The Agitator

I don’t know what set him off, but marketing maven Seth Godin recently posted an article titled Magic beans, TV and the web. Here’s the kernel: "On the web, there are countless marketers just standing around waiting for someone to hand them the magic beans. And that’s the ...  Read more

Sometimes the best advice is pretty darn simple. That’s the case with this piece in ClickZ by Bryan Eisenberg of FutureNow. He’s an expert on optimizing online conversions, but he’s making a larger point with this advice: "Don’t get caught up in the flash of Web 2.0 ...  Read more

As reported here by MediaPost, Forrester Research, a leading marketing and media research outfit, has released an extensive study on U.S. usage of social media. At this point, four out of five U.S. online adults report using social media at least once per month. Half participate in sites like ...  Read more

Judging from the number of "Out of Office" bouncebacks we’re getting this week, I’m assuming that lots of folks are "at the beach." That means they’re missing Steve MacLaughlin’s (of Blackbaud) Netwits webinars this week. One a day, with these topics ...  Read more

No, says e-marketer Loren McDonald. Here’s an abridged list of what Loren says the successful email marketer really needs to know [with my comments from the peanut gallery]: 1. Email strategy — know how to create an email marketing plan and program that maximize the channel’s ...  Read more

B.L. Ochman, for my money, is one of the better social media strategists around. In this post, she critiques two online contests, finding one a clear winner … the other a distinct loser. Or, as she puts it: One rocks, one sucks. Here’s an excerpt: "Two current contests involving ...  Read more

We have an interesting discussion underway on The Agitator regarding the utility of social media today for nonprofit fundraising. "Go slow" seems to be the prevailing sentiment. I urge you to flick through this week’s posts and comments if you haven’t yet done so. But ...  Read more

A study by Anderson Analytics of online social net use, reported here on MediaPost and here in Business Week, contains good news for  cause marketers and fundraisers. According to the study, which followed 5,000 online users, those who belong to a social net are four times more vocal about ...  Read more

For some nonprofits, fundraising can be quite sensitive to the headlines … a natural disaster here, a Supreme Court nomination there. I once had a client castigate me, rightfully, for "sitting on" an urgent appeal opportunity until Monday, triggered by an event that occurred the ...  Read more

Alexandra Samuel, writing in Harvard Business Publishing, says Yes! In her article, Why Nonprofits Are So Good at Social Media, she notes that social media are all about relationship building and points out: "In the nonprofit sector, relationships have always been the key currency: the ...  Read more