More and more studies are showing that internet users do not engage with conventional online ads. Users have developed a type of blindness to the flashing, blinking, google-type ads that clutter pages, and no matter how invasive and annoying the ads are, we have learnt to ignore them. So marketers are desperately searching for new ways to advertise to customers, one of which is the strategy of authenticity. This is when marketers create a video, or some other marketing piece, that looks real but has actually been carefully staged. In most cases, the marketer lets the user in on the secret by telling them that the ad is fake, either directly or with hints. However, one marketer recently was so successful that ...

Privacy by doc18 This week Emily Gould, former Editor at the mega-gossip-blog Gawker, published a stunning and moving description in the New York Times of her experience as a blogger who exposed all, both with regards to her own personal life, and those of celebrities. Her piece is fascinating and disturbing, and raises a lot of questions about the boundaries we set up and break down between our real-life identities, and those of our online personas. One of the questions that I'm often asked about blogging is about how far bloggers should go in exposing their private lives. This aspect of blogging makes people nervous, ...

I'm excited to announce the launch of a new course I'm giving on blogging and social media marketing strategies. About the course The new web, also known as web 2.0, is changing the way we communicate. With people spending more and more time online as active participants in the consumption and generation of content, companies and brands who wish to engage with online customers must adopt a new way of thinking. "Corporate Blogging and Social Media" is a 3-day seminar that will take place on Thursday June 5, June 12, and June 19, 2008. During the course, you'll gain a solid background in blogging and social media, start your own blog and write ...