Fan Pro Quo – A Social Experiment Aimed at Small Business Referrals

March 4, 2010

Insomnia gave us this nifty little idea… It’s actually not our idea, but that of a really clever guy named Larry Brauner, whose Online Social Networking site did something similar earlier this year. Here’s how it works: You visit the Area 224 Page on Facebook. If you aren’t already a fan of Area 224, consider becoming [...]

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Brand vs. Model, Benefits vs. Features – How to Learn from Ford

March 3, 2010

What’s it like to build a brand in this modern age? I often hearken back to days of old — when I was in an operating company of a large financial services conglomerate*. Often, we’d hear something from the field: “hey, we’ve created this product, we need to sell it” or “this is a service [...]

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The Area 224 Plan for Newspaper Relevance

February 24, 2010

Above the masthead on the Chicago Sun-Times read this little banner: “Still 75 cents.” Amidst a global recession, the casual observer might think: “Wow, the price of something is staying the same.” But observers of this space know that intuitive thinking like this, while safe, doesn’t get you where you need to be. Chicago’s days [...]

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Rhythmic Gymnastics Don’t Belong in the Winter Olympics, Or Your Marketing

February 17, 2010

Received a call here at Area 224 HQ from a dear friend, and here was his question: Why do I have to jump through so many hoops to get someone’s free report? In brief, here’s what happened: Friend attended webinar for free. Friend liked what he heard from a speaker, decided to visit a website [...]

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$100,000,000,000,000 worth of email newsletter advice

February 9, 2010

“You’re kidding me, right? This can’t be real currency, is it?” Yes, this is a picture of a 100 Trillion Dollar Bill. From Zimbabwe. Issued a couple years ago. Now worth nothing, as hyperinflation meant that 100,000,000,000,000 didn’t buy what it used to. What does this have to do with your email newsletter? Quite a [...]

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Why Turning Down PR is GOOD for Business

February 3, 2010

A major news outlet called me, Dave, last week and wanted to ask me some questions. I said “No.” Before you call me a wacko and say that I should have said yes because it would have been TREMENDOUS positioning for me, Area 224 and our Real SMM launch, here’s the backstory. Back in the [...]

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SMM stands for Social Media Manna

January 28, 2010

We came up with this concept shortly after a chat with Jim Alexander of Socially Mediated. Yes, it’s that easy – come up with a Social Media strategy for your organization and it will be like Manna from Heaven. Wonderful, tasty sweet bread falling from the sky. Social Media Manna. SMM. Social Media Manna will [...]

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Attention Social Media Ninjas – Meet Real Ninjas

January 19, 2010

We like how Google has marketed (or NOT marketed) its Nexus One Phone. Lots of buzz, a good product, etc.: all that’s well and good; but having a certain level of mystery-meets-Google to it is also a fun marketing approach. Then we saw this video and we thought, to paraphrase Guinness Beer’s pitchmen: “Brilliant!” Take [...]

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The Art & Science of Twitter Success

January 11, 2010

We have often told folks that Twitter is a large combination of Art & Science. There’s a science to following, followers, messaging, how often, what to automate, all that fun stuff. There’s an art, too…to authenticity that you can’t fake, to real-life interactions, to speaking your mind, to asking the right questions. Witness this: an [...]

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3 Weeks, Times Two…

January 8, 2010

Lesson We Learned: Explaining Art + Science of Social Media… Area 224 returns for not one but TWO repeat engagements of 3 Weeks to Social Media Success. Up there on our site you’ll see it say “3 Weeks is Back!” That’s because we did this program in December and, well, we had quite a few [...]

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