This guest post is written by Molli Megasko

Yes, it’s another Facebook post. But don’t roll your eyes yet (Howie!). I’m not going to talk about the user changes, I’m here to discuss the free ads Facebook is giving to small business.

This January, Facebook is planning to give away $50 in free advertising to 200,000 small businesses across the country to show them how the ad platform works in hopes of return sales and more users.  (That’s $10 million in free advertising!) Continue Reading »

Mondays are my super busy days. I do all staff and client meetings on Mondays in order to get the week on the right foot and (kind of) prepare for anything unexpected. I’m in meetings or on the phone for 10 hours straight, with little time to use the bathroom or eat.

So yesterday, when Shelly Kramer tagged me on Facebook to read this article and then when Troy Claus sent it to me via email, I knew the title was going to make my blood boil, but I hadn’t read it yet.

And boy did my blood boil!

PR Agencies Are Ruining Facebook.

I love sweeping generalizations like this. Continue Reading »

Jim Mitchem is an award winning copywriter and founder of one of the first virtual ad agencies on the planet in smash communications.

A few years back, Home Depot ran a television commercial showing one of their fully decked out 18-wheelers driving along a beautiful country road. A voice over talked about Home Depot’s commitment to communities they serve. As the camera panned out, we saw a crossroad ahead for the semi. It comes to a stop and then its right blinker goes on. As the camera continues to pan out, we see the entire horizon. To the right are clear skies, but to the left – armageddon. The sky is black and crackling with lighting. The clouds are swirling. The truck’s blinker then changes from right to left. The big rig turns and the logo fades up.

Let’s get something straight – television commercials are expensive. Especially ones so well-produced as this. So what’s the point? The point of this ad is to position brand in your mind as a benevolent corporate citizen and its goal is to get you to choose Home Depot over Lowe’s the next time you need lumber or lightbulbs. After all, Home Depot helps communities across America that have been devastated by natural disasters. Right? Do they really go out of their way to donate supplies to people who have been struck with bad weather? Probably. I have no idea. But the fact that you think they do is the most important thing. Continue Reading »

Guest post by Michael Shmarak, principal of Sidney Maxwell Public Relations.

OK, a quick show of hands – how many people got out of bed at some ungodly hour and stood in line for any number of Black Friday deals last month?

For those who raised hands, may I ask that you take that hand, form a cup with your other hand, and splash cold water on your faces? Sorry to rain on your parade, but you need a proverbial wake-up call. Your deal might have been good, but was it a deal at all?

I don’t know why the day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday, anymore. According to retail data, shopper patterns, and any number of measurement tools, it is not the busiest shopping day of the year. Black Friday is a myth. Continue Reading »

A recent article in the New York Times illustrates how neuromarketing will soon be a part of our everyday lives.

New studies show there is scientific evidence on how to manipulate the brain’s electrical frequencies when watching TV and, specifically, commercials. This is called neuromarketing.

The idea behind neuromarketing is that advertisers tap into our subconscious, causing deep responses to certain stimuli. (Not far off from subliminal messaging, in my opinion.)

The article explains, “Neuromarketing’s raison d’être derives from the fact that the brain expends only 2 percent of its energy on conscious activity, with the rest devoted largely to unconscious processing. Thus, neuromarketers believe, traditional market research methods — such as consumer surveys and focus groups — are inherently inaccurate because the participants can never articulate the unconscious impressions that whet their appetites for certain products.” Continue Reading »

Arment Dietrich is a boutique marketing and communications firm. There are a lot of really good boutique companies. From Canada to Sweden to the U.K. and throughout the U.S., I can easily name the top 10, but Edelman is not among them. Sure they’re a top 10 firm, easily, in the world of large companies, but boutique? I don’t care how you skin it, that is not the appropriate category. Continue Reading »

Happy Labor Day weekend! When we were kids my dad told us that Labor Day was for work and we’d end up helping in the yard…tilling the garden, mowing the lawn, washing the car, or (sometimes) big projects like laying new concrete. Not our idea of fun.

I hope you’re getting off work early today to enjoy your long weekend without working. We close the office at 1:00, which means Pete The Tapeworm and I will be leaving as soon as we accomplish three more things (not including this post) and attend to only three things for three days: Ride, eat, and sleep.

Following are the top five stories for week ending September 3, 2010. Continue Reading »

A few of you have been dying for today to arrive (cough, Courtney Dial and Valerie Simon, cough) and it’s finally here! Spin Sucks relaunches with a new design, look, and feel! But that’s not all…check out what’s to come!

As a recap, what you can expect to see every day:

* More content under communication, advertising, marketing, social media, SEO, and business growth

* Guest bloggers every day

* Expert Q&As

* Industry innovations

* Comment of the week

* Giveaways and contest

All of this will remain free, but be watching later this year for a subscription-based, behind-the-scenes Spin Sucks that will garner you access to more content, discussion groups, brainstorming, and access to experts.

Tell us what you think, what you’d like to see more (or less) of, if you know experts you’d like to see interviewed, if you’d like to guest blog, and if you’ve seen an industry innovation you’d like to see highlighted. This blog is evolving to help you do your jobs in the above six categories so tell us what you need from us.

And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter…we’re Spin Sucks!

Guest blog post by Nick Harrison

The question lately has been if KFC’s new double decker sandwich will kill you. So will it? Of course not! But Nick, you’re likely saying, with the calories and fat content it is surely a cardiac arrest wrapped in paper…right? Nope!

Let me explain. It won’t kill you because only a small percentage of you will actually eat it. If you look between the lines, the point of launching the new sandwich was not to sell the sandwich itself.

Okay, okay, more explanation. Continue Reading »

A few weeks ago, my friend Steve McKee wrote in his BusinessWeek column about companies doing their growth a big disservice in a down economy when they cut their advertising and PR budgets. You can read the article and comments here.

Then, when I asked each of you what you’d like to read about in future blog posts, my friend John emailed me and asked, “Why is it that during tough economic times, most companies reduce marketing budgets? If marketing is of real value to a company and if marketing works for that company, wouldn’t you increase spending in tough times?”

This brings me to one of my favorite case studies: How Kellogg won the cereal wars of the Great Depression. Forbes, The New Yorker, and several other national media highlighted this story earlier this year, when it looked like the economy wasn’t likely to get better anytime soon. Following is an expert I refer to a lot when people ask me the same question John asked.

In the late nineteen-twenties, two companies—Kellogg and Post—dominated the market for packaged cereal. It was still a relatively new market: Ready-to-eat cereal had been around for decades, but Americans didn’t see it as a real alternative to oatmeal or cream of wheat until the twenties. So, when the Depression hit, no one knew what would happen to consumer demand. Post did the predictable thing: It reined in expenses and cut back on advertising. But Kellogg doubled its ad budget, moved aggressively into radio advertising, and heavily pushed its new cereal, Rice Krispies. (Snap, Crackle, and Pop first appeared in the 1930s.) By 1933, even as the economy cratered, Kellogg’s profits had risen almost 30 percent and it had become what it remains today: The industry’s dominant player.

With social media you can now heavily push your brand, your company, your service, or your product at half the cost of traditional methods. If you listen, build your communities, let your brand ambassadors spread the word, and provide value, your business will come out of the Great Recession as a dominant player, no matter your size.

So my question for you is: If you decrease your spending and no one knows you’re still in business, which creates a drop in revenue and profits, doesn’t it make sense to spend money and time on the new forms of marketing, advertising, and PR?