Transforming the Book Industry: How Seth Godin is Poking the Box
I recently interviewed Seth Godin, author of the new book Poke the Box. Seth has written more than a dozen other books, many of them focused on marketing. Some of his notable books include Permission Marketing, Linchpin and Tribes.
During this interview, you’ll learn about his latest book, his views on the state of the publishing industry and about his new venture The Domino Project.
Mike: Let’s start with Poke the Box. What exactly does “poke the box” mean?
Seth: If you’re a computer programmer and you want to figure out how something works, the way you do it is not by reading a manual or following a map. You do it by trying something, seeing what happens, learning from it and then trying something else. That’s how we figured out how the world worked when we were 5 years old, and it’s the way we figure out how to do something new in a changing world. 
9 Ways to Transform Your Website Into a Social Media Hub
Should your website be social? Are you looking to turn that static website into an interesting social media–enabled destination?
Keep reading to discover how.
Should Your Site Be Social-Enabled?
There’s no doubt that social media is a powerful marketing and communication tool for businesses and non-profits that have embraced it.
Yet, for most of us, our websites are still where the rubber meets the road. It’s where you turn visitors into leads and prospects into customers. It’s where you build your lists and sell your goods.
UnMarketing: Stop Pushing and Praying, Start Pulling and Staying
When marketing consultant Scott Stratten worked with the owners of a new restaurant, he recommended inviting residents of a nearby condo complex to a free dinner. Over two nights, the owners could get 150 people to start the buzz about the new restaurant in town.
But the owners balked at giving away free food, which they estimated would cost them several thousand dollars. Yet they had spent $5,000 on a magazine ad!
“How many customers did it bring in?” Stratten asked. “We don’t know,” they replied.
Does this sound familiar? Stratten calls this the “push and pray” marketing strategy. You push your ad out to thousands and even millions of people, and pray that some respond.
3 Ways to Close the Gap Between Social Media and Direct Response
Does the phrase direct marketer conjure up sleazy images? If you thought yes, you’re not alone.
Both social media marketing and direct response marketing place a focused pitch on the right list (prospects) and understanding what they want in order to engage them with relevant information that will get them to buy from you.
So why are social media and direct response considered mutually exclusive?
Jonathan Fields, author of Career Renegade, put a stake into the hearts of social media “purists” when he said, “Those making the most money with social media marketing today are doing so by turning it into direct-response 2.0.”
5 Ways to Effectively Manage Your Online Reputation
Are you a Sketchy Sam or a Likeable Laura? When it comes down to doing business with someone, there’s no doubt that reputation is a major factor in making a decision.
After all, would YOU do business (knowingly) with a sketchy person?
But with the rise of social media comes new challenges for businesses of all shapes and sizes, especially when it comes to reputation: Who knows you and what do they know you for?
Are you helpful? Are you a great person to do business with? Are you a trusted resource or a product pusher?
More importantly, in the transparent business world we now live in, are you AWARE of your reputation… and are you doing something about it?
What Old McDonald Can Teach You About Social Media
The average American is hit with an average of 4,000 promotions every single day. And most people ignore almost all of the ads.
Consumers have developed extremely sophisticated filters. As a marketer, you’re fighting that filter every day.
What if you could take the filter out of play altogether? You can. Here’s how:
Facebook Marketing in Only An Hour a Day?
When fifth-grader Kane Swift had to do a science project, he decided to help raise funds for the Susan G. Komen for the Cure campaign.
So he set up a Facebook fan page with the help of his parents. In just one week, he got more than 1,200 fans and raised $400!
“I can understand using Facebook for a fifth-grade science project,” I hear you saying. “But how do I use Facebook to market my business? I keep hearing that I should include social media in my marketing campaigns, but I don’t have a clue how to do that.”
How Big Brands Employ Social Media Marketing
I recently interviewed Andy Sernovitz, founder of the Social Media Business Council, an organization that includes many of the world’s largest brands such as Cisco, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Microsoft, Proctor & Gamble and Wells Fargo, just to mention a few.
Andy is also author of the book Word of Mouth Marketing and founder of GasPedal, a group that advises big brands such as TiVo, Dell, Sprint and Kimberly-Clark.
During this interview, you’ll gain insight into how large corporations are employing social media and you’ll also gain Andy’s insight into word-of-mouth marketing.
12 Ways to Market Your Event With Social Media
Whether you’re planning a real-world event (like a conference, tweetup or political gathering) or a virtual event (like a webinar or teleclass), social media can be an inexpensive, cost-effective way to build buzz, fill seats, and turn a one-off gathering into a recurring event.
The trick is to know which social media tools to use and when to use them. This article contains 12 useful social media tips designed to help your events shine.
Socialnomics: It’s a People-Driven Economy
An Illinois senator who was virtually unknown in 2004 defeated Hillary Clinton in 2008 to win the Democratic U.S. presidential nomination.
And he used social media to do it.
His YouTube videos got 110 million views, estimated to be 14.5 million hours of viewing. Mass media advertising to reach that many viewers would have cost $47 million.
A famous rapper made a promotional video that gave him even more free publicity.
At the time of the election, he had five million fans on Facebook — over four million more than his opponent. On MySpace, the numbers were approximately 800,000 and 200,000, respectively. On Twitter, he had over 100,000 followers and his opponent had about 5,000.
And he rode that social media train all the way to the White House.
