McEWANHACKETT.COM

As my friend Martin says about marketing, it's all too easy to treat it as the superficial topping on a not very good dish...

Its the same with New Marketing or Web 2.0. They'll always be pressure from senior management to put on the bells and whistles of social networking, mash-ups and so on, onto your corporate website.

But if your website (and the customer service and experience wrap around activity) isn't right and does not reflect the web 2.0 "topping" it will still be the lipstick...

To communicate...to sell online...to build awareness...to do some good even.

It could be all of the above or something completely different. But here's the thing. If you don't know why you or your organization doesn't know why the website is there, then you need to rethink. Take it down and spend the money and time on something else...

After the Radiohead episode, it looks like more bands are looking for newer and more innovative ways of reaching their fans (and getting new ones of course) and persuading them to purchase their product.

The latest idea seems to be a try before you buy version whereby fans can trial new music before buying. This hits two birds with one stone sometimes as with REM letting fans hear their new album via the iLike function on FaceBook recently. REM wanted fans to let them know whether their return to earlier influences was a good or a bad move, and also obviously gave them a huge PR opportunity...