B(abble)log - Archives
1) A man takes a Polaroid every day for 18 years. Wow. This is gritty, real and compelling. I found it haunting and had to include it, even though it's outside of my normal Friday topics.
2) Friend and colleague Adele McAlear poses the question "Is PR Innately Immoral?"
3) Twitter pal Ryan Anderson said it best when he quipped, "This is an excellent synopsis of everything that is wrong with the world."
4) Ann Smarty once again lives up to her moniker as SEO Smarty and tells us how we can squeeze the most juice out of our social media profiles.
5) Another great post from SEOmoz.com on How to Choose the Right SEO Vendor.
6) In the age of the granularization of content, and the nichification of blogs (yes, I made those up), it really was only a matter of time before a blog devoted to the ampersand emerged.
7) Copyblogger tells us how to capture some enthusiasm for your next project and Unleash Your Inner Dork to Become a Better Copywriter.
8) In Worried About Bloggers Dissing Your Company?, Mack Collier at Marketing Profs tells us how to avoid a flame war in the blogosphere.
9) Thanks to Three Minds on Digital Marketing at Organic for this little gem: Eat Drink or Die.
10) Who says billboards aren't creative? Copyranter shows us the gory details.
FRIDAY FUN
Looks like Tul Pens poured some money into this marketing initiative. See what your handwriting says about you!
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Hey there. As you know, last week I attended Mesh. The sessions were outstanding. On day two, the last session I attended was Michael Masnick’s The Infinite Good and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
In a nutshell, the future is free – get used to it.
He contends that digital content, by the very economics of abundance (or infinite supply) must have a price of zero. You can see why, as a copywriter, I might be vaguely concerned about this.
Don’t misread the free angle – he’s adamant that “give it away and pray” is not a valid business model.
The free model has been around for a while. Over at Wired, Chris Anderson tells the story of King Gillette who in the early 1900s invented the disposable razor blade, and made it popular by giving away the razor, and thereby creating demand for the blades. Read the whole article. Impressive is an understatement.
(And by the way, Chris is currently writing the book Free that will be out in 2009.)
In Masnick’s session he pointed to companies that took advantage of the “free abundance” to deliver something that was valuable/”scarce.” Companies like Google that supply free (abundant) search results and monetize it to sell to advertisers, who find value (scarcity) in the targeted search results. (Oh, you’re searching for shoes, why not try these sponsored listings?)
But, as Masnick pointed out, when the marginal cost of any given resource (i.e. search results) is zero, where is the profit? Well, you can’t cut costs anymore than zero. (I was never very good at math, but I feel confident enough to go out on a limb on this one.) So, if you cannot differentiate on price, then it means you have to differentiate on benefits.
That’s why bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead have been giving away their music. The shiny plastic disk simply doesn’t matter any more. What is important is selling more merchandise, concert tickets or simply improving the direct relationship with the listener to improve the ROI on listener experience. There’s a cool article put out yesterday that talks about the democratization of distribution.
Everywhere you look, free is where it’s at.
Flickr uses the “freemium” approach – sure it’s free, but if you want to upgrade to get all the bells and whistles, that’s a painless $25-bucks-a-year, thanks.
Other businesses have jumped on the “give it away for free but charge for the relevant advertising”, like the aforementioned Google, but also companies like Facebook.
What else is free? Altruistic companies like Freecycle that employ a “gift economy” approach.
Free user-generated content can add value – just think about the reviews at Amazon, imdb.com or various suggested reading via Digg.
Chris Anderson notes that money isn’t the only scarcity anymore, so is time and respect.
There is, presumably, a limited supply of reputation and attention in the world at any point in time. These are the new scarcities — and the world of free exists mostly to acquire these valuable assets for the sake of a business model to be identified later. Free shifts the economy from a focus on only that which can be quantified in dollars and cents to a more realistic accounting of all the things we truly value today.
So, that’s what I’m thinking about: differentiation based on benefit.
Want to find out more about free? Check out these resources:
Wikipedia has a section on post-scarcity.
Tim Lee comments on the Michael Masnick / David Pogue kerfuffle.
And, on a slightly different note, we can’t forget the freegans.
If you’re not afraid of dumpster diving, learn more about freeganism.
1) This week I've been at the Mesh Conference in Toronto. One of the speakers was KD Paine, who is at the top of her field in measurement. She thinks that Canadians get social media measurement more so than our American counterparts.
2) Concerned about getting malicious software while surfing the 'net? SearchEngineLand tells us about Google's Safe Browsing Diagnostic Tool.
3) I'm not sure what's in the water in Sweden, but their ad agencies sure come up with some strange campaigns for McDonald's. AdRants has the scoop.
4) “Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?” and other visionary gems, courtesy of Copyblogger.
5) Canuckflack tells us how Club Penguin goes the extra step to make emails safe for kids. (Lane Merrifield was an inspiration at Mesh!)
6) Oooo! Shiny! Sometimes we all get attracted to cool things before realizing that they're inherently flawed. Lisa Creech Bledsoe reminds us about setting goals in her post Cool Isn't Enough: Beating the fail factor.
7) A very interesting study shows that users of social networking sites who have more than 1000 friends are most likely to be male. Marketing Pilgrim discusses this and other interesting nuggets of statistical goodness.
8) For a great look at where SEO was, is, and where it's headed take a gander at Mike Grehan's ClickZ post on The Future of SEO.
9) Another excellent post from SEOmoz.com explains how You Don't Own Your Brand Online...But You Can Own the Search Results.
10) Here's The Pocket-sized Guide to Blogging from Skelliewag to remind us about the essentials of good blogging practices.
FRIDAY FUN:
Yes, I want to sell my soul on eBay! Here are some great examples smart and funny use of Google AdWords that will get you giggling.
I’m currently at the Mesh Conference in Toronto, so if you are here too, please hunt me down and say hello! I’m doing my best to “live Tweet” various comments and remarks from speakers as well as audience members.
Yesterday, there were two opening keynotes. The first was delivered by the ever-engaging Ethan Kaplan who talked about changes in the music industry. And the second by Dr. Michael Geist discussing the use of social media for policy advocacy.
Throughout the day I attended Does Location Matter hosted by Nora Young with Bill Buxton, the renown computer scientist. It was a fascinating discussion of how to address social conventions through technology, and how to build the “trustification” between user and interface.
A later session, The New Front Page, was my personal favourite. Daniel Burka (Digg), Pema Hegan (GigPark) and Candice Faktor (OurFaves) outlined how traditionally the worth of information was decided by its position on the front page, and now with the fire hose of information being fed to us on a daily basis – e-newspapers, blogs, RSS feeds, etc. – there is no filter. A flurry of “recommendation engines” has emerged, suggesting stories and information that friends have recommended. (Digg, StumbleUpon, etc., etc.) Now, the new front page is word-of-mouth.
For me the biggest take-away was the comment that this democratization of voices brings information down to a niche level. Because online communities do not reflect real communities due to the fact that online communities form around special interests, there is the chance of a narrowing of interests. A kind of echo-chamber, as the same viewpoints are passed around with little or no balance, opposing opinions or real discussion of the matter. It was agreed that people need a diversity of sources. But in reality, with so much information being filtered through friend-trusted suggestions and recommendations, I'm not sure this is happening.
The last session of the day for me was Private vs. Public, a discussion of privacy issues in public forums (both on- and off-line) with Nancy Baym, Mark Kingwell, and Ken Anderson. Kingwell pointed out that it is in the public realm where we define ourselves as individuals, while Nancy Baym commented that too often individuals think that the messages they are sending out are limited to their cosy group of friends, but in fact are being broadcast, either through their own means, search engines or friends and other individuals rebroadcasting information. She noted there was a disconnect between what people think they are doing online and the public ramifications of what is actually happening online. Something to think about!
1) An excellent post by Washington Post-owned Slate on Why search-engine optimization makes the Web a better place. It includes some great stats on the percentage of click-throughs on the first page of Google, to an explanation of white-hat and black-hat practices.
2) In response to the Slate post, Jordan McCollom at Marketing Pilgrim addresses why SEO Is Good, But Not the Same as Reputation Management where Together dating is concerned.
3) Here's a reminder from the Conversation Agent for marketers on key points that can get lost in the shuffle, Knowing What to Do is Very, Very Different than Actually Doing it.
4) With all the PR folk on Twitter, it was only a matter of time before someone made the attempt to add structure and group them for more efficient communicaitons with media. Brian Solis of Silicon Valley-based PR firm Future Works talks about how MicroPR Personalizes Public Relations, while his partner in the concept, Stowe Boyd, a social strategy consultant, gives his take in The Growing Backlash Against PR Spam, And The Rationale For MicroPR.
5) Ever wondered how knowing a second or third language might help you in business? Rohit Barghava brings us some compelling reasons with A Simple Marketing Lesson From The "Lingo Kid".
6) Marketing Magazine blog tells us how DDB Canada has created a very funny, very memorable commercial (below) for Subaru Forester positioning sumo wrestlers in the role of sexy car washers. Check coloribus.com for the full creative team behind the ad.
7) It was only a matter of time before traditional media realized the wealth of ready-to-publish content available from bloggers. Mitch Joel announced on Twitter that the Montreal Gazette is now reprinting his posts from his Six Pixels of Separation blog to run as articles. The first is Seven Types Of Highly Effective Corporate Blogs, originally published April 19, 2008.
8) If you have any interest in word-of-mouth marketing, then Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba's Church of the Customer blog is essential reading. This week's pick is 5 things you need to know about women and word of mouth.
9) When Duplicate Content Really Hurts from our friends at SEOmoz.com delves into the oft-minsunderstood world of duplicate copy and search engine optimization.
10) What do you do when the well runs dry? SmashingMagazine asks its readers the question Where Do You Draw Inspiration From? and there is much wisdom in the more than 75 comments left on this post.
FRIDAY FUN:
Blogger Steph Stockman, who works at NASA, asks Would you like to go to the moon? She writes about the next moon mission and how your name can be on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). For kids, it's a great way to start a dialogue and get them excited about the moon. Simply submit their name online, download the pdf of their Certificate of Participation, print it out and voila! they'll be in astronaut training before you know it.
Recently I rediscovered the Visual Thesaurus, a Web application that Get Clients Now coach Cristina Favreau said was "highly addictive".
It is the coolest thing evah!
The Visual Thesaurus visually maps words that relate to each other in the context of a dictionary and a thesaurus. Follow the branches to discover how other words relate, explore their meanings and learn a new way to look at language. I can see how using this tool would help to stimulate improved writing and for $20 a year, it is a small price to pay to clear the occasional writer's block.
Want to make your website a little more social, but were afraid of spending too much money on expensive apps? Well, in rides Google as the knight in shining armour.
Hot on the heels of MySpace’s Data Availability and Facebook’s Facebook Connect, yesterday Google announced its “preview” release of Friend Connect. While Data Availability and Facebook Connect facilitate “data portability” – a single web profile across multiple web platforms – Google’s Friend Connect helps make any website “social.” Site visitors can now interact with one another, and, you don’t have to be a code guru to implement user registration, friend invitations and message posting on your site.
SearchEngineWatch.com reported:
David Glazer, Director of Engineering at Google had this to say: "Google Friend Connect is about helping the 'long tail' of sites become more social. Many sites aren't explicitly social and don't necessarily want to be social networks, but they still benefit from letting their visitors interact with each other. That used to be hard. Fortunately, there's an emerging wave of social standards -- OpenID, OAuth, OpenSocial, and the data access APIs published by Facebook, Google, MySpace, and others. Google Friend Connect builds on these standards to let people easily connect with their friends, wherever they are on the web, making 'any app, any site, any friends' a reality."
Currently, Google Friend Connect is only available to a limited number of site owners, but you can sign up for upcoming access here.
Yesterday, I was flipping through the latest Bon Appetit magazine consumed with visions of lemon fettuccine with broccoli and pancetta “croutons” followed by a classic sour cherry pie with a lattice crust.
Two ads caught my eye – both investment advertisements. I have no idea if one is any better than the other from a product perspective, but from a copy perspective, to me, one of them is a clear winner.
Let’s take a peek, and let me know if you agree.
The first features a photo of Martin Yan and a little story that covers his background, and why he first started investing with Merril Lynch. Full Disclosure: This is a two-page ad, but I’m only showing the page with the majority of the text. The other page is mostly photos, with a quote from Yan’s financial advisor and the company logo.
The second starts off with the question “Need help managing your investments?” with a large heading “Let Fidelity’s professionals manage your portfolio for you.” Beneath that is a paragraph of corporate “blah-blah” that has obviously fallen victim to the legal department. “Having Fidelity professionals manage our money could relieve you of the anxiety and time demands of monitoring the markets and your investments.”
The Fidelity ad has some obstacles to overcome. The legal warnings (i.e. investing has its risks, etc.) take up more space than the body of the copy. By using an easy-to-read sans-serif font on the legal stuff, and font sizes that appear to be the same size as the marketing copy or larger, my eye skips down and starts reading about the perils of investing. I don’t think that was the intent.
Next, let’s go back to the copywriter’s mantra of “show don’t tell.”
In the Merrill Lynch ad, Martin Yan is at the forefront, as is the story about his relationship with his advisor. By comparison, in the Fidelity ad, the copy reads, “Our team takes a personalized approach…” with a smallish generic stock photo.
In the Merrill Lynch ad, they’ve inserted quotes from Yan and his advisor:
“John understands my needs,” says Yan. “Now his 15-year-old twins are facing college,” says Ting. “And we’re ready.”
Such a simple approach. The Martin Yan quote is a testimonial, with connotations of trust. And his advisor John Ting’s quote is there as a easy-to-relate-to metaphor, that everything is okay. The money is there for the kids to go to college, and no doubt, other financial affairs are in order.
By comparison, the Fidelity Investments ad mentions, “…matching your goals, financial situation, and risk tolerance to a diversified, actively managed model portfolio of mutual funds.”
Yawn. As fellow blogger Michelle Kostya says, “My eyes glaze over.” As well, I don’t like the “So do the smart thing and call today for a complimentary investment consultation." Perhaps I’m too sensitive, but it sounds a little condescending.
Now, for the final aspect that won me over… context. The ads are running in Bon Appetit. The Merrill Lynch ad features a well-known chef, and includes lines like, “When you put something in the oven, you can’t rush it, says Yan. “If you take it out early it’s raw. Same thing with investments.”
The other ad? Nope.
I’m sure they are equally good companies, but from a copywriting point of view, to me, one is a clear winner.
1) Chances are you are scanning this blog. Usability guru Jakob Neilsen discusses the phenomenon in How Little Do Users Read? (Strangely I read the whole article.)
2) Want to know how to evaluate the page power of a particular site? Ann Smarty (SEO Smarty) has written a wonderful article at Search Engine Journal. Thanks to Thad McIlroy of The Future of Publishing for tipping me off to this excellent article!
3) Over at The Guardian, Jeff Jarvis covers the tale of a man, his spit bucket and a webcam in "The Social Media Sommelier. "
4) Is Twitter's entry into the mainstream marked by a theme song? FaceReviews.com reports on how a fan has expressed her love for Twitter, with shout outs to Twitterati Robert Scoble, Veronica Belmont, Hugh MacLeod and Gary Vaynerchuck (see above).
5) Flickr's George Oates shares her thoughts on community and how to facilitate behaviour, add a personal voice and above all have fun.
6) If you think Leigh Duncan-Durst's article Crawling for Customers has to do with search engines, think again.
7) Launching a site targeted at older women can be daunting when the basics of navigation, registration and leaving comments might not be widely understood. Marketing Profs reports on how wowOwow.com used 85-year-old contributing columnist, Liz Smith, to give a video tour of how to use the site.
8) Greg Howlett's article, Is SEO a Dying Industry?, on Marketing Pilgrim caused a bit of a firestorm. His follow-up today, How Branding will Replace SEO, seeks to clarify.
9) Part 3 of Dave Fleet's excellent series on How To Write A Good Communications Plan looks at conducting an Environmental Scan.
10) The tool of the week from SEOmoz.org talks about keeping 5-8% of traffic on your site and in your content longer using Lijit.
FRIDAY FUN:
Nerve.com has put together videos of the 50 Greatest Commercial Parodies of All Time. Hilarious!
Quite often most businesses have a very rigorous brand policy in place that outlines how their logo can be used, corporate colours, typefaces, etc.
But how many businesses have styleguide in place, or know their brand voice?
The words we chose, our writing style, inflection and even punctuation - all work together to influence our brand voice.
Part of a larger brand identity/vision, brand voice comes from a clearly established brand personality. Why is brand voice so important? Because it encompasses everything from the character of all internal and external collaterals, the way the phone is answered, the way customer service department and sales force interact with customers, and the tone of all advertising.
So what’s your personality?
Here are a few ways to start:
A trick from corporate coach Michael Bungay Stanier is the “This/Not This” exercise that helps compile some words to get you thinking about your brand.
For example:
Bright & vibrant not pastel
Classic Chablis not weird Gerwurztraminer
Non-conformist not thinks-inside-the-box
Uptown not folksy
Many marketers create a list of about 20 human traits. (Youthful, honest, daring, reliable, tough, etc.) Once you have a persona, the voice becomes distinctive.
Another good start is to examine the target consumers’ desires. In other words, what does your target market want in relation to brand personality?
You also need to do a competitive analysis. How are other similar products or companies positioning themselves? Only when you understand that can you differentiate yourself and create customer value.
Are there already inherent connotations or perceptions in your industry? For instance, Virgin Mobile Canada is expected to have a hip and cool attitude, whereas the Royal Bank of Canada is expected to be reliable and more traditional.
Once you’ve established your brand personality, understanding your brand voice is far simpler. Brand voice makes your company distinctive.
1) PageTrafficBlog reports that Feedburner To Serve Google AdSense Units On RSS Feeds, beginning Feedburner's integration in the Google family. Thanks to Twitter pal @seocopyandstrat for the heads up.
2) What will buying 700,000 links from the same site get you? SEOicide, according to Search Engine Roundtable.
3) Valeria Maltoni gives us How a Blog is Born, an excellent study on how to start a blog.
4) Last week I told you about Iain Tait of Crackunit.com going offline for Mental Detox Week. Here are 10 things he learned from his time away.
5) Thankfully Crackunit.com is back online so that he can bring us design gems like this: Crayon Madness.
6) For deeper thoughts about design, Idris Mootee, co-founder of Idea Couture Inc., a digital innovation and incubation firm, asks in his blog Innovation Playground What Schools Of Design Are You From? What Is A Designer: Objects, Functions, Meanings?
7) Google announced this week that it will let you place ads on TV using the AdWords interface. Mashable and Page Traffic Blog report on how it works and the $2000 rebate that Google is offering.
8) Microsoft Overhauls Live Search Offering extending its service to include branded search. See what they've done with the new Indiana Jones movie using search as a promotion with prizes.
9) Jay Moonah's excellent article in Media Bullseye on Strategic Direction in Social Media is a must read for anyone planning a social media campaign.
10) Regular readers know that I'm a stickler for grammar. Mignon Fogarty
has turned her love of grammar into a popular podcast called Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. In her most recent episode she tackles Is Yoda speaking "real" English?
FRIDAY FUN:
This brilliant video from comedy sketch group Idiots of Ants acts out Facebook in Reality.
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