February 25, 2008
This ComputerWeekly.com article presents a great overview of the potential web 2.0 is starting to show for business.
Previously most of the media attention has been on the personal aspect of applications like Facebook, MySpace and YouTube and many managers have been wary in embracing the term. This attitude is starting to shift and rightly so as these tools can produce tangible benefits if introduced and used properly in a corporate environment.
February 21, 2008
Unfortunately I missed this event but Josh Benoff of Forrester summarized some of key comments of Doc Searls which I quote below:
1. Advertising as we know it will die.
2. Herding people into walled gardens and guessing about what makes them “social” will seem as absurd as it actually is. (Facebook is his example.)
3. We will realize that the most important producers are what we used to call consumers. (Yup.)
4. The value chain will be replaced by the value constellation. (Many connections.)
5. “What’s your business model?” will no longer be asked of everything. (What’s the business model for your kids?)
6. We will make money by maximizing “because effects”. (”Because effects” are what happen when you make more money because of something than with it.) E.g. search and blogging.
8. We will be able to manage vendors at least as well as they manage us. (Agreements between companies and customers shouldn’t be skewed in favor of the companies.) At Harvard Law they call this VRM — vendor relationship management — which is what Searls is working on (projectvrm.org).
10. We’ll marry the live web to the value constellation. (The Live Web isn’t just about stars. Relationships of anybody to anybody.)
All this might not be readily accepted by marketers today, but let’s remember that most of what the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto loudly proclaimed ten years ago about how the web will change consumer behavior and marketing has come to pass. My take is that he’s right again.
February 13, 2008
Adam Weinroth of iMedia Connection has a very informative post on this high profile subject, including his definition of what makes up social media and how to be effective in this key area of the web today.
As I’ve stated on this blog previously, it’s all about the conversation, how to monitor, embrace and join it. Ignorance is not an option!
Tags: socialmedia, social networking, UGC
February 6, 2008
this report in MarketingVOX makes the example of how E*Trade used their commercial in social media, which I posted on yesterday even more noteworthy.
Of course, network TV advertising is still used by and large for branding by companies with the necessary marketing budgets and cross media integration is the exception rather than the norm.
The article, however, seems to indicate a pretty strong shift to include paid search in the equation.
Good news for Google, it seems!
February 5, 2008
The E*Trade commercials, here’s the one on banking:
were some of the best that ran on an otherwise pretty lackluster slate during the Super Bowl.
What’s even more impressive than the creative, and certainly very effective, is how the company is leveraging this strong TV presence across the web by using YouTube, where they have their own channel featuring all their latest TV spots, their own home page and Google search results.
The entire integration is explained in detail with screenshots in this post on NetBanker.
Certainly credit unions don’t have marketing budgets allowing for Super Bowl commercials but the use of all the other tools mentioned here is open to anyone and do not require a substantial budget to run. Combined with an effective, dynamic website that can convert the interest and the qualified leads generated through web based marketing, this kind of integrated campaign should be a fixed part of any CU marketing program.
February 4, 2008
BoomTown Decodes It, So You Don’t Have To!
a follow up to my last post. Parsing Google’s response trying hard to play David to the perceived new Goliath! Believable? Hardly. Stay tuned as this unfolds, or should I say, drags on and on and on…..
February 4, 2008
BoomTown Decodes the Letter, So You Don’t Have To! A great “reading between the lines” by Kara Swisher on the story that dominates the web and all business media right now. Enjoy!
