It's always difficult to pick out the highlights of the highlights from a week of MarCom Professional posts, but here goes...
If social media thought leader Brian Solis didn't occasionally blog from face-to-face events I'd swear he eats and sleeps solely on the big old WWW. I've yet to join a service, pre-beta, pre-alpha, or whatever, where Mr. Solis isn't already embedded! Well his new book is out, as you will see from his post this week, "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations".
Haven't got hold of it yet... but half way through David Meerman Scott's World Wide Rave.
And for pure poetry, you must check out the presentation brought to our attention by Trevor Young. Intriguing and powerful copy.
Best regards, Philip and the MarCom Professional team.
Packing a Punch With Powerful Words
by Trevor Young of One19
This brief presentation (discovered via the wonderful Presentation Zen) is very cool. It's simple and clever and clocks in at just 1:44 mins, but still manages to pack a punch. But, make sure you watch through for the twist. According to Presentation Zen, this presentation placed second in the AARP U@50 video contest. More...
Internet marketing experts make huge mistake
by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology
Internet marketing "experts" are fond of telling us about certain "systems" that work. They show us page after page of PayPal histories confirming that they have been paid tons of money for their work. And they tell us - "it's easy" - all you have to do is follow their system.
The problem is they could make even more money; the "system" used by almost all internet marketing gurus is badly flawed. Here's why.
All the "top" internet marketing experts will tell you that you need to add bonuses to your offerings. More...
join the conversation - the really mobile project
by Andrew Grill of Gigafone
I’ve been sent this link www.thereallymobileproject.com from a number of sources this morning - and it’s worth a look.
Some leaders in the UK mobile space are launching something really cool - really soon.
I’ve just spoken to one of the people involved - and it will be worth the wait.
So head over to the really mobile project and click on the image and join the conversation!
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations is Now Available
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
I almost can't believe that this day is finally here...
Deirdre Breakenridge and I proudly announce the availability of our new book, "Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR."
The book is in stock at Amazon, the Amazon Kindle store, Barnes & Noble, Safari, and bookstores everywhere.
Deirdre and I spent a good part of the last year pouring our heart, soul, and real world successes and failures into this book, and we only hope that it will help you excel in whatever role you choose to pursue. More...
Phorm will fail - so do not worry about it
by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology
Phorm is a controversial online advertising system that has already annoyed the founder of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Today, the top web sites in the world have been urged to stop using Phorm since it is thought to invade privacy.
Here's how it works: it monitors what web sites are being looked at on any particular computer. It then delivers advertising to match the kinds of topics that are being viewed. This is known as "behavioural advertising" and the marketing world is cock-a-hoop about it because they think it is the answer to their prayers. More...
World Wide Rave book launch video from South-by-Southwest 2009
by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott
At the South-by-Southwest festival - #SXSW - I launched my newest book World Wide Rave.
It was a terrific event and I was thrilled to be there.
This is a ten-minute video showing some highlights of the gig.
I'm using Vimeo for this post rather than YouTube as an experiement.
Direct link to this on Vimeo
Direct link to this on YouTube
At the South-by-Southwest Interactive festival, David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR, launched his newest book World Wide Rave. More...
Today programme viral agency finds social media competitors aren’t always social
by Stephen Waddington of Speed Communications
I caught up with Adam Abu-Nab and Chris Quigley from Rubber Republic yesterday.
Rubber Republic is the agency behind the BBC Radio 4 Today Programme viral, produced at its own cost after being challenged by presenter Evan Davies to come up with a campaign that would attract potential listeners.
The result has generated fierce - almost philosophical debate - in the ad and social media industries. The genesis of the debate is can a viral be called a viral before it has become viral?
That the Today programme viral went viral is undisputed. More...
Top 10 Free SEO Tools for Boosting Your Website’s Visitors
by David Knowles of
So you’ve built your website and ready to start greeting customers. But first you need to make sure your site can be found. In follow up to last week’s post on Pay per click (PPC) and search engine optimisation (SEO), here are 10 free tools for boosting your search engine ranking, and welcoming more visitors to your virtual shop:
1. Google Adwords Keyword Tool – the first step in any SEO campaign is identifying your keywords. This handy tool will let you know which keywords to target, as well as offer suggestions on popular phrases you might not have thought of. More...
Conversations start with something interesting to say delivered in an interesting way - Part 3
by Philip Sheldrake of Racepoint Group UK
YAWN!
A yawn is never a good way to start a conversation. As the first two posts in this three-part series pointed out, the way you start the conversation is as important as the content (part 1 and part 2).
I've not tried to be exhaustive in describing some of the multimedia formats you might adopt in starting your conversation, and the posts to date have covered video, animation and a call-to-action microsite. I wanted to finish with an interactive website employing a game to draw visitors in to the key messages; More...
Friday fun with "The Garden of Tweetdom"
by Philip Sheldrake of Racepoint Group UK
This slideshow made me laugh.
I've been a Twitter user now for two years, and I'm intrigued by its success.
You can attribute its success to its incredible simplicity, leaving the wider community to develop applications and 'clients' that anyone can chose to adopt or ignore.
You could attribute it to the character limit, meaning that no-one has to worry that they have to put much work into Tweeting (something that holds blogging back to this day), yet also short enough that clever-clogs can innovate and play games with the limitation. More...
Persuasive Writing eBook Released - The Art of Using Words to Convince, Compel and Sell
by Matt Ambrose of The Copywriter's Crucible
Three months and several rewrites later, my eBook on persuasive writing has finally been released. It comprises of all the posts from my recent persuasive writing series, and a couple more to fill in the gaps.
Experienced copywriters won’t discover anything new. But I’m hoping the eBook will be useful for visitors looking for advice on how to make their sales writing more compelling (or to consider hiring me to write it for them).
It’s underlying theme is that showy writing isn’t sales writing: More...
Yet more evidence that businesses don't understand the internet
by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology
Despite the fact that billions of pounds worth of business is done each year online, it's still pretty apparent that many companies don't exploit the internet to make even more money. Indeed, a quarter of British companies don't yet have a web site and now it seems that the FTSE100 is ignoring a potential gold-mine of revenue. According to a new study on affiliate marketing the FTSE100 firms are missing out on £370m worth of sales that could come from setting up affiliate marketing schemes. More...
Introducing FriendFilter, A Better Way to Make Friends on Twitter
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
A few weeks ago, I eluded to a new Twitter application that would eventually debut to help qualify the people who follow you on Twitter.
Good friend and developer extraordinaire Christopher Peri and I proudly introduce FriendFilter in Beta. I've collaborated with Peri in the past to develop @microPR (along with Stowe Boyd), MicroJobs, and other apps soon to be released. His vision and technical prowess are ahead of many and I'm lucky to know him.
FriendFilter improves the signal to noise ratio on Twitter by providing you with the intelligence necessary to effectively curate the content and the people that appear in your Twitter timeline. More...
Low cost marketing ideas for a recession
by Rebecca Caroe of Creative Agency Secrets
Tim Reid is a human dynamo that I met online recently. He posted a question on LinkedIn What's your BEST MARKETING TIP for those small businesses who have limited or zero marketing budget?
To date he has had 27 answers. All great suggestions. Please share More...
Micro Disruption Theory and The Social Effect
by Brian Solis of PR 2.0
Relationships are so much more than the mere act of following or friending someone on Twitter or any social network for that matter. It's the balladry of transcending online connections into real world relationships. It's the cadence of interaction and the poetry of conversations that empower the human network and the escalation of the Social Economy.
On Social Networks we're bound by context and not necessarily by the relationships that link us in the real world.
We listen to relevant keywords to learn from others who share our interests and passions. More...
An open letter to journalists: You have an amazing career opportunity on the Dark Side
by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott
A fascinating convergence is upon us right now bringing a perfect opportunity for open-minded journalists.
Sadly, many mainstream media outlets are reducing their staff journalists. Newspapers, magazines, radio, and television outlets are facing tough economic challenges and unfortunately that means that many talented reporters and editors have been (or will be) laid off. I’ve had a chance to speak with several dozen journalists over the past few months and many are downcast about career prospects. More...
