I recently interviewed Michael Stelzner, the author of the newly released, Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition. He also happens to be the founder of SocialMediaExaminer.com — an online magazine focused on all things social. Technorati ranks SocialMediaExaminer within the top 5 small business blogs — rank [...]

Things are moving fast, incredibly fast. I keep hearing peers, colleagues, friends and family commenting on how fast paced life has become. I personally often find myself not knowing what day of the week it is, let alone determining the actual timing of past events, which may have taken place only a week ago, yet somehow seem to be several months ago in occurrence. This mind blazing pace is a challenge at many levels. For marketers it’s especially challenging as staying current on cultural norms, trends, fads, news, etc. often seems beyond reach. Yet it’s vital to stay up on the latest what’s what in relation to developing relevant messaging and marketing solutions that will resonante withtarget audiences while it’s still valid.

The question is, just how does one stay current on culture when it’s moving 300 hundred miles per hour? The answer seems to be to slow down a bit, take a break from your normal routine (these days, that’s mostly work for me) and be sure to leave your mobile device behind. The simplest way to describe the concept is to “plug in” which requires you to “unplug”. Here are some quick ways to make it happen:

”Stop! Collaborate and LISTEN!” Let’s apply Vanilla Ice’s song lyric to social media. Your customers are talking, are you listening? Whether it be around your product specifically, your competitor, or the industry as a whole, people are engaging in conversations online through blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, forums, product reviews, etc. as an outlet to recommend, [...]

Last Sunday my parents were leaving after visiting me and my family. They were heading back to Switzerland after a 3 months stay in california due to our 3 month old addition to the family, my proud little baby girl, Kirra.
After I read that Switzerland, and the rest of Europe were getting hit by one [...]

More often that not, when you hear the word “viral,”you may think of contagious viruses either attacking your computer or your immune system. However, when it comes to marketing, going “viral” is often the goal brands intend to achieve when they push marketing messages out through video, websites, social media, email, word-of-mouth, etc.
Unfortunately, many companies [...]

The battle lines have been drawn. The super powers have been amassing their arsenal of resources. Now, the front lines are engaging. The battle for ultimate control of a brand has begun between the 20th century traditional agency and the 21st century interactive agency.

Last week I was in the local mall getting a jump on holiday shopping. I happened to be in one of the two malls that has opened a Microsoft Retail store. I was curious to see what it was like as I always enjoy browsing the Apple store.

Every authentic brand has a story behind it. In “The Brand Mindset™”, Duane Knapp describes it this way;
“All genuine brands have a story, a legend about how they got started. On the surface, a historical account of the brandʼs beginnings may not be impressive. However, they can be very powerful because they offer inspiration and [...]

Rhythm Interactive has moved into a place of its own. On June 30th, we moved into an awesome building in the Bacchus Signature Series park in Irvine, California. There are numerous benefits with our move but the one I would like to speak about here is how we are making it our own and truly extending our brand. In so doing, we are practicing what we preach by further developing our own “Immersive Brand Experience.”

As Craig mentioned in our January 2009 issue of The Source , one of the latest trends on the rise is the Micro-Blogging platform called Twitter .  Micro-Blogging is a much more real-time way to convey to your “followers” what you may be doing at a given moment.  This is much like setting your current [...]