By Amy Taylor, Lead Copywriter, Brains on Fire

Reports indicate millions of Americans are logging offline for good. They’re putting down their smartphones, silencing their ringers and stepping away from their Twitter streams - in order to rejoin their real lives.

For years, brands have been putting their eggs in various online baskets. Some were early adopters, others waited for the water to warm up a bit before they hopped in. Many jumped on the bandwagon in search of a quick fix and a magical marketing bullet.

But there is no quick fix. There is no magic bullet. Why? Because consumers live in the real world where real life is complicated. And real life happens offline.

Unlike the latest shiny new media tool, widget or app of the day, true word of mouth marketing is founded on real relationships between brand and consumer. It celebrates transparency, trust and community – things that can’t be bought, rushed or manufactured.

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Jeff Hansen of MarketingProfs found 5 ads that could have been more mobile.

1. Go Daddy – Danica Patrick was back in an ad that appealed to the more, ahem, primal interests. At the end, there was a QR code that led to an even more NSFTV site. But even the fastest QR coder out there would have difficulty scanning the QR code in the few seconds they had. A simple SMS call to action would have been much more user friendly.

2.  Best Buy – Ironically, Best Buy ran an ad that focused on their mobile expertise. After featuring a series of mobile innovators, they finished on this line:

“Any phone, any carrier, and all of their plans with lots of unbiased advice.”

Perhaps they were more concerned with branding, but a short call to action could have captured thousands of leads. Those people would provide a base for future mobile phone promotions.

Key Takeaway: In any given place, on any given occasion, people are more connected via mobile. Think about where and how you can add mobile calls to action in your promotions.

Read about the other ads at MarketingProfs

From the full list, these stood out to me:

1. Make Introductions – Helping an influencer meet the right person can be the start of a beautiful friendship. Expand their network and they’ll probably return the favor.

2. Make Changes Based on their Feedback – An outside perspective can be very valuable. Keep your mind open and use influencers’ feedback. Once you do, show them the results. Believe it or not, lots of influencers enjoy influencing people and companies.

3. Approach them as People, not Prospects – Many influencers gained their position because of a true passion. What an affront it would be to belittle that passion with a sales pitch. Get to know them first. Spend a little time building a relationship. When it comes to it, a friend will help you a lot more than a prospect.

Read the 27 other tips at Radian6’s blog

The Anca Group

Kelley Blue Book

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Affect, a public relations and social media firm specializing in B2B technology and professional services, has been engaged by Cyrus Innovation, experts in software development for enterprises and startups. Cyrus’ team of highly skilled engineers have been developing custom software and applications for East Coast area companies for nearly 10 years.

More Here

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Upcoming Visible Webinar:

“What She Said” - A Special Webcast with Jason Falls and Visible

How Women’s Social Conversations Impact Buying Intent and Purchasing Behavior

Tuesday, February 21, 2012 | 10:30am PST / 1:30pm EST

As an attendee you will learn:

· The top topics women discuss online

· Key marketing and advertising learnings from these conversations

· How social integration can tie social buying intent with increased sales

· How  leading brands are using social data and integration to increase online and offline sales

bit.ly/wssvisible

Main Destination: Traditional Websites

The dot com era is certainly not over. A clear 57% of ads directed viewers to a website or microsite. Perhaps more interestingly, 32% didn’t include any online resources

URLs Stay Corporate

The ads relied heavily on destination, not conversation. Corporate URLs dominated the field, appearing in 49% of the ads. Twitter, surprisingly, came in last – even losing to hashtags.

Unanswered Questions: While only 7% of the ads included hashtags, I’d be really interested to see the data on the conversations generated. Who used them? What actions did they take later?

If you see anything that answers these questions, we’d love to know! Please comment the link.

Read all of Altimeter’s takeaways at Web Strategy

From their report:

Tweet volume showed us how popular each ad was in the social world. The brand mention volume was:

1. Doritos: 50,459

2. H&M: 45,219

3. Pepsi: 45,529

4. Chevrolet: 40,739

5. Chrysler: 34,934

Compare that to Ad Age’s “Five we Loved” list:

1. Kia: “A Dream Car. For Real Life.”

2. Cars.com: “Neck”

3. Chevy Sonic: “Stunt Anthem”

4. Acura: “Transactions”

5. Bud Light: “Rescue Dog

A bit of a disparity there.

What were your favorites? Or least favorites? Please comment.

Read more about Super Bowl social data at Radian6 and Super Bowl ads at Ad Age

There’s something universal about great content. Whether you’re selling a story between two lovers caught up in the Spanish Civil War or creating a lead-capturing eBook, overarching rules of content apply.

1. Get Good Editors – Writing is a lot less lonely than one may think. Editors help drive the story or topic from rough draft to final copy. Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound guided Hemingway. Who’s helping you?

2. Read Read Read – Don’t just research for your chosen topic. Read a wide variety of publications, blogs and articles. The lessons gleaned from reading will help you develop fully original and relevant content.

3. Get Out of the Office – Hemingway captured people, their motivations and desires by getting to know lots of people from all different walks of life. I’m sure your coworkers are great, but break out into new places. Invite a contact to coffee or attend a networking event with no agenda other than learning about others in your industry.

Read two more Hemingway tips for content marketing at It’s All About Revenue, Eloqua’s blog.

Download WOMMA’s eBook to see how we edited the content to help word of mouth marketers of all strips with a wide variety of content.

Eloqua is a WOMMA member.

360i Declares it the Inspiration Network

If Twitter and Facebook are great for sharing content, Pinterest excels at helping people find content. Many of the users curate their boards based on what they need inspiration for. Weddings, recipes, do-it-yourself and fashion ideas fill many boards, and with good reason.

Traditionally, social media have followed a stream of consciousness flow – newsfeeds populating as new content is posted. But Pinterest is different. Since users are searching for inspiration, not updates from friends or those they follow, their board is really more a visual representation of where they want to go. Call it an inspiration network if you will.

Monetate Crunches the Numbers

Monetate released a very informative infographic about Pinterest’s growth, influence and brand users.

Growth:

Influence:

Brand Users:

Key Takeaway: If your brand inspires (and/or is in eCommerce), you should be on Pinterest. Get visual with your products and see how you can inspire your customers to do great things (that will inspire great word of mouth.)

Read 360i’s perspective and see the whole Monetate infographic.

360i is a WOMMA member.

The original post has been corrected.

Gone are the days when the TV got all the attention on Super Bowl Sunday. For the first time ever, the Super Bowl will be live streamed on NFL.com and NBCsports.com. There will be tons of content on the dedicated Facebook page, YouTube Channel, Twitter profile and Foursquare page. Suffice it to say, the sports side of the Super Bowl is digitally covered.

The Ads

Creating an out-of-this-world ad campaign can’t just be about TV commercials anymore. Back when TV started to usurp print and radio’s power, campaigns needed to work on all three media. The same has happened with social media. Expect to see ads that have calls to action for specific hashtags or Facebook pages/apps. Chevy took it one step further with their Chevy Game Time app. It’s a contest that challenges users to find clues in Chevy’s Super Bowl ads. Brilliant! People will happily and very closely watch Chevy’s ads to find the clues.

(Insider’s tip: That’s a great way to make your $3.5 million 30-second spot worth it.)

Read more about what brands are doing for Super Bowl Sunday at Likeable Media