Friday Roundup 20th June 2008

Hi,

This week's featured posts speak for themselves. Enjoy.

Best regards, Andrew and the MarCom Professional team.

by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology

Women are natural social networkers; indeed the stereotype of "chatty" women (false as it is) suggests that the world of social networking is a natural place for women to go online. And you wouldn't be wrong.

A new analysis of more than 50 million social networking members shows that women love social networking - up to a point. In the under 24 age bracket, women outnumber men in most social networks. Indeed, on MySpace and Facebook there are almost twice as many women under 24 as men.

But look at the figures as you go through the age groups. More...

Facebook and YouTube blocked by paranoid corporations at their own peril

by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott

I've had an opportunity to casually explore the attitudes of hundreds of large and small companies whose employees attend my full-day New Rules of Marketing seminar and my keynote speeches. In my very unscientific questioning, my guess is that about 25% of companies block employee access to YouTube, Facebook, and other social networking sites.

Twenty-five percent block access!

That is a huge number of companies that are putting their organizations at a disadvantage.

I can't tell you the names of the nanny-state dinosaurs. More...

Tips for Writing in Clear, Plain English

by Matt Ambrose of The Copywriter's Crucible

The first aim of copywriting is to communicate clearly and concisely. You’re not going to persuade people to buy if they don’t understand what it is you’re trying to sell. Considering how important the clarity of your words are, it’s surprising how many badly written websites there are cluttering up the web.

Perhaps it’s because people think writing is easy. Why pay a professional to do something you were taught at school right?

But as every writer knows, writing isn’t easy. More...

UK Catalyst awards - call for mobile entries - deadline 20th June

by si crowhurst of We Love Mobile

The UK Catalyst Awards (http://ukcatalystawards.com/) are a new national competition for the community use of social technology. The deadline for entries is FRIDAY 20TH JUNE 5PM.

The idea driving Catalyst is that interesting things are happening as social technology meets social need, and they’re using a high profile awards as a way to surface the best initiatives and inspire more to happen. You can see a clip of Phil Hope, Minister for the Third Sector, waxing lyrical about the awards at: More...

Berocca ad rips off genius OK Go vid

by Ben Ayers of ITV

Famous for the searingly brilliant video for single Here It Goes Again, Ok Go would be well within their rights to be a bit peeved about this:

In case you’d forgotten, here’s the brilliant original:

Flattering eh lads? More...

Unique content is vital on your web site

by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology

Marketing experts are constantly banging on about our "USP" - our unique selling proposition; for anyone to be interested in us we need to be different. Online, uniqueness is even more important. There are just too many place to go, sites to visit and people to contact who all do the same, look the same and well, are the same...!

Google and other search engines even weed out sites that are too similar. They have a "duplicate content" rule; if similar content is in more than one place online, Google will present only one of those pages in its search results. More...

Do you sell camels?

by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott

Nearly every time I give a speech someone says: "But my buyers aren't online. My buyers don't use Google to find answers to problems or to research products."

When I hear this question, I immediately think that the questioner is just fearful of social media and is making an excuse so they can stick to the traditional marketing they've done all along like billboards, yellow page ads, and direct mail.

Some excuses (markets purported to not be online) I've heard recently include: More...

How to get your emails opened

by Graham Jones of Internet Psychology

Getting your emails opened can be a real problem. We are being drowned in a sea of email messages, texts, RSS feeds, Twitters and all sorts of instant messages. Is it any wonder that people fail to open emails?

I was in a client's office the other day and she told me that she needed time to sort through her emails - her inbox had 720 unread emails dating back weeks on end...! Yet she is not alone; people sift through their emails and only open the most important ones, saving the "maybes" More...

Dipping your toes in the waters of mobile

by si crowhurst of We Love Mobile

In last week’s New Media Age, there was plenty on the pages about mobile. Good to see. I thought I’d share some of the Analyst piece with you as it raised some interesting points about using mobile for branding and direct response. According to Emarketer, this year’s global mobile ad spend will be 2.45million sterling, yet only 13% of that is intended for branding.

Christina Goodman, head of global marketing and client development at Dynamic Logic, says that her company, ‘has measured a number of mobile branding campaigns on WAP sites and initial results show exposure to mobile brand advertising can positively shift brand metrics across a number of sectors, including automotive, travel, FMCG, retail, entertainment and finanical services.’ More...

Custard PR releases YouTube viral for Mobyko

by Stephen Waddington of Rainier PR

Here's a YouTube viral that Custard PR - our consumer PR team - has just released for one of its clients Mobyko. Mobyko is currently changing from being a mobile backup service to a mobile lifestyle management tool, bridging the gap between mobile handsets and the internet.

The video updates an old candid camera gag with a modern twist to represent the huge amount of content stored on a mobile phone. There was much hilarity during the shoot and the participators received the prank well. Let's hope YouTube viewers do too. More...

Search Engine Optimizing a crap-filled site just makes it a little less crappy

by David Meerman Scott of David Meerman Scott

People often ask me about search engine optimization. In particular, many ask what search engine marketing techniques they can use on their site to "get high rankings."

Inevitably with most of these requests, I find that the site that they want optimized sucks. It's poorly written. It goes on and on in an egotistical way about what the company's products do. It's filled with gobbledygook.

I tell these people that they need to understand buyers and create some great content that people want to consume. More...