October 25, 2009
Today I would like to share a few links that I found to be particularly interesting this past week. Check em out and let me know what you think!
Facebook Home Page has a New Look
So there is now a News Feed and a Live Feed on the home page? Just like with most Facebook updates, the responses to the change have been mixed. What does it all mean? Why did Facebook make the change? Click the link above to find out. Just like with the last changes Facebook made – in the long run it is going to make Facebook even better and more organized!
2009 Masters of Business Online Summary from Douglas Karr
If you are involved in the Indianapolis, Indiana social media scene, you were likely exposed to all of the buzz that came along with the Masters of Business Online. Landing pages, online video, search engine optimization, pay per click advertising and social media – these were just some of the topics covered at this great event. Get an inside look at what took place during the event from Douglas Karr by clicking on the link above.
Thank Goodness It’s Monday
One of my favorite people to follow online is Scott Stratten, President of Un-Marketing.com. On Friday I was checking out his new initiative, Thank Goodness It’s Monday and I just had to share. It’s a great concept: stop letting the day of the week determine your attitude. Embrace each day and make the most of it. Scott is forming a group of people he calls the” 1%” that refuse to fall into the “TGIF” mentality. Click the link above to check out his video on why he’s doing this. If you like what he has to say, enter your email address to get signed up. He will follow-up immediately, as always, with an email welcoming you to the “1%.”
2 Comments | 
branding, facebook, internet marketing, social media | Tagged: douglas karr, facebook new layout, masters of business online, scott stratten, unmarketing | 
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Posted by derekmcclain
October 18, 2009
I have been using my Gmail account recently for professional use and not use personal use. One of the things that I seemed to be missing was a nice looking, custom HTML signature. Sure, I had my name and basic contact info, but that just wasn’t cutting it. I needed something more appealing. Every communication is an opportunity for someone to connect with me via social media or to check out our company’s Web site and I no longer wanted to miss these opportunities. I did preliminary searches and found that several Gmail users were also frustrated with the inability to add a nice looking HTML signature. I knew something had to be out there and I became determined to find the best solution.
I first ran across a Firefox plugin called Blank Canvas. The plugin allowed for custom HTML signatures in Gmail. Just what I was wanting! Right? Wrong. Like many other HTML editors it was not user friendly. My signature did not display as I wanted and it was just a pain to use. There had to be something that was user friendly that could generate a stunning signature.
Ironically enough at that very time, I also had my Google Reader open and ran across a Hubspot Blog post about simple branding opportunities that cannot be overlooked. Sure enough, in the first paragraph was a link to another Firefox plugin for email signatures called WiseStamp. WiseStamp allows you to create very professional and creative email signatures for Gmail, AOL Mail, Yahoo! Mail, and Hotmail. Best of all it’s simple to use! It takes about 2 minutes to get your signature setup and there are even several email signature templates set up to choose from. Adding your social networking links is a breeze! Just enter the URL and the icons are taken care of automatically. This email signature tool even allows you to share your latest blog post via a link in your email signature automatically.
I would recommend taking a few minutes to set up an email signature via WiseStamp right now if you are using Gmail, AOL mail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail. Take advantage of this simple, but often overlooked branding opportunity.
Check out the video below for a quick overview:
done
2 Comments | 
Gmail, branding | Tagged: custom HTML Emai signature, firefox email signature, gmail email signature, gmail HTML email signature, wisestamp email signature | 
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Posted by derekmcclain
September 23, 2009
If you are a business and/or a brand, word of mouth marketing is important to you. You want people to say good things about you and recommend you to their family, friends, and co-workers. With the rise of Internet usage and social media come more outlets for people to be discussing your brand. How do you monitor what people are saying on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, YouTube, etc? Sure there are tools like Google Alerts and Radian6 which can help you keep an eye on things. But how do you respond to all of your brand buzz? What if all of this observing and responding occured in one central place?
Well now it can. On Seth’s Blog today he officially announced the launch of Brands In Public. This is part of Squidoo, a company he founded. Brands in Public already has some large brands like Home Depot, Guinness, Allstate and Hello Kitty up and running.
The basic idea is that each of these brands have a page where all tweets, blog posts, news stories, images and videos about that brand show up. Everything in one central place. Good or bad. It’s one thing for people to be ”talking” about you, but it’s another thing for you to participate in this discussion. And the goal of Brands in Public is to make that participation easy. Because that is when the real value comes in. The question is – are you willing to pay $400 a month to do so?
What do you think? I am curious.
Leave a Comment » | Seth Godin, internet marketing, social media | Tagged: brand management, brands in public, google alerts, online brand management, Seth Godin, squidoo | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 21, 2009
I posted last week about the new Facebook @Mentions that again show Facebook is going head to head with Twitter. Since that time, I have been using this new functionality when it’s relevant. I must say it is very useful when used appropriately. It is a great way to link people directly to a company’s fan page or another person’s profile right from your status update. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out how effective it can be when passing a referral online. Let me explain.
I saw last week where one of my friends had posted that she was looking for a company to help with design and production of shirts for her company. Rather than simply telling her that I knew someone that could help with this need or even just typing that persons name, I decided to take advantage of the @mentions. BAM! A direct link to that person’s profile. But not only did my @mention post on her wall, it also posted on the person’s wall that I was referring to in the @mention. Before I could even follow up with my friend to tell him that I had a referral, he had already contacted my other connection with the shirt production need! I then went to follow up with her and she was amazed at how promptly he was able to follow up. He will likely get the business because within minutes she was able to find a recommend solution for her need. Now that was EASY!
Next time you see a post from one of your Facebook friends asking for help and you have a connection you can put them in contact with, remember this is a perfect time to give the new Facebook @mentions a try!
facebook @mentions make passing a referral easy
Leave a Comment » | 
facebook, networking | Tagged: facebook @mention, facebook for business, facebook referrals | 
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Posted by derekmcclain
September 20, 2009
My co-workers and I have been talking alot recently about the subject of customer service. More specifically, the lack of customer service. Many of our conversations have naturally gravitated toward the food and dining industry. We all eat out. We all enjoy eating out and expect good customer service. However, over the past few months the stories about horrible customer service have poured in. Employees not looking their customers in the eyes. Ignoring your customers when dropping off the menus. Arguing about using a coupon and accusing the customer of changing the date. These are just a few of the things we have been subjected to over the past few months.
I made a vow to blog about my the next great customer service experience. Months have passed since then. But today I end my custom service blogging silence. Because today I discovered that customer service does still exist! And believe it or not, it is in the food and dining industry.
The diner, Best Bet, is located in Noblesville, Indiana. Best Bet is decked out with poker themed items such as chips, playing cards and even jail cell like bars around the register. They serve a great breakfast and also offer lunch. Here are the customer service points they can offer to any restaurant:
Acknowledge Your Customers - This is a small diner, but the place was packed. There were 4-5 groups waiting at all times. Instead of ignoring the waiting customers or acting frustrated, the owner went to each customer personally to start a brief conversation. He shook their hand and made eye contact. He thanked them for coming out. He even offered complimentary drinks to some parties that had to wait more than 5 minutes. Simply put, he embraced the situation and made the best of it. Many times customers will leave as soon as they realize there is going to be a wait. Because of these tactics, every single customer staid…with a smile on their face.
Personalize the Experience - Not only did the staff introduce themselves, but they also asked for first names from the customers. These names were written on the order and on the final bill. A small gesture that continued the overall great experience.
An Atmosphere To Remember - Poker themed decorations were very appropriate and well thought out. Each table was a poker table with glass over the top of it. The diner was clean and everyone was moving to deliver food promptly. All employees seemed happy…a nice change of pace!
The Food and Follow Up - Of course the product must deliver on the high expectations. The food was very tasty and solidified me doing this review. And the follow up was great as well. The staff came back to check up on their customers to confirm they were enjoying the experience.
Best Bet is truly a breath of fresh air in the Indianapolis, Indiana area. This small diner is taking all of the little things that the big chains do wrong and capitalizing on their mistakes. And even with an almost hidden location, the customers don’t stop coming through the doors! Big restaurant chains – take notes!
Best Bet Noblesville Indiana - photo from Urbanspoon
6 Comments | case studies | Tagged: best bet noblesville indiana, case study dining, customer service, customer service case study | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 16, 2009
I love having the ability to work with our team at Fusework Studios to develop a creative ideas for our clients. But having the opportunity to execute these ideas to see the results is when the true reward comes in.
In a recent meeting with one of our long-time clients, Jay-Crew Landscape, Inc. the owner came to me looking for a new idea to create some buzz. He wanted something fresh and something he had never done before. He was tired of doing the same thing and getting the same results. My first thought was to do some type of landscaping makeover. We covered some of the basics. He liked the idea and gave us the chance to run with it. Here is what we came up with:
Overview: You get “green” cash value in the amount of $1,000.00 to apply toward a “green” landscaping service that meets your particular needs. No purchase is necessary. You need only provide some basic contact information to enter and live within 60 miles of Muncie, IN. Short. Simple. Sweet.
I will be posting additional blogs taking a closer look at this case study combining social media marketing and email marketing, but the main point of this post is to encourage you to register for the Green for Green Sweepstakes and/or share with someone you think might be interested. This is a great opportunity for those that have been ignoring their landscaping all summer or those that just need a few final touches.
Visit GreenForGreenSweepstakes.com or just click on the graphic below to register now!
1 Comment | case studies, email marketing, fusework studios, internet marketing | Tagged: case study, fusework studios, green for green, jay crew landscape inc | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 9, 2009
Following up with my blog post topic from yesterday about online reviews and the impact these have on consumer purchasing decisions, today I would like to share a case study on how to promote and sell your book online. Kyle Lacy, CEO of Brandswag, recently finished his book, Twitter Marketing for Dummies. With a tight timeline this was not a task he could complete alone so he called in fellow social media practitioner Erik Deckers, who has been published in nine weekly newspapers through Indiana.
After a lot of hard work, last week Kyle announced that the book was available for order on Amazon.com. This is a huge accomplishment for Kyle and Erik. I know many people involved in the Indianapolis social media scene are very happy to see this success. Both Kyle and Erik are always looking to reach out to help others and this book is right up there with sites like SmallerIndiana.com as far as efforts that are really putting Indiana and more specifically Indianapolis on the map when it comes to big ideas/social media marketing. Ironically enough, social media marketing tools like Twitter have played and will play a big role in the success of this book. Kyle has done a great job of promoting this book and today I would like to take a closer look on how he is doing it:
- First off, the lead with Wiley Publishing to be considered as an author of the book came from a participant in a social media class about using tools like Facebook and Twitter. A class which was promoted using social media among other things.
- Kyle frequently posted Twitter, Blog and Facebook updates about his progress asking for feedback and suggestions in some cases.
- He even posted a blog entitled Help with Twitter Marketing for Dummies Book where he gave everyone that read his post and tweets an opportunity to get published in the book by submitting Twitter marketing thoughts in 140 characters or less. Simply put, this was a chance to have your Twitter thought and username go out to everyone that will be reading this book.
- Now that the book is available for purchase he is doing something that I think is huge – offering 100 free copies of the new book in exchange for a commitment to publish a review. The 100 copies will be split between people with a good network, or large following on social media, the Internet or their community and reviewers in magazines/newspapers. This is the perfect way to potentially have 100 different people (assuming everyone follows through) telling all of their friends, followers, business partners, etc. about your book. This has viral marketing written all over it.
Kyle has consistently reached out to help me in getting me personal blog started. He has also contributed in helping to promote Fusework Studios on Twitter and other social media tools. His reputation and eagerness to help make me sure that this book will be a success. I know I am looking forward to receiving my copy! Please join me in congratulating Kyle and Erik on this great accomplishment!
Leave a Comment » | Viral marketing, internet marketing, social media, twitter | Tagged: Kyle Lacy, Smaller Indiana, social media to promote and sell book online, twitter marketing for dummies, wiley publishing | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 7, 2009
When was the last time you read a review of a product or business online? Did this review influence your final purchasing decision in any way?
Coming up ranked #1 in a local business Google search is great. It can mean more phone calls and more online leads resulting in more business. Or it can work against you.
Still being relatively new to the Fishers area I was searching online for a local medical doctor to visit. I will not mention any names or the particular type of doctor I was seeking. The first place I went, as always, was to Google. I did a Google search for this type of doctor – local search results and the continued #1 organic listing underneath both turned the same doctor’s office. I checked out the Web site, determined this would be a good place to start…but wait…I went back to the results page and noticed there were also 6 reviews of this particular doctor/medical practice. I went on to read all 6 reviews. They were horrible. 6 different people provided “one star” reviews and stated they would NEVER visit that particular doctor again. In their reviews, they cited everything from waiting hours to get in to see the actual doctor, to the doctor making them feel so bad that they left in tears.
Now it’s hard to say if all of these negative reviews were 100% authentic, but the fact that there were 6 of them with descriptive encounters was enough to influence my decision to continue looking for someone else. The sad thing is that this same turn of events is happening for a lot of businesses that are spending money and working so hard to rank high in Google search. What is even more sad is that most have them have no idea, or if they do, they are doing nothing about it.
Kevin Hood wrote a great blog post about the impact of a review he saw online while searching for a place to purchase a tailored suit in The Internet Reflects Your Business. While he stated that the likelihood of someone leaving a negative review is probably higher than someone leaving a positive review…the bottom line is the negative reviews still influenced his purchasing decision.
Think if this particular doctor’s offered a free service or 25% discount to 50 of its best patients just for doing an online review. By targeting your best patients, most of the reviews would be positive. 50 positive reviews vs. only 6 negative reviews certainly makes coming up #1 in Google even more powerful.
What do you think of this idea? How much do you weigh online reviews into your purchasing decisions?
Leave a Comment » | branding, google, social media | Tagged: google search, online purchasing decisions, online reviews, rank #1 google, reading reviews online | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
September 1, 2009
Today I was turned on to a great blog post over at Copyblogger entitled “Are Vampire Words Sucking the Life Out of Your Writing?” that I just had to share. This post gives a key point of advice that will help you write better.
Here is the basic gist:
As writers we can often play it safe by using words like: quite, fairly, often, sometimes and may. These words are boring, show a lack of confidence and thus turn readers away. This is where the vampire analogy comes into play- these words act like vampires and suck the life right out of your sentence. So the next time you are thinking of writing a headline like “You May Gain More Customers and You Might Make More Money” you need to stop and stake the vampire words to keep your readers coming back for more.
Douglas Karr did a great job of this today over on the Marketing Technology Blog with his post entitled “Why I Don’t Like Facebook.” This instantly caught my eye and I had to read it. Now if his blog title had been “Why I Kinda Sometimes Don’t Like Facebook” I would not have been as inclined to read it. Heck he even went so far as to put “facebook-sucks” right there in the URL. It’s not every day a social media superstar proclaims that!
So the next time you are writing a blog post title, take a moment to review and find those vampires there as well. Today’s theme: Be confident. Be Bold.
3 Comments | Blogging, facebook, social media | Tagged: Blogging, copyblogger, douglas karr, facebook, vampire words, write better blogs | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
August 23, 2009
MSN.com is set as my home page. Not because I like using the built in Bing search, but because I love the way the site displays the latest news. While the home page is very busy, it is laid out in a way to my eye has become accustomed and I can quickly find what I want.
Being a big golf fan, I recently was drawn into several headlines about Tiger Woods potentially being fined by the PGA because of his criticism of a PGA official enforcing a strict time rule during his win over Padraig Harrington at the Bridgestone Invitational. These were very well written, enticing headlines. But when I clicked the headline, time and time again I became disappointed with the content. It was almost as if they were lying…well not lying, but more like stretching the truth. I also noticed within one of the articles several comments going back and forth from people feeling the same way. Disappointed searchers were definitely critisizing whomever could be held responsible for writing such headlines. Headlines such as, “Me? Fined? Tiger blasts erroneous report” would lead you to expect Tiger saying more than just “There was no fine. That was just an erroneous report.” It became ridiculous how misleading a series of headlines about this incident became. And NOTHING ended up happening to Tiger.
So the question I have is – Do the same people that write the articles also write the headlines? If so, shouldn’t it be their job to deliver relevant, accurate content for both. Or if different people are writing the headlines – is it their job to ONLY worry about getting the clicks? What do you think makes an effective online news headline? Do you get frustrated when the content behind the headline does not deliver?
3 Comments | case studies, internet marketing | Tagged: msn headlines, Tiger Woods, tiger woods fined | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
August 19, 2009
I ran across some quality links about social media tools such as Facebook that I just have to share with you. One is about managing your Facebook account. The other is about how social media is changing the way we communicate. If you have any links you would like to share, just leave them for me in the comments area.
How I Manage Facebook – Chris Brogan
Four Minutes of Video Awesomeness: Is Social Media A Fad? – Marketing Pilgrim
So what do you think? How do you manage Facebook? Is social media just a fad?
Leave a Comment » | facebook, social media | Tagged: Chris Brogan, facebook management, manage facebook, marketing pilgrim, social media | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
August 5, 2009
This is my 100th blog post! The first of many milestones for this blog. I originally created D-Mac’s Blog with the intention of learning as much as I possibly could by obtaining first hand blogging experience. As I started blogging regularly, I began to open my eyes to all of the benefits of blogging. It truly is amazing. I’ve learned that blogging is great for creating, building, and maintaining relationships. Both on a personal and business level. My blog has given me the opportunity to meet a lot of great people and I have also been able to generate some leads for business in doing so, which was not its original intent.
Check out some of my earlier posts for more information on why I started blogging:
Why Should I Start A Blog
Blogging-Just Go For it!
What can you expect from D-Mac’s Blog in the future?
I will continue to vary my posts in style and make an effort to include more posts that really reflect a strong opinion about a particular topic. Robby Slaughter suggested including a rant and more constructive critcism…and I have to agree I need more of these posts.
I will include more Reviews and How-To themed posts. I continue to see a great deal of feedback from these types of posts with our clients at Fusework Studios and also on my personal blog. My BlackBerry Storm reviews and Facebook How To posts really helped some people out which is always an awesome feeling.
Finally, I will be changing the design up a bit and including more videos, slideshows, and other interactive. But make no mistake about it…my number one focus will always be to deliver quality content.
Thank you for being a reader and I look forward to sharing my next 100 blog posts with you!
Leave a Comment » | Blogging | Tagged: blog ideas, blog posts, Blogging, Blogging tips | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
July 27, 2009
Here is a challenge for today…
Find another blogger that you respect, it can be someone you know or do not know. Then take a few minutes out of your day to help improve his or her blog. Many people will go around leaving the same comment on every blog they run across, but your challenge is to spend some quality time here helping someone else out. Here are just a few ways you can do that:
- Leave insightful comments
- Promote the blog post on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter
- Offer to write a guest post on a particular subject
- Link to their blog in your next post
- Suggest topics you would like to see them cover in future posts
We often spend so much time with our own blog that we miss out on some great things that can happen when helping out someone else. I have met a lot of great people and had a a lof of great conversations doing this. Give it a try and I think that you will find Karma does come back around.
1 Comment | Blogging | Tagged: Blogging, Blogging Challenge, Blogging tips, problogger challenge | Permalink
Posted by derekmcclain
