This is GREAT! We are both customers and big fans of Hubspot, and they released a new video yesterday and we wanted to be sure readers of The B2B Lead saw it. It already has over 200 diggs and is Number 1 in YouTube when you search “marketing.”

Earlier this month, we packed up our little dog and pony show and headed for Dreamforce, salesforce.com’s annual user conference.  If you have never been to Dreamforce, here’s a quick description: the Expo floor is pretty typical, cookie-cutter turnkey booths, lots of logoed button downs and khakis as well as a few who think outside the box (one booth was actually handing out condoms).  Last year we were the wackiest booth on the floor with a Let’s Make Deal theme complete with costumes.  This year, however, this was the first thing every attendee saw when they stepped onto the show floor:

I could not for the life of me figure out why this car was on the show floor and what it had to do with salesforce.com.  Come to find out it all had to do with Neil Young, yes that Neil Young.  He was a speaker at Dreamforce and is a driving force behind LincVolt.  Salesforce.com built a website for LincVolt; you can check it out here.  Apparently the site was built on the Force.com platform (so there is some relevancy) but the weird thing is LincVolt is not actually using it as their website.

The old adage says, “All press is good press,” but I have to say this was not at all targeted.  They did get a lot of attention and even the local news crew covered the event.   But LincVolt’s vision is “to inspire a generation by creating a clean automobile propulsion technology that serves the needs of the 21st Century and delivers performance that is a reflection of the driver’s spirit.”  Will someone tell me what that has to do with salesforce.com?

What’s your Google Rank? No, not your Google Page Rank, your personal Google Rank? That’s right, according to a story published by Business Week, Google has filed for a patent on technology for ranking the “influence” of people on social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Much like Google’s approach to ranking web sites, the algorithm would calculate your influence rating based on how many “friends” you have, how influential your friends are, how frequently you blog, etc. The article speculates that this breakthrough could finally make ads on social networks relevant and profitable.

Not sure about that. Sounds a bit too much like TwitterGrader to me and you all now know how much I like that product.

Attention Conservation Notice: The post below is a rant about having it all (work-life balance and a high Twitter Grade) with only one useful nugget of information. Read at your own risk.

First, let me apologize. With the exception of a few posts like the ones on LinkedIn’s new Social features and a Hitler Twitter video, I have been MIA for most of August and September. It was a busy August for this Mom and B2B Marketer, and I’m feeling restless and disappointed that I haven’t been posting, sharing results, and then sending out Tweets to let followers know the posts are live.

We had the most amazing B2B crisis communications case study on how our Twitter following came to our defense when a writer hyped up a security story without regard for the facts. Yet, I haven’t had the time to document the story. And, we’ve cooked up a killer little direct mail campaign involving warm cookies that I’d love to write about. But alas, children, pediatricians, Steiner Ranch elementary, and the demands of my position at BreakingPoint call.

So, while I manage to squeak out a blog post here and there, my Twitter feed has suffered badly. I haven’t been able to keep up with all of the messages each day, despite having Twitterific on my phone. Every day that goes by without sending a Tweet makes me feel more inadequate. Which got me to thinking, can we have it all? Super Mom? Super Marketer? Super Tweeter?

Apparently not.

The extremely smart and innovative folks over at Hubspot have launched a clever new tool for assessing your Twitter mojo. I believe this gadget was conceived for the sole purpose of pouring salt into my wound. It’s called Twitter Grader. My score: 52. My hope for significant improvement: 0.0.

You see, one of the most important of the grading criteria appears to be frequency. Another – the power of your followers. While I don’t want to name drop, I do have a few very impressive Twitter friends. Just a smaller circle. Must make me a true Introvert.

But on the frequency part, I am doomed. I often feel like I don’t have that much to say. Do you really want to know what I had for lunch or that I’m frustrated by the traffic on 360? So, I try to reserve my precious Tweet time for suggestions, ideas, and other helpful information. Not just updates on how my day is going.

On the positive side, I have yet another glorious metric for measuring the performance of BreakingPoint social media programs.

Google has captured the hearts and minds of most of the civilized world, so the company really doesn’t need to advertise. Although I, for one, wouldn’t mind if Google would reach out and update me on their latest “toys.” So, just what would a television ad for Google look like? Check out these hysterically funny YouTube videos produced by The Vacationeers, here is Part 1 of “The Googling” be sure to check the entire series.

Please note there are a few four letter words in the following video.

This video posted on the Fallon Planning blog is one of the funnier Marketing WTFs we’ve had in a while. I never thought I would commiserate with Hitler, but there’s nothing like Twitter to bring out the passion in its users. My absolute favorite moment is when the General nervously informs Hitler that “Twitter has been down since last night. Apparently Robert Scoble overloaded the servers.” Hitler, then clears the room of those who “think they’re too cool to use Twitter.” LOL – hysterical! Even funnier than the Tropic Thunder viral website at www.rainofmadness.com.

Would you be offended if you got an email with ROI – Up Yours as the subject line? Personally I think I’d giggle and check it out. If nothing else to see who is sticking their neck out there like this.

Well, we tried it here at ReachForce. The email content was all about Upping your ROI, so we were being relevant. We got mixed results on our risky move. We had about ½ dozen people email us to tell us we had offended them. Not many but it made us wonder how many more people we might have offended that just chose to delete the message instead of responding back.

On the flip side we had about dozen people reply back that they “loved” the subject line.

So where exactly is the line on going to far to get some attention?

For us, my Sales team asked for the subject line to be changed, so we did it but I must say that campaign doesn’t deliver near the results it used to…

Here’s a clever advertising campaign produced by Philadelphia Media Holdings, publishers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, and the Gyro ad agency.

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/06/06/ap5090444.html

Readers of those papers were treated to ads for a new airline called Derrie-Air, which purportedly charges passengers by the pound. Apparently, the goal for these faux ads was to “demonstrate the power of our brands in generating awareness and generating traffic for our advertisers, and put a smile on people’s faces.” Sadly, I’m not sure if even this clever creative can save today’s ailing newspapers.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting an outbreak of the flu at recent tech conferences. According to the report here.

“The San Francisco Department of Public Heath this week warned of an outbreak of the Norovirus at the Moscone Center, where Sun Microsystems is currently hosting the JavaOne conference. The Norovirus is a highly contagious flu-like virus that causes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and some stomach cramping. A spokesman for the city tells the Business Technology Blog that the warning came after the public-health department received several complaints from attendees at Sun’s conference.”

Seems like there have been quite a few other events afflicted by the outbreaks including the recent RSA Security Conference I attended which was focused on a far different type of virus.

Now this has some really exciting possibilities. And, a low, low price tag. Check out Flogos, floating ads and messages generated by re-purposed artificial snow machines. The machines can pop one Flogo out every 15 seconds, flooding the air with foamy peace signs or whatever shape a client desires. Renting the machine for a day starts out at a cost of about $2,500.

Even better, it’s environmentally friendly as the material is derived from plants.