Author Archives: Steven Spaulding

Makers Mark Ambassador Holiday Gift Boxes

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
Makers Mark Holiday Hoax Gift Boxes

I am Makers Mark Ambassador #750697, and I just received my latest installment of social marketing collateral from Makers Mark. Makers Mark is doing a great job of engaging their brand advocates by empowering them as an owner (well… at least an emotional owner) of their brand. Their baseline campaign …

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The Beginning of the End for Netscape

Posted on November 24, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
Internet Explorer version 1

On this day in business history, 1998… AOL’s $4.2 billion acquisition of Netscape is confirmed.  AOL was previously the world’s largest Internet access company, and Netscape pioneered the software used on the Internet, and its Navigator web browsing software was the world’s most popular. The merger was an offensive tactic, …

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Blackhat SEO Infographic

Posted on October 31, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
black-hat-seo-infographic

Those that are new to SEO have a lot of great ideas that might trick Googlebot into ranking a web page higher than it actually deserves.  Of course, such tricks might have worked if they weren’t already tested, used and abused by SEO’ers over the years.  Here are some scary …

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Pinterest Infographic: Social Commerce Game Changer

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
pinterest-infographic-social-gamechanger-thumb

Can you make money on Pinterest?  Well, no, not directly, but Pinterest is now a critical content distribution channel for businesses that sell products that require visual review before purchase. For example, if I were searching Google for “Star Trek figure pictures“, they rank Pinterest #2 (after Google Shopping and …

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How to Sell Herb Tea to Miners

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
Hires Root Beer Ad

On this day in business history, 1851… Soft drink entrepreneur Charles Elmer Hires is born on a farm near Roadstover, NJ. In 1886 he began selling a ready-to-drink beverage made from sixteen different wild roots, herbs, bark, and berries in bottles. Hires selected the name “Root Beer” when a friend …

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Follow the Leader

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
follow-the-leader

Chris Goulet posted an interesting review of “Real Leaders Don’t Boss” just as I was exiting the theater after watching The Avengers. The Realzation The movie was great — very entertaining, but my greatest takeaway was relating a moment from the film to team project management.  In this scene, chaos …

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Save Those Dying Fires

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
dispatch is the soul of business

On this day in business history, 1750… “Dispatch is the soul of business, and nothing contributes more to Dispatch than Method.”  –Lord Chesterfield, English statesman and diplomat, in a letter to his son, Philip Stanhope. Today, this is easily applicable to service industries, even if intelligence is your asset in …

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NFL SuperBowl Social Media War Room

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Steven Spaulding
NFL social media war room

Pictured above is the NFL’s social media war room.  According to MSNBC reports, the 2012 Super Bowl Marketing team will deploy a social media team that will be tasked with communicating with fans about virtually anything related to the SuperBowl.   The war room is located in Indianapolis (where the …

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There’s One For you, Nineteen For Me

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Steven Spaulding

On this day in business history, 1963… “There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist — the taxidermist leaves the hide.” – Mortimer Caplan, Director Internal Revenue Service (via Time magazine)

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Alexander Wept

Posted on January 31, 2012 by Steven Spaulding

On this day in business history, 1990… Walmart simultaneously opens 36 new stores between Florida and Arizona. Walmart is now the world’s 18th largest public corporation, and the largest when ranked by revenue.  As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart is also the biggest private employer with over 2 …

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