My colleagues and friends Arto and Dan have been talking about their very own PESH model (participant, enabler, supplier, helper) which helps brands map their usage, presence and possible/required measurements in their social media activities.

If you do social media marketing, it would definitely help you out to check those two posts.  Definitely helps to get your ideas in order, as any good model should.

Came accross this jewel in Dan’s blog, and couldn’t help but comment on it.  With cringe-worthy photography, design that even I could do better and racist references to “African medicine men” and “Greedy Ahmed” it became one of our inside jokes on Twitter.

Don’t get me wrong, I find the idea of an advertising agency focused on SMEs appealing. I find it difficult to believe that it can’t be better executed.

Valio-lehmät

Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

One of those little details I really like are the Valio milk carton cows (pictured to the right). The drawings change by season so you would have cows picking mushrooms in spring, cows in the beach in summer, cows walking in the wind in the fall or cows skiing or skating in winter.

Cute, even if I don’t even buy their brand.  And don’t get me started with the variety of milk products available hereabouts…

One of my colleagues posted online the model we’ve been using for planning our digital marketing.  If you are involved in this kind of activities and don’t know where to start, it is an excellent tool.

All of this of course relates to spreading the word, participating in & enabling  conversations. That’s one of the reasons why I love my job.  We are building the future one day at a time.

Funny how certain topics tend to resurface every once in a while.  A year ago we were discussing the advantages of treating your internet presence as a branding exercise, and yesterday marketing guru Seth Godin gave a great example of why you should do so.

Be yourself but remember: you’re in candid camera.

This guy rules.

Work in Finland
Originally uploaded by Chiva Congelado

This is a marketing campaign for Kauppalehti, the leading Finnish business daily that brings forward the labour shortage in Finland. The English language version of the online component of the campaign is actually quite bad, whereas the Finnish one has real content in it.  I guess that contrary to what the campaign seems to be about, they didn’t care too much about the immigrant / foreign audience after all.

Funnily enough, there was a completely wasted bum/drunk just next to this ad, but I couldn’t bring myself to take that picture. I guess it would have been too poignant of a social commentary.

So, you might have read the presumed advantages of treating yourself as a branded product.  Now, where do you start?  I'd suggest your Facebook profile and your blog.  I don't think you need to "spin" anything really, but be certainly aware that whatever you put in there will be visible to everybody, including co-workers and prospective (or current) employers.  Therefore, less pictures of drunken parties might be in order.

Another key aspect is of course differentiation.  What do you do/are/think that makes you different?  Do you play in a band?  Have you got a blog with a huge readership (that's definitely not me, LOL)?  Were you born in a foreign country?  Even seemingly minor details like the way you dress will make people remember you. 

And of course, you have to build your brand.  Trust and lots of hard work will take you far.  Otherwise, it's got no substance.

This BusinessWeek article on Mexican microlending and a newspaper note I bumped into detailing the growth of luxury brands in Mexico made me wonder on whether it is ethically sound to sell high-ticket products to a consumer if said person can't afford it.

On one side you have the free will of your customer, on the other the fact that you may knowingly sell them something that will cause them more trouble than enjoyment.  I'm all for giving all the necessary information to the consumer, but he/she has to take their decisions independently.

Following a story doing the rounds in Slashdot, I found this article that details the American propaganda machine in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Wheareas I definitely understand the rationale for the Americans to give their version of events, it makes me rather uneasy that they do so posing as a neutral party, thereby undermining their own credibility.

If you're a brand, that's something you should never do as audiences hate discovering they are being cheated, even if your brand is called USA.