Category Archives: Viral Advertising

Totally free advertising on Google

August 23, 2010
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Creative Improv, Uncategorized, Viral Advertising
3 comments

It seems that Google Local Business Listing has fallen under the radar, at least in my sphere of influence. So I wanted to share some advice to anyone who runs a small business or provides a marketable service.

What is it? Google Local Business Listing is a way to get your business on Google Maps and subsequently Google search results…for free.

Why is this important? When someone searches for your product or service along with your city, your business will show up, top ‘o the list.

Localized. As I mentioned above, you get free local advertising on Google. When folks search a keyword plus your city, local businesses are displayed above  the regular search results.

Build Street Cred Whether you sell cheeseburgers or wedding dresses, Google Local Business Listings is one big way to build your street cred. How? Customers can write reviews of your product or service for others to see. Don’t be shy about asking customers to write a review for you on Google. I’m not. This is also an incentive to provide top notch service and products to your customers, because you may receive bad reviews too!

How much does it cost? Nothing is free these days… but this sure is and…

It works! At least for me. I’ve gotten one client so far by using Google Local Business Listings. Google has begun sending out periodic stats on how many hits you receive from your listing as well! Now, you might be asking….

How do I sign up? Go here and login with your Google account and simply fill a few things out!

http://stephenemlund.com/redesign/sd

Social Networking, Blogging and You (or your business)

July 20, 2010
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Clients, Creative Improv, Social Media, Viral Advertising
no comments

Today I presented to a group of teachers at Truman State University about using social networking tools and blogging to grow support for gecko mathematics – a unique math curriculum that was translated into English from Korean. Last year Creative Improv, the design firm I run built a website, blog and social network profiles for gecko math – we called it ‘Publish the Gecko‘, because it is a campaign to get publishers interested in gecko mathematics. This Summer, a grad-level course was put together to show elementary level teachers how to use this curriculum. I was asked to speak about the marketing of the curriculum through social networks and blogging and show the teachers how they might share things about the curriculum with their educator friends.

I will have a video of my talk very soon, but for now here is just a bit of what I shared:

  • TV, newspapers and radio used to be the global platform – today that global platform is the Internet – a world wide web filled with social networks, websites and blogs.
  • This new global platform allows ANYONE who has good content, products or services to gain support for free. This is HUGE.
  • Blogs – a successful blog is one that encourages interaction among the community of people with the same interest
  • Facebook – a way for businesses or organizations to reach their target audience on a personal level. It puts a face on an otherwise faceless corporation. If you have a business, you should have a facebook fan page and talk to your fans often and encourage feedback
  • Twitter – basically the SMS of the Internet – a quick way to share short messages. Retweeting or forwarding messages has huge endorsement power, because you are saying this person or business is worth paying attention to.
  • Retweeting has the power to make something go ‘viral’
  • All these online tools are a way to interact with a community of people online that have the same interests as you – whether it is someone else who shares your love for the Smurfs or someone who might be interested in your business, product or service. Dude, smurf it up!
  • Today, blogs, social networks and websites have provided the opportunity for anyone to pursue what you love – for more on this idea watch the following video (try to ignore the language)

A very cool new WordPress plugin.

April 30, 2010
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Usability, Viral Advertising, WordPress
no comments

Jeffrey Zeldman (@zeldman), self-proclaimed web standards guru just tweeted about a WordPress plugin for adding a Facebook ‘like’ button to your individual blog posts.  So, of course I clicked through and checked it out! I instantly installed it on my blog here and tested it out. I absolutely love it.

It seems that most people shy away from commenting on blogs (or more recently even writing on your wall)… but they jump at the chance to simply express that they ‘like’ something you’ve posted (on facebook) I guess it’s the equivalent of nodding in agreement instead of speaking your full opinion of something. Bringing this feature to WordPress iss a no-brainer. When someone clicks ‘like’ on my blog posts, a simple note will be posted to your news feed saying ‘John Doe likes such and such’. Where, “Such and such” is the title of my blog post. How stinkin’ cool is that?

OK, now try it.(note that if you are viewing my blog homepage, you have click the blog post title to see the ‘like’ button under the content.)

February 20, 2010
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Social Media, Viral Advertising
no comments

As a business, using social media is ‘…about having a direct dialog’ with your audience.

Why businesses and schools need Facebook & Twitter

February 19, 2010
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Social Media, Viral Advertising
no comments

Businesses who have an Internet presence (which should be every one of them or they are REALLY missing out) need to keep up with changes in the social media landscape and engage their audience where their audience spends most their time – Facebook, Twitter, etc.

Why should businesses be active in social media? So that when I tweet about how I’m upset with GoDaddy’s service, someone from the office of the president will call me and ask how they can help. YES, this actually happened to me, and it happened two years ago, before anyone really understood twitter. Or when I make a lame joke about OvernightPrints.com not shipping ‘overnight’ they will reply via twitter and ask my order number to check into it. Yes, that happened too.

What about universities? They need Facebook and Twitter to reach out to prospective students. When a high school student tweets about looking for an osteopathic school, some school like A.T. Still University could be using Tweetdeck to track the search term ‘medical school’ and reply to those students with info about their school.

And now for my shameless plug. Do you run a business and need a website or social media plan? Check out CreativeImprov.com

A look back: 2008 Presidential election

January 24, 2010
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Branding, Politics, Viral Advertising
no comments

Photo by Stephen Emlund in Des Moines, IA

Since it seems like my six-part series on the 2008 presidential election has disappeared within my blog, I wanted to re-highlight it since I spent hours researching various aspects of that election.

This series focuses on the websites of Sen. John McCain and then-Sen. Barrack Obama. It was a culmination of a semester of research in an Advertising course. While I was writing these posts (in the Fall of 2008), I was also producing many 30 second ads (Motion Graphics) supporting the Obama Campaign. These videos will posted in the next blog post.

Daisy Girl Reincarnate

May 22, 2009
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Bad design by design, Motion Graphics, Politics, Viral Advertising
no comments

In my Advertising course in college we analyzed many past political ads including Daisy Girl.  It aired September 7, 1964 and seemed to be an effective ad because it drew fear about  Lyndon B. Johnson’s opponent, Senator Barry Goldwater. The ad was created by innovative ad agency Doyle Dane Bernbach. It only aired once but that was enough to give Johnson the presidency. Today, this ad goes down as one of the most effective political ads in history.  To learn more about this ad go here.

On May 21, 2009 the RNC decided that it could piggy-back on it’s success over 40 years ago and paint Obama in the same dark hue. The thing is: they are just a tad bit too late. He’s already President. You’d think McCain would have thought of this idea during the campaign since he was 27 when Daisy Girl aired. (that was the same year he apparently got in an auto accident that was kept hush hush until recently - interestingly, that article was written on my birthday – october 28, 2008 – crazy!)

Not only is this remake a textbook example of how not to edit video, but every sound-bite is taken out of context and the ‘daisy girl’s’ voice sounds like someone Meghan McCain’s age rather than a 5 year old girl.

For your viewing pleasure!

Politics & Effectively Using the Web (part six)

November 6, 2008
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Politics, Viral Advertising, Website Design
one comments


Photo of Obama right after I shook his hand!

Photo of Obama right after I shook his hand!




In part six, I simply have a list of reasons why Obama won this election.

  • When McCain took the low road with trivial negativity, Obama never slung mud back, he simply continued on the high road – very under control
  • The negative ads by Obama that were run, were about the issues not about someone the other one associated with – We all have associated with people that others wouldn’t approve of, but it doesn’t define us or our character!
  • Obama was all about the politics of hope and change; McCain, the politics of fear, especially at the end of this campaign.
  • Barack Obama excited young voters – 60-70% of young voters supported Obama.
  • Obama was the first black candidate for president, but didn’t run as the ‘black candidate’. That’s the difference between him and Jesse Jackson.
  • Offering a drastic change from the Bush Administration and was successful in tying McCain to Bush by mentioned the number of times McCain voted with Bush (over 90%)
  • McCain’s lack of judgement in choosing a VP candidate. It showed that McCain couldn’t make smart decisions.
  • McCain’s age – We all know, we were thinking in the back of our minds: What if he dies in office and Sarah Palin takes over – does she have what it takes?
  • A unified Obama campaign never had internal blowups or controversy
  • People are drawn to exciting and hopeful candidates, not ones that are on the attack at all times and bring up things that aren’t related to the real issues.
  • Online Campaigning - Obama’s various websites that I mentioned in part 5, the organization, design/layout of his website and how the web was use to organize Obama rallies and events through social networking.

We are all wondering how Presedent-Elect Barack Obama will utilize the web in his presidency. One hint is a website that was launched today: www.change.gov I’m hoping for periodic email updates from a President Obama, similar to how his campaign was.

Politics & Effectively Using the Web (part five)

October 29, 2008
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Branding, Politics, Usability, Viral Advertising, Website Design
no comments

In part five, I take a look how Obama is getting out the vote and viral advertising.

I’ve decided to change this post slightly from what I described earlier. I’d like to focus purely on Obama and his various websites and viral advertising.

YesWeCanSong.com
The first time I had ever heard of the term ‘viral advertising’ was when will.i.am from Black Eyed Peas came out with the Yes We Can music video. We discussed it extensively in my Advertising course. One thing is true, when advertising is done independant of the candidate it is very good. That’s why ‘Swift Boat Veterans’ were effective in attacking Kerry because it wasn’t Dubya saying these things, it was an independant source. It also works for ads supporting a candidate, such as the Yes We Can video. This video highlights Obama’s great oratory skills and the particular cadence that is very effective with his speaking. I also took Public Speaking last semester and learned that your speaking ability has a lot to do with the silence/pacing you use. Obama definitely has this nailed. I guess you could compare it to how smooth-talking Clinton was. I heard a comedian say recently “You know, Clinton could say ‘I am not here’” and you would think “he’s right, he’s not here.”

 

YesWeCarve.com
Another viral website that was started from four guys not even part of the Obama campaign. The website was designed so well that I actually believed it WAS by the Obama campaign. This website takes advantage of the beautiful design and branding of the Obama campaign and allows visitors to carve Barack-o-lanterns with various campaign imagery on it and submit photos of the lanterns to their blog. Now imagine for a moment someone started “Maverick-o-Lantern.com” What stencils could they provide? A picture of mccain’s face? That wouldn’t work, all those wrinkles would cause your pumpkin to fall apart if you carved that… But I digress. I carved a Barack-O-Lantern and posted it to their website. Mine is found here.

The remaining items are all paid for by the Obama campaign.

FightTheSmears.com
This website was started a few months back when the primary season ended and Obama knew McCain would be on the attack. It basically takes rumors or attacks by McCain or other sources and gives the facts about each ‘smear’. This is effective in that ‘setting the record straight’ isn’t being done on the main campaign website, because if it was, it would seem that Obama is all about dispelling fear and not about the real issues. In this case he can do both at the same time, but keep his main website as place to learn about Obama’s stances on issues. On FighttheSmears.com, one can sign up for email updates on various smears.

Under The Radar
This website is a subdomain (radar.barackobama.com), but treated as it’s own website, with a very different design from the main campaign website. This site goes a step further than Fight the Smears does. This website lets users submit various attacks that are being launched at very local levels (direct mail, etc). The website gives you an interactive map and allows you see where various attacks are being done. This and the previous website does very good job of showing the numerous attempts to suppress support, and can only look bad for McCain.

VoteForChange.com
I registered to vote in Kirksville via this website. It gives visitors a step by step process to fill out info and then it generates a PDF with your info filled in and then you can print, sign and turn it in. I almost forgot to turn it in, but the deadline day, October 8th, I received a robo-call from Michelle Obama reminding me to turn in my form.

Cell Phones and the iPhone
Obama announced his VP pick through text-messaging – although it was leaked hours before sending the message, most people first found out about it from a text message, because it was announced at midnight the night before. Obama even has an iPhone App. I don’t have an iPhone, but would assume that this App is very effective. Any iPhone owners have thoughts on the App?

Video Game Ads
I had no idea that you could advertise in video games, but Obama has done so. Obama has placed billboard ads in nine XBox360 games in ten swing states. Even one more way that he is targeting the 18-30 year old crowd. I won’t be suprised to see my potato chips having political ads in the next presidential election. Picture this: ‘”Vote Palin 2012″ on your chips. Her slogan on the chips can be “Chew on this: I’m just a regular hockey mom”

In part six, I will look at the use of the web in the final days of the election and the results of the election.

Pumpkins for Obama

October 25, 2008
Written by:
Stephen Emlund
Filed under:
Politics, Viral Advertising
no comments

I’ve never really been good at pumpkins. Enter YesWeCarve.com I actually did OK with this one. I used a stencil available on their website. I also submitted the photo to their blog… I hope to see it up there soon!