To be really honest, I’m really bored with this blog.  It’s just too broad to really be interesting.  I dabble in various marketing topic, I talk about my lousy tennis game and I list some links from my Delicious page.  Let’s face it, there are a lot of other people out there doing the same thing (minus the tennis) and they do a much better job with it.

So I am turning my attention to a new blog: mountrushmoreof.com

What is it?  mountrushmoreof.com is a blog dedicated to debating the most influential people (within a certain topic) of all-time.  For example, my first post is my Mount Rushmore of Baseball: Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson and Ted Williams.

This will work best if people participate and debate the topic - so jump over there and tell me my opinion is shit.  Just remember to tell me what your Mount Rushmore is and WHY.

I’m not going to shut this blog down, but I think I’m going to enjoy posting on this one and of course, The Turkey Sandwich Report alot more.

Targeting has been a big topic with me at work lately.  It can be pretty daunting to work on a brand with small budget and a lot of geography and a lot of consumers to cover.

Lately, I have been using the Facebook Ad application to illustrate how the numbers get smaller as the parameters get more focused.  I don’t buy ads on Facebook, but this exercise reduces the size of our universe and makes it a little easier to visualize how we should be trying to reach the right consumers.

Everyone knows the music business has changed.  Casual fans don’t buy records any more - they copy them.  Only the true fans buy records/CD’s/whatever.

The problem is that no one knows how to fix the music business, but it seems like Weezer might be on to something:  They’re actually treating their band like a brand and trying to build loyalty.

As Weezer promotes their new record this year, they are inviting their fans to come out for a Hootenanny in cities around the country.  I love this idea because it is interaction at it’s best. While other bands are out there worried if the free-range Sea Bass they listed on their rider will be in their green room before the show,  Weezer is out there interacting with their fans and stimulating conversation and interest in their new record.  They’re building loyal fans thru the power of conversation.  Consequently, the people who are lucky enough to pariticpate in these Hootenannies will become band/brand ambassadors and help them sell more records.

The Hootenannies are announced on their website via this video where they actually teach viewers how to play the songs that will be played.

Here is a video from their Hootenanny from Portland, OR where they play Radiohead’s “Creep” with 200 local musicians.  Beautiful.

I can admit when I am at fault and someone calls my ass out.  In fact, encourage it.  In my blog post yesterday, entitled “Selling Power” Gerhard Gschwandtner, the founder of Selling Power Magazine called my ass out.  He left a comment here.

And he’s right, I am guilty of judging a book (in this case, a magazine) by it’s cover.  So, I’m going to take the “Selling Power Challenge and actually read it.  Then, I will give my full and honest critique of the publication on this blog.

What do you think, Gerhard?

A guy I used to work with used to say something really funny (but true) about advertising sales people.  He said:

“THEY’RE NOT YOUR FRIENDS!”

He said this because in this particular company, the sales people were somewhat empowered to make media buys.  And when these sales people would come to us (the Marketing Dept.) with a media buy, they would say, “My friend is a rep at this radio station and she’s giving me a great deal” or “My buddy sells billboard space and he’s cutting us a special rate”.

He coined this phrase because he had to literally convince our people that they really were not friends with the reps.  The reps were just selling them.

I’m not sure if I need to go as far as saying that you can’t be friends with them, but I do know this: If ad reps sincerely cared about your business:

• They would check in with you on a quarterly basis to see how your brand is performing and not just when it’s time to re-up the contract.
• They would report the growth or other positive news of the medium they’re selling throughout the year - and not just when you’re up for renewal.
• They would bring opportunities to the table that are good for the brand and not just for their bonus check.

As always, there are some exceptions to the rule but for the most part, THEY’RE NOT YOUR BUSINESS PARTNERS.

Selling Power!, originally uploaded by nealdstewart.

I forget who it was, but some smart guy gave some advice on their blog and it said something like, “read trade magazines you’re not familiar with.”

Ok, so doing the most boring stuff known to man makes you smarter? Eff that.

This has to be one of the most boring magazines ever: Selling Power. And they are trying to charge $5 on the news stand.

In case you’re wondering, here’s who is advertising in Selling Power: Applebee’s Best Buy, Circuit City and Home Depot - for their gift cards - and a bunch of software and headhunters with incredibly bad ads.

Clint Bowyer being interviewed by ESPN before the race, originally uploaded by C.Fredrickson Photography.

Do you ever watch NASCAR? Probably not. I do and it’s really annoying how the drivers work in their sponsor’s name during every interview they get. Does this actually sell any beer, paint, tools, whiskey, candy, tampons or whatever else they have painted on the car?

I get the whole painting the logo on the car. That makes sense. But weaseling the sponsors name in to an interview? Makes no sense.

And if it does work, why don’t golfers work their sponsors name into the interviews? Probably because their sponsors realize it doesn’t mean jack shit to selling more golf clubs, shoes, cars or boner pills.

Three words: Out of shape.  I lost 6-4, 6-4 after being up 4-3 in both sets.  This guy just got too many balls back and wore me down.  I guess it might be time to think about improving my diet and activating some kind of exercise regime.

Or take up Bingo.

I have 20 Evernote Invitations. If you want one, email me: nealdstewart (at) yahoo dot com.I’m not totally sold on Evernote quite yet, but I’m giving it a try. So far, it feels like a delicious/flickr combo

I get a kick out of trying new web 2.0 apps.  I just like to see how they work and if they can be integrated into blogs or marketing.  But just like anything else, with the good, comes the bad.  Here’s what I’m into and what I’m not.

Apps I like:

Blogging: I like blogging.  It keeps my writing an observational skills somewhat sharp. I prefer WordPress and Blogger.  i tried Typepad, Vox and a few others and just couldn’t get into it.

Flickr: I really dig Flickr and I actually should spend more time on it.  I like taking pictures and I like dropping them into my blogs.  Works for me.

Twitter: Yeah, I like Twitter.  At first I thought it was a petty site for Tweens, but it turned out to be a petty site for internet geeks.

Britekite: I’m actually digging Britekite.  Maybe it’s because I like to keep track of where I travel, but for whatever reason, I can see myself getting into this one.

Delicious: This one took me a while, but I dig it now.  Once I figured out how to integrate it with my blog and post the links as a blog post, I liked it a lot more.

Facebook/LinkedIn; I’m not “gaga” for either of these.  I’m actually pretty bored with Facebook.  Really, how much time can you spend on there?

Video: YouTube pretty much has everything, but I prefer Vimeo.  Viddler seems to be gaining some steam too, so I might check that out.

The ones I have no use for:

Seesmic: What’s the point?  Little bite-sized conversations?  I don’t know, I just think Twitter is good enough for that.  If someone could explain this to me, I might try it out.  I didn’t get Twitter at first either. so maybe there’s something here?

Tumblr: I guess it’s nice to bring all of the different apps and websites together, but other than that, I don’t get it.  I have a tumblr page, but I never look at it.  And Ustream creeps me out.

Squidoo: I really gave this one a good shot, but it got really boring really fast.  There’s just too much crap to cut thru since pretty much everyone that is on there is trying to make a buck.

Dopplr: Hmm…seems like a convulted version of Britekite.  And I’m not important enought for people to be tracking where my travel plans are taking me.

Homepages: Google, Netvibes, Netscape, etc.  I tried to use these, but I just don’t see the point.  I prefer Bloglines (although it seems like there would be a better way to organize the information) and looking thru the news at my own pace.  Call me old-fashioned.

What’s on your Web 2.0 good and bad list?