What does social media marketing mean to you?

18. August 2008 member

Roy

Social media marketing is growing. Wherever you look, marketers are taking it as an integral part of internet promotion. Moreover, if you are blogging or building a website on a general interest topic (for example, music, videos and similar stuff) where quantity of traffic is more important than quality of traffic - social media marketing is the must have “add on” to your marketing mix.

However, what does social media marketing mean?

Everybody is a social media marketing expert and in most of the cases, their marketing skills end up after adding as many buttons as they can at the end of each post. To add to this, if you ask some of them, they would say that they are writing interesting posts to engage the visitors (do you really think that writing a numbered post (top 10 list of….) would get you more visitors from a social network?).

There is a basic difference between visitors from social media and organic visitors from search engines.

Visitors from search engine have a problem and they are searching a solution using some keywords. Now, the search algorithm recommends your post to the visitor. Thus, you got a niche visitor who got some idea about what he or she is looking for.

However, in case of a visitor from social media, he or she does not know exactly what to expect from that link (post). All they have is a holy clue from the title and mini description that another visitor has scribbled in a hurry. Oops, there is another thing that can help the new visitor - the tags someone is using to categorize your post.

To add to this, the popularity of your post in that network depends a lot on the existing visitor’s interaction with your post. If he or she casts a vote in your favor, you may get one more visitor. The same does not happen with visitors from search engines (though there are some buzz in the market that Google is going to use Digg like voting system in their SERP.)

In this situation do you really think;

Adding buttons is enough for social media marketing.
Writing “list post” is enough for social media marketing.

I would also like to know how you engage yourself with a social media community.

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

Charting the Technology Hype Cycle

18. August 2008 member

Dan Gould

Techcrunch shared this interesting graph from Gartner Research, measuring hype and adaptation of emerging technologies. It shows a sharp peak that occurs when people get excited over shiny new tech, and the ensuring crash when the hype dies down. After the initial roller coaster ride the worthwhile technologies make a slow climb into mainstream adaptation.

[via Techcrunch]

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

Observatory Showcases Simple Timber Design

18. August 2008 member

Nicko Margolies

Finding a good location for an observatory is tough in Britain due to the dense population and the resulting light/air pollution. That’s why the new Kielder Observatory chose a remote region in Northumberland, which offers clear skies and an uncluttered landscape perfect for star gazing. If you can handle the commute to the area, you will be rewarded by a beautifully designed all timber structure that houses both professional equipment and rooms for amateurs to enjoy the same views. The building itself is powered completely by a 2.5kw wind turbine and solar panels. What makes this project so inspiration is not simply the design, but the fact that it was built for only £415,000 (which we’re told is a good deal on an observatory). The Guardian details:

Barclay’s observatory is a happy balance between what appears to be little more than a simple, almost cartoon-like, timber gangway with some sheds on top and some fine technology inside, with the cranks and cogs needed for the telescope turrets sitting delightfully within the simple wooden walls, floors and ceilings. It is rather like being in an early Victorian steamship, especially in the dark, when the red lamps glow (red keeps light pollution to a minimum).

[via The Guardian]
(Also be sure to check out the gallery of other great observatories)

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

Living In the Mall

18. August 2008 member

Dan Gould

The shopping mall is a heavily debated and vilified phenomenon. Malls are often seen as soulless halls of commerce that try, but fail to create a third space and sense of community. Blame is frequently heaped on these shopping centers for destroying local businesses and perpetuating a bland cookie cutter culture. And like them or not, massive malls are on a downturn. The remains of once thriving shopping malls litter communities across America -retail vacancies are currently at a six year high.

What then, are communities to do with these empty shells of retail? One couple, Rhode Island artists Michael Townsend and Adriana Yoto decided to explore the idea of the mall in depth, by moving in to their local shopping center.

Salon reports:

The Rhode Island couple awoke one morning in 1998 to find the name of their street changed: Kinsley Avenue was now Providence Place, which happened to be the name of the 1.3 million-square-foot mall rising on 13 prime downtown acres. Townsend and Yoto were among the Providence residents objecting to the mall — the cost to taxpayers, the colonizing presence of the structure that dominated the skyline from the highway. But Yoto, a scholar, and Townsend, a public artist, expressed their outrage in an unusual way: They decided to live with the mall. Literally.

Salon: “The couple who lived in a mall”

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

22 paid review networks for bloggers to earn money online

18. August 2008 member

Roy

What Google thinks about paid reviews (almost similar to selling links) is a different issue but this is one of the best ways to monetize your blog. There is no doubt about that.

What does it have for the advertisers?

You can create a buzz easily around your product in the blogosphere.
Buzz helps you in brand development.
You create the buzz within a very short period (just think about how some of the renowned bloggers are promoting a premium WordPress Theme recently - don’t know if those are paid promotions or not but as soon as they started talking about the theme - it moved beyond any ordinary row of WP themes).
You get great quality and content based one way links (targeted) to your website

What does Bloggers get?

Easy money by writing a review

Some Problem Areas:

In most of such paid review networks, advertisers restrict the bloggers to write only good things (positive review) about their product or website. Thus, the website owners miss out valuable comments from a blogger that could help to improve the product. I understand that there is a chance of negative marketing but if you directly communicate with a niche blogger, he or she may guide you before publishing the actual post. There comments are worth more than the link or buzz you get.
Advertisers usually ask not to disclose that it is a paid review. They often say that, their competitors would be aware of their marketing tactics if the blogger disclosed it as a paid review. In addition, relatively smaller bloggers cannot argue with the advertisers and eventually deceive their readers by not disclosing the nature of the post.
Advertisers often want a certain number of links (normally 3 links with targeted anchor text) from the blog post. However, in most of the cases all these three links point to the same URL with different or similar anchor texts. This is simply wastage of opportunities. I would recommend the advertiser to ask for one targeted link and two general links to other pages of the website along with three or four other links to trusted and non-profit sites like Wikipedia. This would make things more natural from Search Engine’s perspective.
Allow the bloggers enough space to talk. Ask them to write freely - if necessary preview the post that the blogger is planning to publish. This would help you a lot to develop the product.

Here are 22 paid blog review networks to check out: (this is simply a list and we do not endorse anyone)

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

JR’s Street Art Covers a Flavela In Rio

18. August 2008 member

Dan Gould

French photographer and street artist JR has produced another awe inspiring public art project in Rio. Known for his massive scale black and white portraits, JR recently covered a hill side shanty town with his trademark imagery. The photos make the houses almost seem alive with the intricate emotional details of his subject’s faces popping out. This latest project is part of a series called “Women Are Heros”.

[via Wooster Collective]

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

Asphalt Power

18. August 2008 member

Dan Gould

Researchers at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute have figured out another use for our planet’s millions of miles of asphalt roads. Using heat exchangers embedded just below the surface, the system would soak up, and convert all of the (normally wasted) sunlight absorbed by the asphalt into usable electricity. They also envision placing heat conducting water filled pipes beneath the road that would heat water to be used for home heating or, converted to electricity through a thermoelectric generator.

Inhabitat reports:

“For one, blacktop stays hot and could continue to generate energy after the sun goes down, unlike traditional solar-electric cells. In addition, there is already a massive acreage of installed roads and parking lots that could be retrofitted for energy generation, so there is no need to find additional land for solar farms. Roads and lots are typically resurfaced every 10 to 12 years and the retrofit could be built into that cycle. Extracting heat from asphalt could cool it, reducing the urban ‘heat island’ effect. Finally, unlike roof-top solar arrays, which some find unattractive, the solar collectors in roads and parking lots would be invisible.”

[via Inhabitat]

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

Photoshopping The Past Away

18. August 2008 member

Dan Gould

We all have memories we’d prefer to forget, bad relationships, awkward events. Taking them as a learning experience and moving on used to be the only way to handle it. But now, people are beginning to use technologic tricks to erase all evidence of bad things from the past. Photoshopping ex’s out of images is becoming a curious new trend.

The New York Times reports:

Removing her ex-husband from more than a decade of memories may take a lifetime for Laura Horn, a police emergency dispatcher in Rochester. But removing him from a dozen years of vacation photographs took only hours, with some deft mouse work from a willing friend who was proficient in Photoshop, the popular digital-image editing program.

Like a Stalin-era technician in the Kremlin removing all traces of an out-of-favor official from state photos, the friend erased the husband from numerous cherished pictures taken on cruises and at Caribbean cottages, where he had been standing alongside Ms. Horn, now 50, and other traveling companions.

“In my own reality, I know that these things did happen,” Ms. Horn said. But “without him in them, I can display them. I can look at those pictures and think of the laughter we were sharing, the places we went to.”

“This new reality,” she added, “is a lot more pleasant.”

NYT: “I Was There. Just Ask Photoshop.”

[via Boinkology]

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

Art Ships Set Sail On the Hudson River

18. August 2008 member

Dan Gould

Street artist Swoon has undertaken an ambitious art project named the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea. Swoon and a motley crew of contributors have built a fleet of seven art boats that will journey down the Hudson river from Troy, New York, to Long Island City, Queens. Part floating city, part sculpture and part performance, the Switchback team will make stops at cities along the way, performing plays and music for locals. The ships will dock in Long Island City on September 7th for a run of shows until September 13th. The boats were constructed primarily out of found materials from junk yards and construction sites.

New York Times: “A Floating City With Junkyard Roots”

Uncategorized | 0 Kommentare »

Free Market Research for Your Home Based Business

18. August 2008 member

Tracy Johnson :: Business.gov

Tracy Johnson for Business.gov

Any successful business owner will tell you marketing your small business begins with research. The experts can direct you to the best methods for performing research and provide you with successful strategies for market research, but a lot of the statistics and demographic information you desire can be obtained, for free, from the government.

The government collects oodles of data that is public information. The data can be immensely useful when pulling together your marketing plan and can help you cite accurate statistics without spending a ton of money on a custom market research engagement. These tools certainly are not a substitute for quality market research such as surveys and focus groups, but rather provide helpful data to frame that research. For a lot of start-ups; however, the research budget is minimal. If that is the case for your business, these stats can be leveraged to build the framework of your marketing plan.

General government Statistics

Fed Stats gathers data across over 100 agencies, states, counties, congressional districts, and cities to provide a comprehensive purview by location or by topic.

The Statistical Abstract of the United States, published since 1878, is the authoritative and comprehensive summary of statistics on the social, political, and economic organization of the United States. The abstract is prepared by the Census Bureau, but collects data from many Federal agencies.

The Census Bureau also releases reports for business owners called the Statistics of U.S. Businesses including detailed analysis of companies, establishments, employment, and annual payroll.

Another great resource for statistics specific to small businesses is the Small Business Administration’s Office of Economic Research. Reports from this office include:

Entrepreneurship: The Foundation for Economic Renewal in the Gulf Coast Region [PDF file] - The proceedings from the 2006 New Orleans conference include; presentation summaries, powerpoint presentations, and conference participants.

The Impact of Regulatory Costs of Small Firms (Update) - Analyzes the cost of regulations on small and large firms. This study updates two earlier reports from 1995 and 2001.

Small Business Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - [HTML file] - Provides answers to basic questions about small business. [PDF file] - [Text file]

Research Resources - designed as a portal to direct faculty, students, and researchers to small business data and research.

The Small Business Economy: 2007 [Research Summary] - This is an annual reference source on small business’ performance in the economy. To obtain a printed copy, see the U.S.Government Online Bookstore . (Text synopsis version) (historical versions (1996-2001) (2002-2006).

You can also subscribe to the Department of Commerce’s Stat USA subscription for updated information on federal business, trade, and economics.

Additional Resources

www.business.gov/market-research

Keep an eye out for Part II of Free Market Research for government information on demographics.

Tracy Johnson is a Senior Manager with ENC Marketing & Communications. She has the pleasure juggling a variety of clients from both the Information Technology and U.S. Government worlds. She brings a fresh perspective to problem solving for clients often integrating interactive marketing solutions with traditional communication methods. One of her top current clients is the Business Gateway Initiative, where she and the BG team provide marketing and outreach services for Business.gov.