Astroturfing refers to misrepresentation in the world of the web - a coordinated, but covert, public relations effort masquerading as an independent grassroots campaign in the hopes of influencing opinion.

The word "Astroturfing" is a play on the artificial, slick surface first used in the Houston Astrodome. It is used to suggest that an alleged grassroots campaign cited by a corporation is fake or pretending to be natural.

In today's world of savvy consumers and watchdog groups, companies that try to hide their true intentions are being uncovered via programs like WikiScanner, which looks to see if corporations have edited their own Wikipedia entries. And so, just as athletes succumb to the hardness of Astroturf, those organizations that employ the strategy of Astroturfing are bound to have their reputations damaged.

Examples of Astroturf accusations in recent months include a campaign for clean coal and alleged Microsoft participation in dialogue on the web.

Origin

Astroturf is a synthetic field surface invented by Monsanto in 1967, nicknamed for its original use in the Houston Astrodome. U.S. Sen. Lloyd Bentsen is credited with co-opting the term to refer to a public relations campaign.

Marketers often believe their job is done as soon as sales leads start coming in the door. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how marketing dollars are wasted. Successful marketers help turn leads into customer conversions because they understand that sales can be the most valuable metric for measuring new campaigns.

In attempting to fulfill their responsibility to connect campaigns to the bottom line, many marketers discover that their efforts are hampered by poor conversion rates resulting from an underperforming sales team. So, marketing needs to understand how to communicate with the sales department and effectively motivate the team responsible for converting leads. We brought in somebody fluent in the language of sales, Tim Brenton, President of the Brenton Group, Inc., to teach marketers the right questions to ask the sales management team and assess whether the right processes are in place for success.

The online search engine and advertising category has been slowly simmering beneath the surface, and it finally came to a boil with Microsoft initializing a hostile takeover of Yahoo! last week. Upon hearing all the rumbling in their backyard, Google looked out their back window, saw the two search engines fighting, and decided: "Awww heck, might as well try to break this up."

Here's a timeline of events leading up to this week (and it just keeps getting juicier and juicier).

The Long Tail is a new business philosophy that suggests that many small markets can be worth as much, or more, than one huge market. But for that to hold true, consumers must have equal access to companies of all sizes via a marketplace like the Internet.

"It's an embarrassment of niches," says writer Kevin Kelleher.

The Long Tail means that as a company's distribution power increases, it can sell a higher volume of different items, rather than focusing on a select group of products. The Long Tail eliminates the need for bestsellers.

The Internet has played a critical role in the development of the Long Tail because it has made hard-to-find products readily available. As a result, corporations have been able to monetize demand as the opportunity cost of marketing to smaller demographic groups has decreased.

Origin

The phrase first entered the lexicon in October 2004 when Wired editor Chris Anderson wrote an article about the business models behind Amazon and Netflix - it's a concept that he would expand upon in his book The Long Tail: Why The Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

We're not going to unpack this idea for you; we're just going to explain it. Every day we run across a host of buzzwords in marketing and new media. The prevailing assumption is that everyone knows what these concepts mean, even though they're describing cutting-edge trends, which are not yet fully understood.

In an effort to cut through some of the noise and save you time, we'll be offering simple explanations for the latest marketing speak. We like to just get to the point here at Halo and get you back on your way. And now you know just what the hell is "what the hell is?..."

For many CFOs marketing is the nebulous part of business. On the surface, it doesn't appear to mesh with their traditional short-term focus on improving productivity and reducing costs. The CFO is charged with prioritizing budgetary resources, balancing the needs of departments across the company, including marketing.

But is marketing effectively making its case?

"Well, I guess it's time for my root canal."

That was the most memorable thing that Ed would say to me all day. Ed (not his real name) was the number-two executive at a major U.S. financial firm, and first in line to succeed the soon-to-retire CEO. He had been through the wringer with a number of media trainers, and it showed.

We had been introduced, and Ed just didn't want to be with me. There was a seemingly permanent scowl on his beefy, reddish face. He had a perfectly pressed shirt and great gold cufflinks, but his collar was a couple of sizes too tight.

When it came time for our mock interview, Ed spoke to me in a laconic monotone, scattered with eminently quotable moments like: "yes," "no," and "I dunno, about six or seven people." It made me wonder how he had gotten as far as he did.