“Like gravity, karma is so basic we don’t even notice it.” – Sakyong Mipham

That little golden rule of treating others how we would want to be treated is a simple yet revolutionary concept in our current era of beating celebrities and politicians to a pulp in blogs. In media and marketing, we stand in line to hop on board the latest bash fest of whatever product or person has made a bad judgment call or seen better days. This little billboard campaign out of Denver made headlines this week for making fun of Domino’s. Domino’s? Really? While it provides some chuckles, the old “kick the big money competitor in the groin” tactic is pretty exhausted at this point. Nevertheless, our current snark-as-default-setting climate got us thinking about using our marketing powers for good. After all, small businesses rely on positive word of mouth and feedback, so shouldn’t we take positive actions to insure good marketing karma?

The road to marketing enlightenment is one paved with little, selfless acts of kindness that over time prove your company has heart, integrity and a good sense of humor. For instant karma in action, take a look at Twitter marketing. On Twitter, by re-tweeting blogs in your same industry, you’re giving props to your comrades while winding up in their newsfeeds. Things like “Follow Friday” and mutual following are other ways to get good Twitter juju. Another great way to perhaps gather more followers is by doing an old-fashioned Twitter shout-out. The shout-out consists of naming an author of a blog or an entrepreneur who has posted something worthy that deserves more than a simple retweet. By name checking folks with big followings, I have found almost immediate retribution wherein the person in question either follows me in return or returns the name-check in a separate tweet. Think of it as tweeting how you would like to be tweeted.

E-mailed newsletters are another outlet to increase your marketing brownie points. Slipping a quick customer questionnaire into your newsletter that in turn offers free goods or discounts is a nice way to reward your readers while gathering their thoughts about your company. It’s another old-fashioned mutual back scratching technique that also builds goodwill.

You also can show that your business gives a damn by providing links to causes and non-profits that are important to you on your website and social media pages. No, we can’t all be Bono — but we can do little things to help out fellow do-gooders. Plus partnerships of this kind are PR gold that almost always yield new customers.

With all of this spreading of happiness around, let’s not forget to have a laugh, either. Infusing (ahem, clean) humor in your Facebook pages, website and blogs is doing a good deed. First off, everybody loves a good laugh. Secondly, posts with humor and the “you gotta see this” factor get forwarded like nobody’s business. This can be in the form of a great video or weird news story — whatever. Have fun with it and your readers will, too.

Now it’s your turn to tell us, gentle readers: How have your acts of kindness helped your business? Enlighten us in the section below (and increase your good comment karma)!

When the TiVo/DVR revolution started earlier this decade, most of us expected to see traditional advertising evaporate into oblivion. As soon as every cable and satellite provider under the sun rolled out affordable TiVo clones with a higher recording capacity and more…

Online, everybody’s a critic and everybody is right. So whenever anything is not perfect or not “just so” with an online brand, fans are the first to speak out. Facebook Fan-pages are subject to mass critical praise or dismissal, a great deal of which often happens in a matter of moments. One way that more…

This week’s Brandsplat Video report covers Gizmodo’s exclusive on the new iPhone, the KFC Double Down and Crocs Croslite ad campaign.  What’s a Krispy Kreme Double Down? Find out here! Or click here for more Brandsplat vids

The reality TV juggernaut American Idol, which somehow manages to generate more tabloid covers and Entertainment Tonight reports than any television show ever, has run out of gas. Simply put, nobody cares this year and the hot button water cooler buzz that surrounded AI has now evaporated. Likewise, the new batch of summer movies is failing to excite in previews as the majority of them are sequels. From Toy Story to Iron Man, there’s a cultural sense of deja vu going on. Entertainment, still one of the this country’s highest grossing exports, seems a little tired; like it could use a time out and a nap.

New media and marketing have also experienced a dip in creativity as of late. Shortly put, when the best Facebook press of the week involves Hamster torture, the well appears to have dried up. The climate can truly lead to feeling uninspired and exhausted. So it is easy to hop on the everything sucks and nothing is original bandwagon in times like these. But have no fear- I rustled up a few examples of marketing lights at the end of the tunnel.

To start things off, I think a special shout out is order for Hanes and their commercial that touts the company’s foray into using environmentally friendly fabrics. The clip features a Hanes wearing guy who an announcer tells us is doing the right thing while his friend James, whom he strolls through the mall with, is not. James receives menacing looks from babies and toddlers (read: the future generation) who look as though they’re ready to take the guy out for not being environmentally friendly. It’s a funny spot with a good message from Hanes. It also marks a departure in style from those ”Look! Jennifer Love Hewitt in a bra!” ads of a few years back.

Also on the environmental tip, is this ad for Sun Chips. User created by Heather Kramer of Brooklyn, this sweet little commercial promotes the new 1005 compostible Sun Chips bag. Kramer, who was chosen by Al Gore as the winner of a nationwide contest, provides a voice over while a the chip bag takes a little journey. Chosen as AdWeek’s clip of the week, the Sun Chip commercial is a step in the right direction for the brand.

Lastly, Diesel jeans gives there “Be Stupid” campaign a shot in in the arm by leaning on Twitter and Facebook to spread the word that stupid is the new smart. The company’s website and Facebook page feature contests and videos submitted by fans on how to do crazy dances. Sounds a little uh stupid, right? That’s the point and Diesel in the meantime is reinventing themselves by returning to the edgy marketing that put them on the cultural map during the 1990′s. The whole  dumb thing turns out to be pretty ingenious.

Still not inspired? Looking to the past is a good way to start the juices flowing and to combat our current state of cultural boredom. Old movies, vintage television shows, and bad ass art books are a good place to start. But enough from me- how do you, dear readers, fight the media blahs? Any tips you’d like to share with the class?

The good folks at Apple are expecting the iPad to be lots of things — useful, buzzed about… maybe even a cause for marital discord? Early word is that relationship coaching software and legal advice have been neatly packaged into the LoveU app, which is free to download for all iPad users. Recently, psychologists have written about the disconnect that happens to a couple when a third party gadget enters the picture. Apple, upon learning of breaking more…

This is the first in a  special series of  Thursday blogs that aims to give familiar but dated brands a digital face-lift by using social media, original videos, article marketing, mobile marketing and blogging.

The Patient: Hostess Snack Cakes purveyors of Twinkies, Cupcakes, and Ho Hos.

The Ailment: Hostess suffers from a chronically lame website, a lack of identity, a dwindling presence online, and a sagging social media strategy.

Prognosis: Grim. If the snack food brand refuses to step into 2010, Twinkies could be a thing of the past.

Recommended Treatment: When the going gets tough, the tough reach out for something fun. Sure, Twinkies are the exact thing films like Food Inc. are warning people against. Yet Hostess Snack Cakes like cheesy action films or reality TV serve their purpose: in moderation they provide a little fun and a little escape. So there’s no reason the classic junk food can’t get an update and survive well into the next decade.

First off, Hostess needs to lighten the heck up. Jeeze. It’s Ding Dongs, not prunes for crying out loud. Their website is a flat, bland affair with little reason to ever return other than the promise of coupons upon signing more…

The funeral procession for the American newspaper stretched across the land from Denver to Miami as longstanding newspapers went digital, bankrupt or belly-up. Magazines faced a similar fate when publishers like Conde Naste dumped some of their oldest titles with cries of budget concerns and dwindling audiences. Thousands lost jobs as the future of traditional publishing was left up in the air. As usual, the death knell was rung a tad prematurely. Media companies always find a way to reach audiences and to change so the tears were certainly unnecessary.

The New York Times, for example, just launched the newest version of  The  Times Reader which features  seven days of the paper in its entirety  for $3.45 a week, crossword puzzle included. This digital version is compatible with Macs and PCs while providing nifty page turning and more…

The train wreck in slow motion that is the NBC finally came to a head this week as Jay Leno’s prime time experiment was yanked from the network’s schedule. While the falling axe on Leno was known to be coming from media watchers for weeks, what happened next can only be described as shocking. In an effort to fill holes in their Swiss-cheese like schedule, The Peacock hoped to move Leno after the news in a half hour format while pushing the time slots of both the Tonight Show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon back another half an hour. On Tuesday, Tonight Show host Conan O’Brien politely issued a “thanks, but no thanks” statement to the networks proposal. O’Brien stated that to toy with the Tonight Show name and reputation was a bad idea. NBC is back at square one and scrambling for yet another plan b.

This colossal mess, like most messes, contains some excellent lessons. For starters, O’Brien was dead on when he rejected a timeslot change for the Tonight Show. For forty years, The Tonight Show has occupied the same cozy little broadcast time located right after the news and right before bed. To change this would be dangerous especially for a network that seems to be coming closer to going out of business every day. Online marketing for small businesses can be put in the same predicament as NBC by toying with already successful strategies. If a strong emphasis has been placed on social networking to get the brand’s name out, for example, then it is vital to keep up with the schedule, staffing and budget issues be damned. In short, NBC attempted to violate the age old wisdom of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Also, the network stumbled by wrongly assuming that viewers wanted three hours of the same type of program. NBC stopped listening to their audience and stopped evolving. Time and time again in this climate we’ve seen businesses make the same mistakes with marketing. This can be avoided by branching out in new online marketing techniques that will help expand the brand while avoiding complacency.

Finally, the biggest lesson that NBC can teach businesses of all sizes is that a lack of identity can be fatal. Since the post-Friends era NBC has been struggling to find their own persoanlity. Are they the network known for sports? Are they the network known for cop shows at 10pm? Are they the home of more Jay Leno than anybody ever wanted? Who knows. And this is a big problem. Small companies without the giant corporate parachute that NBC has quickly disappear from the radar if they don’t truly know who they are. Constant care and creativity need to be utilized in order to secure a brand’s identity. Employing a “leave no stone unturned” philosophy while presenting a strong, consistent image gives consumers the message that your business is stable yet evolving to the client’s ever changing needs.

While there is little doubt that late night talk shows will go the way of the dinosaur any time soon, the rest of us can take NBC’s mistakes to heart and learn from them. Being too comfortable, too cocky or too confused in online marketing is a luxury most businesses just don’t have.

Does online brand management include domain names? It has been an interesting argument for a long time with many domains proving to be successful despite not including their brand in their domain name. The argument becomes lost when it can be pointed out that the domain name itself has become a brand. There are dangers lurking when you do have a highly successful business built around your domain name.

Take as an example, Twitter.com. Mention the word Twitter and almost everyone who is online will know who you are talking about. Or do they? Yes, Twitter is a highly recognized name. But so too is twitter.co.uk; yet they are not connected.

The UK branded Twitter has possibly brought more grief to Twitter.com than good. There was a period where the British twitter.co.uk was in dispute with twitter.com. The dispute even made it to the British press. Free publicity for both but since twitter.com appeared to be in the wrong, everyone sided with twitter.co.uk.

Ask someone in the UK about Twitter and the response may well be — “which one?”  You now have brand confusion. Twitter has developed their name and their domain name as a brand that many are familiar with. A similar domain name in the UK has now lead to brand confusion. There is similar domain name in Australia too: twitter.com.au. This could mean even more brand confusion in Australia.

It’s a difficult situation to be in. All three Twitter’s will no doubt survive and twitter.com has not suffered unduly… yet. There is always the potential down the track.

Including your brand in your domain name, or branding your domain name is a good idea. However, if you intend to build a global business, consider buying regional domains as well. It may set you back several hundred dollars to buy these domain names, but in the long run they may also prevent any situations where brand confusion creeps. This is why online brand management looks beyond today and tries to position a business for all outcomes.