marketing Archive

One of the most popular topics on the New York Tech mailing list as of late is about the startup Fiverr. The startup is a place where people post things they will do for $5. I bought a SEO report from a Fiverr user and it arrived within two hours. There are tons of listings on Fiverr from users all over the world. You pay for the tasks using Paypal and I found the payment and account system very easy to use. Most of the tasks I’ve looked at also offer “upgrades” which push the price over $5 and sometimes way over.

Dean Collins from LiveFanChat posted on the mailing list that the best Fiverr task to-date has been from a customer who requested a club remix of his recording of his stolen car to the Detroit Police. You can listen to the jam here – it was created by a musician in Croatia.

Here are five interesting tasks currently listed on Fiverr (click the links to watch the videos for each task):

Listing 1: I will be your girlfrend on facebook for a week for $5

Valentine’s Day is now long gone and next year you won’t want to be single on this very important holiday. Well user Dores from the UK will be your Facebook girlfriend for a week for $5. So doing the math, you and Dores can be hooked up for a year for just $260!

And if you are looking for a boyfriend, then check out user Kanisoori from the US – he too will change your status to “in a relationship” for $5 per week.

Listing 2: I will hand coo the song of your choice for $5

Based in the UK, this man with 23 positive reviews will “coo” any song you want for a $5 bill. No seriously – he will “coo” any song you want for $5.

Listing 3: I will say anything you script with my hands as puppets for 30 seconds for $5

With 40 positive reviews, user buckywoods from the US will say anything you want using his hand for up to 30 seconds for a crisp $5. You can tack on an upgrade for an additional $5 that will allow you to post a URL inside the video.

Listing 4: I will keep your secret safe for $5

Killed someone recently? Had sex with an ex and now you think you might be pregnant with his baby? Not really a social media expert even though you say you are? Well then user Realwahl from Italy is the person you need to connect with! For $5, you can tell him your secrets and he will keep them safe. He promises not to tell anyone!

Listing 5: I will promote your website, say your message while in the shower for $5

If you need more promotion to your website or want something funny for a friend, maybe give user melaishere from the US a try. For a $5 bill she will say your message or website while she is in the shower. Her big upgrade costs another $5 and for the $10 total she will be soapy in the shower while she says your message. She does make it clear that she will not do topless or nude videos.

Find any interesting Fiverr tasks? Post them in the comments!

If you are into product management and/or product marketing, you need to register for Product Camp which will be held on Saturday, January 15th. The event is all-day and will be held at the AT&T Conference Center on the University of Texas campus and is free for all participants.

It looks like a few hundred people have already registered for the event — with registrants ranging from startup employees, consultants, students to representation from large corporations including Dell, Intel and AMD.

Here’s the overview from the event organizers, “This is your chance to share and exchange knowledge on any Product Management or Marketing topic with your peers, host a session to demonstrate your leadership, practice your presentation skills, and have fun in a no-pressure environment. Traditional presentations, facilitated roundtables, workshops, and other creative ideas are encouraged.”

There are a number of different session formats from Town Hall to Ask The Expert. I will be there with fresh CN stickers and CloudContacts discount codes.

Learn more about the event on the official event website and you can also register here.

Marketing service Hubspot has put together 100 marketing charts and graphs which you can use in your upcoming presentations. I’ve embedded the presentation of the charts and graphs below. The charts and graphs come from Hubspot’s original customer research. Data categories include: lead generation, blogging and social media, marketing budgets, and naturally Twitter and Facebook. It appears the data was posted at various times throughout the year but this presentation brings it all together in a neat and tidy slideshare presentation.
Continue reading “HubSpot Offers 100 Marketing Charts and Graphs” »

After meeting with a number of clients of the past month and discussing goals and strategies for 2010—I began organizing my thoughts into a list of what I think we can expect to see from marketing, PR, social media, and technology in 2010:

1. 2009 was the year that social media “experts” infiltrated the masses. Everyone with a Twitter account and Facebook profile was deeming themselves an expert. In 2010, the real enthusiasts and savvy folks will emerge and the snake oil salesmen will fade.

2. The press release continues its evolution. I do not believe the press release will die in 2010—however it is undergoing a transformation. Think Optimus Prime.  Organizations will always need tools to disseminate their news and adhere to disclosure rules—however never before have we had so many different options. Linking to content such as online video, blogs, social media will make the press release smarter and also improve your company’s “searchability.”

3. While not the first person to think this—I do strongly believe that Twitter will either trial an ad-based model or perhaps introduce a professional fee-based option in order to generate revenues.

Continue reading “PR & Marketing Thoughts for 2010” »

NY-based Groupable has announced a new angel round of funding in the amount of $300,000. The Funders Group, LLC led the round, with The Venture Capital division of Insurial Americas, Inc. joining the round.  Groupable notes that the funding will be used to further develop the company’s online marketplace platform.

Groupable provides a marketplace bringing together online/offline groups and sponsors. The company describes their service as, “We are an online marketplace connecting groups of all types to corporate and local sponsors.” The concept is interesting because so many groups and recurring meetups are always looking for a helping hand from a sponsor for food, venue, etc.

To learn more about Groupable, checkout our initial review. My only concern with Groupable is the ability to get a large enough supply of sponsors into the network. Today’s announcement of their angel round of funding should help gain more groups and sponsors.

The Marketing Donut launched today and their goal is to, “provide small and medium-sized businesses with tools to make their marketing more effective.” The site is based out of the UK and they guarantee not to show any ads (although they show sponsor offers). The first two sponsors are Google and the Royal Mail (the post office for the U.K.).

The Marketing Donut gathered 100 experts to provide advice in a number of categories including PR, marketing, advertising, customer support, market research, events and strategy. There are also a number of pre-packaged themes for startups.

It looks like the experts traded their content for a listing in the consultants directory. The directory is broken up by location in the UK and each expert has a bio page and contact information.

The site has a lot of good content but what’s missing are the connections and subscriptions. For example, there appears to be no way to subscripe to the different content sections – either via RSS or an email notification once new content is added. They have a Twitter account but it’s not listed anywhere on the site. There’s a share button but only on some of the pages – sharing should always be everywhere! Same goes for the tools section – give me a way to be notified when you add more tools! This is the type of site that a person will visit and then might not return to – the email/rss is critical to get users to continually return.

At a recent SXSWi panel conducted "core conversation-" style (in which a presumed thought leader guides a group discussion on the subject at hand), the hour spent sitting on the floor in a cramped meeting room proved one important fact about social media: Even the professed experts are doing it wrong.

A Dougie Howser-esque "social media specialist" at Razorfish and a group of others ranging in age from 17 to 32 years old sat cross-legged on the floor and cross-talked their way through a series of stereotypes, assumptions, and painfully incorrect conclusions.

It is generally agreed upon by all in the social media space that brands began using social media without sufficient understanding or strategy. Traditional models were applied to new media with dismal return on investment; ineffective impressions by the billions were suddenly considered par for the course as expectations dropped and consumer tune-out skyrocketed. Really, the metrics are embarrassingly unacceptable.

And whereas more recent experiments in the social web showcase a willingness to experiment, they often also demonstrate a grave misunderstanding of what social media is for and how (and how much) consumers are willing to engage with brands online.

The all important "be human" dictum was followed to disastrous effect by Skittles, which brand ended up aggregating offensive, lewd, and racist tweets on its new "social" homepage. And for all the "conversation," none of us, it seems, can remember the last time we bought a pack of the candy itself.

As far as Gen Y is concerned, the "core conversation" was as unfocused as the discussion leader’s definition of Gen Y itself (he gave the age range as being between 5 years old and mid-thirties; good luck marketing to that homogenous, monolithic demographic). It was noted that privacy is not as much a concern for many in this technological generation. People will publish just about anything these days; they likely have multiple profiles and will not feel personally invaded by targeted ads. These consumers are adept at using new media tools, at monitoring and restricting their online sharing, and at switching between applications.

For a miniature case study, take me. I’m squarely in this generation. I’m sure by now I have well over 50 online profiles, at least half of which contain my email address, physical address, phone numbers, and specific whereabouts at any given time of day. So much for privacy. I’m more concerned about self-expression and transparency than I am about whether a stodgy would-be employer will disapprove of a picture of me in a cocktail dress; however, I watch my incoming links, page views, blog/pic/video comments, and new friends/fans/followers like a damn hawk using tools as simple as Google and as complex as… Well, let’s just say there are some pretty nifty free analytics tools out there that are deceptively simple and allow for hours of online navel-gazing.

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Jolie O’Dell is a designer, writer, and consultant based in Richmond, Virginia.