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.

1. SalesView:

Last week Interactive Marketing Agency Definition 6 launched TwitterINGO, an online game of sorts that leverages Twitter. I won’t go into all the details of how it works in this post, but essentially it’s a free downloadable desktop widget you run in the background while working (or at least trying to work… the game is a bit addictive to watch) as the game is played each Tuesday at 3PM EST. The tweets of all the people you follow stream down the left hand side while you get a 5x5 game board of keywords. When someone you follow posts a tweet containing a term you have on your board the square will highlight and fill in with that person’s tweet.

I am a bit biased of course in thinking the game is cool, I helped create TwitterINGO. The idea came from watching multiple columns of twitstreams in Tweetdeck and thinking how it almost felt like modern-day BINGO card. After a couple of brainstorming sessions we arrived at the current design. It has several premises.

1.       If you use Twitter to really, effectively follow the pulse of news and information that you care about you typically have to follow a fairly large number of people (typically at least in the hundreds and often in excess of that) and learn how to organize those people into groups in addition to creating effective searches for subjects.

2.       Finding the right people to follow who discuss the subjects of interest to you beyond your immediate circle of friends and colleagues takes some time and can be a bit of an art form as you sort through the clutter

3.       One of the real powers of social media is in how we help each other to find great people, pearls of wisdom, diamonds in the rough, etc.

4.       It can be really hard to identify the holes in your Following (you often don’t realize that you aren’t following certain subjects that interest you as well as you could be).

With this in mind we created TwitterINGO. With over 100 keywords “baked in” to the cards (all of them relating to popular and highly relevant subjects in the areas of interactive marketing, technology, media and advertising, application development, and social media), plus 20 current “terms of the week” on trending subjects sent out at the beginning of each weekly game, your card populates with a randomized selection of 24 of those terms, the middle square is free of course. Then you can simply sit back, have some fun and see what happens.

If you follow only a handful of people you will invariably become quickly disappointed as you realize none or few of your squares are populating. This can be a quick hint that you aren’t yet following the global conversations on tech and interactive or current events very well. On the other hand, if you follow a few hundred people who do talk about these subjects you’ll likely have a very different experience. I found myself fascinated watching my squares fill in (and unfortunately being less productive than I should be). It was amazing to see who I follow that randomly starting giving me the keywords I needed as I sought to get a row, column or diagonal completed to win. Every 5-10 minutes I’d get a square. First I got my “SharePoint” square filled by SharePoint Samurai @Gannotti. Then my “Brand” square filled by a post from @TobyDiva. Then Sun Microsystem’s Social Media guru @Sumaya posted a tweet with the term “open source”. I was off to a great start and saw another 4-5 squares fill in. And I came close to winning. But as I looked at what terms I needed to win (without cheating), I stared at the empty square with the word “Linux” in it. Why was nobody that I follow mentioning the word Linux? Hmmmm… there it was. A hole in how and who I Follow. I realized that I follow a lot of people on a lot of subjects but perhaps only a few that talk about Linux. To quickly rectify this I searched on the term Linux on Twitter and looked to see who the major contributors were and began following them. It was too late for me to win TwitterINGO this week, but it helped me do a better job of following that rather important part of the global technology conversation. The same can be said of many other terms I saw on my card that sat empty, I set out to see who was talking about the terms and found some really great people to start following.

While the game itself was rather fun, the real value was in seeing how it could help me. Plus I could then go look at the Leaderboard to see who the major Tweet Contributors were and who won and who they are following. The game is helping me to be a better user of social media to benefit my professional and personal interests and awareness. And I found a few extremely interesting people who played the game and won, people I’d never met before but that I certainly follow now. That's a game worth playing.

In my continuing research into marketing to the Hispanic consumer, I'm finding great articles from MediaPost that provide good information on why and how to reach this particular audience.  So here is an article by Joseph Kutchera (Why Does Google Send U.S. Hispanics To Foreign Web Sites?) that talks about what Google is doing with search results for the Spanish speaking community and how you can apply similar ideas to your marketing campaigns.

The first thing he points out is that if you search in Google using Spanish words, 50% or more of your responses are going to be for sites outside of the U.S. borders.  So why does this happen and why do marketers miss this target audience?  Kutchera provides the answer.  "Google and other search engines index sites globally while we marketers, agencies and media sellers work within the economic and political borders of the U.S."  When people search using Spanish words and terms, Google is going to return sites that have Spanish content on them.  Does your website have Spanish content?  If you do, you may still be missing out on this audience for a few different reasons.  Kutchera points out the following.  1) Your Spanish site may not be optimized for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) like your English site.  2) Many Spanish speaking Hispanics like to go to sites of their country of origin. 3) Spanish language markets are more likely to spend time on their content, making it more relevant than someone from an English language market who is updating a Spanish language website. 4) U.S. advertisers have been slow to move budgets toward online marketing and therefore not providing the resources necessary to provide the content that is necessary.

So what can you do to reach the Hispanic population:

- Purchase non-U.S. targeted inventory on your search buys along with your U.S. targeted inventory.
- Reach out to Hispanic country-of-origin web sites through ad networks.
- Apply behavioral, contextual, and language targeting to further segment and understand your Hispanic audience.

As a Senior Consultant at Definition 6, an interactive marketing agency with expertise in Web Search Engine Optimization and Search Marketing Consulting, I'm seeing lots of evidence for companies to shift some marketing dollars to specifically target Hispanics in the U.S.  This growing population is getting online at a very fast pace.  There are millions and millions of them out there that could be buying your products or services if they could find you.  Are you willing to let them go to your competitors?  We can help you target them.  We can help you get ahead of the curve.
 

Social Media Strategy is one of the most interesting things we do here at Definition 6, Atlanta Interactive Agency.  The rise of Web 2.0 Applications as commonplace within our daily lives has made Socail Media mainstream.  Sometimes we are asked how can we use social medai to improve search engine optimization and other times we are asked how can make social media fit into an integrated online marketing plan.  But it is a daily topic of conversation and I've found a really good report from destinationCRM.com that talks about a 5 year forecast for social media. The key points from the author, Jessica Tsai citing Jeremiah Owyang, are:

The report breaks down the past, present, and future state of the social Web into five overlapping eras:

1. The era of social relationships: Beginning in the mid-1990s, people signed up for online profiles and connected with their friends to share information.
2. The era of social functionality: As it exists today, social networking is more than just a platform for "friending," but one that can support a broader array of what Owyang calls "social interactive applications." However, identities are essentially disconnected silos within individual sites.
3. The era of social colonization: By late 2009, technologies such as OpenID and Facebook Connect will begin to break down the barriers of social networks and allow individuals to integrate their social connections as part of their online experience, blurring the lines between networks and traditional sites.
4. The era of social context: In 2010, sites will begin to recognize personal identities and social relationships to deliver customized online experiences. Social networks will become the "base of operation for everyone's online experiences."
5. The era of social commerce: In approximately two years, social networks will be more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems, as individual identities and relationships are built on this platform. Brands will serve community interests and grow based on community advocacy as users continue to drive innovation in this direction.

So if we are doing a good job of being Interactive Marketing Strategists to help prepare our clients for the "era of social context" and upgrading our customer's sites to incorporate OpenID and Facebook Connect today. This will help them meet their customers where they are and with what they are doing online today.  I'll talk more about being ready for your customer in some future posts.

Lately I've been reading articles related to the Hispanic consumers.  I think most of us have read or heard about how the Hispanic population is growing so much in the U.S.  It seems to me companies that have products or services to sell should be paying more attention to this and shifting some (or a lot) of their marketing efforts toward the Hispanic consumer.

In an article on MediaPost by Jose Villa (http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=98883#comments), he talks about a very good reason to shift some focus to the Hispanic community.  Put plainly, they may be in better shape after the recession than any other ethnic sector.  In his article, he points out that unlike the previous recession, most consumers will not be able to go back to their old spending habits because they won't be able to get the same credit that they received before.  And we all know how our society loved to spend money on credit.  In the article, this is referred to as the "deleveraged consumer".  The Hispanic community, on the other hand, typically stayed away from spending on credit.  So when the economy recovers, they'll be more likely to continue their same spending habits they had before the recession while others will have to learn to cut back on their excessive spending.  Their lack of debt means that "the Hispanic market represents a beacon of opportunity as a truly deleveraged consumer" according to Jose.

I really like the idea of spending some marketing focus on the Hispanic community because I think there are a lot of potential buyers in that group that are untapped.  The three top ideas I can think of would be:

1. update your websites to offer a spanish version.  Although many of today's Hispanics that are online speak both English and Spanish, it is a welcoming gesture to let them choose their language of choice.  But don't forget to update imagery and styles of the Spanish website and not just the text (Jose has another article that addresses that: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=103345)

2. allow your users to decide which language to receive their emails in.  You'll want to be sure you have proper tracking tools in place so that you can see how well your Spanish emails work and compare that to your English emails.

3. advertise in places where Hispanics spend more of their time.  In a previous blog post I discuss what some of those websites are.

Definition 6 is an interactive marketing agency that can help you analyze and plan a course of action to market to this untapped group.  As an application development company and online marketing company we can also implement your web applications and email marketing campaigns as well as provide analytics of both.  So take advantage now and don't leave out this important ethnic group.

Business Development Exec, Rhonda Vincent, shares with us the 7 top online marketing trends for 2009…

For online marketers 2009 will be a challenging year, they’ll need to build the basis for future expansion, leveraging social media, emerging technologies and vendor partners who are thinking about their business and find ways to maximize their budgets.  Here are 7 online marketing trends for 2009 that I came across on a ClickZ report:

• Increase customer retention efforts by marketing to your existing customer base – it’s cheaper and more effective because you know who they are and you understand their behavior.
• Create more attractive content – it will engage your customers and will help with your search engine optimization marketing
• Develop targeted marketing campaigns across a variety of mediums…e-mail, text messages, instant messages.
• Leverage online communities such as LinkedIn, FaceBook, Twitter…
• Increase your Web Analytics efforts
• Enhance search marketing advertising to expand across social media, mobile, and local search.
• Continue to integrate distribution channels despite higher cost

Interactive Ad Agencies like Definition 6 can leverage this insight to maximize your spends with the best ROI to get you through this year and still plan for 2010 initiatives.
 

PointRoll hands out nifty little notebooks with the first page filled with Best Practices for Display Banners.  Here's a summary:

1.  Keep the campaign objective and key metrics in mind when designing banners.   Use more than one panel for displaying a lot of info or you want user interaction and engagement.  If direct response is desired, one action-focused panel is most effective.

2.  Banner animation should not be too slow or too fast; the call to action should appear immediately.

3.  Give the user a compelling reason to rollover with a clear, prominent, and relative call to action.

4.  Rollover hot spots should be as large as possible and easy to see.  On most sites, the rollover max spec is 33% of the banner.

5.  All panels should be accessible from any other panel.  Use horizontal hot spots on horizontal ads and vertical hot spots on vertical skyscraper ads.

6.  Ideally, the entire panel should be clickable, and also use a well-defined click button.

7.  Include a "loading" message that appears as the video streams in.  Users with slower connections will know the video is coming.

8.  Use video player controls for optimum usability - pause, play, and volume.

9.  Video should auto play upon user rollover.  Requiring users to "click to play" reduces video plays.

10. After video completes, include compelling, relevant call to action.

More Best Practices for display banner ads are listed at http://www.pointroll.com/best-practices.aspx.

Definition 6 can help you craft your online advertising strategy, whether it is banner ads, organic or paid search, or email marketing.  We negotiate with vendors to maximize your media spend when developing Media Plans that meet your objectives.  We design and build ads and deploy them, working with partners, such as, the search engines and PointRoll.  We do it all!

Technical PM Mike Reese on how baby boomers are embracing eCommerce...

A survey published in Information Week presents a significant change in our perception of the typical internet user. No longer can online marketers and solution builders tailor their efforts towards an audience that grew up with the internet. The baby boomers are making their presence felt in the online community.

Since 2005, this older generation has made significant leaps in online usage. In fact, the survey reveals that baby boomers are just as likely to make travel arrangements online.  Here a few stats from the article:

1.     The largest increase of internet usage has come from the 70 – 75 age group. In 2005 only 26% of this age group used the internet, compared to 46% in 2008.

2.     The 3 largest uses from this group are 1 – Search, 2 – Email and 3 – Health Information Research

3.     As you would expect, generation Y users are more likely to perform social networking and use the internet for entertainment purposes.

Internet usage from older generations will never match that of the up and coming generations that rely heavily on the internet for their daily activities.  What this survey proves however, is that you cannot count out potential audiences because of age. An eCommerce company may not want to utilize themes and communication that appeal to only younger generations - the older folks are right behind them…

While reviewing new industry trends for a client, Account Coordinator, Cecilia Barella, came across interesting data on how marketers can (and should be) maximizing online efforts through video.  The article was found on Media Post and discusses how the demand for online video presents the best opportunity for marketers to engage with their audience while at the same time capitalizing on the Web’s direct-response capability.  Three key points from this article…

1.     The Internet and television deliver two completely different types of user experiences, so it makes sense that marketers continue to search for a video implementation that engages viewers and drives action.

2.       Online video combines the emotional branding aspects of television and the direct-response attributes of the Web. 

3.       Affordable production costs allow for testing video content and targeting different audiences.  Marketers don’t need to be forced to target a large pool of viewers with generic brand messages.  Instead, they can highlight multiple brand attributes that resonate with smaller niche audiences.

To read the article in its entirety, log on to MediaPost.com

Definition 6 is a leading interactive agency helping clients take their interactive media campaigns to the next level. Contact us today for more information.

Lori Willard, a Definition 6 SEO Specialist, recently came across an article in Marketing Sherpa that offered a few excellent pointers on optimizing your videos for internet search engine optimization.

Here are a few key points to take away:

• Host an SEO 101 Class for your video production team. Identify the keywords you would like to incorporate and discuss where they can be included.

• Include the term "video" as a modifier in some of your keyword terms. When people search for videos they will typically include the term "video" in their search query.

• Host each video on its own landing page. This gives you the opportunity to add keyword rich META tags in the html along with a unique URL for that page that includes specific terms related to your video. 

• Write compelling titles and descriptions incorporating targeted keywords that add interest to your visitors.

• Add a transcript or summary of your video in text along with the video itself. This is a great way to add additional content to your page and further incorporate your keywords.

• Add an XML video sitemap to your website. Google will allow you to submit a list of URL's that contain your videos, video titles, along with a brief description.

In closing, video files are not only a great way to add another level of engagement to your website, they also can be an integral part of your websites search engine optimization solutions.

Read the complete Marketing Sherpa article here

I've been in the online marketing space for almost a decade now.  I still remember the days of of brochure-ware and when the website was just an afterthought.  Today, the web has become the hub for most marketing efforts.  In the world of online marketing and website development, one area that marketers still fall short is embracing the real power of interactive...the constant exchange of value for action taken by the end user.  This ebb and flow of reward for activity is where the real power of interactive marketing lies.

As an interactive media agency, it becomes critical to not only understand where the target is and how to find them, but to understand the context in which the message will be delivered.  Only then can a real value exchange be created where the user is reward for taking the desired actions.   Search Engine Optimization solutions are the simplest example of this...creating targeted landing pages designed to be more relevant to the end user based on the specific search made.  Web Application Development also needs to take this into consideration...when asking a user to fill out a form of personal, specific information, that user should get a result that is personal and relevant to them.  Each exchange of information should reward the user and open up the possibility of taking another action with even more reward.

I recently "opted-in" to an online retailers email list. The experience was underwhelming to say the least. After I optedin, I received an immediate email welcoming me to their distribution list. Six weeks and counting, and I have yet to receive another communication from the firm. At another e-tailors website, I opted in while looking at some of the services that they offer - in this case looking to replace some windows on my condo. Several weeks later I began to be run over by emails offering discounts on hand tools, consumer electronics, and large appliances. There was nary an acknowledgement that my reason for opting in had to do with their services rather than their products.

At a team meeting with another large internet retailer, I asked the online marketing manager if they documented where a user was on the website when they opted in. Blank stares all around. Then the question, "Why would that matter?" I asked, "Wouldn't you want to know what someone was looking at when they decided to opt in?" To me it was a totally obvious connection; to my client it was an irritating question. Further research showed most e-tailors clearly in my clients’ corner. Opting in was good enough. No reason to know more. I pose it as the complete opposite. And the difference is the ability to easily begin a 1:1 customer dialogue over the web; or not!

If the web retailer mentioned above had documented that I was looking at a window installation when I had opted in to receive additional communications, they would have targeted messages to me for window installation services, window treatments, perhaps shutters and other products that showed they knew what my specific interest in their firm was all about. Instead, I was lumped in with the several other million email optin's who apparently have an insatiable thirst for inexpensive hand tools and cheap consumer electronics. I no longer read that firms email marketing promotions, as they contain nothing I am interested in. 
 
So the light bulb clicked on. How many firms on the internet try to map where a user was when they opted in so they can create better email marketing campaigns or email marketing services. If my experiences over the past two years are any indication, the answer is not many. So here are a few simple steps that a firm can take to integrate their email campaigns in order to move towards a more customer centric 1:1 dialogue.

1. For the easiest level of integration, firms with multiple products and services can provide users with a checklist of items for which they are interested in receiving email and other interactive marketing communications. A few large computer hardware vendors are already adept at this. 

2. For sites with multiple products and services, they should capture where a user was on the site when they opted in. This could be at a category level, product level, or possibly a business unit level.

3. Create interactive marketing promotions that correlate to the distinctly different parts of the site where users opt in. For example, if I was looking at "services" at least send me email messages that show awareness that I was interested in services rather than products.

4. If product categories are highly differentiated, than the corresponding email campaign should be too. For example, if hand tools and power tools are in different categories, and I opted in looking at hand tools, than a subsequent email marketing campaigns should contain some elements related to hand tools.

5. Over time, an "opted-in" customers' sales activity should be added to their profiles so that over time the firm can know what they were viewing when they opted in, what online promotions had a high click through and/or conversion rate and which products were ultimately purchased.

At that point, the sponsoring site should have all the information they need to have a robust 1:1 customer dialogue with an engaged and nitrated client. And all because they captured what page a prospect was viewing when they opted in to receive additional information. Sometimes, the missing link doesn't have to be missing at all.