UPDATE: A marketing mob business has been created for this thread.



I've considered submitting this as an idea, because I think it's a powerful concept as an idea too, but I think it applies so well to the CH model that I'll just mention it here in the forums and see where it goes from there.



CH needs to put together a marketing "mob." Essentially it's a group of the CH community that has any sort of marketing skill or asset. CH could then send out a message to this group about important events happening in CH or its branches. This message would then be promoted by the marketing "mob."



Some of the medium(to name a few) that this mob could use are:



Blog Posts/Advertising

Forum Posts/Advertising

Email Lists

Other webpage advertising

Digg

YouTube Views

Craigs List (kind of like a forum)



By having a crowd of people doing the above things then it dramatically increases CH's ability to market projects. The key is that if a mob of CH community members each do one of these things then the cumulative affect could be pretty profound. Not to mention the long term search engine effect that could come from this.



Key 1: Announcements should be sent, but the marketing mob should be able to choose which things to support and which things to not support (especially in the case of digg)



Key 2: There needs to be some sort of financial incentive for those people that help promote CH's product line. One idea is for each contribution to give out marketing points (MPs?) that can be traded in for RPs.

By adding this financial incentive then you'll attract a group of marketers to CH who wouldn't be interested in CH otherwise.



Key 3: Marketers should be allowed to share their true feelings about what's going on. Even if someone writes negative about a CH product, then CH is receiving a valuable source of feedback that can be used by CH to improve their product lines. Plus, there is always the saying, Any publicity is good publicity. In most cases I think people participating in this "mob" will be professionals and at worst case will give constructive criticism. Someone who's angry and hateful about CH will post that information regardless of whether they're part of the "mob" or not.



My personal take on this idea: I know that I have a number of blogs, forums, email lists, websites that I wouldn't mind using to promote CH's product lines. However, I'm interested in:

-A more uniform marketing effort

-Financial reward for those efforts



Imagine that RobinHood Fund wanted to promote the fact that their giving out $20,000. In one quick email, a mob of marketers is notified resulting in the following:

-100 Blog posts are created with some choice keywords

-The announcement goes to the top of Digg

-Ads and links are placed on websites

-Forum posts or forum signatures are changed to promote the product

-Email lists receive a link

-A YouTube video becomes the most watched video on YouTube



You just created huge value for CH's branches and gave value to all those bloggers, website owners, etc who didn't have any way to glean value from these assets before.



Yes, not everyone's blog post, etc is worth the same value. I think you'd start with a base value for each item and then increased the reward according to how much traffic was generated from a certain promotion. Better get your stats skills on.

Posted: December 19, 2006, 4:14 pm

You've got it, man. We've been bouncing around the idea of crowdsourcing marketing, advertising and even sales. I'm not completely keen on all your ideas, but the thrust of it is great. No need to create a new point system - just assign x amount of royalty points for various marketing/promotion/sales tasks.

Thanks for being part of the Thinking About The Future And How It's All Going To Work Team

Posted: December 20, 2006, 6:20 pm

I particularly like this idea (for obvious reasons).

Posted: December 21, 2006, 12:44 am

I'm digging this idea, Tech Guy.

Posted: December 21, 2006, 6:45 am

Love it! People promoting something they believe in and can explain and stand behind!

Posted: December 22, 2006, 10:53 am

On August 3, 2006, 6:00 pm Hal said:

test

This is a reply from Rob to a message from Hal.

Posted: January 26, 2007, 7:39 pm

On January 26, 2007, 8:39 pm mdub said:

Sounds like spam.

I'm not sure why you think this is spam. I don't think this is like Spam at all. For that matter, it should be built in a way that you don't have to receive it in your email if you want. You could just visit the Marketing Mob website and pick and choose which things you'd like to market.

I would just rather have instant notification of marketing promotion opportunities in my email.

Posted: January 27, 2007, 9:01 am

I think he meant that the marketing mob might be seen as spammy. The word "mob" doesn't help perceptions there. You don't want people just joining forums shouting about some CH event.

Posted: January 27, 2007, 11:34 am

Yeah, as a test, try one of your posts in Craigs List. If it even sniffs of commercialism, you can expect serious flames headed your way. Blanketing blogs and message boards to push a product is borderline spam.

Posted: January 27, 2007, 4:41 pm

On January 27, 2007, 5:41 pm mdub said:

Yeah, as a test, try one of your posts in Craigs List. If it even sniffs of commercialism, you can expect serious flames headed your way. Blanketing blogs and message boards to push a product is borderline spam.

Everyone has to decide what they think is appropriate. I am a member of a number of forums. There are appropriate ways for me to post to the forum. Not every product will get posted, but certain products apply to the forum I'm in. This is the principle. It's a good point you make. There would need to be some quality policies and culture created around what's appropriate.

Posted: January 27, 2007, 6:15 pm

The marketing mob idea doesn't have to even come close to spam. In fact email and forum posts are far from the best ways to get a product promoted.

E.g. - I'm a lead for x product. I'm offering 5 RP for someone to write a compelling press release (or multimedia presentation) and to come up with a list of at least 40 blogs or review websites that are relevant to our product including the contact methods prescribed by each. After the mailer has been approved the marketer is also in charge of sending it to the contact list. Additionally, I'll give 1/2 RP for every site on the list that mentions our product or calls for an interview etc.

And, I'm still a huge cheerleader of Jams idea "youAdvertise," which could offer all kinds of interesting solutions to advertising. Check it out here

Posted: January 28, 2007, 2:56 pm

Reading this thread i am encouraged to make this remark:

I think one has to be careful not to constrain creative thought by confining the thought process by the measurement of the status quo or the premature labeling of a new thought or idea on its similarity to the worst extrapolation of what it could be.

If you want to discover something new, you have to push the envelope, pushing the envelope breaks new ground and a new discovery is made.

This thread is a good example of just that... from a need to improve the status quo, an idea is spawned, discussed, finessed and a potential new discovery is made.

Every meaningful breakthrough in history has invariably come from thought that goes against the grain of established opinion and norms, often represented in the form of professional bodies or experts... to hell with established opinion... we are in the forums of CH to find NEW ways of doing things and i hope we don't ever suppress our creative thought by fear of upsetting the established norms... if something is borderline it doesn't mean it is bad it just means you are stretching the envelope... and that is what we are here to do.

There is a need to change the way marketing is done and crowdsourced marketing is something that could well assist the smaller business that does not have the luxury of huge amounts of advertising dollars that maintain the established corporate business in their privileged positions.

Posted: January 28, 2007, 5:39 pm

Great points. I have learned something and have amended my opinion. There might be something to this crowdsourced marketing as long as it is done responsibly.

Posted: January 28, 2007, 7:10 pm

Good Idea Techguy

But I think you are thinking to individually... We are stronger as a group! if we all made ONE large marketing campaign say for CH, we would be able to use everyone strengths and creative ideas to make an amazing ad campaign, then send it to all the news media, forms, youtube ext

Posted: March 2, 2007, 12:32 pm

I like your thinking GL!

Posted: March 22, 2007, 3:28 pm

Techguy I love the idea...really think that it will work out well...I do think that GL has a great point about being more focused as a team

Posted: April 19, 2007, 12:56 pm