Five in the Morning 112608

(Five in the Morning will take a break for Thanksgiving…be back on Monday!)
Geoff Livingston with some pithy lessons learned after 10K tweets on Twitter. Good stuff here. Geoff calls it likes he sees it.
Sticking with a Twitter theme, Pistachio’s blog on Twitter means Business (with brief case studies).
Louis Gray makes the case that sharing and [...]

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The Financial Meltdown in One Sentence

People with an incentive to re-define risk for short-term gain will deceive themselves and others, distort the marketplace, and destroy value.
(this includes politicians who force institutions to make risky loans through market-distorting policies like CRA; institutions and individuals who willingly ignore long-term risk for the sake of short-term fees; and individuals who make commitments they [...]

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Five in the Morning 112508

From Jennifer Laycock – the influence of Twitter links to grow blog conversations. Twitter is like that outgoing guy or gal at a party who draws others into the convo… (btw, Jennifer’s blog posts about Twitter finally got me off my duff and into Twitter. I owe her.)
WebSuccess Diva (Maria Reyes-McDavis) gives us 10 Sinfully [...]

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Five in the Morning 112408

How NOT to: Build your Twitter community. Good tips from Sarah Evans. Oh, and the other side of the coin – How TO.
Growing through delegation/outsourcing – valuable thoughts here from Chaitanya Sagar. I’ve walked this same path and probably have other decisions to make in the future…and I agree that outsourcing (rather than do-it-all-yourself or [...]

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Five in the Morning 112108

Well, I’m back from a 2-day trip to Chicago, and it looks like my little experiment in time-queued blog posts and tweets for Five in the Morning worked OK (yes, the last 2 days had been prepared in advance on Tuesday). I know, I know, this is hardly a cutting-edge technology advance, but I’m of [...]

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Five in the Morning 112008

Has your company’s social media cat meow’ed yet? The glass-half-full guy, Terry Starbucker, has some valuable thoughts on this.
Is There a Hierarchy in Social Media? (as in: where should you start?). Nice overview of the basics from Jeff Paro, over at Small Business Branding blog.
Seth Godin has a free download for you – the Tribes [...]

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Twitter XR (eXtended Release)

Twitter is a great platform for sharing. But there is a bit of a problem – you can only be on it so much, usually in certain time slots – how can you share resources and links at other times, for audiences that “tune in” during other time slots?
Answer: Twitter XR. Or, in other words, [...]

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Five in the Morning 111908

You do know that Social Media is not a Fad – Right? From Dawud Miracle.
CMOs – Time to Evolve. From MarketingVox.
15 Rules for Business Bloggers. Good review of the basics, by Ian Lurie.
How to be the Social Media Champion at your Office. Good stuff by Jason Falls.
Toby the Diva asks: What would you do if [...]

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Five in the Morning 111808

One of my favorite local (NJ area) bloggers, CB Whittemore, on Social Media, the Elections, and what it all means for Marketing – Part 1 and Part 2.
At MarketingProfs Daily Fix, a post which is probably closest to the heart of what makes me tick – maybe more than anything I’ve previously written. What’s your [...]

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Five in the Morning 111708

Taglines. Examples of the good, the bad, and the ugly. From Brandsinger blog.
Anna Farmery does a podcast with “Director Tom” (Thomas Clifford) on Bringing Brands to Visual LIfe.
From the NY Times – the Brand-ness of Strangers. How does seeing logos and brands among the teeming masses impact us?
Lewis Green on Why Social Media isn’t a [...]

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My Value-Add

If you’ve subscribed to my blog(s), followed me on Twitter, met me in person, or all three, you’re probably…well, a very gracious and patient person! So who is this Steve Woodruff dude, anyway?
Being somewhat analytical, and having undergone decades of compulsive self-examination over the decades (including trying to understand my unique professional strengths), I’ve decided [...]

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Discard this ACE

I saw a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal this week. The prominent logo provoked a feeling that was so contradictory to the company purpose and message that I was flabbergasted.
One glance at the logo make me immediately think of two things:
1. Disorder; and
2. Toys R Us
Unfortunately, the ad is for a global insurance [...]

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Five in the Morning 111408

Six ways to Build your own Personal Developmental Network. From the smart and always-helpful Liz Strauss.
What is Passion anyway? From those folks with their Brains on Fire.
Laura Ries on It’s the Category, Stupid. What do you think of her thesis here?
Free Social Media for Small Business e-book, put together by John Jantsch and Microsoft. Cool!
A [...]

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Five in the Morning 111308

The headline is lying today. WAY too much good stuff this morning to restrict it to 5 posts. Enjoy!
Comments are not ads. A good reminder from Shannon Paul.
Jim Kukral goes live with his new business model and branding. Plus video launch.
C.C. Chapman’s interesting take on the recent Pepsi new logo social media campaign.
The Catchup Lady [...]

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My Twitter “Full Disclosure”

So you’ve decided to follow me on Twitter. Thanks for tuning in, and I look forward to tweeting with you!
I cannot provide you with all the answers to life, nor can I make all your relationships better or even guarantee improved hair control. Here, however, is what you’re in for:
:: WYSIWYG. Hopefully you’ll like what [...]

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Five in the Morning 111208

More Twitter followers? Forget about it! Good tips from Lisa Hoffman.
50 ways to increase your blog subscribers. Wow – I need a 53-week year!! From Daniel Scocco.
David Meerman Scott on that pesky ROI-of-social-media question from the boss.
From those Duct Tape Marketing folks – a fine (free!) download. The beginner’s guide to Using Twitter for Business. [...]

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Five in the Morning 111108

Louis Gray gives us 30 uses for RSS. Who’da thunk it? I just kinda thought you drop it into a feed reader and you’re done…
How to Pick up Followers on Twitter, from the guy who should know, Guy Kawasaki. Tip 2 highlights a pretty funny neologism; Tip 4 is  something I don’t necessarily agree with [...]

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Five in the Morning 111008

Instead of the usual roundup of top social media posts for the morning, let’s just have some fun today.
Beautiful bridges – some of these are truly spectacular – list of 10 with pix, list of 18 with pix (some overlap, but not that much). This is one of the coolest shots of the Golden Gate [...]

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Twouble

I’m thinking this might be an indication of a serious disorder. My Eye, Ear, Finger and Keyboard doctor has diagnosed me with TWINJE – TWeeting In NJ Excessively.

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Five in the Morning 110708

Hey! Do you think we’re stupid? Drew McLellan’s just askin’…
Why Start a Blog and 25 Tips to make it work. From the esteemed Valeria Maltoni. Great stuff here!
Ann Handley takes off on 5 in the Morning, with a 9 in the Morning! And these are some great posts…check them out!
Straight from the Web Success Diva [...]

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A Boy and his Legos

It was his 7th birthday, and his heart was set on a particular Lego set. You know – one of the pretty big boxes with an elaborate outer-space thingamajig and lots and lots of pieces.
Except when he opened up, there weren’t lots and lots of pieces. Only lots – even though the box was properly [...]

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Five in the Morning 110608

“Income Security” – an interesting thought from Jason Alba (he of Jibber Jobber fame). What do you think? Oh, and part 2 is now up, with a bunch of good input from the clowd. (the virtual crowd, the cloud, get it? Never mind…)
You DO know about Mack Collier’s “Viral Garden Top 25 Marketing and Social [...]

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Way to Light up your Booth!

I was at Ad-Tech NY this week, where I indulged one of my favorite pastimes – wandering the exhibit area to see who had a remarkable booth design, or marketing campaign, or giveaway.
I wasn’t too inspired, frankly – that is, until I came upon the Elite Commission booth. Rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I saw [...]

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Ad-Tech AWOL

Was planning to be at Ad-Tech NY again, live-blogging. Unfortunately, I’ve had a laptop malfunction (the keyboard may be permanently on the fritz) and so I can’t follow through on my plans to do another day of “reporting.” Sorry about that – technology happens!

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Five in the Morning After, 110508

It’s over. And I’ll bet a lot of folks aren’t getting up anywhere close to 5 in the morning!
Truth be told, I wasn’t up then either. Closer to 6 am. But here are your 5 fresh posts to start the day…
MarketingShift brings us two interesting lessons. British Airways finds out about the power of social [...]

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