SocialMarketingExpert browsing and came upon a panel discussion in the article by Pete Blackshaw entitled “Ad-Tech “Master Class” Panel: If You Had $5 to Spend Online? ” In it a panel made up of the NY Times, Kraft, Intuit, Zappos.com, and 1800Flowers.com were asked, “If your goal is to sell management on the value of investing online, and you only had $5 to spend, where would you start?”

To summarize:
1) Invest the money in nailing key consumer insights around online behavior.
2) Invest it in customer service, call support, or even employee training.
3) invested it in product (his definition of “product” encompassed their user online communities.) Thought being it would act as a de-facto customer support labor force.
4) Efficiently spend it on online advertising on “participatory platforms” such as the New York Times. Why?  Because if you invest in areas rich with influencers, it can increase your odds of success since consumers look to their peers on how and what to buy.
5) Test and measure user-interaction, feedback, and even spending patterns.

Take some time and digest the information found in the article. Pay particular attention to the bottom of the article where they discuss “Lessons from Obama’s Digital Effort.”

Also check out the link for Paul’s post “10 Interactive Marketing Tips from Barack and Hillary” at
http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628604