Ever have the desire to watch Hamster on a Piano, Planet Unicorn, Sassy Gay Friend, or Dramatic Prairie Dog on your big flat screen plasma television? No? Well, Youtube along with their parent company Google and the folks at Dish Network think maybe you’ll warm up to the idea. The web and entertainment superpowers are currently developing a set top box that operates Android style to more…

HootSuite just launched an exclusive app made just for Android. HootSuite is kind of your all-in-one application for business Tweets. The calendar feature lets users compose messages and place the desired Tweets to pop up on a time and date wheel. HootSuite has been a hit in the original flavor and now the ease of use is at social media marketers fingertips. Scrolling and auto-updates are supposedly easier on the Android version of the app but some reviewers say otherwise.  Nevertheless, the clamoring and buzz around more…

The good folks over at the Pew Center’s Internet and American life project along with the Project for Excellence in Journalism conducted a survey to find out where and how Americans get their news. The results that were released yesterday and  splashed all over any website that would sit still (bravo, Pew, bravo!) won’t cause any of  us online junkies to fall out of our chair. As expected, TV is where most Americans still get their news with the Internet running a close second and more…

Watching paint dry or cleaning out a lint trap of a dryer or reading a book on how to cook beets might not be the the most exciting things you could ever do but these activities still may be more titillating than watching haul videos. The weekend edition of Marketplace pondered the why and how of haul videos as well as their ever growing and baffling popularity. The oddly mocking yet blatantly promotional piece on the more…

Always on the hunt for inspiration and ideas, I am constantly searching for and reading lists. Whether it is the ten best this or worst 50 of that- I am list obsessed. I blame my childhood ritual of listening to Rick Dees and the Weekly Top Forty for this obsession.  Anyway, I stumbled upon a provocatively and somewhat hilariously titled list called The 100 Must Read Blogs… by Women! posted last year on Blogtreprenuer. As I perused their choices (Ann Coulter and Michelle Maklin?!?) I noticed what all of these blogs should have in common besides the whole being created by women thing is that they should all contain that kind of more…

The Patient: MTV, the little cable network that changed television and music forever.

The Ailment: MTV suffers from Brand-nesia, a condition in which a well loved brand forgets what and who made them famous to begin with. MTV also suffers from a social media overdose, chronic pointless video abuse, and multiple marketing personalities.

Prognosis: Not so hot. Jersey Shore notwithstanding, MTV’s buzz making machine has nearly run out of steam. If a newer, fresher look and hipper demographic isn’t targeted soon, the network will continue to be a joke.

Recommended Treatment: Once upon a time, MTV set the bar for coolness and told us which artists to love and what music to buy. Even shows like Beavis and Butthead told us when to laugh. Today, however,  more…

OMG! Is blogging DOA? Last week the Pew Research Center released a report that found blogging has slipped in popularity with teens and young adults. The 28% percent of teen Internet users that said they blogged in 2006 has now slipped to 14%. The study cites social networking and micro-blogging as the cause for the drop in popularity. Basically, kids these days can’t be bothered with long blogs about how their best friend stole their lip gloss when they can just post a quick status update on their Facebook that efficiently describes all of their drama in just a few words.

The study goes on to note that the majority of bloggers are ancient types (over 30 to be exact) who also read other blogs. It’s suggested that the over 30 set has the time and attention span to devote to reading and creating blogs. With specialized and professional blogs seemingly on the rise, it is hard to dispute the reports findings. This being said, let’s not shove blogging in the more…

The Patient: Merriam–Webster, America’s go-to guy for dictionaries and thesauruses since 1828.

The Ailment: Merriam Webster suffers from a jumbled online presence and a scattered social media strategy that undercuts their fantastic line of products.

Prognosis: Hopeful. With a strict streamlining of the website, an aggressive public relations plan, and clear vision for social media, Merriam-Webster should remain the country’s premiere reference guru for another century or two.

Recommended Treatment: The worn out red Webster’s dictionary has long lived on the shelves of students. Everybody knows the brand and it’s omnipresence is so ingrained that it would be safe to assume that the brand is fine and not going anywhere anytime soon, right? Wrong. If the recent  shake ups at long standing publishers like  Rand McNally has taught 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…

If you’re a savvy digital marketer, it’s not enough to have a great website. That’s a given. The name of the game today is expanding your reach beyond your main site. If you start to think of your main site as a hub, and other digital assets like Facebook fan pages, blogs, email campaigns, etc. as spokes or offshoots from the hub, then you’re on the right track. Like a spoke, the additional digital property should be robust enough to support the hub, or your main site. The more spokes you have, the more marketing muscle. If you think of it, digital assets like Facebook and Twitter can cross-over in many areas thus offering a double-whammie. For example, you can automatically send your tweets to your Facebook fan site to keep your fans in the loop. You can also take content like blog entries and post them on your facebook site. In effect, your spokes are can and should cross each other to add support to your hub. Why do this? Here are a couple of reasons:

1) Multiple Entry Points. Some people are on Facebook all day long and consider Twitter a waste of time. The converse is true too. So why limit yourself to one or the other? By spreading your content across multiple platforms, you make it easier for people to interact with your brand.

2) Spreadable Content. If you have a great blog post, why not share it with your closest followers on Twitter or Facebook. Be careful though, you don’t want to bombard your friends with shameless self promotion. As long as your content is good enough, people will be open to a link to your blog. So spread away.

3) Cross-Promote. Let’s say you just created a great YouTube video about the latest widget your company just created on a shoe string budget. Why just use the YouTube platform to promote it? Announcing your opus on Facebook, Twitter, blogs etc., may expose your video to an entirely new audience that would have never come across it. It’s a no brainer.

Having your content spread across multiple platforms can help SEO and can make it easier for people to find you. It can also establish a lasting digital footprint across the web and on search engines. As long as you are creating killer content, why not roll it out in more than one way. Get it? Roll it out. Wheel. Never mind.