Read more about : (matching categories Word of Mouth Magic ) Posted by Bolaji Oyejide,June 26th, 2009
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SquareSpace, a web site publishing company, has launched a brash new promotion.
And it is paying off HUGE dividends!
Since the promotion started on June 8th, their twitter follower number has completely EXPLODED!
Read more about : (matching categories Word of Mouth Magic ) Posted byBolaji Oyejide,March 28th, 2009
“Tiffany’s sells the box, not the jewelry. Are you selling the Tiffany’s box (scarce), or the Tiffany’s jewelry (common)?
You have to decide if you want to sell the story and emotions, or the features and logic.”
– Seth Godin
The point here is this. Whatever widgets you make… there are a thousand other businesses that can duplicate them.
That can make them a little better.
Or less good. But cheaper.
Competing on features is a hamster wheel. You’ll forever be running from your shadow. Trying to outdo leapfrog the competition that just leapfrogged you.
Not that you shouldn’t have good features. Tiffany jewelry is top-notch, of course.
But once you have the right feature set to meet your customers’ needs… focus on the story. Better yet - determine what the story should be BEFORE YOU BUILD THE PRODUCT.
As we make our way through these uncharted recession waters, the temptation will be to compete on price. To provide more service, work more hours, give more and more features.
Don’t.
Go back to the essence of why you are serving this particular customer.
CommentLuv is a wordpress blog plug-in, that inserts the latest blog post of the commenter, as part of their comment.
Why is this a big deal?
Because you not only get a link back to your blog (most blog platforms let you link back to yourself).. but you get an in-context link back to your blog post. Which exponentially increases the likelihood of people reading that blog entry, to visit your own blog post. Give a comment, get lots of targeted traffic in return.
But let’s step back for a minute.
How do you hug a blogger? And why would you want to?
The Blue Sweater is the inspiring personal memoir of a woman who has spent her life on a quest to understand global poverty and to find powerful new ways of tackling it.
From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Jacqueline Novogratz brings us a series of insightful stories and unforgettable characters.
From women dancing in a Nairobi slum, to unwed mothers starting a bakery, to courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, to entrepreneurs building services for the poor against impossible odds.
She shows, in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking, how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called “patient capital” can help make people self-sufficient and change millions of lives.
More than just an auto-biography or a how-to guide to tackling poverty, this book challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world.
I plan to review Jacqueline’s book, as poverty eradication is of huge interest to me.
Questions and Actions:
What’s the latest idea worth spreading that you’ve come across?
Who’s opinion matters more - close friends, twitter friends, bloggers, or Oprah?
Read more about : (matching categories Word of Mouth Magic ) Posted byBolaji Oyejide,January 30th, 2009
Perfection isn’t newsworthy.
Because you’ve hidden all the details that make you interesting.
That’s why we like our heroes valiant. Yet flawed.
We often fall into the trap of “perfection thinking”.
And because we can’t attain that perfection right now, because we don’t have the right formula, or the right ingredients, or the right players, to be perfect…
We don’t even try. We procrastinate.
Jay Leno said: “You win half the battle just by showing up and standing in line.”
The other half, you win by caring more, and persevering more, than everyone remaining in line.
You don’t have to be the biggest,
brightest,
or best.
You just have to have the determination,
the sticking power,
the drive.
To win.
To be the best in the world at what you do. Even it takes forever.
High price to pay, just to earn word of mouth, isn’t it?
High price to pay, just to be called remarkable.
The higher price though.
The one most of us pay every day.
These guys have a wicked sense of humor, and have turned it, against all odds, into a thriving business!
Particularly during a recession, and layoffs taking place every day… people need something to laugh at. People’s faith in the security and fulfillment available from corporate jobs has been rocked. And when this happens, an anti-tribe is ripe for leading.
Just like Dilbert, Despair.com looks for the underdog, the discounted, the disgruntled. And gives them a voice.
Everywhere you look, there are people flying under the radar, people who don’t fit into the status quo.
Give them a voice. And they will wear you like a badge of honor.
What anti-tribe are you (proudly) a member of?
Free Prize Inside:
Click on the poster thumbnails below, to see a larger image.
Share with others.
Enjoy their demotivation.
Read more about : (matching categories Word of Mouth Magic ) Posted byBolaji Oyejide,December 30th, 2008
While there are several articles on the top viral videos of 2008 (see list below), very few of them had to do with marketing.
A montage of videos from VideoGum.com.
The problem with viral videos, is that they are often like lipstick on a pig.
They are added after the fact,
are dripping with short term LOL benefits, and memorable humor,
but do little to reinforce the brand’s message.
In fact, they’re becoming quite similar to TV commercials - where you remember the joke, but don’t remember which company paid for the ad.
Seth Godin asks what viral marketing is, and in so doing distinguishes between viral, and marketing. You can have one without the other. When you have both, like HOTMAIL did, it is magic.
Something being viral is not, in an of itself, viral marketing. Who cares that 32,000,000 people saw your stupid video? It didn’t market you or your business in a tangible, useful way. — Seth
So as we make our way down the path for 2009, bear this in mind.
Enjoy the humorous YouTube videos. But instead of trying to think up an ad hoc viral video to introduce your latest thing to the world - focus on building a remarkable product. With features that enable contagious and spontaneous spreading from person to person.
Be the common cold. Simple, but effective.
(Example: We got my parents-in-law a webcam for Christmas. And installed Skype for them. Then, we did the same for my 3 nieces. And we’ll likely do the same for my parents. The more of us are on skype+webcam, the more fun it is for all.)
It may be less obvious how to get this same effect with a product that isn’t explicitly about communication.
And it may be even less obvious, as a marketer, how to convince your company’s engineers to bring you in on the product definition phase.
Olivia Hayes at Ignite Social Media gets it right. Her list of top 5 viral marketing campaigns of 2008 focuses not just on popularity, but also effectiveness in tying back to the brand.
Bolaji Oyejide,April 1st, 2009
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