Did this week feel like the longest in history…even though it was only four days? Man! Maybe it’s because I got sucked into making changes to the Arment Dietrich website last night (through the super amazing content management system Clockwork created for us) and I looked up and it was 9 p.m. I’d ask you to go check it out and tell me what you think, but it’s not finished yet. So hang on for a week or so! But perhaps it was long for all of you, too. More likely it was fitting five days’ worth of work into four.
But a short week doesn’t mean there wasn’t great content out there. Following are the top five stories for week ending Sept. 10, 2010.
5. Cognician puts an inventive spin on repurposing blog content. Shel Holtz did a quick review of the new start-up Cognician. He says, “Late yesterday afternoon I received an email from Barry Kayton, CEO of a shoestring startup in South Africa called Cognician. Kayton directed me to the initial release of the company’s application, which the company bills as a “thought processor.” I’ve used brainstorming applications before, tools that help you capture your thoughts and organize them. With each of these, you start with a blank slate. Cognician, on the other hand, presents you with a list of “cogs,” concepts that have already been mapped out by someone else. Cognician helps you apply these processes to your own efforts.” So I checked out Cognician. O! M! G! It’s SUPER cool! When you sign-up, you get five free cogs. Try it out!
4. A simple strategy to convert blog visitors into sales leads. While friend Mark Schaefer is on vacation, he has a superb cast of guest bloggers keeping his blog alive. It’s not often that someone writes something that I think, “Duh. Why didn’t we think of that?” But Dr. Jon Buscall wrote a fantastic post that made me do just that…and his ideas are so simple I feel rather dumb for not coming up with them myself. Check it out for yourself…you’ll see what I mean. Easy, simple ideas that can bring in some immediate revenue in fourth quarter.
3. Revealed: How Steve Jobs turns customers into fanatics. During a Vistage meeting earlier this year, Patrick Renvoise spoke about neuromarketing and how marketers can use the way people make purchase decisions to increase sales. When he spoke, I immediately bought his book, Neuromarketing: Understanding the Buy Buttons in Your Customer’s Brain
2. How to survive and thrive during a downturn. Richard Branson, yes THAT Richard Branson, writes a great post about small, entrepreneurial companies being the future of business. He says, “Think big, but build small.” Not only does he offer great advice for starting a business to those who are comfortably employed, but also to those who have lost their jobs. Check it out.
1. Why social media needs to learn the marketing basics. I love how Matt Owen starts this article, “Given that it pays my wages, I’m not supposed to let you know that social media isn’t the be-all-and-end-all for marketers everywhere, but try as I might I still can’t quite come up with enough reasons to ditch your other streams and hand your marketing keys over to Zuckerberg just yet.” Can I hear an amen?! He does a nice job of comparing new and traditional marketing; the pros vs. cons.
Have a great weekend!