We've all heard the cliches: You can't hit a target that you can't see.  You can't see a target that you don't have.As internet marketing professionals, we know that starting a new relationship or initiative with a client without clearly understanding the client's expectations, will result in disaster.  I have observed this exact behavior from seasoned professionals and rookies right out of school.  The reasons for not understanding expectations are never good and typically include:- Lack of training: rookies don't know how to extract meaningful expectations from a client.- The "Busy" disease: we need to move onto the next assignment and "think" that we understand what the client wants.- The "I Got It" disease: The... Read More

It started like any other day, I read some news, I copied the link to an article I thought was worth sharing (Paul the oracle octopus winning the 2010 FIFA World Cup is fascinating), and I pasted the link into my facebook status.  Then I went back to the domain from which I copied the link and saw it...the plugin.  There it was my facebook picture, my full name, my action (shared) and the name of the link.  This year facebook rolled out some integrated Facebook plugins to be spread accross 100,000+ websites.  Washingtonpost.com is just one of those sites that implemented this.  When people visit their site and are simultaneously logged into facebook, and have indicated that their profile is public in their... Read More

This morning I received two emails that really sparked my curiosity because of the mixed feelings they caused me to experience as a user, from a state of admiration to a state of reproach.  Allow me to explain:Yesterday I went online to peruse some Father's Day presents.  I sifted through multiple gifting sites and looked up specific products that interested me on Google Product Search (which is pretty awesome).  This morning, I checked my email and one particular subject line stood out, it said: "Where did you go?  Come back...".The first question that came to mind in response was "how did they know I ever visited?".  It took a little while to register with me since I didn't login to their site, didn't... Read More

Internet marketing companies work with clients in three ways.The Agency Tells.This is easier than trying to understand the client, right?  We just tell the client what the problem is, what they need to do to solve it and just do it.  We use all of our previous experience to "prove" how smart we are and that we are experts.The Agency Accepts.The client tells us what they want and we deliver.  We don't ask any real questions.  We don't look at previous data.  We just take the order and get to work.The Agency Guesses.Of course, agency gurus don't call this guessing, they call it a diagnosis or analysis.  If you didn't know any better, you would swear it was guessing.  A couple of agency people spend... Read More