FOLIO: Personalities -- The Blog People Page

In a recent post ("Dude! Young Americans Trust Business Magazines More Than Wikipedia!") I reviewed a 2008 Edelman Study that documented how young Americans rated business magazines as #1 in credibility as a source of company information, and Wikipedia #2.

But as Gregory Kohs correctly commented, the Edelman study is not focused on young Americans. It is a worldwide study focusing on business leaders.

While the "young American" finding was interesting, the more important finding is how business leaders, worldwide, perceive different media.

Posted here is a chart on media credibility as it relates to this broader audience. More...

Many print publishers I talk to are surprised by upstart "web only" media companies that drain online ad dollars out of their markets. Established media should hold all the cards; an established brand, a history in the market, and access to online list development via the magazine subscription process.

How do these web only "pure plays" stand a chance? Simple, they love search more than we do. A study from Borrell Associates entitled "What Local Media Web Sites Earn," uncovers the strategy in the More...

Which news sources young Americans find most credible might surprise you. Buried on page 14 in the "Edelman Trust Barometer 2008," an annual survey of trust related issues conducted by international PR giant Edelman, is a tiny bombshell that every business magazine publisher needs to see.

When Americans, ages 24 to 35, were asked "How credible is each source for information about a company?" Business magazines ranked first, Wikipedia was number two.

On your next call: Obviously this is a great study to show if you are selling advertising in a business magazine, More...

This is a great story you can use on a sales calls to put the importance of "search" into perspective, especially if you find an advertiser who is giving "search" total credit for sales that your media is helping to make. I heard this start off a Webinar led by

Young-Bean Song, VP Analytics at the Atlas Institute kicked off a Webinar recently by asking the audience to imagine they were in charge of Corona's marketing and had just observed that many people who walked by a neon Corona sign on their way into a bar bought a Corona. If you saw this behavior, you could conclude that the sign caused the sale. Then, you More...

Kevin Kelly, editor of Wired magazine in its early and truly great years, wrote a book with a chapter I highly recommend to everyone in media. It's called, "Relationship Tech, Start With Technology End With Trust."

Kelly, being a "content should be free" Internet kind of guy, has posted the entire contents of this book for free on the Web. I recommend reading it. So many of the issues we face in media are touched by his vision.

The next time you have a dialogue with a client, consider this from Kelly's book:

"Expertise now resides in fanatical customers. The world’s best experts on your product or s More...

Has this happened to you?

A digital ad agency representing a Fortune 500 corporation sends you an RFP for a two week online campaign. You respond professionally and promptly. Like a shock, word comes back, they are in! The news travels through your organization like wild fire, "We just broke into a Fortune 500 Corporation's digital ad budget!" As dozens of congratulatory e-mails surge through your company the future looks bright. The media runs. The media stops running. There is no follow up RFP. You can't get the media buyer on the phone and she does not respond to your emails. When you finally hear back, the response is one sentence apologizing for the delay in getting back and a mention that your media will not be conside More...

For me, these are scariest six words in media today:

"My sales staff can't sell online."

When I hear these words, I shudder. Somewhere behind the great walls and pleasant reception area of a media company a sales staff is in pain.

If you know of an organization using these words please pass this post on to them. You will be doing a good deed helping those in need.

If you work at a company using these scary words this unsolicited evaluation and advice is for you:

1. Your online products stink.

When I meet a sales staff with a "low online sales IQ" I usually find a company that also has a "lo More...

As you send your next email to a client consider that the most important words you write will be in the headline, also known as subject line. If these words motivate your client to open and read your message, then the other words you write will count as well.

When writing email headlines, shorter is better. If you can boil your message down to, say, 5 words that capture the full benefit of reading your message you are on your way to a sale.

An instructive lesson on how to use 5 words with impact is created every year at the Webby Awards. The Webbys, known as the "Oscars of the Internet" give out awards for the best Web sites and More...