Brand Central Station

BIGresearch just published a digest of their latest China Quarterly Panel (Q1 2009).  BIGresearch conducts regular consumer research in both China and the US and provides some interesting comparisons to consider.

The findings of this latest survey find that young Chinese (18-34 y.o.) hold many of the same opinions as their counterparts in the US.  The economy has been tough on them, too, with nearly half (47.3%) expressing their view that more layoffs are likely over the next six months and 22% of them contending that they are personally worse off than they were a year ago.

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The noise from social media can be deafening.  But businesses have to find a way to make sense out of the confusion or risk the consequences.

This week, Brand Central Station has been publishing a list of dozens of web sites and social media outlets your business should connect to – and if you do, you’ll soon have Inboxes full of interesting (but not always useful) information that demands your attention.

You need to aggregate all that media and the information that streams through it so you can make sense of it all and get back to the business at hand.

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In the last installment of our series on where your business should be connecting to the social web, we take a look at job sites.  After all, Web 2.0 is all about people – not technology.  And by finding the best people, you’ll position your company for growth and future success.

If you want to secure high-quality talent, you have to know where to look.

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Carol Davis, one of the innovators at FletcherKnight, has written an interesting piece on how women are taking a different approach to health and beauty.  It’s the new age of trial and experimentation for women.

Carol’s experience includes management stints at P&G, Bath and Body Works, the Lancaster Group and Kane, Bortree & Associates.

You’ll find her insights into the 50+ market after the jump.

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The Associated Press reports that Warner Brothers has announced its intentions to move up the opening of the next Harry Potter movie (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) to Wednesday, July 15 – two days earlier than its previous release date.

Rumors are also circulating that Paramount intends to break the new Star Trek movie on Thursday, May 7th at 7pm rather than holding out for a midnight premier in the wee hours of the 8th.

The moves are seen as last-minute positioning tactics to try and eek out extra box office dollars during the first weekend of what is shaping up to be a very hotly contested summer at the movie theater.  Unlike previous years, no “blockbuster” is expected to last more than two weeks at the top of the box office charts, although the premature release of the new Wolverine Origins movie (leaked to the Internet a few weeks ago) may help Trek’s second and third week draws.

For marketers, all of this increased churn in the movie theater will, in all likelihood, accelerate the “depreciation” of movie-related promotions in stores and online.

(Company press release)
After music industry vet Liza Lowenberg moved to the burbs and became a stay-at-home mom it was difficult to keep up with new releases.   She went from being “in the know” to surfing online to find out who sings what.  Realizing that there was a huge void in marketing towards stay-at-home, Miles Of Marketing was born.

Utilizing the “street team” concept with suburban moms put this realization to the test.

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Leveraging your business’ and employees’ experience via the Social Web is another strategy for increasing your brand’s online “footprint”.  In part four of our series of important social web sites your business should connect to, we provide a list of general, informational sites that in many cases serve as the “front line” of online research.

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As part of our week-long series of important social media sites for your business, today we’ll list a number of niche sites that will help you stay on top of important news and trends in a variety of areas.  These sites can be very important for small and mid-sized companies that don’t have the large training budgets or funds available to participate in industry events or conventions.

Although we only have eight niche sites listed below, we’re open to other suggestions as well.  Just email us and let us know.

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In the second part of our listing of important social media sites for businesses (especially yours), we’ll look at professional networking sites that can make a difference.  These sites are intended to help business people find colleagues, employees, employers and sales prospects.  

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Christopher Copywriter’s Blog has a handy post on the top social media sites businesses should consider when it comes to networking, promoting, learning and growing.  

When it comes to top social media/social bookmarking sites, you need to make sure your business has a presence in order to capitalize on the social web’s ability to share ideas and build concensus behind those ideas.  After establishing your “virtual beachhead” make sure you spend some time getting to know the territory and the “hot button issues” discussed in the community.  Once you’re up to speed, jump in and make a name for yourself, your company and your brand.

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Ragan.com just published a very user-friendly post about Twitter for those who are intimidated by it.

I’ve also been talking to some self-professed “Twitter experts” who have offered to answer your questions here at Brand Central Station, so if you have a Twitter question, send it to me and we’ll post the answers every Friday.

And don’t forget you can follow Brand Central Station on twitter by clicking our Twitter Feed in the right hand column and adding it to your RSS reader.

Keep on Tweetin’

Astroturfing is bad … and there are plenty of published floggings of PR firms guilty of “over-enthusiastic” shilling for clients.  Enough, in fact, that many PR folks are viewed with disdain by journalists and bloggers.

There’s no doubt that PR firms that plant good reviews on blogs, write letters to the editor in support of their clients, etc. – and don’t identify themselves as agents for their clients are stepping over an ethical line.  But what do you do when you find bloggers (and journalists) who offer to provide positive reviews and/or coverage at a price?

Danny Brown, social media maverick and PR guy, posted an example of this on his weblog yesterday and it deserves further review and comment.

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