Fun on a Friday -- You Dummy! (Sneak Preview Super Bowl ad)

My husband laughed so hard at this spot we had to rewind several times to catch some of the lines. He was particularly fond of "You Dummy!" shouted at the hapless cubicle dweller.

I'm one of those people who watch the Super Bowl for the ads (although now I just look them all up online the next day). CareerBuilder's taken it a step further -- and increased their buzz -- by releasing their ad ahead of time. Lots of web chatter, lots of YouTube views. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

YouTube - CareerBuilder.com Super Bowl 2009 commercial - 30 second sneak preview!

Twittering Tips for Beginners

We'll be writing more about Twitter in the weeks and months to come. We're also working on a webinar for small and medium-sized businesses on how to use Twitter (and how to tell if you need to be on Twitter). For those of you who want to check it out and don't know where to start, this blog post will give you a good overview. Twitter is both absurdly easy and maddeningly frustrating. People ask me all the time how to use it. Check out Pogue's tips, and let me know if you have questions.

Follow NTM on Twitter
Follow Sherean on Twitter

Twittering Tips for Beginners - Pogue’s Posts Blog - NYTimes.com

SMB's are the Job Creators

I just read this blog entry on the Washington Post that linked me to this fabulous site with small business stats. You can look up your site and find out how many jobs SMB's created and other small business facts. For example, small businesses were responsible for ALL of the net job gains in GA from 2004-2005.

I've read various statistics about job creation, but the one I see most often is that SMB's employ 80% of the nation's workforce. 80%! We need a larger voice in Washington -- or at least one that's commensurate with our awesome responsibility. We make up a huge part of the economy. We see the faces of our workers and go to sleep at night worrying about how we'll keep sales up so they can keep their jobs. Our employees are not nameless, faceless numbers that get cut when times are tough. (I'm not saying that Fortune 500 companies shouldn't make those cuts; just that it's more personal when we do.)

Cross Posted on the SMB Hub

The Snuggie's a Success?

My husband and I mock this product every time we see the commercial. I joke that the guy looks like a monk and that the sleeves are surely fire hazards. Chris is thinking of getting me one for my birthday. So imagine my surprise when I learned that Snuggies are flying off the shelves. Four million sold and a waiting list for more. Normally, I'd comment on their marketing strategy, or how their success reflects current trends, but today, I have only one word: huh?

Update: one of my Twitter buddies just told me she wears her robe backwards and ta-da! Instant Snuggie. Hilarious!

New Loans For Small Businesses - Forbes.com

My favorite printing company, is also a pretty smart company. I've worked with them for years because they provide great quality printing at affordable prices. (We've tried other online discount printers and have been greatly disappointed with the quality.) Turns out their CEO, Andrew Field, is a strong advocate for SMB's (small and medium sized businessess). He is concerned with how the credit crunch is affecting us and how we are largely being ignored in the current recovery conversations. He has a simple plan to help. It's not a bailout. The government actually makes money if we do. Given that we employ 80% of the nation's workforce, it seems reasonable to me that we ought to at least be in the conversation.

SMB's don't have natural organizations. We tend to clump together in verticals related to our industry. There is no giant lobbying group representing us in Washington.

But look, we have the Internet and a whole host of word-of-mouth tools. I'm going to post a link to Andrew Field's proposal here on my blog. Then I'm going to put the link on my Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts. Read it. If you think the idea has merit, pass it along to your networks.

New Loans For Small Businesses - Forbes.com

Branding the New Government

Our new president is known for a lot of things -- hope, change and all that -- but the marketing community has long been impressed with his branding ability. He stuck with one slogan (more or less) throughout his campaign. He has a visual brand that is clear and easily identifiable. And now he's brought that design sensibility to the White House web site. To my eye, it's clean, modern (without being young/edgy), easy to navigate and interesting. There are interactive elements and multi-media. There is a blog, which is a nice start, but it's not very bloggy in practice. Looks more like press releases inserted as blog posts to me. I assume it's a work in progress.

Read more: Web Design You Can Believe In | Fast Company

And the Color of the Year is . . .

According to Pantone, the color of the year for 2009 is mimosa (what you and I might call a warm yellow). Pantone is the company that produces those expensive color chip books with formulations that designers use when selecting colors for your logo or printed materials. It's the way we tell printers what we want. (Still not an exact science, but that's a post for another day.)

This color has been showing up in women's fashions and interior design for a couple of years now; in fact, I painted my son's nursery this color. So I'm not sure if Pantone is a little late to the party, but at any rate, keep it in mind if you're trying to keep your brand current.

Pantone Selects Color of the Year for 2009: PANTONE 14-0848 Mimosa

Fun on a Friday : The Jingle Generator from Intuit QuickBooks

The makers of QuickBooks were looking for a fun way to increase trial usage of their software so they developed a tool for small businesses to create their own jingle: The Jingle Generator. This could be a nice little distraction on a Friday.

According to Marketing Profs, the Jingle Generator was promoted using a number of new media techniques, including:

• Blogger outreach: Intuit contacted bloggers with whom it already had working relationships to share the campaign story.
• Participation on forums and blogs: The company also joined in conversations on forums and blogs that relate to small-business issues, '80s music, social marketing, etc. Company representatives aim to add value to the conversation when posting responses and do not solely promote the site.
• Social-networking sites: The company posted a video on YouTube, and profile pages for Tommy Silk were established on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Participating Intuit team members help build awareness by adding Tommy as a friend or follower to their personal networks and "re-tweeting" Tommy's posts.
• Shared examples: Early in the campaign, employees were encouraged to create their own custom jingles on the site and forward them to friends and family members, especially small-business owners, who might have an interest in the software.

*Source: MarketingProfs.com, "How Intuit Used Viral Marketing and an Interactive Web Site to Generate Small-Business Leads, Engage Customers" (paid registration required)

The Jingle Generator from Intuit QuickBooks

Twitter’s Massive 2008: 752 Percent Growth

I'm a few days late to mention this but Twitter has grown from this thing used by only hard-core geeks to . . . well, I still don't know how to describe Twitter but a WHOLE LOT of folks are using it now. 752 % growth last year? One million new users in December alone? Wow.

Remember I told you a few weeks ago about a passenger on the Denver plane that crashed tweeted about it? So Twitter breaks news. And you may have heard that the secret to getting anything done with Comcast is to complain about them on Twitter. So Twitter is a customer service/brand management tool. Is it? Or just a simple way to dispatch news of your day to your friends? ("Just watched American Idol. U watching? Did u see bikini girl?")

Like many new media in the digital age, we don't know yet what to call it, how to describe it, and how to use it for business. There are theories, certainly, but there isn't much collective wisdom. Together, we are building a knowledge base of what works and what doesn't and eventually, usage conventions for Twitter will form. Maybe more businesses will follow Comcast's lead. In the meantime, if you want to follow us on Twitter, you can here: New Thought Marketing on Twitter. We'll try to keep the conversation going!

What's Your Difference?

I drove by a dentist's office yesterday that had a sign which read "Dentistry with a Difference." I smiled to myself and applauded their effort to differentiate themselves. In marketing, we work hard to come up with a U.S.P. (Unique Selling Proposition) or positioning strategy for our clients. We ask, "what is the one simple thing people know you for?" or "what do you want to be known for?". We tell folks that if you don't define yourself, your competition will.

The challenge is to come up with a meaningful differentiator. I could bill my company as the only marketing firm in Atlanta run by a red-headed woman who's half-Iranian. That's a difference, to be sure, but probably not a meaningful one if you're looking to hire a marketer.

Which brings me back to the dentist. "Dentistry with a Difference" means nothing. How are they different? How does that benefit me, the potential patient? They could be different, as in weird. (And when I first told Terri about their sign, that was her first reaction.) Not to pick on them; I do admire that they are at least trying to market themselves. Still, imagine if they described their difference in a memorable way. Tell me what makes you the best. Tell me why your customers come back.

Just don't tell me that you're "different."

The New York Times and LinkedIn

So I was reading a business article in the New York Times the other day and noticed a column to the right that said "News for Marketing Professionals." My little marketing brain went "How'd they know what I do?" I'm registered with NYTimes.com, but I don't think they asked for my profession. So I clicked on the link that says "what's this?" and it turns out that they have partnered with Linked In to provide more relevant content to the user. I'm not sure how they figured out who I was on LinkedIn; I don't recall giving them that info, either, but it's possible I did.

Most people won't even think about the behind-the-scenes technology that makes this possible. Heck, most people won't even think it's unusual to have relevent content seamlessly woven into their online experience. But I think it's pretty cool. Incidentally, the New York Times does a lot of things right as far as online news goes. They do way more than just put up their print text. Lots of photo galleries, videos, and more that make it a much more interactive and informative experience.

The New York Times and LinkedIn

Best of the Web Viral Videos 2008 (Fun on a Friday)

Looking for some fun time-wasters? Look no further than this Washington Post roundup of the best web videos of 2008. Here's to 2009 and more YouTube fun.