Tag Archives: google

Two Marketing Guys Walk Into a Branding Storm…

Ice cream vendor s bicycleFor marketers, 2010 has thus far been a tough year – at least on the branding front. We’ve seen the downfall of several of the world’s top brands, including the ongoing BP oil spill debacle and the ensuing fallout for its corporate image and brand, along with Google’s recent privacy concern issues and several other high-profile branding dustups.

A recent Financial Times article (PDF Version) examined the perils of a tarnished brand. After reading the article, we thought it might be interesting to examine the broader issues and implications from a marketer’s perspective, with Jeff Esposito coming from the point of view of a corporate communications guy working for a global brand (Vistaprint), and Keith examining this issue from the perspective of a PR agency exec who works with SMBs, global brands and everything in between. Continue reading

Thank You For Being A Friend

Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World Gala - Inside
She's the one in the middle

One of the best examples of the power of social media was the campaign to get Betty White on Saturday Night Live. How awesome is that that millions of people found a page on Facebook and decided to become a fan of it (or, “like” it), ultimately resulting in Betty White hosting Saturday Night Live? I’m pretty sure no one imagined that something like this could happen, but producers (Lorne Michaels and company) actually listened to what the millions of people were saying. So the masses did it – social media got Betty White on Saturday Night Live, but was it the right person to waste a campaign on? Continue reading

Facebook+Privacy=#SoWhat?

Businessman Using BinocularsDo you ever feel like you are the only one that believes in something or honestly doesn’t care at all about something? For example, I feel that the botched Times Square bomber should suffer a public execution, regardless of if it was a failed terrorist attempt. I’m rooting for the guillotine, but a hanging or stoning would be fine in my book as well. When I say things like this people look at me like I’m so weird.  Umm, my words to you…you spend all day in the spot he tried to bomb and then come back to me. Anyway, that’s just an example of what I’m discussing here.

So what’s the big deal with Facebook messing up this week? Everytime Facebook makes one mistake the Internet blows up saying so much nonsense.  Ahhhh Privacy! I’ve been exposed, I have to run for the hills and bitch about it! People, it’s the Internet…as mentioned in previous posts nothing is private. Continue reading

Back To The Basics

Classroom rulesWith the Internet constantly evolving, I feel like we have forgotten some of the basic rules of thumb that we all used to go by years and years ago. From the first day in 1993 or whenever I was in third grade, my father would always remind me of some of the following rules. I thought that this would be a good time to remind everyone about these rules, just because everyone needs a gentle reminder from time to time.

1. Everything you send, every website you visit, everything you type is there forever – Now I’ll be the first to say that I say what I want, when I want to, with or without censors, but I do have to put myself in check sometimes. Sometimes I do go overboard a little bit, and definitely don’t think what the consequences could be in the long run. Do I really want to be known as the guy that plagued the Internet with poop and jokes 5 years from now? Continue reading

Please Remove Me From Your List…or Not…

Mail falling from letterbox onto doormat (Digitally Enhanced)As publicists we are constantly plagued by the famed phrase “Please remove me from your list.” Alright, fine, no big deal, we all know that what you’re really trying to say is, “Ugh, I’m so sorry but I don’t know where my delete button is and your e-mail is going to permanently stay in my inbox.” We get it, we got it. Woo. Sometimes we are all privileged to get messages saying, “YOU MOTHER #$%^$# PIECE OF @#$% REMOVE ME FROM YOUR $%^&*% LIST” (You can tell this person is young). Or you get the “I’m telling all your clients you wrongly e-mailed me” (This person is old).

Anyway, this week I was added to a list. Not just a mass e-mail list, a list attached to an e-mail so that when you replied to it, everyone on the list got it. About 10 of my colleagues, and about 150 others I imagine were all included on this e-mail. Continue reading

The Future of Sales…Twitter

Salesman Making PitchIt’s very interesting to see the evolution of social media. From just networking with friends and looking at fun pictures, to conducting business and measuring interaction, social media has become the means of communication. The response time of a complaint or compliment on when someone is mentioned is astonishing. One time I mentioned, “Everytime Kate Perry E-mails me, I get excited for a split second thinking it was the singer, then it’s Vocus” and instantly Vocus responds “We’ll be sure to mention that to Kate!”

Its a great feeling having your voice heard, just recently I tweeted something negative about Cision, our best friend and worst enemy. I tweeted that Cision was going way too slowly and i’m sure I did a big “You Suck,” but I instantly got a response asking to do something to my brower to speed it up. Great customer service there. However, that is not the point of this post. Continue reading

The Power of the Smartphone

Samsung Launch New Smart PhonesPeople made fun of me for weeks, months actually. I was like the kid that never got those sneakers with the lights in them when I was in first grade. I’ve dealt with a lot of laughs and the brunt of jokes, but I finally did it. I said goodbye to the 2005 flip phone, and finally got a smartphone!

A bit overwhelmed, and a bit scared at first, I opened up the box to the Droid and got a little bit weak in the knees, started to drool, and then realized I had a lot of work to do and couldn’t touch it till that evening. After figuring it out how to turn it on, it was an amazing experience. Continue reading

Insightful Thoughts from Andy Rooney

Katie Couric Hosts 18th Annual Broadcasting & Cable Hall Of Fame Awards

It’s 2010, yep, a new decade, new life. I’ll be the first to admit it, I hate Andy Rooney. There are two people who I hate more than anything one of them is Andy Rooney (no, I won’t tell you the other). The ancient man is 91 and I think it’s about time for him to retire, say goodbye to journalism, and just get a house on the beach in Mexico where no one can find him again. The old guy should just resign.

Anyone in PR should be watching “60 Minutes” every week. The show is a league apart from any other news program out there, and it gets tainted by ending each week with that man that just complains about life. Andy Rooney is the perfect example of why there are such misunderstandings between generations — because they refuse to adapt to the times. Continue reading

Seriously? Goog v. Bing search Twitter

Twin brother and sister (10-12) retrieving cuddly toy from under bed, ground view Disclaimer – I’m a Google Harlot.  With minor exception, if Google offers it, I use it.  Yup, I’m on Wave (along with most of PRBC and BTW,  if anyone’s got a few extra invites, we’ve still got some holes to fill), I used Google Docs back before it was Docs (Writely was acquired by Google and then morphed into Docs), Maps, Earth, pretty much everything.  I usually prefer Google search to Twitter search for finding old tweets – a username or two, a keyword, isolate the search to twitter.com and frequently I can dig out old tweets with minimal difficulty.

So Microsoft’s Beta launch of the Bing Twitter search was a disappointment for me.  I had been unimpressed with any of Microsoft’s search engines (The original Microsoft search/MSN search, Live, Bing, meh….). So I had little hope.  The one big selling point a proper Twitter search would give it a longer memory. Continue reading