The Beginning (Or The End) For Ad Agencies?
Posted on September 22nd, 2009
This speaks to the current POV that agencies who focus solely on brand building and marketing will have a hard time growing their business. Clients realize they can now do much of the marketing heavy lifting themselves — and very cheaply. Agencies who focus on providing content and building customer relationships via multiple distribution streams will be the big winners.
MINT.COM – started at home by one man, sold to Intuit for $170 Million.
Branding Yourself
Posted on May 27th, 2009
Via: Owen Frager
With Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter becoming your defacto resume, and shaping the image how most will perceive you, our friend Jay Berkowitz shares a great read from the Brand Building Blog.
To make it simple, branding yourself is about letting everyone know who you are and what are you specialized in. Branding yourself is part of the many things that will help you create success, because it will help you to attract people from all walks of life to be your friend, your network contact, a new client for your business, or maybe someone who wants to introduce you to other of the same type of interest. Branding yourself is a major part in Internet marketing or the network marketing industry.
It’s time to learn about Twitter
Posted on February 26th, 2009
Maybe you’ve noticed the cryptic messages just to the left of this column. And maybe you’ve wondered what they are. Let me tell you — they are my Twitter posts.
Every year on the Internet, something breaks out in a huge way. And those that ride it make fortunes.
Randy** says you’ve already heard the buzz about web 2.0 and social network sites. And the buzz is warranted. Although there is debate on how effective these sites can be for business, I can tell you there is NONE in my mind.
I believe Twitter is going to be the breakout story of 2009. They are adding users by the thousands daily, and the site is perfect for what the Internet was designed to do. Anyone serious about marketing needs to be on this now.
Twitter is in essence a micro-blog, since your messages are limited to 140 characters. And instead of dropping by your website or getting a RSS feed, people choose to “follow” you. So when you log on to Twitter, you get a “stream” of all the postings (called “Tweets”) from the people you follow.
Randy says you can use Twitter to build your brand, expand your database, and make more
sales. So if you’re not on Twitter, please get on it. It takes about two minutes to set up your account and you’re good to go. Go to: https://twitter.com/
Then click on “Find People” and enter BruceTurkel and click “follow.” If you’re already on Twitter, you can access my page direct at: https://twitter.com/BruceTurkel
The best way to learn to use a new technology is to use it. And there’s no cost so there’s no reason not to get signed up now. This is going to be huge!
Twittering, Jiwaiing, Taotaoing
Posted on February 24th, 2009
“The biggest reason, especially for anyone looking to increase PR, is that Twitter gives you an easily broadcast, unique URL to an audience primed to receive messages of that very kind.
Greetings Friends,
Which social networking site you should be a part of and why?
Tia** breaks it down and shows you how Twitter can be an effective tool to promote and sell your domain, product, business, launch, event, self for a job, book or idea.
Your blog, Twitter, Facebook, your static site, LinkedIn….they all seem to play their part in internet marketing today. It can be tempting, and can sometimes be good, to streamline and only use one or two. It’s “good time management” after all. Use these services for very long and you quickly find they all have a unique role. The most common question about Twitter I get is “why does it matter what I’m doing right now?”re: the question Twitter asks you answer).
The biggest reason, especially for anyone looking to increase PR, is that Twitter gives you an easily broadcast, unique URL to an audience primed to receive messages of that very kind.
Think of tweets as dandelion seeds on the wind. The audience, or lawn, receiving the seeds knows that you only have a few characters to say what you will. They stream through and glean the ones that catch their eye…which means, your picture, and your words in those short 140 characters matter. The Tweetiverse is spam savvy…they can tell in the quickest glance who is just spamming and who is sharing something worthwhile. A little effort goes a long way.
—————————————————————————————————————————–
For those with more time today…. Here’s an excerpt from Penelope Trunk’s blog, The Brazen Careerist:
Pete Blackshaw, from Consumergeneratedmedia.com, says, “PR is not the owner of the story. There are still some PR people who are great at convincing the mainstream media to pick up their client’s story. But today, the story, if it goes anywhere, will grow through consumers, online.”
The good news is that finally, there’s a social media tool that people expect to see pitches on. No longer do PR types have to annoy bloggers to the point that bloggers create blacklists. Now publicity mavens have a spot of their own, and, big news, the bloggers love trolling Twitter for good pitches.
Here’s how it works: The online influencers are on Twitter. They send traffic to blogs and Facebook and StumbleUpon. And those people email their friends, in community-wide missives, and that’s how something becomes viral.
The only catch is that PR folks need to get good at pitching in 140 characters.
And sure you can do it without Twitter. But in this situation, Twitter is hard to beat.
“Brands will adopt Twitter for everything from media/influencer outreach to consumer service to crisis communities. But more than any push channel, Twitter will give consumers – advocates and critics —unprecedented access to corporate personnel, and vice versa,” says Scott Monty, author of the Social Media Marketing Blog.
But even the best viral campaigns are not as effective as real conversations. Companies will participate in the conversation instead of paying people to control it. “The consumers who love the company and help vet the storyline will also be keen to help the company succeed –promoting that storyline in … guided content,” according to Todd Defren, who blogs at pr-squared.com.
This is happening now. We’re in a recession. So it makes sense that instead of paying expensive PR agencies to work their magic on outdated media gatekeepers you save the money. Instead, train passionate employees and customers to have authentic conversations about the brand.
Here is a great example:
When bombs went off in Mumbai last November, American Express immediately went through their databases to find any customers who might be there. American Express called each customer to see if they needed cash, housing or help getting a way out of the city.
I didn’t find this out from the news. The gatekeepers of the media world wouldn’t print this. They’d think it was too much like PR.
I heard it from my mom, who works at AmEx. And it didn’t feel like PR at all: She was genuinely proud to work for a company that would do that so she wanted people to know.
And I’m telling you because I don’t care if something sounds like PR or not. I care if I got a chill when I heard the story. And I did.”
Your quality tweet, with link included, becomes a pointer to the meat of your message: your blog. And your blog should point to your site, where you can be hired. Social media enhances relational marketing; it won’t replace your blog or website. It’s a valuable tool for helping you get your content seen but handle it with care. Be real and be you. Respect the audience and their ability to process information with incredible speed. People are not numbers and I wouldn’t recommend setting an extreme goal of say, “5000″ friends or followers because you’ll get out of it what you put into it. If you see numbers without stories, you’ll get numbers (as in spyder hits) without hires.
Will you be the next “Alice in Twitterland” ??
**Tia, TheBlogsultant.com
on Twitter: RedGypsie
Michael Calienes Shares His Coffee Cup with 800 People
Posted on February 10th, 2009
Here’s a brilliantly simple branding idea: Like lots of marketing people, Presence Engineer Michael Calienes uses Twitter to communicate with his clients and potential clients (±800 when I wrote this blog post). But unlike most Twitterers, Mike has figured out a simple way to brand himself.
Mike’s avatar (an avatar is the picture that represents a user on Twitter) is a photograph of Mike drinking from a cup of coffee. But here’s the beauty part: Mike changes the logo on the cup based on what he’s working on! The other day it was transparent (A glass company perhaps? Or maybe a comment on the economy?). Today Mike’s cup sports the logo of a new client he’s working on — BrackenChase Builders.
Tomorrow? Who knows? You’ll have to follow Mike to find out. And while you’re at it, follow me too!! To follow Bruce click here.
Twitter Comes Full Circle
Posted on February 4th, 2009
A couple days ago I posted a notice on Twitter that I was speaking at the SMPS (Society for Marketing Professional Services) and invited my Twitter followers to attend. John David, principal in David & Garcia PR took me up on my offer.
On the way there I checked Twitter and found this update:
While I was giving my talk, I noticed John pull out his Flip video camera and record part of my presentation. Today, I found this post on Twitter:
And when I clicked on the link, it took me to the David & Garcia site where John had posted a recap of my talk and his video. Click here to see John’s post.
Thanks, John. Not just for coming by and posting my work online but for showing me another example of the power of social media.
Monitor Your Brand (and Competition) on Twitter
Posted on January 14th, 2009
Want to know what people are saying about you and your competition? Direct your browser to Tweetgrid. You can input the subjects you care about (up to nine) and monitor them in real time. Imagine being able to respond to a customer’s positive or negative comments and jump on an opportunity or fix a little problem before it becomes a big problem.
Our wish for a marketing new year.
Posted on December 22nd, 2008
Our wish for our clients – and all marketers – is that they focus on the message instead of the sale. Shift your marketing focus away from telling the consumer what we think they need to a message that focuses on what the consumer wants. You want to be successful in this economy? Here’s the secret. Research and listen. We must engage consumers in dialog, solicit feedback and ideas, and craft our message (and product) accordingly. Be a part of the community. Social networking takes time, but it’s essential. We must facilitate the conversation through Facebook, Twitter, blogs, you name it.
Social media is without question the newest, best (and inexpensive) way to gain reliable market intelligence about your product. Consumer feedback is what you want. But be warned. You’ve got to have a strong constitution to do this. You need to find out what you’re doing wrong so you can make your product better. Make the consumer part of the solution. By doing this, you gain the consumer’s trust. Once you have that, you’re more than likely going to make the sale.
-
Follow Bruce on the Web
-
By Bruce Turkel
