Twitter Goes Red

Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 12:32pm

Today, December 1, is World AIDS Day, and the (RED) campaign teamed up with Twitter to increase advocacy.In a “so simple it’s brilliant” move, any person who tweets with the hash tags #red or #laceupsavelives saw the font turn red today. Phrases like World Aids Day/#WorldAidsDay, HIV, Africa and Red have remained in the top trending topics all day, and hundreds are retweeting @joinred’s and @ONECampaign’s tweets detailing facts and statistics on AIDS and World AIDS Day.

While we’re all used to search engine Google consistently changing its masthead, this is the first time that Twitter has done such an overhaul. Response has been interesting and, in my opinion, overwhelming. As trending topics on Twitter tend to be as fleeting as the wind, it’s quite the feat to maintain consistency throughout an entire day.

While World AIDS Day is well known, this campaign shows how great Twitter is when an organization or business is relying on a word-of-mouth campaign. That retweet button is a powerful tool – in one simple click, your message suddenly gets broadcast to hundreds, thousands, millions. When you have a message but are stuck with a limited budget (or are looking for a unique way to get out that message), it can pay to think outside of traditional marketing. After all, a tweet is only 140 characters. If you put your message out there and it doesn’t get picked up, it’s not hurting anything. You go about your day and try something else.

But if it does get picked up, you’ve hit marketing gold (or red, out of respect for World AIDS Day.)

All for the Cost of One Employee: Marketing Services Solutions

Thursday, November 19, 2009 at 11:32am

It is a simple concept. For about the cost of one employee, we provide all the talent, know-how, and capabilities needed to create and manage your entire marketing program or campaign. This approach allows companies, associations, or governmental agencies to retain high-level marketing expertise and the writers, graphic designers, project managers, and video producers required to implement marketing projects or campaigns.

At O’Neill Communications, each client is assigned a senior level account supervisor with extensive marketing experience who generally reports to a c-level executive representing the client. The firm’s account supervisor is responsible for managing the work-flow and creative development process to assure the proper execution of marketing projects or plans and the satisfaction of the client. In addition, the account supervisor’s expertise provides higher level planning capabilities and campaign management skills needed for today’s competitive environment. This sensible approach assures good brand management and sound, consistent implementation at a reasonable cost.

Click to enlarge

Outsourced marketing really is about focus – yours and ours. Many CEO’s are tempted to hire a vice president of sales and marketing, expecting 80% of their time to be spent on sales and 20% marketing. Generally, it turns out just the opposite – all the emphasis is on marketing when the CEO needs a strong focus on sales. By hiring a vice president of sales, you can focus internal resources exclusively on sales and retain a marketing firm to focus on marketing. The CEO gets the focus and expertise needed in both disciplines.

Outsourced marketing is a very efficient package of talent and capabilities that can save you from possibly hiring four positions for an internal marketing department – a savings of $280,000 or more in personnel expense.

Whether annual retainer, short-term project, or a time and materials client, you get a lot of talent and know-how for about the cost of just one employee.

Riding the Wave: Initial Thoughts on Google Wave

Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 9:37am

Google Wave Main Page

Last Wednesday was a day like no other. I woke up, drove to work, pulled open my personal Gmail account and – whoa. I found myself reading the subject line that any true geek has wanted to read since May 2009: “Your invitation to preview Google Wave.”

I don’t remember much after that specific moment – though, I’m pretty sure a lot of screaming, dancing and crying were involved. What I do know is that I now am privileged to be part of the select (I like the term ‘elite’) beta test group for a service that is so revolutionary, it could very well change the way we use the Internet forever.

After the jump, you’ll find all of the answers to the questions you’ve been dying to ask about Google Wave – even if the question is just “What the heck is it?”

What the heck is it?

Google Wave, as described by Google, is equal parts conversation and collaboration in real-time. The best way that I can personally describe it is that it’s a cross between instant messaging and email. (If you use Google Docs, it integrates a lot of those qualities, too.)

Why should I care?

I don’t know. (Kidding!)

After reading about Wave and checking it out for myself, it’s very obvious that this type of programming (even if not specifically Wave) will be how we interact at the very least professionally in the near future. The “Waves” happen in real-time – it’s so “real-time” that you actually see each individual letter the person you are Waving with is typing. You can share and edit photos and documents, which is a plus if you are working on a project with multiple colleagues. Instead of emails flying back and forth, a Wave provides a one-stop place for all information.

It sounds like glorified Gmail.

At the most basic level, it is – except instead of sending an email out, you create the Wave and people come and participate in it (rather than waiting to receive). The great thing is that you can add “bots” (more on these in a second) and other various add-ons, including a map feature and survey feature.

Additionally, ANYONE can go back and edit any part of the conversation, which isn’t an option with regular email and isn’t always that simple in Google Docs. But also, the option for limitless editing is there. This will be good when, say, I have written a portion of a Web site to share with Brandon D Hunt. Brandon can read my copy and make changes with ease.

What was that “bot” thing you mentioned?

It’s short for robot, and you can add various “bots” as you would add your friends’ Wave addresses. It would have an ID that looks like bot@example.com. The main difference between your friend and a bot is that a bot is customized to automatically respond to your Waves when called upon.

Wikipedia is one of the more popular bots on Wave right now. By adding wikifier@appspot.com to a Wave, you can search for information on Wikipedia right in the Wave. My initial testing has shown that sometimes it will answer a question right in the Wave, and other times it will provide a link that takes you to the Wikipedia Web site.

Other bots include a poll-taking bot (fun for customized surveys) and a Twitter bot. There are many, many others – and once Wave becomes accessible to more users, I’m sure larger brands and businesses will be setting up bots for their brands.

Google is even planning an app store specifically for Wave, similar to the iPhone or Android app stores. (Not the same as a bot, but similar, and will be an additional way to market your brand and business.)

It sounds like I can do EVERYTHING in Wave!

Not so fast. Wave is awesome, but there are many things it is NOT.

Wave is NOT a replacement for social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is NOT a social networking site. It’s a collaboration tool.
It’s not just glorified instant messaging, which was my initial reaction to be perfectly honest. But just because something is real-time does not make it IM.
It’s not a search engine.
It’s not necessarily complete replacement for email. At least, not yet.

Sounds groovy.

It is, but as I mentioned above, there are still some kinks to work out. One of my biggest pet peeves at the moment is that I can’t delete any of my test Waves. Google is allegedly working on this, and that option should be available soon. I’ve also been having a difficult time figuring out how I can best organize my Waves, and there is no way to organize contacts at the moment.

I fully expect that once Google Wave becomes widely accessible, it will truly change how we look at email and our Internet experience entirely, particularly in the workplace. However, it’s important to remember that it’s just a collaboration tool – and there are sure to be many more advances made to it and similar technologies over the coming months and years before email truly goes the way of snail mail and the telegram.

Have you been looking forward to Google Wave, and are you still waiting for an invite? Tell me in the comments why YOU deserve an invitation the most – I’ll send an invite to whoever gives me the best reason by 3 PM EST Tuesday, November 24.

Learn more!
Google Wave
Complete Wave Guide
Google Wave Bots
Official Google Blog
Mashable

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O'Neill Communications's Notes

Twitter Goes RedDec 1, 2009

All for the Cost of One Employee: Marketing Services SolutionsNov 19, 2009

Riding the Wave: Initial Thoughts on Google WaveNov 18, 2009

Keep Your Email Subscribers Happy.Nov 17, 2009

Locking Down Your Blog: How to Create a Members-Only Site with WordPressNov 12, 2009

Approved for Print! Now What? Ten Steps for Sending a Project to Print.Nov 10, 2009

Interactive ConferencesNov 8, 2009

Designers Face-OffNov 4, 2009

Why Social Networking is NOT all that GreatNov 3, 2009

And the winner is… US!Oct 29, 2009

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