ChasNote

Given that human brain chemistry makes us jones for new information, it’s a smart idea that Comcast built their latest online campaign around an information-rich Small Business Efficiency Center for its professional customers, with business tips pulled from the pages of Guy Kawasaki’s, Anita Campbell’s, John Jantsch’s, Chanpory Rith’s and the Behance community’s websites.

Comcast’s ad banners, running on the sites that licensed the content and others, lead with content headlines rather than promotions.

This campaign was put together by Jessica Richards at One to One Interactive, and John Shankman, Teresa Nielsen Hayden and Matt Jessell at FM.

Looking to bask in the glow of audiences whose experiences are improved by sponsors, Microsoft has rolled out “mobile post” technology across 20 FM sites, such as Duct Tape Marketing, Stowe Boyd and Open Road TV. It’s great to see marketers making the effort to add value to the media experience.

The project team on the above includes Matt Nessier and Patrick O’Neil at Universal McCann; Jared Katzman, Josh Mattison, Marcia Simmons, Stephanie Loleng, Andy Yang, Nate Vogel, Ivan Kanevski, Frank Leahy and Matt Jessell at FM; and many content-creating members of the extended FM family such as Stowe Boyd, John Jantsch and Doug McConnell.

American Express announced their new “plum card” earlier this month at the Inc 500 event in Chicago. Two FM authors, John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing and Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends, attended the event and covered the launch. (Amex runs ads on both sites.)

Googling “plum card” gives you a glimpse into the new dynamics of influence. Business Week and Inc. have more reach (unique users and pageviews) than sites like Duct Tape Marketing and Small Business Trends, and American Express owns the “plum card” trademark, but Google ranks results in order of relevance. Which sites, Google’s algorithm asks, are most trusted by others, based on their in-bound links? It turns out Duct Tape Marketing (the #2 organic result) and Small Business Trends (#3) are the marketshare leaders when it comes to trust influence in the world small business. American Express’s own site ranks #4.