Friday Roundup 13th June 2008

Wow, just when you start to be pleased with the website you've created, someone highlights another that blows the wheel of your mouse. Thank you Chris Applegate.

Chris picks out a website called Eco Zoo, created by McCann Erickson Japan, to communicate how to live more energy efficient lives. Beautiful.

And as this seems to be the year text based Web content is most definitely, without doubt, yes indeedy, superseded by multimedia, here's another video for those of you who like to lean back as much as lean forward... David Meerman Scott applauds the latest entertaining corporate vid from Cisco.

Have a super weekend.

Best regards, Andrew and the MarCom Professional team.

Mobile Affiliate Marketing For Dummies!

by si crowhurst of We Love Mobile

Internet affiliate marketing is a massive multi-billion dollar industry, from bedroom set-ups to multinationals, huge amounts of internet transactions are being facilitated through affiliate networks. Earlier this year, NMA reported that mobile affiliate marketing was a little way off, seeing as buying on the mobile internet was not yet commonplace.

What the NMA didn’t mention was that both the online adult content industry and the online gambling industry have been seriously into mobile for some time and that pure mobile generated revenues are on the increase. More...

The Essential Guide to Social Media - A Free eBook

by Brian Solis of PR 2.0

I’ve been involved with Social Media since the beginning and the more I work, write, and speak, the more I learn. Over the years I’ve observed a series of questions and reactions that I’ve documented along the way and have actively included them in my posts, ebooks, contributions, as well as at my speaking appearances.

Over the last year, I’ve assembled the most commonly asked questions and the answers into a free, downloadable ebook as a way of contributing to this active social community that has so graciously shared knowledge, insight, and experience. More...

Twingly - new blog search engine launches

by Philip Sheldrake of Racepoint Group UK

Twingly launches today, "the next generation blog search engine". I posted about joining the private beta a couple of months ago, and now everyone is welcome. Check it out. I quite like it. www.twingly.com.

Hi,

Today we launched www.twingly.com. We are really awed by the response and feedback we've got since beta launch and it is a very proud moment for us to launch for the public.

Now when we're finally open, there's something new to try out: the Twingly Widget Platform. More...

What we like this week

by Chris Applegate of Outside Line

This week I’ve been enjoying the Eco Zoo. Eco Zoo is a beautiful, playful and engaging site aimed to teach more about energy usage through characters such as Mrs. Angkor “Watt” (pictured above).

The site uses 3D impressively - if you like, have a try clicking and dragging anywhere to see the world from any angle, and climbing up the tree into the ecosystem. You can also explore further by clicking on character and flicking through some slickly-rendered pop-up books. It’s brilliant in its combining of a intuitive interface with a worthy message. More...

How to get in touch with your online customers

by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology

Customers are a funny lot aren't they? Some want you to email them, others prefer letters in the post and some would rather have a phone call. Just what are you supposed to do for the best? And just when you think you have cracked it, everything changes and some bright spark introduces text messaging or instant messages or social networks. Gosh, life would be so much easier if it weren't for customers existing in a changing world...!

Clearly, in order to be sure you keep in touch with your customers and potential clients you need to use the right communications tools. More...

Back of the net

by si crowhurst of We Love Mobile

Hmmm, so in case you hadn’t noticed there’s some sort of football tournament going on. And with it comes the inevitable plethora of football-related advertising and the chance for certain brands to jump on the great round ball and score themselves lots of empathy and interest. Or something like that, anyway.

So here’s the first decent mobile service I’ve seen around Euro 2008. PUMA’s Together Everywhere works on the principle that when goals are scored, apart from turning purple in the face and falling off your seat, you want to babble about it in a very over-excited way to other like-minded fans and friends and share that glorious moment. More...

Rebranding: 10 things to consider

by Stephen Bourke of Endpoint

Rebranding is one of the toughest exercises a company can go through. The irony is that most people will only go through it once, maybe twice in their career. This means a lot of learning gets lost in the ether of promotions and job moves. Luckily there are a handful of agencies out there who coordinate rebranding programmes day-in, day-out. Here are Endpoint's pointers on what to look out for.

1. Project planning is crucial. Given the scale of works it is necessary to prioritise where and how efforts should be concentrated in order ensure individual business units know exactly how to approach rebranding. Realistic targets, backed by practical and technical knowledge, need to be set in order to push the rebrand through. More...

Cisco debuts "Disconnected" Life of Don DeLay Web sitcom

by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott

As many readers of this blog know, I am a huge fan of humor in corporate videos and am particularly fascinated with large, well-known technology companies that can poke fun at their business.

So it is with pleasure that I introduce you to a new Web sitcom video series debuting this week from Cisco. I have high hopes for this to be as good as the classics of the genre such as Greg the Architect from Tibco.

Follow Don DeLay, a well-intentioned and affable guy whose basic efforts to communicate are hindered by his misguided technology choices. More...

Truth and Transparency more important than ever

by Ben Matthews of Pudding Relations

There are a couple of sites that have been launched recently that show just how much truth and transparency towards stakeholders is vital to the modern company - both in terms of customers and employees.

These two sites are Plebble.com and GlassDoor.com

Plebble was set up with one main purpose in mind - to improve the level of service and value for money provided by every business and other organisation in the UK. It does this by giving consumers a voice on customer service issues and by using the power of the internet to join together consumer voices in a powerful, easy to use and easy-to-understand format for other consumers and businesses themselves to use. More...