marketer « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Use it or Lose it fears? Six ways to stay sharp when you're out of work.

symphonytomorrow — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 00:14:06 +0000

The premise of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers is that “talent” is really just the culmination of extraordinary amounts of practice. Everyone is talking about it. “Put in 10,000 hours doing what you love.” But what happens if you’re interrupted in the middle of becoming great? Maybe you just graduated and you’re trying to break into advertising/marketing, maybe you got laid off. For all my fellow unemployed marketers out there, if you’re like me at all, you’re worried about losing “it”, that creative spark that let’s you know you were made to be a marketer. How can you prevent this from happening while you’re out of work?

So the big question is how do you hang on to everything when you’re out of work?

1. Exercise

All you have to do is a Google search on “Exercise and Cognition” and you’ll get more than a million results. I don’t need to prove that from a science standpoint. But from another perspective, one of the keys to success is confidence, and regular exercise makes you feel great about yourself.

2. Recreational Think Tank (or Get Together and Collaborate with Friends)

Not long ago, I was working a job that provided me virtually know mental challenge. I was “losing it” even though I was employed! I got two of my friends together and we met on a regular basis, just to pitch ideas to each other. We called ourselves a think tank just for giggles. Most of our conversations were about new business ideas. We’d go talk to experts on how to best accomplish certain ideas, even wrote marketing plans, and did market research. None of the ideas ever became businesses, but it kept my mind working. The more excited I got about our ideas, the more my mind poured over them. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t employed; I was challenged nonetheless. All of you know more people like you. Screw up your courage and ask someone to get together just to pitch ideas around. Nothing has to come out of it, all that matters is that you keep the wheels turning.

3. Volunteer

Volunteer opportunities abound, and I encourage you to go build a house with Habitat, or hand out blankets to the homeless for the upcoming winter. But I also encourage you to additionally seek out a very specific kind of volunteering. Reach out to non-profits and see if they need any help from the marketing side. Marketing is one of the areas that usually gets neglected in a non-profit’s budget, so chances are they will jump at the chance to bring you in. Once in, take it seriously and do good work. You’ll be able to add this to your resume, but more importantly you’ll be gaining real world experience and making contributions that hopefully will continue past your time volunteering. Talk about building confidence!

4. Read (Duh!)

This one is the most obvious, but also the one I have failed at the most here. I have Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing and Purple Cow, Zig Zigler’s See You At The Top and Secrets of Closing the Sale, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki, QBQ! The Question Behind The Question by John G. Miller, and James Collins’ Built to Last. All gathering dust. Don’t be like me; do as I say, not as I do. These are great titles that have been recommended by many people I respect. You (and I) would benefit from reading them.

5. Mentorship

For some people, this comes easily, but for others it is bloody hard. I’m in the latter, and still working on it. However, the glimpses of successful mentorship I’ve experienced have unlocked my creativity and reignited my drive. In fact, Unemployed Marketers Group is an idea I began developing out of one such relationship.

6. Remember What You Learn

This idea isn’t mine, but comes from a designer named Alan Knox over at a great agency called redpepper. He has a great process for hanging on to what he learns. He sums it up with Capture, Process, Categorize. But that summary doesn’t do it justice. Watch his presentation here and get the slideshow here. Seriously, do it. I’ve got to start putting this into action.

—

The ante has been upped. Nowadays, it isn’t enough to have good interview skills and even just networking may be insufficient to get by. You have to keep growing, keep getting better, even when you’re out of a job. The Unemployed Marketers Group came out of that very need. Check out the below post, and if you want to be a part, drop me a line! Plus, your complimentary or constructively critical comments are always welcome.

Social Affiliate Network The Universal Way Of Internet Marketing

affiliantes — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:45:38 +0000

Top Strategy Networkers

If you use Social Network Site and have not paid for ityou need this!

Something completely New

Program that allows you to earn money only from the use of

Social Affiliate Network Sites

Program is FREE from start to finish

you do not pay to join! 100% free information

Other social networks make you friends.

Social Affiliate Network makes you friends and money!

Using Social Affiliate Networks Media Money System

to be paid and grow your Business

Create an instant ClickBank Portal - add businesses! FREE!

affiliantes — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:50:51 +0000

Before we begin talking about what is CbGlobe, I’ll assume that you

already know what Clickbank is.

If you don’t, in a very simplified form, it is a huge marketplace of over

10,000 digital products and over 100,000 affiliates.

You can sell your own product, or you can promote their ever

increasing products’ database for free as an affiliate.

What’s great about Clickbank is that as soon as you create a free affiliate account

You can instantly promote any of their 10,000+ products without having to apply for it or fill out any other info.

With that said, let’s begin with our subject.

CbGlobe is a free Clickbank portal. A system that retrieves the hottest

selling products from Clickbank, sorted by popularity, which earns you

multiple income streams.

Instead of promoting products one by one, you can have your own

Clickbank mall, with your ID embedded in more than 10,000 Clickbank

products earning you up to 75% commissions, as well as many 2-tier

affiliate programs. That means you can earn money in any niche, and

build your 2-tier downlines in other affiliate programs at the same time.

In other words, you can promote one web site and earn multiple

income streams at the same time, but this is only one monetization method.

There are lots of different methods that you can make money with the

various features of CbGlobe.

To begin with, the Clickbank nickname you use with your CbGlobe

account, automatically gives you commissions for all 10,000+

Clickbank products.

Therefore, you only need to configure/update “category b” links.

For the affiliate programs you have already joined in the past, simply

enter your affiliate ID in the respective box and click on update.

For the affiliate programs for which you do not have an affiliate ID

already, simply click where it says “click here to join the program”.

Once you have your affiliate ID, just enter it in the associated box and

click on update. (note: your affiliate ID should be similar in form to the

example given for each one above)

That’s all there is to it! All the affiliate programs chosen are free to

join. Once you update all the IDs you’ll be earning from your CbGlobe

portal.Doing that is very easy.

Sign up for your FREE CbGlobe Account

Here’s an overview of the different ways you can make money with CbGlobe:

A. Clickbank commissions on 10,000+ Clickbank products

B. 2tier and residual affiliate commissions on the following products:

1. Aweber – autoresponder with 2tier affiliate program

2. Public Domain Riches – Yanik Silver’s 2tier affiliate program

3. Desperate Money – Shawn Casey’s 2tier affiliate program

4. Site Build It – Ken Evoy’s 2tier affiliate program

5. Insider Marketing Secrets – Derek Gehl’s 2tier affiliate program (IMC)

6. Third Sphere Web Hosting – Web hosting that pays $10/month on each referral

7. HyperVre – Free niche site creator that pays $48.50 per OTO (one time offer) upgrade

8. MyDD – Ebook delivery software with 2tier affiliate program

9. Article Marketer – Article submission service with 2tier affiliate program

10. Nitro List Builder – 2tier affiliate program

11. TrafficSwarm – Traffic exchange with downline that grows on 5 levels

12. Free Advertising Blog – Earn $98.50 on each OTO upgrade

13. Conquer Your Niche – Viral marketing forum with downline 5 levels

The last 3 are included so that you grow your downlines and earn free

advertising credits to advertise your CbGlobe portal or anything else

you’d like.

1. Giving away FREE CbGlobe portals

You profit from others getting their free CbGlobe in 2 ways:

a. You get 51% of the OTO (one time offer) that people see when they

join through your link.

b. You get people under you in the 2-tier affiliate programs that come

with CbGlobe (right now there are about 13), so all those sub-affiliates

can make you money when they make sales… for as long as they

makes sales!

2. Use the adsense-like plugins to monetize your existing blogs

and content sites

You can use the adsense-like plugins to monetize your existing blogs

and content sites (see examples of these adsense-like ads on the

homepage and on the signup page) and get paid big dollar

commissions rather than pennies from adsense.

3. Use the adsense-like plugins to create niche blogs and

content sites for various niches

You can specify what your niche term is and you’ll be getting Clickbank

ads, similar to the adsense style for your niche term. E.g if your

site/blog is about acne you can have acne products showing up.. if it’s

about dog training you can have dog training products showing up etc.

(see “acne” niche and “ebay” niche ads on the signup page)

4. Clickbank search plugin

Instantly add to your sites and blogs, Clickbank’s huge database of

10,000+ products with your Clickbank affiliate ID embedded in all of

them. Simply copy and paste a small snippet of code on your site and

you are done.

CB Globe

I Raked In $436,797 Online Last Year
Now you can too! Get all the insider secrets in Rosalind Gardner’s ‘Super Affiliate Handbook’

How To Write Your Own eBook In 7 Days!
Write and publish your own OUTRAGEOUSLY Profitable eBook in as little 7 days – even if you can’t write or type!

Make Up To $11,212.00 On eBay
How You Can Make Up To $11,212 Per Month On Ebay Following My Easy Steps.

My Super Free Ads Secret
How to place ads in more than 1 BILLION places FREE as often as you want with 1 click ease! Get infinite FREE ads too!

Ready-Made Promo Tools To Generate Traffic To Your Clickbank Portal

You could promote it in a variety of ways, such as:

1. Emailing your own optin list (not spam),

2. Writing and submitting articles

3. Distributing the free rebrandable ebook

4. PPC – Google Adwords/Overture

5. Forum and Email Signatures

6. Viral articles from Cb Globe

7. Banners

8. 404 Error Pages

….and much much more.

So to recap:

Step 1:

Step 2:

Update your affiliate IDs

Step 3:

Start promoting your CbGlobe portal homepage and/or the

CbGlobe portal giveaway page

Step 4 (optional):

Place the adsense-like plugin and

Clickbank search plugin on your websites and blogs.

Step 5 (optional):

Make use of the other cool features of CbGlobe –

hit tracker, banner rotator manager, url rotator and viral article syndication.

As you can see there are lots of features and different ways you can

get started making money with CbGlobe.

Don’t let that overwhelm you though! Don’t feel that you have to use

all the features at once. Just get started and do steps 1 – 3, and you

can use the other features by following steps 4 and 5 later on. The

important thing is to get started.

FREE Instant ClickBank Portal – Increase Your Affiliate Revenues with Click Bank

They Said it Couldn't Be Done: Journalist Becomes Marketer/Salesman

paulmiller1960 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:26:31 +0000

It’s basically part of our DNA: We editors are sales-phobes. Traditionally, salespeople bring in the revenue; we spend it. We’re friendly and appreciate our sales brethren, but they tend to be “the others” to us. But I’m excited because I can feel myself becoming part of that other side — at least, to an extent.

For someone who got a Bachelor’s degree in journalism & mass communications, but who wants to work his way into the marketing/communications world upon receiving his walking papers this week from my current editor-in-chief gig, I must say that all the self-promotion I’ve done lately to achieve my career goals has been quite an eye-opener.

The best lessons I’ve received have come from all the work I’ve put into my LinkedIn page and profile. Today, I contacted a bunch of people and asked for recommendations. Many were kind enough to write them for me; a few asked me how I’d like theirs to read. Talk about shameless self-promotion! I don’t believe I could’ve done this as recently just a month ago.

But a lot has changed in my life since I received a fateful phone call out of the blue on Nov. 3 from my boss and company H.R. director, two lovely ladies I still love to pieces, regardless of the rotten news they had to smack me down with. Like they say in sports, “it’s business,” right? I harbor no ill-will. If anything, it launched my new education into sales and marketing, and for that I’m grateful.

I’ve been on a self-marketing tear (which at times has rhymed with “beer”) ever since. Obviously, everyone goes through this at one point or another in their careers. These days, with all the online tools available — LinkedIn being only one of many — you can really learn more about yourself than ever before possible, by blabbing it out there for all to see. You explore every angle of yourself and of the kind of work you want to do. You’re really forced to do this, but like many, awful-tasting foods, it’s good for you.

My job search remains a work in progress, though I’m pleased with where I’ve come so far. I feel ready to take on myriad types of jobs, rather than limiting myself to just another editorial gig — although I’d be just as happy if I remain in editorial, what with my extensive background (there I go boasting again). LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, The Ladders, and so forth — you get great on-the-job training as you fill out all these forms and communicate with all your contacts. It’s just been a great, mind-opening experience all around.

I’m confident I can offer marketable content, and I can sell it. And in this environment, if you can’t sell it, ain’t nobody else is gonna do it for ya.

MMA Revises Mobile Marketing Definition

TeamITI — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:43:51 +0000

The Mobile Marketing Association has officially released a new definition of the term “mobile marketing.”

According to the MMA, mobile marketing is described as: “A set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.”

While easy to spot on the surface, there’s more to mobile marketing than digital coupons and the incessant ad campaigns that target our handsets.

During the Mobile Marketing Forum in Los Angeles, the MMA delved deeper into the existence, function, and, yes, the definition of mobile marketing – although the organization’s language has proven confusing to some, particularly when it came to discussing the “two parts of its taxonomy.”

The “set of practices” includes “activities, institutions, processes, industry players, standards, advertising and media, direct response, promotions, relationship management, CRM, customer services, loyalty, social marketing, and all the many faces and facets of marketing.”
To “engage” means to “start relationships, acquire, generate activity, stimulate social interaction with organization and community members, (and) be present at time of consumers expressed need.” Furthermore, engagement can be initiated by the consumer (”Pull” in form of a click or response) or by the marketer (”Push”).

To read the full announcement from the Mobile Marketing Association, check out their press release from last week.

Find the original article on Mobile Marketing Watch.com

Share this article on Facebook!

From the Top: What is the Unemployed Marketers Group (Collective/Community)?

symphonytomorrow — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 07:55:07 +0000

We are not defined by our résumés.

Our job history is not the whole story.

Believe it or not, sometimes the best person for the job is the one who hasn’t done it before.

The paradigm is wrong. Unemployed does not equal untalented. There are hoardes of us, boiling with potential, chomping at the bit, ready to be let loose. But potential cannot exist without action. If you’ve stopped by this blog, I hope you’re like me. I’m ready to start doing instead of dreaming of doing. This is the heart of the Unemployed Marketers Group.

Purpose

The Unemployed Marketers Group arises from the need to provide a place to keep that edge finely honed. This sharpening process will occur through fellowship and real-world work. The job search sucks and you need to keep in tune with others that share your boat, both from a support and a networking standpoint. But the real world projects will keep those creative juices at a rolling boil through the synergistic effect of collaboration, while providing incredible volunteer opportunity. Never been a project leader? You might have the chance. Always knew you’d be a kick-ass copywriter, but lacked the experience for the opportunity? Suit up, you’re on deck. The Unemployed Marketers Group is where you prove your potential isn’t all in your head.

Who are we?

We are birthed from an economy that has been forced to either shed incredible, proven talent, or unable to support developing new talent. We may be people with 30 years of experience, or we may be those passionate types who are ready to change the world but haven’t found the right opportunity yet.

How will it work?

I present first and foremost a base rule. You must be unemployed at the time you join. No, I’m not going to check up on anyone, but there’s a reason for this. It is REALLY hard out there right now. If you’re currently employed, you might be a mindblowing talent that we would love to have on board, but from a community perspective, you just can’t understand. But when (yes, WHEN) you do become employed, you are welcome to stay on.

We’ll meet at an interval TBD at the first meeting. The first part of each session will be fellowship and exchange of knowledge through discussion. But the bulk of each meeting will be tackling marketing challenges for our non-profit clients. From the very first meeting, we’ll have a real-world client. The work you do will be beyond the hypothetical; it will impact lives. In many cases, the challenge will be one you likely haven’t encountered before: our clients may have to accomplish their objectives with little-to-no expenditure, so be prepared to break the paradigm that it takes money to make money/accomplish your mission.

The Call to Suit Up

There’s no doubt in my mind that you’re out there. You’re sick of sorting through job listing after job listing, applying along with the sea, while your absurd talent goes to waste. I hope you found your way here and you’re ready to get started. I’m looking for a commitment of 4-10 people to have a first meeting before I get a client on board. Comment and let me know you’re ready to get in the game. Just because we’re unemployed doesn’t mean we don’t know how to do incredible work.

L'orgoglio di Bonucchi e associati

Bonucchi e Associati — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:39:05 +0000

Questa settimana Paola Generali si è aggiudicata con GetSolution il terzo premio al concorso Impresa di successo e Filippo Berto è stato votato come miglior Marketer dell’anno da ADICO.

Paola è passata da noi in assistenza in un programma Formaper e Filippo lo conosciamo dai tempi in cui faceva lo stage al Centro Estero Camere di Commercio Lombarde.

Complimenti a entrambi.

Still looking for guest to be on the show

opennetpromotions — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:51:41 +0000

November 25, 2009 site update

Do you have a website, or are you an affiliate marketer? How would you like FREE promotions from our show? Well you can and all you need to do is be a guest! We are looking for guest speakers for subjects that deal with affiliate marketing, websites, traffic, and just about anything else dealing with online promotions and marketing. So shoot us an email and claim your 15 min of fame for your online promotions! If you have a site to promote then share your knowledge with us in exchange for FREE promotion of your site or link with our listeners. Can’t wait for a great interview.

Is It Too Late for Me to Start to Tweet on Twitter?

jpvmarketing — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:05:47 +0000

Absolutely not! It is not too late for you as a business owner or marketer to take advantage of what Twitter has to offer. Potential customers and leads are just waiting out there to hear from you, and even more important is that you can eavesdrop on what people are saying about your product, or better yet what they are saying about your competitors product.

But then you say, “When do I have time?”

I would simply say that if you have time to talk to anyone about your business such as your spouse, best friend, old classmates on Facebook, the grocer, the bartender, your four-year old daughter, then you have enough time to spend getting online and seeing what Twitter has to can do for you.

I have shared my enthusiasm for Twitter with ex-colleagues only to have them say that there are just a bunch of dopey teenagers on their talking about going to the bathroom and such, and to some extent that may be true; but there is another segment of people talking about ideas, companies, places of interest, products that can make your life easier, and so much for.

AND IT IS FREE!

“But where do I begin?” might be a great follow up question. Simple – call me at 619-246-3086 or email me at john@jpvmarketing.com for more solutions. I suggest calling me first so I can help you set-up your account so it is fully optimized to represent you and your company in the best of light. That way when you start Following people and they see who you are you will look the best representation of yourself you want to put out there in Twitter Universe.

Otherwise go to Twitter directly by click on http://www.Twitter.com and build your account, and look for me at http://www.twitter.com/JohnVincent619 or http://www.twitter.com/SanDiegoInsider – thanks and have fun marketing your business! I know I do.

Social Media performance and stats

titaninteractif — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 19:04:48 +0000

This post is a collection of stats collected over time and updated whenever necessary, all relevant

Customer Commitment

Asif Mir — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:57:03 +0000

Great companies are extremely market-oriented and are incredible at creating value to their highly satisfied, loyal customers. Greatness in marketing and customer service is a function of attitude, not resources. Most companies do not do a very good job as marketers. Consider when you have been put on hold endlessly when calling for technical support, when you have been ignored or treated indifferently when visiting a retail site, or when you have been supplied inferior goods or services. While second-rate firms may survive in the short term, they will not last in the long run unless they change their philosophy and start creating superior value for their customers.

My Consultancy–Asif J. Mir - Management Consultant–transforms organizations where people have the freedom to be creative, a place that brings out the best in everybody–an open, fair place where people have a sense that what they do matters. For details please visit www.asifjmir.com, and my Lectures.

Investissons dans nos enfants

etiennechabot — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:00:24 +0000

Si vous me lisez de temps en temps ici ou sur Twitter, vous avez peut-être remarqué qu’en plus d’être marketer à temps plein, je suis papa de 3 merveilleux tout petits que j’adore.

Au cours des dernières semaines, vous avez peut-être vu cette publicité sociétale qui est parrainée par La Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon.

Mon coeur de papa est toujours très touché quand je la vois surtout que la petite fille me fait penser à ma propre fille!

Cette pub s’inscrit dans la toute première campagne publique de La Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon qui l’a baptisé Bien grandir. Elle s’adresse aux parents d’enfants de moins de 5 ans. Si je vous en parle aujourd’hui, c’est parce qu’elle m’interpelle sous 2 volets qui me passionnent: en tant que jeune papa qui travaille de longues heures en marketing et, en tant que marketer qui désire s’investir de longues heures avec ses enfants.

En tant que jeune parent qui travaille de longues heures…

C’est souvent quand on est jeune que l’on désire faire sa marque et se dépasser professionnellement;
On le fait souvent en prenant les bouchées doubles au boulot;
Or, c’est à peu près au même âge que l’on prend la belle décision de fonder une famille et d’avoir 1, 2 ou plusieurs petits monstres;
C’est avec l’arrivée du premier petit que la quête perpétuelle du difficile équilibre entre le temps pour les enfants et le temps pour la job se présente;
C’est cliché et tous les jeunes parents l’ont entendu des dizaines de fois: 0 à 5 ans, ça passe comme un coup de vent;
Or, comme beaucoup de spécialistes l’ont affirmé, tout se joue entre 0 et 5 ans;
C’est à cet âge que le cerveau de notre enfant se prédispose à l’apprentissage, à la curiosité intellectuelle. Pour reprendre un autre cliché, il est littéralement comme un éponge;
« Alors que le Québec se préoccupe au sujet des statistiques alarmantes du décrochage scolaire, il faut rappeler qu’une intervention précoce peut jouer un rôle déterminant sur l’intérêt et la capacité de l’enfant pour « l’accrocher » à l’école », soutient Germain Duclos, psychoéducateur et orthopédagogue.
« Le cerveau d’un bébé à la naissance n’a que le quart de la grosseur de celui d’un adulte et il va tripler entre 0 et 3 ans pour atteindre 80 % de sa masse corporelle », explique Julie Brousseau, spécialiste de la petite enfance à la Fondation. « C’est à cette période que le potentiel d’apprentissage de l’enfant est le plus grand. Son cerveau est deux fois plus actif que celui d’un adulte. Dans les faits, il apprend à apprendre. Il faut nourrir directement le cerveau de l’enfant notamment par le toucher, le jeu et le langage. »

Les meilleurs pour stimuler le cerveau des tout-petits, ce sont leurs parents: par leur folie, leur présence, leurs mises en scène, leurs chansons, leurs fous rires, leurs gestes, leurs histoires. Ces derniers sont les “idoles” de leurs enfants. Même la meilleure éducatrice ne rivalise pas avec le parent aux yeux d’un enfant;
Encore faut-il que les parents en soient conscients et qu’ils fassent les choix de carrière leur permettant d’être présents pendant cette période unique et spéciale. Pas toujours facile…:-)

C’est pour ces raisons et bien d’autres reliées à mon rôle de papa que je trouve les initiaves de sensibilisation de la Fondation Chagnon tellement à propos. Collectivement, nous ne pouvons négliger ces années car elles représentent un investissement dans notre société de demain. Et, on ne petu malheureusement pas les rattraper. Cet investissement doit s’amorcer dès la petite enfance, pas seulement lors de l’entrée à l’école où le chemin est tracé par le Ministère de l’Éducation.

En tant que marketer qui désire s’investir de longues heures avec ses enfants

Si je vous parle ici sur ce blogue de marketing, c’est aussi parce que cette campagne utilise des moyens modernes et originaux pour en accroitre sa diffusion. Tel que décrit plus haut, j’avais vu les messages télé mais c’est un gentil courriel de la blogueuse Sophie Labelle qui m’a incité à vous parler de cette belle campagne. Le titre de son courriel était: Tu es papa? Tu es une vedette! J’ai trouvé cette approche personalisée fort intéressante et très originale. Je dois être honnête, malgré l’approche originale, c’est avant tout parce que la cause est importante à mes yeux si je vous en parle ici. Alors, voici en vrac quelques éléments de la stratégie 2.0 attachée à cette campagne de sensibilisation.

La Fondation a décidé de faire appel aux blogueuses et blogueurs sachant que la plupart d’entre eux font partie du groupe cible : des papas et des mamans d’enfants de 5 ans et moins. De plus, les parents se réfèrent beaucoup à d’autres parents pour avoir des trucs et des conseils sur la vie de famille. Aussi, ils ont pris le pari que de rejoindre la communauté des mamans blogueuses, qui est tissée très serrée, seraient une bonne idée.

La création de badges (ou widgets), telle que celle que je viens d’installer dans la colonne droite de mon blogue, est venue de l’idée de ne pas mettre trop de pression sur les blogueurs et de leur offrir le choix de montrer leur appui à la campagne sans nécessairement écrire un long billet. Moi, j’ai fait le choix d’en faire un billet mais j’aurais pu seulement faire paraître ce widget sur mon blogue.

La campagne Bien Grandir de la Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon s’échelonne sur 1 an et demi. Le site Internet biengrandir.com évoluera au fur et à mesure que la campagne se développera. Le volet blogueur s’effectue donc de façon “très soft”, sans de trop grandes contraintes de temps. On veut que les gens s’approprient le message, prennent le temps de s’informer, posent des questions, etc.

Le tout est jumelé à des démarches de relations de presse traditionnelles. Donc, on ne mise pas que que sur le web 2.0. Avouez par contre, que ca s’avère être un excellent complément aux relations publiques traditionnelles.

La grande majorité des parents est au courant de l’importance de stimuler tes enfants en bas âge. Toutefois, peu de parents savent que leurs gestes quotidiens ont aussi un impact majeur sur la réussite scolaire future de leurs enfants. Avec cette campagne, on veut que les parents sachent que c’est réellement dès la naissance jusqu’à 5 ans qu’ils permettront à leur enfant « d’apprendre à apprendre » et de se développer plus facilement à l’école. La Fondation souhaite revaloriser le rôle des parents, car, selon un récent sondage, près de 70 % des parents d’enfants de moins de 6 ans ne sentent pas que la société valorise le rôle parental…

La Fondation Lucie et André Chagnon a pour mission de contribuer au développement et à l’amélioration de la santé par la prévention de la pauvreté et de la maladie en agissant principalement auprès des enfants et de leurs parents.

En sensibilisant les parents au rôle crucial qu’ils jouent auprès des enfants de 0 à 5 ans, la Fondation compte les inciter à offrir aux tout-petits un environnement encore plus riche en expériences positives — sur tous les plans. Le résultat escompté : permettre aux jeunes enfants de développer leur plein potentiel et d’être bien préparés pour leur réussite éducative.

Cette campagne se déploie en collaboration avec de nombreux partenaires et intervenants qui gravitent autour de la petite enfance. Merci à tous ceux qui y contribuent, de près ou de loin. C’est en travaillant de façon concertée que nous réussirons à améliorer la qualité de vie de nos enfants.

Investissons dans nos enfants!

Social Affiliate Network The Universal Way Of Internet Marketing

affiliantes — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 15:28:29 +0000

The internet is evolving, and the fall of the dot com craze has begun. In its place, the next generation of websites, Web 2.0, has arrived with promising potential. For example, YouTube a video uploading website, was created in February 2005. Recently, less than two years after it was founded, YouTube was sold to Google for a whopping $1.64 billion. Web 2.0 success, such as that of YouTube, was recognized by many internet marketers. And, therefore, the concepts are being applied to hundreds of recent websites.
Though the number of Web 2.0 websites is growing rapidly, all of these websites stand with one main focus: the users paid for social networks
Did you know that Web 2.0 isn?t really a certain type of site? It is a term that is being used to describe the new sites that are interactive with its members or customers. It allows these people to dynamically change these web sites, add content, and interact with other users of the site.
These sites can be sites like Myspace that is a community site where users can create their own page and then they invite their friends to join.
It can also be interactive sites where people can post pictures, videos, sound bites, and even blogs where info and feedback can be added to the sites.

Web 2.0 Sites

Many people are breaking Web 2.0 sites into these main categories

Social Affiliate Network

Canada Dry : RIP ( 1995-1999) : Why Marketing Plans failed ????

sohandhande — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:24:27 +0000

Brand : Canada Dry

Company : Cadbury Schweppes ( Later Coca Cola)

Agency : Mudra

Brand Analysis Count : 371

Canada Dry india

One of my colleagues yesterday showed me a 1989 issue of Business India where he pointed out an ad of a long forgotten brand – Canada Dry . We passionately talked about the brand which we both liked.

Canada Dry was launched in India in 1995 . The brand ,from Cadbury Schweppes ,was a highly popular brand of softdrinks across the globe. Canada Dry was a much hyped brand because it was from the house of Cadbury. Cadbury Schweppes launched Canada Dry a

nd Orange Crush in the Indian market with much fanfare.

Canada Dry India

Canada Dry was a Champagne Softdrink. The brand has positioned itself as a champagne and the taste was different and refreshing.

The brand was also promoted heavily in various media. The ad featuring the snow and tiger brings back the nostalgia about this brand. The brand was positioned as a premium cooldrink . The brand gained immediate acceptance because of its association with Cadbury. The brand had the potential to become a premium softdrink brand in India .

But alas, the brand did not last too long in the market. In 1999 CocaCola took over the beverages business of Cadbury Schweppes and like GoldSpot and Limca , Coke killed this brand.

It is sad to see such brands being killed for no reason connected with customers. The only reason for Coke to kill these brands was to make way for Coke’s original brands. In the case of Canada Dry , the brand only had a negligible presence in the Indian market.

Look at the Indian market now – Is there a premium softdrink brand in India ? Neither Coke or Pepsi was able to create a premium softdrinks category in India. They have not even tried yet…….

marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2009/01/canada-dry-rip-1995-1999.html

Thanda Matlab Coca Cola: But, Thanda nahi hai......

sohandhande — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:03:44 +0000

Brand : Coke

Agency: McCann

Baseline : Piyo sar Utha Ke

Well ……..

Marketers some times behaves like fools !!!!!!

Why the hell one should change their best positioning statement ? Every one loved the ” thanda ” campaign, there were rave reviews about Aamir and Coke. People looked forward to the next Aamir avatar ………

coca cola

Then it was a surprise.. there is no thanda but some blabbering about drinking coke ” Sar Utha ke?

Coke never had good time with respect to its advertising in India. Never in their second life in India, they have delivered good campaigns. Pepsi always scored with their campaigns like” Ye dil maange more” Yehi hai right choice baby”, ” Nothing official about it”.

Then came the Thanda matlab “Coca- Cola” campaign which blew the hell out of Pepsi. Well how can anyone own some thing like ” Thanda”. Similar to XEROX, Coke was trying to own a whole category as such.

Then Coke changed the campaign , Why? I don’t have the answer may be the creatives in McCann may have it. The current campaign speaks nothing. I use a straw to drink Coke, so how can I drink coke sar Utha ke? Most of the time when I tried drinking directly from the bottle, I had encountered some unpleasant taste of “rust” from the cap of the bottle. What about the South Indians and othe non Hindi speaking consumers? Will they be impressed by the base line?

An opportunity lost for Coke . they had one BIG IDEA in ” Thanda Matlab Coca-Cola “and they blew it off

marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2005/11/coca-cola-thanda-nahin-hai.html

The Contradiction of Search and the PPC Advertising Business Model

domainating — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 04:00:52 +0000

This post is a response to the article “Bing Now a Serious Challenger to Google” by Jeff Bertolucci, PC World

One should probably read this article in order to understand the inspiration for this post, though it isn’t absolutely necessary. The links in this post open in a new window so that you won’t lose your focus here and can get back to this post easily (aren’t I a nice guy?).

Bing can actually be a boon to website designers & developers & teams of whom work together because unlike Google that does not penalize for poorly coded websites, it was reported that Live dropped pages that were improperly coded.

I have already made the argument that good web coding should be rewarded by the search engines in my blog. I am not asking for awards from the search engines, but it makes sense to me that since a website represents the actual soul of someone’s marketing message, bad code should indicate a very poor marketing effort while professionally done, tight, clean code should be rewarded as such. And I also emphasize that reducing the ranking ability of tables based layouts should be the very first consideration in establishing that part (of the formula) in the ranking algorithm.

I twittered this previous post to @mattcutts, who is in charge of Google’s Web Spam Department, twice yesterday and yet never received a response from him. I suppose he gets a bunch of such posts from many being in his position, but I have also seen him respond to such posts, as well.

Matt Cutts has previously indicated that he believed that since the browser may not have had any issues with the underlying code, even if the code was poorly done, no web page was ever penalized for having poor coding practices. However, this seems to ignore the fact that the worldwide web has become a commercial entity, and that any individual website presence represents the full resources which have been brought to bear for online marketing as a public and professional presence on behalf of a company or person. Even if a free personal homepage, a web page exists to promote something, even if it is just information. The sharing of it also helps promote that page’s authority and therefore its presence (possibly indirectly, but usually not).

Let’s face it, the internet is no longer free or even publicly available to all. It is a goldmine and a company that can leverage itself as an effective online resource can prosper if marketed smart and promoted effectively.

The key here then, is the fact that Google is ignoring the commercialization of the worldwide web (aka: the w3) despite its monopolistic dominance of the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising industry. This means that a company has no influence based on merit and drives the need for recognition through advertising in order to be noticed.

This same monopolistic attitude is seen in Matt Cutt’s attitude towards paid links. Even though a paid link represents a measurable online marketing effort by a company or individual, he frowns on them as a purposeful and deliberate means of influencing the search engines. But that is a protectionist attitude and monopolistic argument, because it is Google’s own algorithm itself that is tallying up direct links as votes for a website, not the marketer.

And since Matt Cutts has warned us that Google may penalize websites in the future, I will tell you that I have personal knowledge of and experienced the fact that Google is now, already started penalizing websites that display suspected paid links. This is now a known fact based on the performance of a number of my websites which are utilizing free web hosting where paid links are employed in order to offset hosting cost, and also proven by the fact that you can report paid links to Google (as proof, simply check out Google’s “Webmaster Tools” which expedites such reporting by offering a very prominent link to do so). My web traffic is now negligible and the PR (PR stands for Google’s “PageRank” system or ranking a site from 1-10) is non-existent at almost all these sites. Although all of these sites are new, they had been previously gaining traffic and growing in unique visits. A few had a PR of 2 or 3 and most of the rest were at a PR of at l. There were a few PR 0 sites too, but now most are not even acknowledged by Google’s PR system. They are all CSS design based WordPress sites. They all include unique content.

In effect, as a monopoly, Google is trying to funnel any and all advertising sales through it’s own PPC (or Pay-Per-Click, as in paid advertisements) marketing program. Most people I speak to that are marketing their business themselves and are aware of Google’s “Do not buy links” policy are actually afraid to advertise anywhere else.

The stunning idiotic result from an otherwise very smart and successful internet marketing entity known as Google is that no one there sees this contradicting business model as pure monopolistic. This is a business model which is excessively slanted in its own favor and the end result is highly unbalanced and completely unfair, especially to individuals, professionals, small to medium businesses and any business that is starting up. Because Google sells links and tells everyone not to buy links.

In other words, Google’s business model suggests that only corporations should consider playing because demonstrated effort and merit through efficient and clean professional code which it spiders on a regular basis has nothing to say or add to a company’s online marketing effort. And this is completely opposite of how Google should monitor marketing and effective online presence building.

Furthermore, instead of simply influencing marketing channels, Google is using protectionism in order to dominate advertising via its monopolistic presence. The end result is a message which tells every webmaster and online marketer, “Play it our way and play with us or die.”

Nothing is more contradictory than Google’s advertisement and PPC marketing model if it is actually a serious search engine. And we all know it is the largest. But it is now ignoring the webmaster’s efforts in clean and efficient CSS structured and styled, properly coded (X)HTML web pages.

Quite simply, the PPC advertising model is extremely flawed because it relies on a corporation’s ability to play by pouring in gobs of money to secure the top positions with the top bids. Even though there is a little wiggle room allowed for effective advertising copy (monitored through click-throughs), the end result is that in order to secure the top ads, the price of the advertised product has to support the bid, which makes end-sold products and/or services inherently higher.

One can argue that Frugal is a great alternative to advertising, but Frugal, which promotes low prices and coupons, is not even close to effectively marketed anywhere on the web but at Google. With Google AdWords, you have the ability to build a woldwide presence instantly for a product, service and/or brand through Google’s content network, and each ad placement is in direct competition with the crux of web content found on each individual page, so users/readers/viewers have already demonstrate an active interested in that type of service/product/brand. Google offers no such alternative with Frugal, nor does it effectively promote Frugal because it is not in the interest of its business model. Google only uses Frugal in order to offer an argument against clear protectionist intent and related issues.

Long way to go to make a point that hasn’t been made yet, isn’t it? That’s right, I still haven’t gotten to the point, all these facts mere lead-up to the idea that… [deep breath]… if any decent search engine (with a significant presence) actually allies with the web designer/developer/studio to provide truly relevant results based on the seriousness of a company’s marketing effort by rewarding the effort, consistency and merit of professionalism which is demonstrated in the effectiveness of the code which a bot has to crawl and cache any damn way, I am sure that would go an enormously long way in allowing web design/development professionals the recognition they deserve.

But Google’s contradictory business model turns it all upside down. It wants to see your links and tallies them to help establish your PageRank and this same tally (not the PageRank, but that link tally) also influences your ranking in the search engine results in some significant way through its algorithym. It monitors your presence and influence on the web, but it sees paid direct links as spam. It presently and demonstratedly marks sites with reported paid links as spam and stops sending them traffic through its search resources, even though Google is in the actual business of selling links itself, and just because they are indirect pointers to pages that is so-called different (and yet it is still advertising, still paid links). In order to play, one has to pay Google, driving up product/service costs because Google’s AdWords model is self-corrupting. And Google continues to scare us into using their PPC ad services. People and businesses have been broken or made on their understanding and use of this queer system, both through PPC ads and the actual search results.

Why anyone else wouldn’t take advantage of the inherent corruption and contradiction of Google’s business model is beyond me. Remember in fact that this is how Google started, promising an alliance with webmasters to produce effective search with relevant results. This is what drew us all in. And if webmasters saw a true benefit from providing clean code, they would. But the fact is that Google only cares about content, not marketing (unless it is its own), not professionalism in presentation in the one way it could absolutely and logically measure it.

So in the end analysis leads to only one conclusion for me, this is an opportunity crying to be taken advantage of. Bing may not be the one with the balls to do it. It, after all has been a consistent follower in the business of the internet. It didn’t even get it, at first, and almost missed the boat completely. But Bing does represent an expression of a search for new ideas. And yet, Microsoft has historically not embraced innovation in the same way that IBM snubbed Microsoft’s innovation. It is old and Microsoft has clearly never lead the industry in any sort of innovation with the internet because it suffers from the same old conservative snobby old boys network attitude that IBM scoffed at. Microsoft just doesn’t understand the new generation and the digital age.

But, in the same way, Google is doing the exact same thing. It has forgotten its alliance with webmasters and web professionals. Google now inhibits business through the same lack of understanding in the unfairness of its business model.

Which actually leaves the door wide open for a new player. Yahoo is, after all, primarily a portal, is branded as such, and is ever abandoning any of its efforts in search because it refuses to innovate.

Anyone want to start a search engine? The sky is literally the limit. It should embrace net socialization, all forms of web media, localization and news. Without utilizing a business unfriendly contradictory business model. No one does that, and it would be easy to do effectively. But that’s another post for another time.

By the way, can anyone reach the present that Google left me? It’s dead-center in the middle of my back. Actually, it’s not that bad. The percentage of websites I have on free web hosting is not very significant, so the blade is tiny. But I was one of those webmasters that jumped on the Google bandwagon, so the betrayal does sting.

My code has evolved, but Google refuses to evolve their search and refuses to acknowledge superior design code. That said, so does every other search engine. Because they all are on the PPC marketing kick, too. But Google and I had a thing going. Actually, we still do, breaking-up is hard to do no matter how much a loved one may abuse you.

You know?

…………………………………
Associated Reference Links:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/181980/bing_now_a_serious_challenger_to_google.html
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/

Google Adwords Service Icons

Tim Cohn — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:53:59 +0000

Google Adwords has added service icons for use with Google Adwords connected to Local Business Center accounts.

Local Business Center Ads

Seventeen service icons are available for use including a “No category specified” icon.

The following sixteen business categories have service icons available for use with Google Adwords campaigns combined with Google Local Business center listings:

Movies, film, video
Bar, pub, liquor
Accommodations
Restaurant, dining
Café, coffee shop
Flowers, garden
Car dealer, rental, service
Grocery, department store
Shopping, boutique
Homewares, home repair, real estate
Phones, service providers
Bank, finance, currency exchange
Bank, finance, currency exchange (UK)
Hardware, repair
Hairdresser, barber, tailor
Bank, finance, currency exchange (Eur)

Are Google’s reasons for choosing these particular local categories governed by the same reasons they make most if not all of their other business decisions – data?

Google Adwords Icons

If so, then marketers this list of sixteen business types and their icons are the most searched for competitive local search marketing categories in Google at this particular time.

Google Service Icons

If these types of service listings are indeed the most searched local cateogies, what can we expect to see next from Google?

200+ Internet Marketing Gurus on Twitter

leminhhai — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:45:00 +0000

(Andy’s note: We’ve now updated the list with the Twitter feeds left in comments. While there won’t be another update, please fee free to continue leaving your Twitter feed in the comments section.)

By Brian Chappell

The twitter train is pulling up, are you on board yet? Twitter is one of the most revolutionary messaging systems to come out in my opinion since AOL Instant Messenger back in 1997. It allows groups of users to simultaneously engage in conversations all at the same time, similar to being in a “chat room” in AOL. As a marketer this can be a golden tool if utilized properly for personal reputation management reasons.

Many underground conversations go on within Twitter that never make it to the blogosphere or news sites. It can be a dynamite location for link bait ideas, breaking stories, and general topics you might not think about on a daily basis. You might even find yourself obtaining clientèle through it. I really could go on and on with what you could do with Twitter.

Now with that said, it is worth pointing out that one of the more frustrating things with Twitter is that there isn’t much organization within the social profiles themselves. Aside from the visible friends list, it is hard to capture who is within your industry, and who might be twittering about relevant things that you want to follow.

I have attempted to put together a comprehensive list of Internet Marketers. The people on it range in skill sets from Social Media Experts, Search Optimization Experts, Search Marketing Experts, and other general Internet Marketing Gurus. I have already done some dwindling of this list whereas to remove people who simply twit too much, and do not add much to the conversation.

For starters, several of the Pilgrim crew are already on twitter. I personally will follow you back if you follow me, and I know a lot of other Twitter Marketers will do the same.

http://twitter.com/andybeal
http://twitter.com/BrianChappell
http://twitter.com/NewspaperGrl
http://twitter.com/ioerger

If you do not see yourself on the list feel free to comment below and we will add you to the list. The only stipulation to being added is that you are an Internet Marketer of some sort.

UPDATE 2: We’ve compiled all the Twitter feeds left in the comments:

About Brian Chappell

Brian is a Search Marketer who specializes in Link building and Web Site monetization

Marketing vs. Sales

ddesouza155597 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:42:42 +0000

I got it! It´s the marketers´fault! They are the ones taking all the “NOISE” out of the way! Marketers are pushing the sales just like sellers. The only difference is that the sellers have an order and the marketers have a conversion rate. It shows that the seller that wants to be on the market needs to be qualified because the Marketing department is even more involved in sales than ever before. The relationship between eggs and bacon where the marketers were the chickens and the sellers were the pigs is over! Now, everyone is compromised with this process not just simply involved!

7 Ý TƯỞNG CHÍN MỌNG

tienpro — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:06:28 +0000

1. Tóc gió thôi bay

Đâu cần phải có tóc khi quảng cáo dầu gội đầu! Almapbbdo, một nhãn dầu gội của Brazil đã chứng minh điều đó khi sử dụng hình ảnh những quả cam, quả táo chín mộng thay cho những cô người mẫu với mái tóc dài thướt tha. Thật ấn tượng phải không nào!

www.coloribus.com

2. Những lát cắt của mùa hè

Mẫu bao bì của Kleenex – KC USA với chủ đề “Slice of Summer” đã vinh dự giành giải kim cương trong cuộc thi Best of The Show 2009. Hãy cùng TYM chiêm ngưỡng một chút nào!

popsop.com

3. Những sợi chỉ màu

Colgate Palmolive – Panama – đã giới thiệu sản phẩm chỉ nha khoa của mình có thể giải quyết cả các loại thực phẩm màu như trái cây. Để xem họ làm như thế nào nhé!

theinspirationroom.com

4. Những con vật đáng yêu

Để quảng cáo cho các sản phẩm trái cây của mình, hệ thống siêu thị bán lẻ Esselunga của Ý đã sinh động hóa chúng thành những con vật ngộ nghĩnh như thế này đây!

www.adsideas.com

5. Sợ gì bẩn nào

Với hình ảnh những quả táo và dưa leo đã được gọt vỏ hết sức đơn giản, Jiajia – dung dịch rửa rau quả của Trung Quốc đã dễ dàng thể hiện được thông điệp “Remove the pee” của mình rồi!

www.littleredbook.cn

6. Mccafé

Thật không khó để bạn liên tưởng từ hạt café đết chiếc bánh hamburger của Mcdonnal phải không! Đây là print ads dùng để giới thiệu sản phẩm mới Mccafé – Café rất Mccdonnal!

www.yowazzup.com

7. Uống trái cây nhé!

Còn gì bằng khi một hợp nước trái cây lại trông ngon mắt như thế này! Còn chờ gì mà không thử phải không bạn!

Những ý tưởng có thể rất đơn giản cũng có thể rất phức tạp. Đôi khi bạn cũng không ngờ từ một hình ảnh chẳng hề liên quan đến sản phẩm của mình lại có thể tạo nên một tuyệt tác quảng cáo lạ kỳ! Hãy thử xem nhé, các bạn marketers!

Catatan kecil

riffa4inspiration — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:24:34 +0000

Catatan kecil

Butuh keberanian besar dan tekad yang bulat untuk menulis sebuah blog. Haha…itu menurutku, gak tau sih kalo orang lain:)
Well banyak alasan orang membuat blog, I’ll respect them. Coz banyak dari tulisan-tulisan mereka memberikan ’sesuatu’ yang baik untuk orang lain secara tidak langsung.
Contohnya yang nyata banget, waktu aku skripsi beberapa bulan lalu. Blog-blog dari para marketer Indonesia cukup banyak menyumbangkan bahan-bahan berguna. Dan pastinya aku gak lupa untuk memuat alamat blog mereka di halaman daftar pustaka skripsiku. Thx 2 them all:)
Aku memang bukan penulis profesional. Tapi aku gak bisa hindarin kenyataan kalo aku menggilai dunia menulis dan membaca. Both of them, not only one.
So that’s it.

Give Value, and don`t tell your self only

ilyasafsoh.com — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:35:25 +0000

berikan nilai pada orang lain.
bukan hanya bercerita tentang diri sendiri dan produk anda.

kali ini, ilyas afsoh akan sharing tentang menjadi berharga (berinlai) bagi orang lain :
salah satu caranya ; GOLDEN HOUR;

gOLDEN hOUR adalah Jam-jam atau waktu yang berharga yang Anda alokasikan utuk belajar satu jam per hari tentang : sesuatu yang Anda sukai, ingin berkembang di sana
contohnya :

Pemasaran
Pemasaran off line
Pemasaran On line
Pemasaran dari mulut ke mulut
Pemasaran Gerilya
Pemasaran ber basis iklan
Blog Pemasaran
Pemasaran Agency

ILYAS AFSOH | 088 1296 3105 | GOLDEN HOUR | Marketer & Public Speaking

Red, White Wine, Fish And Science

beckyminx — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:12:06 +0000

The long-standing rule of matching wine and food — red wine with red meat and white wine with fish — actually has a scientific explanation, according to two scientists working for the Mercian Corporation, a Japanese producer and marketer of wine.

Source:
http://www.physorg.com/news176060518.html

Red, White Wine, Fish And Science

diychica — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:24:22 +0000

Source:
http://www.physorg.com/news176060518.html

A degree in communications does not necessarily a writer make

Christopher Dorda — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:07:03 +0000

Ok, a short entry but an important one! I’ve wanted to comment about this for some time, but the opportunity never presented itself, until now.

Many businesses are looking for communication specialists these days. This stems from the concept of ‘content drives traffic’. However, I’d like to point out some aspects that should be questioned before writing that for hire ad…

Are you really looking for communication specialist or a content generator?

There is a huge difference! The field of communications is vast and encapsulates many skills… Communication specialists are not necessarily prolific writers. A writer, by definition does one thing and one thing only, THEY WRITE, all the time, that’s the only thing they do, that’s why a writer, a real one, is better suited to generate content than a communication specialist.

How to find your writer.

Therein lies the crux! How to find a writer indeed. The answer is simple. Post a for hire ad looking for ‘Writers’ and, when you’re interviewing them, base your decision on what they write and not what they say during the interview or on their CV (writers, for some strange reason, write very poor CVs). Give them a test, ask them to write something simple like: What is ‘good’? Is technology ‘evil’? Something that requires them to take a position, to think, and then to write. Remember, writers are a strange breed of people, they are loners who spend countless thousands of hours at a little desk writing. Communication specialists are usually university trained people with many various skills, they are social and are used to the business world, and they are much more comfortable at an interview than real writers. But remember, you’re not looking for someone who is comfortable at interviews: you’re looking for a content generating powerhouse that can take on any subject, no matter how hard or esoteric, and write the bejezzus out of it!

So, this is something for business owners and managers to think about. What are you really looking for? A generalist or a specialist? If you have in-house marketing support, the writer seems more appropriate to complement your team, if you don’t have marketing support, and are looking for someone to handle many aspects of your business communications (not simply the writing part), then the communication specialist is the answer for you.

Of course… The best thing to do is to hire one of each and make them work as a team… But that’s another subject for another day…