Musings of a Marketing Maven

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Entries from April 30th, 2009

Fun with Social Media

April 30th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Creativity, Social Media for Business

I’m supposed to be writing a book review on social media for PR professionals, but I stumbled on Wordle and couldn’t resist putting my notes into visual form first. (Yes, I confess this is creative procrastination.)
Here are ideas sparked by the handwritten notes I took while reading Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How [...]

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A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

April 30th, 2009 · No Comments · Creativity, Tools & Technology

Thanks to Wordle, here’s a visualization of my blog postings:

What a fun way to mark the end of a work day!  

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Windows Vista SP2 & Bootcamp

April 29th, 2009 · 4 Comments · Tools & Technology

I just read on ZDNet that Microsoft has released Windows Vista SP2 (official RTM candidate). People are speculating that it will be available to end users via Automatic Update in early May, if not sooner. Techies are already finding ways to download it.
The question is, how long before Apple updates its Bootcamp drivers so those [...]

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User Retention Problems at Twitter?

April 29th, 2009 · No Comments · Social Media for Business

Nielsen Online announced today that their research shows that 60% of Twitter users stop using it the following month. That is, Twitter’s “audience retention rate” is 40%, considerably less than Facebook or MySpace’s rates were at similar stages in their life cycle.
Based on historical patterns for other social networking sites, this implies, says Nielsen, that [...]

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Business Purpose – Brand Context

April 27th, 2009 · No Comments · Brand Matters, Marketing

Last month I blogged on the purpose of a business and the problems that can arise when organizations lack a clear sense of purpose, or when they define success narrowly in financial (shareholder-centric) terms. Today’s post focuses on business purpose and its links to corporate brand strategy.
In the context of brand strategy, purpose energizes the [...]

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Spam Management in Twitter Needed

April 27th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Social Media for Business

After just a week’s experience with Twitter, I can see a real need for a spam filtering mechanism (like Akismet for WordPress). The ratio of spam to good tweets is already bad, and getting worse everyday — and that’s after just a brief experience with the service.
If not addressed soon, this could be the Achilles’ [...]

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Celebrating Earth Day

April 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · Back to Basics, Yoga

For 10 years we have been lucky enough to be stewards of a small but beloved property that includes a tidal marsh on Cape Cod, adjacent to 100 acres of conservation land (a mix of second growth forest and tidal wetlands rich in birdlife). It’s a place of the heart.

Looking closely, you can see a [...]

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Social Media Goes Mainstream

April 20th, 2009 · 3 Comments · Marketing, Social Media for Business

You know that fads have become mainstream when everybody is doing it. Or when it starts to be required as a part of people’s jobs. Or when everybody is talking about it.
This weekend I encountered two instances of the “mainstreaming” of social media for B2B business purposes.
Thou Shalt Blog or Twitter
One of my friends told [...]

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Is Now the Time for E-Books?

April 20th, 2009 · No Comments · Bookshelf, Tools & Technology

Today’s Wall Street Journal featured an in-depth article about the potential disruptive impact of digital books and e-book devices. (The author touched on implications for new pricing schemes and business models for the publishing industry, but that’s not the subject of this post.) The question is, should book lovers like me switch over to e-book [...]

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Twitter: Too Much of a Good Thing?

April 14th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Social Media for Business

Has Twitter reached its peak of success, and is it heading now for the trough of discontent? Has it been over-hyped? I find myself wondering.
Possible signs of trouble:

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