I love Guy Kawasaki, and here he is giving some sage advice for small businesses on what to do and what NOT to do in social media. With 1.4 million Twitter followers, I think he knows what he’s talking about! Check out the article here at Business Insider: Guy Kawasaki On Small Business Social Media.
Uh oh! Here comes lots more native advertising
Check out this great piece from John Oliver on the increasing use of “native advertising” in the media. He makes some great points mixed with his usual brand of humour.
Information Is Beautiful
If you like infographics as much as I do, you’ll love this UK-based site developed by a team of designers who like to “distill the world’s data, information and knowledge into beautiful, interesting and, above all, useful visualizations, infographics and diagrams.” The site is called Information Is Beautiful. I could spend hours looking at this stuff. Being a health nut, the one called Snake Oil Supplements is one of my favourites. I love the interactive filter.
Top Nonprofits
Shout out to this amazing site called Top Nonprofits – not sure how I haven’t come across this before. The site is rich with curated lists and resources on nonprofit marketing, management, social media, and more. Check it out here: www.topnonprofits.com
The Noob Guide to Online Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]
This is a keeper!
Unbounce – The DIY Landing Page Platform
Brilliant Nivea Magazine Ad
Check out this cool mobile plus print execution by Nivea skincare products. The print ad has a removable bracelet that kids can wear on their wrist as a GPS tracking device. Parents download an app to keep track of them within a small range. Great for the beach or playground. A brilliant way for Nivea to connect their brand as people who care about the safety of kids. Check out the write up and video here:
A Generic Brand Video
Great parody of the ad world for anyone who does ads or video marketing work or even print marketing using stock photos. We all know what it’s like looking for those images that will evoke the right response. This video was produced by the people at Dissolve who specialize in stock imagery for videos. The script is a clever piece written by Kendra Eash.
Not on board with Social Media yet? You snooze you lose.
It’s pretty much official at this point that social media is making a huge impact on businesses small and large. More than half of small businesses in Canada now use social media, a 42% increase from last year. Major think-tanks across North America are predicting big impacts for companies leading to billions and trillions more dollars added to the economy as a result of productivity gained through social media. The challenges for so many businesses will be understanding how to get on board, as managers have to adapt to nonhierarchical cultures, where data and company knowledge are exposed and shared widely, not controlled and protected.
If all this makes your head spin, check out this recent article from Financial Post that nicely summarizes the latest impacts and potential future universe for businesses. Be sure to follow the links to articles referenced within the article for specifics.
Do we care about poverty as much as celebrities?
Fantastic campaign by Woodgreen Community Services that ask us to imagine what it would be like if we cared as much about poverty as we do about celebrities. The message is that single moms and others struggling with poverty need our attention so much more and Woodgreen asks us to #ChangeTheConversation. This is a great campaign that integrates video stories about some of their clients, a humorous video to get our attention, and subway posters that imitate celebrity gossip mags. Woodgreen chose a hashtag to highlight the campaign and they ask people to share the videos and magazine covers as well as sign a petition. One oversight I noticed was a missing link on the homepage to get to the petition. Otherwise, great work!
A Cheat Sheet for Sizing Images on Social Media Channels
Do you waste time struggle to get images to look good on various social media channels that you manage? Here’s a handy dandy cheat sheet from Entrepreneur for sizing your images.
Charity Assist 