It's one of those days when I'm just going to let the highlighted posts do all the talking...
Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team.
How Lisa Genova used social media to turn a self-published book into a NY Times bestseller
by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott
Lisa Genova created one of the coolest World Wide Raves I've seen. She is the author of Still Alice, a novel about a young woman's descent into dementia due to early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. I met Lisa at Grub Street Writers in Boston where we both lamented the traditional conventions of book marketing and strategized on how we can market our books ourselves using social media.
After she wrote Still Alice and was ready to get it into the market, Lisa spent a year trying to get literary agents and editors at publishing houses to speak with her. More...
David Ogilvy on mobile advertising - what would he have thought?
by Andrew Grill of Gigafone
Sadly “David Ogilvy on mobile advertising” will never be written as the great man passed away in July 1999. It would be a great companion to his classic 1993 book “Ogilvy on Advertising“, the cover of which is shown on the left.
Having just read the brilliant biography on David Ogilvy “The King of Madison Avenue“ by Kenneth Roman, I can’t help but wonder what he would have made of advertising on the mobile phone.
He was a big fan of press and brochure advertising - great photos and long copy, and by his own admission he never really harnessed the creative power of TV. More...
CIPR needs to catch-up on social media guidelines
by Stephen Waddington of Rainier PR
I’m late to this story. The CIPR has updated its social media guidelines. The original document was published in 2007. It’s a useful baseline text but do we really need another set of guidelines for social media and digital PR? The rules of engagement or either commonsense or have developed through trial and error, and have been quickly defined by PR bloggers.
I can’t help feeling that this is a document that should have been developed as a wiki. Contributors have no idea if their submission has been used and critics such as Stuart Bruce (separate document to CIPR code of conduct is unnecessary) and Simon Collister (guidelines may contradict consumer protection law) have no opportunity to respond directly. More...
TRUST: The Elusive Commodity Worth its Weight in Gold (and then some)
by Trevor Young of One19
Global PR firm Edelman has just released its 2009 Trust Barometer report. As the name suggests, it's an annual survey that, in essence, takes the pulse of consumers' views in terms of their perception of government and big business.
Needless to say, without even looking at the report, after such a tumultuous year you could intuitively take a stab at its findings - and that is the public's trust in business and government is at an all-time low.
That would be my gut feel anyway. And I know I wouldn't be alone. More...
Girls Fight Back!
by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott
Erin Weed, founder of Girls Fight Back!, uses her Web site, MySpace and Facebook groups, blog, and YouTube videos as a way to promote women's safety and self-defense issues.
Erin, a personal safety and self-defense expert who has conducted 500 seminars at schools, colleges, and corporations, started Girls Fight Back in 2001 in response to the tragic murder of Shannon McNamara, her friend and Alpha Phi sorority sister.
Girls Fight Back makes safety education accessible, especially to young women in their teens and twenties, through her education Web site and live seminars conducted all over the United States. More...
Telecoms Hothouse: Mobile advertising industry calls for action
by Andrew Grill of Gigafone
On January 22nd in London, Mobile Europe hosted a roundtable sponsored by Gigafone on mobile advertising.
The question for the roundtable hosted by Mobile Europe Editor Keith Dyer was:
“What do agencies, brands, technology providers and operators need to do to turn mobile advertising into a success story in 2009?”
Sounds like a job for Telecoms Hothouse, an independent initiative designed to create debate and discussion about the future of the telecoms industry. Click here to see what you can do to make mobile advertising a success in 2009, and how you can benefit from it. More...
Enhancing Organisational Performance Management with the Influence Scorecard
by Philip Sheldrake of Racepoint Group UK
Last week I posted about hosting a meeting on the Influence Scorecard . The post was testing the water to determine the level of interest such an event might generate, and I was answered by dozens of emails, direct twitters, comments and even some direct editing of the post itself, as I'd hoped! (MarCom Professional allows an author to permit others to edit a post, wiki-style.)
I even received tentative enquiries about sponsorship, so it looks like we are on to something here...
Moreover, the interest was split almost 50:50 between Europe and North America, and it was spread fairly evenly amongst each of the required participant groups. More...
Wittgenstein’s Poker: Why defining social media and PR won’t solve its problems
by Andrew Smith of escherman
For those of a philosophic bent, one of the best books of recent times has been Wittgenstein’s Poker, by David Edmonds and John Eidinow, which provides a brilliant overview of two giants of 20th century thought, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper. (The title derives from the infamous meeting of Wittgenstein and Popper in room H3, King’s College Cambridge on 25th October 1946 when Wittgenstein allegedly brandished a hot poker at Popper over a fundamental philosophical disagreement.)The dispute between Wittgenstein and Popper represents the major clash of philosophical opinion in the 20th century. More...
Top 5 Superbowl Ads According to Google
by Katy Barrilleaux of Lead Maverick, Inc.
Superbowl XLIII is over. NBC, advertisers and their agencies are surely pleased that the victor was not determined until the last play of the game. Congratulations go to the Pittsburgh Steelers for a hard-fought victory and the Arizona Cardinals for providing one of the more entertaining Superbowl games in years. Even before the confetti flew to signal the end of the game, the internet was all a-twitter with people casting their votes for their favorite Superbowl Ads. Here are the top 5 Superbowl Ads as determined by search volume on Google, reported by Google Trends: More...
First look at Google Latitude - location sharing made easy
by Andrew Grill of Gigafone
I’m delighted to see Google launch their Latitude product, as I have been saying for some time privately as well as during my numerous presentations on location and location advertising that this would be the next step for Google mobile maps (GMM).
As Google have the monopoly on worldwide automated location determination (via their GMM application and massive and ever expanding cell-ID database), the next obvious step is to allow trusted friends and family to see where you are and share your location. More...
The Top Social Brands of 2008: What's Your Conversation Index?
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
Source
Vitrue released a report on the Top Social Brands of 2008 based on an index the company launched last year.
The top social brands list is a result of Vitrue’s daily analysis of over 2,000 popular brands. Each day, the team analyzes online conversations on a variety of social networking, blogging, microblogging, photo and video sharing sites. Virtue then applies a series of algorithms to measure the frequency of keyword usage, the size of the social media environment, and the magnitude of the conversation. More...
Dell Deals with Twitter
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
In March 2008, Gary Vaynerchuck experimented with @santagaryvee on Twitter where he would announce special Wine Library deals and opportunities exclusively for his loyal followers on the popular micro community. While he slowly phased that activity back into his main Twitter streams, many companies were introduced to a new way to engage and harness enthusiasm among those potentially interested in something new and special.
Having contributed to the standard of listening and responding to users and pundits on Twitter, Dell is no stranger to the power, value, insight, relationships, and education that result from meaningful and genuine participation. More...
econsultancy on social media trends: digital engagement and reaching the one-percenters
by Stephen Waddington of Rainier PR
I’ve have recently discovered econsultancy’s excellent Trends and Innovation papers. These concise documents provide a quick insight into different areas of digital marketing.
The latest paper on social media (free to registered users) contains no surprises. But that’s not the point. It’s an excellent summary of the market and provides good sign posting for more information.
My key learning was contained in a single table (p10). e-consultancy asked vendors whether they had seen improvement in engagement via various online channels. More...
