Monday, March 26, 2007

Word of Mouth or Twitter

I was at a publicity club event tonight on Word of Mouth marketing. One of the panelist was talking about how buzz was spread in both traditional and online. He was making a case that the lines between online and traditional buzz were being blurred and it has become harder to define any campaign as one or the other. The example he used to illustrate his point was about an article that he had read in the paper. After reading the article, he got online and talked about the article on his blog. The blog created a buzz and someone who read his blog went home and told their partner about the article. At the end of this story the woman in front of me who had a British accent turned to me and said...

"That's really integrated".
That's why I wrote it down and posted it tonight.

Other highlights from the night:
My first Twitter from my cell phone!
The lines are blurring.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Integrated or Mashup

Definition: Mashup

The mainstream media doesn't understand what a Mashup is. You should. It's not a 'lift' or a 'copy' or even a parody. A mashup is a distinct way of spreading ideas.

When a DJ takes two records and melds and mixes them into something new, that's a mashup. When an Obama supporter takes a twenty year old commercial and splices it with some campaign footage, that's a mashup too. Online services can be mashups as well, like the Google search box on the bottom of this page.

Expect to see tens of thousands more, on every conceivable topic.

Posted by Seth Godin on March 21, 2007

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Integrated Timing

I was thinking during my jaunt on the treadmill at my local Bally's about how my life had changed. I have just started a new job and I decided to get back in shape. These two tasks seem to take up most of all of my day. I think the only other thing that I have managed to pack in is writing one post to my blog. That has even been tough, as it is 12:07am and I am just getting started.

So back to my thought.

A day, just like an integrated marketing plan can't have to much packed into it. It's easy to try and over stuff an integrated marketing plan with lots of advertising, full pr and media tours, top of the line design collateral and lots of social media. There are so many options and so many communications tools. Sometimes doing everything is not realistic and it will probably never happen. Just like my day, time and resources are always scarce. When I look around my apartment at all the things that I have avoided by being so busy, like my sink full of dishes. I realize that we all have a lot of options and we just need to pick the perfect blend. Some days we are better at it than others.

Good night blog.

Good night dishes.

Tomorrow is another day of planning.

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

I'm a Survey Monkey

With the success of cheap web survey tools like Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com) and Zoomerang (zoomerang.com) research is starting to seem like an obtainable goal for even the cheapest budget. A few years ago it seemed like wanting to conduct research for any marketing or advertising project was completely out of the question. I remember pleading with clients that if we just did some upfront research our integrated marketing campaigns would be one hundred times better. So now I have the tools and its time to see if I was right. I'm two Zoomerang surveys in and I'm excited to finish my integrated plans to see if it really paid off. I'll keep you posted! But in the meantime if you're going to start a survey, check out this small article from MarketingProf.

Twelve Tips for Conducting Effective Surveys
by Brian Henderson
March 20, 2007

We've all been on the receiving end of far too many poorly constructed surveys that required too much time and energy simply to share our thoughts.

Recently, my favorite local brewery failed to retain my interest during its 20-page saga of a survey. Even though the subject was interesting (beer), I lost my interest when I realized my time was not being taken into consideration.

Here's a top twelve list of how to conduct surveys without losing contact with your customer.

1. Define the survey's purpose

Figure out exactly what you want your customers to tell you. For instance, you may want to find out whether they are satisfied with your service. So ask them. Do not gather any extra data if you aren't sure exactly what you are going to do with the results.

2. Keep it short and sweet

It shouldn't take a respondent more than 10 minutes to complete a questionnaire. Make it five or even two minutes or less, if you can manage. Also, keep survey respondents in the loop along the way by telling them up front how long the survey might take, including a progress bar and, maybe, even naming the survey something relative to how long it will take.

For the rest of the Top Ten click here:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/print.asp?source=%2F7%2Ftips%2Dfor%2Dusing%2Dsurvey%2Dsoftware%2Dhenderson%2Easp

Monday, March 19, 2007

Community Design

I have been working with a company in the last four or five months to rebuild their business, integrated marketing and branding plan. They are trying to re-build an online community and I think we have finally landed on a very solid plan. The only problem is now they all want to work on the design of the site. One wants the site to look one way and the others want it to look another. After a lot of in fighting, I finally told them that they were missing the point. The people/community should be the ones who decide what the site looks like and acts like. I almost couldn't believe it when I said it. This coming from the lips of a Graphic Designer? But, things have changed and this article talks a little about that swirling changes happening on the web.

Enjoy!

That Craigslist has succeeded with a minimalist design is no secret to anyone who’s been around the net for a while. But could Craigslist have done as well if it had a slick, flashy design? Even if you discount practical issues such as load time and usability, the answer is an emphatic no.

The entire concept of “design” runs counter to the idea of community. Well, that’s not entirely true. Literally, design takes many forms - such as usability, universality, and affordance. All of these are important in any creative endeavor. What I’m talking about is — you know, Design — the kind of stuff that evokes such adjectives as “bold”, “edgy”, and “daring”.

Design tells users “this is who we are”, “this is what we believe in”, “this is how we want you to feel about being here” — all valuable messages for web sites looking to sell a product or an idea. But a true community should be deciding these things for themselves.

Read the Rest of the article at http://www.hhcc.com/?p=361