Archive for October, 2009

Bzzzzz – Wrinkle free – free!

Friday, October 30th, 2009

This morning as I was applying my L’Oreal Revitalift which I received in the mail free (more about this later) I was struck by the brilliant use of word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing that the company I got it from has capitalized on.

I’m a BzzAgent. BzzAgents (more…)

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Posted in Advertising, Brand management | No Comments »

Listening and Learning…From Social Media and Everywhere Else!

Tuesday, October 27th, 2009

A recent study from PRWeek and communications agency MS&L, reported in BtoBonline.com, indicated that almost 70 percent of marketers say they’ve never made a change to their products or marketing campaigns based on consumer feedback on social media sites.

Now this number may be shocking, until you learn who the survey was distributed to. (more…)

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Posted in Customer communication, Social Media | 1 Comment »

What’s a Journalist?

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

In an era where anybody with a keyboard can create a blog (akin to publishing a newspaper) can *anyone* be a journalist? What is the definition of journalist? The credentials? Is there a difference between a journalist and a writer? Between a journalist and a blogger? Does it matter? To who?

I’ve become interested in the topic recently because, while doing research (more…)

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Posted in Media relations/PR, Social Media | No Comments »

Should You Be Forthright About Your Pricing?

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

A recent LinkedIn question resonated with me – “Why don’t people like to talk about pricing UPFRONT?” Why indeed?

Have you ever been frustrated when trying to make a purchase decision because you can’t get pricing information from coy salespeople or cryptic web sites? In my opinion, (more…)

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Posted in Sales | No Comments »

What Price Fame?

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Richard Heene, father of the little “balloon boy” who captured national attention last week, continues to maintain that allegations that this was a hoax are “extremely pathetic.” Doubts began after little Falcon Heene responded (more…)

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Posted in Media relations/PR | No Comments »

Banning Employees From Social Media

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

More than half of the companies surveyed recently by Robert Half Technology indicated that social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are “prohibited completely” at work. Only 19 percent of the responding CIO’s indicated that (more…)

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Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Bloggers Beware!

Monday, October 5th, 2009

The FTC recently issued guidelines whereby bloggers could be fined up to $11,000 for plugging products/services – e.g. making endorsements – for which they had been paid or compensated in some way.

That’s an important move toward establishing some credibility in an online environment that (more…)

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Posted in Social Media | No Comments »

Banished brand – “Wisconsin, Live Like You Mean It”…or maybe you don’t…

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

Wow! The state of Wisconsin – the state where I was born and still live – spent $57,000 recently to develop a slogan and logo to promote state tourism. And now they’ve trashed it. Why? Who knows. But my guess would be that (more…)

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Posted in Brand management | 1 Comment »