Today we had the opportunity to attend the 2nd annual “AirTran Airways Big Fly Derby” hosted by Ryan Braun. The home run hitting contest was for Milwaukee media to benefit the YMCA of Metropolitan Milwaukee. The two-round slow-pitch softball derby was held at Helfaer Field right next to Miller Park today with Milwaukee Brewers announcer Davey Nelson pitching.
In case you haven't seen it yet, Google has changed the formatting of their image search. Personally, I like it a lot. The images load quickly and are very easy to see in the new layout. It is comparable to that of Bing, but the images aren't as spread out and the thumbnails seem to be larger. Also, you don't have to click to see the next page of images, simply keep scrolling and they're all there. Below are a couple examples of the new Google image search.
Everyday I get so many e-newsletters that I've created a script in mac mail to filter them right away out of my inbox and into a different folder (here's the blog post on how to filter mac mail). However, when these three email subscriptions below come into my inbox, I have to stop and read the headlines and see what they have to say. These are great sources of marketing information and tips/how-to's for any marketing professional looking to keep up with social media and marketing.
Here's four podcasts (video and audio) that I try to listen to each week through iTunes to keep up with everything going on with online marketing and the evolving digital landscape. Each one tends to stay with the formula of interviewing other marketers or experts in the marketing industry as well as discussing trends and case studies. If you have any other favorite podcasts please share and leave a comment below.
1. HubSpot TV - Inbound Marketing
Hosted by Karen Rubin & Mike Volpe.
Hubspot is a software development company that's product features Closed Loop Marketing, Social Media Monitoring, Lead Nurturing and Content Management System. HubSpot TV is their weekly video podcast covering all the inbound marketing news of the week. The show is hosted by Karen Rubin & Mike Volpe and many times involves a guest of the week (someone in the industry doing it right in terms of inbound marketing practices ). It's a live show and you can tweet in questions/comments during the show at #HubSpotTV . They also have all of the shows archived on the site.
http://www.hubspot.tv
2. Duct Tape Marketing Radio
Hosted by John Jantsch
John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has developed a small business marketing system and Authorized Coach Network and he is a marketing coach, social media publisher and author. The weekly podcast features interviews that provide information on small business marketing tips and resources. The podcast is mixed in with blog posts and can be found on the Duct Tape web site.
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/podcast.php
On a recent client project I had a Photoshop file that I had to transition to Flash for a banner ad. The Photoshop file had over 30 tiny layers that needed to be exported. Rather than do all this work manually I used a pre-built Script in Photoshop to create separate files from layers automatically. Go to File > Scripts > Export Layers to Files ...
How often do you come across a web page that is too cluttered, contains small type thats hard to read, or contains large blocks of type that are reversed out on a dark background? If this is as annoying to you as it is to me, you may want to check out the new Reader feature thats available in the Safari 5 web browser (for Mac and PC).
In the past year, I've been reading more and more about how companies are testing and using barcodes in offline marketing campaigns. You can add these QR codes or barcodes to anything where you can place an image, so you have an endless amount of ways to add them to your marketing material. I created this image to the right by using qrstuff.com. After scanning, it will take you directly to our Facebook page (give it a try!). This last week I've noticed mentions in two local publications that allow the reader to scan a barcode, or QR code, with their smartphone to receive some "bonus" information.
My daily fix of inbound marketing and social media usually starts with the Hubspot blog. Hubspot's latest blogpost about LinkedIn explains how they have a new Twitter app that you can add to your profile which gives a lot more integration with Twitter allowing you to respond to tweets as well as follow people within LinkedIn. The nice thing about this app is that you can now easily see which of your LinkedIn connections also have Twitter accounts. The new app also provides a link to create a complete private Twitter list of these connections.
For those LOST fans out there, you probably noticed the amount of TV ads that ran during the Season Finale. Admittedly, I was getting frustrated with the constant interruptions but I really enjoyed the ads that Target ran. (You can preview the TV Spots below.)
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