08/29/2006
Giving speeches (I really like to think of it as sharing knowledge and passion) is a great way to keep up to date on a topic. I'm putting together a presentation for the Brookhaven Rotary Club on social media/blogs and reading lots of corporate blogs. Part of the focus of this talk is to show how major corporations are using the medium as a business/marketing strategy.
Today I checked out Dell's new blog - Direct2Dell. August 24th's post, Rampant Speculation on the XPS 700, appears to be a wonderful example of how to use blogs as a customer service strategy. Would seem that Dell is providing additional information to help clarify a situation where customers are posting incorrect information on boards and in major tech publications.
Several of you have been asking specifically about the NVIDIA 590 chipset and the XPS 700. Other recent forums entries like Tom’s Hardware and CNET contain some misinformation that needs to be cleared up. ....
Terrific! Here's what to do if people get it wrong and how blogs can be used to tell your side of the story. With 50 comments, as of 8/29/06, this post seems to hit home for more than a few people.
Delving into the comments however is a slightly different story. Seems most customers are really frustrated with Dell. But wait, Dell is trying to right a wrong. Right? Some people were appreciative that Dell provided more information and is working to correct the situation. However, the majority were plain pissed off.
But wait .. Dell responds .. or rather in bloggy fashion, the Dell person who authors the blog, Lionel Menchaca, Digital Media Manager responds.
All, First off: wanted to apologize to David M. and any others who feel like this post does not reflect compassion to our XPS 700 customers. My intent was to address these issues as clearly as possible.
I understand many of you have been seeking answers to these questions for a long time, and agree that it's unacceptable. We'll continue to issue updates via this blog and the Dell Community Forum as soon as humanly possible. (Not an excuse but please know there are many moving parts to coordinate.) I understand there are many more technical, order and shipment questions we have left to answer, will do my best to diligently address them. However, more than anything, I know that many of you have waited a long time for this product. More updates coming soon.
I want to personally thank every XPS 700 customer. I appreciate your passion for this product.
For the most part, the comments posted after Lionel's response were more questions with a few intense rants. These are serious people. Dell Customers whose business lives were disrupted.
I'm not a CPU tech. I am trusting you Dell. You have said it is upgradable. When im ready to purchase an upgrade is Dell going to have it? Because if anyone knows this machine it would be Dell. Or are you expecting us to use other companies? Can you PLEASE answer this???
Lionel responded back on 8/28.
I’m reading comments and e-mails to me, and several of you have said that the speculation is a result of us not communicating as fast as we should have—I agree. We'll continue to use the Dell Forum and our blog to communicate details as quickly as we can. Sometimes we made mistakes... one example: at launch, we inadvertently offered more configuration options for graphics and multimedia than our PCI slots could support. We've since corrected the webstore. I realize we should have been more timely with updates, and we're focused on improving on that front. To that end, I'll post an update on the NVIDIA 7950 issue soon. Thanks to everyone for their continued patience.
Toss of a pink boa to Dell
for keeping comments open. However, splash of a dirty martini in its face for not having an integrated customer response strategy.
Lessons Learned: Even a blog that allows customers to let steam off and voice their opinions is NOT sufficient when customers feel there was a break-down in communications and breach of trust. Lionel's response is customer service 101. Acknowledge the customer's feelings. Take responsibility for your actions. Tell what you are going to do. However, this situation called for more. It demanded direct answers to direct questions .. either on-blog or off-blog.
Question: When customers are allowed and encouraged to voice their opinons on a corporate blog, and that corporation does not respond to their specific questions, does that do more harm than good to the brand?
Take Away .. and so what am I going to take to the Brookhaven Rotary? Blogs enable converstions to occur with customers and other stakeholders that might not have been possible any other way. Social media is an important business strategy. People can talk to you on your own blog or talk about you on other forums.
However, once that door has been opened, there is an obligation to nuture and care for those relationships that go beyond an online discussion. Customer service, branding, pricing, product development, sales must walk the talk of your social media conversations. That said, social media is one aspect of an integrated marketing plan.
Wonder what Mary Clare Hunt ,author of In Women We Trust, would have to say?
08/28/2006
There are lots of people who know how to market for dollars. One of the smartest guys I've had the pleasure meeting is The Divo of Direct Marketing .. Bob Bly.
Recently I posted, on Diva Marketing, about a thread that was occurring on Business Blog Consulting regarding monetizing blogs. Bob Bly dropped a comment which resulted in the following email volley. With his permission here's our off-blog conversation.
Bob Bly: My trouble with Toby's comment is that, while visits and comments are nice, unless your marketing is ultimately making the cash register ring, it is under-performing -- and blogs frequently under-perform.
Toby/Diva Marketing: Sounds like a conversation (on DMNews) we had back in 2004. Some times a less direct route can make the cash register ring - although granted not as quickly as an "as the crow flies" path. However, often the bells keep ringing more often and louder.
Sidebar: In the stone ages of social media, 2004, Bob challenged business bloggers to show him the money when it came to using blogs as a marketing strategy. "Show me ONE direct marketer generating significant profits and positive ROI from a blog and I will change my position. So far, zero evidence ... unlike e-mail and e-zines, where my clients document millions of dollars in sales."
Soon after Bob launched his blog - which sure seems pretty successful in terms of "blog success" e.g., comments and trackbacks. But is it succeeding in Bob Bly terms?
Toby/Diva Marketing: Any tips for how to bring "under performing blogs" up a notch? Do you
think ads on blogs help or harm the ultimate goal of a company ..
to sell products/services?
Bob Bly: My ideas are in my forthcoming book Blog, Schmog -- I will send an advance copy when ready.
What are bets that there won't be a coupon for Blog Kool-Aid in Blog, Schmog?
08/25/2006
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's
virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the
weekend 'playground' time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just
plain silly.
Today's Friday Fun is the Second Stop On A Virtual Book Tour With Mary Clare Hunt author of In Women We Trust
When my dear friend Yvonne DiVita, of Lip-sticking blog fame and WMEBooks, asked if I would like to review a new business book that one of her authors had recently published, my first reaction was, of course Yvonne - anything for you. After I hit send my second reaction was .. yuk a boring biz book to read when all I want to do on a hot summer afternoon is veg with a dirty martini (triple olives!) and a silly chick lit book.
Mary Clare Hunt has written an insightful book that is subtitled - A cultural shift to the softer side of business. While In Women We Trust is not a sassy summer read, it is a smart look at how women are changing the culture of the workplace, as well as, impacting how business and marketing are being conducted.
This week I had the distinct honor to interview Mary about her thoughts on how women are competing in business, changing the business landscape and about the grumblings of guys who feel left out of this new game. Mary even gives a famous quote from the Godfather a Godmother spin.
Toby: In Women We Trust, the title of your new book, to me, is an in-your-face reminder that other than the lame Susan B Anthony coin there are no women represented as a part of any US currency design. Can you tell us how you chose the title and its significance for you?
Mary: It didn’t start with the money connection, it came after I did an informal survey of my gal pals. I asked, “If you replaced the professionals in your life, (CPAs, doctors, etc.), who would you go with, men or women?” Only a few said men, all the rest said “women.”
But it was the reasons they gave that were the most telling. They weren’t doing it to support women, or because they didn’t trust men, it was because they trusted women more. In marketing terms, that would be considered a competitive edge, which of course brings us back to money...
Toby: One of the interesting elements of In Women We Trust is your exploration into and conclusions about the impact that "the culture of women" has on consumer behavior and the business environment. " .. that's why women are choosing their own culture first, before selecting a product with a heavy service component." (p32)
You also discuss what we might call the "new women-to-women competition." "For the majority of them, the choice is between professional women." (p7). Taking the "culture of women" into consideration, do you think that women compete differently than men and how do you see it influencing business practices?
Mary: Yes. I see it now when I’m inside an all women’s group as women try to out-network each other. Some do it by meeting everyone they can during a meeting; others will focus on a few and give away useful bits of information.
I receive many “Nice to meet you” emails or written cards after a meeting. In that light, I see business practices becoming more civilized and social. In some countries it would be considered very bad manners to talk business without first breaking a little bread and getting to know one another. I think the same will become true when it comes to working with women as consumers. Most women want to feel like they are more than just another sale to someone.
Toby: You pose several thought provoking questions in your book. In an early chapter you ask, "What are the women able to get from female-based groups that they can't get in the mixed gender group?" Recently I wrote a post on Diva Marketing about the layout of a print ad for Advertising Age's Women To Watch awards program and received the following comment:
Now I feel as if men are discriminated against. There you have "women networks" but nothing for men. :-)
I think that if men would create such groups women might feel discriminated. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the "women groups, religious groups, etc" that help their own, but there is bias present when we talk about men's communities.
Do you feel that with the focus on marketing to women and the attention regarding women in business that men will try to grab back the piece of the pie that women have fought so hard to gain? How would you respond to this commenter?
Mary: Of course they will want it back. Who likes to be ignored? We didn’t like it when it happened to us for, well, centuries, and now neither do they. Go figure.
Unfortunately, the market is shifting to follow its majority buyer. Men can grab all they like but unless their group as a whole takes over the lead consumer position, then the path is set and business will follow it.
Honoring women that are making a difference or drawing attention to women’s groups or highlighting their blogs isn’t happening because business wants to be socially correct, it’s happening because that is where the dollars live. It’s not discrimination at work, its capitalism.
Fear not, there are plenty of other pies besides consumerism that men do dominate still. This one is just the most visual.
Dear Discriminated Man… yes, you are right there is a bias, but give it about 10 years and it will settle out. Everyone is just a bit freaked out over what to do in a really open society. Women don’t want to take over the world, just have their say in it.
Toby: One of the great quotes in the book is - ".. advertising can buy awareness but it can't buy trust." (p159) What is your favorite strategy that an organization used to gain a women's trust regarding a specific brand .. and why is it a tops on your list?
Mary: Trust isn’t a strategy; it’s a way of being. Tops on my mental list is Best Buy - not the one you see now, but the one that it’s becoming. I interviewed Julie Gilbert, at Best Buy for my blog this week.
Two years ago, she started an internal networking group for women employees called the Women’s Leadership Forum. Her philosophy is, to be a great place to shop, first Best Buy has to be a great place to work. Anyway…after I posted the interview, I sent out an email to friends and asked, “After reading this, would you buy or sell Best Buy stock”?
About 10 responded. All said that they would either buy stock, or wanted to work there. One complained about Best Buy’s service, but in the same sentence said that she would still “buy.” That says it all, doesn’t it? For her, just knowing that women are playing a bigger role at Best Buy was enough to trust that the stock was a safe pick. It wasn’t a marketing strategy when Julie introduced internal networking, but it may become one for other retailers to copy. Trust starts at the core.
Toby: I agree with you your concept of going back to the "good old days when people did business face to face." Social media offers us the opportunity to create what I call corner grocery store relationships.'
One of the most quoted (and misquoted) lines in the Godfather is from Michael Corleone - "It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business." If you were to recast and produce Francis Ford Coppola's famous film, and call it "Godmother", what would Michele Corleone say about business?
Mary:
“Keep it personal, Sonny or you’ll lose your business – I only protect those I like.”
Toby: Love it and a wonderful ending to a great summer biz interview! Thank you Mary. Mary Clare Hunt tells her personal story about being a 21st century cultural anthropologiston on Blogger Stories.
Next Stop On A Virtual Book Tour With Mary Clare Hunt In Women We Trust is Monday 8/28 with Kirsten Osolind at re:invention inc. Followed on 8/30 at Marketing Roadmaps with Susan Getgood. Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends talks to Mary on 9/5, then Mary goes to visit Elizabeth Albrycht date TDB.
business astrology for fun -
from The Astro Divas Paula Dare & Donna Page
If you have any projects that are tedious or detailed oriented, Mercury
enters Virgo so now is a good time to tackle them. The mind is sharp,
analytical and practical.
Then take a step back from the facts and allow the Jupiter trine Neptune-8/29/06-energy to jumpstart your creative juices to add the finishing touch. If sales are down, try a fresh new
approach. The breakthrough you’ve been waiting for maybe around the corner.
In case you're away from your computer during the Labor Day weekend, the Astro Divas have kindly given us their advice for the week of August 31!
Then Fri. 8/31/06 rolls around and you run into Saturn opposes Neptune. After all the work you’ve done, you may now feel confused and doubt whether your creation will hold water. Not to worry. Wait until the confusion disappears before you make any major decision.
Technorati Tags: Marketing,, Marketing_to_Women,, Business,, Social_Media,, Mary_Hunt,, In_Woman_We-Trust
08/24/2006
Great discussion going on Business Blog Consulting about monetizing blogs. By the way, if you have not found Rick Bruner's, fondly called BBC blog, it's worth a click or two. Rick has pulled together some of the blogosphere's most respected biz bloggers (idea from Paul Chaney) to form a multiple author blog. Focus is on how blogs are a great corporate marketing tool.
Bloggy disclosure: I drop a post on BBC every once in awhile.
A 10 sec recap .. making money from your blog thread at BBC.
Jim Turner, One By One Media, discusses a post by Tom Hespos about the direct marketing model of adversing. - What companies need to focus on in their campaigns are the “engagement” of their potential customer’s attention.
In another post by Jim, Blog Advertising: The New Black, he taps into the Divo of Blogads, Henry Copeland and discusses why ads on blogs are becoming the hot new strategy for big brands like Ford. - The best blog advertising goes beyond trying to sell stuff to blog readers, focusing more broadly on swaying this uniquely hyperlinked and influential swarm.
Rich Brooks, flyte: web marketing for small biz, focuses on Business 2.0's article that highlights how a group of bloggers, joining together, can target a niche audience. - While this makes for a good cover story, it doesn’t help those of us who are blogging for our business, as opposed to making blogging our only business.
Dave Taylor, The Intuitive Life Business Blog, gives us his take on Why AdSense doesn't suck for Bloggers. Bottom-line Dave believes so strongly that AdSense does work that he's offered this challenge. - So here’s the gauntlet I’ll throw down: let’s pick a blog or two that are part of the AdSense program and publicly redesign it to be more AdSense friendly. I will bet a copy of my book Growing Your Business with Google to each of the blog owners that we can measurably and significantly increase their ad revenue by simply following the basic ideas presented here.
Toby Bloomberg (moi!), Diva Marketing, provides a behind the scene peek at a conversation that went on “off-blog”, on the BBC contributing bloggers’ Yahoo list about monetizing blogs. <Yes, I know I misspelled monetizing.> I asked, "What kind of revenue return can one expect from a blog that gets an average of 12k unique visitors a day and whose readers are engaged to the extent that some posts pull over 600 comments?"
Another way to monetize blogs...don't want to sell ads on your blog but you love to blog? Once upon a time, my bloggy pal Paul Chaney had a silly idea that bloggers might actually turn "pro" and earn money as blog copywriters. Blog copywriting is becoming has become a new occupation. Received an email from Darren Rowse, ProBlogger, who recently launched a Pro Blogger Job Board. What a difference a year or so makes!
Update: Interested in hiring a blogger or entering the pro blogger world? Tris Hussey's post How Do You Recruit A Blogger For Your Business is a must read.
Technorati Tags: Business_Blog_Consulting,, , ProBlogger,, Blogging_Business,, Monetizing_Blogs,, Blogads,, AdSense,, Blog_Advertising,,
08/23/2006
B
logger Stories
is a special blog that I launched to tell the stories of how people have
been touched by blogs, podcasts, vlogs and other online interactions. Building a library of stories gives us an opportunity to understand how lives have been influenced by social
media .. from the heart.
"Bedtime stories site for bloggers, where blogging dreams and posts may change the world."Thank you - A Bugged Life
From the Philippines to sea from shining seas in the United States and on to Canada these new chapters of Blogger Stories bring to life how people are finding the courage to follow their dreams because of the opportunites that social media offers.
Nettie Hartsock - Allbusiness ProfessionalPR blog, Business Books Blog
Jayvee Fernandez - A Bugged Life
Mary Hunt - In Women We Trust
Rico Mossesgeld - Fool for Five
Deborah Carraro - My Partner Advantage, From Aunt Annie's Kitchen To Yours, Monday Nite Raw, Biz Building Blocks
Dave Dolak - Brand and Marketing Blog by David Dolak
The next time you're on a boring conference call ..
don't doodle. Read a Blogger Story!
Want to tell your Blogger Story? Drop me an email at bloggerstories at yahoo dot com.
Technorati Tags: Blogger_Stories,, Business,, Blogs,, Social_Media
08/22/2006
Last week Ad Age held its 10th annual awards luncheon to honor women in marketing, advertising and media. A very nice gesture .. no matter what some dudes may think about focusing on gender when it comes to strategic marketing. Women to Watch recognizes women for the significant roles they've played in defining the future of their industries. Bravo to Ad Age .. this is year #10.
Sidebar: Slightly off post .. but Susan Getgood has an excellent post about gender and blogs.
Of course as one of the leading media companies in the advertising industry, Ad Age promoted the event with a lovely full page ad.
Batter Up Girlfriend! Glued in the binding was a 'sample' ad for motion graphics. The action baseball player swinging his bat appeared to be part of the lovely full page ad - aligned with the lovely pink words Accomplished * Innovative. Quickly flipping thru the publication I thought .. how odd .. what does a baseball player have to do with business women's awards?
I'm wondering if the sponsors of the awards and Motion Printing thought so too. Sloppy placement of both ads.
Or perhaps it was planned and was suppose to mean - "You hit it out of the ball park diva!" Now that would have been pretty cool.
Lessons learned: Watch Your Ad Placements.
Click on the graphic to see the details.
Technorati Tags: Ad_Age,, Advertising,, Marketing_to_Women,, Marketing,, Business,, Branding
08/18/2006
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's
virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the
weekend 'playground' time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just
plain silly.
News Flash! Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak of Apple fame and William Hewlett and David Packard from HP have been seen hitchhiking in northern California.
No Girlfriend, I haven't been sipping too many appeletinis. It's for real .. well sort of .. these icons of technology, along with Lee de Forestee, Frederick Terman, William Shockley, Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce are life size plywood sculptures that are part of an innovative art project - Pioneers Hitchhiking in the Valley of Heart's Delight - associated with The International Society of Electronic Arts ZeroOne San Jose Festival.
The guys were dropped in various locations across the US and hitchhiked, depending on the kindness of strangers, back to Silicon Valley in time for the festival. In keeping with their technology legacy each sculpture was tagged with a global positioning system/Java phone. The progress was tracked on a web site.
The HP divos got the red carpet treatment where ever they went .. until that is they landed up at their own front door at HP HQ in Palo Alto. Knock three times. Hellooo. No one at home. HP was offered the opportunity to give Bill and Dave a home .. well purchase the sculptures. HP turned it down.
Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun .. ta da! .. to the rescue. He couldn't let two heroes go homeless.
So out of respect for HP's legacy, the fine folks in Sun's marketing team decided to acquire the artwork. Bill and Dave are absolute legends, held in the deepest respect by all of us at Sun. We were honored at the opportunity. So we bought them, and their garage, for $6,000. Lock, stock and Java phone.
Read More:
SF Gate blog Fine Art Registry
Heard it from: Eric Kintz, The Marketing Excellence Blog
business astrology for fun
By Diva Astrology Bloggers Paula Dare & Donna Page
The Moon is in Cancer this weekend and with the Sun in fun loving Leo it is a recipe for luscious dining with friends and family.The universe is saying go ahead, indulge, one last big hurrah for the summer, you can always diet tomorrow and hey you look pretty good as you are!
Don’t worry about a prolonged binge, the new Moon in Virgo on Wednesday pushes us to get back to the gym, take our vitamins, and put our nose to the grindstone. Wednesday and Thursday are excellent days to create new projects that will increase revenue substantially in 2007. Just be careful not to get compulsively neurotic over the details which could inhibit the project from launching.
Technorati Tags: HP,, SunMicrosystems,, Sun,, Jonathan_Schwartz,, Eric_Kintz,, Marketing,, Blog
08/17/2006
It's no secret that it's a tough job breaking thru the clutter of messaging and into the hearts and minds of your target audience. Seems any blank space where there are a few eyeballs is fair game .. 
from ads on
airplane napkins to ads on grocery store conveyor belts to video ads on golf carts. Girlfriend, believe it or not, the City of Atlanta was even considering beaming ads off the moon during the 1996 Olympic Games.
Taking a bit of a leap .. here's a twist to the ad game. Justin Gignac, creative director of the Toy Agency, is helping the NYC Sanitation Department by picking up trash. It's not just a good samaritan thing .. he's turning it into art and selling it for real $. He estimated he's pulled in between $10k - $15k.
Why NYC Garbage Art? It was an experiment in the influence of packaging. As any good marketer knows it's all in the packaging .
""Someone said packaging wasn't that important, and I disagreed," he said. I figured the only way to test that theory was to package something that nobody would ever want. If you could get someone to buy it, you would know the package design was successful."
Can you brand garbage? Justin Gignanc thinks you can. 
His next project is in location garbage art from around baseball stadiums. Justin got lucky with the url for his website nycgarbage.com. How about a NYC Garbage Blog?
Taking a bit of a leap .. will garbarge be the next ad fad? There are a few folks like Hugh, Gaping Void, and BL, whatsnextblog, who might say it's not a future fad it's here now.
Heard it from: Ad Age
Technorati Tags: Marketing,, Advertising,, NYC,, Art,, Branding
08/15/2006
Left Hot'lanta last Thursday for Mass (that's Massachusetts) and spent the weekend by the sea by the sea the beautiful sea at Nantasket Beach in Hull visiting family. <Hi Kaye, Nealie, Sammie, Jessica, Scott, David, Larry, Polli, Christine and Deb.> It only took one hour and forty-seven minutes to check luggage and go through increased security. Made it to the AirTran gate with a full 6 minutes to spare.
Where a charming keeper of the gate graciously (not) informed me and four other passengers that the plane had 'closed.' How could it be 'closed' we sweetly (not) asked when the plane was was still at the gate with 6 minutes to take off? She sort of shrugged, turned with her paper work and walked on-board to give it to the flight crew. Closing the door behind her. Needless to say, there were five very frustrated passengers left standing.
I don't know went what on behind closed doors but several minutes later those sacred doors opened and she ushered us on to the plane. The pilot even walked up the gateway to greet us. Nice touch. So what did happen? Did the keeper of the gate come to our rescue? Did the pilot realize happy customers were more important than a slight delay and fall in take off stats?
Sidebar: You might recall that Thursday August 10 was the day that Scotland Yard thwarted a terrorist plan to blow planes sky high.
To ensure air travel safety no liquids are allowed in carry-ones. That
means if you have toothpaste or contact solution or hair gel your bag
gets checked. That means adding at least 30-minutes to your airport
time. Major bummer!
Sidebar: This may seem like a side-step but it does all synergize. Promise.
Marketing Management July/August 2006 includes an interesting article by Lawrence Crosby and Sheree Johnson of Synovate Loyalty. Crosby and Johnson spin the tired customer experience rant into a concept/strategy of building customer memories. It's a subtle change of direction that lends itself to a different way of looking at customer touch points that reinforce your brand promise. They suggest the following multiple dimensions be considered:
- duration - initiation, immersion, conclusion, continuation
- intensity - reflex, habit, engagement
- breadth - products, services, brands, channels, price
- interaction - passive, active, interactive
- triggers - all human senses, concepts, symbols
- significance - meaning, status, emotion, price, function
I took home a scrapbook of memories from my trip to Hull included BBQing dinners with friends and family, walking on the beach with Scott, watching seniors line dancing to country western music - what a hoot that was!, discovering a 
cool new designer - Johnny Cupcakes, making a MySpace page for Kaye with Jess, Neals and Sam, sipping Margaritas on the deck of the Red Parrot while watching the sunset over the ocean and a special diva chick day with Kaye and Polli.
Memories also include feelings of frustration that I almost missed my AirTran flight; and yes, the relief when I was finally allowed to board. I'd have a different memory to add to my scrapbook if the customer rep had said, "I'll try to get you
on. I understand that there were circumstances outside of your control
this morning." Even if she couldn't I would have appreciated her kindness. That would have been my memory of AirTran .. the kindness and understanding of their people.
Think about it .. What do you want your customers to put into their memory scrapbook of your brand? Memories don't have to be "big." Sometimes the small ones that touch the heart remain the longest. How can you create those memories that go beyond a forgotten experience? Hmm .. could be an interesting promotion - create a scrapbook of your memories of xyz brand.
Memories, pressed between the pages of my mind
Memories, sweetened thru the ages just like wine,
Memories, memories, sweet memories
Technorati Tags: Johnny_Cupcakes,, Hull,, AirTran,, MySpace,, Marketing,, Branding,, Strategies
08/11/2006
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
What better way to chill out on a hot summer night than with homemade ice cream and a few fun videos. Combined Diva Chocolat Ice Cream inspired by Johnny Depp with the 100 best videos from YouTube (compiled by Ken Leebow) and you have the making of a consumer generated diva GNO.
business astrology for fun
By Diva Astrology Bloggers Paula Dare & Donna Page
The Sun is opposite Neptune, a powerful influence to delve into your imagination and creativity. The muse is in full force; channel the creative energy to needed projects. Mercury enters Leo today and is asking us to speak up for ourselves.
Where in your life would it help you to let people know just how great you are? Let your customers know where you outshine the competition. Venus moves into Leo Saturday shouting that it is time to look good and splurge on a new look. Just make sure you really like what you are buying, with the moon in Aries is impulsive.
Today I checked out Dell's new blog - Direct2Dell. August 24th's post, Rampant Speculation on the XPS 700, appears to be a wonderful example of how to use blogs as a customer service strategy. Would seem that Dell is providing additional information to help clarify a situation where customers are posting incorrect information on boards and in major tech publications.
for keeping comments open. However, splash of a dirty martini in its face for not having an integrated customer response strategy. 
