Etc.

My hobby/freelance work took me to the U.S. Army All-American Bowl’s jersey presentation tour yesterday, where Stamford (CT) High School linebacker Khairi Fortt was announced as a member of the high school All-American team (today they go up the road to King School to present Silas Redd with his jersey. Both players will attend Penn State).

So the side-story for me, the one I could bring back to The Big Fat Marketing Blog, had to do with the game’s sponsors. more

Macy’s president/CEO Terry Lundgren said today that there are more than 75,000 fans of his company’s Facebook page. But is that a fair number to use to judge its success?

It’s a huge number for a two-month-old group. But how many of the group’s members really are fans of Macy’s (you don’t need to qualify to join a group), and how is Macy’s using its Facebook page to engage its fans? more

I was talking Monday evening at the eTail opening reception with Kevin Ertell, VP-retail strategies for ForeSee Results, and Brad Wolansky, VP-global e-commerce for The Orvis Company, and the conversation quickly steered to social media.

The question: How can retailers effectively leverage Facebook, Twitter and other social networks? Are merchants going to force-feed its customers with offers a few times a day? Or will their message get lost in the shuffle of other status updates and Twitter feeds? more

If a customer or potential client talks about you on Facebook, can you avoid losing a sale?

No, not unless the customer is a part of your own conversation.

But if someone is talking smack about your brand or company of Twitter, you have that chance to join the conversation and steer the conversation in a more positive direction.

Here’s my quick, unintentional case study. more

DRTV lost Billy Mays yesterday, and I didn’t even know who he was. I knew - and trusted - the face, and I bought the products because I saw them on TV.

But when a bunch of different people came up to me at a party yesterday and asked if I heard about Billy Mays, I thought they were talking about the Say Hey Kid. Or Willie Mays Hayes (American Express - don’t steal home without it!).

Anyway - here’s a link for you to kick off your Monday. It’s one man’s opinion on the Top 10 Billy Mays infomercials of all time. Check them out and tell me what you think.

Nothing really alarming here (except a lot of people may not know that Circuit City was acquired and re-launched as a Web-only venture by Systemax).

The key here is that Circuit City has launched a page on Facebook, and are not censoring the voice of its fans. more