What Can You Do About the Reputation of the Ad Industry?

Send to Kindle

April 29, 2007

Stanley Bing has a pretty comprehensive list of 50 Bulls**t Jobs. These are a subset of his larger work - a book (what every aspiring A-list blogger needs) called 100 Bullshit Jobs...And How to Get Them.

I knew I should have been ready for the worst when #1 started off with Advertising Executive:

$$: Ground-level workers with writing ability move quickly to the top, immediately snagging low to mid-six figures; those who can spin mythological concepts surrounding quotidian household objects can command up to seven figures.

The upside: Great expense account living, see your handiwork everywhere, the wonderful feeling of being creative and corporate at the same time.

The downside: Must take meetings with the AFLAC duck.

The dark side: You're considered a dinosaur at forty.

I already knew the profession doesn't command a lot of respect; Bing's assessment crisply underscored it. But then we got to #25: Executive Vice President, New Media and I knew the jig was up. As Bing puts it:

The upside: As long as the bubble is full, you're golden. And there's never any need to prove yourself with real results, because people don't want that, they want simply to feel that there's somebody thinking about all of it, and that's you.

The downside: Hard to see if there is one. Whatever it might be, if you're a really good bullshitter, and I know you are, it will take ten years to discover it.

The dark side: Your entrepreneurial friends in this area, who have the courage to push the envelope on the outside of corporate life, are now multitrillionaires. You are slogging along on less than a million a year.

Uh-oh. These two categories represent my current job and the job I'm looking for. To be in the company of Crumber, Feng Shui Consultant and Boulevardier is a little scary.

All kidding aside, Friday's Wall Street Journal ran a column by Daniel Akst titled False Advertising, with the honest admission of a subtitle, "Pop culture has rarely been kind to the heroic ad man." Akst took up the subject matter after reading Joshua Ferris' novel Then We Came to the End, an account of a fictional Chicago advertising agency in the post dot-com boom.

But the Ferris novel is only the most recent example of the lumps that the advertising profession takes; this grand tradition dates back 60 years to the book The Hucksters and countless movies and television shows that inarticulately, inaccurately and inanely portray advertising executives. And it wouldn't be a commentary about fictional admen if the Executive Doofus himself, Darrin Stevens, didn't get a mention. What was he exactly, a creative or an account guy?

"Message for you, sir."

It's so easy to use the advertising executive as a scapegoat. Advertising appeals to our emotions. "Damn those manipulative admen! They made us feel the emotions that would make us buy more stuff!" Forget about free will or self-control. It's easier to blame someone else.

Case in point: the Boston Globe ran a story last Wednesday that claimed advertising is taking the blame for pediatric obesity. I had two major problems with this article:

Even if kids are being barraged with commercials, who makes the purchase decisions for a 10 year-old? In any responsible household, it's the parents. And if there are parents shirking their responsibilities, I'd wager that they'd rather blame an industry for their own lack of parenting skills.
The Globe's sources are clearly outdated. The psychologist they interviewed was quoted as saying that she sings an advertising jingle. "And then I see if they can complete it. If I say, 'You deserve a break today,' they will say, 'McDonald's.' That's as familiar to them as anything else in their lives."
The problem with that? McDonald's currently uses "I'm lovin' it" and has since 2003; "You deserve a break today" debuted in 1971 and hasn't been used since 1980. Furthermore, McDonald's has been one of the leaders in trying to give kids - and adults - healthy alternatives on its menu.

The point is that advertising has a poor reputation (shock!). Based on Mr. Bing's list, it would seem that new media is going the same way. But with transparency as a hallmark of new/social media, it would seem the perfect opportunity to marketers to redeem themselves. After all, here are some positive developments made possible by new media:

Responding to customer feedback
Talking with customers and not at them
Incorporating suggestions into product design
Making lives easier through widgets, networks and communities

The ball is in our court. We have the power to change public opinion by giving them more of what they need rather than more of what we think they need. If anything, we need to treat them with more respect.

But in the meantime, let's hope the public doesn't shoot the messenger.

Labels: Advertising, books, Marketing, New Media, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:47 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Friday Fun Video

Send to Kindle

Share

April 27, 2007

I feel a little musical today. And although I tend to shy away from political topics on this blog, I can't resist highlighting a video that has been making the rounds in the last 24 hours.

On Wednesday, President Bush did his part to help malaria awareness - but, according to the Jimmy Kimmel Show, his effort wound up being captured with this headline: Bush Confirms His Whiteness.

Labels: Friday Fun, news, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 1:20 AM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Book Me, Danno

Send to Kindle

Share

April 24, 2007

Earlier this month, I mentioned an eBook project with which I am associated. The Age of Conversation is the brainchild of Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton and I'm happy to say that it has really gained some steam. Articles are due to the editors by April 30, and the book is due to be published in early May. Look for more details here.

In the meantime, here's the roster of authors who originally committed to the project:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington

Think that's impressive? Now take a look at the rest of the crew:

Cam Beck
David Reich
Mindblob (Luc)
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Bob Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Mitch Joel
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Krishna De
Kris Hoet
Kofl Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Pollinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman

Labels: age of conversation, blogs, books, New Media, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:36 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Friday Video

Send to Kindle

Share

April 19, 2007

There is no doubt that this week in higher education and throughout the country, there was collective shock, sorrow and bewilderment over the horrific events that unfolded at Virginia Tech. You'll note that I've removed the "fun" from the "Friday Fun Video" title.

Throughout everything that has happened this week, we've been able to see the student body coming together to mourn and start the healing process, and we've been allowed a glimpse into the event by the now famous cellphone footage that captured the sounds of gunfire. In addition, Facebook - not email, not phone - served as a major hub of communication for the students and witness who were expressing their emotions and describing the shootings.

Yes, the mainstream media is doing its usual job of wringing out as much information as possible from the story, disseminating it to the general public. But for those who were connected via Twitter or Facebook or some other social network that Virginia Tech students were using, it was real-time, first-person reporting that enabled so much of the details to be shared immediately.

If anything positive has come out of this week, it has to be Professor Nikki Giovanni's rousing speech at the convocation the day after the shootings, titled "We ARE Virginia Tech." This week's Friday ~~Fun~~ Video is dedicated to the memory those who were so callously taken from us this week.

Labels: social media, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:15 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

How One Big Media Entity 'Gets It'

Send to Kindle

Share

April 18, 2007

It looks like things are starting to come around - big media is joining the modern movement and starting to embrace social media as part of their overall communications strategy, not just as a perfunctory move.

For example, USA Today has a Twitter page and has seen a readership jump of 380% since doing a social network makeover. On my local 10 o'clock news and news radio station, I hear them mention their blogs and encourage online feedback from listeners.

But the big media social network that has my attention right now is none other than...

...NBC. Yes, that's right. The peacock network. The network that once boasted "Must See TV." The network that is now #4 in the ratings war and has 22% less revenue than last year to show for it. In addition to some new shows, their social network strategy is one way that they're hoping to gain some loyal viewers.

They are currently previewing the NBC.com Social Networking site and are calling for fans to get involved. "What exactly does NBC feature in the way of a social network?" I hear you asking. Here are a few examples:

Message Boards
Yes, it's very 1997 of you, NBC, but it's a basic component of any TV network's infrastructure. Get the fans to your site and let them chat about whatever excites them about your shows and sponsors. Only this time, monitor the hell out of it and figure out how to respond.

Video & Photo Galleries
The idea is simple: keep 'em here rather than give up the content to YouTube. Just make sure you enable sharing features and embedded video, so your fans can put the content on their blogs to share with friends, if they wish. Don't keep them tied to your home-grown social network. If you do, you'll lose them altogether.

Blogs
Here's where someone got creative. You've got the expected blogs: Jay's Garage by Jay Leno and Late Night Insider by Conan O'Brien. But then you get blogs from some of the popular characters on top shows, such as Dwight Schrute's blog - Schrute-Space (The Office); the Banker's Blog (Deal or No Deal), which takes the faceless, voiceless powermonger and gives us some insights to what makes him tick.

Other features to be rolled out include a personal profile, buddies, groups and widgets. I'll be interested to see how NBC brings this to life, wraps it into the shows, and engages with their fans. It probably helps that they have an Executive Vice President for Digital Entertainment and New Media, Vivi Zigler. It shows that NBC is willing to invest in the latest method of communicating with customers.

But will it result in higher revenue? If NBC can justify the traffic to advertisers, that might be a way to stem some of the lost revenue. And if they're able to effectively integrate advertising efforts into their widgets, they may have a new network advertising revenue model that they can help to pioneer and define.

And just to bring this back to a B2B focus for a moment, that last phrase - pioneer and define - seems to be what's holding so many B2B companies back as they sit on the sidelines and contemplate their corporate navels. They're waiting for proof that social media works in their space, that other companies are doing it and succeeding.

This may or may not be the right strategy. It probably depends on the organization. But they do risk a couple of things: at worst, being left behind and at best, being an also-ran. The point with new media is to get out there and experiment. Joseph Jaffe makes a geat point (#10 in his list to Bud.TV):

Above all...experiment experiment experiment and be prepared to make mistakes. Your reported $30-40 million investment will be well worth it if you learn from your mistakes and innovate intensely.

This is no time for timidity. It's time to get out there and see what sticks.

Labels: big media, blogs, brand, New Media, social media, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:11 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

On Corporate Blogging

Send to Kindle

Share

April 17, 2007

A recent article on BrandWeek.com highlights the challenges and successes in corporate blogging. There are a number of notable corporate blogs mentioned, David Neeleman's JetBlue Flightlog (which had a bit of a hiccup after their canceled flights), to McDonald's focus on corporate social responsibility on Open for Discussion, to the infectious Southwest Airlines' Nuts About Southwest, to Bill Marriott's ambitious and very personal approach on Marriott On the Move.

The bottom line: each one of these blogs serves a purpose, reflects positively on the brand it represents, and aligns with a larger corporate communications strategy. Blogging itself is not a strategy.

An observation from the article: larger companies are less likely to have CEOs blogging; these are typically run by PR and product management types. I can't say this is surprising - what Fortune 500 CEO has time to blog full-time? Nor is it a negative thing. As long as good content is being provided (and by "good" I mean something that is considered valuable by readers), it doesn't matter who writes it.

People want to know what goes on inside their favorite companies; they want to know what employees - from the CEO to the administrative assistants - think about the company they work for.

Why this need for near-voyeuristic information? Because to some customers, everything a company does reflects on its brand. Think this just applies to your most loyal customers? Think again. Look at what's happening to Wal-Mart because of the way they choose to handle healthcare.

We all know the buzzwords that are echoing in the marketing space right now: authenticity, transparency, responsiveness. All of these should be addressed as part of a marketing strategy, and a good corporate blog is one way to start.

Labels: blogs, brand, CEO, corporate blogging, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:55 AM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Leading the Social Media Stampede

Send to Kindle

Share

April 15, 2007

I recently wrote about Titleist and their customizable golf balls as a type of user-generated content (alright, it's not like making a YouTube video). Now that I think about it, there's nothing stopping anyone from filming what they do with golf balls....

In my post, I mentioned Moo as a company that knows how to give customers a range of options and to customize to their hearts' content. The story continues today, with firsthand experience of how much Moo really understands the social media space.

For those of you who don't know Moo, they create mini business cards that you can customize with your own images. Here's where it gets interesting. Sold in packs of 100, you can get 100 different images, a single image across all cards, or any assortment in between. When you hand cards out to friends & colleagues, you can encourage them to "collect all 100!"

I've listed Moo on my sidebar as a recommended tool/service since they launched. I've done so because I've used their services many times and because I've been impressed with their product and especially their customer service. Many businesses, whether in the social media space or not, can learn from them.

They get it
It's encouraging when a company aligns itself with other social networking sites. In Moo's case, you can see it's committed to the space because it allows you to import images from Flickr, Bebo, Fotolog, Second Life and Habbo.

And to demonstrate that they understand the power of social media, they've gone one step further: they've integrated a feed/crawler onto their home page called "MOO in the Wild: What you say about us." There you'll see excerpts from blogs around the world that mention Moo. I found out accidentally after I started seeing a jump in traffic following my Titleist post.

Ease of use
It's standard fare - drag & drop, zoom & crop. Import or upload your photos, input your text, place your order. That's it.

Exceptional customer service
Receive an order of cards that isn't quite right? Smudged ink, blurred image, bent cards - it doesn't matter. Moo takes them back and makes right. They gave me a credit for my initial order and allowed me to place my order again, free of charge.

I would definitely recommend Moo to anyone who asks. The cards are unique in size and feel and they're just cool. Not to mention Moo is at the heart of the social media movement. I can Moo. Can you?

Labels: innovation, Moo, New Media, social media, tools

Posted by Scott Monty at 11:21 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Knowledge is Power

Send to Kindle

Share

April 13, 2007

Not long before my great-grandmother died some 10 years ago at the age of 100, she and I were cataloging the vast amount of technological change she witnessed in her lifetime. From the first flight to two world wars fueled by heavy industry, to the Space Age and laptop computers, her lifetime spanned probably the broadest technological change we're likely to see.

Changes that we'll see over the course of our lifetime will likely be limited to knowledge- and information-based changes, but they'll be just as mind boggling. This video, called Did You Know, more than any other I've seen, truly captures what a remarkable age this is.

Thanks to Greg Verdino for the video lead.

Labels: Friday Fun, innovation, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:44 AM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

There Are Riches in Niches

Send to Kindle

Share

April 11, 2007

The launch of Stripe Generator - admittedly a one-off with limited appeal - caused Seth Godin to raise a point:

Not a lot of room to make stuff that everyone thinks is great. I think you're a lot better off delighting and amazing the niches.

There's a lot of truth there. When I was recently mulling over two podcasting ideas, I shared my ideas with a new media colleague. Here's roughly how the conversation went:

Me: So I've got a couple of podcast ideas in development. One is for a social media podcast; the other is a literary podcast.

Him: Doing one podcast is a huge commitment; two would be even greater. Let me ask you this: is anyone else doing a literary podcast in the space?

Me: No.

Him: Then make that your focus. There are tons of podcasts about podcasting, blogging and new marketing. But is anyone else doing a podcast about this literary character?

Me: No.

Him: Then you should own it. Be the first. Be the best. You can stand out.

He's absolutely right. If you want to brand yourself, if you want to be remarkable, you need to give people a solution that they need, no matter what the size of the audience. If you're doing what's already been done and you have no unique angle, you aren't going to have many evangelists who will be loyal to you. Plus - if you actually enjoy what you're doing and you're really good at it, you'll be rewarded.

Go out there and build the next Stripe Generator.

Labels: brand, Marketing, New Media, Podcasting

Posted by Scott Monty at 7:03 AM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

What Do YOU Have to Say?

Send to Kindle

Share

April 10, 2007

Andy Warhol once famously intoned, "In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Based on the activity in the blogosphere and podosphere today, that number seems ludicrously low, as there are some individuals making names for themselves on a daily basis.

If I had to write it over, I'd say "In the future, everyone will be famous as long as they provide quality content." That is, as long as they have something meaningful to say. Well, the time has arrived. If you have something meaningful to say, here's your opportunity to make an impact.

Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton have developed a truly remarkable idea: a collectively penned eBook - 100 authors, 100 pages all about The Conversation Age. The book will be dedicated to a colleague who recently lost her mother; the proceeds from the publication will support Variety the Children's Charity.

I am proud to be part of the contributors to this very worthwhile cause. The good news is there's still room for others. Please email Drew (by clicking on the image above) by April 11 to reserve your spot.

Here are the contributors to date:

What do you have to say? Quick, join the conversation!

Labels: blogs, Marketing, New Media, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 2:51 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Quick Thought on Being Different

Send to Kindle

Share

April 9, 2007

Most people who know me appreciate that I'm a little different. My iTunes playlist probably has more Weird Al than anyone is entitled to; I am a member of the Baker Street Irregulars, the literary society devoted to the study of Sherlock Holmes; I was trained classically on the accordion.

More than you ever wanted to know, I'm sure. But people remember these things about me and they remember me because I'm different. And different is remarkable.

Christopher Morley, the founder of the Baker Street Irregulars and founder/editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, was a remarkable man and ahead of his time. Aside from founding the Three Hours For Lunch Club (the concept of which I love), he also understood the need to be different. We can all relate to his words:

Read, every day, something no one else is reading.
Think, every day, something no one else is thinking.
Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do.
It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

Go out there and be different!

This post was inspired by John Moore's observation of Chili's woes.

Labels: fun, innovation, Risk

Posted by Scott Monty at 6:09 AM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

On a Mote of Dust

Send to Kindle

Share

April 6, 2007

Whereas last week's Friday Fun Video was a playful one, this week I give you something a little more thought-provoking. Today being Good Friday, I thought it's worth stopping for a moment and considering life on the Pale Blue Dot, as Carl Sagan called our home planet.

Marketing, advertising and public relations move so quickly these days, client demands are ever-growing, the public wants more stuff cheaper, and the Web is filled with vast arrays of data, messaging and crap.

But when we take some time to reflect on our place on the planet and in the universe - how insignificant we really are - it helps to put our life in perspective. So take three minutes out of your day and watch this short masterpiece - and it is just that - by Carl Sagan, who manages to bring it all home. (If you can't see the video in your RSS reader, click here.)

It's healthy to slow down and reflect on the big picture from time to time. It makes you realize how little certain things actually matter.

Labels: Friday Fun, Video

Posted by Scott Monty at 12:01 AM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Have You Updated Your Pitch Lately?

Send to Kindle

Share

April 4, 2007

When you look at the social media space and the way that agencies are choosing to get in the game (or not!), it's clear that PR is way ahead of their brethren in advertising. There's no surprise there: advertising is more of a design-based practice, while PR is more about content and communicating directly with those who can help tell your story. Social media and PR are made for each other.

But social media doesn't come naturally to everyone. Bloggers are (sometimes) being lumped in with journalists as simply another mouthpiece. Bloggers are a different breed and they need to be thought of differently. Bloggers can be influencers who have committed audiences - and this is the important part - who trust the bloggers and believe what they read on blogs. But in some cases, agencies don't understand the nuances between pitching a journalist and pitching a blogger.

Chip Griffin at CustomScoop has written a white paper called The 7 Deadly Sins of Pitching Bloggers (pdf). You should look at the file for the full scoop, but the main takeaways are:

Failing to be transparent - Wal-Mart learned this the hard way
Appearing to bribe - Microsoft and their laptops-for-bloggers campaign comes to mind here
Lacking your own blog - blogging is as blogging does. You need to connect with the people in their world
Making a bad pitch - personalize your pitch, understand the space, don't overpromote
Being scripted - be natural and conversational in your approach
Forgetting everything is "on the record"
Making claims that can be easily disproved - especially in this digital era, where every tidbit of information is available on the Web.

The bottom line is: it's all about common sense: be authentic, know your audience, engage them they way they prefer to be engaged.

Labels: blogs, PR, rules, tools

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:20 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

What Would David Ogilvy Twitter?

Send to Kindle

Share

April 3, 2007

This is highly irregular - picking up on your own meme. Just Friday, I issued a challenge: a Twittermeme. "What Would ___ Twitter?"

Well, my post below about David Ogilvy and what he might make of the social media space prompted one of my meme-meisters to ask what would David Ogilvy Twitter? I'm not one to back away from an intellectual challenge, so here we go:

What Would David Ogilvy Twitter?

L: Madison Avenue
At noon on Twitter, the quietest thing is...Twitter
@Scobleizer is that an eye patch you're wearing?
New app for everything: TwitteResearch
Giving a Twitter Magic Lantern presentation to WPP board
Gotta run. The Man from Schweppes is here.
@SirMartinSorrell you odious little sh*t
L: Castle in France
New book being released: Confessions of a Twittering Man
Can someone help me make the background color of my Twitter page red?

Labels: Advertising, fun, Twitter

Posted by Scott Monty at 10:48 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Try It, You'll Like It

Send to Kindle

Share

What would David Ogilvy do? That's the question I've been asking myself, and I think I've got the answer.

First, a little background. One of the social media colleagues I've had a chance to meet over the last couple of weeks was Greg Verdino. His recent blog post mentions his attendance at Virtual Worlds 2007 conference, in which he noted how few marketers and agency executives were present. So profound was it that David Armano made it his Thought of the Day.

Far from surprising Greg (or me), it reinforced what we both discussed when we met: the majority of marketers are trying to figure out ways t harness the field of new marketing strategies (blogging / podcasting / Second Life / social network) without the benefit of actually using the technologies. When did this - giving advice on something you don't understand - become the hallmark of a successful marketer?

Think about it for a minute: would an agency exec work on a television commercial without ever having seen one? Would any good creative director design a print ad without looking through a magazine to see what the surrounding material is like? Not on your life. Yet they throw the social media terms around as if they just represent another channel.

If you've ever read the seminal book Ogilvy on Advertising, you'll know that David Ogilvy made two very important points in the book - points that defined his career:

Research is crucial. Understand the client, understand their customer and what motivates them. This was so important that he named himself Research Director at his agency.
Live the brand. It didn't matter if the client was Rolls Royce, Schweppes or Sears, Ogilvy always bought his clients' products and experienced them just as any customer would, which made him much more effective when he wrote about them.

So, if David Ogilvy were to counsel a client on the social media space today, would he have a blog? A MySpace profile? Would he listen to podcasts? You bet your life he would.

While social media is considered as just another facet to an integrated marketing program (and rightfully so), it's a more complex than most agency execs and marketers think. This is a conversation medium, one that requires understanding and finessing. You wouldn't show up at a sophisticated cocktail party dressed poorly and proceed to interrupt a conversation, grab a handful of hors d'oeuvres and smash your face down in the punch bowl, would you?

Well that's the equivalent of a marketer inexperienced in the field of new marketing / social media showing up to Second Life, starting a blog, etc. without having taken the time to participate in and understand the space.

Labels: Advertising, blogs, David Armano, Marketing, New Media, Podcasting, Second Life, social media

Posted by Scott Monty at 8:50 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

Right Up There with the Whoopee Cushion

Send to Kindle

Share

April 2, 2007

While yesterday was officially April Fool's Day (and thank you for humoring me), I just came across this suggestion from John Chow's blo g. Essentially, he intoned that if you want big subscription numbers, you need a big button.

I guess the part of me that enjoys April Fool's Day so is probably located on the same gene that controls my affinity for dribble glasses, joy buzzers and spinning bowties. Which is why I think that this visual ranks right up there with the old jumbo sunglasses.

I give you: the World's Biggest RSS Button:

Aside from the sheer lunacy of this button, its presence raises an important point about your blog. Do you have a prominent RSS button? My preference is for a 32 x 32 px icon, but 16 x 16 is good too. And it should always be above the fold.

While you're at it, you should give your readers a choice: email, RSS or both? Despite we bloggers living and breathing RSS, the statistics show that RSS hasn't hit the mainstream yet. So, give your audience the option of receiving updates to your blog in RSS format or through an email service like FeedBlitz.

Lastly, here's one point that many bloggers miss. While they provide the guideposts for subscribing - feed icon, email submission - many times they forget one small detail. The ask. Sometimes, if people aren't invited to the party, they won't show up.

So, I ask you: won't you consider subscribing to my blog?

Labels: blogs, fun, rss, strategy

Posted by Scott Monty at 3:54 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |

It Figures

Send to Kindle

Share

April 1, 2007

Fate, why must you taunt me so? Just when I'm starting to enjoy something, it gets yanked away...

I'm referring to David Armano's announcement that he's written his last post for Logic + Emotion. That's it. He's hanging up his keyboard. Kaput. Done. Finis. Over and out. Says "there are a number of reasons" for it, but he won't get into it. C'mon, Dave! You owe us at least that!

This comes as quite a shock, since I've been corresponding with him frequently on Twitter, made reading his blog a daily to-do, and just found his work to be inspiring on many levels. I'm not sucking up - here are three posts in which I used Dave's illustrations over the last year, to show you this is genuine fandom:

This news comes on the heels of Dave announcing that he just hit the 1-year mark; others who have also recently celebrated this milestone include: Gavin Heaton Servant of Chaos, Mack Collier of Viral Garden, and MarketingProfs Daily Fix. Let's hope they don't do the same.

Oh, if you really want the background, check this out.

Labels: blogs, fun, news

Posted by Scott Monty at 3:36 PM

Comments |

LINKS TO THIS POST |