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Web Ink Now

Online thought leadership and viral marketing strategies using news releases, blogs, podcasts, and online media

Lose Control of your Marketing! New free ebookJanuary 7

Lose Control of your Marketing! Why marketing ROI measures lead to failure

Please download my new ebook Lose Control of your Marketing! Why marketing ROI measures lead to failure.

Do you market like the Grateful Dead? Or like Led Zeppelin?
(Find out in the ebook).

Here are some other things you'll find inside:

"For many executives, an obsession with ROI is just a convenient excuse to shy away from something new and untested. Yet that's exactly what the best ideas for creating a World Wide Rave are—new and untested."

"If you're obsessed with ROI measurements that worked in an offline world, then you're just making an excuse. If you worry about losing control of your message, then you're making an excuse."

When lawyers get in the way of PRJanuary 6

I received a press release via email a few days ago from a well-meaning PR person.

Guess what? I can't write about it because at the bottom of the release is this:

NOTICE: This electronic mail transmission contains confidential information intended only for the person(s) named. Any use, distribution, copying or disclosure by any other person is strictly prohibited. If you received this transmission in error, please notify the sender by reply e-mail and then destroy the message. Opinions, conclusions, and other information in this message that do not relate to the official business of AGENCY X shall be understood to be neither given nor endorsed by AGENCY X. Before opening any attachments please check them for viruses and defects. When addressed to AGENCY X clients, any information contained in this e-mail is subject to the terms and conditions in the governing client contract.

Yikes! The notice at the bottom of the press release says I cannot distribute the press release. This is what happens when lawyers get in the way of PR.

Or consider this typical press release from Shell that I found on one of the press release wires. Now, I'm not picking on Shell here, I'm making a general point. I could have chosen any one of a thousand releases for this example.

US Air Force Web Posting Response AssessmentJanuary 5

Several weeks ago in a blog post called The US Air Force: Armed with social media, I wrote about my interview with Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology at the Air Force Public Affairs Agency in the Pentagon. I spoke with Capt. Faggard about what he and his team are doing to get the word out about the Air Force online.

I wrote about the detailed Air Force blog assessment flowchart that Capt. Faggard shared with me. It provides, in simple to understand, but in a detailed and specific way, how to react to blog posts.

As a result of some of the comments left here as well as on the blogs of Joey DeVilla, Jeremiah Owyang, Steve Field, Matt McGee, and others, Capt. Faggard has revised the US Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment. The new version is below.

Attention Twitter: You should be communicating better during what some are calling a crisisJanuary 4

I'm a Twitter fan. My Twitter feed is an important way for me to communicate. And I've said many great things about Twitter at my keynotes, on this blog, and in my books.

But this weekend, Twitter has let me down.

I was reading the Boston Globe Magazine today, there was a big fat interview with Biz Stone, a cofounder of Twitter. The first question the Globe asked was: "In November, the company declined Facebook's offer to buy it for $500 million. Say what?"

Stone's answer: "We admire and respect Facebook. We are big fans, actually. They approached us, and we took it seriously. But we feel like we want to continue this path we're on -- sustaining this innovation -- and the time is not right."

Just a few minutes after reading the interview, I logged on to Twitter and found that I had received ten bogus Direct Messages.

The messages said things like "Hey check out this funny blog." I soon learned that all were

Learn to fly in 2009December 31 2008

Regular readers of this blog know that I am a fan of ebooks as a great way to deliver information. When I find one that I like that is in a new market, I love to share with you. Sometimes what people write ebooks about are downright surprising – that's often what makes them work.

Max Trescott just released Learn to Fly, an ebook that is the perfect format for getting information out to people about a process—Learning to fly an airplane—which is non-trivial and often unclear to people.

Download Learn to Fly: Live your Dream and Get a Pilot's License! here

Sharing your passion with the world

Max began learning to fly at age 15 and became a part-time flight instructor while working at HP. In 2004, he left HP to found Glass Cockpit Publishing, a publisher of aviation training materials, so the eBook format nicely complements his more traditional products. A