Top 25 Marketing Blogs
The Viral publishes a Top 25 Marketing Blogs list every week. A browse through the last few lists, or via Technorati, shows that Seth Godin’s blog has been at the top for some time. I’m not 100% sure but I think the positions are being based on Alexa ranking. Hugh Macleod’s wonderfully entertaining (potentially NSFW) Gaping Void blog/ cartoons is #4 on the list, which might be initially surprising for a cartoon. On the other hand, he is a marketing strategist and the cartoon’s blog widget has made him go viral (marketing-wise, that is).
Fired For Blogging
Some employers just don’t get new media. Which is fine. What’s not fine is when they fire someone for blogging on their own time, with nary a mention of the company. That’s what happened [via Micro Persuasion] to Drew Townson, an experienced audio engineer and producer working for a company called Mercenary Audio. Part of the problem is that after Townson posted a pic of his new baby son, employees passed around a copy, which the boss saw, causing him to fire Townson by voicemail.
Nice, very nice. If you’re a blogger and aren’t up to defending yourself in court, check with your employer. Especially in those states that have weak labor laws and where your employer can fire you without cause. (Georgia comes to mind.) And you bloggers for hire might just want to keep this company on your list of clients never to accept.
Control Your Company’s Conversations
It may not be easy to stop people from creating domain names with your trademark, especially negative names, but you can buy them up and shut them down. Tate & Lyle, the company that makes the sugar substitute Splenda (aka sucralose), bought [Sustainable is Good] hundreds of negative domain names with the word “splenda” in them. Johnson & Johnson, a co-developer of the product, also bought up a number of negative domains.
I tried some of the examples listed in the Sustainable is Good article and they produce no web page – no host parking page, no redirect. So the two companies have rendered the domain names useless.
Is this something other companies should consider? One could speculate that domain squatters might then create negative domain names with trademarks not for political reasons but purely in hopes of reselling, even if through a third party. I can’t answer that question, but if it’s something you want to do for your company/ clients, the Sustainable article lists two strategies: reactive domain purchasing and forecasting.
Originally posted on March 17, 2007 @ 2:15 pm
You may want to check out Mercenary’s response to the “fired for blogging” incident on John Cass’ blog. It sheds additional light on the situation and suggests at the least it may not be the cut and dried outrage it first appeared to be. link here
They can spin it any way they want, but Mercenary Audio is run by a bunch of scumbags. Their response is nothing but a careful crafted load of BS.