Posts tagged as:

jeff jarvis

Marketing, merchandising and m-ployees (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest – October 21, 2011)

by Tim on October 21, 2011

OK, you’ll excuse the bad pun in the headline, but there’s just too great stuff out on the ol’ Interwebs this week, Big Thinkers. How ’bout we let byegones be, well, y’know and get right to the links:

Marketing Sherpa looks at whether the emphasis on ROI hurts marketing. Thought-provoking and something I expect you’ll hear a lot more about going forward.
Frank Reed tells a great story about when marketing works.
Bryan Eisenberg offers 20 reasons why people buy. I love this. It’s a much expanded version of our 6 simple rules of merchandising.
And perhaps there’s no greater testament to why people should buy from you than whether your own employees would refer you. Great stuff from John Jantsch.
Following up on my review of Jeff Jarvis’ “Public Parts” a couple weeks ago, you might want to check out his recent talk at Google:

Have a great weekend, BIg Thinkers. We’ll see you back here next week.

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Technorati Tags: analytics, attribution, attribution modeling, brand building, bryan eisenberg, customer satisfaction, customer service, E-commerce, e-commerce, E-commerce strategy, e-marketing, ecommerce, GrokDotCom, integrated marketing, internet business, internet marketing, jeff jarvis, John Jantsch, marketing, marketing best practices, marketing predictions, measurement, metrics, online brand building, online marketing, Publc Parts book review, Public Parts, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live book review, strategy

Tagged as: employees, jeff jarvis, marketing 101, marketing strategy, merchandising, public parts, roi

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Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live by Jeff Jarvis (Book Review of the Week-ish)

by Tim on September 29, 2011

in Book Reviews, Social Media, social strategy

Many people who review Jeff Jarvis’ extraordinary new book, “Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live”,spend way too much time focused on Jarvis’ penis. Sure, the man blogs regularly, and quite publicly, about the effects wrought by his prostate cancer. But Jarvis has—sorry, Jeff, no offense intended—bigger things on his mind.

“Public Parts” looks at the meaning of privacy and “publicness,” secrecy and openness, opacity and transparency for individuals, businesses and governments in the age of Facebook and Foursquare, Twitter and Tumblr, search and social. Jarvis looks at each in detail with humor and grace—perhaps not unexpected for someone willing to live his life so publicly.

This isn’t a “business” book, at least not in the sense of the books I usually review. Unlike his earlier book, “What Would Google Do?”, (you can read my review here), there are fewer immediate takeaways. Jarvis has bigger things on his mind than just business (though I would note his section on “new media vs. old business models” should be required reading for anyone relying on the Internet as a marketing and distribution channel).

Jarvis asks important questions about the nature of our increasingly public lives. But more than that, he offers answers and insights. He pokes and he prods. Some positions he advocates will likely make you uncomfortable, perhaps in a way that only a man treated for prostate cancer could.

Good.

Because I guarantee ignoring these things will cause you a lot more discomfort in the long run. As I said, he’s got some big things on his mind.

Read the book. It’ll do you good. Just don’t be surprised when you end up with some pretty big things on your mind, too.

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And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter.

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: blogging, blogs, book review, book reviews, books, Facebook, google, Google Plus, Google+, jeff jarvis, privacy, small business blogging, social, social commerce, social marketing, social media, social media predictions, social search, social strategy, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live book review, Public Parts, Publc Parts book review

Tagged as: book review, book review of the week, books, How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, jeff jarvis, privacy, public parts

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Does your information want to be free, too?

by Tim on October 15, 2009

in Media, Strategy

One of the biggest stories bouncing around the web the last week or so were comments made by Rupert Murdoch and Tom Curley – the heads of News Corp. and The Associated Press, respectively – where they discussed how much they hate “content kleptomaniacs”. Given how digital distribution of content and content aggregation has impacted traditional media and publishing businesses, it’s tough to blame Murdoch and Curley for being upset.

But some critics are doing just that. Jeff Jarvis – serious new media thinker and author of “What Would Google Do?” – labels these media titans “fools.” Jarvis promotes the notion of “the link economy” and the value search engines create by helping customers discover your content – as opposed to simply stealing it as claimed by Murdoch and Curley.

Who’s right? And does this brouhaha matter to your business?

The answers to these two questions are:

It depends; and…
Hell, yes!

While I’ve never been a big fan of equivocation, there is no one true answer to “who’s right?” News Corp and the Associated Press own their content. They’re free to charge for it if they see fit. The real question is whether their customers (and by extension, yours):

Care enough about what they’re (you’re) publishing to find it in the first place; and,
Care enough about what they’re (you’re) publishing to pay for it.

Getting people to find your content – whether you’re a blogger in Boise or The Wall Street Journal – is no small task. As you can see in the second graph of this post by Rand Fishkin, distributing your content offers enormous value in growing both your traffic and your business. And Jarvis is absolutely right when he talks about the value links provide. But where I differ with Jarvis is in this: if the Wall Street Journal – or you, for that matter – can get distributors to pay you for that content, good for you. Amazingly, there is at least one newspaper besides the Wall Street Journal who has succeeded in charging consumers for their content.

Does this mean you should charge for your content? Again, that depends. No one deposits links. We deposit profits. But there’s more than one way to get those profits. For example, Fred Wilson once listed a couple dozen business models for web media used by successful companies. So, if charging Google for distribution or consumers for reading works for The Journal, bully for them. It proves that you shouldn’t rule it out. But also, even if it works for the Journal, don’t assume it’s the only way to go.

Want more? Read our review of Jeff Jarvis’ “What Would Google Do?” Also, see our review of Chris Anderson’s “Free”, which looks at many other ways to make money on “free” content.