Application Development Company

6 Things: Doing It In Public

Thursday, May 20, 2010 by Doug Dimon

“6 Things” is a list of things I've come across that I find interesting, inspiring, adventurous, or just plain cool. I’ll be publishing these fairly regularly, so keep an eye out.

In this installment of “6 Things” I explore the joys of doing it in public. There's nothing I like better than some PDA. I'm talking about Public Displays of Art, of course. In my last blog, ("What the F...antastic!"), I made pithy and insightful remarks on the power of using unexpected experiences to engage the consumer. The following items are primarily art for art's sake, but it's not hard to draw conclusions to how similar installations can be used to grab the public's attention. It only takes three little words to demonstrate success, "Made you look!"

Antony Gormley: Event Horizon

Madison Square Park in New York City has a great program of public art. The exhibits rotate throughout the year, often with several happening simultaneously. The latest, "Event Horizon", is particularly impressive because it extends beyond the park. These figures (31 total) are placed on rooftops as far as 10 blocks away. They are all visible in and around the park, and each faces the square. Once you notice one, you begin to pick out the others. I admit to spending some time walking around trying to find them all. They have actually caused some controversy, but I think most would agree that it's an engaging and delightful exhibit.

IMPROV EVERYWHERE

Performance artists. Pranksters. Marketing geniuses? Somewhere between flashmob and sketch comedy, "Improv Everywhere" has staged some great events. As with any performance, some things hit and some miss, but they are all interesting if for no other reason than to see the public reactions. People love the unexpected. And even those not lucky enough to experience something live can get into the act through the videos posted on the web. A couple of my favorites are "Grocery Store Musical", "Frozen Grand Central", and "Where's Rob", but I encourage you to look at all their "missions". You may see some similarities to marketing stunts staged by various companies. "Improv Everywhere" has shown that people love to get involved and feel "part of the show"... and isn't the heart of marketing?

Street Art (Literally)

Julian Beever is one of several artists who create amazing pieces that are both public and transitory. If you have ever been fortunate enough to stumble upon this type of art, you know it can actually take your breath. It is so unexpected to find a something like this while walking down an otherwise unremarkable street that you can't help but stop and take some time to study it. Clearly, some brands have caught on to the idea.

Blowing Art Up

Mixed media artist, Joshua Allen Harris, creates whimsical installations that transform from a pile of what looks like trash into animated "living" creatures with the lifespan of a passing train. Brilliant.

Now you see it, now you don't.

This next piece is something I sort of stumbled upon on the web. I was drawn to it mostly because of its simplicity and the possibilities. I can see using this type of installation in an out-of-home marketing campaign to great effect. I'm writing the brief now :)

Graffiti? Art? Commentary?

And finally, I happened across this gem just the other night. While walking home, I spotted this painted on the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue north of 22nd street. This is a prime viewing area where tourists stop to take photos of the Empire State Building. Some may think this is simply a commentary on the traffic flow (and it may be), but I suspect it is the work of one the New York's many graffiti artists. True graffiti artists create works that are thought provoking, visually inspirational, or technically challenging. Some have gone on to become well known artists, others have maintained anonymity even in their fame, but most are simply inspired by the work. While it may be vandalism in the truest sense of the word, arguments that this type of art enriches society cannot be ignored. I'm not always sure which side of the fence I come down on. Perhaps I'll write my opinion on a wall on the way home. By the way, as a marketing idea, this has the appeal of authenticity, but it carries all kinds of potential problems, so go cautiously.

15 Things Less Annoying Than Facebook's Abhorrent Privacy Practices

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 by Paul Hernacki

Almost every week I continue to be shocked at some aspect of how Facebook is treating the privacy of their users. While I think Facebook has done some amazing things to redefine the landscape of connection and community in the digital age, the way they auto-opt-in users to new policies and settings that unwittingly further expose them in a manner that is beyond confusing for almost everyone is driving me crazy.

It seems to be a total disregard for privacy that leverages "confuser interface design" tactics and misleading redesign functionality alterations to extend their dominance at the unknowing expense of most of their users. They actively seek to get you to enter as much personally defining data as possible. They make it incredibly complicated to manage your assorted privacy settings, then they go and make significant changes that auto-opt in users to new options like making all of your posts available to search engines or to share your personal data with applications and sites using FaceBook tools. All of this while presenting typical users with a perception of communicating and sharing with their "Friends." Maybe FaceBook is just working towards a Nobel Peace Prize by wanting everybody on the planet and every corporation to be Friends? Ummmm.... no.

Conversely, while not exempt from scrutiny, Twitter takes a much different approach. They begin by having an established perception that what you post is public, they have one very clear and simple blanket option to make your posts private, and the information they ask you to enter for registration is extremely limited.

I'm also driven crazy by the constant changes to FaceBook API's that make the lives of developers miserable as they struggle to work with this juggernaut of social media and the fact that they employed algorithms that began to selectively decide whose posts among my friends they thought I should see (and even excluded my wife's posts from my stream until I manually added her back in)... but that's a whole other couple of blog posts to write. The following is a short list of things I actually find less annoying than FaceBook's treatment of the concept of privacy:

15. SPAM e-mail

14. People who post their every Foursquare or Gowalla check-in to Twitter

13. The mere existence of Farmville and Mafia Wars

12. The first time I saw Clippy

11. Developers that hardcode and use auto-code generators out of laziness

10. Requirements documents for a web site or app that say: "should work in every browser"

9. Web sites that dramatically over-use Flash for everything they possibly can

8. People that show up for an interview and haven't read and reviewed your company's web site or have any ability to articulate what your company does

7. People that text or use mobile devices to tweet while driving (or drive while talking on their mobile phone without using a Bluetooth or hands-free device)

6. People that call themselves "Social Media Gurus" in their bios or otherwise

5. People in busy airports that obliviously stop walking out of the blue and then wonder why everyone crashes into them

4. Every scene on the Fox TV series 24 that ever involved Kim Bauer

3. Stupid people (as one of my friends is fond of saying as he quotes his old high school football coach, "Ya can't fix stupid.")

2. The continued existence of IE6

1. The constant deluge of Top <insert number here> Lists

I could probably learn to live with all of the above. But I'm on the verge of simply shutting down my FaceBook account instead of constantly fighting to control my own information and exposure. Of course... I don't think FaceBook makes it terribly easy to truly shut down an account, they'd probably just auto-opt me in to be reactivated in a couple of weeks.

(Image Credit: Privacy by alancleaver_2000)

Inspiration or Perspiration?

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 by John Harne

I am in the business of creative communication. Ideas. Images. Shaping together thoughts, images and communications into stuff like Web applications, brands and the visual and sensual experiences that make memories and impressions. I have been at this business for a long time but that doesn't make it any easier to find the right idea. So what have I learned about creative that keeps me at my job and serving a lot of different clients? Namely, that perspiration leads to inspiration...

There have been a handful of occasions when the right concept just came to me. Like the scene in "Lust for Life" where Kirk Douglas (playing Vincent van Gogh) attacks a canvas then reveals a plein air masterpiece. But this is more movie myth than reality. If you ever read Letters to Theo, you get the other side of the story and the real struggle to come up with a style of his own. Then there was the sheer volume of work the artist actually did to get to that point of success. In other words Vincent worked his butt off.

Lucky for me, I knew from the history of visual art that creative breakthroughs are rarely instantaneous. Most artists lead a very workman-like existence like Picasso. He was know to be in his studio every day around 6am and spent the better part of his day at work in the studio. The result was a prolific career spanning over 13 thousand paintings and over 100,000 other handcrafted works.

Aside for putting the time into the work itself, one has to show up prepared to make the effort to do good creative work. You have to come in prepared and focused. I like to come in with both the schedule and my tasks up to date and the deck cleared.

Before I can contribute to good design and creative I have to know the background of the assignment or better yet, be part of the learning process for the objective. In my business this means some good investigative teamwork that will eventually live in a brief or document. It might be a persona study or even a video of real customers.

The point is time must be dedicated to understanding what the creative work is supposed to do in the context of experience. I have found more success when I am actually part of that process of intelligence gathering than when I am handed the discovery work. I think this is because the creative process takes time and my mind is working on the issues in the background while I am typically focused on something else.

Creative concepts take time. I have heard it called incubation time, described as ideation and the failure of it termed "writers' block". I think that making new connections and insights within various sets of data requires time to process and then reform the connections and filter out the obvious and most likely ideas that would not differentiate the creative work. However we describe it, it takes time and effort and filtering to get good work. Good creative is work.

Social Media and Television

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by Jasdeep Jaitla

I recently attended the NABshow in Las Vegas and was not only impressed with how amazing football looks on a 3D TV, but also the dominant theme of the importance of social media to growing audiences and creating new ways to interact with television.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have grown so quickly and unobtrusively that we often don't realize how big they really are. Becoming a part of Facebook is easy, and simple, even my mom did it without needing any help from me (for once). When we are looking at Facebook we see ourselves and our friends, and for the most part it feels like our own little community. The real eye opener is realizing there are over 400 Million other people feeling the same way.

The first step for the networks was integrating their website with their programming. NBC Universal did a great job integrating Heroes show themes with their website, and I've been impressed by that for some time. Their webisodes and tangential plotlines for Heroes was really well done, continuing alternative stories and keeping interest going.

Most of the networks are catching up and revitalizing their website presence so that it aligns with their programming. Recently HBO completely re-launched their website with an online community with forums. Simultaneously they are launching "minisodes" that are viewable online and on Sunday nights.

Every network is exploding onto social media since they realized how many people are actually participating online and how much more interesting this paradigm can be.

What about live commenting and interacting? This is the new theme within the television networks that has been growing over the last year or so, and that's integrating social media into programming live online. I remember the first time I saw Tosh.O on Comedy Central, highlighting the funniest and most random YouTube videos, and broadcasting the funniest tweet that people posted during his monologue. Oprah has live broadcasts with Facebook feeds running simultaneously so that people can contribute to the show. Look out for the new contest called Your Own Show, it's going to be a big one, with user submitted videos highlighting why they should be the next new TV Host promoted by Oprah.

Oxygen said they put an espisode of Bad Girls online, and paired it with Social Media, the result was a growth of their audience at 70% on the west coast and 90% on the east coast! That's tremendous!

Be on the lookout for a host of new ways of interacting with television networks, and the new shows that are going to result from all these ideas being submitted and shared!

Oprah Winfrey's President of Digital Media, Rob Tercek, really nailed it down succinctly when he quoted Oprah as saying, "Engagement is the new entertainment."

So what about you? Have you participated in Social Media and Television? What about checking out websites for your favorite shows? Which one do you like most?

Measuring Social Media ROI (Yes, It's Possible)

Monday, April 19, 2010 by Ashley Reed

The following is an abbreviated step-by-step guide to measuring social media ROI.

Step 1: Define Goals & Success Metrics
The first step of ROI measurement is defining your goals. What do you hope to accomplish by being active in the social space? One problem is that brands launch social campaigns without clearly identifying or understanding their goals, which makes measuring success difficult (if not impossible).

Here are a few examples of social media goals:
•   Expand brand or product awareness
•   Increase engagement with brand
•   Generate qualified leads
•   Drive sales
•   Build community
•   Create brand advocates
•   Qualify fans and convert them to customers
•   Improve customer satisfaction
•   Establish company as a thought leader
•   Attract talent

Once goals have been defined, the next step is determining the appropriate success metrics that align with these goals. For example, if a goal is to increase brand awareness, metrics might include the volume of online discussion or “buzz” about your brand, the level of audience engagement (re-tweets, comments, posts, video views), the number of fans, followers, etc. and the number of user impressions.

The following are examples of social media success metrics:
•   Volume of online “buzz” about a brand
•   Volume of positive sentiment
•   Number of fans, followers, readers (or number of high-quality/targeted fans)
•   Engagement (number of video views, duration of views, time spent on the company blog site, time spent playing a company’s branded game application, etc.)
•   Volume of user comments posted to company blog, profile or posted content
•   Retweet or peer-sharing statistics for related content and posts
•   Comment or retweet resonation (number of user comments multiplied by
   how many followers or friends each user has)
•   Media coverage
•   Media impressions (mentions on blogs or other media multiplied by the size
   of the audience)
•   Quantity of new or qualified sales leads (referred from social sites)
•   Website Referral Traffic (from social sites)
•   Advertising click-through rates
•   Volume of customer service issues handled

Step 2: Establish a Baseline
In order to effectively measure success, make sure to first establish a baseline by determining your current position within the social landscape. For instance, if your goal is to increase awareness and you will be tracking the amount of “buzz” or mentions about your brand, you must first know what the current levels are before taking actions to reach that goal. Without establishing this baseline, it’s difficult to accurately show ROI.

There are a variety of analytics tools available to help with social media measurement. I won’t go into too much detail here (there are dozens of options), but a few of these include Google Analytics, Social Mention, Viral Heat, Scout Labs, Radian6, and Listen Logic. These tools can be used to gather key social media metrics and help you identify strengths and weaknesses of your social presence.

Step 3: Measure and Track Success
After you launch your social media program, begin the measurement process to track success. Gather the success metrics from your analytics tools and start to see how (or if) they correlate to higher sales, increased customer satisfaction, website traffic, store traffic, etc. Try to identify trends where possible. Does positive consumer sentiment or an increase in chatter about your brand lead to higher website/store traffic, leads or sales? Recognizing these trends and identifying their point of origin is key in measuring social media ROI.

(Image Credit: "Basics of Social Media ROI," by Oliver Blanchard)

Location Based Services Are Here to Stay

Friday, April 16, 2010 by Gil Wolchock

While the race for ‘ownership’ of the LBS market (Location Based Services) rages on, and naysayers’ debate its viability, I am sold on the concept.

If you are not familiar, LBS are the latest craze in the ever growing social media marketing landscape. The general principle is that an end user uses their smart phone and its GPS abilities to ‘check in’ to their current location.

Like its social media older cousins Facebook and Twitter, there are many out there that think this is just a passing phenomena - a game if you will. Like Facebook and its now 400 million plus users, and Twitter and it’s large following I believe in the LBS strategy. Out of the pack has emerged two ‘major’ players in the field, FourSquare and Gowalla. Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and even Apple are also looking at entering the playing field but I believe they will have to make an acquisition to truly play.

Along with the hype of these types of services there is also a lot of criticism. Since I am a ‘fan’ and a user I might be a bit jaded but I think I can at least address the critics; here are the gripes I have heard, some legit, some just silly:

1. If you tell everyone where you are then you are leaving your house open to be robbed. I originally thought that this was a ‘non-issue’ I have to admit but after a conversation with people smarter than I over drinks I have amended my opinion. This is one that you DO have to pay attention to. Use common sense, if you are ‘checking in’ on vacation, turn off the setting that posts to Facebook and Twitter, so ONLY your friends on that LBS Tool of your choice get it. Second, and this goes whether you use and LBS or not, CHECK YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS IN FACEBOOK! Facebook has gone through a number of changes and many people have forgotten to go into their settings and make sure they have the level of privacy that they want. For me, I only want FRIENDS seeing information; others may have different standards and that’s cool, just make sure you are comfortable with yours. As for Twitter, you can ‘protect your tweets’ as well so only your followers can see them.

2. You can get stalked by a crazy ex and have to deal with all that. True, but is that really a concern? If it was, you wouldn’t be on FB, Twitter or LinkedIn. Can it be a problem? Sure. However, you don’t have to tell EVERYONE where you are. Your standard LBS lets you self select who the information goes to. Side note – crazy ex probably knows all your haunts and when you like to be there anyway…

3. Why would you want to be doing free marketing/advertising for a place or a brand? Are we seriously talking about this one in 2010? Look down at your feet people (go ahead, I’ll wait) --- is that a ‘swoosh’? Did NIKE pay you to wear their shoes or did you drop $100+? How about that laptop I carry around? You know the really sleek, chrome looking thing with the fruit in the middle very well lit? Let’s face it people, WE have become walking billboards! Take the silly Ed Hardy T-shirts (yes, I am just over 40 and don’t get it). You have people clamoring to be seen in an Ed Hardy, and what is besides some crazy print with the biggest part of it being his SIGNATURE!!! I’ll talk more about personal brands in another blog.So there are some of the negatives, which may be legitimate, but aren’t exactly deal breakers.

What are the positives you might ask?

1. It’s fun and it’s social. One of my favorite shows as a kid was CHEERS, the bar where everyone knows your name. Basically, with a tool like FourSquare you can become your own walking CHEERS. Check in at a friendly place and the bartender says, “Welcome, how about a beer Mr. Peterson”, OR how about you get to a place that is running an amazing special, you could take the time and call or your friends, or break your fingers and text them OR check in with an LBS, type in a comment, it automatically gets to everyone through whatever social tools you are using and who knows what can happen when everyone shows up. Simply put, in its most elemental form, it’s a way to extend the party.

2. As I have heard from Social Media Guru, Gary Vaynerchuck, “why would someone check in at a bar?” Give’em a free beer and watch them check in all day! What a cool way to earn stuff and allow a small business truly establish a win-win customer loyalty program. At one of the Whole Foods in Austin, TX you get a very valuable coupon on your 5th visit. What does this do? It drives loyalty, rewards it, makes it fun and even mysterious…what will I get on my 10th check in, etc…Not enough small businesses are using these tools to see a huge uptick here but I believe by this time next year it will be off the charts.

3. That last part of #2 is part of the biggest positive from a business application and it’s the direct corollary to the third criticism. I’m not sure when MARKETING became a four letter word but when it comes to LBS that is seems to be the #1 complaint and it goes something like this, “that stuff is just one big marketing ploy to get you to go somewhere or buy something”. My response is somewhere along the famous Socrates reply of “duh!” Isn’t that the whole reason for newspapers, magazines, TV shows, etc…sure they have their entertainment and news value BUT no one is shocked to know that advertisers are paying to place their content in front of your eyeballs to get you to buy stuff! Not sure why the uproar when it comes to LBS, it seems to me like a natural fit.

4. Last but not least and this is by far where I see the big win for LBS and that is creating partnerships to pull off some really cool stuff. I was discussing the value of FourSquare with an Executive at one of the major record labels. She is responsible for new acts and we were discussing the value of LBS for her and she said; give me one way it works in my world. So I said, do you have an all girl band you want to promote? The answer was yes. How about an in store ‘tour’ across America teamed with an outlet like Express? You have all the traditional ways to support it but now add an LBS layer for very little cost. It is also a completed integrated approach across all the social media tools; from Facebook, to Twitter, blogs, Flickr and a full activation using LBS. Her eyes lit up and she said, write it up and let’s take a look at it. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.So, mock it if you want. Five years ago you never thought you’d be on Facebook.

If you can remember back to 1991, if someone asked if you wanted to be accessible 24/7 via the phone, some new thing called email and a feature called text that in our old lexicon meant a book at school you would have said, “no freaking way”…and how many of you don’t have a cell phone today?

Finding and Nurturing Talent in the Digital Age

Monday, March 29, 2010 by Michael Kogon

As the U.S. recession winds down, and the recovery begins to pick up steam, talent acquisition, development and cultivation will again become important to companies that want to get ahead.

“The War for Talent” is now global and very, very digital. Finding talent might be easier than you think. I’d like to offer a high value, low cost way to find talent in the marketplace and within your organization.

In the information age and knowledge economy we’re operating in, the power of the mind is key component of success – at least for organizations able to tap into that power.

From a management perspective, managers need insight into the minds of their employees like never before. It’s not easy to figure out who is willing to go the extra mile to get the job done.

I believe the answer to the challenges can be found in the blogosphere.

Finding Talent in the Blogosphere

If you establish a companywide blogging program that is open to all employees, at all levels and job functions, it can be an excellent device for gauging the intellectual abilities of your team.

You can do it as internal blogs, public blogs, and topic specific, pre-screened or free for all. Whatever you do you will gain insight into your employees. You will find out which ones are slow to adopt new technologies, which ones have good thoughts, but poor communications skills, great writers with hollow thinking or innovators trapped in task jobs.

You’ll get far more valuable information than you can from performance reviews, meeting attendance or coaching sessions. Simply because it is self selected participation, self-expression and the opportunity to rise to the top or to fade into obscurity.

Just track who is a continuous contributor, who is a commenter and who is absent. Then read those that are intriguing, comment back and see how they conduct a digital conversation. And before you say your business is about relationships and face-to-face today, the future of face to face is digital to digital.

The ability to conduct civil discourse that is a matter of digital record is a daily requirement in business and in life today. The understanding of when to add imagery, video, graphs, links to others and medium appropriate content, is critical and the best new weapons in your arsenal.

I guarantee you that as the talent wars heat up, that your competitors will look for talent in your organization and your employee’s Facebook profiles, blogs, tweets and comments on the digital radar will be part of how they determine who to target for recruitment. You should do the same thing, start with your employees and then move to theirs. The future of your business is dependent upon the next generation of thinkers, doers and digital actors.

MIX 2010: Microsoft Steps Up Its Game With Designers and UX (and Bill Buxton Destroys Las Vegas)

Monday, March 22, 2010 by Paul Hernacki

I recently had the opportunity to attend MIX 2010, Microsoft's annual conference for web designers and developers focused on building great user experiences, in Las Vegas, along with Definition 6's two interactive Creative Directors from Atlanta and New York.

MIX 2010 is highly unlike most other Microsoft conferences where the topics frequently focus on .NET, Exchange, Office, and Windows. Instead it's chock full of design and UX goodness - a geeky love fest for all the cool tech that goes into creating great web, mobile, desktop, kiosk, and other assorted technically enabled experiences using the Microsoft platform.

It's hard to argue that this isn't an arena in which Microsoft is still playing a lot of catch-up. Adobe Creative Suite and Flash/Flex are still easily the staple of most creative and design departments. And many people definitely hug their MacBooks and frantically wave their iPhones about when asked to provide examples of great user interface design. But if there was one thing abundantly clear at MIX 2010 it is that Microsoft has no plans to cede the battle on these fronts, they are rapidly catching up in many areas, and even appear to be leading the way in a few. Seriously.

Microsoft is a marathon runner, not a sprinter. And as Steve Ballmer said at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference last year regarding questions as to why Microsoft doesn't cede such battles as Search and Advertising and retreat back home to their core Windows, Office, or SQL Server business lines, "We. Don't. Go. Home." Anyone who doesn't believe him should have been at MIX. And do you really have to look further than an example like the Xbox?

Probably the hottest subject of discussion and presentations was Windows Phone 7 Series. I am, admittedly, an avid iPhone user who stood in line the first week they came out. I happily ditched my old Windows Mobile device and it's BlackBerry predecessors back then to live in Apple's world and I've never been seriously tempted to use something else until I saw WP7.

I really believe WP7 is a game changer for Microsoft and the mobile industry. Sure, it has some shortcomings. I don't know how they could decide to not include copy-and-paste as a feature in the first release. And like iPhone, they also do not have application multi-tasking and they appear to have similarly stringent plans regarding their app store.

But the interface is fantastic, I love the "hub" metaphors, streaming video and even Xbox Live over the phone looked amazing. Not sure exactly how badly those things will kill battery life, but they sure looked impressive. For heavy Outlook users, the Outlook mobile experience on WP7 may alone be enough to get you to switch. Just awesome. And there's a chance it could finally be the breakthrough that Zune has been looking for.

Silverlight 4 is definitely another big step in the right direction. They continue to slowly chip away at adoption and now claim that it's at 60% market penetration, probably mostly attributable to the Olympics and adoption and rollouts of Windows 7.

Tools like Expression Blend keep getting better, and Sketchflow may even be better than the competition, it is simply cool. IE9 beta demos also got big buzz. It appears they have surpassed Firefox on overall performance, are coming close to Chrome in many aspects, and for certain functions like handling of video and HTML5 they could end up being even faster and better (when running on a Windows platform of course) by taking better advantage of your computer's processor and using a form of background hardware-based acceleration. The head-to-head examples showing some really slick use of animation and video in HTML5 were really amazing.

The one thing that Microsoft has which no one else can offer (not Google, not Adobe, not Apple, not anyone) is an end-to-end story on tools and capabilities in this arena. The depth and breadth of their tools and services is truly staggering when you put it all together. And I'm not just talking about the typical story of Windows + Visual Studio + .NET + SQL Server. On top of that throw in Expression Studio with SketchFlow + Project "Dallas" + Azure + Silverlight + Surface + Windows Phone 7 + OpenData + IE9 + Bing Search and Maps and on and on. Sure you can poke certain holes in individual pieces versus their competitors. But the cohesive power of all that together makes for a truly impressive lineup.

There definitely were a few other good tidbits at MIX. Announcements around Orchard, freely available tools for WP7 development, great live streaming of Channel9 straight from the event, strengthening support for JQuery, and a surprising number of atypical logos on screens being talked about as friends (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal, PHP, etc.).

And the keynotes included fantastic sessions by Scott Guthrie (@scottgu), VP of Microsoft's Developer Division, and great demonstrations by consummate tech presenter Scott Hanselman (@shanselman). But for me, the highlight of MIX was the opportunity to see Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher Microsoft Research, speak live. He is simply brilliant and one of the most passionate people alive when it comes to interface design and technology.

If you've never seen him speak it is worth your time to google (or bing) for videos of his speeches and spend an entire day just watching them. As the conference organizer, Microsoft's Thomas Lewis (@TommyLee), put it in a tweet during Bill Buxton's keynote: "OMFG! Buxton's brutality has destroyed Vegas! Only zombies, mushrooms & lavender frogs have survived! DESIGN IS GOD!". I couldn't have put it better myself. Buxton's speeches are often too filled with memorable lines to count, though my favorite at MIX included "The most important thing in the system is the wetware... the human being" during a segment where he described the importance of taking into account all the users different prior experiences within the specific environmental contexts of where, when and how they will use a system that you are designing.

Side note: I still don't understand how such an amazing guy who lives and breathes design and is considered the Father of Multi-Touch can have such a horrible personal web site, but I can only assume it's a "cobbler's children" thing.

And last but not least, the overall crowd and dynamic of the attendees at MIX was fantastic if not a bit quirky. It was a great group of highly intelligent people that are all passionate about great design and truly unafraid to ask the hard questions of Microsoft and dole out praise as well as tough love in person in the sessions and in torrents over Twitter. Unlike typical creative and design conferences it's definitely rooted in a true developer core (e.g. more guys still talking about compilers as opposed to a more mixed-gender crowd talking about heuristics and having used many tools like these for years), but unlike normal Microsoft conferences it's a large group of people who love great creative design and have been dying for Microsoft to bring these kinds of things to the table.

This conference in Vegas was more WXSW for geeks than it was the concurrently running SXSW, but Twitter and Foursquare definitely reigned supreme there as well as the tools that joined everyone together digitally during the sessions, into the evening, around the bars, and throughout the event. Sunday evening even kicked off the conference with a massive tweetup at the MIX Lounge at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. There is a real embrace of Twitter showing through by Microsoft that is really uncanny with regard to how they normally react to any tech service that they don't build and own.

At Definition 6, we do use a lot of tools and services across platforms including a very significant amount of work in the Microsoft platform. And we do use tools and design for platforms that are competitive to many of those that were showcased at MIX 2010. But there is no doubt that what we saw there has given us a lot to think about, some great ideas, and a few new weapons to put in our arsenal. We look forward to using many of these to create great solutions for our customers and to seeing them continue to evolve and improve.

Fortune 500 Companies Love Twitter

Friday, March 5, 2010 by Jeremy Porter

Social media marketing is at the forefront of integrated interactive marketing programs underway at almost every Fortune 500 company out there. Corporate blogging, online video and podcasts are among the most popular strategies used by the world's largest comapnies. But what about Twitter?

What might surprise you is how quickly Twitter is growing as the social medium of choice among Fortune 500 companies. According to recent studies like “Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Financial Insite, a Seattle-based Research Firm, Twitter is the platform of choice for Fortune 500 social media marketers.

The study examined the 2009 Fortune 500 in an attempt to quantify their adoption of social media tools and technologies, finding that 22% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog – six percent more than 2008. The study also found that 86% of these blogs link directly to a corporate Twitter account, a 300% increase over 2008. Even more corporations have Twitter accounts, but not all link to them from their blog.

It would appear that Fortune 500 marketers are moving fast to Twitter for engaging with their key audiences. Of course, upon further analysis, you’d find that only 35% of these Twitter accounts are active – described as having been updated within the past 30 days. If I’m reading the study correctly, that means 65% are not being actively used.

While Fortune 500 companies have realized they need to be on Twitter – probably as defense against username squatting – few have truly embraced Twitter as a social channel.

Of the groups that have engaged most heavily with Twitter, the insurance industry is leading the way, with 13 active Twitter accounts according to the study. Of course there are also companies like Exxon Mobil, the #1 company in the Fortune 500, that have no presence on Twitter.

A separate analysis of Fortune 500 Twitter, “The Global Social Media Check-Up” conducted by Burson-Marstellar, found that 79% of Fortune 100 Global companies are using one of four popular social media platforms, with Twitter leading Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogging as the platform of choice.

65% of Fortune Global 100 companies have active accounts on Twitter, while only 54% have Facebook accounts, 50% have YouTube channels, and 33% have a corporate blog. There is still plenty of room for improvement here.

Why Is Twitter the Preferred Platform?

Nobody knows for sure why Twitter is so popular, but there’s a good chance that it’s because it’s the easiest platform to launch. Companies can have a Twitter account up and running in a couple of hours (or less). There is a lot more work to do to launch a YouTube channel, corporate blog, or Facebook presence. It also takes considerably less resources to manage content production and audience interaction on Twitter than these other platforms. It’s a relatively low-cost and low-maintenance option for getting in the social media game.

Are Fortune 500 companies getting any value out of Twitter though? According to the Burson-Marstellar study, the answer is “yes”. Twitter accounts to the Fortune Global 100 average 1,489 followers. This doesn’t seem like much when you consider the average Facebook fan page for these companies has more than 40,000 fans, but it's progress.

A full copy of the new research report can be downloaded here: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch.

Integrated Marketing Strategy: Tying It All Together

Tuesday, February 2, 2010 by Chris Thornton

I recently had an opportunity to participate in a webinar about the current trends and thinking around integrated marketing strategy, particularly in the areas of interative marketing.

The digital evolution has completely changed the way companies interact with their customers. Companies can longer push their agenda to drive business, but must find ways to add value at every single touch point. How can companies effectively create a unified message across so many disciplines to evolve the way consumers think of their brand?

A good part of my strategic discussion revolved around reinvention of the idea of brand, and what it means to be a marketer for a company in the 21st century. Some specific takeways I think I cover in this presentation include:

How to organize and integrate your marketing operation to create a cohesive message
How to identify early in the process if you are achieving your goals
How to optimize your branding efforts and align them with your sales organization

If you're thinking about integrating your marketing programs, or just looking to improve the performance of your existing integrated marketing programs, perhaps you'll find the presentation relevant to your current discussions.

To view my presentation from the webinar, please click on the presentation below:

Integrated Marketing Strategy - Tying It All Together

View more presentations from Definition 6.

Questions or comments about the proposal? Please feel free to reach out to me through Twitter.

Using Facebook Connect to Build Deeper Relationships with Consumers

Friday, January 22, 2010 by Stephen Boyd

As the social media world continues to expand rapidly, brands are still trying to figure out how to utilize it. User-generated content, seeded marketing, and viral videos are only the beginning of social media. New technologies for access and interacting with social media are starting to emerge. One are that has been rising in popularity lately is Facebook Connect. The question is, how can marketers best use Facebook Connect to create more immersive brand experiences for consumers (and sell more)?

The best marketing is a conversation between you and your buyer, where getting customer interaction and feedback is the goal. Few areas do a better job at providing this feedback loop as Facebook. A great tool for getting your brand message in front of consumers is Facebook Connect.

For those of you not familiar with Facebook Connect, it is a powerful set of free APIs (programming interfaces) developers can use to enable users to bring their identity and connections anywhere on the Web – for example, to sign on to different websites without having to use separate usernames and passwords. Developers can access a user’s identity, social graph or activity stream – which can all be used to create more engaging experiences on your website.

How Are Organizations Using Facebook Connect?

There are a lot of great examples out there for how organizations are leveraging Facebook Connect. In general, Facebook Connect can be utilized as a way to get feedback from consumers on what they like to (and not like to do) in association with your brand. That is, what type of brand experiences they are most comfortable with? While some brands have a hard time hearing “dislikes” from consumers, it’s this process of interaction and feedback that helps true market leaders develop more powerful offerings.

Here are some recent examples of brands leveraging Facebook Connect in interesting ways:

RedBull Connect – This site gives users access to information and articles from several Red Bull websites. This is a nice repository for everything related to red Bull without smacking users in the face with its advertising. Consumers can comment, post, and interact with others without being forced to buy a Red Bull while, at the same time, red Bull always being part of the equation.

Citysearch – The Facebook Connect portion of this is minimal; this is a good example of utilizing FB Connect to grab user information without implementing it for advertising. The site personalizes your location when you connect with FB and automatically creates your personal profile and connects you with other Facebook friends on Citysearch - allowing you to share restaurant and other local recommendations via your Facebook feed.

Pandora – Pandora uses less of a full-blown Facebook Connect microsite, and more of an application, but it is still a nice use of Facebook technology. The application can be used to share songs or a station with your Facebook friends.

Beware of the Doghouse - I love this idea (the husband is in the doghouse with the wife, gets posted to Facebook, and needs to buy her a present to get back in her good graces). JCPenny did a great job promoting it ). I like the opening video and way they get their message out. While interaction with the site is a bit confusing, and posting and viewing content is not as intuitive as it should be, it’s a very entertaining idea.

Some other great examples from the entertainment industry include: “Watch Your Town Get Blown Up by Darth Vader” by Adidas and Discovery’s “Frenzied Waters” experience.

Facebook Connect is a great way to interact with your customers, but there are a few questions you should ask yourself before you go down this path. For starters, who are our customers and why are they likely to interact with your brands on Facebook? There’s no right or wrong answer here, but there should be some obvious reason why they would want to interact with your brand through Facebook.

Second, are you trying to entertain your customers, or are you just trying to get access to their information so you can send them stuff? You should seek first to entertain. This will make it much easier to get the access and data you’re looking for later.

Facebook Connect is a great way of interacting with your customer and getting access to user information to drill down on demographics. The jury is still out on how it might translate directly to sales but if you’re looking to talk with your customers and they are on Facebook, this is a great way to do it.

How is your organization using Facebook Connect today? How could you be making it easier for consumers to interact with your brands, while providing you with better insight into your audiences? Facebook Connect could be a good place to start. Contact Definition 6 Today!

Reaching Consumers Wherever They Are: Beyond the Three Screens

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 by Michael Kogon

Over the course of the past six months, we’ve continued to invest in technology and talent to expand our video production capabilities at Definition 6. Following the acquisition of Creative Bubble back in August, and leading up to the recent launch of the wildly popular Coca-Cola “Happiness Machine” viral video, we’ve seen increased demand across our client base for video production services as part of the integrated interactive marketing programs we provide.

We’re actively working with several long-time clients to help them develop and deliver video across broadcast, Web and mobile channels – the three screens. While there is no question delivering content across these channels drives significant ROI for our clients, we’re also seeing demand spike for channels that extend beyond the three screens.

Enter the Fourth Screen

Next time you’re out and about, keep your eyes peeled for monitors, LCDs and other screens as you go about your day. You’ll be surprised where these screens show up: airport terminals, taxis, grocery store checkouts, ATMs and even the bathroom. What you might not realize is a lot of those screens are already – or quickly becoming - part of integrated digital-out-of-home (DOOH) advertising networks. These networks enable brands to reach consumers with incredible precision, but also present new opportunities for creating immersive brand experiences.

Digital out-of-home advertising is great for targeting audiences for the obvious reasons –marketers can deliver content to specific places at specific times. The benefits of DOOH advertising go far beyond those of geographic targeting. Take for example the emerging behavioral or interactive components – being able to tap into lifestyle patterns, or to encourage consumers to interact with your advertising content through other technologies like mobile devices.

Beverage brands can penetrate the nightclub scene through displays in bars at 2am on weekend nights. Restaurants can reach tourists through the screens in the back of NYC taxi cabs. Airlines can reach business travelers in the terminal during excessive flight delays. And lotteries can post the latest jackpot value on the screen at checkout.

As far as interactivity goes, several major brands have recently started leveraging mobile devices, social networking sites and video cameras to pull consumers into an advertisement. Text a special code and see your message on the screen. Stand in front of a display and a camera puts you in the advertisement. This type of interactive content is transforming the way brands interact with consumers beyond the reach of broadcast, Internet and mobile media.

These are might seem like obvious applications of DOOH targeting, but only a handful of leading brands have begun integrating the 4th screen into their interactive marketing programs. You can expect more and more brands to take advantage of DOOH advertising, particularly as more organizations look to more integrated interactive marketing efforts.

The Age of the Developer

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 by Tom Kirszenstein

I recently read that the White House has chosen an Open Source CMS (Content Management System) to develop their government Web site. This announcement caught my attention for several reasons--not only are many agencies moving their clients to open source and praising it's virtues, I also started using Drupal this past year and found it remarkably fast and easy to setup and maintain my own Web sites with quality results. Despite some criticism of open source over the years--more and more commercial (and government) developers are choosing it.

It's hard to argue against the benefits of free software, especially when results show that the software does what we expect, often exceeds expectations, and provides more opportunities for expansion than many proprietary products. While relative newcomers Drupal and Wordpress lead the pack for CMS offerings, open source mainstays such as Linux and Perl have been around for many years--not only surviving, but thriving over time. In a study by Amit Deshpande and Dirk Riehle of SAP Labs, LLC, Total Growth of Open Source results have shown that "the total amount of source code and the total number of projects double about every 14 months." Open source enables freedom for both users and developers to move & change quickly when needed, as well as providing more flexibility with software decisions such as to upgrade or not to upgrade. It's really no surprise that businesses and individuals are moving to open source at exponential rates.

Of course, Open Source has always been very much associated with Free, although there are other solid reasons to choose it beyond its cost. The pool of development resources is not limited to a specific company or provider, but instead is seemingly unlimited. As a specific open source project becomes popular, more and more developers start contributing, growing and adding to the code. Not only do they enhance the software to make it better for everyone, but they also create markets for their own support services. The better the code is--more people will use it-- and the more support is needed. Large developer communities have evolved around each software project, contributing to its growth, and administering its support. These open source communities are continually coming up with new innovations, powerful add-ons, extensions, and effective tools.

With so many open source choices available, even the ubiquitous LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Perl) has come to be accepted as generic term for any completely open source application stack--substituting interchangeable parts from other sources that include "PostgreSQL, SQLLite, Apache Derby," as well as "PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy and JavaScript." Even behemoth Microsoft has entered the game with their own Open Source CMS Platform.

Additionally, interactive ad agencies are able to offer their managed computer services at lower rates when developers take advantage of Open Source technologies. This enables clients to do more within their budgets. Every size company can now take advantage of Website integration, online advertising, and interactive media development due to the emergence of open source and accumulation of knowledge brought to us by the developer community. Businesses across industries are now embracing these technologies, taking advantage of interactive media, and using a more integrated approach to marketing with the vast number of new tools that are now available from these creative, innovative communities of developers.

Innovation and Cost Drivers

Wednesday, October 14, 2009 by Jasdeep Jaitla

Intuition can guide you to the place of innovation, and analysis guides you to the method of innovation.

Driving down costs is the goal of every business in every industry. Identifying and nailing down Cost Drivers in a Interactive Media Agency is one of the most challenging aspects of Innovation due to the service model and diversity of projects. The more diverse the services and the more capabilities an organization has, the harder the cost drivers are to innovate. This is the challenge.

Create Measurability

In order to analyze data, you need to collect data. The first step is to establish a normalized set of information, and discover commonalities that you measure over time. It's difficult in service business models to identify measurable practices since commonality between projects may not exist. In contrast, it is much easier to find measurable actvities within consistent services. For example, in the realm of public service such as law enforcement, response times can be measured which can lead to innovation in terms of communication technologies, route mapping, and routine patrolling route generation to optimize the response times and measure improvements. In the same light, commonality and metrics need to be put in place so that you can innovate. Without this baseline set of metrics, most improvements are subjective and can be hit and miss.

Measurability and Interactive Marketing

Interactive marketing strategies and improved search engine optimization follow the same metaphorical principle. Because optimization is always a moving target, you have to establish a control on your marketing practices and only change a few independent variables at a time, such as keyword density, or keyword targeting in ads, in order to see their effect. In the case of organic search results, the effect of changes may take weeks or even months before they actually show results. To top it off, search algorithms and prioritization change "without notice." To discover these changes requires a scientific mindset for the search engine optimization consultants.

The cost drivers in Search Engine Marketing involve keyword market prices. Camping a commonly used keyword for PPC can cost you a fortune. Using longtail strategies and finding ways to effectively identify your product, service or company is the innovation point, and only good analysis and keyword research will get you there. Consistency is the rule of the game to establish and maintain hold of brand loyalty, market share, market segment, and also online in terms of keyword ownership, and search engine rankings.

Internet Application Development

With Internet Services, the identification of cost drivers needs to be built into the process by abstracting out parts of the process that show commonality and measurability. This should be the starting gate through which your innovation charges. Like online marketing, application development is a moving target. New technologies explode onto the marketplace on a regular basis, tempting you to change how you do business. Again by using a scientific approach, by controlling your process and making sure you change a few things at a time, you can drive changes from the right point of view rather than hype, and effectively make improvements on your cost drivers.

The World of Entertainment is Changing

Thursday, September 24, 2009 by Doug Dimon

In the last few years, there's been a lot of talk about moving beyond the 30 second commercial. This is more than just a commentary on format. It is really speaking to the way people consume media and the best way to leverage that consumption to get your brand’s message out. Web and mobile are providing a greater percentage of viewer’s video content, and that trend is increasing. But even though they are viewing their content on a different screen, they are still looking for an entertaining and engaging video experience.

The most successful commercial campaigns have always been the ones that entertain, whether humorous, touching, or visually stimulating. As the viewer’s lives become more media saturated, their desire to be entertained becomes more acute. This is why an old concept has resurrected, albeit in an updated form. Branded entertainment was the norm in the early days of television and it’s time has come again. Rather than trying to make commercials entertaining enough to capture consumers’ attention, why not create entertaining programming that promotes your brand. Branded entertainment, when done correctly, is a very effective way to get your brand noticed. Not only will you be putting your brand in front of your customers, you will actually enlist them in spreading the word. The challenge is to create something consumers will associate with your brand in a positive way that will not feel like merely an extended commercial.

For less than what it might cost to create a traditional commercial campaign and buy the media time, you can have a short film or series produced, put it on the web, and get millions of eyes on it. A series has an advantage over a single spot in that it can grab viewers and become a destination, allowing secondary branding opportunities. As with any advertising, there are many failed attempts at this. In order to be successful, you can't throw up just any old thing and hope it sticks. On the web, content is king, and consumers are becoming increasingly discriminating about what they will watch and pass to others. They may have switched screens, but they are looking for the same level of content they are used to seeing on television. There is a lot of competition for people’s attention but right now well produced and entertaining content is hard to come by. Now is the time to take advantage of the void. Produce a great show and users will find you. The most common mistake is thinking that something for web use does not need the attention you might give to something that will be shown on TV. Because the cost of getting something up on the web is cheap (relative to traditional media) many old-guard agencies tend to not put enough money into production. They fall back on old patterns that tie budget to the cost of the media. It is important to put the proper resources into creating your property.

And even though I have spoken mostly about web and mobile as fast growing platforms, that doesn’t mean it is time to abandon the television. Some of the lessons we are learning in the digital realm can be applied to traditional TV. More and more shows are using embedded sponsorship. And the numbers of channels available in specific markets make the prospect of producing a branded show an economic reality. The world of entertainment is changing quickly, with new options and possibilities opening up every day.

Definition 6 Acquires Creative Bubble

Thursday, August 27, 2009 by Michael Kogon

I’m excited to share with you that Definition 6 has recently acquired Creative Bubble , a leading New York City video editorial, design, sound and production company. This acquisition comes on the heels of our recent private equity investment and solidifies our commitment to expanding both our capabilities as a full-service interactive agency, as well as our national presence by creating our New York office.

I’m most excited about the expanded capabilities we are now able to provide clients around rich media and video production. Through this move, our expanded team now includes a team of professionals that have been recognized by numerous organizations for its technical and creative accomplishments, including the receipt of 7 Emmy Awards and 13 Emmy Nominations for their work developing original and re-purposed content for cable and broadcast television programming.

There is no question that the addition of Creative Bubble greatly expands our ability to provide clients with a new range of services, build on technology, innovation and outstanding creative, to help capitalize on new and emerging opportunities for digital content production and distribution.

Over the course of the past couple of years, Creative Bubble has established itself as a leading provider of rich media and video production services in the New York market. You’ve seen their work for Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, Nick At Night, TV Land, Food Network, HBO, MTV, CBS Sports, Court TV, Comedy Central, Showtime, Lifetime Discovery Kids, TRIO and USA Network.

Through the addition of Creative Bubble, Definition 6 will continue to serve clients from both offices with the latest in interactive marketing, rich media and video production services. For now, please review our new Rich Media and Video Production Services overview and view the video that highlights some of Creative Bubble’s work.

We look forward to sharing this news with you individually as we move forward and invite you to contact us to learn more about our expanded rich media and video production capabilities.

E-Commerce for Hispanics: Right and Wrong

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 by Lance King

I read an article on MediaPost that showed how 2 major retailers, The Home Depot and Best Buy, targeted the U.S. Hispanic community. One company failed while the other is gaining more sales. What is interesting to me is that it appears that they both took the same approach, got back the same unexpected results, and then went in two different directions.

Both companies created a "U.S. Spanish" website. Their target was U.S. Spanish speaking consumers. What they discovered was that they were getting a lot of non-U.S. Spanish speaking visitors to their websites. These visitors wanted to buy online just like U.S. consumers. In many cases, the non-U.S. consumers were either visiting relatives or friends in the U.S. or were Mexicans crossing the border to shop. The prices in the U.S. were cheaper than in their country and so they wanted to get their items in the U.S. and then bring them back home. So what is the problem with that?

For Home Depot, the problem is that they did not take the foreign credit cards on the U.S. Spanish site. Best Buy on the other hand embraced the additional and unexpected consumers and did allow the foreign credit cards. Best Buy is finding that, even though they don't ship overseas, people will order online and ship to friends or family where they will pick up the items later. They also have found that U.S. Hispanics are using the website to print out information before they go to the stores to purchase the items. In many cases it is easier for them to understand the information in Spanish.

One of the more interesting sides to this story is that The Home Depot has stores in Mexico, they have a Mexican website (in Spanish, of course), they have an English Canadian website and they have a French Canadian website. So they are marketing to everone across North America except the the growing number of Spanish speaking Hispanics in the U.S. and those Spanish speaking visitors who wish to purchase in the U.S.

Not knowing the full details of the costs involved, it would be interesting to see the cost for Home Depot to maintain the U.S. Spanish site and the revenue the site could bring in (if they allowed foreign credit cards) and the revenue brought in by those in the U.S. who used the site to gain more information about products they wanted. It seems to me that 4 months of running the U.S. Spanish site is not enough time to determine its impact and that if Best Buy can make it work for them, The Home Depot should be able to make it work, too. Besides, if a French Canadian site can work for Canada, why can't a Spanish U.S. site work here? I wonder if Home Depot is looking for a way to recreate the U.S. Spanish site in a way that will embrace those consumers that liked having the site available.

Are you looking to build a website to market your products or services to the fast growing U.S. Hispanic community? Definition 6 is an Atlanta interactive marketing agency that can help you. Besides doing website development and web application development, we can manage your Search Engine Optimization, your Search Engine Marketing and your email marketing campaigns while providing web analytics that ties everything together. As we gather more and more valuable information about your consumers, we can tweak all methods of marketing to maximize your dollars. Contact us and let's get a plan in place for you.

The Top 7 Free Ways To Boost Your Organic Page Rank

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Matt Epstein

Business owners often times find themselves at odds with the popular proverb “the best things in life are free.” Fortunately even in business this enchanting life lesson can at times prove to be true, and it just so happens that some of the best ways to boost your organic page rank really are free. Below I’ve compiled a small list of ideas, tools, networks, and websites that every business should be utilizing whether it’s an owner of a small business undertaking these strategies personally or a major CEO using his resources to have an interactive marketing agency with more experience and manpower tackle the tasks outlined below. (If you outsource this work I would suggest using Definition 6 - an Atlanta Internet Marketing company - of which I of course recommend without bias)

The top 7 free ways to boost your organic page ranking;

1)    Link Building:

Links are to rank as to what Sunny is to Cher. Of all the ways in which marketers try to lure search engine spiders to their page, link building is perhaps the most used as well as one of the most effective in search engine optimization. In laymen terms, you want to have links on your site that link to other sites and vice versa that have relevant, useful information and resources for your visitors. If you link to irrelevant or random content, the search engines will shun you. The more relevant the content, the more likely search engines are to recommend your site to others. It’s important not to abuse this strategy as over-linking will become more harmful than helpful. You can build your link network by simply requesting your partners link to you, registering on link directories (you can add yourself to almost every link directory in one single swoop at http://www.addurl.nu/), or by consistently interacting with other websites on forums and blogs in the hopes that they link to you naturally.

2)    Online Press Releases:

If you’ve launched a new site, redesign, application, service, or online utility it’s important to get the word out through the virtual newswire. Telling news outlets relevant information about your technology or business developments is a great way to get instant linkbacks and even social bookmarks for your article. It’s important to once again not to abuse this strategy, as sending out irrelevant press releases every day will get you banned.

If you’d like a one-stop-shop for getting your releases to the major players I’d recommend using www.prweb.com and www.prleap.com .

Here’s a great example of how Definition 6 used PR to increase its organic search rank and traffic; http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-27-2009/0005066618&EDATE=

3)    Squidoo Lenses

Think of Squidoo Lenses as free micro sites that allow you to create debates and forums for topics specific to your industry or company. They are quick and easy to set up and allow you to link back to your website along with each corresponding lens you create. If you post thought provoking, controversial, or useful lenses the odds are very good you’ll not only see a big boost in ranking but a significant boost in traffic. I personally come across dozens of Squidoo lenses every day by way of Google search and end up at the lens creators’ website.

www.squidoo.com

4)    Social Media

Unfortunately I would do this topic a great injustice by pretending I could summarize each social media outlet and the use/benefit of each. Instead, I will simply say that if you’re not currently on the social media landscape your competitors are one step ahead. Statistics show time and time again a direct correlation between businesses social media activity and their websites rise in page rank and traffic. Definition 6 alone has received numerous business leads this month from its Twitter & Facebook social media marketing. Unfortunately many marketers have shyed away from these mediums mainly due to their lack of understanding, but I would highly recommend if you’re unwilling to dedicate a respectable portion of your budget to social media marketing that you attempt to read up on your own and establish your presence on the following social media sites which have been proven to significantly boost page rank;

•    www.facebook.com
•    www.myspace.com
•    www.twitter.com
•    www.flickr.com
•    www.technorati.com

Here’s a good example of how Definition 6 has leveraged Twitter; http://twitter.com/definition6

5)    Social Bookmarking/Voting Websites

Social bookmarking sites are quickly becoming one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to your site. Many businesses abandon the use of bookmarks because they themselves fail to keep their social content (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc) updated. Moreover, many marketers fail to provide useful, relevant, engaging content for their viewers. Major businesses such as Dell & Apple have made millions of dollars just by leveraging social bookmarking sites. By providing users with contents, breaking news, or useful tools and resources one of your website landing pages can spread as virally as a yawning kitten video on youtube. Here are a list of the most important social bookmarking sites;

•    www.stumbleupon.com
•    www.reddit.com
•    www.digg.com
•    www.delicious.com

6)    Forum Signatures

It’s not enough to simply have a space in the interactive market; you need to interact with it as well. Another free (and at times laborious) link building/traffic boosting strategy is forum & blog posting. By engaging with consumers and peers on industry forums as well as blogs you accomplish a multitude of goals: you show you’re engaged in your field, you are accessible, you are knowledgeable, and most importantly you can end your posts with your website link thereby building your rank, credibility, and traffic.

7)    Blogs

Lastly, and perhaps the fastest of these growing trends, creating a blog. Just like the strategies before this, it’s important to note that creating a blog for the sake of creating a blog does nothing for your website or your brand; in fact it may negatively impact it. If you plan on creating a blog, which you should, be sure to actively post but more importantly post relevant useful information. It’s better to hold off posting for a few weeks to wait for an exciting topic or item than to boring and unhelpful articles every other day. Blogs are a great way to tie in social bookmarking, social media, and link building.

Believe The Hype: Open Source Web CMS

Friday, July 10, 2009 by Mike Reese

If you were involved in a CMS (or WCM - Web Content Management) purchase decision 5 years ago, you likely heard about the "open source" phenomenon. And, you probably cringed at the thought of supporting your revenue-producing, lead-generation website with low cost alternative to the Interwoven and Vignette giants. Cringe no more, open source solutions not only provide very similar features, the good ones are now fully supported as well.

Here's a recent article written by JT Smith on Website Magazine. (Choosing An Open Source Web Content Management System) He successfully details the differences between closed and open source systems (without bashing the Big Guys). Ultimately, every company has their own decision to make, their own contstraints, processes and budget concerns. A WCMS solution has to adhere to these points, so open source may not be for everyone. But it's certainly worth taking a look at some of JT's points:

As your business grows, your needs will change. The open source model provides a mechanism for adapting to that change without relying on proprietary software to catch up to evolving trends and new technologies.

Budget...Budget. If budget is a concern, and likely it is these days, open source makes sense. Period. Save the budget for your other interactive marketing strategies.

Fully supported. Lack of support used to be a pitfall of open source solutions. That has changed. You'll find that well established, reputable solutions offer not only support, but also a vast community of developers and end users.

Somewhere in between. Open source CMS does not necesitate custom application development. Nor does it necesitate costly professional services contracts. It really falls in the middle. The benefit of open source becomes the ability to lean in either direction.

I love JT's quote: "Using closed source CMS can be likened to buying a new car with the hood welded shut, the wheels permanently attached, and your only maintenance option is a visit to the dealership."

Give open source a look. At Definition 6, we utilize one of the "good ones", Umbraco. We've been through several (> 20), successful implementations for a variety of clients. Including websites in the travel, telecommunications and online retail industries. I'm proud to say that we're also the first certified solutions developer in North America.

Combine Social Media with Traditional Tactics: Real Campaign Example

Thursday, July 9, 2009 by Cecilia Barella

As social media channels become more and more powerful they also seem to become more and more varied, it feels like every day we learn about a new cool tool, as an interactive marketer, it can be challenging to figure out which one is the best fit for which marketing strategy. I read an article in Marketing Sherpa on how to use social media in a more effective way. The article gives specific examples from IBM on how they have combined social media strategy with traditional tactics for application development, event promotion and demand generation. I have highlighted here one of them, where social media was used to promote SOA’s events and tools.

Social Media Marketing for Event Promotion and Lead Generation

IBM wanted to bring together the SOA community and generate leads for its SOA tools and solutions. So the Marketing team organized a road show that included 100 cities. To complement the traditional marketing methods of promotion for the event which included direct mail and one-to-one invitations, IBM used an animated 3D person on the SOA website, a Twitter campaign, blogs and a widget.

- 3D Animated Character

The animated 3D character was added to the SOA website, it walked with an invitation in its’ hand, when users clicked on the character or on the invitation they were taken to a registration page. Visits to the registration page increased by 600%.

- Twitter

Messages were sent on Twitter with a promo code, users that signed up with that promo code were allowed to talk directly with one of IBM’s CTO for 30minutes. Within 3 days, over 40 people registered in Amsterdam alone.

- Blogs

The marketing team blogged about the conference on multiple development oriented blogs. The buzz created around the event caused many developers to mention the conference in their own blogs, feeds, profiles… Customers even created Facebook and LinkedIn groups supporting the event. The buzz caused by the social media ‘add-ons’ increased their event registration by 10% at no cost to the company.

- Online Community

For connecting customers after the event the team used a third-party company to build an online community website called SOAsocial. They let the third-party host the community as the goal was to make it less company/IBM focused and let it grow on its own.

- Consumer generated content

They encouraged customers to take pictures at the events and post them on Flickr afterwards. This not only increased engagement through user-generated content, but it also helped the company save thousands of dollars on hiring a photographer.

- Widget

Since the attendees of the events were potential customers for the SOA tools. The marketing team built a widget that supplied the events’ presentations. The widget could be added to a blog, website or downloaded to a computer. The widget was driven by RSS feeds, so the company could push news and products demos to potential and existing customers. 67% of the conferences’ attendees downloaded the widget.

One of the “key lesson learned” for Interactive Ad Agencies is that social media is a channel and not a strategy in itself, it is most effective when used to complement other marketing initiatives, including offline and traditional marketing.

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