THINKing

Tweeta20 – A Non-Profit Social Media Pilot Project

On Tuesday, May 11, nine Charlotte social media folks and I will spend an hour trying to raise money for Thompson Child & Family Focus, an organization that has spent nearly 125 years providing education, treatment and support for children traumatized by sexual abuse, domestic violence or rampant neglect.

The Forgotten P

Graduates of Marketing 101 all know about the Four Ps of marketing – product, placement and promotion seem to be top of mind. But the forgotten P – in my opinion – is price. Pricing can be an excellent way to differentiate yourself. I’m not talking about low-balling your competitors either. I’m talking about using pricing strategically to address consumer pain.

Phelps’ Bad PR “Shot”

Human fish Michael Phelps has two strikes against him and – although I hope I’m wrong – I predict he will strike out.

As you have heard by now, Phelps was photographed taking a marijuana bong shot. He jeopardized his multi-million dollar endorsement deals with this latest in what some call youthful indiscretions.

A Question Of Trust

Forrester Research has a new study indicating consumers don’t trust corporate blogs. In fact, only 16 percent of respondents say they trust corporate blogs. According to a story in Online Media Daily,

Marketing Landscape In Flux

A couple of recent items have me thinking about what is happening in the marketing landscape around us. We talked recently about the PR study done at Annenberg School of Communications concerning best practices and how the industry is not doing a good job of measuring its effectiveness.

Pitching Bloggers

I was pretty hard on a so-called PR practitioner whose bad blog pitch went awry and got him into social media trouble. So, I thought perhaps we should take a crack at helping PR people who would like to pitch bloggers but don’t know how.

BlogUpp!

You’ll notice the window in the sidebar to the right that provides a thumbnail snapshot of another blog. This is from BlogUpp!, a new blog promotion tool widget that I am trying. I’ll report back on how it works to drive traffic. Here’s what BlogUpp! says about itself:

New Business: Do Great Work For Current Clients

New Business Primer – Part 1

New Business Primer – Part 2

New Business Primer – Part 3

My marketing mentor, Bill Loeffler, once said the the best new business program is doing great work for current clients. He was right.

Sharing With madKast

Have you noticed the little green “Share” icon that recently has popped up to the right of my blog headlines? That’s for a new service from madKast. I’m giving it a test drive to see if I like it better than the previous bookmarking widget I was using.

Hunting New Business: A Primer

DC (digital colleague) Rodger Johnson asked me recently about how a new PR Counselor can acquire new accounts. I don’t know that I have any words of wisdom but I do know how I did it successfully. So, that will be the story of this new series of posts. If you have other advice, please wade in.