Be Generous with Your Business

The New York Times recently reported that the key to happiness is giving to others. How can we apply this to our businesses? Here's five ways to give back:

From Flickr user ThisParticularGreg.

1) Help a less experienced colleague. People who do the same thing as you do are your partners, not just your competitors. Giving a little advice now and then is a way to make connections, give back, and great karma for later. Now is also a good time to look at how you're mentoring your own employees.

2) Give a customer a break. Have a difficult order with a return problem, shipping issue, or an "I'm just not happy" problem? Make that customer's dream come true. Give a full refund. Extend your return policy. Waive the shipping charges. Send a replacement for free. A little goodwill now will get you a customer for life.

3) Embrace your community. Do you reply to posts on Facebook? Do you retweet your customers' tweets? Do you help the recent college grads who follow your company on LinkedIn? Social networking is a two-way street. Don't just broadcast, contribute. You'll find that your Facebook wall becomes a vibrant community.

4) Get your company involved in local good works. How involved are you in the community where you live? It's easy to ignore our hometowns when we do all of our business online. Can you support your local Girl Scout troop? Kids' softball team? Food pantry? Get out there with your employees and find a way to help out in the community you call home.

5) Get your customers involved in good works. Ask them to donate to a good cause whenever they order, or just to support a favorite charity anyway. Donate a portion of their order to charity. Make it easy for them to share with their friends on social networks. 

How are you giving back? Please share in the comments.

Related Posts
Why Social Media Matters to Your Business
Why All Marketing is Local

Four Ways to Stay Relevant for the Holidays

You've had a successful Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, and now you're cruising towards home - just another couple of weeks and then it's visions of sugarplums while you get a little rest.

But your numbers haven't stayed up, and you're finding that now your numbers are actually LOWER than last year. Your Thanksgiving sales strategy brought in plenty of customers in November, but now they've moved on to other deals.

Holiday cheer. Photo: Flickr user Glennharper.

How do you light a fire under your customers? Here are four ways to keep the traffic coming.

1) Give a special offer to people who bought right after Thanksgiving. They should have their orders by now and if they like what they bought, they may want to purchase again.

2) Do a winback campaign for past buyers who didn't buy this year. Give them a reason to buy from you again.

3) Keep your customers in the loop - about new specials, deadlines (like for free shipping or Christmas delivery).

4) Don't forget other holidays - depending on who is in your customer base, your buyers may be honoring the Winter Solstice, celebrating Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Boxing Day. Don't forget Saturnalia or Gluten Free Baking Week. Did you know that December is also National Tie Month? Most importantly, December 16 is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day. OK, so I'm getting carried away, but the bottom line is that Christmas is only one holiday - bring in more customers by including people celebrating all kinds of things this month.

Need help planning your observance of National Whiner's Day? Let me know - I can help. First step - no whining.

News This Week: Women, Siri, Real Time

What should you be paying attention to this week?

The world's women are now responsible for more of the world's economy than men, controlling $20 trillion in yearly consumer spending in 2009, a figure that will continue to rise in the next five years. (Harvard Business Review)

Your takeaway: Don't ignore your female customers, but don't patronize them either. It's not about "making it pink" - women don't  need pink web sites or pink merchandise to embrace your brand. We need quality products, easy access to reviews and other product data, and a way to talk to our friends about it.

To the women's only train cars in India. Photo: Flickr user Zoonabar.

The iPhone 4S's new digital assistant, Siri, is down. According to this article, Apple was unable to be reached for comment. (Business Insider)

Your takeaway: Bugs happen, seemingly no  matter how much you test. Don't ignore them and get them resolved as quickly as you can. Communicate progress via all possible channels and make it right. Customers become more loyal when you prove that you stand behind what you do.

Google Analytics Real Time tells you what's happening on your site right now, and is now available to people with the new version of the Analytics software. (Google)

Your takeaway: Real Time can be really useful to determine the immediate impact of social media posts - on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or on other networks. Even more useful, you'll be able to see when  your social media stops working - how long does a Facebook post last, or a Tweet?


Have a good weekend, and thanks for reading!

News This Week: Postal Rates, Facebook Posts, Ads and Economy

What should you be paying attention to this week?

Mailbox. From Flickr user Pocius.

The United States Postal Service has announced a postal rate increase, effective January 22, 2012. The average increase is 2.1% - it will be more for some types of mail and less for others. (Multichannel Merchant)

Your takeaway: If direct mail is part of your strategy, your marketing just got more expensive. If you ship products to your customers via USPS, that just got more expensive too. Crunch the numbers carefully to figure out what this might cost you, and look for creative ways to save - there are lower increases on certain sizes of mail, and you might evaluate different carriers for your customer shipments and see if you can lock in some lower pricing now.


The average lifetime of a Facebook post is 22 hours and 51 minutes for comments and likes, according to researcher Jeff Widman of PageLever. See more information on his study at Entrepreneur.

Your takeaway: You need to post on Facebook daily or you run the risk of being forgotten. If this sounds overwhelming, tools like Hootsuite help you schedule posts ahead of time so you don't forget. I like to do a social calendar on a weekly basis - for my clients, I sit down each Friday and plan out the posts for the following week, mapping them to inventory needs and what else is going on in the marketing calendar at large. If things change, I can always reschedule or change posts as needed.

Advertisers trying to connect with consumers are referencing the poor economy more often in their messaging these days - a tactic they dropped when the economy started to improve a bit last year. This is a risk, as consumers don't want to be reminded of bad news, but do connect to ads referencing bail-outs and Wall Street fat cats. (Marketplace)

Your takeaway: A great deal always resonates, whether you reference current events or not. Connect with customers with a great deal, attentive service, and quality products. Be prepared to be nimble - the changing landscape out there means that an ad that takes six months to produce might be outdated by the time it's ready if it's based on this week's news.

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

News this Week: Business Continuity and Emergency Planning

What should you be paying attention to this week?

Forecasted path of Hurricane Irene. Image: The Weather Channel.

News this week here in DC was dominated by the East Coast Earthquake, Hurricane Irene, and Steve Jobs’ resignation from Apple. (all from Washington Post)

This is has certainly been an eventful week. What’s your takeaway?

As a business owner, you need both an evacuation plan and a shelter-in-place plan to keep everyone safe.

But you also need to consider business continuity planning.

Who will make the decision to close your business in due to natural disaster or another event? If you have employees in multiple locations, how will each be affected? How will buildings be secured in case of damage?

Where will customer service calls be routed if your call center must be closed? If critical employees are affected by the disaster, who will take over for them?

Will people be able to answer emails remotely even if your email server is damaged? Can phone calls be forwarded to employees at home?

If your server room is damaged, where are your files backed up? Are critical documents stored in fire-proof containers?

What does your insurance cover? What is not covered and must be protected in another way?

You can find more information on business continuity planning here:

If you run your business out of your home, your business should be part of your family’s home emergency and evacuation plan. If you don’t have one of those, click here to get started.

What does Steve Jobs’ unfortunate situation have to do with this?

Now is also a good time to identify critical employees (yourself included), and what to do if they can't work. If you have an emergency and can't work, who will take over? Consider some cross training and succession planning.

What's this action packed week got you thinking? Please share in the comments or drop me a line.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Your Role in Job Creation

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a 9.1% unemployment rate in July, 2011, not good news. In some areas of the country, that rate is 20% or more. Don't forget that this rate is calculated using only people who are currently looking for work - people who have given up looking or dropped out of the workforce entirely aren't included. Neither are people who have part-time work but would prefer to work full time. So the true unemployment rate could be far higher.

Photo: Flickr user SahajaMeditation.

So what's your role in job creation? What can you and I do to help?

1) If you're able to, hire someone. Even part-time. Even 1099. Even just for one project. Every bit helps.

2) If you really, really can't hire anyone to work for you, think about things you used to hire other businesses to do, that you've started doing yourself for the past few years. Can you farm out some graphic design, accounting work, marketing, or PR to help another business? Again, every bit helps.

3) If your clients are other businesses, how can you provide even better service than you've been providing? If you help your clients grow, then they can do their part in job creation, too.

What about you? What are you doing to help create jobs, even as the economy stays challenging?

Weekly News Roundup - August 20, 2011

What should you be paying attention to this week?

It’s getting easier to put up a storefront on your Facebook page, thanks to a partnership between Facebook, e-commerce platform provider Magento, and service provider Zibaba. Say that ten times fast. (Internet Retailer)

Your takeaway: If you’ve been wondering how merchants like LL Bean and Petco got their Facebook stores up and running, it’s going to get easier. If you do a lot of online sales and Facebook is (or you want it to be) a major customer channel, now’s a good time to start thinking about what it would take to do this.

Google, among other things this week, has launched a catalog app for the iPad. Also coming soon for Android, Google Catalog lets users flip through digital catalogs, go shopping, and share with friends.  (Time Techland)

Your takeaway: If you've got a catalog, and you sell to a relatively affluent audience (i.e. people with iPads), then this is something you might consider. The more convenient you make shopping for your customers, the better.

Gotorola or Motoroogle? Never one to rest on its laurels, the real big story for Google this week is the acquisition of Motorola Mobility. This is a good news/bad news situation (ZDNet)

What does it mean that Google will now own its very own mobile device manufacturer? Google will be more like Apple – they will supply the software platform and the device hardware, as well as the content and apps they already provide.

But let’s not forget that a huge motivator for Google’s acquisition was to strengthen its position in the patent wars – here’s more on these from NPR, including a handy graphic that explains who’s suing who.

But as ZDNet says, this also means that Google will then compete against the very handset makers using its Android platform – Samsung, HTC, etc. Isn’t this a bit cannibalistic?
Of course, Google could always just shut Motorola down completely and keep the patents, and there’s always a chance they could do that, but I hope not. That’s a lot of jobs we can’t afford to lose.

What do you think the Google acquisition of Motorola means for technology, jobs, telecom? Please share in the comments.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Why Social Media Matters to Your Business

I've worked with a number of businesses now that were a little afraid of engaging with customers on social media. Online. Where everyone can see.

Listen to your customers and they will listen
to you. Photo: Wayne Large, via Flickr

What are they worried about?

"Anyone can follow us!"

"We can't control what they say!"

"People can complain publicly about our product!"

"This will change our reputation!"

Sorry people. These aren't bad things - these are great things for your business.

Let's break this down, one misconception at a time:

"Anyone can follow us!"

That's right. Anyone can follow you on social networks - people who already love your brand, people who have bought from you once, people who are thinking about buying your product, people who want to learn more, AND all of their friends, and their friends, and their friends too. So, if you're opposed to this, you're saying that you really don't want to increase your reach and you really don't want to let more people know you exist. What kind of business doesn't want to grow? You tell me.

"We can't control what they say!"

That's right - people can say what they want. They can talk about ways they are using their product that you haven't even thought of, little bugs you might not have even noticed, other stuff they wish you would sell, and ask you questions about how to use it. They can also talk about how much they love, love, love what you do, and tell their friends all about it.

"People can complain publicly about our product!"

It's true. People can complain as much as they want, and tell as many people as they please. This is what most businesses are afraid of, but I promise that this is a good thing. When customers complain publicly, you have a chance to make it right, also publicly, and then that customer will thank you and appreciate you, also (you guessed it), publicly, for everyone to see. You know what your future customers want? Not just a great product, but a company that stands behind that product and makes it right when there are problems. Here's your chance to prove it.

"This will change our reputation!"

Yes it will. You'll be known for real love instead of polite disdain. You'll be known for closeness instead of distance. For care instead of neglect. For engagement instead of willful ignorance. I don't see a problem here. If you do, then you need to reexamine why you're in business to begin with.

Need help going social? Let me know.

Be social with me - I'm on Twitter and Google+.

Four Ways to Keep Your Head Up in Tough Times

This recession has been hard on almost everyone. The US economic recovery is taking far longer than even the experts predicted.

So your sales targets were raised this year because people thought things were going to get better. Your numbers may be up, but they aren't where they need to be. Your employees are demoralized, and some of your best folks feel like failures and are close to giving up.

What can you do?
photo © 2009 Nancy | more info (via: Wylio)


Here's a few ways to help everyone (yourself included) feel some hope for the future.

1) Celebrate the small victories. Was this week better than this week last year? Did you renegotiate a contract to lower costs? Did your team implement some new service offerings that are raising your customer satisfaction scores? Recognize every improvement publicly and thank all those who participated.

2) Create rewards and incentives. Big bonuses are a thing of the past at most companies. If you want to reward your employees but can't spend any cash, consider that free days off, flexible hours, and handwritten, personal thank-you notes all work wonders to boost morale.

3) Keep working on career pathing. It's true that most employers aren't providing promotions right now. But that doesn't mean you stop mentoring your team and stop helping them grow. Wherever possible, make sure your team is learning new skills, staying up to date on industry trends and technology, and that they are exposed to important vendors, customers, and your own company executives. Your employees won't give up on you if you haven't given up on them.

4) The two words you can say to your staff that mean the most are "Thank You." Be sincere and specific, and encourage your team to thank each other as well.

Marketing morale need a boost? I can help.

Marketing News Roundup - June 24, 2011

What's new in marketing (and elsewhere) this week?

A new analysis of LivingSocial and Groupon customers finds that LivingSocial draws a slightly older, more affluent user, though both sites draw people that are more affluent and educated than the average Internet user. (eMarketer)
photo © 2007 włodi | more info (via: Wylio)

EBay will launch a Facebook sharing function that will enable users to drag and drop eBay products into their Facebook feeds for their friends to vote on and comment. (Direct Marketing News)

Sonic the Hedgehog is turning 20. A lot has changed since 1991, when the blue dude launched on the Sega Genesis. Today, it's not so uncommon to see video game megastars with movies, tv shows, and more, but Sonic started it all. (BBC)

Need a smarter team? Harvard Business Review says you should add some women. Adding women to your team raises collective intelligence, improving brainstorming and decision making. (HBR)

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Seven Ways to Beat the Creative Block

It's hard to get up every day and be 100% creative.

Sometimes I get up and I'm just not inspired. Here's what I do when I'm all out of great ideas.

1) Check my Twitter account. This is where I connect to other people who do what I do, so I can see what they are thinking about today. It's also a great source of overall news and interesting ideas.

2) Login to LinkedIn and see what my connections are doing. Is anyone working on anything interesting? Did anyone post anything thought-provoking in one of my groups? The answer to this is almost always yes.

photo © 2008 Cornelia Kopp | more info (via: Wylio)
3) LinkedIn has also recently launched a feature called LinkedIn Today, which displays headlines based on your chosen news sources and what's being shared by the most people. This is another great way to find out what people find relevant right now.

4) Checking google trends tells me what the most popular google searches are right now. While this usually just confirms for me that I'm way behind on my pop culture, it can be a great way to find out what's top of mind out there.

5) Sometimes I visit Wikipedia's main page. Wikipedia will tell you what happened on this day in history (which is always of interest), provide the latest news, and showcase a few other interesting things I didn't know.

6) It's usually worthwhile to take a 10-minute break to watch a TED talk. Some of the most inspiring people around are on TED and there's always the opportunity to learn something new.

7) If I'm still not inspired, maybe today's not a day for creative work. Maybe it's time to take a break and do something else. It really can help to just give myself permission not to be creative today. I can work on many other things - accounting, reporting, customer service, or other project work. Sometimes getting organized is all I need to get unblocked.

How do you cope when you feel blocked? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Email Isn't Dead! Permission Based Marketing Works

Lately, lots of marketers have been refocusing on email marketing as a way to better sell, keep, serve, and save customers. Though proponents of social media have declared email dead, businesses like Groupon, LivingSocial, and SniqueAway have proved them wrong. So why does email do wonders where other channels can fail?

It's all about permission-based marketing.

That's right. While all channels can be (and should be) permission-based, e-mail is by far the easiest to optimize this way and generates the best results.

How does this work?
photo © 2010 Keith Ramsey | more info (via: Wylio)

On a basic level, you should only be sending your email blasts to people who've agreed to receive them.

But it goes deeper than that.

If you sell more than one type of product, don't you want to know which of your customers are most interested? If you sell products for babies, why do you want to promote these to people without babies? Why do you want to sell garden supplies to people who don't have gardens? Why do you want to sell windshield wipers to people without cars?

You don't. (No, you really don't.)

This is where permission-based marketing comes in. Here's how it works:

Ask your customers which kinds of messages they want from you - what are they interested in and what do you they want to hear about? You can work with your e-mail vendor on this, or you can use one of several online survey tools to ask them. Then, simply send them what they want.

Why is this good?

• It helps you determine the level of interest for each of your product categories.
• You're of more value to your customers because you're only delivering content of interest.
• You're respecting your customer by letting them hear from you only as often or as rarely as they want.
• When you launch a new product, you'll have a much better idea of how many people will want it.

 Need help figuring out who wants what, where and when? Let me know.

Don't Rickroll Your Audience - Try this Instead

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, getting rickrolled means that you've clicked on a link to content that interests you, only to get Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" video.

Why am I talking about this now? Rickrolling is so 2008.

Because thousands of businesses rickroll potential customers every day.

How?

Rick Astley.
Flickr user chinnian

1.  Say you really need to move some polka-dot sweaters this week, so you advertise a great deal on them. Unfortunately, you send users to your home page, where the sweaters aren't promoted. Users have to use your menus to get to apparel, then women's, then sweaters, then polka-dot. Congratulations, you've just annoyed the crap out of your customers, and most have given up.

Don't rickroll - link directly to your deal!

2. Say you've just discovered that your product, baby powder, repels ants like nothing you've ever seen. So you do some promotions targeted to people interested in beating their ant problem. Unfortunately, you send these folks to your regular baby powder page, which is all about beating diaper rash. Is this the same stuff that makes ants go away? Your customers don't know. They leave empty-handed, feeling confused.

Don't rickroll - match your audience to your content with tailored landing pages.

3. Say you've created a great new diet solution. You place an online ad that says "Avoid these five foods, and lose weight today!" Lots of people click on this ad, but these five dastardly foods are nowhere to be seen. Instead, there's a video of indeterminate length (Are the five foods in there? Do I have time to watch this now?) and a exhortation to join your paid diet plan web site.

Don't rickroll - provide the content you've promised and people will want more.

Need help matching your deals, your content, and your audience? Let me know.

Marketing News Roundup - May 27, 2011

What's new in marketing this week?

Pay with your phone? Google out the gate with Google Wallet, an app which allows you to pay with your phone. Will this be the death of cash credit cards, or will people resist due to privacy concerns? (InfoWorld)

photo © 2011 Charlie Wollborg | more info (via: Wylio)
In a phyrric victory for cash-crunched wives and girlfriends of guys everywhere, it turns out that men are bigger impulse buyers. If you're wondering who the SkyMall catalog people have in mind, now you know. (Technorati)

Is Detroit the next Silicon Valley? Google, Ford, Quicken Loans hiring engineers aplenty. Let's hope the momentum keeps up. (GoodNewsNetwork)

Oprah's last show was this week. What will happen to all the Oprah-supported-industries? Don't worry, she's still on cable and online. (Forbes)

Now's your chance to travel like you're rich and famous. JetBlue is auctioning off signed luggage from celebrities like Jordin Sparks and Donald Trump. Proceeds go to charity DoSomething.org (MSNBC)

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Another Marketing Lesson from the Un-Rapture

Lots of bloggers have already written about marketing lessons from the apocalypse that didn't happen on Saturday.

If you want to read them, click here for a list.

Fortunately for everyone but Harold Camping, the rapture didn't happen on Saturday. We're all still here, hopefully enjoying our lives.

When questioned about the fact that the end times didn't begin on May 21st, Camping said that God had decided to spare the people five months of tribulation, and that the apocalypse was now scheduled for October 21, 2011. His last rapture prediction, in 1994, also didn't come true.

This reminded me of something a lot of marketers do, which is to extend their sales again, again, and again. I see this in my inbox all the time. The first promotion says:

photo © 2010 Forest Wander | more info (via: Wylio)


Sale Ends Friday!

Then, I get a:

Sale Extended through Sunday. Act Now!

and then, I get a:

Sale Now Extended through Tuesday. Don't Miss!

At this point, I think you're probably just going to extend your sale again, and your message loses both relevance and credibility. I'll just wait to buy - you'll just do another sale, right?

Don't be like Harold Camping. If you still have inventory to sell, create a new promotion. If your current sale isn't meeting your goals, instead of extending it, why not try a new approach to see if that drives better results? It's always a good idea to put something new in front of your customers.  Need help? Let me know.

Writing Your Own Customer Stories

Since my previous post on story marketing is the one that gets read the most, I figured you all might want to hear more about this concept.

How can you make story marketing work for your business?

Recently, I've been writing some client stories for a client of mine who has a very busy consulting business of her own. Let's call her Florence, or this post is going to use the word "client" far too many times to be readable. Here's how I put together Florence's stories:

photo © 2007 umjanedoan | more info (via: Wylio)

1) We identified the starting point of the client. Where were they when they began working with Florence? What were their challenges?

2) What did Florence do for them? This is the longest part of the client story. We were sure to include details. After all, it's great that Florence has helped so many people, but her prospective clients want to know how she has done that.

3) Where is the client now? Where did the journey end, or is it still going on? How did Florence's work contribute to the clients' success, and how are they still using the framework and guidance she provided to continue to grow?

Once I had this information about Florence's clients, I was able to create a narrative for each one. These stories are helping Florence's web site and printed materials to come alive, and to be relevant to people who are shopping Florence's business. They are also helping her to explain what she does, and to what result even more clearly, better supporting her business development needs.

Homework for you:

Write a client story today. Think about the beginning, middle, and end. Need help? Let me know.

Marketing News Roundup - May 13, 2011

What's new in marketing this week?

Edgy new marketing technique or bad idea? Planet Fitness purposely rolls out campaign to make fun of people who work out a lot, offending (suprise) people who like to work out a lot at Planet Fitness. There's a backlash coming from folks who actually do like to pick things up and put them down. (Slate)

photo © 2004 Phil Whitehouse | more info (via: Wylio)

What's up in group deals? Groupon, LiveNation are partnering for deals on event tickets. (Reuters)

What's up in luxury group deals? Luxury travel deal site Voyage Privé is partnering with Ideeli to create the largest luxury travel deal site in the US. (Travolution)

My excuse for this is that my crackberry is also my alarm clock. 35% of smartphone owners use mobile apps before they get out of bed. (PC World)

In merger news, Microsoft is buying Skype. According to Technorati, the big winner in this deal is Facebook.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Marketing News Roundup - May 6, 2011

What's new in marketing this week?

There's a lot going on in consumer privacy and security, including...
photo © 2009 Archibald Ballantine | more info (via: Wylio)

Do Not Track legislation moving forward in California. The law would allow Internet users to opt out of online data collecton systems. (Sure Start)


In a second major security breach (after last month's PlayStation Network breach), the Sony Online Entertainment Network has also been hacked. If you're playing Everquest, your credit card number may have been stolen. (PC World)


Google's South Korea offices raided, authorities there want to find out if Google is collecting user location data via online advertising on the Android platform. (eWeek)


In other news...


AT&T jumps into the deal site pool with its own offering. It will now offer daily deals on yellowpages.com. (Los Angeles Times)

For a great infographic on how existing deal sites compare to one another, click here.


Oh no! For the first time in 20 years, television ownership has gone down. "Only" 96.7% of American homes have a TV set, down from 98.9%. (New York Times)


And, finally...


We can't close out the week without reflecting on the death of Osama bin Laden. (Complete coverage from Slate)


I'm relieved he can't hurt people anymore. One interesting element of the story had to do with how people learned the news. We go to bed early, so I found out on Facebook on Monday morning, but Twitter played a pivotal role as the story broke there first.




Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading, everyone!

Marketing News Roundup - April 29, 2011

What's new in marketing this week?

Is there a group buying bubble? Huddlebuy, another new group buying site, this time for small businesses, launches in the UK. 

Speaking of bubble, don't forget Facebook, which launched Facebook Deals in Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego, and San Francisco this week. 

Fingers tired? German site slashtag.it is ultimate search shortcut. (FastCompany)

photo © 2009 State Library of New South Wales | more info (via: Wylio)

In data security news, Sony's PlayStation network was breached, possibly including credit card data, prompting a class action lawsuit alleging that Sony was negligent in protecting customer data. (USA Today GameHunters blog)

In response to customer fears that Apple is tracking iPhones (and their users) everywhere they go without consent, Apple now claims that it doesn’t track the physical locations of iPhones - only the wi-fi hotspots and cell towers to which these devices connect. Would have been nice if they just told people that in the first place. Two customers in Florida are suing Apple anyway. (The Escapist)

And finally, this is kind of obscure, but I thought readers might want to know that Prince William of England married a woman named Kate Middleton today. Maybe they will post a video on YouTube, in case anyone would like to watch the Royal Wedding.

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading!

Marketing News Roundup - April 22, 2011


What's new in marketing this week?

Visa launches new mobile deal service for its retail clients, to compete with FourSquare, Groupon, and eBay. (AdAge)

Gimmicky or brilliant? What do you think of Sprint’s new ad strategy – to wish a Missouri woman happy 100^th birthday using calls, text messages, and e-mails, preferably via Sprint’s unlimited data plans. (GeekWire)

Kitten. Photo: Arthur L. via LOLcats.
Link: http://tinyurl.com/3bjvxfr

President Obama holds town-hall meeting on Facebook with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, where he discussed the economy, immigration, education, and other issues. (Event video from Livestream) 

Good Read: Great advice from Design*Sponge blogger Grace Bonney for building your brand on twitter. How are you reaching out to customers on a one-on-one basis?

Food for Thought: Are tablet computer users favoring their tablets over TV and PCs for entertainment purposes? (Phandroid)

Bonus item: Ever heard of IceRocket? It's a real-time search engine to help you watch trends. Someone found my blog that way this week. How are people finding you online?

Have a great weekend, and thanks for reading, everyone!