The User Demographics And Usage Patterns Of Twitter

According to the findings of a recent study conducted by the prestigious Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, only 8% of American adults that are online are now using Twitter. This statistic was widely reported last week by many mainstream media outlets and technology blogs when the study's results were first released, but a deeper analysis of the research reveals some additional..and truly surprising...insights.

Interestingly enough, in the 10-year lifespan of the Pew Internet Project, this is the first time the organization has surveyed users about a single, company-specific online application or activity because the Project's mission is to look generally at online usage patterns rather than at specific brands or technologies.

First, let's take a look at Twitter's current demographics:

As this chart shows, groups notable for their relatively high levels of Twitter use are:

~ Young adults: Internet users ages 18-29 are significantly more likely to use Twitter than older adults.
~ African-Americans and Latinos: Minority Internet users are more than twice as likely to use Twitter as are white Internet users.
~ Urbanites: Urban residents are roughly twice as likely to use Twitter as rural dwellers.
~ Women and the college-educated are also slightly more likely than average to use the service.

Secondly, how are all these groups ACTUALLY utilizing Twitter? Check out this great chart which compares the frequency of different activities. The service is primarily used for posting personal updates, although 62% post work updates and just over 50% of all Twitter users share news stories and communicate directly with others users via direct message:

So what does all this mean? Even with all the hype and buzz surrounding Twitter as a micro-blogging platform, and its willingness to be embraced by techies, politicos, professional athletes, recording artists, film and TV actors, and many other individuals, the service has much room for improvement in attracting an ethnically-diverse range of users and compelling them to utilize Twitter in a broader spectrum of ways.

Given the success of and reception to this study, I'm sure we will see follow-up surveys from Pew which will attempt to update these findings. Stay tuned...particularly as Twitter's usage and popularity continue to evolve.

The History Of Social Media: A Stunning Visual Timeline

Now here's something you don't see every day, and is definitely worth a look. We, here at CMAC, love this, and we especially love well-designed images like this.

According to Barry Ritholtz on his blog, The Big Picture, we all know social media has become an integral part of modern society. It's as common nowadays as, well, breathing and blinking. Currently, there are popular social networks with user bases larger than the populations of most countries. In addition, there are niche sites for virually every special interest in existence. And there are countless sites to share photos, videos, and status updates, as well as online destinations for new people and connecting with family members and old friends. In the final analysis, there are social solutions for just about every communication need in the world.

So, at this point, now is as good a time as any to take a look at the history of social media...rendered in the following amazing and informative infographic with a comprehensive global history of the medium. You can click on the image for a larger, more detailed view:

Repurposing Good Content: 5 Non-PR Uses For Press Releases

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Mickie Kennedy, founder and president of eReleases, a cost-effective electronic press release distribution service, and a widely-regarded and well-respected PR professional who maintains the company's popular PR Fuel blog. For both corporate and agency PR practitioners, Kennedy offers some excellent and timely advice on how to maximize the utility and reach of the most common deliverable found in PR campaigns: the press release.

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It may seem like a bit of an oxymoron, but press releases don’t just have to be for public relations (PR) anymore. There are, in fact, several uses for that great little story you just wrote besides sending it out to endless news desks and tired reporters. Try these five suggestions out before you resort to using your press release to wrap fish!

1. Turn it Into a Blog Post
The press release is already practically in a blog format, why not go ahead and throw it up on the company blog? If you don’t have one set up, use it as your first blog post! Readers of your press release expect you know what you’re talking about, considering it’s your business; use that same expertise in relating that info to the endless flow of readers on the Internet!

Alternatively, split the press release into multiple blog posts for extra mileage. Find five solid pieces of information you can expound on and turn them into their own individual posts.

If the tone of the press release isn’t quite conversational enough for your blog, do a quick rewrite to bring it up to speed. Also, make sure to update it to include up to date information if you happened to write it a few days or weeks prior – things might have changed in the interim. Of course, you also can’t forget to…

2. Use It As SEO Bait
Reconfigure your blog post to incorporate keywords to bring your website up in its Google ranking. This is called search engine optimization, and should be done to get people to read your blog and, more importantly, visit your website and buy all your products!

Find some other blogs and websites that cover some of the same ground as your blog does and link to them. Eventually you can strike up a relationship and they will help you with your SEO efforts by linking back to your website.

3. Integrate It Into Your Sales Kit
You wrote the press release as a sort of pitch for readers to come to your business, so why not incorporate it into your sales kit? Bringing in new clients and new customers works roughly the same way; convince them that you’re a company worth dealing with and your products or services are something to spend money on. Reconstruct your press release to be more of a direct sales pitch as the original incarnation was (presumably) more neutral. You might even change your sales kit to reflect information in the press release.

4. Start A Social Media Program
Tear that press release apart and find info you can use for a Twitter and Facebook series. Were you using it to announce the specifics of your new product? Spread your posts about all the juicy details across a series of social media posts to create a sense of excitement with your customers. Ask your followers and friends questions about what they would like your product to feature and what they might like to see in future releases. You might be surprised when they state some of the new features you’ve already implemented! And then, of course, you can focus on them for the release, pleasing your customers and making them feel heard all in one fell swoop!

5. Write Your Own Feature Story
Forget submitting the release to news agencies; just write your own feature story with your press release! Use your own writing expertise or hire a writer to take the info in your release to craft a story fit for newspapers or magazines and query them to publishers yourself. This way, you skip the whole process of relying on a tired, grumpy journalist to notice your press release among the huge pile in their inbox.

Send your story out to several possible places for printing – don’t just send it to your local newspaper, also consider trade magazines that deal in the same topics your business does. (Of course, be careful not to anger editors who frown on simultaneous submission.) If your business is releasing a new brand of pet food, send it out to the animal and pet magazines of the world and see what happens!

Make sure, however, that there is no conflict of interest with the story you’re submitting. Does your magazine have a deal to advertise in one pet magazine? Then it probably isn’t the best idea to submit it to their competitors.

© 1998-2010 eReleases® Press Release Distribution. All Rights Reserved.

Ventura County Star Features Editorial Written By CMAC President and CEO Keith R. Pillow

The Ventura County Star, in its Sunday, November 14 print edition, published a lengthy editorial written by CMAC President and CEO Keith R. Pillow about the city of Oxnard's misguided rebranding campaign, and the REAL issues behind the municipality's efforts to overhaul its tarnished image. Check out the coverage below:

Tiger Woods Joins Twitter...Finally...In Effort To Boost Image

As widely reported today in this story by the Associated Press, this item in SportsNewser, and countless other mainstream consumer, sports, and golf media outlets today, former world No. 1 golfer and internationally-disgraced superstar Tiger Woods has officially begun using Twitter under his own handle, @TigerWoods. The account, as of this afternoon, already has well over 150,000 followers.

According to AP golf writer Doug Ferguson, who has a long-standing relationship with the star, Woods has been using his Twitter account since June of 2009, although the handle was secured and set up approximately one year prior, and the only tweets, before today, were to announce his Twitter stream, Facebook page, and redesign of his Website. You can see Woods' brief tweet history below:

Ironically, Woods is just launching this effort now, almost one year after news first broke of the now-infamous, Thanksgiving Day car crash in the driveway of his Isleworth home and his unbelievable series of infidelities with as many as a dozen women, even though he has long eschewed mainstream media in favor of making announcements exclusively through his cutting-edge Website. In the wake of his recently-finalized painful divorce, and his first season without a victory since turning professional in 1996, Woods is using Twitter and other media platforms to slowly begin rebuilding his damaged reputation. The key question related to all of this: will it work?

In addition to posting his first tweet, Newsweek posted an op-ed piece by Woods today titled, “How I’ve Redefined Victory,” and he is scheduled to be a guest for two segments on Thursday, November 17 on ESPN Radio’s “Mike & Mike in the Morning.” And Woods may make one or more television appearances in the next several weeks, according to his agent, Mark Steinberg, leading up to the golfer's annual invitation-only, end-of-season tournament, the Chevron World Challenge.

In the final analysis, it will take far more than a few tweets, op-eds, and media appearances to overhaul Woods' image as a liar and philanderer. However, based on fan and media reception at tournaments this year in which he's participated, it's readily apparent the tide is turning in Woods' favor, although he still has many skeptics and detractors. Above all, the most important ingredient in this equation is time; it takes time for people to forget about the past, and to recognize positive behaviors in the present which definitively prove that he has changed...as a golfer, as a husband, as a parent, and as one of the world's most recognizable athletes. There is no reason to believe that, if he stays on this path of growth and development, most people will eventually forget about the past. That's human nature, and it's a pattern we've seen repeated over and over with sports and entertainment personalities who've stumbled along the way and disappointed their fans and colleagues. Kobe Bryant...Pete Rose...Britney Spears...Bill Clinton...the list goes on and on of celebs who've redeemen themselves.

Regardless of what happens to Woods and his reputation, it will be interesting to see precisely how long, and through what tactics and channels, it will take for all of this damage to be repaired. Stay tuned...

Crowded House: How Marketers Can Use Crowdsourcing For Maximum Impact

Outside of social media and viral marketing, crowdsourcing has arguably become one of THE hottest communications techniques in recent years to be used by marketers for greater engagement of, and interaction with, target audiences of all varieties. But for the uninitiated, what is crowdsourcing, and how is it being used today by businesses? Let's explore further...

Crowdsourcing: Origin and Definition
For starters, the term "crowdsourcing" was first coined by Jeff Howe, a contributing editor at Wired Magazine, in his seminal feature story, "The Rise of Crowdsourcing," in the June, 2006 issue of the publication. It is a combination of the words "crowd" and "outsourcing." Howe still writes for the magazine, where he covers the media and entertainment industry, among other subjects. He also continues to cover the phenomenon on his blog, Crowdsourcing.com, and he wrote a book, Crowdsourcing: Why The Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of Business, on the subject which was released in September, 2008. According to Howe, crowdsourcing is defined as the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee; it could also be an external third party, such as a PR firm or advertising agency), and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call. In his article, Howe explains that because technological advances have allowed for cheap consumer electronics, the gap between professionals and amateurs has been diminished. As a result, brands are now able to take advantage of the talent and real-time input of the public for all sorts of different marketing and product development programs.

How Does Crowdsourcing Work?
Essentially, crowdsourcing acts as a distributed problem-solving and production technique. In a typical crowdsourcing scenario, an issue is broadcast to a known or unknown group of people requesting solutions and/or input on the topic. Individuals, also known as the crowd, then form into online communities, and the crowd submits solutions to the requesting company. Going one step further, the crowd can also potentially sort through all the proposed solutions, and pinpoint the most appropriate ones. In the end, these best solutions are owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place — the crowdsourcer — and the winning individuals in the crowd are usually, but not always, rewarded with prizes or some other form of recognition.


The Four Main Crowdsourcing Strategies
According to Howe, there are four primary crowdsourcing strategies:

• Crowdfunding: An open call to raise funds for a specific business, individual, cause, or non-profit organization.
• Crowdcreation: An open call requesting individuals to join a crowd interested in the requester's mission, products, or services.
• Crowdvoting: An open call for the crowd to vote for a specific choice.
• Crowd Wisdom: An open call to solicit the collective opinion of a crowd, rather than a single expert, to answer a question.

The Benefits of Crowdsourcing
As explained by Howe in his book, and as reinforced by many to today's top marketing experts and social media strategist, crowdsourcing offers the following benefits:

• Problems can be explored at comparatively little cost, and often very quickly.
• Payments are based on results, or not offered at all.
• The organization can tap a wide range of talent than might not be present in its own organization.
• By listening to the crowd, organizations obtain direct insight into their customers' desires.
• The community may feel a direct connection with the brand of the crowdsourcer, the result of an earned sense of ownership through contribution and collaboration.

Real-World Examples from Today's Marketers
With the advent and global popularity of social networks, much of today's crowdsourcing is orchestrated through major social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. In addition, many companies also request input from their respective crowds through their corporate Websites, e-mail newsletters, direct mail pieces, print and online advertisements, and other forms of marketing communication — or in many cases, most or all of the above, to obtain the absolute widest range of feedback from all possible sources. From the marketer's perspective, the more feedback from a brand's multiple target audiences, the better. Marketers can then analyze all of the input and solutions from the crowd, and strategically use that information to best solve the problem.

As mentioned at the beginning, in addition to tapping into the talents and expertise of the crowd, crowdsourcing has become a very popular, low-risk communication channel for directly interacting with and engaging target audiences, and convincing customers that their feedback is both useful and highly valued. Years ago, this high level of engagement was very difficult to create and maintain, but through the aforementioned technology-based vehicles, it is easy and natural in society today.

In terms of real-world examples, here are some excellent recent instances of crowdsourcing at work:

• Gap: Last month, when Gap introduced its new brand identity without consumer input, there was so much negative pushback from long-time Gap shoppers about the visual presence that the company ultimately pulled it down and went back to its original design.
• Procter & Gamble: The company employs more than 9,000 scientists and researchers in corporate R&D, but still have many problems they cannot solve. Employees now post these issues on a dedicated crowdsourcing Website called InnoCentive, and offer large cash rewards to more than 90,000 “solvers” who make up this network of backyard scientists.
• TopCoder: A software development house for outsourced projects. What separates TopCoder from its competitors is that the work is crowdsourced to a community of over 180,000 members from over 200 countries in a competition format.
• Wikipedia: Technically, the globally-popular online encyclopedia is a crowdsourcing-driven initiative.

In many instances, the crowdsourcing initiative is not as extensive or comprehensive as these examples. It could be as simple as a restaurant chain such as Denny's, Red Robin, or California Pizza Kitchen asking its respective crowds to submit ideas for a brand-new healthy menu item. Or a consumer brand, such as Johnson & Johnson or Kraft, asking for the crowd's input on a list of potential names for a new product to be introduced next year. Or a technology company, such as HP or Apple, requesting opinions from its consumer base on choices for a new celebrity spokesperson. And the list goes on and on. Anything that marketers can think of, where consumer or user input would be valuable, is fair game for crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing isn't going away any time soon. In fact, it will become far more prevalent as additional companies realize how extensively they can leverage the collective minds and expertise of their respective customers. So, the next time your business needs some form of creative or strategic direction, ask the crowd. You'll be pleasantly surprised at both the quality and quantity of the input.

This Season, Social Is The New Black

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Philippe Guegan, vice president of strategy and engagement at Big Fuel, a New York-based social media and branded content agency that takes brands from Content To Commerce, and appearing recently in MediaPost's Social Media Insider. It is an excellent, well-articulated commentary in which Guegan explains how the rise and prevalance of social media closely mirrors the explosive proliferation of digital marketing several years ago, and why social is fast becoming less about experimentation and more about regular production. It's definitely worth spending a few minutes to read...
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Fashion victim, fashionista: these are words not easily applied to me. However, I have learned one valuable lesson over the years by observing an industry that's always on the lookout for the next big thing: if you wait long enough, past trends and patterns will make a comeback.

This is exactly to the case with social media right now. As all things social start to mature, the same evolution that took place in the digital marketing industry only a few years ago is emerging: social is fast becoming less about experimentation, and more about regular production. In fact, production is the key word in many ways, which I'll come back to a bit later.

In recent months, a noticeable shift has taken place among the clients and prospects we've talked with at our agency. They fall roughly into three categories: those still experimenting with social media, those using social media consistently as a tactical add-on to their marketing activities, and those trying to make social a more central, strategic component of their marketing efforts.

As we approach 2011 budget deadlines, more and more marketers are trying to switch gears and move from using social as a tactical add-on to making it a core component in their overall efforts. Small, medium and large companies want to know how they can streamline, automate, budget, and measure social media and social marketing. How can it move from a series of handcrafted singular projects to a more consistent, more repeatable, more predictable undertaking?

We have clear answers to that. The key challenge remains implementation.

Marketing integration may have been the Holy Grail for advertisers over the last 15 years, yet the agency world became increasingly fragmented during that period of time. Many agencies that initially dismissed digital as a peripheral activity are now bent on not making the same mistake again with social.

Agencies rightfully see social as central to the future of marketing and work to develop in this space as fast as they can. Yet each agency, each discipline, looks at social through a very narrow lens that only puts the emphasis on their original core competencies. And, this is what really spells trouble for marketers.

Back to the issue of production, as mentioned earlier: It is tempting to draw parallels between social content production/earned media on one hand, and advertising production/paid media on the other hand. However, the comparison can be misleading in many ways. There are at least five key differences in social that every marketer should bear in mind:

1) Forget one-size-fits-all messages targeting "lowest common denominator" audience. Recognize that fragmentation is here to stay, and embrace it at every step.

2) Frequency and freshness of content matter more than production values. Increase your execution capability and move to rapid-fire, low-cost production cycles.

3) Campaigns have a limited shelf life, but quality content is a valuable and reusable asset. Build your library for the long term and ensure that you will be able to do "reruns."

4) Stop thinking (and budgeting around) campaign flights and push marketing. Start thinking about ongoing engagement. Audiences can no longer be turned on and off on demand.

5) In a genuine two-way, real-time conversation, it is hard to separate the production arm from the distribution arm. Your brain is connected to your mouth for a reason.

Larger creative and media agencies have legacy economic models built around scale and size that make it difficult to adapt and operate profitably in a world of exponentially fragmented audiences and touch points. When it comes to social, the question is not whether "they get it," but whether they can evolve to become as fast and nimble as marketers need them to be. Even Web agencies, in spite of their digital DNA, can sometimes struggle with things like video production or labor-intensive, low-tech conversational engagement.

The long-predicted new marketing paradigm is finally here. Marketers need to start thinking, behaving and organizing themselves as content producers who treat engage consumers as audiences, instead of fully outsourcing this function to external publishers. Content is still king, after all.

A new species of agencies is emerging to deliver solutions that meet this new paradigm Built from the ground up to meet the new realities of turnkey content production and distribution, agencies with a studio mindset and roots in video program production and distribution can create a competitive edge from a creative, execution and dissemination standpoint.

It's official: Social is now well beyond a passing marketing fad. Amid this environment, marketers find it increasingly challenging to differentiate brands, products and messages. The push for a constant flow of newness is becoming a key operational requirement -- just like in the fashion industry. One thing is certain: social is the new black.

Philippe Guegan is vice president of strategy and engagement at Big Fuel. Philippe previously spent more than 15 years planning, implementing and measuring digital and integrated marketing programs at several marketing agencies.

© 2010 Media Post Communications. All rights reserved.

The Efficacy Of Alcohol Promotions In The Digital Age

Even in the era of successful, attention-seizing digital marketing and social media campaigns, consumer packaged goods (CPG) marketers remain fervent proponents of expensive product sampling programs — by mail, in store, and at special events — because it puts offerings directly in the hands of consumers, increases trial, and creates short-term spikes in sell-through.

Now, we can debate the advantages and disadvantages of product sampling all day long, as I did in my recent blog post concerning WHEATIES® Fuel. However, traditional brand management theory holds that consumers are likely (but not guaranteed) to try a product if given to them at no cost, and almost equally as likely to buy it, particularly if its regular size is offered at a substantial discount (via a coupon). In the end, marketing experts agree, this process usually leads to increased sales of the product, although the size of the increase varies widely. It all makes sense, and it's a tried-and-true technique that's been employed by CPG manufacturers for over 50 years. In fact, sampling programs are practically must-haves for all new consumer product introductions... from peanut butter, to disposable cleaning wipes, to men's deodorant.

But here are two interesting questions: 1.) What if the consumer product is a beer, wine, or spirit, instead of a breakfast cereal or laundry detergent? 2.) Do the same rules, dynamics, and end results apply? Perhaps...but let's explore this further.

I got to thinking about this last night as I attended a monthly mixer, held at a popular local high-end steakhouse, for the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce's Young Professionals Group. Upon entering, I was bombarded by in-restaurant signage, lighted premium items, large table tents, and an attractive bevy of girls wearing solid black, super tight-fitting attire, sporting trays of free shots, and swarming the restaurant's patrons, most of who were over the age of 55 (this restaurant is located adjacent to a retirement community). No, this promotion wasn't for Miller Lite, Jägermeister, Jose Cuervo, Johnnie Walker, or some new trendy, super-premium vodka; it was for Hpnotiq (pronounced "hip-not-ic"), the distinctive blue liqueur which blends vodka, cognac, and fruit juices, and is bottled in the Cognac region of France. It was a successful promotion, at least for me: before I knew it, I had two nice pens that light up (blue, of course), two lighted lapel buttons (also blue), four free shots (valued at $7 each), and two T-shirts. Not a bad haul.

I knew Hpnotiq had been around for some time, but I decided to investigate further. Hpnotiq was the brainchild of Raphael Yakoby, a 26-year-old college dropout from Long Island, New York, who created the spirit in 2001 after seeing a blue perfume bottle at Bloomingdale's. Within one year of its introduction, it became popular in New York's trendsetting nightclub scene. Originally distributed by Great Neck, New York-based Wingard, Inc., Yakoby sold the Hpnotiq trademark and the distribution rights to Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc. in January of 2003 for a reported $50 million. Heaven Hill also distributes dozens of other alcohol brands, most notably the Christian Brothers line of brandy, cognac, and related products. For the record, Yakoby is still in the liquor business. In 2007, he created NUVO, a pink vodka and sparkling wine liqueur packaged in an elegant, tapered square bottle that looks more appropriate for a high-end perfume than booze.

Obviously, alcohol distributors spend millions of dollars annually on guerrilla marketing and sales promotion programs just like Hpnotiq's to drive sales and brand awareness of specific products. But do they actually generate the desired results? In some cases, absolutely, but much of it has to do with consumer behavior, alcohol consumption patterns, and venue and audience dynamics. Consider the following:

• Cordials and liqueurs do not typically exhibit the same consumption characteristics as beer, wine, and select staple spirits, such as vodka, gin, and rum. Cordials and liqueurs are viewed as more appropriate for special occasions, or for sipping a single glass after dinner -- not consumed in multiple servings or mass quantities. In addition, these spirits are just not as popular as they once were years ago, although one can argue that Hpnotiq's initial success defied this convention.
• Not all bars are created equally, and as with any marketing activity, venues must be carefully selected to match the audience of the alcohol brand. In the case of last night's promotion, the venue and audience were all wrong for Hpnotiq, which claims to "make every girls' night out a little more fabulous," and is obviously targeted at women 21-35. Need evidence? Take a look at the brand's official Website and Facebook page, as well as the image above. Outside of my gathering, the steakhouse patrons skew toward senior citizen age (55+) because of its proximity to the retirement community, and therefore, lie well outside of Hpnotiq's core demographic. Definitely not a good fit.
• There must be an incentive to purchase the product in the future, such as a coupon, or a call to action to register consumers online so they may be targeted in the future. Hpnotiq had none of this.
• Most bar promotions for alcohol brands are all about fun, free/cheap booze, free branded stuff, and interacting with hot babes -- not really about "selling" the product. They're great for sampling and trial. Product information is limited. Most of the women I've talked to who've been hired for these gigs know very little about the products themselves; they simply regurgitate whatever they've been told by the promotions company retained by the distributor, and that's very little. Next time you see a Jägerette, ask her about the product; I bet good money she doesn't know much about it other than what it tastes like.
• Historically, alcohol promotions in bars and nightclubs have proven to be EXCELLENT tactics for increasing brand awareness, but additional marketing is required to convert that awareness into sales. Just the way it is.

When it comes to alcohol sales promotions, it's apparent that the same rules and dynamics that apply to CPG product sampling are not in play here, and as a result, they require additional strategies and tactics to generate sales increases. There's no question that Hpnotiq is a unique, highly-differentiated offering with excellent branding and strong marketing assets. But last night's program was at the wrong venue and with the wrong audience: a recipe for disaster.

And when that occurs, no amount of branding or money can save you. As Hpnotiq says in its tagline, it must "Live Louder," and engage in more appropriate target marketing, if it wants to succeed in the long term.

Fame Monster Lady Gaga Continues To Rule Social Media, Viral Marketing Universe

For those keeping score at home, celebrities, professional athletes, and other noteworthy personalities continue to attract record numbers of Facebook and Twitter followers, as well as YouTube viewers. It's hard to believe that, in today's day and age, music artists such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Britney Spears can garner more followers and eyeballs than other, and seemingly far more important, individuals such as President Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, or Nancy Pelosi. It's both impressive and mind boggling...all at the same time.

Need more proof? As reported today by Mashable and countless other print, broadcast, and online media outlets, Lady Gaga's YouTube viewership (i.e., total views of all her videos on the service) has just hit the 1 billion views milestone, with Bieber a close second at just over 962 million views. The Fame Monster announced the news via her Twitter stream this morning, as can be seen below:

Bieber is expected to hit the 1 billion mark on November 1. Incidentally, Bieber still holds the the record for the most-viewed YouTube video of all time for his smash hit song “Baby,” which has 366.5 million views as of this morning:

Yet Another Example Why Proofreading Is Of Critical Importance: Part II

Need more evidence that proofreading is absolutely paramount in the marketing and communications process? Then look no further than this gem, which I snapped with my BlackBerry several weeks ago:

This lousy, unprofessional banner was placed in the storefront window of a new computer repair retail location situated in a local shopping center I frequent a great deal. At the time, the store had not opened yet. I even called the number listed on the banner to offer the owner my services prior to the grand opening, but I never received a response. The obvious questions: how could the owner miss such a glaring mistake, and how did the banner manufacturer not catch this before producing it????

Interestingly enough, when I returned to the store a week and a half later, the offending error had been painted over in a non-matching shade of yellow, and new copy, outlined in black electrical tape, was in its place. How professional...

The moral of the story, beyond the simple need to proofread for idiotic spelling and grammatical errors? If you're going to spend the money to create any form of advertisement or piece of marketing collateral, such as this banner, please make sure it is professionally produced and manufactured. And if you make a mistake, don't cover it up with paint and electrical tape; simply make a brand new one! Argh...

100 Tips For Rocking Media Interviews

Editor's Note: The following is a guest blog post about media training authored by Sakita Holley, an experienced corporate communications strategist and president of New York, NY-based House of Success, a public relations and brand engagement consultancy. I've seen and read a ton of media interview preparation information and background materials in my career, but this happens to be one of the most succinct, well-written, and comprehensive reference guides on the topic I've ever seen. As a result, I am reprinting this here for the benefit of all Marketing Mulligans readers.
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Before An Interview:
~ Attend a media training session.
~ Make a friend of the reporter and remember that the reporter is not your audience, but a conduit through which you can get your message to key stakeholders…readers, listeners, viewers.
~ Research. Research. Research.
~ For non-television interviews, always ask if your conversation is being recorded.
~ To avoid being misquoted, bring your own voice recorder.
~ If you are nervous in front of the camera (or a lot of people), ask for a closed set.
~ Never lie.
~ Dark clothes look best on TV.
~ If you’re a good “get” for the media or your product/service is getting a lot of press, be very careful about what you post on Facebook or Twitter. It can AND WILL be used in news stories
(probably the headline).
~ If you can meet with the reporter before your interview, do it!
~ Anticipate the second day story and how you can be included in both.
~ Assume nothing.
~ If you’re doing an interview via satellite make sure your background is clean and your logo (if applicable) is present.
~ Prepare talking points in advance if you’re speaking on a complex issue.
~ Practice in advance.
~ Anticipate the possible questions.
~ Prepare for worst case scenarios.
~ Focus.
~ If possible, ask for questions to be submitted in advance.
~ Tell the reporter about off-limit topics. Don’t wait until the middle of the interview.
~ Remind yourself that it’s a conversation. Not an interrogation.
~ Eat a light meal before you go on-air. You don’t want to pass out or throw-up.
~ Smile.
~ Think about what you want to accomplish with the interview. Prepare accordingly.
~ Know your/reporter’s audience and tailor your messages accordingly.
~ Stand while doing phone interviews as it will allow you to keep focus and help you project.
~ Read/watch a reporter’s last 3 relevant stories/reports as they may reference them during
your discussion.
~ Monitor trends within your industry as these may be referenced as well.
~ Be on time.
~ Get a good night’s rest.
~ Respect deadlines.
~ Don’t be a snob. There are plenty of other experts out there.
~ Know what news is. (What’s important for your business may not be important for the
audience).
~ If you can’t put your message(s) on a normal sized post-it, they’re too long.


During An Interview:
~ Be open to the reporter’s questions. The only way the public will know your side of the story is if you tell it.
~ Stick to three (3) key messages, major ideas or facts. Get them in early.
~ Stay on message.
~ Keep your answers relevant to the question.
~ This is the era of the soundbite, so be concise. Quotables increase your chances for additional coverage.
~ Be honest and straight forward.
~ Be positive.
~ If a reporter interrupts you before you finish your response, let them finish (#NoKanye). Continue your thought with, “As I was saying…”
~ On the other hand, if a reporter continually interrupts there may be a reason. Don’t run off
with the interview.
~ Ask for clarity if you don’t understand a question.
~ Pay close attention to body language and signals. Respond appropriately.
~ If a reporter asks several questions at once you might reply, You’ve asked several
questions…let me respond to the first one…”
~ Be friendly and smile when appropriate. Remember that you’re talking to a lot of people.
~ Interviewers like colorful language and clear examples –but keep it simple and conversational.
~ Avoid industry jargon, abbreviations and acronyms.
~ Don’t let a reporter put words in your mouth. You can say, “Actually, I meant…”
~ Don’t repeat a reporter’s terminology unless you want to.
~ Never repeat a reporter’s “buzzwords” unless you can do it to your advantage.
~ Avoid using no comment. Simply state that you can’t release the information in question and explain why.
~ Understand that “off the record” really doesn’t exist. Anything you say can be used…and probably will be used.
~ Don’t feel obligated to accept the reporter’s facts and figures, or to answer hypothetical questions.
~ Don’t guess. It’s okay to follow up with additional information or offer to direct the reporter to someone who knows the answers.
~ Don’t be afraid to ask a reporter to repeat a question if it is unclear.
~ Never lie.
~ Don’t be afraid of a silent pause when formulating your response.
~ Some silence is okay. Don’t feel pressured to fill the air. This is usually when people slip up and
say things they will later regret.
~ Let the reporter lead the discussion.
~ Breathe.
~ Listen carefully.
~ Body language is everything. On camera or off, sit up and lean slightly forward. Don’t swivel (I do this).
~ When standing, don’t move your feet, or sway (I do this too).
~ Be an active participant.
~ Be enthusiatic about your product or message. If you don’t care…why should I?
~ Don’t look at the camera, or monitor. Focus on the interviewer.
~ Speak a little bit louder than your normal conversational tone. Your facial expression and manner should match your topic. (Be careful about smiling during a crisis).
~ If you’re a good “get” for the media or your product/service is getting a lot of press, be very careful about what you post on facebook or Twitter. It can AND WILL be used in news stories (probably the headline).
~ Avoid one-word answers. Use full sentences.
~ Use memorable phrases.
~ Be yourself.
~ Speak with authority. You are the expert.
~ Assume nothing.
~ Loosen up. It’s okay to laugh (when appropriate).
~ If you’re doing a roundtable interview, don’t talk over the other guests. But defend yourself if necessary.
~ Control your temper.
~ Think before you speak.
~ Never use notes during a televised interview. Use them sparingly over the phone so you don’t sound like you’re reading from a script.
~ Focus.
~ Smile.
~ If you stutter or stumble, ask if you can repeat your answer. (Little bit more difficult for live TV. But do it anyway).
~ When talking to a reporter, avoid mentioning a competing newspaper or network.
~ When in doubt, be quiet.
~ Stick to the allotted time frame. Never ask the reporter for more time, let them ask you.
~ Don’t say negative things about your competitors.
~ Use different physical techniques to get your point across. (ie. hand motions, raising/lowering
your voice).
~ Don’t jump on anybody’s couch.
~ Avoid using foul language on camera.
~ Stay on topic. Don’t change the subject.
~ Provide anecdotes on how your subject matter relates to the bigger picture. How does it affect the reporter’s audience?
~ Back up your key messages with facts and examples.
~ Provide the WIIFM or “what’s in it for me.”
~ Never exaggerate or provide misleading information.
~ If you misstate the facts admit it immediately. You can say, “Sorry, I misspoke…”
~ Use sarcasm sparingly as it hardly ever translates well to print.
~ Don’t try to be creative. Focus on communicating your message.
~ You’re the expert. Remember that you know more about your business or industry than the reporter does or else they wouldn’t be talking to you.


After An Interview:
~ Attend a media training session.
~ Never lie.
~ If you’re a good “get” for the media or your product/service is getting a lot of press, be very careful about what you post on Facebook or Twitter. It can AND WILL be used in news stories (probably the headline).
~ If the camera is shooting you in b-roll footage, make sure you keep the same body language that you used during the interview. (It isn’t over yet!)
~ Plan for a reporter to ask if there’s anything else you want to mention. Use this time to reiterate your key messages, or add a relevant tidbit to the story.
~ Ask the reporter to consider you as a source for future stories.
~ If a story runs without your quotes, follow-up to see how you could have done a better job at providing info.
~ Understand that an interview doesn’t guarantee a story. Stories get killed all the time.
~ Reporters are at the mercy of their editors. As a result, your story may not appear for weeks.
~ Anticipate the second-day story, and how you can be included in both.
~ Assume nothing.
~ Smile.
~ Be available for follow-up questions (often at the last minute).

© 2010 Sakita Holley. Reprinted courtesy of Sakita Holley and House of Success, Inc. All rights reserved.

Trick Or Treat: Snickers' Creepy Halloween TV Spot Scares Up Viral Marketing Success

I've mentioned this before on Marketing Mulligans, but it's often quite difficult for digital marketers to predict exactly which online videos will capture the imagination of consumers and go viral. At a basic level, viral marketing success is typically determined by offering short (because we all have limited attention spans), unique (i.e., never before seen by users), humorous (laughter is the best medicine), timely (current and relevant are a powerful combination), and entertaining (we all like to escape reality for a few fleeting moments) content. However, even with these elements nailed, many videos simply never catch on. Why? Because we, as consumers, are fickle, cynical, and judgmental.

But not here. And that is what makes Snickers' latest TV ad, simply called "Grocery Store Lady," such an intriguing case study. Created by New York-based BBDO Worldwide, the 30-second spot, if you can believe it, is the first Halloween-themed ad ever for the highly-popular candy bar brand, owned by worldwide candy conglomerate Mars, Inc. Instead of alienating consumers, the commercial's creepy (and in a non-Halloween way) has scared up tons of views and traffic on multiple sites, including BuzzFeed, Huffington Post, and Consumerist, and is generating scores of comments in the blogosphere and on social media platforms.

The ad is relatively straightforward. While walking down the candy aisle of her local supermarket, an innocent shopper, Mrs. Jensen, is accosted by a very tall and imposing Halloween-costumed figure (pictured below) with an unusual mask and disconcerting voice. The figure addresses the customer in a high-pitched voice, disturbingly caresses her face, and then throws a heap of Snickers bars into the frightened customer's cart. As the customer walks (read: runs) away, the figure turns to a small child who suddenly appears out of nowhere in the folds of her dress, and the kid says to the figure, "We're definitely going to her house."

Media reaction has been mixed. The Riverfront Times, an alternative news weekly in St. Louis, offers a very interesting take on the Snickers spot in which it points out there is a slightly "pervy undercurrent," but still heralds the brand's viral success and the broad consumer reaction to the ad. In a critical post on AdFreak, a popular Adweek blog, journalist David Kiefaber writes the "distressing 'Grocery Store Lady' ad for Snickers doesn't compel me to buy candy so much as call child services." And the Huffington Post calls the old lady figure "one of the scariest things we've ever seen."

Personally, I find the ad to be creepy and humorous at the same time, and it is also very different than any spot I've ever seen — and this is what ultimately accounts for the spots' viral marketing success. What do you think of the ad? Watch it yourself, and then feel free to comment below:

Need Help Navigating Social Networks and Online Communities? Follow The Yellow Brick Road...Or This Map

With the worldwide explosion in social media networks, online communities, and other technology-based platforms for gathering individuals with similar interests and opinions, it is extremely difficult to navigate one's way from one community to the next. If we only lived in the offline world, we would probably use a detailed map to specifically locate our destination, although we would most likely pull said map from a GPS or one of the countless online map services like MapQuest.

And that is why this is so interesting. Courtesy of xkcd.com, a Webcomic site created and managed by NASA physicist Randall Munroe, check out the following map which attempts to visually represent the hundreds of well-known, and not so well-known, online communities currently in existence in a fun and whimsical way:

Please click on the map for a larger rendering of the image.

Yet Another Example Why Proofreading Is Of Critical Importance

Unfortunately, nothing can derail a marketing campaign faster than a major typographical error, a regrettable breach of etiquette, the incorrect translation of a foreign language, or some other noteworthy faux pas. And in the social media age, where such errors can go viral in a matter of seconds and almost instantly gain worldwide notoriety, the potential embarrassment and humiliation knows no bounds, either culturally or geographically.

Marketing and public relations textbooks are filled with famous examples of mistakes like these. Now, enter Exhibit #Gazillion, and the next addition to these tomes, courtesy of the redevelopment commission of the city of South Bend, Indiana.

According to WANE-TV, the CBS affiliate in Fort Wayne, Indiana, an embarrassing South Bend digital billboard with a very noticeable spelling error, has been pulled because of the severity of the typo. Situated at the intersection of State Road 23 and Ironwood in South Bend, and installed just this past Thursday, the billboard encouraged people to go to "southbendon.com" to review the "15 best things about our PUBIC schools." Obviously it was supposed to say "public", but the "l" was left out. A photo of the billboard follows below:

Inexplicably (and ironically), WANE-TV's sister station, WSBT-TV, reports that four people from the Blue Waters Group, the ad agency responsible, actually proofread the copy before the billboard went up, and the mistake got by all of them. There's no comment from any of the principals involved on EXACTLY how such a noticeable error slipped through the cracks on an ad with hardly ANY text. Unacceptable!

Click here if you'd like to view the WANE-TV news segment on this story...

10 PR Measurement Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

Editor's Note: The following is a well-written guest blog post from Katie Delahaye Paine, chief executive officer of KDPaine & Partners, LLC, a New Hampshire-based research consultancy that provides public relations (PR) measurement and accountability for corporations, non-profits, and government agencies worldwide. This article first appeared in The Measurement Standard, a monthly newsletter published by Paine, and generally regarded as the world's first and most comprehensive PR measurement publication.
__________________________________________________

Despite the best laid plans, public relations measurement programs can sometimes go awry. You can't always anticipate how everything will go, and your elegant research design rarely seems to play out quite as you planned. Let's face it, unforeseen problems and errors can creep in, and part of your job is to figure out how to get the job done anyway.

But there are certain errors your program just won't survive. These mistakes will ruin your data or analysis and leave you with no options but to learn an expensive lesson and start over. Here are 10 fatal research errors to avoid:

1. Clipping systems that miss clips. We won't name names, but you should regularly test your provider. Do what we call a "Pub/Month" check: Look back over the statistics for the last year and see on average how many articles you get in your key publications. If you are below that for the current month, or if you have zero clips for the month, someone's probably missing your clips.

2. Dirty data from your content provider. This means errors like not differentiating between nytimes.com and The New York Times. Again, check the data on a monthly basis to make sure that it includes what it's supposed to.

3. Bad circulation figures (impressions). It doesn't matter if it's off by 10 or even 100. But we've seen cases where providers have moved commas and made the NY Times circulation 14 million instead of 1.4 million. Do a reality check.

4. Corporate articles that end up in product categories and vice versa. This needs to be checked monthly or even weekly for the first six months to make sure that it reflects reality.

5. An unclear definition of tonality. Ask three people what a positive article is and you'll get three different answers. We define it as "leaves the reader more likely to do business with, invest in, or go to work for the company." How you define it is your own business, just make sure it's consistent.

6. An unclear understanding of key messages. Again, do a monthly reality check.

7. Not comparing apples to apples in a competitive analysis. This includes errors like looking at your own local coverage but not the local coverage of your competition.

8. Not being clear about the universe of publications. Make up a written list of search terms as well as a list of the print/online publications, and social media outlets to be covered.

9. Not having control of the names and mailing list for your survey. Beware of merging lists: You can end up with two surveys in one household just because the middle initial is left off one name but not the other.

10. Not being clear about what social media you want to measure. Are you interested in user reviews, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Foursquare, or all of the above? Chose the outlets your target audience uses.

© 2010 Ragan Communications, Inc. Reprinted courtesy of Ragan Communications, Inc. and KDPaine & Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Lives...On Twitter, Of Course

Now that Twitter has taken off worldwide as a legitimate communication channel and means of personal and corporate expression, it was only a matter of time before well-known personalities who haven't been with us for years were given voices (and oftentimes, multiple voices; some by authorized parties, some not) in the Twitterverse. Want to follow The King? Go for it. Janis Joplin? Absolutely. And Bob Marley? Wicked, mon. The list is practically endless...

...But I hadn't seen much from late political figures, until I read this interesting piece over the weekend by Bob Salsberg of the Associated Press. According to the story, exactly 50 years ago, a pregnant Jacqueline Kennedy penned a weekly newspaper column, called "Campaign Wife," which discussed political policies and issues, and offered her personal stories and advice on subjects such as child-rearing and shopping. In an intriguing experiment, communications staff members at the John F. Kennedy President Library and Museum in Boston, Mass., are using Twitter to recreate Jackie's glimpses into the life of a presidential candidate's spouse. The first tweets, expressing her dismay at not being able to campaign in person, were posted this part Friday — exactly 50 years to the day that her first syndicated column was published.

From Oct. 5, 1960, this AP file photo shows Jacqueline Kennedy posing at her typewriter where she writes her weekly "Candidate's Wife" column in her Georgetown home in Washington D.C. Courtesy: © Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Twitter feed, @JBK1960, is a companion to the library's primary Twitter stream, @Kennedy1960, which reconstructs day-to-day develoments in the 1960 campaign and has more than 4,250 followers as of this afternoon.

Both educational and entertaining, the Jackie acccount provides very interesting insight into one of the most popular and fascinating First Ladies in American history, and a unique perspective on her husband, who remains one of the most beloved and admired presidents of all time. It's worth checking out if you have a few moments.

E-Mail and Social Media: Can't We All Just Get Along?

Editor's Note: The following is a useful and highly-educational blog post, which details how to effectively integrate of e-mail and social media communications, written by the outstanding editorial staff at MarketingVOX, an online publication which keeps marketers and media professionals abreast of industry news, trends, and culture.
________________________________________________

When Ben & Jerry’s announced this summer that it would exclusively market its products via social media – discontinuing its e-mail marketing initiatives – eyebrows were raised. While there has been much debate over the advantages of e-mail versus social media, few advocate entirely ditching one for the other. In fact, the best practice gaining traction is to integrate the best of these channels. Unfortunately few firms have done so, leading to siloed e-mail and social media marketing operations.

The benefits of this approach, though, are clear. A study by Emarketer, for example, called "Maximizing the E-Mail/Social Media Connection," found that joining the two approaches provide new avenues for sharing and engaging customers and prospects. "The two channels can help each other, offering the opportunity for marketers to create deeper connections."

12 Tips
To nudge firms along this path, CoTweet and ExactTarget, in their latest report, The Collaborative Future, offer 12 tips to integrate these channels.

1. Promote Facebook games, applications, and competitions in e-mail and on Twitter.
2. Feature winners of Facebook competitions in your e-mail newsletter.
3. Tweet about exclusive content that’s only available to e-mail subscribers.
4. Promote exclusive deals on Facebook and Twitter, but make it only available to e-mail subscribers.
5. Post links to Web versions of your best e-mails on Facebook and Twitter.
6. Include Like and Follow buttons in e-mail newsletters and promotions.
7. Include links to your Twitter and Facebook pages in e-mail newsletters.
8. Collect e-mail addresses at the point of conversion for consumers who link to your site from Facebook and Twitter.
9. Create an e-mail segment containing Twitter followers, and provide them with additional “insider information” through e-mail.
10. Include questions posted on Twitter and Facebook in your e-mails, and then answer them.
11. Encourage e-mail subscribers to post questions on Facebook and/or Twitter.
12. Host videos on your Facebook page. Include links in your e-mails and post links on Twitter.

© 2003-2010 Watershed Publishing. Reprinted courtesy of MarketingVOX, a Watershed Publishing property. All rights reserved.

The Pros And Cons Of Product Sampling

This past Saturday, I walked to the end of the driveway, like I do every morning, to pick up the copies of my two daily newspapers, the Ventura County Star and the Wall Street Journal. On this morning, however, I got something a little extra: the Ventura County Star was enclosed in a special branded poly bag featuring a sample box of General Mills' WHEATIES® Fuel and a large, four-color coupon for the cereal.

It really made me sit up and take notice, not for the obvious reason that a breakfast cereal came with my morning newspapers, but because: 1.) Product samples of this nature are included in my local daily newspaper on a very limited basis...only 2-3 times a year, in fact (actually, this was the first instance of 2010 in the Star); and 2.) This tactic is normally reserved for new product introductions, of which WHEATIES Fuel is not. In fact, according to the following article in the July 22, 2009, edition of the New York Times, WHEATIES Fuel has now been on the market for well over a year. (Editor's Note: In the interest of full disclosure, and in only a very minor coincidence, I do eat WHEATIES Fuel, but I have only been doing so for several months. I regularly eat other brands of healthy breakfast cereal, and I have no official ties to the product or the manufacturer.) In any case, I began to think about the marketing implications associated with this program, and more specifically, about the pros and cons of product sampling:

1. Normally for New, Not Existing, Product Introductions: As already stated, product sampling normally accompanies the introduction of a new product to increase brand awareness and consumer trial. So why is General Mills sending out sample boxes of WHEATIES Fuel now? This tells me that sales must be extremely weak. It also indicates that, given the tremendous marketing investment to date in the brand extension, the company is desperately attempting to boost sales to justify these large expenditures. The New York Times references a multi-million dollar marketing campaign behind the product, not to mention expensive endorsement deals with five prominent athletes, including St. Louis Cardinals first baseman and three-time National League MVP Albert Pujols and Indianapolis Colts quarterback and four-time NFL MVP Peyton Manning.
2. Expensive: Product sampling like this is extremely expensive. However, it does put the product directly in the hands of consumers, but there is no definitive way to ensure consumers actually USE or EAT it once it arrives. A better tactic is to distribute prepared product samples in stores, as is often seen at Costco and Sam's Club, where representatives can physically see shoppers' reactions to a product when it is consumed.
3. Difficult to Track Actual Trial: As alluded to above, another con of product sampling is that it is difficult to track actual consumer consumption. Honestly, most consumers will simply toss the product in the trash can. The best General Mills can hope for is that consumers will redeem the coupon that came with the sample, and this will temporarily boost sales. This is far easier for the company to monitor since the coupon carries a unique bar code associated with the promotion, and that code is scanned when redeemed.
4. Immediate Impact Unknown: Like with many other consumer marketing activities, it will be some time before General Mills sees definitive return on its product sampling investment. To generate immediate impact, consumer brands typically prefer to use coupons, contests, and other in-store vehicles to drive sell-through. Although a coupon was present in this case, it is the sample box of cereal that is most significant, meaning that General Mills wants people to physically try the product before buying.

In the final analysis, WHEATIES Fuel will most likely be successful, particularly since the product is targeted at men, and because of its professional athlete endorsements. And honestly, it's a solid product with an appealing, pleasant taste and excellent nutritional benefits. But General Mills' consumer marketing approach is flawed, as evidenced by this latest sample drop in newspapers. I think the sampling would be much more effective if distributed in stores, at NFL stadiums, and at experiential football fairs and fan fests.

Just A Matter Of Time: Dilbert Lampoons Corporate Social Media Strategies, Programs

Now, I don't read the comics section much any longer because of various time and business constraints. However, as of late, I've been revisiting Scott Adams' ubiquitous and frequently humorous comic strip, Dilbert, distributed to my daily newspaper, the Ventura County Star, by United Feature Syndicate.

To my surprise and glee, in today's installment of the strip, Adams lambasts the adoption (or seemingly lack thereof) of social media in today's corporations. Check it out below; it's worth a laugh on a Monday:

60 Proven Ways to Increase Your Online Marketing Influence

Editor's Note: The following is an extremely insightful guest blog post about cultivating online influence written by Jeanne Hopkins, director of marketing at HubSpot, a Cambridge, Mass.-based Internet marketing startup whose software helps businesses get found online, generate more inbound leads, and convert a higher percentage of those leads into paying customers.
________________________________________________

On July 7, in the late afternoon, I tuned in to The Influencer Project. For the next 60 minutes (actually it was closer to 62 minutes), I listened to 60 online experts tell at least one proven way to increase your influence online. We’re talking real experts like David Meerman Scott, Anne Holland, Brian Solis, Todd Defren and our own Mike Volpe, and all of the unmentioned names are equal in expertise to those I mentioned. While some of the advice was obvious, like create valuable content or get on Facebook, what resonated was that these experts – all of whom have influence online, so they do know what they’re talking about – were passionate about their one or two tips.

As a sponsor for this event, we have permission from ThoughtLead, the program organizers, to offer our community both the audio file and the complete transcript. For those of you who don’t have 62 minutes to spare, I’ve taken the liberty of shortening it even more – to 60 sentences.

This will give you the headlines, but you may want to take the additional time and understand why these experts came up with their practical advice. I cannot remember when I've received this much solid advice in such a short amount of time.

1. Stop talking about your products and services and create valuable content.

2. Increase conversion rates on your landing pages by improving your buttons.

3. Build your thought leadership and digital influence through transparency.

4. Demonstrate commitment and increase your digital influence through consistency.

5. Know where you’re going, then make what you say about the people around you.

6. Follow better people.

7. Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.

8. Make connections online, then meet the person in the real world, offline.

9. Create content that stands for something: ‘Higher purpose content marketing.’

10. Look under the hood of the shiny new technologies coming out.

11. Believe in ‘social objects’ as the way we socialize and share with others.

12. Avoid ‘incestuous blogging’ and look outside your circle.

13. Start talking to people.

14. Think about your narrative strategy because people connect with stories worth telling.

15. Find people who have your audience but not your products and co-create with them.

16. Establish influence either through complete honesty or absolute fakery - not in between.

17. Give your content roots and give it wings.

18. Try Facebook advertising.

19. Develop your online influence by getting offline and meeting people in real life.

20. Get very, very good at filtering and aggregating content.

21. Be early in the news cycles of any conversation of interest, then make context explicit.

22. Increase visibility through web video; the fastest way to get your message out there.

23. Feel passionate about your content and overcome your fears of reaching out.

24. Defy convention where it’s appropriate.

25. Share good content consistently.

26. Let your passion shine to create meaningful relationships and build deep connections.

27. Learn how to talk more about other people.

28. Get on Facebook, get on Faceboook now, and use it for your business.

29. Make people around you more successful than you are, and share stories from the heart.

30. Talk about what you know because content is always king.

31. Make something worth talking about.

32. Get your self properly interviewed.

33. Repeat your tweets.

34. Get more influence online by moving offline.

35. Really understand your audience, then build things that really help them.

36. Master one niche, own that niche, then use webinar marketing to promote your brand.

37. Think about what gifts and expertise you have that you can leverage to help others.

38. Map a strategy for integrating social media with other tactics.

39. Change from thinking about my influence to our influence.

40. Get active in other people’s communities.

41. Build "digital dimensionality" by showing your many different sides.

42. Listen to the conversations taking place around you, then start to engage.

43. Network with other influencers and make them aware of your consistent value.

44. Think about the authenticity, consistency, and depth of your voice and story

45. Be willing to shake up your world.

46. Learn to be a storyteller, understand the psychology of people, create quality content.

47. Share ideas liberally and get increased accountability from the digital community.

48. Establish your business model before you attempt to become influential online.

49. Be consistent, connect the practical with the profound, and listen for the silence.

50. Find a unique niche you can own, focus on it and become known for that.

51. Find out what social network your customers are using and be there for them.

52. Build a community of readers by figuring out ways to get people talking.

53. Make friends along the way by helping others achieve their goals.

54. Think about social media as strategy to enhance your existing marketing goals.

55. Be systematic in establishing relationships with those on the same business path.

56. Become an advocate for gifted up and comers as they enter social media.

57. Start the media arm of your company that educates, inspires and entertains.

58. Give more than you get and build trust and relationships over time.

59. Take a look at what you have that others can’t do and use it to get where you need to go.

60. Figure out your value, identify influential individuals and connect to them directly.

© 2010 HubSpot, Inc. Reprinted courtesy of HubSpot, Inc. All rights reserved.

Drake University Fails To Make Grade With New D+ Advantage Campaign

As the higher education market has become more competitive and sophisticated over the past decade, both for-profit (e.g, Corinthian Colleges, DeVry University, University of Phoenix, etc.) and traditional non-profit universities have proactively created and executed integrated marketing communications campaigns designed to garner more students, faculty members, government funding, research grants, alumni support and donations, corporate partners, and enhanced local, regional, national, and global reputations in specific disciplines.

After all, higher education is big business, with billions and billions of dollars at stake each year, so it makes sense that today's generation of colleges and universities aggressively differentiate themselves using a broad range of tactics to achieve certain objectives. Most of the campaigns I've seen focus on typical criteria: the latest US News & World Report and Bloomberg Businessweek rankings, recent awards and research grants, diverse student bodies and faculties, athletic team prowess, cultural, social, and recreational opportunities, and a whole slew of other benefits and value adds. In addition, most of the campaigns are relatively conservative and predictable, but occasionally, I see real flashes of genius, creativity, and brilliance. Unfortunatey, this is not one of them.

And that leads us to Exhibit A for collegiate marketing gone awry: Des Moines, Iowa-based Drake University's new "D+ Advantage" campaign. That's right: D+. As Brett Michael Dykes points out in this piece on Yahoo!'s The Upshot, "If you were going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a higher education, would you want the end result to be known as a 'D+' education? Probably not." For the record, the tag line for the new campaign is not all that bad: "Your passion + our experience."

But the general problem with the campaign is in the execution. As we all know, and as numerous Drake faculty, students, and alumni pointed out, D+ is universally synonymous with sub-par academic performance. Adweek's Tim Nudd noted on his AdFreak blog that the campaign "seems to position Drake as a school whose standards barely exceed total failure."

Drake University officials defend the campaign as "intentionally edgy" and appropriate for the target audience. In a communiqué to students, faculty, and alumni, university leaders said, "The D+ was not designed to stand alone or represent a grade. Instead, it was designed to be paired with prose and draw attention to the distinctive advantages of the Drake experience. Our experience in the survey and in the field suggests that the kind of students whom we want to attract to Drake easily understand and appreciate the irony of the D+, and that it is having the intended effect of encouraging students to find out more about what makes Drake so special."

That very well may be, but when it comes to traditional branding and on-point marketing creativity, there's only one letter grade for Drake University that makes sense in this case: F.

Actually, the campaign could have packed the same punch if it was dubbed "The Drake Advantage" and was branded with a compelling, but alternative, visual presence.

Social Media: The Movie

Not be confused with Track Down, Code Rush, Babbage, Steal This Film, Pirates Of Silicon Valley, or even Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, but Social Media: The Movie, the latest fact-based docudrama about the high technology sector, is coming very soon to a cineplex near you.

Haven't heard of it? That's O.K., because that's not the real title.

I'm actually talking about The Social Network, a major theatrical film scheduled for release just two months from today on October 1, 2010, and directed by critically-acclaimed filmmaker David Fincher. Written by master screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (A Few Good Men, Malice, Charlies Wilson's War, and NBC's "The West Wing"), and adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 New York Times best-selling book The Accidental Billionaires, The Social Network is a dramatization of the founding of the global social networking phenomenon Facebook. The film's tag line? Check out the official movie poster below:

The dramedy, distributed by Columbia Pictures, features an ensemble cast, including Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones, Max Minghella, Rooney Mara, Malese Jow, and Joseph Mazzello. Although no one from Facebook's senior management team, including co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were involved with the project, one co-founder, Eduardo Saverin (played by Garfield in the film), was a consultant for Mezrich's book. In the film, Eisenberg, who most recently starred opposite Woody Harrelson in last year's Zombieland, portrays Zuckerberg.

Not enough star power for you? Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey is the film's executive producer, and Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, along with partner Atticus Ross, is providing the musical score. And let's not forget Fincher's own impressive directorial resume, which includes Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Panic Room (2002), and Zodiac (2007). In addition, he received an Academy Award nomination for best director for his 2008 film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Academy Award-Nominated Director David Fincher

As you would expect, much of the advance hype, and the overall theatrical marketing strategy for the film, have been driven by a plethora of social media and online marketing tactics. The centerpiece of these efforts is a recently-launched Facebook-themed and highly sophisiticated Website, TheSocialNetwork-Movie.com, which opens into a large-form portal with photos, videos and cast information arranged into Facebook-like collage. Naturally, the site maintains the same theme used in the teasers, trailers and TV spots for the film, with words such as “Punk,” “Traitor” and “Genius” displayed either on their own or overlayed over other photographs. Like most online destinations for new films, the site also contains access to cast information, an official synopsis, cast publicity stills, and news stories about the film.

What's interesting about all this, besides the obvious, is how QUICKLY the book has been turned into a completed feature film with major Hollywood talent behind it. If you know Hollywood like I do, it often takes years, sometimes decades, for all the stars to align on a given concept. And the bigger the acting and production names involved, usually the more time it takes, mostly because of existing contracts, previous commitments from the players, and of course, financial support, which is in limited supply these days in The Entertainment Capital of the World.

But the need to move quickly is certainly understandable: worldwide user participation and advertiser and investor interest in Facebook have never been higher, particularly as the company moves toward its highly-anticipated IPO in the next 18 months. As a result, there's no doubt that Columbia Pictures, part of Sony Pictures Studios, wished to leverage all of this interest and activity by purchasing the rights to the book and releasing the film just over one year after the book's release.

And without further adieu, here is the official trailer for the film: