My favorite to date is his Business Lessons Learned From The Fruit Stand, which I excerpt for you here:

Near the station there is a fruit stand selling all kinds of fruit. The fruit stand was packed to the gills with fruit, all meticulously stacked and ordered into piles, rows and boxes. One would think that a shop like this does brisk trade given all the human traffic from the station–thousands of people must pass this shop every day. However, in the 10 minutes I was standing there, nobody bought any of the neatly ordered and boxed fruit.

People were however, buying fruit from a small corner of the stall where they had cut up whole fruit into pieces, and put them on a stick. Buying a piece of fruit like this is not very economical but any false economy is negated by the convenience of being able to eat it immediately. In the 10 minutes I was there, they sold about $100 worth of fruit.

You might be selling the right product, but are you selling it in the right way? Is there an untapped market out there for you if you adapted your product ever-so-slightly?

“Fruit for thought,” he says, in typical Yongfook-style. If you’re not following that Posterous, you really should be.

The web has become a crucial aspect of marketing in past years. Recently, immediately after stumbling on her blog, I asked Toby Bloomberg of Diva Marketing Blog to sit down and tell me a little about how she got her start and the role that blogging has come to play for her company since she began in 2004.

How did you get into blogging?

If truth be told, I never had any intention of blogging. I often conduct marketing workshops for small business owners and in 2002 or 2003 I came across this cool website thing called a “blog” that was free (Blogger). You didn’t need to know how to code, there was something called “comments” where people could actually talk to you in real time and you could talk back to them. I thought: perfect for business owners on a limited budget with no technical skills!

Diva Marketing was launched because a friend told me I couldn’t talk about blogs unless I was personally blogging. Well, girlfriend, I told him he was daft and I could talk about any marketing topic without a lot of experience as long as I knew the basics. He told me this was different. Since I really did need to understand the logistics I agreed to play around with a blog for awhile. I had not a clue that it would turn into a long-term passion. I had a (boring) website so what did I need with a blog, right?

I was so wrong! Within days I realized that blogs were way far different than any website I’d ever seen. I also was wrong about talking about blogs without actually “doing it.” This is one marketing tactic where credibility is derived from experience. If anyone tells you they can teach or consult about blogs or social media without participating in the space, I suggest you run in the opposite direction.

What do you try to achieve with the blog?

Diva Marketing began with a focus on branding and general marketing information. However, as my interest and passion for social media grew, the focus of Diva Marketing changed.

As I’ve seen many times over, if you’re not passionate about what you’re writing about, it’s tough to sustain a blog long-term. I was also asked by many people to explain how to use blogs as a marketing initiative and Diva Marketing seemed the logical place to hold that information. Over that last almost five years, the blog has grown into a rich educational resource for marketers from Fortune 100s to small business to nonprofits and government agencies.

In addition to the typical marketing blog opinion posts there are interviews with industry leaders who generously share their learnings.

If you could impart three tips to other niche bloggers, what would it be?

First, begin with understanding what makes social media different from other marketing strategies. Social media is the only marketing strategy that I know that is built on a culture that is based on transparency, authenticity, honesty–and throw in some passion, too.

Second, since social media impacts how you conduct business, it’s important to create an umbrella social media direction for your organization. As you’re thinking about all, that begin to listen to the conversations of your customers and people in your industry.

Third, develop your strategy based goals and objectives and a determination of what would be success for you. Success in social media may extend further than traditional metrics. Keep an open mind. Also, as you would do in any marketing strategy keep your customers top of mind.

Has social media always been a focus for Bloomberg Marketing? How did it start?

Social media came about after Bloomberg Marketing opened its virtual doors in 2007 as a boutique strategic marketing firm with a focus on interactive marketing. We helped organizations use, at that time, innovative web-based tactics weaving in traditional tactics.

Would a Fortune 100 company use social media differently than a small business or are the principles the same? What about governments and non-profits?

Let’s go back to the belief that social media is a credible marketing strategy that helps “people” within organizations create and nurture closer relationships with customers/clients and other stakeholders. I call this developing ‘corner grocery store relations’: the old-fashioned relationships where the shop owner was part of the larger community, knew and cared about the people that purchased her products or services and were built on a foundation of trust. On that level the answer is the same no matter if it is for an Fortune 100, small business, government or nonprofit.

However, it is the objectives and the execution of the strategy where organizations take different paths. This can depend, for example, on where your customers are hanging out (are they on Facebook or Twitter?), the culture of the organization, the resources available (human capital, financial and time), and regulations (such as HIPAA in a health care situation).

How does Bloomberg Marketing use social media, if at all?

My goals are to reinforce my positioning as a thought leader in this new emerging industry who “gets it” and can help other people incorporate social media into their marketing plans. The outcomes that signal my strategy is succeeding include: new client opportunities, of course, but also speaking engagements, serving as a resource to mainstream and online media.

Another benefit is the personal relationships and networking that I’ve developed with other people–like you!

In addition to Diva Marketing I’ve extended the brand through a BlogTalkRadio show called Diva Marketing Talks. The concept is 30 minutes with a focus on one social media topic with two rock star guests. Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are also part of my social media tool box.

What companies are using social media right and why do you think so?

Keep in mind that social media is evolving by the nano second and we are learning together what works and what does not. Pioneers are experimenting in this new media. One factor that those that do it right always have in common: they maintain transparency, authenticity and honesty.

As for who is doing it right? In government, take a look at how Queen Rania of Jordan is using YouTube. She’s created a branded channel and is talking directly to the world. Her personality shines through as genuine and caring.

For me Dell is the poster child for how a company can get blown-up for doing it wrong and then, by understanding their customers, learn to do it right. By not only listening to the conversation happening in blogs, on Twitter, in Facebook, etc., but actively participating in those discussions, Dell has created a stronger, more positive brand experience. In addition, its use of social media is creative and innovative as Dell’s Social Innovation Competition shows.

Goodwill of Washington is a wonderful example of how to strategically use social media in an integrated marketing plan. Brendan Hurley, vice president of marketing, is leveraging multiple tactics such as blogs, Twitter, YouTube to reposition not as a thrift store but a vintage shop.

In the consumer world, please allow me to brag on a client who is a true pioneer when it comes to blogs, and holds a piece of social media history. In 2005, GourmetStation was one of the first eCommerce companies to launch a blog. Delicious Destinations, a character blog, colored outside the lines when it used its icon as the voice of the blog. A huge fire storm erupted but we knew the direction was right for the brand and staid the course. Four years later the blog is successful and still going strong. We’ve included ‘real’ people such as the owner of a B&B in Tuscany, a travel writer living in Paris, a wine consultant to expand the content.

Social media is one form of marketing that we can use to get to know our customers better. One of the exciting benefits are they get to know us too! If I had to give one last piece of advice I’d say, don’t be afraid to experiment. If you have a quality brand that your customers like even if the initiative doesn’t work as intended you’ll be admired for trying. If your brand is weak because of poor customer service of quality, fix it before attempting this at home!

Of Possible Interest:
Toby Bloomberg is currently writing and crowdsourcing a book about social media on Twitter. You can can tune in to watch it unfold by following the #SMGPS hashtag on Twitter Search.

While Celebrity gossip blogs have existed for a while and Hulu, which brings film and television to computers everywhere, won best of show for film and TV at the South by Southwest: Interactive awards this year, in general, the merging of Hollywood and the web has been slow and clumsy.

Enter Leslie Gornstein, the Answer Bitch for E! Online. After working at a start-up that failed and spending some years freelancing, Gornstein got a column online when an editor at E! approached her in 2004.

“He was looking for a sassier, angrier ‘Ask Marilyn’ character,” Gornstein explained over coffee at Caffe Luxxe in Brentwood, where she met with me, Laurie Percival, editor-in-chief of Lalawag and Macala Wright, director of marketing and PR for 1928 Jewelry.

“He said, ‘I’m looking for someone to be the answer bitch, you can be the answer bitch,’” Gornstein recalled. “I said ‘all right.’”

Thus, the entertainment question and answer column ‘Ask The Answer Bitch’ was born. Gornstein never looked back. After living and breathing the celebrity lifestyle for four years, writing a book was natural progression. Her book The A-List Playbook, was released by Skyhorse Publishing last month.

“Despite what’s going on in technology right now and despite the ways that you can push yourself out there to a lot of people, people still see a book as a calling card,” Gornstein said. “I learned some really fascinating basic facts about Hollywood. But there was no compendium of it anywhere—the fact that celebrities have three nannies per child, the fact the average celebrity spends an hour a day with their child, and maybe three to four during a vacation period, the fact that most celebrities get 20,000 dollars a month of free stuff—and the fact that’s how you can gauge if they’re A-list or not. I wanted to put it in a survival guide format because I thought that was the most fun way to read it. But really it’s a window for the rest of us about how those people really live.”

“Are you using social media to promote your book?” Lalawag’s Laurie Percival asked.

“Everything that has an internet connection is now my bitch when it comes to promoting my book,” Gornstein responded, laughing. “Facebook, MySpace—not so much, there is something really disco about that. It looks like a Lebanese disco whenever I go on there! I can’t deal with that. So Facebook, Twitter, E! Online—even World of Warcraft. If it has a line out to the world, it’s my bitch.”

Gornstein, who started tweeting as @answerbitch only last November has almost 2,000 followers. She follows almost everyone back.

Macala Wright can’t get over the information saturation that comes with following that many people on Twitter. She confessed she’d pulled a Loic just a few weeks ago to make her stream more manageable and reflected on how annoyed some people got when they were unfollowed.

“Someone has decided following everyone back is Tweetiquette and you know what? I think people are taking things way too personal,” Gornstein replied. “Because, what does that mean when I don’t return someone’s phone call? Sometimes I’m just not going to return a phone call.”

“I think about this all the time, too,” Laurie Percival pitched in. “Do I have to reply to every @message? How do people do this all day long? There’s no way!”

She described with awe the people who sent personalized direct messages (DMs) after she followed them.

“I just don’t know how they have time,” she said. “So I just don’t do it.”

“You could send out auto-DMs.” Gornstein suggested.

We looked at her with horror. I think one of us even gasped.

“The only reason I think an auto-DM would be offensive, and I got one of these recently, ‘thank you for following, be sure to link my blog’—that’s not cool,” Gornstein defended her position. “When people follow me I send out an auto-message that says, ‘Welcome to the all American festival that is me!’ I don’t see that as a particularly obnoxious thing to do.”

Gornstein seems to have an inherent understanding of how to work new media and leverage the power of real-time user feedback.

“I’m really careful to do it,” she said about self-promotion. “You have to come correct about it, as the drug dealers say. You come to people correct and you say ‘yes, I’m pimping now,’ or I’ll make it participatory and say, ‘correct me if I’m wrong…’ and people like that. It’s conversation. I think that’s respectful.”

She limits the bulk of her self-promotion to Sundays and constantly invites input from her followers and readers. To a large extent, the web has allowed her following to grow and thrive.

“On the internet we have the concept of microcelebrity—being famous for fifteen people, as Momus said in the early 90s,” I told her. “Do you think of yourself as one?”

“I’m definitely famous for fifteen people,” she responded. “My husband loves me!”

“Do you think microcelebrities could apply some of the knowledge found in your book?”

“No,” she said, laughing. “You really need to be visible planet-wide to be able to sling this kind of power around.”

“So you don’t think Julia Allison could get through airport security without having to remove her stilettos?”

“No,” she replied. “Microcelebrities are most famous to themselves. Without the internet, would these people be famous?”

Sounds like a challenge to me. Hear that, NonSociety?

Gornstein pointed to a copy of her book on the coffee table, buried under iPhones, packs of cigarettes and idle Flip cams.

“These people are all cross-media megastars,” she said. “If the internet did not exist, Julia Allison would be a nice intern somewhere, working her microminis and then maybe one day meet Tina Brown and have something nice happen to her for a year. She’s extremely bright and when you read what she writes you see it’s well thought-out, but to be really famous your face needs to be recognizable, your name needs to be recognizable—by more than a small subset of people. If you said, ‘I saw Julia Allison yesterday!’ most people wouldn’t know what you were talking about. But if you said, ‘I saw Julia Roberts yesterday!’ they’d know what you were talking about.”

She’s right. Even so, the section about how Paris Hilton plays the press (“The Paris Hilton Method,” page 65) could be of some use to aspiring fameballers—I’ll trade Laurie’s home phone for Owen Thomas’!

Seriously, though, the way fame is spreading on the web, and with microcelebrity having such a wide and bizarre array of wonders and dangers (from the power you can exert dating the founders of your choice start-up to death by commenter execution) I think there’s a definite sequel there.

Of Possible Interest:
Leslie Gornstein will be signing books and holding a live chat in Los Angeles on Thursday, March 19, 2009, at 7:00PM at the Barnes and Noble at the Grove on 189 Grove Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036. Call (323) 525-0270.

Full disclosure—Leslie gave me a copy of her book. Yes, I’ve read it, but I’m not gonna tell you just how juicy it is. I’ll leave it by saying that two friends have already attempted to steal it.

still from a promo short for 1928, used with permission.

The web is a wonderful tool and I’m always on the look-out for how people and companies are using it to achieve their goals, whether these are to meet new people or build brand loyalty.

After watching 1928 Jewelry Company’s surreal promo shorts on YouTube, I shot a direct message to Macala Wright, their director of marketing and public relations, and demanded that she fill me in on the jewelry company’s vision for integrating new media in their marketing efforts.

What’s 1928 Jewelry and where did the concept come from?

1928 Jewelry was founded in 1968 by Mel Bernie. Mel loved high-end, expensive costume and couture jewelry, made from solid gold and sterling silver, using semi-precious and precious gemstones, which made the pieces extremely expensive.

One day, Mel was in downtown L.A. and found a place that did gold plating and created faux pieces. He wondered if there would be any interest the the jewelry from department stores, so set up few appointments to showcase the pieces he had selected, all vintage and art deco style jewelry, recreated to match the couture pieces in everything but the price. In one week, he’d sold $30,000 worth. 1928 was born.

How is 1928 using the internet to drive and promote their brand?

The internet is largely new territory for us. We’ve spent the last three months developing a holistic approach to online marketing that incorporates social media marketing, PPC and search engine optimization. We’ve approached it very strategically and gone slowly because we don’t want to do what a lot of brands out there do right now, which is just create noise.

We embrace the idea of engaging our customer, but we also want to take it a step further, we want to engage them, to show them why we should have the privilege to be a part of their lives. We take that privilege seriously so anything we do has to be relevant to that goal. Every woman has a story to tell, and we want to help her tell it.

Do you have a clear-cut plan for harnessing the power of web 2.0 in selling your brand?

Web 2.0 tools are the primary focus we are using for building brand awareness. Most women over the age of 30 have heard of 1928 Jewelry. Now we’re targeting a younger market and showing a woman under 30 that we are for her too. We are where she lives–the videos and photo shoot reflect that. Modern and urban, while being timeless and beautiful. We have an online series planned for 2009 that will really help us drive this home.

So the plan is ever evolving. We have a framework for what we want to accomplish with web 2.0 marketing tools, but we’ve left a lot of fluidity and flexibility in that plan when it comes to social media, video and online promotions. If something screams, “You have to do this! And do it now!” because it’s leading to positive results, then we are able to adapt the strategy quickly.

You never know who you’re gonna meet on the web. Twitter has been a driving factor in connecting with stylists that landed us several opportunities to have a large number of pieces in independent and mainstream film. We designed Hermione’s earrings in Harry Potter. The videos have given 1928 online credibility and have started giving us an easier lead in to great partnerships for 2009 and 2010.

Do you think Twitter is the right place for brands?

Absolutely. Brands with something meaningful to say and offer belong on Twitter. I tweet as @Macala and Jen Bernstein is @1928jewelry on Twitter, but the account has her information and she writes it from her perspective. We represent ourselves, not just the company as a blind name. We interact as ourselves, and I think that’s key. Just like Tony Hsieh (@Zappos) does. It’s him, not just a blind thing.

Do you see a revival in women’s fashion toward the more iconic classic look?

Vintage is quite an interesting term, because it means something different to each person. Vintage could be straight Hollywood glamour–sleek glass accents, black, white, silver–highly refined and glamorous, or it can be Breakfast at Tiffany’s, glamorous but more soft and approachable, casual. It can even be the conservative, yet sexy and provocative style of the 1960s that provided simple, everyday elegance. Vintage is on a huge upswing right now because of the economy. Every magazine talks about thrifty finds, dressing on a budget and creating a multi-purpose wardrobes. Women–including your most favorite celebs–are starting to brag about the bargain bin finds at Marshall’s, shopping in consignment stores and antique flea market finds. It’s hip to frugal now, we even have terms for it: Bargainista and Frugalista.

But I don’t think that vintage inspiration has ever left fashion–if you look through five years of Vanity Fair or Vogue, you find vintage-inspired styles on every page. Necklaces, colors, dress cuts, the lines of skirts, they all pay homage to something that was a trend in the 20s, 30s, 40s, 50, 60s. It’s beautiful. Strong vintage inspiration is what distinguishes a classic woman from a trendy girl.

Where is the jewelry made? If outsourced, do you have control over your chain to ensure it’s all fair labor?

1928 is made in the US, our main facility is in Burbank, California. We have strict policies on the chain to ensure ethical and fair treatment of our labors.

Where can we get it?

All 1928 Jewelry collections, including Vintage Bridal, can be bought online at 1928.com. The more modern line of 2028 is available at Macy’s or online.