Protect your brand -- and pay Godin $400

I tweeted about this yesterday on the AMA Houston Twitter feed, but in case you didn't see it, here's the scoop: Seth Godin, marketing mavrick and blogger extraordinaire, just launched Brands In Public, a site that aggregates internet comments (think Twitter, blogs, YouTube, etc.) about brands into one simple, easy to use dashboard that anyone can access. The twist -- if there's a page about your brand, you'll have to fork over $400 bucks to "coordinate" it. What does this mean? Basically, you can't change the content that's rolling in but that you can highlight the positive tweets, direct readers to your own company's videos, blogs, or sites, and defend your brand from any comments that may appear. Essentially, you're "curating" a clearinghouse of consumer buzz about your brand.

"Pay me my money -- or your brand gets creamed."

Thus far, Godin has introduced about 100 or so pages for some of our fave brands, and a few (Allstate and Home Depot, for example) appear to have forked over the dough to coordinate their dashboards.

Others are holding off for right now....and many are pissed. Why? Duh -- they feel backed into a corner where they have to pay Godin or potentially risk having a page on the web that highlights all things negative about their brand.

We'll see where this goes and if it takes off. I think what's really going to impact how seriously brands take this new venture is how well the Brands in Public pages show up in search engines. It'll also depend on how well consumers take to the new site. So far, all the talk about Brands in Public has been from marketing and branding folks like me, but if the site is going to take off, consumers are going to have to bite into it and use it.

Thoughts on all of this? $400 bucks isn't that much when you're a Home Depot, but do you think its fair to "hijack" (as some bloggers have said) comments about a brand and then force 'em to pay to defend themselves? And the most important question of all -- will this really help consumers make better decisions about brands??? Let's discuss.

Facebook, new and improved and (sorta) copying Twitter

Did you guys hear about the new Facebook changes? In case you've been living under a rock, you can check them out here. The overall gist -- Facebook is about to become the ultimate personal homepage. Here are some of the major changes that we'll see in place sometime next week:

- live feed. That's right -- Facebook is copying Twitter! The new live feed will also allow for easy uploading of pics, videos, etc. (Thank God since it is such a pain to upload now!) And, like Twitter, it will be in real time, which means no refreshing (the current Facebook updates every 10 minutes or so.) Sweet!

- no more Friend limit. The old Facebook limited your friends to 5,000, so companies and public features were having to turn to Twitter to keep their fans/customers updated. Sort of makes you wonder if we'll have to redefine the definition of Friend, but I digress...

- a new and improved hompage. The new homepage will feature the live feed and allow users to easily filter and sort through the updates. (Especially important for those with more than 5K friends -- most likely the celebs and corporations who will be taking advantage of these new Facebook changes.) Also cool -- those "friends" you interact with the most will be highlighted to stand out.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Twitter during all of this. Let's not forget that Twitter is still in early adopter stage, and it's very possible that Facebook's changes will wipe it out. I hope not -- I, for one, use Twitter as a professional tool, whereas Facebook is reserved for my actual friends. (After all, does my boss really need to see pics of a recent vaca in Vegas? I don't think so.)

Death of an Idea

Hey all you marketers, advertisers, designers, etc.! Have you ever put hours of work into what you believe is the BEST and COOLEST campaign or advertisement ever....only to have it shot down by your client for one (silly) reason or another? I know I have....and it sucks. All that hard work and you're left with nothing more than a killed idea and 30 hours of unbillable time.

But soon, all will not be lost. Introducing a cool new project I read about through Adrants. Here is the gist:

Beginning February 24, you are encouraged to submit your killed ideas to killedideas.com for potential inclusion in Killed Ideas Volume 1, a book published by Blurb and edited by Adrants Editor Steve Hall. Fifty of the best killed ideas will be selected for the book which will be published in May.

The coolest and most quirky ideas will also be featured on the KilledIdeas website. And for all you Tweeting freaks out there, there is (of course) a Twitter feed. Follow @killedideas.

But you best hurry up and submit your work soon. You only have about a month before entries close.

12 ideas for blog posts

Are you blogger or wannabe blogger? If so, you MUST check out this list of blog post ideas. Someone I follow on Twitter posted it. Read the whole post here or see below for a VERY quick summary:

- Respond to something elsewhere on the web
- Suggest an idea
- Interview someone
- Blog an event
- Ask a question
- Pick a fight
- Reflect on something
- Do something visual
- Review something
- Make a list
- Write a how-to
- Let someone else post

Any other ideas?