Even today, with all of Twitter’s popularity, people still ask “What’s the point?”  Unfortunately these are the people that just may never get it. 

That’s why whenever I see a good case study for Twitter I can’t help but point it out.  Today the band Paramore is seeing first hand the way Twitter can launch a brand.  This is a prime example of how Twitter is useful, meaningful and an important tool for advertising and marketing…

Yesterday the band Paramore was in a studio in London being interviewed by BBC Radio who recorded the session.  The band put a couple video clips up on YouTube of themselves performing from the interview, and also posted the videos on their own Website’s blog: www.paramorefans.com. They also included a free MP3 of the songs available to download from their site.  Most noteably is their beautiful cover of “Use Somebody” originally sung by Kings of Leon.  It’s an absolutely awesome song. 

Today, not but 24 hours later the term “Use Somebody” is a Trending Topic on Twitter – and when you search for it you see nothing but praise for Paramore and their cover…and the two videos on YouTube are at 25,000 views each and growing by the minute.  Ironically, the orginal song by Kings of Leon hasn’t ever received this much press.

All Paramore did was post a couple videos and a free mp3 and their fans did the rest.  One person tweeted how they liked it, his friends tweeted how they liked it too, and so on…. until so many people tweeted about it that it became a top trend on Twitter – and that’s where I saw it – which is the real success of the story.  Until 20 minutes ago I had never heard of Paramore.  Now I’m in love with their cover of one of my favorite songs and I’ve had the opportunity to download other songs from their Website and have become an instant fan (and here I am blogging about it). 

You really couldn’t ask for a better example of a social media sucess story.

At TalkAboutAds.com we strive to create tools and resources for those in the online advertising and marketing industries.  Today we are happy to announce a new job board where job seekers can find Internet jobs in their area – for free.  Employers can post a job listing for just $5 for 90 days.  The job listing will also be automatically listed on the Simply Hired network, reaching hundreds of sites and thousands of job seekers.

Look to the right to see the last 5 job postings, and go to Jobs.TalkAboutAds.com to search the entire database of over 600,000 jobs nationwide.

If you’re an employer you can post your first job for 50% off by using coupon code “firstjob”.  That’s only $2.50 for a 90 day listing!  Click here to get started.

Outlook 2010 is currently in Beta, and from what I’ve seen looks pretty slick.  But there’s one problem.  A BIG problem.  Microsoft has decided to abandon Web standards when it comes to rendering HTML in e-mail programs – causing an uproar from those of us involved in e-mail marketing.  They have confirmed that they plan on using the Word rendering engine to display HTML emails in Outlook 2010.  Sure, it sounds like a good idea – except that Word sucks when it comes to rendering HTML.

What does this mean?

It means that HTML e-mail designs (you know, all the emails you get with pretty graphics in them) will now need to use tables for their layout (tables? What is this 1999?), they will have no support for CSS, including the ability to use background images, and tons more.  Read all about it here: http://www.email-standards.org/blog/entry/microsoft-to-ignore-web-standards/

Basically, for people like me that manage e-mail campaigns (like the Daily IQ), we will now need to build two e-mails to send to our subscribers: one built for Outlook 2010 users which will feature less functionality and visual design, and another email for everyone else.  We’ll also have to use an e-mail platform that will support the ability to detect the user’s e-mail software and deliver the appropriate format.

What can I do to help?

Use the power of Social Media to send a strong message to Microsoft that Web Standards are there for a reason and that this change is not a good one.  Outlook 2010 is still in beta, meaning Microsoft is gather feedback from their users on it and still has time to make changes before the final release.

Head over to http://fixoutlook.org/ and do your part to use Twitter and other Social Networks to tell Microsoft how you feel about this.

By the way, the folks that built FixOutlook.or are geniuses – that’s the coolest site I’ve seen in awhile.

Dunkin’ Donuts has released a new interactive Website and iPhone App aimed at making your group coffee and donut runs more efficient and automated.  Using the App or the Website you can send out an alert to your friends and coworkers letting them know you are going on a run to Dunkin Donuts.  They can reply to the request via their iPhone or from the Website and put in an order for what they would like.  Everything from frozen latte’s to donut holes is on the interactive menu.  Once all the data is collected you can check the App on your iPhone, or print it and present it to the staff at Dunkin to place your order.

From the www.DunkinRun.com Website:

The Dunkin’ Run is the easiest way to grab that delicious pick-me-up for you and your friends. Here’s how it works:

• INVITE: Start a run at DunkinRun.com from your computer, mobile device, or our iPhone application . You are now “the runner”, and pick which friends you’d like to invite by providing their email or mobile phone number (no spaces or dashes e.g. 1234567890).
• ORDER: Select what you want from the menu, and we’ll contact your friends and tell them to do the same.
• RUN: Go get the goods. We’ll compile all orders for you, and you can print it out or have it sent to your mobile device (if you print it, just hand the print out to the Dunkin’ crew member at the shop and they’ll take it from there).
• ENJOY! Bring the goodies back, and enjoy the deliciousness, along with the hero worship from your friends.

It also includes tie-ins to Facebook to update your coworkers on the status of your run, as well as let’s you save past runs and favorites.

What would make this even more awesome?  If it sent the order directly to Dunkin so that it was waiting for you when you get there.  A step further would be to let each individual pay for their order via the App or Website – making collecting money from everyone less of a hassle.

This is a brilliant and very well executed marketing campaign that will last for years.  I know I will use it.  What we need is something similar for Starbucks.

People always come to me for help when they need advice on promoting their new online business.  They have a great idea, produce a great product and put an awesome site together, but then they get stuck on the biggest obstacle of running an online business – trying to get people to know about you and come to your site.  If advertising is the answer for your business, and your budget is small, you have little room for risk.  So you want to make sure you are spending your ad dollars wisely.

The easy answer used to be Google Adwords.  For a small chunk of change you could run some text ads targeted to keywords that pertained to your business, and if done right you could get pretty high click throughs to your Web site.  Converting those clicks into sales is a whole different blog post.

Today, the advice I’m giving out to most new Website owners is “Facebook!”  Advertising on Facebook is cheap, easy and very effective.  They take the Google keyword targeting approach to the extreme, and ensure that your ad is only seen by your specific target audience.  A local pizza restaurant in Atlanta, for example, could target a Facebook ad to women, ages 25 to 45, who are not employed, married, have children, and who live within 10 miles of the restaurant (basically stay-at-home mom’s).  They could even include only those women who have shown that they like pizza.  The ad copy could say something like “Hey Mom, why cook tonight?  Click here to order Tony’s Pizza!”

On any other site that ad copy would have to be more generic, and it could only be targeted by a large geo-demographic, such as Atlanta, GA.  Males and females alike, mom’s and single women with no children, those who live too far away from the restaurant’s location, as well as those who hate pizza would all see the ad on a normal Website – and the majority of the paid impressions from the campaign would be lost on visitor’s that are never going to buy anything from the advertiser.  With Facebook targeting you have a much better chance at getting people to click on your ad.

You don’t need a lot of money to buy an ad on Facebook either.  You can set daily thresholds as low as $5 or $5,000.  The more you spend the more times your ad will be seen.  You can even choose to pay by click instead of impressions, that way you are only paying for the ad when someone actually visits your site.

Starting today Facebook has taken their ads a step further, and have included a way for viewers of your ad to interact with your brand and share their love of your product.  With Facebook Ads for Pages and Events you can offer a way for visitors to engage with your ads in the same way they interact with other content on Facebook, and without leaving the page they’re viewing.

Visitors can “Become a Fan” of your company, or RSVP for an Event that you are sponsoring.  Everytime they interact with your ad, it posts a message to their profile telling their friends.  People who visit their profile may see that their friend likes “Tony’s Pizza” and might click to check it out – never did that person ever even see your ad.

Viewers can always click the ad to be taken to a page with more information on your product, or directly to your Web site.  With a Facebook Page for your business users can discuss your products, share with friends, and receive updates from you on specials, promotions, news, etc.

To get started with Facebook Ads – click here.

To start a free Facebook Page for your business – click here.

Also, while you are there – Check out the TalkAboutAds.com Facebook Page.

People who know me well, know I’m the King of Self Promotion.  (Although they usually aren’t complimenting me when they say that.)  You may not necessarily work in a competitive business or have a competitve job like an actor or writer, but I think everyone will agree that business in general, and trying to climb corporate ladders is very competitive.  You might be a hot shot at work today and a shoe-in for that big promotion, but tomorrow they could hire someone younger and/or more knowledgeable than you in a completely unrelated position… and now you’re competing with him or her for favor with your boss.  Or maybe you are job hunting right now.  If you are then you know how competitive it is out there.  You’ve got to do everything you can to make yourself stand apart from the crowd, and to prove you know what you are talking about.  What makes you better than the last guy who had the same degree and experience as you?

Here are some tips to help promote you, as well as get you more visibility:

1. SEO Your Brand!

You are your own brand.  Your name is your trademark – so protect it!  You might notice that everytime I mention my name or post my name on a Website I use “Justin J. Dean” instead of “Justin Dean.”  That’s because “Justin” and “Dean” are both very common names, but the phrase “Justin J. Dean” is unique to me and maybe just a handful of others.  When someone wants to know more about me the first thing they might do is go to Google and type in my name.  So I try to make a strong effort to make sure they are typing in “Justin J. Dean” and not anything else, because that’s the query that will show the most results related to me.  Even my business cards include the J on them.  SEO is something you’ve got to keep in mind even offline.

2. Become an Expert in… Something!

If you know a lot about advertising and online marketing, start a really cool blog about it.  Share your insights and experiences with others.  It keeps your knowledge fresh, shows that you are a team player, and positions you as a leader in the field.  I’m just starting this blog out, but I’ve ran many others in the past and doing so really helps your creative juices to flow, and excersizes the parts of your brain that help you have an advantage over others.  When a potential employer Google’s you and finds that you are an active blogger in the field they are looking to hire you for, then that’s a huge plus.

If you are knowledgeable in a particular field you may even want to start writing articles, white-papers, guest blog posts on popular blogs, or submit them to site’s like Google’s Knol.  Here is an article on the basics of SEO that I submitted to the Knol.  I’ll be posting many others soon.

To become knowledgeable in something, start reading about it!  Pick a subject and start reading blogs, news, and books about it so that you are always on top of your game.  Setup Google Reader to make it easy to manage all the blogs you follow.  Or Google Alerts to notify you of breaking news in a particular subject.

3. Network, offline and online.

Just like promoting a Website or a product, no one is going to know about you unless you tell them.  Get out there and attend industry events.  Meet new people and share ideas.  It’s how you find new jobs and opportunities, as well as partners and friends who can help you develop products, or even find your next employee.  I live in Atlanta, and can usually be found at the AIMA (Atlanta Iteractive Marketing Association) meetups each month.  Find a networking group in your area that specializes in your field.

Maybe you aren’t a people person, or don’t have the time to go to parties and events.  Either way, you should also be networking and staying active online.  There are a ton of social networks out there – start using them!  When someone Google’s your name they are hoping to find out as much about you as they can.  Employers these days look at everything from your type of music, your friends, what you do in your spare time, whether you cuss, drink or smoke too much, etc.  – all the things that they aren’t allowed to ask you in an interview.  So make yourself visible, and be careful what’s public.

Here are some sites you might want to become active on:Create a Google Profile, LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm, ReTaggr

4. Specialize

Be specific about what you do.  Experts get hired more often, and get paid more.  It might even mean turning people down, which is something you can’t be afraid of.  It helps establish you as being well-known for what you do, and makes you stand out among a crowd of generalists.  Take for example a saleman who says he can sell anything and everything.  He might sound like a confident person that will get the job done.  But then walks in salesman number two, who specializes in advertising sales and has done nothing but for the past 5 years.  He could probably sell you anything as well, but when you need someone to sell ads for you, who are you going to pick?  (That was probably the worst example I could have come up with, but you get the idea.)

To learn more about self promotion and branding, I suggest you subcribe to Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog.

Any successful advertising, marketing or sales professional needs to have a mobile device that connects him or her with the office and the Internet.  These days its impossible to be competitive without one, and any iPhone user will tell you that if you want to do it right… the iPhone is the only way to go.  I know I would not be as successful, productive or efficient as I am without mine.

When people get to know me, and how connected (and geeky) I am, they usually end up asking me about what apps I’ve got on my iPhone – if I haven’t already whipped it out and showed them.  So, I thought I’d go ahead and start things off with an inside look of my iPhone:

BACKGROUND: That’s my son Dylan on my phone’s background.  Not only does he make me smile throughout the day, but he’s also a great ice breaker.  Clients always comment on it when they see pics of your family.  It gets the conversation going, allows you an opportunity to connect with them, and gives them a feeling of trust, honesty and warmth toward you.  Same reason why I have a picture of my family on my MacBook desktop (great for revealing during a GoToMeeting with clients).

My First Screen:

I fill the first screen of my iPhone with apps that I use EVERY day.

Text, Calendar, Photos, Camera: These come with the phone of course, but they are items I use throughout the day.  I hate talking on the phone, so texting is my prefered form of communication, only second to e-mail or IM.  My Calendar app is synced live to my Google Apps account and allows me to see and edit multiple calendars including my work calendar, my personal calendar, my wife’s calendar, as well as those of my co-workers.

Maps: I’ve replaced my TomTom GPS and only use my iPhone now (3G with GPS of course).  I’d literally be lost without this app.  Great for finding your way to client meetings.

Evernote: This might be my most important app.  Evernote lets you take notes in text, voice or by snapping a photo and then let’s you search within all of those notes.  What’s unique about it is that it also transcribes your handwriting, or any text within your photos – then allowing you to search them as well.  I’ve taken notes on napkins, complete with drawings and diagrams and imported them into Evernote by snapping a photo of them.  But the most useful thing about this feature is that I can take photos of whiteboards and turn them into searchable text notes by importing the photo to Evernote.  I would have paid $50 for this app.

iXpenseIt: Keeping track of personal and business expenses is annoying, but iXpenseIt makes it real easy.  When I swipe my credit card for a business expense, I immediately snap a photo of the receipt, import it to iXpenseIt and categorize it accordingly.  At the end of every 2 weeks I export a spreadsheet complete with photos of each receipt and submit it to accounting directly from my phone.  Never do I ever have to turn in physical receipts or try to remember what the expense was for.

Quicken: Keeping track of all my personal and business bank accounts and credit cards is very easy with Quicken’s free app.

RTM (Remember The Milk): This is by far the best To Do List app available.  It also seemlessly integrates with my Gmail account, calendar and desktop.  I am lost without a to-do list, and with RTM I can get notifications on my phone and manage my tasks wherever I am.  As you can see there are currently 7 outstanding items (no, one of them is not update my blog.)

USA Today: I’m not the biggest fan of this paper, but so far they have the best news app.  I check this daily to keep informed and pass time… usually while in the Starbucks line each morning.

Mafia: Another time passer… gotta build my empire!  This is an on-going role playing game that continues to play even when you aren’t using it.  I’m currently on level 87.

Twitxr (prounounced twitcher): Twitxr allows me to post a photo, my location and a short message simulaneously to Facebook, Twitter and Twitxr.com/jdean so that my friends and family can stay up to date on things I do.  It’s mostly full of photos of my son doing cute stuff.  I tested them all, and this is in my opinion the best photo blogging experience for the iPhone.

Facebook: Staying connected is important, and Facebook is the way to do it these days.  I’m able to keep more than 50 or so friendships active and healthy by just staying active on Facebook.  There is no way I’d be able to keep up with this many relationships without it – especially with it being so accessable on my phone.  From acquantances, co-workers, ex-coworkers, out of state family, to extended family, etc. I’m able to keep in touch with them all and I never have to call or visit them. 

My Second Screen:

My second screen is full of utilities and location apps that I like to have in close reach.

SEM Calc: Great tool for quick CPM, CPC calculations and conversions.  Extremely helpful in client meetings (especially when out to lunch) when trying to show different advertising opportunities.

Salesforce: Allows me to access my company’s Salesforce.com account to update client information, get contact info, etc.

Bible: YouVersion’s iPhone bible is great.  Perfect for taking to bible studies or on Sunday.

Yelp: I love to eat out, and am fortunate enough to visit some of the best restaurants wherever I go.  I love to share my experiences, upload photos, etc… as well as get tips on where to eat by reading other people’s reviews.

OpenTable: This app lets you make reservations on the fly at most popular restaurants in any city.  These restaurants usually block off a certain amount of reservations each night for OpenTable users, so if you find that you aren’t able to get a table at your client’s favorite restaurant – try the OpenTable app and you might get lucky, even at last minute.  It also suggests restaurants in your area (using GPS) that have available slots.

AroundMe: The best app for finding stores, shops, restaurants, etc near your current location.  I find this very helpful when traveling and trying to find coffee or a place to eat – or even a hostpital.

SugarSync: This app keeps me connected to all my computers, as well as backups all my important data.  All of my computers and my iPhone are constantly synced to SugarSync.com where my data is backed up on the cloud.  That way if something crashes I can simply download my backup copy.  I found this extremely useful when I accidentally deleted over 200GB of iTunes movies and music last month.  Also, I’m able to access every file on my laptop (or my wife’s laptop) from my iPhone.  There have been countless times that a co-worker or client needed a file right that second, but I wasn’t at my desk.  I was able to open Sugarsync, access the file and send them a copy within seconds.

AnalyticsPro: This app allows me to view analytics on all the many Websites that I manage.  I can pull traffic and demographic information on the fly.  It links great with my Google Analytics accounts.

iMapMyRun: Tracks my runs via the GPS on my phone and allows me to see the route I took, how fast I ran, my pace, calories burned, etc.  I’m able to compare to my previous runs, set goals, and view graphs on trends and habits.  It also allows me to post all this to Facebook and Twitter to share with friends for bragging and/or accountability.

My Third Screen:

My third screen is full of stuff to read when I’m bored.

Kindle: Allows me to read books while on the go – without having to purchase a $300 Amazon Kindle and lug it around.  I’m currently reading the Bourne Identity and Click.

Book Search: from Google, allows you to search any book from Google Book Search and view it online.

Reader: also from Google, gives me mobile access to the over 300 blogs and news feeds that I read and keep up daily.

Tweetie: I’ve tried them all, but this is the best app to keep up with Twitter – especially if you have multiple Twitter accounts as I do.

Mashable: My favorite blog… this app allows me to keep up with social media trends and news wherever I may be.

MProfs: Allows me to keep up to date on all that MarketingProfs.com has to offer.

SnapTell: Take a picture of any retail item (book, CD, toy, etc) and it will analyize the photo, tell you what it is and where you can buy it (and of course for how much).  It’s a great tool for doing price comparisons right in the store.  Ever stand in Target and wonder if that item is cheaper at Walmart?

My Fourth Screen:

My fourth screen is full of fun stuff, music apps and time killers.

RingCentral: Allows me to see virtual voicemail on my companie’s Tech support line.

Remote (the first one): Allows me to control my AppleTV or my MacBook Pro from my iPhone.  (This has come in handy many times when we lost those tiny little white remotes.

RemoteT: Allows me to control my Tivo from my iPhone.  Extremely usefull when typing in searches or email addresses into your Tivo (or messing with your wife when she insists on watching home improvement shows instead of 24).

Remote (the second one): This one controls Keynote (the Mac equivelent of PowerPoint).  Very cool for running presentations in a meeting.  You can see your notes on your phone, and control the slides without anyone seeing your notes.  This wows clients everytime.

Tivo: Allows me to control and program my Tivo when I’m not at home.  Hear about a new show on the radio – open up the app and program it to record.

Last.fm: Great for listening to music I don’t own, and to find new artists.

Midomi: Hear a song in a restaurant or on the radio and want to find out what it is, or want to purchase it?  Press record in midomi and it will look up the song and let you purchase it in iTunes.  You can even sing or hum the song into your phone as well.

My Last Screen:

Video sites, photo editing and games: This last page is time waster stuff.

SimCity: Amazing on the iPhone – I still can’t believe how much they were able to keep in the mobile version.  I can waste hours building cities.

1112: This game has superb graphics and music, but I hope they come out with updated levels soon.

Photogene: This app let’s you make some great edits to photos before uploading them to Facebook, or wherever you post them.

Well, those are the apps I use and can’t live without.  I’d love to hear what you have on your iPhone and if there are any I’m missing that you just can’t live without.  I hope you’ll share in the comments.