Good afternoon Friday Linkers! So nice to be back!
Just returned from a blogging conference by and for women in Chicago.
This conference had schwag bags, liveblogging, seminars on personal branding and it made me truly excited about where blogging can help the future of your brand.
Amy Sedaris was there, Elizabeth Edwards was there. And where were you?
Are you interested in learning what I learned? Scroll down a bit to harness the power of the internet to learn about the exact topics I paid good money to see in person.
Blog, blogity blog blog blog.
So, apologies, I'm a little swoony on blogs this week. You can forgive me or you could call me up at 707.963.2404 and ask me any questions you have about setting up your own blog program.
Heinz Ketchup, time is running out
From the almost "backlashy" article in Fast Company, "The company is using ketchup bottle labels to promote the contest – 57 million specialty bottles were made! – and according to their website, more than 1200 videos have been submitted."
Read the Fast Company article >> http://tinyurl.com/29eay2
Visit the Heinz site to figure out if a user-submitted sweepstakes is for you >> http://www.topthistv.com/
Conversational marketing, resources
An innovative marketing book was just released about how marketing is changing from one-way communication to a two-way communication.
http://adage.com/bookstore/post?article_id=119259
From AdAge,
"The book has a definite gravitation toward blogs as today's purveyor of conversation. Below each author's entry title and byline is the URL for his or her space in the blogosphere. McLellan says the drive to showcase the blogging community directly relates to how the book was conceived -- as a dialogue."
See, it comes down to blog, blogity blog blog blog.
Or check out what one of the authors had to say:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ann-handley/learning-to-shut-up-and-l_b_58863.html
Loving life on the flip side of 50
http://www.clickz.com/3626587Eons is a new social networking site focusing on folks 50 and up.
"What's most important, and what we're saying to brands, is that they should try to create conversations and invite the consumer into the discussion," says Perry Allison, Eons' VP of sales.
Because the site is still relatively small, Eons.com is actively driving internal traffic to brand profiles and applications through house ads, which are also used to promote new site-generated content. "It's about giving users interesting things to see and do without having to leave Eons," she says.
Also, about a spanking new kind of online consumer:
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Long ignored by the marketing industry, 50- to 70-year-old women are about to become the richest demographic in U.S. history, according to Marti Barletta in her new book, "Prime Time Women."... [T]he CEO of Chicago's TrendSight Group and author of the 2002 book "Marketing to Women," says that over the next 10 years the boomer generation's leading female edge will transform the American market in nearly every consumer product category. Despite this, she scoffs, the advertising business continues to operate on outdated research as it exclusively focuses on much younger audiences.
What are you doing to reach a different, most decidedly non-millenial online consumer?
Blogging facts
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3504241
(Because they knew what they were talking about back in 2005.)
It's Friday. Surf a little, click a little, get a little inspired and then blog about it!
Thanks for signing up,
HJ