What Joe McNally Taught Me About Photography

Ever have one of those career moments?
You know, when you were part of something you cherish? One such time for me was working with a premier U.S. photographer: Joe McNally.
Joe didn’t teach me how to take pictures. He taught me how to treat people.
If you check Joe’s portfolio, you can see he’s a photography [...]

Freebie Friday: Open Source CMS

Ready to create a corporate website you can host and maintain? Launching a community portal? Need something to get off the ground for your small business?
A few years ago, you’d meet with a web design agency. Or pick a tech geek’s brain and hope he’d show pity on you.
Today, there are Drupal, Joomla, Wheatblog, Elixis and other open source content [...]

Tip Thursday: Free Agent Writers

I like writers. Authors. Essayists. Journalists. Poets. Screenwriters. Playwrights. Bloggers. Humorists. All of them.
Putting words down and opening yourself to criticism — or a sharp-eyed editor — is unlike anything else.
If you’ve visited this blog, you may have already noticed where I rate writing.
When your marketing group is swamped or newsletter projects are backed up, [...]

The Value of Good (Great, if You’re Lucky) Writing

Writing is too often minimized in marketing projects. 
Images, visuals and eye candy make us notice. 
But writing makes us believe.
Writing is no easy gig (even though the business world relies heavily on e-mail). Without good writing, marketing project briefs need too many clarifications and re-clarifications. Without good writing, full meaning becomes half. Without good writing, television executives air re-runs and comedians grouse about weak material. A-List actors [...]

Talked About Tuesday: 12 Minutes to Top 100

As the post-Super Bowl ad hoopla fades, an unassuming rocker got a bump in sales.  
Before Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers played their 12-minute halftime set Sunday, they were nowhere in the iTunes Top 100 songs.
As of Monday night (7:30 p.m. PST), all 4 songs the band played at the Super Bowl were in the same Top 100 (barely, see two in graphic).

Free Fallin’ - #33

I [...]

CMO: Churning, Moving, Often

Great post here on thoughts why the average tenure of chief marketing officers is just over 2 years.
Of course, steady revenue growth and beating the Wall Street or VC expectations does wonders to keeping your CMO position. Getting there is the tricky part.

  

Microbrand Monday: Little as a Strength

Having been with small (10 employees), medium (2,000 employees) and large (10,000 employees) companies, I’ve grown to appreciate the value of each. A big company has a much higher probability of impacting the marketplace than a small shop. A medium company as well.
But both big and medium companies had to start somewhere (small) by bootstrapping, [...]

iStock: More than Photos

YouTube is the place for all things web video. We don’t expect polish or production-quality work, just what will get it done and help spread word.
Making professional-grade HD videos requires a crew (people to hoist cameras, hold boom mikes, produce in the field). For those times, hire pros. I got a great referral a few [...]

Note to Microsoft: Spin-Off

This clip in Saturday’s New York Times sums it up. Lost out badly to Google in online advertising. Trailing by 85 spots on Fortune’s Top 100 Companies to Work For list. May be flummoxed on “cloud computing,” i.e. Software as a Service (SaaS).
When a handful of guys who were running a web design studio in Chicago can create a popular suite of software programs that fuels a community [...]

Freebie Friday

When lead generation programs work well, they’re a marketer’s best friend. 
Lead-to-opportunity-conversions that produce sales say more than any beautiful advertisement or new website, and they’re the fastest way to grow a fan base among your sales team, executives or clients.
Lots of marketing blogs cover new throughts, ideas and ways to market. What they don’t do is go in-depth on tools to measure the work so you [...]