Posts filed under 'Marketing'
Promote your expertise with this search engine
Social networks are great for following your friends’ daily musings, but rarely do they help grow your income. I think we all want to leverage social media to help our business efforts – now there is Weedle.
Like a LinkedIn/Yellow Pages hybrid, Weddle’s a new platform from Ireland to help users effectively market their professional expertise through mutual contacts which leverages an implicit “element of trust.” Users fill out a description of their vocation (plumber, video producer) and location, back it up with a mini resume and optionally a photo/video of their “skills in action”, then one imports contacts from myriad accounts including Gmail, LinkedIn, and AOL. Users searching for hires (done by skill set) will have their results prioritized based on individuals with whom they share contacts, allowing them to vet you by a trusted source should they choose; if interested, they can reach out.
Once the process is over, both parties can go back “rate” one another and/or comment on the experience.
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Add comment August 31, 2010
Conquer the Youtube Monster
Where do you think YouTube is heading next? As a marketer, how do you feel about online video?
The steady growth in personal video provides creates a challenge for marketers. How to you reach people on youtube? How about street team videos about the brand? One video can hardly make a difference, there is a lot of noise online. But hundreds or thousands of videos about the brand may make a dent. Online video advertising is still young, and people are still trying out approaches to create the best results for advertisers and consumers. As video production continues to increase, marketers are challenged to have targeted advertising opportunities.
How big is youtube? YouTube announced a major milestone. Every minute that goes by, an entire day of video is added to its site. Yes, you read correctly: 24 hours of video are now uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds. Since being founded in early 2005, the site has been the market leader in video sharing and consumption online. With a market share of more than 73%, the service dominates all the other online video competitors.
Video is a big growing piece of online content and companies should consider incorporating video as part of online marketing strategy. As online video matures so will the need to produce professional video productions for this medium!
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Add comment June 4, 2010
Phone coupons rock
Why not non-printed coupons you can use on your phone? Can you use your iPhone, Blackberry or Andrioid and just get discounts without printing anything out?
In the future when you add products to your shopping list like milk, soup, bread, cheese, or pasta, you can scan a bar code with your phone and have it show up on your phone list. It could also sync with someone else’s list and even compare prices at other stores. You’ll be able to do all sorts of other entry mechanisms and, digitally check items off your list as you shop.
If there’s a coupon for the product just print it right to your printer, wirelessly off your phone. Some stores are working on systems so can drop the coupon right onto the stores frequent shopper card. Many Restaurants, big box retailers, and consumer retailers already allow you to show a bar code on your cell phone or show a code number to have the coupon keyed in at the register. If retailers want to keep the line moving they need to find ways to integrate with their technology. Some systems are working toward identifying your phone with bluetooth or wifi to automate the application of the coupons.
Get ready – change is coming fast as more stores embrace the use of smart phones for shoppers.
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Add comment May 24, 2010
85% emotion
Did you know 85% of all brain activity is emotional. That is why we must engage people on an emotional level with marketing. I have a saying, “I want to spend time with people that have the hang factor”. That is to say people who are fun and engaging. I will pass on hanging out with negative aggravating people.
In addition our brains use a lot of their power focusing on images, especially peoples faces. We have learned how to subconsciously read faces since we were an infant. That is why it’s important to choose the right model or spokesperson and if they can not communicate the message correctly the viewer will know. For example, if the video actor forgets their line for a split second, the viewer will feel the fear and it may make the message ineffective.
Are your marketing efforts engaging? If not you are wasting your money!
Here is a great book on the subject: Emotionomics: Leveraging Emotions for Business Success by Dan Hill D.V and Sam Simon
Last season on Fox there was a show called “Lie to Me”. If you saw the show – you know a bit about what I am saying.
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Add comment May 20, 2010
Make that sale!
When you want to target the sale of specific items … offer an incentive. Subway has the five dollar footlong and boosted their lunch business.
Let’s say you want to sell a case of product instead of a smaller quanity of the item. Why not offer free shipping or some other perk on the purchase of a case? If they buy less, don’t offer it!.
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Add comment May 18, 2010
Social Media Sells!
Social media works! After several weeks of trying to build a fan base on Facebook we had 500 followers. Then this site went viral! In one day we had 30,000 visitors and generated 20,000 orders for our customer.
Why? Mommy bloggers were added to the mix. Consider adding blogs to your mix when trying to build traffic and a fan base.
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Add comment May 16, 2010
TAX BREAK Houston’s Creative Bailout!
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Comedy – Music – Live Art – Networking
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| After bobbing and weaving together last year, this year’s creative mixer is all about getting a little relief from work and taxes. Join Houston’s leading professional creative organizations as we socialize and enjoy another tax season passing us by … |
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Event Name: Tax Break! Houston’s Creative Bailout |
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Sponsoring organizations: American Advertising Federation Houston (AAFH) American Institute of Graphic Arts Houston (AIGA) Art Director’s Club of Houston (ADCH) Only in Houston (OiH) University of Houston Graphics Alumni Partnership (UHGAP) |
![OiH_650-m[1]](http://mediaslap.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/oih_650m11.jpg "OiH_650-m[1]")
![facebook[1]](http://mediaslap.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/facebook11.png?w=36&h=36 "facebook[1]"){kind=small}
Add comment March 26, 2010
Communicate with a New Generation
We have a whole new generation that prefers learning in a non-sequential, mosaic way. This new generation is influenced by media and the Internet and saturated with endless sound and video bytes. I have experienced this first hand in the lives of my own children. Their life is lived out in a big media bucket. They can learn and interact with information in a much more informal and dynamic way than I could at their age.
Information seeks and finds us whenever we are, we don’t have to look for it. With Social Media we are always aware of news, entertainment and even the lunatic fringe. This stuff finds you and me every minute of the day!
So how do you communicate with this new generation? Embrace the new media and speak their language, don’t hard sell. Be transparent and real.
How did we get to be a generation filled with electronic media and want to learn in a non-sequential way? Read this earlier blog post – Communication with young adults
Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine
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Add comment February 23, 2010
Internet Marketing Checklist
So how can you market on the Internet. Do you need a bigger, badder web site? What can you do to get traction?
1. Create a website with content
The secret to a successful website is to get people there and give them a reason to come back. You can do this with content. Have content before you concern your self with SEO and web site promotion.
2. Tap into Your Expertise
Include content that showcases your talent and expertise. Talk about what you know… you will present yourself as an expert. It showcases your “know-how-trust” factor. Cement your credibility as an expert.
2. Market to Your Existing Customers
Instead of just focusing on getting new business, turn your attention to your existing customers. If you treat all your clients as special, they will feel special — and be likely to tell someone else about you.
3. Build Relationships
Build relationships with your clients and prospects. Social Media is a great way to extend your reach. Don’t sell with social media. Build relationships, let the selling come later.
Add to: Facebook | Digg | Del.icio.us | Stumbleupon | Reddit | Blinklist | Twitter | Technorati | Yahoo Buzz | Newsvine
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2 comments February 21, 2010
Free Food Friday – October 8th @ SoundWorks
SoundWorks has fun ways of supporting the creative community with Free Food Friday* networking lunches. Menus for past events have included everything from good ole’ fashioned homemade hamburgers to Mexican, Spanish and Portuguese-inspired dishes prepared by local chefs. FFF is free lunch fun with Houston creative people. Dwight Cook of SoundWorks says, “It’s very cool to see graphic designers, writers and filmmakers make personal and business connections. It’s about making the Houston community smaller by getting to know each other.”
The next FFF event on October 8th will feature a Jamaican-themed menu and guests get to suggest their favorite Caribbean tune for download. Pirate punch for everyone!
* FFF translates: free lunch, invitation only, creative community enjoying creative cuisine. We believe in building this Houston network of professionals through the art of conversation, a shared perspective, a plate at a time. FFF is by invitation only, so if you want to attend you might have to twist an arm at SoundWorks.
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Add comment September 1, 2010