Viral Video Update…

Several times this year I have updated my readers on the current state/video views on my organizations corporate account on YouTube. Well, since its the last day of the year, I thought I would give you the latest numbers which are simple amazing.

In March I blogged that we had 15,000

In April I blogged that we had 21,000

In August I blogged that we had 63,000

In October I blogged that we had 85,000

In my October post, I was hopeful and excited that we would go over 100,000 by the end of the year. Well, its December 31st and we just went over 130,500 views!! This means that in 3 months we went up by 45,000 views…which in my opinion is awesome. We continue to provide fresh content and I am truly proud of our accomplishment.

Hello 300,000!!!

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Banned from Technorati…..again UPDATE

I guess Technorati decided not to block my IP anymore as I was able to access their site this morning. Never got an email back from them on this….it appears if they just flcked the switch.

Long live customer service.

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Group on Facebook for Email Marketing Professionals

As you know, I don’t like to plug stuff on my blog, but I just started a Facebook Group for email marketing professionals. If you work in the area of email marketing, are associated with email marketing or just want to learn more, I encourage you to join and see where it takes us. I want all who join to gain value and contribute any expertise you may have.

You can find the group here.

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10 marketing resolutions for 2008

****From the Church of the Customer Blog****

1. Vow to do more attracting than selling.
To use a high school analogy: Be the charismatic kid with a winning smile, a charming personality and a good dose of humility. Don’t be the tard who farts and throws firecrackers at cats in that desperate vein of “Look at me! Look at me!”

2. Adopt the 5th P.
If your company relies on the classic marketing model of the four P’s, add a fifth one: Participation. Build a model of how customers, partners and employees can meet, share and participate with the company or with one another.

3. Build a niche.
The future is micro-specific. It starts with people who share highly specific characteristics that defy traditional demographics. Define an ideal customer to the n’th degree, like unemployed college professors who wear corduroy sport coats (with elbow patches) and drive old Volvos.

4. Conduct a word of mouth audit.
Put every customer-facing experience up for review, from reception to the floor person, to accounts payable. Does the customer experience generate good word of mouth, or bad word of mouth? Adjust then measure again.

5. Create a social network.
Do it on Facebook, or Ning or the good ol’ analog way: a customer advisory board. Any form of social network among customers, partners or employees (current or former) is a tangible asset. Treat it as you would your grandparents (respectfully), not as you would your younger brother whom you randomly punch in the head.

6. Vow to eliminate a stupid rule.
You know what it is. Customers (or bloggers) have already told you. So eliminate it already. For extra points, give it a funeral.

7. Create a social media training program.
In 2008, expect word of mouth and customer evangelism to be accelerated by social media considerably more than it was in 2007. What people say online will reach deeper into the B2B world, too, like long-term services contracts and enterprise-wide computer systems. Understanding the basics of social media, how it works and the effects it can have on reputation and sales should be part of annual training programs.

8. Ban use of the word “consumer.”
Nothing says “I’m like Borat” more than using “consumers” to describe your customers, or end-customers. If you call the sales channel your customers, then their customers are your end-customers. To call them consumers is so Borat-like.

9. Raise the ethics bar.
Be a hero to people who still believe in ethics. Make 2008 the year you set higher standards for ethical behavior. Make the standards clear to employees, partners and vendors. Enforce them. Gaming the system is for congressmen and crooked military contractors.

10. Do what you love.
It may be trite but if you don’t love what you’re doing, how can you expect anyone else to?

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Banned from Technorati…..again

History repeats itself I guess…back in July, my IP was banned from Technorati because I had too many pings to the site with all of the reputation monitoring I was doing. Well, I switched readers and now I cannot get any technorati search feeds. In fact, I cannot even access their site. All I get is forbidden error again.

I have emailed support but have not heard back from them.

Fix your crap Technorati……I am not a spammer and you should have noted that last time you blocked my IP.

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Google Phone by February?

APC is reporting that we could see a Google Phone look as early as February.

They are also reporting that a touchscreen blackberry is on the way as well. Guess its time to trade in my old school blackberry once this comes out.

2008 is shaping up to be a really cool year for the gadget freaks.

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Never Underestimate the Power of Email Marketing!

The Marketing Blog has a post about a recent survey done by Daran Media indicating that companies plan to increase the use of email. It found that 70.5% reported plans to increase spending on e-mail acquisition and 63% to increase spending on retention campaigns. In addition, 83% of respondents expect e-mail ROI to increase during the New Year. E-mail optimization techniques, including landing pages, subject line testing and triggered messaging, were unanimously ranked as “very important.”

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If Santa were a company….Part 1….his CRM

If Santa were a company he would be the biggest company in the world. He would have the most significant distribution and CRM system known to man. His sales would be more than Walmart and most of the retailers combined. He would be a giant in the industry of childhood merriment.

Santa’s CRM would have to be the most accurate database in the world. He would need to have preferences for every child he delivered to and it would have to be constantly updated and upgraded. He would need at least 99.999999% up-time and would require several hundred full time elves just updating the thing.

So tell me…what CRM would Santa run?

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so what’s all this new marketing stuff, anyway?

Hugh Macleod at gapingvoid.com has a great post about this “new marketing stuff” I love #10:

“Why is it so hard to explain The New Marketing to large companies? Because the people who work there are simply not prepared to relinquish the idea of control. Live by metrics, die by metrics etc.”

Aint it the truth Hugh…..aint it the truth….its all about control

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Top 10 Startups Worth Watching in 2008

Wired has a great article on the Top 10 startups to watch in 2008. I am glad to see 37Signals on the list as they are a local company here in Chicago. The one that looks most interesting to me is 23andMe.

Check it out.

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JetBrains Omea Reader vs. Sharpreader

I am an RSS junkie. I have used only 2 news readers in the past: Feedreader and Sharpreader. I have used Google reader for some other feeds/reputation monitoring purposes, but sometimes find it a bit clunky and unreliable in terms of handling lots and lots feeds. I am talking ALOT of feeds. Currently have hundreds and hundreds of feeds tracking hundreds of keywords, blogs and general news stuff. At times, I have over 30,000 items in my reader that I look through. Up until now, I have used Sharpreader and really liked it. Sharpreader did its thing and I went along my merry way.

Then last night I downloaded the personal edition of the JetBrains Omea Reader and my RSS/feed addiction has been taken to a new level. Without question, this is the best free reader on the market. Its laid out well and has a ton of features nor normally found in many readers. I especially love the “subscribe to search feed” feature. If you are in the market to switch or just want to try out a new look and feel of your seemingly boring reader you need to check out JetBrains Omea Reader….as you will not be disappointed

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Social Networking for Animals/Pets

Yep, I have seen it all. Words cannot describe this site…you only have to experience it.

Welcome to Social Networking for your pets.

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Firefox 3 Beta 2 is released

For those of you who are Firefox power users like myself, you might find the Beta 2 release something that you might want to check out. However, not the caveat on their blog for the Beta release:

“Please note: We do not recommend that anyone other than developers and testers download the Firefox 3 Beta 2 milestone release. It is intended for testing purposes only.”

You can get the Beta 2 here.

I love Firefox and it is without question my default browser. Rock on Mozilla!!

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Stretch your ad budget with these metrics

Reid Carr over at iMedia Connection has a great article on what really matters most in terms of metrics and the almighty Ad dollar. He tells us to go beyond the frequency and impressions metric that alot of people rely on as a success measurement.

I know that my organization is interested in taking that next step. We do measure the CPL and conversion rates, but we need to take that next step in terms of ROI.

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UPDATE: High Schooler Gets Detention for Using Firefox?

It appears that the post I had yesterday about the student getting detention for using firefox is not true. Read here to get the lowdown.

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How to Fix Your Email Deliverability - 4 Easy Strategies to Lift Deliverability

MarketingSherpa has a great case study today on email deliverability. One of the practices that my organization has gotten away from is dealing with bounces/permanent failures. This is something that I hope to correct in the coming months. One of the things we have done is sign up for the feedback loops from some of the ISP’s, but since we are B2B and we send email to all over the world, its sometimes hard to identify all of the major ISP’s that we deliver through.

Nonetheless, this is a great case that everyone can gain value from.

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High Schooler Gets Detention for Using Firefox?

For using firefox? Check out the story.

Hate to see what would happen if he used Safari. Would probably be arrested for having too many animals or something.

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Commitment

If you think about it, we have alot of commitment in our lives. We have a commitment to our wives or husbands, we have them with our children, our family our friends etc..

However one of things we don’t necessarily understand or wonder about is our commitment to the companies that we work for. In that same light, I often wonder about the commitment that the company has to us as an employee. Each year we spend more and more time working at a company. In fact we spend more time working than we do outside of work in terms of hours per day. (some will argue this point, but in these times, we just don’t shut off our computers at 5 and never think about work outside of work..its just not possible)

I went to my wife’s Christmas party on Friday like I have for the last 14 or so years. At her organization they have several Holiday parties coupled with scattered events throughout the year to engage the employees to show the companies commitment to their own. They do alot for their employees and as an outsider looking in, I am a bit jealous.

Here is a confession. In the last 15 years, I have never been with a company that had a holiday party. Oh wait..there was one, but I joined the company too late in the year and was not able to attend.

The idea of commitment goes waaaay beyond holiday parties of course…… In my opinion its the feeling of being valued when you walk in the door. Its the feeling that the company has a strategic career plan and path for you to follow. Its the commitment of training and development of your management team. Its the feeling that as an employee your comments or input is listened too. It the feeling that although you may fail and fall down sometimes, they are there to pick you up, dust you off and get you back into the game. Its the feeling of branching out and trying something new with out getting in the way. Its the idea of a an open, honest, collaborative, and 2 way conversation with executives.

Its alot.

How much commitment do you have to your organization and how much commitment does your organization have to you?

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Star Wars Figures that didnt make the cut

I am a big Stars Wars nut these days because I got the great idea to introduce my 6 year old to it about 4 months ago. Needless to say its a Star Wars Christmas around our house this year.

Anyway here is an article from Gizmodo about some Star Wars Toys that didn’t make the cut. I love the “force”

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10 Career-killers To Avoid

Global Knowledge through permission with Computerworld has an excellent article on 10 career killers to avoid. I will summarize the 10, but encourage you to go and read in depth with some of these really mean.

10. Losing perspective

9. Failing to self promote

8. Forgetting to give credit to others

7. Surrounding yourself with “brown nosers”

6. Knowing all of the answers

5. Believing that you are irreplaceable

4. Confusing efficiency with effectivness

3. Failing to deliver results

2. Not keeping your skills current

1. Failing to have a life plan

All of these are valid and I encourage you to go and read the full description for each one. Puts alot of things in perspective to hear stuff like this.

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The Official 2008 Web 2.0 Buzzword Forecast

Pete Blackshaw over at ClickZ has an interesting article title The Official 2008 Web 2.0 Buzzword Forecast. I love “shamsparency”. Pete offers up a bit of humor in this article and its well worth the read.

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Psssst..LinkedIn API and New Homepage Drawing Near

Mark Over TechCrunch has a post today about how LinkedIn will be changing sometime soon. I cant wait as I do agree that sometimes that the interface is a little clunky and boring.

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