How has it taken me until the final year of the noughties to discover folk metal?
Miscellaneous
[Interview] Wayne Sutton
[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/Ae7cZIyEcw]
HubSpot interview with Wayne Sutton on how to use social media to build a personal or small business brand online. Good points about trust and transparency, relationship marketing and referral based on reputation.
Our finest minds truly are working in banking …
Meet Prawo Jazdy
Exciting new crisp flavours? More like a dirty protest in mass-produced packets
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/16/walkers-crisps-new-flavours-brooker
“Walkers are keen to point out that “no squirrels were harmed in the making of this crisp”, which is a pity because I had chucklesome visions of thousands of live, screaming squirrels being bulldozered into an immense bubbling cauldron in front of a party of horrified schoolchildren. “
Best Recession Marketing Investment? Relationships
http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/02/best-recession-marketing-investment-relationships/
“As companies decide where to invest their limited marketing resources, there is a distinct opportunity to focus on investing in relationships: with their customers, prospects, employees and business partners.”
I think it’s mind-boggling that this still has to be said.
Printable checklist
Internet Marketers are from Mars. Traditional Marketers are from Venus.
“Traditional marketers always start with branding and messaging. I still have trouble accepting that it really helps to pay someone $3k-$20k to tell a small business how to position their products or services.”
Amen to that.
Best Marketing Practices? Think “Blog,” “Website” and “SEO”
Interesting if obviously unscientific. I’ve found Wordle useful myself for internal ‘persuasion’ purposes … some people are just more comfortable when information is presented to them in an easily parsed visual manner such as this.
Reputation Management for Affiliate Marketing
http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/01/reputation-management-for-affiliate-marketing/
“Affiliates become the “face of the brand” for those consumers interacting. However, in many cases, there are very specific limitations to brand name use and both merchants and affiliate networks need to monitor what’s being promoted and how. It’s important to know about how affiliates are using brand names and whether there are anti-marketers or infringement issues. “
Oh, I’ve seen this happen, and the results were not good. Brands need to keep a very close eye on how they are being represented by any affiliates they use.
The linked articles on digital reputation management / online reputation management are worth a look as well.