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Worst practices

Articles and advice about ineffective or potentially detrimental online marketing and media practices which should be avoided so as not to alienate customers or waste money.

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Apple Designer Regrets | Mobile "Crushes" Facebook? | IBM Distrusts Siri

Business Strategies: Apple designer 'winces' over some past product choices Campaigns of Note: LG Electronics USA Debuts 'Only LG' Ad Campaign Customer Experience: Three Myths abou  [...]

Mullen's "Talent Hub" | NHL Digital Power | POM Deceived | Google Buys Streamer | Facebook Buys Gifter

Agency News: Mullen Opening West Coast 'Talent Hub' Business Strategies: The NHL's Digital Power Play Campaigns of Note: Coca-Cola exec claims   [...]

Squatters Seize, Control Brand Names On Pinterest

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Top News: HP Awards PC Business | AmEx Brand Innovation | Groupon Reports Profit | Millennial Media Doesn't | Google Ads Trump Facebook | Social Brand Blunders

Ad Technology: Volvo Launches China's First RTB-based Advertising DoubleClick co-founder targets publishers with content-meets-commerce service Publishers   [...]

Top News: Y&R Falkland Flap | Best of CLIOs | MS E-Bookstore | Apple Gaming Dominates | NBC's Streaming Olympics

Campaigns of Note: Ad Steps Into Falklands Dispute; Y&R Condemns Local Office's Work CLIO Awards: Best of the 2012 Winners How Beer Companies   [...]

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Top News: Online Political Ads | Target Dumps Kindle | Hyperlocal Mobile Scale | LinkedIn Tops Conversions | Tumblr Ads | Amazon Web Shows

Business Buzz: 2012: Year of the Online Political Ad [INFOGRAPHIC] Business Strategies:  [...]

Top News: Anheuser-Busch Scolds UFC | Digital Future "Blight?" | Commissions for "Likes" | Vevo Original Shows

Ad Technology: Issuu: A Tool for Marketing, Not Just Magazines Greystripe® Introduces PC-to-Mobile Ad Targeting with ValueClick Audience Mapping Technolo  [...]

Black Consumer Market: Huge, Largely Untapped, Won Through Fair Representation

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Top News: Gannett Earnings Plummet | Olympic Sponsors "Greenwashing?" | Fortune 500 SoMe Infographic | P&G Glorifies Mothers

Ad Technology: CEO Moore On 24/7 Media: We’re A Tech Company, Not An Agency Sinclair Broadcast Group Expands Contract for Harris Corporation Media Software Solution ChaCha Partners With Adometry   [...]

Closing Bell: Netflix Chastises Comcast | ScoreBig Mimics Priceline | FCC Fines Google

Streaming Media: Netflix CEO Calls Out Comcast on Net Neutrality Business Strategies: ScoreBig Uses Priceline’s Model to Name Your Own Price for Live Events Privacy:   [...]

Mailchimp Incident Highlights Value of Clear Unsubscribe Option. This Lesson Extends to Mobile Too

Most--the vast majority—of email marketing recipients will eventually unsubscribe from a mailing list.  Specifically nine in 10 (91%) US email users have subscribed to a company’s email and later decided they don’t want to receive it, according to a report from Exact Target and CoTweet. The best way to handle these requests, as the following story will show, is to make the process as easy   [...]

BoA Shows How Not to Defend a Reputation Against a WikiLeak

WikiLeak has been promising to release information that will be very damaging to a large financial institution. The site has been coy about the name, but it is widely believed that Bank of America is the institution in question. The bank has said it doesn’t know what the leak could be – but apparently it is readying for some kind of bombshell by registering domain names that could possibly be used to criticize or make fun of it. In recent days it has taken "hundreds" of d  [...]

Overestimating the Wisdom of the Crowd

The Gap's attempt to launch a new logo was a failure – at least judging from the comments about it online. Within hours of its release, the retailer hinted on its own Facebook page it might be willing to scrap the two-year project in favor of a design submitted by the public. "We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we're thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we're asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we'd l  [...]

ReturnPath: Don't Ignore a Customer Who Ignores You

One mistake e-mail marketers make is to ignore customers who show no interest in their e-mails - and continue to send out messages with the same frequency, ReturnPath says. In a new study that follows up its 2008 survey of e-mail practices among e-commerce companies, ReturnPath found most retailers did exactly that - sending as many as 9 to 11 messages per month to inactive subscribers. None of the com  [...]

4 Surprising Things You Can't Trust Online

By now most people are aware of the obvious security pitfalls of the web: phishing attacks, identity theft and so on. Everything else, though - or so we would like to think - is okay. Not so, unfortunately. Consider the following surprisingly unsafe activities. Third Party Certificate Authorities Third-party encryption made the web safe to bank and conduct financial transactions. Now, though, a new problem is emerging: there are too many third-party "certificate authoritie  [...]

Will Apple Communicate Better With Its Customers? Its First Twitter Account Suggests It Wants To

Mistakes were made, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said - and not just by Apple. Thus began Apple's expected apology over the antenna reception problems that have been plaguing the iPhone 4. In a press conference held Friday morning, Jobs sought to portray the weakness in the iPhone 4's antenna as an issue that affects all mobile phones, the Los Angeles Times wrote. Also, he said, most iPhone users were not reportin  [...]

Industry Buzz & News: 6/17/10

Online Ad Market: Online news commands highest CPM. HP partners with Yahoo for targeted advertisements. Mobile search is   [...]

Local Search Attracts Fraud Too

Fraud is endemic for internet advertisers  - with perpetrators becoming ever more innovative. Local search advertising, now, is attracting its own breed of fraud - described as geo-listing hijackings b  [...]

Microsoft Takes Aim at Click Laundering with Two Lawsuits

Microsoft has filed two federal lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Seattle against perpetrators of what it is calling click laundering. The lawsuits were filed against Eric Ralls, president of a company called RedOrbit Inc. and several 'John Does' whom Microsoft hopes to identify as part of the legal process of discovery, according to TechFlash. Click fraud typically oc  [...]

Hotels Go On Offensive Against Negative Reviews

Hotels are taking a particularly aggressive stance against anonymous reviews found on such sites as Yelp or Trip Advisor by actively trying to connect the data dots to identify the author. Once the hotel has identifying information in hand it might thank the poster for the good review - perhaps with a gift basket. In the case of a negative review, it might send an email asking for either a reconsideration or a chance to readdress what was wrong with the person’s stay,   [...]

How Not to Run an Online Promotion

It is becoming more instructive to see how not to run a social media campaign than how to pull off a successful one. The latest object lesson comes from Dunkin’ Donuts, which was promoting its free iced coffee day -- “the kind of promotion that generally creates a lot of positive feedback in fans both online and off,” notes Inquisitr. Dunkin’ Donuts Facebook wall, however, was inundated with fans co  [...]

4 Reasons to Fire Your Digital Ad Agency

Not all digital ad agencies are as savvy on these strategies and technologies as they proclaim, according to the initial survey results of integrated marketing agencies by Andrew Ballenthin, president of Sol Solutions. Ballenthin recently conducted a sample review of integrated marketing agencies to see where they were at in their own application of  [...]

Solving Hotmail-Firefox Email Issues

More than half of major online retailers have not correctly coded their emails to avoid a common rendering problem with Hotmail displayed in the Firefox browser, according to a recent white paper [pdf] from Smith-Harmon. However, the problem can be resolved with simple coding. Because email clients support different CSS and HTML coding, ensuring that promotional emails render c  [...]

Publications Rethink Anonymous Comments. Should Your Site?

The Washington Post, New York Times and several other papers are rethinking policies that allow online commenters to remain anonymous, according to a report in the New York Times. The Washington Post, for example, is considering giving greater weight to comments that are signed. The Huffington Post is another example; that site is expected to announce changes that rank commenters based on how well other r  [...]

Don't Be Afraid of Negative Reviews

The occasional negative review on online review sites, such as Yelp or TripAdvisor, is nothing to fear, according to a report by Forrester Research, which recently studied the issue. In its report, Forrester evaluated 4,000 reviews in the Electronics and Home & Garden categories on the Amazon.com site and found that more than 80% of the reviews were positive - and the negative reviews   [...]