The Toronto Marketing and Technology Blog

Monday Morning Marketing Edition 9 | Everybody has their favourite song | What is your brands song?

Everybody has their favourite song; sang in a specific way.

One of my favourite songs is by Boyz II men entitled  End of the road. I like it in Acappella, here is the video:

In addition to melodies,tones, and vibrant acapella's, people are attracted to soothing sounds that please the soul. The next time you want to use sounds to promote your business, think of something that resonates well with your target market and is memorable enough to let them remember that the popular song they like has now been associated to your company.

If you had to pick a song that best describes your company/brand, what would you pick?

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Monday Morning Marketing Edition 8 | Is Corporate Lingo really necessary? | I don't buy it, I don't like it, wait maybe I do

This post is inspired by my experience in working in the Corporate world.

There seems to be an expectation of using certain types of words at certain times. You will see the corporate jargon tossed around like fruitcake on Christmas day.

Here are some common words and phrases that are used in the work place:

1. "expectation"
2. "perspective" <---I hate this one incredibly,
3. I need to to “champion” this (spearhead)
4. It’s great to finally “touch base” with you
5. I’d like to revise an “addendum” to that piece
6. Align with our strategic imperatives.
7. That's a question for...

You can argue that using these words are a result of great communication skills, and I  can agree to that.  I guess I'm saying that too much of something can be bad. Try to mix it up and say different words, synonyms can be peoples best friends.

You don't want to be labelled as the person who has a limited vocabulary and you don't want to be labelled as predictable.  I find myself backed into a corner sometimes and utter words that are overused. We are all guilty of it. Learn some new words. It never hurt anyone.

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Monday Morning Marketing Edition 7 | What happend to the mkting postings on mondays...i read them -=)

Disclaimer: For many of the readers of this blog, you probably noticed that my Monday Morning Marketing post vanished out of thin air. With the busy life I live, I just couldn't seem to write the column and everything else I wrote about. It was also due to the fact that I didn't really know if anyone was reading it.  In other words, if no one was reading it, no one would miss it. It's kind of like the tree falling in the woods kind of ordeal.

I'm all about managing expectations. I will only post on this blog on Monday's for my column. If you're looking for other randomness, you're probably not going to get it here, unless it's important. :)

This week's column is about short texting.

I decided to write another Marketing post because of a short text I received from an old friend and it read "What happend to the mkting postings on mondays...i read them -=)".

Normally I frown upon people who don't take the time to use their spell checker or simply can't spell,but when you short text people, I think it is an exception. The problem is determining who to short text and in what situations. You never know when a person will forward your email to someone and the roaming eye balls that will be reading it. I can count numerous times when I had to forward messages that were short texted and I ended up having to edit them so they looked presentable.

I really only have two rules about short texting:

1) Short texting between friends is appropriate.
2) In a non-friend environment, if you don't expect a message back in short-text format, don't  short-text the person.

I would also like to mention that short texting would make for a good advertising campaign as long as it's not over used. If you implement a good sequence of short text words it can become pretty viral. Think of a new lexicon in short text for your company and if it's catchy enough, who knows what people will do with it.

Hopefully I will find enough time to write another post. See you next Monday.

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Life wouldn't be the same without the Gmail Spam filter....

Life wouldn't be the same without the Gmail Spam filter. If I had to literally look at every e-mail that was sent to me, I would stop using e-mail. Wonderful invention. Thank you Google.

How much do you waste on business cards a year? | Know who to give your business card to

Business cards are an excellent tool to network with people in any social atmosphere. If you're at a professional event and want to meet that investment banker to get a deal done with your company, or maybe you want to meet that highly attractive young lady in the shadows of the club but can't croak up enough energy to say anything, or quite frankly to give to the window washer guy to maybe form a partnership in your new window business. You name it, a business card can do wonders.

There is, however, a downside to business cards: so many people have them and so many people get them. I myself have a pile of 100 business cards just from the past 2 weeks. I'm flipping through the people who sound interesting and would like to have them in my network or at least creep them on facebook.

When networking with people you need to try to read them. Are they worth following up with? If you don't follow up with them, do you think they will follow up with you? Depending on what business you're in the answers to these questions will differ. I'm more consciously  thinking of who I give my business card to these days. You should too.

Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter Twitter

Everyone is on the Twitter bandwagon. I had to join it because everyone else did. I feel bullied for joining it. I log in maybe once a day, not an addict by any means. I see it as more of a time waster than anything. I'm the type of person that I don't have to be in constant contact with someone. It does have its benefits in certain occasions, but it's not a tool that I need to be using on a daily basis.

I wonder when the Twitter bandwagon is going to stop.

Who the hell is Kristen Goetz?

I was asking myself this last week when I was researching Toronto websites for upcoming initiatives that I will be involved with at http://www.lovifieds.com .

Kristen writes at http://www.loveintoronto.com, and as well, she has a blog at http://kristengoetz.blogspot.com and writes about, well, nothing, kind of. She seemed like a very random person, so I sent her an e-mail to see if she would like to be profiled on http://www.nametaggs.com. She's a ranter, and an interesting one for that matter. Take a look at Oh My God, Becky.. Look At Her Butt... and Sometimes I DO Get Off My Ass , which is slightly more charitable.

She was really kind enough to answer some questions for me  and I posted them at the featured member section of Nametaggs at http://www.nametaggs.com/featured .

Thank you Kristen for being part of the Nametaggs community. You have definitely earned a spot on my blog roll. Maybe someone should register www.whothehelliskristengoetz.com similar to the www.ihatesarahmarshall.com and have a movie about you.  Think about it...

Until another day.

Things that I like to do

Here are the top three things I like to do:

1) Read books (I'm currently reading the Long Tail)
2) Break things (I broke my ipod)
3) Create things ( I created http://www.nametaggs.com )

I also like to make lists but it doesn't fall into my top three things I like to do. :)

My blog looks like crap

I need to get a new template for my blog or use wordpress. This limited Typepad stuff is killing my reputation.

Why don't you shutup about this MBA talk. Thanks.

Folks.

Listen.

I am tired about people asking me about studying for my GMAT or asking me when I'm doing my MBA.

Here is the truth, I did my GMAT last year and applied to several schools. I got into all but one for some dumb reason, and happily rejected all of them.

I see many people studying for GMAT and yapping about the MBA, like it's the next big thing. Snooze alert.

I'm not a fan of the MBA, as it is today. Therefore, I will not be doing it - anytime soon that is.

Check out http://www.lovifieds.com and http://www.nametaggs.com for my mba class schedule.

Thank you and no more asking about me doing my MBA.

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