Marketing Pilgrim

Here’s our look back on the week that was. Some feedback we have received is that giving our readers a little insight into the story we are looking back on might help them to decide if it’s worth clicking through to and reading more thoroughly.

At Marketing Pilgrim we try to listen so here it goes. Let us know what you think of this weekly review of some of the stories we found but didn’t get the chance to explore more deeply. We’ve even added some hashtag ideas for you to use. Aren’t we nice?

Twitter tells developers that Twitter client days are over – If you have been developing the next Twitter client that will replace TweetDeck etc, Twitter may have already sealed your fate. Simply put, developers can’t make Twitter clients and expect life to be good. Twitter has laid an egg on this part of the developer community and many will think it’s rotten. #changingtherulesbecausewecan

Self confidence is everything.

What separates successful entrepreneurs from you? If you are already successful, then what have you got that others don’t? Well, the truth is each of us have different qualities that help us succeed, but very few successful entrepreneurs have low self confidence. Being sure of yourself at every step of the way is crucial to finding success. It will dramatically improve your marketing, product development, and pricing.

There was a day where the Yellow Pages phone directory had a coveted spot in every home and phone booth. These days, however, a huge number of phone directories go straight from the doorstep to the trashcan.

The Product Stewardship Institute estimates that phone books create 660,000 tons of waste per year and because they’re printed on low-grade paper, recycling isn’t easy. That’s why San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has proposed a bill to stop the unsolicited drop off of these books. He’s suggesting that instead of an opt-out program, Yellow Pages delivery would be an opt-in program and that’s a big difference.

Digital advertising is an important part of any company’s business, but according to a new report from Econsultancy and SAS, agencies and their clients have very different views on how that money should be spent.

Looking at this chart from eMarketer, we can see that 75% of agencies thought their clients should spend more money on mobile marketing but only 62% of advertisers agreed.

On the flip side, advertisers wanted to increase their spending on search, display and email marketing. Not only did their agencies not agree, but they went so far as to say that display dollars should be kept the same or decreased.

The biggest gap is in the area of the company website. 61% of advertisers think they need to spend more while only 39% of agencies agreed.

While it’s bad enough that a lot of people lost their jobs yesterday in the latest round of Aol’s effort to become viable as a company again, apparently they went about it in a way that left many with a bitter taste.

BusinessInsider spoke to an insider and published this account of the firings.

Managers had no clue if anyone on their teams were getting laid off. They were called into a separate meeting as a diversion, and then those being laid off were called into another and axed in a big group setting.

They pulled 20-30 people into a conference room and told them they “Don’t have roles at aol anymore.” [Severance is] 1 week for every year worked.
It’s really quite appalling.

Even after taking the step of firing the employee who posted an amusing yet incredibly misguided tweet to Chrysler’s Twitter account, social media agency New Media Strategies out of Arlington, VA has been fired by Chrysler. The tweet that caused the hubbub read:

There was then a move to make nice

Then there was this statement from Chrysler as reported in the USAToday

Chrysler Group LLC will not renew its contract with New Media Strategies (NMS) for the remainder of 2011. NMS has agreed to support us with an orderly transition until a new agency has been named. We thank them for the work they have provided to us and wish them the best as they move forward.

Social media agency takeaways