For at least a few years, marketers have been talking about “integration” - instead of buying obvious advertising, we’ll find ways to integrate our client products, promotions and messages in with TV & Radio shows, magazine articles and more.

At the same time, a growing trend that was sparked by reality TV and then supercharged with easy YouTube videos is people getting their own few minutes of fame, and even if they don’t get a lot of views - its still nice that we have easy access to broadcast ourselves to the world.

Now Disney has taken it a step further with this promotional video that is almost impossible to resist and spreading across the internet at lightening speed, all while promoting Disney vacation packages, parks & merchandise.  It’s brilliant, and according to reports from the author of Secrets of Social Media Marketing, Paul Gillin, the promotion paid for itself in approx 18&1/2 hours.

It really is hard to resist - be sure to watch to the end & listen for Goofy~

Want it?  You can have it too - spread the Disney love~

HOW WEB 2.0 PUBLICITY (HARO) CAN HELP YOU FIND A JOB OR PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS

Early in my blogging days, I blogged about Peter Shankman’s new project, HARO (”Everyone’s An Expert At Something”), which brings regular people & business owners together with journalists looking for specific people to feature/include in stories they’re working on.  At the time of my 1st YDM blog post on HARO, I didn’t really believe it would work, and I thought I would get tired of the 3 times daily emails…  Reporters pay for including requests in Peter’s emails, for everyone else, it’s free!  Be sure to read and follow the important terms, so that you don’t find yourself blacklisted by the service for grabbing reporter contacts or sending unsolicited press releases.  That would be bad.

What is good is Peter’s encouragement that if you feel like you should be paying to contribute to his project, you should simply make a donation to a local animal shelter and continue to further the good Karma.

After shooting off a quick note to a reporter Peter had identified as looking for stories about how people are job hunting in the weeks following the start of the economic crisis (late October 2008), I quickly forgot about HARO and moved on to tackle other Web 2.0 projects.  

Recently though, someone in my industy found me on Facebook and asked how I managed to get mentioned on MSN, and I had to go looking for the article, by Google-ing myself! As it turns out my quick note to the reporter was picked up by multiple blogs and job hunting websites for my initiative in deciding to take “the bull by the horns” and develop an in-depth knowledge of Web 2.0 & Social Media for integrating into agency brand campaigns.

This is also a great example of how a little bit of online publicity can mushroom on its own, from one media mention/quote to many other blogs and articles.

“I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of Web 2.0 as it relates to my industry,” explains Debbie Horovitch, a marketing and media specialist. She decided to start a blog and use its content as a virtual calling card, where she can show readers what she’s learned. 

“The results of my efforts are online for all potential employers. They can see that I am a self-starter, and understand business trends, opportunities and needs.”

Even last month, bloggers writing about job hunting in the new economy have seen some of the articles and continued to mention me by name, further helping establish my Web 2.0 calling card.

• The Zen of Blog “The New Media Way to Job-Search“
• Financial Matters by Vik Dulat “Start a blog and land a job“
• Wibo’s Weblog “Start your own blog“

Seth Godin is so excellent.  His blog is really valuable to me; it gets me regularly questioning everything I’ve thought about marketing and advertising, customer service and corporate communications.  

Here’s a quick video interview with Seth from T.E.D. conference (who wouldn’t want to be there?)

Seth is honest when he says he responds to everyone who emails him - before I knew what a big name he is in marketing I took exception to the tone I thought was inferred in an early blog post (early in my following him), and I responded!  By Email!  And he responded back personally.  I’m almost embarrassed now.  ;  )

This was a HUGE lesson for me in how I conduct business and represent myself online, that it is like having a one-on-one conversation, in the most public forum in the world.

That’s a big change of thinking for me, after years of mass media buying on behalf of top-tier brands.

Ultimately, Seth is changing the way we all think, as his message infiltrates agency folks (like me) and our clients, and eventually their advertising strategies & tactics, which in turn affects the business model & execution of all our ‘branded’ communication forms like newspapers, TV, radio, etc.

I’m on Twitter, a lot.  Why?  So that I can be the most knowledgeable on behalf of my clients & readers on how Twitter may be an effective way to start/contribute to developing your Tribe of close contacts.

Leave comments here, but talk to me publicly on Twitter, please! Click here:  @Debbie_h2o

Want help on Twitter? All the Twitter experts are there; just ask.  Want a quick, free survey for your business?  Just ask; your Twitter followers will answer.

PLANNING YOUR MARKETING BUDGET AHEAD CAN GIVE YOUR BUSINESS A COMPETITIVE EDGE

According to Microsoft Small Business center, #4 of the list of 7 Biggest Mistakes Of Business Startups is that they are “Clueless about marketing”, either thinking that marketing is an unnecessary expense, or confusing marketing with sales.  Of course you want sales immediately, but the reality is that there is a process to sales that can take some time - the lesson being to make sure you get your message to target consumers before trying to close sales.  

With a well communicated marketing message, you’ll close a higher volume of sales and most of your customers will be coming to you, already having made the decision to buy from you.  It’s your marketing/communication information that gives them reasons to buy from you before they need to make the decision and financial commitment of purchase.

Like every business decision that carries a financial commitment, planning your marketing activities is critical to being satisfied with the results of your investment.  

Even when some of your marketing efforts are not as successful as you had hoped, clear planning lets you approach each activitiy as a TEST.  Know at the start that you’ll measure various factors of success with each campaign and determine through trial & error the best investment in marketing for your business.

So the first question I get most often is “How much money should I invest in marketing, each year?”.  It depends.  It’s different for every business, business owner and market.  For each year of operation, you’ll want to determine a percentage of total business revenue you’ll invest in marketing activities. 

Depending on how ambitious and aggressive you are, a small business owner might want to invest 5%-15% of annual revenue on marketing activities, according to Andrew Patricio (co-founder of BizLaunch), at last week’s FREE Staples seminar “How To Brand, Promote & Advertise Your Business”.  View Upcoming Seminar Schedule Here.

You’ll also want to consider factors that indicate a larger marketing budget may be needed:

• You are Launching a New Business, Product or Service Division: you’ll want to announce and generate awareness of your business as soon as you’re ready to accept customers.
• You have a lot of competition: You need to Develop Your Brand (your new customers used to be your competition’s customers); you’ll want to communicate to potential customers why they want to buy from you, instead.
• You have NO competition: people have been getting along just fine without your product/service in the past; you want to Develop the Market, answering their question “why do I need this now?”  Once you answer that question, they can only purchase it from your business.