Top Ten Email Marketing Must Haves

10 very important must haves for a successful email marketing campaign. read more

5 tips to building a successful user community

If you as a product manager would like to build a user community that will self sustain, here are some tips based on my experience building the foundations of a user community on 3D ContentCentral website that currently has close to 450,000 registered members. read more

Music Industry to Abandon Mass Suits, Cozy Up To ISPs Instead

After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy. read more

Marketing Lessons Learned From Barack Obama

I’ve been fascinated by the analysis of the Obama campaign. In many ways, Obama’s campaign and its success is a big, bright, “LCD sign” of the times. New media has come of age in a very public way.

Most people seem to agree that the campaign used a number of techniques to capture an audience and even inspire the traditionally unenthusiastic. Some of my favorite attributions are: read more

Don Tapscott – Grown Up Digital

Don Tapscott is just another guy you NEED to know about. As one of the world’s leading authorities on business strategy, he opens discussion about the Net Generation, or NetGen. His main emphasis is on how information technology changes business, government and society. He is the author or co-author of 13 widely read books, including Wikinomics, which was the best selling management book in the United States in 2007 and is now translated into 22 languages. He is Chairman of nGenera Insight, a global business innovation company, headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices in the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Don directs several of nGenera Insight’s research and education programs, which serve a marquee list of Global 2000 customers. Tapscott is also an adjunct Professor at the J.L. Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto.

Phew. (Lots of props to Tapscott’s website for all this info: GrownUpDigital.com)

About The Book: Poised to transform every social institution, the Net Generation is reshaping the form and functions of school, work, and even democracy. Simply put, the wave of youth, aged 12-30, the first truly global generation, is impacting all institutions. Particularly, employers, instructors, parents, marketers and political leaders are finding it necessary to adapt to the changing social fabric due to this generation’s unique characteristics. Within its comprehensive examination of the Net Generation, and based on a 4.5 million dollar study, Don Tapscott’s Grown Up Digital offers valuable insight and concrete takeaways for leaders across all social institutions.

Grown Up Digital explores:

• How the Net Generation can be the most innovative, collaborative, and productive cohort, if given the proper working environment. From company ethic to leadership style, Grown Up Digital examines, in-depth, what this new organization will look like.
• The benefits of a shift from a traditional, broadcast model of education to one that is customized, collaborative and interactive
• How the Net Generation’s ability to scrutinize and investigate is forcing a new model of democracy that will have to be transparent, collaborative and engaging
• How parents, teachers, and elder influencers can engage in open and informative discussions to ensure technology is properly used
• How marketers no longer control their brands and how to cope with this power shift that affords the advantage to the consumer

Download The Introductory Chapter Here

Buy The Book

10 Innovative Approaches to Rebuilding New Orleans

Three years after Katrina, the nation’s most expensive hurricane, which cost insurers an estimated $44 billion, came Gustav. As if New Orleans needed its rebuilding project to get any harder. And yet, there’s hope.

To underscore how far the city has come since 2005, alldaybuffet, a group of creative professionals focused on social innovation, created the New Orleans 100, a list of projects that are bringing new creative energy, attracting tourism, rebuilding homes, overhauling the educational system, and stimulating economic activity. Here are 10 of the most innovative ventures. read more

4 Steps to Assessing Your Product’s Profit Potential

I’VE TALKED TO a lot of people who have found a promising market by coming up with a product or service that would solve a problem. But they’re paralyzed about taking the next step. What if they put in the time and effort — and possibly money — and it flops?

There’s one process they’re missing. Validating your market after you’ve come up with a niche business idea is a crucial step you can’t afford to skip.

Of course, there’s no way to guarantee success, but ask yourself the four questions below. If you can check off every one, you’ll know — as much as possible — that you’re onto a winner. read more

The Art of the Perfect Business Pitch

After seven years and hundreds of client-meetings, Ed Stevens, founder of Shopatron, a San Luis Obispo, Calif., tech outfit that enables companies to sell products online, has finally perfected the art of the sales pitch. If clients have questions, he has answers. If they want to see a presentation, he has PowerPoint slides. If they’re skeptical about his products, he provides studies to back up his claims. In short, he and his team — who now boast a client list that’s more than 550 — are prepared to handle any questions or requests thrown their way.

Stevens wasn’t always so well versed, however. When he first met with prospective clients, he never used PowerPoint presentations nor prepared brochures to leave behind after he left. In fact, he didn’t even bother to provide an overview of Shopatron’s benefits until 2007 — six years after the company launched. “That was a big mistake,” he says. “Even having a short three-to-four slide PowerPoint to go over in the first five minutes would have helped a lot.” read more

Five Survival Tips for Entrepreneurs

What do you do when sales are down and your credit’s been slashed? You rethink your business. Because of the ongoing credit crisis, banks are becoming even more reluctant to extend lines of credit to small-business owners. And the sluggish conditions aren’t expected to improve any time soon. That means business owners who rely on banks to finance everything from inventory and office equipment purchases to new store expansions are left scrambling for ways to stay afloat without a lifeline.

“Now’s the time to make tough decisions,” says George Cloutier, chief executive at American Management Services, a small-business consulting firm in Orlando, Fla.

Cutting costs can help free up much needed cash flow during a crunch, but when the economy is expected to stay down indefinitely, more dramatic measures may be in order, he says.

Here are five tactics to help keep your dwindling business capital flowing: read more

Wholesalers turn to the web

As times get tough, wholesalers are turning to the web, setting up online stores to move more product and hit the end consumer directly. read more

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