So far this video has 2,740,643 views on YouTube!
HHB Advertising redefines genius with creative convergence marketing strategies that blend traditional media and internet
marketing options such as savvy website development, SEO, social media marketing, viral video, blogging, email marketing, paid online advertising and more.
Archive for the ‘Convergence Special Blend’ Category
How Not To Be “That Guy”
Thursday, June 4th, 200910 Social Media Mistakes Businesses Can Make
Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009You know your company should be using the social web. You decide which networks to embrace: Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Likaholix, Twitter or Mixx. Now why ever would you want to go to the time and trouble of registering and following only to fail miserably at making it work for you? Here are ten big ole mistakes you shouldn’t make.
Branding
Thursday, May 7th, 2009Branding? Say What?!
Let’s be realistic about branding – what it is and what it isn’t. A brand is a product or service with highly recognizable qualities and associations surrounding it. We all know the common brand names that actually define entire product categories – Kleenex (facial tissues), Xerox (copy machines), A-1 (steak sauce), etc. A true brand influences consumer buying behavior, because it is perceived to be the first, or the best, of its category. Its imitators and wannabes fall in line behind it.
A product or service doesn’t become a brand without applying true innovation in a particular category or adding a compelling differentiation to propel it into the consumer conscience. A brand doesn’t become a brand name without great publicity and millions of dollars of aggressive advertising behind it. Even then, it may take years.
So, if you’re a small or even a mid-size business in a small to mid-size market, the best you can do for yourself in terms of branding is to employ some savvy branding principles to your business. And keep in mind that customers or clients don’t care as much about the companies behind the products and services they offer (the “brands”), as they do about the product or service itself. There are some exceptions to this rule, but basically, people buy brands, not the companies that create them.
With all that said, how can a small company brand its products? For instance, if you’re a paper manufacturer can you create a true brand for a new line of paper towels by giving them a clever name and slapping on a bright new logo on the package? No. Not unless you come up with some amazing new performance feature for paper towels in general that no one before has ever thought of. Then you must ante up millions of dollars to communicate that innovative idea to consumers. If not a performance feature for your towels, perhaps you can come up with an idea about the product that consumers can relate to or feel good about. (Maybe your line of towels were biodegradable and first used by Apollo astronauts, or they were made from some exotic fiber found only in Outer Mongolia.) Well, you get the picture. It takes a lot to brand something. A lot of innovation, time, and money.
Branding is a powerful marketing endeavor, and in its purest state, the results can’t be underestimated. Hearing it attached to every function of advertising and marketing for every company, big or small; every non-profit organization; every school; every church; every individual, and every product or service imaginable, is getting tiresome. And not realistic for most.
Instead, ask the professionals you deal with (hope that’s HHB!) to propose a traditional media campaign that employs some well-considered branding principles AND a social media plan.
You’re Invited to Something You’ll Really LIKE!
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009This “Marketing Matters” column by Paige Henson ran in The Telegraph (Macon, GA) today. Read to the end to find the special invitation code to an awesome new social media website!
What’s Not to Like
With the vast sharing capabilities now available online through social bookmarking, tagging and syndication, the way we promote products has changed dramatically.
The very colloquial nature of word-of-mouth advertising and online information sharing with friends, relatives and others lends an astonishing level of credibility and power to marketing messages.
Think about it this way: You are much more likely to visit a new restaurant if a friend recommended it than you would if you merely read a review about it.
One promising new Web site rising out of this word-of-mouth phenomenon is Likaholix.com, developed by a young married couple once employed at Google, where they worked on the development of high profile projects that include Gmail, Google Docs, AdSense and Google Video.
Since launching the beta site in March 2008, Likaholix has seen a whopping 3,000-percent growth in registered users, a startling testament to the wave of interest that sharing sites like this can generate.
Likaholix is super easy, fun and intuitive, allowing members to share, comment on and visually depict “likes,” and passions — old or new — be it a movie, a book, a brand, a hand tool, a particular blog, a hotel, a classic poem, a geographic site … you name it.
Creating “likes” is quick and psychologically satisfying.
Just begin typing in the letters of a “like,” and a prompt will finish the word(s) for you. It will then allow you to choose from several photos and videos to post that depict your “like.” Your comments about your “like” are personal expressions about it that create a kind of cathartic effect.
Like the popular NetFlix site, personalized recommendations for new “likes” based on your existing, posted ones are pushed to your Likaholix homepage for consideration, and the likes of others, which are visible to you, can also be added to your own list with a mere click.
If you want, your Likaholix choices can be displayed on your FriendFeed, Facebook and/or Twitter pages, creating an even greater reach.
Consider the marketing potential of sharing at this level.
One of the site’s founders, Bindu Reddy, tells me: “We hope to enable discovery and recommendations for pretty much any type of thing.”
The words “discovery” and “recommendations” used in this context herald in a new era of dynamic, word-of-mouth advertising.
One of our staff members accepted an invitation to the Likaholix site in early March and, soon after, all of us had joined and became addicted, finding it in many ways more satisfying than any social media experience to date.
Because the site is currently in a limited private beta stage, Likaholix founders have allowed me to give readers of this column a special invite code to join: http://likaholix.com/signup?token=PH
Enjoy! And let me hear from you.
Maximize Your Twitter Experience
Tuesday, March 31st, 2009Using the search feature on Twitter to find people you know is great, but how do you search for interesting people or organizations you don’t know – those with whom you may have something in common? One way is to search and list yourself in one or more of the cool, catalogued Twitter directories available. Which directory to chose? Read this new comparison: 15 Twitter Directories.
Social Media 101
Tuesday, March 17th, 2009A good resource guide explaining some basics about social media.
