David Coleman

I was going through Google Analytics and I noticed this interview, which was originally published on the PlayItLoud Music blog in late 2011, had popped up again as a traffic source. I started to read through it and while it’s certainly a long read, there is a lot that I feel like could still help […]

Neil Young hates MP3s. He thinks the songs on your iPhone sound like crap. So he started a crusade to bring the “feeling” back into music. Literally. He wants you to hear everything, just as it was recorded. So, he created Pono, a high-end digital audio system. Within hours of opening the doors on his […] …read more

The music industry has undergone a sea of changes since the days of vinyl records and cassette tapes. While the current mobile downloading setup offers plenty of convenience for the average consumer, it can spell financial ruin for musicians and producers dependent on record sales. After all, illegal downloads still eat into profits, with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) reporting that piracy caused music industry profits to fall from $15 billion in 1999 to just $8.5 billion in 2009. In order to survive in this environment of piracy, musicians must think outside of the box, taking advantage of social media, mobile technology, merchandising and, of course, live performances. Together, these elements can spell great profit, even in an age of iTunes and illegal downloading.

Offer VIP Packages for Concerts

Critics of social media may complain of young people wasting their lives behind computer screens, but the truth is, music fans still love attending live shows. You still can profit handsomely off of traditional concerts, but if you’re looking to amp up returns on your tour, consider throwing in VIP concert options. These could include special meet-and-greets before or after shows, or even private performances for your most dedicated fans. Many …read more

Now, it will be the marketers and their brands that move onward and upward from the obvious conversations in social media into a deep understanding of silent conversations and contexts that will distinguish themselves from the rest.

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YouTube is the place to go for the biggest, loudest, flashiest viral content. Without YouTube to host fail compilations, cats playing piano and the Numa Numa guy, we might not even have a concept of a viral video. But we can now see the man behind the green curtain, the cat’s out of the bag, and the cat is showing us how our sausage is made. Apparently, YouTube has been crafting our viral experiences this whole time.

YouTube admits that the so-called ‘viral video’ is all an illusion created to push the ideas of a narrow set of writers and videomakers onto the video consuming masses. “Since 2005 YouTube has been behind the scenes of all your favourite video trends, meticulously crafting every single moment of every viral video EVER,” today’s video from YouTube Spotlight states.

And what’s more, now that we’re through the looking glass, YouTube has decided to show us what’s in store for 2014. First we have “clocking,” the latest offering from Per De Graff, the inventor of “planking.” This European intellectual talks at length about his work on planking being about space, so clocking is his progression …read more

Picture this. It’s April 1st, 2004 — April Fool’s day. Google launches a press release announcing their new vertical: Gmail. In the press release the Google founders state that search is actually the number two online activity to email and that they’ll offer users a full gig…

Please visit Marketing Land for the full article.

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When Twitter updated its now eight-year-old social network with a couple of tweet-extending features Thursday, it also laid the groundwork for an explosion of tweet creativity. Following in the footsteps of ASCII art, users now have the ability to post up to four photos in one post. Twitter calls this a “Photo Collage.” We call it wicked fun.

But how do you make a collage, and then once you know how, what collages are best? Consider this your step-by-step guide to an eye-popping collage masterpiece (or at least something that makes your friends laugh).

First, you need to make sure you have the latest version of Twitter for iPhone: That would be 6.3. Sorry, there’s no support on Android or Twitter.com for now. …

More about Twitter, Iphone, How To, Social Media, and Photography …read more

Today content is at the center of the digital experience. As marketers, you rely on it to drive awareness, build communities, and increase sales. Without content, there’d be no tweets, status updates, blogs, videos, or pins — all of which can help achieve one or more of those goals. So you can see why it’s very important to understand how your content affects engagement on social networks.

This week, Google made a small but noteworthy update to Google+ with your content in mind. Now every Google+ Profile and Page includes the total number of times that the account’s content has been seen by others. The number, which is displayed near the follower count, is the sum of your page, post, and photo views since October 2012. While this number doesn’t go into detail about your content’s performance, it’s an important metric nonetheless.

The update couldn’t have come at a better time. Google+ recently changed the way link posts are displayed in the stream, putting them front and center which will undoubtedly capture more attention. This was a major upgrade for content sites, which make up 29 percent of the top pages on the network. Additionally, a new study found …read more

Upworthy, the content-sharing startup whose penchant for hyperbolic headlines has generated its own parody websites, is laying out its plans for a new ad program called Upworthy Collaborations. When the company raised an $8 million Series A last fall, executives said they wanted to make money through sponsored content. However, they revealed more details about those plans (and who’s actually… Read More …read more

Houston, we have a problem. The problem is one of plenty. In fact, we have too much. Too many things to choose from. We have too many channels and networks. Too many opportunities to communicate with our customer. Too many places in which to put our messages. We’ve all seen the graphic that illustrates the mind-blowing number of social media marketing channels. If you add in all of the digital platforms as well, it is enough to make you run screaming from the room.

And when we have so many options one of (at least) two things will occur. We will either become paralyzed from all the options and stand there like we do in the cereal aisle, or we will race and cut corners. Either option is ill advised.

The Paralysis of Abundance

When we have many, many choices, it is easy to become paralyzed and not know where to start. It makes me feel like the end of the book The Cat in the Hat. The social mess is so big and so deep and so tall, there is no way to fix it, no way at all! So, we do nothing but stare at the pile hoping for a solution. …read more

If you’re a frequent Google Drive user, you may have noticed they recently launched add-ons for Google Docs and Sheets. You may have also noticed a familiar logo in the add-ons store.

Merge lets you send to a small list of emails directly from Google Docs and Sheets. It’s built and supported by MailChimp, but you don’t have to have a MailChimp account to use it. That’s right, we built a whole new app just for Google Docs and Sheets users.

Merge is a great option for book clubs, little leagues, neighborhood groups, PTAs—anyone who needs to send simple emails to lists of up to 1000 email addresses. In fact, this is exactly the type of Gmail user that Google was hoping to help when they approached us. They asked if we could build an add-on that would make it easy for a Google Drive user to create and send personalized email right from a Google Doc.

With Merge, you can pair your Google Doc to a Google Sheet that contains email addresses and data fields for the people you want to contact.

Then, you can merge in personalized content—first name, last name, address, etc.—from your Google Sheet.

When you hit …read more

This guest post was contributed by Conor McClure (@conorjmcclure), one of our rockstar interns this spring. He hails from North Carolina, where he’s finishing up a degree in music business at Appalachian State University. When he’s not promoting Cyber PR artists 40 hours / week, he blogs at his personal website conormcclure.net, is an avid photographer, and is obsessed with all things digital.Hi everyone! Conor here. First, a bit about myself. I came to Cyber PR from Appalachian State University down in North Carolina, where I am in the final phases of completing my undergraduate B.S. in Music Industry Studies. The degree program, a sort of hybrid music business degree based in the Hayes School of Music, is a nationwide leader, producing graduates who have mastered Grammy-nominated singles and produced blockbuster films. My own passions lie in the digital realm of marketing, so applying to intern at Cyber PR was a no-brainer. I was ecstatic when I received the good news.My first day in the office was January 6, and I’m finishing up here in about two weeks. I think now’s a great time to talk about some things I’ve learned while here—mainly, what to expect out of an internship, …read more

Free Space Optic lasers? Low earth orbit satellites? Solar-powered drones? Mark Zuckerberg has just penned a deep dive on how Facebook’s newly revealed methods for delivering Internet to the developing world actually work. Here’s are the highlights from his 3000 word progress report on Internet.org, including digs at Google’s Project Loon, and how it all fits into Facebook’s long-term plan. Read More …read more

Will retweets soon be rebranded as “shares” on Twitter? For some, that has already happened, as the change in terminology began rolling out for some mobile users this week.

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Google Hangouts are an invaluably useful tool.
We’ve made mention of this before.
And if you’ve been listening to the New Rainmaker podcast, then you recently heard Brian and Robert discuss the concept of repurposing content — using the same content in multiple ways.
In this episode of The Lede, Demian and I put the usefulness and versatility of Google Hangouts on display and demonstrate how Hangouts can be used as part of a repurposing strategy.
Here’s how …
The incredible, embeddable Hangout
In less than an hour’s time, we created a piece of content that:
Could have been broadcast live to our audience
Can now be embedded anywhere, in perpetuity
Was fairly easy to convert into a podcast
Was turned into text content as a transcript
And all of that is on display right here in this post.
Oh, and the custom nameplates you see and the sound effects you hear? All built right into Hangouts.
See what I mean? Invaluably useful.
So what’s so interesting about this Hangout?
We are calling this Hangout showcase the “Hangout Hot Seat” … and the first* episode features none other than the Frank Underwood of Copyblogger.
Yes, Brian Clark.
In this episode, Brian answers the following questions:
What does “Media, not marketing” mean?
Is Google-Plus still an essential tool for …read more

There’s no denying it. You cannot consider yourself a great ad person unless you know your numbers. At SME Digital (the agency arm of Social Media Explorer), we’re all about garnering results that are measurable. After all, you aren’t an effective marketer if you aren’t tracking the numbers. Even more, you aren’t a top-notch marketer if you’re not tracking the one metric that matters above all others: Cost per Acquisition (CPA).
Now don’t get me wrong, all those other metrics are important too. Metrics like:
Click-Thru-Rate
Cost per Click
Cost per Conversion
Just to name a few.
But, while these metrics are important to any well run campaign. They don’t hold a candle to the Holy Grail of marketing metrics: Cost per Acquisition. In other words, how much do I have to spend in marketing dollars to get a paying customer?
So why is Cost per Acquisition so important? Simple, it’s the quintessential metric for determining true return on investment. It doesn’t matter how many clicks or eyeballs a campaign receives, if it’s not generating revenue, it’s not successful.
Case in point, I was working for an agency charged with managing a company’s PPC account. My team’s ads were performing well above average (on paper). Through …read more

One of the things we discuss a lot around here are “triggers”; Psychological buttons that motivate people to get off the fence and take action. There are many different triggers one can employ in their marketing but without a doubt the most powerful trigger there is, is scarcity. When we can’t have something we want […] …read more