Best Practices in Social Marketing

Interesting and easy way to break down social marketing and ways to use for those who may not touch it every day.

http://venturebeat.com/2009/01/26/awareness-launches-best-practice-templates-for-social-marketing/

Now this is what I call spinning it

So a huge thing I've learned over the past 2 years in my job is that most of the time, its all about how you "spin it." Now spinning it applies in more than one place in my role but essentially its taking something and finding a creative way to turn it around to help support or achieve whatever the goal you're working towards is. Sometimes, its taking some results and finding a way to relate even the most ridiculous outlying data to the results to make the perception of the execution successful. It can also be taking the benefits of a product and making it truly fit whatever the end user is hoping to achieve. Either way, its something I do every day.

Even so, I have to say that the link in the title of this post is definitely spinning it. With the economy where it is, consumers are looking to save every way they can. At the same time, they seem to connect more and more with any brand that is willing to give them some sort of break. Here in this example, you have a promotion that is run all the time by many brands. They come up with a clever name called "The Beauty Stimulus Package" when its just an internet request where consumers go online, fill out their personal information, sometimes answer a couple questions, and then within a few weeks receive a sample size of the product, a full size of the product, or a coupon for some value off the purchase price or free. In this case it was a coupon for a free Suave product. A simple internet request program has now evolved to be a way to 1.) move product to keep retailers happy and 2.) have the consumer connect with the fact that Suave recognized their personal situation (which is more the reality for the majority right now) and is somehow helping them out, even if its just with one free product. Now the consumer has made some sort of personal connection and the brand's hope I'm guessing is that the next time the consumer goes to shop rather than thinking of Suave as the brand that was able to get them to peruse their site, collect their information for use later, and move enough cases to look great to retailers, they'll simply think of them as the brand that allowed them to save some money when they were having a hard time.

Now that's some creative spinning and they've made a whole campaign out of it. I just wish I would have thought of it first.

New Zealand police use Facebook to stop crime

Click the title for some entertainment. Now social media is doing the work for the police!

Online Promotions for 2009

So with the New Year comes many predictions from people who think they know and people who actually know. I'd say the 10 listed here are right on.

http://www.prweb.com/releases/Internet_Marketing_FL/Gainesville_Ocala_Florida/prweb1843874.htm

I especially find the new Google algorithm to be intriguing. I wonder if with this we'll be able to get data from Google around our consumer and their online behavior. Sure we understand some things just based on the traditional data but to have the way they interpret certain pages, results, etc would be some great insight. This would definitely build to the profile you have of your consumer. It may be weird that I'm excited but I can't help it. Being a Google user, I'm glad I won't have to weed through a bunch of pages that are irrelevant to me and what I'm looking for. Then again, it could be weird to have Google know my online search habits.

New Year, New Blog

So as the new year begins, I felt it time for me to begin a new blog. The last blog I had was years ago and it was more of a personal diary that for some reason I left public for all to read. Now as I enter my third year of my professional career, I find myself with more opinions about the world I work in. Rather than continue to see these things and post links on friends' social network sites that I think will find it interesting, intriguing or just humorous, I thought I'd make a place for me to put it for all to see.

I think I'll start this blog with a recent article that I found both entertaining and thought provoking. This guy has it right and conveys it with such a sarcastic tone that I can't help but want to keep reading.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10136791-71.html