Micro Branding...

a Must Have Innovation, or Marketing Fad ??...
by David Bookout

See Updates { 3 } & Comments below:

As Micro Lending becomes a more popular alternative to entrepreneurial funding, a concept, and a term that I'm calling "Micro Branding", is just getting started within the Social Media Management Systems ( SMMS ) sector.

For years I've drudgingly researched the boring, unimaginative, and downright frightfully designed "offers" that hawkers have been promoting in the Social Media space. During that time I've landed on and reviewed hundreds, if not thousands, of "capture" and "squeeze" pages designed to separate me from my money. The ultimate test, right ~ transaction with a paying customer ? ! As I said, most of these "offers" were boring, un-differentiated, un-compelling non-starters.

Executive Summary: Technical innovation, message, including value proposition, clearly delivered in print and video, good tech support structure utilizing Zend, a rocking affiliate program, and the personal touch of Tammy as the persona behind the brand. Nice !!!!! ~ Update 1 ~ I still like it... ~ Update 2 ~ The lack of branding capability on the FB side of MarketMeTweets is disappointing, but liveable, if I first post to Twitter, which is then linked to FaceBook.

More recently, however, I came across "Micro Branding", which appears to be a new niche creatively identified by Tammy Kahn Fennell and Alan Hamlyn. And, as good niche identifiers do, they built a tool that they call MarketMeTweet, which is a downloadable application that enables the brands you manage to own precious real estate on Twitter and facebook and much, much more. In total the tool helps you manage Social Media communications for a number of different accounts from within a common dashboard. Nice.

Here's how it works on the Twitter Platform: Normally, your Tweets carry someone else's brand in the real estate below your 140 character wisdom, just like "...by twitterfeed" in this example:


But, with MarketMeTweet you're able to brand build for the brand of your choice, like we have used "EFFETTI" in this example:


For those of you that haven't already said, cool, and clicked on one of the MarketMeTweet links above to find out more, or just sign up ~ then, you discerning folks might be asking questions like: (a) How does this benefit from an SEO perspective, or (b) How does this work if I'm an iPad, or mobile user ?? ~ Good points !! ~ Should we get those answers we'll be sure to update this post...

Update 3: August 7th ~ MarketMeTweet's FB limitation seems blurry on the marketing side...

MarketMeTweet's Tammy says; "The reason the facebook one is not the easiest too is notice - when you click on it it must go to an actual application - whereas with twitter it goes directly to a website ;)"


So, we did more testing and found the MarketMeTweet Micro Brand Link actually goes to a FB landing page for MarketMeTweet { Looks like a "website" to me ;-}, where another click IS REQUIRED via the ( Go To Application ) button, to go to the actual application page itself, which is here ( http://apps.facebook.com/marketmetweet/ ). Keep working on it Tammy, we understand corporate sales, and still like the product ( v.2.2.9 ).

Update 2: August 6th ~ MarketMeTweet's Tammy responds to their tool's lack of "Brand" capability on the FaceBook side as "...we're working on it". With a work around, I still like it, and wonder about a cloud based version !?...

Update 1: August 6th ~ MarketMeTweet's FaceBook beta ~ I must be doing something wrong ?...


After quickly configuring the FB account within the MarketMeTweet application the first post above exhibits a MarketMeTweet brand, so I need to check the settings. Perhaps, you have to add ( duplicate for me because I already did this on the Twitter side ) the brands you will be managing ? Nope, it looks like the Micro Branding is currently, only available from the Twitter side of the application, which I hope is high on the list of upgrades for the FaceBook beta, please...

WE Badge Test

Grooming your identity on the World Wild Web...

In real estate it's location, location, location ~ in cyberspace it's identity, identity, identity.

For those of you that employ the strategy of commenting on other people's blogs to increase the number of link backs to your website, or blog ~ here is a bit of history and tip on upgrading the look of your Gravatar.

Read the whole story at Soulati – 'TUDE!

Ubisoft's Tony Key on game marketing...

Marketing challenges ? As you can see from this article you're not alone in the "World Wild Web". Entrepreneurs may find this quick read interesting from a strategy perspective ~ but, don't get too carried away unless you've got budget...

Read the whole story at Games.VentureBeat

Why you should NOT write a Business Plan...

... & 10 better things to do to ensure success !!...
by David Bookout

Perhaps, you too have seen the recent ads for a new business plan template ? The ads seemed to be on every website I looked at yesterday morning, which prompted this post. The are a number of problems with the whole BPlan concept as I will outline briefly below, but the biggest problem is that business plan writing, for the most part, is a complete waste of time. Really, come on, how many business plans have you ever comprehensively read ? More importantly, how many business plans have you regularly reviewed, let alone followed in your day to day activities within a business ? Be honest.

Business plans are simply a business 1.0 tradition, relics that need to be replaced. What is needed are "Thinking Platforms" like the one we invented here that provides for derivative tools that facilitate business unique effective action on a daily basis.

Here are five reasons why the current business plan thinking is flawed:

A) Lack of differentiation ~ Template plans don't differentiate business concepts. Instead they foster a lumping of your business into a ho-hum pot of business similarity.

B) Lack of thinking ~ Template plans don't generate thinking. Instead they foster "go to the freezer, get the box" list checking, cutting and pasting.

C) Time ~ Custom plans take too much time. While you're in writing your plan, someone else is out validating and selling.

D) Change ~ Change, the biggest flaw factor occurs faster and faster. Technology, demographics and competition are all changing faster than people actually take the time to document in a business plan.

E) A Plan Is NOT Planning ~ Planning is a recurrent process. A plan, in this context, is something typically done once.

F) No one cares ~ Most active entrepreneurs seeking funding will tell you that they invariably NEVER get asked for a BPlan. Instead they get asked for Elevator Pitches, Executive Summaries, and Pitch Decks.

And, as promised, here are 10 things that you would be better off doing:

1) Talk ~ Talking with your desired audience. Call them on the phone. Go see them. Speculate with them, and most importantly LISTEN CAREFULLY to what they have to say.

2) Segment ~ Define specific user groups by their specific concerns. Refrain from staying too general in your work. Specific, valuable solutions drive the highest revenues.

3) Rank ~ Make assessments regarding user concern importance. This is the beginning of your value proposition work. It is also the basis of your design work, and should be revisited and revised often during the initial process.

4) Design ~ Sketch out solutions that address specific user groups and their specific concerns. Beware of committing too much too soon. This is where the costs are that drive business extinction.

5) Validate ~ Again, go talk to your desired audience segments. Use your ranking work to determine where to focus. Again, LISTEN CAREFULLY to what they have to say. Don't defend. Speculate. The right conversations at this stage of business offer development can lead to your customers literally designing your solution for you. Nice, if you can get it.

6) Re-Rank ~ Revisit your ranking work and change accordingly.

7) Refine ~ Shift your design sketches to more comprehensive solution sets. This is where your product roadmap comes in. If you don't have a product roadmap, you don't have enough information. Don't forget that this is another level of detail in the design of your offer, and your chances of having everything all figured out is slim to none.

8) Re-Validate ~ Again, go talk to your desired audience segments. Follow the re-ranking work. Make sure you are getting recurrent feedback from the same people. Avoid weighting one off feedback too heavily. Still LISTEN CAREFULLY to what these people have to say. Again, don't defend and speculate. Test trial closes.

Gather your information, it's critical decision and commitment time.

9) Build ~ Produce the simplest, easy to use, most compelling solution at the lowest total "cost". This doesn't mean the lowest "price". Sometimes things that seem inexpensive are extraordinarily expensive over the long haul. Build in flexibility. Things will change. Avoid feature creep.

10) Go Sell ~ The ultimate validation is a paying customer that would gladly repeat the process tomorrow. Not that they necessarily would, this is about satisfaction and the dreaded buyer's remorse. Repeat, repeat, repeat...

When you've done this list, in this order, and still think you need a business plan, let me know.

© Copyright 2010 - Effetti, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

The "Wasting Time" image may be © Copyright to and was found @ PinkForSure.com

6 critical tips for launching a startup...

For those of you interested in launching a startup while keeping your day job this article is a good, fun read !!

Read more at Entrepreneur.VentureBeat

Note: Originally posted here

Does your business have a Social Media Strategy ?

... & why you should take a closer look !...
by David Bookout

A friend and colleague recently sent out a message that they had made a career change to an up and coming company in a hot sector. So, I visited the company's website and in quick review saw that the company didn't have a clear Social Media Strategy. So, I sent a short email to my friend to inquire and received a quick, unexpected reply - "We have a social media focus and strategy. Our Director of Marketing is out of that world." - that got me thinking about what I may have missed. A few more eMails in the exchange produced the name of the director and a suggestion to search one of the most popular Social Media sites for a recent campaign, the note went on to say "That is a rather innovative use of social media that he came up with.", which intrigued me even more.

Now that I had some specifics, I searched four of the top Social Media sites and found just the use of the director's name and a small range of connections. In each instance there just wasn't enough evidence to lead me to believe that the company had either an effective focus or an effective strategy. In contrast, the individual was on the map, but I kept thinking "what's wrong with this picture ?"...

Brand is the key and companies delving into this new space should be much more brand aware when it comes to what they're doing. Here are two top level things to consider:

First, what brand are you building ? Care should be taken to determine if it is the company brand, the product / service brand, or the personal brand of the individual running the campaign, and the inter relation of each.

From this perspective you will get some clarity on the Social Media Venues and Account Names that you will need, as well as a linking strategy for the different sites you will be using for the campaign.

Second, what is success ? Stakeholder(s) should discuss and design the specifics of the stage they are in ( building awareness, generating interest, facilitating trial sales, or driving recurrent transactions ) and most importantly define the key metrics that they will use to tweak the campaign to ultimate success.

© Copyright 2010 - Effetti, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.

The "Social Media Landscape" image may be © Copyright to Fred Cavazza