Announcing Twitter 20 – Interviews on Twitter

Starting Soon. Follow @jaybaer and @jaffejuice to see Questions and Answers. I’m happy to announce a new Convince and Convert initiative – Twitter 20. On a regular basis, I’ll be interviewing social media and digital marketing luminaries on Twitter and posting the interviews here for review, comment, and posterity. 140 character questions (x20). 140 character […]

The 6 Dangerous Fallacies of Social Media

Do you have your copy of Youtility: Why Smart Marketing is About Help not Hype? Visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble to get your copy now! (Amazing Gangsta Chimp image by the talented Matt Cioffi) You may have heard of social media. There’s been a bit of news about it recently. However, a lot of […]

Why Twitter Is the Anchor of the Social Media Team

Because of its simplicity and immediacy, Twitter enables brands to win the 1:1 battle with customers and potential customers in ways that even other social media constructs cannot. The density of Eureka! moments on Twitter is quite high, and if brands use it right, it’s the ultimate weapon for turning lemons into lemonade. Let’s examine […]

NHL Misses Net in New Campaign – Where’s Social Media?

Pittsburg Penguins on the ice

The National Hockey League has rolled out a series of compelling TV spots featuring some of the game’s biggest stars. And while the new commercials – with a theme of “Is This The Year?” will run nationally on Canadian broadcast and U.S. cable television, like so many campaigns, it’s being forced to go it alone. How […]

The Social Networking Friendship Development Scale

It used to be that you actually met someone in person first, and then developed and nurtured that relationship into its natural culmination – helping them move. The Web and social networking has changed that, and now friendships are developed in a variety of digital forums, eventually moving offline and becoming three dimensional. Below are […]

A Conversation, Not a Monologue – Digital Marketing for Colleges

A conversation, not a monologue

I just finished giving a speech at the western region meeting of the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations in Sedona, Arizona.  NCMPR is the association of community and technical college marketers. A really interesting group that needs to harness social media and work with prospective students on an individual, relevant, highly personal basis.  […]

The Future of Email Marketing – Think Holistically, Send Individually

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The demise of email has been greatly exaggerated. While Jupiter says that overall email volume has dropped from 41 messages per day per U.S. user to 24, the email marketing universe is very much alive and well. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) projects that $600 million will be spent on email in 2008, driving an […]

The 10 Strengths of the Agency of the Future

Web services giant Sapient recently fielded a national online digital marketing survey of more than 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketers responsible for managing digital budgets (among other things). Survey respondents were asked about the top qualities they sought in their advertising and marketing agencies in the coming year. Sapient’s Top 10 Wish […]

The 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media

As part of my panel on social media at the Worldcom PR conference in Montreal recently (see post below), I created these “7 Deadly Sins of Social Media.” Are you willing to admit your sins in the comments? 1. Deafness Actively listening to what’s being said about your brand is at the core of social […]

Customized Internet Marketing Training for Agencies

Convince & Convert launches new training program series to help agencies improve their digital capabilities Addressing the needs of ad agencies and PR firms to improve their digital marketing competency, Convince & Convert is now providing a series of customizable, in-person training programs. We are offering 5 intensive, all-day sessions to train ad agencies and […]

The Official Toothpaste of Social Media

Will the Crest Weekly Toothpaste Launch Work? In a sign that the guys who control ad budgets are getting the value of interactive advertising faster than the agencies that place it, P&G announced recently that they are introducing their new Crest Weekly toothpaste almost entirely through the blogosphere. Samples of Crest Weekly were sent to […]

Wake Up Agencies – Digital Shops = Trojan Horse

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It was bound to happen, and now it has. A big-time digital agency (R/GA) has opened up a full-fledged brand development arm. And whom do you think they will be competing against with this new branding department? Other digital agencies? Nope. They are aiming for traditional agencies and the branding, media placement, and creative budgets […]

The World’s Best PR Blog – Vote Today

To celebrate its 10th Anniversary, PR Week has launched a “Best PR Blogs” contest with YOU the agency community as the judge and jury. PR Week nominated 16 well-known PR blogs, and asked each blogger to nominate another blog for the contest. The result is a 32-blog, March Madness-style blog off. Each week, blogs are […]

PitchEngine Takes the Mystery out of Social Media Releases

Agency Advantage Tools – #3 In a Series Since it’s invention by Todd Defren at Shift Communications in 2006, the social media press release has taken root. Combining short paragraphs and bullet points with Web-friendly links, tags, and multi-media content, the SM release aims to give reporters and bloggers the key ingredients for a story […]

4 Winners, 2 Losers in SEC’s Press Release Decision

In a major announcement yesterday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) provided new guidance to public companies stating that corporate Web sites and blogs are a suitable means for official information dissemination to investors, provided those sites are a “recognized channel for distribution.” This apparently means that if the corporation has an openly available […]

3 Reasons Why Social Networks Are Bad Ad Buys

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A recent article by Michael Estrin in iMediaConnection asks whether social media has lost its luster from an advertising standpoint. Traffic and usage of the major social networks continues to soar, with traffic to Facebook and Linked In up considerably in the past 30 days. In fact, LinkedIn which is considered to be the least […]