Fuel For Thought

Connected?

2009-03-18T17:10:00.003-04:00

These two articles from Brandweek struck me as completely connected as a lot of marketers try to wrap their heads around Social Media ROI:

Why Advertisers See Social Media as Experimental

and

Top of Mind: The Most Stubborn Web Ad Metric

US Advertising Spending By Media 2006 to 2010

2008-12-05T14:21:00.000-05:00

This chart says it all.

Blogs I Like - October 7, 2008

2008-10-07T20:22:00.005-04:00

Bokardo is the blog of Joshua Porter, a web designer/developer, researcher, and writer who lives in Newburyport, MA, USA.

Joshua states that social design is design that focuses on the social lives of users. It deals with the activities, behaviors, and motivations of people who work and play together through software interfaces. It is built on the observation that many of the decisions we make are greatly affected by those we surround ourselves with in our social lives: our family, friends, and colleagues. Exploring our motivations and how to design interfaces to support them is what the Bokardo blog is all about.

The Web is a Paridigm of Streams: Blogs I Love

2008-09-09T20:38:00.003-04:00

Over at Socialized, Alisa Leonard-Hansen offers up some great insights on the user-centric nature of the current web as aggregated and distributed personal streams.

POST as a guide for Emerging Media marketing investment

2008-09-09T19:00:00.003-04:00

From Forrester, via MediaPost:

An understanding of the target market will determine the correct strategy to reach consumers with emerging media and accompanying technologies:

P = people: Who are the target customers and how do they engage with emerging media?

O = objectives: What are the brand's marketing goals?

S = strategy: How to accomplish marketing goals and how will emerging media change the brand's customer relationships?

T = technology: What new tools best fit customers, goals, and strategy?

Google Grants Redux

2008-09-03T19:33:00.003-04:00

This is not breaking news, but it came up today, and if you are a non profit marketer, Google Grants is a unique in-kind advertising program. It harnesses the power of Google AdWords, to non-profits seeking to inform and engage their constituents online. Google Grants has awarded AdWords advertising to hundreds of non-profit groups whose missions range from animal welfare to literacy, from supporting homeless children to promoting HIV education.

Blogs I Like - August 15. 2008

2008-08-14T20:16:00.002-04:00

On The Buzzard, my Massachusetts homefry friend John Gorman illuminates the glory days of WMMS.

Blogs I Like - August 5, 2008

2008-08-05T19:36:00.002-04:00

WebTVWire discusses the business of internet TV and video covering topics such as:

Web video technology/software,
Web TV/video companies and websites,
Consumer electronics,
Market trends and research.

Seven Lessons From The Content Marketing Revolution

2008-07-15T19:03:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Media Brains, here are seven key points for effective content marketing:

1. Only content that is intrinsically valuable to your customers will work as a core component of your content marketing strategy.

2. You must have a thorough understanding of your customers and what is most important to them. If you do not understand the problems and challenges they face, you cannot hope to create content that is truly relevant to them. Without understanding their problems, you cannot provide solutions.

3. A comprehensive content marketing strategy may provide a complete or partial replacement of traditional advertising and marketing. Such a strategy can be both more effective and less expensive than doing things the old-fashioned way.

4. Print magazines can be a powerful weapon within your content marketing arsenal. They enable you to reach out with precision to your customers with carefully targeted messaging that is totally under your control.

5. Your best content marketing investment may be in the creation of a dedicated internal or external team who understand how to produce great content and who live and die by the success of your content marketing program.

6. Relevant and valuable content is just the first step in turning a prospect or visitor into a customer. You must then make it easy for them to buy.

7. Most of the best practices from the larger companies profiled in the book can be emulated in whole or in part even by very small organizations. It's not the money. It's the content marketing mindset that counts. Big ideas can trump big bucks

Gaining Market Intelligence From Social Media

2008-07-12T09:00:00.002-04:00

Here is a good how-to starter primer from Marketing Vox via The Art of Strategic Listening by Robert Berkman.

Great Question On Brands, Agencies and Social Media

2008-06-24T20:25:00.001-04:00

Via Joe Marchese at Media Post:

One conversation after another at OMMA Social focused on the fact that social media offered the opportunity not only to achieve media reach, but to refine product, perform research and address customer service. Yet no could describe an organizational structure between agencies and brands that would allow the type of collaboration across research, product, customer service and media to best reap the results of successful social media campaigns -- forget about sharing the expense and resources required to execute the campaign. If social media is going to be the future for brands reaching people, how will the agencies or the brands adjust to allow for the cross-divisional benefits?

Social Media in Plain English

2008-06-10T19:24:00.001-04:00

Thanks to leelefever at Vimeo, here is a simple story that illustrates the forces shaping social media.

Great Thoughts On Building A Mobile Ad Strategy

2008-05-29T19:53:00.002-04:00

Thanks To AdTech, here is a great article from Jonathon Linner. His advice? Keep it Valuable, Relevant, Simple & Honest.

Blogs I Like - May 2008

2008-05-06T20:17:00.001-04:00

On Socialized, Alisa Leonard muses on The Current Iteration Of The Internet

The Top 10 Renewable Tech Gadgets

2008-05-05T20:42:00.002-04:00

Thanks to Michelle Bennett at Clean Technica, here is a great green gadget list.

The Many Ways We Tweet

2008-04-03T19:42:00.004-04:00

Thanks to Read Write Web, here are the top 20 ways we tweet:

1. Web
2. IM
3. Twhirl
4. Twitterrific
5. TXT
6. Twit
7. TwitterFox
8. movatwitter
9. P3:PeraPeraPrv
10. Netvibes
11. TwitBin
12. Twitter Tools
13. TwitterPod
14. TwitterIrcGateway
15. Snitter
16. BeTwittered
17. Tweetr
18. NatsuLion
19. Facebook
20. PocketTweets

MyStarbucksIdea.com...Bad Idea, Good Idea or What?

2008-03-26T19:12:00.005-04:00

Interesting argument brewing over at the Media Post Social Media Insider blog. Is the site a social-networking space, an online community, a boring virtual suggestion box or a brilliant marketing and product development concept?

Think Different: Maybe the Web's Not a Place to Stick Your Ads

2008-03-18T20:27:00.002-04:00

Fascinating article here from Matthew Creamer at Adweek on whether marketers might be all missing the point when it comes to the Internet...fits with our thinking...you are your own medium...so lets build it.

Google Will Not Become An Advertising Agency

2008-03-06T20:11:00.002-05:00

Thank you Google. And, thank you for releasing the cross channel data. We would love to work together to turn our clients assets on at all times for consumers.

The Cleveland Botanical Garden Is Blogging

2008-02-13T19:36:00.002-05:00

We just launched The Garden Variety blog for The Cleveland Botanical Garden. Check it out, interact with the experts, and do not forget to experience Orchid Mania.

Social Networking Slows Down?

2008-02-06T20:48:00.000-05:00

While MySpace still has crazy good numbers...68.9 million unique visitors spending 179 minutes per visitor in December 2007, Creative Capital notes the 24 percent drop in engagement metrics from December 2006.

Thanks to Adam Zuccaro for the heads up on this trend...or reaction to the commercialization of networks?

The Top 10 Social Networking Sites

2008-01-30T19:56:00.000-05:00

Thanks to PR News Online via Nielsen Online, Here are the top 10 social networking sites ranked by unique audience for December 2007:

1. MySpace.com
2. FaceBook
3. Classmates Online
4. Windows Live Spaces
5. AOL Hometown
6. Club Penguin
7. LinkedIn
8. Reunion.com
9. AOL Community
10. Flixster

The Writers Strike Is Driving TV Viewers Online

2008-01-23T20:15:00.000-05:00

According to Adweek, new research from MindShare concludes that the Hollywood writers' strike, which began in November, is beginning to take a serious toll on TV viewing behavior.

Almost half of those surveyed in the poll said they were spending more time online as a result of the repeat programming they have encountered due to the strike.

As if we needed a reason...

IdeaCrossing In The Wall Street Journal Again

2008-01-21T19:13:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal continues to recognize IdeaCrossing, this time in this article about online opportunities for entrepreneurs to connect and match with mentors.

Optiem Launches New Kelvin Smith Library Website For Case Western Reserve University

2008-01-09T19:54:00.000-05:00

This week saw the launch of the new Kelvin Smith Library website. A solid strategic foundation, intuitive architecture, elegant design and lots of great integration work have resulted in a university library website that we believe sets a new gold standard in this space.

Kelvin Smith Library (KSL) is the main library supporting the teaching and research of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, with emphasis given to the College of Arts and Sciences, the Case School of Engineering and the Weatherhead School of Management. The University Archives (located in the Bioenterprise Building), Kulas Music Library (located in Haydn Hall) and the Astronomy Library (located in Sears Building) are part of Kelvin Smith Library. KSL librarians and staff work with the libraries of the professional schools, the Cleveland Health Sciences Library, the Judge Ben C. Green Law Library, and the Harris Library of the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, to coordinate policies and collections. KSL also provides technology services such as the online public catalog and circulation systems to the other campus libraries, as well as to our affiliate libraries, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Art and the Siegal College of Judaic Studies.

The Kelvin Smith Library mission is to strive for excellence and embrace opportunity. As an innovative partner in the pursuit of academic excellence and a leader in providing dynamic information services, Kelvin Smith Library provides physical places that welcome and contribute to research and learning; works in partnership with members of the university community; acquires, manages, presents, provides access and preserves information resources that support research, scholarship, artistic endeavors, and learning; and educates the university community in the effective use of library/information resources and services.