From the category archives:

Self Promotion

Ashton Kutcher + Mass Marketing + Twitter = 1 Million Followers

by Adam Killam on April 17, 2009

That’s right folks. You too can have 1 Million followers if you are:

A T.V / Movie star
Have an in with a traditional mass media company with great distribution
And have a Twitter account of course!

The story I am referencing above is in regards to Ashton Kutcher’s (@aplusk on Twitter) recent publicity stunt of generating 1 Million followers on Twitter and beating CNN in the race to boot.

How did he do it and why should you care? For an explanation of how he did it, see this article on Advertising Age, complete with images of Kutcher’s billboard promo. (whoops did I give it away?)

Now for the answer to the question: “Why should you care?”

For one this is a great example of how online marketing and offline marketing can be merged with excellent results.

Now, the value to Kutcher of having a million fans, and the resulting publicity at this stage may be hard to measure (sure beats stories about DUI’s, divorce or drug abuse!), but for the average person or company, it’s a great reminder that relying on one source of marketing is never a sound strategy and often online and offline can work together to give you extra bang for your buck.

Another thing this story reminded me of was: to be original. Or at any rate, the ploy was a great example of taking an old concept (billboard advertising) and mixing it with something new (Twitter) to create buzz and increase one’s reach in the marketplace.

Those are my thoughts on this story. I’m now heading out with some spray paint to post @adamkillam on everything in sight I can get my hands on. I figure if I work hard over the weekend I should be able to ad at least another 200-300 followers!

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.tel Domain Name

by Adam Killam on March 30, 2009

Have you registered your .tel domain name yet?

.tel’s became available March 24th and are a new format of domain name that enables you to post all of your contact information in one easy to access and update spot without the need for a website.

For an example, visit adamkillam.tel

To learn more, visit webnames.ca, a .tel registrar.

I recommend that you buy yourname.tel ASAP before it’s too late!

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Interview with Business in Vancouver

by Adam Killam on March 18, 2009

I was recently interviewed by Business in Vancouver for an article on Cloud Computing.

Here is a snippet from the interview:

Although cloud computing has existed for a number of years, Microsoft Corp., Google and other IT heavyweights only recently began applying the label to their services.

Adam Killam, an Internet marketing consultant, noted that that Salesforce.com Inc. – a company that delivers a customer management service over the Internet and whose name is synonymous with cloud computing – was founded in 1999.

At that time, only larger companies had the connectivity required for cloud computing.

“Now the everyday mom-and-pop shop … can use an application that’s being used by some of the biggest businesses in the world,” said Killam, founder of the Vancouver Salesforce.com User Group.

“You pay your $65 a month or whatever it is … and you get the same features and functionality that J.P. Morgan has.”

Follow this link to see the full article.

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Seven Quick Steps to Measuring Your Results on Twitter

by Adam Killam on January 30, 2009

Interested in tracking your results on Twitter? Want a quick and easy way to test headlines, copy and determine what your followers are most interested in?

Here are 7 easy steps:

Create a free account at www.budurl.com
Find a newsworthy story/blog post and shrink the story’s URL using Budurl
Paste the shortened link into Twitter and write a catchy intro
Post the story
Monitor clicks via your bud account
Rinse and repeat to test various copy/stories
Divide total number of clicks by total number of followers to determine what percentage of followers respond to each link/post

Bonus tip: use the notes section of Bud to better track the URLs and stories you’re following

Bonus tip #2: in the notes section, paste in the exact wording you used when posting to Twitter to keep track of Twitter copy that your followers respond to

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Frugal is the new Cool

by Adam Killam on January 28, 2009

I was speaking with a PR firm client last week who mentioned “Frugal is the new cool” and decided it was time to tone down the look of the site. I keep an eye out for trends (as one must do in social media and web marketing) and given the current state of the economy I’m taking his message to heart.

I wore a less flashy watch to a meeting today and will be tweaking the site in the coming week or so to see if I can simplify it a bit (yes, it’s already quite simple and I can do better!).

With all the talk lately of recession, marketing in tough economic times etc etc, it makes sense for marketers to be a little less flashy and focus their messages more on the bottom line and how they can make and save their clients money.

For me, that means the site needs to be less about adding widgets and more about focusing on good, solid, valuable content that my clients will find applicable to their businesses.

On that note today’s tip is: go back to basics.

Practical applications:

Update and simplify your web site’s theme / design
Don’t be afraid to use or go back to plain text emails or simplified HTML
If blogging or using Twitter, focus on practical tips and less theory (marketers are the most guilty of breaking this one)

I think going frugal is a trend we’re going to see catch on and stick for the next couple of years. As more ideas on this topic come to mind, I’ll post them here.

What steps are you taking to “go frugal” in 2009″

Post thoughts to comments.

Update: Read about the New Frugal Google

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