tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60399722024-03-05T00:14:52.368-08:00Digital Marketing Blog - BJ Cook on Digital Strategy and Social MediaDigital Marketing Blog features BJ Cook's insights on digital marketing strategies and social media. As customer experiences cross over from web to mobile to offline; we assess who gets it and who needs some help.authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.comBlogger137125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-69970874342653871212014-03-21T09:58:00.000-07:002014-03-21T10:03:51.368-07:00Top 7 Content Marketing Tips, Lessons & How-To's<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM9XgjsyOu4bXKDJtA6pBcpJloIfg-TeBSmHhaU2iF2HLxV0nnPP4GGfgBER2m_86h2pvZ_PQBk_BLFyrc1lF_uW_4DSiX1cKTX4PAgDpdk7o2Q1bVmWV3Zq_kVt-83FNAa1JP/s1600/Mar+21,+2014+9:57:32+AM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM9XgjsyOu4bXKDJtA6pBcpJloIfg-TeBSmHhaU2iF2HLxV0nnPP4GGfgBER2m_86h2pvZ_PQBk_BLFyrc1lF_uW_4DSiX1cKTX4PAgDpdk7o2Q1bVmWV3Zq_kVt-83FNAa1JP/s1600/Mar+21,+2014+9:57:32+AM.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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With a hot topic like content marketing, I tried an experiment and searched Google News for that keyword. So what did I find? Some interesting, relevant pieces of news and some not so. I took the liberty of aggregating some of those content marketing news items below:<br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li><a href="http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/18/sequoia-percolate-24-million/" rel="nofollow"><b>Sequoia pours $24 million into Percolate</b></a> - Percolate is a social media workflow software startup that is powering content marketing for brands like Hyatt, Mastercard and Ford.</li>
<li><b>Jim Joseph's Entrepreneur.com series on <i><a href="http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/232294" rel="nofollow">Content Marketing Like Big Brands</a></i></b> - Jim offer sage advice to the SMB market on how to create content that breaks through the clutter and noise.</li>
<li><b>MarketingProfs helps you choose sides in the <a href="http://www.searchenginejournal.com/quantity-versus-quality-must-choose-sides-content-marketing-strategy/93197/" rel="nofollow">content marketing war over Quality vs Quantity</a></b> - If you don't want to sacrifice quality to get content out the door each or you think frequency is better; this post should help you find your way.</li>
<li><b>Don't be a <a href="http://www.startupsmart.com.au/technology/social-media/dont-be-a-content-marketing-one-hit-wonder/2014032111930.html" rel="nofollow">Content Marketing One-Hit-Wonder </a>from StatupSmart</b> - Are you resting your laurels on that one piece of content? Have you hit a writing or creative rut? The team over at StartupSmart is here to un-logjam your content marketing pile up.</li>
<li><b><a href="http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/7-tips-avoid-content-marketing-fatigue-0818178#!AOcHR" rel="nofollow">Avoid Content Marketing Fatigue with B2C</a></b> - Whether you're in a rut like above or you just can't stomach another piece of content, here are some tips from the generous folks over at B2C.</li>
<li><b><a href="http://marketingland.com/said-13-content-marketing-lessons-mother-76580" rel="nofollow">13 Content Marketing Lessons from Your Mother</a></b> - Arienne Holland and SearchEngineLand take you through 13 things that your Mother most likely said and how those related to the wonderful world of content marketing.</li>
<li><b>8 Lessons from <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2331741/8-Content-Marketing-Lessons-From-Improv" rel="nofollow">Improv for Content Marketeers</a></b> (for my European readers) - Maybe you do Improv, Comedy or Acting as a hobby. Well here are some content marketing how-to's from the folks over at SearchEngineWatch.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Everyone does Top 10 lists, but some times; there just isn't enough quality content out there right? If you really need 3 more gold nuggets, here they are:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<ol>
<li><b>Content is more than just articles, blog posts and infographics</b>; inspiration can be found across many mediums and with the pace of digital these days, you have the opportunity to package it up however you'd like - just keep your audience in mind.</li>
<li><b>Content Marketing should never be about Marketing</b> - Build pieces of content that actually provide value to someone. Step 1 - Do the Work, Step 2 - Present is Clearly, and Step 3 - Ask people what they think. <i>(Yes inspiration comes from your audience's feedback, POV, ideas, suggestions, etc. Disclaimer: I was previously the CMO for SuggestionBox.com, so I put some value in what customers have to say.)</i></li>
<li><b>GOOB(FI) </b>- This is a classic startup acronym - "Get Out Of Building" mixed with "For Inspiration." Kind of Improv-like right? Get away from your desk, iPhones, TVs, Wiis - get outside and experience the world, because that's where all of the other humans are.</li>
</ol>
<div>
<b>Have an awesome Friday!</b></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-12681969881383956292013-02-15T14:12:00.000-08:002013-02-15T14:12:06.718-08:00Why You May Not Want To Use Rel="NoFollow" In Your Magento Website<br />
This seems to be a lukewarm topic since early 2002 in the SEO world and even into today's present digital landscape. People are on both sides of the fence about <i>"why"</i> or <i>"why not"</i> to use rel="nofollow" on your internal links. Here's my POV (point of view for those that despise acronyms.)<br />
<br />
<b>Why to use it...</b><br />
<ul>
<li>There are <b>certain pages you may not want crawled and indexed</b> by search engines like Login, Cart, etc. (Alternative is also to use Robots.txt file and just omit those there - <i>we do this at our agency Digital Operative as part of the initial Magento website setup.</i>)</li>
<li><b>If you're a Pagerank junkie</b>; it's been known to create "siloed" pages, which means that removing the link will not pass back any link juice to your root page that it typically internally links to. So you think you're helping when you're hurting yourself.</li>
<li><b>Avoid dilution of your own Link Juice</b> - In areas like blog commenting, forums, etc. (You know the most common places SPAMMERS hit you.)</li>
</ul>
<b>Why not to use it...</b><br />
<ul>
<li><b>Rel="NoFollow"</b> does not stop the search engines from crawling, it just stop your link juice from getting passed on. (Refer to the following post at SEOmoz on <a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/building-faceted-navigation-that-doesnt-suck" rel="nofollow">Building Faceted Navs That Don't Suck</a>) </li>
<li>Robots.txt - this is the right way to omit pages from the search engines</li>
<li><b>Canonical URLs</b> - Thank you Google for giving us a way to let you know that the duplicated product pages in our Magento websites are just alternative versions of each other. Pick your URL Methodology and get Canonicalizing!</li>
<li><b>Rel="Next" & Rel="Previous" are here</b> - These will allow you to tell the search engines that your Paged navigation is legit and again, not duplicate content. (Another free link from Google showing you the light about this - <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/pagination-with-relnext-and-relprev.html" rel="nofollow">read more</a>)</li>
</ul>
So after taking off 2 years from my last blog post, I hope you found this one useful, insightful or at least filling the time in between your last meeting and the one coming up with the CTO, who needs to know about all of this for your next Magento website project. <div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-33741175129907430932010-11-08T15:12:00.000-08:002010-11-08T15:12:14.802-08:00Got any Klout?<iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="98px" scrolling="no" src="http://widgets.klout.com/badge/BJ" style="border: 0pt none;" width="200px"></iframe> <br />
<br />
I seem to have some. At least that's what this web service seems to think based on some interesting factors like my "<b>influence style</b>." How do they determine this you might wonder?<br />
<br />
(taken right from the source)<br />
<br />
<br />
<ul><li>The <b>Klout Score</b> is the measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1-100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence.</li>
<li>The Klout Score is a factor of over <u><b>35 variables broken into three categories</b></u>; True Reach, Amplification Score and Network Score.</li>
<li> True Reach is the <u><b>size of your engaged audience</b></u> and is based on the <u><b>followers and friends who actively listen and react to your messages</b></u>. Amplification Score is the likelihood that your messages will generate actions (retweets, @messages, likes and comments) and is on a scale of 1 to 100. Network score indicates how influential your engaged audience is, also on a scale of 1 to 100. The Klout score is highly correlated to clicks, comments and retweets.</li>
</ul>So based on that, Klout says the following things about me as an "<b>influencer</b>." <br />
<ul><li> <b>Style </b>- BJ Cook is a Celebrity. You can't get any more influential than this. People hang on your every word, and share your content like no other. You're probably famous in real life and your fans simply can't get enough.</li>
<li><b>Overall Online Influence</b> - 22 (out of 100 that seems way low to be considered a Celebrity, right?)</li>
<li> <b>True Reach</b> - 788 ( Guessing I most likely will reach 788 people when I post something.)</li>
<li><b>Amplification</b> - 17 (out of 100 seems low)</li>
<li><b>Network</b> - 35 (overall influence of people I'm connected to. So I know lots of influential people, but I'm not as high as them.)</li>
</ul>What I see in the <u><b>trends</b></u> is the following:<br />
<ul><li> There is a lot of correlation to being "active." When I'm active my Klout score goes up.</li>
<li>As more people come on these networks, the noise increases. I used to have a Klout as high as 63 in February 2009 and as low as 22 in July 2010.</li>
<li>My true reach was 3,500 in June 2009 and has dropped a lot.</li>
<li>On average my tweets tend to get about a 10% RT or response rate. (Some Bit.ly tracking I do.)</li>
</ul>I want to hear your thoughts on this Klout service.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-47995533214307220322010-08-04T00:51:00.000-07:002010-08-04T00:51:10.058-07:00Sound Startup AdviceWhether we like it or not, as startup founders, business owners, CEO's, leaders; we sometimes get all caught up in the day-to-day tasks and forget about the basic business details that keep us afloat. After reading the following posts, I was reminded how important these things are on a daily basis. From managing your financials to customer service to ritualizing the workplace environment. These posts have some great little gold nuggets, enjoy.<br />
<br />
<ul><li><br />
<h2 style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.newbusinessintel.com/read/10-things-MBA-schools-wont-teach-you-about-managing-your-agency/"><span style="font-size: small;">10 Things MBA Schools Won’t Teach You About Managing Your Agency</span></a><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h2></li>
<li><br />
<h2 style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.caycon.com/blog/2010/08/eight-business-processes-every-startup-must-have/"><span style="font-size: small;">Eight Business Processes Every Startup Must Have</span></a></h2><h2 class="title" style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></h2></li>
</ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-28423578812703452822010-06-21T00:57:00.000-07:002010-06-21T00:57:26.862-07:00Power of Customer Service and ReviewsSo today I went to my favorite acai bowl spot here in San Diego called The Big Squeeze. Like any local business the people are always nice, their product is consistent and you feel good about giving your money to a small business owner as opposed to some chain. Well today was a bit different because what went from waiting 15 minutes lead me to Yelp to write a very authentic, unhappy review. <b>So how did I get there?</b><br />
<br />
<ul><li><b>Waiting Time</b> - 15 to 20 minutes is ridiculous for an acai bowl</li>
<li><b>Unaware Employees</b> - I not only waited, but the girl who was supposed to be making my acai bowl, continued to look over at me as she made 4 items for people who weren't even there.</li>
<li><b>Incorrect Order</b> - As she wrapped up my bowl, she forgot the blueberries that I now have to pay extra for.</li>
<li><b>Cost</b> - It's almost $8 for a large bowl now and they still charge you $0.30 for credit card transactions.</li>
<li><b>Not Environmentally Friendly</b> - They still use styrofoam bowls/cups on top of wasting 4-5 sheets of aluminum foil to try to wrap up my overflowing, soupy acai bowl</li>
</ul>So would I have gone and made a positive review on Yelp if everything went fine? Most likely not and here's why. I've been going here for 6 years and I have expectations, not just because I'm a loyal customer, but because I'm a part of a generation that expects things done right and if not, for someone to at least be accountable and aware. So when I left I was empowered by this poor customer service experience and driven to log into my Yelp account. I read a few other posts which validated what I was feeling and decided to write up my own review, giving them 3 stars and explaining what went wrong.<br />
<br />
<b>Here are a couple tips for small business owners:</b><br />
<ul><li>Customer Service is King right now</li>
<li>Be aware of the online review websites</li>
<li>Engage your customers online</li>
<li>Actively seek feedback to improve business operations</li>
<li>Monitor your online reputation</li>
<li>Think about the current economy and how you can ensure your loyal customers keep coming back</li>
</ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-25744317109873913262010-03-06T19:28:00.000-08:002010-03-06T19:28:51.884-08:00Our Agency nominated as Agency of the YearIt's been awhile since I last posted, but for anyone who's been following me throughout my career, this is a great honor in the community of San Diego. Digital Operative was nominated as Agency of the Year in the influenceSD awards. It's based on teams that have been innovative in the space of social media over the past year. I'd love to show you some of the things we've done and if you think they're unique, please click on the link here to vote: <b><a href="http://bit.ly/vote-for-DO">http://bit.ly/vote-for-DO</a></b> (We're #34 Doodles)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.gakiattack.com/"><b>Gaki Attack</b></a> - This was a minisite that integrates with Twitter that we packaged to introduce this JApanese TV network's video content on Hulu to the US market. The result was hundreds of attacks, 200,000 views and over 65 blog posts about the campaign plus a featured post on Hulu.com.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.digitaloperative.com/happy-holidays/"><b>Holiday Cardr</b></a> - This was a Facebook App we built that connects to your Facebook account, extracts photos and creates a custom holiday card colage that you can then send to friends on Facebook and Twitter.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.digitaloperative.com/">#DOStream</a></b> - This hashtag has collected the tweets of our team for over 1.5 yrs now and we share it directly on our homepage of our agency's website.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://socialmediabreakfastsandiego.ning.com/"><b>Social Media Breakfast San Diego</b></a> - This is a San Diego monthly series that we took over after its second event and grew from 90 to 290 members and are now on event #13. We've installed a solid structure that offers real case studies, news from around social media landscape, an active project where the group donates its time to a nonprofit and a feedback section for anyone who has challenges. Last month, we did a session on social media and hospitality featuring JPR, Hard Rock Hotel and Croce's Restaurant and Jazz Bar.<br />
<br />
There's actually a lot more than that and a social mobile game on the rise. IF you ike what you see, love to get your vote: <a href="http://bit.ly/vote-for-DO"><b>http://bit.ly/vote-for-DO</b></a> (We're #34 Doodles)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://bit.ly/inf-sd" onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outgoing/bit.ly/inf-sd');"><img border="0" src="http://influencesd.com/img/nominees_med.jpg" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-56744479571321693702009-12-08T09:54:00.000-08:002009-12-08T09:54:44.804-08:00Vote for Top 100 Online Marketers 2009Recently I found out I was nominated (<b>BJ Cook - @bj</b>) to Invesp’s Top 100 Online Marketers of 2009. I feel honored to be on this list of people as some of them have helped shape my own thoughts and approached to marketing over the years. So like any good marketer, I’m starting my campaign trail here. Head over to the list and if I’ve contributed to your marketing insights over the year, please cast a vote for me. Hopefully all of my readers here have enjoyed my posts over the years. I'd also love to hear some feedback if you have 2 minutes.<br />
<br />
cheers!<br />
BJ<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.invesp.com/2009/top-100-marketers-of-2009.html/"><img alt="Vote for us - Top Marketer of 2009" border="0" src="http://www.invesp.com/images/2009-vote-for-us.png" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-82463176743840029442009-09-04T11:35:00.000-07:002009-09-04T11:35:06.177-07:00SEO Tactic - Subdomains vs. SubfoldersWe're working on a project right now that brought up this question, which is both a technical and a business decision. Over at Digital Operative we use a subdomain for our blog in order to keep our content closer to the root domain, but also earn the SEO benefits in linking and saturating the organic listings. I was doing a little light research and stumbled upon this post from Rand Fishkin over at SEOMoz and the thread is not only informative, but there are so many scenarios that I felt it was valuable to share to see if any of you were also having the same questions.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.seomoz.org/blog/understanding-root-domains-subdomains-vs-subfolders-microsites">SEOMoz post on Subdomains vs. Subfolders</a><br />
<br />
Enjoy and hopefully this helps some of you readers out there!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-86813913711151900222009-07-27T23:41:00.000-07:002009-07-27T23:46:11.277-07:00$417 a week can get you Digital Marketing Mastery<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg11a4vbK-16nGcPpu_Ir1RVuSZP4E-BDSuGZNQV1NVSiKIF5c2XcHoEn4deSKUi43VosSBpdXzAqdnQJ-PgRS2wy97qDn0StdwIOd0e_ef1SbUHGPufuAUT6UePSti9zFid5ei/s1600-h/bdwlogo.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 164px; height: 146px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg11a4vbK-16nGcPpu_Ir1RVuSZP4E-BDSuGZNQV1NVSiKIF5c2XcHoEn4deSKUi43VosSBpdXzAqdnQJ-PgRS2wy97qDn0StdwIOd0e_ef1SbUHGPufuAUT6UePSti9zFid5ei/s400/bdwlogo.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5363398107354603442" /></a><br />Recently, <span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="http://bdw.colorado.edu">Boulder Digital Works</a></span> was born at University of Colorado at Boulder. It's described as "a project-based and accredited learning initiative focused on developing today and tomorrow's digital leaders and entrepreneurs." Just like the firms it is hoping to feed up and coming students into; it has its own three letter acronym ... BDW. I explored their website a little bit and found some interesting information, some good and some that might raise some red flags.<br /><br /><ul><li>Areas of Study: Interaction Design, Mobile, Gaming, Apps, Strategy, Social Media, Creative Thinking</li><br /><li>Specialization in Web 2.0 - Will this even be relevant in a year's time? Hopefully they update to web 3.0 or whatever seems to be next.</li><br /><li>Courses like Improvisation in Business - "All business is show business."</li><br /><li>Workshops that take the "digital" approach to basic areas like brand development, campaigns, projects, media, etc.</li><br /><li>Supported by some well known larger interactive/digital agencies</li><br /><li>Good coverage of digital landscape - web, mobile, social, search, gaming</li><br /></ul><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Boulder Digital Works</span> is as much as you'll make in your first year within any digital agency if you start in a junior role. Hopefully that $20,000 investment has a decent ROI and doesn't take you as long to pay back.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">What do you think of this type of digital program?</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-42108152865477846992009-05-20T09:04:00.000-07:002009-05-20T09:17:55.335-07:00Customer Feedback Is Here To StaySo as many of you know or should know, one of my previous roles was as CMO for SuggestionBox.com and in that role I was able to watch a market start to form around customers. These select group of companies like Starbucks, Dell, Zappos, Comcast and a few others were paving a path for others on how to leverage customer feedback in the areas of customer service, conversational marketing and innovation. Now if you look at blogs like <strong><a href="http://customersrock.net/">Customers Rock</a></strong> or <strong><a href="http://experiencematters.wordpress.com/">Experience Matters</a></strong>; you'd think ... "Why isn't everyone adopting these best practices?" or "How can I capture customer feedback and improve my customer relationships?" I'd say the answer is as simple as installing some type of customer feedback widget (there are tons) and then responding to every single one, but you have other things to do like run your business, pay invoices, interview employees, attend events, etc. For the purpose of efficiency, I want to make a recommendation to take 15-20 minutes out of your day and explore what <a href="http://www.uservoice.com">Uservoice</a> is doing in this space. Their recent <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2009/05/19/newly-funded-uservoice-makes-sense-of-beta-feedback/">funding news in WSJ</a> shows that they are on the right track and will be around for awhile.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-11437121238539551162008-12-31T11:49:00.000-08:002008-12-31T12:08:17.141-08:00Japanese Variety Show Comes To US via Hulu and Joost<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.hulu.com/gaki"><img style="margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 125px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0kppDPBV7HLNRt8nYxVHPkqQHpcnHWZamlsDC3AC0aJ1OWvhHxlC15tYeRFhN7pbyEZNIJCtcwoMTm5OwiYQoZmdvG4figSM-PTaFZ0fmJQ8KbkEBiayQd20y_7F6_kRnf5wa/s320/key_art_gaki.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286046775211458594" /></a><br />If you've seen "<span style="font-style:italic;">I Survived A Japanese Game Show</span>" and "<span style="font-style:italic;">Wipeout</span>" you've probably been exposed to some good ole Americanized reality shows that put their contestants through ridiculous experiments and challenges. But all these are merely ripoffs of the authentic Japanese Game Shows that have existed for years. One of the ones we've been exposed to recently was <span style="font-weight:bold;">Gaki No Tsukai</span>. This group of comedians seem like the Japanese version of Jackass, a group of young guys out of West Chester, PA that push their bodies and friends to the limit everyday. <span style="font-weight:bold;">Gaki No Tsukai</span> has now been part of recent US launch on <a href="http://www.Hulu.com/gaki">Hulu.com</a> and <a href="http://www.joost.com/353kue4/t/Japanese-Humor-OWARAI-Channel">Joost.com</a>. Both video sites have picked up the the episodes and created channels to show off this hilarious japanese video content. In addition to the Hulu and Joost channels (this is only available in the US), there is Gaki Attack, where with your <a href="http://www.Twitter.com">Twitter.com</a> account, you can experience the weapons used in the Gaki episodes and send attacks to your friends on Twitter. <span style="font-style:italic;">What better way to celebrate your love for your friends than slapping them with some Yamasaki or a wonton noodle?<span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span><br /><br /><u>Here are the links to each website:</u><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hulu</span> - <a href="http://www.hulu.com/gaki">Gaki Channel</a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Joost</span> - Owarai - <a href="http://www.joost.com/353kue4/t/Japanese-Humor-OWARAI-Channel">Japanese Variety Show</a><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Gaki Attack Twitter App</span> - <a href="http://www.gakiattack.com/">Join the battle and show your inner ninja</a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.gakiattack.com/"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 170px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo7apBJmMqRZ_JzBn_BM3rXArlpAOsodDtWmu4IuHmtulHXZgk6bgy01kuQc_kE7QvHxDssa_q09GpOxClq898_gai1LgeKXS1sVntsNxet0lcA4syGs-DEZFwlpnvq7j3BaKW/s320/gakiattack-ninja-videos-sc.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286047477655355554" /></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-61189650587940962632008-12-16T15:53:00.000-08:002008-12-16T15:59:09.284-08:00Final Open Web Awards Update - The Winners AnnouncementThe Open Web Awards Winners Are Here!!<br />You can read about the news over at <a href="http://mashable.com/2008/12/16/open-web-awards-2-winners/">Mashable.com</a> as well.<br /><br /><h2>Mainstream & Large Scale Social Networks</h2><br />Winner: Netlog<br />Runner-up: Platinum Lounge<br /><br /><h2>Embeddable Widgets</h2><br />Winner: Qoof<br />Runner-up: Sprout<br /><br /><h2>Blog Plugins</h2><br />Winner: ShareThis<br />Runner-up: AddThis<br /><br /><h2>Social News</h2><br />Winner: Help a Reporter Out<br />Runner-up: Hubdub<br /><br /><h2>Social Networking Applications</h2><br />Winner: Aritition<br />Runner-up: Digsby<br /><br /><h2>Social Bookmarking</h2><br />Winner: Diigo<br />Runner-up: ShareThis<br /><br /><h2>Search & Social Search</h2><br />Winner: Scour<br />Runner-up: Artiklz<br /><br /><h2>Sports & Fitness</h2><br />Winner: Gyminee<br />Runner-up: FitFiend<br /><br /><h2>Photo Sharing</h2><br />Winner: ipernity<br />Runner-up: TinyPic<br /><br /><h2>Video Sharing</h2><br />Winner: ffwd<br />Runner-up: YouTube<br /><br /><h2>Start Pages</h2><br />Winner: Google<br />Runner-up: iGoogle<br /><br /><h2>Places & Events</h2><br />Winner: Doodle<br />Runner-up: Muchmor<br /><br /><h2>Travel</h2><br />Winner: SpottedByLocals<br />Runner-up: GeckoGo<br /><br /><h2>Music</h2><br />Winner: Noisetrade<br />Runner-up: Last.fm<br /><br /><h2>Social Shopping</h2><br />Winner: Pikaba<br />Runner-up: A Full Cup<br /><br /><h2>Fashion</h2><br />Winner: Coolspotters<br />Runner-up: Polyvore<br /><br /><h2>Celebrity & Gossip</h2><br />Winner: Oh No They Didn’t<br />Runner-up: BollyScoops<br /><br /><h2>Mobile Applications</h2><br />Winner: Evernote<br />Runner-up: MocoSpace<br /><br /><h2>Dating & Romance</h2><br />Winner: Zoosk<br />Runner-up: DateHookup<br /><br /><h2>Wiki</h2><br />Winner: Encyclopedia Dramatica<br />Runner-up: WikiHow<br /><br /><h2>Politics</h2><br />Winner: Politics4All<br />Runner-up: CreateDebate<br /><br /><h2>How-to</h2><br />Winner: A Full Cup<br />Runner-up: College Cram<br /><br /><h2>Environmental</h2><br />Winner: Ecomii<br />Runner-up: Gazelle<br /><br /><h2>Non-Profit Causes</h2><br />Winner: Stop Political Calls<br />Runner-up: SocialVibe<br /><br /><h2>Online Games</h2><br />Winner: Playfish<br />Runner-up: Power Pets<br /><br /><h2>Niche Social Networks</h2><br />Winner: The Star Tracker<br />Runner-up: Wadja<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-62216773501878309372008-11-21T00:06:00.000-08:002008-11-21T00:11:16.738-08:00Vote For Your Favorite Nominees - Mashable's 2nd Annual Open Web AwardsI decided to donate my blog to help support Mashable's 2nd Annual Open Web Awards. When you sign up to do something like this you don't think, eh I'm not really going to make a difference. Then I thought, if I don't do this it's like not showing up to vote 2 weeks ago. I've got a lot of colleagues and friends who are nominees this year and I'd like to think I can help support their efforts and the web community by asking my blog readers to take 2 minutes, choose a category and pick your favorite company. To make it even easier for you, here is the voting widget!<br /><br /><iframe width="210" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://mashable.polldaddy.com/widget/x2.aspx?f=f&c=&cn="></iframe> <noscript><a href="http://mashable.com/2008/11/19/openwebawards-voting-1/">Mashable Open Web Awards</a></noscript><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-26392373780899375122008-11-03T01:43:00.000-08:002009-02-07T10:34:24.239-08:00A New Digital Team is Born<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx_Heod_VNKiAgBWWePO49Al9bSk_VcFN3GJ5y1HP4IQ6fnYEHunEJRJkbtX3xJ-zAM0vfe8tTA9ZZW6lsNffqw3oQQIWRnM5YwfMDw2RRPDS7OkZLjsUAVSu0H2yK8-2MgoJK/s1600-h/do-logo2.gif"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 217px; height: 100px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx_Heod_VNKiAgBWWePO49Al9bSk_VcFN3GJ5y1HP4IQ6fnYEHunEJRJkbtX3xJ-zAM0vfe8tTA9ZZW6lsNffqw3oQQIWRnM5YwfMDw2RRPDS7OkZLjsUAVSu0H2yK8-2MgoJK/s320/do-logo2.gif" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5300124719995257154" /></a><br />So in case you haven't heard the news, SuggestionBox.com had layoffs about 1 month ago. As with the other 200,000 people that were laid off in the tech space, we all searched for our new path. Well my path has led me to partnering up with Adam Levenson, former Product Marketing Manager at SB. Working with Adam over the past year has shown to be very positive in that we complement each others skill-sets and don't mind rolling up our sleeves to get it done, whatever that may be.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitaloperative.com/images/digital-operative-logo.gif" /><br />So <span style="font-weight:bold;">Digital Operative</span> was born. You could call us a boutique digital agency focused on <a href="http://www.digitaloperative.com/services/strategy/index.html">digital strategies for marketing and technology</a>. Our focus will be helping companies engage their customers and have them participate, whether that be in an online community, guerrilla marketing campaign, social app or just improve their overall user experience on their website. We both have work experience across many areas from UI design to PHP development to SEO to Go-to-Market Planning.<br /><br />What you get when you work with us is a supercharged, agile team that can see the big picture, focus on getting the little wins and create some buzz around what you're doing. At the end of the day we're data guys, we love measuring ROI, making decisions based on analytics and having the data to support and shifts in strategy.<br /><br />So if you're a top 50 interactive agency, need <span style="font-weight:bold;">better customer engagement</span> for your website or need to drive awareness and conversions via digital marketing; go to <a href="http://www.DigitalOperative.com">www.DigitalOperative.com</a> and contact us.<br /><br />thank you for subscribing to this blog and I'll also be blogging at the <a href="http://www.digitaloperative.com/blog/"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Digital Marketing blog</span></a>.<br /><br />If you want to follow what I'm up to, check out <a href="http://twitter.com/bj">my Twitter page</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-40256163481999559282008-10-13T01:50:00.000-07:002008-10-13T01:53:39.933-07:00Startup Marketing Strategies and TacticsFor the past 12 months I've been putting all of my efforts into SuggestionBox.com and I wanted to share some of the things that worked on the marketing side that I actually got to implement. The article is posted at Gooruze.com, but I feel it offers some great examples of things you can do to ensure that you are utilizing the most of your time when <a href="http://www.gooruze.com/articles/897/Startup-Marketing-Strategies-and-Tactics/">creating marketing strategies at a startup</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-64159373935260113282008-09-22T14:53:00.000-07:002008-09-22T14:56:10.440-07:00Provide Your Feedback And Enter To Win A NetbookAndy Beal over at <a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com">MarketingPilgrim</a> launched a new contest to help improve his <a href="http://www.trackur.com/">Trackur</a> product and given people some incentive for sharing their great ideas. Simply submit a suggestion for what Trackur can improve and Andy will pick the best suggestion on Oct. 3, 2008. <a href="http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2008/09/new-contest-suggest-trackur-improvements-you-could-win-a-netbook.html">Contest details here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-77827927609115631352008-08-05T09:38:00.000-07:002008-08-05T09:52:46.045-07:00A Chance to Speak To The CommunityRecently I had the chance to sit down and have a conversation with Becky Carroll over at <a href="http://customersrock.wordpress.com/">Customers Rock! blog</a>. We were talking about how SuggestionBox.com came about and how it could help companies during the current economic downturn. In every organization each person has their own perception of how the product addresses a pain point for someone and that is refined by the ultimate vision. Focusing on the customer relationship with the company and finding ways to help make that better was my segment of our vision. Read the <a href="http://customersrock.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/rockin-customer-feedback-suggestionbox/">conversation</a>.<br /><br />Here are some interesting data points that reinforce why connecting with your customers now can help you avoid over-binging on that marketing campaign, guessing on product price points and other day-to-day thoughts you have on your way into the office.<br /><br /><ul><li>According to Nielsen Research, 49% of consumers plan on spending less due to the economic squeeze.</li><br /><li>Everyday consumer spending is taking a beating, with some 56% of 3,359 online shoppers surveyed April 29 to May 23 indicating that they are cutting back because of the weak economy and growing inflation - <a href="http://www.marketingvox.com/consumers-cut-spending-amid-inflation-go-to-web-for-deals-040234/">source</a></li><br /><li>Retail-focused ETFs taking a dive - <a href="http://www.thestreet.com/s/how-to-play-retail-as-consumers-tighten-belts/funds/etf-update/10431784.html?puc=googlefi&cm_ven=GOOGLEFI&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA">source</a></li><br /><li>Consumer spending takes toll on retailers as inflation rises - <a href="http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewarticle+articleid_2470841&title=Consumer_Spending_Takes.html">source</a></li></ul><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-9451821350153890322008-06-17T21:26:00.000-07:002008-06-17T21:49:50.597-07:00My Personal Tweet CloudSo if you don't know what Twitter is, it's a micro-blogging tool to keep people updated on what you're doing. Simpler than that ... You can post endless 140 character posts on what you're doing and people follow your activity.<br /><br />So I loaded my Tweet Cloud again to see where my textual relevance laid. Check out my cloud <a href="http://www.tweetclouds.com/user_pages/bj.html">here</a>. I'm going to break it down into categories to see if there is anything interesting at all :)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Top 5 Twitter Words:</span><br />New - 147 occurrences<br />Great - 136 occurrences<br />Twitter - 85 occurrences<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Actions:</span><br />Heading - 68 occurrences<br />Thanks - 57 occurrences<br />Going - 54 occurrences<br />Getting - 39 occurrences<br />Listening - 37 occurrences<br />Trying - 23 occurrences<br />Wonder - 23 occurrences<br />Working - 19 occurrences<br />Doing - 16 occurrences<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Topics:</span><br />Twitter - 85 occurrences<br />Time - 59 occurrences<br />San Diego - 54 occurrences<br />Blog - 49 occurrences<br />Feedback - 49 occurrences<br />Today - 48 occurrences<br />Love - 45 occurrences<br />People - 45 occurrences<br />People - 45 occurrences<br />Marketing - 44 occurrences<br />Event - 42 occurrences<br />Home - 36 occurrences<br />Office - 34 occurrences<br />2.0 - 32 occurrences<br />Team - 32 occurrences<br />Customer - 28 occurrences<br />Supernova2008 - 23 occurrences<br />SuggestionBox - 22 occurrences<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">People I Converse With The Most:</span><br />@jbrewer - 25 occurrences<br />@ConversationAge - 17 occurrences<br />@armano - 15 occurrences<br />@rebelstance - 14 occurrences<br />@funktalking - 13 occurrences<br />@andybeal - 12 occurrences<br />@jowyang - 11 occurrences<br />@stoweboyd - 9 occurrences<br />@jcrites - 9 occurrences<br />@groovybrent - 9 occurrences<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-60063042255368822132008-06-17T21:01:00.000-07:002008-06-17T21:23:10.843-07:00Conversations Around The WebToday I'm taking the time to point out some insightful blog posts that are focused around conversations, positive change in the world and action.<br /><ul><br /><li><a href="http://www.scottmonty.com/">Scott Monty</a> of Crayon leaving focus on one color, <a href="http://www.scottmonty.com/2008/06/why-im-blue.html">Blue</a>.</li><br /><br /><li>Read the <a href="http://www.crayonville.com/press/">Crayon Manifesto</a> if you call yourself a Social Media Expert ... really? I think there are visionaries, strategists, but experts? Who knows it all?</li><br /><br /><li>Follow <a href="http://twitter.com/dsearls">Doc Searls</a> if you've heard of "Markets are conversations" and the Cluetrain Manifesto.</li><br /><br /><li>If you're interested on some current news around <a href="http://swik.net/Technology-News/GigaOm/For+the+Future+of+Marketing,+Look+to+Social+Media/b7mv3">Social Media Marketing</a> read this and gain some insight into Samsung's newest campaign.</li><br /><br /><li>If you're just getting into this thing called Conversational Marketing, read Kelly's blog post about using <a href="http://www.conversationsmatter.org/2008/06/17/can-you-use-conversational-marketing-to-market-yourself/">Conversational Marketing to market yourself</a> and read the comments about some marketers' own manifestos.</li><br /></ul><br /><br />I try to update my blog as much as I can, but am currently splitting my time between my <a href="http://www.twitter.com/bj">Twitter account</a>, Gooruze account, Flickr page, new CMO role with SuggestionBox and being a devoted husband :)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-3734433739716184142008-06-10T23:19:00.000-07:002008-06-10T23:56:18.810-07:00Shift Your Giving To Razoo DonationsThis post is very timely as we're just finishing up our taxes for 2007; yes we filed an extension. One of the key areas is "donations." So I had to flip through emails from all of 2007 to find the ones that were receipts for online donations I had made to organizations that I've been supporting like <a href="http://www.americanforests.org/">American Forests</a>, <a href="http://www.eleho.org/">Eleho.org</a> and others. What if you were like me and weren't the best at keeping it all in one spreadsheet or one notebook? Enter <a href="http://www.razoo.com/"><b>Razoo Donations</b></a> ...<br /><img src="http://beta.razoo.com/images/razoo-logo.png" align="right" border="0" /><br />I was invited to test out this alpha version of their new platform for giving to your favorite organizations online. When I went to the alpha website it had these red and blue tabs at the top directing you to Giving Opportunities and keeping your total giving in plain sight; always in a way reminding you how much or little you've given. I definitely see some type of psychological tug of the heart strings within the placement of this key data point. If you're also the kind of person who needs to part with more money towards the end of the year and you need a quick release of cash, this updating data point can shed some light on how much more there is to give.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjcook/2569172125/" title="Snapshot of Homepage by BJ Cook, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3063/2569172125_dd48e4d93d_m.jpg" width="240" height="186" alt="Snapshot of Homepage" /></a><br /><br /><br />The next feature is the <b>Giving Guides</b> where <b>Razoo</b> can lead you to a bundle of organizations based on the type of cause you're looking for whether Human Rights, Microfunding and more. I really like this feature and see them leveraging this area to actually recommend organizations to you based on some type of filtering tool where you could choose NPOs (nonprofit organizations) based on geo-targeting, topic matters, similar portfolio holders or your spending patterns.<br /><br /><b>Razoo Donations</b> has also solidified its back-end by partnering with Network For Good, a popular organization database and funding network. If <b>Razoo</b> wants to truly gain my adoption, I'd recommend looking at tools like <a href="http://www.mint.com/">Mint.com</a> and <a href="http://www.mailchimp.com/">MailChimp.com</a> for their UI design and UX frameworks. Their dashboards are some of the best, their data points are truly valuable and their graphs are juicy!<br /><br />Being in the customer feedback and interaction space, I wanted to touch upon Razoo's dedication to gaining insights from alpha testers and having a mechanism for collecting that feedback. I was presented with the following SurveyMonkey URL and took it upon myself to provide Sebastian and the Razoo team with my undivided feedback.<br /><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bjcook/2569998158/" title="Long Survey Monkey Survey by BJ Cook, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3159/2569998158_3e0ed2dcc7_m.jpg" width="240" height="110" alt="Long Survey Monkey Survey" /></a><br /><br />Though I know the team and worked with them in the past, I would definitely recommend the SuggestionBox platform as a way to capture insight, BUT be able to respond to people based on individual features to build fulfillment and therefore gain a platform for re-connecting with these people down the road as their ideas get implemented. Aside from that blatant promotion, <strong>Razoo Donations</strong> can truly be an effective tool for Donators and keeping all of their giving in one place. <span style="font-style:italic;">Your donation portfolio is here.</span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-34421246564714879742008-05-28T00:50:00.000-07:002008-05-28T01:16:10.545-07:00Why a $3.50 Nonfat White Mocha with Whip Makes My MorningMost of us are creatures of habit. We wake up to the automated aroma of our Costa Rican breakfast roast, the feeling of the our dog's slober upon our brow or my soon to be wake-up call from the nursery. These are things that define our mornings; let's call this series of events micro-actions. Why micro? If you bundled up the things that you did prior to leaving the house; they are all planned and scheduled on a timeline that is strung together in order to get you to where you need to go each morning. So your major actions are:<br /><br />1. Leaving the house<br />2. Getting to work<br />3. Compiling that marketing report<br />4. Eating your lunch<br />5. Finishing the meeting<br />6. Getting home<br />7. Going to bed<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.solanabeachcoffee.com/images/sbcc_logo.gif"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px;" src="http://www.solanabeachcoffee.com/images/sbcc_logo.gif" border="0" alt="" /></a>Not to sound so mundane, but these tend to be the most common major actions within a day. Between each of these are many micro-actions. Make sense? Please let me know if this sounds crazy, but I'm going out on a theoretical limb, where most marketers shudder to think.<br /><br />If each of these micro-actions leads us to some milestone action, how can you associate this to marketing and a $3.50 Nonfat White Mocha with Whip? Here's how. Every morning I perform the following string of activities between "Leaving The House" and "Getting To Work":<br /><br />1. Place my things strategically so they don't slide around the car.<br />2. Tune my radio to my favorite radio station<br />3. Take the same route<br />4. Stop at the <a href="http://www.solanabeachcoffee.com">Solana Beach Coffee Company</a> for my Nonfat White Mocha with Whip.<br />5. I'm a regular, they know what I want. (There's an expectation and maybe because I'm in the Gen Y demographic, a Digerati, etc. or maybe not)<br /><br />This interaction each morning with this business is a crucial micro-action between a series of major actions that create the timeline for the rest of my day. If that is thrown off at all, it could create some chaos in the predictable nature of my morning. Something would need to take the place of that micro-action. Solution ...<br /><br />This morning I stop, walk in and I'm told that their espresso machines are getting maintenance and they didn't send them out in time and the holiday threw everything off. This micro-action is about to be replaced ... They then apologize and present me with a "Free Mocha" card :) Now you can guarantee they understand the value of my loyalty and meeting my expectations. What they don't quite see right off the bat is the "<span style="font-style:italic;"><strong>micro-action marketing</strong></span>" they are performing by giving me the free mocha card. You could call this blog post <span style="font-style:italic;">Word of Mouth marketing</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Conversational Marketing</span>, but in the scheme of my whole day, they kept my timeline in tack and in fact exceeded my expectations as a small business.<br /><br />So is micro-action marketing something of value? Yes and no. Yes, be aware of how customers currently experience your product, service, event or location. Plan ahead for their expectations and you've achieved successful <strong>micro-action marketing</strong> that ignites <b>word of mouth marketing</b> and the feedback loop that most businesses are currently trying to be a part of.<br /><br />Thanks Solana Beach Coffee Company for my free mocha ;)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-53173250510420987252008-05-12T23:23:00.000-07:002008-05-12T23:48:02.491-07:00Customer Feedback Gets Interactive<a href="http://www.suggestionbox.com" title="SuggestionBox.com"><img src="http://media.suggestionbox.com/img/sbox/layout/sbox-buttons/sbox-pinbadge.png" align="right" border="0" alt="Experience SuggestionBox.com"/></a>Aside from covering <span style="font-weight:bold;">conversational marketing tactics</span> by other companies, I to have a day job like most of you. From 9 to 6pm or sometimes 7 or 8, I'm the Chief Marketing Officer of a new technology startup in Solana Beach, CA called Positive Digital Solutions. We're setting out to create some innovative platforms for changing the way companies and customers engage each other as well as some other areas for which I can't discuss yet. So for anyone part of a startup, you know the environment ... everything is a priority and there never seems to be enough time to tweak that last piece of code, move that pixel 5 more centimeters or brainstorm new copy for the homepage; then Techcrunch calls you and says they want to write you up. Everything pauses like time stood still and you take a deep breath and hope you're ready for the traffic.<br /><br />Launching <a href="http://www.suggestionbox.com/">SuggestionBox.com</a> has been a great experience in understanding what the user truly want AND the best part is ... now they have a place to leave us all of their feedback, suggestions and ideas, in one place. Outside of being a blatant "toot our own horn", I'm going to give the straight forward why SuggestionBox is good for your business. Yes we don't have an API yet, yes people have to sign up, yes you need the email of the company in order to contact them, BUT there's a lot of great features for those Small to Medium-sized businesses that want to get a feedback mechanism setup in a matter of minutes.<br /><br />SuggestionBox is trying to fill the gaping void of <span style="font-weight:bold;">"customer fulfillment</span>" that exists from the online to offline channel. You submit feedback to any big website or put a comment card in a wooden box on the wall, what happens..? Usually nothing. You don't know who got it, if they are going to respond and if it ever gets implemented. This is the core of SuggestionBox.com. You submit an idea or suggestion to a company, they post it to the public and update the status. You receive a notification in your dashboard that it's been updated from New to <span style="font-style:italic;">Under Review</span>, <span style="font-style:italic;">Under Review</span> to <span style="font-style:italic;">Pending Implementation</span> and so on. Finally, you're getting something in return! And that's why you sign up. Every company you wanted to submit suggestions to is in one place. What do you do when you want to pay for something online? Do pull your credit card out everytime or is PayPal an option; simply login and click pay. We know SuggestionBox.com isn't the standard yet, BUT we're positioning it to be something as simple as the name for SMB, Enterprise, Fortune 1000 to 50, etc.<br /><br />For the marketers out there and being one I know, think about reaching out to your customers and letting them you're listening, willing to "<span style="font-weight:bold;">engage</span>" them and then having the ability to re-connect months from when they submit ideas letting them know you've implemented their suggestion. If you know anything about lifetime value, then you can see the value in re-connecting with customers instead of missing an opportunity and losing them to a competitor. If you're not putting the time in with them; you can bet your competitors are.<br /><br />What about if you're in HR and you're trying to figure out why your front line employees aren't performing or aren't loving their job? You assign employees to various customizable categories. As you categorize incoming suggestions, these employees receive the idea and then can respond to customers directly or leverage the internal scoreboard to weigh in on the Pros and Cons of the idea. Employee Empowerment? Pretty sweet.<br /><br />Go check out <a href="http://www.suggestionbox.com/">www.SuggestionBox.com</a> and try it out. Leave your feedback in the suggestionbox.suggestionbox.com account and if you don't I'll run into you at the many events we'll be attending.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-65720853078463000462008-05-08T00:16:00.000-07:002008-05-08T00:35:46.523-07:00Work Out Season 3 - SkyLab's Lisa Quick Wit Gets Her NowhereSo I fell asleep last night at the end of Work Out, but luckily we have DVR! As soon as I walked in the door today, she started on with, "Did you hear what the new manager said about a cancer survivor on Work Out last night?" (pause)<br /><br />As we are both avid watchers of the show because it's reality tv plagued with drama; this is how a conversation was created between two viewers. Earth to Bravo and Work Out , are you listening? Because we all are!<br /><br />I won't go into the details, but comments were made about the breasts of a "client" who was training with Brian Peeler. These unprofessional comments were made by Lisa, the new manager. Bravo edited out any comments by Jackie Warner and the confrontation with the client's boyfriend who overheard all of the comments and confronted Jackie and Lisa. Why were they edited out? What was said? So <a href="http://www.bravotv.com/Work_Out/season/3/blogs/index.php?blog=lisa_skyles&article=2008/05/lisa_304_images">Lisa blogs on Bravo's website here</a> and attempts to cut off the evident onslaught of hate mail and comments by trying to be witty and posting a blog titled, "Open Your Eyes and Shut Your Mouth." Now seriously, maybe Bravo could hook Lisa up with a PR person, Communications Director or even a Marketing Assistant to give her some tips on how to blog and how to start a conversation that includes an apology.<br /><br />IF anyone would like to continue the conversation or educate Skylab's new manager on etiquette, here is their contact information:<br /><br />Sky Sport Spa & SkyLab<br />8500 Wilshire Boulevard<br />Beverly Hills, CA 90211<br /><br />Tele: 310.652.7721<br />Fax: 310.652.2616<br /><br />info@skysportspa.com<br /><br />Hours of Operation:<br />6:00am - 9:00pm, Monday thru Saturday (Sunday Closed)<br />BY APPOINTMENT ONLY<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-55128417859910016012008-05-07T23:57:00.000-07:002008-05-08T00:16:22.747-07:00How Throwing Out Your Private Documents Into The Dumpster Is Like The Current State Of The InernetI know I usually cover Conversational Marketing and how companies are creating value-added conversations with their customers, but one of my great ideas was brought to the forefront when I read <a href="http://www.davidwhitney.co.uk/content/blog/index.php/2008/05/06/stop-holding-my-data-hostage-data-ownership-and-web-30/">David Whitney's post</a> on web 3.0 and an Open Identity Platform. Everyday we search for the next web app that can bring some more efficiency into our lives; something that both combines multiple features into one interface and makes some mundane process entertaining at the same time. Why? At the end of the day, we're all trying to save time doing the mundane stuff so we have more for the fun stuff. You take your 9-5 and add in going to the gym, walking the dog, going grocery shopping, spending time with the kids, watching the game, competing in sports, playing an instrument and so on; you get a full packed day. So what if you could go to the gym, watch the game on your iPod and spend time with the kids? Sounds nice right? Figuring out how to maximize time is everyone's goal.<br /><br />How does this relate to throwing your private documents into the dumpster?<br /><br />Just like throwing out documentation containing personal information, we all upload photos, post videos, blog about our work, connect with new friends, IM, email and some micro-blog. All of this information is available to EVERYONE. Just a reminder. And all of this personal information needs to be added whenever we signup for some new website. We grow tired of having to do the mundane like upload more photos, add more friends, track various news, type in more personal information and so on. Why can't I just have one profile that is portable? Let me store all my info with one provider or in my own server like Whitney states and then I'll tell you when information you can have access to. I"m tired of spewing the same information into the dumpsters of the web and not remembering which ones I put my information into and which I didn't.<br /><br />Like any smart entrepreneur, I've got an idea along with a fellow entrepreneur. Stay posted, a solution is coming.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6039972.post-80788657220790070672008-04-07T23:09:00.000-07:002008-04-07T23:27:22.533-07:00Late Night Links For The OwlsSo it's 11pm PST and I'm not usually on Twitter and other sites, but they are churning tonight and I wanted to share some of the things that conversations are being created around:<br /><ol><br /><li><a href="http://www.jordankasteler.com/utah-seo-pro-blog/ultimate-social-media/">Ultimate Social Media Resources List</a> - great list Jordan</li><br /><li><a href="http://www.gooruze.com/news/118712/Google-to-Allow-Bidding-On-Keyword-Trademarks-in-UK/">Google allows trademark bidding in the UK</a> - thanks Gooruze news item</li><br /><li>Could <a href="http://www.gooruze.com/news/118602/PayPerTweet-actually-makes-a-lot-of-sense/">PayPerTweet</a> be a viable business model? - source: Gooruze.com</li><br /><li><a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/techcrunch_v_demo_smackdown_calacanis_blasts_idg_offers_chris_shipley_a_job">Techcrunch50 vs. DEMO</a> - Who will survive?</li><br /><li><span style="font-weight:bold;">Survey Industry Doomed!</span> - $27B in Survey Industry and 30% of surveys are bogus</li><br /><li><a href="http://www.audettemedia.com/blog/link-building-fundamentals">Link Building Fundamentals</a> - great starter list, filter through the stuff you can skip</li><br /><li><a href="http://www.sdwebstandards.org/">San Diego Web Standards Group</a> Launches</li><br /><li><a href="http://www.crazybob.org/twubble/">Twubble</a> - Do you know who you should be following on Twitter?</li><br /></ol><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p><a href="http://www.feedburner.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.feedburner.com/fb/images/pub/powered_by_fb.gif" alt="Powered by FeedBurner" style="border:0"/></a></p></div>authorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00735218665484857798noreply@blogger.com1