THINKing

RSS Slow To Catch On

RSS, really simple syndication, has been around a long time. In fact, the idea for it dates back to 1995. Talking about technology, that’s like 20 dog years. It’s finally making a move into the mainstream.

Anita Campbell, who has an excellent blog on Small Business, has a recent piece worth reading on the subject of RSS mainstreaming.

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Embrace the Unexpected

Sometimes the best ads are the ones that appear in the most unexpected or surprising places. And some of the most creative are seen there as well. For instance, look at these ads on buses, this one at a bus stop, and this one on a manhole cover.

These so-called out-of-home ads are taking off as media becomes more splintered and it becomes harder to reach people through traditional media.

UPDATE:

Although not unexpected, traditional outdoor also is having its day in the sun. Here are a couple of articles on the subject:

Digital Signage

Out-of-Home Ad Spending Up

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Referrals Can Be Good Business

I’ve been thinking about referrals recently. Most marketers want go after new business the wrong way. They want to “take down” the new piece of business using all the expensive tools of the trade from advertising and direct mail to cold calling and event marketing. This is an expensive way to drum up business when your existing clients are just waiting to refer people to you.

Why do people refer? Duct Tape Marketing has a good piece on referral marketing. Once you know the why, you can consider the when:

- After your customer has purchased something from you is a great time to ask. The new customer is pumped up about your offering and you can harness that energy by asking for names of others who could benefit from doing business with you.

- Upon delivery of your product or service is the next time to ask. The benefits of your offering should be readily apparent now, so you can remind the customer of the importance of their referrals.

- Anytime you have personal contact with your customer is a good time to ask. You are continuing to build a relationship with them and can use the opportunity to ask for referrals. Don’t ask more than three times per year, however.

Got any referral pointers? Let me know.

This just in…more thoughts on referrals and word-of-mouth.

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Links for 5/30/2007

Top 60 Australian Web 2.0 Sites

Google Launches Streetview Maps

Search Engine Keyword Tracker

HTML True Color Chart

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Dog Days

Take Your Dog To Work Day is coming Friday, June 22. My Creative Team developed the theme, logo and poster for this year’s event. I think the poster is pretty funny. Download it and send it around to your doggone friends.

We’re also doing some social media work for this client. So, let us know if your office plans to celebrate the event, tag this page using del.icio.us or StumbleUpon, write about the event in your blog, or post photos to your Flickr.com account. Please use this tag for StumbleUpon, del.icio.us or Flickr: take your dog to work day.

June 1, 2007 – This just in…

Be sure to enter the $25,000 sweepstakes, too.

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Links for 5/29/2007

Do you live and die by generating and qualifying leads? If so, read this BNET article.

What’s your brand’s score? Learn how to create a single brand scorecard from the MarketingNPV lesson.

TalentZoo is the place to look for a job or to find a candidate in the creative fields.

If you still have on your Web 2.0 training wheels, ride over here for more practice.

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Cool Tools

Free stuff is cool and there is a lot of it on the web.

If you are looking for web analysis and optimization tools, look no further. There are 136 really helpful tools accessible at SEO Tools.

Want to add Web 2.0 social bookmarking to your website? Then, you need the AddThis widget, or the TopRank tool.

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@ Random

Steve Rubel of the MicroPersuasion blog is one of my favorites. He has a nice piece on publicity stunts and how they are evolving in the web era.

Firefox users – you are using Firefox, right? – easily can add search engines to their browsers with add-ons. I found a really useful one that allows you to search for photography among several stock photo sites. It’s by everystockphoto.com. You can get the plug-in here.

Are you using RSS feeds to promote your blog or website? Feedburner allows you to set up and manage feeds, as well as provides stats on your subscribers. Subscribe to my blog’s feed.

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Get iGoogle

Google has added another cool module to its already healthy array of tools in iGoogle. This one lets you track trends on the web. It shows you in real time the top searches, top news, top images and top videos on the Internet.

Some of my other iGoogle favorites are document-to-pdf converter, Google translate, and my all-time favorite the custom search engine. Google lets you create a highly specialized Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. Mine is on marketing communications.

You can place these custom search engines on your blog or website, too.

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Links for 5/22/2007

Ads of the World is just that: a site for ads from around the world.

Online PR gives you access to a plethora of PR and media relations-oriented links.

The Marketing Technology Blog offers up the latest cool tools from around the net.

Jumpstart your little gray cells with Creativity at Work.

Want to stay tuned in to what is happening in the world of Web 2.0? Planet Web 2.0 is for you.

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