You can have the best technology in the world behind your online social community. But to keep users coming back -- and back again regularly -- engaging content is mandatory.

That's why we're proud to announce a partnership with one of the leading social network developers in the country, Neighborhood America. The company has created many popular Web 2.0 sites including HGTV's Rate My Space and FOX News' uReport.

Check out the release that went out on the wire today!

Labels: neighborhood america, social communities, social network content

If you're interested in an easy read on the value of white papers and a few tips on how to create good ones, then check out this short article I wrote for The NY Enterprise Report--a business magazine catering to small businesses.

BusinessWeek recently ran this story about the Orange County Register outsourcing some content duties to India. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Good content will be increasingly in demand. Consumers and businesses want and need it, yet many will insist on paying the absolute lowest price.

For now, the OC Register seems to be outsourcing mostly the “mechanical” copy functions, such as editing and proofing. Yet it may only be a short time before offshore firms figure out a way to deliver acceptable original content creation. In fact, we’ve had several clients explore this. While none have been fully satisfied, I suspect it is only a matter of time until an acceptable offering is developed.

The challenge for offshore companies when it comes to original content creation is not physical proximity. Good content can be created from anywhere; it is contextual proximity and having a shared mindset with the reader. That’s a whole different story--as anyone who has called a customer service desk staffed with offshore personnel can attest to.

Congress is debating the merits right now to raise the H1-B visa cap -- a move that would bring in more highly-skilled foreigners to take positions primarily in the tech industry.

Bill Gates and many other technology leaders have argued for years that the American high-tech workforce is not adequate to fulfill demand. However, one of my clients, Rudolf Melik, CEO of project management software firm Tenrox, blogs that that claim is overstated.

While some skill sets are hard to find here, he argues, the high demand for more visa workers is mostly about cheap labor. He gives some interesting fixes to the problem at:

http://www.talentontarget.com/

You should check out Brew Blog, a site run by Miller Brewing. What a great tool. Miller can now let beer enthusiasts, analysts and other interested parties in on company happenings before the PR machine sanitizes the news and releases it to the general public, right?

Wrong.

The site (http://www.brewblog.com/) instead focuses on nemesis Anheuser-Busch. That's right -- Budweiser and Boddington's, not Miller Lite.

I think it's too early to tell whether the site will stay successful. But the blog is compelling to say the least.

In a decades-old battle between the two brewing giants, No. 2 Miller has taken the unusual step in taking industry news by the horns by leading conversations on the Internet instead of following it.

In fact, writing the blog is a former Advertising Age reporter who was hired by Miller to run the site as if he still were a beat reporter. The blogger, reports The Wall Street Journal on April 24 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120829767153417401.html?mod=hpp_us_inside_today) "tracks the St. Louis company's every move, from earnings reports to management changes." He even broke a global story that the No. 1 rival was introducing Budweiser American Ale, a lime and salt flavored concoction, before any other media outlet -- including the WSJ and Ad Age.

Conventional marketing says that giving your competitor anything other than negative publicity is bad. But here are some reasons why the blog borders on brilliance:

• It gives Miller the first shot at spinning industry news before competitors, analysts, the media or the public.
• It engages customers and potential customers more than traditional PR-heavy blogs would.
• It fosters trust with consumers -- the site, after all, is well advertised who the sponsor is.
• It's a good attempt to circumvent the news media.
• It attracts media attention.
• It's a good source of real intel.
• It personifies Miller, making the company look more inviting and less like a stodgy corporation.
• Most importantly, it likely gets the goad of Anheuser-Busch when the company gears up to market new products, launch ad campaigns or even hire new execs.
  

Until I see otherwise, Brew Blog's strategy is stout. It's exciting to see a large corporation think outside the box and take some chances.

Labels: adversarial blogs, beer, brew blog, public relations

The Associated Press has a feature today about one downtown Atlanta bar owner who was so fed up with the massive vagrancy problem near his business that he built a robot to patrol the streets at night.

Called the “Bum Bot,” the cube-shaped sentry – equipped with an infrared video camera, spot light and water cannon – barks orders at people when they trespass. Apparently Bum Bot is effective. One man, the AP reporter observed, scattered when ordered to vacate.

(http://www.abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=4707217).

Bum Bot has enraged homeless advocates. Homeless debate aside, what a marketing tool. The story was posted all over the Internet. And I, for one, will check out the bar – O'Terrill's – the next time I’m downtown. I’m sure others will too.

Clearly, Bum Bot is more marketing than law enforcement. The opportunities are endless: Press coverage. Live Web cams. Even T-shirts. This thing could go viral.

By now, you may have heard of Burger King’s Subservient Chicken. The site (www.subservientchicken.com) has a man dressed up in a chicken suit performing whatever command you type. Type “watch TV” and he watches TV. Type “do cartwheel” and he does a cartwheel. Just don’t tell him to eat a Big Mac.

The site has been a wild success. Says consumer trends analyst Tamar Kasriel in The Economic Times:

“In a hyper-competitive marketplace, the buzz around a brand can be a key differentiator. And yes, consumers are buying into — and more literally, just buying — the buzz brands generate. Today consumers expect brands to deliver new experiences. ‘The Excitement Consumer’ is a reality. Consumers today are addicted to newness. Today, Burger King makes video games using the brand’s characters, and people are willing to pay.”

However, you may also have heard about Sony’s failed experiment with viral marketing. In 2006, a marketing company working for Sony created a website titled "All I want for Xmas is a PSP", designed to promote the Play Station Portable. The site contained a blog written by a “teenager.” However, visitors quickly discovered it was written by the marketing company. Users posted angry messages on the site and exposed the issue on YouTube. Sony was forced to admit the site's origin and later took it down. In an interview with next-gen.biz, Sony admitted the idea was “poorly executed.”

At least give Sony kudos for trying.

So, what makes a viral campaign a good one? One of the top ingredients is unexpectedness. Certainly you would not expect to see a robot outside your favorite pub or a man in a chicken suit online doing whatever you tell him to do. Some of the worst ingredients are too much advertising and not being upfront about the relationship between the endorser and seller. Sony's campaign had both of these.

I’m curious as to your thoughts. What makes viral campaigns such as Burger King's successful? And what makes them fail? Have you ever contemplated incorporating a viral campaign into your marketing strategy? Or, are they more trouble than they’re worth?

Labels: viral marketing

Read a great book over the weekend: Made to Stick.

I am not reading as many business books as fast as I used to, but this one was truly worthwhile for me. In a sense it is a bit of a follow on to Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. But while Gladwell's book was more focused on widespread social factors, this book is a bit more prescreptive in how to practically create messages that stick. A must read for those in advertising and marketing.