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Reading Roundup: Marketing Blog Posts and Stories You Might Have Missed

Reading roundup: A random and sporadic list of our favorite marketing articles and blog posts from the past week or so. (Or month. Or two months. Hey, there’s a reason the department of redundancy department called this feature ”random and sporadic” from its inception.)

What do the swine flu and customer experience have in common? In a wonderful extended analogy, Mark Gregory talks about a UK ad campaign aimed at stopping the spread of H1N1 and how the campaign tagline, Catch it, bin it, kill it, is a good antidote against negative word-of-mouth, too. (“Bin,” in case you were wondering, is UK for “trash can.” Sounds so much nicer, doesn’t it?)

There are 25 things Paul Anthony wishes he knew when he started blogging. That sounded like a lot, at first.  Upon reflection, though, I decided there’s probably a lot more than 25 things I don’t know about blogging. The list includes such juicy tricks as how to catch scumbags who scrape your content. In fact, I’m catching them right now.

With all the gushing about what social media can do, here’s a list from B.L. Ochman of 10 things social media can’t do. Not everybody agrees—especially with number 5, which says social media can’t “be done in-house by the vast majority of companies.”

That latter point ties in nicely with Reed Smith’s Twitpoll question: Who’s Behind a Successful Social Media Strategy? What do you think?

I’ve posted here about the Kaiser Permanente ads: I like them ’cause they’re pretty and fun to watch. My colleague Marianne Aiello digs a little deeper into why the Kaiser Thrive campaign works.

A culture that embraces failure. That might make surgeons shudder, but healthcare organizations hungry for innovation should read this AdAge interview with Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh. My favorite line: “Most of our ideas stink … But that’s how you get to success. It’s a part of our culture to FAIL.”

By the way, if you find yourself going from the Huh interview to the Lolcats site, I am not to blame for your sudden drop in productivity.

Reading Roundup: Marketing Blog Posts and Stories You Might Have Missed

Reading roundup: A random and sporadic list of our favorite marketing articles and blog posts from the past week or so.

Best practices for community relations: I love lists (who doesn’t?) and this post on Livingston Communications’ The Buzz Bin has two of them. Both are packed with tips, techniques, best practices, and plain old etiquette for organizations using online social media sites to reach customers. So you can act more human and be more effective.

Will small ad agencies get us out of this mess? (Good Twitter response to the question from Mindpower Inc., by the way) Small advertising agencies do things for their clients that big shops can’t, writes Alex Bogusky. “With fewer people and less overhead, they offer the nimble and fast approach to problems a lot of nascent brands need.” 

Global marketer says economy will spur medical travel: But, says Jason Yap, marketing director for Singapore’s Raffles Hospital, medical travel growth in the region has the potential to help, rather than hurt, the business of healthcare in the United States.

If your CEO doesn’t see the value of marketing, guess who’s out of a job? In interviews with Robbie Kellman Baxter, CEOs cited two reasons they fire marketing staff–and then turn right around and hire marketing consultants to replace them. First, they say, their marketing team wasn’t creating enough value. Second, they weren’t creating a focused, market-driven strategy that makes the most out of limited resources. 

Want to win friends and influence people? Chip Mahaney, director of digital content for The E.W. Scripps Company in Cincinnati, adapts Dale Carnegie’s  guidelines to social media. One tip–don’t try to join a conversation by screaming headlines at people when they’re trying to make lunch plans and complimenting each other’s shirts. (Trust me, read the post and you’ll get it.)

Reading Roundup: Marketing Blog Posts and Stories You Might Have Missed

Reading roundup: A random and sporadic list of our favorite marketing articles and blog posts from the past week or so.

Debunking six social media myths: Resistence is futile, but expect to spend. The numbers in this article seemed high to me, though: ”The budget for an effective social media marketing campaign begins at $50,000 for two to three months.” Anyone have a different experience? 

Nonprofit hospitals take heat over charity at inopportune time: Reporters will focus on executive compensation when it comes to Form 990 schedule H. It’s sexier than uncompensated care.

What’s up with bone and joint? Do we really need another name for orthopedics? Especially a name that’s redundant, sounds bad, and says nothing about the benefit to the consumer? Wow, that’s a lot of questions.

Fairness to doctors or ‘gag order’ on patients? Here’s a quick and efficient way to get your patients to fire you: Force them to sign an agreement promising they “will not denigrate, defame, disparage, or cast aspersions” upon you via word-of-mouth or online and do all in their power to prevent friends or family members from doing so, as well.

Branding is more than an advertising campaign: There are 10 steps in the branding process (cleverly, they all start with the letter c) and “campaign” doesn’t make the top seven.

If your conversion rate is low and your bounce rate is high, read How to fix a leaky Web site. Hey, is your Web site running? well, then, you better go catch it. 

Reading Roundup: Marketing Blog Posts and Stories You Might Have Missed

Reading roundup: A random and sporadic list of our favorite marketing articles and blog posts from the past week or so.

Here’s some revolutionary advice for anyone who wants to sell anything: Speak plain English. With a tutorial on how to interpret vendor-ese. Thanks to the post author Jeremiah Owyang for permission to use the awesome chart at left, which pokes fun at vendors’ classic 2×2 grid chart. Hey, if it’s in a chart, it must be true, right? 

Open letter to the would-be CEO blogger: Too many of you treat your new toy as a way to broadcast your thoughts, rather than create a dialogue, writes Todd Defren. And, when that leaves you with no comments, you give up, “pooh-poohing the ballyhooed blogosphere as [you] munch on sour grapes.”

Healthcare marketing needs a serious shake-up: Hospitals and health systems are burdened by old-school thinking that permeates their approach to marketing and branding, says Chris Bevolo.

Put yourself in your patients’ shoes: 10 ways consumers are cutting healthcare costs.

California Healthcare Foundation’s info-packed report: Healthcare meets online social media.

If you don’t know who your customer is, why on Earth would you spend money on marketing?

Reading Roundup: Marketing Blog Posts and Stories You Might Have Missed

Reading roundup: A random and sporadic list of our favorite marketing articles and blog posts from the past week or so.

I confess, I’ve been an arrogant marketer:  Social marketing consultant admits he’s guilty of all five five traits of an arrogant marketer. And then apologizes. And then dares you to do the same.

Healthcare meets social networking: The Mayo Clinic has more Facebook friends than you.

Interview: Seth Godin on how often to post to your blog: “My blogging life is basically goalless. I like the zen nature of that, and paradoxically, it improves results.”

2009: The year of brand Darwinism: ”It is a good thing for everybody when only the strongest brands survive.” Well, everybody except the ones that don’t survive.

And on that note, Predictions for healthcare in 2009: “Strong hospitals get stronger, weak hospitals get weaker and/or die.”  

New survey data: Email’s ROI makes tactic key for marketers in 2009: Recession + need to show ROI = more e-mail, please.

This is not the year to advertise on the Superbowl:  Three reasons spending $30 million on a 30- second spot is not a good idea. Really? Only three?