dotShout | Digital Marketing News and Views

How AdMob Brings Google Important Competitive Intelligence

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:38:14 -0500

With the acquisition of AdMob, Google now has access to usage data of many of the most popular mobile apps -- especially the apps in the iTunes App Store.

A New Silicon Valley Rule? All Great Internet Companies Build an Ad Network

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:20:14 -0500

In Silicon Valley, there's an old adage that says all great internet companies eventually build an email service. Nearly every major player from Google to Comcast, Facebook to MySpace, Yelp to LinkedIn, has some form of user-to-user email within their site or application. Today, I propose a new maxim -- all great internet companies eventually build...

Cautions on the Chamber of Fun

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:37:34 -0500

Among the echoes of pundits extolling the virtues of synchronizing your LinkedIn and Twitter status updates, PCWorld includes a noteworthy clause in the second paragraph: Twitter integration with LinkedIn makes sense, but don’t forget these two services are very different from each other. Twitter is a very casual and fun network with its short burst...

Army Strong Stories

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:03:20 -0500

When I went out to Blogworld Expo , one of the coolest things I got to hear about is what the US Army is doing with their new site Army Strong Stories. As soon as I heard about it I knew I was impressed and wanted to get them on the phone to talk abut

Two New Yahoo Pipes Classes in December

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:31:11 -0500

I will be teaching 2 new Yahoo Pipes classes in December in partnership with the Oregon Training Network. I found that the Monitoring Conversations course was a little too intense with too much information crammed into 2.5 hours, especially for people who are new to Yahoo Pipes. It is a bit overwhelming to go from

Skip1 and Simple Cause Giving

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:02:30 -0500

If you want to see a simple cause effort execution, check out Skip1.org. The mission is simple: skip something and donate the money to the cause instead. So, forget that $35.00 lunch downtown and send it to feed an entire village. Easy, right? The site, Skip1.org is set up to allow people to build

ArtDirectorsClubNewLogo

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:50:17 -0500

If you don't mind, I would like to quote a wonderful design book: "As illustrators like Norman Rockwell were blurring the lines between fine art and advertising art during the 1920s, the Art Directors Club (ADC), initiated by Louis Pedlar in 1920, brought together a group of layout artists, managers of art departments, and art buyers to explore the role...

The Last Campaign: How Experiences Are Becoming the New Advertising

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:50:49 -0500

But perhaps it's not that advertising is failing but that brand experiences (both on and offline) are really what are capturing the imagination of today's consumer. We have found digital brand experiences are having an inordinate sway on consumer purchasing habits and brand affinity.

Google Dashboard Changes Our Thinking About Privacy

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:40:10 -0500

What does privacy look like in a digital world? And is it out of touch with our expectations? Judy Shapiro looks to history.

Ted Mininni: 'Simple' Sells

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:28:00 -0500

According to a recent article in USA Today, “simple” will mean to consumers in 2010 what “cheap” means in 2009. In fact, the move to simplify is already underway, because “Simple is better,” as stated in the first line of the article: “Marketers such as Starbucks discover that simple sells.”The gist:...

Suzanne Lowe: Discover Your Firm’s Marketing Barriers

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:24:00 -0500

To compete effectively, professional firms need to ensure that marketing and sales are integrated into every function. But there are two big barriers getting in their way: how firms are structured and their existing culture, including the way they define the scope of marketing and sales. Figuring out what the barriers are is the obvious first step. Do you...

What Purple Rain Can Teach You About Effective Online Marketing

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:18:51 -0500

Ever had an idea that couldn’t miss? You took immediate action, created the perfect warm-up content, the best launch strategy, and the perfect offer . . . . And then it totally failed. So yeah, the film Purple Rain contains the consummate lesson on this one. No, really. The Lesson of Lake Minnetonka Upon mature reflection, the album Purple Rain is a...

Evolution: The Eight Stages Of Listening

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:02:00 -0500

As Social Customers Become More Empowered, Organizations Must Have A Listening Strategy As we approach 2010 planning companies need a strategy around listening. Sadly, most companies, and their agency partners don’t know why to listen or how. As a result, they must identify which stage of listening they are at, and then set a

The Rapid Evolution of Search

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:57:19 -0500

Source Over the past several weeks, leaders in the searchÂ industry launched an aggressive, veryÂ public series of campaigns designed to capture the elusive future of search mind and market share. TheÂ accelerated evolution of “real-time” search, introduced to us mostly through the adoption of Summize, which was eventually acquired to now...

5 Simple Tips for Creating a Content Culture at Your Company

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:30:00 -0500

Creating great content isn't easy. If you're a business blog author or thinking about starting a blog, there has probably been a point when you struggled with your content creation strategy and implementation.Â It's okay to struggle with writing (everyone does), but don't let it keep you from sharing your content with the world. If you want to get your...

Implementing a B2B Content Strategy: Consider How

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500

Â "You don't start at the top if you want to find the story. You start in the middle, because it's the people in the middle who do the actual work in the world," writes Gladwell in the preface to What the Dog Saw. Businesses are made of people, many of them in the middle. While everyone loves to talk to the C-level, the shift in the way people at all...

Introducing an Online Budgeting Tool

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:10:04 -0500

As we struggle to make ends meet in tough economic times, there are many well-written blogs that focus on personal development and budgeting. If you identify yourself needing this help, do read on… Recommended sites on living frugally and being successful include advice by Steve Pavlina, Erica Douglass, and Lynnae McCoy. Echoing my suggestions 12...

The why imperative

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:42:00 -0500

Successful organizations spend a lot of time saying, "that's not what we do."It's a requirement, because if you do everything, in every way, you're sunk. You got to where you are by standing for something, by approaching markets and situations in a certain way. Sure, Nike could make money in the short run by licensing their name to a line of wines and...

6 Ways To Build A Strong Community

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:08:03 -0500

"What am I doing wrong?" is often the question many people who are just starting out in online social networks and Social Media (Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc...) ask. It's a fair question, but then again, it's not a fair question because there are no real rules for success. That being said, there are some good guidelines. Here are 6 things you can do...

Link Building Has Changed

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:26:12 -0500

Posted by randfishWhen I first started in SEO, link acquisition was almost always a manual process. I'd search the engines for links that pointed to the competition, find relevant directories and link lists, email relevant sites and beg, borrow or bribe (aka buy advertising)Â to get a link. I tried reciprocal link building (and did some pretty dumb...

25 Outstanding Lighting Effect Tutorials for Photoshop

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:25:03 -0500

Lighting effects are a great way to make an impact with a design, and there are plenty of options for creating these effects with Photoshop. In the past we have published collections of Photoshop tutorials for lighting effects and they drawn a lot of interest from readers, so here is a collection of newer tutorials. For more, see: 40 Photoshop Tutorials...