Category Archives: hotlist

Finally adding a blogroll

After 2 years of blogging I finally added a blogroll to my blog. If I remember well I probably did so in the beginning as well but then too many feeds got into my feedreader that I decided to take the blogroll away. After some conversation with Valeria Maltoni about the use of the blogroll and also after some feedback from people like Sarah Blow recently I figured I had to put the blogroll back into the navigation.

The biggest difference with my first trail is that I don’t want my blogroll to reflect all the feeds in my reader anymore but only the ones that I like the most. So check out the my ‘favorites’ in the navigation. And if you want to check out all the feeds in my reader then go to ‘share your opml‘. Enjoy.

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Blunders in ad placement

Sometimes even a good advertisement can turn out pretty bad. Here’s what happens when an the combination of the ad and the placement are quite unlucky. Sometimes that results in something rather funny…

unfortunate_shemale

… and in many times the result is just very unfortunate/bad:

unfortunate_iq

unfortunate_teacher

This is just a quick selection of some of these blunders, there are a lot more to be found at Oddee who did a series on Unfortunately Placed Ads: initial top 15 and the top 15 reloaded.

[Via the Marketing blog]

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The M20: Top marketer blogs

I wrote about this new marketing hotlist before, but now after the alpha, beta and gamma versions the final list is here. This list was created to highlight popular blogs from client-side marketing professionals and I’m happy to be on the list.

Peter Kim, the analyst at Forrester Research in Boston that created the list, calculated som form of rank based on a combined set of metrics:

Since feed subscribers is the most difficult to track, Peter uses Feedburner stats when available and Bloglines for others. In the case of Bloglines he makes the assumption that these only account for 20% of the actual amount of subscribers. This assumption is based on cases where both numbers were available so that makes sense to me.

Here’s the list, which will be updated every month from now on, now we just need a blog badge for this ;)

  1. ExperienceCurve :: 74
  2. Strategic Public Relations :: 70
  3. Listen Up! :: 59
  4. BeRelevant! :: 53
  5. Conversation Agent :: 51
  6. Todd And – The Power To Connect :: 48
  7. Flooring The Consumer :: 42
  8. Decker Marketing :: 41
  9. The Lonely Marketer :: 41
  10. Marketing Nirvana :: 40
  11. Consumer Generated Media :: 38
  12. Churbuck.com :: 38
  13. The Digital Mindset Blog :: 36
  14. Bernaisesource :: 35
  15. Biznology :: 34
  16. Cross The Breeze :: 33
  17. AttentionMax :: 33
  18. Masiguy :: 32
  19. Community Group Therapy :: 31
  20. Buzz Marketing For Technology :: 31

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Read what matters

When I was going through my feeds today I discovered a new service called aideRSS and given my +300 subscriptions I’m always interested to find out better ways to manage these. It seemed like that is exactly what aideRSS is able to do so I checked it out immediately this morning. First thought: brilliant.

AideRSS2

There are some feeds in my reader that definitely could be skimmed down to the most interesting posts, like the del.icio.us/popular feed (image above) for instance so I gave that a try. After uploading a feed you can select to see all posts or only the good post, great posts or best posts. This is based on the PostRank feature that is propriatory to aideRSS and unfortunately the help page about that is offline for the moment as I’m curious to find out more about how they calculate that.

You can upload your whole OPML into the service, you can subscribe to a filtered feed (like all best posts from a feed) in the integrated feedreader or in your own. There are sharing widgets etc etc. And as you can see in the screenshot above, you get immediate info from del.icio.us, Digg, Technorati, … on the interaction for that post. This is something that I suggested to Technorati a few weeks ago so I obviously like that as well.

Best of all? It’s pretty amazingly fast (especially when they have a blog on record yet). And it’s there that I see the only problem for now as well, each time I did get an error it had something to do with uploading a feed that wasn’t in the system already. Hopefully they’ll fix that soon. And as said the PostRank information page gives an error as does the aideRSS blog for the moment.

Overall I think aideRSS still needs work but it offers a pretty good and fast solution with very good navigation so definitely worth a try. Sometimes it crashes when trying to add a new blog and I get the feeling there’s work to do on the PostRank score as well looking at some of the differences between blogs on that topic. I also think they have an opportunity to do some of the stuff we saw on http://share.opml.org. Anyway good stuff you guys, I would give that feedback on your forum as well if it weren’t down for the moment ;)

[Via Blogologie]

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New marketing hotlist

A few days ago a new hotlist with marketing blogs was launched in beta. After Mack’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs which is the classic with 66 weeks of ‘history’ we got Todd And’s Power 150 that was recently ‘acquired’ by AdAge. Everytime I added the whole OPML to my feedreader and everytime I kept a few after the ‘testperiod’, blogs I hadn’t heard about before but that were a good read. There are many marketing related blogs in my reader and I do have my own favorites.

So last week the M20 was launched by Peter Kim. Pete is an analyst of Forrester Research and he started this list as he wanted to list up marketing voices from the client side. No consultants, agency folks, … but marketing representatives.

“So I’m starting a list to highlight the most popular blogs written by client-side marketing professionals. These are people who are doing their brands a favor by engaging customers and prospects in conversation.”

So I sent my blog to Pete and I was actually amazed that I made it to the beta version of the list. I’ve downloaded the OPML as usual and added it to my reader. It was also grea to see 5 blogs from fellow Microsoft colleagues and 4 from fellow Belgians on 31 blogs in the list. And I already got connected (again) to someone because of the list, good to talk to you Tamara.

Here is the list (more on how the listing is made can be found here):

  1. Listen Up! :: 63. John Porcaro, Group Manager – Online Communications, Microsoft.
  2. ExperienceCurve :: 61. Karl Long, Web/Social Media Integration Manager, Nokia.
  3. Strategic Public Relations :: 55. Kevin Dugan, Director of Marketing Communications, FRCH Design.
  4. Todd And – The Power To Connect :: 48. Todd Andrlik, Director of Marketing and PR, Leopardo Construction.
  5. Marketing Nirvana :: 46. Mario Sundar, Community Evangelist, LinkedIn.
  6. Decker Marketing :: 44. Sam Decker, VP Marketing, Bazaarvoice.
  7. Flooring The Consumer :: Technorati authority = 39. Authored by CB Whittemore, Director of In-Store Innovation, Wear-Dated Carpet Fiber.
  8. The Marketing Excellence Blog :: 31. Eric Kintz, VP Marketing, Digital Photography & Entertainment, Hewlett-Packard.
  9. cgm :: 31. Pete Blackshaw, CMO, Nielsen Buzzmetrics.
  10. Bernaisesource :: 28. Dan Greenfield, VP Corporate Communications, Earthlink.
  11. Cross The Breeze :: 27. Kris Hoet, Marketing Communications Manager, Microsoft.
  12. Churbuck.com :: 148. David Churbuck, VP Global Web Marketing, Lenovo.
  13. Masiguy :: 162. Tim Jackson, Brand Manager, Masi Bicycles.
  14. AttentionMax :: 153. Max Kalehoff, VP Marketing, Nielsen Buzzmetrics.
  15. Emerson Process Experts :: 130. Jim Cahill, Marketing Communications Manager, Emerson Process Management.
  16. BeRelevant! :: 23. Tamara Gielen, Email Marketing Manager – Belgium, eBay.
  17. Brandopia :: 22. Geert Desager, Trade Marketing Manager, Microsoft.
  18. Buzz Marketing For Technology :: 21. Paul Dunay, Director of Global Field & Interactive Marketing, BearingPoint.
  19. Community Group Therapy :: 21. Sean O’Driscoll, General Manager of Community Support and MVP, Microsoft.
  20. The Client Side :: 21. Michael Seaton, Director – Digital Marketing, Scotiabank.
  21. “Turbo” Todd Watson :: 20. Todd Watson, IBM software group – web marketing, IBM.
  22. John Dragoon’s Blog :: 20. John Dragoon, CMO, Novell.
  23. The HP LaserJet Blog :: 20. Vince Ferraro, VP of Worldwide Marketing – LaserJet BU, HP.
  24. The Changing Face of Media :: 20. Scott Berg, Worldwide Media Director, HP.
  25. Marketing Monster :: 19. Michael Morton, Marketing Specialist, Lampo Group.
  26. Bad idea, indeed :: 18. Philippe Deltenre, Business Development & Strategy Manager, Microsoft.
  27. The Innovative Marketer :: 18. Steve Gershik, Director of Marketing Innovation, Eloqua.
  28. Sony Electronics Blog :: 17. Rick Clancy, Head of US Corporate Communications, Sony.
  29. John Heald’s Blog :: 16. John Heald, Cruise Director, Carnival.
  30. The Kristasphere :: 16. Krista Summit, Web Marketing Strategist, Lenovo.
  31. Randy’s Journal :: 15. Randy Tinseth, VP Marketing, Boeing.

Bonuslink: CK just made a list of all female marketing bloggers, yet another hotlist… or is that a hot list ;)

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Thinking blogger

Being rewarded for just writing your opinion on a blog is always a pleasant thing, and it was a nice surprise when Mark Goren listed me in his ‘thinking blogger’ award list. The idea of the ‘thinking blogger awards’ came from ilker yoldas and his his answer to the Z list thinking that is a bit too random as a list. So he started this meme to share a shortlist of ‘5 blogs that make me think’ and after a few months of traveling it’s great to see Mark tagged me on his version of this list.

In the past I already made my hotlists once for both marketing and advertising blogs and some people that were nominated before by Mark (or the people before him) are on these lists as well. These lists were actually my answer on the Z list and other initiatives, thinking of the blogs that stand out. It looks like I need to update that list again though one of these days, since there are a few people that should be added now like Andy Nulman, Matt Dickman, Toby Bloomberg,… etc (but that’s for later).

So here’s my ‘thinking blogger award’ list, where I tried not to nominate people that have been already (congrats to all of you as well):

  • Hugh MacLeod (Gapingvoid): I like Hugh’s cartoons, they are fun and interesting. But also his comments and opinion (read the Hughtrain for instance) are mind provoking so reason enough to be in this list.
  • David Armano (Logic+Emotion): If you know David’s blog you think graphics, I like to read it most for his views related to social networks, influence, etc… as they are very similar with how I think of it, but way better presented.
  • Guy Kawasaki (How to change the world): I’m quite a big fan of his ‘the art of’ series but it’s been a while since his last one. Guy is just smart and so he writes smart stuff, this is must read.
  • Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb): Richard is not writing on R/RW on his own to the team deserves credit as well of course. R/RW is an interesting blog on web technology and gives a lot more analysis on this new tech, rather than just news. Very interesting.
  • Ewan McIntosh (edu.blogs.com): Ewan is a smart guy looking at new (web) technology and how it can be used in education. Since we’re both interested in tech, but from a totally different angle that’s quite interesting for me.

I don’t think a lot of these guys take part in memes, but hey you asked for the 5 blogs that make me think most so that’s what you get.

If you are inclined to continue this on, I’ve got the specs to follow here:

Here are the participation rules for the Thinking Blogger Award:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post (or this one or this one) so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

Thanks again Mark for the nomination, I’ll buy you a drink in July :)

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I’m honored

bloggerchoice And there’s a good reason for that. Today I noticed in my trackbacks some traffic coming from the blogger’s choice awards website and when visiting that I saw that my blog was nomited for Best Marketing Blog and Best Blog Design. Now I’m fully aware of that fact that I’m not alone etc etc … but just the fact that someone actually took some of their time to add this blog to both these categories is quite a reward for me. Thanks Iamsemjaza, whoever you are.

Now I have to add that on the design element, all credits go to Jide who actually created this design called ‘Freshy’, which is one of the designs you can choose from on WordPress.com. And also to Dr.Pixel who offered to create the header image according to my thougths on that. Thanks again for that, I still think it’s a fine piece of work.

And now off you go voting for my well designed marketing blog ;)

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My media consumption diet

It’s been a while, but I’ve been tagged again, this time by Steve Clayton who got it from Sarah Blow initially. What’s the status of my media consumption, what media do I consume most, … so here’s my list (most used first).

  1. E-mail: I’m afraid I spend quite a lot of time dealing with my email, sending out email, replying to others, sorting them out, … Is it an MSFT cultural thing? Is it the European role and being a connection between the European countries and the US? I guess it’s a bit of both, getting emails during both timezone working hours doesn’t help :)
  2. Web/RSS: The first thing I do each morning and the last before I turn of my pc is checking my RSS, and whenever I find some time during the day to quickly catch up on the 400 feeds I will do so. Reading RSS undeniably goes together with surfing the web and I must say I enjoy all that a lot. And yes, I will catch up on my RSS on mobile when I can.
  3. Phone/mobile: I don’t have a fixed line anymore since I started working for Europe (and as such hot-desking) but use my mobile for calling with the team in London, attending and leading conference calls (yes, a lot of those I’m afraid) or surfing the mobile web. I’m a longtime user of the mobile web and can only wish to be able to get more content on it asap!
  4. TV/DVD: There are only few occasions when I’m actually ‘attached’ to the small screen and that is with a good movie on DVD. With a previous career in cinema, I still love to watch movies. The TV will be on apart from watching movies, but most of the time we’ll only be watching it with half an eye… surfing the web or reading something in the meantime. It’s more like a visual radio I guess in that case.
  5. IM: Having nearly all of your colleagues on IM and working in an international environment gets you to use IM a lot, and I’m happy it exists since you can win a lot of time with it. And just like with your mobile, if I have no time for a chat… I’ll get back to you later (don’t mind if you do either).
  6. Newspaper/Magazines: Because of my role as marketer (I guess) I get quite some magazines for free every week/month which I all ‘read’. It’s light-reading though, most of the time it’ll take me 10-15 minutes to finish one. Don’t ask me why, I kind of like it although I never actually read anything for real. I also get a newspaper delivered to my doorstep every morning which I ‘read’ while stuck in traffic each morning. No stress that way. Yes, I would mind if you would take these away from me though :)

That’s it. I’m curious to see the media consumption diet of Toby ‘Diva’ Bloomberg (who I ‘met’ only recently), Linda ‘Twitterati’ Jones (to find out how much Twitter will be part of the diet) and Loic ‘LeWeb’ Le Meur (to find out how he copes with his Gmail). Hope they are up for it ;)

10 reasons why traditional agencies resist

This week the Canadian Provokat blog did a good write-up on 10 reasons why traditional agencies resist to the digital world. It’s definitely not the all included list, but there’s a lot of truth in there and as such worth a read. I’ll do a quick list of the 10 topics but you should read it at the Provokat blog as the full copy is there together with some images that strengthen the content.

  1. What web? What are you talking about?
  2. TV is easy to sell
  3. Traditional advertising pays
  4. Trad ads are glam
  5. Web lasts too long
  6. TV works
  7. Technology is too complicated
  8. I tried it once and it didn’t work
  9. I’m retiring soon, no need for me to go there
  10. I don’t want things to change

Recognized something? Anyone?

You get a long way with common sense

Yesterday I finished my little contribution to ‘The Age of Conversation’, the ebook project I talked about earlier. Sitting in the one of the hallways at MIX07, in between 2 sessions I just had to make time for it as the deadline came really close and I wasn’t able to write it on the flight to Vegas as I had hoped. The piece I wrote is about being part of the conversation, the many fears that seem to come with it and how common sense will get you over a lot of these.

Many of the discussion & conversations I’ve been having recently were exactly about this. What can we say in the comments, can I have someone else write my blog if I write the initial basic piece myself, … etc. What I wanted to say is that this conversation is not so much different from any other conversation you’re having on a daily basis, so don’t let the technology behind it frighten you. I’m not sure if it’s well written, whether it’s valuable but make sure you get the ebook (all revenue is going to charity remember) and let me know what you think.

Also, this ebook project includes contribution from many interesting marketers out there, you got to admit that’s an impressive list:

Gavin Heaton
Drew McLellan
CK
Valeria Maltoni
Emily Reed
Katie Chatfield
Greg Verdino
Mack Collier
Lewis Green
Sacrum
Ann Handley
Mike Sansone
Paul McEnany
Roger von Oech
Anna Farmery
David Armano
Bob Glaza
Mark Goren
Matt Dickman
Scott Monty
Richard Huntington
Cam Beck
David Reich
Mindblob (Luc)
Sean Howard
Tim Jackson
Patrick Schaber
Roberta Rosenberg
Uwe Hook
Tony D. Clark
Todd Andrlik
Toby Bloomberg
Steve Woodruff
Steve Bannister
Steve Roesler
Stanley Johnson
Spike Jones
Nathan Snell
Simon Payn
Ryan Rasmussen
Ron Shevlin
Roger Anderson
Bob Hruzek
Rishi Desai
Phil Gerbyshak
Peter Corbett
Pete Deutschman
Nick Rice
Nick Wright
Mitch Joel
Michael Morton
Mark Earls
Mark Blair
Mario Vellandi
Lori Magno
Kristin Gorski
Krishna De
Kris Hoet
Kofl Annan
Kimberly Dawn Wells
Karl Long
Julie Fleischer
Jordan Behan
John La Grou
Joe Raasch
Jim Kukral
Jessica Hagy
Janet Green
Jamey Shiels
Dr. Graham Hill
Gia Facchini
Geert Desager
Gaurav Mishra
Gary Schoeniger
Gareth Kay
Faris Yakob
Emily Clasper
Ed Cotton
Dustin Jacobsen
Tom Clifford
David Pollinchock
David Koopmans
David Brazeal
David Berkowitz
Carolyn Manning
Craig Wilson
Cord Silverstein
Connie Reece
Colin McKay
Chris Newlan
Chris Corrigan
Cedric Giorgi
Brian Reich
Becky Carroll
Arun Rajagopal
Andy Nulman
Amy Jussel
AJ James
Kim Klaver
Sandy Renshaw
Susan Bird
Ryan Barrett
Troy Worman