Marketing 2.0

Key Questions for Websites

I came across this post on Seth Godin's blog today and found it quite useful. If you are thinking about overhauling your website, start by asking some key questions. Before you hire a designer to create a Flash-based extravaganza of multimedia wonder, ask a few strategic questions like:

1. What are my goals for this site?
2. Who am I trying to reach?
3. What specific outcomes am I hoping for?

Seth's Blog: Things to ask before you redo your website.

Web Tracking Tools

Courtesy of ragan.com, here are some tools to help you track your brand on the web, especially social media commentary. As marketers embrace new media, it's important to develop and use new evaluation methods.

Web tools help track your brand—and the buzz about it | Article | Homepage articles.

Brand Autopsy: Video Recap: MySpace or Facebook? Or Both?

Here are two good summaries comparing Facebook and MySpace for those of you considering which site best fits your target market.

Brand Autopsy: Video Recap: MySpace or Facebook? Or Both? .

Twitter Ad Agency Starts Up

Here's a video report from Ad Age on the use of Twitter as a marketing tool in the entertainment industry.

Advertising Age: Original Video: 18982295001.

New Domains

Good article on the new domains that will be available soon.

Strike in Second Life

More evidence that real and virtual worlds are converging - IBM workers conducted a strike in Second Life. This article from the Globe and Mail details the use of social networking for labor activism.
Link: globeandmail.com: STRIKE!* (*banana suit optional).

Second Life in the Classroom

Interesting article in the Ithaca Journal about a new course at Cornell that deals with the business being conducted within Second Life. While $1.5 million in transactions take place everyday, there's no regulation similar to the "real" world. Professor Bloomfield refers to it as the "financial wild west."
Link: The Ithaca Journal - www.theithacajournal.com - Ithaca, NY.

A Mansion in Second Life

How much would you pay for a home in Second Life? How about $3.1 million? Coldwell Banker has created a virtual model of one of its premier listings and so far it has attracted several thousand visitors. Whether the SL demographic is consistent with luxury home buyers, well I do wonder about that. What's interesting here is the use of virtual worlds and new media to supplement a very traditional sales process. When the technology advances a bit you can imaging walking into Coldwell's virtual listing world and walking through many houses to find the right choice.

Link: Real $3.1 home causes a stir in virtual world, Second Life - Aug. 9, 2007.

The Boss Puts The iPod to Work

Here's another sign that iPod is the new king of all media. Many companies are now using pods as training tools for their employees. It's an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal on how major corporations are downloading content such as language lessons, sales tips and messages from the CEO to their staff.
Link: The Boss Puts The iPod to Work - WSJ.com.

Backing Up

I recently had a problem with my main computer, an older G4. It's been in the shop for two weeks (don't get me started on that) and I have been unable to access important data and applications from my hard drive. Although I back up about every six months, this was a good reminder of what can happen if you suffer a hard drive failure. How often do you back up?

Guy Kawasaki had a similar problem recently and he offers several good resources for Mac users on his weblog.

Link: Signum sine tinnitu--by Guy Kawasaki: Prevent Dumbness: Hard Disk Specials.