Archive for the 'Required Reading' Category

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Do Republicans Get The Internet?

Published on 2/20/2009 in Required Reading. Comments

: Image via Wikipedia

I’ve writen before about the “Obama won because his team used social media” meme and why it’s wrong. This morning Meghan McCain (of the Arizona McCains) chimes in from the GOP side of the arguement.

You can read the article here.

The money quote is from a Republican strategist who points out that

we have to understand what drives success. In some ways we continue to put the cart before the horse. Technology does not drive success. Message (especially a well crafted one) drives success.

Bingo.

Admittedly the GOP and their amen corner in the conservative blogosphere have been pretty lame in their use of the Internet. But even if they were slick as oil they’d still be nowhere without a compelling message.

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Buy Some Books, Do A Mitzvah

Published on 2/11/2009 in Required Reading. Comments

: Image by Getty Images via Daylife

This one has been around the Webs and tweeted and retweeted, so I’ll just reprint here and you can figure it out yourself:

For the next 3 days you can pick any 5 books (in PDF format) and pay for only 1. That’s almost $150 worth of books for just $29.95!

But that’s not all…

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Order your 5 books right now for just $29.95 and do your bit to help us support the victims of these devastating fires:

From PHP to Project Management and everything in between, you’re sure to find something to suit your specific needs, and at 5 for the price of 1 this is our greatest offer yet.

Go here to spend some money on a good cause.

Our Best Book Deal Ever: 5 Books For The Price of 1 (sitepoint.com)
SitePoint : The Bushfire Relief Sale (tsurch.com)

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True Confession

Published on 1/16/2009 in General and Required Reading. Comments

I’ve been to Memphis. And I’ve been to the area around the airport (on my way to Graceland) and it’s not exactly Shangri-la but that’s no reason to mouth off in a public forum read by tens of thousands of people, embarrassing your employer and possibly causing it the loss of one of their key clients.

@keyinfluencer? Oh really?

There’s a lot you can get away with on Twitter, Facebook, etc. etc. Political opinions, rehashes of crazy parties, doubts of the existence of God are pretty much all fair game these days. Insulting your client’s hometown and the people who live there is pretty much a no-brainer.

More at PRNewser and Gawker.

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Pitching The Bloggers

Published on 1/9/2009 in Clue-full and Required Reading. Comments

Here’s a scenario I imagine going on in a lot of agencies these days.

A client wants placement in ‘the blogs.’ The account team pulls up a list in Bacons or Technorati or whatever. Hundreds of bloggers – relevent or otherwise – get identical emails. At best, there are no responses. At worst, some of the bloggers post snarky comments, naming the agency and the poor AE who had the luck to have her name attached to the pitch.

And the agency and client conclude that pitching bloggers, and using social media in general, isn’t worth the time and effort.

Oddly enough, pitching bloggers is really no different from pitching journalists. Just replace “bloggers” with “reporters” in the scenario above. Doesn’t that sound like how most agencies do business? Wouldn’t you get more results by actually taking the time to learn what reporters, or bloggers, wanted – or if they are even interested in the first place?

There are two excellent blog posts today on the subject – one from Ragan’s quoting some excellent advice from fellow Catalyst Shel Holtz and the other from Jim Lodico on Social Marketing 2.0.

Go and read them both.

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Finding Blogs

Published on 1/8/2009 in Required Reading and Toys. Comments

The most obvious question – how do I find the blogs / bloggers I need to be following – is one that doesn’t really have a clear answer. ReadWriteWeb has a round-up of the most frequently used sites for finding niche blogs – any one of the sites listed is a good place to start.

But the real work comes from following a couple of blogs and seeing who they link to and follow. And then gradually you will know who the authorities in any given field are, and conversly who the gasbags are.

It takes time, I know, but nothing worth doing is worth doing sloppy.

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Archive for the 'Required Reading' Category