Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
iPhone launch hype, the day after
I wasn’t planning on purchasing an iPhone (primarily because I’m on T-Mobile), but I’ve been watching the hype and subsequent launch with great interest. I love smartphones and tend to buy a new one every six months or so. Partly because of new features I *need* and the rest is I just love playing with the newest gadgets (much to my wife’s dismay).
I’ve been waiting for years for mobile content development to really take off, but there has yet to be a compelling reason for developers to make a big push into the mobile web. Yes, we have billions of people using SMS, but there’re not surfing the web on their phones. With Apple’s marketing muscle, I have hope we may be moving closer to a turning point.
After yesterday’s iPhone launch, I was excited to start reading some of the initial feedback this morning. Of course I started with my Twitter friends. Here’s the summary: some like Steve Rubel are complaining they now have an iBrick due to activation issues while others like Scoble are praising the iPhone as the second coming.
It appears that those who were actually able to activate their iPhone absolutely love the device. Prior to Friday’s launch, all the concerns were on the phone’s technology (potential issues with touch screen typing) and the speed of AT&T’s network. In reality, the biggest issue is just getting the phones activated so purchasers can start using them.
It will be interesting to see over the coming days where the fault for this lies. Was it AT&T not being prepared for the onslaught of new iPhone customer activations? Or was it Apple for forcing iPhone activations through the recently updated iTunes?
If you purchased an iPhone, I’d love to hear your initial thoughts.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Podcast Available on Using RSS for Marketing
SXSW has finally posted the full audio podcast of the panel I moderated called Using RSS for Marketing. In addition, a short highlight video podcast was posted as well.
Check them out to get a feel for the content at the SXSW conference and learn about marketing with RSS from the panelists which included Emily Chang, Bill Flitter, Greg Reinacker, and John Jantsch.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Strategic marketing with blogs for your business
Last week I spoke at a conference on expanding a business beyond the local region. My talk focused on using blogs, feeds, and social networks for marketing a business and expanding its presence. One of the questions that came up was how to respond to negative comments and posts from users and detractors. In other words, should we use these types of Internet services to react or respond to bloggers who may be attacking my business?
My first response was that having negative comments or posts written about your company is a good thing. Why? Well, two main reasons. First, it means people are actually using your product/service and they care enough about the impact of your business on their lives to write about it. You don’t complain if you don’t care. Positive or negative, at least there is some interest.
All feedback is good for your business. My second point is if numerous people are writing about a problem or issue, they may have some valid points. The initial reaction is that the business is being attacked, but step back for a minute and see what can be learned from these unsolicited comments. From personal experience, I know that when bloggers have criticized our products they had valid points at the time. This feedback, while initially disappointing, enabled us to look more closely at the product and fix those issues. You’re not going to get that kind of free, brutally honest feedback anywhere else.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Web Development and User Friendliness
I saw the following quote in the comments of a blog post today:
It’s been developed using newest web2.0 technologies so it’s fast and user friendly.
This was written by the developer of a newly released web application. I’m not trying to embarrass anyone here, so I’ll leave off the name and the application. So what’s wrong with this statement? It’s the assumption (by many I might add), that using Web 2.0 technologies leads to a speed increase and user friendliness.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 4% [?]
Regional sites using Internet marketing to promote area
MyRetailRoanoke.com launched yesterday with the goal of aggressively seeking and attracting retailers to Roanoke, Virginia. The City of Roanoke, with the efforts of Stuart Mease, have done an excellent job recently of implementing a Internet based strategic marketing plan to promote the region’s opportunities and economic development efforts. From blogging to MySpace to videos on YouTube, the city is making great strides in highlighting the area’s attractive qualities for businesses, residents, and visitors. I’d also like to note that these two Roanoke sites are prominently using RSS feeds and podcasts.
Technorati Tags: marketing, internet, roanoke, rss
Popularity: 6% [?]
SXSW Interactive panel accepted and finalized
Back in September, I wrote about my panel proposal for the 2007 SXSW Interactive Festival. I’m pleased to announce my panel “Using RSS for Marketing” was accepted last month. Now that the panel is set with a time and some great speakers, I decided to provide the details for those interested in attending SXSW this year.
The panel is set for Sunday, March 11, 2007 from 10-11am. Our speakers include:
John Jantsch - Duct Tape Marketing
Look for some posts in the upcoming months as we bounce some ideas off our readers to see if we can enhance the value and content of this panel. If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know.
SXSW also has a list of the confirmed speakers and panels for the event.
Popularity: 12% [?]
Online polls with PollDaddy
Richard MacManus of Read/WriteWeb writes that PollDaddy has launched into public beta. I’ve seen so many of these apps that I’ve largely ignored them. I figured if and when I had a need for a poll, I’d go check them all out. PollDaddy looked simple enough to get started though that I finally tried creating a poll to see how it works.
I decided to create a poll on a topic I’m quite passionate about and have blogged about in the past - full vs partial text RSS feeds. Here is the poll displayed as a widget via JavaScript (a link appears if the JavaScript is disabled):
Overall, PollDaddy is quite slick and the admin tools for managing your polls are well done and easy to use. I was quickly able to create a poll, add it to my site, and then view the results. They also allow for custom styling, but I opted for one of the basic defaults.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Squidoo review
I finally had a chance to play around with Squidoo last night and I’m impressed. As Seth Godin’s brainchild, I had been meaning to fully check Squidoo out for some time now.
Some have questioned the usefulness of the service, but I have to disagree. Squidoo can’t be evaluated against creating a blog or having a web site. The service is more of a mini portal to different topics. For the publisher of a Squidoo lens, the advantage is the ability to create another resource to highlight expertise on a subject providing users a great starting point on a particular topic.
Read the rest of this entry »
Popularity: 100% [?]
New EvolvePoint web site launched
EvolvePoint launched its newly redesigned
Popularity: 4% [?]
Click fraud exposed
The Washington Post has an insightful article on click fraud.
To Texas-based Auctions Expert International LLC, it was an easy way to make money on the Internet. Sign up with Google, which functions as a kind of online ad agency, and agree to let the online giant place ads on your Web site. Then, every time someone clicks on one of the ads, the advertiser pays a fee, and Google shares that fee with Auctions Expert.
Popularity: 7% [?]
