URL in their browser. This way people will have an easy-to-remember way to find you. We expect to offer even more ways to use your Facebook username in the future."

Great article on how to accurately budget for freelance web projects

How many times have you been completely confused at how that 'small' project turned into such a big one costing double and taking three times

Getting Design Approval:

"When you see an impending crisis, your body has a distinct natural reaction. In your consideration of the crisis, you take a long, deep breath. You often don’t notice this, but if I was sitting next to you, I would hear sigh. A sigh is associated with despair. We’re screwed. Sigh. My interpretation is different; this long, deep breath is one of preparation. Let’s break it down: Breathe in. Gathering your strength. Oh shit, how am I going to deal with this? Hold it. Hold it. Ok, breathe out. Ok, not sure what the plan is, but let’s roll. "

Management by crisis is exhilarating, but it values velocity over completeness; it sacrifices creativity for the illusion of progress.

Rands writes another brilliant article about how to manage humans. If you are managing a team, or part of a team, take 20 minutes and read this one from top to bottom.

A brief essay on how to get things back on track when they've gone off the rails. I find this sort of wisdom very attractive. Makes me want to do things.

"An obsessive meeting schedule is an investment in the boring, but by defining a specific place for the boring to exist, you’re allowing every other moment to have creative potential. You’re encouraging the random and random is how you’re going to win."

"I admit it. I love it when the sky is falling. There is no more delicious a state of being than the imminent threat of disaster. During these times, I’ve done great work. I’ve taken teams from “We’re fucked” to “We made it”. Yeah, we had to cancel Christmas that one time and there was that other time I didn’t leave the building for three days straight, but it was worth it because there’s no more exhilarating place to hang than the edge of chaos. We’re wired to escape danger."

Construct a well-fortified space station and mine asteroids.

"Nice content - awesome presentation! What did you use to make it?!" That's what everyone who sees my BRITE presentation asks me. It's a new service called Prezi. And it's insanely great — the minute I saw it I had to have it, no questions asked. So, for the first time in half a decade, I found myself doing the unthinkable: paying for software.

"Yet, the best business model in the world is also the simplest: make stuff that's insanely great. Stuff that's insanely great does what Prezi does — amazes, enriches, and inspires. That kind of stuff doesn't need a hard sell, a new market, or a convoluted product range. It just needs to be."

In my case, [chrisbrogan.com] is my home base. The goals of this base are fourfold:

Great blog post by Chris Brogan summing up a basic strategy for social media presence/engagement

Has good business areas Twitter can address

rules of twitpitching

Slideshare presentation

www.theconversationprism.com

The Eloquence of the Conversation Prism and Social Science

updated version Mar 2009

great art

The Inside Scoop on Design: Ten Questions with Hartmut Esslinger

Nice design interview.

If a young person wants to be a great designer, what should he or she do? “Design” isn’t a clear-cut talent profession, but one of coordination and catalyst between human needs, science and technology, business and economy, as well as sociology and ecology. The artistic talent required is more of an enabler at the end of rational and emotional analysis as well as strategic conceptualization. Therefore, it is vital to learn and study as much as possible about business, technology and human nature. In the end, there are flavors in design which are more esthetic—see New York Times “Style Magazine”—but design is only relevant when it improves human lives by appealing both to the mind and the heart. Finally, a young person with the right talents needs to have infinite desire and never give up. I apply a simple test with young students: smash a teapot into pieces and then hand out the glue. Those who rebuild the teapot won’t make it, those who create phantasy animals will.

Guy Kawasaki interviews Hartmut Esslinger, the founder of Frog Design on his new book "A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business."

Idées pour impliquer sa marque sur les réseaux sociaux

With social media, the cost of media has in effect been eliminated. This elimination of cost means that brands can now share much more of themselves, of their story, than ever before.

Here are 10 best practices for brands on Twitter.

Effictiveness of sprint workouts, especially in swimming. "There’s a catch, though. Those six minutes, if they’re to be effective, must hurt. “We describe it as an ‘all-out’ effort,” Gibala says. You’ll be straying “well out of your comfort zone.” That level of discomfort makes some activities better-suited to intense training than others. “We haven’t studied runners,” Gibala says. The pounding involved in repeated sprinting could lead to injuries, depending on a runner’s experience and stride mechanics. But cycling and swimming work well."

Taleb was right ahead of the curve, again...Maybe there's something to the caveman diet, too...

I'm skeptical, but it sure would be nice

The most common question entrepreneurs ask me, is “how can I improve my marketing with no or little money?” With this in mind, I asked for help from the TPE community and here is what I got… 115 ideas. Skim them or read them in detail, but whatever you do make sure you go through the list. Just one of these ideas may trigger a marketing opportunity that you never considered before. Just one of these ideas may take your business to a whole new level!

If a client came to you with $1 million to invest in a single Internet marketing channel, which one would you choose? Obviously, the question is a bit ridiculous (given that there's no additional detail provided), but it's designed to elicit an "off-the-cuff" response to a challenging scenario. The answer, of course, is "it depends" - and therein lies the rub. On what does it depend? Well... That's what I hope to answer with this blog post. My goal is not to solve the issue for an individual campaign, but from a very strategic level - asking questions like "where is the company today and where does it want to get to?" then applying those answers to the selection of marketing opportunities. Let's start by defining the macro-level channels themselves, then examine how we'd reach the right conclusions.

"I was selling in the idea that social media is free, until the community manager headcount came in."

Social media involvement means having live people who actively participate in your initiatives. It requires people - therefore it's not free.

seeding, feeding, and weeding.

Central to the notion of effective social media participation is the ability to create, publish and share content. The sheer volume of information on the topic

Traditional influence has followed a systematic top-down process of developing and pushing “controlled” messages to audiences for decades, rooted in

-same as in PR

Establishing the look and feel of a site can be a point of contention. Web designers often become frustrated because they feel there’s a lack of respect for their expertise. Meanwhile, clients grow annoyed when their designer seemingly fails to listen to them.

# ays the best equipped to identify examples of good design—they tend to select sites based on their content rather than aesthetics. # Second, the qu

Establishing the look and feel of a site can be a point of contention. Web designers often become frustrated because they feel there’s a lack of respect for their expertise. Meanwhile, clients grow annoyed when their designer seemingly fails to listen to them. This confrontation inevitably leads to a loggerhead. On one hand we have a designer with years of design knowledge and experience; on the other, a client who knows his audience and business objectives. In this stare-off, sooner or later, somebody has to blink. Either the client will end up with a design that he is unhappy with that fails to meet his objectives, or the web designer will give in and produce a design that she believes to be less than optimal.

Once you get past the “should my company be blogging” hurdle and into the “okay, so now what?” part of the race, the next question you might find yourself facing is, “What should I be doing to marry my blogging to my business goals?” If you’re in charge of making blogs deliver a business value to your organization, here’s some thoughts to consider. (Note: this is a business-minded post. You can use blogs however you like.)

RT @chrisbrogan Strategic Blogging and Some Tactics to Nail It http://ow.ly/15Gukv [from http://twitter.com/ploked/statuses/2402798902]

You have insightful tweets, write amazing blog posts, and can make a viral video like it's nobody's business. So why don't you have 500,000 followers, 50,000

found on ClickZ via twitter (@rrabago)

Far from being interesting (unless you enjoy following mutually referencing bloggers who blog about blogging), social media is just an excuse. It is... the old marketing industry's latest excuse to waste more money on bad ideas and lazy thinking.

Artigo de Matt Jones no Advertising Age

Get the key facts on a wide range of technologies, techniques, strategies, and skills with the help of these concise, need-to-know lists.

Fascinating internal twitter docs - via Stefan

“If we had a billion users, that will be the pulse of the planet.

Twitter's strategy leaked by Arrington

Looks interesting - how can I hack it ?

open source game

A

.

You Think ‘Free’ is Only About the Price? It’s Not.

Unresolvable

Time and time again I see the discussion about free content, free services, free products, and how they're going to liberate/destroy/change the current economy,

The Barack Obama Strategy

What big brands do the best job with social media? A new study by analyst Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint ...

What big brands do the best job with social media? A new study by analyst Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint ranks the top 100 brands by social media engagement. You can find the report embedded below or on ENGAGEMENTdb, which was presumably created with Wetpaint’s site-creation software.

Ranks the top 100 brands by social media engagement - claims level is tied to revenue growth (correlation does not mean causation?)

A new study by analyst Charlene Li of the Altimeter Group and Wetpaint ranks the top 100 brands by social media engagement. Contains report

A new study released by enterprise wiki provider Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group shows that the brands most engaged in social media are also experiencing higher financial success rates than those of their non-engaged peers. To determine this relationship, the study focused on 100 companies from the 2008 BusinessWeek/Interbrand Best Global Brands survey and the various social media platforms they used like Facebook, Twitter, blogs, wikis, and forums. Although it's difficult to prove for certain that the companies' involvement in social media has led to their increased revenues, the implication behind the new data is that it has.

La première étude qui montre qu'il y a un lien entre l'utilisation des social medias et les résultats financiers des entreprises. A montrer aux marques pour les motiver à s'impliquer dans la plateforme

harvard business - social strategy / harvard biznes

amazing read this

Want to know why we have a zombieconomy? Because the beancounters killed the incentives to create real value. ... That's the big problem behind the zombieconomy. We don't reward people for creating, growing, nurturing, or even remixing assets. We just reward them for allocating the same old assets. That 's not an economy: it's just a game of musical chairs. Hence, no new finance, healthcare, educational, auto, or, yes, music, industry — for decades.

No wonder everyone wants to be a banker, investor, or [insert beancounter here]. There's no money left in anything else. That's the big problem behind the zombieconomy. We don't reward people for creating, growing, nurturing, or even remixing assets. We just reward them for allocating the same old assets.

If the world's biggest pop star only made $12 million a year from his recordings, why would anyone make serious music? Where did the rest of the money go? Why, straight into record labels' pockets. Did they make better music with it? Nope — they made Britney and Lady GaGa. And that's how they killed themselves: by underinvesting in quality, to rake in the take.

Want to know why we have a zombieconomy? Because the beancounters killed the incentives to create real value.

Great site called Mashable - Social Media Guide with blogs and much more.

Twitter guide written by UK Government

Government's Twitter guidelines in 20 pages (oh the irony)

Director of Digital Engagement

New government guidance has been published urging civil servants to use the micro-blogging site Twitter. Launched on the Cabinet Office website, the 20-page document is calling on departments to "tweet" on "issues of relevance or upcoming events". The website is already used by Downing Street, the Foreign Office and many individual MPs.

37 comments about having a business/startup

/.../Finally, some of the benefits I've found of having this document in my armoury are: -To get buy-in, explain Twitter's importance to non-believers and the uninitiated, and face down accusations of bandwagon-jumping -To set clear objectives and metrics to make sure there's a return on the investment of staff time (and if there isn’t, we’ll stop doing it) -To make sure the channel is used consistently and carefully, to protect corporate reputation from silly mistakes or inappropriate use -To plan varied and interesting content, and enthuse those who will provide it into actively wanting to do so. -As a briefing tool for new starters in the team who will be involved in the management of the channel

time travel RPG game? this is very interesting

World's first meta-time strategy game

Hazardous Software's Achron, meta-time strategy game: a real-time strategy game with freeform time travel, where players and units can jump to and play at different times simultaneously and independently.

time travel game

the world's first meta-time strategy game, a real-time strategy game where players and units can jump to and play at different times simultaneously and independently

Great talk about how to market your product.

Seth Godin on why marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department At last year's conference, Seth gave an inspiring talk on the title of "Why marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department". Make sure you watch it until the end, where he gives a preview of his (then upcoming) Tribes talk.

"Consider this a supplement to my latest report on “How Companies Should Organize for Social Computing“. I continue to get questions from clients, and have spent time with more large brands are connecting with customers. Diving in further, I’ve noticed that there are five ways that companies allow employees to participate."

http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/07/three_instant_social_media_sol.htmlc social marketing socialmedia social-media socialmediastrategy Ideas business internet web2.0 web webdesign twitter network Networks strategy

I saved this because everything is about business. Do I sabotage myself over that, or practice my craft?

If you've got an experienced social media team, a solid budget and an appetite for innovation, you can create an original online presence that engages your customers or supporters in an entirely new kind of online experience. But many organizations lack the time, budget or experience to start from scratch. That doesn't limit your social media options to a generic corporate news blog or a standard-issue Facebook page. Here are three great options for robust social media presences that let you manage cost and risk by building on existing tools and established best practices.

Twitter - das dürfte sich herumgesprochen haben, ist nicht nur das, was man darin sehen will, sondern auch das, was man daraus macht. Was für die Gegner Beschäftigungstherapie für Loser, ist für geschickte Kommunikatoren eine echte Perspektive für Networking und Marketing. Eine Liste auf den Punkt, was Twitter alles ist. vom Web Worker Daily, Meryl Evans.

Some suggestions on how to use Twitter for business.

Most of you know that Twitter can be used for much more than just announcing what you ate for breakfast. ...

LinkedIn can be an enormously valuable way to attract top talent to your company, especially if you use all of the options available to you.

16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited: http://bit.ly/3sAWrk Good piece that stands out from the noise. [from http://twitter.com/dhinchcliffe/statuses/3153279367]

"Guidelines for marketing with social media aren’t all that new. In 2006 five members of the digital marketing community collaborated on 16 rules for “social media optimization”. Fast forward to nearly 2010 and social media has begun to take a more significant role in the marketing mix."

16 Rules For Social Media Optimization Revisited

pretty brilliant prognosis on the future of social networking

The past few weeks have come with two major reveals for the weirdos who follow online social networks. The first was big news. Twitter’s internal documents leaked and the identity-crisis of earth’s most popular start-up is now public. The second was more under the radar but just as important. In a memo that went out to staff, the CEO of MySpace admitted that their users are caught between three competing notions of what MySpace is or should be.

Facebook was one of the first social networks to emphasize genuine identity insofar as they required full names, university email addresses, and deleted accounts that used aliases. The second was pragmatic. Facebook launched in a single target market. In this case, of course, it was Harvard. What this enabled was a less abstract more manageable mission. Instead of having to define what an ‘online social networking space’ was supposed to be for everyone, Zuckerburg just had to answer for Harvard.

Some tips on Web 2.0 strategies

Here’s our list of top 10 Web-oriented tools, technologies, and ideas that promise to deliver the most value at the lowest cost.

WEB DESIGN

Polly Schneider Traylor pulls together a very nice summary list of quick and inexpensive ways to leverage the power of 2.0

I've been doodling a lot lately (see, for example, the whiteboard illustrations I turned into a slide deck for a presentation this Wednesday) and thought it would be fun to share a set of infographics - some humorous, some serious - about the field of search engine optimization. If you're uninspired by these...

#1 - Pie Chart of SEO Time Expenditure #2 - Hat Color vs. Value Scatterplot of SEO Tactics #3 - Flowchart of SEO-Friendliness #4 - Venn Diagram of Internet Marketing Professions

In continuing with my series of quick social media tips (check out 5 tips for LinkedIn) I’m covering some tips for business use of Facebook here. I’ve actually written about some of these tips in great detail before, but this can act as a quick primer for folks who like their info snack sized like this

In continuing with my series of quick social media tips (check out 5 tips for LinkedIn) I'm covering some tips for business use of Facebook here. I've actually

Article by Christopher Detzi. As web designers and information architects, we often dismiss deep consideration of content when we design interactive experiences.

Finally, a conversation about content...

"It’s impossible to fully evaluate the effectiveness of a web experience without having the content represented and under the same microscope as the design"

From Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang

Future of PR? When agencies represent communities, not brands: http://twurl.nl/p1js6t [from http://twitter.com/markivey/statuses/1418258374]

With communities in the driver seat over product, a shift will happen as communities can define the spec of future products and therefore multiple brands will bid for their business. As a result, we should expect the agency model to flip over, where PR agencies start to represent communities of customers –rather than brands.

Communities will continue to gain more and more power as they lean on each other to make decisions, support each other, and share their lifestyle. What happens to agencies that traditionally serve brands? With communities in the driver seat over product, a shift will happen as communities can define the spec of future products and therefore multiple brands will bid for their business. As a result, we should expect the agency model to flip over, where PR agencies start to represent communities of customers –rather than brands.

twitter socialmedia

Building a Twitter book

Social Web Design by Joshua Porter

Make the very best products. Business will follow.

Companies should prepare now for the day when Web 2.0 morphs into Web 3.0.

Kevin Marks, 14 Aug 2009. Flow, faces, phatic, following, publics, mutual media, small-world networks. "The subtlety is that the publics are semi-overlapping ... we are the synapses in the global brain of the web of thought and conversation."

It is said that an economist is someone who sees something that works in practice and wonders whether it works in theory. Twitter clearly works in practice - and if you want practical advice, watch Laura Fitton's Tech talk at Google, or read her Twitter for Dummies. I've learned a lot from talking to her and others about this phenomenon, and I wanted to write about some theories that help me understand it.

It is said that an economist is someone who sees something that works in practice and wonders whether it works in theory. "Twitter clearly works in practice - and if you want practical advice, watch Laura Fitton's Tech talk at Google, or read her Twitter for Dummies. I've learned a lot from talking to her and others about this phenomenon, and I wanted to write about some theories that help me understand it."

At its heart Twitter is a flow - it doesn't present an unread count of messages, just a list of recent ones, so you don't have email's inbox problem - the implicit pressure to turn bold things plain and get that unread number down. Instead, you can dip in and out of it, when you have time, and what you see is notes from people you care about.

It is said that an economist is someone who sees something that works in practice and wonders whether it works in theory. "Twitter clearly works in practice - and if you want practical advice, watch Laura Fitton's Tech talk at Google, or read her Twitter for Dummies. I've learned a lot from talking to her and others about this phenomenon, and I wanted to write about some theories that help me understand it."

Curious as to exactly *why* they did. Excerpt: "Twitter released Twitter 101 for Business, a guide for getting started with using the Twitter service. It covers the basics of Twitter, how to get started, the lingo, and includes case studies. Here’s how Twitter describes its value to businesses on its new Twitter 101 website."

guide for business on twitter

Twitter is the most active Web presence and generates most conversational volume on the Web, making it the number one social brand for July 2009, according to Social Radar. It was at number one in June too. Social Radar analyzes the Web to see what brands are mentioned most by unique sources. This includes blogs, other social networks, forums, etc. The analysis includes brands, not just social networks. FacebookFacebook is at number 4, with the iPhone and GoogleGoogle at number 3 and 4, respectively. Check out the full list for July here. The point is there is a lot of buzz out there about Twitter and people are continuing to talk about it, and it’s even becoming part of everyday language.

eeing it here at Buddy Media. Our brand clients pushed us to expand to include our newly launched Twitter Platform so they can leverage the power of Twitter for their business in conjunction with our Facebook Page Management Platform. Brands are realizing that Twitter isn't going anywhere, and consumers are leveraging Twitter to share stories, gain knowledge, get feedback, and vent. My gut? They're going to generate revenue via Search.

5 Reasons Why Twitter’s Growth Cannot Be Stopped

Handbook created by Red Cross to manage social media strategy.

Discussion of Costs and Benefits of Companies Having a Social Networking Presence

A few ways to discover where your customers are on the social web include: * Participation * Social Media Monitoring * Logging existing traffic and behaviors to your web site from social media web sites. * Surveys of your existing customers * Referencing demographic information supplied by social media sites that offer advertising. * Third party data sources

In the course of providing consulting services and conducting training programs for companies on social media marketing & PR or a combination of SEO and

In this article, we'll go over some web design tips for designing homepages and uncover some of the vital steps required to construct a powerful and successful front page.

from Twitter

los siete pecados de blogear

** Posted using Viigo: Mobile RSS, Sports, Current Events and more **

/ Connect, Write, Self-Publish and Promote Your Book - all in one place.

FastPencil is a free service Here's what you can do on FastPencil FREE: •Write and organize your book •Collaborate and share with friends •Format and layout the inside content •Generate a beautiful color cover •Publish to the FastPencil Marketplace •Sell your book on your profile page How do we make money? When you buy and sell published books. We also make money when you purchase additional services like publishing packages, multi-channel distribution or editing. For example, using our free platform you can write, edit and publish a beautiful 100 page paperback book, get one copy printed and delivered to your doorstep for under $10 bucks.

Awesome!

Altitude Branding | Brand Elevation through Social Media Community management

Amber Naslund on community management. Longish but good stuff.

For future classes as a case study on social media and twitter.

Sosiaalisen median koodit ks. linkit

Some basic insights into how big corporates can and are using social media...

This is an excellent article with a lot of resonance to our work.

What’s your role? Are you a designer who needs “real copy” for your comps? Maybe you’re an information architect trying to organize an experience, or a search engine marketer eager to influence your client with keywords they’ll actually use. Whatever your role, a content strategist can help you be more successful.

The Case for Content Strategy—Motown Style

"At a more thematic level, first working through the 'big issues' of content strategy, like communication goals and messaging, can help you hit the mark in your respective deliverables. "

Content strategy thoughts.

The Coin Flip: A Fundamentally Unfair Proposition?

A great article that will make you reconsider your Twitter etiquette.

Good tips for twitter users to ensure they are staying relevant to their audiences and getting noticed.

nice round up of twitter misbehavior if you use it for business

Social Media Today is a moderated business community for the web's best thinkers on Social Media and Web 2.0

Some GREAT things to note when trying to Twitter successfully

Chris Brogan tries (and succeeds) in offering a general primer on social media for business. A solid read

Recommendations from Chris Brogan on how businesses can and should engage in social media

review of a book

also contains info about the Thesis Theme for WordPress

TO READ

corporate social media policy

Nice suggestions for twitter use

good post- applies to us all

Twitter is a tool that all small business owners should use as part of their overall efforts to build a distributed social media footprint.

A good description of how twitter is being used in business.

20 Must Read Beginner Twitter Tips for Small Business Owners

5. Respond. This is the single biggest advantage you have over the big guys. Not only are you in charge, you also answer the phone and read your email and man the desk and set the prices. So, don't pretend you have a policy. Just be human.

2 1. Go where your customers are. Jacquelyne runs a tiny juice company called Chakwave. I met her in Los An

The SMART System When I first learned about the SMART system, I was very excited. It crystallized something in my mind, something I believe I always knew, but could never put my finger on. Having learned about it I was almost immediately able to pinpoint where I went wrong (or right) with some of my recent personal successes and failures. Let me share with you what SMART is all about. SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Boxed. You apply the SMART criteria to any goal you wish to achieve and if it does not meet any of the five characteristics you clarify and adjust it until it does.

Dumb Little Man shares ideas to make the everyday person more productive in life. Expect to read tips on finance, saving money, business, and some DIY for the house.

So with that caveat, here is my list of ten traits I see in great companies. This is aimed at web/tech companies but I believe it can and should be applicable to all companies.

Interesting take on what makes a great company

Yesterday I got to do one of my favorite things. Our portfolio company Etsy invited me out to their new offices in Dumbo to talk to the entire team. Since they didn't ask me to talk about anything in specific,...

Many banks have started using social websites to help them with everything from healing the financial industry to promoting their latest credit cards. By embracing the most popular tools available, the industry has also been embracing the best of what social media culture has to offer, and smaller, community banks seem to be leading the charge when it comes to social media innovation.

This graphic is pretty awesome - added by harper reed's google reader

Amazon is bigger that one imagines.

There's a reason that Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, it realises that if a rival firm is too much of a threat, instead of competing with them, just buy them!

"There's a reason that Amazon is the largest online retailer in the world, it realises that if a rival firm is too much of a threat, instead of competing with them, just buy them!"

Amazonの投資とM&Aの年別概略図

The importance of focusing on the bigger picture.

3 Most of us are afraid of strategy, because we don't feel confident outlining one unless we're sure it's going to work. And the 'work' part is all tactical, so we focus on that. (Tactics are easy to outline, because we say, "I'm going to post this." If we post it, we succeed. Strategy is scary to outline, because we describe results, not actions, and that means opportunity for failure.)

"Building a permission asset so we can grow our influence with our best customers over time" is a strategy. Using email, twitter or RSS along with newsletters, contests and a human voice are all tactics. In my experience, people get obsessed about tactical detail before they embrace a strategy... and as a result, when a tactic fails, they begin to question the strategy that they never really embraced in the first place. The next time you find yourself spending 8 hours on tactics and five minutes refining your strategy, you'll understand what's going on.

All of this has potentially massive repercussions for how marketers view Facebook chatter. By really digging deep into how Facebook is searching internal content, you’ll be tapping into the next level of the web’s development, uncovering a gold mine of data about what people are talking about, what they like and dislike, and how they are influencing the opinions of others. This is clearly an important search frontier.

Yes! Yes! A thousand times, yes! Tactics are almost the cherry on top, but that's what people want: tips-'n'-tactics. Ugh. I can spot the ones who don't get it a mile away now that I've been speaking about marketing for a while. "TELL ME ABOUT TWITTER!!" Um, no. How about we talk about right behavior, and goals? And how about you get those squared away before I put you behind the controls of this howitzer. Which will be outdated, most likely, before you learn how to operate it properly.

The hierarchy of success I think it looks like this: Attitude Approach Goals Strategy Tactics Execution

"Most everyone has a style, and if you pick the wrong one, then all the strategy, tactics and execution in the world won't work nearly as well." "As far as I'm concerned, the most important of all, the top of the hierarchy is attitude. Why are you doing this at all? What's your bias in dealing with people and problems?"

wonderfully written social media strategy checklist

Ten steps to building a social media strategy that delivers.

Outlines the basics of engaging with and getting the most of social media.

Run through this check list when I talk with Paul tomorrow

Razorfish Blog über Content Strategy.

Innovation: it's the ultimate source of advantage, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the economic ring. Innovation is what every organization should be ruthlessly pursuing, right? Wrong. I'd like to advance a hypothesis: awesomeness is the new innovation.

"Let's summarize. What is awesomeness? Awesomeness happens when thick — real, meaningful — value is created by people who love what they do, added to insanely great stuff, and multiplied by communities who are delighted and inspired because they are authentically better off. That's a better kind of innovation, built for 21st century economics. I've talked to many boardrooms about awesomeness. Beancounters feel challenged and threatened by it, because it feels fuzzy and imprecise. Yet, it's anything but. Gen M knows "awesomeness" when we see it — that's why its part of our vernacular. It's a precise concept, with meaning, depth, and resonance."

Let's face it. "Innovation" feels like a relic of the industrial era. And it just might be the case that instead of chasing innovation, we should be innovating innovation — that innovation needs innovation. Why? When we examine the economics of innovation, three reasons emerge.

Info to ask before creating a website

Unresolvable

Great list to use before designing a website.

# How many times a month would we like people to come by? For how long? # Who needs to update this site? How often?

The core structure of the goals and challenges of a Web Strategist

Who’s a Web Strategist? In a company, they often are responsible for the long term vision of corporate web properties. At a web company where their product is on the web, they’re often the product manager or CTO. Regardless of role, the responsibilities are the same, they need to balance all three of these spheres, and make sure their efforts are in the middle of all three.

I hope this is one of those resources you print out pin to your desk, and share with others. This is the core theme of this blog, the balance needed for successful web endeavors in organizations. I originally posted this diagram in 2006, the

Creating a blog for your small business isn’t easy; it requires hard work and the ability to think creatively about your work. But if you avoid the five big mistakes laid out in this post, your chances of building a successful business blog will be much better.

Read later

philosophically, advertising and social media are very different. Creatives, client services folks, account planners and the like are being asked to undertake a new method of communications that runs counter to everything they’ve ever been taught.

Also, some editing would help.

Another breakthrough idea from Seth Godin. Brands In Public should be huge. I'll keep an eye on it, that's for sure. Hopefully I'll have a business/organization/something that will need to use it.

You can't control what people are saying about you. What you can do is organize that speech. You can organize it by highlighting the good stuff and rationally responding to the not-so-good stuff. You can organize it by embracing the people who love your brand and challenging them to speak up and share the good word. And you can respond to it in a thoughtful way, leaving a trail that stands up over time.

"Squidoo has built several hundred pages, each one about a major brand. Each page collects tweets, blog posts, news stories, images, videos and comments about a brand. If your brand wants to be in charge of developing this page, it will cost you $400 a month. And once you take the page over, the left hand column belongs to you. You can post responses, highlight blog posts, run contests or quizzes."

h saying tha

twitterstorm. An idea (one that's negative to the brand)

Leaders retire with $, but then get bored, then have to do something else. Should have stuck with it

As a MINT user, the only real question I had was whether I trust my data in the hands of Intuit. I have decided to take that chance until I learn something differently.

"As more great new companies are absorbed into big old companies, a whole new generation of change is lost. They can issue press releases saying how excited they are to be able to bring their product to a whole new world of customers, and how their new suitor will bring enormous resources to bear, but we know that’s usually not really what happens. Development slows, products stall, the staff that built the great stuff leaves, and mediocrity creeps in. Not always, but usually."

More than a year into the age of the iPhone app, brands are starting to get on board -- and best practices are emerging. Here are 12 lessons.

out being sustained by people who cared about experimentation and exploration. Sometimes these people were relatives, but sometimes they were neighbors, teachers or other influential adults. A number of the innovative entrepreneurs also went to Montessori schools, where they learned to follow their curiosity. To paraphrase the famous Apple ad campaign, innovators not only learned early on to think different, they act different (and even talk different).

How Do Innovators Think? 5:21 PM Monday September 28, 2009 by Bronwyn Fryer Tags:Creativity, Innovation, Leadership What makes visionary entrepreneurs such as Apple's Steve Jobs, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Ebay's Pierre Omidyar and Meg Whitman, and P&G's A.G. Lafley tick? In a question-and-answer session with HBR contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer, Professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregersen of Insead explain how the "Innovators' DNA" works.This post is part of HarvardBusiness.org's Creativity at Work special package. Fryer: You conducted a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an additional 500 individual interviews. During this study you found five "discovery skills" that distinguish them. What are these skills? Dyer: The first skill is what we call "associating." It's a cognitive skill that allows creative people to make connections across seemingly unrelated questions, problems, or ideas. The second skill is questioning - an abilit

http://audio.sxsw.com/2009/podcasts/D2%20SXSW_PODCASTS/031409_PM1_BallA_OpeningRemarks_Simul.mp3

I'm into Tony now.

Great presentation about brand values, customer service, and motivation. Audio is available too in a link provided in the comments section

reasons why companies are scared of social media

Interview from Guardian G2, Feb 2009. "People have been bamboozled with the technology for too long," he says. "The real questions are, 'What are your goals, and how can you use technology to achieve them?' "Organisations can build very quickly, if they do the messaging right. They need to be able to answer the question, 'What can someone do for me today?'

"People have been bamboozled with the technology for too long," he says. "The real questions are, 'What are your goals, and how can you use technology to achieve them?' Our biggest sales pitch is that we couple the services along with the technology. A lot of our competition just sells technology, and the types of organisation and causes that we like to work with, if I go in and sell them really powerful technology, it doesn't do them any good, because they don't have the wherewithal to make sense of it."

Newest addition to my fantasy dinner party guestlist: Thomas Gensemer. http://is.gd/jUmY [from http://twitter.com/louisedoherty/statuses/1226680797]

Thomas Gensemer Mastermind of the Democratic campaign

After seeing Chris' post on convincing people about social media I thought it would be worthwhile bookmarking his case studies bookmarks as a useful resource (blog post referred to: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/starting-your-social-media-case/)

via jdodds

awesome

chrisbrogan's casestudy Bookmarks on Delicious Tagged as casestudy socialmedia casestudies marketing socialnetworking strategy web2.0 study reference social list Use case studies. Need some to start with? Here, take mine. Find the ones that best align with what you want to do, and/or that best match your company’s verticals. Case studies are nature’s way of saying, “Hey, here’s an ass-covering for you.”

business

Last night I posted the video of Mint CEO Aaron Patzer’s 45 minute presentation on building startups from the ground up. If you are an aspiring startup entrepreneur, you’ll want to watch that more than a few times. The candid disclosures and advice he gives is rarely seen in Silicon Valley. Some readers requested to see the presentation deck as well, so here it is. Patzer shows how he raised and spent money, and generated revenue, throughout the lifecycle of Mint, from the very beginning to the $170 million acquisition. He also showed historical slides from early presentations to investors and compares those to the actual results.

Startups 101: The Complete Mint Presentation

Last night I posted the video of Mint CEO Aaron Patzer's 45 minute presentation on building startups from the ground up. If you ...

Experience Themes How a storytelling method can help unify teams and create better products by Cindy Chastain on 2009/10/06

Como usar historias para elegir el tema general de un sitio y mantenerlo enfocado.

The more beautifully you shape your work around one clear idea, the more meanings audiences will discover in your film as they take your idea and follow its implication into every aspect of their lives.

There’s an old adage among screenwriters that when a writer can sum up a story in a sentence or less, he has discovered what’s important about the story. He’ll know what the story is about and therefore have a strong sense of theme. And in knowing the theme, he’ll have a compass to use in the process of “designing” the damn thing (i.e. what to keep, what to lose, what actually happens at the end). The story will be all the better for it because it all hangs together with a central idea that will give it greater impact and meaning.

America's Best Young Entrepreneurs 2009--via Yahoo! Finance (Congrats to @Shama!!!) http://ow.ly/uad5 [from http://twitter.com/allenmireles/statuses/4844559545]

Could it be? A viral video that actually works? Hard to tell actually. The experiments are cool and people are watching, but the numbers on ROI? The world may never know…

"The Fun Theory" a series of experiments, can being fun can improve people’s behavior? http://ow.ly/u6br - these are pretty cool.... [from http://twitter.com/gideonking/statuses/4830916520]

Videos "the fun theory" Stiegen mit Tönen, the World's deepest bin

When you boil it down it’s about listening to your customers, being helpful by offering your knowledge and giving them interesting content to share and thereby advocate for you.

Social media isn’t complicated. When you boil it down it’s about listening to your customers, being helpful by offering your knowledge and giving them interesting content to share and thereby advocate for you. The IMS speakers shared several case studies (yes, too many of them mentioned Comcast and Zappos) on how organizations have embraced social media to connect with and built trust and affection among customers. None of the examples required hyper-specialized knowledge or technology for a company to connect with people.

Companies that can't talk about anything other than their products, or don't respond to their customers online are hurting their social-media efforts, Amy Mengel writes. Companies also need to make sure that their internal processes are in line with the technology and that the company culture is cut out for social media

“It’s not rocket surgery.” That malapropism became a bit of a mantra at last week’s Inbound Marketing Summit. Social media isn’t complicated. When you boil it down it’s about listening to your custo

Why make one big website when you can create 100 little digital experiences?

I want to see a new digital agency model that sells a package of 100 small digital experiences, that can each be executed quickly and cheaply, instead of selling the 1 big digital experience

thoughts about how to behave as the a new model digital agency

A ceramics professor comes in on the first day of class and divides the students into two sections. He tells one half of the class that their final grade will be based exclusively on the volume of their production; the more they make, the better their grade. The professor tells the other half of the class that they will be graded more traditionally, based solely on the quality of their best piece. At the end of the semester, the professor discovered that the students who were focused on making as many pots as possible also ended up creating the best pots, much better than the pots made by the students who spent all semester trying to create that one perfect pot.

http://stealourideas.tumblr.com/

Jason Fried hates lame meetings, tech companies that don't generate revenue, and companies that treat their employees like children. A peek inside his typical workday

37 Signals CEO/President writes about how he works

you end up dying with your customer base, because the software is too complicated for a newcomer. We keep our products simple. I'd rather have people grow out of our products, as long as more people are growing into them. We also get thousands of suggestions. The default answer is always no. We rarely have meetings. I hate them. They're a huge waste of time, and they're costly. Creative people need unstructured time to get in the zone. You can't do that in 20 minutes. Very rarely is a question important enough to stop people from doing what they're doing. Everything can wait a couple of hours, unless it is a true emergency. We want to get rid of interruption as much as we possibly can, because that's the real enemy of productivity. Everyone should read stuff on the Web that's goofy or discover something new. I

B.L. Ochman's blog: 10 Things Social Media Can't Do

10 Things Social Media Can't Do

Waardevolle tips over wat je kan verwachten van Sociale Media en wat niet.

speculation, but interesting

pretty darn fascinating

@venturedig

Four Primary Business Models in the social networking space that I’ve experienced–they primarily are concerned with Facebook Applications.

I always thought that expanding my business at a steady pace was a smart move. Now I worry that it could potentially kill us

By Joel Spolsky

Interessante discussies in comments... But we do have to work closer to the limits of our abilities, we have to invest more of our profits in hiring more salespeople and software developers, and we have to focus relentlessly on winning more enterprise sales. We have to do that, because otherwise, we're going to end up being the company you've never heard of.

3. Getting Your Good Work Out There

"Social media has begun to play a key role in how companies shape their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and present themselves as good corporate citizens."

Although I noticed a link to a story about how Twitter is not good for business, this article from Mashable contends that social media is important for corporations, especially in adhering to Corporate Social Responsibility. I think it points out some good general tips that social technology can help with in creating a positive image for one's corporation. At the same time, it also show how helpful social media is in allowing corporations to connect to possible customers and making them feel good about their consumer choices.

Social media has begun to play a key role in how companies shape their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and present themselves as good corporate citizens.

A defining factor in any freelancer or agency’s success in gaining new business is their ability to market their skills effectively. In this three-part series, we will explore ways in which designers can strategically promote themselves to get new clients. Securing new business by approaching companies can be a very challenging process, full of pitfalls. Here, we will look at 10 steps to impressing potential clients and avoiding the most common mistakes.

Most established organizations put a vision statement on their website. This will give you key insight into a company’s values, history, growth and future direction. This information is invaluable because it will help you better understand how the business operates and, thus, how you can tailor your approach to it. For example, if the company has a progressive stance on sustainability and the environment, you could approach them with ideas for paperless advertising and communication.

Redesign: When To Relaunch The Site and Best Practices | Smashing Magazine

influence or manipulation?

As Social Customers Become More Empowered, Organizations Must Have A Listening Strategy As we approach 2010 planning companies need a strategy around listening. Sadly, most companies, and their agency partners don’t know why to listen or how. As a result, they must identify which stage of listening they are at, and then set a goal on which stage they see to aspire in 2010. I originally published this matrix for client workshops and a keynote presentation on developing listening and advocacy programs, and I’m going to continue to share more and blow-out each of my slides.

RT: @shakingtree: As Social Customers Become More Empowered, Organizations Must Have A Listening Strategy http://bit.ly/j6NY1 - by @jowyang [from http://twitter.com/harro/statuses/5656284212]

You're the owner of a local small business and you are trying to figure out the best steps to get on to Facebook to drive new customers. It can be a daunting task and with little extra time in the day, how can you be expected to spend time promoting your business on Facebook? I completely understa ...

Every startup needs to pick a major among three drivers of growth. It's simply too hard to focus on more ...

"Last year Pepsi spent several hundred million dollars on a new logo. Everyone figured they had just ripped off the Obama logo. But now an internal document from the branding company has surfaced: Breathtaking bullshit."

the majority of them weren’t using Twitter effectively to engage their followers, weren’t tweeting often, and didn’t display any personality in their tweets, according to the study.

So in honor of Dan Kennedy, who sometimes styles himself as the “Professor of Harsh Reality,” I thought I’d talk today about some of the not-so-kumbaya aspects of social media marketing. Harsh Realities

So in honor of Dan Kennedy, who sometimes styles himself as the Professor of Harsh Reality, I thought Id talk today about some of the not-so-kumbaya aspects of social media marketing.

Good read for those considering using social media to market or those of us in the thick of it.

So in honor of Dan Kennedy, who sometimes styles himself as the “Professor of Harsh Reality,” I thought I’d talk today about some of the not-so-kumbaya aspects of social media marketing.

Social media gets lots of attention these days. The NFL banned players from using Twitter. Bing integrated Twitter results into its search engine results pages (SERPs). When Michael Jackson died the site handled an estimated 5,000 tweets per minute and, proving Twitter's global reach, a state department official asked Twitter to postpone scheduled maintenance due to the critical role the site played in the recent Iran elections.

An example of a twitter guide from the UK government

SHARED USING: http://www.tagle.it

Guy Kawasaki on His way of using twitter

@guykawasaki

so twittert Guy Kawasaki.

Thought provoking article and some nice recommended LPI for measuring your Twitter influence

twitter analitics

Startups are often smaller with fewer resources, smaller staffs, less capital, and not enough time to get everything done. Here's how to simplify.

Startup businesses are often smaller than more established competitors, with fewer resources, smaller staffs, less capital, and not enough time to get everything done.

Non-consumer companies realize there are clear benefits to implementing a social media strategy, but what do they need to do to achieve success? The truth is, the social media strategy, processes, and principles, don’t really change much depending on your company type and size. Here are a few rules to live by when implementing your social media strategy.

Amber Naslund

"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." This is just one of the 10 things social media can't do for your business.

strategy, buy-in, long term, measurement, outsource, reputation, budget, ROI, expertise, and most importantly: SM needs to complement PR, marketing etc.

10 things social media can't do: http://j.mp/nYLmN I'm not sure I agree with everything here, but it's a good list nonetheless. [from http://twitter.com/MacDivaONA/statuses/5428816098]

So here's my rule: The rule of 80%. For anyone selling on an incremental basis, set your break points that the per-unit costs of the new tier are 80% of the per-unit cost for the previous tier.

In just the last week, two different people have come to me to get feedback on their pricing. One was a startup selling a very sophisticated product to corporate enterprises. The other was selling consulting services to individuals, small businesses, and trade associations. In both cases, however, the questions were the same: how should I price this on a per-head basis? When should I charge a flat fee? How do I make sure I'm not leaving money on the table? How do I make sure I'm not losing customers?

Basecamp

This was a hard chapter to write. It feels like a chapter that would work better in the final book. You have to have a mission and strategy and plan, right? So why does writing them feel like one of those make-work projects you have to do to keep investors happy? Come to think of it, you could outsource the production of your vision, mission, and strategy via Mechanical Turk?

The idea has to be one that just won't leave you alone. Such ideas often seem totally out of sync with current reality and are dismissed as crazy. That is because in the current environment they are crazy. The idea that everybody would own a PC was crazy in the 1970s, when Microsoft was starting out. People who are driven by these ideas very often feel doubt. On all sensible levels, the idea is crazy.

ed, just that it's something that you should be willing to experiment with on an ongoing basis with the knowledge that it's going to take a long time to get it exactly right.

Interesting blog abour freemium strategies

In working with our various clients at New Marketing Labs, we like to start with measurement as it aligns to goals. We’re always excited that people want to work with us, but we also want to make sure their time isn’t wasted by simply “doing social media.”

Chris Brogan outlines interesting ideas - could help with future clients

During a rebuild or development of a new site, content strategy engagement is site-level and long-term. First, the content strategist assesses, analyzes, and recommends high-level steps to create more cohesive content. In practice, this means many working sessions with business owners to define big picture objectives, the mission, and editorial program for the site based on the initial content assessment. Once the site goals are understood from a business and user point of view, the content strategist-as-curator works to reframe the collection by creating an overarching strategy that defines how content be should be organized, positioned, and made relevant (think: exhibition rooms in a museum or gallery). We then look at the spectrum of what is available and desired for publication, identify what is premium (the most unique among competitors, desirable to users, and drives high traffic) and work with the business to agree on site-wide topical areas of strength, focus and breadth.

What can we learn from museums libraries and other institutions that manage collections about effective content strategies.

Alan was co-founder of Fast Company magazine and former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review. More specifically related to this post, Alan developed a very interesting habit more than 20 years ago, when he began to carry a supply of 3 x 5 index cards wherever life took him. He wrote down and collected the lessons and insights he gleaned from his experiences travelling the world and in his interactions with people ranging from CEOs and spiritual leaders to basketball coaches, novelists, and stars from dozens of other worlds… His new book, Rules of Thumb, is a collection of 52 truths he’s culled from these notes specifically related to winning in business. I asked him if I could have an exclusive excerpt, and he graciously agreed.

Think outside the box. Do it different than its being done.

Start-up Strategy

RULE #24 – If you want to change the game, change the economics of how the game is played.

preeminent

Good way to advertise products online

Here's how one guy started a successful consulting service by giving away a product to produce social interest in it.

Link referenced in #4change chat, 23 July 2009. Interesting blog post on 'why the Internet isn’t like electrification or shipping containers'.

Written in the run-in to the release of the Digital Britain report from a website with a mission to expand the UK's democracy.

Article about how the Government should improve its application of the Internet.

These services are reducing traditional institutions ability to charge for information, seize big consumer surpluses, limit speech or fix marriages. It has, in other words, become harder to be a big business, newspaper, repressive institution or religion. Nor is this traditional ‘creative destruction’ going on in a normal capitalist economy: this isn’t about one widget manufacturer replacing another, this is about a newspaper business dying and being replaced by no one single thing, and certainly nothing recognisable as a newspaper business. This common pattern of more powerful tools for citizens making life harder for traditional institutions is, for me, a cause for celebration. However, I am not celebrating as a libertarian (which I am not) I celebrate it because it marks a historic increase in the freedom of people and groups of people, and a step-change in their ability to determine the direction of their own lives.

Here are 10 tips for increasing user engagement that work for news community web sites, but can apply to all types of online user-engagement communities.

More detail on Mobile than the Oct 09 Internet Report.

Our global technology and telecom analysts set out to do a deep dive into the rapidly changing mobile Internet market. We wanted to create a data-rich, theme-based framework for thinking about how the market may develop. We intend to expand and edit the framework as the market evolves. A lot has changed since we published “The Internet Report” in 1995 on the web. We decided to create The Mobile Internet Report largely in PowerPoint and publish it on the web, expecting that bits and pieces of it will be cut / pasted / redistributed and debated / dismissed / lauded. Our goal is to get our thoughts and data into the conversation about what may be the biggest technology trend ever, one that may help make us all more informed in ways that are unique to the web circa 2009, and beyond.

The Mobile Internet Report December 2009

Everything must have collaborative opportunities. If I write about a restaurant, you should have wikified access to add to the article directly.

chrisbrogan.com

Tankar om framtiden. Annonser kan inte vara den bärande inkomstkällan.

Twitter has been hailed as an incredibly useful marketing tool for businesses and brands, both big and small, to disseminate information and engage with consumers on a massive scale. But what about non-profits? The ability to use social media to fundraise for charitable purposes has been questionable. A few months ago, the Washington Post reported that Causes, one of Facebook’s popular applications used by non-profits to raise money, was not netting much money for charities, despite its large amount of users (according to the application’s page, it has 26 million monthly users).

Fundraising + Twitter = Tweetraising

# Lack of social media literacy amongst workers. Anecdotally, the farther a business is from the technology industry, the less likely that line workers will be familiar with the latest software innovations.

social computing adoption curve dion hinchcliffe

Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing http://snipr.com/o2ybe [from http://twitter.com/FredericMartin/statuses/2876580605]

Ten top issues in adopting enterprise social computing | Enterprise Web 2.0 | ZDNet.com

Therapists don't tell you what to do. Rather, they ask probing questions that get you to discover for yourself what is true for you, your situation, and what you want. Similarly, these ten questions will force you to make the important decisions about your business. Ask them of yourself every month instead of writing a useless business plan.

Without an ordered approach, careful research and custom tools it can be difficult for link builders, writers and content strategists to know what content will attract links in a target market. This article provides a process and tools for developing and distributing linkable content based on the content that's proven to attract links in your target keyword space.

mfortable speaking wi

Ted didn't know--or care--what anyone outside the investment team did. The senior managers were the people to impress, and his fellow analysts were the people to keep ahead of. He sometimes had a hard time getting the administrative team's help in closing trades, but he didn't let that stop him. In fact, he'd often mention his disappointment with administrative staffers at his interruptions--er, meetings--with senior managers.

The wise moves that outpaced a wily and ambitious colleague.

This is a true tale about two acquaintances of mine. One knew instinctively exactly how to get ahead in the workplace. The other thought he knew--and was dead wrong. Alot of us would probably act pretty much the way the latter did. I believe their experiences hold lessons for all of us.

** Posted using Viigo: Mobile RSS, Sports, Current Events and more ** The wise moves that outpaced a wily and ambitious colleague.

"Microsoft, Ozzie wrote, had to think and operate more like an Internet company and, as much as possible, like a Web startup. Consider ad-supported or subscription business models, he advised, viral distribution, and experiences that "just work." Instead of the clunkiness that Microsoft products so often displayed, focus on being "seamless." Bottom line: Change big-time, or else."

the back story on Azure and the good 'ol days

.

Previously, a big part of any development team at Microsoft was making sure its new product worked in lockstep with everything else the company produced. While that approach avoided annoying conflicts, it also tended to smother innovation. "This philosophy of independent innovation...is something Ray pushed very strongly," Ozzie's approach was to encourage people to rush ahead and build things. Then he'd have a team of what he calls the spacklers fill in the gaps and get things ready for release. He spent a lot of time on the physical workspace for his team. He had workers rip down the labyrinthine corridors on one floor and called in architects to create a more open design. Now, walking into the Windows Live Core group is like leaving Microsoft and visiting a Futurama set. Office windows open onto hallways so that quick eye contact can trigger spontaneous discussions. Whiteboards are everywhere. Pool tables, mini-lounges, and snack zones draw people toward the center of the space.

Enigma or not, Ozzie is the one who must lead—or drag, if need be—a software giant with 90,000 employees, $60 billion in revenue, and an untold number of blue screens of death across a chasm. Can he do it? Ozzie's big advantage is that he knows what's on the other side. In fact, he caught a glimpse of it 35 years ago and has been heading there ever since.

Types of audits, pricing

Why break them because you want momentum – it is the fuel. In order to not let it down chunk the project into smaller and smaller bits.(less roadmap and spec) optimize for now.

how 37signals runs

"This is really bad," Cook told the group. "Someone should be in China driving this." Thirty minutes into that meeting Cook looked at Sabih Khan, a key operations executive, and abruptly asked, without a trace of emotion, "Why are you still here?" Khan, who remains one of Cook's top lieutenants to this day, immediately stood up, drove to San Francisco International Airport, and, without a change of clothes, booked a flight to China with no return date, according to people familiar with the episode. The story is vintage Cook: demanding and unemotional."

Why are you still here?

One day back then, he convened a meeting with his team, and the discussion turned to a particular problem in Asia. "This is really bad," Cook told the group. "Someone should be in China driving this." Thirty minutes into that meeting Cook looked at Sabih Khan, a key operations executive, and abruptly asked, without a trace of emotion, "Why are you still here?" Khan, who remains one of Cook's top lieutenants to this day, immediately stood up, drove to San Francisco International Airport, and, without a change of clothes, booked a flight to China with no return date, according to people familiar with the episode. The story is vintage Cook: demanding and unemotional.

from the Official Google Blog – a history lesson for us all

inspiration

Today, almost a third of all Google searches in Japan are coming from mobile devices — a leading indicator of where the rest of the world will soon be.

Compare "State of Google" addresses since 2004.

5/07/2009 12:11:00 PM Posted by Sergey Brin, Co-founder

this

Kunagi tulevikus on seda kirja ilmselt päris huvitav lugeda :)

e tells us some things to expect in the next. Computers will be 100 times faster still and storage will be 100 times cheaper. Many of the problems that we call artificial intelligence today will become accepted as standard computational capabilities, including image processing, spe

How to decide if your business should tweet http://adjix.com/g743 via @GuyKawasaki: [from http://twitter.com/markivey/statuses/2092035660]

via @koskim at LinkedIn

Ten factors to consider when deciding whether a business should tweet: 1. Domain squatting: Is there any value for you to register your business name or real name as a Twitter user name? 2. Brand mentions: Is anyone talking about your actual business already? 3. Topical mentions: Are people on Twitter discussing topics relevant to your business? 4. Location mentions: Are they in a proximity to become customers? 5. Target Audience: What is your target audience twittering about? 6. Competitiveness: How cutthroat is your business? Do you need to do anything and everything to stay ahead? Twitter could be a competitive advantage, or a necessary defensive strategy. 7. Sales cycle complexity: How involved is the purchase decision? The more complex the greater value Twitter contact can be. 8. Purchase frequency: How valuable is it to stay top of mind? 9. Acquisition vs. retention: do existing customers use Twitter or will potential customers? 10. Bandwidth and resources

According to a new report by Forrester Research, corporate blogs are the least trusted information source of all. Only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say that they trust them.

oversikt over firmablogger

Ein Forrester-Studie besagt, dass Corporate Blogs nicht getraut wird; dies muss man allerdings so nicht stehen lassen.

# A new graph showing different types of fan interactions with the Page over time. Here, you see that the graph combines comments, wall posts, and likes to show relative volume of interactions. # A new count of active fans this week, with full age/sex/location breakdown. # A new count of total interactions this week, broken down by type. # A new post quality rating, from 1 to 5 stars. # Graphs for Interactions, Interactions per Post, Post Quality, Stream CTR, Posts, Page views, Media Consumption, Reviews

The news media experimenters of 2009 will be upping the ante in 2010 with new storytelling and social engagement strategies. Here are the top trends to watch for.

The news media is experiencing a renaissance. As we end the year, its state in 2009 can be summarized as a year of turmoil, layoffs and cutbacks in an industry desperately seeking to reinvent its business model and content. But despite the thousands of journalism jobs lost, the future has much hope and opportunity for those that are willing to adapt to a changing industry.

What’s Working for Social Media Marketers?

A September 2009 MarketingProfs survey of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers found that the marketing tactics most often used on social sites are not necessarily the b

Fostering human relationships between customers and businesses is immeasurable, but important!

Effective Analytics Measure Altitude Branding

Ah, measurement. How we love to have a gauge of whether what we’re doing is working or not. No more telling me that you can’t measure the impact of social media. Here’s a pile of metrics you can consider. Try benchmarking them before you start your online outreach or community efforts, and tracking them throughout and after.

a must read

mportancia de la red, de as rrpp y de escuchar al consumidor interesante la evolucionde : cotillear en la carniceria a chatear a face book lo mismo pero mas sofisticado y. cn más alcance.... ejemplo de dove y contra ejemplo de greenpeace estrategia de corporate brand

CAUSE MARKETING AS DESCRIBED BY UNILEVER CMO

Clift chides marketers for not recognizing their brands are not their own.

Dieser Beitrag betrifft nicht nur Marketing, sondern auch PR–bemerkenswert vor allem die "Five new rules of [PR]: "Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them."

BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) -- Brands aren't simply brands anymore. They are the center of a maelstrom of social and political dialogue made possible by digital media, said Unilever Chief Marketing Officer Simon Clift, who warned that marketers who do not recognize that -- and adapt their marketing -- are in grave peril. Unilever Chief Marketing Officer Simon Clift Unilever Chief Marketing Officer Simon Clift Photo Credit: Gary He "No matter how big your advertising spending, small groups of consumers on a tiny budget might hijack the conversation," he said. "So this internet thing is much bigger and more interesting than just finding successors to TV advertising." Mr. Clift was speaking to a packed house at Ad Age's Digital Conference last week, in an address that did much to define an internet-driven sea change that's put consumers in control and at times threatened to overwhelm marketers and their agencies, who -- despite frequent protestations to the contrary -- are still rather p

The web is filled with social networks: We have Twitter for meeting new people, Facebook for old college buddies, and Bebo for those of us who don’t want to hang out with the mainstream. Those social networks are rarely viewed as corporate services — they’re relaxing at the end of a long workday, not playgrounds for more business activity. But I would argue that social networks provide value to a business person on several levels, whether it be for those furiously working each day in a cubicle or for others closing big deals on the golf course.

Brian Solis mentions PR Newswires Social Media Metrics: Employ listening devices such as Google Alerts, Twitter Search, Radian6, and PR Newswire’s Social Media Metrics to track conversations and instances associated with key words.

Simple steps to ensure the initiative doesn't lose focus.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ... Read more of this post, 10 Insights Gained from Spending 7,280 Hours on Social Media Websites, at Change.org.

RT @rajdey: Nonprofits: 10 Insights Gained from Spending 7,280 Hours on Social Media Websites: http://twurl.nl/seiez3 (via @marthalanefox) [from http://twitter.com/AsherJac/statuses/2894739702]

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ...

10 top things to do and not do with nfp social media

very good observations on skillful use of social media

Klinkt logisch maar drie vuistregels voor social media binnen een bedrijf zijn: 1 samenwerken 2 de bedrijfsleiding moet achter het idee staan 3 neem je tijd: de impact van social media ontstaat niet op 123

This is information I share with clients all the time - they are simple and seem like common sense when you read about them, but all too often overlooked by organisations when considering their social media policy.

"If the direction doesn’t come from the very top, managers, who have myriad reasons to fear change, will hang on to the status quo. Despite the best intentions of agencies and consultants, social media integration is bound to meet huge resistance until top management says it’s OK to spend time and money to integrate it into the company’s marketing and culture."

Various ways Starbucks uses social media to connect with their customers. Amazing!

moving master with --no-ff

dialy

A well described branching model for git

lots of people forget the planning phase in social media programs

Altitude Branding / 21.12.09

Great post from Amber Naslund on creating measurable objectives.

Inc.com

Inc. Magazine

Reading The State of PR, Marketing, and Communications: You are the Future: This post is long. If you pre.. http://cli.gs/93z14P [from http://twitter.com/ploked/statuses/2077952723]

While some are already predicting the death of PR, I fundamentally believe that it's simply the death of PR as we know it. As long as communications professionals want to learn and improve their craft, then we are positioned for evolution. No matter how much we think we know, we're now equalized as an industry in order to reset, learn, and define and earn an invaluable role within the business cycle – again.

Brian Solis on where PR is headed.

The State of PR, Marketing, and Communications: You are the Future

SHARED USING: http://www.tagle.it

use social media share buttons in e-zines & eDMs

"Users come for the content." True.

Users do not commonly browse the internet looking for a good design or decent user experience. Users browse the web in search of good content. When it comes to designing a website, content is often overlooked, but why? Very rarely do users browse the web looking for a good design or decent experience. Users come for the content. Not giving them what they want with poorly written content will frustrate users. Not only does it waste their time, but your time as well.

When it comes to designing a website, content is often overlooked, but why? Very rarely do users browse the web looking for a good design or decent experience. Users come for the content. Not giving them what they want with poorly written content will frustrate users. Not only does it waste their time, but your time as well.

Tweet plans help businesses to brand their Twitter presence with keywords for stronger social media marketing.

Are you using Twitter and trying to figure out whether it’s doing anything for your biz?

Are you currently using Twitter and trying to figure out whether it’s doing anything at all for your biz?

tweet must be unique content because Twitter does not allow duplicate tweets. This next step of writing a series of unique tweets is simple if, for each tweet, you: * Keep your preferred audience in mind * Use one of your keywords

Do you have a strategy planned out? Or are you finding yourself haphazardly tweeting at random hrs. of the day about everything from what you had for breakfast to news in your industry?

Interesting read about the use of technology in the Obama campaign. The link between my.barackobama.com and actual physical volunteering and organizing is particularly interesting.

"Everything I thought we knew about the campaign's use of technology and the Internet faded as I spent more time with the campaign. The game-changer in the Obama campaign, as I found in talking to key staff—and through volunteering in southern Ohio myself—was that technology was not an add-on: It represented a carefully considered element of almost every critical campaign function. Most remarkably, technology played a critical role in the one area least understood by the "digerati" and most online campaigners: moving online supporters toward real-world action. "

A smart post from Michael Silberman of echoditto

To Increase Engagement, Brands to Allow Users To Login With Facebook, MySpace, Twitter In a recent report titled the "Future of the Social Web" we found that we are entering the era of social colonization, every webpage and experience will be social

Jeremiah Owyang

A continued thought... the other part of Jeremiah's "Pollination" post. In that case, corps are putting their content out there... beyond their walls to make sure they are part of the unstructured/controlled conversation. In this case, corps are aggregating the other information onto their own site to bring the conversation closer to their home. Push/Pull at it's finest when taken together.

If you were to ask over 200 social media leaders which social media site they would pay for if they had to, as ...

RT @mikefilsaime "Twitter Is Better Than Facebook For Businesses" , says Survey Of Social Media Elite: http://tinyurl.com/dekmdq [from http://twitter.com/barbhd34/statuses/1226732194]

If you were to ask “over 200 social media leaders” which social media site they would pay for if they had to, as Abrams Research recently did, Facebook would come out on top, with 32.2 percent saying they would pay for it. (Yeah, right). LinkedIn was second, Twitter was third, and MySpace and Digg tied for last place (with only 1.5 percent of respondents saying they’d pay for those services). But if you ask, which one would they recommend for businesses to pay for (if they had to), Twitter beats Facebook by more than two to one (39.6 percent vs. 15.3 percent). LinkedIn again comes in second. Why did Twitter come out on top. It is seen as an efficient way for companies to get their marketing messages out there. One typical response:

Twitter vs. Facebook for businesses

People around the world do trust the media, but to varying degrees. According to TNS, the good news, for Internet content producers, is that people now trust the information they get from online ne

Does Anyone Trust the Media? - Yes, but not all media http://ow.ly/4Hf3 [from http://twitter.com/barbhd34/statuses/1670958181]

Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies

The key with boring brands is to get people talking about their problems, since they won’t talk about your brand

Good background for both ends of the spectrum.

Freeciv.net is an Open Source strategy game which can be played online against other players, or in single player mode against AI opponents.

Everything pointed to a simpler style of eating. I started following a diet that was nearly "vegan until six." Until dinner, I ate almost no animal products and no simple carbs (no white-flour products, junk food, or sugar-heavy snacks). At dinner, I ate as I always had, sometimes a sizable meal including animal products, bread, dessert, wine -- you name it -- or sometimes a salad and a bowl of soup. I also took several long walks each week (my bad knees couldn't handle more).

The anti-girth, pro-Earth eating plan for busy, real people.

Bittman

Mark Bittman How to cook everything vegetarian NYT food writer the minimalist against meat

Free download of classic C&C

Top 5 priorities - a year ago and still valid

The most scary thing about the Internet for your government is not pedophiles, terrorists or viruses, whatever you may have read in the papers. It is the danger of your administration being silently obsoleted by the lightening pace at which the Internet changes expectations.

RT @timoreilly: MySociety's top 5 Internet priorities for government is, as expected, right on. http://bit.ly/ghZl6 [from http://twitter.com/NicMcPhee/statuses/1330269653]

great comparative look at the current competing technologies.

Lack Of Signal In A Sea of Noise There’s an incredible amount of media and blogger noise about social networks, yet most focus on “killer app” hype without an objective point of view. My career mission? To cut out the hype and help companies make sense of what to do. For those fraught with information overload, this definitive matrix distills what matters. Situation: New Contender Shakes Up Industry Google has entered the social networking play with “Buzz”, and by the look of it, this time it’s for real. There’s a lot of market confusion on how they could stack up, so here’s my take. Let’s cut the noise and get to the heart of it with a comparison matrix based upon my insights talking to these companies in formal briefings, observations, as a user, my former research and dealing with the brands trying to reach them. Executive Summary: Brands Must Stay Focused On Where Customers Already Are Google’s entrance causes media havoc but web strategists should stay focused. Find out

Social Media and Social Networking

Analytikern Jeremiah Owyang ställer upp Buzz, Facebook, Twitter och MySpace i en matris där styrkor och svagheter rankas.

Programing the social web around a brand requires a consistent flow of engaging social objects. Here's why smart social content should be a major priority.

Future of Agencies - will they even exist? Ideological article.

Who says the future needs an agency, anyway?

Advertising agency of the future sounds a bit like horse drawn carriage of the future. I’m not saying for certain that there won’t be agencies in the future, only that the future doesn’t necessarily need agencies. Just like the future doesn’t need printed news but it needs journalism; the future needs commercial communications, but who creates them, the agency or the brand or someone else, is unwritten.

既然微網誌上人氣有限，企業為什麼還要經營它？此文提供了一個觀點

brands have to participate directly in these online discussions or face growing irrelevance, says Razorfish. But they have to bring credible voices that "need to be more engaging, personal, humble, authentic and participatory than traditional advertising images," advises the report.

great summary of the interesting new research from razorfish

Social media sites aren't where most people go to get recommendations on products and services. Even so, marketers must still try to reach consumers through social media since that's where conversations about brands are increasingly taking place. That's one of the key conclusions of a new study on social influence marketing by interactive agency Razorfish. The report released today also includes a new index developed by the firm which scores brands based on how they're being discussed online.

Answers the questions that causes the most hesitation when organizations think about adopting social media!

However, when you open the conversation up to anyone, you can also potentially invite negative criticism that you need to be prepared to deal with. Here’s a quick guide to dealing with negative feedback on social media.

social media

So your biz is on Facebook, and brand engagement is up thanks to some savvy social media strategy. You might even be interested in further distinguishing your brand by building a custom landing page for your business account.

So your business is on Facebook, and brand engagement is up thanks to some savvy social media strategy. You might even be interested in further distinguishing your brand by building a custom landing page for your account.

Como establecer la verdad cuando nuestra identidad online esta poco mas que un avatar y pocas lineas de texto?

Few, if any, educational institutes teach the art of proper digital communication. Most of us have simply made up an impromptu strategy and crossed our fingers in the hopes that disaster doesn’t strike. With a bit of help from our friends in the fields of psychology and information technology, we can apply the age-old intuitions of face-to-face conversation to whatever advances in technology come our way.

Alright, so we keep talking about how government agencies need to gain the trust of our communities so they'll follow our recommendations. In the same breath, we declare that social media will be that silver bullet that will make everyone believe what we say and will allow our response/outreach/efforts to succeed beyond our wildest dreams. Turns out there's some research into how that actually happens. Take note and maybe your next response will be met with open ears and not wary eyes.

소셜미디어의 핵심은 진정성, 동영상으로 사례 설명한 부분이 인상적

Our final Georgetown U. Social Media for Social Good class post on the Groundswell deals specifically with Chapter 11, which discusses strategies on how to get social media improved inside the organization. Before I begin, a very special thanks to Charlene Li, who guest lectured last night via Skype (full photo set here).

good to do list when you are advocating social media

new media social web2.0 boss job approved obstacles

Measure twice, cut once. Better yet, measure thrice. Making certain that your early visitors will have the best experience possible when first arriving at your site means that everything needs to be working correctly. Check to make sure that all hyperlinks work. Make ultra-sure that contact forms, email accounts, commenting systems, and all the other things that your users will interface with, is working properly. One of the late quick fixes we had to implement just hours before Design Instruct’s launch had something to do with category pages. Users visiting a category page from the sidebar links that didn’t have an associated tutorial under it simply said that the page could not be found. It gave the impression that there was something wrong. We had to revise the message to say, "There aren’t any posts in this category yet. We’re working on it though, so please check back soon!" to let users know that the pages do work, just that there aren’t anything in them yet.

10 Simple Tips for Launching a Website

The process of launching a website can be a daunting endeavor. There are many things you want to do, but not enough time and resources to do them. However, even though it might seem like a herculean task, as long as you keep some fundamental things in mind, you can ensure a hassle-free website launch. In this article, I’ll share with you some tips for launching a website based on the experience of our own launch of Design Instruct.

Companies must integrate customers behavior on social networks to their corporate website to increase relevancy, word of mouth, and trust. Social networks, which have your customers and prospects, have taken note, and have launched a variety of products that allows their thriving communities of buyers and prospects to connect with static corporate sites. The challenge? There are so many features available, it’s confusing to figure out what to do. Use this data as a roadmap and guide.

Finally, your corporate website can be relevant again Over the past few weeks, I’ve been conducting research to measure how different social networks allow for integration with corporate websites and their assets. Over 3 years ago, I wrote a piece on how corporate websites are becoming irrelevant, due to trusted decisions between prospects and customers taking place off the corporate site. This piece, which still gets traffic has been translated into over a dozen languages –the market recognizes that corporate sites can no longer operate as silos when customers have left.

Finally, your corporate website can be relevant again - Over the past few weeks, I've been conducting research to measure how different social networks allow for integration with corporate websites and their assets. Over 3 years ago, I wrote a piece...

Finally, your corporate website can be relevant again Over the past few weeks, I've been conducting research to measure how different social networks allow for integration with corporate websites and their assets. Over 3 years ago, I wrote a piece

Companies who don’t have iconic brands with millions of adoring fans, often have to resort to other ways to get the attention of the market. This isn’t evil, nor is it uncommon, it’s just business, and was here before the web, and will be afterwards. Don’t get mad or emotional about it, let’s break it down to understand how it’s going to work, if you’re a concerned user, use this post to figure out how to beat it. If you’re a marketer, figure out what works –and throw away what doesn’t.

To improve your business or personal profile, you must increase you web presence.

Animation of discussion between curator and tech person about social media in museums. Brilliant.

Web Tech Guy and Angry Staff Person

From Michael Edson. Very thought-provoking - arguments counteracting traditional arguments against letting go of content

loel

People often ask, "How do I gain more Twitter followers?" Ars offers six Twitter etiquette tips to help you gain those followers without having resorting to dirty tactics or annoying habits.

I confess, I'd never even thought of declining entertainment factor as a reason for eBay's slow decline (and possible upcoming demise), but it makes a crapload of sense: while I went there occasionally for deals, most people I know eagerly shared hi-larious links for fun. Pays to know what business you're really in. (via @volckmann)

Artcile techcrunch

The author is writing about how eBay lost it's "pole position" due to the Markeplace developement on facebook.

This is a guest post by Keith Rabois, vice president of strategy and business development for Slide, the social entertainment company. Prior to Slide, Keith was a VP at LinkedIn and an EVP at PayPal in charge of among other things, competitive strategy vis-à-vis eBay. He also worked at eBay for three weeks following its acquisition of PayPal. Keith currently serves on the Board of Directors of Yelp, Vendio, Xoom and FanIQ.

Nice insights into eBay culture

Social media marketing is expected to dominate this year -- but the growing list of online social media sites makes choosing the right route complicated. From Facebook to YouTube to Digg and beyond, which media outlets will net the most bang for the buck in terms of customer communication, brand exposure, traffic, and search engine optimization (SEO)? Includes a downloadable PDF version of a chart on leveraging social media options

how can we use linked in to help us connect to people in our industry

Google shows Microsoft how to connect the dots « counternotions

Some business advice for Ballmer.

Quoting Marissa Mayer, Google's VP of Search Products & User Experience: "You may have heard about our [directory assistance] 1-800-GOOG-411 service. Whether or not free-411 is a profitable business unto itself is yet to be seen. I myself am somewhat skeptical. The reason we really did it is because we need to build a great speech-to-text model … that we can use for all kinds of different things, including video search."

Interesting article about how Google is just playing a different game than the rest of us.

all the figures behind obama's social networks and their achievements

Article on Obama's strategy for raising money via online, tms, email, etc.

From Jenna A: Below is a great article about how the marketing departments and CMOs should own the word of mouth marketing and social media space within their company, through a survey to some of the world's top companies (i.e. J&J, P&G, etc.). The article also discusses that many of these same companies both do not understand how either of these tactics (WOM and social media) affect their brands nor the best way to track what's being said about them. Through this article, we learn that we need to help our clients better understand what we do everyday with WOM and social media and how it can and will help them. Also, we can see that our clients will be monitoring these tactics much more closely as they continue to grow, allowing us to develop better metrics, tracking methods and impressions calculations to provide the best possible programs for their needs.

One problem for marketing executives is that they're not clearly in charge now of managing the customer experience, customer loyalty or social media today, given that public-relations, sales, consumer-affairs and research-and-development departments all have a stake in those areas now.

Who in corporate America owns the consumer relationship, the customer experience, word-of-mouth or social media? The answer appears to be nobody.

"The survey of 400 executives found that 56% said their companies have no programs to track or propagate positive word-of-mouth."

Survey by the CMO Council of 400 executives. "Survey said that 56% of respondents said that their companies have no programs to track or propagate positive word-of-mouth; 59% don't compensate any employees based on improvements in customer loyalty or satisfaction; and only 30% rated their companies highly in their ability to handle or resolve customer complaints. " "Despite all the hype about social media, only 16% of respondents said their companies have any routine system in place for monitoring what people are saying about them or their brands online."

Looks at what P&G is doing to track WOM

10 Essential Social Media Tips for B2B Marketers

@d7y @IamSB reminds me of Seth Godin's post about making a product that people love vs making it less annoying: http://bit.ly/44qE

Around two-thirds of workers say the most stressful aspect of their jobs is their immediate boss, their line manager (Hogan, 2006). While this will come as no

Around two-thirds of workers say the most stressful aspect of their jobs is their immediate boss, their line manager (Hogan, 2006)...

PsyBlog | As a result of the strict hierarchies, huge pay differentials, poor decision-making, greasy-pole climbing and feeling powerless to change huge bureaucracies, followers naturally develop feelings of alienation, and alienation kills motivation and productivity, along with any hope of job satisfaction.

Jogo porreta de avião

combattimenti aerei a turni

Unlike its competitors, it’s effectively leveraging location awareness and social networking/human team building instincts to create a bit of a phenomenon. The result is a viral spread.

Smule uses location and visualization on a map to make their game viral.

You can optionally share your location information with the application, and when you light it you show up on a virtual earth-like globe. France and Japan are going absolutely crazy with users, which you can see quite clearly from the virtual globe and the screenshot to the right. The longer a person keeps the lighter going (I have mine sitting here burning while I write this), the more”KiloJoules” you burn. So why is this working? I told you loyal readers back in August. Unlike its competitors, it’s effectively leveraging location awareness and social networking/human team building instincts to create a bit of a phenomenon. The result is a viral spread.

Smule

Bizarre example of a social app leading to huge viral growth

Everyone keeps talking about Smule’s virtual lighter iPhone application called Sonic Lighter.

Smule has built in social and viral features that are helping this spread like mad, and they also give this ridiculous but effective incentive to use the app all the time. France and Japan are going absolutely crazy with users, which you can see quite clearly from the virtual globe and the screenshot to the right. With 69,000 downloads * .99 cents = US$68310 US$68310 - 30% Apple takes = $47,817

We've rounded up the week's essential social media reading into a one-stop-shop for the guides, lists, interviews, and how-tos you may have missed.

We have likely found a few of the week’s essential sources, nevertheless there’s usually which possibility you have missed something which can alter the advertising and marketing or perhaps company strategy.

Viral isn't everything after all... interesting. http://bit.ly/bkXehM - How Mint.com Acquired 1.5M+ Users

Bra beskrivning av hur Mint lyckades locka 1,5 miljoner användare

Our process was to query data from hundreds of our brand clients to see what testable truths emerged -- and here's what we found: 10 rules that hold up across category and time.

social media great reference for measuring success

* Haven't read yet...

10 rules that hold up across category and time.

* Tip #1: Learn how to monitor your brand * Tip #2: Learn from your brand community * Tip #3: Have a game plan * Tip #4: Promote, promote, promote * Tip #5: Allow open, yet governed access for your employees

Many Brands That Adopt Social Are 'Throwing Away' Hard Earned Traffic Many brands are jumping on the social media bandwagon, without giving proper thought about the impacts to their marketing effort.  In particular, many brands are putting 'social

Brands that arbitrarily adopt social tools may be unknowingly undermining their own efforts. Instead, first understand the full ramifications as you integrate social with your corporate website

al login systems that allow users to stay on site

Many brands are jumping on the social media bandwagon, without giving proper thought about the impacts to their marketing effort. In particular, many brands are putting ’social chicklets’ on their homepage to “Follow us on Twitter” or “Friend us on Facebook” without considering the ramifications.

Stop Throwing Traffic Away! *Matrix* Evolution of Social Media Integration and Corporate Websites http://bit.ly/bc8Udc – Jeremiah Owyang (jowyang) http://twitter.com/jowyang/statuses/11200294735

l'infomartion va vers l'utilisateurs

@steverubel - "Micro Persuasion: The End of the Destination Web Era" http://hub.tm/?zhaNN [from http://twitter.com/carreonG/statuses/1688535188]

Teaching as a marketing strategy

Interesting talk on some of the lessons that 37signals have learned from chefs. Specifically, how to market through teaching. I thought it was funny that I ended up watching this while making a balsamic reduction.

An aha moment for higher ed marketing professionals.

Jason Fried Founder and CEO, 37signals Fried is the founder and CEO of 37signals. Fried is a passionate leader in the field of simple, clear, and elegant web-based user interface design. He spearheaded the concept, design, and development of Basecamp, 37signal's web-based project management tool for designers, freelancers, and creative services firms. Fried is also the co-author of Defensive Design for the Web.

When industry norms start to die, people panic. It's difficult to change when you think that you must change everything in order to succeed. Changing everything is too difficult. * Keep the machines in your factory, but change what they make. * Keep your customers, but change what you sell to them. * Keep your providers, but change the profit structure. * Keep your industry but change where the money comes from. * Keep your staff, but change what you do. * Keep your mission, but change your scale. * Keep your products, but change the way you market them. * Keep your customers, but change how much you sell each one. * Keep your technology, but use it to do something else. * Keep your reputation, but apply it to a different industry or problem.

Pivotal points for change - one thing at a time.

When industry norms start to die, people panic. It's difficult to change when you think that you must change everything in order to succeed. Changing everything is too difficult.

Pivots for change /Seth's Blog/ - When industry norms start to die, people panic. It's difficult to change ... http://tinyurl.com/bu4tdr [from http://twitter.com/jorgefsb/statuses/1315341354]

It's difficult to change when you think that you must change everything in order to succeed. Changing everything is too difficult.

Simple... use points from this Seth Godin blog to think about what to keep and what to change.

Complex societies collapse because, when some stress comes, those societies have become too inflexible to respond. In retrospect, this can seem mystifying. Why didn’t these societies just re-tool in less complex ways? The answer Tainter gives is the simplest one: When societies fail to respond to reduced circumstances through orderly downsizing, it isn’t because they don’t want to, it’s because they can’t. In such systems, there is no way to make things a little bit simpler – the whole edifice becomes a huge, interlocking system not readily amenable to change. Tainter doesn’t regard the sudden decoherence of these societies as either a tragedy or a mistake—”[U]nder a situation of declining marginal returns collapse may be the most appropriate response”, to use his pitiless phrase. Furthermore, even when moderate adjustments could be made, they tend to be resisted, because any simplification discomfits elites.

"When societies fail to respond to reduced circumstances through orderly downsizing, it isn’t because they don’t want to, it’s because they can’t."

Charlie Bit My Finger

Régua Heurística criada por Dualibi Simonsen.

Inútil

Facebook, Twitter, other social media help drive business for ... - Chicago Tribune http://ff.im/-2pnCO [from http://twitter.com/chrisbechtel/statuses/1634130716]

While most digital media cost little to use, they do require an investment of time, something many small-business owners are short on. That's why small businesses are turning to experts for help keeping up with blog entries, Facebook announcements and Twitter tweets. "Go where your customers already are. Social media is not about being the first one into some new technology." Businesses should avoid using the hard sell, because participating in social media is like participating in a casual conversation. "Nobody wants a salesman in the middle of their conversation." One simple technique for building relationships involves responding to positive mentions by saying "thank you" and following up on negative mentions with an apology and a solution to the problem. "If someone is unhappy and you say, 'I'm sorry. I'd like to fix it,' those things add up pretty fast."

Great article

RT @zaibatsu: Measuring What Really Works on Twitter: Post Timing and Headlines http://bit.ly/HOeOA PLZ RT [from http://twitter.com/Underdown/statuses/1312492812]

I like data and enhancing performance through following the numbers. I use half a dozen tools to track metrics on this blog, and I have similarly used tr.im to track click-through on Twitter links, demographic and geographic splits, etc.. I find retweets interesting, but only to the extent that they attract meaningful attention (not just impressions), which can be approximated with clicks on embedded links. In the last two weeks, I’ve found bit.ly to be more reliable and robust than tr.im.

blog on twittering

"Influential Marketing Blog: 9 Ways To Make #Twitter More Useful For You" http://j.mp/cO9L39

Good ideas for twitter for business and personal use

How Tim Ferriss, author of the 4 Hour Work Week, used Google Ad Words to decide on a title.

Tim and Kevin meet up/hang out & talk their talk, take 1. Interesting stuff - let's push em to do more!

Fascinating talk by the two funniest and most adventurous millionaires out there about the "behind the scenes" of some of their stories :)

Tim and Kevin talk about naming products/companies. Great story about how Tim tested how many people picked up books placed in different locations in Borders. Also talk about advising/etc. "remove dominant stuff from the front page, have one big image drive people to one signup button" that resulted in a 19% increase

Tim and Kevin meet up/hang out & talk their talk, take 1. Interesting stuff - let's push em to do more! Think the show is now temporarily being called Randomness.

Talk about startups

for my non-profit idea...

expanding your biz model --- vertical & horizontal integration

"Think hard about what you do. Look closely at everything you do. There are probably by-product opportunities everywhere. Hell, even your office space could be a by-product. You rent it to work, but what about after hours? Could you rent it out for events? Maybe you could hold stand-up comedy shows like Maryʼs Futons in San Rafael, California does. Sometimes customers return to buy the futon they were sitting on during the show. That’s extra sweet."

The funny irony here is that Keen keeps pushing to see technology as fragmentation and individualism against notions such as McLuhan's "global village." He does suggest that twitter represents an age of radical inegalitarianism, and this is interesting, but tends to ignore the social collaborative projects dynamic technologies make possible.

bat shit crazy but interesting pov

Interview With Andrew Keen At The Next Web 2009: “Web 2.0 Is F*Cked” 157 Comments by Robin Wauters on April 16, 2009 TechCrunch Europe’s Mike Butcher and I just finished conducting a short video interview with entrepreneur and author Andrew Keen about the end of Web 2.0 and the dawn of a new age of individualism, driven primarily by Twitter.

TechCrunch Europe's Mike Butcher and I just finished conducting a short video interview with entrepreneur and author Andrew Keen about the end of ...

Next Web in Amsterdam

food for thought

The slide deck .. is by the talented Rahaf Harfoush - I share her passion for learning, developing, testing, and executing ideas, thinking in terms of possibility, and surrounding myself with interested people. Are these some of the essential qualities of a marketer 2.0? Plus Edelman Digital and Blue State Digital.

Seth's Blog: Sprint!

« Learning all the time | Blog Home | Which parts are you skipping? »

Sprint! /Seth's Blog/ - The best way to overcome your fear of creativity, brainstorming, intelligent risk ... http://tinyurl.com/akjsof [from http://twitter.com/jorgefsb/statuses/1193019864]

seth godin

"Hurry, we need to write a new script for our commercial... we have fifteen minutes."

Sprinting can be helpful, but its not sustainable.

How to get a lot done (both in terms of quantity and quality) in a relative short amount of time. Not something you can do all the time, but a good idea to do periodically.

You can't sprint every day but it's probably a good idea to regularly.

12 Social Media Secrets From World’s Top Superstars http://bit.ly/9n89vw #socialmedia

12 Social Media Secrets From World’s Top Superstars http://j.mp/9cXlUY #socialmedia #yam

Brands and twitter again

10 ways to Battle Site Bureaucracy : Boagworld web design podcast

<this site is reallly pleasing to the eyes, especially the font somehow does not kill my eyes / bug me like normal> I always look to work with others rather than against them.

Running a large institutional website is frustrating. Your site is often held back by internal politics and bureaucracy. Let me show you 10 ways to cut through the crap and get results.

Some good tips on battling beueaucracy when designing. The biggest being to turn back on the feedback and ask how they think users will react, and to avoid confrontation by accepting that the request can be done, explaining the consequences, and offering an alternative that achieves the same goal.

Running a large institutional website is frustrating and often held back by internal politics and bureaucracy. Here are management tips on working around the problem, from stakeholder interviews to ensuring you get specific feedback - and avoid committees.

Most counterterrorism policies fail, not because of tactical problems, but because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates terrorists in the first place. If we're ever going to defeat terrorism, we need to understand what drives people to become terrorists in the first place.

"Conventional wisdom holds that terrorism is inherently political, and that people become terrorists for political reasons...Max Abrahms, a predoctoral fellow at Stanford, argues that this model is wrong, and discusses seven habits observed in terrorist groups that contradict the theory that terrorists are political maximizers...Abrahms has an alternative model to explain all this: People turn to terrorism for social solidarity."

Abrahms has an alternative model to explain all this: People turn to terrorism for social solidarity. He theorizes that people join terrorist organizations worldwide in order to be part of a community, much like the reason inner-city youths join gangs in the United States. The evidence supports this. [[Some of the comments are very intriguing as well. —Ed.]]

Most counterterrorism policies fail, not because of tactical problems, but because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates terrorists in the first place—by Bruce Schneier

Mooi overzichtelijk artikel over Womma

<3

What is Word of Mouth Marketing Why Word of Mouth Marketing is Important - Pitfalls of Advertising - During Product Creation Elements of Word of Mouth

Joost, a much-vaunted online video startup, today announced that it will offer a white-label video hosting platform, thus entering a crowded market littered with the carcasses of other failed video hosts. The company is also losing its famous chief executive, Mike Volpi, whom it’s replacing with Matt Zelesko, the current vice president of engineering. And it plans to cut a portion of its workforce — between about 70 of its remaining 90 employees, according to Advertising Age. It also shut down its office in the Netherlands.

Joost had an early mover advantage and then stumbled, in the end, it mostlyl boiled down to a lack of content.

Why did not Joost deliver?

From Seth Godin's blog. Discusses the phenomenon of "social clutter" and why traditional ad campaigns fail online.

"Traditional advertising is inherently selfish. It interrupts in order to generate money (part of which pays for more interruptions). That approach doesn't work at a cocktail party, or at a funeral or in a social network." Very interesting take.

Seth Godin blog post on brands needing to provide value with social media

RT @jaybaer: "Brands Must be Social Media Selfish" What are you doing to protect your social media brand? http://budurl.com/3xld [from http://twitter.com/jcookaz/statuses/1134052291]

Jason Baer

Here are my 22 tips for dominating Linkedin. I put this presentation together for my good friends at Off Madison Ave in Arizona. Slides are available below via SlideShar

"6 Steps for Creating a Social Media Marketing Roadmap & Plan" http://j.mp/9bZujV

not only great high level tips but also great comments on where to start, prioritize and effect a social media marketing plan

Last night, I attended an inspiring talk by Nick Hanauer of Seattle-based Second Avenue Partners. The venue was Seattle University, and the topic was

—If everyone thinks it’s a great idea, it probably sucks. —If people understand it, you’re too late. —If people don’t like it and don’t understand it, it probably still sucks.

How to spot breakthrough ideas

As for social disruption, Hanauer gave a quick summary of what he meant: —If everyone thinks it’s a great idea, it probably sucks. —If people understand it, you’re too late. —If people don’t like it and don’t understand it, it probably still sucks. So entrepreneurship is a dangerous field, he said. “The difference between being an idiot and being a genius is very, very thin.” And keep in mind, he pointed out, “you can be very successful without being socially disruptive. Great fortunes have been made doing incremental things. Burger King, which came after McDonald’s, was not transformational, despite what they tell you…But they made a great fortune.”

Notes from a great presentation by Nick Hanauer, early investor in founder of aQuantitve, Amazon, Insitu (AUV) ... lots of insightful thoughts on quantifying disruptive technology, entrepreneurship, etc.

The key elements of a breakthrough idea, Hanauer said, are value creation and social disruption. “Value is difficult but possible to quantify—it’s the ratio of benefits to cost, divided by those of the alternatives,” he said. Benefits are things like a product’s durability, speed, and appeal

10 Tips for Social Media Marketers ...

10 Tips for Social Media Marketers 1. Every brand can be and should be “social” 2. Just get started 3. Integrated marketing vs. social media 4. Find your brand’s own path 5. Media $ versus human capital 6. Agencies play a great role, but the voice needs to be the company’s 7. Your agency needs to walk the walk 8. Get legal involved early 9. Have a crisis management plan 10. Selling the C-Suite or ROI – One of the most popular questions

Find causes and nonprofit experiences to help out. Showing that you’re not just a capitalist pig goes a long way.

Yahoo Conn Fishburn on social media marketing: “Bring wine to the picnic”...

Really, really nice piece. Wish I'd written it.

(1) You get part time results for part time effort. (2) You never heard of a never ending "campaign" - called building permission-based relationships and learning with the community. (3) You publish only "perfect" posts. (5) You think it's marketing's job to write and edit the posts. (6) Your readers' comments are in lemon ink. (7) You ask all your sales people to hit the blog daily to get good traffic. (8) You hire an agency to blog for you.

I wrote a post a week or so ago about 3 things you should know before starting a blog and we had a very good conversation around those themes. In the comments, Mack Collier added two things that I feel should be highlighted:

While I encourage social media usage, I'm increasingly finding the "why not to engage" reasons compelling and well worth ensuring it's part of the process.

more on luxury or dearth of its necessity

Allison Arieff

Addressing other nations at the G-20 last Wednesday, President Obama suggested that the United States was unlikely to return to its role as a “voracious consumer market.” If Obama’s right — and the experience of Japan, post-recession, suggests he may well be — what might that mean for design?

online marketing sty. by B.Obama

everyone seems to be viewing this as horrific, i don't see it. adjusting your economic approach to a given economy is inevitable, and prudent. am i missing something?

"Among the projects whose future is uncertain are Google Notebook, a site for storing and taking notes on Web pages, and Google Audio Indexing, which allows users to search for phrases within online video footage of politicians, say people familiar with the matter."

just

Blogs made to simply succeed

Great tips for media outlets to publish a blog that people will actually, you know, read.

Dan Blank provides another list of ways to make your blog work. And he didn't use a numbered list! But it's a pretty good list for those who are starting out (are there any of those newspapers left? I hope not).

Dan Blank gives some marketing-focused advice on how to create a great blog.

"Today, I want to look beyond just creating "a" blog, and share some strategies and tactics for creating a "great" blog." - One of the better lists for newspaper bloggers

Google's worst-case scenarios.

Everything you learned about Web analytics three years ago is now wrong. What to measure in social media.

Web analytics, like much of the marketing world, has tended to focus on the short term, measuring marketing to do better marketing. But social media is different than transaction, and it calls for a different approach to measurement

"It's great to monitor online activity, better to develop reporting around online activity, and better yet to engage customers in their native online habitats."

via jay goulart

f you move into a new space, the market normally takes as long as you do to mature enough to become really profitable. Keep your team focused, be patient, create value, test, test, test, and you'll get there. If your instincts are as good as you think they are, then it will come... if you can stick around long enough. Invest today.

"There is a fallacy that startups need to be super-secretive and then, when they launch, move very fast to capture the market. This is rarely true. Most startups would do well to study compound interest rather than market share."

Compound interest is about gains that are reinvested back into the asset base so that the next gain will be higher. The interest earns interest. The table below shows a new Web business at the very beginning, with only 100 wisdom points (a made-up term). The business is learning at a reasonable rate, with 10% growth in its useful knowledge each month. And, as you can see, its monthly growth in real units is growing; this is the compound interest. You get the idea.

First-Mover Advantage Is About Compound Interest, Not Market Share

seemed

AppStore new refund policy.Pretty crazy. I thought Apple got over their suicidal tendencies long ago. Guess I was wrong. http://bit.ly/P37D [from http://twitter.com/thetrystero/statuses/1392390307]

Article breaks it down: when a customer buys an iPhone app you developed, you get 70% of the sale, Apple collects the other 30%. When customer requests a return on that same app, you pay the customer your share plus Apple's share of the sale (100%).

twitter material

Artículo que explica cómo crear una página de facebook. Muy interesante

10 Fresh Tips for Community Managers http://bit.ly/alWdXc – Christophe AMALRIC (TiKris) http://twitter.com/TiKris/statuses/12827200506

10 Fresh Tips for Community Managers http://bit.ly/alWdXc

Today, the meaning is the message. The "message" of the Internet's social revolution is more meaningful work, economics, politics, society, and organization.

More useful (albeit heavily sprinkled with marketing buzz words and phrases) on the best way of using social media as part of an organisation.

success sethgodin inspiration strategy business ; The five pillars of success:See (really see) what's possibleKnow specifically what you want to achieveMake good decisionsUnderstand the tactics to get things done and to change mindsEarn the trust and respect of the people around youIt sure seems like we spend all our time on #4.

Basics from Seth Godin. The five pillars of success 1. See (really see) what's possible 2. Know specifically what you want to achieve 3. Make good decisions 4. Understand the tactics to get things done and to change minds 5. Earn the trust and respect of the people around you It sure seems like we spend all our time on #4.

1. See (really see) what's possible 2. Know specifically what you want to achieve 3. Make good decisions 4. Understand the tactics to get things done and to change minds 5. Earn the trust and respect of the people around you

See (really see) what's possible Know specifically what you want to achieve Make good decisions Understand the tactics to get things done and to change minds Earn the trust and respect of the people around you It sure seems like we spend all our time on #4.

Interesting approach to dealing with big problems that you seem to have no control over.

This is a must-read if you’re concerned about the health of your personal brand, job, or company during the current economic recession. If one thing is out of sync, don’t let it cause panic, build up the other aspects of your business so that when we come out of this thing, you’re suddenly ahead of the game (and your competitors).

keeping it balanced

Article discussing the frame work on social interaction design and how a 2.0 expereince needs a different way of thinking focusing on the users expectations and assumptions instead of the creators intended purpose.

Talk of transition to digital agencies

Digital and classical agencies - how to face the challenges of communication these days

Sounds so simple (and it is) but Seth is great at giving simple truths

Marketing Strategy

"If you want to grow the size of your customer base, you need to confront the buffet dilemma" Great post by Seth Godin http://bit.ly/Q9Don [from http://twitter.com/r1tz/statuses/2003329906]

This is a great analogy featuring buffets that really simplify two different business approaches that could significantly impact your business and attract more customers.

My approach now is simple: take a look at the rules of the new ecosystem. Do they make sense? Is it possible they'll come to pass? If they do, what happens to you?

And that's where we get stuck. We get stuck because we believe that the rules of our ecosystem are permanent and transferable. In fact, they are almost always temporary and rarely transferable. My approach now is simple: take a look at the rules of the new ecosystem. Do they make sense? Is it possible they'll come to pass? If they do, what happens to you?

Social media, it turns out, isn't about aggregating audiences so you can yell at them about the junk you want to sell. Social media, in fact, is a basic human need, revealed digitally online. We want to be connected, to make a difference, to matter, to be missed. We want to belong, and yes, we want to be led.

On the surface this post was promoting Seth’s new book Tribes, but take a closer look and he’s explaining why mass marketing and yelling at your audience doesn’t work, and how social media reveals a basic human need that we want to be connected, to make a difference and to matter.

Awesome - can't believe I missed this one first time round.

Seth Godin's blog

ideas that spread, win

Seth Godin: "Social media, it turns out, isn’t about aggregating audiences so you can yell at them about the junk you want to sell. Social media, in fact, is a basic human need, revealed digitally online. We want to be connected, to make a difference, to matter, to be missed." [via:Adriana Lukas]

Presentatie - ontwikkeling van marketing

"Given that governments are inherently reactive, rather than proactive (I need give no examples), how can this be compatible with the rapidly evolving world of social software?"

Dr. Mark Drapeau about government 2.0.

"Ironically, however, many government agencies block such sites for use at work. For example, I cannot access MySpace or YouTube from the computer in my office at the Department of Defense, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) blocks most social networking sites besides LinkedIn. At least one part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) blocks Google Chat. Not only do these policies make little sense (there are legitimate research uses for all of these sites, while email, iTunes, and non-blocked websites are ‘abused’ daily), the policies are inconsistent. Despite this, there are overt sprinklings of Web 2.0 influence all over the federal government. For example, in mid-2007, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sponsored a public blog about pandemic influenza, which I contributed to due to my work on global health security. This was a great early example of a government agency engaging with an interested, and in many cases, expert audience. "

Mark Drapeau blog on social government

excellent stuff

new

As this data shows, successful social media marketing isn’t simply about amassing thousands of followers, but instead precisely identifying the most influential members of your audience and recognizing them for their value. By directly engaging one influencer with exclusive opportunities, special offers, and unique content, you are indirectly engaging thousands of other people who are part of this influencer’s social sphere. Sounds pretty enticing, right? But the challenge in crafting a successful marketing program that activates influencers is two-fold. First, you have to use the right data and traffic analysis tools to find out who your most influential followers are. Second, you have to connect with these people in an authentic, “non-salesy” way, and truly build a relationship with them –- because if you overly “sell” to your influencers, you’ll burn a bridge and potentially turn your biggest fans into your worst detractors.

Before integrating Facebook Pages (sometimes called “Facebook Fan Pages”) into your social media marketing mix, you need to think strategically. Georgina provided a basic overview of the need for strategy in “Businesses and the Social Media Trap,” and I ranted about the problem of not understanding strategy in the first place in “It’s the Social Media Strategy Struggle.” This week, I want to discuss why people become fans of Facebook Pages in the first place. I’ll follow that with some thoughts on what doesn’t really work on Pages. After that, I’ll list some things that I believe do work, based on personal and professional experience, industry news and anecdotal information.

Strategery for iPhone and iPod Touch

Starting a business isn't as crazy and risky as they say - Blog -

Startups, small business, marketing, and useful geekery from someone who's been there: Jason Cohen, founder of Smart Bear Software

1. Risk-averse design 2. Lack of cohesion 3. Quitting too early 4. Customer hitchhiking 5. Metrics doesn’t replace strategy

Decent A/B article that discusses the local/global maxima issue I've often talked about

a/b testing has shortcomings- be aware of them when doing product design.

need to read but the title seems interesting

Good warnings for A/B testing

Online Communities and Their Impact on Business: Ignore at Your Peril

From Rubicon Consulting: Review of research done by the firm that provides data supporting the value of online community to businesses. A PDF of the report is available for download.

best practices

there is talk about the media world, as well as the open source world. And how businesses should "defeat" the masses. Timing, product features, and the skillful use of network effects across market segments [benefits of a business]. This is a very "odd" study

How can a business compete with a free product? It’s not easy, and it’s more than just a theoretical question. U.S. newspapers are finding it difficult to compete with free news and the commentary of bloggers and other internet sources. And in the software world, the rise of open source products, which are available for free on the internet, is reshaping the technology industry.

Ultimately, from the point of view of the buyer, free products provide an important benefit. “Even if consumers do not end up adopting the free product, it can act as a credible threat to the commercial firm, forcing it to both lower prices and invest more in product innovation,”

Businesses Can Win the Competition Against Open-Source Technology

«This is why I don't have a podcast, a video channel, any activity to speak of on Facebook. It's why I don't use Twitter or travel the country visiting bookstores. There are many places to be, and it's tempting to act like those non-profits and race after the next one. But it doesn't work.»

Critical mass is what happens when you have enough and do enough that you connect to a tribe, one that matters. Critical mass is the pay off from focused, consistent effort. Critical mass is what you don't get if you are constantly working the angles and looking for a shortcut.

Why rushing from one quick win to another won't get you anywhere in social media.

blog post 10/08

Godin's concept of tribes is similar to Gadwell's talk about the 150 rule in the Tipping point

Do one thing really well.

team structure

The bureaucratic organizational model thrived during the 20th Century. But is it the right model for advertising agencies in the 21st Century? Could an adhocratic model be better suited for these challenging times?

"We can make a market or we can take share from a market."

That's the choice most of us make when we launch a product or service. We can make a market or we can take share from a market. "This is just like the Gillette razor, but cheaper." "This has a touch screen, too, but you can get it from Verizon." "I'm a shiatsu massage therapist, the only one on this block." Those are 'taking' statements. They break a larger market into smaller bits. Compare to: "This is a sugared cereal for adults." "Our software enables you to find data and trends that no one else can find." "By combining protein and chocolate, we've developed a new food that's both dessert and dinner." These are 'making' statements. Riskier, sure, but they stand for something, they don't just steal share. The Dummies guides made a market, the Idiot's guides took from that market. You need to be clear with yourself and your team about which one you're after, because they bring different costs, different benefits and different time frames.

That's the choice most of us make when we launch a product or service. We can make a market or we can take share from a market. "This is just like the Gillette razor, but cheaper." "This has a touch screen, too, but you can get it from Verizon." "I'm a shiatsu massage therapist, the only one on this block." Those are 'taking' statements. They break a larger market into smaller bits. Compare to: "This is a sugared cereal for adults." "Our software enables you to find data and trends that no one else can find." "By combining protein and chocolate, we've developed a new food that's both dessert and dinner." These are 'making' statements. Riskier, sure, but they stand for something, they don't just steal share. The Dummies guides made a market, the Idiot's guides took from that market. You need to be clear with yourself and your team about which one you're after, because they bring different costs, different benefits and different time frames.

making markets v. taking markets

Seth's Blog:

These are 'making' statements. Riskier, sure, but they stand for something, they don't just steal share. The Dummies guides made a market, the Idiot's guides took from that market.

The Sad Lie Of Mediocrity by Seth Godin

Doing 4% less does not get you 4% less. Doing 4% less may very well get you 95% less. That's because almost good enough gets you nowhere. No sales, no votes, no customers. The sad lie of mediocrity is the mistaken belief that partial effort yields partial results. In fact, the results are usually totally out of proportion to the incremental effort.

JOU 110

What survival strategies should these dailies adopt? If some papers don’t survive, how will readers get news about the local school board or county executive? * Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia Journalism School * Joel Kramer, editor of MinnPost.com * Steven Brill, founder of The American Lawyer magazine * Geneva Overholser, Annenberg School of Journalism * Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.org * Andrew Keen, author * Edward M. Fouhy, founding editor of Stateline.org * Rick Rodriguez, former editor of The Sacramento Bee

Quais estratégias de sobrevivência deveriam ser adotadas pelos diários em crise?

February 10, 2009, 12:15 am, Battle Plans for Newspapers, By The Editors

Virtually every newspaper in America has gone through waves of staff layoffs and budget cuts as advertisers and subscribers have marched out the door, driven by the move to the Web and, more recently, the economic crisis.

The basics of a company blog

A common refrain for people thinking up business ideas is that all the good ideas have already been done. Finding an established competitor is not necessarily cause to quit on the spot. Here are six potential strategies on how you might go about taking on an entrenched competitor.

Businesses that successfully used social media - not your typical retail businesses

5 Surprising Social Media Business Success Stories http://icio.us/hpbslt [from http://twitter.com/jorgefsb/statuses/15632128101]

Check this out for your new grant

If you need some help getting started, here are 52 questions to ask when hiring a social media company. This isn’t meant to be a full list, just something to get the conversation started.

52 Questions To Ask When Hiring A Social Media Company http://bit.ly/dvdj8i #socialmedia #brand #reputation #questions

Great list of things to consider when hiring a social media company like the Social Method or any other.

This isn’t meant to be a full list, just something to get the conversation started.

Exhaustive list of questions to ask of your company as you're getting ready to participate in social media.

16 Tips for Successful Online Video Marketing שיווק וידאו

Interesting blog on the use of video marketing.

Social Media Examiner / 29.04.10

Video marketing tutorial to connect with your audience and get better search engine results with videos.

Online video marketing tips.

HOW TO: Build A Twitter Strategy for Your Business

Every business needs a Twitter strategy. Here are some concrete ways to build your brand and connect with an audience online.

HOW TO: Build A Twitter Strategy for Your Business http://bit.ly/aKXDqt [from http://twitter.com/inti/statuses/16410237873]

"HOW TO: Build A Twitter Strategy for Your Business" http://j.mp/bDTtS6

ну хорошая инструкция

1. Does the CEO know what to do? One should interpret this question as broadly as possible. Does the CEO know what to do in all matters all of the time? This includes matters of personnel, matters of financing, matters of product strategy, matters of goal sizing, matters of marketing. At a macro level, does the CEO set the right strategy for the company and know its implications in every detail of the company? I evaluate two distinct facets of knowing what to do: Strategy—At Andreessen Horowitz, we like to say that in good companies, the story and the strategy are the same thing. As a result, the proper output of all the strategic work is the story. Decision making—At the detailed level, the output of knowing what to do is the speed and quality of the CEO’s decisions.

How To Develop a Social Media Strategy: A Roadmap for Integration

RT @draenews: Del A Simple Way to Become Wealthy - Yahoo! Finance: http://yhoo.it/c1FEH8

"I gave excuses why I couldn't invest and then he said something that changed my thinking: saving and investing isn't hard. You just have to treat it like a bill. 'To max out your Roth IRA, divide by 12 and send that amount each month. Even easier, go to the finance office and set up an automatic allotment from your paycheck, and YOU'LL NEVER THINK ABOUT IT AGAIN.' [Perfect!] It's not that I didn't have enough money to invest. I just wasn't prioritizing how I used it. This forced me to make it part of my budget. That 15 minute conversation changed my life and might just make me a millionaire. Three reasons you should consider automatic investing. 1. It's easy. No remembering. Set it up once, and it gets done. 2. There's no emotional barrier. It's difficult to write a check each month when you have current wants. This helps you stick to long term plans. 3. You don't try to time the market. For the average investor, dollar cost averaging is best.

My first real job was as a junior enlisted member of the United States Air Force. I had great benefits, but as a low ranking

A Simple Way to Become Wealthy

Five Steps for Consumer Brands to Earn Social Currency

HOW TO: Pick the Perfect Name for Your Startup

As someone said to me a few weeks back: "Andy Warhol was wrong. We're not going to be famous for 15 minutes. We're each going to be famous for 15 People." Indeed. Advertising: We're standing at the end of an era. "Mass Media", the ability to reach large segments of the population with a single message is essentially over. For advertisers, the need to find content in context, and to have that context be appropriate for their message and their brand is critical. So, Curation replaces Creation as the coin of the realm for advertiser-safe environments. No longer can advertisers simply default to big destination sites. The audience is too diffuse and the need to filter and organize quality crowd-created content is too critical.

How To Manage Your Social Media Marketing In 10 Minutes Daily | Social Media Examiner http://ow.ly/24ihH

Whether theming an e-commerce website or doing a full-scale build, one of the most important parts in the whole process is the planning.

Planning your e-commerce website http://dld.bz/jyNV

Articles on marketing with social media.

Explained without the classes.

Remember when mom always told you to eat your vegetables? Little did you know she was giving you fantastic advice for managing your Web strategy. In these days of Twitter, Facebook, forums, blogs and more, it can be tempting to skip over the basics and dive headfirst into an oh-so-tempting dish of social media or SEO "tricks." Businesses of all sizes are pigging out on social media without putting an equal amount of effort into forging a solid foundation built on a user-friendly Web experience and great content. To deliver a site that gives users the experience they are looking for, we need to set it upon a solid foundation of content, usable navigation, and strong SEO practices. With this in mind, let’s take a look at what I call the "The Web Strategy Pyramid" (a tip of the hat to the FDA’s Food Pyramid for the inspiration).

Jason Schubring

Let's take a look at what I call the The Web Strategy Pyramid.

Zarrella studied Facebook data for quite some time and observed that simplicity, among other interesting linguistic and timed attributes, is the key to triggering word of mouth.

The Social Media Style Guide: 8 Steps to Creating a Brand Persona

The Social Media Style Guide: 8 Steps to Creating a Brand Persona http://ow.ly/238zf – weknowmore.org (weknowmore) http://twitter.com/weknowmore/statuses/17027325488

Brian Solis ----> Anyone who has ever worked in corporate marketing, advertising, and branding is more than familiar with a brand style guide. It’s how we ensured that the brand was represented as intended through marketing aesthetics and messaging – including detailed usage instructions on font, style, color, language, placement, positioning, etc. It is our bible and adherence to its tenets and instructions is strictly enforced. However, with the unstructured proliferation of social media within many organizations, the brand style guide is seemingly disregarded or not considered in favor of expediting the creation of profiles in social networks and the participatory engagement that immediately ensues.

Twiter tips for business

it takes time, effort, and resources before this new media will have an impact on you brand

Social Media Strategy from A to Z

Millions of people log onto social media Web sites daily, prompting such varied organizations as Gaithersburg-based MedImmune, the American Red Cross and the Department of Housing and Urban Development to follow. But simply creating an account on Facebook or Twitter rarely equates to being plugged in. Area consultants said many organizations spend ample time and resources on social media without seeing much return. Here are 10 common mistakes that they see businesses, nonprofits and government agencies make.

Good set of points for those of you interested in using Social Media to promote your organization. http://ow.ly/26eed

What Makes Up a Social Marketing Strategy?

It’s quickly becoming common wisdom among marketers that a strategy is needed to use social media effectively. Of course, that doesn’t mean a majority of those involved in the space have gotten on boa

52% of social marketers are operating “without a game plan”

oh sweet Jesus, Google invested in Zynga? so much for "don't be evil." http://goo.gl/FgAc – Jeff Atwood (codinghorror) http://twitter.com/codinghorror/statuses/18578849294

Google has quietly (secretly, one might say) invested somewhere between $100 million and $200 million in social gaming behemoth Zynga, we’ve confirmed from multiple sources. (via TechCrunch)

"Google Secretly Invested $100+ Million In Zynga, Preparing To Launch Google Games" http://j.mp/aaPgNh

Google starts the gaming service, actually the social network based games. At the end, Zynga is the winner who takes all the attentions from many companies interested in social games including facebook, yahoo, google and etc. That is, there is always a niche business.

Google aism to make Zynga (creators of Farmville) the cornerstone of Goolge games; expected to go live late Dec 2010 - posted circa July 2010

Google Games Part ... Duex?

Good for planning (and general common sense)

It's been nearly five years now since the redesign vs. realign debate began. Many designers are still approaching website changes as redesigns, with little

Consistently publishing content requires that we deal with a foe known as content management. Content management is just what it sounds like: a way to manage the creation and dissemination of content. To systematically do that, it’s imperative that publishers employ what’s (aptly) known as content management systems (CMSs). The most common of kind of which is called a blog.

Complete Beginner’s Guide to Content Strategy

“If [Information Architecture] is the spatial side of information, I see content strategy as the temporal side of the same coin.” - Louis Rosenfeld

A Creative Brief To Guide Social Media Efforts http://bit.ly/9GaWMx #socialmedia