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Entries from January 2008

What We Can Learn From a Blog and a Coffee Shop

January 30th, 2008 · No Comments

Photo Credits: JasperYue
A coffee shop in San Francisco has a problem: they need their tables free for the lunch rush hour patrons, but they’re taken by people with laptops who linger along taking advantage of the free wi-fi.
A young and extremely popular personal finance blogger, who frequents the place, writes a post asking his readers […]

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Tags: Social Media · Blogging

Small Business Blogging: Before You Start

January 27th, 2008 · 8 Comments

Photo Credits: ariel wants a chip

submit_url = “http://www.shoestringbranding.com/2008/01/27/small-business-blogging/”;

Should a small business blog? Every day, small business owners around the world ask themselves that question. While my answer tends to be yes, I would like to touch on some of the caveats about blogging to help small business owners make this important strategic decision:
A […]

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Tags: Social Media · Blogging

A great PR case study: Nike’s Air Jordan XX3

January 25th, 2008 · No Comments

This is a great example of how to generate effective buzz. Nike will launch its Air Jordan XX3 shoe to the general public by mid-February, and these are some highlights of their effective PR campaign:
For this, the 23rd version of the Air Jordan (the shoe endorsed by the former Chicago Bull’s #23 star) a […]

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Tags: Branding

Rooting for Tumblr

January 22nd, 2008 · 1 Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I started my personal blog on a relatively new platform called Tumblr. Tumblr is technically a “tumblelog”. Basically, it works like a blog but it’s lighter on features and much easier to update and maintain (some people compare it to what blogs looked like in the early stages […]

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Tags: Customer Service · Social Media · Blogging

Why Opt-Out Policies are a Bad Idea

January 21st, 2008 · 1 Comment

Photo Credits: linnybinnypix
Last weekend I rented a car for a day. I stopped to have a cup of coffee and, fiddling with my rental papers I noticed a blue sticky note attached to the envelope with something written on it. It was a disclaimer that said something like this:
If you drive less than […]

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Tags: Customer Service · Branding

Can Better Branding Make Politics More Accessible?

January 15th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Photo Credits: mystereys
Florida’s primary elections will take place in two weeks. Yesterday on TV, I saw some ordinary Floridians being interviewed about how would they vote on Amendment 1 , an important proposition to change the state constitution to rein in real estate taxes.
Surprisingly (or perhaps, not so surprisingly) many of them said that […]

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Tags: Branding

Looking for a job? A personal branding strategy to stand out from the crowd

January 12th, 2008 · 10 Comments

Photo Credits: laruth

submit_url = “http://www.shoestringbranding.com/2008/01/12/personal-brandin-job-hunting/”;

The traditional job-hunting approach advocated by human resources pundits (make a one-page résumé, don’t talk about personal stuff, make your experience look “broad” to appeal to many different industries, etc.) is basically flawed: by making your résumé look “standard”, and by rounding off the edges to try to be all things […]

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Tags: Social Media · Blogging · Branding

How Feature Creep Can Hurt Your Brand

January 4th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Photo Credit: webguy94301
Feature creep is the unfortunate consequence of companies constantly changing perfectly adequate products for “bigger and better” or “new and improved” ones. By adding features that customers don’t need or don’t particularly care for, products become bulkier, confusing and difficult to use.
Why does feature creep happen?
Feature creep can happen for many […]

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Tags: Branding