Still here.

A new home.

After an extended absence from this site, I have resumed my blogging excellence at exurbanleague.com. See you there.

Goodbye to all that.

The Inkling speaks, the media listens.

This week's edition ofNation’s Restaurant News, the leading food service pub, features a full and fair article on WOM. Such a refreshing break from some of the hit pieces we’ve seen lately.

I was interviewed as well, discussing how my employer (rhymes with Sold Cone Themery) has focused on WOM as the primary brand-building strategy. I also was quoted using a five-syllable word (“serendipitous“), just to make my wordsmith mom happy.

The article also cites research by Chadwick Martin Bailey that shows 27 percent of Americans ate at restaurants based solely on a personal recommendation. At an average bill of $50, WOM can be a gold mine for the industry. Go ye and read of it.


technorati tags: WOM; WOMMA; NRN; Restaurant

23 Squidoo, Baby.

Search a lens, build a lens. Enter Seth Godin & Co.'s foray into Web 2.0: Squidoo.

The idea behind Squidoo is that the Web currently has too much info to sift through. Just type a generic search term into Google or Technorati and you'll get more fluff than usable content. Squidoo invites all sorts of people to create "lenses" on innumerable topics. So now, instead of wasting time sifting through pages of search engine results, you can visit a lens on a subject and get a solid overview in a minute or two.

The site just opened to the public this week. Thankfully, I was invited to the beta test where I created a lens on word-of-mouth marketing which I invite you to visit early and often. In a completely unrelated note, I've also begun a lens on chiles since burning my upper GI is one of life's purest pleasures.

P.S: The lame reference in my headline comes from the century-old hipster phrase, "23 Skidoo." I never knew what it meant until now.

technorati tags: Squidoo; Chiles; WOM

1,000.

One score and 19 days ago, I founded this modest blog to address word of mouth marketing, advertising common sense and the occasional diatribe on shaving. And today we welcomed our 1,000th visitor, hailing from the proud bradley.edu domain (Go Braves!). Hearty congratulations to that loyal reader.

I was going to offer him/her an official Inkling commemorative spoon, complete with The Hasselhoff's face rendered in mother of pearl and Topaz... but alas, our factory in Laos is short-staffed, what with the bird flu and all. A pity on so many levels.

By reaching 1,000 visitors in 39 days, by my calculations we will host our one millionth visitor by 2105. Look out, Instapundit! Thanks to all for your kind patronage.

technorati tags: Ego; 1000; WOM

WOMBAT draws nigh.

What is so important about January 19, 2006? No, it's not that it is National Penguin Awareness Day. Okay, it's also the 91st Anniversary of George Claude's patenting of the electric neon sign, but that still isn't what makes the day so special. National Popcorn Day? You aren't even trying anymore are you?

Jan. 19 is important because it is the opening of WOMMA's two-day Word of Mouth Basic Training (WOMBAT) at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Fla. This conference will teach you the core WOM skills and ROI measurement tools to succeed in our rapidly-changing marketing environment. And you'll be in Florida. In January.

You want authors? WOMBAT has Dave Balter, Jon Berry & Ed Keller, Jackie Huba, Mark Hughes, George Silverman and more. Experts too! Pete Blackshaw, Walter Carl, Jonathan Carson, John Moore, Laurie Weisberg and Terri Whitesel are but a smidgen of the brain trust. Still want more? Okay, okay, I'm speaking as well.

Obviously, my insights alone are worth the admission price. However, WOMMA has made sure that you -- the influential readers of this august blog -- don't need to pay retail. When you register, just use the code "speakerdeal" to received a $100 discount. Sweet.

technorati tags: WOM; WOMBAT; WOMMA

Mad as hell. Not going to take it anymore. Etc.

Rumors continue to roll on Les Moonves’ efforts to snag Katie Couric for the new, improved CBS Evening News. How remarkable! Maybe they can also use a new “swooshing” sound when stories pop up on screen! And build a new desk! With blinky lights!

Les, babe, let’s chat. Network news has been fading in the ratings and from the public consciousness since I was listening to Billy Squier on eight-track. It’s beyond tired, as is reflected by your ubiquitous ads for Centrum Silver and incontinence products. I’m a news junkie and don’t know ANYONE that watches ABC, NBC or CBS’ evening newscasts. Even my retired mom watches CNN while my dad is searching for the latest WWII doc on the History Channel. Why are you continuing to kick this dead nag expecting it to start galloping again?

Let’s face facts – news junkies already know everything that happened hours before you commit it to tape at 5 p.m. EST. We in the Western states might as well be watching a newsreel considering how stale it is by day’s end. Cable news and radio own immediacy. The Internet is not only immediate, it also owns thoroughness and narrowcasting, so you can’t compete there either. And to be honest, most the people I know are either working or in traffic when your show is broadcast.

As a J-school grad, I have some residual interest in promoting journalism, so let me drop a few suggestions for that time slot in order of fiscal sanity and programming effectiveness:

1) Eliminate the newscast completely. Crush ABC and NBC with repeats of Everyone Loves Raymond. Focus your news budget on the current hour-long investigative programs.

2) Okay, that last one scared you. How about transforming the newscast into something like Nightline? Delve deep into one or two stories that no one else is reporting on. In the final segment, hold a seven-minute roundtable discussion featuring experts in the field rather than vaguely-informed journalists.

3) Still too radical? Alright, enough with Manhattan already. Keep the newscast, but broadcast from Chicago… that’s right, middle America. Better yet, buy a satellite truck and broadcast from a different location every week. Feature a few stories from the area along with the big stories of the day. Get someone untraditional to host, dropping the Cronkite “voice of God” template since no one buys it anymore. A guy like Bob Costas can read a report and he’s actually likable, believable and doesn’t seem terminally biased. Better yet, grab one of the hundred great local anchors none of us have yet heard of.

Les, you have to blow up the whole "Eyewitness News" model and create something new. Otherwise, you’ll be running ads for caskets and urns by 2010.

technorati tags: CBS; Journalism; Moonves