Ever been in a meeting where new ideas die fast from conflict? Here’s a great way to get everyone on board: we call it “yes and”. This improv game can get the creative juices flowing for every meeting – and even diffuse some buyer resistance in a sales call! Continue reading »
Reflections on Steve Jobs
Since hearing about Steve Jobs passing away yesterday, I keep finding my thoughts going from the here and now to re-evaluating and remembering my own life and journey over the same years that he built his career. Continue reading »
How to craft a killer 60 second pitch
Attention spans get shorter every day, and the 60 second pitch works for businesses and people to quickly communicate who they are and what they do. Having an effective 60 second pitch (or “one minute commercial”) sets the stage for the conversation that follows. So – how do you craft a killer pitch? Easy – follow this formula and watch the magic! Continue reading »
Gaga About Monster Marketing
Lady Gaga. At 25 she seems to have come out of nowhere and then appears everywhere. How does she inspire such devotion from her fans?
Here’s how: aside from costumes, choreography and vocals that stand out from a “me too” sea of pop music, Lady Gaga is completely about her fans, little monsters, and relating with them on common ground. She includes us, and that is her secret sauce.
“Listen up little monsters..”
Referring to herself as “Mother Monster”, she fiercely protects “little monsters”. Continue reading »
Saying “thanks” with a free website
Giving back is a great way to say thanks to the community supporting you. Blackstone Media Network, a Web design and development firm in Louisville, KY wanted to give back to the town which helped them have a successful year. But how?
Their team got together and decided that giving back what they do best – develop effective websites – was a great way to help one of the many not-for-profit groups in the community. Most not-for-profits have lean budgets – especially in a recession – and a website helps with visibility and fundraising.
They came up with a contest. Their team decided to offer a local not-for-profit a free custom website, one year of free hosting and 15 e-mail addresses. Dubbed “A Website for Change“, local not-for-profits could enter from December 7, 2010 through January 5, 2011.
The company narrowed down the entries to the top 5, and has opened up community voting to select the winner. The contest is promoted through traditional media and via social media outlets like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Voting is easy – right on the website with descriptions for each of the finalists – and voters see who is in the lead with a real time graph once the vote is cast.
Benefits for the community: support for the not-for-profit community and for the people it serves. Benefits for Blackstone Media Network: great branding and a very effective way to give back.
Shopping on the net stronger this year
No big surprise this year that online sales are up from last year, and cresting the billion dollar mark on Cyber Monday for the first time. The pleasant news for retailers (and all those selling goods to/through them) is that spending – at least so far – looks strong. In a year fraught with ups and downs for economic news, this piece of news is good indeed for many businesses.
To take a look at numbers from various sources, Search Engine Land has a “slice and dice” of charts for how sales track so far.
Browsers & their popularity
Want to know which browsers possess the greatest popularity stats over time? Jason Hiner of TechRepublic fame just posted this link in Twitter. Continue reading »
Marketing shouldn’t stalk a customer
Digital marketing adds all kinds of wonderful ways to customize to your customer. But where is the line? Continue reading »
The logo test
Have you visited a Web site with so many flashing animations that you leave? The same principle applies with logos: simple is good. Continue reading »
Are you a geek?
Even in my soft drink days, there was a certain edge of “geekiness” to me, and some fascination with technology. I probably got this from my dad. He was, no surprise, an engineer. Back in my soft drink days, I learned a computer language to do regression analysis charts on things like displays and market share. It printed out on a dot matrix printer. State of the art.
