One of the first things I encourage businesses to consider as part of their Internet marketing is to take control of their listing in Google’s Local Business Center.
Just recently Google published the video below on YouTube and sums up the reasons why very well.
And it’s FREE!
If you currently spend money on Yellow Page advertising or want to test out something that is not social media that works, I would strongly suggest watching the video and signing up here.
Tags: Google, Google Local Business, Yellow Pages
I found Doug deGrood’s recent article, This Social-Media Kegger Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be, to be quite insightful and worth a read by anyone looking to start social-media and Internet marketing efforts.
Especially if you if you are considering handing money to a company to assist you with your efforts.
As one of the comments asks. “Didn’t ANYBODY pay attention to the Internet bust of 1999?”
I do remember and my business has survived it.
The absolutely outrageous ideas and services that people shelled out tens of thousands of dollars out for (on the low side) would eventually lead to the bubble bursting with only serious plans surviving.
My favorite point made in the article is:
“Marketing is no longer a one-way conversation; it’s a dialogue.”
For the record, consumers have always had “relationships” with brands. And we’ve always had means to communicate with them, and share our passion or disdain for them with others. It’s just a lot easier now. And faster. But on the other hand — THIS JUST IN — not every member of the human race wants to have a relationship with the company that manufactures his or her toothpaste. Freaky, I know, but true.
Further to the point of dialog is that in the past the relationship might actually have been stronger and consumer opinion more enduring.
Dominos recent public relations nightmare (which I am not detailing to help prove a point) is a good example. The issue spread like wildfire across the Internet and Social Networks in a very short period of time.
However a quick search today for Dominos Pizza in Google’s web and news sections returns only one result related to the incident and it’s the one result Dominos would want you to find.
In under 60 days enough new content has been published online so that unless you are looking for the incident specifically you would not readily find out about it.
A company’s online image is more fluid today than it might have been in the past and that while disasters can strike, time may in fact heal all wounds.
Tags: Social Media
AdCast co-hosts Carl Vervisch and Nic Lorden invited me to discuss Ad 2 Tampa Bay’s transition to interactive media that began during my term as president of the organization.
Prior to 2005 the organization’s Internet communications were limited to an obsolete website and inconsistent use of email blasts with little knowledge of the effectiveness of either.
The strategies implemented then have allowed the organization to achieve the following in the years since:
These achievements can be attributed to the implementation of Internet marketing strategies and development of subsequent leadership.
The complete Case Study is available via Google Docs.
Workshops
Vinny Tafuro offers workshops on Internet marketing that target local business and non-profit leaders in an effort to help others develop similarly successful strategies for themselves. The first of these workshops will be held Friday May 15, 2009 at the Hilton Garden Inn located in Ybor City.
More information and registration are available online.
Ad Insight Segment on YouTube
Tags: AdCast, Advertising Insight, Ybor City
In the spirit of Halloween I thought I would pass along the following educational video by Lee and Sachi LeFever of Common Craft that will help you identify, avoid and/or defeat zombies during your travels this evening.
If you are interested in learing about other mysteries of the world such as Blogs, Google Docs, Phishing Scams or the Electoral College they are great at providing those explanations too.
The Federal Trade Commission claims to have shut down a huge spam operation that may be have been responible for up to a third of the world’s spam.
The FTC said it has shuttered an operation that sent billions of spam messages around the world directing consumers to Web sites, and that the operation was responsible for as much as a third of the world’s spam e-mails. According to the FTC, the operation included participants in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Russia, Canada and the U.S.
The network was called the largest “spam gang” in the world by the anti-spam organization Spamhaus.
Read the full article on Adweek.
I typically don’t just copy a headline for my entries, yet this one is just perfect as it is. Inc Magazine’s website had this article by August Loten about the sentencing of Robert Soloway, the CEO of Newport Internet Marketing Corp. who federal investigators dubbed the “Spam King.”
Soloway pleaded guilty in March to a series of charges stemming from so-called broadcast e-mail services which used false opt-in addresses or forged headers to promote the company’s own Website.
In plain English, Soloway was sending Spam to millions of email addresses and randomly declaring who the sender was.
If you’ve ever received a bounced email message that was Spam but looked like it was originally sent by you, it’s likely you were a victim of this method of sending Spam.
After a meeting this week with a client about creating an email newsletter I was doing some reading and found this Forbes.com article on the topic.
The article gives good tips and arguments for using an email management program as I do such as Constant Contact.
The section on “From” and “Subject” lines is probably the quickest high value piece of the article. I will have to try something new in my March “email newsletter”.
The “From” line is important, but the subject line is where you set the trap. The key is attracting attention with imagery and specificity. Example: A subject line that reads “Five Plants Deer Won’t Eat” is more compelling than “Monthly Newsletter.”
Maybe, something like “Bashing failed Ybor businesses and drinking for the dogs” will be a good catch…
I regularly have clients contact me in regards to controling spam and unfortunatly the answers I find never seems to get any better.
Unfortunately as business users of email with our email addresses posted on our websites it almost always seems to be a losing battle. The biggest challenge is the tighter you try to make the spam filter the more risk you run of missing an important business email that was mistakenly trapped as spam.
Barracuda Networks Releases Annual Spam Report
At Nearly 95 Percent of Email, Spam Now Rated Worst Form of Junk Advertisinghttp://www.barracudanetworks.com/ns/news_and_events/index.php?nid=232
Study: 95 percent of all e-mail sent in 2007 was spam
CNet commentary on the above press release that might be an easier read.
http://blogs.cnet.com/8301-13505_1-9831556-16.html
The following Forbes article from last year is a pretty easy read and highlights the profitability that keeps spams going. This one focuses on the specific stock market schemes that I am sure you have seen yourself in the past.
Why The SEC Can’t Stop Spam
http://www.forbes.com/2007/03/08/sec-spam-stock-tech-security-cx_ll_0308spam.html