Communication Creatif

SEO for Bloggers

2010-06-20T20:31:00.000-07:00

The best bloggers are passionately interested in a topic and want to share their expertise with others. While some of these bloggers are happy to give voice to their opinions with no thought of compensation or building a large audience, other bloggers have an interest in monetizing their blog and reaching as many people as possible with their message. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process by which a blog or website is made more likely appear in search results when someone enters a query into a search engine. Search engines use a variety of factors to determine the relevancy of a website or blog. By understanding these factors and making a few changes to your website or blog, you can improve your ranking in the search engines and increase the likelihood that you’ll be recommended by the search engines to their users. Blogs and websites that are not optimized for search engines are more likely to get lost among the millions of competing websites on the web. One of the first areas a blogger should look at when addressing
SEO for their blog is blog structure. While this will vary according to your blog’s platform and hosting site, the following SEO recommendations are universal. Content should be your first concern. You should always highlight your best content. Feature your most popular posts in a highly visible area of your blog. Chances are if the majority of your existing audience found those posts helpful or interesting, the majority of new visitors to your blog will, too.Secondly, make sure that you block any duplicate content on your blog. Search engines love fresh content but not if it’s duplicated! You might be penalized in the rankings because the search engine thinks that you’re trying to engage in “keyword stuffing” or other type of spam behavior. Thirdly, choose categories for your posts that use popular keywords related to your topic. These are the terms your audience is searching for in queries. There are a number of free keyword research tools that can help you identify these terms. I like the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Make sure your posts and pages are tagged properly with these terms for optimum ranking. Fourth, be sure to point to previous and next posts on each page. This helps the search crawlers that look for information and report back to Google find the information on your site more easily. It also helps your visitors find the information they’re looking for. Lastly, make sure that your page titles list the relevant information before the site name. Many blogging platforms, such as Wordpress take care of this automatically for you now. Think “relevance” and you’ll be thinking like a search engine!Video, images and other media can also assist a blogger in their optimization efforts. While search engines cannot determine the content in a video, videos are appearing in the front page of search results. Videos and images should be tagged properly with keywords and descriptions for optimal results. One of the newest ways to increase the SEO of your blog is through the use of social media. Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr are based upon engagement. Google is now streaming real-time feedback from these sites in their search results. The more you can engage with your blog’s visitors on these sites, the more relevant your blog will appear to the search engines. In addition, this engagement will drive traffic to your blog.Whether monetization of your blog is your ultimate goal or not, optimizing your blog for search engines enables you to reach more of your intended audience with your message.

Social Media Campaigns Part 1

2009-10-30T09:52:00.000-07:00

Do you know the saying, "Doctors make the worst patients"?
Well, this Internet Marketer has been so busy marketing as of late, that I fear I haven't set a very good example for my readers and have neglected to update my blog in some time.

Many of you know that I am the Marketing Director for the Lady of the Lakes Renaissance Faire.
The Faire will be held in Tavares, Florida November 5-8 of this year so the last month or so found me engaged in dedicated, focused, target marketing. The Faire doesn't appeal just to one demographic. We actually have several, very distinct groups that we market to. These groups are varied in their interests and activities and they aren't all reached via the same communication tools, so it has been both challenging and rewarding to research where to find these individuals and how to best communicate with them.

I am happy to report that if advance online ticket sales for the Faire are any indication, we will have record-breaking attendance this year. I believe strongly that this increase is due to our efforts to establish and maintain a strong presence on social media sites and to frequently monitor them to respond to comments, answer questions and correct misinformation when necessary.

Curious as to what we did? Wondering if you can achieve the same results? While YMMV based on a number of different factors, following these guidelines can help your social media campaign get off to a great start:

1) Set goals

A lot of companies feel pressured to get on the social media bandwagon and don't stop to develop a strategy before diving in. What are you hoping to achieve from having a social media presence? Do you understand the differences and purposes between Twitter and Facebook? What about LinkedIn and MySpace? Do you need to be on ALL of them? How much time do you realistically have to monitor the conversation on these sites?

2) Spam much?

The old model of advertising is based on interruption. TV commercials interrupt your favorite show. Print ads interrupt your reading. Radio ads interrupt your music.
"Buy me!", They would shout. "I'm great. I'm the best. I'm better than the competitor because I ______."

In a word association study performed recently, do you know what the number one word was that people associated with the word "advertising"? It was the word "false".

The social media generation doesn't take kindly to the use of these methods anymore. They don't have to put up with interruption. They can DVR their favorite shows and fast forward through the commercials. They can listen to music all day long via Internet radio or iTunes and never have to hear a single radio ad.
If your intention is to log onto social media sites and talk AT your customers instead of WITH them, please save yourself the trouble and don't bother.
They will revolt. They will accuse you of spamming them (sending them unwanted messages) and they will block you and shut you out of their lives forever.

The primary value of social media is relational, NOT transactional!

Can you profit from having an online presence? Absolutely. Can you enjoy a large ROI on your social media investment? No question.
But you can't do it using the old methods.

3) Find the Influencers

Did you know that there is a social media site designed just for moms? How about one designed exclusively for senior citizens? African Americans? Ren Faire Geeks like me?
I read so often abou the supposed importance of Ashton Kutcher having over a million Twitter followers and what an "influence" he has as a result of those numbers. Ashton has a wide audience. If you could catch his ear and ask him to tweet about your company, that would certainly help build awareness- but it wouldn't necessarily result in a huge increase in sales. If however, you found an individual with say, only 300 followers, but every last one of those followers were positively RABID about the type of product you sold, you could easily sell more via that person's influence than Ashton's.
Find your target audience's influencers. Partner with them. Repeat.

More ideas and tips in Part II!

Evolution of Storytelling

2009-09-28T15:11:00.000-07:00

Maria Popova created a fabulous motion typography piece on the evolution of storytelling. Click here to view it and be inspired.

What impossibilities are you challenging today?

Why I plan to attend IZEAfest

2009-09-26T09:58:00.000-07:00

On Thursday of this week, I will be attending the IZEAfest social media conference at SeaWorld Orlando. In researching the event and the speakers who will be attending this year, I came across a blog posting by a man named Charles who explains why he's decided NOT to attend IZEAfest.

In his post he states that his primary reason for not attending is because the event is "not marketed as an event to be taken seriously."

Admittedly, Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA and the rest of the organizers and promoters of this event are making no secret of the fact that this is going to be a fun event. Nor are they making any apologies for it. Is this a marketing fail? Should they be making more of an effort to promote IZEAfest as the typical dry, boring, educational conference we're all used to?

By highlighting the frivolity and foolishness of the after-hour activities, are they perpetuating the myth that bloggers are lazy sell-outs who can't hold down a "real" job and just want to lounge around in their pajamas all day goofing off on the Internet and calling it work?

I think the best way to answer this is to tell you why I AM going to IZEAfest.

#1- The speakers.
Charles admits that he's missing out by not hearing the speakers and he's right. Ted Murphy, CEO of IZEA is giving the keynote speech on the importance of personal branding. Aaron Brazell, owner of Technosailor.com, is also delivering a keynote on the marks of an influencer. Social Media expert Chris Brogan will also be there along with a host of bloggers, social media gurus and marketing mavens who will be teaching this lowly blogger how to increase traffic to my site, work with affiliates and marketing agencies and generate better content. The information being presented is current, relevant and most importantly to me, coming directly from those in the blogging trenches who have proven the efficacy of the techniques they're presenting.

#2- The Networking
Blogging from the comfort of your personal home office is convenient, relaxing... and incredibly lonely. The Internet gives us the ability to make contact with fascinating individuals from all over the world but it can never, and should never, replace face to face contact. By attending IZEAfest, I have the ability to meet some of my favorite bloggers in person. I'm looking forward to sharing ideas, commiserating and having meaningful discourse with my colleagues as we navigate the ever-changing and always challenging conditions of the blogosphere together.

#3- The Energy
Creative individuals are fun, energetic, chaotic and unpredictable. Get a big group of them together and anything can happen! The electricity created by the gathering together of the attendees of this event is a definite intangible bonus for me. Just being in that atmosphere will motivate me to learn more, do more, risk more...and there's simply no way to duplicate that in my home office.

Charles doesn't think the event was marketed to be taken seriously. I ask, "By Whom?"
The folks at IZEA aren't amateurs at marketing. They weren't promoting this event to accountants and tax attorneys. They were promoting it to bloggers and bloggers took it seriously. Ted Murphy and his gang sought out the biggest names in social media and invited them to share their expertise and insight with the attendees during two full days of intensive training sessions. They also scheduled a series of fun, after-hours activities which include a high level of frivolity and foolishness. (Shaving cream is a key ingredient in one event.) Unprofessional you say? Maybe. But to make a living blogging, as many of these attendees do, requires a high level of self-motivation and hard work. It doesn't happen overnight. No one stands over them and makes them blog. They find the self-discipline to make it happen. If these folks want to blow off some steam during some fun activities designed by their creative and fun-loving event organizers, who's to fault them? Ted Murphy's personal brand is "fun-loving".
For him to create a stodgy, stiff event would be both inauthentic and ineffective.

For that matter, most of the conferences I've attended, regardless of the type of industry putting on the training, have had a large contingent of participants go out after hours to the local watering hole. IZEA is simply sanctioning this behavior and providing transportation. (Which seems like a rather responsible decision when you think about it.)

IZEA created, marketed and successfully sold this event to bloggers because they understood (the wide majority) of their target market and bravely communicated to them in a way they knew they would respond to, even if the rest of the world didn't.

Be true to yourself and be true to your audience and watch how seriously they take you.

2009-09-18T16:56:00.001-07:00

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Convergence

2009-09-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

More evidence that the media landscape is undergoing a tremendous shift:

Did You Know? 4.0

Note the use of creative communication techniques to convey the information found in relatively dry facts and figures in a way that would be interesting and engaging to the viewer.

Communication Revolution

2009-09-13T13:09:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing is a relatively new field. New enough, in fact, that when I tell people what I'm majoring in, they frequently need me to define what it is exactly that I'm studying.
In the past, I have attempted to explain that I am becoming educated in traditional marketing methodology but am also learning how to use these methods more effectively via new technologies like the Internet.
The way the world communicates is changing. Social media and the Internet are not a fad; they are, in fact, the key players in a communication revolution.
This video, which has gone "viral" since its release (meaning that it has been shared widely by millions of viewers), clearly demonstrates the effect that the Internet and social media has had on the ways we exchange information, make purchases, search for answers to our questions and form relationships. Are you learning the language of social media and the Internet?
As author David Meerman Scott says, "We are what we publish." In this increasingly digital age, if you're not maintaining a presence on these new media channels, you don't exist to many of your potential customers.

United Singing the Blues Over Broken Guitar

2009-07-15T18:45:00.000-07:00

I saw this story on The Inspiration Room blog and wanted to share a few lessons from it with Communication Creatif readers.

David Carroll, a singer with the Canadian group, Sons of Maxwell, took his guitar on a United Airlines flight only to discover upon touchdown in Chicago that it had been damaged, allegedly by some overzealous baggage attendants.

Perhaps you've seen United's "It's Time to Fly" campaign on TV which "celebrates the optimism and sense of adventure of frequent business travelers."
Undoubtedly, Mr. Carroll was feeling optimistic when he called United and asked to be reimbursed for the damages to his guitar. One would imagine that his optimism waned however, when he hit a brick wall over and over again with the customer service agents and no one at United either took responsibility nor compensated Mr. Carroll for his loss.

One hopes that the folks at United realize that this is not the sort of adventure Mr. Carroll was expecting when he chose United over Southwest or other airlines.

So, Mr. Carroll did what millions of heartbroken musicians have done throughout history. He poured out his troubles in a song. Not just one song actually, but three to be exact. He then made accompanying music videos and released them on YouTube.
You can guess what happened next.

In the last week, over 3 million viewers have heard the message "United breaks your stuff and doesn't care."

Had the situation been resolved by United's customer service department in the beginning, a handful of people would have known about the problem and United would hve been out about $3,000. Now, 3 million people have been told, United's reputation has been sullied and they could potentially lose thousands of dollars in revenue.

If you follow this blog, you know that I repeatedly stress the importance of taking care of your customers and remaining true to your brand promise.

It's the difference between dancing all the way to the bank...or singing the blues.

Sanctifying the Humble Mattress

2009-04-19T08:15:00.000-07:00

Imagine for a moment that you're a mattress company looking to tell the story of one person's satisfaction with your product.

Do you try to find an insomniac who was cured by your product?
Maybe a couple whose love life was rekindled courtesy of your mattress?

If you're Flex Mattress, you take a more original approach.
You tell the story of a woman who uses your mattress on which to deliver her child in a home birth. Flex Mattress Commercial

But why would Flex Mattress feature such an uncommon use for their product? Why not cater the ad to their primary demographic: people looking for a good night's sleep?

First of all, sleeping is boring. It's a basic human function, we all do it but frankly, it's not very exciting. An ad based on sleeping would need to add humor or a bit of raciness to get noticed.

Secondly, the topic of homebirthing is controversial. We'll talk more about the value of controversy in a later post. Controversy is exciting! It gets people talking. And the more people you have talking about your product, the more exposure your company receives.

Flex Mattress could've made a funny ad or a racy ad but they decided instead to tell a very personal and poignant story through the eyes of one of their customers. Flex Mattress plays a humble part in this woman's decision to bring her child into the world in the comfort, safety and security of her own home. She wasn't their average customer but she was makes a great story.

Do you know your customers? Are you selling to just a nameless, faceless demographic or are you taking the time to really listen to who your customers are and how they use your product?

Honor your customers. Give them a voice. Let them tell a remarkable story about YOU!

The Importance of Authenticity

2009-04-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

Jack Neff posted this article
in Advertising Age in which he writes about Unilever’s use of social media to communicate their brand message. Some of you may remember reading about Unilever’s video campaign for Dove entitled, “Onslaught” that I wrote about a few posts back.

Unilever got the attention they were looking for - and more than they bargained for in the process.

Among the viewers of the Onslaught campaign were certain members of Greenpeace who produced a parody of the “Onslaught” video entitled Onslaughter
that criticized Dove and Unilever for their purported involvement in razing Indonesian rainforests through their purchases of palm oil.

Their complaint, according to the Greenpeace website states, “Unilever pretends to be an environmentally responsible company, but what it is actually responsible for is destroying areas of rainforest, driving species extinction and speeding up global warming. Being one of the biggest users of palm oil on the planet, Unilever must stop buying palm oil from these companies and call for a halt on the destruction of Indonesian forests to grow palm oil.

This is not the first time Unilever has been the focus of controversy. At approximately the same time the “Onslaught” campaign was launched, a campaign for another of Unilever’s brands, “Axe” was also released. Remember the scantily clad women that Unilever warned us about in the Onslaught video? They were all over the Axe campaign.

A mashup video of the two ads mockingly advised viewers to “Talk to your daughters before Unilever does.”

For years, manufacturers made false promises and invented fake identities and got away with it.

But no more.

Too many eyes are upon you. Too many ears are listening. Web 2.0 has made it so that all of us live in the proverbial fish bowl.

Try to be something you’re not in today’s Internet age and you WILL be exposed!

Authenticity is your only hope.

1) Don’t tell your customers that you care about things you don’t really care about. (Or that you care about them a lot when you only care about them a little bit.)

2) Don’t make promises you can’t deliver.

3) Once you've made promises on which you CAN deliver, don’t go back on them.

4) Don’t pretend to be something that you’re not.

To their credit, Unilever has entered into talks with Greenpeace and is now planning to adopt new targets for sustainable palm-oil sourcing.

They've learned the hard way the value of authenticity.

What about you?

Put your hands in an upright position

2009-03-28T06:08:00.000-07:00

According to the Southwest Airlines website, "The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication
to the highest quality of Customer Service
delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness,
individual pride, and Company Spirit. "

Their company culture has been described more than once as "quirky". This is an airline with its own "blogospondent" who routinely posts about the wild and wacky goings-on in the company.

Nuts About Southwest

The following video is a wonderful example of how Southwest has mastered the art of communicating the mission and culture of its brand in creative and unexpected ways.
As this very talented flight attendant says, "You won't see this on United!"

Rapping flight attendant

Beauty re-defined

2009-03-26T14:58:00.000-07:00

We all know that sex sells.

Or does it?

Lately, I’ve noticed a trend in advertising which reflects a gradual but growing dissatisfaction among women with the unrealistic standards of beauty in the media today.

Before we proceed, let me say that I am in no way insinuating that men have not been objectified by the advertising industry. Case in point:

Diet Coke Construction Worker Commercial


I’ve been following this trend for some time now but the
subject of women and self-esteem took on new life today
when celebrity Kim Kardashian appeared in the news
talking about some photos of herself that were
taken for the cover of Complex magazine.
Thanks to some quality
Photo-shopping and airbrushing, she appears on the
cover as the epitome of womanly perfection.

Unfortunately, after the photo shoot, someone absconded with the un-retouched “before” photos and then published them on the Internet, exposing a horrible truth:

Kim Kardashian has…cellulite. (Insert gasp of shock and disbelief here.)

All this time, we thought she was beautiful, when, in fact, she is actually grotesquely afflicted with lumpy, bumpy, cottage-cheesy blobs of fat, located close to the surface of the skin!

She is…imperfect.

Oddly enough, however, Kim has no immediate plans to get liposuction or check herself into a weight loss clinic to correct this glaring defect. Nor does she seem particularly bothered by it. Her response to the photos was simply, "You know what, who cares? So what! I have a little cellulite. What curvy girl doesn't? How many people do you think are photoshopped? It happens all the time!"

Perhaps Kim was able to take her imperfections being broadcast all over the world so well because she’s been viewing some of the recent ads put out by Dove.

Some of you may already be familiar with Dove’s

Real Beauty

ad campaign which uses real women instead of models in their ads.

As part of that campaign, they created a short film entitled,

Onslaught

that, interestingly enough, doesn’t promote any Dove products at all. Instead, it petitions mothers to talk to their daughters before the beauty industry does. What I find utterly fascinating about this ad is the fact that Dove is a part of the very industry it condemns in these commercials.

What could possibly be Dove’s motivation for engaging in such a campaign?

In my opinion, they are building relationship.

Your customers are far more likely to purchase your product if they trust you. Dove has wisely and effectively adopted “The Caregiver” role for its brand.

Brand roles were discussed

Here

The message communicated through the “Real Beauty” campaign and “Onslaught” film is that women don’t have to look like models to be beautiful. That message, communicated in print ads, via their website and through the Onslaught YouTube video, makes Dove's customers feel like the brand is on their side in the war against the unrealistic images of beauty in our society.

It is then a very short jump in the viewer’s mind from, “I like Dove. I can trust Dove.” to “I want to support Dove and buy Dove products.”

If you’re still using sex to sell your product, this trend toward “real beauty” is definitely something you should be aware of. Sites such as www.realbodystory.com and a simple Twitter search on the words “body image” will lead you to ongoing conversations about body image and this growing dissatisfaction with the unrealistic images of beauty being forced upon women and young girls by the media.

So, be careful.

No matter what your product is or what methods you’re using to sell it, by not listening to and participating in your customers’ conversations, you run the risk of not just creating ineffective ads but of creating ads that actually offend and isolate the very group of people you’re trying to reach.

And when that happens, the results are anything but beautiful.

Hands

2009-03-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

My hands are small I know,

but they’re not yours, they are my own.

No, they’re not yours,

they are my own –

and I am never broken.

-Jewel

8 year old Victoria Petrucelly has small hands.

I recently wrote about Victoria and her fundraising efforts for the MD Anderson Cancer Center

here

After her mother’s untimely death, Victoria bravely made the decision to spend last weekend selling pink lemonade in her honor and donating the proceeds to MD Anderson, where her mother had been a patient, in order to help other cancer victims.

Prior to the sale, a local reporter asked Victoria how many cups of lemonade she was hoping to sell.

“Maybe 50!” She said, with all the wide-eyed wonder of a child.

Her story captured the hearts of many who spread Victoria’s message far and wide. Author Patti Digh wrote about it on her

blog

and set up a donation site for Victoria for out of town donors. Area businesses got on board and donated a percentage of their sales to the cause.

Today at 4pm, 8 year old Victoria Petrucelly presented the MD Anderson Cancer Center with a check for $23, 856.72.

Her good friend Jesse Theobald, who helped man the stand with her and serve over 1500 cups of lemonade, was pleased with the success of their endeavor. "I'm just happy it happened." she says. "When you're a kid, things usually don't happen.

My deepest thanks and respect go to each of you who allowed this to happen for Jesse and Victoria- and for the patients at MD Anderson and their families. Victoria's message of hope and healing was spread far and wide by each of you who wrote about it, blogged about it, Twittered about it and took the time to share it.

Never underestimate the power of social media.

And never underestimate the power of human hands, no matter how small they may be.

Think Pink Lemonade

2009-03-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

This weekend I will purchase pink lemonade from a stand run by 8 yr old Victoria Petrucelly.

The lemonade will be pink in honor of Victoria’s mother, Angela, who died at impossibly young age of 40 on Valentine’s Day of this year from a particularly aggressive form of breast cancer. Angela left behind her husband, little Victoria and a 4 yr old son named Vincent.

All of the money raised from Victoria’s lemonade stand will go to MD Anderson Cancer Center-Orlando where her mother was treated. It’s Victoria’s way of spreading the message of how much she loved her mommy and how important it is that we help other little girls from losing their mommies, too.

As a mother, this tragic event is too horrific, too incomprehensibly painful to consider...and quite frankly, it terrifies me. But I have made it my business to learn how to use social media and Internet marketing effectively to spread a variety of messages. So starting now and continuing through Sunday, I will put my own selfish fear aside and pull out every tool in my Internet Marketing toolbox to support little Victoria and her cause. Won’t you please consider doing the same?

The Pink Lemonade Stand will be March 21st from 9-5 and March 22nd from 11-5 at 1810 Nebraska Street (across from Leu Gardens). If you do not reside in the Orlando area but would still like to donate, please contact the Petrucelly family’s friend Dana Loncar at 407-808-3441.

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Don't be such a wet Slanket

2009-03-16T18:04:00.000-07:00

By now, over 4 million people have become enamored enough with a nifty new product called “The Snuggie” to purchase one for their very own.

Snuggie

(For the yet uninitiated, “The Snuggie” is essentially a blanket with sleeves. Imagine putting a very large fleece robe on backwards and you pretty much have the design concept here.)

What intrigues me the most about the runaway success of “The Snuggie” (Over 4 million sold!) is that this is NOT a new product.

On the contrary.

A similar product has existed since 1998. It is called (rather unfortunately) a “Slanket”.

Let’s review:

1998: The inventor of the “Slanket” (Gary Clegg) commissions his mother to make him the world’s first blanket with sleeves. The product is featured on QVC and gets good press from the likes of The Today Show and Forbes. Some people buy it.

Flash forward 10 years.

2008: A nearly identical product called the “Snuggie” is featured in a cheesy TV commercial. Within months, the commercial becomes a viral hit and millions upon millions of orders pour in from people who (despite a recession) discover that they simply cannot live without “The Snuggie”.

Let’s look at some of the factors which are at work behind the success of Snuggies' marketing campaign:

1) Price: The "Slanket" costs $37.99. The "Snuggie" is currently $19.95. (Plus, if you act now, you can get a second Snuggie absolutely free! But that's not all! You also get this amazing folding book light...)

2) Timing: The country is in the midst of a recession. People are scared and in need of reassurance and comfort. Enter "The Snuggie". For less than $20, you can save on heating costs, wrap yourself in warmth while you leave your hands free to work the remote or surf the Internet while you're job hunting, plus have an extra "Snuggie" to give away as an inexpensive gift!

3) Social Media: This is really where "The Snuggie" blew the sleeves off of "The Slanket".

It's anyone's guess if the creators of the commercial intended for the ad to be taken as a joke but the fact is, people find it hilarious. So hilarious, in fact, that the YouTube version has been viewed over 700,000 times and viewers have forwarded it to other viewers countless more times. Could you duplicate this? Would you want to? Are you willing to be mocked in order to become the next big thing? Remember "The Clapper"? How about, "I've fallen and I can't get up"? You don't have to be annoying or ridiculous to get attention but you DO have to be creative and different. To stand in the corner waiting for you customer to ask you to dance instead of initiating conversation in the social media outlets of today makes you the equivalent of a wet blanket.

4) The name: "Slanket" believe it or not, was not the first name suggested for the product. That dubious honor goes to "The Sleevey". Neither name creates the same sense of warmth and comfort that "The Snuggie" does. Take your time when naming your product.

Gary Clegg is by no means a failure. He continues to successfully market and sell a product that has a loyal following. (Slanketeers he calls them.) Furthermore, you can feel good about ordering from him since his website states, "The Slanket cares about humans. We can't help it! It is how our moms raised us. From our own neighborhood to across the world, we have seen people of all kinds who have encountered adversity. We now want to begin what we hope will be a lifetime of giving, starting with TheSlanket.com. We have decided to donate a portion of sales to three different organizations, which we believe are worthy. As a part of this, we have coupled different color Slankets with different charities. All blue Slankets will raise money for H2O AFRICA. Green, brown, and grey Slankets will help contribute to the NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL. The lavender, ruby wine, and apricot will accumulate funds for the BREAST CANCER RESEARCH FOUNDATION."

As far as this Blogger is concerned, that may be the best lesson of all. Whether your product has a small following or is a worldwide sensation, giving back is always a win-win proposition.

Pimp This Bum

2009-03-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

Internet Marketing doesn't have to cost a fortune. In fact, you can reap tremendous profits with just a cardboard sign, a sharpie, an engaging figure and an important cause. Don't believe me? Just ask Tim Edwards, a homeless man who is the subject of an Internet marketing campaign designed to help the homeless. Controversially titled "Pimp This Bum" the campaign's website:

Pimp This Bum

uses personal interviews with Tim and several of his friends to chronicle his slow fall from office manager with a home, a car, and a future to an outcast short of hope and with little prospect of help. Visitors can also use the site to donate money or services to assist Tim in his recovery. The site has already inspired many to donate, including a drug and alcohol treatment center which has provided a 35 day alcohol abuse treatment program valued at $13, 800 to Tim at no charge.

Why is this working?

Let's start with the name. The two Internet Marketers who are the creators of the campaign chose the controversial name purposely in order to generate "buzz". The more people talk about your site, the more exposure it gets. If they'd named the site something more generic like "Help the Homeless" many web surfers would've never noticed it or just passed it over.

Secondly, the site directs viewers to take a specific action. Every message you send to a potential customer, investor, or supporter of your cause should end in a clear call to action for the visitor such as, "Click here for more information", "Buy now", "Donate", etc.

Thirdly, and most importantly, tell your story. Consumers and supporters want to know WHY?

Why should they buy your product? Why should they donate to your cause?

I'll be sharing more examples of Internet marketers who are using their influence for good in future postings. If you come across any interesting or powerful online campaigns, please share them with me!

Live Every Last Drop

2009-03-10T16:29:00.000-07:00

I’m not a beer drinker but I received the message in a recent Heineken commercial loud and clear. To communicate their message, Heineken used a creative communication technique common to storytellers in which the speaker gives “life” to an inanimate object. In the ad, a green bottle of the brew faces imminent “death” as it is knocked off its resting place atop a bookshelf. As it careens toward the floor, its “life” flashes before its eyes.

See full ad here:

Heineken Commercial

The message is to “Live Every Last Drop”.

This technique of giving a product its own voice is very effective for helping your customers relate to your product.

“But my product isn’t real!” You say. “It doesn’t speak!”

Maybe not directly. But every time you place an ad, film a commercial or tape an interview, you are speaking on behalf of your product. You are sending a message. How much more compelling might that message be if you were to let your product speak for itself?

You can start by answering this question. If your product were a character in a story, what role would it play? Would it be a hero that saves the day? A jester that encourages customers to lighten up and live a little? A rebel with a thirst for danger?

What brands can you think of that have these characteristics? When you watch commercials or see ads for these products, are they being portrayed in a way that is consistent with their character? We’re all familiar with the jolt we feel when we get to know a character on a TV show or movie and the character behaves in a way that is…well… out of character for the character. It’s disconcerting and when it happens, we generally fault the storyteller for inconsistency.

Try this: Assign a voice to your product and then keep your product’s messages consistent with who your product is.

And, for goodness sake, please don’t set your beverages down where they might get knocked over! They hate that.

If you don't believe me, just ask them!

Producers vs consumers

2009-03-09T04:05:00.000-07:00

Do you produce a product? Do you know who you your customers are? If so, you work hard to ensure that the message your company sends out is compelling enough to your customer to make them buy your product, right? How about your face to face interactions? Are they consistent with your message and compelling to the consumer? A few years ago when I lived in Virginia, my family and I would frequent a local ice cream parlor every Sunday afternoon. The shop was family owned and the owner would usually serve us personally. Rocky Road with side of political commentary was his special. Ice Cream Man knew I was a stay at home mother when he launched into a rant about the state of the economy one afternoon. "I'm a small business owner", he bragged. "It's producers like me that keep our economy going." Then glancing at me and my two sons, their little faces sticky with marshmallow and melty fudge chips, he dismissed my two meager contributions to the world by stating with a wave of his hand, "You're consumers." At that, I swung around in my stool so he could get a good profile of my 7 month pregnant belly, swollen with son number 3 and stated, "I disagree. I'm a producer, too... I produce consumers. Several of which used to buy your product."
The following week, we began frequenting a different ice cream parlor.

What can YOU do to celebrate World Theatre Day?

2009-03-07T23:07:00.001-08:00

What can YOU do to celebrate World Theatre Day?

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Welcome to my blog!

2009-03-07T15:02:00.001-08:00

Communication is a two way process. There is a communicator and an audience.
As an Internet Marketer, my job is help clients refine their message, identify their audience and find the best ways to spread their message to that audience.
How many messages do you receive in a day? How do you decide which messages to listen to and which ones to ignore? With all the competition for your attention, the messages that get noticed are the most creative. They are the ones that make you pause, make you laugh or connect with your emotions. Once you've received the message, you want to pass it on because it's unlike anything you've ever seen or heard before.
Join me as I share the messages that catch my attention. We'll discuss what makes them creative and effective and I'll help you make your message, whatever it is, reach more of your intended audience.