In the meantime, take a peek at some of the fantastic individuals who contributed to the book. I'm honored, and maybe a little embarrassed, to be in their company.
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3.23.2010
Age of Conversation 3-- COMING SOON!
Last fall, I wrote a short piece for the upcoming book, Age of Conversation 3. I'm joined by a plethora of industry folks that I greatly admire, and I'm so very much looking forward to seeing the full book! While the print date isn't 100% nailed down, it looks to be slated for mid-April and I highly suggest you consider picking up a copy. It will also be available as an e-book for you savvy cats out there.
3.15.2010
The Soda Wars: Pepsi's Refresh Everything vs. Coke's Live Positively
I was thrilled to see my work highlighted on the Huffington Post Impact page in February and only just remembered to share it with you all as well. Many thanks to HuffPo Impact and the good folks over at Agency Spy, who also picked up the story. I've made a habit lately of posting some of my work that I write for other groups here on Conversation A, and though I'm sorry that I often have to link you away to another site, I hope you understand I have to do my due diligence to my wonderful, talented editors at Causecast, Huffington Post, and Social Media Marketing. Anyhow, without further ado...
For years, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have been at odds in the beverage category, pushing each other forward in the race for market share, innovation, and advertising impressions. Though amicable, there has never been any doubt that they were competing for the preference and consumption of the same audience. As a result, their actions have often been compared, and their recent mirrored campaigns of social responsibility have introduced another opportunity to draw comparisons.
These campaigns mark what may be a seismic shift in corporate responsibility. While grassroots initiatives have fought tooth and nail to enact change, Pepsi and Coca-Cola's new campaigns exhibit the bold leadership that is necessary to change the way companies look at their role within the greater global community. However, it is hard to believe that these initiatives would be totally selfless, and many are wondering what these companies stand to gain from their efforts. Are these efforts integral to the brands, or a tactic for press? A sign of the modern corporation, or just two companies capitalizing on a trend? Let's take a closer look.
Please do go read the rest on Huffington Post.
Selling the Medium to Sell the Idea: How to Pitch an Idea in an Age of Rapid Tech Growth (for beginners)
The advertising and marketing industries run at a very fast pace, but even they can have a hard time keeping up technology. It’s rare that an ad agency gets the chance to present a tech-based idea to a client when it’s still in it’s early adoption phase and has a chance to blow up with the platform, and it’s even rarer that they are able to sell the idea. The truth is, simplicity is a rare commodity in the technological age, but it is crucial to save your idea from being killed in the boardroom.
As technology evolves and the opportunities grow, the job of selling your tech-based ideas will grow even more difficult; if something sounds complicated, it doesn’t sound good. Even if the idea is great, it is hard to sell the idea when you also have to sell the technology or the medium, so take a look at a few tips to help you bring your social media and technology-based ideas to life.
Y'all know the drill...read the tips on the Social Media Marketing blog.
Social Media is Not a Strategy
One of the first things I ever learned in marketing was that “cool” in and of itself is not a strategy. Sure, it might turn a few heads. But will they remember what it said about your brand? Will they remember your brand at all? Unfortunately, “cool” rarely works when it comes to translating advertising into sales. Neither does “technology;” I remember the first augmented reality demonstration I saw, but I can’t tell you what the product category was, much less the brand. Similarly, “social media” is not a strategy.
Don’t misunderstand me. Social media integration is something many businesses ought to be considering as a potentially prominent part of their larger marketing plan, but it is so easy to think that being on social networks is the strategy itself. Unfortunately, it’s a much bigger picture. Social media is the means to the end, the channel for your message, so it’s important to consider what you want to say before taking the leap.
As always, my full article can be found on the Social Media Marketing blog. I promise I'll spend some time writing something just for YOU, my loyal readers, soon.
Betting on Chat Roulette
At any given time, you can expect to find over 20,000 people on Chat Roulette, the new one-on-one video, audio, and text chat service. After a slow launch with only 200-300 users at any given time as recently as late December, Chat Roulette has exploded as the newest way to explore and connect. Based off the same principle as text-only Amiga, Chat Roulette pairs strangers in real time from across the world to chat via web cam. The motivations are varied—to practice English, find musicians to jam with, to meet girls, to live out a persona—but the service is still in the free-for-all early stage. Garnering massive attention through blogs of screen shots and the occasional story of running into the Jonas Brothers, Chat Roulette is still forming as a new social medium.
Still in its infancy, Chat Roulette certainly doesn’t have much structure, but as with most new technologies and services, key community players can help guide the service into what it will become. Luckily, marketers have a chance to carry this torch, much as Twitter has been defined in part by accounts like ComcastCares and Zappos. By building a valuable presence and helping demonstrate the opportunities and faculties of Twitter, these marketers actually helped blaze the trail and create some of the mores of the community. Chat Roulette, though chaotic at the best of times, listless (or naked) at the worst, offers a new platform for advertisers to help create a community aligned to their offerings.
Read the rest of my article at the Social Media Marketing blog.
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