Archive for March, 2009
Should your brand Facebook?
Now that’s a big question. Who belongs, and who doesn’t belong on Facebook (along with every other social media outlet) is one of the biggest questions facing marketing managers today. Truth? It depends.
If you’re looking for a stock answer, it may be time to adjust your expectations. At least, for the time being. And while you’re doing that, you might want to invest some time crash-coursing the social media channels that are out there and what makes them unique. Here’s one recent dive into the MySpace/Facebook discussion.
See who else is Facebook marketing with this “just in” from retailerdaily.com. FB comes in at the bottom … but the bit about Kmart on Twitter is fun too.
Graphic design for dummies?
For those of you familiar with Seth Godin (author of Meatball Sundae … founder of Squidoo …a bunch more creds than I’d care to list here) you’ll know his blog is rich with insights on what it means, really means to market today. Effectively. Using all the tools available.
Another way to put this is: Seth is one voice in a really big crowd. But what got me sold on Seth was not his books, but this video clip where he talked about focusing on what you’re specifically GOOD at, as opposed to say, donning every single hat out there, firing marketing buckshot at the world and hoping for the desired response (read: on like, zero budget because you DIY-ed the entire program.)
I liked this video. For someone who is actually comfortable wearing more than one hat, it was nice to hear someone in-the-know telling me I had options. That it was okay to think about calling in the experts. When necessary. Whew.
Today’s Seth post, though, gave me pause. “Why aren’t you really good at graphic design?” Short story: A list of sites, tools to help average Joe become Joe designer. Or at least, to be able to coexist in the same universe as Joe designer.
Seth: I feel a little betrayed. Continue reading
Do Twitter and business “work”?
Still wondering if there are real business and marketing applications for you on Twitter? Take a look at an article on that very topic in the March 19 WSJ.com. This is big.
Update from Erin Creaney, CBD retail expert. See how Kmart’s making twitter work for them.
Twitter jumped the shark?
I can’t take credit for this observation. Philly creative lead Steve O’Connell called it yesterday. After seeing our favorite bird exposed on CBS Sunday Morning. (Warning: You have to suffer through a commercial to watch this.) The Christian Science Monitor was asking the same shark-jumping question as early as March 17. (Go CSM?) And check out this from The Daily Beast. And if you have time, there are about a dozen more.
Anyway. Back to the CBS Sunday video you should really watch if you haven’t already succumbed. ewwwwwwwww
C’est la vie. But here’s the truth: If Twitter HAS jumped the shark, regardless of the myriad negative implications of that phrase and the sight of Fonzi in tighty-whiteys, (you KNOW you want to see this) then guess what? It’s Tweetin’ season for marketers who have been or are still somewhat gunshy of slinging messages in the ever-expanding channel. Why? Well for one thing, it’s gone mainstream. It’s done. Remember the Facebook Sunday morning edition folks? When was that again …
Small Changes: Thoughts on Wellness 09 Conference
Eat more soup. Have some almonds. My two biggest personal take-aways from a few days at IFT’s Wellness 09 conference.
Beginning with the Center for Disease Control’s overview of America’s dietary habits (with a state-by-state map demonstrating the uptick in obesity rates from the 1980s’, replete with some of the most unattractive food photography I’ve ever seen) to the sad knowledge, courtesy of NPD Market Research, that America still feeds itself the same five basic meals for dinner in 2008 as we did twenty years ago.
Whenever I attend a show like this—a great peek into the minds of nutritionists and food scientists—I come away with the resolution that today’s the day I start my macrobiotic diet. But then, I’m prone to making sweeping, large-scale changes. Or at least prone to thinking that I will.
Which brings me to the mantra expressed over and over again at the conference: “Small Changes.” The powers that be in the food nutrition world have pretty much given up on (for good reason) the concept that the American consumer will ever kick our terrible eating habits, even with the strongest of intentions. But it took a “Joint Task Force of the American Society for Nutrition, Institute of Food Technologists and International Food Information Council” to draw this conclusion?
Waves of grain
A month has gone by since the Commodity Classic in Texas. The economy still struggles but agriculture is holding its own.
The refrain I heard over and over again in my talks with growers and exhibitors at the show was “People need to eat.”
These sentiments were echoed in the business section of the March 21st issue of The Economist. The article, titled Green Shoots has a bold call-out, “No matter how bad things get, people still need to eat.” No, I am not comparing my crack reporting with the writers at The Economist but I am calling out the mantra of the Ag world, “People need to eat.” The article is mostly about China and how their consumption rate is growing leaps and bounds.
