Not so long ago I made a couple of posts about Twitter and its lack relevance to me. I initially thought that only slackers and internet addicts would use it to tweet randomly about what they’re doing that exact minute. However, I am beginning to warm up to the service. I actually like it. The member base has grown significantly in the last few months and there are enough people who actually tweet relevant content that I can use instantly or explore it at a later time. Being a marketer and having high interest in digital space and emerging media, AND a trendwatching junkie I am starting to see a real value in Twitter. I am slowly but steadily building my own community and following people who share similar interests with me, are active, and have something to contribute.
Cutting costs these days? Stop paying thousands a month to someone for sending you an email with links to articles and blogs that discuss your brand, competition and industry related news. That’s something you can do yourself, save thousands and get instant updates. There’s an abundance of free tools available for you to monitor media sources, the web, and social networks. Although you may not get the full analytical breakdown of how many times the word ‘layoff’ appeared in Twitter between 2pm and 3pm (like Radian6 offers), but these few tools are a great start.

Google Alerts. Get email alerts for relevant Google search results.

Monitter. Monitor Twitter and what tweeple are saying about a set of three keywords… in realtime.

Yahoo Pipes. Interactive RSS feeds manipulator. Provides graphical interface for you to manage and take greater control of your RSS feeds.
The following technique applies to all sources below.
First and foremost get yourself a Google Reader (or another RSS feed aggregator) account. If you already have a Gmail account then you’re all setup. You’ll need this in order to efficiently and effectively follow what various media outlets online entities are reporting via RSS feeds. The sources below allow you to generate your own RSS feeds that you can subscribe to.
- Visit the site listed.
- Enter the term you want to monitor (it could be anything from your brand name to mundane objects such as margarine) into the search.
- When the search results appear find the RSS feed link and subscribe to it.
- Use your RSS aggregator to monitor the feeds.
Google News
Technorati
Digg
Delicious
Although there are hundreds if not thousands of sites that do the same thing, but these are the leaders in their respective space.
The blogosphere is abuzz today with the release of a new browser by your favourite search engine, Google. Chrome, as Google calls it, although in a very early beta mode, is receiving praise all over the globe. In Google’s natural fashion it is extremely light weight and very simple to use. It won’t take hours for you to explore and figure out everything it can do. It literally takes a couple of minutes and some. This post is not a review of the application (you can find reviews and first looks at: LifeHacker, Gizmodo, TechCrunch) but rather what this means for FireFox (and Internet Explorer).
- Speed. Recent release of Firefox has been plagued by complaints about the browser being slower than its predecessors. I’ve actually had to switch back to IE7 to get stable performance and speed that Firefox can’t deliver anymore.
- Size. Hard to say what an official release of Chrome will look like in the future, but currently it’s extremely light weight and skinny. Google is keeping Chrome clean and simple.
- Reach. Google has an enormous user base that already use one or more of Google’s applications. It took Mozilla over 5 years to achieve 20% market share. Google can tap into their user base and can easily achieve dominance in Web Browser arena.
- Integration. I already use gmail, picasa, reader, trends, analytics, webmaster tools… I can’t wait to see how Google will marry all these applications with Chrome (although I do have some ideas worthy of seperate post). With Chrome, Google is on its way to become the Internet OS.
The bottom line is, Chrome will eat the FireFox… and possibly spit it out in a different form. Afterall, Google did invest heavily into Mozilla Foundation. The two may co-exist in one form or another, but the real threat is felt by Microsoft. Read about it here: What Chrome Means for Microsoft.
A number of blogs (including cnet, crunchgear) reporting today that a mobile carrier Orange has paid actors to stand in line for the new iPhone 3G release at dozens of its stores. Seems like a very desperate move to drum up last minute business. It’s a bandaid solution with a lasting pain. It never favors a company to pay actors to admire, use, and/or enjoy their products; especially, when the press gets a hold of it. Not only does it tarnish the brand image, but it also shows the public the low business ethics and credibility a company has. A better solution would be to incent the first N customers with an awesome gift or a discount on iPhone 3G or a monthly phone charge.
Relieving yourself, puking, and fighting on the catwalk: shock value at its finest. I love it when advertisers make bold decisions to develop this type of ad to raise awareness. It might be hard to believe, but this TV spot was commissioned by the UK Government. Clearly UK is battling over-consumption of alcohol among club goers or “clubbers”. My initial gut reaction was filled with disgust because I actually thought that this was a real fashion show. The advertising agency responsible for creating this ad did a brilliant job as capturing my attention, evoking an emotional response from me and then delivering a sobering message at the end of the creative. Furthermore, this video has a great viral potential. At the time of this writting, the video had 119,421 views on YouTube. Watch the view count skyrocket over the next few weeks.
Yesterday, my friends and I attended The Toronto Ribfest 2008 hosted by The Rotary Club of Etobicoke. This year, like every year it was held at Centennial Park. This was the very first time I’ve ever attended this type of event. I loved it. It was warm and sunny, perfect day to enjoy BBQ and cold beer. Among the four of us we got four full racks from four different vendors. The ribs were just spectacular from all four vendors. This entry is not about who had the best ribs; it’s about how we selected the rib vendors, about who sold them the best, and how.
First and foremost I’d like to say that the rib vendors all sold their ribs the same way.
- All proudly displayed their trophies at their stands
- All proudly advertised their accomplishments/winnings
- All had the same layout of their signage
- All had the same pricing
None had any differentiating sales and marketing tools. The only time you could differentiate among them, is after you’ve bit into the rack. Even vendors’ names were hidden among all the pennants and banners of accomplishments. If I went into the fair blindly I’d have a hard time choosing a vendor to try ribs from. So many vendors, so little room in the stomach. Luckily we had a plan. Our first two vendors were based on a recommendation by a friend who attended Toronto Ribfest a day earlier. Both vendors had the shortest line ups and probably the smallest stands at the fair; and their ribs were way better than the other two vendors we visited; who had huge lineups and huge stands.

As you can see from my pictures posted. The stands and signage look identical. As I was leaving the event, I thought to myself… there’s a got to be a better way to stand out. Without going overboard or being tacky here are some ideas that would attract the public to a stand.
- Create some kind of fire-shooting contraption at the top of the stand
- Get a giant inflatable gorilla or a pig, and put it on top of your stand.
- Create a sign that is equivalent in size of other stands that basically reads (in tongue and cheek humor) “We also won the same awards!” or “Some pigs dream of becoming doctors, other dream of becoming best ribs in town!”
It’s one thing to attract unsuspecting public, but it’s another to keep them there and spread the good word about your ribs. That means you actually have to make delicious ribs and keep the line moving fast.
Here’s a cool marketing idea; that will give a new meaning to target marketing. The idea came to me when I was on my way home from the gym. I had a radio on in my car and the announcer was talking about Toronto Blue Jays. Who recently made some desperate moves in the management, but are yet to produce any positive results.
Although Target retail chain doesn’t exist in Canada, so this could only apply to US-based baseball team. To motivate home team players hit a few home runs, Target retail chain can set up a “Target Zone”. So, every time a player is up to bat, the fans in the “Target Zone” can flip their cards and form Target logo, which of course looks like a bulls eye, that players can aim for.
I’d normally not post this type of a marketing idea, but I am curious to see if anything similar has been done before and whether it actually improved players’ performance when they were presented with a big visual goal to strive for. Beyond observing a psychological impact it may have on players’ performance, there are very strong benefits to running this type of “Target Marketing”, pun intended.
- Fans are engaged in the game (they feel like they can influence the outcome of the game)
- Fans are engaged in the promotion (perhaps they pay discounted ticket prices to be seated in the “Target Zone”)
- Interval exposure (fans and TV viewers do not feel like they are being forced fed the ad)
- Contextual (unique way to integrate into the game and have a functional purpose)
- Exposure on the highlight reels
The first part of the series Leveraging Twitter, I acknowledged that I lacked experience with Twitter. However, I am quite familiar with the service since I’ve been following the developments of it for some time. After writing part one, I immediately signed up for the service for more research to see if there’s something there that I already didn’t know about. To my disappointment, I didn’t find anything all that fun and exciting. I still don’t see myself Twitting anytime soon.
As mentioned in part one, Twitter would benefit most to those who are looking to build a fan base or a following. Musicians and bands can greatly benefit from this micro-blogging service. It allows the acts to build a sense of an exclusive community and develop close and almost personal relationships with their fans. Being a music fan, I constantly visit my favorite bands web sites for updates on tour dates, album releasing, special appearances, etc. Taking it a step further, bands can use Twitter to instantly send updates to their followers/fans about:
- Recent site updates
- Tour dates
- Band related news
- New releases
- Recording progress
- Special appearances
- Announce secret shows
… and to make it more personal bands should keep their fans updated with the life on the road, the books they’re reading, current sources of inspiration and so on.
These days every entertainment outlet is competing for our limited attention spans and our limited disposable incomes. Thus, musicians and bands need to synergistically utilize every tool available to them to gain an edge in developing and maintaining solid fan bases to keep their own careers alive.
I was inspired to write an opinion piece on Twitter by a friend, who asked what I thought of Twitter. I’d be the first to admit that I have not used Twitter. However, I am keen to point out that I am very familiar with the service. I’ve been following Twitter’s development, launch and mass adoption since its inception. Twitter came to my attention in early of 2007, (the source of Twitter discovery escapes my memory) but I never gave much thought to it. In the recent months it’s been gaining a great deal of momentum. Almost on daily basis there is an article about Twitter; covering every topic from how twitter can be monetized to server and services issues.
I was more interested in reading about Twitter than using it. There are reasons why I have not used it, or saw the need to. Using Twitter is like being in a band… you need to build a fan base before Twitter has any value to you.
To build a fan-base, or in Twitter terms, the followers, you need to:
- Twit frequently
- Have something meaningful to say
- Get your friends to start following you before the masses do
The reason why I don’t use Twitter is for the same reasons above and more:
- I would not have enough time and lack dedication to Twit frequently enough
- The things I do would probably not be interesting enough for other people to know about, which leads me to the next point
- My followers would probably get annoyed if I post about the color of my socks today
- I do enjoy a certain sense of privacy
Although I am not about to start using Twitter, but I think Twitter would benefit public figures most. Bands, artists, celebrities, politicians, brands, and so on. Twitter can be monetized (an often discussed topic on blogs) by leveraging public figures, who rely on fan base and audiences to be successful.
In Part 2 I will discuss how public figures can leverage Twitter.







