Box Scores, Dec. 7-13 – “Condiments, Sleep & Hooking Readers”
As usual, Sunday has led to Monday, and that means it’s time for your weekly Deep Bench Box Scores. We read some great posts last week in the blogosphere and we wanted to make sure we shared them with you, so we’ve collected them right here in our Box Scores. Read up on the recap and make sure you check out the full posts. Then leave us a comment below and tell us what you think.
Talk about an inspiring way to kick off Box Scores. The always-entertaining and forward-thinking Mark Cuban brings his two great passions in life (sports and business) together for this rock solid post on his love for the challenge that is business. As he puts it, “The sport of business isn’t divided into games. It’s not defined by practices. It doesn’t have set rules that everyone plays by.” So how do you win the game? Read his post and see what he has to say about it.
-“Sealy Admits Reality: No One Gets 8 Hours of Sleep”
This post from Rohit Bhargava is interesting because he points out an important bit of information: sometimes, no matter what convention and tradition might say, you just need to go with the simple truth (like the fact that humans don’t usually get the “8 hours” of sleep they supposedly should get). Sealy recognized this fact and has put it to use in their latest marketing campaign. Check out Rohit’s full post to see why he thinks Sealy made the right decision in doing so.
-“Social Media Is Not A Condiment”
Sometimes social media is included as an afterthought or a bonus in a campaign. Lisa Braziel points out that social media isn’t a condiment in this thoughtful post on the Ignite Social Media blog. Dispelling myths like this one – “Myth #4: The more social media the better” – Lisa points out why social media shouldn’t be considered an add-on for your campaign efforts.
-“Are Your Facebook Fans Truly Engaged?”
Valeria Maltoni presents some interesting research on how to keep fans engaged on Facebook fan pages. Although the post is short and the tips may seem simple or obvious, chances are you either haven’t put them into action or even thought of them yet. Check out Valeria’s post over on Conversation Agent to see 5 ways “to keep your Facebook pages working for you.” It’s worth it.
-“What a Bestselling Author Can Teach You About Hooking Your Readers”
One of the writers in our Deep Bench office is a huge Steven Pressfield fan (Mike). Consequently, Mike was excited to see that this great Copyblogger post on hooking readers featured Mr. Pressfield himself. And, in true Copyblogger fashion, the post goes far beyond the basic “see what this author’s good at” content and delivers plenty of guidance from Steven and the post’s author, Jeff Saxton, on ways to suck readers into a story so quickly that they won’t even realize how hooked they are. Because if you’re able to do that, you definitely win.
So there you go folks. Some great posts from the blogosphere that will hopefully give you some guidance and inspiration in the following week. As always, if you feel we missed a great post or you just want to tell us how much you liked this week’s Box Scores, leave us a comment below and let us know. You can also drop us a line over on our Facebook page if you’d like.
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Photo (“Red Hook”) c/o Ludovic Bertron. Thanks Ludovic!