The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 41

Here's the standings for Week 41:

1 - Seth's Blog - 5,123 (-111)(LW - 1)
2 - Creating Passionate Users - 15,581 (-692)(LW - 2)
3 - Gaping Void - 16,698 (-229)(LW - 3)
4 - Duct Tape Marketing - 17,600 (-510)(LW - 4)
5 - Marketing Shift - 31,212 (+295)(LW - 5)
6 - Daily Fix - 46,054 (-443)(LW - 6)
7 - Converstations - 55,925 (+1,614)(LW - 7)
8 - New School of Network Marketing - 65,940 (+1,490)(LW - 8)
9 - The Viral Garden - 72,329 (-1,942)(LW - 10)
10 - Coolzor - 75,529 (-5,907)(LW - 9)
11 - Influential Interactive Marketing - 77,164 (-3,918) (LW - 11)
12 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 88,437 (+11,881)(LW - 13)
13 - Logic + Emotion - 100,836 (-2,557)(LW - 12)
14 - What's Next - 116,066 (-9,298)(LW - 14)
15 - Church of the Customer - 129,896 (+1,153)(LW - 16)
16 - Jaffe Juice - 134,314 (-10,189)(LW - 15)
17 - Brand Autopsy - 138,565 (-2,876)(LW - 17)
18 - Diva Marketing - 144,831 (-3,098)(LW - 18)
19 - Marketing Nirvana - 148,086 (+1,877)(LW - 19)
20 - Marketing Headhunter - 148,559 (+3,418)(LW - 20)
21 - Spare Change - 196,375 (+8,539)(LW - 24)
22 - Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing - 196,631 (-8,849)(LW- 21)
23 - Experience Curve - 203,209 (+2,015)(LW - 22)
24 - Hee-Haw Marketing - 222,295 (LW - UR)
25 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 224,381 (-13,903)(LW - 25)



The same trends that have been dominating the Top 25 continue. The Top 6 again stands pat, but Converstations and Drew's Marketing Minute again have home-run weeks. Past that, there's a huge gap between #20 and #21, and #21-25 continues to show some weakness.

Big congrats to Paul McEnany as Hee-Haw Marketing debuts in the Top 25 at #24.

Next update is next Wednesday.



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

Adjab goes down swinging

Unfortunately, AOL is cutting loose some of their niche blogs as of today, with AdJab being one of the blogs that's being shut down. Chris Thilk, Tom Biro, Bob Sassone and Adam Finley give everyone their curtain calls today on the very appropriately titled 'One Last Jab'.

I honestly don't read advertising blogs as much as I used to since I'm no longer writing regularly for Beyond Madison Avenue, but when I did, AdJab was on a VERY short list of 'must-reads' for me and continued to be for everyone interested in ad blogs. Hate to see the blog go, but it will be exciting to see where the gang lands next.




Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, AdJab

Ogilvy partners with Technorati to teach clients how to read blogs

Ogilvy and Technorati have partnered on a new initiative where Technorati will basically show Ogilvy how they can teach their clients to monitor blogs and use the content they find in their own campaigns. From the Technorati blog:

For bloggers and other citizen media creators it means new forms of distribution and awareness as brands increasingly enter the web as media sites and hubs of live web conversation. As we developed this product line it was clear that the best way to advance the state of the art was to show some of the worlds best creatives on what was possible and then work with them and major brands on how to build sites and advertising that reflect the conversations and passions of each brand's identity.

So basically, Ogilvy would rather work with Technorati to learn how to show clients how to read blogs, instead of just teaching clients how TO blog. Sounds like the difference between wanting to know what customers are saying about your brand, and wanting to understand WHY they are saying it.

One of the main reasons why I love the concept of companies joining their communities is because it leads to a real sense of interaction with their community of customers. And that interaction transforms BOTH parties.

It's one thing to search for blog postings about your company. It's quite another JOIN the blogosphere and to begin using the SAME tools in the SAME space that bloggers are. When companies enter the blogosphere, they shift from sending marketing messages TO their customers, to communicating WITH them. Not only that, but they THEN begin to RECEIVE the feedback that the community is sending back. That feedback and communication serves to transform the company's marketing processes, as the company begins to better understand the wants and needs of their community, by COMMUNICATING with them.

From the community's point of view, the blogging customers realize that the company has made an effort to better communicate with them, by entering their space and using their tools. That's great for brand equity. It also can help to create a sense of trust in the company, which leads to the community lowering its marketing guard and more freely communicating with the company.

Which leads to better marketing, which leads to better feedback, and so it goes. The end result is that by joining the community, the company becomes a community member itself, and over time, by satisfying its own wants and needs as a community member, it will also be meeting the wants and needs of its fellow community members, its customers.

So while a partnership with a blog-search company to better track blog conversations is a start, companies today can do so much better. Grab your shorts and jump in the water. You might not make the perfect entry, but your customers will appreciate the effort to communicate with them on their terms, using their tools, in their space.



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Join The Community

Does blog traffic even matter anymore?

When trying to judge the health of our blogs, there are a few common variables that most of us like to use, such as:

1 - Traffic
2 - Links
3 - Feed readers
4 - Comments
5 - Alexa ranking

Now I think traffic is probably the most popular measurement tool that most of us use, or have been told to use.

But is it the most accurate? Or does it matter at all?

I ask because I started doing some digging the other day as I realized that The Viral Garden had passed the 10-month mark. After 10 months of blogging, I found that for the past 9 months or so, traffic here has been in a fairly steady range, anywhere from 125-250 visitors a day on average. January is going to be the best month ever for traffic here, but it barely edges out last July for the top spot.

This seemed odd to me, because the blog appears to be growing at a fairly steady pace.

So I started checking out the other above listed variables. Here's what I found:

1 - Traffic, up about 20% over the past 9 months

2 - Links, up approximately 300% over the past 9 months

3 - Feed readers, up approximately 650% over the past 9 months

4 - Comments, up approximately 50% over the past 9 months

5 - Alexa ranking, from 81K in July, to 70K now


Notice that Alexa, which measures traffic, is also up only slightly. But feed readers, links, and comments, are all up sharply over the past 9 months.

The feed readers are interesting to me, because logic dictates that anyone that wants to subscribe to a blog's feed, does so to read its content regularly. So the blog's traffic only growing slightly, while number of feed readers us growing much quicker, suggests to me that many of the people that are discovering The Viral Garden for the first time, are subscribing to the feed. So they aren't showing up in the traffic numbers anymore, and shift to the 'feed readers' section. Case in point, on Sunday, I had 152 visitors, and 155 feed readers. I think that's a good thing.

Also, comments are increasing. Last summer, there were around 4.5 comments per post. Now there are just over 7 comments per post. That, coupled with the increase in feed readers, suggests that there are more regular readers here, and that they are commenting more frequently. I also think this is a very good thing.

So I guess it's up for each of us to decide why we blog and how we judge the success of our efforts. And we also must each decide what value, if any, we place on our blog's traffic. I think extra traffic is very valuable, as long as it leads to extra readers and more involvement from those readers. But I continue to think that focusing on traffic isn't the answer for most of us, it's focusing on readers and how we can each find a way to contribute to the larger community.


Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Blogging

Mind The Gap Episode 3 is FINALLY here

Er well...actually it's HERE!


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The Viral Garden, Marketing, Mind The Gap

Ballmer on innovation versus profits

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is on CNBC right now, and Bill Griffith asked him if Microsoft was more concerned with creating innovative products, or making money. He said that Microsoft was more interested in making innovative products that would excite Microsoft's community of customers and get them talking. That in turn, would result in Microsoft making money.

Kinda sounds like satisfying the customers's wants and needs directly, so they satisfy your needs indirectly, doesn't it?


Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Microsoft

Where the hell is the third episode of Mind The Gap?!?

Unfortunately, it's being held hostage by GoDaddy. I've recorded the episode and have been trying all weekend to upload it to the GoDaddy Quick Podcast server thingie, but it never goes through. The first 2 episodes went up fine, but for some reason it doesn't like this one (which is the same size as the other 2). So I'll hopefully have it up by tomorrow.

But in the meantime, you can check out the new blog I've set up just for Mind The Gap, and I've also added the ability to let you play the episodes right on the blog.



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Mind The Gap

Sammy Jankis knows good marketing

The tattoos covering Leonard's body create a bizarre visual, but are a necessity. They are part of his 'system' of reminders. Reminders of information long-lost due to a freak injury, all various lifelines that secure him to a point in time when his memory didn't dictate that his life must restart every 5 minutes.

But for now, he is in a hotel room. He doesn't know where he was 5 minutes ago, and 5 minutes from now he won't remember being here, but for now, he is in a hotel room.

The phone rings and Leonard immediately grabs the receiver.

"Who is this?" he asks.

We then see Leonard explaining to the unknown caller the events of his life that led up to his injury. An injury that occurred during a robbery at his home. An injury that took Leonard's short term memory, that occurred during a robbery that would end up taking his wife's life. Leonard explains all this to an unknown caller.

As Leonard is having his discussion with the unknown caller, he continues to scratch and pick at a bandage on his arm. Eventually, the tape begins to give way, and Leonard notices something black on his arm under the bandage, and quickly removes it to reveal a tattoo:

Never Answer The Phone

A shocked Leonard stops talking in mid-sentence, holds the receiver for a second then asks "Who is this?"

The unknown caller immediately hangs up.

Leonard's confused look tells us that he's thinking the same thing we are; "What the hell just happened?"

If you watch the movie Memento, that's a question you'll ask yourself early and often. It's one of my favorite movies, I've probably watched it 50 times, and I still can't tell you what happens. Neither can the lead character, Lenny.

And that's what makes Memento such a brilliant film; we see the movie as if it's coming from Leonard's eyes. We have to start over every 5 minutes (you'll have to watch it to understand), we don't know who is telling us the truth, and who is lying. We struggle to make sense of the world we are seeing, 5 minutes at a time.

Good marketing is a lot like Memento. Just as Memento lets us see the world from the lead character's point of view, good marketing rests in seeing the world from the customer's point of view. In realizing that the customer's point of view probably involves wants and needs completely different from our own.

But that can begin to change if we start to see the world through their eyes. If like the audience watching Lenny, we begin to relate to the lead character, the customer.

So give it, and Memento, a shot. If nothing else, you'll have seen a great movie, even if you have no idea what just happened.


Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Remember Sammy Jankis

No advertising is no problem for Webkinz

No idea what Webkinz are? Good, I didn't want to be the only one. Apparently they are wildly popular children's stuffed toys. And they are also a testament to the power of social media in the hands of a company's customers.

According to Ad Age, Webkinz does no advertising for the stuffed animals. But what they do have, is a devoted network of retailers, and a very catchy viral component. Each Webkinz comes with a 'secret code' which the child owner can input at Webkinz's site. Doing so gives the owner a cyber version of their toy, which they can clothe and feed with 'KinzCash' they collect at the site by winning games and solving puzzles. The owners can create virtual 'playpens' where fellow owners can join the kids and share and play with each others Webkinz.

And a look at the site's Alexa info shows that traffic has been steadily climbing for months.

The 'media push' for the stuffed toys hasn't come from traditional marketing, but instead in the form of blog posts, newspaper stories, and mentions on shows such as "Good Morning America," "Regis & Kelly" and "Rachael Ray." Ah the power of good ole fashioned word-of-mouth.






Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Webkinz

The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 40

Here's the standings for Week 40:

1 - Seth's Blog - 5,012 (-38)(LW - 1)
2 - Creating Passionate Users - 14,889 (-45)(LW - 2)
3 - Gaping Void - 16,469 (+233)(LW - 3)
4 - Duct Tape Marketing - 17,090 (-229)(LW - 4)
5 - Marketing Shift - 31,507 (+102)(LW - 5)
6 - Daily Fix - 45,611 (-1,676)(LW - 6)
7 - Converstations - 57,539 (+2,325)(LW - 7)
8 - New School of Network Marketing - 67,430 (+1,715)(LW - 10)
9 - Coolzor - 69,622 (-5,974)(LW - 8)
10 - The Viral Garden - 70,387 (-1,369)(LW - 9)
11 - Influential Interactive Marketing - 73,246 (LW - UR)
12 - Logic + Emotion - 98,279 (-1,529)(LW - 11)
13 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 100,318 (+11,674)(LW - 13)
14 - What's Next - 106,768 (-78)(LW - 12)
15 - Jaffe Juice - 124,125 (-3,202)(LW - 14)
16 - Church of the Customer - 131,049 (+49,741)(LW - 21)
17 - Brand Autopsy - 135,689 (-5,298)(LW - 15)
18 - Diva Marketing - 141,733 (+622)(LW - 16)
19 - Marketing Nirvana - 149,963 (+2,693)(LW - 18)
20 - Marketing Headhunter - 151,977 (+5,726)(LW - 17)
21 - Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing - 187,782 (-7,418)(LW- 20)
22 - Experience Curve - 190,602 (+2,015)(LW - 22)
23 - Make Marketing History - 203,315 (-25,894)(LW - 19)
24 - Spare Change - 204,914 (+3,459)(LW - 24)
25 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 210,478 (-9,680)(LW - 23)


Fairly decent week for the Top 25. Converstations just shows no signs of slowing down, and will be within shouting distance of the Top 6 in a couple more weeks at this rate. Drew's Marketing Minute had another solid week, and Church of the Customer jumps back up again. Notice that it now takes an Alexa ranking of at least 151K to make the Top 20.

Influential Interactive Marketing is the week's lone new entry, and makes a huge debut at #11.

Next update is next Wednesday.



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

Is attempting to kill off 'social media' about accuracy, or ego?

Apparently I am woefully out of touch with what the A-Listers have to say(fancy that), but it seems that there's been a steady campaign lately by some to have the term 'social media' put to pasture.

Steve Rubel has probably been the most vocal, and he adds this:

The problem with all of these balkanized phrases is that they connote that the content created by digitally empowered individuals is somehow bush league. It's like we're a separate entity from the rest of the so-called "mainstream" journalists, filmmakers, photographers, etc. who do what we do and get paid more for it. We sit in a special dish like leftover meatloaf so we need a special name. If you use these phrases you're unintentionally perpetuating that myth.

I've been chronicling the changes in media over the last three years on my blog and been in awe of it even longer. In 2004, 2005 and into 2006, as "we" became more influential, the phrases were helpful as the world began to take notice. But now, it's different. We've arrived.

We have?

Robert Scoble is one of the better-known bloggers. Adam Curry might be the most famous podcaster. If you ask 100 random Americans if they have heard of EITHER of these people, I will be shocked if more than 2-3 admit to knowing who either of them are. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if none of the 100 had heard of either of them.

It strikes me that this latest attempt to stop using the phrase 'social media' is more about ego and elitism than it is about accuracy. Do some people misuse the label, perhaps intentionally? Of course. But the bigger issue here is the accessibility of the idea. Blogs, podcasts, and other forms of created content that fall under the 'social media' umbrella are wonderful communication and expression tools. By giving them a label such as 'social media' (which IMO is still completely accurate), it makes it easier to spread the idea and concept to others. Why pull the rug out from under an idea that's starting to seep into the collective conscious on the nation, just as they appear to be understanding it?

What's more important, to expose as many people as possible to these ideas, so that they too can find and add their own voice to the conversation, or to be seen as the 'thought leader' that decided that the term was no longer worthy of us?

The label 'social media' makes the idea of these wonderful communication tools more accessible to the masses. That means more people are exposed to the concept of blogs and podcasts and other forms of social-media, and as a result, more people enter this space, and find and share their own voices with us.

More participation is a GOOD thing from where I sit. And I guess I get a bit cranky when I hear of anything that even hints at wanting to shut others off from having an invitation to this party.


UPDATE: Tony adds: "Social Media has arrived, its here to stay. Get used to it.
(repeat while chanting)."

Yep. Personally I'd rather hold the gate open than attempt to be a gatekeeper to this movement.


Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Social Media

SnoCap speaks out on MyStore, viral component

This is one of the many reasons why blogging is such an exciting platform.

David Rowley, who works for SnoCap, saw my post yesterday about SnoCap's partnership with Merlin and MySpace, and specifically Jordan's comments, and posted a further explanation of just what MyStore can do on his blog:

Sure, it's very cool that artists can sell tracks directly to their fans from their MySpace page. But the real potential is that fans can grab the store and put it on their own pages. Fans are incredible, and when artists reach out to them directly, they will do anything to promote them and get some attention.

I couldn't agree more David. Music fans are simply evangelists waiting to be empowered to become marketing partners for their favorite artists. I told several labels this almost verbatim when explaining why '100 CDs For 100 Bloggers' would be a huge hit. Very exciting to hear about this viral component of MyStore, makes a great idea even better. Hopefully David will stop by and leave a comment telling us more about how MyStore will work.




Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, SnoCap

Hey look kids! Free buried treasure!

One of my 'blogging resolutions' for this year is to really work on my blog-post titles. I wanted to focus on this, because I assume everyone else reads blogs in the same way I do. I scan titles. If the title is at least mildly interesting, or if the post appears to be about a subject I am interested in, I will scan the first paragraph or so, then move on if my attention isn't captured. I know I totally have ADD when I read blogs, but by my unscientific guess, a post's title has about 0.78 seconds to convince me to read the post.

So why does it seem that so many bloggers couple solid posts, with a bland title? I am as guilty of this as anyone, many times I will write the post first, then slap on a title in a few second simply because I'm ready to get the post up on my blog. I forget that the title is actually the 'gatekeeper' of the post. The title decides if the post itself merits our attention.

And when you are trying to go through the 348 posts backed up in your Bloglines feeds, how important does that title become?

So what are your keys for writing a great blog post title? As I said, this is definitely an area I want to work on this year. And which bloggers do you think do a great job writing their post titles, and why?



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Blogging

SnoCap letting indie artists sell their music on MySpace

Ever wonder what happened to Napster founder Shawn Fanning? He's still in the music distribution game, but this time he's with startup SnoCap. SnoCap has developed an online technology it calls MyStore, which allows artists to sell their music from a website.

SnoCap has now entered into 2 very interesting partnerships. The first is with Merlin, a new agency formed to represent the music industry's independent artists. SnoCap is going to let independent artists that Merlin represents sell their music online as downloadable MP3s. But they still need the place to use the MyStore technology.

That's where MySpace comes in.

MySpace also entered into an agreement to let Merlin's artists sell their music via MySpace, using SnoCap's MyStore technology. MySpace and SnoCap had already partnered late last year to let artists use its MyStore technology, and the agreement between SnoCap and Merlin to let its artists sell their music via MySpace will launch in 'the near future'.

Jeremy, lead singer for The Favorites, has some interesting info on the deal, and the email that Tom sent out to artists on MySpace explaining how the partnership would work.

I am assuming this means artists will be able to sell the MP3s directly from their artist pages on MySpace. What I'm also wondering is if this could eventually led to artists letting fans on MySpace sell their music on their MySpace pages as well. This could open the 'peer to peer' floodgates that Terry McBride may have been hinting at when I interviewed him last year. It would also be a great way for bands to empower their fans to market for them.


Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Music Marketing, MySpace, SnoCap

AT&T kills Cingular, gives us your grandfather's cellphone

A merger with Cingular made AT&T a player in the wireless sector, now their ego has taken them right back out of the race.

AT&T has decided to kill off the Cingular brand, replacing it with their own. The reason?

“What consumer and business customers want is a single provider of services for the way they live and work today,” said Wendy Clark, senior vice president for advertising at AT&T in San Antonio, “and if it’s one company, they want it under one name.”

That's great Wendy, but you picked the wrong name. Cingular has brand equity. It is seen as young, hip, reliable. When you think of AT&T, you think of landlines, rotary dials, and the Reagan administration.

Is there ANYONE outside of the AT&T board room that would rather have the AT&T name on their cellphone than Cingular? I've been pretty satisfied with my Cingular service the past few years, but the first time I get a bill with the big bold blue AT&T logo on it, I'm going to start considering Verizon. It will be an involuntary reaction.

Did Steve Jobs know this was coming when he made Cingular the 'exclusive wireless provider' of the iPhone? Talk about a branding mismatch! What's next, re-animating the deceased Orville Redenbacher to have him sell popcorn while rocking out to the tunes on his iPod?


Check out Greg's take on AT&T's move.

UPDATE: Valeria adds a great 'round-up' post about AT&T re-branding Cingular at Conversation Agent.



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing

What is 'Good Marketing'?

I've seen some discussion lately of what 'good' and 'bad' marketing is. Why marketing is 'evil', etc. To me it comes down to this:

"Good marketing is any effort by a company/individual/association/etc to DIRECTLY satisfy the wants and needs of its customer"

I don't think it has to get any more complicated than that.

But the hitching point is that 'directly' part. Most marketers want to satisfy their OWN wants and needs directly, and let satisfying the customer be a byproduct. Turning it around and using your marketing as a tool to directly satisfy the wants and needs of the community takes a pretty big leap of marketing faith.

Very simple example: Tim recently posted on Daily Fix about his disgust at going to a local gas station, and being bombarded by ads from the gas pump as he was fueling up. The commercials were there to satisfy the gas station's wants and needs directly. The station knew that while Tim was fueling, he was a 'captive audience', so he HAD to listen to the station's commercial. And Tim knew it as well, and resented the station pushing commercials on him that he didn't want to hear.

Now on the other hand, I asked what would have happened if the station had instead offered free hand sanitizer at every pump? That directly solves a problem that many customers have, getting back in their car after filling up, with hands that smell like gas. And that have touched the same pump that thousands of other strangers have.

The commercials satisfy the station's wants and needs directly. The hand sanitizer satisfies the wants and needs of the customer directly. All other things being equal, which would make you more likely to give a gas station your business, free ads, or free hand sanitizer?

Satisfy your customer's wants and needs directly, and s/he will satisfy YOUR wants and needs INDIRECTLY.





Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing

Music sales fall again, industry blames file sharers, again

Maybe it's just me, but I coulda sworn they shut down Napster in its original form as a P2P file sharing site around 2002. I ask because it seems that whenever the music industry has had disappointing music sales since then, they continue to blame it on those damned illegal music downloads.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has released its 2007 Digital Music Report, where it said digital music sales almost doubled in 2006, and were expected to account for a quarter of all sales worldwide by 2010.

But it also reported that overall music sales fell by 4 percent in the first half of 2006. Reason? The report says it's due to illegal music downloads, and 'competition for consumer spending'.

As always with the music industry, this is a control issue. In an era where customers are more empowered than ever to communicate online, thanks to social media, the industry continues to fight giving them the ability to share and promote music. Sales of digital music through iTunes continues to surge, but songs on iTunes still come with DRM, which is designed to 'stop piracy', but really stops users from listening to, and sharing their music with others as they would like. And as we all know, word of mouth is one of the most powerful forms of promotion, and DRM puts a serious damper on the ability of music fans to promote their favorite music to others.

Likewise, artists themselves can't control how their own music is distributed unless they own their own music, which many artists do not. This is another reason why I like what Terry McBride is doing with Nettwerk with his artists such as Barenaked Ladies. Terry is attempting to move as many of his artists as possible to their own label, which gives the artist complete control over their music, and how it is distributed. Artists like the Barenaked Ladies can then let fans promote their music via peer to peer methods such as email and IMs, or via podcasts like Mind The Gap.

But until the music industry realizes that the average music fan isn't the enemy, and instead could be a marketing partner to help grow music sales, we'll continue to wonder how digital sales can boom, while overall sales are flat. This is another reason why I love following music marketing/distribution, because I believe that eventually, a light-bulb will go off somewhere and the industry will suddenly realize that LESS control over how music is distributed equals MORE sales. I think it's going to be pretty exciting to be a music fan when that day finally arrives.




Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Music Marketing

The Viral Garden's Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 39

Here's the standings for Week 39:

1 - Seth's Blog - 4,974 (+53)(LW - 1)
2 - Creating Passionate Users - 14,844 (-594)(LW - 2)
3 - Gaping Void - 16,702 (+179)(LW - 4)
4 - Duct Tape Marketing - 16,861 (-415)(LW - 3)
5 - Marketing Shift - 31,609 (+998)(LW - 5)
6 - Daily Fix - 43,935 (-1,147)(LW - 6)
7 - Converstations - 59,864 (+4,338)(LW - 8)
8 - Coolzor - 63,648 (-3,321)(LW - 7)
9 - The Viral Garden - 69,018 (-1,551)(LW - 9)
10 - New School of Network Marketing - 69,145 (+2,424)(LW - 10)
11 - Logic + Emotion - 96,750 (-7,265)(LW - 11)
12 - What's Next - 106,690 (+1,350)(LW - 12)
13 - Drew's Marketing Minute - 111,992 (+30,991)(LW - 15)
14 - Jaffe Juice - 120,923 (+7,640)(LW - 13)
15 - Brand Autopsy - 130,391 (-6,773)(LW - 14)
16 - Diva Marketing - 142,355 (+18,303)(LW - 17)
17 - Marketing Headhunter - 157,703 (+18,283)(LW - 21)
18 - Marketing Nirvana - 159,583 (+2,693)(LW - 18)
19 - Make Marketing History - 177,421 (+4,874)(LW - 23)
20 - Pro Hip-Hip - Hip-Hop Marketing - 180,364 (-8,582)(LW- 20)
21 - Church of the Customer - 180,790 (-33,977)(LW - 16)
22 - Experience Curve - 192,617 (-11,686)(LW - 22)
23 - Beyond Madison Avenue - 200,798 (-13,456)(LW - 24)
24 - Spare Change - 208,373 (+2,743)(LW - 25)
25 - Emergence Marketing - 209,741 (-39,451)(LW - 19)


The Top 25 was off a bit this week, with about half up, half down. Seth dipped his Alexa ranking under 5K for I believe the first time. Mike Sansone's Converstations just shows no signs of slowing down. Will be interesting to see if it can move higher than #7, and the blog enters 'rarified air' as it sneaks up on the Top 6.

Drew's Marketing Minute just knocked the cover off the ball again this week. In fact blogs #12-19 were very strong. Make Marketing History capitalized on a few blogs in front of it being off, and jumped 4 spots.

Next update is next Wednesday.



Technorati Tags:
The Viral Garden, Marketing, Top 25 Marketing Blogs

Baidu, EMI partner to stream free music in China

Slowly but surely.

The Hollywood Reporter has the dish on a new partnership between EMI Music and Chinese search engine Baidu that will allow Baidu users to stream music from Chinese artists. The music will be made available via a music-themed search channel, and will be ad-supported with the revenue being split. The two are also considering an option that would involve free music downloads.

I've already blogged about how CBS is using YouTube to stream content, and I also talked about the network's deal with Slingbox to allow users to upload CBS content, on the latest episode of Mind the Gap. As music labels see how networks are enjoying increased viewership from seeding content on YouTube, they will hopefully begin to realize that there are other profitable distribution channels available besides the compact disc and digital download.

I think in 2007, especially in the first half of this year, we'll see plenty of networks following CBS's lead and begin making more content available for free on the net. Music labels will likely stand on the sidelines until it becomes painfully obvious that this idea of making music available for free CAN result in increased sales.

Hells bells I am having to convince music labels to ALLOW me to promote their artists' music via Mind The Gap.

*sigh* Ah well, kicking and screaming...



VR pic via leonneal.com

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The Viral Garden, Marketing, Music Marketing

MasiGuy says that Saturn Sucks

I am admittedly coming in late on Tim's recent problems with his Saturn VUE, and Saturn dealership. Tim recalls the story from start to finish(with an assist from MasiWife). It seems there was a problem with the SUV's computer, which meant that the car's engine would literally shut off WHILE BEING DRIVEN! So Tim would instantly lose the ability to steer AND brake. Nice! Over the course of the next several weeks, Tim fought with the dealership to do the right thing every step of the way, including paying a thousand for a new computer, only to discover that the 'repair' didn't work because the dealership had put the computer in BACKWARDS!

As best I can tell, the end result was that the Saturn dealership repaired the computer a SECOND time, gave Tim a rental while they were, and Saturn offered their apology with....wait for it....4 free coupons for free oil changes from ANY Saturn dealership!

I'm sure from Saturn's point of view, they feel vindicated. The guys' SUV broke, they fixed it, well not the first time, but they apologized for it and gave him $100 (because we all know that $100 worth of coupons is as good as cash, right?). The bottom line is that Saturn approached this entire process from what was best from THEIR point of view, not Tim's. And recall that the entire time Tim is dealing with this frustrating process, he has Saturn's brand mantra of 'A Different Kind of Car, a Different Kind of Car Company' ringing in his ears.

As we all know, businesses are frequently leery of going 'the extra mile' for customers, unless they can see a number on their balance sheet that tells them EXACTLY how much money they will gain from treating their customers right. But here's the flipside, how much money will Saturn LOSE from Tim's experience?

One of the posts that Tim left during this customer service ordeal included 'I hate Saturn' in the title. I decided to do a Google search for the term 'I hate Saturn', and sure enough, Tim's post is now the FOURTH result from Google for that term, with the first three concerning the book 'Why I Hate Saturn'.

Now the question for Saturn is: What dollar amount would you put on the business that your automaker will lose worldwide, as a result from that one blog post from one dis-satisfied customer? That dollar amount will no doubt be many many times what you got from Tim. Now the flipside is, your company could have likely spent a FRACTION of that money on ensuring that Tim's experience was handed as smoothly as possible, putting HIS concerns and fears and frustrations at the fore-front throughout. The end result is that you would have had a new BRAND EVANGELIST for your company, and that 'I hate Saturn' post would have very likely been replaced with an 'I love my Saturn!' post from Tim.

Instead we have Saturn's crappy products and crappy customer service ringing all over the blogosphere.

Satisfy your customers' wants and needs directly, and they will satisfy your company's wants and needs indirectly. Companies that attempt to satisfy their wants and needs first, especially post-purchase, get what Saturn is getting now.

And I guess this won't change until companies can plug in a number next to 'Putting the customer first' on their balance sheet and understand the direct monetary benefit. Again, the benefit comes indirectly, and until companies understand that, we'll likely keep seeing more 'I hate Saturn' posts than we will the 'I love Saturn!' variety.




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The Viral Garden, Marketing, MasiGuy, Saturn