“Run easy” vs. “A little less pain”. Reebok’s vs. Nike’s motto. Turning running into a sport anybody can enjoy is the claim of the new campaign or “movement” started by Reebok. A slightly different consumer approach from Nike’s running brand image (that is about efforts, pain, and aiming at the performance) but which can change the deal if the campaign isn’t just a campaign and moves to become the way to engage consumers in running. Read More

How blogging can push your company out of the box, Money can’t overtake a community but you can become the community leader with interesting content, Actionable listening vs Active listening, FriendFeed can become your best PR Friend, and what are the reasons companies don’t use Web 2.0. Here are the links. Read More

Marketing is subjected to the product it has to help selling. Telling a story and raising interest about the product among potential customers is then related to the product, that’s the art of Marketing. But when looking deeper at products, there’s an item that may help facilitate the marketing process: the sharing value inside every product. Read More

We don’t know how to calculate the return on investment of social media efforts. Yet. Basically because hardly none of the companies that are trying to leverage that new breed of communication channel has put enough money on it and connected their business strategies with those efforts. But one example tends to prove social media and community management has changed the course of their business: it’s Dell. Read More

QuikSilver brand that changes its corporate strategy to go “full consumer”, comparison between the Hulu “me too” mainstream business model and the yet to find Youtube one, the final post of the Engaging your Community for Dummies series, Google and its art of communication and reputation shaping of Chrome (and its brand image), the most read posts for August, some social media strategies and ideas, and the latest Microsoft brand image strategy. Here are what you may have missed last week. Read More

Leveraging the social media is what all the companies dealing with online communication and advertising are looking for. At the moment they’re testing things using advertising campaigns on FaceBook, creating blogs, and initiating conversation over the different social media platforms. Only a few have tried to develop a real social media strategy to engage people and generate business. But as the community manager job is becoming a must-have, strategies to develop a communication using social media tools would rise. Here are some ideas to make it work. Read More

Communication is a major issue of the web, and quality its graal. Basics of the web is sharing and celebrating which means there is more noise than signal (reshared vs. original content). Companies have to deal with that and a solution is to make more noise than the others, avoiding competitors any opportunity to generate noise and signal. That’s the easy way, but a way than may lead to conflict and decrease of brand image. The other way is to generate a targeted signal to aim at people when they’re ready to listen and take the message as signal and not noise. Read More

Sun Tzu, author of the famous Art of War, has been one of the most interesting author of marketing book, more interesting than Seth Godin (I do believe he’s the best web marketer). The statements he’s providing are basics of communication and marketing and much more relevant in the web environment. Google seems to have well read that book too since their strategy and tactics that accompany the launch of their latest product are based and leverage the fundamental points of the Art of War, turning it into a Art of Story Telling. Read More

QuikSilver has since its start a manufacturer of surfwear and other boardsport-related equipment and has launched for a couple of years more streetwear and fashion lines of clothes. The company marketing line is based on sport though. But to stick with its new products the surf originated company has changed its marketing line and opened a door to the urban culture, and especially targeted to women with SiteLA.org. From here it is somewhat usual, but the way of marketing is far away from standard since the website objective isn’t in providing with a showcase but in creating content. And here starts the social media marketing strategy. Read More

Managing to connect with your community and share with your consumers and prospects about what’s cool in your business life, and above all why it’s cool and awesome to be by your side, is great and you’re done it properly so now each person you’re speaking with using any social media tool has become one of the people you can count on to make your business bigger. They’re engaged with you, and you’re able to put them into different cluster according to their level of collaboration and use of your product/ service. Here’s the time to connect them with your business to make them help you keep focus on your business growth. Read More