After having a conversation with a brand marketing manager this weekend about how she and the other marketing managers at her company interact on campaigns I’ve come to the following conclusion: “Integrated Marketing is like Communism. It sounds great on paper, but doesn’t work in reality.” (Update: Unless you you are JoinRed.com)
The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:
- Putting the Fun in Functional - Using Game Mechanics for Social Software – An excellent presentation on how successful social media sites like MySpace are like a game (via: Web Strategy by Jeremiah):
- Collecting: Impressive collections = bragging Rights
- Points: Redeemable points drives Loyalty & Social Points expree svalues of the “game”
- Feedback: Draws attention through movement & change and accelerates mastery
- Exchanges: Are structured social interactions
- Customization: Increases Investment and creates barriers to exit
- 6 Minds on Why Blogging Matters: Including - Peter Blackshaw of Consumer Generated Media: “Advocates for Blogs, myself included, talk a mean and persuasive game of customer intimacy, community, engagement and so-called “participation.” The problem is that that vision is often at extreme odds with the company or brand’s existing listening infrastructure: consumer affairs (call center, feedback forms, online surveys).” Eric Kintz of Marketing Excellence: “Marketers have become fixated on big influencers in the second part of the twentieth century: national newspapers, broadcast TV networks and star radio personalities. Now the pendulum is swinging back and marketers should start paying attention to Bloggers-influencers. Marketers will need to identify first the new key Blogger-influencers in their space… and treat them more and more like some of the other influencing constituencies such as analysts or journalists.” Also included are: Dan Greenfield of Bernaisesource, Will Waugh of Marketing Maestros, David Churbuck of Churbuck and David Armano of Logic + Emotion
- Advertising & Social networks: Bakespace, Classmates and Dates, oh my. Finally an article that explains the different advertising options in social networks (without me having to search). See also: The Score: Social Networking Sites
- Viral Seeding of Video Clips Beats Video Banner Advertising – I just came across this post about a Benchmark test from Universal McCann stating that ,“viral seeding drove 14 times more views than video banners.” While the view of the writer is obviously skewed toward Viral (it is from a Viral company), it would be good to see the actual study.
The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:
The Too Cool: Goes to IBM’s use of In Banner Video Chat: You can video chat with sales reps via the banner ad. LiveBanner, is from AVivocom.
“Liberty you’re so free / Why don’t you come for me / Take me away from the Rat Race” – Liberty Jones – The Shakes
Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson
Recently, I’ve taken to listening to podcasts while working. The only problem is that I haven’t been able to find many Online or Internet Marketing Podcasts (that are updated on a regular basis). I do listen to For Immediate Release, The Daily Searchcast, Managing the Gray, The Search Pulse (Am I the only one having trouble getting to that site?) and a number of shows on Webmaster Radio. But I wish there was more. Does anyone have a podcast that they would recommend? And if I don’t find any, I guess I’ll just start listening to books at Audible.
The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:
- Risk Assessment for Different Styles and Applications of SEOs: The SEO who works for clients, the SEO who works on his own affiliate stuff, and the SEO who works in-house on one particular site all have wildly different needs and demands. What is crucial and vital for one of those types may be utterly worthless to another. The one thing I would call critical is the ability to assess and manage risk factors. To know how likely something is to change before banking a whole campaign on it. To know what net result changes may have, and to ensure that all risks are within your remit and ability to make decisions on.” This is why I read everything Ammon Johns writes. Btw: If you’ve never read SEOMoz’s interview with Ammon Johns, read it. See also: In-House Search Marketing Jobs Growing Along With Search Industry (via; Search Engine Watch Forums)
- The New Org Chart: Specialists and Generalists: “Clients want both niche experts and big-picture thinking, and agencies have had to adapt. ‘The kinds of skill sets and ways of thinking required today mean that everyone has to be able to wear 18 different hats. Today, the most valuable people are the most adaptable the ones who can leverage it all and grow. It’s critical to have media folks in the room as we’re developing ideas, because they’re the most up-to-speed on what’s innovative and sexy, and they can push us in different directions’ - Lincoln Bjorkman, executive creative director of Digitas”
- What Do Kids, Tweens and Teens Do Online? (via: Sleepy Blogger) “When the firm asked youngsters which technologies they would miss the most, television came first, but video games and the Internet were close behind — and the Internet beat TV by a wide margin among the older teen group. Radio, newspapers and magazines were hardly in the running. Younger kids are essentially Internet users in training. Tweens are the Internet explorers. By their teens, youngsters are well-connected and savvy Internet users, with search, e-mail and IM important and regular Internet activities. See also: Ypulse. If Generation Y Marketing is your thing, this site is a must read.
The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:
The Too Cool: Goes to: SEOMoz’s list of Every Website Statistic Publicly Available. From the Blog post: “Admittedly, this is an ambitious list, but it’s also a worthwhile one. Below, I’ve attempted to lay the foundation for every piece of website data available to marketers, researchers and the curious. Competitive analysis experts, welcome to data paradise” – Definitely Bookmark Worthy!
“Dreams unwind and love’s a state of mind” - Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac
Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson
Normally I would have filed this under Too Cool, but it deserves top billing.
Much like today, in Middle School and High School I spent 2 hrs a day on the train. Had Blogs been around then, I’m certain I would have been Blogging and/or Blog hopping, as I do today. But since they weren’t, I filled the hours on the train with Spy Magazine. It is the only magazine I loved other than Mad Magazine (the only magazine I’ve loved since is Radar… sometimes). I’ve always wondered why they never brought it back and why they never did a book. I wonder no more: My Coffee Table prayers have been answered because, coming soon is Spy: The Funny Years via: Vanity Fair.
The What Have I Been Reading Reading List:
- Brands could be creating things that are actually useful “For the most part, big brands and agencies are still trying to apply old-school formulas to the Web. Even though brand and agencies claim to understand the social power of the Web, at the end of the day they’re still only creating one thing: entertainment. You can spend millions on a flashy ‘interactive’ campaign that people try to ignore or you can put that money towards building something that could actually improve their lives; something that they could use and interact with every single day; something that they’d actually seek out. At a time when people are constantly asking ‘what’s in it for me?’, isn’t it blatantly obvious that the best way to engage someone is to be useful to them?” Thanks Jack! (via: Marktd)
- Web Analytics Toolkit (via Attuned) “Intended for Web Analytics professionals at beginner and intermediate levels, the toolkit provides a simple framework to set up an Web Analytics initiative and informs the readers about how to put the steps of the framework into action.” Great read. What I like most about this into to Web Analytics is the links to additional resources. Actually it reminds me of IBM’s Search Engine Optimization Basics Series
- Future of the Internet – (via: MediaPost – what is up with their linking policy – I can’t be the only one who hates reading things there only to have to search for the source.) Pew interviews analysts on predictions for the internet in 2020. You may laugh as much as I did if you repeat, “In the Year 2000” a’la Late Night with Conan O’Brien as you read the PDF.
The I Also Glanced Over Reading List:
Posted by: Natasha “That Girl From Marketing” Robinson
That Girl From Marketing Live Feed
