Improve A Blog Today – Helping Other Bloggers

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: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

When A Video Goes Viral: JK Wedding Entrance Dance YouTube Video

July 23, 2009

Here is a day in the life of the Wedding Dance video on YouTube becoming viral sensation:

The JK Wedding Entrance Dance video is posted on YouTube…people begin talking and sharing the link

A popular blog, Outspoken Media, posts a blog titled The Power of the Unexpected

That post gets Tweeted and Retweeted

It also gets Dugg until it’s on the first page of Digg

A co-worker sees the link, it brightens the day and he must share with his staff

Several staff members Tweet about it…it gets Retweeted

Others share it on Facebook as well, friends on Facebook see it and it gets reposted – It even has it’s own Facebook group now!  Just search Wedding Dance Entrance in Facebook

And while this is only a microscopic look at how this video went viral, it is a small part of why the video started this morning with 75,000 views on YouTube and now has over 192,000 views less than 10 hours later.

Updated: The couple, Jill and Kevin Heinz, have already been contacted by Good Morning Amercia about this YouTube sensation.

So why is it generating so much buzz among the social media community?  It’s unexpected.  It’s memorable.  Most importantly it leaves you smiling and wanting more.  Wanting to watch again.  Wanting to share.  Check out the JK Wedding Entrance Dance video below.  I promise this is the most unique wedding entrance you have ever seen.

2 Comments | internet marketing, social media, Viral marketing | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

Learning About Your Customers: A Coca-Cola Case Study

July 21, 2009

I would like to share a case study on marketing that one of my co-workers at Fusework Studios, Chip McComb, shared with us today.  Check it out below:

The next time you are thirsty for a Coca-Cola, you may have the option to pick from 100 flavors from its new Interactive Freestyle Soda Fountain!  And in doing so, Coca-Cola is going to gather some valuable information about your taste and how they can market to you more effectively.  Not only will this ”fountain of the future” deliver a perfectly mixed drink (even letting you combine flavors) , but it is going to find out popular locations, peak times that people are thristy for Coca-Cola, and other important data about how consumers prefer their drink.  Very cool!  These machines are currently being tested in Georgia, California and Utah.  By the end of the summer an additional 60 test dispensers will be placed throughout the country.  This is something I just had to pass along because I think it will be a true marketer’s dream. You have wonder –  How will technology continue to change allowing us to gather more and more information about how consumers prefer our products? 

Check out the video below for an up-close look at this “fountain of the future.”

Leave a Comment » | case studies | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

Creating Landing Pages is Important for Conversion and SEO

July 20, 2009

Continuing my trend on blogging calls to action, case studies and landing pages – today I would like to pass along a great post from Douglas Karr.  Douglas Karr is the Founder and CEO of DK New Media.  He brings an enormous wealth of knowledge in the blogging and Internet marketing realm to the table, most recently serving as Vice President of Blogging Evangelism at Compendium Blogware.   

In a recent blog post entitled Landing Pages and Search Engine Optimization, Douglas dissects the landing page found at BloggingForSEO.com.  This post is a great 9 bullet point reference on the key elements to include in a well structured landing page.  Everything from the basic Header (H1 Tag) to the more advanced Google Voice Widget, Douglas tells all in this post.  This is yet another example on why we are very fortunate to have such knowledgeable individuals in the Indianapolis Internet Marketing arena that are so willing to educate and share. 

The below image is borrowed from his blog post, but you will have to click it to find out the 9 points of Landing Pages and Search Engine Optimization. 

blogging-seo-landing-pages-dk-new-media

1 Comment | Blogging, case studies, internet marketing | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

New Blogging Calls to Action Update

July 19, 2009

I wanted to follow up on my earlier post this month – Blogging Calls to Action – What Are Yours? to let you know that some progress has been made in this ongoing case study.  At Fusework Studios, we have come up with 4 different calls to action (CTA’s) for our Fusework blog.  The goal of these is to target people visiting our blog with different motives and interest levels.  Here are three different scenarios we envision: 

One person may be ready to go right now with a Web site or Internet marketing blogging-calls-to-action-fusework-studiosstrategy – they can now contact us to set up a meeting over coffee and we will pick up the tab.

Someone kind of “on the fence” can contact us to receive a web site evaluation.

Other visitors may simply want to gather information on email marketing or Search Engine Optimization.  They can do that now as well. 

We will continue to work on these CTA’s to see how our inquiries are affected.  The next step is customized landing pages for each of the different buttons.  I will continue to keep you posted as I hope this blogging CTA case study will be valuable to you as well.

Leave a Comment » | Blogging, fusework studios | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

Facebook is Changing Online Communication Forever, Right?

July 14, 2009

So the Nielsen report is out and people are spending more time than ever on Facebook.  In fact, 87 million visitors in the month of June spent an average of 4 hours and 39 minutes on the site.  Out of the top 10 web brands, Facebook now ranks #1 in time spent beating out Yahoo!, AOL, and Google.  So what is it that people are doing on Facebook?

Communicating like they never have before.  I think more than ever people are beginning to use Facebook as a viable , interchangeable communication tool similar to email, text messages or instant messaging.  Everyone is there.  All in one place and just a couple of clicks away.  Why go back and forth sending several emails when Facebook can easily be used to share thoughts, pictures, links and other information within seconds?  I am also starting to see many of my business contacts use Facebook as a place to connect not only for personal use, but also for business related use.  And like it or not, the new Facebook layout has made this easier.  Comments are all over the place, often times leading to further conversation.  Think about it – you see that your best client just got back from a vacation in Alaska and posted pictures on Facebook.  You have a meeting next week and already you have a great conversation starter.  Maybe you have already commented on some of the photos and exchanged wall posts.

The bottom line is this: Facebook is doing more than just drawing a huge number of users that spend a ton of time each month on the site.  It’s changing the way we communicate.  Possibly forever.  What do you think?  Do you agree?

2 Comments | facebook | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

Improve Your Blog by Analyzing “Old” Mainstream Media

July 10, 2009

ProBlogger brings up a great idea in Day #24 of the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge – analyze “old” mainstream media – particuarly magazines – to get ideas for improving your blog.  This is something that makes perfect sense, because in a lot of ways blogs about similar topics are just like a shelf of magazines – all competing against eachother for the same group of readers.  So how do you make your publication stand out?

Look at the headlines.  What are some current hot topics?

Are the magazines including lists of any kind?  Many advertise the Top 10 or 20 Tips.  Or a Top 50 list of celebrities.

Is there some type of incentive?  Is the magazine offering a vacation getway or a chance to win something else?  Douglas Karr does a Monthly Subscriber Contest.

How are photos used in the magazines?

Flip through the pages, not reading the articles, but rather paying attention  which ads and headlines stick out.  ProBlogger suggests using sticky notes on the magazine to remind you of the elements that you feel make the magazine successful.  Give it a try!

2 Comments | Blogging | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

Blogging Calls to Action – What Are Yours?

July 1, 2009

So you write a great blog post.  You post a link to it on Facebook.  You Tweet all about it.  It even gets retweeted and the next thing you know it’s one of your more popular posts.  But then what? 

Yes, you gain a great deal of exposure from this, exposure that you might not have received otherwise – but do your readers take any type of action?  Better yet, what exactly is the call to action for your blog? blogging-calls-to-action-success

Is it having someone contact you through a standard contact form?  Is it encouraging someone to leave a comment for that particular post?  Or do you just want to continue to connect with people through other forms of social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn?

I will admit, this is where I really struggle.  What should my calls to action be?  Promoting Fusework Studios?  Encouraging other businesses to advertise on my blog?  It is a tough decision.  But something that you must address in order to get an ROI from your blogging efforts – be it for personal or business use.  No one wants to just write blogs and get nothing from it.

So I am challenging myself to come up with clear, solid calls to action on my personal blog.  We are also going to be redesigning the calls to action on our Fusework Studios blog.  Over the next few weeks there will be some changes and I am looking forward to learning from this experience.  Hopefully it will result in developing a successful case study to share.

The call to action for this blog post – leave a comment to share with me.  What are your calls to action?  Do they work?  How have they evolved over time?  Let me know! 

Fortunately the team over at Compendium Blogware have put together a great slideshow presentation to help with this quest:

Breakthrough Calls to Action

4 Comments | Blogging | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Derek McClain

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