Archive for April, 2009
A Letter to the Marketing Dept. from Your Shoes
Dear Marketing Department:
It has come to our attention that you’ve been experimenting with some new ways of reaching out to customers. Blogs, Twitter, YouTube…they’re all the rage. We get it.
We’ve been down this road before, you and us. Remember when the fax machine came out? It was gonna change the world! You rushed right out [...]
What Swine Flu Teaches Us About Marketing
Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 27. Then, like an idiot, I accidentally deleted it. Oops.
The #1 trending topic on Twitter today is Swine Flu. It’s the top story on Digg and CNN.com, too. For a fun experiment, do a Twitter search for Swine Flu and watch the real-time results update every [...]
Social Media Charlotte Heats Up
The Charlotte social media scene has been percolating for a few months, and as summer approaches, we’ve got big developments in the works:
Social Fresh (aka SoFresh) is Charlotte’s first large-scale social media conference. Jason Keath is running point, has a great leadership team, and the August event promises to be a huge success. Follow @smclt [...]
How Twitter Helped Reward a Selfless Act
Every once in a while, social media works…
If you haven’t heard about Arik Hanson’s Tweetathon on behalf of Sonny Gill and I, check out the post that started it all, then see what happened on Twitter. Sonny wrote an awesome “Thank You,” too.
The Tweetathon generated dozens of job leads, consulting leads, freelance leads and new [...]
7 Nitty Gritty Tips for Managing Your Online Identity
Leaving a job reminds you of the nitty-gritty details involved in maintaining an online presence. If you lost your job this very minute — along with your work PC — would you still have full control of your online tools?
I’ve learned some valuable lessons about managing my online identity in one week as a free [...]
Blogging = “Contacting” a Company?
Joseph Jaffe had this great little blurb in his post about the Domino’s response to the “Snot Supreme” YouTube Video:
Marketers need to understand that when a blogger hits the publish button, they are essentially “contacting” the brand for a response, albeit indirectly.
I tend to agree. We used to call a company when we had a complaint. We hated [...]
PR/Marketing Vet Scott Hepburn Is Now A Free Agent
Before he changed the world as a Beatle, John Lennon was one of The Quarrymen.
Before he was a Hall of Fame quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, Brett Favre was an Atlanta Falcon.
Today, I’m looking for my next team. After two years at PRstore corporate HQ, I’ve become a free agent.
It’s been a heckuva ride with [...]
3 Wild Ideas for Social Networking in the Future
Do you get a sense that, now that we’re all sufficiently obsessed with/weary of Twitter, we’re looking for that Next Big Thing?
Here are some of my wild ideas for what we can do next. Some of these are probably already in the works — maybe even close to reality (or in existence unbeknownst to me). [...]
25 Big Questions for the Future of Journalism and PR
Minneapolis PR man Arik Hanson recently asked me to suggest a few questions for his night as moderator of #Journchat. That got me thinking about 25 Big Questions for the Future of Journalism and PR (keep reading to see your homework assignment):
Are all newspapers folding? Just some? Which ones? Why them?
Plenty of people say newspapers [...]
Scott Hepburn is a veteran PR and marketing professional. He blogs here about marketing, PR, advertising, journalism and social media.