Noah Wolfe's Blog (10)

The internet is changing the way people live their lives. Our behaviors are modifying as we adopt new online tools to get our work done and socialize with friends. Savvy organizations are recognizing these changes and are using the internet to keep up. A great example of an organization which recognizes and is responding to these changes is the FBI. One of the FBI's best known features is their Ten Most Wanted list. This li… Continue

The 2008 Presidential election was historic in so many ways. The most obvious historical change is of course the election of an African-American as leader of the free world (Barack Obama in case you hadn't heard). But this election will also be remembered by history because of the revolutionary way Barack Obama used the internet as a tool for organization and communication. In class the oth… Continue

In our discussion of search engines and maximizing SEO the question of whether to use the meta tag "keywords" came up. There seems to be consensus among SEO pros that Google doesn't use them anymore. Google all but confirms this explicitly in this short article about "Keyword Stuffing". But this got me wondering if there are other sea… Continue

The playing field for PR and advertising is constantly changing. AMC's award winning TV show "Mad Men" offers a (fictional?) glimpse into the advertising world of the early 1960's. The dramatic series takes a certain pleasure in revisiting that oh-so politically incorrect age where drinking on the job seems mandatory, pregnant women smoke like their life depends on it and sexual harassment is just another charming part of office culture. Mad… Continue

For years presidential candidates have tried to connect with voters by telling stories about "ordinary Americans." In our current election the McCain campaign has found a way to connect with voters by doing the opposite. They've asked "ordinary Americans" to tell stories about themselves so they will connect with the presidential candidate. This all began in the third presidential debate, which took place two weeks ago on Wednesday October 15th 2008 where Joe "the Plumber" Wurzelbacher was turn… Continue

Executives want to know what is the return on investment, or ROI, for their web 2.0 activities. For someone unfamiliar with blogs this is a perfectly legitimate question but I wonder if in a few years from now this question will be like asking "What is the ROI of having office-wide email?" I think part of the issue is that blogs are seen as marketing tools when in fact they are communications tools. No doubt, a company can use their blog to advance their message and launch product… Continue

Blogs have come a long way. Reading Technotati's annual report "State of the Blogosphere" got me thinking about the recent history of blogging. The report underscores how much blogging has become an integral part of the internet and how it is no longer looked at as a fad. Just a few years ago blogs were starting to get recognition as a new phenomenon in our culture. (… Continue

Effective adoption of web 2.0 technology is often a difficult task. As an IT professional I am frequently asked what is the value of having a blog. Usually the person asking the question already thinks blogs are worthless. It brings to mind the first few lines of the song "War" by Edwin Starr "War/What is it good for?/Absolutely nothing/say it again y'all." I think the root… Continue

Barack Obama's campaign website (www.barackobama.com) makes excellent use of some of the influence techniques discussed in Robert Cialdini's book Influence: Science and Practice. In the book… Continue

I was fascinated by the book Word of Mouth Manual II by David Balter. When word of mouth (WOM) marketing works it's as if the advertising campaign comes alive. Exciting stuff. The book cited the iPhone and Tickle Me Elmo as examples of successful WOM campaigns. These cases got me thinking about a WOM campaign which successfully engaged me and m… Continue