Trying to Second-Guess the Color of the Google Logo from Existing Data

One of the favorite games of SEO’s is to figure out what Google is thinking based on the data available.  We create tests, analyze patterns, and even carefully review Matt Cutts’ videos backwards, seeking hidden messages.  In that tradition, DragonSearch has embarked on a study of the colors in the Google logo to determine what color would come next if there was another letter in the Google name.

As we are moving into the world of plus one with everything, and in the spirit of helping the graphic designers at Google, we think this question should be answered. Read the rest of this entry »

The AIDA Model & Elias St. Elmo Lewis

While writing Social Marketology, my new book on social media marketing, I get fixated on a particular fact and spend countless hours researching.  One fact that has consumed more of my time than any other is the idea that a guy named Elias St. Elmo Lewis invented an oft-cited marketing concept of AIDA (acronym for “attention, interest, desire, action”). AIDA is often part and parcel of something called the customer funnel, sales funnel, and marketing funnel. Derrick White, in his 2000 book “Close More Sales,” wrote “AIDA is probably the oldest acronym in marketing. It is the best and will never change.” Read the rest of this entry »

When visitors enter the front door to my house, they have to come through a second door through a room that is covered on all four walls by books. Another few stacks, each at least a couple of feet tall stand next to the bed, and likewise, my son’s room is filled to capacity. Some people are carrying their libraries around in a device called a Kindle or a Nook: I’ve got a lot of books in one of those, too. I love books, and if you call my mother, she’ll tell you that I always have. Read the rest of this entry »

Mikotaj Jan Piskorski & Harvard Business Review

If social media marketers needed any proof that their work is important, perhaps the fact that the Harvard Business Review has one or more articles on the subject in every issue these days. And of course, being HBR, those articles are being written by some of the brighter thinkers around.

One such article in the November 2011 issue is authored by an associate professor in the strategy unit at Harvard Business School, Mikotaj Jan Piskorski. The article titled Social Strategies That Work can be read online at:

http://hbr.org/2011/11/social-strategies-that-work/ar/1

What Businesses Need for Social Strategies to be Successful

Piskorski restates the essential message that just about every SoMe marketer has made, that businesses can’t simply import their non-social strategies into social and expect them to work.  People aren’t interested in being the subjects of promotion. Instead, the author provides a simple solution to what businesses need for their social strategies to be successful:

The strategy must:

1. Reduce Costs or increase customers’ willingness to pay
2. By helping people establish or strengthen relationships
3. If they do free work on a company’s behalf  Read the rest of this entry »

The Pivot Conference has given me several opportunities to hear some of my favorite thinkers in the industry. This morning started with Saul J. Berman (author of Not For Free) and Clay Shirkey (master storyteller and avuncular NYU professor and author) at a morning breakfast at the Yale club, sponsored by Social Media Today.

Then, even before lunch, I got to hear another one of our industry giants, Charlene Li.  Charlene’s books, Groundswell (co-authored with Josh Bernoff) and Open Leadership are must-haves for the social media professional’s library. When your ship wrecks and you’re on that desert island, make sure you’ve got Groundswell.

Today, Charlene’s talk started with a review of the new media landscape. Looking at the timeline of how much has changed in the past few years: iPhone debut, Facebook platform, Facebook Connect, iPhone app store, Nexus One, Android debut, Ipad debut, and most recently, the Facebook Timeline. Read the rest of this entry »