tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-100128442012-02-16T00:12:50.046-05:00That's "award-winning" word of mouth marketer to you, pal!David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.comBlogger3031100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-90360162270156859742012-02-03T22:48:00.000-05:002012-02-03T22:48:05.480-05:00

This week Foursquare announced their new Super Swarm Sunday Superbowl promotion (Well, unofficial as the naming rights cost money) whereby checking in on Superbowl Sunday will get you $5 off at Pizza Hut. A few people on Twitter and Facebook were saying it was a great promotion, but after a few second analysis this falls under the category of "So Close (Yet So Far Away)". Here's why: After

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-46044385849724166572012-02-03T15:34:00.001-05:002012-02-03T19:34:48.897-05:00

I've been using Foursquare for several years now. For those unaware, it's a location based "game" whereby you use your phone's GPS to "check in" at locations; some are real, like a restaurant, and some are virtual, such as "Snowpocalypse". At first, it was exciting to see all of the early adopters you know from the Twitter- and Blogosphere checking in. A lot of people asked "What's the point?"

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-41641171109166763822012-01-25T12:35:00.002-05:002012-02-03T22:48:17.901-05:00

I posted something yesterday on Twitter and on Facebook was favorited and Liked by senior executive at one of the world's largest retailers, an executive at a massive, global CPG and senior executives at agencies, respectively, so I'm going to repost it here to share it with you. A little background, first: A lot of folks in the industry had been creating fan hubs long before Facebook went from

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-572021575008259912011-09-24T07:08:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.155-04:00

Thursday the bomb was dropped at f8 that Facebook is going to be ditching the Like in favor of user actions and passive updates, meaning that when you engage with apps and have the "Add to Timeline" feature enabled it will automatically update your Timeline with what you're doing (for an example of this, check out the Washington Post Social app). It's mildly reminiscent of the auto-checkin app

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-2038509837262009912011-08-29T05:00:00.001-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.017-04:00

Unfortunately this happens all too often at companies: We need to prove that social media delivers a return before we can invest budget in these sort of programs. Pretty chicken and egg, right? The fortunate part is that it's easily correctible; if you set up your social media programs and measurement properly you can determine the ROI.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-45117507839051688832011-08-26T08:45:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.082-04:00

Since it's Friday and everyone's talking about Hurrican Irene, I figured it'd be a good time to slip in some shameless self promotion for a few upcoming speaking gigs in New York City. You know, provided it's not flooded:September 16, 2011PRSA's T3PR: Theory, Tactics and Technology for High Tech Public RelationsNew York, NYTechnology Crisis. Digital Age.October 26, 2011ACI's Focus on Social Media

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-75546136283110027252011-08-08T06:56:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.180-04:00

This Mashable article reminds me of the Gen Y "Make me famous" syndrome, where Jason Alexander once said:I once went to speak at a school, and there was a 16-year-old girl. And the girl says to me, "You know what? I don't care what I do, I just want to be famous."And I thought, you know, I should really just shoot her in the head because it would serve two things: It would make her famous as the

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-69146812938739291272011-07-22T07:26:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.175-04:00

My capstone course in college was all about Leadership. Specifically, we spent the semester dissecting, discussing and debating what leadership is, what makes a great leader and finally submitting a thesis on whether or not people are born with leadership qualities or they can be learned. Much like when I started learning, thinking and applying word of mouth marketing techniques to my clients in

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-2202678848368099642011-07-21T07:31:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.022-04:00

The same saying applies to web design too:via Damian Rintelmann

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-25334237582449090382011-06-29T18:32:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:39.551-04:00

So Google's putting out  new social network, or

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-50866332921707958092011-06-22T18:07:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.093-04:00

I have to take major exception with this article, as those willing to  invest in measurement can put a return on their investment. I've preached this for a while now, but if a company like Audi wants to make a difference they need to create, support and empower their dealerships to pick up where the national halo campaigns leave off. That is, if they're actually willing to change what in the auto

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-35415691545919876792011-06-21T05:00:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.044-04:00

Today Foursquare announced that they've hit the 10 million user mark (insert Dr. Evil pinkie-to-mouth gesture here). They've even included a nifty, interactive "infographic" displaying all of the activity over the past few years. While it's a no doubt a milestone to celebrate, it's also a major head scratcher for those asking for a little openness about their metrics.The gist behind declaring a

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-78467330945869784422011-05-03T05:56:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.186-04:00

“You talking loud, but you ain’t saying nuthin…” – The FugeesA single, former co-worker, Dad friend of mine posted a link on Facebook the other day that caught my attention and at first I thought it was about Social Media Celebrities. The blog post was really about the single urban professionals who on the surface are into being in a relationship but realistically they really aren't interested in

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-3769604262130231672011-04-25T18:10:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.069-04:00

It's the stock market of do-nothings. Next.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-2670531448010621142011-04-20T12:09:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:39.591-04:00

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-43643096314776448772011-04-17T07:04:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.076-04:00

As a leader I am a firm believer in continuous improvement, or the notion that today you will work to do something better than you did yesterday; never miss an opportunity to learn, consider everything a learning experience and never stop learning. The NYTimes has a great article that is an excerpt from the book "The Corner Office: Indispensable and Unexpected Lessons From CEOs on How to Lead and

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-36758888479944536842011-04-10T06:56:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:39.597-04:00

Techcrunch picked up on http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/09/google-party/Ted Wright of Fizz Marketing commented on Facebook that ""

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-31187892655781947752011-04-09T06:14:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:33.038-04:00

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-51359143738865129492011-04-09T05:55:00.000-04:002011-10-17T09:53:39.603-04:00

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-17726267246765259322011-01-25T15:42:00.003-05:002011-01-25T15:53:36.203-05:00

Social Media Club hosted its second annual "Community Manager Day" yesterday, a time for celebrating those who have to work the front lines with consumers on behalf of their companies. For those living in a cave, a Community Manger is a person that, on behalf of their company, spends time curating, creating, listening and strategizing where, who, what, when and how to talk to people online. Think

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-39370067838568567332011-01-06T00:04:00.002-05:002011-01-06T00:05:57.683-05:00

I was just reading Chris Abraham's take on the new Starbucks logo and I have to completely disagree: I don't like it. Here's why:The new logo dropped the circle and name that was around the logo, which has been in existence since the 70's. Ok, fine, we all need to evolve, like those bell bottom pants. Oh, wait. (Similarly, I still use both products, but I digress...) Well, aside from that, most

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-70354844707493639902010-11-29T20:12:00.004-05:002010-11-29T20:16:01.701-05:00

All Facebook is reporting that Facebook sales reps are contacting people letting them know that promotions are no longer required to garner explicit approval from Facebook AND that there is no longer a minimum ad spend to accompany said promotions. This is hugely welcome news for brands that want to reward their fans but don't want to pony up the $10k ad buy to support giving away, say, a $50

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-48036188414231342142010-11-04T08:23:00.000-04:002010-11-04T08:24:26.060-04:00

Facebook announced yesterday that they're rolling out Deals, a location-based couponing and fund raising system. There are two types of Deals that can be had via their Places feature: coupons and charity. Basically, if consumers check in they unlock a deal or are helping to raise money for a cause. Sound familiar? It should, except this has real potential to take off in a big way.If you read my

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-36493123225057816152010-08-27T14:19:00.002-04:002010-08-27T14:19:43.078-04:00

Last year TechCrunch outed PR firm Reverb Communications for astroturfing in the iTunes app store on behalf of their clients. As it turns out, the FTC took notice and recent revealed that they settled with the firm that posted misleading reviews of their clients products. As someone that's been intimately involved with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and drafted our Association's FTC

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-91498222662279641192010-06-16T09:30:00.001-04:002010-06-16T09:30:00.281-04:00

Wayne Gretzky has one of the greatest sayings of all time that has stuck with me since I heard it several years ago. When asked what the difference between a good hockey player and a great hockey player was, he said, "A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."I'm not comparing myself to the Great One by any stretch of the imagination.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-81154339331796188542010-04-12T08:30:00.000-04:002010-04-12T08:30:01.137-04:00

I've been telling clients that 2010 is going to be the year of accountability as it relates to social media. This means  accountability using real numbers (read as: sales) and not fluff (read as: Twiggler.net says we reached 2,001,450 Twitterers with those 3 re-tweets!!1!). With this accountability would come the fall of the social media expert. Talk can only take you so far before it hits the

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-32732323078945467812010-01-13T14:50:00.001-05:002010-01-13T14:52:06.071-05:00

The idea for this post came from Josh Hallett's "Sorry We Work In Different Industries" blog post and was cross posted over on Shamable.com.Yesterday an agency posted their RFP criteria for companies looking to hire a social media firm. It's self serving as all get up, but not a bad start. I'm sure the agency will undoubtedly not let anyone forget that they were the first to post it on their blog

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-73728247061774681632009-12-22T10:33:00.003-05:002009-12-22T10:37:50.085-05:00

As you know, the FTC recently published "blogger" and celebrity guidelines around disclosure. And, the most simple terms, it said that people should be able to discern whether or not you're being compensated for talking.On a parallel track, Twitter recently changed how their functionality works. Specifically, the common practice of re-tweeting, or saying what someone else said, has caused pains

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-90170300360121253222009-12-07T08:30:00.000-05:002009-12-07T21:29:27.597-05:00

You may have missed it, but there was a wonderful article on December 3rd in BusinessWeek about social media "experts" being snake oil salesmen. It's something those of us at agencies have wrestled with from day one - the combination of not having a job with the ability to self-publish and self-promote has opened the door for unqualified, inexperienced, ill-informed people to give advice and make

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-54212898753783823772009-12-02T13:43:00.001-05:002009-12-02T13:43:37.715-05:00

I was recently quoted in the New York Times Gadget Blog around protecting your reputation online. Specifically, the question was if individuals with unsavory content online should delete it in an effort to hide it from potential employers. Before I give my answer I'll give you the employer's perspective on the question:The Employer's PerspectiveAs an employer and marketer/advertiser, I can tell

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-84606956120629095032009-11-17T23:03:00.002-05:002009-11-17T23:05:26.804-05:00

Hi everyone,I would normally never hijack my own blog for something like this but when you have the chance to help someone you just do it. A fellow blogger and friend, Anissa Mayhew, unexpectedly suffered a stroke earlier today and is currently in the ICU. I'm uncertain on how she's doing as we only received an update via her husband on her Facebook status, but needless to say there are a lot of

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-71546340883743985652009-10-30T00:21:00.002-04:002009-10-30T00:23:43.010-04:00

Twitter finally lands a few business deals, but at what cost?

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-50718310089366550312009-10-09T09:30:00.005-04:002009-10-09T15:54:08.312-04:00

Last week Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending, networking, connecting and speaking at the Type A Mom conference in Asheville, NC. Kelby Carr did an amazing job and I was proud to bring my clients to the conference to help support the blogging community.One of my panel sessions was called "Working with Companies", moderated by the lovely and talented Lucretia Pruett, aka GeekMommy. She

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-16122717702424033632009-08-18T09:20:00.001-04:002009-08-18T09:24:27.813-04:00

I tweeted this earlier but if you go vote for my South by Southwest panel - and I make it - I'll take you with me. No joke, I have set aside marketing budget and will pay your travel (hotel, flight) and ticket. How can you enter?Click this link to the SXSW Panel picker, then retweet it and you're entered to win. You can enter every day, as much as you'd like until the voting ends. digg_url = '

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-12527068615610406162009-03-14T11:06:00.010-04:002009-03-25T10:03:18.077-04:00

Facebook unveiled their new home page Wednesday and I have to say - it's awfully Twitteresque. The center well, or "stream", of content on the page is now an ajaxy, auto-updating time line of your network's status updates. The language at the top has changed as well, from "David Binkowski is" to "What's on your mind?". (Twitter's call to action has always been "What are you doing?")I think this

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-76847346091735040422009-01-28T17:30:00.000-05:002009-01-28T17:34:01.415-05:00

Brandweek has a heads up on some interesting developments going on at the FTC. As you know, the EU implemented some rules back in 2007 regarding fake bloggers and astroturfing, with fines and possible jail time as a consequence for engaging in devious practices. Don't look now, but the FTC is looking to take actions regarding endorsements, including paid and earned blogger relations campaigns:For

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-12706386440378293472009-01-27T21:28:00.006-05:002009-01-27T21:42:11.263-05:00

I'm not Hugh McLeod so I used Keynote to create this chart demonstrating where most people are regarding so-called 'social media experts". Enjoy. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/tech_news/Twitter_Social_Media_Experts_Graph';

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-69729295173888267972008-12-13T12:41:00.005-05:002008-12-13T12:54:45.115-05:00

There's a hot debate over on Twitter this morning today regarding the K-Mart/IZEA/Blogger campaign and the ethics of bloggers taking money to write posts. Marc Meyer's Direct Marketing Observations blog has a good post documenting the discussion. I'm re-posting my response to the question here:It’s definitely a slippery slope. Does anyone *really* know the bloggers their reading? Probably not.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-33166470156336326422008-10-31T07:51:00.004-04:002008-10-31T10:36:13.175-04:00

In the ongoing saga of "How Will Twitter Make Money?", Read Write Web has a story that a company called Magpie offering to help you monetize your personal Twitter account. Last year we saw the ludicrous auctioning of a Twitter account on Ebay which in and of itself was unscrupulous, to say the least. That auction was pulled after several folks blocked Andrew Baron got an ear full from folks like

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-91144414455725994832008-10-26T21:34:00.005-04:002008-10-26T21:45:10.760-04:00

Loren Feldman from 1938media has a great talk posted over on his site from Blog08 where he tells the crowd to keep blogging (creating content). If you want to understand why Wired was wrong when they declared blogging is dead and what all the rage is with services like Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed (validation), watch this: Regular readers here know that racy language isn't foreign to this

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-3702075992229716992008-10-14T13:18:00.017-04:002008-10-14T13:47:52.946-04:00

Friends, readers and passers-by. Geno Church, a friend and fellow WOMMA member, has a missing daughter. Makenzie, aka Kenzie, Church, has been missing since Saturday. She's from upstate South Carolina (Spartanburg, Greenville) and could be in the Carolinas or Georgia. Please repost this notice on your blog, Facebook profile, message board, etc and help. Thanks. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-82681088368421812482008-08-14T11:30:00.006-04:002008-08-24T00:41:12.574-04:00

Mike Driehorst recently wrote a post about the effect of personal brands on companies and how they can enhance a company's reputation. Some of the examples he mentioned were Jason Falls, Bob Lutz (GM, a client) and Lionel Menchaca. He also brought up Boeing's former CEO, Randy, who was blogging here. Coincidentally, as pointed out by Chris Brogan, they've replaced him with a CEO by the same name,

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-41617560963097662702008-07-28T21:10:00.005-04:002008-07-28T21:41:36.212-04:00

Move over long form reviews, there's a new player in town. Via TechCrunch, a new service launched this week called Blippr, which is a product review web site that limits reviews to 160 characters. When I first read about it I thought "there is no way it will work", but after trying out the site there are several reasons it does work. Here are a few rules to success that they've followed:Be

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-68285489782877442332008-06-25T22:16:00.007-04:002008-06-25T22:45:41.125-04:00

The concept of viral videos has been played to death. I've made it very clear that unless it increases sales or drives action they are absolutely pointless. "But Dave, they break through the clutter of a crowded marketplace!", you might say.Fair enough. The latest video to make the rounds is the fake minor league ball girl who scales the outfield wall a la Jackie Chan to make a spectacular catch.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-27628381351892738592008-06-23T22:06:00.005-04:002008-06-23T22:22:25.499-04:00

Last week I spoke at the Council of PR Firms "Internfest" on a panel about being a "Specialist" in a PR firm. The lovely Melinda Zurich followed up the presentation with a few questions, which I've answered below, for their weekly email.I wanted to write about how this new breed of young PR professionals (digital natives) are changing (or not) the face of the industry through their innate online/

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-17687146821296717902008-05-29T09:40:00.006-04:002008-05-29T10:17:34.706-04:00

Parents, lock up your (kids) privacy - Webkinz is reintroducing banner ads back into their site. If you recall back in December, the kids plush-toy-based-social network tried pushing banners for Jerry Seinfeld's Bee Movie and saw considerable backlash from parents. What's different this time? Akin to Facebook's privacy settings, Webkinz has added/changed the "My Pets" tab to "Me & My Pets", which

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-78758751198148607542008-03-16T16:19:00.006-04:002008-03-17T12:00:24.779-04:00

Guy Kawasaki recently launched a site called Alltop, an aggregator of the "Top sites" in various categories. For those unfamiliar with the site, think of it as Mahalo meets RSS feeds. I'm listed under the Social Media category.There are haters abound, however they all have a reason to hate - they're not the target.If you look at who's hating it's those who've readily adopted RSS readers.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-28377511865356878412008-03-02T21:10:00.003-05:002008-03-02T21:23:45.814-05:00

In a departure from the regular "This is Sportcenter" ad format, the current spot for SC doesn't feature a high profile athlete or famous mascot, but instead offers viewers the opportunity to vote on having one of two anchors read the next highlight, or, option "C", watch a cockatoo slam dunk a basketball. Michael David Smith from AOL's Sportshouse blog says he doesn't like it:The commercials are

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-17226387254799921022008-02-25T15:15:00.001-05:002008-03-01T17:04:11.405-05:00

The internet is quite possibly the greatest thing numbers folks could ask for -- number of regular internet users within a country, segmented by demographic, state, income; what web sites they visit, how much they spend and how many conversations they're having. Numbers everywhere.I want to preface this by saying that this is quote possibly the most pompous thing I've ever done on this blog:

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-25525656414691167392008-02-16T22:06:00.009-05:002008-02-17T09:58:49.881-05:00

Every year I look forward to the NBA All Star weekend Slam Dunk competition. It was dry for a few years, but an infusion of young players with hops have made the past few years pretty exciting. Remember last year when Orlando's Dwight Howard slapped a sticker on the backboard? The unpredictability of the contest has taken on a life of its own this year. Memphis Grizzly Rudy Gay solicited

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-53256586514612629942008-02-14T22:25:00.012-05:002008-02-16T09:49:43.894-05:00

A new spam e-mail service has launched called Bloggio, promising to help connect "marketers" with "Top tier bloggers". Don't bother looking it up by going to the dot com -- these mofo's went all non-profit 'n shit, bypassing the .com for the .org -- so you know they're legit. Hey, the site, which redirects you to blogg.io once you click on the About page, says it was started by "3 guys" in New

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-66587205912900743212008-02-03T22:19:00.000-05:002008-02-03T22:42:38.593-05:00

Tonight was the Superbowl, where the supposed best ads (Although Jason Calacanis's "Salesgenie racist Superbowl ad post says otherwise) of the year were aired. While I thought this year's crop was weak, with Tide To Go's "talking stain" being the standout exception, it's fun to watch the most creative, fun spots from years past. Enter Firebrand. It's a new site that only shows the best ads from

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-86405519812983038362008-01-25T09:50:00.000-05:002008-01-25T13:09:52.807-05:00

The NY Times has a great article on a battle raging over on Digg between the site operators and some "Power Users" on the site. Digg, for those unfamiliar, is a social news site. What does that mean? Basically, people find stuff from around the web, including news stories, blog posts, photos and video, submit it to Digg and the community deems whether or not it's worth viewing. There's a bit of

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-11953479071766841142008-01-15T23:02:00.001-05:002008-01-15T23:30:43.951-05:00

I've noticed a lot of traffic to my blog from a post I did on Rick Roll. In particular, people are looking for how to do it. So, without further adieu, here's a quick 1, 2, 3 on "How to Rick Roll Someone."Pick your target. This should be someone not suspecting a peculiar link, email or heads up. Works great if you're the guy/girl in the office known for sending YouTube links via IMGrab the URL.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-9544424098410235782008-01-12T22:29:00.000-05:002008-01-12T23:05:23.512-05:00

I noticed that a domain name I had purchased was expiring but I hadn't received any notices from the registrar, so I logged in to my old Yahoo email account. Sure enough, I forgot to switch the account settings with my domain registrar and there were a few notices for my old band's domain. Another batch of emails stood out as well. They were from GOP front runner John McCain, asking me to "get

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-29319534749409044672008-01-10T11:06:00.001-05:002008-01-23T20:17:58.750-05:00

Well, that didn't take long. I was spammed twice today via my Facebook profile by someone named Andrea Rowe, saying that she likes my profile picture (flattery is my weak spot) and wanted to chat. She's promoting a site through one of the TinyURL-esque sites and let me know that her username is "foxy_hotty". Here's her follow up message:hi there David, how's it going? i wanted to chat with you,

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-8864417026955862152008-01-03T11:25:00.001-05:002008-01-04T22:41:01.590-05:00

After watching Loren Feldman's live show tonight, I've decided that I don't want to bother discussing the Facebook/Robert Scoble incident. There's nothing more to say than this - the site has terms of service and if you break them you can get your account deleted. Or in this case suspended and then reinstated. And Plaxo looks really really unethical and dishonest for asking bloggers to scrape

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-30931047833043780912007-12-23T23:51:00.001-05:002007-12-24T00:25:06.827-05:00

via Techdirt via Computer Associates, Sears is inviting you to "join the My SHC Community!" when you visit their site. What is My SHC? It stands for "Sears Holding Companies", which includes Kmart.com. According to their site, it allows you to, with my comments in italics:Create the future of in-store, on-line, and service experiences that are right for you and your changing needs - provide free

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-849309848444629622007-12-20T00:17:00.000-05:002007-12-20T00:38:10.361-05:00

Ok, ok. You're probably on the Top 150 list that AdAge started publishing a few months ago. It's supposedly a "who's who" of Communications bloggers based on a ranking system -- a metric, if you will. And like any other metric you have to ask "What are we trying to measure?" and then "What is the purpose is of measuring?".Let's answer the first question first:If it's only to point out the top

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-76454270675302350062007-12-16T09:56:00.000-05:002007-12-16T11:53:04.261-05:00

Disclaimer: This is no way an attempt to rip off of the great series John Moore runs over on BrandAutopsy -- the title just seemed fitting.I have been using Twitter for some time now, increasing my usage to see if it changes how I'm consuming media and, more importantly, my opinion of it. I'm nearing my 500th update, and my opinion has yet to change. It's still full of essentially useless

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-79651530621328547512007-12-01T00:03:00.001-05:002007-12-01T01:21:40.018-05:00

At this point, everyone's had their take on the Chris Anderson outing of 300+ PR folks. Here's what I am declaring to be the last of the Wired meme. Jenn has the latest take, which for the most part I agree. Her conclusion is, essentially, that "we all have jobs" and "if you can't handle your job, get out of the business". I love how she brings it strong (hence the addition to my blogroll and now

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-45535927284125136682007-11-17T12:27:00.000-05:002007-11-18T11:03:36.768-05:00

Jason Calacanis posted earlier that Google has decided to drop PayPerPost "posties" bloggers page rankings down to zero.Explained via their site, a Page Ranking is:PageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B.

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-43656124754061311682007-11-04T22:40:00.000-05:002007-11-04T23:23:42.587-05:00

Evolution. No, I'm not going to get all Kansas, err, pro-creationism on you here (Shout out to Amanda's 9-0 Jayhawks, though) -- I'm talking about the natural progression to a different stage... one that's better, we'd all hope.I've been going through my Reader and dropping several blogs. It's not because I'm negative and predicting the demise of the blogosphere as others have, it's just that

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-19253168700875832382007-11-02T11:11:00.000-04:002007-11-03T20:22:07.921-04:00

The Word of Mouth Marketing Association announced the second WOMMIE Award winners the other day leading up to the 3rd Annual WOMMA Summit taking place in a few weeks in Las Vegas. What's a WOMMIE? The WOMMIEs are given to "reward amazing word of mouth campaigns and the smart people who create them." We were one of the inaugural 2006 winners, and it's nice to see that there were no repeat-winners

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-39861862525992366252007-10-29T13:20:00.000-04:002007-10-29T15:24:11.536-04:00

CNN reports that the Gap has fired a vendor in India for using child labor to create sunglasses for its upcoming Holiday collection at Gap Kids (oh, the irony). Gap President Marka Hansen is "deeply disturbted", "upset" and "angry" that this occurred. I believe it, however in a global economy corporations should be meticulous about the business they keep, even if it does end up being

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-72603015210305997292007-10-24T23:15:00.000-04:002007-10-24T23:23:34.555-04:00

Reading a recent thread by a mom blogger on the PayPerPost message board has revealed a shocking revelation: PayPerPost will not let it's employees, or "Posties" as they're called, write about anything they don't purchase. Full disclosure: This was brought to my attention because a colleague worked on a recent campaign and was emailed by a blogger whose post was yanked by PayPerPost due to "

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-91588542433045811522007-10-15T23:59:00.000-04:002007-10-16T00:02:39.558-04:00

"Poorly coordinated" and "may not make a difference".No, I'm not talking about my old band (which, subsequently got together for Pete's wedding this past weekend - congrats Pete and Shannon!). :PI'm talking about Blog Action Day, which, for those interested, was today. Everyone is supposed to blog about the environment today and make a difference. Except for me.I applied to be a part of BAD (

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-4529171280896460642007-10-12T08:50:00.001-04:002007-10-12T13:15:16.501-04:00

Via Whatsnext via GigaOm, it looks like opening up the platform to apps and spamming, err, advertising to people on their homepages wasn't such a great idea. Traffic for the site, including unique visitors and time spent on the site, is down compared to last month. I mean, don't get me wrong - I love pwning chumps with my Vampire and sharing my music taste via iLike, but I don't want to join your

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-62725684463384032572007-09-28T22:25:00.001-04:002007-09-29T00:30:03.858-04:00

On Thursday morning a few of us attended the Digital Bytes Breakfast at the Time-Life building in Manhattan, hosted by AdAge. There's a good recap on the AdAge site, so I won't post it verbatim, but for those of us with ADD there are some key points worth noting, in particularly the comparisons to the early issues with the growth of the internet:Mobile marketing has huge potential, especially

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-82976212406872894032007-09-27T14:14:00.000-04:002007-09-27T21:26:42.082-04:00

It was brought to my attention that the NY Times published an article a few weeks back about the benefits of small business blogging.They offer some great tips, so it's definitely a worthwhile read. If you're into the audio version you can listen to the podcast I did in April of 2006 on the same subject. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/business_finance/Promoting_your_small_business_through_blogging';

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-90004699383962308592007-09-25T15:40:00.000-04:002007-09-25T23:02:26.632-04:00

A Romanian hacker has once again gotten through the dreaded Ebay security and posted 20 pages of members' credit card information on an Ebay forum before the company realized what was going on and pulled the plug on the board.Not only did they post the actual credit card numbers, but also the 3 digit authorization codes as well. But hey, you can't be perfect -- so offer Free Listings! Yep, Ebay

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-46364714620830229782007-09-19T08:08:00.000-04:002007-09-19T23:07:09.766-04:00

Ok, so my Halo 3 post was a hoax... Gotcha! In related news, there is a Norwegian shop selling copies early, but my prank was part of the latest internet craze called "Rick Roll", and about 140 Digg members fell for it over the past day or so. (Yes, I was laughing when I saw click throughs, and it is funny.)Remember dude from the 80's named Rick Astley? Yeah, me neither. Until I saw this again,

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-43933541232854721972007-09-18T20:00:00.000-04:002007-09-18T20:30:12.940-04:00

Scheduled for release on September 25th, a group of hackers have posted a torrent of Halo 3, the long awaited series from Bungie Studios. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Halo_3_released_early';

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-90807219117878488642007-09-16T22:15:00.000-04:002007-09-16T22:35:57.549-04:00

I have to admit - I am a huge Weird Al Yankovic fan. Have been since '83, when I not only owned the self-titled debut cassette but sheepishly admit to performing the songs ("Gotta Boogie" and "One More Minute" were my personal faves) to my parents. Full geek disclosure -- I also was one of the ten people who saw Al's movie "UHF" in theaters when it was released and caught part of Al's scarf

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-44945906515489162212007-09-15T22:57:00.000-04:002007-09-15T23:12:54.992-04:00

Yeah, my friend Spike said he's OK with the rebate and still loves ya'. But I'm not as forgiving. Maybe it's because I've been a loyal Mac addict since owning my first //e in the 80's. Maybe it's because I tell everyone to buy your stuff, the design rocks and your products "just work". But you really, really, really screwed us -- and I'm not ready to let it go.A few weeks ago I said that the #1

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-48345437596552037032007-09-14T23:35:00.000-04:002007-09-15T00:15:48.481-04:00

I thought this would be a fun exercise is un-spinning the spin of the various 2.0 properties that've popped up over the past few years. It's pretty simple -- Take a web property and assign a tagline based on it's actual use, not what they came up with.Here are a few examples to get you going:MySpace: "I need friends." (alternate is "Check out my rack/pecs!")Blogger: "Because no one cares."Flickr:

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-41812122516809747372007-09-07T22:41:00.001-04:002007-09-07T23:06:49.865-04:00

Remember back in the day when browsing Ebay used to take hours of your time? Well, since it's height of popularity it appears most of the world's useless junk has traded hands enough times to make the current stuff boring. I mean, we've all seen the "creative" listings that make "The Pulse" on Ebay, the Jesus Pancake, the guy who took a picture of an item naked, etc. Entertaining for a few

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-65449424492377438592007-09-06T22:11:00.000-04:002007-09-06T22:21:32.982-04:00

Hours after Steve Jobs made good better on the $200$100 "rebate" (although technically getting me to spend another $100 at the Apple Store isn't quite a rebate, but I digress), another potential disaster was averted.Information Week reported that Yahoo's Fantasy Football servers crapped out while teams were holding their live drafts on Tuesday night. This could have caused a potential backlash

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-81468265064388854012007-09-06T13:57:00.000-04:002007-09-06T18:07:04.479-04:00

So the $200 price drop has several of us early adopters pissed, to say the least. Wired has a great figure showing our "investment" depreciated by about $3 a day since launch. You can have your say, though. Apple has a section on their site where you can "Share your iPhone story". Here's my submission, enjoy:Thanks to the price drop, I just got screwed by Apple for being an early adopter. When

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-82470938158431650942007-09-05T21:27:00.000-04:002007-09-05T21:55:29.832-04:00

Sure, it's a week late, but WTF everyone deserves a break for Labor Day. NBC and FOX announced the name of their new video site, Hulu. Huh. Hula? Nope. Hulu. As Techcrunch points out, it has some, um, interesting meanings in other languages. For example, in Indonesian it means "butt". Same with Malay. Sure, it also means to "stop doing something", which is what we all do when we're watching clips

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-87278629492716517272007-08-27T20:07:00.000-04:002007-08-27T20:33:28.065-04:00

An email/newsletter went out recently to Ebay Power Sellers, encouraging them to stock up on holiday items for their Ebay Stores by purchasing brand new items from brick and mortar stores. The article, entitled "Sourcing for Profitability", had a tip called "Returns means low risk". Yep, you read it right - Ebay is telling its Sellers to buy from offline stores, and if they can't sell it on Ebay

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-46294010657019312712007-08-27T10:03:00.001-04:002007-08-27T10:39:16.283-04:00

I'm going to bite and actually blog about this because I want to shed some light on how bloggers are screwing themselves for a few dollars as well as debunk a claim on WOM by advertisers. An article in the WSJ has me laughing this morning. It's about search company Apogee, who's using Pay Per Post to pay bloggers to write about their site. "How much?", you might ask. Yeah, when I read this I

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-7789506860817201162007-08-24T13:26:00.000-04:002007-08-26T11:10:20.121-04:00

George Hotz is running an Ebay auction for the world's second unlocked iPhone. His blog details the ten steps it took to do it. This second (his person phone is the first) phone can be yours (currently) for a mere $2,175. Better yet, you could just follow the steps on his blog, unlock it yourself and only pay cost at the Apple Store.Congrats, George! image by George Hotz8/25 update: George has

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-2372530387010441952007-08-23T21:21:00.002-04:002007-08-23T21:55:03.893-04:00

Oh, you meant real buzz? Well, we can definitely create fake accounts and try! Comsumerist brings us a classic case of an agency (Martin Waymire Advocacy Communications) lying to its client about creating that coveted "pre-launch buzz". Or in this case, shill until ye can't shill no more! It's too easy to blame the brands, here, folks. Brand managers, VPs and the like are taking companies for

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-30470944939936161702007-08-19T11:43:00.000-04:002007-08-19T21:19:33.477-04:00

I nearly crapped myself when I saw this story on Techdirt (via Slashdot). There's a new campaign to block Firefox users from certain web sites because they're avoiding viewing ads by using the Adblock extension. The discussion on Slashdot's entry clearly shows readers are puzzled, and in some cases pissed. Smooth move, Ex-Lax.This presents a huge opportunity to boycott those blocking Firefox and

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-76189171260736128142007-08-15T13:32:00.000-04:002007-08-15T14:35:24.335-04:00

Earlier this year I tried to gain weight as part of my "Anti-Fat Blogging" kick, which was in a direct response to the silly "fat blogging" craze. And I'm glad Jason and Co. have lost weight, good for them. However, my plan backfired when I started exercising regularly and found it impossible to put on a pound. I'm 6'6" and weigh a slim 215 lbs, which puts me at an average weight and BMI for my

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-19749814549313693882007-08-12T13:39:00.000-04:002007-08-12T13:57:05.081-04:00

I've spent this weekend, among other things, scaling back on my RSS subscriptions and enjoying the lovely weather. That being said, here are some great posts that have popped up over the past few days:Mike's Points: Dehumanizing our workOne of Mr. Driehorst's takeaways from BlogHer -- at the end of the day we're all real people. Side note: Not mentioned in Mike's post but notably counterintuitive

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-3804316823189695522007-08-10T23:05:00.000-04:002007-08-12T13:33:42.637-04:00

No, I'm not referring to the YouTube/CNN debate or the politics of blogging, also known as the complimentary ass kissing that goes on between bloggers on the A-list. I'm talking about political figures on a non-national level, aka those without a press secretary or PR manager, and how they are learning to listen to, appreciate and engage in blogs. This is getting local, y'all. As I've mentioned

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-5577988171253675322007-08-04T11:46:00.000-04:002007-08-04T14:25:01.112-04:00

That's the most common question I've been asked since getting an iPhone last month. Sure, it's a nifty conversation piece and overall I'm pleased with it -- especially since it replaces my (go ahead and laugh) 2nd gen iPod and Razr. There are a lot of features I love, like the Maps driving feature to calculate distance and time based on real time traffic conditions (red = heavy congestion, yellow

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-5998059067570088952007-07-31T22:30:00.000-04:002007-08-08T23:18:52.671-04:00

I've been holding onto this post for a week trying to decide how this can be explained or justified, but I just can't do it. Undoubtedly you've heard the old adage "When you can't beat 'em, join 'em". Well, for those without any savvy but deep pockets, it's adapted to the title of this post. Or, as the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DeBiase (pictured right, with Zeus) would say, "Everyone's got a

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-86545422243048991102007-07-30T00:39:00.001-04:002007-07-30T00:46:08.849-04:00

I honestly can't believe I'm blogging this, but Twitter sent me an announcement that people are confused between "Friends" and "Followers". Maybe we should rename them "Friends" and "Stalkers"? Would that help?From Twitter:Friends, Followers and NotificationsFolks have noted that there's too much overlap and confusionbetween "friend" and "follow." As Twitter has evolved, these twoconcepts have

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-53543466933510072192007-07-25T22:49:00.000-04:002007-07-25T23:12:34.901-04:00

I'm not going to make a big deal out of this because, in all fairness, it may have been out of necessity. And while I grew up in metro Detroit with access to CBC, I don't know the inner workings of the Canadian media -- so it's possible that they have different rules for disclosure or don't care, but should Debbie have disclosed to the media and her readers that there might be a conflict of

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-63281438178153113342007-07-22T09:55:00.000-04:002007-07-22T10:44:45.964-04:00

From Josh Bernoff at Forrester, Sony has made it's third second foray into the blogosphere with the "Sony Electronics Blog", located at the dreadfully hard to remember URL of news.sel.sony.com/electronicsblog/. In my mind this blog is much needed and will hopefully address the customer service and quality problems that have plagued the brand in recent years.I've had my own bad experiences as

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-42913601228012693442007-07-20T18:22:00.000-04:002007-07-20T20:53:25.148-04:00

The social media explosion, especially to those of us who belong to communities and participate, has shown that people with credibility and a channel have just as much power as those with multi-million dollar ad campaigns. Which is why the recent Edelman Top 30 Social Media Index needs some serious rethinking.If you count the blatant pissing on the Long Tail, my second issue with it is that it

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-70721406339923770012007-07-20T12:26:00.001-04:002007-07-20T13:47:25.680-04:00

A poll on ESPN's homepage is asking voters to choose, city by city, which sports team matters the most in that town. Today's poll features my hometown of (metro) Detroit. Why I put metro in parenthesis is another debate (3.5 million people live outside of the City itself, yet rather than say "Warren", "Canton" or "Taylor" people just say "Detroit". Odd.) The current results, voted on by fans

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-9896409323517276672007-07-16T22:38:00.000-04:002007-07-16T23:15:22.196-04:00

After initially dissing it, I'm drinking the Pownce Kool-Aid. Is it the end-all, be-all? No, and it has a long way to go. But it's actually come in very useful. Here are 5 reasons why it kicks Twitter's ass:1. Files. A co-worker asked me to review two web sites in development and post the results for the rest of the work crew to see. I clicked both links via IM, did screen shots and posted them

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-28808447952214693882007-07-13T23:27:00.000-04:002007-07-14T00:13:17.751-04:00

Trying to reverse the trend in membership, MySpace has added a new box to display members' "status" and "mood". Um, like, when did the 100MM social networking site become the "me too" of social networking sites? Oh, that's right -- when News Corp bought it.It's so bad that people that've left MySpace for Facebook are now complaining about the bombardment of companies trying to infiltrate their

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-55054159433437889302007-07-13T22:51:00.000-04:002007-07-14T00:37:27.398-04:00

File this under: Transparency, Schmansparency. I just gave a Word of Mouth 101 presentation at work today and of course talked about ethics. How timely that I was able to point to this as an example: The journal has a report on Whole Foods CEO John Mackey posting on message boards promoting his company while simultaneously pissing on Wild Oats - anonymously, under a fake name. Wow. My first

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-1778930525288329022007-07-10T22:56:00.000-04:002007-07-10T23:34:33.237-04:00

I'm going to make this short and sweet just to prove a point: Jakob Nielsen has lost it. You can stop reading now since you're stupid and aren't considering buying anything based on reading a blog.That's basically the point of Jakob's article - blogging isn't worth a company's time. I need to preface this before I begin, because...I completely respect his work and opinions; as a former designer I

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10012844.post-573013232304466992007-07-10T14:32:00.000-04:002007-07-10T16:25:21.082-04:00

Based on today's news I think some people are going crazy from the heat:Taco Bell and DraftFCB looking for the best non-human to put in its ads - Spike pointed out that advertising is reaching its own tipping point of using fake testimonials in ads, so why not switch to include fake people? Ok, so they're real, but as a marketer I'm skeptical (shocker!) that this is a good idea. The community

David Binkowskinoreply@blogger.com0