Month: July 2012

this is the best ad copy you could come up with?

From the same ad agency who developed an ad for a florist with the tagline “Every rose has its thorn”…
buy low sell high
(Originally posted on Instagram.)

They’re also working on a campaign for a bakery using “That’s how the cookie crumbles.”

I hope this was a client influenced ad. If a professional advertising copywriter did this, they need to find new work.

signs 101

People and many businesses don’t know how to put a sign by the road.

This seems like a very basic skill to me. But now as more temporary event signage for summer events is put up and the political sign season beginning, I’m seeing many dumb placement of these signs. And it’s not just cheap banners and yard signs, there’s lots of permanent signage that is incorrectly oriented.

The basic problem is that some people feel the need to place the sign where they can see it from inside the business. This is a derivative of the major marketing sin many people commit which is “if I can’t see my marketing, then it doesn’t exist”. In signage, you need to appeal to the “traveling down the street” demographic, not the “inside the building” demographic.

These people place their signs parallel to the road so that someone travelling down the road would have to turn their head 90 degrees at the exact correct moment in order to read the sign.

The correct placement of most signage is perpendicular to the road so that people can read it for a longer time.

I have created an infographic below to help you see the error of your ways. Which placement is more readable?

how to put a sign by the road

auto DM means you’re a snake oil salesman

Don’t auto DM people when they follow you on Twitter. It’s dumb.

What flashes of brilliance do you get from these auto-DMs? Great stuff like:

Thanks for connecting! You can also visit me on Google+, LinkedIn, my Facebook Page, etc. via my blog at {redacted}.

Advice like:

PLEASE take a moment to make sure you are using a SECURE PASSWORD–using UPPER & lower case, numbers & a symbol. DON’T GET HACKED! Thx.

And the very deep:

Thanks for the follow- Just doing my part to share whats going on in my head!

“But they’re connecting with you on a personal level in the way that only a social media connection can do!!” say the “ninjas” and “gurus” who gave the idea to these people to do this.

No, they’re not. They’re old school broadcasting a generic message to the masses. Several of these auto-DMs were sent AFTER I sent that warning tweet which means they never visited me.

And lots of people think accounts who still do this are dumb…

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Before you sign up for any “system” dealing with social media, stop and ask yourself if the same thing could be done with a generic marketing medium. If it can, maybe it’s not a good candidate for social media. Stop auto-following people back, auto DMs, and otherwise automating what should be person-to-person communication channels.