August 06, 2008

High-end bling on MySpace

By Ann Stofflet

How does a company market high-priced luxury items to consumers who make their money by baby-sitting and mowing lawns? Cartier is one of the first luxury brands to hang its shingle on MySpace.

Many expensive brands have been slow to move to the Internet generally, let alone social networks. Most luxury brands, worried about the company they keep, have been reluctant to become involved with social networking. Cartier took the risk, because it was a “different way to talk to a young audience.”

Make sure to read the New York Times feature on Cartier’s MySpace connection.

Posted by Alicia Dorset on August 6, 2008 04:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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August 05, 2008

GM FastLane blog redesign

By Alicia Dorset

WARNING: Blatant self-promotion!

Sometimes a classic needs a new look. After more than three years as the blogosphere‘s "it" example of corporate blogging, the General Motors FastLane blog features a new design by MS&L Digital‘s creative director Jason Julien and graphic designer Josh Weston. Check out this post from Christopher Barger, GM‘s Director of Global Communications Technology, on what to look forward to with the revamped blog.

Posted by Alicia Dorset on August 5, 2008 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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August 04, 2008

Rising travel costs + enhanced technologies = virtual meetings

By Ann Stofflet

If we wait long enough, all things come full circle. Bell bottoms were big again, the shag made its comeback. And virtual meetings are once again wildly popular.

When first introduced to corporate America, online meetings were all the rage. Fast forward to 2008, with the escalation of fuel prices, travel costs, and the weakening economy, and virtual meetings are once again in vogue. These aren’t the only factors contributing to their resurgence. With the passage of time and enhanced technologies, virtual meetings promise a richer, more lifelike experience. While most companies use more common online meeting tools, such as WebEx, Microsoft and I.B.M., there are varying degrees of sophistication in the teleconferencing industry.

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Posted by Alicia Dorset on August 4, 2008 01:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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July 22, 2008

E-Mail, the new snail mail?

By Daniel DeMoss

I came across an article by Rachel Leibrock in the Post-Bulletin talking about how younger generations seem to now view e-mail as a formal medium of communication. Recent studies have predicted a decline, or possible demise, of e-mail. According to a 2007 study by Pew Internet & American Life Project, 92 percent of adults regularly use e-mail versus 6 percent of teens. However, 36 percent of teens use text messaging.

I‘m intrigued that Leibrock doesn'‘t seem to think that e-mail will ever go away. Instead, she seems to think that it will be used for more formal communications, such as invitations, messages to old friends, etc. — services that were once sent by post.

Current and forthcoming generations are definitely not as dependent on e-mail on as their older counterparts. Many of my college friends don’t read their e-mail for a couple of days. When I ask them why they haven’t responded, they tell me to text message them in the future.

With a vast rise in the popularity of text messaging, micro-blogging, social network messaging and other short message systems, it seems possible that e-mail may have already seen its heyday. Check out the article and see what you think.

Posted by Alicia Dorset on July 22, 2008 05:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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Select NBC Universal properties partner with BlogHer

By Nichole Mrasek

BlogHer’s 2,200 bloggers will now be accessible to NBC Universal’s iVillage, BravoTV and Oxygen entities following last week’s announcement of the partnership. iVillage, the No. 1 site for women, serves as the largest media company dedicated to providing women information for all stages of life. The partnership offers synergy with BlogHer, the No. 1 network of blogs by women.

Lauren Zalaznick, president of Women and Lifestyle Entertainment networks for NBC Universal, also announced the creation of Women@NBCU, which will target content and marketing through various advertisements to women.

According to iVillage’s press announcement , “The sales network, comprised of BravoTV.com, Oxygen.com, iVillage and Sugar Inc., creates the largest online aggregation of top-tier women‘s media brands.”

This high-estrogen alliance will no doubt make ad-buyers who market to women very happy.

Posted by Alicia Dorset on July 22, 2008 05:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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July 14, 2008

Viral videos, something you want to catch

By Nichole Mrasek

To have a client’s video go viral, are you working hard or hardly working? Gatorade’s latest video gone viral has founder of BuzzFeed.com Jonah Peretti talking with NPR about how videos can turn into Internet phenoms, “Behind the Viral Video: What’s Fake, What’s Real.”

Right from the start, Peretti isn’t afraid to tell a company with megabucks to spend that they can’t just make a video viral. Additionally, companies that pay for the video’s promotion via advertising shouldn’t call it viral. Peretti feels, “It’s about creating a meaningful piece of content that snowballs conversations online.”

With all the advances in technology, today’s consumers are wiser and are searching for something that is authentic versus a hoax or an advertisement. Peretti’s conversation with NPR is definitely worth the listen and is a great educational piece on how to better service our clients.

Posted by Alicia Dorset on July 14, 2008 12:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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July 08, 2008

Google now indexes Flash, but text remains best practice for SEO

By Kai Blum

Google announced last Monday: "We've improved our ability to index textual content in SWF files of all kinds. This includes Flash ‘gadgets’ such as buttons or menus, self-contained Flash websites, and everything in between."

Does this mean that the use of Flash will not impact search engine rankings negatively anymore? No, because there's a difference between getting indexed and achieving a top rank on Google or Yahoo. PDFs are also indexed, but do they frequently come up as No. 1 in search results? Can they compete with highly optimized HTML-based pages? No.

Text sites will continue to beat Flash sites, in my opinion, because of the specific value the search algorithms assign to various HTML elements, especially tags that indicate headlines or emphasis. I doubt that Flash content will be assigned a higher value than regular text. Therefore, indexed Flash content will not improve a site's search engine rank significantly, especially if competition is strong and if competitors stay away from Flash and optimize their pages with the appropriate HTML tags.

Posted by Alicia Dorset on July 8, 2008 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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July 01, 2008

Hockey fans turn to Twitter

By Mark Harvey

If you think it's only the early adopters and techies who are in on this "Twitter thing," you're incorrect. Sports fans have found out this Twitter thing, too.

July 1 is Christmas morning for hockey fans. It's the day free agents can be signed; new, freshly signed players who are now competing for your fair city, unwrapped and ready to go. But if you're a serious hockey fan, are you simply going to sit around and wait for the 11:00 p.m. news to find out who your team has signed or is in talks with? Heavens no.

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Posted by Alicia Dorset on July 1, 2008 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
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