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January 31, 2009

Survey Reveals Media Channel Lines Continue to Blur

Ketchum paired with the University of Southern California’s Anneberg Strategic Public Relations Center to conduct the ‘Media Myths & Realities’ global survey. The survey highlights the differences in media consumption between the general population and influencers. More than 40 media channels - from newspapers to podcasts - were reviewed. “This burgeoning participatory media landscape means media audiences are having just as much influence, if not more, than the content providers themselves.” View the survey’s full findings here.

Posted by staff at 12:37 PM
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January 29, 2009

Pulling the Trigger on Trigger Marketing

“Marketers can always figure out what to sell, how to sell and to whom to sell. What they often can’t figure out is when to sell.” - Lester Wunderman

As we all know, triggers are executed in response to certain events. Similarly, marketing triggers deliver targeted messages, offers and the like to consumers at an optimal point in time, based on a variety of factors. Trigger marketing can improve a marketing campaign performance by up to 10 times. The Aberdeen benchmark report, Trigger Marketing: Timing Is Everything, states that this year, two-thirds of survey respondents have increased their budgets for the technologies that make the launch of a trigger marketing campaign possible.

Types of triggers can include customer life-stage triggers, such as marriage, a new home purchase, the birth of a baby or retirement. So, if a home purchase is detected based on new-mover data, an insurance company might offer not only home insurance but services for home security, telecommunications and the like.

Trigger marketing gives companies the ability to know in real time when consumers are looking to buy. It also provides them a way to act on this knowledge as quickly (and profitably) as possible. It helps companies become good listeners and to react in a targeted way. It’s not just a pitch anymore, but a way to answer consumers’ needs, thereby enhancing the overall consumer experience.
To learn more about this important approach view the full story here.

Posted by staff at 11:49 AM
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CNN.com Weekly News Quiz

We all follow different news beats and CNN.com’s weekly current events quiz helps you stay up-to-date with what is happening around the world. Don’t worry if you get a question wrong, CNN prompts the corresponding article for you to find out more. Try out this week’s quiz here.

Posted by staff at 11:48 AM
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Brand Value in Twitter

By Nichole Mrasek

Twitter is certainly growing in popularity and more brands are participating in the micro-blogging service. But there are elite companies that have the best grasp on utilizing Twitter and they are reaping the benefits among consumers.

Mashable has a fantastic article discussing the top 40 brands on Twitter and the great minds behind the accounts. Editor Jennifer Van Grove states, “Smart brands use Twitter in meaningful ways, and most of them use their brand name as a way to make sure customers can find and recognize them. This piece, and the knowledge I learned from the incessant hours invested, demonstrate why brands do belong on Twitter. No other medium gets you inside a business or brand quiet like Twitter.”

Automotive, travel, sports, finance and more are featured brand categories, with spotlights on GM, Best Buy and The Home Depot included.

Read more on the brands highlighted here.

Posted by staff at 11:42 AM
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January 26, 2009

Uncle Sam Wants YOU to Play Video Games

By Eden Litt

What would it take to get you to join the U.S. Army? Would a sweet video game that lets you fly around in a Black Hawk helicopter shooting at enemies aid in your decision-making process?

The U.S. Army recently unveiled a brand-new facility in the Franklin Mills shopping mall in Philadelphia, PA featuring 60 personal computers and 19 Xboxes loaded with military video games and banging rock music. While the goal of the facility, which opened in August, is to bring about awareness and expel army myths, this digitalized facility has become a means for recruitment and has proven to be enticingly more powerful than the five traditional recruiting centers it replaced.

For more on the Army Experience Center, click here.

Posted by staff at 01:35 AM
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January 24, 2009

Anonymous Product Reviewers Gain Even More Cred

By Ann Stofflet

With online shopping increasingly popular, consumers make it a practice of checking the feedback and opinions of anonymous consumers more than ever. Advertisers realize that there is a trusted bond between members of online social communities, and that retailers are taking action by using consumer reviews in their marketing campaigns, with links to top-ranked products, and even making reviews accessible via cell phone in their stores.

"Online reviews have changed everything. It sounds so perfect. Anyone and everyone can share their experience with a product or service. It is as if all online shoppers have an instant community of friends, recommending the good and warning about the bad,” said Michal Ann Strahilevitz, a marketing professor at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. “Generally, the greater the number of reviews, the more likely the average is to be accurate. Comments also help. If extensive comments are made, and the writing style varies, that is a good sign."

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos explained to BusinessWeek, "When we first did it, we got letters from publishers saying, ’Maybe you don’t understand your business. You make money when you sell things.’ Our point of view is, no, we make money when we help customers make purchase decisions."
To read more, check out the full article “More online shoppers take the word of anonymous product reviewers” here.

Posted by staff at 11:24 AM
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January 22, 2009

Obama Gets Hacked

By Eden Litt

When creating a password, you may find it rather annoying when you need to have a certain number of characters that include both letters and numbers, and sometimes even symbols. But, you should probably take that time to choose your passwords wisely, or you may become a victim of password theft.

Wired’s Threat Level recently interviewed an 18-year-old who launched a dictionary attack to hack into the account of a Twitter staffer whose password was “Happiness”. Gaining access to this administrative account allowed him to reset the password of ANY Twitter account. He then buoyantly hijacked the official accounts of Barack Obama, Britney Spears, CBS News, Fox News—just to name a few.

It’s a hard lesson to learn, but easy to prevent. When in the blogosphere (or any sphere for that matter), take the time to pick your passwords wisely.

Posted by staff at 01:30 PM
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January 21, 2009

Ketchum in Hot Water over Twitter Remarks

By Charlie Kondek

What happened to a Ketchum VP recently should serve as a reminder to us all to be professional in our use of social media. Shankman’s blog broke the story. The short version: a Ketchum VP visiting FedEx headquarters in Memphis, TN for business Tweeted upon his arrival, "I would die if I had to live here". The purpose of the meeting was to present “on digital media to the worldwide communications group at FedEx (150+) people.” A FedEx employee spotted the Tweet and forwarded the message to leading executives at FedEx and Ketchum. FedEx was offended and they certainly let Ketchum know.

The entire story is unfortunate and worth a read, a meaningful lesson to us all about our interaction in the social space, respect for our clients, and understanding their business.

Read more on “Be Careful What You Post” here.

Posted by staff at 02:25 PM
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YouTube Gets Political

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The government finally caved into the demands of the 21st century by officially launching its very own YouTube channels for the House and Senate. Catch the full buzz from Yahoo!.

Posted by staff at 12:37 PM
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January 18, 2009

The Best Job in the World

By Eden Litt

Tourism Queensland just launched its first online media campaign to boost tourism to the Great Barrier Reef, and they are looking for someone to fill the position of “The Best Job in the World”.

Let’s start with the salary: $105,000. The job? Explore the islands, spas and bushwalk of the Great Barrier Reef, feed the fish, clean the pool and collect the mail. Oh, and you have to blog about it from your three-bedroom villa nestled on the beautiful beaches of Hamilton Island.

Want more details? [For work-related purposes obviously …] click here.

Posted by staff at 03:12 PM
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January 16, 2009

Facebook’s Whopper of a Social Media Sacrifice

By Nichole Mrasek

Burger King recently held an online promotion on Facebook giving out free Whopper coupons. In order to receive your coupon, you just had to drop 10 Facebook friends. More than 82,000 Facebook users were eager to let go of a few friends.

Facebook quickly caught on and informed Burger King that the application to notify users when they have dropped a friend was not allowed. Rather than comply, the fast food giant shutdown the "Whopper Sacrifice." Check out the MSNBC write-up "No more burgers before bros on Facebook” here.

Posted by staff at 03:06 PM
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January 15, 2009

Best Major Blogs of 2008

Who made the cut? Check it out here.

Posted by staff at 03:34 PM
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January 14, 2009

Online Marketing Linkfest

Techipedia’s Tamar Weinberg compiled a list of “Internet Marketing Best Posts” for the second year running, and it’s a treasure trove of posts on SEO, social media strategy, twittering, Sphinning, Facebooking, Farking…You get the picture.

Delve into your areas of interest and discover some new folk to follow. View the feature.

Posted by staff at 04:46 PM
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January 13, 2009

NBA All-Star Hopefuls Slam Dunk with Social Media

Mashable’s Adam Ostrow reports on NBA players looking to gain votes from fans for this year’s All-Star game by tapping into various social media sites, including YouTube and Twitter. Phoenix Suns’ Amare Stoudemire is receiving attention for his social media participation and personal Web site, Vote4Amare.com. Players now know where their fans are online and hope that creating sites, Facebook/MySpace pages and badges, it will help drive All-Star votes. Read more “NBA Superstars Turn to Social Media Marketing for All-Star Game Votes” here.

The Detroit Pistons took the social media nod and created “Posting Up,” the official social media network of the NBA team. The site has a wealth of tools for fans to interact with, including photos, games, groups, forums and a blog that features fan postings. Tom Wilson, CEO of the Detroit Pistons, discusses the creation for the site: “We have had great success in getting information to our fans. But the future is a place where fans can have two-way communication – with us as an organization and with each other – and really express their fanaticism about the team and the players.”

Check out “Posting Up” here.

Posted by staff at 04:29 PM
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January 10, 2009

Coming Soon to a Web Site Near You

By Nichole Mrasek

The British secretary of state for culture, media, and sports, Andy Burnham, recently suggested giving sites cinema-style ratings (PG, PG-13, R, etc.) to help prevent children from stumbling upon inappropriate material. In response to Burnham’s comment, the Digital Home’s Don Reisinger blogged about the absurdity of instituting such ratings.

Reisinger says, “But what about the comments? What about some of the hate-filled, vituperation readers place on different stories across the site? Sure, the article itself is fine for children, but calling others names, cursing, or using other generally unaccepted language probably isn’t rated PG, right?”

He goes on to explain that movies are "controlled" content and Web sites are populated with various sources of content. We know there are already programs out there designed to help police the sites children navigate, and introducing a new system seems an unnecessary hassle. Consider the significant amount of time it would require to decide on how a site’s rating is qualified.

Read more from Reisinger’s “Applying movie ratings to Web sites is a dumb idea” here.

Posted by staff at 02:03 AM
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January 08, 2009

Doctors to Make Virtual House Calls?

By Marian Short

While the idea of a physician caring for you at your home may be long gone, a service debuting in Hawaii this month could spell out the next step in patient-doctor interactions. The New York Times reported that America Well, a Web-oriented health company, is offering short, online doctors’ visits; enabling doctors to view patients, access medical histories and issue prescriptions. Hawaii, with its many islands and rural areas, presented itself as a logical place to employ online medicine. This service is likely to be rolled out in other states, as D.C. lobbyists look to expand access to healthcare. This service will be available to Hawaiians insured through a division of Blue Cross-Blue Shield, as well as to uninsured patients, for a slightly higher fee.

While “online diagnosis” would certainly have its limitations, and critics worry doctors could overlook potentially important indicators online, Oahu-based family physician Robert Sussman explained it this way: “It’s a tool to help doctors do better, the way a stethoscope is a tool,” he said. “You still have to use your common sense, your medical knowledge.” Another concern remains regarding access to broadband for the poor and uninsured – though one recent study found that two-thirds of the uninsured population use broadband at home.

Read more form The New York Times “Doctors Will Make Web Call in Hawaii” here.

Posted by staff at 02:03 PM
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January 07, 2009

War and Public Relations: Israel Defense Forces Conduct News Conference Via Twitter

In what some consider an outrageous communications platform for an exceedingly complicated conflict, the Israel Defense Forces held a Q & A, over Twitter, complete with abbreviations commonly used in text messaging. The New York Times quoted David Saranga, media relations head for the Israeli consulate in New York, who said: "Since the definition of war has changed, the definition of public diplomacy has to change as well.” Check out the story to see selected tweets here.

Posted by staff at 10:35 AM
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January 06, 2009

Google to Insert Ads on third-party sites with Friend Connect and OpenSocial Widgets

By Ann Stofflet

Web sites registered with Google’s Friend Connect will be able to place AdSense-like advertising within their sites and OpenSocial widgets. View the demo here.

Web publishers will receive a percentage of ad revenue within Friend Connect and Open Social widgets. This practice has dubbed Friend Connect with the nickname “FriendSense,” according to a recent TechCrunch post.

Posted by staff at 12:06 PM
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January 05, 2009

TrendsSpotting’s “Influencers On Social Media 2009 Predictions”

Check out an insightful presentation on social media trends for the New Year. You can watch it here.

Posted by staff at 11:43 AM
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