Remember the Marshall McLuhan phrase, “The medium is the message”? Well, in the era of social web and social media, that might undergo a slight modification. It might be more appropriate to say instead, “The audience is the message” – that is, if we’re to describe the findings published in a recent data study by 360i. According to “The State of Search”, the whitepaper released this November by the company, most of the social media search listings that appear for brand-related queries are actually created by individuals not affiliated with the brand. This includes customers. Fans. Advocates. Maybe a few haters, too. They – and not the brand marketers – control or publish a staggering 77% of YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook listings that appear for brand searches. What this means is that when someone searches for “Insert Brand Name Here” on social media sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook, then chances are that the results that come up were published – Read the full article
Internet marketing gurus have said over and over that “content is king” – but some people seem to think that in order to be crowned as royalty one only needs to dress up their website with blocks of text here and there. This isn’t the case. The content and copy on your website may be a product of good writing, but it’s important to recognize that good writing doesn’t necessarily translate to a better, more engaging website. So be vigilant not just of what you write for your website, but also of how you present it to your readers and visitors. Avoid these common mistakes that suck the life out of your website copy. Website design makes the text hard to read Colorized text. A diverse range of font types and sizes. Embossed letters and sentences with shadow or “blinking” effects. They’re all pretty tempting, and all those colorful text editing tools on the dashboard don’t make it easier for – Read the full article
In recent times we’ve seen social media grow exponentially fast. Thanks to quick Internet adoption and the advancement of mobile technologies, hundreds of millions of people are now part of social networks like Facebook and Twitter. These two sites in particular have enjoyed an incredible amount of attention, but we must understand that they form but a part of a continually evolving social media landscape. That’s why it’s important to take a wider perspective and check out which new social media and social networking sites may soon become the Internet’s new darling. Foursquare Foursquare is a location-based social networking site that’s lately been getting a tremendous amount of hype. A number of its features are parallel to Twitter (like the ability to post quick status updates wherever you are), but Foursquare sets itself apart by encouraging – and rewarding – users to explore their own cities. Here’s how it works: users “check in” by posting updates through a messaging service. – Read the full article
A viral marketing campaign is one of today’s best (and most cost-effective) ways to let people know about your business. It can take on many forms, like videos, pictures, interactive Flash games, e-books, and even text messages. If done properly and executed creatively, your viral marketing campaign can excite immediate word-of-mouth enthusiasm from people. It can be viewed, read, “liked”, and bookmarked countless times, spark memes, remixes, and spoofs, generate tons of links, and shared on social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Digg, etc. With viral marketing, your campaigns will suddenly get a life of its own – and you won’t have to spend so much money for advertising placements. But how do you do it properly? Is there a formula to achieving a million hits on YouTube? How do you make sure your viral content gets passed around by friends and strangers on Facebook? Because of the wide variety of viral campaigns found on the Internet these days, – Read the full article
The Internet continues to grow, and more and more organizations are leveraging its power to support not just their own business objectives, but also their causes, advocacies, and social responsibilities. Charities have taken to using websites as their main communication vehicle, while an increasing number of groups and individuals are utilizing the Web to get volunteers, spread information, raise awareness, and raise funds through online donations. A creative and properly implemented fundraising campaign to a broad online community can indeed get more results and raise more money than an offline campaign, and without as much overhead expenses. Do you represent a group looking to get more results from your online fundraising campaign? Here are some essential tips to help you do that more effectively and make your campaign a success. Get legal First things first – make sure you have registered with the right officials and met the requirements for launching your fundraising campaign. Just because it’s being done online – Read the full article
The recent release of the Apple iPad tablet computer has set the world abuzz – and not just the technology world. Industry experts say that the iPad is a game-changing device that can revolutionize the way we live, play, consume media content, and use the Internet. In other words, it’s not just for tech lovers and Apple fans; it’s also for regular people who aren’t exactly savvy in gadgets. Furthermore, many marketers are already pointing out the iPad’s potential impact on the eCommerce industry. The eCommerce industry is already pretty big right now, but it’s about to get bigger: online sales are projected to reach $335 billion by the year 2012 – and that’s in the U.S. alone. With the arrival of the Apple iPad, it’s safe to assume that new trends, technologies, and platforms supporting the online retail industry will continue to emerge. Here’s why. Same Channels, Richer Experience The Apple iPad is a state-of-the-art media consumption device that – Read the full article
The social networking / microblogging site, Twitter, is so popular right now that it’s not a bad move to think you should use it for your business – as part of your social media strategy. In fact, you may go so far as to say it’s a necessary move. Sure, it’s cool to be able to follow the tweets of Ashton Kutcher and Stephen Fry on a daily basis and join in on casual conversations. But it’s so much cooler that Twitter offers you, through these conversations, new opportunities to expand your business and your brand. Before you dive in and start twittering, make sure you consider a few important things first. You don’t want to start out on a bad note, after all. Ask yourself how you want to use your Twitter Sure, you can’t use Twitter yet as a direct revenue channel, but you can use it as a way to continue to enhance your brand and image. – Read the full article
While Twitter, and more recently Foursquare, have been the darlings of the social media world in recent memory, an outstanding and arguably more practical service has been quietly kicking butt. That service is Posterous. What is Posterous? At its simplest, Posterous is another blogging platform. But unlike most blogging platforms, the primary method of posting is done via email, not in a custom backend platform (note: Posterous has recently improved their post editing tools). But Posterous is so much more. Let’s look at some of the best features and how you can get some value out of using it. Autopost Arguably the coolest feature of Posterous is autopost. A majority of people (and businesses) have multiple social networking presences, be it a Twitter account, Facebook page, blog(s), Flickr account, etc. With Posterous, you can set up your posts to be shared across a number of social sites. For example, you just took some nice photos of a company event, and – Read the full article
