The Tendo View

Insights and analysis for your strategic communications

First Person archive

  • Will content marketing come of age?

    12/15/10 • (3)

    The research is in—and it looks like content-driven Web marketing could finally achieve mainstream status in 2011. Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer, sums it up in his recent post citing research that shows how marketers use content to fuel social media strategies and campaigns. It’s clear that successful social media programs are dependent on content—created… Continue reading

  • A question of tone: 2 pitch-perfect companies

    12/13/10 • (0)

    I’ve just returned from a Thanksgiving trip to China. It was one of the best vacations of my life—great food, good people, amazing sites—and a truly challenging language.

    I learned that the Beijing dialect of Chinese has four “tones,” which make it possible to say the same combination of characters four totally different ways… Continue reading

  • What B2B email marketers can learn from babies

    11/06/10 • (0)

    My colleague has written about four email marketing turn-offs. I’m going to flip that around and tell you why I always—without fail—click on every newsletter that lands in my inbox from Babycenter.com.

    Babycenter knows who I am. I have two very small children; one is 2 ½ years old and the other is 4… Continue reading

  • 4 turn-offs in email newsletters

    11/03/10 • (2)

    Email marketing isn’t new. Companies have been sending out email newsletters for years to build loyalty, sell products and services, and offer news and information, among other goals. So I’m surprised when organizations mess up on the basics. No one strives to annoy subscribers, yet in recent weeks, a lot of companies seem to be… Continue reading

  • 5 tips for DIY Web video

    9/03/10 • (1)

    Web videos are easier to produce and more affordable than ever. Your audience expects them. And not to use video, some would argue, is a missed opportunity.

    That said, you’ve probably thought about low-cost, high-value online video by now. Perhaps a program to arm product marketing or customer reference teams with Flip cameras to capture hard-to-get… Continue reading

  • The conundrum of connectedness

    7/29/10 • (0)

    “This book is about a yearning and a need. It’s about finding a quiet, spacious place where the mind can wander free.” Does this quote strike a chord? Does it conjure an expansive horizon over a shimmering blue ocean and warm sand under your feet, your BlackBerry or iPhone left behind?

    If it does, you’re… Continue reading

  • Don’t use that tone with me!

    7/27/10 • (1)

    A big part of my job is to consult on, create, evaluate, and distribute content. As such, I spend a lot of time writing about content. Some days, however, it seems as though a disproportionate amount of that time is spent trying to communicate what I think/recommend/need in a clear, emotionally neutral way to coworkers… Continue reading

  • Navigating highways and Web pages

    7/14/10 • (1)

    My recent trip to New England reminded me of one of the things I love about the East Coast: People know how to drive. By that I mean they know that if they’re driving more slowly on a highway than others around them, they move to the right lanes to let faster drivers pass on… Continue reading

  • How do sites attract and engage their audiences?

    4/13/10 • (0)

    It looks like spring is finally hitting Northern California. Grass is growing, flowers are blooming, birds are singing, and my son is now 14 months old—all around us, things are changing after a long, wet winter (and early April!).

    At Tendo, we’re gearing up for some changes of our own: We’re starting the process… Continue reading

  • HomeAway.com targets “Vacation” audience

    3/09/10 • (0)

    Now that I have a DVR I usually zoom through commercials, but there’s one that I’ve been  watching lately. I missed its debut during the Super Bowl but, luckily for me, it’s been on pretty heavy rotation in the past couple of weeks. It’s for HomeAway.com and features Chevy Chase and Beverly D’Angelo reprising their roles as… Continue reading

  • Return to the hive

    3/05/10 • (0)

    If social media channels like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and others are can’t-miss parties for marketers, then what to make of the dishes piling up in the kitchen sink and the thick coating of dust on the counters back home? Venturing off to schmooze and mingle is all well and good, marketers, but not if it… Continue reading

  • Project Runway: naughty or nice?

    1/09/10 • (0)

    The seventh season of Project Runway starts on Thursday, January 14, and I await it with the same feeling of anticipation and dread that I experienced when watching Star Wars Episodes I-III: I wanted to love these movies as much as I loved Episodes IV-VI, but they just kept disappointing me. 

    As for Project… Continue reading

  • FLOR’s design contest wins hearts from carpet

    1/04/10 • (1)

    I’m obsessed with FLOR. Everything about the company—from the cool, slightly Scandinavian-sounding name, to the environmental friendliness of its products, to its inspiring catalogs—makes me want to cover every surface in my house with carpet tiles.

    And now FLOR has given me yet another reason to love it. Last month the company emailed me about its… Continue reading