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.

The am entertained most by the Un-Sites he mentions, the most recent of which is Boone Oakley (embedded below) and their story of Billy.

I was reminded by his post of the Modernista! site mention last year on AdFreak which is a unique web presence.

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.

It will be “simple stuff” such as lightweight analytics, (co-founder Biz) Stone said. He reiterated the company’s commitment to keeping the service free for everyone…

Even lightweight analytics could be a very powerful tool for those of us using the service professionally and certainly worth some fee since it would likely allow you to track ROI when combined with a complete Internet marketing strategy.

I’ve been using Chrome since.

Google’s Chrome browser has a market share that rounds down to zero. Yet Microsoft plans to argue to the European Commission that bundling Chrome into Windows — an anti-trust decree the EC wants to impose — will potentially give Google a monopoly hold on the Internet.

The claim seems laughable to anyone who hasn’t used Chrome. But those who try the largely unknown application almost unanimously rave about its speed and ease of use. Never mind the arcane software benchmark charts all over the ‘Net: Chrome is fast.

Google knows speed is addictive

I’ve made attempts to try Firefox and Safari yet have stuck with Internet Explorer since leaving Netscape in 1997.

The addiction to speed is the key here.

While Chrome is lacking in some very needed features (i.e. support for the Google toolbar and the WordPress dashboard, etc.) the main benefit is I can browse significantly faster than the other three browsers.

So fast in fact that if I need a feature rich browser for a certain website; I simply open IE, accomplish the task close IE and return to my still open Chrome window.

Here’s a promo video that illustrates how Google has simplified the browser. You can learn more and download Google Chrome here.

I commended him on Facebook where he is currently the most actrive local elected official, consistently utilizing the medium as a platform for discussion.

In serving five years on the National Ad 2 board I have had a part in planning Ad 2 conferences in eight different cities; San Francisco, Nashville, Phoenix, Orlando, Louisville, Denver, Atlanta and Cincinnati.

Each conference required a mix of meeting space, catering, office and printing services, restaurants and entertainment options as well as required a simple transportation plan.

Each year we improved our process for selecting a host city and have had as many as four different Ad 2 chapters bid to host our mid-year retreat.

Each year one of largest deciding factors is mobility. Can we get around on foot or use some kind of transit option?

Coordinating 40 people in cabs is difficult and expensive and chartering a bus would be risky due to the fluidity of our attendance numbers over the course of the retreat.

I am looking forward to being a part of what unfolds for Tampa Bay.

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:

• Website traffic grew from 2,000 to 8,000 monthly visits
• 2006 Web Award for Outstanding Achievement by the Web Marketing Association
• Email list grew from 300 to 1,000+
• Membership grew from under 20 to over 80
• Board membership has grown from five to over 20 directors and chairs
• Placed 2nd nationally for Ad 2 chapters in the area of Communications twice and 1st once
• Named National Ad 2 Club of the Year in 2008 and 2009

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

Beginning at 36:16 in the video (embedded below) he paraphrased Tocqueville’s America from 1831:

America will do well because of its sunny optimism, abundance of land and absence of a king.

He follows with his own interpretation applied to the current situation:

When I think today, I think same thing is still true; the political dynamic, the enormous resources that we have, the ingenuity of our people; the sum of all that I think creates a next set of opportunities.

For us to seize, for us to take, for us to build businesses on top of.

From my perspective we have to embrace what users want together, and by doing that I think we can win big.

Newspaper executives remind me a lot of the music industry, Netscape and Microsoft and run a great risk of being doomed not by Google, but instead by a new innovative idea for distributing quality journalism.

The following quote from Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington in 1787 is used by many newspapers as a shield of entitlement (or endowment if some get their way).

“The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Based on some of the quotes below, my opinion is that Jefferson was not tied to the medium itself, and if he was alive today, might have replaced the word newspapers with the Internet in the above statement.

“Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day.” –Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:224

“As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers.” –Thomas Jefferson to Barnabas Bidwell, 1806. ME 11:118

“From forty years’ experience of the wretched guess-work of the newspapers of what is not done in open daylight, and of their falsehood even as to that, I rarely think them worth reading, and almost never worth notice.” –Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1816. ME 14:430

“Advertisements… contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.” –Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1819. ME 15:179

These statements illustrate Jefferson’s displeasure with the quality of journalism found in newspapers over just a short period of time in American History

What would his opinion be today?

What would Jefferson think of Schmidt’s comment about a next set of opportunities being created?

Currently newspapers are using a “see what sticks” approach to social media and the Internet in general. Friday’s post on Twitter was just one example.

A recent article quoted Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google:

Schmidt commended newspapers for staking claim on the Internet in the 1990s but said there wasn’t a second act. He says news Web sites take too long to read, even slower than flipping through a newspaper or magazine, a shortcoming that can be addressed by improving technology.

Consider now the constantly changing format and out of date stories on the websites of Tampa Bay’s dailies and you can see how some basic problems make the above statement true.

St Petersburg Times

A screen shot of the Time’s Opinion section on Monday highlight a column by Tim Nickens, Editor of Editorials titled “Clinton supporters still hanging back” which upon review is from August 27, 2008.

Tampa Tribune

A screen shot of the Trib’s homepage on the same day shows a column by Steve Otto titled “All The News Fit To Twist” which upon review was published March 15, 2009. Otto has since then written 12 columns according to his profile page.

These two columns are over six months and one month out of date respectively and yet appear alongside current editorial and news, and in the case of the Tribune, on the website home page.

Another article covering Schmidt’s address to the Newspaper Association of America’s (NAA) annual conference in San Diego further gives more insight for the industry’s need to reevaluate how they operate online.

“I would encourage everybody to think in terms of what your reader wants,” Mr Schmidt told newspaper bosses.

“These are ultimately consumer businesses and if you [annoy] enough of them, you will not have any more,” he warned the Newspaper Association of America’s (NAA) annual conference in San Diego.

Currently the industry is focused on trying to save the newspaper instead of focusing on bringing a renaissance in journalism. Two examples in the evolution of the Internet come to mind when evaluating the newspaper industries approach to the dilemma.

Browser Wars

In the late nineties Microsoft was under fire from the Department of Justice for antitrust violations stemming from the integration of Internet Explorer into Windows 95. One of the largest catalysts of this was the declining use of Netscape Navigator which was losing market share and blaming the IE integration.

I commented online at the time (I can no longer find the posting however) that it was not the IE integration but lack of improvement on the part of Netscape that was the true culprit in the browser’s demise. Netscape had become comfortable and complacent.

Microsoft rightfully prevailed… became complacent (in my opinion) and while Netscape died, new browsers like Firefox and Google’s Chrome have become viable threats to IE’s domination.

Music Sharing

The next big shift was in online music that erupted with software like Napster allowing music to be shared freely across the Internet. The industry focused on intellectual property rights instead of innovation allowing Apple to release iTunes which now dominates the online music purchasing market.

The music industry is still chasing pirated music users to recoup lost revenue instead of reaping the rewards of innovation that Apple secured.

I recently began spending more time evaluating Twitter after shelving it last fall for seeming slightly anemic in features and value. While I am Tweeting little myself, I am learning a great deal from my Ad 2 associates that Tweet regularly and by talking with my college cousin who has a few friends that use it.

My thoughts have evolved that Twitter is an intriguing medium with a great deal of potential that solid value can already be gained from.

While in Tallahassee earlier this month I had posted a status on Facebook critical of the media’s use of Twitter.

Vinny Tafuro wonders if large media outlets using twitter understand we all don’t need tweets on EVERY story; it’s spammy and completely impersonal.

This observation/opinion was a general statement but the direct result of my recently following @TBOcom and @StPeteTimes and using the Twirl application for Twitter.

After being challenged on my opinion, I had to focus on the catalyst of my tweet which was the large number of Tweets I receive from TBOcom.

Currently every TBOcom tweet is prefixed with “Breaking News” and followed by as much of the headline as possible and a link.

In that 24 hour period I had received 96 tweets that were considered “Breaking News” by the Tribune.
A sample tweet from that day (misspelling of Receive not my own):

Breaking News: Former Schools Superintendent To Recieve Honor: Longtime Hillsborough School Superi…

The award is being given April 15th and I am sure most of us would agree would not be considered “breaking news.”

Here is an analogy to illustrate what the Tribune is doing:

Imagine your daily printed newspaper arrived with every story printed in chronological order from front to back with no designation of section, subject and/or region it was related to forcing you to scan/read the entire paper?

For example; would it not be better for TBOcom to have a tboSports, tboHillsborough and tboPinellas twitter accounts and assign each one to the proper editor/writer?