Consumer spending is up

Well this is good news. The CEA reports that consumer confidence is up for the month of August.

"Consumers are feeling more confident of an economic recovery as the recession comes to an end," said Shawn DuBravac, CEA's economist and research director, in a statement. "In particular, consumers are feeling more optimistic about the broader economy, their own financial wellbeing and importantly, are feeling more secure in their own jobs. Improved confidence in job security should buoy purchase decisions moving forward."

Finally....some good news.

U.S. Department of State wants help with social media

Well, this would seem to be where a lot of PR is headed. The U.S. Department of State has posted a presolicitation looking for a public relations firm with expertise in social media. This is an excellent opportunity for one of the younger firms to grab a big account.

It's my experience that many of the older firms with the ginormous accounts just haven't been able to excel in Web 2.0. Not that they can't do it, it's just not their thing.

Good to see that some of the big money could be looking towards a smaller, more nimble firm.

Stupid marketing advice

I post stuff from Entrepreneur.com on here all the time. Sometimes they have some insightful advice on marketing. Other times, like this time, it's just crap that they put up so it looks like new content. It technically is new content, but if you need this kind of advice, then you shouldn't be in any kind of business. Ever.

Kim Gordon says if you know the answers to these three questions, your product will sell itself.

1. Exactly who will want to buy this product and why?
2. How much are they willing to pay?
3. What will it take to convince prospects to buy from you instead of anyone else?

Well, no duh. If you didn't think of this before you decided to start a business or bring a product to market, then I don't know what to tell you. Maybe try your hand at being a professional poker player or something.

Careful what "advice" you read online.

Sex offenders banned from social networking sites?

In Illinois, Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill into law that will ban registered sex offenders from using social media. Sounds great on paper, who wouldn't want to prevent these losers from going after more people?

Well, the problem is in the details. As always. When you started getting into this stuff, you have to look at the fact that some states consider urinating in public a sex offense. You shouldn't be allowed to use Facebook if you got drunk one night and took a piss outside a bar? Pretty stupid.

And legislation like this might not even let you log onto the NY Times website. They allow you to set up a profile, so that could be considered social media. You can see how this could get ridiculous.

And who would police this? Who would be in charge of scouring the seemingly infinite amount of pages and profiles to make sure no one was violating the law?

Once again, this is a case of the government's heart being in the right place, but coming up with a lousy answer with lousy execution.

Facebook acquires Friendfeed

Breaking news on this one. Facebook has acquired Friendfeed, the online activity aggregator. The four founders of Friendfeed will remain in place in a senior role, while all Friendfeed employees are now Facebook employees.

From the press release:

Facebook Agrees to Acquire Sharing Service FriendFeed

Facebook today announced that it has agreed to acquire FriendFeed, the innovative service for sharing online. As part of the agreement, all FriendFeed employees will join Facebook and FriendFeed’s four founders will hold senior roles on Facebook’s engineering and product teams.

“Facebook and FriendFeed share a common vision of giving people tools to share and connect with their friends,” said Bret Taylor, a FriendFeed co-founder and, previously, the group product manager who launched Google Maps (Google Maps). “We can’t wait to join the team and bring many of the innovations we’ve developed at FriendFeed to Facebook’s 250 million users around the world.”

“As we spent time with Mark and his leadership team, we were impressed by the open, creative culture they’ve built and their desire to have us contribute to it,” said Paul Buchheit, another FriendFeed co-founder. Buchheit, the Google (Google) engineer behind Gmail (Gmail) and the originator of Google’s “Don’t be evil” motto, added, “It was immediately obvious to us how passionate Facebook’s engineers are about creating simple, ground-breaking ways for people to share, and we are extremely excited to join such a like-minded group.”

Taylor and Buchheit founded FriendFeed along with Jim Norris and Sanjeev Singh in October 2007 after all four played key roles at Google for products like Gmail and Google Maps. At FriendFeed, they’ve brought together a world-class team of engineers and designers.

“Since I first tried FriendFeed, I’ve admired their team for creating such a simple and elegant service for people to share information,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. “As this shows, our culture continues to make Facebook a place where the best engineers come to build things quickly that lots of people will use.”

FriendFeed is based in Mountain View, Calif. and has 12 employees. FriendFeed.com will continue to operate normally for the time being as the teams determine the longer term plans for the product.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not released.

Five marketing copy tips to avoid

Entrepreneur.com offers five things to avoid when you write your marketing copy. We agree wholeheartedly with the idea that people want to hear about you and your company. They don't.

1. Consumers care about me and my business
No, they don't. They care about what's in it for them if they pull out their wallets and hand over their hard-earned money to buy your product or service. They don't care that you've been a member of the local Chamber of Commerce for 20 years, and they don't care how cute your kids are (so leave them out of your commercials, please). Consumers care about having their needs and wants fulfilled. The goal of copywriting is to convince consumers that the product or service you're selling will meet their needs and desires, even if you have to create perceived needs and desires for them. In other words, your copy must focus on the benefits consumers will receive if they buy your product or service. It's great that your business has operated from the same location for 10 years, but for the most part, consumers only truly care about what your business can do for them and how your business can make their lives easier or better. Those are the messages your copy should focus on in order to drive results.

2. I can use the same copy everywhere
No, you shouldn't. Your copy should change depending on the medium where you're using it. For example, if you're writing copy for an outdoor billboard that consumers are likely to have only seconds to view while driving 65 miles per hour on a busy highway during rush hour, your message must be short and to the point with no room for confusion. However, if you're writing copy for a direct-mail piece that will be sent to customers who have requested to receive information about your business, your copy should be far more detailed with messages that explain, answer questions, and create a sense of urgency to boost response rates.

3. I can use the same copy for everyone
No, that's not a good idea. Different audiences will respond to different messages depending on their demographics, behaviors, experiences and so on. For example, if you're writing copy for a direct-mail piece that will be sent to prior customers, your messages should be very different from those that would appear in a mailing to prospects. One audience is already very familiar with your products and services, while the other has no prior experience to draw from. Clearly, the messages to both audiences must be different to achieve the maximum response rates possible.

4. I need to sound smart in my copy
Not always. The language and tone of your copy should speak directly to the people who are likely to see it. For example, if you're writing copy for teenagers, your copy should be quite different from copy targeted at senior citizens. Consider McDonald's, which goes so far as to change references to its brand name depending on the audience. Turn on MTV and you're sure to see a McDonald's commercial referencing the fast food chain as "Mickey D's". It's also important to omit jargon unless your copy is intended for an audience that will understand and expect it. For example, a business-to-business ad might be an appropriate place for jargon. Again, it always depends on the target audience that you ultimately want to respond to your marketing message.

5. It's easy to write copy
Never. Writing marketing copy is like no other form of writing. It defies many of the rules you may have learned in English class, and it relies more on subtle persuasion, psychology, creativity and an understanding of your specific business and consumers than any other type of writing. Not all writers are good copywriters, and not all copywriters are good writers. If you decide to write your own copy, study the craft prior to putting pen to paper. And if you decide to hire a copywriter to help you, remember that not all copywriters are the same. Only invest in a copywriter who has experience and takes the time to understand your business and your customers.

What car dealers really want to say

This is not remotely safe for work. But if you work out of the home, then fire this puppy up. Definitely foul language, but this is great. This is what car dealers really should say in their commercials.