Every brand has a story and every story has a purpose. But what does your story say about you?
The Storyteller Marketing session was fantastic. It’s a different way at looking at marking. Some presenters didn’t even consider themselves marketers, instead, storytellers. It’s all about finding or creating a story that will spread, in a positive way, around the web, from mouth to mouth and be more than just some advertising campaign.
A few good examples that they provided included Dove’s Pro-Aging, Kleenex stories and Apple’s recent Mac & PC. Sometimes the stories are true, sometimes their created, but they are never fake. You can’t pay someone to pretend to have a story as it doesn’t work. It’s got to be real.
Gary Stein talked about how powerful stories are. It’s the most powerful form of communication and you can change someone’s behavior by telling them a story. People are interested in product […]
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Written by on August 18th, 2008 with no comments.
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Viral makes you think of something horrible, right? Like an outbreak of a virus taking over the world’s population and turning us all into zombies? Well, trust me, when it comes to online promotions and link building, “viral” means “success”.
During the session this morning, we heard a lot of fantastic tips for how to create and promote viral campaigns. Fionn Downhill of Elixir Interactive gave some fantastic statistics about the use of social media for viral marketing purposes and how to leverage that to gain buzz for your product.
According to a recent Nielsen study, 78% of respondents trusted recommendations from consumers over what they read in the newspapers. This is nothing new, as word of mouth has always been one of the most trusted sources of information, but finding out where consumers are getting these recommendations (blogs, online media, etc.) is very important. Fionn also showed that 7 out of […]
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Written by on August 18th, 2008 with no comments.
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Though I do try to stay away from any political overtones in this blog I do believe that Dan’s post on Barack Obama Social Media Round-Up deserves being mentioned. Now I wouldn’t even comment on on my position, though I have to admit that it is pretty exciting to watch US politics these days, but would like to delve a little deeper on the social media aspect of the post.
If you read Dan’s post, and I encourage you to read his post since it is interesting and well-written (besides it would help you understand my post better), what you’ll learn is that:
Social media has become so ubiquitous that the political world has given it a nod
Social media is powerful enough to help win an election
Social media alone is not enough to win an election - This is derived from Dan’s statement that Obama won not because of social media but […]
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Written by on June 10th, 2008 with no comments.
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Lately there’s been quite a bit of brouhaha over a fairly popular bit of hoax marketing involving a teenager, stolen credit cards, and prostitutes. I’m no stranger to hoax marketing in fact I advocated it back in 2006 and have been debating it with Matt Cutts for at least as long. While I don’t expect either of our viewpoints will change, I have to say I find the disclosure that Google will now be taking steps against hoax marketing an amusing bit of hypocrisy. What we have is another in long list of double standards and selective application of Google justice especially when it involves internet marketers or SEO’s. Don’t believe me read on for some examples …
When Michael Arrington of Techcrunch wrote a bit hoax marketing about suing facebook did google remove the 1200+ links, since techcrunch ranks #1 for [techcrunch sues facebook] I’m going to say nope […]
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Written by on May 27th, 2008 with no comments.
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Interactive agency Digital Axle sent out pitches to a number of bloggers this morning promoting a “viral video” that I wanted to share. Mind you, I’m not going to share the actual video because it’s sick, racist and violent. “Man makes racist insults, gets asphyxiated and beaten to death by young Asian girls and their parents while another man obliviously chats on his Bluetooth headset nearby.” If you’re into that sort of thing you can find it on your own.
What I AM sharing is the pitch email and a few screen shots. I get so many pitches each day even though there’s nothing on our contact form to indicated we’re interested in being pitched. It’s so easy to just click delete and move on to the day’s work.
This one was simply not appropriate and while some would argue I am indirectly contributing to the video’s objectives of drawing attention to […]
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Written by on February 4th, 2008 with no comments.
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A slew of SES Chicago attendees sat in on the session - Igniting Viral Campaigns - to learn how they just might create the next Burger King Chicken Campaign, in which Burger King was able to increase chicken sandwich sales with a website and a subservient chicken.
Maybe we’re not all looking to sell more chicken sandwiches, but we are looking to take a message and make it viral.
Each panelist provided insight on what they believe to be the keys to making content buzzworthy.
Bill Hanekamp, CEO, The Well hammered home the importance of relevancy to session attendees.
According to Bill, we all need to ask ourselves the following question:
1. With all the content on our websites, does anyone care?
If you can answer yes to the question above, then you can move onto the 4 fundamental elements of creating buzzworthy content which include:
1. Entertaining
2. Relevancy
3. Timeliness
4. Exclusivity
Ed Kim, Chief Executive Officer, […]
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Written by on December 3rd, 2007 with no comments.
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Day 3 at SES San Jose found me assigned to cover the session “Link Baiting & Viral Search Success.”
Those who’ve read my previous posts should find it as no surprise that my level of excitement for this session superseded any residual aches and pains left over from last night’s “decadence based in relevance” superbash Google Dance.
(Personal Note: None of the stories you’ve heard regarding the TopRank team at this event are accurate. Except the one about how we met up with AC/DC’s tour bus afterwords and partied with them all night - that one’s true**)
This session, moderated by SES co-chair Chris Sherman included on its panel:
Chris Boggs, Search Strategist, Avenue A
Jennifer Laycock, Editor-In-Chief, Search Engine Guide
Rebecca Kelley, Search Marketing Consultant, SEOmoz.org
Cameron Olthius, Advantage Consulting Services
The beauty of a strong link baiting campaign, as described by the panel, is that with potentially as little one day’s work you […]
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Written by on August 22nd, 2007 with no comments.
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So what is the coolest new viral campaign online and why? Check out www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com and then come back here.
There isn’t anything on the page, is there?
Certainly not that photo of Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent that can be found by removing “too” from the URL: www.ibelieveinharveydent.com
There’s simply a message saying “Page Not Found”.
Do you feel like me the first time you viewed this site, thinking that you must have missed part of an exciting new campaign for the upcoming Batman epic “The Dark Knight”, of which Harvey Dent, Gotham’s DA and future criminal mastermind “Two Face” would, surely play an integral role? Do you feel compelled, like I did, to search out a forum for more?
No need for that - I’ll tell you everything you need to know here.
First, while viewing the www.ibelieveinharveydenttoo.com site, go to the “Edit” option in your browser and select “Select All”. Without spoiling […]
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Written by on August 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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Facebook recently deployed an applications programs interface allowing users to create widgets or share applications within their network.
One application in particular caught my interest as it allows you to turn your virtual self into a zombie and “infect” other people by biting them (through email invitation of course). Your zombie gains points as you infect more and more people. In the 3 days that I have had the application up and running, I have infected 6 people who have infected others as well.
After accumulating a certain number of zombie points by infecting others, your virtual self reaches the next level after which you are able upgrade to another type of zombie. In all, nearly 400,000 Facebook users currently subscribe to the zombie application.
The way I see it, this is a perfect opportunity for viral marketing - no pun intended. While there are characteristics of the zombie application that […]
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Written by on August 17th, 2007 with no comments.
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