Last week, I attended PubCon in Las Vegas. For those of you that aren’t familiar with PubCon, it’s one of the biggest search and social media conferences in the country. It features presentations from some of the top names in the industry such as Google’s own Matt Cutts.
With so many sessions over a 3 day period, it can be hard to keep everything straight. It’s for this reason that I really enjoyed the presentation from Sean Jackson with Copyblogger. Coppyblogger has grown to be one of the best online marketing blogs on the web, frequently writing about content optimization for search. The beautiful thing about Copyblogger Media’s success is that they follow a very simple plan for driving traffic to their website and have two clear conversion goals for site visitors.
The three primary social networks of choice for Copyblogger are: Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. They use these social media sites to drive traffic to their website and grow their following. Once the visitor arrives at the site, the two conversion goals are clear – subscribe to the blog via an RSS feed or sign up for updates via email.
Copyblogger uses the Internet Marketing for Smart People free 20 part series to instantly build value and credibility for all new subscribers. Educating visitors first and selling later. It’s the way things should be!
Take a look at the slide from Sean Jackson’s PubCon presentation below. What do you think of this Online marketing strategy?
Check out the Copyblogger website and pay close attention to their headlines. Brian Clark and company write some of the most magnetic headlines that convert visitors.
Note: This is my first post done entirely on my iPhone 4S. I apologize for any formatting or spelling mistakes. Thanks for reading!
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%.”
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?
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?
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.
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!
Today I want to share some blog posts we have been working on over at Fusework Studios. These posts are packed full of information that will help with developing an internet marketing strategy for your business. Check them out below:
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?
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.
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.
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.
Internet marketing strategies are evolving daily and I am always amazed to see some of the creative ideas that stick. I am particularly excited to share this one.
Here is the scoop: An advertising agency out of North Carolina has created its Web site using a YouTube video. That’s right Boone Oakley’s entire Web site is a YouTube Video. This is something I have never heard of or seen before. It is definitely creative and drawing quite a bit of attention. The video/Web site already has over 239,000 views. So while this is very cool right now, I have to wonder are they missing out on other benefits of a traditional Web site? Will it be easy to update and change? Is it an effective long-term strategy or are they just going for a short-term campaign? Either way this is definitely something that breaks through the traditional advertising clutter. What are your thoughts?
At some point in time, you have probably been asked to provide some type of reference for the work you have done. It could be on an individual level, or on a company level. References are essentially testimonials that describe your character, the work you do, or the services your company provides. Very powerful testimonials can be a key decision maker when you are being evaluated as an individual or company. At Fusework Studios, we decided to put together the below video to showcase our client testimonials. Let me know what you think!
Answer: To many people this is who you are, like it or not.
When you apply for a job odds are the HR department will do a Google search and review the results as part of a background check.
When a potential customer is deciding if they are going to work with you or not, they are probably going to do a Google search on you and your company.
People even do a Google search before they decide if they really want to be your friend or go on a date. Another form of a background check.
Unlike keywords such as “cell phones” or “cars” your name and company name are something you can realistically own (in most cases). This is very important to your brand and your company’s brand. It is also very interesting to note how many of your search results are social media profiles. In my particular case, Facebook, LinkedIn and Smaller Indiana are all on the first page of results. This is an important extension of extension of your name and brand as well.
So ask yourself: Do you really own your name online? If you do not or if you are unhappy with the results – what are you going to do about it?
I am very much a novice to the world of free internet music radio. I generally just listen to my iPod and CD collection. With Pandora users continuing to overwhelm me at our Fusework Studios office, I finally decided to check out my online music options. This ultimately created a Twitter brand experience for me that I wanted to share. It’s funny how everything ties together.
Pandora is part of The Music Genome Project and I have included an excerpt from their site which pretty much sums up the mission statment:
Together we set out to capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level. We ended up assembling literally hundreds of musical attributes or “genes” into a very large Music Genome. Taken together these genes capture the unique and magical musical identity of a song – everything from melody, harmony and rhythm, to instrumentation, orchestration, arrangement, lyrics, and of course the rich world of singing and vocal harmony. It’s not about what a band looks like, or what genre they supposedly belong to, or about who buys their records – it’s about what each individual song sounds like.
Overall, I like Pandora’s ability to create a playlist of songs that I like by identifying similar qualities within each song. I am not crazy, however, about the ability to browse through songs - it seems somewhat limited.
Following a post on Facebook about Pandora, I was turned on to Grooveshark by a friend. I decided to check it out for a few days to compare. After listening for a few days I tweeted asking my followers if they had a preference between Grooveshark and Pandora. @Grooveshark quickly responded by following me on Twitter and replying with a very unbiased opinion that Grooveshark was indeed better:). Still being relatively new to both Pandora and Grooveshark I asked the @Grooveshark Twitter user to explain why. I have included a screen shot of the replies in this post.
Overall, this interaction was very impressive and is a perfect example on how a brand can use Twitter as a powerful tool. Here is how it went down:
Grooveshark found me on Twitter
Grooveshark sent me a Tweet using a bit of humor to show some personality
Grooveshark went on to answer my question about what separates them from Pandora
I was then able to retweet their answer to help in increasing brand awareness and also told everyone at the office about it
Grooveshark also offered personal assistance with any of my questions/suggestions – very cool.
I am still undecided on which service is better, but Grooveshark has definitely created a better brand experience for me thus far. The ability Twitter has given a brand to directly connect with their end user is amazing.
I was reading several blog posts and felt compelled to share. It is always amazing to realize the quality content being posted on a daily basis- especially on a local level. So many people are willing to reach out a hand to help you and your business. These are people with a great deal of experience, leaders of his/her respected companies offering insight and advice on topics that can directly impact your bottom line. This is something that can be easily taken for granted with so much going on and so many blogs out there. I guess this is one of my “take a minute to think about it” moments. This information is all out there for the taking, so take a few minutes to read and leave some comments on the below blogs. We should all be appreciative of these people.
Hazel M. Walker’s You Can’t Make Withdrawals Until You Make Deposits
I had the opportunity to sit down with Hazel M. Walker this week. She truly is a remarkable individual who has made it her mission in life to help others, particularly in the area of networking. Her blog provides a deep resource for how to become a better networker and develop stronger, prosperous business relationships. We can all learn a lot from Hazel no matter how much we think we may know. Check out other posts on her blog as there are many about networking and building relationships.
Douglas Karr’s Three Keys to Leveraging Your Content Douglas Karr is a blogging evangelist and an industry expert. He brings some serious experience and knowledge in the SEO/blogging department to the table. In his MarketingTechBlog he is always sharing tips, advice and other industry news as we look to get the most out of our content and online presence. Another incredible, local resource for quality information – not to mention a flat out great guy.
One of the greatest moments in sports history is going to take place when Tiger Woods returns to the PGA Tour on Wednesday. Golf fan or not, you have to appreciate what Tiger has done for the sport. I was surfing Mashable.com and found an article about Tiger’s return. This long awaited event has generated a huge amount of buzz throughout all forms of media, so much in fact that the PGATour.com has set up a site so that you can follow Tiger’s every move online.
Live blogs, hole-by-hole highlights, scorecard updates, and a playoff bracket all updating in real-time during the event. This is going to be something to talk about and I look forward to seeing how well the PGATour.com can pull it off. The site will not go live until tomorrow, but I found a preview screen shot (see below) at Mashable.com. This looks very cool and I will be sure to post a review on the experience.
Preview of PGATour.com Tiger Woods Site- from Mashable.com
Below are a few online reading favorites I would like to share. Simply click on a headline to read the full article. Hope you enjoy!
Facebook Overtakes MySpace (Again)
We all knew it was just a matter of time. At the close of 2008, Facebook was breathing down MySpace’s neck in terms of social media popularity in the U.S. Well, now it is official- Facebook is finally number one. A co-worker of mine logged into MySpace just for the heck of it the other day… and logged out about 2 seconds later. Still a mess. Thank you, Facebook.
Debunking Six Social Media Myths
I found this one via Kyle Lacy on Twitter and highly recommend that you check this BusinessWeek article out. If you or your business hasn’t jumped head first into social media yet, I am sure you have heard all of the myths. Find out what is true and what is not. And even if you are already actively involved, there are some great links in this article you don’t want to miss.
How to Get ReTweeted
Tweets are great. But ReTweets…those are just awesome! ReTweets are the hottest thing on Twitter and the key to making your tweets as viral as they can be. Find out the secret recipe for scoring more ReTweets.
Occasionally I will get a piece of email marketing that breaks through the clutter. Sometimes it is just a matter of timing. Other times it is just an excellent concept. I received the below email marketing piece from McAlister’s Deli and wanted to share a few reasons why I think this particular piece works. Check it out and let me know if it works for you:
The Email Subject Line- “We’d Like to Get to Know You.” Attention grabbing. Seems sincere. I think I will go ahead and open it.
Design- Not over the top, but functional. Matches the McAlister look and feel but doesn’t take it too far. Very clean and not distracting from the core message.
Incentive- In today’s economy am I willing to take just a few minutes for a chance to win $100 gift card to a deli I already frequent? Absolutely!
The Message- The content is straight to the point and makes me feel as though I am helping McAlister’s serve me better. I appreciate them taking the time to value my opinion and I just love the “sandwich in a quick survey.”
McAlister’s Makes Good On Its Promise- Go ahead. Click on the image and take the survey. Believe it or not it really is quick. So many times we are lured into “quick” surveys that end up taking FOREVER. Not this time. Thank goodness!
Click on a headline to check out my online reading favorites this week:
How To Friend Mom, Dad, and the Boss on Facebook…Safely
Would I really want my mom to see this pic of me on Facebook? Should I add my boss as my friend? Many of us have pondered these questions. While there may not be a “right” or “wrong” answer, this article offers some good insight. My opinion- everyone has a personal life and putting a few pictures of you having fun on Facebook just shows you are a real person.
Denny’s Free Breakfast A Grand Slam
Remember this Super Bowl ad? In our current economy, a free breakfast is not something that is easy to pass up. Several of us at Fusework Studios took advantage of this offer and the experience that went along with it. The people definitely came out in full force on Tuesday, February 3rd for a free Grand Slam….now will they come back again?
I’m Sorry We’re Out of Time
This is a great blog post from Seth Godin on making the best use of your time when giving a presentation. Read this post and please stop trying cram everything in the last minute of your presentation. I won’t remember any of it. And neither will anyone else.
Another great Friday lunchtime Webinar from HupSpot today. A group of us at Fusework Studios assembled to continue learning and improving our blogging skills. This time the topic was 5 Tips for Advanced B2B Business Blogging. The presenter for this session was Rick Burnes, Inbound Marketing Manager and frequent blog contributor at HupSpot. If you are interested in viewing the full presentation, I would encourage you to check out HubSpot Marketing Webinar Archives and download the 5 Tips for Advanced B2B Business Blogging presentation video and slides here. As always, HubSpot delivered plenty of useful information. I would like to share a few things that stood out to me.
Rick was very up front and set the stage for his presentation. He stated that this presentation would not cover the basics of a blog such as selecting a blogging software or the steps involved in setting up a blog. This was a more “advanced” presentation on how to effectively utilize your blog after it has been set up.
He stressed the importance of varying your blog posts. Blog subscribers do not want to read about the same thing every day. They do not always have 30 minutes to devote to your blog. Sometimes only including text can seem boring. You must change it up. Include video occasionally, mix up your short posts and long posts, and keep in mind that you do not always have to write as if you are a Nobel Prize winner.
Rick used an effective food analogy to illustrate this. Sometimes your everyday blog posts should be short and routine like eating Raisin Bran in the morning. Other times you will want to put a lot of time, pictures, and links in them to make it really sweet like a cake. And sometimes you just want to be spicy and controversial like Tabasco sauce. These were just a few of the analogies he used. Download the full presentation to read the other food analogies for effective blogging.
During the entire Webinar participants were able to follow and ask questions via Twitter. The interaction on Twitter generated the question, “How do I get an old school CEO to see the value in blogging for our business?” Rick admitted this is hard to do, but reminded all of us that it just takes time. Ask someone who hasn’t quite come around on blogging how they make their purchasing decisions. Do they react to TV ads? Do they purchase because of radio commercials? Or do they do reasearch and read reviews online to make intelligent purchasing decisions? Most people that surf the web regularly are inclined to do their homework online before making a purchase, especially a big one. Just think about it. It makes total sense. You want to know first hand how real people are benefiting or not benefiting from using a product or service. This was the simple, most straight forward exercise to recommend to non-believers. Thank you to Rick for pointing it out!
Below are some links and brief summaries to articles/posts that I found worth sharing this week. Click on a headline to view the full article. I hope you enjoy!
Get A Free Whopper by Deleting 10 Facebook Friends
Burger King has created an application for Facebook called the Whopper Sacrifice. The theme is “what are you willing to sacrifice for a Whopper?” 10 Facebook friends? Over 177,500 friends have been sacrificed so far. Many of us do have “fair-weather web friendships” and I guess 10 friends isn’t too bad for that flame broiled taste. This Burger King marketing campaign definitely breaks through the clutter.
SocialScope: Twitter and Facebook for Your Blackberry
SocialScope is an application for the Blackberry that is currently in Alpha testing. They have released 200 invitations to try this application. I was lucky enough to catch a tweet in time from @aaronaiken with a link to the invite. I currently have SocialScope running on my Blackberry Storm. It is awesome! Twitterberry and Facebook applications combined into one with near real time updates. I am in the process of working with the SocialScope developers to get permission to do a video review. I have been approved to do a review without video and screen shots. Look for that in depth review to come this week.
Blogging and Social Media Changing the Job Search Blogs and other social media tools are impacting the way people find jobs. More employers than ever are now looking at social media profiles of potential job candidates during the hiring process. People are reporting success from using their online network to lead to a job opportunity. Creating and utilizing such social media tools can demonstrate a level of skill and comprehensiveness that can help separate you from the competition. It is starting to look like the traditional resume may soon become a thing of the past.
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department will do a Google search and review the results as part of a background check. 
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