It all started on July 1 when the topic #moonfruit started trending on Twitter. Within a matter of hours, “moonfruit” was more popular than Michael Jackson.

Naturally, people on Twitter started to notice. Tweets started showing up all over the place saying “WTF is #moonfruit?” After all, what could possibly be more popular than Michael Jackson the week of his death?

A Twitter Campaign with Staying Power

So here’s the scoop.

Moonfruit is a web design company. They decided to give away 10 MacBook Pros on Twitter, one a day for 10 days. And all you have to do to enter is tweet #moonfruit.

Turns out, the campaign caught on like wildfire, and #moonfruit has been the #1 trending topic on Twitter for 48 hours now. I don’t think I’ve EVER seen a topic trend that long in the #1 spot. Pretty amazing.

I’ve seen other guys run contests on Twitter, and they’re usually fairly successful. But usually there is only one prize, or the duration of the contest is hours instead of days. There’s some buzz, but it doesn’t last.

Two things Moonfruit has done differently:

1. Give away a high-value prize.
2. Give away 10 prizes.

This is what has made the campaign go viral. The campaign has created so much buzz that news of it is moving off Twitter and has been covered on popular sites like Mashable and Brand Republic.

As a direct response marketer, the key question I want to know is: Will Moonfruit be able to turn all this attention into new business?

How to Enter the Moonfruit Contest…

If you’re on Twitter, you too can tweet for a chance to win a MacBook Pro. Simply tweet this:

Celebrate 10 years of Moonfruit and win a MacBook Pro http://bit.ly/96bxC #moonfruit

Of course, you can tweet whatever you want, so long as you include the #moonfruit hash tag.

And, while you’re at it, you can follow me @healymonster.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Happy 4th of July! Enjoy the holiday weekend, and stay safe.

The more mindshare you occupy in a person’s brain, the more likely it is they’ll respond to whatever you ask them to do.

Naturally, mindshare is a very valuable thing.

Is this why some gurus will tell you to stop following so many people on Twitter… or to stop reading so many blogs… or to unsubscribe from the majority of the email lists you’re on?

Perhaps.

In some cases, I’m sure there’s an underlying (but unspoken) message: Stop listening to everybody else — except for me!

But I don’t think that’s a primary motivation.

Personally, I follow my own advice. I only read a small number of blogs on a regular basis. I continually analyze my email subscriptions and unsubscribe from those that are no longer worthwhile. And I recently stopped following 60+ people on Twitter.

Why?

Because too much information is bad for productivity.

It’s that simple.

The more information you consume, the less you will get done. Consume too much information, and you may experience “information constipation” — a condition where you have so much information you don’t know where to start.

So if I tell you to do the same — to go on a low-info diet, as Tim Ferriss might say — now you know my reasoning.

And if there is an unintended side-effect that I capture more mindshare in the process, so be it. But that’s not what’s driving my advice to unsubscribe. And for the majority of gurus who recommend you unsubscribe, I don’t think that’s what’s motivating them either.

Fact: Information overload lowers your IQ as much as a night without sleep.

I think this is why my productivity spikes after getting away from my computer. Going for a walk, going to the gym, or going on a bike ride clears my mind and gives my brain room to breathe.

I think  more clearly; I get more ideas; and I get more done. This is why I am personally always pruning the amount of information I’m taking in.

With regard to mindshare: If you want to capture more of it, I think the strategy is simple: be different, provide more value, and be entertaining. Everything else will take care of itself.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Thanks to Keith Goodrum, Terry Dean, and Michel Fortin for helping spur some of these thoughts.

Get this: Amazon just kicked off an advertising contest where the winners get $20,000 in Amazon Gift Certificates. Looks like they’ll be choosing two winners, and they’ll each get a $10,000 gift certificate.

I figured you’d want to know about it because chances are you’re good at writing copy… or… you want to get good at writing copy. And even though the contest involves creating a VIDEO ad, I figured it would be a fun exercise in advertising.

Who knows? Maybe it will push you to broaden your copywriting horizons.

Personally, I plan to carve out some time for this, just for the fun of it. Plus, it’ll force me to buy that Flip video camera I’ve been eyeing for the last year.

Interested in learning more or creating an ad for the contest? Go check it out here:

Amazon Advertising Contest

-Ryan M. Healy

MaestroConference is the latest development in teleseminar technology. It’s a breakthrough teleconference platform that allows you to simulate a live workshop on the phone, complete with breakout groups, hand-raising, passing the mic, and more.

If you conduct training or sell products by teleconference… or if you’re just frustrated by poor quality teleconference services that don’t live up to their promises… then you’ll be pleasantly surprised by MaestroConference.

Just as Apple changed music forever when they released the iPod, MaestroConference is already changing how teleconferences are conceived, conducted, and consumed.

Here are a few of the major improvements that take teleseminars to a whole new level…

Major Improvement #1: Breakout Groups

In most webinars and teleseminars, there are one or two speakers and a whole bunch of listeners. And unless you allow questions, the listeners are stuck in a passive state. They’re minimally engaged, at best.

Even when you do allow questions, only a fraction of your listeners are able to participate.

Now, imagine for a moment that instead of engaging 5% of the people on your webinar or teleseminar, you could engage 100% of them. And imagine that you could do it as easily as clicking a couple of visual icons on your computer screen.

How much more would your listeners learn from your training calls if they could be actively engaged and interacting with other listeners? How much more loyal would they be to you? How much more could you sell to listeners who were fully engaged?

Here are a few real-life scenarios where break-out groups could revolutionize your virtual trainings:

Scenario #1: Workshops

Your teleconference workshops can now have the same kind of intimacy and immediacy of a real-life workshop.

You set up the exercises in advance, and then group participants in pairs or threes or fours to run through your exercises in a small private setting.

When small group breakouts are done, you can bring everybody back into a large group and have a spokesperson from each group share key takeaways with the larger group.

Want to take it a step further?

Have two or three special guests, each with a particular expertise. Invite your listeners into breakout groups according to what they are most interested in learning about.

This is done all the time at real-life seminars. Now you can do it on the phone.

Scenario #2: Training

Picture this: You’re training your multi-state sales team on how to make sales calls and improve their close rates.

After reviewing the new sales script that’s been tested and proven to get the best results, you move your sales team into pairs so they can role play over the phone.

You can even “walk the room,” dropping in on pairs to see how they are doing, just like you would in an in-person training.

In only 10 minutes, every single one of your sales people has had an opportunity to test-drive the sales script with a real human being.

Then, after you bring everybody back into the large group, you can answer questions about the sales script immediately. You can coach individuals, address concerns, and return them to the same partner for another round of practice.

Scenario #3: Virtual Networking

One of the most valuable aspects of a live seminar or training event is networking — meeting colleagues, other service providers, and potential clients.

Now imagine the value of creating a similar networking environment… on the telephone!

After everybody calls in and you welcome them to the call, simply create breakout groups of 2, 4, or however many you want, then let them introduce themselves, where they’re from, and what they do.

Give them as much time as you like to exchange information…and listen in on the buzzing “room” you’ve created.

You can then mix everybody up into different groups, and do it all over again. In perhaps only 30 minutes, all the people you’ve brought together on the phone have received immense value. What’s more, they’ve had a unique experience they will remember and tell other people about.

Scenario #4: Engaging the Team

Do you have a loyal following of people who’ve never had an opportunity to meet each other before?

Then imagine setting up a virtual training and networking event where the members of your “team” have an opportunity to meet each other by phone.

One of the strongest motivations in the world is the desire to belong. So by creating a way for people who share a common interest to meet, you’ve just made them more loyal to you and your group.

Knowing and being known… feeling a sense of belonging… these are powerful emotions that can create an unbreakable bond with the people you serve. And MaestroConference makes it easy for people to interact and be touched by others.

Scenario #5: Mastermind Groups

If you’ve ever tried running a Mastermind Group, then you already know it can be a challenge to give everybody equal opportunity to speak.

It can be even harder to give everybody equal time in the “hot seat.” Usually, one or two members dominate the discussion — and the others feel left out.

The beauty of MaestroConference is you can use the built-in timer to time each member. You can give pre-recorded audio queues when you reach certain time thresholds. And you can mute all lines except the person who’s speaking.

MaestroConference enables you to have an orderly Mastermind Group where everybody is heard and receives value from the group.

Major Improvement #2: Q&A Calls That Are Quiet, Clear and Organized

If you’ve ever opened up the lines to take questions from your listeners, then you know the kind of chaos that ensues.

As people unmute their phones, there are dozens (if not hundreds) of beeps, background noises, awkward silences… followed by a cacophony of voices competing to be noticed.

And how do you call on any one person?

Answer: You can’t.

The most persistent person wins. And, unfortunately, you never know how many people wanted to ask a question… but simply couldn’t (or wouldn’t).

And that creates a bad user experience.

Imagine: You just carved out precious time from your schedule to participate in a teleseminar or webinar, but you are leaving the call with none of your questions answered. Talk about frustrating!

This happens more often than you might think.

A person who doesn’t get his or her questions answered… and feels jilted… may go in search of an expert who is more accessible or responsive than you are. That’s a real risk.

Plus, I’m sure you’ve had one of those calls where somebody was yelling in the background… or banging pots and pans… or typing loudly… or even talking to somebody else, completely unaware they were sharing their private conversation with the world.

As the call organizer, this is embarrassing.

And irritating, too!

Fortunately, MaestroConference offers an unbeatable alternative called “Instant Question Recognition”

At the start of your MaestroConference call, simply tell your callers to press 1 on their keypads any time they have a question. You will instantly see how many people have questions… at every moment of your call.

Then, when you are ready to address their questions, simply “pass the microphone” to anyone with a raised hand. That person will then be able to speak and ask a question.

Nobody else will be able to talk until you pass the mic to them. And since all the lines will be muted except one at a time, there will be peace and quiet.

All of this means:

• No more annoying beeps when people unmute themselves, and then mute themselves again.

• No more clamoring and talking over each other in an effort to be heard.

• No more callers feeling ignored and unimportant because they couldn’t ask their questions or get them answered.

• No more loud background noises that drown out the people who are actually paying attention.

• No more feeling out of control or being embarrassed by an unprofessional teleconference experience.

All these problems are solved. Because you simply keep passing the mic to each individual person until everybody who has raised a hand has had a chance to speak. Each call participant will feel valued, acknowledged, and heard.

Here’s What the MaestroConference Conductor’s Panel Looks Like…

Whenever you conduct a MaestroConference call, you’ll be using the unique Conductor’s Panel, shown above. You’ll notice the hands on the right side, listed next to the names of those on the call.

When a participant presses a button on his phone, his hand will go up. You’ll even be able to call on the person by name.

The ability to see who is on the call and when they drop off is one of my favorite features. I especially like that I can address people personally, by their name. I would never be able to do this on a normal teleseminar.

What About Screen Sharing?

A common question that comes up is whether or not MaestroConference offers screen sharing.

The answer is no, they don’t offer screen sharing at this time. Of course, you are welcome to use GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, or Glance.net if you’d like to have a webinar component in conjunction with MaestroConference.

Although this can be a little bit tricky since you’ll have one screen open to conduct your MaestroConference (like the screen shot above) — and another screen open to show your PowerPoint presentation (or whatever it is you’re presenting).

Honestly, if you’re a presenter who just wants to give a presentation with a slide presentation, and you’re not interested in engaging your audience, then MaestroConference is probably not a good choice for you.

Because what MaestroConference does is turn you into a facilitator. No longer are you just presenting information to a mostly-passive and silent audience.

Rather, you’re engaging people, facilitating connections and discussions — all thanks to the “x-ray vision” you get using the MaestroConference Conductor’s Panel.

Is MaestroConference Worth It?

MaestroConference is perfect for coaches, trainers, speakers, information marketers, nonprofits, and relationship-focused business owners who want to deliver superior virtual learning events.

If you’re interested, it’s really best to just try it out for yourself. Right now, MaestroConference is offering a 30-day free trial to anybody who requests one. Click the link below to get a free trial now.

Click Here for a Free Trial of MaestroConference

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Full disclosure: I am the Affiliate Manager for MaestroConference, so I do have a financial incentive in telling you about MaestroConference. That said, this is a product I would endorse even if I wasn’t invested in it.

You might wonder why I asked you to tell me your favorite brands a couple weeks ago. The reason I did this was to prove a point: brands are powerful.

In a world of information overload, brands are even more important. They give us a decision shortcut — a way to side-step all the choices we’re faced with every day.

We don’t evaluate dozens of different brands every time we go to buy a certain type of product. We do our evaluation once, maybe twice, then we default to our “brand of choice” for months, years, and possibly decades.

This is the power of a brand.

In a way, we are brainwashed… or brandwashed… to make certain buying decisions.

Does this mean that brand-name “image” advertising is good advertising? No. In fact, most image advertising is terrible. Yet brands thrive in spite of their advertising. The question is Why?

If you look at all the brands people listed as brands they love, you’ll find that most of them deliver more than just a product or service; they deliver a positive memorable experience.

For instance, Apple, Amazon, and Starbucks were all listed more than once. And all of them deliver an experience.

• Apple offers a fun, low-stress environment where you can demo all their computers and ask as many questions as you want before you buy. (Of course, they have an amazing product, which doesn’t hurt either.)

• Amazon offers a fast, convenient buying experience that is customized to you and your buying habits. Ordering is easy, prices are hard to beat, and Amazon’s personalized recommendations often lead you to new musicians and authors you would have otherwise never discovered.

• Starbucks offers more than just coffee — they offer a pleasant environment where you can relax, read, study, visit with friends, or check your email. When you buy a cup of Starbucks coffee, you’re also buying ambiance.

Starbucks also showed up on my list. That’s because my wife and I used to go on dates at Starbucks. It was our favorite hang-out both before and after we got married. We’ve been going to the same Starbucks/Barnes & Noble combo for more than a decade now. That’s a lot of talks and a lot of memories.

So each time I support Starbucks, I’m buying not just the coffee (which I happen to like), I’m also buying my memories and all those good feelings I’ve associated with Starbucks.

In my view, people love brands that:

• Create a (positive) memorable experience.
• Stand for a certain value system or world view.

I believe a “memorable experience” is created primarily through one of two ways.

First, there is the experience that is designed to be extraordinary from the get-go. Take Disney, for instance. There’s nothing like it. And you’ll always remember the time you spend there because of that.

Second, there is the unexpected experience, usually in the form of outstanding customer service. This is why USAA showed up on my list. They’ve repeatedly given me excellent customer service. I haven’t experienced that anywhere else. So USAA stands out big time.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting because people hate brands for the same reasons they love them. We hate brands that…

• Create a (negative) memorable experience.
• Stand for a certain value system or world view.

Two examples…

Example #1: I hate Borders because I’ve repeatedly had bad experiences at their stores. And not just at one location — multiple locations. I was so upset by how I was treated at these stores that I literally “black-listed” them for years and refused to even step foot in one. Even today, years later, I will go out of my way to support their competitors.

Example #2: I strongly dislike Wal-Mart because of the values that run the company. Their approach to business is to save money at any cost — costs to the environment, costs to third-world countries, even costs to taxpayers. This is not what I believe in, so I intentionally avoid shopping at Wal-Mart.

So you see, we love and hate brands for essentially the same reasons. Interesting, eh?

Glenn Livingston dropped by and left an insightful comment. I’ve reproduced some of it here:

When I was a Fortune 500 consultant, we were involved with an advertising agency which wanted to promote the belief that people could define themselves by the three brands they absolutely couldn’t live without. They’d ask people what a typical day would be without those three brands. [...] Is your brand one of the 3 your customers couldn’t live without?

What a powerful question that is!

This is not to say we can all create “indespinsable brands” — but it’s certainly something worth striving for.

Remember: The more choices there are, the more important your brand is. Because a brand is how we shortcut the decision-making process. So, believe it or not, having a strong brand is important even for information marketers.

Case in point: How many blogs do you read on a daily/weekly/monthly basis?

I bet your daily blog list is short indeed. Maybe 3-7 blogs, max.

Taking a cue from Glenn, a good question to ask if you’re an information marketer might be, “Do I write one of the three blogs my customers couldn’t live without?”

Keep this in mind whenever you write blog posts… create information products… or do anything that defines (or refines) your brand.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. If you participated in my brand question from the previous post, thank you. It made this “thought experiment” much more interesting.

You can tell a lot about a person just by looking at the brands they’re passionate about.

It opens up a little window of insight into that person.

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to see what brands you’re passionate about — the ones you buy on a regular basis or talk about to your friends.

And if there are any brands you particularly hate, feel free to mention those, too.

I’ll go first:

• Starbucks
• Barnes & Noble (I hate Borders)
• New Belgium Brewery (makers of Fat Tire, etc.)
• Never Summer
• USAA
• Juice Plus+
• Blistex Herbal Answer
• Panera Bread

Want to participate? Just leave a comment below listing the brands you love (or hate).

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. This isn’t completely frivolous. I will be writing a follow-up post. The more responses we get, the more interesting it will be.

You probably already know this, but I’ll tell you anyway…

When you write, write. When you edit, edit. Try not to mix the two.

If you try to edit yourself while you’re writing, your brain will get all jammed up and you’ll experience that dreaded disease called “writer’s block.”

That’s because writing and editing involve two different parts of your brain. One is creative; the other is critical.

Okay.

With that in mind, how should you go about editing your sales letter once it’s finished?

Naturally, read through your copy to see if there are any misspellings, blatant grammar mistakes, grossly confusing parts, etc. Change whatever you feel needs to be changed.

This is good.

What’s better is this:

Read Your Copy Out Loud!

Print out the copy, close your study door, stand up and start reading aloud.

You’ll probably feel goofy… a little bit uncomfortable. But who cares?

You’re alone and nobody is watching.

So you’re reading out loud.

What’s going to happen is your going to get tripped up… by what YOU wrote!

If you ever have to slow down your pace of reading — or you literally have to stop reading because you can’t figure out what you wrote — then that’s a part of your copy that you need to improve.

You see, when you read quietly to yourself, you read faster and tend to skip over things that would normally trip you up. But when you read out loud, your reading pace slows w-a-y down. You’re literally forced to pay attention to bad writing.

And you’re forced to change it.

So next time you’ve got some copy you’re ready to edit, take the extra time and effort to read it out loud. It will most definitely be worth it.

-Ryan M. Healy

A blog is a playground.

You get to play with ideas and see how your readers respond.

A blog is a test lab.

You get to mix words in new ways, try new approaches. Then see what happens.

A blog is a direct response dream.

You get to measure which posts are more popular than others, which headlines work and which ones don’t. You get to see which ideas produce the most comments, retweets, and linkbacks.

A blog makes you a better marketer.

Gradually, you learn how to package your ideas better, how to write better, how to produce greater response. All in a low-cost, low-risk medium.

Don’t have a blog yet? Get one…

• http://www.wordpress.org
• http://www.wordpress.com
• http://www.typepad.com

-Ryan M. Healy

If you ever needed proof that we make emotional buying decisions, look no further than the smart car.

The smart car is a tiny two-seater that appeals to environmentally concerned folks. (I’m guessing the majority of the buyers are either single or married with no kids.)

You don’t buy a smart car because it’s a logical thing to do. The reason you buy a Smart Car is to make an “environmental statement.” Let me offer some proof:

Right now, a base “smart fortwo pure” costs $11,990.

And a base Toyota Yaris costs $12,205.

Of course, the Yaris includes air conditioning and power steering standard; the smart fortwo pure does not. So if we add those features in, we’re now up to $13,040 to get a similarly equipped smart car.

Alright, so how do these two cars stack up?

Compared to the smart fortwo pure, the Yaris has:

• double the seating space
• a 50% bigger engine
• 36 more horse power
• 35 more ft-lbs of torque
• vastly more luggage space
• 2.4 extra gallons of fuel capacity
• anti-lock brakes (standard!)
• and a higher top end (the smart fortwo has a max speed of 90 mph)

So what does the smart fortwo have going for it?

Well, you get slightly better gas mileage (33/41 vs. 29/36). And you get a car designed to be recyclable from the start. In theory, it is more earth friendly.

The reason I bring all this up is because humans are emotional creatures. We make emotional decisions in spite of logical justifications.

If we bought on logic, then nobody would buy a smart car. After all, who wants to pay MORE money for the privilege of driving a car that has far fewer features and capacity?

In this case, making an “environmental statement” is a valuable enough emotional benefit that people will pay good money for it.

What is the core emotional appeal of your service or product? What emotional benefit are people buying when they buy from you?

If your product’s emotional appeal is strong enough, it will trump logic — bringing you more passionate buyers who are willing to spend more money with you.

-Ryan M. Healy

Netflix is  a company that has strict standards. They understand they live and die by how fast they can turnaround movies and get them back in the hands of their customers.

So whenever there is a hiccup, they apologize. And they apologize whether I complain or not! It just happens.

Perfect example:

A couple nights ago, my wife and I sat down to watch a movie through Netflix using their “Watch Instantly” feature. Surprisingly, there was a notice posted on the web site saying there were technical issues: no movies were available to watch instantly.

Oh, well. No big deal. My wife and I changed plans.

With any normal company, that would’ve been the end of it. They would have fixed the technical issues, and the next time we would’ve been able to watch a movie as planned.

But get this… I open my email and I see that Netflix has contacted me. The subject line says, “We’re sorry you may have had trouble watching instantly on your computer.” The email goes on to say this:

Dear Ryan,

Last night, you may have had trouble watching movies or TV shows instantly on your computer due to technical issues on the website.

We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused. If you were unable to watch a movie or TV show last night due to the technical issues on the website, please click the link below, and we will apply a 2% credit to your next billing statement.

If you tried to watch a movie or TV show on the website last night and would like a credit, click on this account specific link in the next 7 days to apply your 2% credit. Credit can only be applied once.

Again, we apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding. If you need further assistance, please call us at 1-866-923-0898.

-The Netflix Team

Wow! Now that’s what I call customer service. Not only did they offer me a preemptive apology — they also offered me a 2% credit on my monthly bill just for my inconvenience!

What’s impressive about this is not so much the 2% credit — it makes no difference to me. What’s impressive is the effort they’re making to keep my business. They really care.

And that’s refreshing.

-Ryan M. Healy

P.S. Do you think Comcast could learn a thing or two from Netflix?