Social Media Is Important to Everyone - Not!

Ok, we have turned a corner. We are on the other side of a holiday weekend. The unofficial start of summer has come and gone. Many people have walked away from their computers for a few days and have actually continued to breathe. Many are coming back refreshed. And, in the case of Gene Marks [...]

Internet Fraud is Internet Fraud, Right?

As online marketers most are concerned about click fraud. The endless battle to make sure that when you are buying a click it’s a real click and not something else. Marketers lose sleep over this every night but ht economy may have created a whole other category of fraud called “friendly fraud”. First, I am not [...]

Internet Fraud is Internet Fraud, Right?

As online marketers most are concerned about click fraud. The endless battle to make sure that when you are buying a click it’s a real click and not something else. Marketers lose sleep over this every night but ht economy may have created a whole other category of fraud called “friendly fraud”. First, I am not [...]

OpenX Raises Another $10M to Help in Its Efforts to Bring Down Google

It seems that OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan is doing something that he struggled to do at Yahoo–compete with Google. The ad technology provider and marketplace has just announced a third round of venture capital with $10.4 million being added to the war chest, courtesy of DAG Ventures. The company is certainly doing well to fend off Google’s [...]

OpenX Raises Another $10M to Help in Its Efforts to Bring Down Google

It seems that OpenX CEO Tim Cadogan is doing something that he struggled to do at Yahoo–compete with Google. The ad technology provider and marketplace has just announced a third round of venture capital with $10.4 million being added to the war chest, courtesy of DAG Ventures. The company is certainly doing well to fend off Google’s [...]

Pets.com Sock Puppet Shows the Perils of Outbound Marketing

1999/2000 was the absolute peak of the outbound marketing era because small startups raised hundreds of millions of dollars and then spent that money on outbound advertising (TV, print, billboards) thinking that the more you spent on outbound marketing, the faster you would grow.  This proved to be a completely false assumption, and the era of outbound marketing ended, including a gigantic crash of the stock market (only surpassed by the most recent financial crisis) and the loss of many jobs in the startup and Internet industries.

For those of you who do not know the Pets.com Sock Puppet, it was the mascot of a startup Pets.com that was trying to sell pet supplies online.  Not a bad business (in fact, people are making money in that business today), but their strategy was based on how you built a brand in 1950, not 2000.  The Sock Puppet starred in numerous TV ads, including a Superbowl ad, and became quite famous... So famous that the company started selling toys based on the sock puppet.  But none of that helped Pets.com build a profitable business.  In fact, in their first year of operations, they spent $11 million on advertising to gain $600,000 in revenue.

Big brands used to be built on outbound marketing.  But then inventions like the remote control, cable TV, and the DVR made it more possible for people to control what they view, and ignore advertisements.  The Internet and other new technologies take this to the extreme.  Today, the outbound marketing model is broken, as Pets.com proved.  The next 50 years are the age of inbound marketing.  If Pets.com had built their brand differently, the Sock Puppet might not be collecting unemployment today.

How are you building your brand?  What do you think marketers can learn from the Pets.com example?

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Why Microsoft Needs to Spend $100M to Make Us Doubt Google

Are you sure you’re using the best search engine available? What if I told you that you, your friends, and your family spend almost half their time looking at search results that aren’t relevant? What if I could show you a brand new search engine that has better results than the one you are currently using? Would you [...]

Why Microsoft Needs to Spend $100M to Make Us Doubt Google

Are you sure you’re using the best search engine available? What if I told you that you, your friends, and your family spend almost half their time looking at search results that aren’t relevant? What if I could show you a brand new search engine that has better results than the one you are currently using? Would you [...]

In Honor of Memorial Day (2009)

We probably won’t post anything today, other than this photo. Without the sacrifices of those who died to protect our freedom, who knows if this blog would even exist. Sync your files with Dropbox’s 2GB of free online storage. Marketing Pilgrim readers get 250MB of bonus storage space!

In Honor of Memorial Day (2009)

We probably won’t post anything today, other than this photo. Without the sacrifices of those who died to protect our freedom, who knows if this blog would even exist. Sync your files with Dropbox’s 2GB of free online storage. Marketing Pilgrim readers get 250MB of bonus storage space!

HubSpot TV - Lose Control of Your Marketing

Episode #41 - May 22, 2009
(Episode Length: 19 minutes, 37 seconds)

Intro

• How to interact on Twitter - @karenrubin @kylejames
• Remember to subscribe in iTunes: http://itunes.hubspot.tv
• http://InboundMarketing.com: New community where you can post questions, learn about inbound marketing, meet others, find and post jobs, or sign up Inbound Marketing University!

Doing it Right

• Ford Motor Company
• Why Ford is Winning on the Social Web
• Scott Monty has ~20,000 followers on Twitter, GMblogs has ~5,100 and Chrysler has just over 800.
• Fiesta Movement Campaign
• Ford Bets the Fiesta on Social Networking
• "But the healthiest of the Big Three wants to generate buzz for the car among "millennials," those born between 1979 and 1996. Some 70 million millennials will be driving next year, and Ford is targeting the Fiesta squarely at them"
• "Ford recently handed 100 Fiestas to 100 people selected from 4,000 applicants. These "agents" (that's what Ford calls them) get to use the cars for six months in exchange for completing monthly "missions" with different themes. They'll share their experiences through YouTube, Flickr, Facebook and Twitter accounts Ford created for the campaign."
• Marketing Takeaway: Be willing to let go of your message and lose control.

Headlines

SMBs have Problems Effectively Marketing Themselves but Aren't Using Social Media?

• SMB Marketing Is About Telling Your Story
• "Small businesses are not as successful as they would like to be in effectively marketing themselves to grow their business beyond their current size."
• "The same study also found that only 12 percent of small businesses are engaging in social media. Restated: Only 12 percent of small businesses are taking advantage of a targeted, absolutely free way to market their business online. Sounds silly, right?"
• Marketing Takeaway: If you are part of the 88% of small business not using social media, what are you waiting for!

Use the data you have carefully

• Report: Mint Considers Selling Anonymized Data from Its Users
• Mint, a personal finance aggregator, is "considering selling anonymized data about the service's users"
• Marketing Takeaway: Be careful where you put your data and read the Terms and Conditions you sign when you sign up.
• Marketing Takeaway 2: If you are planning on using your customers data, make sure you are honest and open and transparent about it.

Creative Commons for Facebook

• The Official Unofficial Creative Commons Facebook Application
• "Facebook users can now place a Creative Commons license badge on their Facebook profile pages. The badge explains the type of license users have chosen for their photos, videos, and/or status updates."
• Marketing Takeaway: Photos are another version of content, add yours to Facebook, install the Creative Commons Facebook app and let people use them.

Chart Shows Dramatic Decline in Online Ad Growth

• Chart Shows Dramatic Decline in Online Ad Growth
• Marketing Takeaway: If you are paying for traffic, start thinking about optimizing you site for organic search.
• Marketing Takeaway: If ad revenue is your business model, you might want to think about some alternative business models.

Online Video and Mobile Video Watching is UP!

• The YouTube Generation: Online Video Usage Up 53 Percent in ‘09
• 53% growth in the amount of time people spend watching online video
• 52% growth in the number of people watching video on their phones
• Marketing Takeaway: Be engaging, multi media is in, easy to do and growing.

Marketing Tip of the Week - Find unique ways to make and distribute content and then lose control!

Forum Fodder

• From Matt: "A partner is recommending that we creating a number of branded minisites (content would be very similar, if not an exact copy of our main website) using keyword rich urls. There are no links from the minisite pointing back to the main site. What are the pros & cons?"
• Duplicate Content
• Authority

Closing

Missed last week's episode? HubSpot TV - This Brand is My Brand with Chris Brogan (May 15th, 2009)

Webinar: Rethinking Marketing

Want to learn more about how you can use inbound marketing to grow your business? Download the free webinar to learn how to turn your website into an internet marketing machine.

Become a Fan on Facebook Get inside info and advance notice of HubSpot's free marketing webinars, ebooks and more. Click here -->

Chart Shows Dramatic Decline in Online Ad Growth

Silicon Alley Insider’s Chart of the Day sums up the recent growth of online advertising revenue–or lack thereof. Anyone concerned? (hat-tip) Pilgrim’s Partners: Is a blogger attacking your company without you knowing? Monitor your online reputation with Andy Beal’s Trackur–try it for free!

Google Debates Beta Status of Big Offerings

It is curious that the most recognizable brand in the world, Google, seems to be afraid to truly step out into the real world in many instances. As pointed out by Michael Arrington at Tech Crunch, 4 out of the 5 core Google apps offerings are still in Beta. The very recognizable names are Gmail, [...]

Google SearchWiki Gets Social—Kinda

There was a minor uproar last November when Google introduced its SearchWiki feature, allowing users to personalize SERPs by moving results up or down, adding comments or blocking them altogether. When it became clear SearchWiki was here to stay, SEOs really had to wonder to what extent the data from individual users would be incorporated [...]

Twitter, Local Business and Results

It is no real surprise that Twitter has application to the SMB (small and medium business) space. There have been success stories talked about for some time no. What is starting to happen, however, that the success the small business has been having is no longer just a business owner stating “Yup, it worked!” According [...]

How’s That Online Only Newspaper Thing Working Out?

As the news continues to be troubling at best for the newspaper industry there is going to be an increased focus on those papers that have ventured into that brave new horizon of online editions only. The biggest paper to make that leap in the very recent past is the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The announcement that [...]

Social Media Ad Buy Standards Released

The Interactive Advertising Bureau has released a new set of standards for social media ad buying. eConsultancy reports that the announcement was made at the IAB Social Media Conference in New York (makes sense). The standards are being introduced to at least create a baseline to consider when trying to determine how, when, why, where [...]

Yahoo Wants to be on the Social Networking Boat

For Yahoo it appears as if the good ship “Search Business” has left the dock and Yahoo is just waving as it goes merrily off into the horizon. In other words, they missed the boat. We all pretty much know and accept that. Well, according to The Business Insider there is talk at Yahoo that [...]

Twitter Co-Founder Dorsey Talks Retention and Stability

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey has a lot to be happy about. Every time he hears a bird he thinks about his success. It seems that he can’t turn around anywhere anymore without hearing something about Twitter and how it is poised to take over the world or at least allows Ashton Kutcher to feel like [...]

Google to Departing Employees: I’m Afraid I Can’t Let You Do That Dave

I’m intrigued by the WSJ revelation that Google is using an algorithm to try and determine which employees are most likely to resign from the company. The Internet search giant recently began crunching data from employee reviews and promotion and pay histories in a mathematical formula Google says can identify which of its 20,000 employees are [...]

BOGO Reputation Videos: Personal ORM & Impostor Protection

NBC17 asked me to share some tips for a couple of TV segments they aired today. The first looks at how your personal online reputation can have an effect on your career goals. The second discusses what to in the event of an impostor “brand jacking” your name on a social network. Both segments were posted [...]

Wolfram Alpha is Like My 5-year-old Niece

Last Friday the much talked about Wolfram Alpha finally went live to the public. The news of an impressive search machine that utilizes Natural Language Processing has captivated the world of search for quite some time now. Being a SOSG myself, I naturally couldn’t wait to get my keyboard humming with queries! Here’s what I [...]

Tricycles Bring Google’s Street View to Narrow Streets; Feral Cats Rejected

What does a search engine do about photographing the cobbled streets and side alleys of the world. That’s the dilemma that Google faces when trying to add Street View to many city locations in Europe. The solution? Well, I would have suggested micro-cameras attached to feral cats, but Google went with nerds on tricycles. I still [...]

Twitter Counting on Tools, Not Ads, For Revenue

Some exciting news in the world of Twitter. According to Reuters, Twitter will be rolling out revenue-generating features by the year’s end. I know what you’re thinking: “Great, here come the ads.” Well you are wrong, my friend. Twitter believes they can stay ad-free by developing various add-on tools and services for the businesses and [...]

Google Maps Updates Just in Time for Holiday!

If you are traveling for the long weekend you can use Google Maps in a new and improved way. The team at Google is announcing additional features to go along with their cool new logos. This is surely a watershed day in Google’s history. Ok, so it’s not exactly a banner news day but at least [...]

Twitter’s ‘Post Oprah’ Reality

An article over at CNN Money ran the headline “Oprah’s Skypefest draws backlash” while the page title included Twitter as well so I decided to take a look. Now honestly, outside of my mom, I don’t know anyone that is part of “Oprah Nation” and I like it that way. It’s the numbers attached to [...]

Facebook Valuation Rumor Mill at Full Tilt

Well, it’s been a relatively quiet week or so regarding Facebook so let’s see what the talk around town is. It looks to be about Facebook’s valuation and whether they are seeking money or not. Also, if they are seeking some more cash what is it for? Some say a stock buy back from employees. [...]

Facebook IPO! (in a few years……maybe)

With all the Facebook investment and valuation talk swirling about, I stated yesterday that if Facebook was going to do an IPO then that would be news. Well, that ‘announcement’ is not imminent according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he addressed the Reuters Global Technology Summit. Zuckerberg’s comments really didn’t add any fuel to the [...]

Gmail’s Magic Inbox Knows Who Your Real Friends Are

I know it sounds like a feature that designed to predict whether your friends will email (”Reply hazy try again”), or possibly to tell you to switch email clients (”Outlook not so good”—an actual Magic 8-Ball response. Man, I’m hilarious). However, Gmail’s pending project, nicknamed the Magic Inbox, is designed to prioritize your mail by [...]

The Biggest News Story You Will Read Today*

You know there’s a holiday weekend coming up when the top news story is Google changing its logo design. There’s no way I can pad this post out to 400 words, so let’s just take a look at a typical Google logo circa 2008: Now let’s look at what the new logos will look like: I like the [...]