Posted in blogging

2 comments

30/11 2008

What I Am Reading On Sunday: Nov 30

5 Posts that I have been diving into on this snowy, ugly, Indiana day.

1. 123SocialMedia: by Barry Hurd
Post: Social Media Examples – Marketing Your Brand

“Social media marketing has been changing the way business utilize communication technology, combining different mindsets with flexible rules and non-existent standards.”

2. Logic + Emotion: By David Armano
Post: The 4 C’s of Community

“Quality content is a great way to attract the people who are needed to form the elusive community that your brand is hoping will to help build. When considering community initiatives, there are three questions to ask yourself.”

3. Amber.Rae: By Amber Rae
Post: Picasa Rocks

“Picasa pops up on the screen. “Sure why not, I’ll give you a try,” I think to myself. Two words: PHENOMENAL program. It’s very simple to use and the output is fantastic. I’m hooked! It’s comparatively similar to iPhoto (can’t believe I’m actually saying this, but maybe even better!) and the “I’m Feeling Lucky” and “Auto Contrast” tools work flawlessly.”

4. Compendium Blog: By Ali Sales
Post: 3 Most Important Blog Success Factors

“If your bounce rate is over 90%, that might be a bad thing. I say “might” because your blogging goal should be to move someone on to a next step. If your readers are so compelled by what you are talking about and want to move to your call-to-action within a few seconds, then great!”

5. ChrisBrogan: By Chris Brogan
Post: How Alltop Powers Bloggers

“Keep track of what your competitors are writing about. Alltop displays the last five stories of over one-hundred sites and blogs for topics ranging from adoption to zoology with 400 topics in between.”

Posted in social media, twitter

24 comments

29/11 2008

Why I Hate Twitter Auto-Response And Why You Should Too.

I am fairly new at using Twitter. The concept and usefulness of the tool is by far one of the best on the web. I have been noticing an increasing trend in something I find completely worthless: Auto-Response. Whether you are using an @reply or a DM auto response I would prefer not to get them in my Inbox.

The beauty of social media is that (when used right) it turns into a BRILLIANT permission based marketing tool. Do you know what Auto-Response tools bring to social media? Nothing. An Auto-Response tool is simple a selfish method of promoting yourself or saving YOURSELF time. Notice a trend? Yourself.

I don’t care how much time you save using an AR tool. I wasted MY time reading your anti-relationship building response tool.

I don’t have much patience for someone who cannot take the time to type out a DM or a @reply. They are either:

A) Just using twitter as a marketing tool and don’t care about anything else.
B) They are extremely busy and wont be using Twitter much anyway.

Both reasons are enough for me to unfollow someone who uses an automated response system. Social Media is built on authentic communication and relationship building. If you want to break that down…Break it down somewhere else.

If you want to send me an auto-response be prepared to find my name in your Qwitter box shortly afterwards.

Posted in Corporate Strategy, Micro-Blogging, blogging, corporate blogging, productivity, small business, social media

1 comment

26/11 2008

Wouldn’t You Rather Shoot At Fish In A Barrel?

Image by israelavila via Flickr

With the launch of the NING platform it has been becoming easier to create niche social networks. As a user, you can join any network whether it is location or interest based. The membership could range from 500 to 20,000 depending on the network and the participants. I have been talking randomly about the power of using networks that are geographically based (if you are using social media as a networking and marketing strategy).

Chris Brogan has a post that further enforces my idea that SMALL is the new BIG in Social Media. His post entitled Do You Have To Touch Every Conversation? talks about the importance of fishing where the FISH are located. As a fisherman you would not try to cover the ENTIRE ocean. What would you do? Try and find the right spot with the majority of the fish. It doesn’t make sound business sense to cover the entire expanse of ocean.

The same applies to social media use. As a user you do not have the ability to cover every conversation online. You do not have to be on every social media platform. As a small business owner or marketeer it is extremely important that you focus on a set amount of networks and use them to the best of your ability.

You do not need to be on LinkedIN, Plaxo, Facebook, Myspace, Powne, Twitter, blah blah blah. Pick a niche geographic social network like Smaller Indiana (for the Hoosiers among us) and three global networks. Examples: LinkedIN, Plaxo, Twitter, and Facebook.

To quote Chris Brogan:

But is that really the goal? Or is the goal to fish where your fish are, to do what you plan to do, and to do it well?

Well said. I would much rather shoot fish in a barrell than cast a line in the entire ocean.

Social Strategy, blogging

2 comments

25/11 2008

Balancing Strategy, Transparency, and Measurement in Blogging

Doug Karr has a great post over at his Compendium blog called When to Fire Your Blogging Expert. The post breaks down the concept of weighing the intangible and tangible benefits of blogging. Doug talks about what a blog consultant should be discussing when they are helping with an overall communications strategy:

1. Your Business
2. How You Drive Customers
3. Measuring Results

I wanted to map out a couple of things you should remember when planning your communication strategy. If you are the smart business owner, a social media strategy will be combined with your current offerings. I am gleening off of Doug’s comment:

Authority, engagement and transparency are all valid tactics when writing blogs for business, but the ultimate goal is to grow qualified leads through search acquisition for new prospects and upsell opportunities by building relationships with current clients.

Based on Doug’s post and a couple of ideas of my own there are three things you should remember when planning a social media marketing : Strategy, Transparency, and Measurement.

Strategy

There is not much mystery surrounding the concept of strategy. There is strategic thinking involved in every aspect of business from finances to communication. Sit down and create a detailed list of things you want to accomplish while using the blog… Examples:

1. We want the blog to increase page views and conversions by 35%.
2. We want to be number one in pagerank for (keyword) and (keyword).
3. We want to increase the exposure of our brand in a specific geographic area.

Those are fairly simple and completely stupid but you get the point! What are your goals and how are you going to get there? Writing once a day? Three times a week? Specific keywords you need to write about.

All of the above. Check out Chris Brogan’s post: If I Started Today… to get more tips and suggestions.

Next up… Transparency… TO BE CONTINUED.

blogging, indianapolis

62 comments

24/11 2008

Top 50 + Bloggers in Indianapolis

Lorraine Ball and myself decided to make a list of 50 of the top bloggers in Indianapolis. Let me give you the run down of how people made the list.

This is not ranked.

50 could be bigger than number 1.

I made the decision on who to make the list by updates on who I read. I read most of the blogs on the list. If you have not updated for the month of November you were not placed on the list.

I apologize ahead of time for anyone I have forgotten. Now. Enjoy

1. Douglas Karr: Technology and everything web
Recent Post: StumbleUpon Continues to Feed My Blog

2. Erik Deckers: Humor:
Recent Post: Sport Stacking: Pretty Cool, But It’s Not A Sport:

3. Hazel Walker: Referral Marketing and Networking
Recent Post: Your Reputation and Networking

4. Amy Magan: Lighthearted fare about Diet Coke, Scrabble and other encounters with life.
Recent Post: Wordless Wednesday: Food Fun

5. Jeb Banner: Web Design and Everything Media
Recent Post: Secrets of Psychic Web Pages by Small Box EXPOSED

6. Patric Welch: Technology Consultant
Recent Post: When You Think Netflix Don’t Think Just Movies

7. Pat Coyle: Sports Marketing
Recent Post: Will Young Fans Choose Virtual Over Reality?

8. Lorraine Ball: Small Business Marketing
Recent Post: My Top 50 Blogs

9. Colin Clark: Social Media Guru
Recent Post: Changing Marketing Hubs

10. Chris Baggott: Blogging and SEO
Recent Post: Blogs for Business: My Lunch with a Real Estate Company

11. Susan Davis: Day Nursery Blog
Recent Post: Setting the Turkeys Free

12. Jason Bean: Technology and all things web
Recent Post: Pockets Can Be Dangerous in Cold Weather

13. Casey Mullins: Pretty much the best mommy blogger I know.
Recent Post: The Beach Has Gone to the Dogs

14. Matt Zentz: Practical Internet Marketing
Recent Post:Website Chauffeurs

15. Tom Britt: Information about Geist, Indiana
Recent Post: Geist Clubhouse Issue Headed for a Vote

16. CJ McClanahan: Business Org and Management:
Recent Post: Mistakes

17. Amy Stark: One of the smartest people I know and NFP extraordinaire!
Recent Post: One Laptop Per Child

18. Nicki Laycoax: Crazy. Cool. Marketer
Recent Post: Need to Know More About Your Network? Use Twitter

19. Mark Juleen: Pretty much the coolest guy ever and everything marketing
Recent Post: Social Media & Music Story of the Year

20.Aaron Renn: Urban Enthusiast and a “thinker”
Recent Post: The Facts on the Ground

21. Rodger Johnson: Public Relations
Recent Post: For Business Sake Create a Corporate Blog!

22. Megan Glover: Blog Content, Marketing and SEO
Recent Post: Compendium Client – Estridge Homes named in recent article.

23. Ken Moore: Career Counseling, Resume Writing
Recent Post: How To Avoid 3 Common Job Search Mistakes

24. Brad Ruggles: Marketing, Social Media, Design, Religion
Recent Post: Watch. Think. Discuss

25. Chuck Gose: Cellular Digital Signage
Recent Post: Updates From The Strategy Institute

26. Duncan Alney and Chad Richards: Social Media, Marketing, Design
Recent Post: Obama Marketing

27. Erin McMahon: Social Media NFP and the Internet
Recent Post: Does Twitter Ranking Constitute Vanity?

28. William Brown: Sports, College, Education
Recent Post: Colleges Tackle Climate Change at AASHE…

29. Jacob Leffler: Amazing Designer and Visionary
Recent Post: Madison Avenue Biggies See Digital Media As Stable

30. Justin Clupper: Digital Signage and Other Fun Things
Recent Post: I hate to say it… but Digital Signage is Old

31. Matt Breeden: Sports Law and Everything Sports
Recent Post: $500,000 in Fees To Fire Sampson?

32. Andy Horning: Government and the Constitution
Recent Post:OK, So Now What?

33. Scott Henderson: MediaSauce Creative Blog
Recent Post: Why Won’t You Listen? AirTran Loses.

34. Noah Coffey: Technology and Web
Recent Post:Win a Nintendo WII from Mr. Noobie

35. Kevin Makice: Indiana University Professor
Recent Post A Very Long Wait

36. Stephen James:Designer, Thinking, Just plain Awesome
Recent Post: CSSsprite: Photoshop script combines two images for CSS hover

37. Deb New: connecting ideas between business and communication
Recent Post:Talk the Talk with Gen Y

38. Joe Wikert: Future Visions of Print, Online, Video and All Media
Recent Post: An Interesting New Publishing Model

39. Chris Lucas: Sports and Information
Recent Post: Rich Rod Is Right

40. Michelle Hartz: Design, Branding, and Dreams
Recent Post: Four Foods on Friday

41. Ed Illig: Branding and Design
Recent Post: Yes, It’s Shameless Self Promotion

42. Hoosierati: Culture and Humanitarian Concepts in Indiana
Recent Post: Master the Technology and Share The Cookies

43. Ruth Holladay: Ex-Journalist and an Amazing Writer. I love reading this blog
Recent Post: Gannett fans flames of resentment with deep sacrifices comments.

44. Emily Sutherland: Everything Gaither.. and some personal stuff
Recent Post: Wes In A Booster Seat

45. Hope Baugh: Everything Theatre.. This is a great blog.
Recent Post: More Alike Than Not: Stories of Three Americans

46. TheContent Wrangler: Content is a business asset
Recent Post: DITA Metrics: Developing Cost Metrics

47. Brad Ward: Social Media and Education
Recent Post:The Good Project Graveyard [Part 1]

48. Neil Cox: Thoughts on Serving People and Christian Community
Recent Post: 7 Ways To Bring About Change

49. Santina Sullivan: Marketing, Consulting, and PR
Recent Post: Product Placements and Breakfast at Tiffany’s

50. John Wooten: Marketing, Social Media, and Web Design
Recent Post: New Site: Kristie Blankenhorn

51. Nila Nealy: Branding, Branding, Branding, and Design
Recent Post: It Really Is The Little Things

52. Susan Conyers: Marketing Professional and Twitterati
Recent Post: A Reality Based Argument

If you know of anyone else that has been a great blogger in Indianapolis. Please place their name and url in the comment box. I want them to be added to the list.

You can find many more Indianapolis and Indiana bloggers at Smaller Indiana.

Smaller Indiana, Social Media Community, indianapolis, social media

1 comment

23/11 2008

An Amazing Social Network: Smaller Indiana

I have been a member of the NING social site Smaller Indiana since it’s inception in late 2007. Since the birth of this site by Pat Coyle and Douglas Karr.. it has been growing by leaps and bounds!

Here are some stats from the 3,798 strong SmallerIndiana.com

Global Traffic year-to-date 2008:

- 313,242 Visits
- 158,425 Absolute Unique Visitors
- 1,832,007 Page views

90% of our traffic is from U.S.

Of all U.S. traffic, approximately 54% is from Indiana

Of all Indiana traffic, approx 53% is from Indianapolis

So far this year we’ve seen 193,970 visits from 453 Indiana Cities

The interesting stat is that 66% of the visitors are NOT from Indiana. Talk about a good way to get a state on the map!

Smaller Indiana is an amazing place to network and talk about Indiana as a major mover and shaker in the USA. I would encourage anyone who is thinking about starting a social network…

Go check out smallerindiana.com… it was done right.

blogging

2 comments

23/11 2008

What I Am Reading on Sunday

I have been reading some interesting posts lately. Just thought I would share.

1. Urbanophile: Urban Affairs and the Future of the Mid-Western City
What I Am Reading: Detroit Do The Collapse:

“I lead with this because it is so common to blame the UAW and its $73/hour or some such wage packages for the problems facing the Big Three. And indeed in the modern era that is not sustainable.”:

2. Social Media Explorer: Great Blog about Social Media by Jason Falls and Kat French
What I Am Reading: Exploring Social Media (Without Getting Fired)

“…ignoring that a company isn’t ready to actively, directly engage customers in social media and just doing it anyway is sort of like dragging your 11-year-old screaming and crying onto a rollercoaster he clearly doesn’t want to ride at the amusement park…”

3. Pixel Bits: We all Mona and I love what she writes about. Everything weird and techie.
What I Am Reading: Websites are the New Scrunchies

“Well, you guys, when that happens? It is NOT your faults. Nor is it your computers’ faults. It is really not you, but the websites’ and the companies’ faults, for dressing up the interfaces with useless code.”

4. Being Peter Kim: Thoughts on Digital Media and Technology
What I Am Reading: Comments on The Next Digital Era

“A decline in overhead costs as a huge development for the communications industry. Social media continue to obliterate the traditional economics of media production, distribution, collaboration and R&D. Organizational functions that were once money- and time-suckers become increasingly inductive. - Josh Shabtai“

5. Louis Gray.com: Silicon Valley Blog for early adopters, technology geeks, RSS addicts and MAC Freaks
What I Am Reading: This post is by Michael Fruchter via Louis Gray: 15 Tips on Improving Search Engine Visibility

“Over the years, I have studied and tested various methods, guidelines and techniques for generating search engine traffic. Back in 1997, I took on paid clients and SEO became a full time career for a few years. AltaVista was the dominant leader in search in those days.”

Marketing, branding, small business

0 comments

22/11 2008

Create Relationships. Don’t Sleep Around.

Matt Rhodes over at Freshnetworks sparked my post today with a quote from the article: Love Your Customers. Use Social Media.

“A brand should be thinking of themselves as part of a consumer’s personal brand rather than the other way around…”

So many times we find ourselves spending money on external branding. How do we get noticed? How do we get the average consumer to remember our brand name? It is all about ME. ME. ME. How do we get them to spend money? Acquisition. Acquisition.

While I think internal branding and design is important to a business’ success, social media has created a space where you can become part of the LIFE of a consumer. Talk about a good way to spark viral marketing! If you are molded into a client or consumers life… the potential of being spread to friends, family, and co-workers is exponential!

We can talk about internal marketing, external promotion, advertising, marketing, branding, and design…

but if you want true results…

use the tools in front of you to create relationships… to start conversations… to monitor your brand.

It is going back to your brand being lovable and NOT a dirty flirt.

Don’t sleep around

Marketing, blogging, small business

3 comments

21/11 2008

Hustle It and Quit Complaining. There Are People Buying.

Chris Baggott has a great post on his Compendium blog called There Are Still People Out There Buying. During the doom of gloom of an economic downturn (or so I hear) it is always good to read posts that are more encouraging than not.

In the post Chris quotes Ian Beavis from AdWeek:

“There will still be people out there buying cars, and the trick will be to identify them and what triggers them to purchase.”

Despite a economic downturn or the talks of another bailout, there will always be people buying. Money will still be changing hands in the brilliance of American capitalism. So what is the trick? Other than the power of positive thinking? I am going to piggy-back off Chris and take the concept of helping the customer identify you to the hustle.

The Hustle

Gary Vaynerchuk is a huge advocate of the hustle. In hard times… In slow economies… you have to hustle.

The hustle is the process of doing more than the competition and being smart about it.

It is about staying an extra hour or two at the office.

It is about getting up an hour early to write a blog or respond to multiple emails.

It is about doing more than the other guy.

It is about listening in every space of the market and being there.

The hustle is being smart, responding, doing more, and listening.

I am tired of hearing people complain about the market. Hustle the crap out of the market. Think clearly and start a strategy to success. There are people still out there buying. Find them.

Uncategorized

2 comments

19/11 2008

Your Marketing SHOULD Be Recession Proof

I love reading Hutch Carpenter’s blog over at I’m Not Actually A Geek. Mostly because we both would rather not think of ourselves as geeks when in reality… we are.

He has a great post called: Do Not Kill Off Marketing During a Recession. He talks about the idiotic tendencies of companies to cut their marketing and creative departments FIRST when a recession hits the economy.

It doesn’t make much sense does it? As a social media marketing and design company, we tend to be a little bias towards marketing because that is what we love! Hutch has a great graphic that I am

going to post here. I encourage you to go read his blog when you have the chance it will never let you down!

It is easy as a small company to sit here and moan about the big brother’s cutting of creative and marketing. Honestly, I don’t mind that they do because we tend to get more work after the cut. It is still idiotic to think that cutting marketing would result in slimming down the business in order for the competitive nature of the company to shine through.

Marketing should be recession proof as far as your balance sheet is concerned. You cannot slim down a marketing budget because of a recession. People are still buying. People are still wanting to spend money. Keep that marketing budget going.

A Message to A FEW Fortune 500 D-Bags:

Next time you decide to lay off your creative departments…

Next time you decide to lay off some floor workers from a plant…

Next time you get mad at marketing for spending too much money…

I would advise to cut the tens of thousands of dollars spent on your spa treatments… your first class plane tickets.. your rental car that had leather interior and a butler…the lavish hotel rooms during conferences… and taking the executive team out to eat every day.