Foot Locker's Week Of Greatness 2013: All Is Right

All is right with this commercial. Well done Foot Locker.

Kodaline - All I Want (Live)

Yes. Yes. and yes. Who needs furniture when you can have dangling lights and these dudes, right?

Can't Touch This!

Ok Kellogg's. You win. This "Picky Eater" commercial is brilliant!

7 Social Media Marketing Forecasts for 2014

2013 is almost over, and as 2014 is scheduled to fly by just as fast, I wanted to make a forecast on social media marketing before next year is over. 

So…Seven? Why Seven? Because 7 ate 9 ok? Also five’s too little, but ten is overkill - and if you’re anything like me, I’m afraid I will lose your attention! You still there? OK, let’s get started! 

Content is King… Still 

We will start off with something that hasn’t changed. It’s one of my favorite sayings, and I have this sitting two feet from my face, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week:

With Google’s new algorithm, Hummingbird, this saying has never been truer than right now. Google rules the internet. Without quality, in-depth, ever-changing content, you will not be successful driving traffic to your website or blog. Stay on top of the game! If you’re a tech company, write about current events in the industry. If you have a blog about music, write reviews about the latest album releases. Just stay up on current issues and events, write original content, and the Google Gods will allow you in search engine heaven. 

Google +

I know! Who uses Google Plus right? I do. And you should too. I’ll say it again - Google rules the internet. Here is a great infograph that tells you 20 reasons why you should use Google Plus . 

Two of the best reasons Med Kharbach points out: 

a.) Hangouts- Hangouts is like AIM chat rooms without the creepy a/s/l question (no? just me? Hmm). Unlike chat rooms, you can easily share documents, ideas, and incorporate video! 

b.) Better for business- There is a different crowd than on Facebook. More of a “LinkedIn” crowd (more on that in a bit). Also making a Google Plus page for your company allows for “better visibility and ranking.” 

Images 

Facebook incorporates photos into your newsfeed. And if you haven’t noticed, Twitter is beginning to do the same thing. Instagram is starting to roll out advertising. And SnapChat is surprisingly still prevalent. Everyone has a smartphone, and if you tell me you don’t have one of these apps on your phone, I’d call you a liar! Get your image game on! It’s WAY better for engagement. 

Videos 

Vine hit the social networking world this year and made a big splash. Instagram followed up allowing users to create even longer videos than Vine. Knock knock! Who’s there? Google again. Yea, they own YouTube too. So it’s not a bad idea to get some videos up there and start sharing it throughout your other social media outlets. It’s also becoming easier and easier to create and edit a video! So there is almost no excuse. 

Moving to Mobile 

Part of the reason Google introduced Hummingbird, is that it is more mobile-friendly. People are talking to Siri to get directions, and more and more people are using their phones on the go while still doing what they would traditionally do on their laptop. Apps are everything, and as I stated in #4, EVERYONE uses them. Figuring out a way to advertise through a mobile device without being too obtrusive will be a big step! But it’s happening. 

LinkedIn for B2B 

LinkedIn is the Facebook of professionals. It’s a great networking tool to keep up-to-date with people within your industry. This also means you should share what you’re doing! Hosting an event? Let people know how they can go! Just won an award? Let em hear it! Create a page for your business and push your news out through there too. Just keep the selfies for Facebook. 

#Lastbutnotleast 

The hashtag is here to stay… for the time being. If you just watched the Sox win the series, you probably would’ve noticed the advertisements behind the home plate ump telling you to use #WorldSeries. Even Facebook uses them now, and if you’re not, you are missing out. Learn how to use them correctly, and you will be able to be found much easier! QR codes didn’t make it, but I think hashtags will continue to be popular throughout 2014.

Hummingbird Hums its Way Into Your Google Searches

ATTENTION EVERYONE: GOOGLE RULES THE INTERNET! 

Did I really have to say it? No. 

We all know Google runs SEO, and how we live our lives on the internet. They staff over 20,000 people and make billions of dollars in revenue each quarter. They own Motorola, YouTube, and spent almost a billion dollars alone on an app called Waze (Google it). Their interns average $6,000 a month, and their Googleplex looks more like a college campus than your average company headquarters. 

Well over 2/3rds of all online search queries are done on Google. This makes them by far one of the most influential companies as well. Whether we like it or not. 

This became even more so when Google somewhat quietly introduced their new search algorithm last month, entitled Hummingbird. 

If Google was a newspaper, articles about the gold iPhone 5, the NSA leaks and even the new Grand Theft Auto would be making the headlines. But for many companies, Google’s Hummingbird is making them as unnoticeable as classified ads. 

Typically when someone Google’s something, it is along the lines of “When did Larry Bird retire from basketball?” rather than “Larry Bird retire year.” Why? Because most people Google how they think and talk. And Google is trying to make the answers to your questions as personable and as human-like as possible. 

Now, Google will not eliminate the “when,” “did,” and “from’s” in your search. They will blast through the billions of pages on the internet to answer your question in about .38 seconds. Google already tries to know what you’re thinking (just type in “What is” … Miley Cyrus would be proud). But they don’t want to just finish your sentence based on keywords. They want to help understand the concepts and meanings of your searches as fast and as precise as well… a hummingbird. 

Gone are the days where you can cram keywords and videos on you page and think that that is considered content. For the better, or for the worse, Google is making companies work for it. To provide deep, meaningful content. To give something of value rather than volume. 

What can small business do to survive? 

Think CONVERSATION. Think QUALITY. And think NATURAL LANGUAGE. 

If you were looking for your product or service, what would you type in to Google? “Women’s shoes” or “What are the comfiest running shoes for women?” “Law Firm” or “Personal injury attorney in Buffalo?” or the perfect example HubSpot used: 

“… ‘How do I fix the chain on my Trek mountain bike?’ Google now understands that you’re neither shopping for a bike nor a bike chain, but you're looking to fix said chain. They are now prioritizing the context of the query as much as the content…” 

Have you ever tried to impress Google? Didn’t think so. And neither does anyone else. Use simple words in your content. Hop on hot topics. Are you an environmentally conscious company? Give your opinion on the next BP oil spill on your blog. Own a restaurant and trying to sell your sauces online? Write a post on your favorite BBQ or pie recipe. These types of posts will attract people, increase your page views and in the long run, create a new potential customer. 

COME BACK LATER FOR PART 2!

Luigi Serafini

Levi's - Go Forth

I love Levi's marketing. Thought I'd just let you all know.

Jay-Z's Wild Wild West

Remember those things called compact discs? Yea, you know- Those flimsy round things that came a few years after the cassette tape, and thousands of years after our parents chiseled sound into “vinyl records” with their cavemen friends? OK, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but when was the last time you bought a physical CD? How about an entire album on iTunes? 

We all know that technology is rapidly changing. Not only has the platform of which we listen to music changed, but the way we listen to music has changed. Long gone are the days where people sit down and enjoy an album song by song. Album sales have plummeted and the power of the single is rising with every “Call Me Maybe.” 

“We don’t have any rules. Everyone’s trying to figure it out. That’s why the Internet is like the Wild West. We need to write the new rules for what’s going on right now,” said rapper and business mogul, Shawn Carter (AKA Jay-Z). 

Jay-Z is the new sheriff in town and he is taking over the Wild West of the Internet, and creating a new way to sell his album. 

In June, during game five of the NBA Finals, Jay-Z not-so-casually dropped the news to millions of viewers that his new album “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” would be released on the 4th of July to one million Samsung Galaxy customers via an app. Jay-Z is almost single-handedly turning fans of an artist into customers of a product, while still trying to keep the integrity of the album. 

He is here to put a death to auto-tune and a resurrection to the “album,” where realistically he will make millions of dollars somewhere in between. The app is packaged nicely with pictures and lyrics- like a CD or album- but also intertwines videos and a way for Samsung to track your age and location (because not doing that is sooo 2008). 

“The whole thing I wanted to do was have that fireplace or that radio moment where everyone’s just sitting in front of the thing listening to an album,” Carter goes on. “I want everyone to hear the album at one time.” 

While I think most customers who are targeted to buy this album will have too short of an attention span to do so (especially with cellphone in hand), it is a great marketing scheme and an innovative way to start and push music where it may be heading.

500 Million Eyes... assuming everyone has two!

Shama Hyder Kabani on the power of Facebook. She says traditional marketing was about "Me, me, me," while today's social media marketing is all about the "Us, us, us."

Smarty Pants

The Power of YouTube!

Very interesting fact... Though YouTube ads can be skipped, ignored, muted, etc. there are millions of eyes to be reached!

Marketing- The Then and Now.

B2B Marketing Meets The Tube

Al's Words

"Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value."

Contact me!

Dear all,

Here is my business card. If you want a physical one, email me. Call me. Send a carrier pigeon to the office. Stop by! While my title and duties have changed, my contact info has not. My resume is below in the last post. Send it to your friends. Co-workers. Mothers. Bosses. Teammates. Teachers.

Symbols of the Underground

I used to think someone would love me for places I have been.

Wild Turkey

Capital

Gifts and Ammo

No Parking

Round and Round

88

Now it's ruined - By Seth Godin

"Photography is a cheat, the death of painting

Photoshop is a hack, the death of photography

Instagram filters are crap, the death of Photoshop

Typing is mechanical, the deathknell for organic handwriting

Word processors are a cheat, the end of linear writing via the typewriter

eBooks are for losers, stealing the magic and majesty of the printed book

Blogging is impermanent, the end of thoughtful word processing

Tweeting is stupid, the end of intelligent blogging

Video is too easy, a cheap shortcut that destroys the essence of film

YouTube has no curators, the end of quality video

Wikipedia is an unproven shortcut, true scholarship is threatened

Selling by phone is for losers, closers show up in person...

Technology almost always democratizes art, because it gives us better tools, better access and a quicker route to mediocrity. It's significantly easier to be a mediocre (almost very good) setter of type today than it was to be a pretty good oil painter two hundred years ago.

And so, when technology shows up, it's easy to imagine that along with the old school becoming obsolete, the new school will be populated by nothing but lazy poseurs.

Don't tell that to Jill Greenberg, Sasha Dichter or Jenny Holzer.

... all this ending is leading to more and more beginnings, isn't it? It's not ruined, it's merely different."

- Seth Godin 

Crowdfunding and the Goddamn Band

Wikipedia states that crowdsourcing is “the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees or suppliers.” While that is a spot on definition, it is not actually “Wikipedia’s “definition.  Wikipedia is just that – a crowdsourcing site. Where you, me, and anyone else can set up an account and submit anything we want, to any article.

I could go on right now and submit that Donald Trump was voted Vogue Magazine’s Sexiest Celebrity of 2013. Or that the Boston Red Sox have the most World Series titles in MLB history. Or, that there have been multiple unicorn sightings just north of Reno, Nevada in the past decade.

The Wikipedia definition of crowdsourcing was actually cited from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Why? Because the majority of the people who take part on this crowdsourcing site said it was.  It is widely accepted that information about a subject coming from 100 people will usually be more thorough, honest and accurate, than when the information is coming from one or two people.

This type of “power of the people” has not only been seen successful on the online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, but on other sites where “crowdfunding” is the name of the game. People can now support music, technology, art, film, games, photography, or really anything depending on what they want to see or have succeed in the future.

Investors in businesses, major record labels, film studios, and large corporations shell out tons of cash to create new products and projects. But thousands of startups, independent musicians, and other entities try to get their foot in the door to their industry, and struggle to afford what they need in order to make their idea work.

Sites like Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and Crowdfunder are all outlets for people with big ideas, to get the attention of thousands of people who may just want to support them both creatively and financially.

Recently a musician by the name of Kevin Devine was able to fund his project (two albums: one acoustic, and one with his band. “The Goddamn Band”… how can you not support that?) where he raised over $100,000 from over 1,000 people.

Backers could pledge from $1 to $4,000 where each interval of cash would get the pledger a “gift” back. From an acoustic demo of a song, to a “private 60-minute acoustic show at your house, all travel and accommodation included – you pick the setlist.”

Mr. Devine says himself on Kickstarter, “I had a thought-provoking conversation with a friend…about all the pitfalls and dangers of crowd-sourcing/funding ‘the arts,’” He says. “It’s a really easy thing to do badly, or cheesily, or in a way that can feel … compromised, hacky, undignified. “ For an artist, it’s hard to say. It can seem tacky, but over 1,000 fans knew what he was capable of, and he is now fully funded and recording his albums. Independently, Kevin Devine is able to write and record his own piece of art for the fans of his music.

With funding like this comes freedom. No big-wigs looking over your shoulder telling you what to change. The projects and products come straight from the inventors, with the engagement and the help of the backers.

Right now, you can go to Kickstarter and fund projects like a solar panel that can power devices from smartphones to laptops, handmade leather goods, or a 3D printer (almost funded $3,000,000).  You can pick and choose what you support, which products you want, and together the world can begin causing change in areas they want to succeed.

So what do you think? Will sites like Kickstarter push a company to be the next Apple? Will Kevin Devine be the next George Micheal? A boy can dream…