As a content strategist, I get this question all the time. My response is always to say that the best way to market your business is to utilize as many channels as possible to reach every corner of your target demographic -- and this should not exclude print.

However, there are areas where print is on the decline and areas of print usage that we can't ignore. Whether online advertising, print lead-gen or even news print, the landscape for 'PRINT' is evolving quickly.

So to help you with your 'print' situation, I have gathered some interesting and timely articles for your use.

Print is Dead? Not so Fast! By Forbes [Article concentration on online advertising] by Forbes

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2012/06/28/print-is-dead-not-so-fast/
  

Print is Dead! Long Live Print? [Article concentration on News, Print, Books] by TechCrunch

• http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/25/print-is-dead-long-live-print/
  

Is Print Dead? No...but mobile is the future [Article concentration on digital publishing, digital advertising] by InformationWeek

• http://www.informationweek.com/byte/personal-tech/digital-content/is-print-dead-no-but-mobile-is-the-futur/240000490
  

Poll: Is print Dead? [Article concentration on Magazines, Books and Large Print Publications] By Hype Beast

• http://hypebeast.com/2012/06/polls-is-print-dead/
  

The Case is to Keep Print in Your Marketing Mix [Article concentration on print and brand – 10 steps for using print] by Folio Magazine

• http://www.foliomag.com/2009/case-keep-print-your-marketing-mix
  

Best!

Denice MacDonald

For more learning, connect with Denice on Google+.

Earned Media is basically free media. Earned Media specifically refers to publicity gained through editorial influence and has become the backbone of many social media initiatives and social content development strategies.

With so much user generated content these days, it would behoove an organization not to take advantage of the magnitude of earned media – integrating an earned media strategy during content conception into execution.

Definition

To get the definitions out of the way, those in the marketing and agency world are privy to the buzzwords “paid,” “earned” and owned.” Traditionally, they stand for the different types of media and can be easily broken down like this:

• Paid: Buying a 30-second Super Bowl spot
• Earned: Coverage on Mashable (aka user word of mouth)
• Owned: Your company’s website

The business case for Earned Media

Don’t forget all content — whether it’s text, a video or a microsite — will be “reduced to a link” for social spheres making Earned Media an easy thing to do. There were 500 billion word-of-mouth impressions made by Americans online according to Forrester. Such volumes of word-of-mouth marketing can spread awareness of a product incredibly quickly, and it’s why earned media has become so important to a marketing campaign.

Understanding its usage

Let’s run through a scenario. Earned Media, for example, is what you get when you develop a connection with someone that’s compelled to write a Yahoo review, a blog post, a comment or a tweet, sharing their thoughts on your brand with their social network. It sounds simple but it does take forethought.

Specifically, you will need to develop a strategy at content conception and then filter everything through its earned potential. That is, did I get the right audience, is the content compelling to share (good or bad) and do we make it easy to ‘syndicate’ the efforts (share tools, icons, other channels and formats) and, most importantly, does it integrate nicely as a natural springboard from traditional paid or owned media?

More on Earned Media:

For Social Media Marketing, Earned Media Rules -- MediaPost

How Social Media is Changing Paid, Earned and Owned Media -- Mashable

Defining Earned, Owned And Paid Media – Forrester Blogs

Best

Denice MacDonald

Ok…this one is just for fun. I couldn’t help but look at this website BigSpot.com as an opportunity to see if you are indeed rewarded for taking online surveys for various consumer products and services.

Let’s face it, with online review communities like Yelp!, do you oftentimes wonder if the reviews are actually customers or the company posting their own reviews to minimize the bad reviews? I know I do.

So, by participating with a website like BigSpot.com, you can provide direct input on product and services AND get paid (rewards or monetarily). Specifically, the website indicates that ..."the information you provide helps us match you with survey companies that fit your profile. After joining, you’ll see a personalized list of companies that want to reward you for taking surveys. The more free survey companies you join, the more you can earn!”

So if you are interested and are a big fan of ‘rewards’ – this is definitely for you.

More About BigSpot.com

Started in 2008, BigSpot.com provides user with free access to online consumer panels managed by some of the world’s widely recognized Market Research firms. Using BigSpot.com, users are introduced to new online consumer panels where they can provide their opinions and have the opportunity to earn cash and win prizes. BigSpot.com continuously seeks out to make new online consumer panels available to our users. This provides our users with a wide range of panel options, thus a wide range of products and services to provide opinions to. This also increases the opportunities for our users to earn extra cash to put into their pockets each month.

BigSpot.com is centered on integrity and maintaining an open and honest relationship with our users. BigSpot.com only endorses and makes available verified online panels which are managed by legitimate and industry certified market research organizations. This protects our consumers from fraudulent organizations and practices, and ensures that their opinions are gathered and analyzed to add value to the development of our everyday use products and services.

Enjoy!

Denice MacDonald

In a season in which the NFL has set new ratings records, the Super Bowl could break the biggest record of all.

With the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers clinching their berths Sunday, there’s feverish anticipation that the game could topple the record set by the 106.5 million who turned out for last year’s championship between Indianapolis and New Orleans. That game on CBS topped the 1983 finale of “MASH,” also on CBS, as TV’s most-watched program of all time.

With that being said, thirty-second spots for Super Bowl XLV are going for $2.8-$3 million and there definitely is a Superbowl Comeback when it comes to top advertising giants.

Here's a draft listing of what ad airs when from http://www.superbowl-ads.com/:

Pregame
Go Daddy – “Danica Patrick, Jillian Michaels”
Groupon
Paramount Pictures “Kung Fu Panda 2″
Pizza Hut
Sony Pictures
Ford
E*Trade Baby will “talk” with Fox Sports

1st Quarter
Audi – “Goodnight”
Pizza Hut
:60 Kia

2nd Quarter
:30 CarMax
:30 Teleflora – “Faith Hill”

Half-Time Show
Black Eyed Peas Headline Entertainment
Sponsored by Bridgestone

3rd Quarter
:30 BestBuy
:30 Careerbuilder
:30 CarMax
:30 Cars.com
:30 HomeAway
E*Trade

4th Quarter
:30 Cars.com
:60 Mercedes Benz
Skechers – “Kim Kardashian”

Postgame
E*Trade

Schedule Unknown
(5) :30 and :60 Anheuser Busch’s brands Bud Light, Budweiser, and Stella Artois
(2) :30 Bridgestone
:30 Brisk
(2) Coca-Cola
Disney
(3) :30 Doritos
(2) :30 Go Daddy
(3) Hyundai
Mars
Paramount Pictures
(3) :30 PepsiMax
Relativity Media “Limitless”
Universal Pictures
Volkswagen

Click here to get more preview information.

To see the top 10 ads of all time - go here - includes commentary and video for each one!

Enjoy!

Best,

Denice MacDonald

I have several hundred true blog followers to my website and they have been thirsty for knowledge on social media, search engine optimization and anything metrics – 30,000 page views to be exact.  

Therefore, I feel it necessary to provide the following links that represent the most clicked, viewed and downloaded blogs from my website for 2010 – just in case anyone needs these resources again. 

Top 2010 Blogs (ranked in order by page views) 

Staying Nimble: Social Media 2010 - According to several leading experts, social media has been the number one priority in 2010. Social media will be used by organizations to lift their brand, stay connected to customers while using networks to grow their lead-gen pipelines. To learn how your organization can capitalize on what others are doing, check out these ‘top’ resources, articles and blogs from leading subject matter experts.  

Don’t Miss This One: Connecting Social Media and Email - I find it interesting that most organizations don’t realize that e-mail marketing is the original ‘backbone’ of social interaction and should always be part of the social mix.  Simply adding some ‘integrated’ content will aid in elevating your brand – not to mention ROI for your social campaigns. 

Get it here: Search Engine Optimization Blogs - Great post by Hubspot on a few dozen SEO blogs everyone should read or minimally have in your arsenal.

Social Media Resources You Can’t Live Without - Whether it’s starting a social media campaign, integrating social media into your advertising or simply setting up a Facebook fan page, it is always wise to seek out experts who have proven experience (and metrics) to help guide you in your social media initiatives. 

Social Analytics: The Next Frontier - Let’s face it folks, social analytics is a new frontier – not anything like the analytics and metrics tracking we’ve used for advertising, direct mail or other one-way channel marketing.

Get It Right The First Time: Web Metrics - Many organizations are obsessed with volume – measuring their web metrics strategy by how many web pages that were viewed or by how many people that have visited. In many cases, this type of information is meaningless as it is not directly linked to a web plan or strategy.  

Writing for Social Media - If you want consistent social media success, you have to understand what social media users crave. For social media content, that means understanding the type of content social media users want.

Your Entire Organization Benefits From Web Analytics - You finally launched a much-anticipated Web 2.0+ web site and you can’t wait to hunker down and review your analytics. How do you gauge if your analytics for your site are appropriate, measurable and definable? And most importantly, who in your organization would benefit?    

As we move forward in 2011, it will be fun to watch the exploding world of social media and how it will affect all channels in the marketing mix.  

Happy New Year to all my blog fans and a hearty welcome to all new visitors. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

My favorite web resource, Website Magazine, has just posted the top 20 books for web pro’s for 2011. With a mix of social media, SEO and metrics, the list is quite rich with resources for everyone -- including programmers and web designers. 

A special thank you to Website Magazine for this list and all the other knowledge they share throughout the year! 

Website Magazine's list of 2010's Top 20 Tomes for Web Pro's

Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics (2nd Edition) - Brian Clifton
Search Engine Optimization: Your Visual Blueprint for Effective Internet Marketing - Kristopher B. Jones
Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy IS Your Business Strategy - Vanessa Fox
Ultimate Guide to Pay-Per-Click Advertising - Rich Stokes
The Zen of Social Media Marketing - Shama Kabani
The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies for Business Success - Lon Safko
Advanced Google AdWords - Brad Geddes
Conversion Optimization: The Art and Science of Converting Prospects to Customers - Khalid Saleh
Content Rules - Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman, David Meerman Scott
Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know - Mark Jeffery
Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media - Liana Evans
Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements - Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, Spike Jones
The Web Designer's Idea Book, Vol. 2: -  Patrick McNeil
White Space is Not Your Enemy - Kim Golombisky and Rebecca Hagen
Professional Web Design: Techniques and Templates - Clint Eccher
Dreamweaver CS5: The Missing Manual - David Sawyer McFarland
Simple and Usable Web, Mobile, and Interaction Design (Voices That Matter) - Giles Colborne
Undercover User Experience Design (Voices That Matter) - Cennyd Bowles and James Box
Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content (Voices That Matter) - Colleen Jones
Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are - Cindy Krum 

Of course, do remember that the best way to improve your chances of success (this holiday season and beyond) is to request a PRO-level subscription to Website Magazine.  

For a limited time, they're offering a 25% discount on subscriptions (that's 60% off the newsstand price).

Learn more about Website Magazine's Holiday Promotion here.

Best to you this holiday season!
Denice MacDonald

Website Magazine does an excellent job of providing content from a number of diverse strategists. Of particular interest is a recent post by Christopher Petix, President of Clash-Media on The World of Digital Marketing in 2010.  

The past couple of years have been all about squeezing as much Return on Investment as possible from every marketing effort.

As a result, advertisers and marketers have a new set of parameters and broad goals for establishing a campaign. The good news for these groups is that there are a number of tools and techniques available to help them achieve these goals.¹

The following are just some of the key points from this important and relevant post:

Social Media – social media will need to be part of the marketing mix from day-one. 

Measurement is key – advertisers must evolve the metrics they use to monitor campaigns.

Partnership structures – advertisers will need to work in tandem with digital marketers that execute their campaigns.

Use niche websites – smaller websites with targeted or specialized information can give a far more intense exposure than typical large heavy traffic websites with generic content.

Read the full post ...

In conclusion:

The year ahead will be one where advertising and marketing begin to pick up some serious steam. However, free-spending days are over.

This means that advertisers need to find new ways to show how well they are performing, and publishers need to prove to advertisers that they can identify new customers, engage with them and deliver ROI.¹

Best

Denice MacDonald

¹Sources: Christopher Petix, President of Clash-Media

The application of social video - often referred to as using the strategy of video as the central piece for social interaction and storytelling online - is beginning to grow rapidly.  

Take for example Samsung's HD Camera Phone Trick. That YouTube clip was created and produced for Samsung Mobile by London's Viral Factory. Its traffic and engagement patterns were tracked and analyzed by Visible Measures – with unprecedented results.  

The social video piece was specifically designed for social interaction – prompting the consumer to take the challenge and solve the puzzle. The formula was a simple one (you’ll need to view to see why). To be perfectly honest – I was drawn in and wanted to take the challenge!       

What does this engaging video tell us? 

1. Modern brand building with social video is a necessary part of the marketing mix
2. Due to its authenticity, engagement with video is beginning to rank higher and more desirable in comparison to TV viewing or radio broadcast
3. Bottom-line, people like to watch video, share it and get involved with it making it a natural word of mouth strategy

Obviously, everyone who uses social video as part of their marketing mix is curious about direct measurement – meaning, does it really work and feed the bottom-line?

As social video become more active, click thru activity as well as viewing and registration are good indicators of brand lift, interaction and sharing offering much better results than highly charged broadcast metrics. Based on the Samsung example – how could argue with its success?  

BTW – there’s a follow-on video that reveals the puzzle. Here’s the answer. 

Best

Denice MacDonald

If you are looking for the technology to put your video on the web, the variety of choices can be staggering. That’s because as web video has flourished, so have the number of companies providing the tools to deliver video across the Internet.

Large media companies and individual video bloggers can now choose from among multiple firms when looking for a web video product. Many of the technology providers are quite similar and anyone in the market for a web video platform should 'test the waters' and try out the ones that seem like the best fit.  

Web video technology services can be divided into the following categories:

CONTENT MANAGEMENT: The process of ingesting content, moving it around, converting to different files and organizing video properly before it goes online.

PROGRAMMING AND PUBLISHING: The presentation of the video on the web site, including the player and the playlists.

DISTRIBUTION: Delivering the video across the web, to either the main site or to distribution channels and portals.

MONETIZATION: Making money off the video, by integrating advertising or offering video on a download or pay-per-view basis.

REPORTING: Providing analysis and reports on number of views, length of views and other similar data. 

Check out these vendors and resources: 

Dragonfly (world-class multi-media content delivery network)

Kickapps (great for online communities or any type of 'sharing' portal)

Maven (online video advertising)

Magnify (good for both b2c and b2b)

UPDATED: Video for Mobile, Twitter and YouTube: 

Check out the recent craze for using video in social media campaigns posted October 1st by Adveristing Age: How to Mobilize Your Social Media.

Best

Denice MacDonald

Wow, this is amazing. For the second year in a row, global news and business publication The Economist took the #1 spot on Adweek’s Top 10 list of consumer magazines with standout track records of advertising revenue and page performance.  

What’s fascinating about The Economist, an authoritative weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news and opinion, is how they’ve married their offline print with their online presence.

Offering both print and digital subscriptions, The Economist has nurtured their audience with audio and video, research tools, classifieds and jobs as well as world-wide content. 

Moreover, the organization uses ‘four free trial issues’ to bait print subscribers. If you don’t want to take the plunge into print subscriptions, the web site offers newsletters and topic alerts (RSS or e-mail).

For business professionals, the web site offers a unique knowledge center called “Economist Intelligence Unit” (EIU Online) that offers instant access to a collection of intelligence on 203 countries, eight industries and a range of management topics.

I would strongly recommend that you bookmark or subscribe to the free alerts or take advantage of the four free issues.

This is an amazing print resource and a substantiated business case for a well-developed web advertising presence.

Best

Denice MacDonald

Each year before the Super Bowl, hype builds around the multimillion-dollar U.S. television commercials set to air during the broadcast. 

However, this year, a slumping economy has dampened the excitement resulting in sponsors rethinking their strategies: Is the ad appropriate and does the spot have the right tone to resonate with viewers?

Although the Super Bowl is considered a big entertainment event for viewers regardless of the economic climate, viewers will see that advertisers will take a gentler, more lighthearted approach¹ relative to content and message.

Get’m here:  Pre-released ads and previews have been collected on the Just for Laughs web site and reveal inspired moments from eTrade and CareerBuilder, along with a Top 15 list of all-time funniest Super Bowl ads.

Vote now:  Also, stay connected and vote for your favorite ad at SpotBowl.com – America’s largest Super Bowl Advertising Poll. 

Past Super Bowl Ads:

• Top 10 Super Bowl Ads of All Time as reported by MSNBC
• Top 25 Super Bowl Ads of All Time as reported by Spike TV

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .    

Sources

¹Advertisers Change Game Plans for Super Bowl as reported by NY Times

Best

Denice MacDonald