An interview with Rick Keller, COO, Save-R-Planet Kids, a non-profit dedicated to educating children and adults about recycling in Leesburg, FL, yielded an interesting use of blogs in the nonprofit world. Read more…
No one has yet discovered how to turn video-on-demand into a mass market, but that isn’t for a lack of trying.
A spate of recent announcements, rumors and transactions in the VOD market indicate that interest is growing among would-be service providers — particularly DVD rental services planning ahead for a post-DVD world.
After writing a Special Report and a Case Study about online video contests, it’s time to draw a few conclusions about what promotional tactics successfully drive them. Read more…
I think it’s safe to say that Twitter-mania has arrived. In every other interview I do, someone mentions Twitter. Doing a keyword search for “Twitter” in my RSS reader, I found thousands of blog posts about it.
But how does this micro-blogging site help marketers and PR professionals?
It’s the Facebook marketing secret hardly anybody knows about yet. Each of your products and brands can have their own special Facebook pages — without charge currently.
I’m not talking about regular Facebook profiles. Those are for real human beings only — you’ll get booted if you try to make one for a product or brand, so don’t do it. (Unlike MySpace, where even my dog, Betty Boop, has her own account.)
Facebook has created an alternative for marketers. To check it out, go to the homepage of Facebook (the one you see before you log in). Click on the small text link titled “Advertisers” at the footer of that page. This takes you to a homepage to buy ads. If you look closely, though, you’ll also see a free offer to post a Facebook page for your product even if you don’t advertise.
Obviously, Facebook hopes to monetize this somehow, someday. In the meantime, why not take advantage of it?
Then your product or brand can start networking with customers, fans and their friends and their friends … etc. Probably works especially well for strong brands that already have built-in enthusiast and fan bases.
Let me know how it works out for you.
Social networking is an interesting topic, so whenever I hear about new ways people are using it I get a little excited. Listen to John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing.
John has been blogging about all things practical in marketing for the small business owner for years. After working with roughly 25,000 small business owners throughout his career, John has a pretty solid grasp of what they need. Read more…
The evolution of blogs continues to fascinate me – with marketing and PR pros leading the way in finding innovative uses for them.
Take Todd Defren from SHIFT Communications. He’s recognized as the creator of the Social Media Release. Todd has this idea that companies should create online newsrooms on a blog platform.
MarketingSherpa’s recent Selling Online Subscriptions Summit 2008 in New York City gave scores of takeaways to participants. Here are a few of most consistent messages I picked up from the conference:
Day two at the MarketingSherpa Selling Online Subscriptions Summit 2008 in New York City was highlighted by a session on using surveys to kickstart subscription offers. Aaric Eisenstein, Senior Vice President of Publishing, Stratfor, a subscription geopolitical intelligence service, led the session.
Eisenstein and his team recently found themselves in a dubious position. Their email list was tired and unresponsive to offers, the quality of their product was going down, the economy was starting to tank and their competition from blogs was booming.
Here’s another eye-opening session at the MarketingSherpa Selling Online Subscriptions Summit in New York City. Michael McCurdy, Director CRM, and Leslie Semegran, Director Online Marketing, TheLadders.com, talked about maximizing customer lifetime value.
TheLadders.com is a site for jobseekers looking for $100K+ jobs and recruiters. They offer subs for a month, six months or a year. And they found that six-month subscribers have a 29% higher lifetime value than monthly subscribers and that annual subscribers have a 39% higher lifetime value than monthlies.
