Biznology

OCTOBER 19, 2011

Image by markhillary via Flickr. Celebrating at a funeral is in bad taste, so I’m sure the folks at B&N had to think carefully about to address the contacts they got from a recent acquisition of Borders customer data. Too friendly and cheerful would come across as celebration; too mournful and sympathetic would appear inauthentic or worse.

Privacy Policies 171

Privacy Policies Opt-out Opt-in Privacy 171

Biznology

OCTOBER 17, 2011

Image via CrunchBase. Last week, I talked about how you really do know what to say in social media. I got lots of nice feedback on that post, but I know that some of you are still skeptical. I know that some of you still believe that old PR maxim to never dignify a scurrilous story with a response. Or that some criticisms are “one-day stories,” and answering them just “gives them legs.” And some of you are especially adamant about this when it comes to reviews of your bus

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PR Software Studies Social Media 110

Biznology

OCTOBER 14, 2011

Image by atduskgreg via Flickr. What I am writing here is not a reaction to the great posts that Chris Abraham wrote recently here at Biznology: How to pitch a blogger and How NOT to pitch a blogger. In fact, after you are done reading this you may want to check them out for a real professional’s take on this subject! :-). As the managing editor of Marketing Pilgrim part of what I have to do on a daily basis is watch the e-mail requests stream in about the wonderful opportunity I have to allow p

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Blogger Internet Marketing Opinions Intent 123

Biznology

OCTOBER 13, 2011

Image by Scoobyfoo via Flickr. When I was in Stockholm last month, I visited a very cool museum dedicated to the Vasa ship , a huge Swedish warship launched in the 1620s. The ship was on display for all to see, with lots of explanations about the way it was built, what life was like back then, and many other interesting facts. But this is not your standard museum of history.

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Wikipedia Display Design Business 93

Biznology

OCTOBER 12, 2011

Image by ntr23 via Flickr. If I asked you what’s the most important part of your marketing, what would you answer? Would you choose search? Social? Email? Remarketing? Display? What if I told you the answer is none of the above? Search, social, email and the rest are excellent marketing tools. They help you keep in touch with your customer and help your customer remember you when they’re ready to buy.

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Ideal Customer Profiles Startups Search Marketing Marketing 93

Biznology

OCTOBER 11, 2011

Last week, I talked about using the long tail of blogger outreach –the idea that you can’t pin your hopes for most public relations efforts on only the A-list bloggers. For each outreach, there are hundreds and often thousands of bloggers that are not well-known, but have influence on the very people that your PR campaign is trying to reach.

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Blogger Long Tail Marketing Outreach PR 133

Biznology

OCTOBER 10, 2011

Image by Creative Tools via Flickr. If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time looking at how Amazon does business. And for good reason. Amazon seemingly sells everything under the sun and they have been the standard for e-Commerce innovation since–well, since e-Commerce has existed. To me, their genius is in getting you to pay more than you would elsewhere, just because you like it so much.

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Amazon Order Efficiency Creativity 101

Biznology

OCTOBER 7, 2011

I will admit that I am on the higher end of the social media user scale with regard to age. If you are that curious, I am 47 years old and have been working in the Internet space in some form or another since 1998. I am not a truly technical person but I can make my way around a little. I am not some social media or tech super user but I would suspect my involvement is on the high end in my age group (considering how most of my lifelong friends use it).

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Biznology

OCTOBER 6, 2011

Image via CrunchBase. Steve Jobs’ tragic death yesterday resulted in great accolades, making it easy to forget that he took a lot of criticism for his leadership style during his tenure at Apple. I think businesses would do well to study the Steve Jobs leadership method and take a few pages from his playbook. The bottom line in business ultimately is more than just having a vision.

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Thought Leadership Work Management Paid Search Agency Communities 114

Biznology

OCTOBER 5, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. Back in the days when “Web 2.0″ was a hot buzzword, many people asked what “Web 3.0″ would look like. Even though that question sounds now as outdated as an X-Files re-run episode, the quest for “what’s next?” is always in our minds. I’m no better prognosticator than anybody else, but my best answer would be: look at where the inefficiencies are.

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Social Media Media Web 2.0 Distribution 134

Biznology

OCTOBER 4, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. I had breakfast with John Bell of Ogilvy a number of years ago. He didn’t see the value of investing limited budget, time, and resources on the long tail when those treasures would better be used to woo the high-fliers, professionals, top-cows, and A-listers. That’s fair enough, and surely a common question, and a question we must address close to the beginning of every sales call we make at Abraham Harrison , when we propose blogger outreach to a prospective cl

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Long Tail Marketing Blogger Outreach Verticals 152

Biznology

OCTOBER 3, 2011

Image via CrunchBase. I talk to folks about social media all the time. One of the things that I notice right away is the fear. Most people are worried that they don’t know what to do in social media. They are afraid that they will make a mistake. That they will say the wrong thing. Or, they fear that they don’t know what to say at all–even that they have nothing to say.

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Biznology

OCTOBER 25, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. When it comes to your direct mail campaigns, you’ve probably over-farmed your land. You’ve been emailing and snail mailing the same donors you have done for a decade. It is time to leave the land fallow and let the lists rest. You have probably responded to lower donations and attention by relinquishing too much power to your direct marketing firm and they have been much more aggressive than you’re comfortable with, sending out many more snail mail and emai

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Blogger Internet Marketing Outgrow Paid Search Agency 157

Biznology

OCTOBER 18, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. Last week I asked my management team if what we do at Abraham Harrison is inbound marketing. Sara Wilson, my COO, told me yes, that our digital PR strategy of identifying thousands of topical blogs and then pitching them on behalf of our clients with the goal of securing hundreds of earned media mentions is surely the definition of inbound marketing–and maybe even the way that God intended.

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Inbound Marketing Blogger Wikipedia Work Management 158

Biznology

OCTOBER 31, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. Recently, I wrote a post that recommended, “ Don’t be afraid of fake reviews ,” to help business owners know how to respond to an angry post in social media. To make a long post short, my advice was to always treat angry reviews as legitimate (not assuming it is faked by a competitor, for example), because responding that way is best whether the review is fake or not.

Wikipedia 101

Wikipedia Social Media Work Management Privacy 101

Biznology

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Image via Wikipedia. It’s been seven full years since O’Reilly Media organized the first Web 2.0 conference , and a handful of years since terms like Enterprise 2.0 and Social Business were introduced to our business jargon. However, the reality in 2011 is that the internal use of social technologies in large enterprises across the globe still faces an interesting situation: while most large companies have already gone through some 2.0 experimentation, I would dare to affirm that ver

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ROI Business Terms and Conditions Web 2.0 119