You Tube is huge.  The Internet allows anyone to communicate to the world.  Good news, bad news.  The good, the bad, the ugly and the bizarre.

But you have to admit, it is pretty cool that this technology has come along.

I just discovered Ustream - live and interactive broadcasting.

        

To be effective you have to get people's attention...and then engage them.  Hopefully you get a response, some interest shown and develop a relationship.

How you do this in your marketing (specifically Internet marketing) takes learning, practice,  and trying out new things.  I find that most people respond better to honesty and real concern for the customer as opposed to coming off as a "know it all" or delivering the hard sell.

Humor helps to.  A billboard caught my eye driving to work the other day.  I wasn't even sure what the board was promoting...I didn't look at it that closely. But I did catch the web URL.  So I checked out www.feedthepig.org

It sounded interesting. And it got me to visit. Turns out it is a new public service campaign from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Advertising Council and the "star" spokesman is Benjamin Bankes.  The campaign is straightforward about learning how to become financially responsible and is targeted at 25-34 year olds.  "Feed the Pig" means your piggybank.  Little things add up and so forth.

I found it interesting.  If you are doing offline marketing but you have an online component always include your web address.

        

The 2008 Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, California on New Year's Day featured an assortment of floats made of flowers and vegetation.

But what was that UFO? I mean, the unidentified floating object...well, none other than the winner of the coveted Grand Marshal’s Trophy in the 119^th Tournament of Roses® Parade, awarded “for excellence in creative concept and design”.


It's the first time New Mexico (where I reside) has won an award - hey, we've only entered a float twice.

The Roswell UFO account is well documented and discussed. I'm not sure playing off that with an "alien/UFO" themed float is the best way to get people to visit New Mexico (The Land of Enchantment), but KUDOS for the creativity.

Official New Mexico Tourism Department website - www.newmexico.org

        

        

Sure, we all like to email.  But there is still the need to use snail mail.  In many ways the popularity of the Internet has increased the use of postal delivery.  Think about all the fulfillment of ordered products.

Along comes an interesting marketing ploy by the USPS (postal service) - you can make your own customized stamps! This means you can use your own picture or image, customize it with a tag line and so forth. It's real postage. Yes, there's a bit of a markup, but it might really be worth it.

There are a few companies that are officially partnered with the Postal service who offer the stamps and help you create them.

Check out Zazzle, PictureItPostage and Stamps.com as examples.

        

You have to admire Taco Bell's marketing move.  They stole a good deal of publicity with the free crunchy taco they are offering every American on Tuesday, October 30th between 2pm and 5pm. It was a marketing ploy around the World Series.  All any player had to do was steal a base and the offer was on.

Will a lot of people take Taco Bell up on the free taco?  You bet.  And it won't cost Taco Bell much.  Come on, one little crunchy taco? Pennies per for them.  Plus, there will be long lines at the fast food restaurants and you can bet a good number of those hungry patrons will pony up a few bucks to buy additional items.

It just goes to show that your "free" offer doesn't have to be really big.  It just needs to give the impression that it is.

        

Most rock bands are shallow, but a few have been intellectually stimulating as well as musically developed.  I think of groups like Pink Floyd, The Who, and U2 (and there are others - have a cup of coffee with me sometime and I'll talk your ear off!).

Add to the above list the UK group Radiohead.  There new release, In Rainbows, is exclusively available via download (through the band's website here). 

All innovative marketing involves risk.  The risk Radiohead took was that fans could download the album and pay whatever they want.  It was a calculated risk and I think it will payoff.  This is because Radiohead has a track record, critical acclaim and a fanbase that will take the offer and pay what they think is fair.

Whenever a leader emerges with a marketing approach that works others will follow.  Looks like this is happening with the "download and pay what you want" - Nine Inch Nails, Oasis and Jamiroquai are considering doing the same ( reference here).

        

The horrible news about the bridge collapse in Minneapolis, Minnesota reminds us once again how tenuous life can be and how on any given day tragedy can strike (info here).

However, we can all be grateful that the disaster was not worse.  And out of this situation we again will see stories of triumph as people go above and beyond to help those in need.  

There is a very active group of personal historians in the Minneapolis area. These Minnesotans belong to the APH (Association of Personal Historians) and they've done a lot to educate the public about the importance of preserving their life stories.  In particular, the Got Stories project has demonstrated how a group of life story specialists can collaborate on projects.  I, for one, will not be surprised to see in the future some compelling stories by this group about people who witnessed or were touched personally by the collapse of the Minnesota bridge.

        

There are many marketing principles - many ways to effectively reach people.  If we start with the premise that you have a viable product or service then what is the most powerful way to impact your client prospects?

In a word, story.  Your story.  Everyone has a story and your personal story as it relates to what you are about and what you are marketing can be the most impactful. 

Why? Because we all love stories.  And a story with heart touches other hearts.

I was watching NBC's Dateline last night with Stone Phillips playing highlights from his 15 years of interviews and it once again reinforced my belief in the power of stories. Phillips has been interviewing people over the years and I was struck by the variety of people he spoke with and the stories from their lives.  There were celebrities, war veterans, criminals and everyday people. Stories of regret and shame. Stories of triumph over adversity.

Stone Phillips closed the show with a segment that he said was his favorite interview.  It was with his father, a wounded World War Two veteran who was able to turn his disability into an asset and a motivator for his son. It was very touching.  It demonstrated once again the power of sharing our lives, especially the most important and meaningful times that value our love and life lessons. You can read excerpts from Stone Phillips 15 years of interviews online at msnbc.com.

What is your story?  Your life is your story and you should consider how you can utilize as a powerful marketing solution.  As has been often said before, you are selling yourself.

        

If you saw the movie "Minority Report" (based on a Philip K. Dick short story - PKD was a true master sci-fi writer!) you saw characters like the one played by Tom Cruise using a gloved interface for computer use. He would put the glove on and then point and move objects around on the computer screen. Pretty cool stuff.

Now it's no longer science fiction.  Jeff Han gives a great demonstration of this new technology on the TED website ("Ideas worth spreading").

To be able to manipulate objects - everything from glorified finger painting or sculpture-like capability to advanced photo editing - will revolutionize the way we use computers.  "Point-and-click" will seem oh so quaint someday when this technology becomes commonplace.

It's called Multi-Touch Interface.  See more here.