January 2010
1 post
Improving the Social Media RFP →
The idea for this post came from Josh Hallett’s “Sorry We Work In Different Industries” blog post and was cross posted over on Shamable.com. Yesterday an agency posted their RFP criteria for companies looking to hire a social media firm. It’s self serving as all get up, but not a bad start. I’m sure the agency will undoubtedly not let anyone forget that they were the...
August 2009
1 post
Contest: Vote for my SXSW Panel →
I tweeted this earlier but if you go vote for my South by Southwest panel - and I make it - I’ll take you with me. No joke, I have set aside marketing budget and will pay your travel (hotel, flight)…
March 2009
1 post
What the Twitterfication of Facebook Means →
Facebook unveiled their new home page Wednesday and I have to say - it’s awfully Twitteresque. The center well, or “stream”, of content on the page is now an ajaxy, auto-updating time line of…
January 2009
2 posts
FTC takes on blogger compensation, among other... →
Brandweek has a heads up on some interesting developments going on at the FTC. As you know, the EU implemented some rules back in 2007 regarding fake bloggers and astroturfing, with fines and…
Twitter Social Media Experts Graph →
I’m not Hugh McLeod so I used Keynote to create this chart demonstrating where most people are regarding so-called ‘social media experts”. Enjoy. digg_url =...
December 2008
1 post
The Economy, Ethics, Blogs and Marketing →
There’s a hot debate over on Twitter this morning today regarding the K-Mart/IZEA/Blogger campaign and the ethics of bloggers taking money to write posts. Marc Meyer’s Direct Marketing…
October 2008
3 posts
Add another unethical company to the list: Magpie →
In the ongoing saga of “How Will Twitter Make Money?”, Read Write Web has a story that a company called Magpie offering to help you monetize your personal Twitter account. Last year we…
Loren Feldman on "Why you should blog" →
Loren Feldman from 1938media has a great talk posted over on his site from Blog08 where he tells the crowd to keep blogging (creating content). If you want to understand why Wired was wrong when…
MISSING 14 YEAR OLD - PLEASE HELP →
Friends, readers and passers-by. Geno Church, a friend and fellow WOMMA member, has a missing daughter. Makenzie, aka Kenzie, Church, has been missing since Saturday. She’s from upstate South…
July 2008
1 post
Product reviews in 160 characters or less →
Move over long form reviews, there’s a new player in town. Via TechCrunch, a new service launched this week called Blippr, which is a product review web site that limits reviews to 160…
June 2008
2 posts
Who cares if the community likes it, we went... →
The concept of viral videos has been played to death. I’ve made it very clear that unless it increases sales or drives action they are absolutely pointless. “But Dave, they break through the…
The New Breed of PR →
Last week I spoke at the Council of PR Firms “Internfest” on a panel about being a “Specialist” in a PR firm. The lovely Melinda Zurich followed up the presentation with a few questions, which I’ve…
May 2008
4 posts
Webkinz re-introducing banner ads →
Parents, lock up your (kids) privacy - Webkinz is reintroducing banner ads back into their site. If you recall back in December, the kids plush-toy-based-social network tried pushing banners for…
Slop
Boston started out hot tonight, then went cold. Now they’re fouling and scoring off of slop. Ugly.
Get Satisfaction - why Twitter is down right now →
Twitter officially sucks
Dude, this isn’t a high school project. It’s used by over a million people. Fix your shit. Thanks.
March 2008
2 posts
Alltop Haters Abound, But I Still Like It →
Guy Kawasaki recently launched a site called Alltop, an aggregator of the “Top sites” in various categories. For those unfamiliar with the site, think of it as Mahalo meets RSS feeds….
Sportscenter ad shows CGM isn't always the way to... →
In a departure from the regular “This is Sportcenter” ad format, the current spot for SC doesn’t feature a high profile athlete or famous mascot, but instead offers viewers the opportunity to vote on…
February 2008
4 posts
The immeasurable web →
The internet is quite possibly the greatest thing numbers folks could ask for — number of regular internet users within a country, segmented by demographic, state, income; what web sites they visit, how much they spend and how many conversations they’re having. Numbers everywhere. I want to preface this by saying that this is quote possibly the most pompous thing I’ve ever done...
CG-Dunk? NBA star Rudy Gay uses YouTube for dunk... →
Every year I look forward to the NBA All Star weekend Slam Dunk competition. It was dry for a few years, but an infusion of young players with hops have made the past few years pretty exciting. Remember last year when Orlando’s Dwight Howard slapped a sticker on the backboard? The unpredictability of the contest has taken on a life of its own this year. Memphis Grizzly Rudy Gay solicited...
Bloggio, a new service to spam top tier bloggers →
A new spam e-mail service has launched called Bloggio, promising to help connect “marketers” with “Top tier bloggers”. Don’t bother looking it up by going to the dot com — these mofo’s went all non-profit ‘n shit, bypassing the .com for the .org — so you know they’re legit. Hey, the site, which redirects you to blogg.io once you click on...
Firebrand: The (Online) Superbowl of... →
Tonight was the Superbowl, where the supposed best ads (Although Jason Calacanis’s “Salesgenie racist Superbowl ad post says otherwise) of the year were aired. While I thought this year’s crop was weak, with Tide To Go’s “talking stain” being the standout exception, it’s fun to watch the most creative, fun spots from years past. Enter Firebrand. It’s...
January 2008
5 posts
Top Digg Users: "It's really not about the... →
The NY Times has a great article on a battle raging over on Digg between the site operators and some “Power Users” on the site. Digg, for those unfamiliar, is a social news site. What does that mean? Basically, people find stuff from around the web, including news stories, blog posts, photos and video, submit it to Digg and the community deems whether or not it’s worth viewing....
How to Rick Roll Someone →
I’ve noticed a lot of traffic to my blog from a post I did on Rick Roll. In particular, people are looking for how to do it. So, without further adieu, here’s a quick 1, 2, 3 on “How to Rick Roll Someone.”
Pick your target. This should be someone not suspecting a peculiar link, email or heads up. Works great if you’re the guy/girl in the office known for sending...
John McCain's Campaign Resorting to Spam →
I noticed that a domain name I had purchased was expiring but I hadn’t received any notices from the registrar, so I logged in to my old Yahoo email account. Sure enough, I forgot to switch the account settings with my domain registrar and there were a few notices for my old band’s domain. Another batch of emails stood out as well. They were from GOP front runner John McCain, asking...
My first Facebook spam! →
Well, that didn’t take long. I was spammed twice today via my Facebook profile by someone named Andrea Rowe, saying that she likes my profile picture (flattery is my weak spot) and wanted to chat. She’s promoting a site through one of the TinyURL-esque sites and let me know that her username is “foxy_hotty”. Here’s her follow up message:
hi there David, how’s...
Ethics, Social Networks and Make up →
After watching Loren Feldman’s live show tonight, I’ve decided that I don’t want to bother discussing the Facebook/Robert Scoble incident. There’s nothing more to say than this - the site has terms of service and if you break them you can get your account deleted. Or in this case suspended and then reinstated. And Plaxo looks really really unethical and dishonest for asking...
December 2007
3 posts
Sears.com wants you to join the community! (Oh,... →
via Techdirt via Computer Associates, Sears is inviting you to “join the My SHC Community!” when you visit their site. What is My SHC? It stands for “Sears Holding Companies”, which includes Kmart.com. According to their site, it allows you to, with my comments in italics: Create the future of in-store, on-line, and service experiences that are right for you and your...
The AdAge Power150 Needs Serious Rethinking →
Ok, ok. You’re probably on the Top 150 list that AdAge started publishing a few months ago. It’s supposedly a “who’s who” of Communications bloggers based on a ranking system — a metric, if you will. And like any other metric you have to ask “What are we trying to measure?” and then “What is the purpose is of measuring?”. Let’s...
If Twitter went away, would anyone care? →
Disclaimer: This is no way an attempt to rip off of the great series John Moore runs over on BrandAutopsy — the title just seemed fitting. I have been using Twitter for some time now, increasing my usage to see if it changes how I’m consuming media and, more importantly, my opinion of it. I’m nearing my 500th update, and my opinion has yet to change. It’s still full of...
No, really -- THIS is the last take on Chris... →
At this point, everyone’s had their take on the Chris Anderson outing of 300+ PR folks. Here’s what I am declaring to be the last of the Wired meme. Jenn has the latest take, which for the most part I agree. Her conclusion is, essentially, that “we all have jobs” and “if you can’t handle your job, get out of the business”. I love how she brings it strong...
November 2007
4 posts
In a bitter twist of irony, PayPerPost laughably... →
Jason Calacanisposted earlier that Google has decided to drop PayPerPost “posties” bloggers page rankings down to zero. Explained via their site, a Page Ranking is:
PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page’s value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by...
Evolution and how it's killed my RSS reader →
Evolution. No, I’m not going to get all Kansas, err, pro-creationism on you here (Shout out to Amanda’s 9-0 Jayhawks, though) — I’m talking about the natural progression to a different stage… one that’s better, we’d all hope. I’ve been going through my Reader and dropping several blogs. It’s not because I’m negative and predicting the...
Congratulations 2007 WOMMIE Award Winners! →
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association announced the second WOMMIE Award winners the other day leading up to the 3rd Annual WOMMA Summit taking place in a few weeks in Las Vegas. What’s a WOMMIE? The WOMMIEs are given to “reward amazing word of mouth campaigns and the smart people who create them.” We were one of the inaugural 2006 winners, and it’s nice to see that there...
October 2007
4 posts
Gap fires outsourced vendor using child labor
CNN reports that the Gap has fired a vendor in India for using child labor to create sunglasses for its upcoming Holiday collection at Gap Kids (oh, the irony). Gap President Marka Hansen is “deeply disturbted”, “upset” and “angry” that this occurred. I believe it, however in a global economy corporations should be meticulous about the business they keep, even...
PayPerPost censors bloggers
Reading a recent thread by a mom blogger on the PayPerPost message board has revealed a shocking revelation: PayPerPost will not let it’s employees, or “Posties” as they’re called, write about anything they don’t purchase. Full disclosure: This was brought to my attention because a colleague worked on a recent campaign and was emailed by a blogger whose post was...
The last post of Blog Action Day
“Poorly coordinated” and “may not make a difference”. No, I’m not talking about my old band (which, subsequently got together for Pete’s wedding this past weekend - congrats Pete and Shannon!). :P I’m talking about Blog Action Day, which, for those interested, was today. Everyone is supposed to blog about the environment today and make a difference. Except...
More proof people hate marketers: Facebook traffic...
Via Whatsnext via GigaOm, it looks like opening up the platform to apps and spamming, err, advertising to people on their homepages wasn’t such a great idea. Traffic for the site, including unique visitors and time spent on the site, is down compared to last month. I mean, don’t get me wrong - I love pwning chumps with my Vampire and sharing my music taste via iLike, but I don’t...
September 2007
3 posts
10 Things I Learned from the AdAge Mobile...
On Thursday morning a few of us attended the Digital Bytes Breakfast at the Time-Life building in Manhattan, hosted by AdAge. There’s a good recap on the AdAge site, so I won’t post it verbatim, but for those of us with ADD there are some key points worth noting, in particularly the comparisons to the early issues with the growth of the internet: Mobile marketing has huge potential,...
Promoting small businesses with a blog
It was brought to my attention that the NY Times published an article a few weeks back about the benefits of small business blogging. They offer some great tips, so it’s definitely a worthwhile read. If you’re into the audio version you can listen to the podcast I did in April of 2006 on the same subject. (via David Binkowski.com)
More Ebay data stolen, but look - free listings!
A Romanian hacker has once again gotten through the dreaded Ebay security and posted 20 pages of members’ credit card information on an Ebay forum before the company realized what was going on and pulled the plug on the board. Not only did they post the actual credit card numbers, but also the 3 digit authorization codes as well. But hey, you can’t be perfect — so offer Free...