Finding Photographs and Graphics For Your Posts and Pages

With every post or page I create, I add at least one image that compliments the copy. I do this for a variety of reasons.

1. Photographs add visual space. People get tired of looking at long areas of copy, and photographs break up the monotony of the copy.

2. Graphics can give a reader an idea of what you will be talking about. For instance, when I used a photograph of a pet recently in my post Make Pet Personalities Steal The Show, readers could immediately assume what the post was to cover. It made people want to read further.

3. Graphics can give you an additional boost in SEO tactics for your page, post and site.

And while I mainly use photographs – I guess that’s the photography background in me – graphics of any kind can be just as beneficial. Using logos, charts, graphs, drawings, and illustrations can benefit the reader by adding visual depth, and you by giving you more opportunities to target your content. [Read more...]

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The Incorrect Way To Market With QR Codes

In our mail today, we received a powerful marketing piece that instantly made me take notice of it.

We have a lot of urban areas popping up next to our transit lines – living and shopping space that make it convenient to ride the tram system throughout the city. This brochure is announcing one of the newest, and provided an assortment of advertising space to the different shops within the community.

The first thing I noticed as I opened it up is each business had their own mini ad space, and included a QR code to move people to the online world. So of course I grabbed my phone to see where each business would send me. And in my opinion, they all did it wrong. [Read more...]

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Social Marketing – Are You Spending Your Time In The Right Places?

The world is a buzz with the networking site Twitter. Yet is that the place where you should spend your time?

Just like any other marketing tool, Twitter will only work if that’s where your prospective clients are.

Today I was reading through a new report put out by Edison Research and Arbitron, The Infinite Dial 2011: Navigating Digital Platforms, and noticed some interesting things.

Right now, Facebook has reached majority, meaning that more than half of the US population now uses Facebook on a regular basis. In less than 3 years, it has grown from an 8 percent to a 51 percent usage. So if you are trying to reach the average consumer here in America, its pretty safe to say that you can do so through Facebook.

One in five Americans report that they have visited social networking sites several times per day. And one in four users state that they are following brands or companies in addition to their online friends.

It’s hard to ignore those facts. And it’s hard to run a company, and not know Facebook is the place to be to reach out to target marketplaces.

But what about Twitter?

This same report states that while 92 percent of Americans have heard of Twitter, only 8 percent say they have ever used it.

One of the biggest reasons I think the gap between those who have heard it and those who have actually used it is so high is because Twitter takes a bit more to understand.

When I mention Twitter to a room full of people, I will undoubtedly get the question “Why do people care what I eat for lunch?” The common misnomer about Twitter is you report what you are doing. Twitter is more than that; it’s about communicating, building relationships, and building your expertise.

But if your client base doesn’t get it, no matter how much you Tweet, you’ll never reach them.

1. Start by finding out where your clients are.

2. Look towards the future. If statistics show on social platform growing, put your time into that platform.

3. Watch your results. If you see action, keep it up.

4. Try new things. Just because statistics show something is falling off doesn’t mean its not right for you. If you have the time, try it. Then monitor your results, and continue doing what works for you.

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Goodbye Flip Video

As many of you know, I’ve been promoting use of Flip Video for years. It’s a simple video camera that takes great video, has pretty good sound capabilities, and is easy to plugin to your laptop or computer with a USB, and easily move your video over to YouTube or other social networks. Its cost made it one of the best blogging business tools around.

Yes, I know a lot of people are now using their smart phones for much of the process. You can completely bypass the USB, and send the video directly to YouTube from your phone. But for a variety of reasons, I still loved having a video separate from the phone.

Today Cisco announced it is realigning its business, and will no longer offer Flip as a product. So if you’ve been wanting one, wait no longer for they are about to disappear.

While they will support current owners, they will soon disappear.

Looking for an alternative? We also have a Kodak Zi8 video camera that we love. It’s similar to the flip, with its one big advantage of having a mic jack that allows you to plug in an external mic – perfect for improved sound quality when doing interviews or testimonials.

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So You Like FourSquare

Have you caught the FourSquare bug?

FourSquare is a mobile application that lets you checkin anywhere around you. From your local gym, to a movie theater, to a restaurant – even the Apple store, you can checkin just about anywhere.

And if you checkin enough, you can unlock badges, specials, and even become the mayor of your favorite place.

Why FourSquare? It originally started out as a way of finding cool places to go in an area that may be unfamiliar to you. Co-founder Dennis Crowley was planning a trip to Scandanavia in 2008, and grew frustrated after a Google search gave him random and non-useful results. He reached out to friends to ask for travel tips and recommendations, and received some amazing tips. So an idea for an application that would allow users to share facts about locations in a gamelike format was born.

Sounds great. But is it really something that can make the long haul? Is this an application that will be here a year from now?

Maybe so. You just have to think outside the box for a while.

Let’s say you are in the travel business. Why not build up your own channel of tips to locations you feature? When someone checks in, they will receive your tips?

That’s what the History Channel started up as a way to promote sites they use in their programming. Instead of random tips, you’ll actually receive historic tips put out by their historians. The more you uncover, the closer you’ll get to unlocking the Historian badge. And you can learn a variety of interesting facts along the way.

Or how about if you host an event? SXSW may be off the charts compared with your event, but it’s a great way to come up with ideas for your own. What if you used the app to bring people together? Provide tips about the local area, what to see and where to go.

I think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of FourSquare in the future.

Filed Under: Social Resources Tagged With: , , ,

Does Social Bookmarking Still Work?

A few years ago, the rage was social bookmarking. Sites like Digg, De.licio.us, and others were used to store, organize and share their favorite bookmarks or web resources. Not only were they a great way to organize your own data, but they could also aid in bringing a significant amount of traffic back to your site as well.

Things have changed. The sites we are using and the way we are using them have changed. Does that mean social bookmarking has changed too? And does it still work enough that you should pursue it as a means of generating traffic?

One of the things that made these sites so powerful was for SEO purposes. When a site was listed on Digg, which was high up on the PageRank scale, your site could expect to receive some of that love through the link listing. In 2009, Digg and other social bookmarking sites began to use nofollow links, meaning Google would no longer track them or rank them, thus reducing the power of the connection.

And if there is no connection, why use the system? Which is why we’ve seen a heavy fall off from using these more traditional sites.

Unless they have more to offer.

A site like StumbleUpon is technically a social bookmarking site, yet offers its users more than just bookmarking – it’s become an experience. Have someone StumbleUpon your site, and you could instantly receive more traffic.

Filed Under: Social Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

The Future is in Friendship Marketing

If you’ve lived in one location for a while, chances are you know what a small world it really is.

I’ve owned three separate businesses here in Denver over the past 20 years, and over that time period I’ve networked just about everywhere. Today I can’t walk into a restaurant or event without knowing someone – or at least saying, “I know him/her from somewhere.” It comes with the territory.

And if you’ve ever been out on vacation and run into someone you know, again you realize what a small world it is. We were at Disney World in Florida a couple of years ago, and walked down the main stretch of Downtown Disney, only to walk right into a family we knew here from Denver but hadn’t seen in a few years.

It’s not coincidence. It’s simply the fact that the world is getting smaller. Which means that everything you do can either help or hurt you in the future. So its more important than ever to monitor your habits online and off, and always pay attention to the impact you have on your relationships.

What Is Friendship Marketing?

Friendship marketing isn’t about selling. It isn’t about marketing. It’s about creating a friendship base around you so that ultimately you can create a lifestyle you love.

People need certain things in their lives, and they would much rather give their money to a friend than to a business or to someone that simply doesn’t care.

People go to the same salon for a haircut because they enjoy the friendship they’ve created. They don’t just cut your hair, they know you and understand you. They ask about your family and with you a happy birthday. You have to have your haircut anyway, so why not go to a friend?

The same applies to any type of service you choose, whether its heading out to dinner, buying a new outfit for Saturday night, or hiring a marketing firm to help you market your business. You can trust a friend, so it’s important to find the right one.

It’s Possible With Social

You can build strong relationships with people online, even if you are in a different country, and have never met before.

It’s simply a matter of taking what you do in a face-to-face situation and converting that to the online world.

With Twitter, you can monitor what people are saying and respond. You can remember what people are up to and ask questions. You can bring 140 character Twitter conversations to Facebook or to Skype and expand on the relationship. You can even agree to meet at an upcoming event, whether its in your home town, or you meet in another city.

Just like in your face-to-face relationships, it takes little effort because you are dealing with friends. And if you treat your online social friendships the same way, it won’t be work; you’ll be dealing with friends.

“Every person is a new door to a different world.”
- from movie “Six Degrees of Separation”

Filed Under: Online Marketing Tagged With: , , , ,

Use BizSugar For Small Business Social Bookmarking

When you think social bookmarking, you think Digg and De.licio.us. They are the big names, and the sites that have made the biggest names within this category. Yet just like every other category, the biggest doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best for your business.

If you fall in the small business category, and provide news and tips that appeal to other small businesses, give BizSugar a try. BizSugar is a small business focused social bookmarking site that provides categories in the marketing, finance, franchises, global business, legal, management, technology and startup categories. The top voted stories receive front page status, and can usually wind up on the front page with 20 to 30 votes, or sugars. Readers also have the ability to send a post to Twitter, Stumble Upon, Delicious, Facebook, Google Buzz or Blogger, or email it to a friend.

Like other social bookmarking sites, you have the ability to create a profile, including photographs, links to your website, RSS to your blog, and links to other social networking sites. Once your profile is built, you can begin sharing news, adding friends, commenting and voting on other stories, and building relationships with other BizSugar members.

The best way to see if you are a match for the BizSugar community is to head over and take a look around. Start by looking at today’s top stories on the home page. You can click to top stories yesterday, over a 7 day period, 30 days, and past year. Also take a look at the hot topics to see what’s trending now.

Once you have a good idea what’s being submitted, and what people enjoy, start submitting.

Filed Under: Social Resources Tagged With: , ,

The Best Social Marketing Tool Is…

So you are ready to spend some time working on social media this year. But what should you do?

Should you jump into Facebook, and learn all you can? With over 500 million users, that’s surely one of the best places to spend your time.

Or maybe it’s Twitter. It can be an incredible way to drive traffic to your sites.

Or is it YouTube? With millions of hours of video, you could quickly have a huge audience to your videos.

Yes, those are all great resources. And any one of them can leap you towards success.

Yet if I had to recommend one social marketing tool, if I had to start over today with just one tool, it wouldn’t be Facebook or Twitter or YouTube.

It would be a blog. Why?

Blogging is the perfect platform for all of your social marketing strategies.

It’s a way for you to control your content, prove your expertise, and make major headway into the search engines. You can speak directly to your audience, and provide detailed information to your specific niche or marketplace. Instead of listing all of your services, you can talk about each aspect of your services in separate posts, and tell specific groups of clients things that apply to them. In short, it’s a great way for conversational selling.

Then once you have a blog in place, the other social tools fall in to place. For example, you can incorporate Facebook into your blog posts, and give your readers an instant way to share your posts within their Facebook account.

So if you are going to invest in one tool, one direction for the New Year, what should it be? My advice would be to start blogging.

Filed Under: Blogging Tips Tagged With: , , , ,

Finding Photos For Your Blog – The Easy Way With Wylio

What makes an article or a blog post more readable? In some cases, it’s the white space, the photos and the graphics that accompany it. But how do you find the right graphics to go with your article?

While I’ve mentioned sites like iStockphoto and Dreamstime before, and Flickr is always great when you find an image with creative commons licensing, I recently found another site that makes adding photographs a snap.

Wylio has millions of photographs in its database, all of them with rights to use the image in your blog post. And what makes it easy is it does all the work for you.

Simply search for your keyword, and images will pop up onto the screen. View the images until you find the one you want. Wylio will open a window that shows you the placement of your image within the text and the sizing. Adjust until you have it the way you want it. Then copy the code and past it into your blog post. It’s that easy.

Wylio builds the frame, and includes the credit back to the photographer, plus a link to their image for copyright information. It’s all included in the code, so you don’t have to think twice about it. Just pick the image and go.

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