MAD MARKETING TACTICS™ !

Marketing: Unconventional, Annoying And Effective

2012-03-03T13:30:00.001-05:00

Marketing is a wonderful sport. It covers so many different areas of expertise, and can be diced and sliced (slap-chopped, if you will) into gazillions of subspecialties. But ultimately, its purposes are to:

1) Get attention;

2) Get your product or service noticed and distinguished from the competition;

3) Brand your company, product or service with memorable associations;

4) Give your campaign personality; make it interesting; make it engaging to your audience as newsworthy or entertaining;

5) Get your target market to come to you and maximize customer conversion, retention, referrals, and more...

The article link which follows appears courtesy of the CBS MoneyWatch Newsletter -- After you've read it, please hit the "BACK" button on your browser and return to this page (we'll be giving out cake, ice cream, balloons, pens and calendars!!!) for some commentary, conclusions and actionable items.

10 companies with wickedly effective marketing

Tap into the invaluable secrets of the best marketers on earth. Read more

If you want your marketing to be successful, you must be endlessly creative, responsive, proactive, hypnotic, fascinating and magnetic. There are neither lines nor limits. It is a combination of science and art, and not necessarily in that order.

A brilliant marketeer would know how to babysit two unruly children, each between the ages of 3 and 5, for a period of 12 consecutive hours. How's that for an analogy? Use your imagination, Mad Marketing Tactics Blog acolytes!

Douglas E. Castle

Shadow Leaders - Alernative Governments

2012-03-02T14:37:00.001-05:00

Shadow Leaders (puppeteers) and Alternative Governments (secret controllers) are notions which have now gone beyond the realm of futuristic sci-fi books and movies, 'crackpot' websites, and other forms of either imagination-fueled or paranoia-fueled media and become increasingly prevalent in the headlines and subject matter of articles and posts in highly-respected media and blogs.

Such authors as Dan Brown, Vince Flynn, Robert Ludlum, David Icke, and such mainstream television shows as The Unit, StrikeBack, Burn Notice are pressing the notion of secret societies, black-ops government units, private armies, cabals, conspiracies, privileged families pulling strings, and very small, secretive, amoral groups exerting incredible force (without allegiance to any country or cause) over the population and resources of the entire planet.

The Warren Commission, Area 51, Roswell, Fort Knox, Ruby Ridge, BP's ecological accident, Stealth Weapons, The World Trade Center Tragedy, the financial meltdown of the World Banking System, leaked correspondence from some very large and influential companies -- all of these magnetically, hypnotically pull our minds into at least contemplating the frightening and almost incomprehensible possibility of massive cover-ups, stratospheric power plays, para-governmental contractors in pivotal positions, and an elaborately-woven quilt of lies compounded upon lies.

You cannot help but think about the possibilities. Unthinkable Possibilities....yet we think about them.

Let's examine them together in A New Twitter Group. There is a great deal of fiction and fantasy out there, but what about the part that might actually be true? The best lies are concealed in half-truths, and dangerous truths are strategically debunked by tossing them in with the ravings of 'lunatics,' 'paranoids,' and 'extremists.' Join us.

Details follow, and all inquisitive minds are welcome - once there, you can draw your own conclusions. We don't pass judgment on our members -- we pass information and intelligence on to them for them to evaluate.

Again, join us.

Douglas E Castle

Follow @ShadowLeaders

Marketing: Conspiracy, Secrecy And Revelation

2012-02-28T13:31:00.000-05:00

Every so often I receive an email solicitation with a magnetic phrase in the Subject line, and I am enticed to open it. Spam or not, curiosity is the first motivator (placed right in the subject line) that will compel me to open an email to at least scan it before discarding it.

In a successful email campaign, the first key (aside from selecting a demographically and psychographically qualified prospective list of recipients, is a powerful subject line to invoke either curiosity or warm familiarity. This will depend upon the circumstances of how you've come by the list -- if your audience is comprised of subscribers to your newsletter or service, then the familiarity approach is usually quite adequate to achieve a substantial opening rate. In other cases, the curiosity strategy is most effective. If you can combine both, you've got an email that will be perceived as an "insider secret being shared," which is optimal.

Then, if you are selling a product or service in that email, and if you dealing within the realm of business to consumer communications, the three elements that your teaser email should contain are these:

1) Some hint of a conspiracy - people are naturally paranoid and curious about conspiracies, and the reasons and powers behind them;

2) Secrecy - people are very romantic, with provoked imaginations about secrets...especially ones which have been kept from them by powerful mysterious conspirators; and

3) Revelation - The nation that you about to break the seal on the secret scroll (it helps to have a good story about how you were able to obtain it and why you are making it available) and make its wisdom available to all who were blessed to receive your correspondence.

Following is an example from my inbox that contains the basic elements described above, on a very simplistic but effective level, especially if you are not dealing with a very sophisticated audience. Enjoy it. Please note that I do not endorse the promoter or any product offered for sale -- I'm using this letter exclusively for the purposes of illustration:

Cover-up: 150 Year Old Weight Loss Secret
"Forced" into Hiding is Finally Uncovered...
1863 — That's the year a remarkable discovery was made — one that SHOULD have given every man, woman and child the gift of knowing precisely what works to burn fat and keep us fit, happy and healthy for life.

But that didn't happen...

Instead a strange combination of misguided politicians and greedy corporations has driven this discovery underground where it's sat quietly for 150 years.

And what's worse is that the government not only hasn't lifted a finger to help...it's actually made the situation FAR worse by enacting ridiculous policies that have made us all sicker, fatter and more depressed than ever.

But one man has had enough — enough of the nonsense, enough of this "conspiracy" to hold back the existence of this discovery that is the secret to unleashing the thin, happy and healthy person hidden inside you.

This PhD nutritionist has actually put together a short exposé that blows the lid off of what's happened.

Warning: you'll be shocked and angered by what you are about to see...brace yourself.

It's simply unconscionable that this 150 year weight loss has been held from the public for so long...well, that ends, TODAY, when you watch this remarkable exposé right now.

Well, my fellow Mad Marketers... note how all of these elements, from the magnetic subject line to the conspiracy, to the secret, to the revelation [which will lead to a sense of urgency and a call to action] work together to make a fine sales letter. It even refers you to a video to sink the marketing hook into you just a bit more deeply, by engaging more of your senses and your time, and by deepening your emotional investment in the product or service to the extent that you'll almost want to justify your research and feelings by buying what is offered.

Some of my colleagues have distilled the essence of marketing down to this:

"Showing people a tempting rabbit hole, and guiding them down deeply into it".

Douglas E. Castle

[http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/douglascastle]
Follow the Madness on TWITTER -- http://twitter.com/MadMarketing
Find a treasure trove of great Twitter Feeds to follow at TwtterLinks Hubspot Blog.

Publicity: Apple's Amazing Media Machine

2012-02-21T16:01:00.000-05:00

Apple's Amazing Media Machine is, arguably the world's very best example of the pure power of publicity, versus the forced attention purchased by other companies (think about GEICO, Progresso, Trojan [the "Twister?"], Pillsbury and a few other companies and brands, which run extensive and expensive advertising campaigns).

While Apple admittedly has a well-established brand which impacts many aspects of many industries and individuals' lives, so does drinking water -- yet Brita has to advertise its shiny new water purification apparatus..... and the latest model releases of Mercedes and other automobile manufacturers have to be advertised frequently and aggressively.

Q: Doesn't it amaze you how frequently "Apple" appears in business media headlines on a regular basis? As of today, "Apple" appears in approximately 14.7% [estimate] of all biz headlines internationally and cross-media (i.e., conventionally published media, blogs and social media combined)!

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How can Apple continuously get all of this publicity when other companies, brands, products, services and events have to expend a fortune on paid advertising? All the tech companies discuss Apple, pro and con...technoid bloggers discuss Apple, pro and con. Apple has become the coveted Golden Ticket For The Guided Tour Of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory -- everybody talks about Apple.

The simple answer to this magic is that Apple (although inanimate) has become a celebrity. It has plans, events, releases -- in brief, it has developed a life and a fascinating, idiosyncratic personality. This was jump-started by the late Steve Jobs, a living, breathing soul, who melded his outspoken and unique personality right into the DNA of Apple, imbuing it with life.

Apple is like a mysterious yet omnipresent celebrity, with all of the associated gossip, anticipation and opinion swirling about and around it. Everyone has an opinion about what Apple has done, and a prediction about what its next move will be.

Going further [I always do], I would venture to say that Apple has every bit the tabloid sparkle and pull-a-copy-off-the-racks-at-the-checkout-counter magnetism of Donald Trump, Brad and Angelina, U.S. President Barack Obama, the Late Whitney Houston, David Letterman, The Giants --- maybe even Oprah.

The ultimate victory in public relations and publicity is to make your brand, your company or your product or service into a celebrity.

Perhaps, readers of The Mad Marketing Tactics Blog, you might consider giving your company and brand a celebrity personality. Make your every activity something which is newsworthy; in this way, you'll be able to do more telling (or implying), while the media does the reviewing, the anticipating and the selling.

Douglas E. Castle
[http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

p.s. Please visit us at the Twitterlinks Hubspot Blog [http://TwitterlinksHubspot.blogspot.com] and preview a portfolio of interesting Twitter feeds to follow on a variety of topics of interest. Follow as many as you'd like.

Marketing Artisically - Inspiration By Association - The HALO EFFECT

2012-02-15T12:41:00.003-05:00

This is an unusual post for the formidable, venerable, respected and highly serious Mad Marketing Tactics Blog. You might be tempted to snicker, or guffaw, or perhaps to even turn into a Human Vaporizer and involuntary spray (or spew) an atomized beverage out of your nose at the innocent luncheon companion opposite you. There will doubtless be some collateral damage. But then, haven't the wisest among us said that such might be the case?

Haven't we heard Cousin Frankie say things such as "If ya wanna make a omelet, ya gotta break some eggs? Eh? You listening or what?" [Frankie went on to become a prominent and beloved New Jersey politician].

But the folks (and I have been occasionally referred to as 'one of them,' as well as by a number of unprintable epithets) at Mpower Brands Partnership who are in the process of finalizing their MPower Escape Case product line for international distribution know their business.

Sometimes the best way to have your audience truly recognize the greatness and extraordinary potential of your brand or product is by association (regardless of how presumptuous, pompous, extreme, distasteful or outrageous) with an established, well documented success. This is commonly referred to as the "Halo Effect." Sounds silly - It works!

Feast your eyes on this wonderful artifact below, with its sacred aura and almost religious implications. Doesn't it remind you of the TEN COMMANDMENTS? Well?

If you're laughing, you should be quite ashamed of yourselves.

On a serious note, inspiration by association (i.e., the "Halo Effect") is a proven marketing power tool. Just ask MPower -- as soon as they finish wandering through the desert of contemporary marketing!

Douglas E. Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

Reversal Of A PR Catastrophe -- BP's [Very Expensive] Magic...

2012-02-09T09:41:00.001-05:00

This is neither an article about desperate politicians, corporate thievery at a global level, green business, or our world's precious ecosystems and those who are affected by them [in terms of earning a living] and in terms of nutrition and real-world survival, nor about morality of any sort. It is about how a company turns a disaster into a marketing and branding opportunity.

An amazingly engineered reversal of fortune.

---------------

British Petroleum (BP), the folks who probably committed the most heinous crime against the world's ecology and environmental balance due to callousness, carelessness are a Mad Marketing case study in publicity meltdown damage control. We can all become better PR experts, promoters and advertisers by following their audacious but viable example.

Considering that the job of the Publicity, Promotion, Branding and Advertising departments occasionally becomes (after an incredible global multi-media meltdown) either 'building a pyramid out of radioactive excrement' [it even glows at night!] or 'squeezing a trawler full of lemons to make enough lemonade to serve an entirely disenchanted nation,' BP has managed, with enviable success to turn tar into diamonds.

I won't make any statement of personal opinion about the ethics or true motives of BP (only that "ethics" seem to be conspicuously, almost arrogantly absent, and that "motives" could really be reduced to the singular "motive": "Maximize company profits despite any collateral damage, provided that the damage can be paid for by some third party outside of the company, or simply disregarded....oops! I've impaired my objectivity by accidentally tipping you off as to my secret opinion....darn).

We're hiring wells, drilling and subsurface professionals now
At BP, we're committed to America's economy and energy security. Our operations in the Gulf of Mexico are key to this. It's here that deepwater experts like you are working to drive industry standards forward and applying their invaluable experience to achieve operational excellence.Are you up for the challenge?

But wait! There's more...

What's even better than this type of incredible PR turnaround (it reminds me of a neurosurgeon smacking me in the head with a golf club and then telling me, as I drift into a coma... "I'm going to give you a free EEG and take care of you for FREE also!"), is the way clever politicos (in this case, US President Obama, who is doing miserably in the public polls and is desperate to accelerate any economic or employment recovery by any means) will even leverage them to their own political advantages! Please read the following brief excerpt from Truthout.org:

Gulf Reopens for Drilling as Obama Administration Accused of Low-Balling Effects of Spill

Yana Kunichoff, Truthout: "As the Obama administration announces the launch of its Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future ... a scientific integrity complaint alleges that officials 'manipulated' scientific data about the effects of the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil leak. Nearly two years after the March 2010 spill, the administration's new policy plans to open 38 million acres offshore of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to possible development in June 2012. The area will be available to deepwater drilling."

----------------

Just turn on the television and you'll be bombarded with commercials which feature plain folks in working clothes (no corporate suits) telling Americans and the world that "We are here for you, and we'll stay here to make things right!"

You'll even see some Louisiana shrimpers and fishermen (fisherpersons) speaking highly about BP giving them financial aid and support...and that business is "jes' as good as before." Stockholm Syndrome? Nope! Just ordinary people who like the idea of being on television, or have been offered a 'speaking honorarium.'

Turn on your computer or smartphone (figuratively speaking, as it might be on right now) and see BP advertising how many new jobs it is creating, and that it is actively recruiting engineers, and other specialists.

Their are now even loads of ads or promotional puff pieces about how BP is investing in the study of marine biology, maritime ecology, environmental conservation all manner of "unbiased" and "Humanitarian" efforts in order to make our home planet {for most of my readers} a far, far better place.

Their persistent, insistent conversion of a major public relations catastrophe (as well as a potential legal, regulatory and financial disaster) into a wonderful public relations, marketing and re-branding/ re-imaging opportunity is Mad Marketing at its amoral best -- and, with no direct admission of guilt or genuine apologies!

BP has done more than damage control in turning a defeat into a PR fest - they have performed marketing alchemy, turning pollution into psychological nutrition. You would think that these privateers had become (and perhaps always had been) philanthropists.

Hate the company if you will; but respect the ingenious, tenacious reversal of misfortune.

Douglas E. Castle for MAD MARKETING TACTICS!

BP Is Spending $500 Million To Fix Its Brand And Get Everybody To Forget About Deepwater Horizon (businessinsider.com)
BP's steady recovery could be undone by Deepwater court case (guardian.co.uk)
BP raises dividend and defends plans to drill deeper (telegraph.co.uk)
BP ups dividend as profits rise (bbc.co.uk)
BP Profits (wordwhores.wordpress.com)
Court Rules BP Must Pay Deepwater Rig Claims (news.sky.com)
You: BP's $25bn annual profit sees confidence and dividends soar (guardian.co.uk)
BP Made $3 Million An Hour In 2011, While Spill Victims Continued To Suffer (thinkprogress.org)
BP's steady recovery could be undone by Deepwater court case (bfreenews.com)
BP Says It's Entitled to Halliburton Pay (abcnews.go.com)
Investors Still Wary of BP Spill Costs (blogs.wsj.com)
Deepwater Oil Spill: Setback for BP in Compensation Bid (ibtimes.com)
Will BP Clear the Decks? (blogs.wsj.com)
BP Shareholders Need Faith (blogs.wsj.com)
BP's Battle Over Who's to Blame for Gulf Disaster Heats Up (blogs.wsj.com)
BP Profit Soars; Resumes Gulf of Mexico Drilling. (technorati.com)
BP chief Bob Dudley out of the fire? (telegraph.co.uk)
BP Claims Halliburton Destroyed Oil-Spill Evidence (online.wsj.com)
Will Americans Buy BP's Slick PR Blitz Following Gulf Oil Spill? (huffingtonpost.com)
Top 5 Cases of PR 'Lemons to Lemonade' in 2011 (mediabistro.com)
How BP avatars show up in your life (parentnetworkforpoisonfreekids.wordpress.com)
Amid BCS mania, BP pushes a feel-good Gulf story (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
BP Pushes Feel-Good Gulf Story (myfoxny.com)
Simon English: Hester's public outpouring proves that bankers are not of this world (independent.co.uk)
Groups sue to halt 7-year oil spill in Gulf of Mexico (summitcountyvoice.com)

Get Friendly With Quora - Now

2012-01-26T12:17:00.000-05:00

Quora Discussion Forum? Eh?

The Forum will feature open, give-and-take discussions on a variety of cutting-edge social and business topics initiated by Douglas E. Castle . All are invited and encouraged to participate.

Although I do not believe that Quora will displace Twitter or Facebook in the social media universe, I firmly believe that it is going to provide a wonderfully intelligent forum feature which will complement all other social media.

I hope you'll be joining me here at http://QuoraDiscussionForum.blogspot.com. There will be polls, surveys, back-and-forth discussions on a number of controversial, current topics...and best of all, you will absolutely have a chance to express yourself through a very, very large bullhorn.

If you say something clever, you might even be quoted. The Quora Discussion Forum will bring a whole new dimension of real-time interactivity to by all of us.

Join us -- to sit down and be counted. Find out what others think. Let them know what you think. We'll even give you more than 140 characters to express your view. We'll even give you a chance to upload photos, video clips, and voice clips.

Thank you for letting me brag. And for deliberately and conspicuously stuffing the following topics, keywords, tags, label, search terms and keywords in, as well: Twitter, Quora, Facebook, Social media, Online Communities, Quora Discussion Forum, Douglas E. Castle, Social network, marketing, promotion, advertising, interactive media, IT,

Oh, and by the way, you can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/QuoraForum. Things should be heating up rather quickly. Be patient as we gather momentum...

At the very end of this article, there are a number of articles related to this topic. Get to know Quora -- the potential is exponential.

Douglas E. Castle
[http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

Follow Douglas E Castle on Quora

Video Power! Crazy Horse Studios

2012-01-24T16:09:00.000-05:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then it must follow (geometrically and logically), that a well-conceived, well-presented video speaks volumes. The miracle is that a sensorially-engaging, imagination-grabbing presentation is a synergistic combination of a business plan, a marketing plan, a branding campaign, an investment prospectus or memorandum, and a kick in the head (figuratively).

The MPower Escape Case, a product of which I have become a fanatical fan, is run by MPower Brands Partnership, an entrepreneurial enterprise which operates like a true cooperative...every provider of services to the firm becomes an owner, with a serious stake in the upside. It feels like a family, but like one that's about to "go dynastic."

The wonderful young firm, Crazy Horse Studios, who produced an animation of MPower's first product, did a job that was so stunning it proved to me what I had been idly preaching for so long. Video Is Power.

The rest, excerpted from MPower's blog, speaks volumes about the power of video. I could write about this, but that would indeed defeat the purpose of the darned case study. If you've got questions about this video, you can ring Mr. Paul Regalado (the Principal Rider At Crazy Horse Studios), at 303.525.8423, or email him directly at paul@crazyhorsestudios.com.

I don't have clue about how he conceived and produced this miniature movie classic...this mixture of art and science.

The video speaks for itself. Watch and listen... [cue hoofbeats and distant trumpets]

THIS VIDEO IS BEST VIEWED IN FULL SIZE. CLICK ON THE LOWER RIGHT CORNER OF THE SCREEN, NEXT TO THE YOUTUBE LOGO.

Direct YouTube Link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZfeE3TmE0c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Video Link For Emailing:
http://youtu.be/LZfeE3TmE0c

A WORD ABOUT THE ABOVE VIDEO ANIMATION: The dazzling animated presentation was created, from initial concept to spectacular completion, by the brilliant creative and technical minds at CRAZY HORSE STUDIOS. Their work is as stellar as their imaginations are limitless. Learn more. Go To http://www.CrazyHorseStudios.com and be fascinated at how art and technology work together in synergy and harmony.. Think about what miracles CRAZY HORSE can do for your branding and marketing...

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What else is left for me to say? Nothing. That's the point.

Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com] for
MAD MARKETING TACTICS!

Business Growth: Mobile-Friendly and Mobile-Integrated

2012-01-20T17:19:00.003-05:00

The unadorned logic of it is impeccable. Since an increasing amount of research, referencing and communication is being done via mobile devices, the old static website and blogger updates are no longer adequate to maximize branding, lead generation and market-share for your business. You must become mobile-friendly and fully mobile-integrated.

This means advertising through the mobile media (text invitations and the occasional visual aid -- a stunning picture or a brief video -- or even a link to a friendly voice email), designing your site so that it conforms comfortably to mobile scale and capabilities constraints, and being certain that it has the ability to accept orders via mobile media. An increasing number of your prospective clients are going to leave the notebook at home, and will just bring a smartphone or tablet [perhaps two tablets if they are particularly zealous] with them everywhere.

In sum, you must be able to advertise, present and fill orders or sign up members utilizing mobile media, seamlessly and gracefully. Bear in mind that every internet trick, from voice-embeds to video-embeds, can be formatted for your mobile marketing campaign. And remember -- you must be able to send messages in bulk, but handle individual inquiries with the best Customer Experience Management (CEM) policies and practices. This approach lends itself perfectly to Twitter, Facebook and other rapidly-proliferating social media.

Free (Or Inexpensive) Mobile Marketing Tools

Brought to you by TwitterLinks Hubspot

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Following is a wonderful list of resources to take a look at. It should be noted that they are all best used in conjunction with with 1) Blogger blogs (where the new template designs give you an option to make your blog “mobile-friendly,” 2) a good text-messaging service, and of course, 3) TWEETADDER which can help you coordinate the whole marketing operation. If you need TWEETADDER, please simply click on the ad picture at the bottom of this page. It requires a one-time expenditure, but it can auto-manage hundreds of different Twitter accounts and millions of followers. And if you order through the ad, I will offer you a bonus. Why? Because I can...

Here’s our list for your reference and research - I do not personally endorse or guaranty the quality of these organizations, their products or their services...but they provide a very good starting point.:

10 Free Or Cheap Mobile Marketing Tools
http://www.qeh2.com/blog/2010/04/21/10-free-or-cheap-mobile-marketing-tools/

My Mobile Toolbar - More Than 300 Mobile Tools - Free, By Google
http://mymobiletoolbar.com/

MobiThinking Mobile Marketing Tools And Metrics
http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools

Sticky Mobile - Free (QR) Codes
http://sticky-mobile.appspot.com/

Mobile SMS Service
http://www.mobilesmsmarketing.com/

Top QR Code Generator
http://topqrcodegenerator.com/

SMS Cafe
http://www.smscafe.net/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you'd like to take me up on my offer for TweetAdder (you MUST have one), just click on the exciting display ad below. It is fabulous device for automating the management of a multi-Twitter Account Empire. I endorse it.

Note: Automate and Dominate the TwitterSphere!

The BEST investment in your social media campaign that you can make.

Once again, you must be able to advertise (via keyword-selected bulk messaging), present your case and fill orders or sign up members utilizing mobile media, seamlessly and gracefully. Bear in mind that every internet trick, from voice-embeds to video-embeds, can be formatted for your mobile marketing campaign. And remember -- you must be able to send messages in bulk, but handle individual inquiries with the best Customer Experience Management (CEM) policies and practices. This approach lends itself perfectly to Twitter, Facebook and other rapidly-proliferating social media. Conducting communications and commerce through mobile media is fast becoming the norm - don't waste time with a focus group or a marketing survey...it's upon us. In the words of Roger Daltry, "We're going mobile!"

Douglas E Castle for MAD MARKETING TACTICS

Marketing, Trust And Scare Tactics - SCAREWARE?

2012-01-11T16:42:00.000-05:00

Behavioral psychologists and marketing experts would tend to agree that the average consumer (call him "Norm" on the bell curve of demographic life) is much more readily motivated by fear of pain or loss than by opportunity. Frightening 'doomsday' article headlines catch more views than do their positively-framed counterparts. They tend to force a defensive call to action on the part of the reader, who may then become a consumer -- albeit a bit reluctantly or resentfully.

Excessive or belligerent scare tactics or scareware pop-ups and other negatively-oriented defensive calls to action [i.e., threats], while somewhat effective in forcing conversions in the short-run to action will ultimately make your brand a target of loathing, and you will be perceived as either untrustworthy or weak. Weakness may be occasionally forgiven, but a growing sense of mistrust will put your brand, regardless of its quality, in the litterbox. People have a limited appetite for warnings and threats, and, after a fashion will head toward positive information from trustworthy sources.

Take a peak at the article excerpt below, and then hit that "BACK" button on your browser to return here. We'll be waiting with punch and finger sandwiches.

The article excerpt which follows appears courtesy of ZDNet:

Symantec accused of using 'scareware' tactics

Anti-virus maker Symantec is charged in a lawsuit with misleading users into purchasing full versions of its software by peddling 'scareware' tactics.

READ FULL STORY |
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Threats, when employed in marketing should be implicit, humorous or cleverly and interestingly informative. Your Marketing, Branding and Promotion campaigns should be based more upon features, benefits, value propositions and problem-solving than on problem-identification.

Too many of today's disenchanted, skeptical customers (whether consumer-direct or business-to-business) are already suffering from "threat fatigue." The more that they sense that they are being manipulated by fear, the more likely that they will become distrustful of you. Once you've lost trust, reputation repair and re-establishment becomes a very expensive and time-consuming proposition.

Remember what we've learned here today about Marketing, Trust And Scare Tactics...or else you might just be eaten, piece-by-painful-piece by a pack of flying, rabid wolverines...

Douglas E Castle for MAD MARKETING TACTICS!

Increase eMarketing ROI - Serve Cookies!

2012-01-03T11:00:00.001-05:00

TIP #1: If you have a website or blog, always serve your guests cookies.

It's poetically perfect that a good webmaster can utilize cookies to make dough, whereas a baker must utilize dough to make cookies. This relates to marketing with increased precision and persistence -- and that translates to additional revenue and less costly trial and error.

What are cookies?A cookie is a message given to a Web browser by a Web server. The browser stores the message in a text file. The message is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.The main purpose of cookies is to identify users and possibly prepare customized Web pages for them. When you enter a Web siteusing cookies, you may be asked to fill out a form providing such information as your name and interests. This information is packaged into a cookie and sent to your Web browser which stores it for later use.

The next time you go to the same Web site, your browser will send the cookie to the Web server. The server can use this information to present you with custom Web pages. So, for example, instead of seeing just a generic welcome page you might see a welcome page with your name on it.

Are cookies bad? Cookies do not act maliciously on computer systems. They are merely text files that can be deleted at any time - they are not plug-ins nor are they programs. Cookies cannot be used to spread viruses and they cannot access your hard drive. This does not mean that cookies are not relevant to a user's privacy and anonymity on the Internet.

Cookies cannot read your hard drive to find out information about you; however, any personal information that you give to a Web site, will most likely be stored in a cookie. In only this way are cookies a threat to privacy. The cookie will only contain information that you freely provide to a Web site.

Recipes, anyone? Here's an example of a cookie, and how you can whip up a batch for your visitors:

Set-Cookie: Count=1; expires=Wednesday, 01-Aug-2040 08:00:00 GMT; path=/;

domain=madmarketingtactics.blogspot.com

This (the stuff up above) means:

Set-Cookie:
This is the call that sets the cookie in the browser's cookie store.
Count=1;
This is the name of your cookie.
expires=Wednesday, 01-Aug-2040 08:00:00 GMT;
This details when the cookie will expire.
path=/;
This is the minimum path that needs to exist for the cookie to be returned.
madmarketingtactics.blogspot.com
The domain that set the cookie, and is the only domain that can retrieve the cookie.

Now, let's write the JavaScript for a Cookie. Heck...let's get you to a site that will let you generate your own cookies to store and retrieve visitor information which you can fine-tune in order to properly focus and retarget site visitors, and "personalize" their experience : http://www.tracewatch.com/doc/code.

So much for sourcing/setting/making cookies. Now it's time for a bonus extra video on retargeting -- a very important aspect of optimizing cookie utilization to fine-tune and magnetize your marketing.

TIP #2: When you serve cookies, always use the right recipe (to purpose them) and always retrieve them.

Cookies can be used to store information, analyze information, implant information, direct web movements, track web movements (not very nice, but done frequently) and for a multitude of things. A video follows which describes (with a bit of technical detail) how to use your cookies like drones! Feel the power!

---------------

5 Incredible Ways to Increase Marketing ROI

Justin Vanning from the acclaimed SEOMoz team covers the five keys to increasing marketing ROI through retargeting. Please click on either of the hyperlinks below to learn about retargeting the SEOmoz way. Before you do, however, there's a splendid irony at play here. Justin, while obviously quite knowledgeable about marketing, filtering, funneling and following from a technological standpoint is a totally unengaging speaker, who doesn't follow some of the "Old School" Marketing tenets:

1) Speak clearly and distinctly using a combination of eye-contact and deliberate body language - Use the pitch and volume [dynamics] of your voice (vary them) to make your presentation repeatedly stimulating - a dramatic pause from time to time reawakens an audience;

2) Organize and bulletize your information, in a simple, easy-to-follow outline format, and point (with your hand, finger, stick or spear) to each subject point on the outline as you discuss it;

3) Sum up all of the bulleted items upon the close of your presentation.

That's all. Here are your links.

http://www.socialmediadd.com/Articles.asp?ID=275

http://seomoz-cdn.wistia.com/flash/embed_player_v1.1.swf//

Douglas E. Castle for MAD MARKETING TACTICS!

Mobile Compatibility - Crucial For Marketing

2011-12-27T14:11:00.000-05:00

Your website will be virtually useless within two years if it is not either mobile-accessible or mobile-friendly. Even stodgy old Blogger is now offering its writers an opportunity to create a "mobile-conformed and reformatted" presentation for ease of mobile access.

Mobile phones, pads and tablets are fast replacing PCs and notebooks as the lightweight, portable means of communication and informational access. In the same manner as texting, including IMS and MMS is now in excess of fifteen times more frequent (in terms of incidents of use) than actual telephone conversations [an increase of 50% over the past 12-month period], and is replacing email for most brief communications (with the exceptions of corporate memos and various documents or presentations), consumers and businesspersons alike want complete surfing access on their increasingly-sophisticated mobile equipment. A brief link to an article excerpt follows:

Social media is going mobile, study finds
Luxury Daily (12/21)

If your website, blog or e-newsletter is not readily available and easily accessible via mobile equipment, the likelihood of your site's effectiveness as a marketing or branding tool will steeply decline, as will its search engine prominence.

There are a host of tools available to make your websites, blog and e-newsletters completely mobile-friendly and accessible -- they do not require a re-tooling of your site; a mere tweak will do, and this 'tweak' is available through a variety of programs and applications. Much of it is freeware.

You Mad Marketers might want to search Google for these types of programs and apps. Four excellent sources for finding these tools are CNET, Softpedia, MajorGeeks and the ever-popular (but under-financed) Wikipedia.

In the immortal words of Roger Daltrey (a philosophy of some note from several decades ago) - "We're Going Mobile!" Please take a look at some of the Related Articles linked below -- they are not only a source of mobile market trend information, but they are also impregnated with references and links to some of the programs and apps that you might want to use.

Douglas E Castle for Mad Marketing Tactics

AVATARS! - Personal Branding Signatures

2011-12-18T13:17:00.000-05:00

A mini-video avatar, especially a memorable and humorous one, is a wonderful personal branding signature. It is a symbol for who you are and how you think (regardless of how non-mainstream or bizarre) - it is the essential business card, and is every bit as exciting and meaningful as the flag of a sovereign nation.

By way of example, while searching for (i.e., trolling the annals of Google with various search entry word combinations) a possible solution for a bothersome recurring glitch in my overloaded, outdated, treadmill-powered computer, I was blessed to stumble upon the nifty Star Wars-esque avatar of computer expert Mark McGookin, which accompanied his answer to my question.

Depending upon your perspective, you might find it (the avatar) either wacky, ironic, funky (being a RadioDAZZ advocate, I'll go with funky any day) or vaguely obscene. But regardless, it is memorable and mentionable. After all, Mark and his avatar inspired this brief but priceless (I still do not charge) article. And what's more, you've read it.

Every businessperson, artist, professional, entrepreneur, unindicted hedge fund manager, hairstylist and village idiot ( a dying trade - sigh!) must have a Personal Branding Signature - preferably a symbol or a nifty avatar.

Now have a look at the inspired and inspiring avatar of Mark McGookin, a rising star at Bytes.Com - I'll confess that I blew the avatar up from the postage stamp-sized original, and created a bit of resolution distortion, but so much the better:

Think about how you'd like to be represented on a stamp-sized avatar. Your personal branding signature is as powerful as it is important. This Mad Marketing Tactics tip is dedicated to my newly discovered brother, Hong Chan
in Malaysia (a brilliant photographer), and my wonderful family here in the USA, or what remains of it (the USA, that is) nowadays...

Douglas E. Castle

[ The original personal branding signature - the business card."]

Intelligent People Must Read This.

2011-12-07T10:43:00.001-05:00

This is a kind of mini-blog, with an irresistible title for anyone with a healthy ego. While I'll be very brief about this point, it is crucial for you, my intelligent and well-informed readers with your high likelihood of success.

Firstly, if you are reading this, by definition, you can't regard yourself as stupid -- and you are not, by any means. The mere fact that you are wading through this copy is indicative of your keen intellect.

The message here is very crucial in terms of Mad Marketing, Sending Signals and especially in International Communications where diplomacy and hospitality are so very important:

1) Always compliment your readers or clients on their intelligence and wisdom in choosing your blog, book, product or service. They deserve it; it says something wonderful about them, but it also says something about the quality of what you are providing them with; and,

2) Always thank your readers or clients for their patronage, their support, their loyalty, and their spreading of the word regarding the information, products or services which you are providing. Wise choices, loyalty, and references should always be acknowledged with the utmost gratitude.

Psychologists say (at least occasionally) that people will like you more, and choose to engage with you if you help make them feel good about themselves. Do it. It is true. Happiness, compliments and good customer service are in short supply -- differentiate yourself by differentiating your readers, clients and customers.

By the way, I am personally delighted anew every single time a new friend or colleague subscribes to my blog by either email or RSS feed, begins to re-tweet or tweet my articles across social media, quotes me, hyperlinks to one of my blogs, makes me a favorite, or shares one of my articles to a colleague, associate, family member or friend. Those of you who have done this are my motivation to do my very best, my reassurance when I have moments of doubt, and my lifesavers (literally) when I wrestle with dark nights of the soul.

I am forever in your debt, and I could never, given several lifetimes, thank you enough.

In an often unreasonable, insensitive and indifferent world, you are my refuge and I hope that I can do the same for you.

With apologies to Rene Descartes, "You read me, therefore I exist and have a purpose."

with my greatest respect and appreciation,

Douglas E Castle [http://twitter.com/douglascastle]

Introducing Yourself: Boasting With Humility? - Douglas E. Castle - Mad Marketing Tactics

2011-12-07T05:37:00.000-05:00

In introducing yourself to the social media world, you will be faced with the challenge of balancing your self-promotional boasting (i.e., your accomplishments, your unique qualifications, your God-given [or genetically-inherited] gifts, your statement of benefits, your features and "coming attractions" --- ultimately, your call to action and reason for taking action) with at modicum of humility. As great as you are, your are still inviting (not too far removed from begging) people to become followers, customers and clients. As the US country western song says, "Oh Lord it's so hard to be humble, when you're perfect in every way."

I recently embarked upon a campaign to accomplish this Mad Marketing feat for a special client, professional commercial photographer Hong Chan, who not only runs seminars in commercial photography and special lighting effects, but who also has an enviable portfolio of award-winning stock photographs with Dreamstime, a stock photo house which has joined the ranks of iStock, Shutterstock and a host of others. Not quite Getty or Corbis, but an up-and-comer,just the same.

Here's a look at Hong Chan's opening salvo...
---------------

I am quite hard at work putting together my new professional profile for Blogger, Dreamstime, Linked In, Twitter and to all of those other places in social media cyberspace where we can discuss commercial and stock photography collaboratively (with tips, tricks and tools for choosing more marketable subject matter as well as for creating better photographs and maximizing [promoting!] our monetization potential from our shared passion -- the magic of capturing and immortalizing special moments.

In putting together my profile, one of the greatest challenges, ironically, will be selecting a suitable portrait photograph of myself to add to it! Have any of you been faced with a similar challenge? We are all faced with analyzing and criticizing our own photographs - but the greatest problem facing a perfection-obsessed photographer is the dilemma of taking and selecting the ideal professional bio shot.

I will also endeavor to post to this blog, the Freeze Frames Fotos Blog and my Dreamstime blog at least once each week. -- HC

---------------

For those of you who might have missed my last post to this newborn blog (which might have been untitled!), I am re-publishing it right here. Oh: And before I do, I cordially invite you to click on the buttons below to join my blogs, follow my Twitter Tweets, join my brand new network on Linked In and to take a peek at my Dreamstime portfolio [including some Editor's Choice Awards, for which I am grateful and honored] and my blog posts there, too.

Dear Friends:

I am passionate about creating greater knowledge, exposure, networking interaction and business opportunities for neophyte (enthusiastic beginners) photo hobbyists as well as more experienced photographers who are interested in sharpening their artistic skills as well as increasing their income opportunities. There can be nothing in this life as truly fulfilling as earning a comfortable living while doing what you love the very most. For more than ten years, photography has been my driving passion -- I thoroughly enjoy the challenge of creating illusions that are so believable that they actually defy the senses. As you will find out, a truly great photographer is part artist, part scientist, part inventor and part magician.

This is my professional blog [http://HongChanPhotography.blogspot.com], where you will find out about what I'm working on, some new, innovative tips and techniques, and various seminars and workshops which I offer to both hobbyists and professionals on a variety of exciting photography-related subjects. If you'd like to receive my RSS feed or my daily email updates, please just click on your choice of hyperlinks in the area immediately above this article.

There's more...

I'd also like to welcome each and all of you to the maiden voyage test post of our brand new blog, as well -- Freeze Frames Fotos, at http://FreezeFramesFotos.blogspot.com. While we are still very much a work-in- process, we expect to rapidly build a wonderful, useful and very profitable (for all participants) interactive community of fresh, emerging commercial and stock photographers, moderated by Hong Chan (that's me!), a renowned expert in commercial photography tips, tricks and techniques, and a seminar leader who has won several Dreamstime Editor's Choice Awards for his masterful stock photographs.

Some of the labels, tags, keywords, search terms, categories and topics where you'll be finding us will include: Hong Chan, Photography, stock images, Douglas E. Castle, Clip art, royalty-free images, income, monetize, self-promotion, photography blogs, social media, networking, photo art, small business trends, profitable hobbies, training, education, cooperatives, collaboratives, crowd sourcing, passive revenue, career training...and a host of others.

We hope that you will join me in our collaborative thrust to assemble an inspired, communicative group of emerging and established experts in the creation and successful marketing of our collective artistic immortality -- the stock photographic images.

Enjoy a fabulous educational, networking and passive income-producing experience. Turn your artistic passions and visions into a wonderful income and source of pride, accomplishment and joy.

Of course, membership will be absolutely free...forever.

Thank you for visiting with us! We'll be keeping you posted -- in fact, you might want to subscribe to our RSS feeds or our once-daily email updates. Just scroll up to the hyperlinks above this posting.

A truly great photograph is not merely a picture - it is a fully sensory, emotional experience captured -- frozen -- in time.

-- Hong Chan

p.s. We offer only temptations for now - we are hard at work at building both sites, as well as in polishing up our companion Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook and other social media network-building sites; if you belong to one, you are welcome to belong to all of them. All yours, all free.

p.p.s. I am looking forward to see what you think of my professional bio. Your opinions are invited and encouraged. I'll be showcasing it soon enough. Writing it will be a challenge (It would be easier if it could just be a slideshow of everything I've done during the course of my career, wouldn't it?), but I will be getting some help from a friendly editor to give it life and to make it tell the right story.

Hong Chan

-----------------

It requires a witch's brew of implicit bravado, subtle references to achievements, self-deprecating humor, and an offer of community and communion in order to make this early-stage miracle happen. It is a delicate balance when you are, on one hand, announcing the gift of your greatness to the world, and on the other, asking for others to come to your humble studio. Make me prove my value to Hong Chan -- click on his buttons, immediately above. If you make me look good (by making my dear client look good), I will have proven my case. You see...I'm humbling myself and asking for your support. And there you thought I was cocky.

Douglas E Castle [http://MadMarketingTactics.blogspot.com]

Beat Your Competitors' "Bargain Price" Tactic.

2011-11-25T22:50:00.000-05:00

One of the greatest challenges for the successful Mad Marketer is battling price competition and competitors' "bargain strategies." The ideal way to do this, of course is through powerful product or service differentiation, strong branding and exemplary customer service... but when these tactics are (for any reason) ineffective or inadequate, you must use a powerful "high road" tactic to place your would-be market share invaders behind you on the preference menu.

Sadly, you cannot insult these other purveyors, or you'll diminish your perceived objectivity and integrity with your prospects. You must gently admonish them with a subtle, seemingly logical argument that will make them question exactly what type of "bargain" they might be getting. Subtlety and the impression of being concerned for your prospect's well-being are the two key ingredients to this helpful manipulation.

You can't be trite and say, somewhat vindictively with nose elevated in the air, "Well, sometimes you get what you pay for," or "They can sell it cheaper because its made of shoddy materials, falls apart, and contains carcinogenic substances." These comments come across as defensive, immature, cold and spiteful. The higher ground approach is infinitely more effective.

Don't compete. Don't insult. EDUCATE! You will come across as much more concerned, professional, respectable and far less desperate if you sow the seeds of doubt about the "bargain" by saying something that includes the following elements:

1) Complement your prospect on his or her ability to be frugal and to conduct such thorough pricing research;

2) Mention how you understand the cutting costs is of the utmost importance, in both the short run, and of course, in the longer run;

3) Woefully mention that because of your quality standards, and in the interest of providing the best warranties and customer support to make an investment in your product or service the best "all around choice," you cannot reduce your price, as this would ultimately force you into sacrificing product or service reliability, and good customer relationships and recurring business in the longer run;

4) Wish your prospect well with his or her "bargain" [try to look very sincere as you do this], and;

5) Ask: "Please email or phone me to let me know how it works out for you. You deserve the best. Also, if you have any difficulties at all with it [the "bargain"] I'll be right here for you.

If you have done this properly, your prospect will be filled with doubts about the "bargain," beginning to have serious regrets about not having chosen your product or service in the first place, and is in the process of devising a means of extricating himself or herself from the bargain which he or she is now perceiving as either a deal with the devil, a trojan horse, or a gift-wrapped time bomb.

This is very powerfully effective at converting customers, retaining customers, and building a trusting rapport. And you can do this without directly insulting either your so-called competitor or the intelligence of your prospective soon-to-be-proselytized customer.

You've simply created enough doubt for your conquest to "seriously reconsider," at no cost to his or her ego, and without lowering your price.

This is a diplomatically optimal customer capture tactic; and all you had to do was to apply a bit of behavioral psychology.

Now: your actionable assignment is to start working with this potent tactic. Please keep me apprised of how well it works. It should be very effective, and you might just wind up owing me dinner.

Douglas E. Castle [http://DouglasCastleRSSFeeds.blogspot.com]

p.s. There are few pleasures in this life to rival the glorious feeling of having righteously 'saved' or harvested a client or customer relationship using a morally-sound and highly ethical tactic. And the wonder of it all is that it is even effective in a try cash-tight economy.

WINNING ADS: Right Message, Right Delivery.

2011-11-14T11:17:00.005-05:00

You've identified, studied and targeted your market audience (i.e., your prospective customers or clients). You have a product or service which fits, or meets a need, within their demographic and psychographic "space." Now your job is to send the right message effectively. As mom used to to say (as an expert at everything), "It's both what you say and how you say it." If you present the greatest news in the wrong way, your marketing campaign will be stillborn.

Part of successful online and inbound marketing involves the Law Of Large Numbers; I'm not arguing that. But in order to significantly increase the odds of converting a prospect in the crowd into a satisfied purchaser or subscriber, you must craft your information in such a way that it 1) commands attention and a call to further action, and 2) is appropriate to the audience.

By way of example, if I had set my focus on reasonably wealthy, reasonably sophisticated individuals (some with a touch of egomania, as well) who are likely solicited by many marketers, I would have to send out a message in a format which addressed their sophistication, intelligence, accomplishment (ego), needs and sensibilities. To do this, I have to know how they think and what they are used to receiving from my competition for their attention and patronage. This is an investment in education and preparation which you must make.

If you belonged to the above target market, and you received the following solicitation, what might your reaction be? (I have edited and re-sized the ad in order to fit this publishing format. Please refer to my note in the yellow field, immediately below:
---------------

Tuesday, October 4, 2011 6:33 AM

Note: Douglas E Castle has significantly reduced the size of this ad, which was originally sent as a full "splash" page (without borders) straight to his inbox via an email newsletter handling program...

Immediate Buy Alert:

Big Gold's NEXT Takeover Target!

Newly-Listed Lone Star Gold (LSTG.OB) Is Estimated
To Be Sitting On Gold and Silver Worth At Least...

$18.14 Billion!

Buy Shares of Lone Star Gold (LSTG.OB) Around $1.00,
Before One of the Gold-Starved Majors Gobbles It Up For . . .

$179 Or More a Share!

Lone Star announced that on August 26th, 2011, it signed a $15 million agreement with a Hong Kong based equity investor. According to the terms of the agreement, Lone Star

I'm not admittedly your get-rich-quick or penny stock-oriented investor, but I found the ad far too cheap-looking, too flashy, to desperately pushy...in fact it belittled me to think that someone sending it to me would think that it might "hook me." In a single word, the ad was inappropriate.

The only use I could find for it was to use it for the purposes of a bad example in this post. There is a definite line between Mad Marketing Tactics and Bad Marketing Tactics. These promoters crossed over my 'serious consideration' zone, to my 'I'm insulted, and I'm going to make an example out of you' zone. I don't endorse the product or the promoter, or offer investment advice, ever; neither for nor against. But I'll make a marketing suggestion:

Don't risk belittling an intelligent audience with too much hype.

Douglas E Castle

Related articles

Ultimate Stock Market Report by EmailStockPicks.com 9/27 (prweb.com)
Advantages and disadvantages promotion from duty (wiki.answers.com)
Flashy Coupon Campaigns - The Bling Bling Shopping Family Raps About Rebates (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
Why Mad Men Would Fail at Marketing Today (hubspot.com)
Are you immersed in yourself or your market? (conxentric.com)
4 Tips for Successful Paid Search Campaigns on a Budget (hubspot.com)
Facebook Marketing: The Four Biggest Blunders Hurting Your Brand (adage.com)
Millennials: Marketing To Reach Them (madmarketingtactics.blogspot.com)
Global Markets Overview - 10/20/2011 (ibtimes.com)
How To Get Started In Relationship Marketing: Excerpt (allfacebook.com)

Your Brand Needs A Personality - Spokespersons and Spokescreatures!

2011-11-11T15:30:00.001-05:00

Brands are strengthened by close association with a mascot, a spokesperson, or a spokescreature -- especially one with a bit of a quirky, but memorable personality, who actually speaks to the audience. Even better, one who actually engages with them in a social media type of dialogue or friendly exchange. From the GEICO gecko, to the now departed Taco Bell chihuahua, to the newly-rapping DJ AFLAC Duck (with his bullfrog-on-lilypad chorus of croakin' homies), critters add a dimension of personality to a brand or a company. I'm not speaking of SitePals (those human-like cartoon-creatures who appear on websites and blogs everywhere and make introductions or announcements). I'm speaking of animated creatures (real or drawn) who speak, who write and who have slightly eccentric personalities, making them more memorable and more engaging.

Spokescreatures can engage prospective customers through commentary posts, social media forums, return emails, contests, surveys and in an endless variety of productive ways. I'll confess: people want to see and hear a personality who or which speaks for a brand.

An article which recently came to me in a SmartBrief Newsletter truly caught my eye (not literally). I was overjoyed that it focused on one of my all-time favorite sugar-laden cereals... CAP'N CRUNCH! [Quick Sidebar: My favorite breakfast used to be a 2 to 1 ratio of CAP'N CRUNCH and COCOA PUFFS in a bowl of cold milk. I believe that I switched from this mixture to cold pizza when I was about 17 years of age.]
---------------

Social media lessons from Cap'n Crunch
Brands with well-developed mascots have a head start when it comes to drumming up buzz, Andy Sernovitz writes. Quaker Oats demonstrated that by allowing "Cap'n Crunch" to blog and tweet in the first person, creating a backstory about his trips to sea and allowing him to ask fans for advice on developing the brand. "The Cap'n is always in character -- and this is a fundamental part of the brand's strategy," Sernovitz writes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media (10/27)

Give your brand an original and eccentric personality. It is very, very worthwhile.

Douglas E Castle

Communication, Persuasion, Sales: Word-Weaving

2011-11-07T07:06:00.001-05:00

In messaging, branding, buzzing, promotion, publicity, and in the closing of actual contracts or sales, Word Weaving is the ultimate critical art to master. Words are not to be dropped. Words are to be woven into an adventurous storybook tale ( we're all a bit childish) that leads our audience to our predetermined destination.

Don't speak in two dimensions. Words are to be woven into three dimensions so that they activate other senses, deeper and more compelling than simple intellect. Words should be compelling. Words should be leading. Words should be enriched with an irresistible call to action -- a sense of urgency. Words should touch the imagination...

Most of the best-scripted speeches and ad copy have one significant element in common: they make you see, feel , taste, touch, and smell a future so vividly that you simply must have it now. In sum, they bring the future into the present, for you to "pre-experience."

Here are several examples of word-weaving from various discussions and dialogues which I have either been a party to or to which I have been a witness (trying my best to hide my smile):

DO NOT SAY:
Wouldn't you like to buy one?

SAY:
Wouldn't you enjoy owning one?

DO NOT SAY:
Let's have a meeting about it.

SAY:
Why don't we make some time to explore this together?

DO NOT SAY:
You'll find some great tools here.

SAY:
You'll discover some amazingly useful tools here.

Your words should, as they are spoken, conjure up the image of an adventure with your role being not as a salesperson, a boss or a commander; no, you are merely a helpful guide or escort to keep your client (who should be treated as your respected friend) company on his or her journey.

More examples?

"Thank you for investing so much of your time with me."

"Let's review this offering ( a contract!) and discuss it together in detail."

"I am facing a a challenging problem; it really has me perplexed -- I believe that you might be one of the only people with the imagination and creativity to help solve this mystery..."

Word-Weaving sends your audience, prospect or person of interest on an adventure, and it turns the mundane or threatening into a challenging, exciting quest (think of Don Quixote). With the artful use of word-weaving, the other person is never being pushed or coerced; he or she is being invited and compelled. And you are being a tour guide and companion, instead of a hawker.

You elevate yourself as well as the others listening to you when you use word-weaving. You become a host and they become guests. And that is as it should be.

Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

Get MAD... Get CRAZY... Get MOVING... Get ATTENTION!

Set It And Forget It ! - 5 Irresistible Words

2011-11-05T13:30:00.000-04:00

Time and money are both commodities subject to ever-increasing demand and ever-decreasing supply. If you can save a customer time or money (or perhaps both), your product or service will be perceived as having increased value. In fact, many financially-stressed consumers (particularly start-up enterprises and growing companies) will actually pay a premium in order to buy a product or a service where one can simply "Set It And Forget It." We want things done automatically -- preferably while we sleep or do other work.

Ironically, if you can demonstrate how time (technically) is saved by your innovation, and how much time can be saved by using it, consumers and businesses will dig deeper into shallower pockets in order to pay a bit extra at the prospect of eliminating work hours, attention and record-keeping, or taking on a contractor or employee. And everyone is too busy to do anything manually -- its an economic and a cultural phenomenon that is trending positively and rapidly.

The messaging proposition in marketing is three-fold: 1) Remind the prospect that life is becoming more and more hectic, and how precious every moment of it is; and 2) repeating the song of "time is money"..."your time is precious"... and 3) Coming up with some statistical or anecdotal support about how "this INVENTION will save this much time, which is equivalent [this part is tricky and subjective] to saving you this much money, which represents a tremendous ROI (Return On Investment).

This is especially true when the process being addressed (the "problem being solved," or the "pain being relieved") is very repetitive, uninteresting and time-consuming if done traditionally or manually. Our audience is in search (always) of a panacea. And they are always flattered to hear how valuable their time is.

Lastly, the finishing touch to truly drive this message home, after you have opened with" It's fully-automated: Set It And Forget It!" is to talk about how money buys you less and less "nowadays" [in advertising, it is always "nowadays"], making your unique product or service an even greater bargain.

My confession: I have purchased many a program or device because I simply couldn't bear the thought of spending hours upon hours of my week, at NO WAGE (I am a terrible employer, and I would quit working for myself if I could), doing something repetitive, boring and s-l-o-w.

Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

p.s. Think of all of the automated social media posting, updating, timing, bookmarking, listing, SEO and other apps which are wildly popular (my favorites being TweetAdder and Pingler). They sell because people don't have as much time to invest in getting rich.

Millennials: Marketing To Reach Them

2011-10-31T14:14:00.000-04:00

Marketing to Millennials. It's a challenge, but a worthwhile one if you have the right product or service -- or if you can 're-position' your product or service to suit their tastes. Either objective requires some study. Ecch. But wait...

"The Millennial generation, also known as Generation Y or the “Echo Boomers,” is three times bigger than Generation X and even bigger than the Baby Boom generation. The dates of the Millennial generation are not precisely defined, but depending on what measure you use, their birth dates typically stretch from the late 1980 to 2000."

I say that we engage 'em. C'mon.

The challenges in any business plan are to a) identify the product or service of interest, and b) see how to best deliver it. The challenges in any marketing plan are more about identifying the audience ("getting into the prospective consumers' head"), and finding the most efficient and effective branding, sloganating, messaging and media mix to a) get the attention of the market, and b) get the the most influential members of that target market to endorse and start making public use of your product or service. This will drive Millennial traffic to your inbound marketing funnel. You must become a sociologist and a psychologist to truly understand what makes this special generational market tick.

Bear in mind, also, that this same group will spawn many of tomorrow's decision-makers, workers, entrepreneurs, and writers, as well as consumers. I'd like to help you to gather some fast, high-quality, insightful intelligence.

The two links below lead to exceptionally informative articles, very specific to our Mad Marketing Tactics agenda and objectives. Please read both. After you have fatigued your weary fingers with hitting the "BACK" button (probably two times, as I've figured it), go to the bottom of this article for a wealth of other links to related articles:

http://www.openforum.com/articles/3-ways-millennials-will-change-the-face-of-business?extlink=em-openf-SBdaily

http://smallbiztrends.com/2011/10/new-baby-boom-generation-millennials.html

As a Baby Boomer myself, I find this mystifying -- but then, my intuition sense a vast, efficiently accessible market for all of my readers, friends and colleagues.

Douglas E Castle

"Turdistan" - Comical Generics, Acronyms, Ad Nauseum...

2011-10-28T17:47:00.000-04:00

Turdistan? Everyone enjoys the use of generic, humorous and useful expressions which characterize things. We enjoy the simplicity of generalizing and the occasional use of a stereotype The idea, is to explain the selected term once [as I do when defining a Lingovation], and then to use it frequently enough that it propagates. People use references like "progressives," "have-nots," "head-bangers," "spooks," "Podunk," "bumpkin," "con-artist," "guru," "Bush-ism," "Third World," "inbred," "hillbilly," "Millenials," "Boomers," "supremacists," "Scrooge," "too-big-to-fail," "conservatives", "Benedict Arnolds, "Hitlers," "conservatives" and the like all of the time. If you haven't heard or used any of these, well then, you've probably been living under a rock. [GEICO used this last allegorical generic with great success in one of its advertising campaigns - the Gecko was, sadly, missing].

Some of them are allegorical, some are merely cliches, and some of them are just pop-culture accidents (many of which are actually being germinated from Twitter hashtags!). Many are acronyms [or even 'numeronyms'] accumulated over the ages. SNAFU, BOHICA, OMG!, LOL, TTYL, and, of course, WTF?

These generics are crude, but they are extremely powerful in conjuring up a vivid picture in the readers', listeners' or observers' minds, and they save you a great deal of explanatory verbiage. In a world of 140-character messages, 20-second soundbites, and societal ADHD these comical generics are extraordinarily useful in creating brief messages.

Please use them in your slogans with impunity. Do it before everybody and his uncle does it. Remember that a successful campaign can make you a gazillionaire. Especially if it goes viral.

Douglas E. Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]
---------------

Here's an example of my comical generic for...

TURDISTAN – Any small, non-industrialized and resource-poor nation (except for some reserves of sand, rock and scraps of metal from bullet casings and Improvised Explosive Devices) in a constant state of ethnic civil wars, tribalism and war-lord rule,, governmental upheaval and continuous violence. The average life expectancy is usually in the range of 30 years, but the village elders (i.e., individuals who have survived more than 36 years) generally give the appearance of heavy smokers in their late 70s to 80s. No formal educational system and an absence of any intellectual, technical or professional talent (when the locals grin broadly for the rare National Geographic photo opportunity, posed either brandishing or leaning on their antiquated Soviet-made “occasionally” automatic weapons, the absence of any dental attention becomes painfully evident). The principal import of any Turdistan is weaponry, and its principal exports are hateful and inflammatory speech, expatriate labor (these renegades become cabbies and convenience store operators in foreign countries mostly), and hallucinogenic plant products, when in season. [Turdistan]

Twitter Motivates Consumer Behavior - Tremendously.

2011-10-18T12:02:00.000-04:00

An article posted in New Scientist triggered a thought...and in a more comprehensive and useful context than I would have ever guessed. I had simply read it because of the intriguing nature of the title. A brief excerpt from the story is printed here, followed by a link to the entire article. Perhaps you can click on that link after you've read this entire post -- you'll perceive its implications much more clearly and profoundly if you will do this. Great title:

Twitter may influence the spread of disease

16:19 17 October 2011 by Debora MacKenzie

The northern hemisphere's flu season will soon be here. If you are getting vaccinated and tweet it, will your followers follow you to the doctor's surgery – or are they the sort of people who have an appointment booked already?

Researchers in the US have mined Twitter to map who tweets for and against flu vaccination, and found that the results parallel the prevalence of vaccination. Now they want to find out whether Twitter just reflects attitudes to vaccination or helps to spread them.

Marcel Salathé of Penn State University in University Park, Pennsylvania, collected 478,000 tweets referring to flu in late 2009, when vaccination for the swine flu pandemic became available in the US. A team of students categorised 10 per cent of the tweets as for, against or neutral about vaccination. Then these tweets were used to create a computerised screening test that classified the rest.

Each tweet carried data on the region it came from. The team found that vaccination rates were lower in areas where tweets tended to be more negative about vaccination, and vice versa... [link to whole article at http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21055-twitter-may-influence-the-spread-of-disease.html?full=true&print=true]
---------------

Twitter is not only a broadcast medium, but it is becoming more an more of an agent of consumer and business influence. It seems that Twitter accomplishes (in a grassroots, informal and largely qualitative fashion) what opinion polls and statistics have been traditionally used to demonstrate.

Several actionable suggestions:

1) You and your company must increase your presence on Twitter in terms of activity per account, the number of accounts, and the keywords associated with each of such accounts. Part of this requires creativity, but part requires simply adding some very topical RSS feeds into your Twitter tweet flow -- a great device for creating these mixed and exciting newsworthy feeds is TwitterFeed - I highly recommend it;

2) You should be choosy as to whom you follow (look for thought influencers, leaders, well-known 'pundits' and others with large followings), and you should collect data on how many of these Twitterers follow you back. You also want to get further metrics on who chooses to follow you without having been solicited. Possibly the best tool for managing multiple Twitter accounts on autopilot is TweetAdder - its potential is unlimited in terms of building an enormous Tweetosphere (a Lingovation);

3) The more Twitter accounts (each with a slightly different theme or twist), the better. Do not post the same content to each account, with the exception of certain status updates which link right back to your product but which don't sound flagrantly advertorial. These repetitive tweets might represent 10% to 20% of your total Twitter stream.

4) Set up Google Alerts or other Twitter-related services in order to take the Tweetosphere's temperature regarding your company and your industry. This is a wonderful step in relationship management and in showing responsiveness to the social media community. It is wonderful longer-term, broadly-focused PR as well.

Now, Mad Marketers, it is time to get to work. By the way...I cannot stand Twitter, but I use it out of necessity. It has become too important to ignore in its potential as an opinion-creator and as a call to action bullhorn.

Douglas E. Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

p.s. Just to make your search a bit easier, you can find Twitterfeed at http://twitterfeed.com. You can find some excellent RSS feeds on any topic at RSS Search Hub at http://www.rsssearchhub.com. You can get a version of TweetAdder (once you've bought it, you own it forever -- and it has unlimited Twitter campaign capacity and management features - just set it up and watch it build for you, but as it is very, very powerful, be certain that you don't violate Twitter's Terms Of Service by abusing it), by clicking on the picture below:

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Twitter opinions linked to vaccine uptake (fiercebiotechit.com)
Twitter Shows Who's Preventing Viruses From Going Viral (huffingtonpost.com)
Twitter data used to track vaccination rates and attitudes (eurekalert.org)
Twitter may influence the spread of disease (newscientist.com)
Optimize Your Twitter Campaigns! (madmarketingtactics.blogspot.com)
Twylah Makes Twitter Accessible, Keeps Brands 'On Topic' (technorati.com)
Political ads are coming to Twitter (smartbrief.com)
Who in GOP is Winning at Social Media? (abcnews.go.com)
From a single hashtag, a protest circled the world (losangeles.ibtimes.com)
Twitter Gets Political - Will Start Selling Campaign Ads (ibtimes.com)
Web 2.0: Twitter Seeing Nearly 250 Million Tweets/Day; Over 100 Million Users (forbes.com)
Twitter CEO: Promoted Tweets Working "Better Than We Could Have Ever Hoped" (mashable.com)

Twitter Math: Tweets To Sales

2011-10-07T18:26:00.001-04:00

Twitter is a broadcast medium, as opposed to Facebook, which is truly a two-way sharing and relationship-oriented platform. Twitter's highest and best purpose is its use in front-lining marketing campaigns. In terms of the marketing funner, Twitter status updates, especially those containing "Action Links," are simple to post, are often reverberated (exponentialized) through the re-tweeting process, and are dynamic -- you can simultaneously build credibility, branding, SEO prominence and greater site visits which can be converted to actual sales ot other revenue production (every monetizer's objective).

It is as inexpensive as it is powerful, and the process is elegantly simple: post, increase followers, offer them a well-blended and non-advertorial feed, be certain that every "nth" post contains a 'grabber' headline [this usually involves questions, shocking news, controversy, gossip, a self-test, a quick (numbered steps) fix to a problem, the mention of a major trending term, or anything involving tragedy or celebrities], and a call to action hyperlinked into an Action Link. Incidentally, Action Links are close cousins to Anchor Text.

A good blend of feeds might entail 80% (by number of posts) content from appropriately topical RSS feeds, and 20% Action Link laden posts.

For you Mad Marketers, there is a simple protocol to follow to help you in automating the process and making it more powerful as a conversion and monetization tool. The basic campaign steps are summarized here:

1) Set up a growing number of Twitter accounts, each relating to a particular topic or theme.

2) After you have found RSS content resources for each of these accounts, start producing the 80% - 20% posting that was referenced above. Remember - more than 20 or so tweets per day (unless they are fabulously interesting and from a variety of credible sources) in any account can lose you followers.

3) Thank each new follower with a direct note which references (via hyperlink) your website or blogsite, but don't sell...invite your new follower to visit or to visit and comment. Be gracious, polite and friendly. Nothing disgusts me quite so much as an instant solicitation in my first direct correspondence from someone I have chosen to follow. No foreplay. Very insensitive.

4) Be certain that you website, blog, landing page or other point of arrival for the action-taking follower is superbly written and not simply a giant ad. Frame the ad in some content. Let your new visitor enjoy his or her first customer experience with you.

5) Lather, rinse and repeat.

Illustrative Math:

A) Create 10 accounts;
B) Follow the procedures above -- at twenty status updates daily, four will contain Action Links;
C) Build up a following of 1,000 (average) on each one;
D) Note: That's 10,000 followers, folks, with 200,000 "broadcasts" per day, out of which 40,000 contain live calls to action;
E) If 2% of these calls to action result in site "hits," you will have 800 hits per day, wherever you've directed your followers to go - always tell your followers where to go;
F) If 2% of these hits result in conversions to revenue, that means your efforts will be rewarded with 16 conversion (or revenue-producing events) daily.

The ancillary benefits are that your SEO prominence will increase, your ad rates (for pre-paid advertisers) can be increased, and that your workload doesn't have to increase substantially in order to support all of this growth. Time to get started.

Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

Mad Marketing Makeover In Progress.

2011-10-03T21:53:00.002-04:00

Apologies, dear readers and respected colleagues! We are currently in the process of re-constructing our blog templates in order to improve your reading, learning and interactive experience at each site. We should be able to resume a normalized, more frequent posting schedule by Wednesday evening, 5th October.

Thank you in advance for reading me. And more than this, thank you for your encouragement, support, responsiveness, constructive feedback and loyalty.

Your patience is deeply appreciated.

Faithfully and with respect,
Douglas E Castle

p.s. If you would like something quite interesting to read in the meantime, I would be delighted if you would have a look at http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/2011/10/man-versus-machine.html, and let me know your thoughts.

I would also appreciate your feedback on my most recent post (today) on a blog which has been too-long neglected and is now being reconstructed and re-activated. Visit http://BloggingTipsTricksAndTools.blogspot.com. The blog title is quite misleading (and more than a bit ironic), as you'll notice.

- DC

Marketing: Graphs + Charts = Increased Credibility

2011-09-27T10:00:00.000-04:00

We have discussed the use of photographs, logotypes, pictures, embedded videos and all manner of non-textual media in order to build messaging, branding and audience engagement. All of that works. If we add to that formula some simple, easy-to-understand charts (bar charts, pie charts, area charts and other charts where dramatic comparisons and statistically-supported facts can be brought to life with increasing memorability through the use of multiple colors, shading, design and other eye-mind stimuli) we have successfully addressed another issue -- the issue of credibility.

Credibility is a major motivator both emotionally and intellectually (i.e., wherein we rationalize -- after the fact -- why we've made a decision which was actually based upon intuition, guts, or a "hunch") in the purchasing decision.

While testimonials, endorsements and the halo effect of being affiliated with other credible persons or brands certain helps to establish some level of credibility, they are not generally as powerful or as memorable as a graphic presentation. These tools work best in combination.

Statistics presented in tabular or textual form seem to just bore most audiences...if you want to show numbers, comparisons, growth, and other wonderfully exciting and supportive information, put all of it into a chart. It is the difference between administering a soporific (Sominex) or a stimulant (No-Doz, or, er...Ex-Lax) into your presentation.

Graphs, while not as picturesque and malleable as charts, are very good when you are dealing with comparing rates of growth or showing trends to a more scientifically-minded, technically-oriented and cerebrotonic audience. If you use a graph, try to keep it fairly simple (ye olde x and y axes), and do not deal with more than two variables in one graph. This is unless, of course, you are being fancy, and are superimposing one graph atop another in order to really drive a point home. The optimal approach in these cases is to show a first graph, then the second, and then a third, which is a composite derived by superimposing the first over the second, or vice versa.

Since you've asked, I have contributed one of these superimposed graphs from the BRAINTENANCE Blog [please visit at http://Braintenance.blogspot.com]. It follows in all of its glory. It's so big, that you might even need to de-magnify the image.

Graphs and charts. How many times has someone approached you with an idea or a concept and said, "Picture this..."?

It is almost always easier to make a simple point to the greater percentage of people in most any audience by using graphs, charts and pictures. They are just easier for people to understand, process and remember. They ignite faster, greater impact.

Douglas E Castle

Go Daddy: Anything For Attention!

2011-09-21T21:48:00.000-04:00

Bob Parsons, the enormously successful entrepreneur who started Go Daddy (http://www.GoDaddy.com), and built it into one of the world's best known domain search and registration registration services, is truly a marketing genius -- a hybrid between Bob Guccione (the esteemed publisher of anatomically-focused 'art' magazines) -- and the guy who invented the legendary Pez dispenser years before the horrific accident that occasioned my birth. [As an aside, when I was studying Economics as an undergraduate, I felt a particular but unexplainable affinity for the 'trickle down' theory of macroeconomics - fascinating!].

Very few products or services are as distinctly uninteresting as domain registry and website hosting. Yet, these uninteresting things are necessities. The marketing issue is one of domination and capture of market share. Simply stated, if we web-trapped, internet-dependent, social media addicted businessfolk simply must have these services, and there are a bunch of competitors each of whom supplies pretty much the same [stifle yawn] thing, analogous to Bounty versus Brawny paper towels, which provider will I choose?

If pricing and service are pretty much the same at whichever vendor I bring my business to, I'll be inclined to go to the one with the greatest name recognition. GoDaddy is branded better than any other similar service. Here's why. Bob Parsons:

1) Brings other, more interesting subjects (a carnival of them) into his brand campaigning. Things like: Danica Patrick, and a host of other leather-clad young ladies; an incredibly stupid-looking logo; affiliations with NASCAR, and sporting events; unpolished, shameless 'homemade' business advice and inspirational videos; buying big expensive things and showing them off; going big-game hunting...and more -

2) Plasters the GoDaddy name and logo in every sports arena and public forum, as well as on every uniform, coffee cup, place mat and product placement target where it can legally be displayed -

3) Is an utterly shameless and controversial character in the public eye...the P.T. Barnum effect. He'll do anything to get attention for himself and his brand, and he does not separate one from the other -

4) Constantly campaigns (mass email, social media, self-serving press releases, paid advertising, sponsored ads, domain parking, and the like) with sales offers, product combination discounts, loss leaders, teasers and attention-grabbing previews of various events; and Bob Parsons makes everything into an event -

5) Quickly and quietly vertically integrating every domain-related service into his portfolio of offerings to create a "one-stop" shop. You never, ever have to leave his website to get every service needed from reserving a domain name to running an e-commerce business. In fact, you can't buy one thing on his site without a new 'splash page', pop-up or pop-over ad informing you of other compatible product offerings at a discount -- he has an annoying but unarguably sticky website, wherein he is constantly offering you things, and "making sure that you haven't forgotten some other things that you'll need sooner or later."

Parsons isn't likeable, and doesn't try to be. He just wants your attention, and he wants to keep it for as long as he possibly can. He courts controversy, craves control of an entire industry, doesn't care what anyone thinks.

If you are a Mad Marketing Guru [at http://MadMarketingTactics.blogspot.com], you'll bear this in mind: Do whatever it takes to get as much attention as possible for you and for your brand. Be fearless. Beta test in public places. The idea is to rush into the market with the most excitement and the minimum viable product, and fix it up once you've gotten some momentum and some money.

This is not what they taught us in school.

Poke first, Polish later.

Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

http://Braintenance.blogspot.com

http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com

http://BusinessAndProjectPlanning.blogspot.com

http://SendingSignals.blogspot.com
http://Links4LifeAlerts.com

Mad Marketing Tactics And TOOLS!

2011-09-19T19:29:00.000-04:00

Dear Readers:

When you are able to find a quick moment, I would be deeply appreciative if you would be kind enough to visit the actual site for this blog, located at http://MadMarketingTactics.blogspot.com and take some time to explore the site and look through our extensive library of links and our trends, breaking news and RSS feeds sections. It is our intention to provide excellent articles (original content which you'll not find elsewhere, but also to be a resource, research and reference center for you to bookmark as one of your favorities.

If you have additional links to resources (websites or blogs) or to RSS feeds which yoiu think would be of benefit to other of our readers and colleagues, please suggest them in a comment of this post, and I will see to it that they are given serious attention. Your input is heartily encouraged.

As always, thank you for reading me, and for your referral of this site to your friends and associates.

Faithfully,

Douglas E Castle
Other Blogs And RSS Feeds By This Author: A comprehensive list of blogs and RSS feeds on various subjects written or moderated by Douglas E Castle may be found by clicking on the orange icon below.

Begging: Marketing Simplified!

2011-09-13T18:57:00.000-04:00

When trying to attract attention, build a brand, or expand the scope of your market, you will invariably a great deal of time and a good deal of money on creativity, social media broadcasting, giving out 'free samples' and incentives for 'signing up', sponsoring contests, utilizing advertising services, developing a fancy unforgettable logo, sloganating (inventing a brilliant and highly memorable slogan), news releases, publicity shows and other types of buzzing, bullhorning and barnstorming.

While all of the above approaches are indeed commendable, the most honest approach to marketing, and perhaps one of the most cost-effective, is simply humbling yourself, being very polite, and begging. That's right. Simply asking for a stranger's (or prospect's) attention and consideration for a few moments.

The elegance of begging cannot be overstated. It is devoid of pretense, manipulation, subliminal suggestion, bait-and-switch and technology.

Yes indeed. Whether you do it using an open guitar case, a picture of a suffering creature, a cardboard box, a sandwich sign, a wooden bowl or a blog, your integrity will be beyond reproach. Some kind people (there are some) will be generous enough to give you what you are asking for, provided that you are not too overwhelming, if you are not frothing at the mouth, and if you are not carrying a weapon.

An example (shameless self-promotion on my part) follows:

Please visit some of my most popular blogs, and feel free to comment on articles, to link to any of them (and I will reciprocate your backlink with an inbound link to your site), or to re-publish any of the content. You can re-publish without permission, provided that you republish any articles in their entirety, with all images and hyperlinks left fully intact and 'live,' and with attribution given to the author (that's me).

At the end of this post, you'll find a listing of links to related articles that involve various aspects of these search terms, categories, tags, keywords, labels and topics for your reference and use:

attribution, Backlink, gurus, Hyperlink, PR Ranking, promotion, expanding readership, social media, reciprocity, inbound links, guest blogging, commenting on posts, original content, re-publishing, link profile, Methods of website linking, quality link, Search engine optimization, increasing traffic, hub-building, blogging resources, PageRank, Douglas E. Castle, Alexa, Google Analytics, CoolText, and others...

As always, I truly appreciate your reading me.

Thank you so much.

Douglas E Castle

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How to Analyze Your Link Profile with cognitiveSEO Tools (seo2.0.onreact.com)
Backlink PR: Learn How Gurus Handle Their SEO Link Building Packages Efforts (preciseinternetmarketing.com)
Introduction to Quality Link-building (plus Webinar) (webdesignfromscratch.com)
High ranking web-site via Link-building Organization (bigsexymedia.com)
How to Grow Inbound Links With Guest Blogging Opportunities [@InboundNow #34] (hubspot.com)
3 SEO Lessons From Dreamforce (hubspot.com)
Understanding Your Backlink Profile (searchenginejournal.com)
What is a backlink? (seofreelancingsahmedabad.wordpress.com)
Cheap Link Building Services: Traffic And Ranking Is Not Anymore A Problem (preciseinternetmarketing.com)
Improve Your SEO Success with The Basics (preciseinternetmarketing.com)
Backlink Submitter: Implement Great These Suggestions To Enhance Traffic (preciseinternetmarketing.com)
What Time To And What Time Not To Make Use Of 3 Way Link Exchange (ronmedlin.com)
Backlinks Building: Top Secret Resources To Get More Traffic (preciseinternetmarketing.com)
Begging (aperfectstanza.wordpress.com)
The psychology of begging for comments (thekencook.com)
Simplify (katierezza.wordpress.com)
Wilfred's Weirdo Boy-Meets-Dog Story Will Leave You Begging for More (wired.com)
Facebook Caves, Simplifies Privacy Settings (abcnews.go.com)
Optimize Your Twitter Campaigns! (madmarketingtactics.blogspot.com)

Optimize Your Twitter Campaigns!

2011-09-11T08:42:00.000-04:00

Social Media postings (usually in the form of a stream of updates) provide a wonderful means of branding, increasing search engine ranking (SEO), growing a network of backlinks, and continuously increasing traffic (both repeat and unique visitors) to your blog or website. Used properly, you can leverage social media to your tremendous advantage. Due to its naturally-viral nature through sharing tools, re-posting, re-tweeting, bookmarking and the like, the more interesting your social media stream, the larger your prospective audience and the depth and breadth of your market penetration. Entrepreneurial enterprises are building their social media followings and referral empires through optimizing their utilization of social media.

There are two basic types of social media. There are interactive forums (such as postings and commentary on Facebook, LinkedIn, LiveJournal and countless others, and there are broadcast bullhorns, such as Twitter and its aspiring competitors. Twitter, and these latter "announcement" media are the most efficent means of getting viral attention through the attraction of followers and through their clicking on the hyperlinks which you insert in your 140-character updates. All of your updates during the course of a 24-hour period constitute your "Tweet Stream." A good Tweet Stream, or a group of good Tweet Streams (even better) is a crucial tool for developing a potent inbound marketing campaign.

Here are some pointers for optimizing your Twitter campaigns, for producing the most magnetic and viral tweet status updates, and for developing the most effective Twitter Campaigns. Follow these general rules and be assured of success. Fail to follow these rules and your efforts will be wasted. Here's a great "working list" for Twitter and other 'broadcast bullhorn' social media outlets:

1. Write every tweet as if you were writing a news release headline or announcement. The first five words are crucial. Arouse curiosity, ask questions, post alerts, stimulate controversy in the smallest number of words possible;

2. Include a call to action (i.e., visit [hyperlink]) and a sense of urgency ("before they're gone"). The objective is to get your blog article, video presentation, audio presentation or website visited, or your document downloaded and read;

3. Use url-shortening services such as bit.ly, tinyurl, is.gd or one of the others to conserve characters in your tweets. Try to customize your shortened url to spell out an interesting acronym or word which is catchy, as opposed to a random set of computer-generated letters and numbers.

4. In generating your Tweet Stream, utilize a "pipe and post" device like Twitterfeed in order to add other interesting and authoritative RSS feeds (preferably from PR6 - PR-9 rated sources) relating to your target audience other than your own material. Your stream will become a more diverse and interesting source of information -- a sort of newscast relating to your target audience's interests if you enrich the value of your stream in this manner;

5. If you have clever sense of humor, simple puns, wordplay and other attention-getters will help make your tweets stand out from others. If you don't have a sense of humor, please completely ignore this and more on to number 6, which follows;

6. Don't advertise - inform, educate and provide editorial content and links to editorial content;

7. Try to follow others with large followings of their own;

9. Try to purge the list of twitters that you follow who do not follow you back, reciprocally within 5 days, and send thank you notes to the parties who choose to follow you;

10. You might (heck, you should) use TweetAdder or a similar program in order to run a number of simultaneous separate Twitter Campaigns in an automated fashion;

11. You should not post more than an average of one tweet per hour, to a maximum of 20 tweets per day. Excessive tweets will lose you followers, while anemic Tweet Streams of less than 5 tweets per day are seldom followed;

12. In any given Twitter Feed, your postings should generally represent (by number of tweets) anywhere from a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 25% of your own original status updates, with the balance being blended, high-quality RSS feeds to fill in the difference;

13. Try to reserve a catchy, interesting name for each of your Twitter Accounts. Don't be too sophisticated -- you'll get the tail of your title cut off (ouch!). Use 'text talk' (abbreviated terms) to title your Tweet account. For example, three of my favorites are http://twitter.com/Capital4Biz and http://twitter.com/Braintenance, and http://twitter.com/RadioDAZZ. While I use http://twitter.com/douglascastle for postings from all of my professional media, it isn't catchy -- people don't realize the quality of the content because the title is not subject- or topic-oriented.

14. Use hashtags with the greatest possible subject focus relating to your tweets -- not your brand. Try for the shortest words possible (to conserve characters), but do make them count.

15. Try to limit the number of hashtags at the end of your tweets to three, with the most important and relevant being positioned first. Too many hashtags trivialize your Tweets.

Now come and blow your Twitter Trumpet, oh Gabriel. Sound those bullhorns!

Douglas E Castle [http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com]

http://MadMarketingTactics.blogspot.com

http://InfoSphereBusinessAlerts.blogspot.com

http://BusinessAndProjectPlanning.blogspot.com

http://Braintenance.blogspot.com

Blog Rank and Authority: Get Yours Up - Proven Methods

2011-09-05T11:26:00.001-04:00

Blogs carry more credibility than websites. The keys to getting your professional or topical weblog publicized and more widely-read are incredibly simple, if you're serious about blogging for influence or advertising revenues. There are no "miracle cures," and there are no surprises -- just some genuine common sense and perseverance. The ultimate magic is still quality content. Save some money on miracle fixes and fancy machinery -- smarter search engines, trailing a bit behind Humanity (arguably) are looking for original quality content.

The Absolute And Proven Methods To Elevating Your Blog's Visibility And Credibility?

Here's the checklist, handed to you by Douglas E Castle (a conceited lout), TNNWC Management Consulting Services, and a blue-ribbon panel of unproclaimed (and self-proclaimed) blog-ranking authorities assembled by the staff (or is it staph?...hmm) of Mad Marketing Tactics!

Seriously - these absolutely work:

original (unique) content,
"personality",
writing style,
utility (as a reference or resource),
frequency of posting,
quality of posts and content,
optimized reader-friendly formatting (making your blog easier to navigate and to use),
high-power search engine optimization (SEO tricks involving metatags, keywords, sticky tools, growing a network of inbound links from high PR-ranked sources, using social media hooks to buzz your brand and existence, news releases, submission of your blog and its related RSS feeds to a tremendous number of directories, and other geekery and gadgetry), and
visual images (embedded pictures*, slideshows, and other audio-visual 'sensorial grabbers').

If you truly follow all of the pointers above, diligently and consistently, your blog will begin to soar. Blog Rank, a wonderful site and service, describes how the rankings and ratings systems work -- how they will quantitatively show the effects of your efforts.

Blog Rank uses over 20 different factors to rank the blogs in any category. Some of the factors include:RSS membership, incoming links, Compete Alexa,and Technorati ranking, and social sites popularity [Learn more about our ranking logic]

In summary, if you want the best metric results as used as "grading criteria" in Feed Rank, go back to the top of the page and attend to the qualitative work required to produce those results. It works, and it can easily work for you.

Douglas E Castle

http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com
http://TheGlobalFuturist.blogspot.com
http://BusinessAndProjectPlanning.blogspot.com
http://InfosphereBusinessAlerts.blogspot.com

p.s. A network of blogs is just like a virtual media empire. It is one of the best tools for promotion, publicity, branding, and, of course, Marketing. Build a high-quality network of blogs; you'll find that it's well worth the investment.

* Illustration of embedded image:

My Staff Of Experts - Right Click On The Pic For Action Video And Theme Song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGnh0q4RuQ8&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=PL5929EFCD67C51FAD

MAD MARKETING TACTICS™ !

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